Akari Hinata

Akari Hinata is a major character who appears in Virtual Despair. She acts as a major investigator, assisting Niamh Wood as one of the protagonists. Her title is Ultimate Pokemon Trainer.

Appearance
Akari first appears in Virtual Despair wearing a black vest over a white t-shirt with jean shorts. Akari wears tall black socks and white tennis shoes as well. Akari's red spiky hair is short and mostly covered up by her white and violet hat. The latter color matches her eyes.

When Akari makes appearances later on, she gets a completely new appearance reminiscent of her love for Susumu Toshi. Her hair grows out to reach her lower back and covers her right eye. Akari wears a black shirt with jean shorts like this. Her socks become tall violet boots over white stockings. Over her shoulders, Akari has a blue jacket in a similar color to Susumu's and a white scarf like the one he used to wear.

Personality
Akari is a bubbly character, despite the dark nature of the book she appears in. She gets along with most people well, especially Susumu, who she bonds with instantly. Akari seems to have a liking for bad jokes, as is shown by the way that she's the only character to laugh at Susumu and his puns.

Akari is also a natural when it comes to investigating, shown by the fact that she was able to easily help Niamh Wood investigate the murders that were taking place and practically took charge at Wood's request in the first chapter. It is unknown where she got her experience in this profession.

After the death of her closest friend at the time, Akari went under a large personality change, going from peppy and happy to dark and distant. She talks less and barely smiles, always thinking of the people who were lost in the death game. When one gets the rare luxury of getting Akari to talk like this, it isn't ever for long.

Before the Story
Akari grew up with her parents and one older brother, and she is very close with the latter. The two get along perfectly well. After a few years of living at home, she was sent to Ashbrooke due to her talents with Pokemon battles. It is highly implied that she had some sort of investigating experience, possibly from an event before the series began.

Virtual Despair
Akari starts out the book as the new girl in school, as she had just arrived after beginning the Oracle of the Law project. She was introduced to her fellow students before the bus left for S.P.A.R.X. Factory. They unfortunately didn't have much time before the death game began.

During the first chapter of the book, Akari had a few free time events (two with Susumu to enjoy puns and explore the store and one with Zach to look into a laptop Monokuma supplied for them on the island). Shortly after, the deadly life began when Toshiaki Yemon was murdered. Akari was asked by Wood to help her investigate the case, despite Wood's title as Ultimate Investigator. They found a message under the body and a call out note, which they used during the class trial session to show who the culprit was: Octavio Prower. Before being caught, Octavio went through other potential suspects, such as Kyle Young and even Akari, thinking her title's initials could have been written by the victim before his death. Susumu disproved this. Wood proved Octavio was the culprit, and he was then executed by Monokuma. Akari attempted to run to her cabin, though she was found and consoled by Susumu before the first chapter concluded.

The motive of the chapter, which was exposure of dark secrets, was introduced shortly after Fatal Secrets began. It is mentioned multiple times that Akari was thoroughly traumatized upon hearing about her secret, along with Clement Naoko and Susumu looking the most terrified. During a free time event later that same chapter, Akari and Susumu met up and Susumu decided to tell Akari his secret. Akari hardly saw this as fair, as she knew that she would never be ready to share her secret. Susumu asked if she would kill over it, though Akari said no, explaining that it was merely an uncomfortable subject for her. He revealed that he is abused by his father at home, to which Akari responded by pulling him into a hug. Susumu left her shortly after. The next day, the body of Clement was found, so Akari investigated alongside Wood. They found out that he was killed in the beach house. His death most likely had to do with his secret, which was involved with his twin brother, Ichiro.

Susumu Toshi
Akari and Susumu are quite friendly with each other, even being highly implied to have crushes on one another. They place a considerable amount of trust in each other, even willing to share their secrets with one another during the second chapter of the DRT.

Niamh Wood
Akari and Wood are rather close friends, and they also are the main investigators of Virtual Despair. They can most certainly be considered close friends, as both of them trusts the other enough to deny that they would ever kill anybody during the DRT.

Quotes
-"I'm the Ultimate Pokemon Master! I've competed and won first place in all kinds of tournaments, be it the card game or the video game!" (introducing herself to Niamh Wood)

-"No way. Never in a million years." (denying that she will kill during the Despair Resistance Trials)

-"Okay, that was actually kind of funny. That made me feel better about all of this. Thanks, Susumu." (first speaking with Susumu Toshi)

-"M-me? Wh-why?" (when accused of murder at the hands of Octavio Prower)

Trivia
-Akari is loosely based off of a character from Digimon Fusion: a peppy redhead.

-Originally, Akari wasn't supposed to show much affection towards anybody in Virtual Despair, though this changed shortly after the invention of Susumu.

-Akari is set to appear soon on in the QATH series.