Rion Akao

Rion cut a tall, athletic figure, her frame carrying a hint of muscle. Shoulder-length hair in turquoise, rendered blue in the anime, framed pale-pupiled yellow eyes set beneath fine brows and long lashes. A tattoo tracing the Orion constellation marked her right arm. Her usual outfit paired a white tank top with a black jacket worn off one shoulder and left half-zipped, over dark pants and matching shoes.

While in hiding from the assassin authorities, she swapped that ensemble for a bulky, high-collared hooded jacket that let her keep her face concealed, wearing shorts underneath. When she first crossed paths with Uzuki, she skipped the jacket in favor of a long-sleeved shirt.

A free spirit, Rion chased whatever she pleased and shrugged off the fallout, whether that meant raising havoc beside Sakamoto and Nagumo or leaving wrecked property, once even a train, in her wake. Warmth defined her just as much: she was the lone member of her circle who reached out to the guarded Uzuki, chattering at him in blunt, one-directional bursts. Beneath the mischief ran a fierce loyalty, and she swore she would cut down anyone to shield the people she loved, even if it cost her own heart. That devotion reached her niece Akira, whom she trained to perceive the deadly routes she herself relied on.

Her bond with Sakamoto and Nagumo dated to their student years, where the trio were prized as top pupils and infamous for causing chaos until all of them were thrown out together. Later, when Uzuki fled the assassin association, Rion sided with him, and the pair spent more than a year off the grid, growing close and quietly falling for each other. She took the dangerous freelance contracts herself to spare him the exposure. Their peace shattered when Uzuki's brother, Sei Asaki, hunted them down and manipulated them into turning their blades on one another. Even in death, Rion placed no blame on Uzuki, faulting Asaki for what happened.

Rion ranked among the three brightest talents the JCC ever produced, routinely trading blows with Sakamoto and Nagumo during training. Her signature gift was the ability to see paths, phantom lines mapping the moves that would lead a target to death; she could hold several such routes in mind at once and choose between them. The technique made her lethal up close, and it pushed even the Order's Kindaka onto the back foot, though he learned to neutralize it by flicking alcohol into her eyes. Her marksmanship was equally famous, having beaten both of her rivals in a shooting match and holding third place on the academy's all-time range record with a score of eighty-six.

In combat she squeezed maximum value from any weapon, boasting she could down Sakamoto with nothing but knives on even footing. Her stamina let her spar for nine straight hours and outlast Kobayashi's poison longer than he had ever seen anyone endure, while her speed and reflexes were sharp enough to swat aside a sniper's bullet with a thrown knife and pinpoint the shooter in the same instant. She fought with a pistol and a blade, often using the recoil of the gun to power her knife strikes, and she could even turn a motorcycle into a weapon.