It's Your Au, Having Fun Is Always The Most Important Part Of It! And While I Don't Agree With A Lot

It's your au, having fun is always the most important part of it! And while I don't agree with a lot of things, for the role Akane has in the au, it does works + writing newspaper about an exorcist sounds fun, it would give Akane a lot to chew on and opportunites to bond with who he is with

Now, you asked my personally opinion of his role as Mitsuba, so I'll be honest: I don't see him fitting Mitsuba's arc in a way that doesn't completely destroy his characterization.

"Rude kid who can't empathize with people and wish for a friend that won't leave him for being too harsh" is the opposite of Akane's character.

Strap in, I rambled a lot here.

Akane is one of the most popular guys in school (which i have proof of if you don't believe me, check it here) and he is loved by many people that he is openly rude to.

Think of Lemon: They are friend, neither of them is trying to please the other. When they hang out is cause they want to. Is why he was even is in the after school kukuri-san chapter.

Akane doesn't try to be nice to Lemon, we see him beat Lemon up a lot, their very introduction in the manga is Akane yelling/knocking Lemon down from his lackluster performance.

Which means when Akane is kind to Lemon he isn't trying to paint himself in a good light, he is genuinely empatizing and trying to help. I find it sweet how he used his power as a class representative to help Lemon not get in trouble with school work that he had forgotten to do.

The panel above is part of his oficial introduction in the manga. Nene is the one that says Akane is "kind and friendly to everyone, no exception"

And we know how rude Akane is to her.

So why would she call him 'friendly and kind?'.

Well, because he is. You'll never see someone call him sweet, he is not like Nene or Kou, which is usually the kind of bubbly image people get when they hear that someone is 'friendly', but he is approachable and he does care about people a lot.

Let's go back to the scene above where he is being a judgemental little shit to Nene. Akane is in the middle of work when Nene greets him, cause he have a tool box in his hand + he have been helping everyone the entire night so is fair to assume he is still doing one of the many tasks people need him for.

Despite how draining the night have been Akane was going to put his duty on hold (which would make him more overworked later) to see what Nene needed from him.

He doesn't even say "This better be important!", he just goes along: If she seeked him why would he turn her away?

This isn't even the first time Akane helps Nene. He was the one that suggested Nene to take Kou to the festival after hell of mirrors got Kou depressed.

Akane have been friendly since he was a small child.

Did you ever wonder why out of everyone Akane was Aoi's only friend during her childhood?

It's not because he was his neighbor and that's convinient. It's because he was the only kid nice enough to react when people were mean to Aoi, the only one who befriended the 'cold and untouchable girl.'

Aoi was his friend before his crush, they always seem to be having fun on their flashbacks, and it's clear Akane wasn't forcing himself to be nice to her when they met (look at the judgemental look he send Aoi on the art where he takes her out of the rai + We know Akane could be mean/careless enough to make Aoi cry)

The effortless way people flock to him is constantly used to contrast Aoi's isolation.

This boy was never Alone, his fatigue is because he is akwats surrounded, always the first option, always sought after. Always complaining but trying to help.

Add in his work with the clock keepers and god damn of course he is always in a bad mood i would too, give this bitch a break.

Even at sleeptime people keep calling him to come help (Kou isn't even from his class, this is not him taking his class representative duties seriously, he is just going 'fine i'll help')

What he suck at isn't empathizing, is being sweet or tactful.

Let's take when Nene break down as an exemple: Akane is visibly distressed by her tears, he looks for something to say, sweating in silence, and end up not finding anything good to tell her.

He isn't close to Nene, and despite it not being Nene's fault, a part of him must be comflicted about Aoi's death being for her survival, so he can't just hug her, he also isn't a fan of lies so he won't go 'is okay we'll be fine' after being just as depressed about Aoi's death as Nene. He is too prideful and honest to give someone a fake smile and empty words just because is 'the right thing to do'.

He does try to help her keep her head up by saying "Let's team up" which you may scoff at, after all, it isn't something that happened, Akane stay with Teru and Nene with Kou during the rescue arc, but it is implied that this was an invitation.

If Nene didn't have Kou and his optimism available (which is something Nene greatly preffers over Akane's harsh and realistic approach to comfort, something I go into more detail here.) Akane would have went through with this team up with Nene.

Same tough approach for Teru: When Teru vent's Akane never goes 'ooh poor you, that's rough' he get annoyed that his upperclassman is whining when they should be focusing on Aoi's rescue. But he still respect his woes enough to sit down and listens.

Anyways, the point is: His arc is not related to isolation, regrets, or learning to socialize. It's about arrogance.

Akane is the guy people have been relying on for ages, so he grew up used to doing things himself and being rewarded love and respect for his resilience, for being able to help with anything.

His fatal flaw is that when he make a judgement he assume he is right and stick to it forever. When possible, he tries to do things by himself, not because he doesn't have anyone he can ask for help but because he believes that he is capable. That he can do it alone.

His judgement/arrogance problem isolates him from his loved ones too.

Think of Aoi, his darling who he would do anything to make her happy.

He knew she hid her emotions behind a mask, pretending nothing bothers her, and he also knew she likes when he give her attention, so he assumed that "Aoi play it cool but she likes when i give her big gestures of love"

Which at the time was true.

HOWEVER, he kept this belief unchanged even when they started to drift apart, assuming that confessions made her happy so if she is down is because he isn't showing her enough love, he should do it more.

"I'm the one that can solve this. I am the problem if she isn't happy" -> that's self centered and arrrogant.

Not once did he question why he never got more than two points, even when Aoi said she wants to die he assumed showing her more love would be the answer.

Look at this clown, he really though reassuring her that he still loves her after she stabbed him is what he needed to instead of asking her why what he have been doing doesn't make her feel loved anyone.

It took Aoi explaining explicitly what the problem was for Akane to understand he was wrong and his actions worsened the problem.

And since he prioritizes her comfort over his pride, he did realize he was wrong and changed his behavior, but it is still an issue that it took him so long to notice the problem! I swear if Aoi never sat down and explained everything, Akane would still be showing his concern like this, fully believing he is doing 'what Aoi loves'

instead of doing this:

Akane still need to work on his pride but he is doing much better. This ramble is getting long enough as it is though, so i'll stop it here.