Akane Aoi

Akane Aoi (赤根葵) is a first year student at Kamome Academy's High School Division and Nene's best friend. She is initially used in the plot to introduce supernatural rumors to Nene.

Appearance
Aoi is a cute, petite girl with indigo hair and eyes. She keeps her hair tied up into two circle sections behind her head. Her bangs are loosely parted to frame her face, and there are two thin, wavy locks of hair that fall past her chest. She wears the regular Kamome Academy summer uniform.

From chapter 101 onward she has begun wearing her hair down and the Kamome Academy winter uniform.

Kannagi Appearance
As the kannagi, she is shown to wear traditional attire appropriate for the sacrifice by No.6's assistants. She dons two magenta flowers in her hair, a light teal coat, and a black hakama tied with a large bow behind her. In Chapter 69, she used the hem of her dress as bandages to wrap around Akane's wound.

She was given a protection charm from Teru, which is a woven bracelet with a bell and tassel at the end.

Personality
Aoi is a sweet and cheerful person who is very close with her best friend, Nene. Although she claims to dislike scary stories, she continues to delve into them for the sake of cheering Nene up, since she knows that Nene enjoys them. Considering her zealous presentation and continued involvement with the tales, she may actually have some interest in them herself. She is shown to adore romance, as evidenced by her enthusiastic support of Nene's romantic endeavors and enjoyment of discussing crushes. Despite her continued rejections of his advances, she was also rather jealous and upset when her childhood friend, Akane, seemingly began to date someone else.

Aoi is also shown to be good with words and is able to get people to do what she wants just by using a little bit of pressure. She is especially harsh towards Akane, denying every single one of her love confessions all while smiling cheerfully.

Due to her looks, Aoi could be considered the queen of popularity in Kamome Academy, as a female counterpart to Teru. She gets confessed to left and right but easily rejects all her suitors.

True Personality
Aoi's true personality reveals her to be a person who looks down on others, as stated by Akane. Despite this, Aoi doesn't have a high opinion of herself either, and puts up a constant mask of perfection in an effort to be liked. This backfires as she comes to believe that others will only be disappointed when they learn of her flaws, causing her to become bitter and resentful towards all her classmates, and forcing her to suppress all her negative emotions and traits in fear of being ostracized.

Aoi believes that Akane's feelings are directed towards her fake self and that the "real" her is not good enough for his love. Aoi feels as if she has no one to trust or rely on as all her loved ones deceive her, and no one understands nor cares for who she truly is. Ultimately, Aoi is a deeply lonely and unhappy person.

As revealed in Chapter 64, Aoi has always wanted to go "far away", which is why she agreed to help No.6. Akane claims the reason why she wanted to leave this world was because of the fear that everyone would discover her true, genuine side sooner or later, and turn against her. Although Aoi assumed he was oblivious towards it, Akane admits that Aoi was inclined to look down on people if given the advantage. She refused to confide or get herself intimately involved with others, even if it meant putting on an act around Nene.

She no longer puts on a cheerful façade in the later chapters, but still has innately kind intentions whilst treating Akane's wound (despite cynically saying she hadn't wanted to look at it at all). She also gets very emotional after her argument with Akane, and attempts to run away. When he reveals to her that he had known her true personality all along and cared for her regardless, Aoi starts tearing up, finally understanding that Akane does love her for who she is. As she is left trapped in the Far Shore, Aoi's biggest regret is that she never said "I like you too" to Akane up until the end.

Past
Aoi was childhood friends with Aoi Akane, who first met when Akane's family moved in nextdoor to Aoi's family when they were 3. Aoi said that she didn't like him at first because she was jealous of his tendency to be well-liked. Akane, however, became deeply infatuated with Aoi at a young age. From Chapter 69, it was revealed that Aoi's past consisted of being bullied by her fellow classmates and frequently lied to by her father at a young age. She rarely showed any signs of defiance or sadness when she was picked on by her grade-school classmates, so she didn't have a response to them.

As she grew up with Akane, she began developing a cheerful façade to cover up her actual thoughts, but despite these changes, she was still perceived to be a different species from everybody else. It led to people either putting her on a pedestal or accusing her when she attended Kamome Gakuen. Although Nene and Akane were the two people she trusted, she avoided explaining her personal thoughts or having a genuine personality, which was the part that Akane despised the most. Nevertheless, he still kept true to his feelings for her when he witnessed her crying as kids, suggesting it was the first time he saw her real identity.

Seeing Supernaturals
Recurring from Chapter 61, it was shown that Aoi could see supernaturals when she first witnessed No.6 and Akane's clock keeper appearance, much to his surprise. She could also see Hanako in Chapter 64, and playfully assumed he was Nene's crush due to her prior knowledge from the Confession Tree incident. Even after the severance was solved and she was brought back to the Near Shore, Aoi is still capable of seeing supernaturals.

Controlling Supernaturals
Foreshadowed from Chapter 29 when Aoi threatened Nene with a tiny centipede, she was later seen to control a swarm of insects climbing out of No.6's boundary pit. In her kannagi attire, she rode a gigantic centipede that stabbed Akane through his abdomen.

Trivia

 * Her favorite snack is raspberry pie.
 * Her recent concern is how Nene seems to be busy as of late.
 * Except for the Hell of Mirrors, Aoi has always been the one to tell Nene about supernatural rumors (in the Picture Perfect Arc, it is her mirror equivalent that tells Nene the rumors).
 * Aoi studies hard on a constant, daily basis.
 * In the previous examination, she ranked #40 out of 224 students, while in the most recent one, she ranked first with 510 out of 500 points.
 * She is scared of lightning, but doesn't want to admit it.
 * She loves quiet winter nights.
 * She prefers the left direction.
 * She used to carry a giraffe plushie in her childhood, which foreshadows her love of giraffes.
 * In Chapter 70, Aoi decides to reveal a bit more about herself by saying she likes giraffes, but she has never seen them in person before. She also doesn't like being in crowds. Her favorites are desserts and other sweet confections, to which Akane remarks that she liked that cake shop in front of the station. She also likes playing games.
 * From Chapter 17 of the spin-off, Aoi reveals that her favorite type of candy is chocolate in the shape of a shark.
 * She usually goes out for a walk around 2 A.M.
 * The kanji in Aoi's first name (葵) translates to 'hollyhock.'
 * The kanji in Aoi's surname (赤根) translates to 'red root.'

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Akane Aoi