Mei

**Mei Zhang Aikawa** is the ruler and Head Priestess of Reiki Village, married to Jin Aikawa and mother of Young Cricket and adoptive mother of Young Butterfly. She was born in Reiki Village as the sole only daughter of the previous Lord and Head Priestess to carry on the reigns for when she is of age. Upon growing up and losing her father at a young age, Mei suffered great despair of her mother losing her sanity and bringing their home village down the road of destruction and depression before she took the rule at the age of 18 and married to Jin a few years later and birthing Cricket during a time of peace. She soon was a captive at the hands of her own brother-in-law Jun when Cricket was only 5 years old and spent 11 years in his torment before finally being free of his torment in Diamond City to reunite with her son who she was separated from.

## Background

When Mei was born into the world, it was a joyous occasion for Reiki Village as it was the birth of a future heir to the royal family. She spent her newborn and infant life happy in the arms of her mother and father only for the moments to be short lived. When she was 3 years old, her father, Min, had to go fight in a war between their village and two other opposing villages that wanted to take Reiki Village as their own. Though Min had promised that he would come back safely, in the end he ended up killed just after he had won the war as the last opponent he had fought managed to inflict a life threatening wound onto him. Grieving for her father, Mei's life started to take a drastic turn for the worse as Reiki Village went into a period of darkness.

As she grew under the teachings of her mother to one day take the position of Head Priestess, Mei watched her mother conduct sacrifice rituals in the forest behind their home in sheer horror. She was told that the sacrifice rituals were to increase the spiritual power of protecting Reiki Village but Mei knew that it wouldn't work but no matter how much she pleaded and begged her mother to stop the rituals, the pleas were ultimately turned down. On top of her pleas being turned down, Sumire told Mei that she had strict rules to follow when she becomes Head Priestess which included her to continue the sacrifice rituals in Sumire's place. Mei suffered great sorrow as she grew up into her teens until one day it all changed.

Her own mother attempted to do an immortality ritual on herself in the now renowned forest, Akumori, but that attempt ended up killing Sumire. With both Head Priestess and Lord deceased, Mei had to take the reigns of being Head Priestess. She was only 18 when Sumire passed away. But upon her taking the throne, Mei made drastic changes to the rules in the village to ensure no more coming years would bring sorrow and despair and banned sacrifice rituals as a whole while prohibiting anyone from going into Akumori for their safety. Though she was young and doing her best with being a good ruler, Mei felt a sudden wave of relief as she watched the villagers slowly gaining happiness from the despair they all went through. While she was in her early years of ruling, Mei soon met Jin rather unusually. At the time, Jun tried to vandalize the Sacred Temple which led to Jin quickly apologizing sincerely for him to Mei and telling her that he'll clean up his brother's mess. Upon Mei telling him that she has no grudge towards him nor his brother, it was from there that the two started to hang out more often. When Mei first found out about Jin training to become a very powerful swordsman, she offered to let him train by the Sacred Temple if he needed any sort of large space for training grounds, to which at first he was highly hesitant on due to how much he didn't want to bother her. But eventually Jin took the offer and Mei would often watch him training as it captured her interest. The more time the two spent, the more their starting love for each other bloomed and blossomed. It eventually led to Mei knighting Jin as her personal guard after his training was finished, while in return for the knighting, Jin proposed to Mei and he also gained the title of Lord while being bestowed Min's sword.

As Reiki Village was at peace, Mei spent a few years happily ruling the village with Jin at her side as the two made sure the people were happy and safe. Eventually, on a snowy day in December, Mei had brought a son into the world to whom she named Cricket. As much as Jin was skeptical on why she named their son Cricket, Mei stated that she wanted him to be strong and be able to protect himself and others against anyone who tries to bring him down and she knew that crickets have abilities of their own to try and defend themselves. With that sort of reasoning, Jin accepted the name and the couple were quite happy with Cricket being born healthy. During the next few years, Mei spent a lot of time playing with Cricket and keeping him safe from going near Akumori until one night, the peace wouldn't last. Mei was soon kidnapped away by Jun after trying her best to protect Cricket from him which led to the next 11 years of constant torment under her own brother-in-law. She was constantly traveling with Jun while praying in secret to her late father to keep Cricket and Jin safe. It wasn't until 11 years after, the two landed themselves in hiding in Diamond City. At that point, Mei decided to finally try and free herself from the torment whether or not she died or lived. Finding the right moment, she snuck herself out of the building she was held in and destroyed the tracking device she had in her hat before running in the city night. When the day came around, Mei soon bumps into and finally reunites with Cricket after so long. She was struck with astonishment to see him fully grown as a teenager before she finally told him what had happened to her once she was taken to safety. After Jun was taken down and Jin had finally reunited with them, Mei was heavily thankful on Master Mantis and the Warioware crew for taking care of Cricket. Upon Cricket's request, Mei decided to take in Butterfly as a daughter and soon she went back with Jin to Reiki Village to go back to ruling and to put Jun into the dungeon.

## General Information

### Physical Appearance

Mei is a slender pale skinned woman with long black hair and white hair streaks that accent her bangs. She has black eyes that match Cricket's current eye color. While in Reiki Village, she often wore white and blue traditional robes everyday while tying her hair down with a blue ribbon and often would be wearing blue flat slippers. On the occasion of a special event or a special meeting, Mei wore a more fancy white and blue robe while also having part of her hair up as a small bun and wearing a sapphire accented headdress. Mei also wears her wedding ring from when she and Jin married that is accented with a tiny embedded sapphire gem.

During her childhood, Mei wore a more white and light blue robe with her hair tied up in a bun that is pinned by two gold pins as well as white flat slippers. Upon her growing into her older teens and young adult hood, her bangs had sported white streaks that came from Min's hair genetics and she tied a bit of her hair into a small bun on her head that still gets held up by the gold pins. During that time of her young adulthood, she wore blue robes that were accented with white. During her priestess training and as of her current title as Head Priestess, she wears fully white robes whenever she goes to meditate under the waterfall in Reiki Purity Lake.

In Diamond City, Mei wears a white sundress that flows past her knees and has short sleeves that are wrapped around past her shoulders. She also wears a white sun hat that is accented with a blue ribbon around it as it's held by a sapphire. Mei also wears white heels and a sapphire necklace around her neck while also wearing white gloves.

### Personality

Mei is generally really graceful, wise, gentle, quiet and compassionate. She is also very regal as she is the current ruler. However Mei often was always shown with a sorrowful expression during her childhood and teenage hood due to the amount of sorrow she experienced with her father passing away and her mother being driven to insanity with the village falling to despair. Even in her adulthood, she always felt sorrow when looking back at the past. During the days she met Jin and marrying him after falling in love with him, Mei became more happier and more cheerful around her beloved husband and towards her villagers. Upon Cricket being born, Mei showed great motherly instinct to protect her son from anything dangerous while at the same time giving him the love he deserved. When she was separated from Cricket, Mei went back to her usual sorrowful state due to how much she felt a lot of grief being unable to be the protective mother she could have been for her one and only son.

Mei rarely shows anger but the rare times that she does, she has a very strict tone when she scolds people off. She mainly scolds off Cricket and Butterfly for having sibling squabbles. During her meditations, she is very well focused. Being around her husband, she often worries whenever he heads out to go on hunts or protect the village from bandits and crooks but she often is always the one comforting him during his stressful points but still loves his affection towards her.

### Strengths, Weaknesses, Powers, Abilities

Mei rarely fights due to how much she strays away from fighting. However she trained herself in archery during her teenage hood to be able to wield her father's special archery bow and use it in battle as an archer. Being the Head Priestess, Mei is very powerful in spiritual sensory as she can sense spiritual auras of the deceased and living. She is very sensitive to evil spiritual auras due to how much it can give her very bad spine chills. With her spiritual knowledge she's also able to neutralize evil spirits with her prayers and talismans. However she can be overpowered easily in physical strength mainly due to how much she isn't very strong in muscle strength.

## Relationships

### Jin Aikawa

Jin is the Lord of Reiki Village but is also Mei's beloved husband. He was well known for being twin brothers with Jun but is also well known for always apologizing for Jun's troubles. Mei saw a lot of respect and kindness coming from Jin and decided to talk with him often while they were young adults. Jin had a dream of becoming a very powerful swordsman who can protect anyone as it was mainly due to the troubled past he had with his brother and Mei felt that he could achieve the dream. During their time together, Jin would often take Mei outside of the village on his hunts out of kindness. Much to Mei always being scared of what was outside of the village, she felt safe with Jin and she was amazed with his courage. Seeing how much Jin amazed her, Mei fell in love with him and the two would hang out more often. Eventually, Mei originally had knighted Jin into being her personal bodyguard after he had finished his training of being a swordsman, but during that knighting, Jin took Mei's hand and proposed to her on the spot. Though she was taken aback by the proposal, Mei accepted it out of pure joy thus giving Jin the title of Lord along with his title of being her personal guard. Jin gave a vow to Mei during their marriage that he will do whatever he can to protect her as both Lord and personal guard.

### Jun Aikawa

Jun is Mei's older brother-in-law and older twin brother of Jin. As he was known as the Yin Twin, Jun often caused trouble for the village and even Mei herself. After Cricket was born and became 5 years old, Mei was a captive of Jun's for 11 years as she was kidnapped away by him out of the village. Mei was always tormented by Jun and his verbal torment and threats as she always prayed in the night for her father's spirit to keep her husband and son alive and safe. Mei was always afraid of running from Jun due to how much he was very aggressive and hostile to her that she feared her life would end if she pulled the wrong move.

### Min Zhang

Although it was short lived, Mei loved her father, Min. During her first three years of her life as an infant, Mei really loved her father hugging her in times of needing comfort or simply hearing his stories on his travels that he once had. However upon her father passing away protecting the village, Mei often missed him and would often give her prayers to his grave very often. Even though she now is an adult, Mei sometimes would feel her father's spirit very faintly around his grave but she would still grieve for the life that he lost.

### Sumire Zhang

Mei loved her mother but she also had lots of concern for her after Min passed away. Sumire drove down the path of insanity and evil as she focused on her sacrificial rituals in Akumori but also gave strict guidelines on what Mei was to do when she became Head Priestess in her adulthood. Mei often feared her mother but also worried for her as deep down she still loved her. When Min was alive, Sumire was very gentle with taking care of her beloved daughter. Even after Sumire's death, Mei still wondered if her mother still loved her deep down.

### Young Cricket

Being the mother to her son, Mei loves Cricket and takes care of him very well. Even after being separated from him for 11 years, Mei still acts her role of being a mother and making sure Cricket takes care of himself as well as making sure he does his daily chores in his home in Diamond City while getting enough rest. Having lots of motherly instinct, she often worried about Cricket getting himself really hurt or killed but she knew he was a fighter training under a very well known martial arts master.

### Young Butterfly

Being her adoptive mother, Mei loves Butterfly just as much as Cricket. Even if Butterfly is adopted into the family, Mei treats her like she was her biological daughter with great care and motherly love. Though they don't bond often, Mei still stays in contact with Butterfly as she sends letters to her often to check on her wellbeing and making sure she's resting and eating well and Butterfly is very grateful for Mei's motherly affection.

## Trivia

* Mei is 43 years old currently. She was 3 years old when Min passed away, 18 when she took the throne to being Head Priestess of Reiki Village, 23 when she married Jin, and 27 when she birthed Cricket. She was also 32 when Jun kidnapped her away.
* Mei's favorite drink is her unique healthy but very bitter herbal tea. She has very high bitterness tolerance as she loved drinking that herbal tea quite often. She even drank it during her pregnancy due to it's health benefits.
* Mei doesn't have a high spice tolerance as her mouth tends to burn from any spicy foods very easily. As such, she rarely eats spicy food but she loves to cook spicy food for Jin.
* In really rare moments of Mei getting extremely mad, her eyes often shift from black to red to show her anger as this is due to her spiritual aura causing the shift in her eye color. However, Mei doesn't get that mad that easily so it isn't really shown much.
* Mei's favorite season is Spring mainly due to the cherry blossom trees that bloom around the Sacred Temple's land. She also loves the amount of flowers that bloom from a harsh cold winter.
* Due to meditating so much under the waterfall during her Priestess training and current day daily meditation, Mei's head has become quite resilient to the waterfall's heavy falling pressure.
* Mei has a tendency to hug a lot whenever she's very happy. She usually just hugs Jin whenever he gives her a compliment or hug her children whenever they come visit the village.
* Mei's favorite color is blue mainly due to how calming the color is to her. It's often why she loves sapphires due to the blue color they give off.
* Her accuracy with archery matches her father's accuracy as she's able to sharpshoot arrows at targets easily with her focus.