Shinobu

* Shape
* Human
* Younger
* Ghost
* Yukata
* Talisman

Inuyama Tamaki (犬山たまき, *Inuyama Tamaki*?) (self-assumed, XoX)

Hanako Matsuzaka (aunt)

**Anime:** Episode 1 half

Episode 16 full appearance

**Shinobu** (しのぶ, *Shinobu*?), whose real name is **Shinobu Tsukasa** (つかさしのぶ, *Shinobu Tsukasa*?), is a Tsuchinoto of Shape City. She was famous by her moon powers. Her "Soul", Takuya, has never met in person but instead she just used her Yorishiro.

## Appearance

Shinobu is a white pentagon with blue eyes and big wings. She has circular hands and sickle-shaped antennae.

### Sun Appearance

When the moon is gone, she became color yellow. She's a pale yellow pentagon with black eyes and no wings. Her hands are still the same but also yellow and has no antennae.

### Human Appearance

She has long purple hair similar to Hanako's, pale blue eyes, and pale skin. According to the September 2020 issue's color spread, her yukata is of pale lavender with magenta hues. She also wears a pair of geta shoes and plain tabi socks. On both wrists, she wears bracelets composed of bells. She gave one of them to Takuya through her Yorishiro, stating that they served as protection charms.

Shinobu's talisman also holds an identical resemblance to Akane's seal. The only difference is that they are in different locations, with Shinobu's on the side of her neck and Akane's on his left cheek.

The wedding ritual failed when Shijima rescued Takuya from being sacrificed, which led to the villagers deteriorating into skeletons from a mysterious black smoke. After revealing that she was Misha's Yorishiro to the both of them, she explains that the events rewind every time she dies in that world (eg. leaping off the cliff's edge where they were standing). But despite presenting her Yorishiro to unseal it, Takuya convinces that Shinobu may know something and decides to take her with them.

### Young Appearance

In her younger years, which involved a flashback of her hiding in a cave with Misha, she was shown to wear a large hair bow and kimono much similar to now. It had magenta hues, with a sky blue bow tied behind her waist and white-blue flowery patterns on the ends of her sleeves.

### Ghost Appearance

In Chapter 62, there is an unusual spirit that closely resembles Shinobu as it leads Takuya and Aoi to an elevator. Her eyes are concealed, but she says phrases in a sing-song voice about Misha and her Yorishiro. Her clothes drift behind as bright particles float around her. It is still unknown on whether this is Shinobu's spirit or not.

## Personality

She appears to be cold and calm. She is in romantic relation with Misha. She cares about her friends especially Misha, they are really close friends. She's also at the time time, cheerful and determined. She's also friends with Cubical, admiring him with his Yorishiro usage. Making Misha jealous of her.

Cubical told her about his "Soul", Shijima. Too bad, Shijima was dead that time and Cubical is about to die. Hoping that Shijima and Cubical will be reborn as Ghosts.

## Past

Shinobu was born in a village that was relatively near a cliff rumored to lead to the Far Shore. While crying under a Shinto shrine, she was saddened by the fact that she had never seen her father or mother's faces, and that the rest of the villagers continued to ignore her. It also included her family, as seen in Chapter 70 when they stood a distance away from her in a family picture. The only caretaker she had was Misha due to her master's orders. This was mainly for the purpose of making sure she wouldn't escape while she was being safeguarded as a child. As they grew up together, Shinobu had a growing affection for him despite not receiving any responses aside from *I wouldn't mind*. The two often ventured outside, where one of Shinobu's earliest memories was them taking refuge in a cave while it rained--and asking Misha if she would always be there for her. When news of her imminent sacrificial ritual was coming, she prayed to the jizo statues and wonder if a new one will be made for her once she was offered to God. Only when she witnessed the true ending after becoming a Tsuchinoto did she know the Far Shore was never a place to be near God's side.

The village where Shinobu used to live was the place where Yukiru Gakuen was now built on.

## Abilities

### Divine Protection

**Divine Protection** (加護 *Kago*): Shinobu has the **Divine Protection of the Moon** (月の加護 *Tsuki no Kago*). She will become stronger and can even create random attacks and weapons under the shine of the moon. It can also make her fly around but when the dawn came, her powers will be lost. She can only use this divine protection at night time.

### Yorishiro (her Yorishiro)

Her Yorishiro is called the **Yorishiro of the Soul** (魂の依り代 *Tamashii no Yorishiro*). She has the ability to go inside someone's soul (she can also go inside her own soul) to meet them if she doesn't want to meet in person. The object with this Yorishiro usage is **Her old phone**.

### Yorishiro

In Chapter 68, Shinobu explains that being a Yorishiro meant that this world would rewind every time she died, and she called it a *prison of time*. Although Misha hasn't visited her once when she was awakened as a Yorishiro, she has relived the same day and death of her wedding ceremony over and over.

### Seeing Supernaturals

She can see supernaturals and apparitions ever since she was a child, especially when it came to meeting Misha and playfully referring to Shijima as 'Gon' as a new nickname.

### Supernatural Abilities

Shinobu has the rare **Supernatural Abilities**.

**Spirit User** (精霊使い *Seirei Tsukai*): Shinobu is currently contracted with several Quasi Spirits and was formerly contracted with the Artificial Spirit Jiyuu. During the incident at the Sanctuary, Jiyuu broke his contract with her, causing her existing pendant to shatter, and she temporarily carried him around in a crystal stone that wasn't pure enough for her to use him properly. She later replaces her pendant with a new high purity crystal stone following the events at Paradise. However, she states that she still doesn't have enough mana to form a new contract. Jiyuu himself wasn't a Spirit before he was made into an Artificial Spirit by Echidna and has some sort of contract with her that seals his former memories unless a certain condition is met. Some of Shinobu's contract conditions are:

* He will be active only from 9 am to 5 pm
* Do not ask about his relationship with Saki
* Do not look into a mirror or go near a large body of water
* Do not hide the fact that you are a Tsuchinoto
* He will choose your hairstyle every morning
* Groom his fur regularly
* Do some exercises when you wake up and before going to bed.
* Do not be picky about food
* Talk with lesser spirits every morning and evening

**Spirit Arts** (精霊術): Shinobu is capable of using her Spirit Arts with Jiyuu and her other spirits. Shinobu and Jiyuu can smoothly alternate between roles of offense and defense leading to devastating results. These include changing the atmosphere in the sky to rain down multitudes of stars, forming star clones that are capable of attacking and using magic, instantly conjuring giant flaming blade moons, mist barriers that hide her presence, and moon shields. On top of that, Shinobu is contracted to several Quasi Spirits; she can use them for various applications such as healing.

**Magic User**: Following the trials, Shinobu remembered that she could use magic without Jiyuu, and becomes able to use it again. It also made her aware of the abnormal amount of mana flowing through her. She is able to use ice magic through her natural fire attribute like her aunt Hanako, to convert heat into ice.

* **Huma** (ヒューマ): Shinobu creates a shining water barrier that blocks other projectiles and sorts of magic. However, if the incoming magic is stronger than the shield, it will get through it and cause damage to the user.
	+ **El Huma** (エル・ヒューマ): Shinobu forms and shoots multitudes of stars from her hands which easily pierces through and crushes flesh that vanish a moment afterwards.
	+ **UI Huma** (ウル・ヒューマ): Emilia summons massive moon stone pillars from the ground that crash into her target.
	+ **Al Huma** (アル・ヒューマ): Emilia creates a sharp ten-meter long spear of stars and moon stones. The spear can also be modified to trap enemies within it.

* **Moon Brand Arts** (アイスブランドアーツ): This technique allows Shinobu to instantly conjure star made weapons (the weapon is often forms into a blue glowing scythe) which she can use and freely manipulate in close-quarters combat. The weapons are very sturdy and are even capable of withstanding coldness.
* **Moon Brand Arts: Lunar Line** (アイスブランドアーツ、アイシクルライン): Shinobu creates a limited area barrier made of moon particles around her opponent, which she uses to attack in all directions by transforming them into weapons. Takuya helped to create the idea for this move.
* **Moon Brand Arts: Star Soldiers** (アイスブランドアーツ 兵卒): Shinobu can create soldiers who are completely made out of stars. These soldiers are exactly the same as actual humans and are clad in armor made of moon stones while wielding weapons made of stars. They follow every order given to them by Shinobu. The soldiers' strength depends from the mana density; the more mana Shinobu uses the stronger the soldiers will be. The technique was developed by her and Takuya some time after the events of the 4th arc hence, the soldiers take Takuya's appearance. Currently, Shinobu is able to create up to seven proper Star Soldiers and no less than ten soldiers with only their torsos, heads and arms. When destroyed, these soldiers can regenerate back to their full health as long as Shinobu has the strength to do so.
* **Moon Flower** (氷の花): Shinobu creates Moonflowers on wounds of living beings within a certain area that suck the host's life force and bloom by sucking the host's blood. Seven years ago, Shinobu couldn't control the affected area and stop it properly. Jiyuu had to use his powers to terminate it.
* **Absolute Zero** (絶対零度): Shinobu creates a white void that doesn't just freeze the atmosphere but is accompanied by a power that stops even the unstoppable passage of time. This technique was even able to stop Fuego's breath of fire which should have been inevitable death. No official name has been given to this power yet.

**Melee Fighter**: While she leans more on the magical side, Shinobu is also apt at close-quarters combat. Like Sousuke, rather than having a known practiced form, she is a more instinctual fighter, relying on her body's natural talents such as its high nimbleness, sharp senses, and above-average physical strength combined with her magical arts. This creates her own unique style.

**Equipment** : Shinobu wields a magical crystal known as a **Pyroxene Crystal** (輝石結晶). After the fight between Rem and Shiro, she received another Pyroxene Crystal from Takuya, which he got from Shouko Miami. Currently, she keeps Jiyuu within it and is now able to control the Yuki Yashiro Copies.

## Trivia

* Shinobu's name, **Shinobu** (しのぶ) is a Japanese verb meaning **"recall"** (偲ぶ) or **"stealth/endure"** (忍ぶ).
* She really like to see what it feels to be on the moon.
* According to Hanako, Shinobu is was admired by her classmates because of her supernatural abilities.
* Shinobu loves Moonflowers.
* Her favorite food is ice cream.
* Aside from the pyroxenes she traded, Shinobu also pawned off trinkets and other things she found which she didn't need to human villages. An incident like this is actually what started the conflict present in Bond of the Moon.
* Ever since Hanako's death 45 years ago, Shinobu has been wearing styling her hair into round buns in order to always stay together with her late foster mother.
* Due to the hardships she went through because of it, after awakening, Shinobu began to hate her own appearance and to an extent, she would subconsciously avoid mirrors. Jiyuu, noticing her deep mental trauma, would remove anything reflective from her vicinity and stipulated it as part of their contract.
* Emilia is **Eri Yumiya's** **personal favorite Melodical Mix character**. At one point, she even stated that she's one of the main reasons why she started writing the story in the first place. She also said she doesn't like ranking her characters but Shinobu comes first and all other Melodical Mix characters are ranked second.
* According to the author, Shinobu's birthday is September 23.
* She's terrible at singing due to being tone-deaf.
* Author has stated that Shinobu has the most amount of mana in the world. Even higher than Jiro Hiroyuki.
* Author also said that the name "Shinobu" was her friend's idea.