Aiko Nagumo nee Hatayama, also known as the "Goddess of Victory", is one of main female protagonists of Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strength. She is Hajime Nagumo's social studies teacher.
She is voiced by Ai Kakuma in Japanese and Emily Fajardo in English.
Overview[]
She is an all-loving teacher who cares for her students. She was captured and locked up by Noint and the Holy Church's Pope under the orders of the so-called god, Ehit. She was later freed by Hajime (who eventually killed Noint, the Pope and his bishops (with the help of Tio Klarus) and finally the traitorous Daisuke Hiyama himself). She became sad and heartbroken when three of her students (Yukitoshi Shimizu, Daisuke Hiyama and finally Eri Nakamura) betrayed her and her other students for their villainous-yet-delusional schemes.
Aiko-sensei along with Princess Liliana S. B. Heiligh revealed Ehit's true heinous nature towards the Ehit's supposedly human worshipers to turn against the false god himself and cleared Hajime's name from his falsely accused heresies. The newly Holy Church now worships Aiko-Sensei as their "goddess".
Appearance[]
Aiko is a petite woman often described as having a childlike figure by others. She has short dark-brown hair and brown eyes (green eyes in the anime).
Personality[]
Aiko is a very responsible teacher and cares a lot for her students. She often misunderstands the peoples feelings of affection for her as being friendly. Even as a child, she would always focus on obeying the rules and reprimand anyone that broke them.
She had a strong moral nature, can be very stubborn and carries the belief that as a teacher, she should always protect her students and support them. This causes her to be too idealistic, to the point where she often contradicts herself. Such as not wanting to get her students to be involved in anything dangerous or to solve their problems through violence, yet later convincing her student Hajime to risk his life to protect the town of Ur when it was under the threat of a monster invasion, something she knew as a contradiction of her own beliefs. Furthermore, she attempts to reason with Yukitoshi and even wants to save his life after he tried to kill her.
After recognizing how most of her ideals were meaningless without the will to act, Aiko resolves herself to better protect her students instead of being the one being protected. This is displayed when she chooses to fight against the Holy Church alongside Tio. While she admit she didn't regret her actions after the battle, her strong morals still causes her a lot of pain because she had been responsible for the deaths of many people. She also stops trying to force her ideals on to others and now takes the time to consider the reasons for their actions, instead of expecting them to go along with her wishes.
Aiko is also very charismatic, leading her to be worshiped as a deity in Tortus. This is the result of her hard working nature, strong moral character and her cute appearance. She has always been terrible at keeping secrets and tends to openly express her feelings, which makes it easy for those who know her to guess what is bothering her. This allows her family and childhood friend Taichi to figure out her lover is actually one of her students.
After becoming one of Hajime's wives, Aiko picks up some of his excessive traits. This includes being brutal against anyone that would threaten her family, and using her magic in ways that defy common sense, without consideration. Although she still fundamentally opposes using violence, she has resolved herself to take aggressive action in order to protect those that she cares for.
Relationship[]
Hajime Nagumo[]
Hajime is one of Aiko's students.
She felt sympathy of his falsely death. However, she felt relieved that Hajime is alive but sadly he became the most powerful, ruthless and sadistic mass murderer when she reunited with him as well he refused to rejoin his classmates just to suit Kouki Amanogawa's delusions and Ehit's twisted entertainment. He revealed to Aiko-Sensei that his separation was never an accident due to Daisuke Hiyama's betrayal. Hajime refused to save Yukitoshi Shimizu despite Aiko's pleaded due to Shimizu to be beyond saving.
When he learned from Princess Liliana that Aiko-Sensei was captured, Hajime rushed his way back to rescue Aiko as well murdered Noint, both the Holy Church's pope and his bishops and finally Daisuke Hiyama himself.
After Eri Nakamura's betrayal and Daisuke Hiyama's death, Aiko tells Hajime that it is going to take long for her to get over of Nagumo murders upon some of his classmates (such as Yukitoshi Shimizu, Reichi Kondou and finally Daisuke Hiyama). She declared that she has no rights to criticize Hajime because she is already knows Hiyama was beyond redemption when it was useless to try to talk some sense to Daisuke, but she will never forgive Hiyama for what he did to not only Hajime and Kaori Shirasaki but also innocence he sacrificed for his and Eri's twisted-yet-delusional desires.
While Hajime, his party and the members of the falsely heroes (Kouki Amanogawa, Shizuku Yaegashi (one of Hajime's lovers), Ryutarou Sakagami and Suzu Taniguchi) are going on a journey to clear the last remaining of the Great Labyrinths, Aiko-sensei and the rest of the students wished Hajime and others luck as well they will stay at the Heiligh Kingdom to protect the citizens from either Ehit or the demons.
When Aiko-Sensei, her students, Princess Liliana, Remia and Myu were captured and attempted to be used as hostages against Hajime and the others, Nagumo easily tricked the demons of Garland so easily and massacred them among the massacre are Eri Nakamura (who died by committing suicide), Freid Bagwa (who was killed by Tio Klarus) and finally Alva (Ehit's right hand man when he died after being tortured and killed by Hajime). After dealt with Garland's army, Hajime freed Aiko-Sensei and the others from their captivity.
Enemies[]
Ehit[]
Aiko-Sensei once respected Ehit until when Hajime revealed his true hideous nature, she completely abandoned her respects for the so-called god and has no qualms of revealing his true nature towards his supposedly human worshipers, causing them to turn against Ehit and clearing Hajime's name from his falsely accused heresy as well the former human worshipers now pledged their loyalty to Aiko as their "Goddess of Victory".
Daisuke Hiyama[]
Daisuke Hiyama was one of Aiko-Sensei's students. But she disliked of his bullying methods towards Hajime and his despicable lust for Kaori.
Hiyama doesn't care about Aiko-Sensei and has no qualms to have imprisoned by Noint and the Holy Church just for his delusions of Kaori.
When Hiyama revealed his betrayal by stabbing Kaori, Aiko-Sensei now completely lost of her care for Hiyama and watched pitilessly as Hajime killed Hiyama by beating him up and later fed him alive to Freid Bagwa's monsters.
After his demise, Aiko revealed to Hajime that despite she will never forgive Hiyama for what he has done to both Nagumo and Kaori as well as the innocence, she wished that if it wasn't for Hajime to kill Hiyama, she would try to talk some senses to Hiyama, for him to atone for his sins. But she realized it was useless because Hiyama was beyond redemptions and talking sense to him won't work due to him being blinded by his delusions of his hatred towards Hajime and his ambitions of Kaori.
When Hajime revealed Hiyama was responsible for his "fall" incident to everyone, Aiko-Sensei and her students lost whatever left of sympathy they once had for Hiyama and completely written him off as a self-deluded traitor after they've finally realized that Hiyama has indeed lied to them and always have been a filthy villain this whole time, where Hajime's fall was never an accident.
In After Story, Aiko-Sensei and Hajime revealed to Hiyama's family that Hajime killed their son but also revealed that Hiyama was a traitor when he discriminated in Tortus causing his family to let his death be in vain and let go of their hatreds towards Nagumo.
Eri Nakamura[]
Eri was one of Aiko-Sensei's students who is the smartest. However, like Hiyama, Eri too betrayed her sensei and her classmates without a shed of care for her teacher because Aiko-Sensei and her students were just on her way to make Kouki Amanogawa as her "boyfriend". This betrayal deeply impacted Aiko-Sensei.
Eri has no qualms letting Noint and the Holy Church to capture and imprison her teacher when she attempt to reveal Ehit's true filthy nature. However, it failed due to Hajime's arrival when Noint, the Holy Church's pope and his bishops as well Daisuke Hiyama (who is a pawn to Eri) died at the hands of Nagumo.
After becoming a hybrid Apostle, Eri has no shed of humanity left in her when she captured Aiko-Sensei, her students (who are guarding the Heiligh Kingdom), Princess Liliana and lastly Remia and Myu (Hajime's lover and adoptive daughter) in attempt to use them as hostages against Nagumo, but it once again, failed when Hajime easily tricked Eri into surrendering where Eri died by committing suicide.