Character · The Apothecary Diaries
Maomao
Kidnapped, sold into the imperial palace, and quietly delighted the moment the work turns out to involve poison.
In Otakana the clue reads: Poison-testing apothecary sold into the palace
- Type
- Character
- Series
- The Apothecary Diaries
- Letters
- 6 · Normal
Maomao grew up in the pleasure district, raised by an apothecary, and learned the trade grinding herbs and testing doses on herself. That last part is not a figure of speech. She carries a scarred arm and a serious tolerance because she wanted to know exactly what each substance did. Kidnappers deliver her to the rear palace as a low-ranking servant, and she decides to keep her head down for the two years of her contract.
The plan survives until she overhears that two imperial infants are sickening and works out from the symptoms that the cause is lead in the face powder. She writes an anonymous warning, and is identified almost at once by an official who has been paying attention. After that she is a food taster and an investigator, and she is entirely content so long as somebody occasionally lets her handle something toxic.
The books are built as cases, which suits her exactly: a court mystery every few chapters, solved with pharmacology and a flat refusal to be impressed by rank. Natsu Hyuuga started the series online, Hero Bunko published it in print from 2012, and the 2023 anime became one of the biggest hits of its season without a single fight scene in it.
Spelling MAOMAO
Six letters and one block repeated: MAOMAO is MAO plus MAO. The name is written with the character for cat, doubled, so it reads as something close to cat cat, and it is a nickname from the pleasure district rather than anything she was born with. Four vowels in six letters. The trick is trusting the repetition, since a doubled word looks like a typing slip on a tile row.