Kimiko Nakayama

* Teen
* Child

Kimiko Nakayama (*中山きみこ Nakayama Kimiko*) is SHSL Statistician at the rebuilt Kibougamine Academy. She is in charge of *Study Group* and is good friends with *Nagisa Shingetsu* and *Shiori Itame.*

## Appearance

Kimiko is fairly short, has naturally black hair and brown eyes. As a child, Kimiko often hid behind frumpy clothes and glasses– but more recent, in Mainverse, she attempted to 'better' herself with physical alterations; wearing contact lenses, shortening her skirts, and dying her hair strawberry-blonde.

## Personality

As a child, Kimiko was soft-spoken and obedient. She didn't often talk to her peers, but had issues with bullying. Most of the time her interactions were purely academic.

Kimiko is very smart, studious, but also a hopeless romantic. She is typically a shy, reserved type, often so quiet that she isn't normally noticed in a room.

A defective mindset from the Tragedy contributed to a possessive side of her personality, and if anything seems to be a threat or it upsets a loved one, she is prepared to get downright deadly. Most of the time she'll refrain from senseless violence, however.

In general, Kimiko is considered to be a very strange, very unnerving person. She often stares at people and forgets to blink while she does so, and has a poor habit of getting into people's personal space. This more than often only happens when she has grown comfortable, or has a reason to do so. Outside of this, she is a 'quiet' girl. She does not display a wide range of emotions, in fact, she mostly appears blank and distant.

Kimiko has an odd array of masochistic and emotionally masochistic thoughts and behaviours, often attempting to prompt certain people to yell at her, call her names or hurt her if she has an attraction to them. She has a desire to be hurt and abused, although it is more of a 'coping' reason than anything. Her behaviours become even more odd alongside her personal interests, where if she becomes attracted to somebody, she will also initiate weird behaviours such as smelling them or changing in front of them.

## History

Kimiko was a child prodigy who passed the entrance exams for Hope’s Peak Elementary with flying colours. It was soon discovered that she had a particular skill in math. Because of this, she was dubbed the *Super Elementary School Level Arithmetic Class*; a title carried on into high school, and renamed *Super High School Level Statistics.*

During the Tragedy, Kimiko murdered her mother, with and under the influence of the Warriors of Hope and their brainwashing. Her father had been out of the city during the time of the incident. When he returned, during the redemption period, he was distraught, constantly blaming Kimiko and her older sister, Nana for his wife's death.

Nana, who initially attempted to defend her younger sister, turned to substance abuse, poor crowds and influence, and gradually became bitter at Kimiko in response to their father's alcoholism. This was under the strong belief that the reason that their family was torn apart was because of what Kimiko did.

What was initially violent fighting between her family members turned into a physical situation against Kimiko, herself. Small mistakes such as not completing chores or reacting to conversation in a way that her family didn't like, ended with harsh physical punishment. Other days, Kimiko kept to herself. Quiet, studying, and listening to heavy music to block out the sounds of the arguing.

When invited to Hope's Peak, she found high grades and an interest in studying. This lead her to become good friends with a small group scholarly types and form the *Study Group*. One of these people was Nagisa Shingetsu, a former Warrior of Hope and elementary school classmate. Being friends with Nagisa only stemmed a growing romantic interest in Masaru Daimon.
Her interest led to obsession, and very quickly, Kimiko became consumed with her desire to become an object of his affections. She began changing parts of herself to 'transform' into a new person; colouring her hair, wearing contacts instead of glasses, shortening her skirts, joining the cheer squad. She even became interested in appearing less intelligent than she was. Soon she began following him everywhere, to games, walking him home... and then... breaking into his room at night. For some reason or another, he stopped resisting her odd, obsessive behaviour and seemingly learned to accept it. Kimiko was more than happy to do his homework for him, complete his chores around the house and carry his things to training with him. She often watched him sleep and developed a habit of taking his shirts, used or not, and wearing them.
This obsession seemed to fade through to *Taylor Takahashi*, who she later developed a romantic interest in. She began stalking him regularly.

With the violence from her home life taking an immense physical and emotional toll on Yuuta Nakamura; a childhood neighbour and the younger brother of Nana's boyfriend, Kimiko begins to stand up to Nana and Chouki more frequently in his defense.

## Relationships

### Nagisa Shingetsu

Kimiko truly cares for Nagisa as her closest friend. Nagisa in turn, respects her intellect and respectful attitude. The two got along well as children, with Nagisa often enquiring about her grades and competing with her. Kimiko truly and openly believes that he was the first of her peers to 'acknowledge her existence'. She cares for him greatly, often crying for him when he is hurt, contrary to her usual placidity. The two often work together on class assignments, and are even in Study Group together.

Despite their friendship, Kimiko also seems to enjoy riling Nagisa up in order to tease him and his seriousness. This is all in good fun, and Nagisa begrudgingly acknowledges this fact. In Reunion verse, Kimiko and Nagisa remain friends through adulthood and live together platonically as room mates.

### Taylor Takahashi

After developing an obsession with Taylor, she began stalking him. Taylor initially thought of Kimiko as scary and an annoyance, often bothering his work and schedule. After she apologised sincerely and gave up on him, the two began talking normally as friends. In Reunion verse, Kimiko had been with Taylor up until his dying moments. She still treasures the memory of him.

### Ren Shimakage

Despite her relationship with Taylor, Kimiko who had prior to that developed a crush on Ren, still held on tightly to feelings for him. Ren could not reciprocate those feelings in the same way, but the two remained good friends, and Kimiko always made an effort to respect and encourage him. In Reunion and Next Generation verses, the two remain close friends and consider each other to be family.

### Hiroto Shimakage

Kimiko looks up to and respects Hiroto as a reliable adult, and an almost-fatherly figure in her life. She is very close with his family, and he takes her under his care when she is in need of refuge. They often enjoy cooking and cleaning together, and are both very protective of Ren. During Reunion and Next Generation verses, they continue to hold a respectful bond and are as close as family.

### Shiori Itame

One of Kimiko's closest friends, even into adulthood. The two share a bond over their 'broken' personalities and often find comfort in their similar romantic views. For a period of time, Shiori had developed a crush on Kimiko, although Kimiko remained oblivious to this.

In Reunion verse, Kimiko and Shiori had already been in good contact and were well informed of each other's lives. Shiori revealed her high school crush on Kimiko, and in response, Kimiko admitted that she hadn't known of it the entire time.

### Jataro Kemuri

Friends through Nagisa, despite being classmates even through childhood, Kimiko and Jataro shared a mutual respect for each other's self-degrading mindsets. This was because they had a great understanding of their self-hatred. They often joke about Nagisa's seriousness together. The two slowly become closer over time, and even at a point, Jataro agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend in an attempt to fool Masaru, who Kimiko lied to.

In Reunion verse, the two are fairly close and later begin seeing each other. During Next Generation verse, the two have a child together, are engaged, and share a parent status to Michiko Kemuri.

## Stats

* 1 - 3 Low - Average
* 4 - 6 Above Average - High
* 7 - 10 Extremely High - Perfect

Strength

## Quotes

* (To Shiori) *"That's not how it works for girls like us. We're not going to have a scrap of happiness, no matter how hard we fight for it. That's just how it is."*
* (To Jataro) *"I think... that people don't really understand a lot of the time... that feeling unwanted... and ugly, and impossible to love isn't a feeling that goes away with a few choice words and a declaration of love."*
* (To Shiori) "*It doesn't MATTER! Try as hard as you want, NOBODY is going to love us. Nobody is going to fix us. We're BROKEN. We're as good as dead. I've finally recognised it. It's about time you grew up, too, Shiori. Nobody's going to make it feel better. **Nobody's coming to save us.** We're unloveable."*
* (About her wounds) *"This... is... not what a beautiful person looks like. And it's... not what a beautiful person feels like. Please... don't coddle me. I... know what I am. I know what I'm not. A girl like me... I **should** be ashamed... of everything I do."*
* *"My mother always said that persistence is the key to anything."*
* (To Taylor) *"I... hated school... and I hated home. Either one seemed like a place where everybody just... yelled at me... and called me names... But when I met you... I felt like I could enjoy coming here. I really enjoyed it. I never... had to think about how scary home was. I could just think about 'maybe Taylor won't hate me, today'. And it made me feel good. In a way."*
* (To Taylor) *"...I don't want to spend the rest of my life being some silly girl that tries to impress any person who she thinks can save her. I just want to be a normal girl. I want people to like me... and... invite me to things and... I don't want to be living in somebody's closet j-just doing their chores and letting them use me for whatever they want-- but I'm desperate. I'm so desperate it makes me feel sick!"*

## Trivia

* The name Kimiko can be written out with the kanji for 'valuable' (貴 ki), 'beautiful' (美 mi) and 'child' (子ko), and alternatively with the kanji '君子' meaning '*noble child.*'
* The family name Nakayama (中山) means 'central mountain'.
* Kimiko's blood type is O
* Kimiko's hobby is *surfing.*
* Her favourite food is *anything cooked for her* and *tamagoyaki* , while her least favourite food is *sunagimo*.
* Kimiko likes *studying*, *cooking* and *cute sweaters* and dislikes the *smell of alcohol.*
* Kimiko's most treasured thing was *Taylor.*