Ayame Akahoshi

Ayame Akahoshi (赤星 菖蒲 Akahoshi Ayame) is a character featured in Danganronpa Off: The 15 Sins and a participant of the Cleansing Game.

Ayame is given the title of Ultimate Marksman (超高校級の「狙撃兵」chō kōkō kyū no "sogeki-hei" lit. Super High School Level Sniper).

Early Life
Ayame was born on a rural farm in central Russian to her parents. The oldest of many siblings, Ayame was content with her simple life tending to the farm with her family. Ayame was also partly responsible for raising the youngest of her siblings. During her childhood, Ayame displayed the first indications of her talent. She grew talented at shooting birds out of the sky with her practice rifle and hunting in her free time. However, the war that had been affecting the surrounding areas finally affected her home. The scorched earth policy implemented by the retreating army caused the destruction of her family's crops and property. The winter slowly claimed all but Ayame, and she survived until she was found by the opposing army and sent to Japan to live with her paternal grandparents.

The Cleansing Game
During the planning of the Cleansing Game, Ayame was scouted specifically for her involvement in the Day of Despair.

Name
Her first name kanji, (菖蒲) ayame, means "iris" while her last name kanji, (赤星) akahoshi means "red star".

Appearance
Ayame is a petite, short young woman. She has russet brown hair and muted green eyes. The pattern in her irises resembles a crosshair, referencing her talent as a marksman. She also has black camouflage paint smeared across her eyes. Her hair is fashioned into a messy side-braid that hangs loosely over her shoulder. She also appears to have bits of leaves and twigs sticking in her hair. Her killing game outfit consists of a ghillie cape worn over a pale button up shirt which is decorated in the front with a large green ribbon. A necklace fashioned out of three bullets rests on her chest. She also wears two large bullet belts arranged diagonally over her hips. Her pants are dark green and she wears heavy combat boots.

Personality
On first impressions, Ayame comes off as cheerful and optimistic - if not a bit eccentric. She expresses great excitement at being surrounded by so many people, something that she rarely gets the chance to experience when performing her job. She is eager to interact with the other participants of the killing game, even sometimes neglecting to remember the dire situation they are in. Ayame is interested in befriending nearly everyone there, though her efforts are typically rebuffed because of her sometimes bizarre and unusual demeanor.

Despite her seemingly naive and ditzy nature, Ayame is slowly revealed to be more competent than most. She is the first to discover the hatch.

Ultimate Marksman
As the Ultimate Marksman, Ayame has incredibly keen perception. Even without the use of her weapon, Ayame is mentioned to have superhuman eyesight and can calculate environmental factors mentally with ease. She also has swift reflexes and a knowledge of how to utilize camouflage to keep herself hidden. Ayame also has the patience and training to stay perfectly still for hours and hours, demonstrating her surprising restraint.

In addition to her talent-related abilities, Ayame also has knowledge of surviving in the wilderness. She is the first to identify the traps littering the forest, and is able to disarm them.

Fuyutsuki Matsushita
Fuyutsuki is a former classmate of Ayame's, as all of the killing game participants are. Ayame remembers Fuyutsuki and thanks him for helping her sew her skirt after it was cut. Fuyutsuki doesn't recognize her at first, but eventually remembers and is surprised to know that she held onto the memory of the event. Ayame says she never forgets a friend, and that she's happy to see him again. However, as time progresses, Fuyutsuki begins to grow suspicious of her actions. He finds her tendency to isolate herself to be strange. When she remarks that she noticed him sneaking out to seek the counsel of the stars, Fuyutsuki realizes she has been monitoring them all from an unknown vantage point. That combined with her familiarity with the environment sows the seeds of doubt in him. Finally, when the motive for Chapter 1 is revealed to be the hatch, Fuyutsuki sets out to discover it, only to find Ayame trying to open it. This seals the idea in his mind that she must be the traitor who imprisoned them there. He lulls her into a false sense of security, striking her with a stone and burying her in a shallow grave under the impression that he killed her.

When Ayame returns, Fuyutsuki becomes close to her again to determine whether or not she truly did develop amnesia. Fuyutsuki realizes that she did, and feels incredible guilt for the suffering he caused her, as she can no longer remember who she is and what she's doing there. Ayame comes to trust and love him without realizing that he is responsible for her memory loss. She develops romantic feelings for him, which Fuyutsuki reciprocates. After Fuyutsuki reveals his treachery to protect her from the outcome of the vote, Ayame believes him to be lying and thanks him for it. He sadly confirms that he was telling the truth and apologizes to her. Ayame is devastated and heartbroken by the news.

Despite her heartache, Ayame resolves to work to solve the mystery of the hatch. Though his betrayal hurt her, Ayame still trusts Fuyutsuki enough to enlist his help in locating the hatch once more. After they enter it and Ayame is shot with a tranquilizer dart, she begs Fuyutsuki to run back and tell the others before collapsing. When she awakes and discovers Fuyutsuki's dead body, Ayame sobs while holding his corpse and confesses that she still loved him.

During the investigation and trial, Ayame insists that she would never hurt Fuyutsuki, but after her many issues with amnesia and lack of memory of his death, she cannot deny that it was a possibility. Ayame is sentenced to execution believing that she was truly Fuyutsuki's killer, and spent her last moments before being mauled looking at the stars and asking that he could forgive her, too.

Mikoto Aibi
Mikoto is one of the few students who is friendly towards Ayame and reciprocates her attempts to talk. After a few interactions, Mikoto privately muses that Ayame is certainly rather strange, but chastises herself for being so judgmental. Though Mikoto would have liked to interact with her more, it became difficult as Ayame continued to isolate herself in her stake-outs for the mastermind. When Ayame is missing much longer than usual, Mikoto is the one who notices first and expresses concern that she may be hurt or injured. After she reappears with amnesia, Mikoto initially believes her and stays behind to guide her back to her room. However, Ayame's involvement with the hatch and strange actions are called into question, causing Mikoto to wonder if Ayame really did have amnesia. In the end, Mikoto wants to believe Ayame, but is unsure. She refrains from the vote.

Hachi Yoshimura
Ayame mentions that she finds Hachi "dreamy." Though she doesn't know much about him, she is immediately intrigued by his enthusiastic attitude and loud persona. Hachi is one of the few people who reciprocates her interest in being friends. Her crush on Hachi is short-lived, however, as she forgets her feelings for him when she loses her memory. Whether or not she retained her feelings for him after she regained her memories is unknown. Hachi seems oblivious to her feelings for him and likely never realized them.

Megumi Ikeru
As the woman who Hachi is actually in love with, Ayame is a bit envious of Megumi. The two don't interact often, but Megumi seems a bit put off by Ayame's high energy and excitability. Megumi is also aware of Ayame's feelings for Hachi, though she doesn't try to intervene when the two are together. Later on, Megumi is shown to be doubtful about Ayame's story and regretfully admits that she isn't sure whether or not Ayame is lying.

Tomohiro Domoto
Tomohiro mentions to Mikoto early on that he does not trust Ayame. He vocalizes his concerns about her faking her amnesia as a way to lower their guard. He also votes against her during the vote called by Setsuna. It is later revealed that Tomohiro can read the true nature of a person, allowing him to sense her rage and the aura of death surrounding her.

Kaoru Kanna
Kaoru does not interact with Ayame very often over the course of the Prologue and Chapter 1, but says that he finds her odd. He later participates in the vote that Setsuna calls, believing her amnesia to be fake.

Like all of the game participants, Kaoru believes Ayame to be a living embodiment of sin and vice. During his time plotting for the game, Kaoru kept tabs on Ayame's career in the military. Her incredible talent was matched only by her ruthlessness. Kaoru sees her participation in the war to be indicative of her inherently bloodthirsty nature. Kaoru later mentions that he believes her fate to have been fitting, as she died like the animal she was, and feels no guilt for framing her for the murder of Fuyutsuki.

Trivia

 * Ayame was the 15th character in the roster to be created.
 * Ayame is one of three characters who were not born in Japan, the other two being Jane Doe and Tomohiro Domoto.
 * Ayame is the only member of the cast who is fluent in Russian, an ability she retains after her memory loss.