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Application: Voidtrecker Express
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voidtreckerexpress.
Name: Salsa
Age: 31
Contact details:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
eternities; MaxSalsa#9974 on Discord
Other characters: N/A
Name: Itsuki Myoudouin
Canon: Heartcatch Precure
Canon Point: Post-canon
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OU
Age: 15
World Information: (Precure's fan wiki has long been... hit and miss, let's say. I'm going to reuse old apps in Itsuki's journal for this, history, and personality, because I haven't looked at the wiki for years and I'm not starting now.)
Welcome to Kibougahana, a small suburb in Japan. It's known for flowers, and to a slightly lesser extent for fashion. Our story... doesn't open here. But it will soon! Let's instead turn back the clock a few hundred years. The Desert Apostles, a group seeking to turn all worlds into desert for Reasons, attack the Earth for the first time. In response, the Heart Tree, a massive literal tree that receives the dreams and hopes of humanity via their hearts and the Heart Flowers within, births the first fairy. That fairy makes contact with a human who becomes its partner, and transforms into the first Pretty Cure (Precure for short), a warrior with magical abilities, plus exceptional - supernatural, really - strength, speed, and durability. That precursor was Cure Ange. Taking on a general of the Desert Apostles, Baron Salamander, she was able to seal him away into a rift in space-time. The attacks by the Apostles never really stopped, but that single, unusually dangerous foe was sealed away. Cure Ange became the first in a long, secret tradition of legendary warriors, continuing forward through history...
Welcome to Kibougahana, for real this time. Our story opens in 2010, with a single cut backward to slightly before our protagonist appears on the scene. Yuri Tsukikage, Cure Moonlight, is the only Precure in the modern era, and finds herself defending the Heart Tree from an attack by the Desert Apostles: specifically, Professor Sabaaku, the leader of operations, and Dark Precure, an enemy warrior of unknown origin able to match the Precure in power. Moonlight has her hands full fighting Dark Precure, and in protecting her from a sneak attack by Sabaaku, her fairy, Cologne, is killed. Yuri fights on bravely, but she's defeated, and is whisked away at the last possible moment before being killed herself. She gives her transformation device, the Heart Perfume - a small white perfume bottle with a round slot - to two newborn fairies, Chypre and Coffret, and instruct them to find partners of their own to be Yuri's successors. None of this makes the news, but it happens all the same. The world is without a Precure, and the Desert Apostles bide their time, waiting for their next chance to attack.
In February, one Tsubomi Hanasaki transfers in as a second-year middle school student. She's shy, bookish, likes flowers, and has no idea how fashion works, and lately she's been having these strange dreams of Cure Moonlight losing a fight in front of a strange tree. All of these things are challenged immediately when she moves next door to Erika Kurumi, who is in her class, and is headstrong, athletic, and a budding fashionista, and will after tomorrow or so be having these strange dreams of Cure Moonlight losing a fight in front of a strange tree; Tsubomi's parents run a flower shop, while Erika's family operate the trendy clothing store Fairy Drop literally next door, the girls having facing balconies. Erika is too much for Tsubomi to handle on a good day, and after a small fight and a nap thereafter, Tsubomi runs to a hill on the outskirts of town and literally runs into Chypre and Coffret, who are still searching for a human to contract with, and then Sasorina, agent of the Desert Apostles searching for the fairies and Heart Perfume. Erika has also run off and is in a nearby park; after Sasorina assumes Tsubomi is uninvolved and doesn't know anything, she walks off and happens upon Erika. Erika's Heart Flower, an expression of her personality and dreams, is wilting as a result of being turned down by Tsubomi and not being able to keep up with her sister. Sasorina takes her Heart Flower, reducing Erika to two parts: the flower itself, in a crystal, and the rest of Erika in another crystal. Eventually, if the two aren't joined together, Erika will return to life as a shadow of herself, absent her drive. Sasorina forces the issue of taking the artifact and fairies by using the wilted flower as the catalyst for a monster, a Desertrian, which attacks Tsubomi. After a moment's discussion, the fairies realize Tsubomi knows what the Heart Tree and Cure Moonlight are, which very likely makes her the candidate they've been looking for. Chypre contracts with Tsubomi, generates a Perfume for her, and she transforms into Cure Blossom.
Blossom is the first legendary Precure of the current era, assuming the prior to have ended with Cure Moonlight's defeat, and also rapidly earns the title of history's weakest Precure, with zero combat strength and minimal capacity for battle, despite Precure powers coming with some automatic instinct for combat. She's saved by a mysterious person with a bright red scarf, who spirits her away as she passes out. She comes to some time later in her grandmother's botanical garden; far from being surprised by the two fairies also brought along, Kaoruko Hanasaki turns out to be a prior Precure, Cure Flower. Kaoruko takes the time for an infodump: the Heart Tree births Heart Flowers, and so could be said to govern reincarnation. When Heart Flowers wilt or change from their natural colors, the tree weakens. Heart Flowers are always real flowers, and signify their bearers in Japanese flower language, so flowers changing color generally means the person's desires are being warped into something unrecognizable. Sasorina attacks again, and Erika's heart in the Desertrian is getting weaker; Tsubomi resolves herself and transforms again, pushing herself to fight despite her earlier weakness, and gaining power as her determination grows. Finding an opportunity, Blossom summons her weapon, the Blossom Tact, and purifies the Desertrian with her Pink Forte Wave. That returns Erika's Heart Flower, and Erika is restored to normal. The girl comes to having dreamed about the battle that'd passed, before apologizing to Tsubomi for her overbearing behavior.
This sets a fairly standard, although in this case fully detailed, flow for episodes. The girls go about their daily lives, someone nearby encounters some kind of problem in their lives and their Heart Flower wilts, a Desert Apostle general shows up, the Heart Flower of the civilian we've been watching is stolen and turned into a Desertrian that serves as the monster of the week, the Precure transform and purify it, and the civilian is restored to normal. As a bonus, extra emotional energy is expressed (don't ask) as a Heart Seed, deposited into the Heart Pot for safekeeping and later use as booster items. It's a very short time before Erika is dragooned into service as Cure Marine by Tsubomi, contracting with Coffret, and the two become a household name in short order: while their identities are secret, their forms themselves are not, and in a city this size, everyone knows someone that's been saved by the Precure before too long. Tsubomi and Erika also successfully reform the Fashion Club, which Erika was briefly the only remaining member of. It's late that summer when their numbers grow again, as the Student Council President, Itsuki Myoudouin, contracts with the newborn fairy Potpourri and becomes Cure Sunshine.
A few months later, the Precure come to the conclusion they're just not strong enough, and Kaoruko shares with them an idea, or rather an artifact: the Heartcatch Mirage, a magical item in the shape of a small tabletop vanity. They have to undergo a trial to retrieve it, but that trial is defeating Coppe, Kaoruko's fairy and the mysterious figure that stepped in to save Blossom a few times. They pass that trial and obtain the Mirage, but are shocked with a much more pressing piece of knowledge: Cure Moonlight is in Kibougahana, and is a friend of Erika's older sister. Yuri Tsukikage is a high school student and is intensely bitter about having lost to Dark Precure months ago; in fact, she's closed her heart and locked down her own Heart Flower to protect herself, after everything. There's no way she could be a Precure, no matter how much they want her to join them or how much power the Mirage holds.
But they slowly start to get through to Yuri, who also didn't trust them to survive even if she did return, and she cautiously starts to let them into her heart. This culminates in a fashion show put on at the middle school but with help from assorted high schoolers, including Yuri and Erika's sister Momoko. She can see how hard they're working, and her opinion shifts enough that maybe she's willing to try. But disaster strikes as Dark Precure attacks a few days after the show, and even the combined might of Blossom, Marine, and Sunshine is nothing against her, as they're all tossed around like toys in a scene that is starting to look horrifyingly familiar. At the critical moment, Yuri is spirited away by the Heart Tree, and meets what remains of her fairy, Cologne, at its base. Cologne asks her to try again, to ask for another chance. And when Yuri takes his advice and prays to the Heart Tree to transform once more, to become Cure Moonlight and protect the girls that have given their all for the job where she could not. The Heart Tree answers her by using the power of the Heart Seeds the other Precure have collected now to reform Yuri's Precure Seed, damaged in her fight against Dark Precure and without a fairy to restore it, and allow her to transform once more using the Heart Pot itself. Newly returned to the battlefield, Cure Moonlight is a vision of grace, beauty, and overwhelming force, driving Dark Precure into retreat.
But they still need more power. The strength of the Desert Apostles is growing with every passing day, and so the Precure need a trump card. Kaoruko tells them about the remaining trial available to them: facing themselves inside the Heartcatch Mirage. Going to the Precure Palace, a special place maintained by Kaoruko that enshrines all of the past Precure that passed the Mirage's trial, the four are separated and forced to fight manifestations of themselves, representing their worries and their pasts. All have difficult fights - Blossom perhaps the most so, as she takes the longest to return - but make it through successfully. As they reunite, there is a crisis outside that needs their attention, and the Precure invoke their new power to defeat the enemies outside: taking on Super Silhouette forms, which make them faster, stronger, and able to fly via pearlescent wings, in addition to their new team attack, the Heartcatch Orchestra. The Orchestra is perhaps the flashiest attack in their arsenal; it summons an aspect of a being of infinite love to deliver a crushing punch into the ground with a fist the size of a building.
The days continue like this, with the Precure figuring out their daily lives while defeating monsters as they appear. Late that fall, Erika announces that her family is taking a trip to France for a fashion show, and offers to bring the other three girls along. They accept, and the following trip is more than a little eventful. France happens to be where Baron Salamander was sealed away by Cure Ange, and where a boy named Loup-Garou - and redubbed Olivier by Tsubomi - seeks to revive him. Olivier happens to be a werewolf, and Salamander was trying to recruit him. Over the course of a few days, Salamander is revived, Olivier is befriended by Tsubomi and the others, the girls learn about the history of the Precure, and everything culminates in a fight with Salamander, who transforms into a dragon in a last bid to destroy the world and take it for himself. The Precure are pushed back, but through the efforts of the entire world's hopes and encouragement, they're able to pull through and banish Salamander once and for all.
December comes. The Desert Messengers make a big push, with one of their generals, Sasorina, actually throwing herself into a Desertrian to enhance its power. After being defeated, Sasorina doesn't make it out, and she, too, is purified. She crumbles into dust in her comrades' hands, yielding only a Heart Flower that flies off elsewhere. Swearing revenge, Cobraja and Kumojacky retreat.
Christmas arrives. Through the wish of a child, and the peril of the Precure, Kaoruko enacts a minor Christmas miracle and transforms into Cure Flower one last time, casually no-selling the strongest attacks yet by a Desertrian, and breaking out a terribly powerful bind and purification attack like nothing. Unfortunately, this uses the last of the power in Kaoruko's Precure Seed, which unexpectedly cracks and crumbles. That was the last thing powering the seal that kept Dune, boss of the Desert Apostles, at bay. He appears before the Precure, and declares his intent to get even with the one that sealed him - a now-defenseless Kaoruko. The entire team tries to get in his way, but they're swatted aside with ease, and he takes Kaoruko away to the Castle Planet, successfully turning the world into a desert in the process. The Precure chase him into space with the power of the Heartcatch Mirage, and have a final fight with the generals in the process. Breaking through, they reach Professor Sabaaku, and Dark Precure. Sabaaku has one last surprise for the girls: he's Yuri's long-missing father, and Dark Precure is a clone built from Yuri's genetic data - that is, she's Yuri's sister. Yuri is, understandably, not pleased by this, and steps forward with murder in her eyes; Tsubomi pulls her back, telling her that the Precure don't fight with anger, but with love. Yuri stops cold, before realizing the mistake she was going to make, and together with Tsubomi, the two manage to defeat Dark, and then Sabaaku. Yuri takes a moment to grieve, but there's no time; they have to defeat Dune.
Dune remains almost as untouchable as he was before, but through teamwork, the Precure get him on the ropes, and slam him with their strongest attacks at once. It looks like it's going to work, but at the last second, he breaks away, turning into a monster himself that is the size of the Earth and swearing he'll destroy it. The girls can't let that happen, and by tapping into the power of the Heartcatch Mirage, they take on a final form of their own, a girl with a flowing dress, bubblegum-pink hair, and stars in her eyes: the Infinity Silhouette, a form large enough to match Dune, and powered by infinite love. Drawing close, the Infinity Silhouette delivers a Straight Punch that gently taps Dune's chest, causing a titanic explosion of energy. When it clears, Dune is no more. The battle is won.
The world returns to normal as the girls land, and everything seems to settle back into a peaceful life. Tsubomi, Erika, and Itsuki start their next year of school. And it seems like they'll finally be able to put this chapter of their life behind them.
Personal History: February 2010. Itsuki Myoudouin is a second-year middle school student, and is the student council president, a lofty position to be held at all, let alone by a second-year. Unfortunately, in being lofty, it's a little lonely at the top, and she's got a few extra secrets to hide. The Myoudouin family runs an aikido dojo, and Itsuki's grandfather leads it. Itsuki's older brother, Satsuki, should theoretically be inheriting it, but he's got a chronic illness that rules out physical activity. As a result, Itsuki agreed to take his place as the heir. The problem is that only a male can inherit the dojo, and Itsuki isn't. So she decides to live her life as a boy, to satisfy the traditional rules. Besides, if she's as strong and diligent as a man, why can't she fill the role?
It is a very poorly-kept secret at the school that Itsuki's actually a girl; when Tsubomi Hanasaki transfers in, she doesn't realize it right away, and starts crushing on Itsuki from the moment they meet, as Tsubomi's instant friend Erika Kurumi seeks Itsuki's approval to start a Fashion Club. The girls need club members first, and are told to come back with them. Around this time, word is starting to circulate about Cure Blossom and Cure Marine, the legendary Precure that have been seen around Kibougahana fighting monsters; Itsuki isn't quite sure what to think about the rumors, but it's not something that directly involves her just yet, either, so she'll investigate for the school's sake in her limited free time, though they seem like cool girls.
Until the problem decides to involve her of its own accord, at least. Cobraja, one of the three generals of the Desert Messengers, comes to the school in search of a wilting Heart Flower, the internal expression of a person's personality and emotions, to turn into a monster. He finds Itsuki, wavering about the fact that, as a "boy", she can't like cute things openly, and wishing that she could be someone cool and feminine like the Precure. In an instant, he rips out Itsuki's Heart Flower, leaving behind a crystal ball containing the remainder of her body and soul, and takes the flower itself to combine with a nearby bust of the school's headmaster, creating a monster called a Desertrian. The Desertrian, commanded by Cobraja, starts to tear the school apart, until Erika arrives on the scene. Erika calls Tsubomi, who overslept, and the girls transform into Cure Blossom and Cure Marine. The girls fight the Desertrian, which lets out brief comments about the things tormenting Itsuki's heart, and Blossom assures her that it's okay to like the things she likes. At one point, Cobraja makes the mistake of calling Itsuki a he; in response, the Desertrian kicks him into the sunset. Eventually, they're able to purify the Desertrian with their abilities, and Itsuki's Heart Flower is returned to her. When she comes to, the whole incident feels like a dream, though a very real one. Itsuki is left feeling even more like she wants to become someone cool like the Precure, and is advised by the girls to come visit the Fashion Club sometime if she's ever interested.
As spring turns to summer, Itsuki finds herself considering her feminine side again, and ends up consulting the Fashion Club for advice; she ends up working out a clothing design and chooses the colors and fabric that will go into it, which she takes home to look over, though she of course can't show it to her grandfather. The next day, Tsubomi and Erika come to visit to actually complete the design, and they're able to finish the top she'd designed that day, instructing Itsuki on how to help with the process, teaching her how to cut and sew. The end result is a yellow top with a sunflower motif, one she ends up loving to wear whenever she gets a chance. Her brother sees her in it, and comments it's a good fit, and is happy she's getting back in touch with the real Itsuki, but her grandfather seems to disapprove, and she reminds herself she can't like both cute things and martial arts; she'll have to choose one or the other.
Shortly thereafter, a challenger, Hiroto, comes to the dojo seeking to take on its master; Itsuki steps up to fight in her grandfather's place, and while she wins the match by the standard rules, Hiroto cheats, and soon has turned the tables, pulling a severely damaging blow and causing Itsuki's grandfather to declare him the winner lest he hurt Itsuki. As Hiroto walks away with the dojo's signboard as proof of his victory, another officer of the Desert Apostles, Kumojacky, appears and takes Hiroto's Heart Flower, combining it with the signboard to create a Desertrian. It begins to attack the dojo, and Itsuki quickly finds herself on the outside of a Precure battle looking in, as Blossom and Marine arrive on the scene. They're able to match the monster's blows, but Kumojacky steps in to assist himself, and the girls aren't able to keep up on both fronts. When she realizes it, Itsuki steps forward and matches the Desertrian blow for blow, though she can't keep it up forever. While the Desertrian is occupied, Blossom and Marine buy enough time to purify the monster. That evening, Hiroto returns the sign, and Itsuki makes her decision: she'll work hard and change herself, to become someone that can like both martial arts and cute things.
Late that summer, Itsuki's brother Satsuki is informed that there's a procedure with good odds of curing his condition, but he's wavering on whether or not to do it. Itsuki isn't really able to help him make the decision, and she can't figure out what to do with herself to keep from worrying; her mother ends up sharing her story with Tsubomi and Erika, who become worried for Itsuki in turn. Around this time, the number of hearts rescued by the Precure has become large enough that the Heart Tree's buds create a miracle: a newborn fairy, Potpourri. Without instructions, Potpourri heads to Earth in search of the girl he will partner with and grant the power of Precure to. Unfortunately, he's not very good at it; he spends some time in disguise in a large trenchcoat, claiming to be a scout for the Precure and searching for his partner in this way. He doesn't find anyone, until a fluke finds Potpourri and Itsuki meeting in front of the hospital Satsuki will be admitted to for the procedure. Potpourri realizes at once that this is his partner, and tells Itsuki she is destined to become the third Precure, but Itsuki insists that she is not the girl for the job, and urges Potpourri to find someone that has a strong enough heart to protect people. Tsubomi and Erika find Potpourri at this time, and take him home with them.
The day of the procedure, Itsuki goes to visit her brother one last time before it starts, to find him missing and his window open. She fears something's happened, and looks out the window to find a Desertrian in the shape of a wheelchair wreaking havoc outside, screaming concerns in a voice that sounds a lot like Satsuki's. Blossom and Marine are already outside in battle, but they're losing - Satsuki's Desertrian is unusually strong, and they're being overpowered. Stepping in just before the Desertrian has a chance to finish the Precure off, Itsuki makes a plea to her brother that she'll help him and keep him safe. Potpourri is also here; this declaration is strong enough that the Shiny Perfume he's carrying resonates with the feelings in her heart, and he convinces her that the feelings she has now will be strong enough to let her become a Precure, and that she can use that power to protect people. To save her brother.
That decides her, and she accepts the Shiny Perfume (basically a Heart Perfume with gold trim), and after a flashy transformation sequence, becomes the flower that blooms in the sun's light, Cure Sunshine. The initial difference between Sunshine's physical strength and that of Blossom and Marine is night and day; she's substantially faster, jumps higher, hits harder, shrugs off blows more easily, and is so powerful as to skirt the surface of water as she pursues the Desertrian. She's able to strike it easily, and the defeated Blossom and Marine can only look on in wonder at her absurd level of power. Eventually, she draws her Shiny Tambourine - a round ring in the shape of a sunflower's head with sunflowers on the outside ring, like a tambourine - and uses it to fire off an attack called the Gold Forte Burst, firing countless tiny projectiles in the shape of sunflower heads toward an enemy and picking it up off the ground while pacifying it; with a motion from the Shiny Tambourine she's holding, Sunshine purifies the Desertrian.
A couple of months pass, the girls honing their skills and strengthening their friendships. They learn how to combine their powers, and how to work together. And Itsuki, for the first time in a long time, has made true friends she is comfortable around. She joins them more often for outings, shares her feelings with them, and starts to rediscover herself. But she clashes hard with her other self during the Trial of the Heartcatch Mirage. Sunshine Mirage is a hand-to-hand master that insists Itsuki threw away something important - her brother, and their shared dream - when she became Cure Sunshine. But Itsuki knows better than that; Satsuki has always wanted her to live for herself, despite her own desire to protect him. Breaking through and making her feelings known, Itsuki strikes her other self down and emerges in the Precure Palace once more, a statue of Cure Sunshine erected in the Palace with her return.
Over the next month or two, Itsuki comes to the realization that she's spending too much time she could be using on important things - saving the world - on trying to lead students that are following a false image of her, and announces she won't run for the student council again the following year. That releases a surprising burden and stress from her, and her steps are lighter as fall turns to winter, and Christmas arrives, Itsuki as surprised as anyone else by the revelations from Sabaaku. But she holds strong and remains true to herself, and they emerge victorious. As the new school year starts, Itsuki is optimistic about being able to enjoy the new year, with a new, more feminine hair style and finally wearing the girls' uniform.
Personality: Itsuki has always been a natural leader. Between her strong charisma and her upbringing, it's just how she is, and it's not something she minds terribly. She loves talking to people, and being the student council president makes that an easy to thing to work with. But in a way, this is something she's doing to take her mind off the girl she's trying so hard not to be. The person Itsuki is, isn't Itsuki, in a way. Yet at the same time, it's everything she wants to be. And she knows, through the duality, that it's something she needs to deal with. She can't be like this forever, but as long as the person that needs her to be like this can't step up and do it himself, she'll continue on this road. Even if it gets a little lonely sometimes.
Before meeting Tsubomi and Erika, Itsuki largely kept to herself, not having anyone to give her an outlet to vent. So she has a tendency to throw herself into work to try and drown out her worries. Largely, she's friendly and approachable, and has no problems taking others' problems onto herself. She takes her work seriously, and she strives to make sure things are done right the first time. If something happens, Itsuki is the first on the scene, and she takes charge almost immediately. If there's someone more suited, she'll turn over control, but she's the kind that needs to keep an eye on everything. At the same time, if she's needed to actually help, she'll jump right in, and she'll prioritize everyone else before herself.
One of the things on Itsuki's list of things to get better with is befriending people - her take-charge, others-first attitude has kind of kept her from making friends, and as it stands, there are very few people she can turn to when things are piled up on her. So she tends to just internalize her problems, and I imagine she's broken more than a few training dummies working out her frustrations. It's not that she doesn't want to; it's just that she doesn't really understand how to connect with her peers. It certainly doesn't help that she's pretending to be someone she isn't, either. Itsuki is kind of stuck between between two worlds, and she's not sure how to get back to one or the other.
The biggest influence on Itsuki has to be Tsubomi and Erika, in canon. They help her bring out the sides of her she doesn't show - that she's afraid to show. When they offer for her to join the Fashion Club, she's elated, even if she can't really express it properly. She's not used to someone liking her for who she is - she's more used to being important for what she is. Around those two, she doesn't have to be running the student council, or the heir to the Myoudouin style, or any of that. She can just be herself. And Itsuki isn't quite sure how to handle that, because she doesn't know how to be herself. She learns quickly, but it's something that makes her just a little bit uncomfortable at first. Not that anything like that's ever stopped her before, of course.
Once she does have powers, that changes a little bit. Itsuki's always been a protector. The school is hers to keep safe, and she takes that charge deathly seriously. So once she can become a superhero with the ability to shelter the people that rely on her, she'll use that power however she has to. She'll run into danger, she'll be the last one out, she'll take hits when someone else hasn't gotten clear... she has a lot of self-destructive habits that come to the fore when they won't actually get her killed immediately. And while she knows they're there, it probably doesn't help that her powers revolve around using shields anyway. When you have someone that can tank almost anything with the wave of a hand - and who can get across a field in seconds - danger starts to mean a lot less. That is a very real problem, and it's one Itsuki doesn't quite seem to have grasped yet. At best, she'll notice that things are bad when she's already on the ground and half-conscious. It's something she's tried to learn from Tsubomi, but the lesson doesn't always stick very well, so she still tends to jump in front of things first and ask questions later.
All that said, Itsuki knows she can't just rest on her laurels. Even without powers, she can't stand still. There are people that depend on her, people that need her, people that look up to her to lead them. For those people, she'll keep going, whatever it takes. And as Cure Sunshine, nothing will keep her from protecting the people that are important to her, whether it's the friends she's fought so hard to make, or her peers that haven't done anything wrong. And maybe, once she's finally gotten used to all this, she can finally find the girl she wants to be under everything. It's something she's searched for for so long, and now, it might be something she's finally found.
Key themes: Discovery of the true self; protection of those who can't protect themselves; Friendship is Magic (Maybe Literally Under Certain Conditions)
Main Motivation: Keeping her precious friends safe while she figures out who she is to them
Skills: Itsuki's powers can be sorted loosely into "things she does" and "things she has". The former category mostly incorporates her martial arts skills, and the things that come with them. She's very strong for a girl her age and size, and fairly durable, too; it takes some doing to put her down and make her stay down. She also has a surprising amount of charisma, and is a good leader in general terms, though she recognizes she isn't always best to take charge. Usually.
The other category includes her Precure powers; these stem from her Precure Seed, normally given to her by Potpourri every time she needs it and returned after, and her Shiny Perfume. Using these two things, she can become Cure Sunshine, a magical form that's crazy strong and quite hard to take down. Sunshine's specialty is shields; the most common is the Sunshine Aegis, a reactive shield in the shape of a sunflower's head that throws projectiles back in the direction they came from. She can push it away from her, too. Using her Shiny Tambourine, a summoned magic item that acts as a focus for her abilities, she can fire the Gold Forte Burst, which creates hundreds of micro missiles in the form of sunflower heads (think an Itano Circus and you're there). The missiles have the power to purify the darkness from anything they hit in a massive explosion, and handily don't really damage anything else.
Together with her teammates, Itsuki can join the Floral Power Fortissimo, an aerial charging attack that requires any two Precure (or Moonlight alone, because she's A Lot) and has purifying powers, and the Shining Fortissimo, a special Fortissimo by Blossom and Marine where they fly through the gathered power of a Gold Forte Burst before crashing through something and purifying it.
Once the girls retrieve the Heartcatch Mirage, the Precure can take on their Super Silhouette forms. Super Cure Sunshine is even stronger and faster, with a signature outfit bearing white gold trim. There's also the rainbow-colored, translucent wings on the back in the shape of a heart, which do somehow grant magical flight. Super Sunshine can also survive in vacuum, and has access to a more powerful team attack, the Heartcatch Orchestra, which summons an aspect of infinite love to punch something to a purified pulp via a massive, crushing fist the size of a building.
And at the end, there's the Infinity Silhouette, among the largest forms noted in ANY media - it's the size of the moon, give or take. It consumes the whole team into one being, and could, theoretically, have a lot of powers, but we only see one: the Straight Punch it delivers at the end of the series, which purifies enemies.
Item: Itsuki's Shiny Perfume, her transformation item that allows her to become a Precure. Loaded with Sunshine's Precure Seed. Literally an ornate perfume bottle with gold trim.
Sample: Itsuki on the TDM.
Notes:
voidtreckerexpress.Player Information
Name: Salsa
Age: 31
Contact details:
Other characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Itsuki Myoudouin
Canon: Heartcatch Precure
Canon Point: Post-canon
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OU
Age: 15
World Information: (Precure's fan wiki has long been... hit and miss, let's say. I'm going to reuse old apps in Itsuki's journal for this, history, and personality, because I haven't looked at the wiki for years and I'm not starting now.)
Welcome to Kibougahana, a small suburb in Japan. It's known for flowers, and to a slightly lesser extent for fashion. Our story... doesn't open here. But it will soon! Let's instead turn back the clock a few hundred years. The Desert Apostles, a group seeking to turn all worlds into desert for Reasons, attack the Earth for the first time. In response, the Heart Tree, a massive literal tree that receives the dreams and hopes of humanity via their hearts and the Heart Flowers within, births the first fairy. That fairy makes contact with a human who becomes its partner, and transforms into the first Pretty Cure (Precure for short), a warrior with magical abilities, plus exceptional - supernatural, really - strength, speed, and durability. That precursor was Cure Ange. Taking on a general of the Desert Apostles, Baron Salamander, she was able to seal him away into a rift in space-time. The attacks by the Apostles never really stopped, but that single, unusually dangerous foe was sealed away. Cure Ange became the first in a long, secret tradition of legendary warriors, continuing forward through history...
Welcome to Kibougahana, for real this time. Our story opens in 2010, with a single cut backward to slightly before our protagonist appears on the scene. Yuri Tsukikage, Cure Moonlight, is the only Precure in the modern era, and finds herself defending the Heart Tree from an attack by the Desert Apostles: specifically, Professor Sabaaku, the leader of operations, and Dark Precure, an enemy warrior of unknown origin able to match the Precure in power. Moonlight has her hands full fighting Dark Precure, and in protecting her from a sneak attack by Sabaaku, her fairy, Cologne, is killed. Yuri fights on bravely, but she's defeated, and is whisked away at the last possible moment before being killed herself. She gives her transformation device, the Heart Perfume - a small white perfume bottle with a round slot - to two newborn fairies, Chypre and Coffret, and instruct them to find partners of their own to be Yuri's successors. None of this makes the news, but it happens all the same. The world is without a Precure, and the Desert Apostles bide their time, waiting for their next chance to attack.
In February, one Tsubomi Hanasaki transfers in as a second-year middle school student. She's shy, bookish, likes flowers, and has no idea how fashion works, and lately she's been having these strange dreams of Cure Moonlight losing a fight in front of a strange tree. All of these things are challenged immediately when she moves next door to Erika Kurumi, who is in her class, and is headstrong, athletic, and a budding fashionista, and will after tomorrow or so be having these strange dreams of Cure Moonlight losing a fight in front of a strange tree; Tsubomi's parents run a flower shop, while Erika's family operate the trendy clothing store Fairy Drop literally next door, the girls having facing balconies. Erika is too much for Tsubomi to handle on a good day, and after a small fight and a nap thereafter, Tsubomi runs to a hill on the outskirts of town and literally runs into Chypre and Coffret, who are still searching for a human to contract with, and then Sasorina, agent of the Desert Apostles searching for the fairies and Heart Perfume. Erika has also run off and is in a nearby park; after Sasorina assumes Tsubomi is uninvolved and doesn't know anything, she walks off and happens upon Erika. Erika's Heart Flower, an expression of her personality and dreams, is wilting as a result of being turned down by Tsubomi and not being able to keep up with her sister. Sasorina takes her Heart Flower, reducing Erika to two parts: the flower itself, in a crystal, and the rest of Erika in another crystal. Eventually, if the two aren't joined together, Erika will return to life as a shadow of herself, absent her drive. Sasorina forces the issue of taking the artifact and fairies by using the wilted flower as the catalyst for a monster, a Desertrian, which attacks Tsubomi. After a moment's discussion, the fairies realize Tsubomi knows what the Heart Tree and Cure Moonlight are, which very likely makes her the candidate they've been looking for. Chypre contracts with Tsubomi, generates a Perfume for her, and she transforms into Cure Blossom.
Blossom is the first legendary Precure of the current era, assuming the prior to have ended with Cure Moonlight's defeat, and also rapidly earns the title of history's weakest Precure, with zero combat strength and minimal capacity for battle, despite Precure powers coming with some automatic instinct for combat. She's saved by a mysterious person with a bright red scarf, who spirits her away as she passes out. She comes to some time later in her grandmother's botanical garden; far from being surprised by the two fairies also brought along, Kaoruko Hanasaki turns out to be a prior Precure, Cure Flower. Kaoruko takes the time for an infodump: the Heart Tree births Heart Flowers, and so could be said to govern reincarnation. When Heart Flowers wilt or change from their natural colors, the tree weakens. Heart Flowers are always real flowers, and signify their bearers in Japanese flower language, so flowers changing color generally means the person's desires are being warped into something unrecognizable. Sasorina attacks again, and Erika's heart in the Desertrian is getting weaker; Tsubomi resolves herself and transforms again, pushing herself to fight despite her earlier weakness, and gaining power as her determination grows. Finding an opportunity, Blossom summons her weapon, the Blossom Tact, and purifies the Desertrian with her Pink Forte Wave. That returns Erika's Heart Flower, and Erika is restored to normal. The girl comes to having dreamed about the battle that'd passed, before apologizing to Tsubomi for her overbearing behavior.
This sets a fairly standard, although in this case fully detailed, flow for episodes. The girls go about their daily lives, someone nearby encounters some kind of problem in their lives and their Heart Flower wilts, a Desert Apostle general shows up, the Heart Flower of the civilian we've been watching is stolen and turned into a Desertrian that serves as the monster of the week, the Precure transform and purify it, and the civilian is restored to normal. As a bonus, extra emotional energy is expressed (don't ask) as a Heart Seed, deposited into the Heart Pot for safekeeping and later use as booster items. It's a very short time before Erika is dragooned into service as Cure Marine by Tsubomi, contracting with Coffret, and the two become a household name in short order: while their identities are secret, their forms themselves are not, and in a city this size, everyone knows someone that's been saved by the Precure before too long. Tsubomi and Erika also successfully reform the Fashion Club, which Erika was briefly the only remaining member of. It's late that summer when their numbers grow again, as the Student Council President, Itsuki Myoudouin, contracts with the newborn fairy Potpourri and becomes Cure Sunshine.
A few months later, the Precure come to the conclusion they're just not strong enough, and Kaoruko shares with them an idea, or rather an artifact: the Heartcatch Mirage, a magical item in the shape of a small tabletop vanity. They have to undergo a trial to retrieve it, but that trial is defeating Coppe, Kaoruko's fairy and the mysterious figure that stepped in to save Blossom a few times. They pass that trial and obtain the Mirage, but are shocked with a much more pressing piece of knowledge: Cure Moonlight is in Kibougahana, and is a friend of Erika's older sister. Yuri Tsukikage is a high school student and is intensely bitter about having lost to Dark Precure months ago; in fact, she's closed her heart and locked down her own Heart Flower to protect herself, after everything. There's no way she could be a Precure, no matter how much they want her to join them or how much power the Mirage holds.
But they slowly start to get through to Yuri, who also didn't trust them to survive even if she did return, and she cautiously starts to let them into her heart. This culminates in a fashion show put on at the middle school but with help from assorted high schoolers, including Yuri and Erika's sister Momoko. She can see how hard they're working, and her opinion shifts enough that maybe she's willing to try. But disaster strikes as Dark Precure attacks a few days after the show, and even the combined might of Blossom, Marine, and Sunshine is nothing against her, as they're all tossed around like toys in a scene that is starting to look horrifyingly familiar. At the critical moment, Yuri is spirited away by the Heart Tree, and meets what remains of her fairy, Cologne, at its base. Cologne asks her to try again, to ask for another chance. And when Yuri takes his advice and prays to the Heart Tree to transform once more, to become Cure Moonlight and protect the girls that have given their all for the job where she could not. The Heart Tree answers her by using the power of the Heart Seeds the other Precure have collected now to reform Yuri's Precure Seed, damaged in her fight against Dark Precure and without a fairy to restore it, and allow her to transform once more using the Heart Pot itself. Newly returned to the battlefield, Cure Moonlight is a vision of grace, beauty, and overwhelming force, driving Dark Precure into retreat.
But they still need more power. The strength of the Desert Apostles is growing with every passing day, and so the Precure need a trump card. Kaoruko tells them about the remaining trial available to them: facing themselves inside the Heartcatch Mirage. Going to the Precure Palace, a special place maintained by Kaoruko that enshrines all of the past Precure that passed the Mirage's trial, the four are separated and forced to fight manifestations of themselves, representing their worries and their pasts. All have difficult fights - Blossom perhaps the most so, as she takes the longest to return - but make it through successfully. As they reunite, there is a crisis outside that needs their attention, and the Precure invoke their new power to defeat the enemies outside: taking on Super Silhouette forms, which make them faster, stronger, and able to fly via pearlescent wings, in addition to their new team attack, the Heartcatch Orchestra. The Orchestra is perhaps the flashiest attack in their arsenal; it summons an aspect of a being of infinite love to deliver a crushing punch into the ground with a fist the size of a building.
The days continue like this, with the Precure figuring out their daily lives while defeating monsters as they appear. Late that fall, Erika announces that her family is taking a trip to France for a fashion show, and offers to bring the other three girls along. They accept, and the following trip is more than a little eventful. France happens to be where Baron Salamander was sealed away by Cure Ange, and where a boy named Loup-Garou - and redubbed Olivier by Tsubomi - seeks to revive him. Olivier happens to be a werewolf, and Salamander was trying to recruit him. Over the course of a few days, Salamander is revived, Olivier is befriended by Tsubomi and the others, the girls learn about the history of the Precure, and everything culminates in a fight with Salamander, who transforms into a dragon in a last bid to destroy the world and take it for himself. The Precure are pushed back, but through the efforts of the entire world's hopes and encouragement, they're able to pull through and banish Salamander once and for all.
December comes. The Desert Messengers make a big push, with one of their generals, Sasorina, actually throwing herself into a Desertrian to enhance its power. After being defeated, Sasorina doesn't make it out, and she, too, is purified. She crumbles into dust in her comrades' hands, yielding only a Heart Flower that flies off elsewhere. Swearing revenge, Cobraja and Kumojacky retreat.
Christmas arrives. Through the wish of a child, and the peril of the Precure, Kaoruko enacts a minor Christmas miracle and transforms into Cure Flower one last time, casually no-selling the strongest attacks yet by a Desertrian, and breaking out a terribly powerful bind and purification attack like nothing. Unfortunately, this uses the last of the power in Kaoruko's Precure Seed, which unexpectedly cracks and crumbles. That was the last thing powering the seal that kept Dune, boss of the Desert Apostles, at bay. He appears before the Precure, and declares his intent to get even with the one that sealed him - a now-defenseless Kaoruko. The entire team tries to get in his way, but they're swatted aside with ease, and he takes Kaoruko away to the Castle Planet, successfully turning the world into a desert in the process. The Precure chase him into space with the power of the Heartcatch Mirage, and have a final fight with the generals in the process. Breaking through, they reach Professor Sabaaku, and Dark Precure. Sabaaku has one last surprise for the girls: he's Yuri's long-missing father, and Dark Precure is a clone built from Yuri's genetic data - that is, she's Yuri's sister. Yuri is, understandably, not pleased by this, and steps forward with murder in her eyes; Tsubomi pulls her back, telling her that the Precure don't fight with anger, but with love. Yuri stops cold, before realizing the mistake she was going to make, and together with Tsubomi, the two manage to defeat Dark, and then Sabaaku. Yuri takes a moment to grieve, but there's no time; they have to defeat Dune.
Dune remains almost as untouchable as he was before, but through teamwork, the Precure get him on the ropes, and slam him with their strongest attacks at once. It looks like it's going to work, but at the last second, he breaks away, turning into a monster himself that is the size of the Earth and swearing he'll destroy it. The girls can't let that happen, and by tapping into the power of the Heartcatch Mirage, they take on a final form of their own, a girl with a flowing dress, bubblegum-pink hair, and stars in her eyes: the Infinity Silhouette, a form large enough to match Dune, and powered by infinite love. Drawing close, the Infinity Silhouette delivers a Straight Punch that gently taps Dune's chest, causing a titanic explosion of energy. When it clears, Dune is no more. The battle is won.
The world returns to normal as the girls land, and everything seems to settle back into a peaceful life. Tsubomi, Erika, and Itsuki start their next year of school. And it seems like they'll finally be able to put this chapter of their life behind them.
Personal History: February 2010. Itsuki Myoudouin is a second-year middle school student, and is the student council president, a lofty position to be held at all, let alone by a second-year. Unfortunately, in being lofty, it's a little lonely at the top, and she's got a few extra secrets to hide. The Myoudouin family runs an aikido dojo, and Itsuki's grandfather leads it. Itsuki's older brother, Satsuki, should theoretically be inheriting it, but he's got a chronic illness that rules out physical activity. As a result, Itsuki agreed to take his place as the heir. The problem is that only a male can inherit the dojo, and Itsuki isn't. So she decides to live her life as a boy, to satisfy the traditional rules. Besides, if she's as strong and diligent as a man, why can't she fill the role?
It is a very poorly-kept secret at the school that Itsuki's actually a girl; when Tsubomi Hanasaki transfers in, she doesn't realize it right away, and starts crushing on Itsuki from the moment they meet, as Tsubomi's instant friend Erika Kurumi seeks Itsuki's approval to start a Fashion Club. The girls need club members first, and are told to come back with them. Around this time, word is starting to circulate about Cure Blossom and Cure Marine, the legendary Precure that have been seen around Kibougahana fighting monsters; Itsuki isn't quite sure what to think about the rumors, but it's not something that directly involves her just yet, either, so she'll investigate for the school's sake in her limited free time, though they seem like cool girls.
Until the problem decides to involve her of its own accord, at least. Cobraja, one of the three generals of the Desert Messengers, comes to the school in search of a wilting Heart Flower, the internal expression of a person's personality and emotions, to turn into a monster. He finds Itsuki, wavering about the fact that, as a "boy", she can't like cute things openly, and wishing that she could be someone cool and feminine like the Precure. In an instant, he rips out Itsuki's Heart Flower, leaving behind a crystal ball containing the remainder of her body and soul, and takes the flower itself to combine with a nearby bust of the school's headmaster, creating a monster called a Desertrian. The Desertrian, commanded by Cobraja, starts to tear the school apart, until Erika arrives on the scene. Erika calls Tsubomi, who overslept, and the girls transform into Cure Blossom and Cure Marine. The girls fight the Desertrian, which lets out brief comments about the things tormenting Itsuki's heart, and Blossom assures her that it's okay to like the things she likes. At one point, Cobraja makes the mistake of calling Itsuki a he; in response, the Desertrian kicks him into the sunset. Eventually, they're able to purify the Desertrian with their abilities, and Itsuki's Heart Flower is returned to her. When she comes to, the whole incident feels like a dream, though a very real one. Itsuki is left feeling even more like she wants to become someone cool like the Precure, and is advised by the girls to come visit the Fashion Club sometime if she's ever interested.
As spring turns to summer, Itsuki finds herself considering her feminine side again, and ends up consulting the Fashion Club for advice; she ends up working out a clothing design and chooses the colors and fabric that will go into it, which she takes home to look over, though she of course can't show it to her grandfather. The next day, Tsubomi and Erika come to visit to actually complete the design, and they're able to finish the top she'd designed that day, instructing Itsuki on how to help with the process, teaching her how to cut and sew. The end result is a yellow top with a sunflower motif, one she ends up loving to wear whenever she gets a chance. Her brother sees her in it, and comments it's a good fit, and is happy she's getting back in touch with the real Itsuki, but her grandfather seems to disapprove, and she reminds herself she can't like both cute things and martial arts; she'll have to choose one or the other.
Shortly thereafter, a challenger, Hiroto, comes to the dojo seeking to take on its master; Itsuki steps up to fight in her grandfather's place, and while she wins the match by the standard rules, Hiroto cheats, and soon has turned the tables, pulling a severely damaging blow and causing Itsuki's grandfather to declare him the winner lest he hurt Itsuki. As Hiroto walks away with the dojo's signboard as proof of his victory, another officer of the Desert Apostles, Kumojacky, appears and takes Hiroto's Heart Flower, combining it with the signboard to create a Desertrian. It begins to attack the dojo, and Itsuki quickly finds herself on the outside of a Precure battle looking in, as Blossom and Marine arrive on the scene. They're able to match the monster's blows, but Kumojacky steps in to assist himself, and the girls aren't able to keep up on both fronts. When she realizes it, Itsuki steps forward and matches the Desertrian blow for blow, though she can't keep it up forever. While the Desertrian is occupied, Blossom and Marine buy enough time to purify the monster. That evening, Hiroto returns the sign, and Itsuki makes her decision: she'll work hard and change herself, to become someone that can like both martial arts and cute things.
Late that summer, Itsuki's brother Satsuki is informed that there's a procedure with good odds of curing his condition, but he's wavering on whether or not to do it. Itsuki isn't really able to help him make the decision, and she can't figure out what to do with herself to keep from worrying; her mother ends up sharing her story with Tsubomi and Erika, who become worried for Itsuki in turn. Around this time, the number of hearts rescued by the Precure has become large enough that the Heart Tree's buds create a miracle: a newborn fairy, Potpourri. Without instructions, Potpourri heads to Earth in search of the girl he will partner with and grant the power of Precure to. Unfortunately, he's not very good at it; he spends some time in disguise in a large trenchcoat, claiming to be a scout for the Precure and searching for his partner in this way. He doesn't find anyone, until a fluke finds Potpourri and Itsuki meeting in front of the hospital Satsuki will be admitted to for the procedure. Potpourri realizes at once that this is his partner, and tells Itsuki she is destined to become the third Precure, but Itsuki insists that she is not the girl for the job, and urges Potpourri to find someone that has a strong enough heart to protect people. Tsubomi and Erika find Potpourri at this time, and take him home with them.
The day of the procedure, Itsuki goes to visit her brother one last time before it starts, to find him missing and his window open. She fears something's happened, and looks out the window to find a Desertrian in the shape of a wheelchair wreaking havoc outside, screaming concerns in a voice that sounds a lot like Satsuki's. Blossom and Marine are already outside in battle, but they're losing - Satsuki's Desertrian is unusually strong, and they're being overpowered. Stepping in just before the Desertrian has a chance to finish the Precure off, Itsuki makes a plea to her brother that she'll help him and keep him safe. Potpourri is also here; this declaration is strong enough that the Shiny Perfume he's carrying resonates with the feelings in her heart, and he convinces her that the feelings she has now will be strong enough to let her become a Precure, and that she can use that power to protect people. To save her brother.
That decides her, and she accepts the Shiny Perfume (basically a Heart Perfume with gold trim), and after a flashy transformation sequence, becomes the flower that blooms in the sun's light, Cure Sunshine. The initial difference between Sunshine's physical strength and that of Blossom and Marine is night and day; she's substantially faster, jumps higher, hits harder, shrugs off blows more easily, and is so powerful as to skirt the surface of water as she pursues the Desertrian. She's able to strike it easily, and the defeated Blossom and Marine can only look on in wonder at her absurd level of power. Eventually, she draws her Shiny Tambourine - a round ring in the shape of a sunflower's head with sunflowers on the outside ring, like a tambourine - and uses it to fire off an attack called the Gold Forte Burst, firing countless tiny projectiles in the shape of sunflower heads toward an enemy and picking it up off the ground while pacifying it; with a motion from the Shiny Tambourine she's holding, Sunshine purifies the Desertrian.
A couple of months pass, the girls honing their skills and strengthening their friendships. They learn how to combine their powers, and how to work together. And Itsuki, for the first time in a long time, has made true friends she is comfortable around. She joins them more often for outings, shares her feelings with them, and starts to rediscover herself. But she clashes hard with her other self during the Trial of the Heartcatch Mirage. Sunshine Mirage is a hand-to-hand master that insists Itsuki threw away something important - her brother, and their shared dream - when she became Cure Sunshine. But Itsuki knows better than that; Satsuki has always wanted her to live for herself, despite her own desire to protect him. Breaking through and making her feelings known, Itsuki strikes her other self down and emerges in the Precure Palace once more, a statue of Cure Sunshine erected in the Palace with her return.
Over the next month or two, Itsuki comes to the realization that she's spending too much time she could be using on important things - saving the world - on trying to lead students that are following a false image of her, and announces she won't run for the student council again the following year. That releases a surprising burden and stress from her, and her steps are lighter as fall turns to winter, and Christmas arrives, Itsuki as surprised as anyone else by the revelations from Sabaaku. But she holds strong and remains true to herself, and they emerge victorious. As the new school year starts, Itsuki is optimistic about being able to enjoy the new year, with a new, more feminine hair style and finally wearing the girls' uniform.
Personality: Itsuki has always been a natural leader. Between her strong charisma and her upbringing, it's just how she is, and it's not something she minds terribly. She loves talking to people, and being the student council president makes that an easy to thing to work with. But in a way, this is something she's doing to take her mind off the girl she's trying so hard not to be. The person Itsuki is, isn't Itsuki, in a way. Yet at the same time, it's everything she wants to be. And she knows, through the duality, that it's something she needs to deal with. She can't be like this forever, but as long as the person that needs her to be like this can't step up and do it himself, she'll continue on this road. Even if it gets a little lonely sometimes.
Before meeting Tsubomi and Erika, Itsuki largely kept to herself, not having anyone to give her an outlet to vent. So she has a tendency to throw herself into work to try and drown out her worries. Largely, she's friendly and approachable, and has no problems taking others' problems onto herself. She takes her work seriously, and she strives to make sure things are done right the first time. If something happens, Itsuki is the first on the scene, and she takes charge almost immediately. If there's someone more suited, she'll turn over control, but she's the kind that needs to keep an eye on everything. At the same time, if she's needed to actually help, she'll jump right in, and she'll prioritize everyone else before herself.
One of the things on Itsuki's list of things to get better with is befriending people - her take-charge, others-first attitude has kind of kept her from making friends, and as it stands, there are very few people she can turn to when things are piled up on her. So she tends to just internalize her problems, and I imagine she's broken more than a few training dummies working out her frustrations. It's not that she doesn't want to; it's just that she doesn't really understand how to connect with her peers. It certainly doesn't help that she's pretending to be someone she isn't, either. Itsuki is kind of stuck between between two worlds, and she's not sure how to get back to one or the other.
The biggest influence on Itsuki has to be Tsubomi and Erika, in canon. They help her bring out the sides of her she doesn't show - that she's afraid to show. When they offer for her to join the Fashion Club, she's elated, even if she can't really express it properly. She's not used to someone liking her for who she is - she's more used to being important for what she is. Around those two, she doesn't have to be running the student council, or the heir to the Myoudouin style, or any of that. She can just be herself. And Itsuki isn't quite sure how to handle that, because she doesn't know how to be herself. She learns quickly, but it's something that makes her just a little bit uncomfortable at first. Not that anything like that's ever stopped her before, of course.
Once she does have powers, that changes a little bit. Itsuki's always been a protector. The school is hers to keep safe, and she takes that charge deathly seriously. So once she can become a superhero with the ability to shelter the people that rely on her, she'll use that power however she has to. She'll run into danger, she'll be the last one out, she'll take hits when someone else hasn't gotten clear... she has a lot of self-destructive habits that come to the fore when they won't actually get her killed immediately. And while she knows they're there, it probably doesn't help that her powers revolve around using shields anyway. When you have someone that can tank almost anything with the wave of a hand - and who can get across a field in seconds - danger starts to mean a lot less. That is a very real problem, and it's one Itsuki doesn't quite seem to have grasped yet. At best, she'll notice that things are bad when she's already on the ground and half-conscious. It's something she's tried to learn from Tsubomi, but the lesson doesn't always stick very well, so she still tends to jump in front of things first and ask questions later.
All that said, Itsuki knows she can't just rest on her laurels. Even without powers, she can't stand still. There are people that depend on her, people that need her, people that look up to her to lead them. For those people, she'll keep going, whatever it takes. And as Cure Sunshine, nothing will keep her from protecting the people that are important to her, whether it's the friends she's fought so hard to make, or her peers that haven't done anything wrong. And maybe, once she's finally gotten used to all this, she can finally find the girl she wants to be under everything. It's something she's searched for for so long, and now, it might be something she's finally found.
Key themes: Discovery of the true self; protection of those who can't protect themselves; Friendship is Magic (Maybe Literally Under Certain Conditions)
Main Motivation: Keeping her precious friends safe while she figures out who she is to them
Skills: Itsuki's powers can be sorted loosely into "things she does" and "things she has". The former category mostly incorporates her martial arts skills, and the things that come with them. She's very strong for a girl her age and size, and fairly durable, too; it takes some doing to put her down and make her stay down. She also has a surprising amount of charisma, and is a good leader in general terms, though she recognizes she isn't always best to take charge. Usually.
The other category includes her Precure powers; these stem from her Precure Seed, normally given to her by Potpourri every time she needs it and returned after, and her Shiny Perfume. Using these two things, she can become Cure Sunshine, a magical form that's crazy strong and quite hard to take down. Sunshine's specialty is shields; the most common is the Sunshine Aegis, a reactive shield in the shape of a sunflower's head that throws projectiles back in the direction they came from. She can push it away from her, too. Using her Shiny Tambourine, a summoned magic item that acts as a focus for her abilities, she can fire the Gold Forte Burst, which creates hundreds of micro missiles in the form of sunflower heads (think an Itano Circus and you're there). The missiles have the power to purify the darkness from anything they hit in a massive explosion, and handily don't really damage anything else.
Together with her teammates, Itsuki can join the Floral Power Fortissimo, an aerial charging attack that requires any two Precure (or Moonlight alone, because she's A Lot) and has purifying powers, and the Shining Fortissimo, a special Fortissimo by Blossom and Marine where they fly through the gathered power of a Gold Forte Burst before crashing through something and purifying it.
Once the girls retrieve the Heartcatch Mirage, the Precure can take on their Super Silhouette forms. Super Cure Sunshine is even stronger and faster, with a signature outfit bearing white gold trim. There's also the rainbow-colored, translucent wings on the back in the shape of a heart, which do somehow grant magical flight. Super Sunshine can also survive in vacuum, and has access to a more powerful team attack, the Heartcatch Orchestra, which summons an aspect of infinite love to punch something to a purified pulp via a massive, crushing fist the size of a building.
And at the end, there's the Infinity Silhouette, among the largest forms noted in ANY media - it's the size of the moon, give or take. It consumes the whole team into one being, and could, theoretically, have a lot of powers, but we only see one: the Straight Punch it delivers at the end of the series, which purifies enemies.
Item: Itsuki's Shiny Perfume, her transformation item that allows her to become a Precure. Loaded with Sunshine's Precure Seed. Literally an ornate perfume bottle with gold trim.
Sample: Itsuki on the TDM.
Notes: