Riko Saikawa

Riko Saikawa (才川 リコ, Saikawa Riko) is a supporting character in Dragon Maid and in When Smoke Meets Rain novel. She is then later the main protagonist in the upcoming story, Dragon Quinx: Ghost. In the When Smoke Meets Rain novel, she is seen to be a Rogue Conduit who has the power to manipulate and control paper.

During the events of the Comet Incident, a young Riko encountered Brooke Augustine, another Conduit and member of the military. However, upon reaching Augustine's battalion, Riko found herself imprisoned by her friend, who, in doing so, avoided being persecuted by the military and secured the government's trust.

Locked up in Curdun Cay, Riko spent seven years within its walls; despite her imprisonment by Augustine, she came to see the head of the Department of Unified Protection as a parental figure and became her most trusted agent.

Appearance
As a child, Riko has wavy shoulder-length brown hair. She has dark green eyes and usually dons a light-green, long-sleeved shirt with a rounded yellow neckline fronted by a bunny motif, a pale orange skirt, white high socks, and green shoes. She sports a yellow-rimmed tag clipped to her shirt and an orange daisy pin in her hair. Riko appears to have an especially shiny forehead, as it gleams with a flash of light.

In her mid-teens, Riko becomes a young woman with an average build and height. Due to her youthful age, she seems to have large breasts. She also seem to wear an American-style type of school uniform that consists of a black jacket with a white shirt and red tie, a short red skirt, black stockings and black sneakers. Her face is sometimes hidden by a distinctive paper mask resembling a rabbit. In addition, she no longer wears her hairpin.

Personality
During her time as a child, Riko seems bossy and mean, but over time she seems nicer as shown with Kanna and very polite around people like Kobayashi. She has a crush on Kanna and enjoys being around her. When being touched by Kanna or receives praise from her, Riko tends to grin goofily and get red in the face, becoming overwhelmed with excitement.

After getting involved in the comet incident, Riko has a massive shift in personality. She was stated by the DUP to suffer from abandonment anxiety. The loss of her home during the incident caused her to repress any and all memories of them, focusing instead of her gifts with paper. In particular, she had an obsession with folding origami doves. Riko was also known to possess artistic skills, which she expressed through various drawings as well as a semi-autobiographical manga.

Plot
See more of Riko Saikawa's plot here.

Early life
Riko was an elementary school student, living a normal life in her hometown. However, when the comet incident occurred, its shockwave spread all the way to her hometown. It caused her home town to be partially destroyed, during which Riko's powers over paper awakened.

Alone again, she was discovered by Brooke Augustine, also a Conduit and a soldier, the only survivor of her battalion which was wiped out by the destruction of the shockwave. Riko followed Augustine through the lawless, chaotic city, coming to think of her as a surrogate mother, where the majority of the populace organised lynch mobs to root out the Conduits among them. Eventually, military order was restored, but the pair was seen as a threat, despite their innocence.

In a spur of the moment decision, Augustine encased Riko in concrete to gain the government's trust, making Riko the first Conduit to be captured and imprisoned by the newly formed D.U.P. led by Augustine herself.

Curdun Cay
During her time at Curdun Cay, Riko was subjected to various tests by the DUP, which found her to possess a large amount of untapped potential. She briefly struck up a friendship with the Half-Ghoul Half-Conduit, Taiko Ryuunosuke though the two were kept apart after the wardens discovered their relationship. Although she was technically an inmate, Riko retained a close relationship with Augustine.

However, after seven years, the DUP was on the verge of being shut down, its own success at capturing the Conduits about to become its undoing. To prevent this, Augustine thought up a plan to create a jailbreak for Riko, so that Riko could act as Augstine's agent in Tokyo. Riko's escape was engineered through a Conduit who was tasked by Augustine to create a hole in the walls of Curdun Cay in order to escape, which include other Conduits to escape too.

Riko's departure from the detainment facility coincided with the transferral of Taiko Ryuunosuke - into the military's oversight. Augustine trusted that Taiko, notorious for his numerous escape attempts at Curdun Cay, would try to sabotage the voyage, setting her plan in motion.

Arrival in Tokyo
Once Riko arrived in Tokyo, she began her life as a Rogue Conduit of anti-Conduit officials and members of the government, sowing chaos throughout the city. Riko deliberately orchestrated the murders to look like the work of fellow Conduits Taiko, Shichiro and a ghoul named Kaneki so that she herself would not be discovered. However, she saw Shouta, her childhood schoolmate and presumably her friend, doing heroic deeds on Tokyo's citizens and was intrigued by his actions. At the same time, she corresponded with Augustine on her mission, using the pseudonym of "Saisei".

However, as Shouta's presence and popularity became more and more known in the city, Riko's respect for Augustine, who had chosen for an approach Riko deemed "cowardly", crumbled, following which explains why Riko went rogue. She chose to approach Shouta directly and led him to various files that explained the DUP's deception, as well as the background of the people she had killed.

Following Augustine's fall from grace, Riko led Shouta to the abandoned DUP tower where she explained, through the use of her powers, how he had changed her view on Augustine and the DUP. She then thanked Shouta for making her realize that no one could give Conduits their freedom, that they instead needed to take it by force. Leaving behind a final origami dove, Riko finally meets Shouta face to face. He promised that he would 'correct that mistake' if he finds her again as she unmasks her face and says goodbye to him before leaving.

Kanna Kamui
Though she initially tries to pick a fight with Kanna for her sudden popularity on the first day of her transfer to the school, she quickly becomes good friends with her. Riko develops a crush on Kanna for her cuteness and company and gets overly excited when she touches or compliments her. Sometime later, she states that she would like to marry Kanna, an idea that Kanna seems to reciprocate. They often spend time with each other, walking home together from school and picking the other as their partner during school activities. However when Kanna was told to return to the Dragon world for unknown reasons, Riko felt disappointed.

Brooke Augustine
Upon meeting her after the incident, she looks up to her like a surrogate mother. Her former parents whereabouts are unknown as they were presumed dead.

Shouta Magatsuchi
Upon the two meeting face to face after years, not much interaction was made between them. But she thanked him for letting Conduits take their own freedom by force. However, Shouta told her that he will 'correct that mistake' before she says goodbye to him and leaves.

Paper Manipulation
Riko's newfound powers over paper was surprisingly versatile; she could control every form of paper, as well as create pulp and stock out of trace elements. Through special folding techniques, which would normally require hundreds of pounds of mechanical force, she could make deceptively durable paper armor, as well as projectile weapons.

Riko was also able to convert her body to adopt the qualities of paper, allowing her to use wind currents to move around, albeit erratically so. She also seemed capable of a type of teleportation, which consisted of suddenly transforming her body into numerous scraps and pieces of paper that quickly dispersed, making her difficult to catch.

Trivia

 * Riko's surname Saikawa means "aged" (才) (sai) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa).
 * Riko Saikawa's mid teen appearance is an adaptation to Celia Penderghast from inFAMOUS Second Son.
 * Her rabbit mask is an inspiration to Touka Kirishima's ghoul mask.