#lore. sosuke

head of the saito clan, a minor noble family in the seireitei

has known sosuke since they were both young. developed feelings for him at an early age, too

sosuke easily identified her affections for him even though she never admitted as much. he never had any interest in her, romantic or otherwise, other than the clan's money, wanting it to fund his research and experiments

despite having no actual interest in michiko, he used her devotion to him to his advantage, pretending to entertain her interest so she would do anything he said without having to actually show her affection in return

michiko was too hopelessly devoted to realize sosuke was using her

got married to another noble to strengthen both families power and influence. the marriage was arranged and is loveleess

michiko continued to work with sosuke and kaname (and eventually gin) to further sosuke's goals

started growing close enough to kaname that they became friends, both opening up to the other over time

when kaname told michiko about his lost friend, not only did his loss break her heart, but it opened her eyes to the fact that sosuke was leading her on, too. she realized if she died sosuke would never go to the lengths kaname was going to, that he had no interest in her well being or her feelings

she became disillusioned with sosuke and his cause, but at that point knew if she tried to leave she'd be killed

she did tell kaname the truth though, and he promised to protect her from sosuke

they two eventually started a relationship. they kept it secret from everyone since michiko was still married, and they didn't want sosuke to think her attention and loyalties were wavering

sosuke quickly figured out the truth, but figured that as long as michiko was too scared to betray him, he didn't really care what she got up to

michiko eventually fell pregnant and told everyone it was her husbands, but the daughter, miyuki, was kaname's

after the birth of miyuki, sosuke perfected a new experiment; he wanted to hollowify a shinigami soul in utero, intending to track the progress of the shinigami and the hollowfication process from birth. michiko was chosen to carry the baby, having no choice but to say yes

using ivf, sosuke succeeded in implanting the embryo, and michiko carried the baby until their birth. the pregnancy was fraught with complications from the unstable hollowfication process that was slowly occuring, resulting in michiko getting very sick and almost dying

michiyo was born a month early, and the delivery was traumatizing to both mother and baby. still, they both survived

michiko became chronically ill afterwards, and continued to suffer from chronic pain and fatigue after the birth

michiyo was also chronically ill due to their hollowfying soul- everyone assumed it was because they inherited michiko's chronic illness and no one questioned it

after michiyo was born, michiko asked sosuke to let her step back and focus on raising her children. sosuke agreed on the conditions that she would consider to observe michiyo and record results throughout their life, and that he would have unlimited access to michiyo to do the same himself. michiko agreed, again knowing she had no choice

she tried to live as normal a life after that as possible, wanting to give normal lives to miyuki and michiyo too. she wanted to protect michiyo from sosuke too, but ultimately felt she didn't have the power to do much. michiyo would later come to resent her inaction later in life

when sosuke and co. revealed their betrayal, michiko went to hueco mundo with them, knowing she'd be arrested if she stayed. she went to save herself, but also as an attempt to protect michiyo as they were brought along too

when sosuke is eventually captured, michiko is arrested too and locked up in prison, sentenced to thousands of years for treason, among other crimes