Takumi Hijirihara

Takumi Hijirihara (聖原 拓実 Hijirihara Takumi) is a main character in Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer, a spin-off manga connected to Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy.

He is a member of Future Foundation and is part of the 6th Division’s Special Case Bureau as an investigator. His partner is Misaki Asano.

His alternative title is Killer Killer (キラーキラー Kirā Kirā), a mysterious, bizarrely polite serial killer who exclusively targets murderers.

Appearance
Takumi is tall with an average build and a bored expression. He has short black hair with a noticeable ahoge, and dark red eyes. He wears the standard Future Foundation suit-and-tie uniform. His uniform and hair are disheveled, causing Misaki to label him as a slob.

While he was younger, his eyes were yellow.

Personality
Takumi is sullen and eccentric. He enjoys hiding in dark and confined spaces, as he finds the atmosphere relaxing. In addition to his strangeness, he is also, outwardly, very lazy and frequently attempts to have Misaki do the investigation work for the both of them. Despite this, he has strong deduction skills and is very observant. It is also revealed during the second case that Takumi falls in love very easily, which can cause him to lose his regular composure and become distracted by that person.

Despite being an investigator tasked with catching criminals, Takumi has a very strong appreciation for murderers and killings, which may have transpired from the traumatic experience of the Giboura Massacre. He studies murderers and even goes as far as to rate their crimes. Takumi's ultimate resolution is to emulate the killer he narrowly escaped from as a child.

He gets extreme enjoyment out of killing, as he feels that is the fundamental trait that murderers should posses. When he kills, his true feelings are reflected as his shadow becomes more demonic and his face briefly mirrors Monokuma. This may or may not be a reference to him having fallen to despair.

Prior to the Tragedy
Takumi was a student at Giboura Middle School during the incident of the Giboura Middle School Massacre. He was the sole survivor of the event, because he had hidden in the cleaning closet. This event had a psychologically damaging effect on Takumi, which led to his near-obsessive love for serial murderers, as well as the gory and grotesque.

Takumi stated that he had lived in Spain for several years (though, it is not known if it was before the incident or after.) As such, he has learned to speak Spanish. With this information, it can be implied that Takumi is the elusive Spanish serial killer, Sparkling Justice (or has at least drawn influence from them.)

Chapter 1 - Murder for Murder
Takumi is first seen hiding in an empty locker, scaring Misaki when she opens it. Ikue Dogami informs her that Takumi will be her partner, and several coworkers express how bad they feel for the newbie to be stuck with him. Chief Dogami gives them an assignment to protect the "Monk Idol," Momomichi Ito, at his live event. Takumi ignores the majority of it and tells Misaki she can go on without him. He attempts to make an excuse and tells Misaki that he can't go outside because of an illness that causes him to age when he steps into sunlight.

Once there, Takumi hides in the temple's offering box with a cup of ramen and eventually falls asleep. He wakes up again after several corpses are revealed. At first he appears angry, but his behavior suddenly becomes more erratic as he latches onto one of the corpses and complains about being thirsty.

The two gather everyone who had access to the backstage during the concert, including Itou and his staff. Misaki concluded that someone must have slipped through their perimeter and had gotten away, but Takumi whispers to her that the culprit is still on site. When she asks him to tell the suspects this himself he answers that it’s too scary to talk to strangers. The two bicker for a moment, causing Takumi to go on a tangent about his grandfather. Now newly confident, Misaki believed that she had it all figured out when Takumi suddenly leaves. She yells at him to tell her who it was, and he replies that when his grandfather was on his deathbed, he was convinced he was Kindaichi.

Back at HQ, Misaki complains about Takumi and his bizarre behavior. Chief Dogami reminds her of the Giboura Middle School Massacre, and reveals that Takumi was the only survivor of that event. He had hidden in a closet in the back of the classroom, which led to his love of small spaces. Because of this, he feels more strongly about murders than the average person.

During that time, Takumi called Ito to the temple. He pops out of the donation box and accuses him of committing the murder. When asked for proof, Takumi admits he doesn’t have any. The only 'proof' he has is his own feelings; because, when it comes to bizarre murderers and crimes, Takumi loves them more than anything else, so he feels very sure of his gut instinct. He explains how he can determine things about a murderer based on how they choose to kill their victims, which is how he was able to determine Ito's intent and motive. He rates Ito's murders with a score of 20/100. He comments that Itou's disgustingly beautiful skin was preserved by drinking the blood of his victims, and that it was his only goal.

He is disappointed, saying that Ito only committed murder as a "desperate alternative," and that he didn't "love" it. When attacked, Takumi dices Ito to pieces with a small blade. Takumi then reflects on his childhood memory of the Giboura School Massacre and the day that he had made the resolution to become a "cool mass murderer," just like the man he so narrowly escaped from. He leaves a note at the scene and heads back to HQ to rest under a counter. He invites Misaki to join him and he's surprised to see she does so. Misaki admits that it is relaxing, and Takumi is pleased with this.

Chapter 2 - Symbiotic Hospital
Takumi is relaxing underneath the counter of the sink in Future Foundation's break room. He once again surprises Misaki, who trips. Takumi pointed out that he could see her panties, which causes her to become angry and leave. Later, he finds and carries Mekuru Katsuragi towards the others in the meeting room. The two appear close, as Mekuru address Takumi by a nickname, and mentions that they've known each other for a long time.

Misaki and Takumi go to Ongou hospital to investigate another strange murder. Takumi lays down in the corpse's hospital bed and begins muttering to her. When Misaki tries to get him to follow her, he doesn't want to because he finds the woman too comfortable. Misaki goes to interrogate Shinya Ikemoto, a surgeon, while Takumi hides in a locker and comments on the situation. A nurse named Rei Shimizu stumbles into the room and Takumi becomes so excited with her that he collapses from a heart attack.

Takumi wakes up in a hospital room with Misaki by the bedside, and immediately leaves the room to continue investigating. Rei finds him in an adjacent room, and he begins to exhibit nervous and love-stuck behaviors once again. After returning to HQ, he is preoccupied by thoughts of Rei, and even ignores Misaki and Mekuru when Mekuru finds a lead. He returns to the hospital sometime later and confesses his love to Rei. He states that he loves everything about her except her killing style, revealing that he had known she was the murderer from the start.

Takumi rates Rei's murder with a 30/100, once again expressing disappointment in her lack of "love" for the act. He realizes that all Rei had cared about was her parasites that she had implanted in the victims to be harvested later and asks her to draw out the parasites in her own body. He quickly defeats them all, and then kills her, as his love for passionate murders was stronger than his love for her.

Later on back at HQ, Chief Dogami couldn't find any documents regarding Rei on her database thanks to Takumi's dedication to perform a Super Kill Steal and his love towards her. He already deleted all of documents regarding Rei.

Chapter 3 - Bessatsu Shounen Zetsubou Magazine
Takumi was delivered to Eiichiro Saiyama's apartment inside a delivery box. He then walks into his apartment without the man's permission, and gazes in awe at his work, exclaiming his praise in Spanish. Takumi then explains that he had spent several years in Spain, and speaks quite a bit of Spanish.

Despite praising him, Takumi pointed out a major flaw in his work: the corpses looked too realistic, so he decided to come and investigate. Takumi walks further into the apartment and opens a back room filled with corpses, all in different posed positions. In the end, Takumi rated Eiichiro's murder with a 20/100, once again disappointed that the manga artist wasn't passionate about his killings, and only did it so he could be praised for his work.

Takumi then picks up a manga of his and rates it 55/100 due to the manga having no personality at all. Having had enough with Takumi's criticism, Eiichiro then attempts to kill him. Takumi kills him with his own weapon, in a Super Copy-Cat Murder, and once again exposing his more demented, despair-driven side.

Sometime later, Juzo Sakakura (impersonating Ted Chikatilo) called Takumi and ordered him to come to Tify Ariake Arena if he wanted Misaki and Mekuru, who he had abducted.

Chapter 4 - Sting Casino Murders
Takumi shows up to the arena during the events of the Killing Festival, a tournament where killers fight to the death. Juzo is surprised he came, and Takumi mentions that he couldn't leave a fellow shut-in and lover of cramped spaces to die, referencing Misaki. He recalls the time where Misaki wanted to join him under the sink, which had moved him to tears.

The fight begins and it is almost immediately over; Juzo punches Takumi in the stomach and he begins to cough up blood. Juzo tells him to fight but Takumi rationalizes that he must be uncomfortable in such an open arena. In frustration, Juzo drops him into a large cannon to the pleasure of a screaming crowd. Instead of panic, Takumi calms down but makes no effort to move or react--even when Juzo reveals Takumi's identity to the entire crowd, including Misaki. While taunting and preparing to blow Takumi up, an explosion goes off in the stands to Juzo's surprise. Takumi peeks out of the cannon, welcoming the real Ted Chikatilo as he enters the arena, revealing that he had known Juzo had been impersonating him from the beginning.

Chapter 5 - Firework Lyric
Takumi climbed to the festival's tower after he met with Ted. Kenji Tsuruhashi, a member of Future Foundation's special troops managed to catch up with him and ordered Takumi to surrendered himself to the Future Foundation. However, things change after Takumi revealed that the person who killed the Republic of Lamieca's Secretary of Defence earlier was Kenji.

Kenji laughed maniacally, remembering the scared expression of Juzo. His main motive was to develop an international accident using the murder so Juzo can be fired. Takumi mocked his motive and made Kenji angry. He was eager to kill Takumi after he rated his crime with only 0 point. When Kenji about to strangle him with his tie, Takumi easily used his tie back and pushed him while with his tie wrapped around his neck, killing him instantly.

After performed the "real murder by hanging", Takumi complimented by Ted who intended to capture him. Ted shot him with a big firework but easily cut into two using his knife. Takumi mocked him, driven Ted to showed him the illusory castle made by fireworks.

Misaki Asano
Misaki is Takumi's partner. He appears to be disinterested in anything Misaki says or does, but treats her fairly well as shown by him frequently offering to let her join him in his dark spaces. Misaki appears to be fairly annoyed and weirded out by Takumi's antics, but seems to tolerate them, even respecting how good of an investigator he is.

Mekuru Katsuragi
The two seem to have a close relationship, as Takumi is comfortable enough to carry her around and Meruku gave him the nickname 'Hi-kun.' Misaki notices that the two don't interact as simple co-workers, and have a deeper relationship.

Quotes

 * "Hey rookie...Let's make one thing clear. I indeed like hanging out in crammed spaces, but even so...I'm actually a really hard-working guy." (Introduction to Misaki Asano)
 * “Small places have differences too... How the space feels, temperature, the hardness... What fits best for you... It's all a matter of trial and error.”
 * “Things like murderers, these types of odd crimes... from the bottom of my heart, I love them more than anything.”
 * “You have a fatal lack for what's important: a love for murder.”
 * “That day inside that closest... I made a resolution. I'll definitely become one... a cool mass murderer, just like him.”
 * “'Murder makes a man,' or so it is said.”

Trivia

 * The kanji for Takumi's first name (拓実) can translate as "Open Truth" - possible a reference to Takumi's job as an SIC.
 * Takumi makes reference to Kosuke Kindaichi several times, and says that his dying grandfather was once convinced that he was him.