Nono

Biodata

Background / History

Nono first experienced Spirit Vision on the day her mother died. She saw a shadow approach her mother’s bed and draw out her soul, and remembered seeing the figure’s face clearly. Afterward, she developed the ability to understand people through small details in their behavior 82.

Her relationship with the Chen family is deeply hostile. While drunk, she describes most of her relatives as “beasts in human skin” and recalls having especially frightening nightmares while living at home. Her family later joins the Gattuso family in pressuring her and Caesar toward engagement, prompting the couple to end their relationship rather than accept that constraint 113 158.

Appearance

• Hair: Long red or dark-red hair, sometimes worn in a high ponytail or loosely pinned up 17 64 103.
• Eyes: Amber, explicitly distinguished from Asuka’s blue eyes 13.
• Clothing: Wears designer brands; documented outfits include jeans with Mary Janes, a deep-purple skirt suit with a pale silk blouse, and a green coat with a hat 9 22 89 103.
• Accessories: Small sapphire earrings set in silver and Bulgari perfume 13 89.

Personality

Nono is proud, outspoken, and quick to challenge others. When Lu Mingfei treats her as a substitute for the red-haired girl in his memories, she directly rejects that role. Her teasing can be theatrical or intimidating: she threatens Fingel into helping a freshman, invents a higher passing mark to frighten shortcut-seeking students into studying, and openly competes with Zero for Lu Mingfei’s attention 10 19 104 137.

Her abrasive manner coexists with patient care. After witnessing Lu Mingfei’s despair, she comforts him, cleans his bloodied face, reassures him that he is safe, and remains beside him after he loses consciousness. She later refuses to pry into his secrets and tells him she trusts him 14 15 122.

Romantic insecurity exposes a less confident side of her. Despite her public bravado, she fears that Zero matters more to Lu Mingfei and regrets not ending her relationship with Caesar sooner. She nevertheless tells Susie that she does not want to hurt Lu Mingfei or force him to choose between them 155 158.

Abilities & Skills

Profiling

Nono reconstructs a person’s thought processes from movements, habits, speech, and other behavioral details. She traces this perception to the Spirit Vision she experienced at her mother’s death 82 164.

• Behavioral assessment: Reads details such as how someone walks, holds a cup, or directs their gaze 82.
• Reconstructing past events: Perceives scenes left behind in places, including the activities of previous hotel guests despite thorough cleaning 154.
• Historical role-playing: Navigates the Bronze City and reenacts scenes connected to its past, adopting a different manner until she announces “End scene” 117.
• Organizational preparation: Lu Mingfei recruits her to help MARK’s members understand and portray their assigned organizational roles 162 164.
• Limits: She cannot simply monitor Norton’s current actions; she can reconstruct his past, while his deliberate manipulation of the surroundings allows him to send her a signal 118.
• Backlash: Profiling Lu Mingfei at Lake Ashi draws her into an apocalyptic vision and causes her to collapse 14.
• Voluntary restraint: During coordination training, she refuses to profile Lu Mingfei, insisting on learning to work with him without relying on it 112.

Spirit Vision and Interpretation

Nono shares Lu Mingfei’s Spirit Vision at Hakone, witnessing a ruined world, immense dragon-like beings, a sea of blood, and the red-haired girl he holds 14 128.

• She interprets the human–dragon pairings she saw through Dragonkind concepts, eventually invoking the Black King 15.
• She later theorizes that Lu Mingfei’s strength comes from a shared-life mechanism and future technological development. This is her explanation of what she has witnessed, not an established account of his origins 138.

Field Skills

• Sniping: Uses a scoped firearm from the Library Clock Tower during the Day of Freedom; Susie eliminates her with a Frigg Tranquilizer Round 19.
• Diving: Places fourth in the documented diving test, behind Lu Mingfei, Caesar, and Zero 110.
• Underwater operations: Trains as Lu Mingfei’s partner and enters the submerged Bronze City with him during Operation Bronze 110 116.
• Physical limitations: Has no Word Spirit and cannot withstand the Bronze City’s extreme heat as Lu Mingfei can; dehydration nearly renders her unconscious 119.

Social and Organizational Skills

• Reading manipulation: Recognizes Xia Mi’s attempts to exploit tension between herself and Zero 171.
• Strategic advocacy: Presents MARK’s Drache Project to Angers, arguing for industrial capacity, organization, and weaponized dragon bodies rather than dependence on individual heroes 168.
• Academic prediction: Claims she predicts professors’ exam questions instead of revising 103.
• Baking: Secretly practices making desserts and later spends an afternoon helping Zero prepare a cake 143 157 158.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Scoped firearm and black gun case — Used during the Day of Freedom 19.
• Red diving suit — Worn during Operation Bronze, alongside oxygen equipment and a communications line 116 117.
• Sapphire earrings — Small dark stones set in silver 74 89.
• Red Ferrari California — Drives it back from Chicago after searching for Lu Mingfei 155.
• Lust, briefly handled — Receives the shortest blade of the Seven Deadly Sins from Lu Mingfei. Her unusually intense advances subside after he disarms her; he identifies the weapon as the likely cause 124.

Relationships

• Lu Mingfei — Initially her recruitment subject and an unusually difficult Profiling target; later her mission partner and romantic interest. He eventually tells her that he likes her as herself, separately from the red-haired girl in his memories 8 10 117 128.
• Zero — Romantic rival and eventual MARK colleague. Their competition includes public arguments, food offerings, and challenges over their respective places in Lu Mingfei’s life, but they also bake together, and Zero helps care for Nono after she becomes drunk 137 157 158 168.
• Caesar Gattuso — Former boyfriend. They amicably separate after discovering that both families want to pressure them into engagement; Caesar identifies Nono’s feelings for Lu Mingfei before Lu Mingfei understands them 68 113.
• Susie — Roommate and confidante. Susie comforts her over Lu Mingfei, encourages her to pursue what she wants, and helps arrange their move across from his room 155.
• Xia Mi — Junior MARK colleague whom Nono distrusts for trying to stir up romantic discord. Nono exercises her authority over her and sends her on the Hakone trip to watch Lu Mingfei and Zero 171 173.
• Ye Sheng and Shide Aki — Recruitment colleagues whom she urges to confess their feelings. She later helps prepare their engagement celebration 9 74.
• Chen family — Estranged relatives whose demands still affect her freedom and education 113 158 173.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Recruiting Lu Mingfei

• Investigates Lu Mingfei’s file and profiles him during his hotel interview, but cannot reconcile his ordinary recorded life with the despair she senses 7 12 82.
• Follows him while he buys emergency supplies and researches Hakone. Their surveillance encounter turns into an outing and dinner, where she delivers his parents’ recommendation letter and pays when he admits he has no money 8 9.
• Asks Ye Sheng and Aki to arrange his Japan visa after he postpones his enrollment decision until after visiting Hakone 9.

Hakone and Lake Ashi

• Confronts Lu Mingfei when he confuses her with someone from his past, insisting that she is not the dead girl he remembers 10.
• Witnesses his breakdown at Lake Ashi and enters the apocalyptic memories that explain his despair. After recovering, she promises to support him and urges him to live in the present 14 15.
• Takes him sightseeing, on a Lake Ashi cruise, and to the hot spring. Her suggestion that his lost companions might be living peacefully elsewhere helps him consider a future in this world; he agrees to attend Cassell after she promises all-you-can-eat German pork knuckles 17.

Cassell College

• Serves as a familiar guide during Lu Mingfei’s arrival and 3E exam, while their closeness becomes a subject of student gossip 19 22.
• Defends his emotional perspective to Caesar, explaining that he sees the students’ fighting as tragic rather than merely unimpressive 21.
• Explains that the Kui Gate team succeeded through trust in one another’s roles despite barely communicating during the battle 63.
• Brings Lu Mingfei coffee near the semester’s end, but stops him from discussing their feelings until after Operation Bronze because they must work together as partners 103.

Operation Bronze

• Trains with Lu Mingfei despite his repeated mistakes with Cassell’s underwater signals. His proposed alternative training involves living, eating, and practicing together with Caesar and Zero at Norton Hall 110.
• Enters the Bronze City, reconstructs its past, and leads Lu Mingfei to a hidden bronze dwelling. There she confronts his habit of keeping her at a distance and kisses him 116 117.
• Confesses that she genuinely likes him while fearing they may die inside the city. Norton then exploits her vulnerability to heat to put pressure on Lu Mingfei 118 119 120.
• Witnesses Lu Mingfei’s unusual blood and his agreement with Norton, but chooses trust over demanding a full explanation 122.
• After the mission, openly explains her love and jealousy to Lu Mingfei. He reciprocates her feelings but refuses to rank her against Zero 128.

Open Rivalry with Zero

• Returns to a campus following reports of her amicable breakup with Caesar and public speculation about whether she or Zero will “win” Lu Mingfei 130.
• Competes with Zero openly enough that Professor Mans confiscates their competing drink offerings and stops their behavior in class 137.
• Secretly learns dessert-making, then arranges a cake gathering after moving across from Lu Mingfei’s dormitory 143 155 157.
• Becomes drunk at the gathering and admits that her nightmares involve being left watching while Lu Mingfei chooses someone else 158.

Joining MARK

• Accompanies Lu Mingfei and Zero to Chicago after he identifies a practical use for her Profiling in their organization 162 164.
• Participates in preparations at the Peninsula Hotel and explains MARK’s neural-link-controlled dragon bodies to Angers 164 168.
• By the planned June Hakone trip, claims supervisory authority and announces a rule against workplace relationships that interfere with organizational business 173.
• Stays behind for family business that she says could otherwise prevent her from remaining at Cassell. Before leaving, she checks whether Lu Mingfei is emotionally ready to return to Lake Ashi 173.

Notable Quotes

“I’m not that dead girl you’re carrying in your heart.” 10

“From now on, I’ve got your back.” 14

“I won’t pry into your secrets. I believe you. I believe that everything as it is now is the best possible arrangement.” 122

Trivia

• Learned to use Norma to cheat at StarCraft, then became annoyed when Lu Mingfei declined her invitation to play 120.
• Plays “Fly Me to the Moon” during their mountain drive and later hums it while competing with Zero for his attention 81 138.
• Had already set Lu Mingfei as a priority contact before taking his phone and adding herself to his priority contacts 137.