Tatami Nakagame

Tatami Nakagame, also known as Turtle Neck (タートルネック), is a third-year student at Ketsubutsu Academy High School training to become a Pro Hero.

Appearance
Tatami is a pale, curvaceous girl of a reasonably muscular build with large, pointed teeth, their shape similar to that of Eijiro Kirishima's, that are usually worn in a smile. She has wide, rectangular eyes with thick upper eyelashes and pronounced lower ones, their irises notably small, blue in color. Her hair is short, ash blonde and is styled with two longer clumps spiking outwards on either side of her head which somewhat resemble the fins of a fish and a single, chin-length bang on her right. Further contributing to Tatami's aquatic motif are her two earrings, which are turquoise and shaped like fish. They hang vertically from each ear, so that the tails point down.

Her hero costume consists of an aquamarine turtleneck bodysuit with a zipper going down the middle, the sleeves cut off halfway down her upper arm. She wears salmon pink gloves, with three small hexagons decorating the cuffs which resemble turtle feet as a reference to her Quirk, as well as matching boots that go up past her knees. Around her waist she sports a thin cyan belt, which is joined in the center by a circular pink buckle with a white turtle shell-shaped gem embedded into the middle.

Personality
Tatami is a cheerful girl with a social personality. She follows Class 1-A and wasn't ashamed of asking her rival students for an autograph. Tatami appears to like her classmates and work together with them well. She can be fault-finding, however; a trait that is witnessed after Yo Shindo fails at persuading a group of civilians to evacuate to a safe area. Tatami follows him afterwards as he walks away, repeatedly telling him that his effort at persuading the civilians sucked. Additionally, or perhaps because of her fault-finding nature, Tatami is not afraid of calling out the personality quirks of her peers. This is demonstrated when she commented on Shindo's sneakiness.

Provisional Hero License Exam Arc
Ketsubutsu Second-Year Class 2 participates in the Provisional Hero License Exam following All Might's retirement. Ms. Joke introduces her class to Shota Aizawa and his Class 1-A students from U.A. High School. Tatami recognizes Class 1-A from the U.A. Sports Festival and asks Shoto Todoroki for an autograph.

Everyone goes inside Takoba National Stadium and changes into their hero costumes. After an orientation with Yokumiru Mera, the Ketsubutsu students prepare an ambush in the arena. They all have some information on Class 1-A's Quirks and abilities because of U.A.'s Sports Festival and tries to crush them first. This is a tradition in licensing exam called the "Crushing of U.A.".

Ketsubutsu sends their ball projectiles at their rivals in hopes of hitting their targets and eliminating them. Class 1-A proves they've improved since the sports festival and easily defends themselves from the barrage. Tatami's classmates attack with their Quirks but the U.A. students counterattack.

Fumikage Tokoyami nearly strikes Tatami with his Piercing Twilight Claws but she manages to evade by using her Quirk to collapse her torso into her waist. She's surprised by how strong the U.A. students have gotten. Yo tells his classmates to get back so he can break apart their defenses. He destroys the battlefield and scatters Class 1-A with his Tremoring Earth attack.

Tatami regroups with her classmates and Yo goes over their current situation. His attack separated Class 1-A but students from other schools have invaded the battlefield in hopes of crushing the U.A. students. Students are rushing to pass the first phase and the battle has become chaotic. Yo believes that his class can pass by waiting for an opportunity from when other students have worn themselves out. Tatami is quick to point out Yo's change in expression and calls him sneaky for hiding his true personality.

Yo's plan works and Tatami and her classmates pass the first phase of the licensing exam. Tatami and her classmates participate in the second phase of the exam where students must conduct rescue operations in a simulated disaster zone.

The Ketsubutsu students help establish a first aid zone and show their experience by efficiently rescuing actors from H.U.C.. Gang Orca. Makeshift villains invade the operations halfway through and Tatami's class helps evacuate the injured to safety.

After the exam concludes, Ketsubutsu students join all the other participants of the second phase to see if they obtained their Provisional Hero Licenses.

Endeavor Agency Arc
When the Hero Public Safety Commission required that all Hero Course students participate in Hero Work-Studies, Tatami teams up with her classmate, Yo.

Tartarus Escapees Arc
Tatami and Yo, now in their third years, start searching for a group of civilians to send to the evacuation zones. Yo is confident that he can convince them, bringing up the Nomu and the recently escaped "Jailbreaker", but the distrusting civilians reject their offer to lodge at Ketsubutsu High. Disappointed, the two students leave, and Yo angrily states that he could have brought the building down and dragged them out if he was allowed to.Suddenly, Tatami receives an alert from Shikkui, who is warning them that Jailbreaker is approaching their location. Suddenly, Muscular, who now goes by Jailbreaker, crashes onto a nearby building, ready to shed more blood. Yo asks Tatami to evacuate the citizens while he goes to fight Muscular. Muscular easily pins down Yo with his muscle fibers, and slowly begins to crush him to death. Yo attempts to stun the murderer using Tremoring Earth, but he produces more fibers and is seemingly unfazed by the attack. Tatami and the civilians watch in horror as Yo is about to be killed, though Muscular is flung away and the unconscious Yo is rescued by a masked figure who is none other than Izuku Midoriya.

Deku avoids Muscular using his new Smokescreen Quirk, and hands Yo over to Tatami, who scolds him for being reckless. She briefly recognizes Deku's voice but could not see his face because of the smoke. After Deku overpowers and defeats Muscular, he takes him away through the sky while Tatami notes she was unable to thank him for saving Yo. The civilians then bring out a stretcher for Yo, and decide to hear out the students because they don't want anyone else getting killed.

Quirk
Telescopic (りたたみ): Tatami's Quirk grants her the ability to make her head, body and limbs retract into themselves, similar to a turtle. The retracting process is instantaneous but un-retracting takes a few moments.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Trivia

 * Her surname, Nakagame, is comprised of the kanji for "inside/middle" (中) and "bottle" (瓶). Her given name, Tatami, refers to the term for a tatami mat (畳).
 * The latter kanji in her surname, 瓶 (meaning "bottle"), is homophonous with the term for "turtle" (亀).
 * Tatami's Hero name, "Turtle Neck", is a double reference to a and a turtle's ability to retreat its own limbs into its body, the inspirations behind her Hero costume and Quirk, respectively.
 * Tatami's English voice actor, Kristen McGuire, also voices Tamashiro.
 * Tatami is in a relationship with her fellow classmate Yo Shindo.

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