Mao

Mao is introduced as a long-haired young man with a calm, old-fashioned presence.

He wears a cloak, carries a sword at his waist, and is accompanied by the shikigami boy Otoya.

He has a scar beneath his left eye that looks like the trail of dried tears.

On his back is a cursed mark resembling three large claw wounds.

His hair was originally black.

After receiving Byōki's curse, the front of his hair turned white and white strands began to mix into the back as well.

He uses the first-person pronoun "I."

Although he appears composed, he is also very much his own person and tends to act immediately once he makes up his mind.

Mao is not truly cold, but he often seems detached from other people's troubles.

When Nanoka Kiba ran to him for help while being chased, he simply watched because he thought she would be fine.

His main goal is to find and destroy Byōki.

He will fight other supernatural beings when necessary, but he shows little interest in anything unrelated to Byōki.

Gender: Male

Occupation: Onmyoji, later operator of a clinic specializing in yōkai-related medicine

Era of origin: Heian period

Age: Nearly 900 years old by 1923

Voice actor: Yuuki Kaji

Mao is knowledgeable, perceptive, and usually unshaken.

He handles curses and occult threats with precision, showing deep expertise in onmyodo and curse lore.

At the same time, he can be surprisingly self-paced and difficult to read.

He often comes across as unconcerned, even when someone nearby is in danger.

He relies heavily on Nanoka in practice, despite being the more experienced fighter.

That dependence often earns him her irritation and resentment.

According to his senior disciple-brother Hyakka, Mao was very different in the Heian period.

Back then he was irresponsible, disliked curse arts, and was poor at using magic.

Mao appears as a boy to young man despite his true age.

His most striking features are his half-white hair, the scar beneath his left eye, and his supernatural red slit-pupiled eyes when his demonic power surfaces.

When he uses yōkai power or stands near Byōki, his eyes become cat-like.

In a more extreme state, he transforms into a monster resembling a giant supernatural cat.

That transformed body is the fused body of Byōki within him.

It is also the creature Nanoka first encountered, though Mao loses most of his consciousness while fully transformed.

He carries a bag filled with medicine and various tools.

This practical side reflects his talent for treatment as much as combat.

Mao possesses spiritual power as an onmyoji.

Because he was cursed by Byōki, he also has yōkai power.

He usually fights with onmyodo techniques.

He is highly skilled in curse knowledge and often chooses the correct countermeasure quickly.

His blood contains the poisonous blood of Byōki.

Any yōkai that touches or drinks it melts away and is reduced to bone.

Mao sometimes uses this to his advantage in battle.

He will deliberately let a yōkai drink his blood in order to destroy it.

According to Otoya, Mao was originally better at healing than at destroying.

This is later reflected in his decision to open a clinic for monsters in the shopping district of Five Elements Town.

In the past, Mao confronted a Byōki that had infiltrated his master's treasure vault.

During that battle he was cursed, and the demon's body fused with his own.

At that time Byōki acquired an art that manipulates human lifespan.

As a result, Mao also became something like an immortal and has continued living for centuries, though he now seems to be nearing his limit.

Because he had little interest in curses, trained for fewer days than many other disciples of the Goko house, and stood at the bottom of the disciples' ranks, he was chosen as a sacrifice in the struggle over the succession of a forbidden secret art.

Publicly, however, he was presented as the heir and was given the ominous sword called the Sword of the Pojun Star by his master.

That sword was the blade Mao used long ago when fighting Byōki.

The sword itself was cursed in that battle.

Because of that curse, no one except Mao and Nanoka, who are both cursed by Byōki, can even hold it.

Even if it is stolen or discarded, the sword returns to Mao.

Mao first met Nanoka Kiba in a mysterious town into which she had wandered.

When he saw that she possessed yōkai power, he ended up traveling with her.

After learning that Nanoka was also cursed by Byōki, he began treating her almost like an assistant.

He often sends her on dangerous tasks such as infiltration and acting as bait.

Even so, he is also genuinely concerned for her safety.

He gives her antidotes, protective stones, and spell books to help her survive.

He has Nanoka fight beside him because he wants her to be able to protect herself even when alone.

Nanoka, however, often feels that he handles her roughly and uses her carelessly.

As they spend more time together, Mao begins to feel that being with her calms him.

He also comes to see her as a light in his life, though he does not consciously realize it.

Later, after they discover that they can prolong life by sharing blood, Mao becomes more openly protective of her.

Because this may have shortened Nanoka's lifespan, he tells her that she must value her own life more.

From Nanoka's perspective, much of the story is filtered through his cool and distant demeanor.

As a result, it remains ambiguous whether Mao sees her romantically or as someone more like family.

Mao was born in the Heian period and lived in the Goko house, a family of onmyoji that was in truth a house built on curses.

Its master trained Mao and his fellow disciples in occult arts.

Among the master's children was Sana, the master's daughter.

Mao held deep feelings for her and she is generally regarded as his first love, though the nature of that feeling is complex.

Because Mao was chosen as the public successor to the house's treasure, he was set to become Sana's husband.

However, he himself had no real wish for that and instead supported her relationship with Daigo.

Daigo was Mao's childhood friend, the senior disciple he admired most, and the one who brought him into the Goko house.

Daigo and Sana were already in love and secretly met despite their positions.

Mao knew about their love because he had seen them meeting in secret.

He sincerely wished for their happiness.

When he was named the successor and became Sana's formal fiancé, he felt deep guilt.

He was so troubled by taking Daigo's place and by standing between the two lovers that he considered leaving the Goko house entirely.

Daigo later apologized to Mao for having brought him into that household.

This strongly suggests that Mao had been drawn into a system far darker than he deserved.

Mao believed that he killed Sana when he received Byōki's curse.

That belief became one of the central reasons he continued living and traveling through the centuries.

His long journey is driven not only by the need to destroy Byōki and break the curse, but also by the need to uncover the truth of what really happened then.

Nanoka's arrival causes this centuries-old mystery to accelerate dramatically.

The truth Mao seeks is tied to hidden motives moving beneath the events of 900 years ago.

Those buried schemes force the people trapped by that era's fate to finally move forward again.

The text also suggests that Mao's feelings for Sana may not have been purely romantic.

They may have contained admiration and deep human affection as much as love.

Mao is also loved by Yurako, a woman he met before he began living in the Goko house.

Yurako has a face identical to Sana's.

His bond with Otoya is also important in the present-day story.

Otoya serves as his shikigami companion and comments that Mao is naturally more gifted at healing than destruction.

Mao is the central figure around whom the mysteries of MAO unfold.

His curse, his immortality, his unfinished past, and his connection to Nanoka all drive the plot forward.

What begins as Nanoka meeting a strange boy in a strange town becomes a much larger story.

Through Mao, the series opens into a dark history of curses, sacrifice, hidden motives, and lives suspended for 900 years.