Riko Aida

Riko Aida (相田 リコ Aida Riko) is Seirin's boys' basketball club's coach. She has the ability to Scan someone and bring out every detail about that person. She is also Kagetora Aida's daughter.

Appearance
Riko has caramel coloured hair that is not very long at first, but she decided to let it grow during the Winter Cup. Two years ago, it was long, but she cut it for unknown reasons. Her hair is kept to her left side with two pins and sometimes she has a pony tail kept together with a black band. Before the Winter Cup finals, Riko asked Hyūga to cut her hair again, reverting to her former short hairstyle. According to Momoi, she has a B-cup.

She is always seen in her school outfit, that is a white shirt with a black sweater over it. She also wears a white, short skirt and a sailor necktie. Because of her being the coach of the basketball team, she has a pink whistle tied around her neck with a hanger. She sometimes wears casual clothes with a bear and the wordKuma (bear) on it.

Personality
Riko cares much for her team, but doesn't hesitate to submit them to killer-training. Or to be exact, because Riko cares for them, she is not afraid to push the team to the very last and force themselves to exert their strength even when past their limit. In order to motivate them, Riko often threatens to double, triple or even quadruple their training menus. All in all, she is very determined for her team to win and as her job as the coach, she actually enjoys raising them up and bringing out the best in them.

Riko attempts to act feminine at times, even trying to reward the team when they win by giving them a kiss at one point. Her attempts often comically backfires though, much to her dismay. Despite the boyish side to her as the coach of a boy's basketball team, Riko likes cute things, proven by the multiple pictures of puppies on her phone and her affection towards Tetsuya #2. She can also get jealous easily, as she was irritated by Seirin's attention towards Momoi and even punished them for looking at her. Riko is sensitive about her lacking curvaceous figure and erupts into a rage whenever someone insensitively points it out, such as Narumi.

However, despite Riko's lack of lady-likeness or figure, she is undoubtedly devoted towards the Seirin basketball team, and is skilled as their coach, spurring them on even in hard times and rigorously pushing them to their best. She is also intelligent despite her interest in sports, taking second place in the whole cohort of Seirin's previous year exam. Her gender and age has often surprised the crowd when she is revealed as Seirin's coach in important matches, though this can be said to be a further evidence of her experience and skill. It is hinted that Hyuga's holds romantic feelings towards her, but Riko appears oblivious and their relationship exists as close childhood friends up to date.

History
When Riko was little, she often hung out at her father's sports gym. It was there that she learned her Scan ability by looking at muscles trainings and individual stats. As Hyūga lived near her, they were childhood friends and Hyūga often trained at her sports gym.

In Riko's first year of high school, she was approached by the early basketball team. They asked her if she wanted to be their manager, but she rudely refused. Kiyoshi didn't give up and asked her again, but she tells him that she doesn't like basketball and the overall atmosphere of giving up (referring to Hyūga), because of Teikō's domination. She continues by saying that she will only accept a team that seriously aims for the top.

She later encountered Hyūga at a games hall. When seeing him again, she couldn't help laughing at his hair, irritating Hyūga. As they walked on the streets later, she tells him about the basketball club and says that Hyūga still just doesn't know what to do.

The next day, she got a note telling her to look at the basketball team's seriousness during the morning ceremony. During that morning ceremony, the basketball team yelled out their goal for that year: to become Japan's best. Riko was convinced and joins the basketball team as their coach. She starts off Seirin's first practice by giving them the training schedule, which is apparently extremely harsh and even brutal. Shortly after, Hyūga is unanimously made captain of the team. Riko notices Kiyoshi's ability to comfort people. ==Story==

Introduction
Riko is first seen after the opening ceremony of Seirin High School. She is recruiting new players for the basketball team and when Kagami appears, carryingKoga by his collar, she is overwhelmed by his aura. Kagami fills in an application form and Riko sees he trained in America and thinks he is a very promising guy. She notices Kagami hasn't filled in any goals on the form and asks him about it, to which Kagami replies that Japanese basketball is weak. When Kagami has left, Koganei says to Riko that she forgot to pick up a form. Riko looks at the paper and sees it belongs to Kuroko, a former player of Teikō Junior High School, meaning he is one of the Generation of Miracles. Riko is frustrated why she didn't see such an amazing guy, not knowing Kuroko's true colors.

She is later present at the Seirin High Basketball Club's try-outs. Some freshmen think that Riko is the manager and that she is pretty cute. They are shown to be wrong as Riko introduces herself as the coach. She also introduces Takeda-sensei as the club's advisor. She then surprises everyone by ordering them to take of their shirts. She gives advice to some members along the lines of more stretching or training their flexibility. It is revealed by Hyūga that she has the Scan ability and can see a body's capabilities and flaws just by looking at it. When she arrives at Kagami, Riko is stunned by his raw talent. After drooling over Kagami, she sees that it's the end of the line, but that she hasn't seen the GoM member yet, Kuroko. She calls for him and he unexpectedly answers right in front of her. Riko, scared, yells and back off. Perplexed she sees that he's practically invisible. Under order, Kuroko takes his shirt back off and Riko sees that he is weak. Really weak. While walking home, Riko wonders how Kuroko can be so weak but still be a regular of the GoM.

The next day, it is raining during the training. Since they can't go running and have free time, Riko decides to put up a match between the second-years and the freshmen. She does this in order to gauge the freshmen's strength. Naturally, she is impressed with Kagami's destructive power, but doesn't notice Kuroko until the middle of the game. She gets an unexplainable feeling and at that time, Kuroko reveals his talent and makes an invisible pass using his misdirection. That misdirection amazes and is analyzed by Riko.

The next day at school, she is approached by both Kuroko and Kagami separately, who both ask her to become a legit member of the club. She tells them to come to the roof Monday morning. That Monday, she awaits the freshmen and announces that they only want members who seriously want to reach theNationals. She tells them their assignment: to yells in front of all the students their name, class and more importantly, their goal in the basketball club. They have to prove their resolve to join the club. If they can't do that, Riko will have them confess to a girl naked. The freshmen are frightened, but Kagami takes the lead and shouts his goal. They are quickly busted by a teacher, before Kuroko can fulfill the task, but Riko accepts his registration anyway the next day, after Kuroko wrote his message on the courtyard.

Winter Cup preliminaries
The day before the Winter Cup preliminaries commence, Riko is called out by Hyūga. She meets him outside her house. Riko asks for the reason he called her out and asks if he's scared. Hyūga denies and notices that her hair got longer. Riko tells him that she made a promise to let it grow until they reach the Nationals. She tells Hyūga not to be scared but Hyūga says that he actually feels really calm. They agree to at least do their very best.

The next day, Riko gathers the whole Seirin team outside of the school and they set for the Winter Cup gym where they will play their first preliminaries match. At the building, Riko re-explains the structure of the WC and that they first have to play a qualification match to then move on to the final league. She announced that they have to play against the number 6 of the Interhigh, Josei High.

They enter the court and line up in front of Josei High. Narumi suddenly freaks out and yells that he was told that Seirin's coach was a girl and that he was excited. He continues that he is disappointed and calls Riko flat chested. This makes Riko furious and signs to her team to completely destroy Josei.[15]  She further leads her team trough the match and gives instructions to Kiyoshi and Kagami.

After the match, when the group is leaving the gym, Riko tells them that the Winter Cup has actually began way back in summer, at the same time as theInterhigh. With this, she is amplifying Hyūga's statement, that they're finally here.

Semi-finals
While getting ready to leave for the Winter Cup gym, Riko gets a call from Kagami, telling her that his shoes are torn. Riko yells at him and orders him to join Kuroko, who also has broken shoes, shopping for new shoes. Riko later joins the other Seirin members on the metro and tells them about Kuroko and Kagami's shoe problem. She reassures them by saying that their match is only in the afternoon anyway. She also informs them that she sent the other first-years to shop for supplies. They get off the metro, but Riko trips and is caught by a tall, good-looking teen . She thanks him, but she and the other players suddenly notice his jersey and see that he's a Rakuzan player. ==Skill== For as far as it is known, Riko has little to none basketball experience, as she isn't seen playing basketball once. As a coach and the daughter of a sports trainer, she is very proficient in developping strategies and training schedules. She is also very good and fast at taping up joints, like she did with Kiyoshi's knee.

Scan
As a result of her trips to the fitness with her father, looking at muscles and data, she learned to see every capability of a body just by looking at it.[6]  She can determine the height, weight, strength, speed and flexibility, plus the faults and strengths of their separate body-parts, for example their legs or shoulders. When she activates Scan, her view becomes darker and she sees lines from different parts from the muscle she is concentrating on, with numbers indicating its status on those lines. It is unknown what the numbers actually represent. Her eyes also show multiple circles, as in a camera lens.

Junpei Hyūga
Hyūga and Riko are hinted to have feelings for one another, even though they are nothing more than close friends. He calls her by her first name and trust her abilities as coach. In exchange Riko also completely trust Hyūga's decisions as captain. In Junior High, Riko initially refused to coach Seirin because she was disappointed in Hyūga's attitude toward basketball when they entered high school. Riko was the first one to notice that Hyūga wasn't playing basketball. When Hyūga told her he was doing what he wanted because he has more time now, Riko noticed that something was wrong and told him that it looks like he was forcing himself.

Hyūga comforted Riko several times, like when she was crying the moment the team won their game against Seiho. Riko was about to burst into tears of great happiness but Hyūga sort of patted her head and said to let it go after they won their final game. Hyūga, despite knowing of Riko's poor cooking skills, ate her self-made curry after he saw how much effort she put into her cooking. Hyūga was also the one who cut Riko's hair before the Winter Cup finals.

Both of them spend a lot of time together not just because they are close friends but also because he is the captain and she is the coach. The team is always observing that Riko and Hyūga plan the training sessions in the manner of a couple. Riko also showed signs of jealousy - she didn't get mad at the guys for ogling Momoi until she noticed Hyuuga doing it, too.

Teppei Kiyoshi
Riko and Kiyoshi share a close friendship. They first met when he asked her to train the basketball club. Their meeting wasn't a good one: Riko refused because she hates half-assed teams. However, Kiyoshi was not discouraged and even relieved because they think alike. When Hyūga was made captain thanks to Kiyoshi, she noticed that he is very good at convincing people even if he seemed to be joking. Over time, they gradually began to call each other by their first name.

In their second years at Seirin, Riko frequently texts Kiyoshi and visits at the hospital to tell him news of the team. After his return, they often talk to each other about Seirin's team and players and how they can progress. He has also eat Riko's curry despite its taste.

Riko shows that she cares about him in Seirin's match against Kirisaki Daīchi. She looks constantly worried when Kiyoshi was the subject of Hanamiya's rough play. Unfortunately, Kiyoshi desires to protect his team-mates and decides to play alone on the inside against Riko's will. He adds that he would hate her for the rest of his life if she subs him. However, seeing him at his limit, she doesn't hesitate and replace him. She explains, with tears in the eyes, that she didn't want the same thing to happen again. She would gladly take his hate that to see him injured again. Soon after he accepted, Kiyoshi apologizes to Riko, she then replies that she understands his feelings and it's thanks to him that the team is not hurt.

In Yōsen versus Seirin match, an exhausted Kiyoshi asks Riko a favor: to put him back on the pitch at the end. Seeing his determination, she accepts to do a massage that'll make him recovering from the fatigue in exchange of pain. After that, Kiyoshi interrupts Riko who was about to leave. He asks her to stay with him, as Riko furiously blushes. She initially refuses but Kiyoshi insists, saying that looking at her makes him feels better.

During the finals against Rakuzan, Riko is seen wiping out her tears because Kiyoshi is overexerting himself despite his injury. ==Trivia==
 * On the first character poll, Riko ranked 9th, with 561 votes. She ranked 11th on the second poll, this time with 453 votes. She ranked 22th on the third poll with 390 votes.
 * On last year's test results, she ranked 2nd out of 300.[24]
 * In the anime, Riko has been seen owning a yellow scooter. She rides it frequently in the first opening and wears a yellow helmet.
 * Since Riko hasn't really been seen out of a basketball context, a reader asked in the Q&A section on whether or not she had any female friends. Tadatoshi Fujimaki replied that she does, but not a lot.
 * According to the CHARACTERS BIBLE:
 * Her motto is: "Carrying out one’s words."
 * Her favorite food is celery.
 * Her hobby is playing games (mainly training simulators and puzzle games).
 * Her specialty is knitting.
 * Riko is the vice president of the Student Council of Seirin High.
 * Riko inherited her poor cooking skills from her mother. This was revealed in the light novels.
 * In Q&A,:
 * A fan questioned about the name of Riko's eye, Fujimaki answered it was Analyzer's eye, in which Riko commented: "That's not cute at all!".
 * Her favourite dish is rice mixed with supplements.