Shiki Misaki (The World Ends With You • Queen of Hearts)

[pantsoffnow.livejournal.com]

Player Information
Name: Kyuu
Personal Journal: euphoriant
Contact Info: i see phailure @ aim
Other Characters: therabbitisalie | Doubt

Character Information
Name: Shiki Misaki
Source Canon:The World Ends With You
Age: 15
Role In Canon: Supporting main character. She's Neku's (the main character) partner during his first week during the game, and apparently becomes important enough for him to become his entry fee for the second week of the game, and even give him further motivation to win the game. She is also one of the characters you control during combat against the Noise.
Justification: n/a
History: Wikia is our sweet princess for the night. She's going to be taken from right after the first week, so she hasn't been given her real body back and still has Eri's appearance.

Personality:
At first glance, Shiki is, well, Shiki.

She's outgoing, assertive and cheerful--to the point of coming off as extremely pushy and annoying to those around her. She's not afraid to speak her mind and take the initiative to do things. There is nothing in the world that ticks her off more than just standing there and twiddling her thumbs, which is exactly why she had a tendency to annoy Neku greatly during the first few days of their partnership. While Neku was introverted and preferred to think things out before taking action, Shiki always spoke out her thoughts and rushed into things in order to find her way around the Game in a decidedly "trial and error" manner. Which, of course, wasn't always the way to approach things during a life and death event such as the one both of them were stuck in.

Shiki can come off as extremely shallow, as well. If her wardrobe wasn't a hint, then the fact that she seemed to almost obsess over the current fashion trends in Shibuya would have certainly tipped anybody off as to how interested Shiki is in the fashion and design scene. As well as being fashion savvy, she is painfully blunt when it comes to telling others what needs to be said--be it about how terrible their wardrobe is or how they are being a Class S jerkass. It's because of this that she and Neku continued to butt heads during the first few days of the week, what with Shiki calling him out for being rude and her insistence on him trying not to be an antisocial jerk for once, there seemed to be absolutely no way for them to get along.

However, it would be a lie to say that all of this is entirely Shiki.

Before entering the Reaper's Game, Shiki loathed herself, having had repressed a great deal of insecurities and a low self esteem during her life. In comparison to Eri, who was, according to Shiki, "outgoing, witty and smart", Shiki was nothing. She was shy and introverted, never speaking up her thoughts and being completely average when it came to everything. Because of this, she began to envy Eri. Eri was everything Shiki wanted to be--she was cute, popular, talented and had a gift for designing. She was everything Shiki felt she could never be. When Eri told her that she was not meant to be a fashion designer (her dream), that was what made every single insecurity she had bubble up inside her. Even though Eri had meant it as a compliment, because she was meant to be a seamstress and had great talent for it, Shiki took it in the completely wrong way. And of course, because of the Reaper's Game, she would never be able to hear an apology or clarification before she died.

Imagine her surprise when she suddenly finds herself in Eri's body upon waking up after her death. To her, this was a chance to start over. She didn't need to be "Shiki" anymore, she could be "Eri", who was superior to her in every way. Once the shock of finding herself in her best friend's body wore off, Shiki felt much more confident than she ever had before. She adopted the assertive, nearly pushy personality described above, and took the initiative to actually do the things her previous "self" couldn't do before.

However, as the week went on, we began to see Shiki's true personality return to the surface.

Shiki cares about people, a lot. She likes to go out of her way to help others who are in trouble, even if it inconveniences her in some way, and enjoys listening to their problems, believing that sometimes all people need is someone who would be willing to stay by and listen to what they have to say, get things off their chest. She has nothing against lending a helping hand to others even when she herself is pretty much in the same boat, and highly values teamwork over anything else. After all, two heads work better than one, and the more the merrier. Even though Neku was pretty rude and unwilling to cooperate with her throughout the first day of her week with him, she still tried her best to be friendly and to find a way for them to be able to work together, and succeeds in this aspect by the end of her week--having helped Neku become more open minded to the world around him.

Even when a situation is extremely upsetting and finding a silver lining to it is nearly impossible, Shiki always tries to have a positive outlook on things. She tries to keep herself on her heels and find solutions to each and every problem, even though she can be a ditz about it every once in a while (like, say, pointing out that they needed to erase the Noise after they had been told to do exactly that by a Reaper). Despite of this, however, once she finds a possible solution to a problem or has an idea she thinks would work, she tends to stick by it until it's proven to fail. Without her constant insistence for Neku to do certain things, such as telling him to go to Hachiko or figuring out that they could use memes to get certain people in the RG to do what they need, Neku wouldn't have really figured out some of the missions.

She also has a surprisingly large ability to forgive others who have hurt her. Even when, during the second day of their week together, Neku tries to kill her because of one of the Reaper's suggestion, Shiki still finds it in herself to forgive him. Even though he had strangled her and almost erased her existence, Shiki still smiled, handwaved it, and told him it was ok. That is wasn't his fault because he was tricked into doing it, and that she should have simply tried to stand up for herself instead of allowing the Reaper to trick Neku into believing she was working for them all along. She won't let silly grudges ruin a friendship, and even though it seems a bit naive of her to forgive others with such ease, Shiki always knows what she's doing.

Aside from that, Shiki is also meticulous. When something is bothering her, she isn't afraid to simply stop right in her tracks and take care of the offending object, no matter how short on time they are or how outrageous it is. For example, during their week as partners, Shiki notices one of Neku's pant buttons is slightly loose. What does she do? He stops him in the middle of the street, screams at him because of how much it had been pissing her off for the last couple of minutes, and tells him to take his pants off. In the middle of the street. Assuring him that it would be alright because nobody else could really see them. Little details such as these bother her more than they should, and when she tends to do generally offensive or

Shiki tends to be a bit spazzy as well, be it over serious or not so serious things. For example, when she noticed Neku had two player pins, she pointed this out to him, before immediately turning around and assuring him that it was totally ok to have two--that it was really better than one, all while flailing. When she sees Eri at the scramble crossing for the first time after her death, Shiki begins to panic right away, running away once she realizes her best friend was talking about her. Later on, she became quiet during the duration of that day, extremely upset and ashamed of herself for various reasons.

When it comes down to it, however, Shiki values being herself more than she thinks--which is exactly why her entry fee is her own appearance. Even though she could list every single flaw in herself and then more at the beginning of her week with Neku, the game helps her realize that there was nobody she wanted to be. She wanted to be Shiki, she wanted to be herself.

Abilities:
Like all other players, Shiki is able to use various pins that give her access to various abilities. Aside from the standard player pin which can be used by all players and allows them to read the minds of those not involved in the Game (as well as preventing them from being scanned or controlled by the O-pin), Shiki can use Groove Pawn, a psychokinesis type pin. However, unlike what you would assume from knowing this, Shiki is only able to control one object--that being the stuffed cat she carries around during the whole week, Mr. Mew. While it's stated that the pin gives Mr. Mew a life of his own and he continues to do his own thing during battle, it is Shiki who keeps him up in the air during his attacks and helps him move around, since all he really does is claw at enemies when approached and occasionally protect Shiki from certain attacks if he's on the right side of the battle field.

When partnered up with Neku, Shiki is also able to use fusion attacks, which transform Mr. Mew in various ways--such as making him the size of Godzilla and giving him laser eyebeams while Shiki and Neku chill on his shoulders, watching him decimate the shadows, among other things.

Of course, without the ability to use these pins, Shiki is pretty much your average, defenseless teenage girl. Sure, she has a talent for sewing (as she made Mr. Mew a few years prior to the begining of the game, and made the clothes Eri wears), but without her pins? No powers for her.

Sample:
Musebox post here, and a thread over here.