Touko Nanami

Touko Nanami is a second-year high school student standing at 163 cm, born just two months before her close companion Yuu Koito, making them both 16 by the story's final chapter. Admired for her striking appearance and remarkable abilities in both academics and athletics, she joined the student council in her first year and was elected its president upon entering her second. Behind this accomplished exterior, however, lies a profound personal burden. Seven years prior, her older sister Mio — the former student council president of Toomi East High School — passed away in an accident. The Touko before that loss was shy and introverted, someone who sought refuge in her sister's shadow. In the wake of Mio's death, surrounded by people who projected their expectations of Mio onto her, Touko made the quiet, painful decision to become her sister's replacement — crafting a version of herself that bore little resemblance to who she truly was. This stark divide between her public and private selves was known, beyond her parents, only to Sayaka Saeki at first. It is only in intimate moments with Yuu that Touko allows her true self to surface. At her core, Touko is a girl who rejects both versions of herself — the mask she wears for others and the person she hides within — unable to find worth in either. When Yuu confesses affection precisely for "the Touko who cannot even love herself," something stirs in Touko that she cannot easily dismiss. Initially resistant, she clings to the role of her sister and pushes Yuu's encouragement away. Yet as their bond deepens and the student council's stage production comes to a triumphant close, Touko gradually begins revealing her ordinary, unadorned self to those around her — and finds, to her quiet astonishment, that they accept her. In the student council play, Touko portrays an amnesiac protagonist. It is the first time she experiences being evaluated as herself rather than as an extension of her sister, and the emotion moves her to tears. Shortly after, she catches the attention of a director from a local theater company, and in that moment she realizes her pursuit of the stage is no longer an act of devotion to Mio — it is an ambition that belongs entirely to her. By the story's end, Touko has left home to live independently as a university student, active in her campus drama club while simultaneously building a career as a professional stage actress. Her face remains unchanged, but she no longer lives as her sister's stand-in. The girl who once led Yuu along at her own pace has, in a gentle reversal, found herself the one being led.