Tatewaki Kuno is blatantly obsessed with Akane, but his perversions and strange ideas of "courtship" means that if Akane was ever interested in him, she has lost it by the time of the series proper. While it is unknown what caused him to become attracted to her in the first place, or if Akane may have been attracted to him at first, it is defined that at the beginning of the present school year Kuno made a speech that declared he would allow nobody to date Akane unless they could first defeat her in battle, starting what is known among fans as "the hentai horde". This mob of horny young men would assault Akane at the start of every school day, with Tatewaki Kuno waiting in the wings to challenge her after she had defeated the others.