Akatsuki Iride

Akatsuki Iride (入出・アカツキ Iride Akatsuki) is a friendly and optimistic let's player specializing in escape games and the main protagonist of the story. Despite his positive 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.

His identity as the owner of the island where the game takes place is later revealed in the story, as his adoptive father had passed it to him via inheritance after death, although this is kept a secret.

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 pulled 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


Despite Akatsuki's fun and positive personality, he has a rather dark and suspicious background.

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 Yuzu Roromori 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 a photo of a girl and boy who may be Yuko or may not be Yuzu 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 due to multiple health complications. Akatsuki was adopted through a family friend. After Akatsuki's adoptive father dies due to a laboratory accident, his mother was left even more traumatized and unstable which leads to her sanity breaking down She becomes unable to distinguish between Akatsuki and her late son. 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.

His father inherited the island that the story takes place from the original owner. After his death, Akatsuki inherits the island, but as he is still a young high school student, he was added into the game to protect his identity and blend in.

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 were initially some occasions when he didn'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.

Stage 1: Animal Battle
Just before completing the game, Iride 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 Iride 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 Iride and the girl, the two get saved by a boy.

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

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

This stage is covered by Volume 1, Chapter 1 in the manga and is covered in the first episode of the anime.

Stage 2: Oujia Board Exchange
Akatsuki is the first to introduce himself to the rest of the players of the 13th District. Karin, however, cuts him off by hitting him on the head. 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.

This stage is covered through Volume 1, Chapter 2 to 3, and is covered in the first episode of the anime.

Stage 3: Heart-Throbbing Egg Murasaki no Ue
'''The following is a follow through the manga, not the episode. If you'd like to know what happened in the anime, see here.'''

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: "Amazing! 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 drunk 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.

This stage is covered by Volume 1, Chapter 4 to Volume 2, Chapter 6 in the manga and is covered in the second episode of the anime.

Stage 4: Mimicry Man-Eater Extermination
'''The following is a follow through the manga, not the episode. If you'd like to know what happened in the anime, see here.'''

Whilst everyone is either fighting off the monster or trying to find out how to get rid of it, Akatsuki calls out to them asking them to come to the food cellar. This is because the walls and doors are strong and they can lock it. Before everyone could round up, another Mimicry gets in between them. Anya and Akatsuki on one side, the others on the other side. They decide to still meet up at the food cellar, Anya and Iride would take a detour.

Soon after this, we see Akatsuki out of breath, assumingly from running. He says he's a disgrace as he assertively agreed with the plan but couldn't even run anymore as his sides hurt. Whilst this is happening Anya is next to him, trying to break open a door, he hands another pipe to Iride asking him to help. Akatsuki simply looks at the pipe with glowing eyes.

Akatsuki then says to Anya how he only scored a level 2 in P.E, showing to us that he wouldn't be much help to Anya. Anya replies saying how he didn't expect much from the beginning. Anya rubs his eyes, and Akatsuki asks if he's okay but Anya bluntly replies that nothing is wrong. They both start walking through the hallway and spotted Karin and the end of the hallway. Akatsuki calls out to her, questioning as to why she wasn't with the other group, she sweetly smiles at them. Both Anya and Akatsuki shudder at this. Akatsuki walks up to her asking if she was 'cracked from fear.' Karin doesn't say anything and simply hugs him. Akatsuki is taken back at this as it wasn't like Karin to be so close with him.

Soon enough we find out that it wasn't Karin but a Mimicry impersonating her. The Mimicry starts to bite on Akatsuki's head, and he screams out in pain saying how he'd taste bad. Anya saves him by whacking the monster with his pipe and rescues Akatsuki. They both start to run. They soon get close to the end of the hallway and see some stairs. Anya, however, collapses onto the floor. Akatsuki rushes to his side, asking if he's okay. Anya tells Akatsuki to leave him behind and then falls onto the floor, unconscious. The Mimicry then caught up to them and just as it was about to eat Iride. it stopped. This is because they were both in front of the window where the sunset was. Akatsuki carries Anya telling him to hang in there.

They reached the food cellar, and are now with the rest of the group. We find out Anya hasn't been sleeping properly. Both Yuzu and Akatsuki start to balance apples on top of Anya's head, assumingly just for fun. Akatsuki recalls Anya saying something about pills, we presume they were sleeping pills. Zakuro questions Akatsuki about the monster, he says how it was a carbon copy of Karin however it had a smiling face 'and it didn't seem like something of this world.' and also how it 'hugged me with such fierce strength.' To which these comments, Karin is pissed off.

Yuzu asks both Zakuro and Iride, to go collect parts of the monster for her. Zakuro questions Akatsuki as to what Yuzu could have planned and Akatsuki says how she has a good plan and shows his belief in her. Akatsuki is asked by Zakuro how they already knew each other. Akatsuki says how this was their first meeting but he feels as though they've met before.

Akatsuki and Zakuro enter the food cellar and see Anya is now awake. Akatsuki rushes to Anya and says, 'Good Morning!.' Anya drowsily replies good morning back. Akatsuki says how he was worried about him, Anya seemed annoyed at this. Anya explains how he has a sleeping disorder running in his family. His older brother had it and now he does too. He normally either takes the pills and forces himself to sleep or stays awake for hours on end until his body collapses from exhaustion.

In the next chapter, we find out Yuzu had poison and she plans to inject it into the plants to kill them. Akatsuki picks one up and comments on what a pretty color it was, Yuzu is excited at this comment saying how she knew Akatsuki would get it and starts blabbering about how it was created. Whilst she was talking, she also started to jam the poison sticks into Akatsuki's ears, nose, and mouth. Both Karin and Anya scold Yuzu and Akatsuki. Akatsuki for not standing up for himself and Yuzu for putting dangerous things near Iride.

A little later on, Yuzu decides that they should make a code so they'll be able to tell between the real person and the monster. In the end, they decide if one says Karin, the other says pudding. All the boys agree on this and rush out the doors to do their job.

Anya and Akatsuki are injecting the poison into the plants and Akatsuki tells Anya how if he asks Paca for some sleeping pills that he would give them, Anya forcibly disagrees with this and says he would never ask. Akatsuki then offers to ask for him, resulting in him getting scolded by Anya to not do unnecessary things. After this, Anya storms off but Akatsuki stays back and looks at one of the cameras asking Paca to meet him later.

They both eventually meet up with Zakuro and Kaikoku who are facing two Makinos, Akatsuki tries the code but Zakuro says how Makino was sleeping through that part. They eventually find out that they were both fakes.

The boys meet back at the food cellar to tell Yuzu about how many more vials of poison they had and what they were going to do next. They then decide to sleep for a while as everyone was exhausted.

In the middle of the night, Karin then wakes up Akatsuki asking him to accompany her to the bathroom as she was scared. Karin goes to the bathroom and Akatsuki also decides to go to the bathroom as he felt like it. As he was washing his hands, he heard creaking and as he turned around Yuzu was standing there with a hammer. Akatsuki says that this is the boys' bathroom and that she should go outside but Yuzu simply smiles saying how he doesn't resemble Akki at all. Akatsuki seemed confused and asked her what she meant by this. She then ran towards him and smashed the mirror behind him. Yuzu then says how he was still defending with his right hand and saying how Akatsuki was ambidextrous. She then starts telling him how Akatsuki became ambidextrous and what hands he uses for which action. Akatsuki continues to claim that he was the real one. She simply gets mad, telling him not to think of her lightly as she has dedicated her life to find out everything about Akatsuki. She says how it wouldn't even matter if it was the real Akatsuki as she's always wanted to cut him open because she loves him so much and how she wants to complete him.

As Yuzu grips his neck, ready to stab the poison into him. He simply smiles at her, causing her to be taken back by it. But she composures herself and stabs him. As she collected the chromosome, she said how that smile was foul play and how she hesitated just for a moment.

In the morning, they came to find out that all the plants were dead. This is due to the fact that the Akatsuki clone was the leader and Yuzu has killed it. We see Akatsuki being nuzzled by Yuzu and how she's been like that all morning.

This stage is covered by Volume 2, Chapter 7 to 8 and is covered in the third episode of the anime.

Facts
Speciality Subject: Biology, Chemistry

Favourite Game: Escape Games, RPG Games

Hobbies: Travelling

Favourite Food: Double Cheeseburger

Disliked Food: None

Weakness: Blood

Weapon: None

Family Structure: Adoptive Mother (Yukiko Iride), Adoptive Father (deceased), Adoptive Brother (Akatsuki Iride) (deceased), Adoptive Uncle (Niki Ichiya)

A first-year student at a public co-ed high school, Akatsuki’s best subjects are biology and chemistry. He has made a name for himself by being good at escape games. He has a severe pollen allergy and likes pandas. He is physically weak and bad at sports. He is actually adopted, and his original name was Akira.

13th Avenue
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.

Anya Kudou
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 reasons, Akatsuki waking him up every morning, having Alpaca get him sleeping pills and eating all of his bell peppers during meals. And treating him like a normal person. After his confession of liking iride as a friend he became closer to him.

Yuzu Roromori
Akatsuki seems to consider Yuzu 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 Yuzu'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.

Himiko Inaba
They seem to be in good terms as shown in the sixth stage stated that Iride is the one she was currently closest to. It is hinted that Akatsuki may be Himiko's older brother that was given away for adoption. During his time in the Inaba household, Himiko's parents noted that Akatsuki often acted strangely around Himiko which led to the decision of giving him away.

Etymology

 * The name Akatsuki (アカツキ) is in katakana.
 * Akatsuki's surname Iride means "enter" (入) (iri) and "exit, leave, go out, come out, put out, protrude" (出) (de).