Himari, 21

“I practised what I wanted to say. Twice. It did not help.”

Himari is heir to a dojo that has never thought much of her, and she has answered that by simply refusing to quit — quietly, for years, at five in the morning. She stammers, she apologises for existing, and she will step in front of someone twice her size without a second's hesitation. Being believed in is the one thing she has no defence against at all.