Kotaba Honyakuji

Kotaba's hair is black. Her working outfit is the zoo's standard uniform, with a hoodie knotted at her waist, gloves on her hands, and a scarf patterned in polka dots.

Energy and warmth define her. Passion for the animals runs through everything she does, and her care extends to people too, as when she checks on Jurota Shishida the moment Brutus knocks him down with a shoulder.

Gang Orca lays out the team-up mission for Jurota Shishida along with Itsuka Kendo and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, then introduces Kotaba and explains that her Quirk lets her understand animals. She walks the three through the park, describing how its zones are divided by terrain, then brings them to the jungle area and hands out interpreter devices so they can hear the animals as she does.

Each student states a goal, and Shishida is immediately shoulder-slammed by a gorilla named Brutus. Kotaba assures the gorilla the visitors mean no harm. Shishida gets back on his feet and requests instruction in the ways of the wild from Brutus; she urges him to reconsider, but Brutus tells him to suit himself. Feeding time arrives while Shishida is still chasing wildness, and Brutus heads into the jungle for his own food with the student trailing behind. Deciding his equipment makes him insufficiently wild, Shishida asks again to be taught secrecy and freedom, and Brutus answers that he is only being himself.

A zebra-featured guest then turns up to shoot photos for social media, insisting to his friend that the fence spoils his angle and he will be quick. Hungry lions surround him mid-shot. Brutus bolts toward the shouting, and Kotaba runs to report a missing visitor. Shishida tracks the gorilla by scent, and once they arrive her attempts to speak to the lions fail, which Gang Orca puts down to them having gone completely feral. A lion strikes at Brutus, who shields himself and the guest with an umbrella Shishida dropped, a use of human tools that startles her. Kendo and Tetsutetsu pitch in with their Quirks, and Shishida, ignoring her plea not to hurt the animals, drums on his chest until the lions break out of their instincts and wander off. She thanks everyone while still processing the umbrella. Brutus remarks that the human way has something to it, and Kotaba admits she did not catch that one.