Saya Irino

Saya Irino (納野サヤ Irino Saya) is a character in the 2012 Black★Rock Shooter anime. Her "other self" is heavily implied to be Black★Gold Saw.

Appearance
Saya is a black-haired individual with brown eyes. and has a mole on her face. Official art depicts her with casual clothing, wearing a pink and brown jacket with an armlet of sorts in her left arm. As well, she wears blue leggings.

Personality
She is calm and gentle, and is generally the go-to person to talk about problems. She is also fond of coffee.

However, she seems to have a strange darker side. At one point, she imitated Yomi Takanashi's behavior in private. When Arata Kohata goes to her after her public shaming in the eyes of the school, she only stares at her flatly, tears trickling down her cheeks, and talks about her being the laughingstock of the school rather than comfort her. She also openly defies Yomi's request for coffee with sugar, giving it to her black instead. Later, she told Yomi that no-one needs Yomi anymore, but then acted like she said nothing.

She also seems to be aware of something more than simply the real world, as Mato and Yomi's names are circled in her student list, and when Black★Rock Shooter beheads the mysterious hooded figure that has a similarity to Arata, she senses it. She also seems to sense Yomi/Dead Master's breakdown in both the real world and Otherworld, calling it a success.

History
She is the middle school counselor at Mato's school, running "Dawn Counseling" at the consultation room.

Mato runs into her on the first day of school, and she tells Mato to come over anytime she has problems. When Mato finally does show up to talk about her discomfort about her situation with Yomi, she advises Mato that she will inevitably make enemies as it's a part of life, and that there is someone out there who will take her heart's pain for her.

A few days later, Mato comes back to tell her about her strange dream that she had involving two mysterious girls and a call for help. Saya tells her that dreams are sometimes a way for friends to tell each other things that can't be said in words, and that Yomi might be telling her something.

The next time she is seen, she is watching a dejected Yomi in front of her room, and asks if she wants to go in. Yomi refuses kindly and runs off. While in her room, Saya imitates Yomi's refusal and pulls out a list of students and looks at the page with Yomi and Mato's pictures, both of which have their names circled. Arata later comes in to meet her after being publicly shamed by the school, telling her that she shouldn't do things she's not good at. However, instead of comforting her, Saya only looks at her with a blank expression, some tears trickling down her face and her eyes strangely wide. She tells her that it's okay to cry if it hurts, that she's being strong by acting like this when the whole school is laughing about her, that she's the laughingstock of the school. When Yomi is walking home, thinking about her situation, Saya looks at her from the window and calls to her, inviting her in for coffee. Yomi obliges and, when Saya asks her if she wants sugar, she asks for coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar in it. Saya gives her coffee, and Yomi drinks it, saying it is bitter, and Saya tells her she gave her black coffee.

Suddenly, in the Otherworld, Black★Rock Shooter beheads one of the hooded figures that resembles Arata, and Saya noticeably senses it, her face reverting to the blank state that it was in before and tears tricking down her face again.

When Yomi goes to Saya for help due to both Mato and Kagari distancing themselves from her, Saya simply says that no-one needs Yomi, upsetting her, but then pretends she said nothing. This statement causes Yomi to steadily break down as she believes Mato and Kagari no longer care about her, affecting Dead Master as well. When Yomi and Dead Master finally break down completely, Saya seems to sense it and simply utters, "Success".

Trivia

 * Her "other self" is heavily implied to be Black★Gold Saw. Some support for this theory includes that Black★Gold Saw seems to have a lot of control over the Otherworld, which would fit the correlation between the Otherworld and emotions and Saya's role as a middle school counselor.
 * It is also possible that she has a hidden agenda for "provoking" the students, when in fact she is supposed to console them.
 * She states to Mato that she actually hates coffee.
 * There could be the potential that she has muderous intent against Mato, as she nearly attempted to strangle her while the latter wanted advice on saving Yomi.