Akio Kawazu is a freelance journalist who appears in the early episodes of the series. He is a middle-aged man with a distinctly unappealing physical appearance, characterized by short, spiked black hair that is beginning to recede, a thin mustache, and a wide mouth. His eyes have unusually small irises and nearly invisible eyebrows, which gives them a bulging, frog-like quality that is reinforced by his pudgy build. His typical attire consists of a dull red shirt, grey slacks, and a light grey jacket.

Kawazu works for a gossip magazine, and his personality can be accurately described as thoroughly sleazy. He is driven by a desperate need for money, as he is deeply in debt. It is mentioned that he once hit an elderly man with his car, and while he avoided jail time, he was ordered to pay the victim's hospital bills through a civil suit, which is a primary source of his financial desperation. In his work, he shows no ethical boundaries, demonstrating a willingness to destroy a person's reputation or invade their privacy for the sake of a lurid story. He looks for scandalous angles in everything, particularly crime, and his reputation among the police is that of a vulture who profits from human misery.

His primary motivation in the story is to get a major scoop that will pay off his debts. He fixates on the case of Tsukiko Sagi, a famous character designer who claims to have been attacked by a mysterious boy with a golden baseball bat, whom the public dubs Lil Slugger. Kawazu initially believes the attack is a fabrication designed to generate sympathy and attention for Tsukiko, and he aggressively pursues her for an interview, hoping to expose what he sees as a hoax.

In his investigation, Kawazu demonstrates a unique set of abilities that make him a surprisingly effective, if unscrupulous, information gatherer. His most notable talent is a remarkable skill for vocal mimicry. He can accurately imitate the voices and speech patterns of other people, a trick he uses to unsettle his subjects or gain their trust. He also possesses the more mundane but persistent skills of a tabloid reporter, such as bribery, persuasion, and shadowing, and he is not above using deception, like pretending to be a police officer, to get what he wants. He is also noted for the trivial but memorable talent of being able to tie a cherry stem into a knot with his tongue.

Kawazu is not a central figure in the overarching plot, but he serves a crucial role in its early stages. He is one of the first characters to aggressively investigate the Lil Slugger phenomenon from an angle outside of law enforcement. His relentless, parasitic pursuit of the story acts as a catalyst, putting pressure on Tsukiko Sagi and digging into the details of her assault. Ironically, in his quest to prove the attacker is a lie, he uncovers evidence that Lil Slugger might actually be real. His key relationships are primarily adversarial or transactional. He interacts with Tsukiko Sagi as a target, badgering her for a story. He is known to the police detectives on the case, who view him with contempt as a nuisance and a bottom-feeder.

As for his development, Kawazu does not undergo a significant personal transformation. He remains a sleazy reporter motivated by greed until the end of his involvement in the story. His role is largely concluded when he himself becomes a victim of Lil Slugger, who attacks him in Tsukiko Sagi's apartment building, thereby confirming the attacker's existence in a way that Kawazu cannot exploit.