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Nue Houjuu

Name:

封獣 ぬえ

Nue Houjuu

Species:

Nue

Abilities:

Power to hide true form by Seeds of Non-Identification (this includes changing her form to energy ball and pieces of Soaring Vault to UFOs)

Age:

Unknown, More than 800 Years old

Occupation:

Loves scaring people

Location:

Skies of Gensokyo

Description:

Has short black hair and dark eyes. Has three red metallic-looking wings on the left side of her back, and three blue arrow-shaped tails coming out from the right side of her back. Carries a trident, has a snake on her right arm (which can be the Seed of Non-Identification), and also wears a black wristband on her left wrist. Her dress is all black with blue and white trim in the middle, a red bow on the front, and a small, yin-yang-like design at the bottom corner of the skirt of her dress. She wears black thigh-high stockings and red shoes with bows on them.

Relationships:

Appearances:

Titles:

See Character Titles

She is said to be one of the most mysterious and feared youkai in many years yet has been defeated by Humans many times. There are many legends according to her appearance when, in fact, she is hiding her "true form." She was just enjoying scaring humans until she got bored of it (although her dialogue suggests she was sealed underground), so she spent most her time underground until the incident in Subterranean Animism where she went above ground to check what happened. She found out that Murasa and the other youkai who were also sealed underground made it above ground and were planning something. She decided to had some "fun" by putting the Seed of Non-identification in the fragments of Tobikura. Eventually, she saw the heroine collecting them and she decided to secretly follow them, either helping or getting in their way before deciding to show up to congratulate the heroine for saving Byakuren.

Based on one of Reimu's quotes in Touhou Hisoutensoku, she is currently living with Byakuren in her Temple.

Fun Facts

  • Nue is the first(?) character ZUN himself has drawn with thigh-highs, and she seems to appeal to zettai ryouiki fans. (Zettai ryouiki loosely translates into "absolute territory" and refers to the area of bare skin seen between a skirt and thigh-highs.) There is a slight shadow of doubt over this since Suwako's sprite in MoF clearly shows her wearing thigh-highs while her drawn portrait shows her wearing socks long enough to be thigh-highs but are slightly folded down to where her knees should be.
  • A nue is a legendary beast that has "the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake as a tail". Nue's family name, Houjuu, literally means "sealed beast" as written.
  • Though her name means "sealed beast", Nue often whines about not wanting to be sealed again, preferring by far to be cooked.
  • Nue has no visible pupils.
  • Due to her character design, theme song, and the fact she is an Extra stage boss, some fans have compared her to Flandre Scarlet. This has led to her fan nickname, "U.F.O-wen."
  • In addition, Nue's spell cards are heavily reminiscent of other characters', such as Flandre, Yukari, Rumia, and Hina. Very appropriate given both her power and namesake.
  • Nue is the only Extra Stage boss to appear as a midboss in multiple stages. Ran has been a midboss in one stage.
  • Nue's appearance as a ball of light midboss on stages 4 and 6 is similar to the stage 2 midboss of Mystic Square. Yuka also turned into a ball of light during her battle in Lotus Land Story.
  • Similar to Kogasa, she tends to scare off people by using the fear of the unknown, or the fear of her true form.
  • Nue has the tag "Heian" on her song and a couple of her spell cards. Heian may be referring to the Heian period (794 AD to 1185 AD) of Japanese history (traditionally depicted as a Golden Age in Japanese History) and/or to a former capital city of Japan (794 AD to 1868 AD), 平安京 "Heian-Kyo", which is now the city of Kyoto. Her age of approximately 800 years also places her origins at the end of or during the Heian period.
  • Her theme song's name might refer to 平安京エイリアン "Heian-Kyo Alien", a game developed in 1979.
  • In Kyoto, the streets are laid out in grid-like pattern and it's planned in Heian era, modeled after Chinese city of 長安 "Chang'an". You can see her survival spell card is referring to this.
  • Nue is the first Extra stage boss in the Windows series to have not met the final boss prior the start of the game she first appears in.
  • She is shown sometimes as a child to the rest of the group in fanart, however this is purely ironic by the fact of her long-lived life(In youkai years).
  • Nue is often seen in fanonical artwork usually against Murasa Minamitsu because of her official profile/dialogue with the heroines(Reimu/Marisa/Sanae).
  • The reason of her rivalry with Murasa Minamitsu could be the fact that Murasa Minamitsu has a similar name to one of the humans who sealed Nue.

Undefined Fantastic Object - Omake.txt

Nue Houjuu UFO

 ○エキストラボス  未確認幻想飛行少女
  封獣 ぬえ(ほうじゅう ぬえ)
  Houjuu Nue

  種族:鵺
  能力:正体を判らなくする程度の能力

  余りにも不可思議。
  余りにも謎に満ちた夜空を飛ぶ妖怪。
  それが彼女だ。

  幾度となく人間に退治され、その都度、姿形が異なって伝えられた。
  ある伝説では、頭が猿、体が狸、手足は虎、尾は蛇だと言われた。
  またある伝説では、頭が猫、体は鶏、尾は蛇だと言われたりもした。

  しかしそれらは全て作られた伝説である。
  本当は、彼女は人前に姿を現すことは無かった。
  人間達が怯えて、あれこれ姿を想像しているのを、遠くから見て楽
  しむだけだった。
  それが彼女の日課であった。

  それにも飽きて、長い間地底でのんびり住んでいたのだが、今年の
  初めの間欠泉騒ぎのどさくさに紛れて地上に出てきた。

  地下にいた時に一緒だったムラサ達も地上に出てきて、何やら企ん
  でいるのを見た。
  彼女は「久しぶりに楽しめそうだ」と思い、邪魔してやろうと飛倉
  の破片に「正体不明の種」を付けた。

  正体不明の種は小さな蛇の様な不思議な飛行体で、決まった姿が無い。
  他人が見ると、その人が持っている知識で認識できる物に見える。

  霊夢達には木片が空を飛ぶ筈が無いと思っていたので、未確認飛行物体
  の代表的な形である、円盤UFOに見えた。

  ムラサ達には飛倉の破片は、勝手に間欠泉によって散り散りになった
  様に見えたが、実は世界にばらまかれたのはこの正体不明の種の仕業
  であった。

  どうも、他人が楽しそうに何かをしていると、見えないところから
  邪魔したくなってしまう。それが彼女である。
  ムラサ達が何を企んでいたのかは知らないが、失敗したら楽しいな
  と思っている。

  しかし、その正体不明の飛行物体を嬉々として集める人間が現れた。
  正体不明に怯えない人間とはどういった人間なのか興味があった。
  だからこっそりと後を付けて、時には邪魔したり時にはサポートし
  たりもした。

  結局ムラサが行っていた事は、自分にも益がある事だと知り後で
  後悔する事となる。

  白蓮はそんな自分の復活を邪魔した彼女も受け入れた。
  暫くはこの僧侶に付いていくしかないと思う鵺であった。

○Extra boss  The Unidentified Flying Fantastic Girl
Nue Houjuu

Species: nue
Ability: the power to make her true form unknown

A great curiosity.
An extremely mysterious youkai that flies the night sky.
That is Nue.

She's been defeated by humans many times before, but each time, accounts of her appearance are different. According to one legend, she had the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and the tail of a snake. According to yet another legend, she had the head of a cat, the body of a chicken, and the tail of a snake.

These legends were all made up, though.
In reality, she never showed people her true form.
She just enjoyed watching humans get frightened and imagine all sorts of strange things from afar.
That was her daily work.

Eventually she got tired of that and leisurely spent a long time deep beneath the earth's surface, but she got mixed up in the turmoil surrounding the geyser incident and appeared above ground once more.

She saw Murasa and the others who had been underground with her also come above ground and start plotting something. "Ah, finally I can have some fun again", she thought, and decided to give them some trouble by attaching the Seed of Non-identification to the fragments of the Tobikura.

The Seed of Non-identification was a small snake-like flying object with no determined form.
When people saw it, what they saw depended on their own experience and knowledge.

Since Reimu and the others didn't think that a block of wood had any business flying in the sky, they thought it was a round UFO of the sort that most exemplified unidentified flying objects.

Murasa and company thought that the fragments of the Tobikura had been scattered about by the geyser, but it was in fact thanks to the Seed of Non-identification.

In any case, when it looked like others were having fun, Nue would find a way to mess with them from afar. She didn't know what Murasa's group was planning, but she thought it would be funny if they failed.

However, humans appeared who seemed happy at the appearance of that unidentified flying object.
She was interested to see what sort of human wouldn't be afraid of such a thing.
So, she secretly followed them, sometimes helping them, sometimes getting in their way.

Eventually she found out that what Murasa was doing would benefit her, too, and came to regret what she'd done.

However, Byakuren did not ostracize her for having meddled with her return.
The nue thought she would have no choice but to follow the monk for a while.

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