Benihime Asano

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Benihime Asano
Benihime.PNG
Status
Full Name 浅野紅姫
Arcana II - Priestess (REVERSE)
Nature Persona-User
Gender Female
Date of Birth October 21st
Age 16
Guardian Dragon Silver Dragon
Faction Kagutsuchi
School Seven Sisters High
Persona Carman
Weapon Senbon Needles
Eyes Burgundy
Hair Black
Height 5'0"
Voice Actor Satsuki Yukino
Social Stats
Expression
5
Enthralling
Manipulation
5
Perfect Deception
Knowledge
3
Educated
Courage
4
trollface.jpg
Understanding
2
Kindly
Diligence
4
Thorough
Equipment
Weapon: Senbon Needles
Body: White Overcoat
Feet: Mary Janes
Accessory: Ring On A Necklace
Trivia
  • The kanji of in the writing of Benihime's name (紅姫) translates to "crimson princess," while Asano (浅野) translates to "shallow plain."
  • The name "Benihime" is an atypical Japanese girl name, and is generally regarded as being rare and a bit strange.
  • Her favorite color is honey-yellow.
  • She has a very strange habit of carrying an umbrella where she goes, rain or shine--and actually using it.
  • She also has a peculiar habit of singing children's nusery rhymes.
  • Benihime's best (and favorite) subject is Biology. Psychology is a very close second.
  • She is a member of the Tennis club at Seven Sisters High and a member of the Ikebana cultural club.
  • It's rumored that she lives all alone "somewhere in Sumaru." Where she lives or with whom (if anyone) is completely unknown.
  • ...Except by Daisuke, because he's terrible.
  • She lives in a room in Hotel Pleiades.
  • Benihime does not like being the center of attention and dislikes crowds, despite her "odd" mannerisms.
  • However, one of her favorite hobbies is "people watching" if only to try and pick out peoples' flaws.
  • She owns a black cat named "Poe," and it is the only creature in existence she acknowledges with any sort of genuine compassion.
  • While she has a stepmother and (had) a stepbrother, they are no way at all invovled in her life: her stepbrother died in a fire, and her stepmother went insane. She currently resides at Sumaru's Sanitarium.
  • Not surprisingly, she enjoys reading--particularly fairy tales, especially those with ironic or "unhappy endings" for its heroes.
  • She hates the entire human race.
Quote
"Please, tell me what's bothering you. We're friends, aren't we?"
Profile and Skills

There is little to be said of Benihime Asano; she speaks not a word of her past, or of herself, keeping all things about her under proverbial lock and key. However, despite the immense secrecy, she is a seemingly good-natured and soft-spoken young lady with a penchant for being extremely well-mannered and polite. But nothing is as it seems; it is said she is the last living heiress to great family wealth, a young woman with a deeply-troubled past she'd left behind. Most of her peers view her as peculiar and strange for her odd mannerisms and sometimes bizarre behaviors. Some, however, swear she is an arrogant manipulator, a venomous witch who delights in nothing more than others' emotional pain and suffering. Despite wildly varying opinion, she is perfectly content to carry on as she does, maintaining an odd mystery to her very existence.

Using People For Fun And Sport, The Mirror Has Two Sides, Let's Be Friends, Manipulator, OH NO DARK PAST, Daddy's Little (Red) Princess, What's On Your Mind? Want To Talk About It?, Loathing The Human Race, I Promise We're Friends, Crushing Spirits is a Full-Time Hobby, Tell Me Your Secrets, I Swear They Won't Come Back To Haunt You, Maybe Crazy?, Definitely A Bitch, Did I Tell You How Great A Friend You Are?

History

The world did not welcome Benihime Asano with open arms.

A rough, complicated pregnancy, hers was a precarious beginning that ultimately resulted in the loss of her mother. Her father was understandably crushed by his loss--but accepted the welcome bundle of joy into his life with the love and affection only a father could provide.

Hers was a life of luxury and comforts. She grew knowing only the best in life, all thanks to her father’s prestigious place as a partner in a very well-to-do firm in Sumaru. The first few years of her life were happy for the curiously-named Benihime--her father chose it for her. The name meant everything to her; however odd it was to others, she adored it.

Though his love for his daughter was unshakable, Benihime’s father was a lonely man. It didn’t take long for him to find love in a younger woman. She was once married and had a son a few years older than Benihime. She was as beautiful as she was sweet in her father’s eyes. It didn’t take long for the two to become serious.

Then they got married. Then the newly wed wife and son moved in. Things were all right.

A few years later at the age of eight, Benihime’s father was diagnosed with aggressive Medulloblastoma. Though several surgeries and radiation treatments were tried, the end was not looking good for her father. He was given a year, tops, to live. The doctors urged them to make him as comfortable as possible.

That’s when her step-family’s true colors began to show.

It was subtle at first, the lack of visits to her father by his new wife. Then they failed to show at all. And as he lay upon his death bed, breathing the breaths that would be his last, they did not take the time to be at his side. Her father insisted upon Benihime to forgive them in her heart. They were coping in a way that was not the same as hers.

And with his last and final breath he told his daughter he was so very proud of her, that he would always be watching over her.

At the age of eight, Benihime was tasked with the pain of organizing and planning her father’s funeral. His new wife and her son were again absent; only did they show to make face at the funeral itself, to pour fake tears upon friends and family. She could see it--but she desperately sought to honor her father’s wish. Forgive them, forgive them.

A few weeks later the family’s lawyer--a former coworker at the firm--made face at the Asano house to read the last will and testament of Benihime’s father. She was silent as the lawyer proceeded with the meeting--only to be cut short when her step-mother whined for him to ‘get to the part that mattered most.’

The part that ‘mattered most,’ as it turned out, was her father leaving ninety-percent of his assets and wealth to his daughter, to be observed by a representative of the bank until she was twenty years old. Her step-family got only ten-percent of her father’s wealth--by no means a paltry sum, but it was certainly enough to draw a shrill, angry howl from the woman.

Every little comfort that Benihime had left in life began to swiftly nosedive.

The hate in Benihime’s step-mother’s heart was unquenchable. She refused to show the girl any shred of compassion or patience; if bothered she’d lash out at Benihime verbally. As the years grew and the time she had to spend in the same house as her, the less restraint she was capable of. A year after the reading of her father’s will and Benihime had bruises on her arms to occasionally pass off as ‘an accident’ in school.

Her grades began to slip as the abuse at home grew. Her peers began to distance themselves. So she began to smile false smiles and pass herself off as being OK. For a time, she got along well enough to distract herself with people. One such instance resulted in the Persona-sama game. She thought little of it afterwards.

The resentment of the mother began to pass upon her son. He would also verbally abuse Benihime when the chance arose, or pick on her with a push or shove. Eventually his actions grew more violent and spiteful. For no rhyme or reason he’d hit her and spew hateful words in her face or just spit on her. Still, despite the abuse she tried desperately to forgive. Forgive. Forgive.

It became her mantra in her miserable existence.

With each passing day things grew worse. The verbal abuse. The physical abuse. The times of feeling immense dread after school at the very thought of having to return home to an unwelcoming house her father built. With every day she grew further from everything and everyone. Her peers noticed it; she was regarded as strange, aloof, distant and bizarre. Teachers grew concerned but she’d insist she was fine with the most convincing of smiles.

Lies became commonplace. They became habit, routine and with every lie it got easier to do.

But her life at home remained horrible. She simply endured--she had to. Once she was old enough she’d be able to move out from under the ‘care’ of her step-mother and her terrible son. She could be like the princesses of the fairy tales she’d enjoyed as a child, breaking out of her terrible prison into a life of ‘happily ever after.’

She grew jaded with each passing day. Fairy tales were lies told to make children believe things that were unobtainable. Her happiness felt fleeting, years after her father’s passing. Her life felt little more than a void of emptiness with nothing to fill it. She was hollow. The only time she was reminded she was alive was when her step-mother or brother would beat her.

The little voice of reason in her head grew dimmer with every punch, slap, bite, kick or verbal bile.

Another voice began to slowly rise up take its place. A voice of grounded reason: this isn’t normal, this abuse. This isn’t worth the pain and suffering. People are horrible, selfish monsters that lie about being human. They should be punished. They should suffer as she does.

...

One afternoon Benihime’s hesitant trek home from school was led astray by the dim mewling of a tiny animal down a side street. She found at the far end a single, banged up trash bin half-full. In it a tiny black kitten was crying for its mother.

A girl who felt the world was a horrible place, who hated everyone felt her heart stir for the first time in a very long time. It was pity. Sympathy.

Climbing into the refuse bin, she scooped the kitten into her arms and carried it home. It wasn’t difficult to slip past her step-mother and brother; they generally ignored her until they were feeling spiteful. Locking herself away in her room, she promptly and quietly proceeded to take care of the kitten, cleaning its fur and tidying the tiny creature up.

Several weeks later her step-brother discovered her secret friend.

She came home from school one afternoon to find her brother in the room playing with her little friend. When she stepped into her room, however, his response was to grab the little creature by its throat and hold it up to her. He chided her for hiding it from him and promised that he would tell his mother about it. He also added, helpfully, that she hated cats.

Benihime’s first response was to lash out at his arm and try to free her friend. He just laughed, punched the kitten on the head and tossed it about like a rag doll. He teased her: do you want him? Do you want your kitty-cat?? She was bordering on tears as she begged him to leave it alone. He just grabbed its tail and twisted it sharply; the cat cried in pain.

Unable to bear it, Benihime wordlessly threw herself into her step-brother and began to punch him in the face over and over. He let the cat go in surprise; it fled, hiding under the bed in absolute terror. Her step-mother, hearing the commotion, ran upstairs and immediately began to chastise Benihime and slap her around for harming her baby.

Then she was locked in her room.

Scooping the kitten up, she snuck out the window and walked to the vet. They were surprised to see this pale-faced girl crying tears without a shred of pain or grief on her face. She held the wounded animal up and asked, flatly, that they ‘save her only friend’s life.’

Her return that night was heralded with vicious, hurtful comments that were commonplace in the Asano household. She tried to go to her room but her step-brother fiercely snared her by the arm and demanded she not ignore him. She told him in flat tone that he was a stranger in her house that did not belong there.

He asked where the cat was. She told him it was safe from them.

And safe from her.

A pale figure was birthed from her form, a hazy reflection of her personality, twisted by years of torment and abuse. Horrified, her step-brother’s instinct was to let her go. She laughed. Did he really think she’d show mercy, she wondered aloud, after all these years of pain and suffering?

Mother wasn’t there to save him, she promised with soft tones. It was just her and him.

...

When her step-mother returned she found her son lifeless on the living room floor with Benihime seated on the sofa across from him. In shrill tones she demanded to know what she had done to her baby, why was he not breathing, oh god, call the hospital he’s not breathing. The only response from Benihime was a smile. She had a cigarette precariously perched in her fingers.

She explained it simply: they had taken from her something special, so she had to take something back. It was how the world worked. She learned that hard lesson, thanks to her. Her step-mother called her a monster. Benihime just giggled and shook her head. Then she gave a choice:

Save her life, or save her barely-conscious, nearly-dead son.

The cigarette in her hand was dropped to the floor. The carpet--aged and relatively cheap--was quick to ignite. Her step-mother again called her a horrible, monstrous witch. Her game wouldn’t work; she could pick her son up, leave and call the cops and have her put away and take all her money--money that was rightfully her step-mother’s.

Can you, she wondered of the woman. Again, the figure--her Persona--appeared, blocking her way out. Horrified she shrieked, dropping her son and falling to her knees. Rising from the chair, Benihime approached and put a hand upon the woman’s shoulder with a lifeless smile. She had to make a choice, she insisted. Save her son, or save herself. If she tried to be contrary, her friend would kill them both.

In the end, her step-mother chose her own life.

With one, last look over her shoulder at the burning house she once lived in, Benihime felt born anew. Like a phoenix rising from its ashes, she had a life now without them, with only herself. She didn’t need anyone now.

“Father,” she asked, standing in front of the vet’s office, to see her friend once more. “Aren’t you proud of me?”


Logs
  • A Cruel Prison: Benihime Asano arrives at Omoikane Investigations, intent on hiring Daisuke Itami to help relieve her boredom in a very particular way. (Log by Daisuke)
  • The Consequence of Pity: Taking it upon herself to check on the status of her "case" at Omoikane, Benihime happens across one of several of Itami's "employees." She proceeds to make great friends with the frequent new starter.
  • Salt in the Wound: Benihime proves she’s a great friend to Miwa Saitou.


Persona & Resonance
Carman.png


"I am thou... thou art I. I am Carman, sorceress of black magicks, mother of darkness, evil and violence..."

Known as both a fierce warrior and powerful sorceress who hailed from Athens, Carman invaded Ireland with her three sons, known as Dub (black, darkness), Dother (evil) and Dian (violence). Using her black magic, she blighted the fruits out of spite and ravaged the lands in her invasion. Only the Tuatha Dé Danann were able to stop her, driving her sons out of the land and imprisoning her, where she eventually died of longing and loneliness.

SENSE: Like wandering down a dark forested road in the middle of night; certainly it's just your imagination that there are eyes out there in the darkness, that your every single move is being watched from afar. It isn't real, that sensation racing down your spine, that cold chill that makes it seem like something wicked is out there watching and waiting for you. It's cold, like a chilly autumn wind, but completely innocent and harmless. It's just your imagination...

SMELL: The scent of biting autumn rain and wet leaves. The sweet and pungent scent of overly-ripened apples.

SOUND: The whisper of leaves, the distant movement of something stirring through fallen foliage.


Notable Social Links
  • 0 - THE FOOL
    • Tohru Adachi: A bumbling detective she met in Junes in Inaba laughing at a badly-written book about the TV Killer. Openly confessed to her fascination with the case--and the killer. Conveniently received an e-mail from the TV Killer a few days later from the killer praising her macabre interests. This was well-received by Benihime.
  • I - THE MAGICIAN
    • Yuzuriha Hatsumi: In a chance (?) meeting on the Samegawa flood plain in Inaba, Benihime met the young Ninja girl in passing. However, unlike past encounters with the denizens of Inaba, she decided that she'd very much like to become fast friends with Yuzuriha on impulse. Something about her nature piques Benihime's interests. They will be the best friends ever.
  • IV - THE EMPEROR
    • Father: The light of her existence has long since left her behind. There is no glimmer of hope for salvation anymore. The darkness has begun to settle in.
  • X - THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
    • Akira Ookuma: One of Omoikane's "lackeys," she'd met Akira once when trying to get in touch with Daisuke. She pities him; after all, working for a man like Daisuke must be a real downer on the self-confidence. He amuses her, however--he is certainly not what he appears to be, and that alone interests her because it reminds her very much of herself. There's certainly something there beneath the skin, and she certainly wishes to discover it and exploit it for her own amusement.
  • XIII - DEATH
    • Seiichi Miyamoto: A man who claims to be above Kyo Enda, Benihime is completely disgusted by Seiichi's arrogance. Of all his enemies, none have irritated her more. She has a genuine dislike for the pianist and is the one person (so far) she actually really wants to kill. Managed to steal his sword in combat (read: he stabbed her with it and left it there) and gift it to Kyo.
  • XIX - THE SUN
    • Tatsuya Suou: The only real way to hurt Suou, she believes, is indirectly--through his friends. She is working on that...
  • XVI - TEMPERANCE
    • Miwa Saitou: At first Benihime forced herself into Miwa's life solely based on the fact she was Kyo Enda's ex-girlfriend. In Kyo's Dungeon it was revealed she used "magic" to seduce Kyo Enda's affections--and as a result Benihime became completely convinced she was the monster. A recent request from Kyo had her confront Miwa, and she did. She broke Enda-sama's heart, and had to pay. But surely a hero would come to save her...
  • XV - THE DEVIL
    • Daisuke Itami: Damnably persistent and completely obnoxious. Has broken into her apartment twice. Benihime does not trust him--and that is likely because she has become more aware of the fact that they are alike, albeit on entirely different ends of the spectrum. He seems too interested in her for her own liking, which maybe explains why he invited her into Kagutsuchi. She is also kind of annoyed he "innocently" perched her feline BFF near a high-story open window. Minus 10 points to Gryffindor.
    • Mariko Ohmukai: A young woman more screwed up than Benihime. Like Suou, Benihime believes the best way to wound her is not to resort to physical violence, but through her flaws. Despite her being nearly mauled to death by Kyo's Shadow, Benihime picked up that there's still some shred of attraction to him in Mariko. She is also difficult to crack, and may be dimly aware that it must be what it is like for people to engage Benihime.
  • XIX - THE SUN
    • Kyo Enda: The Shadow-possessed sociopath to whom she is completely devoted to. Benihime is fascinated by his "liberation" from the shackles of his humanity into becoming a "monster" and accepting the darkness within himself rather than deny or hide it. She is gladly willing to let him use her for his own ends, including using her own powers against his enemies and those who would hurt or try to kill him. While a part of her intense loyalty to Kyo stems from physical attraction, she is more attracted to all the wrong and twisted things beneath his skin.


Soundtrack

Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.

Another Dimension by Yuki Kajiura ~ Carman Theme
Instrumental

Strange Little Girl by The Stranglers
She survived but she's feeling old, and she found all things cold.

Only by Nine Inch Nails
Less concerned about fitting into the world, Your world that is, Cause it doesn't really matter anymore.

Evil Appetite by Akira Yamaoka
Instrumental

Bad Apple!! by Nomico
If I can move, if I change everything, I’ll turn it black.

The Ferry by Hans Zimmer
Instrumental

My Goddess by The Exies
You were counting on a freefall, You laid your bet I would lose all.

Different Persons by Akira Yamaoka
Instrumental

Karma Police by Radiohead
Karma police, arrest this man, He talks in myths, He buzzes like a fridge, He's like a detuned radio.

Little Girl by Sparklehorse ft. Julian Casablancas
You twisted little girl, Showing them what life is all about, Where did all the time go, Everywhere it's gone.


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