The Journalist's Daughter by Rgis
Note: This is also currently a rough draft that is about what some people think about who The Journalist's daughter is. Also, I'll link to this a lot because it has a ton of information that nobody likes repeating. I've tried repeating it over and over again before making this thread, but that was tiresome. This make it so it's easy access to the evidence, instead of just compiling a list of links, which I've already tried. Keep in mind that new information comes often, so things might change a bit.
The audience of Yandere Simulator has been on their seats ever since the Mysterious Tapes came out. The tapes talk about the daughter of The Journalist and fans are dying to know who she is considering she is. She might even go to Akademi High, considering that's where the tapes were left for her to find. Most have agreed that the top candidates for this position are Pippi Osu, Kokona Haruka, Yandere-chan, and Info-chan. Through process of elimination, fans at least see who isn't the daughter. Who is the least likely suspect.
Which may be all of them. A wikia editor has speculated that this daughter may not even go to the school that ruined her father. There is, after all, a rival school who has a character that plays a role in the backstory of Yandere Simulator. However, no rivals will be from that other school and no students from that school will be featured outside of one flashback. The Journalist's daughter could go there, but the Mysterious Tapes are at Akademi in these debug builds.
The Mysterious Tapes can be at that rival school in the full game, but Yandere-chan can't get there if, as previously stated, there will only be one flashback with that school. The flashback could be The Journalist's daughter hearing the tapes, but her identity will be made clear in a cassette tape. Showing a flashback would most likely reveal too much, and it has not been said by the Dev that the cassette tapes have to be watched. Not to mention the fact that watching the girl find and hear ten tapes may be lengthy. Cutting parts of the reaction and tapes out so that the flashback becomes more concise probably isn't a good idea, considering all the information found in those tapes. All in all the chance of the daughter being from a rival school is low.
So, now that that's out of the way, who is the least likely suspect award goes to...
Why, Pippi Osu, of course! Although she shares her computer hobbies with the daughter, Pippi stays at school up until 6 PM, since teachers kick students out after that. With Pippi doing absolutely nothing suspicious during school hours, that means that she probably not come home with blood on her. Plus, she’s a mascot, and it doesn't make sense to have a mascot of another game (Osu!) a fairly important or at least somewhat prominent character with such a troubling history. So the whole theory seems very unlikely.
A more popular guess is Kokona Haruka. Not only is she an original character, Kokona is already prominent enough to get such an important position in the game. She's still a test rival and might become official, so that only adds to it. Still, fans don't know about her possibly loving relationship with her computer and why she would go on it so much if she was the daughter. It is at least known that Kokona at least participates in "Enjo Kosai", which would explain where her extra money might come from.
Yet despite all of this, the whole thing about the daughter getting blood on her kind of messes the idea up a bit. Kokona probably only gets blood thrown on her after Yandere-chan does it, but for Yan-chan to do that she would probably have to kill someone, and if Kokona has been coming home before the main story with blood on her, and Yan-chan has no history of violence , then it's less likely that Kokona has had blood on her. Yan-chan has only met Senpai recently and can become violent but wasn't before, so we at least know that Yan-chan has no reason to pour blood on Kokona. Not only that, but most other students probably wouldn't partake in such a thing and we don't hear about too many murders right before the game starts. The game doesn't even start with a low atmosphere of some sort! This part of the theory may be busted.
Many fans, however, overlook that fact in favor of Kokona's past. Her mom is dead and The Journalist's wife is dead, so people connect these two things and assume Kokona is the one they're looking for. However, there's one huge fact that disproves Kokona is, for sure, not the daughter of The Journalist.
It's in this video posted by the Dev himself. Most Yandere Simulator fans probably know about Kokona's backstory by now, but some may not know the exact details. Well, there's something that Saki Miyu, a concerned friend, says at the rooftop of Akademi that changes everything.
"You haven't been acting like your usual self lately," Saki states to Kokona in private. "Is something bothering you?"
"Oh..." says Kokona Haruka, "well...it's nothing..."
"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine...but remember, I'm you friend, and I'd never judge you for anything."
"...I guess there's one thing I want to talk about..."
"I'm listening."
"...Ever since my mom died, my dad's been drinking a lot...sometimes, when he's drunk, he comes into my room and..."
Saki Miyu says that Kokona hasn't been acting like herself lately, and Kokona states it's because her mom died. If it's only been lately, then it doesn't make sense that she suddenly starts acting out of character if The Journalist's wife died by childbirth. If her dad's been abusing her all this time then her behavior wouldn't be changed like this, as Saki notes. If Kokona's mom died by childbirth like The Journalist's wife did, then that means that The Journalist has been abusing his daughter ever since birth. Kokona only starting to be disturbed by this abuse isn't logical.
Let's also state the fact that The Journalist has neglected and ignored his daughter ever since she was born. Kokona's father seems to do no such thing and has only changed after his wife died. The Journalist never speaks to his daughter or interacts with her. Mr. Haruka blatantly goes in and terrorizes his daughter. Kokona is no longer a candidate.
The next competitor is Yandere-chan, or "Ayano Aishi", going from theselittle things that prove that's her placeholder name. It's at least known that the last name is now canon and that all Aishi women don't take their husband's last name. That's an easy guess for anyone who is forgetful or who just doesn't look deep into Yandere Simulator. However, this theory has way more glaring flaws than the others, even Kokona's! If people paid more attention to YandereDev's tweets, then it would be obvious that she is not a suspect.
Firstly, it must be restated that The Journalist's wife died by childbirth. Yandere-chan's parents are out of town for 10 weeks, as stated here. The Journalist's wife could not be in another country if she died around 17 years ago, more or less.
Next, if Yandere-chan has never physically harmed another human being then she has little chance of coming home so bloody. She doesn't have to hurt people during the events of Yandere Simulator's main story, so she doesn't have to get messy on her. The tapes were at school at the very start, and the game is set at the beginning of the Japanese school year, and Yandere-chan meets Senpai almost right before the story starts, so that means that the tapes were made before Yandere-chan could do anything violent. Yandere-chan has never done any actual physical damage before meeting Senpai, the game begins soon after she meets Senpai, so she probably isn't The Journalist's daughter because that girl came home with blood on her sometimes. It's unlikely that Yandere-chan has come home occasionally in a mess.
Thirdly, Yandere-chan's mother has killed a girl in the third floor bathroom, who is called the Phantom Girl, back when she and the girl were students in high school. The link says the mother is explicitly yandere. When could've this yandere gone to high school? Back in the 1980's, when there was a yandere at school. What mode will kill the Phantom Girl? At the beginning of 1980's mode. Why did The Journalist start getting involved with the school? There was a murder there, stated in Mysterious Tape #1 in the April of 1989. Who haunts the third floor girls' bathroom of that school because she was murdered there by a yandere? Phantom Girl. That's not all, though.
There's one giant fact that brings it all together. When I first went to Yandere-chan's part of the essay, I said that her placeholder name was "Ayano Aishi". Check out Basement Tape #1. The girl there is a yandere and has kidnapped her senpai. The senpai mentions that The Journalist accused her of killing some people. The kidnapper is called "Ryoba Aishi". Who would go out of town for the 10 weeks of the game, around the same time as The Journalist flees the country and the yandere of 1989 possibly hunts down him? The one who killed the Phantom Girl. The one who kidnapped her senpai. The one who has the last name shared with our emotionless and possibly sociopathic protagonist. Yandere-chan shall be cut from the list. Moving on.
Obviously I had to save the best for last, so Info-chan is my next subject, seeing as how the Yandere-chan theory failed. After all, Info-chan is probably the most logical answer, including the outdated first intro where her characterization is different. She is probably no longer a journalist, seeing as the school no longer has a newspaper nor a club for it . The first intro on the Dev's YouTube channel even states that it's "outdated". Not only that, but The Journalist's job might not seem so appealing to Info-chan, especially at a young age. Why would Info-chan's hobby be changed? Maybe it's because that if she was the daughter, she wouldn't want to have the career that destroyed her old man's life. If she was the daughter did the failures of her father discourage her from following in his footsteps?
If the occupation of Info-chan is unrelated, then what about the rest of the information about The Journalist's daughter that might support this theory? Well, Info-chan could’ve gotten a lot of her money from panty shots, she could’ve gotten blood on her because she doesn’t care for other’s safety (she leaves rivals and countless others to suffer in your quest for Senpai despite having evidence against you), and could possibly kill others for any reason that she might have. She is evil, after all. Info-chan will also never be seen at school, so no one don't knows what she does, so the murders and such can't be proven wrong yet. If she would do all these things, then it's got to be her, right? But wait! There's this Twitter postabout how only rivals will have dark secrets. It's been proven that Info-chan will not be a rival because the Dev said that Info-chan will no longer be a yandere for Senpai. Not only that, but Info-chan is at least not going to be the ninth nor the tenth rival, which lowers her chances, considering she's supposed to introduce all rivals to Yandere-chan. There's also the fact that the rivals won't know that Yandere-chan will be competition for them and Senpai. Info-chan knows, judging by the texts in the second intro, that Yandere-chan likes Senpai.
Still... what if the Dev simply made a mistake or he worded it wrong? This is because The Journalist has a dark secret (leaving a young woman to die in Mysterious Tape #9 so that he can have evidence against his enemy) and he is definitely not a rival since he is on the run for 10 weeks, which is how long the main game is. In addition, he might only appear in a secret main story mode ending. Maybe the Dev only meant really ordinary students will lack that kind of backstory? Like, only more important minor characters can have a backstory of that sort, but incredibly normal people won't? So she's at least not a rival, but could she still be the child of The Journalist?
Well, there's two things that lean towards this being the case. Info-chan's reason for being in a club of one and not in a Newspaper Club would be explained in a cassette tape. The daughter's identity will be made clear... in a cassette tape, as stated in the first few paragraphs. So if important, but minor NPCs can have a dark backstory... then it's entirely possible for Info-chan to be the daughter of The Journalist.
In the end, Pippi Osu, Kokona Haruka, and Yandere-chan are all unlikely to be the daughter. Yandere-chan is completely disproven, Kokona has some facts that heavily hint towards it but is wrong in the end, and Pippi is just a mascot. If they are all out of the way, then the path for Info-chan may be clear. That is, if it's not some other character who is currently unknown.