Maki Harukawa

Maki Harukawa (春川 魔姫 Harukawa Maki) is a character featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and a participant of the Killing School Semester.

Maki has the title Ultimate Child Caregiver (超高校級の「保育士」 chō kōkō-kyū no "hoikushi" lit. Super High School Level Nursery School Teacher). She was raised in an orphanage, where she learned to take care of children.

Early Life

 * Before Joining Danganronpa

Maki Harukawa was a normal talentless high school girl who participated in the 53rd Season of Danganronpa, a famous worldwide reality show made by Team Danganronpa.

During her high school days, Maki attended Brave Heart Hall High School (勇心館高校). However, it is unclear if this memory of her is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa or if it was genuine.


 * Fabricated Past

After she successfully participated in the 53rd Killing Game, Maki's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows:

Maki's parents were gone before she could even remember. As a result, she was raised in an orphanage. She was made to help take care of the younger children at the orphanage because the older kids had to help take care of the younger ones. Even though children like her, she did not like them back nearly as much and wasn't even particularly fond of taking care of them. Nevertheless, the children at the orphanage still adored Maki.

At some unknown point in time while Maki was at the orphanage, a group of men from the Holy Salvation Society began to look around and even watch the children play. In reality, they were scouting for potential candidates to train as assassins. The Holy Salvation Society was actually a cult that trained assassins. They threatened Maki's orphanage that they would lose their funding if they did not do what they said. As a result, Maki agreed to be trained as an assassin which she herself described as "the beginning of hell". The training she described being excruciatingly difficult, vomiting every day, and crying every night. However, after vomiting and crying constantly, her heart gradually became empty, thus she adapted to the lifestyle of killing people. All of this was done for the sake of keeping her orphanage up and running.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories created for Maki and the other fifteen students 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. Maki was among these sixteen individuals.

Despite being chosen to participant however, Maki and the other fifteen participants had no intentions of going along with the plan, not wanting to abandon their loved ones. As a result, Maki 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. Maki 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 Maki 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.

In order to get the remaining survivors at the time to continue the Killing Game, the true Mastermind decided to connect everyone's memories of The Gofer Project to the story of Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, the true Mastermind 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 the Mastermind's rush however, they 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.

Introduction
Maki was among the first fourteen people gathered in the gymnasium before Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara arrived. Just like everyone else, Maki was confused about their current predicament. Once the Monokuma Kubs arrived in their Exisals, they gave the sixteen participants their Ultimate wardrobe, and their first memory via the Flashback Light to make them more suitable for the Killing Game. Maki and the other fifteen talentless students underwent the fabrication process, where all of their past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. She also received the talent and title of Ultimate Assassin. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, Himiko and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

Afterwards, once Kaede and Shuichi began to investigate the academy, the duo would find Maki in the library. In order to divert suspicion away from herself, she introduced herself as the Ultimate Child Caregiver instead of her actual title of Ultimate Assassin. She came off as noticeably cold and cruel towards the duo, criticizing Shuichi for not being able to figure out what was going on due to his status as the Ultimate Detective, and even told Kaede that she was a naive fool for thinking that they could get out of here by simply working together. She left the library afterwards, leaving the duo fairly surprised that the Ultimate Child Caregiver could be so condescending and unpleasant.

Maki would later gather with everyone else in the gymnasium after the Monokuma Kubs made their announcement. As soon as everyone was in the gymnasium, the Monokubs and Monokuma, the Monokuma Kubs' 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's shock and horror. With that, the Killing School Semester had officially begun.

Attempting the Death Road of Despair
After Monokuma officially started the Killing Game, Maki read the rules on her Monopad. She was able to remain calm, but 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 argument 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. Maki went along with everyone else and immediately followed Gonta's lead to investigate.

Descending the manhole, Maki 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, Maki 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. Maki agreed with this statement and criticized Kaede for trying to push them all through a hopeless situation. This, added by some of Kaede's friends giving up on escaping the tunnel, Maki 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. Naki headed back to her assigned dorm room along with the others to get some rest.

The First and Additional Motive
The next day, Maki gathered with everyone in the dining hall. As soon as Kaede arrived Kokichi greeted her, having made the group consolidate once again with his “kind” lie. Kaito however, was still angry with everyone for pushing all the blame onto Kaede without taking any responsibility themselves, but Kaede said it was fine, not wanting the group to fight again. 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 Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, 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, Kaito and everyone else's mood improved greatly, thinking the killing game to be over. Kaede insisted that this might not truly end the Killing Game, but this only drew the ire from the a majority of the group, Maki included. She told Kaede that her repeated motivational speeches wouldn't work on them anymore, discouraging her and causing her to go to her room.

The next morning, Maki was with everyone else in the dining hall once again, relieved 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 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. Maki however, was not surprised, finding it obvious that the game wasn't over.

On The Clock
On the final day as the time limit was drawing closer to its end, Kaito asked Maki to join his strategy meeting, somehow knowing that she probably knew how to fight just by looking at her. While annoyed with him, she till agreed, and so her, Kaito, Gonta, Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Master, Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist, Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Magician, and Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate ???, headed down to the game room in the basement to conduct their strategy meeting. Not long after however, Rantaro excused himself to go to the restroom while actually going to investigate the library, knowing of the secret room thanks to his survival perk mono-pad.

Maki would remain in the game room, Gonta would lock himself in the AV room, and Tenko and Kaito would leave the game room to get Rantaro only to join Kaede and Shuichi in storming the library, finding the bookcase in the back of the room closing and Rantaro's corpse not far away from it. Tenko's scream alerted the remaining people in the game room and they came rushing in. As everyone pondered what was going on and whether or not the Killing Game had officially began or ended, the body discovery announcement played and eventually everyone was in the library, though Maki didn't seem to be particularly shocked by Rantaro's death due to likely witnessing death countless times before.

The First Investigation and Class Trial
During the investigation, Maki was questioned by Kaede and Shuichi in the game room. She told the pair that Rantaro left their strategy meeting early with the excuse of using the bathroom while Gonta had locked himself in the AV room, which she also found suspicious.

During the trial itself, after questioning multiple suspects, Maki and the others eventually found out that Shuichi had failed to mention the camera intervals to Kaede while they were setting up in the library. This quickly garnered the suspicion of many of the students, Maki included, and he was quickly denounced as the culprit. However, thanks to Kaede's valiant efforts, she was able to prove his innocence, though at the same time, encouraged Shuichi to find her guilty of the crime. Maki simply watched as Kaede confessed to everything and was executed by Monokuma, being one of the few students to not seemingly seem upset at her demise.

The Wallflower
Upon discovering her Research Lab on the second floor, Maki prohibited anyone to enter it and shut herself inside. It was to protect her true talent as the Ultimate Assassin and not making the situation even worse if anyone discovered it. She is unperturbed with the flow of the Killing Game, even she ignored the second motive, the Motive Video presented by the Monokubs. It was revealed that Maki was holding Ryoma Hoshi's motive video, and after she was persuaded, she gave Ryoma his motive video to fulfill his desire to regain his will to live. During the investigation, she refused to investigate Ryoma's murder case and continue to shelter herself inside her Research Lab.

After the second Class Trial ended, Maki's effort to hide her true talent ended up in failure as Kokichi Oma singled out her true talent as the Ultimate Assassin shortly after the second Class Trial ended.

Maki's Decisive Plan
After seeing the Flashback Light and supposedly remembering that Kokichi Oma is a part of the Remnants of Despair, Maki made use of her electric hammer that Miu Iruma made and stunned an Exisal, which she immediately commandeered to bypass the electric barrier in the Exisal hanger, where Kaito Momota was being held captive by Kokichi. She was determined to kill The Ultimate Supreme Leader and end the killing game once and for all.

Upon seeing Maki come in, Kokichi made a rush for the Miu's remote control that could control any electronic device but was immediately shot in the back by Maki with a poison-tipped arrow from her crossbow, bringing him to his knees. Kokichi belittled her, asking her why a killing game that should have already ended is continuing, claiming to not know anything about the Remnants of Despair. Maki, tired of hearing Kokichi spout supposed nonsense, shot the killing blow, but Kaito intercepted it with his arm, much to her shock. She immediately left the hanger and made her way to Shuichi Saihara's Research Lab to retrieve the only antidote.

When she made her way back to the hanger, she found the shutter had closed thanks to Kokichi to prevent her from coming back in again, so she went to the small bathroom window instead and tried to give Kaito the antidote through there. When she attempted to pass him the antidote, Kokichi stole it and supposedly drank it all much Kaito's annoyance and Maki's horror since she knew he would die of poison if he didn't get the antidote. Kokichi boasted about there being another class trial where Maki would be Kaito's killer. Maki was stunned, but Kaito reassured her that she was going to live before telling her to run away. She tried to get back in by breaking the control panel to the shutter with her knife, but to no avail.

Later, when everyone was getting ready to storm the Exisal hanger and defeat Kokichi, Maki did not have her electric hammer with her due to already having used it to commandeer an Exisal, though she kept this fact to herself and said she'd be fine with just her knife. When they opened up the hanger, everyone was horrified to discover an enormous amount of blood leaking from underneath the press machine alongside Kaito's jacket sleeve hanging out from the press, setting off the assumption that he was crushed to death. Maki was rendered silenced and came to the conclusion that she must have killed him because of her poisoned arrow.

Confusion and Conclusion
During the class trial, Maki was very quick to deny any claims that the victim was anyone other than Kaito and even got annoyed when Shuichi would try to say otherwise. When the "surprise guest" originally showed up in the Exisal and was initially believed to be Kaito, Maki was stunned until the person inside made themselves out to be Kokichi, having brought a recording of the supposed victim being crushed by the press with them, which appeared to be Kaito.

As the trial progresses, and Shuichi reveals Maki as the third party that infiltrated the hanger, it is revealed that she was willing to sacrifice anything, including the lives of her fellow survivors, in order to defeat Kokichi. After this fact is revealed, she decides to the reveal the truth about what happened inside the hanger between Kaito and Kokichi to everyone else in the trial. Eventually, the full truth about Kokichi's plan is revealed and that even Monokuma does not know the true culprit of this case. Maki tells Shuichi that she will think correctly from now on because she herself is unable to accept that she could have killed Kaito.

However, once Shuichi reveals that the only other person Kaito could have swapped with to pull off this case was Kokichi, meaning Kaito would still be alive, Maki was quick to take the blame for the crime once again due to being unable to believe that Kaito would kill someone after constantly saying that he would never kill someone. Eventually, Shuichi is able to fully deduce Kokichi's full plan and Kaito comes out of the Exisal, revealing himself as the true culprit of this case.

Maki is initially angry, asking Kaito why he was the one who killed Kokichi after saying that killing was wrong time and time again. Kaito then proceeded to tell her and the others the full details of Kokichi's plan and why he went along with it in the first place. Once Kaito started coughing up blood however, Maki panicked. Monokuma was quick to want to execute him, but Maki refused to let him get killed regardless of whether or not he was sick. Monokuma then reveals that all five of the Monokuma Kubs have been reconstructed and are active once more, meaning that all five Exisal are once again under their control and will defend Monokuma. Maki is not phased by this, but Kaito tells her to stop, to which she responds to by tearfully telling him that he was the first person to call her "Maki Roll" ("Harumaki" in the original Japanese), and the first person she ever ended up liking. Kaito apologizes to her about not being able to spend more time with her due to his condition but reassures her that if she could like someone like him, then she could even learn to like herself. Upon hearing this, Maki breaks down in tears.

Following Kaito's execution, Maki made her way to the courtyard where they would always go to train together. She finds that Shuichi was already there, and the two shared a short, but emotional conversation, agreeing that they should be grateful to Kaito for everything he had done for them and vowed to carry on his will and end the killing once and for all. Eventually, they were joined by Tsumugi Shirogane and Himiko Yumeno, they all decided to train together. This moment was eventually interrupted by K1-B0, who had lost his "connector" to the outside world and thus; making him wanted to end the killing game for good and was determined to destroy Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and end the killing game himself.

Uncovering the Truth
Maki along with fellow survivors Shuichi, K1-B0, Himiko, and Tsumugi decide to re-open Rantaro Amami'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, Shuichi realizes that The Mastermind has to be one of them and, by double-checking everyone's alibis during Rantaro's murder, hones in on Tsumugi as the true culprit and mastermind of the Killing School Semester.

Maki along with the other survivors are confused and shocked that the Ultimate Cosplayer could have gone through with such a plan while she denies the claim vehemently. Shuichi however, makes it very clear that Tsumugi is 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 trigger Motherkuma's voice recognition software and created another Monokuma. Maki tells Tsumugi to argue Shuichi's claims if she wants everyone to believe her but is unable to do so. Maki along with the others watch as Tsumugi slowly breaks and re-introduces herself as "Junko Enoshima the 53rd".

Maki is quick to want to kill "Junko", thinking that it will end the killing game, but she claims that the killing game won't end with her death. 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 being part of the Remnants of Despair was a lie as well, stunning Maki.

In reality, the circumstances behind their killing game are far crueler. After proving her talent fully as the Ultimate Cosplayer by cosplaying as some characters from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Tsumugi revealed that everything has been broadcasted to a very peaceful world that has 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 reveals that everything that took place at the Hope's Peak Academy Saga was nothing more than fictional events from a very popular anime and game franchise known as Danganronpa.

Maki, along with the other survivors, were quick to oppose Tsumugi and Monokuma, but they both revealed 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 goes 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. Upon being told that her feelings for Kaito were all fabricated, Maki seems to have an emotional breakdown and questions what everything up until now was for.

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, 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.

However, Shuichi 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 decides to stop playing along and abandons his vote, hoping to end Danganronpa once and for all, much to Tsumugi's and Monokuma's chagrin. Eventually, Shuichi convinced Maki to abandon her vote, she came to the conclusion that even if everything is fiction, that she'll believe in herself. She stated that if she couldn't do that, there would be no meaning for her existing here. She said that if she can make fiction change reality, that it then wouldn't be fiction and that it would give Kaito's life meaning, choosing to believe her feelings for him were in fact real. She resolved to use her own life as a weapon and abandoned her vote along with the others.

In a last-ditch effort to keep Danganronpa going, K1-B0 is hacked by the audience. Tsumugi is proud to show that the audience does not wish for Danganronpa to end and explains that they supposedly deleted K1-B0's personality that kept getting in the way. K1-B0 is able to take brief control again and tells his fellow survivors that their choice is not the wrong one and that they can change the world before the hacking takes him over again. Maki tells K1-B0 to hang in there, but Tsumugi tells everyone that what they're doing is pointless. Shuichi refuses to give up, still exclaiming that he will end Danganronpa and that their lives are not just show-things for their amusement. Maki encourages Shuichi and tells him that he might be able to change the world.

Confident that Shuichi's voice reached the outside world through K1-B0, Maki and everyone else abandoned their vote. Tsumugi however, bends the rules one last time and abandons her vote as well, which she reveals 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.

When Monokuma displays the results of the final voting, Tsumugi is shocked to discover that no one had voted, proving that the audience does not want Danganronpa to continue. Tsumugi panics and tries to make everyone reconsider, but it is no use as the monitors all turn-off, the audience no longer showing any interest. 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 she had not prepared a proper execution beforehand as such leaves it to K1-B0.

Maki along with her fellow survivors take cover under some rubble while K1-B0 executed everything and blows himself up, creating an opening in the glass dome for his fellow survivors to escape.

Maki's Fate
Maki survived the final execution along with fellow survivors Shuichi and Himiko by hiding under some rubble. She is the first to come out of the rubble and take in her surroundings, Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles had been completely obliterated by K1-B0. The remaining survivors wondered what would become of the fictional world now, but none of them had an idea of what to do now that everything was over. Maki questioned at first why they were still alive, but Himiko and Shuichi both stated that it must have been the outside world's will that let them survive. To Maki and Himiko's surprise, Shuichi states that what Tsumugi said to them about the outside world may have been a lie and that Hope's Peak Academy and the Remnants of Despair might actually exist, though he has no proof to back up this claim. He also does not think that he would willingly participate in a killing game no matter how mad of a world he was living in, but once again it is mere speculation, though Himiko states that Kaito's insight might be rubbing off on him. Despite not really knowing what is truth and what is a lie, Maki along with her two remaining survivors resolve themselves to go out into the outside world and see the truth for themselves, and that if a lie had changed the world, then the story would not end.

Creation and Development
Maki's birthday (February 2) coincides with Japan's national holiday, the day before the beginning of spring. A special ritual holds during this day to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き).

This is a joke to her given name kanji (魔姫), which means demon princess. Maki's first name is a reference to the ritual mamemaki, while her last name, Harukawa referenced to the Spring (春 haru) season.

Name
Maki's given name, written 魔姫, means "demon princess" while her last name, 春川 Harukawa, means "river of spring".

Alternate Fates
In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version), Maki was seen in the hallway giving her short introduction to Kaede Akamatsu as the Ultimate Child Caregiver. She states that even though she's unsociable and hates children, they loved her. This is somewhat become a mystery to her, speculating that maybe because she took care of them well. Kaede commented that the children could see Maki's true soul and think that she's actually capable of deep love.

Appearance
Maki is a young woman of common height with a rather slim physique, although she does possess some muscle. She has red eyes and long, dark brown hair that she chooses to keep in pigtails held by two red scrunchies. She has bangs, as well as two small strands of hair that fall at the sides of her head, the one falling at her right side being a bit longer. Maki also has a beauty mark under her left eye.

She dons a scarlet-colored sailor outfit accompanied by thigh-high socks of the same color, a black plaid skirt with a slight green tint, and brown ankle boots. Her accessories include a black bracelet, small, circular earrings, a white hairpin at the side of her head and a flower pin on her right shoulder.

Personality
Maki appears to have a very serious personality, as she doesn't really seem to smile much if at all. The only notable exception is the poster which shows her with a mysterious smile, having a finger over her lips, which is a sign of secrecy.

Despite her cute appearance, Maki is described as a hostile misanthrope of few words. She is very aware that she comes across as unfriendly and prefers to be alone. In general, she dislikes people and thus she is not very cooperative and can be stubborn. She talks very little, so when she does, she states things clearly and she appears to be very confident about her arguments. She is cynical and negative with a sharp tongue and sometimes talks in a cold sarcastic manner. While not the type to assertively act on her own, she is stated to have guts and willing to take action when it suits her. She has no problem blaming Kaede Akamatsu coldly and rudely multiple times.

Despite her distant and unfriendly personality, Maki is good at taking care of others. She is very popular among children, even though she dislikes them. According to Kaede, Maki is actually capable of deep love, something that children might be able to see, explaining their attachment to her. She also shows a more caring side when she accepts gifts and is invited by Kaede to spend time together.

Maki doesn't want to alert people around her about her true talent as the Ultimate Assassin, to the point that she always stayed in her Research Lab after the room became accessible in Chapter 2. She does this for the sake of preventing unnecessary shock and panic in the group. She also appears to have trouble trusting others and making friends with them at first. Until then, the only person she trusted so far is her love interest, Kaito Momota, and Shuichi Saihara.

As the Ultimate Assassin, Maki becomes much more violent, intimidating, and unafraid to threaten others, demonstrating her confidence in her abilities. She carries a knife around with her (as seen in her sprites), and is shown attempting to strangle Kokichi Oma a few times.

Ultimate Child Caregiver
Having been raised in an orphanage, Maki is very skilled at taking care of others, as she was ordered to take care of the younger children. She is loved by many children, even though she herself doesn't like kids. Kaede has stated that the children may be attached to Maki because they could see her true soul and capability of deep love. In reality, Maki has no real talent in caregiving and simply chose to use that as the cover story to hide her real talent since she really did have to take care of those younger than her when she lived as an orphan.

Ultimate Assassin
Maki's true talent is that of the Ultimate Assassin (超高校級の「暗殺者」chō kōkō-kyū no "ansatsusha"). Trained as a child under the threat of having her orphanage be targeted if she failed, Maki developed a proficiency with multiple types of weapons and powerful strength and endurance. She is also capable of using numerous weapons without difficulty.

However, Maki's talent as the Ultimate Assassin is a fabrication made by Team Danganronpa, as well as her fake talent. Due to that fact, it is unclear whether Maki is a professional assassin or a child caregiver in the past.

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

Relationships

 * Love Interest:

Kaito Momota
Initially, Maki appeared to be annoyed and irritated by Kaito. Her first interaction with him started with her mockingly pointing out that he claimed he could take down the Monokuma Kubs singlehandedly, even pushing him to attempt this when the Monokuma Kubs appeared in their Exisal form (which terrified Kaito). Maki consistently puts Kaede down for her optimism and causing a rift between the students after attempting, and failing, to win the Death Road of Despair several times causing Kaito to angrily shout at Maki for blaming Kaede for the conflict between the students. Maki also blames Kaito several times during the first trial, calling him suspicious and an idiot several times.

Despite their conflicts, Kaito seems to have taken an interest in Maki following the events of Chapter 2, even nicknaming her "Maki Roll" (Harumaki in the original Japanese version) to her displeasure. Kaito began dragging her to Shuichi and his training regime even though Maki massively overpowers them in the training, stating it was a waste of time, that she's easily bored of the exercise. Despite that, in the next night Maki seems to have taken the training more seriously after Kaito told her that it was for her to "defeat her enemy". Despite her initial irritation with Kaito skipping out on training, she goes with it, aware he's most likely not feeling good. During the investigation of Angie and Tenko's deaths, a horrified Kaito forcefully pulls Maki into a hug (as she was, coincidentally, the person nearest to him at the time), although this only resulted in her angrily punching him.

However, Maki soon starts to show more care for Kaito during Chapter 4. This becomes apparent when she gets jealous when Kaito chooses to team up with Shuichi over her in the virtual world, being left alone to search the virtual world. She is furious when Kokichi knocks down Kaito following Gonta's execution, even going as far as to make death threats, and is shocked when Kaito suddenly begins coughing blood. He also becomes one of the few people Maki will actually listen to, as shown when she attempts to strangle Kokichi in front of the other students, halting only at Kaito's request. It's shown that Maki had developed romantic feelings for Kaito over the course of the game, although it doesn't seem to be romantically requited.

In Chapter 5, the two join in the group effort to take down Kokichi, who was believed to be the mastermind at the time. When Maki attempts to kill Kokichi by shooting him with a poisoned arrow, Kaito purposely takes the hit to prevent her from doing so, and it is implied that he did so to avoid her becoming the blackened in case their theory was incorrect.

Kaito later commits the deed himself, causing Maki to persistently attempt to steer suspicion away from him during the class trial by stating how she "killed" him. However, she is forced to stop when he confesses to it during the class trial despite her pleas. She evens threatens to fight Monokuma and the Kubs, but is stopped by Kaito, who asks her to promise him not to cry, something that Maki couldn't bring herself to follow through on. Just before Kaito gets executed, Maki confesses her feelings to him, which he replies that she can finally love herself now. During their voting time, Maki had no choice but had to vote for Kaito as a culprit still due to his final words before his execution started. This shows that Kaito had become the only one of Maki's companions who she had any genuine care for. Kaito causes a horrible anguish to wash over the students, but notably Shuichi and Harukawa were most effected by his death, the two being the closest to Kaito, and because Harukawa fell for him.

Later, at the beginning of Chapter 6, Maki promises that she won't cry again and feels thankful to Kaito for saving her life. During the final class trial, when she is told that her feelings for Kaito were all just a lie and fabrication, Maki became shocked and emotionally unstable. However, with Shuichi's help, she eventually regains her composure, believing that her feelings for Kaito have always been real.


 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles:

Shuichi Saihara
The two got along well after the events of Chapter 2 after Kaito brought Maki to their training regime. This resulted in the three doing exercises together, although Maki outmatched the two boys at everything they did. Shuichi seemed impressed with Maki's skills, and the three began to meet up nightly to do these exercises. Maki threatens Shuichi into hurting him or killing him sometimes since she has trouble trusting him. She also frequently told Shuichi to get a grip, since he's a detective.

Maki assisted Shuichi during Chapter 3's investigation, helping him creating hypotheses and finding clues. She noticeably becomes more vocal, occasionally asking if he wants to die at his surprise, to which she follows up that she was just joking. When on the discussion of Tenko's last moments, Shuichi and Maki work together to lie about Tenko dying instantly, so she wouldn't be able to kill herself inside the cage, therefore together steering the trial into the right direction again. Shuichi told Maki that she helped him a lot with the investigation, although Maki only said that she found him surprisingly reliable during the investigation.

During the events of the virtual world in Chapter 4, Maki does make a point to remind Shuichi that he's a person before he's a detective, which he's touched by, despite her telling him he's more reliable during a murder case than daily life. Nonetheless, it's apparent the two have grown quite close to each other, with her asking if he's okay, making sure if he and Kaito aren't fighting when Shuichi forcibly logged him out to test something.

In Chapter 5, however, she does secretly go behind their backs, betraying the promise she agreed to, as she and nobody else should try attempting to kill Kokichi, Maki decides on her own to break into the hangar, torture him and attempt to kill him, only thwarted when Kaito takes the second arrow on Kokichi's behalf. During the trial, she repeatedly attempts to steer the crime into her own fault, threatening and insulting Shuichi when he continues trying to solve why Maki couldn't have killed Kaito. Despite the betrayal and attitude towards Shuichi and the others during the trial, Maki doesn't seem to be apologetic for this, or had the time to apologize, since they all had to mourn Kaito for a short time before Keebo began destroying the school.

After Kaito's execution in Chapter 5, Maki and Shuichi went to their normal training spot and had a short, but emotional conversation about the events that had transpired, being joined by Tsumugi and Himiko to train together and mourn Kaito. They resolve to put an end to the killing game, which they end up surviving together.

During the Love Suite Event, Shuichi had the role of a kid from the same orphanage of Maki. Maki says that despite Shuichi and her being together for 10 years, she still didn't understand him. Shuichi is confused and Maki explains that he came to the orphanage a little before he entered elementary school. Shuichi agrees absentmindedly. Maki then again says that she really doesn't know everything about Shuichi. He then asks her what makes her think she doesn't know everything about him. She then blushes and Shuichi is confused at this. Maki says that Shuichi before used to play house with the other kids and it became difficult for her. She then asks Shuichi when he wanted to make a real family with her instead of a pretend one. Maki then goes silent and Shuichi asks whats wrong. Maki then gently held Shuichi's hand and says that she knew something was strange. Maki says that she wants to create a real family with Shuichi and not a fake one. Maki then asks Shuichi to promise her that he'll stay with her. Shuichi then nods his head as his answer

Kokichi Oma
Maki despises Kokichi, even attempting to literally strangle him to death twice, only to be stopped by Kaito. He exposed her identity as an assassin, accuses her of driving Ryoma Hoshi to suicide by showing the tennis player his motive video, and spends most of the third chapter informing his colleagues not to interact with the murderer. He constantly refers to her with terms such as "killer girl" and "murder girl" instead of her name.

Kokichi seems disturbed whenever she's around, and gets irritated with Kaito when he insists on bringing her along, commenting that they don't need to "cooperate with a murderer." He also sneeringly keeps pointing out her familiarity with murder methods and corpses whenever she uses her knowledge to help with cases. She mostly stays silent after Kokichi throws taunts her way, but she tends to lose her self control, attempting to hurt him or just telling him to be quiet. She also often glares at him, which sometimes frightens and silences him. Although everyone else was shocked and afraid of Maki's reveal to be an assassin, Kokichi seems to be the one most upset by it.

During the fifth chapter, after Kokichi captures Kaito, she seriously attempts to kill him with a poisoned crossbow. Maki spends the entire chapter referring to Kokichi exclusively as "the son of a bitch", which is remarkable because she otherwise never swears. Eventually, Maki realized that Kokichi wasn't the mastermind all along and regretted how she led the one she loved into killing Kokichi and Maki took the blame for it.

Kaede Akamatsu
After Maki reveals her title as the Ultimate Child Caregiver to Kaede, she states that she hates children despite the fact that they love her. Kaede, however, mentioned that the children could see Maki's true soul and that she is actually capable of deep love.

Despite Kaede's kindness towards her, Maki is shown to be somewhat distrustful of Kaede, openly showcasing her dislike for her on several occasions. She pushes the blame for the students falling out in Chapter 1 on Kaede and does not appear saddened when Kaede is executed.

However, Maki seems to have a somewhat better relationship with Kaede in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan, to such a point where Kaito wonders how since they were so close. Despite she calls her relationship with Kaede an “arrangement” she is usually seen with her, a clear sign that her friendship is almost to Shuichi and Kaito’s, promising that she will find a way to make Kaede plays the piano to the children of her orphanage. At the same time, Maki still tends to be cold towards her - an example is when she offers herself to accompany Chihiro Fujisaki to Gundham Tanaka to ask for a proper burial for a deceased bird found by the latter who, surprised by the kind deed, is brief by Kaede who says that behind the caregiver's edgy surface there is a really sincere person, which Maki replies with a cold but embarrassed way, scolding Kaede that she has no need to come with them, much to the pianist’s dismay.

Tsumugi Shirogane
In the beginning, the two didn't talk much and barely interacted with each other, not sharing any common points of interest. Despite this, however, they still considered each other as fellow survivors after Kaito's execution and joined her and Shuichi in the courtyard along with Himiko to carry on the Ultimate Astronaut's will.

After Tsumugi was found out as the Ringleader behind the Killing School Semester by Shuichi however, Maki turned incredibly hostile towards the Ultimate Cosplayer, threatening to kill her on many occasions as the final trial continued. In the end, like the other survivors, she viewed her as her enemy and vowed to stop her and the killing game even if it cost her her life.

Korekiyo Shinguji
Maki is one of the few female students who does not meet Korekiyo's criteria as his sister's "admirable friend" and thus she is not a potential murder victim for him. Due to her being an assassin and generally very unsocial, Korekiyo thinks she doesn't believe in "the power of love".

Free Time

 * Main article, including full dialogue: Free Time Events/Maki Harukawa

Quotes

 * -|DRV3 Demo=

DRV3=

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
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology Volume 3

Trivia

 * Maki, along with K1-B0 and Kaito, was the first new character revealed for Danganronpa V3 in November 2015. However, their names and talents weren't revealed until ten months later in September 2016.
 * She was originally speculated as a possible protagonist (and thus the first female protagonist in the numbered game series) before Kaede Akamatsu was introduced as the main protagonist.
 * Maki's hairstyle is similar to one of Komaru Naegi's beta designs.
 * Maki's Japanese voice actress, Maaya Sakamoto, is married to Korekiyo Shinguji's Japanese voice actor Kenichi Suzumura.
 * Maki's English voice actress, Erica Mendez, also voices Nagisa Shingetsu.
 * In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Maki the 9th most popular Danganronpa V3 student.
 * In her Love Suite scene, her fantasy includes her and a friend from the same orphanage as her. They have known each other for 10 years and when they were younger, her friend mentioned he wants to make a real family with her while they were playing house. Maki says she never noticed her friend is in love with her and she is confused by her own feelings as well, but she realizes she likes him too. She simply wants to stay close to him and asks him to promise he will always be with her.
 * The nickname given to Maki by Kaito, "Harumaki" (ハルマキ), is a type of (春巻き). In the English localization, this was changed to "Maki roll", a type of  wrapped in.

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