Chihiro Fujisaki

Chihiro Fujisaki (不二咲 千尋 Fujisaki Chihiro) is a character featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and a participant in the Killing School Life.

Chihiro enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th with the title Ultimate Programmer (超高校級の「プログラマー」chō kōkō kyū no “puroguramā.”)

Chihiro was killed by Mondo Owada in Chapter 2 after he divulged his secret to him.

He is the creator of many beings of Artificial Intelligence, who consider him to be their father. These include Alter Ego, Chiaki Nanami and Usami. He is also one of the creators of the Neo World Program, alongside Miaya Gekkogahara and Yasuke Matsuda.

Chihiro was mentioned in Danganronpa/Zero, implied to be one of Yuto Kamishiro's agents.

Chihiro played a minor role in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy.

Appearance
Chihiro has a small, lithe stature and doll-like appearance with short, light brown, layered hair and greenish-brown eyes. He donned a school uniform set consisting of a dark green jacket with a white dress shirt underneath, a brown skirt, matching suspenders, black socks and white mary janes.

Personality
Chihiro is very intelligent, but he also has a very meek and timid personality. He is very shy and apologizes a lot - it's easy to intimidate him to the point of tears. However, he also loves to talk about anything related to his work as a programmer and he becomes more lively whenever the topic is brought up.

Chihiro is one of the kindest characters in the series, as he literally wouldn't hurt a mosquito, because it's "hungry and might have a family". After Leon Kuwata's execution, he felt guilt-ridden, even though it wasn't his fault. When he was attempting to reason with Byakuya Togami in Chapter 2, he revealed a deep disdain for disputes occurring between friends.

Unfortunately, Chihiro also had a deep-rooted complex over being looked down on by others as being "weak". This happened as a result of memories and experiences from his childhood where he was frequently bullied and told to act tougher due to him being rather frail for a boy. To make the bullying stop, he started disguising himself as a girl to avoid the pressure of having to become stronger. However, this only made his insecurities even worse. Though he tried to hide it, he gets uncomfortable when others treated him as a girl, and he would rather spend time with other boys instead of girls. He greatly admired men who are physically strong and he wished he could be like them.

When Monokuma threatened to reveal everyone's secrets, including Chihiro's real gender, Kiyotaka Ishimaru came up with the idea that everyone should share the secret right away. Naturally, most of them declined the request. However, Chihiro was one of the very few who planned to reveal his secret out of his own will. Instead of falling into despair, he became very determined to overcome his weakness and planned to become stronger so he could be his true self. Sadly, he didn't realize that he was already showing a significant amount of strength, due to his determination and will to confront his own core insecurities.

In the official artbook, it's mentioned that he wants to be strong so he can protect others.

Ultimate Programmer
When Chihiro was a child, he was too weak to play outside with his friends, causing him to begin playing on the computer to make the time pass. His father, Taichi Fujisaki, was a system engineer that developed many major computer programs, and one day, Chihiro found an incomplete information retrieval system that utilized voice input. This led to him creating his own modifications for it, and he soon realized that he could write programs by himself.

Chihiro's father praised him for his work and, as he finally found something he could take pride in, he became absorbed in programming. He really wants to help and be useful, but he thinks he's useless without a computer. Chihiro's outstanding programming skills would later serve him in contributing to the creation of the Neo World Program.

Prior to the Tragedy
When Chihiro was a child, he was too weak to play outside with his friends, causing him to begin playing on the computer to make the time pass. His father, Taichi Fujisaki, was a system engineer that developed many major computer programs, and one day, Chihiro found an incomplete information retrieval system that utilized voice input. This led to him creating his own modifications for it, and he soon realized that he could write programs by himself.

Chihiro's father praised him for his work and, as he finally found something he could take pride in, he became absorbed in programming.

When he was just a child, Chihiro became the subject of harassment and bullying. He was always told to "be a man" and that he was "so weak despite being a boy", and because of that, Chihiro slowly but surely began to develop a "weakness complex". In order to escape the bullying, Chihiro began to dress as a girl so that people wouldn't bully him as a weak boy. This only served to worsen his complex, as it wasn't addressing the root of his problems, and he would get bullied even more if the truth was found out.

As a teen genius, Chihiro became famous for creating cutting-edge programs, to the point that he started developing top-secret AI programs for an unnamed company. Due to him resembling a "timid little bunny" (and because he was believed to be a female), he gained several fans. He used to attend St. Elbandia Academy.

He later attended Hope's Peak Academy and gained the title of Ultimate Programmer. He seemed to have made many friends there, and it's implied that he was especially close with Mondo and Taka.

Danganronpa/Zero
Chihiro would sometimes spy on the Academy's servers for Yuto Kamishiro, his upperclassman and the Ultimate Secret Agent. He found an email that was sent to the Reserve Course students, saying that 15 students had went missing and 13 of them were dead, with the sender of the email being unknown. Yuto deduced that the sender was Junko Enoshima, but didn't divulge the information to Chihiro out of concern for his safety.

Episode 11 - Goodbye, Hope's Peak Academy
Chihiro and his classmates were seen sheltering the old school building after they agreed with Jin Kirigiri's proposal to stay locked inside the school during the Tragedy. Chihiro was seen carrying a pile of metal until Mondo came to help him.

During The Tragedy
When The Tragedy occurred, Jin, the Headmaster of the Academy, planned to seal the school building and let the students live forever inside the Academy in order to protect them from the destruction. His plan was agreed by the class, and they sealed the building together and lived peacefully inside it for a year without knowing that Ultimate Despair members were already in their midst.

The True Ultimate Despair, Junko, took away the 78th Class' school memories so they could participate in the Killing School Life.

Prologue - Welcome to Despair
Chihiro and the others found themselves trapped in the Hope's Peak Academy, with no memory of what happened.

He was first seen alongside the other students when Makoto Naegi arrives in the main hall. When Makoto attempts to ask if they're all new students like he is, Chihiro confirms this and states that this is their first day of class. When Aoi Asahina suggests that they all introduce themselves, Chihiro and some of the other students agree with her. When introducing himself to Makoto, he tells him that he gets embarrassed when introducing himself. He recognizes Makoto for a brief moment, and asks him if they had met before. Makoto, however, does not recognize Chihiro and denies having met before. Chihiro apologizes and then apologizes again because he assumed that Makoto was upset at him. Makoto reassures Chihiro that he is not upset, which relives Chihiro.

After the introductions have ended, the students begin to discuss things that seem suspicious. Chihiro states that his PDA is missing. When Yasuhiro Hagakure attempts to dismiss it all as joke, Chihiro is relived. Once everyone starts calming down, a suspicious person makes an announcement on the school's broadcast system; telling the students to head to the gymnasium. Leon is annoyed by this announcement, but decides to go on ahead to the gym anyway. Chihiro goes with him. When Chihiro and everyone else all gather in the gym, the suspicious person introduces himself as Monokuma and states that he is the headmaster of the school. Chihiro and Hifumi Yamada mistake him for a teddy bear, but Monokuma denies being one. Monokuma then proceeds to tell Chihiro and the other students that they will have to live within the school for the rest of their lives. The students are unhappy about this, and Monokuma then tells them that if they want leave, they must kill each other. The students all react negatively to this, but Yasuhiro still believes that it is all a joke. Mondo attempts to force Monokuma to let him out, but this ends in failure after Monokuma opts to blow himself up instead. Fortunately, Kyoko Kirigiri warns him to throw Monokuma before he could be caught in the blast.

Chihiro mistakenly states that Monokuma must have been destroyed in the blast, but Monokuma appears again. Mondo is upset by the fact that he was almost killed, but Monokuma tells him that violence against the headmaster is against the rules, and any other students who violate his rules will be punished in a manner that could potentially be worse. He then proceeds to give the students their student handbooks, telling them that they are important. After explaining some facts about the handbook and once again stating that violations of rules won't be tolerated, Monokuma takes his leave. Chihiro is dismayed by all this, but Kyoko tells everyone to calm down and summarize what just happened. When Byakuya asks if anyone is seriously considering to commit murder, Chihiro and all of the other students have no response. The students then stand there silently, staring at each and trying to guess what each person is thinking while becoming distrustful of one another all the while.

Chapter 1 - To Survive
After Sayaka Maizono was murdered, he appeared in the Gym with the others and learned about the Class Trial, there he witnesses Junko Enoshima's death at the hands of Monokuma, he chooses to stay at the Gym during the investigation so she isn't alone, Makoto asks him about the numbers 11037, but he states it isn't a programming term. As a result, he was not aware of the state of the crime scene. Chihiro was visibly shocked after witnessing Leon's execution after he was voted guilty as Sayaka's murderer. He thought that he and the other students were no better than Leon, since they indirectly murdered him by voting him as the culprit.

Chapter 2 - Boy's Life of Despair
When Byakuya was found in the library after his sudden disappearance, he began to antagonize Chihiro, causing Mondo to interject between the two by saying that it was not right to do that to the weak. Although well-intentioned, Mondo's statement greatly demoralized Chihiro.

The next morning, the students gathered in the Cafeteria. Chihiro, still feeling down due to the events that transpired the day before, began crying after Mondo's argument with Taka. Taken aback by Chihiro's reaction, Mondo immediately regretted his action and gave him a man's promise to protect him from any danger. This touched Chihiro's heart so much that it inspired him to take action and become stronger, in order not to become a burden on the others.

In order to achieve this Chihiro said he would start working out, much to Hifumi's dismay. After this, Sakura Ogami and Hina asked him to go to the gym room to work out together. However, Chihiro declined their invitation in fear of having his secret revealed. He also brought the broken laptop that the group found in the library with him.

After Monokuma gave the students envelopes containing their most embarrassing secret as a motive for murder, Chihiro was shocked to see his secret: "Even though he is a boy, Chihiro Fujisaki dresses as a girl". However, instead of feeling scared, he became even more determined to change and become stronger so that he could tell his secret. He concluded that he should share his secret with Mondo, whom Chihiro admired, by inviting him to go work out together at the gym.

That night, Chihiro went to the storage room, attempting to search for a jersey that he needed to wear for his first workout session. He was intercepted by Celestia Ludenberg, who happened to pass near the storage room. Startled by the gambler’s sudden appearance, Chihiro quickly took off without mentioning where he intended to go off to.

When he arrived at the men's changing room, Chihiro met up with Mondo and revealed his secret to him. As Mondo was still feeling pressured by Monokuma's threat, the sudden revelation caused Mondo to be overcome by jealousy toward Chihiro; Mondo felt that by choosing not to run away from his problem and to actively trying to make his life better, Chihiro was stronger in character than himself, whereas he felt hopelessly overwhelmed by survivor's guilt and intense, irrational feelings of weakness primarily because of Monokuma's earlier threats of revelation.

Ultimately, that intense jealousy turned into murderous anger, leading to Chihiro's untimely death.

Chapter 3 - A Next Generation Legend! Stand Stall, Galactic Hero!
Later, it was discovered that Chihiro had developed an artificial intelligence program in an attempt to decrypt files about Hope's Peak Academy. He hid it in the locker room inside the large bathroom, away from the cameras, in the form of the laptop that he had taken from the library. That AI was the reason that Makoto survived his execution in Chapter 5 and the remaining students were able to escape the academy.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
Chihiro is mentioned to be one of the creators of the Neo World Program, along with Yasuke Matsuda and Miaya Gekkogahara. He is also the creator of Alter Ego, Chiaki Nanami and Usami, who exist inside the Neo World Program and work for the Future Foundation.

Episode 11 - All Good Things
Chihiro is seen alongside his deceased classmates in Makoto's hallucination. His body is later seen suspended above the ground, with blood dripping down his legs, when all of the deceased members of the 78th class morph into how they looked when they died.

Execution
Super Fujisaki Bros. - In his execution, Chihiro is put inside a 8-bit side-scrolling game. A group of huge pixelated Monokumas would appear behind him as he tries to run. Eventually, they would catch up to him, causing Chihiro's sprite to pop out of existence. This execution is only shown in the Official Fanbook.

Taichi Fujisaki
Taichi is Chihiro's father. Taichi was the one who taught Chihiro all he knows about technology and computers, and was very close to him. Taichi approved of Chihiro's cross dressing, although whether he knew of his son's reasons for doing so is unknown. Chihiro loved his father very much, which is confirmed by the fact that Taichi became his Captive in Chapter 1.

Mondo Owada
Chihiro admired Mondo, thinking that he had a lot of strength, although he hadn't realized the emotional strain Mondo was under because of Monokuma's intention of revealing everyone's secret. Before then, Chihiro and Mondo had a good relationship with each other. Mondo defended Chihiro from Byakuya Togami, showing his dislike for bullying weak people. Soon after, Mondo showed another side of himself when he accidentally yelled at Chihiro, causing him to cry. Mondo immediately apologized and promised to never yell again, and swore by his honor as a man. Thanks to this, he was able to cheer Chihiro up.

Once Chihiro revealed his secret to Mondo, and that he wanted to change, Mondo flew into a jealous rage, and killed him with a dumbbell in the boy's changing room. After realizing what he had done, Mondo attempted to keep Chihiro's secret for as long as possible by switching the crime scene, and destroying his e-Handbook in the sauna. Mondo had immense guilt for killing Chihiro, and felt that he had to atone for what he had done.

Shortly after Chihiro and Mondo's deaths, the remaining survivors found a picture of the two smiling and hugging each other along with Leon. This could mean that Chihiro and Mondo were friends in high school before the killing game. This is further reinforced in Danganronpa 3 when Chihiro is shown working with Mondo to help seal up the school.

Leon Kuwata
Even though Chihiro is almost never shown interacting with Leon in the Killing Game, it was revealed that he may have been friends with Leon, as a high school picture of him, Leon, and Mondo was found shortly after their deaths.

Makoto Naegi
Chihiro was good friends with Makoto and stated that talking to him made him feel better. Makoto, in turn, told Chihiro to become stronger and to feel better about himself. A reason why Chihiro chose Mondo as his "trainer" is because in one of his Free Time Events, Makoto is the one who recommended that Chihiro train with Mondo to become stronger. Despite their closeness, Chihiro never told Makoto that he was a boy in the actual story. However, he does so in School Mode.

Yuto Kamishiro
While the two are never seen interacting with each other, Yuto put a great deal of trust in Chihiro, enough to make him one of his agents.

Alter Ego
Chihiro created Alter Ego from the old laptop found in the library. Alter Ego holds the highest respect for Chihiro, referring to him as “Master”. Chihiro hid Alter Ego in the changing room in hopes that it would help the other students escape from the school, a role that Alter Ego indirectly accomplished at the end of Kyoko's shame trial.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine, Chihiro's favorite presents are:
 * Blueberry Perfume (#21)
 * Kirlian Camera (#42)
 * Endless Dandelion (#45)
 * Super Strategy Encyclopedia (#70)

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occasionally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Voice Recognition
 * Artificial Intelligence
 * Mondo

Skills
These will aid you during Class Trials.
 * Algorithm - Increases the speed of memorizing a statement. Effective during the Nonstop Debate. Costs 2 SP.
 * Cheat Code - The time limit doesn't decrease, even if you shoot a statement with the silence. Effective during the Nonstop Debate. Costs 2 SP.

Quotes

 * “I'm probably just imagining things, but did we ever meet somewhere before?”
 * “You look a little… displeased. You're not angry with me, are you?”
 * “Oh, thank God! I thought you didn't like me.”
 * “Anyway, I've been addicted to programming ever since... I can't tell you how happy it made me to be able to make others happy...!”
 * “Mosquitoes are living things too, It might have its own mosquito family...”
 * “I'm completely useless without a computer in front of me...”
 * “If I get a chance, I'm gonna work super hard to chip in! When it comes to computers, you can count on me!”
 * “I've made lots of progress on the programming side, and the intelligence development... but when it comes to actual awareness, it's still along way off. It might even be impossible... I'm not sure how to put it, but... No matter how well designed or complex a program is... No matter how closely the software can simulate the workings of the human brain... I don't think that's enough. If the program is only *simulating* thought, it will always be lacking something. Well... I guess you could say... a soul.”
 * “If you could somehow pour your own soul into the software, maybe then a strong AI could be created. Yeah, I know. It's not a programming term. I'm not even sure how that would work on a technical level.”
 * “I want to... start training. I'm so weak... I thought if I could talk to someone strong about it, it might help to motivate me.”
 * “You know, some part of you that you can't stand. Something you absolutely hate...” (Describing about Inferiority Complex)
 * “A kind of database software... A user could communicate with it, and it would take that information and find what they were looking for. It was a way of interacting with the computer without having to physically type things out.” (describing about Voice Recognize)
 * “The software was able to take natural speech and pull out key search terms to retrieve information. My dad said it worked so well, it was gonna change the face of software interaction all over the world!” (describing about his success)
 * “It's not that I don't trust you or anything! I just... made a promise, you know? S-sorry...” (to Makoto Naegi)
 * “You see, in the field of artificial intelligence, there's strong AI and weak AI. Weak AI isn't meant to match human intelligence. It's simply a type of problem-solving software. A weak AI isn't actually thinking, it's just executing actions programmed into it.” (describing Weak AI)
 * “Strong AI, on other hand, is a program that can achieve true self-consciousness full ego awareness. In other words, a strong AI is a complete entity, a computer program capable of becoming aware. But it's always just been a hypothesis. Plenty of experts don't think it's even possible.” (describing Strong AI)

Trivia

 * The kanji for "Fujisaki" (不二咲) can altogether mean “Two Unblooming (Flowers)”, while "Chihiro" (千尋) translates to “One Thousand Questions”.
 * Chihiro's last name could be inspired by Nagihiko/Nadeshiko Fujisaki from the Shugo Chara! series who, very much like Chihiro, is also biologically male yet chooses to present her as female (albeit for a different reason).
 * Befitting his talent's relation to numbers, Chihiro's birthday (March 14th), when written in digits as 3.14, matches the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi (π).
 * He shares his birthday with Chiaki. The two also have similar names in regards to meaning (both of them have numerals in both their first and last names, with the numerals in their first names both being 千 chi - meaning "thousand").
 * Chihiro's introduction to Makoto at the beginning of Danganronpa has him ask if he and Makoto had met before. This is the first subtle hint of the students' memory loss at the hands of Ultimate Despair.
 * Chihiro's chest size is 28 in.
 * In Danganronpa IF, it was revealed that Chihiro created the program and software that was used to make Monokuma, though since IF takes place in an alternate timeline it is unknown if this is canon.
 * In Danganronpa/Zero, Yuto Kamishiro intercepted an email with help from a programming-savvy underclassman, implied to be Chihiro.
 * Since Alter Ego is programmed to assume by default Chihiro's appearance, voice and, to some extent, personality, they are both voiced by the same voice actors in both the Japanese (Kōki Miyata) and English (Dorothy Elias-Fahn) versions of the game.
 * His English voice actress also voices Sayaka Maizono.
 * His Japanese voice actor also voices Taichi Fujisaki, Chihiro's father.
 * Chihiro is the only character whose "memorial" portrait was changed for the animated adaptation of Danganronpa; instead of his default sprite, it shows an image of him facing the "camera" and smiling.
 * In the original game, Sayaka is the one who discovers that the kitchen is restocked everyday by Monokuma, however, in the anime, it was changed to Chihiro.
 * Chihiro's former high school, St. Elbandia Academy, is a reference to another Spike Chunsoft game, Elvandia Story.
 * In School Mode, Chihiro states that:
 * He enjoys reading.
 * He likes to bake once in a while.
 * He is afraid of earthquakes, big crowds and singing in front of other people.
 * He really likes rabbits and hamsters and would like to have a one as a pet. He wonders if there are any in the school, making a reference to Usami and Four Dark Devas of Destruction.