Iku Nagae

Personality Iku is a laid-back youkai that never shows interest in other people. The only exception is Tenshi Hinanawi, due to her egoistic attitude and the concern she has seeing her reports, which really worries and irritates Iku. As an envoy of the Dragon Palace, she sends information from the palace to other people. It's said that she is lazy and as a result, she never takes upon the position of a leader because she only observes what other people do. [1] Iku has red eyes and short light indigo hair. She wears a white and red shirt, a miniskirt, black pantyhose and a black hat with a red bow and two long ribbons extending out. She also has a long, opaque, white and red hagoromo, which she wears draped on her arms. Both her hagoromo and blouse glow with scarlet color she also has her high heels on. Abilities Reading the atmosphere In her Scarlet Weather Rhapsody official profile, it is stated, "she can read the mood of a place, and adapt to it right away. She doesn't try to break the mood unless there's a very urgent reason. Flexibility is stronger than stiffness. When necessary, she vanishes completely and parries any attack." However, in the neighbourhood where her speech and conduct irritate the opponent, it's a question of whether she truly reads it. (Very much so, it can be conceived that upon reading the atmosphere, she ventures to say things that give her superior mental and emotional standing than her opponent.) Borrowing the Dragon's power According to Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou, Iku (and possibly the other messengers from the Dragon Palace) can borrow a bit of the Dragon God's power.[2] Since the Dragon is known, among other things, for its power to cause rainfall, lightning and thunderstorms, this may be what allows Iku to cause and manipulate lightning on her own. Additionally, in one interpretation, it might well be that "reading the atmosphere" is "reading the flow of air", and the ability to manipulate it. In actuality, the reason she was able to sense earthquakes was due to looking at the condition of the scarlet clouds, and reading the portents of earthquakes. Species Her profile suggests that she's a youkai of oarfishes. In Japanese, oarfishes are called "Ryūgū-no-tsukai" (リュウグウノツカイor 竜宮の使い), which literally means "messenger from the Dragon's Palace". In this case, a dragon is considered as a god of water. Her shawls (and probably the long ribbons on her hat) are apparently modeled after the shape of oarfishes, which have thin, elongated bodies and red fins. Iku comments to Tenshi that she was supposed to file a report before warning everyone about the earthquake, but couldn't because all of the Hinanawi clan were away from their homes. This implies that one of her duties is to file reports to the Hinanawi clan when an earthquakes about to occur (note, however, that this doesn't mean she's subservient to Tenshi's clan; just that her job requires interacting with them). It's shown in her ending that she saw how spoiled and reckless the eldest child Tenshi was, and was never happy about it. Her win quote to Tenshi implies that Iku often complained to Tenshi about how mad her father was whenever Iku reported him. To Tenshi, however, Iku was just a messenger. Tenshi's unauthorized use of a keystone finally caused Iku to take action and punish Tenshi (and for Tenshi to learn Iku's name), although having no authority over a member of the Hinanawi meant that all Iku could do in the long term was complain about it. Suika Ibuki Iku first encounters Suika when Suika's climbing to Heaven to see Tenshi Hinanawi, 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's 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's unknown if they became friends after that or not. The Cast of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody Everyone attacked Iku either for no reason (sometimes twice) or because they suspected her of being the cause of the incidents, leaving the oarfish confused. Exceptions are the first battles with Yuyuko Saigyouji and Suika Ibuki (which were tests to see if they could enter heaven) and Sakuya Izayoi (who managed to get Iku mad by blatantly not caring about her warnings, causing Iku to attempt to block her from Heaven. This was presumably a one-time occurrence, as Iku was nice to Sakuya and hoped to try her cooking in Iku's victory quote to her. This is actually perhaps the kindest of Iku's victory quotes, with the rest being sometimes-biting advice). Yukari Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Suika Ibuki, and Tenshi Hinanawi are the only four characters who encounter Iku in story mode that recognize that Iku's a Dragon God messenger, implying they've seen one before. Reisen Udongein Inaba and Komachi Onozuka don't encounter Iku in story mode and don't have particularly notable win quotes. Oddly, Iku becomes friendly with Yukari Yakumo in Yukari's scenario when Iku learned about the keystone before Yukari. However, Yukari becomes mad at Iku in Iku's scenario when Yukari learned about the keystone before Iku (Yukari's way of informing Iku was much more vicious than Iku's way of informing Yukari). Iku also has new victory quotes to the new characters in Touhou Hisoutensoku, but there don't seem to be any relationships of note to glean from them.

Mommy Iku