fire in your eyes and fire in your hearts
The frigidly beautiful daughter of an old Hingan family who influenced the elite of the capital city until her engagement was broken by her fool of a fiancé. Tsuna is not one to have regrets or pity for herself and has simply spun her new tale into one woven with gold─there are riches to be won beyond Hingashi's towering gates and she intends to make them her own.
✧─Early Life
A Much-Needed Miracle
The Mizuhiki clan is an old shake family, owning Bukyo's largest shrine for a kami of war and producing priests and shrine maidens generation after generation since the country's founding. While as influential in society as they were when they were founded, they were nowhere near as rich, and this was because of the foolishness of the previous head of the family. While the shrine was well-tended, the halls of the main family home were threadbare, and spare coin had to be carefully allotted to keep up appearances so they could maintain their status.
In this era, there was a miracle: as the owners of the capital city's largest shrine for a kami of war, it was common for marriages to be arranged between the clan and the high-ranking samurai families of Bukyo. Mizuhiki no Tsuna, the only child of the new head of the family, possessed a frightening maturity and sharp sense for business, and her future marriage was guaranteed to benefit both her family and whichever one she would marry into. She was promised to the Furukane clan when she was but seven summers old, and her wit, resourcefulness, and diligence were regarded as a highly worthwhile investment by her future in-laws, enough so that they actually let her oversee the family's finances despite her incredibly young age and before she was legally part of the clan.
The Furukane son she was meant to marry, on the other hand, only cared to use his social class to push others around and didn't seem interested in filling his head with much more than hot air. Since Tsuna was never in it for love she would have been content with letting him do his own thing once they were married and she officially established her position in the Furukane clan, but her blockheaded fiancé didn't see things her way. Maybe he was angry, bored, or resentful, but overall he was stupid enough to throw Tsuna away without a thought to the consequences; in their teenage years he took a courtesan as a lover and plotted Tsuna's downfall, concocting stories and half-baked evidence of harassment and brutality against the girl and accused her of insulting the esteemed Furukanes.
To his shock, Tsuna didn't even flinch at his condemnation of her in front of both their families and members of the bakufu at a banquet. Their betrothal contract had a very generous recompense clause written in it should it be one-sidedly broken before the marriage, which was more than enough to keep the Mizuhiki clan standing for some generations more. The Furukane elders were furious with the son for destroying a highly beneficial engagement and losing their money but Tsuna's father was even more enraged by the reputation-damning accusations, and in the midst of the chaos the woman of the hour silently disappeared.
Tsuna was the kind of person who never had grand dreams beyond where her life had already led her—she would have been content even as a miko for the Mizuhiki family shrine. But she did have a passionate, almost vicious affection for coin and always privately felt there were more riches in the world to be won than in isolated and conservative Hingashi. So when her engagement fell apart she took it as a sign, making her way to Kugane before anyone could stop her and hopping aboard the first ship bound for the Othardian mainland.
When her ship arrived on the Yanxian coast, Tsuna joined up with a local mercenary crew; her mother was a kunoichi who married into the Mizuhiki clan for love and insisted on her children learning ninjutsu regardless of whether they choose to enter the shrine as priests or marry into another family. Tsuna herself preferred her daggers to a gohei and fit right in among the ranks of bodyguards-for-hire. She bounced between crews and caravans in the moons after her arrival on the main continents, drifting slowly westward through Othard and Ilsabard until she arrived in Aldenard.
✧─The Hero's Journey
A Realm Reborn
Tsuna's initial homebase in Eorzea was Ul'dah, the city of riches. She worked with a few of the mercenary crews based in the city, testing the waters and building a reputation for herself. In Thanalan, loyalty was bought with coin, so it wasn't an issue for her to join a crew one day and leave it the next if it couldn't provide her what she wanted.
Heavensward
Stormblood
Shadowbringers
Endwalker
Dawntrail
✧─The Warrior of Light
Personality
✓ | Playful, sharp, ambitious, clever, confident, charming, resourceful, capable, thrillseeking, protective of loved ones
✗ | Calculative, sly, greedy, competitive, petty, capable of being neither merciful or just, passive-aggressive, likes to be in control, domineering, possessive
Appearance
Image
5'2". Short overall for a Midlander woman, but in Othard she's considered quite tall for one. She doesn't feel any particular way about her height—between the Hingan Au Ra and Roegadyn populations, she was rather average. Tsuna knows she's beautiful and uses it to her advantage, so she religiously takes care of her appearance even on the road. It's very rare to see her without her signature red eyeshadow and lipstick in pristine condition.Tsuna walks confidently and with a sway to her hips guaranteed to turn heads. Not one to reveal her whole hand all at once, her expressions and mannerisms are masterfully restrained—sometimes her face is literally hidden behind a folding fan.
Features
Her hair is long, silken, and black. It ends in light, subtle waves at her waist, and she tends to keep it braided back half up and half down. In more prepared situations she'll keep the whole thing up in a braided bun. Her eyes are the colour of champagne.
She has a weird complex about her thin eyebrows and gets embarrassed if you point them out, even if you think they're endearing or cute, but she feels even more weird about penciling them thicker since she got them from her mom. She's also a fervent user of skin glamour prisms; she has many scars from her years as a mercenary and doesn't particularly like them.
Wardrobe
While growing up as a daughter of an influential shake family she dressed conservatively her whole life, so she became more adventurous with her fashion choices once she left Hingashi and now regularly exposes her slender arms and long legs. While she still dresses with Eastern elements in her clothes, she'd be unhappy having to go back to the full furisodes of her aristocratic youth—or worse, a tomesode like her married mother.
The red higanbana fascinator and ruby earrings she frequently wears are accessories she's had for many years. She also has a black face mask she wears in combat and stealth jobs that covers her nose and mouth, which is something she picked up in Eorzea.
The resplendent red gown she wears in the cities is a modern Yanxian-style dress and was gifted to her by Hancock during post-Shadowbringers. She knows he paid a hefty fortune for it, but he won't tell her just how much. He could have easily gotten her a grand kimono but noticed her aversion to them, so it was a truly thoughtful gift.
Voice
Heavily Hingan-accented. Her voice is silky but sharp, and she sometimes speaks with a surprising bruqueness for a woman of her status.
Repertoire
Tsuna underwent brutally extensive training in multiple fields in preparation for her marriage between the ages of seven and eighteen. She's skilled at board games, poetry, and traditional Hingan dance, she can play the biwa and koto, is able to hold a steady debate on a number of philosophical and scientific topics with the best of Sharlayan's scholars, and is an expert at Hingan etiquette and tea brewing. She's been out of practice since leaving Hingashi, but a lot of those lessons are still deeply ingrained in her, and she's struggled with shaking off the lingering perfectionism her tutors held her to. She's a little bitter about having so many skills but none of them being real hobbies; all that time and effort put into bridal training only for the engagement to never go through would make anyone sour about it, even her, so she yearns to pick up something she can't help but be clumsy with. That's a secret, though.
KUNOICHI─NINJA, Rank SS
Trained in traditional Hingan ninjitsu since she was mature enough not to run around swinging knives willy-nilly, Tsuna is at a level that rivals even career shinobi thanks to her mother's strict, dilligent training. What she lacks in raw physical prowess or aetherial capacity she makes up for in spades by sheer perfected technique.
A beautiful pair of Hingan-forged tanto Tsuna was given on her 18th nameday by her brother just weeks before she left Bukyo.
An black soul crystal that once belonged to her mother when she was an active shinobi, sent to Tsuna during Stormblood as soon as her mother and brother caught wind of her being back in Hingashi. Tsuna wears it on a kumihimo bracelet on her right wrist, just as her mother did.
GOLDSMITH─Rank SSS
With an eye for jewels and precious metals, Tsuna makes a killing through commissions under Eshtaime's Lapidaries. So great is her talent as a jeweler that she caught Lolorito Nanarito's eye well before coming into the spotlight as a Warrior of Light, and requests for custom pieces by her make a list spanning years.
Relationships
Upon their first meeting in Stormblood, Tsuna and Hancock were instantly struck with a mutual attraction and fascination with each other. She knew her companions couldn't bring themselves to trust Hancock and his connection to Lolorito, but that same drive for money made her able to read his intentions better than anyone. Hancock is an honest man—shrewd, of course, and unwilling to do anything for free—but honest and fair where his Ul'dahn compatriots would be cutthroat. Their friendship came naturally and easily, their exchanges witty and gazes heated until eventually Tsuna caved first and took him to bed. Through Stormblood and post-Stormblood they kept up both their friendship and carnal trysts, but things quickly came to a halt when the Scions began to fall.
Tsuna, despite considering herself a selfish creature, couldn't bring herself to abandon her colleagues when they lay unconscious in the backrooms of the Rising Stones. As Shadowbringers began her visits to Kugane drew to a complete stop, and she expected that to be the natural end of her and Hancock's nighttime escapades and the strange feeling in the back of her throat the mornings after. But despite how well she read him before, she didn't expect his letters; they came slowly at first, accompanied by scrolls from Hingashi that could help the sleeping Scions and words of comfort. But as the weeks drew into moons they came more and more often, and the contents contained less of a friendly concern for the whole group and became more personal and almost tender.
Though grappling with what she was beginning to understand wasn't just a physical, primal attraction, Tsuna had to shove her quill and his letters and her not-quite-burgeoning feelings aside when the Scions returned and Fandaniel arrived on the scene and announced the start of the end of the world. They remained in the back of her mind throughout Endwalker all the way up until the Scions began to gather adamantite for the Ragnarok and were surprised by the arrival of dozens of their allies from over the years gathering in Scholars' Harbor—Hancock himself included, face to face with Tsuna for the first time in nearly three years. Though his words were light and his assurances calming, Tsuna could feel his gaze on her the whole time they were on the harbor. He briefly caught her before she could leave with the others, pressing a 100 gil coin into her hand and telling her he would come back for it later.
When all was said and done, the Scions and Warriors returned from Ultima Thule to nurse their injuries in Sharlayan. In the middle of the night, Hancock came to Tsuna's side in the Annex and quietly confirmed what she hadn't allowed herself to hope for but secretly wished for: that she hadn't read too deeply into his letters, that he meant everything he said, and that she was as precious to him as all the riches of both Ul'dah and Hingashi.
That being said, they're not officially together at the start of post-Endwalker—in between expeditions to the top of Mount Rokkan, they've been taking things slow as Hancock tries to court her in a gentlemanly, sincere way he thinks Tsuna deserves, in person rather than in letters this time. They formally begin dating after the expedition's conclusion, having an intimate heart to heart in the Rakusui Gardens.
| Alphinaud Leveilleur | It's people like Alphinaud that make Tsuna wish she was a merchant because it would be so easy to swindle the clothes off him. SO easy. But as his colleague it often falls on her to protect him from scams so he kind of owes her a life debt, which is just as good as seizing his allowance. It was also pretty funny how utterly oblivious he was to her and Hancock's flirting over his head in the Ruby Bazaar offices. |
| Tataru Taru | Considering not just their similar personalities but the amount of time the two spent together at the Ruby Bazaar during Stormblood, it makes sense that Tsuna and Tataru view each other as kindred spirits and have a friendly relationship. They often went out for a night on the town to attract handsome men with full purses of gil to buy drinks and gifts for beautiful women—Tataru was pleased with the attention of the local men alone, but if Tsuna had the ulterior motive of making someone else jealous by flirting with other foreigners… well... |
| Lunya Lanya | A girl after Tsuna's own heart; Lunya clocked her as a fellow connoisseur of riches on their first meeting and immediately offered to pay her better than her current employer should she join her party of adventurers. Tsuna accepted and neither woman has ever looked back since. Being more pragmatic and much less tenderhearted than Lunya, Tsuna sees her as a little sister and will helpfully offer her own two gil when Lunya needs to make a tough decision. |
| Theodaux Valerian | A surprising friend of Tsuna's—Theo's a very compassionate, selfless man who typically frowns upon those obsessed with coin and status, but he and Tsuna have similar upbringings in a religious aristocratic house and it's been something to bond over for them. They're close enough that he even mother hens her like he does to Lunya or Majj, which she paid him back for tenfold when they were helping the Bozjan Resistance out by teasing him about his obvious crush on Miro. |
| Kintaro Mizuhiki | Tsuna's father, the head priest of the family's shrine. Both devoted to his duties and doting to his daughter. Tsuna could easily be described as a daddy's girl but she seems to view his affection with a mixture of exasperation, embarrassment, and contempt. As adoring as he is, he's also a very traditional man and if he must marry his daughter off he intends to do everything in his power to ensure it's to a good family and that she doesn't embarrass herself by being seen as uneducated or crude. Despite how much she hates how smothering he is, Tsuna does love him and wants to make him proud, which is why she agreed so easily to her first engagement to begin with, but things might not go the way he wants them to this time. He nearly fainted when he heard of the bakufu wanting to arrest her. |
| Tsubaki Mizuhiki | Tsuna's adopted older brother, who was brought from a distant branch of the family to ensure their father would have a male heir when it was decided Renge could have no more children for her own health. A surprisingly forward thinker for Hingashi's upper social echelons, he's quite affectionate to his mother and sister and was the one who secretly secured Tsuna's getaway to Kugane. He likes to mess with his people, especially his father, and is excited for the inevitable drama to occur when Kintaro finds out his precious Tsuna has fallen in love with a ijin merchant. As annoying as his teasing often is, Tsuna thinks highly of him. |
| Tsukimi Mizuhiki | The youngest daughter of Tsuna's uncle Ginjiro, her favourite cousin and a bright, excitable miko for the family shrine. She and Tsuna were born within months of each other and thus have been as close as sisters since infanthood—when she learned Tsuna's engagement was ruined and she left Bukyo the normally peppy girl flew into a rage and had to be stopped from cursing the hair off Furukane no Mugetsu. She stumbled on Tsubaki's correspondence with his servants stationed in Kugane and learned about Tsuna's visits to Hingashi, so she's been forcing him to deliver his 10 page letters to the Ruby Bazaar offices every month, which Hancock's been dutifully forwarding to the Rising Stones. She calls Tsuna "Nachan" and Tsubaki "Bakniisan". |
| Renge Nightfall | Tsuna's mother, a kunoichi who worked as a bodyguard for the previous head of the Mizuhiki clan and in a very rare case for Hingan couples of their social status, she married his son after falling in love with him. She's considered the source of Tsuna's wit and intellect. Since her mother-in-law's passing, she's taken over the operation of the household affairs. You would imagine they would be quite close, but it is in fact Renge that Tsuna's the least close to of her whole family, primarily because of Renge's involvement in making Tsuna the perfect bride as a child. |
| Mugetsu Furukane | The brain-addled former heir of the Furukane clan before he destroyed the most successful marriage his family ever had the opportunity for. A hedonist who thought himself in love with a woman whose services he purchased and who couldn't stand the idea of his fiancée having more hold in his family and no particular affection for him. His grandfather, the current head of the Furukanes, recently told him that if he can get Tsuna Mizuhiki to agree to marry him again he'll be pardoned for sabotaging the family… |
The Unsundered
Ariadne
(she/her)
An actress in the World Unsundered. In Amaurot, one of the few places one was allowed to clothe themselves differently without social stigma was the theater, and Ariadne loved the stage.
✧─Miscellaneous
Trivia
Her favourite flowers are peonies and camellias. Hingan is her first language and she's fluent in the Othardian dialect of Common—the differences between it and Eorzean Common are usually smoothed over by the Echo. She dislikes tea—she considers it to be glorified leaf water and while she'll accept a cup to be polite she often has to force herself to finish the cup. She feels kind of guilty about it, especially since she's developed a liking for Eorzean coffee. She's never had the time to own one but deeply desires a pet cat. A big one, if possible. She was embarrassingly a little starstruck with Byakko upon their first meeting. Tsuna owns a Shirogane apartment under a pseudonym—Setsuna Koizumi—to avoid an immediate link between it and her family.
TV Tropes
The Ace.
Verses
TO THE EDGE OF OUR FATEPacific Rim AU. Tsuna is a SCION operative with connections to the Vesper Bay black market. In particular, her paramour is in the East Aldenard Trading Company and negotiates with the P-Science team for the purchase of harvested primal organs. |
Motifs
Similar Characters & Inspirations
Kafka (Honkai Star Rail) Saito Miyako (Oshi no Ko) Shindo Ayaka (Kyoukai no Kanata) Yae Miko (Genshin Impact)
Etymology
Tsuna is a Japanese name used in the Edo period for both aristocratic and commoner women—it's written with the kanji 綱 meaning "rope" or "bond" and is a name that implies control. Mizuhiki is the ancient Japanese artform of knot-tying, which is most commonly used to create decorations for envelopes or even paper jewelry.
Footnotes
Header photo by Grant McCurdy.