Izumo-no-Okuni

A performer during Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573 - 1603 AD), she is said to be the progenitor of "kabuki-odori" dances, which evolved over the years to become kabuki as we know it today.

She was called the shrine maiden of Izumo, and traveled and performed all across the nation. Her dances were said to promote Izumo Taisha, one of Japan's prominent Shinto shrines, but the truth is shrouded in mystery...

Okuni's kabuki-odori was extremely popular, enthralling audiences everywhere. However, it later came to be regarded by the people in power as immoral and was therefore shunned. It is said that, following this, she set off on a long journey to nowhere in particular.

Height/Weight: 158cm, 43kg

Origin: History

Region: Japan

Alignment: Chaotic-Good

Sub-Attribute: Human

Gender: Female

"Wake up, Zanzaburo! Let's show these guys what our kabuki can really do!"

Okuni has always loved learning new things, and is therefore quick to incorporate the customs and speech patterns of the time she has been summoned to into her show. This is why she talks in a way one may not expect of someone from 16th century Japan.

Legends say she traveled Japan with her husband, Nagoya Sansaburo, making her living by performing her famed Okuni Kabuki. However, there is nothing in her legend that explains her current companion, a mysterious samurai puppet named Zanzaburo.

"Aha, is that so? I guess my legends must have gotten some of the details wrong."

Okay, so far, everything you've heard about me is what everyone knows about me. But now, we're about to get into my toppest of top secrets.

The truth is, as famous and excellent at kabuki as I am, my job as an entertainer is only a front. My real work is that of a sealing shrine maiden, a hunter of monsters who travels around the world sealing and destroying evil!

I mean, that's not to say I don't give kabuki my all too, because I certainly do. Suffice it to say, I wear two figurative hats, and I wear them both equally well.

As for my samurai puppet companion, he's actually the vessel for an ancient god of Izumo. But I made lots of modifications to him over the years, and now, he's basically a Mystic Code custom-made just for me. I call him Zanzaburo, but he was originally something like the husk for an old god.

Combat Dance: B

A type of martial art passed down among sealing shrine maidens. Enables Okuni to freely wield a blade that's as long as she is tall, cutting down swathes of monsters and demons with ease.

Puppet Kagura: A

Okuni uses a unique form of magecraft to control a puppet infused with magical energy by dancing. Enables her to perform powerful combinations with Zanzaburo, her personal Mystic Code, with her graceful, magnificent kabuki.

Sealing Shrine Maiden: B+

As a shrine maiden of Izumo, Okuni has been trained in the use of evil-sealing magecraft. Not everyone who undergoes such training can learn these skills, as natural aptitude plays a large part in their acquisition. Prospective shrine maidens are put through an intense training regimen starting at a young age, with many of them not surviving to adulthood.

The samurai puppet Okuni calls Zanzaburo used to be no more than the husk of an ancient god that had long been sealed away in Izumo. It is believed that its original power was lost after Okuni essentially stole it and reworked it into a custom-made Mystic Code. However, despite being a puppet, it also appears to have a will of its own, and has even protected Okuni of its own volition.

『Okuni Number Eighteen - Izumo Aragami Kabuki』

Rank: C

NP Type: Bounded Field

Range: 1 - 30

Maximum Targets: 1

Raging god kabuki of Izumo.

The showstopper number in Okuni's demon-exorcising performance. As one would expect, this is the strongest technique out of Okuni's eighteen different programs. Taking her greatsword in one hand, Okuni and Zanzaburo perform their ultimate combination attack in perfect tandem.

A unique Noble Phantasm that reflects how Okuni constantly strives to improve her craft by incorporating new elements, even after being summoned.

While it may seem like this Noble Phantasm's team attack is its primary focus, its true value actually lies in the stage Okuni creates in order to perform the attack. Okuni uses kagura dancing to deftly manipulate the magical energy woven throughout her body by virtue of being a sealing shrine maiden to create a large sealing Bounded Field around the target that can devastate any kind of evil caught in its wake.

Okuni was raised in a village devoted to producing sealing shrine maidens; one that was shunned and scorned even in its home province of Izumo. She is one of several unfortunate girls who were abducted from who-knows-where by village priests without even knowing what their parents looked like. Those priests treated her and the other girls like disposable, interchangeable pawns, subjecting them to harsh training in order to turn them into sealing shrine maidens. However, perhaps thanks to her natural acumen for sealing, she managed to grow up into a strong, good-natured woman, without any lingering trauma.

One day, a fellow shrine maiden and friend of hers unwittingly undid the seal restraining an evil god, who then went on to kill everyone in her village in a single night. As the sole survivor, Okuni dedicated her life to tracking the god down, and traveled all around Japan in her pursuit. Sadly, she never accomplished her goal during her life, and her regret in failing to do so became a core part of who she is as a Heroic Spirit.

Fortunately, she was given another chance to exorcize the god, and this time, she was successful. Having finally accomplished her lifelong goal, Okuni is free to set off on a new trip around a new world as just another ordinary human.

"I hope you enjoy seeing the outside world through my eyes...

...Ohana."