Mai Natsume

Mai Hazuki (マイ＝ハヅキ), who uses the alias Mai Natsume (マイ＝ナツメ) after turning into a woman because of the Pure Grimoire, is the protagonist of the manga BlazBlue: Remix Heart, and its sequel Variable Heart. She is a wielder of a Legacy Weapon replica, Gallia Sphyra: Outseal. In BlazBlue: Centralfiction, she appears as a playable DLC character.

Appearance
In Remix Heart Mai is a teenage girl with magenta eyes and blue hair tied by a yellow ribbon into a ponytail that reaches her thighs; she also has hair antennae, two sidelocks that reach to her chest. Her body is quite slender and athletic, with thin limbs and a flat abdomen, but has a bust that is second only to that of Makoto in size.

As a student, she wore the standard blue and white uniform of the Military Academy, accompanied by black thigh-high stockings and white shoes with yellow outline. At times she also wore pink lipstick and nail polish. During the sport festival, she has her hair down with her ribbon as a hairband, and a standard Japanese looking school P.E. uniform. When Mai and her friends went swimming she wore a thin, striped two-piece light and dark blue bikini with yellow straps and rims that is decorated with yellow ribbons. For her school swimming lessons she wore a one-piece competition swimsuit. When participating in the academy survival training, Mai wore a low cut black tank top with a short-sleeved jacket, emblazoned with the Academy’s insignia. The top was tucked into normal short shorts held together by a pocket belt. Black thigh-length socks and military boots finished the look off.

As a male Mai was taller, had broader shoulders, a wider waist and narrower hips. Mai had long hair that was at times tied in a ponytail, though she didn’t use a ribbon. Her appearance was sufficiently different that neither Jin nor Tsubaki who had known Mai as a boy were able to realize that the female and the male Mai were the same person. Mai had worn the formal clothes expected of the Twelve Originators member; examples include a white collar shirt accompanied with a white scarf, a dark vest, and black formal jeans.

By the time of Variable Heart and Centralfiction her appearance had somewhat changed as she had gotten older. Her hair got longer compared to her first year of the academy, with her side-locks reaching below her navel and her ponytail below her knees. In addition, Kajun said that Mai’s chest had grown in size “to another level” and Kagura also commented that Mai’s chest has grown nicely. She now wore an outfit given to her by Kajun that consisted of lowleg tight-fitting black pants that exposed some skin on her sides, a backless white halter top with red trimming, black symbols, and a big golden zipper piece, maroon fingerless gloves that reach close to her elbows and high-heeled boots. She also had a red cape that she removed before combat.

Personality
At the start of Remix Heart Mai was sheltered, timid and had difficulty interacting with others. This was because her harsh and distant father had taught her to consider everyone a potential enemy, causing her to grow up without friends. In addition, Mai initially had very little self-esteem and a low sense of self-worth due to her father’s desire for a perfect heir which Mai was unable to achieve. Furthermore, her father’s apparent rejection caused Mai to fear that all the other people she met, including her friends, would also eventually reject her just like he did. She also initially felt insecure being surrounded by girls and was embarrassed by seeing them naked. However, she quickly demonstrated that she was a good person, as she agreed to eat Noel’s cooking in order to make her feel better despite the warnings of her friends. Throughout Remix Heart Mai was very kind, polite and did what she could to help her friends due to the fact they were the first people to fully accept her. In addition Mai showed great courage and inner strength as well as a willingness to fight in order to protect those that she cared for. Carl had commented that Mai’s personality is similar to his sister, Ada. When Mai was a man, she used to be more quiet due to the pressure of being the next head of the Twelve Originators family as well as due to her father keeping her isolated. She stated that she had been like a puppet, living an uneventful life with no freedom. Making friends and being freed from her father’s constraints allowed her personality to evolve, and resulted in her overcoming her shyness and becoming more open towards others. In addition, thanks to her friends who accepted her even though she was not perfect, Mai managed to overcome the inferiority complex and trust issues caused by her father and gained both self-confidence and a sense of self-worth. Nonetheless, Mai still greatly respects her father and earnestly wishes to earn his approval.

While Mai had used the masculine first person pronoun “boku” before her transformation, at the Military Academy Mai used the neutral pronoun “watashi” instead. This was probably due to her wanting to hide her past and pass for a normal girl. As Mai spent time living as a woman, she adapted and gradually stopped thinking of herself as being male. She got accustomed to bathing naked alongside other girls and was no longer embarrassed by physical contact with them, only looking slightly annoyed when Noel ran into her and having no problems sleeping in the same bed as Kajun. In addition she lost interest in other girls and started being attracted to men. After accidentally kissing Taro, she started to feel flustered when around him, eventually realizing that she had fallen in love with him. This resulted in Mai undergoing an existential crisis since it made her conclude that she had become female in both body and mind and caused her to worry that she had changed so much that her original self had ceased to exist. In the end however Mai decided that even if she had changed, she was still herself and with the support of her friends came to accept herself as a girl.

In Variable Heart, Mai disliked being called a “grimoire” because she wanted to be considered a person rather than an object. In addition, she worried about the impact her transformation into a grimoire had on her humanity. Mai showed she was able to read Kajun’s intentions, as she realized that her teasing was due to her difficulty in talking about Mai’s situation.

Mai’s Centralfiction profile describes her as being cheerful and positive, sincerely caring towards others, that she values her friends above all else and that she often neglects herself due to the strength of her feelings. Mai displayed her loyalty to her friends by her willingness to face Hazama in order to protect Noel even though he was a Controlling Organization officer and her actions could thus be seen as treasonous.

History
Mai is the heir of the Hazuki Family, one of the Twelve Originators noble families. One week prior to the events of Temix Heart, a grimoire inadvertently transformed Mai into a girl. She was not able to reverse the transformation and her father sent her away to the Torifune Military Academy under an alias.

BlazBlue: Remix Heart
Mai came to the Military Academy for the first time on the day with the Magic Formula assessment, claiming to have just returned from the hospital. Her assessment failed due to the Grimoire used for measurement short-circuiting, likely due to the Nameless Grimoire, but she made friends with Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi, Makoto Nanaya and her eccentric roommate Kajun Faycott.

Mai found out about Noel’s death cooking on the same day. Despite the warnings from both Makoto and Tsubaki, Mai volunteered to eat Noel’s dish so she would not be upset. Kajun was knocked out instantly when she tasted it, however Mai really enjoyed it. Mai revealed to her friends that the supertaste ability she had recently gained was what enabled her to eat Noel’s cooking, though it made it very difficult for her to eat normal food. Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto, and Kajun promised to find a way to cure that ability.

A few weeks later was the Torifune Festival, which selected two students to play the roles of Izanagi and Izanami through games of rock, paper, scissors. Tsubaki wanted to become Izanami because Jin had won the Izanagi position. Mai was asked by the other girls (except Tsubaki) to use her supertaste sense to read the minds of the other competing girls by kissing them so that Kajun could deduce their thought patterns. Mai agreed even though she was embarrassed to kiss other girls because she wanted to help her friends. Their plan succeeded, but Tsubaki found out afterwards. Mai apologized to her, but Tsubaki thanked her and told her not to do it again.

On a later day, the group to descend to the lower levels of the Academy in search of watermelons. However the group got lost in the eighth level because of Noel and walked into a thick cloud of magic element, causing them to seek refuge at a nearby abandoned mansion. The magic element mutated a watermelon seed that Noel had swallowed, causing it to grow out of her navel and attack the other girls. Mai managed to escape and help the other girls as well, save for Noel who was still held as the host of the plant. They chased the both of them down the hallway, and found that it had arrived at the location of the long-lost Evolution Grimoire. Mai found a sword and main gauche hung upon the wall, and cut through the vines and watermelon that had sprouted out from Noel, then tasted said fruit in order to understand why it was attacking. She found her answer, telling everyone that the watermelon wished to become a melon, and believed it needed the Evolution Grimoire in order to do so. Mai was overjoyed when Kajun told her that a possible method to cure her supertaste is by finding more hidden Grimoire’s within Torifune, and that even the legendary Blue Grimoire that may be laying in wait deep within the school grounds. Kajun came up with the name Remix Heart for their group.

Later on, Mai was tricked by Kajun into believing that all girls had to wears maid’s outfit for clean up duty. Mai and her friends were assigned by Estella McKenzie to clean her room. As the group went through Estella’s room, Mai’s true identify was almost revealed when she touched the Truth Grimoire. However, her former self was not shown clearly as Mai put the grimoire down almost immediately. Tsubaki found the figure familiar but none of the other girls recognized it.

Kajun was able to trick the rest of the Detective Team of Pretty Girls: Remix Heart to go looking for the Conversion Grimoire during the academy’s sports festival. The went into a desert-like area where Makoto got caught in an ant lion pit after saving Noel, and Mai then saved her by using her own bra and T-shirt as a makeshift rope to pull her out. The Guardian then appeared to congratulate them. As the Guardian presented the Remix Heart team with the task of choosing between the Conversion Grimoire or the Blue Grimoire, Mai decided to choose the Conversion Grimoire because that’s what they were looking for. During the festival Mai mentioned that she was enjoying her current live more than her previous one, since she now had friends, while Mai had been isolated and felt like a puppet while living as the Hazuki heir.

The weather control regulator of Torifune began to malfunction, which resulted in unusually cold weather in Torifune. Remix Heart team, as well as Jin and Taro accidentally ended up on a faraway beach. Kajun gave the group a gel called Golden Angel, which produced temporary swimsuits. The group found the Regulation Grimoire, in the water and Mai by tasting the grimoire discovered that it had lost its power. The group was able to restore the grimoire and return Torifune’s climate to normal and they were then picked up by an aircraft requested by Jin.

In the library, Mai encountered what looked like 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 supertaste ability, her consciousness got transferred into the Trance Grimoire. Mai’s mind was trapped in the grimoire and her friends then tried to free her before her imprisonment became permanent, which required Mai to reject the grimoire. While trapped, Mai came across a representation of her father who proceeded to call her worthless due to being woman, and stated he does not need her anymore. Shocked and heartbroken by her “father’s” words, Mai fell into despair due to thinking than nobody wanted her. After that her friends appeared in their adult forms and tried to save her by fighting for her. The sight of her friends fighting for her was enough for Mai to reject her grimoire, which was then destroyed. Mai wondered if it would be okay to tell them the truth, fearing that if she did they would feel like she betrayed them, causing the Remix Heart team to break up.

The next day, Mai wondered if her friends would still accept her, should she ever tell them the truth. She worried that she would be rejected by them in the same way that she had been rejected by her father. Mai then came across another grimoire, which caused Mai’s mind to return to the state it was in when she was at the Hazuki household. She could not remember her friends or time at school and thought she was still male. Mai started wondering if Kajun and her are lovers due to sharing the same room, unknowingly revealing her secret; luckily, however, no one believed her, thinking it to be a side effect of her amnesia. When Mai tasted her own tears however, her supertaste ability returned some of her memories. Her friends decided to help her by making her taste their tears. After she had done so for all of her friends Mai returned to her normal self; when questioned by Kajun whether she was a man or a woman, Mai replied to Kajun that she was a girl. Later, both are seen sleeping together, indicating that she had gone back to normal.

At Kajun’s suggestion, the group went to the ninth level of Torifune to search for the Blue Grimoire in order to cure Mai’s super taste. Mai got separated from the rest of the Remix Heart team and ended up in an unknown level where she encountered Ragna. Mai explained she now needed to find the Blue Grimoire in order to locate and help her friends. After hearing Mai’s selfless desire, Ragna agreed to help her. When they arrived at its location, Mai was asked by two unnamed female guardians to save Elina’s soul from the Pursuit Grimoire. Elina’s soul had remained within it because she hoped to find a way bring the boy she had loved back to life. Mai tasted a flower petal which revealed that Elina’s lover was there. After realizing that, Elina’s soul no longer felt the need to remain within the grimoire and departed. Mai then was reunited with her friends, and they returned to the academy. However, when Mai tasted Noel’s cooking, Mai began to feel pain in her chest and lost consciousness.

Mai regained consciousness five days later and Kajun explained to her that she had a fragment the Blue Grimoire inside of her as a result of kissing the Pursuit Grimoire. When her friends suggested that she kiss one of them to check if she still had her super taste, Mai became flustered and ran out of her room. At that point she accidentally kissed Taro Sasagae. Mai was shocked by that and ran away once more. Her friends later managed to find her, explaining that her super taste wasn’t cured, but that it had evolved. She could now copy from something she has eaten/kissed to someone who she kissed, but couldn’t herself use the ability she copied. Mai has thus become the Intermediary Grimoire.

As Tsubaki hurried to warn Jin about the effect of Taro’s cooking, they encountered Shiori Kirihito and Chachakaka, two undercover assassins sent by the Hazuki family. Mai remembered that the Kirihito family is composed of assassins, but she thought that Shiori may not be one herself because of her frail body. After Detective Team of Remix Heart team decided to look after Jin and his roommates who were suffering the effects of Noel’s cooking, Mai went find Noel and the two met Shiori again. Mai recognized the smell of poison, and she worried that Shiori was going to assassinate Jin. When the girls decided to cook porridge, Shiori recommended some rare medicinal herbs, but Mai was afraid that they were poisonous. She tasted Noel’s medicine herb porridge to make sure that it is not poisoned. When the girls re-visited Jin and others to feed them, it became apparent that Mai hadn’t gotten over her accidental kiss with Taro. Going near him made her become flustered, though she didn’t realize what caused it. After departing, Remix Heart team heard a loud explosion in the dorms where Jin and others were and hurried to make sure they are alright. As they arrived, Jin, Akane, and Taro’s room was covered in ice caused by Jin who, under the influence of his Event Weapon, Yukianesa, thought that he must destroy the “Black One”. Suddenly, Mai was attacked by Jin, who thought she was Ragna due to the Blue fragment she had absorbed. As Mai dodged his attacks, she heard a male voice that directed her to go straight ahead to the school yard, where Jin followed her. There, Mai was saved by Taro from Jin’s ice attacks and Noel used her Arch-Enemy, Bolverk to distract Jin, which allowed Taro to bind Jin. The professor of alchemy, Sypher Alvar, was able to make Jin lose consciousness. Mai then realized that it was his voice she heard in her head.

The next day after talking to Taro, an event that as Mai noted made her blush and her heart to race, she was captured by Shiori and Chachakaka. After they revealed that they wanted to kill Jin, Mai broke free and disarmed both Chachakaka and Shiori. However the latter accidentally poisoned herself, so Mai tried to suck out the poison. Thanks to her ability, Mai saw Shiori’s childhood which consisted of harsh training with no affection and understood that how she felt, as it was similar to Mai’s own past. Mai embraced and comforted Shiori until she let out her true feelings. The following day, Mai woke up, finding out that Shiori had slept next to her. Mai was shocked as Shiori revealed that she was in love with her, though that her objective to kill Jin hadn’t changed.

During the summer, Mai and her friends were eating lunch together when Makoto saw Carl Clover. Mai noted that he is part of the Elementary Division, and Carl introduced himself to Mai, Kajun, and Shiori. When Noel offered her cookies to him, the others immediately stopped him before he ate any; Mai quickly cheered Noel up by offering to eat them herself. Carl remarked that Mai’s smile and personality is akin to that as his sister. Mai then remembered of her father, and said 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, boldly declared 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 noticed that her reactions towards Taro were those of a girl in love, which Mai quickly denied by dismissing them as simple respect and admiration. She then remembered that when she was in the Hazuki family, she was forbidden to fall in love and thought that Taro would not be interested in her due to being male. However, her friends said it was too early to give up and decided to arrange a date with Taro for Mai. All of Mai’s friends except Shiori helped her prepare for her date with him, a process that Mai enjoyed. However Taro didn’t not appear at the appointed time, which made her friends angry and they went to search for him. Once they were gone Chachakaka appeared and said that she had been sent by Mai’s father to kill her and told Mai that her father didn’t need her anymore.

Chachakaka then attacked her but with the power of the Intermediary Grimoire, Mai could see her moves and dodged her blows. Chachakaka quickly gave up, saying that she couldn’t beat Mai even at her full power. Mai then asked if Shiori knew about her true identity. Chachakaka answered that she’s didn’t know, and explained that the ones who sent Shiori to assassinate Jin were not from the Hazuki family; ironically, they were hired by the Kisaragi family. She also warned Mai that there were a lot of assassins already sent after Jin other than Shiori and then departed. Mai was shocked by this fact, and realized the reason why Taro was desperate to protect Jin. Suddenly, Relius Clover and Ignis appeared before her, saying that her soul is quite intriguing due to it being both male and female. He then left, saying that he would like to see how Mai’s soul would develop over time. Mai wondered how he could tell that she had been a man by just looking at her.

Taro finally arrived and apologized to Mai for being late. Taro noticed that Mai’s uniform was dirty and that she had some bruises, making Mai realize it herself and feel bad for her friends because the makeover they had given her had gone to waste. Taro then dropped himself to the ground and rolled around to dirty his own clothes, saying that this way they matched. This caused Mai to blush and her heart to race, which made her to remember what her friends said about her feelings towards Taro. She thus realized she really was in love with him, which caused her to question whether she was truly male anymore. Mai started thinking that she may have become a woman in both body and mind, which made her worry that her original self was disappearing and was effectively being replaced by her new female self.

The following day, Mai was ambushed by a creature created by Sypher that was attracted to grimoires and Sypher engineered her rescue in order to gain her trust, as he wanted to study how she had fused to a grimoire. Even though Mai had difficulty explaining her situation to him, she was glad Sypher was willing to help her due to her fears that she was losing her original self. He gave her a device which would constantly monitor her.

Mai and the rest of the Remix Heart team underwent mandatory survival training the next day, being told to venture into the woods in groups of three, and defeat the Mountain Beast Jellyfish that lay in wait. Teamed with Shiori and Kajun, Mai ventured deep into the forest, saying that they could best the team of Noel, Makoto, and Tsubaki. Having traveled some distance into the forest, the group encountered the Jellyfish’s legs, and attempted to battle them with little luck since the beast had overheard their plan to use Shiori’s knowledge of poisons to counterattack. With little other choice, Mai used her supertaste ability to find out the poison of the beast, then kissed Shiori to pass on the information. It was at this point that the other half of Remix Heart team arrived, exclaiming that they had found the body of the monster. Noel, Makoto, and Tsubaki were knocked aside by the beast. Seeing her friends in danger activated the Intermediary Grimoire that was within Mai and she launched an immediate powerful attack that knocked it out. The combined efforts of the team were congratulated by Estella, who gave them all passing marks for working together as a team. The grimoire’s activation gave Sypher the data he needed, so he used the monitoring device to incapacitate Mai.

Once Mai was brought to Sypher and left alone with him, Sypher revealed his plan to fuse the Blue fragments her body contained with her heart and then use them to become a body of Blue itself before putting her to sleep. After her friends and Estela returned, Sypher trapped them in an Alchemy made circle. Chachakaka revealed that Mai had been male using the Truth Grimoire. Inside her own mind, Mai interacted with the Nameless Grimoire. The Grimoire asked if Mai wanted power. Sensing that her friends were in danger, Mai replied that she did want the power to fight in order to protect her friends. This completed her fusion with the grimoire and unlocked its full powers.

After regaining consciousness Mai broke the alchemy barrier that held her and the group in place using the power of her grimoire. Mai told Sypher that she would not forgive his actions and launched a kick towards Sypher’s back, but was stunned that he effortlessly blocked it with his alchemy. Sypher then launched a variety of alchemy-made weapons at her, but Mai was able to pick up a sword and parrying dagger to combat him. Sypher told Mai that unless she cooperated with him, she would never be able to become male again. Mai managed to keep fighting, but his taunts that she had been lying to her friends about herself shook her resolve. However she was reassured by them when they told her that they still accepted her. This enabled Mai to accept her female self and decided that she enjoyed her current life and no longer felt the need to return to being male. Additionally, it bolstered her determination against Sypher and she was able to deliver a powerful blow; this was not enough however, and Sypher teleported to the bottom of Torifune where a Kiln was located, taking Mai with him.

Thankfully for Mai, Shiori managed to teleport with them, but the proximity to Kiln gave Mai a splitting headache. The situation worsened as Sypher revealed his plan to sacrifice the entirety of the Military Academy in order to complete the Crimson Grimoire, leading Mai to attack him in an effort to stop him. However the combined efforts of Mai and Shiori were insufficient to defeat him. Sypher launched a powerful attack that Mai wouldn’t be able to dodge, but Shiori took the blow instead and told Mai that she was happy she had the chance to protect a life after spending so long killing. Mai tried to reason and emotionally connect with Sypher, but he was too unstable to listen to her. Sypher extracted the Blue fragment from Mai’s chest, but he was unable to complete the Burning Red due to a Magic Formula Seal placed in the area by the student council and Mai’s other friends. Sypher tried to fuse with the incomplete grimoire, despite Mai’s pleas for him not to do so, after which it went out of control and caused Mai to be knocked out.

Mai and Shiori were rescued by Chachakaka. They both recovered and reunited with Remix Heart team. Mai worried that the team would disband, however, she was silenced as everyone remarked that they would still search for a cure for her supertaste. Realizing that her current life was a happy one and that she was surrounded by friends and no longer alone, Mai earnestly thanked all of them. Afterwards, Chachakaka revealed to Mai that the reason why Mai’s father sent her to the Academy under a false name was in order to give her an opportunity to live a life free of the burdens of being the head of a Twelve Originators family. Chachakaka then told Mai that her father loved her, which made Mai tear up and decide to become someone worthy of her father’s respect.

BlazBlue: Variable Heart
Mai returned as the main character in the sequel to Remix Heart, which takes place after the end of the Ikagura Civil War. While Mai and her friends were visiting the 2nd Hierarchical City “Iwatsuchi” Meifang Lapislazuli, the head of the 0th Division, attempted to capture her. Kajun was able to send Mai a Legacy Weapon replica called Gallia Sphyra: Outseal, which Mai used to hold off Meifang long enough to allow her to be teleported to safety. Kajun then revealed that Mai’s body had become The Blank Grimoire, an empty grimoire that can have information inscribed in it to give it new powers. Kajun worried that Meifang wanted to turn Mai into another Blue Grimoire, so the two of them resolved to go to Seventh Agency in order to protect Mai.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma
Noel brought up Mai during a conversation with Makoto in episode 11 of the Chronophantasma storyline. Kagura mentioned Jin’s old nickname, Jinny, which Taro had used for him, which made them think back to their days at the academy. Noel asked what happened to Mai since she had left the academy early. Makoto replied that she hadn’t had a chance to speak to Mai either, but that there was a rumor that after graduating, Mai had gone missing. Noel worried about whether Mai was alright, but Makoto replied that Mai must be fine since she really has it together.

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend includes a story section called Remix Heart Gaiden that contains two side-stories occurring a month after Mai’s arrival at the Military Academy. Chronologically they take place between chapters 4 and 5 of the Remix Heart manga. In the first story Mai and Kajun have to collect food from the wilderness surrounding the academy and then prepare meals for the other students, but things go wrong when they are attacked by a giant boar. In the second story, Remix Heart team goes to explore an empty school building at night, but its defensive systems activate, trapping them inside and attacking them.

BlazBlue: Centralfiction
Mai returns in BlazBlue: Centralfiction, where she is revealed to have worked alongside Kajun under Kokonoe after joining Seventh Agency. Mai later stopped being Kokonoe’s subordinate, though she continued to work with Kajun. However she had a good relationship with Kokonoe and volunteered to assist her during a mission. Due to Mai being the heir of a Twelve Originators family, Kagura Mutsuki tasked her with protecting Homura Amanohokosaka while he and others went to fight Izanami. Mai displayed intense hatred towards Relius Clover due to his treatment of people as objects and unsuccessfully tried to defeat him in her Arcade Mode.

Powers and abilities
Mai’s aptitude for Magic Formula is unclear, as the grimoire used for assessment short-circuited when it tried to measure her abilities. This was likely due to interference from the Nameless Grimoire. Mai however was able to use Magic Formula and she demonstrated that during Remix Heart Gaiden. The fact she’s the heir to a Twelve Originators family, who were selected due to high Magic Formula aptitude, indicates that she must have a high aptitude herself.

The Nameless Grimoire gave Mai a supertaster ability, allowing her tongue to obtain considerable information about what she tasted, including the thoughts of someone who made the food that she ate. This is why she was not only able to “survive” Noel’s infamous death cooking, but also called it a godly dish because Noel’s single-mindedness in cooking only leaves her innocence within the food. The grimoire was also responsible for Mai’s change in gender as its vessel has to be female.

Mai inadvertently had a fragment of the Blue Grimoire enter her body from the Pursuit Grimoire. Due to that, Mai became the Intermediary Grimoire and her super taste evolved into an intermediary ability; she could copy someone else’s abilities by tasting or kissing them and then transfer them to someone else she kissed though she was incapable of using these powers herself. In addition Mai demonstrated enhanced physical abilities when in dangerous situations, the ability to release a burst of energy that destroyed a monster created by Sypher, the ability to sense the location of Chachakaka during combat even with her eyes closed and she was able to bring down an alchemical barrier that was about to crush her. When using these abilities Mai’s pupils changed shape into white rectangles and her body released electrical discharges. Mai ceased being the Intermediary Grimoire and lost these abilities when Sypher extracted the Blue fragment from her.

Variable Heart revealed that, after the incident with Sypher at the end of Remix Heart, Mai’s body transformed into The Blank Grimoire, an empty grimoire that can utilize whatever power gets inscribed within it. Mai also demonstrated increased resilience as a result of her transformation, being able to remain conscious after receiving a blow powerful enough to incapacitate a normal human. Furthermore, right after her battle with Sypher, Mai was shown to be regenerating her injuries while she was unconscious. Mai was still The Blank Grimoire during Centralfiction and Jin, during his special interaction after fighting with her, said he was curious if this was the power of the grimoire, suggesting that it enhances her fighting abilities.

In-game, Mai’s Drive is Gallia Sphyra: Outseal (＝アウトシール), which allows her to toss her spear like a javelin. Holding down the button allows her to assume a stance and gather more power to point of it being unblockable. Additionally, she can alter the trajectory by tossing it up or down and an additional button press causes the spear to suddenly alter its trajectory to track the opponent. Her Overdrive, Flurry of the Snow Moon (風花雪月) shortens the charge time for her Drive attacks. Gameplay-wise, Mai is a very agile rush down character, displaying her adept fighting skill with her spear and uses dash-based stances that transition in to powerful strikes, her Moon Flower (月華) in particular allowing her to jump further in the air to attack opponents from an ideal overhead position.

According to Kajun, Mai and Makoto have the best physical abilities among the Remix Heart team. Mai remarked that she had trained in martial arts since childhood, while Shiori observed that Mai knows and can use the Kirihito family’s assassination techniques. Hibiki Kohaku in his victory quote against Mai in BlazBlue: Centralfiction recognizes her evasive movements as originating from the Kirihito family, while Mai in her own victory quote against him remarks that the Kohaku family’s movements aren’t exactly the same as those of the Kirihito family’s, which shows that Mai is very familiar with the Kirihito assassination techniques and uses them in her current fighting style. During BlazBlue: Remix Heart she preferred using a longsword in her right hand and a main gauche in her left. However Mai was given a powerful spear by Kajun called Gallia Sphyra: Outseal, that is a Legacy Weapon replica and an Immortal Breaker, in BlazBlue: Variable Heart. Mai then started using that as her preferred weapon and continued to do so in BlazBlue: Centralfiction.

Trivia

 * Mai’s birthday (4/4) falls between the Japanese Girl’s Day (3/3) and the former Boy’s Day (5/5).
 * Her move names have flower theme.
 * Sumeragi said in an interview 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. She also said that it was Mori’s decision to have Mai be a boy that got transformed into a girl.
 * In addition, BlazBlue: Remix Heart was initially supposed to be 2 volumes long and ended with Mai’s supertaste 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 BlazBlue: Variable Heart and BlazBlue: Centralfiction. An early version of it was published in the final volume of BlazBlue: Remix Heart.