In her youth Tetsuzan Asami was a bright young woman from Uji, Kyoto, whose interests and pursuits were not at all in line with her family's vision for her future. Proud as they were with her grades, they were far less impressed with her penchant for electronics. She came from a well-to-do family, interested in having their daughter pursue traditional pastimes. Ultimately, to refine her so she could marry someone else from another well-to-do family.
So, naturally, she rebelled.
Instead of ikebana? Kendo. Instead of cram school? Bike gangs. Learning to perform tea ceremonies? Actually, she liked that practice. She kept to that prescribed extracurricular.
It was the gang that took up most of her time, and caused her grades to start slipping. But if her grades slipped, she wouldn't be able to stay in the kendo club. Her teachers had given up on her by that point, and wouldn't offer her opportunity for extra credit. So, she had to take matters into her own hands.
It was frighteningly easy to manipulate the record system. Although she knew it wouldn't last forever, when the retcon of her school life was discovered, she was again surprised with how very little they could do about it. Still wearing the leather jacket of the bike gang, she gravitated back toward her passion for technology. She moved on from cracking the school's green-screens to more colorful pursuits with more powerful tools, digging for information instead of just altering it.
Asami got herself back in line enough to make sure she got into Kyoto University, which pleased her parents. She chose a focus in mechanical engineering, which did not please them, but at this point, there was no stopping her. Even under threat of being disowned, Asami continued her studies, her expertise as a hacker growing within the limitations of time. She begins receiving accolades for her public work and research, and notoriety for her private investigations. The world-wide web becomes her sandbox as she tests the limits of her skill. She graduates with honors, and is scouted by InVerse Technologies, a global leader in computer technology.
Completely unbeknownst to any of her family or friends, throughout her college career and shortly after, Asami makes a killing in the dotcom market, and uses her growing web of influence to help expose Yahoo for outing a Chinese dissident to his government.
As the international community of allies of the United States, including Japan, become involved in the war in the Middle East, requests for prosthetics to replace body parts blown away by IEDs drive Asami to develop an interest in practical use of drones in the theatre of war. Development on prototypes consume much of Asami's time as she utterly devotes herself to the pet project, though she is met with technological and institutional setbacks in her understanding of robotics and programming, repeatedly needing to go back and re-learn something or expand her horizons. Frustrated in her lack of progress, Asami leans back on her hacktivist ways and uses it as an outlet for her frustrations.
In November of 2006 Asami uncovers a wealth of data revealing Japan's complicit involvement in alleged war crimes alongside the United States in Iraq. Drone camera footage revealing attacks on civilians that the Americans tried to hide spread like wildfire across the internet. The attention Asami's actions garnered were far greater than she realized and in December of 2006 her apartment and family home were raided by the police cooperating with an extradition order from the US. Asami manages to elude the police for a few days but is caught trying to leave the country and is extradited to the United States, which is uncommon and embitters Asami to her people.
At the age of 24, Asami is put on trial for espionage and sentenced to ten years in prison. However, Asami's sentence is commuted down to 1 year and 5 years of probation following the intercession of American billionaire Daniel Linderman. Linderman reaches out to Asami through his legal team and leverages for her early release on good behavior after only six months. Linderman then brings Asami to New York where he meets with her and discusses a potential future together utilizing her skills to keep his confidential business records safe. Linderman is willing to overlook Asami's criminal record and her past while enticing her with a significant stipend and continued protection from legal troubles waiting for her back home.
Left without a lifeline, Asami takes Linderman's offer and develops a cybersecurity suite for his international business, rapidly rising through the ranks to become the head of her department. Though Asami is aware of Linderman's criminal underpinnings, she had not yet found an "escape hatch" from her arrangement by the time Linderman passed away in 2015. With the company's leadership falling to the loose-cannon of Isaac Faulkner, Asami finds herself even less certain of her safety should she slip away from the Linderman Group's grasp. Disappearing is an option, but is it an option for her family? Would the Linderman Group go after them?
It's a question she still hasn't found an answer to.
In spite of her predicament, Asami still endeavors to follow her personal dreams and pursuits. She still has a penchant for mechanical engineering and continues to practice kendo, both as a hobby and as a professional instructor at the Claremont Center, a Linderman Group owned recreational facility in Chinatown.
