Manga
Netflix
Akane Heiya (塀谷 朱音, Heiya Akane) is a character that first appears in the Fourth Side Story. She is a scrappy survivor with a special affinity for archery.
Appearance[]
Heiya has waist length black hair, thin eyes, and a sharp chin. Her waist, left wrist, and left thigh are wrapped with several ragged bandages; the ones on her thigh are splattered with blood. Her left bicep is wrapped in a piece of torn fabric, likely a handkerchief. She wears a crop top and a skirt, both of which are very short and tattered, probably the remnants of her school uniform. On both of her hands are a pair of heavy-duty, fingerless gloves. Her face rarely holds a positive expression.
During the brutal Seven of Spades game on the first day of her Sojourn, her left shin was impaled with debris. After the game, it started to turn gangrenous, and she had no choice but to amputate it, below the knee, replacing it with a Flex-Foot Cheetah. On her remaining foot, she sports a large, knee-high boot that she uses to hold a knife.
Personality[]
Prior to coming to the Borderlands, Heiya had a lowly outlook on life and on herself as a result of childhood trauma. She did not care about anything, never tried anything, and casually slept with men to get anything she wanted, thinking she could die young after her womanly allure faded. However, her outlook changed during her first game. As she neared death countless times, she began reflecting on how careless she had been and how frivolously she had lived. While struggling to survive, she learned the value of life. Her experiences in the Borderlands hardened her immensely. By the Second Stage, she was strong and resourceful, but also short-tempered, especially towards Dodo Hayato, when they first met.
History[]
When Heiya was a little girl, her mother was having an affair. She would have her lover come over to the family's house during the day and would tell her daughter to keep it a secret. Although her father was oblivious to his wife's betrayal, Heiya's neighbors were aware of the scandal and used this information to mock her. When Heiya entered high school, her mother died in a traffic accident while out with her lover. Like her mother, Heiya acted frivolously in school and even slept with a male schoolmate who propositioned her, despite the fact that he was dating another girl at the time. Heiya refused to smoke even though she was being surrounded by smoking friends because she dreamed she would marry her soulmate one day and did not want the smoking habit to affect her future baby's health. Whenever offered new experiences, she always rejected them, believing that they could somehow jeopardize her fantasy "future".
Story[]
Seven of Spades[]
Even the child of shitty parents deserves to dream of a bright future!
— Akane in the manga, Chapter 37.3
Like most new players of the Borderlands, Heiya is clueless and joins her first game, the Seven of Spades (Boiling Death), lacking any sense of alertness. After the initial eruption, her torso is impaled with a metal wire and she realizes that she may be the only one left. She tried to pull herself up and off the wire, but the pain is too immense. On her third try, she slowly lifted herself off. Carefully trudging around the boiling water, she sees a mangled corpse, covered in burns and blisters. In a horrific revelation, she realizes they all were boiled to death. She limps away, repulsing at the stench of rotting eggs. Her wound will not stop bleeding. She puts her hand against a wall to rest, but is immediately burned. She looks and sees a water pipe. With no options left. She leans in and uses the pipe to cauterize her wound, all while shrieking in pain. She falls, drenched in sweat and craving water. She sees a pool and notices it is not bubbling, which means it could be safe. When she feels it, it is lukewarm. She elatedly gulps down a handful before spitting it back out right away in disgust. She realizes that the minerals in the hot spring likely makes it unsafe to drink. She is so hot and thirsty she cannot think straight. Then, the whole stadium rumbles as it starts collapsing again. The boiling water starts reaching her floor and she is in horror, but then a ventilation duct falls. She crawls in as the water floods the area. Her stomach is now in pain, and she tried licking her sweat but it is also salty. She starts going insane, screaming and cursing at the place for being too loud and not having drinking water, and she blames it all on "that woman". The smell of rotting eggs caught up to her, and she vomits. She goes forward and the duct splits downwards. If she heads down, it should take her closer to the first floor, but she feels unsure. Going with her gut instinct, she continues heading up. Had she gone down the split, it would have led to a chamber of boiling water. She sees a light, and starts getting excited, but when she crawls out, the vent is suspended over a pit of rubble and water that does not seem to be bubbling. With the smell now caught up, she has no choice but to bet on it. She jumps, and the water feels fine. But then, her left shin is impaled by a giant drag of metal, causing her to scream in agony. She crawls out, unable to remove the metal, and makes a tourniquet using her jacket. She continued crawling on, and on, and on. She pulls out her phone, and finds out that it miraculously still works. She begins to record, first addressing a message to all her friends, then to her father, telling him how he was so engrossed in work he did not treat her mother well. Then, to her mom, she once again stated how it was all her fault. Her final message was to her future self, who would be living a happy and fulfilling life. She must never forget that on this day, she had the willpower to survive. If she did not grant herself her one past wish, she would never forgive herself. With that, she crawls on, and on, and on. She sees an idol poster and thinks the guy on the far end looks like her type. She uses that as a motivation to keep crawling. Once she reached him, she sets a new goal. Then, she has the feeling that she is being watched. She turns around, but there is no one. She passes it off as an effect of the pain and heat. The rumbling begins once more. The final collapse is about to occur, and it is on a whole other scale compared to the ones prior. She ducks for cover, and is surprised to make it out alive. But as a result, she lost her bearings. She is at both her physical and mental limits and might go the way she came. Finally, it appears: a ghostly figure, or hallucination, of her mom. She sorrowfully forgives her. The mother points toward a light, and Heiya says goodbye, unable to thank her. As the venue is finally destroyed, she escapes and reaches the Game Clear register.
Later that night, she crawls to a nearby hospital and her leg wound has began turning gangrenous. A former chief surgeon appears, and she begs him to help her. He agrees to amputate it, but she has to pay him back, on the spot, with another form of currency. Understanding what he means, she reluctantly agrees.
King of Spades[]
After Borderlands[]
During her cardiac arrest, a crumbling rooftop falls onto her leg, requiring it to be amputated. As a result, she now uses a wheelchair. As she goes around the hospital each day, she notices Dodo constantly looking into Aguni's room, and decides to ask him if he is someone he knows personally. Dodo explains the weird desire he feels wanting Aguni to get well soon, and she asks if he saved his life or something, clearly a bit confused. When he notices her amputation, she explains what happened. She continues, talking about her happiness to be alive and her hope for the future, having never felt this way before, Dodo relates to this. Later on, he can be seen pushing her wheelchair, both of them chatting and smiling.
Games Played[]
Quotes[]
To the me... in the future... you... now... with a life full of happiness, never forget that on this day I gave you the opportunity through my sheer willpower to make it through this!!
— Heiya, Chapter 37.3This debt is enormous. If you do not live a fulfilling life, I will never forgive you!!
— Heiya, Chapter 37.3You and I are different. I now know that my future belongs to me.
— Heiya, Chapter 37.3I can make do with you. Let's fuck. This world's got so much stress over dying any moment. Even a girl has her needs.
— Heiya, Chapter 49.4Being able to live in this world is not something you should take lightly!!
— Heiya, Chapter 49.4I feel much happier to be alive than I did before... I've got a sparkling bright dreamlike future ahead of me!
— Heiya, Chapter 64
Trivia[]
- The name Akane consists of the kanji "vermilion red" (朱) (ak) and "sound" (音) (ne).
- Akane's surname Heiya is a combination of the kanji "wall, fence" (塀) (hei) and "valley" (谷) (ya).
- Heiya was in the Borderlands for a total of 55 days.
- Out of all the "Main Players", Heiya and Dodo were the only 2 people to technically not clear any Face Card game.