Kaguya Nakauchi

Kaguya Nakauchi is a Criminal Psychologist, Deaf Activist, and True Crime Novelist most known for her work creating a criminal profile that would lead to the successful capture of a serial killer targeting former Super High-school Level students, as well as writing a bestselling true crime novel about the investigation. She is also known for her unusual name, stoic demeanor, and small size, all of which have earned her more than her share of jokes about a certain demanding moon princess of myth.

Appearance
Kaguya is a short, frail girl with short, black-stylized-as-purple hair. She wears a light green button-up shirt and purple skirt from a school uniform or some other semiformal suit, but seems to have either lost or not worn the accompanying blazer.She wears a cobalt blue necktie, matching bow in her hair, and somewhat matching blue kneesocks, and plain brown dress shoes. She has the standard periwinkle-marked watch on her left hand, and at the start of the game had the Waluigi symbol tattooed to her right wrist.

Personality
Kaguya’s outward demeanor can be described, in short, as “nerves of steel.” Despite her small size and great physical weakness to match, nothing elicits much of an outward reaction from her, and she has an analytical personality. That isn’t to say that she’s unemotional, however. On the contrary, in fact, she can be quite intense on any number of subjects, and has a sense of humor that mostly confuses others, largely consisting of making bold or over the top statements with a straight face and watching people react. She also has a deep-seated, personal loathing of cats.

From her fondness for true crime and undersold work with deaf charities, she also has a passion for insects, especially beetles, and even claims that, had things turned out differently, she might have become an Ultimate Entomologist. She emulates a tradition held by lucky students by claiming to have at least slightly researched the background of every single person in the class. Though Kaguya is an extremely careful person, she does have a few absentminded habits, such as starting on a hot drink such as coffee or tea, only to forget about it until it’s long gone lukewarm or worse, or forgetting that she's left her hearing aids off while working on something.

While highly intelligent and prone to being helpful, Kaguya possesses a slightly immature streak, is exceptionally arrogant about her talent and intelligence, and believes herself to be the most important student in the Kurashiki Museum. She's something of a know-it-all, and will occasionally drop references to names she expects a person talented in a field to understand. She could also be described, unfortunately, as a fujoshi, though she's aware of the term's connotations and dislikes being associated with them, however accurately.

She takes some pride in her association with Japanese police forces, and claims a desire to save as many students as possible from the game, but is also so thoroughly convinced someone will try something that she admitted to being surprised someone hadn't already committed murder the day after the nature of the game was revealed. For her consciousness about herself, she also displays unshakable bravery in stressful situations, such as calmly continuing to speak with Etsuko Shinki during a perceived intimidation attempt, or taking control of the group and berating the masked figure to their face when everyone woke up in prison cells.

Being hard of hearing herself, Kaguya has donated some noteworthy amount of time and money to the Japanese Federation for the Deaf, and is fluent in Japanese Sign Language, as well as an advocate for its proliferation. Her feelings on this are strong enough that, when self-professed communications expert Rebbecca Tazuki admitted to not knowing a single gesture of Sign, she was internally extremely offended and perceived it as hypocrisy.

Once the killing game began, Kaguya's cautious and analytical side began to grow even more overt near immediately, and while the student handbook loaded its rules and it wasn't clear that the killing game wasn't a straight brawl to the death, she quietly hid in the museum's bathroom, and after coming out, while socializing normally with the others, immediately made a habit of mostly eating and drinking prepackaged food and beverage, for safety reasons. She also immediately began thinking of the others in terms of who was a potential suspect, as well as often musing on the confusing nature of the game. She firmly believes that this 2,000 year cryo-sleep premise is little more than a fabrication to dissuade the cast from attempting to escape on their own terms.

After her horrible secret was revealed in chapter 4's trial, Kaguya finally began to realize a need to change for the better as a person, wholeheartedly and genuinely dedicating herself to a self-designated position as group leader and the most vocal opponent of any degree of compliance with their captors or blind trust. Much of this was due to the influence of Etsuko Shinki.

Ultimate Criminal Psychologist
Kaguya Nakauchi possesses a great amount of interpersonal analytical skills. She specializes in criminal profiling, and as such spends a lot of time anticipating who in the class is likely to try and kill, as well as the methods they would likely use. In the past, she has used these skills to correctly apprehend a notorious serial killer, and she would often meet with convicts to pick their brains or sometimes even try to start them towards rehabilitation.

Skilled Writer
Kaguya managed to write a bestselling, award-winning nonfiction true crime novel based on her experiences on the Maxwell Arkwright case, so when she wants to, she is readily capable of turning even horribly grim subjects into a broadly-appealing, engaging read.

Pretty Decent Entomology Hobbyist
Insects have been a special interest of Kaguya's for her entire life, and had she not chosen to pursue criminal psychology, she might have even honed these skills to a Super High-school Level. As it stands, though, she's just a non-super high-school level expert on creepy crawlies. She used to collect and raise them throughout elementary school, with beetles standing out as her favorites.

Prior to the Overarching Project
Born frail and hard of hearing, Kaguya lived a rather sheltered but otherwise un-noteworthy early childhood, the slightly spoiled offspring of an eccentric but loving couple. Still, though, she was always a bright young girl, having taught herself to read before starting elementary school. Even more unusually for a girl her age, the books that captivated her most were nonfiction books about true crime, as well as information on insects, though entomology never grew beyond a very involved hobby for her. During elementary school, she took up the hobby of bug collecting, raising them like pets and reading aloud to them. She was told at times that having pet beetles in particular was a "boyish" hobby, though it wasn't what ended up eventually stopping her from continuing it. She believes, in fact, that this helped her become a more sociable person by practicing her speech to her six-legged friends.

In her second year of middle school, a serial killer was at large in the world, targeting esteemed graduates holding the “Super High-school Level” title. Through criminal profiling, this at the time recently 14 year-old girl played a key role in identifying the culprit as a former Super High-school Level Student himself, an esteemed interior designer by the name of Maxwell Arkwright. The good standing this gave her led to her often cooperating with Japanese police on high-profile cases, and even sometimes meeting and speaking with inmates.

In the aftermath of the investigation, Kaguya began to pen an acclaimed true crime novel about the case, uncreatively naming it after its culprit, which ended at his sudden and self-inflicted death during incarceration. A large amount of her profits from the book were given to various Japanese deaf charities and activism groups. Arkwright is just one of many, however, that she's had the unfortunate chance of meeting shortly before their death, however: with a mental health epidemic plaguing Japanese prisons, Kaguya is also in charge of investigating just what is at the root of this.

Prologue
Upon waking up in the prison cell, Kaguya quietly observed the others for awhile before eventually speaking authoritatively. By the time the masked person showed up, she ended up one of the primary people to challenge them and their rulings, accusing them of pointlessly drawing out a kidnapping with the illusion that they would have a chance to escape and openly being skeptical towards their claims of sending Kaguya and her class into the future.

Once everyone woke up in the museum, she largely spent her time until the revelations about the game's nature musing about why they've been brought here and why one would make such an elaborate setup.

Chapter 1
Kaguya hid in the bathroom stalls while she was reading the rules to the killing game, but emerged and reintegrated with the class relatively fine afterwards when the rules made clear that she wasn't in clear and immediate danger. She quickly placed her trust in the Kotobuki sisters, and continued with business as usual speculating about the game's nature.

She would spend most of Chapter 1 simply speculating and trying to acclimate to life in the museum, analyzing who she suspected to be a possible liability to the group, as well as switching mainly to the consumption of prepackaged food and drinks, presumably to avoid the possibility of poisonings. She, multiple times, professed a desire to see as many of her fellow students survive the game as possible.

Chapter 2
In light of her immense frustrations with the first trial's near-failure, as well as the fact that Brendan Fireheart was killed on a whim because of it, Kaguya redoubled her earlier proclamation, as well as vowing to take a more active role in the group's dynamic. After solving the riddle to eventually open up the second area of the game, she quickly snatched up every single ticket to it and decided to hold onto them until the time they say, presumably to prevent anyone from slipping ahead. She did this despite most of the group's protests.

Relationships

 * Class 81-A:

Generally speaking, Kaguya acts as a voice of reason among class 81-A. During panicked situations, she either deliberately maintains a low profile or, when she does bring herself to the others' attention, speak with authority and conviction. Thus, she's generally either viewed as one of the more reasonable, intelligent members of the group with an impressive talent, or an utter know-it-all. She also knows of everyone else before they know of her, having at least briefly researched every single one of her future classmates and a few other assorted Hope's Peak students after being accepted.

Brendan Fireheart:
Kaguya is Brendan's roommate, notably the only co-ed setup in the class roster. She finds his work as an artist respectable and thinks that distractions such as comic books and other sources of escapism are important for everyone's everyday lives. She expressed some discontent when it was suggested that he was likely to kill, if only because as his roommate she'd be in the line of fire.

Unfortunately for Brendan, she took something of a shine to him after speaking about the industries of doujinshi and western comics, and he ended up unknowingly enabling her most unsavory habits by encouraging her to find someone to set him up with. Ultimately, this was not to be, and he ended up the first victim of the killing game. Kaguya was sad about this, but showed little of it, instead opting to quickly begin investigating his death as one of the few people to speak to him more than once. When Setsurou was found guilty of killing him, Kaguya was possibly the only person who was more unhappy about Brendan's death than his killer's impending execution.

When the surviving class members returned to the beginning of the game, Kaguya's final conversation was one where she told Brendan about some of her experiences, specifically warning him about the fact that he always seemed to have been the first victim in all timelines visited. The end of this conversation was unfortunately never seen.

Mea &amp; Rima Kotobuki:
Kaguya quickly came to trust Mea and Rima as having no incentive to participate in the killing game, seeing as the ruling on culprits implied to her that only one person would be allowed to escape were one to get away with murder and, being conjoined twins who are very much individuals, it was assumed that one or the other would not be able to "get away with" murder in the game's sense without endangering the other, and as a result themselves. With no perceived incentive to act, Kaguya sees them as the first two people she can trust. This did, however, falter significantly with Mea's increasingly erratic behavior and eventual revelations about her, though Kaguya never stopped at least being concerned about her.

Etsuko Shinki:
While the two were relatively amicable in the prologue, relations between Kaguya and Etsuko soured near-immediately after the announcement of the game. While on the surface, both still treat one another politely, one of their first in-depth interactions after the usual reveal was loaded to the brim with hostility underneath the surface, both too good at being fake bitches to let it on but knowing damn well what the other was thinking. Kaguya responded to what she perceived as an intimidation attempt and wordless threat without so much as breaking a sweat. In fact, she countered back by citing proficiency in 30 martial arts, nearly half of the ones she listed either being made-up or a reference to a popular anime or other work of pop culture.

From there, passive-aggression and thinly-veiled hostility continued to mark their interactions. Though Kaguya has occasionally made efforts to address the elephant in the room, they're certainly not going to be friends any time soon. Her attempts to extend the olive branch are met with only further brazen suspicion, even when Etsuko's words do manage to get Kaguya to genuinely consider topics she tends to just try to avoid considering, such as rampant racism in the police forces she works so closely with (though, much to Etsuko's irritation, she was much more combative on defending her fujoshit nonsense, even if she at least promised to consider her words). She maintains, however, that she is not Etsuko's enemy, and resents being treated as such.

Despite their differences, after the murder of Brendan Fireheart, both girls immediately began to collaborate on the investigation. Afterwards, alongside burning her yaoi doujin in front of her, she confided her reasons for her desire to befriend Etsuko in detail: she feels that, with the things the two have learned, done, and seen, very few people would be able to relate to them, let alone in their class. The fact that Etsuko is strong enough to protect her from harm hypothetically also helps.

Jun Orozco:
Kaguya is dead certain that Jun knows much more about the situation than he lets on, deeming his word choice with the masked figure as oddly specific, as well as thinking he's too detached from the nature of the game. She also considers his smoking habits nuisances, and finds it exceptionally frustrating that he refuses to cut it some slack even just in the presence of others who would rather not suffer lung problems in a locked-up, windowless building. For his aggressively noncommittal stance on just about any argument, she has deemed him a centrist. All in all, in Kaguya's book, a thoroughly frustrating person.

Setsurou Otaga:
After catching him running in the halls, Kaguya briefly had a discussion with Setsurou, especially focusing on the topic of hobbies. She revealed some insight into her interest in the very uniform, good-of-the-species-first mindset of many insects, as well as feeling satisfied that someone sees her as intelligent and mature.

After their early rapport, they had little interaction until his unveiling as the culprit where, while she claimed voting for his execution was nothing personal, she expressed very little sympathy for his plight, and in fact seemed rather annoyed that he'd killed over the first motive. Despite her 'nothing personnel' claims, it's likely that her attachment to Brendan fueled this lack of sympathy, and Setsurou's execution led Kaguya to decide she needed to be more accessible and prone to paying attention to the group to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Kitaru Bakuha:
Kaguya finds him to be decent conversation, but considers his openly black-and-white worldview, as well as his attempts to justify it, "sophomoric."

Nao Murakami:
Kaguya thought little about the exorcist beyond considering them nice enough, at least openly, until she found herself cornered by them with a knife suddenly. Suffice to say that, at that point, her opinion of them decreased a bit, though it was mitigated heavily by the realization soon after that Nao quite literally wasn't themselves at the time.

Rebbecca Tazuki:
Kaguya considers Rebbecca slightly flighty, and took great offense to someone who claims a passion in the proliferation of communication focusing on the realm of emojis and not knowing so much as a word of Sign Language. She also thinks she's not particularly bright, as she didn't seem to know what the Mona Lisa, Musashi Miyamoto, or Masamune, all exceptionally well-known, were.

Shuun Nakajima:
Kaguya is vocal about her dislike for Shuun just about any time he shares a room with her or occupies her mind in any capacity. She's resentful of the fact that this is a member of the scientific community, and considers him, as she has said paraphrased a few times, the sort of bully who a western-animated children's cartoon would think is too much of a caricature. She thinks little of his intelligence outside of his fields of study, and speaks to him with as little respect as possible.

Later in chapter 1, Kaguya reveals that the way Shuun's screeches and constant sudden shouts interact with her hearing aids actually cause her serious pain. She feels like she both likes and understands him less and less and less every new thing she learns about him, especially when the positively rank doctor implied that his social circles treated this as remotely normal. Such social circles as colleges where one could study radiology.

In chapter 2, she would manipulat Star Ozu into killing Shuun for her.

Otome Gensai:
For most of the game, Kaguya and Otome got along... decently. Not too close or icy. However, two events that occurred around the same time during the fourth trial and its aftermath completely killed what camaraderie the two had: the revelation of Kaguya's horrible secret, and the fact that Otome Gensai had been not only eagerly submitting to the will of the people running the game, but assisting them outright in exchange for special privileges and protecting her life. Kaguya's attempts to point out that, by this point, she had already been killed once by their captors fell on deaf ears.

From their, their relationship was perhaps the roughest of the people alive in the endgame, with Kaguya continually distrustful of her intentions and continued unwillingness to break away from the will of the culprits, and Otome in turn retaliating against anything Kaguya said against her on principle, ignoring her efforts to improve as a person.

Monomono Items
Log: A big, heavy, wooden children’s toy with exceptionally wide appeal. A literal log of wood which can roll down stairs, alone or in pairs, serve as a snack, or fit on your back. It’s better than bad, it’s good.

Plush Badger: A stuffed blue badger with wide eyes and a vacant smile, known across Japan and Los Angeles as a symbol of justice.

Quotes

 * “Karate, Boxing, Aikido, Jeet Kune Do, Hokuto Shinken, Capoeira, Toshu Kakuto, Neo Aikido, Sendo, Neo Aikido Evangelion, Turtle Style, Tae Kwon Do... I can go on.” -to Etsuko, lying through her teeth about her defensive capabilities for the sake of humor funny comedy.
 * "Take that back. Cats are merely coldhearted hunters who have simply cultivated behaviors that trigger similar responses in humans to those of a distressed infant. An evolutionary tactic and sham that gives way to their true viciousness the moment they have an opportunity." -when compared to a cat.
 * "I'm not racist just for the record." -ending all racism in one sentence, for the moon princess wills it
 * "Insects are quite fascinating in their singlemindedness, their ability to act as a unit for the good of the species with little to no thought for their individual well-being..." -on her special interest in bugs.
 * ”I have so many gay friends.” -Kaguya, negotiating for a toy gun.

Trivia

 * Her favorite novel is In Cold Blood, by American author Truman Capote.
 * I hate her.
 * She claims not to be racist. Whether or not she will die anyway is yet to be seen, but god I hope she does.
 * Fuck her.