Akatsuki Iride

Akatsuki Iride (入出・アカツキ Iride Akatsuki) a friendly and optimistic let's player specializing in escape games and the main protagonist of the story. Despite his positive and at times silly demeanor he possesses a uniquely perceptive and honest side, which allows him to befriend almost anyone. Prior to the series, he had met Yuzu online and planned to collaborate with her on a game broadcast.

Appearance
Akatsuki appears to be a young, fair-skinned, and slim boy with short brown hair with a white streak located on the right side of his bangs along with blue eyes. He also has a procedural face mask that is normally pulled down under his chin, though he sometimes has it up so that it covers the lower part of his face. Additionally, he is seen with a lanyard necklace holding a card that is blue, pink, white, and dark gray in color.

Outfits

 * School uniform: He wears a typical Japanese school uniform for boys—a black standing collar with a white undershirt along with black pants and shoes. On occasion, he is seen without his black standing collar.
 * Casual: He has on a dark-colored T-shirt.
 * Crossdressed: He wears a Japanese sailor uniform for girls along with black pants and shoes. Adorning a small lock of his hair is a ribbon.
 * Sacrificial: This is also a feminine outfit in which he wears an elegant white kimono accompanied by a veil that semi-covers his hair.

History


Even before streaming "The Ones Within - Genome", Akatsuki was a very famous streamer online, specializing in escape games.

Although it was revealed that he met Roromori Yuzu via an online chat during a stream, he believes that the two may have actually met before, face-to-face. This was possibly confirmed when Kaikoku found photo of a girl and boy who may or may not be Roromori and Akatsuki together, but details and context of that photo remain unknown thus far.

Akatsuki was adopted by the Iride couple after they had lost their original son. After Akatsuki's adopted father dies, Akatsuki's mother's sanity breaks down. She becomes unable to distinguish between Akatsuki and her late son and legally changes her adopted son's name to match with her late son. Akatsuki's original name(before being adopted) was Akira.

His father inherited the island that the story takes place on from the original owner. After his death, Akatsuki inherits the island, but his identity as the owner is concealed to protect him as he is still in high school.

Personality
Iride is portrayed as a relatively nice and open-minded person who doesn't get mad easily, whether it is at something or someone. His patience—which may be on the more extreme end—has led to some members, most prominently Anya, to rely on him fairly often and/or view him as something like a brother, if not a friend.

In addition to not getting mad himself, Iride also tries his best to make others around him happy, oftentimes regardless of whether he's close (if this was the case, he'd try his best to befriend the other party). In fact, if someone tells him to do something, he'll do it without much hesitation if it will make that someone happy. Despite this though, there are some occasions when he doesn't follow orders, acting based on his own beliefs instead.

He is also shown to be a very calm and peaceful person, as he doesn't seem fazed when he sees monsters or other enemies. Even when somebody throws a tantrum, he seems to just let them do that, and when he's doing something himself, he tries to do it in a non-violent manner.

History
Despite Akatsuki's fun and positive personality, he has a rather dark and suspicious background. While Akatsuki and the other 13th district participants are constricted on the island, the investigation in the outside world continues.

Akatsuki was raised by his non-related mother. Before Akatsuki was adopted (his name before adoption being Akira), his mother previously had a child, who later died from multiple health complications. She later adopted the current Akatsuki through a family friend. A short time after Akatsuki's father had died, which had left his mother even more traumatized and unstable. Although Akatsuki's original name was Akira, after being adopted, his adoptive mother suggested changing his identity to be even more fitting to her original son, requesting to change his name. Unoffended, Akira, now Akatsuki, complied with enthusiasm, even agreeing with the idea. After three repetitive requests, it was finally accepted by the court, officially changing his name.

Although his mother is seemingly delusional and mentally unbalanced, Akatsuki loves his mother dearly and does not see her as a nuisance or burden.

The island's original contractor was Akatsuki's adoptive father, and the island heritage recently passed down to him after his father passed away. As he is still a young high school student, he was added into the game to protect his identity and blend in.

Plot:

Stage 1
Just before completing the game, Akatsuki receives a message on his screen about playing the closed beta of "The Ones Within - Genome". Unaware of its true meaning, he thanks the popularity of the game for his raise in viewers. After opening his to-do list, he finds himself in another world, within the "The Ones Within - Genome" live stream.

Believing this to be a dream, he finds an unconscious girl next to him. When he tries to check whether she is conscious though, he gets punched because of a misunderstanding. The two then venture through the forest.

Just then, the two encounter a large panda (later named Pantarou) with a snail and a rat perched on top. Although Akatsuki tries to hold it in so they don't get caught, he can't help a sneeze due to pollen allergies, and they get confronted by the snail and the rat. Although things look troubling for Akatsuki and the girl, the two get saved by a boy.

Left unarmed, Akatsuki approaches the panda by climbing up the tree. He then greets the panda and hugs it, enjoying its paws. Akatsuki chats with the panda for a little bit before he gets sneezed on. Akatsuki then reunites with the boy and the girl, where they make small talk.

It is then that Akatsuki meets and receives a balloon from Paca from the monitoring post. Paca informs the three that they have completed Stage 1 then.

Stage 2: Oujia Board Exchange
Akatsuki is the first to introduce himself to the rest of the players of the 13th District. Doing so without hesitation earns him a punch from Karin. After Yuzu introduces herself, Akatsuki and Yuzu high five each other because they know each other.

Paca explains the White Room, and what would happen to anybody who complained. After showing them a past inmate of the White Room and their corpse, Akatsuki widens his eyes in surprise.

Akatsuki is one of four participants of the Oujia Board Exchange Stage, along with Anya, Zakuro, and Karin. At first, Anya firmly refused to participate, but when Akatsuki promises to eat Anya's bell peppers, he decides to participate. Their goal is to grant three of the Board's wishes. First, it was water, which was obtained through the vase. Next, it asked for a friend, to which Akatsuki offered to be its friend. Finally, it asked for Akatsuki himself. It was then that he felt a "pull" over to the ledge just outside. Anya tries to save Akatsuki, to no avail. However, before he falls over, he says there's someone behind Anya.

Although Akatsuki falls, it's later revealed that Pantarou saves him in time, and it carries him back to the ledge, where he climbs up, and he gets thrown several nicknames while being kicked by Anya and Karin.

As the board continues to ask for Akatsuki, he explains Karin's video to Zakuro. While doing that, he notices that someone was indeed behind them. Akatsuki then approaches the girl, much to the others' chagrin, and talks to her. Despite her burning up, Akatsuki still approaches her, assuring that he will be her friend; however, he can't go with her just yet.

After this, the Oujia Board Exchange is completed, and Akatsuki and the others receive "01 Chromosome" (out of 22). Iride talks with the other members following the Stage, specifically with Karin and Anya. Akatsuki thinks back on the girl, but when Karin asks about what he said to the girl at the end, Akatsuki claims to have forgotten.

Stage 3
Soon after this, the players are taken outside. Whilst everyone seems quite miserable about having to go along with this, Yuzu and Iride are excited once they see the giant egg. Akatsuki says here: "Amaziing! It's like a dinosaur egg!"

The next stage is revealed by Paca to be a nurturing game where they must hatch a girl from the egg and make the school idol fall in love with her and he says how there is no limit to how many people can take part but it must be a minimum of 4. Anya looks to Himiko saying how she's the obvious choice to put on the team. She then hides behind Akatsuki and Akatsuki says to Anya: "You called for Tinytsuki, right?" In the next page, we see Akatsuki with some sort of fluffball on his head and Anya hits it off, it turns out to be a 'Pacamera'. The people involved with this stage are Akatsuki, Himiko, Anya, and Makino. Both Akatsuki and Himiko are more gentle with taking care of the egg and want to safely hatch it compared to Anya who was a bit out of place. The group finds out the egg will hatch in one hour after warming it, so Akatsuki decides to warm it by squeezing the outside of the egg and hugging it. Himiko says how that wouldn't produce enough heat so Akatsuki goes and finds heaters that were in the barn.

Soon after this, they have created enough heat, and the group stands around the egg in a circle holding hands. Akatsuki (as well as Himiko) start praying for how if the 'birth' does not go well then they would at least be able to make food from the egg. The egg begins to crack so Himiko urges everyone to think about their preference for the girl. Akatsuki thinks about how he wants to see Pantarou again. This, of course, messes up the girl and gives her features of a panda.

Later, in Volume 2 Chapter 5 of the manga, we see Murasaki (the girl from the egg) pulling out her hair and clumps whilst repeating, "He loves me, he loves me not." To this Akatsuki asks if she's okay or if she's not feeling well. Murasaki replies to her 'Pa' about how her heart is pounding. Akatsuki calls for Himiko (Ma) telling her how Murasaki has a fever. We soon find out it's because she has fallen in love with Makino. Later, when they're eating dinner, Anya and Himiko start to argue over the value of the nurturing game. Anya thinks of it to be stupid whereas Himiko replies back saying how he is Murasaki's father and how he has a responsibility. Akatsuki simply says in this whole debacle: "If Anya-kun's the father, then what on earth am I?" A kept man?!

Eventually, Himiko has enough and pulls one of her flash grenades. We later see all the boys have been sent out to sleep in the barn and Akatsuki has been temporarily blinded.

The next day everyone meets up at the school (excluding Kaikoku and Zakuro) and Yuzu compliments how Murasaki is a nice girl which Akatsuki is happy about. We are shown that Karin is thinking deeper about the relationship between Yuzu and Akatsuki and how close they were, questioning whether they really were 'just LP buddies''. Right after this Yuzu tackles Karin, getting quite close to her and Yuzu asks Akatsuki whether he is jealous about it to which he says that he is. This results in him getting punched in the face.

Shortly after this, we see Anya denied access into the school and is disqualified as it is a girls school. It skips ahead to us seeing Akatsuki dressed up in a schoolgirls outfit with a cute bow in his hair. This was meant to be a disguise for him to be allowed into the school. All of them go to a cooking class and decide to bake cookies for the teacher (who is the idol), eventually, Makino and Akatsuki are considered to be in the way and are kicked out by the girls. They instead decide to check on the idol.

They wait outside in the bushes in front of his window and overhear the idol shouting about how every present he has received is not worthy enough to be given to him. Right after this Murasaki comes in with the cookies, gives them to him and leaves. He soon starts ranting about how much more striking Murasaki is and how he wouldn't live up to his name. Murasaki overheard this and tried to reassure him but was cut off. The idol grabs a bottle of wine he had just drank from and ran towards Murasaki aiming to kill her as she had seen his 'disgraceful' side. Luckily Makino makes it just in time to jump through the window and grab another bottle that was in the room and smash the idol's head with it. Later Akatsuki wonders, whilst the rest are sitting around eating cookies, as to where Anya was. In the end, Murasaki begins to disappear because it was the end of the stage. She asks Himiko and Akatsuki (her Ma and Pa) to 'hold me to the end'. After she disappeared, the academy disappeared and everyone was in the clothes they were in previously and on the floor was another Chromosome. At the end of the stage, everyone (including Anya) is in the lobby, hanging out. Zakuro and Kaikoku enter soon and try to tell them what happened when a plant-like monster burst through the doors. It is said to be an S stage level. The Mimicry Man-Eater Extermination.

13th District
Akatsuki generally gets along with all of the members of the 13th District, caring about others' wellbeing. As a result, many of them see him as something like a brotherly figure, if not a friend. However, a couple of members are shown to hold some underlying suspicion that Akatsuki may be more connected to "The Ones Within - Genome" than he lets on. Despite this, everybody continues to interact with Akatsuki, drawn to his kindness.

Kudou Anya
Although the two start slightly shaky, they bond over the promise that Akatsuki will eat all of Anya's bell peppers if he participates in the live stream. Although their relationship may seem like a one-sided friendship to others, it becomes evident that as time goes on, Anya increasingly starts to rely on Akatsuki. While Anya may be irritated with Akatsuki at times, it's shown that he is actually very grateful for Akatsuki for a number of things, such as waking him up every morning and eating all of his bell peppers during meals.

Roromori Yuzu
Akatsuki seems to consider Roromori a good friend whom he met while chatting during a stream. However, he can't shake off the feeling that they've met somewhere before. He is oblivious to Roromori's obsessive, stalk-like nature and somewhat romantic feelings toward Akatsuki (as she mainly keeps this hidden to herself); as such, the two continue to maintain a friendly, familiar relationship. It was also found that Yuzu has a tendency to take photos of Akatsuki.