| “ | Because we're friends, aren't we?! | „ |
| ~ Aki to Misao. |
Aki Narukami is the main protagonist and playable character of the RPG maker horror game, Misao. Aki is noted as being an ordinary high school student. Unlike most of their classmates, they alone off-campus. The player is given the choice to name the protagonist themselves; however, Aki is the default name.
History
Aki was selected exclusively by Misao to find her and redeem her soul. This is because Aki had at least one interaction with her in the entirety of being classmates, none of which seemed to be negative. As no one really talked to Misao besides to condescend, Aki was the only one to talk to her in an inviting dialect. Misao first contacts Aki by appearing through dreams, and after sending the school into The Otherworld, Aki has visions/hallucinations of Misao's words; "HELP ME FIND ME" strewn about in a repeating pattern, written in blood.
Aki proceeds to scream as they lose composure under the pressure, and loses consciousness after presumably mental trauma, or being flung against an object, physical trauma, causing them to pass out. They wake up in the care of Onigawara in the Student council room. After a short briefing, Aki sets out to redeem Misao's soul.
As shown through a note on a bulletin board in a hallway, whichever gender of Aki isn't in use by the player claims that they're "always watching over" the current Aki in use. In the case of Male Aki, Female Aki will reach out beyond the spiritual realm and possess Male Aki, when need be.
Due to the aggressive and bullying nature of Yoshino, and the reaction of ecstasy acquired by examining Yoshino's mangled corpse, it is safe to assume that Aki was bullied by Yoshino enough to wish her gone/dead.
Appearance
Female Aki is shown to have brown hair tied up into twin-tails. She has large, red eyes (however, her eyes are usually shown as a soft brown/amber color due to contacts). Her twin-tails are tied up by two pink hair bows that match the color of her uniform, which is the standard female uniform for the school she attends. She is described by characters such as Tohma to be "pretty cute", which can make it safe to assume that she's fairly attractive.
Aki as a male
Aki's male counterpart is seen to have dark auburn hair and soft amber eyes (it is unknown if he has red eyes, like his female counterpart, or his eyes are truly that color). He is seen to be wearing the standard male uniform, a white shirt and a red tie.
As of Misao: Definitive Edition, both Aki's school uniforms have been drastically changed.
Female Aki now wears a white shirt with long sleeves. Beneath the red school coat, she wears a light brown sweater and still wears the red tie. Her skirt, however, remains unchanged.
Male Aki wears the same shirt and coat without the sweater, but wears brown pants and a red necktie.
Physical appearances have not changed.
Personality
Throughout the game, Female Aki is shown as a kind and accepting individual, showing mercy to even Sohta when she learns of his murderous past. She is also quick to point out the wrongdoings of others, but will do her best to comfort anyone they see being upset. On the other hand, she does have a dark side, as she has no problem committing murder herself. This dark side is not apparent in her male counterpart, as he hesitates to commit the murders necessary to appease Misao.
In situations where Male Aki needed to murder Sohta or Tohma, he is unable to do it himself, due to extreme hesitation. If he decides that he should kill Tohma, he will leave the library, on the verge of tears, apologizing to Misao for being unable to do anything, and following, will hear struggling in the library. He later figures out that Tohma and Library got in a fight, and she killed him.
If Male Aki decides to kill Sohta, an unknown being (presumably Female Aki) will possess his body, forcing him to kill Sohta.
It is noteworthy, that unlike Male Aki, Female Aki never curses or swears; this is likely because since she's partially demon, she wouldn't be as emotionally affected at stressful events as someone without the soul of a demon.
Relationships
Misao - Aki states near the beginning that they were not very close to Misao, but were curious as to why she was always alone. Aki states that they wanted to be friends with Misao a lot, but the reason why they didn't when Misao was alive is unknown. The most likely reason is that Aki is actually somewhat intimidated by Yoshino and didn't want to be bullied by her, so they chose to keep their distance from Misao until it was too late.
In the good ending after seeing the vision of how Misao was killed and Sohta's murders, Misao leaves a message on the blackboard of Aki's classroom reading - "Thank you."
After beating the game, you can play the "truth" of Misao. During this Aki can save Tohma, when doing this they encounter him in a dark other worldly space alone with the "darkened Misao" who is a vision of Tohma's fear. Aki talks to the darkened Misao and eventually shows her a hand mirror, Misao becomes afraid and now knows why Tohma calls her a "monster". Misao then lets Tohma go and he is reborn like the other victims. All the other Misao spirits Aki tries to stop will not listen to them and continue with what they were doing (leaving Aki no choice but to kill them or leaving the victim to overcome his fear), the exception being Saotome's fear in which Misao will just watch and allow Saotome to kill Misao. At the end of the "truth", a picture of Misao and Aki becoming "friends" is displayed with both characters smiling and holding hands. If playing as Male Aki, Misao will ask him to become her boyfriend, to which he rejects her somewhat reluctantly, stating that he cares about her too much to rush into a relationship with her like Tohma did. He also notes that they should become better friends before ever having a chance as lovers, but then goes on to say that he likes her, and that he'll always be her friend. At the end of the "truth", a picture is displayed of Misao and male Aki becoming friends, both smiling and leaning against each other with their foreheads near touching.
Ayaka - Ayaka is Aki's best friend and in the female version of the game, Ayaka will tease Aki about her crush on Tohma (though it is unknown whether this is true as Aki replies "I just think he's cool is all!"). Ayaka seems to be Aki's only friend and perhaps the person they are most closest to, due to Aki living alone without parents or siblings. When Ayaka and Sohta are found in the infirmary, Sohta tricks Aki into believing Ayaka was attacked and that she is wounded. Aki leaves and Sohta will kill Ayaka, Aki does not find this out until the "truth" part of the game.
Yoshino - Aki quickly notes Yoshino as being a bully, having had bullied Misao constantly before Misao's murder. Aki is somewhat scared of Yoshino (that is the main reason that Aki didn't become friends with Misao as they were afraid) but due to Female Aki's semi-cruel nature she becomes pleased when Yoshino despairs. Aki finds Yoshino in the laboratory after the curse has been activated and tells her "I'll save you as long as you promise not to be a bully anymore." While Male Aki is regretful of being unable to save her, Female Aki presumably made no effort and hid when the monster that was going to dissect Yoshino entered the room. Female Aki probably deliberately did this for her own pleasure. Once Yoshino dies, Female Aki comments, "Whoops, totally forgot to save Yoshino! Teeheehee!"
Tohma - One of Aki's classmates, Ayaka, teases Female Aki about her crush on Tohma (though this isn't confirmed). Tohma even says Aki should be his girlfriend but she makes no comment here. When Aki finds Tohma injured, she takes him to the library where she asks Novella to take good care of him. Aki brings Tohma a soda, in which he finds a key, suggesting that she is concerned about him and possibly has a crush on him. Tohma can be killed by Aki, with Female Aki showing no remorse due to her determined nature that is set on saving Misao, but this triggers the bad ending. In the good end Aki is a friend of Tohma's and they both continue their school life with Misao's blessing.
Sohta - Aki's homeroom teacher. Sohta is popular with girls, like Ayaka. Aki doesn't seem to be interested in him like the other girls and downs Ayaka for praising him so much. In the bad end Aki kills Tohma, activates the shrine and then sees the vision of Sohta's murders. Aki and Sohta wake up on the roof and Aki tells him that they know that he killed Misao. Sohta will turn to them and say "So you saw it too." Sohta then kills Aki and the bad ending screen is displayed. In the good ending, Aki will kill Sohta and forget about him. Their last words to him being "Apologize in the afterlife!"
Saotome - Little is known about the relationship between these two but we can assume they are friends, due to Aki's reaction to her death. Ayaka teases Male Aki about his crush on Saotome. Though, much like Tohma, this isn't confirmed by any evidence in the game.
Trivia
- In the Misao book published in July, the title reads "Case files of Narukami Aki". In Japanese, surnames are supposed to be said first. Therefore, Aki's full, canon name is "Aki Narukami".
- There are multiple events throughout the gameplay that hint Aki may be a demon, just like Onigawara.
- Miss Library is afraid of humans, but she likes Aki because they don't smell human.
- Aki is not hesitant in killing, as shown when she bluntly murdered either Mr. Sohta or Tohma. If your protagonist is male though, he hesitates whenever trying to kill Mr. Sohta, saying that he can't because he's his teacher and it will be wrong if he did such a thing. In fact, the female version of Aki apparently forces Akito to and ends up killing Mr. Sohta anyways, saying that Akito can do it, "Because you are me. Raise that bat high... And crush him!"
- On a side note, when playing as Aki's male counterpart, Female Aki was able to both talk to him and possess him when he had to make the choice of who to kill.
- Without her contact lenses, it is shown that Female Aki's true eye color is red.
- The creator of Misao himself briefly states in the Rec Room that Aki may be a demon.
- In the "Forgetting to save Yoshino" sprite, the shine on Aki's hair is too large, and goes off of her head.
- In the second playthough of the game you can play the male version of Aki, Akito.
- Akito seems to be nicer than his counterpart Aki, shown when he says to Ayaka "I kinda couldn't care less." instead of what Aki said which was "I don't really... care." He is also shown to have a crush on Saotome.
- While in the Rec Room, if Aki examines the dead body that they needed to hide in, the text will read that this concept came from a "foreign cartoon". Though it doesn't specify which one, it possibly comes from the American Television show, South Park. In the episode "The Simpsons Already Did It", Eric Cartman is forced to hide in a dead person's body in order to avoid the doctors from seeing him.
- Aki can be startled very easily by sudden noises. An example of this is when they become startled by the sudden ringing of the telephone in the science room (where Yoshino meets her end), hitting their head on the wall, thus killing theirself.
- Aki appears to be very skilled in playing the piano, as seen in one of the bad endings.
- It seems that female Aki is canon unlike male Aki; This is seen in the fact that the Truth ending was a huge afterthought; Sen added it 3 years later. Also seen is that Male Aki retains most mannerisms female Aki has despite being different in personality. There was also a novel published August 3 seen here published about female Aki.
- On Sen's official blog, he occasionally draws miscellaneous sketches of Aki and other Misao characters, and also, other series of manga. Some of these drawings depicts Aki doing things that may reveal more about her personality, however, the canon value of them are contestable. Due to copyrights, links to the pictures themselves cannot be provided, however, his blog is accessible to the public.
- In one picture, Aki is depicted excitedly holding a pot of what looks like revolting purple soup with a fish skeleton floated to the top.
- In another, Aki is shown having a romantic moment with Sohta where he stands behind her and holds both of her wrists firmly in his hands behind her with an aggressive expression on his face, and Aki donning an aroused look. Both are looking towards the viewer. Most of Aki's collar is unbuttoned and also below it, partially exposing the top of her breasts and stopping where the two sides of her vest meet, and the top button of her vest is. The picture is also in black and white. This pairing was brought about by a "Voting poll" Sen occasionally hosts on his site, so its canon value can be contested.
- There is also a picture of what seems to be concept art of Aki and Otome wearing school uniforms alternative to the ones seen in the game. There is another picture of this as well, however with the main focus being Aki.
- There is also a crossover picture of Aki holding a bat gift wrapped with a bow on the side as an offering gift to a character in Sen's manga, "Quartet!", with the recipient looking frightened.
- Additionally, Aki bears a resemblance to Akira from Sen's manga, Quartet!.
