Hotaru (W14)

"Ephemeral is the firefly."
Hotaru Yamahaka was a Player from Week 14 of the Reaper's Game. Seemingly a terrifying and borderline-incomprehensible clown, Hotaru's outer demeanor masks a girl with problems she finds herself incapable of overcoming on her own. Apparently a good clown.
== Appearance ==
Hotaru is notable in that her skin appears chalk-white all over her body thanks to liberal use of makeup for effect. Hotaru wears a one-piece camisole-slash-sleeveless leotard combination with a short frilled skirt at the hips; it is divided vertically, and the clothes proper are black on her left and white on her right (while the skirt's colors are flipped). On her legs are stockings mismatched in length wherein the right stocking is up to her thigh while the left stocking is halfway up the calf. Like her attire, they are black and white; the right stocking is striped horizontally while the left is striped vertically. Similarly, she has gloves that go up to her bicep on the right and half the length of the forearm on the left; however, they are striped oppositely from her stockings. The hands of her gloves are white on the right and black on the left, save for the middle fingers which are the opposite. She wears a black Mary Jane on her right foot and a white one on the left. The only semblances of color can be found on Hotaru's face and in her hair: Firstly is that she has two large, painted on blue lines that cross over her eyes and intersect at the bridge of her nose, Secondly is that her hair is neon green, and thirdly is that her eyes are a terrifyingly bright red. Hotaru wears two top hats of small size jauntily on her head, one of which is smaller than the other (closer examination reveals them both to be attached to a headband). Perhaps unsurprisingly, her appearance in this form is considered to be terrifying by most. Hotaru has a red "Glasgow" style lipstick smear, wherein it looks like her mouth is cut at the edges.
Hotaru's appearance outside of the clown costume is much less conspicuous. Her hair's natural color is black, and she has almond eyes. She predominantly chooses to wear simplistic clothes when not directly in her high school blazer and skirt combination. The only thing that appears odd about Hotaru is her face, specifically where she normally wears her Glasgow makeup - there appear to be two actual scars there.
== Personality ==
Hotaru is clearly not there in the head and it only takes a few seconds of interaction with her to figure this out. She appears more engrossed in her clown antics than anything else, often performing them openly and in front of others. This, combined with her appearance, has a habit of alienating anyone who would approach her. If her actions don't cause someone to leave, her speech patterns will - Hotaru speaks poetically, almost entirely talking in cryptic riddles and metaphors. She makes very little sense to most, if not everyone, she speaks to, as if she lives in her own world. This makes it far easier to turn away from Hotaru and leave her to her own devices rather than try to figure her out.
Inside her head, Hotaru is desperately trying to speak normally, to be heard. However, the only way she ever knew to make friends was to act out. That got people to watch you, after all - so she acts out and makes everything into a one-woman show; this incidentally explains her tendency towards the theatrical. When shut down from this tactic, however, either through outright rejection or unknowing ignorance, Hotaru goes dead silent and looks away from everyone, retreating inward and locking herself up further. She is seemingly perpetually in a battle inside her own mind, trying to be normal and attempting it the only way she knows how. In the rare occasion Hotaru seems to hold clarity within herself, she is far more attentive and intelligent than she appears.
In short, a sad little mad girl trying and failing to make herself understood to the world at large.
== History ==
==== Pre-Game ====
(Trigger Warnings: self-harm, cruel and unusual death)
Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Hotaru Yamahaka who had trouble making friends. She never understood why, but it was difficult to get anyone to look upon her. One day, however, this girl watched a show from America that had been airing on some nondescript channel, a show about acrobats, clowns and magicians performing impossible feats for crowds that lavished affection upon them. Suddenly, it all made sense to her: To have friends, have them looking at you, one had to stand out above all others.
Hotaru quickly set to learning all the tricks she had seen, from the acrobatic flips to the swords in the gullets of performers. As she grew through the elementary and teenage years, her skills grew exponentially, as did the attention she received. In her emotional intoxication over her dreams, Hotaru never bothered to consider the reason they were watching her at last - instead of adoration, they held looks of terror in their stares.
Her shows became more visceral, more real. Discontent with mere makeup, Hotaru took a knife and made her smile extend from ear to ear. Flames danced upon her body, and she replaced benign props with implements reserved for torture sessions of the Middle Ages. One day, in late May, she was ready to perform her first paid-for show, helped by a group of fellow students that she had recruited - the Horrorshow. Again, she failed to consider the reason for their aid.
They were tired of her antics, tired of watching her death-defying and terrorising of others. Dark thought swirled; they had to remove Hotaru's ability to perform. One student was left to task with the mission, and when the Horrorshow began to start, Hotaru's act began. The original plan was that Hotaru would twist herself up in a flip and land into an iron maiden; a prop that she would come out of utterly unharmed. No one could have expected the one left to task to replace it with a real iron maiden. By the time the door opened again, it was too late.
==== Week Fourteen ====
Whether or not Hotaru's mind was already gone by the time she reached the Underground, it was clear that death had done her mental stability no favors. After settling in, her usual attempts to interact with others ended mostly in outrage, as she scared off Yuji, Yumeno and Sai almost immediately and even began terrifying Reapers with her unique talents. Hotaru had exactly zero friends by the time the Game rolled around proper. Against all possible odds, however, Hotaru managed to obtain a Partner as the day rolled over - the doujin artist and high roller student, Mika Ametsuchi.
Unlike most of the Players, Hotaru's entry fee was her contortion ability; what should have been an easy fee to keep her mentally stable was quickly overridden by her naturally mad state. Hotaru continues to act out and alienate herself from others, especially when Mika isn't around to keep a watchful eye on her. Battling against the Noise, Hotaru's antics astound and terrify her fellow Players - and the Reapers - alike, effectively ensuring that Hotaru remained a person to avoid.
It takes Yamahana's rebuking of Hotaru on the second day for her to finally begin to realize that something is wrong. Either as a last-ditch attempt to be heard or as a side-effect of the Imagination she produced, Hotaru's shadow physically began to control her during the battle, tossing her around like a toy. The only one who suspected anything wrong was Mika; by the time she was able to communicate this to the other Players, Hotaru's episode had ended. Mika's act of kindness was later overridden during the next day - in a rage-induced stupor, she struck Hotaru after their fight against the massive leviathan had ended.
There would never be a time for them to reconcile properly. Already tortured by Hotaru's existence, the young Reaper named Uso and her companions assaulted Hotaru and Mika, as well as their fellows Yamahana and Shinken, with a large number of Noise. Hotaru was clearly the target of choice in the battle, and only when Uso screamed out "IT CAN'T BE ALLOWED TO LIVE!" did Hotaru realize her actions and break through the mental fog she was sealed in at last, managing to reconcile her madness with her true desires.
Despite her second wind, Hotaru was targeted and beaten down by repeated Noise assaults, barred from doing anything due to the intensity of their blows. At Death's Door, Hotaru stood one last time and shouted out: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS! WITNESS THE SPECTACLE OF THE AGE! WITNESS THE DEATH OF THE EPHEMERAL FIREFLY FROM THE GRAVE UPON THE MOUNTAINTOP - HOTARU YAMAHAKA!" She bellowed her last words, loud enough to be heard from beyond the Noise Plane itself. And when the last show began, Hotaru was torn through by Uso's Noise, bursting into a mass of light-blinking ephemeral fireflies that faded into the static. And the show was over.
== Relationships ==
=== Mika Ametsuchi ===
Hotaru's Partner for the week, Mika held a complicated relationship with Hotaru. They barely understood one-another, and their attempts to do so were always stymied by later events. Hotaru is almost single-handedly responsible for Mika's unintentional death thanks to her clown antics. By the time of their death, however, when Hotaru broke through her mental shackles, the two understood each other more-or-less perfectly. Mika went so far as to choose death rather than life as a Reaper or a re-pacting, seemingly in honor of Hotaru.
=== Yamahana Katuata ===
An ally of sorts to Hotaru. Though initial interactions proved poorly, Hotaru and Yamahana reached something of an almost-friendship in later days prior to their death. Though she was dead at the time, the fact that Yamahana went out of their way to comfort Mika after Hotaru's death would have impressed the clown. Hotaru and Mika's death eventually managed to bring Yamahana around from his desire to be Erased.
=== Shinken Yugi ===
Yamahana's Partner during the Week, and one of the few people who was able to see through Hotaru's cryptic ramblings, mostly thanks to being on a similar wavelength. After her death, Shinken gave the command to ensure none of the other Players forgot her or Mika.
=== Yuji Kiryu ===
A fellow Player during the Game. Initially, Yuji hated Hotaru, as she threw a cake at him, Yumeno and Sai, nearly assaulting her. As time passed, however, Yuji began to appreciate Hotaru's antics in battle, though they were never able to voice this opinion before her death.
=== Usotoku Yuurei ===
A Harrier Reaper for the week. Due to a past trauma, Uso hated Hotaru and her actions on sight, to the point of outright dehumanising Hotaru to her and everyone else. It is this hatred that leads to Hotaru's mental epiphany and subsequent death. In Hotaru's final moments, Uso called her a good clown as the other Reapers had, though whether or not her trauma is over remains to be seen.
Category:Players
Category:Week 14