Ichika Amasawa

Appearance
Ichika has straight scarlet hair that is tied into twin tails and laced with red ribbons, and gradient dark-red eyes. Noted by Kushida, Ichika's colorful eyes are like hollow empty voids had lost touch with reality. She is seen so far wearing the school formal attire consisting of an orange blouse paired with an unbuttoned crimson blazer with a blue ribbon, a short-length white sailor striped pleated skirt, and black thigh-highs. Ichika possesses high levels of seductiveness and appeals that can effortlessly charm the likes of Ken Sudō into believing her words for a moment based on how she conducts herself in feeling him up with one finger.

Personality
Ichika has a very mischievous and boisterous personality, devilishly teasing every person she has interests in with her shenanigans, even when it annoys them. Because of that, she was described by Kikyō Kushida to have a rotten, smug, and condescending attitude. Ichika is extremely playful with her lexicon of words, not taking what she says in the open seriously and regards them as fun and amusement by evading someone's question or telling a bald-faced lie. Ichika has a whimsical manner of doing things, choosing to act according to her impish impulses, although sometimes following through with whatever she plans unless it is of interest to her after careful deliberations to change them. In many ways, Ichika has shown to be fickle, quickly changing her mind at any given moment in time even in the midst of negotiations. She is perceptive and understanding of what others may think of her based on her actions and in many situations, she has pointed out what others wanted to say before they even get a word out and shooting their arguments and excuses straight down making them speechless. Ichika can come off as quite provocative with her shrewd remarks, making others feel stingy in the way she acts around them without caring of how others may judge her as. She knows how to make others vulnerable and play to her strength of lambasting her opponents to negatively alter their state of mind and forcing them to make detrimental mistakes. On the flip-side, she also knows how to appeal to the strength and weaknesses of others and make them think positively, in turn causing them to trust her and doing what she wants without delay. However, when she gets serious the only word that can describe her would be terrifying as she won’t stop unless she gets her desired outcome and is capable to displaying her malicious aura.

In some regards, Ichika can be often seen as tolerant of what people's words are towards her such as when Kiyotaka calls her some sort of demon for doing whatever she pleases recklessly in spending her private points on things, although this privilege may only be given to her beloved senpai. She has an abundance of self-esteem and values herself highly when people request her services when making deals, demanding more in return through conspiring with them and ensuring she reaps some sort of benefits. Ichika has a habit of speaking casually with a relaxed tone in all sorts of situations she finds herself in unless she feels upset and offended by what she heard. She is a misfit within her classroom as nobody dares to reach out to the former and befriend her socially. Despite having amazing communication skills, Ichika admits that she is bad at making friends with the people in her class and doesn’t make the effort or have the intent to do so. Nonetheless, Ichika is thoughtful and reminisces about her way of life back in the White Room and the peers she got to know there which happens to matter to her much more than Kiyotaka which is her idol of worship, due to the difference in time spent and lack of familiarity. She dislikes seeing outsiders like Kikyō Kushida get in the way of expelling Kiyotaka as people like them have no right to interfere except for those who are rightfully involved such as herself.

She shows an immense amount of care for Kiyotaka and will take steps to protect him at any cost and has been able to hide her secret affection for him from everyone. She is perspicacious and sagacious when planning ahead and is on the tier of Arisu and Honami in those aspects. Moreover, she is perfectly capable of being aplomb, sangfroid, and maintaining a high sense of unflappability in demanding situations as well as astute enough to turn them into her advantage at a moment’s notice. She is also not above resorting to physical violence even against someone who is disabled if they ever got under her skin. She is also cautious to not overstep her boundaries as she recognised her physical injuries being an impediment and decided to sit out and recover before taking her next action.

Background
Not much is known about Ichika's history except for the fact she was raised in the White Room as a member of the 5th generation. It was later revealed in her monologue that she was born using in-vitro fertilisation as test-tube/IVF babies, from her parents that, according to her, are said to be geniuses. When she was finally old enough to understand how the world works around her, the one thing she learns and knows about her parents was the fact they were extremely talented. As such, Ichika considers herself as an incredibly blessed child born with the qualifications to also become a genius like them. Other than that, she doesn't know or recall anything about her origins outside of that birth. She has never once seen her parents' faces or met them throughout her life. In spite of remaining clueless about her parents, Ichika shows no interest or care in ever finding out where her parents are now, what they're doing and why they had chosen to put her in the White Room. She had described her way of life in the White Room to be monotonous where a talented person like her wasn't welcomed. It was solely because Ichika's existence itself runs in direct conflict with that of the White Room, which served to nurture children's talent not by one's excellent genetics like her, but by the environment they were raised in.

For the White Room, Ichika felt she was surely just another experiment to them. While she was not really all that opposed to being an experiment, Ichika can't help but find herself pondering if the White Room actually thinks they'll succeed with their objective. Ichika concluded a long time ago how it's nigh impossible to completely homogenize intellect, personality, and ethics together, always believing that her existence alone serves as the greatest proof of that. Ever since she was a child, Ichika has been proud of being different from those around her, though she never showed it. She would kill off the light in her eyes and act indifferently to go through the processes that were taught to her, all the while questioning the purpose of the White Room's existence. It was said that Ichika harbour doubts on whether she truly wants to grow up dedicating her life to furthering the White Room's ideals and teachings. Ichika reflects if she really possesses the resolve to put forward her life on the line, toiling day after day daily, desperate to become the world's utmost example of a successful upbringing. With that way of thinking in mind, Ichika rambled on how kinda pathetic it was as she thought White Roomers are better off wanting to live more freely the way they desired themselves to be.

To Ichika, she would hate to spend the rest of her days and life locked up in such an idealistic world sought after by the White Room. When she first heard about the success story of Kiyotaka Ayanokōji and how he was a being whose preeminent success stood out from the rest of the White Room, Ichika was skeptical and didn't believe whatever they say to her regarding him. This was due to all the painstaking efforts she had taken to make herself appear the best among the White Room students, doubting how Kiyotaka could even possibly scored far higher than her in every way possible. However, after seeing the data of Kiyotaka, meeting and talking to him in person, Ichika had finally come to acknowledge how special of an existence he truly was to her and the White Room. Nonetheless, Ichika apologises to Kiyotaka in her mind that although she really wants to side with him, the former understood that's just not how fate is going to play out between them. Her reason for not supporting Kiyotaka was that there are those who she has known for a longer period of time back in the White Room compared to him who Ichika only recently got to know and talk to after enrolling into Advanced Nurturing High School. Understanding this much about her feelings, Ichika realises she was being way more compassionate than she initially thought she was. Since she and Kiyotaka has a common pedigree, she feels as if he would be the only one who would truly understand her and henceforth devoted herself to helping him in the background.

Through this reflection of herself, Ichika felt she'll be looking on from a distance as one of Kiyotaka's faithful admirers who respects him once 'that time' finally comes where she reaches a decision. In short, Ichika will be on the lookout to prevent any 'outsiders' who are not involved with the White Room from trying to get Kiyotaka expelled as she doesn't want them to interfere and will willingly help him without any hesitation if the situation ever presents itself.

Abilities
Juxtaposed to her appearance, Ichika has high physical abilities and academic abilities having an A in both of those categories in the OAA as such she is easily qualified and was able to smoothly fit into Class 1-A. Similarly to Kiyotaka, she is precocious beyond her age and is indubitably in the upper echelons of all the students in the school. Being trained in the White Room, her understanding of subjects like advanced Mathematics is on par with the likes of Kiyotaka when he's serious which is already way above the standards of some of the smartest students and teachers. Just from memory alone, she was able to answer correctly a history question that Kei and Kiyotaka were studying on who are a year above her. Her adaptability score fails to capture her true talents, and it is hinted that it could be as high as Arisu Sakayanagi and Kiyotaka when he gets serious, but like him purposefully chose not to do so. Hence, not standing out as much as she could have.

Athletically, Ichika described herself as a powerful girl who happened to be stronger than most of the boys in the school. This was evidently the case when Kiyotaka regarded Ichika's pure combat prowess to be levels above the likes of Ken Sudō and Kakeru Ryūen who are already top of the year in their own right. While they may have her beat in terms of raw physical strength, she's significantly ahead of them when it comes to possessing combat techniques and authentic experiences. This was more or less indicated when Ichika was able to easily toy with and single-handedly handle both Suzune Horikita and Mio Ibuki all on her own without difficulty, despite having already sustained a heavy physical injury to her body prior to the match against the two showing an immense level of dexterity and fortitude. She criticised them for being weak even compared to her injured self, and commented on how they would just be a burden and cause unnecessary worry for Kiyotaka if they went to him. Excelling at judo, she was able to dish out different excruciating attacks such as a body throw on her targets without them even realising the incoming attack until it was too late as they've already been hit or on the floor. She is also easily capable of switching up different fighting styles instinctively and dictate how the battle proceeds by playing tricks with her opponent's mind, making them move in a specific pattern to her absolute advantage and incapacitating them. Ichika thinks highly of her own abilities and can correctly evaluate other people's strengths effortlessly such as when she told Tsubasa that she wasn't on equal footing with her after assessing each other's physical strength.

She is also known to be intelligent, manipulative, and cunning, which is acknowledged by Kiyotaka himself to be comparable to Arisu Sakayanagi. She was able to keenly see through whichever strategy Kikyō Kushida was scheming such as recording the battle Kiyotaka had with Tsubasa Nanase as evidence to get him expelled and threatened her to do otherwise. Her academic prowess was sought out by Suzune to save Ken Sudō from expulsion during the Partner Exam when he couldn't survive on physical strength alone to tackle the test. Ichika would go so far as to use violence on Kikyō to force the latter in not only revealing her true personality to the former but also giving up on the plan as well. She can easily get into the minds of even the most guarded individuals and slowly pick off at their weakness. According to Ichika, her one and only weakness that can be exploited against her was said to have been Kiyotaka as she has no other connection with anyone else, which makes her especially dangerous. That said, even she admits that option can’t be considered a weakness as taking down Kiyotaka was as hard as taking her down which would be equally as unrealistic. She seems to be very well-informed and knowledgeable of people's past history and dealings, particularly the meeting between Kikyō and Miyabi Nagumo. She has remarkable deduction skills, correctly guessing what Kushida had planned in mind beforehand if her group falls at the bottom of the leaderboard during the Uninhabited Island Exam. Furthermore, according to Kiyotaka, no matter how hard Tsubasa tried, he deduced that she herself probably wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance in emerging victorious over Ichika even if she's given the duration of a lifetime. In terms of speed and stamina, Tsubasa thought that Ichika and herself were evenly matched against each other but was sorely mistaken.

Ichika has far superior knowledge, experience, and skills where she could effortlessly navigate through the forest with an excellent understanding of the terrain and was able to effortlessly outmanoeuvre and outrun Tsubasa. She was able to steadily maintain her sharp focus without tripping up while running in the complete darkness of night. She's able to perfectly conceal her presence from others but selectively show just enough to let Kiyotaka knows she's nearby. Ichika's running speed, agility and stamina is exceptional to the point that Tsubasa at her best had trouble catching up to her from behind and was unable to keep up with the former who continuously widened the distance between the two. As a girl who was once raised in the White Room for years while also being part of the 5th generation, Ichika happened to developed very high-level interpersonal communication and collaboration skills, unlike Kiyotaka. It was easy for Ichika to adopt the attitude of a normal high schooler and adapt to the school's environment easier than Kiyotaka did. She could skilfully and deceitfully pull off a rich assortment of different facial expressions to show how talented she was with her acting performance in front of others. Kiyotaka admits that it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Ichika has extraordinary acting skills and the uncanny ability to put plans into action without much difficulty. She knows how to put herself in the perspective of others and that's why she's able to come up with perfect countermeasures masterfully. It was not far fetch to say that her reputation could have been easily be on the tier of the most popular students in school like Honami Ichinose if she ever choses to do so.

Her reaction time, hand-to-hand prowess, and endurance when fighting could only be described as paragon and flawless. She was perfectly capable of proficiently engage with two people at once while severely injured and showing no signs of fatigue whatsoever. Not only that, she controlled the flow of the battle by forcing them to distance themselves, thus, allowing herself to get used to the pain of her injuries and delay them by engaging in frivolous conversation. Only after Suzune observed closely that she was breathing faster than normal were they able to gain the upper hand and catch her off guard. However, even after being restrained, she escaped shortly after by capitalising on an opening. It was said that even before the battle that she was on the brink of collapse but the speed and power of her attacks showed no signs of deterioration or weakness. Only Kiyotaka could confidently win in a fight but even then, it would not be an easy match as it could go either way in some situations, depending on many variables. Both Suzune and Ibuki considered her to be a completely different level to them and somewhat similar to Kiyotaka with him slightly edging out by using the concept that males are usually considered stronger than females.

Her reconnaissance, surveillance and infiltration techniques are also exemplary. She was able to stalk Kei without her ever being aware of her presence and perfectly blend in to her public surroundings without onlookers being suspicious. She patiently did so for two weeks and ascertained enough intel to encapsulate Kei's personality and her relationship with Kiyotaka. Using her percipient insight, she was able to corner Kiyotaka into allowing her to enter his room after shooting down all his failed ambiguous excuses and having flawless counter-measures to all of his lies. Ichika is also extremely perceptive to her surroundings as she was able to notice the Year 2 Class A students organised by Arisu Sakayanagi stalking her every movement despite their best attempts to conceal their presence, labelling their frivolous attempts as being cute.

Quotes

 * (To Suzune Horikita): "I won't be convinced with just words alone~ I'll have to make sure of it with my own eyes."
 * (To Suzune Horikita): "Other than strong guys, I guess I like a guy who can cook, how's that?"
 * (To Suzune Horikita): "That's no good. I told you didn't I? That I like a guy who can cook? If I'm not partnering with a good cooking man, then what's the point in partnering at all?"
 * (To Suzune Horikita): "How ‘bout you try and make Sudō-senpai into a cooking pro now? I wonder if you'll have time for that though. I'm a popular girl, so like, if you're too slow I might settle on a partner already."
 * (To Suzune Horikita, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, and Ken Sudō): "I get it I get it. Well then, I'll do you guys a special service. Normally I'd wanna pair up with a guy who's real good at cooking, but...if you can satisfy my tongue, I guess I can, like, pair up with Sudō-senpai for you since he's such a strong fighter and all."
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "From the fact that you've hidden your girlfriend's shoes, were you two doing lewd things?"
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "Ah, are you finally admitting it? Well, it's not like I don't understand your feelings of wanting to hide it, but I know about it already, so there's no need to lie to me, OK?"
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "I kept it a secret for now out of goodwill...But, I wonder if I shall reveal it?"
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, and Kei Karuizawa): "This isn't good, a young couple alone with the door locked~"
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, and Kei Karuizawa): "Well~ that's true. But when I look at you two, I feel something lewd between you."
 * (To Kei Karuizawa): "Your clothes aren't messy, and the bed is tidy, so it doesn't look like you were doing anything."
 * (To Kei Karuizawa): "I thought you would have an illicit sexual relationship for sure...I mean having sex."
 * (To Kazuomi Hōsen): "You want me to help you out again, huh? And on the uninhabited island? Are you thinking ’bout doing something vulgar?"
 * (To Kazuomi Hōsen): "Want to see my panties? You can sneak a peek at them under the table, yeah?"
 * (To Kikyō Kushida): "I know it may not seem like it, but I'm being pretty gentle with you. It totally shouldn't hurt that bad."
 * (To Kikyō Kushida): "Aaah, I really wanted to sit back and watch from a frontrow seat. I'm sure he'll defeat Nanase-chan without even hurting her. I reeeally wanted to see it~."
 * (To Kikyō Kushida): "I'd rather you not come to such a vulgar conclusion~. It's not that I ‘like’ him romantically or anything, it's more that I ‘love’ him…? No, I suppose it's much, much more than that… A feeling that goes far beyond the likes of love."
 * (To Kikyō Kushida): "I'll say it again. Ayanokōji-senpai is a very special person to me. I'll never allow him to get expelled by an outsider like you."

Name Etymology

 * The name Ichika consists of kanjis that mean "one" (一) (ichi) and "summer" (夏) (ka).
 * Ichika's surname Amasawa consists of kanjis that mean "heaven, sky" (天) (ama) and "marsh" (沢) (sawa).

Trivia

 * The only kind of people Ichika was ever known to be seen interacting with throughout the story so far in Advanced Nurturing High School, are none other than mostly students who originally hailed from Class D except for Mio Ibuki.
 * The types of boys Ichika will allow herself to be paired up with are either a strong man who can fight or a skilled chef who can make scrumptious dishes attune to her taste. She seems to prefer any of these two qualities in a male partner but her expectations are high as even Ken Sudō barely passed her first criteria and only approved after Suzune Horikita and Kiyotaka vouched for his strength and the latter even offering to cook for her.
 * She is considered to be the second White Room student to have been introduced into the story and enrolled in Advanced Nurturing High School after Kiyotaka Ayanokōji was the first to enter it. The third student being Takuya Yagami.
 * Suzune Horikita remarks how her overwhelming fighting prowess are almost exactly identical to that of Kiyotaka without knowing of the fact that they're both raised in the White Room since early childhood.
 * For the 2nd Year arc, when asked about her aspirations for the next year, she answered:  "To enjoy myself, obviously. Eating a lot of tasty food, falling in love. That's what being a student is about!."