Hello everybody and Happy Valentine! Welcome to my little picture special about the cosplay café. So, since I introduced Sora and Ten in my Picture Gallery chapter of this story, I figured I could also introduce my other OCs although they're more like supporting characters. But they did have an important role in my latest chapter and Sora really needs some friends outside of Seidou and outside of baseball, so Inashiro and Yakushi obviously don't count. These lovely people are the ones sharing Sora's other passion being anime, manga, acting, cosplaying and everything around it and as we all know by now, this has been her major hobby even before she came to love baseball. Not to mention, they know her true name and gender and all help her with keeping up her disguise in front of the whole bunch of baseball boys. Also I'm not gonna lie, all the character designs based on colors are also heavily influenced by other anime / manga characters who already exist, so the pictures should give you the overall idea. None of the pictures in this fanfiction are mine and you can find them easily with google pictures (like I also did lol). Always trying to be an honest author at the very least xD.
Another thing I noticed and I'm very sorry about that actually, but I never gave Tomoko's café a proper name... My bad, that's completely on me. Shame on me. And what might be even worse, kinda, dunno, but (up until now at least) Sora's and Ten's parents as well as their wellness center also don't have names. Or rather they were never mentioned in the story because honestly speaking I didn't care much...^^ We could go with Mr. and Mrs. Aoki aka Aoki-san(s) and with the Aoki Sports & Wellness Center here, but that's just hella uncreative and lazy. Not that I personally claim not to be because that'd be the biggest lie on mother earth. I'm literally a big sloth, so that's that. Again, my apologies for all of you lovely readers who might've noticed, I hope you don't mind it all that much. Maybe I'll get the chance to somehow fix it and to smuggle in some names in the next upcoming chapters, but no promises.
Anyway, here it goes, hope y'all have fun!
Manager / Owner / Pastry Chef: Tomoko / Tomo-chan
She usually doesn't wear the maid uniform or the cosplays since she's the manager and tries to look the part and to be professional in being a boss, but if she did, it'd look like this:
All of the sweets in the café are her own creations, she loves sweets and she's a very skilled pastry chef herself as well as the personally chosen kitchen staff she supervises strictly, but gently.
Tomo-chan has a very friendly, female, cheerful and motherly character. The word "tomo" in Japanese means "friend", but the kanji signs you can write the name "Tomoko" with usually are the ones for "wisdom" and "child", also somehow representing the last chapter she gives Sora genuine (adult / motherly) advise on her situation, despite also teasing her a little bit. (I kinda picture her as a young woman in her early to maybe mid-thirties.)
(Her appearance and the pictures are based on the anime "Kaichou wa Maid-sama's" supporting character Honoka. I also had "Mermaid Melody's" Mikaru or "Hunter X Hunter's" aunt Mito in mind, but Honoka here fits the color pattern better.)
Aka-chan:
Her real gender is female and she's cheeky, sassy and bratty, all in all a little devil herself, even though she's older than Sora and kind of sees her as a little sister, as well as she does Ki-chan. (I picture her being a College student, maybe first or second year, not too far away from having graduated High School herself.) She is of the teasing nature and that's why she gets along really well with Sora and Mido-chan and she loves embarrassing Ki-chan. Also, she's very much into hot guys (like seen with Mei in the chapter), not minding if they're a little bit younger or older than her and generally very open-minded when it comes to love, romance and relationships, to the point where she wouldn't oppose Mido-chan's idea of starting a polyamory with two guys at the same time.
Cosplaying male version for the café. "Aka" means "red".
(Her female appearance is based on "Puella Magi Madoka Magica's" character Kyoko, the male one is "Assassination Classroom's" Karma. Close to it would also be Ayato from "Diabolik Lovers".)
Ao-chan's and Aka-chan's teamwork during One Piece week:
Sora and Aka-chan cosplayed the Alabasta Arc versions of Vivi and Nami, although Nami is rather orange-haired than red-haired, but it still fits well for the two of them, I guess.
I'd really, really love to see Eijun cosplaying Luffy, but of course there aren't any pictures like that around, I'm afraid. Although the wide grin and many of the personality traits would fit perfectly, lol.
(Pictures original Vivi and Nami from "One Piece".)
New ideas for Aoki Sora / Ao-chan for the café exclusively:
Instead of the usually fluffy and spiky hairstyle that she's sporting at Seidou, this would be a more tamed male version for e.g. the butler theme.
Also contrary to her usually rather cute and/or sexy and female real self with very long hair and often also respective clothing, this one is a more formal and more androgynous look that could count as male or also female attire, fit for "serving" her guests, no matter if they're "young ladies" or "gentlemen".
(Appearances based on "B-Project's" Kento and "Assassination Classroom's" Nagisa.)
(Fun fact is, that the original designs for Sora and Ten didn't follow already existing anime characters, although her male disguise was a very rough idea of an aged up version of Killua from "Hunter X Hunter", as I already mentioned, just with blue hair instead of white. Maybe Tetsuya from "Kuroko no Basuke" would also be an example that could fit the description.)
"Ao" means "blue" and "Sora" means "sky", hence also this fanfiction's title "Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky" (azure blue sky - "aozora" - ao + sora, could be interpreted as "Baseball and Sora" because she's the main protagonist, obviously). The "ki" in "Aoki" could mean "tree", but there are also several other kanji signs which could be read as "ki" with various meanings. Her older brother's name "Ten" means "heaven" to match with the whole theme as well.
Ki-chan:
Her real gender is female and here she's dressed as some kind of pop idol for the café. She's younger than Sora, so I guess that would make her a third-year Middle Schooler then (?) since Sora would be a first-year High Schooler, but skipped one grade to be in her second year already. She's cute and kind-hearted and also shy and still very bashful, being the youngest member of the café staff. Thus, everyone else, especially Sora and Aka-chan consider her as a younger sister. Although Aka-chan has fun embarrassing her and "corrupting" her innocence with some of her rather "inappropriate" remarks.
Ki-chan disguised as a boy. "Kiiro" means "yellow" or "amber".
(Her appearance is based on "Tsukiuta's" Kurisu (female) and Kakeru (male) and also some influence came from "Yes! Pretty Cure 5's" Urara / Cure Lemonade and "Tokyo Mew Mew's" Purin / Pudding.)
Kuro-chan:
Kuro-chan is actually a girl and very calm and collected since she is one of the oldest staff members despite their manager. (Would be third or fourth year College then? I guess?) Like Tomo-chan who is more the mother-hen, Kuro-chan is the nice but also a little strict older sister type and always concerned for her co-workers well-being. She matches well with Shiro-chan in terms of age and personality and the two work very well together, even though they don't need to talk much. She often scolds Aka-chan and Mido-chan, the rascals of the team.
Kuro-chan's male attire. "Kuro" means "black".
Kuro-chan as tanuki in the last chapter.
Kuro-chan cosplaying Nico Robin in their One Piece week.
(Her appearance is based on "Tsukiuta's" Yuki and Arata and "Idolish 7's" Iori, the "One Piece" picture is the original Nico Robin and I honestly have no clue about the tanuki-girl, but it fits and it's cute, so never mind, lol.)
Mido-chan:
Mido-chan is a boy in the same age as Aka-chan and the two of them have very similar personalities of energetic extroverts with impish character traits and a sarcastic kind of humor, much like Sora, despite being older. He is also a curious and nosy gossip, even wanting to be updated about Eijun's and Wakana's relationship and Sora's attempts to match-make them, although he doesn't know Wakana and only sees Eijun when he comes to pick up Sora from work. Mido-chan has quite the temper and although he's usually a nice guy, when pissed off he tends to get loud, rude and aggressive. Despite not being an actual lady killer, he is pretty open-minded like Aka-chan and adventurous, so it makes sense that he's also the one suggesting the polyamory.
Although he loves cosplaying, sometimes he slips-up in his female attire switching to his usual rather "rude" or maybe better informal way of talking and cursing and cussing around, making his girl alter ego much of a tomboy despite looking very sexy and female.
"Midori" means "green".
Mido-chan and Pink-chan cosplaying as cheerleaders together with Mido-chan getting angry and switching back in attitude, embarrassing his co-worker.
(His design comes from "Kenka Bancho Otome's" Konparu.)
Guys, I actually noticed that this rich and darker emerald green is pretty rarely used on anime characters in comparison to other colors like red or blue in all kinds of shades. If there's any green, it's often either light / lime green or more of an olive tone. Other characters that are comparable are maybe Izuku from "Boku no Hero Academia" and Midori from "Midori no Hibi", Rina from "Mermaid Melody" and Lenalee from "D.Gray-man Hallow", although her hair borders closely on black on many pictures and the eyes are violet.