Kikyou Shishakaze

Background

 * Kikyou was born in Karakura town to Hansuke and Setsuna Shishakaze. Hansuke worked at a free walking-in clinic and Setsuna was an accomplished artist and the three of them lived comfortably off of Setsuna’s family fortune.  They were a happy family, always having fun together, especially when Kikyou and her mother, Setsuna, would paint and do crafts together. Kikyou, from a young age, was gifted with spiritual powers and the unique ability to not just see soul ribbons, but different shades of ribbons that ranged from white to red dependant on one’s spiritual strength and that also had different colour aura’s dependant on the owner’s mood.  Her father, Hansuke, had this ability too.  Also, as a child, her parents enrolled her in gymnastics.  The Kurosaki and Shishakaze families were very close to one another being connected by the fathers who had being friends ever since they were little.  Kikyou was only a year younger than Ichigo and that combined with how much time the two families spent together, Ichigo and Kikyou were the closest of friends.  While Ichigo was cautious and scared, Kikyou was the brave explorer, leading the pair on many adventures and she was perpetually smiling.  This relationship changed though after Ichigo’s mother died.


 * Kikyou and her parents attended the small funeral service that was held for Maskai. After the service as people began to meander away, Kikyou’s father got down on one knee, looked at his daughter and told her, “if anything should ever happen to me or your mother I want you to promise me something … promise me that you will never lose that beautiful smile of your, that you will live your life to the fullest without any regrets, okay”.  Kikyou looked blankly at her father for a moment but then smiled at him, giggled and said, “okay”.  A whiel after Misaki’s death, Kikyou tried to engage Ichigo but it just wasn’t the same, she realized that his mother’s death had affected him a great deal.  One on these days, just as her family was about to head home, Kikyou approached him, paused and then told him, “my daddy told me that no matter what I should never lose my smile and I think that’s what your mummy would have wanted for you too”.  She then took off to join her family.


 * A few months later, tragedy befell her for both of her parents were killed. They were walking along the side walk when a driver by had a heart attack and crashed into them.  Both of her parents died along with the driver but Kikyou miraculously lived.  When she woke up she found herself in the Kurosaki’s clinic.  Isshin explained to her what had happened but she didn’t remember a thing about the accident due to a head injury she had sustained; the last thing she remembered was walking with her parents happily.  Kikyou stayed at the Kurosaki’s house while things were arranged for her to live with her grandparents in New York.  During this time, Kikyou fell into a state of slight depression, staring off into space, barely eating or even saying more than two words at a time, and never smiling.  Ichigo tried to comfort her a few times but he always whimped out before he could say anything.  Two weeks had passed and Kikyou and the Kurosaki’s were at the airport to see her off on her flight.  She was almost passed the terminal gate when she stopped for a moment and then suddenly ran back to them dropping her bag on the way and embraced Ichigo, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.  “Promise me that you won’t forget me, that we’ll still be friends no matter what, and that you’ll write to me, okay Ichigo” she said sobbing.  Ichigo looked down at her, smiling, and said “I promise”.  Kikyou looked up tears running down her face but beaming back at him with a huge smile across her face.  “Thank you” she replied, kissing him on the cheek and running back to her bag and back to the gate.  She turned around once more, waving her hand in the air “bye Ichigo! I’ll miss you” she said, still beaming and still crying.  Ichigo waved back, smiling as well.  Kikyou turned around and finally boarded the plane.


 * Kikyou lived for the next 6 years with her grandparents in their penthouse apartment in New York, New York. Her grandmother used to be a popular songstress and now, though not quite as popular still put out CD’s and preformed small concerts.  Her grandfather was a very talented agent, working for some of the biggest names in the entertainment world (which is how he met her grandmother).  Upon arriving in New York she seemingly returned to the happy carefree girl she once was but she was still deeply hurt by the death of her parents.


 * Her grandparents enrolled her into a privet school. Back when she lived in Japan, despite her naturally cheerful attitude, Ichigo was in fact her only friend.  Some of the kids would pick on her because of her hair colour while the others who didn’t mind it would do nothing when they saw it happen so she decided that she wouldn’t settle for them; if they wouldn’t help her then they weren’t real friends.  In New York it was different, her having platinum blond hair wasn’t a bad thing and in fact most of the other kids admired it and even sometimes envied it.  She was welcomed by them for a time but then one day she saw them picking on another girl and she wouldn’t stand for it.  One of the members group said that, “if you won’t help us then we won’t be your friends anymore,” “in that case I don’t want to be your friend,” Kikyou said angrily.  “Come, don’t be stupid,” said another, “that would be social suicide”.  Kikyou replied, “I don’t care, I won’t stand by while you bully her, that’s just wrong”.  After that day, Kikyou was once again ostracized from her peers and never made any really close friends for the rest of her time in New York.


 * Her grandparents were always running around and she was frequently alone at home. Kikyou soon learned the efficiency of microwaveable and take-out food.  She became accustomed to big city life.  Over the years, Kikyou became involved in many extracurricular abilities such as gymnastics, fencing, jujutsu, archery, track-and-field, acting, singing and video filming and editing, so those, combined with her dedication to her academic career, kept her busy most of the time.  She one year, due to her excellence in the academics, she was bumped up a year.  Although, she was always, Kikyou never forgot to write to Ichigo and he would always write back except that is the few months leading up to her return, which slightly concerned her.  When she was 12 her grandfather died and 2 years after that her grandmother died.  According to her parent’s original will, if anything should happen to both the parents and grandparents then Kikyou was to live under the guardianship of Isshin Kurosaki until she was an adult.  So once the arrangements were made, Kikyou returned home to Japan.


 * *This Section Will Also Be Updated As Her Past Is Revealed In Greater Detail As The Story Goes On!!

Description

 * Kikyou, in general, is a sweet and happy-go-lucky girl. In the beginning, before she makes any friends, she was viewed, by the masses, as being quite, calm, and shy but was extremely nervous when interacting with the other students.  This nervousness, for the most part, was due to the culture shock she experiences by having lived in New York for the past 6 years and therefore being unsure of the particular customs and mannerisms of a typical Japanese teenager.  Once she became more settled and familiar with Japanese customs, and once the other girls in the class were more openly welcoming of her, she became more relaxed and smiled and laughed a lot more.  Still at this point, she didn’t talk very much but this was only because she shares very little interests with those of a typical teenage girl and therefore has very few opinions on most of the topics discussed and she won’t engage in meaningless discussions (not to say that she thinks that any topic that doesn’t interest her is meaningless, just that anything that she would add to it would be meaningless).  After a few weeks, the student body began to view Kikyou as a sweet, polite, innocent girl, somewhat similar to Orihime except that she isn’t quite as spacey and they are well aware that she is very intelligent considering that she is actually a year younger than her classmates as a result of her skipping a grade ahead while she was in New York.  It is revealed later, though, that Kikyou at times can vary greatly from this sweet girl persona.  For instance, initially she wore regular clothes that didn’t really make her stand out in order to make a good first impression, but the first time she went to hang-out with the girls outside of school she was dressed in completely Goth attire – which is a style that she is quite fond of.  She is also extremely intolerant of injustice verbally defending the rights of both those being abused and of her own freedoms.  If Kikyou feels that individuals are harming those that she cares about, she will go from sweetly passive to ferociously protective in an instant.  As well, she is quite nonchalant when it comes to others’ opinions of her, whether it be snooty students angered that she won’t comply to their will or scared adults who are offended by her nonconformity with the rest of society.  Resulting from an incident between Keigo and Kikyou, some of the friends – especially Keigo – are quite scared of her, with Keigo even stating that, “She’s a crazy, freak! Just like you Ich … AHHHHHH, it was YOU! Oh no! It’s only been 2 weeks and already living with you has tainted her sweet, innocence!  How dare you corrupt Shishakaze’s pure …” stopping abruptly as a result of Ichigo hitting him.


 * Though this is how she normally acts around people, when she is with Ichigo her personality is vastly different. Since they were so close when they were little and over the years kept in constant contact, Kikyou views Ichigo in a brotherly manner and as a result is more relaxed and open with him than anyone else.  Kikyou is completely frank with Ichigo.  If she thinks he is being idiotic she’ll tell him.  If she thinks he is being rude she’ll tell him off.  Also, she won’t hesitate to argue with Ichigo and is very willing to yell back, unlike with practically everyone else with whom she will try to avoid any sort of argument and would very rarely ever be truly mad at the person (though can does happen).  Kikyou arguing with Ichigo is similar to how Rukia does it accept most of the time she likes to argue more along the lines of outwitting him and usually throughout the argument has a smirk of a smear on her face and comes out of the argument the apparent winner (even though it isn’t usually clear how it happened).  Though this is what usually happens, if Kikyou gets really mad at Ichigo she will get really mad and scary, blasting Ichigo (her voice can be very piercing and could even out yell big, grown men) and even sometimes resorting to hitting him up-side the head and kicking him in the legs.  Kikyou’s openness with Ichigo works both ways though for she is also extremely affectionate with him.  Kikyou frequently embraces him and calls him “Ichi-tan” no matter who is around.  She almost reverts back to a child like state, physical over exaggerations, constant big smiles, lost of giggling, being care-free, not being inhibited by how she may come off to others.  Kikyou is most comfortable and relaxed when by Ichigo’s side.


 * Despite her apparent openness though, sometimes when she is alone she reverts into a depressed, quiet, reflective state.


 * … More Still To Come As My Story Unfolds! o^-^o

Abilities

 * Kikyou has a very large amount to spiritual power – even nearing that of Ichigo – but she is always suppressing it realizing the effects it can have on the environment around her.
 * Kikyou also has the unique ability not only to see spirit ribbons but also to see then in different shades of colour ranging from white to red (white being an individual without any spiritual abilities whatsoever, red being a shinigami, pink having mediocre powers, and dark pink having the strongest powers a human can have).
 * Physically, Kikyou is very agile and flexible and can be an effective fighter. Her flexibility is mostly due to the demands of her gymnastics and fencing training and the same for her fighting skills from jujutsu.  Her agility though, is naturally occurring and it is her speed that resulted in her joining track-and-field – unlike the other skills.
 * Kikyou is also highly intelligent not just academically but also in logical and emotional pursuits. Not only is she able to tell how people are feeling, but is able to sense a person’s overall personality.  Kikyou is also adept at understanding the intricacies of society due to being on the outside looking in for so long.

Quotes

 * Ichi-tan!