Azaka Kokutou

is a character from Kara no Kyoukai. She is Mikiya Kokutou's younger sister and the apprentice of Touko Aozaki.
==Profile==
===Background===
Azaka is Mikiya's younger sister, separated from her family and adopted by her uncle on her own request at a young age. When they were young, someone who was very dear to Azaka and Mikiya passed away. It was at this moment that Azaka became attracted to Mikiya's kindness, falling in love with him despite their blood relation.
Around the time of Chapter 2 "A Study in Murder (Part 1)", she was adopted into a relative’s family and was biding her time for the perfect moment to launch her Brother Conquering Campaign. She met Touko when a series of strange incidents occured. Similar to and mystery novels, Touko found Azaka in a lake, upside down with her legs sticking out of the water. As the daughter of the house, Azaka got dragged into cooperating with the investigation. Tobimaru Tsukiji would appear as well.
She attended Reien Girl's Academy until high school, and became friends with Fujino Asagami, who was also an outsider at the time. She became a roommate and friend to Shizune Seo. She eventually returned from the Academy in her late teens, looking forward to seeing her brother, only to find him dining together with Shiki Ryougi. Thus, she began to see her as a rival in love.
She became Touko's apprentice around June or July 1998 as a way to spite Shiki, and to become a magus that could rival Shiki physically and mentally.
===Appearance===
Azaka has long black hair and has blue eyes, like her brother. During school she wears the standard Reien uniform. Her casual clothes consists on a white shirt with a red tie, a brown waistcoat with a matching skirt.
Kokutou azaka early sketch.png|Earlier sketch draft of Azaka, illustrated Takashi Takeuchi.
Oblivion recorder.png|Azaka as she appears in the Kara no Kyoukai novel.
Garden of oblivion.png|Azaka on the cover of The Garden of Oblivion.
Kokutou azaka sketch.png|Takashi Takeuchi's concept artwork of Azaka for the Kara no Kyoukai films
Young Azaka.png|Takashi Takeuchi's concept artwork of Young Azaka for the Kara no Kyoukai films
Young azaka ufotable.png|ufotable character sheet of Azaka in Kara no Kyoukai.
Azaka Ufotable.png|Ufotable character sheet of Azaka in Kara no Kyoukai.
AzakaSD.png|Chibi Azaka, illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi.
Vivid_Dance_of_Fists.png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by Atsushi Ogasawara.
Young Azaka KnK manga.png|Young Azaka in Kara no Kyoukai: the Garden of Sinners.
===Personality===
Her preferences in men are older men with black hair and glasses, which is essentially a physical description of her brother, Mikiya. She was attracted to Satsuki Kurogiri, as his name and appearance resemble Mikiya's.
Azaka is a "tragic heroine" whose love, Mikiya, was snatched away before her eyes by Shiki. She had the false assumption that Mikiya would always be alone, so she buried her affection and played the role of the "good little sister." While she is a perfect model student, differing from Mikiya, her true colors are exposed around Shiki and Touko. She is a predator that always captured her prey, a wolf in sheep's skin, and because her love is pure and beautiful, although a little twisted, that is why it will not simply disappear. She becomes Touko's apprentice simply out of necessity to match Shiki, but they actually like each other's personalities. Only their relationships with Mikiya make it difficult for them to become good friends.
==Role==
===Kara No Kyoukai===
In Kara no Kyoukai, she is a supporting character in most of the chapters. However, in the 6th chapter Oblivion Recorder, she is the main character, investigating a certain incident. She was originally only marginally relevant to the story.
====Chapter 3: Remaining Sense of Pain====
In July 1998, Fujino Asagami lied to Azaka about admiring the upperclassman she was trying to find, but in reality was seeking to kill him.
Azaka and Fujino tried to meet her brother Mikiya in Ahnenerbe, but instead were met by Shiki, who delivered the message that Mikiya wasn't able to make it, much to Azaka's annoyance.
====Chapter 1: Overlooking the Scenery====
In September 1998, she and Touko witnessed the suicide of Kirie Fujou.
====Chapter 5: Paradox Spiral====
In November 1998, Azaka tried showing Mikiya and Shiki her magecraft using one of Touko's pens as a catalyst, however when Touko returned from her art exhibition, she scolded Azaka from using her magic in front of people and warned her that the magecraft would lose it's effectiveness if she got dependent on channeling it through an item.
Azaka then asked if Shiki is a man or woman, causing Shiki to leave, annoyed with the question. Azaka questioned how Mikiya viewed Shiki, and Mikiya replied that he would still be interested in her, even if she were a man. Azaka, disgusted with the answer, threw a book at Mikiya and left.
====Chapter 6: Oblivion Recorder====
In January 1999, Touko contacted Azaka about a job, involving the detection and elimination of a magus controlling fairies in Reien Girl's Academy. However, she had to work with Shiki, as her ability to see them with her Mystic Eyes was key to the mission. They are investigating the case around Kaoru Tachibana's suicide in November.
While walking around the school, Shiki notices a fairy, and chases after it. Azaka, who cannot see the fairies, is left alone, and is approached by Misaya Ouji, later waking up in the evening, with no memory of what occurred. They discover that the magus using the fairies is trying to erase everyone's memories of the event, but the school has a written record of the investigation. After failing to wake Shiki the following morning, Azaka goes alone to investigate the old school building, which was the site of Tachibana's suicide.
Mikiya informs her of the abilities of Satsuki Kurogiri, also known as God's Word, and how to counteract them. She takes Shiki's walkman and earphones, using them to listen to music. This allows Azaka to resist Kurogiri's ability when she encounters him, and she runs past him to the suicide site. She discovers the students of class 1-4 gathered there in a trance, with lit matches, lighters, and canisters of fuel. Ouji had gathered them there, intending for them to commit suicide in the same manner as Kaori. Ouji and Azaka move their battle to the chapel, where Azaka uses her magecraft to burn Ouji's fairies, as even though she can't see them, she can detect their heat with her abilities. Azaka then knocks out Ouji with a kick and moves to confront Kurogiri about his motives for giving Ouji the fairies, though she ultimately leaves him be.
After the incident was resolved and school resumed, Azaka was able to leave the academy to spend the day with Mikiya.
====Chapter 7: Murder Speculation (Part 2)====
Azaka barges in and complains to Touko about Mikiya's relationship with Shiki and wishes him to cut his ties with her. Touko ask Azaka to help her pack her stuff before leaving.
As Touko leaves Mifune City, Azaka is most likely to quit learning magecraft as she has no reason to anymore. When she becomes an adult, she will be able to say things like "You know, as a girl I was able to use magic". However, if she retains interest, Touko will keep sending her homework via mail and she could someday be dispatched as Touko's head apprentice.
===Kara no Kyoukai: Final Record===
File:Final record 1.png
File:Final record 3.png
===Other Appearances===
Azaka makes a small appearance in Carnival Phantasm Episode 12. She appears at the Ahnenerbe party, talking with Rin Tohsaka, Caren Hortensia, and Akiha Tohno.
== Abilities ==
AzakaESP.jpg|Azaka using Spontaneous Combustion.
Azaka salamander glove.gif|Azaka activating Spontaneous Combustion.
Azaka's flames.gif|Azaka fighting with Spontaneous Combustion.
Azaka is a hatching magus under the guidance of Touko. She has no talent as a magus due to lacking Magic Circuits, but she is able to learn ignition spells due to her inborn ability of triggering spontaneous combustion. She wears a Mystic Code, Salamander Skin Gloves, given to her by Touko in combat to make up for her subpar spell-weaving skills. Shiki points out that thanks to her strength, Mikiya would not be able to resist if Azaka tries to force herself on him, as she herself is unable to push Azaka off of her. She has advantage over characters with a vampire attributes.
 is the "unexplained phenomenon" of human combustion, an ability closer to ESP, Pyrokinesis, than Magecraft. She favors the spell, utilizing it as a method of attack to cause the target to self-combust rather than immolating them directly. While there are many theories which explain Spontaneous Combustion, Azaka's is explained by an amalgamation of the Charged Corpus Theory and the Electromagnetism Theory. The Charged Corpus Theory suggests that the human body produces electrical currents during states of psychological arousal, causing Spontaneous Combustion, while the Electromagnetism Theory suggests that Spontaneous Combustion is a result of an increased release of electrons in the atmosphere. All the incantations she uses to activate Spontaneous Combustion are musical notes, Alto, Forte, and Mezzo Forte, since Azaka comprehends Magecraft and combat through music. The move that Azaka used to defeat the giant Fairy is called "Exploding Fairy Fortissimo".
Her origin is , straying away from the norms. She is fairly normal compared to Shiki, who has the Origin of "Nothingness" and is drawn towards death because of it. She only struggles to deviate from the norm because an Origin is merely a cause, and not something that dictates an individual as long as they don't become aware of it.
Her axe kick is jokingly referred to as being able to kill a person, enough to punch through a catalogue, with the destructive power being equivalent to 10 Albas and 3000 Neco-Punches.
==Development==
Since Fujino did not know that Azaka's older brother was Mikiya, the events played out the way they did due to this lack of knowledge. In Chapter 3 “Remaining Sense of Pain”, if Fujino knew Azaka was the sister of Mikiya, the scenario would have changed onto a completely different route. Nasu joked that the final confrontation would have changed to Combustion versus Distortion and that the Reien Girl’s Academy would have been completely obliterated.
===Creation and Conception===
 (Voice Actress of Shiki Ryougi) said she also auditioned for Azaka role, she claims that back then, she still had the image of someone who played younger sisters, or vivacious young girls.
===Reception===
According to Maaya Sakamoto, after the screening of chapter 6, the members of were brought to tears when they heard Azaka's monologue about her feelings for her brother.
*In the Fourth character popularity poll in 2003, Azaka was ranked 20th.
*In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Azaka was ranked 31st.
==References==
Category:Characters in Kara no Kyoukai
Category:Humans
Category:Magi
vi:Kokutou Azaka
Category:Psychic
Category:Reien Girl's Academy students
Category:Introduced in 1998
Category:Residents of Mifune City
Category:Japanese
Category:Voice - Yukari Tamura