Hibana (Siege)

Hibana
As my friend would say, 'A really big fucking hole coming right up.'
General information
Real Name	Yumiko Imagawa
Organization	SAT
Position	Attacker
Birthplace	Nagoya, Japan
Date of birth	July 12, 1983
Height	5'8" (1.73M)
Weight	125lbs (57KG)
Unlock	25,000 600 Free for Season Pass owners
Voice Actor	Jamie Choi
Statistics
Health Rating	●○○ Light
Speed Rating	●●● Fast

"Turn the unexpected into a weapon."
— Ubisoft's official quote for Hibana's gadget

Yumiko "Hibana" Imagawa (Japanese: 今川 由美子, Imagawa Yumiko) is an Attacking Operator featured in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, introduced in the Operation Red Crow expansion alongside Echo. A Light Armored Operator, Hibana's unique gadget is the X-KAIROS Launcher, which can fire explosive pellets that can be remotely detonated simultaneously and can pierce reinforced walls.

Biography

A Nagoya native, Imagawa traveled the world to perfect her skills and technique. She is specialized in paramilitary techniques gained by training with the SAS, FBI SWAT, and GIGN, to name a few. From her diverse training, she acquired a rare tactical versatility, which includes a proficiency in tubular (bus, train, and airplane) assaults.

The daughter of a local butcher, Imagawa was inspired by her family to practice Kyūdō from a young age. This long range weapon marked her entry in martial arts by perfecting her assessment of multiple factors a once while carrying precise, controlled, and fluid motions.

Her area of expertise is to gain entry in high-risk areas. During her studies at the National Police Academy, she gained the nickname Hibana due to her improvised explosive devices and brilliant leadership skills on the field. Fluent in seven languages and lethal with any weapon, Imagawa was recruited by the Aichi Prefectural Police Department Special Unit, where her diverse techniques and charisma allowed her to move up the ranks quickly.

Psychological Profile

Imagawa is a natural team builder. Passionate and adaptive, she inspires experts from diverse backgrounds to work together and reach a common goal.

Gameplay Description

Hibana provides a level of versatility well-suited for misdirection. With her aggressive playstyle suited to rushing the objective, Hibana's X-KAIROS can cause chaos in the objective room.

• Hibana is equipped with the X-KAIROS, a projectile launcher that fires thermal breaching pellets. X-KAIROS has a total of three shots.
• The X-KAIROS initiates a box-reticle that is visible to everyone, showing where her pellets will land. Even if aimed from an angle or at a distance, the pellets will land squarely on the surface she shoots at.
• If Hibana uses her gadget key again while she is using X-KAIROS, she will detonate all deployed X-KAIROS pellets. Hibana has the option of deploying and activating a cluster of the X-KAIROS pellets one at a time or deploy and activate all of them at once.

• A single cluster of X-KAIROS pellets consists of 6 pellets deployed in a 2x3 rectangle. Each pellet is able to take out a small chunk of a Reinforced Wall, and a single pellet can destroy a hatch.
• X-KAIROS pellets can be destroyed by gunfire or explosives.
• Aside from using them on individual walls to create lines of sight, Hibana can use the X-KAIROS pellets together to create a traversable hole in one of three ways: one cluster at ground level will be large enough to crawl through; two clusters stacked should make a hole that can be ducked into or vault over; using all three should create a whole that can be run through with ease.
• The time to melt through the metal is slightly longer than Thermite's Exothermic Charge, at 5 seconds compared to Thermite's 3.
• While Thermite's Exothermic Charge can be Bandit Tricked (Bandit places successfully his Shock Wire during the process, destroying the Exothermic Charge), Hibana's X-KAIROS pellets cannot be destroyed by Shock Wires after they were already deployed on the wall. If the wall is pre-Shocked however, the X-KAIROS pellets will still be destroyed.
• If the pellets hit an Operator directly, each pellet will deal 1 damage. Their explosions also deal minimal damage, around 4 points each, and have a very small explosive radius.

Synergies

• Operators that handle electronic gadgets, like Thatcher, Twitch and IQ, provide a near guarantee that the X-KAIROS pellets work as intended.
• Thermite provides a straight-up opening against Reinforced Walls. Alongside her mentor, the two can cause chaos the moment their exothermic gadgets explode.

Counters

• Mute's Signal Disruptors will prevent the X-KAIROS pellets from detonating.
• Bandit's Electrified Wire will be destroyed if the pellets are placed on the electrified surface. As noted before, once the pellets have started to "fire up," they cannot be destroyed by the Electrified Wires.
• Jäger's ADS are able to intercept the individual X-KAIROS pellets. It takes two ADSs to completely intercept a cluster of pellets since each shot contains six pellets.

Loadout

Loadout
Primary	Type-89 Assault Rifle SuperNova Shotgun
Secondary	P229 Handgun Bearing 9 Machine Pistol
Gadget	Stun Grenade x 3 Claymore x 1

Unique Gadget

Unique Gadget
	X-KAIROS x 3 (x6)

"A 40mm grenade launcher firing explosive pellets that can be detonated from a distance."
— X-KAIROS Description

Partaking in a Special Operation conference in Jordan, Imagawa met Operator Jordan Trace, a pioneer in Brimstone BC-3 Exothermic experiments. She collaborated with him to develop the "X-KAIROS", a 40 mm caliber launcher. The X-KAIROS fires explosive pellets that can be detonated simultaneously from a distance.

Quotes

Hibana's Quotes

Teaser Trailer "Watashi no tomodachi nara kō iu wa ne, 'baka dekai ana ga aku zo.'" (Japanese: 私の友達ならこう言うわね:「バカでかい穴が開くぞ」。) Red Crow Trailer "Iku wa yo." (Japanese: 行くわよ。) Spawning "As a good friend of mine would say: 'Stay away from the blast.'" "Keep calm in there, they'll come to us." "Remember, it's not over until I blow it up. And even then." "Use the field against them." "Stay together and follow my lead." Using X-KAIROS "Clear." "Knock, knock!" "See you on the other side." Deploying Claymore "Mine set." Reloading "Changing mags!" "Reloading!" "Swapping mags!"

Trivia

• Hibana (Japanese: 火花) means "Spark" in Japanese.

• However, literally translated, it also means "Fire Flower", which is what her pellets also resemble.

• The X-KAIROS' namesake (Kairos) means "a propitious moment for decision or action" in Greek, referring to both Hibana's aggressive playstyle and her ability to give such a moment with her gadget.
• Her surname (Japanese: 今川) is written on her battledress in Japanese.
• The green canisters on the X-KAIROS are marked with the warnings "可燃性ガス" and "爆発の危険あり", which are Japanese for "Flammable gas" and "Explosive danger present" respectively.

Gameplay Videos

Rainbow Six Siege - In Depth- Operator Profile- HIBANA

Hibana's X-Kairos Guide - Rainbow Six - Siege

Patch Changes

Update 2.3.0; September 5, 2017 Patch: Model optimized. Face rigging updated. Update 2.2.1; June 6, 2017 Patch: Hitbox reworked. Update 5.0; November 17, 2016 Patch: Introduction alongside Echo.