Zhihe Sha

## Sha Zhihe

**Sha Zhihe**, or **Zhihe Sha** in Western name order, is the personal disciple of Sha Wujing, the "Golden-Bodied Arhat" recorded in the "Journey to the West". She is a close friend of Sun Luzhen and Zhu Yijie, and is one of the reserved members of Team D×D.

She participated in the Azazel Cup as a [Knight] of Team White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star.

## Appearance

Sha Zhihe has the appearance of a petite girl with green eyes and vermillion hair, and looks young enough to pass as a middle school student. She wears a *japamala* necklace around her neck, similar to her master's, though hers has still miniature human skulls attached to it.

## Personality

Upon first meeting, Sha Zhihe gives off the image of a gentle, soft-spoken, and polite lady, but once she gets along with someone, she'd reveal her true nature as an energetic, curious, and fun-loving girl who always wants to try and experience something new.

She is an optimistic person who always strives to make people's days better, and her presence can easily brighten up the mood at times. She is an ardent believer in the potential to be good in others and that good fortune will always come for those who do goods, and no matter how dark the situation can be, she'd always believe a happy ending can be achieved.

However, as her history was gradually introduced, it became harder and harder to see if this fun-loving personality of hers was truly real and not a facade she created to deal with her trauma. And yet, she has stated she's been having therapy sessions with Sanzang for quite sometimes now and she's in a much healthier mental state than before.

Due to her past, she's very against the idea of harming others even as the last option. She is a pacifist and could not bear to see another person being hurt if she could do anything about it, even if it means unintentionally hurting herself in the process.

During missions with her team, she always stays behind as support and would only enter the battlefield as last resort, and the sign of blood itself makes her feel sickened and disgusted, bringing back memories of the many times she nearly choked on her own blood and died. According to her, while she knows it's wrong and unhealthy, she couldn't help but think of herself as a deadweight for the team.

## History

Compared to her companions, not much is known about Sha Zhihe's history due to her own personal trauma. Due to their respect toward her, nobody wants to ask her about it, preferring to let her decide when and if she wants to tell it or not.

However, from what was revealed through flashbacks, a simple narrative of her background could be built. She was born to a human father and a devil mother in late 19XX in Sydney, though her mother soon died due to unknown reasons - Though the death is heavily implied to be murder - and her father remarried another woman with children of her own.

She was assigned male at birth, but soon realized she was born in the wrong body and she was, in fact, a woman. While her step-siblings were supportive of her, her parents did not. Her mother would regularly verbally abuse her, locking her in a cupboard for days without food or water, while her father would be physically abusive to her and often hit her in her private parts so he could "help her [Sha Zhihe] be a real girl". While her step-siblings wanted to take her away, due to her father's influence, their hands were tied and they could only help her from the dark.

When she was around 16-17 years old, she and the rest of the family were invited to a museum's charity gala, though the reasons why she was there were unclear. In the middle of the night, tragedy struck when a group of daemon crashed into the room and started slaughtering everyone. Amid the chaos, she was able to escape into the museum's Asian civilizations exhibit, where she accidentally activated an ancient Chinese artifact, summoning Sha Wujing to come for protection.

However, by the time he was summoned, it was far too late and all he could do was to banish all the daemon and exercise the shades of their resentment so they might enter the Realm of the Dead. The only person he could rescue was his summoner, who he took to Mount Huaguo to seek Sun Wukong's help, but her body was far too damaged to be truly healed. As such, they decided to place her essence and soul into a ball of clay, and Sha Wujing then infused her new body with his divine energy for eighty-one days so she could be stabilized.

After she woke up, he explained everything to her, including who he was and where she was in, why she was in this current form, her true nature as a half-devil, and the general information about the supernatural world. He then asked her if she'd want to become his disciple, as it was the most positive option for her then, not to mention it would help her control her newly discovered demonic powers, which she accepted.

He then used the rest of his power to help her create a female body she'd always wanted, though due to his exhausted state, the body was that of an infant girl. Before he passed out, he named her Sha Zhihe and sent a message for his elder brothers, Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie, to take her in and take care of her for him until he woke up.

According to her, due to her origin as a half-human, half-devil hybrid, she was able to grow up again at a normal rate, neither accelerated or decelerated, but just like how any normal human baby would grow up, thus allowing her to experience a normal childhood for the first time in her life.

## Equipment

**Crescent Moon Spade** (月牙産, *Getsugasan*): Similar to her master, Sha Zhihe also wields a monk's spade, though hers is mainly used as a magical foci for her magic or for defensive purposes rather than for attacking. It is roughly the size of her body, with the handle made of ebony wood while the two heads made of gleaming silver, one of which is flat spade-like while the other is a crescent-shaped.

## Trivia

* She is named after "Sha Zhihe", the disciple of Sha Wujing in the "Later Journey to the West" (後西遊記), written in the 17th-century.
* She likes cleaning, trying on new make-ups, and "complex-flavored" food, and her hobbies include swimming and collecting dishes.
	+ When she was young, her stepmother tricked her into thinking rat poisons as candies after days of starvation and she was barely able to survive. Ever since, the sight of candies and desserts automatically makes her feel nauseous.
* She's still discovering and finding out her sexuality, though she does have an interest in men.
* Although her current form is that of an Asian girl, her former self was Asian-Australian.
* Due to her demonic powers being relatively dormant, it's believed that her mother could possibly be a half-devil as well, thus making her only a quarter-devil in terms of blood, though with his powers, Vali doubts this is the case.