Hina Hongo

The Dreaded Main Heroine of Strike it Rich. Hina is a genetic freak of nature born with inhuman physical strength who was adopted by Takahashi Chogen: the Glorious Leader of a ultra-militant religious cult known as the "Army of God", which plotted to overthrow the Japanese Government in a grand coup d'état before the sudden death of Hina's father derailed the entire conspiracy. While Hina was taken in by a wealthy family after the Army of God's disbandment, the fact that she had combat training drilled into her by the cult's very own Special Forces Unit meant that she was deemed enough of a threat to be placed on a government watch list... at least until an order from up-top was given to cease her surveillance posthaste. Against her better judgment, Nozomi personally recruited Hina to serve as Valkyria's first real fighter after realizing that they needed a charismatic headliner to help draw in crowds. Hina ecstatically agreed, seeing the fledgling organization as an opportunity to finally test her might against other skilled fighters. Affably Evil: Hina is a highly dangerous individual with dubious ambitions beyond sating her intense bloodlust. That said, she does possess some redeeming traits to her name. Hina is genuinely respectful to the fighters she deems worthy of her attention, as shown by her tremendous admiration of Nozomi, and to a lesser extent, the participants of Valkyria's first official tournament. Hina even seems sincerely apologetic when she tells Yuzuha she can't join her and the Sena sisters for a night out since she has class the next day. Hina also upholds her end of the deal to hand over some of the Army of God's WMDs in exchange for Nozomi and the others providing her opponents who can challenge her. That said, Hina never explicitly agreed to hand over all of the chemical weapons she has stockpiled. According to Ichika, the schoolgirl still has more than enough to take out the entire mainland if Hina really wanted to cross that line, much to Nozomi's abject horror. Ax-Crazy: If it's not obvious, you can tell by the fact that she's ecstatic at the prospect of fighting and using threats to get what she wants. Blood Knight: Absolutely loves the thrill of battle. Catchphrase Insult: Hina exclusively refers to any fighter she deems as inferior to her as a "slowpoke." Charles Atlas Super Power: Hina was groomed by the deadliest soldiers within the Army of God's ranks in the art of Rikudou, granting her the ability to maximize her already exceptional physicality by utilizing advanced combat techniques that requires being a Master of Your Domain. In her fight against Yuzuha, she contracted her arm tendons to their absolute limit before letting go, creating an insanely amount of kinetic energy, resulting in an immensely powerful punch, knocking Yuzuha out and causing her to bleed profusely from her mouth, nose, and eyes. This technique is called Rikudou: Sunder Heaven. Combat Sadomasochist: Hina can get incredibly euphoric whenever she faces someone she considers a Worthy Opponent, regardless if she's beating them to a pulp or vise versa. Even while describing the pain of having her foot stomped in by Yuzuha, her choice of words makes it sound like she just had her virginity taken. Hina: It's been sooo long since I've had a new "first time!" Even after aaalll the times I've been hurt...I've never broken my foot before! It hurts. Sooooo much. I feel like...clammy? Clammy and dripping with sweat. Moving is super tough. It sucks. Thanks sooo much, Miss Yuzuha. This is an amazing experience. Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Is one to Tokita Ohma. Both are the main fighters of their manga, but they couldn't be more different if they tried. Hina is an outgoing, bubbly teenage girl, while Ohma is, at the start, a withdrawn and rather rude adult man. Hina is a slender, fair-skinned, and of rather average height, with pink hair and, most noticeably, star-shaped pupils. Ohma, meanwhile, is muscular, tall, and thuggish in appearance, with a jet-black mop of messy "Seaweed" hair. Both have No Social Skills, but show it in different ways. Hina is rather detached and airheaded, speaking in a Valley Girl vernacular while being far too buddy-buddy with everyone around her, while Ohma is near-Literal-Minded combined with The Comically Serious, speaking in a blunt, somewhat inarticulate way where he constantly flubs names. However, Hina is, deep down, an Ax-Crazy psychopathic combat junkie in the skin of a cuddly schoolgirl who wants to lead a violent revolution against the government and has no issues with attempting murder. Ohma, meanwhile, has a kind heart beneath his rough, scrappy exterior and is able to form legitimate friendships, show courtesy and respect, and even has occasional moments of selfless heroism. Hina is motivated by wanting someone to beat her, while Ohma seeks to prove his strength against the best of the best. Hina lives a normal-ish life outside of fighting, going to school and living in a simple apartment. Ohma, meanwhile, was effectively a homeless person who lived in a run-down, dilapidated mansion in the middle of nowhere by himself. Ironically, Hina participates in a bottom of the barrel startup underground fighting organization while Ohma is a fighter for what may as well be the most clandestine and important underground martial arts organization in the world. Their approaches to fighting are very different, as while both are Strong and Skilled, Ohma actually uses the versatile techniques granted to him by the Niko Style as often as he can, while Hina mostly prefers to flatten people with raw strength and only busts out her Rikudou when she feels it's worth it. Hina is an explicit superhuman, with abnormal levels of strength, speed, and toughness for someone of her age, size, build, and weight. Ohma, meanwhile, has mostly above-average physical specs for a Kengan fighter, only becoming superhuman when he uses the Advance. Even the styles themselves are different, with the Niko Style being a very versatile, yet incredibly difficult to master, form of fighting with techniques for many situations. Rikudou, however, is primarily designed around using Finishing Move after Finishing Move with the aim of killing the opponent. Nozomi is actively terrified of Hina and actively tries to keep her placated, while Kazuo is supportive of Ohma and greatly respects him. Determinator: She insists that she can still participate in the next tournament even with her left foot in a cast and practically begs Nozomi to let her join even while recovering. Dissonant Serenity: Her threats are able to chill the blood of people nearly twice her age, all delivered with her blissful looking smile and valley girl drawl. Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She looks like a cute high school girl but is a frightening bloodthirsty warrior underneath that. Feel No Pain: Downplayed. While Hina appears to have a normal pain threshold, it is her pain tolerance that is nearly inhuman. When Yuzuha stomps on her foot and breaks it, Hina notes how painful it is, but is otherwise still able to put weight on and even kick with it Game Face: While Hina wears the outward appearance of a Perpetually Smiling Genki Girl, she's a full-blown psychopathic combat junkie who only lets her true nature slip out whenever she's actively threatening someone or currently enthralled in a really intense brawl. After Yuzuha successfully breaks Hina's foot during their match, this escalates into a horrific Nightmare Face that puts Hina's insanity and bloodlust on full display. The Greatest Style: Hina is a practitioner of Rikudou, a esoteric mixed martial arts style developed by the Army of God's Special Forces members with a focus on both armed and unarmed combat. But how this gives Hina an edge over other MMA practitioners is that Rikudou's techniques are specifically designed around killing their opponents, which the world of Underground Fighting has no rules against. This is Deconstructed, as the lack of challenging opponents in her life meant that Hina rarely had the opportunity to break out these techniques since she could end a majority of her fights utilizing her inhuman strength alone. Give her a reason to break out Rikudou however... One Degree of Separation: She goes to Koyo Girls Academy alongside the main cast of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?. The end of Chapter 16 shows Hina even attends Satomi Tachibana's World History class. The Army of God is the same cult of religious extremists who Hajime Hanafusa sabotaged by assassinating their leader Takahashi Chogen while he was still serving as a wetwork operative for the Japanese Government in Kengan Ashura. Red Baron: Before Valkyria, Hina was universally feared as the "Deadliest Schoolgirl in Japan". After joining Valkyria, Hina fights under the ring name "Revolution Princess", referencing how she was at the center of a plot to overthrow the entire Japanese Government. Spirited Competitor: A dark example. The only thing Hina seems to want more than spearheading a ultraviolent revolution against the Japanese Government... is fighting tooth and nail against combatants who can actually give her a run for her money. Whenever she meets someone she deems a Worthy Opponent, Hina genuinely praises their strengths, relishes every second she gets to go blow for blow against them, and sincerely looks forward to challenging them all over again regardless of who wins. Super Powerful Genetics: Hina is essentially in the same boat as Wakatsuki Takeshi in terms of possessing inhumanly strong muscle fibers that radically improves their strength, speed, and durability. But unlike Takeshi, Hina has far greater control over her individual tendons as proven by her "Sunder Heaven", which is essentially the "Blast Core" technique but specialized to use only the muscles in just one arm. Uncanny Valley Girl: Anybody who has seen Hina in action knows that there is something seriously wrong with the girl. Nozomi, Hana, and Ichika are all terrified of her, Riku immediately catches on that Hina was gunning for killing blows during the tournament and confronts Ichika for holding out info on who they were really dealing with, and Yuzuha outright calls her a "homicidal maniac" after their match. Just to drive the point home, Karura Kure, the pinnacle product of a generations long Super Breeding Program by a ancient clan of contract killers, refers to Hina as a monster after seeing her walk by during a visit to Koyo Girls Academy in a bonus comic. Unskilled, but Strong: A complex case. Thanks to her militant upbringing under the Army of God, Hina actually was drilled in close quarters combat and the art of modern warfare by the cult's Special Forces Unit. But since she never had the proper opportunity to fight anybody who was on her level, Hina let these techniques languish in favor of just using her raw strength to knock out her opponents with a single punch. This is how Nozomi caught her in a straight ankle lock despite the significant gap in power between them, since Hina kept gunning for full power swings that left big openings in her defense that could be exploited. That said, the second Hina does decide to break out one of her "Rikudou" techniques, the results are terrifying, as Yuzuha can personally attest to. Valley Girl: She was adopted by a rich family and attends the affluent Koyo Girls Academy, acts like an upbeat ditz whenever she's not actively trying to harm people, and has a tendency to playfully draw out her words akin to the stereotype this trope is named after. Villain Protagonist: Despite being Valkyria's lead fighter and face of the manga, Hina is more like a ticking time bomb that the other protagonists are trying to defuse by throwing more fighters at her, either to keep her bloodlust pointed away from them, or to force her to cough up the chemical WMDs she's hidden. In other words, Strike It Rich is not about Hina's rise to the top, but Nozomi and the others' attempts to pull her down. Worthy Opponent: Hina is utterly captivated by Nozomi due to the latter being the first person she has ever met that she couldn't take down. When Nozomi confronts her over ending her matches way too quickly via Curb-Stomp Battle, Hina jumps at the chance to suggest that Nozomi herself should fight her next if she wants to showcase a more even matchup and immediately attacks the woman to prove her point. Hina even decides to use the remaining locations of the Army of God's Chemical Weapons as a bargaining chip to try and convince Nozomi to agree to a rematch, and failing that, find her somebody who is actually on her level if not stronger. You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Part of the reason why Hina is hyper-fixated on coaxing a rematch out of Nozomi is because the latter is the first and only "slowpoke" she has met that she couldn't just steamroll over. An intriguing paradox that makes her genuinely believe that Nozomi is capable of far more than she's willing to admit, especially when the older woman consistently exceeds Hina's expecations as a fighter.