Akane Nishino

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Chronology
Relationships
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## Akane Nishino

* Light Novel
* Manga
* Anime

### Aliases

Senpai (by students of Sakurazaka Senior High)
Nishimura/Nishitani (by Minoru who got her name wrong)
The Savior (by Knights of Messiah)
First Knight
Original Knight
Otherworlder (by Shadow Garden)
No. 712
Akane Nishimura (By Shadow Garden)

## Characteristics

### Age

17 (Debut)
20 (Current;Volume 4)

### Hair Color

Black
Golden/Blonde (Awakened)

### Eye Color

Black (Formerly)
Red

## Personal Information

### Relatives

* Unnamed Father (Deceased)
* Unnamed Mother (Deceased)
* Akira Nishino (Older Brother; Deceased)

## Professional Information

### Occupation

* Student of Sakurazaka Senior High (Formerly)
* Actress (Formerly)
* Knight

### Affiliation

Arcadia (formerly)
Messiah (formerly)
Shadow Garden

## Debut

### Movie

The Eminence in Shadow Movie: Lost Echoes

## Portrayal

### German

Zina Laus

**Akane Nishino** (西野（にしの）アカネ, *Nishino Akane*?) is a former classmate of Minoru Kageno in his previous life. Following the fall of Japan to Magical Beasts, she became a "Knight" in the human settlement of Messiah. After being 'kidnapped' by Beta, she is inducted into Shadow Garden as **No. 712**.

## Appearance

During her attendance at Sakurazaka Senior High, Akane was noted to be a beautiful teenage girl with long black hair and eyes. She donned her family's school uniform consisted of a standard white school blazer coat, light blue shirt, a blue skirt and tie, and black tights. Akane has three hair accessories that she wears on her hair, on her right bang she wears a flower hairclip and on her left bang she wears two silver hair clips. Akane has her hair styled up in a half-up, half-down style with half-braided with a ponytail, Akane also has three braids hanging down her back with the second braid tied in ponytail.

Following her "Awakening", her eyes changed from black to red. In addition, when she became the "Original Knight", her hair changed from black to blonde. She still donned her high school uniform which had been used as a standard uniform for the Messiah's Knights.

## Personality

Akane appeared to have presented herself as a proper, well-mannered young lady but that was just a front. In truth, she was a scared, troubled girl traumatized by her kidnapping and its subsequent scandal. She masked her true self in an attempt for others not to hate her, to get along with them and to avoid being hated as a reminder of her kidnapping. This is most notable with her classmate Minoru, someone she hated for misnaming her name repeatedly and looking past her until her second kidnapping. After being saved by Minoru, he began to call her name and looked at her properly. After finding out that he saved her, she realized that he was like her, and their relationship began to reconcile. She held an immense fondness over him even after his death and after finding out he was still alive after the latter's reincarnation.

After causing the destruction of Arcadia, Akane masked her true personality once more. She was unable to bear the immense guilt and developed suicidal tendencies, yearning to end her own life as penance. The incident also made her value human life and will do everything in her power to protect others from harm, even from her own allies.

## Powers & Abilities

### Pre-Awakening

Originally, Akane was an ordinary human with no magic whatsoever, being utterly unable to defend herself when some thugs abducted her.

**Acting**: Prior to the fall of Japan, Akane was noted to have been an up-and-coming actress.

### Post-Awakening

After the downfall of Japan, Akane gained magical abilities through human experimentation, becoming a superhuman referred to as a *Knight*. In fact, she is noted to be powerful even compared to other Knight and could potentially be the strongest magic user on Earth. However, her abilities are still far inferior compared to those of the member of Shadow Garden, struggling against Magical Beasts that Shadow and Beta claimed were "small fry".

**Swordsmanship**: Akane wields a katana she infused with her magic and is proficient with it. Her magic infused blade is capable of cutting down dozens of Magical Beasts in a single strike. Akane is also proficient enough that she can quickly cut a bullet from a gun. *[MANGA ONLY*]

**Magic**: Akane's magic is strong enough to blow away other Knights with ease. However, she primarily uses her mana by infusing it into her weapon to drastically increase its cutting power. Also, her magic skills are still far inferior to members of Shadow Garden and even Crimson Order.

#### First Knight

Akane is actually the infamous *First Knight*, having been injected with Magical Beasts blood by her brother. She initially had no control over this state, attacking everyone in sight until her magic ran out and recalling nothing of what she did during that time. After being brought to the other world, however, Akane began training to learn to control her powers.

**Enhanced Strength**: As the First Knight, Akane's already great physical abilities are further increased, with her punches being capable of piercing right through a person.

**Enhanced Magic**: As the First Knight, Akane can use her magic to fire off energy balls of golden light that are capable of piercing right through a person.

### Weapons and Equipment

* **Katana:** Akane's main weapon. She is able to infuse magic with her katana to enhance the blade.
* **Hatchet:** In the manga, Akane used a Hatchet in an instance as the Original Knight. This was during the destruction of Arcadia where her magical prowess went out of control and had caused her to go berserk.[MANGA ONLY]
* **Baton:** In the anime, Akane uses an extendable Baton.[ANIME ONLY]
* **School Uniform:** Standard equipment distributed to the Messiah's Knights as a means to distinguish them from their inhabitants. Once used to indicate a student's occupation and overall offers no noticeable protection whatsoever.

### Weaknesses

**Poor Physique**: Despite being revered as the "Strongest Knight" by her peers, as mentioned prior, Akane's abilities are still far inferior to those of the members of Shadow Garden, struggling against a stampede of "small fry" Magical Beasts.

**Poor Magic**: One of Akane's biggest flaws is her magical prowess, which stems from her and other Earthlings having a very limited understanding of it due to how latent it was before the fall of Japan.

**Lack of Control**: Akane's biggest shortcoming is her going berserk whenever she enters her First Knight form. This is primarily due to injection of Magical Beast blood causing a magic power overflow. While she has started learning to control her First Knight state after being taken to the other world, so far, her efforts have yet to show fruit.

## Trivia

* The name Akane means "deep red, dye from the Rubia plant" (茜).
	+ This is also evident to Akane's red eyes.
* Akane also means "excellent, beautiful, good" (佳).
* Akane can also mean "flower" (花).
* Akane's surname **Nishino** (西野) means "west," (西) (**Nishi**) and "field, wilderness" (野) (**no**).
	+ The name **Nishimura** (西村) the first mispronounced names that Minoru had addressed Akane means "west" (西) (**Nishi**) and "town, village" (村) (**mura**).
	+ The name **Nishitani** (西谷) the second mispronounced names that Minoru had addressed Akane means "west", (西) (**Nishi**) and "valley, ravine" (谷) (**tani**).
* Akane's magic in the Anime is a cyan color.*[ANIME ONLY*]
* Akane's story parallels to Aurora's; both became monsters against their will and desired death for the destruction they caused.
* In the anime, Akane's eyes are red instead of black. Whether this is an oversight by Nexus is unclear.
* Akane (after being experimented) and Claire have a similar facial feature, that is black hair and red eyes. Because Nexus overlooked the fact that Akane's eyes were black before being experimented, there was a wild and unbased speculations that Claire is Akane's reincarnation, although in fact, that was not the case at all (and Akane was still alive at that time).
	+ Both wear black tights.
	+ Both Claire and Akane have a similar obsession with Cid/Minoru.
	+ Both were once kidnapped and saved by him.
	+ Both are able recognize some traits from him.
* To this day, it is partly unknown what happened to Akane's parents, according to how she told her story to Minoru, they died when the Magical Beasts invaded Earth.
* In the anime, it was shown that when he attempted to carry out his "Confession Rejection" plan by performing a fake confession to his partner, Alexia Midgar, who is one of the most popular girls at the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, he thought of Akane Nishino. Akane was the most popular girl in his previous life when he was still Minoru Kageno.
* According to Akane while The First Knight Mode vs The Black Knight in Manga Chapter 54, Minoru is her biggest inspiration to become someone strong to save the weak and can help many people in need. In short, she wants to become a **Hero**, just like him who had saved her from kidnapping before Minoru's death. Therefore, it explains why Akane decided to partake in the First Knight Creation Project in the first place; to save people from despair.
* Akane is Minoru's low-key stalker and she developed crush and love-interest on him. On top of that, those feelings of hers was still growing.
* Akane, who was scared of the eyes of people staring at her in distance, also known as stalker, ironically becomes Minoru's **stalker** after he saved her from her second kidnapping. She openly admits to Minoru (Cid) that she had spent a long time watching him, before and after her kidnapping, and a long time more before his death. As a result, Minoru being shuddered and questioned her being a stalker.
* In Manga Chapter 51, as Minoru spotted a **dried blood** on his uniform's left wrist, the same spot where he beat up some thugs in his past life, he was surprised and asked inwardly why Akane kept his old uniform as a **something precious** to her (although in Light Novel, he brushed that thought off as if it is just his imagination).

## References

1. ↑ Volume 4 Auxiliary Chapter: Rise of the Fancy Hoodlum Slayer!
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Volume 4 Chapter 4: Lurking in the Darkness in Fantastical Japan!
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Volume 4 Epilogue: Behold, a Full-Fledged Eminence in Shadow!
4. ↑ Manga Chapter 50
5. ↑ *Episode 32*
6. ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 5: Sneaking Around in Japan, Just like the Old Days!!
7. ↑ Episode 3