Aria Vol. 10

At the start of winter, Akira and Athena visit Aria Company to give Alicia a birthday present, but the latter is too busy with customers. Akari asks Akira if she will supervise her gondola practice, and after searching for Alicia for a few hours, they finally meet her and give her the present. After Alice tells Akari, Aika, and Athena that she is too grown up to believe in La Befana (the Italian equivalent of Santa Claus), they dress up as La Befana and her helpers for Epiphany and give Alice a night as a Bubble Princess. Athena tells Alice that as an adult, you can make anything enjoyable if you put your heart into it. When Akari works on the traghetto ferry for the first time, she learns one of the three Singles she's teamed with, Anzu, recently failed her Prima exam again. At the end of the day, the three praise Akari's rowing ability, and when Anzu says that she keeps taking the exam force herself to improve, she inspires the others to work hard towards taking the exam themselves. On New Years Eve, when Akari describes the four seasons of Aqua to her pen pal, Alicia describes Akari as pure white and so able to reflect the entire palette of the world. When Alice learns that Alicia has never scolded Akari, she stalks Alicia to find out why. After a week, she asks Alicia directly, who says she believes that criticizing people makes them fear mistakes, and so she prefers encouragement over correction. When Akatsuki finds Akari watching her horoscope on a public television, she explains she uses horoscopes as a way of looking at her day differently.