Haruka

Haruka grew up in California, a third-generation Japanese immigrant trying to make her way in the world. She was in high school, studying to be an artist, when her life changed forever; she accidentally got pregnant, and didn't want to give up the baby. Her family, on the other hand, was not so keen on their seventeen-year-old becoming a mother. In a bid to save her unborn child, Haruka fled her family and hometown, never to look back.

After a few months, her son Phoenix was born, and Haruka found herself a single mother with no high school diploma. She worked several jobs to keep herself and Phoenix afloat, managing to send him to school even while she worked herself to the bone. It was then that Haruka's negligence began; though it wasn't her intention, more often than not she had to work night and day to keep Phoenix fed, and he quickly got used to her vanishing for long periods of time.

Though it was a continuous struggle, Haruka managed to raise Phoenix to the point where he was accepted into university. Not long before, however, Haruka was contacted by her aunt in Japan, one of the few sympathetic family members she had. Her aunt begged her help, as she was suffering an oncroaching illness, and Haruka accepted. She wished Phoenix goodbye at the airport, and promised to be back soon.

It took Haruka eighteen years to return to LA. In some way, she didn't want to return; she loved her son, but he had taken a great deal of her life from her. Once she did come back, however, she almost immediately got caught in a muder trial, with her as the defendant. After her innocence was proven, Haruka was released, left to attempt to repair the broken relationship with her son and the family he had aquired in her absence.