Zanipher "Daybreak" Hei'An

"Her face... stained like her soul. It's fortunate that she has grown adept at concealing it." Daybreak Zanipher is the seventh of the Nine Dragons of Vale. She is a stoic-looking individual with a habit of constantly deceiving others. Her full name is unknown, as Daybreak is a pseudonym. Her job consists of intelligence retrieval and spreading false rumors and allegations in order to prevent unity between the adversaries of the Nine. She manages an underground mafia group that specializes in these activities. Her perceived unpredictability is really a side effect of no one knowing the full extent of her personality. She alludes to Zhong Li Chun in the Thirty-Six Stratagems .

Appearance
Zanipher has a very athletic build and an average-tall stature, and is frequently described as appearing cold. She has jet black hair tied back in a ponytail and dark red eyes, so dark that they appear brown except when she gazes directly into sunlight. She has two "antennae" strands of hair that hang slightly above her eyes, but she usually slicks back her bangs when doing fieldwork. Her eyes do not reflect light very well, and seem to be coolly assessing whatever they are looking at. Zanipher often wears a variety of different masks, ranging from ones that cover her entire head to ones that conceal only a small part of her face. She wears a black hooded leather jacket with red patterns, and wears elbow-length maroon gloves. She has on knee-length strap boots over tight jeans, also with red patterns.

A notable physical trait of hers is a unique faint reddish mark on the right side of her face underneath her eye. The sclera of her right eyeball is also stained with a faded red blotch, which means that these are probably birthmarks.

Personality
Zanipher was trained to be able to tell lies smoothly and without hesitating, and is extremely skilled at deceiving and manipulating the opinions and perceptions of others. She receives great pleasure from successfully tricking someone into believing one of her lies, so she does this out of amusement even when it isn't necessary. Zanipher appears very relaxed and nonchalant when she is not busy and actually smiles very frequently during these periods of time, even allowing people to tease her. When there is important business, however, she is very straightforward and aggressive as necessary. She is very observant, but is also rather quiet, which deceives people into believing that she is not intelligent, a mistake she makes sure to exploit if they ever become adversaries.

Zan possesses an unusually straightforward personality, and dislikes when people hesitate or show reluctance to voice their opinions. Although she appears cold and aloof, Zanipher is simply less emotionally sensitive than most human beings, a trait that has both good and bad implications. Because she is not very emotional, it is easy for her to brush off rude remarks or subtle verbal attacks, but she also finds it difficult sometimes to empathize with people in emotionally-charged situations. She isn't a very choosy person, either.

"Daybreak" does not gain any pleasure from killing people, but because of her desensitized personality she is able to commit murder without feeling any guilt or remorse from the act. In fact, she oten acts as a high-ranked assassin for the Dragons whenever she feels like it (which admittedly isn't very often, but she said it anyway).

Zanipher joined the Nine Dragons of Vale quite recently, after she inherited the fortune and power of her parents' underground business pulling strings of government officials. Arkos Cannon invited her to form a pact with the Dragons, an offer she readily accepted as she understood the potential behind making such a deal. Although she hasn't had any major interactions with the other Dragons so far, she is very willing to cooperate with any of the others if it means gaining more wealth and influence over the general population.

She rarely ever gets angry, which leads people to believe that she would be terrifying if anything were aggravating enough to actually rouse her ire. And this is accurate, since she can be utterly ruthless and knows how to take advantage of an individual's weaknesses to mock them and break down their self-confidence. She smiles when she is angry.

Weapon and Abilities
Zanipher actually possesses two weapons, although one is more of a tool than a weapon. On her left forearm is a large metal arm brace that shoots out a grappling hook. She uses this as a secondary weapon/tool, for swifter movement and maneuvering, and for pulling her opponents towards her. Her primary weapon is a collapsible Guandao that can be folded into a Dao, named Evanescent Zephyr. It is also equipped with several Dust crystals, as befitting of an individual so highly-ranked in the underworld.

Her fighting style relies on careful observation and being able to see the opponent's weaknesses and unguarded points.

Her aura appears red, but upon closer inspection is actually a dark shade of pink.

Her semblance is Levitation. In actuality, she manipulates to air around her to provide greater resistance, allowing her to increase the time she spends in the air while leaping, which is extremely convenient for fighting.

History
Zanipher was adopted from an orphanage by the two heads of an underground mafia dealing with the selling and faking of secrets. The two had recently had a son, but upon finding out that he was born blind, decided not to risk having another child and instead adopt a suitable heir for their business. Zan was raised by her two parents, who taught her well and genuinely loved her, while also training her in the art of deception and battle. By the time Zan was ten years old, she had become adept at taking on different outward personas, and attended a regular battle academy while prepping to enroll in Beacon at the age of 17. She was accepted, and left her home to train to become a Huntress.

She performed well in class, but maintained a low profile in order to to keep her family's criminal business a secret. Two years after her arrival to Beacon, she learned that her brother had been captured by a rival gang, and left Beacon immediately to rescue him. Her team members followed her, and learned that she was the heir to a major illegal intelligence corporation. The four fought hard, but were defeated and nearly killed until Zan's parents interfered with a small group of their fighters. This was an extremely humiliating experience for Zan, who realized that she had acted hastily and caused unnecessary trouble for her parents, who were disgusted that she had acted without thinking despite all her training to make her into a cold thinker. On top of that, Zan blamed herself for endangering the lives of her teammates and her brother. She vowed to live her life through cool logic and analysis, and trained harder than ever to develop the emotional strength her position would demand in the future.

Meanwhile, Zan's brother was intensely frustrated by his perceived weakness, and ran away from home.

A few weeks before Zan and her team were set to graduate from Beacon and become profesional Huntsmen and Huntresses, Ozpin sent them out on a mission to eradicate some Grimm from a remote location. However, the mission turned into a complete disaster as the number of Grimm was overwhelmingly above that of the initial calculations. The team was forced to fight for their lives, and became separated in the violent chaos. Zanipher was able to escape and fled, but her team never returned to Beacon, and were presumed dead. Zan developed a strong hatred of Ozpin for his perceived fault in dooming her friends, and beciome engrossed in her work as the Seventh Dragon of Vale.

Relationships
Zanipher interacts daily with members of the criminal organization she heads, but does not have an intimate relationship with any of them. Her family is nowhere to be seen, and their absence from her life is currently unexplained. She does maintain a solid relationship with a number of the other Dragons, however. They are listed below:

Captain Daniel Lowell

Zanipher has known Daniel for a long time, and the two are friends, although they do not communicate very often. Daniel is simple and straightforward, and trustworthy, trait she honestly appreciates.

Arkos Cannon

The Dragon that Zanipher is closest to. The two share ideas often, and enjoy each other's company. Also the person who knows Zanipher's true personality best.

Tony Syson

Tony and Zan had actually met a few times prior to becoming Dragons. However, Zan did not recognize him at first, since he appeared to have changed a lot since their first encounter.

Trivia

 * The specific name for Zan's eye-birthmark is an iris nevus, and the name of her facial birthmark is a port-wine stain.
 * A theme I think suits her well is the piano rendition of The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in the Air arranged by GlassSkinned, originally by ZUN for Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character. It captures a sort of tense melancholy, which has something to do with her backstory ;)
 * And for a more serious "battle theme", another version suits her just as well.
 * Touhou music is just awesome, both in quantity and quality. That's just something you needed to know XD
 * She enjoys studying history and fighting styles. Zan practices Wushu in her free time.
 * Zan's favorite song is The Dragon Flies.
 * Her last name is actually Hēi'àn  (黑暗), which is Chinese for "darkness" or "little sunlight". However, she "doesn't use" her last name, because it makes it easier for her enemies to gather valuable  information on her.