Yuichi Hayase

"Oh, really!? It makes me happy that I'm that famous! A-ah, well, it's just that, if I have more visibility, I'm more likely to be put on a professional team when I get older. It's been my dream since I was a kid, y'know?"

- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Yuichi Hayase (早瀬 勇一) was a student at Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th and participant of the Killing School Life. As his school's baseball team's star player, Yuichi received the title of Ultimate Baseball Star (超高校級の野球選手, lit. Super High School Level Baseball Player).

Appearance
Yuichi was a quite tall, young man with fair complex, shaved black hair and brown eyes. He wore a classical black, open gakuran with a white shirt underneath, black pants and blue sneakers; also, he used fingerless black gloves.

Personality
Yuichi was a quite carefree guy in love with both sports and girls. He was a big womanizer, but it seems that he held strong feelings for Amaya Hayama in particular, as he always flirted with her even if Yukio Shizukane didn't like this at all. He was very coward and easily influenced by others, mainly forceful girls like Mayumi Kirisaki and Sapphire Tennoji. His big dream was to become a great baseball player just like his older brother and was shown to be very passionate about it.

Talent and Abilites
Yuichi was known as Ultimate Baseball Star, and such, was his team's star player. Although the full extension of his abilities was never extended, it is implied that he was very good at it.

Early life
Yuichi was born in a normal family. He had an older brother, Yoichi Hayase, who was a very famous baseball player, and that is why he wanted to be like him. He started to train with him and then attended Black Bloom High School (黒井咲高校) until he was then invited by Hope's Peak Academy.

Killing School Life
Yuichi was among the sixteen that got trapped in Hope's Peak Academy. Apparently, he woke up at the A/V Room with Mayumi and they started looking around to see if they could contact the outside world from there but they were unsuccessful. Then Yukio and Amaya met them while they were exploring the academy and Yuichi and Mayumi introduced themselves to them. Yuichi was also there when Monokuma presented their eternal school life in Hope's Peak Academy and he was worried that it was a talkative bear.

After Monokuma presented their motive videos, Yuichi was devasted because his brother was in it. Apparently, Monokuma chose him to be in charge of trash duty and gave him the key to the incinerator. It was then stolen by Enju Otsuka using Yukio's golden sword from the gymnasium and he got gold coating in his clothes due to that. He watched in despair as he discovered that Ryo Fukukado was murdered by Enju.

After the first Class Trial, the second floor was unlocked and Yuichi wanted to see all the remaining girls in bikini on the pool, much to Yukio's annoyance (although he internally wanted to see them, too). He showed much more interest in Amaya than before. With Monokuma presenting their darkest secrets, Yuichi was trembling with fear.In a specific night, he was invited by a hipnotized Sapphire to be at the girls locker room, saying that he can enter with one at the main hall's mail box. Doing that, he went without knowing that he would be murdered by her there.

Creation and Development
Yuichi was based on a character from Kimi ni Todoke by Karuho Shiina, Ryu Sanada. Although Yuichi and Ryu are very different in manners of personality, they are actually very similar in appearance. Yuichi's personality is more similar to Leon Kuwata and Kazuichi Soda from the original series. His family name (早瀬) means "swift current", which makes reference to his baseball background, while his first name (勇一) means "one courage".

Trivia

 * Yukio's first impression about Yuichi was as follow: "I thought he was kinda cool, another friend to list, he is the type of dreamer guy, and I really liked his goal, even though he is a little convinced at times he soon corrects himself to be more humble."