Shiki

**Shiki** (四季) is a playable character from the *Senran Kagura* video game series. She makes her debut in *Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus*.

A first-year student at Gessen Girls' Academy. She uses high-spirited gyaru language (adapted as "valley girl" speak in the English version) and makes friends everywhere she goes, often texting them at inappropriate times.

Despite her shinobi training and discipline, she hasn't forgotten her younger days as a freewheeling rich girl and still misses her parents deeply. To soothe her grief, both for her parents and her adopted grandfather Kurokage, she often recites the Heart Sutra to herself.

She wields a double-bladed scythe that's bigger than her body and fights while spinning it dramatically.

## Profile

### Appearance

Shiki has long wavy blonde hair, and burgundy-colored eyes, and a beauty mark on the lower right side of her mouth. She dresses rather skimpily, wearing a black bustier suit outfit, with heeled black boots, and shoulder-long black gloves. Her outfit reveals both her cleavage and the sides of her breasts and has a skull encrusted peace sign-like buckle attached right above a rivet, holding the breast straps in place. She wears a long, collared black cape, which is maroon on the underside, with a large skull encrusted pink heart pin attached by her left shoulder, and a gold bangle, which runs beneath the cape and out the collar, by her right shoulder.

Her most prominent feature, however, is her large black hat. It closely resembles a witches hat, with a skull face on it that occasionally copies her expressions. The hat has large bat wing-like attachments on it.

### Personality

Shiki is initially depicted as a carefree, free-spirited party girl who seems to not have her priorities in order. This is shown during the beginning of Shinovi Versus when after being told by Yumi to train with Minori, she attempts to weasel out of it and go shopping. She even goes as far as to convince Minori to go play instead of training. However, despite this Shiki is actually more intelligent and insightful than she appears. She enjoys reciting the Heart Sutra, something Kurokage had introduced her to when he took her in. She has some friends outside her shinobi class and is mostly seen on her phone. She also enjoys reading literature and is shown to be quite tech-savvy.

## Background

Born and raised in a rich family, Shiki had it all. A big house, servants to cater to her every whim, a big allowance (100,000¥ a month), everything a rich girl could ever want. Back in elementary school, Shiki and her friends would go shopping every weekend, and even if she spent her entire allowance, she always had her parents' credit card. She even fully admitted to being spoiled. However, none of it would last. One day, the dead bodies of Shiki's parents were brought home, riddled with scars. They had died in the line of duty as shinobi, but no one would tell the young girl *how* her parents died, or anything, for that matter. This enraged the young Shiki, to the point of seemingly endless crying, until she heard the voice of an old man reciting the Mahayana Buddhist scripture, the Heart Sutra behind her. This man was none other than Kurokage.

After preaching to the tearful girl about how the darkness and evil of the world had to be eradicated, Kurokage adopted Shiki, taking her, along with four other girls, one of which being his own grandaughter, Yumi, under his wing as Shinobi.

All five girls had one thing in common; they had all lost their parents, but even with this fact in mind, young Shiki refused to befriend any of them, going as far as to lash out and get into fights with everyone, most notably with Murakumo and Minori. With every fight she started, she would receive a scolding from Kurokage, but even so, it was obvious to her how sad it made him. Upon asking why, Shiki learned that anger and sorrow came hand in hand, and to deal with her own rage and sorrow, Kurokage taught her the Heart Sutra that he had recited upon originally meeting her. Since then, Shiki has relied on the Heart Sutra for comfort whenever she felt unfulfilled.

At some later point in time, Shiki and the other four girls, Yumi, Murakumo, Minori, and Yozakura, enrolled in Gessen Girls' Academy, a prestigious good ninja school, and they also eventually rose to become the school's five elite shinobi.

## Fighting Style and Gameplay

Shiki can strike enemies all around her with her giant scythe and sometimes even throws it, making good use of its wide attack range. She can also transform into a bloody mist and sneak up on enemies by exploiting their blind spots.

Shiki/Shinovi Versus|Shinovi Versus Gameplay
Shiki/Estival Versus|Estival Versus Gameplay
Shiki/Peach Beach Splash|Peach Beach Splash Skill Cards

## Trivia

* Shiki's appearance is a combination of vampires, witches, Grim Reaper, and a Desperado.
* Shiki's name means "Four Seasons".
* The buckle, pin, and bangle on Shiki's cape are likely a reference of the Hippie Trinity: *"Peace, Love, and Harmony"*
* It is stated in the *Senran Kagura: Official Design Works* book that while Shiki's mother was Japanese, her father was Romanian.
* Shiki is the youngest in her team, yet she appears slightly older or more mature than her teammates.
* In Ryōki's Shinobi Girl's Heart in *Estival Versus*, a rampaging Ryōki calls Shiki a "yamanba" and declares she'll "exterminate" her. "Yamanba" ("mountain hag") is both the name of a dangerous mountain spirit with messy white hair and purplish lips, and a slang for the deep end of ganguro fashion.