Irina Shidou

“	Everyone in Heaven is important to me. I haven’t forgotten my faith. There isn’t a day when I don’t think about the Lord and Michael-sama. ———But the feeling of wanting to fight alongside Xenovia and Asia-san in a big competition like this was also strong. In the end, I couldn’t let go off that feeling. I-I……want to be honest with the feeling of love inside me and live like that! That’s why I want to fight as a part of Ise-kun’s team!	”
–Irina's declaration for the Azazel Cup, Volume 22, Life 3

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Irina Shidou
Kana	紫し藤どう イリナ
Romaji	Shidō Irina
Profile
Race	Reincarnated Angel Former Human
Gender	Female
Nicknames	Warrior Irina (by Ewald Cristaldi) Angel Irina (by Michael) Angel (by Jeanne) Michael's Ace Seraph Michael's Ace Archangel Michael's Ace Ace of Spades Holy Sword Hauteclere Wielder Holy Sword Hauteclere User Embodiment of the Brave Saints (by Michael) Representative of Angels (by Michael) Michael's Messenger (by Azazel) Self-Proclaiming Angel (by Xenovia) Self-Proclaiming Childhood Friend (by Xenovia) Self-Proclaiming Childhood Friend Angel (by Xenovia) Self-Proclaiming Raised In Japan (by Xenovia) Ace of the Barbeque Dishes(by Xenovia) Ero-Angel Irina (by Xenovia) Angelic Angel Heroine (by Ichiei Ishibumi)
Hair Color	Light Brown
Eye Color	Violet
Equipment & Abilities	Hauteclere Excalibur Mimic (Formerly) Holy Demonic Sword (Formerly) Light-Based Weapons
Personal Status
Relatives	Touji Shidou (Father) Unnamed Mother
Affiliations	Protestant Church Vatican Three Factions (Heaven) Michael's Brave Saints Griselda Quarta (Boss) Kuoh Academy (Third-Year High School Student) Occult Research Club Irina Shidou's Salvation of Love Club (Founder/President) Hyoudou Residence D×D Team Red Dragon Emperor of the Blazing Truth Heavenly Breasts
Status	Alive
Ranking	Ace of Spades Ultimate-Class Angel King of Spades (Independent)
Voice Actor	Maaya Uchida (Japanese) Kristi Kang (English)

Irina Shidou (紫し藤どう イリナいりな, Shidō Irina) is one of the many female protagonists of High School DxD and the childhood friend of Issei Hyoudou.

Irina is a third-year high school student at Kuoh Academy in Class 3-B and is a devout Christian who, even after learning of God's death, still follows his teachings. She is later reincarnated as an Angel by the Archangel Michael, through one of the Brave Saints, her ranking among his peerage being "Ace Of Spades". She is also one of Issei's fiancées.

Appearance

Irina is a beautiful young woman with violet eyes. She has long chestnut hair that is usually tied into twintails, each held with a blue scrunchy, but on some occasions, she lets her hair down. Her body measurements are B87-W59-H89 cm [B34-W23-H35 in]; height is 164 cm (5 feet 4 inches) and body weight is 56 kg.

She wears the standard Church battle attire, same as Xenovia's with some slight differences. After transferring to Kuoh Academy and moving into the Hyoudou Residence, she starts wearing the Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform, with black short shorts under her skirt and the addition of white sneakers with blue accents.

Following her Angelization by Michael, she wears a red "A" printed on her right hand, symbolizing her position as Michael's Ace. Irina also gained white Angel wings and a halo, as of Volume 17, she has a total of 4 wings.

Personality

Irina is a cheerful, goofy, upbeat, and enthusiastic person. She is also shown to be cooperative and open-minded to others as she is seen with Arthur Pendragon discussing Excalibur Ruler.

She is a fiercely devout Christian, even more so than Xenovia, showing great respect for God's teachings. In one of her past adventures, she revealed how happy she was to be able to wield a Holy sword like her father before her. During her first appearance, she was harsh towards those whom she perceived as an opposition to her religion. This was demonstrated by how she and Xenovia treated Asia Argento when they first met, although she was nowhwere near as harsh towards the exiled nun as her partner, as well as her reaction to Xenovia becoming a Devil. The death of God of the Bible was a great shock for Irina, yet she still believes in his teachings and transferred her belief to Michael who is the current "God".

As noted by Michael, in addition to her strong Christian faith, Irina is innocent, honest, respectful, and friendly, traits which he valued and also the reason he chose her to be his Ace.

Irina seems to have a strong but subconscious eroticism of her own, being suprisingly easygoing and ready to "submit" when she accidently ended up being groped by Issei, her first reaction to the idea of becoming a cyborg being dislike as she wouldn't be able to bear Issei's children with a robotic body, and her reaction to seeing Elmenhilde crying to Ravel and Issei about her homeland was wondering if she'd been sexually assaulted. Xenovia both encourages and makes fun of this trait, providing justification for Irina to indulge, such as with thoughts of Issei's half-Angel children increasing Heaven's war-power, a reasoning that once helped provoke Irina into an independent "attack" on Issei, and simultaneously branding her an "ero-Angel," much to Irina's embarassment. After kissing Issei, she becomes bolder in her relationship with him, as she becomes less concerned about "falling" in order to show her love for him.

She is shown to be very sensitive to and annoyed about being called "self-proclaiming."

History

Irina's family lineage is related to the church, and her father being a pastor and exorcist of the Protestant Church and possessing a currently unidentified Holy Sword. She is Issei's childhood friend, who was under the impression that she was a boy due to appearing quite tomboyish, and they were close friends who used to play together. At some point, she kissed him while he was sleeping at her house. She later left Japan and went to England with her family, due to her father's job, where she trained to become an exorcist of the Protestant Church.

Three years prior at age 14, Irina was granted the ability to wield Holy Swords via a Holy Element and was given Excalibur Mimic, thus following in her father's footsteps. Soon after, she was eventually partnered with Xenovia, where they undertook a mission to slay the stray Vampire from the House of Manthar.

At some point in time, she crossed blades with a knight from Riser Phenex's Peerage named Karlamine.

Powers & Abilities

Irina unleashing her light halos.

Light Power: As an Angel, Irina has the ability to create and wield Light.

• Light-Based Weapons: As an Angel, Irina is able to create Light-based weapons. In the anime, she has shown to be able to use light halos that wrapped about foes of remarkable power and size, such as one of Fenrir's sons. In Volume DX.4, Irina created a move which forms rings of light that home in on her opponents and radiates light. In Volume 25, she made a whip of light that imitates Excalibur Mimic.

Artificial Holy Sword Wielder: After taking in the Light Container, Irina became an artificial Holy Sword user, able to wield Excalibur Mimic and later Hauteclere.

Enhanced Speed: While she can't match up to the likes of Yuuto Kiba, Irina is still noticeably fast due to her training as an Exorcist, being able to dodge Jeanne's attacks with ease.

Enhanced Strength: As a Human, Irina stated she was strong enough that the force of her swings could create wind to scatter clouds of scales from a Chimera, intense enough that she was concerned about the scales flying over to a nearby town. After being reincarnated as an Angel, her base physical prowess increased as she could fight and hold her own against more powerful supernatural beings.

Enhanced Luck: Due to also receiving Ophis' blessing, Irina gained improved luck, winning second place in a lottery.

Master Swordswoman: Like Xenovia, Irina is talented in swordsmanship, specialized in tricky movements that makes use of her speed, being able to fight on par with Jeanne during their first encounter. Even at 14 years old, Irina is skilled enough to be chosen as a Holy Sword wielder. By Volume 19, Irina's swordsmanship skills became great enough being able to keep up against Ewald Cristaldi wielding a replica of Excalibur. Tomoe Meguri admitted that Irina's swordsmanship is on a whole different level.

Irina using Defensive Magic.

Skilled Magician: In addition to her Light Weapons, Irina is mentioned to be a skilled user of Magic specializing in Holy Magic as an Exorcist, She is also currently learning from Rossweisse.

• Defensive Magic: Irina is shown to be able to create defensive magic circles to shield herself in battle as well, as was shown in the battle with Loki.
• Teleportation Magic: Irina has shown the ability to use teleportation magic in order to transport herself and others.

Flight: Being an Angel, Irina can fly using her wings.

Equipment

Hauteclere (オートクレールおーとくれーる, Ōtokurēru): Irina's current primary weapon, a Holy Sword given to her by her father. The sword has the ability of purifying those cut by it.

Formerly

Irina wielding Excalibur Mimic like a katana.

Excalibur Mimic (擬態の聖剣エクスカリバー・ミミック, Eskukaribā Mimikku): Irina's initial weapon (through artificial means). A Holy Sword that has the ability to transform itself into any shape as its wielder's desires. This sword was later given to Xenovia to be fused with Durandal.

• Katana: Irina typically wields Excalibur in the form of a katana.

Holy Demonic Sword (聖せい魔ま剣けん, Seimaken): A prototype Irina received from Heaven in Volume 12, based on Yuuto Kiba's Sword of Betrayer. She is able to use the swords ability to use different elemental attributes, ranging from fire, ice, and lightning.

Quotes

Light Novel

• (To Xenovia) "I'm not a self-proclaiming Angel, I'm the real one!"
• (To Issei) “……The one who was unfair was you, Ise-kun. If you say something like that……I can’t hold it…… ……I won’t be able to leave you……!” (Volume 18, Life 2)
• (To Issei) “Ahmm, of course! It’s because when we were kids, Ise-kun came to sleep over at my house and I stole a kiss from you.” (Volume 18, Christmas)
• (To Issei) “I’d be annoyed that I can’t play together with darling.” (Volume 21, Life 2)

Anime

• "I shall judge your sins! Amen!" (Season 2, New)
• "Amen!"

Trivia

• Irina's birthday is on September 29th.
• Irina (Cyrillic: Ирина) is a feminine given name of Ancient Greek origin, commonly borne by followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is derived from Eirene (Ancient Greek: Εἰρήνη), an ancient Greek goddess, personification of peace.
• Irina's last name; "Shidou" translates to "Purple Wisteria".
• Among all the girls, Irina has known Issei for the longest time and was the first girl to kiss him.
• Irina has become well-known for calling herself an "Angel," thus gaining herself the title, "Self-Proclaiming Angel." As a vindictive insult, she has been recently called the "Self-Proclaimed Childhood Friend".
• According to Issei, she inherited her father's habit of entering into their own world and her mother's energetic nature.
• It is stated that among the Church Trio (her, Xenovia and Asia), Irina has the strongest faith in God as she fell into a seven-day shock and depression after hearing about His death before recovering.
• In Rating Game fighting-types, Irina would be considered a Technique-type who is closer to a Wizard-type.
• Irina sometimes appears as a guest on Asia and Xenovia's expository videos, which they upload to DeviTube, about Japan’s daily school life, forming a popular streaming group trio.
• Irina has a hobby of baking bread.
  • She has expressed a desire to open a bakery after graduating but had to give up on that wish in order to help rebuild Heaven.
• Irina was featured in Weekly Brave Angel, an internal magazine at the church she works at, making her quite popular among the male members.
  • She is quite popular in general with people who know that Angels exist.
• Irina and Xenovia became engaged to Issei Hyoudou at the same time, her being the fifth to ask.
  • She is Issei's first bride not to be a part of his or Rias' peerage and the first one not to be a Devil.
• Irina wants to have her wedding take place in Heaven.
• Upon her promotion to Ultimate Class Angel, Irina was awarded her own Suit of [Spades].
• Irina's name, along with Xenovia's, were decided on a whim when Ishibumi spent a fine Sunday on a riverbank.
• In the Light Novel and Anime, Irina is said to be an artificial Holy Sword wielder, while in the Manga, Xenovia said that Irina is a natural-born Holy Sword wielder like her.
• The manga "Samurai Vatican" and protagonist of the series "Oda Nobuna" which Irina mentions in the short story "Stop! Yuuto-kun!" are references to another light novel series Miyama-Zero works on called "The Ambition of Oda Nobuna".