Kamei no Yuuko

## Image

kill her adversary the Usurper while at the same time keeping herself alive. Everything
she did in some way ties in to one or the other, with very few and fleeting
exceptions

Because of her helpless state as a child, she has
a crippling fear of being helpless and unable to act. During her ordeal with
the Usurper she had learned that knowledge led to power and meant the
difference between life and death. At the same time, she was all the more pressured
by a feeling of helplessness- her fear compounded by what she had learned led
to an obsession for knowledge and power. One thing she doesn’t want is for her
to be subject to the whims of another- even her own body. She does what she
wills, and takes what she wants- damned be those who stand in her way.

Despite this obsession for power, she rarely uses
brute force to get what she wants. While she is direct when needed, more often
she is indirect and achieves her goals with actions that take a long time to
take into effect. Her plans sometimes have contingencies twenty layers deep.

Yuuko was originally a very kind and caring individual,
a hopeless romantic and altruistic to a fault. Her long and hard life, however,
have desensitized her to the joys of life, made her bitter and jaded, cruel and
with a very low opinion on love, which she had come to confuse with lust.

She has a most curious case of self-torture:
though buried by the ravages of time, her old self still lives deep inside her
and is pained for every act of cruelty she commits. Yuuko is aware of this side
of her and purposely tortures others to torture that side of her, from which
she derives pleasure. She might thus qualify for a mild multiple personality
disorder.

An example of this is when she finds out that a
certain person has taken a liking to her. Her old self would feel joy in that
scenario while she herself would approach the person in question, take them to
some obscure place, and then take them by force. Her pleasure is twofold; first
from the physical pleasure of the act and second from the torture she dealt to
her old self, who would rail and cry all through the act. Often the act would
crush whatever love the person had for her- if it hadn’t for some reason, she
would then torture them until they die, which would bring her further pain.

Despite the separation between her ‘old’ self and
current self in the above description, one must keep in mind that they’re still
the same individual. Thus, she enjoys the act of bringing pain onto others
because doing so pains her as well.

She had
almost forgotten the reason why they started fighting in the first place; she
could vaguely recall something about her parents, who had all but forgotten,
and the demise of all that she held close to her. She had become jaded and
cold, and over time had come to see emotional attachments as weaknesses, and
thus she would be unable to –or refuse to- comprehend why the destruction of
that which she had come to consider as ‘weaknesses’ would send her on the
warpath.

Thus she preferred not to ponder too much on the
matter. She wanted to kill the Usurper, and the Usurper wanted to kill her, and
that was all that mattered.

That is, until she finally came out victorious.

All of a sudden, she was bereft of purpose. She
existed for nothing but to exact death upon her adversary and, having done
that, she found herself lost. What reason had she to live? If the only reason
why she kept herself alive was to bring death to another, then why did she
fight for her life in the first place?

As before, she opted not to think too hard about
her situation and instead occupied herself with various diversions. When the
children of her subjects came out into the open, she created a village hidden
in the bamboo forest of the lost for them with her as their leader. She
indulged in luxury and in her lust for knowledge, creating a flying palace
(Ayakashi) for her pleasure and convenience and developing her own branch of
magic (Magitech) based on research she bartered with the other residents of
Gensokyo. Though she governs Takemura, she is often away, leaving her tasks to
her right hand Kayoku Yurika.

All in all, she’s a confused individual who refuses
to acknowledge her problems and is severely fucked up in the head.

On another note, her favorite food is dried
seaweed.

### ☯**Appearance**

Yuuko's quite flexible, appearance-wise, with several sets of clothes and the potential for multiple bodies.

#### **Bodies**

Yuuko can have different bodies with different appearances, but for now she seems to stick with one design.

* **Homunculus (Usual)**

Gender: F

Height: 5'4

Build: Lithe

Hair: Medium Grain, White, Usually Waist-Length

Skin: Mongoloid, 14 Von Luschan

Blood Type: O

Metabolism: High

Face: Oval

* Narrow Chin
* High Cheekbones
* Full Lips (Natural Deep Red)
* Straight, Narrow Nose
* Graceful Jawline
* Mongoloid Eyes (Ruby-Red Iris)

#### **Clothes**

Yuuko switches between different sets of clothes as appropriate with regards to the weather.

* **Standard**

Capelet, white with red trims on one side and red with gold trims, mon (insignia) of a bird eating the sun in gold thread on the right of both sides, cotton base with silk layering. Blouse, white with red trims, cotton base with silk layering. Trousers, red with black trims, cotton base with silk layering. Metal-cap shoes, dirty white, leather. Silver hairband keeps hair in ponytail, rests on the back of her neck.

Clothes are enchanted to absorb a small amount of force, to be dirt and stain repellent, and to be resistant to tearing.

* **Winter**

Capelet, black with red trims, mon (insignia) of a bird eating the sun in gold thread on the right on one side and on the left on the other, thick felt base with silk layering. Sweater, black with red trims, woolen base with silk layering. Trousers, black with red trims, woolen base with silk layering. Winter boots, black, red metal cap. White wool hairband keeps hair in ponytail, rests on the back of her neck.

* **Indoors**

Kimono, white, red and gold flower designs, mon (insignia) of a bird eating the sun in gold thread on the right chest. Indoor shoes, white, cotton. Hair is free-flowing.

### ☯**Theme Songs**

* Yuuko the Queen (acting as queen / leader of Takemura)
* Yuuko the Wanderer (normal)
* Yuuko the Blademaster (battle)
* A Plan is in Motion (to be revealed)
* A Friendly Duel (Battle1)
* A Show of Force (Battle2)
* The Villain
* All Out (Last Word)
* Your Doom (Dedicated Theme; still a work in progress)

## **Weapons and Notable Possessions**

### ☯**Daishou Set**

* Ibarazurugi (Katana), Youka (Wakizashi), Hari (Tantou)

Ibarazurugi and Youka are both notable for having one-shaku hilts, and a balance one inch from the handguard. Ibarazurugi's blade is two shaku, Youka's is one and half, and Hari's is eight-tenths a shaku. The blades are all light pink and have enchantments that make them very hard to destroy. They can act as a good conduit of magical energy, and can be used to substitute for wands.

### ☯**Mana Blades**

* LazrSord1(type1 prototype), Sunburst(type1), Ender(type3), Taker(type3)

LazrSord1 is a mana blade that looks very much like the the generic sith lightsabre. It was destroyed in WP2.

Sunburst is a mana blade with a hilt shaped like that of a longsword's, complete with crossguard. It creates a sound much like a pig squealing in pain when activated and deactivated, and when swing creates a crackling sound.

Ender and Taker are twin-blades. Their hilts are compact and heavily padded, comfortable to use, with a circle-shaped handguard. When activated, they each release blades of rose-coloured glass two and a half shaku long, hollow. Yuuko can change the point of balance at will by changing the amount of glass in a certain part of the blade. Very difficult to destroy.

### ☯**Wand**

* Blackthorn

Blackthorn is a three-fourths shaku long metallic wand. It makes it easier for Yuuko to channel her powers, as well as provide an additional boost if she so wishes. It has a removable cartridge at the base, which houses a 'magical battery' of sorts, made of condensed magic crystal. The amount at which Yuuko's powers are boosted are influenced by the amount of crystal in the battery. The crystal is normally not consumed, but Yuuko can boost her magic further by consuming a little with each cast.

### ☯**Grimoire & Codex**

* Black Library

The 'Black Library' is the name given to the room Yuuko keeps her grimoires in. It usually contains hundreds of empty books in addition to those with data already in them. The current Black Library is hidden in the heart of the Grand Library at her palace at Takemura. Ayakashi has a database that regularly synchronises with the black library, acting as a backup and allowing immediate retrieval of data for barters.

The Black Library at Takemura is a spatially warped room, from the outside appearing to be no more than thirty feet by thirty feet by sixty feet while having dimensions three times that from the inside. It's full of tall bookshelves arranged in an orderly grid, with a single desk at the very centre.

There is always one book on this table, and information is automatically written down on it whenever Yuuko wishes to make an entry from wherever she was, and when full, flies off and is replaced by an empty book. Her grimoires are all written in a language only she can understand. Once the library becomes 'full' with no empty books left, the contents of every grimoire are miniaturised and re-organised, with information moving from book to book until the library once again has blank books in abundance. This process is called 'compression' and it has occurred four times already in the outside world.

The database aboard Ayakashi is much more orderly, the contents of every grimoire in the black library pooled together and streamlined such as that it can be considered a codex rather than a collection of grimoires.

## Backstory

Yuuko was born in the year 763 as Amis Anak-Ulan, daughter of Datu Ulan Mangatarungang Langgam to his wife Tapad Datu Mahusayung Sikan and the *binukut* of the Kadatuan of Kang-Ulan.

Though Kang-Ulan was lost in the flow of time along with countless other kadatuans (village-states), it was in its time feared for its reach; it consisted of four villages at a time when most Kadatuans were rarely larger than two.

In addition to being a *binukut*, princess Amis was born with a genetic defect that made her muscles weak. For most of her youth she could barely lift a cup and had to rely on servants feeding her to live.

Despite her weakness, she grew up with a sunny smile always on her face that endeared those around her. She became particularly close to her brother Habagat Anak-Ulan, the heir, and her half-brother Timug, the son of Bunyag, one of her father's concubines.

When she was eighteen, it came to light that Bunyag had been conspiring to bring down Datu Ulan and a civil war ensued as Bunyag's supporters clashed against those loyal to Datu Ulan's rule.

After a short, bloody war, Amis's parents were cornered by their opponents. Princess Amis was on her cot nearby, unable to avert her eyes as her parents were brutally hacked to pieces by eight men wielding heavy machetes. One of the men noticed her when the deed was done and approached her, but Timug, now king, stopped him and reassured her that she will be safe from those men.

She was deceived, and believed that Timug was not part of the insurgency and indeed was genuine in his vow to protect her. However, the next day, she was brought to the village hall where she saw him declare the success of the coup he planned together with his mother and then announced that Princess Amis will be her queen.

She was distraught and tried to resist -in full futility- him later that night as he dragged her to his bed. He took her by force and locked her in when he was done.

In the pre-dawn hours the next day, a few remaining loyalists smuggled her out of the room. They were found and pursued, but Princess Amis managed to board a trading ship bound to Japan with two of the loyalists--- all that remained of the six that brought her out.

When she arrived in Yamato, the two remaining loyalists used her father's business connections to give her a small plot of land and a shack. Humiliated and shamed, she started entertaining thoughts of revenge but didn't take them too seriously until she met a wandering witch and learned magic. She became obsessed with magic and became hungry for more knowledge; learning to augment her weak body with magic, she started roaming Japan in search of it. During her travels, she came across a lonely Yuyuko, who was rumoured to make those who get too close to her die. The bond that developed between her and Yuyuko eventually stayed her anger and instead of exacting revenge, she instead settled for looking for and freeing those loyal to her father's regime.

She sneaked back into her former kingdom, which had started to crumble due to mismanagement on the king's end, and looked for those loyal to the previous regime. While she was successful in gathering most of the citizens still loyal to her father's rule in one of the outlying villages, they were found out and they had to flee before she could get to the more populated areas. She arrived in Japan with thirty humans and one dragon worshiped as a deity and then created a village deep in the mountains. For a while she was content nurturing her village. However, her short-lived arrival back in her old kingdom triggered another civil war between those loyal to the old regime and those supporting the new. The conflict weakened the kingdom and it was quickly conquered.

The concubine saw her son die before her eyes and fled with her life. She blamed Yuuko for their downfall and the death of her son. She herself studied magic and turned herself into an ageless witch. She found Yuuko's village in the Japanese mountains and attacked it. Yuuko fought the concubine and forced her to flee, but her village had been badly damaged and its population cut down to seventeen humans and one dragon deity. With the help of the dragon deity, she created a barrier to separate the village and the surrounding area away from the rest of the world. It was also then that she completed a ritual she had been working on ever since she first found magic: she turned herself into a lich, transferring herself into a homunculus she had created out of a mix of her own blood and that of Yuyuko.

She and the concubine would chase each other all over the world for the next thousand-odd years, adapting to the world around them. In that time, her hunger for knowledge grew, as did her hunger for power. She had her fair share of lovers in her long life, but her lovers rarely lived more than five years as the concubine would take them as targets for assassination. Those few that did manage to survive the concubine's wrath died of old age, bringing Yuuko much grief. As she grew older, she became more and more detached to romantic relationships and by the time she had reached six hundred years of age, she had forgotten how to feel genuine love. Or she thought she did, at least.

It was in the late 20th century that she had heard that the concubine was in Japan and in the early 21st century, had followed the concubine into Gensokyo. It was in the summer of season 126 that she had finally brought down the concubine in a devastating battle. Yukari sealed her for the damage she had wrought afterwards, cutting her power into half into what it was. Shortly afterwards, the barrier she created so long ago collapsed, and the city that became of the village she had forgotten appeared on the slope of the Youkai Mountain. Those who recognized her from their legends decided to follow her and her hidden camp in the heart of the bamboo forest became a colony. Thus she became Yuuko, the queen of Takemura.

## Relationships

### ☯**Saigyouji Yuyuko**

Yuuko and Yuyuko met and befriended each other back in the past when Yuyuko was still alive and Yuuko still went by her original name Mayamisan. After coming to Gensokyo, Yuuko made an effort to re-establish friendly relations between the two of them and was somewhat successful.

### ☯**Patchouli Knowledge**

Yuuko took particular interest in Patchouli for her research work, and the two freely trade their findings. The two of them together created crystallizing-type magic engineering.

### ☯**Hakurei Reimu**

Reimu was one of the two individuals involved in her sealing, the other being Yukari. Despite this, Yuuko appears to hold no grudge over the shrine maiden and treats her quite warmly.

### ☯**Yakumo Yukari**

Yukari was involved in Yuuko's sealing, along with Reimu. Unlike with Reimu, Yuuko seems to hold a grudge of sorts on the gap youkai.

### ☯**Amyan dang Tagabangó dang Subangánung Góra**

Amyan possessed and fled with one of Yuuko's bodies and for that was hunted down and chased. She was quickly defeated, and was forced by Yuuko to sign a contract that would bind her to servitude. Violating this contract would apparently turn Amyan into a chicken.

### ☯**Ayakashi**

Yuuko created Ayakashi to serve as her mobile home, as she dislikes having to return to Takemura at the end of every day. Ayakashi's AI, which was created for her convenience, sees Yuuko as her master. She is generally obedient to Yuuko, but she may at times disobey orders and cause Yuuko headaches.

### ☯**Kirisame** **Marisa**

Yuuko used to pay Marisa little attention, seeing her as a fledgling witch who knows little in the magical arts. However, after having observed the black-white a few times, she became intrigued in Marisa and a few times collaborated with her.

### ☯**Meimei Teshaneko**

Yuuko exchanges research papers with Meimei via Mai, but they have yet to meet in person. Outside of their scholarly connection, little is known about their relationship.

### ☯**Mai**

Yuuko is acquainted and appears to be on good terms with the nekomata, but details pertaining to the nature of their relationship are unclear.

## Abilities

### ☯**Soul Transfer (Personal)**

Yuuko's main ability is the ability to take control of objects that have been heavily infused by her magical signature. This is because when a certain amount of her magic is infused into an artifact, a little bit of her soul is anchored to that artifact. The fragment of her soul in the artifact is what allows her to exert her will.

### ☯**Magecraft**

Yuuko is a very skilled mage, and has several fields of expertise.

* **Energy Conversion** - Yuuko can turn any non-kinetic energy into magical energy and vice versa with ease. She can also condense them into a solid form that she uses to create magical artifacts.
* **Electricity Manipulation** - Yuuko can freely manipulate electricity, and doesn't need grounding to strike someone with it, as she can just loop the electricity back to her. Her control over electricity is to the extent where she can use it in conjunction with mind-magic to read and/or modify someone's memories or train of thought.
* **Hex** - Yuuko can turn things into something else for a certain amount of time. Nonliving things stay transformed longer than living things. The transformation lasts longer the closer the transformed object is to its original form.
* **Animation** - Yuuko can animate non-living things to create non-sentient constructs, golems, that are completely obedient to her. For an object to be animated, it must be given some vague resemblance to an actual living or mythological creature, extant or extinct.
* **Artificing** - Yuuko is good at creating magical artifacts. While she can materialize a complete artifact at will out of thin air, she seems to prefer creating parts and assembling them.

## Spell Cards

Note: Yuuko doesn't speak when she declares her spell cards. Instead, a disembodied female voice, almost robotic, says the card's name for her.

## Weaknesses

Yuuko's weakness lies on her over-reliance on her equipment. While formidable in both ranged combat thanks to her wand and twin swords, respectively, she cannot do both at once. She has to use her wand to do ranged combat and one or both of her blades to do ranged combat, and she found that it isn't too good to pair a wand with a blade; in a pinch, she can use her bare hands when wielding a wand. That said, there's a moment of vulnerability when she switches between weapons.

She would also be vulnerable when changing her wand's battery.

## Published Works

Theorem on Magic Crystallisation and its Applications, Takemura, Season 129

## Trivia

* Yuuko's occupation was that of an assassin for most of her life, and she had committed exceptionally brutal acts on the job. Macabre humor seems to be her M.O., as she'd leave her victims looking as though they had died while copulating or relieving themselves, for example.
* She's had around eight hundred partners. Most of those lasted no longer than a night; only twenty-three lasted for roughly five years or more; only two lasted long enough to die of old age.
* She had children, obviously, but they were as much a target of assassination as her husbands were. Only four have survived longer than five years, and that's because they were dropped anonymously in foster homes.
* Her homunculi degrade over time as she uses them. Each homunculus lasts an average of one month of continuous use before breaking down.
* It's a bit more taxing to project herself through her artifacts than to use a homunculus.
* Yuuko was greatly inspired by having witnessed the growth of technology, though she'd deny it if you confront her about it. This is the reason why many of her otherwise magical creations look so technological.