Suzaku Himejima

**Suzaku Himejima** is the Head of the Himejima clan and current inheritor of the Sacred Beast, the Vermilion Bird.

## Appearance

Suzaku is an exceptionally beautiful young woman of Japanese descent with long black hair and red eyes. She has a slim and voluptuous figure and was noted to have a strong resemblance to her aunt, Shuri.

Her body measurements are [B-102 W-60 H-89]. Her height is 168 cm (5 ft and 6 in) and weight is 54 kg (119.05 lbs.).

## Personality

Suzaku is elegant, gentle and soft-spoken. She is also extremely kind-hearted and compassionate as she laments the ancient system of rules and traditions of the Five Great Families which has for years brought great tragedy and suffering to its own members, such as the estranged Hanezu and Kazuhisa. Having lost her aunt Shuri who was executed for her love with Baraqiel and her cousin Akeno who was scorned and exiled for her Fallen Angel heritage, Shuri's death and Akeno's banishment had made Suzaku resolved to reform the system of the Five Great Families to prevent future tragedies.

After Shuri's death, Suzaku became strongly protective of her family members even towards distant relatives that she has never met before such as her cousin Tobio. In Volume 3 of Slash Dog, Suzaku swore to Tobio that she will protect him from the Himejima Clan's discrimination and persecution towards him for his ownership of a Longinus and to convince Suou and the other members to accept him as their family.

## History

Suzaku hails from the Himejima Clan, one of the Five Principal Clans, which governs one of the Sacred Beasts, the Vermillion Bird and have served the Shinto Gods for generations. Since infancy, she was recognized as being the most talented woman among their household in Shinto spiritual arts and magic. Suzaku has always visited her aunt and cousin still viewing them as her family despite being ostracized by the rest of their clan due to Shuri loving Baraqiel a Fallen Angel and Akeno being a Fallen Angel half-breed. During the time that Suzaku was undergoing the ceremony to inherit the Vermillion Bird with the intent of changing their clan, her aunt was killed and Akeno ran away from their pursuers.

After the death of her aunt Shuri and the cast out of Akeno she became saddened and worried. At some point, Suzaku had secretly already met with Rias as since Akeno was under her care, she secretly kept in contact with them but could not meet them. She also succeeded her great-uncle as the current head of the Himejima clan. Suzaku used her role as head to soften the grudge between her clan with Grigori.

## Plot

### SlashDog

#### Volume 1

Suzaku is first seen after the Utsusemi incident, discussing the Four Fiends and Tobio Ikuse and Akeno with her granduncle. She is then seen with Seiryu Kushihashi and talks about her cousins, revealing her intention to treat them as part of the clan and decides to gather the inheritors of Sacred Beasts.

#### Volume 2

Suzaku is shown interrupting the fight between Seiryuu and Tobio. She addresses Barakiel and greets Tobio, introducing herself to him as his second cousin, and calls for a meeting.

After they settle at a large building, she apologizes to them for the incident with the Utsusemi Agency and informs them that she is searching for the remainder of the Four Fiends possessors, former students of Ryoukou High School who are being chased by the Utsusemi Agency and the Wizards of Oz. After a brief conversation with Barakiel, she proposes an alliance, to which they agree. As they wrap up the meeting, Suzaku once again talks with Barakiel and Tobio.

Suzaku is later shown interrupting the confrontation between Barakiel and Satanael, and briefly converses with the latter. After both Barakiel and Satanael leave the location, Suzaku defeats the Abyss Team members around the area along with Tobio, Natsume, Shigune and Sae. Later, as Suzaku and Seiryu converse about future events, they are interrupted by the sudden arrival of Ouryuu Nakiri, who indicates his desire to question everyone related to the Utsusemi Agency incident. Suzaku asks of his plans, but he responds in an ambiguous manner.

#### Volume 3

Suzaku is shown at the grave of her aunt Shuri while reminiscing about the past, promising to ensure that the Himejima Clan accept her cousin Akeno back into the family, after doing the same for Tobio.

### Highschool DxD

#### The Legend of Oppai Dragon and his Lively Companions

Suzaku first appeared in Volume 21, visiting a hospital in the Underworld along with her relative Tobio Ikuse, which is where she reunited with her cousin Akeno and tells the Gremory group that she will be participating in the upcoming battle against Qlippoth, along with specialists from the other four families of the Five Principal Clans. Later, Suzaku joined with D×D at an island on the coastal waters of Japan, with an army made from various factions awaiting the arrival of Apophis' faction of Qlippoth's army with Trihexa. She fought against Evil Dragons and fake Scale Mail armors alongside Akeno and the rest of D×D's army. In the end, the victory is theirs when they manage to seal all of Trihexa's bodies.

In Volume 24, Suzaku initially came to watch Akeno in the tournament but was called by Tobio to assist in acting as bodyguards to Vali and Rias match at the Fafnir Stadium against the Grim Reapers led by Thanatos. She met up with Issei and thanked him for taking care of Akeno and Ouryuu. Shen the introduced him to Kushihashi Seiryuu and Doumon Genbu, the current heads of their respected clans. Suzaku then whispered in Issei's ear about how she heard that he had become engaged to her cousin and asked of him to make her happy.

Suzaku reappeared in True Volume 3, as a representative of the Five Principal Clans, together with Sun Wukong at the giant traditional mansion in Kyoto to meet with the DxD team to discuss about the Five Principal Clans offering their full support for the Oppai Dragon show in Urakyoto because the Hero Faction’s assault and persuades the retired clan leaders to offer full-scale cooperation. When Sun Wukong summoned the Hero Faction to apologize to Yasaka for the trouble they caused, as she accepted their apology, Suzaku also agrees with their apology but suggested that they monitor their movements because some people won’t be satisfied.

## Abilities and Power

**Flame Manipulation:** As one of the Himejima Clan who've been blessed by the Shinto God of Fire, Suzaku can utilize the Fire Phase, one of the Five Elements, letting her create and control flames, which is further enhanced due to Suzaku being the host of the Vermillion Bird. She has shown being able to create sparks of flames, which covered an entire plaza, pillar of flames using a single gesture of her hands, and a small flame bird with enough power to burn a large hole in a three-meter tall monster.

**Master Magician:** Suzaku has shown immense talent in using Eastern Magic of Shintoism, being stated to be the Himejima Clan's most talented magic master of her generation, Suzaku could break strong enchantments as a child and became the inheritor of the Vermillion Bird at fifteen-years-old. She could perform a ceremonial fire dance to unlock both the dormant powers and Ame-no-Ohabari within Tobio.

* **Purification:** Due to her spiritual training the Heiress of the Himejima clan, Suzaku has very powerful purification abilities to purify evil spirits.

**Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Suzaku is also a master of martial arts, able to evade the erratic assaults from a member of the Abyss Team, who previously trained in Grigori causing her to fall to the ground and knock her out using a palm-heel strike to the chin.

## Equipment

**Vermilion Bird** (朱雀, *Suzaku*): The Sacred Beast of the Himejima Clan that has been handed down for several generations to the strongest mystic of the clan who is personally chosen by the Sacred Beast itself, along with its name. Due to its connection to the Fire Element, Suzaku can access its immense power over flames.

**Shikigami** A creature that acts as her Familiar, Suzaku summons a large red bird that can be used as a mode of transportation.

## Trivia

* Her new name Suzaku (朱雀) means "Vermillion Bird".
	+ Her surname (姫島) means "Princess Island".
* The Vermilion bird is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. According to Wu Xing, the Taoist five-elemental system, it represents the fire-element, the direction south, and the season summer correspondingly. Thus it is sometimes called the Vermilion Bird of the South (南方朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què).
* Shikigami (式神, also read as Shiki-no-kami, 式の神) is the term for a being from Japanese folklore. It is thought to be some sort of kami, represented by a small ghost. The belief of shikigami originates from Onmyōdō.
* Suzaku is tied with Akeno for the woman with the largest bust size in the series.
	+ Her hip and waist size, height and body weight, are also exactly the same as Akeno's.
* Her first appearance was in SlashDog Volume 1, where she talked to the then head of Himejima, Suou Himejima.
* In SlashDog Volume 3, she announced her intention to marry Tobio as part of her plan to reform the Five Great Families.