Shikibe Tsubaki

Giou (Sakurai) Yuki (Nephews)

Senshiro Furouri (Ex-Fiancée)

**Shikibe Tsubaki** is the younger sister of Ibuki and Mizuki, making her one of Yuki's aunts on his mother's side.

## Background

A lot of her childhood was spent with Senshiro and Garan. The Shikibe family and the Furouri Family arranged a marriage for Tsubaki and Senshiro from when they were young until Senshiro broke the engagement, which was mutually agreed, to focus on his becoming Zweilt as Kuroto's partner.
When Kuroto, at seven years-old, first arrived in Senshiro's home (a training dojo), Tsubaki was there meet him alongside Garan and Senshiro. However, their meeting was not as pleasant as Kuroto reacted rudely and coldly to the people around him when he was welcomed. From then on, Tsubaki butt heads with him frequently with Senshiro trying to calm them both down and Garan happily enjoying the scene around him.
As she is currently one of the Giou Clan's 'Master,' she teaches the Zweilt and other members martial arts and fighting skills in the training dojo. Her known apprentice is Masamune Shinmei, a necromancer-in-training.

## Personality

Loud and expressive with her emotions, which greatly contrasts her older sister, Tsubaki's, calm and collected demeanor, she is not afraid to point out other people's flaw and talk back at them. Even Takashiro is sometimes a victim to her nagging, but to a lesser extent, compared with Masamun, her apprentice, who she fully berates for comedic effect. She declares that she hates men however, Yuki and Senshiro are exempted from this.
In spite her strong personality she displays to other people, she is a very doting aunt toward Yuki and is much more emotional around him. When Yuki came back from the revelation Takashiro made about his birth, Tsubaki nearly cried and hugged him tightly, apologised profusely indicating that she (and Ibuki) did not want to lie him but was under strict orders from Takashiro not to say anything.

## Relationships

### Senshiro Furouri

Tsubaki is the fiancée of Senshiro until he broke off the engagement with her in order to focus on the Zweilt's battle with Reiga and the Duras. Senshiro is one of the few men that Tsubaki does not hate and gets along fairly well with him. She is very supportive of Senshiro's decision breaking off the arrangement made by both their families but was still deeply saddened by the decision regardless, to which Senshiro apologizes. Whenever Senshiro smiles gently at her, Tsubaki blushes profusely and becomes shy around him, hinting her feelings toward him which Senshiro seems oblivious to and continues to treat her as someone precious to him platonically.

### Kuroto Hourai

Kuroto and Tsubaki have a hostile relationship as Kuroto is often rude towards her and Tsubaki returns the same sentiment back. Her impression of him when they first meet was unpleasant due to Kuroto's nasty comments, calling them 'idiots,' which did not settle well with Tsubaki and rebuked him frequently. When Kuroto was rising quickly up the ranks in the shoji world, she challenged him to a match but was beat effortlessly and could not belive the result of the loss as Kuroto was younger than her. Garan kept on laughing in her face making her feel humiliated and embarassed in good will, as Garan boasted about Kuroto's achievement and skills at playing shoji.

### Master Garan

Tsubaki had an affectionate but humorous relationship with Garan and as a result, she was treated like one of his grandchildren. They were continuously seen together whenever it concerned Senshiro and Kuroto, at his phase of distancing himself from others. She made off-handed comments about Kuroto but Garan was there to correct her as she did not fully understand Kuroto's reason for being the way he was.

### Yuki Giou

When she first saw Yuki, she glomped him into a hug and insisted on kissing him. Her overly display of affections to Yuki has lead to few characters commenting on it, in which Tachibana labelled her as a doting aunt. As Yuki made the resolve to fight n the war against Reiga and the Duras, her expression was filled with sadness as she did not want her nephew to go through feelings of suffering and despair.