Name: Tim
DW username: N/A
E-Mail: matrixxh@gmail.com
IM: Total Rix

Other Characters: N/A

Character Name: Chihiro Fujisaki
Series: Danganronpa
Timeline: Early Chapter 2
Canon Resource Link: Wikipedia
Character Background:

--Warning! Minor spoilers for Danganronpa!--

Chihiro Fujisaki is a young student at Hope's Peak Academy, an elite government-endorsed Japanese high school that accepts only the topmost students in their respective fields. There are no entrance exams or applications - students are sought out by the school and invited to join based on their talents, which have been determined to be "Super High School Level".

Chihiro was invited to join the school as a "Super High School Level Hacker", thanks to her natural talent working with computer programs. Born with a weak and frail body, Chihiro was unable to play outside with other children, so she spent most of her time indoors playing around with the computers that belonged to her father, a software engineer.

She first discovered she could modify programs after finding an incomplete project of her father's, an information retrieval system based on voice input. Not only was she able to complete and refine the voice input code, she was also able to make the program reply to her using a synthesized recreation of her own voice, making it seem as if she was having a conversation with herself. Though she was afraid that her father wouldn't approve of her meddling, he was instead elated that Chihiro showed so much talent, and she was conscripted to help bring the technology to mainstream audiences (though, unfortunately, the company ran out of funding before the project could be completed).

Chihiro has been described as looking like "a small, frightened animal", due to her thin, slight build, somewhat mousy features, and her shy, nervous demeanor. She is constantly worried that she is displeasing people, and compulsively apologizes pre-emptively for anything she does or does not do. She is very sensitive emotionally and does not stand up well to verbal abuse; people pointing out that her area of expertise is seen as odd for her gender is something that hits her especially hard, even if it is meant well.

She has a complex about her frail body and lack of self confidence, seeing herself as being fundamentally weak both physically and emotionally. She often regretfully dwells on being unable to help people due to her lack of strength and courage. Her confidence in her skill with computers, however, is very strong - she even goes as far as to believe that when it comes to working with computer systems, she can do anything she sets her mind to.

Despite her insecurities, she has a friendly disposition. It's in her nature to notice other people's own strengths, and admire them for their talent. While she usually does not like to talk about herself, when given the opportunity to talk about her work with computers, she will eagerly chatter about her projects, even in the face of non-disclosure agreements.

Though supposedly selected to attend Hope's Peak Academy to bring her unique talents to the school, she became caught up in a cruel game set up by a mysterious individual, under the guise of "Monobear", a mascot-like character controlled remotely. Monobear's "game" involves locking the students up in the academy together, telling them they are to be forced to live the rest of their lives within its walls - unless, of course, they could "Graduate".

In this game, a student "Graduates" from Hope's Peak Academy by successfully murdering any other student, provided that the remaining students are unable to prove the killer's guilt in a specially staged "School Trial". If the murderer avoids persecution, they graduate the school, while all the other students are executed - if they are found out, however, only the murderer is executed.

Knowing that it's unlikely that the promise of escape alone would be enough to drive the students to murder, Monobear begins introducing "motivations" - the first of which is enough to drive a murder and subsequent trial and execution. As it becomes readily apparent that the "game" is no mere prank or hazing ritual, panic and tension begin to reign in the school - especially as a new motivation, "memories and revealed secrets", comes to light.

Fearing how the others would react upon hearing her secret revealed, Chihiro comes face to face with her own weakness and lack of confidence, which begins to shake her to the core of her own identity.

--Warning! MAAAJOR spoilers for Danganronpa!!!--

Chihiro's secret is something that almost nobody would ever begin to suspect upon looking at her - she is biologically male. Constantly teased for her weakness and frailty as being unbefitting of a boy, Chihiro adopted the identity of a girl in order to escape the judgment and constant insistence that she should be "more manly" - by her logic, nobody would insist she be more manly if she were a girl. While she quickly took to her feminine identity, the core problem of her own supposed "weakness" would occasionally rise up in her mind - the idea that she wasn't "really" a girl, but only took on the guise of one to hide her own insufficiency.

Given the support of new friends and time to come to terms with her own feelings, Chihiro would have eventually settled comfortably and healthily into identifying as a young woman. However, confronted with the tense and stressful conditions of Monobear's cruel "game", as well as the harsh reality that her lack of physical prowess and courage could end up costing her her own life, Chihiro began to doubt herself even more - especially as the deadline for her "revealed secret" began to loom ever closer.
 

--Major spoilers end here--

Abilities/Special Powers: Super High School Level Hacking & Programming

Third-Person Sample:

She grabs for the first sign of solid ground she could find, her frail limbs shaking as her arms struggle with the burden of her body. Her survival instinct taking over, she pulls herself to land, hacking up water and gasping for air, immediately rolling onto her back once she was sure she had reached solid ground; once her panic begins to wear off, Chihiro finally finds time to wonder where she is. The sun shines brightly overhead, shadowed by the occasional seabird; certainly much different from the dreary ceiling of her locked room at Hope's Peak Academy.

Once she begins to get her bearings, she crawls slowly to her feet, her weak knees almost buckling underneath her. Choking back tears and making a few shaky steps away from the ocean, she makes a vain attempt to brush some of the sand off of her soaking wet skirt and blouse, scanning the horizon for more clues as to her whereabouts. She doesn't know what she's looking for, but she certainly finds something - her laptop! It's as beige and as outdated-looking as ever, but she has never been happier to see it.

Picking it up and placing it in her lap, she wastes no time in seeing if, against hope, it could power on again. Against all odds, the boot sequence begins, and a wave of relief sweeps over her - she may have been whisked away to an unknown locale once again, but at least she still has a computer!

Once the boot sequence ends and the desktop loads, something catches her eye - something that makes no sense whatsoever.

"Wireless network available?"

Absolutely confused, she scans the horizon, finding nothing even closely resembling anything that could host a Wi-Fi access point. Rising to her feet, she looks to the distance again, and spots something - just betwixt rolling green hills, and trees so high and majestic as she has only seen in photographs, what looks like the faint outline of some structure.

Having no other options, she brushes herself off once again. Shivering from the cold, her laptop tucked almost posessively to her chest, she takes her first uneasy steps toward the mansion.

First-Person Sample:

[She smiles lightly, bringing her hands up near her face, fidgeting with her fingers and avoiding eye contact.]

"Well... I hope you don't think this is too childish of me... but I've always kind of wanted to be one of those hackers in those American action movies. It's nothing like real hacking, of course, but there's something kind of exciting about it - typing rapidly on a keyboard, the lines of code flashing across the monitor - and that moment when they breach the network and say something like, 'I'm in!' It's kind of silly, but that's something I've always wanted say to myself... hehe..."

[Her expression softens somewhat, and turns wistful, her eyes turning towards the ground.]

"Those hackers are never the heroes of those movies. They provide crucial backup to the real heroes, of course, but they're never really the ones who save the day. I think that suits me just fine, though... I don't know if I could handle the spotlight..."