Tamaki Kotatsu

is a Third Generation Second Class Fire Soldier in the Special Fire Force Company 1.

Appearance
Tamaki is a young girl with long, straight dark hair tied into twintails. On missions, her outfit consists of dark undergarments, a protective outer jacket, a neck protector, dark boots and protective gloves. Parts of her outfit are coated with blue lines. Tamaki's torso is open, revealing her entire stomach area. The sleeves of her jacket appear to be too long for the arms and the buttons are in the shape of cross-like symbols. Her outfits previously contained patches with "1" on it, to signify Tamaki's affiliation to the 1st Special Fire Brigade. While off duty, during her time at the 1st, Tamaki wore a more modest outfit, which consists of a light dress, a dark-coloured garment with long sleeves over it, leggings, dark shoes and a headband. Tamaki's collar is tied up with a string in a ribbon-like fashion that has a cross-like button on it. As a member of the 8th Special Fire Brigade, she wears a orange jumpsuit. While under the effects of her Ignition Ability, Tamaki gains noticeable cat-like traits, which include two forked-tails, cat ears and claws.

Personality
Tamaki has displayed vulgar qualities, such as being excessively loud, boastful and with the Special Fire Brigade uniform, wears the bare minimum. Despite this, Tamaki has shown a friendly demeanour and kindness toward others, especially members of her brigade. She is known to be very clumsy and has "Lucky Lewd Syndrome", which results in her getting into intimate situations, for which she blames others. Tamaki is easily annoyed by other people and shows dissatisfaction when her superiors are confronted by lower-rank Fire Soldiers. She is very proud of her brigade, and thinks highly of its members. According to Leonardo Burns, Tamaki often gets herself in uncomfortable situations. Tamaki is courageous and has a strong sense of justice, as she was willing to disobey Rekka Hoshimiya after seeing how he treated innocent people, going as far as slap him, even though it resulted in her being beaten up violently. As she highly admired Rekka as a person as well as a superior, Tamaki displayed deep emotions when she found out his evil intentions.

Abilities
Tamaki is considered to be an elite within the Special Fire Force, due to her affiliation to the 1st Special Fire Brigade. Being a Third Generation, she is immune to being burnt by flames and can use her Ignition Ability to gird herself in flames, which grant her various cat-like traits, including cat ears, two forked tails and nails on her fingertips, an ability she dubbed "Nekomata". With her Ignition Ability active, Tamaki's agility and mobility is substantially increased, allowing her to run on all fours. She can use her forked-tails to generate a blast of fire, which is strong enough to break through building walls, restrain her targets in a circle of fire by lengthening them , or using them as a distress signal by the same process.

Introduction arc
Tamaki participates in the Rookie Fire Soldier Games, where she meets Shinra Kusakabe and gets irritated with him staring at her chest with his devious grin. Tamaki attempts to stop Shinra from approaching Leonardo, but gets groped in the process, much to her dissatisfaction. When the simulation exam begins, she notices how further Shinra has advanced, which pushes her to use her own Ignition Ability in hopes of recovering her position. Inside, Tamaki teams up with Arthur Boyle to fight Joker, despite Shinra's warnings, thinking it to be part of the exam. When the stranger uses a substance to detonate the building, Tamaki decides to ally herself with the two Fire Soldiers in order to survive the jeopardy. When she starts falling from the sky, Leonardo catches her, after which she stubbornly claims that she could've survived on her own accord.

VS. 1st Special Fire Brigade arc
When trainees from the 2nd, 5th and 8th Brigades arrive at the 1st Special Fire Fighting Cathedral, Tamaki recognises Shinra in the crowd and spectates the event. After training, when a Flame Human was spotted in the Shinjuku District, Tamaki informs the newcomers of the emergency and directs them to their respective Company Commanders for the duration of the mission. Afterwards, she leads a few people to an abandoned building, where Rekka claims to know of a prayer that can protect people from succumbing to the Human Body Ignition Phenomenon.

Tamaki, asked to be dismissed so Rekka can focus on the prayer, insists she stays because she wants to witness it with her eyes. Tamaki is then hugged by Rekka, and who starts thanking her loudly. The hug soon turns into painful suffocating, and Tamaki collapses from a short of breathe. As she lays on the ground, she witnesses Rekka turn a mother into a Flame Human and kill her brutally, and realises he isn't the man she thought he was. After recollecting herself, Tamaki slaps Rekka for conducting experiments with people's lives, but is quickly punched and told that she will not intervene with his passion for violence.

Tamaki then lets out a loud cry for help, and uses her Nekomata as a distress signal. When Rekka notices her disobeying him, he starts repeatedly kicking her, but all she can think of is how much she admired him. Suddenly, Shinra bursts in and stomps Rekka onto the ground, saving Tamaki from harm. Shinra asks if she's okay, but she's too overwhelmed to say anything. As Shinra and Rekka engage in battle, Tamaki is surprised by Shinra's ability to fight on par with the priest. As Rekka throws his fiery punches repeatedly, they land on Tamaki's clothes and they burn away, leaving her in just a bra and knickers. After Shinra repeatedly lands on her seductively from falling down, Tamaki grips onto his back, unable to look him in the face, and begs him to put a stop to Rekka once and for all. As he dashes forward to attack him, she encourages him and watches his final attack on Rekka. As she attempts to escape with the children, her path is blocked by Rekka's flames. She soon finds herself saved when Karim intervenes and immobilises him, before looking on as a light attacks Rekka, subsequently killing him in the process, much to Tamaki's shock.

As everybody is endangered by an unknown figure shooting flaming arrows into the building, Shinra creates a smokescreen to blind them, and Tamaki bites back by using her ability to extend her tails toward the snipers, which Karim freezes, scaring them off in the process.

Trivia

 * A "Kotatsu" is a table frame, covered by a heavy blanket, upon which a table top sits, and is exclusive to the Japanese culture. Domestic cats are often portrayed sleeping underneath them for warmth, as Japanese homes don't generally have floor heating vents.
 * Tamaki's Third Generation ability relating to a cat and her common unluckiness makes her comparable to the superstition of black cats; a superstition that they bring about bad luck.