Ayako Kouchi

Ayako Kouchi (河内 亜也子) is the minor character of Hyouka. She is a second-year student of the Kamiyama High School and a member of the school's Manga Club.

Appearance
Ayako has slightly spiked brown and she is roughly the same height as Eru Chitanda. Her hair is short, slightly spiked and a "coffee" brown color. Her eyes are teal in color.

Aside from cosplaying, Ayako is only seen in her Kamiyama High School uniform.

Personality
Although she is overall friendly, Ayako is also frequently sarcastic and is quite smug at times.

Plot
Ayako argues that there's no point in writing manga reviews, and opinions defer from reader to reader. Mayaka Ibara disagrees, and tells her about a manga sold at the previous year's culture festival called "A Corpse by Evening". Ayako claims to have never heard of it, and Mayaka says she'll bring it the next day. Mayaka is unable to find the manga, but Ayako doesn't seem to be upset anymore and just asks Mayaka to help with making posters. While Mayaka is being picked on by the other Manga Club members, Ayako tells them to stop while scowling at them. When Mayaka brought "A Corpse by Evening" that she borrowed from Houtarou Oreki to Ayako, it was revealed that she read it before but stop halfway because she doesn't want to admit it is truly a masterpiece written by her friend, Haruna Anjou, who was never interested in manga and yet was able to make a masterpiece which made her, who is a manga enthusiast and author, feel inferior to her talent. So, she put the manga in the deepest part of her closet so that she could say there were no such things as masterpieces. After she left, Mayaka saw Ayako's drawing in the metal fence nearby which is similar to a drawing in a manga titled "Body Talk" which Mayaka claimed previously to be on a lower level than "A Corpse by Evening". And from that, Mayaka realized that Ayako was the author of "Body Talk" and she cried once she realized and fully understand Ayako's feeling.

Shouko Yuasa
Shouko and Ayako close friends, judging how they call each other by their first names and how much Shōko trusts her.

Haruna Anjou
Ayako and Haruna were friends before Haruna's transfer.

Etymology

 * The name Ayako means "second, Asia" (亜) (a), "to be, also" (也) (ya) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Ayako's surname Kouchi means "river, stream" (河) (ko) and "inside, within" (内) (uchi).

Trivia

 * During the Kanya Festival, Ayako has cosplayed three characters from video games which are:
 * Nakoruru from the Samurai Shodown series
 * King from the Art of Fighting series
 * Mai Shiranui from the Fatal Fury series

Concept Art
Аяко Коти Ayako Kouchi