Asa Shigure

Asa Shigure

In the H game and anime Shuffle!, Asa Shigure (時雨亜沙, Shigure Asa) is a senior attending Verbana Academy and is in her last year of high school.

This makes her at least 1 year older than Rin and Kaede and is good friends with both of them, having met when they met her while she was in Junior High. Taking Kaede under her wing, she trained Kaede to be an excellent cook like herself and as time passed by she would teach her some new recipes to try out for Rin. At the moment she currently lives with her mother. From time to time she'll flirt with Rin, tease him, and give him a nice big slap on the back. However, it was later revealed that there were numerous guys who had a secret crush on her. Nevertheless, nothing much came out of it as she rejected them and the show didn't delve any deeper into the issue. She was Nicknamed Shocking Shigure because while her cooking skills are amazing, she doesn't really look like one, much to her dismay.

Her surname, Shigure (時雨), is a Japanese word meaning "rain in late Autumn or early Winter". The meaning of her surname is confirmed in the caption "this dry world will benefit from the scattered shower..." taken from an official background image produced by Navel.

Introductory episodes

Asa quickly introduces herself in the first episode by landing a huge slap on Rin's back followed by playful flirting before running off in which Rin replies that she plays with a guy's heart too much.

Both Nerine and Sia quickly get acquainted with Asa where she helps them out. For Sia, she advised Rin to go and tutor her. For Nerine, she taught her to cook for an upcoming picnic to impress Rin.

One day Kaede became sick and because she always took care of everything in the house, things became hectic for Rin to handle. Again, Asa comes to the rescue with the others and eventually pulls things together for him. Before she leaves, she informs Rin that only he can heal Kaede's broken heart.

Later on, an admirer of Asa confesses to her but she eventually rejects him because she barely even knew him and that she wanted to keep things the way they are for a bit longer. This is also where Rin starts noticing Asa as a woman and not just another friend which almost led to their first kiss before being interrupted. As well, this is where Asa suffers an attack in which she misses a heartbeat.

Midpoint

When Primula was taken back to the Demon World, Asa gave him same advice to rather than just put the blame on himself, do something about it. While most of the girls weren't too wavering to Rin's decision, Asa came forth and asked them if this is how Rin's love rivals should act. Afterwards Asa suffers another attack and faints.

Later on, Rin again seeks Asa for help and by Kareha's suggestion, stopped by her house as she was bed-ridden. Asa, knowing exactly why Rin came to see her, gave him an encouragement and her hair ribbon to remind him to stay strong. Rin takes it and goes off to see Primula.

After the event, Rin and Nerine stop by to update her on what had happened. When Asa asks Rin why he tells her to get better soon, he explains to her that he needs her because every time he fell down, she was there to pick him up. Nerine picks up on this and senses that Rin may have started to develop feelings for Asa.

Story arc

Once Asa is back to school, everything returns to normal and Rin starts to hang out with Asa more often. After some chaos caused by Sia's other self, Kikyou, the two realize that Rin has an affection for Asa. Together with Nerine, the two force Rin to spill the beans and with Itsuki and Mayumi, they force Rin on a date with Asa to confess to her.

For the first time both Rin and Asa have some fun together but after she finds out that it was a set-up from the others and not Rin, she is hurt. After reprimanding Rin, she tells him that he needs to take his own destiny into his hands rather than keeping things the same because everyone wants to move forward.

Asa again suffers another fainting spell which worries Rin and unfortunately results in his neglectance of both Kaede and Primula. When Asa stops by their house, Kaede finally snaps and attacks her but is restrained by Rin, though Asa collaspses again.

In the hospital, the two bond closer and unfortunately again, results in Rin's neglectance of Kaede despite the fact that she attacked Asa earlier.

Once out of the hospital, Asa and Rin converse about the situation with Kaede in which he reveals that he has been stealing her youth from her and such. Asa goes out by herself, buys some flowers for Kaede but bumps into her on a bridge. Here Asa and Kaede talk about Rin in which Kaede pours out her heart about the past and the realizations of her mistakes. Kaede explains that because she cannot forgive herself, she and Rin cannot be, hence, the reason why Rin chose Asa over her. After comforting her, Asa meets up with Rin. Here Rin confesses to her and the two kiss as the sun sets.

Now as an official couple, both Rin and Asa are teased at (Rin especially) with Mayumi attempting to sneak in some camera shots whenever the two are getting intimiate with each other. They start to form a much closer bond with each and are practically in cloud nine whenever their together. Eventually Asa forces Rin to stop addressing her by sempai (the correct term for addressing a senior student) but instead address her by san (standard typical polite form of address in Japan).

After helping Rin move into his new apartment, Rin kisses Asa but before he can, she falls to the ground, having suffered another attack from her illness. This time, the most fatal one.

Currently, her condition is worsening in the hospital where she is starting to turn extremely pale and frail. Here, Rin learns that Asa is actually half-demon from Ama who reveals herself to be a demon. Despite his efforts, Rin is unable to convince Asa to use magic as she says there's still a 50/50 chance that she'll survive as a human. She refuses to become a demon mainly because when her mother revealed herself to be one, she saw her cry for the first time. Thus, she decided to live her life out as a human forever for her mother.

Her condition continues worsening and eventually she sneaks out of the hospital and heads to her most important place, the place where Rin confessed to her. Rin catches up to her and after she refuses, he finally takes things into his hands and slits his wrist. He states that he cannot live in a world without her and as he starts losing consciousness from the blood loss, Asa finally pulls through and heals him.

Asa doesn't exactly transform into a demon but the most notable, and only, change in characteristic is that her hair grows extremely long, all the way down to the knees. Weeks pass by and things pretty much turn back to normal with Asa working at the same cafe with Kareha and flirting with Rin as usual. At the end of the credits her mother cuts off her long hair.