Kino

Kino is a Matango who crossed the Japanese border illegally to aquire friends, as Matango are considered too dangerous to enter the country.

Appearance
Kino has the appearance of a young girl.

As a Matango, her most notable features are the large mushroom cap on her head, tentacle-like hair, and volva-like feet. Her hands are large compared to her body, and she has cross-shaped pupils.

Kino seems to be entirely nude. What appears to be a frilly bikini-like attire is actually her version of a mushroom's Annulus, conveniently covering up her genitals. If Kino goes outside, she usually wears a large cloak that only reveals her cap.

Personality
Kino is a very shy and lonely individual. Due to her nature and physiology she was declared dangerous and therefore has great trouble finding friends. Her desire to escape her loneliness is so great it drove her to cross the border illegally in an attempt to find a friend.

Skills & Traits

 * Matango Physiology:
 * Spores: Due to her fungal nature, Kino can release hallucinogenic spores from her hymenophore underneath her "head cap" and the "skirt 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 Kino gets nervous, scared, or flustered, she unconsciously starts releasing a far greater amount of spores. Due to these reasons, 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 Kino 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 as seen when the house was put underwater.

History
At some point, Kino wanted to join the exchange program. However, during her interview she released a large amount of spores, affecting the human employees and causing a severe lag in progresss. Because of this, Matangos were labled as too dangerous to participate in the exchange program.

Plot
After dealing with Kiira, Kimihito and Cerea return to Kimihito's house, only to find themselves hallucinating the inside as a dungeon. The restof the girls inside are all hallucinating and doing strange things. After being saved by Mero and going off to find the unknown liminal whose spores started the incident, Kimihito finds the Matango Kino in the bathroom and helps to console her. Meroune later activates the Overflow gauge in the house, dispelling the spores by turning the house into an aquarium and flooding it with water which neutralizes the spores.

Later, alongside Curie and Kiira were seen in a facility that processes liminal by-products in exchange for staying in Japan, she was extracted of some of her spores in order to create an antidote for them.

Zoological Classification
The Matango (マタンゴ) is a psuedohuman sub-species of dryad with fungal qualities.

While very similar to Dryads in that they are fully capable of photosynthesis and their "legs" act as roots that they can embed into the ground to absorb soil nutrients, Matangos are feared due to the belief that the species has a parasitic reproductive cycle; whereby they produce spores that infect other beings with mushroom growths that will eventually convert them into a Matango. Whether this is actually true is unconfirmed, however, Matango do emit spores that may upset those that have asthma or related allergies. Sometimes these spores also possess hallucinogenic properties.

Trivia

 * She has a habit of ending her sentences with "-ngo".
 * Matango are not in the custom of wearing clothes. This is true in general for all plant-type liminals. Lately this has begun causing social problems, so many mantago and other plant-type liminals have started wrapping themselves in pieces of cloth.