Ichisaki Arisugawa

story

To understand part of Ichisaki’s story, first we have to go to her grandmother Himesaki.
Himesaki’s old name was Himeko Yuki. Part of her family always had an special connection with duel monsters cards, but this seemed to disappear through time… Till Himeko’s powers awaken when she was a teenager hoping to enjoy what she expected to be her first romantic date with the boy who shared her passion for duels.  Himeko loved duel monsters till that day. While dueling, she turned out to be what is called a psychic duelist. The monsters she accidentally materialized caused several damages, and after that everyone was afraid of her and she was called monster, cursed, etc. Even her parents were afraid of her since then. They forbid her from getting near duel monsters cards and kept a close eye on her. The only person who wasn’t afraid of her, was the classmate she was dueling that same day:  Ichinobu Arisugawa.  He always had feelings for her and her special powers, called curse by others, weren’t going to change his heart devotion to her. Since Himeko’s parents couldn’t face the debts from the incident damages, the Arisugawa family used their money to cover those and also erase Himeko’s name from what happened to then welcome her with open arms, as Ichinobu asked. Hime willingly accepted to distance herself from her family. She thanked her parents and left.
 To show her gratitude to the Arisugawa family for welcoming her and everything they did, Himeko learnt all the family traditions, adopted the termination “saki” in her name becoming Himesaki, studied several arts to keep on with the Arisugawa Arts School, becoming a splendid dancer. She also studied business management to help with the business of it and the Arisugawa Theater. Years after, she had a son with Ichinobu called Ichiro.
Himesaki decided to forbid Ichiro from playing duel monsters, afraid he may inherited her powers. It is unknown if he ever had any special ability related to the cards or not.
Ichinobu died from an illness when Ichiro was still a teen.
Years later, Ichiro married a kind hearted woman named Sanae.
They had a precious baby girl and decided to name her Ichisaki.

Being artist if born a woman is a tradition in the Arisugawa family, along with the termination "saki" in their female names.
Ichisaki’s parents, Ichiro and Sanae, were at Domino while the Zero Reverse disaster. They died there while Ichi was left with her grandma who had a big house away of Domino, she had intentions of retiring since her son was going to take care of the theatre and the school with his wife. Ichi's parents were there at that bad moment because they were full of dreams thinking about making a few changes in the theatre building, which had to be rebuilt in Neo Domino after the incident.
Ichisaki lives with her grandma Himesaki, who wants her to be focused on her future arts related job and be a traditional well mannered wife.
Himesaki was always trying to protect her grandchild, having a trauma because of losing her son and daughter in law so soon. But her protective ways became a strict form of having full control of Ichisaki’s life (telling her how to dress, how to behave, keeping her strict healthy diet and even controlling her size and weight) and wanting to keep her busy studying, practicing for her career or with different tasks so she could never think about leaving home or doing something dangerous. This idea lead Himesaki  to punish the smallest bad act in hopes Ichisaki will never rebel nor be daring enough to leave the safety of home. For example, when Ichi used any bad / curse words, Himesaki will punish her by making her write things like "Good manners" "Education" "Respect", etc in perfect traditional japanese calligraphy (shodo) which obviously required many tries. Thus she actually hates this activity.
This excessive control made the girl kinda insecure about being alone or doing things for herself. Ichi was trained in arts since childhood due to it being family tradition and she really enjoyed it and had big dreams related to her own career. Moved by her wishes of freedom, she enjoyed dramatic arts the most, acting being her concrete preference, because she was able to be different characters/persons doing many different things. She envied the freedom of some of the characters she played because of their adventurous lives.
Being 12 years old she said she wanted to be an actress good enough to appear in cinema movies, maybe around the world so she could feel more freedom. And the thought of having her grandaughter away scared Himesaki. She wanted Ichi to be just an Arisugawa theatre actress, performing at home only, nothing related to cinema or any other thing away from the safety of home. Himesaki was still thinking about Ichi as if she was still defenseless baby who knew nothing and couldn't have her own ideas for being too inmature. But Ichisaki hated that, because she was a free spirit living in a cage of gold.  She felt motionless, like a corpse being manipulated doing everything Himesaki wanted. She could not understand her grandma’s love, nor her trauma… And the fact that each other were misunderstanding so much, ended up with Ichi becoming a rebel girl. She cut her long hair without consent, had behaviour problems at school, started to think of her deceased parents more and more, imagining they will support her dreams and let her more freedom... Ichisaki, angry, tired because of the pressure and rebelious, dared to scape to Satellite when she was 13, hoping to see the place where her parents wanted to free their dreams: the old Arisugawa Theater. By the information she gathered, going there was almost impossible, but she heard rumours about a ship going there with personel and materials to make certain repairs to the pipeline and update the recycle plant. That night, she left home when everyone thought she was sleeping, dressed with clothes she previously ripped hoping not to stand out much once there, went to the port and waited for a good chance. Since everyone there was busy and the place was noisy, she managed to hide between the cargo and waited. Once in Satellite, she ran as fast as she could, feet on that land which was pretty stinky to her nose. Even being discovered, no one was able to catch her. She kept running and some of her pursuers gave up and just called security, but others kept following her knowing that girl was coming from Neo Domino and should be taken to safety.
She was still running when saw a tall blonde boy with serious purple eyes getting in her way. That boy looked at her in surprise and then glared at her pursuers. Immediately grabbed her hand and took her around confusing alleys till no one was behind them.
He toughly asked her who she was and why was she there. Ichisaki hesitated for a moment, having to admit in her mind that she was afraid being on that land alone, still trying to catch her breath after running so much, being questioned by that boy who seemed quite rude but still helped her. Suddenly, still looking at her own feet on that strange land, she smiled. She was happy because she did it. Ichisaki looked at the boy, smile still on her face "Arisugawa. My name is Ichisaki Arisugawa" she stated. The boy kept asking her what was she doing there and stated he felt she was an outsider, which Ichi did not deny. She admitted to be from Neo Domino, which kinda surprised him. He could not believe someone coming from the good life of the city wanted to stay there, so he grabbed her arm and said he was going to take her to the men who were after her so she could go back home, but she refused to walk and beg him to listen to her. He stopped and looked back at her, waiting for what she had to say. Ichisaki asked for the ruins of a theater, which the boy admitted to know, still not convinced he asked why would she want to go there. Ichisaki told him it was the Arisugawa theater, the place where her parents died. After a few seconds giving her a serious look, he accepted to take her there.
That theater building was in an obvious bad condition, but good part of its structure was still standing. A throne was still in the middle of the stage and the blonde boy went there and sat, right like if it was his home, and certainly it was, more or less. He watched the girl looking around and paying attention to everything surrounding her.
Ichisaki was happy to be there, happy to see that place, happy and sad to feel her parents were there sharing hopes and dreams that suddenly crushed. Now what? Why was she there for?
She felt proud she got there, scaping the strict control of her still so dear grandmother, but what now? She simply went near the boy and sat on the floor. Long moments passed before the silence was broke. Moments to relax after everything, moments to deeply think.
The boy asked what was she going to do after getting to see the place she wanted. It took her a moment to reply. She could go back home now, she got to the conclusion she really did not need to see that place itself, she simply needed to accomplish that whim, to scape for once and learn to fight for what she really wanted to do to make her own dreams and hopes a reality. But behaving like if her grandmother, the person her parents left her with, was an enemy was not the way. She felt she needed to talk to her and fix a bond that was about to break. She stood up and smiled to the boy, who looked like the King of that lonely place.
-Thankyou for your help, King.
-Jack. My name is Jack Atlas.
-...I will always remember you as King Jack.
-Security must be searching for you now. I'll help you get to them.
-...Would you like to come with me?
Jack looked at her, confused.
-I'm not your guardian. And is not that easy for me to get there. In fact, security would think I'm a criminal if they catch me with you. I'll help you get close to them, but I cant let myself be seen.
-...You didn't say no to my question. Does that mean you would really like to leave this place and come to Neo Domino?
-...You silly, just shut up and let's go.
While walking after him, she stepped on a synchro card she did not see before. She grabbed it and asked Jack about it, but he said it was the first time he saw it, probably someone dropped it recently. He asked her if she was a duelist, but she wasn't. "Maybe this could be a reason to start dueling now" he said. Ichi looked at the Red Eyes Zombie Necro Dragon and smiled deciding to keep it.

A group of security was indeed searching for the girl. Before leaving Jack's side to go to them, Ichisaki promised him she will try to help him get to Neo Domino, because she wanted a big change between Neo Domino and Satellite too.
 
Himesaki, completeley freaked out being worried and nervous because the girl was dangerously scaping her control, tried to talk to her after what happened but started to scold her instead of listening to what the young girl had to say. "You won't even listen! You are a monster, you just want to keep me in a cage and won't care about how I feel!” was what Ichi said before going to her room. Those words were able to hurt both of them, they realised they needed to talk and listen to each other.
Himesaki chose to get professional help for both.
Things did not get better between them easily, but through time and therapy they were able to understand each other.
With this, the girl learnt one important thing: You must say what you think before it's too late and you explode in harmful words.
Himesaki learnt to be more respectful with her grandaughter’s wishes, listening to her and letting her be, slowly giving her more freedom.
But the thing Himesaki is most worried about is Duel Monsters.
Himesaki was a Psychic Duelist, thus she never let her son (Ichi's father) be near a duel monsters card, fearing he may inherit those powers. This repeated with Ichi, who was also forbidden from playing duel monsters. About this, Ichisaki just thought her loved grandma, as always, was worrying too much. This is because Himesaki never explained the true fact that makes her so afraid of duels.
Due to this, Ichi kept her only card hidden. When starting, she could not duel often and almost had no time to learn. She only knows the basics thanks to her childhood friend Shinrin, being duelist. She was the one who introduced Ichi in the duels world secretly after Ichisaki asked her with her synchro card in her hand.
Being an overprotected child, Ichi liked the idea of dueling, being in a battle and having to stand up by herself, using her brain and all the chances she could take to beat the enemy, the adversity. She liked the thought of it and understood why Jack considered it was time for her to start. She wanted to get stronger and be able to take control of her life by her own efforts. So, every duel she wins, is a way for her to see she is getting strong enough to have control over her own life. She tried for a zombies themed deck because they represent continuation of life somehow. She sees herself reflected on them in some way: when she was younger, she had her bad times feeling like a soulless corpse. Then, she learnt from all what happened, like if she was dead coming back to life by the power of her unstoppable will. That's why she loves her deck so much and thinks it fits her.
Ichisaki had her official acting debut being 15, at her family Theater and her talent caused a huge impact in her audience.
Since Ichi also has a good  trained voice, she was contacted by a Company and offered to be trained to become an idol. Thinking this could also help in her dream of being known overseas too, she accepted and actually enjoys the musical part of her career.
In her first year of it, she had three singles out.
Himesaki feels proud about how Ichi's career is developing and respects her wish of going outside if some chance of it takes place in her life.

Due to her huge and quick popularity growth and charisma, she was hired by Rex Godwin, Neo Domino City and Sector security’s director, to be the face of many events. Knowing his position, she thought it was the best chance to talk about Jack and give him a chance to get to Neo Domino. Also because that could make her closer to the Sector Security's director and maybe know why this special interest on making people from Satellite so socially different, something she finds extremely unfair and disgusting. But for her surprise, he was the one asking her of her experience in Satellite. Obviously he knew about it due to his job, so she didn't gave it much thought and talked about it, mentioning Jack and describing him as a tall, blonde boy with a strange red mark in his arm. That caught his attention and he asked her if she could still remember the shape of the mark, so she did a quick doodle of it and he thanked her, stating that would help when searching for him.
Soon after, Jack was approached by Yeager.

Ichisaki was also told to be part of the project of the Fortune Cup, being the young celebrity giving the prize to the winner. Being a duel monsters related event and being Jack and Shinrin duelists entering, she was eager for this job.

Met Yusei in the Fortune Cup.  
Saw how Yusei comfronted Jack about their past. Surprised by what she heard, she asked Jack, who obviously remaint evasive about it telling her it was none of her business. "Ok, if you are not going to tell me, I will have to talk to that boy and get to know, at least, his part" she said. "What?! Why would you...?!" Jack started. "Because you are my friend! And I want to know what problems are you getting into..." And so, she tried to talk with Yusei.
When she saw his dueling skills she went to him, commenting the way he played and asking questions due to her own low duelist level. He kept his almost-no-words behaviour, slightly surprised deep inside because a Domino celebrity was talking to a marked satellite resident so nicely, he was used to be despised by Domino's. "I dont think I could get in a tournament like you and my friends do" she said once, that comment made the guy want to know about Ichi's deck, she let him take a look at it. Seeing her deck was not a bad one, he began to give advices almost unconsciounsly, mostly focused on all the things those cards could do. She listened everything carefully and then, she thanked him. He thought the idol would not use those advices, he wasn't expecting her to listen either. Why a Domino celebrity would be interested in the words of a Satellite resident? Even more, a marked one? That's why he was kind of surprised when he found the girl dueling with one of her friends, trying to play the advices he gave to her. She lost the duel, but her friend was surprised because beating her wasn't as easy as always. Ichi really gave her a rough time. Hearing those comments, he went to Ichi after her friend left for a moment. He was curious about how the duel was, so they began to talk again and she explained how she played, reciving new advices from him. That's how their friendship began.

In Ichi's opinion, Satellite and Neo Domino City should not be separated, as years ago both areas together were Domino City. She already had to confront untolerant situations and knows how much you can suffer because someone is not open minded enough to accept nor understand you. That's why she always gives a chance.

She never was afraid of Aki, though how her grandma’s interest on the rose girl did caught her attention, but she never gave it much thought, thinking maybe Himesaki was just worried because she saw part of her suffering following the Cup on TV. What Ichi did not knew yet is that Himesaki went through the same pain in her youth, thus she empathized with Aki.

Arcadia movement attacked Ichisaki after a job day at the TV studio, wanting to get to Himesaki and user her powers and thinking of the possibility of Ichisaki being a psychic duelist too. Forced to duel to protect herself and her grandma, there it was shown Ichisaki has no psychic powers. However it is implied she might have an special connection with duel monsters, since they respond to her wishes of being the next card drawn when she needs them the most and she seems to get clues of how to use the cards better to help them when her monsters stablish contact with her, feeling a connection like a silent communication. Though she thinks it may be her imagination.

By meeting Yusei she also met Rua and Ruka, also because the latter was a shy fan of her. She gets along with the twins fantastically too.

With time, she developes feelings for Yusei. He is strong, clever, serious, but still having his tender side, being kind, generous and protective with his friends. His determined mind is something she admires. When they are not in a romantic relationship yet, she is flirty around him, the one trying to make him blush and searching for reactions while he wonders if she is serious or just jocking around. Yusei likes how funny and sweet she can be, how positive she is, her generous side and her ways and efforts to overcome problems and how she never gives up no matter the odds.
Ichi never duels in competitions, though at some point she also develops interest for riding duels.
At the end of 5Ds, she is chosen to be one of the main characters of a new movie and starts to work fully as an actress.
(...)

Future:

After 2 years being fully an actress, she discovered what she really likes  is to send good messages through her work to her audience. Making her  audience experiment different feelings of power and encouragement and tell different stories through music and lyrics is  what she really loves, a freedom she cant have being just an actress.  She never ceases to be an actress if the chance comes because she likes that job too, but decides to retake her musical career and makes it her main. Working hard on it, going from a young idol to a diva.
"-Life is full of surprises. You seem to have a goal, then you get there and there you may realise that it wasn't your real goal, but just part of the way to it. Things can change at any moment, and that's good. Wouldn't it be boring if everything remained the same?"
-*chuckles* And do you think our bond will change too?
-It is always changing already.
-...?
-It keeps evolving, growing everyday, getting more intense and better. It never stays the same.
-...Of course. You are right... Ichigo"