Shinko Maeda

Art by Muffy

Doremi 'Dot' Maeda [older sister] (deceased)

Rinji 'Ditsy' Maeda [older brother] (deceased)

Survived

"*Couldn't imagine working with dead bodies..."*

— 'Ditsy'

**Shinko Maeda (しんこ まえだ)** is a participant of the Towa Incident Killing Game. The killing game is not tied to a real Danganronpa game, however, it is instead featured on Quotev (@postdespair), and therefore, hosted online. Their title is Ultimate Ventriloquist.

 History

### Early Life

Shinko does not remember their family. For as long as they can remember, their older brother and sister have raised them. They aren't sure what happened to their parents, and when asked about it, their siblings would only brush it off.

Shinko was never all that bothered by it, though, and was perfectly content with having only their siblings by their side.

### Primary Events

(CW familial death)

When Shinko was eleven, a bump in the night woke them up. When they got up to investigate, they found their siblings on the floor of the living room, bloody and dead. Above them stood a person, knife in hand. Shinko couldn't make out a single feature of the stranger, but strangely enough, they appeared to be around Shinko's age.

The killer ran off, and Shinko ran after them, angry and upset. The killer easily escaped, though, and Shinko, lost and alone, left to find the police.

They took them back to their home, to the bodies. While the police investigated, Shinko was taken to a temporary foster home with a green-haired man who only called himself 'Shima.'

For a long time, Shinko waits for the murder to hit the public. For the case to open. They check the papers, any accessible news channel, anything at all. They never hear a word of it. Nobody knows a thing. Nobody knows of the Maeda's tragedy. All Shinko has left of them are their memories and two puppets.

Meanwhile, Shima was encouraging them to give those puppets use. Teaching them about puppetry and ventriloquism. Keeping his teachings in mind, Shinko would also do their best to look around for *anything* about their siblings' murder. Unfortunately, it was difficult when they were still bound to Shima.

So, one day at age fourteen, they ran away. They had already made a career as a ventriloquist with Shima as their mentor, so they use that career to get around. While their career was a very active part of their life, their priority was solving their family's murder.

That's how they lived since then. They had met new people, namely Fukuya Akita, but has almost never let themself get attached to anyone, focused only on discovering the identity of their family's killer, through both various legal and *illegal* means.

During the game, Shinko's keep this mindset, not letting themself get attached to anyone, and acting closed off as to not get any unwanted attention. During the second chapter of the game, however, they realized the severity of the situation they were in, and made the risky decision to kill Rumiko Jin.

They were outed during the trial, but Shinko survived after Yuuki instead sent a doll to face their execution.

After the game ended, with Shinko's knowledge and Future Foundation's capability, the person who had killed Shinko's family was arrested. Since then, Shinko performed one last act before disappearing from both the eye of the public and the other killing game survivors.

## Talent

Shinko is the Ultimate Ventriloquist. They have no actual passion for the entertainment aspect of the hobby, however; they hold on to the job for other reasons.

Originally, they worked as an amateur puppeteer after their siblings' deaths, but then turned to work as a ventriloquist when it ended up being more convenient for them.

They would use their slowly growing popularity and income to travel and buy information that might be useful for their investigation.

Shinko would be quick to accept the title of Ultimate Ventriloquist, believing that it would give them connections to the elite, and people useful to their investigation.

## Before the Killing Game

Shinko travelled and performed alone. Mostly, though, they would investigate with a small team, particularly with an investigator named Fukuya Akita. They would look into past crime, connect similar cases, and question others.

## Appearance

Shinko is a short person with an average build. Their skin is very pale, and their face is round, holding a pair of heterochromatic eyes; the right red, the left blue. Their eyes always appear wide open, and above them are small, round brows. Red face paint covers their cheeks, making swirled patterns. Shinko always seems to hold a flustered, nervous, surprised expression.

Their hair is straight but thick, cut into a neat bob that grows shorter the farther back. The longest it reaches to is their mid-neck. Their bangs are cut neatly but unevenly, styled diagonally. They have two multicolored strands of hair protruding from the top of their head, red and blue, leading down to their chest.

Shinko wears a white button-up shirt, with a deep v-neck sweater over it, colored gray. Wrapped around and underneath the collar of their shirt is a pink bow, with lighter pink frills decorating the edges. The sweater is notably oversized and is tucked into the skirt around their waist. The skirt is black and pleated, and it goes down to their mid thighs. Around their legs are a pair of black-and-white striped thigh highs, and on their feet are a pair of white Mary Janes, with pink frills.

Most iconic, however, are the two puppets on their hands. On their left is a blue cat with half-lidded, red eyes. On their right hand is a red dog with fuzzy, floppy ears. Its eyes are wide and colored blue. They've been lovingly named Dot and Ditsy, respectively.

## Personality

Shinko never speaks. Not from their own mouth, anyway. Rather, the puppets on their hands, Ditsy and Dot, do all the talking for them. Ditsy, an emotional, cheerful dog who is outgoing, if not a little shy. And Dot, the calculative, teasing cat with a smart mouth.

They describe the three of them, Shinko, Ditsy, and Dot, to be extremely close, and always being at each other's sides no matter what.

While Shinko themself never really speaks, there are a few notable things about them. They are easily flustered, blushing or looking away at any compliment they may get. They are shy and shaky, too, expression always wide and alert, and they're always surprised when directly addressed.

Underneath all of that, though, they are a very vengeful person. They eventually reveal that they've been attempting to track down their siblings' killer for a very long time, and that they refuse to die until they're able to kill that person themself. From this, it can also be said that they're intelligent and determined, and willing to sacrifice many things to reach their goals.

Both Ditsy and Dot are heavily based on their late siblings, and Shinko originally held onto them to cope with their grief. While they do still hold on to them as a coping mechanism, and to feel like sometimes their brother and sister really are still with them, Shinko is aware of how unhealthy it is, however, they're too scared to break out of the habit in fear of losing their siblings all over again. Shinko hides their real self as much as they can, not wanting to get attached to people and not wanting people to get attached to *them*, so they can focus on their goals and their goals only.

When Shinko is forced to speak through their own mouth, their voice is unstable, and without a character to portray, they talk in run-on sentences and broken words.

## Relationships

### Doremi 'Dot' Maeda

Shinko's older sister, who they looked up to a lot. They've always considered her cunning and intelligent, and while closed off, still incredibly caring and protective over the few she considers close.

She was the one who mostly took care of Shinko and their brother, as she had a decent paying job, and would mostly handle the rest of the money too.

When she was killed, Shinko vowed to avenge her.

### Rinji 'Ditsy' Maeda

Shinko's older brother. He would do his best to keep the stress off his siblings, always smiling and laughing. Shinko admired him as a positive and cheerful yet entirely capable person, and a hard worker who cared for his friends.

He would stay at home, mostly, to watch over Shinko, while Doremi went off to work.

When he was killed, Shinko vowed to avenge him.

### Fukuya Akita

A friend and partner outside of the game. He is an investigator who has been helping Shinko with their case. Shinko initially labeled their relationship as strictly business, but overtime began to think of him as a friend. While incredibly intelligent and clever, Shinko also considers Fukuya as charismatic and talkative.

Sometimes *too* talkative, but at least it makes up for Shinko's desire to stay mute.

### Shima

Shinko's temporary caretaker after their siblings were killed. A strange young man who taught Shinko about the art of performing. They hold no real attachment to him, they can only safely say that he's very odd.

### ???

The bastard who killed Shinko's family. Shinko is slowly learning more about them, and they won't rest until they get their hands on them and maim them in the same way they maimed their brother and sister.

## Shinko's Fate

Shinko murdered Rumiko Jin in chapter two, where the swapped outfits motive took place.

That was, of course, not Shinko's real motive. Their real motive was to escape the game so they could continue to search for their siblings' killer.

Shinko was discovered and then executed, however, it's later revealed that they survived, as a doll took their place in the execution at the last minute.

## Quotes

### Chapter One

* "*We always stick together! Ain't leaving each other's sides* now*.*" ('Ditsy' explaining their dynamic to Udamae)
* "*Oh! I'm Ditsy, her name is Dot, and this is Shinko Maeda!*" ('Ditsy' introducing himself)

### Chapter Two

* "*That's not... how you* talk *to a* killer*.*" (After being revealed as the blackened)
* "*...I have two people... very close to me... my older brother, who was always very* kind*... and my older sister, who was super, super smart... if not always kind of* mean*... they were both killed a few years ago. Their names were* Rinji *and* Doremi*... pretty,* right*? But you have no idea* who *they are,* right?" (Shinko talking about their siblings)
* "*I'm not dying until I know I'll see them in hell with me.*" (Final words before attempting to outrun their execution)

## Trivia

* Shinko almost never speaks for themselves, mainly communicating through puppets Ditsy and Dot.