Akatsuki Iride

Iride Akatsuki (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. He was raised by his aunt as her son after the former went delusional from the original Akatsuki's death as a child. Despite his positive and at times silly demeanour 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
Iride 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", Iride 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 Iride together, but details and context of that photo remain unknown thus far.

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.

Stage 1
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.

Stage 2: Oujia Board Exchange
Iride 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, Iride 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, Iride widens his eyes in surprise.

Iride 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 Iride 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 Iride 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 Iride, to no avail. However, before he falls over, he says there's someone behind Anya.

Although Iride 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, Iride explains Karin's video to Zakuro. While doing that, he notices that someone was indeed behind them. Iride then approaches the girl, much to the others' chagrin, and talks to her. Despite her burning up, Iride 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 Iride and the others receive "01 Chromosome" (out of 22). Iride talks with the other members following the Stage, specifically with Karin and Anya. Iride thinks back on the girl, but when Karin asks about what he said to the girl at the end, Iride claims to have forgotten.

13th District
Iride 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 Iride may be more connected to "The Ones Within - Genome" than he lets on. Despite this, everybody continues to interact with Iride, drawn to his kindness.

Kudou Anya
Although the two start slightly shaky, they bond over the promise that Iride 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 Iride. While Anya may be irritated with Iride at times, it's shown that he is actually very grateful for Iride for a number of things, such as waking him up every morning and eating all of his bell peppers during meals.

Roromori Yuzu
Iride 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 Iride (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 Iride.