Spirit

**Spirits** (化け物, *Bakemono* as they are refered to in the official website) are a race of supernatural beings that can not be seen by normal humans and are the antagonistic force in Mieruko-chan. They are the manifestations of deceased humans and so are prevalent throughout the world. They are referred to as **Dangerous Things** (ヤバいやつ *Yabai Yatsu*) in Japanese articles and interviews. In official translation 化け物 is translated to **Monster**.

Spirits are highly varied in appearance, behaviour and abilities. Spiritual mediums are the adversary to spirits and regularly seek to exorcise them.

## Appearance

Spirits appear to be the manifestations of deceased humans. They take on a myriad of feminine or masculine appearances, though the vast majority are heavily mutilated or distorted and barely resemble the original human. Examples of this would be violently, stretched, bent or contorted limbs, exaggerated, distorted or nonexistent facial features and permanent injuries ranging from cuts, broken bones, foreign objects embedded in them or other bodily trauma. Some spirits may also have extra or missing limbs, and may manifest along with manmade objects such as steel drums or axes.

Some spirits have completely inhuman appearances. An extreme example would be the Shrine God, which is more animalistic than human. A less extreme example would be Zen Toono's mother, which is a blend of insectoid and human features or the Wheelchair Spirit, who has two humanoid legs and arms but a heavily distorted torso and head.

Most spirits are lightly or moderately mutilated and retain a human appearance, with scarred, grey skin, empty eyes and wearing their clothes and having little to no bodily alterations. Some spirits, namely the spirits of Gozuka's wife and Miko's father retain the exact appearance that they had in life, appearing as otherwise healthy, normal human beings.

The definite cause of a spirit's appearance is unknown. It may reflect the way in which the person died (e.g a spirit with an elongated neck may have died by breaking it) or may be reflective of the personality of the individual while they were living (explaining the difference in appearance and behaviour between Miko's father and Zen's mother). While the definite cause is unknown, the appearance of a spirit is not associated with its behaviour.

## Behaviour

A spirit's interaction with living species is almost nil save for humans; they either haunt humans themselves or places of human habitation such as cities, homes and schools.

The behaviours of spirits are varied. One spirit was seemingly attached to a cat, while another enjoyed groping women. Spirits who were close to individuals in life will stay bound near their location. Examples include Miko's father and Zen Toono's mother. Some spirits, namely the Shrine Spirits, God of the Mountain and the Axeman, appear to have an agenda, though their ultimate motive is unknown. Furthermore, spirits can interact with other spirits and may seek to aid one another, such as the Big Old Men harboring Tiny Old Men within their bodies, or to consume them, such as the Steel Drum Spirit; however, most spirits simply ignore each other while engaging in their repetitive behaviors,

Sometimes and for unknown reasons, Spirits will line up to be consumed by giant, immobile spirits: these are known as Spirit Lines, which are speculated to bring spirits to another form of afterlife. This may also be where other "dead" (destroyed by hostile spirits or exorcised) spirits go. Only Wandering Spirits, the most common kind, have been seen participating in this - the reason for this is unknown.

Spirits typically display no personality or have a very rudimentary semblance of their personality in life, either repeating phrases once said in life (e.g a cashier spirit repeating the price of an item) or making distorted vocalizations or performing mindless actions. Some have displayed a degree of basic intelligence, such as asking Miko whether she can see them, or playing tricks on the living. Certain spirits have human levels of intelligence, such as the Shrine Spirits who made a deal with Miko. By far, Miko's father's spirit has displayed the most intelligence, being able to speak normally.

Disturbingly, spirits will become aggressive and attempt to attack individuals who can see them. This behavior is a normal part of spirits, evidenced by the fact some can disguise themselves as regular humans. Why either of these behaviours are exhibited is unknown. Not all spirits react aggressively to their existence being acknowledged: Haruko's father thanks Miko after she passes on a safe code to Haruko's mother.

To this extent, why the Shrine Spirits protect contractually-bound humans from these belligerents is also unknown.

## Structure/Abilities

Spirits cannot be seen by ordinary humans and only by spiritual mediums. Even so, it is shown that in certain occasions any human can sense a minute influence from spirits, such a Gozuka being pointed towards a particular cat food by his dead cats or Zen feeling the departing cat spirits. Despite being invisible to most humans, spirits can still be captured on video and photographic equipment, though their images can still only be seen by those with spirit sight. Spirits cannot usually attack humans or interact with physical objects (they pass through humans and objects without issue), nor can humans attack them with conventional weaponry. Specific attacks such as psionic blasts utilized by the Shrine Spirits (and by extension, the Shrine God) or Hana's life aura can damage them.

Some spirits seem to be able to harm humans through other means, such as the Movie Theater Spirit causing headaches and the River Spirit affecting the river's current. Objects imbued with spiritual power (such as blessed pesticides, prayer beads and talismans) have some efficacy, though sufficiently powerful spirits can break these. Spirits are also able to kill each other using their natural abilities.

Being technically deceased, spirits do not require food, water or any other physiological need. Furthermore, they are not bothered by their unusual anatomy, even if said characteristic (spirits with large injuries) would cause pain. Spirits may however still express distress at being injured.

Spirits possess vocal organs, though they do not appear to need to breathe to survive. Their primary energy source is unknown, as is how they are created or where they go after their spiritual bodies are destroyed. It is implied heavily in both the manga and anime adaptation that they seem to feed on Hana's life energy (and by extension, any human life energy) but there is no official confirmation for this yet.

Spirits have great physical resilience. Their pain tolerance is high and their unique physiology allows them to survive otherwise debilitating attacks. Although their regenerative abilities remain unclear, Shrine Spirits have been seen to re-manifest in perfect condition regardless of the damage accrued in battle. It seems that as of now, the only surefire way to "kill" a spirit is cause catastrophic bodily damage or destroy important structures such as the head.

Spirit abilities can also be dependent on their form. The Axeman uses an axe and the Steel Drum Spirit is able to use long chains. The Shrine Spirits are capable of emitting powerful psionic blasts that can tear holes in other spirits. The Shrine God itself was powerful enough to physically ensnare and overpower a person, the only case where a spirit has physically interacted with a human. On two occasions, a spirit has shown the ability to disguise itself as a regular human.

Stronger spirits can consume lesser or weakened spirits and increase their power, shown through the Long Nail Spirit consuming Tiny Old Men or the Steel Drum Spirit consuming the other wandering spirits in the tunnel. As a spirit grows stronger, its appearance grows more grotesque and inhuman. It is unclear if there is an upper limit to how much a spirit can grow.