| Mishiro Usui | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name |
Mishiro Usui |
| Nickname(s) |
"Blank-stare" Usui |
| Alias |
Ruler of the Mirror World |
| Race |
Human |
| Gender |
Female |
| Age |
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| Eye Color |
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| Occupation(s) |
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| Status |
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| Relative(s) |
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Mishiro Usui (臼井 白) is the main protagonist of the video game, Blank Dream. She is the only playable character in the game.
Background[]
Wishing that she had never even existed, Mishiro Usui left a suicide note detailing how much she hated her boring life before she threw herself into a lake at the age of 16... but of course, that's not the end of the story. When she came to, she was in the Mirror World, a dark and wet place that was neither heaven nor hell. She had no memories of herself, nor that of her name.
Looking around, Mishiro then finds a mirror into which she looks into the eyes of her reflection. Suddenly transported into a familiar room, she explores, and finds a knife on the desk. Taking it in her hands, she ends her life, and once again returns to the Mirror World, standing before a shattered mirror.
Then her reflection instructed her: "Find the mirrors in this world, and break them." She then learnt the only way to regaining her past, and maybe grant her wish, is to search for all the mirrors in this world and break them by ending her life in front of them all over again.
Appearance[]
Mishiro has an appearance of a high school student and has a balanced proportion. Her skin complexion is creamywhite while she has a long, wavy, charcoal gray-blackish hair. She has long, black eyelashes. Her iris is colorgradient denim-blue light-dark. She also has thin eyebrows, an upturned nose, and plain lips. Her height is 5'6" and her weight is about 120-140 lbs.
Outfit[]
She wears a black Japanese-styled uniform. It has a colored buttoned jacket that is made of pitch-black shiny silk fabric with a notched collar designed to it. Inside, it is tucked in with a flint- gray tunic shirt. At the uppermost part of her uniform is tied together with a candy gradient berry-red down-styled, long ribbon. She also have a thigh-length short agean-peacock blue mix checkered skirt. Finally, she wears jade-black fabric, long socks with spider-black lace lace with plain-styled shoes.
Personality[]
She seems to have a quiet, shy yet very peaceful personality. In her life before the Mirror World, she is distant and emotionless. She is also cold towards her own self and is introverted. She lacks any love or even likeness for herself, and is seemingly rough to herself if she continued to exist in this world.
She shows herself in the game that she is a pessimist due to her plan of suicide in the lake. She also seems to be an introvert and anti-social. She has a good spirit, but doesn't enjoy much in her life. She has suicidal tendencies due to the problems and obstacles she encounters in her life, from family conflicts to the death of a close friend. Depending on the player's choices, she can also be clumsy and reckless when it comes to the endless puzzles the Mirror World challenges her with.
She became quiet and submissive ever since the day she cut the delinquent's hand at school, when her mother had started becoming strict and using violent solutions in the name of "correction".
Her attitude throughout the game is decided on by the player's choices. She is controlled by the hands of the player through her actions towards others in the game. She can be merciless and violent if the choice chosen by the player was that of a violent nature. She may also act rather socially towards the other souls in the Mirror World. Her additional traits can be added, depending on her past experience of the player's choices.
Story[]
Waking up in an unknown world, Mishiro Usui finds a single mirror next to where she woke up. Looking into it, she sees nothing, not even her own reflection, however, as she turns around, her reflection appears and calls out to her, surprising her slightly. When Mishiro talks to her reflection, she is asked if she knows who she is, but answers that she doesn't know who she is or what her name even is. Her reflection then tells her to look into the mirror and, although thinking about looking away and leaving, Mishiro looks into the mirror.
Looking into the mirror with her reflection, suddenly, Mishiro is teleported to an unknown room that seems to be her bedroom. As Mishiro looks around, she finds a knife hidden in her drawer and to her shock, she subconsciously stabs herself with it, killing herself. As she lays dead on the floor, the mirror she looked at shatters and breaks. Mishiro is then brought back to the unknown world, facing the mirror and surprisingly still alive, despite feeling the impact of the knife into her throat but no evident wounds on her skin. Her reflection reveals that what she had seen was a memory of her past, and asks her if she now knows who she is.
Mishiro answers that she knows her name now, but still doesn't know who she is completely.
After conversing with her reflection in the broken mirror, the player can now guide Mishiro to the door at the middle of the room, leading to the World's Center location, where Mishiro will first meet Yuzu Hanasaki. The two exchange names, before the player is allowed to explore the Mirror World's realms.
Weapons[]
Although Mishiro does not uses weapons to fight with the evil spirits, she does obtain several of them. She acquires three weapons while roaming throughout the realms. These are mostly used for utility purposes.
Knife[]
At the beginning of the game, Mishiro can equip this at the briefcase during her flashback. She uses this for the completion of objectives, or to get important items relevant to solving the puzzles in the game.
If the player wishes to, pressing X and going into the inventory then selecting the Knife will give the player the choice to end Mishiro's life by stabbing the blade into her throat, leading to a Dead End.
Axe[]
Mishiro can equip this when from the wooden box inside the the Realm of Greenery, at the room to the north of the map. The axe is used for cutting the tree at the bottom right of the map, in return giving Mishiro Firewood needed to burn the main tree that leads to the Mirror Room inside the Realm of Greenery.
Hammer[]
Mishiro can equip this from the wall in the east room of the Realm of Love. The hammer is used to play the "midoredomi" sequence in the room south of the Smiling Soul's room. This may be used for striking the pumpkin in the Realm of Love, which, however, will lead to a Dead End. It is also used for striking the Bronze Statue at the western end of the main hallway in the Realm of Spirits.
Relationships[]
Chika Usui[]
She has a strong bonded relationship as mother, and daughter. Obviously, she is a caring, kind, and sweet mother towards Mishiro. She also seems to be protective as seen in her line, "Tell me first when washing you hands", hinting about the electrocution at her flashback on her birthday. But after the accident where Mishiro cut the school delinquent's hand, her mother become very strict towards her, causing pressure on Mishiro.
If the player follows the route leading to Ending 2, her mother abandoned her when Mishiro lost her memories from her time in the Mirror World.
Ayato Hinohara[]
Mishiro meets Ayato for the first time when she was staring out at Mirror Lake. There, Ayato tells her about the rumor of the lake and a little bit about himself. After this encounter, they began meeting each other occasionally, and the two became good friends. Ayato was killed by her mother, Tamaki, in a car accident in where Ayato had pushed Mishiro out of the way to save her life. It is later revealed that Ayato is Mishiro's cousin. Ayato becomes an important part of Mishiro's existence, as she needs to kill Ayato to grant her wish, but Mishiro can decide to not fulfill her wish and let the souls in the Mirror World to be free, including Ayato's soul.
Near the end of Ending 1, before the Mirror World fades, he tells Mishiro that she's still alive, having been saved by a passerby who found her body in the lake.
Seiichi Hinohara[]
He is Ayato and Utsuro's father and husband of Tamaki Hinohara. He lost his wife and children, the children both killed by his wife and Tamaki having committed suicide out of grief.
If the player follows the route leading to Ending 2, he asks Mishiro if he could adopt her, because they're alike; both having lost many in their lives, and now live alone—as well as the fact that Mishiro reminds him of his daugther, Utsuro Hinohara.
It is revealed in Blight Dream that Mishiro Usui took up art under his guidance and became a popular artist known for her abstract art style. He interacted with said game's protagonist, Michiru Orihara, to introduce her to Mishiro's art because Michiru was found captivated by one of Mishiro's art pieces in Mashiba Hospital. When Michiru went to Mishiro's art exhibition later on, she was captivated by the painting "Blight", and realizes that to remember Seichii and other important people without her Memory Notebook, she has to etch them into her soul, ultimately leading to Seichii being killed by Michiru in order for her to remember him forever. It is currently unknown whether Mishiro was aware of Seiichi's demise, but it is safe to assume that Mishiro was devastated by this.
Tamaki Hinohara[]
She's Ayato and Utsuro's mother and wife of Seiichi. She likes art and was loved by her father, Rinzou Usui. But later fell into depression because Rinzou impregnated her, so she and her mother moved away from her father. But she knows that the child has no sin, and so decided to keep the child. This child grew up to be Utsuro Hinohara. She then finds happiness through marriage with Seiichi and had a son, Ayato Hinohara. She killed her own daughter at Mirror Lake, having harbored hate towards the Usui family. One day, finding that her son, Ayato, is close with an Usui, she tried to finish the girl off with her car, but instead killed her own son. This caused her to have unbearable sadness and eventually led to her suicide.
Ryotaro Sengoku:[]
Mishiro first meets Ryotaro in the Mirror World. He is Chika Usui's brother and colleague of Shinji Usui. Ryotaro, at first, seems to be a pedophile. He is charmed when he saw Mishiro's picture and saddened upon hearing that Mishiro is strained by her mother. So he's excited to meet Mishiro and to try and console her in an attempt to cheer her up. Of course, he isn't actually a pedophile, he just really cares for Mishiro and is somewhat captivated by her beauty. He died before this could happen, because of a fire in the west building of his workplace, and her retained his wish of meeting and talking to Mishiro. His soul wandered, following Mishiro in the year that led to her inevitable death. He then finds himself in the Mirror World, where he meets Yuzu and Mishiro.
He strives to be a good uncle to Mishiro, even in death, and cares about her well-being despite not at all having met her during his life. His wish had been fulfilled when he had met Mishiro, and he even had the choice to leave when he wanted, but despite this, he still chose to see out Mishiro's journey to the end.
Should the player choose to follow the route leading to Ending 3—by showing Ryotaro all of his memories through the three mirrors—Ryotaro will find peace and fades away to, assuming, heaven, having fulfilled his wish of meeting Mishiro.
Utsuro Hinohara[]
Utsuro is Mishiro's cousin. Utsuro displays a rather hostile attitude towards Mishiro at the start of the game until the very end. Having broke during her time as the ruler of the Mirror World, she was filled with rage and jealousy when a girl with a similar wish as her own ended her life, thus entering the world built solely for her wish, and her wish only. When Mishiro had been chosen by the Mirror World to be the usurper to this realm, Utsuro took it upon herself to make it so that she was the ruler once more; even going as far as to find ways to kill Mishiro, just for the sake of fulfilling her lost wish.
Yuzu Hanasaki[]
Despite having only met solely in the Mirror World, Mishiro and Yuzu get along quite well. When Mishiro first meets Yuzu, the latter shows a positive demeanor towards her, excited to have met another soul in the seven years she'd spent in the Mirror World. Yuzu also expresses her own worry for Mishiro when she decides to venture deep into the Mirror World to find her mirrors and break them, to hopefully grant her wish that she has yet to remember. If the player has Mishiro talk to Yuzu at the World Center, Yuzu will ask Mishiro if venturing into the depths of the Mirror World and having to face the many obstacles ahead bothers her, showing her concern for her.
The extent of their friendship, though short, is also viewed when Mishiro herself finds Yuzu's mirrors and helps her regain parts of her past and even making her realize her wish that she had forgotten. Yuzu is thankful to Mishiro for this. Mishiro also shows her own concern for Yuzu, when Yuzu says that she won't break her mirrors despite knowing that it will grant her own wish. Later on, if the player manages to reach the "Blank Dream" ending (Ending 1), when everyone except for Mishiro are about to vanish and move on to the afterlife, Mishiro expresses how had she made her wish of never existing come true when she could have, she mentions what would happen to Yuzu's feelings for Utsuro and how that would never have come true for her, showing that to some extent she values her friendship with her.
When Yuzu also tells Mishiro to find her grave and visit it at times, Mishiro promises that she will. As Mishiro's soul is about to be brought back to her body in the real world, she says that she won't ever forget the time she'd spent with Yuzu and Ryotaro in the Mirror World, despite it being short, with Yuzu thanking her for making her wish come true. When Mishiro wakes up in the hospital alive again, she mentions that she clearly remembers Yuzu and Ryotaro in the Mirror World and later on she does indeed find and visit Yuzu's grave from time to time, and even prays for her soul along with Utsuro's, Tamaki's, Ayato's and Ryotaro's. Also, prior to coming back to her body, Yuzu asks Mishiro to hold on to her feelings, which Mishiro says that she will. It can be said that due to this, though their time as friends was short when they were in the Mirror World, Mishiro cherishes her friendship with Yuzu and will never forget her and the others.
Gallery[]
.jpg "AyatoAndMishiro(1).jpg (268 KB)")
.jpg "BlankDream(4).jpg (575 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Mishiro never smiles throughout the game until the player achieves "Ending 1: Blank Dream" where she will pleasantly smile, while crying tears of joy, upon finally seeing Ayato's painting.
- Mishiro's first name (白) translates to "white" in Japanese. It is also a play on the game's title, as the meaning of Mishiro's name closely associates with the word "blank".
- This goes the same with the meaning of Utsuro's name.
- Mishiro is considered the Mirror World's "usurper" rather than its new "ruler", as stated by the Mirror World itself.
- If Ending 1 is achieved, Mishiro pursues the same career as her grandfather did; a painter. Although unlike Rinzou, it is stated in Ending 1 that Mishiro was self-taught and that her art style is largely different from Rinzou's, as stated by one of the spectators in the same ending.
- If Ending 3 is achieved,
- If Ending 5 is achieved, Mishiro becomes another Evil Spirit within the Mirror World at the same state as Utsuro, which thus makes her the second former ruler. Though this does go the same with the four other endings, however, the difference being is that Mishiro becomes trapped in her own insanity in a similar fashion as Utsuro.
- Mishiro was mentioned in Blight Dream through the protagonist, Michiru Orihara, discovering Mishiro's art novel at the back of her desk, and her painting of a daphne "Blight".