Shirin

Shirin (シリン) is a secondary antagonist in the titles for the Harukanaru Toki no Naka de series. Enthralled by Akram's appearance, Shirin dedicates her every waking moment to him. Her love and admiration for Akram is a completely one-sided affair.

Role in Games
Shirin is one of Akram's obedient followers who helps his conquest for Kyou. Due to her faded hair color, she can assume a facade to blend in with the townsfolk. When she poses as a skilled dancer, Shirin may use her crafts to learn valuable information from drunken nobles.

During the first game, Shirin tries to utilize trickery to obtain the eastern talisman for the eastern divine aide. Using her shape-shifting ability, Shirin acts as a helpless damsel in distress. She presents a sob story of her brother being cursed by a demon and, she needs the talisman to save him. Her tragic pleas appeal to Tenma to help her, but Yorihisa has his doubts due to flimsy details in the woman's story. Akane hesitates to agree to the woman's request and considers the proposition until the final day. Before the priestess and her guardians open the shrine with the talisman, Yorihisa interrogates her. Shirin is forced to reveal herself when his nitpicking analysis punctures through her lies. As she attempts to take the talisman by force, Kōzanze Myō-Oh reveals itself and blinds her with its holy light.

Knowing that her second attempt is her last chance to redeem herself in Akram's eyes, Shirin schemes to sow distrust between the Byakko guardians. She either she berates Takamichi to doubt himself or tempts Tomomasa to submit to her wiles. Shirin summons the white tiger to attack them in a last ditch effort, but her plans ultimately fail. Her downfall renders her meaningless in Akram's eyes so she flees in distress. Akane and company don't see her again until Akram's defeat. Shirin teleports to the scene and pleads for the priestess to spare him from the final blow.

When Akram summons the Black Dragon, both demons are sucked within the dragon god to fulfill a wish. The Black Dragon demands a wish from them as they float within the heavenly void. Shirin's earnest desire to save Akram overpowers his wish to destroy the capital. As such, Kyou is inexplicably saved and the White Dragon reunites with it to restore peace. Shirin loses her free will to the Black Dragon as the price, though she herself is not aware of this as they are sent one hundred years into the future. While Shirin subconsciously obeys the dragon god's biding to help Chitose, Akram abandons her.

Her wit and dancing ability garners the Retired Emperor's liking and she becomes the mole for Chitose's rise to fame. Using the Black Dragon's power Shirin casts various curses and plants various vengeful spirits in the Retired Emperor's domain. Shirin waits for those afflicted to suffer from illness before she invites Chitose to exorcise the spiritual defilements (in reality, Chitose's power briefly subdues the malevolent energy and it doesn't disappear completely). The demon repeats the process until the young maiden is accepted as the land's savior. In her mind Shirin accepts the ploy as a part of Akram's ambition to control Kyou, a dream he has already forsaken by this point.

Karin's arrival to the parallel world complicates Chitose's beliefs, so Shirin attempts to defy her and her guardians by controlling vengeful spirits to attack them. Again, Shirin's goal is to stop the White Dragon Priestess from obtaining the eight divine talisman around Kyou. The Black Dragon assists her by providing the demon powerful vengeful spirits to control. She nearly kills Isato and Akifumi until Akram uses his powers to intervene on their behalf. His lone appearance before her motivates her to exert herself further. Akram, in the meantime, sabotages her zeal by discreetly reporting Shirin's every movement to Karin.

As Karin's priestess powers grow, the Black Dragon's hold on Shirin's mind weakens. Well aware of Akram's apathy for her, Karin attempts to peace talks with Shirin by confessing that Akram had deserted her. Refusing to accept reality, Shirin spends the last of her demon powers to lash out in desperation. Upon her defeat, she begins to suffer the negative effects of her own curse. Karin uses her power to save her and to release her from the Black Dragon's control, an act of mercy which surprises Shirin. Freed from her fate of living for another, a thoughtful Shirin respectfully departs to live a new life for herself.

Shirin makes brief appearances during the spin-off titles of the series. She gloats to Karin regarding the Demon Clan's victory in Akram's dream and challenges Tenma to a battle in the game version of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~ Maihitoyo. Her curse is the true setting for Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~ Banjoyugi as it causes Akane to lose her spirit in a dream. While the four priestesses challenge one another to decide the real priestess, Shirin disguises herself as one of them and participates. Her goal is to win the dream competition to take over Akane's body in the real world and inevitably kill the real Akane's spirit. The dream Fujihime sees through the ruse and drives Shirin out from the priestess's mind.

Development
For Shirin's design Tohko Mizuno was told to make her a "glamorous woman", but Mizuno feels she hasn't met that particular goal with Shirin's final designs. In her eyes Shirin is a serious and upright beauty who contrasts the kind men throughout the game. She figures that an assertive woman would naturally cause trouble for them. Her second appearance intentionally uses Akram's previous color scheme since Mizuno thinks pigments are fitting for them. She wonders if Shirin could be counted as the secondary heroine due to her character arc. Mizuno enjoys drawing both of her outfits since her clothing is free-flowing and interesting to color.

Personality
Beauty is Shirin's pride and her weapon. Embracing her mature image, Shirin thinks she is the true embodiment of a woman and belittles any who are younger than her. She talks with a sweet, feminine dialect that is charming to many nobles of her era. Though she may give into vanity and may be swayed by passionate acclaim, her words while acting as a fair temptress are a farce. Her opinion of humanity is dismal, as she believes that demons are vastly superior.

As soon as Shirin saw Akram, it was love at first sight. Desiring to be with her admired beloved, Shirin is a lovesome woman to him. When she is in his company, her tense and scornful traits are extinguished to be subservient for him. Her romantic advances are barely acknowledged yet she hopes to someday be accepted by him. Admiring his status and image, she fondly addresses him as "my lord" (お館様, Oyakata-sama) or "Master Akram" (アクラム様, Akuramu-sama). Shirin's idolization of Akram blinds her from his true nature and prevents her from accepting her sinking intuition that he will never return her feelings. She stubbornly clutches onto her dreams and bickers with Sefr for Akram's attention.

The closest Shirin has ever experienced to hearing Akram's sweet nothings is rehearsing her illusion as Akane. Akram longs for the White Dragon Priestesses over her, therefore Shirin harbors a deep jealousy for her. Not even Akram's plans can entirely dissuade her from trying to physically harm the young girls. Her grudge towards Karin disappears once she learns the truth, however, her feelings instead changing to sincere gratitude and amazement. She is in the midst of forgiving her old life, yet Shirin is cheerful enough to share a playful joke with the priestess in the bonus epilogue scenario.

Character Symbolism
Shirin or Shireen (شیرین) is a name found in Indo-European languages and it is derived from the adjective Sirin. The common definition for both words is sweetness, often to describe the sensation of taste (as in "sweet as honey"). Other definitions of the words include gentle, pleasant, or charming. Shirin is also the name of a woman within a famous Persian love story, Khosrow and Shirin. Like the Haruka Shirin, the princess fell in love with the prince instantly. In her case, she saw his likeliness in a painting and was enchanted by it.

Her symbolic item is a rose, which adorns both of her stylized upper tops in the series. The rose is best known as a flower of beauty, romance, happiness and love. A famous story remarks that the flower bloomed during Venus' birth, and the gods themselves praised the blooming spectacle. Depending on the source, the white rose entered the world once her lover, Adonis, was slain. His blood tinged an anemone, and the nearby roses turned completely pale to signal his passing. For Shirin's first outfit, dark crimson roses are used to decorate it. Within the flower language it additionally means faithfulness and passion. The presenter of this flower is also longing for another person's attention.

Shirin's second outfit has a large pink rose on its front. A pink rose means satisfaction and warmth in the flower language. Other meanings include entrusting one's heart to another person or holding a passionate love within one's heart.

Quotes

 * "Men are pathetic. They don't hold a candle to my lord."
 * "Surely you knew this would happen. Humans are but dirt to a demon."
 * "I will be better than that child, my lord. I beg you, please allow entrust this task to me. I will not fail you."
 * "What do you guardians see in her? All of you cling to her like you've never seen a real woman before!"
 * "You're a woman too, aren't you? You must understand why I plea for mercy. He's everything to me!"
 * "One hundred years later and nothing has changed! You guardians are so infuriatingly stupid!"
 * "Who says I'm pathetic? I'm a true woman!"
 * "I'm not anyone's slave. I live only for my lord!"
 * "Unbelievable... I'm so pathetic to rely on your kindness again. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."
 * "Shirin, if you defeat the priestess, I might spare you a moment of my time."
 * "At once, my lord! Prepare to die, you little brat!"
 * Akram and Shirin; Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2

Fighting Style
The player is never given the chance to fight Shirin in the series. During story events, however, she possesses the ability to hurl destructive balls of energy and can attack characters scratching them with her nails. Shirin often uses her demon powers for shape-shifting, teleportation, creating curses, and summoning vengeful spirits. She may choose to do so by dancing and singing within other media for the series.