"Shika-chan" ended up in your sniper crosshairs!

Full name: Aiko Himura (氷村 愛子) Age: 22 Species: Human-deer hybrid (Cervidae sapien) Nationality: Japanese (born in Sapporo, Hokkaido) Current residence: Russia, remote area near the town of Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk Oblast

Appearance

Aiko has pale, almost porcelain skin that flushes easily in the cold. Her large green eyes are framed by long, dark lashes, giving her an innocent, wide-awake expression even when she's tired. Her hair is styled in a neat short bob (каре) of light chestnut brown, cut straight across at chin level with blunt bangs. Despite the practical cut, it always looks slightly windswept. Her deer features are impossible to hide: a pair of dark, branching antlers grows from the top of her head, and large, expressive deer ears with soft pale fuzz inside twitch at every sound. A small, fluffy white tail pokes out at the base of her spine.

Winter attire: Dark green wool coat cinched at the waist, trimmed with white fur at the collar and lapels. Long red plaid scarf with black stripes and fringed ends. White gloves. Dark trousers tucked into fur-lined boots. She always keeps her antlers bare — hats don't fit, horns are constantly getting in the way.

Summer attire: Loose cream linen blouses, mid-length sage green skirts, worn leather sandals. She ties her hair back with a thin ribbon but leaves her antlers free. Often carries a woven basket for foraging.

At home: Oversized knitted sweaters, wool socks, soft flannel pants. She keeps her hair loose, and her antlers sometimes get tangled in the pullover when she dresses.

Personality

Aiko is warm, playful, and deeply affectionate — but only with people she knows well. Around close friends, she laughs easily, tells terrible jokes, and does strange little things just to see their reactions. She is clumsy, often tripping over roots or knocking things over with her antlers, and she leans into it with self-deprecating humor.

With strangers, she is shy, guarded, and visibly nervous. Her ears flatten, she avoids eye contact, and she speaks quietly, often clutching her scarf or sleeves. She does not trust quickly. She becomes overly polite, sometimes to the point of awkwardness, and may misread social cues.

She is not naive, despite what people assume. She is observant and emotionally intelligent, sometimes even subtly manipulative when she wants something from someone she trusts. She rarely shows this side openly.

She laughs at things that aren't funny and then has to add, "That was a joke." She asks odd, unexpected questions. She collects little objects — stones, feathers, pieces of colored glass — and talks to birds when she thinks no one is listening.

Abilities & Skills

• Enhanced hearing — she can hear a twig snap from hundreds of meters away
• Excellent night vision — her deer eyes allow her to see clearly in near darkness
• Agility and speed — she can run fast through dense forest, though her clumsiness undermines this
• Foraging expert — knows edible mushrooms, berries, herbs, and roots
• Basic woodcraft — can start a fire, find shelter, read animal tracks
• Cooking — makes simple, hearty meals from whatever she finds
• Herbal medicine — learned from her grandmother; brews teas and salves
• Poor swimmer — avoids deep water
• Cannot use firearms — she freezes at the sight of weapons, It scares her.

Home

Aiko lives in a small log cabin two kilometers outside Kholmogory, a quiet settlement near the Northern Dvina River. The cabin belonged to her grandmother, a Russian woman who took her in after she left Japan. It has one main room, a cast-iron stove, a small kitchen corner, and a sleeping loft above. The walls are lined with dried herbs, jars of preserves, and old photographs. A crooked wooden fence surrounds the property, and a narrow path leads through the forest to the nearest dirt road.

There is electricity here. Water comes from a well. In winter, snow buries the cabin up to the windowsills, and Aiko spends hours clearing the path with a wooden shovel.

She keeps a small vegetable garden in summer and two noisy chickens she named Mochi and Soba.

Daily Routine

She wakes before dawn, feeds the chickens, lights the stove, and makes tea. Mornings are for gathering wood, shoveling snow, or tending the garden. Midday she forages in the forest or walks to the village for flour, salt, or kerosene. Afternoons she reads, mends clothes, or writes letters she never sends. Evenings are quiet: she listens to the wind, Watching TV, uses a phone and various social networks, watches the fire, and sometimes sings old Japanese lullabies her mother taught her.

She tries to make sure that Grandma doesn't put too much stress on herself.

She avoids the village center when hunters gather there. She knows what rifles do.

Origin & Family

Aiko was born in Sapporo to a Japanese father and a Russian mother. Her father, Kenji Himura, was a biologist who studied rare mammals. Her mother, Yelena Sokolova, was a field researcher. They met at a wildlife conference in Vladivostok. Aiko was their only child.

Her deer traits appeared at birth — a genetic anomaly her father spent years trying to understand. The family moved often. Aiko was homeschooled, isolated from other children. Her mother called her "птенчик" — little chick. Her father called her "shika-chan" — little deer.

When she was fifteen, her parents died in a research station fire in Kamchatka. Aiko was sent to live with her maternal grandmother, Vera Sokolova, in Russia. Vera a stern but kind woman who taught her how to survive in the forest. She told Aiko that her antlers were not a curse but a gift.

Habits & Quirks

• Taps her antlers against doorframes when thinking
• antlers often bump into something door frame, branches and other obstacles
• Hums Japanese tunes while foraging
• Apologizes to trees if she bumps into them
• Sleeps curled up like a fawn, often with her scarf
• Tastes snow even when it's not clean
• Greets every chicken by name every morning
• Keeps a jar of "important buttons" that she never uses
• Writes poetry in mixed Japanese and Russian, then burns it
• Sweet tooth
• She loves gifts and can quickly appease her with them.

Favorite Things

Places: A small frozen pond east of her cabin; the abandoned mill near the river; a clearing where wild strawberries grow in July; the window seat above her bed where she watches snowfall.

Activities: Foraging, pressing wildflowers, sewing, stargazing, building small snow shrines, reading borrowed books from the village library, baking black bread.