Ayame Matsuda is a longtime friend of Taka who has known him for 6 years. They both joined the Kyosei-kai Yakuza group at around the same time and found shared interests and senses of humor, which allowed them to work together and watch their backs. While Taka showed that he was best suited to street level work involving violence and sneaking around, Ayame was better at logistics and technical tasks like organizing smuggling runs and keeping track of inventory.

The two skillsets complimented each other well, but their “deficiencies” in the eyes of the relatively traditional Kyosei-kai oyabun limited their opportunities for advancement. Ayame, being human and Japanese, could rise higher than Taka, but even her ceiling was lower than it should have been given her talents. As Taka talked about getting out, so did Ayame. She arranged to cut her ties with the Kyosei-kai and travel to Seattle, where the yakuza gumi were considered relatively liberal. She set up a pawn shop called Gearworks, which handles both legit business as well as serving as a fence for the local Yakuza. When Taka came to Seattle, Ayame was one of the first people he contacted. She helped him get set up in the shadows and still serves as a valuable contact and friend.

Ayame is a human Japanese woman in her late 20’s of short and slim stature. She wears her hair long, pulled back into a number of ponytails and braids (thus her Kitsune nickname) and frequently dyes her hair in unusual and unnatural colors. She is a very perky and happy person, coming across as very cute and flaky, but those who know her well realise that she can be as cold and calculating as necessary when she has to. More than one robber or street gang has found themselves on the wrong side of a shotgun when trying to rob Gearworks or shake her down for protection money.