Rikuto Ikeda

Rikuto Ikeda was one of the first students in Gakuho Asano's private cram school. Three years after leaving, relentless bullying from his high school basketball team drove him to take his own life, and his death is what hollowed Asano into the cold, manipulative educator seen in the main story.

Rikuto Ikeda was one of the very first pupils in Gakuho Asano's private cram school, taught a decade before the main events of the series alongside classmates Nagai and Mori. He was a spirited, energetic boy whom Asano shaped toward good conduct.

Rikuto Ikeda's suicide hollowed Gakuho Asano into the manipulative, ruthless man seen in the present day and overturned his entire teaching philosophy toward forging strong students at any cost. Asano later tracked down Ikeda's bullies as adults and steered them into gambling ruin and lasting poverty as revenge.

During his cram-school days, Rikuto Ikeda repeatedly tried to duck out of lessons, and each attempt was thwarted by Asano, a tug of war that nonetheless forged a warm bond between them. Asano once challenged him to a one-on-one basketball match after Ikeda teased a classmate, using the loss to teach that everyone has different strengths.

Three years after leaving the cram school, now in high school, Rikuto Ikeda phoned his old mentor Gakuho Asano to ask him to dinner. He was last seen standing on a bridge before taking his own life, having been driven to it by relentless bullying from his basketball team.