Chapter 1

## Name

**Nanoka** is the first chapter of *MAO*, written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi.

## Summary

We meet Nanoka, a 3rd year Middle School student who lost her parents in a road cave-in accident when she was 7 years old. She lives with her grandfather and housekeeper Uozumi, who make Nanoka drink green health smoothies because she has been weak and sickly since the accident. While investigating an abandoned shopping arcade, Nanoka is suddenly transported to an open air, historical shopping street, filled with transparent people in old-style clothing. She is attacked by a monster and meets Mao, a young man with unusual healing powers, and his child companion. Mao tells Nanoka she is an *ayakashi*, meaning "demon, mysterious creature, ghost". Offended, she leaves through the shopping street entrance, and finds she has returned to her own time. Unbeknownst to Nanoka, Mao had given her an antidote while he was healing her, and the very next day, her hidden powers become manifest!

## Plot Overview

A feral creature with seven tails emerges from flames... Elsewhere, a small girl is found covered in blood and not breathing...

Fast forward to the present day...

A teenage girl called Nanoka leaves for school, bidding goodbye to her grandfather and paying respects to photos of her parents on her way out. She is stopped by her housekeeper, Uozumi, who coerces her into drinking a green smoothie for her heath. Despite the foul taste, Nanoka gulps it down, her eyes overflowing with tears.

"I have died once in my life," she tells us.

In her middle school sports class, Nanoka comes dead last in a race, with her classmates pitying her for her weak constitution and lack of athletic ability.

Later on, three girls gossip in their classroom about a deserted shopping arcade. Apparently, strange noises can be heard from there. By coincidence, it was the site of a major road cave-in accident 8 years ago, which killed Nanoka's parents. For an unknown reason, Nanoka was found outside the wreckage of the car, covered in blood and not breathing.

After school, Nanoka and her three friends decide to check out the shopping arcade - "Gogyou Shoutengai". Nanoka hears a noise from within the arcade and walks inside. However, the instant she passes through the gate, she enters an open-air street, reminiscent of historical Japan. Transparent people dressed in an odd combination of traditional kimono, Western hats and Western capes, peruse the shops and wander down the street.

This is all very unsettling for Nanoka and she turns to leave through the gate she came from. However, an injured young girl (who is not transparent) calls out to her. As Nanoka watches questioningly, the young girl's body splits open and a mantis youkai emerges! It attacks Nanoka and chases her down the street, with the transparent shoppers seemingly unaware of the chaos in front of them. As Nanoka nears the other end of the shopping street, she spots a young man with white / black hair and a sword at his hip. He has a large brown suitcase and is accompanied by a young child carrying something wrapped in a furoshiki on his back. Seeing they are not transparent, Nanoka calls to them for help. Much to her shock, the man tells her, "You can deal with it".

Suddenly, the mantis youkai swipes at Nanoka's arm and her blood spurts onto the youkai. To everyone's surprise, Nanoka's blood starts dissolving the youkai on contact. The youkai tries to flee, but the man finishes it off with one swing of his sword. His young child companion finds the shrunken and helpless mantis among the youkai remains, stating this was their original objective. Nanoka angrily asks the man why he refused to help her, but her criticism is cut short as she realizes her right hand had actually been severed by the youkai. The young boy cheerfully shows her the other half of her severed limb and Nanoka faints from shock.

She comes-to in a back alley. The young boy explains the man's name is Mao, he has somehow sewn her hand back on and it appears to have fully regained its function. Nanoka sees the young boy put the captured mantis in a large jar with ripping noises emanating from it and wonders who these people are.

Mao asks Nanoka why she didn't fight back earlier. Nanoka finds this question preposterous since she is obviously too weak to fight off a creature like that. Mao responds by saying Nanoka's blood clearly damaged the youkai. He tells her she is an ***ayakashi***, which means "demon, mysterious creature, ghost". Offended, Nanoka strides off, thinking Mao is a really weird guy. Spotting the shopping street entrance gate, she takes off towards it. Mao follows after her, believing she is a ghost from this town who can give him more information. Nanoka, exasperated, runs under the gate. When Mao passes through himself, he finds she has disappeared.

Nanoka re-emerges in her own world, at the exact time and place she had left it. Time had not passed on this side - her friends saw Nanoka walk into the shopping arcade; the next second she is disheveled and covered in dirt. Later at home, she unwraps the bandage and finds her wound has completely healed.

The next day, Nanoka drinks another green smoothie before heading to school.

Simultaneously, back in the other world, Mao is examining the shopping street gate and discovers a spiritual barrier has been erected around it. Mao's boy companion asks Mao about the pill he slipped in the *ayakashi's* mouth while trying to reattach her hand. Mao says it was an antidote, since he noted something was sealing away the girl's "power".

Back in the modern era, Nanoka is late for school and starts running along the path. To her immense surprise, she is actually hurtling down the street, passing all her classmates on bikes, in shock at how fast she is. Suddenly, horns blare as a truck is about to collide with her. Nanoka leaps into the air to avoid it - so high, she lands on the roof of a multi-storied building. She sits down in shock and pain. A close-up of her face shows her pupils are now shaped like a cat's and her teeth have become pointed.

## Characters in order of appearance

* Nanoka Kiba
* Nanoka's Grandfather
* Uozumi
* Yui
* Mao
* Otoya (not named)

## Trivia

* The buildings in the Title Page were modeled after the Ryōunkaku (凌雲閣 *Ryōunkaku*, lit. *Cloud-Surpassing Pavilion* or *Cloud-Surpassing Tower*) which was Japan's first western-style skyscraper in the Asakusa district of City of Tokyo (now Taitō, Tokyo) from 1890 until its demolition following the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923.
* The "10 day vacation" mentioned at the beginning of the chapter refers to the special ten-day holiday block from 27 April to 6 May 2019. Japan would normally celebrate Golden Week during that period, but 30 April was the day Emperor Akihito abdicated and 1st May was the day Emperor Naruhito began his reign. Thus, it was the end of the Heisei era and the beginning of the Reiwa era.
* Thus, the manga starts on Tuesday 7th May 2019.
* Nanoka and her friends are in their 3rd year of middle school, as evidenced by the sign above their classroom door. This would make them 14-15 years old.
* The name of the shopping arcade is "Gogyou Shoutengai" 五行商店街. "Gogyou" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese *wǔxíng*, or Five Phases (fire, water, wood, metal, earth), which will become a central aspect of this manga. A shoutengai is a style of Japanese commercial district, typically in the form of a market street that is closed to car traffic.
* Some of the street signs on the vintage street include: "Katou Store", "Hard candy", "Miyama - tabi and Western clothing", "Tofu Shop / Aburaage", "Tamakawa-ya / Udon".
* The right-to-left writing on the signs is known as *migi yokogaki* (右横書き, literally "right horizontal writing"). This was used from the Meiji era to pre-WWII.