Ai Shindō is a cat youmu who typically takes the form of a petite adolescent girl with wavy brown hair reaching mid-back, short bangs, and large blue eyes. She lives with her older sister Ayaka at a photo studio, where she helps with household chores and models for photographs. Her true youmu form is a Scottish Fold cat with distinctive white-tipped tails, and strong emotions can trigger an involuntary reversion to this feline shape. Ai attends Nagatsuki City High School as a second-year student, maintaining friendships with Sakura Inami and Mirai Kuriyama. She is cheerful, excitable, warm, and gentle, often striving to keep peace and support those around her. During a Fruit Type youmu incident at school, she formed an idol band with Mirai, Akihito Kanbara, and the Nase siblings to distract the creature, taking the lead performer role. Later, during the Calm phenomenon that induced lethargy in youmu, she was nearly attacked by Akihito’s hostile youmu side until Ayaka intervened. Both sisters were eventually absorbed by the massive youmu Beyond the Boundary, joining Akihito and Mirai to battle hostile entities from within. In the film I’ll Be Here – Mirai-hen, she tries out for the tennis club with Mirai and Sakura, showing natural athletic ability. She also overhears a serious conversation between Ayaka and Hiroomi Nase and later apologizes to Hiroomi, expressing that Ayaka holds high expectations for him and affirming their happiness living alongside humans. In the original net animation Idol Trial, she serves as a super-deformed idol judge, wearing frilly idol attire under a judicial robe and masking sharp-tongued critiques with cute mannerisms. Her surname Shindō combines the characters for “new” and “temple,” while her given name Ai means “love” or “affection.”