Ayumi Hiwatari

Ayumi Hiwatari (b. October 20, 1988) is a student living in Kyoto, Japan. She offers her home to the Creator and his allies during the Kyoto Ordeal and serves as the central source of morale for the protagonists.

Creation and conception
Ayumi was inspired by and originally modelled off of Misao Makimachi from the Rurouni Kenshin series. The earliest draft of The Kyoto Ordeal even presents her as having training as a ninja while living the life of an ordinary high school student. This concept was later dropped in order to make Ayumi a more balanced character, the only "normal" person surrounded by a group of extraordinary people. This normalcy allows her to be more objective to the other characters' predicaments and while she is opposed to the schemes of Oracle, her views on the protagonists' decisions are more neutral and she is often critical of them, especially the Creator and Adam.

Much of her current concept, including her name, also came out of a real life penpal of Taschereau's whom he had corresponded with who had first introduced herself under the assumed name of Ayumi Hiwatari. This person also inspired Ayumi's relationship with her older brother and her place as the singer in a band, though these details were altered somewhat in the novel.

Personality
Ayumi is a generally sweet and thoughtful girl, a toned down version of Dee as she appears in The Kyoto Ordeal. She is energetic and curious, having a tendency to get easily excited. She is also somewhat gullible, believing the Creator's lie about who he was without question. Despite being compassionate, she also has no problem calling people out when they are wrong. She berates Adam for his choice to abandon Magid and the people who care about him, and also questions the Creator's decision in punishing New Baggins. Ayumi also proves to be quite independent and has no problem being alone for long periods of time while her father and brother are away.

Background
Following her mother's death at a young age, Ayumi became the only female presence in her family. She tended to stay close to her older brother, Shuya. At the age of nine, she and Shuya began communicating with a boy in America through webcam named Daniel. Shuya, who knew English fluently, did most of the talking, but the conversations inspired Ayumi to begin learning English, even after correspondence with Daniel abruptly ended.

As she grew, she discovered she had a talent in singing and started a band with high school friends called Aoiya. Apart from that, her adolescence remained normal until the arrival of the visitors from the Other Universe in Kyoto.

The Kyoto Ordeal
Ayumi's main appearance in the series is in the first novel, The Kyoto Ordeal. Midway through December of 2004, she receives a phone call from her old penpal, Daniel, who is really the Creator. He arrives with Adam, Dee, Mathias, and New Baggins at her house and she is overjoyed to meet him in person. She initially accepts his story about why he stopped talking with her and Shuya and why he and the others are in Kyoto, but after Adam returns home with The Baggins following an encounter in the street she is told the truth. Although she is blow away by the revelation, she agrees to continue sheltering the group while they deal with the threat to her country.

She spends the next week attempting to go about her normal life while having the visitors from the Other Universe in her house. Ayumi develops a friendly relationship with New Baggins, leaving her to wonder why he is forced to be punished by the Creator for the actions of The Baggins. After The Baggins defects to join the Angry Alter Ego, Ayumi is left to deal with things as the Creator leaves and Dee becomes an emotional wreck. She confronts Adam, telling him off for acting so halfheartedly about the circumstances and how he treats Dee. It is this conversation that gave Adam the initial motivation to speak with Dee and set things right with her, something that would become a crucial bonding experience between the two.

After Cody Moon joins the group, Ayumi offers to take the Creator, Dee, and Mathias on a tour of the city while Adam and Cody prepare. The next day, she and Cody have a tense standoff when he criticizes her for not understanding the scope of his loss or the devastation caused by The Baggins. The two later reconcile as Cody opens up to her. On the day of the battle, Ayumi arranges a party for her allies after they return home. The party is delayed by Adam's injuries, but everyone is able to celebrate on Christmas Day as Ayumi and her band perform for everyone.

Her final scene in the book leaves her home alone for the first time in a week after the Creator's party returns to the Other Universe. She feels strange to return to a normal life after the adventure she had lived through, but upon turning on the television she discovers that Cody's ominous warning about losing her normal life after dealing with the Creator comes true: an earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean (which was implied to have been caused by Oracle) is devastating surrounding countries, including Indonesia where her brother is. She is left staring heartbroken at the images of streets flooding with seawater and people being swept away.