Aoi Akane

Akane Aoi 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.