Shirakinu Honoka

Shirakinu Honoka (白絹仄火) is a character introduced during flashbacks in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.

Appearance
When she was 8, Honoka had short black hair which matched her tomboyish personality.

When she lived in the research facility, she let her hair grow long to her waist, uncared and messy.

Personality
As the second eldest girl in the orphanage next to Aohoshi, Honoka before Aohoshi left takes responsibility for the younger Child Errors getting into fights for them. She is a tomboy and has a very rude way speaking which Kimi copies, much to Aohoshi's chagrin. She later becomes more responsible after Aohoshi left, taking care of the younger Child Errors in the orphanage.

When Honoka and her friends were sent to the "power-boosting" facility, Honoka's personality became more temperamental due to the meddling of her brain by the researchers, her diminishing ability not helping.

Background
In the past, Honoka lived in an orphanage together with a group of fellow Child Errors; Shundan Kimi, Tsurigane Saryou, Wanigawa Raifu and Aohoshi Suzuran.

After Aohoshi's departure, the orphanage's financial struggles led to them accepting a loan in exchange for some of their children. As a result, Honoka and the others were sent to a "power boosting lab". During the course of the experimentation there, while her friends' abilities grew in strength (with Kimi's seeming exception), Honoka's own ability diminished, much to her frustration, aggravated by the side-effects of the experiments on her brain.

Over a year later, Honoka's ability had diminished to the point she could barely use it. When the researchers planned to kill Kimi on realizing the dangers of her ability, the group attempted to escape the facility. During this escape, Honoka went with Kimi and Raifu, carrying the latter and evading the Spriggan robots sent to capture them. On the way, Honoka remarked on how Kimi had something special after all.

However as they were reaching the top of some stairs, Honoka, who was in front, spotted a team of armed guards who were under instructions to shoot to kill. Honoka immediately threw Kimi and Raifu back down to the Spriggan, which was instructed to capture rather than kill, and ran ahead into sight, an action intended to draw attention away and buy time for her friends. As a result, she was gunned down before Kimi and Raifu's eyes. She lasted long enough for Tsurigane to trick her assailants into a trap and dispose of the researchers. Seeing the undercover ninja, she mouthed something before finally succumbing to her wounds, with Tsurigane lip-reading her before burning the lab.

After Honoka's death, her friends would switch her records with Kimi's records, allowing Kimi to live under her name to avoid those who would come after her because of her ability. Kimi understood that Honoka's final actions were not a betrayal, that given their positions she would have seen the guards and known what would happen, and what her intentions were, but was haunted by the final look in Honoka's eyes before her sacrifice.

Jailbreaker Arc
Though deceased in the present, Honoka appears in several flashbacks to the past, with Kimi remembering the events, along with the last look in Honoka's eyes and her final intentions.

After her defeat and reimprisonment, while in her cell, Kimi had a hallucination of Honoka and had a conversation with her about what had happened, both in the past and recently, with the vision of Honoka vanishing just as Kimi was finally expressing thanks for Honoka saving her back then.

Abilities
In the past, Honoka had a Level 2 Pyrokinesis ability. When she and her group of friends where sent to a "power boostng lab" to be experimented on, her ability was deliberately diminished thanks to the researchers' meddling with her brain. In less than 2 years, her ability became a Level 1, and she could barely use it at all by the time of her death.

Trivia

 * When Kimi catches a final look at Honoka face when she kicks them away and is about to sacrifice herself, Honoka has an expression which is burned into Kimi's memories and haunted her since Honoka was shot to death. Not long after Kimi recalled that face once more, Saten Ruiko made a similar expression when she was shielding Uiharu from the rain of dragon feathers which Kimi had launched at them (having stopped Uiharu from shielding her) and about to be hit by the feather.