Meimei Cheshaneko

## General Information

### ☯**Personality**

Meimei is intensely, cripplingly shy, so much so that she almost never shows herself to others. On the rare occasion when she does, she keeps her face hidden behind her hair, and she can barely manage to stammer a single word, let alone carry on a conversation. Because of this, she usually chooses to make herself invisible, though even that doesn't cure her shyness completely. Luckily for her, she is also a proficient user of shikigami, which she can and often does use to speak with others in her place - with Mai, her strongest and most intelligent shikigami, being her preferred messenger. Her shikigami are also her closest friends and the only ones she can speak to with anything like normality, though Mai does still love to fluster her with her teasing. Still, despite her aversion to people, Meimei is generally kind, but she is also very curious, which can sometimes cause problems for her and others. Most of the time, though, she satisfies her curiosity through intellectual means, spending her days holed up in her home with her sizable collection of books.

### ☯**Appearance**

Meimei rarely shows herself, but when she does, she usually appears as a young girl with very pale skin, green catlike eyes, straight black hair that comes all the way down to her ankles, and the ears and tail of a black cat. As a Cheshire bakeneko, though, she can change her appearance however she wants, so this is merely the default appearance she uses whenever she is coaxed into showing herself. Most of the time, due to her shyness, she is nothing more than a disembodied voice. She can alter her clothing at will, too, but she has an affinity for frilly, ribbon-covered dresses and the color black, so she usually wears something along those lines. In fact, black ribbons have come to be something of a personal symbol for her, often marking her influence in various ways such as adorning different forms she takes or serving as danmaku.

### ☯**Theme Songs**

* Ib - Memory (Regular)
* Mario & Luigi Paper Jam - Final Battle (Battle)

## Backstory

Originally an ordinary black cat, Meimei once belonged to a powerful magician who kept her as his sole companion during his magical research. Eventually she awakened as a youkai, but when he discovered this, rather than driving her away, her master accepted her and took her on as his apprentice. As the magician's power grew, however, so did the suspicions of other humans - not helped by rumors that his apprentice was a youkai - and one night, while he slept, a mob attacked his home and burned it down. The magician unfortunately did not wake up in time, but Meimei did, and after escaping, she killed as many of the culprits as she could before fleeing into the wild. She spent several years grieving, but once she recovered, she decided to continue learning magic in memory of her late master. Many centuries later, she came to Gensokyo, where she has lived quietly ever since.

## Story

### ☯**Down the Rabbit Hole**

Meimei took Takumi Yamamiya in after Momo found her wandering in the Forest of Magic, and she agreed to help her return to her male form, in exchange for a few months of service.

## Relationships

### ☯**Eirin Yagokoro**

Meimei looks up to Eirin as a superior magician, and she often consults with her whenever she gets stuck in her research. However, their relationship is a largely academic one, and they have never met face to face. Eirin is much closer friends with Mai, who usually serves as their go-between.

### ☯**Kamei no Yuuko**

The two of them have a close professional relationship, and are something like friends. However, they have never met in person, and they do not usually interact outside of an academic context. Mai, on the other hand, is much closer friends with Yuuko, whom she often visits on behalf of her master. Meimei and Yuuko both regularly swap magical research, and have collaborated on a few small projects. They originally met through Patchouli Knowledge, their mutual friend.

### ☯**Kosuzu Motoori**

Meimei often borrows books from her shop, Suzunaan, usually sending either Miki or Maki to pick up and return books for her. However, the two interact little outside of this.

### ☯**Patchouli Knowledge**

The two of them are friends, being fellow book-lovers, magicians, and shut-ins. Although they have never met in person, they do regularly exchange written correspondence and Meimei often sends her shikigami, usually Mai, to deliver messages or borrow books. The two have also collaborated on several projects in the past, including the rocket Patchouli created during the Second Lunar War.

### ☯**Takumi Yamamiya**

Meimei considers Takumi a kindred soul for his interest in literature, yet admires his outgoing nature, an admiration that quickly turned to infatuation once he became a man again. She keeps her feelings secret, but she still watches him from afar and cherishes any time she spends with him, whether it's reading together, practicing magic together, or swapping writing critiques.

### ☯**Yukari Yakumo**

Yukari finds Meimei adorable and fun to tease, so she often visits her for that express purpose. Meimei herself has mixed feelings about this, but she does consider Yukari a friend, and the two often exchange correspondence and magical knowledge. Their shikigami are also fairly close to one another, with Mai being friends with Ran and something of an older sister figure to Chen while Momo is an occasional playmate of Chen's.

## Abilities

### ☯**Ability to Manipulate Forms**

She is capable of manipulating forms, both her own and those of other people and things. With this power she can change the physical shapes and properties of things, which naturally has an enormous number of applications, from weaponizing her environment to duplicating herself to changing the shapes of her foes, among many others. The most common application she uses this power for, though, is to erase her own body, essentially making herself both invisible and intangible. While this ability is powerful, however, it is limited in that it cannot change the innate nature of a thing - that is, it cannot turn a non-living thing into a living one, or vice versa, and it cannot tamper with a body's mind or soul. Similarly, when she duplicates things, all copies share the same mind, soul, and pool of spiritual power, if they had one originally. Also, the spirit of anything changed by her remembers its original shape for some time even after being changed, which means that, during this time, it is possible for it to be returned to its original shape through magical means.

### ☯**Magical Skill**

Meimei is also a skilled onmyouji and sorcerer, with the ability to wield many powerful forms of magic. Additionally, she has several shikigami under her command, the most powerful of whom, Mai, is strong enough to stand among Gensokyo's more powerful residents in her own right. Her other notable shikigami include Miki and Maki, a pair of mouse youkai; Momo, a rabbit youkai; Jaba and Waka, a pair of dragons; and Moemi, a bakeneko who helps manage her household.

### ☯***Grimoire of Forms***

This magical tome was created by Meimei as a tool to offset the drain of maintaining her shikigami. Containing its own supply of magical power, it can serve as a replacement for Meimei's form-manipulation ability, allowing her to use it instead of her own power so as not to wear herself out. However, its magical power is limited and must be recharged after every use. The grimoire itself is a thick book bound in black leather, with a white crescent symbol on both sides of its cover, and on the front an ornate silver keyhole shaped like a curled cat. A key is required to open it, which Meimei alone possesses. During battle, the grimoire can be seen floating around Meimei, and hitting it can weaken her.

## Danmaku

Her normal danmaku are black ribbons that explode upon contact. Perhaps a bit uncharacteristically for someone so shy, she tends to be very showy with her danmaku, often using beautiful and intricate patterns that are meant to impress as much as hurt. Just don't actually compliment her on them, as such a thing tends to embarrass her very easily.

## Spell Cards

Note: Since she has so much difficulty with talking to people, she usually announces her spell cards via illusionary writing rather than through speech.

## Residence

Meimei's residence is located in the Forest of Magic, on the furthest edge from the Human Village. Its entrance is located in a certain tree that, at first glance, appears completely ordinary, but if the right spot is touched by the right person, a hidden doorway opens up that leads to an extensive array of hallways and rooms comparable to the interior of a mansion. Unlike most mansions, however, the interior of Meimei's residence is non-Euclidean and constantly warps and shifts according to her whims, though it does have some more or less static features, such as the library where she spends the majority of her time and the rooms where each of her shikigami live. Don't expect to find these in the same place twice, though. Besides Meimei and her shikigami, the residence is also populated by her dozens of pet cats, which she keeps and breeds as a hobby.

## Trivia

* While she can use her ability to create edible food, she is not very good at replicating the exact tastes of things, so any food she makes is usually either very bland or very off-tasting. It doesn't help that she's also a terrible cook.