Akane Hyakuya

Akane Hyakuya (百夜 茜), birth name Akane Iida (飯田 茜), was one of the orphans from the Hyakuya Orphanage who appears in both Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen and Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign.

Appearance
Akane was a little girl with a petite stature with chest-length dark brown hair that is placed over her left shoulder, which was tied in a braid and secured with a red hairband and light brown eyes. As livestock, she wore a dark choker with a tag and a sleeveless one piece dress with a hood. The dress had a design on the eyelet and has black linings. She wore dark wrist bands on her both hands, and like the rest of the children, Akane did not wear any footwear. Akane is seen with her hair in twin pigtails as she sleeps.

Anime: In the anime she is seen wearing slip-on shoes.

Post-Mortem
Ferid Bathory keeps Akane's head in a clear container full of liquid in order to show it off to Yūichirō Hyakuya and Mikaela Hyakuya.

Personality
Even though Akane was abandoned by her parents at an early age and being held captive by the vampires, she still managed to smile and maintain a cheerful disposition.

Being the eldest in their group, she did the motherly duties for them, such as preparing food and settling the matter on who would like a birthday by declaring that today was all their birthdays.

Akane was empathetic, asking if Yūichirō Hyakuya wanted to talk about what was troubling him. She was also inquisitive, being the one to join Yu and Mikaela Hyakuya when they were awake discussing their plan.

History
At some point of Akane's life, her parents abandoned her at the Hyakuya Orphanage which was run by the Brotherhood of a Thousand Nights, a religious organization infamous for cruel experimentation on orphans.

Since she was one year younger than Mikaela Hyakuya, she acted as his second-in-command.

Events of 2012
Akane raced Mika and the other orphans to the park, where they encounter Guren Ichinose and Shinoa Hīragi. When Mika recognized him, she asked what was wrong, and he identified Guren a the person Mr. Saito called a pervert.

When Mika asked Shinoa if she was alright, Shinoa said Guren said all sorts of dirty things to her and was about to abduct her. Mika protected Shinoa and was about the call the police on Guren, but Guren quickly left.

Later, Mika sends Akane to investigate if Miyuki Yamada, who is actually Mahiru Hīragi, is a nice person since she is adopting Junji Haiyama, a four-year-old boy at their orphanage. The two girls talk about saury and then romance. Since Mahiru's face lights up while thinking about Guren, Akane decides she must be a nice person. After Mika calms Junji down, he instructs Mahiru about some of his behaviors, and Mahiru leaves with Junji.

Events of 2016
Shortly after Yūichirō's arrival at the orphanage, the director suddenly began to bleed from her nose and mouth and collapsed to the ground. The adults perished, Third Progenitor Krul Tepes led the vampire invasion on Tokyo. For the next four years, the orphans survived as livestock for the vampires in the vampire capital of Sanguinem, which is located underneath Kyoto.

Prologue
Living there for four years, Akane had a feeling she would find Yu where he is and approaches to ask him why he is not with Mika. Questioning whether they had another fight then if Yu wants to talk about it, Akane moves closer when told not to sit so close, asking why not since they are family. Assuring Yu he does have one, it is the case since everyone at the Hyakuya orphanage is one big family and it is true because the director said so. Akane directs them to get going, dinner is almost ready and she says everyone is waiting on Mr Moody, Yu.

Later Akane is preparing curry and tells Yu that she was almost going to faint when Mika brought it to her and she is so excited never having a chance to cook a feast like this before. Saying they should thank Mika for the ingredients Akane states that she would do her best to make use of them, as they hardly got to eat such treats. Sitting at the head of the table Akane cheerfully has no choice but to settle the matter at hand by officially declaring today as everyone's birthday. She also decrees that Taichi can give up the rest of his curry after he eats someone else's before joining in the laughter. After dinner, she is sleeping before waking to join Yu below, Akane says hi to Mika who was discussing their escape plan. Noticing that Yu ate, she asks what he thought of the curry and is told by Mika to wake up the others since they are to leave the city.

Akane, along with Yu and Mika and the other orphans made their way to the entrance gate; however Ferid Bathory appears and reveals it was a cruel trap set for them. Seeing Ako being murdered by the vampire noble, Akane holds onto Taichi as Ferid speaks. Ordered by Yu to run for the exit, Akane finds her path blocked by Ferid who has already slaughtered the orphans. Akane is slashed by his hand. Yu is the only one who manages to get away and swears that he would avenge them. Akane is remembered by Yu when they were discussing how they were all one family. She appears alongside the others when Mika is speaking to Yu four years later.

When Yu is attempting to form a contract with the black demon Asuramaru to gain a cursed gear weapon, Akane is used in the illusion. Asuramaru speaks as Akane to tell Yu that to get their strength he will have to give himself over and succumb to his desire for vengeance. She joins the illusion of Mika to say Yu cannot just abandon his family, and communicates that they worship desire and cannot stand love. Akane is used to guilt Yu with the notion he left them behind and has now moved on. Going to school, training and making new friends, the illusion states Yu has almost managed to completely forget about them. She is visualized at the head of the table when Kureto is reading into Yu's past and how the family he lived with died in their getaway attempt.

When Mika is being defended by Shinoa, Yoichi, Kimizuki and Mitsuba, he thinks how they are defending him because they know he is Yu's family. Akane is visualized playing football with the other orphans and waving as they were inviting him to play as well.

Post-Nagoya Arc
Ferid Bathory hunts down Mika and Yu. When they agree to surrender, he pulls out Akane's head from the trunk of his fancy western car and tells Yu to say that to her face. Once Yu's demon side takes control, he tosses her head to Yoichi Saotome.

After subduing Yu, he tells Mika that he has come to show them how to return Akane to life. He says the name of this experiment is the Seraph of the End. Akane's head within the jar is carried by Yoichi.

Post-Shibuya Arc
Akane is wearing casual clothes and playing a ball game with other children in a field. In response to a girl calling her big sis Akane and that she is not playing fair, Akane teases that it is her fault for being too slow. She says if they do not run fast enough then Akane will tag them with the ball and turn them into demons. As the young Yu and Mika discuss the curry they made Akane happily joins them and says to Mika that it is about time that he woke up. He was asleep for what had to be two hours. Akane holds the hand of a family member as they head home and within a building resembling the Hyakuya Orphanage she enjoys dinner with those gathered. By night time Akane is sleeping in her futon as Mika speaks with Yu, the latter of who like Akane is another manifestation.

A separate visualization of Akane being held by Yu in their livestock clothes is shown when Asuramaru is detailing Mika's deepest fears that he is responsible for their deaths. The Akane apparition created by the being imitating Mika's family is woken from her sleep by the illusionary Yu. She is happy to see Mika, who is being controlled by Asuramaru to murder them.

When Yu has seen that his and Mika's deepest desires to die are the same, Akane is mentioned when he speaks there is a way to bring her and the other kids back to life.

Book 2
"You’re on! You’ll never beat me, Mika!"

- Akane to Mika.

Book 5
"Ahh, I like saury, too. It’s really tasty, isn’t it! …But I don’t like to eat the guts. They’re too bitter."

- Akane to Miyuki Yamada.

"Are you a nice lady?"

- Akane questioning Mahiru.

"You look nice, but you also look a little sad."

- Akane to Mahiru.

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign
"After all, we're all part of the same family."

- Akane to Yūichirō in their home in Sanguinem.

"I have no choice then, I officially declare today everyone's birthday."

- Announcing to the other orphans when they all share they would like a birthday.

Trivia

 * The name Akane means "deep red, dye from the rubia plant" (茜).
 * Akane's surname Hyakuya means "hundred" (百) (hyaku) and "night" (夜) (ya).
 * Her birth surname Iida means "food" (飯) (i) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).
 * Akane's hairstyle is put in the kind called the "hairstyle of death" in the anime, which means that those with this hairstyle usually die early on or in the backstory.
 * In the Catastrophe light novels, Mahiru Hīragi learns that Akane has a crush on Mikaela Hyakuya.
 * If Akane were alive, she would have been the same age as Shinoa Hīragi.