Taeko Sugawara

Taeko Sugawara is a character from the "Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest" series.

She is one of the students from Japan who got involved in the Summoning Incident, and ended up in Tortus along with her other classmates. She is friends with Yuka Sonobe & Nana Miyazaki, and is currently part of "Aiko-chan's bodyguards" meant to protect her from danger of any kind including the honey-traps of the Kingdom.

Appearance
Taeko is a young woman with wavy auburn hair that is styled into twin-tails, brown eyes and a mole on the left side of her chin.

Personality
At first glance, Taeko appears as a calm individual, but she is very diligent. She would often mediate between her two friends Nana, who has a tendency to get too high-spirited, and Yuka, who is unable to be honest at times. Taeko develops some sadistic tendencies as a result of her vocation as "Whip Master".

Taeko hates anything related to horror.

Biography
During her second year of high school, Taeko and her entire class was summoned to Tortus by the god Ehit in order to help humanity's war against the demons. She and her classmates trained in the Great Orcus Labyrinth by fighting the Monster that dwelled inside it until they were strong enough to fight the demons. When Taeko's classmate Hajime Nagumo was believed to have been killed in the labyrinth, she and many of the students became too traumatized to resume their training and confined themselves to the Heiligh Kingdom's palace.

When Taeko and some of the students were trying to figure out what to do from now on, Nia, one of the palace maids, tried to comfort them with a brief comment. Taeko's classmate Atsushi thought Nia was calling them cowards and started yelling at her, but soon apologized after Noboru and Akito criticized him for his attitude. The topic soon changed to their teacher Aiko and her kingdom-wide tour in order to aid with their crops due to her job as "Farmer". Taeko's friend Yuka Sonobe decided to accompany Aiko in order to do some good for the people of Tortus. This inspired several other students, including Taeko, to go with her to help Aiko as well.

Taeko and the other students accompanied Aiko as her bodyguards to protect her from any danger, including the advances made by the templar knights from the Holy Church that were escorting her as well. After visiting several villages, they made their way to the lakeshore town Ur. It was then that another of Aiko's students, Yukitoshi Shimizu, disappeared without a trace. One night, Aiko and her escorts were having dinner at the Water Sprite Inn and learned from the innkeeper that an increase in monster activity in the northern mountains prevented Ur from obtaining the spices needed for their dishes, and Adventurer's Guild sent a party of adventurers to investigates, but had never return. As a result, a new party was sent to find the missing adventurers as the request of branch chief Ilwa Chang. It was then that they discovered that they rescue party was actually Hajime after overhearing him talk with his companions Yue and Shea. Taeko and the others where shocked to see that they classmate they thought had died was still alive. During dinner, they grew even more shocked over how much Hajime had changed since they last saw him. They were especially scared after Hajime injured David, one of the templar knights, while he was harassing Shea due to his discrimination to beastmen, and had followed up by threatening to kill his classmates if they made him his enemy. Taeko noted how Hajime had become a lot more wilder than before.

Taeko, Aiko, and the rest of the students met up with Hajime the next morning and convinced him to let them accompany him to they mountains in their effort to find Yukitoshi. Hajime reluctantly agreed and drove everyone to the mountains is his hummer "Brise". After a full day of exploring, Hajime and the other found one of the missing adventures Will Cudeta, who was unconscious behind a waterfall. They learned from Will that a black dragon killed they rest of his party. It was then that the dragon appeared and began to attack everyone, which prompted Hajime to fight it. Taeko tried to help Hajime, but her attacks had no effect on the dragon. Hajime and his companions eventually beat the dragon into submission and he proceeded to finish it off by driving one of his pile bunkers stakes up its ass. That caused the dragon to scream in pain while speaking using a form of telepathy. It was revealed that the dragon was sentient and was actually a member of the dragonman species named Tio Klarus. She explained that a young man in black took control of her mind and ordered her to attack anyone in the mountains while he was gathering an army of Monster in preparation to attack Ur. Taeko and the others returned back to Ur and managed to help evacuate the townspeople, while Hajime was preparing to fight the approaching monster army after Aiko convinced him to help. Everyone could only watch in awe as Hajime and his party effortlessly obliterated an army of 60,000 Monster. Hajime managed to capture the person responsible for assembling the monster army, who turned out to be Yukitoshi, much to everyone's horror. Yukitoshi revealed that he had been in contact with a demon that wanted him to destroy Ur and kill Aiko in exchange for being treated like a hero among the demons. Hajime soon killed Yukitoshi after the later was mortally wounded by his demon co-conspirator and once again left his classmates. Taeko spent that night with Yuka and Nana while they were talking about how much Hajime had changed from how they first knew him back on Earth.

Taeko and the others eventually returned to the Heiligh Kingdom capital and learned that Hajime rescued the hero's party after his time in Ur. One night, the kingdom was suddenly invaded by and army of demons and Monster. As Taeko and the others were prepared to fight, they were ambushed by many of the kingdom's knights. It was then revealed that they were under the control of Eri Nakamura by using her necromancy magic on them after she had killed them. They were eventually free and the kingdom had been saved after Hajime had arrived.

After Eri's betrayal and Hiyama's death, Hajime, his companions, Liliana and Kouki's team traveled to the Great Labyrinths while Taeko and the rest of the student stayed behind and protecting the Heiligh Kingdom until they were captured and taken to Garland by Ehit's Apostles to be use as hostages against Hajime. Taeko and the others were freed by Hajime after the latter killed Alva.

Relationships

 * Yuka Sonobe - One of Taeko's closest friends.
 * Nana Miyazaki - One of Taeko's closet friends.
 * Aiko Hatayama - Taeko is part of Aiko escort while she travels throughout the kingdom to aid the growth of their crops. She helps in protecting Aiko from the advances from the templar knight guards that accompanies her.
 * Hajime Nagumo - It is unknown how Taeko initially felt about Hajime before they were summoned. After reuniting with him at Ur, she is shocked that he is alive but changed so much. She acknowledge Hajime's new look to be wild. Like most of her classmates, she takes Hajime's warning seriously as she is terrified of him when she chose to not anger him or harm his lovers after he murdered Daisuke Hiyama in cold blood. Hajime's new personality caused Taeko to become slightly attracted to him. Unlike Kouki, Taeko doesn't condemn Hajime for murdering Hiyama as she chose to never forgive the latter for what she has done. Hajime later enlightened Taeko and their entire classmates that his fall was never an accident, causing her and everyone else to lose what's little sympathy they had left for Hiyama and completely written him off as a self-deluded traitor.
 * Allen Parker - Taeko meets Allen when the two of them are involved in an attack from demon-worshiping cultists on Earth. She is attracted to him and asks Myu to give him her phone number during Christmas.
 * Tio Klarus - Taeko shares everyone's opinions of Tio being a pervert.

Weapons & Equipment

 * Whip - Her primary weapon. It is retractable and can generate electricity.

Physical Abilities

 * Enhanced Physical Abilities - After being summoned to Tortus as one of Ehit's heroes, Taeko was blessed with superhuman physical abilities. She was especially blessed with great dexterity and agility allowing her to dodge attacks nimbly.
 * Master Whipman - Due to her job as a Whip Master, Taeko is skilled in wielding all sorts of string like objects especially whips. She is capable of of swinging her whip at speed that surpasses the speed of sound, as her whip can leave behind afterimages. She can also manipulate the shape of the string that is in mid air.

Skills

 * Whip Art - A skill that increase efficiency in using a whip and other string-like weapons.
 * Language Comprehension - A base skill granted to all those who got summoned. It gives the user the ability to understand any language and be proficient in it.

Spells/Attacks

 * Lightning Snake

Etymology

 * The name "Taeko" means "exquisite, strange, queer, mystery, miracle, excellent, delicate, charming" (妙) and "child" (子).
 * Taeko's surname "Sugawara" means "sedge" (菅) and "field, plain" (原).

Trivia

 * Ryo Shirakome based Taeko off of Akane Satō from .
 * Taeko apparently inherited her sadistic traits from her mother.
 * In the Manga, Taeko was not among the students that travel with Aiko throughout Tortus.
 * Taeko's English voice actress Brittany Lauda is currently married to Hajime Nagumo's English voice actor.