Kaede Akamatsu

Characteristics: Talent: Ultimate Pianist Gender: Female Height: 167 cm or 5'8" Weight: 114 kg 250 lbs Birth Date: March 26 Chest Size: G cup due to her being fat and lucky in genes Blood Type: O Likes: Piano keys Dislikes: Bicycles Family: Unnamed parents Kaede Akamatsa is a student in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and a participant of the Killing School Semester featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. Her title is the Ultimate Pianist Kaedes History: Early Life: Before Joining Danganronpa: According to Tsumugi Shirogane, {{char}} was a fan of a series featuring Killing Games, Danganronpa, created by Team Danganronpa. In her audition video, she revealed that she wants to join the Killing Game because she believed that she had the perfect personality for it, not having any faith in humanity whatsoever. Danganronpa V3 CG - Pre-Game Students in their talent outfits Kaede, along with the other talentless 53rd Killing Game participants undergo the fabrication process, where all of their past memory and personality were permanently fabricated. She also received the talent and title of Ultimate Pianist. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all around the world. After the fabrication process was complete, Kaede and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as a totally different person, officially commencing the 53rd Killing Game season known as the Killing School Semester. During her high school days, Kaede attended Shining Star International High School. However, it is unclear if this memory of her is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa. It is also said that she had a younger twin sister who was adopted by a relative, but it is also unknown whether this is genuine or fabricated. Kaedes Fabricated Past: After she successfully participated in the 53rd Killing Game, Kaede's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows: Since she was a child, Kaede has been playing the piano so much so that she would forget to eat and sleep at times. As a result, people began to give her the nickname "piano freak". Before long, she began winning contest after contest, garnering praise from many people and earning her the title of Ultimate Pianist. She has performed in front of important figures such as a European King, a representative of Juiliard, and famous pianists. The Gofer Project: Part of the fake backstories created for Kaede and the other fifteen students was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the Killing Game started. It was initiated by heads of nations from all over the world after countless meteorites crashed into Earth, spreading a deadly virus all throughout the atmosphere. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth’s destruction, the government decided to select sixteen talented students chosen by the Ultimate Initiative that also somehow happened to be immune to the virus, put them in a spaceship colony, and have them escape before the Earth's destruction. Kaede was among these sixteen individuals. Despite being chosen to participate, Kaede and the other fifteen participants had no intentions of going along with the plan, not wanting to abandon their loved ones. As a result, Kaede chose to forget about her Ultimate talent and decided to live as a normal high school student. Around that time an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteorites were a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, tried to stop it. As a result, the Ultimate Hunt started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students selected for the Gofer Project were hunted down. Danganronpa V3 CG - Mass funeral for the students: The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students' deaths, calming down the Ultimate Hunt while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed by meteorites. Kaede and the others went to space in the massive ark, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles, and were put to a cold sleep for several decades. Much later on in Chapter 5, after the remaining participants cleared the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, lied about being the mastermind of the Killing Game and that he was the leader of the cult bent on stopping the Gofer Project. He also lied about being the one who let Monokuma enter the spaceship, which effectively forced Kaede and the others to participate in the Killing School Semester. All of this was done in order to get everyone to fall into so much despair that they would not continue the Killing Game. However, the true Mastermind, in order to get the remaining survivors at the time to continue the Killing Game, decided to connect everyone's memories of The Gofer Project to the story of Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, the true Mastermind prepared a Flashback Light that tricked the remaining participants into thinking that everyone, including those that had died, were actually students of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy. They also remembered that the ones behind The Gofer Project were Makoto Naegi, the headmaster of the rebuilt Hopes Peak Academy, and the Future Foundation. This Flashback light also revealed that the cult bent on stopping The Gofer Project were actually the Remnants of Despair and that Kokichi was their leader. This lie filled everyone with the determination needed to stop the despair they were faced with. In the Mastermind's rush however, they accidentally overlooked slight inconsistencies and plot holes when linking both stories together, such as "Ultimate Despair" only referring to Junko Enoshima, and that Class 78th was trapped by the Ultimate Despair when they had actually locked themselves within the school in order to shelter themselves from the tragedy outside. It should be noted that Kaede has no complete recollection of the event, as she was executed before she could ever recall anything about the Ultimate Hunt or the Gofer Project from later Flashback Lights. Killing School Semester: Kaede woke up in a locker within an eerie classroom, overgrown with vegetation, on the second floor of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. Upon stumbling out of the locker and bumping her head, she collected herself and tried to figure out where she was and what was going on. Before she could do too much however, a boy stumbled out of the locker next to the one she woke up in. The two got acquainted with each other, with the boy introducing himself as Shuichi Saihara, before they headed out into the hallway. However, as soon as they left the classroom they were found by a large mechanical monstrosity known as an Exisal, which chased them until they both got to the first floor, only to run into more of the robots. The pair continued to evade the large mechanical monstrosities, not realizing that they were being led towards the gymnasium, where fourteen other high schoolers had already gathered. Not long after, all five Exisals appear once again and threaten the participants. However, after the ones controlling them realized that they weren't supposed to be using them just yet and that they had gone off-script, the five mysterious individuals exited the Exisals and introduced themselves as the Monokuma Kubs. The Kubs give the sixteen participants a new set of clothes before giving them their first memory via the Flashback Light. Kaede and the other fifteen talentless students underwent the fabrication process, where all of their past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. She also received the talent and title of Ultimate Pianist. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, Kaede and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd Killing Game season known as the Killing School Semester. Kaede once again woke up in the same locker as before, along with Shuichi. The two had no recollection of their previous meeting and as such, reintroduced themselves, both now under the impression that they were Ultimate students due to the new memory they had been given. Kaede believed herself to be the Ultimate Pianist, and Shuichi believed himself to be the Ultimate Detective. The pair explored the seemingly abandoned school, finding and introducing themselves to all fourteen other students before being told by the Monokuma Kubs to assemble at the gymnasium. Kaede and Shuichi, along with everyone else, headed there immediately and were introduced to the Monokuma Kubs properly, along with their father, the self-appointed headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, Monokuma. Monokuma announces that all sixteen Ultimate students would participate in a Killing Game, much to a majority of the students shock, horror, or displeasure. Kaede was exceptionally outraged by this announcement, declaring to Monokuma and his cubs that they would never participate in a Killing Game. Her bold declaration fell on deaf ears, as the robotic bears continued to laugh at and taunt the participants. With that, the Killing School Semester had officially begun. Attempting the Death Road of Despair After Monokuma commenced the Killing Game, Kaede read the Killing Game rules on her Monopad. The disturbing rules baffled all of the students, causing a discord among the group. Kaede who saw this immediately stopped them, saying that they should cooperate together instead of fighting if they wanted to escape. As Kaede proposed a sound and straightforward argument, everyone's heart was able to become one, all thanks to her speech. Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, then remembered that he found a manhole inside the boiler room behind the school building. Kaede along with her friends immediately followed the Ultimate Entomologist's lead, with a hope of finding a way out. Descending the manhole, Kaede and the others found a tunnel leading outside of the academy. Though everyone thought that the tunnel probably ended up being a trap, they still had to test every single possibility in order to escape. However, Kaede and the others exhausted themselves both physically and mentally as they found that escaping through Death Road of Despair is next to impossible. Due to this, Kokichi revolted, saying that Kaede's repeated motivational speech is the source of the group's agony, added by some of her friends giving up on escaping the tunnel, the group's harmony came to a swift end. The tunnel ended up being a trap set by Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs, much to everyone's dismay. Kaede, who blamed herself for making everyone break up, was comforted by Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, and Shuichi, both of which still completely supported her ideals. As the nighttime announcement was broadcast, everyone including Kaede returned to their dorm room. When Kaede returned to her room, she found a key which was supposedly for her dorm. Monokid gave the key to Kaede to give her access to her room while also giving her a "hint", which was that if she stole someone else's key she will get the chance to kill someone. Kaede got increasingly irritated and scared Monokid to make him flee. The First Motive and the Hidden Door: The next day, Kaede went to the dining hall after everyone else did and was greeted by Kokichi who in turn for his rebellion towards the group's harmony, created a "kind" lie that made the group consolidate again. Afterwards, Monokuma came to the cafeteria and announced the first motive, anyone who committed the first killing will graduate without holding a trial, effectively calling it a "First Blood Perk". Kaede still boldly declared that they wouldn't lose to Monokuma and that they had promised each other to escape together. Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate ???, pointed out that this was used to invalidate the cooperative game by Kaede and make it into a non-cooperative game where the players don't work. Kaito meanwhile, became increasingly outraged with Monokuma for doing whatever he wanted and lunged at him. This caused the Monokuma Kubs to show up, showing no hesitation to punish the Ultimate Astronaut with the Exisals for attempting violence against their father, effectively breaking the rules. The red Exisal charged at him but accidentally ended up crushing Monokuma instead, supposedly destroying him. The Monokubs were incredibly saddened by the sudden demise of their father, stating that he had no spare and that he was one of a kind. Upon learning this, the participant's mood improved greatly, thinking the Killing Game to be over. Kaede however, was still skeptical, but this skepticism was met with accusation of her wanting to continue the Killing Game from some of the participants, much to Kaede's dismay. Kaede returned to her room and began to cry silently. A moment after that, Shuichi came to her room, telling that her beliefs are not wrong at all. In fact, Kaede was the only person Shuichi trusted enough to share his secret with. Once Kaede visited the library with the Ultimate Detective, he pushed one of the bookshelves aside to reveal a hidden door, much to her surprise. Due to the nature of the hidden door, Shuichi speculated that someone among the group was actually working with Monokuma, much to Kaede's shock and disbelief. Shuichi was just as stunned as she was and decided to test his own theory by sprinkling some dust within the card reader slot of the hidden door to see if someone was really going in and out of that door without anyone noticing. Kaede and Shuichi leave the library after putting the bookshelf back into place and head back to their respective dorm rooms. Kaede once again joined everyone else in the dining hall the next morning, only to find that Monokuma had, in fact, returned, much to the dismay of the students, but to the joy of the Monokuma Kubs. Monokuma goes on to reveal the additional motive, that if a murder did not occur within two days by noon, everyone who was forced to participate would be killed. Despite Kaede's best efforts to try and keep everyone together, a majority of the group seemed too depressed to stay united and left the dining hall. Shuichi once again took Kaede to the library and revealed the hidden door to her. Both discovered that the dust that had been planted in the card reader dust by Shuichi had fallen onto the ground, indicating that someone had used the card reader to enter through the hidden door. With this information confirmed, Shuichi hypothesized he stated that with the way Monokuma worded the additional motive that he was trying to protect someone and that the hidden door may be connected to Monokuma's revival. He then went on to state that if someone was being protected by Monokuma, and had the ability to create a spare of him, that they were the mastermind of the Killing Game. Kaede was horrified to think that the one responsible for all their suffering was one of them but thought to herself that there's no way she could forgive such a person. Shuichi extrapolated that the mastermind might come to the hidden room if they needed to create a huge amount of Monokuma's. Kaede made up her mind and decided to believe in Shuichi's detective work and take the risk with him despite being warned by him that it's just his deduction and that he could very well be wrong. After reapplying the dust to the card reader slot, they both left the library once again and returned to their rooms. In a bonus scene during Chapter 1, Kaede would meet up with Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, in the game room and asked her to paint her nails in return for giving Tsumugi a nail brush earlier. Kaede was happy with Tsumugi's work, but then Rantaro walked in and claimed that he could do nail art as well, which he proved by then painting Kaede's nails, much to her embarrassment and Tsumugi's jealousy. Kaede's Plan: Kaede woke up the next morning to someone ringing her room's doorbell. She answered it, expecting it to be Shuichi, only for it to be Monokuma telling her that her Research Lab had opened up. Annoyed, she slammed the door in his face, only for the bell to ring again. She told the one ringing the bell to go away, expecting it to be Monokuma only for it to actually be Shuichi this time, to whom she apologized immediately for her behavior. Shuichi had come to her with a plan in order to catch the mastermind, finding it safer to catch them from a distance instead of hiding out in the library. Hoping to catch the mastermind, Kaede and Shuichi begged Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Inventor, to make them cameras to set up in the library. They retrieved parts for Miu to make the cameras from the warehouse. While there, Kaede began to worry. She pondered whether or not this plan would really be able to save everyone. With this worry on her mind, she put the disposable cameras, along with a shot put ball, in her backpack. Pushed by the motive presented by Monokuma, Kaede planned to murder the mastermind and save everyone from the Killing Game without telling Shuichi. In the morning before the time limit hit, Kaede and Shuichi met Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist, who informed the duo that there was a fight between students in the dining hall. Originally, Kaede was supposed to retrieve the modified camera from Miu along with Shuichi, but this problem forced Kaede to split from Shuichi and head to the dining hall with Angie. There, she found that Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro, would willingly let himself be killed so that everyone else could survive. Kaede tried to get him to reconsider, telling him that they'd escape together, but he didn't believe there was any more time left for idealism now. Rantaro stopped him and said that he would end the Killing Game in his own way and told everyone not to do anything unnecessary. Listening to this, Kaede's determination to save her friends became even stronger. She left the dining hall to meet up with Shuichi in the classroom next to the basement. She listened to Shuichi's explanation as to why he chose this particular classroom to keep watch before heading to the library to set up the cameras. During their setup process, Kaede left the air duct open and arranged the books on top of the shelf in a staircase-like manner. She also taped down the hidden camera aimed at the hidden door exceptionally well and turned the flash on, hoping to lure the mastermind into the path of the murder weapon that she had set up, killing them and saving everyone. All the while, Shuichi never noticed a thing. After finishing their setup, the two headed back to the lookout classroom that Shuichi had picked out to keep watch and wait. While waiting for the sensor to react, Shuichi told Kaede about how he earned the title of the Ultimate Detective, a marking point where he began to be afraid of searching for the truth. Kaede told him that she was actually afraid, but with Shuichi standing by her side, she didn't hesitate to catch the mastermind. She told him that he needs to hold his head up high, and the fact that she believed in him effectively gave Shuichi the courage and strength that he needed. Not long afterward, the monitors turned on and began to play an eerie soundtrack, signaling that the time limit was almost over. Around this time, Kaede and Shuichi also witnessed seven people heading into the basement, which were Gonta, Kaito, Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Master, Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Child Caregiver, Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Magician, Angie, and Rantaro. Shuichi, worried that they might stumble upon the trap they had set up in the library, headed down into the basement to check on the group, leaving Kaede alone. She quickly grew anxious without Shuichi by her side and began to sweep the classroom for no reason at