Name | Mizuki Ikino
Species | Human
Gender | Female
Age | 17
Appearance |
A relatively tall girl with waist-length grey-blue hair and blue eyes. Always scowling. Nice figure. Faint scar under the collar of her uniform.
History | Kuchikiroka's resident shrine and cemetery are cared for by the Ikino family and have been since the family moved there in the 80's. Their home is set apart from the other houses, situated on a hilltop separating the suburbs from the tidy rows of tombstones. Following an icy divorce, Omai Ikino moved to a different province, leaving her husband Ikuji to raise their daughter alone.
Mizuki Ikino was born prematurely at the local hospital and was immediately handed off to her father; the Ikinos' marriage had never been solid and the birth of a child had not stabilized it. Omai left as soon as Mizuki went home and, since then, has never returned to Kuchikiroka. Mizuki exchanges Christmas and birthday cards with her, but that is the extent of their contact. She has never been to see her mother in person. Her father acted as both parents during Mizuki's uneasy childhood, given she had always been able to see spirits. From the time she could speak she was always talking to things that her father could not see, and while he never took her to a psychiatrist or a doctor for the 'visions', he was unnerved by his child.
When Mizuki began school (a private academy nearer to the city), it went about as well as could be expected for a little girl who could not tell the living from the dead. Mere weeks after classes began she was the pariah of not just her class or her year, but the entire student body, and several staff members actively avoided her. As she grew older she learned to hide her abnormalities (by ignoring all spiritual contact) but was still largely disconnected from her peers. By the time she left middle school she rarely spoke to anyone.
Unfortunately, highschoolers were not as leery of mocking her as the younger students had been, and soon a regular pattern of harassment and bullying began. She stayed silent, took the torment, and kept her lips tightly shut. This lasted for about two years, at which point she broke.
Mizuki went on a rage-fueled rampage, throwing anything she could find at her attackers. "How dare you!" She screamed, flinging a chair at one boy. "Bastards!" She screeched as she hurled a desk out a window. When she had finally calmed down, the classroom was all but destroyed. Although she had caused over a thousand dollars of damage, the school chose not to expel or discipline her beyond a mandatory anger-management class; Mizuki chose instead to transfer. She began attending Kuchikiroka High School, finishing out her sophomore year, and has just begun her junior.
Personality | Mizuki is, at present, unable to hear spirits, although she can see them quite well and sense the presence of many types of apparitions. Unfortunately, because of this, her one potential social outlet was shut off, leaving her to spend a very lonely life. Other students tended to be afraid of her, which prevented her from making friends; being bullied made her to withdraw further inside herself. However, as a result, her internal world is very well-developed, and she finds happiness in solitary activities. She is fairly well-read and her grades are excellent; after the incident at her previous school, she purposefully excels academically to draw attention.
Anyone who dares to bother her will most likely have a chair thrown at them. When she was younger, she was much quieter and much more timid, but since she transferred she has become a force of nature. Instead of breaking down, she became empowered, and, while inwardly uncertain of this new self, is outwardly fierce and confident. She is suspicious of other people because of her past and remains isolated socially, so her people skills are close to nil. She is not close to her father; while she loves him dearly she understands that he is scared both of and for her. Her closest friend is the spirit of a cat she called Mochi. He is the only soul she can hear, as she discovered him by following ghostly meows to the road where he was killed by a car. After burying his remains, Mizuki adopted him. She is highly protective of Mochi.