Character · Noragami
Hiyori Iki
She was hit by a bus pushing a stranger clear, and now her soul falls out of her body several times a day.
In Otakana the clue reads: Schoolgirl whose soul slips out of her body
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Noragami
- Letters
- 6 · Hard
Hiyori Iki is a middle schooler with a normal life and an abnormal problem. Since the accident her spirit slips loose whenever it feels like it, trailing a cord from her back and a tail she is embarrassed about. In that state she can see gods, phantoms and the parts of the city ordinary people walk past, which is how she meets a god who advertises on a wall.
The tail is the running gag and the cord is the danger. Cut it and she does not come back. Adachitoka use her as the reader's way in, since she is the only member of the main trio who has to go home, finish homework, and explain to a doctor why she keeps collapsing in public places.
She is also the practical one. Yato is a mess, Yukine is a teenager with a grievance, and Hiyori is the person who feeds them, breaks up their arguments and knows enough judo to end a scene with it. Bones animated the manga in 2014, and her habit of waking up somewhere she did not lie down survives the adaptation intact.
Spelling HIYORI
HIYORI is 日和, a real Japanese word for fine weather, the kind of day you would plan an outing around. Six letters, three beats, hi-yo-ri, with no long vowels and no doubled consonants anywhere. The trap is the Y, which sits in the middle as a full consonant rather than a vowel, so HIORI and HIYOURI both feel plausible and neither is right.