Haru Okumura

Haru Okumura is a playable character from Persona 5. She is a wealthy girl who attends Shujin Academy, and lives a double life as a Phantom Thief. She is the only daughter of Kunikazu Okumura, the Thieves' fifth major target. Her life controlled by her father, Haru would look away from the truth of both her own desires and her father's intentions, substituting for vague notions and superficial motivations. Aware of that, she would instead face her desire of freedom and betray him with the support of her newfound friends of the Phantom Thieves. Haru is generally very shy and reserved. At school, she is viewed as eccentric due to her tendency to keep to herself and avoid contact with others as much as possible. She has serious trust issues, finding it difficult to differentiate between who truly values her as a friend, and who merely wants to use her for her family's status. This is due to her past, where not only friends, but adults and teachers would be kind to her just to please her father and smile at her for their own personal gain. Despite this, Haru is an incredibly kind-hearted girl. She becomes fast friends with all of the Phantom Thieves, and is the only member of the group Ryuji Sakamoto doesn't argue with on a regular basis. She can also be very awkward, as shown when she first introduces herself to the others as "Beauty Thief," and forgets parts of the script she has rehearsed with Morgana, to the point of saying "We will take the Treasure!" twice in a row, much to Futaba Sakura's annoyance. She later explains that she was trying to be a "heroine of justice," having grown up admiring female superheroes she watched on TV. She loved them for always fighting to protect others and being happy, desiring to be just like them someday. At first, Haru is reluctant to team up with the other Phantom Thieves, saying she can't cooperate with people who don't know what they want to do, and calls them out for turning their backs on their own teammate when their goal is supposed to be to help the weak. After her real desires are brought to light, however (namely, to get out of her arranged marriage with her abusive fiance), she changes her mind and decides to team up with the Thieves to change her father's heart. Despite this, she is initially still reluctant to oppose her father, and as a result hasn't fully awakened to her Persona, though this changes once she learns that her father has no illusions of the kind of man her fiance is, and declares that she is no longer his "subservient puppet." Afterwards, she decides on the codename "Noir" (the French word for "black"), to remind herself that she is operating on the darker side of the law despite her desire to be a heroine of justice. As such, she is rather surprised to discover that the others decided on their codenames based merely on how their outfits look, when she had created such an elaborate backstory for hers. Initially, Haru behaves very formally towards the group, believing that it's her responsibility as the newest member of the team. After being told that whether or not she's new doesn't matter to them, however, she loosens up and becomes much more casual. She calls Makoto "Mako-chan," after declaring that she is the first friend of her own age she's ever had (initially catching Makoto off-guard, but soon considers it refreshing), and calls Morgana "Mona-chan," both in and out of the Metaverse. She also uses affectionate honorifics for everyone (-kun for boys and -chan for girls). This attitude goes both ways, as she dislikes the younger members of the group calling her "Senpai" and asks for them to just call her "Haru." In her spare time, she enjoys tending to her own garden, as well as growing vegetables on the roof of the school. Besides gardening, she also enjoys horror movies. Because of her gentle personality, she is often underestimated, even by her teammates, however she admits she feels excited when Shadows beg for their lives, that cutting down enemies as they approach is a thrill, and that she sees combat as a form of stress relief, hinting that she is somewhat sadistic. Also, after a battle, Haru may say something along the lines of, "Phew, I need more of that!" and despite saying that she gets nervous before combat, she always wants to do it again afterwards. Her sadistic streak is enough to unnerve Makoto, who's well-known among the group for her vicious temper and tendency to take her anger out on Shadows. This sadistic side is further shown by the fact that if the protagonist cheats on her on Valentine's Day, she will express her anger with an eerie smile on her face, requesting that he take her chocolate before she crushes it, showing a passive-aggressive personality. It also seems to manifest when she is driving a vehicle; she is a maniacal driver capable of driving from Fukuoka to Kyoto, a trip that should take eight hours, in a single morning even with an accidental detour into Osaka, much to the chagrin of her nauseous and terrified passengers. Regardless, Haru is mature, level-headed, and kind in almost every way. She is also described to be very feminine, as pointed out by Ann. She enjoys helping the Phantom Thieves, as she becomes delighted when she learns that her hobby of vegetable-growing can prove useful to the group's activities, and is excited when Makoto proposes a Showtime with her. This is because she wishes to be seen as dependable by them, but often worries that she may not be doing good enough, and can be fairly self-deprecating when she expresses that doubt (shown when she claims that gardening is the only thing she's honestly good at, and calling herself "weird" during her counseling session with Takuto Maruki). Haru is shown to be easygoing, being very polite to teachers and authorities, and often showing a friendly smile to her peers when talking. She also has a rather refined speaking pattern, which contrasts someone like Ryuji, who speaks in a very casual manner. Haru can sometimes be playful and teasing as well, but knows not to push limits and is never taken to a serious degree. As someone raised under the teaching of "do as you're told," Haru is reserved and often lets other people decide for her, even describing herself as someone who's not adept at saying what's on her mind, yet she's aware that this isn't how she wants to live her life. Haru has grown to appreciate just about any freedom she can get, claiming that having the freedom to go out shopping, as opposed to just doing it online, is "a luxury in itself." Additionally, despite the fact that she has been forced to do whatever people wish of her, Haru is very empathetic and can easily see how easy her life is in comparison to the average person, and she really is luckier than everyone else to be born as rich as she is. Haru never seems to bear resentment towards her father despite everything he has put her through. In fact, Haru reacts to the loss of her father with legitimate grief, implying that Okumura did use to genuinely care for his daughter's well being until he made a series of overambitious investments that led to him politically competing with Masayoshi Shido. When meeting her father's killer, she also reacts with anger on par with those of Futaba's. She also confesses to Maruki that if given the chance, she only would've wanted to spend more time with her family, presumably with a father who is more attentive, as she feels that he was only ever focused on work. This most likely resulted in Maruki rewriting history to manifest an ideal Okumura as told by Haru, when he became the new master of Mementos during the January of next year. In Dancing in Starlight, Haru reveals that she was trained in ballet during her youth, after being drawn to it after seeing an exquisite painting of a ballet dancer in her home. Her father allowed her to take up the art, but only because he could boast about it to his peers. She eventually lost her passion for it when her father failed to show up to her recitals, eventually dropping it entirely. Haru also reveals that she is notably very bad with technology, even struggling with smartphones, and has broken every computer she's ever used. Haru originally attended Shujin at her father's request, and struggled to make friends because she was too guarded from others because of her father's status.