Shiori Kirihito

Shiori Kirihito (シオリ＝キリヒト) is an antagonist turned protagonist of the manga BlazBlue: Remix Heart. She is an assassin working for the Hazuki family. Her partner is Chachakaka, who delivers recon and intelligence while Shiori herself handles assassinations. She later became roommates with Mai Hazuki and Kajun Faycott.

Appearance
Shiori is a young girl with shoulder-length bright blond hair, part of which is tied in pigtails via dark blue, white trimmed ribbons. She has stunningly bright baby blue eyes, which contrast with her pale complexion and heart-shaped face. She wears a standard female Military Academy uniform with thigh-length high heel white boots.

Before entering the academy, she wore a black cloak and a mask.

When she was a child, she wore a plain white shirt and short black tights with black and white shoes. Her arms and legs were wrapped with bandages due to her hashed training.

In Variable Heart she wears a completely different outfit which consists of a white top with a black vest, black cloak, long black gloves that only expose her two fingers, a blue miniskirt, and long black stockings with white lines in the middle.

Personality
Shiori appears to be polite and playful at first glance, but underneath this façade lies a much darker side; an example of this is when she took joy while torturing the Control Organization officer who was slowly forgetting everything in his life due to her toxic kunai. She is a sadist and cruel person as she thinks about brainwashing Tsubaki to kill Jin and then giving back her memories, and wonders on what she might feel after killing him.

After a heartfelt confession of her pain and sorrow she had to deal with during her childhood and even in current times, she became slightly nicer to Mai, and even went so far as to claim that she is in love with her, but she still retains her dark personality.

Shiori also dislikes Taro Sasagae and she is aware that he is protecting Jin at all cost. She even tries to figure out her true character about him as she tries to make him jealous as she touching Mai’s body. She claims that he is her rival for Mai and she won’t lose to him. During the events of Variable Heart, she's willing to work together with him in order to protect Mai.

History
Shiori appears with Chachakaka at the Military Academy’s bath spa. After she became roommates with Mai and Kajun, she claims to have a frail body and to be undergoing treatment. She wasn’t making any friends due to her current condition. She is a distant relative of Mai’s, as the Kirihito family is a branch of the Hazuki family. The Kirihitos have been working as assassins for the Hazuki family for generations. She apparently smells distinctively of poison. Her primary goal is to assassinate Jin Kisaragi.

After the incident in the spa, Shiori decided to go after Mai. She captured her with Chachakaka near the men’s dormitory, and told her that she planned to erase her memories and brainwash the Mai’s friends to make them kill Jin for her. Shiori believes that Tsubaki is in love with Jin and because of this; she wants to use her to kill Jin, and wonders what she will feel, killing someone she loves with her own hands. Shiori even callously thought about returning Tsubaki’s memories after she murders Jin, wondering what she would say if she saw his corpse. However, Mai breaks free from Chachakaka’s grip and fights Shiori. However, the battle took a sudden turn when Shiori accidentally got injured by her own poisonous kunai; Mai heroically decided to suck the poison out to save Shiori’s life, but Shiori knew that her body is immune her poison, possibly because of her childhood. Using her supertaster ability, Mai saw Shiori’s memories; Shiori had a horrible childhood, training from an extremely young age, being violently mistreated by her father, and being constantly tortured by poisonous snakes. As she grew up, she became a professional assassin, and killed her own father as a payback for the constant abuse and felt no remorse for killing him. In a moment of weakness, Shiori finally let out her innermost emotions and wept in Mai’s arms. The following morning, she woke up on Mai’s bed, seemingly claiming that she loves Mai, but reveals that her main goal to assassinate Jin hasn’t changed.

During the fight with Cypher, she sacrificed herself to protect Mai and passed out. The next day, Shiori is seen recovering in the infirmary. When she and the others reunited with Mai, they accepted her for who she is.

During the events of Variable Heart, upon learning Mai's disappearance, she and Taro left the Academy to find her, saving Kajun from the 0th Division. She assisted Mai and the team in fighting against Meifang Lapislazuli and Fuzzy's clones in the climax. After celebrating Mai's victory, she helps her to reunite with her classmates.

Powers and abilities
She appears to be very skilled in assassination techniques, possessing the ability to throw extremely poisonous kunai with incredible accuracy, having once killed an Control Organization Officer with a kunai to the neck while airborne. The kunai also have a neurological effect; as the poison enters the brain, it shuts off main motor functions and the victim collapses. They remain in this state of paralysis as the poison enters the hippocampus and starts destroying its cells, effectively making the victim forget everything in their life.

Trivia

 * Shiori is one of two confirmed LGBT characters, sharing this similarity with Els von Klagen.