Kō Aoki, whose real name is Yuriko Aoki, is a female manga artist who initially worked in the shōjo genre for Margaret magazine before being advised to switch to shōnen. She is a highly educated student at the prestigious To-Oh University, where she attends graduate school and holds a teaching qualification. Her pen name, Kō Aoki, is used professionally. She first enters the story as a rival to the protagonist duo, teaming up with the older artist Takurō Nakai to serialize the manga Hideout Door. She typically presents a tough, serious exterior and can come across as cold or aloof, but this demeanor gradually softens as she becomes more integrated into the circle of young manga creators known as the Fukuda Team. Her primary motivation is to succeed as a shōnen manga artist, a goal that forces her to adapt her storytelling style from the romance-oriented shōjo approach to the action-driven demands of a weekly shōnen magazine. After the partnership with Nakai ends following the cancellation of Hideout Door, she begins working alone, writing and drawing her own series with the encouragement of her editor. She struggles with the gap between her artistic ideals and market expectations but eventually finds her footing as a solo creator. Key relationships include a failed professional and personal connection with Takurō Nakai, a mutual respect and occasional creative exchange with Akito Takagi, and a romantic bond with fellow manga artist Kazuya Hiramaru, who courts her for years and eventually proposes to her. Among her notable abilities are her strong educational background, her skill in both writing and illustrating, and her capacity to evolve from a rigid, style-confined artist into a more flexible and emotionally open creator. Her development arc in the second season shows her learning to collaborate more openly with her peers and to balance her artistic integrity with the realities of serialization.