Hisui and Kohaku (EntityTopic, 13)
From Compile Worlds
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Hisui and Kohaku are twin maids at the Tohno mansion, Kohaku being the older. Both Kohaku and her sister are Synchronizers, meaning they have the ability to share energy with people through the transfer of bodily fluids. Hey, just because it has an awesome story, great characters and is very well written, it's still an H-game...
To date, they have appeared in the visual novels Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, the Tsukihime Plus Disc and the 2D fighting games Melty Blood, Melty Blood: ReAct, Melty Blood Act Cadenza, Melty Blood Actress Again and Melty Blood Acress Again Current Code. Kohaku also made a cameo appearance in Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper as Magical Amber. Oh yeah, and a myriad of fan made MUGEN games... >.>
Kohaku is seen around the mansion always smiling and laughing. Kohaku is Akiha's personal maid and is in charge of cooking in the mansion, known to make quite delicious meals. Unfortunately, she is not allowed to clean anywhere inside the mansion, perhaps due to her overly energetic approach which tends to break things and generally leave the place looking as if a tornado had hit it, although she is allowed to sweep up leaves outside. In addition to these, she is also very skilled with medicine and is trained to be a doctor despite only being about 16 years old.
In direct contrast, Hisui is almost completely expressionless and seemingly apathetic. As well as performing her cleaning duties, she becomes Shiki's maid upon his arrival, and the usual routine takes the form of waking him up in the morning, preparing his school uniform and cleaning his room. Hisui never cooks dinner in the Tohno mansion, and after one scene where she makes Shiki a snack, it becomes painfully obvious to him why. Literally. Hisui is completely incapable of cooking anything remotely edible.
Appearances
Tsukihime
In the Near Side of the moon story routes (Arcueid and Ciel), Hisui and Kohaku don't really play big parts at all, and mostly just go about their duties. In the Far Side routes (everyone else), they become a much larger part of the story.
Spoiler warning: the information below may contain detailed descriptions of major plot events. Feel free to skip past this section if you wish.
Although Kohaku is always smiling, laughing and joking, in actuality she's pretty much dead inside. Kohaku and Hisui were brought to the Tohno mansion when they were roughly 7 years old by the then head of the family, Tohno Makihisa, in an attempt to use their Synchronizer abilities to retain his sanity while his demonic blood was causing him to start undergoing an inversion impulse, where he would become somewhat insane and probably go on a murderous rampage. On her eigth birthday Makihisa called her to his room, telling her that he had a "present" for her. Although both the sisters were there at the mansion, Kohaku convinced him to only use her and to spare her sister, allowing Hisui to be free to play outside and have fun with the Tohno children while Kohaku was kept inside to suffer constant abuse day after day. The only way Kohaku was able to survive this was to kill her emotions and feelings, becoming a mere doll, wearing a smile as a mask to the outside world. Kohaku has even become completely unresponsive to physical pain, as shown when cuts herself pretty deeply while cooking and doesn't even realize it.
- Quote: Kohaku
"I don't like pain.
That's why I thought it would be better to become a doll."
"And gradually, my body stopped generating a pulse.
Blood vessels turned into tubes one by one.
Blood vanished like vapor.
My heart, everything, just crafted parts.
If I did that, there would be no more pain, right?"
This would normally come as quite a shock, if you didn't just read this article before playing the game, as throughout the whole game until you learn this, you would always just assume that Kohaku is the happy, cheerful one and Hisui is the cold, emotionless one, since Shiki's childhood memories are apparently greyscale so you can't tell their eye colour, but it turns out it's the exact opposite.
In Hisui's route in the game, Kohaku could really be considered the villain, I guess... She orchestrates the death of a few characters and turned SHIKI into a killer. Near the conclusion of Hisui's True Ending, Kohaku explains the reasons behind her doing this. Mainly just that she needed a reason to move, since a doll can't move on it's own. Since by this point her plans are complete, she has nothing left and stabs herself in the heart with a small knife. As she dies in the Shiki's arms, she gazes endlessly into the deep blue sky with her hollow eyes, not with a fake smile, but with a very sad and quiet face. After these events, Shiki and Hisui live together in the mansion with an implied relationship. They seem happy together, but still obviously sorrowful over everything that happened.
In Hisui's Good Ending though, nobody gets killed except SHIKI, who nobody cares about anyway. Kohaku still confesses everything she had done, despite Shiki not wanting her to say it so that everything could go on as normal. Instead of stabbing herself, she this time swallows some poison. As she lies dying, Shiki kills the poison in her body using his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, even though the strain of doing this causes him to pass out become blind for a few days. Kohaku survives, but she has absolutely no memory of her past, not knowing who Shiki is or even her own sister. She says she doesn't think she ever liked the name Kohaku and so Shiki and Hisui give her the name Nanaya. For Hisui, things are bittersweet. Naturally she is upset that her sister doesn't even know her, but at the same time she is happy that her sister no longer has the burden of her painful past and can now move on with her life. Afterwards, Hisui, Shiki and Nanaya go back to the mansion and life goes on as normal, but with less murder conspiracies and demonic attacks. Yay~!
In Kohaku's (only) ending, nobody (important) dies, everyone is happy, and Kohaku is off growing sunflowers or something. Yay!
Spoilers end here.
Melty Blood
In the Melty Blood games, Hisui and Kohaku are playable either on their own or together as a tag team. In either case, they each retain their individual personalities.
Kohaku's attacks are mostly strange and comical. She carries a broom which she uses to whack unsuspecting vampires or heads of households in the face with. The broom also conceals a sword, which is almost as deadly. Aside from these, she mainly attacks with plants and molotov cocktails, though she does have a boxing glove which she can use to uppercut. Her Arc Drive attack involves her changing into Mr. Chin (putting on a china dress), charging at the enemy, unleashing a barrage of punches, before kicking them a few times. If this attack misses, she charges forward and hits the side of the screen, causing her to fall down and a picture of her with a dazed face and cat-ears pops up for a few seconds. Story-wise, Kohaku is able to do all of these things due to the influence of The Night of Wallachia (probably), who also gave her mechanical engineering ability which she uses to build Mech-Hisui. She also has what I guess you can call a secret animation if during any match you hold the down key for 10-15 seconds. She'll start to laugh and the brush end of the broom will start to wag as if it were a tail. Which is awesome.
Hisui's attacks are mostly "cleaning" themed. For example, one attack has her whip out a feather duster and dust the air for a few seconds, damaging any enemy it comes in contact with. On top of this, her arsenal includes a vacuum cleaner, pots and pans, a chair, a bucket, books, an explosive bento, a table, a watering can, a ladle and a frying pan. Her Arc Drive attack involves her performing the secret art of the Dark Hisui Punch, throwing a powerful Hadouken-like projectile at the enemy. Her Last Arc invokes her powers as Brainwasher Detective Hisui, causing negligible damage to the opponent, but completely screwing with their mind, rendering them defensless and causing their controls to reverse for at least 10 seconds, making them pretty easy to finish off.
Alter-egos
Magical Amber
Magical Amber
Broomstick Girl Magical Amber, or just Magical Amber as her friends call her, is the magical girl version of Kohaku. She wears kemonomimi, a hooded cloak, her normal kimono-y apron, knee high stockings and what appears to be a fox tail. She carries her broom and syringes full of... who knows.
It's unknown exactly what Magical Amber does, besides being awesome and occasionally trying to win the Tiger Cup, but I think it's safe to assume she's what keeps us safe at night.
Brainwasher Detective Hisui
Originating in a doujin based around a typo found in Tsukihime, Brainwasher Detective Hisui is the vigilante alter-ego of Hisui. She wears her normal western maid outfit, but she wears a long, dark coat over the top of it. She hunts down (probably) guilty people and brainwashes them into being criminals, by waving her finger at them and announcing her prediction that "You are going to be the criminal", so that she can arrest then them. She is a true role-model to all upcoming law enforcers.
