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I also added somewhat detailed background information (including the contents that are going be covered in Anime soon) trying to explain the reason for each girl's particular personality.
- Houki -
[SPOILER="About Houki"]
She has external appearance of typical yamato nadesico, being a miko and all...
(Her family used to run Shinonono Shrine, and was also leading a unique swordsmanship technique - which is obviously called Shinonono-style sword technique)
So basically her personality is of discipline and temperateness.
But because of she was raised as such, she had hard time socializing with other kids (other boys made fun of her for being boyish) so she had virtually no friends, except for Ichika who thought of her as cute girl and helped her out by chasing those boys away whenever she was being mocked.
She also has some serious emotional problem, not being able to suppress her temper and often resulting to violence.
She learned Kendo for self control, but it doesn't seem effective so far.
For an example, before IS was introduced (when she and Ichika was learning Kendo together) she proposed that she and Ichika go on a date if she won the national Kendo tournament. But right before the day of finals, the world was shocked by the 'White Knight Incident' and the Japanese government issued a special directive to protect Shinonono Tabane and her family, which included Houki as well.
Unlike 'witness protection program,' Shinonono family retained their identity, and that meant heavier security measures such as moving them around almost constantly and regulating outside contact.
For this reason she couldn’t be at the tournament so it was an automatic forfeit, and that's when she began to hate her sister, Tabane, for causing all this - especially ruining her chance to meet Ichika.
All outgoing and incoming contacts was monitored and regulated, so there was no way Ichika - an ordinary boy that time - could contact Houki, and she was unable to contact Ichika either since the Japanese government couldn't risk a nobody like Ichika to obtain information regarding whereabouts of her.
As a result, she begins to put more time in Kendo, which was the only connection she thought she had left with Ichika. But at the same time, Kendo became an outlet for her to vent her frustration - by bashing opponents - which she realized after winning a national tournament. (This is the event mentioned in Anime - a year before their reunion)
While watching the other girl crying for losing at the tournament, she began to think that she might have crushed her - and many other competitor's - dream just so she could vent her anger. She felt self-hatred. She decided that what she had now was not a true strength, but just violence and remembered that Ichika was strong while being true to his ethical integrity, viewing it as a true strength.
With becoming strong like Ichika as her personal goal, she entered IS Academy. Although she succeeded in reuniting with Ichika, she still has that anger control problem.
(Apparently she has quite low aptitude score for an IS pilot, a 'C.' It's very likely that her status being Tabane's sister played a major role in her getting accepted.)
So which chapter did they say talk about Houki's aptitude? And also, did they ever mention Ichika's potential?