Chidori Yoshino

Chidori Yoshino is a character from Persona 3.

Appearances

 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable: Antagonist; Major Character
 * Persona 3 Manga: Antagonist; Major Character
 * Persona 3 The Movie: Antagonist; Major Character
 * Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Gunjou no Meikyuu-/Chapter 4: Pledge of Indigo/Final Chapter: Beyond the Blue Sky
 * Persona 3: Shadow Cry

Design
Chidori has long red hair with white ribbons, and oval-shaped brown eyes (amber in the P3 Movie). She carries a large red hand axe attached to a chain.

She also wears a black headband with a white ruffled style with a fake dagger attached, giving the illusion that her head has been impaled with it, a white style-like fabric collar with a black ribbon, a white long gothic lolita dress, white stockings, and high heeled shoes. When she is hospitalized, she wears hospital garb.

She is never seen without her headband, collar, and ribbons, although when she is hospitalized, the dagger on her headband is removed. In the manga version, Chidori is seen without her headband, collar, and ribbons.

In the movie, her ribbons on her hair and fabric collar are pink instead of white. She also appears to wear lavender eyeshadow.

Personality


Chidori's personality is like a "gothic-lolita". She has a very soft-sounding voice and loves to draw. Chidori believes that only she can understand her own sketches.

She is loyal to Takaya and Jin and always follows them to do illegal activities, even during their assassinations, although she doesn't really consider them close friends. She thinks of her Persona, Medea as her only friend, even though her Persona nearly killed her. She fears attachment because she is afraid of loss and the pain that comes with it. Without a strong reason to live, Chidori is similar to the protagonist in that they are very indifferent to death; Chidori feels all death means is just "not waking up anymore".



Throughout the game, Chidori develops feelings and an affection towards Junpei. She always healed and revived the flowers he gave her when she was in the hospital to make them healthy and in the exchange she gets injured on her hand. Chidori self-mutilates, once taking a box cutter to her wrists, which greatly upsets Junpei and he tries to talk her out of it. When Chidori is hospitalized, the hospital staff are warned to remove all sharp objects in her hospital room. Her selflessness and love towards Junpei shows when she sacrifices her life to save a dying Junpei.

She has no memories of her childhood since her awakening ten years ago. In Persona 3 FES, when she was revived by the flower that she placed her life force in, she regained the memories of her childhood and it revealed she was a normal person; compassionate, mature, and understanding.

Persona 3
A member of Strega, during her free time, she sketches at the Port Island Station. She is one of the Artificial Persona Users who require "suppressants" to control their Persona. Because of their dependency on the expensive drugs, Chidori joined Strega in their activity through a "revenge website", where they carry out assassinations and other illegal activities during the Dark Hour. However, their activity is threatened by SEES, a group dedicated to ending the Dark Hour.

It is there during summer vacation that she met one of the SEES members, Junpei Iori. Junpei was intrigued by her presence and hobby. Initially, Chidori brushed him off as a nuisance. Junpei also finds out that she would hurt herself, but the wounds would heal itself miraculously. His next visit caught her interest, when he unknowingly hinted on his activity "in the darkest hour", where he leads the "chosen ones" to "stand against the forces of evil". Chidori knew that he was referring to SEES, and arranged to stop them.

During a full moon night when an Arcana Shadow appeared, she kidnapped Junpei and commanded him to stop SEES activity, thinking that he was their leader. This plan, however, backfired and she was captured by the squad. She was brought to a Kirijo-run hospital and held for interrogation by Akihiko and Mitsuru. Junpei already had feelings for Chidori, and continued to visit her at the hospital. When her sketchbook was full, Junpei offered her a new one.

It was during these visits that her Persona, Medea, appeared and attempted to kill her. Fortunately, Shinjiro was there at the time, and supplied her the suppressants, revealing that he, too, faces the same problems, angering Akihiko. Medea apparently had a special healing power, as Junpei discovered that when she cuts herself, the wounds would heal. At other times, she revealed that she can revive other living things by giving life to the wilted flowers beside her hospital bed. She began opening up to Junpei, apparently having feelings for him too.

However, realizing that her way of thinking is changing, she tried to push Junpei away from her life. When the other members of Strega, Takaya and Jin broke her out of the hospital, they also led her to revert to her old ways when she was part of the group.



Chidori faced a great conflict when she had to face Junpei and SEES. When Junpei was badly wounded by Takaya, Chidori pushed away her loyalties with Strega and attempted to heal Junpei using the "Spring of Life", ignoring the fact that she would lose her own life using this skill. Finally, she succumbed to her death, but not before confessing that she loved Junpei. A remorseful Junpei inherited her sketchbook, which was filled with sketches and portraits of himself. This strengthened his resolve to become the man in the sketchbook.

Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable
The original storyline of Persona 3 involving Chidori was expanded in "The Journey" of Persona 3 FES, as well as Persona 3 Portable. Meeting certain requirements will enable Chidori to be revived.

To revive Chidori, the protagonist must talk to Junpei on the days 11/06, 11/11, 11/14 and 11/22 (the day of her "death") and tell him to go see her every time. After this, Chidori will be revived on 01/21.

According to the story, the flowers beside her hospital bed were placed on her corpse as a tribute. The life force she had given to the flowers apparently returned to her, and she was revived, albeit with no memory of the events revolving around her. During the Dark Hour, she was transmogrified, revealing that she had lost her Persona, since Medea has merged with Junpei's Hermes.

In "The Answer" of Persona 3 FES, during the debate over what to do with the keys to the past, Junpei mentions Chidori while stating, if given the chance, he wouldn't change what happened because he felt it wouldn't be right, leading to ambiguity of Chidori's ultimate fate.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Though she did not appear in the game, she was mentioned by Junpei while he was daydreaming of proposing to her, before waking up on the train. And when fighting against shadow, Junpei said he wouldn't let Chidori worry about him again. What's more, Junpei's cross necklace was sent by her.

This implies Chidori being revived is canon and her death may have been retconned, which slightly contradicts The Answer. Arguably, it also goes against one of the main themes of Persona 3, which is about the finality and permanence and acceptance of death. Despite this, Chidori's fate is still unknown.

Trivia

 * Chidori appears as a palette swap for Yukiko Amagi in Persona 4 Arena, and then mentioned in Junpei's story in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
 * Answering a fan question during the Persona Stalker Club, Atlus said that the necklace Junpei wears during Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is from Chidori's favorite apparel brand, which she gave to him as a gift.
 * She has the same surname as Natsumi Yoshino from Megami Ibunroku Persona, even written with the same kanji. It is unknown if the two characters are related or this is a mere coincidence.
 * Her Japanese voice actress also voiced Elizabeth.