Kaeda Kayano

 Kaede Kayano

Kaede Kayano, (茅野 カエデ Kayano Kaede), known previously as Akari Yukimura, (雪村 あかり Yukimura Akari) is a student in Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, taught by Korosensei. She is one of Nagisa Shiota's best friends and is, by her admittance, currently in love with him.

Appearance

Kayano is a short girl with light green hair that is always fashioned in unique cat ear-styled pigtails, hazel eyes and a running gag for her appearance is that she does not have noticeable breasts like the other female students in the class, giving her the nickname "Forever Flat".

In reality, her light green hair is dyed and is black, long, and wavy. When overwhelmed by the tentacles, her hazel eyes became red as a result of her bloodlust. Once her tentacles were removed, she went back to her cat ear-styled pigtails and her eyes returned to hazel.

After seven years since graduating from middle school, she went back to her original hairstyle before joining Class 3-E. She also grows taller, being just shy of Nagisa's height. Additionally, her chest has slightly grown.

Personality

Kayano is one of the most kind, cheerful and passive members of the class who frequently acts as support in assassination attempts with her ability to assess the situation and adapt herself to them.^[1]

Despite her apparent passive nature, Kayano is an empathic and strong-willed person who can be extremely determined to the things that interest her or cares about, such as her love for sweets, and more tragically, her sister's fate. She also experiences a severe complex when it comes to her sex appeal, loudly voicing her discomfort when being around large breasted women.

Before confronting Korosensei, the passive and cheerful personality was a facade to hide her true motives. Her only true attributes were her tenacity, adapting skill, and sex appeal complex, the rest being mere fabrications; her love for sweets may have resulted from the influence of the tentacles.^[2] However, after getting her tentacles removed, the happy personality she created became a true part of who she is.

History

Akari Yukimura is the younger sister of Aguri Yukimura, who before joining Kunugigaoka, was a famed prodigal actress who went by the stage name of Haruna Mase. At some point during her career, her manager suggested that she take some time off, which she did. Eventually, people stopped recognizing her altogether and she continued her time as a regular middle school student.

Akari having a friendly chat with her sister.

Akari's relationship with her elder sister was loving and positive, to the point that she would tease Aguri about who she was infatuated with as of late. She advised Aguri to end her relationship with her fiancé Kotaro Yanagisawa after deducing that he had a sinister personality underneath his charms, due to her experience with directors in her acting career. The two sisters agreed to catch up properly after Aguri mentioned getting some time off the next day, though Akari had the last word requesting to know everything about the man that Aguri was into. One day, Akari was wandering outside the research facility her sister helped out at and witnessed an explosion take place. Because of her small stature, she was able to navigate her way through the rubble to get to Aguri. When she finally reached her sister, she saw her bleeding with a tentacled creature that would later become Korosensei leaning over her body. The creature sped off soon after leaving a note addressed to Aguri's relative telling them where to find him. Akari hurried to her now dead sister and while mourning for her, she came across the tentacle cell liquid.

Akari decides to wait for the ideal opportunity to kill Korosensei.

She took her sister's research home and began researching the tentacles, studied what they were for and simultaneously planned her revenge as well as her ultimate act. She even transferred to Kunugigaoka under the fake alias of Kaede Kayano, which was the name of a one-shot character she once played and got herself put into Class E by destroying some of Chairman Asano's valuable possessions. Soon after, she injected herself with the cells and dyed her black hair green.

At some point not long after, she met Nagisa and decided that he was the perfect candidate to conceal her and place her as one of the background characters. She commented on his long hair and styled them into his signature pigtails. She introduced herself to him and their "friendship" began.