Kayo Sudou

"The more you sharpen them, the better they cut."

- Kayo Sudou

Kayo Sudou was a tailor of Enbizaka in Jakoku. After the loss of her entire family, the devastated young woman agreed to swap bodies with Elluka Clockworker and start a new life. Inheriting scissors from her mother, Kayo became possessed by the Demon of Envy. After discovering her dead husband seemingly alive, she began murdering women she suspected of courting her perceived love.

Early Life
Born in Jakoku in the year EC 822, Kayo was raised by her mother throughout her young life. Some time later, she fell in love with a man and they eventually married; at some point, her mother told her that a pair of scissors were like a married couple, claiming that the blades carry out their tasks by being close and scrape against one another. Siring a child with her husband, Kayo lived happily with her beloved family.

After her mother, husband, and child were killed in a fire, Kayo slipped into a depression. On the brink of despair, Kayo met a missionary, Elluka Clockworker, in EC 842 and became enamored with her beautiful appearance. Offering to swap bodies with the woman, Kayo agreed and acquired the missionary's pink-haired body as she desired, starting a new life running a tailor shop in Enbizaka with her mother's keepsake scissors.

Enbizaka Murders
"Although he has someone like me, he never comes home."

- Kayo musing about her "husband"

Later that year, the popular tailor saw a man who appeared to be her husband in town. Awed that he was alive, Kayo grew concerned that her "lover" was being unfaithful to her and never returned home. At some point, she became possessed by the Demon of Envy. Some time later, she saw him on the main street with another woman in a beautiful red kimono. Disgusted, Kayo left and later murdered the woman with her scissors before retailoring the red kimono for herself.

The next day, she saw him in front of the bridge being comforted by a girl with a green sash. Believing her to be the type of girl her lover liked, Kayo later killed her as well and retailored the green sash. The day after, she found him in front of the hairpin shop buying a yellow hairpin for a child. The tailor thought the young girl and him were in a relationship and later murdered her like the rest, taking her hairpin. Realizing her "lover" was not coming home, decided to confront him.

Dressing up in the clothes taken from the women she killed, Kayo approached the man and he greeted her as if she was a stranger. Furious, the tailor killed him with her scissors. With the entire town in a panic over the recent string of killings, Kayo continued on with her tailoring work.

Legacy
"The tailor Kayo Sudou was a beauty with gorgeous black hair but, oddly enough, she seemed to have a complex regarding her own appearance, envying Elluka's appearance herself."

- Ma

Long after Kayo's death, few accurate historical documents would exist about her and the Eastern region she lived in, leaving the truth about her relatively unknown. Some accounts claimed she had dark hair while others would say it was peach-colored. One of these documents, the Eastern Magic Record, noted that she had caused an incident that shook her society but its validity was unknown.

The playwright Ma utilized Kayo's original body and identity over a century later, passing on the family name to her daughter, Nemesis. Ma and Gammon Octo later created a film of the incident Kayo perpetrated. While watching the film with an intruder to Evil's Theater, Ma commented about Elluka's involvement with Kayo, claiming that Elluka had been too late in swapping bodies and scissors with the tailor.

Personality and Traits
"Well? Aren't I beautiful?"

- Kayo

Kayo was a broken, envious woman, out of touch with her reality and indignant toward any who stole away her husband's attention. Kayo was extremely attached to family and considered it to be everything to her. As a result, she was happy with the life she gained living with her mother, husband, and only child. She was similarly considered amicable and friendly by the townspeople of Enbizaka. However, after losing her family, Kayo slipped into a deep depression and nearly lost all hope. Due to Elluka's intervention, Kayo felt revived in starting a new life in a new, beautiful body.

After being possessed by the Demon of Envy, she grew insecure about her own looks and desired the appearances of other beautiful women. She also seemed to lose some touch with reality, disassociating herself from the murders she committed and treating the people's panic over the issue like a separate incident. Furthermore, she harbored an insidious feeling of envy towards women who were with the man she loved, feeling greatly hurt and disgusted by those she assumed her "husband" cheated on her with, finding him pitiful for even seemingly courting a child.

Despite this, she remained completely infatuated with the man and held a psychopathic determination to murder the man's "lovers" in order to silence them; associating their unique articles of clothing to what she believed he found appealing about them, Kayo took the clothes and retailored them for herself in an attempt to make herself more desirable for her lover. However, in spite of her obsession with the man, she was furious by his apparent flippant attitude, treating her like a stranger, and murdered him as well.

Skills and Abilities
Kayo was admired by many for her talent in tailoring kimonos. She was also skilled enough to not be discovered committing her heinous crimes by anyone in Enbizaka and had stalked her love without being caught.

Character Connections
Kai Miroku: Kayo's perceived husband. Kayo loved him deeply and was brought to despair by his death, and conversely overjoyed to see him alive. She later was saddened by his apparently unfaithful attitude wished to become his love once again, such as by using the clothing of his other perceived mistresses. Despite her love for him, Kayo was also disgusted with her love's unscrupulous courting and became deeply offended when he acted as though he didn't know her.

Mei Miroku: A perceived mistress of Kayo's love. Kayo was envious of the girl's relationship with her husband and her beautiful appearance, believing that her clothing was key to achieving it for herself. Kayo displayed no remorse for the murder of the girl.

Miku Miroku: A perceived mistress of Kayo's love. Kayo was envious of the girl's relationship with her husband and her beautiful appearance, believing that her clothing was key to achieving it for herself. Kayo displayed no remorse for the murder of the girl.

Rin Miroku: A perceived mistress of Kayo's love. Kayo was envious of the girl's relationship with her husband and astonished at her youth, while still believing her article of clothing could be of use to achieve her husband's affection. Kayo displayed no remorse for the murder of the girl.

Elluka Clockworker: A missionary Kayo met. Kayo ran into Elluka sometime before her murder of the girls; enamored with the woman's beautiful pink-haired appearance, she was brought hope by the missionary's offer of a new life by swapping bodies.

Lukana Octo: A body Kayo swapped into. Kayo envied Lukana Octo's beautiful body and preferred it to her own. After obtaining the body through Elluka's body-swap, Kayo was satisfied with her new appearance and used it to start a new life after the death of her family.

Ma: A sorceress who inhabited Kayo's body. Ma's physical identity is noted as Kayo Sudou, but it is unknown how she obtained the tailor's body.

Conceptualization and Origin

 * Her name is also derived from the term ストーカーよ (sutookaayo) or "stalker"; when read in its eastern format, Kayo's name becomes "Sudou Kayo" (スドウ＝カヨ).
 * The kanji used for Kayo's name are 禍世, which mean "curse" and "world", respectively.
 * Kayo's name is partially inspired by the name of her representative Vocaloid, Luka, with Kayo's name beginning with "ka".
 * Kayo is inspired by the Kuchisake-onna, a popular Japanese urban legend who, according to myth, was a woman mutilated by a jealous husband and returned as an evil spirit; the ghost of the mutilated woman asks her victims, "Am I beautiful?" before killing them with a pair of scissors.
 * Fittingly, Jakoku, Kayo's native country, is inspired by Japan.

Curiosities

 * Lukana Octo, Kayo's eventual body, was also a tailor;  similarly, Elluka, whom Kayo swapped bodies with, is also mentioned to have a sewing hobby.

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