Katsuya Honda

Katsuya is calm, observant and capable of delivering sharp remarks without raising his voice. He quickly realizes that Kyoko's aggression is partly an attempt to force other people to acknowledge her existence.

His composure conceals his own history of emotional repression. He understands Kyoko's loneliness partly because he has difficulty expressing similar feelings himself.

As a husband and father, Katsuya is reassuring and practical. When Kyoko doubts whether she can become a good mother, he treats parenthood as something they will learn together rather than a standard she must meet alone.

Katsuya has no supernatural abilities and has no connection to the Souma curse.

He initially works as a student teacher and demonstrates an ability to read people accurately. His measured speech and calm presence allow him to communicate with Kyoko when more conventional authority figures have failed.

After leaving teaching, he supports the household he builds with Kyoko and Tooru.

Katsuya's history explains the transition between Kyoko's violent adolescence and the mother Tooru remembers. He meets Kyoko while she is still involved in delinquency and becomes one of the first adults to recognize that punishment alone will not address her isolation.

After Kyoko is rejected by her parents, Katsuya supports her and the two marry. Their daughter Tooru is born afterward, giving Kyoko the family she had believed she could never have.

Katsuya later dies from an illness while away on a business trip, leaving Kyoko devastated and three-year-old Tooru without her father. Tooru subsequently imitates his polite speech because she fears her grieving mother might otherwise leave her too.

Kyoko Honda becomes Katsuya's wife after he first meets her as a troubled teenager. He recognizes Kyoko Honda's loneliness and helps her imagine a life outside delinquency.

Tooru Honda is Katsuya's daughter. [His early death leaves Tooru Honda with only limited memories of him, but his formal manner of speaking becomes the model for her own distinctive politeness.](#spoiler)