Kimiko was born in the Sasaki Encampment a few miles northwest of Mishaka.  (Depending on where she is currently standing, Kimiko will claim to be either a Helot of the Protected States of the Dragon Shogunate or a citizen of the Range Towns of Marukan.  A common enough situation for the small enclaves along the borders.)
     The Sasaki Encampment is the semi-permanent encampment of the once-nomadic Sasaki clan.  In Kimiko's grandfather's time, the clan found a good settling area and parked the wagons there for a while.  What with one thing and another, the wagons haven't moved for two generations, and the Encampment has become somewhat built-up.  (Think mobile home park.)
     The Encampment's permanent residents number about sixty or so older folks, children and disabled adults.  Sasaki's healthy adult population -- another 60 or so -- ride the ranges around the encampment looking after the Clan's horses.  The range is very broad, it takes a full 3 days ride to the furthest herds.
     The Sasaki raise their children communally so that while Kimiko does know which two Riders sired her, she has more familial feelings for the 'Mamans' and 'Dadas' who raised her than she does for her actual parents.  Since steady monogamy is also uncommon in the clan, she also doesn't distinguish between cousins, half-siblings and full siblings -- they're all her brothers and sisters.
     Kimiko was always a curious child and one of her favorite Dadas was the clan's smith, tinkerer and general fixit guy -- Kado.  She spent many a fond afternoon, handing Kado his tools or discussing his latest jobs with him.  Another favorite was Maman Nami.  Nami Sasaki still had the wandering feet of previous generations and would occasionally take the young Kimiko out with her as she hunted for relics among the ruins of the Marukan hills.  It was from Kado that Kimiko learned to love buiding and supporting a community.  It was from Nami that she learned to love salvaging and the wonders of the First Age.
     Kimiko was 13 when the drought started, fifteen by the time the Clan was beginning to sacrifice the herds.  In desperation, Kado began working deep within the Clan's sluggish well to attempt to widen the opening to the aquifer beneath.  Kimiko often aided by holding light or handing tools as the two of them would work well into the night, attempting to bring precious water back to their starving people.
    One evening, the wall that Kado was working on collasped, burying him in stone and debris and plugging the well completely.  Kimiko was injured in the same landslide but nonetheless pulled futily on the massive stones, crying out to Kado.  Suddenly, Kimiko was filled with light and power.  Her hands had the power to smooth away stone and her eyes had the wisdom to see how it should be done.  A pillar of gold and copper light leapt forth from the dry well, stabbing upward into the twilight.  And for a moment, Kimiko glimpsed a life that she had led before -- serving the Unconquered Sun in the First Age, master artificer and builder of cities of wonder.
     Retrieving Kado's form was easy, as was ensuring that the water flowed once more. 
     However, once at the top of the well, the light and fire surrounding Kimiko revealed all too clearly the fear in her gathered clan's eyes.  Once Kado was bandaged, splinted and sleeping, Nami approached Kimiko.  There was no way Kimiko could stay within the Encampment, the Wyld Hunt would be on it's way.  *The* wagon was hurriedly uprooted by a grateful though terrified encampment, an excellent horse was 'found' by a cousin and that night, Nami took the still glowing Kimiko away.
     Nami kept Kimiko hidden within the wagon until the girl's initial glow had faded.  After that, Nami gave the girl a quick lesson in the necessities of road life (something that at least, in theory, every Sasaki already knew) and sent her on her way.
    Kimiko found herself more than a little adrift after leaving her clan, but the girl's natural desire to help pulled her from village to village, encampment to enclave, helping the still drought stricken region wherever she could.  Along the way, she learned and learned and learned from the various wise women and smiths and cunningmen she found along the way.
     As Kimiko traveled, she began to hear more tales of Lookshy, the City of Wonders, to the North.  These stories echoed those she had heard from the "buyers" of Lookshy merchant houses, Faren Clan trading caravans (think wild gypsy cousins from the Scavenger Lands who range freely across the Threshold),  Guild "buyers", and procurement specialists from the 7th Legion, that had visited the Sasaki Encampment in her youth.
     Through this occasional exposure, she heard a lot of magical rumors about Lookshy.  Lookshy is a city where lift tubes and road skiffs still function.  Fresh water is abundant and piped into every home.  Sewer systems are extensive and efficient, whisking away waste as if it never was. The night is held back as long as one likes by artificial lights, and the city is defended against its enemies by geomantic "essence" cannons and a sky filled with flying
ships.
     The young Kimiko of the Sasaki encampment had doubted whether she would ever be able to leave her people for long enough to travel and see such a wonder.  But now, now it seemed she was no longer so entangled.  And so slowly, Kimiko began making her way Northward, looking to see the mighty wonders of Lookshy.  And to, hopefully, figure out how to bring those wonders back to the rest of the world.
     After two years of a generally northward mendicant life, Kimiko was driving her wagon along a less-used road, when she was ambushed by a band of bandits.  Kimiko's natural compassion led her to try and reason with her captors instead of attacking them.  As Kimiko was imprecating them, the bandits -- of course -- laid hands on her and began looting her wagon.
     At this point, a strange man (with a cute monkey on his shoulder) ran over the hill crest and gestured menacingly at the bandits.  Who then, of course, dropped what they were holding to grab their weapons.  Unfortunately, what they were holding was a box of 'fire-eggs' that Kimiko had been working on.  When Kimiko saw the box begin to fall, she hurriedly covered her eyes.  Unfortunately for the rest, bandits and stranger alike, they did not notice or think to do so.  BANG!  FLASH!
     Kimiko peeked out between her fingers to find a number of blinded bandits staggering around waiving weapons and one blinded stranger very methodically clunking them.  Kimiko aided in the clunking and between them, she and the stranger (who introduced himself as Hiroshi) quickly had the bandits disarmed and tied to a nearby tree.
     Finding that Hiroshi was not only traveling to Lookshy but was a former resident, Kimiko eagerly accepted his offer to 'protect her from the hazards of the road.'  After all, if Hiroshi thought he needed to protect her, that would only give her more time to pump him for information about Looksy.
     And so the two set off together.