Mysterious Girlfriend X

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Mysterious Girlfriend X


caption = Mikoto Urabe brandishing her scissors is shown on the cover of the first manga volume.
ja_name = 謎の彼女X
ja_name_trans = Nazo no Kanojo X
genre = Romance, SupernaturalInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Riichi Ueshiba
publisher = Kodansha
publisher_other =
demographic = Seinen
magazine = Afternoon
first = 2004
last =
volumes = 3

nihongo|"Mysterious Girlfriend X"|謎の彼女X|Nazo no Kanojo X is a manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Riichi Ueshiba. It is serialized in Afternoon and published in tankōbon format by Kodansha.

"Mysterious Girlfriend X" is the story of high school student Akira Tsubaki and his classmate, a strange scissors-wielding girl named Mikoto Urabe, who begin an unusual romance after he becomes addicted to her saliva.

Plot

The story begins with Mikoto Urabe, a new transfer student, being introduced to Akira Tsubaki's class. She is assigned to a seat next to Akira, who is designated by their homeroom adviser to be her guide.

Akira and the rest of the class soon discover that Mikoto is an unusual girl. She makes no attempt to be sociable with her new classmates - choosing instead to sleep at her desk during breaktimes - and rebuffs the friendly advances of those who seek to get to know her better. These actions - and her breaking out in hysterical laughter in the middle of class on her first day at school - cause her to be labeled as a strange person and avoided by her classmates.

Leaving school late one afternoon, Akira returns to the classroom for his bag and finds Mikoto still asleep at her desk. Waking her up, he catches a glimpse of her pretty face (which is usually half-hidden by her bangs) before she leaves. Noticing some drool left by Mikoto on her desk, he absentmindedly tastes it before realizing what he is doing, and hurries home in embarrassment.

That night, Akira has a strange dream about himself and Mikoto. A few days later, he falls ill and collapses at school. Five days later, with his fever showing no signs of breaking, Mikoto visits him at his house and asks him whether he tasted the drool on her desk. Upon receiving an admission of guilt, she has him lick her saliva off her finger which, to Akira's amazement, causes his illness to subside immediately. Mikoto explains to him that he was suffering from "love sickness", and that he experienced withdrawal symptoms from not receiving her saliva since the day he first tasted it.

From the next day onward, Akira finds Mikoto waiting for him on his way home from school. They settle into a routine of him licking her saliva off her finger before they part ways in order to prevent a fresh onset of withdrawal symptoms. It is during one of these walks home that Akira learns that Mikoto keeps a pair of scissors tucked into her panties, and that she is very skilled in their use.

Akira eventually realizes he has fallen in love with Mikoto, and asks her to become his girlfriend. Mikoto tells him he first has to prove uniquely his desire for them to become a couple, which Akira does by using Mikoto's scissors to destroy a photograph of a girl he previously had a crush on. Overjoyed at Akira's unusual demonstration of love, Mikoto accepts.

Over time, Akira discovers that he and Mikoto can "communicate" to each other their emotions and the physiological states of their bodies through their saliva, and that Mikoto can also read his thoughts by tasting his saliva in turn. The rest of the manga chronicles significant milestones in the progress of the couple's relationship and the events leading up to them, and highlights the unique emotional and telepathic bonds they share.

Characters

;Akira Tsubaki:The story's main character. Since he has tasted Mikoto's drool the two have entered into a strange love relationship. He's reached the age where he's acquired some interest in the opposite sex, but his lack of experience and knowledge of Mikoto and her feeling for him are a hinderance to Akira, as he is unable to judge the pace of their relationship and make any progress in romancing Mikoto. Akira lives with only his sister after the death of their mother. Oka has also dubbed him as the possessive type, as he got jealous when many guys where considering to ask Urabe out after her new hairstyle shows off her face. He has recently become a fan of the idol Imai Momoka, but only because she looks just like Urabe and sees her in place of Imai.

: There is also a list of things he wishes to do with Urabe but is stopped in fear of her using her panty scissors on him. Through a twist in events he got to see a small glimpse of her completely nude in Chapter 25, of which he denied when asked because from an earlier event he didn't want to embaress her.: 1. Call her by her first name (which he is unaware is that it is something she wants): 2. Have a more physical relationship with her (wants to hold her, kiss her and dreams about having sex with her): 3. Getting a picture of her smiling (which he seems to use Imai Momoka to substitute)

;Mikoto Urabe:A transfer student who joins Akira's class at the start of the manga. She is considered strange by her classmates because of her unwillingness to socialize with others and her habit of sleeping at her desk during break times. Unknown to most people, she has the ability to communicate telepathically and transfer the physical condition of her body through her saliva and, on at least one occasion, through her perspiration - as well as read others' thoughts and have the physical condition of "their" bodies transferred to her via their saliva. This ability is limited to only a couple people, the reasons for which are not known, giving settle hints that she might be an alien (a UFO keychain, UFO pajamas, etc). She carries a pair of scissors with her at all times, and is very skilled in their use. She is also good at sports, and excels at running and swimming. Not much is known about Mikoto's family at this time. Every time Mikoto has had Akira visit her in her apartment her parents have been out but it has been stated that her father owns a house by the sea, hinting that her parents might be divorced or seperated. And after a certain incident in chapter 21, it appears she likes to have her left ear played with. She too has a possessive personality, getting really jealous when he looks at other girls, including girls in magazines (especially Imai Momoka who looks just like her) where she shreds them with her scissors.

;Ayuko Oka:A short (143 cm tall), bespectacled girl with a well-endowed chest, and the only person who knows that Akira and Mikoto are dating. She is interested in the unusual relationship between the couple, and wants to become friends with them. She inadvertently finds she has a saliva "bond" with Mikoto, very similar to that of Akira's. Ayuko's cooking is enjoyed by Mikoto and the two have lunch together often at school. While Mikoto has claimed she doesn't want to be friends, Ayuko has becomes Mikoto's closest companion at school. Her glasses have the tendency of fogging up when her heart beats fast enough.

;Kouhei Ueno:A bespectacled friend and classmate of Akira. He and Ayuko have been dating for about a year, but try to keep it a secret from their classmates. Only Akira and Mikoto are aware of their relationship. He often fondly recounts to Akira his experiences with Ayuko; Akira in turn gets romantic ideas to use on Mikoto from Kouhei's stories. He also seems to possess a possessive style as he won't take Oka to the beach because other guys will see her in a bikini and jealous when other guys talk to her.

;Youko Tsubaki:Akira's elder sister. She considers it her duty to raise Akira properly in place of their deceased mother, and refuses to consider getting married until Akira graduates and finds a job. [Riichi, U: "Mysterious Girlfriend X", Vol 2, pages 166-167. Afternoon KC, 2004. ISBN 978-4-06-314457-4] She spends her time housekeeping. Akira's occasional strange behavior from the effects of Mikoto's saliva sometimes makes Youko worry about her brother. Youko has met Mikoto, but is not aware of the full extent of her relationship with Akira. Mikoto led her to believe she was only a classmate Akira helps often at school. [Riichi, U: "Mysterious Girlfriend X", Vol 3, Afternoon KC, 2008. Ch. 19, 9-11. ISBN 978-4-06-314490-1]

Minor Characters

;Aika Hayakawa:A beautiful, long-haired girl who was Akira's classmate in middle school and also his first crush. She never learns of his feelings for her, and ends up attending a different high school after graduation. It is her photograph that Akira cuts up in order to prove his affection for Mikoto. He later meets her by coincidence while waiting for Mikoto where she asks if he would like to get get something to drink with her, but he kept the original promise he made with his girlfriend and turned her down. However, he later discovers that Mikoto was eaves dropping where through tasting her drool reveals she would have been extremely sad if he ditched her to go with Aika.

;Ogata:A popular, good-looking classmate of Akira and Mikoto who is also a star player of the school soccer team. He is interested in Mikoto and tries to ask her out, but she turns him down because, unlike Akira, his body has no reaction to her drool. [Riichi, U: "Mysterious Girlfriend X", Vol 1, Afternoon KC, 2004. Ch. 4, 6-10. ISBN 978-4-06-314424-6]

;Matsuzawa:An attractive, short-haired schoolmate of Akira who is one grade below him. She and Akira met through the school film club. She likes Akira because they share unusual tastes in movies. Although Akira in turn enjoys talking to her, he worries that the attention she gives him will make Mikoto jealous. [Riichi, U: "Mysterious Girlfriend X", Vol 2, Afternoon KC, 2004. Ch. 9, 3-9. ISBN 978-4-06-314457-4]

Volumes

# ISBN 978-4-06-314424-6, published on August 23, 2006
# ISBN 978-4-06-314457-4, published on June 22, 2007
# ISBN 978-4-06-314490-1, published on February 22, 2008

References

External links

*ann manga|id=8445