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Name: Sarah
Age: 25
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thelightroyale
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Name: Keito Hasumi
Door: Left - "This is precisely why you're stuck."

Canon: Ensemble Stars!
Canon Point: December of Keito's third year at Yumenosaki, just after the Agents story

Age: 18
Appearance: Regular appearance. Sometimes he dresses up nicely.

History: Keito's wiki page | A list of every single story that Keito appears in canon | Mini Events | Intimate Events

Personality: Keito describes himself as "the righteous, strict, arrogant student council vice president" of Yumenosaki Academy, and honestly? That's not wrong.

On first impression, Keito comes off pretty much as an arrogant jerk - he speaks to everyone that he comes across in a condescending and patronising tone. Translators actually note that the way Keito uses the pronoun "you" can be more accurately described as "you bastard" and unless it's to people that have earned his respect or the few people that he considers his friends, he pretty much is openly insulting them and demeaning them with every other word.

✘ Overconfidence/Pride: This is pretty much the root cause of Keito's downfall during the events of the main story in canon. At the beginning of the story, Keito's unit, "Akatsuki", is at the pinnacle of the school's power structure, being the powerhouse unit in the absence of the student council president's "fine", and is pretty much a representation of the student council's tyrannical rule over the rest of the characters. That changes when Akatsuki is defeated by a new unit, the protagonists Trickstar, toppling the tyrannical power structure and ushering in a period of reform in the school. The only reason why Trickstar managed to triumph as easily as they did over Akatsuki was due to Keito's own overconfidence. Never would he have considered that anyone would dare to challenge his unit for their title, because why would they? Akatsuki was powerful, unconquerable, and Trickstar was a unit formed by a ragtag bunch of rebels that Keito didn't necessarily see them as a threat. And by not seeing Trickstar as a threat, he failed to adequately take into consideration what would happen if he was challenged, instead focusing on making sure that the Dream Festival events were running smoothly and according to plans. That aside, Keito is also the kind of person that skirts the line between confidence and outright arrogance, because he knows that he has the skills and the requisite experience as student council vice president to back up all his claims.

✘ Control: For all of Keito's pride and confidence in his own abilities, he actually makes a pretty bad mastermind. He's the kind of person that will ensure that plans are executed flawlessly and seamlessly because he's the kind of diligent perfectionist that holds himself to ridiculously high standards. And therein also lies a major flaw in his personality - he's obsessed with perfection and control. It's played for laughs sometimes in canon, but Keito is the kind of person that gets thrown off by even the slightest deviation in his plans, that a change may even leave him at a loss for words as he tries to grapple with how he can salvage the situation. He gets visibly uncomfortable when his interactions with people don't exactly go in the ways that he expects them to go - his interactions with Natsume throw him off in a lot of different ways when Natsume replies in cryptic language that he doesn't expect - and at his worst, he can also descend into what becomes a flustered mess. He's a man of planned preparations, not of immediate improvisation. He needs to be in control at all times, if possible. And maybe that's one of the reasons why he's a stickler for the rules since they function as a sort of acceptable boundary that Keito operates in. God forbid if he catches you breaking any one of those rules, no matter how minor your infringement is - most characters have mentioned Keito to be an "overbearing authority" at best for how hard he scrutinises any minor infraction, and if he discovers any rulebreaking, trouble makers are subjected to long lectures and reprimands that have pretty much become an infamous character gag by this point. In Air Ride, he comes across three troublemaking first years who were merely running down the corridors and decided to lecture them before they all turned tail and ran to escape him. In another instance during Tsukimi Live, he actually implies that he actually views giving these lectures as a stress reliever and I honestly don't know how to react to that.

✔ Fair/Righteous: That said, despite Keito's stringent and strict faithfulness to the rules, he's also very moralistic. As the son of a Buddhist temple, it's of no surprise that Keito is well-versed in its teachings and that bleeds over into how he deals with people. Keito only exacts punishment on those who have been found guilty of something - anything else would amount to an excess and therefore a cruel form of action to take. He's not prejudiced against established rule breakers and prefers to look and evaluate situations with a fair and critical eye, and he doesn't exactly hold very much grudges nor let those grudges influence how he exerts his influence. Despite Rei Sakuma's role in enabling Trickstar to overthrow Akatsuki, he's treated civilly and almost like a friend in other stories such as Compensation Festival. Stealing and dishonesty is frowned upon, and while he's personally averse to violence if possible, that doesn't stop Keito from declaring Yumenosaki's archery hall as a lawless zone and beating up bullies, vigilante justice style, in a bid to protect Leo Tsukinaga. Keito's sense of moral integrity lends itself well to being Akatsuki's leader, as both his other unit members have admitted that it is for this reason that they choose to follow Akatsuki instead of any other unit despite their initial distaste at how Keito deals with some of the things pre-canon over the course of the idol war. It's also this sense of moral integrity that forces him to make a conscious choice that he can no longer support his own student council's tyrannical rule when they go one step too far.

✔ Mentorship/Training: Discarding his flaws aside, one of Keito's main roles in the story is that of mentor and guide. Before the start of the main story, he takes Souma Kanzaki under his wing as part of Akatsuki because he recognises Souma's persistence, and also he explicitly deadpans that if he doesn't, he's fairly certain that Souma will die. He explicitly states that he considers it one of his moral duties that as an upperclassman and a third year, he needs to ensure that his underclassmen reach their full potential and also help usher in or enable their new ideas so that the academy doesn't stagnate and they are able to thrive. Unfortunately for his poor underclassmen, Keito usually projects his own demanding perfectionist standards on them and devises tests for their skill and merit that may seem difficult at best and impossible at worst. It's not done with any malicious intent, though, mostly more for the curiosity to see if anyone is able to rise towards the challenge and meet him there. This is most evident in his interactions with Anzu, the Player character. Over the course of the year, Keito continually assigns her larger scale Dream Festivals and events to take charge of, and when each one is met with rousing success, he eventually admits at the end of the year that he's done a good job and that she's an excellent Producer. Keito's competitive nature is also such that he values learning from mistakes and failures. He knows that they can happen (they happened to him and Akatsuki, after all), and when a junior named Tetora makes an onstage mistake, Keito does not hold it against him when he tries to apologise and even encourages him to continue, to the extent of blatantly putting his trust and faith in Tetora so that he gains the confidence to complete the Live. He views genuine, honest mistakes (not ones borne out of treachery) as an opportunity for people to examine and improve on their shortcomings. On the other hand, if he fails, it's an opportunity to tighten his own performance so that he can come back and crush his opponents next time. He's competitive like that.

✘ Overbearing: A self proclaimed "meddler", Keito's penchant for perfection and control also means that he's liable to stick himself into other people's businesses or to take on more than he can actually manage in terms of student council work. He's the kind of workaholic that can pull all nighters and live off energy drinks and think that it's perfectly Fine. He's quick to take a supervisory role and offer guidance and help to his underclassmen, even if it may be unwelcome, which makes Keito more than a little domineering. It's not out of any doubt of his junior's lack of abilities, but more because he wants them to do the best that they can. One of the instances where Keito's overbearing demeanour becomes questionable is in relation to his childhood friend, student council president Eichi Tenshouin. From the onset, we know that Eichi is frail and sickly from a hereditary disease, and is almost certainly fated to die. We also know that Keito is also almost certainly fated to be the one to bury him, considering that Keito's family have always been the ones to bury the members of the Tenshouin family that have passed away. Once Eichi returns to the school in the main story, Keito is always found by Eichi's side, doting and generally playing the role of caretaker to ensure that Eichi is guaranteed happiness for the rest of his short life. It would be cute if it wasn't obnoxious, and Eichi has referred to Keito as his "obnoxious escort" at one point, and his bitterness at Keito's stifling actions culminates in the Quarrel Festival, where Eichi threatens to disband Akatsuki should they be unable to win against Eichi's fine.

✘ Empty ambition: Which also brings us to the next point - that Keito is a creature of empty ambitions, and that he has no long term plans for himself, nor does he have any goals to work towards besides hyperfocusing on Eichi and his wellbeing. He lives his life for the pleasure of others and is content when they are. If Eichi can live a happy and fulfilling life, Keito will be happy. It therefore isn't any stretch of the imagination that Keito has pretty much given up most of his life for Eichi - even if Keito himself doesn't see it that way, claiming that he was gaining so much more from both their friendship and what their friendship has given him. The student council and Akatsuki were developed to protect Eichi and Keito functioned as his right hand while Eichi carried out his plan to revolutionise Yumenosaki. He even gave up his initial dream as a mangaka to stand by Eichi's side as an idol and burned friendships with others - such as Rei - to help Eichi. He gets better, though, after the events of Quarrel Festival, considering that the threat to disband Akatsuki was what allowed Keito to realise that Eichi was not the centre of his universe, and that the bond that he shared with Kuro and Souma was something that he also considered important.

... He still coddles Eichi, though, since he still nags at Eichi's tendency to overexert himself and make terrible life decision. Baby steps. Keito Hasumi is trying, okay.

Powers and Abilities: He's an idol, so naturally, he sings and dances well and has a decent stage presence. Canon also states that as part of his unit's concept, he's also talented in Japanese instruments such as the wooden flute and the shamisen. He's also a fairly renowned (semi-retired) shoujo manga/doujinshi artist under the name of Mizuhanome-sensei, although if you mention it he'll probably kill you. Athletically, he also does archery (both horseback and standing versions) and is apparently good enough to represent Yumenosaki in competitions. Otherwise he's an ordinary high school student.

Inventory: Do his... glasses... count. Otherwise, he would also have his Akatsuki uniform set (including the tinted fan) and also probably his laptop? That he does his student council work in? Don't @ me.

Samples: one and two