I-No

Story

During the Crusades, humanity’s future was under question, and people had to cling to whatever hope they had left. Their overwhelming desire for a brighter tomorrow was so intense that it began to materialize into Magical Foci. This conscious organism is born after a soul or powerful emotions are bound to them. The Backyard considered this organism an error that could end the world and sealed it and its irregular powers inside a human body, with I-No being the result. Even though she wasn’t aware of her origin, I-No focused on changing humanity’s bleak future for the better, but no matter how hard she tried, history kept repeating itself. 

She allies with That Man and makes it her goal to remove anyone who opposes him. Despite That Man not giving her orders, she targets Sol, who has been seeking That Man out for answers and revenge. I-No takes many steps to weaken and trap Sol, eventually almost killing him until Raven commands her to stop. That Man detained her for insubordination, but I-No escaped. Believing that That Man does want Sol dead, she chases after him once again and forces him to fight his past self. This trick doesn’t work, and I-No fails, this time getting frozen in time by That Man for an unknown period.

When Ramlethal Valentine declares war on humanity, I-No tries to do everything in her power to change the future, but her effort doesn’t bear fruit. That is until That Man is introduced to the time cycle and various abnormalities begin to happen. At first, she loses to Sol, who unexpectedly grows stronger, and then fails to defeat Ramlethal despite managing to kill her in previous attempts to alter the future. She later attempts to kill Axl Low for learning about The Original, but he reveals that he was only asked to give a message to That Man. Seeing this as a chance that things would change, she decided to help Axl and deliver the message. This turns out to be accurate as things start slowly shifting towards a better future.

I-No then cooperates with that man and awakens Jack-O, who immediately escapes due to childish whims. While attempting to track her, she encounters both Jack-O and Axl. While Axl begs her to send him back to his time, I-No explains to him that it’s impossible. Jack-O chimes in and reveals to them the origins of their power and that if Axl were to use his powers and go back, the current world would stop existing. I-No then realizes, That Man never needed her power. According to Jack-O, he only needed to keep her close, even if it was for good intentions. While still upset with this revelation, I-No has another conversation with Axl, trying to comfort him now that he has to choose between going back to his time and ending an entire world. After the Universal Will conflict is resolved, I-No completely stops working for That Man.

Losing value and enjoyment in doing what she considered her purpose, I-No was more conflicted and confused than ever. She plans to unite entire humanity as one in an endless reaction of time to understand herself. To achieve her goal, I-No breaks into Illaryan castle and rips Happy Chaos out of Ariels. Together they discuss what to do next and begin executing their roles. While Happy Chaos wakes Nagoriyuki from his hibernation, I-No lets herself be captured to allow G4 Summit to proceed. During her time in captivity, she talks with Jack-O and tells her about an old memory of the 20th century she thinks to be fake. Back then, she dated a man with long blonde hair named Will, and they wanted to spend all their lives together until he suddenly disappeared.

While I-No is locked away, Happy Chaos manages to take control of the White House and the Tome of Origin, allowing him to combine with I-No, ascending her to godhood. Sol, Ky, and Nagoriyuki fight together to stop her and succeed by firing Outrage at her weak point. While she’s dying, Axl tries to talk to her and make her remember something, anything. His tears jog I-No’s memory and make her realize something. Axl is the man from her memory, the Will who suddenly disappeared, and she was Megumi that he was desperately trying to come back to. Using remains of her power, I-No swaps places with herself from another timeline, allowing her and Axl Low to reunite finally. 

Personality

I-No true personality is hard to gauge, as she always puts up a facade for both friends and foes. She often acts flirtatious and secretive but, on occasion, can open up to have a heartfelt conversation. Most notably, in her discussion with Axl, she revealed that traveling through time made her lose any sense of value, as real and important things became akin to fiction. For the same reason, she tends to look down on other people, even That Man. Despite all this, I-No has shown a desire to live a life as a normal human being.

Appearance

I-No is a woman with green eyes, short black hair, and a mole near her lips. She wears red leather thigh boots, red leather mini-shorts, a black short-sleeve button-up crop top, a red leather jacket, a witch-style red hat with a skull-like cone, and black fingerless gloves. She always carries a turquoise Duesenberg Starplayer II guitar that she calls Marlene. 

Playstyle

I-No is a distinctly unique character with various options that cover every range. When far away, she has a special projectile that can be controlled mid-flight. Closer to mid-range, she can vary her approach with a dive kick or low profile slide to avoid many attacks and begin her offense. At close range, I-No has some of the most intimidating pressure and mix-ups. Her unique hover-dash gives I-No access to instant overheads and forces her opponents to constantly guess which of her many options she will use. This overwhelming offense allows I-No to snowball opponents and turn tides in her favor at any point.

Like many offense-focused characters, I-No’s weakness lies in having subpar defense, which can lead to her similarly getting snowballed if she fails to escape pressure. Lack of traditional run also makes her approach somewhat risky, as her aerial options can be countered with 6P while Stroke the Big Tree can be thrown or interrupted by wary opponents.