Akane Aoi

Akane Aoi (赤根葵) is a first year student at Kamome Academy's High School Division and Nene's friend. She is mainly 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 the side and there are two thin, wavy locks of hair falling on the side.

She wears the regular Kamome Academy uniform.

Personality
Aoi is a sweet person who is very close with her friend, Nene. Although she mentions disliking scary stories, she continues to delve into them for the sake of cheering Nene up, as she knows that Nene likes them. She is shown to adore romance, and was somewhat jealous when her childhood friend began to date someone. She's also somewhat of a worrywart.

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

If Teru is the king of popularity in Kamome Academy, Aoi is the queen of popularity. She gets confessed to left and right, and easily declines those confessions.

The Faeries
Upon Nene discovering that various school supplies of hers have gone missing, Aoi is introduced by suggesting that "Faeries" might have been behind the dissapearance of Nene's property in a gleeful tone as she pauses from watering plants. She then tells the rumor of faeries, that steal people's belongings and must never be seen for they would take your life when you encounter them.

Albeit laughing it off as possibility afterwards, she halts and reconsiders the existence of the faeries after she and Nene notice a surge of their classmates reporting their belongings as missing. Just as Nene answers her, they hear someone shouting to come quick from outside the classroom. Together with Nene she runs out of the floor to see the the majority of locker doors missing.

As Nene ponders who could have done such a feat without anyone noticing, a small, unidentified bumps into her, causing Aoi to let go of the watercan she was still holding. It accidentally lands on Nene's head with all the water spilled over her. Aoi profusely apologizes, mentioning that something bumped into her hand and telling Nene, she would get something to dry her. However, as Nene is aware of the effect water on skin has on her, she panics and runs away, leaving Aoi standing in the hallway in confusion.

The Misaki Stairs Arc
As Nene ponders about a past encounter with Hanako on the roof in the classroom, Aoi calling her name snaps her out of thought. Aoi merrily asks whether her absentmindedness is due to having a new crush, to which Nene vaguely declines with a sigh. Noticing with a worried expression her friends mood, Aoi tries to change the topic by telling her of a different rumor she has heard of. This is how Aoi introduces the rumor of the Misaki Stairs.

Fearing the grotesque nature of this rumor, she asks which staircase is identified as the Misaki Stairs. Aoi gives her the whereabouts together with the comment that apparently, a lot of students have stated that they have already seen pools of blood there in a grimacing expression. Upon seeing Nene stepping back with a paling face, she wonders about Nene, who she thought liked these sorts of stories. Nene ascertains that she does, thinking to herself that her wariness arises from Aoi's latest stories all becoming true, to which Aoi answers relieved. Intertwining her hands with Nenes, she mentions that she herself isn't exactly a fan of scary stories but she would tell Nene as many as she wants if it helps her to feel better.

Their cheerful moment is interrupted by their homeroom teacher entering the classroom to remind Aoi of her scheduled guidance counseling. Hurrying to her teacher as she remembers, she grabs her bag and waves Nene goodbye, saying she'll find other scary stories for her so she should cheer up.

On the next day, Aoi, the flowers she regularily watered as well as even her seat in the classroom are gone. Upon Nene asking about the fowers Aoi cared for since she was on flower duty, the existence of a student called Aoi in the class is denied. Calling Aoi's phone results in being told the dialed number would not be in service and calling Aoi's home to ask her family whether she caught a cold results in them denying that a person by that name lives with them, so Nene turns to Hanako for an explanation.

As they venture into Yako's boundary where they suspect Aoi and various other students to have gone missing and Yako herself finally shows up enlightening the place to reveal students dumped together with a pile of other discarded doll limbs and other various stand-ins of body parts behind her. One of the students bodies they can make out looks like Aoi, with a paper seal covering her face and body being replaced with the according doll parts. Shocked, Nene embraces the doll Aoi, even after her doll head breaks off of the rest of her body.

The Confession Tree
During gardening class, Aoi approaches Nene who is "making funny faces". Nene uses the opportunity to tell her about Hanako's behaviour up until now indoors. Aoi eagerly confirms Nene's suspicion that Hanako's action verify that he likes Nene and that there wouldn't be any other explanation to him kissing her out of nowhere. She inquires further about him and Nene gives her a description of Hanako. Hearing it, she comments that it's definitely not someone that fits Nene's type. Despite that, she suggests to try date him. She notes Nene's flaws of not being very used to dealing with males and being easily fooled by pretty faces. Therefore the experience would help her and maybe she would turn out to like him. It is then that the series also reveals per Nene's thoughts that Aoi is "1-A's most desirable date".

Aoi continues to speculate that Hanako will confess soon and Nene just needs to be emotionally prepared. Aoi then shifts Nene's attention to the window, from which they can see the so-called Confession Tree and describes its lore. As she finished, she discovers students occupying the tree. Looking closer, they recognize their classmate Akane Aoi practicing his love confession to Aoi with Lemon Yamabuki. Overcoming her initial confusion, Aoi then also makes Nene notice how many couples have lately resulted from them successfully confessing their love below the Confession Tree and that Hanako will surely follow up with his confession in the same manner soon.

On the next day, Nene cheerfully enters the classroom to tell Aoi what happened after their last conversation, but is held in place by Aoi shivering with an expression mixed out of grief and fear. Almost tearing up she points with a faint voice to the classmates they saw yesterday together under the Confession Tree having become a couple. Aoi, seemingly shocked from this development, says that Akane told her he liked her, but she didn't reciprocate, explaining that they are childhood friends and she couldn't ever date him because her name would become "Aoi Aoi" if they were to marry. However, seeing Akane instead going out with Lemon throws her mind in turmoil.

The 4PM Bookstacks Arc
Aoi is shown answering Nene, who apparently inquired whether she knew the story of the fifth school mystery. Per her established role as character to introduce the various supernatural phenomena of Kamome Gakuen up until now, she continues to describe Nene the rumor of the 4PM Bookstacks. She goes on about how it makes you curious that even things that haven't happened yet would be recorded in the books and that she may want to read other people's books too, like Teru's. Upon asking Nene what she would do with them, Nene answers with wanting to read someone's book, to which Aoi agree cheerfully.

Her tone drastically changes suddenly as she gives Nene a last warning about the bookstacks. She elaborates on the different colored books in the bookstack and what each of the colors signify, ending with telling her to never read the red colored books.

The Little Mermaid Arc
During lunch break, Aoi and Nene are sitting together. As Nene starts to philosophize about the understanding between different creatures, Aoi worriedly asks what she has fallen in love with this time. Nene, still absentminded, answers with "Donuts", which Aoi shockingly repeats questioning. Aoi's worry for her friend heightens when Nene reacts on seemingly no one, asking whether someone is there and yelling out loud as the Fishes appear swimming on her desk, which Aoi can't see and finally running out of the classroom.

Mitsuba Arc
Aoi appears at the end of the Mitsuba Arc, to tell Nene that a good-looking upperclassman is waiting at the door of the classroom for her. She shoves Nene by the shoulder from behind to the entrance of the room where Natsuhiko Hyuuga is waiting for her, surrounded by girls.

The Three Clock Keepers Arc
The Arc starts with Aoi's traditional retelling of a rumor - this time, it's the school mystery number one, the Three Clock Keepers. After that, she tells Nene that there is something she has to tell Nene, but just as she is about to reveal it, someone's scream is interrupting their conversation. As they come near to the source of the panic, where a lot of their classmates have already gathered, they find their classroom in a huge mess with walls teared down, dust everywhere and plants overgrowing all over the place. Students are discovering their belongings just as affected - food is rotten, belongings have eroded - except for Aoi, the only person whose belongings have been left completely unaffected.

After Nene consulted Hanako on this mysterious situation, the Main Trio try to seek out the Clock Keeper, that hides out as one of the students. With Hanako feeling the presence of fellow supernatural, they arrive at the Nene's classroom where the Clock Keeper is supposedly in. Hanako explains his suspicions of Aoi, who always tells Nene about the supernatural's rumors and is the only one unaffected by this supernatural involving incident. Upon hearing a girl's giggle, the windows of the classroom shatter, followed by Aoi leaving the classroom.

Closely following her, Akane, too, exits the classroom after her. It is then that Hanako possesses Nene's body to grab Aoi's right wrist to press her against the wall. He asks Aoi in Nene's body whether she is hiding something and continues questioning her while caressing her. Aoi shows clear confusion by her friend's unusual behaviour, which heightens as Hanako (in Nene's body) threatens to "seal [her] lips" if she stays quiet and draws closer to Aoi's lips.

They are stopped by Akane's panicked scream, who is brooding from observing the situation. The possessed Nene is pushed away from Aoi by him and dragged away by the collar in rage. Kou as well as Nene (in ghost form) went after them, leaving Aoi in the hallway alone. As she sits with her knees drawn up, she laments that she missed her chance to tell Nene yet again what she previously tried to tell Nene at the start of the arc.

On the roof, Nene explains to Akane as coverstory for their previous actions' intentions that they are trying to discover Aoi's secret. Akane testifies to that that Aoi indeed seemed to be worrying about something lately, recalling memories of him watching over an Aoi sighing to herself alone in the classroom. She also doesn't want to tell Akane what it is, apparently.

In order to find out Aoi's secret, Akane joins a temporary alliance with the Main Trio and watch over Aoi throughout the day during her various activities without being detected. They observe her during three different activities of the day: her cleaning duties, while caring for the plants in the gardening club and when moving to point a to point b. All three pass in the same pattern in that she goes normally about her day while three male students each watch her in awe, being fascinated by how cute and domestic/feminine/like a lily she seems, followed by being sent flying by courtesy of Akane's baseball bat or thrust into the ground head-first by Akane himself. Nene, despite knowing very well, has to admit yet again that Aoi truly is the queen of popularity from obbserving her throughout all of this.

Finally, Aoi enters the auditorium and waits on the stage. As the temporary secret-busting alliance is wondering behind the seats what her business would be in this room, Akane starts to reminisce about their shared childhood where Aoi would constantly be threatened by callous guys to go out with them and how he would always be there to keep her safe every time.

Hanako then devises a plan to finally lure out the Clock Keeper. He promptly shoots Hakujoudai towards the lightning equipment hanging over the auditorium's stage, causing the huge candle lighter exactly above Aoi to fall down on her. Before the impact lands, time is stopped and a hooded silhouette has appeared, carrying Aoi who has lost consciousness. As the now as Clock Keeper revealed Akane is talking with Hanako, he sits Aoi down on one of the auditorium's seats, covering her with his hood as blanket.

Aoi is later brung to the infirmary, where Akane retells the events that lead him to become a school mystery. A flashback is shown to the day of student orientation where a twelve years old Akane is confessing to a same yeared Aoi who is merrily giving him two points for his confession as answer. As Akane shows frustration about the low score, Aoi comments on how he can't confess like normal since the first day of school is a special day. Seeing Akane seriously racking his brain for a good method, she starts to encourage him to try harder to make her heart flutter and that if he can do that, she'll think about the confession seriously.

As Aoi walks on, the ropes that kept huge glass plates on the truck she passes by, snap and are about to crash with her. That is when Akane wished for time to stop and received his powers from the Clock Keepers.

Searching Arc
On her way to find Hanako, Nene arrived at the practice garden, where Aoi (wearing gardening clothes) traps her in a kabe don against the school gate. Aoi confides to Nene that there has been something she wanted to tell Nene since a while but because Nene was so busy with other things instead, Aoi feared that Nene might have started hating her. Nene fervently objects that claim. On the same time, they notice the dropped bug box Nene was carrying has opened up for a centipede to skitter out of it. Aoi snatches it in the same heartbeat she shouts how relieved she is about Nene declining any hateful feelings towards her.

With the centipede still in her hand, she steps closer to Nene, going on about whether she would listen to what she has been meaning to tell Nene. Intimated by the centipede that draws closer to her face with every plea, Nene agrees to eventually having a longer chat with Aoi. Having gotten her confirmation, Aoi runs off again to continue watering her plants.

Reach Out Your Hand
Nene tells Hanako and Kou about the chat she had with Aoi. There, Aoi finally reveals what she has been meaning to tell Nene since a few arcs already. Apparently, as Aoi was organizing the gardening club's records, she found that only the pictures with Nene would show additional hands popping out of nowhere on the pictures.

The Hell of Mirrors Arc
The most dominant illusion Nene meets in the Hell of Mirrors takes the form of her best friend Aoi, acting and looking just like her, but maliciously taunting Nene as "ugly horse radish-chan" and egging on her body complexes. Illusion Aoi later on also shows Nene where the yorishiro of the boundary is and how to arrive at it before it later turns into No.3's true form.

Picture Perfect Arc
Aoi appears in the Picture Perfect Arc as part of the fabricated world. As such, she acts as if Amane has always een one of their fellow classmates and teases Nene about how familiar she seems to be with him. In this arc, too, she is the one to tell Nene of the rumor of Shijima-san of the Art Room. She and Akane are also later on the ones that fall apart due to Shijima wanting to redraw them.

Yashiro Nene
Nene is Aoi's close friend who she tells scary stories to. Recently, Nene starts to get worried when she hears Aoi's scary stories because it has been proven to come true every time. Aoi worries about Nene's bad sense in choosing men, and chats with her about various things. Seeing Nene busy, Aoi becomes afraid that Nene was avoiding her because she didn't like her anymore, but Nene then assures Aoi that it is not true.

Aoi Akane
Aoi and Akane are childhood friends and live next door to each other.

Akane is in love with Aoi, obsessed, even. He confesses his love to Aoi who he calls "Ao-chan" multiple times a day, and Aoi declines everytime. Aoi says that she turns him down because her name would become "Aoi Aoi" if they ever married, since Akane's family name is Aoi.

Though Aoi rejects him everytime, she felt loss when a supernatural caused Akane to date Lemon. She seems to like the attention she gets from Akane, despite not wanting to date him.

Minamoto Teru
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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 Arc, Aoi has always been the one to tell Nene about the supernatural rumors. (In the Picture Perfect Arc, it is her equivalent.)