Mai Natsume

Mai Natsume is the main character of the manga BlazBlue: Remix Heart, its sequel Variable Heart, and two side-stories in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend. She was a classmate and friend of Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi and Makoto Nanaya during their time at the Military Academy. Mai is the vessel of the Nameless Grimoire and was for a time the host of the Intermediary Grimoire.

Information
Mai is the heir of the Hazuki Family, one of the Duodecim noble families. One week prior to the events of Remix Heart, a grimoire 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.

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

On the same day, she came to know about Noel's death cooking, which is said to cause whoever ate it to wander between life and death. Despite the warnings from both Makoto and Tsubaki, Mai volunteered to eat Noel's dish so she would not be upset. She somehow survived and even enjoyed it, calling it a godly dish, even though her roommate Kajun was knocked out instantly. Mai then revealed that her tongue, which is super sensitive to taste, was what enabled her to eat Noel's cooking, though it made it very difficult for her to eat normal food. Listening to her story, Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto, and Kajun promised to find a way to cure her supertaster ability. They then decided to throw a pajama party, but Mai fainted after looking at everyone else's naked bodies in the bath.

The Torifune Festival took place a few weeks later, which selected two students to fulfill the role of Izanagi and Izanami. Jin Kisaragi won the Izanagi position after a rock, paper, scissors game, causing Tsubaki to wish to become Izanami in order to be near him. Since there is no certain way to win a game of luck, Mai was asked by the other girls (excluding Tubaki) to use her supertaster sense to read the minds of the girls in the next day's tournament by kissing them so that Kajun could deduce their thought patterns. Their plan succeeded, but Tsubaki found out afterwards. Mai apologizes to her, but Tsubaki thanked her and told her not to do it again.

Mai prepared some watermelon for her friends but left none for herself, which led the group to descend to the lower levels of the Academy in search of more watermelons. However, thanks to Noel, the group ended up lost in the eighth level and walked into a thick cloud of seithr, causing them to seek refuge at a nearby abandoned mansion. The resulting fog mutated a watermelon seed that Noel had swallowed earlier, causing it to grow out of her navel and attack everyone present. Mai was embarrassed and had trouble focusing due to the girls being in revealing poses, but she managed help them escape, save 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 Azure Grimoire that may be laying in wait deep within the school grounds.

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 realized anything.

The next challenge for Team Remix Heart was to find the Conversion Grimoire during the Torifune 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 rope to pull her out. The Guardian then appeared to congratulate them. As the Guardian presented the Team Remix Heart with the task of choosing between the Conversion Grimoire or the Azure Grimoire, Mai decided to choose the Conversion Grimoire instead of the Azure Grimoire, which turned out to be a fake. After they made it back to safety, Akane told them they were at lowest rank, but Jin congratulated them, since they were the only team who brought a grimoire (the other teams brought junk, according to him), so he gave Team Remix Heart the title of MVP for the sports festival. During these events 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, forcing everyone to start wearing thicker clothing. Making her way through the grounds with Makoto, Noel, and Kajun, Mai slipped and was helped up by the newly arrived Tsubaki. Unfortunately, she was caught in the snowball of students that was caused by Taro Sasagae, and was launched onto a faraway beach after rebounding off of Akane Teruhiko's freshly made snow hut. Amazed that Torifune has so many different locations, Mai lathered herself with Kajun's Golden Angel, being given a temporary swimsuit. She tasted the Regulation Grimoire, finding that the Grimoire had little of the power it had before, leading her and the rest of the group to help it out by collecting pictures of the emotions jotted down in its page. Thankfully, the group were picked up by an aircraft requested by Jin.

In the library, Mai encountered an object in the shape of 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 supertaster ability, her mind got transferred into the Hypnagogia Grimoire. Mai's mind was trapped in the grimoire and her friends then tried to free her before her imprisonment became permanent. 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, but Mai stopped them and told them that they were very important to her and she loved them and did not want them to risk their lives for her. The grimoire then showed Tsubaki and Noel's future and selves as Izayoi and Mu -No.12- respectively before it was destroyed, and allowed Mai to wake up and seeing everyone at her side. 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 Team Remix Heart to break up.

The next day, Mai wondered if her friends would still accept her, should she ever tell them the truth. 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.

Mai and the others decided to go to the ninth level of Torifune to search for the powerful Grimoire that could cure Mai's super taste. However, Team Remix Heart had to go through a trial and figure out how to use all the Grimoires they had found so far in order to pass. After they passed the ground gave way and Mai got separated from them, ending up in an unknown level, where she encountered Ragna. Mai explained she needed to find the Azure Grimoire in order to locate her friends. When she arrived at the location, she is asked by two unnamed female guardians to save Elina's soul from the Adsequi 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.

Five days later, she finally regained consciousness and no longer felt any pain, but Kajun explained to her that she had a fragment the Azure Grimoire inside of her, since she kissed the Adsequi Grimoire in order to save Elina. 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 is not cured, but 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. This was called 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 Team Remix Heart decided to look after Jin and others 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 the cause of that. After departing, Team Remix Heart 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 block of ice caused by Jin who, under the influence of his Nox Nyctores, Yukianesa, thought that he must destroy the "Dark One". Suddenly, Mai was attacked by Jin, who thought she was Ragna due to the Azure 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 Nox Nyctores, Bolverk to distract Jin, which allowed Taro to bind Jin. The professor of alchemy, Seifer Albar, 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 she noted made her blush and caused her heart to race, she was captured by Shiori and Chachakaka. After they revealed that they wanted to kill Jin, Mai she broke free and disarmed both Chachakaka and Shiori. However the latter accidentally poisoned herself, so Mai decided 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 her 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.

After summer had started, 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 respect 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 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 was a man by just looking at her.

Afterward, Taro finally came 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 Seifer's that was attracted to grimoires and Seifer engineered her rescue in order to gain her trust, as he wanted to study how she had fused to a grimoire. Even though had difficulty explaining her situation to him, she was glad Seifer 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.

The following day, Mai and the rest of Team Remix Heart underwent mandatory survival training, 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 Team Remix Heart 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. Moments later, Mai writhed in pain and was put onto an infirmary bed.

Once Seifer was alone with her, he revealed his plan to fuse the Azure fragments with her heart and then use them to become a body of Azure itself and then made her go unconscious. After her friends and Estela returned, Seifer 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 Seifer that she would not forgive his actions and launched a kick towards Seifer's back, but was stunned that he effortlessly blocked it with his alchemy. Dodging his counterattack, Mai summoned a sword and parrying dagger to combat the alchemist. Seifer told Mai that unless she cooperated with him, she would never be able to become male again. Mai managed to keep fighting back against Seifer, 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 herself as she was and decide that she enjoyed her current life and no longer felt the need to return to being male. Additionally, it bolstered her determination against Seifer and she was able to deliver a powerful blow; this was not enough however, and Mai was teleported to the bottom of Torifune where a Cauldron was located.

Thankfully for Mai, Shiori pursued her and Seifer, but the proximity to Cauldron gave Mai a splitting headache. The situation worsened as Seifer 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 stop him. Seifer 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 Seifer, but he was too unstable to listen to her. Seifer extracted the Azure fragment from Mai's chest, but he was unable to complete the Burning Red due to an Ars Magus Seal placed in the area by the student council and Mai's other friends. Seifer 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 Team Remix Heart. 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 thanked them all. 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 Duodecim 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.

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 two side-stories that occur a month after Mai's arrival at the Military Academy. Chronologically they take place between chapters 4 and 5 of the Remix Heart manga.

Personality
Mai initially appears sheltered and timid, as her father had not permitted her to have friends and she has difficulty interacting with others. She also initially feels insecure being surrounded by girls and is embarrassed by seeing them naked. However, she quickly demonstrates that she's a good person, as she agrees to eat Noel's cooking in order to make her feel better despite the warnings of her friends. Mai demonstrates that she is very kind and polite; she does everything in her abilities to help her friends. In addition she shows great determination and inner strength as she is quite willing to fight in order to protect those that she cares 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 a Duodecim 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. Obtaining friends and liberty from her father's constraints allowed her personality to change, and resulted in her being more open to others.

While Mai had used the masculine first person pronoun "boku" before her transformation, at the Military Academy Mai used the feminine 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.

Mai dislikes being called a "grimoire".

Appearance
Mai is a young woman with magenta eyes and blue hair, tied into a waist-length pony tail by a yellow ribbon; she also has hair antennae and a bust that is second only to that of Makoto in size. Her body is quite slender, with thin limbs and a flat abdomen. When accessing the powers of the Nameless Grimoire, Mai's pupils shape into white rectangles.

She wears the standard blue and white uniform of the Military Academy, accompanied by thigh-high stockings and white shoes with yellow outline. At times she also wears pink lipstick and nail polish. During the sport festival, she wears her hair down with her ribbon as a hairband, and a standard P.E. uniform with a plain white T-shirt.

When Mai and her friends go swimming she wears a thin, stripy two-piece light and dark blue bikini with yellow straps and rims that is decorated with yellow ribbons. For her school swimming lessons she wears a one-piece competition swimsuit.

When participating in the 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.

In her past when she was male, Mai had long hair tied in a ponytail in similar to how she wears her hair when she's female, with the only notable difference being that she had no ribbon. Mai wore formal clothes, as expected by a Duodecim member; examples include a white collar shirt accompanied with a white scarf, a dark vest, and black formal jeans.

In Variable Heart her design had changed. She now wears black jeans that expose some skin on her sides, a backless white collared top with red trimming, black symbols, and a big golden zipper piece, and maroon fingerless gloves that reach below her elbows. She also has some sort of red jacket.

Powers and Abilities
Mai's aptitude for Ars Magus is unclear, as the grimoire used for assessment short-circuited when it tried to measure her abilities.

The Nameless Grimoire gave Mai a supertaster ability, granting her a sense of taste far stronger than normal, though her ability far surpasses that of any ordinary supertaster. Her tongue can obtain considerable information about what she tastes, including the thoughts of someone who made the food that she eats. This is why she is not only able to "survive" Noel's infamous death cooking, but also calls it a godly dish because Noel's single-mindedness in cooking only leaves her innocence within the food. This grimoire was also responsible for Mai's change in gender as its vessel has to be female. In addition to those abilities, Mai's grimoire allows her to regenerate injuries and to greatly enhance her physical abilities.

After saving Elina from the grimoire on the tenth level, Mai had a fragment of the Azure Grimoire enter her body from the Adsequi Grimoire. Due to that, 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. She was incapable of using these powers herself however. Mai lost this ability when Seifer extracted the Azure fragment from her.

According to Kajun, Mai has the second best physical skills among the group following Makoto. Mai remarks that she had trained in martial arts since childhood, while Shiori observes that Mai knows and can use the Kirihito family's assassination techniques. However her favorite fighting style involves using a longsword in her right hand and a main gauche in her left.

She is shown to wield a spear, which turns out to be a Legacy Weapon, in Variable Heart.