Hotaru Akina

**Hotaru Akina** is a character in Okotowari Shimasu. She is a second year student at Nantoka High School.

## Appearance

Hotaru looks slim, alhough she always wears baggy clothes since she doesn't like showing her body. Her hair is long and green, with part of it falling on her chest. She has pink eyes and wears glasses.

Hotaru is the only charater to not change her uniform even during summer. She wears a loose sweater and a long skirt, an outfit she designed herself to protect herself from fanservice moments and panty shots. However, she is seen wearing a short sleeved vest at some points during the summer.

## Personality

Hotaru is an introvert, and prefers watching everyone from afar than being involved in most activities, like physical education. It takes her a some time to open up to people, but it's easy for her to do so when she finds some common ground, such as Keita's love for the same series as her, or Akie having a similar romantic situation as her.

She acts as a bit of a big sister, especially to Erina who has referred to her as such. Even though she tends to be the voice of reason, her common sense can be lost when she gets excited by something - usually somethign related to anime or manga.

## Background

Not much is known about Hotaru's backstory. She met Erina when they were in middle school, and have been best friends ever since.

During her first year of high school, she was in the same class as Akie Shirogami. Although they didn't talk with each other, they had an introvert pact of not overstepping each other's boundaries, which would later become the foundation for their friendship.

## Powers and Abilities

As a normal human, Hotaru doesn't have any kind of known supernatural power.

She is however a good cook, as seen by Erina praising her food and saying it's always delicious, and her being part of the cooking squad, along with Keita and Kou. She is also a very good student, having some of the best marks out of her class.

## Story

Hotaru was first introduced in Chapter 4, along with Erina Yoshisaki. Hotaru expresses concern on Erina's behaviour regarding Kou, and helps her talk with him by joining his team for the school campout.

After the campout, Hotaru started spending time with Akie during Physical Education, since none of them participate in the class. Thanks to her friendship with Akie, she became part of the group even sooner than Erina.

During the trip to the beach in Chapter 17, Hotaru confessed to Akie that she's a lesbian, and that she'd never been able to tell anyone but hoped he would understand, given his feelings for Kou. She also said she was in love with someone whose friendship she didn't want to lose, referring to Erina, although Akie didn't get that part.

## Relationships

### Kou Omori

Hotaru and Kou are both introverts, and don't tend to talk too much. Hotaru seems to prefer spending time with Keita and Akie than Kou, although she often talks about him with Erina.

### Akie Shirogami

Hotaru and Akie were classmates during first year, and thanks to that they were able to become friends easily once they started spending time together. Akie is the only person who knows about Hotaru's orientation, since she feels they are similar in that they're both in love with their best friend.

### Erina Yoshisaki

Erina and Hotaru are best friends, and they've known each other since middle school. Even though they weren't classmates during their first year at Nantoka, they still maintained their friendship. Hotaru is usually the voice of reason for Erina when she has weird ideas, and is constantly taking care of her, such as putting her sunscreen when they were in the beach. Their relationship is strong enough that Hotaru can make fun of Erina's lack of sport skills without it straining their friendship. Hotaru confessed that she has romantic feelings towards Erina but that, just like Akie, she doesn't plan on confessing since she doesn't want to risk losing their friendship. It's not clear when Hotaru started developing feeings for her, although she claims she's loved her for a long time.

### Keita Narabuko

Keita and Hotaru have a friendly relationship, as they're both fan of Go! Heartbeat Cute X. They usually geek out about this series together, especially when something supernatural happens.

### Maiko Narabuko

They have a friendly relationship, despite not talking much. It's usually Erina who is between them, so they're fiends by both being Erina's friend.

### Seraphina Klein

Both Hotaru and Seraphina have a tendency of getting excited over things they like, as shown in chapter 25 where they both very excited to look around Kyoto.

## Gallery

Hotaru in Chapter 6's coverHotaru isn't very subtleA chibi HotaruHotaru, unamusedHotaru looking at ErinaHotaru in Chapter 17's coverHotaru and Erina in chapter 31's coverHotaru wearing mouse ears
## Trivia

* Hotaru is the only character whose name doesn't mean anything related to her role or stereotype.
* Hotaru's favorite series is Go! Heartbeat Cute X, a magical girl show. Her favorite character, Magic Violet, looks a lot like Belladonna, from Erbez's other series COMPI!
* Hotaru has a tutrle named Ton-chan. This is a referrence to K-ON!, where the girls of the light music club adopt a turtle and name it Ton-chan.
* Hotaru probably likes yuri anime. When asked what an anime about her and Erina would be called, she quoted names similar to yuri anime such as Sweet Blue Flowers, Sasakemi Koto (Whipsered words) or Sakura Kiss.
* Her color pallette, with pink eyes and green hair, matches with Erina's, who has pink hair and green eyes.
* Hotaru is good at cooking.
* Hotaru has an older brother. Nothing is known about him.
* Hotaru is the only character to have explictly stated her sexual orientation in the series, coming out as a lesbian to Akie.
* She received one vote during the beauty contest poll, and did not qualify to participate in it.
* She dressed up as a mouse during the Pet day.