Maiden/Story

Spoilers!*"Your greatest villain Drake shall warn you, SPOILERS AHEAD!"*The following article or section contain **spoilers!** Viewer discretion is advised.

Overview**Story**VoicelinesGallery

## Behind the Scenes

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Min-ah

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Jenny Yokobori

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Yui Horie

## Profile

The leader of Extrinsic, Elysion's black ops squad for locating and eliminating Irregular Nikkes before they cause (further) harm to the Ark and its citizens. To that end, Maiden has the ability to hypnotize Nikkes using code imbedded into her words, referred to as "kotodama". This ability is kept in check by the mask Maiden wears, which can only be removed with express permission from Ingrid. While Maiden herself doesn't mind keeping the mask on, it does lead to inconvenience like being unable to drink from a straw.

Compared to her...colorful...coworker Guillotine, Maiden can more easily hold a normal conversation. For a given definition of normal. Maiden often laments how the sensitive nature of her work and the hours she holds means her social life is nigh-nonexistent, wishing she could just blow it off and eat snacks on the sofa.

### Nikke Backstory

A Nikke from Extrinsic who dresses to impress. Underneath her mask lies a shocking secret.

### Twitter Profile

Leader of the NIKKE Execution Squad, Extrinsic. Her intimidating combat acumen ensures that no one crosses her. However, she is actually a couch potato.

## Story

### Main Story

#### Chapter 12

Before the corrupted Laplace can commit suicide, Maiden's command to "Stop" thrums in the air, freezing both Matis' leader and all other Nikkes in place. After having Guillotine deactivate Laplace's cannon, Maiden cuts her subordinate short from another chuuni-filled monologue. Extrinsic withdraws as Maiden commands time to "Resume" once more for Counters and Absolute, who incapacitate Laplace with suppression rounds.

### Event Story

#### Miracle Snow

Maiden is at the mall during the Outpost's Christmas festivities, bemoaning how she cannot participate at the Final Quest PVP event due to not bringing her controller. A nearby Rupee and N102 notice her sorrow, and decide to help her despite reservations from the protagonist. They even get her a special limited-edition holiday controller, though Maiden loses the event to Exia because she didn't want to ruin her new controller by pushing the buttons too hard. But the lengths the trio went to help Maiden touch her heart, and she wishes them a Merry Christmas as she walks away, new controller in hand.

### Character Story

*Canonically set before the events of Miracle Snow*

#### Episode 1 - Under the Mask

The investigation into the "Killer Nikke" who murdered five citizens has encountered some difficulties. Though the Central Government and A.C.P.U. are certain the case will be solved eventually, the denizens of the Ark are becoming restless.

Seeing as the line to the supermarket is exceedingly long, the commander figures he won't be able to shop today and decides to return to his room. Unfortunately, the city is very lively tonight so he has to cut through an alley to make any progress. Despite it being cold and dreary, he is determined to get home. He tries to quicken his pace, but is intercepted by a Nikke making erratic movements. As she lurches towards him, he notices drops of blood on her fingers and mouth and she moves faster towards him after he becomes defensive. Before he could flee, the Nikke manages to pass him and blocks his exit. The two then hear the word [stop] and the two of them and even time itself froze in place. After hearing the word [sleep], the Nikke falls to the ground unconscious. These odd occurrences were caused by Maiden using her "kotodama." She then proceeds to threaten him to not reveal her involvement or else everyone he cares about will be in serious danger. Only upon realizing who she rescued did things grow awkward between them. Wanting to talk, the two went to a café for some drinks.

Maiden wants to take a sip of her drink, but her mask is in the way. To compensate for that, she tries to fit the straw underneath the folds of her mask. This sort of works, but now her drink is running down her chin. He suggests that taking it off will make drinking easier, but she reminds the protagonist that she cannot remove her mask unless she is authorized to. She admits she would be fine with doing so so long as no one knows about it, but still feels she is unable to with him around. With the mood dour because of Maiden's dilemma, the protagonist thanks her for her help. She felt she just did her job. Now that the mood was even darker, she tells him she finds him weird since he is one of the few people who isn't scared of her because of her powers and even thanked her and bought her a drink she couldn't ingest. Maiden thought this was counseling, but he just wanted to show his appreciation. His sincerity causes her to cry and after inquiring as to why, she reveals that she and Guillotine are members of Extrinsic and are part of a secret squad tasked with eliminating irregular Nikkes. Because of her secretive nature, Maiden has never been praised before and her emotions got the best of her. After the commander helps her wipe her tears, she tells him she loves him but before she could clarify what she means, she receives a call from Ingrid asking why she hasn't returned from her completed mission yet. Maiden believes she found her "Mr. Right" and wants to spend some alone time with him, but after being threatened by her boss with having her salary cut, she agrees to head back. Though Maiden has to abruptly leave, the two agree to speak to each other again.

After his latest near-death experience, the protagonist wants to show more gratitude to his savior. After taking a nice hot shower to relax, he receives a message from someone calling themselves "Black Rose" sharing they are watching him since they know he just got out of the shower.

#### Episode 2 - Black Rose

The commander plans to relax for the day after organizing some files. While doing the latter, he gets a message from Black Rose informing him of an error he made. He tries to get answers from them, but they appear evasive to his questioning. He threatens to blacklist them, but they share they that have access to multiple phones. Since they have a job to do currently, they stop texting for the moment.

The following day, the protagonist intends on taking a break after the renovations are finished. As if on cue, his mysterious texter has another message for him. After sharing they are spying on him through cracks in the ceiling, he deduces Maiden is the one who is contacting him and asks her why they can't talk to each other face to face. After understanding what he wants of her, Maiden appears in an instant. She thought he would be surprised to see her, but he figured something like this would happen. He can tell she wants to talk to him about something from her constant snooping and texts, but after stating she just wanted to see him, she shares she got the idea to do this from her teammate as a way to say things she isn't comfortable with in person. The commander promises to listen to her concerns so Maiden expresses she wants to make friends and find a place of belonging. Despite being in a squad with Guillotine, the two aren't really close by any means. She has tried to befriend others in the past, but her mask and outfit freak people out. He suggests changing her clothes, but she interpreted this as him wanting to watch her change, something she had no issues with. Since he is surrounded by others and flirts with Nikkes constantly, she was hoping he could help her build comradery with his friends, something he was willing to do. As to her personal preferences, Maiden wants to join a group with a few members that doesn't perform many activities, allows her to be anonymous, and would accept a weirdo like her. Fortunately for her, he knows a way Maiden can make friends given her parameters.

His suggestion was to get her to join an online multiplayer game called "Final Quest," something she had never heard of before.

#### Episode 3 - Black Rose

Maiden is worried about meeting friends by playing a video game, but the protagonist chose this since it meets all of her criteria. Despite not being real life, this will allow her to interact with people in a manner she feels comfortable with. To ease her anxieties even more, he agrees to play with her. She is now willing to give it a shot.

Three days later, the two have been invited to a group chat and have formed a team with several players. Maiden, now going by her username "Black Rose," is having trouble adjusting to her role as a tank. Her teammates, consisting of users calling themselves Healing Wind, Jump Master, and Gunner Needs Buffs, understand how she feels as they also made mistakes while playing and are willing to show her the ropes. She thinks they are nice people.

After two more weeks of playing, the team has grown a lot in terms of strength and their bond. The group strategizes how to take on a raid boss and they suggest Black Rose should cover them since she has high defenses. She herself has made a lot of progress and is surprised to be relied on so heavily.

Two more weeks pass and Maiden has become confident enough to speak to her new friends through voice chat. She is ready to aid them in a siege and after she admits to being a girl, they cheer extremely loudly. The protagonist informs her they are very happy right now.

Following another two weeks, she has become fully integrated into the game having resided in the commander's room for a while now. The group was ready to wage war against a rival guild with her ready to lead the charge.

After another two weeks, Maiden has been playing the game for 13 hours straight and the floor around where she is laying on is covered in cookie crumbs and online guides she printed off. She has spent so much time on the game that she and the commander can no longer play together because of the level gap between them. After asking him to hand her a bag of potato chips, he gets a call from Ingrid asking to know where Maiden is. After assuring her she is fine, she also shares that since things have been peaceful lately, she has no missions to take care of. Seeing that Maiden is happy for once, she decides the best thing to do now is to let her enjoy herself.

After a while longer, the Counters, Anis in particular, are fed up with the mess Maiden has made and want her to clean up. Since Anis in particular is having issues with it, Neon can tell she's serious. Maiden considers herself a guest so she shouldn't have to clean up her own mess, but she informs her that she's been here playing her game for over a month now. Anis continued to insult her until she thought she went too far only to learn Maiden ignored her to watch a cutscene. While Anis tries to kick Maiden out, she receives an invitation to join her new friends in real life for a party where she's allowed to cosplay her character. She is ecstatic to finally meet her friends in person and Anis is glad she will finally leave.

The following night, Maiden was ready to go to the party. She asks the protagonist if he wants to join her, but he declines since these are her friends. She is glad to find a place she belongs and can't thank him enough for helping her. Before she could depart however, she receives a call from Ingrid informing her of her next job.

#### Episode 4 - Adventurer's Party

Following her call, the two go to see Ingrid to hear Maiden's mission. An irregular Nikke caused chaos on Royal Road about ten minutes ago. She was moving in the direction of a Mass-producing Nikke production facility. Since there are around 200 Nikkes are inside and there are high-class personnel to worry about, an accident is likely to happen. Since the target looks like the other Nikkes, telling her apart will be difficult. While trying to explain to her her assignment is to find and immobilize the target, Maiden can only think about how long she has to wait until she has to meet up with her friends. The commander explains to Ingrid about Maiden's plans. Willing to accommodate her situation, she agrees that completing this mission quickly would be crucial. As to why Guillotine wasn't called to handle things, she also had a prior commitment to attend to. The only difference between them was that she told her beforehand and cut her off afterwards. Since the target is deaf, Ingrid wants him to join her for support and his strategic insight.

While the two look for the irregular Nikke, Maiden becomes anxious about both missing the party and about dealing with an enemy that is immune to her kotodama. She explains she has the power to hypnotize Nikkes through the hidden codes in her words. Since this is useless in this situation, she worries she will be both blamed for not apprehending the rogue Nikke and for flaking on her appointment. Despite her defeatist mindset, the protagonist has a plan.

The two head to the radio room and discover it full of CCTV footage. She believes his plan is to broadcast her voice to force their target to reveal herself, but after he reminds her the problem they face is similar to the siege they beat before in the game, she knows what she has to do. After getting the approval from Ingrid to remove her mask, she issues the command [stop] through the microphone causing everything and everyone to stop, aside from the irregular Nikke. Their target is caught on camera trying to flee from the confusion so Maiden bursts into action and apprehends her.

An hour after their success, Ingrid was impressed by their tactical solution. She had doubts about Extrinsic's strategic planning abilities, but was glad to be proven wrong. Despite achieving her objective, all Maiden wanted to do was to meet with her friends. After realizing why she looked so down, the two allowed her to go meet them even though she's already late with Ingrid offering to personally escort her there quickly. Though she worries everyone has left by now, she agrees to go after the two give her some hope.

Once at the meeting spot, Maiden is devastated to see no one around. The commander wants to make sure that they aren't still here. Though she had given up by this point, her teammates appear all at once in full uniform, all impressed by her costume. Maiden is glad to finally meet the people who she has bonded with for so long, and the protagonist feels like he's witnessing a real life version of the four interacting in the video game. None are mad at her for being late and offer to buy her food since they already ate. As the four head to a nearby café for some drinks and to chat, she looks longingly at her commander who just tells her to have fun. After thanking him one last time, he watches as they leave, truly looking like adventurers entering a pub in a fantasy world to relax after a hard fought struggle. This is despite the costumes they are wearing and not solely because of it.

#### Episode 5 - Our Relationship

After a long afternoon, the protagonist takes a shower and lies on his bed. Since Maiden is with her friends, things are quiet since she's not typing on a keyboard or eating some cookies. It is also dark out considering the lights from both the bathroom and computer monitor are usually on. In a good mood, he was ready to have some good night's sleep when he received a message from Maiden. She wants to know how he would describe their relationship and got the idea to ask him because her friends were curious about the two of them. He allows her to answer that as she pleases. Before he can nod off again, Maiden asks him if she could drink some alcohol since she has some trouble stomaching it, something he is fine with. With all of her concerns dealt with, the commander can finally get some sleep.

The next morning, he wakes up only to discover it's still dark out. He is then greeted by Maiden to his surprise who has been waiting for him to awaken. She's been here for about two hours now and in between sitting on the floor, she has been playing with her friends. She wants him to sign a document while suspiciously covering its title. He has no idea what she wants him to sign and refuses unless he has more information. She relents by sharing that her friends were curious about their relationship to each other and she told them the two were engaged to be wed soon. While the protagonist was not happy she lied to them, since the two have "lived" with and do everything together now, she doesn't know how to describe it otherwise. He compares the two of them as either a symbiotic or parasitic relationship, neither metaphor she understands. She also informed him the two were invited to a couples party the group was hosting since they are all married as well and she agreed to go on his behalf. Since she didn't know what to do, Maiden wants the two of them to get wed right away and he can tell the paper she wants him to sign is a marriage application. While she knows he isn't exactly thrilled to now be in a situation to act as her soon to be husband, she's now afraid of what will happen if her friends knew she lied to them.

The two agree to have a fake marriage and she wants to practice couples activities right away. She wants to try kissing first but when she leans towards him, they are instantly reminded that Maiden still has her mask on and they bang their faces against each other. In order to fix this, she calls up Ingrid to allow her take it off so they can smooch, a request she remains silent on for a bit but ultimately allows. Now fully ready, the two truly kiss despite the commander's reservations.

After locking lips for the first time, the protagonist was left dizzy for a while. After uttering some strange noises, Maiden realized the wine she drank wasn't getting along with her digestive system and rushed to the bathroom. He decides to give her some privacy and after she apologizes and promises to clean up her mess, he tells her to take things slowly.

Despite not feeling her best at the moment, Maiden cannot truly thank her commander enough for all he has done for her.

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