Yuuko Shirakawa

Yuuko Shirakawa is one of the librarians at Yamaku Academy.  Her duties include stocking the library, including with foreign texts and those in an alternative format (such as Braille). She also works part-time at a popular tea rooms in town called the Shanghai, so as to fund her university studies in European history.

Personality

Yuuko is timid and a little ditzy; a notable refrain is her banging her head whenever someone startles her in the library, from books being returned to Lilly calling for her. She professes herself that she has trouble managing her own life but despite this, adopts at times a mentor-like role to Hisao, advising him on tact in his new environment.

In the Shanghai, a more professional side of her emerges; despite her underlying timidness, she seems to relax and enjoys providing a good service to customers, albeit with the occasional verbal slip-up.

Yuuko will occasionally mention passingly that she was recently out of a relationship that ended very suddenly. She also mentions having plans to go to University for European History.

The Missing Ex

Spoiler warning! This article contains crucial plot details that should not be viewed if you have not seen them in-game. Continue reading at your own risk.

Many times throughout the course of the game, Yuuko talks about how she was once in a relationship with someone who was a bit younger than herself. Conversations within this topic have led her to mentioning that this boyfriend was a fan of cryptology, and he caused her to be interested in it. Another revealed tidbit about her past relationship is that, after they broke up, this mysterious unnamed boyfriend seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Given the similarities between their stories, many fans speculate this ex to be Kenji Setou, as after his "experiences" with his own ex, he became sheltered. Kenji also once stole a book on cryptology, among other topics, from the school library, causing Yuuko to begin an investigation on the missing texts. In the secret beta, this speculation was proven to be true.