Yuuko Shirakawa
Yuuko Shirakawa (白川優子, Shirakawa Yūko) 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 semi-popular tea house in town called the Shanghai, so as to fund her university studies in European history.
- "Yuuko has serious problems with managing her life, which makes her the perfect person to ask for help to manage one's own. She funds her university studies by working part time at a popular cafe. The lengths she goes to avoid being fired for her natural clumsiness bewilder other people, along with her neurotic attention to detail and frequent streaks of depression."
- — Official Description
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. Socially awkward, she will sometimes jump to irrational conclusions or speak her hidden thoughts without realizing, such as her views on the board's book budget versus her salary. In spite of her eccentricities and proffessed difficulty managing her love life, she listens to Hisao and advises him in more appropriately relating to his lovers and peers 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
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 leaked Kawata Shoujo beta, this was proven to be true. [note 1]
Notes
- ↑ I know that both Yuuko and Kenji have mentioned that they had lost their respective partners, but this seems to make no sense at all. Then again, that alone makes it make perfect sense.
~Hanako's "True" Route, Act 4 [Beta Only]