Chika Tachibana

Chika Tachibana (橘 千花 Tachibana Chika) is the arranged wife of Gen Tachibana and the mother of Marika Tachibana who is the head of an old, lineage of her family and she is living in Kyushu.

Appearance
Chika's appearance is very similar to Marika Tachibana, but Chika sports short dark-colored hair that reaches around her neck, her eyes are bit narrow with her pupils showing no depth and she is rarely seen showing an expression other than her straight face.

She wears a large traditional kimono, decorated with different colored and patterned fabrics, that cover most of body.

Her looks make her seem very young for her age which causes Raku Ichijō to mistaken her as Marika's sister when they first meet.

Personality
Chika is a very cold, cruel and emotionless young woman who is shown to not care about Marika Tachibana at all and only uses her to extend the family lineage. When Marika made a gift for her mother and gave it to her, Marika's mother ripped it the second Marika left.

Chika's personality has caused Marika and Mikage Shinohara to hate her which is the reason why Marika calls her an immortal beast.

After Marika returns home, Raku Ichijō tries persuading Chika to call off the wedding, in which she then asks several times why she should follow his request and why Marika's happiness or treatment is important. Before Raku is taken away by Honda, he asks what she thinks about Marika. She replies saying: "How disgusting. Do you want me to say I love her or something...?"

Chika has no motherly affection for her daughter. She sees her as a tool to continue the family name and culture. Her indifference to her own progeny stems from her own mistreatment from her mother. She, like Marika, also attended school where she made friends but in the end had to give in to her own mother's demands and marry Gen not out of love but for his position as the police commissioner.

Deep down, she empathizes with her daughter. But, due to restraints of society and culture, she cannot let her fly whimsically. When Gen finally makes her realize why her cruel attitude is not really her own, she is freed from the social stigma and allows her daughter to do as she wishes, so much as intending to end the tradition on her generation.

Background
Chika was born into a family with an old, widely-known lineage. She is currently the head of this lineage and she is planning to have Marika Tachibana become the next head. She is very frail and weak and doesn't usually stay around people. Because of this, Marika and her mother did not speak to each other until Marika was about 7 years old.

When Marika was a child, Chika was raised strictly but after meeting Raku Ichijō, Marika and Gen Tachibana (Marika's father) requested to have Marika attend the same school as Raku. She agreed but made a compromise with her. If Marika were to ever become so sick that she couldn't attend school or have Raku ultimately reject her offer of marriage, she would immediately be sent home to Kyushu. If these conditions were broken Marika must always obey her orders and be forced to marry the groom she chose.

Gen Tachibana
Chika and Gen have a rather one-sided marriage. While Gen admits that he loves her despite her cruel disposition to their own child, Chika fails to show any emotion towards him, even imprisoning him in a dungeon due to his pleading for Marika's freedom. However, it does seem Chika deeply respects her husband's opinion, so much so that she completely gives up on Marika's marriage and allows her to make her own decisions just by a single conversation with Gen, after witnessing how much Marika is loved by her friends.

Marika Tachibana
Marika is Chika's only child, therefore she is the only heir to the Tachibana lineage. As all other female ancestors of the lineage (who are presumably also head of their respective generations), they share similar frail body, confined environment, and forced marriage, therefore Chika treats Marika with cruelty as she was treated by her mother before. In reality, she also attempted to break free from the tradition when she was younger, having once attended normal school and had friends as well, but she gave up much faster than her daughter. She was self-proclaimed "more kind" than her mother, giving Marika longer time to fight for her life.

After Raku's crashing Marika's arranged wedding, the showdown between Raku's group and her guardians, Marika's escape from her castle, and conversation with Gen, finally she gave up the tradition, intending to end it with her generation and letting Marika do as she please. However it was revealed in the epilogue that Marika was reviewing marriage proposals, showing that she herself chooses to continue the lineage albeit at her own pace.

Etymology

 * The name Chika means "thousand" (千) (chi) and "flower, blossom" (花) (ka).
 * Chika's surname Tachibana means "orange, tangerine" (橘).

Trivia

 * Chika is the only parent who doesn't love her child in the entire series. However, after series of events and the ensuing conversation with her husband, she might have changed even by a bit.
 * Along with Claude Ringheart, Chika is perhaps the only "villains" in the story line.