Saki Benio

Saki Benio is a main character in Mai Ball. She attends  Kijiyama North High School  and plays as the left centre back for the girls' football team.

Background
Although Saki has never played football before, she has previously played basketball, so is naturally sporty and has a good leap. Kunimitsu picks her as the team's left centre back given her height.

Appearance
Saki has shoulder-length dark hair and dark purple eyes. She has a taste for shirts with strange slogans, buying a shirt that reads “yakitori with sauce.” If she is not wearing a t-shirt, she habitually rolls her sleeves up.

Personality
Saki is very optimistic, and is almost always able to see the good side of any situation. However, this works against her sometimes, as she does not feel bad when opponents dribble past her, believing that this will probably not be a problem in the end.

Chronology
After Kunimitsu decides that Saki will play as a centre-back, he also decides to train her to be a goalkeeper so that the team have some cover should Rinka be unavailable.

Main Article: Kijikita vs. Franklin

 The decision to train Saki to be a goalkeeper comes to fruition during the game against Franklin, as she goes in goal for the second half. Saki is confident and commanding in her new role, barking out instructions for Mai and Kiiro, who are filling in at centre back. She also puts her basketball skills to good use when claiming high balls into the box. With five minutes to go, she makes a reflex save with her left leg to deny Dute Serbanov, and denies her again later on with a save down low to her right. Her saves and the actions of her defenders just about ensure that Kijikita proceed to the next round.

 Following Kijikita's victory against Kuryuin, the Kijikita girls and Kunimitsu take part in a mini training game as part of a cool down session. In this game, Saki shows how she has grown as a defender as she manages to effectively man-mark her coach, to the shock of the rest of her teammates.

 Main Article: Kijikita vs. Kijinan II

Despite Saki's best efforts, Shuna Sorimachi manages to outfox both her and Rinka after taking the ball into the box, giving them both the eyes and slipping the ball into the other corner for her second goal of the game.

Kijikita concede another before the break and have to discuss tactical changes to try and come from behind. When Rinka says that she wants to play outfield again, Saki clashes with her as she does not want to play in goal again. With Kijikita 3-1 down, Saki plays a small part in the buildup to their second goal, putting Koyuzu Sugita under pressure to make her pass the ball quicker, which is then stolen by Chidori Kakiha and Reika Hakurai. This play ends with Mai scoring to cut the Kijinan lead to one. When Kijikita equalise, Riria Konbaru is taken out of goal to play in her old #10 position. However, things do not go as expected, as her first few passes end up too far in front of her teammates. While most suspect that Riria has simply lost it, Saki is the first to notice that each pass has split the Kijikita defence and that Konbaru is doing so with barely a split second on the ball. Despite picking up on this, Mia Momofuji still manages to beat Mai to a long ball forward, firing past Rinka with the last kick of the game, winning the tournament for Kijinan. After the game, Saki is seen consoling Yuika and Aoi.

Following the one-year timeskip in the final chapter, Saki takes part in Kijikita's game against Franklin, resulting in a Kijikita win. She also visits the Miyano bathhouse with her teammates, later visiting the new dumpling place in town before going to the arcade with Yoko and Mitsu. Kijikita are shown to have reached the final again this year, once again facing Kijinan in the final. Saki starts for one more showdown with the old enemy.

Trivia

 * Saki adapted very well to football and managed to juggle the ball 100 times at her first attempt. She could have gone even further, but she is not concerned enough about breaking records to bother.
 * Her teammates describe her as a “kissing freak,” as she likes to kiss her friends when congratulating them.
 * Saki's ghost stories are so scary that they keep her teammates up all night.
 * She has a younger brother who plays in the same baseball team as Mitsu's brother, Yuuta.
 * Loves to put mayonnaise on fried chicken.

Relationships
 Mitsu Kurodate : She and Mitsu often argue, as Saki regularly chastises her teammate as she does not like to defend.

 Rinka Aomi: Rinka and Saki often hang out on the weekend, and seem to get on well given that they have both played in goal. Saki is the straight-man to Rinka's perverted personality. Saki buys Rinka a shirt that reads “yakitori with salt.”