Mirai Takenou

Mirai Takenou is a side character in Mai Ball. She plays as a defensive midfielder for Kuryuin High School FC.

Background
Mirai plays futsal in a team called the “Wild Cats” alongside Amane Tatamaru. They are renowned in the street futsal scene, not only for their skills but also their physical approach. Amane has quite a nasty streak, purposefully stepping on her opponents legs, whereas Mirai simply barrels through them. Mirai and Amane recently transferred to Kuryuin and are the stars of their football team.

Appearance
Mirai is significantly taller than all of her teammates and opponents. Her muscular frame and style of play is very intimidating. She has long light brown hair and a tanned complexion. She has heterechromia (different coloured eyes), with her left eye being yellow and her right blue.

Personality
Outside of football, Mirai stays to herself and is generally quiet and uninterested. However, while playing, she gets very fired up and competitive. Despite her aggressive and physical style, along with her tendency to make underhanded plays, she never seems to make dangerous tackles or purposefully injure opponents, unlike Amane.

Chronology
Before Kuryuin take on Kijikita, she purposefully seeks out Mitsu Kurodate and walks into her, sending her flying. Her aggression and sheer size intimidates many Kijikita players, whereas Mitsu gets extremely angry, needing her players to drag her back. Having effectively wound Mitsu up, Mirai retreats content. She is shown to have a habit of doing this, as she also brushes into Shuna Sorimachi of Kijinan. Shuna does not take the bait, however, simply shooting her a wink and a smile. Despite her initial failure, this only seems to excite Mirai further.

Main Article: Kijikita vs. Kuryuin

 Before Kuryuin's game against Kijikita, Mirai openly shows her dislike of locker room small-talk, especially towards the goody-two-shoes attitude of Mahiru Hayami. Seconds into the game, her plan to anger Mitsu proves successful, as Mitsu immediately tries to take her on. Mirai responds by sending her flying again and taking control of the ball. This pattern repeats, and Kijikita's players eventually end up choosing not to pass to Mitsu. Having cut out Kijikita's most creative midfielder player, Mirai is able to boss the middle of the park both defensively and in attack. She is deceptively quick despite her size, and easily manages to hold off three Kijikita players at a time while running with the ball. Not only able to outrun or outmuscle her opponents, she also manages to distract Yuika Mishiro, as the defender has a strange love of muscles, and Mirai's muscular physique totally hypnotises her.

 After realising that Mitsu has become useless in attack, Chidori Kakiha begins to drift centrally to receive the ball more often. Mai Miyano also begins to receive the ball more in her “target man” role. Mirai quickly picks up on these changes and decides that the diminutive winger and Kijikita's #15 will be her next targets. She begins to put heavy challenges on the two of them, so much so that Mai gets so disheartened that she essentially drops out of the game. Her most questionable tackle comes after Chidori manages to block her shot on the line. Mirai then follows in by forcing the ball and Chidori over the line, sufficiently hitting her opponent in the process. This results in Kuryuin taking a 2-0 lead and Chidori requiring oxygen at half time.

 Unfortunately for her, Mirai begins to loose her grip on Mai as her opponent starts to fight back, even using some of Mirai's underhanded tactics, such as shirt-pulling. Mai finally gets the ball past her giant opponent with a flick, which allows Kiiro Inukai to close in to make it 2-1. Chidori later bests Mirai, as she cleverly wins a freekick by going over Mirai's outstretched leg while she makes a tackle. Chidori then outwits the entire Kuryuin squad, as she not only manages to pick the perfect spot to win a freekick – not too close, thus being dangerous, and not too far away, which would not worry her opponents – but also stays down long enough to take them off their toes for a few seconds. She quickly picks herself up and fires the ball to Mitsu, who duly converts to equalise. Mirai realises that she has been totally duped, and her admiration for Chidori's skill and know-how grows.

 During the final moments of the game, she seems to have made an assist after Amane scores, however the goal is disallowed for a foul on Reika Hakurai. Amane later wins a penalty, however slips during her run-up. Rinka Aomi quickly picks up the ball and throws downfield to Reika, who finds Mai on the run alongside Mitsu. Mirai quickly gives chase, however Mitsu manages to hold her off. This allows Mai to find Kiiro, who scores on the final play to steal the win.

 After the match, Mirai tracks down Chidori in order to give her her shirt as a sign of respect. She also signals to Mai that she wants a rematch against her. Mirai later urges her teammates to continue fighting when leaving the changing room, only to find Chidori's shirt left for her outside the door.

Following Kuryuin's defeat, Amane invites Mirai and Reika to play in a futsal match, however Reika elects to reject her. Mirai ends up having to persuade Reika, who decides to play in one match. In this match, Riria Konbaru's Kijiyama Unions, which is a team consisting of herself and four young boys, handily defeat Mirai's team. Mirai plays in goal, however is of little use as she seemingly lets the young boys score against her as she secretly loves kids.

Mirai is later shown in the crowd alongside Amane as Kijikita take on Kijinan in the final. Mirai watches on while Kijikita fall to a 3-0 deficit early in the game and generally looks uninterested in their weak display. However, in the second half, after seeing Mai lead a solo charge down the middle of the pitch in a style very similar to her own, while also bouncing off tackles and winning three consecutive freekicks, Mirai grins devilishly, seemingly excited by her former opponent's aggressive play. Seeing how the whole team pick themselves up for the second half and then how Mai overpowers Riria Konbaru to score and make it 3-2, Mirai is left positively beaming.

After the one-year timeskip in the final chapter, Mirai is shown on a magazine front cover, reporting on how she had made her professional debut in the Frauen-Bundesliga, Germany's highest league for women's football.

Relationships
Amane Tatamaru: Although they may not actually be strong friends, Amane and Mirai are most frequently seen around each other if they are not alone. Amane started talking to Mirai as she was a loner, whereas Mirai grew closer to her as she realised that she was a fighter, like herself. They are easily Kuryuin's best players. Mirai is at least one school year above Amane.

Mai Miyano: Mai sees Mirai in a poor light at first, as she cannot understand why she would play so physically. However, as the game progresses, Mai begins to grasp her opponent's playing style and figures out how to fight back. Their clashes expands Mai's knowledge of the game and teaches her how to succeed against aggressive players.

Chidori Kakiha: As with Mai, Mirai and Chidori clash several times throughout the game. Despite this, they show a mutual appreciation of each other's play and eventually swap shirts as a sign of respect.