@Secuthar I actually did follow your advice and looked up grooming. Predictably, I found no data on epidemiology of it, which led me to believe it's largely another "manufactured danger" - result of paranoid people living is an extremely safe environment, and which doesn't actually occur in any meaningful capacity.
Furthermore, the definition of grooming is "befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse" Therefore, if we assume that Akira is willing to wait until whatsherface is of legal age, then by extension no child abuse will take place, and then by extension his behaviour does not meet the definition of "grooming".
Hope you'll have better luck protecting fictional characters next time.