Hikage Ishuko

* Drawing
* Gacha Life 2

### Allies

Locaster Helios, Ashton Khanh (neutral) , Shay Hanamura, Yuna Hanamura, Damion Halloreen, Fēng Xu, Hideko Inazuma, Veena Lu, Nabi Haluška, Cherry Amana, Windflower Amana,Shizuka Ikami (neutral), Kahori, Lyria Emerith, Shiah Bereng, Colbalt Majmua, Soul Kawasaki, Crimson O'Connel

### Enemies

Crow Watanabe, Caius Astrada, Akuji Hasegawa, Cassian Packard, Shítǐ, Shizuka Ikami (formerly)

## Portrayal

### Voice Claim

Tigress (Angelina Jolie)

**Thank you so much Kettkatt for the drawing!**

**Hikage Ishuko** is one of the main supporting characters in *Challenge of The Shadows*. She is a shadow shard user and is one of Locaster's traveling companions, along with being one of the original members of Team Strelitzia. In her past, Hikage was the daughter of a clan member during the golden ages of Elveria's development and was set on a high bar of expectations because of her status, leading to many clans, including enemy clans, wanting to marry her because of her desirability. However, after her father had rejected a proposal, Hikage was separated from her family and learned to take care of herself, having to work at a local scullery in order to make ends meet, though quit after finding it overwhelming for her well being.

Hikage was once a freelance bounty hunter, often murdering those on request and managed to sharpen her survival skills, though quit once more and eventually found her shard, wandering the meadows and traveling from place-to-place. Hikage later on joins Team Strelitzia after saving Soul and Windflower from the Black Sun prison, returning them back to the Sacred Meadows and quickly joining forces with Locaster, agreeing to help him on his mission to reunite the Demon Gems.

## History

Hikage was born into the Ishuko clan, a noble, *nouveau-riche* clan that had the strongest connections to powerful clans and few kingdoms among Azuren and grew up in the countryside of Moriko, an isolated village in Northern Elveria where a clan ruled over the people and was declared separate from the kingdom. Hikage grew up sheltered, hardly leaving the temple and never had any friends besides her sisters, who were often away because of marriage and business negotiations. She was educated by several tutors and her father in the arts, music, and many other subjects of her choice, making her the more desired member out of her siblings, being trained vigorously and more carefully.

Unlike other clans at the time, Hikage's father loved her greatly and did not want her to get married and to be a housewife, but wanted her to pursue any career she desired in order for her to make a living instead of being trapped inside, a belief she kept close to her chest, but was constantly pinned down by the society she was in and could not leave until she was married. She showed to have a healthy relationship with her father, as the two would go hunting and sometimes dog-sledding in the winter: Her mother, despite disapproving, never got involved out of fear she may hurt her relationship with her father.

Hikage had a hard time caring for herself due to others taking care of her for a prolonged amount of time and struggled with being independent. She was often accompanied by maids or other workers that assisted her in any given moment. Even if she had dropped an item, she was never allowed to pick anything up and instead had to see the maids pick it up for her to "maintain" herself, much to her disdain. Hikage would attempt to take care of herself, but had a hard time in doing so: She had trouble attempting to maintain her hair or use a hairbrush by herself because of others taking care of her most of the time and often relied on others to help her with certain aspects of self care. Hikage had trouble getting along with her sisters, as they often teased her and attempted cutting her hair, but was mostly stopped by her father, causing the two to become close.

Hikage's mother was strict with her and often required her to meet up to her harsh expectations unlike her father, who only wanted her to be her own person without having to feel judged: Her mother expected her to be presented as "lady-like," in front of others and was prohibited to speak to others outside of her nonexistent social circle, and expected her to get married earlier than expected in order to continue the Ishuko clan lineage. Hikage and her mother would frequently get into quarrels, nearly leading her mother to get rid of her hunting supplies before her father had walked in, resulting in another quarrel between the two and Hikage running away for a short amount of time. During her time outside by herself, she was nearly tricked into going to red light districts that were preying on her.

After two weeks of being reported as missing, Ishuko clan soldiers found her in time before she was warped in, reuniting with her father and speaking to him about her problems. Her mother did not react well, as Hikage was beaten by her mother with a wooden stick for running away and keeping her under her eye, ensuring she would not escape again and causing her to have a fear of her mother. Her sisters would often be associated with her poor treatment, often stealing her things and treating her indifferently from the rest of her family.

Hikage started to loathe her life, dreaming about the thoughts of running away, but stayed for her father's sake due to her immense love and care for her, realizing he would be distraught. Her father mainly protected and defended her during quarrels from her mother, proving his loyalty toward her and displayed that she was not a failure for not being the image her mother wanted her to be. Her relationship with her mother further depleted when she attempted to marry her off at a young age, though her father stopped it, further causing isolation between the two and problems between other clans. As her mother's hatred grew, the quarrels turned into physical violence after she slapped Hikage for laughing at a joke her sister made.

Hikage's life started to shift as another clan and the Ishuko clan had started to get into fights over land and even marriage between her and her sisters, with one of the older sons wanting to marry Hikage, but her father refused after saying he wanted her to pursue other things in life besides being married. It is also implied that the enemy clan had history of abuse with their wives, leaving to strained relationship between them and the Ishukos and carefully selected who was best for their sons and daughters. As Hikage was thirteen at this time, her father considered it to be immoral and refused, fearing how he would treat his child. Additionally, he did not want her to be bound to someone she was not comfortable around.

Having a hard time accepting the refusal, the older son was enraged and ordered a raid. As a result, the village was then set ablaze by the enemy clan, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and clan members. Despite Hikage and many other members of the clan surviving, her father died when protecting her from a large beam of wood nearly hitting her on the head, and she was separated from her mother and sisters after the events and could not reunite with them because of how many were unfamiliar with her family or unaware of their coordinates.

Hikage sought refuge in Elveria's capital and started raising herself, despite only being fifteen at the time. Due to being the daughter of a clan member, she, at first, had a difficult time adjusting in doing things by herself, but later on would improve and finally learn how to care for herself. Though, Hikage felt alone, having little people to talk to and went into immense grieving for her father and concern for her family that she was separated from, and had a hard time adjusting to being by herself, opposed to her previous life, where she was surrounded by people. Afterwards, Hikage was required to pick up an occupation as a scullery worker with long hours and an extreme workload. Though the people around her treated her kindly, they had a hint of sternness that resulted in her misreading tones. Despite her improvements, Hikage had a difficult time picking up new tasks at a quick rate, resulting in criticism of her slow pace in work. After seven months working in the scullery, she eventually stopped going and started to look for other occupations to aid her in making ends meet. Many men and women would attempt to bribe her into

Hikage would eventually become a freelance bounty hunter after a man, Hoshi, presented her with a contract that would aid her in improving her skills, while also killing those on request. As it paid her well, she started to take her job seriously and hunt people down as people requested in order to survive, despite being aware on how wrong it was and was unable to be free due to her contract with the hunters she had. She was met with many requests that were considered to be immoral, but did it in order to make her ends meet, regardless if her actions were considered immoral. Because of her job, she had little to no time to herself and often relied on her job in order to survive, though began improving on caring for herself and enhancing her survival skills. While under occupation as a bounty hunter, her soft, kind persona became rather aloof and drifted from other hunters, often doing her job without hesitation and managed to make her ends meet.

When exploring a cave to mine for gems, she had stumbled across the shadow shard that she now owns in the deeper corners of the caves. Confusing it for an amethyst, she molded it into a snake hair pin her father had given her and wore it in order to feel closer to her father. However, Hikage soon realized that her gemstone had Instead of returning as a bounty hunter, she started to use her abilities as a way to hunt down animals when living in a village near a lake.

### Sacred Meadows arc

While on a mission, Hikage discovers the Black Sun's secret prison base and senses that a shard user was inside. Immediately, she managed to break into the cell to free both Soul and Arcana after the both of them were captured, bringing them back to the. Early on, she reveals that she is a shadow shard user and keeps the gems in her hair pin. Being a shard user, both Arcana and Soul quickly took her over to their hideout and she was introduced to both Locaster and Veena. Throughout the day, the group begun to discuss more about the Demon Gems in order to pinpoint more users to recruit. Hikage then mentions a shard thief who has been going around murdering the shard users and takes their shards. She explains that none of their personal items would be taken, but only their shards were missing from where they placed them. Horrified, Yuna suggests that they take precautions around users with multiple shards to prevent their shards from being stolen, which all oblige to and set up camp in the meadows. Hikage later on goes berry picking with Veena to stock up on food before they go to sleep, and attempts to make small talk with her, though Veena sighed annoyedly and attempted to shoo her off.

## Appearance

Hikage appears as a tall woman with a slender build with dark brown skin and purple eyes. She has curly purple hair with slight highlights in the front that flows down to her back in a half do, where some of her hair is in a small bun with a snake hair-pin pierced through that has three shadow shards carved into tear-drop gems with a part of the gem being placed in the middle of the pin. Around her arms are several bandages that cover several injuries of hers.

Hikage wears a sleeveless, light purple bodysuit-type shirt with a dark purple breastplate that covers her chest: On her shoulders are two light purple pieces of armor that initially acts like sleeves. Around her waist is a purple-ish belt with two layers of bows, one being a purple tone and one being gray with a light purple piece of cloth dangling down from her belt: She wears black military pants and purple laced boots.

When her shard was synchronized with Veena's spirit shard, she dons a spirit form similar to Veena's spirit form, except her's was dark shade purple with black eyes.

During her time in the Ishuko Clan, Hikage's hair was tied in a bun secured by a purple and black Tama kanzashi hair pin: At that time, She wore a long purple kimono that had black, gold and gray designs all over with a black obi and a small beige rope tied in a bow wrapped around the front with two purple beads connected that were attached to the bow. She had tabi socks with a set of geta sandles with thick black hanao that held them together.

## Personality

When introduced during the group's time in the Sacred Meadows, Hikage is shown to be determined, outspoken and intelligent woman. She is described to be outwardly friendly towards those around her, being both lighthearted and somewhat feisty, often speaking in a respectful, yet casual tone and is steadfast on socializing with others around her. When saving both Soul and Windflower from the Black Sun Prison, she did not seem to show an inch of fear when freeing them and taking the two back up to the Sacred Meadows and managed to help them escape. Hikage has proven to have a hard time taking care of herself mentally and emotionally due to her past trauma of trying to please those around her and has a hard time understanding mathematics, but excels in the arts and literature. It is noted by Shay that she was able to sketch out what Crow looked like without needing any reference for him, proving her artistic abilities and is also a skilled hunter, managing to sneak up on a deer and killing it with ease, impressing Soul and Veena while they were fishing.

According to Veena, Hikage is an educated and polite woman: She attempts to get along with everyone in the group in order to form a bond with each one of them and proves on multiple occasions that she is able to maintain peace and good relationships with the members of the group. She does, however, have a distaste towards Ashton, who she has a strained relationship with because of his multiple attempts at murdering Locaster and the other members in the group. Even though she too does not like Ashton, she shows that she neither hates or likes him after his previous attempts of trying to kill some of the members of the group of shard users and held some distaste towards him for a small amount of time, but adjusts to his presence as he started to show up in the group more frequently and assist them without any sabotage. Her relationship with him further on improves when she defends him from Akuji, who was trying to deport Ashton back, and when Ashton had defended her from an oncoming attack.

Hikage has shown to have above average survival skills when in a different environment, seen when she resided in the Sacred Meadows. She has proved numerous times to be able to fend for herself in crucial moments and is rather independent, as she does not seem to work with anyone else besides Veena, her rather close friend who she knew before going into the Sacred Meadows. Hikage has shown to be very familiar with the concept of dark magic and the power that the demon gems hold, and is very protective of her shard that is in her hairpin, even going far enough to use a decoy when Sakura had attempted to steal it during his time as a shard thief. Because of past experiences of nearly being warped into unsafe districts and crime-related activities, Hikage becomes easily skeptical of a person, though trusts them overtime when learning more about them.

Out of her calm shell, Hikage is a lovable and affectionate person, often showing those her gratitude. Because of growing up in a clan and being sheltered, she never had the experience of making friends or having any companions, though her social skills are seen to be above average despite being sheltered and closed off from the rest of Elverian society. She shows a notable interest towards Veena since she had met her, often spending time with her out of all the members of the group, though she still spends time with other members like Locaster and Yuna. With years of being with drawn from outside, her social skills are notably well, shown in her interactions with Veena and Locaster, not shying away from attempting to socialize, unlike when she was younger. Though Hikage has a strong mind, she does not oppose to asking others for help, let alone relying on them for assistance or information. Growing up in Northern Elveria, a rural countryside, Hikage is curious about city and kingdom life, often asking questions about certain aspects of their life and did not know much about them before because of being sheltered and showed delight when being presented to other cultures of Elveria.

Deep down, Hikage proves that she desired a place in the world with deep maternal issues. Being raised in a noble clan, she was expected to be proper and not show any side of herself that was considered "unlady-like" by her mothers standards and has a difficult time expressing how she feels out of fear she may be shunned. When Yuna began tending to her wounds after a near death encounter by Black Sun soldiers, she was surprised at how kind she was being to her and looked up to her as a mother figure. It is later on revealed that Hikage yearns for those around her to validate her without traditional ideals being forced onto her. Due to her past trauma with her clan, she flinches when someones hand is out or hears loud noises, seen during her trial in Lyakon where Akuji intentionally smacked a metal stick in front of her trial desk, causing her to flinch and faint due to being overwhelmed with extreme memories from when her mother would beat her because of her attempts at running away.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** Hikage has demonstrated to be an extremely powerful shard user. Having a medium-sized shard placed in the middle of her hairpin, she has shown to be capable of maneuvering her dark magic abilities that the shadow shard had carried. Even when her gem was synchronized with Veena's, she was able to stay in her synchronized spirit form for a longer time than any other user. Being one of the first users to use the synchronization spell, she demonstrates incredible amounts of both strength and intelligence, having the capability to overpower many other shard thieves and advanced soldiers.

**Enhanced Speed & Reflexes:** Hikage is extremely fast and quick on her feet, shown when she was able to keep up with many of Crow's attacks being launched at her to an extent where she had tired herself out. Like most of the members, Hikage has the same speed level as Locaster and is slightly faster than Nabi while being slower than Yuna and Ashton. When she uses the synchronization spell with Veena's spirit shard, her speed gradually increases because of the two elements mixed together, and increases further when having to use her normal dark magic

**Enhanced Strength:** Working as a bounty hunter for multiple years, Hikage is naturally a strong woman, carrying Locaster and many other people on her back effortlessly and being able to leap from trees without her legs ever getting tired. Hikage casually punches down many Lyakonian soldiers and nearly fractured Crow's arm from when he returns after their escape from Lyakon. With the combined powers of her hairpin, she is able to cut down large rocks with ease by mixing her strength and her magical abilities.

**Enhanced Stamina & Endurance:** Despite not bing a demon, Hikage possesses incredible stamina and endurance. This is shown when fighting the Lyakonian soldiers, being able to stay up for a long time, despite the risks of her overusing her magic. Furthermore, when she was turned in and snapped back to one of the soldiers, she was electrocuted because of the electrokinetic chip inside of the hand restraints, but managed to endure the high levels of pain effortlessly.

**Keen Intellect:** Hikage is a very analytical and intelligent woman, as well as being rather sagacious for her age. Being tutored by many of the clans teachers, she was able to predict movements coming from Crow, despite his speed now being enhanced by the shared powers of The Dark Entity. She was also able to identify multiple demon shards after she had found them buried under the river.

## Magic Abilities

**Umbrakinesis:** As a shadow shard user, Hikage possesses enhanced umbrakinesis that is on the level of a shadow demon's. She is able to control masses of dark magic effortlessly, as seen when she is able to take temporary control of the black vines before losing control of them. She is also able to effectively manipulate other peoples spells by deflecting them back to her opponent.

**Temporary Spirit Form:** When Hikage merges her shard with Veena's spirit shard, she gains the temporary ability of having a shadow spirit form. As it works like Veena's spirit form, she is able to float through a variety of objects and at a certain distance and is also able to go through restraints to remove them. The spirit form has a stronger advantage over Veena's spirit form because of it being a deeper shade of purple, unlike Veena's, which is a light blue.

## Weaknesses

**Overuse:** Like all magic users, Hikage is weak to overusing her magic. Her shard's magic requires large amounts of energy in order to cast larger spells and has a hard time holding herself up when overusing. She has proven to get dizzy or have fatigue when using her magic too frequently, and when she uses it above the limit, she coughs up minimal amounts of blood.

**Pyrophobia:** Hikage has a severe fear of fire, therefore making it one of her strongest weaknesses. As it reminds her of the events where her home was burned down, any scene similar to that event results in her backing out or sometimes panicking because of the intense flashbacks she would receive, seen when Locaster used the fire gem to nearly burn Crow's claw off, causing her to panic and hide in a nearby tree.

## Relationships

### Veena Lu

Despite not knowing each-other for very long, Hikage and Veena's relationship proves to be strong. When first being introduced to her in the Sacred Meadows, she immediately hid her shard from her to prevent pain and started to introduce herself to her without Veena having to be in pain, though Veena was skeptical and often acted annoyed when around her, though realized she would be another member in the group and tolerated her presence.

While in the Sacred Meadows, Hikage showed a fondness towards Veena that many have a difficult time describing. She took interest in Veena's wit and sense of humor and started to spend time with her to fully know who she is as a person. Hikage shows extreme devotion to Veena, mostly fighting with her in combat and following her around to protect her if needed, but does not cross her boundaries. While hunting down animals in the meadows, Hikage is eager to teach Veena some of her hunting skills she acquired when she was a bounty hunter. In the woods, she begins teaching Veena how to hunt and starts to bond with her after she manages to shoot down a bird to eat for the night.

Veena and Hikage bond over their paternal issues from their past. When talking while the rest of Team Strelitzia was asleep, the both of them started to share things both did in their past. Hikage would explain how she never had a good relationship with her mother and some of her sisters because of their envy for her talents. Veena resonated with her, slowly