Midori (Midori Shimomura)

Midori (碧)'  is the main character of .hack//CELL, a novel set in The World R:2. Initially she is the Vagrant AI and Virtual Cell of Midori Shimomura (下村みどり) created from the Blood Cells inhabiting Player Character. During the epilogue of the events of the series. The two eventually become one Midori gains a real body via returning to and saving her original self and as Midori Shimomura recreates her PC while also inheriting the memories and weapon of her previous existences.

Appearance
Midori is a Edge Punisher with long black-hair dressed in a loose-flowing, blue and white dress based on a kimono. True to her name, Midori has green eyes. A dragonfly motif is frequently used in her clothing. When forced to draw her weapon (and that can take a lot) she always wields a rare broad sword named "Dragonblossom". After the events of CELL, Midori Shimomura also starts playing The World, creating a character identical to her first character.

Personality
Midori's personality is a lot like the original Midori Shinomura yet has no real ties to the real world. Most of her information on the real world comes either from NEWS Capture or through Adamas. For a long period of time, she is unaware of not having a real body and only after failing to meet Adamas in the real word does she come to realize her condition as an AI.

At first, the online Midori was a silent, cold-blooded Player Killer, going so far as to even attack GMs on sight. It is later revealed that she was only a PK because she had been told that it was an Edge Punisher's job to kill things. She has little to no memories of this time as she literally had no thoughts to remember.

After meeting Adamas, however, Midori's attitude changed greatly. She renounced violence and declared that she would never draw her broadsword again. While being far from a pacifist, Midori becomes far more gentle, supporting newbies and not using her weapon even when under attack. After a few encounters with Bordeaux, however, she begins to regress.

Midori
Midori was born from a "virtual cell" in a medical computer. The cell was taken from a girl named Midori Shimomura who was suffering from a mysterious degenerative disorder. In an attempt to understand her condition, the doctors used a blood sample from her to create the virtual cell. However, the cell took on a life of its own and escaped into the network, where it grew and became sentient. "She" eventually arrived in The World R:2, where "she" created the PC Midori. With the exception of the blood sample, Midori does not exist outside of the worldwide computer network and the electronic devices attached to it. She is, however, able to use those devices to observe and interact with the real world.

While she is unaware about her nature as a virtual cell, she does seem to realize that she possesses the ability to move in ways typically nonavailable to players of The World R:2 and refrains from acting strangly in towns. She also doesn't seem aware of her terminal condition, but has begun to show similar symptoms to her real world counterpart. After Midori vanishes from The World Midori Shinomura is saved eventually the two become one.

Midori Shinomura
Midori Shinomura comes from a strict displined family and is also a member of her school's kendo club and abit of an old fashioned girl. She is a high-school girl suffering from an unidentified degenerative disease. In the course of treatment, a sample of her blood was used to create a "virtual cell" which was to be used to attempt to simulate her condition. As a result of Midori's strong desire to live, a miracle occurred, and the cell developed into the sentient virtual entity Midori. After Midori a specifc event in The World Midori Shinomura is saved eventually the two become one.

Appearance
Midori is describe as having shiny black hair, surprisingly tall, and "had a face that would make anyone turn twice" and her figure was said to be that of a refined young lady.

.hack//Roots
Midori acts as a professional victim. To encourage PKers to fight against her, she has offered a reward for anybody who can defeat her. While adventuring in Briona Gwydion the Dragonbein Range she watched as Ovan defeated Azure Kite in a fight. Not long afterwards, Azure Kite attempted to attack her. Though she was heavily injured in the fight, she managed to escape by warping to Mac Anu. Being popularized as the "first known survivor of 'Tri-Edge'" (in truth, second to Phyllo), she quickly became a minor celebrity, drawing the attention of Haseo, who tried to press her for information. Unable to recall the name of the player who had defeated Tri-Edge, she could not give Haseo the information he needed. Thinking that she was holding back, he attacked her, but with her experience and skill she beat him without much difficulty.

.hack//CELL
CELL opens with the Midori (at the time nameless, being referred to as "She") drifting in the darkness of the computer her data was held in shortly after her creation. After an uncertain span of time, she eventually found a backdoor out of the system and escaped into the sea of data. From there, she eventually made her way into The World. Using all the information she found on the internet, she began to make sense of the realistic graphics of the field she landed in. She made herself a Player Character, choosing her class at random to focus solely on her aesthetic representation and once she understood everything around her, she noticed a battle nearby between Tri-Edge and an unnamed Steam Gunner AIDA-PC. Already, a pile of bodies was built up, though the killer was not revealed. Tri-Edge easily finishes his enemy and vanishes leaving only Midori behind.

Midori, upon learning the role of a Edge Punisher (to kill things) became an indescriminate killer, wandering fields and dungeons attacking everything that moved. After a certain point, Midori became such a menace to CC Corp.'s sales that she was isolated by a Game Master who requested that she find a different way to enjoy the game. Her only response was to attack the GM.

In response to Midori's aggression, Sakaki of Moon Tree organized a Suppression Squad hopefully to convince her to stop PKing, but, if necessary, stop her by brute force. After accumulating more than twenty members, including Adamas, the squad moved to make contact with Midori. Upon finding her, even the verbose Sakaki fails to even speak before she took out most of the squad. Frustrated, Sakaki orders a retreat, leaving only Adamas alone with the murderous Midori. Adamas attempts to converse with Midori, but instead of answering, she simply killed him.

Afterwords, Adamas visited her every day (and likely died many times), talking about random things to her until she learned how to speak back. Whether he is aware of it or not, she makes him into her role model. She stopped killing him and pledged to "never swing a sword again". In turning over a new leaf, Midori forgot everything that happened up to this point, including her pledge (which lived on as a personality trait).

After a while, between Midori's new deposition and her natural ability, Midori and Adamas got the idea to make Midori a professional victim, a player who lets another player attack them in exchange for money and offers a reward for anyone who can beat them. Several months later, Bordeaux takes advantage of this service to haze an unnamed Twin Blade, convincing him that if he couldn't beat Midori in his allotted time that he wouldn't be welcome into her gang. A crowd forms in the field as the player fails to even scratch Midori in his sixty seconds. When his time ran out, she and Adamas attempt to leave, but the Twin Blade insists to continue fighting, despite lacking money to pay for her to not attack. Bordeaux intervenes, calling him weak and then PKing him. Thirsty for more, Bordeaux PKs Adamas and convinces the crowd to help her try to PK Midori.

On the verge of recessing back into a PK, Midori is saved when Haseo, the Terror of Death, takes out most of the would-be PKers as the rest flee. Midori notes that Haseo had uncommon strength, yet it was only a level difference that gave him his edge. Despite his subtle flaws, Midori was captivated by his attitude. After the fight, Haseo ask Midori and the recently revived Adamas if they knew Tri-Edge. He said that he was looking for her because she was as likely to meet Tri-Edge in her gaming style as he was. Midori was surprised and uncertain if she had met Tri-Edge or not, but says nothing. Haseo takes her silence as a "yes". Intrigued by Haseo's mysterious motives, she sends Adamas back to town and agrees to play the role of a professional victim for him, his reward being all she knew about Tri-Edge.

After several seconds of struggle from both sides, Haseo finally struck Midori. In his subsequent interrogation, she reveals that she knows little to nothing about Tri-Edge, but all the same, she, too, wished to find him. When Haseo asked her why, she pondered, "''I wonder what would happen if I died?" ''

Midori returns to Mac Anu satisfied. She is looking for Adamas when she suddenly collapses. She is found by Silabus and Gaspard who attempt to help, but just end up making her laugh, which breaks her out of her faint-spell. After a bit of joking, they become quick friends with Midori. They exchange member addresses and offer to go adventuring with her, but she politely declines and resumes her search for Adamas.

When Midori finds him, he is being led into the Chaos Gate by a large group of players headed by Bordeaux. Midori thinks nothing of it until she receives Flash Mail from Silabus telling her that Adamas was being picked on by the guild Kestrel at the lost ground, Arche Koeln Waterfall.

Midori arrives to find her partner surrounded by a mob of PKs. Nearby, she joins Silabus and Gaspard at their vantage place, unseen by the gang. Adamas was already dead and each member of the group added insult to injury by attacking his corpse. At regular intervals, Bordeaux would revive him, only for him to be slain again. Midori became very angery and finally drew her sword again to rescue Adamas, but before she does, Silibus stops her. He, in his infinite understanding, realized that Adamas was letting himself be mistreated as an act of defiance. Silabus cites that Adamas had not once tried to run, logout or call for help, simply letting the brutes do their worst. This calms Midori down and she resumes watching for a time.

Just as Midori settles down, a crowd begins to form around her and root PKers on, some even joining in. Gaspard discovers that one of Bordeaux's lackeys advertised the beating on the BBS. Only one person in the audience seems to object to her peers (besides Midori, Silabus and Gaspard, of course): a Harvest Cleric in a white nurses uniform, but her objections have little effect on the crowd.

With the advent of this new insult, Midori finds that she can no longer contain her rage. Silabus and Gaspard agree to help her as she leaps sword-first into the mob. With the tactical advantage of a surprise attack, she easily, (and to her horror, naturally) mows down many PKs before Bordeaux realizes she's there. Midori then directs her attack at the unprepared Bordeaux, but instead hits and kills Negimaru. Midori pauses to check on Adamas, but doesn't waste time by healing him as he would soon die again anyway. Taking advantage of this lull, the PKers regroup. Midori resumes her attack, focusing only on reaching Bordeaux. As she does so, Midori becomes frightened by the fun she was having. As she tries to suppress her glee, a veteran Steam Gunner manages to catch her off guard, dealing massive damage. As he prepares to fire a second shot, however, Gaspard and Silabus rescue her by disrupting his aim, and then steal his attention as he chases after them. Midori then finds her health recovered as the Harvest Cleric from before enters the fray. The chaos is so widespread amongst the mob that many PKers are mistaking friend for foe, making the fight into a free-for-all. Midori sees this as her chance to escape with Adamas, but before she does, a new, far more threatening enemy arrives.

Drawn by the powerful emotions released by the mob, an AIDA latched it's self on to a random Tribal Grappler, making him an AIDA-PC. It begins to scream incoherently, until the entire crowd stops fighting to stare at it. Many of the PKs flee after the AIDA-PC begins to (literally) tear PCs apart, destroying character models and likely making some Lost Ones. Midori muses that it must be some kind of bug. After sending a bug report to CC Corp., a single three-man party of veteran players and the heroes (sans the Harvest Cleric) team up on the monster and eventually fell it. The party of PKs leave, expressing satisfaction with the difficulty of the battle. Meanwhile, Midori finds that no other PKers remained, only a quickly shrinking crowd of spectators, among them, the Terror of Death himself, a tad to late. He smirks at Midori and leaves as well.

A CC Corp. announcement asks players to evacuate the area immediately as Midori revives Adamas. Adamas prepares a speech for Midori, but before he can get it out, she recommends that they return to the Root Town before the area closed. He agrees, but he logged out instead of meeting Midori and didn't log back in for two weeks.

Later during the epilogue with the help of Kaho and Adamas, Midori Shimomura acquires Dragonblossom the trademark weapon of her previous PC. The weapon acknowledges her as the succesor of Midori and now carries it to this day.

.hack//Link

 * See Midori (LINK)

Trivia

 * Midori's name means blue and is a reference to her blue eyes, both online and offline. Despite this, Midori's eyes are frequently mistranslated as green. (Although "midori" usually means "green" in Japanese, she uses the Kanji "碧," which actually means "blue".)
 * Midori seems to be the foil to Bordeaux: Midori's predomonantly blue and white clothes to Bordeaux's predominantly black and purple, Midori's pale skin to Bordeaux's tanned skin, long hair to short hair, quiet to loud, pleasant to crass, cool-headed to violent guilty to self-abosorbed. Even their motifs seem to conflict: dragonflies to spiders.