Shimada Keiko

Keiko Shimada (島田恵子, Shimada Keiko) is the assumed name of Yuri Adachi (安達百合, Adachi Yuri), Shinsengumi’s female spy. She was a former courtesan-in-training in Yoshiwara, along with her older sister Adachi Yuka (安達有香, Adachi Yuka) before she escaped Yoshiwara at the expense of her older sister’s freedom.

Appearance
Keiko is a petite young woman with slim and seemingly fragile figure. She has a kind, beautiful face and often seen smiling; if it’s not from her uniform, one would never think that she is affiliated with the Shinsengumi. She has long light brown hair with bangs parted on left side with a strand falling down to her left shoulder. A part of her hair dangles down to her right chest, with curl in the end. Her hair is tied in half-ponytail style, held by a piece of metal kanzashi with dangling red roses, a gift she received from Hijikata. Her eyes are round, and have the same color as her hair.

She is normally wearing a typical Shinsengumi uniform, but she wears black skirt tightened with brown belt instead of black trousers. In addition, she wears thigh-high black socks and black low-heeled boots. At her left hip is her kodachi sheath.

On her day off, she wears pinkish kimono with small floral and white crane pattern, red obi, white tabi socks, and brown zori with red straps. Beneath her obi, she hides a tantou for self-defense. Her hair is tied into half-bun, held by small comb-type kanzashi decorated with hanging sakura on the right side.

During the events of the Dekoboko Arc, she switched gender due to a curse and was seen on her male form. In that form, she had short and slightly messy light brown hair with fringes which frames half of her face. Her body is way taller than her normal form and she showed several of hypertension symptoms (such as nose bleeding out of nowhere and getting her face all red without any cause) due to high intake of salt while in her normal form. She wears a proper Shinsengumi uniform with black boots and she wields a normal tachi instead of her usual kodachi. Later, she was seen wearing a dark green haori and brown sandals.

Personality
Keiko was originally a soft-hearted individual, who got hardened by the series of unfortunate events which befall her and her family. Hardened even further by the Kyokuchuu Hatto, the regulations of Shinsengumi, she turned into strong-hearted and strong-willed girl, determined to protect Edo and all its civilians. She is calm, level-headed, and very intelligent. She also had a kind heart, almost too kind that Okita once said that her kindness will someday hurt her badly. This was proven to be true in Shinsengumi Mutiny Arc, when she found out that her older sister is actually a spy for Kiheitai, sent by Takasugi Shinsuke to accompany Itou Kamotarou and to monitor Shinsengumi from inside. Even after got hurt, she quickly stood up on her own feet, and still as kind as ever to others.

Even though she’s not really naïve, there are some occasions that her childlike innocence and naivety will show up without she even realized it, especially when it comes to romantic relationships. When Gintoki asked her if she liked Hijikata, she replied innocently that she really liked him, and also all the people in Shinsengumi because all of them had treated her nicely. One occasion when she and Hijikata is walking down the street together from an errand, they met Kondou who just got beaten up by the woman of his dream. Kondou asks her whether she and Hijikata are dating, and she asked him back “what is dating” in confusion. Hijikata cleared this up by saying that he and Keiko has just finished an errand, and he was escorting her back to headquarter.

However, after Okita Mitsuba Arc, her feelings for Hijikata began to change slowly after she witnessed how strong his feeling for the dying maiden. She often tells Yamazaki about how she feels for the demonic Vice-Commander, that she often felt an “unknown pain” on her chest when she remembered his words for Mitsuba and how her heart beating faster when they were close. Yamazaki told her repeatedly that what she felt towards him is called “love”; that she finally experiencing how is it to fall in love with someone, in this case, Hijikata.

She is overly fond of salty foods, going as far as to sprinkle a lot of salt to her foods, a trait she shares with Hijikata Toushirou (pouring a lot of mayonnaise) and Okita Mitsuba (sprinkle a lot of chili powder). Strangely enough, her cooking tastes normal, good even. Her favorite snack is salty senbei and she is also fond of instant coffee in bottle pack.

Background
Adachi Family was formerly a rich family; this is the very family in which Yuka and Yuri was born. They enjoyed normal childhood like any other children, and they get along well with both their family and friends. After their grandfather passed away, however, the glory of Adachi Family grew dim and eventually, this family went into ruin. To solve the family’s financial problem, it was decided that they would sell the young girls to red-light district. Partially through force, they did sell the daughters of Adachi Family to the famous red-light district, Yoshiwara.

The oldest, Yuka, grew to hate their family while the youngest, Yuri, decided to swallow her pride and give in to the situation, and together they went into training even though they didn’t want to. In the brothel they were sold to, the sisters went through endless abuse for years from the fellow courtesans and even from their own mentor. Fed up by this, Yuka took her sister and they tried to escape from Yoshiwara. Unfortunately, they were caught by the Hyakka and Yuka decided to stay behind, allowing Yuri to (barely) escape from Yoshiwara.

After successfully escaping Yoshiwara, Yuri had nowhere to go and was stranded in Edo’s streets. Swallowing her pride once again as the daughter from the once prestigious Adachi Family, she did many odd jobs, such as dishwasher in various restaurants and even makes use of her sewing hobby as a means to earn a living, making cute perfume satchels from any rags she can found in the street. This seems to be the best option for her as she can slowly earn a stable income, but her uncle, the current head of Adachi Family (and the main cause of the family’s ruin) found her and tried to take away all the money she had saved from scratch. Unwilling to give up the money, she ran away again from her uncle and somehow she find herself in front of Shinsengumi headquarter. Without thinking, she went inside while crying for help to Hijikata Toushirou and Yamazaki Sagaru, who happened to be at guard duty at that time. Unable to turn a civilian down, they decided to help her and in the end, they successfully fend Yuri’s uncle off from dragging her back by force.

Hijikata then brought her inside to be questioned. She introduced herself as Shimada Keiko and told him everything that has happened to her, except the fact that she was a former courtesan-in-training and that she was the daughter of Adachi Family. When she was asked about her home, she said that she doesn’t have any place to be called “home” anymore. Hijikata intended to send her to social home, but Kondou Isao intervened and allowed her to stay in Shinsengumi headquarter with one condition: she must become a spy for Shinsengumi. Hijikata disagrees because the work of a spy is not a plaything and on top of all, she is a civilian. Kondou replied that it would be advantageous if Shinsengumi had at least one female spy under their wing. Kondou adds that he will be responsible for this action and will write a full formal report to the police superintendent, Matsudaira Katakuriko. Hijikata gave up, and put her under Yamazaki’s supervision for spy training and such. She said thank you to both Kondou and Hijikata while bowing repeatedly, and swear that she will work hard to repay the kindness they had showed her.

Synopsis
Saga's:
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TBA

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Combat
[TO BE ADDED]

Physical Abilities
[TO BE ADDED]

Trivia

 * Her assumed name is based from Shinsengumi's real spy, Shimada Kai.