Shirayuki Honokami

> I’m not running away from this anymore
>
> Volume II, Chapter XXVI: The Beginning of the Finale

**Shirayuki "Yuki" Aurum-Honokami** is the leader of the party, Memento Mori and one of the protagonists of Memento Mori. Yuki is the rival of Kaguya Tsukuyomi, the leader of Celestia. She is a fox kin from Alfheim whose first encounter with Embla nearly ended in her being mauled by a Sabyr. It is later revealed in that she is the daughter of Mizore Honokami, one of the Twelve Sages and Alfheim's Queen, making her the Princess of Alfheim.

## Profile

* Volume 1
* Volume 2

*Her strings of destiny became intertwined with that of Embla's.*
*Her gentle face is a deceiving front for the fury she hides beneath.*

*With the arrival of the Central Master and the movements of Setsuna, she finds herself at a crossroads after her friend's crushing defeat.*
*In the end, the choice she makes shall decide the future of her and her party's.*

## Appearance

Yuki is described by Embla to have the typical Alfheimer appearance. She is a fox kin, a race of beastmen who take on the appearance of foxes. She has long white hair, reaching down to her back and piercing red eyes. Atop her head are a pair of fluffy fox ears and she has two tails. She is slightly shorter than Embla, being only one inch shorter than she is.

Yuki wears a standard shrine maiden outfit that is white in color. With it, she has a pair of light red furisode-like sleeves, black pants with a hakama tied around it, and black tabi.

## Personality

Presenting herself as capable and polite, Yuki is the de-facto leader of the adventuring party, Memento Mori. She is rather responsible with her duties as leader. Yuki is in charge of negotiating with clientele and formulating plans and strategies. She has an analytical mind and a logical way of thinking. Yuki is shown to be dissatisfied with the current way that Guild handles parties, especially the hoarding of quests by higher level parties that prevents the growth of smaller parties. Yuki has shown herself to be horrible with money as Red had to stay behind and pay the correct amount to guild staff.

As a person, Yuki is generally kind to those around her. She is also rather trusting and generous as she offered Embla a place to stay. Yuki believes in paying people back, part of why she allowed Embla to stay in their home after their second encounter in the city of Yggdrasil. As team leader, Yuki will not hesitate to put her well being on the line for her party members, seeing as she was ready to use a Burst that had negative after effects.

According to Pandora, Yuki's polite and regal personality is explained by her upbringing. In her words, Yuki is a "hoity-toity rich girl". Her upbringing is used to explain her polite speech pattern and her lack of savvy in handling money. According to Cal, he surmises that Yuki spends as if she has unlimited amount of money in her pocket due to her royal upbringing.

Yuki has a rather violent temper. She gets easily offended when people refer to her as a furry or when people don't give straight answers. During her interrogation of Albert, Yuki had to be held back by Red to prevent her from killing him before they got information. She has also displayed some slight sadistic traits such as stepping on wounds. In addition, Yuki is also rather brutal, not even hesitating to break the jaw of someone while asking for information.

When confronted about her past, Yuki becomes secretive and snappy. She does not like talking about her life in Alfheim. Yuki also dissociates herself from her true identity. To her, her title as the Princess is an entirely different person and she does not think of it as herself. Due to her mother's presence and the hatred of her retainer, Yuki has adopted a colder personality, becoming easily angered when her party isn't giving their all in training. Her animosity against her home country and her parents combined with her inability to open up to her friends has placed her in a volatile state. This side of her has brought much concern to her party mates, especially Red, who is her childhood friend.

According to Kaguya and Red, Yuki's problem stems from her feelings of inadequacy to her parents due to her status as the heir yet not possessing an Arts. Embla says that she can relate to her due to this. This is greatly seen in the past when Yuki allowed her drive to prove herself place her in a situation that she could not control. As a result, she was exiled for her own safety. Due to this, Yuki has never confronted her past out of shame and is stated to be constantly running away. It is only when Embla stands up for her in the tournament and gets beaten severely by Kaguya that Yuki resolves to confront her mother about the past.

## History

Shirayuki Honokami is the oldest child of Mizore Honokami, one of the Twelve Sages and the Queen of Alfheim. She is the childhood friend of Red Magdaros and Kaguya Tsukuyomi, with the former being her personal guard and the latter being her lady in waiting. Yuki stated that her life was akin to living in a cage with no way to see the outside world and for that, she said that her ability to rule would be weak. During one of her studies, Yuki snuck out with Red to Alfheim's capitol, Gimle. During her time there, she experienced many things and for the first time saw the faces of the people who would entrust their nation to her.

A few weeks after Yuki returned to town with Kaguya and Red. After taking in the sights, Yuki is met with the sight of one of the Imperial Guards detaining an elderly woman and her grandson. Dropping her disguise, Yuki demanded to know what the guards were doing. It was there that she learned of the plague going around Alfheim. Determined to see how the infected were treated, Yuki went to the Quarantine Zone.

Since her first visit there, Yuki began sneaking out of the palace in order to help out. She employed the help of her handmaiden, Kaguya, during one of the visits in order to determine what the head of the Zone was up to. While Kaguya snuck into the captain's tent, Yuki continued to inspect the camps under a disguise. It was then that one of the patients turned, having been fully corrupted by whatever illness gripped him and tried to attack her. Yuki's life was saved when the Valkyria intervened and dispatched the infected.

After returning, Yuki read the contents of the letter that Kaguya stole. After deeming that something was odd about the letter, she confronted her parents on the letter's contents. Her parents brushed her off, forcing her to think of a different way. After learning of a supposed Panacea called Idunn, Yuki and Red snuck back into the Quarantine Zone while Kaguya distracted the guards. They were able to successfully make off with one serum and returned to the palace. There, Yuki and her friends tested the serum on a bird chick. After a few hours of waiting, Yuki saw the true effects of Idunn. Idunn was a serum designed to suppress any visible symptoms while accelerating the conversion rate. Due to this horrific realization, Yuki determined that the Health Comission and the Gentry were using this plague to line their pockets using a fake cure. As she went to confront her parents and force their hand on the matter, Yuki was stopped by her aunt. Before she was able to do anything, Yuki was knocked unconscious and taken from the palace by Red.

At some point, Yuki and Red arrived in Alfheim and started the party, Memento Mori.

## Powers and Abilities

**Magical Power:** Even as a child, Yuki was regarded as a prodigy within her social circle. Yuki was born with powerful mana. She is capable of projecting it as a blue aura around her body that can cause visible changes in her surroundings such as slight temperature drops and light amounts of frost forming around her. Even her retainer deemed her to be too strong for her at the time. Her magical skill is implied to rival that of Pandora, knowing a plethora of magical skills and is capable of using them in creative ways. It is unknown whether she is capable of Complex Casting. In the chapter, *Draugr*, Yuki is shown to be capable of Dual Casting, being able to cast two different spells simultaneously.

* **Ice Affinity Magic:** Ice Magic allows the user to create and manipulate ice and cold. Yuki is seen using this the most out of every element. Her skill with Ice Affinity Magic is extremely high and she is capable of using it in unorthodox ways including flight. Even though Pandora is capable of using Ice in Complex Casting, Yuki's skill surpasses even that of Pandora's. Ice is Yuki's Natural Affinity.
	+ **Frost:** The most basic ice skill. It fires a stream of frost at the target.
	+ **Icicle Raid:** An Ice Skill that lets the user create multiple ice spears and fire them in rapid succession.
* **Icicle Barrier:** An defensive Ice Skill that creates a dome of ice around the user.
* **Fire Affinity Magic:** Fire Magic is the ability to use magic to generate and control fire. Fire is stated to be common amongst Kin Races, particularly those of Fox and Dragon. Her skill with this is extremely high to the point where it is labeled as her secondar affinity. She has displayed a high level of mastery even at a young age. Yuki's flames are blue due to her racial status as a Fox Kin.
	+ **Fox Fire:** A skill uniquely belonging to the Fox Kin race. It allows for the creation of a blue flame hot enough to melt through steel. Yuki has displayed a high level of mastery with this skill, being able to utilize it to match even Pandora's Dual and Triangle Cast Fire Skills.
	+ **Fox Fire Wheel:** Fox Fire Wheel is a skill that requires a certain level of control from the user. The user bends and shapes their blue flames into a wheel that they then launch at their target.
* **Illusory Magic:** Illusory Magic is magic regarding the interference of perception and the disruption of cognitive abilities. Yuki is capable of using Illusory Magic to change her appearance, allowing her to walk around Gimle undeterred as well as sneak into Alfheim's Quarantine Zone.
	+ **Physical Masking:** Physical Masking is a magical skill that allows the user to alter their appearance by applying a thin layer of mana around their bodies and changing it to make themselves look different.
	+ **Virtual Body Doubles:** Virtual Body Doubles is an illusion skill that allows the user to create solid illusions that can fight on their behalf. The double has access to all of Shirayuki's techniques and skill. However, the glaring flaw is that the clone only possesses roughly 1/10 to 1/5 of Yuki's power depending on how much mana Yuki uses.

**Skilled Combatant:** Possibly the strongest member of Memento Mori, Yuki is an extremely skilled combatant, matched only by Red. She is stronger than Cal and Embla with the latter only berating her due to her haughtiness. She is capable of taking someone with far greater physical strength than her as well as dispatching with dozens of armed oppponents. Her physical strength is strong enough to completely shatter a grown adult's jaw with a simple non-enhanced kick. Red states that Yuki is one of the only people in their party capable of taking on Kaguya, an Arts User, despite her attempts at rebuffing such a claim. In addition, Yuki is an extremely adept swordswoman and for a time, surpassed Kaguya in swordsmanship and close combat. It is stated that Red and Kaguya are the only people in her generation within Alfheim capable of defeating her.

* **Zero Null:** Zero Null is the fighting style of the Aurum Twins that they developed during the Great War in order to better harness and bring out the latent potential of prana. The school and style are said to have four stages and each stage allows the user better control of their prana than it does the previous one. The staes are Extinguishment, Blankness, Zero, and Null. Yuki is stated to be currently in the process of breaking into Extinguishment. As of the current chapters, Yuki has successfully managed to break through the first barrier and reached Extinguishment.
	+ **Hyper Sensory:** Originally thought to be a unique self-enhancement skill, Mizore stated it is proof that Yuki is capable of close to reaching Level I of Zero Null. The user can keep this skill active with negligible effects on their prana. It drastically enhances their senses, allowing them to perceive more than possible. The user is also capable of seeing mana and prana while Hyper Sensory is active, which is constantly. This skill can be turned off by simply cutting prana to the five senses, returning them to normal.
* **Skilled Swordswoman:** Yuki has demonstrated herself to be skilled in the art of the blade. She can fight multiple bandits by herself and overpower fighters of greater physical strength in a sword fight. In addition, Mizore mentions that for a time, Yuki was the best swordswoman of her generation, far surpassing Red and Kaguya in skill. Even now, she was able to fell a saber with a single strike with the sabyr only surviving due to the Princess's proper lack of understanding of Sabyr anatomy.
	+ **Silent Slash:** Silent Slash is a sword technique rooted in the concept of drawing to kill. It allows her to dash forward and swing her blade whilst enhancing her body with Prana to deliver multiple attacks within a seemingly single stroke.
	+ **Cross Cut:** A sword skill that allows the user to launch blades of air from their swords.

**Skilled Prana Control:** Yuki has large amounts of prana, capable of manifesting around her in a white shroud. Her prana is potent and powerful, capable of creating strong winds that can affect her surroundings. Her prana is stronger than that of Embla and possibly Red's, having inherited it from her parents. Yuki is capable of infusing her body with her prana, already enhancing her great physical prowess. Reaching Extinguishment of Zero Null has allowed her to fine-tune her Prana control even greater levels, allowing her to temporarily chain magic and martial abilities.

* **Enhancement Skills:** Enhancement Skills are a series of skills that involve boosting the body's physical abilities.
	+ **Shadowless Flight:** A speed enhancement skill that drastically enhances the user's speed.
	+ **Super Acceleration:** A speed enhancement skill similar to Shadowless Flight. However, unlike Shadowless Flight which does short bursts of speed, Super Acceleration propels the user in a direction of their choosing and they can even alter mid-dash.

### Burst

* **World of the Gleaming Moon:** World of the Gleaming Moon is a Burst that is used by Shirayuki Honokami. The effects of this burst are unknown. However, the backlash just from gathering the mana to use the skill is visible on Yuki's body, causing her to fall to her knees. This technique is fully revealed in Yuki's fight against Kaguya. World of the Gleaming Moon lets loose a projection of mana that warps the field of perception and cognition to those caught within it. It creates an illusory world where the caster controls all aspects of reality, ranging from time and space to the cycle of life and death. This technique is extremely powerful but it comes at a high cost to the user. Using it in conjunction with prana can place the user at a high risk of overloading themselves.
* **Ephemeral Lotus Blossom:** A Burst Yuki acquired after reaching Extinguishment. It is a high power physical burst with speeds so high that the user is described to be omnipresent around the target. It can be reduced down to a high speed continuous tackle. Yuki can use this burst unarmed or with her blades.
	+ **Extinguished Halcyonic Blossom Dance:** A variation of the Ephemeral Lotus Bloom. Yuki assumes a lunging formation while creating several clones with the Virtual Body Doubles. The user coats their body in ice element mana and takes off like a rocket towards their target, coming from all angles and attacking them like a swarm of hornets.

## References

1. ↑ Vol II, Chapter XXVII
2. ↑ Vol II, Chapter XXVII