KAORU MISHIGANI
Real Name: Kaoru Mishigani
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Reality-93714)
extraterrestrial (Nu Dao) human
Occupation: Espionage agent, would-be assassin;
posed as an exotic dancer
Group Membership: Dark Moon,
Offcastes (more of a status than a group)
Affiliations: Sammy Kang, Grant MacLiesh, Zakariah
Obidiah
Enemies: The Hikari,
Jutan
Known Relatives: Unidentified mother, unidentified
father, Terumi (sister)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Nu Dao
First Appearance: Offcastes#1
(July, 1993)
Powers/Abilities: Kaoru has two haki (powers
developed via communion with her world): Her physical agility and the
power to communicate with the deadly wasp-like zayats (see comments) who
pollinated their orchards
She is experienced both as a warrior
and as an exotic dancer.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'8")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 130 lbs. )
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
See the reality summary in the
comments.
(Offcastes#2 (fb)) - Kaoru was born and raised in the
souther climate of the human colony planet Nu Dao in an area with lush
mulberry orchards and famous for its silk production. She lived with her
parents, who were weavers, and sister, Terumi. Kaoru was the wild child,
while Terumi was sweet, gentle and loving.
Kaoru developed her two haki gifts, her
physical agility and the power to communicate with the deadly zayats who
pollinated their orchards. Terumi had many haki, including knowing
things of the soil, the trees, when to pollinate, how to talk to the
silkworms, etc. With Terumi's instructions, Kaoru would dance and direct
the zayats through the orchards. Kaori considered that while she was
helpful, Terumi was essential for their prosperity.
Word of Terumi's abilities reached the
Hikari, who came for her. They offered money, exemption from their tithe
and the promise of Terumi's annual return at the pollination season. As
their parents' wished it, refusal was not an option, and Kaoru wept
bitterly at their parting.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Despite
the Hikari's promises, Terumi never returned. After two years, the tithe
was reinstated, with a message from the Hikari that Terumi had reached
the rapture.
(Offcastes#2 (fb)) -While her parents accepted this, Kaoru
did not, and at age 16 she left for the Hikari school, but she instead
found Terumi at a Hikari brothel, lobotomized and reduced to a sex toy.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Terumi died (see
comments).
(Offcastes#1 (fb) - BTS) - As an exotic dancer and perhaps
an escort/call girl, Kaoru knew many men.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kaoru became affiliated with
Dark Moon, a group opposing the Hikari, and at 20-years-old, she
accepted an assignment to use her beauty and dancing skills to get close
to Jutan, who was in position to become the successor to the Ohikari
sama, the head of the Hikari.
(Offcastes#1 (fb)) - In the ballroom car in a train en route
to Macao II from Hong Kong II, Kaoru
had the masked lead role in the Zayat (patterned after the wasp-like Zayat
insect) line' fertility rite at the gala in honor of Jutan. Hikari priests
and other guests were entranced by Kaoru's charms, although Jutan remained reserved, even when she
unmasked, revealing her beautiful face and told him that she was hers.
(Offcastes#1 (fb) - BTS) - Resenting
Jutan's
curtailing of their efforts to enslave young women, the other Hikari
sought to tempt Jutan with the exotic dancer's pleasure, while if he nobly
refused this non-virgin, the other Hikari could claim her.
(Offcastes#1 (fb)) - Instead,
the
12-year-old lunar cadet Zak Obidiah (an offcaste who had traveled there to
visit his uncle Grant MacLiesh, who was secretly a Motherland
Intelligence (aka M-I or M-Eye) agent sent to investigate Jutan while
posing as a mining engineer) rushed forward and invited Kaoru to join him and his uncle at their table. Excused of either
sullying himself with the dancer or turning her over to the other Hikari,
Jutan happily advised her to accept the other. The three introduced each
other, and when Grant complimented her dance and asked if all Zayats were
as lovely, she told him that while the zayats were feared, they were her
little friends. She and Grant flirted and exchanged innuendos, and after
the last of the Hikari had given up and left, they escorted her back to
her room; she thanked Zak as her "little samurai."
The next morning in Macao, Kaoru met with
her Dark Moon contact, Sammy Kang, at a cafe, apparently unaware as Zak
and Grant had lunch at the same place; they saw her, but Grant did not
invite her to join them because he thought she was with the man next to
her.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Kang identified Grant
MacLiesh as M-I
Later, at a parade, Kaoru was in proximity to a man who
tried to assassinate Jutan. The crowd tore apart the would-be assassinate
and then moved against Kaoru, whom they denounced as a member of the Dark
Moon. Grant came to her rescue, but things escalated into something of a
riot, and as he prepared to use his laser pen weapon, it was knocked from
his hand. The weapon was recovered from Zak, who stabbed the scarred hand
of the man who reached for it, whom Zak recognized both as the man who had
met with Kaoru at the cafe and who had killed Hikari priest Kai Duy Ho in
a bathroom just before Zak had met up with Grant. As Kaoru and Grant were
nearly overwhelmed, the recovered Jutan commanded the rioting to stop and
encouraged everyone to embrace peace.
Grateful for Grant's coming to her rescue, Kaoru clung
to him as they headed to the ship that was headed to Nusi Gon, the next
leg in Jutan's tour.
(Offcastes#2 (fb)) - Kaoru spent the night in loud
romance with Grant, who considered Zak's concerns to be mere fantasy.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Unable
to
sleep in the room next door, Zak wandered out and into Jutan's chambers.
After taking the laser-pen, the apparently benevolent Jutan encouraged Zak
to sleep in peace in one of his rooms.
(Offcastes#2 (fb)) - Kaoru woke up ecstatic about her
passionate night, thinking that with clients and lovers she had lost track
of so many men after a bit but that "Dr. Feelgood" should stay in her
memory for a while. Recalling her mission, she headed to the shower, and
she considered how Zak and Grant had twice saved her. She further
considered that Zak was desperate for something from Grant that he wasn't
getting, at which time Grant joined her in the shower, and she happily
considered that she was getting enough from Grant, at least.
She subsequently joined Grant in heading off ship to
Nusi-Gon, and she wondered if he was avoiding Zak when he left a note
under his door without taking a look inside. Meanwhile, she arranged to
ditch Grant for a few minutes while she met up with Kang. However, she was
instead taken captive by some men who wanted MacLiesh. When Grant arrived,
following a note the criminals had forged that Kaoru had allegedly left
him, one the criminals threatened MacLiesh with a laser-pen; inexperienced
with it, the guy blasted off his own right arm. In the ensuing chaos,
Kaoru chased the fleeing head of the operation, observing that he was
wearing Hikari robes before the man disappeared into a Hikari parade.
Kaoru then met up with Kang who instructed him to put
her deadly zayats into Jutan's room to kill him. Returning to the boat,
Kaoru collected her zayats, in the process lamenting that MacLiesh -- of
whom she had grown fond -- would be after her once she had killed Jutan.
Nonetheless, she considered that men were not as dependable as her
"sisters" (the zayats).
After she sneaked into Juyat's chambers
and instructed them to mark the scent of and then kill the one who had
slept in the bed; she was surprised to soon after be confronted by Zak,
whom she rushed out of there, telling him that his uncle had sent her to
get him; she considered that Kang would have had her slit his throat and
leave him in the air shaft, but that she could not do that to an innocent.
She took Zak back to her room, where he asked what she had really been
going in Jutan's room and told her that she was associated with Kang.
Kaoru shared her history with Zak, after which Grant arrived, accusing
Kaoru of having stolen in laser-pen and asking her who were the men with
whom he had seen her. Zak interrupted, stating that he had been the one to
find the pen, but Grant dismissed him and told him to get out. When Zak
noted that he had slept in Jutan's room and needed to go there to get his
clothes, Kaoru realized the zayat's would have his scent, and so she went
with him.
In Jutan's chambers, Jutan confronted them, recognizing
Kaoru as the zayat dancer. Kaoru tried unsuccessfully to redirect the
zayats, but when they climbed on Zak, Jutan plucked them off, and they
became passive. Appreciating that zayats were rarely found in the central
climates and never in that season, and recognizing them as kwondai
hybrids, a particularly venomous type, Jutan correctly surmised that they
were there for them. Kaoru admitted this, telling him that her only regret
was their failure and that No Dao would be better if he died. She
continued that the Hikari had too long sucked the people dry, keeping
their sisters as servants and mindless whores and leaving their homelands
fallow. Jutan calmly replied that he and Kaoru had something in common, as
the abuses of the Hikari sickened him, and he told her that as Ohikari
sama (ruler of the Hikari) he would drive out all of the parasites who fed
on them. Jutan then forged a mental rapport with Kaoru, convincing her of
his kindness and putting her under his influence.
When Jutan asked if she would help him forge a new
golden age for Nu Dao, Kaoru told him of the infant girl hidden amongst
the Dark Moon who had manifested numerous and wonderful powers. Although
she mentally felt it to be wrong, Kaoru pronounced Jutan to be her savior
and told him where the girl could be found. Jutan then instructed his
aide, Mitsuo, to take the upset Kaoru to her room and give her a sedative,
which he did.
At Zak's request, Jutan returned to him
the laser-pen.
(Offcastes#2 (fb) - BTS) - Zak
asked if Jutan had let anyone else have it, but Jutan seemingly ignored
him, picking up and sending the zayat's away. Zak observed as Jutan
momentarily seemed malevolent, proclaiming that he needed no one's help
and that he expected no interference in his goals. Jutan subsequently
dismissed Zak.
Jutan was proclaimed the new Ohikari sama.
(Offcastes#3 (fb) - BTS) - Mitsuo gave Kaoru a
poisoned drink.
(Offcastes#3 (fb)) - When Zak checked on Kaoru, she
told him about being hypnotized and subsequently poisoned. Believing that
it was too late to save her, she told Zak to tell MacLiesh to rescue the
infant girl about whom she had told Kaoru.
(Offcastes#3 (fb) - BTS) - With his uncle having
refused to believe him, Zak went to the address Kaoru had given him and
found the infant dead from kwondai hybrid zayats, and he realized that
Jutan had sent them to do this.
After having been told that Kaoru had died and that he
was being sent back to the academy, Zak saw Jutan in a celebratory parade.
Unseen by others and from a distance at the train station to which he had
been taken, Zak used the laser-pen to slay Jutan.
(Offcastes#1) - Kaoru was sought for interrogation regarding the assassination of
Jutan, as she had been suspected of being involved with Dark Moon.
(Offcastes#3 (fb) - BTS) - With the drug she had
received being temporary, Kaoru accompanied Grant -- who had confirmed
Zak's stories with MI HQ -- in his car to the train station to pick up
Zak.
(Offcastes#3) - Revealing her survival, Kaoru praised
Zak for his brave actions in killing Jutan. Zak told her why he thought
Jutan had wanted him to kill him, but she assured him that that was all
over and that now they were hostile territory until MI could rescue them.
She advised that they could find sanctuary in her village, which was only
a few hours ahead.
However, they instead ran into a crowd who had set a
flaming pyre on the road ahead of them and denounced them as assassins.
MacLiesh rammed through their vehicle through the pyre and got them to the
docks, where Kaoru helped them fight through the crowds to a boat from
which Zak sent a distress message.
Furious as Jutan's public assassination had rallied the
people behind the Hikari and the Dark Moon had been neutralized with the
infant's death, Sammy Kang caught Zak with a knife to his throat and
denounced Kaoru has a failure and a whore. Zak bit Kang's hand, and Grant
finished him off as MI gyro-crafts approached, and the three escaped via a
dropped line.
Taken aboard a space station departing Nu Dao, Kaoru
and Zak were imprisoned initially, and MI prepared to supply Zak as the
culprit to the people of Nu Dao, but MacLiesh -- given the choice
between the two when he prepared to defend Zak -- convinced them to turn
over Kaoru instead. However, apparently via sacrificing his own Firstborn
status, MacLiesh freed Kaoru as well, and she delivered him a passionate
kiss after telling him that she would not forget him or his saving her
thusly. Bidding Zak and Grant farewell, Kaoru boarded the freighter for
the Zerrain frontier.
Comments: Created
by Mike Vosburg.
Her surname was
Mishigani initially, but I saw it at least once later as Michigani. A
lot of the names were somewhat amusing, so I would guess her name was a
play on Michigan? Most notably in the silly names to me was Ped Xing
(pedestrian crossing) and Nusi-Gon would be "New Saigon."
I would suspect that
Kaoru performed a mercy killing on her sister, but there is nothing in
the story to support (or refute that). Kaoru went to see her, saw her in
a dismal fate, and then reported her to be dead.
For most of the
story, Jutan seemed to be legitimately seeking peace and benevolence and
trying to elevate the Hikari, but he did a couple times clearly show
moments of darkness that he suppressed. And then, at the end, he seemed
to be guiding Zak to kill him. And, even that, Zak received a note from
Jutan, saying "Thank you. Now I am
free."
I'm not quite sure
what was going on with the laser pen, but perhaps Jutan's "evil self "
passed it on to Hikari agents who allowed the men who abducted Kaoru to
get it. There was a deal about weapons being outlawed and the laser-pen
being somewhat unique, so it may have been the same laser-pen throughout
the story.
The zayat's were
described as wasp-like, but they had a very spider-like appearance, with
wings.
Grant's last name
was MacLiesh initially and in the inside cover synopses, but I think it
was most McLiesh in the latter half of the story.
The Hikari were called the Hakari in #2-3, and
Ohikari sama was also spelled Ohakari sama.
Sammy Kang was a
member of the Dark Moon group. No known connection to any of the Kang
the Conqueror iterations.
Earth-93714 In the
distant future, Motherland Earth controlled a totalitarian empire of
fourteen colonial planets. Native earthlings (firstborns) were the ruling
elite over the rest of the population (Offcastes). On the planet Nu Dao,
colonized in 2055 by 98% Asians, the immigrants’ children developed a
symbiotic relationship with the planet, and subsequent generations
manifested senses relating to the planet’s ecology, which led to the
formation of the Hikari priesthood. The Hikari dominated society and
became corrupt over time, and the Dark Moon cult arose to oppose them.
Hikari priest Jutan initially appeared to be highly enlightened, and he
ascended to rule the Hikari, but he manifested a malevolent aspect and
seemingly guided Zakariah Obadiah to assassinate himself. Offcastes #1
(1993)
This profile was completed 02/21/2025, but
its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th
anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Kaoru Mishigani should be distinguished from:
- KAORI TAMAYOSHI - part of a family with
a long history of excellence in the art of sword-making, ally of Black
Axe--Black Axe#2
- MICHIGAN - the USA state
- other "Kaoru" or "Mishigani" characters,
groups, items, events, races or places...
images:
(without ads)
Offcastes#1, pg. 19, panel 1-4 (Zayat fertility rite
costume);
pg. 20, panel 3 (unmasked);
#2, pg. 14, panel 7 (full);
pg. 17, panel 2 (infant);
panel 4 (young girl);
pg. 18, panel 2 (age 16);
pg. 29, panel 2 (concept sketch)
Appearances:
Offcastes#1-3 (July-September, 1993) - Mike Vosburg
(artist/writer), Paul Hewitt (art assistant), Kevin Somers (assistant
editor), Marie Javins (editor)
First posted: 09/11/2026
Last updated: 02/21/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and � 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to
www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
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