Kaede Johan Nouvel

Kaede Johan Nouvel (楓・J・ヌーベル) is a Lily who attends Yurigaoka Girls' Academy. She is one of the commanders of Team Hitotsuyanagi.

History
Kaede was born in Paris and spent her early childhood in France. She did not go to elementary school, and was instead personally educated by the finest tutors in subjects both academic and not. From the moment she set foot in her first Garden, she was well versed in history, the sciences, the arts, and the fundamentals of Magi control.

Upon coming of age, she enrolled in St. Mercurius's junior high school division so that she would be qualified to take the high school entrance exams at Japanese gardens.

St. Mercurius and Yurigaoka are affiliated as sister schools, but are also fierce rivals. While St. Mercurius is considered to produce Lilies of equal quality, its junior high school division, at the time of Kaede's enrollment, had long underperformed compared to Yurigaoka's. The renewed focus that St. Mercurius put on cultivating Lily candidates, and the early displays of talent this resulted in, lead to them being described as the "Dread Children." Along with Kaede, Ishikawa Aoi, Louloudis Bromstedt and Chemir Friedheim were considered among the most noteworthy of the Dread Children.

It was with Kaede among them that the St. Mercurius Junior High Division Reserve Team, for the very first time, scored a higher evaluation than the Yurigaoka Junior High Division Reserve Team.

Yurigaoka then invited Kaede to enroll in their high school division. They would have allowed her to do so without taking the entrance exam, but Kaede chose to take it anyway, getting full marks on almost all the academic and practical tests and placing in the 96th percentile of examinees.

Combat Style
Kaede takes a calculated approach to battle that relies on predicting and outmaneuvering her foes, with economy of effort. She prefers to counterattack opponents rather than trying to overwhelm them with her swiftness. She is a well-rounded offensive fighter capable of making difficult Neunwelt passes with Regista's overhead vision, or making the finish shot.

As one of the commanders of Team Hitotsuyanagi (along with Kuo Shenlin), Kaede planned Team Hitotsuyanagi's tactical approach herself, with Riri and Yuyu as the legion's key players.

Kaede is keen on making sure her CHARMs are in perfect condition, and keeps a lot of replacement parts on hand—at least 3 of each part.

Family
The Nouvel family is an old and noble one, with an European castle to their name. They operate Grand Guignol, a CHARM manufacturer that boasts some of the most devoted fans of any such company.

Kaede's father, Michel Nouvel, is a popular and charismatic businessman who has had entire books written about him. His life has been highly irregular for a member of the Nouvel family, but since Kaede's birth, he has been an upstanding father. Rumor has it that when he was younger, he was quite the playboy.

Kaede's mother, Tomomi Nouvel (née Kawai), is a former Lily who comes from a family of well-known anti-Huge architects. She was one of the first Japanese Lilies to study abroad at Heimskringla. In contrast to Kaede, she had a conservative fighting style and specialized in the BZ.

Trivia

 * Kaede's hobbies are collecting artwork and taking photographs.
 * Kaede likes high-class cuisine (particularly French and Japanese cuisine), collecting art, and cute girls.
 * Kaede dislikes lowbrow things, and hates frogs.
 * According to her doll pamphlet, Kaede speaks 13 languages.
 * Kaede's name means "maple." Her middle name, Johan, is an archaic form of the French name Jeanne. Her surname, Nouvel, means "new" in French.
 * Kaede's surname may be a reference to the real-world architect Jean Nouvel.