Hibiki Tomoeda

Hibiki Tomoeda is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 79th, and a participant of the Killing Game featured in Danganronpa 4.5 Despair Excursion. Her title is Super High School Level ASMRtist.

Personality
Despite her appearance, Tomoeda is a very soft-spoken and kind person. She prefers stay on the sidelines of most conversations and events, but will speak up with her opinion if she feels it would be helpful. Most people find them very soothing to be around, and their nonjudgmental and patient nature make them a good confidant. She is often silent, and this combined with her sometimes intimidating presence can lead to a deceptive first impression, but she is eager to dismiss this. Tomoeda does not enjoy scaring people or making others uncomfortable, but will use her strength to protect her friends if necessary. Her guiding philosophy is peace, and strives to find a way for everyone to relax.

Beneath her calm surface, Tomoeda often deals with various anxieties relating to herself and her talent, most commonly that it isn't a 'real talent'. This is a problem for them during the killing game, as they feel useless when trying to escape, investigate, or solve class trials. However, she supports her friends with all of her strength, and avoids talking about her own problems, not wanting to upset others.

Appearance
Tomoeda is very tall for their age, towering over most of their friends. She is broad-shouldered and heavily built. Her strong jaw and square face can make her seem intimidating on first impression, as well as the three scars on the left side of her face - though these were simply the result of a mishap with a knife during the filming of a soap cutting ASMR video. Her hair, save for a few stray locks in her fringe, is pulled back from her face and styled into a braid that reaches to her thighs. Tomoeda has prominent eyebrows and grey eyes.

Tomoeda always wears layers of soft clothing that covers most of her body. Her default outfit consists of a dark purple v-neck, over which she wears a sash and fanny pack, a lighter cardigan, and polka-dotted neck scarf, which she often pulls up to cover her mouth. She wears a floor-length pleated skirt and slippers. Tomoeda is never seen without her headphones, which feature neon blue lights and are shaped like cat ears. She chooses her clothes for comfort as well as the secondary effect of the fabric creating a 'white noise' sound.

Talents & Abilities
As the SHSL ASMRtist, Tomoeda is skilled at using her voice and various objects to create soothing sounds designed for the purpose of relaxation. She regularly makes videos online to this effect, and often reads stories or passages of writing as well as cutting soap, sand, mixing slime or paint, or preparing food. She is handy with knives and tools, and a byproduct of making her videos is that Tomoeda is very skilled at cooking and baking. Their talent is so refined that, with concentration and the correct environment, they can lull people to sleep or bring down heightened emotions. This makes her a useful ally in fraught or tense situations.

Life Before the Killing Game
For most of her life, Tomoeda had few friends, as she was quiet and awkward in social interactions. She was not bullied, but simply blended into the background of most of her peers' lives. She lived with her two mothers in a large city, and stumbled across ASMR videos online in her early teens. Tomoeda quickly became enamoured with the concept of videos designed to relax people, and started producing her own. She made ASMR videos regularly, releasing on a schedule and often asking her audience for feedback and ideas for new directions, and gained a sizeable online following for her soothing voice and incredibly high success rate of creating ASMR, even in people who do not usually get a reaction. She does not feature herself in any of her videos, despite many asking for a 'face reveal', and thinks fondly of her fans. She also does not talk about her videos to anyone she knows in real life, apart from her mothers, not thinking that it's really anything amazing.

During the making of a video in which she cut up soap - one of the more popular genres of her videos - she slipped and cut her face, but continued the video nonetheless, not wanting to disappoint her fans. Because of the pain and her shaky hands, she cut herself two more times, leaving three prominent scars on the left side of her face, which she is still embarrassed about.

Scouted for Hope's Peak
A Hope's Peak talent scout came across Tomoeda's videos when scouring the internet one day, and an offer for a place at the school followed soon after. Tomoeda was almost disbelieving, not truly thinking that their talent was anything special, but accepted with great gratitude, excited for the opportunity to make friends in a new environment.