Ran Yakumo

**Ran Yakumo** (八雲　藍 *Yakumo Ran*) is a shikigami who attacks the heroine when her shikigami Chen loses to them and to avoid waking her master, Yukari Yakumo.

## General Information

Ran first appeared as the extra stage boss of *Perfect Cherry Blossom*, where she also appeared as the Phantasm stage midboss of that game, so she has the strong image of being a midboss, but even as an extra boss, she also had abilities not to be ashamed of, as she is also a long difficult battle.

She frequently appears as an attack option in the fighting games for Yukari Yakumo and has appeared in *Imperishable Night* as Yukari's attack.

### Ability

Using Shikigami
While being a shikigami, she has the privilege of strong youkai of being able to use shikigami. However, perhaps because she does not have the level of power that Yukari Yakumo has, or perhaps because the power of the youkai turned into a medium wasn't enough, different from herself, Chen has only the level of wisdom of a child. Also, although she's not able to turn against what Yukari says, this doesn't mean that Chen perfectly listens to what Ran says. Because of this, she sometimes has to lure Chen with catnip to make her listen.

Clear intellect
Matching up with Yukari, she has super-person intellect. According to *Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red*, she was somehow able to formulate and prove an equation for figuring out the width of the Sanzu River. Nonetheless, more than inventing new things through her intellect, it seems to be her speciality to process formulated calculations; even on this point, the shikigami of Gensokyo have been often likened to the PCs of the outside world).

As for her other abilities, one of her spellcards shows that she is capable of quickly increasing her physical capabilities, but other than this, nothing more have especially come to light. As a strong youkai, she is probably able to use various other kinds of sorcery, but since she pretty much never performs actions alone it's still unclear.

All along, she usually makes appearances as a means for Yukari to attack, so when she flies around, she often spins around. Perhaps the way Chen spins around and around may be also be related, or due to her influence.

### Occupation

As Yukari Yakumo's shikigami, Ran must do whatever Yukari commands her to do, such as doing Yukari's chores or checking the Great Hakurei Barrier around Gensokyo for problems. Apparently, Ran's own shikigami, Chen, is too unreliable to be entrusted with doing chores.

In her spare time, Ran often calculates various things such as the width of the Sanzu River. She may also be seen in the Human Village shopping for tofu.

### Species

Because she is actually a fox that became a youkai (Kitsune) and is a shikigami herself, it's highly unusual that Ran has a shikigami of her own. Ran is supposed to be a 9-tailed fox (called a "Kyuubi") which, according to ancient Japanese folklore, would be at least 800 years old. Foxes start life with 1 tail and gain an extra tail once every hundred years. So at 100 years old they would have 2, and at 800 would have 9. At this point, assuming Ran follows traditional folklore, she will eventually start losing tails until she has 4 and will be considered a "Tenko" (heaven) type of fox and will then be one step away from divinity.

However, she's got the highest number of tails a kitsune ever has, and it's a clear sign of Ran's power and experience. Even though Ran looks similar to a human and has more than enough intelligence to speak, she is still essentially an animal and is often regarded as such by other characters.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Ran is one of the many villains you will face throughout the game. She's one of the most powerful on the difficulty scale.