Hiyori Iki

Hiyori Iki
Hiyori Iki.png
Name
Kanji	壱岐 ひより
Romaji	Iki Hiyori
Profile
Race	Half-Ayakashi
Gender	Female
Age	16
Birthday	June 28
Height	162 cm (5'4")
Hair Color	Brown
Status
Status	Alive
Occupation	High School Student
Relationships
Relatives	Sayuri Iki (mother) Takamasa Iki (father) Masaomi Iki (older brother) Unnamed Maternal Grandmother
Debut
Manga	A House Cat, A Stray God, and A Tail
Anime	A Housecat, A Stray God, and a Tail
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Maaya Uchida
English Voice	Bryn Apprill

{{{1}}} ({{{2}}}, {{{1}}}^?) Hiyori Iki (壱岐 ひより) is the main female character of the Noragami series. After "saving" Yato from an incoming bus, she became a Half-Ayakashi with the ability to leave her human body.

Appearance

Hiyori's Anime Design

Hiyori is a beautiful young girl. She has long dark hair which is colored dark brown and light eyes that are colored magenta (brown in the manga). Her height is 163.48cm (or 5'4"). She is often seen wearing her middle school uniform, which consists of a short sailor shirt and a knee-length skirt, which are both lavender in the anime and light green in the manga. She changes outfits on occasion, donning a grey trenchcoat over the uniform and wearing a pink scarf during the first season, which took place in winter, and more summer outfits in the second season.

When she turns into a half-Ayakashi, a dark pink (black in the manga) tail-like "cord" that bears a strong resemblance to a cat's tail emerges from her lower back. When she becomes a high school student, she is often seen wearing her high school uniform, both the summer and winter versions, throughout the later chapters of the manga.

Personality

Hiyori is a kind-hearted girl who will go out of her way to help someone in danger. This is shown when she willingly risked her life to keep Yato from being hit by a bus (which resulted in her getting hit instead and ending up in her current condition, as well as turning out to be pointless since it wouldn't have killed Yato anyway), despite the fact that the two were complete strangers at the time. However, she isn't above calling out people when she thinks they're in the wrong, as after saving Yato she immediately called him out for running into the street, calling him an idiot. She also has a strong sense of right and wrong, which is evident when she witnesses Yukine swindling money behind Yato's back which openly troubles her. Eventually, she confronts him to ask what he intends to do with it.

While far from stupid, Hiyori can be a bit air-headed, at times having very strange priorities; when Yato explains that her 'tail' is actually a lifeline that connects her physical and ethereal forms and that she'll die if it's cut off, Hiyori's biggest concern is that she's not 'wireless', as opposed to why Yato waited until then to mention something so important. However, she is also quite perceptive of the feelings of others, such as when she was able to figure out that Yato wants to keep Regalias from seeing people waste their lives, as all of them are people who died while still wanting to live.

Hiyori is also characterized by a deep loyalty to those she trusts and a tendency to express her emotions. While she initially doesn't like Yato much, considering him to be very lazy and selfish due to him constantly putting off her request and blowing money on useless trinkets, she gradually warms up to him after seeing his better qualities, and after Yukine's punishment, the three become very close friends and she treats Yato much nicer. Hiyori is also a very brave person who constantly puts her own safety at risk to help others, especially if it is Yato or Yukine; when Yato's body is blighted, she does not hesitate to carry him on her back despite her knowing that the blight is infectious.

Hiyori is heavily implied to have developed feelings for Yato; although Hiyori wishes to return to being completely human, she also has no desire to sever her ties with Yato, having refused several times despite it being her best chance to return to normal and Tenjin believing it's what was best for her, claiming she wants to spend more time with Yato. In the English dub of the anime, she even goes so far as to say there's no way she'd be happy without him and Yukine in her life. She also takes a strong liking to his smell, even calling it her favorite smell on one occasion, and at one point was even able to regain her memories by recognizing it. However, she is shown to be rather embarrassed by how much she likes Yato's scent, to the point of dodging the subject whenever it's brought up.

Despite being raised to be completely lady-like, Hiyori is a huge martial arts fan and has a fixation on a martial artist called Touno, whom she copies her attacks from and will often become inspired and act on his words; when she remembered Touno telling everyone to pave their own destiny with their own hands, she followed his advice and attempted to find Yato a Regalia by herself. However, she keeps this secret from her mother, whom she worries will freak out if she finds out she's into something like that. She is pure and loves people. 

Abilities

• Sensing Creatures From Far Shore: Unlike normal humans, Hiyori can sense, hear and see the creatures from the Far Shore. She and her brother have inherited the ability to see beings of the Far Shore from their maternal family. This is explained by their grandmother in Chapter 54.
• Astral Projection: After she pushed Yato out of the way of an oncoming bus, she gained the ability of astral projection, effectively enabling her to "drop her body"(called her "insta-snooze" trick by Yama) and become a "Half-Phantom" (半妖, lit. hanyou).Though she attempts to control this ability, she often leaves her body behind without realizing it.
• Physical Combat: Hiyori has no abilities in her human form, however, when in her half-Ayakashi form, she acquires enhanced strength, speed, and agility. She is shown to be able to hold her own in combat against the Frog Ayakashi.
• Smell Recognition: She also gains a very strong sense of smell and is able to pick up a god's scent from a long distance away. 
• Memory Reading: This ability was shown only once by Hiyori, when she managed to look into Yato's memory of when he was young and met his second Shinki, Sakura. However, the reason behind this has not been explained yet.

Relationships

Yato

Hiyori initially had a purely business-like relationship with Yato, with him promising to grant Hiyori's wish to remove her ability of astral projection. However, this was stalled for a while, due to Yato's other priorities, and his not acutallya knowing how to remove her ability at the time. During this, the two have grown to be very close friends, and it is alluded to that they both love each other.

Yukine

Yukine is one of Hiyori's closest friends, and Hiyori thinks of Yukine as a trustworthy younger brother. When she heard about Yato killing a Shinki, she was very worried about Yukine, which was visible when she asked him to accompany her at her house due to believing that Yato was incapable of looking after Yukine. She also cares deeply for him, especially when Yukine told her that he wanted to study, which she encouraged by giving him all of her old school books, and occasionally helping him to study.

Hiyori also played a big role is Yukine's ablution by giving Yukine words of encouragement, which stopped him from turning into an Ayakashi, and Yukine is deeply grateful to her for this. At first, Yukine only saw Hiyori as a person who he could use, but after his ablution, they became very good friends and Yukine started viewing her as a closer and more important person to him. Yukine is shown to worry about Hiyori's well being since she is very important to him and Yato. Also, Yukine sometimes seems worried that someday, Hiyori will forget about him and Yato (which she almost did, once).

Kofuku

Kofuku and Hiyori are on good terms, and Kofuku affectionately calls her "Hiyorin". Hiyori can be a little cautious of her since she is a God of Poverty, but Hiyori cares for her. Kofuku (and Daikoku) were the ones who Hiyori went to when Yato was in danger, which means that Hiyori deeply trusts Kofuku.

Yama & Ami

Yama and Ami are Hiyori's closest friends. The three are like a group and they are very supportive of each other. When Hiyori gets her "snooze attacks" (leaving her body), they tend to take care of her and don't seem to mind, because it's normal for Hiyori. Hiyori also cares for her friends a lot and they are on good terms.

Trivia

• Her character song is Mitai Sekai.
• Her name is homophonous to the term "日和" meaning "fair weather". This forms sort of a theme with Yato and Yukine, the first Kanji of whose names mean "Night" and "Snow" respectively. All three names refer to a kind of "condition" the sky can be in.