Suika Ibuki

General Information

Suika Ibuki is a typical oni that loves drinking and fighting. Just as the folktales say, she has two horns on her head that symbolize her oni heritage, and enough physical strength to throw large boulders single-handedly. It is unknown exactly where she is living currently. In many endings of Immaterial and Missing Power, she is shown spending her time at the Hakurei Shrine, but in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, it says she is mainly active around the Youkai Mountain, and when visiting it during the events of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she comments on how nostalgic it feels. In Strange and Bright Nature Deity she is shown to be coming and going between Gensokyo and the country of oni in the Underworld. At the end of her route in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she was seen spending some time in Heaven after having defeated Tenshi Hinanawi in battle, but she was shown to be in Gensokyo after that.

Personality

Her personality is jolly and quite childish, as you would expect from her appearance. Despite her childlike exterior, however, she possesses great amounts of raw power. She loves drinking and is frequently seen in the fighting games drunk; she claims she's been drinking sake for some hundreds of years now. Suika bears the typical personality traits of most oni, valuing strength and fair play while despising dishonesty and cowardice. However, she is apparently slightly less honest than a typical oni. In addition, she doesn't kidnap humans, which is known to be the "strongest bond of trust" between oni and humans. However, she is nonetheless quite honest. Though she is generally a happy-go-lucky oni, as one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo, she can be very observant. In addition, she is seen being very critical of others in Immaterial and Missing Power, such as by calling Alice Margatroid a coward and telling Youmu Konpaku how people make fun of her.

Abilities 1

Suika, more than the abnormal strength of an oni, possesses super-strength. Aya Shameimaru, who has probably seen or heard of nearly every youkai by now, once referred to Suika as "simply the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo". That doesn't mean there aren't others that could be nearly equal to her power, but she is still thought of as the strongest/most powerful youkai in Aya's opinion. Of course, this may be because she is a tengu, who were once subordinate to the oni. At the time of Silent Sinner in Blue, among the people that Reimu Hakurei knows, it seems that she had the greatest super-strength, but she admits that Yuugi Hoshiguma might be (physically) stronger than she is. She once uttered "my army is the night parade of a hundred demons! No human or youkai can stand against foregathered oni!" Suika's ability to manipulate "density" gives her the power to control the density of any given object; to put it simply, assembly and dispersion. As the object's density increases, it heats up, and as it decreases, it turns into a mist.[7] During her spell cards and other attacks, she can also create smaller versions of herself and make herself giant. She can also decrease her own body's density to become a mist, as she did during the events of Immaterial and Missing Power, making it impossible to attack her. By doing this all over Gensokyo, she can effectively keep an eye on everything going on. She can also gather things without shape, like people's souls, which caused the incident in the first place. She has also affected the Moon as reflected in sky (the canopy) to make it explode, then take the falling fragments and turn them into mist as well, but the details as to how are unknown. Youmu Konpaku, after striking her with one of her swords, commented that the sword itself reacted strangely.

Abilities 2

With this power, she was able to assemble the thoughts of people and youkai, and made the residents of Gensokyo periodically have a party. Furthermore, with this power she is able to split up into small pieces and become a giant, and she is also able to disperse into the atmosphere. Other than that, she is able to compress her attack and increase her power, and is able to draw the opponent into something like a black hole, and sucking the opponent's power, out of nowhere she assembles rocks and health, and the way she throws it can be seen. It seems like she is able to turn a mountain into sand by this power (according to Immaterial and Missing Power). During her mystery attacks on Myouren Temple in Wild and Horned Hermit chapter 9, she was capable of one-hit knockouts without being seen. She was also able to collect all the trash around the Hakurei Shrine in three seconds. Unbelievably, in her last spell in Immaterial and Missing Power's story mode, "Pandemonium" or "A Million Oni Parade the Night," her spell gauge and her health gauge disperse, making an unthinkable system-intervention model for its usage method.

Backstory

Before appearing in Gensokyo, Suika lived in the Underworld. However, before even that, she apparently lived on the Youkai Mountain as one of the four "Devas of the Mountain", along with Yuugi Hoshiguma, Kasen Ibaraki, and one other. Since the oni were superior to the other residents of the mountain, such as the tengu and kappa, they all still remember her even now as someone to be respected.

Appearance

Suika has two long straight, wood like, oni horns on her head, decorated with ribbons. She wears a tattered pale pink blouse, a long purple and pink skirt, and three chain accessories tied to her belt. Her eyes are brown. She is rather short for an Oni, shorter than Marisa who is said to have the height of a pre-teen. The three symbols are related to Gibon Sengai's Picture "Circle, Triangle, Square" (or Three Dimensions of Somatic Attunement). This picture is so esoteric that there are several interpretations on it.

Appearances

During the underground incident, she is one of Reimu Hakurei's partners, she gives Reimu information about the underground, and also has a conversation with Yuugi Hoshiguma, who confuses Reimu as Suika due to them not seeing eachother for a long time (this being their first reunion). During the opening of the markets and Hell's animal realm invasion, because of the opening of the marketplace, ownership of the ancient land was lost. This has caused greedy animal spirits to attempt to claim ownership of the land. Suika goes out to check if the other protagonists have been dealing with the incident. After finding and beating Mamizou Futatsuiwa, she fights Marisa Kirisame, Sanae Kochiya and Reimu Hakurei. She however leaves disappointed after knowing that the magician decided to investigate Enoko's jewel, the Moriya shrine maiden is trying to negotiate with the Kiketsu family and that the Hakurei shrine maiden did indeed fight against Zanmu but decided that the incident is natural and that it would solve itself. At the end, she fights Zanmu Nippaku and Zanmu tells her how she was able to make the beast dance in the palms of her hand, which only made Suika more worried. Suika is also the oni who the Zanmu Nippaku’s minions find instead of their master after being misled by Hisami Yomotsu, and she fights them after affirming that they have been “thrown away” by Zanmu.

Appearances

In the first time Suika was introduced, the people of Gensokyo were manipulated into having feasts repeatedly, one right after another, by Suika's ability to "gather" anything. She intended to draw all the other oni out of hiding with continuous, non-stop celebration. Her motive for this was the short spring in Perfect Cherry Blossom and the lower number of flower viewings that could be held because of it. In most characters' scenarios, Suika was defeated and the number of feasts began to decrease. In Suika's scenario, she managed to defeat all of her major foes in a feast, but her plan failed anyway due to Reimu Hakurei's ability and her own short-comings as an oni. Suika regularly drinks at Geidontei, sometimes appearing without a disguise to the shock of Miyoi and Reimu. Due to her relationship with Miyoi, she is the cause or resolver of several incidents occurring throughout the plot.

Relationships

Suika and Yuugi Hoshiguma were two of the four devas of the mountain, and are very good friends, although it's been a while since they've actually seen each other before Subterranean Animism. Of course, their reunion during that time was not in person, but instead Suika talking with Yuugi using Yukari's yin-yang orbs. Suika hopes the four of them can go mountain climbing again, some day. They've been seen hanging around together in the background of the Human Village of Hopeless Masquerade. Yukari Yakumo was Suika's friend before the oni went to the Underworld. It is unknown how or when they became friends. Yukari cares about Suika, as her (hypothetical) Immaterial and Missing Power story has her stop Suika because she's worried that people will find Suika whom won't be as forgiving as Yukari is. Suika does favors for Yukari, such as rebuilding the Hakurei Shrine in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody or going along with her scheme in Subterranean Animism. The two play danmaku battles with each other, though it's been a while since the last one before Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. In Oriental Sacred Place Chapter 12, Yukari is with Suika at the Hakurei Shrine New Year's Festival. Suika (an oni) does tend to get annoyed with Yukari's "dirty tricks", but doesn't go beyond snapping that they're dirty. Suika referred to Yukari's existence as fraudulent to Youmu Konpaku in Immaterial and Missing Power, and stated to Yukari that it was rare to see her "on this side of the world" in broad daylight in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. These may be simple figures of speech, or they may show that Suika knows many deeper things about Yukari.

Relationships

Reimu Hakurei's honesty when they first met impressed the oni when they first met. The oni now drops by the shrine often. Reimu usually has Suika pick up garbage. Once Suika even gave Reimu a sake bug as a gift so they could drink quality sake together (unfortunately, a series of events resulted in the worm being lost). She has teamed up with Reimu to go along with Yukari's scheme in Subterranean Animism. Their relationship is obscure, but because Kasen was trying to avoid Suika as much as possible in the Wild and Horned Hermit, their connection should not be light. Later, Suika finds out about her from Yuugi but decides to leave it alone as she's curious on what Kasen's scheming. The two speak on familiar terms when they do come face to face, and Suika knows what Kasen's true intentions for hanging around the Hakurei Shrine are. It is eventually revealed that Kasen is the third of the four devas, explaining the two's familiarity with one another. How their relationship changed after the breakup of the devas is unknown. Miyoi Okunoda possessed the Ibuki Gourd (without permission) to be able to see the world outside of Geidontei. Though Suika is aware of this happening, she did not interfere at first to see what Miyoi would do. When Suika finally questioned Miyoi, they got along and came to an agreement: Suika will let Miyoi stay in the Ibuki Gourd whenever she wants to and, in return, Miyoi will keep Geidontei open late whenever Suika stops by. Suika and Zanmu knew each other before the incident of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, and Suika knew her role in the separation between the former and the actual Hell, commenting that she only “abandoned Former Hell”. Suika however still shows a high degree of respect in Zanmu, noting she is a true oni among oni. [15] Zanmu on the other hand chastises Suika for her un-oni like behavior, telling her to behave more like an oni.

Relationships

Suika travelled up to Heaven and beat up Tenshi to get some land. Iku mentions in her ending that Tenshi must have gave it to her without consulting any of the other celestials about the matter. Since then, Suika played at least one prank on Tenshi by gathering up many others to come fight her. Tenshi initially figured that it'd be okay because Suika will get bored and leave heaven soon, but by the time Tenshi's scenario ends. Suika's still up there, causing Tenshi to worry about just how long the oni plans on staying. Iku first encounters Suika when Suika is climbing to Heaven to see someone, where she tested Suika before allowing Suika to move on. Suika won, surprising Iku with her power. Iku later runs into Suika while searching for Tenshi Hinanawi to file a report on earthquakes. The oni requests Iku play with her for a bit and fights Iku in a duel. Iku is extremely confused why the oni is still in Heaven, but had to get back to her job. Eventually, after a long string of being attacked by various residents of Gensokyo for no reason whatsoever and an infuriating meeting with Tenshi, the poor exhausted oarfish arrives back in heaven and runs into the oni again. Suika's story of Tenshi giving her land gets the oarfish even more exasperated at the celestial, and Suika cheerfully comforts her and pours her a drink, encouraging Iku to vent her complaints to the oni. It is unknown if they became friends after that or not. Yuyuko might have known Suika before Suika went to the Underworld, as she describes the mist to Patchouli Knowledge as nostalgic in Patchouli's story, even though she isn't sure what it is. When Yuyuko meets Suika in her own story, she disappointingly says that she had hoped to find a good memory but ended up finding a little demon instead, and the two proceed to insult each other very harshly. Although the double-speak and metaphors aren't completely clear, this could imply that Yuyuko knew Suika from long ago, and the two did not get along.

Possession

Suika has a gourd that she calls the Ibuki Gourd, which has been soaked in the extract of a sake bug, making it capable of turning water into sake. To prevent it from overflowing, the gourd has a stopper on it, and she can't pour out more than the gourd will hold at one time. Closing the gourd will make it refill right away. This is because it takes the evaporated contents of the countless ordinary gourds and turns them into alcohol inside the gourd.