Akari Kuritani

Akari Kuritani (栗谷 あかり) is a character who appears in Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. Although she is first mentioned in Innocence Seekers: The Silver Princess by Mutsuki, her first actual appearance is in Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 2 where she appears alongside Misato. Akari is the protagonist of Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light and plays an important role in Innocence Seekers: Mimori Flower Club.

Akari is known for her bright personality and her optimism. Her willingness to help people allows her to make friends easily, even with someone as shy as Mirai. However, sometimes she rushes into dangerous situations without regard for her own safety if she believes she can save another person, which occasionally brings her into conflict with her friends and others.

As a mage, Akari is a fire and light elemental magic user whose primary weapon is the sword. She possesses relatively equal proficiency with both close-range combat and long-range spellcasting, but does not have any specific attribute or skill she is best at (instead being relatively good at many things). Her Inherent Ability is Eternal Stream (永遠の流れ, eien no nagare), which grants her the ability to move and act while time is stopped (provided the source of the time stop is within four kilometres of her).

Backstory
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Being Akane Kuritani's daughter, Akari has spent much of her childhood in the shadow of her mother. When she first attended Mihara Elementary School, nearly everyone, including the teachers, constantly referred to her as "Akane's daughter" or some variation, which irked Akari as she wanted to be known for what she does, not for what her mother did. The first person to refer to her as "Akari", without reference to her mother, was her first-grade classmate Hiyori, who, like Akari, was also living in the shadow of her mother.

During lunch breaks, Akari, sometimes with Hiyori, often went to other classrooms to see if anyone needed help, and if so, help them. This is how she met Michiru and Yayoi. Akari had entered Michiru and Yayoi's classroom, only to see Yayoi bullying Michiru. Upon seeing this, Akari began to shout at Yayoi and got between her and Michiru. This led to Akari and Yayoi fighting, which only stopped when Michiru shouted at them to stop. Ever since then, they have become friends.

During the events of Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 3, Akari and her friends repeatedly visited the royal palace in Yaezora, often discussing the recent events with Erika. During this time, she became friends with Erika, Erika's younger sister Himawari, and, to a lesser extent, the crown princess of Likkra. Also during this time, Hiyori introduced her penfriend, Inori, to Akari.

END OF SPOILERS

Innocence Seekers: The Silver Princess
Although Akari does not actually appear in this entry, she is mentioned by Mutsuki as being someone of the same age as Mutsuki's younger sister Yayoi.

Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 2
This is the first chronological entry in which Akari appears. She makes her appearance when Natasha and Chelsea visit Yaezora, in order to find Akari's mother. They end up getting lost and find themselves at the Kurosawa residence, where they meet Misato, along with Akari and Michiru.

Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 3
Akari makes multiple appearances in this entry, but is a minor character who often appears whenever Erika returns to Yaezora.

Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light
Akari is the protagonist of this entry.

Innocence Seekers: Mimori Flower Club
In this entry, Akari is a major supporting character, having become friends with the two main characters, Mirai and Sakura, in the previous entry.

Relationships
Note that Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose has a predominantly female cast, so expect yuri subtext in every entry.

Shipping pairs referenced in the source material:
 * AkaHiyo (あかひよ) – Akari with Hiyori Kigawa
 * AkaMichi (あかみち) – Akari with Michiru Kurosawa
 * AkaYayo (あかやよ) – Akari with Yayoi Miyana
 * AkaMira (あかみら) – Akari with Mirai Aooka
 * AkaIno (あかいの) – Akari with Inori Akagawa
 * EriAka (えりあか) – Akari with Erika
 * AmeAka (アメあか) – Akari with Amelia
 * AkaHima (あかひま) – Akari with either Princess Himawari or Himawari Higasa
 * NatsuAka (夏あか) – Akari with Natsumi Hinawa

Trivia

 * Akari's nicknames include "Akarin" (あかりん, used by Yayoi) and "Akacchi" (あかっち, used by Sumire).
 * Akari is a fan of the fictional magical girl series Magical Kurumi-chan.
 * The Innocence Seekers website's favicon is a black silhouette of Akari's head on an orange background.