Bishokuden | 美び食 しょく 殿でん

A Guild formed by Pecorine in Re:Dive, with her, Yuuki, Kokkoro, Kyaru and later on, Sheffy, as the members. Its purpose is to go on food crawls, exploring and discovering all sort of delicacies. Due to them actively hunting monsters as food ingredients, the Guild Association recognises the Guild as a battle-hardened veteran Guild and constantly sends monster hunting quests their way (usually to Kyaru's dismay).

The den (殿でん) in Bishokuden as a suffix is used to describe a grandiose building, typically but not necessarily a palace. Cygames' official translation for this is Gourmet Edifice, which is somewhat accurate but I'm not a fan, so I'm keeping it as simply Bishokuden in this website.

The creation of Bishokuden is only shown in Bishokuden's Guild Stories so if you're only reading the Main Story, you'll likely be confused how the Guild even came about. After they met, Pecorine, Yuuki, Kokkoro and Kyaru spent approximately a month together, enjoying meals every day. One day out of the blue, Pecorine says she has created a Guild named Bishokuden and had registered their names under it (without permission), because there's this restaurant catered to experienced gourmets and they only allow people to enter if they come as a Guild.

Yuuki | ユウキ

Voiced by:

• N/A (PRINCESS CONNECT!)
• Abe Atsushi (PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive)

Player name: Yuuki (assumed to be 'Yuuki' in this website)
Real name: Yuuki

Note: Yuuki's section to be rewritten for a more... summarised version. I'm bad at summaries.

The protagonist of the PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive series. The two versions are both the same person and 'different' people at the same time (fairly complicated topic, read on to find out), so his profile will be split into multiple sections.

First game

An ordinary 17-year-old boy who studies at Tsubakigaoka High School. He was resting on a bench in a park one day, grumbling to himself about the boring life and wanting to travel to a different world (figuratively, of course), and was suddenly ambushed by a mysterious woman who forced a mimi onto him, logging him onto the popular game Legend of Astrum, which was rumoured to grant the wishes of the first player to clear the game. This woman introduced herself as 'Mosakuji Akira' right before he logged into Astrum and said she has been looking all over for him. Her parting words:

"Please guide those girls to the top of Sol. ......May the blessings of the sun and stars be with you."

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Yuuki soon met Hiyori, Yui and Rei by chance and joined their Guild, becoming its leader after Hiyori relinquished the position to him. He also discovered that Akira made him a Princess Knight, a super rare class with unique abilities. The group set its goal for clearing the game and started to collect the Sol Orbs, which drop from floor bosses and are rumoured to be required to clear the game. However, it wasn't an easy task as some of the Seven Crowns (King Leap, Neneka and Christina to be specific)—the seven geniuses that made Legend of Astrum and Minerva—and their allies (Octo and Novem in particular) stood in their way at every corner. Eventually, they come across Kaiser Insight, who boldly stated that he'll assimilate Minerva in order to be reborn as a true god that will rule over all of humanity. Their goals then shifted from merely clearing the game to saving Minerva and the world from the clutches of the evil Kaiser Insight...

It is revealed that Yuuki's Unique Ability as Akira's Princess Knight takes the form of his sword itself: an anti-Seven Crowns and anti-Princess Knight weapon. Basically, what it can do are:

• Anyone that gets attacked by this sword will feel the same amount of pain in the real world and their movements will be hindered due to the sheer pain.
• A Princess Knight or Seven Crowns that gets attacked by this sword will, on top of the above, also get their Unique Ability temporarily disabled.
• It can also destroy indestructible things created by a Princess Knight or Seven Crowns' ability, like Daigo's barrier.
• Lastly, a Seven Crowns or Princess Knight finished off by it will be forced out of the game and their account deleted. This was what happened to Daigo until Akira restored his account.

^{※TL;DR it's pretty dang broken, even though Yuuki himself is a weak fighter so he can't make full use of it}

One day, while they were outside the game, Akira contacted Yuuki to inform him that Senri Mana (Kaiser Insight's real name) had taken over half of Astrum's system and had made it such that players can no longer log out. The four then logged into Legend of Astrum in order to put a stop to his diabolical plans for good. After a series of tough battles against the Seven Crowns, they finally defeated Kaiser Insight and Minerva—who stole King Leap's avatar and account and had been pretending to be him the whole time—returned to her original form to prepare for granting one of the 3 girls' wish. However, Kaiser Insight showed up once again and took control of Minerva. Not only that, with access to the game's code through his connection with Minerva, he was able to copy Yuuki's Unique Ability, making his attacks physically dangerous too; Akira warned that they'll no longer be able to return to the real world if they get finished off by his sword in Astrum's current state.

Yuuki and co. were able to buy enough time for Minerva to resist the assimilation process, and after a series of cat-and-mouse chases where Kaiser Insight retreats further after taking damage, they were able to free Minerva for good. However, Kaiser Insight wasn't about to give up; since Minerva won't grant his wish, he changed his plans to assimilating one of the three girls and making his wish through her (via mind control) instead. This prompted Yuuki to quickly choose one girl as the Princess in order to complete the Princess Connect Process, since the completion of the process will put a permanent stop to Kaiser Insight's plans.

The player is then pressed to make a choice between Hiyori, Yui and Rei. The general flow of the story doesn't really change that much but it's important to know that Re:Dive treats Yui's route as canon, and I'll write Yuuki and the Story sections with that in mind.

The individual routes for the three girls will be written in their respective sections instead, refer to them for more information.

Yuuki picked Yui as the Princess, and Minerva initiated the Princess Connect Process, asking what her wish is. Before Yui could answer, Kaiser Insight interrupted and took over Yui's mind by a form of hypnosis, tricking her into thinking his wish of recreating Astrum into a world of his liking is genuinely hers (i.e. fulfilling the "wish coming from the bottom of the Princess' heart" condition). Yui then made the wish of "wanting to be with everyone in Astrum forever", which Minerva began to grant against her wishes. Yuuki attempted to save Yui and repeatedly attacked Kaiser Insight, but to no avail and instead took a lot of damage in the process. However, seeing Yuuki getting hurt allowed Yui to miraculously break Kaiser Insight's hypnosis. She then stated her true wish: "She wants to be with Yuuki forever, but she doesn't want to see him get hurt anymore. She doesn't want a world where he cannot be happy."

Minerva acknowledged Yui's wish, but could not grant it as she's still under Kaiser Insight's control. Yuuki attacked Kaiser Insight again, trying to save Minerva, but again couldn't do anything to him. Fio sacrificed herself by flying straight at Kaiser Insight in an attempt to distract him, and ending up getting slashed and destroyed. This created an opening, allowing Yuuki to finally get an attack on Kaiser Insight, heavily damaging him. Minerva was also able to regain control thanks to the special program written into every Guide Fairy. She then told Yui that she will grant her true wish, but due to her AI being damaged, she'll need to reboot herself (and Astrum) in order to repair herself before she can grant her wish. She then started the logout process and told Yuuki and co. to log out of the game.

Kaiser Insight rose up for one last attack out of spite, doing fatal damage to Yuuki before collapsing himself. Yui repeatedly cried out and begged for Yuuki to open his eyes but he failed to get out in time and was pulled into Astrum's Rebuild.

While the rest looked after Yuuki's comotose body in the real world, he woke up to see Minerva in Astrum. She informed him that he and Mana were pulled into Astrum's Rebuild and their personality and consciousness data were wiped (essentially, they died). However, Minerva salvaged all of Yuuki's data that she could find, and managed to restore him to 99.9% of what he was before. But before she sent him back to the real world, she wanted to know what his wish is, wanting to grant it as a reward for guiding his partner to the top of Sol Tower. Yuuki wished for Minerva to look over humanity while they try to create a world where everyone could make their own wishes and dreams come true in peace (i.e. he doesn't make a wish and just wants Minerva to watch over humanity in a peaceful world where people make their own wish come true themselves). Minerva promised that she'll continue to watch over humanity as per his wish. She then introduced him to his guide for his journey back to the real world: Fio (who Minerva revived like she did with Yuuki).

【Epilogue】

For a few months after Yuuki woke up, Astrum remained in an unplayable state. One day, Astrum's operating staff announced that a large-scale update had been applied: a massive renewal took place, in accordance to the wishes of the player who reached the top of Sol Tower. People started to flock back to Astrum after that.

Yuuki is seeing Akira for his regular body checkups (to make sure nothing is wrong with him, considering what he went through). Their conversation reveals that Yuuki and the Seven Crowns have not been able to log into the game despite the maintenance having ended, for unknown reasons. Yuuki says that he doesn't mind spending time in the real world for the time being, and thinks that this is Minerva's way of telling them to take a break. Hiyori, Yui and Rei link up with them. Akira bids them farewell and the four enjoy their time in the real world together...

The theme song, Tsunagumono, starts playing and credit starts to roll.

【Post-credit scene】

Yuuki is finally able to log in, and is waiting for the rest in Astrum when he hears a girl's screams, being attacked by monsters. He saves her from the monsters and the girl thanks him. She also asks if he could show her the ropes, as she's new to Astrum and still doesn't know the game well. Yuuki accepts and introduces himself, telling her that his friends will be here soon and they're all great people that will guide her too. He asks for her name and she tells him that her name is... (the game ends here)

Yes, the first game ends on a happy note and not a cliffhanger that continues into Re:Dive.

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Re:Dive Arc 1

After seemingly losing to Kaiser Insight, Yuuki finds himself in an unfamiliar area, facing an unfamiliar girl with broken cogs and gears for wings who introduces herself as "Ameth". He does not recognise her, which prompts her to tell him that she knows him very well and it slightly hurts to see him act like he doesn't know her. She also tells him that she cannot interfere with reality as she's currently damaged and will have to focus on repairing herself first, so she has arranged for a 'guide' who will guide him in life in reality. Ameth also seems to be quite familiar with all this, saying that she would like to talk more but she'll have to stop here this time.

Yuuki wakes up to a young girl singing to herself while cooking, and the girl quickly introduces herself as Kokkoro, the guide that goddess Ameth sent, and addresses him as "Master". She tells Yuuki that Ameth informed her that he has lost most of his memories and is akin to an infant right now. The two later meet a hungry girl who gobbles up everything Kokkoro prepared for Yuuki, prompting Kokkoro to nickname her as 'Pecorine' out of slight annoyance when the girl hesitates in giving her name. The three save a girl being chased by monsters, who introduced herself as Yui. The group also saves an unconscious cat Beastfolk girl nearby (who they later find out is named Kyaru). The group (minus Yui, who went her own way after meeting Hiyori and Rei) then spend approximately a month together in Landosol, having meals together regularly, getting close to each other and eventually forming a Guild together called Bishokuden.

It is revealed that Kaiser Insight is now the Princess of Landosol and calls herself 'Eustiana von Astraea', and Kyaru is her Princess Knight, sent to capture (or kill, if necessary) Pecorine—who is revealed to be the real Eustiana and whose position as the Princess was usurped by Kaiser Insight—and monitor Yuuki, who Kaiser Insight was wary of. All the recent events like monsters attacking for no reason were caused by Kyaru, who has the Unique Ability of controlling monsters. Because of a combination of her own inadequate control over her own powers and her blossoming friendship with the Bishokuden members, she had not made much progress in her mission, prompting Kaiser Insight to grow impatient and teleport Kyaru and Yuuki into the Landosol palace where she is so she could question him directly.

After asking Yuuki a bunch of bizarre questions (at least to Yuuki) which hints at this world being artificially created, him having defeated her in several world lines, etc, Kaiser Insight starts to feel confident that Yuuki won't become a threat to her this time, though she still decides to kill him just in case. She teleports him to near Labyrinth's hideout and he is soon joined by Pecorine, Christina, Muimi, Rajiraji and Labyrista. Kaiser Insight then teleports to them, claiming that it is not a coincidence, but rather her plan that the group (besides Pecorine, who was not expected to be there) has gathered in one spot, and unleashes a 'strategic-class' magic spell (i.e. Astrum's version of a nuke) in an attempt to kill all of them at once (since all of them have the potential to ruin her plans).

Right before the spell hit them, Labyrista, with the help of Rajiraji and Great Guidance, was able to get the group out of harm's way, though this last-resort tactic puts Labyrista in a temporary coma. Now allied, the group gathers at Labyrinth's new hideout, and Muimi explains to them that Astrum is not their reality, but rather something akin to a warped 'dream' that everyone is sharing, and that their reality is somewhere else. She also adds that this current situation is a continuation from the "bad ending" in which they lost to Kaiser Insight and he got his wish granted.

While Muimi is talking, the group was surrounded by monsters and NIGHTMARE led by none other than Kyaru, who Kaiser Insight had brainwashed into becoming her obedient puppet. Pecorine attempted to break her brainwash but failed, and was captured and imprisoned in Landosol Palace's underground prison, with her Royal Family Equipment confiscated. Meanwhile, Yuuki and Kokkoro went back to Landosol to look for clues on how to deal with their enemy and save Pecorine and Kyaru. Kokkoro however, got careless and was knocked unconscious by an attack from a monster that attacked Landosol during a Carmina concert (which Christina theorised was controlled by Kyaru).

While Yuuki looked after the unconscious Kokkoro (whose soul was actually transported to the real world), Christina informed him that the Labyrinth folks plan to launch their attack on the Landosol Palace the next weekend on the day of the Landosol festival and their main objective is the assassination or capture of Kaiser Insight, or at the very least, the destruction of the mind control device in the palace that is responsible for brainwashing Kyaru and the members of NIGHTMARE. She also advised him that if they're going to rescue Pecorine, that would be the best timing. Kokkoro later woke up in Astrum and informed him of what she saw and heard in the real world from Labyrista.

On the day of the Landosol festival and the planned attack, Yuuki and Kokkoro linked up with Shizuru and with Muimi acting as a distraction and luring NIGHTMARE away, the two sneaked into the palace with Rajiraji's help. The two were stopped by Jun, who was ordered to guard the prison and kill any intruder, but with quick thinking from Yuuki (and the help of a mystery NIGHTMARE member), the duo were able to knock her out and successfully rescue Pecorine.

The trio went to the throne room in order to retrieve Pecorine's Royal Family Equipment from the treasury located behind the throne, but they unexpectedly stumble upon Shizuru, Rino and Masaki fighting Kyaru, who still remained brainwashed even after Rajiraji and Daigo had destroyed most of the brainwashing devices. Through the group's effort, they were able to retrieve the Royal Family Equipment and restrain Kyaru and with Ameth's help, Yuuki, Pecorine and Kokkoro were able to enter her psychological world in the form of a 'dream', successfully breaking the brainwashing and convincing Kyaru to come back to them. Before Kyaru left her dream world, Labyrista appeared and entrusted her the memories of Yuuki's battle experiences from the first game, which will act as a 'key' to massively boosting "Yuuki's powers as a Princess Knight". However, as they came back to in Astrum (with Kyaru still in a coma), black liquid—liquefied Shadow—gushed into the palace, causing the palace to start crumbling. And Kaiser Insight woke up from her slumber thanks to the mana brought by the black liquid. With the brainwashing devices destroyed, the members of NIGHTMARE were released from the brainwashing and everyone joined forces to fight against the evil goddess, Kaiser Insight.

Kyaru woke up and passed the 'key' to Yuuki through a kiss under Nebbia's advise, and with his ability to power-up his allies boosted, the group gathered and seemingly corner Kaiser Insight. However, Kaiser Insight had another trick up her sleeves: she gathered all the mana she had stored in her monsters all over the continent and further transformed into an even more ominous form and easily overpowered everyone. She then attempted to kill Pecorine. However, Yuuki shielded her and took the blow in her stead, suffering a fatal injury.

While the members of Bishokuden and Twinkle Wish cried over Yuuki's apparent death, Yuuki woke up to see Ameth in the dream world. Ameth informed him that she pulled his soul over—which was about to leave his body after he was killed—and temporarily stopped his death from proceeding. Labyrista then appeared and healed him, though it didn't change the fact that they were facing a seemingly invincible enemy. Labyrista then told him that while he now has the 'key', he hasn't fully unlocked his true powers with it yet due to her putting a 'safety net' on it. The reason why she did so was because this power belonged to the previous Yuuki, and may break the key, his body, or even cause the world to recognise him as a 'bug of unknown cause' and erase him in the worst case scenario if the current Yuuki receives it. Labyrista then gave him the choice: to take the gamble and get back his powers to continue the fight, or give up and start all over. Yuuki chose to take back his powers and protect the bonds he has made this time, prompting Labyrista to thank him.

Yuuki woke up and powered-up everyone even more than before, finally cornering Kaiser Insight for good this time. She tried to absorb Kyaru's remaining powers as a last struggle but Kyaru instead returned her Princess Knight powers, unwittingly pouring the power-up from Yuuki into Kaiser Insight as well and creating an instable vortex of mana that weakened her even further. Pecorine created a distraction and Yuuki dealt the finishing blow, finally putting an end to the evil ruler's tyranny. Before she went down, she left a cryptic message about "it's still mortifying to go down on her knees like this no matter how many times I've lost" (implying she has been defeated multiple times).

After the battle, Kaiser Insight—as a 'reward' for defeating her—let the group know that by defeating her, they've overcome "this world's turning point", but the true fear—the 'root of evil' and foe she was originally supposed to fight—lies ahead and is something they'll eventually have to face. Kaiser Insight was then arrested and placed in a special prison made just for her.

Re:Dive Arc 2

A month has passed by since the defeat of Kaiser Insight. Yuuki and Kokkoro were returning to Landosol after a cargo transportation quest, when they spotted an unconscious blue-haired girl falling from the sky and would no doubt hit the ground and die if they don't do something. Yuuki dashed out without hesitation and caught her in mid-air, but upon touching her, felt a sharp pain and fell unconscious as well.

The members of Twinkle Wish and Kokkoro were looking after the unconscious Yuuki, worrying about him as they have no idea what is going on. Just as they were talking, Yuuki woke up, looking confused. He then grabbed Nebbia and put her in his mouth, as though he has lost his memories of Arc 1's events and his mental state regressed back to an infant's again (in Rei's words, his condition seemed even worse than how he was at the start of Arc 1). Incidentally, the girl he saved woke up at around the same time and also started to behave in the same way, putting Nebbia in her mouth.

Ameth attempted to make contact through a dream, but can't seem to make a good 'connection' this time. Despite that, she tried to explain what has happened in the hopes he is listening (i.e. this is meant to be an explanation to the player regarding what has happened and foreshadowing what is coming next):

• This is a side effect of him taking back the original Yuuki's powers back in the climax of Arc 1.
• The girl that he saved—who Kokkoro named 'Sheffy'—is now experiencing the same infantile regression and loss of memory. She seems to be related to Sol Tower in some way, and Ameth asks him to treat her nicely.
• Ameth has a bad feeling that something big is going to happen soon, and may involve a battle tougher than even the battle against Kaiser Insight.
• She hopes that she will be able to fight alongside him this time.

Bishokuden and Twinkle Wish took turns looking after the two 'babies'. The group was walking on the streets of Landosol during the celebrations for the rebuilding of Landosol (which was heavily damaged during the battle against Kaiser Insight), when they ran into Pecorine, who was taking part in an eating competition. Pecorine gave Yuuki an artifact she took from the treasury, hoping it might do something about his condition. All of a sudden, monsters attacked the town, seemingly controlled by a young boy, and the group fought to defend the town. Pecorine wanted to join them but was stopped by Gorschin, the Speaker of the Aristocrat Assembly, who told her to return to the palace as the Princess should not be on the frontline. Without Yuuki's power-up, the group struggled against the monsters due to the boy's ability to power-up them, but Yuuki swallowed the artifact and Yui started to glow all of a sudden and managed to dispel the power-up on the monsters, allowing the group to defeat them. The boy then teleported away.

All seemed peaceful again, until Gold Hands, the 'elite' royal soldiers under Gorschin's command, arrived. The group thought they were sent by Pecorine, but Gold Hands surrounded them instead, arresting them for being "criminals" (without Pecorine's knowledge). While they were held in a prison cell, Gorschin appeared to let them know that they were arrested for being allies to the criminal who attempted to assassinate the previous Princess (i.e. Kaiser Insight), Sheffy, and ordered Gold Hands to execute them on the spot without a fair trial. Before they were able to do so though, the monster tamer boy from earlier on crashed through the ceiling, intending to finish off the group for good, causing the cowardly Gorschin and his soldiers to run for their lives. The boy, introducing himself as Kaliza from Rage Legion, attempted to destroy the prison cell, but Pecorine came to their rescue in the nick of time.

Under Neneka's advice, Pecorine suddenly hugged Yuuki in an attempt awaken his 'new powers'. This caused Yuuki to hear a voice in his head, telling him about "a new key that can sever the darkness" and asking him to read after her. The moment he did so, light—like the one when Yui glowed and dispelled Kaliza's power-up on his monsters—started to appear underneath both Yui and Pecorine, and the two instinctively shouted, "Change: Princess Form", which transformed their appearances and gave them powers unlike anything before. With this newfound power, they managed to overpower Kaliza and his monsters, causing him to retreat using Leap.

After the battle was over, Pecorine told the group what had happened: Neneka, disguised as a soldier, told her about how Yuuki and co. got arrested and explained that his current state is a result of wielding an incompatible power (i.e. the powers he took back during the fight against Kaiser Insight), which caused his soul itself to get damaged. She also added that while he may be able to relearn words and stuff, he'll never fully go back to the person he was before. The new powers, which she named "Princess Form", was actually first observed in the final battle against Kaiser Insight when Yuuki powered-up Pecorine, and that artifact helped bring it out properly. She also warned them about Rage Legion—which from her investigations, its members all hold powers similar to and perhaps surpassing the Seven Crowns—which may attack Landosol in the near future and is possibly connected to that 'root of evil' that Kaiser Insight was talking about. She concluded that Yuuki will need to master his new powers or they'll not stand a chance against their new enemies.

Pecorine | ペコリーヌ

Voiced by: M・A・O

Player name: Eustiana von Astraea | ユースティアナ・フォン・アストライア
Real name: Eustiana von Astraea

One of the main heroines to PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive (the main of the main heroines), as well as poster girl for the franchise (she's the default app icon).

Pecorine is a 17-year-old mysterious and extremely happy-go-lucky Human girl who speaks using some rather odd phrases (most notably her catchphrases, "oissu~☆" and "yabai desu ne☆"). Yuuki and Kokkoro came across her by chance almost immediately after he woke up in Astrum (and Yui and Kyaru almost immediately after that), and she gobbled up everything Kokkoro made for Yuuki. She hesitated to give her name for some reason, so Kokkoro gave her the name "Pecorine" due to her enormous and seemingly bottomless pit of an appetite, a name she immediately took a liking to and uses for the entire series. She's a wanderer who travels to various places in order to train and discover delicacies from all over the world. She's constantly in need of money due to her appetite, so she often takes up odd jobs and requests and is used to outdoor life, camping out and hunting monsters as ingredients for food.

She has a set of special equipment which she calls the 'Royal Family Equipment' (王家おうけの装備そうび), which takes the form of her tiara and her sword. The equipment gives her a massive powerup, allowing an inexperienced fighter like herself to fight on par with the likes of Christina, Jun and Tomo. It is not without its cons, however, as it uses up an insane number of calories and is why Pecorine seems to have an insatiable appetite. On top of that, Pecorine says she actually keeps the Royal Family Equipment activated 24/7 even outside battles—albeit in low-power mode—as 'it makes daily life convenient'. Pecorine herself genuinely loves eating so this demerit is a boon for her.

Her real name is Eustiana von Astraea, the real Princess of Landosol. Kaiser Insight robbed her name and position as the Princess and she had to abandon her real name and run for her life as no one—even her parents, the King and Queen—remembers or recognises her thanks to Kaiser Insight brainwashing them and was seen as an imposter, becoming a wanted criminal. She's also called 'Tiana' by some characters (eg. Christina, Kyaru, her parents), an affectionate nickname for her.
_{※Interestingly, for reasons unexplained, Pecorine knows Kaiser Insight is male despite him having a female avatar and is considered female in the Rebuilt Astrum, calling him "that man who stole everything from me". She's the only character to know that without learning it from someone else, like Hiyori, Yui and Rei in the first game.}

After Pecorine and co. defeated Kaiser Insight, she gets reinstated as the Princess, though she chooses to remain a member of Bishokuden and asks people she's close with to continue addressing her as 'Pecorine'. She is often juggling with both Bishokuden's Guild activities and her duties as the Princess; Neneka occasionally stands in for her (using her transformation ability to function as Pecorine's double) while she sneaks off to Bishokuden to play. It is shown that she feels burdened by her new responsibilities, and she faces some opposition from aristocrats (mainly Gorschin and his lackeys and initially, Creditta), who think she's not fit to be a leader.

While she initially often jokingly asks if it's alright for her to fall in love with Yuuki (for something trivial like sharing his food with her), through their experiences in the story, she fell in love with him for real at some point (likely after he and Kokkoro saved her from Landosol's prison) and is one of the very few characters to state this straight to his face. She calls him her 'Prince Charming', who fights to save her even though he's weak and gets bruised and battered in the process.

She is later revealed to be the royal princess of Astraea Kingdom (a fictional country) in the real world, and her real name in the real world is the same as her real name in Astrum (i.e. Eustiana von Astraea). The Astraea royal family was the largest sponsor of Legend of Astrum (hence the 'Astraea Continent' in Astrum, named as such to honour them). Because of this, much of the criticism was directed at them for Minerva's Imprisonment. This is also why she started out with the Royal Family Equipment, equipment that was basically cheat-level broken. This is also why she speaks weirdly, as she does not know an ounce of Japanese and relies on mimi's translation feature to communicate, which also explains why her sentences in the real world are always encased in quotation marks.

At the end of Arc 2, Sheffy sent many players, including Pecorine, back to the real world. What awaited her though, was a former Astraea Kingdom that had been overthrown by a revolution (secretly guided by WARLOCK, the organisation that took over WISDOM) from people angry at the royal family for their role in Legend of Astrum's creation, and she had to run for her life, mirroring her Astrum experience in Arc 1. She ended up travelling to Japan to meet up with Yuuki, making plans to locate Kiruya and Kokoro while evading WARLOCK's agents and to dive back into Astrum in order to save Sheffy and the millions of players that failed to make it back to the real world.

After rescuing Kiruya from her hysterical mother, the trio tried to locate Kokoro but to no avail, as she and her father are now missing. After hitting a dead end, they paid Shiori a visit at the hospital and by chance, ran into Mitsuki, who works at the hospital as a researcher regarding the side effects of long-term usage of mimi. Mitsuki showed them Shifuna's comatose body and explained that the Module is needed to bring back the souls of all the players that are still trapped in Astrum. Soon after, they were attacked by WARLOCK's agents and while on the run, Pecorine was knocked out and captured by Masaki—who is now working for WARLOCK against his will (since Neneka is being held hostage)—and was separated from Yuuki, Kiruya and Shiori.

While in a WARLOCK truck, Yatogami—WARLOCK's leader—contacted Pecorine and Masaki remotely and tried to make Pecorine an offer: join WARLOCK as a temporary agent and assist them in capturing the Seven Crowns. Pecorine immediately refused and Yatogami ordered Masaki to transport Pecorine to their safehouse. Soon after that, Kokoro—who managed to link up with Yuuki and Kyaru—crashed her bike into the truck, making a dent in the door which Yuuki kicked open. Masaki told them to go and Kokkoro guided them to her father's location.

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Her Royal Family Equipment is revealed in Arc 3 to be part of a series. Its official name is unknown so far but considering the fact that the confirmed names of the other Royal Family Equipment revealed so far, it's highly likely that the Royal Family Equipment is based on the Seven Deadly Sins and Pecorine's Royal Family Equipment is named Gula. It is implied that Pecorine hasn't been able to draw out the full power of her Royal Family Equipment yet, which frustrates her as she wasn't able to contribute much in the battle against Lady Arachne, unlike Lailael and Nephi゠Nela, who are both Princesses like her. (...implying that we'll get an even stronger version of Pecorine beyond Princess Form some day.)

It's not confirmed, but vaguely hinted that Freyja is related to her in some way. The only times Freyja shows any real emotion (i.e. anger) is when Pecorine, or rather the Astraia royal family, is concerned. When Yatogami talked about the possibility of Pecorine becoming a WARLOCK agent, Freyja was shown to be annoyed enough for her to rebuke him even though he's the leader of WARLOCK. On top of that, Grenouille's remark, "You (Freyja) and the former princess together, wouldn't that be a reliable force?"—which angered her—also implied that there's some relationship between the two.

Kokkoro | コッコロ

Voiced by: Itou Miku

Player name: Kokkoro | コッコロ
Real name: Natsume Kokoro | 棗なつめこころ

One of the main heroines of PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive.

Kokkoro is an 11-year-old Elf and was the first person Yuuki sees after waking up, claiming to be his 'Guide' and attendant and addressing him as 'Master' (主あるじさま). She is the shrine maiden of her village and one day, she received a 'divine revelation' from 'Ameth'—who they worship as the Elves' goddess—telling her to go to Yuuki and guide him. They soon run into Pecorine and Kyaru (and Yui) by chance, and formed the Guild, Bishokuden.

She has a unique relationship with Ameth. Ameth is usually cynical to almost everyone, but she adores and goes absolutely bonkers over Kokkoro like a rabid fangirl from the very first time she saw her and addresses her endearingly as 'Kokkoro-tan'.

Unusually mature for her age, Kokkoro looks after Yuuki (and later Sheffy as well)—who in contrast, behaves like an infant due to the memory loss—like her child (in Kyaru's words, Yuuki seems more like Kokkoro's pet than child). She speaks in a stiff, polite manner no matter who she's talking to, and uses the '-sama' honorifics even with most enemies. Like a proper attendant, she constantly plays a support role from behind.

Despite taking on a servant/mother role to Yuuki, like many of the playable characters, she also seems to have a crush on him. When Nebbia told Kyaru to kiss Yuuki (as Labyrista entrusted her with the 'key' to unlocking his true potential as a Princess Knight), Kokkoro expressed envy and said she would trade places with her if possible.

From early on in the game, it was hinted that she has some 'special powers' (which she herself didn't know). For example, when the group fought Christina, Kokkoro was the only one who managed to break her Absolute Defence even when seasoned fighters like Kaori and Makoto were being toyed with, leading to Christina explicitly question if she's 'special' like her and Her Majesty (i.e. Kaiser Insight).

It is revealed later that she's the daughter of one of the Seven Crowns, Great Guidance. It's strongly insinuated that that she logged in using her father's account (as her father is old and lacks interest in games to begin with), hence unknowingly possessing his Seven Crowns' authority; Labyrista calls her a 'Seven Crowns stand-in'. It is further revealed later that her father let her communicate with Minerva on a daily basis during the development phase, and the two became friends. As such, Kokkoro can be said to be directly responsible for the shaping of Minerva's personality. Ameth theorised that the reason she felt a strong sense of nostalgia and took an instant liking to Kokkoro was because of Minerva's memory of her.

Kokkoro got injured in a battle and fell into a coma. But in reality, the reason why she was in a coma was because her soul was transferred into a super over-engineered bio-android body that her father made specifically for her, and she 'woke up' in the real world (in the appearance of her Elf avatar, leading to people giving her weird looks). She was then approached by Labyrista, who was also using an android body made by Kokkoro's father, albeit a prototype one. The reason they summoned her soul was to get her to become a “messenger”, as she's the only one who can freely move in between the two worlds and keep her memories intact (her bio-android body needs to sleep too; when one side sleeps, the other side wakes up). Her job is to let everyone know Astrum is not their reality and also to get people in positions of power (Pecorine in particular, if she's able to regain her position as Princess) to help spread the information.

During the events of Arc 2, Great Guidance temporarily logged into Astrum to save Kokkoro and co. from Eris. It was heavily implied that he made Kokkoro his Princess Knight (with Great Guidance saying "I don't need a knight, but…" while granting her some sort of power), although she doesn't seem to realise this. Great Guidance also granted her the ability to protect herself and others from the Cognitive Correction effect (i.e. the memory-altering effects), though it's not clear if this is her Unique Ability as a Princess Knight or a bonus her father added on while making her his Princess Knight. She later used this power to free Ameth from Sol Tower (and finally opening up the possibility of Ameth becoming playable, which came true on 2022/08/31).

After Arc 2, Yuuki, Pecorine and Kyaru tried to look for Kokoro but to no avail. On the other hand, Kokkoro was aiding her father and Labyrista in various tasks, in preparation to link up with Yuuki, Pecorine and Kyaru and going back to Astrum to save Sheffy and the other players still in a coma. She guided the members of Twinkle Wish to the Theseus, but shortly after that, separated from them and made her way to Yuuki and co. on the Asfaloth Ang, but not before receiving a 'program' from Akira meant for Yuuki. She later rescues Yuuki, Kyaru and Shiori from falling to their death after Hatsune teleported them out of WARLOCK's clutches, and together with Yuuki and Kyaru, they crashed the Asfaloth Ang into the truck that Pecorine was in after she was captured by WARLOCK, rescuing her.

Interestingly, one of the bigger mysteries in the game is Kokkoro's mother. Homare talked about some "terrible incident from 12 years ago" (Kokkoro is 11) that caused Sora (i.e. Kokkoro's father) to age rapidly, but Sora quickly stopped her from continuing. There is some speculation that Ameth (i.e. Fio) is related to Kokkoro's mother in some way, due to:

1. how Ameth instantly took a liking to her on first sight
2. how Sora wears a flower-shaped ring (something that doesn't suit him at all)
3. Sora paused for a moment when he mentioned Ameth in name, before deliberately correcting himself and calling her 'Fio' instead. As mentioned, Sora has no interest in games and has never logged into Legend of Astrum, making this correction fairly interesting.
4. 'Fio' might be a shortened form of 'Fiore', Italian for 'flower' (going back to the flower-shaped ring). This speculation came before Ameth was made playable, and only became more convincing after it was revealed Ameth's Skill names are entirely in Italian.

Kyaru | キャル

Voiced by: Tachibana Rika

Player name: Kyaru | キャル
Real name: Momochi Kiruya | 百もも地ち希留耶きるや

One of the main heroines of PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive.

Kyaru is a 14-year-old Beastfolk girl who is actually an assassin that Kaiser Insight sent to capture or kill Pecorine and monitor Yuuki. Kaiser Insight's Princess Knight (formerly), with the Unique Ability to control monsters like a tamer though she has poor control over it. She has a foul mouth and is not honest with her own feelings, a stereotypical tsundere (the representative tsundere of the game).

She's in a way, the only Bishokuden member with common sense (joined by Sheffy later after she recovers her memories), and is frequently the victim of Bishokuden's bizarre activities (the consumption of monster/insect delicacies in particular). In fact, there's a 'Kyaru Abuse' (キャル虐ぎゃく) meme (sometimes shortened to キャ虐) made just for her due to how often characters, the story itself and especially Cygames treat her badly—usually comically but sometimes serious (eg. her family background)—and is part of the reason why she's a popular character.

Despite the story often portraying her failures as a comic relief, she's actually a fairly accomplished mage and occasionally described to be a genius (though not to the extent of prodigies like Precia), enough for Ambrose Magic Academy (a fairly obvious parody of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from the Harry Potter series) to invite her to the school in hopes that she would attract more students to join (i.e. she's a poster girl).

Her poor control over her Princess Knight powers and her conflicting emotions over her genuine friendship with Bishokuden (Pecorine in particular) caused her to make little to no progress in her mission and Kaiser Insight eventually got impatient, giving her the full extent of the Princess Knight powers and using a brainwashing device to turn her into an obedient puppet that acted as the stand-in Emperor (since Kaiser Insight went into a temporary coma after her clash with Labyrista).

Brainwashed Kyaru eventually confronted Pecorine; the latter reached out to her and ripped off her mask—thinking it was what was controlling her—but it turned out to be merely a magic-boosting device. Kyaru then blasted Pecorine at point blank range, seriously injuring her and successfully capturing her. After Yuuki broke Pecorine free from captivity, they confronted Kyaru, whose brainwashing was partially lifted thanks to Rajiraji and Daigo. Despite some struggle, they eventually managed to save her and help her overcome her trauma with Ameth's help, and the now-reunited Bishokuden, together with many other allies (i.e. all the playable characters up until that point, plus others like Rajiraji, etc), confronted Kaiser Insight in a final battle.

It is interesting to note that the lyrics of the alternate ED—Absolute Secret—that plays after brainwashed Kyaru captured Pecorine, depicts her frustration at and envy of Pecorine's cheerful and free-spirited nature despite her losing everything. This is a presumably a psychological projection as Kyaru is the complete opposite: someone who has no freedom and has difficulty expressing her true feelings. These sentiments are again repeated when Pecorine and co. confronted her, in which she wished they were like the despicable people who have hurt her and not the nice people they are, so that she wouldn't have to feel guilty about hurting them.

Before she left her 'dream' (that Ameth created), Labyrista appeared and entrusted her with the 'key' to unlocking Yuuki's true powers as a Princess Knight. This 'key' (passed onto Yuuki through a kiss) was a key factor in defeating Kaiser Insight.

The cornered Kaiser Insight commanded Kyaru to return to her side, but it was in reality an attempt to suck her dry of her remaining powers. Kyaru instead returned her title as a Princess Knight, planning to die with her as atonement for her sins. However, as Kyaru was powered up by Yuuki, the returning of the title had the unexpected effect of pouring his powers into Kaiser Insight as well, creating an unstable vortex of mana that disrupted her own powers and severely weakening her.

After Kaiser Insight was defeated, Kyaru was placed on watch as she was an accomplice to the criminal Kaiser Insight. She was spared imprisonment thanks to Pecorine—who was reinstated as the Princess and took responsibility for Kyaru—and was relatively free. For a short period, she still felt guilty and talked to people she's not well-acquainted with (including Twinkle Wish) in a meek manner, but soon got over it.

It is further revealed that Miroku, one of the main antagonists of Arc 2, was a member of the cult her parents were in (heavily implied to be the cult leader himself). He taunted and tormented her repeatedly with the fact that she'll face a 'living hell' if she goes back to the real world. She overcame this trauma temporarily to stand up to him, but after Eris and Miroku were defeated, she vehemently rejected Minerva's offer to return them to the real world and was one of the players that do not wish to return to the real world despite knowing Astrum is not their reality. Unfortunately, Sheffy had to activate the logout program in order to save everyone after a trap set by the last Seven Crowns—Vision's Empress—activated and started a countdown to another Rebuild, threatening to repeat the Minerva's Imprisonment tragedy all over again.

In Arc 3, it was revealed that as Miroku had predicted, she went back to a living hell after she woke up in the real world. Her mother's condition had worsened to the point of being hysterical and she even destroyed Kiruya's mimi device before her eyes. Kiruya was about to give up as everything seemed bleak and hopeless, when Pecorine and Yuuki showed up all of a sudden—quite literally smashing into her house—and took her hand, leaving her hysterical mother behind. They managed to link up with Akino and Saren afterwards. Pecorine and Saren wondered why they weren't caught despite Akino making a flashy appearance with her helicopter and all the surveillance cameras all over the city; it was revealed that Mana had been protecting Kiruya and co. all this time by hacking the cameras in a 10km area around her house.

She later went back to Astrum together with Yuuki, Pecorine and Kokkoro in order to save Sheffy and the millions of players that were still trapped in the game.

Sheffy | シェフィ

Voiced by: Kondou Reina

Player name: ???
Real name: Agato Shifuna | 阿賀斗あがと 紫布菜しふな

The fourth main heroine of PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive, introduced in Arc 2.

A 14-year-old Dragonfolk (ドラゴン族ぞく) girl who fell out of the sky from Sol Tower one day. She lost her memories and regressed to an infant state of mind, just like Yuuki. The members of Bishokuden and Twinkle Wish took turns looking after her and Yuuki and she quickly warmed up to them (Bishokuden in particular). Soon after they found her, she was accused of attempting to assassinate Kaiser Insight (while she was Princess) by Gorschin, though she does not remember it. Even after she broke out of the infantile regression, she still had much of her memories missing until near the end of Arc 2. A running gag is that she occasionally reverts back to her infant state temporarily in moments of stress, and gets incredibly embarrassed at her behaviour (eg. calling Kokkoro 'Mama' and speaking in 'baby speech') after she snaps out of it.

The members of Twinkle Wish travelled to Sol Tower to collect materials in an attempt to return Yuuki to normal (from his infantile regression, a side effect of him taking back his original Princess Knight powers in the final battle against Kaiser Insight), and found crystal fragments which contain something resembling Sheffy's feathers. Upon touching the crystals, an error code 'Code CFF9FE' (also the hexadecimal colour code for Sheffy's hair colour) is displayed. Furthermore, written on the crystals are the text "Type-D Sample 0005b AGATOSHIFUNA". Rei and Kokkoro later theorised that this 'Sample' is likely referring to Sheffy. Through her 'dreams', we find out her name in the real world is Agato Shifuna, which confirms this theory.

Throughout their multiple encounters, Sheffy felt a certain 'connection' with Zane—the Guild Master of Rage Legion—and this feeling is mutual even though they have no idea why. After the final battle against Rage Legion where it seemed like everything had come to an end, the real mastermind, Eris showed up and together with her allies (including Misora, who betrayed Rage Legion), decided to wipe everything except Yuuki, Yui and Kokkoro. She attacked Sheffy but Zane shielded her with his body, sacrificing himself. In his last moments, the two finally regained their memories of each other shortly before Zane perished: they are siblings.

Shifuna was a talented figure skater in the real world, but a leg injury ended her career prematurely. She was trying to walk with a walking stick—something she wasn't used to—and almost tripped when Yuuki caught her, and while chatting, she mentioned "a game that can grant any wish", which likely was the reason she ended up in Legend of Astrum (and getting trapped in the game subsequently). Her brother Zen (Zane's real name) ended up tagging along as he's a loving brother and wants to do everything for her, even though he had no interest in games.

【Arc 2 Chapter 12 Episode 9】 Eris said that as the Administrator, she can't interfere directly with Astrum, so during one Reset—during the short period in between the trigger of the 'condition' (i.e. either Yuuki or Yui's death) required for the Reset and the actual Reset—she experimented with creating a 'Terminal' of her own, after observing how Minerva created a data-collection terminal in the Arena (i.e. Minerva β) and an autonomous test terminal based on Rajnikanth's avatar (i.e. Re:Dive's fake Rajiraji). She inserted the souls of Lost players into Avatars of new, unimplemented Races and Type-D Samples were among the experiments. This resulted in the creation of Dragonfolks Sheffy and Zane. Eris tasked Sheffy with the assassination of Kaiser Insight (as she was the most likely cause of Resets on every instance), but quickly deemed the Type-D Samples as 'failures' because Sheffy failed in her task.

After Eris and her henchmen managed to locate Yuuki and co. repeatedly, Kasumi comes to the conclusion that there's a 'traitor'—who possibly has no idea herself—among them and narrowed the candidates down to Yui, Kyaru and Sheffy. This 'traitor' is later revealed to be Sheffy: Eris planned to get rid of the Type-D Samples but under Misora's advice, she sent Sheffy to Yuuki's side, recycling her as a 'spy'; Sheffy herself has no idea of this as her memories was wiped beforehand, hence the memory loss. Through Sheffy's eyes, Eris is able to get information regarding Yuuki's side, which explains how she was able to repeatedly locate them despite them despite them going into hiding several times. Eris also has the ability to control Sheffy to some extent using her Administrator privileges, as shown when she commanded her to attack Labyrista in the latter's dream.

Sheffy left Bishokuden temporarily, in order to protect Yuuki and co. and not leak further information. She recalled Homare's parting words, "come to me if you need help", and decided to ask her for help in breaking free from her role as Eris' Terminal. Sheffy later joined up with Yuuki and co. during the battle against Miroku and Zane and was shown to have attained the Awakening ability unique to Dragonfolks, fighting on par with even the berserk Zane. The flashbacks shown throughout her fight suggest that she has fully regained her memories of the real world.

Sheffy seems to have a much higher degree of control over her Awakening than Kaya and Inori, to an extent that Kaya found questionable and wondered what Homare actually did to her to achieve this. Sheffy also mentioned that her 'Awakening' allowed her to be free of Eris' control as a Terminal. Sheffy's fingers started to digitize (and she hid it from the rest of Bishokuden), hinting that her Awakening is akin to a time bomb (akin to what Homare did to herself) and was something Sheffy willingly went through with. In Sheffy's Character Story episode 10, it was revealed that Eris—using her administrative privilege—gave Sheffy's Avatar massive power-ups in order for her to complete her task of assassinating Kaiser Insight (which ultimately failed), and it is because of this that her Awakening is extra powerful (described as their trump card against Eris) but is also a double-edged sword. The game didn't go into the specifics, but Homare asked if Sheffy would still continue with it even if she finds out that someone (i.e. herself) will be missing from the picture of a "happy ending"; Sheffy understood the hint, and still decided to go forward with acquiring her Awakening.

Sheffy also revealed that Homare was able to reverse-hack Eris through her as a Terminal, allowing Yuuki to finally make contact with Minerva through Sheffy's 'dreams'. Homare modified Sheffy's role as a Terminal, allowing her to send not just information to Eris, but send commands to even Minerva (implying it gives her privileges higher than even Minerva's), albeit she needs to use Awakening and receive Yuuki's power-up in order to send commands to Minerva. After Minerva got hacked by presumably Vision's Empress, the last Seven Crowns, Astrum was put into Rebuild mode, threatening to build the world from scratch, erasing everyone's memories and possibly having worse effects. Right at the very last second of the countdown, Sheffy used this ability to order Minerva to 'Freeze' the world's time by a short moment, giving her time to explain to Yuuki her plans to apply the additional patch that Minerva mentioned, which would forcibly log out everyone except her, Yuuki (who needs to keep Sheffy powered-up) and players who either have not eaten Labyrista's crepes (which re-enables the logout function) or were dead in-game in order to save them from the Rebuild. Everyone else started to disappear one by one, presumably safely transported back to their physical body in the real world.

Yuuki and Sheffy went back to their Guildhouse, and watched the final moments of this world from the rooftop. They reminisced about their happy days in Astrum. Sheffy started to disappear—which she explained that she was mentally prepared for—the price to pay for wielding that kind of enormous power obtained via Homare's modification of her function as a Terminal. Disappearing, she told Yuuki that she'll use the last of her powers to attempt sending him back to the real world right before the current Astrum disappears. As Yuuki's soul started to get transferred, she professed her love for him, before finally disappearing entirely.

---

In Arc 3, it was revealed that Yuuki and co. safely made back to the real world thanks to Sheffy. Shifuna's comatose body is in a hospital, under Mitsuki's care. The group travelled back to Astrum to look for Sheffy and the countless other players that are still trapped. After finally finding a clue where her soul could be found, their hopes were crushed when it was revealed that her soul is being held hostage by Freyja and Lady Arachne, taking the form of a blue flame placed in an ice statue in Sheffy's shape (the ice statue was formed from information Freyja extracted from the soul), making it hard for Yuuki and co. to defy against them.

Lady Arachne personally did not care for a hostage and wasn't above shattering the statue and soul just for entertainment. Freyja intentionally told Lady Arachne that there is great value to Sheffy as a hostage, knowing Lady Arachne would do the opposite (given her arrogant and defiant personality) and shatter the statue, but Homare and Eris interrupted before she could shatter it. Despite doing the best they could, Lady Arachne seemed to have the upper hand and managed to shatter the ice statue. Just as all hope seemed lost, Yuuki, leaping out to reach what's left of Sheffy's soul, revived Sheffy using the program Labyrista gave him (through Kokkoro). Sheffy finally unlocked her Princess Form with the help of Minerva, and the reunited Bishokuden and co. managed to defeat Lady Arachne for good.