Kaede Akamatsu

Kaede Akamatsu is a pianist, and one of the main characters of Deer River. She is also a minor character in Deer River V2.

Before Deer River
Kaede picked up the piano when she was very young, and she would play whenever she was bored. She played so much that she sometimes forgot to have lunch. She became very good at it, to the point that she started to win musical competitions.

Before being accepted into Deer River Academy, Kaede went to Hope's Peak High-School, where she, at some point, met Maki Harukawa.

She wasn't labelled a nerd during her high-school years, but she was called "Piano Freak" and she wasn't especially popular. It's implied she was the receiver of a few pranks such as wedgies, wet willies and swirlies.

Deer River
Kaede arrived at Deer River Academy in the hopes of becoming a great musician. She was introduced to the academy by Kali Belladonna, who told her about her daughter Blake and warned her about letting her underwear show, much to Kaede's embarrassment. Despite Kali's advice, she was soon found by Drake Francis and wedgied, left to hang by the flagpole of the academy.

She was later rescued by Makoto Niijima and properly introduced to the academy. They became fast friends, and they exchanged contact information so they could stay in touch.

On her first day of class, she visited Diantha on her office to talk about her future as a pianist, as well as to talk about Deer River's wedgie problem, and learned just how deeply rooted the issue was. That day, she ran into the Widowmaker and attempted to save her regular victim Yukiko Amagi from being given a wedgie, but she failed and was given a strange type of atomic wedgie; Amèlie snapped Yukiko's panties over Kaede's head, and vice-versa. However, Diantha soon appeared to rescue the girls, giving Amèlie a powerful wedgie and taking her away to the detention room, giving Kaede some hope for the future of Deer River. She also befriended Yukiko after their short interaction.

That same day, Kaede was given a tour of the entire academy by Makoto, including the cafeteria, the library and the doctor's office, where she met Angela "Mercy" Ziegler.

During the following two weeks, Kaede got accustomed to the way in which Deer River worked, and she got many wedgies and swirlies by a plethora of different bullies. Despite this, she did well in her classes, and she bonded with both Yukiko and Makoto.

At some point she was wedgied by Hilda Ware, one of Medb' s top Knights and shoved into a locker, and was later saved by her professor Da Vinci before she missed her class. Kaede, after hearing about Hilda's true personality, tried to befriend her, only to receive another brutal atomic wedgie and a swirly in return. Later that day, Kaede found Hilda again, complaining about not being able to return her books in time, which would result in her getting spanked by Elizabeth. Kaede offered to help, and Hilda began to consider the possibility of them being friends. The next day, Kaede took the spanking in place of Hilda.

During the following days, the two girls began to hang out, and Kaede soon started to see her as a true friend, despite their rough start. She also managed to get Hilda to stay out of trouble, not seeing her bully anyone during their time together.

While having lunch with Hilda during one of their hang-outs, Makoto interrogated them about their relationship, being suspicious of the bully. Despite Kaede explaining to her that she had truly become friends with a bully, and that not all people who gave wedgies were bad by default, Makoto still doubted Hilda and asked Kaede if she had truly managed to change for the better. The bully left the room during their conversation after getting a text from Medb.

The next day, Kaede began to worry about Hilda not answering her texts, and thinking about what Makoto had said, she wondered if she was maybe bullying people behind her back. Kaede went to look for Hilda and found her at her dorm room, and the Knight revealed to her that she had been avoiding her because Medb had asked her to stop seeing her, and even worse, to give her the "humiliation of a lifetime". Kaede then decided to go pay Medb a visit to try to convince her to allow Hilda to make friends outside of their inner circle.

Hilda accompanied Kaede to Medb's "throne room" despite knowing her plan would not work. As expected, Medb punished Kaede's insolence with a powerful wedgie. Before Medb and her underlings could torture Kaede further, Hilda tackled Effie and gave her an atomic melvin, and the two girls escaped from the throne room to avoid further trouble. This proved to Kaede that Hilda had truly changed for the better, and that she was a true friend.

Medb put a bounty on Kaede, Hilda and Makoto, offering the girl that could hang them from the flagpole the position of new top Knight. Cinder Fall and Emerald Sustrai developed a plan to get Kaede, but they were stopped by Hilda before they could harm her, and Kaede only noticed that it was a trap after the girls were gone.

Many bullies tried to go after Kaede after that incident, but Hilda protected her every time.

Days later, while she was having lunch with her friends, Makoto warned her and Yukiko to be careful that day. Confused by the warning, Kaede, and Hilda agreed to follow her, only to know what was troubling her. Upon arriving at the Council's room, Hilda got a text message and left in a hurry, leaving Kaede to eavesdrop on Makoto. She learned about Medb's plans to round up as many nerds as possible to hang them in the auditorium, and she ran back to the cafeteria to warn Yukiko. She was stopped by Olivia and dragged to the auditorium.

There, she was given a hanging wedgie along with Yukiko. Kaede yelled at Medb and admonished for her actions, only for the Queen to make their punishment worse with a bouncing wedgie. The girl continued to torture them for several minutes before Blake and Makoto arrived. Kaede watched as Medb blackmailed the girls into doing her bidding, waiting for her to finish before revealing she had recorded everything. Medb ran from the auditorium, finally leaving the girls alone.

Later, Kaede was reunited with Hilda, and the two of them ate lunch together to celebrate the fall of Medb.

The Loner, the Nerd, and the Mongrel
During the weeks after the fall of Medb, Hilda continued to protect Kaede from most bullies.

At some point during this period, she ran into Maki Harukawa, who she recognized as one of her classmates at Hope's Peak High, who gave her an atomic wedgie for trying to talk to her. She was later hung by her panties on a bathroom stall, and eventually found by Hilda.

Kaede later found Maki stuck inside a locker, skirtless and atomic wedgied, and apologized, knowing that it had been Hilda's doing. Maki was surprised that Kaede had decided to help her, and agreed to try to be friends with her after being released.

Deer River V2
Kaede was one of the students BB took to her office to wedgie to feature her in The BB Channel's Wedgie Special. She was brought in alongside Marie Mikoto and Mash Kyrielight. After leaving Marie suspended from the ceiling of her office, she proceeded to give Kaede and Mash atomic wedgies, before finishing them off with a centaur wedgie. The three girls were later rescued by Elizabeth, who proceeded to punish BB. Kaede left the room alongside the other two girls after being threatened by BB not to talk about the event.

The video of Kaede, Marie and Mash being wedgied was later uploaded to the BB Channel, and received a big amount of likes and favorites.

Kaede continued to receive wedgies during the semester, and at some point she was bullied by Zinnia.

Personality
Kaede is a very optimistic and extroverted young lady, and wants to work hard to become a world-famous pianist. When she arrived at Deer River, she initially lost hope about her future and the future of the other girls deemed as "nerds" by the bullies, but Makoto and Diantha managed to make her feel better about the academy and herself.

She's empathetic and perseverant to a fault, as shown when she tried to become friends with Hilda even after she had relentlessly bullied her twice in the same day. She also took a punishment in her place, showing that she will do anything for the people she considers her friends. She endured all kinds of punishments for her friend Hilda because she trusted her and knew she could change into a better person.

Kaede is easily embarrassed when people make remarks about her choice in underwear or her large behind, but she doesn't seem to be self-conscious about her body at all. After her first wedgie, she wonders why anyone would be cruel enough to enjoy humiliating someone in such a way.

Underwear
Kaede appears to have a taste for pink underwear, as she's shown to be wearing panties of that color on each and every one of her appearances. They are almost always granny panties, as many have pointed out that her rear is particularly big and that kind of underpants is perhaps the only one that feels comfortable enough for her to wear. She's shown to be aware of this fact, but she still finds her underwear cute and enjoys wearing them.

Known Pairs

 * A pair of pink granny panties with musical notes on them
 * A pair of pink striped panties with musical notes on the waistband
 * A pink pair with a yellow smiley face face on the rear (ripped)
 * A pink pair decorated with tiny red hearts
 * At least one pair of plain pink granny panties
 * A pink pair of granny panties with white polka-dots

Deer River

 * Chapter 1: The Beginning (debut)
 * Chapter 2: Keep Your Head Down
 * Chapter 3: The Tour
 * Chapter 13: The Mongrel
 * Chapter 14: Allegiances
 * Chapter 15: The Golden Ticket
 * Chapter 16: The Queen Will Fall (mentioned)
 * Chapter 21: Seize the Throne (Part 1)
 * Chapter 22: Seize the Throne (Part 2)
 * Chapter 23: Seize the Throne (Part 3)

Deer River V2

 * Chapter 11: The BB Channel's Wedgie Special
 * Chapter 12: Rule Breaker (mentioned)
 * Chapter 17: A Bitter Taste
 * Chapter 18: Predictable (mentioned)
 * Chapter 22: The Sadist and the Masochist (mentioned)
 * Chapter 29: To Risk the Fall (mentioned)

Deer River Shorts

 * The Loner, the Nerd, and the Mongrel

Trivia

 * Kaede's favorite movie is "My Sweet, Sweet Lady," starring Diantha.
 * Of all the characters that have been wedgied at least twice, Kaede is, along with Emerald Sustrai, the only one to always wear panties of the same color.
 * In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the game where Kaede is originally from, the player can collect the other characters' underwear after bonding with them. The pair Kaede gives to the player is also pink.