Mao Katahira

"Gninrom doog."

- Mao saying "Good morning" in reverse

Mao Katahira (片平 真央) is a character from the one-shot Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 8: Deoxyribonucleic Acid. She is the daughter of Mai Katahira.

Appearance
Mao is an unusual young girl that wears a small white dress with roses on her head.

She has no eyebrows, no upper eyelashes, thick lower eyelashes and sideburns that grow to her jaw. On her rear is a small tail (approximately 5 cm long).

In the TV Drama, Mao lacks most of her attributes and mostly looks like a normal little Japanese girl with long black hair, with the exception of her heterochromia, with her left eye being bright green while the right eye is purple. She wears a frilled pink dress mixing blue and pink frills, as well as a frilled pale yellow headband.

Personality
Mao is an agreeable and playful child. She is constantly seen playing with other children at the park, not bothered in the least by her appearances and other quirks. Although she doesn't talk often, she greets everyone she meets.

Despite only being a child, Mao seems to have pushed things so that her mother would meet her biological father.

In the TV Drama, Mao is a more capricious and withdrawn child, explained because her mother kept hiding her from others. She thus developed a habit of burrowing into things and cover herself, notably building herself a tent made of plushies in which she nearly constantly hides.

Abilities
Mao is only able to speak in reverse and according to her mother, has never spoken normally in Japanese. However, when she meets her biological father, she begins to talk normally with him. When she walks, her footsteps are silent and everything she steps on becomes soaking wet.

Mao's Heart has taken the form of a tail. If it is touched, her body will instinctively camouflage, blending into its surroundings. According to Heaven's Door, this could be considered a visible Stand ability and not a genetic trait. In the TV Drama, this ability to disappear is theorized by Rohan as a power to create illusions and give the impression that she isn't visible, instead of Mao actually becoming invisible. Rohan also says that this ability was caused by Mai wanting to keep her hidden.

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 8: Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Mao was conceived through an anonymous from Obanazawa to Mai.

Nothing about her life is known, but it can be inferred that despite her deformities, Mai still loved her and she lived a calm life free of bullying. At one point she befriended Tomoya, Obanazawa's son.

Mao is presented to Rohan Kishibe by Yukako Yamagishi at the beginning of her story, but upon examination he does not find anything wrong with her, as she is born the way she was supposed to be. He thus takes his leave without trying to turn Mao into a normal human.

Later, Mao plays a prank on her mother by shedding her skin and disguises Tomoya as herself, frightening Mai who then rushes toward Tomoya and Obanazawa. It is implied that she did it so that her mother and Obanazawa could properly meet each other.

TV Drama
Mao's backstory remains largely the same in the adaptation although with notable changes to the current story.

Prior to the events of Deoxyribonucleic Acid, Mao's father Akira Katahira died in a car crash while her mother was pregnant with her, so she was not conceived through sperm donation. Because of the drama's omission of Obanazawa and his son, Mai instead meets her "father" through Taro Hirai, who was the recipient of Akira's organs after an accident.