 _______________________________________________Identity Full Name - 一色みかこ - Isshiki Mikako
Nicknames - Mika, Okaa-nee
Age - 17
Gender - Female
Year - Second
Personality Responsible
As someone who's been helping to take care of a pretty big family since she was pretty small, Mikako has developed a keen sense of responsibility. And, of course, her family isn't the only thing in her life; this sense of duty, responsibility, and sheer has stuck with her everywhere. Her grades are excellent. She's on student council. She tutors people for free. And so on and so forth. There's always more in life for you to do, after all, and if you can do something for someone, then you should.
That said, this is a bit of a double-edged sword. Because she feels so keenly that she should put herself out to do things for people, she's got a bit of a pattern of being taken advantage of.
Sugary
But despite that, despite her hard work and the occasional advantage being taken, Mikako is just about the sweetest, most empathetic girl you could ever hope to meet. It's part of why she's so easy to take advantage of as well; if someone gives the excuse of their sibling being sick or something, well, what is she supposed to do? Not believe them? Ask for proof? Of course not. If one of her siblings was sick she'd do anything for them, so of course she understands. Whether she's helping a kid look for something they lost, talking a friend through a bad breakup, she's a genuinely kind person that rarely loses her temper and really, honestly wants everyone to be happy. This leads to her being overly helpful, and putting herself way out solving problems that aren't really hers to solve.
Cheerful
But it's not that she just wants other people to be happy; though does, of course, Mikako still manages to keep her own smile unblunted. Her chipper grin is almost her trademark. She's not superhuman, of course; she can lose her temper or get upset just like anybody else. But taking care of three younger siblings has expanded her patience greatly, because what is she supposed to do, yell at her seven year old brother? Not likely! It's pretty difficult to get under her skin.
That said, though, just as it's kind of difficult to get under her skin, it can also be a little difficult to get to know her on a deeper level. She doesn't mean to, of course, but she's already got so much on her plate, and she's loath to ask anybody else to do any of it, so it's hard to spend time with her, even if you're a close friend.
Peacemaker
The best way to get her attention, though, is people fighting. She hates it. She hates it so much The worst is seeing friends fight, it makes her feel all twisted up inside. So she leverages a bit of that patience and kindness that she's got running through her to try and step in when people are in conflict. Does this always work? No. Not at all. But it can work. And if there's a shot, then she's going to take it. It's easier for her to prompt reconciliation between younger children; that's what she's really good at, after all.
But even though high schoolers and younger children are very much different, she still tries. She tries, and tries, and tries. And wow, does it feel good when she succeeds.
Character Relationships Osanai Suzuka
"I'm really happy to see Suzucchiko again! She seems much happier now, the messages that she sent after she left were always so morose. And Kaede is over the moon, she missed her so much! She's really good with the kids even if she doesn't know it, Kaede loves her and Rin almost idolizes her. She's better with people than she thinks she is, I think, it's a shame people don't talk to her more."
Fuji Eikichi
"You know, he was so earnest when he was a kid. I think he decided to make a middle school debut, or maybe he caught a little bit of the chuunibyou? I'm not sure. I spent some time with him and Suzuka when we were in elementary school, but I haven't talked to him much since then. He really seemed to change a lot as soon as she moved away, they always spent so much time together. It made me a little jealous back then, haha."
Morioka Haruto
"He's a gem! He's still such a sweet kid. He was always better friends with Eikichi-kun than with me, so I don't know him so well myself, though I do occasionally talk when he works with the student council. But seems to really like people and the whole camera deal is just the cutest thing. I'm glad he seems to still be happy."
Arashiyama Junko
"I don't think Arashiyama likes me very much.
Well, I don't about her, specifically, but a lot of her friends seem to really not be fond of me, and I'm not really sure why, since I haven't talked to her very much since she's a year my senior. I've heard mocking rumors about me making people lazy or something? It...makes me a little bit sad. She seems like such a nice person."
Sakamoto Ryuuichi
"He's really back! And he's actually staying this time! I used to spend a lot of time with Ryuu-kun during the summer, but one day he stopped coming and I don't know why. I found out later that he was involved in some kind of violence? Which really doesn't fit with how I remember him at all, he was such a nice kid, helping me with chores that he had no need to. Now some of my friends are telling me that he's bad news and I should stay away from him. But frankly, I just could never imagine him changing that much, so I think I can ignore them in this case."
Shinomiya Koharu
"Eh? Shinomiya--huh? What do you mean, this is the same Shinomiya from back then? I didn't know her suuuper well, but she was nice enough, I think? Quiet, good grades, didn't get into much trouble...I think the right word would be 'unassuming?' Whenever we talked, I kind of got the sense that her heart wasn't in it. But look at her now! Now her heart is in everything she does! She's so much fun to be around even if we aren't actually around each other very often. So it's honestly kind of hard to believe they're the same person! What happened in those few years?
...All that being said, it would be nice if she could stop feeling me up while I'm changing for gym."
Chihara Takaya
"He's a nice enough guy, maybe a little closed-off? I kind of get the feeling that he doesn't want to tell me what he likes when I ask, no high schooler is only into high-class literature and I don't actually know much about him. I'm a little worried, though; he always offers to help clean up the council room even though I'm perfectly happy doing it, and I see people taking advantage of his kindness sometimes and he seems to have a hard time saying 'no' to them. Plus cram school and student council? I'm afraid he'll work himself too hard and burn out."
Other Information She has three siblings: Kaede (13), Rin (11), and Hiro (8). Kaede calls her nee-chan or nee-san like a normal person, Rin is going through a manga phase so she calls her aneue, and Hiro calls her okaa-nee and she thinks it's the literal cutest thing that has ever been.
She and her family live in a family home of five generations in Old Kitagawa.
She is the secretary of the current Student Council.
She writes her given name in hiragana because the kanji it's written with, 美日子, are just kind of a pain to write in comparison. If she's going to be writing three characters anyway, then why use the kanji instead? | Physical Description
Mikako is a little bit short, ending up around five feet even, or 152cm. Her blonde hair, usually tied back in either pigtails tied with black and white bows, or a ponytail tied with both, has just enough droop in the front to frame her bright smile and her bright green eyes. Also, that hair is long, falling comfortably to the small of her back even when tied up. She takes impeccable care of it; or at least she tries to, sometimes she's busy enough that it's not viable and it ends up frizzy and out of pocket. But most of the time it's smooth and shiny (and smells nice, too). It had better be; she wakes up an hour early every morning to make sure, after all. She keeps a comb, a hairbrush, and a small bottle of hair product in her bookbag at all times.
She has a typical enough build for a high schooler at the moment; however, her mom is a pretty curvaceous person, and she's starting to develop in that direction as well. It's all a bit embarrassing for her, really. Consequently, when she gets changed for gym classes she does her best to do so a little bit out of the way, and get it done with as fast as possible. Her skin is at least tanned enough not to be pallid, by and large because she just ends up being outside a lot by happenstance; bikes to and from school every day, walks to the supermarket to buy stuff for dinner, spends time in the nearby park with her siblings...
When she's not wearing her uniform, she tends to wear comfy, but feminine, clothing. Jeans, sweats, floofy oversize sweaters, sundresses, midi skirts, when it's really hot out she'll rock a sports bra and shorts, and so on and so forth. If she can, she gets them in shades of blue, green, and white. They're her favorite colors, and she thinks they go the best with her hair and her eyes.
A special mention, though, has to go out to the thing that she can most often be seen wearing outside of school. Brought back by her mom from London, the Malibu blue newsboy cap is something that she treasures deeply. She's pinned a white and a pink star on the brim, and basically any time she can wear her hat, she does. It makes her feel closer to her parents, and on those infrequent nights where she lies in bed, staring at the ceiling and missing mom and dad, she clutches it to her chest and it chases away the cold.
She carries herself with something almost like a bounce, a cheerful spring to her step that doesn't quite intercede on the strange aura of maturity that she bears. Of course, she's not always happy, as discussed, and when she's not feeling super jazzed that bounce morphs into a much more typical stride, usually with purpose, because if something is bothering her then she's probably trying to do something about it.
Personal Story
It was difficult for Isshiki Akiko, née Tanaka, to leave her career as an airline pilot alongside her husband to raise their child. But leave it she did, because that child--a girl that they named Mikako--was as important to her as the whole world. She was a kind, helpful child from the very beginning. Even when she was a toddler clinging to Akiko's skirts, she was still babbling that she wanted to help her in the kitchen, because 'mommy is always so busy!" Akiko thought it was the CUTEST thing. Whenever Jun came home, he would lavish attention on her too. This went on until she was five, at which point her mom told her: "Mi-chan, you're going to be an older sister!"
And everything changed when Kaede was born.
With six years between them, the jealousy that kind of takes over kids when siblings are born was absent in Mikako. Indeed, she went the opposite direction, and became incredibly fond of her kid sister. Of course, she couldn't do much; she was still only six, after all, just starting elementary school. But after a few years, when she started growing more capable--and when Rin came along--she finally got her wish to help her mom around the house. While her mother was busy with feeding and taking care of an infant, she threw her whole ten-year-old self into cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, organizing, making every bed in the house...and the list went on. At first she didn't figure out how to balance things and isolated herself from her friends; but a few months of it was all it took for her to figure it out.
She was popular in elementary school. She liked everyone (with maybe a few exceptions), and everyone seemed to like her too. Her favorite people were Ei-kun, and the girl he'd introduced her to, Suzu-chan. She spent more time with Suzuka, really; she even started to get a little jealous of Eikichi, because Suzuka seemed to like spending time with him more than she did spending time with Mikako. So she tried to spend time with her ten times as hard. The four, then five, then six-year old Kaede adored her. She thought she was SO cool, and Mikako firmly agreed. She had three siblings that she adored. She was well-liked at school, and had some very good friends. Everything seemed to be coming up Mikako! It was about this time that she started being...a little too helpful. It got her coming home from school late sometimes, because she'd spend her time helping someone after school. Her mother was worried about it, but she seemed, happy, so she figured it was fine.
...And then Suzuka announced that she was moving away.
It deeply upset the then-thirteen year old Mikako; right before middle school, one of her best friends went poof into thin air. Ei-kun changed himself too, turned...weird. She still liked him, but without Suzu-chan tying them together they didn't really spend time together anymore, and eventually drifted apart. Still, her life was good. Hiro was starting to grow up a little bit, Rin was stringing together sentences a little bit better, and Kaede--her favorite, but don't tell anyone!--started to really come into her own personality!
...Which was really similar to Ei-kun's new one, which was...a lot to deal with at home.
And then came the biggest bomb to be dropped on her. When she was fifteen years old, in her last year of middle school, her mom informed her: she was going back to working full-time with dad. She was in charge of the house now. They trusted her to take care of the house and her siblings, to make sure they were happy, clean, and fed. It was up to her now.
It was a TECTONIC shift for her. Instead of taking an assistant role, she was now the caretaker-in-chief. A year later was when she truly came into her own as the substitute mom, just as she was going into her first year of high school. Her grades dipped at first; her first trimester, she got slapped with nothing but Cs. But as she figured the balance out, her honor-student grades returned, her siblings were happy, and everyone at school seemed to like her.
It's been two years now since she took on the household, and she's thriving, but she's also starting to...burn herself out just a little bit. She's still popular at school, people really like her, but she's taking on more work that she's really able to keep up with. Secretary of student council; a constant member of broadcasting club (and kendo club, oddly enough), a tutor for students who are struggling, and always willing to help clubs that are short somehow--all that alongside her working in her household--she's not sleeping as much as she should, and she's starting to get a little bit tired.
But her friends are back, she has friends all over, her siblings love her, she gets good grades, she's athletic...so of course she doesn't complain. What more could she want? |
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