Nanoka & Takato

The following article is about the relationship between the two characters Nanoka Ayase and Takato Uesugi.

## Relationship

Takato and Nanoka had difficulties communicating with one another when they first dated. Nanoka would typically remain quite while Takato would have outburst of anger whenever things did not go the way he had anticipated. Nanoka laments in the series how her time with Takato was always tiring.

In Part 1, their relationship is strained as Nanoka wishes not to see Takato but Takato believes Nanoka is rightfully his due to the emotional wounds he afflicted upon her. In Part 2, Nanoka begins to stick up for herself more and tries to be on friendly terms with Takato. Nanoka eventually reaches the maturity of acknowledging the twos past mistakes and being able to genuinely be on good terms with Takato.

After Nanoka is revealed to have amnesia she reverts back to her old self; afraid of Takato. She realizes it is easy to talk to him and proceeds to stick up for herself and confront Takato on many occasions. Eventually, she comes to trust him and attempts to restart their relationship. However, after a two year time-skip it is revealed that she still has not fallen in love with Takato.

## History

   Takato and Nanoka knew each other because they were both a part of the student council. At a summer cultural festival, Takato noticed Nanoka alone as she was lost and in the moment became infatuated with her. Nanoka later delivered a love-letter to Takato from an under classman only to have it thrown back in her face by an angry Takato who was furious that the letter was not from Nanoka herself instead. Takato later overhears a girl confessing to a boy and finally decides to confess to Nanoka. Sensing that he really liked her, Nanoka agreed to go out with him while believing she will come to like him eventually. Nanoka and Takato had a hard time communicating often resulting in silence and anger outbursts. The first and only date-like experience the two had was a school trip to a ranch with a flower garden which ended in rain and silence. Their relationship came to a close after Nanoka heard Takato lying to his friends, saying they had kissed and called Nanoka a daring girl. After Nanoka called him out for this, Takato forcefully tried to kiss her but she pushed him away and stopped talking to him. Shortly after, she overheard Takato telling his friends the he broke up with Nanoka, not the other way around.

## Story

#### **Part 1**

The two met again at a Karaoke bar when Takato saves Nanoka from Daichi's advances. Takato forcefully kisses Nanoka when she reveals she has someone she likes and wishes to not be bothered by Takato. She responds in tears and anger, devastated that her first kiss was stolen by someone she did not like. The two met again to set things straight and as Nanoka confesses her newfound love for Hayata, Takato decides to give up on her. However, a spark of jealousy insinuates as he hears Nanoka talk to Hayata on the phone, resulting in him telling Nanoka to keep the kiss a secret. Takato later saves Nanoka from thugs at the summer festival, resulting in a heavy beating and a crying Nanoka pleading him to let her call an ambulance. Nanoka was thankful that Takato saved her as she confessed that she froze and nearly blacked out when the men approached her. Sometime after, Takato approaches Nanoka outside her home to confess that he has always loved her and that he won't apologize for the forced kiss. Takato watches as Nanoka falls in despair hearing this. They meet for the final time in Part 1 at Hayata's volleyball match where Takato tries to tell Nanoka he wants to start over, only to have her cry yet again and run away with Hayata.

#### **Part 2**

After Nanoka chose Hayata, Takato sends her a text saying that she can forget everything. However, he ends up transferring to her school. Nanoka tries to distant herself from him only to have him contradict his previous words as he pleads Nanoka not to forget him. Nanoka's reactions towards Takato become defensive and fearful. However, her reactions towards him become genuinely friendly after confiding with Hayata about the situation. Takato begins to lose it when he realizes Nanoka is giving him the same smile that she would give to her friends. Though Nanoka tries her best to befriend Takato, it only makes matters worse as Takato desires Nanoka for himself. This later proves true as Takato tries to commit a double suicide by trapping Nanoka in a room at the school festival as it proceeds to burn on fire. As they talk about their past, Nanoka jokingly quotes Takato by saying "you were a different person than I thought." As Nanoka catches on to the fire breaking through, Takato believes that he should push her out the school window to end it all. However, he quickly snaps out of this state of mind when Ouji intervenes. Despite seeing another person do onto Nanoka what Takato was attempting to do, he does not admit that he was in the wrong and is shocked when Hayata calls his out for his actions. As Ouji falls off the building with Nanoka, Takato tries to help Hayata pull the two back up only for them to ultimately fall.

After being hospitalized, Takato immediately seeks out Nanoka and attempts to apologize. He admits he always tried to shape her future to fit his narrative. Nanoka responds in anger and confusion leading Takato to realize she has amnesia. Takato initially attempts to help Nanoka but as time goes on, he decides to take advantage of her memory loss and replace Hayata all together. At first, Nanoka is afraid of him but at the same time she realizes that she can talk to Takato quite easily.

Nanoka has moments where she cannot pinpoint when everything changed with her and Takato. Nanoka is later informed of Hayata and Takato allows her to ask any questions regarding him. She states she cannot understand love and cannot recall a love that she does not remember. She puts her trust in Takato and as the two talk more, she decides that her memories must have bee mundane and decides not to pursue them. On Valentine's Day, Nanoka give Takato chocolate and Takato attempts to kiss Nanoka only to be shocked by a phantom Nanoka staring back at him. Takato admits that he forcefully kissed Nanoka and that she hated it but Nanoka replies that she cannot understand what she does not remember. Takato tells Nanoka that he will only kiss her if she grows to truly love him.

Two years pass and although the two are only dating in name; they do not kiss or have any physical contact. Additionally, Nanoka still does not recall any of her memories. When they go on dates, Takato purposely picks locations where they do not face each other but instead where they watch something instead. It is revealed that Takato tries to avoid eye contact as he has been seeing the phantom Nanoka ever since he attempted to kiss Nanoka. The more Takato comes to care for Nanoka, the phantom Nanoka becomes more prominent. Takato decides he will make Nanoka remember everything because he will never be satisfied unless all of her belongs to him, including her former self. He takes her to the flower garden which he immediately regrets as Nanoka begins to cry and tells him that she promised to return to the flower garden with the person she loved but that person is not Takato. Nanoka proceeds to have painful flashes of Hayata's figure as she explores the flower garden. The phantom Nanoka that Takato sees finally rejoins with Nanoka as she questions the true events of the cultural festival. The phantom that Takato sees is the guilt he felt from the events of the cultural festival. Takato reveals that he did in fact try to kill Nanoka much to her dismay. She screams that she wants to understand how she feels, that she wants to remember her love for Hayata, and also that she is at a loss of what to do next. She tells Takato that after being with him for two years that she is aware that he could never commit such an action. Nanoka claims that she will end up protecting Takato from her former self about his actions. Nanoka forgives Takato and she tells Takato that she loves him as both of them cry together. Takato finally understands the significance of his former actions and realizes that he was trying to remove something precious from the world.

Takato is later seen with a fever and Nanoka visits him to check up on him. He kisses her hand and tells Nanoka that he loves her. As Nanoka tries to come up with how to celebrate Takato's university acceptance, she comes across a lost child that leads her to another figure. Takato visits an awaken Ouji who warns him that the key to Nanoka's memories was not the flower garden, but instead the true key is Hayata's voice. As Ouji advises Takato to never let Nanoka hear Hayata's voice, Nanoka and Hayata meet each other for the first time in two years. After Nanoka meets Hayata, Takato notices that she has become more vibrant and wonders if it was the result of meeting Hayata. Nanoka starts having episodes of remembering things Hayata has said and even quoting him without realizing it. Furious that the other Nanoka will not let her love Takato, she begs Takato to makes her his to break the former Nanoka's will. The two kiss but as it happens, Takato remembers Nanoka's face of despair. The current Nanoka tells him that they are not the same and to only look at her from now on. However, Nanoka starts uncontrollably sobbing, pushing Takato off of her as Takato realizes that Nanoka needs her missing memory in order for her to be complete. He tells Nanoka that despite being together, she still doesn't have eyes for only him.

The two of them never went beyond a kiss and the next day they go to the hospital to visit Ouji Karasuma who tells Nanoka to reenact how she lost her memory by jumping off the hospital roof. Desperate, Nanoka runs up the stairs to the roof, desperate to have her memories return so that Takato will stop being fixated on the previous Nanoka. Before she jumps, she talks with Ouji who releases her from his grasp (metaphorically) as she is saved by Hayata who grabs her hand as she accidentally slips and falls. Prior to this, Takato pleads Ouji to release Nanoka from their dream as they have both trapped her true feelings for 2 years. Ouji inquires if that is all right considering Nanoka will no longer return to Takato to which Takato consents, stating that he wants Nanoka to finally smile from the bottom of her heart. Takato arrives to the scene to an unconscious Nanoka who Hayata is taking to the hospital for treatment. Takato tells Hayata one last thing; that he saw the flower garden that was promised to be with Hayata and Takato instructs him to find a better one to show Nanoka.

After this incident, Takato ceases all form of contact with Nanoka, even going as far as to skip the graduation ceremony. Nanoka is aware of what has happened and shows visible frustration while thinking about her feelings. Takato sees her one last time while she's pondering on her thoughts and silently continues on his way, parting ways for good.

## Trivia

* Nanoka is Takato's first love but Nanoka's first love is not Takato.
* They are both born on the same numbered day as their birth month: Nanoka on 3/3 and Takato on 11/11.
* They have both kissed someone without consent.
	+ Takato forcefully kissed Nanoka by grabbing onto her as she tried to walk away from him.
	+ Nanoka kissed Hayata goodbye in tears when she believed their relationship was over. Though Hayata did not mind the kiss, Nanoka realizes that her actions were no better than Takato's actions afflicted upon her.
* Both have been noted by other characters as being very similar to one another.
	+ Yuuko mentioned that when she first talked to Takato, it felt as if she had met him before. She claims that Nanoka had the same presence when Yuuko first met her.
	+ Hiroshi's sister mentioned to Hayata that the two seemed to have the same aura about them that made it hard to approach them.
	+ Takato tells Nanoka in chapter 83 that they resemble each other and that both always makes rash decisions that later makes them miserable.