Mitsuru Kirijo

* PMP
* PRMA

Takeharu Kirijo (Father, deceased)

Hanae Kirijo (Mother)

## First Appearance

### Debut

Puella Magi Persona - Chapter 2 (Main)Persona Record: Magi Arena - Chapter 3 (Supporting)

**Mitsuru Kirijo** is a supporting character in Persona Record Series and one of the main protagonist of Puella Magi Persona. She is also the Leader of SEES and Shadow Operatives. As Puella Magi Persona, She is heir to the Kirijo Group and a student at Gekkoukan High School. As Persona Record: Magi Arena, She is Leader of Shadow Operatives.

## Background

Mitsuru Kirijo is the only child of Takeharu Kirijo, the head of the Kirijo Group, and Hanae Kirijo. Although Mitsuru's mother, Hanae, is alive. Her grandfather, Kouetsu Kirijo, was the former head of the Kirijo Group, and died in an incident. Mitsuru is Gekkoukan High School's valedictorian and student council president, as well as a member of the school fencing club. She is one of the most respected and popular students at the school, as stated by students.

Before Minato Arisato joins, and even to a degree after he joins, Mitsuru serves as the leader of SEES due to her natural talent for leadership. Minato and Mitsuru have a good relationship, her even offering rewards to him for getting high test scores, as she pushes him, and other members of SEES, to excel.

Mitsuru has battled the Shadows longer than any of the other members of SEES, having been trained since a young age to use her Persona. Mitsuru uses her Persona ability, aided with special devices, to provide battle information and support for the party on the early stages of exploring Tartarus. Even with continued conditioning and self-training, Mitsuru's support range eventually reached its limit, given that her Persona was primarily battle-oriented more than anything else.

After the rescue of Fuuka Yamagishi, and her induction to SEES, Mitsuru returns to the front lines. She uses ice attacks, uses fencing rapiers in combat and is weak against fire.

Mitsuru initially hides many details about Tartarus and the Dark Hour from SEES, due to her guilt over her family's involvement with creating them. Her grandfather's goal of triggering the Fall caused a majority of the problems that SEES must overcome, and Mitsuru feels she alone bears the burden of restoring her family's honor.

One day, Shuji Ikutsuki's betrayal and murder of her father destroys Mitsuru's will to fight, and even her will to live to a great extent. She feels that restoring the Kirijo family honor is pointless if she's the only remaining Kirijo. Mitsuru begins to beat herself up, believing that she was foolish for blindly trusting Ikutsuki and was partially responsible for her father's death.

## Appearance

Mitsuru has long red hair covering her left eye. The hue of her hair can sometimes appear vivid red or dark red. Her eyes are brown, although they have sometimes been portrayed with hints of red.

At school and in Tartarus, she wears the Gekkoukan High uniform with personal effects: no jacket, a white blouse (long sleeve in winter & short puffy-sleeve in summer), a black skirt that goes above her knees and black knee-high high-heeled boots.

In Persona Record: Magi Arena, she is wearing a fur coat over a black catsuit. She still fights with a rapier and carries an Evoker in a holster on her thigh.

## Personality

Mitsuru is calm, confident, mature, responsible, wise and very intelligent despite being a high school student. However, she may be interpreted as slightly arrogant, conceited, cold-hearted or overconfident. As events unfold, this may be a front of maturity, due to her assumed role as the leader of SEES.

Mitsuru has a streak of strict conduct. Per formal Japanese culture, Mitsuru is the only member of SEES who formally addresses her fellow club mates by their last names. Akihiko Sanada is an exception to this, as the two are good friends and have known each other since junior high. Eventually, she becomes more familiar with the other SEES members and refers to Yukari Takeba on a first-name basis, and the others' on occasion. Mitsuru is also very insistent with the team keeping their grades up, going so far as to sign them up for summer classes behind their backs. Mitsuru is also outspoken and has zero tolerance for prejudice.

Mitsuru is shown to be quite awkward when dealing with normal social situations, likely due to her upbringing. In fact, it is implied that she has never eaten various common foodstuff due to her family conditions, such as burgers, ramen and takoyaki. It is noted by her father that she has difficulty trusting others, and at one point he tells her that she can only do so much on her own and reminds her of the Kirijo Group's guiding principle, "Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection," which Mitsuru takes to heart.

## Abilities

Mitsuru's persona is Penthesilea and Artemisia. In battle, she wields one-handed swords such as rapiers and sabers and Ice-based magic.

## Relationship

### Minato Arisato

Mitsuru's junior and fellow team. Mitsuru will always consult him and take care of him as mother or big sister.

### Akihiko Sanada

Mitsuru's Middle School Friend and fellow team. She will warn him when he does something too reckless.

### Aiko Narukami

Mitsuru has always been doing medical examinations for Aiko since she was a baby.

### Tart/Jeanne D'Arc

A magical girl in the French Hundred Years' War. When Tart get a second chance to live another life in the modern era, Mitsuru gives The role of Field Leader of SEES to Tart, and she is always there to give her various advice.

## Trivia

* The name **Mitsuru** means "beautiful" (美) (**mi**) and "crane, stork" (鶴) (**tsuru**), literally means "beautiful woman."
* Mitsuru's surname **Kirijo** means "paulownia" (桐) (**kiri**) and "article" (条) (**jo**).
	+ **Paulownia** is called Empress Tree or Princess Tree in Japan. It was once customary to plant a Paulownia tree when a baby girl was born. There is a Paulownia Mall which the Kirijo Group apparently built.
* When going to karaoke with Mitsuru, she will say that she has trouble hitting the high notes.

## Gallery

MitsuruMitsuru's Weapon (One Handed-Swords)Young Mitsuru and Her fatherMitsuru Yukari and Fuuka in Yukata Outfit