Mashu

Mashu (マーシュ) is a Matango that appears in Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls Online.

She joins the liminal exchange program to become one of many potential homestay boarders for the player to host.

Appearance
Mashu is a girl of short stature and slim build. As is common with most plant-based species, the only clothing she wears is a frilled purple bikini top with white spots that covers her breasts. The design of her bikini top matches the colouration of the naturally-grown Matango frills around her wrists and pelvis. She wears no underwear under her pelvis frills.

Her legs are decidedly plump in comparison to other humanoid species, and possesses the colouration of red mushroom stems with large white dots on their sides. Her hair, cut in the shape of a mushroom head, is of the same colouration of red as her legs. She also most notably has a small plantation of mushrooms of various sizes and colours growing atop of her skull.

Personality
Mashu is generally laid-back in words and deeds (it seems that she had a hard time in the past). Mashu is pretty similar in personality to what is referred to as a "stoner" as she likes to recreationally smoke her own spores and even sells them for other stoners to smoke. She also likes to sprinkle her spores on her food.

She does not like bright sunshine and uses what she refers to as "shade tools" to avoid it. She prefers places that are damp and shaded. She likes sleeping in the corner of a pitch-black room.

She is actively open to sex with both men and women but refers to the act as "parasitizing". She also often asks if others are interested in symbiosis and explains the benefits.

Skills and Traits
Physical Traits=
 * Matango Physiology:
 * Spores: Due to her fungal nature, Mashu can release hallucinogenic spores from her hymenophore underneath her "head cap" and the "shirt ruffles" on her body. These spores are powerful enough to cause mass hallucinations & even personality changes. The spores are believed to be able to awaken a Liminal's dormant instincts, such as a Zombie's desire to spread her infection. Likewise, if Mashu gets nervous, scared, or flustered, she unconsciously starts releasing a far greater amount of spores. Due to this reason, her entire species was classified as "dangerous" and prohibited from ever entering Japan.
 * Dreadlocks: A Matango' s dreadlocks are actually organs that assist in spore production.
 * Hypha: A Matango's legs can be extended into the ground to absorb water and nutrients when in dark and humid locations.
 * Weakness: While not directly detrimental to Mashu herself, she has no control over the spores she releases. She also cannot control their effects, nor can she remove them from the air after they've been released. She compares this to recollecting all the air a human has breathed out but it can be flushed out with water.
 * Parasitizing: Matangos reproduce by attaching parasitic spores to the bodies of other beings during sexual intercourse. If left unchecked these spores will eventually result in mushrooms growing out of the back of the being's head in similar manner to a Matango. It is unknown whether these mushrooms will drop and become new Matangos or if the mushrooms will gradually take over the being's body and transform them into a full Matango.
 * Symbiosis: Matango allude to the notion that the main body and the mushroom growths of a Matango are actually independent bodies in a symbiotic relationship. Whether this relationship is in effect only during the reproduction process or if it is the nature of life for a full Matango and their mushroom growths is unclear.
 * -|Skills and Statistics=

Zoological Classification
The Matango (マタンゴ) is a mysterious Liminal species which, despite being classified as a plant-like Liminal, actually has more fungal properties.

Due to their spores, which have a hallucinogenic effect on other living beings, Matango are considered as dangerous, and are generally forbidden from participating in the Inter-Species Cultural Exchange Program. In fact, however, Matango have no control over their spores, causing them to harm others without meaning to. Apparently there are different species or subspecies of Matango as the hallucinating effect of the spores varies depending on the species of Matango that spreads them. In contrast to fungi, Matango require other requirements for reproduction than just their spores, although more precise information on this are not known.

Trivia

 * The Matango monster first appeared in the 1963 Toho film, .
 * Mashu finds growing mushrooms made from her own spores kind of erotic in a similar manner to a woman making confectionary using her own breast milk.
 * Since Matango is considered too dangerous to be included in the Interspecies exchange program due to its hallucinogenic spores, it is unknown why Mashu was allowed to join as an Exchange Student.
 * This apparent inconsistency stems from the fact that Mashu appeared in Monster Musume Online, before Matango were officially included as Liminal species in the manga series.