Jack of Harts

The Neko of New Japan are unique in many ways. The physical features that resemble cats are merely one of them. Another is their naming conventions. America has spent centuries absorbing some names and modifying or abandoning others. A man named Anders in his home country might change his name to Andrew to blend in with the sounds that American speakers can best understand. Place names, foods, and basic concepts have met similar modifications when coming to America. But the Neko take pride in choosing Japanese, or Nihonese as they call it, names for everything. One can easily hear a Neko walking down the street in conversation with a friend, effortlessly moving from American to Nihonese so smoothly that they baffle most listeners. They proclaim their differences in ways that most people do not dare, and that daring is part of what made them so effective when they went to War.

The Neko were a culture devoted to having fun. They still are, mind you, but that was their sole driving goal before The War. They were tricksters, yes, and they were sneaky, and they were jokers. They spent centuries self-selecting for those who wished to have fun, sometimes at others’ expenses. But the best jokes, the ones that would live on in memory forever, were the ones that the target could laugh about as well. When the target spoke of the trick played on them, everyone knew it was a trick well played. That is because the Neko were spiritual descendants of the Japanese cat spirits. Jokers and tricksters all. But the Chinese cat spirits were different. They were killers. Monsters. Murderers. The Neko embraced that version of their spiritual ancestors after the Shang destroyed Los Angeles. They devoted themselves to the goal of killing every Chinese and Shang they could find. Those stories their targets do not tell tales about, and the Neko are pleased. They have returned to their long-held goal of having fun, but never make the mistake of thinking they are harmless. They can be most dangerous when provoked.