Hikari

**Hikari** (ビーム, *Hikari lit. Light*) is one of the playable protagonists in Echoes of the World, being the 5th party member that joins the team and the last one until Fusei joins during the climax of the game. She is an abandoned orphan, being left behind by her parents one night, and having no memory of them. She was raised in a foster home, when she was abused by one of the teachers that worked there. Ever sense then, she turned to music as an escaping mechanism, and works part-time in a music shop to better improve her music. Due to her not knowing her parents, she has no last name she knows of either, but chooses to not have a new one.

She joins the party after her town gets attacked by Mutant Slimes, joining the party when they agree to help Elmi reach the Temple of Balance. She beholds the Elements of Volt and Sound respectively.

## Design

Hikari is a fairly average sized 16 year old girl, being one of the older characters in the cast, being beaten by Eldrick by one year. In terms of height, she's one of the taller party members, being slightly taller than Naoto. She has fairly light skin, being referred to as soft and delicate to the touch.She's easily known for her spiky red hair, which are emblazoned with zig-zag shaped yellow-orange highlights. She has green eyes with arrow shaped pupils, and a fairly round face.

In the summer, she wears a pink tanktop with an open red sweater, often with one shoulder of it down. She's usually seen with blue jeans with notable rips and tears going down it's sleeves. She wears white sneakers with pink hearts on them. In the winter, she wears a light red jacket and darker red baggy pants. She always carries a tote bag with her, which contains most of her musical instuments.

## Story

### Before Echoes of the World

Hikari's past is mostly unknown, with the major known points being that she was born during the summer time. Shortly after her birth, she was left behind by her two parents on the side of the road in a broken car. She'd be stuck in said car until a woman named Sally would pick her up, and take her to a nearby foster home in Pelicorn Town, where she would be born and raised there. She would live a fairly simple life there, until a new foster teacher seemingly took advantage of her and abused her at the age of 10.

Hikari's personality changed drastically after this event, which would be solved when she received a red guitar during her 11th birthday. Ever since then, she began to make her own music in an attempt to forget the painful parts of her past. She would eventually bottle her feelings and being working at a nearby music store she frequented in order to further evovle her passion of music.

Before the events of the story, and like the other Zetto Fighters, she would dream of a mysterious Flarie speaking to her and asking for her help.

### Echoes of the World

#### Chapter 1 - A Newfound Path

Hikari spent her day like she normally does and entered for her shift at work. While working at the back of the register and writing a new piece of music, she would be told by her boss to fetch her some coffee from the nearby coffee shop. Begrudginly, she goes to get the coffee from him, where she bumps into DeNette and Sukie by accident, who were trying to find directions to the Temple of Balance per Elmi's request. They apologize and talk to each other, with Hikari agreeing to bring them to the music shop to look up directions online, due to DeNette losing her phone after her meeting with a mysterious creature.

Upon finding what they were looking for, they hear screaming from the outside as Naoto, Eldrick and Elmi are fending off dangerous Mutant Slimes, who attacked and killed multiple townspeople in the process. Before the girls could regroup, they were attacked by several Mutant Slimes in the process, and the 3 worked together to defeat the ones around them. After they were cleaned up, she would talk to the whole team, who explained their situation, thanking her for her assistance and being surprised at her musical fighting abilities. In response, she would print out a set of directions to the Temple of Balance for the group, later asking to join them on their quest per Elmi's request. Hikari would think this through, and the next day, she would agree to set off with the rest of the party, with several townsfolk giving her thank you and good luck gifts. She would follow the group through the Floral Plain and reach the Temple of Balance. Being one of the few to agree with climbing the Temple, she and the other party members reach the center of the Temple, where they do battle with Equili.

Upon defeating her, they learn about the awakening of Zetto and when asked to join, Hikari is hesitant at first before agreeing to the deal, but ultimately accepts it when the other party members agree to help as well. Upon becoming the Zetto Fighters, they all are tasked to fight the first 4 Temple Guardians of the first half of the game. The player can head back to Pelicorn Town to speak with the Sally, where a special cutscene will play, foreshadowing the return of Hikari's abuser.

## Personality

Hikari is a kind hearted girl with a very creative mind, noted by her boss several times. It's later revealed that this mostly stems from her memories of her abuse and her learning of her real parents leaving her behind, causing her to have an almost desperate sense of compassion to not let what she went through happen to others. Due to this, she maintains a sort of "older sister" relationship to the younger kids in her foster home, and the younger party members, often watching their backs and being very attentive to their needs. This comes as a doubled edged sword in a way, because this causes her to feel bad or unsuccessful when she isn't able to help those in need, sending her into a fit of depression. Her habit of bottling her emotions doesn't help this either, as she is prone to self-deflation, and fits of anger when she can't contain her emotions well enough. Knowing this, she promised herself to not let her emotions overtake her judgement, but this caused her to unhealthily "mask" her inner feelings, replacing them with her more kinder appearance.

She seems to be very impacted by the events of her past, as she was noted of being a more outgoing and troublesome child. She would enjoyed playing pranks and teasing the younger kids playfully, but this didn't get in the way of her love for them and the people around her. She was certainly more gullible and innocent when she was younger, which caused her to not rightfully respond to the reach-outs her foster teacher gave her. However, after her abuse, she became more silent and sheltered, due to her being ashamed to tell anyone of what happened. This leads to another important part of her character, which involves her doing other things to take her mind off of thoughts she doesn't like.

Hikari is very artistic, being very skilled in the musical arts. She is able to play multiple instruments and apparently self taught herself how to play most of them. Due to this, she doesn't have a very refined style, and many of her music comes off as indie or "rookie" towards more professional ears. She shows a considerable liking towards rock and punk music, which notably seeped into her clothing style and manner-isms, causing her to have a bit of a lazy side. She's a very comfort loving person, and dislikes being interrupted when she is nicely situated with her surroundings, another consquence of her coping with her past. Even though her past made her who she is, she has shows a lack of care for wanting to know her biological family, brushing off any potiential ways of discovering who her parents are and even refusing to have a last name, only sticking with the name Sally gave her. This shows her ability to move on from emotional stress somewhat easily, although the way she does so might not be the most healthy in retrospect. This would also push her to turn her music into a way to protect herself, leading her to learn Sound-based Magik.

Even if she's kindhearted, she also has a daredevil side to her, and is more of a "tomboy" compared to DeNette. Hikari likes to be sarcastic and tease the other party members, usually pushing them to do things through her jokes. While she doesn't mean this in a malicous way, she has a habit of being hot-tongued whenever she is pushed to her edge. She ultimately succumbs to her emotions when she's heavily overwhelmed however, often causing her to ignore her moral viewpoints and acting solely on her instincts, which lead her into situations where she contemplates on murdering or severly hurting people that abuse others. She certainly holds a inner hatred for her foster teacher, and gets notably angry when she hears mentions of him, even going to the point of finding his whereabouts for revenge. However, later on in the story, when she understands to finally open up and to not let her emotions take the best of her, this side begins to slowly go away. While she still has these anger management issues, she often tries to make herself better.

In terms of skills, Hikari is very responsible, and is great with money due to her job. From her acceptance onto the team, she functions as the groups "accountant" of sorts, usually keeping the money they make with her at all times and budgeting what they need for future expeditions. She also seems to be very knowledgable in various apps and websites, having utility apps that assist her in many normal day tasks. Even though she is knowledgable in this front, she tends to be rather book dumb and hates anything that has to do with memorization. She prefers to go with the flow with things, which causes her to come of as ditzy or careless.

When performing Friend Links with her, it is revealed that she has some sort of liking towards other girls, although she also develops feelings for Naoto if her attraction level towards him is high enough.

### Relationships

#### Sally

Hikari views Sally as her natural mother, mostly due to Sally taking care of her most of her life. Hikari often goes to her for advice, and lets her know everything she is doing, in order to make sure that Sally doesn't sit around worried for her. She has a big sense of trust, being one of the only people she contemplated on revealing her emotions towards, but refused to due to feeling ashamed about it. Hikari reveals that she wants to take care of Sally as she cared for her, and would protect her no matter what danger Hikari gets put in.

#### Naoto

Upon their first meeting, Hikari viewed Naoto as reckless and unfit for his leader role. However, due to his background and overall kind hearted nature, he becomes one of her most trusted friends, being the first person she ever explains her life to. She would later entrust him with going with her to meet with her abuser, using Naoto as a sort of moral compass. If her attraction levels are high enough, she can develop feelings for Naoto, and would eventually agree to date him.