She transfers into a new school, where she is bullied by her classmates, especially Ishida Shouya.
That was when she erroneously thought that she was to blame for seventeen year old Shoya losing his friends and potentially falling into being a recluse again. Skip to main content Hello, Sign in. Whereas Shoya was 'up front' with the bullying, Naoko was always sly and 'under cover' with her efforts at socially torturing Shoko. Although Ms. Nishimiya does care about her daughters, she has a rather hard time expressing that emotion, for she works non-stop to provide for her loose family; she demanded when Shouko got a hair cut that it was to be a short cut like a boy's in order to make Shouko appear stronger and more intimidating. It has been clearly stated that Shouko hates herself and fears that she is useless. Amazon.com: Poetic Walk Anime A Silent Voice Shouko Nishimiya Shoko Costume Outfit: Clothing.
Even with the social and emotional abuse that she was subjected to as a child, young Shoko was always friendly and composed, and would offer to communicate with people by means of writing in her ever present notebook and pencil. As the class progresses, everyone's treatment to Shouko was fine at first. The bullying worsened after Shouko either lost or broke eight of her hearing aids, pushing her mother to consult the principal regarding the matter. In the end, Shouya wanted to be friends with her alone in which she felt guilty that he is feeling miserable. Due to some progress in her hearing abilities, she only wears one hearing aid now.
Despite this, it has been shown that though she cannot clearly understand individual words, she can hear various pitches of tones in the voices of other people. It wasn't until several weeks later that a couple of incidents brought Shoko's attention to Shoya. In class, Shoko tried to read from the lesson at the behest of the teacher, but her pronunciation was greatly slurred, since she can not hear the correct sounds of the words. When Shouya fell from her apartment, He was the one who helped him get to the hospital and told Shouko not to tell him what he did. However, neither the movie, nor the manga, give any indication as to how or where Shoko learned the spiritual traits that would govern her actions, and guide herself through the hell-hole of that public school, and the valley of deep shadow that would be her childhood and teen/tween experience. This is why the mother raised Shoko's younger sister, Yuzuru, to be masculine in personality and grooming, and to be the 'boy' who would 'protect' Shoko throughout her childhood. Only once did Shoko become unsteady in her spiritual outlook. On the day that Shoko introduced herself as a new twelve year old transfer student to the class of the public school, Shoya was in the same classroom, but Shoko took no note of him. When Shoko was introduced as the new transfer student to the public school, it seems as if every other student either ignored her, or worse yet, was displeased with her presence. Shoko was, for the most part, an obedient child, but as she had grown older, and became the object of repeated ridicule and bullying, she developed an iron will along with an independent social relationship with her mom. True, that one time Shoko engaged in a physical altercation with Shoya, eventually giving him a sound lashing. That was the motivation for her to first consider suicide, then to plan and act it out during the summer festival. Shouko and her unnamed mother, who is just known as Ms. Nishimiya, have a very distant mother and daughter relationship. She is not frightened to stand up for her sister, as she would go as far as pushing people away such as bullies including the younger Shouya. Shoko still has a small frame with a thin appearance, but has grown taller with long, lean legs. After months of this unbearably cruel and wicked treatment, the bullying now escalates to hardcore physical violence. A shy smile is always present. It may be that some day Naoko will make peace with Shoko, and more importantly, make peace with herself, so that she can at least have a 'live and let live' policy towards Shoko, and towards her life in general.