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 time at Sakurazaka High School, Akane was noted to be a beautiful teenage girl with black hair and eyes. As for her clothing, she wore the Sakurazaka High School uniform which consisted of a standard white school blazer coat, light blue shirt, blue skirt, black stocking, and blue tie. 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 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
"When I'm with you, I start thinking about the past... It's weird, right?"

- Akane to Minoru

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. This is most notable with her classsmate Minoru, as he kept repeatly misnaming her name, but after her second kidnapping and being resuced by Minoru and with the latter finally pronoucing her name correctly, she would try to be on better terms with him. After finding out that he saved her, she would hold him in high regards even after his death and after the latter's reincranation.

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.

Powers & Abilities
Initially a normal human, following the fall of Japan, Akane was experimented on and turned into a superhuman referred to as a "Knight". In fact, she is noted to be powerful even compared to her peers. However, this is only by Earth standards, struggling against Magic Beasts Shadow and Beta viewed as "little fish".

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 would resume her acting career until the invasion of magical beasts.

Physical Prowess
Being a Knight, Akane boasts strength superior to an ordinary human.

Swordsmanship
Akane wields a katana that she infused with her magic and is quite skilled at wielding it, capable of cutting down multiple Beasts in a single strike. In the manga, she was able to cut a bullet.

Magic
Akane was born a normal human with no magic whatsoever. But during the fall of Japan, after being experimented by her brother by being injected with the blood of Magic Beast, she "Awakened" her power after becoming a Knight. Akane's magic is so strong that she managed to blow other Knights just by releasing her power. However, her magic skills are still far inferior to those of the Shadow Garden and even Crimson Order members and possibly even regular inhabitants of the other world.

Standard Equipment:

 * Katana: After becoming a Knight, Akane uses a Katana as her main weapon. Akane is able to infuse magic with her katana to enchance the blade. In the manga, she has also shown to be proficient enough to cut a bullet.
 * Hachet: In the manga, after Akane had used a Hachet when she first became the "First Kight", that she used to destroy Arcadia when she went on a rampage when her powers went out of control.

Awakening of the First Knight
Akane is the infamous "First knight", having been injected with the blood of multiple Beasts by her brother. In this state, she manipulates her magic power as golden light, which she can use to shoot balls of energy from all around her that pierce right through a person. Akane initially had no control over this form, only entering it when forcefully injected with magic and attacking everyone in sight.

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 struggles against hoards of Magical beasts during a stampee. One of the biggest flaws within Akane is her magic capabilities. Due to how latent magic was until the invasion, she alongside other Knights of Earth have limited magic capabilities as they primarily use them to imbue their weapons against magical beasts. Her biggest shortcoming was that she has no control of her magic when she enters her "First Knight" state. This mainly is due to injection of the blood of magical beings such as Magical Beasts and the Brute's and as a result, 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 finally control her First Knight state. However, even after injected of the Brute's blood Akane would not be considered as strong as she used to 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.