Mitsuba Sousuke

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Mitsuba (ミツバ), real name Mitsuba Sousuke (三葉惣助) is a ghost haunting Kamome Academy Middle School's lockers. He was a student at Kamome Academy's Middle School division and a member of the photography club before his death.

After being recreated by Tsukasa, he consumed the former School Mystery No.3's heart and is now the current representative of the 3rd School Mystery.

Appearance
Mitsuba is a slender and tall middle school-aged ghost with pink hair and eyes. He has a mole under his left eye.

He has medium-length hair with bangs that covers his right eye, and the back of his hair is usually tied up into a small ponytail, with hairpins holding it up. He wears a teal ear piercing on his left ear.

Mitsuba wears a cream-colored scarf with light brown stripes and a pink, long-sleeved sweater over the Kamome Middle School division uniform, its sleeve always covering his right hand.

He has a scar on the back of his neck, presumably a mark from the accident that caused his death. It can be assumed that the burn marks on one side of his scarf and his (probably) missing right hand also resulted from the same incident.

Since his reappearance in Volume 6, he has been shown to have gotten a new scarf that is dark brown in color, and has no singed edges.

In his School Mystery No.3's clothes, he wears a tattered black jacket embellished with eyes over his regular clothes. His hair is speckled with black feathers. His red sneakers are changed into a pair of black boots with shackles attached to his right shoe. His remaining arm is replaced with a bird talon. His scarf is now red, with golden trinkets and a lock attached to it. The scarf extends into bony exoskeleton, which Mitsuba can use as appendages Throughout the series, he has been repeatedly noted to have good looks, and Mitsuba himself acknowledges this. Although, the (now former) 3rd School Mystery remarked that he is only slightly above average in terms of looks.

Personality
Mitsuba is cocky, foul-mouthed, and very confident in himself, particularly his looks, and often brags about how cute he is. He has a tendency to call people by rude nicknames, and isn't afraid to throw insults. He knows how to get on people's good sides, and sometimes acts nice to someone if he needs to get on their good side. He has also been shown to be quick to cry, especially in threatening situations.

Due to his personality making him a target of bullying in elementary school, he created another, gentler personality in middle school to get along with others better. During this time, Mitsuba is nice, considerate, and friendly with everyone.

Despite being rude and loud, Mitsuba also has a more mellow side to him. He gets noticeably dispirited when talking about his past, gets lonely easily, and though he seems to have a hard time being honest (choosing to hurl harsh words instead), at times he is able to genuinely express happiness and kindness.

He is very fond of his camera and photography, almost to the point of obsession, according to Kou. He was a member of the school's photography club and had won several awards.

Mitsuba Arc
Mitsuba was first introduced through a rumor of a ghost that haunts the middle school lockers, grabbing people as they change their shoes and asking them "Do you remember me?". Kou caught him on the act when he grabbed his arm, and after consulting with Hanako, Kou decided to help him finish his unfinished business so he could move on from the world of the living.

Deciding that Mitsuba's unfinished business was that he had a picture he wanted to take, Kou took Mitsuba's camera and they go around the school taking photos of anything that catches Mitsuba's attention. During this, Kou's friend mentioned that Mitsuba had died from an accident during that year's winter, and that he was in the same class as them during their first year.

Mitsuba revealed that he had been bullied in elementary school for his personality, and he tried to be nicer to people starting in middle school, including towards Kou and his friends. The source of the school locker ghost rumors was him visiting people he knew when he was alive, to see if they remembered him. Though, out of everyone he asked, not a single person did. Kou apologized for not recognizing Mitsuba, because he had acted so differently than he did when he was alive, and tells him that they could still be friends even if Mitsuba had died.

As they were making their way home for the day, promising they'd meet again the next day to process the photos taken that day, Tsukasa appeared. He attacked Mitsuba and revealed that Mitsuba had asked him to grant his wish, to stay in everyone's memories, and that he wasn't happy Mitsuba's trying to move on without consulting him.

With the help of Sakura's radio channel, Tsukasa altered Mitsuba's rumor into "The Bent-Neck Boy at the School Entrance", and changing Mitsuba's form and nature along with it. Apparently, Mitsuba's original wish was too vague, and Kou had helped bring out his actual wish; which is to have friends, and to stay with them forever. This allowed Tsukasa to turn Mitsuba into a more powerful supernatural.

The newly-formed Mitsuba who had lost his mind as an exchange for having his wish granted attacked Kou and tried to break his neck. He was successfully defeated by Hanako and disappeared, only leaving behind his camera.

Reach Out Your Hand
Mitsuba appears at the very end of the chapter.

Hell of Mirrors Arc
Mitsuba appears after the disembodied hands dragged Nene into the 3rd School Mystery's boundary. The two progress through the Hell of Mirrors together and attempt to find a way to exit or find the Mystery's yorishiro. Mitsuba jeers at and teases Nene, but since she agrees to help him out and is nice to him, he seems to like her. After Tsukasa appears and defeats the Mystery, he attempts to force Mitsuba to consume its heart in order to become stronger. Mitsuba, clearly upset and scared by this, attempts to escape from Tsukasa until Nene tells Tsukasa to stop. Eventually, he does end up consuming the heart, and assumes the role of the 3rd Mystery, gaining a new outfit and enhanced abilites.

When Kou and Hanako enter the area, Kou is shocked to see his former friend, and attempts to speak with him. However, Mitsuba does not remember Kou, and it is revealed that the Mitsuba in the Hell of Mirrors was created by Tsukasa from part of the old Mitsuba's soul. As a result, the new Mitsuba does not remember his life as a human or his time spent as a ghost. He does, however, have the same personality and even refers to Kou by the same mocking nickname as he did before. Tsukasa tells Mitsuba that he can do anything he wants as a school mystery, and so Mitsuba wishes to become a real human and live a normal life. However, Hanako dissuades him from this, since neither ghosts nor created supernaturals can be allowed to live as humans.

The Melancholy of the New No.3
This chapter follows Mitsuba in the aftermath of his encounter with Hanako and the others in the Hell of Mirrors.

Picture Perfect Arc
Mitsuba appears as a normal classmate of Kou's, as if his death back in his 2nd year had never happened.

Later, it's revealed that the fake world's version of Mitsuba is actually the one from the real world, having been brought to this world by Mei in order to grant his wish to live as a human. He reveals that he has seen everything that the old Mitsuba experienced, both in life and death, and is jealous of him. He believes that Kou is not actually his friend, and does not want to be. Kou disagrees, and says that he still wants to be his friend, going so far as to say the two could die together in order to prove it.

Minamoto Kou
At first, Kou and Mitsuba did not get along, as Kou finds his Mitsuba's attitude annoying and Mitsuba continuously insulted him, calling him a "Hella-Lame, Traffic-Safety-Earring Boy" and generally being rude.

However, once he finds out Mitsuba's reason behind his haunting, they quickly came to an understanding. Hearing about how Mitsuba was bullied in the past and how he tried to fake a personality to fit in better yet ending up being forgotten, either way, Kou assured him that he'd remember "Mitsuba Sousuke" as someone who's "cocky, looks like a girl, sarcastic, selfish, has an annoying voice, obsessed with his camera, goes emo sometimes, and is only fake nice", and that he only needed to be himself to make friends. It was also found out that Mitsuba used to be Kou's classmate.

When Mitsuba asked if they would have been friends if he were still alive, Kou responded that it didn't matter if he's dead and that they could still be friends. Mitsuba also took a picture of him, and when asked what photo he took, he answered that it was "something important" to him.

Having never made any friends in middle school, Mitsuba greatly appreciated Kou's company, and his declaration they're friends. He was able to be more genuine and display emotional vulnerability around him.

During their reunion in the Hell of Mirrors, Mitsuba did not recognize Kou due to losing his memories. Currently, he seems to think of Kou as just a weird guy that tried to insist he remember him.

Yugi Tsukasa
Sometime after his death, Mitsuba made a wish to Tsukasa to not be forgotten by people, however the wish was too unclear for him to be able to make anything but a weak supernatural form for Mitsuba, which he then used to haunt the school lockers in order to speak to his schoolmates.

After Mitsuba's real wish was drawn out thanks to his involvement with Kou, Tsukasa took advantage of the vagueness of the wish and twisted the rumors about him, turning him into "The Bent-Neck Boy at the School Entrance". This altered, monstrous form is more powerful, but has also lost the humanity that Mitsuba once had.

In the Hell of Mirrors Arc, it was revealed that Tsukasa had created Mitsuba using an amalgamation of body parts he found as well as part of his original soul. This newly formed "Mitsuba" has the same personality but does not retain any of the original's memory. Tsukasa then gifted him with a brand new scarf that is dark brown in color. This Mitsuba doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that he was Tsukasa's creation, or that his "original" version was once a normal human.

Mitsuba is scared of Tsukasa, as he often forces him to do things he doesn't want to, like eating Number 3's heart in order to make him a school mystery. However, having lost his memories, he sticks closely by Tsukasa, the first person he ever met. He seems to have settled in somewhat with Sakura and Tsukasa, though he still teases Mitsuba sometimes.

Yashiro Nene
Prior to the story, Mitsuba took pictures for Nene's gardening club back in middle school, but the two did not formally met until the Hell of Mirrors arc, after the disembodied hands brought her to him.

At first sight, she thought that he looked handsome and prince-like, but Mitsuba quickly shattered that impression by commenting on how fat Nene's ankles are. When he explained that he was trapped in the boundary and had asked the hands to bring him someone that could help, he quickly won Nene over by acting cute in front of her so she would help.

Later, he revealed that he does not remember anything about his former life or the cause of his death, and that's probably why the mirror boundary hadn't been able to attack him yet.

When the 3rd School Mystery's minions began attacking them and Nene was caught, he tried to save her by throwing items at her attackers, but he also ended up getting caught.

Mitsuba seems pretty fond of Nene as a senpai. He protected her from falling debris after he accidentally hit them with his new powers, and tried to impress her by exclaiming that he's gotten stronger now, even though Nene didn't really understand. When he forcefully pulled Nene, Kou and Hanako out of the mirror boundary, he told her to keep quiet, and that they'd see each other again.

Hyuuga Natsuhiko
Mitsuba and Natsuhiko seems to be on good terms, despite the fact that Mitsuba never calls Natsuhiko by his name and doesn't want to be friends with him.

Low-Level Supernatural (Formerly)
Mitsuba is visible to the human eye, though distorted, when he grabs a person's hand and asks them if they know who he is at the school's lockers. In other circumstances, he is invisible to normal people except for those with supernatural affiliations, such as Kou.

"Bent-Neck Boy at the School Entrance" (Formerly)
In this form, Mitsuba seems to have lost all of his humanity. His body is made out of eyes and camera parts, loosely bound together with bandages, and has an exposed chest crevice. Instead of tears, black substances flow from his eyes and mouth. He uses his bandages to attack and wrap the victim.

He does not respond verbally to anyone and appears if he does not remember Kou. Yako later reminisced when her rumor was altered, she felt like herself, but as if a different side of her came out. It is possible Mitsuba still recognized his surroundings, yet could not answer to it.

Number 3's Powers
After consuming Number 3's heart, he becomes the School Mystery Number 3. He now has command over the Hell of Mirror boundary. The boundary and its arms now respond to his request, shown by how he is able to forcibly remove Nene and company from the boundary. With his new powers, Mitsuba is able to manifest in the Kamome Academy's mirrors. He is also able to access every reflection that was captured within those mirrors and used it to gain information on his past.

He uses his exoskeleton-like scarf like an extension of himself, using them as extra limbs. When he is overwhelmed with distress, the scarf moves involuntarily, attacking whoever he perceives as threatening.

Trivia

 * Mitsuba's favorite snack is flan pudding.
 * His biggest concern is that he can't build any muscles.
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