For the manga, please go to Yuko Sakaki (Manga). For the film, please go to Yuko Sakaki (Film).
Backstory
Yuko Sakaki's (榊 祐子, Sakaki Yūko) alcoholic father used to abuse her by burning cigarettes into her skin. He would then beat her mother with a golf club if she tried to intervene. Yuko's brother was at one time beaten with an ashtray and almost lost his sight because of the incident. She wasn't old enough to understand why and didn't even want to remember it. When she was in first grade, her father was stabbed and killed by local Yakuza over a gambling dispute. The family then had a fairly peaceful life since he died but she still has nightmares about him, and had since become terrified of any violent or gory situation. She is friends with Yukie Utsumi's group. Yuko's family wasn't rich.
Yuko was left slightly paranoid from her father's abuse and she didn't ever want to experience something like the abuse again so she always wanted to remove danger from a situation. When her father was killed her family was at peace and they could bring people over and feel secure again.
Appearance[]
Yuko had short hair and a petite body.
Friends and Enemies[]
Yuko wasn't too close with anyone in her class, but she was on good terms with the girls in her class. Yuko didn't have any known enemies.
In the Program[]
Yuko makes her way around the island, not meeting anyone until after the six am announcements. Soon after Yuko witnessed Shuya Nanahara yanking out a hatchet from Tatsumichi Oki's head. She couldn't take her eyes off the scene but as soon as she saw the blood, she grabbed her day pack and held her mouth so she wouldn't make a sound as she started to cry. Yuko got up and ran away as quickly as she could, she could hardly hear the gunshots that followed given the state she was in.
Later on, the group of girls in the lighthouse discover Yuko at around 8 p.m and she joins the girls. When Shuya was brought to them, unconscious and injured, she protested against Yukie to let him stay in the lighthouse and told them what she had seen. The two get to a point of almost fighting until Haruka and the others insist that they can't just let someone die so they bring him in and she finally agrees on the condition that they lock the door in the room he would be staying in. When Yuko is asked later how she is feeling about letting Shuya stay, She says she is fine with it as she was convinced that Shuya would die of his wounds. However when Yukie brought them the news that he would recover, Yuko decided she would kill him with her bonus weapon (which the other girls are unaware of).
Yuko decides to put some of her poison into Shuya's food as she figured it wouldn't be odd for a guy in critical condition to die suddenly. Her plan backfires, however, when Yuka Nakagawa tastes Shuya's meal and dies. The girls all become panicked, and after an extended battle, Yuko is the only survivor.
Seconds later, Yuko notices that Shuya has gotten out of his room and she goes for a gun to shoot at him. Shuya uses a plank to stop her and she shields herself and falls back onto the floor. Shuya goes for the gun and Yuko retreats and runs up the stairs of the lighthouse and Shuya follows after her. She decides she needs to escape however since she never kept watch she didn't know the exterior of the lighthouse. She briefly thought of jumping down however it was too high. The view made her feet slip and she soon fell over the bar but she managed to grab onto the balcony. Her fingers were slipping until she saw Shuya stretching out his right arm to hold her wrist. At first she doesn't want Shuya to grab her as she fears that he wants to kill her but when she realizes how much pain he is in and he is still trying to save her, she realizes that she was wrong about him and reveals that she saw him and Tatsumichi, that she tried to poison his food, and the incident that followed after. She feels too much guilt over what had happened and she prys his fingers loose and falls to her death onto the roof. Her body is sprawled out and her neck was crooked which made her head look oddly disjoined from the rest of her body.
Etymology[]
- The name Yuko means "help" (祐) (yu) and "child" (子) (ko).
- Yuko's surname Sakaki means "sacred Shinto tree" (榊).
Notes[]
- This is the only version of the story where Yuko is the fourth to last girl to die. In the film and manga versions, she was the third last standing girl (behind Kayoko Kotohiki and Mitsuko Souma).
- Yuko was the last member of her clique to be killed and the only one who's death cause was suicide.
- This is the only version of Yuko to get Potassium Cyanide as a bonus weapon. In the manga and film, she had the Cyanide only.