Akane Inui



Akane Inui (乾赤音, Inui Akane) was Seishu Inui's older sister and the girl Hajime Kokonoi was in love with.



Appearance
Akane was a girl of average height with blonde shoulder-length hair and big gentle eyes. She often donned her school uniform that consisted of a checkered skirt, a clean button-down underneath a light sweater vest, and a pair of dark calf-length socks in school shoes. She also wore a matching bow tie with a striped pattern as part of her uniform.

Her features were drastically similar to her younger brother's Seishu Inui which Hajime Kokonoi found attractive. On weekdays after school, Akane carried a school bag with her.

Personality
Akane spent time with Inupi and his childhood friend Koko. As an older sister, she encouraged her brother to act like him who she commended as remarkably kind, but Inupi would usually defy her wishes. She was upfront about her rejection of Koko’s attempt at kissing her, wisely telling him that he should only do such things to the person he truly liked, but at one point came off as indecisive as she took into consideration his romantic feelings for her despite recently rejecting his kiss and pointing out the five-year age gap between them.

History
Akane was the firstborn of the Inui family, merely five years older than her younger brother Inupi. As siblings, they shared a bountiful of characteristics appearance-wise and a delightful friendship with Koko who secretly had a crush on her.

Plot
One evening in the library she frequented, Koko attempted to kiss Akane while asleep. She humbly refused him and lectured that he must only kiss the person he liked, to which Koko replied with an unexpected confession. Akane doubted his feelings and stated their unordinary age gap, but Koko reassured her of the authenticity of his emotions and sincerely confessed a second time as he dropped her off at the Inui residence.

Koko promised he would protect her before sending her off inside her home, but not long after, her household was set aflame as neighboring citizens watched the fire swell. He went through the fire to save her but was soon devastated to find out that he had rescued Inupi instead, leaving Akane alone in the midst of the fire. The accident led her to face multiple third-degree burns throughout her body that posed a major threat to her chances of survival and could only be cured by a treatment amounting to a total sum of ¥40,000,000 (forty million yen).

To Koko’s dismay, her parents could not afford the treatment costs due to an expensive house loan under their names. As such, he formed an underground syndicate of thieves his age to earn money by covering for the crimes of their wealthy clients. After some time running the business, Akane passed away.

Etymology

 * The name Akane means "red, crimson" (赤) (aka) and "sound, noise" (音) (ne').
 * Akane's surname Inui means "dried, cured, drought, dry, desiccate, drink up, heaven, emperor" (乾).