Suzune Horikita

Suzune Horikita is one of the main characters of the You-Zitsu series and the main heroine of the √Horikita spin-off manga. She is a first-year student of Advanced Nurturing High School and the younger sister of Manabu Horikita, the Student Council president of the school. She is a student of Class 2-D and is seated at the back of the class, next to Kiyotaka Ayanokōji.

Despite her academic ability, she was placed in D-Class due to her inability to work with others. Nevertheless, she strives for A-Class and will do anything to reach that goal.

Background
Since grade school, she always had top grades. During her three years of middle school, she was never late or absent from class. She also went to the same middle school as Kikyō Kushida.

She strives to get her brother Manabu Horikita's recognition. That was the sole purpose which led her to enroll in the same school as him.

That aside, Suzune is an accomplished woman both in academics and sports; however, her anti-social attitude and beliefs of others holding her back, this attitude had prevented her peers from getting close to her. This led her to be a loner for the next nine years, until high school, where she made some "acquaintances" and "allies."

Appearance
Suzune has long black hair with one braid tied with a pink bow as well as gradient red eyes. She is always seen with a stern look on her face. She has a slim but well-endowed body which makes her stand out as being beautiful, even attracting the attention of Ken Sudō and Kakeru Ryūen.

She usually wears the standard school uniform. Outside of school, she wore a striped sundress and a sun hat. She was also seen wearing a white bikini at the pool and a red tracksuit as seen when the first-year level underwent the survival test.

Personality
Suzune is a serious intellectual girl, who rarely displayed any emotion and generally seems unfazed by most things, as proven when she remained unmoved after being threatened by a boy from class 1-C. She comes off as a rather cold and distant person to her classmates due to lack of communication with them as well as her tendency to distance herself from them and to look down on them. Because of this attitude, she is openly honest about many things, which is shown when she admitted having no friends as she thinks that friends will only drag her down, but this began to change as the series progressed.

Suzune possesses antisocial outlook, which led her to hardly talk to anyone except Kiyotaka Ayanokōji upon meeting him and to not trust anyone, especially those who tried to befriend her such as Kikyō Kushida. However, unlike Kiyotaka who initially wanted to make friends, she was the opposite of him as she disregarded it, thinking that it's nothing more than a distraction and only thought of getting promoted to the A-class. It is highly suggested by Kiyotaka and her brother that her attitude and inability to work appropriately with people or her tendencies on focusing too much on her goal was the reason she was placed in D-class

Suzune is a hard person to convince, as she refused to accept that she was placed in the D-class and set a goal to ascend to a higher class. This goal, however, was refuted by her brother, who told her that she has no knowledge of her lack of character, which is substantially holding her back and should just leave school. She refused to believe that friends were needed to help her though she did convince Kiyotaka to assist in reaching her goal. When Kiyotaka pointed out her isolation towards others could be why she was placed in D-class, she quickly denied it but appeared to briefly ponder on it being a possibility.

While she is generally composed, her fear truly surfaces when she is in the presence of her older brother, who is also the student council president. This is displayed when Suzune does indeed express a sensitive side of sorts towards some issues. She greatly admires her brother, but at the same time, feels inferior to him due to his accomplishments compared to her shortcomings. Suzune was shown to shake in fear of him, as seen in their secret meeting when he nearly attacked her in Episode 2. This was seen again in Episode 5, where she found herself unable to talk Ken Sudō's hearing and was only to able snap out of it due to Kiyotaka's intervention

Despite her disdain and cold attitude, it appears she can be a caring person as displayed when she sacrificed 50,000 points to save Ken from being expelled after he failed a test. Suzune explained that she did so to further her own goals but this event and her previous attempts to help him study suggest otherwise. Later, Suzune also defended Ken's case, and while she did criticize him, she firmly declared him to be innocent in the incident. Suzune then displayed this attitude in Episode 7 where she was shown smiling after looking at the email Kiyotaka sent her. Due to the time they spent together, she came to trust Kiyotaka as she made him one of the two boys in charge of guarding the boys' tent during the uninhabited island exam after stating she couldn't believe Yōsuke Hirata by himself. Her trust in Kiyotaka is also displayed by trusting him after discovering her being sick and unable to continue participating in the challenge.

During the final days of the survival test, Suzune appeared to have grown in character as she came to acknowledge the hypocrisy of her previous views of D-class as she realized her actions were the same as that of C-class during her fight with Mio. After she was taken down by Mio and found by Kiyotaka, she finally admitted that she needed allies. Once the survival test was over, in the anime, she thanked Kiyotaka for his help in gaining D-class' trust after giving the credit of their victory in the island challenge to her. In this time, she displayed a rare moment of affection, as she was both flustered and shy in thanking him while being unable to look him in the eye.

Abilities
Not much is known about the full extent of Suzune, but she possesses talent in various fields.

Academic Abilities
She is very dedicated as she does study very hard while at home, having nothing else to do. This is further proven in her dedication to reaching A-class, which she believes she should've been placed into from the start because of her good grades.

Intellectual Abilities
Unsurprisingly, Suzune is very intelligent and maintains good grades. Miss Chabashira revealed in Volume 1 that she got the third-highest average score out of the first years in the entrance exams. She is also noted by Honami Ichinose, a student from B-class, to be one of the few people in D-class to keep an eye on due to her potential.

She also has an analytic side to her, as shown when she studies people by their habits or fragments of their personality to see their true depths, proven when she deduced that Kiyotaka had a hand in helping the class pass their tests and how Kikyō appears to dislike her, despite trying to be friends with her. She was also able to see how Kiyotaka hides his true talents after hearing her brother and teacher explain that there is more to him than he lets on.

Physical Abilities
Suzune stated she is an above-average swimmer when questioned by Kikyō at the school pool. She stated she had skills in martial arts during the hearing for Ken, but the full extent of her knowledge is unknown. She proves herself skilled in the art of grappling as she easily flipped Haruki with no problem. Her fighting skills are further shown when she engaged Mio in a fight, earning praise from her before being knocked down, though Suzune's ill condition did hold her back in the fight.

Plot
Despite having one of the best grades among the first years at school, she was placed in D-class most likely due to her inability to work with others, in which she found troubling and made a goal to get into A-Class, the top class.

After entering D-class, she did not attempt to interact with her classmates, even rejecting their offers of friendship. Despite that, she found herself talking to Kiyotaka, whose insightful yet mysterious personality caught her interest.

Days went by, and eventually, Suzune was asked by Kiyotaka to go with him to a cafe for a meetup. After class, Suzune accompanied him, as it was a girls' café and he felt too scared to go alone. Upon arriving at the packed place, a table opened up for them to sit, where they were joined by Kikyō, although that caused Suzune to leave due to her uncovering their plan to make friends with her.

The next day, the class was told they wouldn't get any more monthly private points after losing all their S-points in just one month due to their lack of work. She treated Kiyotaka to a free lunch, though while he was skeptical about her intentions, he went ahead with it. Suzune used this as an opportunity to force him into helping her reach A-class, using the free lunch as something to be paid back with this favor. Reluctant, he agreed and was tasked to gather up the 3 Idiots of D-Class. Kiyotaka succeeded, but that was only conditional, as he got Kikyo to help him out only if she could join, but was shut down quickly by Suzune. While at the study group, Ken was having trouble understanding Suzune's instruction and threatened to leave. Suzune tried to prevent that from reaching out to his dream to become a professional basketball player, saying how if his grades were to continue failing, teams would be likely not to accept him. This kept him in the study session for the time being but after some more dispute he up and left after Suzune continually insulted them. Kiyotaka brought up her bluntness towards others, in which her reply stated that she paid it no mind and said what they did had no repercussion on her.

During one meeting with her brother, she was told to drop out of the school since his reputation that he worked hard to build would be tarnished if people found out that his sister placed in the lowest class. She pleaded with him to hear her out as she was going to make it to A-class, but he told her that her shortcomings would prevent that from happening. He grabbed her and prepared to strike her, but Kiyotaka intervened on her behalf. She begged him to go as it was not his problem, but Manabu went on to fight Kiyotaka, in which the latter dodged all attacks and repelled him. Manabu then recognized Kiyotaka as the student who scored precisely half of all the entrance exams, which left Suzune in awe. Manabu then turned his attention to Suzune, surprised she managed to make a friend and as she disregarded it stating Kiyotaka was simply a classmate and how friends weren't needed, leading Manabu to walk off.

She spoke with Kiyotaka apologizing for the trouble, but he shrugged it off. As she complimented his fighting skill, Kiyotaka replied that there was nothing special just behind it, just simple piano and calligraphy lessons, which left her unconvinced. Suzune asked him if her brother's statement about him scoring half on the exams was true, receiving a vague answer in response, in which she then remarked that everything about him was a mystery, in which he responded by asking her if she was really done with the study group, which of course Suzune confirmed it and stated she didn't care who failed. Kiyotaka soon inquired on whether she ever thought it was this distant and cold personality of hers that got her placed in D-class but instead of answering she just pondered on the idea.

After D-class had passed their tests, she instinctively questioned Kiyotaka if he had something to do with it, but again he doesn't answer. After the teacher informed the class that Ken would be expelled as his score was below the class average. Kiyotaka proceeded to try and buy another point to save him from expulsion, in which Sae demanded 100,000 points, which Kiyotaka couldn't afford it so Suzune stepped in and split the cost 50/50. Amused by this, Sae voiced her earlier belief that the current D-class would interest her and accepts their offer, telling them to inform Ken that he wouldn't be expelled.

Suzune later attended a celebratory party at Kiyotaka's room. During the party, Kikyō inquired if Kiyotaka was the one that helped Ken out, but he passed the credit to Suzune who was barely able to explain to a curious Ken her reasons for helping.

When Ken was accused of beating up three boys from C-class, Suzune investigated it, and very soon she found out there was someone who witnessed the incident. Learning it was Airi Sakura, she headed to Kiyotaka but found he had company and nearly left though, though stopped and passed on the news anyway.

On the hearing day, she is surprised to find her brother presiding over the case and became nervous and fearful of his presence, thus leading her to become unable to speak for most of the hearing and nearly fail in protecting Ken from expulsion (yet again).

Noticing her behavior, Kiyotaka forced her to return her to her thoughts, much to her dismay. After he told her to get a grip on the situation, she realized his motives and became aware of the situation. She regained her composure and asked about the circumstances behind the fight and pointed out that in a three against one match, it was nearly impossible for those injuries that serious to be all Ken's doing. She revealed it might have been a set-up to get Ken in trouble before presenting Airi as a witness.

Airi gave evidence that she was present as she captured the fight going on in the background during a photo shoot. However, the evidence only proved that she was present and did not clear Ken of any wrongdoing. The C-class homeroom teacher, Kazuma Sakagami proposed a compromise to suspend Ken for two weeks and the three C-class students for one week each, but Suzune rejected it, stating while Ken does indeed have faults he was not the one responsible for this. That resulted in an argument that was soon broken up by Manabu, who stated he would decide himself. After the hearing finished for the day, Suzune was asked by Kiyotaka of her next strategy, in which she replied she wouldn't lose and walked off.

She and Kiyotaka visited the stairwell looking for evidence that might help the case. They lured the C-class students involved in the fight to the staircase and showed the cameras in the area that caught the incident on tape and after the boys question why the council hadn't brought this up Kiyotaka stated that they do have the knowledge and are just waiting to see how the students are sorting this out as a test of sorts. The boys were fearful at the thought of being expelled, but Kiyotaka told them there is a way for both classes to walk away. Still unconvinced, Suzune pointed out if they withdraw their accusation, everyone would be safe. Daichi Ishizaki considered it and tried to make a call to someone, but Suzune knocked away the phone calling him pathetic for being a person's pawn. He got angry and grabbed, but she pointed out the cameras still in the area, leading to him relenting and withdrew his accusation.

Much later, Suzune was summoned by Ms. Sae Chabashira on the roof where Sae inquired as to what might've caused the boys to withdraw their complaint, but Suzune didn't give an answer. Sae decided to change the topic, informing Suzune that to enter to A-class, she must be aware of the depths of Kiyotaka's abilities and personality. Suzune questioned as to why that might be the case, with Sae telling her that the students of D-class have defective traits and that Kiyotaka is the most broken in her opinion because of how he purposely doesn't show any potential despite being possibly one of the best students at the school.

After the talk with Sae, Suzune found Kiyotaka in the hallway. She walked with him in the rain with their umbrellas and when they reached the street, she accused him of manipulating her into using false evidence to get the complaint is withdrawn, which he denied, and she brought up the promise he made to help her reach A-class as he reminded her that she had forced him to do so. He tried to walk off, but she stopped him and pressed him for the reasons for his actions as she wanted to know if she could trust him, which Kiyotaka replied that he wanted a peaceful life but she stated that he wouldn't have helped if that were true. Kiyotaka continued saying he was looking out for a friend, but she disregarded this and pressured him into revealing his motives. Kiyotaka stated he would help her in reaching A-class but sternly told her never to try prying into his past or reasons again.

During summer break, she spent most of her time in her room in solitude until she is contacted by Kiyotaka, whose calls she rejected at first because of how she didn't want to be involved with anyone over the summer break. He persisted until she eventually answered, questioning his intentions as he invited her to the pool and although she hung up the phone. When he called back, he informed her of the three idiots of D-class' plan to peep on the girls changing rooms much to her shock. Kiyotaka continued by revealing he wanted to ruin the plan by asking her to get the memory cards from the camera after everything was done.

She went to meet him and others who were going as well, it is shown that Suzune studied the personalities of those around her during her time at school, such as Kikyō, who she hates and questioned why she would want to get close with her and then asking herself why she is going along with them. The group headed to the pool where they met students from other classes as well. In the changing room, Suzune questioned Honami about her chest size as the latter seemed somewhat embarrassed about answering. Suzune also agreed with Kikyō's comment of Honami seemingly being close to Kiyotaka as Suzune internally noted Honami's capabilities.

She spent most of her time at the pool to herself observing those around before playing volleyball and questioning Kiyotaka on why he hid his athleticism since she saw what he could do, but he continued to ignore this. Later on, she helped out Kanji Ike (Who was trapped in the female changing rooms) by giving a speech of how D-class can advance to the top, which distracts everyone and allows Kanji to escape. After the speech, she quickly found and removed the memory cards for the cameras as Kiyotaka thanked her and asked if she had fun, but she stated she is better off alone as he tried again to get her to shake off her strict nature by pushing her in the pool. This act caused her to do the same in return, which led to everyone else joining in the fun. Later that night, Kiyotaka sent Suzune an email that contained a picture of her with the other students at the pool stating how she got along well fine anyway but still smiled at the gesture.

During the school cruise, she spent most of the time in her room due to feeling ill. She soon called to meet Kiyotaka at drinks stand, talking for a while until Kakeru appeared. He addressed her by the first name, dropping hints that he is aware of what she did to get the complaint withdrawn in Ken's hearing. Suzune, who seemed to be disgusted by his presence, found his arrogant attitude off-putting and told him to keep away from her but he responded by taking a picture of both her and Kiyotaka, after claiming to be a fan of her and stating he had already made plans to take care of her, he told her to look forward to it. She and Kiyotaka then watched on as Kakeru and Albert Yamada bully Mio Ibuki, with Suzune remarking how C-Class is falling apart.

The ship soon arrived on a deserted island where the students are told they will undergo a survival test. That proved to be a challenge for Suzune as she revealed she is uncomfortable being around others for so long and that the woods were not her strong suit. When D-Class set up camp, she spoke with Kiyotaka about her reasoning behind enrolling at the school, merely saying how she would get enrolled in a university or job, following up by asking Kiyotaka his purpose for entering but receiving no response from him.

Suzune was later nominated as the class leader by Kikyō since no one else would expect her to be the leader. Kiyotaka then asked whether Suzune would go with him to gather firewood, but she rejected him, leaving him to go with Airi and Yamauchi instead. Later on, the group returned with an injured Mio and learned of Rokusuke Kōenji dropping out of the test due to being 'ill,' worrying about their lost points.

The next day, Suzune and Kiyotaka scout out to the situations of the other classes and their camps. When they arrived at B-class' camp, they see it is set up near a waterfall and operated much like D-class' but at a better location. Suzune noted on a boy who seemed distant from the class as Honami stated he was a student of C-class who got kicked out. Suzune and Kiyotaka then go to A-class' camp, which is in a cave that is heavily guarded as Yahiko Totsuka threatened Suzune as she attempted to take a peak. But she was turned away when Kōhei summoned his security force and warned her that her actions might start a war. C-class' camp is on a beach where under Kakeru's leadership, all of the points are spent, and the classmates treat this test like a vacation. While there, Kakeru flirted with her and was persistent in his advances on Suzune by stating that he will prepare a special tent just for the two of them, as well as letter her taste real heaven. She glanced back at him and told Kiyotaka that being there any longer would make her condition even worse. After they left, she berated Kakeru's apparent disregard for points as Kiyotaka told Suzune that Kakeru did that knowing that they would not be penalized if they had spent all of their test points beforehand. He also explained the strategy was foolproof since they could do what Rokusuke did and return to the cruise ship.

After the panties incident, the girls of D-class decided to move their tent, asking Yōsuke to keep guard, while Suzune suggested that Kiyotaka watches over him as well due to his apparent disinterest in doing anything radical. When he finished working, he inquired to why she did this as she stated her distrust of Hirata as he seemed secretive and had Kiyotaka put on guard duty as insurance. Kiyotaka then noticed her sickness, and though she denied it, her slow reaction to his hand confirmed it as he touched her forehead and saw she had a fever. After finding out, he questioned her about that was sick and hid it from the class.

While gathering fish, Kiyotaka asked her about the leader key card as he had seen it on another student had and wanted to match them. Once she saw his reasoning and agreed, Kiyotaka confirmed they didn't match, but Haruki threw mud on Suzune's hair after noting their closeness, which earned him a flip from Suzune, but Kiyotaka caught him. Suzune then went to the waterfall and washed off the mud but found the key card missing and became worried. She returned to camp and informed Kiyotaka of this, and they decided to hide this to not cause a panic.

Another problem occurred when the survival manual was burned, and Suzune saw Mio escape and suspected her of the recent wrongdoings in the camp. She pursued Mio and discovered the stolen key card in her possession, demanding it back, leading Mio to challenge her in a fight since there were no witnesses to prove the battle happened. Despite her ill condition, Suzune put up a good fight but was shocked when Mio revealed she didn't start the fire as she deduced that Kiyotaka was responsible for burning the survival manual before being defeated and knocked out.

After her fight with Mio, she was found by Kiyotaka who brought her to a tree before she awoke. She confided in him her reasons for wanting to reach A-class was to be noticed by her brother. She stated how she would lose allies for losing the key card before he implored her to withdraw from the test and let him take care of it, but she refused out of pride, though she fell unconscious, forcing him to carry her and have her withdraw due to her ailing health.

Afterward, she rested and watched the results of the test on the monitor in her room. She was immensely shocked to see that her class came out on top and questioned the outcome. When the class returned to the ship, she found Kiyotaka, demanding to know what he did for the class to have passed the test and he revealed that he made himself leader after she withdrew. He then informed her of his plan and how he outsmarted the other classes with various tactics, which left her in awe at his intellect. She then inquired as to what motivated him if he doesn't want to advance to A-class, but before she can get an answer, she discovered he also gave her credit for the correct guessing of the other class leaders, much to her dismay as the class swamped over her giving praise for the plan.

She later caught up to Kiyotaka, confronting him once more about why he made it seem his plans were all someone else's. He calmly replied that she needed allies and noticed she had finally changed. After he confirmed he did everything to help her, she got flustered and blushed before begrudgingly thanking him as she stated she would see him as an ally, although told him not to get too friendly back at school.

Trivia

 * The name Suzune means "bell" (鈴) (suzu) and "sound" (音) (ne).
 * Suzune's surname Horikita means "moat" (堀) (hori) and "north" (北) (kita).
 * As D-class is a class for people with defective traits, Suzune's defective trait is that her antisocial behavior and refusal to work with others.
 * Suzune ranks #2 in "MF Bunko J Heroine Contest 2017 in Melonbooks" with 13.8% of the votes.