Ayaka Tateyama

Ayaka Tateyama (楯山 彩花 Tateyama Ayaka) / Ayaka (アヤカ) is the deceased wife of Kenjirou Tateyama and the deceased mother of Ayano Tateyama.

Appearance
Ayaka has dark-brown hair that is tied as a ponytail with her bangs are being held in place by a pair of two (later one) red clips and dark-brown eyes.

Ayaka's fashion contains a black wide collar shirt, a pink hooded sweater layered with a lab coat the same as Kenjirou Tateyama's, olive leg stockings, and something that could be classified as a yellow skirt.

Personality & History
Ayaka had a cheerful and generous personality who cared for every member of her family equally. However, she was also unstoppable when angered, and that was part of what kept the family together. Although bothered by heavy worries about the future, she always managed to hide them behind a smile in order to protect her children. She was interested in the "Legend of Medusa" of the hometown from her childhood.

With the ambition to become a professional archaeologist, she went to university to take a course, where she met Kenjirou Tateyama, who was in the same class as her. They fell in love, married, and as time went by had a child named Ayano Tateyama. At some point, she heard of three kids with special abilities who had come to the orphanage. She and Kenjirou eventually fostered Tsubomi Kido, Shuuya Kano and Kousuke Seto and she tried her best to help her husband in understanding their powers. Observing the children's abilities, she grew determined to find proof for the actual existence of the medusa mentioned in her beloved story. From beginning to end, she kept important information inside of a journal, explaining her worries and attempts to make progress in her research. When stuck on getting more information about the issue, she and her husband decided to try their luck meeting new people on a research mission. However, before being able to find out about the snake's secrets, she died as she and her husband got caught in a landslide.

Eventually, she is reunited with her husband inside of the Heat Haze and remains inside of it.

Songs
Cameo:
 * Konoha no Sekai Jijou
 * Ayano no Koufuku Riron
 * Outer Science

Trivia

 * Ayaka gave one of her hair clips to Ayano Tateyama as a present.
 * While Ayaka's body was able to be buried in the novel, it is said to have disappeared in the anime.

Etymology

 * The name Ayaka means "color" (彩) (aya) and "flower, blossom" (花) (ka).
 * Ayaka's surname Tateyama means "shield, buckler, pretext" (楯) (tate) and "mountain, hill" (山) (yama).
 * Her maiden name Asahina means "morning" (朝) (asa), "ratio, proportion" (比) (hi) and "apple tree" (奈) (na).

Quotes

 * "I must work under the assumption that the world created by the monster really exists, and consider why it swallows children and gives them powers." (Quote of Ayaka's journal)
 * "But I must put on a happy face when I'm around them. I must put an end to this phenomenon as soon as I possibly can." (Quote of Ayaka's journal)