☂ application.
Name: Shiho Matsuri
Fandom: sola
Gender: Female
Age: At least 350, appears 15/16.
Time Period: End of Episode 6.
Wing Color: White, for the irony.
History: Series | Anime Episodes
A Yakabito, Yaka for short, is a creature of the night. They were feared once, a long time ago, but now they are just faded stories of the past.
Some hundred of years ago, a Yaka named Matsuri lived alone in a cave. The nearby village, fearing the curse of the Yaka, delivered onto the Yaka a willing sacrifice -- the young girl Aono. For Matsuri, who did not understand the meaning of a sacrifice, Aono was her first friend.
Soon after, Aono's younger brother Yorito came searching for her, and was relieved to see his sister alive.
For the siblings, it came as a surprise that the great and fearful Yaka was so strangely innocent and unaware of the world. As the siblings spoke and told Matsuri of the outside world, Matsuri herself came to harbour a desire: she wanted to see and stand under the blue sky. "I'll show it to you someday" - that was Yorito's promise. And try they did, painting the sky on the ceiling of a cave. Acknowledging the limits of what they could do at the moment, Yorito and Aono both told her that she will see it, someday.
The promised day never came. Because of Yorito's frequent trips out of the village and up to the cave, the villagers began to grew suspicious that their sacrifice remained alive. Fearing the worst, the siblings made plans to flee and laughed when Matsuri made the mistake of assuming that they would be leaving her to live by herself again.
"Let's leave this place. The three of us."
Before the three of them could leave together, calamity struck. During a thunderstorm, a tree fell and destroyed Yorito's house, killing everyone within. Because they could not find his body, Matsuri could do nothing for Yorito. Because Yorito was dead, Aono, as the sacrifice who never died, decided it was her fault and committed suicide.
For Matsuri to lose her two closest and only friends was something she could not bear. Using her powers as a Yaka, Matsuri revived Aono... as another Yaka.
It is not stated why the two of them eventually went their separate ways but perhaps Matsuri could not bear to see Aono obsess her dead brother and decided to leave the cave to see the world for herself.
Some hundred of years later, in the middle of the night - just before dawn - a girl and a boy meet. The girl was at an old vending machine, kicking it and trying to get her favourite drink; the boy was trying to take a photo of the sunrise.
Being a Yaka, that girl had to disappear before dawn could arrive.
They met again, the next night, while it was raining. That girl was once again in front of the vending machine, trying to get her favourite drink, when her umbrella flew away. That boy picked her umbrella up, prevented her from kicking the vending machine, and was tricked into trying her favourite drink.
That girl was Matsuri and that boy's name was Yorito.
When an unknown assassin comes after Matsuri's life, with the knowledge that she was a Yaka, it is only because of Yorito's interference that she manages to escape. Later, Yorito takes her to his home and keeps her safe and sheltered, even as the assassin tracks her down again.
In the aftermath of the second attack, Yorito makes Matsuri promise him that she will remain indoors, until Yorito shows her the sky.
For Matsuri, meeting a Yorito that looked and reminded her of the Yorito she used to know seemed to be a second chance she never got to have back in the past. He even promised her the same thing, to show the sky to her.
All seemed well until Yorito wanted to introduce Matsuri to his sister.
His sister, Aono.
Matsuri and Aono met and talked for the first in a long time that night. Though Matsuri tried to discover the truth of Yorito's existence, Aono would say nothing. At the end of their private conversation, a promise was made.
After dinner, Matsuri made Yorito take her to his school to see his classroom and the roof he often spent lunchtime and class time on. Even as Yorito reaffirmed his promise to take Matsuri out under the blue sky again, Matsuri could only remember the promise she made to Aono. With one kiss, and a reference to an earlier conversation, she walked past him and vanished before Yorito's eyes.
Of course, she hadn't expected to come to Luceti. After all, nobody would.
Personality: Before Aono and Yorito first came into her life, Matsuri knew and felt nothing, living - if such a life could be called living - by herself up in her cave. With Aono, she learnt about the warmness of humans and both the highs and lows that came with having emotions. With Yorito, she learnt to hope and believe in a better future for herself. Because she learnt about loneliness and feared being alone, Matsuri revived Aono when the latter commited suicide.
Despite being over three hundred years old (the years given by Matsuri is not exact), Matsuri seems straightforward, carefree, almost whimsical. Compared to Yorito and the present Aono, she appears to be very happy-go-lucky, enjoying the present as it comes to her. Even as Yorito attempts to try for a cover story to explain why Matsuri is living with him, Matsuri herself questions the cover story and lies unconvincingly (that she's nervous -- when all this time she had been talking casually) with a straight face in the same breath.
Matsuri is also kind and sweet, even if she doesn't get to show it often. She rescues another Yaka who was at the mercy of the sun, she saves Mana's little sister when said little sister was falling down the stairs, she stops herself from killing her assaulter even when he intends to take her life and she feels sincerely indebted to Yorito for saving her.
You can tell if Matsuri is growing fond or getting close to you if she starts teasing you or lacing her words with innuendos enough for others to catch. She does this only with Yorito, even though they've only met for a while... And this is all because of Matsuri's sentimentality. It doesn't show very much on the outside, but Matsuri's never forgotten the first two humans she met. Her favourite drink is a tomato bean juice because tomatoes were the first food that Aono introduced her to; she gets closer to Yorito reluctantly because he reminds her so painfully of the little boy she met in the past who promised her those exact same words and the same beautiful blue sky.
Even with strangers, she can be teasing as well. Matsuri seems to enjoy making people awkward by being especially opened about some parts of herself.
The carefree and whimsical face is actually a mask for the monster that is the Yaka. Deep down, Matsuri truly feels lonely and alone but feels, somewhat reluctantly, that because a Yaka is a 'Calamity of the Night', a Yaka has to be alone. Upon finding a lost cellphone and asked by the owner to stay with the phone, Matsuri decides instead to leave because she felt that she should not involve herself with humans. This, again, is reluctant on Matsuri's side because she understands the warmth of humans and longs for that warmth, even if it's for a short period of time, no matter how painful.
Hiding things, avoiding uncomfortable subjects, topic changes are like second nature to Matsuri, even if it's obvious to others. But she's grown used to such a way of living and old habits die hard.
Strengths::
Physical: A Yaka is essentially a vampire, only without the weakness to holy stuff and garlic. They have beyond-human physical abilities (Matsuri's jumped storeys, stopped a grown man with a sword), quick regenerative abilities (a wound in the stomach made by a sharp glass piece didn't kill her, she healed sword and sunlight wounds after a period of rest) and are ageless.
Mental: She knows how to survive on her own in the human world. In the anime, she lived in an old church before moving in with Yorito and sold the books in the church for money for food.
Emotional: She's emotionally strong to a certain extent. You need to be, living three hundred plus years alone, knowing that you can't get close to people who might start to hunt you down.
Matsuri has also shown the ability to decay anything, even human flesh, with instant touch. (Matsuri, however, shows no desire to kill using it.) She can also create a barrier using that power to decay anything thrown at her, but how long the barrier lasts depends on the strength of the attack. All Yakas can also turn other dead bodies into Yakas but this ability will be null in Luceti.
Sunlight hurts her, but rainy/cloudy days and artificial lights are okay.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Yakas, like vampires, are creatures of the night. They're especially weak to sunlight; parts of their bodies exposed to sunlight turn into glitter/dust, extreme exposure to sunlight results in their bodies being set on fire, but they can recover. Despite being 'immortal', Yakas can be hurt in normal human ways and killed via fatal wounds. Also, Matsuri seems to only have a stamina of a slightly-average human and isn't used to fighting at all.
Mental: Matsuri isn't the smartest crayon in the box. Vending machine not working? Kick it! Microwave not working? Kick it! She also seems to be especially clumsy in the kitchen and cannot cook. Technology eludes her. As does strategy: despite being in the most fights the entire anime season, Matsuri constantly falls for traps set by her opponents and hesitates in the most dangerous of moments.
Emotional: Matsuri lives constantly in denial of her true feelings and would lie to make others feel better, even if her lies are really transparent. She's really lonely but would rather deny those feelings than follow her heart. When she does, though, it's a moment of weakness. The guilt of Aono's hatred and Yorito's death eats her, every single day.
Fandom: sola
Gender: Female
Age: At least 350, appears 15/16.
Time Period: End of Episode 6.
Wing Color: White, for the irony.
History: Series | Anime Episodes
A Yakabito, Yaka for short, is a creature of the night. They were feared once, a long time ago, but now they are just faded stories of the past.
Some hundred of years ago, a Yaka named Matsuri lived alone in a cave. The nearby village, fearing the curse of the Yaka, delivered onto the Yaka a willing sacrifice -- the young girl Aono. For Matsuri, who did not understand the meaning of a sacrifice, Aono was her first friend.
Soon after, Aono's younger brother Yorito came searching for her, and was relieved to see his sister alive.
For the siblings, it came as a surprise that the great and fearful Yaka was so strangely innocent and unaware of the world. As the siblings spoke and told Matsuri of the outside world, Matsuri herself came to harbour a desire: she wanted to see and stand under the blue sky. "I'll show it to you someday" - that was Yorito's promise. And try they did, painting the sky on the ceiling of a cave. Acknowledging the limits of what they could do at the moment, Yorito and Aono both told her that she will see it, someday.
The promised day never came. Because of Yorito's frequent trips out of the village and up to the cave, the villagers began to grew suspicious that their sacrifice remained alive. Fearing the worst, the siblings made plans to flee and laughed when Matsuri made the mistake of assuming that they would be leaving her to live by herself again.
"Let's leave this place. The three of us."
Before the three of them could leave together, calamity struck. During a thunderstorm, a tree fell and destroyed Yorito's house, killing everyone within. Because they could not find his body, Matsuri could do nothing for Yorito. Because Yorito was dead, Aono, as the sacrifice who never died, decided it was her fault and committed suicide.
For Matsuri to lose her two closest and only friends was something she could not bear. Using her powers as a Yaka, Matsuri revived Aono... as another Yaka.
It is not stated why the two of them eventually went their separate ways but perhaps Matsuri could not bear to see Aono obsess her dead brother and decided to leave the cave to see the world for herself.
Some hundred of years later, in the middle of the night - just before dawn - a girl and a boy meet. The girl was at an old vending machine, kicking it and trying to get her favourite drink; the boy was trying to take a photo of the sunrise.
Being a Yaka, that girl had to disappear before dawn could arrive.
They met again, the next night, while it was raining. That girl was once again in front of the vending machine, trying to get her favourite drink, when her umbrella flew away. That boy picked her umbrella up, prevented her from kicking the vending machine, and was tricked into trying her favourite drink.
That girl was Matsuri and that boy's name was Yorito.
When an unknown assassin comes after Matsuri's life, with the knowledge that she was a Yaka, it is only because of Yorito's interference that she manages to escape. Later, Yorito takes her to his home and keeps her safe and sheltered, even as the assassin tracks her down again.
In the aftermath of the second attack, Yorito makes Matsuri promise him that she will remain indoors, until Yorito shows her the sky.
For Matsuri, meeting a Yorito that looked and reminded her of the Yorito she used to know seemed to be a second chance she never got to have back in the past. He even promised her the same thing, to show the sky to her.
All seemed well until Yorito wanted to introduce Matsuri to his sister.
His sister, Aono.
Matsuri and Aono met and talked for the first in a long time that night. Though Matsuri tried to discover the truth of Yorito's existence, Aono would say nothing. At the end of their private conversation, a promise was made.
After dinner, Matsuri made Yorito take her to his school to see his classroom and the roof he often spent lunchtime and class time on. Even as Yorito reaffirmed his promise to take Matsuri out under the blue sky again, Matsuri could only remember the promise she made to Aono. With one kiss, and a reference to an earlier conversation, she walked past him and vanished before Yorito's eyes.
Of course, she hadn't expected to come to Luceti. After all, nobody would.
Personality: Before Aono and Yorito first came into her life, Matsuri knew and felt nothing, living - if such a life could be called living - by herself up in her cave. With Aono, she learnt about the warmness of humans and both the highs and lows that came with having emotions. With Yorito, she learnt to hope and believe in a better future for herself. Because she learnt about loneliness and feared being alone, Matsuri revived Aono when the latter commited suicide.
Despite being over three hundred years old (the years given by Matsuri is not exact), Matsuri seems straightforward, carefree, almost whimsical. Compared to Yorito and the present Aono, she appears to be very happy-go-lucky, enjoying the present as it comes to her. Even as Yorito attempts to try for a cover story to explain why Matsuri is living with him, Matsuri herself questions the cover story and lies unconvincingly (that she's nervous -- when all this time she had been talking casually) with a straight face in the same breath.
Matsuri is also kind and sweet, even if she doesn't get to show it often. She rescues another Yaka who was at the mercy of the sun, she saves Mana's little sister when said little sister was falling down the stairs, she stops herself from killing her assaulter even when he intends to take her life and she feels sincerely indebted to Yorito for saving her.
You can tell if Matsuri is growing fond or getting close to you if she starts teasing you or lacing her words with innuendos enough for others to catch. She does this only with Yorito, even though they've only met for a while... And this is all because of Matsuri's sentimentality. It doesn't show very much on the outside, but Matsuri's never forgotten the first two humans she met. Her favourite drink is a tomato bean juice because tomatoes were the first food that Aono introduced her to; she gets closer to Yorito reluctantly because he reminds her so painfully of the little boy she met in the past who promised her those exact same words and the same beautiful blue sky.
Even with strangers, she can be teasing as well. Matsuri seems to enjoy making people awkward by being especially opened about some parts of herself.
The carefree and whimsical face is actually a mask for the monster that is the Yaka. Deep down, Matsuri truly feels lonely and alone but feels, somewhat reluctantly, that because a Yaka is a 'Calamity of the Night', a Yaka has to be alone. Upon finding a lost cellphone and asked by the owner to stay with the phone, Matsuri decides instead to leave because she felt that she should not involve herself with humans. This, again, is reluctant on Matsuri's side because she understands the warmth of humans and longs for that warmth, even if it's for a short period of time, no matter how painful.
Hiding things, avoiding uncomfortable subjects, topic changes are like second nature to Matsuri, even if it's obvious to others. But she's grown used to such a way of living and old habits die hard.
Strengths::
Physical: A Yaka is essentially a vampire, only without the weakness to holy stuff and garlic. They have beyond-human physical abilities (Matsuri's jumped storeys, stopped a grown man with a sword), quick regenerative abilities (a wound in the stomach made by a sharp glass piece didn't kill her, she healed sword and sunlight wounds after a period of rest) and are ageless.
Mental: She knows how to survive on her own in the human world. In the anime, she lived in an old church before moving in with Yorito and sold the books in the church for money for food.
Emotional: She's emotionally strong to a certain extent. You need to be, living three hundred plus years alone, knowing that you can't get close to people who might start to hunt you down.
Matsuri has also shown the ability to decay anything, even human flesh, with instant touch. (Matsuri, however, shows no desire to kill using it.) She can also create a barrier using that power to decay anything thrown at her, but how long the barrier lasts depends on the strength of the attack. All Yakas can also turn other dead bodies into Yakas but this ability will be null in Luceti.
Sunlight hurts her, but rainy/cloudy days and artificial lights are okay.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Yakas, like vampires, are creatures of the night. They're especially weak to sunlight; parts of their bodies exposed to sunlight turn into glitter/dust, extreme exposure to sunlight results in their bodies being set on fire, but they can recover. Despite being 'immortal', Yakas can be hurt in normal human ways and killed via fatal wounds. Also, Matsuri seems to only have a stamina of a slightly-average human and isn't used to fighting at all.
Mental: Matsuri isn't the smartest crayon in the box. Vending machine not working? Kick it! Microwave not working? Kick it! She also seems to be especially clumsy in the kitchen and cannot cook. Technology eludes her. As does strategy: despite being in the most fights the entire anime season, Matsuri constantly falls for traps set by her opponents and hesitates in the most dangerous of moments.
Emotional: Matsuri lives constantly in denial of her true feelings and would lie to make others feel better, even if her lies are really transparent. She's really lonely but would rather deny those feelings than follow her heart. When she does, though, it's a moment of weakness. The guilt of Aono's hatred and Yorito's death eats her, every single day.