Akane Nishino

"Wait for me Minoru."

- Akane

Akane Nishino (西野アカネ) is a former classmate of Minoru Kagenō in his previous life. Following the fall of Japan to Magical Beasts, she became a "Knight" in the human settlement of Messiah.

Appearance
During her attendance at Sakurazaka Senior High, Akane was noted to be a beautiful teenage girl with 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 stockings. Akane wears three hair clips, one being a star hairclip on the right side of her hair and two hair clips on the left side of her hair.

Following her "Awakening", her eyes changed from black to red. In addition, when she became the "First 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
"When I'm with you, I start thinking about the past... It's weird, right?"

- Akane to Minoru

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 it's subsequent scandal. She masked her true self in an attempt for others to adore 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 until her second kidnapping. After being saved by Minoru, he began to calling her name 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 the 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
Initially a normal human until the fall of Japan, Akane was experimented on and turned into a superhuman referred to as a "Knight". She's noted to be more powerful amongst her peers and could potentially be considered to be the strongest Knight on Earth. However, she was noted to have struggled against hordes of magical beasts and was nearly killed by them when the Black Knight saved her. When she visited the abandoned hospital, she was horrified to have witnessed dozens of magical beasts corpse and knew that it couldn't have been a human feat. Alas, she guessed incorrectly and assumed it was done by the Brute.

Acting
Prior to the fall Japan, She was an up and coming actress until she was involved in a scandal. After recovering from the trauma of said scandal, she resumed her acting career until the invasion of magical beasts.

Physical Prowess
As a Knight, Akane boasts strength superior to an ordinary human. However, her strength is abnormal compared the Messiah's Knights as her blood contained magical beasts'.

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. In the manga, she was able to cut through a bullet.

Magic
Akane was born a normal human with no innate magic. During the fall of Japan, she was experimented by her brother after being injected with the blood of Magic Beasts, Due to this, she "Awakened" her power after becoming a Knight. Akane's magic is strong enough to blow other knights away on it's own. However, her magic skills are still far inferior to members of Shadow Garden and even Crimson Order members. At worst, it could be possibly worse than to even regular inhabitants of the Other World.

Standard Equipment:

 * Katana: Akane's main weapon. She is able to infuse magic with her katana to enhance the blade. In the manga, she has also shown to be proficient enough to cut through a bullet.
 * Hachet: In the manga, Akane used a Hachet in an instance as the First Knight. This was during the the destruction of Arcadia where her magical prowess went out of control and had caused her to go berserk.
 * 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.

Awakening of the First Knight
Akane is the infamous First knight after being injected with the blood of magical beasts by her brother. In this state, she manipulates her magic power into a golden light energy balls that can pierce right through a person. She initially had no control over this form, only being able to in her First Knight state.

After being brought to the other world, Akane began training to learn to control the "First Knight's" power.

Weaknesses
Despite being revered as possibly the strongest Knight by her peers, she struggled against hoards of Magical beasts during a stampede. One of the biggest flaws within Akane is her magical prowess. Due to how latent magic was until the invasion, she alongside other Knights of Earth have limited magic capabilities as they used them primarily to imbue their weapons against magical beasts. Her biggest shortcoming was that she had no control of her magic when she enters her First Knight state. This is primarily due to injection of the blood from entities such as magical beasts and the Brute's thus, she would overflow in magic and go berserk. This was until she was saved by Shadow and brought to the Other World by Beta it was when she was able to gain control her First Knight state. Even after injected of the Brute's blood however, Akane would no longer be considered as strong as before due to the discrepancy between Earth's Knights and the Other World's.

Trivia

 * 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 know Shadow's true identity as Cid Kagenō, the others being Aurora, Elisabeth, and deceased Lutheran Barnett.
 * In the anime, Akane's are red instead of black. Whether this is an oversight by Nexus is unclear.