Neko

is a female Strain. She is the person responsible for misleading Yashiro Isana to be a student at Ashinaka High School.

Appearance
Neko is a short, but slender girl with long, bright pink hair reaching along her back down past her knees. Her hair is split near the middle and is quite messy. Her eyes are shown to have Heterochromia iridum, with her right iris being colored blue while her left iris is colored green. She wears three golden bells: one on her left ear as an earring, another attached to a red collar around her neck, and the last one being attached to another red collar on her right ankle.

While in her cat form, Neko's fur is colored a light pink. She has a small, hot pink nose. Neko's eyes are completely round and flat with two eyelashes sticking out from both. In addition, her red choker with the golden bell retains its form.

Personality
She is carefree and playful, having fun when playing games with people or robots. Neko is also quite gluttonous. She is constantly hungry and will whine when she is not being fed. Her taste for food is also very picky, though she appears to favor fish and spicy rice crackers. But even when given food, she does not mind her manners and makes attempts to ask for more or steal others' food. Neko is also incredibly naive, deliberately plunging a flying helicopter, in which she and two others were passengers of, straight towards the engine of the Himmelreich simply to get to the destination faster. Even while performing such activities, she does not take notice of the actual dangers she is causing and instead interprets her actions as "helpful" and even entertaining in her perspective.

Neko is a very childish person, bordering on extreme selfishness. Upon meeting Yashiro, she intentionally implanted memories that led him to believe he was living a life that was never true, claiming that because she found him, Yashiro was rightfully hers. As a result, Neko was reluctant to reveal their first memories of each other, even more so when he asked to remember his life from before then, as she believed he would disappear if he remembered.

Neko has a rather immodest side to her personality. She prefers to go about nude as she claims that clothes are too restricting.

History
Neko was a stray cat that lived on the campus of Ashinaka High School, frequently stealing or hiding from the occupants or robots. As such, she was active during many of their school-wide activities, such as the production night on on December 7. While in her cat form, she witnessed a male student named Mishina confess his love for the student council's Kukuri Yukizome.

Almost an hour later, Neko moved to the school's gymnasium. While there, a young man suddenly fell through the roof and onto a thick mat. Frightened, Neko fiercely hissed at him. However, she quickly developed an attachment to him and went over to him, letting him caress her fur. They are soon discovered by Kukuri, who asks for the man's name. He is unable to recall, forcing Neko to use her memory-altering powers to give him one: Yashiro Isana.

Plot
Neko passes by Kukuri and two male students, naked, while they're walking around campus. None seem to notice her, however. Neko doesn't care and playfully jumps around the nearby stairs to the rooftop.

At some point, she transforms into a cat, and meets Yashiro Isana. She finds him on the rooftop and eats some of his lunch. Neko proceeds to spend the rest of the day with him, following him to class, even to the city. Her attachment to Yashiro remains even after a pursuit made by several HOMRA members, Kuroh's following rescue of him, and his return to his school's dormitories.

Tired from his day's chaotic events, Yashiro lies on his bed, talking about the video. Neko, lying on his bed and now in her human form, sleepily says that things have been so good and peaceful until recently. Her presence, coupled with her nudity, overwhelms Yashiro. Neko does not react to his shock and, upon being asked, introduces herself.

Neko is then asked to put on Yashiro's jacket but she refuses, saying it's too restricting. He attempts to put it on her anyway, but Neko counters with her illusive abilities, assuming that now they'll be in a game of tag. Yashiro is unable to respond, as he is then attacked by Kuroh Yatogami; seeing him in danger, Neko stops Kuroh and grabs Yashiro's arm, running away from the room with him.

However, after Yashiro throws his jacket on her, Neko starts turning things into a chase, with her being followed by Yashiro who's being chased by Kuroh. Throughout the event, Neko constantly uses her abilities to distract the two teenagers, thus extending the little "game". The chase ensues throughout the evening, night, and even the next morning. By dawn, Neko and the others have become exhausted and hungry, so Yashiro decides to make breakfast. She persists that he doesn't include certain ingredients in the soup he's making. However, Kuroh ends up making the food instead for the three of them.

Throughout breakfast, Neko constantly forgets her table manners and just stuffs herself on Kuroh's food. However, she attempts to thank for her meal when she sees Kuroh and Yashiro do so, only she thanks for the "meow" instead. Afterward, Kuroh attempts to kill Yashiro again, causing Neko to jump from her seat and hiss angrily at him. He asks who she is and Neko reintroduces herself. She states she does not understand Kuroh when he asks if she is a Strain. Neko does state that she is Yashiro's cat and that Yashiro is hers, causing her to jump about happily.

The following morning, Neko awakens to see that Kuroh has already prepared lunch. She takes a bite from a bento, and is thus chased by Kuroh for it. While avoiding him, Neko sees Yashiro being pulled away by a cleaning robot, causing her to attack the mechanism.

Neko later accompanies Yashiro to his classroom, albeit in her cat form. While he's writing out plans for his alibi, Neko picks up a red pen for him to use. Kuroh notices her and lets out a loud cry, startling Neko and causing her to transform back into her Human self. Embarrassed, she attempts to laugh it off.

During the lunch break, she happily eats the food Kuroh prepared for her before asking for more. She is offered extras by Kukuri, though she is disappointed to see that they only contain vegetables.

Afterwards, Neko goes with Yashiro and Kuroh to change into their Feudal Japan outfits. She is clueless about how to put hers on. As a result, Kuroh dresses Neko himself. While being dressed, she listens to Kuroh and Yashiro talk. She claims that she's always been with Yashiro since they first met, adding that he is good. Once she's been dressed, Kukuri checks on the three of them and compliments them on their looks. She states that Neko looks beautiful, which the latter agrees with.

She follows Yashiro, Kuroh and Kukuri across the campus to scavenge any information relating to December 7. However, Neko fails to be of any help to any one of them. Instead, she plays around with the cleaning robots or otherwise whines to be given food. When Yashiro goes to buy her a drink, he is revealed to have lied to Kuroh about how he enters the school campus, leading the latter to decide that he should be killed. Neko clutches onto Yashiro and tries to stop Kuroh from hurting him. She says that Yashiro is a "warm" person and proclaims her desire to continue having snacks with him. Yashiro pushes her behind him, and Neko takes the opportunity to hug him. Thankfully, Yashiro is spared from Kuroh's wrath after Kukuri reveals that he was on school campus on December 7-8. To this, Neko celebrates her feelings of relief with Yashiro.

Neko returns to Yashiro's homeroom with Kuroh and Kukuri. She is given rice crackers to eat, though is astonished to find that they are actually very spicy. Kukuri tells her that she will give out spicier rice crackers if she brings back Yashiro. Neko eagerly goes to Yashiro's room to complete her orders. She notices that Yashiro appears less cheerful than normal and asks whether he's having a stomachache, though Neko is told not to worry about him.

She takes his advice and brings him with her back to his classroom. Once there, Neko whines consistently for her rice crackers to be given to her. Though she does not receive her crackers, Neko is asked to go to the city with Yashiro and Kuroh, which she gladly agrees to do.

While in the city, she constantly whines about being hungry, aggravating Kuroh enough to stop at a restaurant to eat. Neko happily eats the grilled fish that they order and even tries to steal from Kuroh's tray. She is slapped aside though Yashiro gives her his fish anyway, making her cheer. While she continues eating, Neko notices Yashiro staring at a bulletin near them and wonders why. After they've eaten, all three head to a store nearby. Because Kuroh cannot read the list of items Kukuri sent them out to get specifically, he decides to call her instead. Neko whines not to and that they should go back to the school and ask her directly again. She starts crying and says that she hates telephones. When Kuroh asks why, Neko begins screaming and transforms into her cat form, darting away from the three.

As night falls, Neko finds her way to a soccer stadium that Yashiro and Kuroh have gone to. When members of the SCEPTER 4 force arrive to take them into custody Neko uses her abilities to create an illusion for them, causing everyone in the vicinity to believe that they are in the streets of Shizume City during the day. Neko quickly reverts to her human form and leads Yashiro to an exit, with Kuroh following them. They are halted with the appearance of Lieutenant Awashima, and then the arrival of the Blue King. Neko returns to her cat form but is forcefully ejected from it due to the King's interference. Kuroh tells her to leave with Yashiro to leave immediately. Neko obeys his orders and runs off with her friend. However, they stop midway so that Yashiro can return to Kuroh and save him from the Blue King, albeit with Neko's illusive help.

Neko and Yashiro eventually regroup with Kuroh in a dark alley. Scared, Neko receives praise for her actions at the stadium from Yashiro, who is then explained that she can manipulate memories in addition to creating illusions. Neko is asked to help Yashiro rediscover his past through her memory-altering ability. Though hesitant at first, she obliges. Through a film-like montage, she shows Yashiro her first memory of him, which was early on the 8th of December. Afterwards, she is asked to help him rediscover her memories from before. Though unsure of her powers, Neko is able to bring them back to him. However, Neko makes him recall a particularly frightening memory that shocks him, and puts her into worry.

Powers & Abilities
Transformation: Perhaps her most complex ability, Neko is able to change her form and voice at will. In her case, she can transform into either a human, teenage girl or a small kitten. In some cases, when Neko transforms abruptly, there is a small cloud of smoke that briefly obscures her during the changing process.

Illusion: Using the chimes made created by her bells, Neko is able to conjure various illusions. These illusions are time-based and will lose their effects after a certain amount of time.
 * Visual Illusion: Neko can create illusions that cause her victims to see an image different than the one they should be seeing. In most cases, she creates an illusion in relation to the environment she and her victim are in, which causes the latter to view a distorted version of the setting.


 * Physical Illusion: In addition, Neko can conjure physical illusions which take on a solid form. They can range from non-moving objects, such as a wall, or moving objects, such as an animal. In the case of an illusion that portrays a living creature, Neko can have it so that they can have unique traits, such as voice and movement. These types of illusions are typically cat-themed.


 * Memory Alteration: Kuroh Yatogami also suspected that through her illusions, she could manipulate people's memories as well. As she could made all students of Ashinaka High School to believe that Yashiro Isana is a member of the student body. There seems to be a range limit for this ability, as the students memories of Shiro are gone while she was away.

Appearances in Other Media
Neko has her own character song, titled Neko no Uta.