Ibara Shiozaki (塩崎茨,Shiozaki Ibara?), also known as Vine (ヴァイン,Vain?), previously Maria (マリア,Maria?), is a student in Class 1-B at U.A. High School, training to become a Pro Hero.
Ibara is a girl of medium height with green, thorn-covered vines for hair, one set wrapped around her forehead a couple of times in the shape of a cross. Because of her Quirk, she can grow them at will, but she likes to keep her vines at a reasonably manageable length, just above her waist. Her eyes are dark green with long lower eyelashes, and she's regarded as cute by Denki Kaminari.
Her hero costume comprises a plain white robe, similar to a toga, and dark brown knee-high boots.
Personality[]
Ibara is a very modest and courteous person who clarifies her humility after Present Mic calls her an assassin. Although graceful and soft-spoken, she is not afraid to make her pure intentions known. She seems highly religious due to her talking about heaven and divine beings in passing on multiple occasions, and her ultimate moves having somewhat religious names such as "Faith's Shield" and "Crucifixion".
Despite initially seeming very pure and kind, Ibara shows an unexpected vindictive side, best demonstrated in the Joint Training Arc, with her harsh judgment of Class 1-A as well as her telling Jurota Shishida that she hoped the "fires of hell" would relieve him of his sins and viewed his strategy of using her as a decoy to be "sinful".
Ibara showed her gratitude after receiving a second chance to participate in the U.A. Sports Festival and made her objective to spread well across the world apparent before her fight with Denki.[4] She also prefers to be fair and square as she disagreed with Neito Monoma's plan to throw the Obstacle Race and placed fourth instead. She also viewed having discreetly stolen Minoru Mineta's headband with her Quirk as an underhanded tactic and regretted it.
Ibara values honesty and is heavily fixated on the concept of truth, often refusing (if not being reluctant) to participate in strategies she deems as deceitful. This honest nature is demonstrated when she said that Shihai Kuroiro needs to "drastically reexamine" himself for his sneaky tactics as well as apologizing to Gigantomachia for their ambush during the Paranormal Liberation War.
Abilities[]
Overall Abilities: Ibara has proven herself to be a highly capable individual, as her skills allowed her to earn fourth place in the U.A. Entrance Exam, having a fair balance of villain and rescue points. She has incredible proficiency in her Quirk applications, utilizing it in the same manner as Kamui Woods' Arbor Quirk, which the arboreal hero himself and several others have noted. Ibara is the stationary-type combatant, relying on the restricting properties of her vines in battles while she stands still. However, this fighting style leaves Ibara vulnerable to attacks from opponents with superior speed or close-quarters combat abilities, such as Tenya Ida. Her abilities eventually garnered the attention of The Lurkers (consisting of Edgeshot, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady), allowing Ibara to intern under the trio of powerful heroes and improve on close and efficient team maneuvers.
Quirk[]
Vines (ツル,Tsuru?): Ibara's Quirk gives her hair-like vines that grow on her head. She can lengthen and manipulate the vines, allowing her to attack, defend and grapple. She also can detach them at will. The vines will grow back, provided her head receives proper sunlight and water.
Ultimate Moves[]
Via Dolorosa (ヴィアドロローサ,Via Dororōsa?): Ibara covers an entire area with her vines, trapping anything that touches them.
Crucifixion (磔刑,Kurusefikushon?): Ibara uses her vines to trap her opponent in a ball of vines suspended in the air to restrict their movement. The shape resembles that of a rubber band ball. She uses this move on Denki to insulate him, making him unable to discharge his Quirk.
Faith's Shield (信仰の盾,Feisuzu Shīrudo?): Ibara swiftly creates a wall of vines to protect herself before detaching the vines. She used it as a second line of defense against Denki.
Big Tree (いちじくの木,Ichijiku no ki?):[3] Ibara creates a wall of vines to block an upcoming attack while the roots capture her oppenent.
Ibara's name contains the kanji for "salt" (塩,shio?), "promontory" (崎,zaki?), and "thorn" (茨,ibara?).
Ibara ranked fourth during the U.A. Entrance Exam with 36 Villain Points and 32 Rescue Points.
Ibara's favorite food is bread.
Denki refers to Ibara as "acorn-eyed", a slang term for someone with large, dark eyes.[5]
Notably, the only person Ibara ever deceives is Minoru, both taking his headband in a deceitful manner during the Sports Festival, as well as lying to lure him out during the Summer Training Camp.[6] She only expresses regret for the first occasion, likely due to him attempting to peep on her and the other 1-B girls in the second.