Difference between revisions of "Ai Yamamoto"

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Here's some more information about them; you might include parts of your application, if you enjoy sharing, or more up-to-date relationships with characters on the game.   
 
Here's some more information about them; you might include parts of your application, if you enjoy sharing, or more up-to-date relationships with characters on the game.   
  
== Profile ==
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== Background ==
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Ai Yamamoto was raised in a small coastal village called Matsonou. Her mother, Katso, was a self-employed hairdresser that visited other small villages and farms in the area to give haircuts to eldery people who didn’t want to spend the time driving to the nearby town of Magano. Her father, Saka, owned three small fishing trawlers and captained the largest one himself.
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Ai was born with an unusual birthmark between her shoulder blades, directly over her spine. It was just a birthmark in the middle of her back, so Ai was never really aware of it as a child.
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During the first six months of her life, her mother took time off work to care for her. Her father was often absent for several weeks at a time, due to his commitments on the fishing trawler he worked on. As Ai got older, her mother would either take her with her on house calls, or ask one of the people in the village she trusted to look after her daughter.
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During the time her father was home, Ai spent most of her time around him. From learning to swim in the shallow water near the old pier, to helping her father wrestle in a ‘massive fish that would have got away otherwise.’
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Once a year in spring, the village would see its population increase by a very small margin as a few people from long established families would return home for the village festival. Traditionally, the youngest girls in the village would be instructed in how to weave, and in joint effort, they would weave an effigy made from seaweed and scrap found on the shore, until it was human like in form and then dressed to look like a devil.
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Two maidens would then be chosen, and forced to beat the effigy on the shore until they were exhausted. The adults would yell and cheer, encouraging them to keep on striking that effigy. After the girls were exhausted, there would then be a feast made from food either caught in the ocean or collected from the surrounding hillsides.
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The tradition went back centuries, and was meant to protect the village and its inhabitants from corruption and evil, and bring bountiful catches. Though more modern days, it was more of a chance for families to catch up once a year.
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This gave Ai a chance to get to know her cousins as well as make a favourite Aunt. An Aunt that was a police officer from Tokyo. Each following festival when her aunt was there, Ai would spend time with her, listening to stories of the big city and crime her aunt fought and stopped.
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While Ai wasn’t being raised by rich parents, she had experiences that she would consider worth more than money as she got older. Raised with local fairy tales told by both her parents and her carers. Tales of what not to do, of places to avoid and stories of two nameless shrine maidens of pure hearts who sacrificed themselves to save the world. Though at the same time, she was also extremely curious and liked to explore.
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The story of the shrine maidens and their bravery inspired Ai to do her best, even if she wasn’t any good at what she was trying to do. It also inspired her to do her best for the people around her and to be truthful at all times.
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The village was several hours away from the larger cities, and most of the younger people had moved away for university before Ai was born, so Ai never really made any friends during her early years. The local school was mostly empty with only a couple of teachers, with Ai being the youngest student in the school.
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Ai was an average student in school, who had a terrible habit of handing in half-finished homework so that she could either spend time with her father, follow the older children around, help the eldery people in the village, or go swimming. Her parents were informed about it time and time again, and each time Ai would start to fully complete her homework and after a few weeks, would revert back to her usual habit of never completing it fully.
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With each year seeing less and less students in the village school, the school district decided to close the school down and relocate the students to the small school in the nearby school in the town of Magano. So at age 12, Ai finally found herself surrounded by children her own age.
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At first, Ai was overwhelmed, by both the 30 minute car trip to get to school and the size of the school. At first, Ai sat by herself, not really knowing anyone from the school, until she was approached by members from several clubs. She had no interest in cooking or horticulture, and politely declined. Track and field was fun, but not her thing. However it was the swimming club that won her over.
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While she wasn’t the fastest swimmer at first, as those with natural talent beat her easily, which seemed to awaken her competitive spirit. As time went on, she got faster and started to make more and more friends both inside of the club and outside of it.
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With proper coaching, she started to develop her technique more and continued to get faster. At the same time, her grades started to improve as she reached an agreement with the swimming coach, that she would complete all of her homework in exchange for training as she became more and more serious about the sport.
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Within a year, she became one of the top swimmers in the school for her age. She also became known as a good sportsperson, as she would actively encourage her club mates, and even cheering on her rivals during competitions, especially those that she wanted to race against herself.
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As the days grew longer for Ai, especially with training, she still found the time to help out the elderly around the village, even explore the forests around the village. Usually though, only on weekends and holidays.
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Helping out the elderly people of the small, dying village actually ended up with Ai learning things that she would have never known. She learnt more about some of the folklore of the village, how to find wild food, as well as the local legends. One of the local legends talked about an old village that was once of the coast, and was lost to the sea during an earthquake during a typhoon, taking with it a foreign ‘black ship’ into the depths.
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However one old lady told Ai another story about the village beneath the waves that happened around 500 years ago. That two young shrine maidens were granted magical powers to defeat a demon from the sea. She talked about how the village came together to fight against the demon, with even the crew of a black ship joining in the fight for survival, using their European muskets and cannons to delay the demon and its minions. She even spoke of a bejeweled captured cannon that was meant to be a gift for the Tokugawa Shogunate.
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Needless to say, the gift was never received, as the entire village ended up being swallowed by the waves. The ship lost, the crew and villagers all but wiped out. One of the shrine maidens lay dead, and the other seriously injured. However the demon was sealed away into a pot, so that the demon could be destroyed once they had more help, resulting in a pyrrhic victory. Sadly the pot was also lost to the depths as well.
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The remaining villagers started to rebuild the village in a small cove nearby, and the memory of that night was soon forgotten, and only passed down through a select few. She was told that if she found a shrine after a small passage through the cliffs, she would have found the right place. Ai was transfixed by the story and vowed to find the old village. So over the following weeks, when she had free time, she scoured the countryside trying to find where the fabled lost village was.
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This cycle continued to go up until just after her 14th birthday. After catching a rather nasty cold, she remembered the talk of the old village. She spent a few hours online, researching the area around her village and even using satellite images to try and find something. She did find something at first, which was a repeating pattern that didn't look right in the aerial images of the forest. She soon realised that she was looking at images of old rice patty fields, and realised that she had either found an old plantation or she'd found the old village.
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She spent a bit of time looking at the pictures and decided to investigate the area when feeling better. A few days later, she went out on her adventure to find out what was out there. She thought it'd be a 30 minute trip there, and another 30 minutes back.
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By the time she'd picked her way through the forest, got lost, found where she was again, close to half a day had passed.  It was only pure luck that saw her stumble across an old paved road that ran through a long abandoned gate that lead to rocks.
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Ai carefully squeezed her way through the gap after following the path, leading her to the overgrown and abandoned shrine. She'd been taught how to identify a few types of plants that might have escaped from farms, but the area she found was nature's bounty. As she found her way towards the shoreline, she found it teeming with fish. Ai didn’t find the old village, but instead an old shrine that had been long forgotten, making her satisfied and only encouraging her to explore more.
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She soon found a group of like minded friends, who would explore the town of Magano, poking around in abandoned buildings and places. Ai would often join them when she wasn’t training after school.
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With another added hobby, her grades slipt down to average, simply not having enough time to study, train and goof off. With her new found hobby on top of school and training, Ai found she hardly had any energy left at the end of the day and was often exhausted.
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It was around the same time that Ai broke her first record. She managed to shave around 2 seconds off the existing record for the inter-club competition during the freestyle finals, placed third in backstroke and then assisted the relay team onto victory. Though when she wasn’t competing, she was on the sidelines, encouraging her club friends on, as well as other competitors on, and being on hand to try and cheer up those who came last during their heats.
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Her life became even more complicated when the club and herself were invited to the regionals. The school even held fundraisers to help the club reach the meet. With the relay team narrowly managed to make it into the finals and then onto nationals.
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Ai also made it through to the nationals. The first heat, she broke her personal best, which she had set at the district level. In the final heat, she managed to beat the regional record, which started to draw attention from several prestigious schools in Japan.
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She continued to compete, representing her region against other regions, visiting places that she had only ever seen on TV. She soon learnt how to pace herself, aiming for a qualifying spot for quarter and semi finals, and saving her energy to go all out during the finals.
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She managed to make it to the national level for girls her age. The first heat, she almost broke the national record, the second she was more interested in meeting the qualifying for the next heat. She made it into the finals,  and it seemed like the world had its eyes on her.
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Ai seemed to notice that as well. She climbed the blocks, ready for the race that would make her, only to pay too much attention to the crowd. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she froze up, with only the crack of the starter’s gun bringing her back to reality. The race had already started, and she was stuck in last.
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She managed to claw her way into second last place, and didn’t have a chance of winning. At first she was upset and disappointed that she lost, however she didn’t dwell on it for long and quickly bounced back to her cheery self, giving the winners a hug and vowed to them that she would give them a challenge next time they met.
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With the school based nationals over for the year, Ai returned to her normal life. Returning to Matsonou village, Ai was relieved that she could take a break from the sport that she enjoyed. She returned to patrolling with the team she was with, hunting down anything bad or evil that might threaten the village and the nearby town.
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Despite not winning the finals, she started to receive offers of scholarships from different schools across Japan that were interested in having a potential champion as illumini. Offers came from private and well off public schools, including one from each of the Sister Schools in Tokyo. After a week of deciding the offers, Ai decided to remain loyal to her coach and decided to remain at Magano High.
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This relieved her coach and also the rest of the swimming club.
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However fate had something else in mind. During a wet and stormy night, while Ai was tucked up and dreaming of fish, her mother was driving her father to work in the early hours of the morning. However her parents ended up meeting a pair of drunk international tourists. Who were driving on the wrong side of the road, and at 100km/h on a blind corner.
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While glass and debris were scattered over the road, the cars were not found until later that day after having slid off the road in the wet conditions. The occupants of both cars were declared dead at the scene.
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The first thing Ai knew about it was Ai being pulled from class to meet with the Principal of the school. When she got there, there were two police officers who asked her to go with them to the police station in Magano. Ai was distressed, despite the assurances from the police officers that she did nothing wrong.
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When they arrived at the police station, Ai was led to a quiet room while one of the police officers stayed with her. A councellor had been brought in to meet with Ai, as well. They carefully explained to her that her parents had been killed in a car accident that morning, and if there was anyone else they could call for her.
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Ai told them about her Aunt, who was also a police officer. However she didn’t know her number. With a few minutes searching, the police officers were able to get in touch with her aunt.
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To Ai, it felt like her aunt, uncle and cousin arrived days later. However in reality, it was close to 4 hours after her aunt was contacted. Her aunt was also distraught that she lost her brother and sister-in-law, so her uncle did most of the arrangements for the funeral and cremation, as well as the internment of the ashes in the Yamamoto plot in Matsonou village.
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A few days after her parents were laid to rest, a small somber gathering was planned so that Ai could say good bye to her friends, and also the few other residents of the village before her unplanned move to Tokyo. Ai seemed to spend a lot of her time crying, hugging a few friends and just being miserable.
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Ai was spoken to about a few schools in the area that had offered sponsorship that she hadn’t officially refused, including Infinity, Ohtori and the school closest to her Aunt and Uncle’s house, which was Juuban. At the time, Ai wasn’t interested and just shoved a finger towards the public school of Juuban, as she had raced against the Sister Schools before.
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However Ai’s Aunt and Uncle discussed when she was out of earshot, and decided that Ohtori Academy would be the best solution for Ai, as the scholarship would cover her boarding, uniforms, and food. However, her Aunt and Uncle would provide her a place to stay on the weekends and holidays so that she could get a break and be around family.
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It would also give her Uncle contacts that he could take advantage of.
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Once the house had been cleaned for a final time, it was soon locked up and with last goodbyes, Ai left for her new life in Tokyo. She spent a couple of weeks with her Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, before she was taken over to Ohtori Academy to get formally enrolled and to move some of her stuff in. It was a surprise to her to find out that she was being offered one of the Kazehana scholarships, instead of one for athletics, like she initially believed.
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The first day, her aunt and uncle left her behind with her cousin, so that she could be taught how to find her way back to their house. This happened a couple more times over the next few days as more of her things were delivered. Until she got to the point that she was willing to try staying overnight by herself and with her roommate.
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Thankfully she quickly made some friends amongst the sports orientated, which has helped her settle in. As well as having access to a professional counsellor to help her work through the trauma and distress that she is currently experiencing. 
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During a day when she was feeling more active and happier, she started to explore Southern Cross Island, carefully sneaking away to be able to do that without being seen. She enjoyed the sites of the island, happily exploring what it had to offer, even collecting a few ingredients for that night's meal. The entire time she was exploring, she couldn’t help feel that she was being stalked by something wrong.
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Before long, she had her first encounter with an Orphan. The creature burst out of the ground, and Ai’s flight or fight instinct kicked in, leading to her fleeing from the creature. She was hounded through the woods, only to be chased onto the beach. If it wasn’t for her high level of fitness, she most likely would have been caught. She squeezed between two rocks, trying in vain to hide.
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A voice from above called out to her. It was a blonde, pale boy calling out to her. The one the other HiME know as Nagi Homura. He a few things to her, such ast being a HiME and that there was a way out of her current situation. However the chance at surviving would cost her, and potentially cost her dearly in the long run.
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She agreed to the bargain, and for some reason the birthmark on her back started to tingle as she pressed her hand against the rock the boy was standing on. All of a sudden, she felt a sudden heavy weight as a large, long barrelled cannon materialised out of nowhere. She fired three rapid shots in succession, only for each to miss much to her dismay. A cliff face, a wave and one pelican were not so lucky.
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In a panic, she called out “Arathtrue”, almost out of instinct. A creature with seemingly oily black fur and yellow eyes burst from the water, its rows of metallic teeth shining in the warm sun. Ai had never heard of it before, but the creature resembled the Dobhar Chu or the King Otter from Irish folklore, a creature that was said to be half-dog and half-otter. Arathture quickly made quick work of the orphan which vanishes into nothing.
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Ai cowered on the ground as the black creature that is her Child stalked towards her, whimpering as it loomed over her despite knowing deep down that it wasn’t going to hurt her. As the teeth baring those massive teeth parted, she feared the worst as they moved towards her head. She shut her eyes, expecting the worst, only to feel the creature nuzzle against her cheek and give a series of chirping whistles to reassure her.
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The shock was too much for Ai, who passed out. She awoke several hours later on the deserted beach in the dark. She stayed put for the night, not wanting to get lost in the dark, before setting out the following morning and returning to school grounds. She cautiously returned later in the day, only to find the damage to the cliff face that she caused was actually there and not part of some crazy dream.
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Since that time, she has fought face to face against Orphans a second time, keeping her range and using the rapid firing cannon to her advantage, and with her Child by her side. Arathtrue still unsettled her, but she knew that it meant her no harm and was in fact her guardian. Once the fight had ended, she took a few moments to finally inspect her Child. What she first thought was fur was actually a protective black oily waterproof coating over a metallic surface.
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Thanks to the noise that the two created during the fight against the Orphan, they had unknowingly got some unwanted attention. Two days later, a note was slipped under her dorm door when her roommate was out, detailing things that they knew about her and that someone would like to meet her at one of the Starbooks in Tokyo itself.
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Ai met with the contact at the designated Starbooks, more curious than everything else. She finally met the contact, who was an employee of the store. The two sat down in a quiet corner, with the contact explaining things to her. Not so much about being a HiME as the pale boy explained that to her. But being a Magic Girl in general, and what was lurking out there.
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Ai’s inexperience was on display and she looked more and more concerned the more that was explained to her. Until she finally asked to join the Tuners, seeing as they were more experienced than her and she’d be able to learn a lot from the other members.
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Over the few months that she’s been a HiME, she’s found herself rapidly developing skills, usually operating and bounty hunting in rural areas outside of Tokyo.
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== Relationships ==
 
== Relationships ==

Revision as of 10:48, 14 March 2020

Ai Yamamoto
Ai watching the sunset
IC Information
Full Name: Ai Yamamoto
Aliases: HiME Ai
Gender: Female
Age/Birthdate: 14 (Aug. 12, 2001)
Height: 5'6"
Hair Colour: Blonde
Eye Colour: Blue
Astrological Sign: Leo
Blood Type: AB
Favorite Food: Wild licorice
Least Favorite Food: Natto
Favorite Subject: PE
Least Favorite Subject: Science
Dossier
Organization: Tuners
Position: Tuner
School: Ohtori Academy (Grade 9)
OOC Information
Source: Mai-HiME (OC)
Player: SillyPigeon

Ai Yamamoto is currently under construction

Here's some more information about them; you might include parts of your application, if you enjoy sharing, or more up-to-date relationships with characters on the game.

Background

Ai Yamamoto was raised in a small coastal village called Matsonou. Her mother, Katso, was a self-employed hairdresser that visited other small villages and farms in the area to give haircuts to eldery people who didn’t want to spend the time driving to the nearby town of Magano. Her father, Saka, owned three small fishing trawlers and captained the largest one himself.

Ai was born with an unusual birthmark between her shoulder blades, directly over her spine. It was just a birthmark in the middle of her back, so Ai was never really aware of it as a child.

During the first six months of her life, her mother took time off work to care for her. Her father was often absent for several weeks at a time, due to his commitments on the fishing trawler he worked on. As Ai got older, her mother would either take her with her on house calls, or ask one of the people in the village she trusted to look after her daughter.

During the time her father was home, Ai spent most of her time around him. From learning to swim in the shallow water near the old pier, to helping her father wrestle in a ‘massive fish that would have got away otherwise.’

Once a year in spring, the village would see its population increase by a very small margin as a few people from long established families would return home for the village festival. Traditionally, the youngest girls in the village would be instructed in how to weave, and in joint effort, they would weave an effigy made from seaweed and scrap found on the shore, until it was human like in form and then dressed to look like a devil.

Two maidens would then be chosen, and forced to beat the effigy on the shore until they were exhausted. The adults would yell and cheer, encouraging them to keep on striking that effigy. After the girls were exhausted, there would then be a feast made from food either caught in the ocean or collected from the surrounding hillsides.

The tradition went back centuries, and was meant to protect the village and its inhabitants from corruption and evil, and bring bountiful catches. Though more modern days, it was more of a chance for families to catch up once a year.

This gave Ai a chance to get to know her cousins as well as make a favourite Aunt. An Aunt that was a police officer from Tokyo. Each following festival when her aunt was there, Ai would spend time with her, listening to stories of the big city and crime her aunt fought and stopped.

While Ai wasn’t being raised by rich parents, she had experiences that she would consider worth more than money as she got older. Raised with local fairy tales told by both her parents and her carers. Tales of what not to do, of places to avoid and stories of two nameless shrine maidens of pure hearts who sacrificed themselves to save the world. Though at the same time, she was also extremely curious and liked to explore.

The story of the shrine maidens and their bravery inspired Ai to do her best, even if she wasn’t any good at what she was trying to do. It also inspired her to do her best for the people around her and to be truthful at all times.

The village was several hours away from the larger cities, and most of the younger people had moved away for university before Ai was born, so Ai never really made any friends during her early years. The local school was mostly empty with only a couple of teachers, with Ai being the youngest student in the school.

Ai was an average student in school, who had a terrible habit of handing in half-finished homework so that she could either spend time with her father, follow the older children around, help the eldery people in the village, or go swimming. Her parents were informed about it time and time again, and each time Ai would start to fully complete her homework and after a few weeks, would revert back to her usual habit of never completing it fully.

With each year seeing less and less students in the village school, the school district decided to close the school down and relocate the students to the small school in the nearby school in the town of Magano. So at age 12, Ai finally found herself surrounded by children her own age.

At first, Ai was overwhelmed, by both the 30 minute car trip to get to school and the size of the school. At first, Ai sat by herself, not really knowing anyone from the school, until she was approached by members from several clubs. She had no interest in cooking or horticulture, and politely declined. Track and field was fun, but not her thing. However it was the swimming club that won her over.

While she wasn’t the fastest swimmer at first, as those with natural talent beat her easily, which seemed to awaken her competitive spirit. As time went on, she got faster and started to make more and more friends both inside of the club and outside of it.

With proper coaching, she started to develop her technique more and continued to get faster. At the same time, her grades started to improve as she reached an agreement with the swimming coach, that she would complete all of her homework in exchange for training as she became more and more serious about the sport.

Within a year, she became one of the top swimmers in the school for her age. She also became known as a good sportsperson, as she would actively encourage her club mates, and even cheering on her rivals during competitions, especially those that she wanted to race against herself.

As the days grew longer for Ai, especially with training, she still found the time to help out the elderly around the village, even explore the forests around the village. Usually though, only on weekends and holidays.

Helping out the elderly people of the small, dying village actually ended up with Ai learning things that she would have never known. She learnt more about some of the folklore of the village, how to find wild food, as well as the local legends. One of the local legends talked about an old village that was once of the coast, and was lost to the sea during an earthquake during a typhoon, taking with it a foreign ‘black ship’ into the depths.

However one old lady told Ai another story about the village beneath the waves that happened around 500 years ago. That two young shrine maidens were granted magical powers to defeat a demon from the sea. She talked about how the village came together to fight against the demon, with even the crew of a black ship joining in the fight for survival, using their European muskets and cannons to delay the demon and its minions. She even spoke of a bejeweled captured cannon that was meant to be a gift for the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Needless to say, the gift was never received, as the entire village ended up being swallowed by the waves. The ship lost, the crew and villagers all but wiped out. One of the shrine maidens lay dead, and the other seriously injured. However the demon was sealed away into a pot, so that the demon could be destroyed once they had more help, resulting in a pyrrhic victory. Sadly the pot was also lost to the depths as well.

The remaining villagers started to rebuild the village in a small cove nearby, and the memory of that night was soon forgotten, and only passed down through a select few. She was told that if she found a shrine after a small passage through the cliffs, she would have found the right place. Ai was transfixed by the story and vowed to find the old village. So over the following weeks, when she had free time, she scoured the countryside trying to find where the fabled lost village was.

This cycle continued to go up until just after her 14th birthday. After catching a rather nasty cold, she remembered the talk of the old village. She spent a few hours online, researching the area around her village and even using satellite images to try and find something. She did find something at first, which was a repeating pattern that didn't look right in the aerial images of the forest. She soon realised that she was looking at images of old rice patty fields, and realised that she had either found an old plantation or she'd found the old village.

She spent a bit of time looking at the pictures and decided to investigate the area when feeling better. A few days later, she went out on her adventure to find out what was out there. She thought it'd be a 30 minute trip there, and another 30 minutes back.

By the time she'd picked her way through the forest, got lost, found where she was again, close to half a day had passed. It was only pure luck that saw her stumble across an old paved road that ran through a long abandoned gate that lead to rocks.

Ai carefully squeezed her way through the gap after following the path, leading her to the overgrown and abandoned shrine. She'd been taught how to identify a few types of plants that might have escaped from farms, but the area she found was nature's bounty. As she found her way towards the shoreline, she found it teeming with fish. Ai didn’t find the old village, but instead an old shrine that had been long forgotten, making her satisfied and only encouraging her to explore more.

She soon found a group of like minded friends, who would explore the town of Magano, poking around in abandoned buildings and places. Ai would often join them when she wasn’t training after school.

With another added hobby, her grades slipt down to average, simply not having enough time to study, train and goof off. With her new found hobby on top of school and training, Ai found she hardly had any energy left at the end of the day and was often exhausted.

It was around the same time that Ai broke her first record. She managed to shave around 2 seconds off the existing record for the inter-club competition during the freestyle finals, placed third in backstroke and then assisted the relay team onto victory. Though when she wasn’t competing, she was on the sidelines, encouraging her club friends on, as well as other competitors on, and being on hand to try and cheer up those who came last during their heats.

Her life became even more complicated when the club and herself were invited to the regionals. The school even held fundraisers to help the club reach the meet. With the relay team narrowly managed to make it into the finals and then onto nationals.

Ai also made it through to the nationals. The first heat, she broke her personal best, which she had set at the district level. In the final heat, she managed to beat the regional record, which started to draw attention from several prestigious schools in Japan.

She continued to compete, representing her region against other regions, visiting places that she had only ever seen on TV. She soon learnt how to pace herself, aiming for a qualifying spot for quarter and semi finals, and saving her energy to go all out during the finals.

She managed to make it to the national level for girls her age. The first heat, she almost broke the national record, the second she was more interested in meeting the qualifying for the next heat. She made it into the finals, and it seemed like the world had its eyes on her.

Ai seemed to notice that as well. She climbed the blocks, ready for the race that would make her, only to pay too much attention to the crowd. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she froze up, with only the crack of the starter’s gun bringing her back to reality. The race had already started, and she was stuck in last.

She managed to claw her way into second last place, and didn’t have a chance of winning. At first she was upset and disappointed that she lost, however she didn’t dwell on it for long and quickly bounced back to her cheery self, giving the winners a hug and vowed to them that she would give them a challenge next time they met.

With the school based nationals over for the year, Ai returned to her normal life. Returning to Matsonou village, Ai was relieved that she could take a break from the sport that she enjoyed. She returned to patrolling with the team she was with, hunting down anything bad or evil that might threaten the village and the nearby town.

Despite not winning the finals, she started to receive offers of scholarships from different schools across Japan that were interested in having a potential champion as illumini. Offers came from private and well off public schools, including one from each of the Sister Schools in Tokyo. After a week of deciding the offers, Ai decided to remain loyal to her coach and decided to remain at Magano High.

This relieved her coach and also the rest of the swimming club.

However fate had something else in mind. During a wet and stormy night, while Ai was tucked up and dreaming of fish, her mother was driving her father to work in the early hours of the morning. However her parents ended up meeting a pair of drunk international tourists. Who were driving on the wrong side of the road, and at 100km/h on a blind corner.

While glass and debris were scattered over the road, the cars were not found until later that day after having slid off the road in the wet conditions. The occupants of both cars were declared dead at the scene.

The first thing Ai knew about it was Ai being pulled from class to meet with the Principal of the school. When she got there, there were two police officers who asked her to go with them to the police station in Magano. Ai was distressed, despite the assurances from the police officers that she did nothing wrong.

When they arrived at the police station, Ai was led to a quiet room while one of the police officers stayed with her. A councellor had been brought in to meet with Ai, as well. They carefully explained to her that her parents had been killed in a car accident that morning, and if there was anyone else they could call for her.

Ai told them about her Aunt, who was also a police officer. However she didn’t know her number. With a few minutes searching, the police officers were able to get in touch with her aunt.

To Ai, it felt like her aunt, uncle and cousin arrived days later. However in reality, it was close to 4 hours after her aunt was contacted. Her aunt was also distraught that she lost her brother and sister-in-law, so her uncle did most of the arrangements for the funeral and cremation, as well as the internment of the ashes in the Yamamoto plot in Matsonou village.

A few days after her parents were laid to rest, a small somber gathering was planned so that Ai could say good bye to her friends, and also the few other residents of the village before her unplanned move to Tokyo. Ai seemed to spend a lot of her time crying, hugging a few friends and just being miserable.

Ai was spoken to about a few schools in the area that had offered sponsorship that she hadn’t officially refused, including Infinity, Ohtori and the school closest to her Aunt and Uncle’s house, which was Juuban. At the time, Ai wasn’t interested and just shoved a finger towards the public school of Juuban, as she had raced against the Sister Schools before.

However Ai’s Aunt and Uncle discussed when she was out of earshot, and decided that Ohtori Academy would be the best solution for Ai, as the scholarship would cover her boarding, uniforms, and food. However, her Aunt and Uncle would provide her a place to stay on the weekends and holidays so that she could get a break and be around family.

It would also give her Uncle contacts that he could take advantage of.

Once the house had been cleaned for a final time, it was soon locked up and with last goodbyes, Ai left for her new life in Tokyo. She spent a couple of weeks with her Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, before she was taken over to Ohtori Academy to get formally enrolled and to move some of her stuff in. It was a surprise to her to find out that she was being offered one of the Kazehana scholarships, instead of one for athletics, like she initially believed.

The first day, her aunt and uncle left her behind with her cousin, so that she could be taught how to find her way back to their house. This happened a couple more times over the next few days as more of her things were delivered. Until she got to the point that she was willing to try staying overnight by herself and with her roommate.

Thankfully she quickly made some friends amongst the sports orientated, which has helped her settle in. As well as having access to a professional counsellor to help her work through the trauma and distress that she is currently experiencing.


During a day when she was feeling more active and happier, she started to explore Southern Cross Island, carefully sneaking away to be able to do that without being seen. She enjoyed the sites of the island, happily exploring what it had to offer, even collecting a few ingredients for that night's meal. The entire time she was exploring, she couldn’t help feel that she was being stalked by something wrong.

Before long, she had her first encounter with an Orphan. The creature burst out of the ground, and Ai’s flight or fight instinct kicked in, leading to her fleeing from the creature. She was hounded through the woods, only to be chased onto the beach. If it wasn’t for her high level of fitness, she most likely would have been caught. She squeezed between two rocks, trying in vain to hide.

A voice from above called out to her. It was a blonde, pale boy calling out to her. The one the other HiME know as Nagi Homura. He a few things to her, such ast being a HiME and that there was a way out of her current situation. However the chance at surviving would cost her, and potentially cost her dearly in the long run.

She agreed to the bargain, and for some reason the birthmark on her back started to tingle as she pressed her hand against the rock the boy was standing on. All of a sudden, she felt a sudden heavy weight as a large, long barrelled cannon materialised out of nowhere. She fired three rapid shots in succession, only for each to miss much to her dismay. A cliff face, a wave and one pelican were not so lucky.


In a panic, she called out “Arathtrue”, almost out of instinct. A creature with seemingly oily black fur and yellow eyes burst from the water, its rows of metallic teeth shining in the warm sun. Ai had never heard of it before, but the creature resembled the Dobhar Chu or the King Otter from Irish folklore, a creature that was said to be half-dog and half-otter. Arathture quickly made quick work of the orphan which vanishes into nothing.

Ai cowered on the ground as the black creature that is her Child stalked towards her, whimpering as it loomed over her despite knowing deep down that it wasn’t going to hurt her. As the teeth baring those massive teeth parted, she feared the worst as they moved towards her head. She shut her eyes, expecting the worst, only to feel the creature nuzzle against her cheek and give a series of chirping whistles to reassure her.

The shock was too much for Ai, who passed out. She awoke several hours later on the deserted beach in the dark. She stayed put for the night, not wanting to get lost in the dark, before setting out the following morning and returning to school grounds. She cautiously returned later in the day, only to find the damage to the cliff face that she caused was actually there and not part of some crazy dream.

Since that time, she has fought face to face against Orphans a second time, keeping her range and using the rapid firing cannon to her advantage, and with her Child by her side. Arathtrue still unsettled her, but she knew that it meant her no harm and was in fact her guardian. Once the fight had ended, she took a few moments to finally inspect her Child. What she first thought was fur was actually a protective black oily waterproof coating over a metallic surface.


Thanks to the noise that the two created during the fight against the Orphan, they had unknowingly got some unwanted attention. Two days later, a note was slipped under her dorm door when her roommate was out, detailing things that they knew about her and that someone would like to meet her at one of the Starbooks in Tokyo itself.

Ai met with the contact at the designated Starbooks, more curious than everything else. She finally met the contact, who was an employee of the store. The two sat down in a quiet corner, with the contact explaining things to her. Not so much about being a HiME as the pale boy explained that to her. But being a Magic Girl in general, and what was lurking out there.

Ai’s inexperience was on display and she looked more and more concerned the more that was explained to her. Until she finally asked to join the Tuners, seeing as they were more experienced than her and she’d be able to learn a lot from the other members.

Over the few months that she’s been a HiME, she’s found herself rapidly developing skills, usually operating and bounty hunting in rural areas outside of Tokyo.


Relationships

Family

Katsu Yamamoto (Deceased) - Ai held her mother in high regards while she was still alive. Due to the sudden passing, she finds herself often waiting for her mother to turn up places, only to be left disappointed, finding at times that she feels like she has no one to turn to or ask questions from.

Saka Yamamoto (Deceased) - Ai adored her father when he was alive, enjoying as much time as she could with him. She especially liked to go fishing with him, enjoying the time they spent together on the shore of the village. Much like her mother, Ai often finds herself expecting to see her father walk through the door, before remembering that he’s dead. She has kept his fishing rod as a memento of the good times they’ve shared together.

Akasuki Suzuki or Auntie Suki - Ai’s aunt, and sister to Ai’s father. Ai used to love the time that her and her family would come to visit for her hometown festival, as she would often bring interesting stories, and would spoil Ai with things her parents would never usually buy. Ai knows that she’s a police officer and thinks it’s really cool that her aunt protects the community. She is currently the most important person in Ai’s life.

Asahi Suzuki or Uncle Asahi - Ai’s Uncle. She likes him a lot, but he seems very quiet at times, often not speaking and sitting in the corner smiling and quietly laughing, who sometimes pipes up to make a joke about things. She thinks he’s a really friendly guy that is great at maths and science.

Mio Suzuki - Ai’s cousin. Ai and Mio share the same birthdate near the middle of the year, though sadly have never got a chance to share it together. The duo often squabble over petty things, though they tend to look out for each other. She’s a year older than Ai, and attends Juuban.


Logs and Cutscenes

There are no cutscenes on this wiki that Ai Yamamoto participated in.

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