Haruka Nico

> We're the good apples! You can tell me or Kiki anything, trust us!
>
> Haruka Nico - Danganronpa: Until Proven Guilty

## Personality

Haruka is a bright, bubbly girl, like she’s constantly filled to the brim with joy. She has the ability to light up any room with her mere presence, and enjoys nothing more than being a beacon of positivity to those around her. Her selflessness is almost concerning, as she is determined to put others people’s well-being before her own, often not considering her own health. Despite this, Haruka manages to remain positive, and doesn’t like showing the more negative emotions she experiences. She will only detail her troubles to very close friends and family, which can make her seem closed off at times.

Haruka is extremely quick to form friendships and personal bonds, often becoming too attached too soon and is disappointed when this is not reciprocated. Similarly, she is quick to fall in love, and finds it difficult to fall out of it. Haruka's emotions have a lot of control over her life, as it tends to impact how she treats others. For instance, she is very easily angered, and she often projects this onto the people around her, attempting to blame them. She dislikes not being in control of her emotions, and losing such will send her into a frantic state of anxiety.

## Appearance

Haruka has a rather short, curvy figure. She has a round face and deep skin with flushed cheeks. Her eyes are a bright ocean blue that stand out against her skin, almost like they're sparkling. Her hair has a natural curl, but is lightly straightened, dyed a pale lilac and tied into two messy space buns. She has two soft, wavy strands of hair that frame her face, and her bangs are side swept to the right.

Haruka's outfit is a simple P.E. uniform - a white t-shirt with a purple trim, and purple nylon shorts. She wears purple rubber-toe sneakers with lilac ankle socks. She also has two purple wristbands that match the trim on her shirt.

## History

Haruka grew up in a fairly average suburban, middle class household in Japan. Her parents both work average jobs, however this resulted in them being out of the house a lot, leaving young Haruka by herself. To fill in the time, she'd often play loud music and dance to her heart's content, as the alone time gave her the peace to fully express herself. Thus, she discovered her deep passion for dance, sport and choreography. Throughout her life, Haruka has nurtured her dancing skills through after school dance classes, as well as extracurricular dance activities within school. Her talent began to prosper, and she found a lot of enjoyment in teaching people the art of dance - particularly younger people, who she tends to get along better with.

Being mixed race (Ghanaian and Japanese), Haruka was subject to a lot of exclusion and teasing in her early years, as children were often uneducated and ignorant. She struggled to make friends and found herself alone at break times, and rarely interacting with other children. She watched her classmates form friendship groups, playing together and bonding with each other, and she started longing for the same. As she reached middle school, she was able to find herself an accepting group of female friends, whom she became very overly attached to as she had been craving this interaction since her toddler years.

During these years, Haruka began to struggle with the concept of sexuality. She realised early into her teens that she was a lesbian, and couldn't form connections with men no matter how hard she tried. Being in a predominantly female friend group, she felt like she fell in love with her friends. However, this was never reciprocated due to their fear of queerness. Despite being suddenly surrounded by a new group of friends, Haruka constantly felt alone, struggling to find love and therefore feeling unworthy of such. She realised her lack of attraction to men was more isolating than ever, and she tended to blame herself for this. This period in her life is something that followed her through high school and beyond, and it remained difficult for her to find love and maintain friendships with some female friends.

## Relationships

### Kihona Hideyoshi

Haruka is the first person who Kihona meets in the Prologue, and the two investigated the campus together. Due to Haruka's clingy, loving nature, she very quickly grows attached to Kihona and even goes so far as to give her the nickname 'Kiki', and labels her as her best friend. Kihona is comfortable spending time with Haruka, despite how overbearing she can be.

After the events of Minato's trial, Haruka is so shocked by the death of her peers, and immediately turns that anger against Kihona. She accuses her of directing the blame onto Jin, and that if she hadn't been there, he would be alive and well. Kihona reminds her that there was no other option in this scenario. The two eventually come to an agreement and they are able to continue being friends as normal.

At the beginning of Chapter Four, Haruka becomes noticeably jealous of Kihona and Mitsuharu's relationship, as it is implied she also has romantic feelings for Kihona. As a result, she becomes quite angry with Kihona. This situation is very quickly resolved, however, as Haruka seems to frantically apologise while the group are spending time at the bar.

However, as Daiki's trial ends, and the group purposefully indicate Kaso as the culprit, Haruka is furious with Kihona. She entirely blames the outcome of the trial on her, and tells Kihona she was wrong for implicating Kaso, as he did not deserve to die in that moment. Despite Kihona's numerous attempts to explain her viewpoint, Haruka ignores her, and refuses to speak to Kihona at all

### Jin Toku

Jin is the second person Haruka meets in the killing game, and he was part of her investigation group along with Kihona and Shiro. Despite Jin making some rather uncomfortable comments regarding her appearance and sexuality, Haruka enjoys spending time with him, as she likes to see the best in people. Like Kihona, Haruka sees potential in him to become a much better man, however she takes a more forward approach with this mindset and is very active in interacting with him.

After Minato's trial is over, and Jin is voted as the blackened, Haruka is extremely upset over his death, to the point where she takes out her anger on Kihona. She saw potential in him and was upset that he never got the chance to better his life.

### Mitsuharu Tadaka

Haruka doesn't initially seem to notice Mitsuharu, however during Chapter Two, she agrees to cooperate more with him and Kihona. She appears to get on well with him, despite Mitsuharu being slightly irritated by her overly positive attitude. Upon discovering Mitsuharu has romantic feelings for Kihona, Haruka is incredibly jealous of him, and envies their relationship. She begins to act cold and distant towards him, and she also blames him for the outcome of Daiki's trial, in which Kaso is purposefully voted as the blackened.

## Trivia

* Haruka's old talent was the Ultimate Sprinter. The original Ultimate Choreographer was Daiki Ugoku. These talents were switched early into production as dance seemed more in line with Haruka's backstory as opposed to Daiki's.
* In old beta designs, Haruka wore an unzipped grey hoodie with a black vest and grey jogging bottoms.
* Haruka's birthday is August 8th, which is the same day as Happiness Happens Day, as well as International Cat Day.