Haruko Fujiwara

Haruko “Haru” Fujiwara is a character role-played by stelllllllaaaa

Before Los Santos
Haru is the youngest of the Fujiwara Clan. She was born in the Adachi ward of Tokyo to a family with two older siblings, Yuki Fujiwara, and Aki Fujiwara, as well as her father, Takumi Fujiwara, and grandfather, Bunta Fujiwara. Her father was rather distant, caring only to bond with her older brother Yuki. Unlike her eldest sibling, Haru was never close to her father, never getting the chance to learn from his racing skillset.

For the duration of her childhood, Haru was very much the outcast as the baby of the family. Yuki thought she was too little to play with, and Aki, following Yuki’s footsteps, would constantly pull on Haruko’s pig tails, teasing her. In turn, Haru’s grandfather allowed her to spend most of her free time at his tofu shop, working long hours with him in order to avoid her siblings. She expressed her feelings with art and music, often sketching customers. By the time she was in high school, she knew the ins and outs of his business like the back of her hand. Haru saw her own potential as she became a fiend for paperwork, double and triple checking her grandfather’s logs and sales to ensure that the shop wouldn’t sink.

When their father passed away from illness, and Yuki went off to university, it was only then that Haru and Aki began to get along. It didn’t take long for Aki and Haru to realize how similar they were to each other. They would often say the same things at the same time, or even dress the same unintentionally. As they continued to grow together, Aki took on the position of a protector to Haru. At a first glance, some would say that Aki is the brawn, and Haru is the brain of their duo. When put together, they became an unstoppable force.

While Yuki was learning abroad, Haru’s involvement with the Hashiriya increased as anyone who carries a Fujiwara name is expected to help maintain ‘The Underground.’ This was a secret underground workshop that the Fujiwara Clan had built in order to run their illegal vin scratching business out of. While Haru didn’t share an interest in racing like her siblings, she enjoyed her time working on cars, taking them apart and putting them back together. Her interests lead her to delve into the managerial side of the Hashiriya. She dove deep into their business logs, learning everything about the overseas contacts who supplied the Hashiriya. Before she even knew it, Haru became the first point of contact for Hashiriya supply drops, managing the stock for The Underground.

When Yuki returned, Haru earned his respect then, understanding that their family dynamic didn’t make it easy to really get to know each other. Haru continued into business management, as she and Yuki chose to open an import shop together. The starting funds were acquired from Yuki’s race earnings, so Haru spent many days looking at numbers and hypotheticals in order to figure out how to receive the largest profit margin. The import shop naturally developed into a front in order to pace the flow of income that was coming from the Hashiriya’s export of illegally built cars. Due to Haru’s heavy involvement with the import shop and The Underground she had earned her role as the second in command of the Hashiriya, underneath Yuki.

Haru was abroad when their grandfather passed away on October 18th, 2019, and Haru lost it. She had lost her person, and she blamed herself for it. She allowed herself to get distracted, and she spent more time with friends rather than family. There were many nights where Haru would wonder if she could have done anything to save her grandfather. If she was there, would she have been able to prevent his passing? If she was there, would she have been able to take him to the hospital before it was too late? The person who made her feel safe, who made her confident- the first person to believe in her was gone. A huge part of her life was gone, just like that.

And so after the funeral, Haru packed her bags. She wanted nothing to do with Japan anymore. Everything reminded her of her grandfather. She sold her stocks and assets, leaving behind her money solely to be used by the tofu shop. She didn’t want to be left behind again. She couldn’t bear to think about being without her family. So when her siblings bought tickets to Los Santos, Haru didn’t hesitate.

Fujiwara Clan
Takumi Fujiwara was the firstborn son of Bunta Fujiwara. Takumi fathered three children, Yukio, Aki and Haruko. When his wife passed away, he required the assistance of his father in order to take care of the kids. Takumi fell into step, relying on Bunta to be a father figure as he struggled to process the loss of his best friend.

This caused Takumi’s relationships to falter with his daughters, as he saw too much of his wife in them. Takumi’s relationship flourished with Yukio as the two of them bonded over the racing scene. Many members of the Fujiwara clan were well known for their street racing group, Hashiriya 走り屋. The newer generation of Hashiriya were infamous, as they were easily spotted with their orange cars.

In 2018, when Takumi passed away, Yukio easily became the most influential person in the racing scene with his father’s skillset. With the help of his youngest sister, and his right hand, Haruko, the two of them were able to create a monopoly of businesses in both the illegal and legal realms. Together they imported illegal car parts in order to export high value vehicles. Down the line, they used realty and property management to help launder their money, but when the income skyrocketed, the Fujiwara children began to funnel more money through their grandfather’s tofu shop.

The trio developed the perfect balance; Yuki was the face of the racing scene, Haru was the brains of the businesses and Aki stabilized and worked between the two, maintaining the supply and demand of contracts.

Trivia

 * In 2021, Haru went on a bender with Aki Fujiwara where they were blooded into The Families (FDF) with Jaylen Carter Jr as their OG.
 * When she first moved to Los Santos, she styled her hair with the smaller and tighter bun, but had to change her hairstyle after being pistol-whipped to the back of the head. The looser bun accommodated the bump on the back of her skull, but earned her trouble due to looking like a clone of Mayumi Himura.