Naoe "Nao" Kanno

Naoe "Nao" Kanno is one of the main characters from the Brave Witches anime and manga.

Nao is a Witch of the 502nd Joint Fighter Wing, originating from Fuso and affiliated with the Fuso Imperial Navy. She is also known by the pet name of "Nao". Her familiar is the bulldog.

In the Heroes Coalitions fics, Nao is a member of the Heroes Coalitions as a trainee.

Appearance
Nao is a small girl with a short dark hair, an angry dark-grey eyes and a band aid on her left cheek. She is currently wearing a brown tanker jacket over a brown dress shirt, brown gloves, white panties and black boots.

Personality
Naoe can be described, in one word, as Napoleonic; despite her small size, she bold and daring in the air, brash and sometimes belligerent socially. It's an attitude she forces on herself because of the war with the Neuroi: when her Witch abilities woke up, she roused herself by repeating the prayer: "to fight a Neuroi, one should have a ferocious personality". This attitude doesn't lend itself well to teamwork or cooperation, but under Flight Lieutenant Pokryshkin this is dampened somewhat, perhaps because she resembles an elder sister of Naoe's childhood, whom she remembers fondly.

Naoe embodies a daring combat-style, in which "if you run out of bullets use a blade, and if the blade breaks use a body blow". She also operates to good effect against big targets and her pet theory is that "the larger the enemy, more worthwhile it is to defeat it". Her forte is to do a nose dive from just above the target and fire as the two pass by each other.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Nao is good friends with Keisuke Hijikita and sees him as an older brother. Though she gets annoyed whenever he treats her like a child.

Abilities
Her inherent magic is called Compression-formula Super Hardness Defensive Magic Circle or simply Super Hard Shield. It is an ability that compresses the diameter of a magic shield until some dozens centimeters and raises its strength. There is this heroic saga of how, in the defensive battle of Petersburg, she defeated a Neuroi with the punch of a fist clad in this shield.

Trivia

 * Naoe is based on Japanese flying ace Naoshi Kanno. One of his nicknames was Bulldog, Naoe's familiar is a reference to this. Besides that, he was also nicknamed "Destroyer" and "Yellow Fighter".