Peko Pekoyama

Peko Pekoyama is a character from the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair game.

Peko is a student of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B, and a participant of the Killing School Trip featured. Her title is Ultimate Swordswoman.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Peko is spared from canon fate. Peko is a member of the Heroes Coalition as a Solo Hero.

Appearance
Peko is a young woman in her early twenties, around 22 at youngest. Her virtual avatar in the Neo World Program appeared as her 17 year old self.

She is a tall, young woman, who wears a black/dark turquoise schoolgirl uniform with a red tie or ascot. Her skirt is somewhat short and she wears dark tights underneath it with white loafers. She has long, silver hair that she ties up into two braids on either side of her head with white ribbons securing each braid at the top, and two red ties to hold each braid together at the bottom. Her eyes are also bright red. Peko also wears thin framed rectangular glasses.

She is constantly seen carrying her shinai (bamboo sword) around with her in a dark turquoise sheath/wrap with a silver/white design 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'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.

As the Ultimate Despair, she wears white clothing, including a jacket and pants. She has also replaced her shinai with a standard metal katana, presumably due to no longer needing to hide her true lethality as a student of Hope's Peak.

During her time at Hope's Peak Academy, she wore the standard uniform without the blazer. She also wore black ribbons in her hair, along with the same tights and shoes.

Personality
Peko initially appears to have a rather serious demeanor, expressing little emotion. Due to this perceived aura, she often comes off as intimidating. Despite this, she is neither impolite nor an antisocial person. 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 too. Rather than being emotionless, she simply doesn’t express much of her emotions. As she revealed in her free time event, 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 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. Eventhough 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.

Peko has a kind heart, and cares deeply about Fuyuhiko but also cares about her fellow classmates. She wishes nothing but good towards them, begging them 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. 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 looses track of time while doing martial arts, as in the first episode of the Dangan Ronpa 3 despair arc.

She asked Hajime 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.”

Abilities
Being trained by the Kuzuryu clan since she was a newborn, Peko is quite skilled with a blade. She is entrusted with the safety of the clans' successor Fuyuhiko, proving her skills were greatly trusted by Fuyuhiko's family. Peko's skills rivaled that of Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier. She was able to block all of Mukuro's attacks in quick succession with her shinai. Despite her skills with her katana, Peko could also use her shinai as a non offensive weapon and even knew how to use the handle as a stepping stool to reach high places. Peko can always find a way to get out of a tight situation using her talent as the Ultimate Swordswoman. After killing Mahiru in the Neo World Program, she used the handle of her shinai as a stepping stool to reach the high window. After escaping through the window, Peko used the loop on her bag that she used to carry her shinai to retrieve it.

When fighting a member of the Future Foundation's ultimate task force, Peko found herself on the defensive. She hid behind a water tower, and let her opponent destroy it. She then emerged from the geyser of water and struck him down non-lethally before he could have enough time to counter.

Trivia

 * Peko's first name is written in katakana (one of two Japanese syllabaries usually used to write loanwords and foreign names) and so doesn't have any special meaning. Pekopeko, however, is a sound effect onomatopoeia) often used for bowing. The repetition effect is reflected in her name.
 * “Pekopeko” can also mean “obsequious” or “servile” - befitting the fact she was raised by the Kuzuryu family to be Fuyuhiko's “tool”.
 * Her last name, Pekoyama, is composed of “border” or “vicinity”, “old”, and “mountain”; making the meaning of the name “Pekoyama” something along the lines of “around the old mountain”.
 * Peko and Sakura Ogami both used to attend Shiranui High School.
 * Peko presumably learned about the serial killer Sparkling Justice from Sonia, since she heard Hajime and Sonia talk about the serial killer in the library when the group investigated the second island for the first time.
 * The mask Peko claims to don in the second trial shares characteristics with one of Japan's most prominent mascots, Peko-chan of Fujiya Co., including the outward sticking tongue.
 * Peko's mask, known as Sunny Witch ♪ Esper Itou-chan, is blond and wears a golden tiara with aquamarine gems - making her somewhat similar in appearance to Sailor Moon.
 * Peko's death poster in the trial room is crossed out with two blades, in reference to her Ultimate talent.
 * Peko's Japanese voice actress, Kotono Mitsuishi, also voiced Sailor Moon. She was one of the few voice actors specified by the creators to portray a specific character.
 * She also shares the same birthday as Sailor Moon, June 30.
 * Peko also shares her birthday with the headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy, Jin Kirigiri.