Tenri Ayukawa

Tenri Ayukawa
鮎川 天理 Ayukawa Tenri
Character Information
Gender	Female
Age	17
Status	Alive
Date of Birth	January 3
BWH	84-57-84
Blood Type	A
Height	157 cm (5'2")
Weight	47 kg
Job	Childhood Friend
Class	2-B
Family	Yuuko Ayukawa (mother) unnamed father (mentioned)
School	Misato Hisagi High School
Seiyū	Kaori Nazuka
Manga Debut	Chapter 57
Anime Debut	Episode 24 (cameo)

Tenri Ayukawa (鮎川天理, Ayukawa Tenri) is the secondary tritagonist of The World God Only Knows series. She is a shy and reticent childhood best friend of Keima Katsuragi who was a former neighbor and classmate of his until the Katsuragi household relocated ten years ago because of an earthquake. She's adored Keima ever since the accident during this earthquake. She is also the host for the goddess Diana. She is now Katsuragi's neighbor again, this time right next-door (unlike before in which the Ayukawa household is located diagonally behind).

Appearance

Tenri is well-known for her long bangs that cover most of her eyes. However, after her "capture", she cut her bangs so that her eyes become more visible. Tenri has long hair, which are tied into two braids and curved upwards supported by two large pink ribbons. Her clothing has also changed in each appearance more or less wearing a long dress with shorts. When she sleeps she removes her ribbons and lets her braids fall down.

Personality

Tenri, since the first time she appeared, is shown to be very shy. Before her capture, she almost never spoke to anyone with the exception of Diana. After the kiss she had with Keima Katsuragi that was done to distract Nora, Tenri is shown to be less shy than before, speaking more freely with Keima and Elucia de Lute Ima. Later, it is shown that Tenri loves magic tricks and does not mind showing her magic tricks to Keima. Tenri can also be called a caring and carefree character for she doesn't seem to mind about Keima's capturing methods (i.e. by kissing). Overall, Tenri is a shy but a honest and kind girl that tries her best to help people and avoid fights.

Background

A legion of runaway spirits.

Ten years before the start of the series, when Tenri was seven years old, she and Keima hid in a nearby abandoned ship during a field trip organized by their elementary school. A sudden earthquake shook the ship off shore and it landed on the other side of the sea, forcing Tenri and Keima to find a way back. After they climbed down from the ship, they found an entrance to a water cave beneath it and ventured in the tunnels, using Keima's countless numbers of game consoles as lights. However, in the middle of the tunnel, the lights stopped working and another earthquake occurred. Keima tried to run with Tenri, only to have a big stone fall upon his head, knocking him unconscious. While trying to wake him up, Tenri saw countless escaped spirits, approaching from the deeper end of the cave. As the spirits tried to possess Tenri, but couldn't find a gap in her heart to do so, a goddess named Diana advised her to run away. Scared and not knowing how to get out, Tenri begged Diana to help her save Keima, to which the goddess possessed Tenri and used her powers to knock away the escaped spirits, ascended the cave while carrying Keima, and ended up in the old theater from Maijima Private High School.

Despite of the earthquake that destroyed Keima's old home and forcing him to move, and hadn't been contacting him since then, Tenri hadn't forgotten about him for the past ten years.

Character History

Childhood Friend Arc

Tenri meeting Keima.

Tenri and her mother visit the Katsuragi Household at the start of summer vacation. As Tenri and Keima are reintroduced, both state that they do not remember each other well. The very next day, while Keima is out shopping, Diana tries to interact with Keima, but that will is changed, through Tenri's forceful ways, into accidents, ranging from having Keima almost hit by a truck or having her spill coffee over him.

Soon, Diana takes over and tries to explain to Keima that she does not need any help. During the explanation, Elsie's skull sensor rings, reacting to Diana. While Keima is in confusion of what Diana is talking about, she falls off from the 2nd story they were on, but seems to walk away without any harm.

Nora making Tenri listen to Ryo.

In truth, Tenri is already being hunted down by Nora, and this is what Tenri/Diana was wishing for Keima's help with. Keima wonders if Tenri has a split personality, but thinks that Diana is an escaped spirit after Elsie's report that Tenri is reported to have an escaped spirit. Nora maliciously hunts Tenri, as she thinks that Tenri has an escaped spirit.

After leaving Keima, Tenri goes to the seaside, where she is approached by Ryō. Ryō tries to sway Tenri into releasing her 'spirit' through a speech, but Tenri tries to run away. Nora stops Tenri and allows Ryō to continue. When Ryō was done with his speech, Nora forcibly used her abilities to scan Tenri's memory for her most hated or beloved item. Not surprisingly, Keima turns up in the scan.

Nora asks Tenri if she hates or loves Keima, but Tenri does not give a clear answer. Deciding that Tenri most likely hates Keima, since Nora believes that there is more hatred than love in the world, Nora sets out to find and kill Keima.

As Keima returns home with his games, Tenri suddenly crashes into Keima. While Keima raged over his damaged games, Tenri tries to warn Keima about Nora and Ryō.

Before she could finish, Keima is caught by Nora and is taken away. Ryō gives Tenri a letter, only to have his own name written wrongly.

Tenri questions this, and Ryō corrects it. The letter states that Keima will be killed. Tenri and Elsie heads straight for the location where Nora and Keima are, which is again on the seaside.

Keima's dreams....

After Nora and Elsie had a short conversation as fellow escape-squad members, Nora scanned Keima's mind, only to find a 'video' of his favorite character, "Yokkyun". Tenri chuckles, seeing that Keima hasn't changed. Nora distorts the video, making Yokkyun turn into a horrid zombie-like creature. Horrified by this, Keima falls into complete anger and chases after Nora. Keima, in the end scares off Nora temporarily.

Keima, Tenri and Elsie assemble in an empty classroom at Maijima high to discuss about Tenri's entity. During this discussion, Elsie has made 5 dummy-Keimas to stall Nora from killing him.

Elsie leaves to get Haqua's help. Keima then asks if Diana is an escaped spirit, but she only argues about why he is calling her an escaped spirit. Right then, Nora barges in, after destroying all of the dummies. Nora swings a giant mace towards Keima, but Diana blocks the mace. She and Keima escape to the school's old theatre, having Tenri reveal a secret tunnel inside the building. The two use it to escape Nora's wrath.

Tenri, shocked when Keima said that they are in love.

While in that tunnel, Keima starts to remember about what occurred ten years ago. Tenri starts to tell what occurred. After she finished her story, Keima once again questions who Diana is. This time, Diana gives the answer that she's a being who sealed old hell. Right then, Nora breaks into the tunnel and interrupts the conversation. Keima and Diana runs towards the other end of the tunnel, only to end up at the seaside. Diana then reveals to Keima a small spirit, which is a bound escaped spirit. Keima accepts it, and Diana let's Tenri regain control. The two go to a nearby ship, only to find a depressed Elsie, for she was unable to get help. Keima thinks of a plan to have Nora stop hunting him by pretending that Tenri's "Escaped Spirit" has been dispelled. He proposed by having him and Tenri become lovers.

Nora arrives, with Ryō, wishing to get the escape spirit out through brute force. Keima then states that in truth, he and Tenri love each other. Though Keima states that this is only an act, Tenri heavily denies because of embarrassment. Nora states that she believes that the cause of Tenri's crevice in her heart is because she hates Keima.

Keima kisses Tenri.

Tenri abruptly counters that, saying that she has always been in love with him. Using this flow, Keima takes Tenri and initiates a kiss. From below, Elsie releases the spirit Diana gave Keima earlier making it look like Tenri is being dispelled of the escaped spirit.

Nora goes off to catch the escaped spirit, only to be disappointed later on that it's only a tiny one. After the kiss, Tenri faints out of the overflow of happiness. Diana takes over and leaves, saying she'll meet Keima again someday. But that 'someday' was within the next few days, for Tenri moves next door to the Katsuragi's. As the movers dropped off the boxes, Tenri decides to play with the bubble wrap. She was then startled when Keima went crashing in front of her; he then asked if he could help. As she was being helped by Keima bringing a box to her room, she asked him what he remembered after the earthquake from their childhood. After Keima tells her what he remembered, she then notes that it is an impressive coincidence that they met each other again after all this time but Keima wonders if it really is a coincidence.

As Keima was leaving, Diana was impressed that Keima does remember and brings up that they should do more lovers stuff while Tenri tries to shut her up by throwing the mirror out the window. Tenri then tries to tell Keima to forget what Diana said and understands that it was just acting.

Tenri then decides to show Keima her skill with her magic hobby. She does the teleporting magic box trick which impresses Elsie who just entered from the window. Tenri then does the sword stabbing box trick but need Keima's help with the stabbing because she was in the box. When Keima asked about continuing the story Diana was talking about before, she and Diana switched control.

Tenri later forcibly takes control back when Diana tried to force Keima to take responsibility for the kiss. She then tells Keima to disregard what Diana said.

Hunting Break Arc 8

On the morning of August 31, Tenri decided to meet with Keima to show him a trick with a small magic box. She tries to greet him but gets too nervous, spaced out, and talked about the weather instead before Keima went back in his house. Diana notes how mechanical Keima's speech was and tells Tenri to interact more with him which Tenri tells her that it's hard. When Diana mentioned that someone could become Keima's lover Tenri got depressed which made Diana take back what she said to make her feel better.

Tenri soon then invited herself in Keima's house after hearing a crash, unfortunately she came in when Keima was on his back being mounted by another girl. Diana then took control and after taking Keima away from the girl, stands in for Tenri to proclaim that "she" is his fiancee. After Diana defeats the girl, Tenri forces back control and fell on a bound Keima and apologizes to him. Later after introductions, Tenri watches as Keima talks with Haqua (the girl from before) as he explains to her that Diana was from heaven. Diana then takes over to try to keep Haqua from sticking too close to Keima.

Tenri takes back control when Nora appeared. Keima soon devised a plan to let Tenri escape as he used Elsie as a decoy to distract Nora. He tells her to not let Diana out and to pretend to not know Nora as a person with a removed runaway spirit shouldn't remember. Keima then tries to runaway with Tenri but Nora catches them before they left. She said her greetings to Tenri after chatting with Keima. Tenri gets away before saying anything while Keima used himself as a distraction; leaving her box behind.

Tenri ran as far as a pole on the opposite side of the street. She catches her breath and wonders if Keima is alright and wonders if she should go back. She gets startled by Haqua when the latter grabbed her. Haqua questions Tenri and the nature of Diana, not believing that she is from heaven and thinks Keima is covering for her reasoning that it is because he likes her. Before Tenri could say anything, Nora appeared asking what they are secretly talking about.

Tenri then listens as the two devils talked about the state of New Hell and rumors of the god who was sealed with the runaway spirits. As they talked, Nora puts her hand on Tenri's head and asked Haqua if anything changed in her district in relation to what they talked about. Haqua denies it as she steps between Nora and Tenri and soon the two devils start to argue. Keima then came breaking the tension and tells the two devils to go home while crying. When Nora left, Tenri looks over at him and sees her box that she left behind. She and Diana thanked Haqua for keeping their secret as she leaves.

Shogi Girl Arc

Keima wonders why people create a gap so easily.

When Tenri (Diana) managed to beat Nanaka in a game of shogi, Nanaka began to follow Tenri, demanding a rematch. Diana initially wants to help Keima, but after listening to Elsie's explanation of kissing, Diana refused.

Later, Keima then wonders why are humans so weak as Tenri said that everyone wants to be strive and be happy. In the end, Nanaka does win against to the goddess Diana. Even though Diana is against Keima doing these capture missions, Tenri is completely fine with it.

Hunting Break Arc 12

Tenri was sent to Dezeni Sea by Diana to go on a "date" with Keima. Sadly, when Haqua arrived, Diana got angry and this was made worse when Diana heard Keima saying she and Haqua were prideful. Diana soon had Haqua working together with her and both eventually made Keima have a date with Tenri and Haqua.

Old Conquest Arc

Tenri with wings.

Once again, Tenri/Diana serves a role during the Goddess Search Arc. Because Tenri is a host of one such goddess, she cooperates with Keima in order to protect Diana who's inside her. While Tenri seems to not know anything about these goddesses, Diana reveals much information about them, such as stating the names of her sisters.

Later on, after Keima has finally captured one of the Vintage members, Fiore, Diana arrives to see her sister that she has not seen in a long time, Vulcan. But Diana sees that Vulcan has wings, but Diana herself does not, making her question why.

Diana eventually believes that her own hatred towards Keima may have suppressed the potential of Tenri's love to empower her. Diana attempts to force Keima to kiss her and learn to like him, but she fails. Keima sees this as a chance to have Diana regain some power, apologies to Diana and promises to help her.

After Diana tells Keima that she will do her best to like him, she returns control to Tenri. To Tenri's surprise, she found herself right in front of Keima. As Tenri heads home, feeling closer to Keima, wings sprout from her back. She looks back, but they disappear. It seems she has not noticed the wings. After Diana has finished talking to Keima, she returns to Tenri's bedroom, she states that she knows why she has no wings. She lies down and turns back to Tenri, where Tenri is confused about what was said.

Tenri in her swimsuit.

Later, Diana told Keima that she loved him but wants Keima to love Tenri first while stripping herself down to a swimsuit. As Diana returns in Tenri's mind, Tenri becomes shocked of the situation then, she suddenly submerged herself in the water. Diana then switches and tells Tenri that this is a great opportunity and saw Keima in which she quickly pushes Keima away calling him a pervert and tries to get out, in which she falls, and Tenri returns. Keima then asks Tenri and Diana to leave in which Diana tells Tenri not to leave and commanded her to get Diana's wings. Diana also blamed Tenri that because of her bashfulness, Diana has fallen in love with him. Keima then approves with Diana and asks Tenri what she should do. Keima then scolds Diana. After that, Keima stays silent (thinking about Chihiro) and asked Tenri to leave.

A little while later Keima comes out and asks Tenri, to which Tenri asks (with an enlarged magic-ear) him what he said. Keima asks why and Tenri said that Keima seems depressed. Tenri then showed Keima that she still has a trick left and asks Keima to trap her in a box. Inside the box, Tenri said she loved Keima but the Keima she loved is actually the one that played games. Tenri then said that she wants Keima to return to his old lifestyle so she can see him smile again. Tenri then said that they will bring out Diana's wings together. Keima said that not a single of them will move according to his wishes, but he smiled and thanked her. Tenri said that Keima doesn't have to force himself to smile as Keima agrees and asks if she had another trick. Tenri then prepares to show him the magic wand trick.

Later at Tenri's room, Diana comments on how their only option now is to hide as Tenri kept silent. Later, Tenri whispers something about Keima to Diana, greatly shocking the latter.

Heart of Jupiter Arc

Tenri was standing by a lamp post having her breakfast and saw Keima. She blushed and greeted Keima good morning, not knowing that Keima would come out today. She asked Keima if he was going to school but her stomach growled making Keima tell her to at least finish her food.

After having her food, Tenri expressed to Keima that she's glad that Keima finally came out and said that he was trying to protect everyone so it should be alright as Keima angrily shouted saying that he's fine. Keima then told Tenri that all of the goddesses are out and he can finally return to gaming now that the hunt for the Weiss was pretty much over.

Tenri continued to follow Keima as Keima asked for how long does she intend to follow him since she goes to another school. Keima then asked Tenri how she managed to get Diana's wings out. Tenri told Keima that she told Diana of what will come next. As she was about to continue, she disappears and Keima finds himself in a parallel world.

To Tenri, Keima merely froze as she became worried and pats Keima. Keima then returns to his senses as Tenri asked what is wrong with him since he was acting strange just now. Keima then began to think what happened and told Tenri to go to her school as well as Tenri complied.

Tenri asking the rest of the goddesses to help her.

Later, when Keima was revealed that he was unconscious and that he is the source of the miasma, Tenri appeared and told them that Keima is fine. Tenri said that he was just having a dream and is probably a dream about the future of the world. The rest then asked her what does this mean as Tenri said that Keima was finally able to come "here".

Tenri the lifts Keima up a little and gave him a lap pillow before asking for the goddesses to help Keima since he is going on a journey right now. Vulcan then asked where is this journey as Tenri said that Keima is going back to the past, to Maijima ten years ago.

By the time Keima woke up, he saw the goddesses are making a magic circle and Elsie begging to see Keima. Tenri then approaches Keima, telling him that it's time for him to return to the past. Keima was shocked as Tenri said that there is something he has to do there.

Upon hearing everything, Keima believes that he is dreaming again and decides to sleep it off. Tenri then shakes Keima, asking him to listen as Keima told her that he is not Doraemon. Tenri then noticed Haqua and Nora and screamed out to Nora. She asked if Nora has the "Key" as Nora was surprised that Tenri knew about it.

Nora then took out the orb and Tenri heave a sigh of relief, saying that with that, Keima can return to the past. The orb then reacts to the spell and Tenri quickly grabbed Elsie in the circle, telling her to help Keima. Keima began to shower her with questions and got angry since altering the timeline is a huge issue.

Tenri apologized and told Keima that it is something only he can do since he has probably met a girl and he must save her so it will change everyone's future. Tenri told Keima that only he can do it as Keima and Elsie slowly transported away.

Later, Diana organized a sleepover at the Astronomy club and later it is shown that Tenri is talking with someone about Keima. She later returned to the clubroom and told everyone that they need to trust in Keima since she knows Keima will definitely be able to do it.

Abilities

Tenri does not seem to have any notable or supernatural abilities, but it is shown that she is actually very smart and observant. She is also rather good at magic tricks to the point where they even amaze Diana. She's also good at Shogi (although it's not pointed out how good she actually is because Diana is the one who defeated Keima Katsuragi and Nanaka Haibara), as shown in the Volume 9 omake. Tenri is also notably one of the few people able to see through Keima's acting.

Relationships

Keima Katsuragi

Tenri and Keima when they were young.

Being in love with him for 10 years or even longer, Tenri meets Keima once again. Though Keima does not show any attraction to her she still continues to think positively of Keima. Even though she knows that Keima has to kiss all his capture targets, she does not get angry at him. Instead, she supports him, believing that he cannot avoid this. The relationship between the two can be considered as best friends, and Tenri is not bothered by this status. But she was saddened by Diana's joke that Keima would be taken by someone else if she did not do anything. It was also shown that Keima is rather comfortable getting close to Tenri (Despite Keima dislikes being touched) though this is not vice-versa. Tenri is intimate enough with Keima to know that when the latter is making a fake smile, she can recognize it instantly. Tenri also said that she loved Keima for who he really is and always tries to support Keima.

Diana

Being the goddess that resides inside Tenri, Diana is always thinking of the best for Tenri. The two get along well, though at times, Diana becomes a bit bold with her actions or words. Because Diana is inside her, Tenri's memory was not erased by Hell when she was 'captured' during her arc. Diana can also be quite demanding and this act scares Tenri sometimes.

Nanaka Haibara

Initially, Nanaka saw Tenri as somebody who always spaces out and berates her. However, when Tenri (Diana) beats her in a game of shogi, a huge gap opened in her heart which causes Keima having to conquer Nanaka. After Nanaka's capture, it seems that both became good friends.

Haqua du Lot Herminium

Haqua initially believes that Tenri is Keima's fiancee, because of what Diana had said, and as such Haqua was jealous of her. This is later dispelled by Tenri herself, who wanted to say the truth. Overall, both seem to be good acquaintances.

Ayumi Takahara

When Tenri introduced herself to the four other goddess hosts and Ayumi, that they came together for the first time like this to summon Keima back. During that time in the whole world that became white & empty, Ayumi refuses to help the four girls and Tenri to summon Keima from the past to the present and then runs off from them. As Tenri tries to convince her to return to the goddess hosts, she then pull out the letter given by Keima 10 years ago. To Ayumi's surprise when she heard from Tenri about her name, and details etc. Then begins to read everything on why she was possessed by a loose soul and how it all started. Tenri then pulls away the last parts before finishing and reading the letter.

Ayumi then expresses herself to Tenri about how being courted was a lie that she fell in love with Keima. Tenri explains that Keima is saddened right now, Tenri expresses her heart to Ayumi, that she waited for 10 years to see Keima again. So far, not much interaction between the two knowing that they both have goddesses within them and have not been good friends with each other as of now yet to be said.

Quotes

• (To Nora Floriann Leoria) "I haven't even once...Hated him! I have...Always...Since that day, always...Liked Keima-kun..." (Chapter 64, p.11)
• (To Keima Katsuragi) ".....Do your best....Keima-kun." (Chapter 139, p.8)
• (To herself) "He didn't have to apologize...." (Chapter 139, p.9)
• (To Keima) "I...love you, Keima-kun. But the Keima-kun I love is ... the one who's always playing games." (Chapter 168, p.16)

Etymology

• The name Tenri means "heaven, sky" (天) (ten) and "reason, logic" (理) (ri), which literally means "heaven's justice" or "natural laws" or "rule of heaven".
  • Tenri comes from the Tenri Station (天理駅, Tenri-eki).
    • She is also currently the only heroine to have her given name named after a train station rather than her surname.
• Tenri's surname Ayukawa means "sweetfish" (鮎) (ayu) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa).

Trivia

Tenri and Diana's cameo.

• Tenri enjoys playing with bubble wraps and magic tricks where she thinks of Diana her close friend and Keima Katsuragi as...someone she loves although she thinks that its an unrequited love.
• A fandom shorthand of Tenri's name is "20"
• Somehow, Tenri's and Diana's Personality is like each side of a mirror.
• Tenri is the first goddess host introduced to the series but the fifth goddess host to be shown in the story.
• Tneir is the only host known that agreed for the goddess to reside in her body.
• Tenri is listed in the "Captured Girls Database" which lists out the girls Keima captured in 14 card ranks, ranging from Ace to King, Joker included. Since Tenri's conquest wasn't to remove the escaped spirits from her as Keima did to other girls, she is registered in the database as the "Joker".
• Unlike the other girls in Keima's conquest, Tenri never carried a Weiss in her heart. The one who had the Weiss was Diana which she restrained with her power and brought along with her, which is why Tenri didn't lose her memories of the "conquest".
• Tenri's father's yet to be seen, just like Keima's.
• The ending card of The World God Only Knows Season II episode 8 had an image of Tenri and Diana.
• At the end of episode 12 in The World God Only Knows II, Tenri is shown briefly with Diana reflecting in a glass pane.
• During Nanaka Haibara's omake, it is shown that, even without Diana, Tenri is good enough of a shogi player to have a fair fight against Nanaka.
• Tenri resembles the character Pigeon from Wakaki's previous manga series, Seikesshou Albatross. However, Pigeon is a villain while Tenri is one of the heroines in TWGOK.
  • In addition, Tenri's hairstyle without the ribbons is similar to Diana Barry's, a character from Anne of Green Gables.
• On Wakaki's blog a poll was placed to vote for their favorite feminine character and Tenri ended up in fifth place.