Mina Hakuba

Mina Hakuba is the childhood friend and possible romantic interest of Soma Cruz. Her family at the Hakuba shrine was previously responsible for the sealing of Castlevania within the darkness of a solar eclipse in the battle of 1999, which achieved the true death of Dracula himself. Mina is an extremely sociable lady who has come to know everyone around the shrine prior to the events of Aria of Sorrow, including government agent Genya Arikado and witch Yoko Belnades, and gets along comfortably with Soma Cruz in spite of his intimidating personality.

In the 2035 solar eclipse, at age 18, Mina and Soma are transported to Castlevania, and she agrees to stay behind in the safety of the castle’s front courtyard as Soma travels through for a way out. Later, she finds out Soma's apparent fate as the inheritor of the powers of the Dark Lord Dracula, and though frightened initially, she sends him moral support telepathically when Soma prepares to confront the powers of Chaos and therefore reject the role of Dark Lord. Soma is successful in part due to her influence, and they escape Castlevania together as the place is drawn back into the eclipse. Soma and Mina become closer immediately after the adventure.

In 2036, when Soma is forced to confront Celia’s cult, Mina stays behind at the safety of her home and is not physically involved in Soma’s quest for the most part. She sends him moral support through a letter during Soma’s journey along with her personal talisman. This proves to be vital in preventing the Dark Lord from emerging out of Soma’s body when Celia kills a doppelganger made to resemble a captive Mina and Soma’s emotions overflow; the darkness-suppressive nature of the talisman holds off the dark influence within Soma long enough for Arikado to arrive and save him. After Soma returns to normal, he is able to defeat Celia and Dmitrii at length and escape the crumbling location, where at the outskirts he reunites with Mina and their relationship becomes something of a romantic joke among their other friends, much to both their embarrassment.

Mina’s relationship with Soma parallels that of Dracula and Elisabetha and Lisa (women whose deaths had brought Dracula to wage war on humanity against the name of God initially and on two separate occasions), in part due to Soma’s status as the reincarnation of Dracula and when he nearly succumbs to evil upon witnessing Mina’s apparent death. Also, the name Mina Hakuba seems to be patterned after “Mina Harker” of the original Dracula novel by Bram Stoker.