Hikai Sasatou

Due to her parents' jobs, when Hikai was a child, her family had to move a lot. Because of this, she never remained at one school for too long and rarely got the chance to make close friends, whom she would often have to leave behind and lose touch with anyway. The first few days at each new school, everyone would be very curious about her Quirk and constantly try to talk to her to find out more about it. After a couple of days however, she would fade in the background for them yet again. That inability of hers to approach people or make friends (though it wasn't entirely her fault), led to her self-esteem dropping.

The frequent moves continued until Hikai was about 7-8 years old, when her family settled a bit more permanently in Kanagawa Prefecture. There, when meeting their neighbors, she also got to know their kid - a boy only a year younger than her but just as ambitious and excited. It didn't take much talking for Neito Monoma to manage to crack Hikai's exterior and bring to the front her small idea of becoming a hero.

He helped her break out of her shell and spent a lot of time with her, despite Hikai's constant fears that he too would lose interest and leave her. The two of them would make up all sorts of fun dreams for their future as heroes, including a pinky promise that they will both get into UA

Though Hikai was a year older, they both still attended the same middle school and over the course of the years she spent in Kanagawa, the two grew very close. They both shared this admiration of heroes and this restless dream to break out of what others expected of them (Neito's inability to take the lead due to the nature of his Quirk, and the line of business of Hikai's family, which expected her to follow in their footsteps) and become a strong hero team together.

When Hiaki was 15 and already looking forward to taking the UA Entrance Exam, her parents suddenly announced they had to move yet again, to Okayama prefecture. In that moment, everything she had been building and training towards for years seemingly shattered before her eyes. She tried to discuss whether she could stay here or even move to Tokyo and still take the exam and, if accepted, attend UA. Her parents didn't want to shut her down completely, but they simply couldn't let her live all by herself so far away from home.

At first, Hikai felt completely defeated - not only was she denied the dream of studying at UA, but she was also forced to break the promise her and Neito had made so long ago. Fortunately for her, a compromise was reached soon - she could attend the Entrance Exam for Shiketsu High - the only other hero school in Japan which could rival UA, but located in Western Japan instead. Upon parting ways with Neito for the first time in years, Hikai promised him that, though not attending the same school which was likely going to accept him in just a year, she still intended to keep her promise and wait for him to join her as soon as he graduates too.

From that point on, Hikai was accepted into Shiketsu. She decided to treat this as her new beginning and not let that shy kid she used to be whenever she would move emerge again. Instead, she greeted everyone with an energetic and cheerful smile, finally regaining her confidence again, this time all by herself. She quickly befriended all her classmates, while still keeping in touch with Neito.

Her dream of becoming a hero was finally within her grasp!

Boundary Shield (バウンダリー•シールド Baundari Shīrudo)

Hikai’s Quirk manifests in the form of 20 (or less) energy fragments with a rectangular shape, and a ring of twenty similarly shaped markings on her neck, as well as ten on each of her two wrists. Each marking corresponds to a single energy fragment and appears as just an outline of a rectangle when the fragment is not released, and a filled in shape when it is.

In the Quirk’s passive state, the fragments form a circle around her body. The center of this circle is her neck. While Hikai herself can pass through the energy fragments (for example, if she were to reach out a hand and poke one with her finger, her finger would just go through), other people and objects cannot. In this passive state, the radius of the circle is dependant on the nearest object to Hikai - when one fragment is close to an object or person, it will retract so as not to touch it, thus reducing the circle’s radius. Similarly, if there are no other objects or people near any of the fragments, the circle will expand as far as it can, until it runs into an obstacle. Though the circle expands, the number of fragments remains the same - only the distance between them and, to an extent, their size change. This all happens subconsciously and at no cost to Hikai’s stamina.

Because of the nature of her Quirk, Hikai often wears a scarf when not in battle. This way, she avoids the constant changes of the size of the circle of fragments by having the scarf surrounding it and keeping it a consistent size.

If an object pushes the fragments so far back that they touch Hikai’s neck, they will retract within her skin. Upon the retracting of the fragments from her neck, ten energy fragments will appear around each of her wrists. While the initial appearance of those is subconscious, everything else has to be controlled by Hikai herself. They start at an initial radius of about 10cm from her wrist. Unlike those manifesting from her neck however, the fragments around her wrist will not retract upon contact with a foreign object, and will instead hit it. If Hikai does not change the size of the circle, her wrist will not be able to get any closer to that object than the circle’s current radius.

Hikai can willingly retract the fragments around her wrists, upon which she can either manifest them around her neck again, or choose to not manifest any fragments at all. By doing the latter, she enters what she calls “standby mode”, during which she is unable to manifest any fragments for up to 3 hours. The main purpose of this mode is to repair damaged fragments. When she loses consciousness or falls asleep, the fragments retract without entering standby mode and manifest again about 3 minutes after she wakes up.

Hikai can consciously control the size of the circle (even the one manifesting from her neck, which means she can push objects/people back with the energy fragments), the angle of the fragments, which in their passive state are positioned vertically, the height at which the circle is (though the limit is her own height), and even line up multiple or all of the fragments behind each other.

The fragments are quite durable and can easily withstand punches and kicks, even some attacks. However, a stronger force can cause them to get damaged and if it’s strong enough (like, for example, a bullet) they can immediately shatter. To repair a shattered fragment, Hikai has to enter standby mode. When a fragment shatters, a corresponding marking on her neck and on one of her wrists becomes just an outline, which then begins to bleed. When the fragment is first manifested afterwards, it will still continue to be more fragile than usual, until the wound formed from the marking heals completely. While any hits to a fragment do not cause Hikai pain (though she can still sense when a fragment touches something), the shattering does cause her physical pain.

The number of fragments that manifest can depend on Hikai’s energy levels. If she feels normal, she can manifest all 20. However, if she is extremely tired from a long battle or severe lack of sleep, she might only be able to manifest a portion of those 20. Her energy levels are also affected by how many times she retracts the fragments to manifest them from elsewhere - the more often she does it, the more tired she becomes.

In battle, she usually manifests the fragments from her neck for defense purposes or large-scale attacks. The ones around her wrists are used primarily in close-range combat

Special Moves

•Helios' Crown (ヘリオスの冠 Heriosu no Kanmuri)

Hikai adjusts the height of the ring of fragments to act as a shield against an incoming attack. Usually only calls out the name if it's a strong force which she is already expecting.

•Eos (イオス Iosu)

Hikai changes the angle of all the fragments manifesting from her neck, so that they are aligned horizontally and can act like blades when she expands the ring.

•Apollo (アポロ Aporo)

She rapidly expands the ring manifested from her neck, either pushing people and objects back, or stabbing through weaker surfaces, depending on the angle of the fragments.

•Selene (セレン Seren)

Hikai aligns at least 10 (and up to all 20) of the fragments behind each other, acting like a shield that is extremely hard to penetrate, though very small in surface, so she has to position it precisely and can only use it for attacks with a small area of contact (a bullet, an arrow, etc.)

•Thea (シーア Shīa)

When she has manifested the fragments from her wrists, Hikai rapidly expands the rings to push back opponents or have the move act like a strong punch.

•Hyperion (ハイペリオン Haiperion)

She changes the angle of the fragments manifested from her wrists, so that they're positioned horizontally, and moves her hand as if to slash something, with the fragments functioning much like small blades all around her wrists.