when you are the heiress to a clan so highly esteemed as the saionji clan, you must learn to SURVIVE. you must evade poisoned meals, stage lights dropped from above, and rats riddled with diseases in your futon, for a true heiress must look past such while maintaining an iron facade. living in the clan -- the head of the school for traditional dancing -- is nonstop, brutal competition to survive. students were jealous of her position, how the adults favored her for her grace, and so plotted to abolish her; yet to no avail. living in the broad saionji mansion was difficult enough, for while hiyoko was practicing, student after student would try their hand in harming the dancer beyond the ability to ever succeed in traditional dance, and such only hardened hiyoko's mentality. she taught herself to lash out on those pathetic dumbasses before they could ever leave a mark, drill it in their brains that she is their superior; they will NEVER amount to what she can.

hiyoko was assigned male at birth. however, most of her identity is built around feminity and living up to expectations. no matter her gender identity, she has a lot of weight placed upon her shoulders. aside needing to get fitted for new attire, and taking hormones, not much had changed for hiyoko. it's worth mentioning that hiyoko hides her birth gender from the general public, due to her grandmother believing that it would trash her career.

having a childlike build and an adorable face also left hiyoko with multiple disadvantages. hiyoko was the victim of multiple csa incidents, as well as general harassment from older men. specifically, white men with a bad case of yellow fever -- leaving hiyoko to feel no remorse for them if they faced terrible fates. which, quite frankly, was rather often, due to her status as a traditional dancer. such a steady flow of negative experiences ultimately left hiyoko as a sex-repulsed asexual. she actively sees a therapist for such.

luckily, hiyoko was permitted to stay with her grandmother after she had stepped in and pulled the heiress from such an environment as dangerous as the saionji household; however, such came with drawbacks. her grandmother thrived in the saionji clan's pride, and so hiyoko was never allowed to see her parents. they never did anything to help hiyoko when everyone was trying to kill her; so being allowed with her now seemed redundant and useless, in her grandmother's opinion.

yet, through all her grandmother's harsh teachings of traditional japanese dance, hiyoko retained a sharp hatred of everyone with her family's name -- and desired their timely death. the one exception to this is her father, whom married into the family and took the surname of her mother; for he saw the best in hiyoko and cared for her as well as he could. sure, her grandmother took good care of her -- pardoning her strict mindset for practicing her dance -- but there was good reason that hiyoko hated anyone and everyone born under the saionji family name.

even deeper?

HE CHASED ME AND HE WOULDN'T STOP -- despair verse.
stats. the world is at ruin. like many of her other classmates, hiyoko turned to the false comfort within the lies of JUNKO ENOSHIMA -- an inevitable path of destruction -- being fed fable after fable of how the two of them, just the two of them, could destroy anyone who had hurt them, who had done them wrong.

TAG, YOU'RE IT -- predespair verse.
stats. what does she have to fear? hiyoko, as a student of hope's peak, makes it her duty to enjoy herself for as long as she can.