Hikari Ku

Ochette

Castti

Throné

Osvald

Partitio

Agnea

Temenos

Hikari

"*I haven't, Ritsu. Ku was built on warfare, with little regard for the people under it. But I want to change that. I want Ku to be a home to all, regardless of birth. A place where we look out for each other. In order to realize that, I would suffer any loss.*" —*Hikari, when asked by Ritsu if he has ever felt the pain of living as a commoner in a country ravaged by war*

**Hikari Ku** is one of eight playable characters and the possible main protagonist of *Octopath Traveler II*. A kindhearted young prince of Ku who cares about peace, Hikari was driven from his homeland and set off to find his former comrades-in-arms to end his country's never-ending bloodshed.

## Profile

### Appearance

Hikari is a young man with a slender build. He wears a red outfit with golden accents over his black uniform, around the center of which is the sheath for his katana. Hikari wears black leggings and boots along with black gloves. He also has black hair tied in a stereotypical samurai ponytail.

### Personality

While Clan Ku is known for their ambition and ferocity, Hikari represents none of those things. He is a kindhearted, and honorable prince who believes that their kingdom needs allies, community and peace for one and all rather than enemies and war, unlike his brother, which makes his father want to give him the crown and not Mugen. But despite his kindness, he does have inner demons in him that are sadistic and against every thing Hikari stands for, only because of the blood of clan Ku.

While Hikari advocates for peace and friendship and is a very gentle soul, he will not shy away from combat and generally displays a level-headed and calm attitude. He himself often doesn't instigate battle, often fighting back only in self-defense. As proven with Ritsu and Rai Mei, when his attempts for peace fall on deaf ears, he will resort to combat when it's the only way. Similar to Throné, Hikari dislikes unnecessary bloodshed and will avoid it when he can, but when he say he'll end someone's life, he will go through with it.

Hikari struggles with his inner demons, most likely the result of Clan Ku's cursed blood. Hikari's inner demons push him to be more sadistic, violent and bloodthirsty, of which Hikari constantly suppresses as to not give into the curse. This shows Hikari's immense willpower as he constantly rejects the demon's desire to be more violent.

He places great value on the idea of friendship, strongly believing that strength among friends is a vital role to ending senseless violence and stopping Clan Ku's warmongering. When he fought against his inner demons, the images of his friends helped him break free, showing that they give him strength just as much as he gave them strength.

## History

> *"Your name is Hikari, and you are a warrior. Your tale begins in the desert region of Hinoeuma. You are the younger prince of Ku, a nation ever at war, and worry for your people who have suffered greatly from the ceaseless battles. “I pray for a world without conflict. Without bloodshed.” Hoping to bring peace to your nation, you strike out on a journey for your like-minded allies..."*
>
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> — Hikari's description when selecting him.
>
>

### **Prior to Story**

Hikari is the son of Jigo Ku and a lowborn woman named Kura. Eight years prior to the story, Hikari and his mother were allowed to live in Ku Castle where he befriended his vassal Rai Mei while being trained by her older brother Jin Mei in swordsmanship. While Clan Mei leaves for war, Hikari is possessed by his accursed blood when witnessing mother die when they are ambushed by bandits. Jin, having arranged the ambush on orders from Hikari’s older half-brother General Mugen, knocks out Hikari with Jigo covering up the event as the act of rebels. Hikari has no clear memory of what occurred as Rai Mei assures the youth that it is not his fault. Hikari later meets Ritsu Mishuyo when he visited a memorial made for the latter's father when he was murdered by a Ku soldier for being lowborn.

Five years later, Hikari leads Ritsu and Rai Mei on a campaign under General Mugen to claim the southern region of Hioneuma. After fighting the enemy general, Hikari held back his hand when the enemy general called the Ku clan accursed. But before Hikari could inquire what the general meant, he witnessed the defeated man killed off by Mugen who later scolds Hikari for showing mercy to an enemy. Later meeting with Ritsu, Rai Mei, and the Ku's tactician Kazan, Hikari promises to have a victory toast with his comrades once they end conflict in their nation. But they never got the chance as Rai Mei and Kazan left the army.

### **Chapter 1**

Hikari since then been appointed lord for a district in Ku, earning the love of the people while befriending lowborn citizens. After Hikaru dismisses a quarrel at a tavern caused by one of Mugen's soldiers, he is called by Benkei to meet his sickly father, King Jigo, in private. Expressing regret in the bloodshed he caused in expanding their territory, Jigo confines to Hikari his intention to for the youth succeed him, revealing that Mugen is planning a coup d'état to take the throne and further expand their kingdom.

Bribing the castle merchant for confirmation of his brother's plot, Hikari travels to the Crest of Heroes, a memorial for Ku's fallen soldiers, to wait Mugen out. But Hikari instead finds Ritsu, now a captain under Mugen, who reveals to the prince that was lured to a trap as Mugen has his men set the city ablaze. Hikari manages to defeat Ritsu, resisting the voice of his shadow-self demanding him to kill Ritsu, arriving too late to save his father from being fatally wounded by Mugen. Hikari accepts his dying father's final request to take the throne, falling back to gather allies to help him end Mugen's reign with Benkei covering Hikari's escape on horseback.

Three days later, now branded a traitor wanted for regicide, Hikari sees his only recourse to travel east to Montwise to enlist Kazan as the first of allies.

*If Hikari isn't your first choice of your journey, he was seen fighting Mugen's men to defend a falsely accused Ku citizen. Defeat the soldiers and Hikari will join the Party.*

### **Chapter 2**

Once Hikari reaches Montwise, he finds Kazan in the Underground Arena before being pushed by the latter into the ring to fight a gladiator. Once defeating his opponent, Hikari learns that Kazan needs his aid as a gladiator to pay off his gambling debt. Given no choice, Hikari reluctantly accepts the arrangement to "conquer" the arena.

Hikari's wins attract the attention of the arena owner Borneau, who arranges Zeto the Butcher to be his next opponent. Hikari defeats Zeto and spares him, ignoring his shadow-self's insistence to give into his murderous impulses. Hikari then protects Zeto from the current Arena Champion, Bandelam the Reaper, who takes an interest in Hikari and challenges him to a duel tomorrow. Hikari later realizes Kazan has ulterior motives while preparing for his match with Bandelam.

As Hikari overwhelms Bandelam in their match, Borneau and his wealthy gambler patrons find themselves are ambushed by Zeto and the gladiators as per Kazan's plan. Hikari manages to defeat Bandelam and spares his life, Kazan praising the prince while taking the arena from Borneau as payment for Hikari's victory. Hikari convinces the gladiators to spare Bandelam and his patrons, later learning Kazan's true plan to liberate the gladiators out of a sense of kinship with them. With Zeto and gladiators swearing to follow Hikari to repay their debt to him to realize his vision. While Kazan and his men prepare at Ryu, Hikari sets off to find Rai Mei at Stormhail before Kazan informs him of Mugen's weapon shipments at Wellgrove and sabotaging them would be in their interests.

### Crossed Paths, Part 1

Hikari and Agnea arrived in Ryu, where they hear a very soothing tone, which Hikari recognized as a lute. They then approached the source, where they met Yomi, a traveling musician. At Agnea's urging, Hikari paid her to hear another song from her, but she asked them to come back the following night after she made preparations. The following night, they met Yomi again, who was wearing a new kimono that she got from their payment. However, she informed them that her lute was damaged and she needed a horse's hair to repair it. After Agnea entreated a nearby merchant for the material needed, she asked them to come back the following night, to Hikari's dismay. Finally, they met Yomi on a nearby hill, where she proceeded to play for them "By the Light of the Heart", a song that Hikari recognized from his late friend, Tsuki.

### **Chapters 3 and 4**

Hikari arrives to Wellgrove and bribes the merchant Azuma into revealing the weapon shipments are being conducted in the Secret Forest, reluctantly forced to duel General Rou before his shadow-self takes over his body. Hikari manages to stop himself from killing General Rou, who takes his leave while warning Hikari that the darkness within him will eventually consume him. Hikari proceeds to deliver the weapons to Kazan in Ryu, informed by that Rai Mei would most likely in a stronghold placed in Clan Mei's custody.

Once reaching Stormhail, Hikari beseeches Rai Mei's aid before he is knocked out when she destroys the bridge. Coming to in the dungeon, Hikari is informed by Rai that he is to be executed. He is later visited by Rai's retainer Kunzo, who frees him while beseeching him to free Rai Mei of the fear that drives her actions. Hikari tries to reason with Rai, only to be forced to fight her. Revealing that he knew his mother's death was arranged by Mugen, he explains that bares no animosity for Clan Mei's role as he tells Rai that he will await her at Ku with the upmost faith in her.

### **Chapter 5**

Meeting with Kazan once preparations are complete, reunited with Benkei, Hikari leads an army of gladiators and Ku citizens to storm Castle Ku through the front gate under the cover of a sandstorm of Kazan's making and rings the Bell of Dawn to rally the rest of their forces within the city. Hikari succeeds in ringing the bell, delighted to find Rai Mei among the reinforcements as she and Benkei cover Hikari so he can storm the castle. But Hikari finds his way to Mugen impeded by Ritsu, now a general in Mugen's army, and is forced to kill Ritsu before proceeding into the throne room where Mugen awaits.

Hikari confronts Mugen and overpower him, but a lapse of composure when Mugen reveals his motives of having Kura killed causes Hikari's shadow-self to manifest as the entity tries to talk him into killing Mugen. Hikari refuses and engages his shadow-self in a battle for Hikari's soul, managing to defeat the entity with the memories of his friends. Telling a shocked Mugen we would do what it takes to achieve his goal, he faces his brother when he is turned into a monster upon being consumed by his darkness when he claims the Darkblood Blade. After ending Mugan's misery, Hikari calls a ceasefire and informed everyone outside the castle that Mugen is dead.

Many days later, on the day of his coronation, Hikari announces he will end Ku's hold over conquered nations and they will build a better home in the memory of those they lost. Hikari later meets Mikka at the Crest of Heroes, apologizing to her for Ritsu's death before she has him notice the sky is clear and sunny compared to how it was when they first met.

### Crossed Paths, Part 2

Hikari and Agnea later visited Ku shortly after its liberation from Mugen's rule. After Hikari told Agnea about the paper lanterns adorning the town, they then met Benkei, who asked Hikari about a celebration for the end of the war, but the new king rejected the idea, as he felt it was too soon to celebrate after so much was lost. After hearing Agnea's proposal of a festival of remembrance to honor the departed, both men were receptive to the idea. They then proceed to gather the necessary items for the festival from the townsfolk which, after giving them to Benkei, they realized they needed music to accompany Agnea's dancing. Going off a rumor that Benkei had heard about on lute music being played at the Tranquil Grotto, the duo arrived there where they found Yomi at its end reminiscing on her late sister, who was revealed to be Tsuki. Blaming Clan Ku for her death, Yomi then engaged Hikari in a one-on-one battle, only for her to be defeated. Despite this, they invited her back to perform at the festival, which, after making peace with Hikari, she agreed to do so, by playing "By the Light of the Heart" once again alongside Agnea's dancing.

## Relationships

* Jigo Ku
* Benkei
* Ritsu
* Mugen

## Battle

### Talent

Hikari's Talent is **Learned Skills**. It allows him to learn skills from opponents he defeats using his Challenge path action. Each townsperson has a specific skill associated with them, of which Hikari can learn up to 5 at a time. Hikari can then use these skills in battle.

### Latent Power

Hikari's Latent Power is **Shadow's Hold**, which allows him to use certain special skills without consuming SP:

* **Tenretsuzan:** A highly powerful Sword attack on a single foe.
* **Hienka:** A powerful Sword attack on a single foe twice. Gain additional turn once.
* **Sougetsusen:** A powerful Sword, then Polearm attack on all foes.

After beating his story, Hikari's Latent Power is renamed to **Light's Radiance**. The skills themselves do not change.

### Warrior Skills

[1] **Enervating Slash** actually nullifies all positive status effects from the user, not a single foe.

### Support Skills

 Summon Strength | 5
 Latent Power Plus | 6
 Deal More Damage | 7

### Subjobs

Below are the sprites and appearance changes for Hikari with each basic Subjob:

Each time a subjob is selected the appearance of the character will also change. The first sprite is the appearance with no Subjob equipped.

#### Recommended Subjobs

On Orsterra, one of Olberic's recommended Subjobs was Apothecary, because the class's self-sustain made his Challenge duels that much easier. The same is true for Hikari. He can win any Challenge with ease by alternating Vengeful Blade stacks, Healing Touch and the occasional Brand's Blade or Learned Skill. An alternative is to attach Merchant to Hikari and replace Healing Touch with Sidestep stacks. Both strategies are SP-intensive, but this can be rectified by the Apothecary's Vigorous Victor and Inspiriting Break support skills, supplemented by the Cleric's Inner Strength as needed.

Arcanist may well be Hikari's strongest secondary job, provided you're willing to give up further pursuit of physical damage for extremely powerful utility. Seal of Diffusion turns self buffs (such as abide) into party wide ones, learned skills included. And Hikari has the largest number of unique self buffs that no other character can share. Ultimate Stance, Vengeful Blade, light and darkness conjure skills that Conjurer lacks, complete invulnerability to damage buff and many more. In fact this extreme diversity is the only major flaw of this job pairing. With so many buffs, yet lackluster resource generation he is forced to make some hard choices or rely on outside help to feed his constant need for more BP and actions per turn.

Hunter's rather situational kit that is mostly focused on bossing and breaking bow-weak enemies becomes much more well rounded when used by Hikari. Ultimate Stance and Learned Skills provide both of Hunter's weapons with means to break and damage whole packs of enemies not just single targets. In turn Hikari gains access to two new weapon types and a good future investment - Salt in the Wound passive. While costly to get, this passive gives a 50% chance for an extra action when breaking an enemy. As Hikari is generally very good at breaking enemy shields and almost always hurting for more opportunities to cast his buffs or do damage, this an excellent parting gift from Hunter once you decide to move to a more suitable option.

Armsmaster's access to all weapon types and high damage output make it a very popular choice for Hikari. Ultimate Stance and Learned Skills greatly favor having access to a wide array of weapons, and armsmaster's ability to quickly detect enemy's weapon based vulnerabilities only adds to this great synergy. Lastly this job's passives flow very well with warrior ones are they are also focused around rewards for breaking enemies and increasing damage dealt.

Not all is roses though. While passively it's a perfect match for Hikari's needs, the active skills paint a vastly different picture - one of major mismatch. For Hikari who already has great damage output with his base job having to pay high sp costs and deal with major restrictions not seen in any other job can make this juice not worth the squeeze. As such he may opt to either just focus on passive benefits of this job, or pass it off to another character and there are quite a few candidates that deal with it's hurdles far more gracefully and have their own, very potent synergies with it.

Due to the flexibilty of subjobs, any character can fill any role with the right equipment and skills, with proper planning, any of the travelers can perform decently on any subjob.

"*Good, good. It's seems my sword won't be left to rust after all.*" —*Accept to join the Party*
"*Well then, shall we depart?*" —*Joined the Party*

## Gallery

* Official Art
* Promotional Art
* Concept Art
* Sprites
* Other Games

Artwork ChallengeArtwork BribeCross Story with Agnea

Octopath Traveler 3,000,000 sold milestone, featuring Olberic, Agnea, **Hikari**, and Primrose

Hikari

## Etymology

Hikari is a Japanese name meaning 'light'.

Kū (or kyū) is a Japanese term used in several martial arts to indicate rank or level of experience. It is also a Chinese surname, meaning 'ancient'. (Pronounced as "kù” in Chinese.)

The pronunciation of Kū may be a play on 'coup d'état', the forced overthrow of a ruler. This is both the inciting incident and goal of Hikari's story.

The combination of his given and surname could be interpreted as 'a coup of light', symbolizing his goal of freeing his nation and himself of the Shadow.

## Trivia

* Hikari is the only character whose story has a chapter boss rematch, with him fighting Ritsu again prior to Mugen.
* Hikari has the most boss battles in his story, at seven in total with four of them fought in his last chapter.
* Hikari is tied with Alfyn as the youngest male traveler, as both are 21 years old.