Rion Akao

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Rion Akao
Biographical Information
Japanese Name	赤尾あかおリオン
Personal Description
Birthday	October 21
Gender	Female
Height	180 cm
Eye Color	Yellow with White Pupils
Hair Color	Turquiose
Professional Status
Status	Deceased
Relatives	Akira Akao (Niece)
Occupation	Assassin
Affiliation	JCC
First Appearance
Manga Debut	Chapter 55 (Mentioned) Chapter 64 (Full Appearance)

Rion Akao (赤尾あかおリオン, Akao Rion^?) was an old friend of Taro Sakamoto and Nagumo from their time as students at JCC and is the aunt of Akira Akao, having taught her how to see the "paths" which lead to a person's death.

Seven years before the series, Rion was killed by Kei Uzuki.

Appearance

Rion appears to be a tall, slender and attractive woman with turquiose shoulder-length hair and yellow eyes with white pupils and she had thin eyebrows and long eyelashes. Rion also had a tattoo on her right arm, resembling the Orion constellation.

In her first appearance in Sakamoto's memories and during most of the time at the JCC, she was seen wearing a white tank top with a partially zipped, off-shoulder black jacket and a pair of black pants along with black shoes.

When she first met Uzuki, she did not wear her usual black jacket, instead wearing a long sleeved shirt.

During her time spent with Uzuki while hiding from the JAA, Rion wore a large high-necked black jacket with a hood which she used to cover her face. Beneath the jacket, Rion wore her usual white tank top and a pair of black shorts.

Rion's color scheme as seen on Volume 13.

Rion's appearence during her times at the JAA

Personality

Rion was a carefree woman who used to do whatever she wanted even if that would lead to consequences. She used to have fun with her friends Sakamoto and Nagumo, sometimes even getting into trouble or causing damage to public structures and buildings like destroying trains or involving the surroundings around her during her fight.

Rion was a very warm and friendly person. She was the only one among her friends, Nagumo, and Sakamoto, who tried to make friends with and talk or interact with Uzuki when he was introduced as the final member of their team in their mission to kill the Steel Dragon. She would often engage in one-sided, rapid-fire conversations with no tact whatsoever.

Rion has been shown to be fiercely protective of the ones she cares about, and is willing to risk herself to protect the ones she cares for. She is aware of this, sharing this fact with Sakamoto when he exposed himself to poison to protect his team, and sharing this with Uzuki when he asked how she would weigh the lives of those she cared for against the lives of others. When she ends up on the run with Uzuki from the JAA, she willingly risks exposing herself to the JAA to undertake illegal freelance assassination jobs so Uzuki does not have to, knowing his personality. She is also willing to help Uzuki attack the Al-Kamar Orphanage despite having no personal attachment to it.

Relationships

Yoichi Nagumo

Rion would first meet Nagumo during their time at the JCC, after he joined the assassin department. The Sakamoto-Nagumo-Rion trio were close friends during their time at the JCC, considered excellent students and troublemakers, especially by Etsuko Satoda. They would eventually be expelled together, and would be introduced together to Kindaka and the Order as a result. They seemed to get along really well, undertaking missions together and even defeating Kobayashi with the assistance of Sakamoto and Kindaka.

After Rion's disappearance, Nagumo had done everything to find out about her whereabouts. To the point of rescuing Satoru Yotsumura so he could order the latter on doing some investigation from inside the JAA, as well as financing Kindaka's treatment for eight years, holding on any slim hope of getting the clue that she's still alive.

Nagumo would hesitate to attack Uzuki when his Rion persona took control of his body, and took a hit from Takamura during the Assassin Exhibition of the Century Arc.

Taro Sakamoto

Rion and Sakamoto get to know each other during their shared time at the JCC. Throughout their time at the JCC, Rion, Sakamoto, and Nagumo would often be seen together, and be recognized as both excellent students and troublemakers. Eventually, Rion would be expelled from the JCC, together with Sakamoto and Nagumo.

Rion would be tasked to kill the Steel Dragon as her final mission with the JCC, together with Sakamoto, Nagumo, and Uzuki. While Rion, Sakamoto, and Uzuki sit around to prevent the spread of the poison they were exposed to and wait their turn for the antidote, Rion would express respect for Sakamoto for defeating Higuchi and Kobayashi, who were collectively worth 1 billion yen on the JAA bounty website, saying he was worth that much. She would find herself relating to Sakamoto after seeing him put the others over himself.

Kei Uzuki

Rion and Uzuki met for the first time just before their expulsion mission against Kindaka. Initially, Uzuki remained reserved and rebuffed Rion's friendly demeanor. However, after Rion apologized for her behavior, they engaged in a small conversation inside the car while escorting the daughter and wife of JAA chairman. Her words about killing even her own heart to save people precious to her resonated with him. His attempt to drop the remaining antidote was foiled by Kindaka, at the cost of the latter's own life. Rion witnessed this, and pursued the fleeing Uzuki along the tunnel. After catching up and listening to Uzuki's side of the story, Rion helped him escape the JAA operatives before going off the grid together, for more than a year.

During their time in exile, they grew closer and implicitly develop a relationship. Rion shared a lot of information to Uzuki, such as Nagumo's spy lineage, her niece Akira, Sakamoto's chastity and her I.D. number as well. They also discussed about living a normal life away from assassins world, with Rion believing neither of them deserved one because of the killings they committed.

Unfortunately, their tranquil life did not last long. Sei Asaki, Uzuki's brother and JAA's new chairman, tracked them down and tricked them into killing each other. Rion did not even blame Uzuki after he murdered her, instead attributing it to Asaki.

Kindaka

Rion and Kindaka's interactions were limited to situational necessity, particularly during their mission to escort the Chairman's daughter and wife. Despite their close proximity, they never engaged an actual conversation. Kindaka expressed an interest in Rion's path ability and special vision, However, he held back from exploring the topic further. This hesitation might have stemmed from his condition after being poisoned by Kobayashi, which might have prevented him from further probing into Rion's abilities.

Akira Akao

Rion is Akira's aunt and is fiercely protective of her. Rion has stated that she would kill someone else without hesitation if it was about protecting Akira, even if it meant killing her own heart. Even though it was never shown any interaction between them, both Akira and Rion proved to care a lot about each other and have a strong bond, as demonstrated by Akira becoming an assassin just to follow her aunt's path. Rion was also the same person who taught Akira how to see the "paths" which lead to a person's death which Akira still currently uses.

History

Currently, there isn't much information about Rion's history. The only few details given are about her kinship with Akira and about Rion being Akira's aunt, as well as their close relationship.

Skills & Abilities

Rion uses a wheelchair to close the distances with Kobayashi

Overall Skill Level: Rion was one of the three greatest prospects to ever step foot into the JCC. During combat training sessions, she would routinely match the fighting capabilities of Taro Sakamoto and Yoichi Nagumo. Rion excelled in direct confrontations as she could see the most efficient way of dealing with enemies and utilize her weapons to the max. This allowed her to put Kindaka, an Order Member, onto the defensive, making him praise her combat skills. Kindaka states that Rion has the potential to be a future leader of the assassin world, alongside Taro Sakamoto and Nagumo. And also stated that Rion's killing pathway has zero wasted movements, forcing him to go on defensive. She was also able to defeat a young Kei Uzuki without sustaining any injuries.

Paths: Rion has the ability to see paths, imaginary lines representing future actions she can take to kill a particular target. Rion has been shown to see multiple paths for the same enemy at one time, indicating that she can simultaneously consider and select between a number of routes to eliminate her foes. She used this ability multiple times, especially against Kindaka, who managed to counter it by blinding her with a few drops of alcohol in her eyes.

Master Marksman: Rion has shown to have incredible accuracy, besting both Nagumo and Sakamoto in a shooting contest, the latter being the second-best all-time record setter on the JCC gun range. As of the current chapter she still ranks 3rd place in the top 10 greatest shooters of all time at the JCC, having scored 86 points. In combat, she has shown to be able to seamlessly shoot her thrown knife accurately to make the knife ricochet and slash her target.

Master Combatant: Rion's combat skills were comparable to that of Sakamoto and Nagumo during their time at the JCC. Her ability to see paths combined with her ability to utilize a weapon to its utmost potential, made her incredibly deadly in direct confrontations. Rion states that she could beat Sakamoto in a one-on-one fight if they were both naked and only had knives due to her ability to wield a weapon at their maximum potential. Even when she was poisoned and forced to fight in a relaxed state to prevent it from spreading, she was able to overwhelm Kobayashi by utilizing the recoil of her gun to increase the power and speed of her knife attacks, and she would have killed him if her gun did not run out of ammunition. She was also able to easily catch up to and defeat a young Kei Uzuki without sustaining any injuries.

Enhanced Endurance: Rion has a high degree of physical stamina and endurance. She was able to fight Sakamoto and Nagumo for nine hours straight and keep up with Kobayashi even after getting poisoned. Kobayashi states that he had never seen someone resist to his poison for so long.

Enhanced Speed and Reflexes: Rion is extremely fast. While fighting Kindaka alongside Sakamoto and Nagumo, she was the only one who was capable of putting Kindaka on the defensive. She also stated that she is faster than Sakamoto and Nagumo. During her fight against Kobayashi, after Rion's first attack he stated that she's deadly fast.Rion was able to react to Uzuki's sword-whip attack by jumping over it. Rion also has incredible reaction speed. She managed to react to an imminent sniper bullet, saving the life of the JAA president's wife by blocking the shot with her knife and immediately identifying the sniper. She was able to easily dodge Kei Uzuki's chain weapon from close range and defeat him in a quick confrontation. When multiple JAA members tried to arrest her and Kei Uzuki, she managed to steal one of their guns and immediately kill all of them before they could react.

Vehicular Mastery: Rion has showed to be skillful enough to use a motorcycle as a weapon, whipping the rear wheel into Higuchi's face, dragging him all through a public bus. She also avoided a car falling on her by folding a motorcycle onto the road and managed to light her own cigarette using the sparks created by the motorcycle mirror scraping against the road.

Equipment

Rion using her gun against Kobayashi

Pistol: Rion used to bring a pistol with her, as shown during her fight against Kobayashi, where she used the recoil of her pistol to attack him with her knife.

Knife: A knife she used to bring with her and fight with most of the time, demonstrated during her fights against Kindaka and Kobayashi on multiple occasions.

Battles & Events

Taro Sakamoto's Past Arc

• Yoichi Nagumo vs. Rion Akao vs. Taro Sakamoto

• Taro Sakamoto, Yoichi Nagumo and Rion Akao vs Kindaka

• Taro Sakamoto, Yoichi Nagumo and Rion Akao vs Higuchi and Kobayashi

Etymology

• Rion's surname Akao means "red" (赤) (aka) and "tail, ridge" (尾) (o).

Trivia

• Rion’s cigarette addiction causes her to fidget when she can’t smoke.

Quotes

• "You know the thing about guns? They're kinda like cars."

• (To Taro Sakamoto) "You're afraid of us dying! So... you're the type of person who prioritizes others over himself. I didn't know that. I hope you can keep finding more people to care about. It makes us better fighters. That is for types like you and me."

• (To Kei Uzuki) "I'd kill whoever i had to without hesitation... ...to protect Akira. Even if it meant killing my own heart."

• (To Akira Akao) "Can I tell you something cool, Akira? They say tears taste different depending on what emotion you're experiencing. Happy tears taste sweet, isn't that gross?"