Michiru Ichijou is a transfer student at Miko's school. She is an enigmatic model with a cold demeanor adored by everyone, except for Miko, who literally sees her as a monster.
Appearance[]
To most people, Ichijou appears as a very tall (over a head taller than Hana and Miko), slender woman with blonde hair parted in the middle with two strands at the front and pale skin. She wears a dark school uniform with gloves and a knee-length skirt.
When seen through Miko's spirit sight, a black, featureless mass with a round top and eight segmented tentacles covers her head and most of her upper body. These tentacles can extend a considerable length and the tips can open up to reveal eyes. After working through past trauma, the tentacles retract significantly with only one or two visible at a time, usually positioning themselves as a tail, horns or eye-stalks.
It is unclear what her nature is, as she is tangible and does not seem haunted.
Personality[]
Ichijou has a cold and quiet demeanor around most people, and Miko can see that when people try to touch her her tentacles become sharp and point their face.
She dislikes being touched and is distant with most people, but becomes quickly infatuated with Miko, endlessly bombarding Julia Niguredou with questions about her.
She has a habit of nibbling on pencils and has an unusual fascination with caterpillars, keeping one as a pet and conversing with it.
Abilities[]
Spirit Form[]
Ichijou has an ability of unclear nature, manifesting as the tentacles on her head. These tentacles react to Ichijou's mood, but like other spirit constructs cannot harm living beings. Despite this they are strong enough to easily perforate spirits and can inject an unknown substance to melt them from the inside out.
Ichijou's tentacles require a high level of spiritual sight to be seen, as Julia Niguredou was unable to see them whereas Miko could.
Biography[]
After Miko, Romm and Mitsue defeated the Shrine God, a rock with some sort of ward wrapped around it is seen lying lopsided between tree roots with a large chip at the top. Soon after, a colossal, rounded dark mass with a single spindly arm emerged from the mountains.
While it is made unclear, the damage the stone experienced may have been linked to the release of the mass.
Shortly after, Ichijou transferred into Miko’s school, where it was found out she was a teen model for a popular magazine.
Relationships[]
Miko Yotsuya[]
Although it is officially emphasized that the Michiru's obsession with Miko seems excessive due to her lack of experience of friendship or any social experience in general, the story regularly teases that her affection for the girl can really be romantic. Starting from a homoerotic subtext in her behavior in a number of scenes or images, and ending with a scene on a train in one of the chapters, where Miko's attempts to protect Michiru from the ghost are practically decorated as the dynamics between the Action Hero and girl, who is secretly in love with him. The chapter alternative draft posted by the author as omake in his personal pixiv account, even enhances this, showing Michiru openly speaking about her crush on Miko, which was absent in the published version of the chapter.
Haa Yurikawa[]
Although Michiry was initially unconnectedly hostile to Hana because of jealousy of their friendship with Miko, in the end they become friends after Miko saves the Hana from hostile Michiru at the end of the character’s arc of the latter. Already in the next arc, they go together to the Hana's favorite festival and she openly announces that Michiru is legitimate part of their circle of friends.
Trivia[]
- Ichijou's caterpillar is named Pii.
- Pii's design appears to be based off Papilio xuthus (Asian Swallowtail butterfly) larvae.
Etymology[]
- The name Michiru is written in katakana (ミチル), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (満, 充, 実, 道瑠, 満留, 美智留 or 実千瑠), it could possibly mean:
- 満 - "full/fullness, enough, satisfy".
- 充 - "allot, fill".
- 実 - "fruit, good result, truth".
- 道瑠 - "path" (道) (michi) and "lapis lazuli" (瑠) (ru).
- 満留 - "full/fullness, enough, satisfy" (満) (michi) and "detain, fasten, halt, stop" (留) (ru), which literally means "full stay" altogether.
- 美智留 - "beautiful" (美) (mi), "wisdom, intellect" (智) (chi) and "detain, fasten, halt, stop" (留) (ru).
- 実千瑠 - "fruit, good result, truth" (実) (mi), "thousand" (千) (chi) and "lapis lazuli" (瑠) (ru).
- Michiru's surname Ichijou means "streak, quotation" (一条).