Kirika Hotsuin

"The weak are simply prey for the strong! That's why we need power.. the power to stand up against any foe, no matter how strong they are!"

- Kirika Hotsuin to Tsuruko Sejren, in Amadam's Secret, Daybreak S2

Kirika Hotsuin (キリカ・ホツイン, Kirika Hotsuin) is a seemingly wandering mage, whom is known to be a complete enigma while having a lust for power. Aside from her being a unique type of Soul Armour Knight who uses the GingaOh Driver to transform and having a thirst for violence, nothing else is known about her, at least initially, though she serves as the main muscle for the Zodiac Knights. Shockingly, or maybe not, Kirika is the Queen of the Zodiac Knights; the host of the Virgo Symbiote (ヴァルゴ・シムビウーツ, Barugo Simubiūtu); a cunning schemer with more to her then meets the eye. Kirika is the main antagonist in Daybreak S1; and Tsuruko Sejren's main rival.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Kirika is revealed to be cast-off from Tsuruko Sejren's psyche as a result of trauma that the latter had suffered during a specific childhood incident; this is known as an Irregular (具生人 (イレギュラー), Iregyura lit. Embodiment-Born Human); which is a human that was created through a strong burst of imagination, Arc of Embodiment or otherwise. As a result of being born from a pure heart, Kirika was capable of effortlessly controlling her darkness. Putting on the façade of being the genuine Virgo Symbiote, Kirika infiltrated the Zodiac Knights so that she could manipulate them from the inside, each of their actions driving her closer to her goal; that of the Philosopher's Stone, which she would utilize in order to become fully split from Tsuruko, allowing her to become her own person. Interestingly, Kirika showed deep signs of wishing to repent, and thanks to this, after using the Philosopher's Stone's power, she switched sides. When she scans the Change Ring over the GingaOh Driver, Kirika is able to become the Super Galaxy King (超銀河王, Chō Ginga Ō).

Appearance
Kirika has the appearance of a young woman in her mid-twenties—she appears strikingly similar to Giselle Mercury; something that Tsuruko makes fun of, stating to Giselle that "she [Kirika's] crazy enough to make herself look exactly like you"; something that Giselle considers an actual possibility; however, the connection is something far more complex. Kirika has pale-fair skin and red blushy cheeks. Her eyes look to be a powerful purple while her hair appears to be a pale-silver colour. She is taller than Giselle, but her exact height is unknown. From what can be seen, she seems to have very little breast development, maybe a B-cup in normal form. Her white hair loosely flows outward and seems to be about waist length. She has cold, unmoving eyes, she never breathes nor does her hair move, and her arms and legs are full of holes which are masked by her gloves and boots.

Normally, Kirika's outfit is fitting for a melee character such as herself. It consists of a red and black strapless sports bra, and torn blue gi pants that has a red flame design on the bottom of the left leg. They are tied to her waist with a red and black martial arts belt. Her pants are ripped to where the right leg is only covered mid thigh and there are several tears that show the orange inside with one on her right leg revealing her blue and white striped panties. She doesn't wear shoes. Kirika also wears black fingerless gloves with red cestus gloves with six silver spikes on each hand. As an accessory she wears a silver dragon charm in all-caps attached to two chains as a necklace.

When in battle, Kirika dons a skintight battle-suit, which is similar to a futuristic armour clad completely in what appear to be blades. This armour has multiple black marks and lining, and thin breast-plates keeping her newly developed breasts raised. It is noted to be mostly an extremely light-blue in coloration, with numerous metallic attachments to cover the outer side of her legs and arms—both starting with jagged plates and pauldrons on her hips and shoulders, respectively. There is a collar around her neck; and on the back of the armour, six varying types of swords fan out in a wing-like formation, with one enormous sword straight down the middle.

Personality
"In order to get something, you have to give something up!"

- Kirika's motto. Kirika is the polar opposite of Tsuruko in almost every respect. Though she retains a thirst for learning and determination to get what she wants and all of Tsuruko's cunning, she is a highly cruel woman, or so it seemed. Kirika is described by Capricorn to be like the sun, a radiant figure of great intellect whose stubbornness can harm those closest to her. Arrogant beyond belief, Kirika believes firmly in the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest", thinking that the weak should perish for the strong. Kirika can be described a person whose personality is hard to read, possessing a well-polished dislike of humanity that borders on mistrust, something she shares with the other Zodiac Knights. However, under that mask lies a psychotic woman, prone to fits of insane laughter that possesses no regard for human life, regarding them as absolutely nothing, and thus, a disposable commodity; however, there is some sort of twisted justice behind her methods, as she only kills those she sees as 'evil'; as shown during her own arc, where she pretends to be infatuated with Kira Hase, a young man from the Dark Guild Hell Seekers so that she could slaughter the whole guild for their crimes against the innocent.

Kirika is shown to be a cunning, callous, and pragmatic being with the sole goal of splitting from Tsuruko, the Zodiac Knights meaning absolutely nothing to her. To this end, she is willing to put whatever she pleases on the line or destroy anything in her way; in this way, she is shown to be Tsuruko Sejren's polar opposite. She appears to be calm, kind and affable; certainly a person you'd love to sit back and have a cup of coffee with; however, this is only a front to her true personality—deceiving people into believing that she is a kind person; though she is actually quite kind, which is shown more when she mellows out. Digging further, however, shows that Kirika possesses some degree of innocence that her psychotic behaviour has not entirely ruined; she has a soft spot for children—in fact, this is the closest to a humanizing emotion that she has. She also appears to have some desire for a normal life, a chance at redemption, as even though she had changed sides, she did not change her attitude towards others, but Deen Lhant's words did manage to strike a chord within her.

Kirika has a reputation as a sadistic felon with a love to fight, maim and otherwise destroy anything in her random fits of rage. Cruel, sadistic, and insane beyond measure, she provokes and manipulates others for her own amusement, and ruthlessly tortures those she deems as evil. She possesses a strong, sensual figure, but is cruel, cunning, ruthless and sadistic, as well as an unforgiving fighter with a strong urge to cause havoc and destruction, having no qualms with claiming the lives of her victims. She derives a demented form of amusement from the suffering of 'evil', and is lethally addicted to murdering others. She delights in preying on others - when she is done with them she kills them gorily; and she is adept at playing on the insecurities of others to manipulate them. She takes every opportunity to upset others by mocking them, deliberately provoking them, or even bringing up and prodding at a sensitive topic; all for her own enjoyment. She cracks dark jokes at times, breaking out into hysterical laughter upon causing mayhem.

Interestingly enough, when Kirika finally obtains her goal, she reveals that most of her psychotic act was a big fat lie; she did indeed feel guilt for her actions, though her desire to become her own person independently overpowered any guilt that she possessed. It is because of this, that Tsuruko decides to forgive her, making Kirika Hotsuin an unofficial member of Team Daybreak. While she does indeed wish to atone, she still enjoys riling people up; and because of this, she never really abandons her bloodthirsty and rude attitude. Despite this, she matured immensely, and along with leaving her past behind her, she also left a lot of her unfortunate traits behind. When realized that a premature Envoy Fruit is also a poison when a human consumes it, she shows even more humanity by preventing Arc from killing the now mutated Kaguya.

Deep down, thanks to their connection, Kirika secretly possesses jealousy towards Tsuruko; her attitude towards Tsuruko was hinted at during her own arc, when it is shown that she both idolizes and is slightly jealous of Tsuruko's heroic personality, and is outright shown when she and Tsuruko fight for the final time during the last arc of S1. Thanks to their mutual origin, Tsuruko and Kirika are very similar, but their methods are like opposite sides of a coin; Tsuruko is able to protect her loved ones without killing and is able to stand by their side, while Kirika protects her loved ones through violent methods and even admits that she is unable to stand by their side. Despite her ruthless personality, she has a soft spot towards kids and humanity, and in addition to this, she cares deeply for those she sees as 'worthy', such as what happened when Alexis' weapon struck a roof and had Deen's arm broken; rather than fighting on like she expectedly would, Kirika immediately goes to Deen to protect him instead of finishing Alexis off.

Indeed, Deen's kindness towards her has proven to be beneficial to both her and everyone around her—as indeed, they are no longer in constant danger; a major sign of her kindness is shown when she saves Deen multiple times—and usually, when Amadam's Empire steps up their game, Kirika will come running for Tsuruko and assist her in pulling off a win. Deep down, she is someone that aches for the light, as shown when Deen was able to walk up to her and slowly take a gun from her hands before she tried to finish off Alexis after their second bout. Amusingly, she seems to really enjoy teasing Deen—and openly acts lovey-dovey with him, something that embarrasses him. She has a habit of clapping when talking to others, often for no apparent reason which only further signifies her insanity. Kirika has a few unusual tendencies and quirks, however, such as turning away from the people she speaks to, or over-dramatizing her hand gestures when delivering a speech, even flexing her fingers in an unusual manner, as if itching to grab something.

History
When her parents disappeared, Tsuruko's mind broke. After she lost her parents, she abandoned her past and tried to become strong to help others, convincing herself that she didn't need her past and she could only live through other people. While selfless and kind, her view on life was distorted, as she walked onwards, under the delusion of not needing help. The denied feelings of wanting companionship and help from others caused an inner turmoil that affected Tsuruko throughout her life; as she imagined her 'ideal self'; somebody so powerful and courageous that nothing would faze her—eventually.

Once her brain deems the enemy as a demon, her limitations would be removed, and everything from the movement controls to the magic controls would be controlled by her mind. Her own will here would not even be a system software here. It played the part of receiving the thought waves and converts them into antagonistic intent—that's the DTD. With it, Tsuruko could detect the thought waves of the enemy, while her body would be in charge of destroying it. It's an interface that used her mechanical body to carry out cadence that far exceeds human limits, and also, a hunting machine that's equipped with the ability to control enemy magic. This Program was created to exterminate the last greatest fable that the previous left behind, demons; turning thoughts to reality."

These denied feelings of being a helpless orphaned child yearning for love and attention buried deep within Tsuruko, and this inner turmoil caused her to dream of an ideal Tsuruko Sejren—outgoing, fearless, determined, and oh-so-powerful. Thanks to the DTD, that version of her, became a reality—Kirika Hotsuin. The first thing she felt was sadness for her separation from Tsuruko, but that sadness soon turned to hate and contempt for what she considered her weakness, which eventually turned into self-hatred. Kirika soon became aware of her existence, and she soon started questioning why she was born, and every time she felt something, a Dust was created. Irritated, Kirika destroyed it with her weapon, but every time she destroyed a Dust, she felt strong physical pain running through her body, and after the Dust was destroyed, the pain and negative feeling returned to Kirika's mind, which added more to her irritation and causes the birth of more Dusts.

In order to cure herself of this curse, Kirika decided, that she would need to completely separate herself from Tsuruko Sejren in every way possible—and in order to indeed perform that action, she would need to acquire the Philosopher's Stone, and harness its wish-granting power to cut the link between she and Tsuruko.

Equipment
Manifestation Demolition Blade: Stormbringer (示現崩剣・ストームブリンガー, Jigenhōken Sutōmuburingā): The Manifestation Demolition Blade: Stormbringer is the name of Kirika's specialized sword—it is classified as a High-Frequency Blade (高周波の剣, Kōshūha no Ken), which is a sword reinforced by a powerful alternating current and resonates at extremely high frequencies, creating an extremely sharp blade. The Stormbringer takes the form of a single-sided chokutō with a laser edge built in to only enhance the power of the high-frequency blade—the sword itself is easily recognizable due to its length as a Japanese nodachi blade. The colour of the tsuba (guard) and tsuka (hilt) are blue and gold and entirely black respectively; it is around approximately six-to-eight feet long, being a fair bit longer than Kirika herself is tall. The oscillation of Stormbringer weakens the molecular bonds of anything it cuts, thereby increasing its cutting ability. Striking, cutting, and thrusting attacks are performed with the blade, with the sharpened edge and point used for lethal attacks, and the blunt edge used as a clubbing weapon. She is also able to wield the blade with such accuracy and speed that she is able to deflect bullets. They can also be superheated from friction to be hot enough to sear anything that it comes into contact with. It sports a bolted steel base and blade, and there are two holes on the blade near the hilt. It has been specially customized with a motorcycle-like gear shift which, when pulled, sprays a flammable propellant across the blade and opponent, greatly increasing the power of its blows; it can be revved up to three times, and can be released either in one incredibly powerful strike, or as three lesser, but still strong, blows; increasing the range and inflicted damage of its attacks. For certain techniques this changes their performance entirely. Because enhanced attacks inflict more damage, this is one of Kirika's most valuable assets in a battle. This system is also strong enough for Kirika to be able to use it as a jet; this allows the Engine Blade to have three different elemental abilities imbued in it, each based on a different type of engine: Jet (ジェット Jetto), allows Stormbringer to fire jet blades or a blade energy wave; Electric (エレクトリック Erekutorikku) allows Stormbringer to do high powered electric slashes, and Steam (スチーム Suchīmu) creates a wave or wall of steam. This and several other modifications makes Stormbringer nearly impossible for anyone but Kirika to wield.
 * Sheath-Gun of Stormbringer: The sheath of the Stormbringer blade is in the form of a powerful-looking rifle; the rifle's lock and barrel is gray while the stock is a dark red. The stock itself is rather longer when compared to the barrel and lock. As the sword covers and blocks the barrel of the rifle, it is unable to fire normally unless the sword has been unsheathed. Although it is small and light weight, the rifle component is capable of fully automatic fire. The sheathe of Stormbringer has the slightly more mundane use of making its cutting force even higher at the press of a button due to pressurized air in the sheathe. When using the rifle as the sheathe, it can launch from its "sheathe" at the press of a trigger, making her strikes ten times more deadly, and can also be linked to its sheathe via chain so it can swing through enemies and come back to Kirika.

Sawed-Off Shotgun: This unnamed weapon is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel, with an absent stock, designed to be easy to conceal. The Sawed-Off Shotgun was obtained by Kirika from a black market; Compared to a standard shotgun, the sawed-off shotgun has a shorter effective range, due to a lower muzzle velocity and wider spread of shot. Its reduced size makes it easier to maneuver and conceal. Powerful and compact, the weapon is especially suitable for use in small spaces. It has a tube magazine attached to the underside of the barrel which limits the minimum barrel length to slightly longer than the length of the magazine tube, when only the barrel is modified. Shortening the length of a shotgun barrel does not significantly affect the pattern or spread of the pellets until it is decreased to under 50% of a typical barrel length. The pattern is primarily affected by the type of cartridge fired and the choke, or constriction normally found at the muzzle of a shotgun barrel. Cutting off the end of the barrel removes the choke, which generally only extends about two inches (about 5 cm) inward from the muzzle. This results in a cylinder bore, which causes the widest spread generally found in shotgun barrels. For an even wider pattern, special "spreader chokes" or "spreader loads" can be used, that are designed to spread the shot farther. It can fire twin lasers from its barrels, can have a small grappling hook attached to it and also comes with a knock-out gas feature. Presumably, the gun is powered by some sort of nuclear fusion reaction; and later on, Kirika links the gun up to a miniaturized black hole in order to augment the output of the cannon, increasing its power astronomically. The cannon is presumably telescopic, as she keeps it stored retracted in her left arm when not in use. Its powerful blast is enough to knock Amadam back three city blocks (although there was a building in the way) and requires Kirika to use both of her arms to steady the aim; as without balance, it could knock Kirika herself backwards a slight distance due to recoil.

GingaOh Driver (ギンガオー・ドライバー, Gingaō Doraibā): The GingaOh Driver is a special Driver Belt that was created at the beginning of the universe—while the Planet-Eating Beast Varian's power was world-shattering, it was not destined for habitat in this plane of existence, and thus, it, along with it's twin, Origin, sealed themselves away—Varian took the form of a peculiar Driver Belt. The GingaOh Driver is the prototype to the Driver Belts, and the ancient king, and later Kirika's device which enables the user to harness the power of Planet-Eating Beast Varian, which has been converted into the form of the belt, as well as the Source of Magic in order to fuel their transformation into a Soul Armour Knight; the very first Soul Armour Knight known in existence. It is the seal that kept the first symbiotes in their billion year slumber in the stone coffin. The GingaOh Driver takes the form of a silver and black belt which has a triad of purple crystals engraved upon the buckle. It also stores the genetic structure and memories of its host, so that if the host is injured or killed, it regenerates that host from even the smallest bits of genetic material, even regenerating scars made by past wounds. During the joining with the GingaOh Driver, Kirika's body is changed permanently. The GingaOh Driver leaves two growths on the back of her that act as a form of catalyst for the Change Ring while also being able to sense other users of the Driver Belts nearby. The GingaOh Driver is known to be created from pure darkness—and eventually, it would eat away the mind of the wearer; however, Kirika is capable of withstanding its negative side-effects, as her unstable psyche actively encourages the addicting power of the GingaOh Driver and turns it back on Varian to further amplify the power received by using the GingaOh Driver; essentially, Kirika is so insane that there is nothing for Varian to devour—this makes her the strongest wielder of the belt to ever exist. It is the mystical device that enables Kirika to unlock the powers of the Super Soul Rings, allowing Kirika to perform various magical abilities. By wearing the Change Ring on her left hand and swinging it across the belt buckle after activating the Driver; the GingaOh Driver will authorize the usage of the Super Soul Ring, thus giving it even more power; enabling Kirika to utilize their full potential. It turns out that the GingaOh Driver has bonded with Kirika on the molecular level; making it the source of her power; as it drastically enhances her lifespan to make her nigh-unkillable.

Ways of Combat
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: A master of the sword, Kirika's fighting style is known as Killing Move Sword (必殺剣, Hissatsuken). She attacks very quickly, leaping through the air to strike enemies with her long sword, carving a trail of destruction through the area. She is even capable of employing her swords effectively using her feet, by wielding their hilts between her hallux and second toe. Her swordsmanship is enough for her to slash through intangible airspaces, and to deflect hundreds of bullets which were shot at her by a Rune Knight with relative ease. In addition, her sword slashes possess so much force behind them that they are able to slice through metal using only the air pressure from the swings. Kirika has an incredibly aggressive style: she is constantly on the offensive, and eschews any defensive moves in favor of speed and strength, striking heavy and hard while lightning fast. She prefers an off-hands style that is best suited for her own tastes, relying on a combination of power, strength, and speed, always on the offensive, attacking with wide, fast, and powerful swings, performing amazing feats of acrobatics, such as somersaults and backflips, not only for attack, but also to evade the slashes and strikes of her opponents. Running, jumping, and spinning are all emphasized in her style, allowing Kirika to move at high speeds and rain strong blows, jumping and attacking through the air. Powerful and quick spinning attacks are utilized from all angles, either from ground or air, appearing like a blur to her opponents, attacking from all directions—the front, the sides, overhead, or behind. However, Kirika's fighting style is highly demanding in terms of both physical and kinetic energy expended, this is because of its broad focus and deeper utilization within her blows. The Killing Move Sword has abundant amounts of paradoxical and unpredictable concepts that would make the fighting style difficult to use for anyone else—but this is why Kirika likes it so much. Sometimes, Killing Move Sword is described as more than a mere swordsmanship style—it requires Kirika to enjoy the fight, desiring the satisfaction of victory above all else. By accepting the anger of the opponent, Kirika morphs them into half of a superconducting loop, with the other half being realized as the anger and hate that dwells within the opponent. In order to use Killing Move Sword, Kirika must emit a constant stream of magical energy from her body, with a hardly contained detonation of magical energy which allows Kirika's attacks to appear nothing but unconnected and seemingly unpolished. The Killing Move Sword Style is Kirika's personalized style of swordfighting, developed in order to enforce the cruel reality of sword fighting—the moment that a sword is able to make successful contact with the body, any sort of skill, training, or prodigal talent that one has is rendered null and void, becoming useless. Essentially, any sort of "sword style" betrays the true nature of sword-fighting, leading to the Killing Move Sword to place emphasis on this harsh reality as much as possible. When utilizing it, Kirika has one goal in mind: kill fast. The incredible level of speed that Kirika is in possession of is what makes the style so effective. Releasing her true speed, a frame of slow motion would show that pieces of skin are ripped off as she darts around, winds scourging Kirika's bare flesh and bone before her infected body repairs itself. The combination of skill and violence that this technique requires makes it almost inherently a technique exclusive to Kirika; a sword style above all others.
 * Sword Magic: Killing Move Sword (剣の魔法・必殺剣, Ken no Mahō: Hissatsuken): Sword Magic is a Holder Type Magic used by various mages. In order to use Sword Magic, the user starts by channeling eternano directly into a specially constructed magic blade that causes a chain reaction to the sword, having the blade alter its entire structure until it reaches an unstable form of metal and magic, allowing the person to manipulate it into a solid shape that can also engage the spell that the user sees fit to use. In some cases, when the person condenses the unstable structure, they often add their own elemental affinity magic, allowing for the user of elemental sword spells to be created through the effective means of the user. During the time after the sword spell is used, the eternano is immediately ejected from the blade, allowing the instability, the result from the eternano, to cease and transform the blade back to its normal shape. However, there are certain risks to using this magic as it takes much mental focus and incredible magic control in order to allow the blade to be altered in its solid shape, and to be controlled in its unstable form. When the user often attempts to make any spell, their hand is to remain on the hilt at all times, due to the fact that unless the eternano is controlled and is kept at a steady flow into the blade, the blade will simply revert back to its normal shape while the Eternano is simply ejected outward. Hissatsuken is focused around swift draws; similar to the art of Iaidō; sword style where the user quick draws the blade extremely fast to strike, then re-sheathing it after every attack. Kirika's speed is so fast that she prevents opponents from reciting magical incantations and releasing their powers making it highly effective against mages, however, if one has no need for incantations or have short release commands, then they could hamper Kirika's advantage. Kirika is able to strike so fast that the opponent does not realize they have been cut until she sheathes her weapon; slicing up to ten times in a row in the span of a few moments. It is a style of sword fighting that is free in its movements, sparse, restrained, adapted to brawls and to duels, than to the fields of large scale battles. With this style of swordsmanship, the user takes into account and adapts to the opponent's weaponry, contrary to other ways of battle which taught to impose dominance without taking into account the opponent. Hissatsuken takes into account the geography of the terrain, the hour of battle, and other parameters. It is effective against ranged weapons and magical blasts for this reason; being almost undefeated. Hissatsuken is an extremely powerful way of fighting; and as such, is only usable by the most skilled of warriors. The user learns to use the sword not only to defend their position but to also have the "power of adaptability" in facing different individuals, much as a captain must consider the winds and change sails in order to travel in the best direction to reach their objective. It is similar to a hunting hawk, which must constantly reconsider the best trajectory in which to strike effectively. Like the raptor, it is necessary to be able to anticipate, to be able to assess and definitively act. "Move with the mind, in order to move with the body" is one of the central tenets of style. If the user's sword does not stop the movement of the enemy, then they try to fit to the opponent's rhythm, thus entering into the mind of the adversary to find their weakness.
 * Killing Move Sword Secret Art: Dimensional Slash (必殺剣・奥義・次元斬, Hissatsuken Ōgi: Jigenzan): Jigenzan is one of the "space-time attacks" (時空剣技, Jikūkengi) that Kirika developed by branching out with Hissatsuken; not only that, it is known to be one of the strongest Sword Magic spells to exist as of currently. When performing the Jigenzan, Kirika gathers and condenses magical power within Stormbringer; once it is compressed, she grips the hilt of the enormous sword; unsheathing it at incredible speeds from any range that she wishes. It is manifested by collecting magical energy, absorbing magical particles from an opponent or gathering magical particles, giving Kirika many ways to form this attack; however, each and every way of materializing this attack is functionally the same. It allows Kirika to postpone the dimension in which she exists and enables her to go through all matter and create the "ultimate blade". This technique is like a saw, moving back and forth between dimensions, which means that it cannot cut if it cannot move. The moment that Kirika unsheathes Stormbringer at incredible speeds, she releases the magical energy that she has gathered in the form of an emerald, halo-esque spinning ring projectile that is launched off of her blade with enough power to bust an adversary to shreds. Its principal use is to strike at adversaries outside of the sword's range. Essentially, it breaks the air with a slash and forces out a powerful blast of pure magical energy at the adversary. Because it is essentially the release of focused magical energy, it is capable of destroying anything with a decisive strike of cutting magical waves. What should be noted is that Jigenzan possessing homing properties; tracking the foe's heat signature in order to sniff them out and deal damage. Kirika's mastery over this technique is such that she does not need to unsheathe the blade, but simply use it as an attack at close range. Defensively, this technique can be used to postpone the dimension of her entire body, allowing her to pass through walls and nullify an enemy's attacks. Kirika has perfected this technique to the point where making contact with the target is unnecessary to make a hit. All she has to do is slash in the direction of her intended target and the cut travels the distance to it at lightning speed, with the same end result.
 * Demon God Connecting Fang Slash (魔神連牙斬, Majin Rengazan): Demon God Connecting Fang Slash is a powerful sword combo exclusive to Kirika. When performing this attack, Kirika utilizes her eternano molding in order to manifest a duplicate of her Strombringer. The first hit is a horizontal swing from left to right with the right sword, immediately followed by an uppercut with the left sword. The user then jumps up and slashes the target with both swords from left to right while spinning, twice; the user lands facing the target and slashes an X from top to bottom, before inversely slashing the X again from bottom to top. The user then leaps at the target and makes two diagonal slashes from the same starting point, with the left sword heading from top to bottom to the left, while the right sword heads from bottom to top toward the right. Afterwards, the user reverses their grip on the two swords and slashes another X with both swords from top to bottom. The user then does a barrel-roll like maneuver while slashing at the target, like a corkscrew. The user then slashes another two X's at the target, first from top to bottom and then bottom to top. The user then makes a diagonal slash with the right sword, top-right to bottom-left, then spins left and uses this momentum to deal a horizontal, right to left slash with the left sword. The user then, at a very high speed, makes an uppercut with the right sword; then another with the left sword, a downward slash with the right sword, then a downward diagonal slash towards the right with the left sword, spins and repeats the previous attack, and thrusts the right-handed sword out. The final slash is a forceful downward lunge with the left sword.

Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Kirika is a very well known for her hand-to-hand prowess; indeed, she is stated to be an equal to Giselle in that department. Kirika uses the style of Gekiha Renshūken (月気発蓮蹴拳, Moon-Heart Explosive Lotus Kick Fist); Gekiha Renshūken is an elegant fighting style that is only available to fighters that have mastered all other forms of martial arts. This style is considered to be the strongest, most elegant, school of martial arts in existence and relies on fast footwork in order to focus on fending off enemy attacks with the arms and using the legs to counterattack with powerful kicks. The sheer strength of her body, coupled with her superb footwork are positively reinforced by her strength, stamina and footwork, making her one of the deadliest practitioners of hand-to-hand combat around. With this style, her destructive power is without equal and can slaughter enemies with her devastating slicing techniques, focusing on rapid kicks which stab the enemy to death. She uses her instincts to fight as well; attacking savagely and unpredictably in order to overwhelm her opponent. Most of Kirika's combat moves focus on using graceful and delicate movements, similar to ballet moves, to strike precise and hard blows at her opponents. When attacking, she tends to use her feet when launching physical blows. Kirika utilizes many graceful flips, twirls, and cartwheels, mixing in pirouetting kicks, twirls, and one-handed backflips with her hand-to-hand combat, overwhelming an opponent through multi-directional attacks with relative ease. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury. With her extensive training in this discipline, Kirika can defend against all variety of attacks and counters in the quickest and most efficient way. Gekiha Renshūken fixates on countering as soon as possible; attacking pre-emptively to gain the upper hand, as well as targeting attacks to the body's most vulnerable points, such as: the eyes, neck/throat, face, solar plexus, groin, ribs, knee, foot, fingers, etc. Overall, Gekiha Renshūken enables Kirika to match Giselle's Seishin Dairinken (星心大輪拳, Star-Mind Large-Ring Fist) blow for blow. Upon using this fighting style, Kirika is able to fight at incredible speeds and is able to react and move in microseconds.
 * Exploding Dragon Fire Dance (爆龍炎舞, Bakuryū Enbu): Exploding Dragon Fire Dance is a special technique of the Gekiha Renshūken; when performing the move, Kirika swings her foot around in an arc, generating friction with the kinetic energy produced by her movement and the Eternano in the air—instantly manifesting and shaping it into the form of aa giant, powerful dragon composed of flame; it seeks out the opponent's attack, taking ahold of its "essence" and targeting their weak point; charging forward with high speeds. It has been shown to be immensely powerful, devouring large fragments of rocks and erasing extremely high powered spells with ease. The dragon carves a violent trail of destruction wherever it moves, destroying everything in a straight line as a tornado trails around it as it completely overwhelms all it devours, as by colliding with most structures and opponents, grinding into the opponent like a powerful drill that is capable of piercing through any and every defense; striking them with such incredible power that the sheer force of the attack is enough to upturn steel, and wipe her enemies away with a force akin to an inferno. It is capable of blasting through even magical forms of defenses, as the dragon's movements swaths through the barriers, and supernatural defenses erected in vain to protect them, striking the foe formidable might, dealing physical damage. The dragon completely burns all it devours, as by colliding with most structures and opponents, it is able to incinerate anything in its path.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: In stark contrast with her slim and womanly figure, Kirika possesses positively enormous amounts of physical strength, having been repeatedly shown capable of lifting and dragging around objects many times her own size and weight, most prominently due to her habit of carrying around a sword as large as she is tall. The fact that she is capable of swinging Stormbringer one-handedly without any strain is a true testament to her titanic strength. In fact, she is so powerful, that she is capable of splitting the hydrogen in the air just by merely punching, allowing her to cause a small explosion that inflicts decent damage. Another feat of strength is that she can punch the ground with enough force to cause small fissures. Kirika is able to lift and press 120 metric tons, and she can perform other amazing feats such as punching holes right through thick steel, shatter boulders to smithereens and lift objects many times her own size and weight with her non-mechanical hand; a shocking display of fearsome power in itself. Her strength allows Kirika to create thin shockwaves of air that cleanly cut through anything they come in contact with. Furthermore; she shows the ability to pulverize large boulders and the like with a single strike using her finger, while others marvel at the level of strength she possesses. She is able to further manipulate the energy stored inside her body well enough to the point of being capable of accumulating said energy into her fists, similar to how she is able to compress her energy to form a stronger exterior as detailed below, thereby greatly enhancing her punches while also allowing her to create extremely powerful bursts of energy on impact; in which the dispersal of said energy through the ground can even create flaming shockwaves and gigantic firewalls. Her ability to create bursts of shockwaves is also heightened to the point of causing massive explosions around herself; in which it was strong enough to push debris out of her way while causing damage at a much wider range than before.

Tremendous Speed: Without using any particular type of movement-enhancing technique, Kirika usually moves at speeds rivaling those of a Wizard Saint, as Kirika has shown to be immensely fast, befitting her small size and waifish build. Her tremendous raw power, allows her to move fast enough to instantly close a huge gap of space between her and the opponent and even seemingly disappear from sight in the span of a millisecond. She can effectively use her agility to use the battlefield to her advantage, jumping from wall to wall to keep her opponents unsure of her attack patterns. Kirika moves at such a speed that her foes more often than not can't register her movements, until she's made them; she's also skilled enough to dodge at tremendous speeds, even if she's assaulted from behind. When launched into the air, she can perform several tricks before finally landing on ground. She has also shown on several occasions that she can jump incredibly long distances, up to several hundred meters by applying speed to her jumps. She is capable of moving so fast that she can decapitate an entire army of foes without them even having time to react. For speed purposes; Kirika can utilize the energy manipulating ability to dash and propel herself in large distances through short bursts of energy expenditure, moving at supersonic speeds, even nearing that of hypersonic speeds, so swift that more often than not her opponents are unable to track her movements, merely appearing as a flash of jet-black energy that bursts through the air, and her speed enables her to attack almost a multiple of fifty times in a row per second; and she manages to move fast enough to instantly close a huge gap of space between her and the opponent and even seemingly disappear from sight in the span of a millisecond. Finally, Kirika's speed allows her to fly for a short amount of time.

High Durability: Kirika is unnaturally resilient; this is mostly due to her 'treatments', but partly it is the result of her own training. Her skin itself is unnaturally hard; as she is able to block sword strikes with a single finger without feeling anything, and occasionally she deflects elemental magic up to Dragon Slayer caliber with a single swipe of her hand. Even after suffering a fierce onslaught by the hands of Giselle, Kirika is still able to stand again and again without receiving tremendous physical harm. In addition, she can keep fighting despite suffering broken bones as if she never suffered those injuries in the first place. Because her body is infused with demonic energy, with the heart acting as the origin of her power source, which upon her will could merge with her body parts and harden in response to physical trauma, Kirika has an enormous amount of durability. This makes her incredibly difficult to injure all while granting her extreme durability and strength. It activates by allowing Kirika's magical energy to influence the demonic energy in her body the moment that she is attacked; hardening her skin immensely to the point that her skin seems to be made from diamonds; this is represented by a faint pattern tracing the veins beneath the surface of her skin, which is only visible on the afflicted area when struck; it is on this pattern that the demonic energy condense on the veins, emitting a powerful repulsive force that instantly deflects the attack. With this automated defense, even attacks delivered by a Wizard Saint can potentially be negated completely. This defense can also be used to aid Kirika against critical wounds that have already been inflicted, able to stop the severe loss of blood that would be caused from said wound.

Other
Immense Intellect: If there is anything to fear about Kirika more than her heritage, it is her immense intellect and vast library of knowledge and secrets. Kirika possesses a perceptive eye and remarkable intuition. She possesses a genius that is rarely matched, and it is prevalent through her ways of fighting. While others were content simply to achieve the power, speed and technique of their regular magic, Kirika was interested in developing her own type of magic, creating a variety of techniques and abilities to suit her needs. She has a great talent for analyzing and observing everything in her presence, allowing her to quickly understand a person's pattern of thinking and better talk to them. She is well-versed in the history, strategy, tactics of the world, and is privy to knowledge previously unknown to many, such as knowing of the existence of a Dimensional Transferor, as well as the obscure method in which to make one. In battle, Kirika's preference is to concoct strategies based on deduction of her opponents' abilities and fighting style. Later, she also starts to display good strategies in battle, like when she was able to take out the Rune Knights with a sawed-off shotgun, which she utilized for the first time against them, along with exploiting her immediate environment and psychological tactics to her advantage, without using her magic. Against Rizevim Oberon, Kirika displayed the ability to calculate and analyze all the 25,000 different kinds of energy of Rizevim's Dark Matter, while fighting at par with her and protecting the bystanders, to update her magic. Kirika has molded herself into a master strategist, tactician, and analyst. She is frequently the first person to point out or find a weakness in her opponent's abilities or fighting style and exploit them to her advantage. Nevertheless, her ability to think several steps before the enemy almost always ensures her victory.

Magical Abilities
Intense Magical Power: Kirika possesses an enormous amount of magical power, even rivaling that of a Wizard Saint's. Her skill and control at using manipulating her demon energy aura allows her to perform a variety of abilities. Kirika has undergone numerous experiments in order to raise her magical energy to this insurmountable level. As a Irregular, technically, the sun is the main source of Kirika's magical power; as a Irregular, Kirika's cells absorb only yellow solar energy, and this in turn, fuels all of her powers and abilities. Kirika's cells also store solar energy as well, allowing her to retain her powers under roofed structures or even at night, although she eventually needs a yellow sun to recharge her powers. Kirika can also absorb solar energies of other class stars such as when she absorbed the solar energies of an artificial blue star that increased her abilities to a higher degree and gave her additional abilities. As a 'cast-off', Kirika's magic is considered "pure", and she can utilize her magical power in order to power those around her and herself, giving them an inexhaustible amount of magical power, and increasing all of their attributes twentyfold.
 * Kirika_Power.gifMagical Aura (魔力の霊気 Maryoku no Reiki; lit. Aura of Magical Power): Magical Aura is a common term given to the exertion of magical energy into a form outside of the user's body that isn't used in the formation of spells. It has been demonstrated by various mages of varying potency, and is a common means of intimidation. A magical aura is created when the body's container of eternano particles exceeds the limits of what it contains, or is purposefully released by the user. Upon doing so, the magical energy surges around the body and is exerted outwards in the form of an aura, which holds considerable pressure surrounding it. Depending on the level of magical power one possesses and the control behind it, it can be used as a means to intimidate another individual, or as a preparation for a powerful spell. A single magical aura can have a wide variety of effects dependent on the power an individual exerts; Kirika's aura almost consumes her in its colour, leaving nothing but a phantom-like apparition to remain. It should also be noted that the aura is far wider, and is generally uncontrolled by Kirika. However, her aura isn't limited to intimidation, and can be used for the preparation of a spell. It is also worth noting that the pressure exhibited from such an aura can form a large column of energy, leaving the pressure enough to visibly cause strain on people even from a considerable distance away from the exertion of the aura, indicating at the sheer level of power within this aura.

Aura Magic
Aura Magic (霊気の魔法, Reiki no Mahō): Aura Magic is a special Lost Magic that has been passed down through generations; it is also known as Sendō (仙道, The Way of The Wizard). Aura Magic was created at the dawn of humanity with the purpose of fighting off the dragons' influence on the world. This also includes the creation of minor demi-humans, known as demons, created through the Stone Masks, and stopping them from ever achieving perfection through the Primordial Duo. The Aura Magic users have built many devices and temples across the world to help them train and learn from one another. Aura Magic is one of the few types of magic capable of slaying dragons which isn't Dragon Slayer Magic; and thus, it is extremely coveted by many. As the Lunarians taught mankind Aura Magic eons ago to fight against The Exalted One; Kirika has the ability to use a more powerful version of Aura Magic thanks to her heritage.

Aura Magic is noted to be a special fusion of the sun and the magical energy of the user. However, not everybody can utilize Aura Magic, as Vita states that only one in ten thousand are capable of using it, and the main characteristic of driving Aura Magic comes from the pressure one has felt through harsh situations in life. Those who are not capable will still be able to use the fighting style, but only to an insignificant extent. Aura Magic is based on using the energy of the sun's rays through breathing and empowering the body with solar energy, and then merging it with the user's magical energy to affect both animate and inanimate things in a variety of ways, as long as they are touching it; while it can be used to destroy beings with evil in their hearts, it can also affect inanimate objects. Aura Magic has been known to work as a form of regeneration. With the addition of Aura Magic, her blows possess phenomenal stopping power, making Vita demonstrate destructive power far in excess of many other beings.

Many of the most powerful techniques are classified as 'overdrives', and are colour named. An object that is impacted with the force of the overdrive will carry Aura Magic through it, and will become lethal to the touch of the opponent; this can be used to strike an enemy in another room by breaking through a wall and causing its solar energy to disintegrate the target. Ordinary humans can also be affected by Aura Magic attacks as well, as Aura Magic would have caused an ordinary person to feel pins and needles before fainting, similar in nature to heavy exposure to the sun's rays. Aura Magic is also transferrable between users. Despite the many uses that it possesses, Aura Magic's main use is to allow the user to perform martial arts enhanced by sunlight; and launch blasts of sunlight from their feet and palms.

Liquids conduct Aura Magic especially well (and the user's Aura Magic shows on liquids as ripples), and it can even be used to increase the surface tension enough to allow the user to walk on water. It was mentioned by Vita, that objects covered in oil can conduct Aura Magic much easier. While the Aura Magic users can make the most simplistic of objects into lethal weapons and become themselves dangerously powerful, they are not without weaknesses. The user must be able to constantly breathe, if this breathing is stopped or reduced due to injury she slowly grows weaker to the point that they can be easily defeated even by a wild beast. Additionally, the removal of heat from the user of Aura Magic causes their blood to move slowly and, makes them unable to attack as rapidly and effectively as before.
 * Vehemence Edge (暗黒方躍進 (ヴィエメンス・エッジ), Viemensu Ejji lit. Darkside Onslaught): Kirika's signature Aura Magic spell; it is a power akin to Giselle Mercury's Shining Onslaught and Tsuruko Sejren's Lucifer's Hammer. When performing Vehemence Edge, Kirika condenses stray energy onto Stormbringer, adding her own power into the mix as solar energy erupts; the solar energy swells around the sword, before converging at a singular point—the tip of the sword; intensifying the kinetic energy that is about to be released by convergence and acceleration. Swinging forth, Kirika unleashes a massive horizontal slash in the form of a wave of solar energy that is released in a semicircle that is centered around Kirika. To enhance the attack, Kirika can use the swords floating behind her in the form of wings as bullets coated in Aura Magic alongside the blast of energy; and she generally readies numerous swords at a time, upon snapping her fingers, the seemingly infinite number of swords can be fired without pause. They move and take aim at the target according to Kirika will, being launched with high velocity. Due to an enormous amount of swords being fired at the same time, it is incredibly difficult to block many of the strikes. She starts out with lower numbers of swords, but increases the number of swords fired in a volley depending on the situation. Upon firing them, she can allow them to pierce the ground after striking the target, causing a large amount of destruction with each lance similar to a carpet bombing; the speed of the attack is so swift that most foes cannot realize that they have been struck until she has finished her assault. The wings are mostly used to surround her foe, able to exploit any available opening at a moment's notice. Due to this, this version possesses the additional effect of being able to surprise the foe no matter how much they have witnessed the technique as it is easily adaptable. The whiplash of the attack can be quite huge, usually blowing apart anything behind her at the time of attack. The beam is powerful enough to strike multiple enemies and even two adjacent foes simultaneously while its mere presence covers any exposed light in aura; violently pushing the intended opponent and objects around them away from her with overwhelming blunt force. Despite being such a small beam, the range of Vehemence Edge is vast and its attack power is positively enormous; this is because the thin beam contains all the power of the aura compressed; essentially a wave of aura which shoots forwards towards the opponent with extreme force. The compacted nature and moving speed of the aura that composes the spell allows the attack to grind into whatever it comes in contact with to inflict major damage. This tends to launch the target backward after being hit or, if the opponent is knocked to the ground or being launched towards the ground, the destructive force is enough to form a crater. The spell locks on to Kirika's opponents no matter their position, chasing after them. The blast can dodge obstacles in it's way, unless it is not physically possible, never ceasing it's hunt until it catches it's prey. Along with its astounding destructive power, the attack has a delayed effect if the initial blast should fail, wherein the target will be blasted by residual effects left over by the spell; while not as overwhelming as the initial blast, the after-effect can catch foes off guard. The attack seems to possess highly destructive power, having caused great damage to the area it affected, destroying the ground and piercing through buildings alike, and appears to have a long range, wreaking havoc wherever it passes, as shown when it crossed the entire distance of Hargeon, generating a large explosion. It has been shown to be immensely powerful, devouring large fragments of rocks and erasing extremely high powered spells with ease. The beam carves a violent trail of destruction wherever it moves, destroying everything in a straight line as a tornado trails around it as it completely overwhelms all it devours, as by colliding with most structures and opponents, grinding into the opponent like a powerful drill that is capable of piercing through any and every defense; striking them with such incredible power that the sheer force of the attack is enough to upturn steel, and wipe her enemies away with a force akin to an inferno. It is capable of blasting through even magical forms of defenses, as the beam's movements swaths through the barriers, and supernatural defenses erected in vain to protect them, striking the foe formidable might, dealing physical damage. It should be noted that activating this technique costs little to no power, and thus, Vehemence Edge is easily one of Kirika's most useful techniques.
 * Arm Blade (手刃, Tekken): With a simple flick of her wrist or a single swift movement of her arm, Kirika releases aura, sending it shooting towards her foe. Utilizing her magical energy, Kirika modifies the small pooled aura to transform and harden, becoming a crescent shaped arc of aura. If in close combat, Kirika slices her wrist, and then in the arc of her arm's swing, uses her energy to harden the aura into a blade that remains affixed to her arm, enabling numerous follow-ups. The true advantage of Arm Blade's close-combat variant is that it can liquefy at a single thought, enabling Kirika to negate her foe's attempts at defense upon impact; and Kirika, immediately afterward, can follow up with another attack. The result of being struck by Arm Blade is being simultaneously drenched in aura and slashed simultaneously, giving this attack great power. Lastly, this technique is nearly unblockable as the aura blade can easily cut through steel. Furthermore, if an opponent is stabbed, the aura spreads to their body, causing them to catch ablaze. Its slashes are capable of trailing large amounts of aura in its wake, which can damage the opponent. The moment that the blade makes contact with the foe via impaling them, the composition of the aura blade is altered to cause additional, smaller blades to protrude from the blade inside of the foe's body, drastically increasing the number of wounds dealt to the foe. Both variants of the technique can be utilized in swift succession; since most of the time, the opponent is forced to focus on blocking the first blast, rarely figuring out that the second blow is coming up immediately. Kirika can also launch multiple aura swords to make a lancing-type move; where she directs the sabers towards her target, aiming to impale them with incredible speed and force. However, mid-flight, the sabers veer off wildly in different directions, homing in on different targets in order to attempt to take out multiple opponents at once. When making contact with the opponent, the sabers drench them in aura. Kirika can utilize the aura blade as transportation; the sword moves at high speeds to the point that she becomes a blur. At any moment, Kirika can leap off of her transportation and strike her foe, either downwards or overhead with tremendous force.
 * End of Fragment (千魂冥烙 (エンド・オブ・フラグメント), Endo obu Furagumento lit. Thousand Souls Dark Branding): End of Fragment is Kirika's second most powerful Aura Magic spell; it is more often than not reserved for her finishing technique. Once the End of Fragment spell is activated, a glyph of solar energy appears on the ground, from which six red and blue spherical objects rise, hurting anyone who happens to be touching them. Kirika raises her arms, gathering magical energy within her and forging a link between the realm of the dead and the current plane of existence. From there, she summons the souls of the fallen Aura Masters, and they lend her their power—with this convergence of power, Kirika bends her right arm backwards, the fist clenched, and extending frontwards a mildly bent left arm, tiny streaks of aura gathering before the outstretched fingers from the surrounding area; charging the attack. From there, they settle around Kirika, who then rises up, taking the spheres with her. The spheres turn vertically and connect with each other to form a circle, before Kirika fires a series of energy blasts from the orbs; the blasts are touted to chase their foes to the ends of the earth, no matter where the foe is standing, even if they possessed high speed, as they would catch their foe eventually. The blasts can move at impossible angles, that always manages to reach its target; they will always change their path around any obstacles or pierce through any wall in order to reach their target. Following this, a larger glyph appears in the center of the circle, from which a large, multi-hitting energy laser fires, accompanied by smaller lasers from the six spheres. All of a sudden, the energy of the deceased Aura Masters and Kirika's own Aura is instantly released; resulting in a positively gigantic, horizontal column of pure energy shooting forth from the spheres and five kilometers behind them, creating impressively enormous explosion upon contact which is capable of traveling great distances, wreaking havoc wherever it passes, absolutely destroying the target and anything within range of the spell. After this finishes, End of Fragment ends and Kirika drops back down to the ground, completely unharmed, but drained of her magical power.
 * Return of the Gods: Orochi-Beheading Violent Sealing Hunger (神帰り・大蛇斬頭烈封餓, Kamigaeri: Orochizantō Reppūga): Return of the Gods: Orochi-Beheading Violent Sealing Hunger is Kirika's most powerful spell. When performing Return of the Gods: Orochi-Beheading Violent Sealing Hunger, Kirika charges aura upon her blade; before lifting it skyward as if proclaiming the victory, before instantly dashing forward with surprising burst of speed to meet her targeted enemy with furious speed. The entire sword emits raging torrents of aura as the spell is performed, meaning that the attack can also hit anyone directly behind Kirika when she swings her sword. The blow Kirika unleashes is so powerful that it instantly discharges the aura as to release a god-speed blow of overwhelming, monstrous power that has no equal, as the opponent is washed by aura from where they were slashed; this is instantly built up and condensed upon their body, launching the foe away with high speed. This single blow pierces through many an obstruction and tears through the air itself. The attack produced after utilizing this technique is capable of tremendous power, able to destroy even magical barriers and demolish a portion of a house from a distance with the strike; even if the user is not in close-range, the aura is discharged from the blade, releasing a large dragon of aura which shoots forward instantly, capable of obliterating anything in it's path from incredible distances with relative ease, enhancing the potential of this technique a hundredfold. This dragon is manifested by converting all of her defensive power into a single, maximum-powered attack. The moment that the dragon strikes the opponent, the artificial gravity well generates a "custom" shockwave, transforming all particles in contact with its striking surface into aura. The dragon has more than enough sheer destructive power to erase opponents while leaving their souls intact; Kirika's powerful strike causes them to disappear into light; the sheer power of the strike releases aura and energy capable of destroying anything it comes in contact with. Despite is ridiculous power, Return of the Gods: Orochi-Beheading Violent Sealing Hunger has earned the reputation of being one of the most predictable and avoidable "ultimate moves" due to its slow startup time and introduction sequence, which gives Kirika's opponents in range the chance to completely dodge the move. However, for this drawback, the sheer power that is granted is more than worth such a risk.

Heavenly Body Magic
Heavenly Body Magic (天体魔法, Tentai Mahō) is a Caster Magic that involves the use of various astronomical objects. Heavenly Body Magic is a powerful form of Magic that allows the caster to use the properties of many astronomical objects for battle, preferably in offense. The properties of Heavenly Body Magic rely primarily on astronomical objects like meteors or the generation and manipulation of the energy of stars from their own body. The caster can create powerful light blasts or beams of high destructive power, reminiscent of starlight, at their opponents. The starry energy that Heavenly Body Magic generates is incredibly deadly; it is somewhat acidic in properties, and can melt most substances frighteningly quickly. The generated starry energy can be manipulated in a wide variety of ways, their "type" can be changed at will, and they can even be given a somehow material consistency. Such starry energy has a "piercing" effect to it, causing penetrating damage alongside devouring. When used for offense, Heavenly Body Magic can take the form of a sphere-like object that can be ejected at the opponent or as a beam that can be blasted. Light can also be emitted from the user's body; depending on the brightness or heat that the light emits, it can be capable enough to blind an enemy or cause the surroundings to explode.

Heavenly Body Magic can also be manifested for multiple usage in defense, and it boosts the user's melee performance, empowering her physical attacks with wakes of destructive light. The starry energy can also be employed in other ways, with the user being capable of emitting it in vast amounts, enough to cover a wide area, and of shaping it into various forms. The user has used the starry energy in inventive ways, such as jets of light, whirling disks, and blades of light. They often manipulated light using only two fingers, rather than with a closed fist or open hand as was commonly used by other elemental users; and the user also has the ability to produce a greater amount of light than any other light mage to exist without tiring, as they are shown to be able to maintain successive assaults for long durations of time. The user is also extremely accurate with their blasts of light; and the user has demonstrated the ability to condense the starry energy, enabling the starry energy to cut clean through various objects. When formed into spheres of light, the light serves to be rather concussive, able to firmly pulverize objects, such as stone. The user is able to generate powerful shields of swirling light which could withstand the full force of four simultaneous elemental attacks; and they are even able to charge up their light before releasing it, resulting in a far more powerful attack.

This light is not the only substance used, however. The caster is also capable of using the power of gravity against the opponent for destructive usage; the strength can be comparable to the effects caused by a crushing meteor; as the user is able to freely increase or decrease the amount of gravity in the area around them with devastating effects. By applying this gravitational power to incoming enemy attacks, the user is capable of rendering them harmless by dragging them down to the ground. Gravity can be used to lift objects, even gigantic ones, and people alike, and to move them around in the air; in addition, when concentrated around a single opponent, it can cause the latter great pain. This function is powerful enough for the user to shake a house and completely alter the surrounding area with a light touch of their hand, and a minimal amount of it, let out from the user's body, can prevent falling rain from even coming in contact with them. It also allows the user to alter the gravity of a person, either themselves or someone else. The user can lower the target's gravity, enabling them to walk on walls, or raise the target's gravity, rendering them incapable of moving, additionally utilizing it in order to enhance their speed and movement to enable them to dart around the battlefield with ease, allowing the user to attack with impunity.

More often than not, Heavenly Body Magic Magic compliments Kirika's way of combat; Kirika's already impressive hand-to-hand blows are augmented drastically in both offensive and defensive manners as she can cover her own body with starry energy; allowing her to use her own body as a make-shift weapon unique to herself, drastically increasing her close-quarters skills. The shadows can take on a variety of functions, such as offensives, supplements, and altering of elements, allowing her a great deal of flexibility. Kirika is also able to erect domes of starry energy around foes, in order to knock them out by depriving them of air. Some of Kirika's attacks are focused around utilizing Heavenly Body Magic attacks with powerful aftereffects to quickly gain an advantage. Kirika can also utilize several trick abilities to protect herself from being hampered and negated so she can continue her onslaught. Most of her spells are low in magic cost, giving her more fine control over which spell she can utilize at a given time. The starry energy of Heavenly Body Magic is touted to chase Kirika's foe to the ends of the earth, no matter where the foe is standing, even if they possessed high speed, as the blood would catch her foe eventually. Heavenly Body Magic can move at impossible angles, that always manages to reach its target; it will always change its path around any obstacles or pierce through any wall in order to reach its target. As they move though the atmosphere, the starry energy gathers and condenses stray magic particles and absorbs it to increase in speed.

Heavenly Body Magic makes it possible to alter the nature of compositions, from destroying massive collections of weak magical energy to stopping the movements of strong collections of magical energy; as the user is capable of burning the power of the stars and increase it, until the user pushes it to its peak, causing it to explode. The use of such Magic can be used to enhance the user's own skills drastically for various purposes, such as shrouding them in Magic that can increase their speed significantly, granting them both vast power and flexibility to use several different powers. However, it appears that the caster requires a special outfit to wear in order to manipulate the Magic for such a purpose.
 * Meteor (流星 (ミーティア), Mītia): Meteor is one of the most basic Heavenly Body Magic spells. When initiating Meteor, the user generates celestial energy outwards, allowing it to surround them in a cloak of light. Due to this, the user is granted an enormous boost in both speed and power, allowing them to move through the air at incredible speeds; moving at a velocity that most people cannot comprehend. The speed and after-images granted by Meteor allows the user to effectively dodge the multi-directional attacks of drones. Activating this attack causes a slip stream effect that allows the user to achieve speeds normally impossible to them in any location. By charging the particles with magical energy this allows the user an additional defensive measure as well as immense propulsion. The user's speed appears to create up to eight doubles of themselves while in motion. These doubles are not illusory; the user is moving at a speed between different positions that is faster than the speed of sound. As such, were all the doubles to attack at once, it would mean that the user is attacking from all those positions simultaneously, giving the user incredible destructive power. Similarly, because of this same speed, attacking the doubles would be futile as the user would have moved long before the attack even reaches them. Following Issac Newton's first law of motion, the user will accelerate indefinitely as long as they keep moving. Even if someone could detect their trajectory, it is nearly impossible to catch them as they assault their opponents with quick, but powerful, melee attacks.
 * Grand Chariot (七星剣 (グランシャリオ), Guran Shario lit. Seven Star Sword): Grand Chariot is a powerful Heavenly Body Magic spell; when performing Grand Chariot, the user places both arms on top of each other, with the top hand having only the index and middle fingers spread out as the user charges magical energy which they had absorbed with their magical energy into their hand, before condensing it until its utmost limit. Raising their hand above their head, the fulcrum begins to charge with a golden light of blinding brilliance, causing most to avert their eyes upon seeing it. The heavenly energy swells around the fulcrum, before converging at a singular point—the tip of the user's finger; intensifying the kinetic energy that is about to be released by convergence and acceleration. Seven Magic Seals are then summoned in front of the user's finger and connect, creating a constellation of sorts as the user unleashes a massive horizontal volley of blasts of heavenly energy which erupts outwards and "purifies the very soul", releasing it as a flash of light; a surging wave of heavenly energy that was conceptualized for the simple purpose of absolute destruction, each Magic Seal then releases a powerful light blast down on the opponent, forming the same pattern on the ground before exploding. Grand Chariot is an attack forged for absolute efficiency; and the user's tremendous speed allows them to move faster than Grand Chariot itself, allowing the user to fire multiple blasts from different directions.
 * Altairis (暗黒の楽園 (アルテアリス), Arutearisu lit. Dark Paradise): Altairis is a powerful Heavenly Body Magic spell; when performing it, the user crosses their arms above their head to begin activating the attack, as all nearby shadows are drawn towards them, forming a small black orb which rapidly grows in size and also gains small white lights inside it, similar to the night sky. The orb creates a gravitational field around itself, gradually getting larger, as well as growing stronger and stronger. Such orb possesses immense attraction force, and is thus capable of attracting everything in a wide area towards itself, gradually getting larger, as well as growing stronger and stronger, drawing them in via overwhelming gravitational pull which never ceases, only becoming more and more powerful as moments pass, creating a swirling vortex that pulls in and "devours" any and all objects in the vicinity. The shadows utilized in this technique possesses immense attraction force, and is thus capable of attracting everything in a wide area towards itself, subsequently sucking it up, before the user takes aim at their true target, unleashing the orb towards them at high speeds, tracking the foe's magical energy signature before it impacts; grinding into the foe. The orb appears to be incredibly dense, holding a tremendous amount of gravity to crush the opponent in a similar manner to a black hole. Its power is said to be comparable to the power of an actual meteor; the force with which the attack explodes has enough power to easily hollow out an entire mountain.
 * Arrow of Light (光の矢, Hikari no Ya): When utilizing the Arrow of Light; the user snaps their fingers, generating an lightning arrow-head-shaped bolt of light which they swiftly launch at the opponent. When manifesting the arrow, any characters in their line of sight will flinch. When the blast lands, it blows the opponents away with tremendous speed and force; blasting through everything in it's path in order to assault the opponent ferociously as the arrow sends the opponents flying at a semi-spike angle, inducing tremendous knockback from which it is difficult to recover. The move goes through walls. The move can hit a maximum of 6 targets but the damage and knockback weaken for each target hit; thus if used on many opponents, it may not destroy the ones in the back, even if the foes are still suffering from harm. This attack goes through any and all defenses, and at extreme distances it does slightly less damage. If the opponents are too close together, they may collide with each other and prevent immense damaging from happening; using this spell, the user fought off numerous attackers, punched holes in the Magic Council's headquarters, and been able to tear the leg off of a demon, all with minimal effort. The attack seems to possess highly destructive power, having caused great damage to the area it affected, destroying the ground and piercing through buildings alike, and appears to have a long range, wreaking havoc wherever it passes, as shown when it crossed the entire distance of Hargeon, generating a large explosion. The trajectory of the arrow can be altered, allowing the user to strike more than one opponent.
 * KirikaBarrier.jpgGreat Rift (六角陣・天結界 (グレート・リフト), Gurēto Rifuto lit. Hexagonal Array of the Heavenly Bounded Field): Great Rift is a unique Heavenly Body Magic spell; Mere seconds before an opposing projectile attack lands, Kirika expels light and erects it in the form of geometric shapes that connect to form the overall shape of tessellating hexagons of green energy focused around her hand. Spinning around at high speeds, these hexagons gather magical energy by drawing it from Kirika and the surroundings for a split second, before quickly counterattacking by reflecting said projectile at such a speed that it seems that Kirika has access to the opposing attack. This spell is capable of bending the opposing projectile away from her, as well as some physical attacks. Great Rift appears to be immovable by any outside force. The barriers are strong enough to defend against even a Sword Magic spell. The shield can also be used for offensive purposes, launching forward to create powerful forces to strike the targets, or to deflect forces sent by enemies right back at them. Kirika can also use the attack to shield others by swinging the energy towards her ally and then covering them in the coat of magical power and thus giving them greater protection from oncoming attacks. Activation of this technique makes it necessary for Kirika to provide double the reiatsu to form the shield due to its unique construction, and if it is struck, she will feel pain and receive damage in accordance. Kirika can also materialize it from a distance, allowing her to shield Deen from Amadam without either of them realizing it during Daybreak S2. This wall can also disperse the resultant force of an impact at the instant of receiving an attack with the starry energy as a concentrated explosion that is automatically returned along the attack's opposing trajectory. It is able to protect from enemies, magic, and some other hazards and after hitting one of aforementioned alternatives, the shield disappears and Kirika must wait to re-summon it. However the shield is not able to protect while falling from a great height. However, the technique is difficult to use as it can only manipulate so many magical particles at a time and it required precise timing. Thus, this grants the user immunity to most attacks.
 * True Heavenly Body Magic: Sema (真・天体魔法・星崩し (セーマ), Shin Tentai Mahō: Sēma; Sema meaning The Star that causes Cities to Crumble): True Heavenly Body Magic: Sema is an extremely powerful Heavenly Body Magic spell; and one of the True Heavenly Body Spells (真・天体呪, Shin Tentaiju), sacred Heavenly Body Magic spells which are considered the ultimate spells of a practitioner of the magic, akin to Dragon Slayer's Secret Arts in purpose. When performing True Heavenly Body Magic: Sema, the user bows down and points their hands downwards, with all the fingers closed except the index and middle fingers. The user then begins to slowly move their right hand until it points upwards, causing the clouds above them to begin circling around, forming a cyclone as the skies darken. From the center of the swirling formation, a glowing orb begins to form, growing in size until a humongous meteor emerges, falling quickly to earth from the upper atmosphere down towards a specific location on the ground. As it descends along a linear trajectory, it moves at such a speed that evasion is near impossible; as even though it is extremely telegraphed, the meteor is so large that it is extremely difficult to dodge it. The user can also summon another meteor which will then collide with the first, ensuring that they crash into their intended destination. When the meteor hits, the force is strong enough to create a large explosion, which engulfs a wide area and releases a strong hurricane of air, also leaving a large crater in its wake; the impact forces millions upon millions of rubble debris to hit the ground, in a method similar to even more meteors; with the resulting tremors being felt as far as an entire town away.
 * True Heavenly Body Magic: Galaxia Blade (真・天体魔法・閃光墜刃牙 (ギャラクシア・ブレイド), Shin Tentai Mahō: Gyarakushia Bureido; Galaxia Blade meaning Flash Light Crash Blade Fang): True Heavenly Body Magic: Galaxia Blade is an extremely powerful Heavenly Body Magic spell; and one of the True Heavenly Body Spells (真・天体呪, Shin Tentaiju), sacred Heavenly Body Magic spells which are considered the ultimate spells of a practitioner of the magic, akin to Dragon Slayer's Secret Arts in purpose. Though it shares a similar name to that of the spell used by the Celestial Spirit King, it is noted to be completely different in function. When performing Galaxia Blade, the user raises both of their hands in the air at their sides; slowly, but surely generating and gathering light between their open, facing palms. This is rapidly shaped into the form of a massive blade composed of light of a radiance beyond any glow or shine of any other Light Magic to exist—that is what makes it so powerful. It is a blade of mortality made out of light that is manifested by converting all of the user's defensive power into a single, maximum-powered attack. The moment that the blade strikes the opponent, the artificial gravity well generates a "custom" shockwave, transforming all particles in contact with its striking surface into photons. By swinging the blade around, the user creates a highly destructive vortex of light, which moved to hit the enemy in a spiraling formation. Each connecting strike seems to generate a powerful, shining explosion, capable of busting through the scales of a dragon. The Galaxia Blade has more than enough sheer destructive power to erase opponents while leaving their souls intact; the user's powerful strike causes them to disappear into light; the sheer power of the strike releases golden light and energy capable of destroying anything it comes in contact with. Upon impact, the attack is capable of destroying massive amounts of architecture in one shot. The power of this technique creates a one hundred and fifty meter diameter of extremely high heated energy, and also an electromagnetic field effect- akin to a nuclear explosion.

Ring Magic
Ring Magic (指輪魔法, Yubiwa Mahō): Ring Magic is a Holder-Type Magic that allows the caster to cast different Magics and spells with special rings. The rings are meant to enhance the wielder's Magic Power, granting them the ability to cast various spells for different purposes; some can be used for everyday use (generally speaking) or solely for combat. The properties in each ring are completely varied. In addition, while there are various types of Ring Magic that can be used, some are simply spells without a proper Magic for them to back it up. Like the other magic rings in the series, Kirika's rings are infused with magical stones, which possess powers that vary between the kind of the stones used in the crafting. The Magic Stones (魔宝石Mahōseki) are special gemstones with magical properties; they are one of the two essential components of the rings, the other component being the ring itself. Without a Magic Stone, the rings would be as useless as any other ring. Each ring projects a magic loop (環状/帯状魔法陣Kanjō/Taijō Mahōjin); which are part of the ring's powers; all different in colour and composition. They appear around the caster's arms in numerous spells or skills, which is used for strengthening and accelerating the magic charge. Depending on the amount of energy released, the circle may spin faster or slower. The circle is white with a glow depending on the caster's magic colour. Although this is uncommon, an individual who has mastered more than one magic system can manifest magic circles of different form, depending on the currently used system. For example, the summoners apparently only manifest their Squares when summoning extremely powerful creatures, and use regular Circles or Triangles otherwise. Unlike the other Ring Magic users in the Daybreak/Dawn series, Kirika has access to only two rings—the Change Ring, which enables Kirika to become the Super Galaxy King, and the Maximum Ring; this allows her to perform her finishing attack. While this would normally make it extremely limited, the sheer power of both rings are what makes Kirika one of the most powerful characters in Daybreak/Dawn.
 * Change Ring (チェンジ・リング, Chenji Ringu): The Change Ring is the very first Super Soul Ring to ever be forged. Unlike other Super Soul Rings, the Change Ring is forged from gold, not silver, and the magic stone embedded within the ring changes colours every few moments—it is an amalgamation of every single magic stone shown to exist in that time period. The Change Ring has tentacles that reach into Kirika's brain and is the hard wiring of the Super Soul Ring that allows Kirika to use the power of the Galaxy King.
 * Final Strike Ring (ファイナル・ストライク・リング, Fainaru Sutoraiku Ringu): The Final Strike Ring is Kirika's last resort—otherwise known as her finishing move; only capable of being used when in her Super Galaxy King form. The Final Strike Ring itself is textured golden and silver, with a purple magic stone engraved into the ring. When Kirika slips the Final Strike Ring onto her finger, it enables her to perform the finisher known as V Maximum Overdrive Attack (V・マキシマム・オーバードライブ・アタック, V Makishimamu Ōbādoraibu Atakku). When performing this attack, Kirika begins to overload her body, causing blue sparks to emit from her body and a chemical reaction which forms the aura, is triggered; Kirika jumps into the air as hope energy gathers at her feet before launching forward towards the foe, paralyzing the foe's legs as she gathers hope and magical energy upon her feet. However, this union of Yin and Yang would not last for long; shooting forward like a bullet as she forms a destructive energy field around her body that can burn through or penetrate any substance, and flies towards her target at four times her own, already high, acceleration, allowing her pierce through any substance in her way with a flying side kick, causing the energies to take upon their true form as crimson energy which burns through anything it touches, giving it immense penetration power; upon impacting upon the foe, the energy devours the vicinity like a wildfire upon their bodies—all of this, focused upon her legs. This attack focuses on piercing penetrating damage, and the drawback of this attack is that it cannot be sustained for extended periods of time, since its unfavorable performance cost has Kirika strain her body beyond its limits, and could potentially destroy Kirika herself. The V. Maximum Overdrive Attack is a reference to the 1985 anime Blue Comet SPT Layzner, whose protagonist possessed a nearly identical attack also named V-MAX.

Soul Armour
Soul Armours (霊武, Konbu) are specialized armours worn by various powerful warriors known as Soul Armour Knights (霊武騎士, Konbu Kishi); they are human or humanoid warriors who transforms from a natural human form using a Driver Belt into a superhuman form clad in the armour. The Knights secretly patrol their respective territories to protect civilians from demons. Armed with special magical equipment, the knights carry an eternal war to maintain the light over the darkness in the realm. When transforming into her Soul Armour, Kirika slips the Change Ring upon her finger, and scans the ring over the GingaOh Driver; causing the belt to expand around her waist like a deck of cards wrapping around. When the power of the Galaxy King is called by Kirika, its appearance causes a destructive burst that damages anything within a few feet of her body. While the transformation process takes under ten seconds, a skilled opponent can use that chance to prevent Kirika from donning the armour and/or even rob her of their armour if they are capable enough; it would render Kirika limited in combat strength, as she leaves the projections, everything about her changes completely. In S1, her Soul Armour is the Super Galaxy King (超銀河王, Chō Ginga Ō); however, in S2, it has achieved its new form.

Deen Lhant
Kirika's most unique interactions are with that of the Rune Knight known as Deen Lhant- indeed, they have a dynamic relationship that is almost universally agreed by the fans of Daybreak to be the most rewarding portions of Kirika's own story arcs. Their relationship got off to a rocky start in S1, where Kirika approached both Deen and her rival, Tsuruko Sejren after the latter had first activated the DTD Program in public, laying waste to Cancer and Gemini of the Zodiac Knights. Laughing at her "allies" defeats by a berserk Tsuruko, Kirika jokingly mentioned that she would date him if they weren't enemies because of how caring he was- ironically, later on as they interacted more, it became more ad more obvious that she meant it. After Kirika had achieved her goals of dividing herself from Tsuruko using the Philosopher's Stone and joined Tsuruko to fight against Amadam, Kirika unconsciously or not protected Deen from several of Amadam's magical blasts- she was taken out of the battle as Amadam had switched Deen's place with Excellen, causing Kirika to rush towards him and shield his body from the full blast of an Abyss Break. Even so, Deen didn't really understand Kirika's motives for doing so.

However, during the Nega End, Kirika was the first person to find Deen and gave him a place to stay- as the group had all been separated due to the force of the world-enveloping darkness that transformed Earth Land. When Kirika tried to kill Alexis, Deen tried to stop the two from fighting- and when a stray blast of Alexis' struck a roof and had Deen's arm broken; rather than fighting on like she expectedly would, Kirika immediately goes to Deen to protect him instead of finishing Alexis off. Even so, Deen was disgusted with her desire to kill, and the two had a fight- Kirika managed to momentarily render Deen speechless with her answer to "why are you so at ease with killing!?" -Kirika left after that. Despite this, after a talk with Giselle Mercury over whether or not power corrupts, as it had nearly done to Kirika, Deen decided to search for Kirika and help her reach the light. Finding her once more nearly about to kill Alexis after her fight with Alexis' Magitek Dragoon, with a gun pointed to Alexis' forehead, Deen was able to talk her down and showed her that she really wished to become normal, as Deen was able to walk up to her and slowly take the gun from her hands.

After this, Kirika and Deen's relationship improved immensely- as Deen reaching out to her and showing her that she was never alone, and he'd be there for her was what allowed Kirika to really fall in love with Deen, instead of jokingly flirting with him. Interestingly, Deen is perhaps the only person that Kirika will listen to more often than not; meaning that Deen serves a leash to Kirika's more violent impulses. Amusingly, she seems to really enjoy teasing Deen—and openly acts lovey-dovey with him, something that embarrasses him.

Designer's Notes
Kirika holds the role of "A strong rival"; something that wasn't in Rising Phoenix. However, if I just made her an enemy she would just be feared as the Big Bad yet one wouldn’t exactly call her a strong rival if she was just the Big Bad's underling either. Kirika was always designed as a warped person who invokes the fear of someone you can't empathize with/someone that can't empathize; and while the reveal of her true nature might throw people off, further revelations of her past will make you feel a bit sorry for her, but it won't excuse her actions; ironically, in that way, you may empathize with her. It requires courage to write a character holding contradictions, yet once I got over that I've decided that Kirika is one of my favourite characters.

The other thing I wanted to base Kirika on was "A Tsuruko that took a step down the wrong path". It stems from the fact that when you think about it, hope too extreme will become the antithesis, despair—mirroring the fact that in the end, the Soul Armour Knights and the Zodiac Knights are the same. Not only that, Kirika and Tsuruko are exact foils—Kirika is a symbiote with a Kaizorg trapped inside, while Tsuruko is a Kaizorg with a symbiote trapped inside. But they're also foils in another way. Tsuruko's symbiote, Star Phoenix ultimately became more heroic as the series progressed due to Tsuruko's own heroism. Kirika retained her humanity because she was already a monster to begin with. They're not just foils in what they are, but who they are.

Tsuruko and Kirika are both the exact opposites of each other yet still extremely alike. It's for the sake of conveying such a theme in a vivid manner, that she exists. The matter of both resembling in looks may also be an inevitability, if you conform under the idea that outward appearance would grow closer the more the ideology would match.

Trivia

 * Kirika's theme is Cannonball Hard Revenge from Mega Man Zero 4.
 * Kirika is described by the author to be like Kamen Rider Ouja from Kamen Rider Ryuuki; referring to her being the evil counterpart to the protagonist, her homicidal tendencies, her ability to rack up a large body count of supporting characters, as well as her dedication to her goals.
 * Each arc goes for six chapters. in the third arc, on the last chapter, Kirika is introduced. Her birthday is on Feb 6. If you think about it, three is half of six. So six plus six plus six. This is inhumanly subtle foreshadowing for her nature as Varian.
 * When in kanji, her name is spelt Kirika Hotsuin (峰津院・霧花, Misty Flowers of the Imperial Palace on the Peak overlooking the Tidal Wave).