| “ | I decided I would protect Ao-chan... even if she'll never ever look my way. | ” |
Aoi Akane (蒼井茜 ) is a first year student at Kamome Academy's High School division as one of Nene's classmates, and the student council's vice president. He is secretly a Supernatural who controls the present, as one of the three Clock Keepers along with Kako and Mirai.
Appearance
Akane's hair and eyes are both reddish-brown.
As a human, Akane wears the standard Kamome Academy high school uniform, with a vest over his shirt. Like Teru, Akane wears the green and white Student Union armband over his left sleeve, which he keeps held in place with a safety pin.
Akane normally wears a pair of rectangular glasses, which were enchanted for him by Teru. He did not wear glasses before his entrance to Kamome Academy, and also does not wear them in his form as a Clock Keeper.
Clock Keeper Appearance
As a Clock Keeper, Akane has a long and thin ponytail (with a bead-like golden ornament) near the nape of his neck, though his hairstyle is otherwise unchanged. He wears a black long-sleeved collared shirt with a cream-colored tie, white vest, white pants, and dark-colored shoes. The shirt cuffs are also white, and he has a pair of thin armbands halfway between his elbows and shoulders.
Similar to the other Clock Keepers, Akane wears a long dark blue cloak with a hood, which is cream colored with a pattern of small reddish triangles on the inside. The cloak is held closed by a golden braid between two tassels at the lapels, and there is a similar set of braids and tassels on his vest.
Like Kako, Akane has an asymmetrical owl-like mask with a hooked nose, though he usually removes this right after his transformation. Akane often wears white gloves as well.
Akane has a golden pocket watch with a chain and a tassel attached, which he uses to stop time. He sometimes carries a bat with several crooked nails, which he uses to hit people, especially when it comes to Aoi.
Recurring from Chapter 64, Akane has a huge, bloodied hole through his abdomen where one of the giant insectoids (specifically a long centipede) had stabbed him. In Chapter 69, Aoi had patched it up by ripping parts of her kannagi dress so she wouldn't have to see it.
Personality
Akane has a huge crush on Aoi, often letting his affection towards her overwhelm his sense of reason. What with them being childhood friends, Akane is extremely protective of her and would do anything to preserve her safety and well-being. He also doesn't appear to have any interest in anything or anyone other than her, and thus often acts cynical and sarcastic towards mostly anyone who isn't Aoi.
In every other non-Aoi aspect of his life, Akane is a reliable and hardworking student with a professional attitude. He is noted to excel in sports and studies and is currently the Vice President of the student council.
Akane bears deep hatred towards Supernaturals, believing that they do not know the inherent value of human life. He told Teru that he wished to continue the normal life he has led until now, despite having become one of the Clock Keepers.
In Chapter 69, Akane revealed Aoi's intentions in her desire to assist No.6; he says he had always known her genuine side ever since they were kids. Despite the revelation, he continues to love her, even going forth lying about hating her. The part he despises the most, however, was the part where she continued keeping to herself and putting on a cheerful act around others.
Past
Akane and Aoi were long-term childhood friends who had attended the same grade school together as well as Kamome Gakuen onward. They also live in apartments directly next to each other, and often studied, played with toys, and read books together as children (eg. Akane explaining a civil rights book to Aoi). Akane was mainly the background witness when he saw Aoi getting picked on by other classmates, and he had sworn himself to protect her from anything bad. As they grew a bit older, Aoi was targeted by other older delinquent children when they cornered her in a local playground, but Akane was always there at the scene to decimate them with his bat. They would usually commute from home and school together on a neighborhood sidewalk, which was the same place where Akane caught a rare scene of Aoi crying after he told her he hated her. When they attended Kamome Gakuen's middle school orientation day before walking back home, Mirai initiated a plan to nearly endanger Aoi with an aging truck whose glass window was breaking. This caused Akane to desperately attempt to rescue Aoi before realizing time had stopped when he arrived too late. Thus, he agreed to become part of the Clock Keepers in exchange for saving Aoi and receiving a ticking handheld clock--which Aoi discovered when Akane was unconscious in his Clock Keeper form.
However, despite accusing Aoi of only secluding herself instead of confiding in her troubles with other people, he still wholeheartedly loves her. However, the characteristic of her that he hated the most was the ingenuine persona Aoi created herself, which caused him to bring his fury out to light by briefly choking her.[2]
Abilities
Number 1's Powers
Akane governs the present as the second of the three Clock Keepers, after being tricked into a six-year contract on his first day of school at Kamome Academy. He uses a pocket watch (which he received upon his contract to become a Clock Keeper) to stop time. Like the other Clock Keepers, a clock face appears above the target of Akane's powers when he stops their time. His contract will last until he graduates.
According to Akane, he can only stop time for up to three times a day for five minutes each, and only within the school compound. Akane seems able to stop more than one person or object (for the same period of five minutes) with one use of his power, as seen when he froze both the chandelier and Kou at the same time. He is also able to stop a person's time while Kako is turning the school's time backward, so that they will not be affected by the time-reversal. However, Akane's powers do not work on Mirai.
Though Akane is quite strong physically even in his form as a human, he seems to have additional strength when he is a Clock Keeper, cracking a wall with a punch and shattering a teacup by squeezing it. These events seem to occur when he is emotionally agitated, and surprise both Akane himself and those around him. Akane is also able to catch Hanako off-guard (as seen when he grabbed Hanako's arm with the knife in it), but he cannot keep up with Mirai's speed even in this form. When Akane transforms into a Clock Keeper, his outfit also changes, including the cloak (with the hood drawn up) and the owl-like mask.
Glasses
Akane usually wears a pair of enchanted glasses which were made for him by Teru. This suppresses his spiritual power to that of a regular human, enabling him to live a normal life, although it seems the enchantment wasn't completely perfect as Akane was still able to punch Hanako out of Nene's body even with the glasses on.
However, this can also be dangerous, as Akane is unable to see supernaturals with the glasses on, and can easily fall victim to them unknowingly. Notably, Akane and Lemon were affected by the Confession Tree, and Akane was also unable to perceive the Mokke even when they were attacking him. Teru is also able to use his exorcist abilities on Akane when he has his glasses on, although it is not clear whether Akane would be immune to Teru's powers otherwise.
It appears that the glasses are unable to completely hide Akane's presence from the rest of the Seven Mysteries. Hanako was able to identify that the Clock Keeper was in Nene's class, even though Akane was still wearing the glasses at this time.
Trivia
- Like Aoi, his favorite snack is raspberry pie, but apparently he'll like whatever Aoi makes him (even though she has never made him anything).[3]
- He supposedly has no concerns and lives everyday happily because Aoi is cute.[3]
- His best subject is math and his weakest is literature.
- In the previous exams, Akane ranked first among 224 students.
- In the most recent examinations, he ranked second after Aoi, with 500 out of 500 points.
- Akane has a shelf of books that have a character named Aoi in them.[4]
- Akane becomes worried for Aoi after seeing lightning.[5]
References
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Chapter 24 (p. 9)
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Chapter 69
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Volume 6 Extra Pages
- ↑ Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga: Volume 13 Extra Pages
- ↑ Aidairo's Twitter Post: Sept. 11th, 2020
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