Mairin Hoshiko

Mairin Mikako Hoshiko is from Camphrier Town in the Kalos region. She previously traveled with the Mokusetsu while they were in Blackthorn City, Johto, looking for the fifth Plate, Midori.

Background
Mairin is an orphan. She's from Camphrier Town in the Kalos region. She was born with several disorders of the brain, but has since made an above average recovery. Both of her parents died in a car accident due to a drunk driver when she was only a few months old. She had a babysitter and was home when this happened. After this, her babysitter placed her into a foster home in Blackthorn City, Johto, since there wasn't an opening in Kalos's foster home.

The foster home is always ran by a Nurse Joy. One was there when Mairin was brought there and then another came after that one left, who is still running it presently. Mairin enjoys playing with the other kids at the home and has a cheerful disposition, despite no one wanting to adopt her from the home.

Present
Ever since the end of Episode 7, there were occasional clips of a mysterious voice from Johto singing a song in a cheerful manner. Despite this cheerfulness, the lyrics seemed to be from a very sad lullaby.

As these clips progressed, it appeared that Ash could hear this singing. However, no one around him could ever hear it and nobody understood Ash when he inquired about it.

It wasn't until Episode 19, on Thursday, August 2nd, in Blackthorn City that the identity of the singing was revealed to be Mairin, who called Ash her big brother. This shocked Ash, Alain, and Dawn to thinking that her last name was Ketchum. Mairin corrected them to say her last name is Hoshiko. This confused people more and caused suspicion in Alain, who didn't understand how she could call Ash her big brother when they don't share the same last name. Mairin kept quiet about what was going on and happily asked everyone to follow her.

She took them to a weird, purple tree stump. No one knew why it was purple, but Mairin said it showed up a week ago while she was digging, which she does to find collectible things to keep. She goes to the stump every day.

She said she didn't even know Ash's mother, nor Ash's name, prompting her to ask this. This raised the suspicion of Alain more, who didn't know if they could trust her.

From here, Mairin continuously hung out with Ash, always full of energy and wanting to do more things with Ash, such as going to the fair, shopping, and more. She stayed with him most of the day, continuously calling him her big brother.

The gang didn't even learn about Mairin being an orphan and staying in a foster home until that night when Mairin was about to go home, telling them the story about where she stays and how she got there. This saddened the others, while Mairin stayed cheerful throughout the whole thing.

That night before Mairin left to go home, she taught Ash a saying her parents told her when she was young, explaining that the reason she remembers is because of an ideal memory she's always had. She then also taught Ash the lyrics to that mysterious lullaby she always sang that Ash kept hearing. Nurse Joy came out afterwards to bring Mairin home, which was the start of Episode 20. She left and Nurse Joy confirmed Mairin's story to the others, assuring that they can trust her.

The next day, August 3rd, the three protagonists went to pick up Mairin from the foster home. This day was when they were gonna try to find Midori, the Grass Plate. Eventually, they were approached by two Tekiyoku members: Barret Daigo and Grings Kodai. A fight ensued.

Close to the end of the fight, Ash was knocked down and Kodai was about to kill him. Mairin ran out from hiding to protect Ash. Mairin was struck and thrown across a river to the ground on the other side, knocking her out.

This suddenly infuriated Ash, who fiercely beat up Kodai, while Alain knocked out Barret, then assisted Ash in defeating Kodai. The enemy retreated. Ash went to Mairin, who said she was all right and was proud of Ash for what he did.

The gang still didn't know where Midori was. Upon hearing the description of it, Mairin pulled out a picture of something she thought matched the Plate... except that it was the Plate in her room! Confused, they asked how she found it, to which she answered that she found it while digging a week ago, thinking it was just a shiny stone.

It turns out that when she found the Plate, that's what made that purple tree stump appear and use nature to transmit her singing of the lullaby to Ash. This continues the pattern of strange things happening whenever a Plate is found. Mairin said that the stump guided her to wait on her big brother to show up, which is how she became so attached to Ash, claiming to be his "little sister". It's unknown why Ash was the one whom the stump decided to transmit her singing to. Mairin retrieved Midori and gave it to Alain, who kept it safe.

Mairin convinced the gang to stay a little longer instead of leaving the next morning, because she wanted to spend more time with Ash. They decided to stay for 3 more days and leave on the 6th.

To sum up the next day, Mairin spent more time with Ash, feeling closer to him as his little sister. On the day after, on the 5th, the gang was in the forest. Ash was ready for another wonderful day of hanging out with Mairin. After this, Ash, Alain, and Dawn eventually left to head to the Sinnoh region next.

Personality
No one has acted so much like Ash before Mairin. She's cheerful just like him, and tries to help others as much as she can. She cheers up others when she can and is always eager for what's coming next.

She has a great memory, remembering the lyrics to a saying her parents told her when she was younger, which she taught to Ash to get him to say it with her whenever they meet or leave each day. The lullaby she always sang was also sung to her by her parents and also her babysitter.

She annoys Alain deeply, often messing with him constantly while laughing about it, angering Alain every time. She likes to call Alain a "meanie", which Alain usually angrily repeats back to her.

She's nice to Dawn, stating that a friend of her big brother, Ash, is a friend of hers. However, she erroneously called Dawn, "Girl", due to Alain saying that was her name when Mairin asked. She corrected this later and called her "Dawn".

Her favorite snack are blackberries. Ash found this out from the Nurse Joy that runs her foster home, prompting Ash to occasionally pick blackberries for her.

Mairin loves stars. She enjoys watching them at night and often watches them with Ash. Her love for stars is shown in her love for the lullaby her parents used to sing to her when she was younger, "Pretty Little Star".

A large similarity between Ash and her is that she stays this positive even with all the trauma she's been through her life, just like Ash does. This even causes Alain to remark that maybe the two really are like brother and sister.

However, this changed when she hung out with Ash on August 4th. They were alone near a waterfall and Mairin finally broke down and showed her depression about all she was going through. She was sad about her life conditions, her loneliness by not having many friends in her life, not seeing her hometown in so many years, and especially upset over the fact that although she finally found happiness by encountering her big brother, Ash, it was about to go away when Ash leaves with the others in a couple of days. She can't come with the group until her upcoming birthday in 2 months on October 10th, because legally, she can't leave the foster home before then.

Ash
She undoubtedly has the closest relationship to Ash. It's unknown why the purple tree stump transmitted her singing of that lullaby to Ash, but since she perceived the stump as guiding her to wait on her big brother, and since Ash eventually arrived in Blackthorn City knowing about her singing, she knew that Ash was her big brother.

She takes on the part of a little kid constantly stringing her older brother along to do things together, despite her clearly not being as young as she acts. She's always chipper and never seems to get tired. She thoroughly enjoys spending time with Ash and can do so all day. The things she does with him are simple, like going to the fair or the mall or walking through the park. She seems to never have had this connection in her life and was finally able to experience it with Ash, her only true close "family member" she can do this with.

Ash cheers Mairin up when she finally opened up about the sadness she goes through. He promised that she can join with the Mokusetsu later and even live with them once the final war is over. He's truly a supportive big brother.

Ash turned out to be very protective of Mairin, turning intensely angry when Kodai beat Mairin up in the fight for Midori. Ash has never been this angry before this point, signaling this as a breaking point for Ash, who wasn't being himself, but showed a true protective nature for Mairin.

Quotes

 * "Through all the pain, heartbreak, and despair, with your support, I'll always get by. Connections will form, and even faster they'll go, but I pray that we'll never say goodbye. As long as you're here, I'll never have to cry." -- the saying that Mairin's parents told her when she was younger and she taught to Ash.
 * "Then, she saw a star in the sky that night. And it gave her life and it kept things right. Then one night, that star flickered as the rain poured. And the pretty little star didn't shine any more." -- lyrics to Pretty Little Star.

Naming

 * Her first name, Mairin, is her name in the English dub of the Pokémon anime. It's meant to be similar to her Japanese name, Manon.
 * "Manon" is a feminine French name.
 * It also comes from "marron", which is French for "chestnut". Those two reasons are because her home region, Kalos, is based on France.
 * Another reason is because it comes from Harimaron, the Japanese name for Chespin. This is because she owns a Chespin in the Pokémon anime.


 * Her middle name, Mikako, is the given name of her Japanese voice actress, Mikako Komatsu. Mairin was her only role in the anime.
 * Coincidentally, this name also ends with "ko", just like Mairin's last name. "Ko" basically means "child".
 * On Season 2 of Nocturnal Jay's series, Kanto Summer Camp, Mairin's last name was the actress's surname, "Komatsu". In order to make way for the updated last name below, Jay used the given name this time.


 * Her last name, Hoshiko, is a name picked by Nocturnal Jay. The name means, "star child". This is picked because of Mairin's obsessions with stars, as seen in the lullaby she sings.

General

 * Her birthday, October 10th, was picked by Nocturnal Jay, provided that it came a bit after she was shown in the story, for plot purposes.
 * Her age isn't revealed in the series, although Alain pointed out that she looks almost Ash's age. It can be deduced that she's younger than him, but not by much.
 * In the Pokémon anime, she's actually not that close to Ash, instead being close to Alain in the Mega Evolution specials, being a traveling partner of him. She does still annoy Alain kind of similarly to Tears of the Fallen.
 * Nocturnal Jay composed a song based on Mairin's lullaby, titled after the lullaby itself, "Pretty Little Star".