Sayuri Ishimoto

basics

name — Sayuri Ishimoto
nicknames — Sayu
age — 21 22 23
birthday — September 24
zodiac — Libra
sexuality — Heterosexual
status — Taken

hair — Black
eyes — Dark brown
height — 5'1"
weight — 106 lbs

languages — English (native), Japanese (fluent), Taiwanese (basic)
likes — Going to the beach, swimming, collecting stamps, traveling (especially if it's a road trip), cute souvenirs, sleeping on hammocks, flower arranging, Ming's black hole ability (she thinks it's hot)
dislikes — Making sushi, loud arguments, people that don't mind their business, when something wakes her up in the middle of a good nap
theme songs — Cannonball by Vienna Teng / Harbor by Vienna Teng

personality

Looks can be deceiving and Sayuri is no exception to that. She gives off a warm and welcoming aura, which makes it easy for her to approach people and vice versa. Mild-mannered, Sayuri is usually quite mellow when with company, making her pleasant company. Once she started to warm up, however (and that doesn't take very long), she'll be more outgoing. She's one to test the waters before fully going in, both in situations and meeting people alike. She's one to learn from past mistakes and do the best to not repeat them, which is why she tends to analyze things at times. Otherwise, she is just as carefree as the next person and just enjoys living life all together.

Because of her friendly exterior, some people tend to think that that's all there is to it. The nice people accept it; others tend to take advantage of it. And if there's one thing she won't stand for, it's being underestimated. She has a backbone and strength to make up for her rather thin frame and she certainly won't hesitate to show it. She's been known to punch a guy or two in the face when they took advantage of her, since it's something she won't tolerate in the least. She's very headstrong, but respectful, and she expects to be respected in return at the very least. It was one of the things her mother taught her and a lesson she always keeps in mind: treat others as you would like to be treated. She has a determination that many are surprised she has and certainly won't give up once her mind is on something. However, only those that are her friends know this very well. She's not one to show off her true colors to an acquaintance or someone she has just met. Where's the fun in that?

At times, she can come off as rather possessive and personal, which could throw some people off. She doesn't appreciate it when people from the outside meddle with affairs that don't really concern them. She's always had the belief that people should stick to their own business and leave others to deal with theirs. Because of how she is, Sayuri doesn't think this should present a problem or offend people. She thinks things would be better if they worked like that more often. She's very honest and a very good adviser if you could tolerate her bluntness. Those that get a good dose of her bluntness are her close friends, since she would rather avoid hurting the feelings of someone she doesn't know. She appreciates honesty – both when it comes to giving it and receiving it – but she appreciates a harmonic atmosphere as well.

history

Daughter of two Japanese immigrants, Sayuri was born to a richly cultured household in Honolulu. While she was little, she and her parents did extensive traveling throughout Japan and the United States – since there several hundred (or so she calculated back then) relatives were scattered throughout both countries. Because of this, Sayuri learned an immense amount while she was little, from learning Japanese fluently to learning how to make an excellent serving of sushi.

Throughout all these trips, she developed a habit of collecting mementos from every place she visited in the form of stamps. When she was smaller, she developed the rather odd quirk of licking stamps and pasting them in random locations, which landed her a good scolding when she was caught. She grew out of it, but she still likes stamps nonetheless, which is why she continues to collect them. She has a large album where she keeps them all, sorted by state, city, and date. Now 21 going on 22, Sayuri can still be seen holding the rather ragged album around when she travels. A rather ragged album she's hesitant to replace, since it's the one she's had all her life.

The traveling eventually ceased a little, since the family started moving closer to Honolulu – which meant the stamps would be brought to her and they'd be the ones receiving all the visitors. It was a nice, leisurely life for Sayuri. She went to school, made her friends, kept up her collection – it was all good. She had visited 75% of the United States and was going to continue to do so until she entered college, which was when she had to put those things on hold for a moment so she can focus on her studies. She was just about ready to start that big trip around the United States when the outbreak occurred.

It was disastrous, especially on her family, who lost several of its members when it occurred. Not only had her plan completely unraveled, but there was so much chaos going around that she didn't know where to start. The Ishimoto family lost an aunt, uncle, and three children they all really adored and have been trying to improve things since then. Sayuri doesn't like talking about the Outbreak and her deceased family members at all and will get rather curt and even rude if someone brings up the Outbreak in any way, shape, or form.

But some good things have come out of it, such as the new friends she's made; one of them being Ming, a rather interesting boy who earned a good punch in the eye when he kissed her on Worldwide Disaster Day. Even if she won't admit it straight out, she's still rather flustered at the nerve he had to do that. If he mentions it in the slightest, she is absolutely certain that she'll give his other eye a good punch – and leave it with a bruise that will last a while. Still, they've gone out more than .. Four times. She thinks he's cool, that's all.

in-game events

2009

04/29 — Got set up on a date with Ming by Kallie.

07/15 — Started posting. Found Ming in the community and wasn't too sure on what to think about it.

09/24 — Her birthday. Ming threw her a surprise party.

11/22 — After going on dates on and off for months, Ming finally asked her out. She accepted.

2010

03/22 — Helped out when there was a major attack on all Revival Project hospitals.

04/24 — Went out to dinner with Ming for his birthday. Things got nice.

05/10 — Participated in the Lee Hyori Charity Games over in South Korea.

05/11 — Began her trip through Asia with Ming.

06/23 — Got the Aerobios, Inc. vaccine to avoid any chance of becoming an infected.

09/05 — Due to Cupid, fell in love with the ridiculously handsome surfing instructor at the beach she frequents for 24 hours.

10/31 — The you-know hit the fan.

powers

human explosive — As it says, Sayuri is basically a human bomb. She won't explode or anything like that (that'd be gross, she says), but she has the ability to release as much energy and power as any explosive could – be it a pipe bomb or TNT; you name it. While she doesn't have the same disastrous effects as an atomic bomb would, she has the power to release enough energy to knock down a building or two. She can also control it to make a tiny explosion that's relatively harmless. The more power she wants to use, the more energy she has to use up. Depending on how much energy she uses, she'll sometimes smell like smoke for a while or even sparkle. She thinks the sparkling part is neat – the smoke part, not so much.

superhuman abilities — All of Sayuri's abilities are thoroughly enhanced, which means she can run, jump, punch, etc. with more force than any regular human being can. These are abilities she uses to her advantage when she wants to explode, which means she can be a running explosion, a jumping explosion, etc. She thinks it's rather cool too, since she's basically the only human firework she knows. This also means she can last longer if she were to fight any of the infected and not be as prone to injuries, but she's still not invincible.

relationships

family

emi — mother
hiroshi — father
huge extended family

friends

kalia song — A good friend she met in work. They got close over time and it was Kallie who set her up with Ming in the first place. As far as that goes, Sayuri isn't sure whether to thank her or pinch her really hard for it. She's really, really thanking her. Not out loud, though. Not yet. NPC.
yang ji nan — Met him through Kalia and Ming. She finds him to be a nice person and overall a good person to talk to. NPC.

boyfriend

ming-hao nan — She's gone out with him a few times and found him to be nice around. He did earn a good punch, however, when he kissed her after WWD was over. Whether or not she liked it, she'll never say. She's been getting fairly close to him since then, though, and has even shown some jealousy when he talks about really hot people like Vivian Hsu. He gave her a surprise party at the beach for her birthday, as well as a shiny surfboard she was scared to use (but ended up using it anyway and it was great). He recently asked her out on a date again and she accepted, but he made the grave mistake of kissing her again in his helicopter. That earned him a good punch that broke his nose, knocked him off his seat, out of the helicopter, and into the ocean.

He ended up taking her to Taipei for the Halloween party, where she proceeded to kick his butt in arm wrestling. She had a few drinks, though, and ended up being the one to initiate a kiss first. There was (surprisingly) no punching after that one, but she was more than embarrassed about it. There were some good conflicting emotions after that until she came to the realization that she liked him beyond going out with him for fun. Ming asked her out on a date after that, before asking if she wanted to be his girlfriend – something she said yes to without hesitating at all. Now they're finally official. She's definitely felt something for him for a while, but now she's not afraid to say that she loves him. He's also capable of making her explode pillows. He is that good.

celebrity acquaintances

bai hua mi — Vivian Hsu! Despite her fame, Sayuri thinks she's one of the most down to earth people she's met. She's really nice and cool to be around. Sayuri's looking forward to talking with her more in the future.
choon-hee jeong — It's Lee Hyori. She met her at the Lee Hyori Charity Games and they talked for a bit. Sayuri pretty much idolizes her now.
hikaru kurogawa — UTADA, UTADA, UTADA. Sayuri actually froze up when she first talked to her, but damn is she awesome. Met her at the Lee Hyori Charity Games and everything! How awesome is that? It's freaking awesome.

acquaintances

chinatsu katase — A nice girl she met through the community. Though they haven't spoken much, it was nice to talk to her the time they did. They recently met at the Lee Hyori Charity Games and she's as awesome as she was when she spoke to her online. Sayuri lent her LocoRoco. NPC.
mayu maruyama — A girl she met at the Lee Hyori Charity Games during the baseball event. They sat next to each other and started up a conversation. She was nice and they seemed to be pretty similar in several ways. That's pretty badass.

notes

fun facts

→ Ming can make her, as mentioned before, blow up pillows and also sparkle. That's one heck of a compliment.
→ She's been trying to learn Taiwanese, but hasn't been able to get a hang of it.
→ She thinks any guy that speaks Italian well is hot.
→ A person who is exceptionally good at playing the guitar is something she also considers hot.
→ She can secretly play drums. Song she can play the best? Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight.
→ She doesn't like playing drums in front of people, though. Don't ask her why, she won't answer.
→ Has a resistance for spicy foods that's extremely difficult to believe.
→ She chews gum when she's really nervous or feels like she's going to get easily flustered.
→ She wears shorts most of the time. They're the most comfortable thing to wear.
→ Thanks to Ming, she can't wear shorts as often as she likes. Feel free to guess why.
→ Laying a finger on her DS Lite is basically asking for her to kill you.
→ Currently obsessed with Rhythm Heaven.

special facts

Categories: Honolulu, Hawaii | Characters