Ayaka Kotobuki | Cure Briar

• Intro: “Telling the tale of hope and perseverance, Cure Briar!”
• Theme color(s): pink
• Motif(s): Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose, roses, thorns
• Age: 16
• Species: Human
• Attacks: Briar Barrier (defensive), Briar Vine (offensive 1), Sleeping Rose Burst (offensive 2)

Ayaka is a second-year high-schooler who’s quite popular among the rest of her school as they see her as a natural-born leader, or even as a princess. She is intelligent, hardworking, and organized, taking her responsibilities seriously and always striving for perfection in everything she does, often placing a lot of pressure on herself to maintain her high standards. She’s graceful and elegant, but also has a sharp tongue and can be quite snarky when she feels someone is not taking something seriously enough. Ayaka is also reserved, having the tendency to bottle up her emotions, and uses her serious and mature “facade” to protect her emotional and sensitive self from getting hurt, like thorns protecting a delicate rose. Despite this, she cares deeply for her friends and is fiercely loyal to them, willing to go to great lengths to protect them. 

Ayaka is the daughter of two celebrities, the actress Kotobuki Wakana and the musician Yuuki Noboru. Because of their busy careers, they haven’t been particularly present during her childhood, and she was instead raised by her aunt and legal guardian Hanayo. Ayaka learnt early on to be independent and look after herself, feeling like she had to grow up faster than her peers without her parents around her all the time, and so she prefers to distance herself from anything she senses as childish. Despite this, she holds a special interest in fairy tales, to the point of hoping someday to find her own Prince Charming. She’s inherited her mother’s love for acting and is a very active and driven member of Castle’s Peak Academy’s theater club, dreaming of becoming an actress herself in the future. She’s also an avid reader and has her own flower garden that she tends to to take her mind off things. Ayaka also has two cats that she loves playing with, a black and white tuxedo male named Ludwig (named after Beethoven) and a grey tabby female named Cleo (named after Cleopatra, a reference to Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra).