Misuzu Jinno

**Misuzu Jinno** (神野 美鈴, *Jinno Misuzu*) is a major character and former antagonist in *The Island of Giant Insects*.

## Appearance

Misuzu is an attractive young woman with thigh-length copper-red hair that matches her eyes and a generous bust.

She wears a short white coat, a black half tank top, jean short shorts with a black belt, and black knee high boots, as well as (in the anime only) a necklace consisting of three rubies.

After being attacked by the giant portunus trituberculatus', she loses her jacket. In a few frames of the first chapter, she has a necklace with a single ruby.

## Personality

Misuzu has an arrogant and selfish personality who likes to bully and humiliate people she dislikes, such as Mutsumi Oribe, and kept teasing Mutsumi further for her obsession with insects even though this very obsession is of vital value for the survival of the lost students in Little East Island. She also refused to aid in the rescue of Chitose Naruse after she was kidnapped by a giant ammophila, and preferred to abandon her to die rather than risking her own life in such a dangerous mission. She only agreed to participate later in order to retrieve Chitose's cell phone which would be of use for the group (and therefore, herself). Possessing a lascivious attitude, she uses her looks and guile to entice others.

She is redeemed in her final act before the coast guard ship explodes and the giant centipede kills her she uses a fire axe to release the lifeboat the survivors escape the first island on.

## Background

Not much is known about Misuzu's past except that she was a 2nd year Houshou Private High School student and a bully, with Mutsumi and Mami Miura being her most notable victims. She would use her body to get whatever she wanted, most notably when she had sex with a teacher to be exempt from an upcoming test, which Chitose spotted, creating animosity between the girls.

## Chronology

After washing up on Little East Island after the plane crash, Misuzu met up with Chitose, Atsushi Kamijo, Kazuhiko Kai, Mami, Miki Shirakawa, Satoshi Oda, Hiroshi Tsuge, and Ai Ino.

After Kazuhiko and Hiroshi broke open a vending machine and handed out drinks to the group, Misuzu made Mami sit next to her while they drank. She told the boys to look for food in exchange for looking at her underwear, an offer which was immediately shot down; she then threatened Mami in agreeing to show her underwear in exchange, which worked. Chitose got annoyed and yelled at Misuzu, to which Misuzu started groping and subtly threatened her. She was interrupted by Ai, who told them that they needed to work together; Misuzu angrily yelled at her for lagging behind, which she ignored. Ai then walked off into the bushes to pee. A few moments later, the girls heard her scream and rushed to her, only to find her cornered by a giant Papilio maackii who proceeds to drain her blood right in front of them. While Misuzu was frozen in shock, Satoshi and Hiroshi were killed by the butterflies, but the rest of the group was saved by the arrival of Ayumi Matsuoka and Mutsumi, with Mutsumi incinerating one of the butterflies. Atsushi started yelling at Mutsumi how they wouldn't survive the three days it would take for rescue to arrive, but Misuzu yelled at him to shut up when she heard buzzing, which the group believed to be a helicopter; however, the sound turned out to be a giant ammophila, which abducted Chitose.

Ayumi tries to get Mutsumi out of her shock to go and rescue Chitose, but Misuzu refuses, which causes the girls to argue. Atsushi breaks them up, declares himself, leader, and says they shouldn't bother going after Chitose since they have to focus on their own survival. After a back and forth that ends with a four-to-three vote on saving the class prez, Mutsumi gets an idea: she declares that she's given up on Chitose and asks if anyone's phone is working, which they don't since they landed in the ocean; since Chitose had a waterproof case, they could use it to find the highest point on the island and check the weather, which would allow them to survive the next three days. With the group in agreement, they set off in the direction the wasp had gone. Mutsumi had Misuzu walk in the back on the left to cover the others' blind spots. Eventually, they reached a group of private houses, which the wasps had turned into nests. Misuzu doesn't want to go in, afraid there might be giant cockroaches inside, but Mutsumi reassures her that the roaches won't get bigger since they evolved to be small and fast. Inside the first house, they found three people being eaten alive by larva; Ayumi questioned why they didn't try to escape, to which Mutsumi answered that the larva were administering a morphine-like chemical to make them forget pain and fear, thus keeping them alive and docile until they were nothing but bone. Disgusted, Misuzu, Atsushi, and Kazuhiko kill all the larvae. Once they were done, Kazuhiko revealed that he'd found a working phone on one of the residents and they prepare to leave since they found what they were looking for, but once they leave, they have to hide in some bushes since another wasp was nearby. Atsushi recognizes the person the wasp has as his friend Akira and rushes out into the open.

Mutsumi saves Atsushi, and the pair follow the wasp into its nest where they find Akira and Chitose; before leaving, Mutsumi gives Ayumi a list of detergents that she and the others need to mix and throw over the front of the house, which they do. With the wasps overstimulated by the detergents and the hairspray Mutsumi used to save Atsushi, the group is able to escape. After stopping and when Mutsumi is explaining just how her plan worked, a giant Ixodid jumps onto Misuzu's back, which Miki notices. It's then that Mutsumi realizes that the group had entered a nest of ticks without realizing.

Ayumi tries to take the group back the way they came, but Mutsumi explains that if they go around the island, it could take days, and Chitose and Akira need treatment as soon as possible, so she's going through the nest. Everyone decides to go with her, and Misuzu mocks Ayumi for "not being popular". With everyone agreeing on a course, Mutsumi explained her plan for getting through the nest: everyone is to put their palms under their arms to muffle their heartbeat and walk slowly to avoid attracting the ticks. Also, someone is to pick up a pebble, warm it in their palm, and toss it away from the group to lead away any nearby ticks. Atsushi and Ayumi, who are carrying Akira and Chitose respectively, will carry them on their backs. By doing so, the group is able to get through the nest with no problems until they encounter Ms. Nozawa, who's been swarmed by ticks, causing Mami to start screaming. With no other options, Mutsumi is forced to sacrifice Ms. Nozawa by knocking her down with a stick, causing her to be completely swarmed while the group escapes.

Once the group reaches a beach, Mutsumi has them scrape off any ticks on their clothes and strip and enter the sea to drown any ticks on their bodies. Misuzu seduced Atsushi, and the two planned to get rid of Mutsumi and Ayumi.

The group eventually made it to the clinic, with Misuzu expressing awe at how different it was from how she imagined. Ayumi doesn't do anything worth noting until the group hears something flying by, at which point Akira gets taken over by a giant leucochloridium and runs outside to attract whatever's flying by. The insect, which turns out to be a giant protohermes grandis, bisects the delinquent. Misuzu slaps Atsushi out of his shock and they run back to the building, locking the doors behind them; Misuzu tells the others that they don't if they're being controlled by parasites too and flips them off. Misuzu ties Chitose up, and when she regains consciousness, Misuzu says the others are probably dead and begins to grope the class prez and removes her panties, claiming she's "checking her for parasites".

She notices Chitose looking past her with a look of pure terror, and is shocked to see a giant Portunus trituberculatus; she and Atsushi vainly fight off the crabs, and Chitose tells her to untie her because she can help. Misuzu instead laughs when one of the crabs eats the president's panties and tries to escape, only to be grabbed and lose her jacket. Mutsumi and the others arrive, and the crabs are fried by Kazuhiko.

Misuzu and Atsushi are tied up, and when Atsushi shows no remorse for causing Miki's death, Chitose suggests they leave them behind. Misuzu tried to get Mami to stand up for her, but Mami ducks behind Ayumi and smugly grins at her, the power dynamic completely reversed. Mutsumi stands up for them, not out of altruism, but without them their walking formation will be extremely weakened; Ayumi and Chitose accept, but the two stay tied up. The group then gathers as many supplies as they can carry and leave the clinic, since the scents of the bodies of the dobsonfly, Miki, and the crabs are certain to attract carnivorous insects, and head towards the shrine since it's the highest point on the island. During the walk, Misuzu mocks Mutsumi for getting caught up in talking about insects and Mami trips her, sarcastically apologizing after doing so. The group hear screaming and find Emiko Miyazono and Kayo Suzuki being attacked by a group of swallowtails; Ayumi rescues them and they take the group to where their group is staying. Marika Chuujou, after seeing that Atsushi and Misuzu are tied, accuses the group of bullying them and forces them to untie the two. The groups then get into a debate about if it's a good idea to go back to the clinic which ends when Atsushi volunteers himself, Mutsumi, and Misuzu to scout the path, with Misuzu accepting since. Takeshi Minowa, Chitose, Emiko, and Kasumi Momosaki join them. During the walk, Kasumi tries to get Takeshi to carry her, which he refuses. Misuzu pokes fun at her laziness, and Kasumi threatens to get her father to expel the redhead, which sparks an argument between the two. Chitose and Emiko try to break them up and Misuzu shoves Emiko, which alerts a nest of giant Tiger beetle larvae.

One of the larvae grabs Emiko and drags her into its hole, despite Takeshi's attempts to save her. Misuzu didn't move after being instructed to by Mutsumi, but then tried to run to the bamboo forest after seeing that Mutsumi and Chitose did so; she tripped because her ankle had been damaged by the crabs, and each of her limbs was grabbed by a larva. Mutsumi came up with a plan to use a bamboo piece as a blade and Chitose used it to kill a few larva and help Kasumi; Misuzu called for her help, which she did but specified that Misuzu owed her. Chitose killed two but wasn't able to kill the third since the blade had blunted and it started dragging Misuzu to its hole; Chitose killed the larva by stabbing it and Misuzu made it to the bamboo forest. Two hours later, the larvae went into hiding and the group went back to the private houses; Misuzu was carried by Takeshi since her ankle was injured further. After a back and forth between Marika and Mutsumi, the groups left for the shrine.

During the walk, Mutsumi is almost raped by Ryou Usui but is saved by Chitose and Kazuhiko; Misuzu doesn't participate in the subsequent arguments. When Ryou is killed by the giant Firefly larva, Misuzu runs off with Atsushi and Takeshi. When they stop, Misuzu and Takeshi press themselves as flat against the ground as they can while Atsushi unconvincingly disguises himself as a tree. Misuzu spots Mutsumi and the three join her. They rush to help Ayumi and Mami after hearing the latter scream, but get surrounded by larvae. Misuzu doesn't really help fight the larvae until Mutsumi uses her flashlight to make them think there's a predator nearby. Misuzu overhears Mami whimpering and regains her nerve and begins fighting off the larvae. When Ayumi dies, Misuzu is sad but doesn't grieve. During the walk, Misuzu gets annoyed by Mami's grieving and accuses her of being responsible for Ayumi's death, to which Mami yells at her to shut up. After that, Misuzu doesn't do anything worth noting, and escapes to the shrine when the group is attacked by the giant Atypus karschi. When Chitose and Atsushi start arguing over saving Mutsumi, who was captured by the spider along with Marika, Misuzu says that she understands how Chitose feels, but they don't know if Mutsumi is alive and if they try to help her, they'll just get themselves killed; she is then forced by Atsushi to tie Chitose to a pillar.

During Kazuhiko and Nozomi Aoyama's partially ill-fated mission to save Mutsumi and Marika from the spider, Atsushi started distributing the food and gave Misuzu a single rakugan, to which she complained and he told her to be grateful she got anything at all; she was also baffled when Atsushi called himself Nobunaga. When the giant anomala cuprea arrived and started attacking the group, Misuzu untied Chitose, and at the class president's order, stripped naked and washed the sweat from her body, since the beetle's were after the minerals in their sweat.

Thinking on her feet, Mutsumi had Kazuhiko start a fire to repel the beetles, and with a rescue ship on the horizon, Misuzu got dressed and started walking to the shore, since the bodies of the spider and Marika would attract carnivorous insects before the rescue team could reach them.

Misuzu didn't do anything noteworthy until Pops lost his arm to the giant dragonfly nymph, where she reloaded his shotgun and prepared to fire and the nymph; Mutsumi stopped her, since the nymph's shell was too tough for the bullet to penetrate, and had the group head down the river to where the giant agriosphodrus dohrni were, where they then swarmed and killed the nymph, allowing the group to make their way to the ship; they arrived to find the ship being attacked by the giant scolopendra subspinipes who wiped the entire ship crew. Misuzu demanded to know if there were more ships nearby, to which Ryoko Shikimori said that there were, but they were told to stay back, making the students realize they had been left to die. When the plan to use one of the islands fishing boats fell through due to the Barnacle's sinking them all, Ryoko and Mutsumi came up with a plan to use one of the Mino's lifeboats to escape, only to find the centipede constricting the ship.

Misuzu demanded to know why the centipede was wrapped around the ship, and Mutsumi explained the centipede must have mistaken the ship for a fertile female since the gunpowder and fuel smells like pheromones. Mutsumi came up with a plan to gather as many centipedes as possible and set them on fire to disperse their pheromones, drawing the giant centipede away and allowing the group to get to the lifeboat. Atsushi tried to get Misuzu to stay with him, but she refused and declared her intention to protect Mutsumi. Atsushi and Kayo stayed behind, the former due to his injury and the latter because she was on the verge of a breakdown, and the rest left to search for centipedes.

During the search, Misuzu found a giant millipede and tried to catch it assuming it was a centipede. Mutsumi stopped her and explained that the millipedes at their current size had enough cyanide in their bodies to kill a human, and Misuzu moves on to catch centipedes.

Nozomi attempted to kill Mutsumi to avenge Marika by knocking her into a large group of giant millipedes, but her plan backfired when an unidentified giant insect caused her to panic and land in the millipedes, which released cyanide and nearly killed her. Misuzu said to leave Nozomi behind, but Mutsumi refused. Annoyed, Misuzu took Nozomi and passed the shotgun to Mami. The two then left to take Nozomi to a swamp to wash all the cyanide off her and their clothes. Misuzu then spotted the smoke from the burning centipedes and the two got dressed, redressed Nozomi, and rushed back to the others; but along the way, they were stopped by a second giant centipede, much to their shock, and were forced to hide.

Unable to regroup with Mutsumi, Chitose, and Kasumi, Misuzu and Mami brought Nozomi to the meeting place. They saw Kayo walking up to them, but were horrified to see her be torn apart from the inside by a ton of giant larvae. Misuzu heard Atsushi talking from behind her, and turned around to find Atsushi covered in larvae; Misuzu kicked him back, and she and Mami ran off with Nozomi as Atsushi was torn apart by the larvae still inside him, heading for the ship. The two arrived first and helped Kazuhiko, Ryoko, and Pops with gathering supplies to put on the lifeboat, with Misuzu also helping to free the boat. When the giant centipede arrived, Misuzu convinced the others to get on the boat while she continued lowering it. The centipede reached the boat before it reached the water, and Misuzu chose to sacrifice herself by cutting the wires, dropping the boat on the water. Misuzu then turned to the centipede and swung at it, creating a spark that ignited the fumes from the evaporated gasoline and caused the boat to explode, killing herself along with the centipede.

## Etymology

* The name **Misuzu** means "beauty" (美) (**mi**) and "bell" (鈴) (**suzu**)
* Misuzu's surname **Jinno** means "gods, mind, soul" (神) (**jin**) and "plains, field, rustic" (野) (**no**)

## Relationships

### Mutsumi Oribe

Misuzu would bully Mutsumi at school and mocked her endlessly on the island. She initially tried to get her killed, but stopped once it became clear that she had no chance to escape alive if Mutsumi was dead. The two became friendlier while on the island and Mutsumi was saddened by Misuzu's death.

### Mami Miura

Misuzu would bully Mami at school, and on the island would exploit the idol's fear of her to get her on her side. Once Misuzu was in a powerless position, Mami exploited this to make Misuzu feel what she felt. This power dynamic balanced out on the island when Mami got braver and Misuzu became more selfless. Mami was saddened by Misuzu's death and would think of her when she needed courage.

### Chitose Naruse

Chitose and Misuzu are very antagonistic towards one another; Misuzu because Chitose's a goody-two-shoes, and Chitose because Misuzu bullied her friend and slept with teachers to get passing grades. This animosity slowly wanes while on the island, eventually getting to the point that Chitose is saddened by Misuzu's death.

### Atsushi Kamijo

Misuzu and Atsushi had a purely physical relationship, which Misuzu exploited to get someone tough to protect her. Once Misuzu got braver, she stopped associating with Atsushi since his selfishness only served to endanger her.

## Trivia

* From Chapter 14 onwards, Misuzu is referred to as **Mirei** (みれい) by the others. It's unknown if this is a nickname or a translation error.
* In the anime, Misuzu keeps her jacket since the giant Portunus trituberculatus' were removed.