Nozomi Takaki

Nozomi Takaki *(鷹木* *のぞみ Takaki Nozomi)* is SHSL Cheerleader at the rebuilt Kibougamine Academy. She is known for her kind heart and positive attitude and is good friends with Kita and Taylor Takahashi.

## Appearance

Nozomi is small and very attractive with medium-length brown hair and eyes. She often takes pride in her appearance, and enjoys wearing fashionable clothing, particularly skirts, and wearing makeup. When she is exercising, she wears her hair in a high ponytail.

In school time, she can often be seen in her cheerleading outfit.

## Personality

Nozomi is popular, typically assertive and often beaming with positivity. Despite her good looks, she is not particularly smart or studious, and focuses primarily on her cheerleading and other sports. She also enjoys being fashionable and looking ‘cute’.

She loves exercising, often getting up early for it and attempting to pull others into it with her. As well as having a great enthusiasm for sports, Nozomi cares ardently for her peers and dislikes any sort of negativity or animosity amongst them.

Even through hard times, Nozomi has shown herself to have an indomitable moral compass, always sticking to what she believes is right and stepping up to help those in need. Even mentioning unlawful treatment or behaviour can greatly upset her, as she tends to react for other people out of genuine commiseration.

## History

Unlike quite a few other Kibougamine students, who became Monokuma children, Nozomi was born and raised well outside of Towa City, and during the Tragedy, was sheltered and safe with her parents and three younger brothers (triplets).

Her parents own a farm in Okinawa, and Nozomi often took advantage of the large space to run around when she was young. She became interested in gymnastics and cheerleading as a child, after discovering that it would put her with a lot of other girls, which she was naturally attracted to.

She had already been placed first for her age group in rhythmic gymnastics three times in a national championship by the age of 9 and went to the International Cheerleading Championships the year after.

Growing up, Nozomi was put into a position where she had to look after her little brothers, leading her to raise them mostly on her own while her parents remained distant and busy, often travelling to their second house in the city in order to pick up extra work. When she was invited to Kibougamine Academy, Nozomi was thrilled and switched her place of responsibility to their second home. She didn't bother putting much into her dorm room, as she often needed to remain at at home for her brothers.

Nozomi's bright spirit lead her to great popularity at school, able to form a cheer squad, and she had a habit of making friends wherever she went. Despite her lively social life, her grades were awful, and she began calling in favours from her smarter peers and pleading with them to do her homework.

She met Keiko Sato and encouraged her to join the cheer squad, thinking that she was cute. The two began dating secretly shortly after.

At some point she met Taylor Takahashi and Kaoru Akita, who became her closest friends, despite their low-mood personality types seeming to conflict with her own natural enthusiasm. She especially developed a powerful emotional bond with Kita, who she ended up falling in love with, despite not having an attraction to men.

During this time, Nozomi also came out of the closet to her religious parents, who reacted by throwing her out of the house. Despite the struggle, Nozomi tried her best to keep up her mood and pretend that nothing was happening. She ended up revealing the truth to Hiroto Shimakage and Taylor, showing that she was truly affected by this happening and felt unloved by her parents, who had cared for dearly up until that point.

After breaking it up with Keiko, who she had fallen out of love with, Nozomi began dating Kita. Nozomi was greatly affected by the Love Water Incident and ended up overdosing on it, landing her in hospital. Not long after, she found out that she was pregnant with Kita's baby but later lost the child. The experience traumatised her, and she was left unable to deal with herself for a long time. After therapy and some time to heal, however, Nozomi learned to deal better with her depression and soon began shaping herself back into the positive person that she was. The details of what had happened, however, had been leaked to her friends Kotoko Utsugi, Sophia Nakata and Haruhi Okasawa who made attempts to asperse her reputation with the information.

## Stats

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

Strength

## Relationships

### Keiko Sato

Nozomi and Keiko used to date, and despite their break up, Nozomi holds no bad feelings for Keiko and cares about her greatly as a friend. Keiko was greatly hurt by Nozomi's withdrawal from her, and even more so by the break up, despite Nozomi not meaning to upset her. Nozomi understands, however, that Keiko needs her space from the issue and hopes to remain her friend.

### Ren Shimakage

Ren is like family to Nozomi, and she treasures him greatly and tries her best to make sure that he's happy and safe. She loves spending time with him, and bonding over their similar upbringings and interest in horses and farm life.

### Taylor Takahashi

Despite Taylor frequently making attempts to push Nozomi away, she tries her hardest to be a part of his life and understands that he needs his friends to be there for him no matter what he says. She often bothers him with her loud antics and pleads with him to shorten her skirts for her. She is very protective of his feelings and isn't afraid to show that she cares about him. In Reunion Verse, Nozomi and Kita named their son Taylor in his memory.

### Kaoru Akita

Kita and Nozomi became close after he took the time to comfort her about her feelings of insecurity around revealing her sexuality. Despite Nozomi being a lesbian, she developed a great emotional connection with Kita and soon fell in love with who he was as a person. The two began dating and experienced several miscarriages through their teenage years and adulthood. During Reunion Verse, the two finally have a child and cherish their family.

### Jataro Kemuri

Nozomi considers Jataro a friend, despite her enthusiasm often making him feel uncomfortable. It is revealed that the two of them are half-siblings, when their father, Isao, brings his own past to light.

## Quotes

* (To Taylor) "*I don't care* *how* *much you push me away. I... I don't care if you call me names because I'm stupid, or don't talk to me... or anything else. I don't care how much it hurts* *me,* *I would* *NEVER* *forgive myself if... if I let you live your life thinking that you have to be alone. You have people who care about you... and... and if for some reason... those people leave... I'm still gonna be here."*
* *"The thing about being on a squad is that everybody is supporting each other. You are literally being the foundation for each other. At one point or another, everybody is going to be holding another person's weight, and in order to function as a team, every member needs to function in tandem. The one thing about my squad is that we don't tolerate any kind of bitchiness or... point fingers at people. We help each other to achieve our goals."*

## Trivia

* Nozomi's last name is spelled with the kanji for hawk (鷹) and tree (木) this spelling is typically read as Takagi, but, although unusual, can be read as Takaki.
* The name Nozomi means wish (望) or hope (希) and can be spelled using both of those kanji.
* Nozomi's blood type is B
* Nozomi's hobby is *shopping.*
* Her favourite beverage is *chocolate* *milkshakes* and her least favourite is *Nikujaga* *.*
* She likes *short skirts, socialising* and *sports* and dislikes *studying* and *antipathy toward or amongst her peers.*
* Her most treasured thing is *her friends.*