Character Name: Rei Hino
Gender: Female
Age and Date of Birth: 16, April 17 (Aries)
 
Used Canons: Sailor Moon and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, incorporating elements from manga and anime of both series.
 
Appearance: Rei stands at 160cm (approximately 5'3") and has a fairly thin, almost boyish figure. It looks perfect in a very "classical Japanese" way when she wears the traditional Shinto priestess robes of her profession or any cultural Japanese attire. Her facial features are delicate and elegant, with beautiful almond-shaped violet eyes that almost glow beneath long dark lashes. Rei's thin, angled eyebrows sometimes give her a haughty expression. Her pale skin and glossy black hair add to the classic look, almost as though she stepped out of an ancient ink painting or woodblock print. Her smooth, straight hair is long, reaching nearly to her knees, and she usually wears it unbound and unadorned. Sometimes when performing her shrine duties, she ties it back with a small strip of white paper. She has long bangs, cut just to eyebrow level with a soft edge.

She usually wears the white gi and red hakama of her role as a Shinto priestess. The top has long kimono-cut sleeves. She usually ties the straps of her hakama in front in a neat bow. She wears short white tabi socks in the buildings and wooden geta sandals when doing chores around the grounds. If not that outfit, she can be seen in her uniform for the T*A Academy for Girls—a gray blazer with a dark gray sailor collar with a single red stripe along the edge and a red scarf crossed like a bow over the chest, with a short gray skirt. In the summer, the blazer is a vest and she wears a short-sleeved white shirt below it. Both blazer and vest have patch pockets at the hips and an embroidered breast pocket.

Rei rarely wears makeup, although her taste in casual clothing can be very trendy. She doesn't like to show that she follows fashion magazines or has interest in those topics, although she is not totally ignorant of them.



As a magical girl, Rei's hair takes on a more violet overall tone, rather than just having a violet sheen to it, and her eyes appear reddish-brown. She wears a short, close-fitting black vertical-striped skirt with gold trim. Over the skirt she wears a close-fitting black vest trimmed with gold and white, and which has tails that flare out over the skirt almost like an over-skirt. Atop the vest she often wears a cropped jacket of red, tied in front with a red bow. The sleeves puff over her shoulder and are then more fitted, although they flare at the wrists. There is a black and gold design on the sleeves. The high neck of her vest can be seen under the jacket. She wears thigh-high stockings with the same vertical black stripes as her skirt and similar gold trim. Her shoes are red high heels, and she has two golden bangles around each ankle. Her earrings are red stars that dangle from studs. Her Soul Gem manifests on her uniform as a jeweled flame-shape on the outer side of her left shoe, back near the heel.

Personality: Cold and hot are two sides of Rei's personality. Initially, others find her very distant and aloof. She doesn't willingly interact much with people she doesn't know well. Rei shows a minimum level of politeness, at least until someone proves they don't deserve it, but she limits her time with strangers as best she can. This is not always advisable, such as when she's working at the Hikawa Shrine as a shrine maiden, so she does her best to fit herself to the situation. She cares about accomplishing goals, and is willing to make adjustments or sacrifices to do so. The welfare of the shrine, for example, trumps her own distaste for strangers; she strives to keep her manner professional.

However, the dark-haired girl has a passionate temper that flares to life particularly when she feels insulted. First, her violet eyes grow hard and narrowed, and she expresses herself with curtness and veiled, icy hostility. If the situation escalates, Rei is not above raising her voice and demonstrating her increased ire. She rarely resorts to physical violence, but can be very cutting and unkind in what she says. In her mind, at that point the person on the other side deserves to be told off. They were given opportunities to back away and leave things alone, but they persisted. No one would describe Rei as a pushover—when push comes to shove, she'll shove right back.

Her passion lends itself to stubbornness, as well. Rei hates to be told that she can't do something—it makes her temper flare and a rebellious streak rear its head. The more someone says "no" the more Rei wants to prove them wrong. She also dislikes admitting that she is wrong. In a perfect world, this would never be necessary because she would never be wrong. Unfortunately, that is just not the case—and when she has to admit it, it hurts. It feels like failure.

Rei has a complicated relationship with her immediate family. She loves her grandfather, who raised her and cares for her, and she yearns to make him proud. She works hard at the shrine because it means so much to him. Sometimes the thought of taking over the shrine seems overwhelming and unfair—she wasn't given a chance to really choose. However, in a way, she has chosen. The thought of having someone else running the Hikawa Shrine when her grandfather is gone does not sit well with her. She knows she would regret handing over the reigns. Her father is a different story. Her mother died when she was very young, but her father has always made it clear that he prioritizes his career and his own well-being over his daughter. She rarely sees him, and even when she does, she doesn't feel like he sees her.

This has influenced Rei's feelings about men—she feels very distrustful around them due to her father's behaviour—and also caused her to avoid opening up to others. She relies only on herself, but she can't trust anyone else. This became clear when she entered school and tried to make friends—any mention of her psychic abilities caused squeals and giggles that deepened the chasm between herself and everyone else. They didn't understand why she would want to be a weird girl working at an old-fashioned shrine, staring into the flames and talking about things that might or might not happen. She was always envious of what she viewed as their warm, loving families that they didn't seem to value enough. No one seemed to care about how Rei was feeling, so she stopped telling them.

The more she built up her façade of indifference, the easier it was to wear it. As she grew up and became more beautiful, she felt that there were more benefits of keeping people at a distance. Most people who tried to get close just wanted to use her—either for her appearance or her purported psychic abilities. Rei has no interest in being someone else's pawn. If keeping to herself avoids that, then so be it.

She can show a softer side, but this is reserved for those who have proved they aren't trying to use her. Most of the time, this is limited to her grandfather and the animals around the shrine, particularly the crows. When her barriers are down, Rei can be silly, teasing, and flippant. She has to feel very comfortable to act this way, even to give a genuine smile, but when she does, that's when she truly cares for someone. Rei is fiercely protective of the people she loves. When her actions seem harsh towards someone she cares about, it's because of how much she believes in them and wants them to achieve their own dreams and goals. She spent so many years feeling very alone, so the close relationships she does form are of very high value to her, even though it takes a while for her to admit that she feels this way.

Any Unique Abilities/Skills:
♂ Strong psychic abilities—receives premonitions and visions, feels changes in forces, and enhances her clarity with pyromancy
♂ Can channel and control flame as a magical girl
♂ Skilled at archery—uses bows and arrows charged with magical fire to fight Witches

History: Rei lives with her grandfather at the Hikawa Shrine. Her father is a high-ranking politician who never had much time for his daughter. He constantly strives to improve his political standing and advance his career. He rarely visits—in fact he does not live at the shrine, but has a separate home somewhere else in Tokyo, close to his office. Rei's mother died when she was very young. Her grandfather, a Shinto priest, raised her in his home and with the thought that she would follow in his footsteps.

Rei felt envious of other "normal" families as she watched them visit the shrine or saw them at school. Her quiet demeanor and psychic abilities slowly isolated the girl, so that soon her only real relationship was with her grandfather. She rarely kept friends at school because they all thought she was "weird" and "stuck up". Her grandfather tried to provide comfort for the girl, but he couldn't fill the role she felt most desperate for: mother. Watching other girls with their mothers only seemed to emphasize to Rei that if her mother were still here—if her mother were still alive—she would be happier.

Unfortunately, bringing back the dead is impossible.

The mysterious creature with the ruby eyes begged to differ. He appeared at the shrine in the dead of night, a strange silhouette outside her window. Something strange was happening in Tokyo, he told her—those premonitions of a strange evil suddenly coalescing into a more solid form. She had known this, yet she had tried to ignore it. He needed help. She could help him, and in return, he'd grant her one wish.

Mother.

He told her that her wish was dangerous, illegal. Bringing people back from the dead should not be done... but he would do it for her. He would make that happen for her, if she became a magical girl.

Just like that, her mother walked up the steps to the shrine and entered as though she had never left. Grandfather couldn't believe it. Rei called her father, who hurried over, seemingly overjoyed to have his wife back. No one cared about the vague, implausible lies around the woman's return—something about mislaid paperwork at the hospital. What mattered was that Rei's mother had returned. They would be a happy family, exactly like those other families that she so envied.

He stayed at the shrine for exactly one day. When he returned to his own home that evening, he didn't bring mother with him. He left her here, but he came home for dinner. A few times a week. A few times a month. A few... times...

Rei tried her best, but her mother slowly seemed to fade as she realized just how little her husband valued her. The skin seemed paler and colder. She slept longer and longer. She ate less and less. Rei no longer felt like having her mother back was the right choice. The teenager did her best, but now she had her own problems—she fought Witches as a magical girl, putting her life at risk. Someday, maybe she would also never come home.

If that happened, who would her mother have to care for her? Grandfather might try, but he was getting older. Rei felt like he, too, moved slower with each passing day.

She was trapped in a miserable world that she had created from her own selfishness.

Other Noteworthy Facts:
♂ Blood Type: AB
♂ Hobbies: Reading, fortune telling
♂ Favourite Sport: Track-and-field events
♂ Favourite Colours: Red and black
♂ Favourite Subject: Ancient writing
♂ Least Favourite Subject: Contemporary society
♂ Favourite Food: Pufferfish, Thai cuisine
♂ Least Favourite Food: Canned asparagus
♂ Hopes to go to: the deep sea
♂ Fortune Telling: Tarot
♂ Habit: When she looks at people she watches them patiently
♂ Special Skill: Meditation
♂ Pet She Hopes to Raise: Iguana
♂ Weak Point: Television
♂ Motto: Do not depend on men!
♂ Dream: To be a lead Shinto priestess
♂ Shows an affinity towards two crows, Deimos and Phobos, who live at the Hikawa Shrine
 
Storyline Specific Information: [Advanced] Puella Magi Usagi Magica - The Incubator has arrived in Tokyo City.

In all the years of making contracts with young girls, Kyubey has never found one quite like Usagi Tsukino. She is unique in the way that her Soul Gem is incorruptible. No matter how much she uses her magic, it never turns black. It's self-sufficient and does not need Grief Seeds to power it. This is a phenomenon that is unheard of, though perhaps it has something to do with how she became a magical girl in the first place. She saw the suffering caused by the witches and made the selfless wish of being able to fight against them indefinitely. For all eternity.

This did not make her invincible. She could get hurt, and could still die in battle. But her Soul Gem would never expire for as long as she could continue to fight. The downside was that the brightness of her Soul Gem also attracted numerous witches into her area. Her extraordinary shine called out to the deepest darkness. And so her battles were destined to never end.

But Kyubey saw the potential in her to become the strongest witch the world has ever seen, if only he could figure out how to crush the eternal hope she carried. And so he concocted a plan. He found four lonely girls who needed a friend. He would make a contract with each of them and gather four other magical girls whom he would enlist to be her guardians. He would tell them that it was their job to dedicate their lives to protect the most important magical girl in the world. The one who was destined to save them all one day.

He would wait for the five girls to form an unbreakable bond. Then he planned to watch the other four self-destruct—as they always, inevitably do—and turn into witches, forcing Usagi to kill them by her own hands.

Surely that would finally introduce her to the concept of despair.

Surely that would be enough to corrupt her incorruptible Soul Gem.

Everyone had a limit, after all.
 
RP Sample: She tiptoed down the darkened hallway, listening to the sounds of the night. Sounds of slumber, restfulness. She could hear Grandfather snoring, peacefully wrapped in his futon, and if she focused enough the soft, shallow breaths from Mother. Even when the weary woman slept, it was a sorrowful sound. At least this was better than hearing the muffled sobs or strained weeping.

If this had been another day, in some other time, Rei would have snuck into her room and closed the door, collapsing on the bed within her own sanctuary. With Mother's return, however, that was no longer a place of her own. It was more the older woman's room now than hers. After all, Rei still had school, duties at the shrine, and her new... "club activities". Mother had... nothing. Rei clenched her hands into tight fists, passing by that door, heading towards a small store-room that had once served as a sleeping place for a hired hand. He had left a few weeks after her mother's return. She didn't remember the excuses. At least now it afforded her a bit of privacy.

The window of the cramped space was open, allowing a beam of moonlight to stream down over the assortment of boxes and supplies. A familiar silhouette awaited her when she stepped in. The red eyes that peered up at her seemed to glow in the darkness like embers in the sacred fires. When she sat down, struggling not to collapse and risk making noise, she felt the pain of bruises and cuts from tonight's battle light up, shocking in the sudden awareness.

"You didn't get the Grief Seed," the white creature tsked, the tone and face failing to emphasize the disappointment. Maybe it was Rei who felt the disappointment, not the Incubator.

"That other magical girl stole it," she insisted, hating the way the excuse tasted in her mouth: cheap and metallic.

"You need one soon. Your Soul Gem is darkening," it cautioned. Rei didn't need to summon the small oval object, shimmering like a ruby with fire at its core, to know that he was correct. She had seen it the other day, watching the black haziness slowly creep along below the surface. Kyubey explained what that meant when he gave her the object. If she didn't cleanse it, it would break, and she would die.

In the other room, she thought she heard faint weeping.

If Rei died, who would Mother have left?