"Someone who's as strong as me. Someone I can share my worries, my happiness, and this world with... I'm searching for a friend like that."
— Dinoponera, Chapter 36
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Setsuna Dinoponera is a girl who was raised by the mercenary Paraponera in Thailand and trained in many conflicts that took place there. She unexpectedly came to the Arachnid Hunt in order to meet Fuji Alice and become friends with her... if Alice fits her view of a desirable friend, that is.
Appearance[]
Dinoponera is a 15 years-old girl with short white hair in a uneven bob cut style and green eyes that ripple when she's concentrated, much like Alice's. She wears a green sailor school uniform over a long-sleeved black shirt and is armed with gauntlets that clash with her otherwise harmlessly cute looks. They come with hidden poisoned needles that can cause immense, long-lasting pain on people.
Personality[]
Dinoponera behaves politely and sweetly while talking to people, but can be even more violent and arrogant than most of the other Organization members. She thinks little of common people, often toys with her enemies and sometimes prefers to just silently smirk at their confusion instead of trash-talking them.
She wants to have friends, but due to her feelings over having survived a difficult childhood as a mercenary, Dinoponera gets into fights to determine the strength and character of her opponents and will kill them if they're too weak or if she can't sympathize with them.
Dinoponera believes Alice could be the kindred spirit she is looking for, but comes to hate her for how Alice became so powerful in so little time despite having had an apparently normal life in a peaceful country.
She likes magical girl animes such as "Sailor-Force" and used to think Japan was a country full of strong frilly girls, which explains her choice of school uniform during the events of the story.
After being zombified, Dinoponera actually seems to have retained some of her faculties. In addition, she also does not seem to crave for sexual intercourse, instead deriving pleasure from fighting.
Abilities and Powers[]
Dinoponera grew very strong and agile from her time in wars, to the point that she can fight even Kabutomushi with ease. One could say she actually has the proportional strength of ants, as she is able to defend against heavy blows and defeat men much more built than her such as Riock in a single hit. Blunt force is also consistently shown to somehow never injure her at all.
Her "Dino Spine" elbow needles have poison from the south american dinoponera ants, which is known to cause incredible pain in people for several hours, not unlike the infamous stings of Bullet Ants. Once she knocks people down, she jumps on them and begins pummeling their faces while laughing maniacally. She can also stun people when she screams really loudly.
The reason for why she seems to react precisely against everything is an ability she calls C.D.F. (Concentration Driving Free/Force; retconned to just Concentration Driving or C. Drive in Blattodea), which makes her able to control her heart rate and greatly improve her focus and senses much like Alice does with her C.E.C.. When she realized this power at 9 years-old to avoid being raped and killed by bandits, she thought of it as a divine gift for her determination. Ironically, her major weakness turns out to be an over reliance on this ability, since she's not at all prepared to counter those who can overcome it.
History[]
Past[]
Dinoponera was born in Burma, a country to the northwest of Thailand. The sole survivor of a village destroyed by the Myanmar army, she was found by a mercenary named Paraponera and raised as his daughter and successor. She quickly became a cold-blooded murderer who viewed most people as worthless worms, but also hoped to meet someone whom she could care for.
Before the Arachnid Hunt[]
A few hours before the Arachnid Hunt, Dinoponera was innocently bathing on a park's public fountain. Haijima Chiyuri runs up to her, telling her to not draw unwanted attention that could jeopardize the daily life of the homeless people who live there. Dinoponera kicks Chiyuri in the face in response, so the roach fights back. With incredible speed and power, Chiyuri manages to overcome even Dinoponera's Concentration Driving Force and befriends her thanks to their shared love of magical girl animes. Dinoponera hangs out with Chiyuri for a while and then waves her goodbye, hoping to also make a friend of this girl called Fuji Alice later...
Arachnid[]
The Arachnid Hunt[]
At Ouran High, Dinoponera is seen wandering around the school corridors. Later on, she suddenly appears behind Imomushi in the student council room, after which Suzume Bachi asks Dinoponera to fight her. Dinoponera reveals she is the adopted daughter of Paraponera, a mercenary who Imomushi fought and killed one year ago. When Imomushi asks if she wants revenge, Dinoponera asks for her friendship instead. Imomushi picks a fight with her, only to be quickly beaten down.
Dinoponera states she can only relate to strong people and tries to kill Imomushi, but gets headbutted off her. Suzume Bachi interrupts the fight and stabs Imomushi from behind, making her fall unconscious. He then tells Dinoponera to go look for Fuji Alice. A while later, Dinoponera comes across Kabutomushi and tries to "befriend" her.
Kabutomushi attempts to kill Dinoponera to keep her from finding Alice, but is soon overwhelmed and is unable to hit her. Dinoponera even manages to dash through Kabutomushi's seemingly unavoidable Kabuto Slide and land a hit that would be lethal if she didn't have an armored heart. However, that armor couldn't protect Kabutomushi from Dinoponera's extremely painful poison and she's left helpless. Luckily for her, Hibiki suddenly arrives with a Rider Kick that sends Dinoponera away.
Hibiki says he didn't come to help, but to defeat her by himself after he takes Dinoponera down. To his confusion, he turns around and sees he saved Kabutomushi instead of Alice. Dinoponera then sheepishly asks if he knows about Alice's whereabouts and he responds that he would only ever tell that if she could defeat him.
After making short work of Hibiki despite his best kick barrages, Dinoponera finally finds Alice. Alice asks Oki to get Yoriko to somewhere safe and takes on Dinoponera alone. Alice can't do well against Dinoponera either, but the ant girl actually tries holding a conversation with her, feeling they have a similar background and could become friends. However, Dinoponera learns Alice is a common girl who gained an absurd amount of skill in just two weeks due to her C.E.C. condition.
Dinoponera has an outburst of rage over how unfair Alice's growth rate is and tries to torture her to death. Alice manages to recover and figures Dinoponera doesn't have that much experience against superpowered people like themselves. She brags about her superior skills to goad Dinoponera into her traps and completely turns the fight around, leaving Dinoponera broken with her leg impaled by her own weapon.
Dinoponera flees from Alice and Kabutomushi, but is cornered by Sasori on a staircase next a group of the brainwashed army ant students. Sasori strikes Dinoponera with her paralysing scorpion tail, but instead of killing her she throws Dinoponera to get raped by the zombified students.
Blattodea[]
Zombified[]
Later that night, Dinoponera leaves the school as a zombified mess, clinging to the hope of meeting her friend Chiyuri again. While stumbling her way towards the park Chiyuri lives in, a trio of thugs force Dinoponera inside a van to rape her, but the girl retains enough control to at least assert dominance over them, getting them all infected in the process.
Following that, a still dazed Dinoponera finds where Chiyuri is sleeping and ends up scaring her off by shoving her palm on the roach-girl's face. It is when Dinoponera finds Chiyuri about to get raped by her infected homeless friends that she fully regains her consciousness and kills them, declaring Chiyuri is her friend and that she won't let anyone harm her. Chiyuri hugs Dinoponera in gratitude and asks why is it that everyone went mad, but the nearby crowd of zombies don't leave them much time for conversation.
Major Fights[]
- Dinoponera vs Chiyuri (No result; Dinopo realizes Chiyuri is a fellow Sailor-Force fan and stops fighting)
- Dinoponera vs Imomushi (No result; interrupted by Suzumebachi)
- Dinoponera vs Kuroiwa the Physical Education teacher (Win)
- Dinoponera vs Kabutomushi (Win)
- Dinoponera vs Hibiki (Win)
- Dinoponera vs Riokku (Win)
- Dinoponera vs Fuji Alice (Loss)
- Dinoponera vs Sasori (Loss)
Trivia[]
- The kanji given with her name, 巨針蟻, means Oo-hari-ari (Giant Needle Ant) and refers to Pachycondyla chinensis. Pachycondyla is the sister group of Dinoponera, but Setsuna isn't actually likened to that ant genus in any narration sequences.
- Dinoponera ants are frequently confused with Paraponera ants despite belonging to different genera. In the story, Dino is adopted by a Paraponera-themed man and actually seems to have more traits of that ant than of her namesake.
- Dinoponera ants have a nasty sting, said to cause unbearable pain that can lasts for several hours even though they're not as potent as stings from Paraponera ants. In-story, Dinoponera's venom doesn't have the same long-term damage even though she states her venom is worth a thousand stings.
- Her birth date is December 13th, so she's a single day younger than her look-a-like Alice.
- Her real name, Setsuna, references Setsuna "Sailor Pluto" Meioh from Sailor Moon, who has time-based powers.