Chisato Nishikigi

Chisato Nishikigi (錦木 千束) is the main protagonist of the original anime series, Lycoris Recoil. She works at Café LycoReco, along with her partner Takina Inoue.

Appearance
Chisato is a young girl with medium-length blonde hair and red eyes. She usually wears a red ribbon, tied in a bow on the left side of her hair.

When operating as a Lycoris, she wears her red 1st Lycoris uniform paired with black knee-high socks and brown loafers.

When working at Café LycoReco, she wears a red samue with dark blue and lime-green accents, a dark blue kimono skirt, and a beige apron wrapped around her waist. She also wears an Alan Institute pendant around her neck at all times.

Profile
Said to be the strongest Lycoris of all time. She enjoys solving private-sector problems that the DA does not address. Unlike other Lycoris, Chisato is heavily committed to using exclusively non-lethal means to neutralize her opponents.

At Café LycoReco, she works joyfully and cheerfully as the self-proclaimed poster girl.

History
Like all Lycoris, Chisato was adopted by the DA as a young girl. She was originally part of the Offensive Security Force Training Course, where she received an A+ in her total evaluation in operational action. She would eventually transfer into the Special Guard Force Tactics Unit, where her grade dropped to a D-.

Despite being a top-tier Lycoris, she has a congenital heart disease, which makes her fragile. She wouldnt remain alive for much longer, but with help from the Alan Institute, she receives an artificial heart with some conditions to meet.

While stationed at the DA Tokyo Headquarters, she shared a room with Fuki Harukawa.

She has gained a reputation from Kusunoki and her peers for being the top-tier Lycoris who single-handedly protected the Old Radio Tower from a terrorist attack, her fame spreading even to rural areas.

At some point, Chisato left the DA and chose to work independently under her Lycoris license at Café LycoReco.

Episode 1: "Easy does it"
In the early morning of a day in May, Chisato receives an urgent phone call from Mika informing her of an emerging situation that requires her assistance. Mildly disgruntled by being summoned earlier than appointed, she traverses the quiet streets of Tokyo. Arriving at her target location, she stops to observe the destruction caused by Takina Inoue, expressing glee at the barrage of gunfire nearby. Following the abrupt resolution of the arms deal, she finds that her skills are no longer required, and as such, is picked up by Mizuki Nakahara.

Takina arrives at Café LycoReco following her dismissal. Chisato enters cheerfully, and the two are introduced to each other by Mika. Noting that they will be partners moving forward, Chisato is unable to contain her excitement, receiving Takina with her signature upbeat energy. She inquires about the injury on Takina's face, and upon learning the truth, calls Fuki to express anger at her violent outburst.

Takina questions why Chisato isn't working at the DA, despite her renown as a top-tier Lycoris. Chisato simply states that she's their "problem child". The two get to work resolving a variety of small private sector errands as Chisato introduces her new partner to the work she performs at LycoReco. The nature of these tasks comes as a surprise to Takina, differing greatly from her usual responsibilities. Taking a break in the park, Chisato explains that their duty is simply to help people in their local community. Despite their differing philosophies on the role of a Lycoris, Chisato requests Takina to lend LycoReco her strength.

The pair later receive a task from Abe to obtain information from Saori Shinohara concerning her stalker. While waiting at a café, Chisato tells Takina about the DA's history of cover-ups and commits to getting her re-instated. After Saori's arrival, Chisato discovers she had unwittingly photographed an arms deal, surmising that her stalkers were in fact the criminals in the picture. As such, she recommends that the three of them stick together for the night. Takina and Saori go ahead while Chisato returns to café LycoReco. Upon her return, she finds Saori has been taken hostage, and Takina engages the stalkers in combat. She reprimands her for her recklessness and emphasizes that she needs to value people's lives.

Chisato engages the stalkers, expertly dispatching the group without sustaining injury. Using a combination of gadgets, evasive maneuvers, and non-lethal bullets, she avoids killing any of her opponents. She goes a step further and tends to the wounds of one of the stalkers, stating that her commitment to preserving the value of life extends even to her enemies. As such, she refuses to hand them over to the DA for fear that they may be killed, opting to use a Cleaner instead.

Returning to Café LycoReco, she notes that tracking down the arms dealers before the DA could help net Takina her reinstatement. Shortly after, Shinji Yoshimatsu arrives at the establishment for the first time, and Chisato and Takina welcome him.

Episode 2: "The more the merrier"
Chisato and Takina begin their mission of escorting a hacker named Walnut, who is hunted by their rival hacker Robota. They take a train to their designated location; on the train, Chisato gets Takina to try her lunch. The duo and Walnut are ambushed by armed hitmen. They successfully fake Walnut's death and Walnut reveals to be a young girl named Kurumi. Kurumi decides to live within cafe LycoReco and lends them her hacking skills. Takina learns of Chisato's impressive bullet-dodging ability.

Episode 3: "More haste, less speed"
Chisato visits Direct Attack HQ for physical tests, Takina tags along with her in an attempt to persuade the Commander into deploying Takina back in the HQ. After arriving at the HQ, Takina is insulted by her old partner, Fuki, and some other Lycoris, Chisato immediately tries to defend Takina and challenges Fuki and her new partner to a 2v2 match against her and Takina. Takina is upset about being rejected from the HQ and decides to spend some time alone at the fountain. Chisato follows Takina, trying to console her, she hugs Takina while other Lycoris start laughing at them. Chisato then lifts Takina up and swirls her around, telling her to move on and that she is so happy she met Takina and that she will eventually get her chance to rejoin DA and if she wants to go back she can but to spend time with her and her coworkers at LycoReco. During the match, despite Taking not showing up yet, Chisato effortlessly gains an upper hand, Takina finally joins Chisato and punches Fuki back. On the train back to LycoReco, Takina sits next to Chisato, accepts her candy saying Chisato is “really extraordinary” and decides to join the cafe's board game night, which she previously declined. They take a selfie together and send it to Mika with Takina shyly smiling in the photo.

Episode 4: "Nothing seek, nothing find"
After finding out Takina wears boxers as underwear, Chisato takes her shopping. Chisato wants to get Takina more fashionable clothes but Takina rushes her to the underwear stalls. Takina demands to see Chisato's underwear in a changing booth, Chisato reluctantly undresses her shorts to show hers and is embarrassed. After shopping, they have a meal at a restaurant, Chisato also helps a foreign couple get their order, whilst watching Chisato help them Takina looks to the sky and smiles, later in the meal when Chisato takes a bite of her food and looks at Takina whilst eating looking happy, Takina just stares at Chisato with her mouth open. They then visit an aquarium Chisato starts pretending to be a garden eel but Takina is embarrassed by it saying it makes them stand out unnecessarily, in front of the fish tank Takina asks Chisato more about her past. When Chisato gets sad when talking about the Alan Institute Takina runs out in front of the tank and poses as a fish to cheer Chisato up even though Takina formerly and likely still did find it embarrassing, when Chisato joins in they both start giggling and after seeing Chisato happy Takina smiles. Noticing Chisato was wearing her necklace outside of her shirt Takina smiles at her and tells Chisato she should wear it outside of her shirt anymore as it's “Really cute” Takina says whilst looking shy. They go home in the late afternoon, just after a terrorist attack led by Majima occurred. A while later, Chisato plans to discard Takina's boxers and tries wearing one but Mizuki walks in on her. Mizuki proceeds to publicly shame her in front of the cafe's patrons, Takina witnesses it and begins laughing.

Episode 5: "So far, so good"
Chisato and Takina are tasked with taking an elderly paralyzed man to sightsee around Tokyo. They take him to various locations. Takina discovers Chisato has no biological heart, she instead has an artificial heart implanted into her. Takina attempts to touch Chisato's chest to see if it beats, but Chisato recoils, telling her not to fondle her chest in public. They learn from the old man that his family was murdered by an assassin named Silent Jin and discover that the same assassin is currently after him. Takina fails to ambush Jin and is saved by Chisato. As the assassin is knocked unconscious, the old man demands Chisato execute Jin. Chisato declines and the man seemingly shutdowns. It's later revealed that the old man is actually already dead and Yoshimatsu uses both his corpse and Jin to manipulate Chisato into killing people. At the end of the day, Chisato lies on the floor relaxed and talks to Takina about the earlier events. Takina, knowing that no one else is around them, lays her head on Chisato's chest to confirm it doesn't beat.

Episode 6: "Opposites attract"
Due to multiple murders targeting Lycoris, Takina moves in with Chisato. They play rock-paper-scissors games to split chores, Takina loses every time and is assigned to do all household work. A while later, two thefts break into their house and are swiftly handled by Chisato. Yoshimatsu orders the hacker Robota to turn Majima's attention toward Chisato. At the cafe, Mizuki gives Takina advice on how to beat Chisato in rock-paper-scissors games. In the evening, Chisato goes on a delivery mission alone and is ambushed by Majima and his terrorists. She narrowly escapes with the combined help of Takina, Mizuki, and Kurumi. After getting her wounds treated, Chisato wants to continue living together with Takina, but Takina only does so if Chisato wins another game of rock-paper-scissors. Takina finally emerges victorious and joyfully celebrates.

Episode 7: "Time will tell"
Chisato peeks into Mika's phone and discovers that he has a secret meeting with someone that night. Chisato, Takina, Kurumi, and Mizuki discuss who Mika will be seeing. Chisato assumes it is the Commander and she may be trying to get both Mika and Chisato back into HQ. If they go back to HQ, the cafe will be closed. Chisato caresses Takina, saying it would be lonely if they go back to HQ. Four of them decide to go to the meeting to see who the person is. Chisato wears a red backless dress and Takina wears a black suit. Chisato and Takina get into the bar while Mizuki and Kurumi are rejected due to Kurumi's young appearance. Chisato and Takina find out the person Mika is seeing are Yoshimatsu and their meeting is rather a date. Having known it isn't an important meeting, they decide to leave. However, Chisato halts to eavesdrop on Mika and Yoshimatsu, causing Takina to accidentally bump her face into Chisato's butt. Chisato discovers that Yoshimatsu is the person who saved her by giving her the artificial heart, she then reveals herself to Yoshimatsu and Mika to show gratitude. Both Yoshimatsu and Mika are seemingly upset because they wanted to keep it a secret. Takina decides to wait outside. Chisato wants to thank Yoshimatsu but he avoids the conversation, claiming it's against their rules, and soon leaves. Takina meets Yoshimatsu on his way out, she expresses her gratitude to him for saving Chisato, Yoshimatsu simply replies that he has high hopes for Takina.

Episode 8: "Another day, another dollar"
As LycoReco begins running at a loss, Takina takes over the cafe's financial management. She and Chisato start doing more errands, including defusing a bomb and teaching Japanese. On Halloween, they visit a kindergarten, Chisato dresses up as a pumpkin succubus and Takina wears a cat-witch costume. While Takina is giving the children gift bags, Chisato sneaks in to get a gift from Takina but Takina refuses, claiming it's for the kids. They can see the cafe's finance getting better. Chisato avoids a call from Dr. Yamagishi, Takina grabs her phone and tells the doctor that Chisato will be coming the next day. On the next day, Chisato isn't at the hospital for her scheduled checkup. It turned out Majima broke into Chisato's safehouse, he doesn't attempt to kill her, but rather tries to know what connection Chisato has with Alan Institute, during this time, Chisato answers a call from Takina, assuring nothing bad happens. Despite that, Takina goes to Chisato's safehouse, she sees Majima but fails to kill him on his way out. Takina tells Chisato that if Chisato doesn't answer her call within three rings, Takina will immediately head over. In the late evening, Chisato is seen sitting on a bench outside the cafe, Takina sits next to her and hands her a gift bag from their earlier trip to the kindergarten. Chisato excitedly opens it and finds a pug charm, she puts it on her backpack, looks at Takina, and thanks her. Takina, looking at Chisato, briefly blushes then immediately looks away and urges her to go to the doctor. Chisato says that she avoids the checkups because she is afraid of needles, and Takina begins laughing and teasing her. The next morning, Yoshimatsu's assistant poses as a nurse, she sedates Chisato and then tampers with her artificial heart. Takina calls Chisato, but getting no answers, she rushes to the hospital.

Episode 9: "What's done is done"
Takina arrives at the hospital, she sees Yoshimatsu's assistant and attempts to shoot her but she escapes through the window. Takina anxiously tries to wake Chisato up. After a while, Chisato regains consciousness, surrounded by Takina, Mika, Mizuki, Kurumi, and Dr. Yamagishi. The doctor explains that Chisato's heart is now unable to be recharged, resulting in Chisato's death in 2 months. Takina is shocked and then attempts to go find and murder the nurse but Chisato simply tells her not to, assuring everything's alright, and her heart would fail soon anyway, due to its age. The commander persuades Chisato to return to Direct Attack HQ in order to begin an attack on Majima, Chisato agrees on the condition that they re-deploy Takina too. Mika tells Kurumi Chisato's story, in his flashbacks, Yoshimatsu watched as a 7-year-old Chisato demonstrated her bullet-dodging ability and then collapsed due to her heart failure, Yoshimatsu got Alan Institute to provide her a new heart that would last until her adulthood, Mika took Chisato in and promised to raise her into a killer for Yoshimatsu. Takina eavesdrops on them and decides to return to the HQ, telling Mika, Kurumi, and Mizuki that capturing Majima may help her find Yoshimatsu and he is the only hope to save Chisato. On the next morning at the cafe, Takina takes Chisato on a date. Seeing Takina not wearing winter clothes, Chisato gets her a sweater in the mall, but Takina rushes her to other locations before she can get a scarf. They hastily go for a meal and play arcade games. They arrive at the aquarium only to find it's temporarily closed, Chisato then takes Takina to go fishing instead. Takina asks Chisato if she is having fun, and she responds that it's always fun when she is with Takina. They then go by train to an empty park on a hill in the evening. Takina starts sneezing and Chisato gives Takina her scarf. Takina wants to see the snow with Chisato but the sky is clear. She tells Chisato that she is returning to the HQ. Chisato says she had a fun day and gives Takina a fistbump. Takina decides to leave to prepare for the oncoming operation. Chisato tells Takina to keep her scarf. Just seconds after Takina walked away, it begins to snow. Takina turns around, she and Chisato look at each other and smile before both go home.

Episode 10: "Repay evil with evil"
Chisato announces to Mizuki and Kurumi that the cafe is closing down. Discussing what they are gonna do after LycoReco's closure, Kurumi plans to move to Germany and Mizuki wants to meet a man in Vancouver. Chisato stays at the cafe with Mika, she tells Mizuki and Kurumi to invite Takina someday. Meanwhile, at the HQ, they presumably locate Majima's location and deploy all Lycoris, including Takina. Chisato sees Kurumi and Mizuki off as they head to the airport. At a prison, Takina interrogates an inmate and learns that Yoshimatsu was directly responsible for the weapon deal at the beginning. The commander and the Lycoris arrive at Majima's apartment only to find he already left, they conclude that Majima's target is the tower Enkuboku. Back at the cafe, Chisato puts a closure notice up, she and Mika have some coffee while Chisato looks at an album containing their old photos. Chisato suggests hiring people to keep the cafe open. Mika hands Chisato a Kimono. She puts it on and expresses her gratitude to him for raising her and being the reason why she met Takina. Mika breaks down, telling her that he initially used her heart surgery only for his own benefit and he promised to raise her into a hitman for Yoshimatsu. Chisato doesn't blame Mika, she is still grateful to both him and Yoshimatsu, Mika in response tells Chisato how proud he is of her. During the entrance ceremony at Enkuboku, Majima and Robota hijack the broadcast channel to tell the public about a large number of firearms scattered around the city. The commander calls Chisato and urges her to join the operation at Enkuboku, at the same time, the hacker Robota contacts Chisato and warns her not to intervene as he is holding Yoshimatsu hostage. Chisato wants to hear Yoshimatsu explains himself, she and Mika prepare their weapons to head to his location, the old radio tower.

Episode 11: "Diamond cut diamond"
After hearing from the commander that they couldn't contact Chisato and Mika, Takina gets off the operation bus. She tries to call Chisato but Chisato left her phone at the cafe. Takina arrives at the empty cafe, she assumes Chisato is looking for Yoshimatsu and then heads back to the operation. On the airplane preparing to take off, Kurumi learns that Yoshimatsu possesses a new artificial heart for Chisato, she notifies Takina of it, then she and Mizuki hastily leave the airport. Kurumi hacks into Chisato's phone and reveals that Yoshimatsu is being held hostage and Chisato and Mika are heading to the old radio tower. Takina decides to abandon the operation for Chisato, knowing by doing so she won't be deployed at HQ again. Majima and Robota continue to hijack the broadcast and show graphic footage of Lycoris, causing chaos among the citizens. Having arrived at the old tower, Chisato wants to ascend the tower alone and tells Mika to go home. On the tower, she eliminates multiple henchmen and finds Yoshimatsu tied to a chair. Majima shows up and closes the doors, making it too dark to see properly, while Yoshimatsu seemingly vanishes from the scene. Majima reveals that he can "see" in the dark using echoes, and he asks Chisato to go against Alan Institute. Chisato hears three rings from Yoshimatsu's phone on the ground, she proceeds to run and blindly fires multiple rounds. From outside, Takina breaks through the metal door next to her and lands several kicks on Majima. They have a shootout before both sides run out of bullets.

Episode 12: "Nature versus nurture"
Chisato and Takina continue the shootout against Majima. Majima briefly gains an upper hand thanks to his echolocation. Chisato manages to fire her gun near Majima's ears to temporarily deafen him and fire several shots at his stomach, causing him to pass out from blunt force trauma. Takina then ties him to the nearby handrail using her restraint device. Chisato and Takina lie on the ground to catch a breath, Takina tells Chisato she quit Direct Attack, and Chisato in response calls Takina an idiot. Back at the HQ, the higher command deploys LilyBell, a boy version of Lycoris, to dispose of all Lycoris due to their exposure to the public. Chisato and Takina split up to look for Yoshimatsu. Chisato finds Yoshimatsu on the floor above, he tries to shoot her because she refused to kill Majima. Takina interrupts and holds him at gunpoint, telling Chisato that Yoshimatsu used Majima to make Chisato kill and he was the person who tampered with her heart, and there's a new artificial heart in his briefcase. Yoshimatsu reveals that he already implanted the heart into him and urges Chisato to kill him and take it. Chisato declines, Takina then attempts to shoot him but is restrained by Chisato. Yoshimatsu's assistance arrives and pushes Takina off the platform, causing her to almost fall to her death. Yoshimatsu fires several shots at Takina. Chisato is desperate and shoots at his stomach; she then tries to treat his wound while both Takina and Yoshimatsu's assistant get back on the platform. Chisato is glad that Takina is safe, but knowing she wants to kill Yoshimatsu, urges his assistance to get him out of there and prevents Takina from following them. Takina collapses, and expresses that she doesn't want Chisato to die, Chisato replies that she should have died a long time ago if not for Yoshimatsu. Mizuki and Kurumi arrive on a helicopter. The duo Lycoris joins them to save the remaining Lycoris from their disposal. Takina starts using Chisato's non-lethal bullets. Kurumi manages to slow down LilyBell's advance. The Lycoris successfully give the network control to Kurumi. She locates Robota and calls the police on him, then broadcasts an advertisement, tricking the citizens into thinking that the Lycoris' footages were a trailer for an upcoming movie. The LilyBell are commanded to retreat. While Chisato, Takina, and other Lycoris are preparing to descend the elevator, Chisato notices her bag on the floor. She steps out of the elevator to pick it up and shows her friends that Takina gave her the pug charm. Majima suddenly shows up, and opens fire on Takina and the Lycoris inside the elevator, they manage to block the bullets. The elevator starts going down, leaving Chisato stranded and Takina helplessly screaming Chisato's name.

Episode 13: "Recoil of Lycoris"
On the tower with Chisato, Majima shuts down the tower's power and activates a 1-hour time bomb, he and Chisato start a shootout. In the elevator, Takina decides to climb the tower to get to Chisato while other Lycoris leave to treat the injured. Majima lets Chisato take a short break after her heart started to malfunction, and tries to explain his motives to her. Meanwhile, on a lower floor, Mika interrupts Yoshimatsu's escape, he violently knocks his assistant out and then tearfully kills Yoshimatsu to retrieve the artificial heart. Back on the top floor, Chisato continues her shootout against Majima, she is shot in her shoulder and is almost executed by Majima. Takina arrives and yells Chisato's name, Chisato then pulls Majima down, causing both to fall off the tower. Takina manages to catch Chisato with her wire gun, suffering a friction burn on her shoulder in the process. Majima's bomb timer goes off and it turns out the bomb is just fireworks. Several months later, new posters of a Lycoris movie show up to cover up their existence and Majima is revealed to have survived the fall. Back at LycoReco, the cafe is open again but Chisato is absent and Takina is up for a mission. Takina travels to Miyako alone to get her target. She and the target engage in a gunfight and the target turns out to be Chisato. At an empty bar near the beach, Chisato gets Takina a drink after introducing Takina as her partner to the bartender. Chisato explains she silently left everyone because she thought she was going to die. Takina tells her Mika got the new heart in Yoshimatsu's briefcase and Chisato will be alright. Chisato throws her Alan Institute necklace away on the beach, saying she hesitated a little because Takina said it was cute on Chisato. Takina denies saying that and Chisato in response lifts her up and swirls her around but strips and both fall on the shallow shore. Chisato wonders what she is gonna do from now on, Takina suggests doing what she had given up on, and Chisato then tells her partner to go to Hawaii together. Sometimes later, LycoReco is temporarily relocated to Hawaii; Chisato, Takina, Mika, Mizuki, and Kurumi serve the locals and simultaneously help them with their problems.

Movement Prediction
Chisato is a genius at predicting her opponent's next move. Utilizing information such as the movement of muscles and clothing, a weapon's characteristics and ballistic properties, the shooter's line of sight, and trigger finger position, she can time the perfect evasive maneuver or counterattack. Chisato also accounts for the experience of her opponents. Fuki surmised that the more precise the shooter, the easier it is for her to dodge. As shots become more consistent, they become more predictable. As such, she is even able to dodge projectiles at point-blank range.

Athleticism
Chisato displays abnormally high levels of raw athleticism, with strength, stamina, agility, and reaction times far surpassing even the top Lycoris at DA Headquarters. When completing her physical fitness test alongside Fuki, an A-rated 1st Lycoris, she far outperforms her peer with little exertion. She is also extremely physically resilient, being able to perform without compromise even after sustaining intense physical trauma.

First Aid
Per her commitment to resolving conflicts non-lethally, Chisato is adept at quickly administering first aid to both allies and enemies in the battlefield. This includes quickly fashioning a tourniquet from scavenged materials to slow down blood loss.

Etymology

 * The name Chisato means "thousand" (千) and "bundle, bunch, sheaf, wad, coil, handbreadth" (束).
 * Chisato's surname Nishikigi means "brocade" (錦) and "tree, wood" (木).

Trivia

 * Chisato's pistol is confirmed to be based on the Tokyo Marui Strike Warrior Gas BlowBack airsoft pistol. The gun itself is based on the Detonics CombatMaster, a modified version of the Colt 1911 with a specialized close-quarters combat compensator.
 * Despite her non-lethal rounds being referred to as "rubber bullets" in the anime, they have the visual effect of pepper spray projectiles. These rounds can also fit into Takina's pistol.