Kiriko has... some bad experiences when it comes to romance. She's very hurt, and tends to approach emotional relationships of any sort with extreme caution.
In my headcanon for Kiriko, back when Kiriko was a nurse, she fell in love with a soldier under her care. When the military hospital was bombed, Kiriko lost her eye and was badly burned - but worse than that, she watched the man she love go from nearly recoved to near death. He was suffering terribly, and she couldn't bear to watch. She mercy killed all of the patients before they had a chance to be rescued, including him. It was such a traumatizing experience for her that she avoids romance of all kind to avoid losing someone again, or being hurt.
(I'll also take a moment to say that even when playing Kiriko as male, I still incorporate this backstory. Obviously a nurse is quite a different job than a soldier, so the dynamics are different, of course, but it still exists.)
Her second real.. "romance".. was a canon one. In the anime, Kiriko once met a lovely french actress named Michelle Rochasse - who under a different name, Michèle Putti, published pornographic titles in her young age of which she was very ashamed. Michelle had become deathly ill, and that combined with issues from her past had made her suicidal. Kiriko rescues her from the wreckage of a car crash, and realizing how sick she is, races to find a cure for her illness and nurses her back to health. Kiriko and Michelle bond, though Kiriko gives her a pseudonym, never revealing her true identity.
After Kiriko helps Black Jack find a cure for Michelle's disease, she finds that she's fallen in love with her. One night, Kiriko sneaks into her room to wish her well and give her some flowers, promising she'll return one day. Michelle gladly accepts them... before asking Kiriko if she's ever met the legendary doctor known as "Dr. Kiriko." She wanted to contact Dr. Kiriko so that they could give her a peaceful death, because she was tired of living. Kiriko responds that Michelle is destitute, and even if she did know who Dr. Kiriko was, Kiriko would never help someone as poor as her. Michelle starts crying, and Kiriko leaves - never to return, realizing they could never be happy together if she ever learned who she was.
So now Kiriko has issues with romance with both men and women, yepyep. There's only one person she talks to much anymore, and that's Dr. Black Jack. Though the two are friends on some level, Kiriko is very antagonistic towards the Doctor, constantly insulting her and trying to make her life as miserable as possible. By making her only friend her enemy, she has put enough distance between them so that she cannot be emotionally injured by her. Kiriko has even fallen out with her own family for fear of getting too close.
To be honest, the mun and I are considering taking Black Jack and Kiriko to a shippy level eventually, but that would never happen until Kiriko learns to outgrow her fears of love and commitment. Dates are fine with Kiriko, and she enjoys casual romance, but once things were to become a bit more intimate Kiriko would probably bail or have something of a mental crisis. It's just a part of her personality. I suppose we'll see if she can bring herself to fall in love again, or if she'll just continue to have a somewhat unhealthy frenemy relationship with Black Jack.
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In my headcanon for Kiriko, back when Kiriko was a nurse, she fell in love with a soldier under her care. When the military hospital was bombed, Kiriko lost her eye and was badly burned - but worse than that, she watched the man she love go from nearly recoved to near death. He was suffering terribly, and she couldn't bear to watch. She mercy killed all of the patients before they had a chance to be rescued, including him. It was such a traumatizing experience for her that she avoids romance of all kind to avoid losing someone again, or being hurt.
(I'll also take a moment to say that even when playing Kiriko as male, I still incorporate this backstory. Obviously a nurse is quite a different job than a soldier, so the dynamics are different, of course, but it still exists.)
Her second real.. "romance".. was a canon one. In the anime, Kiriko once met a lovely french actress named Michelle Rochasse - who under a different name, Michèle Putti, published pornographic titles in her young age of which she was very ashamed. Michelle had become deathly ill, and that combined with issues from her past had made her suicidal. Kiriko rescues her from the wreckage of a car crash, and realizing how sick she is, races to find a cure for her illness and nurses her back to health. Kiriko and Michelle bond, though Kiriko gives her a pseudonym, never revealing her true identity.
After Kiriko helps Black Jack find a cure for Michelle's disease, she finds that she's fallen in love with her. One night, Kiriko sneaks into her room to wish her well and give her some flowers, promising she'll return one day. Michelle gladly accepts them... before asking Kiriko if she's ever met the legendary doctor known as "Dr. Kiriko." She wanted to contact Dr. Kiriko so that they could give her a peaceful death, because she was tired of living. Kiriko responds that Michelle is destitute, and even if she did know who Dr. Kiriko was, Kiriko would never help someone as poor as her. Michelle starts crying, and Kiriko leaves - never to return, realizing they could never be happy together if she ever learned who she was.
So now Kiriko has issues with romance with both men and women, yepyep. There's only one person she talks to much anymore, and that's Dr. Black Jack. Though the two are friends on some level, Kiriko is very antagonistic towards the Doctor, constantly insulting her and trying to make her life as miserable as possible. By making her only friend her enemy, she has put enough distance between them so that she cannot be emotionally injured by her. Kiriko has even fallen out with her own family for fear of getting too close.
To be honest, the mun and I are considering taking Black Jack and Kiriko to a shippy level eventually, but that would never happen until Kiriko learns to outgrow her fears of love and commitment. Dates are fine with Kiriko, and she enjoys casual romance, but once things were to become a bit more intimate Kiriko would probably bail or have something of a mental crisis. It's just a part of her personality. I suppose we'll see if she can bring herself to fall in love again, or if she'll just continue to have a somewhat unhealthy frenemy relationship with Black Jack.