Ichina Saotome

**Ichina Saotome** (早乙女イチナ *Saotome Ichina*) is a first-year student in the golf club and caddie department of Raiho Girls' Academy.

## Description

Ichina aims to be a professional caddie, and she is good at reading the wind and grass. She has a good memory and she remembers the names of the players who participated in past championships.

## Appearance

Ichina has brown hair tied up into a short ponytail and brown eyes.

## Personality

In contrast to the stoic demeanor of her fellow Raiou classmate, Amane Shinjo, Ichina has an expressive personality, and is not afraid to get emotionally charged up. Nothing excites her more than one of Eve's bullet shots, and is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in, especially if it contradicts Amane's pure analytical approach to golf, and life.

Ichina approaches her caddie duties with an old-school gusto, preferring to walk a golf course before a round to see for herself how the course looks. She is not above getting down on the ground and inspecting the rough to gauge how thick it is. Ichina can get carried away with her excitement, going so far as feeling Eve's body to measure her muscle structure the first time they met.

## History

Unlike the other members of the Raiou Academy Golf Team, Ichina never held any desires to try to become a golfer, citing her short stature as her main impediment to any golf success. However, despite that shortcoming, she excels in a more important facet of the game of golf, Ichina desires to be the best caddie in the world. Unfortunately, Ichina had a bad habit of sometimes missing the shuttle bus from the dorms to the school grounds, resulting in her serving detention punishments, such as cleaning the golf team's clubhouse and ground maintenance of the practice course.

It was during one of these punishments when she was approached by her teammate and fellow first-year classmate, Hanuka Misono, not long before the All-Japan Girls High School Golf Doubles Championship began the prefectural qualifiers. Hanuka was hoping to get Ichina to be her caddie. Ichina, however, made it clear that Hanuka was in no position to compete with Aoi for the top spot on the team roster and represent the school in the Doubles Championship. Hanuka persisted in her begging, following her out to the bunker of the first hole, where Ichina told her in no uncertain terms, her golf game was lacking in three important skills, Shot precision, Drive Distance, and Putting skill.

Ichina did not pull any punches in telling Hanuka the truth, but as she was doing so, they were interrupted by a ball slicing through the air between them. Turning to see who made the shot, she and Hanuka observed a lithe blond girl holding a driver at the tee box. Ichina ran up and after attempting to speak to her in English, the blonde girl asked her in Japanese if she was from around here and that she was looking for Aoi. Ichina, still in shock from the girl's tee shot begged her to hit another shot, which she gladly obliged. Impressed with the shot, Ichina got a little too close to Eve, feeling her muscles to evaluate her strength.

Team President Kinue Jinguji appeared and told Eve she wasn't allowed on the course and needed to leave. When Eve tried to fight her to see Aoi, Ichina stepped in front of the President to protect her. Kinue offered her an opportunity to prove to her she's worthy of being allowed on the campus to see Aoi, she would have to play Hanuka in a one-hole match. Ichina offered to act as Eve's caddie because of her unfamiliarity of the course. Despite her best efforts, and a little help from Ichina on her putting strategy, Eve prevailed. Ichina then stood in shock as Aoi emerged from the chauffeured car that brought her to the practice course and ran to embrace Eve. After watching the normally placid Amawashi turn into a giggling fan girl around the blonde, Ichina asked Amane exactly who Eve was, to which Amane said that even she didn't know.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Ichina would spend her caddie time with Eve, helping her get acclimated to her new surroundings, namely becoming the first Transfer Student in Raiou Academy history. She and Eve bonded as golfer and caddie, especially when Eve encountered the Doubles team from the rival Koran Girls Academy, Kuyou Iseshiba and Kaoruko Ijima, at a Miniature Golf venue at a local mall. She also accompanied Eve and President Jinguji on a three-day training session at the Athena Golf Course and Resort, where the Doubles Championships would be held. By the time the Prefectural Qualifiers began, the two had become a potent combination. But despite her efforts, Ichina still had to contend with Eve's constant reckless style of golf, even at the Doubles Championship.

During the Doubles Championship, she and Aoi's caddie, Amane Shinjo, were at odds with each other over their style of caddieing. Where Ichina used old-school techniques like walking the course and inspecting the cut of the fairway and greens, Amane relied on the latest technologies to formulate Aoi's course strategy. Although they clashed as caddies, their styles benefitted their golfers. Allowing them to succeed throughout the tournament. In fact, the two ended up becoming friends as their team reached the Championship.

However, that joy was short-lived as Eve suddenly withdrew from the school, leaving a perplexed Ichina behind. She and Amane would soon learn that Eve is another daughter of Aoi's father, Kazuhiko, and that Aoi's mother Seira might have had a hand in Eve leaving school. a few days after her disappearance, Ichina is woken up by a phone call from Eve, who tells her that she's going pro and that she is the only person she trusts to caddie for her. Ichina immediately says she's coming, even if she has to drop out of school.

Later that morning, she was in Coach Amuro's office, presenting him with a letter of withdrawal, requesting a temporary leave of absence from school. When asked by the coach if she thinks it's worth leaving school to be with Eve, she did not hesitate and said that she'd put her own life at stake in order to help Eve achieve her dream of turning pro. Amuro granted her the leave, telling her that he'd keep her position available for when she was ready to return to school. As she left, she was confronted by both Aoi and Amane, who asked if the rumors were true that she was leaving school to go to Nafrece to join Eve. She then passed on a message from Eve to Aoi, that it was now a race to se who can turn pro first.

Twelve Hours later, she arrived in Nafrece, where Eve introduced her to Vipère and her boyfriend, who drove the two to Catherine's tower. Inside, Ichina was shocked to find that there was a golf course deep underground that could literally transform into any hole possible. She then aided eve in securing a victory over the American golfer Remelda, especially catching on to her attempt to sabotage Eve's putting line.

## Etymology

* Ichina's surname **Saotome**means "already, now, fast, early" (早) (**sa**) and "virgin, maiden, girl" (乙女) (**otome**), which literally means "early maiden" altogether.
	+ In ancient Japan, **Saotome** were unmarried girls tasked with planting rice in paddies.

## Gallery

Ichina's facial expression 1Ichina's facial expression 2
## Trivia

* In a revamped opening credit sequence, Ichina is featured having an arm wrestling match with Eve's surrogate sister, Lily Lipman. Lily easily wins, causing Ichina to go flying as Lily slams her arm down onto the table. The match is occurring inside the White Hart pub, the bar owned by Lily's older sister, Klein.