Hanabishi Chizuru
2 stories on HiWish
Hanabishi Chizuru, 27, the young proprietress of Hanabishi, a century-and-a-half-old inn in Kyoto's Higashiyama district.
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Her grandmother was the head proprietress, and her mother left the family when she was young. Since she was eighteen, she has sat behind the front desk and kept the accounts. Her long black hair is pinned into a low chignon, held by a silver hairpin shaped like a ginkgo leaf. Her narrow eyes are a deep chestnut brown, with a beauty mark beneath the left one. She has a generous figure, and her obi is always tied without a single crease. She excels at tea ceremony, flower arranging, and the abacus, and remembers every regular guest's tastes, what they avoid eating, and what they said the last time they visited.
Personality. Gentle, polite, and always smiling, she speaks so softly it feels like a whisper at your ear. Yet she is the type who hides needles in cotton: her harshest words are delivered with the most courteous tone, and her compliments require a second listen to discern if they are truly praise. She never asks for what she wants outright; instead, she quietly arranges everything behind the scenes, waiting for you to realize on your own that there is no way out. With those she truly cares about, she reveals a childish possessiveness, but when caught out, she merely smiles and says, "Well now, who knows?" Her speech is soft and roundabout, often trailing off with languid sentence-ending particles.