# Rikka and Niko A pair of runaways and each other's only close friend since childhood. Coming to Crossroads torn between lfiting a curse inflciting Niko or wishing for a new, safe home in what will be their last days together away from their old lives and the cult that cast the curse. # Rikka

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> ***“I just can’t imagine choosing** **not to save you. There’s nothing else I’d go this far to do”*** *-- Rikka* A runaway human teenager/raven hybrid that ran away from home with her best friend Niko in hopes of eventually finding a more peaceful place to live a new life together. Comes to the Crossroads in hopes of finding a way to lift a curse that’s slowly killing Niko.

Table of Contents

1. [Backstory](#bkmrk-backstory) 2. [Personality](#bkmrk-personality) 3. [Abilities](#bkmrk-abilities) 4. [Strengths](#bkmrk-strengths) 5. [Weaknesses](#bkmrk-weaknesses) 6. [Gallery](#bkmrk-gallery) 7. [Author's Notes](#bkmrk-author%27s-notes)

### Backstory --- Rikka grew up an emotionally and physically abusive home as her parents punching bag. Espeically for her alchoolic mother. From childhood, she was vigilant, aggressive and often got into fights with other kids at school once she started getting bullied. She hated school. “Home” was worse and she had no one, and hardly a reason to live. Until in middle school, a small mistake of leaving her science textbook and a boy she leanred was named Niko in her class going to return it to her led her to making her first firend. One who'd show her empathy, kindness and wanted to be around her despite her flaws. Overtime, their home lives started to get even worse. In Rikka’s case, conflicts began escalating to the point she feared for her life mroe than once. When she confided in him aobut this, Niko proposed a drastic solutions she'd eventually agree to: Running away. Despite Rikka’s initial fears of having to live on the street, the more dangerous her home got, the more she desired to just escape her hellish life and start anew. If she had her friend with her, then it was worth the risks. They left in the middle of the night and fled to a nearby town. They conserved every penny and piece of food they had and could get. Having to steal at times. Even with how difficult their new lives were, they still had hope that one day, they’d be able to start their new lives living somewhere they could consider a true home. At some point, Rikka was approached by a woman whilst Niko was in a shop buying food. He sensed something was off and ran outside only to find that Rikka was gone. She'd gone with the woman who told her she could get her and Niko some food and supplies if she followed her which she agreed to out of on impulse out of desperation. Turns out, the woman manipulated her and was a disguised member of a mysterious, deadly cult that used humans as an energy source for their machinery and as test subjects. Targeting especially those they perceived as helpless and whom almost no one would care about if they died. Rikka was seconds away from being cursed to have a substance to grow in her body eventually turning her into an energy source for the cult shortly after her death when Niko intervened at the last second. Using a Flashbang spell, he caused the cult leader to drop his staff on the ground, landing pointed straight in his direction and firing, cursing him instead. They quickly escaped the cult and began looking desperately for any cure/way to lift Niko’s curse after moving between several different towns to both avoid the cult and those who’d recognise them from home. Rikka’s desperation and fear of losing her only friend worsening overtime, especially given the possibility brought up by Niko the cult still may want their original target (he's right.) After learning the prize for victory in the Cross Tournament is a wish, Rikka simply wishes to use it to cure Niko. However, her friend only growing accepting of his death as she grows desperate, wishes for her to instead bring them to the new quiet, safe home they always wanted so her safety can be guaranteed as they enjoy what time they have left together. ### Personality --- Aggressive, often close minded, stubborn but loyal. Rikka’s determined to achieve her goals and there’s little she wouldn’t do for them. She is deeply loyal and protective of Niko, and has a hard time trusting anyone else. She often assumes the worst in others and is always on guard around them, especially knowing she’s in a fighting tournament and how she’s been treated in the past. While Rikka often comes off as tough and aggressive, most of her anger is a mask for her sadness and fear. Particularly smart and intuitive opponents can manipulate her, as has happned in the past. Rikka may also be judgemental depending on the opponent’s motive. This doesn’t just apply to those with morally questionable motives, but ones she may consider shallow, vain or towards those with no real motive at all. She has a general distrust of those in positions of authority and who come from wealth and affluence, as well as those who do claim to be paragons of morality. It’s hard for her to feel and show empathy, but she doesn’t lack it, it’s difficult for her since it’s something she hasn’t exactly learned to show or have much of. She’s always had to fight back against most people that weren’t Niko, who she's willing to show a more vulnerable and childlike side around him without her mask of toughness.

##### **Rikka Hiyama**

[![Rikka](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/RFbimg-9293.jpeg)](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-04.png)

##### Profile Data

**Race** Human/Part Raven

**Pronouns/Gender/Sex** Female, she/her

**Age** 17

**Height** 5′ 5″

**Hair Colour:** Yellow

**Eye Colour** Purple

**Distinguishing Marks** - Wings - Fur Hood - Team Tag - Messy Hair

**Likes** Niko, Manga, Quiet Places, Full Moons, Fireworks, Metal Music, Dogs, Raspberry and Raspberry Cookies, Korvids, Parks

**Dislikes** Alcohol, Cults, Anything Occult, Scammers, Crowds, Wasting Money, Wasting Time, Opulence

##### Abilities

- Cloak - Shadow Spikes - Dark Swamp - Dark Forest - Shadow Ball - Theft - Flight

**Strengths** Mobility, Speed, Determination, Stamina

**Weaknesses** Strategy, Impulsiveness, Aggression, Arrows, Bullets, Overexertion

##### Creator

[Yoshoka](https://wiki.summerleaguesoct.com/books/2024-comic-iris-league/page/yoshoka "Yoshoka")

### Abilities --- #### **\[Cloak\]** Rikka can create a veil of shadow around her and in a short surrounding area to make her less visible to her opponents. Great for stealth and surprise attacks. (She tends to put her hood up before she does this though that is not required to cast the spell.) ##### #### **\[Shadow Spikes\]** Rikka can create spikes made out of the shadows around her or made by her to both come out of terrain or be used as a projectile. The spike's length can vary dramatically, and she can fire them in any path or direction and change their trajectory if they’re in midair. ##### #### **\[Dark Swamp\]** Creates a small area on the ground that does slow sharp damage whenever someone steps in it. Their vision is also darkened when within this area. ##### #### **\[Dark Forest\]** Similar to Dark Swamp, but this one causes tree-like spikes to quickly grow out of the shadowy ground to attack and stab opponents caught within the area. ##### #### **\[Shadow Ball\]** A quick, basic small-medium shadow ball projectile. Cannot be angled once fired and will move in a straight line. ##### #### **\[Theft\]** Rikka’s agility and time on the street make her good at stealing resources without people noticing, in Crossroads she may use this skill to steal items and weapons from other opponents to use against them. ##### #### **\[Flight\]** Of course, her wings let her fly. She can match the top speed of Ravens at 48 mph. They’re also retractable. ##### #### **\[Fighting Style\]** Rikka has zero regard for technique and grace when fighting. She will try to win by any means necessary and isn’t afraid to trick or steal from opponents to do so. She is not formally trained at all, and tends to rush in to overwhelm opponents quickly, occasionally flying away to dodge enemy attacks or using Cloak for stealth. When she’s particularly angry, she can fight more akin to a wild animal relying on pure instinct. She also may attempt to win by stealing opponent’s weapons or tag, but often she’ll discard a weapon once she realises she can’t use it well. ### Strengths --- - Determination and grit - Rikka’s determination to save Niko is basically impossible to break and she can tough through some serious pain for it. - Speed. Rikka is physically above average and quite fast and nimble. She uses this to avoid attacks and steal items from opponents and has great reflexes. - Willing to take risks if needed. - Cloak gives her good stealth and allows her to confuse, surprise attack or hit and run an opponent whilst they can’t see her in the shadow. - Flight gives her high mobility. - Being good at stealing without anyone noticing at first means she can fairly reliably steal an opponent’s tag if it’s not well hidden. Flying makes it easier to keep it on her, so this is one of her main strategies for winning a matc ### Weaknesses --- - Impulsive. - A tendency to assume the worst in others and subpar listening skills makes her sometimes not listen to Niko’s (often intelligent) strategy suggestions especially when the opponent has really riled her up. It also makes it hard (but not impossible) for her to empathise with her opponents. - Her aggression and short fuse makes her hard to think clearly and makes it easy for her to be tricked by particularly clever opponents. - Rikka tends to tough through pain to a point that’s dangerous. Unless Niko is directly healing her, she’ll rarely take a moment to catch her breath in battle even when she’s able. - She has a limited amount of magic to use per fight, if it runs out she can only rely on her flight and physical attacks. - Her wings are weak to arrows and bullets. - Flying takes a lot of energy out of her fairly quickly. ### Gallery ---

![Rikka Ref](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/img-9253.png)	[![[Extra Ref]](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-03/img-1176.jpg)](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-01.png)
\[Ref Sheet\]	\[Extra Ref\]

### Author's Notes --- - Rikka will usually use only the shortened version of words when talking (I’d, I’m, couldn’t etc) and sometimes may combine words to make her dialogue come off as if its being spoken quickly. - Rikka’s expressions and gestures tend to get more subtle when she’s showing contentment and genuine fear. - Feel free to simplify her hair and hood (or anything on either of them) if you feel you need to or it'd look better in your style. - As far as seriously injuring/killing is concerned, I don’t want either to be too seriously hurt in Round 1 and killing is off limits 100% too. It’s very unlikely I’d allow it if I were to make it to later Rounds. - Rikka swears and may call some particularly enraging opponents by nicknames (you can be creative with these, the only one I’ve currently come up with for certain is “Bluey-Demon” for Baxter.) She can also have multiple names for one opponent. - Not pictured, but her fleece and shirt have slits for the wings too. The fleece one was cut out by her, and the ones on her shirt are thin oval shaped. - Feel free to make Rikka’s raven wings as simple or stylised as you like and draw them however you like from the front and back. - Rikka can’t retract only one wing at a time, if one of the zips on her jacket was closed and the other open, she wouldn’t be able to spread her wings at all. - Though I didn’t heavily worldbuild (since they are OCT made characters) hybrids like RIkka and Niko are fairly normal, though you may get teased or bullied depending on what animal you have parts of. As well as their respective shadow and light magic, it's just banned in some places. (Schools, shops, cinemas.) “Harpy” would be a derogatory term against female avians. - Rikka’s jacket was canonically stolen hours before the events of the audition took place. - Trivia but Rikka actually does have an older sister, but she barely knows her. She doesn't speak to her parents anymore *y'know, for some reason* but she was nearly in college by the time Rikka was born. - It might be shocking, but Rikka is surprisingly good at managing the duo's limited finnances. # Niko

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> ***"But at this point, I’ve accepted my death"*** *-- Niko* A runaway human teenager/firefly hybrid that escaped his lonely and chaotic home with his one friend Rikka to find a new home to build a new life. Though Rikka wishes to use the wish to save him from the curse that’s killing him, he wishes to guarantee the two of them will have a new, safe home far, far away from the mages that cursed him to spend his last days in peace with her.

Table of Contents

### Backstory --- Niko grew up the third youngest of seven kids in a cramped and generally unstable home with irresponsible parents. He always had a sense of curiosity, but having to constantly take on some of his often absent parent’s responsibilities - especially once a couple of his older siblings noticed he’d comply when they bullied him into doing things for them. On top of that, the general chaos of the house with five siblings, (sixth born in his teens) and frequent shouting matches and violent arguments would made him unable to do *anything* in peace. He was surrounded by people at home but was lonely. Even if most kids hated it, he found school a refuge. At least, until bullies realised he was an easy target. He didn’t have any friends, until he noticed a classmate left her science textbook on her desk after class in middle school. Long story short, this action led to him gaining the first real friend that was willing to listen to him and would want to do things with him. He never realised how lonely he was until he befriended the girl he learned was named Rikka. Overtime, their home lives started to get even worse. For Niko, the birth of his youngest sibling caused tensions between his parents and siblings to reach a boiling point. His parents would become outright controlling, not being able to get away with being absent anymore as he and his siblings would refuse to take on what should’ve always been their responsibility. For Niko especially, after he’d been spending more time with Rikka. His parents would threaten and someitmes act locking him in his room or the car or depriving him of food. Thanks to his friendship, Niko began to understand what it felt like to actually have his kindness appreciated but he wasn’t sure what to do about his predicament until he came up with a drastic solution: Run away with Rikka. At first, despite being able to plan the logistics out he was afriad of doing it and hesitantily proposed the idea. Eventually her own escalating situation made her willing to agree to it, despite their mutual fears, they knew all they really wanted in was to one day build a life that better and more peaceful than the hells they knew. They left in the middle of the night and fled to a nearby town. They conserved every penny and piece of food they had and could get. Having to steal at times. Even with how difficult their new lives were, they still had hope that one day, they’d be able to start their new lives living somewhere they could consider a true home. At some point, Rikka was approached by a woman whilst Niko was in a shop buying food. He sensed something was off and ran outside only to find that Rikka was gone. She'd gone with the woman who told her she could get her and Niko some food and supplies if she followed her which she agreed to out of on impulse out of desperation. Turns out, the woman manipulated her and was a disguised member of a mysterious, deadly cult that used humans as an energy source for their machinery and as test subjects. Targeting especially those they perceived as helpless and whom almost no one would care about if they died. Rikka was seconds away from being cursed to have a substance to grow in her body eventually turning her into an energy source for the cult shortly after her death when Niko intervened at the last second. Using a Flashbang spell, he caused the cult leader to drop his staff on the ground, landing pointed straight in his direction and firing, cursing him instead. They quickly escaped the cult and began looking desperately for any cure/way to lift Niko’s curse after moving between several different towns to both avoid the cult and those who’d recognise them from home. Rikka’s desperation and fear of losing her only friend worsening overtime, especially given the possibility brought up by Niko the cult still may want their original target (he's right.) After learning the prize for victory in the Cross Tournament is a wish, Niko, having grown accepting of his fate and fearful of the possibility the cult may still be chasing them, wishes Rikka to use it to save herself. However despite their conflicting motives, he does hope (outside of fights) Crossroads could maybe be somewhere he can enjoy the semblance of peace he’s always craved. ### Personality --- Observant and curious, Niko tends to pick up details in his surroundings most don’t. This extends to his ability to read people, with his perceptions of them usually being accurate. He's shy and soft spoken, so it's hard for him to express himself but he does try to speak up when his knowledge and input could be useful. Niko has always had an interest in learning about various places and subjects (though Rikka’s the only one he’s ever gotten close to and been able to share his interests and curiosity with) which despite his acceptance of his fate he hopes to use some of his remaining time to do while in Crossroads. Despite his background, he's empathetic and and can understand the majority of motives. He generally doesn’t like to fight but will if needed. In general, Niko is a good planner, support and strategist and feels like he shines best in those roles. Even when he’s scared, he’ll manage to keep a cool enough head to think somewhat clearly. Around Rikka, Niko can be talkative and sometimes a little more immature. She is someone he can work with as an equal. Since she is actually interested in him and his views, receptive to his kind acts and would give him the chance to explore new interests. At least, until recently, where Niko has reverted to being more passive. As Rikka’s desperation has grown and his body has weakened, he’s found it harder to have the sort of equal bond he once had or to not feel like a burden to her.

##### **Niko Hikari**

[![IMG_9236.jpg](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/img-9236.jpg)](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-04.png)

##### Profile Data

**Race** Human/Part Firefly Hybrid

**Pronouns/Gender/Sex** Male, he/him

**Age** 16

**Height** 5′ 2″

**Hair Colour** Purple

**Eye Colour** Yellow

**Likes** Rikka, Reading (Especially Fantasy and Travel Books), Gardening, Plants, Lava Lamps, Cats, Savoury Foods, Dawn, Night, Flying

**Dislikes** Cults, Curses, Crowds, Loud Noises, Creepy Robots, Snakes, Spiders, Abandoned Buildings, Fighting

**Distinguishing Marks** - Anthenas - Firefly Bulb - Freckles

##### Abilities

- Light Beams - Healing Light - Spark Glow - Flight (Heavily Limited) - Poisonious Blood - Cursed Electrical Blood - Flashbang (One time use)

**Strengths** Observtion, Naviagation, Strategy, Healing, Status Afflictions

**Weaknesses** Physical Combat, Flying, Authority

##### Creator

[Yoshoka](https://wiki.summerleaguesoct.com/books/2024-comic-iris-league/page/yoshoka "Yoshoka")

### Abilities --- #### **\[Light Beams\]** Niko fires beams of light horizontally or vertically that do small, repeated damage as long as they’re touching the enemy. Can inflict negative status effects such as dizziness, confusion or impaired vision. ##### #### **\[Healing Light\]** Niko can summon a large healing light that slowly heals anyone or anything caught in it and inflicts positive status ailments like regeneration and slightly increased strength and speed. ##### #### **\[Spark\]** Quickly causes a small flash of sparkling light that can disorientate opponents. Does little damage. ##### #### **\[Glow\]** Niko’s firefly bulb is often glowing, making seeing and navigating dark spaces easier. He can turn it on or off, but a weird side effect of his curse is it’ll sometimes flicker on/off involuntarily. ##### #### **\[Flight\]** Weakned due to his curse to only 2-3 minutes, Niko is still able to fly if he takes his jacket off. #### **\[Poison Blood\]** Like actual fireflies, Niko’s blood is poisonous to consume just in case any competitor wants to try that. This is NOT a result of his curse; it's always been like that. ##### #### **\[Curse\]** Niko’s curse from the cult mages. Slowly fills his body with a mysterious substance that will start weakening him and putting a strain on his body before it kills him. After which his whole body will turn into a crystal-like material that can be cut up or used for energy soon after. Physical symptoms it (so far) induced in him include coughing, physical weakness, low energy, skin turning pale and weight gain (despite it making him thin as a stick) Niko’s blood, if touched, will electrocute opponents as a result of the curse. His blood is dark purplish crimson instead of red. ##### **It’s unknown how long he has to live.** ##### #### **\[Flashbang\]** Niko’s ultimate attack. A massive ball of light is fired ahead of him before it explodes causing massive damage, possible blindness and major status ailments for anyone hit by it. **Niko’s physical state already severely limits how much magic he can use so this attack will only be able to be used once in the entire tournament.** ##### #### **\[Fighting Style\]** Due to his physical state, it’s basically guaranteed he’ll be in the Assist role the whole OCT but that doesn't mean he’s useless. He actively tries to provide Rikka with strategy whenever he can, and his observant nature helps him identify weaknesses in both fighting style and character of his and Rikka’s opponents. Whether Rikka listens or not can vary, but Niko generally tries to stand back for obvious reasons and will cast heals and his AOE and DPS attacks whenever it's safe to. ### Strengths --- - Observant and a good strategist. He’s good at reading people and predicting opponent’s behaviour. - Good listener and empathetic despite his background, makes it easy for people to like him. - Bulb increases his ability to help him and RIkka navigate in dark spaces. - Spells have a long range. - His spells don’t actually use that much energy (for the most part) so despite his physical state, he can still use them for a while before he gets too weak to or uses up his magic for the day. ### Weaknesses --- - Physically extremely weak, has little mobility and energy. - Niko sometimes will start to give up on trying to provide strategy to Rikka after she hasn’t listened to him for too long. - Since he’s gotten physically weak from the early stages of his curse, his flying ability is limited to a few minutes at a time (three at most,) as a result he wears a jacket that doesn’t have holes for his wings to fit out of. - Spells are more support oriented than attack oriented with the exception of Light Beams, Spark (which is weak) and Flashbang. Makes it hard to break Rikka out of dangerous situations she gets into. ### Gallery ---

[![Ref Sheet](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/img-9255.png)](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-04.png)	[![SL2_placehold_image_04.png](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-04.png)](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2023-06/sl2-placehold-image-01.png)
\[Ref Sheet\]	\[Extra Ref (TBA)\]

### Author's Notes --- - Niko stutters often due to nervousness and social awkwardness. He also more often than not doesn’t use shortened words like don’t and can’t. - Niko’s gestures and facial expressions tend to be much more subtle and less overly expressive than Rikka’s. - As far as seriously injuring/killing is concerned, I don’t want either to be too seriously hurt in Round 1 and killing is off limits 100% too. It’s very unlikely I’d allow it if I were to make it to later Rounds. - Niko doesn’t swear. If he ever did, it’d take a profoundly emotionally intense situation. - Currently don’t have this ready, but under his puffy clothes, he’s both skinny and has a bit of purple skin discoloration on his wrists, lower forearms and abdomen. This is planned to spread as rounds progress. - Feel free to play with how Niko’s bulb works with his clothes. I know it’s a bit illogical (and usually I like to have those sorts of features on characters make some sort of sense) but I played a little loosely with it here. - His wings are retractable, his bulb and antennas aren’t. - Niko’s antennas can move independently. They often correlate to his emotional state but I don’t have a set “sad athena angles, surprised athena angles” etc so feel free to play with how they express his emotions. Just note, they always curve even if only slightly. They are never perfectly straight. - Though I didn’t heavily worldbuild (since they are OCT made characters) hybrids like RIkka and Niko are fairly normal, though you may get teased or bullied depending on what animal you have features of. As well as their respective shadow and light magic, it's just banned in some places. (Schools, shops, cinemas.) # Yoshoka

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![IMG_9288.png](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/img-9288.png) #### Rikka and Niko

##### [\[Rikka Ref\]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1207704285509459968/1207704286457503785/IMG_9253.png?ex=65e09d43&is=65ce2843&hm=0be7b2338da0ed6188adeda4af9081a66da5864e6a8abaaa25fc666fb564af68&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1440&height=370 "Rikka Ref") [\[Niko Ref\]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1207704285509459968/1207704287329783848/IMG_9255.png?ex=65e09d44&is=65ce2844&hm=67d97ff38bf6280c6bbf8a837b227045f3827d32127456dcfac09d7b5e89fe1a&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1255&height=593 "Niko Ref")
[Audition](https://imgur.com/a/nrDzmKs "Audition")	Rikka & Niko (Passed)
[Round 1](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14oyszJZXGpIU3vWiV3l-gQDEmnp_ZyJz "Round 1")	Palette of Life (Completed)
Round 2
Round 3
Tournament Status:	Round 1 Completed

##### **YOSHOKA**

![IMG_0828.png](https://aws-sloct.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/images/gallery/2024-02/img-0828.png)

**Aliases/Nickname(s)** Yoshua, Yoshoka, Yosh, Yoshshoka, Irish

**Pronouns/Gender/Sex** Female, she/her

**Vocation** Comic Artist

##### Social Media

**Discord:** yoshoka

**Twitter:** [YOSHUA 💛 (@yoshshoka) / X (twitter.com)](https://twitter.com/yoshshoka)