Riko

"Riko"

- I want to become a white whistle soon so I can catch up to my mother...and explore the places she went.

Riko is a 12-year-old orphan from the town at the edge of the Abyss, Orth. She's the only child of the White Whistle Lyza, the Annihilator. When she was two, her mother went missing during an expedition to the bottom of the Abyss, and since her father, Torka, had died before she was even born, she was left under the care of the Belchero Orphanage.

Her dream is to become a White Whistle, a legendary type of delver, and explore the depths of the Abyss in order to learn its many secrets and to find her mother.

Appearance
Riko is a short girl with a plain face, green eyes, and long blonde hair styled in two ponytails. She gained a prominent scar on her left arm after Reg tried to amputate her arm in order to save her from the effects of orb piercer poison in the 4th layer.undefined She usually wears equipment typical to delvers and always wears glasses, but in times of need, she has a strap on. In Ilblu, she cuts her hair short.undefined

Personality
Riko is a good-natured, joyful, and energetic child. She has a quick and inquisitive mind, gathering and properly organizing all the information available on subjects that interest her. For the team, she is the unbreakable force of enthusiasm in the midst of their constant hardships.

The Abyss excites her to no end. Growing up, she diligently studied to become a delver like her mother was, enchanted by its mysteries and secrets. By the age of twelve, she had become an apprentice delver with the right to explore the shallowest level of the Abyss on her own.

Compared to Reg, she is fragile and not much of a brawler, but her ability to keep a cool head under pressure to make rational decisions allows her to tackle the Abyss, even without assistance from the team.

Her priorities are her own wants, so she has made and suffered from rash actions. She can also make a delicious meal out of anything, is willing to eat disgusting food, and has no sense of personal space.

History
When her mother had just become pregnant with her, she was ordered to lead an expedition squad to retrieve a Greater Relic from the fourth layer, the Unheard Bell. The expedition was long and bloody, with many confrontations with delvers from other nations which resulted in the deaths of many members of the platoon, including Lyza's husband, Torka. Eventually, Riko was born in the depths of the Abyss near the end of the mission after the decimated group had obtained the relic. It all took a turn for the worst when Riko was stillborn, throwing Lyza into a severe depression. Lyza's mentor Ozen was so annoyed at the dead child for having sent Lyza into such a state and delaying their mission to retrieve the Unheard Bell that she shoved Riko's corpse into the Curse-Warding Box so that she wouldn't have to deal with it. However, much to everybody's surprise, sounds started coming from within the box, and when it was opened, Riko was revealed to be alive. Having confirmed her newborn's resurrection, Lyza helped Ozen carry the extremely heavy Curse-Warding Box from the 4th layer up to the Seeker Camp. Riko was brought to the surface, where she lived a healthy childhood in Lyza's care and in the care of Jiruo when Lyza was not around.undefined

Riko's identity as the daughter of Lyza the Annihilator was kept secret due to her mother having many potential enemies that could threaten her. When she was 2 years old, her mother descended on her "Final Dive" towards the 6th layer, and Riko was taken by the Belchero Orphanage under the care of Lyza's apprentice, Jiruo.undefined

Orth Arc
While exploring and delving at the first layer, Riko is being chased by a scarlet maw, when a beam of energy hits it and chases it away. Wondering who saved her, Riko follows the wreckage from the beam to its source, where she finds an unconscious Reg. Upon further inspection, Riko realizes he is not human, and with the help of Nat, she brings Reg back to Belchero Orphanage. There she studies and takes notes on Reg's body and is able to wake him up using a jolt of electricity. She gives Reg a name, helps him settle in at the orphanage, and tells him about Orth and the Abyss.undefined

During the Resurrection Festival, a celebration of returning delvers[debatable], Habolg returns from the Abyss with the white whistle that belonged to Riko's mother, Lyza, along with some of Lyza's notes from her delving experiences. While Riko and Reg look through them, they notice one of them contains a sketch of a figure that looks like a silhouette similar to Reg, along with a note reading "I'll be waiting at the bottom of the Abyss."undefined After discussing it with Nat and Shiggy, Riko and Reg decide to leave Orth and go to the bottom of the Abyss on their own. The two take a few days to prepare and then leave the orphanage in the middle of the night. When they reach the Wharf district, a part of Orth that dips into the Abyss, Riko and Reg say their final goodbyes to Nat and Shiggy, and begin their descent towards the bottom.undefined

Descent to the Abyss Arc
After the sad goodbyes from Riko and Reg to Nat and Shiggy, they finally descend and land somewhere in the first layer of the Abyss, with a depth of 820 meters.undefined While they are eating their breakfast, Riko notices Jiruo stuck a red slip with the contents of Lyza's sealed letter and the message, "I'll depart at dawn to capture you", into their belongings: Riko rushes and packs their things with Reg's help, and they leave the premises post-haste.undefined Immediately afterwards, they land in a silkfang's territory and are ambushed by it; however, they escape while defending themselves.undefined They witness the 2nd layer for the first time. Reg suddenly hears his own voice—something about his past–and later, he accompanies Riko for a short break. While they are having a conversation, Reg sees a delver above some boulders who chases them while they rush to escape and hide—Reg defends Riko. Not very much later, the delver catches up—and is revealed to be the Black Whistle delver Habolg, who was impressed by the group's fast pace. Habolg's main objective was to meet and inspect Reg, because Nat and Shiggy told him about Reg's true nature. Instead of taking them back to Orth, he offers to escort them to the Seeker Camp, which Riko declines. He then gives Riko a warning about Ozen, some medicine, and other supplies and lets them go.undefined

Shortly after they arrive on the second layer, Riko and Reg hear a cry for help, but it's one of a corpse weeper, which mimics its victims' cries of pain and fear: they follow it. While observing the corpse weeper, they are ambushed by a colony of them, and one of them snatches Riko. She struggles initially, but she loses consciousness due to the strain of ascension. Reg, unsure of what to do, recalls his memory of using the Incinerator to save Riko from the scarlet maw in the first layer. Instinctively, he raises his arm and fires his Incinerator, obliterating the colony of corpse weepers and saving Riko from being fed to the corpse weeper's young.undefined

Seeker Camp arc
After a short climb down the top of the second layer, Reg and Riko find themselves in the company of the Immovable Lord, Ozen, at the Seeker Camp; her domain is to supervise descent past the second layer. While in the presence of Ozen; Riko and Reg make friends with Marulk, Ozen's pupil and servant. Here, Riko learns about her birth into the Abyss and her early childhood.undefined

Poison and soul liberation Arc
During Riko's and Reg's descent to the 4th layer they are attacked by an Orb Piercer. Druing the battle Riko's hand gets stabbed by one of the Orb Piercer's venomous needles, causing her to hallucinate and, in combination with the curse due to ascending to fast in retreat, start bleeding out of every hole in her body. Shortly afterward she looses conscious leaving Reg in despair. Nanachi reveals themself to Reg, due to seeing him crying over Riko's body. Because the two's relationship remind Nanachi of their relationship with Mitty, Nanachi decides to aid them. During their stay Riko is in an unconscious state and only revcovers after she receives the medicine Nanachi made for her. After Mitty's soul was released, Nanachi decides to join Riko and Reg on their journey to the bottom of the Abyss.

Idofont Arc
After preparations, the group embarks from Nanachi's hideout, reaching the field of Eternal Fortunes. There they encounter one of Bondrewd's Praying Hands. A brief exchange follows, in which the Praying Hand tells them that Bondrewd is expecting them. Then the three of them reach Bondrewd's base, Idofront; a girl, Prushka, approaches them and asks if they are her father's guests. A few moments later Bondrewd arrives, greets the trio and informs them that entrance into the 6th layer is only possible with a personalized White Whistle. He invites them to stay a night and Prushka gives them a tour of the base. Druing the night, Riko searches for a bathroom and almost is inflicted with the curse due to trying to go up a staircase, but is saved by Prushka. The two of them spend time afterwards, become friends and Prushka introduces Riko to her pet: Meinya. Later on both of them find the room Reg is in due to hearing his screams in the hall. Nanachi had already arrived before them and they aire shocked as the Praying Hands experiment on Reg having already cut off is arm. Prushka orders the Praying Hands to stop treating her father's guests that way, only to be informed by them that this area is off limits for her. The Trio, together with Prushka, escapes outside the Idofront and tries to escape in a boat. Only Prushka stays back, because she wants to convince Bondrewd to return Reg's arm. Shortly afterwards Reg, Nanachi and Riko are confronted by Bondrewd and his Praying Hands again, however they have been let into a trap by the trio and are attacked by a Desert Hydra. Only Bondrewd survives the attack with his Sparagmos, but is dispatched by a clever strategy of Nanachi and Reg resulting in him being exposed to the curse aswell crushed by Reg with a boulder. Moments later Prushka and Gueira arrive and Prushka bursts out in tears over the state Bondrewd is in. Gueira quickly removes Bondrewd's mask and replaces it with his own, leading him to turn into Bondrewd in the process. Bondrewd makes the relieved Prushka pass out and and reveals to the trio that all Praying Hands are copies of him he can transfer his consciousness into. After a quick beatdown he leaves them and invites them back to the Idofront whenever they are ready. Riko notes that Bondrewd maybe uses the artifact, Zoaholic, to transfer parts of his consciousness. Together with Reg the both make a strategy in order to destroy it. As they sneak back into Idofront Nanachi and Riko make theier way into what Nanachi calls the processing room. They explain to Riko that Bondrewd's cartridges are made from living humans removing anything but the organs needed to sustain life. Moments later Bondrewd shows up and invites Nanachi again to join him, due to being interested in her "blessing". He is quickly interrupted by Reg, who has absorbed the power plant's reserves and thus went out of control. A fight between Reg and Bondrewd breaks out. Only due to Nanachi's interruption, due to not wanting to see Reg in such a state and begging him to stop with a hug, the fight comes to a momentarily halt; with Reg turning back to his usual self. Druing the second stage of the fight Bondrewd reveals that he turned Prushka into a cartridge. This revelation causes Riko to be shaken up to tears because Prushka was a good friend to her. After Bondrewd's defeat, resulting him to be cut in half, Riko holds Prushka's cartridge close to her and cries. In that moment a stone, like one needed to craft a personal White Whistle, comes out of the cartridge. Nanachi tells Riko that Prushka most likely asumed the form of the stone to be able to travel along Riko, which relieves Riko abit. Nanachi makes a harness so Riko can wear Prushka's stone around her neck. As the group gets ready to traverse into the 6th layer, it is shown that Bondrewd's consciousness still lives on within his Praying Hands as they come to see Riko's group off.

Abilities
Riko's obsession with the Abyss lead her to read about it extensively. She has a lot of general knowledge about each layer and its creatures and plants. She has memorized almost all known artifacts and their functions. She is a quick learner and experienced delver who knows many survival tips. She can cook food with a great taste, even with unfamiliar ingredients found deep within the abyss.

Trivia

 * Riko is the only known person to be in possession of two White Whistles (Prushka and Lyza’s).
 * She is the only known White Whistle who is not officially recognized by Orth or the Delvers' Guild, due to the fact that she was only a Red Whistle when she started her journey. As she can never return to Orth, her White Whistle will never be officially catalogued, unless a witness travels up to Orth and reports it.[Speculation]
 * She is the only known White Whistle to skip every other stage of progression in Whistle advancement and is likely the only delver to ever receive this rank while still a child, outstripping Lyza who received it while being a young adult.
 * She is the only known living being who was resurrected by the Curse-Warding Box and hasn't died shortly thereafter; however, her lifespan may be limited.
 * Her desire to explore the Abyss may be partially from the Curse-Warding Box, as all life resurrected by it instinctively seek the centre of the Abyss.
 * She has experienced every curse up to fifth layer's.
 * Riko is a name of Japanese origin, it means Son of Jasmine. Curiously, the Resilience Flower has many similarities to the Jasmine Flower.[Citation needed]