Kaorui

Kaorui is the femslash ship between Kaoru Seta and Rui Yashio from the BanG Dream! fandom.

Canon
Rui and Kaoru are both high schoolers; Rui is a first-year student at Tsukinomori Girls' Academy, while Kaoru is a third-year student at Haneoka Girls' Academy. Rui is a member of the band Morfonica as a violinist, while Kaoru plays the guitar for the band Hello, Happy World! While Rui is very stoic and blunt, Kaoru is very expressive and has an extravagant personality. Their appearances are also contrasting: Rui has short, black hair and brownish-pink eyes, while Kaoru has waist-length purple hair and crimson eyes. They are also around the same height, only having a 1 cm height gap (Kaoru is 170 cm, while Rui is 169 cm tall).

Their first and only major interaction so far has been in the event "Luminary Sakura Symphony", where Morfonica members are invited by the 5 original bands to have a hanami party. In Chapter 4, Rui is shown talking to Kanon and Hagumi, though she initially muttered that she wants to talk to Roselia's Yukina (which she finally manages to do in her 3★ card story). Kaoru steps in and Hagumi briefs her on what's happening, and says she'll do everything she can to help Rui. Rui then proceeds to ask about the technical side of their practices, with Hagumi answering that they're always smiling whether performing or training. Rui tries declining that wasn't what she wanted to hear, but Kaoru corrects Hagumi by saying they also need a certain sense of fleetingness while performing, which just ends up confusing and even possibly annoying Rui a bit. The scene ends there, as it was seen from Mashiro's POV and she walks away.

The two later got a limited-time area conversation for Halloween. Kaoru ends up running into Rui, who is hanging out at the CiRCLE livehouse lobby. When she asks Rui if she is there to enjoy the Halloween celebration, Rui denies it and says that she's instead waiting for someone. Kaoru says "since we ended up meeting here on this special day" and proceeds to try Trick and Treating the younger girl. Rui declines once more, insisting she's not a child. Kaoru chuckles and calls her a humble kitten, before taking out a rose and giving it to Rui.

They later interact more in the "Burgeon in the Swaying Waves", where Kaoru invites Rui, MASKING, LAYER and Tomoe to work as servers on a ferry for a day.

Fanon
Kaorui is hugely a rarepair. This is due to their very limited interactions with each other as well as the fact that Kaoru already has a handful of other big or less popular ships. This also includes Rui, who is more paired with Nanami or Mashiro. Fans have joked about the pros of their possible interaction, including interesting rivalry or shipping, even before Rui's band Morfonica was added into the game. This includes Ran's voice actress Ayane Sakura, who joked that she was attracted to Rui's handsome beauty and that it would easily make her a worthy rival for Kaoru in terms of popularity among the female audience of the game. However, the ship also gained some boost in popularity after Craftegg released the 2021 Valentine's illustration featuring the two.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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Trivia

 * Both characters have handsome androgynous appearance and their promotion is directed towards the female audience of the franchise more than the male audience.