Mikan Tsumiki

Mikan Tsumiki (罪木 蜜柑 Tsumiki Mikan) is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. She has the title of Ultimate Nurse (超高校級の「保健委員」chō kōkō kyū no “hoken īn”; lit. Super High School Level Health Committee Member).

After she got the Despair Fever in Chapter 3 and regaining her memory, she set up a plan to murder Ibuki, who also got the Despair Fever, but she ended up murdering both Ibuki and Hiyoko, because Hiyoko witnessed her plan to murder Ibuki. She had murdered for “the one that she loves”.

Appearance
Mikan has long, dark purple hair and lighter, greyish-purple eyes. There is a beauty mark under her left eye's corner. She wears a nurse uniform which consists of a pale pink, collared short-sleeved shirt with puffed sleeves. She wears a white apron over this which is tied behind her neck with a ribbon. There are two red lines on the left side of the apron, one going down to her middle and another, short red line perpendicular to the vertical one. A short pale blue pleated skirt is visible under her apron. Mikan has bandages wrapped around most of her right leg and left arm. Additionally, she has a band-aid on her left knee cap and wears white socks and shoes.

Personality
Mikan is easily intimidated to the point of tears. She is nervous and constantly worries about bothering, boring, or offending others, even going as far to ask Hajime whether it would be alright to remember his name during her introduction. She is quick to conclude that she is disliked by those around her, and her fragile personality makes her an easy target for Hiyoko Saionji's cruelty. Mikan frequently offers to allow others to beat or strip her so that they won't hate her. When nervous or startled, she stutters over words. She is also clumsy and often ends up in extremely embarrassing poses, all of which she apologises repeatedly for.

However, as the Ultimate Nurse, her medical knowledge proves to be useful in murders: providing autopsy reports and information on the corpse's state, details on injuries, cause of death, and time of death. She has a liking for syringes and shots, and offers them to Hajime when she gains access to the Pharmacy, and even chases him around with a syringe in one of her Free-Time Events.

After the main events of Chapter 3, despair fever, and the memory of school life that comes with it, alters her personality dramatically. During the Class Trial, Mikan's emotional state breaks down. Her personality endlessly switches from crying for forgiveness, to sinisterly denying her charges, to angrily pulling her hair and demanding to know why her classmates are suspecting her of the murders.

Mikan's intellectual processes also change dramatically as a result of the despair fever. Before the fever, Mikan would offer herself in whatever humiliating act she figured others wanted her in, and she offered little more self-defense than tears to Hiyoko's cruelty. After the fever, however, Mikan is aware of her maltreatment. She calls the others out on it- even those who defended her, asking why everyone is bullying her. However, her words cannot be taken at face value- she, at least to some degree, has manipulated her personality at will throughout most of the trial in hopes of tricking others. Also, among her final statements are attestations that she doesn't care about any of her relationships at Hope's Peak, any of her classmates, or anything that's happened outside of the one she loves. Instead, she has constructed her emotions to manipulate her classmates. Mikan, throughout the game, always displayed quick adaptation to her environment through altering aspects of her personality to suit what she had projected as their thoughts. However, before the fever, Mikan was primarily self-effacing for the benefit of others and to reduce conflict; after the fever, she is cunning and deceptive in order to preserve herself at the potential cost of the others' lives.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers follow this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
Like all students in Danganronpa 2, she was a former member of Hope's Peak who had their memories of their school life erased. Much of Mikan's past is revealed in her Free-Time Events. Apparently she was raised in a home, and in general a place, where people would harm her, and no one ever tried to take care of her. Because of this, she learned to take care of herself from a very young age. She told Hajime that she realized that she could help the people that were weaker than her, and, at the same time, those who needed her help would pay attention to her and listen to what she had to say; both of which were things that she enjoyed.

It seems that she was physically and emotionally abused by people in her family and in other places, like school. Among other things, she mentioned getting splashed with water, smeared with mud, and getting burned with cigarettes.

She mentioned that since she didn't want people to hate her, she used to do whatever people asked her to. This includes things like eating bugs, making interpretations of certain animals, letting people draw on her, and even implied stripping. She said that she did it because then people would not hate her, but rather laugh about it. Hajime believes that she feared being alone/having a lack of attention more than being physically or emotionally abused because of this.

At the end of the Third Trial, she states that she was able to remember about her school life. Mikan mentions that there was somebody she loved dearly back then, and that this person also truly loved her back. It is heavily implied that this person was Junko Enoshima.

Island Life of Mutual Killing
When Mikan met Hajime for the first time, she became so nervous and confused about how to start the conversation with him that she ended up crying, revealing that she even prepared 5000 different ways to start the conversation only for her to fail. In Chapter 1, Mikan accidentally tripped when the students were gathering in the Restaurant, amusing Teruteru and Ibuki verily. Later, she also tripped during the blackout in Byakuya's party.

After the discovery of Byakuya's corpse, Mikan was initially terrified. However, she managed to gather up the courage and made use of her talent as the Ultimate Nurse by examining the body. She played a key role in the first trial by pointing out that Byakuya was stabbed by a sharp implement about five millimeters in diameter, ruling out the possibility of the glow-in-the-dark knife being the murder weapon, and therefore saving the students from voting for the wrong person as the culprit in the first trial. When Teruteru was determined to be the culprit behind Byakuya's death, Hajime used the accident where Mikan accidentally tripped during the party as decisive evidence to prove Teruteru's guilt.

In Chapter 2, Mikan agreed to attend Sonia's girls only party along with the other girls, excluding Mahiru and Hiyoko. She and Ibuki arrive at the diner, the original meeting point of the party, and there they meet with Kazuichi and Hajime who later join the party as well. While she waits for the others at the diner, Akane arrives, injured from her practice session with Nekomaru. Mikan immediately takes her into the bathroom to treat her.

Mikan played another major role by examining the body of Mahiru Koizumi and verifying that her death by blunt force trauma was instantaneous, proving that her body was moved by somebody else to block the Beach House door. It was also revealed that she was the playable character, in fact, A-ko of the Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery, implying that she was close friends with Hiyoko, Ibuki, Mahiru, and possibly E-ko during her time at Hope's Peak. After the culprit execution, Mikan tried to save Fuyuhiko, who was injured in the execution, but it was pointless, as Monokuma ended up having to save him by took him to the Hospital in the third island.

In the next day during the groups investigation in the third island, Mikan found Fuyuhiko who was treat well and rest in the Hospital. Later, she joined Ibuki's Fuyuhiko welcome back party.

During the events of Chapter 3's Despair Fever, she treated Nagito ferociously to make sure he was alright. During her stay at the hospital while treating the sick, she contracted said disease and killed Ibuki by strangulation, to which Hiyoko accidentally became a witness of. As a result, Mikan was forced to kill her as well by slitting Hiyoko's throat. During the third trial, Mikan's ability as a Ultimate Nurse backfires when Nagito reveals that Ibuki was not killed by hanging herself, but rather by being strangled according to the marks left on the rope. This reveals that Mikan lied when she did Ibuki's autopsy, as she told everyone that Ibuki died by hanging. Hajime begrudgingly singles her out as the murderer, to which many disagreed at first. Oddly, Nagito states that the culprit this time was someone he could not forgive, and the reason is later revealed to be because unlike the others, the culprit did not kill for hope of escape, but for despair.

Once she is voted guilty, Mikan stops struggling and accepts her fate. Before that, though, Mikan tells Nagito that she did not murder for despair, but rather for the sake of the person she loves because they were the only one who accepted her for who she was. Mikan was affected by despair fever, which led her to regain all of her memories and remember everything, her personality changes not due of despair fever, but just despair itself. She's also explained that the real name of 'World Destroyer' is 'Future Foundation' (although it wasn't). Just before her execution begins she asks that person to forgive her for dying with hope of meeting them again.

Execution

 * Main Article: Pain Pain Go Away

Hajime Hinata
Mikan seems to have formed a liking for Hajime as he is the first person (on the Island) to have gone up to her and spoke to her, not wishing to bully her but only to have a casual conversation. Though nervous and stuttering at first, she gradually lightens up, even asking him to come back and talk to her again. He is also the first person she admits to that she is glad that there is nobody to stomp on her and abuse her on Dangan Island. Mikan also chases Hajime around with a syringe a few times, wanting to give him an injection, and was found sleeping on him several times in Chapter 3. In the third trial, she uses him to give herself an alibi in the morning when they first discover the corpse.

Hiyoko Saionji
Throughout the game, Mikan becomes a constant target for Hiyoko's bullying. Despite Hiyoko being over thirty centimeters shorter than Mikan, she is constantly pushed around and made into the butt of Hiyoko's jokes. She often refers to Mikan as a 'filthy pig' or 'ugly bitch', to which Mikan apologizes constantly for or asks why the other is so mean to her. It is revealed in Chapter 2's motive, Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery that Mikan and Hiyoko, being A-ko and B-ko respectively, were in the same group of friends and knew each other very well during their time in Hope's Peak. Even back then, Hiyoko was just as mean to Mikan, calling her a 'ugly filthy pig' and telling her to shut up. In the end, Hiyoko ended up being murdered by Mikan, due to being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Junko Enoshima
While under the influence of the despair fever in Chapter 3, Mikan recovered her memories of school life. At the end of the trial that unveiled her identity as the culprit, she revealed that she did it for the sake of the 'person she loves', claiming that they forgave and accepted her for who she was, in stark contrast to the maltreatment she had been exposed to her entire life, and that they would appreciate her actions if they were alive. She proceeds to ramble feverishly about how their love transcends the cruelty of her misdeeds, and how this person was a major factor in her drastic personality change. Due to her wording and the circumstances of her past, it is heavily implied that this person is Junko.

Quotes

 * “ M-My name is Mikan Tsumiki. Um...From the bottom of my heart, I hope we can get along. ”
 * “Uuu... why must we investigate a friend's death? Th-this is horrible... B-but! I'm the only one here who's a medical worker! S-so... i have to do somethin..! S-Something.. ”
 * “ Sniff... It's too much... My nerves... My mind's gone completely blank... ”
 * “The future.. do we even have one..?”
 * “Uyu... I just get so very very happy when people start talking to me... Until now... everyone always either thought I was gross or simply hated me...”
 * “Hee hee... when you are not feeling well, come to me, okay? I'll give you lots of shots... Lots and lots and loooooots of shots!”
 * “They loved me with their entire being, and I returned their love with my own entire being This is my 'compensation'”
 * “ ...I thought ahead of 5000 ways this conversation could proceed, but I can't remember any! ” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “ You don't understand? Is it because you have nobody you love? Is it because you're not someone who gets forgiven by others?... You poor thing, my heart goes out to you... ”  (to Nagito Komaeda)
 * “Please forgive me for dying, for I do it with the hope of meeting you again!” (to Junko Enoshima)

Trivia

 * Her first name (蜜柑) means "mandarin", as in the type of orange, while her last name (罪木) means "sin tree".
 * Her last name could reference how she killed out of the despair Enoshima had planted inside her.
 * It is also somewhat possible that her last name is meant to reflect her similarity to the biblical Eve, who has committed a sin (the "original") related to a tree (the Tree of Knowledge) due to an innate "human" desire to try and do what is forbidden. Similarly, Mikan has committed double murder due to a desire - her presumably romantic attraction to Junko Enoshima and wish to please her. She is also similar to Eve through the concept of "not being forgiven" for her actions.
 * While her title in the official English translation is "Ultimate Nurse", Mikan's original title is "Ultimate Health Committee Member". The "health committee" or "health and hygiene committee" (since 保健 hoken means both "health preservation" and "hygiene"), is a common student committee in Japanese high schools with the duty of preparing and administering first aid during school events, monitoring the school's state of sanitation and promoting health-preserving behavior.
 * One of Mikan's Free-Time Events implies that she is qualified to administer vaccines (like a nurse and unlike a health committee member) - meaning that her circumstances as a health committee member are special.
 * Mikan's role as a health committee member could explain (?) her odd fondness of toilets.
 * She likes toilets and the smell of isopropanol (rubbing alcohol).
 * She hates "things that are too big."
 * This means she may suffer from BDD, a psychological disorder in which the subject has an intense hatred for, or the desire to change, a specific part of their body. In her case, her rather ample bottom would be the subject.
 * Her Bloodtype is A
 * Mikan's Birthday coincides with International Nurses Day. (May 12th)