Gensoukyou:Momiji Inubashiri

Background
Born in 1395 A.D. to a young wolf tengu named Hadari Inubashiri and the descendant of a god, she has always been regarded as somewhat of an outsider due to her, albeit very small amount, of divinity, she found herself pushed outside of social groups. Her mother tried to comfort her, thinking it was very unfair of the others to ostracise her daughter merely because of her heritage. Sometimes, after exceptionally troubling days after school, she would find out that her mother had scolded the other young Tengu that had teased her so horribly. She found a sense of pride in that and was comforted by the fact that at the very least, one person on the mountain didn't regard her as some kind of freak.

Still, she was never able to stand up for herself, remaining silent while the others teased her. This often meant Momiji would be up late at night, unable to sleep with the words of the other younglings echoing through her head. She became depressed, moping around both at school and at home. Her mother took note of this and tried to cheer Momiji up when she could, to no avail.

One day, Momiji's mother suggested finding something the young Tengu could dedicate herself to, her calling. Momiji glumly complied, trying to make her mother happy. She tried a multitude of things, art, dancing, you name it. The day came that something happened that would drag her out of her depression. She had never met her father, as he had left before she was born and her mother refused to give any answers regarding him. However, Momiji had taken a walk through the forest out of sheer boredom when she came across a long object wrapped in cloth along with the cracking of branches that instantly drew her attention and she kept watch carefully. The sounds got farther and farther away, soon ceasing entirely. After about ten minutes of waiting and listening, she cautiously approached the object on the ground, picking it up carefully and removing the cloth. What she found puzzled her; a blade and a shield with the crest of the Tengu, a maple leaf.

Surely this must belong to someone, obviously a tengu judging from the crest. She inspected the items further, finding a small note addressed to the daughter of Hadari Inubashiri. This puzzled her greatly, who or what would leave this out in the middle of the forest...why didn't they bring it to her house if they wished to give her a gift...? For that matter, why would someone give her a gift at all? No one in the village was kind enough towards her to do something like this. So why? She threw the items back into the cloth she found it in and ran home as fast as she could. She burst through the door, calling out for her mother who came running, thinking something was wrong.

She got a strange look on her face when Momiji explained what had happened and suggested she accept the gift. Momiji was curious about her mother's suggestion, but decided that she may as well accept the only kind thing that anyone besides Hadari had ever done for her. She looked at the note addressed to her and was surprised to find out that the items were --supposedly-- from her father, who was left unnamed. The note explained that her father was sorry that he hadn't shown himself before and that he wished to give Momiji something to dedicate herself to.

"Wait...how would he know that...?" she paused, uncertain if her guess was right. "Unless..he has been watching?" She mused to herself. A million questions flooded her mind, but of course, her father was not here to answer them. She continued reading the note. It explained that these items were special, but it did not explain why, merely saying that she would have to experiment with them and see. The prospect of actually owning a sword excited her; perhaps fencing would be able to give her life meaning where everything else had failed her. She looked up from the note to announce her intentions to her mother, but discovered that she was no longer in the room.

She looked around everywhere around the house, wondering where she went. When she didn't find her, she looked around the village...nothing. Days passed, her mother was no where to be found, she even talked to the village elder and had him organize a search party to comb the forest. Still nothing. It would figure! Life gives her something good to give her hope, then snatches away more than it gave her to begin with. She mourned for her mother, having no choice but to assume she wasn't coming back. She trained in the forest by herself with her sword, no one would teach her unless she was able to pay them, and all the money she did have was reserved for food. Her awkward, clumsy slashes eventually grew into strong, confident attacks. She developed her own style, using the sword and her shield in unison; be it both for offense, both for defense, or one for each. She begged the village elder to allow her to serve the village, promising to do everything she could to protect the mountain. While the elder was certainly not thrilled with the prospect of a being who was not fully a tengu guarding the mountain, he realized that Momiji didn't have many options left in life, and so, warily agreed, much to Momiji's delight.

So began her days guarding the mountain.

It would be another 50 years or so before she met a crow Tengu named Aya, snapping pictures of people in the forest near the mountain, much to their annoyance. They had even resorted to shooting danmaku at her, but she was much too fast for them. Momiji was greatly confused by this, why would someone do something like that? She decided to investigate, coming to Aya after her photography interest had given up hope of beating Aya. Momiji inquired the reason for doing that and was surprised to hear that her reason was that she was writing a newspaper article on the residents of Gensoukyou and their danmaku. She explained that there wasn't many ways to get people to agree to having their secrets documented like that, so she had to irritate them enough to start shooting danmaku on their own.

While Momiji didn't exactly approve, she didn't say anything negative about it. The older tengu comments on never seeing her before and proceeds to question her about her life. Momiji had nothing to hide and answered every question that Aya asked in a truthful way, ending the session with the confession that even though she loved her job, it didn't pay well enough to maintain her quickly dwindling funds. When she was done, the crow tengu sat in thought for a moment before speaking again "I see, so you've got no choice but this one, eh?" This was acknowledged by a small nod from Momiji. "And," Aya continued "You have no money either... Alright, how about this, I let you stay at my place, and in return you protect the mountain. Does that sound fair?"

That didn't make any sense, Momiji already protected the mountain, but when she went to state this, Aya put a finger to the Wolf Tengu's lips to silence her. "I know what you are gonna say, just tell me whether or not you agree to my terms." Momiji frowned, it seemed...well...wrong to let Aya do this for her. But what choice did she have?

Aya removed her finger from Momiji's lips and motioned for her to continue. She replied with an uncertain, uneven tone "Y-yes, I think I'm okay with that." Aya smiled and took Momiji's hand, leading her back to the village and to her house, much to the embarrassment of the young Wolf Tengu. So began her friendship with Aya, though she had come to like the Crow Tengu in a way she had never felt before. She hid these feelings away, not wanting to ruin her relationship with Aya by presenting feelings that were not mutual. But, she was really, really bad at hiding it. Aya quickly picked up on it and started asking questions in her usual way, but Momiji refused to speak. But Aya could tell, she could read Momiji like an open book. Eventually Momiji managed to say something on the matter, clearly very embarrassed about the whole thing. Aya smiled, but told her that she'd like to simply remain friends for the time being. That was okay, it was a silly admiration crush. So, they both agreed to keep things simple.

Personality
Momiji is a very straightforward and honest person. She is kind towards those she knows, but is a little suspicious towards those she does not. That aside, once you have gained her trust, she is very loyal. She can sometimes be indecisive about what she really wants, sometimes stressing over it a little more than she should, especially with decisions that could potentially affect her relationships with others. She is the sort of person that would freely give you their aid if you indeed needed it.

If things aren't going as planned or if she is unsure about something, she tends to become flustered or irritated depending on the circumstance. This shows mostly around Aya, as she isn't sure what she should be doing or saying around her since she doesn't want to say something wrong and smudge their relationship.

On duty, Momiji stays focused on whatever it is she is trying to do, changing from a sort of soft spoken individual to one that speaks authoritatively and commandingly, perhaps even coming off as a little arrogant. Though, in truth, she only wants to scare the intruder off, as she dislikes needless violence. The longer an intruder sticks around the more exasperated she gets before getting to the point where she must draw her sword and give it a few swings to send the other person on their way.

When not on duty, she's very partial to taking long strolls by herself, generally through the youkai forest. Of course, she's actually had to fight off a few people during these walks, so she tends to be wary while traveling. In the even that she is delivering packages, she prefers to say little to the recipient, handing them what they are due, getting her payment, then taking her leave.

Power/Combat
Momiji’s power is the ability to see and hear things at a great distance. In reality, this is a form of clairvoyance, letting her spy on people or areas within a certain distance. In fact, it is said that Momiji can see anywhere within Gensoukyou. She sees this ability as helpful with her job, keeping watch over Youkai Mountain, and uses it often to scan for potential threats. However, this isn’t really a power that lends itself to combat. Instead, she relies on her sword, shield, and pure ferocity in combat.

Her sword is a rather large pudao that she normally carries strapped to her back. She doesn't seem to have any trouble wielding it one handed, despite its considerable length and weight due to the natural physical ability of the wolf tengu. It probably goes without saying that she could perform a few slashes with this weapon in less than a second due to the speed of the tengu themselves. She often uses the sword as a conductor for wind magic, preferring that to actually hitting someone with it; generally with walls of wind, perhaps narrowed down, blade-like blasts if she feels particularly threatened.

Momiji's sword will refuse to properly kill anyone in the sense a normal sword would, guiding the users hand to inflict nonlethal wounds. And, also in an attempt to avoid killing, it steals away the strength of those it cuts, causing temporary paralysis. If it should come into contact with anything that was "intended to cause harm", for an example, if someone shot danmaku at the user with the intent to kill, cutting it with the sword would destroy/negate it. It this were used on someone wicked or full of hate, it would weaken, or in some cases, destroy their ability to use the elements that could be used for harm from the inside out (magic, physical strength, etc); of course, depending on the severity of the wound she inflicts, this can be either temporary, or permanent.

Of course, if she did miraculously gain faith, Momiji could very well become like a god. However, the plausibility of this actually happening is debatable, at best; mountain guards do not often gather faith.

Spellcards
Dog Sign "Rabies Bite": Momiji conjures oval shaped danmaku both in front of, and behind her target in partially crooked rows, then the two walls of danmaku rush the target, grinding against each other as they pass, the pattern repeats for about 45 seconds before it times out. Due to some of the danmaku being misaligned, there is no straight path through. This card will require intense dodging if you don't want to get hit.

Mountain Nomad "Expellee's Canaan": Momiji unleashes two overlapping, tangled, cyclone like bursts of danmaku that move outwards, accompanied by aimed, red, oval danmaku to pressure the target into trying to move through the tangled golden cyclone.

Instinct "Law of the Forest" Raising her sword into the air, the area around her begins to glow with green light as leaf shaped danmaku floods forward in a show of pure power without any real pattern. However, the danmaku begins to swirl around, as though being manipulated by the wind, creating many seemingly easy paths through before they close off, forcing the target to navigate through increasingly confusing maze-like patterns.

Heaven Sign "Mahikari" A bright light surrounds the wolf tengu before exploding outwards in two sets of spoke-like chains of danmaku that rotate in opposite directions, forcing the targets to weave furiously between the two spokes so as not to be trapped between them.

"Road to Heaven" A spell that she developed based off of Aya's spellcard "Illusionary Dominance". She uses the natural speed of tengu to flit back and forth at untrackable speeds while swinging her sword at varying areas around the target and at varying angles, each swing invoking a thin laser that streaks toward the target. The lasers often cross and lock the opponent into one area for a few moments, only opening up just a split second before Momiji sends an aimed strike at the target, which means that they have to be quick on their feet if they want to get out unscathed. Further, during the last 10 seconds or so of the card, Momiji lets loose many small white danmaku that float down towards the target, lingering in the air around them and generally getting in the way as they try to dodge the lasers.

Major
Character::Aya Shameimaru- A fellow tengu and a personal friend. She sees Aya as somewhat of a role model and tries to follow in her footsteps at times, though she disapproves of Aya’s tendency to exaggerate the news. She is currently being allowed to stay at Aya's house due to financial difficulties on Momiji's part.

Character::Nitori Kawashiro- She sees Nitori quite often while patrolling and has come to see her as a friend. Occasionally, when both of them have free time, they play board games (Usually Dai-Shogi).

Character::Minoriko Aki & Character::Shizuha Aki- Momiji, being someone who very much enjoys fall, finds herself wanting to speak with the two goddesses whenever possible. During winter, she often tries to find excuses to visit the sister's home, which is locked into a perpetual state of autumn. She's actually grown quite fond of them and hates to see them so depressed when winter is around the corner. She seems to have taken a particular interest in Shizuha, who is undoubtedly the least stable of the two sisters. Momiji visits her everyday to check up on her and generally show her that she is appreciated.

Minor
Hina Kagiyama- The goddess of misfortune is someone that Momiji occasionally meets during her off hours when taking a stroll through the forest. She isn't affected by Hina's misfortune as much as other individuals and doesn't mind hanging around her. Most of their encounters are just friendly chats, it seems that Hina doesn't often get to interact with other people.

Trivia
- Since Momiji has divinity in her heritage, she could become like a god if she somehow gained faith. Hard to do as a mountain guard, though.

- Momiji dislikes it when the strong pick on the weak, sort of a pet peeve of hers.

- Momiji hates to see people depressed or overly sad, having been in that position before and knowing how terrible it is. As such, she usually tries to comfort those people in some way, usually just by talking to them and being there in case they need her.

- Aside from guarding the mountain, Momiji delivers messages, packages, and copies of the newspaper to the people of Gensoukyou on occasion