Honami Ichinose

Honami Ichinose is one of the female heroines who frequently appears in the You-Zitsu series as a rival leader to the other classes competing for the position of Class A. She also happens to be an affiliated member of the Student Council led by its president Miyabi Nagumo. So far, she is currently considered a second-year student of Advanced Nurturing High School. At the beginning of the series, Honami was introduced as both the first-year's class represe ntative and a student who originally hailed from Class 1-B.

Appearance
Honami is a young teenage girl who is considered to be highly attractive by her own classmates and friends (she is even called beautiful by Kiyotaka Ayanokōji in the manga and light novels) with back-length strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes. Honami was described in the books to have a long, light pinkish-type hair which travels down in length to her waist.

On the other hand, she also possesses an extremely well-endowed figure that is a source of jealousy to Suzune Horikita, and an average height. She is often seen wearing the school's standard uniform, but her clothing of choice varies depending on the context, as when outside of school, she was seen wearing a white frilly shirt and dark blue pants. At the swimming pool, she wore a bikini with her top tied in a ribbon knot. During the survival test, she wore a red tracksuit with a white shirt beneath it.

Personality
If there was one sentence to describe Honami, it would be that she is genuinely kind-hearted and a pacifist who is against using underhanded means and violence. Honami is a charismatic and energetic person, and extends this sweet and cheerful side of her personality even to those of the lower classes, unlike many other upper-class students. This was seen when she went out of her way to stop a brawl between three Class C students and one of Class D from breaking out, having a sharp-tongue to criticize others for trying to incite violence. At the same time, she can also be seen as being a straightforward, upright individual who follows the code of conduct, acting according to whichever kind of environment she is in such as the library area, a quiet place that was supposed to be for reading and studying.

Additionally, her good-natured attitude is also what allowed her to become close friends with the likes of Kikyō Kushida and Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, despite them both being students of Class D which was looked down on by upper classes. Even though she politely rejected the romantic feelings of an admirer who was also a close friend of hers, Honami refrained from using any harsh or hurtful words and still honestly hoped to remain friends with her classmate afterwards. She acts friendly to most of the students whether they're in the same class as her or not without showing bias from her tone of words when conversing with them. She is an easygoing, talkative girl who appears lively and bright to friends and adversaries no matter their affiliation or background. Even when the going gets tough, she stays absolutely calm and composed as long as victory is still within her class's reach. During a girls' talk even with her new friends she made along the way during an exam, Honami could be seen as an honest, truthful person to a fault without attempting to lie her way out or feign ignorance when being barrage with questions.

Honami appears resolute and steadfast in keeping her word, as after Kiyotaka helped her, she acknowledged that she owed him a favor for his help and while offering him support, the former reminded him of this debt. She continued to assist and cooperate with him by gathering evidence to prove Ken Sudō's innocence. Honami even assisted Kiyotaka in rescuing Airi Sakura though she was under no obligation to do so, showing her generosity. This generous nature can be seen further when she was willing to use up some of her own private points to assist in carrying out Class D's strategy secretly made by Kiyotaka in Horikita's name against Kakeru's class to corner Ken's provocateurs. When her classmates had to partner up with an enemy class, she appeared vocal and unyielding about getting everyone to cooperate in overcoming the exam without any intention of giving up until it ended. Additionally, this can be attributed to her outspoken nature of calling others out like Kakeru in the presence of many students for not willing to work with her classmates during an exam where the two classes have to cooperate.

Honami is rather humble and modest as in spite of her great talents and popular beauty known across school, she is not at all boastful about them but remains level-headed and speaks respectfully to all her peers, even those in the lower classes. She shows signs of being caring and worrisome in nature about people even outside her class, apart from her classmates, voicing her meaningless concern for the others' well-being if they were in a dangerous situation. Nonetheless, she prioritizes the safety of her classmates first above all others, which matters to her the most in protecting, with a rare exception if it involves the chances of Kiyotaka being expelled in later volumes. On the other hand, she also appears to have a trusting side, considering the fact that she went as far as asking Kiyotaka, who she had just recently met, if he would pretend to be her boyfriend as a way to help her solve the relationship issue she had with her friend. This trust she has with anyone, like Kiyotaka regardless of their class affiliate, was seen again when she allowed him to borrow the use of her phone when he asked for it.

Meanwhile in the anime, Honami can come off as a bit playful in nature, teasing others to her own amusement as shown when she teasingly mentions of Airi's close relationship and her obvious romantic affections for Kiyotaka. Though it was shown to be all in good fun between the two girls, as after her own friendly relationship with Kiyotaka was mentioned by Kikyō, Honami simply give a happy smile in response about the growing friendship she made with him after the two met and befriended each other. On the other hand, Honami rarely gets annoyed, although when the situation calls for it, she adopts a serious side to herself which was shown when she reprimanded Kakeru Ryūen and students of Class C for their bullying of Ken and they complied without protest. This side of her was seen again when she helped Kiyotaka apprehend a man who was attempting to assault Airi and told the man to be silent after he protested and gave him a look of disgust for his actions. During the Sports Festival, she remains open and helpful to working with unreasonable people like Kakeru if they happen to pair up together, putting aside her feelings for now to achieve victory on an exam for the sake of her class. Honami is strong-willed enough to step in front of two powerful male students fearlessly without batting an eye, ready to make verbal threats like warning the school about them.

Usually, Honami is the type who goes with the flow or the mood whenever she talks with her friends. Yet, for situations that involves herself lacking in knowledge about topics that revolved around romance, confessions and so on, Honami is seemingly oblivious on what to do next and how to answer it while in front of her friends. Let alone that, Honami becomes somewhat shy and needy for advice as she went out of her way to ask for Kiyotaka's assistance involving a friend's confession to her. After getting a love letter from her friend Chihiro Shiranami, she is unsure on how to go about it, thinking of not being honest about her true feelings towards the girl and to lie and pretend that she is with Kiyotaka as his fake girlfriend as the best way to get out of such situation. Honami even admitted to Kiyotaka that she had no idea of what it meant to be a couple with someone or how to turn a person down without hurting them and her friendship. When taking into consideration Miyabi's deal of borrowing points by going out with him, it is revealed that Honami had no experience on love or any romantic relations whatsoever with the opposite gender before and does not know how to confront them properly until she later confesses to Kiyotaka during their second year in school. Her shyness was seen again when Honami hesitated in talking about the growth of her bust size to Suzune Horikita after she asked about her chest development.

Honami seems rather secretive, as she was quick to take action in reclaiming her phone when Kiyotaka noticed the number of points she possessed. This was seen again as only in the anime that before Honami spoke to Ryūji Kanzaki about twenty million private points, she would make sure to hide her phone from him though she was very vague in her query. Due to this, she appears to understand why others hide their own secrets as shown where she recognized the true intelligence of Kiyotaka and saw that he was someone who shouldn't belong in Class D. Even so, Honami expressed enough consideration for his privacy that she didn't push the issue any further when he didn't seem to like talking about it. That being said, she still maintained a sense of curiosity about him, as seen in a conversation with her homeroom teacher on the cruise. Honami dislikes receiving praises from others like Kiyotaka and Suzune if it doesn't feel warranted or justified due to her own past mistakes. Prior to her romantic feelings for Kiyotaka taking root, she was presumably thought to be overly idealistic and hopeful in achieving a future where all her classmates are saved, won't drop out of school and graduating with them from Class A as a whole, not looking to lose any one of them due to expulsion.

Background
Prior to the plot of her high school life, she had once happily lived a fun, comfortable lifestyle throughout both her elementary school and middle school years. She made plenty of friends, both boys and girls alike. Honami happens to hail from a fatherless family, living with her mom and her little sister who is two years younger than her. Honami's family isn't very well-off as her mother had it hard, working full-time as she alone raised two children all by herself without their father around to help. Ever since elementary school, Honami had made it her plan to get a job of her own after she finished middle school. Sincerely looking to increase her family's low-income and give them happiness, Honami thought that she could be of use to the two by seeking a job where she can work to earn money like her mother. Because it would cost a lot of money to get into high school, Honami's reason in searching for a job was so that she could help out not only herself but also her mother and sister financially as well. In the end, this idea she had in mind couldn't come to pass because her mother was opposed to it. Nonetheless, even without the money, Honami did in fact successfully put in a lot of effort and time to study and developed her skills as hard as possible. Although she found sports rather difficult, Honami does try to put in as much effort into it as she did with her studies. Thanks to that, she was able to make use of the student scholarship system and reach the top of her middle school. As an honors student and a member of the student council in middle school, she was offered a spot at a private high school on a scholarship.

By the time she became a 3rd year in middle school, Honami was even able to gain the title of student council president that she had longed sought after. During the summer of that year, she discovered her mother pushed herself too hard and collapsed while trying to support and raise their livelihood as a family. At some point in time later on, her mother would go through sudden hospitalization, leaving the former unable to buy her younger sister a birthday present. Seeing the anguish and ridicule her sister was showing to their mom for not getting her her first present, Honami figured the only way to restore her smile is that she the elder sister must be the one to do it in her mother's stead. So, after school on the day of her sister's birthday, Honami went to a department store and stole for the very first time a fashionable hair clip which was worth 10,000 yen without getting caught red-handed. Despite feeling guilty for having committed theft, she still went home and presented the hair clip to her sulking little sister which made the latter happy. Even though Honami had told her sister beforehand to keep the present a secret from their mom, she ends up wearing it anyways the next time they went to pay a visit to her in the hospital. Through that visit, her mother learned of the robbery she did in the store and became seriously angry with Honami to the point where she got slapped for it and took away the hair clip from her sister. Although her mother was supposed to stay hospitalized, Honami was forcibly dragged back to the store by the latter to return it. At the same time, Honami would prostrate on her hands and knees while begging for their forgiveness about the crime she had done to them. Whilst the store didn't hand her over to the police, the commotion about the theft she committed still did spread beyond her control.

It is currently unclear what happened to Honami's relationship with her family members or what it is like between them now that the incident is resolved. Without Kiyotaka's intervention, Honami would have never forgiven herself for what she had done or come to terms with it. Driven by her guilty conscience and laying the blame on herself, she wasted almost half of the 3rd-year of middle school and became a shut-in for about half a year. She never once bothered to consult with anyone about issues that became detrimental to her mental well-being. In other words, Honami being absent from school had badly affected her class attendance for as long as six months. When she learned about Advanced Nurturing High School, Honami thought that it was her chance to think about moving forward at long last and start over again with a blank slate. It was all because of her homeroom teacher from middle school informing her about this high school that she picked this institution to be enrolled in. Swearing an oath to herself, she decided to attend school once again in the hopes that she could bring back the smiles of her mother and her little sister. Though, the shoplifting incident was resolved way back in middle school, it still affected her even when she went on to enter high school where this crime resurfaced as a rumor spread by Arisu. Later, she goes out of her way to apply for joining the Student Council led by the then President, Manabu Horikita during that time. However, in the special one-on-one interview she had with Manabu, her application was turned down by him much to her disappointment. Despite that, she was able to later on successfully get on board with the Student Council thanks to Manabu's successor, Miyabi after she had chosen to reveal her past mistake to him.

Plot
Honami was first seen listening to the speech of Manabu Horikita who was once the President of the Student Council back then when he welcomed the enrollment of new first-year students to Advanced Nurturing High School.

Sometimes after the first semester of high school started, she met and befriended Kikyō Kushida who wanted to make friends with everyone including herself even if they're from a different class.

Later on, she was next seen walking through the school store with Chihiro Shiranami before spotting Kikyō, waving at her as they walked past one another. When this encounter was questioned by Kiyotaka who remarked that she was in Class 1-B, Kikyō responded that she and Honami became friends the day before, stating it was her goal to become close friends with everyone in the whole school.

In another instance, Honami is next seen breaking up the impending brawl between Kakeru Ryūen with a few students of Class 1-C and Ken Sudō of Class 1-D outside the school buildings. Seeing through Kakeru's lie of Ken starting the fight, she threatens to call security if they did not leave Ken alone. Though her involvement was ill-received by the boys, they complied with her order as Kakeru and his group left, Honami told Ken not to let Kakeru get to him before calming the spectators down and going about her business.

Honami next appeared in her Class 1-B where the homeroom teacher, who was suffering from a hangover, told them they would receive points the next day because of their passing scores in a mock exam. Honami and her friends celebrated this news since it was her tutoring sessions that came through in helping them pass. As she was hugged by her friends, she internally voiced her intentions of the class becoming part of Class 1-A.

The next day, Honami came by to greet her friend Kikyō and formally met Kiyotaka Ayanokōji after briefly questioning if they were a couple and being told that it was not the case whatsoever. Shen then asked them whether their class had been able to successfully received any points that month, causing the pair to ponder over the situation.

Afterwards, Honami called for Kiyotaka to meet her outside of the school where she explained that she needed his help, as she believed someone might ask her out, to his confusion. She explained that she was asking his help because of her inexperience with romantic relations and a lack of interest in the admirer, and asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend after she received a love letter. Kiyotaka refused, stating that it would be better in telling the person the truth while she begged him to help her, as she didn't know how to answer the confession but the admirer Chihiro Shiranami shows up and sees them together. When asked what relationship they had, Honami tried "confirming" they were a couple but Kiyotaka bluntly stated that he and Honami were simply friends, which surprised her. He left, advising her to talk it out with Chihiro to show respect to the courage she gathered up to confess her feelings, leaving Honami amazed by his wisdom as she pondered over it.

Following his advice, Honami decided to be honest with Chihiro and did her best to turn her down gently as she revealed that she was not romantically interested in her. Honami and Chihiro mutually decided that they would go back to being friends, although, despite their agreement, Chihiro ran off crying as Honami met up with Kiyotaka again. She explained to him what happened before apologizing for dragging him into the mess, while he shrugged it off as she promised that she owed him a favour.

In the anime, she is later seen approaching Kiyotaka and Kikyō, asking if they were investigating Ken's case, after hearing rumours about it. She offered them aid as Kikyō thanked her but Kiyotaka tried to intervene, confused by her actions, though she stated she was not up to anything and reminded him that she owed him a favour, while winking at him suggestively. The display gained attention from Kikyō and the other students who wondered what exactly Honami owed Kiyotaka.

Honami and her classmate Ryūji put up a bulletin board to gather information about the three boys that were supposedly attacked by Ken. Based on the light novels, it was said that they were able to identify that one of the boys involved with Ken was Daichi Ishizaki and also that he had a history of violence on the locals. She and Ryūji showed this to Kiyotaka as they received some helpful clues about Ken's fight and deduced that it may have indeed been a set-up to frame him. When she tried to pay the person who leaked the source of the message, Honami saw that their identity was anonymous and became unsure of what to do until Kiyotaka volunteered to help. She then went up to him and he paid the person himself using her phone. At the same time, he noticed her unusually high amount of points, causing Honami to immediately reclaim her phone and walk off afterwards. But before leaving, Honami assures Kiyotaka that she would still help him again later.

Some time afterwards, Honami was asked to lend Kiyotaka points for a task he helped Suzune with and promised to pay her back after it was finished. Honami found out about the details of the plan and found herself amazed at Kiyotaka's intelligence and wondered how someone like him could have landed himself in Class 1-D, but Kiyotaka said it was Suzune's plan and gave her a vague answer about his intelligence. Unlike in the light novels where Suzune explains Kiyotaka's strategy as her own and covers for him, the anime adaptation shows just only Honami being alone without Ryūji present to learn about the camera strategy from Kiyotaka and not Suzune before rather than after it was carried out. Noticing that he didn't want to talk about it, she simply smiled at his answer before he got a call from Airi who was in danger.

Only in the anime adaptation, Honami and Kiyotaka gathered a security team and found Airi, just before she was being assaulted by a crazed stalker and only Kiyotaka was taking pictures of the stalker's action on Airi. The stalker attempted to flee after Kiyotaka confronted him but Honami blocked him as the police took the man into custody and she looked at him with a disgusted look before silencing his protests as he was taken away. She waved goodbye to Airi and Kiyotaka as she joined the police in handling the matter.

She later hangs out at the pool with some of her classmates and meets up with Class 1-D students. In the changing room, Honami was questioned by Suzune about the growth of her breast size, which she believes it been growing bigger since during her third year of junior high before asking about Suzune's curiosity as the latter gave a vague answer. Honami then started to tease Airi playfully for her close relationship and obvious romantic affections towards Kiyotaka, after Airi nervously explained that she came just because Kiyotaka invited her. Honami soon stopped right after Kikyō mentioned her own close relationship with him, to which she smiled about it, showing that she has no problem with it. She soon played volleyball with some of the students though is put off by the strangeness of the Class 1-D students such as Ken Sudō, Kanji Ike and Haruki Yamauchi. Soon afterwards, she bore witness to Suzune's speech to everyone at the pool, becoming somewhat surprised by the development.

During the cruise, both her and her homeroom teacher Chie got a massage together and discussed students of each class they should watch out for while doing so Honami is put off by her teacher's erratic behaviour. When her teacher suggested looking out for Kiyotaka as one of those students, she seemed to see her teacher is right about watching out for Kiyotaka before wondering why he hides his amazing capabilities. After the ship arrived on a deserted island, she and her Class 1-B set up camp on a beach. In contrast to the anime, the light novels revealed her based camp was located further deeper inside the forest discovered by Kiyotaka and Suzune.

She was seen next with Ryūji when the two found the camp for Class 1-C abandoned. The light novels explained that they were hiding in the shade to spy on Class C but it came of as meaningless in the end as nobody from Class 1-C was present at their own based camp. They were later joined by both Kiyotaka and Airi who had been scouting the forest but had ended up at the beach. Honami bemoaned the fact that she did not even get the chance to discover Class 1-C's leader while Ryūji reminded her what the purpose of the test was, further agreeing with him that Kakeru's plan to have his class retired was apparently true after all. Honami was then asked by Kiyotaka what she knew about Kōhei Katsuragi and she informed him of his status as one of Class 1-A's leaders alongside Arisu Sakayanagi, even detailing how there appeared to be a leadership conflict between the pair.

On the final day of the test, her class chose not to guess the leaders of the other camps since their bonus points would be negated if they were wrong. When the results were revealed, Class 1-B was in second place while Class 1-D was first, leaving Class 1-C in last place and Class 1-A third. Honami was surprised at these results along with the rest of her class. After returning to the cruise ship, she went over her large amount of points before hiding her phone just as Ryūji sat down with her and they talked about the survival test. Honami stated that it was their class' loss even if it was second place, something he agreed with. She soon changed the topic by questioning him over what they had been told about private points and how they could decide what to do with them. It is also implied that she wanted to buy her way into another class in Episode 12 of the anime, presumably Class 1-A or 1-D and this is most likely feasible for her courtesy of her hoard of points.

Abilities
Honami is effectively skilled in many fields be it academics, collaboration, or communication. This coincides with her negotiation skills, where there were times when she once made fair deals and conditions with all sorts of people to beat an exam and prevent expulsion of students. Through unknown means, she has acquired millions of private points which caused Kiyotaka Ayanokōji to question how she obtained that much. She has a very good and cordial relationship with her peers and friends, becoming well-trusted by them within a short matter of time after her enrollment as a freshman. During her first year in high school, she was capable of getting her class unified and cooperating in and out of school under her leadership without any trouble at all. She is the type of person who faces her opponent head-on by normally following the rules and conditions of any exam without working her way around them.

Academic Abilities
Honami is very intelligent and is said to be on par with students from A Class. She once formed a study group with some of her classmates and they were able to make passing scores on a quiz. It was mentioned by Suzune Horikita that Honami could have normally been in Class A for her abilities, but was forced to Class B for reasons unknown.

Physical Abilities
Not much is known about Honami's physical capabilities, although it is mentioned in her short story at Volume 3 that she's not very skilled in athletics with the fact that her ability to maintain equilibrium is dull. Despite her weakness, she's still capable of handling sports. She confidently claims that her running speed is fairly fast. She even acknowledge the extent of her speed based on her own past experience with participating in the track and field club activities before. Not only that but a glimpse of her ability was also shown at the pool, where she played volleyball with her friends and students of Class D.

Intellectual Abilities
Honami has an insightful and intuitive side to her intellect, as she recognized the true intelligence of Kiyotaka Ayanokōji and saw that he is someone who shouldn't be in Class D. This inquisitive side was seen again as she keenly took note of the students in Class D who have the potential to ascend to upper classes based on their talents. She would ponder putting Kiyotaka on that list before wondering why he hid his talents after observing how he use his clever strategy on the cruise. Only from the anime, she appeared to have a great perception of reading people's feelings for someone as she easily catches onto Airi Sakura's obvious romantic attraction towards Kiyotaka. Let alone that, Kiyotaka in the light novels described her to have keen insight and sharp observation skills.

Quotes

 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "I'm not lying. I think that lying might be necessary in competition, but I like to be honest as much as possible. I do want my class to win, fair and square. I thought the road to victory lay in narrowing down who the V.I.P. is. Ah, you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, Ayanokōji-kun. I just wanted to explain my feelings. I thought if I told you, things might be easier."
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "My classmates...My friends in the other classes...Everyone’s been trying to convince me to return to school, telling me: If you have something troubling you, please come and talk to us about it. And yet, Ayanokōji-kun, you've never asked me anything like that, all while coming by to visit me every single day...Why?"
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "Anywho, the school is pretty terrible, isn't it? What with making someone drop out of school and all. Even if you manage to get praise votes from the kids in the other classes, someone still has to leave in the end."
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "That's not true at all! Rather, I honestly think it would be the most justified vote in the entire exam. It's meant to be for someone worthy of praise in another class. Yeah, I can't think of anyone more worthy than you, as the one who saved me."
 * (To Ryūji Kanzaki): "It's fine. Kanzaki-kun, you once told me that if somebody has the power to change things, they're nothing more than a fool if they don't make use of it, right? That's why I've been reflecting on what I could do for all of you."
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "We've lost our private points, but we can always make them back again. But, if we had lost even a single person, there would've been no way to get them back.
 * (To Kiyotaka Ayanokōji): "I've always been relying on you recently, Ayanokōji-kun. I've received more help than anyone else. If I say this audaciously… No, I can't say it, it's too unsightly."
 * (To Ryūji Kanzaki): "Kanzaki-kun, don’t say it like that. No matter what class it is, they'll have their own ideas, and of course, their own strategies."
 * (To Ryūji Kanzaki): "'Ayanokouji-kun is not our enemy."
 * (To Ryūji Kanzaki): "That's...but there's no point for us to engage in a pointless dispute!"

Name Etymology

 * The name Honami consists of kanjis that mean "sail" (帆) (ho) and "wave" (波) (nami).
 * Honami's surname Ichinose consists of kanjis that mean "one" (一) (ichi), "this" (之) (no) and "swift current, rapids" (瀬) (se).

Trivia

 * The number of private points Honami acquired in her first year of high school is by far the largest a first-year student has ever obtained among those that have been recorded.
 * The reason Honami has been assigned to Class-B instead of Class-A is because of her long absences during middle school.
 * In the first-year story of You-Zitsu series, she was originally the only 1st-year known to have been able to join the Student Council. However, by the time the second-year story rolls around, Honami was no longer the only previous first-year student alone to be in that Student Council as Suzune was given permission by Miyabi to become part of the organization after her.
 * Honami has a history of shoplifting that is closely similar to Masumi of Class A's own past experience.
 * Honami ranks #7 in "Female Character" category in the 2020 edition of 's  guidebook.
 * In the 2021 edition, she is ranked #6.
 * For the 2nd Year arc, when asked about her aspirations for the next year, she answered  'To properly redeem myself from my past and once again aim for class A without losing any one of my classmates.'