Aota Izumi

Izumi Aota is the main character Nanaki Fujishiro's best friend from the Useless Princesses (manga) series by Ajiichi. Izumi Aota is described as the moral character in the school's gyaru group, never being witnessed badmouthing fellow students, unlike Nanaki Fujishiro or Miki.

Personality
Izumi Aota is quite a complex character meaning none of the other characters quite understand her, including Nanaki Fujishiro herself. She is also very attached to Nanaki Fujishiro, mainly due to her romantic attraction towards her, and is attached to Nanaki Fujishiro's friends too. Izumi Aota was quite bold in calling all of Kanade Kurokawa and Iro Akazawa by their first names despite knowing them for a short time.

Part of Izumi Aota's complex nature leads to her being well known to 'force a smile' although a genuine smile of hers led to Iro Akazawa to fall in love with her.

Despite being quite beautiful and enchanting herself, she feels that only Nanaki Fujishiro can be the princess and feels honoured to be chosen by Nanaki Fujishiro to be with her.

Izumi Aota is a moral character and understands complex emotions very well. She was not hesitant when defending Kanade Kurokawa as she was being bullied by Miki (Nanaki Fujishiro's old friend from the gyaru group). Izumi Aota attempted to rectify Miki and Nanaki Fujishiro's relationship (with no success) and was the only one who realised Miki's true feelings for Nanaki Fujishiro. She also realised Nanaki Fujishiro and Kanade Kurokawa's strained relationship in chapter 12.

She is well know for her forced smile although after confessing to Nanaki Fujishiro and sorting out their relationship her smiles become more genuine.

She seemingly left the gyaru group (after Nanaki Fujishiro) on her own as she got into a fight with Miki (in an attempt to solve Miki and Nanaki Fujishiro's relationship). After leaving the group she had become closer to Nanaki Fujishiro so it can be speculated that Nanaki Fujishiro not being in the group left her no reason to be in it. However Izumi Aota does say she could not remain with the gyaru group in good conscience.

As Izumi Aota has known Nanaki Fujishiro for a long time she acts the most casually around her.

Izumi Aota's lack of hesitance to making new friends combined with her love for Nanaki Fujishiro meant she built a relationship with Kanade Kurokawa after talking all night about Nanaki Fujishiro during the school trip.

Izumi Aota is very secretive about her feelings for Nanaki Fujishiro prior to confessing to Nanaki Fujishiro leading to her lying and forcing her smile. This is shown when she tells Kanade Kurokawa she does not remember meeting Nanaki Fujishiro particularly well but reminiesces the meeting in detail for she remembers is clearly 'as if it were yesterday.'

Appearance
She is described as incredibly beautiful and has an hourglass body with large breasts, leading to her casually being called 'a Greek Goddess' by Kanade Kurokawa and Iro Akazawa. She has large eyes (that are sharp on the sides), short hair (though this was nearer to shoulder length when she first met Nanaki Fujishiro) with a fringe on the front, and pupils that are larger than Kanade Kurokawa's but smaller than Nanaki Fujishiro's.

She typically wears a shirt and slightly tight trousers and does not seem to prioritise her efforts towards her appearance as much as Nanaki Fujishiro does.

Nanaki Fujishiro
Izumi Aota met Nanaki Fujishiro in school when handing her a bus pass she dropped. Nanaki Fujishiro seemed to know Izumi Aota's name (calling her Aota-san) which shocks Izumi Aota. Nanaki Fujishiro then half-jokingly says that she did a background check on all the class beauties should anyway rival her princess role. This proves Izumi Aota's beauty and leaves Izumi Aota intrigued. This may or may not be what causes Izumi Aota to fall in love with Nanaki Fujishiro, the manga leaves this ambiguous.

Izumi Aota typically kept her feelings for Nanaki Fujishiro hidden with her characteristic fake smile however things start changing when Nanaki Fujishiro talks about her unknown feelings for Kanade Kurokawa. Nanaki Fujishiro outlines how she feels jealous of Iro Akazawa for taking Kanade Kurokawa away from her, describing how it drives her mad, leading to Izumi Aota making a parallel between Miki's obessive behaviour towards Nanaki Fujishiro. Izumi Aota thus leads Nanaki Fujishiro to believe this is only friendship to protect her own relationship with Nanaki Fujishiro.

Nanaki Fujishiro again consults Izumi Aota about her desire to randomly hug Kanade Kurokawa and how her unknown feelings are more than friendship. Izumi Aota once again reassures this is just friendship by holding hands and hugging Nanaki Fujishiro (whilst saying 'you looked like you were about to cry...' the same words Nanaki Fujishiro said to Kanade Kurokawa when she first impulsively hugged her, and the same words Kanade Kurokawa said to Nanaki Fujishiro when hugging her after Nanaki Fujishiro's suspension). After Izumi Aota did not get the ideal reaction from Nanaki Fujishiro after saying those words, Nanaki Fujishiro notices how 'scary' and hostile Izumi Aota seemed to be at that time. Izumi Aota may have done this to prevent Nanaki Fujishiro from realising her feelings for another, a motive that is confirmed later in the manga.

Iro Akazawa and Kanade Kurokawa seemed to have seen the two hug thus Izumi Aota attempts to remove any (romantic) assumptions that could be made about Izumi Aota and Nanaki Fujishiro's relationship; this could be due to her realising Iro Akazawa attempting to 'ship' the two together. Iro Akazawa and Kanade Kurokawa then realise how complex Izumi Aota really is and do not seem convinced by her explanation.

Nanaki Fujishiro later admits to Izumi Aota that she wishes to be the one closest to Kanade Kurokawa. Afraid that Nanaki Fujishiro will end up with Kanade Kurokawa leaving Izumi Aota behind, Izumi Aota screams 'Don't go!' to Nanaki Fujishiro, hugs her and confesses her feelings to Nanaki Fujishiro in tears. Due to being walked in on by Iro Akazawa and Kanade Kurokawa, the feelings were not reconciled and the next day she spent in pain. Iro Akazawa walked around with Izumi Aota to ensure the pain can be handelled.

Izumi Aota and Nanaki Fujishiro that same night converse about their relationship, with Izumi Aota being rejected as Nanaki Fujishiro can see her as no more than just a friend. Nanaki Fujishiro takes the confession very seriously and seems to be well-informed on LGBT issues. Izumi Aota assumes that Nanaki Fujishiro will receive her negatively due to a bad experience with her first love (who was also a woman), however Nanaki Fujishiro apologises for being insensitive to Izumi Aota instead when telling Izumi Aota about past boyfriends and the feelings for Kanade Kurokawa.

Izumi Aota instead gets asked to remain Nanaki Fujishiro's best friend, a decision which Izumi Aota admits will take time to accept. Instead Iro Akazawa appears to fall in love with Izumi Aota after...

Iro Akazawa
She initally meets Iro Akazawa when Nanaki Fujishiro brought her to lunch after being dragged along by Iro Akazawa and Kanade Kurokawa. They have a good time and Izumi Aota and Iro Akazawa both end up curious as to how Nanaki Fujishiro and Kanade Kurokawa became friends.

The two grow closer over school trip, with Iro Akazawa staying by Izumi Aota's side as she dealt with heartbreak the day after confessing.

Iro Akazawa worried about never seeing Izumi Aota's true smile as a result of the heartbreak, however, after seeing Izumi Aota's true smile she falls in love with her.

Kanade Kurokawa
The two formally met during the same lunch Izumi Aota was taken to by Nanaki Fujishiro and met Iro Akazawa although Kanade Kurokawa was known about by Izumi Aota due to Nanaki Fujishiro's fondness of her.

Despite being rivals Izumi Aota never showed hostility towards Kanade Kurokawa. She chose to share a room with Kanade Kurokawa during the school trip and spent the whole night laughing and chatting with Kanade Kurokawa about Nanaki Fujishiro.

Miki
The two met while they were in the gyaru group. After Nanaki Fujishiro abandoning that group, Izumi Aota attempted to reconcile the two (with no success) which thus lead to Izumi Aota and Miki then having a hostile relationship.

Maho
The two met while they were in the gyaru group. As Maho is Miki's best friend, the fight Izumi Aota had with Miki did lead to distance in their relationship. The feelings however do not seem hostile as Maho seemed to have chatted with Izumi Aota after a long while of not seeing each other. Maho realised Izumi Aota's feelings for Nanaki Fujishiro and also concluded that Izumi Aota was rejected (though she initially thoght they were dating).

History
Izumi Aota has romantic experince when falling in love with her best friend Yukari in middle school. Yukari, like Fujishiro, was beautiful and had many fall in love with her. Yukari, insensitive to Izumi Aota's feelings, would pretend she was dating Izumi Aota. When complaining about her admirers, Yukari says she is glad she has Izumi Aota as her girlfriend which prompts Izumi Aota to ask if they should go out for real. After seeing Yukari's unpleasant reaction, Izumi Aota brushes this off as a joke. Due to the distance between Izumi Aota and Yukari after the event, Izumi Aota lost confidence in herself and her romances, wishing only to remain Nanaki Fujishiro's friend, without ever having Nanaki Fujishiro realise Izumi Aota's feelings for her, nor, have Nanaki Fujishiro realise feelings for someone else.