Sato

Sato (サトウ Satō)is a good friend of Mahiru Koizumi and a Hope's Peak Academy Reserve Course Student. She is a key subject in the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and later featured in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.

Appearance
Sato has long wavy viridian hair, violet eyes, and wears the uniform of Hope's Peak Academy with black knee highs and white sneakers. She appears to be quite tall. In Fuyuhiko's picture, she has long brown hair and the same uniform.

Sato is revealed to have a scar on her left arm from a very long time ago.

Personality
According to her motive to kill Natsumi Kuzuryu, Fuyuhiko's sister, Sato is a very defensive person. She will do anything to protect her friends from being bullied. She sometimes acts like a leader to the rest of her friends and is also shown to be a decisive person. She may have a slightly short temper, as she attempted to hit Natsumi after being mocked by her.

After Sato murders Natsumi in order to protect Mahiru, she turns psychotic and denies it claiming a perverted stalker did it and trying to convince everyone (including herself) it was the truth. When she is directly questioned by Hajime, she smiles unnervingly and makes more excuses, but becomes distressed and runs away screaming after Hajime tells her that Natsumi had a will to live and hadn't given up after all. This may imply Sato felt guilt for murdering Natsumi after finding out she had hope for the future.

Prior to The Tragedy
Sato was friends with Mahiru Koizumi in middle school. When Mahiru attends Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Photographer, Sato follows her there by joining the Reserve Course.

Episode 03 - A Farewell to All Futures
Sato first appeared after she eavesdropped Hajime Hinata and Natsumi's conversation. She slammed Hajime's desk, telling Natsumi not to plot something bad to her friend from the Main Course, Mahiru. When they two started to argue, Mahiru came in and tried to stop them. Sato told Natsumi to stop bullying Mahiru just because her photo is far better than Natsumi's was. She insulted Natsumi and tried to make her realize that bullying Mahiru can't make her scouted by the Main Course, which made Natsumi angered and about to punch her before Mahiru took her out the classroom.

In the hallway, Sato told Mahiru that Natsumi needed to tell her to stop bullying her. She also complimented Mahiru, saying that she was the hope of Photography Club and someday her photos will spread around the world, foreshadowing Mahiru's action when she fell to Despair and becoming a member of Ultimate Despair. Afterward, both of them ate Mahiru's hamburger steak.

Some time later, Sato met with Natsumi again to warn her that her underhand methods won't get her into the Main Course. Natsumi's word triggered Sato and when she was about to hit her, Hajime came to the scene and stopped her. After Natsumi and Hajime left, she shivered and promised to protect Mahiru at all cost.

On the next day after the news about Natsumi's murder spread, Sato tried to convince Mahiru that she was not the murderer on a fountain water near the park. She lied to her by showing her scars that she made up as an injury from her fights with Natsumi when they were still in the Photography Club. Mahiru who eventually trusted her left, making Sato sigh in relief.

Hajime who saw them before decided to approach Sato and asked her about the truth. Sato made up another lie, saying that Natsumi probably died by committing suicide, which objected by Hajime. Sato became very terrified and fled from the scene.

The next day, Sato's name was never heard again after she was murdered by Natsumi's older brother, Fuyuhiko.

2nd Day
Sato or nicknamed as, "Girl E" was first seen in classroom 1-A with Mahiru Koizumi (Girl D), Hiyoko Saionji (Girl B), and Ibuki Mioda (Girl C) discussing the murder that occurred the day prior when Mikan Tsumiki (Girl A) came late to the meeting. Sato gets panicked when Mahiru showed the picture of Natsumi's corpse (Unnamed victim), so she took the picture and ripped it apart and then removed the corpse picture from her camera's memory card, told the rest of the group that the murder has nothing to do with them, and she advised them to keep their victim's discovery a secret.

When Sato was just about to go home, she hears someone saying “I won't...let you...forget...” repeatedly. Sato freaks out, yelling “FORGIVEEEEEE MEEEEEEEEE” and runs away. The voice responds with “Never...” and the scene ends with a bloodied black screen saying “I will never forgive you”.

4th Day
The scene starts with Hiyoko, Ibuki, and Mahiru standing up in front of a classroom freaking out. When Mikan asks what happened, Hiyoko unhappily suggests her to enter the classroom 1-B, and when she entered, she found Sato's body leaning against the wall with a bloody metal bat near her body.

1st Day
Sato was first seen again after Mahiru, Hiyoko, Mikan, and Ibuki heard the sound of shattered glass coming from upstairs where they found Sato standing in front of the music room. Sato stated that she was just walked past the music room when she heard the sound of glass breaking inside. The music room door was locked and the group couldn't get inside. Ibuki believed that someone was inside the music room as she tried to enter the room.

Sato suggested to the group to borrow the key in the staff room, so Mahiru sneaked into the staff room and grabs the key for the group. However, something unexpected happens when they enter the room. They find the corpse of Natsumi, lying dead on the floor.

The group quickly panics, but Hiyoko suggests to remain calm, as she finds out that the girl who was lying on the floor has recently been killed, and that the killer may still be around. Hiyoko decides that the culprit probably locked the music room's door from the inside and then, after murdering the girl, they broke the window and escaped through it.

The group decided that the culprit panicked after clubbing the girl, so the culprit accidentally broke the aquarium and made the gravel scatter all around. It was proven when Ibuki took the key, which had been in the staff room as usual, and showed that the only two ways to lock the music room are from the inside or with the key from the staff room. So the group reaches the same conclusion: the culprit escaped through the window.

Sato convinces the group that the pervert committed the murder because her swimsuit has been stolen recently. In the end, the group decides not to get involved in the case and leaves the corpse one by one, the last being Mahiru, who still seemed confused about what happened that day.

3rd Day
Sato was first shown approaching Mahiru who has been waiting for her arrival in the Academy's backyard.

Mahiru wanted to show Sato a picture that she took just yesterday. It's a picture of a broken flower vase in the classroom next to the music room. Mahiru thought that the glass breaking noise yesterday was not the sound of a window breaking, the culprit didn't escape through the window and, finally, Mahiru knew that Sato was actually the culprit.

Mahiru decided to clean up the evidence by erasing the picture she took yesterday. Finally, Sato admits her crime and tells Mahiru that the girl she murdered yesterday had been giving Mahiru trouble. Sato knows the girl was Mahiru's junior at the photography club in junior high. She couldn't stand it anymore that the girl was using her parents' status to bully others.

At first, Sato tried to just talk to the girl, but then the girl said she was going to go after Sato too, so she got angry, and before she knew it, she was strangling the girl and she lost consciousness, so before the situation got even worse, Sato killed her. Sato becomes flustered and leaves Mahiru alone.

Before Sato leaves the school, she dumps the picture that Mahiru took into the garbage can behind the school buildings. Suddenly, Fuyuhiko, the victim's older brother, comes to check out what Sato just dumped into the garbage can. He also heard rumors that Sato was with the girl on the day of the incident. When Fuyuhiko checks the picture of the broken flower vase, he becomes surprised and suspects Sato even more. He states that the girl who was killed by Sato is his sister. The screen turns black as Fuyuhiko says "I will never... I will never forgive her!"

Relationships

 * Middle School:

Mahiru Koizumi
Mahiru was Sato's best friend since her former middle school Photography Club. Because Mahiru attended Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Photographer, Sato followed her there by joining the Reserve Course. Mahiru cared for Sato very much and always went to the Reserve Course building to eat lunch with her. Sato is very protective over Mahiru and went as far as to kill Natsumi in fear of her hurting Mahiru. Mahiru cries over Sato's death when she is killed.

It is implied that Sato may have romantic feelings for Mahiru. She is very protective of her, to the point of appearing somewhat obsessive. During one scene, she insists that Mahiru has great talent and her photos will become famous (in the English dub, Sato describes it as the beauty Mahiru brings into the world), of which Mahiru is surprised and flattered. The two then continue to talk about their food, both of them appearing quite joyful. In the English dub, Natsumi also mocked Sato's behavior towards Mahiru by calling her "lovesick". Within this implication, Sato's feelings appear to be one-sided, though this has not been confirmed.

In Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, when Mahiru (Girl D) goes to Sato (Girl E) to talk about the murder, Sato assumes Mahiru is going to confess her love to her which further implies Sato's potential romantic feelings.

Natsumi Kuzuryu
Sato and Natsumi had known each other from their last school and always had a negative relationship. Sato disliked Natsumi, who was rude to others and acted like she was better than them despite being a reserve course student.

After multiple threats off Natsumi (which where most likely unserious and not meaningful in reality), Sato is convinced that Natsumi is evil like she had always assumed and swore to protect Mahiru, which eventually lead to her murdering Natsumi. Afterwards, she turns psychotic and makes excuses, claiming she didn't murder Natsumi and that she was miserable anyway. After hearing Hajime's words about Natsumi's will to live, Sato runs away screaming, possibly feeling guilt for murdering her.


 * Class 77-B:

Mikan Tsumiki (Girl A), Hiyoko Saionji (Girl B), and Ibuki Mioda (Girl C)
In Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, it was revealed that Mikan, Hiyoko, and Ibuki were some of Sato's best friends prior to her death. They, along with Mahiru, spent most of their time together at Hope's Peak Academy.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (Boy F)
Not long after his sister's murder occurred, Fuyuhiko discovered the culprit, angering him. He decided to get revenge on Sato, and killed her in the same fashion as his sister, by hitting her on the head with a metal bat.

Quotes

 * -|DR3=

Trivia

 * In Danganronpa 2, Sato's name is spelled in kanji as 佐藤, but Danganronpa 3 instead spells it with katakana as サトウ.

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