Mio

Mio is curious, analytical and confident in her medical abilities. Traveling widely has exposed her to different cultures, and she takes particular interest in the unusual customs and phenomena surrounding Orth and the Abyss.

She becomes frustrated when observations refuse to fit a logical medical explanation. Rather than dismissing such contradictions, Mio investigates them further, making the mysterious illnesses around Orth particularly compelling to her.

She is also compassionate toward her patients. Her concern for sick children is practical rather than sentimental: she examines symptoms, considers environmental causes and continues searching when ordinary explanations fail.

Mio is an experienced pharmacist with medical knowledge sufficient to examine and treat patients while traveling with the Caravan Fleet. She has no supernatural abilities or demonstrated cave-raiding powers.

Her work gives her a useful outsider's perspective on illnesses affecting Orth. Because she travels beyond the island, Mio can compare conditions inside and outside the Abyss's immediate geographical influence.

This becomes particularly significant when Kiyui's mysterious illness rapidly improves after he is taken away from Orth, giving Mio evidence that the phenomenon may be geographically connected to the Abyss rather than behaving like an ordinary disease.

Mio first appears through material concerning events on the surface while Riko's journey continues below. She visits Orth and investigates the mysterious Birthday-Death Disease, whose victims fall ill around their birthdays.

Jiruo brings the seriously ill Kiyui aboard the caravan vessel. Mio is baffled when the boy's condition improves after leaving the island, despite her inability to identify a conventional medical reason for the recovery.

Her investigation becomes one of the surface storyline's links to the larger mysteries surrounding the Abyss and the recurring phenomena associated with its approximately 2,000-year cycle.

Kiyui becomes one of Mio's patients when his unexplained illness prompts Jiruo to seek medical help. His recovery after leaving Orth provides Mio with an important clue about the Birthday-Death Disease.

Laffi speaks with Mio during her time in Orth and helps connect her with local information.

Jiruo brings Kiyui to Mio when the child's condition becomes serious.