Mimi

Mimi is Asuna Watase’s longtime cat and an independent presence in her journey through Agartha. Raised with Asuna since she was small, Mimi first appears as a familiar companion who ordinarily answers her calls. Yet when she chooses to follow Shun into the forest, and later remains behind rather than return to the surface with Asuna, the story makes clear that their bond does not give Asuna command over her. Mimi’s eventual death and the arrival of a Quetzal Coatl for her body extend that independence into the novel’s mysterious nonhuman world.

Identity and Bond with Asuna

Mimi has been raised alongside Asuna since Asuna’s childhood. Their familiarity is expressed through an ordinary expectation: when Asuna calls, Mimi usually comes running. That pattern makes Mimi’s first refusal significant. After Shun disappears into the trees, Mimi follows him with quick, light steps, ignoring Asuna’s call. Asuna tries to call after the pair but cannot find the words; she can only watch them go. Mimi’s choice is an early break in the routine of human summons and feline response, and it leaves Asuna unable to decide where her companion belongs.

Following Shun and Guarding the Passage

Mimi’s later actions place her in the path of a Quetzal Coatl guarding a corridor. When Ryuuji Morisaki takes aim with his gun, Asuna is unsure whether to stop him. Before she can act, Mimi jumps down from Asuna’s shoulder and runs directly toward the creature. The Quetzal Coatl does not attack. It lowers its head until it and Mimi face one another nose to nose, and Mimi casually jumps onto its head. The gatekeeper neither bucks nor rampages; instead, it moves away from the corridor entrance, allowing Asuna and Ryuuji Morisaki to approach and pass. Mimi’s behavior changes the immediate danger into an opening, though the scene does not explain what she understands about the creature or their relationship.

Refusing to Leave Agartha

When Asuna climbs into the boat to depart, she turns back and calls Mimi to come along. Mimi is sitting on Manna’s head and answers only with a meow; she does not move from her perch. Asuna watches with fretful impatience, but an old man interprets the refusal as a choice beyond human authority. He says that Mimi may have fulfilled her role and that humans cannot dictate the actions of Yadoriko. His words connect Mimi’s earlier actions with the Quetzal Coatl to a larger, still unexplained purpose. They also make her refusal more than a practical obstacle to Asuna’s departure: Mimi will not be treated as a possession whose destination Asuna can decide.

Death and the Quetzal Coatl

Later, Shin wakes to sobs and finds Manna holding Mimi’s still body while the old man looks after her. The narrative establishes that Mimi has died, but does not state the cause. The old man says that something should arrive before long; a Quetzal Coatl then approaches from the horizon. Shin recognizes the ancient creature as it reaches the pedestal and takes Mimi’s corpse into its hands. The scene does not reveal what happens to Mimi afterward. Instead, it closes her arc by returning her body to the presence of the same kind of being with which she had earlier met face to face. Across these encounters, Mimi remains more than a companion in Asuna’s care: her actions and final passage resist human control, while their meaning remains only partly known.