Akane Nishino

Akane Nishino is supporting character from The Eminence in Shadow as well as a movie continuation of the show, The Eminence in Shadow: Lost Echoes. She is a former classmate of Minoru Kageno from his previous life. She was made a "Knight" in Messiah, the human colony that came about after the magical beast's had conquest Japan. She later became a member of Shadow Garden callsign No. 712.
She is voiced by in Japanese and in English.
==Overview==
Akane is the daughter and heiress of the Nishino Zaibatsu and is the younger sister of Akira Nishino. At some point, Akane began performing in her early childhood and went on to became a well-known actress. However, when she was a junior in high school, she was abducted by a stalker. Although she was freed, the incident forced her to temporarily put her acting career on hold, and her parents would arrange for a car and driver so that she could get home safely.
She finally went back to acting at some time in high school. It was where she met Minoru Kageno, a classmate who she eventually grew to despise when the teenager repeatedly failed to recognize her. Akane decided to walk home after taking a remedial class because her cellphone ran out of battery. A dark van pulled up out of nowhere, and a man stepped out to grab her. She noticed Minoru just as she was about to fall unconscious.
When Akane awoke, she found herself bound and gagged. She discovered from her captors that they wanted to use her as a bargaining chip to get her parents to pay a ransom. To the dismay of the adolescent, one of the kidnappers decided to have their way with her before that could happen. Minoru, posing as the "Fancy Hoodlum Slayer," broke into their stronghold to rescue her before he had a chance to have his way with her. As the Fancy Hoodlum Slayer beat off the captors, murdering the leader in the process, Akane marveled. Akane was set free by Minoru and warned to be "Careful next time captured next time" before calling the police and her parents. She eventually went back to her house.
The next day Akane ran into Minoru at the school gates the next day. Minoru surprised herself by correctly calling her name. Akane then decided to accompany Minoru and continued talking with him after feeling relieved by the shift. At somepoint she found out that Minoru was the Fancy Hoodlum Slayer and she developed romantic feelings for him. But at somepoint Minoru would end up dying in a truck accident.
====After Minoru's death ====
Minoru's death had deeply effected her, she would obtain his and keep his old school uniform believing that he was still alive and yearns for him to return to her.
===Becoming the First Knight===
3 years after Minoru died, the invasion of Japan eventually started, and Akane participated in an experiment at Arcadia as a test subject to develop warriors to fight the monsters. As a result of the project's success, Akane developed magical skills and earned the moniker "The First Knight." Although the project was successful, Akane's older brother Akira Nishino was not happy with the outcomes and conducted experiments on her to enhance her abilities. This had disastrously backfired when Akane lost control of her abilities and went on a rampage that ruined Arcadia and resulted in the deaths of numerous people.
Akane buried the memories of the incident deep inside herself as a result of the trauma it created, making her forget it. Akane and Akira, who had lost their memories, escaped and sought safety with a different organization named Messiah, whose base had been established at Nishino University.
===Reunion===
In order to save the three knights who had been sent there previously but hadn't returned, Akane moved toward an abandoned hospital. Despite being aware that the hospital was a haven for supernatural creatures, she went inside. Akane had to contend with a number of animals before learning that there were actually two survivors in addition to the severe destruction of the nest. When Akane observed that one of the survivors was displaying signs of an "awakening", she made the decision to return the two to Messiah.
Akane made the decision to look for Minoru once she returned to Messiah. Minoru was one among the survivors. The other survivor, Natsume, Minoru's sister, was taken in by Akira so he could assess her health. She would gradually open up to him as she got to know him since he made her think of her late classmate Minoru Kageno. Throughout his stay, Yuudai Saejima would abuse him and accuse him of being a spy. Akane came to Minoru's defense right away. She froze, though, as Saejima said he was aware of her troubled past.
When the magical creatures suddenly started to attack Messiah. Akane joined the defense of Messiah with her other knights. Despite their best efforts, the defense was gradually being surpassed. To draw the creatures away from Messiah, she made the decision to charge toward the throng. Even with her great skills, she was unable to defeat all of the animals. Fortunately, a guy dressed in jet-black robes emerged, dispatched the monsters, and then vanished. Soon after the fight, Yuka told Akane that Saejima had been killed. Akane was held accountable for the crime due to her strained relationship and prior argument with Saejima. But to her delight, Minoru defended her against the charges. But before Yuka medicated her and rendered Akane unconscious, she started to breakdown due to her previous deeds.
Then, Akane was kidnapped by Yuka and injected with beast blood. This had caused her to remember all her horrible deeds as the First Knight. Yuka then revealed that she held a grudge against Akane for her actions as the First Knight. Forced to recall the horrors she wrought on Arcadia, Akane when into a frenzy and murdered Yuka. After murdering Yuka, she spotted a jet-blacked-robed figure and attempted to attack him. Despite her effort, he dodges all her attacks. Subsequently, he unleashed a powerful magic-infused slash, restoring her normal condition. Before losing consciousness, Akane heard the figure tell her to be careful not to get kidnapped again. While unconscious she would later be brought by Beta with Cid to an other world.
Akane found herself in an unfamiliar, white room when she awoke. She identified Minoru Kageno by recalling the jet-blacked figure's final words. She promises to make amends for her wrongdoings so that she could meet him again.
===Within the custody of Shadow Garden===
After bringing brought into another world, she was kept within one of the facilities within Shadow Garden. At some point Eta tried to research her and began doing experiments on her, but was stopped and prevented by Beta before she could do any further experiments on her. And due to her not being able to understand the language, Beta had began speaking with her to continue research about her.
==Appearance==
Akane was a gorgeous adolescent girl who attended Sakurazka Senior High, as a teenager with black hair and eyes. She dresses in the typical high school uniform of a white school coat, a light blue shirt, a blue skirt, black stockings, and a blue tie. Akane wears three hair clips, one being a star hairclip on the right side of her hair and two hair clips on the left side of her hair.
After her "Awakening," her eyes changed from being black to red. In addition, her black hair turns blonde when she assumes the title of "First Knight." She continues to dress in the high school outfit that served as the knights of Messiah's standard attire.
==Personality==
Akane puts up the impression of being a nice, polite young lady, but it was all a front. She was actually a scared, troubled teenager who had been scarred by her kidnapping and the drama that followed. In an effort to have people love her rather than despise her and constantly bring up the issue, she concealed her true identity beneath a mask. This is most notable with her classsmate Minoru, someone she'd hated as he kept repeatly misnaming her name and him not directly looking at her, after her second kidnapping and being resuced by Minoru and with the latter finally pronoucing her name correctly and looking at her, she would try to be on better terms with him. After finding out that he saved her, Akane would hold an immense fondness for him even after his death and after finding out the he was still alive after his reincranation.
After wrecking Arcadia, Akane once more concealed who she really was. She struggled to cope with her overwhelming remorse and started to exhibit suicidal tendencies, wanting to take her own life in order to atone for her sins. The tragedy also taught Akane to cherish human life and to take all necessary precautions to shield people from danger, even at the hands of her own comrades.
==Powers and Abilities==
===Pre-Awakening===
Originally, Akane was born as an ordinary human with no magic, being utterly unable to defend herself when some thugs abducted her. 
*Acting: Prior before the fall of Japan, she was an up-and-coming actress.
===Post-Awakening===
After the downfall of Japan, Akane gained maagical abilites from human experimentation, becaoming a superhuman referred as a Knight. She is noted to be powerful even compared to other Knight and could possibly be the strongest magic user on Earth. However, her abilities are inferior compared to members in Shadow Garden, struggling against Magical Beast that Cid and Beta claime to be "small fry". 
*Swordsmanship: Akane uses a katana that she infuses magic and is proficient with it. Her magically infused blade is capable to cuting down dozens of Magical Beasts in a single strike. Akane is also capable of quickly cutting a bullet.
*Magic: Akane's magic is strong enough to easily blow away other Knights. However she primarily uses magic by infusing it into her weapon to drastically increase the cutting power. also her magic is far inferior to members in Shadow Garden and the Crimson Order.
====Original Knight====
Akane is the infamous Original Knight, haveing been injected with Magical Beast blood by her brother. She originallly had no control over this state, attacking everyone in sight until her magic ran out and recalling nothing of waht she did during that time. After being broguth to another world, she began training to learn and control her powers.
*Enchance Strength: As the First Knight, Akane already great physical abilities are furture enchanced with her punches being able to pierce through a person.
*Enhanced Magic: As the First Knight, Akaen can use magic to fire off projectiles of energy balls of golden light that are able to pierce through a person.
===Intelligence===
As a citizen of Japan before its invasion, Akane speaks Japanese fluently. She can also read the Japanese language, including hiragana, kanji, katakana, and romaji. Additionally, Akane can recognize Japanese cuisines, such as miso soup and soy sauce, even after being brought into another world. However, she does not know or speak the language of Midgar, but she is currently learning it.
====Other Capabilities====
*Handwriting Recognition: Akane has shown that she is capable of recognizing Cid's handwriting back when he was Minoru Kageno.
===Equipments ===
*Hacthet: In the manga, Akane used a Hacthet after where Awakening as the "First Knight" that used to destory Arcadia when her powers went out of control.
*Katana: After becoming a Knight, Akane uses a Katana that she's shown that she can proficently use. She is also able to infuse magic into the blade to more effectively enchancing the blade.
==Relationships==
===Minoru Kageno (The Black Knight)===
Minoru and Akane were classmates in his previous life. The two had a tense relationship mainly from Akane's part. As Minoru didn't remember her that much, even misnaming her. Because he, as she put it, "never looks at her"; although he technically turned his eyes at her she feels that he's looking past her and setting sights on some far-off place. She tried her best to avoid him at all times and kept their conversations incredibly short. When Akane got kidnapped, a ski-masked vigilante had rescued her. Before he left, the vigilante told Akane to be careful and not to get kidnapped. After that, it's only after rescuing her from being kidnapped that Minoru started to finally pay attention to her and at least remember her name right. Akane realized that like her, Minoru was also masking his true self. Their interaction didn't progress any further, due to his death. At some point she had eventually, figured out that he was the vigilante who rescued her and she developed romantic feelings for him. His death had deeply affected her, keeping his school uniform and yearning for him to return to her even years later.
They would meet again, in his next life as Cid, they would meet in an abandoned hostipal. She would interact with him, and eventually open up to him as he looked like her former classmate unbeknownst her that it was Minoru reincarnated. She came to his defense when her fellow knight Yuudai accused him of being a spy. When she was accused of a murdering Yuudai, Minoru came to her defense. And when she was kidnapped by Yuka he learned that Akane was the First Knight.
After being forced into her First Knight state, she was returned to normal by the Minoru as the Black Knight who told Akane the same lines Minoru said to her when he rescued her. Akane realized that the Black Knight was Minoru. Currently, Akane is trying to find a way to reunite with him after realizing he was alive somewhere.
===Akira Nishino===
Akira is Akane's older brother, despite being siblings, there's no familial affection between the two. Akane is aware that he was using her and her status as a "Knight" to advance his political agenda. Akira had went as far to experiment on her by injecting her with blood from multiple Magical Beasts, turing her into the "First Knight", despite the success of the experiment he was not satisfied with the results and continued to further the development of her powers but this had backfired and had caused her to lose control and go on a rampage destroying Arcadia and killing many people in the process. After the event he decided to make her forget by burying her memories of her trauma of the event. At Messiah, the two were at odds at each other with Akira not valuing there command's live and Akane valuing there lives. When Akane went missing, Akira did not bother searching for her and instead went off to find a new test subject for his experiments. 
=== Yuka===
In the past, Akane and Yuka were formerly in Arcadia. Yuka's Husband work with Akane's brother to turn her into the "First Knight", but due to Akira not being satisfied with the results of the experiment and continue to further the development of her powers, causing her lose control and accidently kill a lot people with Yuka's husband being one of the victims. This had caused her to swear revenge against the Nishino family, she tracked both Akand and Akira to Messiah. She would work at Messiah as a nurse and would secretly plot her revenge. Akane was betrayed by Yuka, she try to frame her for the Yuudai's murder and later kidnap her and killer her older brother and later would maker her go berserk by injecting her with Mordred's blood, causing her to regain her memories in the process. Yuka would meet her end by a rampaging Akane but didn't care as she was able to make her suffer with the knowledge of her crimes. But unfortunately, Akane was almost immediately incapacitated and was healed by Cid, instead allowing her to come to terms with her past.
===Yuudai Saejima===
Yuudai and Akane were former high school classmates with Minoru in his past life. Yuudai is Messiah's "Knights" vice-commander, Yuudai had a crush on Akane and had despised him for how he looks at her sexually back when they were students. However Yuudai would constantly try to force Akane into a relationship with him but no avail. And whenever the two would argue or when angered, he would often abuse his position even willing to blackmail her with knowledge about her past. Akane on the other hand, not only had no respect for him as her superior but was utterly repulsed by him. The two would also have disagreements on other issues, with Yuudai being critical of Akane bringing more people into the already overcrowded Messiah that included when Akane took an individual named "Minoru" under her care, who really Minoru Kageno their former classmate was reincarnated into a different person. Akane would later be framed for the murder of Yuudai, but Minoru would come to her defense. 
=== Haitani===
Haitani, Messiah's "Knights" commander and Akane's boss, appears to be one of the few people that the latter truly respects.
===Beta (Natsume)===
Due to her silver hair and long ears, 'Natsume' gave Akane the impression that she was a "Awakened" person. Instinctively aware that he would experiment on her like he did on herself, she was against her brother getting custody of her, but she was overridden, leaving her to beg for her protection. Later, Natsume transports Akane to the other world.
==Trivia== 
*The name Akane (アカネ) means "deep red" (茜) in Japanese.
*It is named after a dye that's obtained from the rubia plant" (茜).
*Akane's surname Nishino (西野) means "west," (西) (nishi) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).
* Akane was introduced earlier in the anime than she was in the light novel and manga.
*Akane shares some parallels to Aurora. 
** Both became monsters against their wills
**Both had desired death for the destruction they caused.
*Akane's eyes in the anime are red instead of black. It's uncertain if Nexus made a mistake here.
*Akane shares some similarites with Claire Kagenou. 
** Both have black hair and red eyes (after awakened her powers).
**Both have a similar obsession with Minoru/Cid.
**Both wer once kidnapped and were saved by him.
**Both are able to recognize some traits from him.
**Both wear black tights with their school/academy uniform.
*Her English Voice Actress, Natalie Rial, also voiced Nazuna Nanakusa in Call of the Night, Kana Arima in Oshi no Ko, Tione Hiryute in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, and Shenhua Ling in Shenmue the Animation.
==External Links== 
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