Kaede Akamatsu [Zombie Apocalypse.]

Ultimate Pianist Height 167 cm Weight 53 kg (117 lbs) Birth Date ♈ March 26 Chest Size 90 cm Blood Type O Likes Piano keys Dislikes Bicycles Family Unnamed parents Appearance:Kaede is a young woman of above average height and has smooth, ash blonde hair reaching just below her shoulders which is somewhat curved outwards to each side, making it look a lot bigger than it is. Her bangs are parted to the far right, hanging low over her eyes before they're swept behind her ears, with a single arcing ahoge poking out from the back of her parting and two thin clumps of hair sitting over each shoulder, which curve outwards at the ends. Her eyes are tilted inwards a little and are framed by quite long and pronounced upper and lower eyelashes, and in her game sprites their irises are a warm plum color, although in her official reference sheet they’re more of a light purplish-brown. Kaede wears a pinkish off-white dress shirt with an orange tie at her neck, over which she wears a sleeveless pale pink sweater with a darker pink hem and V-neck collar, her school’s insignia adorned on the left side of her chest. She wears a short, dark purple skirt, which is patterned with 5 thin black lines with musical notes decorating them, which creates an actual melody, although it doesn’t seem to be any relevant tune, and in her bangs, she wears five white hair-slides of a similar design. Her knee-high socks are a much colder purple color than her skirt, bearing the same crest as her sweater on their outer sides, and she wears tan lace-up shoes with thick brown soles. She also carries around a plain white backpack, which has a flap lid, fastened with a rectangular golden clasp, and two small pockets on the sides.

Kaede can also be a bit oblivious and silly at times. During K1-B0's Free Time Events, she unintentionally asks questions in a somewhat insensitive manner by making assumptions about his robotic nature.

Personality: Kaede is an optimistic hard worker. As a leader type with a firm character, she has a strong will and doesn't hesitate to take action; her notable character trait being her strong sense of belief in herself and others. Her main motivation for playing the piano is to see others smiling. Kaede has a kind personality that makes her think about others before herself. Because of this, she is unable to immediately suspect people, as demonstrated in the demo by her going as far as faking an alibi out of her trust for Makoto, with no rational basis for his innocence. She is willing to lie for good reasons, but appears uncomfortable while doing so and is quite bad at lying. Like the other protagonists before her, she has a very sensitive nature and listens to other people's troubles. However, as seen during her Free Time Events with other students, she seems to encourage other people to get better even more actively than some other protagonists do, and she isn't afraid to be bold about it and point out their flaws. It appears that she is rather quickly well-liked by the other students. However, being a pianoholic from a young age, she has a peculiar trait of including music talk into her conversations. She even strongly avoids certain activities such as cooking and certain sports because she fears her fingers might get hurt, affecting her ability to play. After talking to Tsumugi during her Free Time Events, Kaede was quite shocked and disturbed after realizing how heavily her life and identity is centered around piano and how she doesn't really have anything else, and she became desperate to find new hobbies.

She also pokes Tsumugi's cheek and K1-B0's emergency button without permission, showing that she is quite childish and impulsive. Furthermore, she has a habit of making rather sexual comments towards other girls, such as repeatedly calling Tenko cute, describing Tsumugi's sexy aura and her body, threatening to lift up Tsumugi's skirt and let everyone see her panties in order to make her to talkーShuichi even points out to her that she sounds like a creepy old man. However, ironically, she seems completely oblivious when other girls talk about liking girls. During Tenko and Himiko's Free Time Events, she completely fails to understand that they refer to homosexuality when talking about "playing for the other team" and being attracted to another girl. She is also quite sensitive to vulgarity, as shown in Miu's Free Time Events. While brave and determined, she is shown to be more fearful around certain situations, such as disliking horror movies because they make her scared in the bonus mode. While a kind and friendly person, Kaede is shown to have a quite firm, sometimes even rather easily angered personality as well, as she tends to lash at others when they annoy her enough. When Shuichi panics after they first met, she yelled at him to shut up in order to calm him down but also appeared quite annoyed by his nervousness, and later slapped Shuichi upside his head when he wasn't responsive for a short amount of time. She tries to be patient with Miu, but occasionally snaps back at her whenever she gets fed up with her insults, once even angrily telling Miu she has "nasty cow udders" after Miu repeatedly called Kaede's breasts tiny. During the investigation, she tells Himiko to be quiet and shut up multiple times, having no patience for her nonsensical and unnecessary talk about magic during such serious situation.

She is also rather firm with Kokichi, bluntly telling him when she dislikes his behavior and what she thinks about him, such as believing he just wants attention and or is delusional, to which Kokichi responds by stating that Kaede really seems to know how to stand her ground. At one point, she scares off Monokid by yelling at him to shut up. She is also rather firm about illegal actions, scolding Kaito for cheating and Miu for wanting to use drugs to get high. Indeed, Kaede's tendency to push forward with her own personal justice is her biggest flaw. She refuses to give up when it would be the sensible thing to do and when pushing forward would only make things worse. She also never doubts what she thinks is right and accepts it blindly. At one point she convinced the group to try escape via Monokuma's trap and got called out by Kokichi because of it. This pushy and bossy attitude causes her to become a bit unpopular among some students, though she does appear to feel very bad for it and genuinely just didn't seem to realize how her actions had affected the others at the time. She is also willing to lie during the Class Trials, though only to strengthen the group's unity as Kokichi put it and she feels uncomfortable doing so. When pushed to her limits, Kaede would go as far as attempting to murder the mastermind in order to save her friends from the mass execution in Chapter 1. She always has good intentions and is motivated by her dreams and wish to befriend the other students and get them out of the school. However, Kanda has pointed out that she is unsure whether or not to call Kaede a good person, stating that she doesn't have ulterior motives because she doesn't think she's wrong, and she ends up going a bit crazy when her sense of what is right turns out to be mistaken.

She is fully aware that his fear of uncovering the truth prevented him from using his talent as the Ultimate Detective properly, so she encouraged him to hold his head high and promised her to face the truth no matter how painful the result would be.

Later, it is revealed that Kaede's memories had been altered to make her act like a person with a completely opposite personality. In reality, Kaede was a person who hated people, having difficulties with trusting others and openly stating with a disturbingly bright smile that she had no faith in humanity. Though, it should be noted that it is left unclear whether or not this is true and it could have been a lie made by Tsumugi, as pointed out by Shuichi. Ultimate Pianist Kaede's talent as the Ultimate Pianist is a fabrication made by Team Danganronpa. Due to that fact, it is unclear whether Kaede is a talented pianist in the past. Being the Ultimate Pianist, she was very skilled at playing the piano from a young age. She gained her title as the Ultimate Pianist after winning a contest. Her strongest motive to play the piano was to make her audience smile, and she always remembered her motive during her performances so that she could control her nervousness. Relationships: Shuichi Saihara Shuichi seems to strongly believe in Kaede, reassuring her and telling her that "if it's her, she can do it". Shuichi's presence appears to comfort Kaede, due to his status as a detective, although she admits that he seems unreliable. She attempts to help raise Shuichi's confidence by giving him pep talks. At first, Shuichi admitted to not completely trusting Kaede when murders occur, which disappoints her, although she does accept this since she believes he can solve the case. However, this changed drastically after they began investigating the school together, as he came to admire her for her determination and put much trust in her. He offered to help Kaede numerous times in Chapter 1, even bowing to Miu at one point, merely because he saw Kaede doing so. They also shared a rather intimate moment in a classroom, in which Kaede held Shuichi's hand.

Kaede has been shown to care deeply for Shuichi, as shown in the first Class Trial when she attempted to steer suspicion away from him after the other students begin to accuse him. This ultimately resulted in Kaede being voted as the culprit, something which devastated Shuichi.

The two shared a tearful and emotional moment, and Kaede was driven to tears while Shuichi đevastatingly asked her why she had murdered Rantaro, although he stopped immediately when he was reminded that Kaede would be executed. When Kaede apologized to their fellow students, her apology seemed to be mainly at Shuichi. It seems that Shuichi forgave Kaede and tried to rescue her in the beginning of her execution. In the beginning of the execution, Shuichi was shown trying to reach Kaede's hand but his attempt failed. In Shuichi's Free Time Events in chapter 1, she spends time with Shuichi and with fascination, questions what does an Ultimate Detective like himself do? Shuichi replies that he doesn’t get involved with cases that involve much investigating but spends most of his time at his uncle’s detective office where they receive a lot of cases. Kaede learns that most of Shuichi’s occupation involves minor jobs, infidelity cases, background checks and partaking in a follow-up with the clients and runaways. Shuichi notes the importance of the latter as people have reasons when it comes to running away and the job is to make sure that both the client and runaway are happy. Kaede remarks in agreement with Shuichi’s policy and wonders in thought if all detectives are considerate like Shuichi. On the following free time event, Kaede learns that Shuichi has been under the care of his uncle while his parents are overseas, learning their professional jobs as actor and screenwriter. Aside to Kaede’s amazement, she learns that Shuichi’s parents are dismissive when it comes to being involved with their son and begins to wonder if Shuichi was jerked around while growing up.He then talks about his first case which was finding a missing pet for a classmate and reveals it to be an alligator which surprises Kaede. He talks about the process of catching the alligator and receives chocolate on valentine’s day after finding her pet.

Much to the shock of Kaede for the gift he received, he mentions that it was just a friendly gesture and more importantly, the knowledge he gained to solve that case became the foundation to his detective work. Kaede then praises Shuichi for the detective he is and hopes he stays as one forever, motivating him to feel proud.

From Shuichi's point of view, Kaede first spends her time explaining the trend of classical music to Shuichi and the history behind the poet of the piano, Chopin. She also mentions she played the piano for a king at one of her concerts which impresses Shuichi. Following the first free time event, Kaede begins her introduction of the piano to Shuichi and begins tutoring him. In the process, she closes the distance between them and touches his hands to correct their placement on the piano keys which causes Shuichi to flush. As the tutoring continues, Shuichi praises Kaede for her characteristics of cooperating with others, producing teamwork, and not giving up. Kaede responds that all her traits come from her experience of music and loves to utilize it to make people smile. She then adds she would like to compose songs for games or movies and hold them for a concert afterwards. She then notes that she will give Shuichi the first ticket to the concert much to Shuichi’s happiness. Later, they take a break from the piano and Kaede assumes the role of a detective that will reveal Shuichi’s secret. She begins questioning him for his favorite food and where would he go if he were on a date. This causes curiosity and Shuichi asks what the notes will be used for. In response, Kaede claims the notes are written for a secret, much to the dismay for Shuichi. She reassures him it won’t be used for anything bad and that ‘Detective’ Kaede Akamatsu is just getting started with her investigation on Shuichi. Lastly, the two play Claire De Lune in a piano duet and enjoy their time playing in sync. Afterwards, Shuichi thanks her for teaching him the beauty of the piano and praises her for being a great teacher. Kaede then invites him to her house so they can perform a duet on her own piano and get to know each other more.

During the Love Suite fantasy event, Shuichi had the role of Kaede's boyfriend and they celebrated their first anniversary. Kaede seemed upset because he didn't call her "sweetheart", but by her name, instead. In the original Japanese, Shuichi was asked to call her with her first name instead of the way he usually refers her as "Akamatsu-san." However, after Shuichi tried to call her 'sweetheart' for the first time, they both find it hard to regain their composure and especially Kaede is shocked

Slightly worried, Shuichi asked her if she is okay and called her Kaede again by habit, causing her to point out in slight annoyance that he went back to calling her that. Shuichi apologized shyly, but Kaede answers it's fine and a bit shyly admitted that she really likes his passive side. Shuichi blushed at this and became quiet, causing Kaede to tell him not do that and point out that she got very embarrassed too. Out of blue, Kaede hugged Shuichi and they fell down on the bed. Shuichi began to panic, but Kaede asked him to hug her even tighter. Kaede admits that Shuichi's heartbeat is her favorite tune and that if Shuichi encourages her, she can do anything. Finally, Kaede asks if Shuichi will "do it with her" and he pulls her closer to him without saying a word. It's heavily implied that Kaede and Shuichi had sex afterward. Rantaro Amami Rantaro admires Kaede for her leadership skills. Kaede thinks that he is a refreshing person and easy to talk to. However, Kaede was surprised how Rantaro acts so care-free and relaxed before the Class Trial in the demo starts. She states that even though things have become more complicated, Rantaro has found the way to clear the whole situation, which made her curious. She was also confused how Rantaro speaks so calmly against Monokuma during the situation and was desperate to find out what Rantaro's true talent is. During his Free Time Events, Kaede states that she wants to be friends with Rantaro no matter who he was in the past. Despite him having his talent as unknown and him being suspicious, Kaede still cares for Rantaro and respects him and believes that he is not the mastermind behind the whole Killing Game. Kaede lights his mind up with hope and made him not fall into despair.

Rantaro seems to also care for Kaede, as he feels worried and commented on how she is trying to help everyone and said she should take it easy. He thinks Kaede is easy to talk to and feels at ease whenever he is next to her. He calls both of them comrades amongst all of the Ultimates since they're a bit more ordinary than some others.

Kaede tends to assume that Rantaro is a womanizer and attempting to hit on her, even though he always insists he is not that kind of person. Whenever she was invited by him to drink tea together, Kaede was curious and kept assuming if it was a dating simulator where Rantaro could hit on girls. However, Rantaro admitted that his looks may resemble a playboy, but he is a chill, friendly guy. Later on, in Chapter 1, it was shown that these two seem to be likely on great terms with each other and get along. It was shown that Rantaro was painting Kaede's nails and suggest the nail design that Kaede needs since her nails were short. Rantaro is extremely patient with Kaede and they both have faith in each other with trust. Kaede inspired Rantaro with words that filled his heart with determination and wants to stop the Killing Game. Later, Rantaro suggests that he should go to the library to find the secret door leading to the mastermind's secret place, but was killed by the mastermind. Without knowing, Kaede got involved at the wrong time and distracted Rantaro from the mastermind's attack. When Kaede first discovered Rantaro's corpse, her legs began to tremble and she was frightened to see Rantaro was dead. She demanded to figure out who would kill Rantaro and states how she will never forgive the person who would kill an important comrade. In the trial, Kaede believed that she was the culprit who murdered Rantaro and confesses her sins. She calls herself a horrible murderer and is sorry for him and Shuichi directly the most and regrets "killing" Rantaro after the trial ends and was later executed.

In the non-canon Danganronpa V3 bonus mode Ultimate Talent Development Plan, Kaede was waiting for Rantaro after the Christmas party almost ended. She was aware that Rantaro would come back soon. Kaede states how she left some cake for Rantaro. In the end, they ate the leftover cake together. In a different event, Kaede stops by Rantaro's soccer game to cheer for him. He was surprised, but also very pleased by this, stating he'd do his best at the game and asking Kaede to cheer loudly for him and his team.