Aoi Tsubaki

Aoi Tsubaki is the main character of Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-. She is a college student who has the ability to see ayakashi (yokai), a trait she inherited from her deceased grandfather. 
She is voiced by Nao Tōyama in the Japanese version and Emily Neves in the English version.
==Appearance==
She has brown hair and purple eyes. She is also of fairly average height and is often seen with both her hair up, either in a bun or in a loose ponytail, and dressed in a green kimono while in the Hidden Realm. Contrarily, when she is seen in the Apparent Realm/the human world, her hair is often down and she wears more plain white and blue attire. While she is occasionally seen wearing other clothes and her hair done either way, these are her most common apperances.
==Personality==
Due to living on her own, Aoi has a very independent and strong-willed personality. Upon finding out she'd been offered to Odanna as his bride to cover her late grandfather's large debt, she strongly refuses and agrees to work off the debt instead. She also demonstrates on many other occasions that she is not one to let others bully or push her around, being quick to speak up against their treatment of her. However, she is also very kind, caring and compassionate, to the extent that she feels inclined to help any ayakashi that's in need, especially if she knows she can do something about it. This extends even to those who were previously rude and antagonistic to her. She sees the cooking skills she learned from her grandfather at a young age as her way of connecting with them, and through this, she gets many of them to open up about their personal problems, which in many cases, has led to her helping them reconcile with family members and other loved ones they have estranged relationships with, which she tends to feel especially inclined to help with due to her own personal experiences, namely her lack of familial relationships other than her grandfather. 
Because of this combination of strong-willed determination and empathy, as well as her cooking being imbued with spiritual energy that can heal ayakashi from injuries, she makes many friends during her time in the Hidden Realm, including many former enemies. She's also very forgiving, since she rarely holds grudges towards those that wrong her, especially if she finds out it's less out of malice and more as a result of their own personal issues or biases that come from past experiences, and doesn't let it get in the way of helping them when they're in need.
Additionally, while she is far more responsible and considerate of others compared to her late grandfather, many ayakashi have still noted how similar she can be to Shiro, since he was also very observant and had a knack for helping them with their personal issues. However, this also extends to being reckless at times, such as wandering off from Odanna and/or Ginji on a couple of occasions when shopping or otherwise visiting the capital and other market places, as well as being quick to get involved in dangerous situations where her life is at risk because she's convinced it's the right thing to do.
==History==
When she was child, she was abandoned by her mother. Since then, she was raised by ther grandfather Shiro, who also taught her how to cook from a young age. Her greatest regret is that she was unable to share a final meal with her grandfather and that his last meal was poor quality hospital food. 
Sometime after her grandfather's death, during which she's living on her own while attending college, Aoi walks past a torii shrine, and she sees an ayakashi sitting there who tell her it's hungry. However, after giving it food, Aoi is kidnapped by the ayakashi, an ogre called Odanna. He takes her to the Hidden Realm, a world where all the ayakashi live. He tells Aoi that her grandfather owed him a debt, and as compensation, she must marry him. However, Aoi negotiates with the ogre instead, asking to work at the ogre's inn, the Tenjin'ya. While at first, she struggles to find anywhere she can work or anything she can do since almost all the employees don't want to take her on for various reasons, she soon gets help from a kind fox ayakashi named Ginji, who immediately loves her cooking and suggests that they use a small complex outside of the main inn that he's tried to use as a restaurant and other ventures, but they've all ended up failing so far. However, he's confident that with her skill, they can open a successful eatery. After helping the elder of the tengu clan, Matsuba, by nursing him back to health and feeding him after he fell off his floating ship and passed out due to getting drunk, which in turn, salvaged Tenjin-ya's relationship with the tengu after a spat between the Chief Chef and some of the other members, Odanna begins to respect Aoi's determination and character and starts to become more supportive of her attempts to pay off the debt. 
Before long, Aoi and Ginji decide to name the restaurant Moonflower at Matsuba's suggestion and officially open it up. However, at first, business is extremely slow due to few others knowing about it, limiting their partrons to mostly other employees whom Aoi has helped and befriended. This leads to Byakuya, the inn's chief of their accounting office, threatening to close them down. However, their luck turns around when Aoi cooks for and inspires a famous writer named Hakkabou when he stays as a guest at their inn, who then proceeds to write a glowing article about it in the local paper, which leads to many ayakashi becoming intrigued and visiting the eatery. From there, business skyrockets and Aoi's cooking skills become so renowned that among other things, she is requested by a royal couple, consisting of a royal family member named Nuinoin and his human wife, Ritsuko, to cook an anniversary meal for them. Before much longer, she has befriended pretty much all the employees at Tenjin-ya and become much closer to Odanna himself after seeing more of his positive personality traits, including how kind and supportive he can be towards her.
Unfortunately, just as everything seems to be falling into place, Tenjin-ya is visited right on the heels of a big party they held for all their staff at the hot spring's kitchen by one of Orio-ya's main airships. To their collective surprise, they are greeted by Ranmaru, the manager of Orio-ya, which is an inn from the Southern Lands that acts as one of their biggest rivals, and Ougan-douji, a blonde Zashiki-warashi who built both Tenjin-ya and Orio-ya and still acts as Orio-ya's Mistress Innkeeper, as well as whom Aoi previously served as a customer without knowing who she was. She demands that Hatori and Tokihiko, their employees who are currently visiting there, return with them immediately, but what really shocks everyone is that she also demands that Ginji return to them as well, since he is a former employee there and he apparently agreed to go back there after a certain amount of time. This strongly upsets Aoi since they appear to be forcing him back when he doesn't really want to return, so she takes their pet/mascot, Nobunaga, hostage by tempting him with cookies and demands they return Ginji to them. However, this leads to her getting taken as well when Ougan-douji puts a spell on her and takes her on the ship. 
From there, Aoi quickly finds herself in a very similar situation to the one she started out in at Tenjin-ya where most of the ayakashi aside from Ginji and a few others are hostile to her, and they mostly keep her in a guest room to keep her out of their affairs. However, before long, she starts realizing that everything isn't as it seems since everyone at Orio-ya seems fixated on an important upcoming fireworks event and ensuring its success. She soon finds out from Hatori that the fireworks are part of an important ceremony/ritual that is held once every century where they need to feed a being called the Umi-bouzu with particular dishes "made of ocean treasure" and collect several important artifacts to ensure that the ceremony is successful so that the Southern Lands won't be ravaged by natural disasters for the next 100 years. While Ranmaru initially seems determined to keep her out of it, it soon becomes clear that Ougan-douji had her taken to Orio-ya as well because she believed she could be extremely helpful to them, and over time, as Aoi demonstrates her cooking prowess, befriending and otherwise helping the ayakashi there similarly to how she did at Tenjin-ya and even helps them get one of the artifacts they need for the ceremony by doing so, Ranmaru gradually begins to relent and let her help them. On Aoi's side, while she's initially determined to leave with Ginji as soon as they're able, once she finds out about the situation, she resolves to stay there to help them with their ceremony until its completion before they return, so before long, she gets fully involved in helping them get the artifacts they need and even agrees to be the one to cook the food for the Umi-bouzu when the late Princess Iso requests it of her and it becomes clear she's the one best suited to the task. 
==Trivia==
*Her Japanese voice actress, Nao Tōyama, also voiced Clair Aoki in Gleipnir, Shizuku Kurogane in Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Trish Una in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, High Elf Archer in Goblin Slayer, Kongou, Hiei, Haruna, Kirishima, Atago and Takao in Kantai Collection, Celica in Fire Emblem Gaiden, Lisesharte Atismata in Trinity Seven, Vatista in Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, Nagisa Shiota in Assassination Classroom OVA, Yui Yuigahama in Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru, and Sasuke Uchiha as a child in Naruto: Shippuden.
*Her English voice actress, Emily Neves, also voiced Kumin Tsuyuri in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, Kanade Tachibana in Angel Beats, Ayase Shinomiya in Guilty Crown, Minene Uryuu in Future Diary, Gine in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Eri in My Hero Academia, Chelsea in Akame ga Kill!, Eucliwood Hellscythe in Is This A Zombie?, Saori Kido in Saint Seiya, Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi in CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon, Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX in Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Umaru Doma in Himouto! Umaru-chan, Miime in Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Rayneshia El-Arte Corwen in Log Horizon, Jubei Yagyu in Samurai Girls, Saki Watanabe in From the New World, Hibiki Kuze (young) in Devil Survivor 2: The Animation, Doppel in Monster Musume, Popuko in Pop Team Epic!, Mitsuru (young) in Darling in the Franxx, Aoi Akane in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and Lammis in Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I'm Wander the Dungeon.
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