Chitose Saionji

[Hollyquin†]

Name: Chitose Saionji
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12th
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Survivalism (Zombie Squad), hiking, reading (particularly fantasy novels), video games (particularly RPGs and visual novels), and anime (Anime Club).

Appearance: Though by the standards of her home country Chitose is very average in size, by American standards she is relatively small, standing at 5'2" and 120 pounds. Much of that weight is lean muscle, built from years of hiking. Her skin is naturally pale and shows it in the winter months, but she inevitably has a tan during the summer, when she spends much of her time outside. Her features are best described as small- small button nose, small mouth with thin lips, a small, round face, small breasts, small hands and feet. Though her dark-brown eyes are thin in shape, she seems to constantly hold them open as wide as they will go.

Chitose's hair is unusual, and easily her most distinctive feature. It is quite long, reaching her mid-back, and perfectly straight and black. More noticeable than its length, at least at first glance, are her bangs, which are cut perfectly straight just over her eyebrows and dyed a glaring shade of pink. The brightness of her hair is generally the most colorful aspect of her appearance, as she favors earth tones in her clothing, and was done in a show of solidarity with her sister Rika when Rika dyed her own hair at the start of high school.

Chitose's fashion sense is more-or-less nonexistent, her personal touches to her clothing mostly being limited to the anime hoodies she occasionally wears. She favors function over form, and has a special affinity for bomber jackets and hiking boots. She almost never wears skirts, preferring cargo pants and occasionally loose-fitting jeans, and these, combined with the oversized tops she wears, add to her androgynous figure. She generally considers practicality over anything else and more or less never wears anything that would seem out of place worn on a hike.

Biography: Chitose's father, Saionji Mitsuo, a Japanese-American, was born and raised in Seattle. His parents were both born in Sendai, Japan, and when they divorced when Mitsuo was 16, his father returned home. After Mitsuo graduated from college, and after a few years spent at a nondescript office job, he decided to visit his father and his parents' old home for the first time. He stayed with his father while in Sendai and, deciding that he'd like to stay, he got a job with his father's company, becoming a salaryman and eventually buying his own, tiny apartment. It was while working that he met and eventually fell in love with Suzuki Ayame, an office lady in his department. They fell in love, were wed, and had twins- both girls, named Rika and Chitose. Ayame gave up her job to care for her new daughters. Four years after the birth of the twins, Mitsuo was transferred back to Seattle- a poetic twist of fate, as it was a transfer from the very same company that had sent Mitsuo's parents to Seattle to begin with. The couple settled in, ready to start a new life in America with their daughters. If nothing else, the family had quite a bit of money at this point, and Mitsuo's new position was very high up.

Ayame never really learned English- though Mitsuo had taught her some of the basics, he had never imagined the need for a permanent return to America, and so he hadn't bothered giving her more advanced lessons. The same problem did not apply to the girls- they had been taught to speak in both English and Japanese, and would remain fluent in both. The twins shared a room and as they didn't go outside much- Rika in particular showed an aversion to the outdoors- they spent most of their childhood in close proximity to each other, even being placed in the same class for all their years in elementary school. The twins were quite close, and their closeness emphasized their differences from each other. Rika was always the shy, nervous twin, often seeming younger than Chitose, who was quick to jump into new things and to try and make friends. Chitose was quite protective of her sister growing up, constantly making sure they were in the same group for group activities and trying to slowly break her out of her shell.

A shocking turn in Chitose's life came at the age of 9, when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. For the first few years after her diagnoses she received insulin shots from her parents and from the school nurse, and by age 14 she was giving herself the shots. She was quite responsible for a child and generally remembered when she needed her shots, though on the occasions she'd get caught up in reading and forget. Luckily, her sister was always around to remind her. Her parents coddled and worried over her for several years, particularly from the onset of her illness to her start of junior high school, and their parents' sudden focus on Chitose drove a wedge between her and Rika. Chitose tried her best to bridge that gap, resenting her parents slightly for causing its appearance, and by junior high her and Rika were close again, though they were never quite as close as they were as children.

Rika and Chitose had two major similarities that never stopped connecting them- a great love of books, and a love of school. They read mostly in English, though both enjoyed Japanese light novels as well, and they would bond particularly over good fantasy novels. The biggest differences between them involved their sociability and their activity levels. Rika was incredibly shy and preferred to stay indoors, curled up in a corner with Wonko, the family dog, while Chitose much preferred to be outdoors, and she quite liked being around people. She was never social in a traditional sense, as she enjoyed watching people more than anything else. When pressured to actually participate in conversation she was happiest discussing books, or the various questions that came to her after reading them. While this caused many of her peers to think she was strange, she found friendship with a few like-minded souls.

Their love of school came from two distinctly different motivations- Rika was quietly competitive and took her happiness in scoring higher than others on exams, while Chitose simply liked to learn new things. She absorbed knowledge like a sponge, whether it was things she learned from classes, from books, or simply from talking to others. This did not always reflect in her grades- while she memorized facts easily, she always had trouble applying them, and her grades ranged from As down to Cs depending on the structure of the classes. She tends to believe strongly in the power of facts, and generally believes that reading about something is just as good as doing it.

Though she always enjoyed being outside, taking walks in the park and reading in the shade of big trees, it was actually her diabetes that encouraged her to become more active, as her doctors told her that exercise was important. It was her father that took her outside of the city on a rare day off for a hike through the woods. She found it to her liking immediately- she found it herself feeling quite connected to the nature around her, and the atmosphere reminded her of an enchanted forest in one of her fantasy novels. She continued to go on hikes, with her father when she was young, and then on her own when she became old enough to journey outside the city on her own. It was in junior high that she learned that the forests where she hiked were once rich enough to sustain non-nomadic peoples in the hunter-gatherer days; she found this fascinating enough that she had to read more about it. She ended up with a collection of books on wild plants and surviving in the woods, deepening her connection further to the place as she learned how people once lived there.

It was a small leap from there to an interest in survivalism- learning how to survive in all sorts of environments, through all kinds of disasters. She never tried to act on her knowledge- she never picked berries in the woods or anything of the sort- and instead treated the whole thing more as an academic exercise, never using the knowledge for more than informing people that, if so-and-so disaster were to arise, this-and-that would be exactly what they should be doing. When she discovered the Zombie Squad- a survivalist organization that builds their shtick around preparing for a zombie apocalypse- she happily and immediately joined. Though horror and science-fiction weren't usually her cup of tea, she was still deeply amused by the juxtaposition of fiction and reality, and her membership let her add yet more to her stores of knowledge on the subject. It was through learning about the Zombie Squad and the zombie apocalypse in general that she added knowledge about various weapons to her mental library, though none of that information particularly resonated with her at the time. She holds the Boy Scout motto dear- "be prepared"- and always keeps herself ready for the worst case scenario.

As Chitose grew older, her thirst for knowledge began to expand past mere facts, and she began to hunger for new experiences as well. She always wanted to try new things- any new thing at all was something she couldn't let pass without trying. In high school she became notorious for attending every club for one day and then not returning, simply because she wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything. One club kept her as a member- the anime club. She avoided anime when she was younger, mainly because people in junior high seemed to assume she liked anime because she was Japanese, but exposure to it made her realize it was simply an extension of her love of fantasy novels. She got into video games through the club as well- though her visit to the video game club had not sparked her interest in the least, as they had been playing mostly first-person shooters, the kids in the anime club would occasionally discuss visual novels and RPGs, which again appealed to her for being more visual forms of her fantasy novels.

Rika Saionji went to Aurora along with Chitose, though the two for the most part were not in the same classes. Rika never quite grew out of the social issues she had when she was young, and Chitose remained the one person she could trust and talk to. Chitose continued to put her sister first, coming to her aid when need be, canceling her own plans when her sister needed her and generally always being there when Rika called. She continues to try to help Rika make her own friends, but the other girl resists all attempts to force her to socialize.

In general, Chitose is considered a bit of an odd bird. She spends a lot of time in her own head, and though she is quite kind to people and is a good listener, it can be hard to get her to talk about anything but books or survivalism- she still prefers people-watching to actually communicating, just as she did when she was young. She can actually get quite protective, the way she is with her sister, when her friends are being threatened. In general she is a benevolent presence and is always willing to talk to anyone who needs her, even if they've shunned her in the past. She is not very good at holding grudges- she simply does not have the will to be hostile towards anyone for longer than a few moments- and she believes that people are capable of change, which is why she continues to push her sister towards sociability and why she tends to give second chances. Though she seems lost in her own world often, she will come out of it when the situation demands it, and she loves nothing more to use the information she knows to help people.

Advantages: Chitose is an encyclopedic wealth of knowledge, especially in the realm of survivalism, and she knows how to procure food and water from the wilderness as well as basics on the use of various weapons. She is physically fit from hiking. Her friends, few as they are, know she is quite loyal and are likely to find her and to trust in her.
Disadvantages: Chitose is diabetic- should she run out of insulin, she could be in big trouble. Her knowledge is all purely academic and has the potential to do more harm than good in a life-or-death situation, particularly because she believes quite strongly that her knowledge is just as good as practical experience. She sometimes has difficulty communicating when it comes to more practical things than her knowledge or books.