Nanao Hibiya

Nanao Hibiya (ナナオ・ヒビヤ, Hibiya Nanao) is the main heroine of Reign of the Seven Spellblades. Nanao is an honorable and friendly samurai girl who is always willing to try new things. As a warrior, she doesn't hesitate to risk her own life on the battlefield and never backs down from a challenge.

While forming a strong bond with Katie, Chela, Guy, and Pete, Nanao's most complex relationship is with Oliver as she believes him to be her destined sword partner, whom she will one day duel to the death.

Background
Nanao is a samurai from a warrior family in Tourikueisen, Yamatsukuni located in the continent of Azia. She is a noble and cheerful person who holds honor in high regard and even more a good fight. After fighting in a war and almost dying, she is saved by a passing mage named Theodore McFarlane who takes her to Yelgland and enrolls her in Kimberly Magic Academy, seeing her great talent for swordsmanship.

Appearance
Nanao is an Azian girl of average height with long black hair often bundled up in a ponytail. Her body possesses countless scars from her time on the battlefield from her homeland.

Nanao's Kimberly uniform is similar to others; a black robe with a leather strap holding her wand and a single-edged sword (which acts as her athame) over a collared shirt and short necktie. In place of a standard Kimberly girl's skirt, Nanao remakes hers into a red hakama.

When fighting a powerful foe, Nanao's hair shifts to a whitish-silver color due to the increase in magical power circulation.

Personality
An innocent and friendly samurai girl. She never hesitates to risk her life-saving others, which can be seen when she leaped towards the Trool to save Kat Aart without having any real plans to defeat the giant creature.

Abilities

 * Striking Strength: Can defeat trolls who can pulverize a warg with a single fist. Could keep with the Demonic Indus Bird  Garuda which is stronger than a troll but would eventually lose to it.
 * Stamina: Very High, she can fight for several hours without getting tired.


 * Intelligence: She's average when it comes to academics but is a genius in swordsmanship and in manipulating her magic particles within the body which allows her to nullify other magics by associating them and creating a disruption. Her talent is so high that she created the 7th Spellblade, a strike that can be neither dodged nor blocked, thereby guaranteeing death.


 * Range: Extended melee with a weapon while her 7th Spellblade (Can slice through everything she perceives as an obstacle be it the formless space, the passage of time, and even the concept of distance)


 * Durability: Can defeat trolls who can pulverize a warg with a single fist. Could keep with the Demonic Indus Bird - Garuda who is stronger than a troll but would eventually lose to it.


 * Speed: As the eyes of the trained Kiryuu warriors couldn't keep with her shadow and movement,  Infinite with the 7th Spellblade (Her 7th Spellblade can slice through everything she perceives as an obstacle be it the formless space, the passage of time, and even the concept of distance)


 * Magic capabilties:Strong magical circulation and crystalline which is also the reason for her's hair turning white from navy blue during the fight.

Techniques

 * Flamma: A spell that creates fire.


 * 7th Spellblade: Spellblade is a technique unleashed from within the one-step, one-spell distance that will, without fail, kill the opponent. There is no way to resist them. There existed just six till she created the seventh. Her spellblade is an attack created when she needed to overcome the speed of light, an attack that supersedes light itself - a blade that returns all obstacles to the ether, a blade that can slice through formless space, the passage of time, and everything else in between. The rules of nature forbid its creation but she didn't consider even that and thus her spell came into being. An attack that cuts everything the user perceives as an obstacle between her and the enemy, even the concept of distance.

Relationships
Olive Horn: On the day of the entrance ceremony, he meets Nanao Hibiya, a samurai girl from the distant nation of Yamatsu, who seemingly has no talent for magic but plenty of skill wielding a sword!. During the ceremony, a troll gets loose and goes on a rampage, which leads to Oliver and Nanao teaming up to take it down before anyone gets hurt. Afterward, the two start to build a firm friendship. During their first duel, their training and experience come to the forefront, putting them both in a trance-like state as they cross swords. Seeing that the two were going all out, instructor Luther Garland forces them to stop. After the class, Nanao expresses her desire to duel again, as her spar with him brought tears to her eyes. It is then that Nanao is convinced that Oliver is her destined sword partner and that they shall one day duel to the death, a mindset that Oliver vehemently refuses to accept.

Katie Aalto: Nanao seems to be very close to Katie, with the two of them even becoming roommates. The girls have also shown to greatly care for one another, as Nanao accompanied Oliver through the labyrinth to rescue Katie from Vera Miligan, who had planned to run harsh experiments on the girl. After Miligan's defeat, Katie kissed both Nanao and Oliver on the cheek as a "reward" for saving her. Upon finding her resolve to make her dreams come true, her bond with Nanao and the others only seemed to deepen even further.

By Volume IV, Nanao had grown to trust Katie as a close friend to the point of sharing her innermost turmoil. When Katie asks Nanao that if she loves Oliver, Nanao admits her attraction to him but finds herself torn between that growing affection and her warrior's desire to duel him to the death. Nanao warns Katie that she should ever find her "consumed by the spell", to take up her athame and cast an attack spell right through her heart. Frightened by her friend's grim request, a tearful Katie embraced Nanao, reminding her friend that they were only second-years and that they and their friends still had more good times ahead, promising her that they would all look back on Nanao's quandary and laugh. Since then, Katie's words seemed to have been helpful for Nanao as she continues to explore her feelings for Oliver.