Yukiko Kanzaki

Yukiko Kanzaki (神崎 有希子) is a student in Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, taught by Korosensei.

Appearance
Yukiko is a pale-skinned girl with long, straight black hair that has bangs hanging over her eyebrows and light brown eyes. She is noted for being a very beautiful girl by everyone in Class E as well as Ren Sakakibara of Class A, which is one of the reasons why she is the most popular girl in the class.

At the summer before she went to 3-E, Yukiko briefly had the tips of her hair dyed into a dark brown color.

Personality
Yukiko is a kind, calm, graceful and refined girl who is also very diligent and reliable. She has an elegant demeanor, but at the same time has a lot of backbone and isn't afraid to stand up for herself; retaining her usual smile while doing so. She also possesses a rebellious side due to the expectations her father had of her. Yukiko has also shown an interest and proficiency in arcade games.

Her classmates mention that she has bad luck with men as she usually and unintentionally attracts men with her beauty and her seemingly passive personality.

History
Yukiko comes from a conservative, strict and what is implied to be a high-class family in which status was everything. She has an older brother who is earnest, outstandingly capable and he is very kind to Yukiko – however, he has a severe mother complex. Before dropping to Class E, due to the pressure and stress from her father who wanted her to be an ideal woman, she rebelled and started going to arcades and ignoring her studies which caused her grades, especially chemistry, to drop and ultimately land her in Class E.

School Trip Time
Yukiko was one of the first students to get a proper introduction after being introduced with the rest of her class in Chapter 1. She was first spotlighted in the Kyoto Arc when she was invited to join Nagisa Shiota’s group for the trip by Tomohito Sugino and when she and Kaede Kayano were kidnapped by high school thugs from another school.

When the class arrives in Kyoto, Yukiko was searching for her notebook and assumed she must have dropped it, but unbeknownst to her it was pick-pocketed by delinquent high school students she bumped into on the train. Afterwards the groups set out to do some assassination location scouting. After visiting a few locations, they went to the Gion District under Yukiko's recommendation. She says since the shops turn away first-time customers and tourists don't wander into the district aimlessly, they have to work around them making it the perfect place for an assassination. While the others compliment her on her point, the delinquents walk up to them asking why they would come to a place that's perfect for abduction, alarming them. Karma is knocked unconscious from behind and the rest of the group is unable to help as Kanzaki and Kayano were subsequently kidnapped. In the van, the lead thug named Ryūki explained how he and his thugs were going to bring them down to their level.

While at the delinquents' hideout, Kaede asks Yukiko about a past picture of her. Yukiko replied that she wanted to get away from her father's expectations for her to be ideal, so she went to places where no one knew her. Just then, Nagisa, Karma, Sugino and Manami Okuda show up to rescue Kayano and Yukiko. The four, with the help of the guidebook and Korosensei, make short work of the thugs. After that, they leave and Korosensei asks Kanzaki if she was alright, to which she replies that she was and thanks him.

Later that night when everyone is back at the hotel, Yukiko is shown proficiently playing a danmaku, or bullet curtain game, which amazes everyone. She says she hid these talents because they were frowned upon in their society, but then adds that she had been worrying too much about fitting in.

Later Spotlights
Yukiko gets a minor spotlight when Akira Takaoka arrives as their new P.E teacher. Like everyone else she takes a liking to their new teacher until his true sadistic nature is steadily revealed as he increases the severity of their assassin training. She and Hiroto Maehara protest at the new regimen, earning Takaoka's wrath. In her case, when she disagrees with him and states that she prefers Tadaomi Karasuma's teachings with a smile, Takaoka slaps her in the face with enough force to knock her down. It was partly due to this that Nagisa Shiota accepts to fight Takaoka with Karasuma's blessing, ultimately giving Nagisa the win.

When the first end of semester exams were approaching, Yukiko's rival in Japanese literature was Ren Sakakibara. Uncomfortable with his flirting and invasion of personal space, she held a pencil with the tip at Ren's eye along with her classmates. During the exams the two seem to be evenly matched but when the results were read out, she came in second in the subject, beating out Ren and losing only to Gakushu Asano.

Along with Class E, they were rewarded a summer vacation holiday to a hotel resort in Okinawa. Yukiko was part of the group to initially distract Korosensei from the others and later helped in the class's ambitious assassination attempt on their teacher, which failed. However, Yukiko and nine others had succumbed to what seemed to be an artificially created virus masterminded by a revengeful Takaoka, and thus incapacitated in the following events. She was later cured. Before leaving the island, Korosensei paired her up with Tomohito Sugino as part of his Test of Courage. Despite the unusual romantic setting, she remained oblivious to Sugino's crush on her.

Second Semester
Yukiko remains in the background for much of the second semester arcs. When Kōtarō Takebayashi temporarily left Class E for personal reasons at the start of the semester, Yukiko understood what he is going through (having been influenced or pressured by family peers to perform exceptionally well) and stopped Nagisa Shiota from arguing any further. She later watched the boys take on and win against Class A at the Athletic Festival event and helped out at the nursery despite the approaching mid-term exams. During the God of Death incident, she was part of the rescue team but was temporarily betrayed by Bitch-sensei before being set free along with the entire class. At the finals, Yukiko got an overall score of 437, ranking 7th in the entire third grade, and played the elder wife alongside Tomohito Sugino in the school play written by Kirara Hazama.

At the end of the semester, she witnessed Kaede Kayano (Yukiko's friend) reveal her true colors after ambushing Korosensei with implanted tentacles, and afterwards Nagisa ending the fight between Kayano and Korosensei by kissing her. Yukiko soon learnt of Korosensei's past along with the rest of the class and visited Kayano in hospital two days before the start of the new term. On that occasion Kanzaki suggested that everyone including Nagisa let Kayano rest after the boy's apology for kissing Kayano on the spur of the moment, and later cryptically states that Kayano, having spent most of the year being a little distant from the class, is now part of it.

Final Semester
After learning of Korosensei's past the class became divided on whether to follow Nagisa Shiota's proposition to save their teacher or stick to killing him. Korosensei himself proposed that the two sides fight in out in a paintball-style team death match to settle their differences. Yukiko joins the blue (save) them, stating that she wants to keep asking Korosensei for advice even after their school careers have ended. When the match begins, Yukiko sneaks behind enemy lines and takes out Ryūnosuke Chiba and Taiga Okajima after her teammates Meg Kataoka and Kōtarō Takebayashi had been eliminated. En route to another position she eliminates Sōsuke Sugaya before being ambushed by Karma, thus ending her kill streak. She soon joins the eliminated students and Korosensei to watch the battle unfold.

Aftermath
Seven years later, Yukiko is seen working at a residential home for the elderly, taking out a wheelchair-bound elderly man to the park.

Abilities
Marksmanship: Yukiko is ranked 5th for the girls' side in marksmanship who is said to specialize in short-range weaponry. She scores 73/200 for this in June.

Japanese Literature: Yukiko has a mastery over this subject and currently holds the second place spot for Japanese Literature in Kunugigaoka.

Gaming: Because she ignored her studies and went to arcades often, Yukiko has become highly skilled at games, most notably danmaku. Her mastery in online shooters (on a virtual battlefield) became the basis of her assassination techniques.

Kaede Kayano
Kaede and Yukiko bonded over the course of the trip and as of now, Kaede is also the only person who knows of Yukiko's past. According to the official character book, Kayano is one of her closest friends. It is implied in Chapter 142 that Kanzaki knows of Kayano's feelings for Nagisa but is currently keeping silent on the matter.

Tomohito Sugino
Sugino has a crush on Yukiko, who is most likely unaware of this and sees him as a good friend. The two were also paired up during the Assassination Test of Courage. Despite being seemingly oblivious to Sugino's feelings, she seems to hold a degree of respect for him, as she gave him obligation chocolate for Valentine's Day.

Manami Okuda
A companion who is also not-so-assertive and comparatively mature, they have a peaceful relationship. They often standby from afar together.

Nagisa Shiota
Yukiko and Nagisa get along well, the latter considering her to be beautiful with a great personality. According to the official character book, Yukiko is interested in him. In addition, whenever she is around him, she feels comfortable.

Trivia

 * The name Yukiko means "happiness" (幸) or "snow" (雪) (yuki) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Alternatively, it can also mean "reason, cause" (由) (yu), "joy" (喜) or "valuable" (貴) (ki) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Yukiko's favorite subject is Japanese while her least favorite is Chemistry.
 * Yukiko's hobby/specialty is computer games and games in general.
 * Yukiko's favorite food is Wagashi, it is a traditional Japanese confectionery.
 * Yukiko's future goal is to become a nurse/caregiver.
 * Yukiko's past club before dropping to Class E was the Ikebana Club.
 * Yukikos most treasured item is a copy of Gradius.
 * Yukiko's most recently mastered gaming genre is FPS (first-person shooter), which serves as the basis for her assassination techniques.
 * When online, Yukiko spells her name as "ゆきこ" which is the hiragana writing of her name.
 * Yukiko was called 'Grandmaster Kanzaki' in Chapter 91 during Class 3-E's training in using codenames. The one who wrote her codename was Takebayashi.
 * As revealed on Volumes 3 and 4, Yukiko's relationship with her father remains poor, although she no longer allows him to control her decisions anymore.
 * In the "Girls you're interested in" ranking made by the boys in Chapter 19, Yukiko was ranked 1st, with her personality and beauty listed as her best points. The commentary next to her vote tally said "Great personality and super cute looks!"
 * During the Civil War, Yukiko was eliminated when Karma Akabane ambushed and knived her from the top of a tree. Before being eliminated she scored three kills, behind Nagisa Shiota and Rinka Hayami. She is also is the first person on Blue Team to score a kill, notably Double Kill to Taiga Okajima and Ryunosuke Chiba.
 * In the tankobon extras, Yukiko's statistics were listed as:
 * Physical strength: 2.5
 * Mobility: 2
 * Close-range assassination: 1.5
 * Long-range assassination: 4
 * Academic ability: 4.5
 * Characteristic skill: 5 (video game master)