Ai Kunugi

From OtakuWiki

Ai Kunugi is a character in the anime and manga Ghost Talker's Daydream. Her Japanese seiyou (voice actor) is Yukari Tamura, and her English voice actor is Carrie Savage.

Ai's story

Ai Kunugi life was just like any Japanese teenager. She had an older sister who was a single mother. Although she knew her sister struggled, she also knew she deeply cared for her infant daughter Miku. Whenever she found the time, Ai would visit her sister and Miku from time-to-time, even giving the baby a teddy bear with an electronic chip which could record voices.

Then one stormy evening, Ai found to her horror that both her sister and Miku had died violent deaths. The police ruled that Ai's sister suffered from post-partum depression and had accidentally killed Miku, then strangled herself in grief. Despite Ai's protests to the contrary, the police stuck to their theory. While at her sister's apartment to look for any clues, the girl had found Po, the teddy bear she gave Miku. As she wept over the baby's memory, Ai was soon cornered by Koga, a minor yakuza boss and the boyfriend of Ai's sister. Captured, Koga almost raped Ai if it weren't for the intervention of Misaki Saiki and Souichiro Kadotake.

It was after Koga had gotten away that they found, within Po, that Koga's voice was somehow recorded in the bear, placing him at the scene of the killings. At first Misaki was hesitant to help the young girl, mostly because of the lack of evidence backing Ai's claim - that is, until she sensed the ghost of Miku trying to contact Ai. After that, she changed her mind.

Also, because of Ai's often-absent classmate – and Misaki's kind-hearted stalker Mitsuru Fujiwara that they discovered Koga’s location – a warehouse near Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge. After Misaki and Souichiro confronted and defeated Koga's thugs, Ai confronted Koga, after the crook had stolen Po. Koga admitted that he did kill Miku, but that it was a horrible accident and that he regretted doing it. Then Koga threw Po into Tokyo Harbor – and was soon struck dead by a bolt of lightning from a clear sky! It was after Koga's death that Ai discovered that she, like Misaki, now had the power to see and communicate with the dead; the first vision she saw was the peaceful images of her sister and Miku as they went to the other side.

At first, Ai had trouble adjusting to her new powers. Many of the dead she saw looked sad, and the young girl wanted to do something to help them. Despite Misaki's advice to the contrary, Ai has now made it her mission to somehow try to help the departed find their way to deal with their passings. Her first attempt, however, nearly killed her, if it weren't for Misaki, Souichiro – and Mitsuru. However, she still persists.

Also, to help her cope with life after her sister and Miku, Ai has taken to carrying a teddy bear wherever she goes, which she has named Po-Po. Some passersby seeing the two often look at them strangely, as if Ai was mentally unbalanced.