Tsumugi Shirogane

Tsumugi Shirogane (白銀 つむぎ Shirogane Tsumugi) is a character featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and a participant of the Killing School Semester.

Tsumugi's title is Ultimate Cosplayer (超高校級の「コスプレイヤー」chō kōkō kyū no “kosupureiyā” lit. Super High School Level Cosplayer). However, she claims she doesn't like to wear her cosplays, and would instead prefer someone as passionate as she is to wear them.

Early Life

 * Participation in Danganronpa

Tsumugi was a normal, talentless high school student and an avid fan of a reality show series involving the infamous Killing Game known as Danganronpa, created by Team Danganronpa. She was obsessed with the series so much so that she shows no sympathy towards people who participated in the Killing Game, seeing them as a mere part of the series' enjoyment that she loves to such a great degree.

According to herself, Tsumugi eventually became a member of Team Danganronpa. It is unknown when Tsumugi started to participate in what season of Danganronpa, as in the final trial of the Killing School Semester it is implied that she participated in more than two Killing Games, perhaps even in the 52nd Killing Game.

If she did actually participate in Danganronpa 52, then she made it to the finale and was executed along with one other participant, Rantaro Amami, leaving two remaining survivors to escape from the Killing Game. It is not clear if Tsumugi masterminded this Killing Game due to the fact that she must have chosen "hope" to be sacrificed, but either way the form of Execution was to participate in the next season of the Killing Game, where Tsumugi eventually either took on or reprised her role as the Mastermind while Rantaro became the Ultimate Survivor, and K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot and a fellow member of Team Danganronpa, was created to serve as the connector and camera of the audience in the outside world.

Due to her being the Mastermind of the Killing School Semester, she may very well be the least "altered" out of any of the other participants. However, her talent and title of Ultimate Cosplayer is very likely to still be a fabrication, though her memories seemed to be retained unlike the others.

However, it should be noted that much of what she said about herself, the other participants, and Team Danganronpa in the final trial may or may not be accurate. This is mainly due to her highly deceptive nature, and the overall theme of truth versus lies central to the plot of the game.

During her high school days, Tsumugi attended Lily Rose Girl's Academy (百合薔薇女子学園). However, it is unclear if this memory of her is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa or if it was genuine.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories Tsumugi had written for herself and the other fifteen participants of the Killing School Semester was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the Killing Game started. It was initiated by heads of nations from all over the world after countless meteorites crashed into Earth, spreading a deadly virus all throughout the atmosphere. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth’s destruction, the government decided to select sixteen talented students chosen by the Ultimate Initiative that also somehow happened to be immune to the virus, put them in a spaceship colony, and have them escape before the Earth's destruction. Tsumugi was among these sixteen individuals.

Despite being chosen to participant however, Tsumugi and the other fifteen participants had no intentions of going along with the plan, not wanting to abandon their loved ones. As a result, Tsumugi chose to forget about her Ultimate talent and decided to live as a normal high school student.

Around that time an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteorites were a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, tried to stop it. As a result, the “Ultimate Hunt” started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students selected for the Gofer Project were hunted down.

The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students' deaths, calming down the “Ultimate Hunt” while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed by meteorites. Tsumugi and the others went to space in the massive ark, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles, and were put to a cold sleep for several decades.

Much later on in Chapter 5, after the remaining participants cleared the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi Oma lied about being the mastermind of the Killing Game and that he was the leader of the cult bent on stopping the Gofer Project. He also lied about being the one who let Monokuma enter the spaceship, which effectively forced Tsumugi and the others to participate in the Killing School Semester. All of this was done in order to get everyone to fall into so much despair that they would not continue the Killing Game.

However, Tsumugi, in order to get the remaining survivors at the time to continue the Killing Game, decided to connect everyone's memories of The Gofer Project to the story of Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, Tsumugi prepared a Flashback Light that tricked the remaining participants into thinking that everyone, including those that had died, were actually students of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy. They also remembered that the ones behind The Gofer Project were Makoto Naegi, the headmaster of the rebuilt Hopes Peak Academy, and the Future Foundation. This Flashback light also revealed that the cult bent on stopping The Gofer Project were actually the Remnants of Despair, and that Kokichi was their leader. This lie filled everyone with the determination needed to stop the despair they were faced with.

In Tsumugi's rush however, she accidentally overlooked slight inconsistencies and plot holes when linking both stories together, such as "Ultimate Despair" only referring to Junko Enoshima, and that Class 78 was trapped by the Ultimate Despair when they had actually locked themselves within the school in order to shelter themselves from the tragedy outside.

Due to herself knowing that the story of The Gofer Project was nothing more than a lie created by the Flashback lights, it is highly unlikely that she ever took these memories seriously and only pretended to in order to stay in-character during the Killing School Semester.

Introduction
Despite being the Mastermind of Killing School Semester, Tsumugi included herself as a participant among the fourteen students who were gathered in the gymnasium before Shuichi Saihara and Kaede Akamatsu arrived, bringing the number up to sixteen. She pretended to be just as confused as everyone else was about their current situation before the Monokuma Kubs arrived in their Exisals and gave the sixteen participants their Ultimate wardrobe, and their first memory via the Flashback Light. While it is unclear if Tsumugi was affected by the Flashback Lights, the other fifteen talentless students underwent the fabrication process, where all of their past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. Tsumugi herself took up or reprised her role as the Ultimate Cosplayer. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, Tsumugi entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles with the others as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

When the now-altered Kaede and Shuichi leave the second floor classroom for the second time to investigate the Academy, Tsumugi would be the first student that they both run into. When Kaede tried talking to Tsumugi, she was unresponsive even when she tried poking her cheek. She jokingly theorized that perhaps Tsumugi was just an extremely life-like mannequin before getting Shuichi to poke her cheek as well. Tsumugi finally responded at this, finding it unexpected to be poked from both sides. She said that she was ignoring them on purpose, hoping that they'd go away if she simply didn't respond. Kaede thought that this was pretty rude, but Tsumugi replied by asking her if it wasn't rude to try and get someone to talk when they clearly don't want to. Regardless, Tsumugi felt like talking at that point and introduced herself as the Ultimate Cosplayer, that she has a corporate sponsorship that let her use even the most expensive materials without restraint, and that people crowd around her like she's a panda at the zoo. She passionately told the duo that that she preferred to make her outfits rather than wear them, but told them that she would wear her own outfits if it meant wearing them with love. Kaede remarked that she was pretty intense before both her and Shuichi asked Tsumugi what she was in such deep thought about. Tsumugi replied by saying she was curious about the conspicuous dragon statue and how out-of-place it felt. While Kaede and Shuichi both thought it was strange, they weren't able to deduce anything else about it and eventually left Tsumugi to go explore the rest of the school.

Tsumugi would later gather with everyone else in the gymnasium after the Monokubs made their announcement. Afterwards, the Monokubs and Monokuma, the Monokubs' father and the self-appointed headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, arrived and announced that they would be participating in a Killing Game, much to almost everyone else's shock and horror. Tsumugi would continue to completely fool everyone with her act as a plain otaku, and as a friend that they could trust while secretly monitoring and orchestrating the Killing Game from behind the scenes.

Attempting the Death Road of Despair
After Monokuma officially started the Killing Game, Tsumugi read the rules on her Monopad. A majority of the group wasn't sure what to do after reading these rules and began to panic and argue. Thanks to Kaede's motivational speech however, the panic died down and everyone seemed to become united. Afterwards, Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, then remembered that he found a manhole inside the boiler room behind the school building. Tsumugi, with everyone else, immediately followed Gonta's lead with hope of finding a way out. Though in Tsumugi's case, "hope".

Descending the manhole, Tsumugi and the others found a tunnel leading outside of the academy. Though everyone thought that the tunnel probably ended up being a trap, they still had to test every single possibility in order to escape. However, Tsumugi and the others exhausted themselves both physically and mentally as they found that escaping through Death Road of Despair is next to impossible. Due to this, Kokichi revolted, saying that Kaede's repeated motivational speech is the source of the group's agony, added by some of her friends giving up on escaping the tunnel, Tsumugi included, the group's harmony came to a swift end. The tunnel ended up being a trap set by Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs, much to everyone's dismay. Tsumugi headed to her assigned dorm room to get some rest, pretending to feel dejected about the tunnel being a trap.

The First and Additional Motive
The next day, Tsumugi and everyone gathered in the dining hall. Once Kaede showed up, the whole group began to think back to yesterday's events, but seemed to have consolidated slightly. Afterwards, Monokuma came to the dining hall and announced the first motive, anyone who committed the first killing will graduate without holding a trial, effectively calling it a "First Blood Perk". Everyone was worried about what this would mean, aside from Kaito, who became increasingly outraged with Monokuma for doing whatever he wanted and lunged at him. This caused the Monokubs to show up, showing no hesitation to punish Kaito with the Exisals for attempting violence against their father, effectively breaking the rules. The red Exisal charged at him, but accidentally ended up crushing Monokuma instead, supposedly destroying him. The Monokubs were incredibly saddened at the sudden demise of their father, stating that he had no spare and that he was one of a kind. Upon learning this, Tsumugi and everyone else's mood improved greatly, thinking the killing game to be over.

Really however, this forced Tsumugi to head to the hidden room in the library in order to create a spare later that same night. She was unaware that Shuichi and Kaede had set a trap on the card reader in the library, placing dust in the slow of the card reader in order to see if anyone was going through that door. Tsumugi still used that same card reader, unaware of this trap, and commanded Motherkuma to create a spare Monokuma to replace the one that was destroyed by the Monokubs. It is likely that Motherkuma informed Tsumugi about the dust in the card reader slot at this point. As a result, she decided to make use of the hidden passageway in the girl's bathroom instead to get to and out of the hidden room from now on.

The next morning, Tsumugi was with everyone else in the dining hall once again, pretending to be happy that the Killing Game had supposedly ended. However, it didn't take long for Monokuma to show up once again, much to the dismay of the rest of the students, but to the joy of the Monokubs. Monokuma goes on to reveal the additional motive, that if a murder did not occur within two days by noon, everyone who was forced to participate would be killed. This motive caused a majority of the group to become too depressed to stay united and leave the dining hall, Tsumugi included. In reality however, this motive put pressure on Tsumugi and Monokuma as well. They didn't actually wish to create total chaos, but seeing that everyone refused to kill each other, they had no choice but to resort to desperate measures.

In a bonus scene during Chapter 1, Kaede would meet up with Tsumugi in the game room and asked her to paint her nails in return for giving Tsumugi a nail brush earlier. Kaede was happy with Tsumugi's work, but then Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate ???, walked in and claimed that he could do nail art as well, which he proved by then painting Kaede's nails, much to her embarrassment and Tsumugi's jealousy.

The Truth Painted Over With Lies
On the final day of the time limit, during Rantaro and Kaede's separate plans to reveal the Mastermind, Tsumugi was in the dining hall with Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Inventor, Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid, and Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist. Once the monitors began to inform the participants that time was almost up, Tsumugi left the dining hall with the excuse of using the girls bathroom on the first floor. In reality however, she was going to the hidden room in the library by making us of the hidden passageway in that bathroom. In the back of the cleaning supplies closet in the girls bathroom was the hidden passage-way that connected to the secret room in the library, the same secret room that Rantaro was attempting to gain access to, believing the mastermind to be in there due to his survival perk mono-pad.

Thanks to the Nanokumas swarming all over the campus and sending the footage they record to Motherkuma, Tsumugi already knew of Kaede's and Rantaro's separate plans to end the Killing Game and watched from the hidden room to ensure everything went as planned, preparing her own shut put ball just in case. She hoped that Kaede's plan to kill her would result in Rantaro's death instead, killing two birds with one stone. After witnessing Kaede's plan fail however, Tsumugi immediately left the hidden room and bashed Rantaro in the back of the head with her shot put while he was distracted by Kaede's shot put that just barely missed him, killing him instantly. She then proceeded to forge and alter the evidence to make it look like the crime was caused by the shot put dropped by Kaede.

Tsumugi retrieved Rantaro's survival perk mono-pad as well as Kaede's shot put ball, then replaced it with her own. She immediately retreated back into the hidden room and left the bloodstained mono-pad on the table and threw Kaede's shot put into the garbage pin believing no one would ever find them. After carrying out her plan, she proceeded to rejoin Korekiyo, Kirumi, and Miu in the cafeteria as if nothing had happened. As a result, Kaede was fully manipulated into thinking that she accidentally killed Rantaro all the way up until the trial. As a result, the true events leading up to Rantaro's murder, as well as Kaede's innocence, would not be fully cleared up until the final trial.

The First Investigation and Trial
During the first trial, while everyone is searching for a culprit, Korekiyo pointed out that Tsumugi did leave the cafeteria at one point to go to the bathroom, a claim that she promptly acknowledged. Ryoma Hoshi was quick to be suspicious and wondered if she could have disguised herself and committed the crime, but she quickly denied it. Kaede was quick to defend her as well and stated that dressing up as real people causes her to break out in disgusting hives, essentially solidifying her supposed alibi due to no one else having any knowledge of the hidden passageway in the girls bathroom. Later, when everyone was quick to pin the blame of Rantaro's murder on Shuichi, Tsumugi was one of the few who defended him. In the end, Kaede was wrongfully executed by Monokuma after being found out as the supposed "blackened".

The Student Council
Tsumugi was one of the students who Angie "brainwashes" into joining her student council along with Himiko, K1-B0, Tenko supposedly, and later on, Gonta. Given Tsumugi's role as the mastermind of the killing game however, it is more than likely that she joined it willingly as a part of the story and was not affected by Angie's words.

As a part of the student council, Tsumugi and the others imposed strict new guidelines on the rest of the participants, such as not being allowed out at nighttime, which would interfere with Shuichi's and Kaito's training time, and blocking the manhole cover in the boiler room to quell any desire to leave the academy by using the Death Road of Despair, much to Kaito's annoyance. These extreme actions effectively split the group in half, with Shuichi, Maki, Kokichi, Kaito, Miu and Korekiyo opposing the student council,

Study Center
Tsumugi discovered the Ultimate Cosplayer Research Lab in this Chapter on the fifth floor. Instead of showing her interest or joy, she feels quite disappointed because the huge study center feels empty and it's all for her. It's also revealed that before becoming a skilled cosplayer, Tsumugi worked part-time at several jobs, such as becoming a bartender.

Clearing the Death Road of Despair
Tsumugi, along with the remaining survivors, used Miu Iruma's inventions to cross the Death Road of Despair. They came across a large metal hatch which they open up and discover the ruined state of the outside world. Shortly after, Kokichi Oma appears and proclaims himself to be the mastermind behind the game and controls the Exisal's to take Kaito Momota hostage in the Exisal hanger.

Confusion and Conclusion
Tsumugi would later join her fellow classmates in storming the Exisal hanger, only to find a body crushed beyond recognition underneath the press machine, the only clue as to who the victim could be being Kaito's sleeve where-as Kokichi is still missing. Everyone is horrified at the thought of having lost Kaito as the investigation begins.

During the class trial, Tsumugi along with everyone else is still confused about their current state of beginning a class trial with two missing people, but Monokuma reassures them that it's fine and that the one missing person is "on standby in the back". When that supposed missing person arrives riding an Exisal, and supposedly pretends to be Kaito before revealing themselves as Kokichi, Tsumugi, along with everyone else, believes that Kaito must have been the victim until later on in the trial, where the voice coming out of the Exisal changed to match Kaito's again. Tsumugi along with Himiko Yumeno and K1-B0 believed that the victim could have been Kokichi and that the one riding the Exisal is Kaito. Although Shuichi Saihara and Maki Harukawa thought that they disproved this claim, it is later revealed that Tsumugi was originally right near the end of the trial and that the one inside the Exisal was in fact Kaito.

Tsumugi, along with everyone else, is rendered depressed, stunned and silenced at the fact that Kaito ended up being the culprit of Kokichi's murder. However, he reassures everyone to smile, send him off in style, and that he won't accept their tears before proudly accepting his execution, but choosing to die on his own terms and not Monokuma's.

After the class trial ended, an ominous cut-scene plays showing what appears to be Junko Enoshima interacting with what would later be revealed to be Motherkuma. She declares that the killing game is invincible and that as long as she exists, the killing game will keep going forever as many times as it takes. As it turns out, this was nothing more than Tsumugi herself cosplaying as Junko.

She would later reunite with Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko in the courtyard, intent on ending the killing game for Kaito's sake. They all begin training, but it is cut short by K1-B0, who had lost his "connector" to the outside world and thus; was determined to destroy Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and end the killing game himself.

Uncovering the Truth
Tsumugi, along with fellow survivors Himiko, K1-B0, Maki, and Shuichi, decide to re-open Rantaro's case after discovering new truths related to his murder. Once Shuichi revealed Rantaro's talent as the Ultimate Survivor, and proved that Kaede did in fact not murder him and was executed unjustly, he realized that the mastermind has to be one of them. By double-checking everyone's alibis during Rantaro's murder, Shuichi hones in on Tsumugi as the true culprit and mastermind of the Killing School Semester.

Tsumugi denied the claim vehemently where-as the other survivors are confused and shocked that the Ultimate Cosplayer could have gone through with such a plan and be the mastermind behind their current predicament. Shuichi however, made it very clear that Tsumugi was the only person who could have murdered Rantaro by using the hidden passageway in the girls bathroom, which also led into the hidden room that connected to the library.

She attempted to pin the blame on K1-B0 since he was not present for when they interacted with Motherkuma, but Shuichi is quick to call her out on not giving the command of "birth" which would have triggered Motherkuma's voice recognition software and created another Monokuma, proving that she would be the mastermind. Realizing that she had been cornered, Tsumugi breaks and reveal herself as "Junko Enoshima the 53rd".

Tsumugi, now cosplaying as Junko, went on to reveal that everyone's memories of being students at Hope's Peak Academy, The Gofer Project, and shouldering their friends and families burdens as mankind's last hope, was all a false memory planted into their brains by the Flashback Light. In reality, everything they remember about attending Hope's Peak Academy and the outside world being destroyed was a lie. What they remember about Kokichi Oma being part of the Remnants of Despair was a lie as well, much to everyone's shock.

In reality, the circumstances behind their killing game are far more cruel. After proving her talent fully as the Ultimate Cosplayer by cosplaying as some of the characters from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Tsumugi revealed that everything has been broadcasted to a very peaceful world that have been enjoying watching the students of Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles kill each other, essentially revealing everything that they've been through as a reality-TV show and "Extreme Real Fiction". She also revealed that everything that took place in the Hope's Peak Academy Saga were nothing more than fictional events from a very popular anime and game franchise known as Danganronpa.

While the other survivors were quick to oppose Tsumugi and Monokuma, they both reveal that the participants of the Killing School Semester are also "fictional characters", whose memory, personality, feelings, and talent were all fabricated in order to provide an exciting setting for the killing game. Tsumugi reveals herself as working for Team Danganronpa and went a step further and shows Shuichi's, Kaede's, and Kaito's, audition videos for the killing game, showing what sort of people they were prior to participating. Everyone became shocked at this sudden revelation and subsequently fall into despair.

Hope or Despair
K1-B0 however, after hearing what "the voice inside of him" has to say, reassured everyone to not lose hope. Tsumugi corrected him and says that the voice K1-B0 hears is the voice of the people watching this killing game and that he is nothing more than an interactive communication device and camera for the viewers to interact and participate in the game themselves. Despite this however, K1-B0 refused to give up on hope and stated that the people in the outside world don't want despair. Tsumugi meanwhile refused to give up on despair and stated that a world that enjoys killings could not possibly desire hope. In true Danganronpa fashion, they decide to settle this with one final, special vote where K1-B0 represents hope and Tsumugi represents despair.

Shuichi however, saw through the charade and cuts in, saying that neither choice is correct and that choosing hope would do nothing but cause the killing game to continue. Because of this, he decided to stop playing along and abandons his vote, hoping to end Danganronpa once and for all by risking his own life, much to Tsumugi's and Monokuma's chagrin. Eventually, Shuichi convinces everyone else to abandon their vote as well but K1-B0, in a last ditch effort to keep Danganronpa going, is hacked by the audience. Tsumugi is proud to show that the audience does not wish for Danganronpa to end and explained that they supposedly deleted K1-B0's personality that kept getting in the way. Despite Tsumugi telling them that what they're doing is pointless, Shuichi refused to give up, still exclaiming that he will end Danganronpa and that their lives are not just show-things for people's amusement.

Confident that his voice reached the outside world through K1-B0, Shuichi and everyone else abandoned their vote. Tsumugi however, bends the rules one last time and abandons her vote too, which she revealed after everyone else did. Everyone is immediately confused and worried as to why she abandoned her vote as well. Tsumugi stated that if they're going to risk their lives to end Danganronpa, then she will risk her life to make it continue. Tsumugi is confident that Danganronpa will continue after abandoning her vote, meaning only K1-B0's vote will have any power as he is still being hacked.

Tsumugi's Fate
When Monokuma displayed the results of the final voting, Tsumugi was shocked to discover that no one had voted, proving that the audience does not want Danganronpa to continue. Tsumugi panicked and tried to make everyone reconsider, but it is no use as the monitors all turn off, the audience no longer showing any interest. Tsumugi, upon realizing that Danganronpa was indeed over and done with, promptly loses all of her hope in living as she denied a world without Danganronpa, but had not prepared a proper execution before-hand and as such leaves it to K1-B0.

K1-B0 does not hesitate and proceeds to execute everything, sparing everyone but Monokuma and Tsumugi, who waved at the camera with a look of disappointment on her face before being flattened under rubble inadvertently caused by K1-B0 executing everything, ending Danganronpa for good.



Although she did not survive the final execution, her final words of being a mere imitator rang in Shuichi's head. He believed that perhaps Hope's Peak Academy and the Remnants of Despair did in fact exist much to Maki's and Himiko's shock, though this is nothing more than speculation on his part based on Tsumugi's final words.

Name
Her first name is written in hiragana (つむぎ), but can be written in kanji as 紬, which refers to pongee silk. Her last name kanji, 白銀 shirogane, which consists of the kanji for "white" (白) and "silver" (銀), may refer to a few things. Shirogane is a native Japanese word for silver, which is commonly known as 銀 gin. The second definition refers to a metaphorical expression for snow.

Alternate Fates
In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version), Tsumugi was first seen in lodging area along with Kirumi Tojo and Ryoma Hoshi. She introduced herself as the Ultimate Cosplayer despite her normal-looking appearance. She tells Kaede that she only enjoy creating costume and prefer other people wearing her costumes. However, she often wears her own costume due to many cosplayers only wanted to make themselves famous instead of expressing the love of the character that they cosplay.

During the incident of Yasuhiro Hagakure's murder, Tsumugi testified that she sees Kirumi cleaned all of the students dormitories and said that maid work is super cute.

Appearance
Tsumugi is a tall young woman with long, knee length, cerulean hair which starts smooth and becomes wavy the lower it goes. Her eyes are soft teal and round. She wears rimless glasses with white temples.

Her uniform consists of a knee long pleated skirt, adorned with six white buttons on her waist; her skirt seems to be held by suspenders. She wears an orange bow, black socks ending under the knee, and grey shoes. Her blazer has two pockets on both sides and is adorned by the same white buttons as her skirt.

She has been shown without her blazer in her promotional artwork, which shows an insignia of sort on her left breast.

Tsumugi states as a rather normal and plain-looking.

Upon being found out as the Mastermind of the Killing School Semester and revealing her talent fully as the Ultimate Cosplayer, Tsumugi's normal, plain appearance undergoes a couple minor, but still noticeable changes. Her hair becomes a bit more wavy, and her eyes glow an eerie blue, which may be a characteristic sign of her madness, similar to how Nagito Komaeda can get when he speaks of his warped desire for hope.

Another slight difference is that dark, pale-blue bags appear under her eyes. The exact reasoning behind this is uncertain, though the likely explanation is that it is meant to be symbolic with how the Danganronpa franchise has continued for 53 installments and that even she may be getting tired of the absurd repetition.

Personality
Tsumugi is an honors type student who speaks in a docile and gentle way, but she becomes very passionate when she talks about her favorite series or cosplays, having a habit of slipping in famous quotes from various sources into conversation. She also tends to ignore people while she's in her thoughts, no matter how many times they try talking to her. She tends to call herself and everything that she has done "plain," as she believes that among all of the students, she is the one who has the most plain appearance and personality. Tsumugi understands that some people might not recognize her as the Ultimate Cosplayer since her plain appearance conceals her talent.

While Tsumugi is the Ultimate Cosplayer, she only enjoys making costumes, not wearing them. She is not really fond of people looking at her. However, she hates using cosplayers who care more about standing out than love of the series, so she wears her own costumes as well but with love. So in that case, she likes people looking at her when she wears her own costumes with love. She deeply loves cosplaying as she states that cosplaying is an expression of love.

Despite her plain and docile attitude however, certain hints suggest that she may actually be quite perverted. After the time limit motive was made apparent in Chapter 1, she was saddened about not being able to hide her "special art commissions" and "that pillowcase" she bought before she died. She also at one point, in an optional dialogue conversation, wonders if she could wipe her entire hard drive at home from within the Ultimate Academy, worrying about the pictures that were saved on it, perhaps hinting at an interest in pornography, hentai, or something similar to them. It is shown in her love hotel scene that she is also interested in incest, as she imagines her "ideal" as her older step brother, and sex is heavily implied. She seems very intent on keeping this side of her hidden however, as it is very rarely brought up or acknowledged by anyone in the killing game.

Another notable trait of her that she is somehow pessimistic, as shown in Chapter 5 when she refused to fight Monokuma, thinking that it was too reckless and dangerous, but on the other side, she is also fast to change her mind and follow any decisions made by the majority, and eventually followed everyone to beat the Death Road of Despair. In any occasion, she tends to react to even the most minor things said by the others. She is able to follow conversation with Himiko about her "magic", asking Tenko why her technique is far too aggressive for a martial art like Aikido, and most notably she tries to tell Gonta not to be a too honest person.

After being revealed as the mastermind of the Killing School Semester in Chapter 6, she reveals herself to not be that much different from Junko Enoshima herself. She is manipulative and cruel, choosing to murder Rantaro and frame Kaede for his death all so that the killing game would not end due to the motive Monokuma presented at the time. She openly fooled her fellow "classmates" as a friend and comrade all the while secretly orchestrating the killing game and making sure that everything went according to the "setting" provided for them.

She takes great pride in her cosplay, claiming her mimicry of the characters from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair to be "complete reproductions", or exactly like the real thing even down to their personality, behavior, speech patterns, and goals. As a likely benefit of her talent, she is also a master of deception and trickery, able to fake her entire character as the Ultimate Cosplayer and as an Otaku throughout the entire killing game and subsequently fool everyone else around her by constantly saying how plain and simple she was.

She turns noticeably arrogant as the final class trial continues, claiming that everyone else was a fool to think of her as a comrade and friend. She cares nothing for those that participated in the killing game, claiming that they were born for the killing game and cannot live outside the world of Danganronpa anymore.

Once the final vote was cast and it is revealed that no one had voted, she grows considerably bewildered, unable to comprehend as to why the outside world would want a world without Danganronpa. She states that she has no interest in a world without Danganronpa, before getting executed by K1-B0, showing her obsession with fiction and love for the series. She also idolizes Junko to a great degree, almost as much as the Remnants of Despair do, claiming in the end that she could be proud that her plan failed as it made her "imitation" perfect.

This dramatic change in personality from before being found out as the mastermind and after seems to paint her in the light of a crazed, radical Danganronpa fan-girl, completely obsessed with the franchise to the point where she shows no sympathy or remorse for putting real people into an actual Killing Game for mere entertainment purposes.

Ultimate Cosplayer
Tsumugi's talent as the Ultimate Cosplayer is a fabrication made by Team Danganronpa. Due to that fact, it is unclear whether Tsumugi is a sponsored cosplayer in the past. Despite her status as the Ultimate Cosplayer, Tsumugi actually doesn't have interest in cosplaying herself. Rather, she states that she enjoys recreating costumes more. She loves to create costumes, because it is like making a fictional character real, in a way. She also has a sponsorship that makes her can create costume with expensive materials.

She is also a well versed in anime and manga references. In her promotional artwork, Tsumugi is featured with mannequins wearing lingerie and a wig, several paints and cosmetic brushes, as well as red thread and an object which could be interpreted as scissors. This could imply that her talent is multi-faceted.

In Chapter 1, Tsumugi states that she gets "Cospox" an allergic reaction where a bumpy rash spreads across her entire body if she cosplays as anyone that is real. In Chapter 6, she proves her talent fully by accurately cosplaying as multiple characters from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. She is capable of matching their appearances, voices and mannerisms perfectly, making her imitations even more accurate than Ultimate Imposter's, although this could be due to Team Danganronpa sponsoring in her costumes to make it as accurate to the characters as possible. However, by doing this, she also reveals that the Hope's Peak Academy Saga and all involved were nothing, but fiction within the Danganronpa V3 Universe.

Possibly as another reference to her talent, Tsumugi is capable of breaking the fourth wall and has a heightened awareness of fiction and reality.

In other languages
Tsumugi's talent as it appears in official translations of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

Relationships

 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles Students:

Shuichi Saihara
The two were in good terms with each other and actually tried to help with each other with the situation. However, in Chapter 6, Shuichi was upset and disappointed when he figured out that Tsumugi was the mastermind behind the whole killing game. Despite this, he still wanted her to argue and prove his deduction as incorrect showing that he doesn't consider her any less of a fellow friend or comrade, nor does he wish to condemn her either.

When she acknowledges his claims that she was the one who killed Rantaro and framed Kaede for Rantaro's death, Shuichi seemed to have broken all former ties with her and resolved himself to stop her and end the killing game. Shuichi became noticeably depressed when Tsumugi told him that his memories, feelings, talent, and personality were all fabricated for the sake of the killing game, but he is brought back to his sense when K1-B0 motivated Shuichi to not give up and lose hope.

During their Free Time Events, the two got along quite well. Tsumugi would tell Shuichi about what it means to be cosplayer, how much time and work goes into it, and how she became interested in cosplay in the first place. In the end, Tsumugi believes that Shuichi may have developed an interest in cosplay through their interactions and encourages him to try any costume of his choosing, believing he would look good in just about anything. As they listed off ideas, Tsumugi coincidentally listed off White Kanata as a costume he would look good in, which just so happened to be his favorite hero. Tsumugi became ecstatic upon realizing that she and him shared similar interests, as her friend who got her into cosplay in the first place also dressed as White Kanata. She grabbed his hand and flailed it up and down wildly, but became embarrassed when she realized they were holding hands, apologized, and let go, hinting at some sort of mutual attraction. In the end, Shuichi agreed to go to a con with her and try cosplaying out just once, mentally thinking to himself that they had become true friends.

However, given Tsumugi's role as the Mastermind of the Killing School Semester, and her highly deceptive nature, it us unclear just how genuine this friendship is or if it was ever genuine at all.

In the Love Suite scene, Shuichi had a role of being Tsumugi's step brother. Shuichi was surprised when Tsumugi said that she likes him not as a brother. Tsumugi felt uneasy when Shuichi did not called her by her first name. She felt negative and asked Shuichi to encourage her by placing his hand on her cheek and she did to his cheek which he felt embarrassed about. Shuichi realized that they were acting like an actual couple but Tsumugi despite the fact of Shuichi not becoming her lover. In the end, Tsumugi told Shuichi that he loves her and it was implied that they had sex afterwards.

Gonta Gokuhara
Throughout the game, Tsumugi seems to have a soft spot for Gonta, though it's clear that she's only acting to play this specific role assigned for her during the Killing Game. She is quite impressed and concerned about how blunt and honest Gonta is.

She also tirelessly trying to protect Gonta from being accused as Miu Iruma's killer in Chapter 4, to the point where she cries after he was executed by Monokuma.

Rantaro Amami
Tsumugi grows a strong hatred for Rantaro, calling him an edgy normie, and feels disgusted by his actions.

In the nails painting scene, Tsumugi watched the two of her friends, Kaede and Rantaro, having a scene together of Rantaro painting Kaede's nails and Tsumugi watched silently while becoming disgusted and tried to hide her hatred from Rantaro trying to interrupt them by offering to paint Kaede's nails. Tsumugi said that Rantaro should have blown up forever since he was being a total normie.

It was later revealed in Chapter 6 that Tsumugi was the one who killed Rantaro and framed Kaede for the incident. Tsumugi didn't want Rantaro to discover the secret and exposed of her being the Mastermind. She was aware that Rantaro, guided by his talent would be in her way and cause trouble along with Kaede who was able to unify everyone's heart, so she decided to kill both of them in the same case. Tsumugi stopped him by killing him from behind when Rantaro wasn't looking but paid attention to the ball that Kaede use.

Kaede Akamatsu
Initially thought to be a life-sized doll, Kaede didn't expect that Tsumugi has the title of the Ultimate Cosplayer due to her normal-looking appearance. She states that she could felt some sort of "pheromones" that can't stop from falling of Tsumugi because she was out of costume. Tsumugi offered Kaede to paint her nails which resulted in Rantaro interrupting Kaede's appointment with her. It is later revealed that Tsumugi actually holds no friendship towards Kaede. In Chapter 1, Tsumugi had figured out Kaede's plan and when she discovered that Kaede's plan failed, Tsumugi decided to kill Rantaro herself to prevent everyone else from being executed. Because of this, Tsumugi framed Kaede for the action and executed her as well.

K1-B0
In the beginning, these two didn't interact that much and act like they barely knew each other.

In Chapter 6, it was shown that Tsumugi and K1-B0 were in the same affiliation, Team Danganronpa. Tsumugi treated K1-B0 like a toy and even bullies him for his actions in the trial. They officially became enemies when K1-B0 believed in hope and Tsumugi cared about the show. When nobody casts their votes, Tsumugi trusted K1-B0 to execute her along with Monokuma as well. K1-B0 holds no hesitation to do that task since he was mad when she killed their friends and started the killing game with no hope. In the end, he made everything got destroyed and betrayed her by leaving the survivors alive as he sacrificed his own life.

Korekiyo Shinguji
In the first Class Trial, Korekiyo seems to be the only one who gets suspicious of Tsumugi because of her alibi. He stated how she took too long in the restroom which nobody believed him and Tsumugi denied that fact of being suspicious.

After Korekiyo was executed, Tsumugi seemed frightened and devastated about his brutal death. Though it should be noted that this is only one of her act as the mastermind of the Killing Game.

Kirumi Tojo
In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version), Tsumugi thinks that Kirumi's work as a maid is super cute.

Himiko Yumeno
Tsumugi seems to be one of the person among the students that responded to Himiko's saying as a mage. When Himiko states that she ran out of MP during the demo class trial, Tsumugi suggested her to sleep at the inn for one night in order to restore her MP.

Monokuma
Tsumugi and Monokuma are members of Team Danganronpa and both of them worked together in the latest season of the Danganronpa season.

Tsumugi and Monokuma don't interact with each other that much, this could be to hide the fact that they both work for Team Danganronpa and usually act as they know each other.

Monokuma executed Kaede in order to protect her from the students to clear out her suspicions on her as the Mastermind.

In Chapter 6, Monokuma and his children try to refute Shuichi Saihara from discovering the truth behind her as the mastermind of the Killing Game. At the end of the last Trial, both of them are seen waving their hands as both get crushed by a giant boulder and die together.


 * Hope's Peak Academy Students:

Junko Enoshima
Tsumugi idolizes Junko to a great degree. Junko is Tsumugi's favorite character in Danganronpa series that she loves. She felt inspired by Junko as her idea of bringing despair is one of the many reasons why Tsumugi has passion and love for that show. As the Mastermind of Killing Games in Danganronpa, she tried her best to become an imitation of Junko as she stated before she was executed in the final Class Trial.

In the bonus mode, states that Junko is a sparkling character to cosplay as. Junko commends her devotion to dressing as others and wishes her sister had the same devotion.

Free Time

 * Main article, including full dialogue: Free Time Events/Tsumugi Shirogane

Quotes

 * -|DRV3 Demo=

DRV3=

References=

List of Appearances

 * -|Games=
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version)
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 * -|Manga=
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology Volume 2

Trivia

 * In her promotional art, Tsumugi owns a wig that is a reference to Hatsune Miku, a popular singing synthesizer.
 * In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Tsumugi the least popular Danganronpa V3 student.
 * Tsumugi shares her English voice actress, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, with Sayaka Maizono, Chihiro Fujisaki, and Alter Ego in the Danganronpa series.
 * When she framed Kaede for Rantaro's murder, it was similar to when Junko tried to frame Kyoko Kirigiri for Mukuro Ikusaba's death, however unlike Junko, Tsumugi's plot succeeded.
 * Her death is similar to Junko Enoshima's, which includes Junko's signature waving (while cosplaying as Junko) and then she and Monokuma being crushed to death. This was one of her effort to impersonate the fictional Junko perfectly.
 * Including her cosplays, Tsumugi has the most sprites out of any character in any of the games.

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