Manga- Netflix
Hikari Kuina (
) to Spades (
).
Appearance[]
Kuina is a slim and busty tanned woman with waist-length black dreads, and a straight white strip of hair that hangs to the right of her face. While at the Beach, she wears a black two-piece bikini with ribbon ties and a couple of ankle bracelets on her left ankle. She often has a fake cigarette in her mouth, although she quit smoking after entering the Borderland.
Personality[]
As depicted during the events of the Beach arc, Kuina is easy-going and amiable. She communicates in an informal way, using colloquial speech which aligns with her relaxed manners.
History[]
Kuina is a transgender woman, who was assigned male at birth, as detailed in Chapter 25 of the manga. Her parents, a harsh dōjō master and a considerate mother, expected her to become her father's competent successor in the martial arts. Though she did her best to perfect her abilities in order to relieve the tension between her parents, she was always scolded by her father for failing to deliver the decisive blow to her opponent.
It was during this time that Kuina began putting on makeup and experimenting with herself. Her mother encouraged Kuina to follow her own path, and eventually Kuina left home and underwent gender reassignment surgery to become a woman. Kuina then procured a job as a boutique clerk (a job in which she states she "always got herself into trouble").
Some time later, Kuina received news that her parents had divorced and that her mother's health was weakening. She rushed to her mother's side and vowed to take care of her for the rest of her natural life. It was around this time that Kuina was sent to the Borderland, and she became determined to return to the original world to reunite with her mother.
Story[]
The Beach[]
Kuina introducing herself to Arisu
When Ryohei Arisu and Yuzuha Usagi arrive at the Beach, Kuina approaches them in order to evaluate their suitability as accomplices. Kuina first attempts to befriend Arisu by disclosing her motivation for returning to the original world, and warns him to avoid any trouble with Morizono Aguni's "martial sect". When Arisu discovers the disposed-of human corpses outside of the Beach, Kuina and Shuntaro Chishiya reveal their plan: stealing the entirety of the cards from the Beach society, since they have been told that only one person with the complete deck of cards will be allowed to leave the Borderland.
Unbeknownst to Kuina, Chishiya betrays Arisu in a gambit to obtain the full deck of cards by giving out Arisu's location to the militants, resulting in Arisu being beaten up by Niragi and taped to a chair in a suite. Kuina spots Chishiya preparing to successfully leave the Beach and calls him out. His indifference to her summons only changes when they both witness a car exploding after leaving the Beach. Kuina decides to drag Chishiya into the hotel lobby, where the "Witch Hunt" game had begun.
Ten of Hearts[]
When Chishiya abandons Kuina to pursue his own interests, Kuina roams the Tennis Court Clubhouse with heavy thoughts about his true colors. It is there that she discovers Ann and her companion rummaging around inside the building, and comments upon the possibility of the two being caught and murdered by the militants. Ann replies that she is looking for something "essential", which results in Kuina asking:
"Weapons? Don't suppose you thinkin' about fightin' back with a racket."
— Kuina's guessed remark to Ann's response
Ann continues the conversation by mentioning her views: she does not believe in violence; her fundamentals lie in science. She mentions that she can retrieve the fingerprints from the knife that killed Momoka and plans use them to pinpoint The Witch's identity. Confused by Ann's answer, Kuina asks who she was before entering the Borderland, and Ann answers that she was a forensic scientist for the Metropolitan Police who specialized in fingerprint analysis.
Kuina confused towards Ann
After learning of Ann's plan to analyze the fingerprints at the crime scene, Kuina agrees to help. Ann's companion scouts the hotel lobby, ensuring that it is free of militants. The trio then moves quickly to Momoka's corpse and the two women begin their inspection while Ann's companion guards them. Kuina once again asks whether Ann's previous career in forensics can solve the mystery. Ann reassures Kuina and the corpse that she will find the Witch with the knife in hand.
Ann plucks the knife from Momoka's body using a clean napkin and places the weapon in a plastic bag. Kuina finally asks Ann to reveal her "trick". Instead of answering, Ann says there is not enough time, and mentions cyanoacrylate glue. She describes how to extract fingerprints by heating the cyanoacrylate in superglue, and holding the item over the rising vapors to reveal the prints. Then, she sprinkles cocoa powder on objects the suspect touched and uses scotch tape to lift the fingerprints from the surface. This allows Ann to compare the fingerprint to the knife. Ann's complicated process and explanation greatly confuses Kuina, and she sarcastically apologizes.
"Haha...Sorry for asking..."
Last Boss approaching Kuina and Ann
Ann's companion inquires whether the individuals she referenced are affiliated with the militant group, and Ann confirms his question. Kuina notes that the majority of the militants may have left their fingerprints in the royal suites and instructs both of them to move carefully. As they prepare to leave, Ann and Kuina hear a slicing sound from behind and witnesses Ann's companion with a katana impaled through his left chest. The katana-wielding Last Boss pulls the weapon out, and approaches both women, under orders from Aguni to kill everyone at the Beach. Kuina instructs Ann to hurry and leave the scene. Once Ann evacuates the area, Kuina attempts to negotiate with Last Boss: Ann's forensic expertise in extracting thumbprints could solve the mystery of the Witch's identity, thus ending the game and preventing more deaths.
"Hey...Uh...How 'bout we stop all this killin' mess? Up until yesterday, wasn't we all best buds here at the Beach?"
— Kuina attempting to negotiate with Last Boss
Despite Kuina's best efforts to prevent additional deaths, her words cannot sway the indifferent and emotionless Last Boss, who dashes at her and manages to cut her left cheek with his katana. Kuina protects herself with a chair, but when Last Boss strikes at Kuina again, it breaks beneath the sword's blow. Kuina retreats, putting a table between them and trying to talk some sense into Last Boss once more. She wonders why he refuses to give up before asking what his life was like before the Borderland. She laughs loudly at Last Boss' response, but then the shock sets in.
She apologizes for her sudden laughter and explains that she understands the feeling of hating one's past. She mentions that ever since she arrived in the Borderland, she has been stubbornly keeping her past locked away. But because she has now seen the similarities between her and Last Boss, she is no longer willing to turn her back on her past and decides to bravely face it instead.
Kuina on the floor in a dojo gi before she transitioned
Kuina explains how her past shaped her: the former son of a strict dojo master who often scolded her for being unable to live up to his high expectations. Her flashbacks show a young Kuina crying and kneeling in fear while being berated and punished by her father, who ordered that she could have no dinner until she had completed one thousand punches. Although Kuina's mother gently asked her husband for lenience in his training, he argued that if Kuina was a man, then she would be able to endure the training. Kuina did her best to live up to her father's high expectations despite the constant challenge.
"But, Dad...In reality, I'm not the son you hoped for..."
— Kuina looking at herself holding and wearing lipstick
After detailing her past, Kuina positions herself in a traditional martial arts stance that is both protective and ready for action. As he begins to comprehend Kuina's past, Last Boss comments on the irony of the two of them having the same eyes, before accepting that they are both cut from the same cloth. He tosses aside his rifle and advances in a threatening manner.
Kuina looking at herself
Initially hesitant to fight, Kuina recalls memories from her pre-transition childhood. She remembers defeating an opponent in the dojo, but hesitating to finish him off. When her father angrily yelled at her to abandon her "useless compassion", she looked back at her nearly defeated opponent and exited the match (which angered her father further). After the match, her parents fought again, with her mother asking her father to show more compassion and her father refusing to do so. While Kuina experimented with lipstick, her mother knocked on the door, startling her daughter. She explained that if Hikari felt she truly did not belong at the dojo, she would always support her daughter if she chose to live freely. Kuina understood her mother's implied words and left home after apologizing to her father and thanking him for his teachings.
When Kuina gathers the courage to defeat Last Boss, she notices a pertinent detail: his sword may have been dulled after being soaked in blood. Kuina chooses to run and stop him. She predicts his next move is to cut off her left wrist, and ducks under the swinging sword before pushing herself away. When Last Boss taunts her for offering little in the fight and feeling fearful, Kuina is reminded of another one of her memories.
Kuina's face frozen in panic
In her third flashback, Kuina rushed into a hospital room and found her mother resting in a hospital bed. Her mother complimented her new appearance and hair. Kuina asked her mother why she did not deliver the news of both the divorce and her sudden illness during Kuina's gender transition.
"Is everything my fault? Because I was selfish?"
— Kuina blaming herself for her mother's troubles
Kuina's mother calmly asked Kuina why she immediately jumped to blaming herself, then reassured her daughter that it was okay to find and nurture her own happiness. Kuina asked her mother if she could be her caregiver and started to cry while vowing to stay by her side no matter what. The scene suddenly changed, with Kuina finding herself in the Borderland, wondering where she was before she yelling for her mother's whereabouts.
Shaking herself out of the sudden flashback, a tired Kuina asks Last Boss an emotional question:
"Have you ever felt the pain of not being able to see your loved one?"
She immediately answers that it is worse than experiencing death, and looks straight at Last Boss before beginning to ruthlessly interrogate him. She clarifies there are different ways for a person to survive, and asks him if his tattoos and habit of flaunting his katana make him feel like a warrior.
Kuina delves deeper, questioning whether he thinks those choices would make him feel stronger and allow him to protect himself. She coldly insults him by calling him a child unable to do anything since he separated from his "mother's tits". She yells at Last Boss for his inadequate feelings of protecting his loved ones and calls out his past habit of relying on his mother, all while having a complex about her. She angrily declares that the two of them are not comparable in any way. Kuina's insulting speech triggers a few of Last Boss' pre-Borderland memories, and he angrily screams at her to shut up.
Triggered into a rage, Last Boss raises his katana high and swings downward with the intent of delivering a killing blow - but a plastic water bottle stops his weapon from hitting Kuina's face. His dull katana is unable to penetrate the bottle, and he immediately notices the mistake before Kuina kicks him in the neck. Her sudden kick causes Last Boss to fly across the room and land on the hotel floor.
Kuina delivering the last blow
Last Boss holds his throat and begins to cough up blood, but Kuina punches him in the face with a hard blow that knocks him out. Kuina looks at the battered Last Boss and explains that she did not hesitate to give the final blow to him, as she did it both out of survival and to protect those she loves.
"OSU!!!"
— Kuina screaming out her fighting yell after defeating Last Boss
Although she successfully defeats Last Boss, she is later shown unconscious, beaten, and being dragged by her dreadlocks by a seriously threatening Aguni.
A violent altercation between Aguni and Arisu occurs when Arisu asks Aguni if he is the Witch. After a few minutes of aggressive verbal and physical attacks between multiple people, it stops when Arisu yells out who the Witch may be, with an injured Ann confirming to everyone that he is "absolutely right".
Arisu's intensive thinking and Ann's investigation reveal that Momoka is the Witch due to the reverse grip on the knife's handle, concluding that Momoka stabbed herself with her two hands. Although Momoka's body is cast into the Fire of Judgment, it is Niragi's later act of setting the hotel - and eventually, the entire Beach - on fire that forces everyone (including Kuina, with aid from others) to evacuate.
Chishiya casually greeting Kuina
The group watches the entire Beach burn down in varying states of despair. While Kuina looks at the fire, Chishiya stands next to her and casually greets her. He first comments on her awful state, then in a backhanded manner he comments that she is safe. Embittered about Chishiya's past betrayal of his allies, and his rash decision to abandon her, Kuina breaks her alliance with him.
"Could you get lost? If I get a look at your face, I don't think I'll be able to hold back"
— Kuina cutting off her alliance with Chishiya and threatening to hurt him
Kuina's harsh words do not bother Chishiya, who simply remarks that she cannot be cruel. He clarifies that although he may act like this, the Ten of Hearts caught him in an unsettling and confusing manner. Chishiya tells Kuina a fact about the origins of the word "Utopia": a word with Greek origin created by the English philosopher Thomas More with intense irony in mind, meaning "a place that does not exist".
Interval[]
Second Stage[]
King of Clubs[]
After surviving "Witch Hunt" and King of Spades' attack, Kuina joins Arisu, Usagi, Kodai Tatta, and Suguru Niragi to challenge the King of Clubs and wins - at the cost of Tatta's life.
Exhibitions[]
Aware of Arisu's decision to stop playing games, Kuina clears the Jack of Spades alone.
Queen of Hearts[]
Once the last game is cleared, Kuina, after a brief hesitation, decides to reject permanent residency and departs immediately with the rest of her allies.
After Borderland[]
Kuina is last seen happily accompanying her mother in the real world.
Games Played[]
Abilities and Skills[]
- Martial arts expertise.
Kuina was a highly experienced martial artist, able to take on Last Boss, a proficient swordsman, without the use of her own weapons. Thanks to her experience with martial arts, she also had a superior sense of agility and dexterity, which gave her an advantage in hand-to-hand combat. - Resourcefulness.
Thought she was no genius, Kuina was a quick thinker. During her duel with Last Boss, she was able to assess the situation, realizing that his blade must have been dulled by the constant blood it had been exposed to and the flesh it had cut through. Thinking fast, she deflected his blow with an empty plastic bottle, which successfully blocked the attack, opening an opportunity for her to kick him in the neck and gain herself the upper hand.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The forename Hikari is written with the kanji "光" (light).
- The surname Kuina is a combination of the kanji "水" (kui) (water) and "鶏" (na) (rail, fowl, chicken).
- Kuina is inspired by the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. Like the Caterpillar, Kuina always smokes a cigarette (a reference to the hookah smoked by the Caterpillar), and her transgender status is a reference to the moment the Caterpillar transforms into a butterfly.
- The connection between caterpillars and butterflies is further emphasized by the fact that "Kuina" is a homophone of "Queen" (クイーン, Kuīn), likely a reference to the Queen butterfly, Danaus gilippus (クイーン・バタフライ ダナウス, Kuīn Batafurai Danausu).
- Kuina is the only person in the series to have had a change in their specialty.