Tamaki Kotatsu

is a Third Generation Second Class Fire Soldier in Special Fire Force Company 1. Due to her service for Rekka Hoshimiya, she is being disciplined under Special Fire Force Company 8's watch.

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, which she blames her "Lucky Lewd Syndrome" for, which results in her getting into intimate situations, for which she blames others. This, along with her bad luck, embarrasses her to no end. 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 company 1, and thinks highly of its members. 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 pink 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 Companies arrive at the 1st Special Fire Fighting Cathedral, Tamaki recognises Shinra in the crowd and spectates the event. After training, when a Infernal 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 an Infernal 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. After the ordeal, she says her goodbyes with the other rookies as they depart Company 1. For her punishment with assisting Rekka, she has to back out of her brigade activities, and during her time reflecting on the incident she is under the command of the Company 8.

Preacher Pursuit arc
After Raffles III calls a conference of the brigades commanders, Akitaru Ōbi has Shinra and Tamaki come with him to the meeting, Upon arriving, she sits quietly with Shinra. After returning to the Special Fire Cathedral 8, the brigade begins looking into fire incidents for clues on the Preacher. Per Maki Oze's suggestions, she and Tamaki go to prepare dinner. During the preparations, she ends up naked with only an apron on thanks to her Lucky Lewd Syndrome, leading to Takehisa Hinawa sending her back to investigating with Maki. Shortly after, Shinra tells his brigade of the information he received from Joker,to which Tamaki reminded Shinra that he is a dangerous man who could be lying.

Asakusa arc
Sometime after, Company 8 and Tamaki go to Asakusa to follow a lead in their investigation. Upon arriving, Benimaru Shinmon deals with the purification of an Infernal, which lead to the city being damage. As Tamaki and Company 8 help with repairing the city, her Lucky Lewd Syndrome kicks in, leading to her losing her top and smoothing her breasts in Shinra's face. During the night, Asakusa is attacked, and Tamaki nearly finds herself hit by a flame arrow which was used to kill Rekka. She and Maki later help Hinata look for Hikage, which they succeed in doing.

Netherworld arc
As Shinra and Tamaki clean the churches yard, she is greeted by Karim to her surprise. As Shinra was daydreaming, Tamaki hits him, and ends up in a compromising position with him due to her Lucky Lewd Syndrome. After the brigade learns that the White Hoods are hiding in the Netherworld, Akitaru asks Tamaki if she is going to join Company 8 on their mission to the Nether, to which she agree's to participates. Upon entering the Netherworld, the brigade becomes separated by mist, leading to Tamaki grabbing onto Iris' hand. To her surprise, a replica of Tamaki is also handing her hand. Activating her Ignition Ability to prove her identity, Iris is uncertain that is indeed the real Tamaki until she falls victim to her Lucky Lewd Syndrome leading to Iris recognising it was indeed Tamaki. Before she can take out her frustration out on the impostor, the girls are confronted by Assault. Standing in front of Iris to protect her, Tamaki sprints at the White Hood, but ends up being attacked by his Ignition Ability. Being launched into the air, she lands on-top of Assault, leading to her jacket getting stick to him. As he struggles to deal with Tamaki's Lucky Lewd Syndrome, Iris attacks him, followed by Tamaki joining in and the pair defeating him.

Chinese Peninsula arc
Tamaki joins the research team travelling to the Chinese Peninsula as the group's nun. Upon disembarking Toryū at New Qingdao, Tamaki is confused as to why her peers are tasting the soil. Travelling to the Tear in Space for clues about the Adolla Burst, everyone except for Viktor Licht is intoxicated by the lands natural gas, leading them all acting strange. When a talking mole named Schop hopes on their truck, Tamaki is baffled by it. As night descends, Tamaki enjoys some roasted marshmallows. As Scop leads the group to the Oasis, they are all confused at a structure that resembles Amaterasu. As the team debates battling those who have invaded the Oasis, Tamaki sides with Shinra: claiming they must overcome anything that tries to interfere with the investigation.

Venturing towards the Shintai, Tamaki prays for the Infernal dogs souls that Arthur killed. There group is soon attacked by sentient Internals, and after defeating them, the groups learns that the Internals are being lead by a Demon Infernal who wants to make the Shintai explode, prompting the group to intervene. As half the group investigates the Shintai, Tamaki's group are instructed to keep an eye out, during which they are surrounded by Tempeh and his sentient Internals followers intended to kill them. As the group engage in battle, Tamaki manages to put some Internals to rest. As Tempe became the only Infernal left, Tamaki becomes shocked as Ogun Montgomery began to overwhelm the Demon, and became confused when a explosion appeared in the sky during the fight, which was unknowingly caused by Shinra defeating Tempe in one second. Following the investigation of the Shintai being concluded, the Fire Soldiers depart back to Tokyo to their brigades.

Haijima arc
Sometime later, Viktor gathers his brigade, and announces that he is a Haijima Industries spy, but is informed most of them already knew. He informs them that the company are conducting radical experiments on Third Generation children to see if they have Adolla Burst, prompting them to investigate Haijima. After Shinra and Viktor enter the Skills Development Laboratory, Viktor alerts his brigade to infiltrate the compound. While entering it in the Special Armoured Fire Engine, the vehicle is flipped by a doll. Leaving it and entering by foot, Tamki's group is confronted by Kurono. Telling Iris to get behind her, the pair are protected from the man's attacks by Arthur and Akitaru. While the man holds Nataku Son hostage, the White Hoods engage everyone in battle in order to secure the boy who was awakened his Adolla Burst.

After the fighting concludes, the White Hoods decide to retreat, and the brigade makes an alliance against the Preacher, all the while Nataku stays under the watch of Kurono. At Company 8's cathedral, Tamaki finds a letter in her locker, saying her to meet someone at the 2nd District's wasteland. Assuming the letter is from a secret admirer, she goes there, and is confronted by Assault, who fails to kill her due to Tamaki's syndrome. Assault tries two more times and fails.

Operation Nether Investigation arc
Following Maki returning to the Tokyo Army, Tamaki cries and seeks reassurance that she'll return soon. After it was decided that Special Fire Force Company 2 and 8 would investigate the Netherworld together, company 8 was divided amongst the search teams, with Tamaki being placed on Hajiki's squad. Upon her group entering the Nether, Tamaki's syndrome occurs in Hajiki's presence.

Trivia

 * Tamaki has a similar physical appearance to Maka Albarn from the Soul Eater series and Tsugumi Harudori from the Soul Eater Not! series both being the author's previous works.
 * 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.
 * According to her Character Profile in God of the Forge:
 * Tamaki's favourite food is fish, while her least favourite are celery, carrots and peppers.
 * Tamaki's favourite genre of music is Pop.
 * Cats areTamaki's favourite animals.
 * Tamaki's favourite colours are white and yellow.
 * She prefers people with no secrets and people who aren't too fired up.
 * Tamaki respects her parents, Captain Burns, Lieutenant Karim and Huo Yan, although she has trouble dealing with Lieutenant Rekka.
 * Her hobbies include napping in the park, and her daily routine involves caring for her nails and hair.
 * Her shoe size is 23.5cm and her eyesight is 0.9.
 * Her favourite school subject is Music and any classes where male and female students are separated. Her least favourite subject is Co-ed P.E.
 * Tamaki refers to her mother at one point in the story, saying that her mother would be mad if she knew her daughter was going into the Netherworld. Given the religious nature of the Nether and Tamaki's place within Company One, it's possible that Tamaki's family has strong faith in The Holy Sol Temple.
 * Tamaki was ranked 2nd in first Character Popularity Poll.