Rika Saionji

Rika Saionji
Kanji	西園寺 リカ
Rōmaji	Saionji Rika
Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	157 cm (5'2")
Birthday	May 1 ( TAURUS ♉♉ )
Hair Color	Strawberry Blonde
Eye Color	Aquamarine
Blood Type	B
Professional Status
Previous Affiliation	Suzaku High School Supernatural Studies Club Student Council
Occupation	Student
Previous Occupation	Witch Student Council's Enforcer
Personal Status
Status	Active
Former Ability	Amnesia, Witch Detection & Power Detection
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 65
Anime Debut	Episode 10
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Masumi Tazawa
English Voice	Luci Christian
Image Gallery

Rika Saionji (西園寺 リカ Saionji Rika) is the seventh witch of the first set of witches, prior to losing her powers.

Appearance

Rika is a fair-skinned girl with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair that is curled at the ends, bright aquamarine-blue eyes, freckles in the middle of her face, she is slightly below average height and she is fairly busty compared to the other female characters.

She is always seen wearing her school uniform that she has decorated with frills, a pair of white gloves which she wears to prevent her from inadvertently wiping memories of people, and a parasol with a spiral-shaped handle. As said by Rika herself: she doesn't wear panties at school because she doesn't wear them at home and forgot to put them on for school one day (and partially from that fact that her amnesia power will make everyone forget about seeing her anyway).

Personality

Rika's personality at first makes her seem like a happy and easy-going girl who tries to amuse everyone with her quirks and perverted tendencies, though she has an aggressive side that tends to come out when she feels threatened.

Later on in the story, Rika is revealed to be a broken individual from all the loneliness of being forgotten by her friends once she became the Seventh Witch. Rika is flawed, as shown with her jealousy of Haruma Yamazaki's affection toward Leona Miyamura, and her reactions that caused dire consequences toward everyone. However, when persuaded to do something righteous or being made aware of her flaws, Rika is willing to cooperate and correct her mistakes.

Plot

Witch Hunting Arc

Somewhere on school grounds, as Ryu Yamada ponders on what to do next, she walks towards him from behind. As he turns around, he faces the final Witch as she smiles.

It is later revealed that the effect her power has on Witch Killers is to wipe that person from every witch related memory of the students (and without having to kiss that person directly) since Witch Killers are immune to witch powers. She worked for the Student Council to prevent the greatest secret of the witches from being discovered.

Seven New Witches Arc

In the Private Study Room, Ryu Yamada reveals that he had found the Seventh Witch, Rika notes that this person is in the same position she was in before. As he reveals the new witch's name Nancy and that she's been erasing the memories of witches who are consumed by their powers. She claims that she doesn't believe it and notes that she would never do it. She informs Ryu that by erasing memories, the witch becomes forgotten by everyone. She states that she isn't even being rewarded by the Student Council for it and that she is too nice. As Ryu remembers, he asks her why the Seventh Witch always dresses gaudily, confusing her. As he states that she wears a frilly dress and Nancy has a punk look, angering her as she states it's rude to call it weird. She claims that it's her policy, however she states that others have been calling her kinky, shocking Ryu as she is still not wearing underwear, informing her that is her problem as she is no longer a witch. She informs him that she thought people would remember her if she stood out. She then asks him that he goes commando as a hobby, which he greatly denies.

Graduation Arc

By the time of March, Rika walks by noticing Ryu Yamada lying on the grass. As he says he should help Haruma Yamazaki, she walks up to him and asks him on what it is. Jokingly saying a pair of panties, not noticing his stare. She realizes this and covers her skirt, claiming that he is awful as she came to see him before the graduation ceremony and he asks her if she finished her entrance exams. However, she states that she got a recommendation to a girls' university and that she was at home all day, in which she then asks him to find out who Haruma likes, as they are going to different universities, she decided to confess her feelings for him at the graduation ceremony and she doesn't want to be sad during the ceremony. As Ryu stutters that he can't, she states that she heard he's been forgotten again. She asks if he helps her then she might tell him how to get the memories back. As he questions on how she knows, she bounces stating she wasn't the seventh witch for three years for nothing. She then thanks him and leaves, but not before a gust of wind blows her skirt again.

Rika and the others graduate with smiles

Rika is told to hide in the Supernatural Studies Club room after the graduation ceremony. After seeing how Haruma reacts to rejection, she calls him pathetic and lame, leaving the room disappointed. After school, she and the others wave goodbye to the Supernatural Studies Club, with smiles on their faces. As they leave, she covers her mouth in surprise as Haruma starts chasing Leona Miyamura.

Appearances in Other Media

OVAs

Second Coming of the Suzaka Fest: A Hot Springs Resort! Everyone Gather Up!

Tsubaki running towards Rika

As Urara Shiraishi, Ryu Yamada and Miyabi Ito are running towards the Supernatural Studies Club room, they pass Rika, a gust of wind created by their movements lifts her skirt up, prompting her to yell at them. Later, as Kentaro Tsubaki runs towards Ryu's Tempura bait, her skirt is yet again hit by wind, causing her umbrella to fall subsequently. She warns Kentaro to watch where he is going.

Former Abilities

Rika using power without kissing

Amnesia: Rika has the ability to make a person lose all memories about the witches. This ability is activated without having Rika kiss that person but instead activates by having her placing both of her (bare, since she appears to have to take off her gloves) hands on the target for several seconds. In exchange, however, the effect take 24 hours to manifest. Against Witch Killers, it will wipe that person from every witch related memory of the students instead, with random people replacing the target in everyone else's memories involving them. 

Rika about to wipe everyone's memories of Shinichi Tamaki

However, all of the victims appear to subconsciously remember them to some degree, but cannot recall them. In chapter 82 it's revealed that due to her power she was always forgotten by everyone since she became a witch. Later, it is discovered that she can't use her power more than once on the same person when it failed to erase Nene Odagiri's memory the second time. This, however, is clarify to only apply to witches in Chapter 89. Her power seems to only effect students that go into campus as Leona Miyamura didn't suffer the effects, when Ryu Yamada had been erased from the others' memories.

When her power was forcibly removed as shown when Ryu wished for the powers of Rika's set to disappear, the victim will regain all their memories that have been erased as shown when Ryu's friends and others had regain their memories.

Witch Detection: In chapter 95, it is revealed that Rika also has the ability to detect the six other witches of her set. She used this to detect whether Mikoto Asuka's power had returned.

Power Detection: In chapter 95, it is revealed that Rika also has the ability to detect the six other witches of her set.

She lost her powers after Ryu wished for all witch powers to disappear from the school.

Equipment

Parasol: Rika is always seen carrying a parasol around where it is very decorative with a spiral handle.

Relationships

• Haruma Yamazaki - In a flashback it was shown that Rika had feelings for Haruma, of which he was oblivious too. Leona Miyamura noted that she joined their club to spent time with him to aid him in trying to find the seventh witch (really herself) it was. After seeing he did not return her feelings, Rika responded by erasing his memory of Leona. Before they graduated, she once more tried to find out if he liked her but I had to see him confess and be rejected by Leona did she get over him.

• Leona Miyamura - It was shown that she was jealous of Leona for close relationship with Haruma. She made it no secret that she was there to try to win him over. After she erased his memory of her, Leona stopped attending school and Rika slowly felt guilt about her act.

Titles

Seventh Witch of the first set
Preceded by	Years	Succeeded by
← Unknown	-2010-November 2012	Rui Takuma →

Etymology

• While the name Rika is given in katakana in the Japanese version, the pinyin "理花" is used instead and thus her name means "reason, logic" (理) (ri) and "flower, blossom" (花) (ka), which literally means "flower of truth" in Chinese.
• Rika's surname Saionji means "west" (西) (sai), "garden" (園) (on) and "temple" (寺) (ji).

Trivia

• In the original Japanese edition, Rika speaks in the third-person.
• In the final chapter, it is shown that Rika's appearance hasn't changed even after a decade, though she noted that she had small wrinkles.