This is a submission for the Gemma 4 Challenge: Build with Gemma 4 A bounded NPC with trust gates, disclosure contracts, and refusal behavior - running locally on Gemma 4's smallest model at 3.5 seconds per turn. What I Built A ramen shop owner named Kenji Sato. Eight seats at the counter. Narrow alley near Shinjuku Station. He does not know he is a character. Ask him how business is going: Who you are What Kenji says Stranger off the street "We're open at eleven." Regular (three weeks of visits) "Quiet lately. Wednesdays are the worst." Close friend (stays after closing) "Shimizu-sensei's worried the whole alley's dying." Same question. Different people. Different answers. Not because a slider was moved, but because the character tracks who you are and what you have earned. Kenji is a bounded NPC - an LLM-powered character with trust tiers, per-topic disclosure gates, refusal behavior, and an interior life that exceeds what the player can reach. His personality is not a paragraph of flavor text.…