Azusa Tachibana

**Azusa Kimber Tachibana** is the main character and protagonist of *Chlorine Grown Roses*.

## Azusa Kimber Tachibana

### Aliases

Azuza, Asuza, Asusa, Azasa, Azus, many more

### Relatives

Unnamed Parents †, Makoto Tachibana (cousin) †, Ran and Ren Tachibana (cousins), Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana (uncle and aunt), Chiasa Tachibana (cousin)

## Biographical information

### Marital status

Presumably single (after the events of chapter 46)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Green, the right eye has a pink heart in it

## Appearance

Azusa has fair skin and is 165 cm tall. She has long black hair with blonde tips that is usually styled in twin tails, the right one being considerably shorter than the other which reaches her hips.

She usually dresses in a dark violet coloured long sleeve shirt under her black dress which has a light grey cross image on its chest area. The look is completed by her black thighs and matching combat boots decorated with skulls. Occasionally she adds two dark red ribbons in her hair.

When she's at school, she wears the school uniform consisting of a black blazer, a white shirt accompanied by a green bow and a brown skirt. She additionally wears grey thighs and black shoes.

## Personality

Azusa is a very delicate person. She is more on the introverted side and shy. She can quickly start crying, whether someone teases her or if she has to think of her parents. Even before her parents' death Azusa was somewhat gloomy, as seen in the Christmas flashback.

## History

***The following section contains massive spoilers for all of Chlorine Grown Roses. Reader beware!***

 Azusa was born in America in 1993. Her parents are very wealthy and have a lot of maids and butler serving their mansion, though they themselves are rarely home because of work. Azusa still loved them very much and spent her time with either her maids or chats online with her friend Akira.

Azusa has always been bullied in school, partly because of her looks, partly because of her incredible intellect which allowed her to skip two grades. Another reason are her incredible skills at swimming, as she states she has mastered all strokes and was the best on the team. However, after her parents are murdered in 2007, Azusa stops going to school.

The present Chlorine Grown Roses canon begins on (approximately) June 16, 2008.

One year after her parents' demise, she receives a letter from her cousin Makoto who tells her to come live with him in Iwatobi, a small town in Japan. Azusa follows the invitation, moves in and soon resumes going to school at Iwatobi High. On the first day of school, Azusa and Makoto briefly stop to pick up Haru (who is sitting in his bathtub half-naked, notably making both Makoto *and* Azusa blush) before arriving on time.

While at school, Azusa attempts to introduce herself to the class, but bursts out in tears (because she "*didnt know what to say without making everyone sad because of my trajic past." (Chapter 3*) and runs away to the bathroom, where she proceeds to cry for a full hour in one of the stalls. The waterworks stall when , Rin's little sister, knocks on the door to ask her what's going on. The two immediately become friends, and it is through Kou that Azusa learns about the swim team. Azusa accompanies Kou and Makoto to the swim practice after school, where she meets Nagisa and Rei (described as "blonde shota" and "blue haired boy with glasses", respectively). She joins the swim team, despite the fact that it is all-male, upon Rei's suggestion. It is at this particular swim practice that Kou shows Azusa a picture of , with whom she is immediately infatuated. Azusa makes a vow to see him after learning that he attends Samezuka Academy.

The next day, after searching for an hour, she finds Samezuka Academy and proceeds to break in so she can ogle Rin while he swims. Instead of doing the sensible thing and calling the police, suddenly tsundere Rin invites Azusa to a date the following day- at the local 7-11. At 5:05 P.M, he shows up and they have their (extremely short) date, which ends with Rin saying that he's going to visit Azusa's house the following day. In preparation for Rin's visit, Azusa decides to paint her bedroom black and cover it in anime and band posters. She briefly mentions that, while out getting supplies from the local Home Depot, she ran into "*a girl i recognized... but, I don't know where..." (Chapter 8)*

Azusa attends school the following day, before Rin's visit, and meets the mysterious at 7-11. Azusa reveals that this is the girl she met yesterday at the Home Depot, but still cannot remember where she's seen her before. When Azusa arrives at school, Miho announces the arrival of another new transfer student- . (Sexual tension is established between Azusa and Akira throughout the fanfiction when Azusa repeatedly takes note of Akira's breasts; this encounter is only the first time that this occurs.) Azusa realizes that Akira is her online friend, whom she used to correspond with before her parents' deaths.

Akira and Azusa walk home from school to Akira's house, where they are met by an aggressively introverted Aunt Homura. Aunt Homura denounces Azusa as "*s-starting at me...i-is it because you t-think I'm an ugly b-bitch?!*" (Chapter 9), and when Azusa denies this, she snaps "*You're l-lying! Y-your'e only saying that, b-because you f-feel s-sorry for me! Akira, why do you're f-friends do this, all the d-damn t-time!!*" (Chapter 9). After briefly snacking in the kitchen, Azusa abruptly leaves for Rin's visit.

Azusa changes into a dress when she gets home, and once Rin arrives, she invites him into her newly-redecorated bedroom. After a brief conversation, they begin to make out and are interrupted by a phone call from Akira, who is screaming and crying for the two of them to return to Akira's house. Upon their arrival, Azusa sees that Aunt Homura has been murdered with a baseball bat, and she promptly faints. When she regains consciousness, she investigates the murder with the rest of the group, but they fail to produce a suspect. reappears, and at her request, everyone goes home. Akira, now having nowhere to stay, moves in with Azusa and they become roommates. The next day, Akira joins the swim team along with Azusa. (It should be noted that, while Akira's skills are tested by the group, Azusa had to undergo no such testing).

Swim practice commences as usual on the following day, but Azusa is in emotional shambles and cannot stop thinking about both Homura's death and the deaths of her parents. When Azusa gets in the pool to swim laps for an upcoming swim meet, she hits her head on the pool bottom and nearly drowns. Haru revives her with CPR, but Azusa realizes that she now has a crush on both Haru AND Rin.

Bedridden from her injuries, Azusa spends the entire day ruminating on her romantic dilemma, updating her myspace blog about her feelings for Haru, and drawing a picture of a stabbed heart. She decides to go to Hot Topic, where she meets Kou and Akira, to see if *"i could meet anyone there, someone who would make me foreget, my struggles, what i'm going thru...*" (Chapter 14).

Kimmy, appearing once more, pulls Azusa aside and reveals her status as a 12 year old Canadian detective investigating the various murders of Azusa's parents, Akira's parents, and now Aunt Homura. She sets up shop in the basement, and the following morning, reveals to Azusa and Akira a list of suspects including Nitori, (Azusa's former maid), , (Azusa's former maid, though she is revealed as being murdered in the next few lines), the Yakuza, and Azusa's never-before-mentioned cousin Chiasa. Azusa asks how likely it is that Chiasa is the murderer, and when Kimmy replies "very likely", Azusa flies into a rage and begins throwing and hitting things at random. One of these things happens to be Akira, who is subsequently killed from Azusa striking her in the head.

Azusa wakes up in a straitjacket in a mental hospital, and a doctor informs her that she has ".*..at least three mental illnesses... You'll be staying here for a few days.*" (Chapter 16). Azusa decides to escape from the straitjacket, citing her underweight frame as an excuse for why she's able to do this, so that she can reach her belongings on the room's bookshelf. She then falls asleep listening to Linkin Park.

She cries for an hour upon waking and remembering the events of the previous day, but later leaves the room for a glass of water. She bumps into Masehiko, who threatens to kill her if she rats Chiasa (his girlfriend) out to the police. Azusa, frightened, returns to her bedroom and falls into a fitful sleep.

She wakes up again in the middle of the night and cautiously makes her way out of the room for a second drink of water before she hears crying from another room. She then meets Hitomi Styles, who she becomes friends with immediately, and learns about Hitomi's magic powers and the fact that her inability to control them lead to the deaths of her own parents. Hitomi reveals to her that Kimmy goes to her private school, L'eau de Rose Private Junior High for Intellectually Gifted Girls Japanese Branch, and Azusa struggles with revealing that she murdered Akira. Azusa keeps this secret to herself before returning to bed.

Azusa meets Hitomi's friend group the following day; Luna Moon, Esther Darkfeather, Shatter Nymphnight, Yami Yagami, and Conchita Fuentes. The group bonds over poorly-drawn yaoi and ship arguments before Makoto enters to briefly visit Azusa. She then takes a nap but is awoken by Masahiko, who is being restrained by doctors, yelling that he doesn't want to have to stay in the mental hospital.

Kimmy wakes Azusa up the next morning and drags her down to the interrogation room, where Masahiko has been detained. Azusa is present for the interrogation, but Masahiko refuses to reveal anything about Chiasa's whereabouts. Azusa begins to cry ~~again~~ at his statement: "*Chiasa always knows where you are, because she's a genuis. You can't hide from us, where everywhere. We want you to suffer, Azuza Taichibana...*" (Chapter 20). Azusa, shockingly, is torn over Masahiko. While she knows him to be a murderer, she doesn't believe that he deserves the torture that Kimmy is putting him through. Azusa cries herself to sleep, believing that Masahiko might really be a better person.

The next day, she dresses herself and has a hearty Captain Crunch breakfast with the asylum squad. Hitomi asks when Kimmy is going to come back, and Azusa suddenly fears for his safety- what if Kimmy never comes back, and he dies? She starts to cry and runs to her room, where she stays for the entire rest of the day.

When night arrives, she gets changed again and sneaks out of her room, planning to release Masahiko and "help him become, a better person........" (Chapter 21). However, she is stopped by Yami, who is aware of her plan. Out of concern that Masahiko will endanger his boyfriend, Yami refuses to allow her entry and Azusa ends up blacking out " because of my worry......." (Chapter 21). Yami is gone when she regains consciousness, and Azusa is able to go right into Masahiko's room.

Still tied up, he yells at her for crying, to which Azusa tells him to "shut the fuck up" as she goes to untie him. She frees him, suddenly bolder and more vulgar, and he runs out the door screaming that he's still going to make her suffer. Before escaping, he hits Azusa in the head with a shoe, and she blacks out again. When she wakes up (again), Kimmy has discovered Masahiko's escape and tells a confused Azusa that "The security are going to tighten! Now....you'll never leave the institution!!" (Chapter 21).

Azusa starts to cry again, regretting her change of heart, but changes her clothes to go to breakfast anyway. Security has indeed been tightened; guards with tazers are standing at every door. (Azusa cries again because she's afraid of getting tazed.) She reaches the cafeteria and has breakfast with the rest of the group, all of whom are upset. She returns to her room after breakfast and is reading Twilight when security escorts Rin into the room. As soon as they're alone, Rin promises to help her escape if she isn't released, proclaiming "I'll do anythong for you Azusa." Said rin sexily." (Chapter 22). Rin mentions that the Iwatobi group hasn't seen Nagisa for several days before he and Azusa start making out.

(This portion of the chapter was edited after its first publication. Originally, this followed:
"We made out for a while. Rin unhooked my bra and i took of his shirt. I sexily unbuttoned his pants, and he took off my shoes and socks. Rihgt before we did more thuogh, a security guard came in!”
This scene has since been deleted, but had been caught by a fan who saw the update first.)

Rin is dragged out of the room mid-tonsil hockey, and Azusa cries. About twenty minutes later, the asylum squad shows up at Azusa's door and ushers her into Hitomi's room, where they've collected "a map, three papers, a baseball bat, duck tape, and a rope." (Chapter 22). Hitomi states the plan: at 1:15 AM, the group will gather in her room, smash the window, and climb down to freedom. The group watches Nightmare Before Christmas until it's time to escape, and they make it as far as the ground floor before they're caught by security. Yami, Shatter, and Azusa are all tazed; the latter blacks out.

Azusa reawakens in her room again several hours later and manages to wriggle out of her straightjacket, which is "loose on her", before going to sleep. She sleeps through breakfasst and discovers a note on her door from a "KM" telling her to meet in the cafeteria at 3:30 AM the following day. She meets Shatter out in the hall, who has escaped from his straightjacket thanks to Hitomi's magic.

When the group reconvenes in Shatter's room, all of them try to uncover the author of the notes they've recieved. Kimmy is immediately out of the question because her last initial is S. Azusa meets up with the group the following day, and reveals herself as the author of the notes. She explains that she's been using Masahiko's empty room as cover, and while Azusa is relieved to escape, she notices that "she seemed sorter, from usual, and her perportions were kind of different....." (Chapter 23). Kou rushes the group back to Masahiko's old room, where Azusa is the last to climb down through the window. As she starts her descent, she bumps into Kou- who is really Masahiko in a wig and mask. He pushes Azusa out of the window, and she blacks out again.

Azusa regains consciousness in her room at the Tachibana household, with the asylum squad and her aunt and uncle surrounding her. She falls asleep a second time. When she reawakens, the asylum group shares their current living situations before Makoto and Haru walk in and say that Rin is coming by so that the entire group can visit Akira in the hospital. Azusa is shocked by this news, as she had believed that she'd killed Akira before entering the hospital, but she had been hospitalized for "severe ingurys" (Chapter 24) and was now well enough to accept visitors. During the visit, Azusa recieves a call from Masahiko, saying "Your a fucking idiot. You better watch out bitch. I"m serious." (Chapter 25).

Azusa goes home that night and suffers a nightmare in which she was "bing drowned, by a girl, with blood red eyes, like the color of blood, in a pool i vaguely remembered, but right when i was about to die, I woke up." (Chapter 25). Azusa recieves a call from Kou telling her that she's late for a swim meet, and Azusa speeds there on Ran's bike. When they arrive, Azusa encounters a girl with " white, pink hair, with pink highlights, that were only one shade darker, scarlette eyes, very pale skin, big boobs (but not as big as akiras) (Azusas not starring at chirikos bewbs this is just a character description ok also i sorta based her appearance off chiaki but i promise i dont hate chiaki!!), a pastel, light pink hoodie, with cat ears, on the hood, a white dress shirt, with a red ribbon, a gray, pleated skirt, light gray socks, and black, may janes. She had a bitchy smirk, on her face." (Chapter 25) who already knows who she is. This is Chiriko Kasane, the only girl on the Samezuka swim team, who absolutely hates Azusa for... some reason. They exchange insults before going back to their respective teams, and Azusa swears that she's seen Chiriko somewhere before.

As Azusa is changing for the meet, she remembers Masahiko's threat and has a panic attack at the idea of Akira being killed at the hospital. She realizes that Chiasa was the one drowning her in her dream and worries that Chiasa is planning to kill everyone.

Azusa swims in the meet and gets first place despite not having practiced for several weeks, and comes in a quarter of a second before Chiriko. When Azusa high-fives Nagisa, he abruptly turns into Thugisa. Rei pulls Azusa aside and explains that the only way to turn him back to normal is by hitting him again, similar to turning off a lightswitch. After this conversation, Azusa goes and reveals the Chiriko situation to Conchita. Conchita informs Azusa of her past, where she gained "some hella great" (Chapter 26) fighting skills from having to live on the streets, and encourages Azusa to sucker punch Chiriko if she harasses her again. Lo and behold, Chiriko appears and starts shit-talking, eventually punching Thugisa and returning him to his normal Nagisa state. Conchita tells Chiriko to fuck off, and the rets of the group praises her as they walk out of the meet. As the group is leaving, Azusa eavesdrops on Makoto and Haru having a conversation. Haru is breaking up with Makoto, and when Makoto notices Azusa listening in, he scowls and mouths "you scumbag". Azusa flees to the locker room to gather her things, but when she comes out again, the entire team is gone.

Azusa walks home with the bike and sees Chiriko vanishing into an alleyway. For some reason, Azusa feels the need to follow her, and Chiriko proceeds to pull a knife on her with a warning to stay away or die. Azusa gets home otherwise safely and heads to bed.

She is woken up by Akira and Rin shaking her awake. Akira has finally ben discharged from the hospital and wants to celebrate. After calling Hitomi, who says that she wants to show Azusa and Akira something "very important" afterwards, they decide to go to the mall. The trio meets the asylum gang at the mall and they shop for several hours before driving to Samezuka to drop Rin off. After Rin leaves, Hitomi, Azusa, and Akira enter the school as Hitomi leads them to her "important thing"- Sosuke Yamazaki, who she has a crush on.

Suddenly, Chiriko appears and begins her usual routine of shit-talking. Though Sosuke has no idea who Hitomi and the others are, he defends the trio and sends Chiriko away. He agrees to meet Hitomi at the mall the next day before the three girls go home. Azusa goes to sleep to end the chapter.

The next day, Azusa and Akira talk over breakfast. Azusa asks if Akira hates her for what she's done, but Akira affirms that she could never hate her. (LESBEANS). They walk to school together and are approached by Kisumi Shigino, who introduces himself to the pair. During class, Azusa recieves a note asking her to go out into the hallway at 10. She is met by Haru there, who admits his love for her, but their moment is ruined when they notice Makoto looking heartbroken. They both return to class, with Azusa worrying about the love triangle making her cousin hate her.

At lunch, Kisumi approaches Azusa and asks if she'd like him to walk her home, seeing as Akira has make-up work for when she was in the hospital. She declines, and makes no mention of the love triangle, as she doesn't want anyone to know until she decides who she loves more.

Though she'd said no, Kisumi and Azusa walk home together anyway, and Azusa arrives home to an empty house with the exception of Makoto. Azusa desperately wants to settle the tension between them and become friends with him again, but enters the house with anxiety filling her head. She searches for Makoto in the darkened house- and discovers him dead, having been shot through the forehead in Azusa's own bedroom. Azusa faints at the sight.

Azusa wakes up some time later in disbelief and runs down to the basement; she asks Kimmy to help her investigate. They conclude that it was accidental and meant to be a death trap for Azusa. Azusa blames Akira for it, as Makoto "wasnr a killer, even if he was jelous" (Chapter 31).

After reaching her conclusion, Azusa also decides that Akira is responsible and runs off to find her while sobbing. She finds Akira walking down the street and grabs her by the collar, slamming her against a streetlight, all the while blaming her for planting ideas in Makoto's head (despite having no evidence). Akira feigns innocence until Kimmy confronts her; she gets angry and angrily storms away. Azusa is upset due to her friend's betrayal, and Kimmy comforts her. Later, everything from the last paragraph is retconned away; Akira was blamed due to the author and beta reader getting in an argument, and when they made up, Akira became free of blame.

Kimmy and Azusa go back to the Tachibana residence and call everyone to tell them of Makoto's demise; Azusa calls Haru  first, but begins to sob and can't stop. She calls again and properly informs him (while still crying), and he hangs up. Rin is informed next, and he rushes over. As he's on his way, Azusa informs Kisumi, Rei , and Kou of the news; she tries to call Nagisa, but he doesn't pick up, and Kimmy theorizes he's affiliated with the yakuza.

As Azusa cries more (somehow not dehydrated), Rin arrives; he gets her water, and they kiss. Azusa falls asleep.

We then skip to three days later, to Azusa waking up with "depresion in [her] heart" (Chapter 32); it is apparently the day of the funeral. She gets changed while crying and rode to the funeral (seperate from Makoto's family) with Yami, Shatter, Luna, Conchita, Esther, and Hitomi. They arrive at the funeral, with most of Iwatobi and Makoto's family there; because of her friends' distress, Azusa walks away as the coffin is lowered.

She finds Masahiko, leaning against a tree. When asked, he states that he's there to pay his respects and that he's not a "total basterd" (Chapter 32). He blames her for Makoto's death and ignores anything else she has to say on it, stating that she's just trying to make herself feel better. Kimmy arrives as Masahiko is blaming Azusa, and doesn't do anything to intervene other than mouthing "that's enough". Azusa wonders if she really is to blame.

The funeral ends, and Azusa goes back to the car while the rest of her group lingers by Makoto's grave; she hears a noise and, when she looks, sees a girl. The girl "frek[s] out" and screams when noticed, and disappears behind a "mausoleum gain" (Chapter 32). As Azusa gets in the car, she muses on the fact that the girl spotted looked a lot like , her old maid.

Azusa stays home from school for a week in mourning; when she wakes up one morning, she gets a text from Conchita telling her to "met us at the iwatobi high school gates" (Chapter 33) and that she has a surprise. Azusa put her school uniform on and went to the school to find Conchita at the gates in an Iwatobi uniform. Conchita reveals that she'll be going to Iwatobi, and the two head to class when people start to arrive.

Before class, Kou asks Azusa if she's alright and says that everyone's been worried. Class begins. The teacher welcomes Azusa back and introduces a transfer student; Yami enters the classroom, introduces himself, and sits next to Azusa. He passes her a note telling her to meet him on the school roof at lunch. Azusa worries that he'll blame her for what happened to Makoto as she hurries to her next class, and she runs into Kisumi. They have a brieif exchange, then Azusa goes to class.

At lunch, she goes to the roof to find Conchita, Luna, Esther, Yami, and Shatter. They all go to Iwatobi now, as Azusa learns, and they eat lunch together and make plans to go to the park after school. Yami apologizes for how he acted at the mental hospital, and says that his mother died and his father went missing; he tells her he had a breakdown, and that his sister admitted him to the hospital. He became happier upon meeting Shatter, but was still hurting. Azusa vows to help him find his father.

We get a brief summary of things going well for a while, then skip to the swim meet. Azusa and her teammates (minus Akira, suspended for not wearing her uniform despite most of Azusa's friends not either) prepare. Azusa goes up to the person in charge, and he informs her that there's no girl's butterfly swim time due to Chiriko not arriving. Azusa is relieved; her team wins, and she walks home alone. She passes by an alleyway and gets a foreboding feeling, and is suddenly pushed to the ground.

She sees red eyes staring down at her, and a moment later recognizes her cousin, . Azusa begins crying; Chiasa draws her knife. As she threatens Azusa, but is pushed down a moment later. Masahiko is there, telling Azusa to run, and Chiasa begins to beat him up. Azusa hides instead of running and calls the police. Masahiko doesn't fight back against Chiasa and instead only dodges, and is near passing out due to this. Azusa looks up when she hears sirens, but both Chiasa and Masahiko are gone. She falls asleep after a police officer gives her a blanket.

Azusa wakes up the next morning (a Saturday) and decides to watch a movie; she cries (expected) after thinking of Makoto's death. She then hears the phone ring and answers, but only hears an electrocardiogram's beeps. She somehow knows it's Masahiko and changes, then goes to the hospital (because she somehow know's he's there). She arrives under the hospital and finds Masahiko there under a fake name; he's covered in "cats and bandages. He looked mad but okay I guess" (Chapter 35).

Masahiko is watching a report on the attack of the previous night, and it's revealed that there's a 700,000 yen bounty out for Chiasa. Masahiko is mad about this and tells Azusa it's her fault, but that he doesn't blame her. He says that he stopped his girlfriend due to Azusa being family, and because Chiasa is too young to have this on her record. When Azusa mentioned everyone else Chiasa has killed, Masahiko states that she's "different" and drops the topic. He then forces her out, saying they're not friends and that he'll kill her someday, and Azusa hears glass breaking.

The author's notes of the next chapter tell us that Yami and Shatter broke up.

[NOTE: though it says the day "avert", the next chapter states that Monday was two days away, so the timeline is slightly confusing]. The next day, Azusa wakes up to find Akira gone. She's concerned, but then checks her phone and finds out in a call with Kou that everyone is at the park. After changing and getting some toast from Mrs. Tachibana, Azusa goes to the park. Kou greets her and compliments her outfit; Akira pats her shoulder and invites Azusa to play tag with her and Yami. Azusa turns down the offer and Akira, while disappointed, understands and runs off.

Shatter is sitting to the side on a bench, and Azusa notices and goes to sit with him; she asks him what's up, as he looks sad, and he mentions he dislikes the park. When asked why, he begins to give his Tragic Backstory™.

His friend (and crush) Sophie Church had been hit by a car and died at a park, leaving bad associations for them. Azusa begins crying when she hears about Shatter's past. Shatter says that Yami reminded him of Sophie, and he feared that, if Yami was hurt, he couldn't save him (like what happened with Sophie). He says that he tried to kill himself multiple times; Azusa expresses sympathy. The group heads home, and Azusa begins watching TV; on a news report, it's stated that Masahiko, head of the local yakuza, has gone missing. Anyone with information on him is told to come forward.

On Monday, Akira and Azusa head to school; they go to class, and their teacher notices that Yami is absent from class. Azusa and Akira are worried, and he is still missing when lunchtime comes. Azusa fears something serious is happening, and Kimmy (whose school allowed her to eat lunch at Iwatobi) says she can call Yami's little sister; she does so, and Ruruka says that he hasn't been home all day.

Azusa decides to go search for him, and hears voices coming from an alley after looking for a while. Yami is there with an unknown person who he identifies as Yamamoto  in conversation. Yamamoto threatens him a bit, and Yami gives in to joining the yakuza.

As Azusa begins to make her way back to school in shock, she runs into Chiriko. We find out she was sick last week; the then proceeds to insult Azusa and walk off. Azusa is now angry, and decides that she *will* beat her rival next meet.

As school has ended by this point, Azusa goes to the park to find her friends; instead, she finds Kisumi. He's sad, but when she talks to him, he confesses his love for her and tells her how much she and her friends make him happy (with a very forced One Direction reference). Azusa ignores this completley and instead requests his help in finding her friends. They gather the rest of the group up, and Azusa tells them of Yami's secret (being in the yakuza). Everyone is shocked, and Shatter tells her to prove it.

Despite quite a while having passed, Yami is still in the alleyway when Azusa leads the group back there. Azusa tells him that they know his secret, and after slight pushing, he says that she "doesn't understand". Esther questions why he's in the yakuza, and Yami says that they took Shatter. Everyone is confused; Shatter (or, who they think is Shatter) is with them. Yami decides to take them with him, and they willingly follow, despite knowing he's in the yakuza and possibly dangerous. He refuses to answer their questions.

They arrive at the yakuza base, full of sketchy people, and are led through a long, empty hallway to a locked room with no resistance from anyone else nearby. With no comment on the lax security of the yakuza base, Yami enters a password that unlocks the door and leads everyone inside. They find Shatter, tied to a chair; he calls for help, and Azusa is very confused (as is everyone else).

"Shatter", the one they'd entered with, states he's real; Yami says otherwise. He tells everyone that Shatter was captured Saturday night, and that he joined the yakuza to spy on them. He reveals that the identity of "Shatter" is really Maxwell Grayston, a similar-looking imposter. Yami says that his friends mean everything to him, and that he has information that could lead to Chiasa's  arrest; before he can say who she actually is, he's shot dead. Azusa begins to cry as Hitomi and Conchita free Shatter from the chair. Esther identifies a hidden window, and everyone escapes. Before Azusa, the last to leave, goes through the window, she sees that Maxwell has a gun pointed at his head. She hears a bang, and wonders if Masahiko is alive as she exits the base.

## Relationships

### Rin Matsuoka

Azusa develops a crush on Rin after she sees him, or rather a photo of him, for the first time. It's love at Azusa's first sight, basically. After she's met him, he immediately asks her out. On their second date they're already making out (while Panic! At The Disco is casually playing in the background) and it seems they are officially dating by then. However, he seems to have turned somewhat cold towards her after she's been assigned to the mental hospital, as he barely ever visits her there.

### Haruka Nanase

Haruka is one of Azusa's team mates in the Iwatobi Swimming Club. She sees him as a good friend and hopes he hooks up with her cousin after Kou told her that they are very close. She's cheerful when she first sees Makoto and Haru having become boyfriends and finds them very cute until she almost drowns. Spotting Haru on top of her after having saved her, she realizes she also has feelings for Haru.

### Makoto Tachibana

Makoto is her cousin who invited her to Japan. He generally offers her as much help as he can and always tries to comfort her and make sure she's okay. This changes dramatically when Azusa developes a crush on Haru, Makoto's boyfriend, and starts to threaten her. He returns to his comforting personality again when Azusa is assigned to the mental hospital, so it's unknown if that's just a facade or genuine concern for her.

### Akira Tomuson

Akira was Azusa's only friend before joining the Iwatobi Swim Club. As Akira moved to Japan when she was two years old, she wasn't able to meet Azusa in person, so they chatted online ever since. They lost contact after Azusa's parents died but were able to meet again in Iwatobi. They quickly become best friends again and due to certain circumstances room mates. Through Azusa's many comments on Akira's breast size, it can be implied that Azusa feels some attraction to her.

### Hitomi Wish Styles

After being admitted into the hospital and having a run-in with the yakuza, Azusa meets Hitomi crying in the hallway. They both bond over their tragic pasts, and the following day Hitomi invites Azusa to sit with some of her emo friends. Hitomi and Azusa has since bonded, becoming friends. However, Azusa feels a little guilty about not telling her that she killed the aforementioned .

### Chiasa Tachibana

Chiasa is Azusa's cousin and hates her for no reason given. According to Azusa they only ever met once. She does seem to have some kind of bond to her though, as she absolutely can't believe that her cousin is made out to be the one committing the murders.

### Kirumi Kissu

Azusa has only heard of her but thinks she's a disgusting bimbo. When she sees her perform on stage, she can't help but be appalled by her light, sparkly appearance. As she realizes that Kirumi has a blonde streak in her hair, Azusa accuses her of being her cousin Chiasa in disguise.

## Trivia

* She used to be the best in her swim team but when she has to demonstrate her skills, she almost drowns.
* Apparently, she's smart enough to get into a highly ranked academy known as L'eau De Rose Academy for Girls.
* Common fandom consensus is that Azusa is bisexual, as she comments on Akira's breast size many times throughout the narrative, and later also comments on the breast size of Chiriko Kasane, comparing them to Akira's. However, this has been refuted countless times by Kim.