Kiwi

Kiwi is a major character in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Appearance

Kiwi is an extremely tall and slender woman robed in a long, red jacket. Her most notable feature is a red mask that covers her lower face and jaw, which is entirely missing underneath. She has a light blonde bob cut and angular, feline eyes. Her body, which seems to be heavily modified with cyberware, is covered in a spiderweb motif tattoo and her nipples and pubic area are blue.

Biography

Early Life

With no recollection of her parents, Kiwi was likely sold off to a corporate factory when she was not much older than a toddler, a place where her small hands would prove useful in the production of implant subassemblies, microcontrollers, and shards among other small tech. Working alongside other kids, the factory foreman took a liking to her, soon befriending Kiwi. Over the years, he protected and helped her whenever she needed it, and when the time was appropriate, he promoted her, giving Kiwi raises and ensuring some level of comfort. Then the time for payback arrived. The foreman propositioned to Kiwi, framing it as a debt she owned to him, but when Kiwi refused, the foreman sold her off to a brothel, where she was forced to become a joytoy.

In order to survive the time spent at the brothel, Kiwi built a device using her wit and the knowledge she had gained over the years; a gizmo that allowed her to cut her off from any emotional responses and sensations while being forced to do the work she had to. Two years in, however, a client brutally assaulted her and tore away part of her jaw with his gorilla arms. After that event, Kiwi didn't reconstruct her jaw, instead installing a cybernetic implant. To her, both the jaw and her forced job were over.

While recovering from the assault, Kiwi decided to delve into netrunning, which she found it was a satisfying challenge that kept her motivated. Being a quick learner, she soon used her newly acquired abilities to cause multiple short circuits at both the brothel and the old factory, causing both buildings to be burned down completely while the proprietors and foreman were still inside. With all her accounts settled and a cybernetic mask covering the lower half of her face, Kiwi left in search of a new life for herself, heading off for Night City.

Life in Night City

With her past behind, Kiwi started working on small netrunning gigs all over Night City, and soon after she met Rebecca, who introduced her to Maine and his mercenary crew. Soon after, Kiwi was recruited.

Kiwi became known as an enigmatic and snarky netrunner with a detachable cybernetic jaw mask. One day, she met a young fellow 'runner known as Lucyna Kushinada, who she gently folded into Maine's crew, becoming somewhat of a mentor to her.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

This section requires expanding. Click here to add more.📝
Reason: This section needs additional references

Maine reveals to David that Lucy joined the crew about a year prior to the events of Edgerunners, so Kiwi has likely been in the crew much longer than a year. She is generally distant, as her personal philosophy is to "never trust a soul in Night City," though she favors Lucy over others and can be seen communicating with her on a more intimate level. As a netrunner, she mostly plays an intel role, and is therefore usually off-screen. However, once Maine's crew begins their investigation into Tanaka under Faraday's orders, she is more actively involved. While diving, she discovers that Tanaka was a fan of Jimmy Kurosaki's braindances, which are edited snuff sequences from the final moments of various cyberpsychos. David, who is both a fan of JK's work and used to sell his XBDs on Arasaka campus as a hustle, informs her of his process, which allows them to hatch a scheme to capture Tanaka.

This plan first involves ambushing Jimmy, which backfires when he activates a powerful EMP that causes Kiwi to vomit uncontrollably. She is not seen until the Jimmy situation is resolved and they successfully use him to bait Tanaka into being kidnapped. It is then her job to dive into Tanaka's memory and access secret Arasaka data requested by Faraday. However, she struggles to bypass Tanaka's dense ICE. In a cyberpsychotic rage, Maine pulls her from the ice bath and unknowingly beats her while she's unconscious, after which she is unable to perform the job, prompting Lucy to take her place.

The next time Kiwi is seen is after the timeskip, helping David, Rebecca, and Julio perform a mission for Wakako. At the mission after party, David asks her about Lucy's past, which she admits she knows nothing about. Lucy, who has been absent from running with the crew since Maine and Dorio passed, calls Kiwi to check up on David. Kiwi responds by telling her David is mopey and anxious without Lucy around. After the call ends, Faraday is seen visiting Kiwi. Kiwi and Faraday are aware of the strange occurrences around the Tanaka mission, notably data that went missing after Lucy subbed in as deep diver. Faraday has been hired by Arasaka to retrieve said data, so he bribes Kiwi to betray her crew.

Kiwi introduces David directly to Faraday for the first time at the Afterlife, as part of a plot to capture Lucy and get David involved in testing an Arasaka superweapon. Meanwhile, she and Faraday manage to capture Lucy, who has been killing Arasaka's netrunners to keep the data that went missing a secret. Kiwi, by diving into Lucy's memories, recovers both the missing data and learns of her past for the first time.

She accompanies David, Rebecca and Falco on their mission to intercept an Arasaka convoy carrying the cyberskeleton, where David is forced to install it due to overwhelming Militech presence and Kiwi and Faraday's scheming. After it's installed, Kiwi incapacitates Falco with a quickhack and rides away on her motorcycle, planning to flee the city. However, at the last minute, Faraday demands a meeting with her, telling her it's the only way she'll get her reward money. Despite knowing better, she obliges and is shot in the chest by Faraday, as she knows too much. While bleeding out, she makes one last call to Falco, informing them of the location of Faraday's aerodyne and, consequently, Lucy. She is shot dead by Faraday's hired hands, though she manages to explode one of their heads with a hack before dying.

Legacy

Lucy wrote "You taught me to never trust anyone in NC" on Kiwi's niche in the North Oak Columbarium.

Stats & Equipment

Cyberware	Jaw mask, Neuroport (Cyberdeck Port (Cyberdeck chip), multiple Personal Links, subdermal neural processor), Sensation and Emotion Dampening Implant, Spider Web Light Tattoo, Spider Silk Producing Breast Implant
Weaponry	Unity
Miscellaneous	Handheld Cyberdeck
Vehicles	ARCH Nazaré

Trivia

• During Edgerunner's production, Kiwi had a range of different clothes, including a blue coat with a hat. She also had a cyber-dog companion. None of them appeared in the final anime.
• Kiwi is director Hiroyuki Imaishi's favorite character.

References