Hisako Ichiki (Earth-6160)

Early Life[]

Hisako Ichiki (市来 久子, Ichiki Hisako) was a student at Kirigaya Minami Middle School in the urban town of Kirisaki City, a town in the Eastern super-nation of Hi no Kuni, also known as the Land of the Sun, one of the seven sovereign territories that made up the world. She lived with her mother and grandmother, her father having died at some point.^[2] One day, in the year 2022, she played Kokkuri-san, a ghost board game, in an empty classroom with her classmate Sayaka and a mysterious male student that neither of them had invited.^[3]

Hisako had a strong friendship with a classmate named Tsubasa, who gave her an omamori, a kind of Japanese protective charm. He was the target of bullying from both students and staff, and despite Hisako's attempts to support him, Tsubasa's suffering continued. One day, the two of them skipped school together and passed the time looking at the sky, Hisako still unaware of her friend's hidden pain, despite Tsubasa's desire to drop out of school. Eventually, Tsubasa could no longer bear his inner pain and took his own life, a decision that traumatized Hisako and caused her to develop depression and drift away from school.^[4]

Armored Up[]

In March 2024, Hisako went to her graduation ceremony, thinking that she should at least show up for the occasion. After it ended, she was approached by a student who offered her a second button from a boy, but there was no one there when they turned to look for him. The button contained a note instructing her to go to the temple behind the school. There, she began to see an apparition of Tsubasa on a nearby tree until she came face to face with a shadowy figure. The Shadow explained the button and the note, returned the omamori Tsubasa had once given her, and scolded Hisako for her ignorance of her friend's feelings and ultimate fate, vowing revenge while Hisako reacted with hurt to his psychological scolding. When she finally opened her eyes, the Shadow having left, she found a straw doll on a stick and notes scattered on the ground. Approaching it, she turned around to discover another apparition of Tsubasa hovering above her while looking down at her, eerily imitating the boy's dead body and method of suicide. Scared, Hisako ran away, got on her bike, and rode home in a hurry.

As she rode fast, remembering her friend, Tsubasa's ghostly voice would ask her why she was running. Hisako would end up on a collision course with a car, but an Armor would manifest from her and protect her from the crash, leaving her unharmed but shocked and frightened by her newfound powers before finally returning home. This event was witnessed by some and left the driver in critical condition; it was reported on the local news as well as a North American Union news channel.^[1] The next day, Hisako decided to return to the temple and confront the Shadow, but not before leaving flowers for the tree where Tsubasa's apparition first appeared. When they met again, the creature revealed that Hisako had left behind her graduation diploma and that he had taken it, to which she responded by questioning the motivation behind his actions, believing that it was not really Tsubasa's death. The Shadow attacked in retaliation, and Hisako's powers manifested again to protect her from harm as she tried not to listen to the psychological game the Shadow was playing with her. Hisako then aggressively threw away her omamori while telling the creature to shut up, but not before the Shadow claimed his curse was already in motion. With the Shadow gone, Hisako saw Tsubasa's ghost manifest and picked up the omamori, saying it was too late. Just as her phone rang, the spirit advised her to answer it, and on the other end someone told Hisako that the school coach, a rumored bully of Tsubasa's, had committed suicide.^[5]

In April 2024, while lying in her bed staring at the ceiling as The Shadow's presence slowly began to manifest, Hisako closed her eyes and dreamed back to the day she and Tsubasa had skipped school, and began to reminisce about herself that day, wondering what she could have done differently. However, the Shadow manifested in this memory and woke Hisako up with a note on her hands. Just then, Hisako's mother asked her if she was going to her motorcycle class and if she could pick up some eggs on her way back from downstairs. Later that day, on the way back, after yelling in anger, Hisako was sitting on a staircase. She would be surprised by an unknown girl who knew that she had been the cause of the car accident a month ago. The girl would introduce herself as Mei and demonstrate her own electrical powers by powering a doll without batteries. Even if Hisako would not notice this, she would trust her enough to show her the message on the newly received note left by the Shadow to meet at the abandoned school and ask her to come along.

Once there, the girls noticed that the school's door was open. Once inside, the duo talked as they explored, bonding as Hisako explained her situation and Mei supported her despite her insecurities, until they came across a stuffed animal and a security guard watching over the abandoned school. Just then, the girls and the guard heard a noise coming from a locked room, opening the door to find it filled with glyphs on the walls and a shrine of candles and more stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling, with The Shadow in the center. The Shadow greeted Hisako, thanking her for accepting the invitation and explaining that he had murdered three boys who had bullied Tsubasa in the past. Hisako tried to warn the guard to take action, only to discover that the Shadow had turned him into a creature made of worms. The two girls ran away as the former guard gave chase, but Mei stopped running and bravely fought back, using her powers to command the winds, shocking Hisako. However, that was not enough as the Shadow emerged from the creature and began to approach, prompting Hisako to attack in anger and use her own powers to make it disappear, but also breaking the eggs she had purchased in the process. Later, at the entrance ceremony of Irodori High School, Hisako and Mei would meet again, now as classmates, with Mei properly introducing herself in full and the two forming a fast friendship as they discussed the morning news about the aforementioned three murdered boys.^[4]

Sometime during the year, Hisako dreamed that her omamori came out of her head while she was asleep in class and woke up to Mei telling her that she dropped it, then she got a failing grade and was told to meet with the teacher after class.^[1] Later, in May 2024, while sitting on the bench with Mei during gym class, Hisako found a 10-yen coin that made her remember the Kokkuri-san game, but quickly turned her attention to Mei, who showed her a social media thread about rumors about Tsubasa and the suicide spree orchestrated by the Shadow. When asked by Mei about the omamori, she replied that it always appeared in her pocket, prompting Hisako to ask about her friend's abilities, but as it seemed too private a question, she accepted the evasive answer. Just then, Mei was hit in the head by a ball that her classmate Nico Minoru, accompanied by her friends Natsu and Mori, was supposed to catch. Hisako and Mei returned the ball to Nico, who, to the duo's surprise, used a magnifying glass to reveal that they were mutants.^[3] Some time later, Hisako got her motorcycle license and started driving her late father's 1980s Honda Raccoon.^[2]

In June 2024, on a rainy day after her last exam of the month, Hisako was ready to ride home but was stopped by Amano, a former classmate of hers at Kirigaya Minami Middle School and a friend of the three boys who had bullied Tsubasa in the past and had recently killed themselves at the hands of the Shadow. Amano had come to meet her to get answers, but Hisako would try to escape. At that moment, however, Amano was taken over by the Shadow, who used his abilities to make Hisako fall off her motorcycle through an illusion of Tsubasa's head. When Hisako stood up and the Shadow revealed himself, a confrontation between the two began, which was interrupted when the Shadow used Amano's body to play on Hisako's trauma, slicing Amano's neck with a blade before disappearing. Stunned by what she'd witnessed, Hisako was left paralyzed, tearful and on her knees as a large mob of students began filming and photographing her and her powers, only stopped by Mei's intervention, using her own powers to disable everyone's phones. Back home, Hisako was told about Amano by her mother, prompting her to search through her middle school graduation album and look up Amano's picture. A few days later, after receiving her test results, Hisako discovered that despite Mei's actions, someone had managed to upload the footage of her powers to the public, and that it had gone viral, making her uneasy.^[2]

Later, Hisako invited Mei Igarashi and Nico Minoru to her house. When she was trying to explained to them about the shadow, someone interrupted, saying that he wanted to help her. Mei helped her got out of the illusion. They wanted Nico to find the truth about her ominari and Nico used her power. When she found a symbol

, her magnifying glass broke into pieces and the shadow attacked them. Nico used her magnifying glass to defeat the shadow and the ominari turned normal again.

Very little is known about Hisako's personality before Tsubasa's suicide, but it can be assumed that she was an average teenage girl and that things took a turn for the worst when she found out about Tsubasa's decision. Before his death, she seemed to be largely unaware of his inner feelings, although she was supportive of him.^[5][4] But after developing depression, Hisako became much more withdrawn and distant from her surroundings and other people.^[5]

Her confrontation with the Shadow in March showed that she felt extremely guilty about her friend's death, but tried not to see it as her fault.^[5] After awakening to her powers and being thrust into the Shadow's vengeance mission, Hisako felt fear, but bravely decided to try to stop the entity from harming any more people, even though she hated herself for having to rely on someone else with her, Mei.^[4] During her second confrontation with the Shadow in June, she showed a lot of growth as a result of better control over her abilities, and confidently fought against the entity, which would be pointed out by the Shadow himself.^[2]

Hisako is a mutant whose abilities seem to be linked to an omamori given to her by her late friend Tsubasa, as well as to his spirit. As a result, her powers are very similar to the Japanese protective charm.

• Armor Generation: Hisako can summon extremely strong and durable armor around her entire body, acting as both a protective shield from harm and an extension of herself. Unlike her other counterparts throughout the multiverse, her armor has demonstrated a degree of self-awareness, usually acting on its own to protect her and even interacting with her to some extent.^[5]

Skilled Cyclist: Hisako utilises a bicycle as her primary mode of transportation.^[5] Furthermore, she participates in motorcycle classes, which indicates that she is proficient in cycling in general.^[4]

Depression: Hisako developed depression after Tsubasa's suicide.^[5]

Bicycle^[5][4]

• According to the information on her character design sheet:
  • She was born in the month of April.
  • She has an outwardly calm and relaxed demeanour, but is actually very shy on the inside.
  • She is someone who is easily distracted and has tomboyish tendencies.
  • She likes occultism and black clothing, has an obsession for ghost stories and hates to study.
  • She has tanned skin.

• As of Ultimate Universe #1, Hisako was 15 years old.
• Hisako did not use any social media.^[4]
• Hisako participated in the conflict between Jean Grey as the Phoenix Force and Nathaniel Essex as the Enigma, along with numerous other mutants throughout the multiverse in astral form.^[6]