Shizuka Sakai

Experienced combatant; prologue protagonist

**Shizuka Sakai** (坂井シズカ *Sakai Shizuka*) is a CrossWorlds player of the Spheromancer class. She is the playable character in the Prologue of CrossCode.

## Appearance

Shizuka uses a short female avatar. She has long, straight black hair, pale skin, brown eyes and a prominent scar across her nose. She has a pair of the standard round Spheromancer ear covers, connected with a metal headband and a larger band behind her head. She typically wears a black layered tunic with red trim, and matching shorts, socks, shoes, armbands and gloves. She also has a metal belt, shoulderguards and vambraces, which have a large loop extending from them.

## Personality

Shizuka is a very decisive and no-nonsense person, who wastes no time tackling a problem head-on, and isn't afraid to deal harshly with those who get in her way. She is stubborn, and unlikely to be dissuaded from a course of action once she has decided on it. She has trouble accepting things that she cannot change.

## Relationships

**Satoshi**: Shizuka cares greatly for her brother Satoshi, and is willing to go to great lengths to rescue him from what she believes is forced labor. She refuses to accept that he is essentially sacrificing himself for her freedom, and is very distraught when he dies.
From the beginning, Shizuka has tried many times to convince Satoshi to stop obsessing with work so much. She still respects him a lot, considering he was able persuade her into reconciliating with Lea.

**Gautham**: Ever since Gautham tried to stop her from saving her brother, she knew that there was no going back for him. She really dislikes Gautham since he stays shut in this "fantasy world" of his, specially when he is controlling the Blue Avatar, which doesn't mean that she wasn't hoping for him to escape along with her at the end of the game, as he still was her and Satoshi's friend. She felt devastated by his death.

**Lea**: Shizuka's first evotar is Lea; hence, the two share similar qualities and appearance, such as height, gender, class and, furthermore, having identical facial scars and eye color, respectively. She uses Lea as a scapegoat for her problems related to the Evotar research. She envies Lea because she didn't have to go through the suffering that she did, including Satoshi's death and Gautham's descent into a downward spiral.

Shizuka starts to reconcile with Lea when she starts to play a vital part on Satoshi's plan to defeat Sidwell and when she discovers that the two aren't completely alike, since Lea is more touchy and friendly than her.

**Sergey**: He used to call out Satoshi for his terrible working habits and he didn't want him to take Sidwell's offer, just like Shizuka. It is likely that she trusted him before he brought Lea back into CrossWorlds. She does so again when she reconciles with Lea.

**Sidwell**: She absolutely despises Benedict Sidwell for all the damage he has done to her, Satoshi and Gautham. Shizuka never even trusted him to begin with. She was forced to work for him indefinitely thanks to his constant blackmailing and doxxing.

**DLC Spoilers**

 **C'tron**: Shizuka never had any contact with C'tron, which is why it was so easy for her to advocate for his deletion once she learned he was one of Sidwell's Evotars. She apparently reconciles with him too, as seen in the credits sequence of the DLC.
## Role in CrossCode

### Before the game

She, who was an employee at Instatainment, left her job and hesitantly accompanied Satoshi and Gautham so they could work along with Sidwell. She was forced to keep working on the development of Evotars and her safety was used by Sidwell to keep her brother at bay. In CrossWorlds, she is unable to leave the Old Hideout and Vermillion Wasteland.

### Main Story

Shizuka is the playable character during the Prologue. She seeks out her brother Satoshi in the Old Hideout in an attempt to rescue him, despite the best efforts of Satoshi's Captor. On finding him, she learns that Satoshi willingly agreed to perform a final task in exchange for her freedom, despite his failing health. She is horrified as Satoshi completes the task, then collapses and dies in front of her.

After the Prologue, Shizuka only shows up in Lea's memories until the latter has stayed a few days in Vermillion Wasteland during her first visit. There, she breaks into Lea's room and tells her the truth about her nature as a copy of her, expecting her to be unable to take in the truth and die because of it. Fortunately, her plan fails thanks to the combined efforts of Lea and Luke.

When Lea finally reaches the Old Hideout, Shizuka will be waiting at the entrance. Frustrated after discovering that Lea is still alive, she forces her into a PVP duel that keeps going until Satoshi tells her to stop and to let Lea in. Inside of the Hideout, Satoshi tells his backstory and what its been like to work under Sidwell's control. He also reveals that Lea has access to the Evotar Server in which he recides, a detail that even Shizuka wasn't aware of. Finally, following a short talk with Lea under the Hideout's cherry tree, she reconciles with her and admits being the one at fault.

At the end of the game, she unexpectedly appears during the final part of the Vermillion Raid to help Lea free the last captive Evotars and get access to the Vermillion Tower. Once Lea leaves the tower, she becomes devastated at the news relating to Gautham's death. Now that Sidwell's gone, however, she is finally free from her duties.

### Post-Game DLC

At this point of the game, Shizuka only appears a few times with way less plot relevance. She wakes Lea up at the beginning of Chapter 13 so they both can give her brother a visit. When she finds him working non-stop once again, she convinces him to go play in the new area together before the final dungeon gets released. Both of them show up for the dungeon's opening ceremony and its finale, while Shizuka herself can be talked to during an intermission where she's seen together with Emilie, who forcibly tries to get information about her past as a way to know Lea better.

With the final boss defeated and the last secret revealed, Shizuka advocates for C'tron to be deleted once he is finished helping with the investigation regarding Sidwell. If Lea chooses to let C'tron stay, Shizuka will get angry and disconnect from the game, however, she still shows up at the barbecue during the credits sequence, so it is very likely that she just got over it.

## Stats

### Resistance

 varies, -39 to 18%
 varies, -19 to 37%
 varies, -19 to 23%
 varies, -19 to 18%

## Drops

None

The duel against Shizuka takes place upon first entering the Old Hideout.

### Combat

She fights by dodging around and attacking the player constantly with normal attacks and Level 1 Combat Arts, both of which vary depending on the element she picked. For her normal attacks, she only uses Melee if she picks Heat or Shock, and only throws Balls if she picks Cold or Wave.

**Round 1**

* Attacks normally until she begins flashing yellow, which indicates that she is about to use a Level 2 Combat Art. After using it, she has a small period of vulnerability where she flashes red. When this period ends, she switches element and starts fighting again.
* Switches only between Heat and Cold mode, always starting the round with Heat.
	+ Her Heat Combat Arts are  Flame Jab (Lvl 1) and  Calamity Trigger (Lvl 2).
	+ Her Cold Combat Arts are  Snow Flawke (Lvl 1) and  Indigo Rush (Lvl 2).

**Round 2**

* Switches only between Shock and Wave mode, always starting the round with Wave.
	+ Her Shock Combat Arts are  Plasma Spike (Lvl 1) and  Storm Walker (Lvl 2).
	+ Her Wave Combat Arts are  Fae Round (Lvl 1) and  Vital Pulse (Lvl 2).

**Round 3**

* After using a Level 2 Combat Art, she continues fighting normally until, without warning, she uses a Level 3 Combat Art, becoming vulnerable right after.
* Switches only between Heat and Cold mode, starting the phase with any of the two elements.
	+ Her new Heat Combat Art is  Ragnarök.
	+ Her new Cold Combat Art is  Gatling Arctillery.

**Round 4**

* From this point onward, the rounds begin immediately instead of having Shizuka and Lea walk to the middle of the arena.
* Works the same as Round 3, however, she switches her element after using the Level 2 Combat Art. She can use Shock and then switch to Heat, or use Wave and switch to Cold.

**Round 5**

* She uses the same pattern as Round 4, but instead switches from Cold to Wave and from Heat to Shock. This also means she can use Level 3 Combat Arts with the other two elements.
	+ Her new Shock Combat Art is  Flickering Stars while the Wave one is  Ether Snipe.

**Round 6**

* Only reachable if you win every round without losing once.
* Uses her Round 4 attack pattern.

Contrary to the duels against Apollo and the DLC-Exclusive Lily, this one doesn't end after Shizuka or the player wins. Instead, it begins again and continues until Satoshi interrupts it and allows Lea into the hideout.
In the A New Home DLC, only during Chapter 14, the player can find Shizuka sitting under the Upper Path's tree. If they talk to her, the PvP vs Shizuka Custom Cup will be unlocked, where she can be fought again under normal duel conditions.

### Strategies

* Ether Snipe is sure to win you a round if you land it on Shizuka. It is also pretty damaging if it hits you, but you can dodge it in the last second with a Dash Combat Art.
* Glitch Time is really easy to activate and trivializes the fight.
* This duel is impossible to win or lose since it only ends after Satoshi interrupts it. For how long it lasts depends on a hidden score system: you earn 1 point for every loss and 2 for every win until you reach 12 points. This means the duel can last up to 12 rounds if you lose every single one of them, hopefully intentionally.
* Her basic Melee attacks can be countered.
* She has a hard time dodging  Elven Orb and  Hail Storm.

## Gallery

* Concept art.
* Shizuka's sprite.
* Promotional animation of Shizuka.
* Stream art.
* Stream art.

## Trivia

* Shizuka's last name, Sakai (坂井), typically translate to "well at the slope."

**DLC Spoilers**

* If Shizuka and Apollo are in a party together, Shizuka soon finds Apollo's comments about Spheromancers annoying. She tells Apollo that "Lea and I stuck with this class because it was the first that was implemented and I never bothered to switch". Lea nods in response. Apollo responds with "Oh, I see." with a saddened expression.