Houki Shinonono

Houki Shinonono is the first heroine to be introduced in the Infinite Stratos series. She is a first year student at the IS Academy, the younger sister of Tabane Shinonono (the IS creator) and the first childhood friend of Ichika Orimura. Houki is a beautiful teenage girl of average height (with taller shape) with long brown hair that she keeps in a slightly messy ponytail (that seems to be divided into two sections) with a green and black ribbon, dark blue eyes and a slim, curvaceous body with no trace of fat on her and large breasts (which are still growing). She usually wears her IS Academy uniform modified with high stockings and black knee-high boots that have white soles. After the battle with the Silver Gospel, she replaces her green ribbon with a red-and-white ribbon that Ichika bought her for her birthday. Her initial IS training uniform matched the standard ones worn by all other female students, but after gaining Akatsubaki, she changed into one (a uniform) that is predominantly white with a black neckline, and black edges on the legs. Her IS standby mode has a form of white and gold bells on her wrist Having been raised in a shrine/dojo, Houki possesses a stern, disciplined personality. As such, she had a hard time socializing with other people, so she had virtually no friends, with the exception of Ichika. Ichika thought of Houki as a cute girl, and he helped her out by chasing the bullies away whenever they mocked her. Even as a child, Houki had trouble expressing her feelings for Ichika, and shortly after they first met, she asked him to use her first name, but then she justified it by saying that there were three other Shinononos (her father, her mother, and her sister). Since her place of residence is a kendo dojo, Houki had been interested in kendo ever since she was young. After being forced to move away from Ichika, Houki continued practicing kendo, as it was the only connection she had left with him. However, as a result of this separation, Houki has a serious emotional problem. Although she has been training in kendo, which emphasizes obtaining self-control as with most other forms of martial arts, she mainly uses it as a way to let out her frustration, making her very brutal towards her opponents. She is very emotionally unstable, often resorting to violence first, and is prone to jumping to conclusions without taking the time to understand the situation. This also made her needlessly aggressive and hostile to almost everyone around her at the start of the series, even not showing some of the staff at the IS Academy proper respect. Whenever Houki gains a new power, it doesn't take long for it to go to her head, causing her to do and say things that she would later regret. Possibly stemming from this, Houki feels 'might makes right' and has always believed that winning is the answer to her problems. She always seems to convince herself that if she wins, everything will work out for her. Ichika says that Houki is vile at times. This is because she's too prideful and stubborn to agree with others or admit her mistakes whenever she's wrong. Ichika even notes that this is what leads her to make mistakes as a result. She usually wants to be punished for her mistakes and feels worse when she isn't. Ichika was quick to forgive her, but she did accept his kindness because she thought that she shouldn't be forgiven that easily, and often feels that she doesn't deserve someone as kind as him. She does want to change these tendencies but still hasn't managed to make any changes regardless. Houki also has a habit of constantly frowning, as noted by Ichika. Sometimes, her stubbornness even leads her to be hypocritical, such as not wanting people to bring up the fact that she is Tabane Shinonono's sister but taking advantage of the fact that she is in order to gain her own personal IS and get ahead in life. Even after this, she still tries to put distance between her and Tabane. Often, however, Houki can be cheered up if Ichika compliments her. Despite her rather gruff attitude, Houki is actually a kind girl. Although she initially acts strict towards Ichika upon their reunion to the point of not allowing him to use her first name, as well as have a tendency to act quite mean to him sometimes, it's largely because she has trouble with her emotions, and she soon drops the façade and treats him much nicer, though she still isn't above hitting him when he makes her really angry or is about to do something stupid. She's also shown to get along well with Charlotte, Laura, Kanzashi, Tatenashi, Rin, and Cecilia, considering them friends, despite their rivalry for Ichika's affection, and often watching their backs in combat. She has also started getting along with other girls her age. Houki has very little confidence in her looks and in being feminine, likely a result of being bullied in her past for being a tomboy. She always feels uncomfortable when she has to wear revealing and/or feminine clothes like dresses or bikinis (a fact that she's well aware of). She also becomes quite shy when Ichika looks at her or compliments her. She also likes seeing Ichika in suits, to the point that in one instance, she finds it troublesome just trying to look at him directly. Notably, when the girls end up in fantasies about their ideal future with Ichika, caused by the program "World Purge", Houki is shown viewing him as an equal, in contrast to the superficial image the other girls have of him. Houki has some complex thoughts when it comes to using sex appeal to get Ichika's attention. She usually gets angry when she sees any of the other girls trying to get too physically close to Ichika, calling it indecent. Sometimes however, Houki has considered the idea of using her body to attract Ichika, even thinking that Ichika might be attracted to her large bust. However, she still gets easily nervous about actually doing so, such as buying a revealing bikini to attract Ichika at the beach but was too embarrassed to show herself wearing it to him until the last day. Over time, she has become a more used to it. She has likewise become more comfortable with holding hands and locking arms with him. After seeing Ichika hugging Cecilia during the latter's birthday party, Houki started growing increasingly insecure about her relationship with Ichika. She became bothered whenever she saw Ichika being nice to any of the other girls, even through she understood there wasn't special meaning behind his actions and it was him being his usually considering self. This caused Akatsubaki to awaken in order to fulfill her wish of making Ichika hers by taking control of her body and attacking her friends. At the end of the Akatsubaki Incident, Houki remembered how it was her fault that Chifuyu retired as an IS pilot, and became overwhelmed with the guilt of what she had done because of her immaturity and weakness. However, thanks to Ichika words, she resolved to finally face her problems instead of running away from them. Because of this, she wasn't bothered by the fact that she was once again an average student without a personal IS.