For the novel, please go to Yoshimi Yahagi (Novel). For the manga, please go to Yoshimi Yahagi (Manga).
Yoshimi Yahagi (矢作 好美, Yahagi Yoshimi) is a minor character in Battle Royale.
Backstory[]
Not much of Yoshimi's past was known. A passing reference was made to Mitsuko Souma that she was pimping Yoshimi, but it is never elaborated. Yoshimi had, along with Fumiyo Fujiyoshi and Mayumi Tendo, locked Noriko Nakagawa in a restroom stall which had insults written on the wall towards Noriko. Yoshimi didn't usually back down from authority figures. If Yoshimi was anything like her novel and manga counterparts, then she would've been an "urban" girl and had never seen a sickle until the program.
Friends and Enemies[]
Yoshimi was friends with Hirono Shimizu, Mayumi, and Fumiyo. She dated Yoji Kuramoto and they seemed to love each other. She was one of the students who bullied Noriko Nakagawa. It is unknown how her relationship with Mitsuko Souma was, but it could be assumed that their friendship was strained. She might have also been possible friends with Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano due to them talking and laughing on the bus. If Yoshimi's relationship with Yoji was anything like her counterparts', then her love for him would've bordered on obsessive.
Before the Program[]
Before Kitano resigned, Class B decided to take a day off and skip school, Yoshimi included; she attended the basketball game against Class A, and celebrated when Class B won. Yoshimi decided to go on the class trip; while on the bus, she chatted with Yukiko and Yumiko. Yoshimi fell asleep after breathing in a sleeping gas pumped into the bus; she was then transported to an island and fitted with an explosive collar.
Yoshimi, along with the rest of the class, woke up in a classroom in the island’s school. Unnerved by the presence of Shogo Kawada and Kazuo Kiriyama, Yoshimi rushed over to the window to watch a helicopter land in front of the school. Yoshimi was shocked to see that Kitano had returned. When Kitano asked the class if they knew the BR Act law, Yoshimi kept quiet, obviously knowing the law, but afraid to say it aloud. When Kitano explained the rules of Battle Royale. he caught Yoshimi and Yoji whispering to each other and hit them with a piece of chalk. Yoshimi confronted Kitano, yet Kitano wasn't intimidated and told her that when someone's talking, you shut up and listen before pushing her forehead with his finger, and she sat down. Yoshimi was horrified upon seeing Masao Hayashida's corpse. When Fumiyo Fujiyoshi was killed, Yoshimi panicked and ran for the door trying to escape before running towards the back of the classroom when the soldiers began firing. When Yoshitoki Kuninobu's collar got activated, Yoshimi ran around the room trying to evade him.
When Yoshimi's name was called, she grabbed her school bag and ran towards the front of the room; she caught her supply bag and ran out of the school.
During the Program[]
Yoshimi (left) dead after being hung.
Yoshimi and Yoji manage to find each other and hung themselves with Yoji's rope, where Mitsuko find's them before killing Megumi Eto. Hirono found them in the morning and assumed Mitsuko killed them, which she accused her of when confronting her.
Etymology[]
- The name Yoshimi means "fond, pleasing, like something" (好) (yoshi) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
- Yoshimi's surname Yahagi means "arrow" (矢) (ya) and "work, production, cultivation, tillage" (作) (hagi).
Notes & Trivia[]
- This is the only version of Yoshimi who wasn't killed by Mitsuko Souma.