Kiyokazu Fujimoto
A blunt, sarcastic young man working at the same kindergarten as Kobato. He is also Kobato’s neighbor, living in the same complex under the ownership of Chitose. He has known Sayaka for many years and appears to have strong feelings for her, showing much concern over and being fiercely defensive of her. Upon first meeting Kobato, he is rather suspicious of the unusual girl, as he does not want Sayaka to be hurt by another person. He often pokes fun at and teases Kobato, which is unusual as he generally ignores people he does not like; as a result, Sayaka interprets his actions toward the girl as affection. Regardless of his initial distrust of Kobato, he has shown signs of warming up to her and now seems to care about her well being, demonstrated when once she pretended to have a cold to cover up for Ioryogi, and Fujimoto in response discreetly passed on a bag of cough drops to her. Kobato notes that he appears to be hiding some emotional pain of his own.
As a child, Fujimoto was an orphan taken in by Sayaka’s father and did not get along with his peers. He had been studying to become a lawyer, but stopped going to his college classes when it became apparent Sayaka’s need for help had become increasingly desperate. He works at various part-time jobs throughout the day in order to help support the kindergarten, as he is attached to Sayaka and feels indebted to her family for taking care of him in his youth.
