ARA'RIAL RYUNOSUI



My first and favorite Arial from my main storyline. Out of all of my incarnations, I still feel the closest to her, and she seems to be everyone's favorite Arial.

Background


Ara'rial was born early in the morning on June 8 in Kobe, Japan. She first met Shin at the tender age of two months. Shin at the time was nearly eighteen months old, and simply adored the little baby. Shin's sister, Aya, was just about as impressed with Arial as a baby as she was when Shin was born. Their fathers, upon seeing how well their two children got along, promptly suggested that the two should marry once they get older. Everyone thought it was a great idea. The years passed, and soon both childeren entered school.
On her first day of school she met Shori, her best friend for life. Arial was not fond of school at first, not having spent much time with other children her age before besides Shin. During recess that day, a boy several grades above her dumped a jar full of spiders into her hair as a prank. She promptly went into hysterics. Shori, who had been watching from the sideline came up and popped the laughing boy in the nose, bloodying it. By that time a monitor had shown up and had partially calmed Arial down (after shaking the spiders out of her hair). Arial's mother was called, and she was sent home for the rest of the day. When she returned to school, Shori came up and asked if she was okay. Arial nodded, and Shori then asked if she wanted to be her friend. Arial immediately said yes, and they have been together since.
As she grew older Arial, often in the company of Shori, would spend a day or two a week in Kobe with Shin. Occasionally Shin's family would spend the weekend at the Mouri's Kobe estate, which was located next door to the Tenryu Shrine. During summer break Shin moved next door to live with his grandfather.
One year, when Arial was eight, Shin arrived at his grandfather's with an 'imaginary' friend, Keir. Arial immediately joined in, claiming that she could see him as well. This lasted until the middle of August, when one day both Arial and Shin claimed not to have any memories to whom Keir was.
The fact was, Keir really did exist, and only Shin and Arial could see him. During a game of hide-and-seek, Arial and Shin wandered into the forbidden section of the shrine's property. While there, they awakened a bound spirit, which attacked Arial. Exactly what happened after this is currently unknown, but the spirit was destroyed, as was the rock it was bound to, and not by Arial. Keir arrived after the event, and blocked Arial and Shin's memories of the event, along with all memories of him. The only evidence of his being there a picture that Arial had drawn without his knowing. Arial has some residual memories of this event, brought to the surface by the discovery of her fear of ghosts years later during 'Ski Trip'. While in search of these memories, Arial once again ran into Keir, now seemingly in his early twenties and dressed in silver and grey robes. Arial is sure that Shin had something to do with that incident, but is still unsure as to what.
One summer break several years later, Arial's parents invited Shin to Kyoto for the day. Once there, Arial wandered off looking at things without anyone noticing. She discovered that everyone was missing ten minutes later when she turned to point out a great white tiger to Shin. He wasn't there. The tiger, curious, approached her and gave her an enquiring look. Arial smiled, and immediately attached herself to the tiger, to his and his human companions great surprise. For the next half-hour, Arial occupied herself by talking to her new found friends, Byakuen and Ryo, while waiting for someone to find her. During this time, Arial found out quite a bit of information that would prove useful in the future.
Shin was the one who found her, 'pestering' a poor boy his age and his tiger. Shin hauled her away to her waiting parents as she waved bye-bye to her friends.
When Arial was twelve, her mother gave birth to a boy, Daiki.
During the summer that Arial turned thirteen, she discovered that Shin possessed one of the Armors of Chains, the legendary armor of the Samurai Troopers. Arial, who has always disliked magical items, was not happy. She was the one who knew of the last Trooper, and because of that, the five Troopers were able to join together.
Arial stayed in Kobe for the next two years (missing out on the invasion), coming up to visit one August right after the events in 'Kikoutei Densetsu.' This was when the others found out about her ancestry and abilities. At this time, Arial believed herself human, with some unusual abilities inherited from her dragon ancestor. Later, in 'Ski Trip' and 'Shadows' this was shown not to be exactly true.
The following spring, Arial moved to Tokyo to live with her Aunt and Uncle, who were moving back to Tokyo after living several years in Hawaii. The reason for that is that Arial, who has always needed someone keeping an eye on her, got into a bit of trouble at school. One of the student teachers took a liking to her, she was not thrilled about it, and the result was the student teacher was relieved of his position. Due to her method of asking her teacher to leave her alone (switchblade) a rumor started that she has connections to gangs. The high school that she was to attend decided that they did not want that kind of element in their school, and they kindly told Arial's parents that they would appreciate it if she would transfer to another school.
Arial decided that if she was going to attend a new school, she wanted to go to Tokyo. Her parents agreed.


Abilities


Arial is what is being referred to as a 'Dragon-Child', a dragon born to human form. From this statement, one can assume that the human form is her natural form, and that she will not take on the form of the dragon. Knowledge on such a hybrid is limited, and those who know are not yet talking.
As for her abilities, they are water and weather related. Arial can mentally control water, and can possibly summon it as well. The limit of her control is unknown. The known weather related abilities are an energy barrier, seemingly made out of a form of energy similar to lightning, and the ability to throw balls of lightning at her enemies. Her energy limit on this is unknown as well. She did grow tired after maintaining her barrier for an extended amount of time, whether that is from her reaching the limit of her skills, or lack of practice was not brought up. She has launched eight lightning balls in rapid succession with no problems.
Shin has mentioned that Arial can manipulate the weather. We have not seen her displaying this particular ability, for several reasons. First off, Arial has always been very reluctant to practice or otherwise use any such abilities. Then there is the fact that Arial's control is, in her words "Iffy.", in the best of conditions. If you were to ask Shin, "What control?". For that reason, Arial does not use those abilities. (That and the fact she really doesn't know what she is doing. This is not something you just play around with.)
Due to her parents (mainly her father's) negative response to her abilities, Arial has always been reluctant to use or acknowledge them. For this reason one can logically assume that she is at the lowest level of her abilities, and there is a possibility of other abilities not know of.
Arial's physiology is, naturally enough, different from normal humans. Her strength, speed, endurance and agility are equal to Shin and the rest of the Troopers in the yoroi sub-armor. She is impervious to most kinds of injuries. She has never received a cut, sprain or broken bone in her life. It is to be assumed that she heals at a highly rapid rate, provided that she gets hit hard enough to receive damage. Arial does her best to avoid situations like that and has yet, as of Dark Star, Part One, received any major injury. Arial can breathe under water, float midair and fly. As a dragon-child, Arial has yet to reach what is considered full maturity. This should occur sometime when she is seventeen or eighteen years old and her hormones settle down. Due to this, Arial suffers from a type of motion sickness from teleporting. This stems from the fact that she is very aware and sensitive to her surroundings, she is unable to adjust quickly to being tossed into an area that she has not acclimated to.
In 'Ski Trip' Arial received a mystical sphere belonging to the Go clan of the Ryushu. It has some control over the elements and Arial can channel energy through it. How much control and what her limitations are with this sphere are unknown, due to her dislike of mystical items in general. It is known that this sphere, called the Sun Heart (probably not its real name), is one of three mystical items used to create a seal to protect the Earth from a race of demons called the Dark Lords. The Sun Heart is possibly semi-sentient, and only those of pure dragon blood can handle the sphere. Currently Arial is the only known person on Earth who qualifies.
Also in 'Ski Trip' it was revealed that Arial could -read-people. This was later discussed further in 'Consolation Prize'. Basically Arial is able to see what a person is like, their soul actually, just by looking at them. She is able to communicate mentally with Shin, reason unknown, and Byakuen.
Arial is also a dan ranked martial artist, her weapon of choice the bo staff. She mainly practices to learn the Art itself, as she has no interest in using it for fighting or self defence. At age thirteen she did take down a surprised Shu, and he later came to the realization that she would be a formitable foe to face off against.

Family


Arial comes from a moderately small family, comprising of her parents, a younger brother, several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Tahomi Ryunosui - Father. A Professor of Ancient Languages at the Kobe University. He taught Arial languages since she was a small child, as well as the martial arts. He loves her dearly, but her dragon heritage is not something he can accept easily.
Hitomi Ryunosui - Mother. Very supportive and caring of her children. She is a calm individual, and has a tendency to accept things that most would find hard to accept. She doesn't make a fuss of her daughters heritage, but doesn't speak of it either.
Daiki Ryunosui - Brother. Daiki is a sweet, charming brother, near twelve years younger than her. Due to what was inferred by the Sun Dragon Falai, Daiki does not share the same heritage as Arial.
Jii-san - Arial's grandfather and the best friend of Shin's grandfather.
Mika Kaikori- Hitomi's elder sister. Even more unflappable in unusual occurrences than her sister. She has suspicions about her niece, but respects her privacy on that and other matters.
Kendai Kaikori- Mika's husband and father of her children. Vice-president of a major corporation, he works late and is not often seen.
Sayuki Kaikori- Arial's closest cousin. Sayuki is one year older than Arial. She has a tendency to be shy in public surroundings, but is quite blunt with friends and family. Has a horrible temper.
Kenji Kaikori- Next eldest cousin. Is a very calm, responsible young man.
Mitsuru Kaikori- Second youngest. He is a very active boy, prone to trouble making.
Sakura Kaikori- The youngest. A very quiet and shy child.
Hoshi Takashi- Arial's second cousin on her father's side of the family. Her grandfather's sister married Shin's grandfather's younger brother, so he is their second cousin. Hoshi's mother is their daughter. A year older than Aya, he entered the military at a young age, causing trouble with his immediate family. Mostly he treats Arial as a prize to be won, but he is genuinely fond of her.

The Tenryu Shrine


Not much has been mentioned of Arial's home to date. It lies along the seacoast near Kobe, and the property covers over fifty acres. The original shrine is over two thousand years old, and lies one hundred fifty feet below the modern shrine in a vast cavern. Only the shrine keeper is allowed there. There is a vast network of caves under the shrine. Near half have been mapped over the last thousand years.
The legend of the shrine is as follows (in abbriviated story format) -

'In the distant past, a great war was fought between the earth and heavens and the great Dark. Many years this battle raged on our fair world, and many on all sides perished.
In the great west, beyond Ch'in* was a city of peace that lay above the clouds. In this city, called Ara'shariya, which means in their language 'Beloved/Devine Heaven's Tear', a young princess won the heart of the youngest son of the Emperor of the Ryushu.
At the climax of the great battle, the city Ara'shariya was destroyed and her people scattered to the four winds. The young prince of the Ryushu was unable to find his beloved in the aftermath, and returned to the Tenkai heart-wounded. Unbeknownst to him, his beloved was still alive, and had born to him a son.
Now this son of the lost city and the Ryushu grew to be a great man, and took to wife a princess of Ch'in. The centuries past, and a thousand years later his descendant, under the power of a vision, traveled to the Isle of the East and built a shrine to his forefathers. And thus the Shrine of the Tenryu was built. And forevermore would the children of earth and heaven guard the shrine and all it contains . . .'

There is no known documentation to prove this legend, but Arial's existence leans credit to it.
*Note - Ch'in = China


**Okay, if there is anything you think I missed, or that you think I need to add, please feel free to write me. Arigato.**

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