Sakura Kiyashiki

"How come when kids grow a little bigger and stronger than other kids, they hurt the littler and weaker ones?"

- Sakura confiding to Nagisa about her getting bullied

Sakura Kiyashiki (鬼屋敷 さくら, Kiyashiki Sakura) is a young girl that Nagisa Shiota meets when Class 3-E is forced to help out at Wakaba Park's nursery.

Appearance
Sakura has short pink hair cut above her shoulders and pointed dark blue eyes rimmed with notable eyelashes.

Personality
At first, Sakura is very hostile towards Class 3-E and frequently attempts to harass them; this behavior stemmed from the fact that she was bullied herself.

Once Nagisa Shiota reassured her, she eventually warmed up to Class 3-E and has developed a crush on Nagisa.

History
Sakura was frequently bullied at school until she stopped going to classes. As a result of her harassment, she stuck to studying at the cram school where the other kids feared her.

Mistake and Nursery Time
After most of Class 3-E injured an old man while freelancing against Tadaomi Karasuma's instructions, the entire class was told to take care of the cram school the old man (named Matsukata) ran. Upon their arrival, the children of the cram school swarmed them but Sakura remained unimpressed. Intending to test their "guts", she ran at Nagisa Shiota with a broom only to fall through broken floorboards. Later on, Nagisa attempted to tutor her but she grew impatient as he tried to figure out a way to explain the material. He then asked her why she didn't attend school, to which Sakura confided she was bullied, comparing her situation to a cat that had gotten stuck in a tree. Nagisa responded by telling her to think of the ground as the cram school and the top of the tree as her school; they get their strength from the ground and are looked down on by others even higher, but it is after learning the fearfulness of heights that they are able to move around so freely. He also cautioned that they could still forget about the fear of heights and end up falling to the ground again. Sakura looked up at him in amazement and Nagisa offered her the chance to learn at the cram school and set up a "strategy".

During the following two weeks, she studied under Nagisa's tutelage. When Matsukata returned, Sakura arrived and revealed she came second in her class. She followed the strategy Nagisa gave her: to go to school just for the arithmetic test and then make a break for home. Nagisa then instructed her to continue with the "hit and run" tactic to "build her arsenal" for "battles at school". Sakura shyly asked if he'd come back to teach her again to which he agreed, much to her joy.

Later appearances
Sakura has made periodic appearances since. She returns in Chapter 116 along with the rest of the cram school. They visit Class 3-E's restaurant and reveals she asked Nagisa Shiota to be her private tutor. When Nagisa mentioned it being a "difficult battle", Sakura noted that they had a "mysterious power" so not to worry.

During Nagisa's final term, he was tutoring Sakura. At the time he was undecided on what his future career should be. Sakura suggested that he become a teacher much like how he was currently tutoring her. If that failed she blushingly added that she could be always be his girlfriend. In another tutoring session Sakura was practicing for a test. Noticing that her concentration was breaking up as she thought of all the bullying she endured, Nagisa helped to calm her down. This effectively confirmed Nagisa's choice to become a teacher like Korosensei.

Later, she took the final test in Chapter 163 so she can return as a sixth grader in elementary school. Despite her trauma, Nagisa managed to calm her down when she was struggling to keep her mind on the exam while fearing she will be bullied again.

Abilities
Arithmetic: Sakura has a decent understanding of arithmetic, scoring 2nd in her class after receiving some early tutelage from Nagisa Shiota.

Nagisa Shiota
Upon meeting Nagisa, Sakura tried to attack him with a broom only to fall through the broken floorboards. Nevertheless, Nagisa still tried to tutor her and advised her on how to deal with her bullies. He regularly tutors her and Sakura seems to have developed a crush on him. She's also seen to have a great effect on Nagisa and his self esteem. She was the driving force behind Nagisa's growing confidence in becoming a teacher.

Matsukata
Matsukata is the principal of the nursery/cram school Sakura attends. They seem to have a good relationship with her being eager to show him her high test score.

Etymology

 * The name Sakura means “cherry blossoms, decoy” (さくら) in Hiragana.
 * However, when written in kanji (桜 or 咲良), it could possibly mean:
 * 桜— “cherry blossom”, which refers to her hair color.
 * 咲良— “blossom” (咲) (saku) and “good, virtuous, respectable” (良) (ra).
 * Sakura's surname Kiyashiki means "demon, ogre, daemon" (鬼) (ki) and "mansion" (屋敷) (yashiki).
 * The kanji "鬼" can also be written/red as Oni (鬼).

Trivia

 * Sakura scored 95 on her arithmetic exam where she was No. 2 of her class.
 * Sakura is the oldest student of the cram school and has been going for 5 years.
 * Sakura helped Nagisa Shiota realize his wish to be a teacher, saying he'd make a good teacher.