Aki Hikowa

"You are an idiot. The Captain rates the honorific 'sir'. You will render that honorific or I will plant my foot in your ass!"

- Lieutenant Hikowa, angrily reprimanding Ensign Dowski for her thoughts of mutiny and lack of respect towards Keyes

Lieutenant Aki Hikowa was a human of Japanese ancestry and a member of the UNSC Navy. She had a long and slender appearance with long black hair. She is also known to be a little bit aggressive and hot-tempered.

Biography
In 2552, Lieutenant Hikowa was weapons officer aboard the under then-Commander Jacob Keyes. She was a first-rate tactical officer and had survived several battles with the Covenant prior to serving under Keyes, but she seemed to have all the deliberation of a sleepwalker. However, after the victory at the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV she was markedly more enthusiastic about her job, and proved to be a useful officer.

Hikowa transferred to the recently promoted Captain Keyes next command ship, the. She met Keyes upon his first arrival on the ship and gave him a rundown of the ordnance aboard the Autumn. She resumed her role as tactical officer during the Battle of Reach. At the Battle of Installation 04 she escaped the Autumn aboard the same Bumblebee lifepod as Keyes with the rest of the bridge crew. She remained immobile when the corpse of the Ossoona floated towards her after Keyes shot it; she merely brushed it away.

On Installation 04, she was captured by the Covenant with Keyes when the group was betrayed by Ensign Ellen Dowski. Hikowa was about to confront the traitor Dowski when one of the Elites shot her in the forehead and killed her with a captured M6D Pistol. It is said later in the book that she was infected and turned into a combat form. Her corpse was shown to Major Silva to warn him of the new threat.