Fujiwara no mokou

General information

Fujiwara no Mokou (藤原 妹紅) was formerly an ordinary human, but she became an immortal being after drinking the Hourai Elixir about 1300 years ago. Now she is never able to die, though she still feels the pain of injuries as normal. She's considered to be very powerful, given her long life, the power she earned through her life, and her immortal status since she can keep fighting until she can no longer stand the pain.

Personality

Perhaps due to being ostracized for so long, Mokou is a loner by nature and chooses not to socialize with humans or youkai. She escorts lost humans she finds within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, giving herself a job similar to that of a bamboo forest guide, and even then after escorting between Human Village and Eientei, she departs without saying a word. Nevertheless, to those whom she's acquainted with, she speaks bluntly and with lively personality. In Imperishable Night's extra stage, for example, she was easily roused and goes on a rant about how annoying Kaguya is. Not much else is known about her as she doesn't really talk much to anyone. Her style can be described as masculine - she wears a dress shirt with suspenders and karusan (a type of hakama typically worn by men) tied at the waist, rather than above the waist as is standard for women's hakama. Although she used feminine speech patterns in Imperishable Night, beginning in Urban Legend in Limbo, her speech is typically masculine as well. She undertakes the duty of escorting people in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Although this may allow her a wider opportunity to socialize with other people, she still remains very reticent about herself. For example, when asked about her past, she doesn't answer with anything other than "I'm an ordinary health maniac who runs a yakitori stand" (it is unclear whether she truly does run a yakitori stand). However, she seems to happily listen to others' talking. Thus, even if someone doesn't lose one's way, it would be possible for her to be enlivened by a conversation. She presently seems to be very content with her life contrary to being commonly thought of having a pessimistic lifestyle. With an unaging, undying body, she and Kaguya Houraisan kill each other every day, and the text of Imperishable Night even emphasizes this with the line "and she is alive to enjoy it, how magnificent!

Abilities

Mokou's inability to die allows her body to receive an indefinite amount of punishment. No matter whether she's beheaded, incinerated or has taken any other form of strike, she'll always revive without exception. Mokou will recover within a few day's time if she takes a non-fatal blow. Due to the nature of the Hourai Elixir she drank over 1300 years ago, she's also incapable of contracting any form of disease or illness. This includes the natural process of aging.[1] It is said she can completely recover even if a single hair remained[2], although it seems redundant because those who taste the elixir will recover regardless. Mokou's immortality, however, doesn't prevent her from being susceptible to fatigue. Even though she is incapable of dying, she still feels pain when injured just as a normal human does. It's said that since she doesn't die, feeling the sting of death when she reaches the brink of oblivion brings her a great deal of pain and fatigue when she immediately revives. For this reason, she can be defeated in spell card matches with danmaku even though she's invincible. It should be noted though, that this fatigue may be completely mental since she needs no sustenance such as food or sleep to stay alive. Manipulation of fire Though never clearly described, Mokou appears to have some sort of control over fire. Many of her spell cards symbolize phoenix imagery, though this is most likely an aesthetic choice by Mokou (due to the phoenix being symbolic of immortality) rather than having any real meaning. The fact it took the combined efforts of her, Kaguya, and several rabbits to put out a forest fire in her Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red article implies that while she's capable of starting and increasing fire, she might not necessarily be able to extinguish it. All sorts of sorcery According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, in her long life it seems she's mastered various kinds of sorcery to the point in which she can handle youkai lightly.

Occupation

Mokou frequently escorts anyone wanting to go to Eientei through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She also claims to run a yakitori stand. In addition, she regularly fights with Kaguya, and has for many years. As a powerful human (or a being who was once human), one of her main jobs is also youkai extermination. Upon receiving escort from her, it is impossible to get lost in the bamboo forest. Also, there's no life-threatening danger in the forest since youkai would not attack. Because of that, it's a myth in the Human Village that if it's necessary to go to Eientei, that Mokou should immediately be contacted.

Backstory- Part 1

Mokou was born as a daughter to the Fujiwara family during the Asuka and Nara periods. It's been estimated that it was around 700CE (i.e., currently about 1300 years old). It seems that she was an unwanted child because she wasn't allowed to go out in public. Around 1300 years ago, Kaguya Houraisan embarrassed Mokou's father – and entire family – by presenting him with an impossible request when he asked for her hand in marriage (as had happened with many other young men). Mokou grew to resent the moon princess, and searched for a way to spite her, but Kaguya disappeared, apparently returning to the moon before Mokou could take revenge. She finally found a way, by making an attempt to steal the Hourai Elixir for herself that Kaguya left for the Emperor of Japan of that time because it was something very important to Kaguya. She followed a group of soldiers led by a man named Iwakasa in secret, who were going up what is now Mount Fuji. However, it was difficult for her to climb the mountain alone without proper equipment, so she quickly ran out of energy. Iwakasa had realized that she was following them some time prior to this, so once Mokou couldn't move on anymore, he helped her and they continued on, reaching the summit as one group. Once there, Mokou discovered that the group of soldiers planned to fling the jar into the fires of the volcano to destroy it, on orders from the current Emperor of Japan. As they were about to throw it in, the goddess Konohana-Sakuyahime, who calms the eruptions of Mount Fuji, appeared and forbid the group to throw the jar into the volcano because Mount Fuji's volcanic activities would restart should they do so. She explained to them that it was in fact the Hourai Elixir, the elixir of immortality. She gave the command to go to Yatsugatake where her older sister Iwanagahime handles immortality and unchangingness dwelt.

backstory- Part 2

The soldiers tried to light the jar on fire, but Sakuyahime's powers prevented it. What happened after is unclear; Mokou believes that Iwakasa's men were killed by Konohana during their night watch because they tried to take the elixir for themselves as Iwakasa and Mokou slept. As the two got further down, Mokou was finally possessed by the desire for immortality, so she murdered Iwakasa and stole it from him, consuming it and thus became immortal. After achieving immortality, she had an undying body, but humans who don't grow older aren't able to live as an ordinary humans, so until she drifted to Gensokyo, she moved from place to place, never stopping to dwell in one location. She spent three hundred years in isolation, away from the hateful eyes of people. For three hundred years after that, she would destroy anything that crossed her path, but after that, she spent three hundred years in boredom as the youkai couldn't hold her interest any longer. It's assumed that during these six hundred years she appeared in Gensokyo. It's unknown exactly when Mokou came to Gensokyo, but after nine hundred years total, she found out that Kaguya did not actually return to the moon but continued a life of escape, and that Kaguya also became one with an undying body. Mokou was ecstatic in discovering someone who was in the same mess she was in. Since then Mokou and Kaguya have mutually killed each other day in, day out for about 300 years. After the incident of Imperishable Night, perhaps due to the influence of Eientei accepting patients who come for medical examinations, she also started creating her own connection with the humans of the Human Village by taking the position of an escort and guiding people through the bamboo forest who want to go to Eientei. She remains very reticent, however.

Backstory- Part 3

On Maribel Hearn's trip to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost of several hundred years ago she met a girl who seems to be Mokou.[3] She rescued her from a mouse or rabbit youkai, which then ran away and hid after "a girl entirely on fire" chased the youkai away without a word exchanged between the two. In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, Hieda no Akyuu speculates that Mokou is a descendant of a hidden group of "youkai-killing ninja". People in general are doubtful of the clan's existence. Akyuu claims that Mokou feigns ignorance when asked about it.

Origin

Considering Mokou's surname and her back story as a daughter of an aristocrat charmed by the Kaguya-hime of legend, Mokou's father is strongly implied to be Kuramochi no Miko (車持皇子), who was given the quest for the Jeweled Branch of Hourai by Kaguya. However, many people also say that her father was Fujiwara no Fuhito (藤原不比等), the most plausible candidate based on his surname and the factual founder of the powerful Fujiwara clan that existed between the 9th century and 13th century, but this person is only a candidate for whom Kuramochi no Miko could have been modeled after, and it must be warned that it's not a clear matter of the original The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Incidentally, Fujiwara no Fuhito had nine children, four sons and five daughters, and among the five daughters, it is unclear who the mother of the fourth and fifth daughters are, and for the fifth daughter, her name is even unknown. If Kuramochi no Miko were Mokou's father, "Miko" ("prince") would mean a blood relationship with the Emperor of Japan, but as this has been used to refer to the sons of the emperor, it has been said that she's an offspring of a direct descendant of the emperor of that time (As a certain historical fact, all of the Miko ("princes") other than Kuramochi no Miko were enthroned as emperors, and thus Mokou's family would have a collateral relation, but in the time of the marriage proposal to Kaguya, Mokou's grandfather would be the emperor, implying that she would have had a direct relation at that time).

Name

Her full name is Fujiwara no Mokou (藤原　妹紅). Her last name Fujiwara (藤原, lit. "Wisteria field") is an actual and a common surname used in Japan - it should be noted that while this is one of the evidence which proves the political influence of the Fujiwara Clan, there are some Fujiwaras that aren't related to the Fujiwara Clan. The characters for Mokou (妹紅) literally mean "Scarlet (younger) Sister". According to ZUN, however, Mokou can also mean "Paint me red" and her name has no connection to Flandre Scarlet. In the right context, Kou can also be translated as "female phoenix bird", which is fitting, while Mo can be translated as "mourning". Her name would mean something similar to "Mourning female Phoenix bird", a name somewhat fitting for her exiled life and events of her past. One of the kanjis is also shared in the Japanese name for the great burnet (吾亦紅 Waremokou), a plant that's known to cool the blood, stop bleeding, clear heat, and heal wounds. Specifically, the root is used to stop bloody dysentery, nosebleeds, and is applied topically to treat burns and insect bites. Another noteworthy fact is that Mokou's last name is not actually a "family name" (苗字 myouji), but a "clan's name" (氏/本姓 uji/honsei) given by the Emperor. In ancient Japan times, it was common for aristocrats with uji to have the hiragana character の (no) between their uji and first name. The no used here indicates the "belonging", thus the English equivalent of her name would be "Mokou of the Fujiwara (Clan)".

Design

Mokou has red eyes and ankle-length white hair. She wears a light brown shirt that appears as if it's been discolored from fire, and dark red sashinuki hakama that are randomly decorated with paper charms. Her hair's tied with these same red and white paper charms. The paper talismans on Mokou's hakama and hair ribbons might be wards to protect her from being burned by fire. Her shirt, which lacks such talismans, appears to have been burnt repeatedly, while the ribbons and hakama show no such wear. As depicted in the fourth chapter of Cage in Lunatic Runagate, Mokou is shown as having had short, dark hair before she drank the Hourai Elixir, though whether her current hair color was somehow caused by the Elixir is unknown. Mokou's hair had a blueish tint in Imperishable Night and continues in other spin-offs like Shoot the Bullet, Hopeless Masquerade and Impossible Spell Card, but changed to a reddish tint in Urban Legend in Limbo and Antinomy of Common Flowers . Mokou is one of the few people in all of Gensokyo to wear relatively masculine clothing. This, along with her somewhat forceful way of speaking, often leads to her being depicted as something of a tomboy. However, because conditions in Gensokyo still resemble those of feudal Japan, patterned hakama are hard to come by and must be made by a skilled tailor and presumably are much more expensive than skirts or plain hakama. This makes patterned hakama a status symbol, and given Mokou's status as a daughter of the old Japanese aristocracy, she may have also affixed the charms to her hakama to distinguish her heritage. She’s also 5’5” tall, with a medium sized chest and a large behind and thighs.

Relationship- Kaguya Houraisan

Mokou has despised Kaguya Houraisan for reasons mentioned in her backstory. When she surprisingly found Kaguya in Gensokyo after so many years of exile, and so close to where she lived, she was ecstatic that Kaguya was in the same mess she was. The two spent about 300 years slaughtering each other on a daily basis; Mokou described those days as "the joys of killing each other over and over" in Cage in Lunatic Runagate Chapter 4. Mokou's official profile also describes those days as "wonderful days", but she's grown rather annoyed at Kaguya's persistent attempts of trying to kill her, assassins or otherwise.[4][5] When Mokou suspects Kaguya is returning to the moon in Cage in Lunatic Runagate, she is initially worried that the only other immortal person who was in the same situation as her would no longer be on Earth[6], although she does eventually come to terms with the possibility of her leaving. She also comments that had she not taken the elixir, another immortal would have been lonely, implying that despite their feud, she cares for Kaguya in her own way. This was further shown in Foul Detective Satori as not only she kept quiet about Kaguya sneaking into the village but would often show her around.[7]

Relationship- Keine Kamishirasawa

Mokou seems to have befriended Keine Kamishirasawa, describing her as the one of the few people who can understand her in the fourth chapter of Cage in Lunatic Runagate. Keine's sense of duty to protect all humans is no exception to Mokou, as she proclaimed to Kaguya's assassins in Imperishable Night's extra stage that she won't allow them to lay a hand on Mokou. Keine also traveled together with Mokou to see a flower viewing at the Hakurei Shrine in the continuation of Chapter 0 of Eastern and Little Nature Deity at the end of chapter 3.

Relationship- Sumireko Usami

Initially annoyed by the high schooler, Mokou wins the battle finding herself appreciating the girl's power, and feeling a mutual fondness for her. After Sumireko dropped some of her ESP cards, Mokou decided to give them back to her as a pretense to meet again. Sumireko feels at ease around her.