Yui Ichika

"Stay comfy... I guess..."

## Overview

"**Stay comfy... I guess..."** - Yui Ichika, 2022

Yui is a student of Morning Glory in Poppy Valley. She has been there since 2019, but got time-jumped to 2022 for some reason and she was transferred from Poppy Valley High to Morning Glory after the students were forced into boarding schools. She is the acting president of the Outdoor Exploration Club (OEC). She created the club because she dearly misses her hometown of Yamanashi and she is heavily inspired by the beauty of nature. She is a very friendly person who just wants to live in peace and wants to spread this peace and positivity to everyone.

## Appearance

Yui is a petite girl with long, messy, light grey blue hair with a short ahoge, brown eyes, eyebags, and thick round eyebrows. She usually wears her uniform, a long sleeved grey vest over a light beige collared shirt and a black tie, a dark gray skirt, almost knee-high white socks, and brown school shoes. Sometimes she wears different kinds of scarves, and sometimes she tries out different outfits that she might find cute. She might wear a mango box over her head if she feels too embarrassed.

## Personality

Yui is extremely shy and socially anxious in real life, but is more social online (but still showing signs of anxiety whenever she is put in a bad situation or when she gathers too much attention). She is generally very laid-back and tries to avoid conflict at any cost. If she does get into conflicts or trouble, she usually breaks down into tears as a self-defense mechanism/fight or flight response.

She has crippling anxiety when she is put in situations that are uncomfortable to her, some examples would be encountering people being rude to her, feeling excluded in groups, experiencing situations that would horribly scare people, losing a friend, seeing/experience something uncomfy, overthinking that she did something wrong, and a lot more. Despite these anxieties, she still strives to be positive and tries to hide all her worries behind her happy facade… which commonly breaks.

She wants to talk to people but is too afraid to ask, that's why she becomes happy whenever she gets approached by people. She still gets awkward whenever she is talking with people one on one (except for Kana whom she is comfortable with) and feels sad whenever she gets left out. Due to this, Yui is alone in either her dorm room or the OEC clubroom most of the time (with Kana visiting every once in a while). While she appreciates solitude, she still wants to make more friends that she's comfortable with.

## Story

In the weird town of Poppy Valley with everyone experiencing the supernatural and extraterrestrial, she likes to see the extraordinary within ordinary daily life. Yui is very used to the slow idyllic life in her hometown in Yamanashi: the warm greetings of friendly neighbors, the cool air in the morning, the quiet peaceful sceneries, the towering beauty of Mt. Fuji, and her calming daily trips to her school on her bike. When her dad, Junpei Ichika (一花純平), got a job in Poppy Valley, they had to leave Japan and move to Oregon to live in Poppy Valley. Yui was sad, but she understands her dad’s decision. Yui was then enrolled in Poppy Valley High in 2019 and proceeded to create the Outdoor Exploration Club. She didn’t have any members besides herself, but having the Conspiracy Research Club visit from time to time to borrow outdoor equipment was enough to make her happy.

One day, after a solo camping trip near Poppy Valley High, she suddenly wakes up 2 years later in 2022 after an unknown time-jump. She was able to sneak back into her old clubroom and stayed there for 2 months and she was later transferred to Morning Glory Academy after the students were forced into boarding schools. She rebuilt her own clubroom in Morning Glory and moved into her dorm when a new face joined the club, Kana Fuyuki, a transfer student from Hokkaido. After this moment, Yui's life has never felt more exciting.

## Notable Quotes

* *"I'm Yui Ichika, a transfer student from Japan! よろしく! I love interacting with people but at the same time I get anxiety... I try to give everyone a glimpse of my ordinary laid-back life amongst everything weird in this town!"*
* *"uuaagHHHHHUUHHHHGGHHUU (ಥ﹏ಥ)"*
* *"Everyone is my friend!"*
* *"I hope I can continue to give everyone the warmth and healing you need here in Poppy Valley..."*
* *"The stars, the sea... they're all glowing... it's... beautiful."*
* *"I miss Yamanashi... the colors of the autumn mountains, the rhythmic sound of trains in the countryside, and the towering Mt. Fuji... it's so nostalgic..."*
* *"My name is Yui Ichika. My favorite food is Japanese curry. Please don't forget about me."*
* *"Please don't mess with me... I will cry..."*
* *"The night sky will always be one of the reasons why I love nature... It's always so pretty when you can see the vast sparkling sky..."*
* *"The fireworks may be over, but just sitting here alone with Kana and looking at the stars makes my heart feel at ease."*