Peko Pekoyama

Peko Pekoyama (辺古山ペコ Pekoyama Peko) is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and a participant in the Killing School Trip.

Peko has the title of Ultimate Swordswoman (超高校級の「剣道家」chō kōkō kyū no “kendō-ka” lit. Super High School Level Swordswoman).

Peko returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School with the other Remnants of Despair as a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B. Peko was succumbed to despair along with her classmates after being brainwashed by Junko Enoshima and became a part of Ultimate Despair.

In Danganronpa 2, Peko killed Mahiru Koizumi in Chapter 2 in order to protect her master, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, from becoming the culprit of the second murder case. Monokuma executed her after she was voted guilty and Fuyuhiko confessed that the crime was committed by Peko herself.

At the end of Danganronpa 3, Peko and the other members of Ultimate Despair were cured by Hajime Hinata and awake from the Neo World Program, joining the final confrontation with Ryota Mitarai in order to stop him from brainwashing the world with his Hope Video. After cured by Hajime from the brainwashed effect, Peko and her classmates decided to atone for their sins as the former members of Ultimate Despair.

The illusion version of Peko makes her appearance in the upcoming OVA titled Super Danganronpa 2.5: Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of the World as a part of Nagito Komaeda's imagination world.

Appearance[]

Peko is a tall, young woman with fair skin and a cool demeanor. She has long silver hair tied up into two braids on each side of her head, secured by white ribbons at the bases and dark red hair ties at the ends. She has side-swept bangs with two shoulder-length locks of hair that curl outwards, left down to frame her face. Her eyes are a vivid red, and she wears thin-framed rectangular glasses.

She wears a long sleeved, turquoise-black seifuku uniform with a dark, gray-teal sailor collar and sleeve cuffs, each striped with two thin white lines at the edges, a red ascot tied at her neck. A red strip of cloth is wrapped around her left upper arm. Below this, she wears a somewhat paler turquoise pleated skirt, striped with an even paler line at the hem. Her legwear consists of turquoise-black tights and cream-colored loafers.

Peko is constantly seen carrying her shinai (bamboo sword) around with her in a dark turquoise sheath/wrap with a thin white dragon design printed on the back. The shinai has a metal katana blade hidden at the center of its bamboo wrappings, which Peko likely uses when protecting and hunting people on Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu's orders.

At one point in the game, Peko admits that her appearance has been mistaken for cosplay before, and strange cameramen have tried to take pictures of her. Nekomaru Nidai also experienced this and they were seen to talk about their 'striking' appearances.

During Chapter 2, Peko was briefly seen wearing a Sparkling Justice mask.

During her high school years, she wore the standard Hope's Peak Academy uniform, excluding the blazer. Her hair ribbons were longer and black, along with her hair ties. She wore translucent black tights and plain white loafers.

As the Ultimate Despair, she wore strips of cloth wrapped over her chest, a one-button open white suit over it, with long formal pants of the same color with a buckled belt. Her footwear consisted of red heeled shoes. Her hair was styled differently, left down to flow to her waist, with a single ponytail tied at the right of her head. She was also equipped with a standard metal katana rather than her shinai, presumably due to no longer needing to hide her true lethality as a student of Hope's Peak.

Personality[]

Peko initially appears to have a rather serious demeanor, expressing very little emotion. Due to this perceived aura, she often comes off as intimidating. Despite this, she is neither impolite nor an antisocial person though she dislikes being in a crowd. She had no qualms about attending the party in chapter one, and furthermore apologizes for what she felt was a failing on her part due to her believing the power went out because she was in the bathroom from food poisoning so she was not guarding the room it was in. She comes off as cold but this isn’t because she means to. Rather than being emotionless, she simply doesn’t express much of her emotions. As she revealed in her Free Time Events, she believed that she didn’t need to smile and therefore eventually forgot how to. She thought it was unnecessary at the time, although in her free time event she wanted to learn how to make her childhood friend (who is highly implied to be Fuyuhiko) happy. While she attempts to learn how to do so, she’s shown to be oblivious in the situation where Hiyoko Saionji makes up her own somewhat evil version on how to smile.

Due to being raised as a “tool” for the Kuzuryu clan, she believes herself to be less than human and that her sole purpose is to carry out Fuyuhiko’s wishes. While Fuyuhiko loves her as a person and doesn’t want her to think of herself as a tool, she interprets it as Fuyuhiko's hate of relying on his family’s power, and therefore hating her along with it. This further fuels her desire to be useful to him, and to try to make him happy even if she claims that as a tool she has no will of her own. Even though she killed Mahiru, it was not an act of cold blood, but an act of desperation because she wanted to provide Fuyuhiko the opportunity to escape along with wanting to protect him from the consequences of him carrying out the murder himself and given her knowledge of targeted strikes probably ensured that Mahiru's death would be instant showing she isn't a cruel person though she could certainly be very ruthless in order to achieve her goals shown both by her murder of Mahiru and then framing Hiyoko for it despite being very aware of their bond and personally insulting Mahiru by calling her "evil" while in her sparking justice persona even if she didn't mean a single word of it.

Peko has a kind heart, and cares deeply about Fuyuhiko but also cares about her fellow classmates. She wishes nothing but good towards them, and is genuinely remorseful and saddened by taking Mahiru's life and betraying everyone, begging the class to “not cause a senseless killing like this ever again”, Due to her belief that a tool has no will or opinions of her own, she usually doesn’t express her emotions much. Yet, she is still a very caring and selfless person who in spite of her social anxiety is always polite and sweet natured, joining Akane and Nekomaru in threatening Monokuma when the game is first revealed and offering to protect the weapons box during the party. She splits open a coconut for Ibuki, Teruteru, Hajime and Kazuichi and says she's truly glad that others are enjoying themselves because of her. Beyond believing she is his tool, Peko’s deep desire to protect Fuyuhiko also comes from how much she cares about him. This soft side of her is shown in, for example, her love for animals, especially pandas. However, they usually don’t share this feeling in return. Most animals are scared of her, and run away. She also sometimes loses track of time while doing martial arts, as in the first episode of the Danganronpa 3 Despair Arc. .

She asked Hajime Hinata to teach her how to ask someone out on a date. Peko wanted to ask her childhood friend to go on a date after they succeeded in escaping from Jabberwock Island. She finally learned that, “Smiling is not something you have to force. When your heart gets warm, smiles come to you naturally.”

Relationships[]

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu[]

It is revealed at the end of Chapter 2 that Peko was raised in the Kuzuryu household, and was assigned to be Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu's personal hitman and bodyguard, meaning she was always around him since youth. She orchestrated Mahiru's murder in an attempt to save Fuyuhiko from the Island and send him back home.

Unfortunately, she underestimated Fuyuhiko's attachment to her, believing that he would sacrifice his "tool" to escape the Island, which proved to be her undoing. Despite this, Peko appears at least partially aware that Fuyuhiko does not share her viewpoint of herself being an expendable pawn, admitting that she had a feeling that her master would not be able to call her a tool to save himself when pressed at the end of the second Class Trial. Fuyuhiko doesn't view Peko as a tool and he just wants her as her normal self. He began to cry, not wanting her to leave him. Peko continued to stay by his side and protected him like when Fuyuhiko tried to save Peko from being executed and interfered her execution. However, he failed and Peko got distracted, accidentally blinding his right eye and getting stabbed by one of the Monokuma soldiers.

In the Island Mode alternate ending and in her last Free Time Event, Peko is revealed to have feelings for Fuyuhiko. In the main story, she's still very close to him, willing to protect him at all times - proved in her execution when she immediately protects Fuyuhiko from the wooden warrior monsters trying to attack him. In the Sixth 'Trial', Fuyuhiko heard Peko's voice speaking to him to snap out of despair, similar to Chiaki Nanami's voice that Hajime heard.

In Danganronpa 3, Peko stays close to Fuyuhiko all the time. She sits behind him in both classes, and only leaves his side to follow Mukuro. Despite how much Fuyuhiko cares about Peko, he is noticeably more colder to Peko in Danganronpa 3, especially when she offers to go find out why Natsumi is in the Reserve Course. Fuyuhiko coldly tells her that there is nothing between them now, and that she is no longer his hitwoman. This noticeably upsets Peko, but he goes on to say he only told her this so she wouldn't do anything crazy. Peko still helps Fuyuhiko by moving his stuff and Fuyuhiko also helps Peko, and tells her to "shut up" when she protests. Ibuki, however, interprets this as them acting like a mature couple. Fuyuhiko is upset when Mikan carries an unconscious Peko back to class, and he holds her in his arms, until she is strong enough to stand on her own. He also tells Peko he can't let "them" (referring to Mukuro and Junko) go for beating her up badly.

As Ultimate Despairs, Fuyuhiko and Peko still remain close. He says he and Peko will lead the gang down the right path, implying he sees them as equals, and they later stand back to back after killing everyone in the Japanese Diet Building. At some point though, they slipped back into their old roles as Fuyuhiko silently orders Peko to fight Kyosuke Munakata.

Natsumi Kuzuryu[]

Though the relationship between the two of them is unclear, Peko seemed to care deeply about Natsumi, even addressing her as a superior, much like her young master. When Fuyuhiko was looking at his sister's body in the morgue, Peko punched a wall in grief and anger, even managing to make her knuckles bleed.

Hajime Hinata[]

During her Free Times Events, Hajime helps Peko to learn how to smile again. Despite not sharing a close relationship with her in the main story, Hajime has a strong romantic interest in Peko in her Free Time Events and the Island Mode. However, she is oblivious to this and is in fact in love with Fuyuhiko. She is very thankful for Hajime's support and advice and happy to be his friend.

Chisa Yukizome[]

Peko seemed to have a great amount of respect for Chisa as her Homeroom teacher. Though she and Chisa didn't interact much, Peko seemed sad when Chisa announced she had to leave them. Peko joyfully attended Chisa's reunion party.

Chiaki Nanami[]

Peko approved of Chiaki being her class representative. Peko would later praise Chiaki to Chisa for being supportive of them in Chisa's absence, and did not shy away in giving Chiaki all the credit for organizing Chisa's welcome back party. Peko was horrified to witness Chiaki's brutual execution at Junko's hands, and was left crying as she witnessed Chiaki being forced to undergo a dangerous gauntlet that left her badly injured and in pain, before being killed.

Mahiru Koizumi[]

Peko and Mahiru actually established a good relationship during the Killing School Trip aside from her becoming Fuyuhiko's "tool" in order to revenge Natsumi's death by killing Mahiru. In Peko's Free Time Events, she started to try to smile again after Mahiru told her that she is the only one who doesn't smile in her photos. Peko likes Mahiru's photo and said that she learned that her photos gave strength to people.

Ibuki Mioda[]

Ibuki appears to be attracted to Peko. In Chapter 1, when Peko offers to be on guard duty and leaves the room, Ibuki grins and mutters to herself that she feels Peko has "this super cool, melancholy vibe".

In a Special Event during the first chapter, the two are walking together on the beach when they meet Hajime, Kazuichi and Teruteru. Ibuki winks and claims she was holding hands with Peko, though Peko stoically denies this and tells Teruteru not to fantasize about weird things when he imagines the two girls having sex. When Peko talks about splitting open a coconut and describes how she wouldn't make a mistake with a sword, Ibuki gets really excited, screaming that she's so cool and that she might fall in love with her quiet words. She then begins to call her "Peko-Peko". Peko seems to mostly ignore her behavior.

Nagito Komaeda[]

While Peko wasn't close with Nagito, she did have the consideration to ask Fuyuhiko what she should do with his stuff, while most of the class seemed to ignore it. Peko also trusted Nagito enough to separate herself from the rest of the class, including Fuyuhiko, and follow Mukuro Ikusaba at Nagito's request.

Hiyoko Saionji[]

Peko is one of Hiyoko's prank victims, although not as frequent as Mikan or Kazuichi due to her being sometimes oblivious to things such as smiling. In one of her Free Time Events, Hiyoko told her a "revolutionary technique" on how to smile, but it was actually a children's prank.

Sakura Ogami[]

Akame[]

Peko sees Akame as a rival and she challenges her to sword combat to see who is the better swordswoman.

Kagura Mikazuchi[]

Kagura respects Peko as the Ultimate Swordswoman and becomes a member of her team alongside Akame.

Leonardo "Leo" Hamato[]

She dislikes Leonardo at first but later on she respects him as a leader of his clan.

Inuyasha[]

When they first met, Peko always insults Inuyasha with his rash and stubborn personality. But soon she considers him as a friend and an ally.

Ryuko Matoi[]

Ryuko likes to challenge Peko whenever the opportunity hits. Peko is interested in Senketsu and sometimes wear him when Ryuko is in the shower or if she's too injured to fight.

Senketsu[]

For some reason, Peko is able to hear him even though she doesn't have Life Fibers in her at all. She respects him as a Kamui and is able to wear him properly and use his abilities.