Akane Nishino

Akane Nishino (西野アカネ) is the daughter of the CEO of Nishino Conglomerate and the former classmate of Minoru Kagenou, Cid's pre-reincarnated self.

After being saved by Cid, she is taken into the otherworld by Beta.

Appearance
During her time at Sakurazka Senior High, Akane was noted to be a beautiful teenage girl with black hair and eyes. As for her clothing, she wore the standard white school coat, shirt, skirt, stocking, and bow tie.

Following her "Awakening", her eyes changed from black to red. In addition, when she becomes the "First Knight", her hair changes from black to blonde. She also still wears her high school uniform, which had been used as a standard uniform for the knights of Messiah.

Personality
Akane seemingly 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 the scandal that resulted from it. She hid her true self behind a mask in an attempt for people to adore her and not hate her and be reminded of her kidnapping.

After causing the destruction of Arcadia, Akane once more masked her true personality. She could not deal with the immense guilt and developed suicidal tendencies, desiring to end her own life as penance for her crimes. The incident also made Akane valued human life and will do everything in her power to protect others from harms, even from her own allies.

Background
In her childhood, Nishino had started her acting career, becoming a famous actress. When she was at Junior High however, she was kidnapped by a stalker and although she was rescued, the event caused her to put her acting career on hold for a while her parents would arrange a car and driver for her to return home safely.

Nishino eventually did return to acting during High school. It was there where she met Minoru Kagenou, a classmate who Akane came to hate after the teen repeatedly failed to recognize her. After taking a remedial class, Nishino chose to go home on foot after her cellphone lost power. Suddenly, a black van appeared and a man came out to kidnap her. Just before she passed out, she saw Minoru coming to her aid.

Nishino woke up and discovered herself, bound and gagged. She learned from her kidnappers that they intend to use her as ransom, to force her parents to offer money to them. However before that happened, the kidnappers decided to have their way with her much to the teenager's horror. Before she was about to be raped, Minoru, disguising as the Stylish Badguy Slayer broke into their hideout to rescue her. Nishino watched in awe as the Stylish Badguy Slayer fought off the kidnappers, even killing the leader. Nishino was freed and she returned home.

The next day, Nishino recalled the events the following day before encountering Minoru at the school gates. To her surprise, Minoru remembered her name. After that, Nishino, relieved by this change decided to follow Minoru and conversed with him some more.

The Birth of the First Knight
At some point following Japan being invaded, Akane took part in a project at Arcadia as a test subject to create warriors in battling the monsters. The project succeeded and Akane gained magical abilities and became who people refer to as "The First Knight". While the project was a success, Akane's older brother, Akira was not satisfied with the results and experimented on his sister to further develop her powers. This backfired horribly as Akane lost control of her powers and she went on a rampage that destroyed Arcadia, killing many people in the process.

The trauma of the event caused Akane to bury the memory deep inside, making her forget it. The now amnesiac Akane and Akira fled and took refuge with another group called Messiah whose base was set up at Nishino University.

Reunion
Akane headed towards an abandoned hospital to rescue the three knights who were dispatched there before but didn't return. She entered the hospital, despite knowing it was a magical beast nest. After dealing with several of the beasts, Akane discovered that not only was the nest brutally eradicated but there were two human survivors. Noticing that one of the two survivors was exhibiting the symptoms of awakening, Akane decided to take the two back to Messiah.

Once they reached Messiah, Akane chose to take one of the survivors, Minoru, under her care. The other survivor, Minoru's sister, Natsume, was taken in by Akira so that he could examine her condition. She would slowly open up to Minoru because of how he reminded her of her late classmate, Minoru Kagenou. During Minoru's stay, he would get assaulted by Yudai Saejima under alleged suspicions of being a spy. Akane immediately defended Minoru. However, Akane froze when Saejima revealed that he was aware of her dark past.

Suddenly, magical beasts began to attack Messiah. Akane joined alongside her fellow knights to defend Messiah. Regardless of their efforts, the defensive was slowly being overwhelmed. She decided to charge toward the horde to attract the beasts away from Messiah. Even with her superior abilities, she couldn't fight off all the beasts. Thankfully, a jet-blacked-robed figure appeared and wiped out all the beasts before disappearing. Shortly after the battle, Yuka informed Akane that Saejima was murdered. Due to her poor relationship and previous quarrel with Saejima, Akane was accused of the crime. To her joy, Minoru defended her from the accusations. However, Akane began to suffer a breakdown from her past actions until Yuka sedated her, knocking her unconscious.

Then, Akane was kidnapped by Yuka and injected with beast blood. This 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, the mysterious individual dodged all her attacks. Subsequently, he unleashed a powerful magic-infused slash, restoring Akane to her normal condition. Before losing consciousness, Akane heard the figure tell her to be careful not to get kidnapped again.

When Akane woke up, she found herself in a room foreign to her. Recalling the last words of the jet-blacked figure, she realized that he was Minoru Kagenou. She vows to atone for her actions so that she can reunite with him.

Powers & Abilities
Akane was born a normal human with no magic whatsoever. Instead, she "Awakened" her power after being experimented on, becoming a superhuman referred to as a "Knight". In fact, Akane was noted to be strong even by other Knights' standards, capable of blowing them away with her magic power alone. When she is injected with large quantities of magic, Akane will enter a berserk state known as the "First knight". In this form, her powers are further augmented to the point that she was able to single-handedly wipe out Arcadia, Japan's largest post-apocalyptic human settlement.

However, while Akane might be powerful by Earth standards, her abilities are still far inferior to those of the members of Shadow Garden and possibly even regular Black Knights of the other world. This is seen in how she, in her regular state, struggles against Magical Beasts that the Shadow and Beta claim to be "small fry".

Minoru Kagenou
At the start, Akane despised Minoru, not because of him not remembering her name but because as Akane puts it "he never looks at her". She tries her best to avoid him at all times and keep their conversations incredibly short. When Akane got kidnapped, a ski-masked vigilante rescued her. Before he left, the vigilante told Akane to be careful and not to get kidnapped. After that, when Minoru finally remembers her name, Akane realized that like her, he is also masking his true self. Eventually, Akane figured out that Minoru was the vigilante and she developed romantic feelings for him. Minoru's death deeply affected her as even years had passed, she kept his school uniform and yearned for him to return to her.

After being forced into her First Knight state, she was returned to normal by Shadow who told Akane the same lines Minoru said to her when he rescued her. Akane realized that Shadow was Minoru.

Trivia

 * In the epilogue of volume 4, it is revealed that Akane knows Minoru is still alive and that she fell in love with him.
 * Akane's story parallels Aurora's; both became monsters against their will and desired death for the destruction they caused.
 * Outside of Shadow Garden, Akane is one of the few people who knew Shadow's real identity as Cid Kagenou, including Elizabeth and Aurora.