Nino

* Nino Sprite
* Disguised
* Nino Reference

### Associates

* Five (Friend - Post-Amnesia, Forgotten - Post-Decimate, Friends - Post-Shatter)
* Ludwig (Friends - Post-Amnesia, Forgotten - Post-Decimate, Friends - Post-Shatter)
* Aria Elwyn (Friends - Post-Amnesia, Forgotten - Post-Decimate, Friends - Post-Shatter)
* Boyfriend (Friends - Post-Decimate)
* Meimona Corvus (Friends - Post-Decimate)
* Reed Lumen (Friends - Post-Shatter)
* Kaji Pyxis (Enemies - Post-Decimate, Friends - Post-Shatter)

## Special Characteristics

### Affiliations

Unknown

*You wake up in an unfamiliar place. It seems you lost your way in this dead forest. You also think you hit your head pretty hard. You can't seem to remember anything about yourself, not even your name! You're pretty sure you have a name, but it's slipping from your mind.*

*Are you going insane? Probably.*

*But nonetheless, you figure you will try to retain some of your lost sanity and remember at least a few details about yourself.*

*What was your name again?*

**Nino** is the main character, and the first character to be introduced. He is an amnesiac human boy who is a little wary of monsters. He can't recall why he woke up in the forest, or how he got to the monster world from the human world at all. His ability is Healing Hands, and he chooses to fight with a sword.

His Mastery Level is **Novice,** but changes to **Able** during the events of Stab Yourself.

His stats are 2.5 in power, 4 in mind, 2.5 in speed, and 5 in charm, which is presumably related to convincing and persuading others, whether through sneak attacks, intimidation, or misdirection.

## Appearance

Nino has short chestnut brown hair, which comes down to slightly spiky ends that poke out around the sides, and folds up to two hair intakes above his bangs. Atop his head is a single cowlick, always isolated from the rest of his hair, giving him a semi-chaotic semi-combed hairstyle overall. His eyes are blue, which he personally describes as "*very clear blue eyes, as clear as the shimmering ocean itself.*" His outfit consists of a green shirt with brown short sleeves and a brown high collar, and two belts atop it, one across his waist and one wrapped around his torso like a shoulder sash. He wears brown shorts over white tights, and brown boots covering up to his ankles. It is stated that this outfit must come from money as seen from heavenly treats dialogue in Red tulip Town and further implied through comparing Nino's clothing to other people's outfits.

His looks have been described as "positively noble" by Kaji. Kaji later elaborates that this is because Nino's outfit, especially the belts, is reminiscent of clothing seen in the capital.

## History

### Early Life

Little is known about Nino's life prior to awakening in the monster world, though the few flashbacks that are shown indicate that as a child he lived a happy life with two adult guardians with whom he liked to garden. He seems to have been a curious young boy with a social outlook on life, learning how people work and learning surface level knowledge on many things.

Then in 4526, the War of the Barrier Breach occurred, with the fifteen-year-old Nino becoming caught in the conflict. In that brief and turbulent period, it appears that Nino's guardians had died in Corona's torment, leading to him being admitted into an orphanage some time later. However, the orphanage would be very neglectful.

Three years later, an accident befell the orphanage. One of the younger children, while playing alone near the Barrier, was caught in a rift and disappeared. Days later, her brutally mutilated corpse was found, with a bloody red spade carved through her chest and the words '**Don't mess with us'** scratched into her arms. This incident would become the talk of the town, driving Nino to set out for the monster world seeking revenge, alongside an unspecified 'destiny.'

### The Monster World

One day, Nino awoke in the Forest of Illusions with no memory of who he was, where he was, or how he got there, only knowing that he came there for a purpose. Shortly afterwards he found, healed, and befriended the banished monster Five, as well as a lantern and a strange note. Journeying further, the two found a patch of golden flowers, which awakened a childhood memory of Nino's and allowed him to regain +1 remedy for his healing hands ability.

Some time later on, the duo came across Ludwig. While the wolfhound was initially hostile to the two, Nino was successfully able to calm him down and get him to tag along. Shortly after, the group encountered a disguised Aria Elwyn, who had ran into them whilst looking for Ludwig. Initially mistaking her for a monster, Nino led them all on a chase through the forest, only to be cut short by two red spears being thrown at the group, one of which they managed to dodge while Aria used her arrows to shoot the second spear out of the way in a show of solidarity.

Having proven herself to be trustworthy, Aria joined the group, disguising Nino as a monster using her ability and helping slip the two past the spear-wielding Royal Guard Kotori. However, while in the cemetery on their way to Red Tulip Town, Nino appeared to suffer a traumatic breakdown upon Aria mentioning her mother's death in the last Human-Monster War. This caused Nino to experience flashbacks to the War of the Barrier Breach, as well as visions of a voice speaking to him about his death, before he ultimately fainted.

Regaining consciousness, Nino found himself in Aria's home in Red Tulip Town.

## Personality

Nino's personality seems to shift after the events of {s} Decimate, and will likely change dramatically throughout Oceanfalls. In the time he spent in the monster world, Nino was wary of monsters and danger in the foreign unusual environment he entered, but still was open to working together with others as seen with Aria, becoming friendly enough to even want to reassure her when she's feeling upset. He was also kind to Five and repeatedly tried to ease her worries, something that seems still consistent even after {s} Decimate. In the monster world, Nino was more trusting and friendly all around to people he didn't perceive as a threat, and was willing to risk his life to defend Aria and Five when it came down to it. However, he could be oblivious to certain social cues, such as leaving Aria after talking with her, and misinterpreting her rushed exclamations of being fine with him leaving as him failing to communicate with her somehow, as well as telling her to disregard Kotori after she attempts to attack Aria. Nino also severely lacked knowledge of the world while amnesiac, assuming that the war was fought through magical means, and that his ability was supernatural in nature. During his time in the monster world, even in the face of death, Nino consistently and constantly cares deeply for others and worries for them, to the point of seemingly sacrificing his own life during the events of {s} Decimate.

After {s} Decimate, Nino lost some part of his memories of the monster world, specifically his time with Five and Aria, with his encounters with Kotori and Corona being intact. His personality takes a massive turn within the cave he awakes in. He becomes outright dismissive of other people, and only is concerned with other people at far as he could use them, and is in a serene pursuit of an unspecified destiny. From here on, he became more concerned with using others as means to an end to a slight degree, and shielding himself from the actions of others to a noticeable degree. When surrounded by other people, Nino considers what they may try to do to in relation to himself, now being less trusting. Nino does not appear to think of himself as someone other people would actually want to be friends with, as he expresses in his thoughts when Meimona says that he is her first human friend, and also seems much more vulnerable, stating the fear in himself to Boyfriend when he perceives himself as being alone. Although he's still open to working together with others, he's more wary and it takes situations like shared circumstances or common threats for him to agree to work together with Meimona, and later with Reed, though Meimona's lack of trust may be due to her being a wanted criminal with a bounty on her head as well as a thief. He stays generally skeptical of his party members to a degree, as well as the rest of the world around him, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. Nino also relies more on a logical and methodical approach in comparison to believing in magic, doubting Meimona on her explanations about winged belief, though not being completely unshakeable, as shown by him quickly adapting to this knowledge later on while considering Meimona's actions and asking Kaji questions. Nino also has some other traits of his expanded upon here, where he's more honest with others to a brutal degree, including with Five and Aria, proclaiming he lacks his memories of them. Despite his skepticism, Nino brings himself to believe in Meimona's luck, despite how illogical it feels to him. He still is the same person Pre-Decimate however, even if he lost his memories, and he becomes much more introspective after his interactions with Kaji after them making peace, while also having his old companions returning him to a state more in-line with his Pre-Decimate self. Making Nino more focused on helping others and being able to keep other people safe, though still paranoid and much more cautious, in line with his current self,

However, after the events of Stab Yourself, Nino's personality changes immensely. While Nino regains certain parts of his memories, such as how the human and monster worlds are linked, as well as gaining insight on himself when interacting with "The Phantom" changes his personality radically, and in a much more prevalent way. Most of his personality change Post Stab Yourself makes him much more focused on what he wants and his own goals, to the point where he is willing to manipulate and use those who believe in him and consider themselves his friends, though he stops at actually harming others to accomplish his goals. He also becomes much more apathetic to others and their beliefs, thinking that he alone can decide for himself the necessary course of action. Though he tends to feel certain pangs of guilt or hesitance when going through his more self-centered actions, but these are very rare. If pressed on his actions, Nino believes that his actions are beneficial to all, in self-deception. Nino's goals are much more defined to himself in this state, wanting to recollect all of his memories while also being able to finish his mission he tasked himself with in the past. Consequentially, Nino also becomes much more willful on proving his own identity to others, wanting them to see the complete him with all of his memories restored, and also becomes much more willing to use thinly-veiled threats to attain his goals. Nino's personality here, while seeming different from the other incarnations of himself, is actually quite similar. Instead of the serenity expressed after awakening within The Cave of Illusions, Nino's will seems to be marked with a grim steadfastness to finish his goals, resembling himself Pre-Amnesia, while also being much more focused on manipulating others to reach his own goals, rather than mostly focusing on accomplishing things by himself. After Stab Yourself, Nino became a combination of his Pre-Amnesia and Post-Amnesia selves, with himself before his first amnesiac episode being the more dominant side during this time.

When interacting with others, despite his honest nature, Nino can speak with a more cunning tongue to others when he deems necessary, usually doing this to avoid conflict, when he feels threatened, or when he simply wishes not to worry others. This changes Post-Stab Yourself, as Nino becomes willing to lie and manipulate others in schemes to achieve his own goals. Relatedly, Nino attempts to use diplomacy first in nearly all encounters with others, and the only time he resorted to violence first was when Kotori was attacking Aria, where he attempted to non-lethally parry Kotori's spear, though he ended up inflicting wounds which needed bandaging later on.

Nino likes asserting his position as a party leader, so far taking charge of every encounter he's been in that involved other party members. He also usually places himself as the one to directly address or taunt their opponents, such as the encounter with Corona, and later with Kaji, despite Kaji's initial criminal target being Meimona and not Nino himself.

Nino has a rather childishly rude side to him, most prominently seen in his time with Meimona, but still slightly present Pre-Decimate as well. Nino isn't difficult to offend, and doesn't let it go easily if someone says something that undermines him in his eyes, although despite it usually hard for him to forgive, its easy for him to get accustomed to or forget. Mei's frequent teasing leads the two to bicker back and forth quite a bit throughout many parts of {s} Icicle Bay Getaway, but ultimately, it is not unfriendly in nature.

Whenever Nino's memories are questioned, he feels that it is invasive and rude of the others to do so. Nino appears to want to trust himself above all else, and the revelation that his memories of the monster world are muddled unsettles him. Nino dislikes feeling "pathetic" due to his amnesia, and does not want to act needy with his party members.

Nino's personality when changing is adjusted greatly, but upon closer inspection, only exuberates certain parts of his personality while repressing other parts, meaning that Nino's willpower, kindness, ruthlessness, and other traits are only shifted when his personality is somehow changed, not entirely replaced or destroyed. In essence, Nino will always be himself.

## Relationships

### Five

Nino was initially alarmed by Five's transformed shape, but quickly realized that she wasn't a threat and took pity on the child, healing her back to an ordinary monster. Nino treated her very kindly, and promised to help find her friend and guide her to her home eventually. After the events with Corona transpired in {s} Decimate, he no longer has any memories of the time he spent with Five and Aria. Yet when the three are reunited later, Nino still responds kindly to Five's worries, and tries to reassure her when the party comes face to face with Kaji, even making sure she could get away safely before any dangerous combat starts. Five seems to trust Nino's promises very easily, much more than she does with Aria's, though she still likes both of them a lot. In the time he spent with Five, Nino was generally protective of the young monster, something that still seems to be a part of Nino as he currently is. Post-Decimate however, as with everyone else, he seems to have grown a bit more brusque with her, helped in part by the lack of his memories Pre-Decimate, and the fact that he dislikes lacking any memories of his past.

### Aria

During Aria's first meeting with Nino, she was disguised as a monster, which caused Nino to panic. It took Aria protecting Nino from Kotori's spears for him to actually listen to her words, and realize that she wasn't a threat. Aria is the first person Nino accepted as a party member, and the two were quite friendly. Nino was rather protective of Aria, and tried to convince her to let go of her attachment to Kotori after the latter's betrayal. In {s} Decimate, Nino risks his life to save Aria's without hesitation. Currently, he shows no memories of their previous meeting, and thus is somewhat wary of Aria's excitement to see him again, although he still trusts her to remain a member of his party alongside Meimona and Reed.

### Meimona

Nino's first meeting with Meimona was a little chaotic and puzzling for him. The two argued over who gets to keep Boyfriend, and Nino agreed to let her have the cat if she could help him with his amnesia. When faced by Kaji, he initially refuses working together with Mei, and tries to get away alone by using her as a scape-goat, seeing that she is a wanted criminal. However thanks to the circumstances of both being guilty of different crimes, he eventually agrees to work with the angel in order to escape their common threat. Meimona assists Nino in escaping from the Sea Patrol, and the two begin working together to find a way off of Icicle Bay and away from Kaji's watch. Nino comes to trust Meimona more than before, although the two often argue and poke fun at each another throughout their progress in Icicle Bay. Meimona becomes the third person to join Nino's party, after Aria did.

Nino struggles to fully comprehend Meimona's luck and belief power initially, but does bring himself around to believe in her later. Meimona states that it means a lot to her for someone to believe in her, and that she regards Nino as her first human friend. Nino himself is hesitant to think of her in the same way, figuring that it might be troublesome to be thought of in such a way. Nino seems to go back and forth on his mind on whether he can trust Meimona, or if he should keep her at arm's length since she might cause him to fall into more trouble, despite her good intentions. He doesn't think she's fully capable of turning on him, although he seems to stay wary of such a possibility. When the party prepares to face off against Kaji, Nino seems to trust Mei's judgement in Aria, and in her combat capabilities.

### Reed

Little is seen in the relationship between the two, as they have just met, but Reed quickly became the fourth and final person to join Nino's party after Meimona. Nino was initially alarmed by Reed's demeanor in their first meeting, but the two had an off-screen conversation where they came to understand each other's position better. Nino sees Reed as a useful source of information and a dependable new ally, and he quickly become used to Reed's blunt and rude speech. So far, the two seem to generally get along thanks to their shared circumstances, but Reed does not hesitate to call Nino out to his face when he sees fit, to Nino's annoyance.

### Kaji

Although they were initially enemies, Nino comes to understand Kaji a bit better after the events of {S} Shatter. Nino finds Kaji's decision to let him and his party members go in peace very perplexing, and states that Kaji is the type of person who makes no sense to him. Nino seems slightly sympathetic to Kaji after hearing of his repeated failures, and ends up reluctantly celebrating Kaji's first victory with a high-five. Still, Nino intends to make use of Kaji by getting any useful information out of him, regardless of Kaji's state. Also, Nino acknowledges and respects Kaji's strength in combat, even admitting that Kaji should not be underestimated. After attaining information from him, Nino’s respect and trust for Kaji grew due to their shared struggles with amnesia, and the guidance shared with him by Kaji, due to Kaji being the first person in his Post-Decimate state to make him not feel inferior due to his amnesia. This impacted Nino greatly, to the point of him trusting Kaji more easily, something that grew to be much more difficult for Nino the Post-Decimate and further on in Icicle Bay.

## Abilities and Skillset

### Special Ability

*Main Article: Healing Hands*

Nino possesses a healing-type ability known as **Healing Hands**. With it, Nino is able to heal wounds and injuries, which is limited by a number of charges per use. Additionally, Nino is able to fortify his body to gain a significant boost to speed and strength. The effects of the fortification are magnified by the severity of previously suffered injuries.

### Natural Abilities

* **Pain Tolerance**: Due to the nature of his ability, Nino tends to be difficult to incapacitate with extreme pain, such as when his head collided with a wall hard enough to crack rock in {S} Shatter.

### Skillset

* **Swordsmanship**: Nino has a standard degree of proficiency with a sword, and likely has at least two years of sword training to show for it.

### Weaponry

* **Sword**: Nino possesses a one-handed sword, similar to those wielded by the human Royal Guard. He seems to be quite confident and capable in its use. However, he does have a strange tendency to dote on it like a person on occasion.

## Etymology

**Nino** is a name of multiple origins, with both Spanish and Italian-Hebrew being the most popular.

* The Italian-Hebrew meaning of the name means "God is gracious", or "merciful". In Spanish, the name simply means young boy. An alternate meaning for Nino in Spanish is "Godfather", likely alluding to Nino's role with Five.
* In Japanese, Nino is composed of 二 (ni), meaning **"two"** or 仁 (ni) meaning **"benevolence"**, combined with 乃 (no), which is a possessive particle. Ni is also used as a variable assisting word in many sentences.

## Trivia

* Nino's birthday is on 8/11. In the story that makes him a Virgo, but in real life that would make him a Leo.
* The yellow flowers Nino finds in the Forest of Illusions are likely from seeds that fell out of human army rations over the course of the Human-Monster War.
* Nino, along with Kaji, Ruit and Suvillan are implied to have parties, Nino has already proven it with Aria, Meimona, and Reed. Kaji has the 3 members of the party consisting of the Sea Patrol, Ruit is implied to have a party of Ruit, Lune, Kaji, and Selene, while Suvillan is implied to have a party of Suvillan, Kotori, Corona, and Solis. Nino's party is associated with nothing, in contrast to the other 3 parties.
* While he seems to be not the only one checking up on other party member's descriptions and characteristics, he is the only one able to deduce stats, though not his own.
* Nino seems to exclusively know about stats and parties, and it is possible a similar ability is present in the other "main" team leaders. Aria's reaction to the party command was confusion, later Reed experienced a similar confusion when pressed on stats. This extends to the battle screen. Only encounters where Nino was present gift him with EXP, though not always and sometimes inconsistently. So far Nino has +7 diplomacy EXP.
* Nino has likely had 2-3 years of sword training, due to him not having a sword in the Barrier Breach flashback, and him having it in the orphanage flashback, implies him as a minor, and we can easily see how he was able to train in the timeline.
* Nino has knowledge on a large amount of topics, presumably from him reading and interacting with others, yet there are odd things which he knows about, such as checking for forgery on the sea pass.
* Nino seems to have a darker side to his personality when he's regaining his memories.
* Nino is ambidextrous, although he is predominantly right-handed. Interestingly, he seems to not be aware of that fact and believes himself to be right-handed.
* Nino has a glitching effect on his memories compared to other people, while this is interesting in and of itself, him being an amnesiac, this extends to the illusions he sees. Illusions, which are based upon memories, have a glitching effect for Nino's forgotten past. The reason for all of the blood and chaos from his illusions/memories is unknown, though a few theories have been made.
* Nino recognizes the smell of blood.
* Nino, unlike Aria or Meimona, has to store his ability in his inventory.
* Nino seems to be skilled at gauging people's capabilities and situations, as seen with Kaji and Corona.
* Nino is implied to be the former owner of the lantern, as evidenced by him having a firefly around him during a flashback sequence, him knowing how the lantern works at a precise time for the firefly to the point where he can easily estimate the firefly's lifespan, and him being the most plausible candidate for carrying the lantern in the forest, being a human who doesn't have a way to hide themselves against monsters and no one else making a reference to the lantern.
* Nino seems to have a special capability in predicting danger.
* There seems to have been an error with Nino's clothing as seen here, he had a hole in his shirt from Aria's arrow, yet when he used his healing hands, which had no record of anything related to clothing, he was able to repair the stitches in his shirt. The hole is seen here, having Nino's skin compared to his clothing.
* Nino being initially afraid of a party member or a companion in their first meeting, then later getting proven wrong on his assumptions, seems to be a running theme.
	+ Five's transformed state alarms Nino, before he realizes she's harmless and heals her.
	+ Nino initiates a fight encounter with Ludwig, thinking of the beast as a hostile enemy, before he realizes that Ludwig was just afraid of his sword.
	+ Aria's monster disguise scares Nino and kicks off a chase between the two in the forest, until she protects him and he realizes that Aria isn't actually a monster, but a real human.
	+ Boyfriend's rustling in the snow scares Nino, but upon discovering that it was just a winged cat, he's quickly charmed into adoring Boyfriend.
	+ Meimona's entrance includes her effortlessly lifting off a mountaintop and throwing it to the sea, shocking Nino for a good while until he learns of her abilities as a lucky winged.
	+ Reed's tone when addressing Nino in their very first conversation leads the latter to think Reed was going to hurt him, until he hears Reed's explanations and realizes his position makes for a potential ally.
	+ It even happens when he reunites with Aria, falsely perceiving it as their first meeting due to amnesia. Nino, perhaps reasonably, perceives Aria rushing towards him with a hatchet as a threat, until he hears more about her from Reed.
	+ And it also extends to himself. When dreaming, he questions himself to an extent where he believes that he lost his own memories to the point where he believes that another part of him, commonly referred to as "The Phantom" took his memories, due to him disliking what the phantom appears to be saying about himself and his friends, until he reveals to himself the true extent of his healing hands ability, FORTIFICATION.
* Nino also has a recurring motif of having a deeper part of himself recognize things even if he has no conscious recollection of them, working to great effect. This includes knowing that Five is a monster, knowing Ludwig’s name before learning it from Aria, and having seizures related to seemingly innocuous things, though the third has disappeared after awakening in Icicle Bay. This extends to when he interacts with "The Phantom" in his dreams, where he tells himself to regain his memories and focus on his supposed mission, and teaching himself to remember FORTIFICATION when he seemed hesitant to listen to his own advice
* Nino, along with Lune, Kaji, and Kotori was among one of the first Oceanfalls characters to be created, from around 2010-2011.

## References

1. ↑ https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=733
2. ↑ https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=813
3. ↑ Nino's flashback here shows Corona standing over a battlefield in a turtleneck. Since Corona only started wearing a turtleneck around her twenties and that she was the one to enable the War of the Barrier Breach to take place, this means that the flashback could only occur during that time.
4. ↑ https://oceanfalls.net/p/4955