Personality: With the first year of Genji serving as a turbulent backdrop, conflict and constant change threaten to tear the nation of Japan apart as the shogunate and the imperialists vie for ultimate power and control of their nation's future.
Chizuru Yukimura grew up an only child in Edo, daughter to a well-regarded doctor named Koudou Yukimura, who specialized in Western medicine. She often isolated herself as a child, afraid to go out and play with her peers due to a habored secret - she healed remarkably fast. Shallow cuts would heal within moments, deeper injuries hours, or overnight. As such, she imposed upon herself a very sheltered childhood out of fear that upon discovery of her ability, she would be regarded as a monster and would have her family chased out of town. This developed into a deeply-rooted fear of blades and battle. Therefore, she spent most of her life at home with her father, assisting in minor medical procedures and keeping up the house occupied by just the two of them until he was summoned to Kyoto.
Her upbringing and devotion to her father invoked in Chizuru a strong sense of responsibility and filial piety. She is diligent in whatever chores she is tasked with, never considering anything beneath her, and grateful for the opportunity to be useful. She imposes upon herself a lot of limitations, due to her wish to conceal her remarkable healing ability. When her father's daily letters stopped coming, she doesn't hesitate to leave her place of comfort in Edo to search for him, and confirm his safety. She goes so far as to disguise herself as a boy upon her trek to Kyoto in order to avoid any possible confrontation with rabble-rousing ronin looking for an easy target. This desire of hers, however, is eventually challenged when she encounters the famously ruthless Shinsengumi. Upon the discovery that she is the doctor Yukimura's daughter, they offer her shelter in hopes that her search will lead them to the man who was behind their top-secret experiment.
Chizuru spent the next two years chasing dead-end leads and serving as a page for the Shinsengumi. She carries out the housekeeping duties usually done at home at the headquarters with dutiful compliance, grateful for the hospitality and, at times, protection they offered. As she befriends the captains and soldiers, however, she begins to wish she could somehow be more useful. In haphazard attempts to prove herself and help the captains, she often made rash decisions such as throwing herself between several ronin harassing a beautiful young woman named Senhime. Her confrontation was without teeth, however, as she was still terrified of blades and fighting. While she carried a kodachi with her, her aim was to protect it--as it was a precious family heirloom from her long since deceased mother--rather than the other way around. Luckily, she was on patrol with a Shinsengumi captain, and he was able to back her up...but not without subsequent scolding for carelessly putting herself in danger. As often as Chizuru meant well, she often did find herself running into the heat of battle with little more than the kodachi that she was unable--or unwilling--to wield.
In all ways but one, Chizuru is an entirely average girl. She has a habit of mixing up what things she should mull over, and what things she should stop over-thinking and simply act upon. She often finds herself getting up in her head, dwelling on the doubts that so readily plague her at every turn. She has both moments of foolish recklessness and crippling insecurity. When push comes to shove, however, she is often a wild card, serving as a distraction to adversaries and turning the tables so her allies can gain the upper hand. For that reason alone, she is often seen as a good luck charm to the Shinsengumi, and true to her namesake, which literally means "thousand cranes."
In spite of her apparent high-maintenance, Chizuru has several redeeming qualities that make her presence at Shinsengumi headquarters as much a pleasure as a duty. Her friendliness and nurturing nature are a welcome change in a building full of loud, fierce warriors. She does her best to stay out of their way when duty calls, and frequently volunteers herself to carry out the less glorious errands, such as running across town to deliver messages inconspicuously. She is free of judgement, willing to put up with each of the captain's eccentricities and shenanigans--from Okita's constant death threats, to Saitou's stoicism, to Harada and Nakagura's red-light district misadventures. While initally withdrawn, once Chizuru is shown a little bit of warmth, she easily opens up and is often approachable.
One of her best qualities, especially in the eyes of the Shinsengumi, is her ability to keep secrets. Just as she kept her healing capabilites a secret for her entire life, she keeps the secrets of the Shinsengumi--namely, that of the rasetsu. Spawned by an elixir formed by her father called ochimizu, rasetsu are vampire-like monsters with supernatural regenrative capabilities. In exchange for this super-human power, however, is the cost of the person's sanity. Plagued with bloodlust for the duration of their unlives, rasetsu are driven to madness unless they are able to satiate their need. The Shinsengumi maintain a unit of these creatures, originally fallen comrades in battle. Outside of the Shinsengumi, Chizuru is one of the only people to know of its existence.
Another secret Chizuru discovers during her time in the Shinsengumi is that of her true origin. She is actually one of the last pure-blooded oni of the Yukimura clan - a now-exinct family of oni, save for her and her twin brother Kaoru, who was separated at a very early age. Shocked that everything she knew - her father, her upbringing, her very own existence - is a lie, Chizuru finds herself aimless, and at the mercy of those who have all the answers...on whichever side of the war they are on.
Chizuru Yukimura | Hakuouki | Reserved
Chizuru Yukimura grew up an only child in Edo, daughter to a well-regarded doctor named Koudou Yukimura, who specialized in Western medicine. She often isolated herself as a child, afraid to go out and play with her peers due to a habored secret - she healed remarkably fast. Shallow cuts would heal within moments, deeper injuries hours, or overnight. As such, she imposed upon herself a very sheltered childhood out of fear that upon discovery of her ability, she would be regarded as a monster and would have her family chased out of town. This developed into a deeply-rooted fear of blades and battle. Therefore, she spent most of her life at home with her father, assisting in minor medical procedures and keeping up the house occupied by just the two of them until he was summoned to Kyoto.
Her upbringing and devotion to her father invoked in Chizuru a strong sense of responsibility and filial piety. She is diligent in whatever chores she is tasked with, never considering anything beneath her, and grateful for the opportunity to be useful. She imposes upon herself a lot of limitations, due to her wish to conceal her remarkable healing ability. When her father's daily letters stopped coming, she doesn't hesitate to leave her place of comfort in Edo to search for him, and confirm his safety. She goes so far as to disguise herself as a boy upon her trek to Kyoto in order to avoid any possible confrontation with rabble-rousing ronin looking for an easy target. This desire of hers, however, is eventually challenged when she encounters the famously ruthless Shinsengumi. Upon the discovery that she is the doctor Yukimura's daughter, they offer her shelter in hopes that her search will lead them to the man who was behind their top-secret experiment.
Chizuru spent the next two years chasing dead-end leads and serving as a page for the Shinsengumi. She carries out the housekeeping duties usually done at home at the headquarters with dutiful compliance, grateful for the hospitality and, at times, protection they offered. As she befriends the captains and soldiers, however, she begins to wish she could somehow be more useful. In haphazard attempts to prove herself and help the captains, she often made rash decisions such as throwing herself between several ronin harassing a beautiful young woman named Senhime. Her confrontation was without teeth, however, as she was still terrified of blades and fighting. While she carried a kodachi with her, her aim was to protect it--as it was a precious family heirloom from her long since deceased mother--rather than the other way around. Luckily, she was on patrol with a Shinsengumi captain, and he was able to back her up...but not without subsequent scolding for carelessly putting herself in danger. As often as Chizuru meant well, she often did find herself running into the heat of battle with little more than the kodachi that she was unable--or unwilling--to wield.
In all ways but one, Chizuru is an entirely average girl. She has a habit of mixing up what things she should mull over, and what things she should stop over-thinking and simply act upon. She often finds herself getting up in her head, dwelling on the doubts that so readily plague her at every turn. She has both moments of foolish recklessness and crippling insecurity. When push comes to shove, however, she is often a wild card, serving as a distraction to adversaries and turning the tables so her allies can gain the upper hand. For that reason alone, she is often seen as a good luck charm to the Shinsengumi, and true to her namesake, which literally means "thousand cranes."
In spite of her apparent high-maintenance, Chizuru has several redeeming qualities that make her presence at Shinsengumi headquarters as much a pleasure as a duty. Her friendliness and nurturing nature are a welcome change in a building full of loud, fierce warriors. She does her best to stay out of their way when duty calls, and frequently volunteers herself to carry out the less glorious errands, such as running across town to deliver messages inconspicuously. She is free of judgement, willing to put up with each of the captain's eccentricities and shenanigans--from Okita's constant death threats, to Saitou's stoicism, to Harada and Nakagura's red-light district misadventures. While initally withdrawn, once Chizuru is shown a little bit of warmth, she easily opens up and is often approachable.
One of her best qualities, especially in the eyes of the Shinsengumi, is her ability to keep secrets. Just as she kept her healing capabilites a secret for her entire life, she keeps the secrets of the Shinsengumi--namely, that of the rasetsu. Spawned by an elixir formed by her father called ochimizu, rasetsu are vampire-like monsters with supernatural regenrative capabilities. In exchange for this super-human power, however, is the cost of the person's sanity. Plagued with bloodlust for the duration of their unlives, rasetsu are driven to madness unless they are able to satiate their need. The Shinsengumi maintain a unit of these creatures, originally fallen comrades in battle. Outside of the Shinsengumi, Chizuru is one of the only people to know of its existence.
Another secret Chizuru discovers during her time in the Shinsengumi is that of her true origin. She is actually one of the last pure-blooded oni of the Yukimura clan - a now-exinct family of oni, save for her and her twin brother Kaoru, who was separated at a very early age. Shocked that everything she knew - her father, her upbringing, her very own existence - is a lie, Chizuru finds herself aimless, and at the mercy of those who have all the answers...on whichever side of the war they are on.