Nakamori Aoko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluediligence) wrote2016-10-08 08:10 pm
bluediligence) wrote2016-10-08 08:10 pm
Application
IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Nakamori Aoko
Character journal:bluediligence
Series name: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Canon notes: Aoko will be coming over as a CRAU from![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
kyriakos, though she did have a very brief team/amnesia PSL-based start to her story arc post-canon. This all took place after chapter 33 of Magic Kaito. For the purposes of this application, MK and its sister series, Detective Conan, take place in the same universe.
As a note: Aoko's is a world much like the real one! Technology is up to date (or in some cases more advanced; they have advanced robotics and artificial intelligence systems), and most locations and countries are analogous — with a few exceptions, like "Beika", "Haido", "Ekoda", and "The Kingdom of Ingram". Magic is real, and so are mythological creatures, but they're so hidden from society that only a handful of people in the entire world know about them — Aoko is not one of them. Also there are phantom thieves.
Many phantom thieves.
Yeah.
Species: Human.
History:
While explicit canon details regarding Aoko's backstory are thin on the ground, plenty can be inferred! She's the daughter of Police Inspector Nakamori Ginzo and an unnamed, unseen mother; a mother who I assume died when Aoko was very young. Her bereaved father threw himself into his work harder than ever, frequently leaving Aoko to fend for herself … it taught her to be capable from a young age, but it also taught her loneliness.
One day, while she was waiting in front of a clocktower for her father—who was running incredibly late—to get off work, Aoko was approached by a boy. He was her age, and he was cheerful and friendly, and he produced a rose out of thin air just to make her smile: "Hi!" he said, "I'm Kuroba Kaito." It was the start of a beautiful, deep, long-lasting friendship. They grew up with each other, practically inseparable: it was Kaito who kept Aoko company while her father was busy chasing Kaitou Kid, an internationally wanted phantom thief; and it was Aoko who comforted Kaito when his father, the world-renowned magician Kuroba Toichi, died in an accident on stage when they were both eight years old.
Kaitou Kid mysteriously vanished right after this. Aoko's father, who loved chasing the thief—so much so that calling it an "obsession" sounds like an understatement—was bereft. Aoko just kept on truckin', supporting Ginzo while he tried to take solace in other cases.
Fast forward to her second year in high school! Kaitou Kid mysteriously reappears, much to Ginzo's joy and Aoko's irritation. She despises the thief, seeing him as an awful, arrogant bully who takes pleasure in belittling people who are only trying their best … and, incidentally, as the sole reason for her loneliness. (She's never once blamed her father, even when he pulls stunts like, oh, forgetting her birthday, not recognizing her when she's a bit dolled up, etc.) Things with Kaito haven't changed much, either. They're still best friends, hanging out both in school and out of school, and spending more time with each other than anybody else. And boy, do they ever bicker like a married couple. Kaito flips her skirt in class; she tries to take his head off with a mop. He insults the size of her chest; she dishes out his well-deserved punishment.
… unfortunately, this time? Kaitou Kid isn't just some mysterious stranger. Unbeknownst to Aoko, Kid is Kaito, and he'll do anything to keep his best friend from discovering the truth. Hijinks ensue! One notable incident involved Ginzo seeing Kid's—that is to say, Kaito's—face during a heist, and telling Aoko the next morning over breakfast. In a bid to prove her friend's innocence, she demands that he, Kaito, accompany her on a date to Tropical Land, a popular local theme park. (The time she sets is the same as Kid's next heist.) For all its awkward beginning, the date goes well … in both ways: they have fun together, and as far as Aoko's aware, Kaito is by her side the whole time, thereby proving that he's the same old Kaito he's always been—and emphatically not the thief she despises.
Months later, it comes to light that the clocktower where Aoko met Kaito is scheduled to be demolished. Aoko was heartbroken, and not at all comforted by the news that Kaitou Kid had decided to steal it. Yes, that's right: Kaitou Kid sent out a heist notice for an entire clocktower. Aoko attends the heist with her anti-Kid sign in tow, a lone protestor in a sea of fans ... But! The heist reaches a surprising conclusion: though the thief fails to steal the clocktower, he leaves behind a code inscribed on the face of the clock. Until the mysterious code is solved, the police decree, the tower isn't going anywhere.
These are only two of Aoko's adventures, but in terms of character development, they're easily the most important. Other shenanigans include: being knocked unconscious by a pirate; breaking into her school at night to hunt for the ghost that had terrified her friend, Keiko; being knocked out by a crime syndicate who suspect her of being Kaitou Kid; meeting Elizabeth and Philip, Queen and Prince (respectively!) of Ingram on board a train, only to oh so mysteriously fall asleep when Kaitou Kid appears to steal the Queen's precious jewel, the Crystal Mother; infiltrating a billiards bar run by a crime syndicate to help a friend retrieve his precious, gem-encrusted pool cue …
Jungle Training: Some weeks after a show-down between phantom thieves Kaitou Kid and Kaitou Corbeau, Aoko found herself waking up, without any memories, in a mysterious train station in the middle of a jungle. Things only got crazier from there. She discovered that she was a member of Clover, one of twelve teams all named after plants; a friendly boy on Elaeis, who she named "Lucky," gave her the nickname "Soleil"; she, along with the dozens of others who woke up that day, learned that they were under the thumb of two tyrannical twins, Salt and Pepper, who forced them to compete in deadly "games" for the chance to earn back their missing pieces and eventually go home.
Soleil managed it, eventually, and despite everything she was still undeniably herself. Clover had been a determinedly kind-hearted team from start to finish, utterly unwilling to let the twins' sadism grind them down into the dust. It helped that she had Lucky by her side – Lucky, who she eventually found out was Kaito, her best friend from home.
Except, not long after they got home …
Kyriakos: … her world was destroyed, wiped out of existence itself by beings known only as the Reapers. One tiny sliver of Aoko's soul managed held on long enough to be rescued, brought to a safe refuge called "Kyriakos" by its Queen, Estelle. She intended that Kyriakos be a bastion of resistance, where people could have shards of their souls—their memories and skills—returned to them as a reward for winning in games hosted by beings known as "Echoes". This would simultaneously help them reverse engineer their worlds, until all of the damage caused by the Reapers was undone.
Aoko, now known as "Feather," had the very dubious honor of having been chosen for the Queen's own team, the Cats. Unlike the regular teams, the Cats were intended to be a peacekeeping squad who provided assistance to teams and Echoes alike, as well as competing in the games themselves. To facilitate this, they were each given a small, magical pendant with a limited range of abilities – of these, Aoko heavily favoured shielding, teleportation, and healing.
Unfortunately, many people were suspicious of or outright hostile towards the Cats, thinking them nothing more than tools of the system. Aoko was abandoned to die more than once because of this stigma, but things eventually started to improve, both for her personally and for the Cat team as a whole. She found love (in her childhood best friend) and family ("Puma," more commonly known as Agent Washington from Red vs. Blue), and this system of mutual support helped them through many hard times.
For the purpose of Drift Fleet, Aoko will be taken from a week after the defeat of Nyssa, a sadistic, tyrannical Echo who had usurped Kyriakos. However, her memories of Nyssa’s defeat and the immediate build-up to it will be gone.
Personality:
Nakamori Aoko is, in many respects, the typical girl next door. She’s the normal one! The one who enjoys the simple pleasures in life like entering contests, hosting small house parties, and going out to see movies and plays! The (mostly) sensible, down to Earth one, who isn't afraid to call out her peers—many of whom are teen prodigies of some description—when they allow their heads to disappear too far up their behinds. She’s practical and highly intelligent, easily able to keep up in class even when very (very) distracted, and her lonely upbringing with a single, workaholic and frequently absent parent means that she learned how to be independent from a young age. However, for all her booksmarts, she does have a bit of a naïve streak, for example when she mistakenly thinks that a martini is a kind of juice, or accepts a 'prize' (a fancy evening dinner) from a contest that she didn't remember entering.
There’s an awful lot that she loves about life, and it shows. She’s enthusiastic, effusive, and just all-around bright, quick to exclaim over the cuteness of this or how awesome that is, and oh, look, her new classmate is adorable! Her straightforward and light-hearted nature means that sometimes, she’s levelled with accusations of childishness, but when a classmate of hers—Koizumi Akako—offers to make her a charm to “make her more adult,” Aoko is genuinely appreciative instead of offended. She has a tendency to assume the best in everyone, unless they’re: A) incredibly obviously mean-spirited, and/or B) picking on her friends.
She has a huge heart, with plenty of room not just for friends and family, but also for strangers. She always goes out of her way to help, doing anything from taking bento and changes of clothing to her father, to babysitting a sick elementary school-age boy she met just a handful of minutes ago. While Aoko will be the first in line to scold Kaito for his arrogance, she's also dedicated to supporting and uplifting him; she knows how much he loves the spotlight, and she'll step aside to let him have it without a second thought. Her sweetness and compassion means that she has an exceptionally low capacity for jealousy, too—instead of feeling threatened when class beauty Akako develops a romantic interest in Kaito, Aoko is nothing but supportive. She doesn't even bat an eyelid over Akako's petty insults: "Well, to put it simply, a common girl like you does not suit him at all …"
She believes firmly in doing the good thing, no matter how big or small … and while she is strongly lawful, she is, on occasion, willing to break small rules for the sake of those she loves. After a "monster" at school scared her friend, Keiko, Aoko vowed to find it and avenge her (by giving it a good stern talking to, no doubt); and when she heard that Konosuke Jii (former butler to Kaito's father, and current friend of Kaito himself) had been cheated out of his beloved gem-encrusted pool cue, she helps Kaito infiltrate an over-18s only bar to try to get it back. Her brand of bravery is quiet and understated; she'll get scared, she'll cry, but if it's for her friends—or for anybody else in need—she'll push herself to carry on despite it.
Hard work, honesty, and justice are all ideals that Aoko feels incredibly passionate about. She abhors bullies, especially those who have the nerve to mock people who are only trying to do her best! Kaitou Kid, the internationally wanted thief who her father has devoted his life to chasing, is the embodiment of everything that utterly infuriates Aoko … and she isn't afraid to stand in the middle of a hundreds-strong crowd of his cheering fans with a "Kid, go home!" sign. Stealing and then returning the goods doesn't make him playful or cool; it makes him an insufferable, arrogant jerk with no consideration for others. Aoko's morals skew more towards the black and white end of the spectrum, mostly because it's never been necessary for her to closely analyse or deconstruct her own worldviews. And, of course, her ire towards Kaitou Kid in particularly has a personal element – it's thanks to him that her father barely gets any sleep. (It's thanks to him, Aoko would never say, that she grew up lonely; that her own father completely forgot her birthday; that her own father couldn't recognize her just because she was wearing makeup and a classy outfit.) She can be stubborn and just a little judgemental when it comes to matters of morality.
Aoko is spirited, and something of a spitfire. If her best friend flips her skirt in the middle of class, she won’t hesitate to leap out of her seat and take a swipe at him … or ten … with a mop, while he does gymnastics across people’s desks in a desperate bid to avoid her. This level of casual physical violence and grumpy squabbling is generally reserved for the people closest to her; it's another indication of trust and comfortable familiarity. Around others, Aoko is generally quite a bit more reserved: the idea of explosively losing her temper with a stranger is just embarrassing, and more than once has she been seen scolding Kaito for doing just that.
She also has one hell of a cheeky, snarky side lurking beneath that sweet exterior, and when she’s comfortable with somebody, she’ll give as good as she gets in the teasing department. Her real revenge for Kaito flipping her skirt isn’t a wallop around the head; it’s the look on his face when he realizes that she’s wearing fish-patterned underwear. She gets him back for picking on her for not being able to ski by picking on him for not being able to ice skate, and she clearly relishes every single second of the scene. Once again, this isn't a side of herself that she'll let loose with just anybody.
When something really, truly gets to Aoko, she tends to withdraw and internalize, only lashing out when pushed well beyond her limit. While she's usually plucky and upbeat, and genuinely so, there's another side to her; one she tries to keep hidden behind her comedic temper and kind heart. Her upbringing means that she's quite lonely, and she's resigned to being left behind by those she loves—not that she always begrudges them for this! Aoko wholeheartedly supports her father in his work, even though his long hours and obsessive personality mean that he has very little time left for her. On the other hand, when Kaito breaks his promise to be there for her birthday party, she's heartbroken—and after a long a long night of waiting, only to ultimately be disappointed, she lets him know just how hurt she is.
She can also be very self-critical, to the point that she will quietly agree with Kaito when he calls her ugly, and she can become so convinced that she'll only hold her loved ones back that she deliberately holds herself back for their sake. The best example of this is during a class ski competition, where Aoko convinces herself that Kaito—who is an ace on the slopes—would never want her as a partner. Instead of asking Kaito what he wants, she goes out of her way to let him have the spotlight he craves; the idea that he'd want her by his side, poor skier or not, literally never occurs to her.
Despite the many, many hardships Aoko faced over the course of her time in the Jungle and Kyriakos, she went out of her way to stay as true to herself as she possibly could. “I want to be able to look in a mirror and still see me,” was something that she thought to herself, often, and confided to her closest confidantes. She’s still exceedingly kind-hearted and stubborn to a fault, which is invaluable when circumstances conspire to make people into murderers. Her self-sacrificial streak is, if anything, even deeper than it used to be — although this isn’t always a good thing. Aoko does not particularly want to die, but she is absolutely willing to lay herself down on the chopping block if it means protecting somebody else.
She’s somewhat shier than she used to be, and can be reluctant to trust at first. She’s been betrayed multiple times; had her faith in humanity liberally shaken in innumerable ways. It can take a while for her to accept that somebody else is looking at her for who she is, not the uniform she wears. On the bright side, Aoko has slowly, slowly started to find her confidence, helped immensely by her resolution to learn how to fight. Finding her feet in martial arts gives her a sense of agency that she’s never really had before, despite being a simple squishy human being from an incredibly mundane world.
Abilities: Without her pendant, Aoko is a thoroughly normal human teenage girl! She's just a lot stronger than she looks (she can throw desks across a room hard enough to crack walls), and thanks to having undergone some thoroughly rigorous martial arts training, she's got the know-how to back herself up.
Augment Skillset: Engineer.
Character name: Nakamori Aoko
Character journal:
bluediligenceSeries name: Detective Conan/Magic Kaito
Canon notes: Aoko will be coming over as a CRAU from
kyriakos, though she did have a very brief team/amnesia PSL-based start to her story arc post-canon. This all took place after chapter 33 of Magic Kaito. For the purposes of this application, MK and its sister series, Detective Conan, take place in the same universe.As a note: Aoko's is a world much like the real one! Technology is up to date (or in some cases more advanced; they have advanced robotics and artificial intelligence systems), and most locations and countries are analogous — with a few exceptions, like "Beika", "Haido", "Ekoda", and "The Kingdom of Ingram". Magic is real, and so are mythological creatures, but they're so hidden from society that only a handful of people in the entire world know about them — Aoko is not one of them. Also there are phantom thieves.
Many phantom thieves.
Yeah.
Species: Human.
History:
While explicit canon details regarding Aoko's backstory are thin on the ground, plenty can be inferred! She's the daughter of Police Inspector Nakamori Ginzo and an unnamed, unseen mother; a mother who I assume died when Aoko was very young. Her bereaved father threw himself into his work harder than ever, frequently leaving Aoko to fend for herself … it taught her to be capable from a young age, but it also taught her loneliness.
One day, while she was waiting in front of a clocktower for her father—who was running incredibly late—to get off work, Aoko was approached by a boy. He was her age, and he was cheerful and friendly, and he produced a rose out of thin air just to make her smile: "Hi!" he said, "I'm Kuroba Kaito." It was the start of a beautiful, deep, long-lasting friendship. They grew up with each other, practically inseparable: it was Kaito who kept Aoko company while her father was busy chasing Kaitou Kid, an internationally wanted phantom thief; and it was Aoko who comforted Kaito when his father, the world-renowned magician Kuroba Toichi, died in an accident on stage when they were both eight years old.
Kaitou Kid mysteriously vanished right after this. Aoko's father, who loved chasing the thief—so much so that calling it an "obsession" sounds like an understatement—was bereft. Aoko just kept on truckin', supporting Ginzo while he tried to take solace in other cases.
Fast forward to her second year in high school! Kaitou Kid mysteriously reappears, much to Ginzo's joy and Aoko's irritation. She despises the thief, seeing him as an awful, arrogant bully who takes pleasure in belittling people who are only trying their best … and, incidentally, as the sole reason for her loneliness. (She's never once blamed her father, even when he pulls stunts like, oh, forgetting her birthday, not recognizing her when she's a bit dolled up, etc.) Things with Kaito haven't changed much, either. They're still best friends, hanging out both in school and out of school, and spending more time with each other than anybody else. And boy, do they ever bicker like a married couple. Kaito flips her skirt in class; she tries to take his head off with a mop. He insults the size of her chest; she dishes out his well-deserved punishment.
… unfortunately, this time? Kaitou Kid isn't just some mysterious stranger. Unbeknownst to Aoko, Kid is Kaito, and he'll do anything to keep his best friend from discovering the truth. Hijinks ensue! One notable incident involved Ginzo seeing Kid's—that is to say, Kaito's—face during a heist, and telling Aoko the next morning over breakfast. In a bid to prove her friend's innocence, she demands that he, Kaito, accompany her on a date to Tropical Land, a popular local theme park. (The time she sets is the same as Kid's next heist.) For all its awkward beginning, the date goes well … in both ways: they have fun together, and as far as Aoko's aware, Kaito is by her side the whole time, thereby proving that he's the same old Kaito he's always been—and emphatically not the thief she despises.
Months later, it comes to light that the clocktower where Aoko met Kaito is scheduled to be demolished. Aoko was heartbroken, and not at all comforted by the news that Kaitou Kid had decided to steal it. Yes, that's right: Kaitou Kid sent out a heist notice for an entire clocktower. Aoko attends the heist with her anti-Kid sign in tow, a lone protestor in a sea of fans ... But! The heist reaches a surprising conclusion: though the thief fails to steal the clocktower, he leaves behind a code inscribed on the face of the clock. Until the mysterious code is solved, the police decree, the tower isn't going anywhere.
These are only two of Aoko's adventures, but in terms of character development, they're easily the most important. Other shenanigans include: being knocked unconscious by a pirate; breaking into her school at night to hunt for the ghost that had terrified her friend, Keiko; being knocked out by a crime syndicate who suspect her of being Kaitou Kid; meeting Elizabeth and Philip, Queen and Prince (respectively!) of Ingram on board a train, only to oh so mysteriously fall asleep when Kaitou Kid appears to steal the Queen's precious jewel, the Crystal Mother; infiltrating a billiards bar run by a crime syndicate to help a friend retrieve his precious, gem-encrusted pool cue …
Jungle Training: Some weeks after a show-down between phantom thieves Kaitou Kid and Kaitou Corbeau, Aoko found herself waking up, without any memories, in a mysterious train station in the middle of a jungle. Things only got crazier from there. She discovered that she was a member of Clover, one of twelve teams all named after plants; a friendly boy on Elaeis, who she named "Lucky," gave her the nickname "Soleil"; she, along with the dozens of others who woke up that day, learned that they were under the thumb of two tyrannical twins, Salt and Pepper, who forced them to compete in deadly "games" for the chance to earn back their missing pieces and eventually go home.
Soleil managed it, eventually, and despite everything she was still undeniably herself. Clover had been a determinedly kind-hearted team from start to finish, utterly unwilling to let the twins' sadism grind them down into the dust. It helped that she had Lucky by her side – Lucky, who she eventually found out was Kaito, her best friend from home.
Except, not long after they got home …
Kyriakos: … her world was destroyed, wiped out of existence itself by beings known only as the Reapers. One tiny sliver of Aoko's soul managed held on long enough to be rescued, brought to a safe refuge called "Kyriakos" by its Queen, Estelle. She intended that Kyriakos be a bastion of resistance, where people could have shards of their souls—their memories and skills—returned to them as a reward for winning in games hosted by beings known as "Echoes". This would simultaneously help them reverse engineer their worlds, until all of the damage caused by the Reapers was undone.
Aoko, now known as "Feather," had the very dubious honor of having been chosen for the Queen's own team, the Cats. Unlike the regular teams, the Cats were intended to be a peacekeeping squad who provided assistance to teams and Echoes alike, as well as competing in the games themselves. To facilitate this, they were each given a small, magical pendant with a limited range of abilities – of these, Aoko heavily favoured shielding, teleportation, and healing.
Unfortunately, many people were suspicious of or outright hostile towards the Cats, thinking them nothing more than tools of the system. Aoko was abandoned to die more than once because of this stigma, but things eventually started to improve, both for her personally and for the Cat team as a whole. She found love (in her childhood best friend) and family ("Puma," more commonly known as Agent Washington from Red vs. Blue), and this system of mutual support helped them through many hard times.
For the purpose of Drift Fleet, Aoko will be taken from a week after the defeat of Nyssa, a sadistic, tyrannical Echo who had usurped Kyriakos. However, her memories of Nyssa’s defeat and the immediate build-up to it will be gone.
Personality:
Nakamori Aoko is, in many respects, the typical girl next door. She’s the normal one! The one who enjoys the simple pleasures in life like entering contests, hosting small house parties, and going out to see movies and plays! The (mostly) sensible, down to Earth one, who isn't afraid to call out her peers—many of whom are teen prodigies of some description—when they allow their heads to disappear too far up their behinds. She’s practical and highly intelligent, easily able to keep up in class even when very (very) distracted, and her lonely upbringing with a single, workaholic and frequently absent parent means that she learned how to be independent from a young age. However, for all her booksmarts, she does have a bit of a naïve streak, for example when she mistakenly thinks that a martini is a kind of juice, or accepts a 'prize' (a fancy evening dinner) from a contest that she didn't remember entering.
There’s an awful lot that she loves about life, and it shows. She’s enthusiastic, effusive, and just all-around bright, quick to exclaim over the cuteness of this or how awesome that is, and oh, look, her new classmate is adorable! Her straightforward and light-hearted nature means that sometimes, she’s levelled with accusations of childishness, but when a classmate of hers—Koizumi Akako—offers to make her a charm to “make her more adult,” Aoko is genuinely appreciative instead of offended. She has a tendency to assume the best in everyone, unless they’re: A) incredibly obviously mean-spirited, and/or B) picking on her friends.
She has a huge heart, with plenty of room not just for friends and family, but also for strangers. She always goes out of her way to help, doing anything from taking bento and changes of clothing to her father, to babysitting a sick elementary school-age boy she met just a handful of minutes ago. While Aoko will be the first in line to scold Kaito for his arrogance, she's also dedicated to supporting and uplifting him; she knows how much he loves the spotlight, and she'll step aside to let him have it without a second thought. Her sweetness and compassion means that she has an exceptionally low capacity for jealousy, too—instead of feeling threatened when class beauty Akako develops a romantic interest in Kaito, Aoko is nothing but supportive. She doesn't even bat an eyelid over Akako's petty insults: "Well, to put it simply, a common girl like you does not suit him at all …"
She believes firmly in doing the good thing, no matter how big or small … and while she is strongly lawful, she is, on occasion, willing to break small rules for the sake of those she loves. After a "monster" at school scared her friend, Keiko, Aoko vowed to find it and avenge her (by giving it a good stern talking to, no doubt); and when she heard that Konosuke Jii (former butler to Kaito's father, and current friend of Kaito himself) had been cheated out of his beloved gem-encrusted pool cue, she helps Kaito infiltrate an over-18s only bar to try to get it back. Her brand of bravery is quiet and understated; she'll get scared, she'll cry, but if it's for her friends—or for anybody else in need—she'll push herself to carry on despite it.
Hard work, honesty, and justice are all ideals that Aoko feels incredibly passionate about. She abhors bullies, especially those who have the nerve to mock people who are only trying to do her best! Kaitou Kid, the internationally wanted thief who her father has devoted his life to chasing, is the embodiment of everything that utterly infuriates Aoko … and she isn't afraid to stand in the middle of a hundreds-strong crowd of his cheering fans with a "Kid, go home!" sign. Stealing and then returning the goods doesn't make him playful or cool; it makes him an insufferable, arrogant jerk with no consideration for others. Aoko's morals skew more towards the black and white end of the spectrum, mostly because it's never been necessary for her to closely analyse or deconstruct her own worldviews. And, of course, her ire towards Kaitou Kid in particularly has a personal element – it's thanks to him that her father barely gets any sleep. (It's thanks to him, Aoko would never say, that she grew up lonely; that her own father completely forgot her birthday; that her own father couldn't recognize her just because she was wearing makeup and a classy outfit.) She can be stubborn and just a little judgemental when it comes to matters of morality.
Aoko is spirited, and something of a spitfire. If her best friend flips her skirt in the middle of class, she won’t hesitate to leap out of her seat and take a swipe at him … or ten … with a mop, while he does gymnastics across people’s desks in a desperate bid to avoid her. This level of casual physical violence and grumpy squabbling is generally reserved for the people closest to her; it's another indication of trust and comfortable familiarity. Around others, Aoko is generally quite a bit more reserved: the idea of explosively losing her temper with a stranger is just embarrassing, and more than once has she been seen scolding Kaito for doing just that.
She also has one hell of a cheeky, snarky side lurking beneath that sweet exterior, and when she’s comfortable with somebody, she’ll give as good as she gets in the teasing department. Her real revenge for Kaito flipping her skirt isn’t a wallop around the head; it’s the look on his face when he realizes that she’s wearing fish-patterned underwear. She gets him back for picking on her for not being able to ski by picking on him for not being able to ice skate, and she clearly relishes every single second of the scene. Once again, this isn't a side of herself that she'll let loose with just anybody.
When something really, truly gets to Aoko, she tends to withdraw and internalize, only lashing out when pushed well beyond her limit. While she's usually plucky and upbeat, and genuinely so, there's another side to her; one she tries to keep hidden behind her comedic temper and kind heart. Her upbringing means that she's quite lonely, and she's resigned to being left behind by those she loves—not that she always begrudges them for this! Aoko wholeheartedly supports her father in his work, even though his long hours and obsessive personality mean that he has very little time left for her. On the other hand, when Kaito breaks his promise to be there for her birthday party, she's heartbroken—and after a long a long night of waiting, only to ultimately be disappointed, she lets him know just how hurt she is.
She can also be very self-critical, to the point that she will quietly agree with Kaito when he calls her ugly, and she can become so convinced that she'll only hold her loved ones back that she deliberately holds herself back for their sake. The best example of this is during a class ski competition, where Aoko convinces herself that Kaito—who is an ace on the slopes—would never want her as a partner. Instead of asking Kaito what he wants, she goes out of her way to let him have the spotlight he craves; the idea that he'd want her by his side, poor skier or not, literally never occurs to her.
Despite the many, many hardships Aoko faced over the course of her time in the Jungle and Kyriakos, she went out of her way to stay as true to herself as she possibly could. “I want to be able to look in a mirror and still see me,” was something that she thought to herself, often, and confided to her closest confidantes. She’s still exceedingly kind-hearted and stubborn to a fault, which is invaluable when circumstances conspire to make people into murderers. Her self-sacrificial streak is, if anything, even deeper than it used to be — although this isn’t always a good thing. Aoko does not particularly want to die, but she is absolutely willing to lay herself down on the chopping block if it means protecting somebody else.
She’s somewhat shier than she used to be, and can be reluctant to trust at first. She’s been betrayed multiple times; had her faith in humanity liberally shaken in innumerable ways. It can take a while for her to accept that somebody else is looking at her for who she is, not the uniform she wears. On the bright side, Aoko has slowly, slowly started to find her confidence, helped immensely by her resolution to learn how to fight. Finding her feet in martial arts gives her a sense of agency that she’s never really had before, despite being a simple squishy human being from an incredibly mundane world.
Abilities: Without her pendant, Aoko is a thoroughly normal human teenage girl! She's just a lot stronger than she looks (she can throw desks across a room hard enough to crack walls), and thanks to having undergone some thoroughly rigorous martial arts training, she's got the know-how to back herself up.
Augment Skillset: Engineer.