Fuyumi Irisu

Fuyumi Irisu (入須 冬実) is the secondary character of Hyouka. She is a second-year student of the Kamiyama High School and director of an independent film produced by Class 2-F. She is quite famous in school - her family runs the city hospital in Kamiyama.

Appearance
Irisu is a very beautiful pale-skinned girl (as described by Satoshi Fukube) with long, straight black hair that has short front bangs with her most noticeable feature is a strand of hair that runs across her face down to her right cheek while she wears a white headband underneath her hair and indigo-blue eyes.

She is seen in the school uniform for the majority of the series. However, she is seen in "Emperor" costume during the in the last episode.

Although her height is not specified, she is taller than Eru Chitanda.

Personality
Irisu is an elegant, cold-hearted and pragmatic girl who prioritizes results over anything else. Therefore, she doesn't hesitate to manipulate people to get what she desires.

Class 2-F film ending
Irisu asks Classics Club members to watch 2-F's class movie and give her their opinions. She explains that the movie still has no title, only having the working name "Mystery". Before starting the film she wishes them good luck, rousing Houtarou Oreki's suspicions. After they finished watching it, it is revealed that the movie is incomplete and that Irisu's request is to guess the identity of the culprit behind the crime in the movie. She tells Classics Club that the film scriptwriter, Mayu Hongou fell ill before the script was finished. Irisu suggests that the Classics Club should talk to three people from the film production team — Junya Nakajou, Tomohiro Haba and Misaki Sawakiguchi. After talking to all of them Oreki dismisses all their theories as no good. Following the interviews, Irisu invites him out for tea and questions him about the theories. She asks Oreki to come up with his own. Using his theory, Irisu successfully completes the movie and titles it "What No One Has Noticed". However, later, after Satoshi Fukube and Mayaka Ibara tell Oreki about inconsistencies in his film ending, he started to think that his theory has a flaw. Therefore, Oreki understands that his ending wasn't the true ending that Hongou had in mind.

The next day, Oreki confronts Irisu. He turns down her offer to go to a class party to celebrate the movie. He says that would rather have a talk with her. Oreki says that instead of solving a mystery, he was writing one. Irisu does not seem surprised and asks him why he is so sure about it. Oreki says that based on the fact that Hongou hated deaths in literature, she wouldn't have had anyone die in her movie. The rest of the class voted to add a kill in the film, but she was the only opposing vote. Hongou wrote the script, ignoring the wishes of her fellow students. Afraid of film failure, Irisu took over and turned Hongou's script over to the trio of Junya, Tomohiro and Misaki to see if they could finish the script. However, their suggestions were deemed unusable, so she had to call in outside help, which was found in the face of Oreki. That information made Oreki very angry, sending him into a bout of depression as he walks home. After this, Oreki and Irisu had very little interaction.

Kanya Festival
During the Kanya Festival, Eru Chitanda approaches Irisu to help her sell Hyouka anthologies for the Classics Club. Irisu agrees to help, and Chitanda heartily thanks her. Irisu tells her she can thank her after the anthologies sell, and asks her how many copies she has. Chitanda tells her that they have 200 copies. Irisu comments her surprise at the large number, to which Chitanda explains to her the printing mistake. Irisu tells her she'll sell 20 copies for 200 yen as a bundle with a pamphlet for her class's film. When Irisu holds out her hand for a sample copy, Chitanda misunderstands and puts her hand on Irisu's hand, and Irisu tells her that she wanted a sample copy of the anthology. Chitanda, who didn't have one, is berated by Irisu tells her to bring one wherever she asks, and that people will respond differently based on how they are asked.

Chitanda grabs Irisu's hand and comments on her skill of asking people for things, and asks her to teach her how to do that. Irisu embarrassed because a number of people are staring and lets go of Chitanda's hand. Irisu then tells Chitanda how she asks for things: "No matter what you're asking for, you need to encourage that other party to move of their own accord, in order to do that, you have to make them feel mentally satisfied at working for you". Irisu says there are various methods, but for Chitanda, the best way would be to make them feel as if she has expectations of them. If she can do that, they'll be happy to do whatever she asks, just as long as she doesn't make it seem like it's an important issue. Irisu tells her to give the impression that it's a small problem for her, but a somewhat important matter for them. The last thing she tells her is trying to ask people of the opposite sex in private room. Irisu then tells Chitanda to hurry up and fetch the anthology, and Chitanda thanks her for the lesson.

She is later seen attending a magic show sitting next to Satoshi Fukube where Jirou Tanabe and Muneyoshi Kugayama both say hello to her.

Later, Irisu is seen again as she gives Chitanda the money earned from selling Hyouka anthologies, causing Chitanda to tear up. Irisu tells her that she wanted to sell them at full price, but Chitanda says that what she gave her is more than enough and thanks her. Irisu tells her to stop thanking her. Noting Chitanda's habits throughout the festival, she tells Chitanda to stop using her method of requesting; she's not cut out for it. When Chitanda tries to control people using expectations, it makes her sound as if she is completely dependent. Irisu tells her that she should stop using advice for her own plans. Chitanda's weakness is that she only knows how to get straight to the point, but it's also a weapon for her.

Eru Chitanda
Irisu and Chitanda are on good terms and seem to be friends. During the Kan'ya Festival, Chitanda asked her for advice on how to sell the Hyouka anthologies, a request Irisu could not refuse because she was "attacked" by "The Power of Chitanda's Eyes".

Houtarou Oreki
Under the guise of solving a mystery, Irisu used Oreki skills to finish class 2-F's movie for the Kan'ya Festival. Her approach towards it which made him angry, almost to the point of depression. They would later meet again after working together during the Doll Festival, where Irisu played the Emperor. Afterwards, the two spoke briefly, though Oreki was still wary of her past manipulation of him. However, Irisu claimed that, this time, their conversation was just a friendly conversation without ulterior motives.

Behind the scenes
Irisu was designed to be Chitanda's opposite in character.

Irisu mentioned that Chitanda's main merit as a person was that she was able to be straightforward with people (especially when asking for something). This on the inverse alludes to her personality that relies on manipulating others to do what she wants. However, on the last episode of the anime series and the aftermath of "Fool's End Credits", we get to see more of Irisu's honest side where she shows or hints that she feels regret in using Oreki - possibly trying to recover their connection or make personal amends on the last episode despite there being no need to.

Irisu is an awkward person put under the pressure of being from a successful family that owns a general hospital (similar to Masashi Toogaito's circumstances) so she needs to put up a strong front even going so far as to deny she likes cute things. But because of this, she doesn't know how to plainly ask people for their help when she needs them, and so in turn relies on deceit (she hinted to Chitanda that pretending to be something else for too long will make that pretense true which is by her experience-looking back on her character).

Her chat reaction to Hongou's during the aftermath of the mystery video presentation suggests that she wasn't a completely malicious person, unlike how Tomoe implied, as she could only make a wry reaction to Hongou saying in the end that she only wanted everyone to have fun shooting the video. A fact that shows her (Fuyumi) that Hongou was an awkward person like her as well. It can be interpreted that Tomoe "played" both Oreki and Irisu to make them both realise their flaws which they both later start to learn from.

Lastly, being opposite characters, Irisu is also hinted to have formed some connection/attachment to Oreki (on the last episode where she tries to make conversation and amends despite having no need to) just like Chitanda does. This in turn is shown to be reciprocated similarly to Chitanda and Oreki's initial relationship where he is drawn to the latter's "wasteful use of energy", while on the other hand, he is drawn to Irisu's attitude that makes "efficient use of energy".

Etymology

 * The name Fuyumi means "winter" (冬) (fuyu) and "fruit, good result, truth" (実) (mi).
 * Fuyumi's surname Irisu means "enter/entering, insert" (入) (iri) and "ought, by all means, necessarily" (須) (su).

Trivia

 * Many students call Fuyumi The Empress.