Kaede Gozen was born on the outskirts of Koshu in a small farming community named Azabu. Her mother, Yui, was the comely daughter of one of the local tailors and was working as a seamstress when she caught the eye of a passing samurai, Yuuto Gozen. He settled, they were married swiftly, and produced two daughters. Kaede, the younger of the pair, was born five years after her sister Rei.
Despite differences in personality, the sisters were close and had a comfortable upbringing; they never lacked for money or food or clothing and had good relationships with their parents. Rei was considered to look a lot like her mother and, as she grew older, began to take interest in more traditionally feminine pasttimes such as music, sewing and dance. Kaede had inherited the same dextruous nature as her sister but was more prone to rough and tumble; outside of the family her friends were mostly boys and she scrapped with them across farmlands and fields until called home for dinner.
Considering the nature of his two daughters Kaede's father decided to train her in his profession, entertaining her with long-lost stories of justice-wielding, street-roaming ancestors. In this Kaede showed talent and by the time she was old enough to have her first real katana forged for her, she had become a teenager who wore her hair short and her musculature proudly.
Rei, on the other hand, had grown into a graceful, charming young lady. Like her mother several years prior she began to attract the attentions of young men looked for a wife, but Rei was not particularly interested in just any merchant's son or common soldier and thusly roped Kaede into becoming somewhat of a repellent for unwanted affections.
Soon they had a reputation and had become a sort of local legend: in Azabu was one of the most fairest, elegant women in all the land. But in order to even speak with her? First you needed to defeat her bodyguard. Then, and only then, would you be permitted to be in her presence.
This brought suitors from all over the region and Kaede enjoyed honing her skills on brash swordsman, even if their parents did not entirely approve of the sport. Indeed, Yuuto began to chastise them for their game, Kaede in particular, as he felt she diminished what the samurai stood for.
However neither parent needed to worry overmuch about this, for shortly after Rei met the man of her dreams: a blacksmith whom had travelled from Kugane after hearing about her from two locals whom had subsequently shared drinks with him in a bar. He declared that such a beauty must have beautiful things, and when he had thought about it, the most beautiful thing he could think of was the moon. Such as this he had brought two gifts: a fine katana for Kaede with the phases of the eclipse embellished upon its hilt, and for Rei a matching necklace.
She was immediately enamoured and they were married in short order, and Rei moved back to Kugane with him. The katana being more ceremonial than anything else, Kaede wallmounted the sword in her room and began to take her training more seriously. Two years later when Rei wrote to the family to tell her that she had had a son of her own, they made the journey across to see her and Kaede fell in love with the busy city and its denizens from all corners of the world.
When they returned home Kaede's enthusiasm for travel had been ignited and Yuuto began to take her out on trips with the dual intentions of sating her thirst for adventure and keeping her on a samurai's path, and this worked to some degree. But left alone Kaede's mother began to sink into unhappiness and when Kaede was twenty she admitted to them that their frequent jaunts made her feel isolated.
Thusly the family decided to make one last crossing to Kugane: Rei had had twins and was expected a fourth child, so Kaede's parents bought a property close to their eldest daughter's and moved to be close to her expanding collection of nieces and nephews.
Having now lived in the city for the past three years, Kaede's father has mostly retired and so she seeks to hone her skills elsewhere. Luckily for her, she's in a great spot to do so.
