Yūko (優子): formed from the kanji 優 (yuu, “kindness”, “superiority”) and 子 (ko, “child”). The meaning can be interpreted as ‘kind child’ or ‘child of excellence’, but the kanji ‘yuu’ can also suggest a quiet and reserved nature.
Akatsuki (暁): referring to dawn or the moment when the sun rises.
2nd year, Karasuno – Manager of the female volleyball team.
Yuko is a bit germophobic: she is allergic to every type of pollen, plant, and flower that exists.
She doesn't like physical exertion, so she prefers to be the manager of a team rather than participating in training as a player. She likes volleyball, but she isn't assertive enough and she can't get the other players on her team involved. On the one hand, she is discouraged by the team's attitude, but on the other hand, thanks to her resilience and quiet perseverance, Kahori and Yuko have gotten to know each other better and become friends.
She is very good at school and loves devising strategies (it is no coincidence that she is a keen D&D player), but she has always found it difficult to socialise because people are intimidated by her somewhat gloomy, sometimes sulky demeanour. In reality, Yuko is simply shy and reserved.
She often wears a mask because she is afraid of getting sick and because she sneezes frequently due to her numerous allergies (in reality, her antibodies could literally fight off any type of germ, but she lives with the fear that this isn't the case).
She would be capable of asking the person she is about to shake hands with to clean their hands with hand sanitiser, and if they don't have any, she would offer them some and kindly ask them to disinfect their hands.
She loves wearing baggy clothes, choosing jumpers and sweatshirts that are one size too big... according to her, “to hide herself better”.
She has a crush on Asahi Azumane, but every time the two meet, they end up making one blunder after another without ever getting anywhere (Will they ever get closer? Who knows).
Current concern --> When she shakes someone's hand, she wonders, “How many unfamiliar hands did they shake before shaking mine... and how many colonies of bacteria did they just transfer to me?”
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Please welcome my dear friend's OC (i.e. the one who drew my OC Kahori). I hope you enjoy her <3.
I have already written three oneshots with Kahori and Yuko, so you can get to know her better.
I wrote a little oneshot where my OC Kahori and my friend's OC meet for the first time! I usually post the full oneshot on AO3, but this time I want to post at least this one in full here too.
The volleyball echoed off like a steady drumbeat. The ball bounced off the players' arms, their hands raised to touch it, the voices of the players echoing inside the gymnasium. Kahori sat down on the edge of the bench, still panting, clutching the cold water bottle with both hands. The plastic left a damp trail on her fingers.
It was the first training session of the new school year, and even though it was only a practice match, Kahori felt a certain uneasiness stirring inside her. A new team, new teammates, a completely new environment. The fear of not fitting in, of what had happened in the past happening again.
She brought the water bottle to her lips, then suddenly lowered it. She had a strange feeling — the kind she got when someone was watching her, but without being obvious about it.
She turned her head slightly. A girl had appeared next to her on the far end of the long bench, like a shadow drawn at the edge of the bench. She stared straight ahead, but Kahori could swear she felt her gaze shift towards her. It was as if the new presence was studying her from a distance.
She wore a white T-shirt that was much larger than her size, with the words ‘Karasuno High School’ written on it, and black trousers from their school's tracksuit. The mask hid half of her face, but her eyes were framed by glasses with two large, thick lenses. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her shoulders were slightly hunched forward, as if she were carrying the weariness of the world on her back.
Kahori swallowed, uncertain. The girl hadn't greeted her. She didn't even seem inclined to do so.
Ten very long seconds passed. Then twenty. Neither of them moved. Only the sound of shoes on the parquet floor filled the silence. Until the girl stood up slightly, took a few steps to the side, her gaze still fixed on the volleyball court, until she sat down about a metre away from Kahori.
The girl glanced down at the cap of Kahori's water bottle. Afterwards, she said, in a very low voice: “Do you disinfect it after every use?”
Kahori looked at her, a little surprised, unsure if she had understood correctly. “Uhm... yes. My sister washes it carefully. She uses... those antibacterial detergents.”
Yuko nodded very slightly, as if Kahori had just passed an invisible test. “Good.”
Silence settled between them like a light blanket. The sound of the ball hitting the parquet floor provided a steady, almost comforting background noise.
Kahori took a sip of water, aware of Yuko's presence beside her. She could sense the girl's struggle: she was searching for words, but she didn't know where to start. To tell the truth, Kahori was also trying to figure out what to do. Asking someone's name wasn't such a difficult task for Kahori, but something told her that it was better to “give her time to talk” and decide what to do, to that mysterious girl who had decided to approach her.
Yuko tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, without looking at her. Then, as if she had gathered all her courage in a single breath, she said, “I am Yuko Akatsuki.”
Kahori turned to look at her, surprised. The eyes behind the mask were fixed straight ahead, focused on the game. “I'm the team manager. The girl's team, I mean. If you need... I don't know, water, ice, or...medicines and patches. You can count on me.”
Yuko added in a whisper, but with absolute seriousness: “And hand sanitiser, yes, especially hand sanitiser. I'm well stocked.”
Kahori nodded, struggling to hold back a smile. “Okay. Nice to meet you, Akatsuki-san. I'm Kahori Shimizu, I just joined the team.”
Silence again. But a different kind of silence. Yuko clutched the notebook full of notes to her chest, as if seeking support from that inanimate object. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you who I was right away. Sometimes... I can't speak at the right moment.”
Kahori looked at her for a moment, then shook her head slowly. “I didn't know how to start either.”
Yuko nodded knowingly.
When a player on the court missed a reception and the ball rolled towards them, Kahori got up to retrieve it. She picked it up, handed it to her teammate, then sat down again next to Yuko.
Kahori had just sat down next to Yuko when she heard the girl's voice, low and direct, as if she were talking to herself: “It's quite warm today for spring. It's very sweaty. The balls absorb moisture. Hands... are the worst carriers of bacteria.”
Kahori looked at her sideways, taken aback for a moment, but not in a negative way. There was no anxiety or annoyance in those words: they seemed almost part of a mental list, orderly and habitual.
“Are you going to clean them all after training?” The question came out spontaneously, but not ironically. Just sincere curiosity.
Yuko nodded once, seriously. “Yes. With gloves and disinfectant. And then I dry them one by one. In the air, if possible.”
A moment of silence.
Then Kahori said, “Do you want a hand?”
Yuko turned to look at her. She didn't answer right away. She didn't seem to be expecting that offer — or maybe she thought it was just a polite thing to say, like people sometimes do.
But Kahori kept her gaze steady and sincere. No blinking, no sarcasm. Just attention.
Yuko lowered her eyes slightly, then nodded again, more slowly. “If... if you want. Yes.”
Kahori smiled slightly. “All right.”
They said nothing more. But in the midst of that training session, that humid afternoon and the sound of balls bouncing on the floor, something had already been set in motion.
This oneshot is ironic, I hope it makes you laugh at least a little <3.
LINK AO3 -> HERE
An unreal silence reigned in the Shimizu household, interrupted only by the regular rubbing of Yuko disinfecting the last dice with an alcohol-soaked wipe. She sat at the head of the table, her face mask decorated with tiny hand-sewn dragons, a screen made of Dungeon Master cardboard standing tall and solemn before her like a barrier between the real world and that of her campaign.
The main players in that campaign sat around the table. Some were more convinced than others.
The imaginary sun set over a sea of scattered maps and character sheets enriched with new items and statistics. The last words of Yuko, the impassive and feared Dungeon Master, resounded like the final echo of an ancient spell: “And with one last flash of sunlight, the Crypt of the Silver Flame closes behind all of you. You all survived. Some more... respectably than others.”
“I was perfectly dignified!” exclaimed Oikawa, leaning back dramatically. His hair was combed in such a way as to mimic small dragon horns pointing upwards, and a black cape that he had insisted on wearing for ‘narrative immersion’ fell over his shoulder.
Yuko looked at him, slightly taken aback. “You sold an entire village for a magic dagger which you later used to open a bottle of wine.”
Oikawa clicked his tongue: “It's called character interpretation! I'm a chaotic evil dragonborn, Yuko-chan. Narrative consistency dictates certain aesthetic choices.”
“I said we should sell that dragon on the black market,” interjected Kahori, the elf druid of the odd team.
Oikawa turned to look at her, indignant. “You hurt my feelings.”
“You could have chosen not to bite the mayor,” Kageyama interjected, the only one still seriously leafing through the player's manual, his face frowning as if rereading the rule of the ‘Oath of Righteousness’ could restore the sanity he had lost during the session.
Oikawa turned to look at him with a superficial expression: “You know what was really stupid, Tobio-chan? Filtering with the statue of the archangel. You, statue-molesting Paladin.”
Kageyama blushed to his ears. “I wasn't flirting! It was a riddle with a persuasion test!”
“Charisma +0,” Hinata, or the dwarf blacksmith, whispered with a smirk.
Kahori chuckled softly. “And yet you tried to kiss her.”
Kageyama turned to look at Kahori, frowning. “YOU TOLD ME I HAD TO DO IT THIS WAY!”
Kahori shrugged: “Well, maybe I lied.”
Yachi, the halfling thief, was still doubled over with laughter. “Come on, Kageyama... at least the statue rejected you kindly.”
Oikawa chuckled. “She wouldn't have been able to resist me. My charisma is the highest of all, and my tail is objectively charming.”
“Your tail tripped Hinata in the middle of a fight,” Yuko pointed out, monotonously.
“My dignity is still scattered throughout the Dungeon,” Hinata added resignedly. “But hey, I still managed to hit the enemy in the nose with a frying pan.”
Yuko rubbed her eyes. “Where did you find a frying pan? You're a dwarf blacksmith, you shouldn't be using frying pans.”
“Creative inventory,” Hinata replied, puffing out his chest.
Yachi nodded solemnly. “It's written on the sheet. Between ‘15-metre rope’ and ‘friendship bracelet’.”
Yuko sighed slowly, making a mental note to ‘check the cards more carefully’.
Meanwhile, Kahori was putting away her beautiful black dice before interrupting the conversation: “I enjoyed summoning the storm in the sacred forest. Even though the dragonborn insisted on dancing in the rain with a chicken while we were fighting. I wonder, once again, what was the point of having a chaotic evil character on our team.”
“My character was called Sora!” Oikawa retorted indignantly. “And it was simply the timing too perfect”.
Kageyama looked at him sideways. “Dancing with a fucking chicken. And you even named it after me just to annoy me.”
“That's right,” Oikawa smiled at him. “Mission accomplished, Paladin with no sense of humour. And I tell you more, I cooked my chicken Tobio on the barbecue with my flames.”
“Yuko, you shouldn't allow this,” Kageyema blurted out, glaring at Oikawa. “I hope your character dies after eating that chicken.”
Oikawa simply responded with a loud raspberry, while Kahori pulled the mantle over his head to keep him quiet.
Yuko stood up, brushing aside a map covered in crumbs with two fingers – Hinata's fault, presumably. She made a mental note of the umpteenth rule: ‘No one is allowed to give real names to things or objects to spite someone else’. Then she sighed: “For the next session,” she said, “be prepared. The Dark Lands of Mirathor are opening up. And the Insect King is looking for... volunteers.”
“What kind of insect?” asked Yachi, a little frightened.
Yuko nodded slowly: “One with six eyes, ten legs and questionable fiscal policy.”
“I like it already,” Hinata declared.
Oikawa stretched. “I'll lead the expedition.”
Kageyama snorted. “You won't lead anyone.”
Kahori sighed, smiling to herself. “We haven't even left the tavern in the next campaign, and we're already arguing…”
“Classic balanced party,” Yuko concluded, a hint of a smile passing behind her mask as she placed the dice in a small, velvet-lined box.
