Akeno Himejima

"I've got news for you. You're not the only one who likes to play rough here. So let you and I have some fun."

- Akeno Himejima

Akeno Himejima is a third-year student at Kuoh Academy and one of the many female protagonists of High School DxD. She is the Vice-President of the Occult Research Club and Rias Gremory's Queen, as well as her best friend. Along with Rias, Akeno is also one of Kuoh Academy's Two Great Ladies.

She is voiced by Shizuka Ito in the Japanese version of the anime, while in the English version she is voiced by Teri Rogers in seasons 1 & 2 and Bryn Apprill in season 3.

Appearance
Akeno is a young woman with a buxom figure around the same age as Rias with very long black hair and violet eyes. Her hair is usually tied in a long ponytail, reaching all the way down to her legs with two strands sticking out from the top and sloping backwards, with an orange ribbon keeping it in place.

Like most of the girls at Kuoh Academy, she wears the customary Kuoh Academy girls' school uniform, along with black knee-high socks.

In the anime, during battles she often transforms her clothes into a traditional miko attire, consisting of a white haori with red accents, a red hakama, and a pair of zōri with white tabi.

When she first revealed herself as a Fallen Angel in front of Issei in Volume 4, she reveals one Devil wing and one Fallen Angel wing.

Personality
She is first seen to be an elegant, gentle girl but then turns into a sadist when fighting someone. She loves to tease Issei and Rias. She starts to tease Issei in Volume 3 of the light novels and later in Volume 4, she fell in love with him. Akeno has also stated that she has some masochism in her as well. She also has a weak side inside her once she removes her mask of being an Onee-sama, what’s left is her true side of "depending" on a man which can be her father, Baraqiel or Issei. If danger arises to either of them, she will become depressed once again, but it can also be used to rise her tensions. This occurred when Issei was injured in Rating Game between the Sitri and Gremory groups or when Issei was thought to be dead in the Dimension Gap.

History
Akeno is the only child of Shuri Himejima, a well-known Shinto priestess and Baraqiel, a Fallen Angel and one of the leaders of the Fallen Angel organization, Grigori. As a child, Akeno was close to her mother, and fell into despair when she witnessed her mother's death, blaming her father for not being able to protect her mother. After the death of her mother, she stayed with her mother's relative before being kicked out due to her Fallen Angel blood. At the tender age of 10, without food or money, Akeno journeyed throughout Japan using her skills to purify evil spirits that she learned from her mother in order to survive, doing so for one and a half years. When she stumbled into a certain town, Akeno indirectly saved a human that was contracted with a Devil from the Gremory Clan. Fearing that the Devil would kill her due to her Fallen Angel heritage, Akeno decided to hide from them. Later, while trying to leave the town, Akeno was suddenly attacked by her relatives from the Himejima Clan who came to kill her. Before her Grand-uncle could land the decisive blow, Rias and her father's Bishop, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, appeared and talked Akeno's family out of killing her with two conditions, first Akeno is to never enter the territory under the Himejima Clan and second, to always stay beside Rias and serve under her using the Gremory name and not the Himejima name. She then moved into the Gremory Palace where she was taught various things from studies to how a lady should act as well as deepening her bonds with Rias, becoming her best friend in the process. Upon entering Junior High, Rias received her Evil Pieces and made Akeno her first servant. She later entered Kuoh Academy alongside Rias and helped her in re-establishing the Occult Research Club becoming its Vice-President.

Powers & Abilities
As Rias' Queen, Akeno has all the abilities of Knights, Rooks, and Bishops, making her initially the strongest and certainly the most well rounded in her group after Rias. Akeno excels at using attacks made from demonic powers, and can use natural elements like lightning, ice, and fire. In Volume 14, she has also started to learn defense magic to both increase her defense and trait of Rook.In Volume 4 of the light novels after her true identity as a Fallen Angel hybrid is revealed, it is shown that she also has power of Holy Lightning, which was inherited from her father. During the events of Volume 12, Akeno gains access to her Fallen Angel Mode (堕天使モード Datenshi Mōdo), which gives her six black wings and drastically increases her Holy Lightning abilities. At present, this transformation requires the use of a special bracelet made by Azazel (the same bracelet that Issei had used to activate his incomplete Balance Breaker), but Akeno has stated she will work at it until she no longer requires it. In Volume 14, it is revealed that because she has been draining Issei's Dragon power for so long, she has gained the ability to shape her Holy Lightning into the form of an Asian Dragon, Raikōryū (Holy Lightning Dragon), which can move as if it was alive. It has been shown to be immensely powerful, devouring large fragments of rocks and erasing one of Grendel's fireballs. She can do the same for fire and ice attacks, forming dragons with them which she sends against her enemies.As mentioned by Issei and Rias, Akeno has developed a skill to sneak behind people without leaving any presence. Akeno also has the power to purify evil spirits which she learned from her mother.

Trivia

 * Akeno Himejima is similar to Nakoruru from the Samurai Shodown series.