Kafka

Biodata

Appearance

• Hair and build: A tall, purple-haired woman, repeatedly described as beautiful 31 132.
• Usual clothing: Professional attire with a coat draped over it; her accessories include sunglasses, gloves, and a micro earpiece 28 32 54.
• Fashion preferences: Favors coordinated, close-fitting businesswear and carefully chosen fabrics. She arranges tailored outfits for the group's return to Belobog 461.
• Passage of time: When Bronya meets her again after thirteen years, she notices hardly any signs of aging 467 474.

Personality

Kafka combines effortless charm with calculated deception. She readily adopts cover identities, invents convincing personal histories, and treats accusations of manipulation as compliments. Her claim that she had a failed marriage and a deceased husband was an improvised story intended to facilitate Chu Mu's adoption, not an established part of her past 31 35 464.

Her teasing frequently takes the form of exaggerated motherhood. She calls Silver Wolf her daughter despite Silver Wolf's objections, casts her gaming habits as a rebellious phase, and uses rewards such as a larger Game Room to secure her cooperation. Her interference with Tingyun's feelings also prompts Chu Mu to criticize her behavior 38 78 102 135.

Behind that playfulness, Kafka is attentive to emotional distress. She avoids pressing Chu Mu when he is already under strain, reassures him that she will never abandon him, and encourages friendships to counter his isolation. When Stelle and March 7th return late during the Giantwood City incident, she welcomes them with relief and hot soup rather than punishment 83 90 239 240.

Kafka places considerable trust in Elio's chosen future, even when following it requires painful restrictions. Nevertheless, she tells Stelle that choosing from her own heart matters more than receiving advance instructions for every decision 28 35 267.

Abilities & Skills

Word Spirit Art

Kafka's Word Spirit Art implants psychological suggestions and influences a target's thoughts or behavior. With a Synesthesia Beacon, it can affect the vast majority of intelligent creatures 40 72.

• Suggestion and questioning: Makes people receptive to her speech and draws out information they would otherwise withhold 40 55.
• Subconscious interference: Discovers sealed Path power within Chu Mu's consciousness while influencing his subconscious 33.
• Memory alteration: Erases Stelle's memories of her past, deliberately leaving Kafka's face and name intact 213.
• Mara management: Suppresses Blade's triggering memories, allowing him to remain lucid. She can also lift that suppression and release his mara-struck state 424 435.
• Resistance: Path power can resist her influence. A native Pathstrider interrupts an induced disclosure, and Chu Mu breaks her influence over Tingyun 33 55 102.
• Conceptual limitation: Cannot control the giant serpent on Deep Blue Star after another entity takes over its mind through conceptual power 72.
• Mental burden: Exposure to the innermost thoughts of Sand Sea inhabitants disturbs her enough that she cannot keep using the technique continuously 97.
• Simulated Universe restriction: Loses access to Word Spirit Art in the Giantwood scenario, but remains persuasive without it 226.

Firearms and Armed Infiltration

Kafka uses rapid-fire weapons and handles close-range breaches during rescue operations 31 264.

• Kills a group of armed vagrants before they can attack, drawing two guns from beneath her coat 31.
• Explains that seven rifle rounds could potentially kill more than seven enemies through penetration 217.
• Shoots a door lock with a silenced pistol and kicks the door open during the Giantwood Tower rescue 264.

Persuasion and Intelligence Work

Her social skill does not depend entirely on supernatural influence 226.

• Convincingly presents herself as an interstellar merchant and lowers Asta's guard through conversation 55 67.
• Recruits more than a thousand people into the Southern Women's Mutual Aid Association within a week 226.
• Identifies concealed guards around Giantwood Tower by observing flaws in their disguises and routines 245.
• Judges Ena to be more dangerous than Number One after comparing his behavior with gathered intelligence 276.

Technical and Practical Skills

• Robot maintenance: Inspects Svarog's damaged modules and installs replacement chips supplied by Silver Wolf, leaving his memory module untouched 46.
• Driving instruction: Teaches Stelle to drive a truck 267.
• Swimming instruction: Helps Chu Mu manage his breathing, remain calm, and use buoyancy until he can swim independently 281.
• Coordinate measurement: Operates a measuring instrument to provide the precise spatial data Silver Wolf needs for teleportation 477 480.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Paired rapid-fire guns: Concealed beneath her coat; each can discharge twenty bullets in a second 31.
• Silenced pistol: Used to breach the monitoring room during the Giantwood Tower rescue 264.
• Red blade: Carries a bloodstained red blade when she reunites with Chu Mu on Sand Sea Planet 132.
• Communication and imaging accessories: Uses a micro earpiece to speak with Silver Wolf and sunglasses capable of taking and transmitting photographs 28 38.
• Forged identification: Silver Wolf supplies documents presenting her as a Kliperburg Internal Affairs Officer, allowing passage through the blockade into the Underworld 28.
• Star Destroyer: The crew continues using the ship obtained on Sand Sea Planet for years; Sam watches over it during Kafka and Blade's Luofu mission 459.
• Warship: Receives another vessel from Chu Mu while traveling aboard the Astral Express to Belobog 459.

History

Joining the Stellaron Hunters

Kafka joins the Stellaron Hunters after being promised that she will learn what fear is. Like the other members, she initially enters the organization for a personal desire rather than a shared declaration of heroism 424.

She follows Elio's scripts closely. On Jarilo-VI, she stops Silver Wolf from collecting a detected Stellaron because Elio has not assigned it to them, explaining that his chosen future gives it another purpose 28.

Adopting Chu Mu

Elio directs Kafka to Jarilo-VI to adopt a child, telling her that she will recognize the intended child upon arrival. She identifies Chu Mu almost immediately, noting his Xianzhou appearance on an isolated planet 28 31.

Chu Mu initially distrusts her and demands information about her employment and household. During their exchanges, Kafka discovers his sealed Path gift and offers him a way to access it. She presents the Stellaron Hunters' household as a family with herself as his mother, Blade as an older brother, and Silver Wolf as a younger sister 33 35.

The main obstacle is Chu Mu's insistence that his younger sister accompany him. Kafka refuses because Elio's selected future requires Chu Mu alone to board the ship; she believes the alternatives would be worse. Chu Mu only agrees to leave after his sister is adopted 35 40 474.

Before departing, Kafka helps repair Svarog. Thirteen years later, she learns that he had accepted her into his friendly life-form database and trusted her enough to let Chu Mu leave with her 46 467.

Deep Blue Star

After Chu Mu joins the ship, Kafka explains her Stellaron Hunter affiliation but withholds details about Stellarons to keep him away from their dangers. Blade's departure with the main ship leaves the group without its warp engine, setting them on a route toward Deep Blue Star 50 51.

There, Kafka handles local negotiations and joins the investigation into the planet's apparent undead, the Swarm, and its artificial origins. Her failed attempt to control the giant serpent exposes interference from a power she suspects is connected to an Aeon 55 60 72 84.

As Chu Mu's powers develop, Kafka remains concerned with his sense of belonging. She encourages his friendship with Asta and, after his confrontation with an Aeon's power, explicitly rejects his fear that his family will abandon him 83 90 240.

Sand Sea Planet

Kafka directs the crew toward the Sand Sea in search of a way to escape Yaoshi's blessing. She advises quietly following the Xianzhou merchant group and investigating possible Denizens of Abundance rather than alerting them 94 95 97.

She also pushes Chu Mu to socialize with Tingyun, though her use of Word Spirit Art to coax Tingyun into permitting tail-touching earns his rebuke. Her later attempts to explain “family” to the amnesiac Tingyun create further misunderstandings about courtship 102 135 136.

Separated from Chu Mu after a warp accident, Kafka and Silver Wolf fight through the Stellaron's Fragmentum and eventually reunite with him. Their subsequent attempt to leave for Jarilo-VI ends with Chu Mu disintegrating into embers and realizing that he had already died on Sand Sea Planet 132 136.

The Simulated Universe and Giantwood City

Kafka and Silver Wolf enter the same abnormal Simulated Universe run as Stelle and March 7th. Kafka denies causing the situation, shares food and water with them, and confirms that Stelle's missing memories were deliberately erased 213.

Within the Giantwood scenario, Kafka establishes the Southern Women's Mutual Aid Association among refugees. Without Word Spirit Art, she builds support through job-application assistance and personal persuasion, then gains control over the military uniform factory's operations through an arrangement with Director Goff 221 226 227.

After learning that Chu Mu is imprisoned in Giantwood Tower, she organizes surveillance and rescue preparations. She and Silver Wolf trap Number Seven during the latter's factory investigation, explain their objective, and later enter the tower with her to recover Chu Mu and Herta 240 245 262 264.

Kafka subsequently becomes involved in a plan with Herta surrounding the Mother Tree and Chu Mu's Eye of Order. Although the tree swallows her, it has made a deal with her rather than killed her. Chu Mu retrieves her after awakening the Eye; Kafka then carries out the second option with Number Seven, whose sacrifice to the Mother Tree brings forth Xipe, the Aeon of Harmony 303.

Xianzhou Luofu

Kafka invites the Astral Express to the Luofu and allows herself to be captured. Chu Mu recognizes the arrest as a script intended to improve the Express crew's standing, particularly Stelle's, while Kafka uses promised answers about Stelle's past to secure her participation 379 384.

At the Divination Commission, Kafka reunites with Chu Mu and undergoes interrogation through the Matrix of Prescience. After Fu Xuan leaves to report the results, Kafka's shackles come apart, and she escapes with Blade 405 410 411.

She later visits Chu Mu and reassures Blade that his concern for the boy proves he is no longer merely acting as an older brother. During Blade's confrontation with Dan Heng, she lifts the Word Spirit Art suppressing his mara-triggering memories 422 424 435.

Return to Belobog

Kafka and Blade travel to Belobog aboard the Astral Express. Kafka arranges new clothing for the group and receives a Warship from Chu Mu, while Sam brings Silver Wolf toward their rendezvous 459 461.

In the Underworld, Kafka receives Svarog's thanks for remaining with Chu Mu. She admits her former deception to Oleg and explains to Bronya why she could not adopt both siblings. When Bronya feels the absence of her own adoptive mother, Kafka takes her hand and welcomes her as family 464 467 474 475.

Kafka then supplies Silver Wolf's teleportation coordinates and brings her face-to-face with Bronya, delighted that Chu Mu's two younger sisters finally meet after thirteen years 477 480.

Relationships

• Chu Mu / A-Mu — Adopted son. Their relationship develops from suspicion and bargaining into an explicitly acknowledged family bond. Kafka supports his independence while working to keep him emotionally connected to others 33 35 90 240 474.
• Silver Wolf — Fellow Stellaron Hunter and frequent target of Kafka's mother–daughter jokes. Kafka relies on her technical expertise, delegates work to her, and recognizes when her pride requires solving a problem without Chu Mu's help 28 38 459.
• Blade — Colleague whom Kafka casts as Chu Mu's older brother. Her Word Spirit Art helps maintain his lucidity, and she encourages him to accept his genuine attachment to Chu Mu 424.
• Elio — Leader whose scripts guide her missions. Kafka trusts his chosen future, including the restrictions surrounding Chu Mu's adoption 28 35.
• Stelle — A person with a deliberately obscured history with Kafka. Kafka erases her memories, guides her toward the Astral Express, and helps prepare her future while emphasizing her right to choose 213 267 384.
• Herta — Collaborator in the Giantwood scenario. They coordinate safety arrangements, rescue efforts, and the plan involving Chu Mu's Eye of Order 239 240 303.
• Number Seven — Initially an investigator suspicious of Kafka's organization, later a rescue partner. Kafka advises her on supporting Chu Mu and carries out the Mother Tree's second option with her 261 264 277 303.
• Tingyun — Traveling companion whose feelings Kafka repeatedly meddles with. Kafka later entrusts the amnesiac Tingyun to an old friend on the Xianzhou Luofu 102 135 295.
• Svarog — Chu Mu's friend, whom Kafka repairs. He accepts her long before their later reunion and thanks her for staying beside Chu Mu 46 467.
• Bronya — Chu Mu's younger sister. Although Kafka cannot adopt her alongside him, she later explicitly welcomes Bronya into their family 474 475.

Notable Quotes

“What are you talking about? I would never abandon you. Never.” 90

“But even if you choose blindly, that choice still comes from your own heart. That's true free will.” 267

“Be there for him. Believe me, that's enough.” 277