Kanako Misuki

Kanako is Hiro’s best friend, who she’s know since childhood. They both live in the small village of Iya in Japan, and are know in their community as a group of teenage hooligans disturbing the locals with their random shenanigans. She is also Naomi’s girlfriend. 

Kanako has grown up with strict and overbearing parents, and has a very rebellious personality and a lot of internalized anger and issues. She is brash and impulsive, and is mostly motivated by spite. She can seem mean and unapproachable at first glance, but is in reality a very loyal friend who would do anything for the people she loves. Her “bad bitch” attitude is mostly a façade, and she resorts to sarcasm a lot to hide her feelings. She doesn’t like to be looked down on, and does not hesitate to (sometimes violently) stand up for herself. Her impulsivity has put her in trouble often, usually it’s Hiro who gets her out of it, but he’s also a strong enabler for her shenanigans. Naomi tends to ground her more, when she’s not participating in said shenanigans with her. 

Kanako and Naomi meet when Naomi moves in to Iya. Kanako and Hiro learn about the arrival of a newcomer in the village which is rare enough to be important news, especially when said newcomer is a foreigner and is studying under the local martial arts legend. They both hit on Naomi, thinking she’s a man, and are a bit disappointed the next day when they meet up for a sort-of-date and she shows up in a very feminine kimono. They laugh the incident off and quickly become friends, Hiro and Kanako welcoming Naomi in their little group. But Kanako’s feelings for Naomi don’t go away, and end up growing into unforeseen dimensions.

It takes about a year before Naomi and Kanako confess their feelings. Kanako is deep in denial about her queerness, because of the internalized homophobia ingrained by her parents. She’d defend Hiro against homophobes with her life, but being gay herself is something that she has a hard time coming to terms with. It takes her a lot of time to accept her feelings for Naomi. When she finally opens up about it to Hiro (who, of course, had known about her feelings for Naomi for AGES), he supports her as best he can and encourages her to confess to Naomi. All this time, Naomi herself had been developing feelings for Kanako, and doing her best to smother them since she knows Kanako is straight (or so they both think). Being certain that her feelings are unrequited, she doesn’t notice Kanako’s tentative flirting with her. Eventually, Kanako confesses, by kissing Naomi square on the lips without warning, making Naomi go straight into gay panic mode. They agree to keep their relationship a secret (except from Hiro), because Kanako’s parents would forbid her to frequent Hiro or Naomi if they ever learn that their daughter is dating a woman.

Kanako and Hiro stay in their village three years after they meet Naomi, then leave to go study in Osaka. Kanako and Naomi mutually agree to break up, as a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work out for them. In university, Kanako studies chemistry, and she joins a bosozoku – a delinquent bikers gang. She and Hiro both continue do pull chaotic stunts and sometimes shoplift. They stay in contact with Naomi through a group chat and sometimes phone calls, but they don’t keep up with each other as much as they’d like to.

A few years after they’ve left Iya, Naomi runs into Kanako, Hiro and a few of their uni friends (including Milo) while running away from the police with the Gang after a heist. This leads to Kanako and Hiro learning the hard way that Naomi is a criminal, has been working with the most wanted thieves in the world, and has killed two men (in self-defence, but still). On this occasion, Kanako also learns that Hiro is a shinobi and has been hiding it from her. They don’t take the news well, Kanako least of all, and cut off all contact with Naomi for a while, all going their separate ways. Kanako’s reaction to learning that she’s the muggle in their friend group is to sign up at the nearest shooting range and learn how to use guns.

After some time, she forgives Naomi (and Hiro as well); she was mad at them for not telling her the truth, but she doesn’t really care that Naomi is a thief, and as a delinquent herself, she’s not in a position to judge her life choices. From then on, Naomi visits her and Hiro occasionally when she’s near Osaka.

A few years after the incident, when Kanako and Hiro have both graduated university, they reunite with Naomi and their new friend Milo, and reform their old gang and become thieves. Kanako had not really moved on from dating Naomi, and finds herself pining after her ex-girlfriend again. Naomi, on the other hand, had moved on, but that doesn’t stop her from falling in love with her all over again. They eventually get back together as a couple, after some pining and Hiro sitting them down on the couch and telling them that he won’t sit through another year of them being oblivious dumbasses. In the Meiwaku gang, Kanako is the explosives expert, she is in charge of handling anything that requires chemicals, be it for smoke bombs, sedatives (with the help of Milo since he’s the medic) and anything that goes boom.