Gensoukyou:Yatsuhashi Tsukumo

Background
Like most tools, Yatsuhashi was created to be used by her owner. She enjoyed a relatively easygoing lifestyle as the instrument of an aspiring composer. She was a koto, a very finely crafted one at that, and she was used quite often by her owner. In fact, this same musician used her to gain a rather significant amount of fame, everyone wanted to hear the music she produced. The attention made her happy, so she gave her best for each performance.

However, the koto began to lose popularity in modern society, and her performances were less and less asked for as time went on. Her owner’s business began to dwindle, he sold a great deal of his other possessions, but the koto was special to him, and he held onto it. Eventually, her owner had to get a different job, and she was placed in the attic, nearly forgotten. She collected dust and suffered from disuse and age. For the first few years, she was certain that this setback was only temporary and that, at any time, her owner would come to retrieve her. This sense of optimism slowly slipped over time, she became dejected, depressed...angry. How dare he abandon her--HER, who had done just as she was told all these years without complaint. This was the reward for such hard, diligent work…?

There came a time when she thought that she was going to go insane, she couldn’t handle it anymore. She wanted someone to burn her, to let her consciousness be somewhere else, somewhere less disappointing and painful. Suddenly, something began to happen… She could feel something pulling her away, and she faded from the world of humans entirely. A powerful sensation flowed through her, it made her feel like she could do anything. And she liked it. This feeling of power developed and grew within her, burning away all the pain and sadness from before. However, her resentment remained. She quickly gained a humanoid form-- not minutes after leaving the place of her creation behind.

It seemed as though she was not alone, either, for when she gained control of herself, another stood over her as she lay, examining her. After a brief conversation, they learned that they were very much the same, tools that were thrown away, discarded, forgotten. The pair decided to stick together, even proclaiming themselves sisters. They took names for themselves, a vexing process for the young tsukumogami, who eventually settled on the name of someone her master had worked with before-- Yatsuhashi. Of course, the tools had heard mentions of tsukumogami before from their masters and anyone else who had been around at the time, and they figured that that’s what they were. A little at loss for a surname, they chose to take from what they were, tsukumogami. Thus, the former tool became Yatsuhashi Tsukumo, the former koto. Now, it was around this time that the sisters got to discussing the sense of power that they could feel, it was as if they were being drawn towards it. They decided that such power should not be wasted and followed after that promise. It eventually brought them nearby a massive, upside down castle. This was the place, the place where dreams become reality. They were met by a young-looking girl not long after. She carried a magical treasure that was feeding them its power, she explained. She would continue giving them such power if they helped her overthrow society. In a world where the weak ruled the strong, how could they refuse? So they rampaged for a bit, attacking anyone who was unlucky enough to cross them. The power that the mallet gave was indeed powerful, as they found it was easy to crush anyone that they happened upon. At least, until a certain group of individuals, tsukumogami users, finally defeated them. They retreated for a while to lick their wounds-- Actually, it was more like Benben dragged Yatsuhashi off, she wasn’t finished, yet, after all, she still had some fight left in her.

Eventually, she conceded to the will of her sister, and they found somewhere that they could hone their skills. It was here that they met Raiko Horikawa, yet another tsukumogami. She warned them that they would actually disappear once the mallet stopped feeding them power, and that they had to find a new powersource. Raiko taught the panicking sisters a special incantation, this incantation would capture whatever power they currently possessed, and make it their own. Instead of relying on the mallet, they took this power for themselves and became full-fledged tsukumogami.

However, the group that had defeated the sisters before came once more, and so they fought yet again, only to be defeated once more. They figured that they must have a lot more to learn…

Personality
Yatsuhashi is hot-headed, energetic, and brash. She thinks that as long as she tries hard, she can do anything she wants. Her work ethic is pretty admirable-- as long as what you want her to do is something that lines up with her own interests. She has a rather big troublemaker streak, and she loves to get into trouble just to have a bit of fun. However, she’s mindful of her sister’s advice, which has saved her a great deal of trouble on more than one occasion. If she is unsure about something, Benben is the first person that she is going to ask for help.

It might actually be rather difficult to befriend her, especially if you're a human. In fact, getting too close is a good way to get snared in the magical strings of her koto. If she does actually catch you like that, you can expect getting to be a captive audience, during which time she will practice her mind numbing music on you until she gets bored. Then, if she's in a good mood, she'll let you go, if not, well, what happens then is undetermined. She's incredibly wary of humans, she just doesn't like them as a result of being abandoned by her owner. Humans will receive a special version of her song should she catch them, brain washing them until they can do little more than sit there, trembling.

She's generally not a very nice person to those that she doesn't really know, though it's sometimes masked by a playful veil. To those that are like her, tsukumogami, she seems more tolerant and sociable, but this isn't a fact that should be abused, as she holds very few reservations about killing strangers that should cross her.

Power/Combat
Being the tsukumogami of an instrument, she has the power to create a koto. But, this koto is not like others, she can use it to combine her sounds with energy to create danmaku and other energy based attacks. Along with that, she can use her music to play around with the minds of others, fogging their thoughts, shaping them to her will if she can get them to listen to her music long enough. Other than this, her attacks are all raw power. She often uses her music to lull her opponent into complacence before hitting them with a powerful energy-like attack.

She specializes in attacks that round about to blind side opponents, allowing the notes of her song to drift around with only the barest hint of a direction to make the attack unpredictable. It could be said that Yatsuhashi's technique is more tactful, while Benben's strategy is rather straightforward-- odd given their personality traits.

Spellcards
Koto Sign "Sounds of Anicca's Koto"

Echo Sign "Heian's Reverberation"

Echo Sign "Echo Chamber"

Koto Music "Social Upheaval Koto Music Complement"

Koto Music "Social Upheaval Requiem"

String Music "Storm Ensemble"

String Music "Joururi World"

Koto Sign "Ame no Norigoto"

Elegy "Human and Koto Die Together"

Double Chant "Song of Falling Stars"

Major
-Benben Tsukumo: Her sister and the person who holds her absolute trust. Of course, this doesn’t stop her from bickering with her, as they tend to disagree on a lot of things. Still, if you think that you might place higher than Benben in terms of respect, you’re wrong.

-Raiko Horikawa: The tsukumogami that saved Yatsuhashi and her sister from reverting back into normal, powerless tools. For this, she has earned the koto tsukumogami’s respect and admiration.

Minor
-Shinmyoumaru Sukuna: The leader of the rebellion and the original reason that she has her freedom in the first place. She visits the castle from time to time to see if anything interesting is happening.