Kaori Hayasaka

Hayasaka Kaori • Synopsis

Kaori Hayasaka
Aliases/Nicknames {{{nicknames}}}
Kanji	早坂 香
Romaji	Hayasaka Kaori
Biological Information
Gender	Male
Age	15-17
Birthday	April 16
Height	175 cm (5'9")
Blood Type	A
Professional Status
Occupation	2nd Year High School Student
School	Midorigaoka Academy
Affiliation	Public Morals Club
Club Position	Founding Member
Personal Information
Family	Hayasaka Kouichi (father) Hayasaka Lidia (mother, deceased) Hayasaka Misaki (older sister) Hayasaka Yurika (older sister) Hayasaka Akiko (aunt, deceased)
Miscellaneous
Status	Active
First Appearance	Chapter 2

Kaori Amelia Hayasaka (早坂 アメリア 香 Hayasaka Kaori) is a delinquent at Midorigaoka Academy in Class 2-1 who became one of the first members of the Public Morals Club along with his classmate Mafuyu Kurosaki.

Appearance

Hayasaka has naturally blond hair, inherited from his American mother. People often think it's dyed and is a feature that his classmates recognize him as a delinquent by. He has sharp eyes that assist him when he fights.

Personality

As a child, Hayasaka was a kind, bubbly and happy boy, but he became cold and distant with those around him after Lydia Hayasaka passed away. He became a delinquent and fought to clear his mind but pretends to be an honor student at home. It's not until Mafuyu Kurosaki transfers that he begins to open up.

Hayasaka is shown to be quite observant, a quality that helps him during his fights. This is first shown when he notices the murderous aura that Mafuyu emitted during their first meeting and suspects her to be strong. This is also shown when he notices Runa Momochi's absence in the morning assembly.

However, he is naive and easily fooled and is the only member of the Public Morals Club to not have caught on Mafuyu's power and identity as Natsuo and Super Bun, despite being her closest and first friend. This slow-wittedness is part of the reason why Hayasaka is constantly deemed a problematic character due to his tendency to cause trouble.

Being a delinquent, Hayasaka is extremely strong and excels in one-on-one fights but is terrible at dodging. He also reveals that he doesn't think while fighting and follows his instincts. He protects Mafuyu on numerous occasions under the impression she is a weak person.

Despite his delinquent appearance, Hayasaka is actually extremely studious, regularly taking notes during class and 'skipping' school only to study elsewhere. After he stops seeking fights, Mafuyu notes that he attends the Monday assembly and does his homework on time and only his blond hair remais "foreign lover" and that his sister was his legal wife. Due to this misunderstanding, Kouichi was unaware of Hayasaka's birth until one of Lidia's friends sent a letter to him.

Hayasaka's name comes from the first kanji of Kouichi's name and his first and middle name are both female names. Hayasaka was often dressed in girls' clothes as a child as Lidia wanted to see if Kouichi would notice; though he assumed it was a custom from her country. Whenever Kouichi tried to see them, Lidia always made Hayasaka run to his room.

Hayasaka was a very happy and bubbly child. He befriended Momochi when he asked her to play after he found her crying in his garden. Momochi had wounds from being abused by her mother and was called 'pitiful' by some others, though Hayasaka didn't ask about them. She initially became friends with him as she deemed him more pitiful than her, believing he was the son of a mistress. When Hayasaka thought about becoming friends with his sisters, Momochi was the one who stopped him and told him that everybody in the house was his enemy.

When Lidia passed away, Hayasaka lost his memories of the past year. He cut his hair and attended her funeral, believing it to be the funeral of 'the one who tormented his mother'. His personality went under a drastic change. Momochi saw his 'normal' appearance and was shocked, even more so when Hayasaka asked who she was and coldly told her not to call him by his first name. He then asked about her injuries and left with the remark that she was really pitiful.

As his life would be in danger if they forced him to remember, Kouichi decided to pretend that Hayasaka's assumption about being the son on a mistress was true. As a result, Hayasaka loathed him and didn't think of him as his father.

He began a habit of 'turning his eyes away' from the truth, and convinced himself that Lidia was still alive and was in 'that room'. Believing that everybody in he house was his enemy, Hayasaka isolated himself from those in his house and locked himself in his room during holidays and didn't hang out with anyone at school.

Relationships

Mafuyu Kurosaki

Mafuyu is extremely affectionate when it comes to Hayasaka as he is her first friend. Though Hayasaka often pushes her away due to the physically vigorous manner in which Mafuyu displays her friendship, he does care for her well-being. This is demonstrated when he does his best to keep Mafuyu away from fights and danger under the belief that she is a weak and delicate girl. Hayasaka's misguided attempts at chivalry are made even more ironic by his idolization of Usa-chan Man (Super bun) and Natsuo, two incredibly strong "shadow members" of the Public Morals Club who are both, in actuality, Mafuyu in disguise. Hayasaka's feelings of admiration towards Usa-chan Man ( super bun) are shown to be somewhat romantic in nature, a sentiment which to a certain extent disturbs Mafuyu, prompting her to tell him to "fall in love with an actual human." Hayasaka also greatly respects Natsuo as a mentor in fighting, however he becomes rather wary of him after Saeki suggests that Natsuo and himself are romantically involved. Hayasaka's general obtuseness makes him one of the only characters close to Mafuyu who does not realize her fighting prowess and other aliases, a slow-wittedness that is revealed to be forced.

Takaomi Saeki

Hayasaka is shown to share the feels of fear and respect most other characters harbor for Takaomi and it was said that he knows one of Hayasaka's weaknesses, potentially Hayasaka's first name when Takaomi says "Well, I wouldn't call it a weakness...".

Shinobu Yui

Hayasaka is one of the few, if not only person who fails to recognize Yui's poor attempts at concealing himself which results in Hayasaka brutally beating Yui upon their first encounter, a somewhat one-sided battle as Hayasaka's attack was entirely unintentional. When he joins the Public Morals Club, Yui is shocked when Hayasaka doesn't remember how he beat him and comes to both fear and respect his great strength. Whilst Mafuyu was highly suspicious and untrusting at first, Hayasaka quickly warmed up to him and they eventually became good friends. Even after his own betrayal, Yui was moved to tears when he found that Hayasaka had been treasuring and carrying around a photo of the trio during the school trip. it was Hayasaka's persistence and words that lead Yui to realize he'd always used Miyabi as an excuse to do what he wanted to and lead him to finally make a decision of his own accord instead of following somebody's orders; when he tearfully admitted he wanted to stay with them, Hayasaka and Mafuyu welcomed him back with open arms.

Kyotaro Okegawa

Hayasaka and Okegawa were initially on opposite sides when they first met due to their respective positions as a member of the Public Morals Club and Midori Ga Oka's bancho . They have since then become allies on good terms and Okegawa even gives him advice in Chapter 38. However, Okegawa angrily chases Hayasaka down when he ruins the happy moment in which Mafuyu called Okegawa a dear friend. He is upset when he and Akki find out that they were lied to and that Hayasaka had already returned to normal but is restrained by Mafuyu who quickly says they would treat him to cake before he could hit him.

Runa Momochi

Momochi is initially introduced as a member of the student council who preys on weak students, exposing their insecurities and making them "disappear" from the school. After sensing Hayasaka's lack of mental fortitude, she decides to make him her next target and proposes a deal with Miyabi in which the other student council members will fight against the Public Morals Club and she will go last. Her initial plan was to play with Hayasaka and then Miyabi but after she realizes that he is her childhood friend that abandoned her, she tries even harder to lock away his memories of that period. When they were young, Momochi was beaten by her mother and called pitiful by adults but Hayasaka did not ask about her injuries. Under the guise that he was the child of a mistress, she befriended the boy who she deemed more pitiful than herself and they played regularly together. He used to call her 'Runa nee -san'. When she found Hayasaka had lost his memories and was dressed normally, she was shocked and was stricken when he questioned her injuries and called her pitiful. This hurt her deeply and 'how pitiful' became a signature phrase she said to her 'prey' before they disappeared. Similarly, Momochi's words about everyone in the house being his enemy played a major role in Hayasaka's life as well. She cries when he treats her with kindness instead of using the opportunity to mock her.

Kouichi Hayasaka

Although Hayasaka shunned and hated his father for most of his life due to his misconception about the relationship between his mother and father, Kouichi is shown to love and care for Hayasaka very deeply. Kouichi even propagated the rumor that Kaori was the daughter of his mistress in order to protect Hayasaka's fragile mental state and prevent the painful memories of his mother's death from resurfacing, even though it meant that Kouichi himself would be despised by both Hayasaka and the servants. Hayasaka's mother named him Kaori after Kouichi, using the first part of his father's name. When all is out in the open, Hayasaka tells him that if his mother loved him and was happy, he will gladly acknowledge him as his father.

Lydia Hayasaka

Hayasaka's American mother was an avid fan of midday dramas who tended to confuse the plots of such dramas ( Afternoon drama) with reality. Hayasaka and Lidia were shown to be very close when Hayasaka was young and she often dressed him in girls' clothes and took pictures together. Hayasaka treasures one of these photos and carries it around with him at all times but he turned his eyes away from the fact. Due to Lidia's misconception about her being Kouichi's "foreign lover" she wouldn't let Kouichi see Hayasaka as a child and made him run away every time. She dressed up Hayasaka as a girl to see if Kouichi would notice and say something (an action Kouichi mistook to be a custom of her country). When Lidia died of illness, Hayasaka lost his memories of the previous year to due the mental shock and began to dress like a boy and came to loathe his first name. It is due to this incident that Hayasaka comes to believe he is the child of his father's lover.

Quotes

• (To Natsuo) "It's true that you're strong... but you can only do so much by yourself. I might not be able to protect you... but even I can get your back!"
• (To himself) "I felt... like my heart was going to stop. Like everything was in slow motion. I don't know why, but... something was moving me... I don't ever want to feel like that again."
• (To Shinobu Yui) "Shut up about Miyabi! I... want to know what you think!"

Etymology

• The name Kaori means "fragrance, fragrant" (香).
  • Kaori comes from the first kanji of the name Kouichi (香一).
• Kaori's surname Hayasaka means "already, now, early" (早) (haya) and "slope" (坂) (saka).

Trivia

• Hayasaka ranked 5th with a total of 2423 points in the character popularity poll conducted by Hana to Yume in early 2013.
• Hayasaka's favorite food is hotpot and dislikes pineapples in sweet and sour pork
• Hayasaka dislikes the waiting room at the dentist.
• In Chapter 6, it is revealed that Hayasaka is very good at embroidery.
• Hayasaka's hobby is jigsaw puzzle and domino.
• Hayasaka's preference type in romance is Usa-chan Man (super bun)/Mafuyu Kurosaki.
• Hayasaka's weakness (or not good at) is defensive things.
• Hayasaka spends his holiday in male dormitory by doing rock-paper-scissor game or going to the Arcade.