Kagehira Mika

Name: Michi
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Name: Mika Kagehira
Canon: Ensemble Stars
Age: 19 years old
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Appearance: Here
Canon point: Raison d’etre Prologue

History: Here

Personality answers:

Who in your character's canon influenced the most growth in your character? What do they think about this character?

Shu Itsuki is at the core of Mika’s character growth, both for worse and better. Since they were children, Mika has been wholly obsessed with Shu Itsuki from the moment they met. His decision to go to Yumenosaki to become an idol was solely for the purpose of going to the same school as him. During that time he was happy to exist near him, despite being called awful things and being treated as an inconvenience. But through their worst times, Mika always stayed with him faithfully and when Shu was strong enough to fight, he brought Mika up with him; pushing him to throw out the idea that he was nothing but a doll but guiding him and inspiring him to become an artist of his own, with his own unique tastes that could rival Shu and stand next to him as an equal. Despite Mika’s reluctance and difficulty adjusting, Shu never allowed him to give up. Through it all, there is no one that Mika loves and admires more than Shu both as a person and as an artist. No one comes even close to what Shu is for him. While he refers to Shu as a mentor, the nickname is really a play on his name and is not an accurate representation of his love and admiration. In Mika’s eyes, Shu is his ideal partner in life and in art, even if he has grown to understand that he is allowed to be hurt and frustrated by the things the man does. There’s little questioning that he is at least in some very real way in love with him, even calling him “darling” at one point when he wasn’t allowed to use his normal nickname.

What does your character think about physical appearances? Are they the sort to meticulously primp themselves, or could they not care less?

For idols, physical appearances are important and a necessary aspect of their appeal to the fans. As an orphan, Mika grew up with little concept of maintaining his personal appearance; not doing much of anything to care for his appearance. Even now, Mika is constantly questioning his own appearance. For the better part of canon it was directed more specifically at his heterochromia, as it was something he was judged harshly for and treated badly because of. These days he has come to recognize that there are people that like that strange part of him and he is not so bothered by it anymore. He still questions peoples’ perceptions of his appearance and appeal, but he has become much more comfortable putting himself out there. Up until more recently, he relied on Shu’s “maintenance”, where the other would take care of his appearance and his health, but has become a lot more self-sufficient now that they’re in different countries for long periods of time. He is very knowledgeable and keeps a good routine, although he still manages to neglect himself at times when he loses focus or has other things on his mind. But when he knows that he has work or he is going out and will in some way be representing Valkyrie, he’s very particular about making sure he represents his unit well. He also has his good friend Arashi who is well versed in makeup and grooming techniques as a former child model and someone who puts great effort into making sure she looks good to teach him and help keep him looking his best.

What is your character most afraid of?

Being an orphan who has been bounced around a lot when he was younger and did not find himself a more permanent foster family until he was older, Mika’s greatest fear is being tossed away by the people he loves most. It’s because of this deeply rooted fear he has that in the past, that when the old Valkyrie was torn apart and Nazuna left their unit to join the juniors of Ra*bits, he struggled a lot to understand it at first and then when it really sunk in, it hurt him deeply and took him a long time to properly work through. He didn’t want to believe that the person he had loved and admired as his own brother had truly left them and wouldn’t be coming back. When he did realize that things would never be the same again, it broke his heart. Even though deep down he still loved him and wanted to see him, his heart and his trust were in pieces and he didn’t know how to face him, often avoiding him. Despite Shu encouraging him to try after he’d left for Paris, it wasn’t until raison d’etre that he truly brought himself to be vulnerable and go to him for support. He was able to gradually rebuild those feelings of trust and affection, but for a long time he had to battle with feelings of abandonment and betrayal before he could put himself in a position where felt he was at risk of getting hurt again.

What is your character's biggest ambition at their current canon point? To what lengths would they go to see it to fruition?

At his current canon point, Mika is currently staying at the dormitory in Ensemble Square in order to finish up his last year of school and focus on his work with Valkyrie. Shu questioned him at the beginning of raison d’etre to see what his intentions were for the next year after he had graduated, assuming that Mika would want to move to Paris to be with him in the future– only for Mika to tell him that he intended to stay in the dorms. While Mika would love to move to Paris to be with Shu, he mentally tells himself that it’s not enough just to want to be with him when he would be imposing upon the landlady due to his poor grades not allowing him to go to the same university Shu was attending. With most of their work as an idol unit being domestic to Japan, he decided that despite his selfish wants, he should stay there. Recently he began pushing himself to start putting his own artistic works into Valkyrie’s stages and start truly creating his own identity separate from the style that Shu had founded it with. It has been a struggle for him, but he has gradually begun putting the things he loves into their songs and choreography, allowing Valkyrie to become a reflection of both of their artistic styles and widening their range. He continues to work hard both on his own as well as with Shu to raise money for their activities; participating in part time jobs and accepting solo work on top of the live performances and activities that they do together as a unit. It is no exaggeration to say that Mika would devote his whole life to Valkyrie, body and soul, without an ounce of complaint. Even if it killed him, he would go to hell with Shu without a second thought or a single regret.


Inventory: Besides the casual clothes he had on him at the time, Mika also has a sewing kit, a plush cat in pink and purple that has clearly been patched up by hand, a pocket full of cheap sugary candies.
Powers/Abilities: All of his skills are human, however, as an idol he is exceptionally talented as a musician; singing and dancing at a professional level. He is also an exceptional artist, capable of replicating perfect forgeries of artworks and studying with a variety of mediums including but not limited to: NFTs/digital art, painting, sculpting, jewelry making and costume design and sewing. More recently he also began acting– performing both on television and on stage in musical productions with Dramatica, the theater troupe in ES. He also has a fair bit of experience in modeling, doing regular gravure shoots and other promotional materials as an idol.

Samples: Here & Here
Player Goals: At his current canonpoint, Mika is just beginning to explore his independence after years of simply following Shu Itsuki and treating himself as a mere doll. He’s made a great deal of progress when it comes to making friends, but in the end he still largely relies on Shu and the close friends he’s made. I am very interested in taking him out of his comfort zone– but also giving him an opportunity to spread his wings and make choices for himself. He proved during the SS qualifiers and in the Machina event in the SSVRS that he could not only adapt to dangerous and out-of-this-world scenes but also thrive in them.
Soul Choice: Carnivora, specifically based on a black panther.