Kinue Atago

Kinue Atago (愛宕 絹恵 Atago Kinue) is a second year at Himematsu High, the daughter of Masae Atago and the sister of Hiroe Atago who was a soccer goalkeeper in middle school, but she joined the mahjong club in high school to be with her sister.

Appearance
Kinue has long blue hair, blue eyes and red-rimmed glasses.

She wears a standard Himematsu uniform and thigh-high black stockings.

Personality
Kinue is very fond of her sister, applying for the same school just to be with her. In tournament matches, Kinue works to protect the points Hiroe accumulated prior to her match, hoping to prove her usefulness to the rest of the team.

Kinue is more mild-mannered than her sister, but also lacks her sister's confidence and sometimes despairs that her abilities are not good enough. She had been interested in both mahjong and soccer since she was young, but, in awe of her mother and sister's skill at mahjong, chose to focus on soccer until shortly before high school.

Finding Fujishiro Arc (Toki Manga)
Kinue watches the girls play in the the back room of the mahjong parlor with Izumi Nijou. She comments throughout the game and roots for Hiroko and Sera Eguchi. After the match, Izumi allows her to slip quietly out without meeting anyone.

National Tournament Arc (Achiga Manga)
Kinue is first seen welcoming her sister back after a successful match in the first round. She is next shown during Suzu Ueshige's vanguard match in the second round. She tells Kyouko Suehara that she is too hard on Suzu and laughs when she is told that she whips her with love.

Kinue is not seen again until her match. Before her match begins she notices something in her way and delivers a kick that sends it flying away. When she realizes it was Nodoka Haramura's stuffed penguin, she appologizes saying that it looked ominous. She apologizes once more and Nodoka accepts and she then greets her opponents. When the match starts she notices that Nodoka is awakening and that it was eariler than what Suehara had told her. During the first hand Kinue observes Hatsumi Usuzumi and remembers back to when Kyouko first invited her to join group competitions. Kinue then says that she has to show her team she can contribute but is then tsumo'd by Nodoka. However a hand later Kinue wins and increases her lead. A little later Kinue is again shown winning a hand because Hatsumi played into it on purpose. When Hatsumi is sitting north again, Kinue thinks back to Kyouko giving her advice on how to deal with her and says that the others should know this as well. When Nodoka again sets up Hatsumi, Kinue realizes that she doesn't know about her abilities. After halftime we see Kinue worrying again about Hatsumi but plays into Nodoka's hand. A few hands later we see Kinue winning off of Nodoka, then again winning saying she wants to protect the lead her sister gave her. However we again see Kinue worry over Hatsumi's hand but thanks to Sae Usuzawa not blocking her, Hatsumi scores a yakuman win. One hand later the match is over with Himematsu still in the lead and then Kinue thanks her opponents for the match and leaves.

Back in her team's waiting room, Kinue apologizes for not extending their lead but Kyouko and her sister tell her otherwise. After Kyouko leaves for her match, Kinue asks why was Kyouko so not feeling confident. Hiroe informs her that thats just how she is and it gives her strength. Kinue then wishes for her sister to say that to her. After Kyouko managed to place second, Kinue and the rest are shown welcoming her back.

Final Eight Arc
Kinue is shown along with the rest of Himematsu entering the tournament hall. She is later present to send of Suzu before her match. When her sister gets excited waiting for Suzu to explode, Kinue gently reprimands her. After the vanguard match Kinue calls Suzu amazing for gaining 20,000 pts with Satoha Tsujigaito at the same table. Before her match, Hiroe bumped into a wall and tried to pass it off as a joke. Kinue then tried to explain what really happened.

Before the match, Etopen is flying through the air and Kinue manages to catch him and give him back to Nodoka. At the beginning Kinue managed to finish tenpai on her second hand. She once again gets into tenpai but with bad waits, she lets the match play out rather than trying to win. In the South's first round, she is hit by Nodoka for a ron of 2,000. After a few hands, she finally manages to hit Nodoka with a ron of 8,300 but was unable to win again. At halftime she walks around and is greeted by her sister. Hiroe tells her to watch out for Rinkai because she still has something hidden. when the match resumes, she is quickly hit by Nodoka for 3,900 points. After a few rounds, Yukiko Maya decides to use her left hand. Kinue points out that she's only done that once per day and that usually results in a mangan or higher. Yukiko then hits everyone for 8,000 points.

On the next hand, Kinue tries to win with a fast hand but Yukiko once again wins with a tsumo. In the South's second round, she worries about the point differential with Kiyosumi being shortened again and the fact that she's only won once. She then says to herself that she is inconsistent, hesitant, and always regrets things. She also says that because her mom and sister are so good at mahjong, she chose to do soccer for a while, before she decided to play mahjong. She then get into a duel with the others and finally hits Megan Davin with a huge ron worth 16,000 points. Megan then switches her tactics and beats Kinue with a ron of 8,000. Megan then wins with a big tsumo to end the match. As Kinue walks away after the match, she tears up.

National Championship Arc
Kinue is seen along with along with her team before the Match for 5th greeting the other teams. She is later seen cheering on her sister during the lieutenant's match. After he sister's match, Kinue debuts for the vice-captain's match. Kinue exchanges some words with her cousin Hiroko Funakubo before the match, lamenting how hard it is to consistently play after her sister's amazing performances. Kinue is shown being wary of Mairu's wins, but is powerless to stop her first one.

Playing Style/Abilities
Kinue is a normal digital-style player, playing logically and safely: she was very weary of Miyamori Girls' High School's Sae Usuzawa's dealer riichi and Eisui Girls' High School's Hatsumi Usuzumi calling souzu tiles in the first hand. Kinue largely wanted to protect and further the amount of points that her sister got. She focused on getting to tenpai quickly, and protecting their points whenever possible. When she went on the offensive, she won several successive hands worth large quantities of points. When she played defense, she tried her best to not discard any north or east tiles due to the presence of Usuzumi.

She also claims to not be as good at mahjong as her sister or mom, as she is inconsistent and doubtful of herself. However, she is very good at accommodating her opponent's playstyles, and is even capable of excelling on the National's stage. Kinue seems to have an affinity for pinzu tiles. There are times when she starts with more than half her hand as pinzu tiles (which is not unusual) but later also draws several pinzu tiles, all of her ittsu 's have been with the pinzu suit and she has won two big hands that were solely pinzu chin'itsu, comparing this to fellow vice-captain Arata Sagimori who similarly collects a lot of pinzu tiles due to their shared sports background (soccer for Kinue, bowling for Arata).

Etymology

 * The name Kinue means "silk" (絹) (kinu) and "favor, benefit" (恵) (e).
 * Kinue's surname Atago means "love, affection" (愛) (a) and "dawn" (宕) (tago).

Trivia

 * Kinue was a goalie while playing soccer in middle school.