Hinotori High's Student Council President can be described in one word: merciless. Whether you're a 1st or 3rd year, she has high expectations for all students attending the high school. Infamous for her no-nonsense attitude, Sakuya is a force to be reckoned with. As straight-laced as they come, she believes that rules are made to be followed, and those that break them are a detriment to Japanese society. While some would think she uses her position to crack down on unruly students, it's rumored that she has their best interests at heart. Or at least, it'd be more believable if she wasn't such a hardass.

Aside from her beliefs, she is also a responsible young woman. She will always do her best to help anyone that approaches her and even if she can't do anything, she's more than happy to direct their attention to someone who can. Inquisitive and intelligent, she prides herself on her grades and encourages good study habits. Once she has set her sight on something, she won't stop until she's accomplished the task at hand. There are some obvious trust issues and an underlying fear of abandonment, but it's something she keeps tightly under wraps.

Empress

Cleave
Garu
Taunt

Taking on what she perceives as a fierce warrior outfit, Sakuya dons a sarashi with a pair of long, detached kimono sleeves and an obi covering a long skirt.

The Nakano family had long since split up since Reiko Nakano divorced her husband to marry an old high school boyfriend. She wasn't interested in the family that she had built with Hiroshi, and so he tasked himself with raising both his children: his son, Reiji, and his daughter, Sakuya. The two were expected to become good members of society and were pushed to excel in their studies. Fortunately, both his children were brilliant, and for a long time, the little family thrived despite the abandonment.

In November of last year, the Nakano residence burst into flames, and Hiroshi managed to pull Sakuya out despite her insistence that her brother was still inside. After everything was said and done, however, Reiji's body was never found, and he was marked among the few high school students that had disappeared under similar circumstances. Alongside her brother was the student council president, Natsuhime Hanami--Sakuya was supposed to be her vice president, but with her disappearance, she ended up inheriting the position. Even so, it didn't really matter to Sakuya.

Despite dealing with their grief, it seemed the streak of bad luck continued after Hiroshi was busted for embezzling funds in his high position in the company he worked for. He was promptly thrown in jail, leaving Sakuya to fend for herself. At that moment, Sakuya refused to let herself come off as pitiable and instead would do everything she could to show herself as capable. If she was meant to be abandoned, then fine. She could take on the world by herself--she was convinced she didn't need anyone.

- A big fan of coffee
- A member of the Kendo club
- Animals don't seem to like her, much to her dismay
- Desires to study abroad after graduation

Genki comes off as a somewhat aloof young man. He tries his best to make any situation humorous, even in the darkest of times. He can sometimes be quite bullheaded, refusing to budge his opinion of someone or something, even if sufficient evidence is made for the opposite case. He enjoys his friends, the few that he has, but has a strange habit of disappearing on occasion.

Xing Tian

Cleave (Light phys damage to one foe)
Tarukaja (Increased attack on one ally)
Eiha (Light curse damage to one foe)

When Genki transforms, he dons ancient Chinese looking armor consisting of scalemail-like interlocking metal plates, a deep red cape, and a central breastplate that depicts an angry roaring face.

Genki's weapon manifests as a battle-axe. Light enough to be used in a single hand but big enough to be used in two hands for added damage. More often than not, Genki will be holding it with two hands. He also has a shield, but he keeps it on his back to protect his back. While he could wield both the axe and the shield when extra defense is needed, but Genki much prefers the aggressive tactic of using both hands for his weapon.

Genki's early childhood was... troublesome, to say the least. Neither of his parents really wanted the a kid, so they stuck him up for adoption, abandoning him. The Orphanage was run by an old, and Chinese man named Zhang, who had a strong distaste for the poor boy. Day in and day out, it was obvious that Genki was nobody's favorite, and there were times Zhang even tried to get rid of Genki, but luckily the law was on his side.

After about 10 years of torment, Genki's biological grandparents on his father's side found out where he had been and adopted him. As it turns out, both of Genki's parents were killed in a drunk driving accident after driving straight into a street light, killing them both instantly.

The next few years of his life would be spent re-adjusting to normal life. No longer being forced to learn Chinese, nor its history, Genki tried his best to live his life as a normal Japanese boy. Until recently. There was a strange man he met in his dreams on his 16th birthday. Someone named William. And... something about a butterfly? And a contract. He signed a contract with William, and got some sort of key. Genki still doesn't really understand it, but whatever happened, happened. And now, it's time for Genki's second year of high school to begin. What awaits him here? Only one way to find out.

Genki's color is ed1c24
Genki can speak both Japanese and Chinese (even though we're all speaking English lmao)
Due to his time at the Orphanage, where everyone knew each other by their first names, Genki is inclined to give his first name first, but doesn't mind the more traditional way of calling someone by their family name.

Noriaki has always been someone ruled by his emotions; he is a passionate person by nature, with all the advantages and pitfalls that comes with. He is courageous, audacious, and possesses a strong sense of personal justice. His hotblooded temperament leads him to be in equal parts reckless, tempestuous and prone to outburst. Following his expulsion from his previous highschool and the stain it left on him, he finds himself ever more struggling to contain his fiery temper and increasingly disillusioned with his peers, leading him to lash out in stubborn defiance—another strong trait of his.

Devil

Agi
Bash
Tarukaja

Noriaki's transformation isn't especially dazzling. His eyes lose their natural, bright blue hue in return for a vibrant, slit-eyed violet coloration. Complete with devilish fangs and a dark, black and purple jacket like something out of a JRPG, he looks more like an anti-hero than the righteous rabbelrouser he might like to pretend he is.

Longsword

The circumstances of Noriaki's birth are, mercifully, uncommon enough. Born to a single mother just old enough to have graduated highschool, his early years were nothing to be envious of. His mother worked hard to provide a meager life for them, often leaving him with friends during work nights until he was old enough to fend for himself in their tiny Osaka apartment. It wasn't a bad life—he never went hungry, nor unloved—but it wasn't a fair one either. He hated seeing his sole parent work so hard just to scrape by, seeing the scorn society seemed to feel for her just because his dad wasn't in the picture. These early experiences shaped who he was. He learned to fight through struggle by example, and learned that the world wasn't a perfectly just place despite what his grade school teachers said. Perhaps most importantly, he learned that he didn't like that.

It was a recipe for disaster, to say the least. Full of piss and vinegar and with a dire lack of guidance at home, young Noriaki found himself scuffling with other youths more often than not. He had no outlet for his temper, or the indignation he felt when they pitied him for his home life. He wouldn't find one until he enrolled into junior highschool. Just like his temper, he was big for his age, and when his homeroom teacher suggested he join the school's baseball team, he took to it like a duck took to water. He had the talent to be good, and the drive to turn that talent into something meaningful. It also didn't hurt that being on the team provided incentive to keep the worst of his impulses in check.

Baseball was the driving force that kept the youth on the straight and narrow, away from the worse crowds that his circumstances might have driven others into. He made it into a fairly prestigious highschool in the Osaka area by way of recommendation from his coaches, and found his stride on the team during his first year. By all accounts, he had a bright future in the sport. A year or two on the team, and a Koshien was almost assured. From there, maybe even a pro career, if his advisers were telling the truth. The potential to rise so far made his inevitable fall so much more tragic.

Towards the end of his first year, he snapped. To hear it told, he stormed into the locker room after practice and assaulted the club's captain with a bat, leaving him on crutches for the rest of the year after that bat broke not one, but both of his knees before the coach could get to them. The reasons were certainly the subject of rumor—jealousy at his position, mistreatment gone too far, a girl—but he wasn't privy to most of it, on account of the subsequent expulsion and introduction to the juvenile justice system. The whole affair robbed him of his last few months of freshmen year, his prospects, and his passion.

It was only by his markedly good behavior up until that point, and perhaps the oh so hated pity he was subjected to due to his familial situation, that he got off relatively light. They wanted to make sure his punishment didn't interfere with his education. So, he was allowed to attend school in the following spring after a stint in juvenile detention, albeit in another city after his mother insisted on a new start—the rumors hadn't just stopped filled school, but the neighborhood as well.

So his arrival in Kyoto was foretold.

Works part-time at a convenience store on weekends. Really likes cats.

Once bubbly, outgoing, and full of life, Emi’s recent tribulations have put a damper on her personality. Gone is the cheery girl who flitted from club to study group to night out with friends without skipping a beat; nowadays, she finds her time and energy are better spent furthering a single goal: finding out what happened to her friends. In that sense, her recent strife has sharpened her focus, and while she used to fill her busy days to the brim simply as a matter of course, it's clear now that there's a genuine purpose driving her actions.

Thankfully, though, Emi hasn't been entirely hardened by her grief. She's still the kind soul she always was; just a little more muted. Even as her search for answers monopolizes her attention, she still struggles to refuse someone looking for guidance (especially in the field of Personas), and loss has made her cherish her friends, both new and old, ever more dearly.

The Moon

Euryphaessa most often manifests as a swarm of many small, black-and-white butterflies, which disperse around the area in which they are summoned. These butterflies act as Emi’s eyes and ears, giving her enhanced awareness of her surroundings and any changes thereof. To attack, Euryphaessa’s butterflies converge into a tall, humanoid creature with five arms and butterfly wings where its head should be.

Lookout - Scout out the area, making it harder for enemies to ambush you and easier for companions to land hits. (Passive)
Pulinpa - Create a distraction, inflicting Confusion on one foe. (Magical)
Mapsi - Unleash the swarm, inflicting light damage to all foes. (Psychic)
Bluff Call - Detect your foes’ weaknesses. (Ability)

Upon transformation, Emi dons a flowing empire dress made from layers of shimmering white gossamer. Tattoos of flowers and other flora sprout up across her entire body, whose blooms change colour and species depending on her mood.

Emi does not carry a weapon.

To ask Emi’s parents about her life, they’d say she caused quite a stir when she was born, and hasn’t stopped since. The first part, at least, is true: having contracted an infection in utero, Emi was born without much use of her eyes, and in the following few years she was determined to be legally blind. She spent the first few years of her life in her parents’ small-town home, under the watchful eyes of doting parents and doctors alike; however, when it came time for her to start school, the family had to pack up and move to Kyoto, where she could attend a private school for the blind. Tuition and rent were expensive, forcing Emi’s parents to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, but they handled their stresses gracefully. All they wanted was for their daughter to live the fullest life they could offer her; Emi understood that even from a young age, and decided early that she’d make sure her parents’ vision for her became a reality, vowing never to allow anything to hold her back.

That resolve pushed her to pour herself into everything she did, from schoolwork to navigation lessons to hobbies. As it turned out, the lifestyle suited her: Extroverted and full of energy from the start, Emi had no problem throwing herself into action. She carried that attitude forth when she left her private school to attend Hinotori High, thriving with more people to meet and more activities to involve herself in. It didn’t take long for her to find her way onto every student association she could fit around her schedule, and in the gaps between meetings, she was always planning things with friends. Overall, her manic schedule rarely left her with a moment to herself - and you know what, Emi liked it that way.

She started her second year just as strong, but fate rarely goes long without changing. It wasn’t far into the school year before something happened, something beyond imagining, to tip her world sideways and shake out all the sense. Something awakened inside Emi that she could barely comprehend, let alone explain; the desperate utterance of one word set in motion events that shook her to her core, and led her to question not only her sanity, but the very nature of reality itself.

Persona.

Be it by luck, fate, or something else entirely, Emi was mercifully not made to cope alone. As it turned out, something similar had happened to a close friend of hers, and that friend introduced her to a few other students who’d had similar experiences. Encouraged that they weren’t alone, together they helped each other to make sense of the strange new world they found themselves living in, learning about Personas, Shadows, and the Other Side. Before long, research turned into investigation, and soon enough the aptly-named Torch Bearers passed an absolutely wild summer of battle, strife, friendship, and introspection, all in an effort to burn out the corruption lurking behind every mirror. It was terrifying, crazy, and miles beyond reasonable belief, and it was an experience Emi was certain she’d never forget.

Until one night, she stumbled home through the mirror with her mind and memories blurry. In the morning, she was told her friends were dead.

She didn’t believe it at first. Knowing the power they commanded, Emi couldn’t accept that any one of her friends could possibly succumb to something as simple as a house fire. In fact, it wasn’t until she was taken to the wreckage to smell the smoke for herself and feel the ashes between her fingers that she even believed there’d been a string of fires at all. There was just no way; it had to be fake, or a misunderstanding, or some kind of collateral damage from some climatic battle on the Other Side. But the Other Side would no longer admit her; when she tried to cross over and find where her friends had gone, she only succeeded in shattering her mirror.

But even if she couldn’t believe they were dead, her friends were most definitely gone, and the loss of such close friends would be devastating for anyone, even without uncertainty and suspicion gnawing in the backs of their heads. Emi’s desperate insistence that the fires couldn’t have claimed her friends fell on deaf, piteous ears, her concerns waived as the tragedy of a grieving girl still in denial. School, once a haven, became a torment; Emi couldn’t bear to walk the halls that now felt so empty, couldn’t stand the pity in people’s voices when they offered their condolences. As a result, she took the rest of the school year off, sequestering herself away at home with only her grief and confusion for company. Questions taunted her day and night, and uncertainty threatened to consume her: What became of her friends? Why had she been spared the same fate? And why on earth couldn’t she remember?!

For months, Emi was a husk of herself, her outspokenness silenced, her buzzing social life traded for solitude. Neither the efforts of her parents or her doctors could console her, and no possible progress on the investigation of her friends’ disappearance could satisfy her. As the new school year approached with little improvement, it seemed that the grief and the guilt would consume her - until, at long last, a light shone through the darkness.

A dream. A gentle-voiced man in a lavish train car came to her one night, speaking of things at once outlandish and hauntingly familiar. But what pulled Emi from the depths of her hopelessness wasn’t the man, the contract, or the key; rather, it was the voice behind the door, singing an aria that Emi knew by heart. It was a melody that one of her friends, presumed dead, always used to sing. One she always claimed she’d “heard in a dream.”

The dream came back night after night, but it didn’t have to; it only took that very first night, when Emi shot up in bed with her face streaked with tears and that music in her head, for her to cast off the shackles of grief once and for all. She was no good to anyone mourning alone in her room, and as far as she was concerned, that song was the clue she needed. Her friends didn’t die in a fire: they were Torch Bearers, fire only made them stronger. Now, it was certain that something else was at work here, and at long last, Emi was going to figure out what.

Her friends called her The Navigator. Now it was time to lead them home.

Eager to please but sometimes a little too overbearing to actually make it happen, Daigo is boisterous and energetic in the same way an annoying little brother would be. He's hardly someone his peers would consider a genius - don't need booksmarts to run a restaurant, he claims - but he's infectiously cheery and tries his hardest to make sure everyone is having a good time. Even if he's crossed the line from lively and spirited to irritating as hell at the moment and doesn't realize he's the problem. Still, Daigo makes it a point to always be smiles and laughter, even when the smile is forced and his eyes are unfocused and dim rather than lively and vibrant. Not to say such a facade is a common facet of his features - usually his personality is genuine, but occasionally he'll overhear someone talking about money and his posture will sink for just a moment, or mention of the family business he formerly bragged about with pride and animated gestures will elicit only a noncommittal hum or halfhearted commentary. A subtle anxiety underlies a lot of his moods as of recent times, and while the boy had always been hesitant to express outward negativity, he now pointedly avoids any kind of introspective or 'deep' talk that he wouldn't usually shy away from. He's fine. Everything's fine. It'll all work out.

The Sun

Khepri - Egyptian solar deity representing the rising sun, creation, and renewal.

Kouha (Light Bless damage to one foe)
Lunge (Light Physical damage to one foe)
Rakukaja (Increase one ally's Defense)

Daigo dons a suit of old-timey samurai lamellar, colored similarly to his Persona and stylized vaguely to resemble an insectoid carapace. His already vibrant hair gains highlights that glitter in a brilliant array of colors like the sky at sunset; fiery oranges, yellows, reds, even purples and blues at times. These streaks are normally unnoticeable but quickly become apparent during movement or a strong breeze when Daigo's hair shifts and catches the light.

Naginata

The Hinaris are, as Daigo will proudly boast, owners of a kaiseki diner that dates all the way back to the Edo Period. He grew up helping out in the kitchen and, once he was old enough, serving customers. It was a fulfilling existence, even from a child's perspective, and when Daigo's grandfather retired and passed ownership of the restaurant to his father, the boy was eager to throw himself into the family business with the knowledge it would likely one day be his. The dream was far less glamorous in practice. With the change came a decline in customers - perhaps the old clientele was no longer interested in a diner that wasn't run by Daigo's grandfather, perhaps the modernization of Kyoto simply left the old place behind. The Hinaris continued as they had for generations, chalking the situation up to a string of bad luck that would soon be over.

Apparently the business' woes weren't as secret as the family thought, as Daigo returned from school one day to find his parents meeting with a pair of sharply dressed businessmen. They wanted to buy the restaurant for a particularly nice sum, as it was located primely in the middle of their company's new urban development project. They could take the money, start the family business over in a new area, reinvent their brand, be set for life, et cetera, et cetera. While Daigo's mother was open to consideration given their recent monetary losses, his father, naturally, would have none of it. Kaiseki Hinari would stay right where it was until the sun engulfed the Earth and maybe beyond that if he had anything to say about it.

After that, new development conveniently sprang up in a way that left Kaiseki Hinari out of the way from a pedestrian's standpoint and somewhat inconvenient to reach in lieu of much more accessible dining. Already on hard times, it took only a few short months to reduce the restaurant to toeing the line of closure when traditional means of attracting customers were suddenly no longer viable. Too stubborn to change the diner's business model or advertising strategy but too prideful to sell, Daigo's father seemed determined to go down with his ship; whether his family starved in the process or not. For what it was worth, Daigo agreed with him - in part, at least. He loved that restaurant; selling the business now so it could be torn down by scheming rats or worse, letting said vermin whore out the Kaiseki Hinari name for their own profit, was unacceptable. Still, his suggestions on modernizing the business fell on deaf ears. The fact that he'd convinced his father to sully the restaurant's proud traditions and begin selling - heaven forbid - mere lunch bentos was practically a miracle.

Unfortunately, problems beget more problems. As it often did, heightened stress and the threat of poverty turned the trivial quirks of any family that would usually be glossed over into glaring issues ready to tear the household apart in arguments and irritability. Debts were mounting, tensions in the family were high over whether to sell or not, his mother was threatening divorce over his father's stubbornness; Daigo's life was set on a downward spiral straight to the ass-end of misery with no exit in sight. He had no options but to push it all down into the depths of his psyche, put on a smile, and greet the ever-slowing trickle of customers like he always would.

Always fidgeting, sometimes to others' annoyance. Poster child for restless leg syndrome. Not a guy you wanna sit next to on a wobbly bench. Taptaptap.