Hanakou

Hanakou is the slash ship between Hanako and Kou Minamoto from the Toilet-bound Hanako-kun fandom.

Canon
Originally, Kou held a deep dislike for Hanako, determined on exorcising him in order to receive praise from his family for carrying out their legacy. However, after the two began to get to know each other better, Kou came to the realization that Hanako was not a bad supernatural, and decided against continuing his efforts to expel him from the Near Shore. Currently, the two are depicted as good friends.

The two first meet when Kou attempts to exorcise Hanako on the school's rooftop. Teru had allowed him to take care of the seventh of the school's mysteries, and so Kou, adamant making his brother proud of him, puts his all into attempting to get rid of him. Kou manages to overpower Hanako, but is stopped from going through with the exorcism due to an intervention from Nene. Hanako quickly takes action, powering up with the help of his Hakujoudai, and seals Kou's staff, rendering it useless. Flicking Kou on the head, Hanako leans over him and says, "I win."

Soon after, Kou ventures with Hanako and Nene into the Misaki Stairs to save their trapped classmates. Kou notices how Hanako does his best to save him, Nene, and the other students from the spell, and he begins to think that Hanako could be a good supernatural.In the Young Exorcist Arc, Kou follows Hanako around during his class time to try and gather evidence that the latter won't harm the other students for his brother. Kou sees Hanako going out of his way to retrieve the students' objects that were stolen by the Mokke, and gets roped into helping Hanako retrieve a 'thing that looked important'. He dangles out of a tower window, with Kou holding his foot, when the latter accidentally lets go out of surprise. As Hanako falls, Kou shouts for him to hold on, and dashes down the stairs madly with a terrified expression. Kou, seeing Hanako lying flat on the ground apparently unconscious, tries waking him up worriedly. Hanako finally jolts awake and expresses his concern about being dead before Kou corrects him. The two blink for a moment, before dissolving into peals of laughter. Hanako hands him his red earring, and Kou realizes that the 'important thing' was actually his earring. He makes up his mind that Hanako is a good person and swears to not exorcise him—however, Hanako asks if he can justify the fact that he's killed another human being, and threatens Kou with his knife, asking if he could forgive it if he were to kill him right then. At this point, Teru, who had been watching in secret, intervenes, saying that he was right, and that Hanako would've turned on him no matter what. Kou is conflicted, wondering if he should save Hanako or not, as he was acting abnormally and Teru insists he is evil—however, after Hanako cries out to Teru that dying would only be a form of release and that his true punishment is repenting for his sins in the Near Shore, he is spurted into action. Kou forcefully stops his brother, even attempting to protect Hanako from a blade with his bare hands, saying that it's unfair to say all supernaturals are evil. Kou declares that he's going to get just as strong as his brother— and after that, then, he will decide what to do with Hanako. After he promises to make sure Hanako doesn't hurt anyone and take responsibility if he does, Teru concedes to his terms, and leaves.

The two become much closer throughout the series, as opposed to the beginning. While they do argue quite often and are frequently at each other's necks, the two do truly do care for each other, and are united through their unspoken agreement to protect Nene. Throughout the rest of the series, they remain friends, and continue working on getting rid of problematic supernaturals' powers along with Nene as a trio.

Towards the end of the Summer Lights arc, Kou walks into the bathroom to find Hanako somehow 'infected' and leering over Nene. He punches him off her angrily, asking what he was doing. Shaking Hanako, the boy looks up and says "Gimme caaandy" with a disoriented smile. Inching closer to Kou and Nene, he repeats 'candy' over and over again— even attempting to lick Kou. The blonde screams "I'M NOT CANDY!!" before taking Nene and running away.

Fanon
This is a relatively small ship within the fandom. At the beginning of the series, Hanakou was the most popular slash ship, as Kou and Hanako were the only male characters who were properly introduced and had a good friendship. However, as the story progressed, people began to opt for the more developed ships between the two—Mitsukou and Hananene, respectively, but some fans have still remained enjoying Hanakou since then.

The ship currently has a little over eighty works on AO3. It is the third most-written ship for Hanako, the second most-written ship for Kou, and the overall fourth most-written romantic ship under the Toilet-bound Hanako-kun tag.

Moments

 * When Nene asks Kou if he is looking for information on Hanako to exorcise him, he looks down with a blush and says he has stopped doing that.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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Variations

 * HanaKouNene refers to the ship between the two and Yashiro Nene
 * MitsuHanaKou refers to the ship between the two and Mitsuba Sousuke