Nozomi

Nozomi was an intelligent nezumi. She and two other litters were orphaned while they were inside an abandon farmaland. A magistrate who was seeking Scorpion ronin stumbled upon the three infants. The magistrtae attacked them with his yari, seeing them only as vermin. He was beheaded by his own yoriki, a ronin member of the Sword of Yotsu who cared for the helpless. The ronin took her and escaped. A bounty was placed over the head of the ronin, who named her Nozomi, and she in turn called him A'op'chtch-tchr, "father's stick".