Akira Asai

"He's like a little brother... He was always a loner who strayed away from everyone else during trips... That's why I figured... I had to watch him..."

- Akira Asai to Kyouko Mejiro

Akira Asai (アキラ) is a middle school student and a childhood friend of Kou Yamori and Mahiru Seki. After Sakura Asakura was rejected when she confessed to Kou as per Akira's suggestion, Kou began skipping school to roam around at night, and not long after the first time, Akira came across him and met Nazuna Nanakusa, a vampire.

Appearance
Akira is a teenage girl with a voluptuous build. She has short hair whose coloration varies between black and dark brown. Her eyes have tiny pupils and no visible iris. While her eyes are usually colored black, they are also depicted as amber-colored. Akira has a noticeable upper bust, a feature acknowledged by several characters, and an angular face.

Outside, she usually wears a school uniform consisting of a long-sleeved white shirt, a striped tie, brown loafers, and a grey skirt. In addition, her uniform also features a grey blazer during the colder months. In PE class, Akira wears the school-issued dark-colored track jacket with sleeves that are white on the upper half, and black shorts. She also ties her hair in a ponytail during PE. At home, she is always shown wearing a sleeveless shirt and pajama shorts.

At one point she was put in a maid outfit, much to her embarrassment.

Personality
Akira is a mature and disciplined student who obediently follows her school duties despite not having fun. She is approachable and perceptive, maintains a close relationship with her friends Kou Yamori and Mahiru Seki, and lets them get her into trouble. As a little girl, she was lively and talkative but later became gloomy, blunt, and snarky. Reasons for that are her boring time at school, where she puts on an honor student facade and feels alienated from the girls as she used to spend her time with boys.

Another factor is her situation at home. She doesn't seem to have a good relationship with her family and does nothing but repeat the same daily routine. At one point, she "wasn't able to bring herself out anymore" and seems to suffer from depression. She gets grossed out when someone says something too positive, like Kou praising Mahiru or the latter talking about "liking someone." Recently, her lively side has resurfaced to some extent.

When around her peers, particularly Kou, Akira acts like a guardian figure, causing Michiko to give her nicknames like "Miss Guardian" and "Mom."

Akira has a relatively carefree attitude, quickly accepting the existence of vampires. While she's usually very cool-headed, she can also quickly feel overwhelmed by a situation and lose her cool, particularly if she feels embarrassed. She has a strong suspicion of vampires and doesn't want much to do with them, getting embarrassed, weirded out, and disgusted by their antics. She has no qualms about using physical violence against people close to her when irritated, like when she hits Mahiru for requesting her to summon Hanako-san and then scaring her by imitating the ghost's voice.

Even though Akira had no problem socializing, it quickly got boring for her until she met the two boys with whom she shared several traits, like her views on things, her inability to relate to other people, and, later on, her lack of happiness.

Allies

 * Kou Yamori - Classmate, Friend and Savior
 * Mahiru Seki † - Former Classmate and Friend
 * Sakura Asakura
 * Nazuna Nanakusa - Savior
 * Kyouko Mejiro
 * Midori Kohakobe
 * Azami - Former Kidnapper
 * Susuki - Temporary Enemy
 * Kiku Hoshimi †

Enemies

 * Michihisa Kanou † - Attempted Killer

Kou Yamori
Akira and Kou have been friends since they were children. She would frequently talk to him and try to have a conversation, with limited success because of Kou's limited social skills. Akira wondered whether Kou saw her as an actual friend since he had acted indifferent toward her in the past and was happy when he placed a walkie-talkie on her postbox, thinking that Kou tried to express his feelings this way, although Kou did it accidentally. Akira treasured that walkie-talkie a lot and kept it with her for years.



Because of their similarities, she feels connected with him and sees Kou as a little brother. She often watched over him to ensure he didn't stray away from everyone else when they were little, and that hasn't changed over time. Akira often acts like his older sister or guardian, who is very protective of Kou.

After entering 6th grade, they stopped seeing each other, but Akira hoped he would call her. After Kou left school, she was worried and wanted to call him to see how he was doing but never got to do it. When they met again, Akira felt relieved when she learned he was doing well and later asked Kou to return to school since it would be more fun with him around. She talks to him casually, including addressing him without honorific suffixes. At first, she called him "Yamori" but soon started to address him with "Kou." Akira is not afraid to call him out on his behavior, repeatedly questioning his intelligence.

Despite wanting him to return to school, Akira doesn't mind the life Kou is living, wants the best for Kou, and to see him happy. She actively supports him on his journey to becoming a vampire despite not feeling comfortable around them and almost getting killed by one. Akira wants to let Kou suck her blood once he becomes a vampire so he doesn't have to suffer and lose his mind through starvation.

After Kou becomes a half-vampire, Akira becomes somewhat scared of him because of his personality change. But despite that fact, the two are still close and care for each other a great deal.

Mahiru Seki
She had known Mahiru since early childhood and could see that Mahiru's smile and cheerful attitude were fake, witnessing him being genuine for the first time when talking with Kou. Mahiru was the first of the two to have a proper conversation with Kou, which caused Akira to feel jealous of him. They would later become good friends because of their shared traits. Akira thought of Mahiru as intelligent and hung out with him frequently at school. She wanted him and Kou to make up after their fight, stating that they were unlikely to find friends like each other anytime soon. Despite all that happened, she was able to carry on a conversation with Mahiru but quickly became angry at him for asking her to deliver his farewell message to Kou, yelling at him to do it himself. She was fired up and determined to find Mahiru in Hokkaido.

Upon meeting Mahiru again, Akira was frustrated by the awkward nature of the friends' conversation and wrestled them both to the ground, yelling that they should be honest for once. After a while, Akira started to cry and said that she wanted the three of them to hang out together and drink alcohol as adults. She proposed to Mahiru that they spend the remaining time on the school trip with each other and watched him walk away with Kiku as he was about to become a vampire. She decided to stay and wait until he came back, breaking down in tears when Kou confirmed that Mahiru was dead.

Nazuna Nanakusa
Akira's first introduction to Nazuna was Nazuna spying on her and Kou as they met in a park, where she barged in and didn't hesitate to reveal sensitive information to Akira, like "only being interested in Kou's body", even insisting on it. Akira didn't mind Nazuna at first but quickly (and unintentionally) embarrassed her by mentioning Kou liking Nazuna romantically and was shocked when she sucked Kou's blood in front of her. Because of that and Nazuna's personality, Akira looked down on her and didn't try to hide it, calling her names to her face or within her earshot.

Despite being uncomfortable around her and having a hard time supporting it, Akira ended up approving of Kou's relationship with Nazuna as it turned out to be surprisingly wholesome.

Sakura Asakura
Akira and Sakura were not very close but talked to each other occasionally, with Akira being fond of her exceptionally kind personality and thinking of Sakura as cute-looking. She encouraged Sakura to ask Kou out, believing that Sakura would easily get a "yes." After Sakura got rejected and Kou harassed by other girls; as a result, Akira felt guilty, believing she hurt both of them. She wanted to apologize but thought an apology would only bother them more, and she could not move. After that, Akira found it difficult to talk to her, even if Sakura harbored no ill will. After Sakura asked her to be in the same school-trip group as her and Kou, Akira was baffled by how friendly Sakura was, commenting that she wants to go out with her.

Abilities
As a normal human, Akira doesn't possess any kind of supernatural ability.

Trivia

 * Akira's room number is 503
 * Despite normally being drawn with black eyes, Akira and Kou also got depicted with amber eyes by Kotoyama. In Akira's case, it was on the cover of chapter 131 and Volume 14.
 * Akira mentioned that, before sleeping with Kou and Nazuna in chapter 11/episode 4, she hadn't said "good night" to anyone in a while.
 * Akira's type of eyes is called Sanpaku eyes (三白眼). While such eyes are more of a simple design choice in fiction, there is a belief in Japan that they indicate the person is either in danger or has violent and psychotic tendencies. The former is true in Akira's case, as she was in mortal danger more than once.
 * Akira unintentionally set the whole plot in motion by advising Sakura to ask Kou out.
 * So far, there have been four characters who commented on Akira's chest: Nazuna Nanakusa, Anko Uguisu, Midori Kohakobe, and Azami.
 * Akira's hair used to be black in official colorations but has been depicted as brown ever since the anime adaptation came out.

Quotes

 * (To Nazuna) "Please shut up, monster."
 * (To Kou) "Look, I don't care about who you fall in love with and who you go out with. I'll support you anyways. But man, if you go for this slutty monster, you're making this hard for me..."