Mio

Mio (, Mio), nicknamed Mimi by Sena, is one of the main protagonists of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. She is a soldier from Agnus and an off-seer.

Appearance and personality
Mio is a young woman with neck-length silver hair styled into a bob cut and golden eyes, with cat ears similar to a Gormotti. She has a blue and red gem similar to a Flesh Eater Core Crystal on her chest. Her main appearance comprises a white hooded jacket with black accents, a white tank top underneath, white skirt, and white boots with black leggings. As an off-seer, Mio wears a sleeveless white dress with orange highlights. Her term mark is located on the right side of her neck.

Mio is an off-seer — she often mourns for soldiers who have fallen in battle. She plays a white flute with golden decorations which used to belong to Miyabi.

Mio has a serious yet gentle personality, and although she seems to draw hope from others, she seems to hold her own concerns due to her dwindling life-span. Due to this, Mio tends to display nihilistic views on her own life. Mio has also displayed an aggressive side, as seen when she seen when she punched O and P and angrily went off on them for their disregard for life.

As Ouroboros
When interlinking with Noah, Mio takes on one of two Ouroboros forms: one associated with herself, the other with Noah. Mio's Ouroboros form is a slender humanoid coloured primarily white and black, with red highlights. Its design features ring motifs, catlike ears, and long lilac hair. A glowing core is visible in each of its thighs.

Mio's Ouroboros excels at evasion, being able to dodge attacks so quickly that it leaves afterimages. It attacks via a combination of quick melee strikes and ranged attacks using ring-like weapons.

Chapter 1
Mio is a soldier from Colony Gamma who's three months away from her Homecoming. Mio, Taion, and Sena first encounters Noah's party at on a mission to destroy an unidentified Ether source. She viciously attacks Noah, before he notices that Mio's moves is reminiscent of the Agnian Off-seeing tune. Through memorizing those notes, he manages to land a hit on Mio, before she delivers a blow on Noah's face, drawing blood, before he realizes the fighting stops. Despite this, Mio continues her assault on Noah despite his pleas to stop, until Guernica Vandham intervenes, preventing the two from killing each other.

When Mio tries to attack Noah again, Guernica punched her, before demanding to know why they are targeting the Ouroboros Stone and him, before questioning them who's the real enemy is. Guernica then questions why they are fighting with both sides explaining their reasons. Noah then declares that he's fighting to live, something that Mio realizes.

Just as Guernica is about to reveal the identity of the party's real enemy, he is impaled by an unidentified creature's stalactite-like projectile. The creature then approaches the party with Mwamba and Hackt in both hands. The creature then tries to goad both the Kevesi and Agnian parties to fight, when they refused, he kills both Mwamba and Hackt. Enraged, Mio tries to attack the creature in revenge, followed by Sena and Taion.

Mio and the party at first had a difficult time harming the creature, it wasn't until Guernica activates the Ouroboros Stone, allowing Noah and Mio to Interlink for the first time that they finally get an edge. After transforming, the creature identifies himself as a Moebius before reengaging the party. With the power of Ouroboros, Noah and Mio were able to defeat him. Before departing however, the Moebius projects an infinity symbol in the sky, marking the party enemies of Moebius. After the battle, Noah and Mio cancels the Interlink.

After the skirmish, a dying Guernica explains that the party has become Ouroboros, as well as taking notice of Mio's dwindling term mark, realizes that she has only three months left to live, but warns them that Moebius will be hunting them relentlessly before directing them to their new destination: the City at Swordmarch. After his death, Noah and Mio sent off Guernica before both parties made the journey back to their respective colonies.

When Mio and co. tries to return to Colony Gamma however, they came under attack by their own troops, forcing them to flee back to Melnath's Shoulder the same time Noah's group fled. Both parties decides to team up, and after each party member's introduction and their hobbies, as well as a change of clothes, the party begin their journey to Swordmarch.

At the campfire, Mio writes in her journal, remarking that she has only three months left until her Homecoming to Noah, wondering what she'll achieve and leave behind once she's gone.

Chapter 2
Before departing for Swordmarch, the party return to Guernica's resting place, they spot his dog tags, learning his name in the process. When the party reach Millick Meadows, the party restarts an abandoned Ferronis and sets up camp there. The next day, as Noah is looking at news of the war through his Iris, he notices an icon appeared above Mio's head, allowing him to change his class to match Mio's, as well as implementing Master Arts. The rest of the party also gain this ability. They test these powers on some Bodem Grebels before reaching the Fornis Region.

When the party enters Eagus Wilderness, Mio becomes dehydrated and struggles from the heat, much to Taion's dismay, prompting Sena to carry her. The two spot an oasis, exciting Mio, prompting the party to take a break there to go swimming.

After swimming, as the party makes their way to Ribbi Flats, Mio remarks that Noah's is different. Noah realizes that's she's the second person to notice it, the first was Silvercoat Ethel, who saved their lives in the past. Just as the party was about to make it out of Eagus Wilderness, they comes under attack by Colony 4. When Noah fails to reason with Ethel (due to being under the control of Consul K), they fled into a nearby cave system, using the black fog as cover before being cornered by Ethel.

When Ethel approached the black fog, she stops, breaking free of K's control, forcing the Consul out of hiding and engaging the party himself. After being wounded, K transforms into his Moebius form and starts harvesting the Colony's Flame Clock to heal himself. When Noah considers destroying the Flame Clock, Mio decides to bare Noah's burden of potential life loss. Mio later joins Noah as he pulls out Lucky Seven for the first time to destroy the Flame Clock, depriving K of his healing source. Without the Flame Clock, K is swiftly killed by the party.

In her past lives as a Agnian soldier and as Ouroboros, Mio usually wore a black fur jacket, a dark green undershirt, black pants and black miltary boots.

Mio continuously reincarnated throughout history, despite commonly reaching the ten-year limit imposed upon cradle-born soldiers. What's more, she would, time and again, meet Noah and fall in love with him, who would also reincarnate regardless of Homecoming. Long after an incarnation where both had a child, Mio was revived by Z as the Moebius M after N took the lives of the people of the City to breathe life in her again.

Lore

 * Mio keeps a diary to keep track of the days counting down to her Homecoming.
 * Mio cannot take extreme heat, causing her to be dehydrated very quickly.
 * In all likelihood, Mio is Nia's daughter. The two appear almost identical by features; silver hair, yellow eyes, identical Core Crystal.
 * During Nia's Ascension Quest, she heavily and repeatedly alludes to this connection, being cut off by Eunie before she can directly confirm what this connection is.
 * Mio is one of the only humans to live past the 10-year limit imposed on Kevesi and Agnian soldiers, a distinction shared by Nikol and Glimmer (though in Mio's case is because that she swapped bodies with M, thus making her half-Moebius).
 * As an Agnian soldier, Mio would repeatedly reincarnate within Aionios, regardless of reaching Homecoming age. She and Noah are the only soldiers known to do this.

As a boss

 * Agnus Defender (Three Agnus Soldiers)

As a party member
Mio's primary class is, a Defender class focusing on drawing enemies' while evading their attacks. She can interlink with Noah.

Mio's hair becomes long at the start of Chapter 6. Soon afterwards, the player is allowed to choose whether to keep the long hair or cut it back to its former shortness; after making their choice, they are able to change between the two at will from the Options menu, at the bottom of the Game subsection.

amiibo
A Mio amiibo is set to be released alongside a Noah amiibo on January 19, 2024. Using this amiibo unlocks Consul M's outfit for Mio (permanently) and "Leisure Time" outfits Mio, Taion, and Sena.

Trivia

 * Mio's role is similar to Elhaym Van Houten from Xenogears, see Thematic parallels for details.
 * Mio's Ouroboros form resembles KOS-MOS ver. 3 from Xenosaga Episode III.

Gallery
Miyo