Mai Natsume

Mai Natsume is the main character of the manga BlazBlue: Remix Heart, its sequel Variable Heart, and two side-stories in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend. She was a classmate and friend of Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi and Makoto Nanaya during their time at the Military Academy. Mai is the vessel of the Nameless Grimoire and was for a time the host of the Intermediary Grimoire. Mai is making her debut as a playable DLC character in the console version of Centralfiction.
She was voiced by Saori Hayami in the Japanese version, and by Stephanie Sheh in the English version.
==Information==
Mai was the next heir of the Hazuki Family. One month prior to the events of Remix Heart, he somehow ended up as a girl and tried to turn back using various grimoires but without successes.
===Remix Heart===
Mai comes to school, the Military Academy for the first time on the day with the Ars Armagus assessment, claiming to have just returned from the hospital. Her assessment failed due to the grimoire used for measurement short-circuiting, but she made friends with Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi, Makoto Nanaya and her eccentric roommate Cajun Faycott.
On the same day, she comes to know about Noel's death cooking, which is said to cause whoever ate it to wander between life and death. Despite the warnings from both Makoto and Tsubaki, Mai volunteers to eat Noel's dish so she wouldn't be upset. She somehow survives and even enjoys it, calling it a godly dish, but her roommate Cajun was knocked out instantly. After bringing Cajun back to her room, she reveals that her tongue, which is super sensitive to taste, was what enabled her to eat Noel's cooking, though it prevents her from eating normal food. Listening to her story, Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto, and Cajun promises to find a way to cure her supertaster ability. They decided to throw a pajama party afterwards, but Mai fainted after looking at everyone else's naked bodies in the bath.
A few weeks later, the Torifune Festival comes. Jin Kisaragi wins as the Izanagi of the festival after a rock, paper, scissors game, causing Tsubaki to decide to join to become Izanami to be near him. Since there is no certain way to win a game of luck, Mai is asked to use her supertaster sense to read the minds of the girls in the next day's tournament by kissing them so that Cajun could deduce their thought pattern. Their plan succeeded, but Tsubaki found out afterwards. Mai apologizes to her, but Tsubaki thanks her and tells her not to do it again.
Later on, Mai was tricked by Cajun into believing that all females had to wears maid's outfit for clean up duty. Mai and her friends were then assigned by Estella Mckenzie to clean her room. As Team Remix Heart cleans up Estella's room, Mai's true identify was almost revealed when she touched Ammit Cryas. However, her former self was not shown clearly, appearing only as a black figure when she quickly pulled it onto the table without the members knowing who it was.
During the Torifune festival, she slowly started to accept her new life as a female instead of finding a way to change back into her original gender, since her previous life was only being a puppet to the heir. The next challenge for Team Remix Heart was to find the Conversion Grimoire in the desert, but Makoto got caught in an antlion pit after she saved Noel, and Mai tried to save her by using her own bra and t-shirt as a rope to pull her out. Then, suddenly, a Guardian appeared to congratulate them. As the Guardian presented the Team Remix Heart with the task of choosing between the Conversion Grimoire or the Azure Grimoire, Mai decided to choose the Conversion Grimiore instead of the Azure Grimoire, which turned out to be a fake. After they made it back to safety, Akane tells them they are at lowest rank, but Jin congratulates them, since they were the only team who brought a grimoire (the other teams brought junk, according to him), so he will give Team Remix Heart the title of MVP for the sport festival.
In the library, Mai encountered an object in the shape of a picture book. As she touched it, she got a cut in her finger. Instinctively placing it into her mouth, she tasted her blood and, due to her supertaster ability, her mind got transferred into the book-like object called the Hypnagogia Grimoire. As Mai goes through the pages, she almost manages to reach the end. However, in their desperate efforts to save her, the pages got corrupted by Team Remix Heart. Mai ended up in a blank page, where her "father" stood, but he proceeded to call her worthless because of becoming a woman, and stated he doesn't need her anymore. Shocked and heartbroken by her "father's" words, Mai started suffering because of thinking of not being needed anymore. Sometime later, she encounters her friend's future selves, and notices how they are killing each other for her sake, which makes her suffer more. Mai stopped them, and told them how she really felt about them; that they are very important to her and she loved them. Suddenly, Mai saw Tsubaki and Noel's future and true selves as Izayoi and Mu-12, respectively, until waking up and seeing everyone at her side. Mai wonders if it is okay to tell them the truth, fearing that if she does, Team Remix Heart will be broken up.
The next day, Mai starts to recall the current events, and starts wondering if her friends would still accept her, should she ever tell them the truth. Suddenly, Mai falls in a hole, dropping Noel's cooking in the process. She wakes up in the school, now having lost her memories of the school and her friends. Mai seems to start remembering her life in the Hazuki family. She started wondering if Cajun and her are lovers, unknowingly revealing her secret; luckily, however, no one believed her, thinking it might be a side effect of her amnesia. Suddenly, when she tasted her tears, she started to remember her friends' names; with this, her friends decide to help her by making her taste their tears, but Cajun refuses to cry. At night, Mai recalls when she entered the academy, and the events that happened to her. When Cajun finally cried and Mai tasted her tears, she returned back to her normal self; after being questioned by Cajun about being either a man or a woman, Mai replied to Cajun that she was a girl. Later, both are seen sleeping together.
Later, Mai and the others decide to go to the ninth level to search for the powerful Grimoire that can cure Mai's super taste. However, Team Remix Heart has to go to though a trial and figure out how use all the Grimoires they had found so far in order to pass. After they pass, the ground began to crumble, and Mai got separated from them, ending up in an unknown level, where she encounters Ragna. Mai explains she needs to find the Azure Grimoire, but didn't tell him the truth, only stating she needed it to protect her friends. When arriving the location, she was asked by two unnamed female guardians to save the First's soul from the Adsequi Grimoire. As Mai tried to save her, suddenly she tasted a flower petal, revealing that the First's lover was inside, and decided to kiss her so as to make her taste the flower. Realizing her lover was always with her, she became free and, with overflowing happiness, joined him in the afterlife. After that, she is reunited with her friends, and they go back to the academy to eat snacks. However, when Mai tasted Noel's cooking, she started to choke, and began to feel pain in her chest.
Five days later, she finally regain consciousness and no longer feels any pain, but Cajun explains to her that she has the Azure Grimoire inside of her, since she kissed the Adsegui Grimoire in order to save the First. When her friends suggest that she kiss one of them if she no longer has her super taste, she flustered and runs out of her room. As she continues to run away, she accidentally kisses Taro by mistake. However, their conservation was cut short as Mai continued to run away until she found a place to catch her breath. Her friends later managed to find her, explaining that her super taste is not cured, but evolved. She can now copy from something she has eaten/kissed to someone who she kisses, but can't use the ability she copies, thus turning herself into an Intermediary Grimoire. At the end of the day, the members of Team Remix Heart are seen bathing together. As Tsubaki hurried to warned Jin about the effect on Taro's cooking, they encounter Shiori Kirihito and Chachakaka, two assassins sent by the Hazuki family to spy on Jin. Mai suddenly have a feel she knows Shiori somewhere until she recognized the smell of poison when she was male and encounter mask Kirihito member with the same scent. She has a bad feeling that Shiori is going to assassinated Jin. When girls decided to cook porridge, Shiori recommended rare medicinal herbs, but Mai was afraid that those herbs are poisonous. She tastes Noel's medicine herb porridge to make sure that it is not poison. After she tasted it, nothing happened, but she thinks that it would take time for poison to proceed. As Team Remix Heart (except Noel) re-visit Jin and others to feed them, Mai still can't get over from her accidental kiss with Taro, the more she thinks about it, the more she flushes. After that, Team Remix Heart heard a loud explosion in Jin and other's dorm and hurried there to make sure they are alright. As they arrive, Jin, Akane, and Taro's room is covered in block of ice which was caused by Jin, who under the influence of Nox Nyctores, Yukianesa, thought that he must destroy the "Dark One". Suddenly Mai was attacked by Jin, thinking that she was Ragna. As Mai panicked, she heard a male voice that directed her to go straight ahead to the school yard, Jin followed her. There, Mai was saved by Taro from Jin's ice attacks, Noel used her Nox Nyctores, Bolverk to distract Jin, and Taro managed to bind Jin until an alchemist professor, Seifer Albar, calmed Jin with an unknown ability. Mai then realized that it is his voice she heard in her head.
The next day, after she had a conference with Taro, she was captured by Shiori and Chachakaka. After she learned their plan, she broke free and fought Chachaka. Then Mai went after Shiori, but after she saw that Shiori accidentally poisoned herself, she decided to suck out the poison. Suddenly Mai saw Shiori's childhood and she understood that how she felt is similar to her own past. Mai comforted and embraced Shiori until she let out her true feelings. The following day, Mai woke up and she saw that Shiori is sleeping with her. Mai was shocked as Shiori revealed that her objective to kill Jin hasn't changed.
During summer, Mai and her friends are eating lunch together when Makoto sees Carl Clover. She calls him to join them in devouring their lunch. Mai notices that he is part of the Elementary Division, and then Carl introduces himself to Mai, Cajun, and Shiori. When Noel offers up her cookies to him, the others immediately stopped him in his tracks, forewarning him of the catastrophe to follow; Mai quickly cheers up Noel by offering to swiftly eat them all. Carl remarks that Mai's smile and personality is akin to that as his sister, and says that he loves her. Mai suddenly remembers her father, and says that she doesn't have any siblings, but she is sure her love for her friends is the same as Carl's love for his sister. Shiori, quickly, loudly, and boldly declares that her love for Mai is million times more than what anyone else could achieve, a statement that made Mai instantly blush.
Later on, her friends are noticing that her reactions towards Taro are certainly those of a girl in love, which she quickly denies by dismissing it just as respect. She then remembers that when she was in the Hazuki family, she was forbidden to fall in love, and since she was a man, there was no way Taro would interested in her. However, her friends said it was too early to give up and then decided to set Mai on a date with Taro. Mai then prepares for her date with Taro, with her friends (except Shiori) helping her. However, the fated day, Taro didn't come at all, making her friends angry, and goes to search for him. Suddenly, Chachakaka comes and says that she was sent by Mai's father; she was sent to tell her that he doesn't need her anymore since she become a woman. Chachakaka then attacks her.
With the power of the Intemediary Grimoire, Mai can see Chachakaka's movement and dodges her blows. Chachakaka quickly surrenders, saying that she can't beat Mai even at her full power. Mai then asks if Shiori knows about her true identity. Chachakaka answers that she's doesn't know, and explains that the ones who sent Shiori to assassinate Jin were not from the Hazuki family; ironically, they were hired by the Kisaragi family, and warned Mai that there were a lot of assassins already sent besides Shiori. Mai was shocked by this fact, and realized the reason why Taro was desperate to protect Jin. Chachakaka then leaves Mai, saying she wants to take a nap, which makes Mai wonder if all Kaka are always carefree like her. Suddenly, Relius Clover and Ignis appeared before her, saying that her soul is quite intriguing. Then, he takes his leave saying that he likes to see her soul's growth. After he leaves, Mai wondered how he could tell that she was a man by just looking at her.
Afterward, Taro finally comes and apologizes to Mai because he was late. Taro notices that Mai's uniform is dirty and has some bruises, making Mai realize it herself and feel bad for her friends because their efforts from the past day had become waste. Suddenly, Taro purposely dropped himself to the ground and turned to see Mai, saying that they will match while smiling, which makes Mai blush. When she was going to answer, her friends came back and angrily asked him why he's late. She then remembers what her friends said about her feelings towards Taro, and realized she may really be in love with him, although she denied it due to being originally a male.
===BlazBlue: Variable Heart===
Mai returns in the sequel series as the main character.
===Chronophantasma===
In Chronophantasma, Noel mentioned about Mai during a conversation about their old academy days with Makoto after hearing Jin's old nickname that Taro had called him all the time, and Makoto revealed that after graduating, Mai went missing.
BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend includes two side-stories that occur a month after Mai's arrival at the Military Academy. Chronologically they take place between chapters 4 and 5 of the Remix Heart manga.
===BlazBlue: Centralfiction===
Mai returns in BlazBlue: Centralfiction. She developed an extreme hatred for Relius Clover after graduating from the academy.
==Personality==
Mai is shown to have a sheltered and timid personality. She feels insecure being around girls and is greatly embarrassed to see naked female bodies to the extent of her having to pass out. However, she appears to be a good person at heart, agreeing to eat Noel's cooking despite her warnings her friends gave her and is willing to help them if needed. After she accidentally kissed Taro, she started to feel nervous around him and showing signs of love, becoming a bit of a tsundere towards him without Taro noticing.
Unknown to her friends, when Mai was a man, she used to be more silent and aloof due to the pressure of being the next head of a Duodecim family. She stated that she had been like a puppet, living a life with only uneventful days. The change from the fake life to the new life full of radiance with team Remix Heart has caused her personality to shift, beginning to stop feeling insecure about being a girl and started to accept her new life. In later chapters she also shows more acceptance towards physical contact with her friends, only looking slightly annoyed when Noel runs into her, and even going as far as to sleep together with Cajun, in contrast to her previous behavior.
When she had amnesia, she reverted to her original personality almost entirely, still thinking she was a man. In this state, she acted very boyish, and stated that she had no friends. When her memory returns it's very clear that her mind is mostly that of a woman by this point.
Worth noting is that she refers to herself with the gender-neutral "watashi" as opposed to the masculine "boku" or "ore", even in her own thoughts. Also to note is that she uses "boku" while her memory is lost, indicating that her way of thinking indeed has become much more feminine after turning into a girl.
Carl had commented that Mai's personality is similar to his sister, Ada.
Mai dislikes being called a "grimoire".
In Variable Heart and BlazBlue: Centralfiction her design had changed. She now wears black jeans that expose some skin on her sides, a backless white collared top with red trimming, black symbols, and a big golden zipper piece, and maroon fingerless gloves that reach below her elbows. She also has some sort of red jacket.
==Appearance==
Mai is a young woman with pink eyes and aqua blue hair, tied into a waist-length pony tail by a yellow ribbon; she also has twin ahoge. Though claiming to be male, her physical body shows much femininity, with a fairly above-average large bust. She also has a small scar on her back, and she wears pink lipstick.
She wears the standard blue and white uniform of the Military, accompanied by medium length black stockings and white shoes with yellow outline.
During the sport festival, she wears her hair down with her ribbon as a hairband, and a standard P.E. uniform with a plain white T-shirt.
In her past when she was male, she had long hair tied in a ponytail in an identical manner to how she wears her hair when she's female, with the only notable difference being that she wore no ribbon. Mai wore formal clothes, as expected by a Duodecim member; examples include a white collar shirt accompanied with a white scarf, a dark vest, and black formal jeans.
==Powers and Abilities==
Mai's aptitude for Ars Armagus is unclear, as the grimoire used for assessment short-circuited when it tried to measure her abilities.
In terms of physical abilities however, she is a supertaster, who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average, though her ability far surpasses any ordinary supertaster. She claims that her tongue is so sensitive that she can even perceive the thoughts of the food when they were still alive. The thoughts of the one who made the food can also be perceived, which is why she is not only able to "survive" Noel's infamous death cooking, but also calls it a godly dish because Noel's single-mindedness in cooking only leaves her innocence within the food. After saving the First from grimoire in the tenth level, she has a surge from the Azure Grimoire inside her body after kissing the Adsequi Grimoire , which happens to have the same Azure surge. Due to that her super taste evolved into a intermediary ability meaning that she can copy someone else's abilities when she kiss someone on the lips but couldn't use the ability but transfer it to someone else. However since she accidentally kiss Taro, thus giving him the ability to cook like Noel (as Mai ate her cookie before getting sick), when Jin's group gets knockout by his cooking.
Mai is shown as being skilled at fighting with a rapier and a main gauche.
During her fight with Chachakaka and Shiori, it was revealed that Mai fights using the Kirihito family's assassination techniques.
In Chapter 22, Mai's grimoire revealed to be the "Nameless Grimoire" or "NoName". The grimoire is also responsible for change genders as the vessel has to be female. After Mai want power to protect her friends, she fused with NoName.
==Gallery==
===Images===
Mai Natsume (Chibi Strap Artwork)trasparent.png|Mai's Chronophantasma Extend Limited Edition Rubber Strap Artwork (Xbox One version)
Mai Natsume (Story Mode Artwork).png|Chronophantasma Extend
Mai Natsume (Chibi, Centralfiction).png
Mai Natsume (Magical Beat).png
2c95af6e69b5fb2f9dcc40dbc9a97335.jpg
File:Mai visual.png
==Trivia==
*She bears a striking resemblance to Dizzy from Guilty Gear.
*Mai's birthday (4/4) falls between the Japanese Girl's Day (3/3) and the former Boy's Day (5/5).
*Mai's spear, Outseal, resembles Gae Bolg, the spear of Lancer from Fate/Stay Night. Both spears are red and release red energy from their heads when their abilities are activated. In addition, Outseal's ability to change direction mid-flight and home into its target resembles Gae Bolg's ability that allows it to always pierce its target's heart.
*Sumeragi in an interview said that Mori had her design Mai's appearance, simply telling her that Mai should have a ponytail, that her appearance should be different from that of Kajun, Makoto, Noel and Tsubaki both in color and in hairstyle, and that her breasts shouldn't be bigger than Makoto's.
*Sumeragi also said that it was Mori's decision to have Mai be a boy that got transformed into a girl.
*In addition, Remix Heart was initially supposed to be 2 volumes long and ended with Mai's super taste ability having become stronger and Mai having decided to remain as a girl, but the manga proved popular enough that they extended it to 4 volumes.
*Mori has said in an interview that Mai is one of the girls with the biggest breasts in the franchise and ranked the big-breasted girls from biggest to smallest as: Litchi, Makoto, Bullet, Mai & Taokaka.
*Mori was the one that designed the new outfit that Mai uses in Variable Heart and Centralfiction. An early version of it was published in the final volume of Remix Heart.
==External links==
*Mai Natsume in BlazBlue Wiki
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