Honami Ichinose

Appearance
Honami is described to be a young teenage girl, who is esteemed to be one of the most alluring and attractive students in high school by her peers and seniors. She is even called beautiful by Kiyotaka Ayanokōji with back-length strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes. According to Kiyotaka, in the cruise ship, he couldn't look away from Honami's entrancing blue eyes that threatened to always draw him into it when gazing directly his way. Particularly, Honami was described in the books to have long, light pinkish-type hair which travels down in length to her waist or hip. Besides having an average height, she possesses an extremely well-endowed figure that is a source of jealousy for Suzune Horikita. Honami notes that she has experienced considerable growth spurt with her body's bust, continuing to grow a bit bigger over time ever since during her days in the third year of junior high/middle school.

She happened to be often seen wearing the school's standard uniform with a buttoned crimson blazer which is also connected to and covering most of her white blouse. Within the centre of her formal attire, she sometimes uses either a dark red or blue ribbon tie. In addition to that, Honami has on a short-length white sailor striped pleated skirt that all girls from her high school typically wear. More so, she put on black mid-calf socks that are below the skirt. There are different variations in the light novel illustrations of what she wears to school, indicating that she regularly switches between using brown or black shoes before heading to class in the early mornings. Her clothing of choice sometimes varies depending on the context of where she is at, such as when outside of school time or on vacation, Honami was known to be dressed in many casual garments. For instance, at the swimming pool, she once wore a bikini with her top tied in a ribbon knot. During the survival test, she had put on a red tracksuit with a white shirt underneath it.

Personality
If there was one sentence to describe Honami, it would be that she is genuinely kind-hearted, benevolent, and a pacifist to the core who is against the use of underhanded means and violence. One of her main traits is her selfless and supportive personality, combined with her excellent social skills and being naturally people-oriented. Honami is also a charismatic, energetic person, and extends her sweet and benign character even to those of the lower classes and levels, unlike many other upper-class students. In the first-year story, this was seen when she went to great length in trying to stop a possible brawl between three Class 1-C students and one of Class 1-D from breaking out, having a sharp-tongue to criticize others for trying to incite violence, especially in the library. Without directly bad mouthing or mocking the offenders disrespectfully, the most she did was being judgmental and prudent in pointing out their rude behavior in a public space, reminding them to be civil and tactful and respect the tranquility of where they were at. For this reason, she can also be seen as being a strict, 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. She has a problem-solver type of mentality, ready to take on challenges with her wits, remaining calm-minded and clear-headed even when one section in her group was acting uncooperative with the other members. Kiyotaka notes that she isn't the kind of person who would speak ill of others without any sort of reason to do so. Additionally, her good-natured disposition 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 1-D which was looked down on by upper classes and were deemed as defective existences.

Even though she politely rejected the romantic feelings of an admirer who was considered to be a close friend of hers, Honami refrained from using any harsh or hurtful words and still honestly hoped to stay as 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. As she is popular among the boys and girls from all classes and grade levels, she is a person who has a way with words, pulling and tugging the heartstrings of many like Kiyotaka to feel affection towards her without intending to do so. She is a lively girl who appears to be brightly talkative with friends and adversaries no matter their affiliation or background. Even when the going gets tough, she stays sangfroid and aplomb as long as victory is still within her class's reach. In the light novels, during a girls' talk even with her new friends she made along the way while faced with an exam, Honami could be genuinely viewed by others as an honest, truthful person to a fault without attempting to lie her way out or feign ignorance when being barraged with questions. Honami was eager to actively collaborate with the students of the other classes and reach out to them during the exam where they were put together in the same group, looking to earn their trust and friendship. She even readily came prepared ahead of time to play cards with them. Honami is a curious individual who can come off as appearing interested to whoever caught her attention like Kiyotaka, believing there is still plenty more to find out about the true extent of his abilities. This curiosity of hers motivates her enough to go as far as to seek out Kiyotaka and attempt to engage in a conversation with him about his past life, wishing to investigate the latter and getting to know the man better as a fellow student. Suffice to say, she is the lynchpin holding her class together and stalwart towards her classmates, attracting the attention and praise from other class leaders like Arisu, Ryuuen, Kiyotaka and Nagumo.

What's more, she is described to be a person of principle and conviction who has her own moral values to stand by and follow accordingly as it is a matter of virtue to her. Honami is resolute and steadfast in keeping her word, as after Kiyotaka helped her, she acknowledged that she owed him a favour for his help. She dislikes the mere thought of going up against people from opposing classes who she has a deep liking to during a competition as it feels like she betrayed them, particularly Kiyotaka. Before Suzune shot down her appeal, she would try her utmost best to no avail in extending the duration of the class alliance with Kiyotaka's class for as long as possible until the former herself is mentally prepared to see her former ally as an enemy to do battle against. While offering him support, she reminded him how this debt was something the former ought to seriously pay back as thanks. When she fell in love with somebody for the first time in her life and sought to buy that person a gift, Honami would be in self-denial about her feelings for the latter, telling herself that the gift was her way of conveying gratitude and debt to her saviour contrary to what the expression shown on her face is indicating to others. 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 aid in carrying out Class D's strategy secretly made by Kiyotaka in Suzune'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. She admits to herself that if Kiyotaka had been in her class, she wouldn't have had to worry about going all out or holding back and knew he would be an indispensable ally. She laments at the fact that this illusion wasn’t the reality she was living in.

More so, Honami is rather humble and modest to anyone be it her enemy or ally as in spite of her great talents and popular beauty known across school, she is not at all boastful about them but remains levelheaded and speaks respectfully to all her peers, even those in the lower classes. As a class leader who stands up and speaks on behalf of her whole class, that aspect of Honami is what attributes her to being a rational individual who can be reasoned with logically. She shows signs of being compassionate, caring and worrisome in nature about people even outside her class, apart from her classmates, voicing her meaningless worries for the others' well-being if they were in a dangerous situation. Nonetheless, she prioritises 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 has 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 affiliation, was seen again when she allowed him to borrow the use of her phone when he asked for it. She wouldn't go so far to persistently keep on questioning their action, particularly what Kiyotaka is doing in the Event Selection Exam as long as it proves reasonable and explainable to her which the former won't pursue further. However, Honami's trusting personality towards both Arisu and Miyabi can end up putting her in a terrible predicament and state of mind once they betrayed her that wasn't easy for her to recover or overcome without Kiyotaka intervening. Her most powerful idiosyncratic quirk can also be her most damaging blemish, as it has been used against her time and time again, to which she had to be repeatedly saved by Kiyotaka.

Meanwhile in the anime, Honami comes off as a bit playful in nature, teasing others to her own amusement as shown when she teasingly mentions 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 gave a slight smile in response about the growing friendship she had made with him after the two met and befriended each other. 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 1-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 is 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 if they don't stop escalating the dispute. Honami dislikes allowing trouble to go unnoticed in front of her, making Honami seem like an interventionist in nature. This was due to the frequent times where Honami often found herself sticking her nose in other people's business which was not her place to get involved until it detrimentally affected her and her class during an exam.

Usually, Honami is the type who goes with the flow or the mood whenever she talks with her friends. Yet, for situations that involve 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 goes 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. On the other hand, Honami seems rather secretive about herself and her class, as she was quick to take action in reclaiming her phone back without haste when Kiyotaka noticed the massive number of private points she possessed.

In that sense, she is protective of the class dealings between herself and her fellow classmates as these details are promisingly kept confidential among them. 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 doesn't appreciate receiving praise from others like Kiyotaka and Suzune if it doesn't feel warranted or justified due to her own past mistakes. Honami happens not to think very highly of herself such as when being called a good person, thinking that she is not a wonderful human being as Suzune makes her out to be. It was to the point where Honami uncomfortably refuses to look at Suzune in the face anymore in a conversation after getting called that, choosing to avoid locking direct eye contact with her altogether as she doesn't want to be given too much credit by the latter as a goody two shoes. 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 for 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 ended up wearing it anyway 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 as to what changes happened to Honami's relationship with her family members or about what it is like between them now that the incident has long been 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 before graduation.

Meanwhile, she had 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. After entering high school upon enrollment, Honami had made it her objective of wanting to apply for the Student Council and work with them like back in her middle school days. In turn, she proceeded to go out of her way and submit an application to join the student body group led by the then President, Manabu Horikita during that time as a first-year freshman student. Not before long though, in the special one-on-one interview she had with Manabu, her application was soon turned down by him much to her disappointment. Following that event however, Honami was able to later successfully get on board with the Student Council thanks to the work of Vice-President, Miyabi who silently established contact with her behind President Manabu's back right after she had chosen to reveal her mistake to him. The reason how someone like Miyabi was able to somehow convince Honami to give away her own secret to him in the open is through putting himself in her shoes where she must confess the full truth behind her assignment to Class B without holding anything back like he had once done in the past with an unknown Student Council member. Understanding what she must do in order to successfully apply for the Student Council, Honami was given the option by Miyabi of confessing her past to a powerful member of the student body so that he can then evaluate her worth as proof of having what it takes to be part of the organization.

Although she tries to inquire what Miyabi's confession was, he refuses to answer her as Honami is the one who is being questioned by him. After checking her achievements and abilities for himself during this meeting, Honami was told by him that it wouldn't have been strange if she had been placed in Class A instead of Class B during the start of her first-year as a freshman but figured something must be amiss of why that is not the case. He demands Honami to disclose everything about her history prior to enrolling in high school, egging the girl to explain the reason for what put her into Class B and not Class A. Miyabi states that if the former deemed Honami as a student worthy enough of Class A then he'll take responsibility and accept her into the Student Council as she wanted. Seeing that she still holds a slim chance of getting into the student body due to the possibility of hope that his words had given her, Honami reflects on the causes of why someone as her was not placed in Class A but Class B and whether to openly state the truth. Honami was informed by Miyabi that he is taking her application into consideration despite Manabu's refusal to let her enter the Student Council due to the Vice-President needing to find and recruit a first-year freshman like herself to join the group and be trained under him. As Vice-President Miyabi was set to be the future Student Council President after his predecessor Manabu steps down, it was why she got scouted out by him in the first place beforehand to first assess Honami's achievements and abilities before deciding to allow her entry as an official member of the student body. When Miyabi finally states that if she turns away this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show her worth, Honami won't be able to secure a special place in the Student Council anymore. Upon hearing what he said to be her one and only chance to redeem herself, it became the last straw for Honami to finally make the decision in sharing her past with him while Miyabi promises not to say a single word about it outside their meeting room. As Miyabi was an exception, Honami made it clear to herself to not speak a word about her crime to anyone publicly other than him the moment she was enrolled into high school until her enemy and rival, Arisu Sakayanagi found out about it later down the line.

Not long after Arisu learned of Honami's past through the words of Miyabi himself, rumors of her possibly being a criminal that is yet to be confirmed starts circulating and spreading in droves by the people of Class 1-A during her first-year as a freshman. Out of all the rumors that got to her head and broke her mental resistance, it was only this one that pushed Honami to return back to being a shut-in and locked herself away at home, like the time in middle school. Isolated in her dormitory room for a lot of days, Honami refuses to actively attend high school or her class everyday anymore because of such a rumor that happened to resonate badly with her. When none of her fellow classmates and friends were able to successfully reach out to Honami, the only person who came through in the end was none other than Kiyotaka who did as he succeeded in breaking what was left of the former's fighting spirit. Thanks to Kiyotaka's persistent effort and time in stopping by to visit her every single day of the week and being consulted by him outside the door to her room, Honami decided to reveal the weak side she has about the secret of her past experience. Due to this turning point between herself and Kiyotaka, she is able to come to terms with her history and sins, no longer desiring to run away from everything and face Arisu head-on together with the rest of her classmates as a united class. With her resolve renewed after Kiyotaka's help of being all ears and ready to listen to her troubles, Honami was able to bounce back stronger than before and make a speedy recovery mentally. From that moment on, Honami resumed going to school and attended class, meeting up with all her classmates who were worried about the former all this time while she was gone. Before long, she and her classmates were then confronted by Arisu and the latter's subordinates of Class 1-A wherein Honami proceeded to openly disclose her secret to everyone present in and outside the classroom of how it is closely related to the one rumor among many about her that wasn't false. Because of everyone remaining supportive and respectful to Honami despite learning the full details behind her past, she was able to resolutely and strongly hold her own against Arisu, resisting the latter's constant barrage of verbal attacks and the underhanded strategy used by Class 1-A.

Throughout her first-year from beginning to end, it was revealed that Honami had spent a year with her classmates, and protected the position of Class 1-B from ever changing or getting dethroned. Surrounded by so many companions she befriended over the course of time spent together as friends from the same class, her school life had been smooth sailing at first. However, near the end of her time as a freshman and during the beginning of the second-year, the gap between the strengths and weaknesses of the classes behind was closing in due to the heavy losses she and her classmates suffered in the Event Selection Exam. Although defeat had finally caught up to Honami, and it was staring into her eyes like a reflection, she continued maintaining her fighting spirit for as long as possible under Kiyotaka's promise to meet her again a year later about his answer to her question concerning whether she can or still be able to win in the future. Currently, Honami felt a bit uneasy judging that a large difference between the classes in terms of class points and combat ability was growing at a rapid pace. By objectively analyzing the ongoing situation about herself, her classmates and students from the other classes, she is worried that the class at the bottom next year would likely be her own group overall. This was Honami basing it on Class 1-B's very slow growth rate when compared to their rival classes who are outpacing them each and every step of the way than they could possibly keep up against. Honami wants to do what she can to prevent herself and her own classmates from falling further behind the curve while her opponents are growing increasingly powerful over time.

Abilities
Honami is skilfully great in many different kinds of fields be it academics, collaboration, or communication. This similarly coincides with her set of interpersonal and 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. In one instance, Honami successfully forces Arisu Sakayanagi to cough up even more private points than the latter necessarily suggested as part of the contract when arranging the formation of a class alliance. Through unknown means, she has acquired millions of private points which caused Kiyotaka Ayanokōji to question how she obtained that much. Honami uses those points to reward people in exchange for their cooperation if they are willing to share valuable details on things related to a case that could help solve the Ken incident. 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. Particularly, according to her homeroom teacher Chie, she quickly rallied Class 1-B when it was still in disarray. When she shows her strong resolve backed by her self-determined expression and words, Kiyotaka was able to see why everyone in Class 1-B who have been supporting Ichinose would have no choice but to listen to her and obey. 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 happened to be a very intelligent and smart person who is said to be on par with the students from Class A academically. Another notable achievement is that she is able to fulfil her responsibilities of being the class representative effortlessly without her grades dropping in the slightest. As for her role, Honami was known to participate in face-to-face discussions regarding school matters such as when Kiyotaka caught sight of her being involved with her homeroom teacher Chie Hoshinomiya and things related to the Student Council. Honami's mother went as far as strictly telling Honami to be a studious student who needs to prioritise studying while in school by having the girl focus on her studies rather than finding a job so as to be employed at an early age. Both in high school and even during middle school, she was highly regarded as an honours student, taking care of helping peers with difficulties such as improving their academic performances before a test. Honami once formed a study group session with classmates and friends and they were able to make passing scores on a quiz after briefly being tutored by her. This further suggests that teaching and tutoring others are also one of her many fortes academically, as she was able to help her classmates improve and understand the different concepts better than the school system. It was also mentioned by Suzune Horikita that Honami would have normally been put in Class A for her excellent abilities, but was forced to Class 1-B for reasons unknown to her. One of her classmates even states that had the school used only grades to determine Honami's placement among the classes, she would be undoubtedly been put in Class A.

Physical Abilities
Not much is clearly known about Honami's physical capabilities, although it is mentioned in her short story at Year 1 Light Novel 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 with a bit of skill to some degree. She confidently claims that her running speed is fairly fast. She even acknowledges the extent of her speed is 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. In the following volumes, although she was not in anyway confident about her physical capabilities overall, Honami admits she was at least very proud of her own remarkable speed specifically while attempting to outrun two powerfully-trained adult men like Tsukishiro and Katsunori Shiba. Nonetheless, despite how fast she pushed herself to run, Honami could still end up losing her footing along the way after accidentally slipping into tricky terrains that are hard and troublesome to get out of. For instance, when placed in a dangerous situation where it takes a heavy toll on her mental state like feeling delirious, this hampers Honami's ability to steadily maintain her physical movement. By then, Honami would lose complete control of her own equilibrium and balance, mindlessly taking steps without precautions to escape the environment before falling under the ground.

Intellectual Abilities
Honami has an insightful and intuitive side to her intellect, as she recognised the true and well-hidden intelligence of Kiyotaka Ayanokōji and saw that he is someone who shouldn't had been 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 and never underestimated them. She is able to read the mood and atmosphere of people, easily noticing that her presence is not positively welcome by the Ayanokōji Group after meeting Kiyotaka with his circle of new friends for the first time. More so, she carefully considers the implications and possibilities behind why someone like her was placed in the Rabbit Group rather than be part of the Dragon Group which was composed of class leaders. From the anime, she appears 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. During an exam which requires communication and cooperation, she also possesses the necessary skills of being a mediator. She is diplomatically adept and is able to carefully get people from different classes to open up and start a conversation with one another. Striking a friendly conversation with a student outside her class can also be seen as Honami's method of trying to gather valuable pieces of information about others.

Quotes

 * (To Kakeru Ryūen): "I'm sorry, Ryuuen-kun. But you've hurt people in Class B with your actions. Even if it's possible for us to get more points, I can't ally with you on that reason alone."
 * (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 Arisu Sakayanagi): "Class B also came here with a strategy, ready to win. We won't lose easily, especially in an exam like this where unity and cooperation play such an important part."
 * (To Kakeru Ryūen): "'Then, are you saying you'll go easy on me?"
 * (To Kakeru Ryūen): "I wish you wouldn't. You don't have a protection point and you're fighting with your back up against the wall. Somehow I can't help but feel like this is a bad omen for Class B."
 * (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!"
 * (To Arisu Sakayanagi): "What makes me sad is that this isn't a happy proposal. After all, it implies that our class is not worthy of your caution, an insignificant existence to you."
 * (To Arisu Sakayanagi): "Although it's nice to receive that evaluation from you, we're in a situation where we don't care anymore, right?"
 * (To Arisu Sakayanagi): "You said we were someone you could trust, and I think you meant that. However, the most important thing for you is to prevent Class B, Class C, and Class D from working together to catch up to Class A. Indeed, the amount of class points we can get if we win together will decrease, but there's no guarantee that such a development wouldn't appear in the future— That the three classes would continue to help each other."
 * (To Arisu Sakayanagi): "With that our contract is complete. Even if you hadn't offered to loan me the deposit points, I would have chosen to join forces with you. Our main goal is of course to reach Class A, but as you said, we fell to Class C and we can't afford to fall even more. Since, if we fall down to Class D, our class's motivation would surely be greatly reduced, and that is something we want to avoid."

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

 * There are various factors that contribute to the rise in Honami's popularity among so many students from all grade levels in Advanced Nurturing High School.
 * She is extremely active, charismatic, and engaging during social interactions, willing to befriend all sorts of people in and out of her classroom with open arms be it a teacher or student, easily pulling everyone's focus on her.
 * An outgoing, good-natured personality that is true and innocent to Honami's belief, possessing a persistently warm, gentle nature to care for others by putting them first before herself.
 * According to Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, it's because of how easygoing Honami was as she is able to carelessly call out to boys and invite them to hang out with her, even when visiting their dormitory room.
 * Honami recalled her own previous experience where she had once been hanging around in the rooms of several male students from her Class 1-B before, but staying at Kiyotaka's room at an hour past 11 pm during the middle of nighttime midnight was actually considered as a first for her.
 * Her leadership, appearance, academics and achievements were given recognition by other fellow students including the popular ones such as Miyabi Nagumo and Kikyō Kushida.
 * It's the very fact that she can always be entrusted with something like making decisions by anyone and would never betray an ally or a friend as the former is one of the very few most trustworthy, reliable students out there within her grade level.
 * Honami is the only class leader known thus far to have participated in two or more class alliances of the same grade level, one of which being with Suzune Horikita during her first-year and the other recently being with Arisu Sakayanagi during her second-year in high school.
 * During the Cruise Ship Special Test, Kiyotaka regards both Honami and Suzune as his usual partners in crime who he normally worked together with.
 * This is seemingly the case in multiple instances when they happened to be cooperating to clear up the matter involved, including the Ken Sudō incident, and the incident of the stalker attempting to sexually harass Airi Sakura.
 * Suzune recognises Honami Ichinose as the first person the former met in high school that was actually a purely good person with a kind-heart, among everyone else she knew, making her come to the realisation of how there was likely indeed someone genuine like her out there in the real world.
 * At the start of the series, Honami was the first student among the first-years to have successfully brought complete unity, trust, and collaboration between the students in her class without any signs of internal discords, unlike Classes 1-A, 1-C, and 1-D who couldn't match their unity at the time.
 * From the beginning to the end of her first-year, Honami was able to prevent her fellow classmates from dropping out of school, having not lost any one of them in her Class 1-B by expulsion when compared to the leaders of the other three classes.
 * In contrast to the other first-year class leaders who manipulate their schemes nefariously behind the scene, Honami was viewed as the one and only class leader among them who don't resort to the idea of using malicious strategies and tactics like they do to win special exams.
 * The number of private points Honami had managed to acquire 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.
 * Honami spent and lost them all in an instant when she readily attained the minimum amount to nullify her classmate Ryūji Kanzaki's expulsion during the Class Poll.
 * The reason as to why Honami had been assigned to Class 1-B instead of Class 1-A was due to her strange long absences during middle school.
 * Her constant absences didn't occur daily until somewhere in the middle of her third year before graduation.
 * There were multiple occasions where Honami had considered willing to pay expenses for Class 1-D using her own private points.
 * Honami bought surveillance/security cameras to help with setting up Class 1-D's strategy to fool and trap Kakeru's lackeys from Class 1-C, lending the private points freely to Suzune and Kiyotaka Ayanokōji during the Ken Sudō case.
 * During summer vacation at the swimming pool, Honami provided lunches for the Class 1-D team free of charge after she and her teammates of Class 1-B lost to them in a volleyball match as the losing side had to be the ones to purchase their meals.
 * Honami tries to volunteer in paying a treat to the Ayanokōji Group during lunch break but Kiyotaka himself turned down that offer out of consideration that she and her class were very low on private points.
 * While they were on spring break vacation, Honami had invited Kiyotaka and Suzune out to Keyaki Mall's cafe, buying them their breakfast with her own money.
 * Honami was described by Haruka Hasebe to be too perfect at everything such as being able to make friends with anyone, thinking the leader of Class 1-B can't be human without having at least a couple faults to her flawless, benevolent character.
 * Although Haruka hopes that Honami Ichinose was actually a rotten person on the inside with ulterior motives, she is not acutely aware that was what her classmate Kikyō Kushida really happened to be without knowing it unlike the leader of Class 1-B.
 * Different from the light novel series, Honami's anime counterpart in the final episode of the adaptation portray her to have the facial expression of a two-faced, sly person all along after the end of the Deserted Island Special Test.
 * 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 start of the second-year arc, Honami was no longer the only second-year student in that Student Council, with Suzune Horikita being recruited by Miyabi Nagumo to become part of the student body.
 * The reason why Honami was allowed to enter the Student Council by Miyabi in the first place was solely because she happened to meet his first criteria in working alongside him where the former qualified as an extremely good-looking person, something which her upperclassman seeks in the opposite sex. The other two reasons as criteria were nothing more than a mere bonus to Miyabi, one was that she was placed in Class 1-B during freshman year, much like himself, rather than being from Class A while another was her excellent academic ability, grades and immense popularity.
 * Honami has a criminal history of shoplifting, similar to Masumi Kamuro of Class A's own past.
 * Ironically, it was Masumi who revealed some hints of what Honami's crime might be to Kiyotaka who then soon found out the truth from Honami herself.
 * Honami has been confessed to a total of five times throughout the course of her school life, all of which she turned down; one of which being from Chihiro Shiranami in high school, one from her time in elementary school, and the remaining three were likely during her middle school life.
 * Early in the story before the Ken incident was taken care of and resolved, Kiyotaka thought that Honami has her own fair share of personal experience in getting used to people confessing their romantic feelings to her. However, Honami frantically denies it to be the case stating how she has never once experienced this sort of thing before especially since Chihiro is a girl and not a boy that plans to hold a confession with the former.
 * Honami ranks #7 in "Female Character" category in the 2020 edition of 's  guidebook.
 * In the 2021 edition, she is ranked #6.
 * It was said that Honami happened to have a cute handkerchief with panda illustrations in her possession, using it after meeting up with both Kiyotaka and Suzune together for the first time.
 * During the first-year story, Kiyotaka states that if he was ever placed in the same class as her, he would've eventually developed a crush on Honami and fell in love with the latter because of her charming personality and pulchritudinous persona like her admirers.
 * Yet such a what-if situation ended up becoming the other way around with some differences when Honami started to develop genuine admiration towards Kiyotaka to the point of crushing over him despite not being part of the same classroom together.
 * Back when they were freshman students, Kakeru Ryūen remarks how Honami was the type of person who would risk her own life to prevent her classmates from getting expelled no matter what even if she broke out in a fever or end up getting herself injured during the process, believing that the Class 1-B leader will still come crawling on her hands and knees anyway to save them.
 * There are a few times when a comparison was made between Honami and Airi Sakura, whether one of the two have what it takes to be popular with the students or an idol like their counterpart respectively.
 * According to Kiyotaka, Honami had the necessary qualities including her own face and figure that a gravure idol was thought to be, similar to Airi who is already in such a position to be infamous across the web and in young men's magazines.
 * On the other hand, Haruka Hasebe believes how if Airi was actually an aggressive type who is as assertive as Honami is, she might have come to experience the same situation as her in terms of growing popularity and envy among people.
 * From the first-year story, Daichi Ishizaki describes Class 1-B led by Honami to be merely nothing more than her own army of admirers that made her and them seem powerful in special exams with team competitions involved.
 * Throughout her first-year of being in high school as a freshman student, powerful students from other classes and years were known to have directly accused and target Honami of different sorts of baseless allegations and force her into making difficult choices.
 * Arisu Sakayanagi of Class 1-A perpetuating the spread of various false rumours about Honami's criminal record before high school be it her personal engagement in violence, compensated dating, drug, theft, and robbery.
 * Kakeru Ryūen of Class 1-C drawing suspicions on Honami by blaming her for the disappearance of her own classmates going missing during the Event Selection Exam as some of them did not participate in the class competitions.
 * Kiyotaka Ayanokōji of Class 1-D started the false rumour of Honami collecting a massive amount of private points illegally to spread, while using the name of a different student as a cover-up to hide his identity as the real perpetrator.
 * Miyabi Nagumo of Class 3-A also known as the President of the Student Council, forced her into a dilemma with the choice being allowing her classmates to be expelled or being with an intimate relationship with him and having him saved said classmate from expulsion. He also made sure to press her to make the decision quickly and not make him wait.
 * 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.'
 * Honami, Arisu, and Tsubasa Nanase are the only trio of students from Advanced Nurturing High School known so far to each hear the term, "White Room" in the current storyline as outsiders who weren't raised there.
 * Excluding Arisu who already has some knowledge of what the "White Room" means from an outsider perspective, neither Honami nor Tsubasa knows anything about it whatsoever except for the fact about how the two of them have stumble upon learning that term by chance due to hearing such word came out of either Tsukishiro's mouth or Katsunori Shiba's.
 * Once Honami starts to like Kiyotaka in a romantic way, she begins exhibiting the tendency to readily make use of citrus-base perfume on herself before meeting up with him as planned at some point in her schedule.
 * The first time was when Honami invited Kiyotaka and the Ayanokōji Group out for lunch together with her fellow classmates at the school's cafeteria before team competitions in the Event Selection Exam began.
 * The second time was when Honami arranged a conference with both Kiyotaka and Suzune at the Keyaki Mall's café after team competitions in the Event Selection Exam came to an end.
 * Since she had feelings for Kiyotaka ever since the time he helped the former overcome her past, Honami sometimes exhibited a sign of indecisiveness and hesitation about whether to go through with her decisions as a class leader. Particularly, Honami's own actions and strategies during certain exams where she would normally do anything and everything within her power to prevent her classmates from getting expelled has changed a bit while Kiyotaka was on the back of her mind. If not for the feelings she has for Kiyotaka holding her back, Honami would've experienced past events in high school differently.
 * Near the end of the first-year story, one of which is during the Class Poll where Honami could've gone on to accept Miyabi Nagumo's offer and dated him, had Kiyotaka not provided her another way out of that situation with his option over the upperclassman.
 * In the second-year story, the other being the Uninhabited Island Exam where Honami could've chosen to prioritize focusing on saving and protecting her classmates above everyone else, had she not eavesdropped or overheard the conversation between Tsukishiro and Katsunori Shiba.