Story
Shin Hisako is a particular form of another character, Hisako. They share biography, but one moves a bit further than the other.
The life of this girl starts with subtle poetic beauty. But then, it ends with an awful tragedy.
She is born in a year when peach trees blossom especially long. A former samurai and his wife are blessed with a baby, and they name her Chiharu, which means “One thousand springs.”
Chiharu spends her early years training continually. Even when she helps on the rice fields, Chiharu tries to improve her battle movements.
The father wants to make a mighty warrior out of his daughter. The world around them is so dangerous, and even women should be able to protect themselves. Chiharu learns how to fight with various weapons, especially a katana and a poisoned cat’s claw. Ex-samurai promises to give the daughter his naginata, a pole with a blade — he trains the girl with it, but Chiharu will get it only after the father’s death.
One day, Chiharu meets a young man. And no, it’s not a romantic story. The guy is rich, and his family is very powerful. He sees a beautiful girl and decides to use this “opportunity.” But Chiharu easily fights back and humiliates that fool.
Alas, the story doesn’t end here. A bit later, Chiharu spends a day in a bamboo forest. When she returns to her village, she sees a terrible picture — houses are on fire, many villagers are dead, and horsem*n surround the area.
The parents of Chiharu are also dead. The girl takes the father’s naginata and starts killing the attackers feverishly. Before her death, Chiharu injures the young man who tried to rape her. He gets a hit by the poisonous blade, so his bitter end is guaranteed.
The remaining villagers get highly inspired by the bravery of Chiharu, so they successfully fight back and drive the horsem*n out.
Chiharu becomes a legend. People create a shrine for her, and someone says that a spirit of a young girl visits the place — they name her an Everlasting Child, Hisako. It is believed that Hisako protects that land.
Much later, ARIA creates a situation to lure Hisako to the physical world. The artificial intelligence wants to study the girl and her abnormal abilities. Precious family artifacts are stolen by Sadira, but Hisako returns them and destroys all the evil intentions.
Still, her mission does not end here. Hisako decides not to go back to the Astral Plane and remains in between two dimensions, guarding the world of humans.
At some point, Hisako manages to go beyond her current abilities and unleash her true power. She is not the same warrior — her movements are swifter, and her strikes are stronger. The character even changes her weapon to katana — one her father used to fight with. This purification transformed the character into Shin Hisako.
Personality
The process of purification affected the personality of Shin Hisako first of all. She is free from hatred towards stupid, aggressive people. Now, the spirit can be calm and focused on more important things — it’s fighting Gargos for her. Shin Hisako has no rage in her heart, so her battles against evil forces are more efficient.
Playstyle
Shin Hisako feels pretty much like a totally different character than Hisako. And that’s not only about her weapon — but obviously, having a katana in your hands drastically changes attacks. Shin Hisako has surprisingly quick movements. Her forward dash is teleportation, so you might find interesting uses for it in the fights. The normals are also fast, with Medium and Heavy reaching really far.
In general, Shin Hisako is pretty straightforward. How would you fight as a samurai with a katana? Sure, add some mystical tricks into the moveset, such as spirit orbs that turn into unusual projectiles and make Shin Hisako good at mixups.
Appearance
Shin Hisako is very similar to Hisako — yeah, it’s literally the same girl and the same spirit, just slightly transformed.
She is a typical onryō – a spirit pulled from the world of the dead to avenge abusers. You might know such a character from Japanese horror movies: long dark hair, mystically glowing eyes, and generally twisted poses and movements.
The unique features of Shin Hisako are mostly her outfit and the gold shine in her eyes.
