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Sensei

Personal Information
Name	Sensei
Birthday (Age)	?? (31)
Type of Character	Main
Additional Information
Hair Color	Dark Red
Eye Color	Black
Height	6′0′′ (182cm)′
Job(s)	Teacher at Kumon-Mi High
Hobby(s)	Writing (formerly) Video games (formerly) Wandering
Like(s)	Poetry Girls Sleeping Himself
Dislike(s)	Commitment Religion Himself
Family	Ami Arakawa (Niece) Nozomu Arakawa † (Older Brother) Sekai Arakawa † (Sister-in-Law) Saki (Mother)
Affiliation	Manga Club (Advisor) Soccer Club (Coach, Chap. 1-2)
First Appearance	Every Day I Grow Some More
Notes	unknown

Sensei is a teacher at Kumon-mi High, responsible for an all-girls class of students. To say that he teaches them may be an overstatement. Described by some as "creepy", by others as "hot", and by most "a terrible teacher", strong opinions on Sensei are the norm.

Sensei's memory about much of his past is hazy at best, and unfortunately his students and friends are not very interested in filling in the blanks.

— Official Lessons in Love website

Sensei is part of the Main Cast of in Lessons In Love. He is a teacher employed at Kumon-Mi High, and the uncle of Ami Arakawa. He is the main protagonist of Lessons in Love.

Background

Due to his backstory being a central element of Lessons in Love's story, as well as his own amnesia, very little of Sensei's past is initially explained and he remembers even less. The blanks are only occasionally filled in by those with a connection to his past, such as Ami, Ayane, Noriko, Niki, and sometimes Maya. While hints are given or even shown, these pieces are often heavily obfuscated through surreal imagery or indirect.

As explained by Maya in A New Beginning, before the current iteration, there have been numerous versions of Sensei, all of whom eventually succumbed to Kumon-mi's cyclical loop and were of questionable character. Despite all memories of these Sensei's being wiped out by Resets, the girl's all initially have preconceived views of a 'previous version' of Sensei who was serious, respectable, and a great instructor. Makoto and Futaba in particular deeply respected and idolized him. Both these details lead the current iteration of Sensei to conclude that he is, in fact, a different person who simply commandeered the body of the "real Sensei" for some unknown reason.

The following paragraphs contain extreme spoilers about the story of Lessons in Love.

In reality, this assumption is incorrect.

Sensei, real name Akira Arakawa, is the younger brother of Nozomu Arakawa and the youngest son of a woman named Saki. His father's name and status are unknown. Little is known about his family life, and even less about his direct family members, though minor details are often mentioned, such as him having a religious upbringing, or his brother seemingly having preferential treatment.

Growing up, Akira seemed not to have many friends, only meeting his childhood friend and later first girlfriend Niki Nakayama halfway into it. Afterwards though, he'd spend nearly every day with her and her family. This happened so often that the Nakayama's began to treat Akira as a fifth family member. As time went on, he and Niki became closer, eventually beginning to date during his last year of high school. The two's relationship is never shown, but details mentioned throughout the story paint it as incredibly healthy, with many people sure that the two would get married. Parallel to all this, though, was an emotionally and physically abusive relationship that he developed with his sister-in-law Sekai Arakawa. The origin of this relationship has not been revealed, and the depths of destructiveness are often not shown, merely implied or hinted at, but the effects it had on him can be felt throughout the entire story.

Around eight years before the start of the game, some unspecified accident caused Akira to completely cut himself off from the world. Here, he abandoned his previous life and relationships, having his now-orphaned niece, Ami, move in with him. Following this accident, he was entirely unresponsive, requiring Ami to step up and take care of nearly his every needs. At some point he recovered and began tutoring out of an apartment in the Old District, teaching various girls such as Noriko and Maya. He'd eventually abandon this life as well, landing a more stable job as a teacher at Kumon-mi High.

For some unknown reason, Akira loses all memory the moment the game begins. Despite how alarming this is, Ami reacts with little concern, simply accepting his excuse that he's suffering from amnesia at face value.

Characteristics

Akira's character growth is one of the most drastic in Lessons in Love. As the story progresses, portions of his personality become more or less exaggerated, with new facets appearing and old ones falling to the wayside.

Some traits remain consistent, however. While he is responsible for twenty, initially ten, students, he has little interest in actually teaching or being a good role model. He becomes more open to helping his students with classwork as time goes on, but this kindness never reaches a point where he assumes his expected responsibility as a teacher. Instead, he often leaves the girls to teach themselves, and later abdicates near-full authority to Imani. He is similarly apathetic about other types of work, often attempting to weasel out of errands, disliking promises, and pushing all procedural paperwork onto Makoto. Akira is extremely unprofessional and listless, napping during school hours, speaking to his students casually without any regard for respect, and spending his free time wandering aimlessly around Kumon-mi. This apathy extends to nearly all things in his life, frequently admitting to himself he'd love to live a life where he does nothing and let Ami take care of his every need. This lack of direction seems to apply to his interpersonal relationships as well, expecting nothing from others and wanting them to expect nothing from him as well. He's often hesitant to call people his friends, as a result.

Perhaps Akira's most defining character trait is his near-insatiable lust. He craves and pursues nearly all women he encounters, spending an exorbitant amount of time indulging in personal fantasies, and regularly risks his social standing in the pursuit of wooing women over. While the depths of his lust are somewhat dependent on player choice, he can generally be characterized as someone whose lust guides him. His obsession with this invades nearly his every thought, often mentally cracking inappropriate jokes, or often alluding to sex in his conversations; This facet of himself is one that changes drastically throughout the course of the story. When Akira first "wakes up" in Kumon-mi, he makes attempts to conceal his lust, although only in hopes that doing so will allow him to more easily bed the various women he comes across – He additionally attempts to masquerade as the "original Sensei" for the same reason. But, following a particular incident during his class' second Halloween Party, this view of his life begins to crumble underneath the weight of his mind and his growing care for the people in his life. By the time of his class' third Christmas, he'd managed to gain considerable control of himself. Though he's unable to eradicate this side of himself completely, which causes him to become internally more remorseful.

He begins to slip back into his prior callous personality following the 6th Reset, though retains immense remorse.

Akira is additionally deeply cynical, often spiraling into extreme nihilism during his internal monologues. He usually jumps to the worst-case scenario and advises his students from said position, making this a source of comfort in most situations. Perhaps as a result of this intense pessimism, few things are shown to truly affect him, often taking the brunt of emotionally crushing or tense situations with little more than a slight frown. Even when Akira is feeling stressed, he's reluctant to admit this, preferring to ignore the issue and indulge in vice as a distraction. It's during these intensely stressful situations that his superficially inflated ego takes a nosedive and reveals itself as potent self-hatred where he often expresses disgust or helpless horror at himself. He'll often accept or refer to himself with monikers or descriptors that conjure ideas of repulsiveness, with these moments becoming more common as Akira's life is riddled with more tragedies and obstacles. He slowly accepts being more open, becoming more vocal and visually expressive to those he loves, but still defaults to running away unless pressed.

This emotional transparency comes with both comfort and discomfort, as he often feels unworthy of the adoration he's given.

Akira is often cited by members of the cast for being kind and a "good person", even if his outer persona and demeanor would lead one to believe he's mostly bitter and stoic. Despite this, he exhibits little inhibition in carrying out (what he would deem) morally objectionable acts, hurting others' feelings – albeit unintentionally – or acting opportunistically for his own benefit. He's usually reluctant to apologize and mentally berates those who do as "weak".

Relationships

Ami

Having lived with him for years, Ami and Akira have a close relationship built upon the mutual trauma they endured together. Even prior to adopting her, he often came around to her family's home in order to read excerpts of plays, particularly those of Shakespeare. Following her parent's death though, he became her guardian, moving her into his home. Around this time though he had fallen into a coma-like state, unresponsive to the world and other people, requiring Ami to take care of nearly his every needs.

When the game starts however, Akira has forgotten all of this, having to rely on Ami to re-introduce him to his life and town. Despite initially being very lost and somewhat uncomfortable with suddenly being saddled with, what he thinks is, an entirely new life, he quickly acclimates to life with Ami. Living together allows the two to spend large portions of their time together, making him feel comfortable with playfully teasing her or outright ignoring her wants for his own amusement or convenience. The exact details of his love are dependent on player choice but regardless of this, Akira quickly grows to caring about Ami, often mentally noting how easily she's made his life and how much he relies on her.

Despite this, he's extremely reluctant to rely on her emotionally, or clue her in on various aspects of his life. And whilst he does reciprocate her love, her possessiveness eventually becomes too much for him to bear. He initially attempts to curb this by flexing authority over her, but these become less and less successful as both his and Ami's mental states become less stable following the class' third beach trip. Once the sixth reset comes around, Akira entirely crumbles under the tragedy of Maya's "death", causing him to become completely reliant on Ami for several months.

While he eventually recovers enough to return to society, he soon finds the scenario reversed, with Ami crumbling under her long-standing mental instabilities, forcing Akira to step up more properly as her guardian. He's hesitant to accept this mantle initially but eventually summons up the courage to do so.

Akira is very careful about details pertaining or relating to Ami's parents, especially in regards to her mother, going as far to immediately stop any conversations about cars when she's nearby.

Ayane

Similar to Ami, Akira has known Ayane for years before the events of Lessons in Love. Meeting Ayane in middle school, Ami began bringing her over to Sensei's house, with the two Arakawa's becoming something akin to a surrogate family once Ayane's real one crumbled.

Ayane immediately interests the newly awakened Akira due to the combination of her being incredibly forward and him being extremely accepting of this. Upon meeting, the two immediately have fun teasing Ami, a habit which continues throughout most of their time together. The two get along well almost instantly and while he is initially, and continues to be, put-off by just how obsessive Ayane can be about him, she soon becomes integral to his life. She is among the first of his relationships to deepen.

While even his own admission that, should she vanish, he'd miss her is little more than a sweet sentiment at first, the effect and pull Ayane has on him becomes stronger once she becomes "aware" of Kumon-mi's time loop. Now part of the "Rooftop Apocalypse Squad", Akira begins viewing Ayane as much more important, perhaps as a result of her now feeling more "real. This ultimately culminates in both acceptance that he cares about her and an increased willingness to be honest with her, regardless of the consequences.

Akira often finds himself unable to understand Ayane, partially for how strong she seems to be in the face of adversity, and partially for how much she seems to genuinely care for him. He's unable to write off her feelings as a trick of the situation they're in, nor is he able to outright ignore how much he cares about her.

She's among the few who're able to combat Akira's habitual cynicism.

Chika

Akira immediately hits it off with Chika, due largely to her comfort with his bantering and her natural charisma. Throughout the story, the two have a natural chemistry that lets the two play off each other effortlessly, causing Chika to open up to him sooner than most of the class. She initially strikes him as being significantly more mature than everyone else, a sentiment reinforced upon learning about her little sister and their living arrangement.

Unlike most of Akira's other relationships, when the two deepen it, Chika expects a level of exclusivity to it, causing him a lot of stress as he attempts to manage her expectations and those of his class. This is exacerbated by her increasing dependency on him. Despite originally referring to the situation as a burden, on more than one occasion, Akira struggles to actively push against her advances or break the truth of his feelings to her – Both out of a sense of self-preservation and additionally, because he cares about her and cannot bring himself to hurt her so intensely, especially when he only has himself to blame. This guilt does not prevent him from taking advantage of the benefits their relationship brings.

He's eventually able to persuade Chika to tone down on her aggressive displays of affection, a compromise he's not entirely satisfied with but one he grows to accept and embrace. He continues to be burdened with the difficulties of this lie, though, especially with Chinami relying on him just as much.

Chinami

Akira is initially extremely careful around Chinami, both due to her age and her immunodeficiency. He takes great care both to keep hygienic around her and avoids doing anything that could potentially endanger her. His lazy, lethargic personality often clashes with her seemingly boundless curiosity, causing the two to disagree or for Chinami to write him off as "boring". As the two spend more time together, he becomes increasingly comfortable speaking to her casually, something Chinami herself appreciates as most others baby her due to her condition.

Oftentimes, Akira finds himself exhausted by Chinami's antics and deliberate attempts to test his patience – Such as her many efforts to force him into her and Chika's family – but by his own admission, he can't truly find her annoying and is extremely weak to her requests. While he refuses to accept the title of "Future Daddy" from her, he still acts like one for her, babysitting whenever asked and going so far as to pay for her phone bill when Chika struggles to do so herself.

Akira is seemingly the only person to pick up on Chinami's hidden intelligence, playfully referring to her as a "devil in disguise" or coyly referencing it when in conversation with her.

Futaba

Akira is initially interested in Futaba due to both her maturity and her proclivity for reading, an interest he shares. He quickly learns about her budding interest in writing and encourages her to act on it – Encouragement makes up a large portion of their relationship. Whilst early on Akira acts more as a mentor-like figure for Futaba and her writing, he soon finds himself helping to battle her low self-image. This aforementioned lack of ego means Futaba easily becomes embarrassed, something Akira repeatedly capitalizes on for his own amusement. His assurances and complaints often do little to sway her mind, and he's usually unsure of what to say in situations regarding this topic. Nevertheless, he has an interest in seeing her improve, outright denying her feelings for him so that she'll focus on improving herself first.

The two of them are extremely difficult, causing tension repeatedly. Akira's insistence on inserting himself into her life, while simultaneously ignoring her feelings, has caused her to blow up on him more than once. His apathetic stoicism makes it difficult for him to fully understand or see her side of things, usually requiring Futaba to forcibly remind him of her feelings.

Haruka

Akira's opinion of Haruka is heavily influenced by his decision to either pursue her or remain friends. A few traits remain consistent, though, such as him often mentally mocking her for being so lonely or flirting openly with her.

• As friends, Haruka often makes a point of talking about how much she appreciates him, especially after receiving confirmation on the status of her husband. Akira, meanwhile, often dismisses these sentiments as misplaced, deflecting genuine moments with his trademark crass humor. He still hits on her regularly, but this flirting seems to be entirely superficial.
• If Akira chooses to pursue Haruka though, their relationship takes on a different attitude. He often mentally reprimands or mocks her for being so easily swayed into adultery, and vocalizes such thoughts whenever he feels fit. He becomes increasingly disgusted by her and her further slip into degeneracy, but never attempts to stop her, apparently deriving pleasure from her misery. Their later arrangement which puts her completely under his control only solidifies these feelings.

Imani

Imani is Akira's student-teacher, though he often treats her more like a secretary. She is saddled with most of his day-to-day duties following her assignment to his class and is viewed by his class as entirely more responsible and deserving of the title of "teacher". The two get along remarkably well despite their seemingly opposing personalities, playfully bantering in groups and flirting in private. Akira was initially put off somewhat by her sudden transfer into his class, but quickly grows accustomed to her, appreciating the strain she takes off him.

Despite how little he seems to regard her, often making fun of her or purposefully subverting her expectations, Akira deeply values his current relationship with Imani. In his mind, Imani is among the few platonic relationships he's been able to properly maintain, and he begins to appreciate such connections as he becomes more emotionally open. He's well aware of her feelings for him but repeatedly turns down opportunities to capitalize on them, fearing that doing so would ruin their relationship, as this would end with her disappearing out of his life.

Io

Io initially meets Akira during a trip to her family's bathhouse, but the two don't have significant interactions until Uta formally introduces the two. Akira often finds himself confused around Io, due to the intense mental battles often going on whenever they speak. On top of her habitual self-deprecation and vocal hatred of everyone around her, Io often gives contradictory explanations for her own behavior, leaving Akira struggling to truly understand her. He does, however, feel a kindred connection to her. This similarity between the two of them leads him to often push for her self-improvement, seemingly wanting her to avoid the same pitiful fate as him.

Io has unique knowledge of Akira and his various relationships with her classmates, creating tension between her and these people, specifically Chika and Kirin. This, along with the awareness that most of his class feels similarly, causes her pre-existing hatred of girls to manifest as an attempt to impress him, usually to Akira's annoyance or disapproval. In addition, Io's aversion to certain levels of intimacy creates an obvious obstacle the two struggle to deal with. The two eventually manage to properly discuss this, and Akira assures her and himself that he will properly respect her boundaries – He still occasionally refers to her as "broken" as he's aware that Io is already "practically dead".

Akira has received a toy robot and a full-scale wardrobe as gifts from Io, both of which were personally made by her. While he keeps the former on his bedroom table, the latter is so large that he has had to relocate it to an unknown part of his house.

John

John, being Kaori's pet, rarely interacts with Akira, only doing so when he visits Kaori's apartment or on the rare chance he's hanging around outside. The two seem to be on good terms, however, speaking casually and friendly to each other.

Akira doesn't have any particularly strong feelings about John, treating him like an animal more than not.

Kaori

Akira is very forthcoming with the fact he finds Kaori exhausting. This is partly because her eccentric personality and speech-patterns make deciphering what she's saying such a chore, but additionally it's because her persistently optimistic outlook is one he can't understand. Oftentimes he finds himself baffled, or confused by how she sees the world. He has little desire to shift his worldview to hers and has many times attempted to help Kaori improve her speaking, or shift her worldview more to his, but he gives up on all of these eventually.

Despite how much Kaori tires him out, Akira begins finding himself oddly comforted whenever Kaori's around. Her eccentric behavior makes it easier for him to discuss or admit things he otherwise wouldn't feel comfortable sharing, whilst the excitement she brings helps add color to his usually uninteresting life – As such, he chooses to remain by her side.

Karin

Karin is among the first girls outside of his class that Akira interacts with. While they briefly meet during one of his visits to see Miku at the soccer field, they get acquainted later during one of the team's warm-up sessions. Karin's inexperience and discomfort around boys make her a frequent target of his teasing, whilst her lack of knowledge about romance causes her to stumble in conversations frequently when the two are alone. Being one of the older girls in his life, Akira is routinely impressed by just how mature Karin is both physically and emotionally, appreciating the peace she brings to his usually chaotic life. Akira often provides Karin with moments to express or think through her various insecurities, something that slowly causes her to grow a crush on him.

Due to not being one of his students, Akira and Karin don't spend a lot of time together, usually only seeing each other when he actively seeks her out or during school-wide events – The latter of which often creates drama between the two and Kirin, who takes her big sister's presence as annoying or naggy.

Whilst Akira often mentally and vocally praises Karin for remaining so pure and wholesome, he often treats her more akin to a toy with how much he exploits her easy-to-embarrass personality for his own ego. He's additionally not above lying to her to maintain their relationship.

Kirin

Kirin's extreme forwardness and honesty initially leave Akira intimidated – She's extremely forthcoming and blunt, a striking difference from his initial class of ten, even with someone as candid as Ayane. Regardless, he immediately capitalizes on their mutual interests and enthusiasm to deepen their relationship, especially once she transfers into his class.

This increased exposure to each other allows Akira to peer deeper into Kirin's true personality and intentions, something he struggles initially to understand. While he had always suspected that she was merely putting on a confident facade, the growing cracks in her persona and the increasing intimacy between the two only further confused him. Additionally, he quickly catches onto her lack of aspirations or disinterest in growing, often pushing her towards changing as he finds this listlessness annoying. He's very vocal about how awful of a person he finds Kirin on multiple instances, calling her out for being exploitative and questioning how it is she can live to be so morally bankrupt.

Despite how cold and transactional the relationship between them feels at first, Kirin is the only member of his class able to successfully confront and comfort him following the incident which happens during the 2nd Halloween Party, pushing him to fix the situation. While she later admits to her true feelings for him, Akira continues to try and treat her like he always has, stubbornly trying to ignore the internal conflict her newfound transparency brings.

Maki

Maki and Akira get along well for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is Maki's job. Being a porn salesman she's quite knowledgeable and experienced in all things perverse, making her among the few who can keep up with Akira's insatiable lust. Fortunately for him, she is similarly lustful and regularly begins discussions or uses indecent innuendo, consequently noting the contrast between Maki and her daughter as jarring. She is among the many women Akira can choose to pursue.

Where Akira stumbles is being serious. Despite her juvenile sense of humor, Maki is much more mature than him, making it extremely difficult to relate to or understand her plights. Additionally, most of Maki's worries stem from Makoto's well-being, a topic Akira already struggles to understand, made worse by the conflict of interest. He often slides out of these discussions by being indirect or vague, only occasionally having to embarrass himself by providing faulty advice.

Despite how bad he is at being serious, Maki comes to depend on him more and more as a stand-in for her husband. Akira tries to resist this whenever the topic is brought up but it becomes increasingly clear to him that the role is one he has no choice but to accept.

Makoto

Makoto is Sensei's class representative and self-appointed secretary. As such, he regularly pushes his work-related responsibilities onto her. He additionally has her handle any miscellaneous task he considers too bothersome to deal with personally, such as event organization, grading paperwork, and making requests to the school principal.

Akira doesn't think much of Makoto initially, with much of their early interactions being characterized by him intentionally aggravating her, forcing her into embarrassing herself, exploiting her admiration for him, and undercutting their more sincere moments with callous indifference or his narcissism. This is seemingly born from confusion, as Makoto's intelligence makes it harder for Akira to understand her and, as a result, act in a way that she is receptive to.

It's only following the announcement of her father's passing, and the two proceeding confrontations, that he decides to treat her better. After she begins regularly attending class again, he goes out of his way to be kinder to her, regularly checking up on her well-being and vocally expressing the concern he'd usually suppress. This behavior is reinforced once Makoto becomes aware of Kumon-mi's time loops, joining Maya, Ayane, and himself in the "Rooftop Apocalypse Squad".

Akira still regularly has Makoto handle his procedural work at her insistence.

Maya

Akira and Maya are, at first, the only people aware of Kumon-mi's perpetual time loops. The two share a much more surreal and permanent bond as a result.

Initially unknown to Akira, he and Maya share a past. When she was younger, she was one of the various students that he tutored out of his apartment in the Old District. According to Noriko, the two of them got along remarkably well. At some point, Akira abandoned this life, seemingly disappearing with Maya to an unknown location.

Upon "waking up" in Kumon-mi, Akira's initial interest in Maya is due to her insinuations that she has an idea about what really is going on in Kumon-mi. She sees straight through his attempts at pretending to be the "real Sensei" and claims he is another "soul" who's found itself reincarnated into the body of Akira Arakawa. Seeing no point in getting used to such a creature, Maya keeps Akira at arm's length, much to his repeated annoyance. He stubbornly refuses to give up on learning about her, pestering her despite her demands he stops and actively aggravates her even if he usually leaves their conversations confused.

For unexplained reasons, Akira's proximity to Maya is limited, with any attempts by the other to discuss certain topics leading him to "black out". This also comes with the risk of "resetting" him, wiping his memories clean, and sending the entire world back to the start of the school year. Despite this, the two steadily grow closer throughout the story, eventually confessing to each other how they care for one another. Akira finds himself breaking into uncharacteristic smiles around Maya and generally enjoys her company, even if she still pretends to despise him in public

Akira's love for Maya is made even more explicit after her "death" during Remember to Smile. Following this, he's left in a non-verbal, comatose state, requiring Ami to cater to his every needs for two months while he attempts to mentally put himself back together. Even after he recovers enough to return to reality, he still dreams of Maya every night and longs to see her again, while also ignoring the Maya that is still around, seeing her as a separate entity to the Maya he knew.

Miku

Miku's endless amount of energy and enthusiasm are a constant source of exhaustion for Akira. He struggles to keep up with her constant desire for excitement and fails to understand her drive for competition in a closed-off city like Kumon-mi. While he regularly pokes fun at these traits, his complaints are superficial, quietly accepting her personality whilst vocally chagrining.

Akira initially views Miku as mostly carefree and driven almost purely by her hobby of soccer, and whilst getting to experience one of her mental breakdowns somewhat complicates his perspective, it doesn't change how he treats her – In fact, he very adamantly denies her claim that snapping as she did makes her "immature". Nevertheless, he continues to tease and take advantage of her obliviousness for his own amusement, applying an ever-increasing pressure on her to open up about herself which she continuously ignores or turns down. Their relationship progresses little throughout the winter, especially once Miku puts her foot down and tries to demand they remain distant. By the time of the class' second Christmas party, though, they've closed the gap between them. Now "officially" having a rival in Makoto, Miku, and Akira's relationship progresses incredibly quickly, leading to him learning the truth about Miku's mental episodes.

Tangential to all of this is Miku's period of substance abuse, where Io supplies her with doses of her prescribed medicine to help cope with her PTSD. Akira feels an incredible amount of stress trying to conceal his knowledge of this, especially once Makoto takes notice of Miku's behavioral changes. This stress climaxes during an incident after school, where Miku enters a nearly catatonic state following an accidental overdose. While the rest of the nearby swim team tries to rush her to the school's nurse, Akira quickly acts to conceal his involvement, putting her at risk. These events cement Miku in Akira's mind as someone he wants to stick with, even if doing so often hurts him. He later apologizes, both to Miku and Makoto, for his reckless endangerment of her.

Molly

Molly is someone Akira struggles immensely to deal with, for a multitude of reasons. Initially, it's due to her high energy and complete lack of social grace. Akira finds her somewhat annoying as a result, often unable to keep up with her energy, or truly understand what she's trying to say as it's layered under levels of dorky references and internet lingo. Despite this he pushes through it all as he's unable to find her truly annoying, admitting to himself that she's fun to be around, even if it's not in the way he's used to.

Akira often acts as a sounding board for her, particularly for her feelings towards Rin early on. He is among the first to learn about Molly's crush and while he doesn't encourage her to act on it, he attempts to provide comfort and company in the wake of her destructive attempt at confessing. His motives for this are not necessarily pure, seizing the opportunity to not-so-subtly push her towards getting closer to him instead, but he does have a somewhat genuine interest in helping her get over the spiral of misery she's become trapped in.

Their relationship shifts dramatically after the class' 2nd Halloween Party, where Akira "blacks out" whilst around her. Terrified of the outcome but unsure of what even happened, he immediately places distances between the two of them and attempts to ignore the situation, unable and unsure on how to face her. This is entirely unsuccessful as Kirin tries to push him into talking with her, and he's eventually forced into talking with her when he accidentally ran into her. It also didn't help that Tsuneyo wanted to make him suffer for what he supposedly did until he gave her his side of the story. None of these confrontations provide a conclusive answer to what occurred between the two, but they do cement in Akira's mind both how much he cares about Molly and how desperate he is to avoid hurting her again.

He's able to mend his relationship with Molly to the point of speaking with her casually again but is still incredibly on edge around her, not trusting himself when alone with her and placing stricter boundaries down. He continues to rebuke her attempts to slip past his newly established walls.

Nao-chan

Akira finds Nao-chan incredibly disconcerting at first. He's put off not only by the surreal circumstances of her discovery but the color of her eyes which perfectly match those of Maya and Ami. While he tries to hide his fear behind quips and jokes, he is initially determined to create as much distance as possible between the two of them – Such as pawning her off to multiple different people during his only time babysitting.

He quickly comes to like her but makes jokes about her being a type of "eldritch horror".

Niki

Niki is Akira's childhood friend and the two have been best friends since they were young. Back then, they'd spend nearly every moment of the day together, to the point where the Nakayama family considered him a fifth member of their family. While initially just friends, the two began to date during their teenage years. They were together for five years and deeply in love, so much so that most assumed they'd get married years down the line.

This life comes crashing down following some unspecified accident, heavily implied to be the death of Ami's parents. Following this, Akira disappeared entirely with his niece, Ami, cutting off contact with Niki for close to a decade.

The two meet once again following Noriko's transfer into his class but as he's still suffering from amnesia, he doesn't remember anything about her. Additionally, during this time, he's still convinced that he and the "real Sensei" are two different people, causing him to treat Niki more akin to a stranger rather than someone from his past. This doesn't stop him from taking advantage of their existing relationship to spend time with her, though.

Through his time in Kumon-mi, Akira realizes he's not only the true owner of his body but also recovers various memories from his past. Upon reliving these moments, Akira remembers just how important both the Nakayama sisters are to him. On top of being the one to help him remember his name, Niki is among the few he's comfortable around and among the first he admits to loving. While he remains uncommitted to her romantically, he is incredibly possessive of her and frequently notes how the two of them belong together.

Akira often retreats to thinking about Niki whenever he's feeling stressed or upset.

Nodoka

Akira and Nodoka are kindred souls, in more ways than one. Both are extremely perverted and frequently make those around them uncomfortable with inappropriate innuendos or discussions whenever the opportunity arises. Additionally, both are gifted in literature, with Nodoka being a novelist whilst Akira's specialty lies in poetry. As such, the two get along incredibly well from the get-go, much to the annoyance of people around them.

Where they differ though is their forwardness. While Akira is content to prod the cracks in the armor of people around him, Nodoka has no problem taking a sledgehammer and smashing the status quo to bits. He becomes aware of this early on when she tests his intentions in front of her friends. He disregards this incident initially, leaving him to be blindsided by her later blackmail of Yumi which, regardless of if it succeeds, complicates his feelings for her. He's unable to truly despise her, drawing parallels between his and her narcissism, but lacks the compassion to intervene when she's subsequently beaten in class.

Despite this, Akira and Nodoka become closer and closer and she soon becomes an outlet for his fear and callousness which he uses at his own discretion. He's uncomfortable being around her whenever he doesn't need this unique support of hers, though.

Noriko

Similar to Niki, Noriko has a long history with Akira. Whenever he would visit the Nakayama's house, he'd often find himself occupied by both sisters. During this time, Noriko viewed Akira more like an older brother, often clinging to his side and admiring him from afar. Just like the rest of the Nakayama's, Noriko lost contact with Akira once he disappeared the first time.

While her older sister suffered through the pain of separation, Noriko was much better off as not long after Akira's disappearance, he reappeared. Now working as a tutor out of the Old District, he taught Noriko on the weekends along with a rotating list of other students. While Noriko was extremely happy to now have him to herself for several hours a week, Maya's enrollment under Akira put a wedge between the two's relationship as he often favored her.

Some unspecified time after, Akira disappeared again, only meeting Noriko by chance during Kirin's transfer to his class. Of course, having no memories of her at this point, he doesn't recognize her and can't pick up on the emotional context of their reunion. Nevertheless, Akira decides to get closer to Noriko against Maya's wishes, learning more about the past of the "real Sensei" whilst taking advantage of the admiration and idolization Noriko has for him to get into her good graces.

Noriko's initially really intimidating to Akira, as she is extremely open about her affection and frequently mentions how readily she'll change parts of herself to better appeal to him. She additionally has a habit of exaggerating her feelings to the point where she often sounds crazy, quickly overtaking Ayane in terms of obsessiveness. This, along with her willingness to conform to whatever he desires, causes Akira to insist she stop being so selfless. He puts a stop to the progress between the two of them in hopes she's able to corral her more dependent and clingy traits, something which only sort of works. The two's relationship becomes a lot less one-sided following the class' second Halloween Party, spurred on by Noriko's ability to see through his attempts at normalcy. While he never confides in her what he's ignoring, he still finds comfort in her.

The following summer creates more opportunities for the two to grow closer and allows Akira to realize just how impressive and important Noriko is to him. Her performance during the date war grants him the self-awareness to realize that he too is scrambling to discover who he is, while the following Christmas sees him pursue Noriko more fervently as she exposes more of herself to him via song. Despite all these assurances from Noriko though, Akira finds himself constantly saddled with the knowledge that she is far too amazing a person to deal with someone like him. He easily accepts that Niki will never truly get over him, but he repeatedly attempts to get Noriko to forget about him and find someone better, with no success so far.

Osako

Akira has a generally friendly relationship with Osako, even if she frequently makes fun of or threatens him. Most of the time, though, these threats are in response to his habit of flirting with every woman he sees, something especially unappreciated by Osako due to her sexuality and relationship with Wakana. Akira actively tries to reign these comments around her and mentally tries to control the way he views her as a sign of respect – Or fear, as he's shown to be scared of her and her physical strength.

The heart of their relationship revolves primarily around Wakana, as Osako frequently finds herself coming to him for advice or merely as a sounding board for her problems, though Akira doesn't seem to mind this.

Otoha

Similar to Rin, Akira's relationship with Otoha is mostly casual and friendly. The two can potentially meet as early as his first summer in Kumon-mi, but don't begin spending time together until she's transferred into his class – A process he's instrumental in initiating by promising to give her high grades without any effort on her part. The two get along almost instantly, though Otoha is much less receptive to his informal treatment of his students than the rest of his class. She frequently brings up his age and his creepy tendencies to tease him.

The two's relationship doesn't remain calm for long though, as Rin's unsubtle crush on Otoha becomes a constant talking point between the two. Otoha frequently seeks out Akira for advice on how to handle Rin's crush and, later, their relationship. Unfortunately, Akira is typically unhelpful in these situations and usually resorts to his typical slew of innuendo and flirting. Mentally, he often finds himself relating to Otoha's various attempts to stave off Rin's overwhelming love, empathizing with her even when most of the class dismisses her feelings; He never vocalizes this.

Akira's obstinacy to change, despite being constantly called out by Otoha, is a source of constant argument between the two. It's a tension he enjoys however, as Otoha's ability to see through his facade and willingness to call him out provide a balance to the constant adoration thrown at him – and it secretly feeds into his self-deprecation.

Rin

On top of being one of his initial ten students, Rin is also one of the first friendships Akira makes after "waking up" in Kumon-mi. While he initially struggles to break the ice with most of his students, Rin's easy-going personality allows the two to become incredibly close relatively quickly – He easily gains access to her and Futaba's dorm and reaches a level of closeness where she's comfortable being physically affectionate.

While he teases her like the rest of his class, he treats her in a much more casual and friendly way. Additionally, he very quickly picks up on the signs of her depression and regularly expresses concern when these signs show. When these signs erupt into a spiral of self-harm and lethargy, he advises her the best he can and remains by her side until someone "more capable" can substitute for him. Early on he serves as a confidant that Rin can confide her feelings about Chika in.

Their relationship is one of the most fluid, drastically changing depending on the events that transpire during the class' first beach trip.

• Should Akira respect Rin's feelings for Chika and avoid getting too close to her, the two's friendship strengthens significantly. He's one of the driving pushes for her to meet Otoha and once the two begin dating, he offers her advice during a period of anxiety.
• Should Akira betray Rin's trust, their relationship maintains a good standing superficially, but in actuality is extremely toxic. Rin will constantly allude to Akira's betrayal and make passive-aggressive comments towards him, often to publicly humiliate him. He never fights back against these jeers, understanding he can only blame himself for ruining things. This attitude basically disappears after On The Fence as Rin feels a recent betrayal of his trust is worse than his towards hers.

Rin's constant troubles with romance are a source of constant envy for Akira. He often mentally questions her love, or dismisses it as fleeting or unimportant, asserting that he's the one whom she should adore.

Rika

Rika is one of Sensei's friends and is later his co-worker at Kumon-mi High. The two initially meet by coincidence, with Imani roping her into a bar game she, Akira, and Wakana were playing. From then on, she becomes a permanent member of their after-work friend group.

Akira initially views Rika as merely a different, older version of Rin. Her off-beat, down-to-earth attitude means the two get along very well. She's incredibly open and straightforward, leading him to often be in charge of reeling her in after she embarrasses someone or gets too excited.

The two have a small rough patch when Akira gets the wrong idea about how open Rika is to having a new partner. After inadvertently offending her by suggesting he doesn't care about her, he struggles to apologize or explain himself properly, only doing so months later, with her accepting his apology.

Sana

Being the most reserved out of his initial students, Akira approaches Sana with a lot more caution and restraint. He purposefully goes out of his way to not overwhelm her early on and hesitates to open up so as to not scare her off. Once she becomes more comfortable though, he quickly tries to close the gap between them, usually facing resistance from Sana herself. Sana's stubborn clinging to the status quo confuses Akira, and he often tries to break this stasis.

Akira is often surprised by just how different Sana is on the inside, usually caught off-guard when she's less shy and meek than she lets on. The more this other half of Sana emerges the uneasier he gets around her. He begins actively fighting back against her attempts to close the gap between them, trying to preserve an image of purity in his head of Sana and stubbornly refusing to let anything ruin or taint that image. These attempts fail following the class' 4th Halloween Party and hhis believes are completely shattered during a visit at her home after his return, with him criticizing himself for being tricked into believing purity could exist at all.

He has a running joke of referring to Sana as his daughter.

Sara

Sara is extremely forward about her feelings for Akira, something he greatly enjoys as a boost to his ego and as a contrast to her daughter's projected reclusiveness. Her constant desire to flirt with him and outgoing personality complement his generally listless one. He does, however, view her as a generally childish and gullible person – He especially criticizes her for how she deals with the loss of her son, hypocritically seeing running away as a tactic doomed to fail. He additionally doesn't appreciate her constant attempts and jokes about marrying into his family.

Akira has the option of capitalizing on Sara's feelings for him. Should he choose to do so, he becomes a much more important part of her life, acting as support and comfort whenever she needs it – Though, his advice is often vague or unhelpful. Additionally, he learns more about her past, discovering that both Sakakibara are affected by the same "blackouts" in consciousness he's plagued by. She is, as a result, extremely understanding of the danger they pose.

Touka

Touka is someone Akira initially enjoys aggravating and messing with. When she transfers into his class, he regularly defies her expectations by asserting that she'll be treated like a normal girl instead of being given preferential treatment. He additionally refuses to play the role of tutor she expects of him. Even when this results in her getting her mother involved, he refuses to change, only aggravating her more.

As she becomes immune to his teasing, she's able to peer deeper into his true personality. Not only aware of his ulterior motives, Touka can see and often soothe Akira's sorrows and anxieties. He's unable to rationalize how or why her motherly persona is so strong on him, and at first, he doesn't even realize the calm she brings him. Nevertheless, it's effective – So effective that he begins actively seeking her out whenever he's unable to suppress his misery on his own. The class' 4th Halloween Party brings such potent fear out of him, to the point he even requests Touka run away with him from his current life in the hope she'll be able to rout out the discomfort he's feeling.

These feelings only become stronger with time, even once his world's turned upside-down after Maya's "death". Upon seeing her again, he immediately tries to seek shelter in her. He also later admits to Tsubasa that he sees her more as a maternal figure and source of comfort, and, therefore, has a hard time trying to bond with her as he does with the other girls.

Tsubasa

Tsubasa is someone Akira is often conflicted by. She is extremely open and vocal about how manipulative she is, but lacks the seedy or immoral ulterior motives that usually accompany such – She's often intimidating but just as quick to toss a light-hearted joke or flirtatious smirk – and she so often alludes to threats only to reel back on them. All these things compound to create someone Akira is unable to understand, empathize fully with, or feel comfortable around.

He is often on the back foot whenever she's around and is incredibly weak to her influence, often crumbling or at best deflecting. She leaves him feeling uneasy yet determined to keep on her good graces – Anything else could cost him his life.

Tsukasa

Akira is incredibly annoyed by Tsukasa most of the time. Her constant boasts of superiority, flexes of wealth, and sense of pride are all things that get on his nerves incredibly. Despite this, he's able to see through her easier than even her family, quickly deducing the true source of her brattiness after spending only a little time together, but it does little to change his opinion of her.

Tsubasa puts her education into his care by appointing him as her tutor, a decision he tries to get out off, not only due to his lack of interest in teaching again, but also out off fear that he might repeat a past mistake if he tutors her, something that becomes even more apparent during their first spontaneous tutor session. Depending on some of his past decisions he either intends to continue being around her despite his initial resistance, having witnessed more of her weaknesses and Tuskasa putting her trust in him as long as he genuinely wants her around, or he cuts her off for good.

Tsuneyo

Tsuneyo is an enigma to Akira – A person he struggles to understand, read, or even relate to, yet finds himself enjoying despite all of this. It's for these reasons that Akira often finds himself swapping on the fly between being intimidated, amused, or intrigued by her.

Early on he's able to lock down a few of her personality traits, and reach a sense of normalcy with her, but it's often in flux. The 2nd Halloween Party provides the most dramatic shift in their dynamic, as Tsuneyo being witnesses to the consequences of Akira's "blackout" on Molly sours her opinion on him. While she had already made a habit of belittling him, these attacks became more pointed in the following months. It's a situation Akira seems to accept without fighting, and one they both ignore for an entire year until they're forced to do so.

The two's relationship recovers somewhat following this, thanks, especially to Tsuneyo displaying signs of becoming "aware" of Kumon-mi's time loops. These hopes are dashed after she didn't reach the rooftop during that loop, but the two remain on good terms.

Uta

Akira is smitten with Uta and much more vocal and straightforward about this than he is with most others. Within seconds of meeting her, he proposes to her and frequently takes advantage of her job at the maid cafe to make repeated advances. Her job at the maid cafe creates a natural barrier to this, whilst her skills in deflection and flirtation leave both his feelings and his wallet at the whims of her charm.

This gap between them remains even after Uta transfers into his class and grants him more opportunities to get closer to her. The deflection Uta usually uses to turn down his exaggerated proclamations of love becomes a weapon to maintain a status quo with him while also keeping herself from repeating the mistakes of her past. Nevertheless, Akira is persistent in his attempts to get closer to her and repeatedly attempts to do so while acting as a counterbalance to her negative self-image. Through their time together, his superficial infatuation with Uta evolves into a more genuine adoration.

Akira often quips that Uta is his "future wife" and regularly makes reference to this fact for the sake of bantering with her.

Wakana

Wakana is Akira's co-worker, the first he learns about and is in regular contact with. They initially only see each other during work, where Wakana makes a habit of invading his office to complain about how exhausting her work is. Akira doesn't mind this, though attempts to make himself look better whenever she's around to avoid suspicion. The two get along well, though Akira's initially skeptical of this since a large portion of their conversations revolve around Wakana belittling him, usually about his work ethic or moral bankruptcy, and has a hard time believing that some of her insults are actually signs of affection.

While Akira is absolutely content living with these flaws, Wakana often pushes him to rise above them or improve. She repeatedly attempts to get him to pick up writing again, but he shrugs this off with little effort; He ignores most of her attempts to inspire change in him.

Wakana is one of the few who know about Akira's connection to Ami's mother. She knows very little due to his habit of clamming up in fear whenever the topic's brought up.

Yasu

Yasu is someone Akira struggles to understand, but whereas the confusion brought upon by Nodoka or Tsubasa intrigues him or ingratiates them, the one by Yasu creates further disinterest. Akira is absolutely uninterested in Yasu's religion, causing most of their interactions to be incredibly one-sided rants whilst he throws in an occasional quip or insult. Despite this, he finds himself coming to visit her over and over. This initially is because of his desire to get closer to her.

It later becomes something akin to cautiousness. Yasu proves herself to be eerily good at predicting the future, often foreshadowing things that have yet to come cryptically. Having been witnesses to many of these prophecies, Akira finds himself slowly becoming more receptive to the idea of her religion. He's further confused as summer nears its end and Yasu showcases repeated instances of knowledge she shouldn't have, such as Akira's real name or the name of his mother.

Whilst still incredibly skeptical and vocally dismissive, he finds himself slowly more tolerant of the idea of her beliefs. Additionally, the time they spend together lets Akira peer into the person behind the religious fanaticism, quickly realizing Yasu is troubled and racked with trauma – It worries him, even if he doesn't admit it.

Yuki

Yuki and Akira's early relationship revolves almost entirely around Yumi, with him delivering updates to Yuki about her daughter's behavior or growth. These attempts lead to him attempting to persuade Yumi to at least hear her mother out. Once this falls flat, though, the two spend much more of their time simply hanging out or running errands.

Yuki is often a counter to Akira's self-deprecating personality, giving him advice or being aggressively supportive to the point of stunning him. In return, he regularly hits on her, although with little success as she's incredibly dismissive of his advances despite his insistence.

She has a habit of poking fun at him for being afraid of various things.

Yumi

Yumi and Akira's relationship is almost entirely antagonistic. While initially because of his various attempts to discipline her at school, the hatred she holds for him mixes with fear after she is the unwilling victim of one of his "blackouts". Additionally, he's extremely careless, sometimes hurting her feelings by accident or causing undue stress by acting against her wishes. It's because of all this that Akira understands and accepts all the hatred Yumi harbors for him. He doesn't hold the same resentment back and doesn't report her absences to the school administration as a sign of goodwill (and laziness).

Akira spends most of their time together trying to rectify his past mistakes or act as a guide on how to improve her life. He often fails at both of these to huge degrees and constantly questions why he even bothers with her – He theorizes that he enjoys her constant belittlement, as it's a counter to the adoration and reverence the rest of his class has for him. Their relationship slowly gets better as the two have a few genuine moments, but this progress significantly regresses after Nodoka uses Akira as blackmail to humiliate Yumi. The two do not talk for a long time after and even during their "reunion", Akira doesn't properly apologize for the situation.

He does, however, fully express his feelings for her. He confesses that while at first, he was indifferent to seeing her improve, only doing so out of narcissism, his care for her became more genuine as time went on. He's incredibly remorseful for how he sees her but bluntly admits he can't change this side of him, no matter how much he wants to. Their relationship going forward is characterized by his bluntness, as Akira doesn't try to spare her feelings.

Schoolstaff

As stated by Wakana, Sensei has garnered a reputation among the school faculty for being a failure of a teacher. His unhealthy obsession with teenage girls and his general apathy towards actually doing his job are all well-known facts among the other teachers, although the lengths of their knowledge have yet to be confirmed.

Memorable Quotes

• "Teenagers are exhausting..."
• "Despacito consumes me whole."
• "If you're unhappy with yourself now, you can always change, Molly. Don't let anyone, not even me, tell you that you can't. Because it's all shit right now, but there really is a beautiful world out there. I promise."
• "This is the worst hot boy summer ever."

Trivia

• Akira has the inexplicable ability to understand birds like Noodles, Todd, and John. It's never explained why or how he's able to understand them, but this power has been stripped from him temporarily, implying it to be supernatural or divine.
  • In Noodles' case, Tsuneyo is also able to understand him, perhaps due to their "familial" bond.
• Akira has a fear of cars, often feeling uncomfortable or tense in them, especially when they're moving at high-speeds. This fear extends to motorcycles but not trains. The reasons behind this fear are unexplained, but are heavily implied to be related to the accident that killed Ami's parents.
• Akira considers watching a movie without popcorn a "sin".
• Akira has an extensive background in literature, explaining his knowledge of classic poetry and stories. He's also shown to be knowledgeable beyond verse, easily identifying a quote from Aristotle during Lives and Minds of Laymen.
• Throughout Lessons in Love, various characters reference interest or hobbies that Akira had prior to his awakening:
  • Ami mentions how Akira used to love William Shakespare, reenacting his plays with a younger Ami and her mother.
  • Akira used to love horror movies, watching them frequently with Niki when they were younger.
  • Akira used to have various nerdy hobbies, such as playing video games and building model sets. Niki's letters during Spotless Mind explicitly reference them playing Dragon Quest, whilst a freshly-awoken Akira himself takes note of model kits being in his room during A New You. He additionally has a Nintendo Gamecube tucked away in his closet, along with an old CRT television.

Gallery

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  Akira's first summer and spring outfit

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  Akira's winter outfit

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  Akira's seoncd summer outfit

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  Akira's official work uniform

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  Akira's swimsuit

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  Akira's pajamas

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  An outfit Io puts Akira in during Tennis Ball

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  Akira when he was young