Characters/Nao-chan


Nao-chan
Personal Information
Name Nao-chan
Birthday (Age) Unknown (n/a)
Type of Character Side
Additional Information
Hair Color
  • Black
Eye Color
  • Red and Green
Height 4′ 4′′ (132cm)
Job(s) unknown
Hobby(s)
  • Reading manga
Like(s)
  • Manga
  • Rhinos
  • Blue
Dislike(s) unknown
Family
Affiliation unknown
First Appearance
Notes unknown


Nao-chan is part of the Side Cast of in Lessons In Love. She's a mysterious girl whom Kaori decides to raise after finding her in an alleyway.

Background

Due to her circumstances, Nao’s past is completely unknown. She doesn’t seem to have any family, any document to identify her are unavailable or non-existent, and the only personal belongings she has are the clothes she was found with.

Sensei only crossed her path due to Kaori receiving a mysterious letter with a kanji on it, which she interpreted as a treasure map. After a fruitless search in the woods, both stumbled upon her on their way back, sleeping peacefully in an alleyway during the rain. While Kaori was ecstatic to find their “treasure”, Sensei was more cautious due to the weird circumstances of her appearance and her familiar eye colors. He wanted to let the police handle her, but since Nao vehemently rejected this, Kaori decided to adopt her and is looking after her since then.

Characteristics

Nao seems to be a rather mature child. When she’s experiencing or investigating new things, she’s excited and shows a lot of energy, but when she’s interacting with other people, she shows a calm demeanor, unless something happens to rile her up, pays close attention to conversations when she’s included and gives brief, direct answers to the best of her ability.

While she doesn’t know a lot about basic things in the world, like what a mall is, she shows a surprising awareness of more mature subject matters. This is shown when she knew what Kaori meant by trafficking during their first meeting, was shocked when Kaori mentioned she had a cock until Sensei clarifies that she meant her pet chicken, and fully understood Ami’s plans for her relationship with Sensei. This doesn't protect her from being shocked when it happens in front of her, like when she was completely frozen in place after witnessing Kaori and Sensei making out

Nao is mute, something that is shown to be a physical issue since she can’t make any kind of sound with her mouth, with Sensei assuming she has underdeveloped vocal cords. Despite not being able to speak, Nao has next to no issues communicating with others, being able to use hand gestures, facial expressions, and a notebook from Kaori to get her thoughts across. While Sensei has no problem communicating with her this way, there are some people who can understand her like she’s actually speaking with them. So far, these people are Chinami, who can hear everything she “says” due to children being able to understand each others without speaking – Or at least this is Chika’s theory for it – and Tsuneyo, though she only showed clear understanding of her when she was ordering ramen, which she contributes to her experience managing the shop.

Between her behavior and cute looks, Nao manages to make people warm up to her surprisingly quickly, even being able to make Sensei like her after only one day.

Relationships

Sensei

Sensei's relationship with Nao-chan is complicated. On the one hand, he’s wary of her due to her mysterious appearance in his life and her having the same eye colors as the girls he cherishes the most, on the other hand, he finds himself warming up to her despite her unknown circumstances. Nao shows no signs of liking Sensei, shrugging when she’s asked how she feels about him, but she seems to trust him enough to be alone with him when he needs to babysit her.

Chika

Nao-chan is initially introduced to Chika by a trip to the mall with Sensei. Upon meeting her, Chika was smitten with Nao-chan, finding her incredibly adorable and declaring her to be an angel. Nao doesn't seem to have deep feelings about Chika, but was excited to see her again during the beach cook-off.

Chinami

Nao-chan meets Chinami at the same time she meets Chika, and the two girls become friends insanely quickly, doing little more than locking eyes before getting along. Chinami is explicably able to understand Nao, something Sensei points out is weird, but no one pays no mind to.

Kaori

Kaori acts as Nao-chan's surrogate mother, tasking herself with teaching Nao about the world and the various things she'll need to survive in it, such as reading and writing. While they’ve only spent little time together, Nao is already very fond of Kaori and doesn’t want to be separated from her.

Memorable Quotes

  • "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • ":D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • "=///////////////////"

Trivia

  • Nao was named after the kanji 直 on her hoodie. The specific kanji for Nao can mean “straight”, “direct” or “honest”.
  • For some reason, Nao has a weird fascination with mugs to the point where all mugs in the room disappear when she’s left unsupervised.

Gallery

References