For the novel, please go to Hirono Shimizu (Novel). For the film, please go to Hirono Shimizu (Film).
Hirono Shimizu (清水 比呂乃, Shimizu Hirono) is a minor character in Battle Royale.
Backstory[]
Hirono Shimizu was a member of the gang headed by Mitsuko Souma. She was often referred to as 'Hiro' by her classmates, even though they were not her friends. She had been involved with both recreational drugs, prostitution, shoplifting, and bullying other classmates. Although she was considered a "bad girl", Hirono was quite opposed to the idea of having to kill unless it was in self-defense. Hirono also never saw most of her actions as harmful, and it does not seem that she was pressured into committing crimes by Mitsuko, like Yoshimi Yahagi was. Her delinquent activities have given her a clearly advanced level of maturity and perception.
Friends and Enemies[]
Hirono was in a gang consisting of herself, Yoshimi Yahagi, and Mitsuko Souma. She followed Mitsuko but didn't trust all that much. As for Yoshimi, it was unknown how close they were as Yoshimi considered themselves as close as sisters yet Hirono didn't make any attempt to stop two men from taking Yoshimi's virginity.
Toshinori Oda considered her to be a vulgar girl due to her wearing cheap perfume and her reputation.
In the Program[]
After getting her name called out, Hirono escaped from the school and found that her weapon was a Standard issue Colt sidearm. It is assumed that she didn't run into anyone until the afternoon of that day when she ran into the insane Kaori Minami. Kaori was armed with a gun and fired at Hirono who hid behind a building and fired back. The two girls were in a gun fight yet because Hirono's gun was powerful, she couldn't aim that well when she fired while Kaori was already insane, thus she couldn't aim well either, thus they were in a stalemate.
Eventually, Shuya Nanahara fired his gun in the air to stop the two. Shuya told the girls that they were doing exactly what the program wanted and wanted them to stop. Hirono was surprised that Shuya would do that as he told the girls that he wasn't alone in this idea as Shogo Kawada and Noriko Nakagawa also believed in the same. He also told them that Shogo knew a way off the island, although Hirono wasn't sure to trust him but once he convinced Kaori that things will be okay, she called him crazy, but she could relate to that. As the two were talking, Hirono was suddenly shot in the arm, grabbed her gun and ran away from the scene. [1]
Later on the night, Hirono's wound was causing her to have an infection which made her very thirsty and by this time, she was out of water. She cursed Kaori and vowed that she would now shoot first and ask questions later. She thought about what she wanted to do, at first she wanted to kill Kaori for the injury but she knew it was a better idea to find Shuya first as he seemed like he knew what to do although she wasn't sure if she could trust him as escape seemed impossible. She then blamed Shuya for making her drop her guard and vowed that she would shoot first, and ask questions later. As she made her way around the island, Hirono kept thinking of the pain she was in. She soon found a well and as she was getting things to work, someone came up behind her and started choking her.[2]
Hirono took her gun out and shot the person who turned out to be Toshinori Oda. She laughed at the thought that "Froggy" almost got her and then resumed getting water. However Toshinori wasn't really dead and he got behind Hirono and pushed her down the well and as she was falling, she got a cut on her head. She eventually drowned but not before having a fantasy where she escaped from the well and found Shuya, Noriko and Shogo who took off their collars and saved her. Hirono died believing that she was saved. [3]
Her corpse was later found by Hiroki Sugimura, who realized she had been pushed in the well by Toshinori. However, due to his pacifist tendencies, Sugimura could not bring himself to kill Oda.
Appearances[]
- The Worst Game in History
- Best Friend
- Problem Child (Flashback)
- The Right Answer
- Persuasion
- Thirst
- Existence
- The well (Corpse)
- Toshinori Oda (Flashback)
- Determination (Thoughts)
- Hope (Thoughts)
Etymology[]
- The name Hirono means "ratio, proportion" (比) (hi), "spine, backbone" (呂) (ro) and "from" (乃) (no).
- Hirono's surname Shimizu means "clear water/pure water, spring water" (清水).
Notes and Trivia[]
- There's a small possibility that Kazuo had romantic feelings for Hirono, as he closes his eyes when he hears of her death on the loudspeaker, but this could have been because he didn't hear the names of two of the people he had tried to kill not long before, Shuya and Hiroki.