Himeko Inaba

is the Vice President of the Student Cultural Society and a classmate of Taichi and Iori's. She is exceptionally skilled at gathering and analyzing information and as a result, knows many private details about her fellow club members. Although she is calm and logical, Inaba has a difficult time handling awkward situations and doesn't like things to get out of her control.

Personality
With a short-temper and an intolerance for disorder, Inaba is easily the most volatile member of the Cultural Club. She tends to use vulgar language and speaks with masculine expressions in order to maintain a powerful appearance. She dislikes her given name, Himeko, because it means "princess" in Japanese, which makes her sound weak, like a child who needs to be looked after.

Despite her rough edges, Inaba is very considerate of her fellow club members; always looking out for everyone's best interests, and, though she doesn't like to show it, Inaba greatly treasures her friends and would be willing to sacrifice her own happiness to keep the group together. When dealing with a problem, Inaba typically chooses to take a very direct approach to solve it, making it a challenge for her to deal with delicate situations. Inaba is also a naturally distrustful person and worries constantly about the detrimental effects of each  phenomenon.

Behind her front of arrogance and self-assurance, Inaba has proven to have very low self-esteem. This is largely attributed to her distrustful nature and social awkwardness, imperfections that she acknowledges she has but cannot accept. Due to her cold personality, it seems that Inaba doesn't socialize with others outside of the StuCS. However, after dating Taichi, she becomes slightly more open, but is also prone to becoming jealous when other girls interact with him.

Because she is interested in data analysis and logistics, Inaba plans to specialize in science courses and, in the future, attend a university to better understand Heartseed.

Key Problem
Inaba has great difficulty trusting people and, because they hold the power to potentially betray and hurt her, this includes her friends. Rather than coming from some sort of trauma or childhood tragedy, Inaba claims to have been born with this problem and has not been able to trust others her whole life. Despite hating this part of herself, Inaba cannot help but think of others as potential enemies, regardless. This has lead to Inaba having a very poor image of herself and has contributed to her former isolation before joining the StuCS. Over the course of the series, Inaba gradually removes her defensive walls and slowly learns to love and trust her friends unconditionally.

Later, Inaba starts to realize opening up to her friends has slowly made her weaker than she used to be and that she has begun overly relying on the strength of others rather than her own.

Appearance
Inaba has shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes. Unlike most of the other girls whose uniform sweaters are colored yellow, her's is brown. Inaba has been noted to have good posture, and a slim, yet long figure. Her eyes are described as being piercing, yet captivating.

Background History
Skilled in computer use, even knowing how to build computers and use macro programming, Inaba originally joined the Computer Club, however, she left due to an argument with the club's President. As a result, Inaba wound up helping establish the Student Cultural Society, becoming its Vice President only due to winning a rock-paper-scissors game against Iori.

Family

 * Brother: Inaba's only family member to appear so far is her older brother, a college student. Inaba and her brother do not get along very well and she prefers to avoid speaking with him. Her brother is known to bring girls home from college.

Friends

 * Yaegashi Taichi: A male classmate and fellow member of the StuCS whom Inaba dubs a "Selfless Freak." Inaba did not care much for Taichi at first, but over the course of the series, she forms a strong bond of trust with him and eventually develops feelings for Taichi. During the Kizu Random arc, Inaba confesses to him but is turned down due to Taichi being in love with Iori. Undeterred, Inaba refuses to give up on him and at the end of the Michi Random arc, the two begin dating. Inaba's love for Taichi later develops to the point where she claims she can't imagine life without him. Additionally, Inaba is willing to do anything Taichi says, even stripping down to her underwear, which was tested by Chihiro pretending to be Taichi using Illusion Projection. Although Inaba is in love with Taichi, she does not allow her feelings to blind her and breaks up with him after he lies to her and irresponsibly uses Dream Perception in Yume Random. By the end of their trip to Hokkaido, Taichi realizes how important Inaba is to him and reaffirms his love for her, and the two get back together. Taichi finally calls Inaba by her first name, "Himeko," during the opening ceremony of their third year. Throughout the series, Inaba has been shown to have thoughts about doing perverted things with Taichi.
 * Nagase Iori: A female classmate and the President of the StuCS club. Inaba became good friends with Iori after helping her deal with a stalker during the Spring of their first year. Despite being total opposites of each other, Inaba considers Iori one of her closest friends and knows a lot about Iori's personal issues. When Iori discovers that Inaba is in love with Taichi, she encourages Inaba to admit her feelings and the two become rivals for Taichi's affections. After Inaba and Taichi begin dating, Iori gives her full support to the couple, making good on her promise to remain friends.
 * Aoki Yoshifumi: A male StuCS club member. Inaba often punishes Aoki for his silly antics and has little patience for his pervertedness. Even though she gives him a hard time, at the end of the day, Inaba considers Aoki a good friend.
 * Kiriyama Yui: A female StuCS club member. The two have been shown to get along well and Yui even helped Inaba prepare chocolates for Valentine's Day. Inaba also knows a lot of Yui's personal information such as her androphobia and body measurements, which Inaba has used against her on occassion.
 * Fujishima Maiko: Inaba’s class representative. The two will sometimes conspire together to reach their own devious ends.
 * Yaegashi Rina: In Asu Random, Rina considers Inaba a rival, afraid she will take Taichi away from her. The two bicker frequently, most often over Taichi.

Others

 * Katori Jouji: The Student Council President of Yamaboshi High School. From the start, Inaba does not trust Katori but got along with him for the sake of the other students. After Katori's actions become morally questionable, such as using violence on other students and turning the student body against the StuCS, they become enemies.

Trivia

 * Iori affectionatly nicknames her "Inaban."
 * Inaba has a habit of chewing her nails and biting her lips when she's frustrated.
 * Inaba tends to use very vulgar and masculine speech and only abstains from doing so when speaking to a stranger.
 * Of all the characters, Inaba is the only one shown to own a smartphone, which appears to be an Android phone due to the similar pattern lock system.
 * In the novels, Inaba is shown to have more perverted tendencies which includes and is not limited to: briefly contemplating S&M with Taichi, looking for pornography in her brother's room, and posing in front of her mirror in her underwear.
 * Inaba owns a desktop PC, which she apparently built herself.
 * She uses a notebook that resembles the SONY VAIO series.
 * Inaba is frequently shown to not be athletically fit. She is often outpaced by her friends and was the only one in the club who didn't run the marathon and instead rode a bike to the finish line, and even then she complained it was hard work.
 * Inaba is not very good at cooking, but insists on preparing bentos for Taichi. After Yume Random, Inaba begins preparing a bento for Taichi about once per week and her skills graudually improve as a result. Apparently, her bentos are largely composed of frozen foods, but Inaba defends herself by stating that "it doesn't matter as long as it tastes good."