[balance] app (SPOILERS FOR DRV3 CHAPTER 1)

	Kaede Akamatsu: Honestly...I'd probably be more inspiring if I played a song than gave a speech... Chopin's "Military Polonaise" would definitely help unite us!
	APP HMD BARD Jade

Player Name: Jade
Age: 27
Contact: jaderhade
Timezone: EST
Other character currently in game: N/A

Character name: Kaede Akamatsu
Age: 17
Canon: Danganronpa V3
Canon point: end of chapter 1
History: Wiki link

Three key adjectives: optimistic, enthusiastic, motivated

Influential Events: BIG SPOILERS FOR DRV3!! A REALLY BIG ONE!!
"I'm the Super High School Level Pianist... but everybody just calls me a Piano Freak."

One day, Kaede Akamatsu wakes up in a locker in a strange, half-crumbling school, with no memory of how she got there or why she might be there. A little exploration of the school and an encounter with the Monokubs, weird teddy-bear-like talking robots, reveals that she and fifteen other high school students have been taken to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, where they're expected to spend the rest of their lives.

Or kill each other to try to escape. That's an option.

The students are informed by the headmaster of their Academy, an over-the-top, ridiculously evil black-and-white bear robot named Monokuma, that if they want to escape the Academy, they must kill one of their classmates and survive a class trial to solve the murder. Succeeding in killing a classmate and tricking the others into voting for someone else as the culprit results in everyone BUT the murderer being executed, while failing to persuade the class of one's innocence and being correctly exposed as the culprit results in only the murderer being executed. To help them along, Monokuma offers a motive: the First Blood Perk, or, the first murder is free! Kill a classmate and admit to being the culprit, and get to walk out without enduring a class trial. Killing, free of charge!

Kaede immediately opposes this, strongly asserting that there's no way any of them would kill each other; they're all dear friends who are going to escape, together. They just met a couple hours ago, but she sees them all as important friends who she wants to get to know better and help escape.

Speaking of escape, the entire school grounds is locked inside a giant, seemingly unbreakable glass cage called the End Wall. There's no risk of starvation; there's food in the kitchen, different recreational activities like a game room and library, and of course, special labs to help each student refine their Super High School Level talents. It's worth noting that unlike the rest of Danganronpa canon, the SHSL talent has nothing to do with Hope's Peak. As far as Kaede knows, SHSLs are rare students who are given special grants by the government and are scattered throughout the country.

Kaede's talent is that of the Super High School Level Pianist, meaning she's the best pianist of high-school age in the entire country. She loves playing piano, and has played piano since she was a child. She most prefers classical music, but can also play jazz piano. The main reason she plays piano is to try to make other people happy and see their smiles; even if she gets nervous before concerts, it's all worth it if she can convey her emotions to her audience.

Even though she's been granted this title from the government, a prestigious title that conveys benefits like voting privileges and grant money, she doesn't think much of herself as one. She says herself that most people don't even call her by that title, instead just calling her a Piano Freak for her endless devotion to playing piano, even to the point of forgetting to eat or sleep.

"Th-This time...! This time... we'll reach the exit!"

Going back to that whole "only escape is to kill someone" thing, one of Kaede's classmates stumbles upon what looks like an exit. It's a tunnel with a big sign that's literally pointing toward it that says EXIT. Kaede immediately takes charge, encouraging all her classmates to try to use the tunnel, together, so they can escape the awful killing game they're trapped in.

Turns out that very obvious trap is, actually, a trap. After their first attempt, Monokuma appears, informs them that yeah, if they can manage to make it through the Death Road of Despair, they can escape! But it's an almost impossible road to clear; every time it looks like the class can make progress, another seemingly impassable trap sends them back to the beginning. Kaede continues to try to encourage them forward, forcing her classmates to keep trying again, and again, even as they're suffering. It takes another classmate to stand up to her and argue that she's doing more harm than good with her boundless optimism; there are some battles that just can't be won, and forcing everyone to keep trying alongside her is tantamount to torture.

It's the first time Kaede questions herself, wondering if she's really doing the right thing by trying to escape with everyone. In her heart, she just wants everyone to escape together and continue being friends, but she can be blind to their wants and needs while she single-mindedly tries to forge a path ahead.

"I've always believed that my wishes can come true if I just work hard enough!"

Hey, remember that bit about killing a classmate to escape? After nobody has taken advantage of the First Blood Perk to kill a classmate and avoid the class trial, Monokuma grows impatient and imposes a time limit. If a murder isn't committed within the next forty-eight hours, everyone who volunteered for the killing game will be murdered by an endless wave of Monokumas.

It's at this time that the SHSL Detective, Shuichi Saihara, approaches Kaede with some deductions: first, that he knows the location where the Monokumas would come from if they were to be attacked; second, that it's a door hidden in the library with a card reader. Therefore, someone in the school with them is controlling Monokuma. They decide this person is the mastermind, and if they can catch the mastermind, they can stop the killing game. Kaede accepts Shuichi's deductions and helps him set up cameras, even going so far as to beg the SHSL Inventor on her knees to enlist her aid. Like in the tunnel, she's very adamant about pressing forward, making sure they can catch the mastermind and help all their friends.

When it comes down to it, she'd do anything to help everybody escape, together. Shuichi starts to question himself, whether he can really manage to catch the mastermind, but Kaede sits down with him, holds his hand, and lets him know that she's scared, too. That even for all her confidence, that even with her optimistic and carefree nature, she can still get scared and doubt herself. She resolves to support her new detective friend, and encourages him to never look away from the truth, and always keep moving forward. It gives her a solid, tangible connection with one of her classmates, and a goal that when they leave together, they'll all stay the best of friends.

"Amami-kun died without knowing his own Ultimate talent... No, he was murdered... by some horrible, lowlife scumbag... I'll never forgive his killer..."

Even though Kaede was telling Shuichi she wanted to catch the mastermind, she was terrified that even if they managed to catch the mastermind before the time limit expired, that everyone would be killed anyone. She devises a plan, in secret, to kill the mastermind the moment they opened the hidden door. While she and Shuichi were setting up the cameras to try to get the evidence of the mastermind opening the door, she was also arranging books, creating a path for a shot-put ball rolled from an upper-floor classroom vent to strike whoever opened the hidden door, killing them instantly.

This plan works, but instead of ending the game by killing the mastermind, the person she kills is just another one of the students of the Academy. Far from ending the killing game, she actually started it. But because she wants to catch the mastermind to actually end the game, not escape, she doesn't confess to her crime to obtain the First Blood Perk. Instead, she convinces herself that the only way to catch the mastermind is to expose them, using the class trial. She's determined that no matter what, if they all work together, they can find a way.

"I'll defeat the mastermind and end this dumb killing game! I'll... I'll even use this class trial to do that!"

Through the course of the class trial, Kaede continues to try to steer conversation toward "catching the mastermind" instead of "catching the culprit." She's even willing to lie about evidence gathered in an attempt to bring everyone closer to the truth. Kaede's incredibly earnest and strong-willed, arguing her point and trying to bring everyone over to her side. She does her job a little too well, though; instead of finding any evidence to expose the mastermind, the class refuses to suspect her, instead turning on the SHSL Detective, who had gone silent halfway through the trial.

Kaede realizes that Shuichi had already uncovered the truth, and deduced that she was the one who'd committed murder. With her classmates' suspicions starting to lead them to think Shuichi was the killer, Kaede finally tells Shuichi to expose the truth, to prove to her classmates without any doubt that she was the true culprit. She does this knowing she'll be executed, but she can't bear to see anyone else killed for what she did. It's a dramatic shift in her behavior thus far; she resigns herself from being committed to catching the mastermind, to helping everyone escape, to instead trying to make everyone see that she was the killer after all.

"It was a murder... in an attempt to save all our lives. That is the truth."

Shuichi manages to convince the class that Kaede's true goal was to kill the mastermind and end the killing game. Though this, by the rules of the killing game, means she was the true culprit, he's firm in explaining that no matter what, she was doing what she did for all of them.

Kaede, in tears, begs the class to accept her final wish: that they'll all escape together, and remain the best of friends. She admits that the reason she came up with this plan to kill the mastermind on her own, instead of catching them as Shuichi suggested, was because she was so afraid of everyone being killed anyway. Her strong will and determination to never give up is what forced her to refuse to take the First Blood Perk and avoid the class trial, because she still had hope that her friends, working together, would be able to use the class trial to expose the mastermind. Beyond that, she couldn't admit it beforehand because she was terrified that none of her classmates would want to be friends with a murderer. She's incredibly vulnerable, but through it all, she tries to stay optimistic, smiling through her tears as she encourages the others to keep working together and escape, together.

"If you do a crime, you get punished for it. That's, like, the most basic rule of society."

Monokuma, having enough of this sob-fest, decides it's time for the execution. A collar with a rope is fastened around Kaede's neck, even as she reaches out to try to hold Shuichi's hand one last time, and hauls her away. Her execution consists of her being hanged by that same rope, a Monokuma dressed as a grisly conductor using her hanging body to play an off-key rendition of Der Flohwalzer using her dangling body to press the keys of a giant piano. Fortunately(?), this is enough to kill her, snapping her neck with the final notes. The piano lid, covered with thorns, slams closed, and all that's left of her is a wet splatter of blood.

For Balance's purposes, things won't have the chance to get quite that far. As she's being hanged above that piano, a dark tendril will snap the rope, dropping her to the keys with a discordant clash of notes. Barely conscious, she's only going to be faintly aware of what's going on around her, of the trial grounds and the execution stage being engulfed by voidy darkness. By the time she's finally able to get enough breath to really realize what's happening, the Director will be offering her her hand.

The memories of her execution will haunt her, as will the realization that she alone of her friends has survived the destruction of her world. It'll eat at her, that after all her efforts to save everyone, after being willing to die to make sure they all could live, that it was all for nothing.

But in spite of all that, she's still the optimistic, never-give-up protagonist. Even if she's tormented by her own inner demons, she'll do her best to push that aside to make sure that no one else ever has to go through what she went through again, and if helping the Bureau can make sure of that, she'll put forth whatever effort she can to succeed. After all, never giving up is her strong point, right?

Link to Samples: TDM toplevel with multiple threads; TDM thread with qrow

Chosen path: Bard
3 Abilities: Performance (SHSL Pianist talent), Minor Illusion, Sleep
Why this path?: In canon, Kaede loves music; the whole reason she plays piano is to try to make people smile, and she's obsessed with playing piano to the point where sometimes she forgets to eat or sleep. She wants to inspire everyone to work together and get along, and even if she can be considered a protagonist (however briefly), she's definitely a support-type character instead of a mainliner. She can manage to be inspirational without really trying, and is fairly charismatic as well.