Kiriko Yakushi

"Diseases of the heart are very difficult to cure. Unlike injuries or illnesses, the method by which they may be cured differs greatly from person to person. We doctors, sadly, are helpless."

- Kiriko Yakushi

Kiriko Yakushi is a third-year student at Rentei Academy and one of the best doctors in Japan despite her young age. She is one of the representatives of her school in the 62nd Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Appearance
Kiriko has green hair and light green eyes.

She is usually seen wearing a lab coat.

Personality
Kiriko has a very playful personality as she is seen many times teasing both Yui Tatara and Ikki. In fact, it seems she gets a sadistic thrill being able to control her opponent's bodies, as seen with her remarks after controlling Yui.

She considers herself to be somewhat of a cruel woman. She believes this because how she only helped Yuudai Moroboshi before because she was looking for "lab rats" to use for her new operation on. However, after 3 months of watching him suffer, Kiriko became warped in guilt over her work. Since then she would use her own body when experimenting with new techniques.

History
At an early age, Kiriko had always studied medicine. She was very brilliant, in fact, she was so brilliant that Yuudai Moroboshi sought her help in his treatment to regain his legs after an accident had occurred. Kiriko was eventually able to replace Yuudai's legs and helped become a Blazer once again.

Despite her skills, Kiriko did not participate in the two previous Seven Stars Sword Art Festivals but was finally persuaded into participating by her teachers.

Party Crashers
Kiriko is seen helping Yuudai deal with an angry Yui Tatara by controlling her body and forcing her to take the pills she had recommended she take for her body. Shizuku then introduces Kiriko as a well-renowned blazer for her medical skills and her blazer skills as well as one of the participants in the seven sword art festival.

Dinner and Confrontation
Kiriko is seen at Yuudai's restaurant, by Ikki, Shizuku, and Alice stating that she had just wanted to check up on her patient, Yuudai Moroboshi. She leaves with Ikki and company after doing so. After Ikki leaves Kiriko explains to Shizuku and Alice why Yuudai will be a very tough opponent to beat explaining Yuudai's painful journey back to being a Blazer.

Battle of Kings
Kiriko is seen joining Shizuku and Alice and watching Ikki's match against Yuudai. Kiriko analyzed the match and determined that the reason wasn't able to finish off Yuudai when he had the chance was because of Punch Eye, an ailment sportsman commonly suffer after a horrible loss and is now scared of being hit. She is, however, corrected by Kurono who informs them that Ikki's body just wasn't up to speed with his subconscious as his subconscious had tried to use Edelweiss' technique all along. Eventually, Ikki realizes this and is able to overpower and defeat Yuudai once and for all.

Conclusion of the First Match
Kiriko then watches Stella's match over the rest of the Block B participants, which Stella wins rather easily. Kiriko then meets the Akatsuki member Amane Shinomiya, who will be her opponent in the first round. Amane though exclaims he has no intention of fighting Kiriko, and suddenly Kiriko's phone rings. She receives information that all of her patients at Rentei are in critical condition. Because of this, she is forced to leave and withdraw from the Festival. It's revealed that this was caused by Amane's ability Nameless Glory, which makes anything he wishes come true.

Dark Clouded Semi-Final
Kiriko later appears, after the semi-final match between Ikki Kurogane and Amane Shinomiya. She heals the wounds Ikki received from the fight against Amane, as payback for Amane forcing her to withdraw.

The Festival is Over
Kiriko later is seen in the party held after the Festival. She immobilizes Sara Bloodlily in order to examine her, which greatly bothers Sara.

"Lorelei" and the "White-Robed Knight"
Shizuku later comes to meet Kiriko, at the Yakushi General Hospital. Shizuku asks if Kiriko can teach her healing techniques to her. Kiriko agrees to this, on one condition. This condition is that Shizuku allows herself to be treated by Kiriko because Shizuku's imperfect usage of her ability Aoiro Rinne has distorted her body. Shizuku agrees to this condition, despite Kiriko telling her that it will be very painful. Kiriko then begins her treatment of Shizuku.

Abilities
Water Manipulation: Kiriko is a very impressive water blazer being able to manipulate other people's own blood and stunt their movements. She is so impressive that even Shizuku, a water blazer prodigy, was nervous about taking her on.

Mana Control: Kiriko has shown that she has a greater magic control than even Shizuku herself, this is shown when she easily used a technique similar to Shizuku's Aoiro Rinne but without the same drawback.

Master Doctor: Kiriko is an incredible doctor and one of the best in Japan, despite her young age. Around 4 years before the storyline, she used her medical knowledge with her advanced water manipulation abilities to create an operation that allows her to restore missing limbs by cannibalizing components from the rest of the body at a molecular level and coalesce the dispersed parts to replace the missing limbs. The main problem of the operation is that the body becomes so weakened that even breathing becomes painful. To fix this, the patient has two choices: build up muscle mass as quickly as they can with their weakened body (which very few can endure), or have Kiriko undo the operation.

Device
Unknown Device: The appearance and abilities of Kiriko's Device are unknown.
 * Doctor Scope: Kiriko's Noble Art, which lets her perform an examination on her target, by just looking at them. Kiriko's examinations are extremely precise, and she can notice even the smallest of details.
 * Unnamed Noble Art: Kiriko is able to control the water in a person's body. She can immobilize her opponent by interfering with the flow of their blood. She can also transform her own body into water, similar to Shizuku's Aoiro Rinne.

Etymology

 * Kiriko's surname Yakushi means "Healing Buddha" (薬師).

Trivia

 * Kiriko would have been an A-rank knight if she had taken her knight evaluations more seriously, according to Nene.