Yukari Yakumo - Vore The Ambush

Yukari Yakumo (八雲　紫 Yakumo Yukari) is youkai sage of Gensokyo who is able to manipulate boundaries. She is one of the responsibles for creating the boundaries of Gensokyo while also maintaining Gensokyo's society Personality Yukari is known for being a very youkai-like youkai who sleeps all day and lives for the enjoyment of life. Though she rarely leaves her house, she's well-connected and is acquainted with most of the most powerful youkai as well as anyone having anything to do with the Great Hakurei Barrier or the outside world, although she rarely attacks humans.[2] She has a tendency to toy with her opponents rather than use her full power from the start. If anyone is suited for the role of "mastermind", it's Yukari. She excels at mathematics and is experienced due to her long life.

She possesses superhuman intellect [2] and especially surpasses in dealing with numbers. In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, according to Ran Yakumo, this ability with numbers is something that even Ran is not able to understand, to the extent that for example that she is able to determine the depths of the darkness of Avici or determine in an instant how long it would take for Ursa Major to devour the North Star. [3]

She often has a great deal of insight and understanding about whatever happens in Gensokyo, and possesses considerable intellectual prowess, as well. Though she seems flaky and unreliable most of the time, when the safety or security of Gensokyo is at stake, she won't hesitate to get involved, even if it means using others to do the work for her. For example, in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she treats Tenshi Hinanawi with much hostility after finding out the plot of the Heavens. She could easily be either a villain or a heroine, depending on her whims.

Yukari deals with problems by manipulating others to act to resolve things for her. She seems to rarely act directly except in particularly egregious situations. In all cases, she rarely lets anyone know what her true aims or goals are and sometimes these goals are extremely abstract. Yukari has a well-deserved reputation of being fickle, whimsical and lying often and thus many characters in Gensokyo dislike her. For whatever reason, Yukari takes it all in stride and does not seriously deny any of those comments. She seems to actively try to keep her more obviously altruistic actions a secret, such as her donations to the Hakurei Shrine in Strange and Bright Nature Deity. She possibly cultivates this image to ensure that people continue to fear her as a youkai, as this is what her true goal for a particularly complex gambit is revealed to be at the end of Cage in Lunatic Runagate.

Abilities Strength Yukari is with no doubt one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. She has been described as an extremely powerful being more than once,[4][5], with easily enough power to destroy all of Gensokyo if it's needed.[6]. In Silent Sinner in Blue, Yukari claimed Watatsuki no Toyohime was stronger than her and avoided a direct confrontation with her, although at the time she was purposely letting herself being captured.

Her physical strength is what you'd expect from a youkai. While the extent of an average youkai's strength is never really specified, their bodily ability is typically very high, so her strength is still far from that of a human. There are some displays of Yukari's physical prowess:

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia Chapter 12, Yukari's hand is able to effortlessly block and brush aside a mallet swung by Rinnosuke Morichika with all his might, leaving him shocked that a small slender feminine hand was able to pull off such a feat. Rinnosuke said that it feels like he hit a pillow. Hong Meiling, in one of her Touhou Hisoutensoku win quotes, notes that she felt an odd resistance from Yukari's body (presumably after punching and kicking her a lot), to the point where she wondered if Yukari was wearing something else under that presumably delicate dress of hers. Yukari states in her own win quotes in Immaterial and Missing Power that she has no weaknesses, and even shooting, cutting, stabbing, hitting, or killing her is useless.[7]

Gaps The ability to use "gaps" (すきま sukima) is the most prominent ability that Yukari utilizes. They act as portals between two places, where she's able to hold, sit on or emerge from such gaps. Because of this, she's able to show up at any place and can freely travel to places like the Outside World. Within these gaps one can see a lot of eyes, which according to the description of Yukari's Magic Eye "Laplace's Demon" spell card she can also use to see. Yukari can create gaps through which only she can pass, or which anything can pass through.[8] It's also possible for someone to enter a gap and end up in a completely different place without even realizing it, such as Flandre Scarlet unknowingly ending up in the Palace of Earth Spirits while she was about to enter a room of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.[9] Moreover, while the main use of gaps is traveling to different places, Yukari also uses them in battle either by virtue of being able to use almost any object (such as tombstones, road signs, and even running trains) as a weapon,[10] by retreating inside them to avoid being hit or land unexpected attacks,[11] sucking in an opponent's attacks to throw them back.[12], or merging different gaps to create harmful spatial distortions.[13]

Though seemingly limitless, the range of Yukari's gaps is sometimes subject to restrictions. In Silent Sinner in Blue she is able to utilize her ability to create a portal to the "fantastic" side of the Moon using the moon's reflection on a lake's surface (a boundary) and only during the full moon, which is the only period of time during which the passage is open. For some unknown reason she is unable to use her powers to bring a living being on the far side of the Moon, which is where the Lunar Capital is located.

By mostly moving around in gaps, one would usually not see her as doing much physical labor at all, and according to Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, since she ends up in blurting out herself such sayings like "to do mountain climbing at such an age", there is the image that she is like an indoors-type youkai, but in the end, she is still a youkai.

Manipulation of boundaries

Yukari's "Danmaku Barrier", as illustrated in The Grimoire of Marisa.

Yukari using a border for transportation in Silent Sinner in Blue. Yukari's main ability is manipulating any kind of boundaries.[14] This ability has been described as logically being able to affect essentially anything.[15] In her monologue during A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Sixty Years, she explains that this power allows her to control or remove the boundaries between any and all things, like Gensokyo and the Outside World, the worlds of the living and the dead, humans and youkai and even the day and the night. [16]

In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, manipulating boundaries is described as a terrifying god-like ability with no weak points which there is no defense or countermeasure against, capable of fundamentally undermining reality itself and as one of the most dangerous abilities that youkai are known to possess, while Yukari's manual profile in Imperishable Night Manual says that "the danger and potency of her ability is beyond imagination".

Ultimately, everything is built upon the existence of boundaries; if there were no boundaries everything would effectively exist as a single enormous object. Because of this, the ability to manipulate boundaries is logically an ability of both creation and destruction: by making a new boundary is to create a new existence, and to destroy a boundary is to negate an existence. For example, as said in Perfect Memento, if there was no water surface there could be no lake, if there was no sky line neither mountain nor sky could exist and were it not for the Great Barrier even Gensokyo itself wouldn't exist. Furthermore, it seems that not only are physical boundaries, but also the general idea of boundaries can be manipulated and it seems like she would be able to manipulate the boundary between dreams and reality, which could very well be how she was able to drag the real Sumireko Usami out of the Dream World in Antinomy of Common Flowers. Yukari is also capable of seeing (and seeing through) boundaries that are normally invisible; when the Human Village was displaced from history by Keine Kamishirasawa, Yukari was completely unfazed and still able to see it.[17][18] She also tells Marisa that it would easy for her to manipulate the boundary between Winter and Spring.[19]

It's shown that Yukari can control the boundaries and bend them to her will as seen in Immaterial and Missing Power when she adjusted the sky by manipulating the border between the daylight and moonlight to unite the day and the night.[20] According to Marisa Kirisame, Yukari can even control the boundary between "a danmaku for play and a danmaku for battle".[21]

Yukari is also capable of sensing and repairing damage to the Great Hakurei Barrier, and although in Perfect Cherry Blossom Yuyuko Saigyouji doubts Yukari could make such a strong barrier,[22] she has been referred to as its creator in various occasions.[23][24] To add to all this, Hieda no Akyuu writes that "manipulation of boundaries" is theoretically a godlike power which would allow Yukari to create or destroy anything, but that all the stories about it are impossible to confirm.[2]

Despite how limitless her ability sounds, there are in fact limitations, usually in relation to other powerful entities.

Examples of the usage of this ability:

Neutralized Suika Ibuki's ability by forcing the oni, which was spread as mist over the entirety of Gensokyo, into her normal form so that she could be seen and interacted with by others.[25] Adjusted the sky by manipulating the border between the daylight and moonlight, to unite the day and the night.[20] Possibly, this also allowed Yukari to stop the night in Imperishable Night.[26] Manipulation of the boundary between the true and illusionary moon, which allowed her to open a gap, that lead from Gensokyo to the Moon, on the lake surface. (Lunar War, Silent Sinner in Blue) By creating the Boundary of Fantasy and Reality, she established the Outside World as the real world, and Gensokyo as an illusionary one, allowing youkai to disappear from the former and thrive in the latter. (Youkai Expansion Project, over 500 years ago) She is widely acknowledged as the creator of the Great Hakurei Barrier, which isolates Gensokyo from the Outside World. (The Great Barrier Disturbance) Upon Yuyuko's request, weakening the Border of Life and Death between the world of the living and the Netherworld, making it possible for denizens of both world to easily cross it. (Perfect Cherry Blossom)[2][27][28] When the Great Hakurei Barrier has loosened, she returned Rinnosuke Morichika to Gensokyo who has been ejected into the outside world (Curiosities of Lotus Asia) Dragged the real Sumireko Usami out of the Dream World (Antinomy of Common Flowers) By manipulating the border of master and slave during the Perfect Possession incident, she thwarted Joon and Shion Yorigami's scheme that allowed Joon to win any battle by forcing Shion as the enemy's slave (Antinomy of Common Flowers) Many of her Spell Cards and attacks allude to various circumstances involving boundary manipulation or creation, such as: Barrier "Balance of Motion and Stillness", Barrier "Mesh of Light and Darkness", "Boundary of Humans and Youkai", Barrier "Charming Quadruple Barrier", between many others. The description of Yukari's "Boundary of Intellect and Feet" states that she would be able to cut anything by using boundaries, a motif also used in her Splitter "Thing That Splits All Into Two" Spell Card. According to herself, when humans have noctambulism it's because she manipulates the boundary between sleeping and being awake.[19] Onmyoudou Yukari is skilled in Onmyoudou, the Taoism-derived arts of traditional Japanese court wizards, and specializes in spells which create and manipulate barriers (presumably due to overlap with her innate abilities). Yukari has been able to teach some of her spells to Reimu Hakurei, whose own techniques have similar roots.

Yukari also displays great aptitude with shikigami, binding a powerful kitsune and numerous lesser servants at once. As Shikigami are stronger when following the right orders, Yukari must also be skilled at giving the correct orders to fully maximize her shikigamis' potential. In an interview with Aya Shameimaru, Ran Yakumo states that despite sleeping most of the time, Yukari is capable of giving orders no one else would think up the instant she opens her mouth, and Yukari uses complex equations to increase Ran's power indefinitely (This manner of using shikigami is likely one of the reasons Yukari views computers and shikigami as one and the same).

Various Talking without sound: Yukari was able to talk to Luna Child even after the fairy erased all sound around her. As described, it was a voice that Luna heard in her own heart. It's unknown if this ability is part of her main ability over boundaries. (Fairy of the Moon) Resisting Suika's power: According to Suika, Yukari was the only one able to resist her power, which she used to gather everyone's thoughts making them have banquets for several days.[29] (Immaterial and Missing Power) Possessions Parasol Yukari owns a pink laced parasol with red ribbons like the ones on her outfit and a curvy and pointy ornament on top, similar to Yuuka Kazami's parasol. In the danmaku games, it's simply an accessory, but in the fighting games, she uses it as a melee weapon as well as a conduit for shooting danmaku.

Hand Fan Yukari has a fan which she can use as a weapon and a way of shooting danmaku. The fan has had multiple different patterns on it through the games. Backstory According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, an apparent article on Yukari appears in the first edition of the Gensokyo Chronicle from 1,200 years ago. However, this article did not refer to her name as "Yukari Yakumo"[2]. It is believed she chose this name for herself, the name "Yukari" signifying that she was a youkai of boundaries, and the name "Yakumo" from a poem about creating a great fenced mansion where one can live a peaceful life in seclusion, and a strong fortress to keep the gods trapped inside.[31] This land would be Gensokyo.

Saigyou Ayakashi Occurrence Over a thousand years ago, Yukari met and became friends with a human girl named Yuyuko Saigyouji. Over time, Yuyuko was driven to suicide out of despair over her ability to control death. After Yuyuko died, her body was used to seal the Saigyou Ayakashi, a youkai tree which drained the lives of too many humans, by an unknown individual who hoped Yuyuko would never have to suffer and experience pain again. The seal was created as the boundary between life and death. Yukari continued to be friends with Yuyuko's ghost, although Yuyuko gradually forgot who she had been and why she had died[32].

It is not stated who sealed the Saigyou Ayakashi. It was someone who held Yuyuko very dear, judging by the record ("My wish... is that she will never again reincarnate, and never again suffer pain..."). Yuyuko's profile describes the hypothetical breaking of the seal as "breaching the boundary". The boundary sealing the Saigyou Ayakashi is apparently the boundary between life and death, as this is what the BGM that plays during the Saigyou Ayakashi's reflowering represents. Boundary of Life and Death is one of Yukari's spell cards. This possibly implies it was Yukari who sealed the Saigyou Ayakashi. Yukari's profile reveals she knew all along that Yuyuko's body was sealing it, and gives a clear motive, as the tree was killing too many humans. As another possible indication, The Grimoire of Marisa brings up the butterfly dream regarding Yuyuko's spell card during the Saigyou Ayakashi's reflowering, which is a theme associated with Yukari.

One day, Yuyuko requested that Yukari use her power to repair the border between the Netherworld and Gensokyo. Yukari sleepily set off to do so. She had known Yuyuko's plan to make the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom could never succeed, but was too busy sleeping to say or do anything about it, or to put the border back to normal after everything was finished, which put her on a collision course with the heroines of Perfect Cherry Blossom.

Lunar War Also over a thousand years ago, the youkai now named Yukari Yakumo[33] organized an army of youkai and led them in an invasion of the Moon, of which Yuyuko was also present for[34][33]. Publicly, Yukari states the invasion was to take the Lunarians' source of power, an infinite energy source which let them play all day.[35]

However, the youkai were subsequently routed by the Lunarians, who possessed superior technology and magic, and forced to retreat to Earth. While Yukari claims she organized the invasion out of desire for that power, her true purpose may be that she did it to teach the youkai a lesson about starting wars of conquest; namely, that it was a bad idea, as since that time, no youkai have attempted to expand their territory beyond Gensokyo.[2]

Border of Gensokyo Since then, Yukari has had numerous roles in managing Gensokyo and the youkai. She authored a system of constellations for the youkai[36]. She enacted the Youkai Expansion Project 500 years ago by creating a border between illusion and reality around Gensokyo. She was one of the sages who suggested the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier 120 years ago, and is believed to be its creator,[23] or at least one of its creators[2]

The Gensokyo Record in Perfect Cherry Blossom's prologue says that the original Gensokyo boundary (presumably the first "boundary between inside and outside" mentioned in Yukari's Perfect Memento in Strict Sense article) was created by priests, but ZUN said in his e-mails that the Gensokyo Record is not reliable, and that only the long lived youkai knows the true history of Gensokyo. Hieda no Akyuu firmly believes Yukari was involved, and the prologue of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Chapter 26,[24]. states that Yukari being the creator of the barrier that separates the human world and Gensokyo is an ongoing rumor. According to Rinnosuke, Yukari's power is what separates Gensokyo from the outside world,[24] and Reimu referred to Yukari as the creator of the barrier when explaining its properties to Kasen Ibaraki and Marisa Kirisame.[23]

Yukari and "The Vampire Incident" Regarding the Vampire Incident in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, it is not stated who were the powerful youkai that defeated the vampire, who signed the contract with the vampire, or who was the one who wrote the original draft of the Spell Card rules that came afterwards (as it was also written on youkai contract paper, Hieda no Akyuu feels it wasn't the Shrine Maiden). However, the colophon at the end reveals that Yukari is the author of a work called "Vampire Pact". This possibly implies her involvement in at least one of these things (if not all three) in the fact that Yukari may've had been involved in the deal with the devil, Remilia Scarlet. At the very least, Strange Creators of Outer World states that she was apparently involved in the creation of the spell card rules.

On the related note to the contract, it's explicitly stated in her Perfect Cherry Blossom profile that she's the one responsible for outsiders ending up in Gensokyo, where most of them get devoured by youkai. Her involvement is made even more explicit in Chapter 14 of Wild and Horned Hermit, where Yukari reveals to Kasen Ibaraki that having the zashiki-warashi sent to the outside world takes precedence above keeping them in Gensokyo, and then cryptically comments, "Gensokyo's getting the food to fill the stomachs of all of its youkai from somewhere." This could further extend to an article on Symposium of Post-mysticism, where there were human bones near a well, but no human of Gensokyo was missing and Yukari made no reference to the outside world humans, calling it a "misunderstanding"; the bones later on disappeared.

Underground Agreement She made a deal with certain youkai to allow them to have their own realm underground in Former Hell if they pacified the evil spirits there[37]. For a while, Yukari took it upon herself to make regular check-ups on various aspects of Gensokyo such as the Human Village or the barrier, but eventually took on Ran Yakumo as a shikigami and left such tasks to her.[38] Her first appearance was in Perfect Cherry Blossom, where she is depicted with purple eyes and long blonde hair. She carries a pink lace parasol and a paper fan and rides on a red gap that leads to an unknown destination. She wears a deep purple dress, a pale pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon and smaller ribbons tied liberally on her accessories and the tips of her hair.

In her appearances in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, her eyes have become dark golden. She wears a purple Chinese-style tabard with various Trigrams over a pale pink Western-style dress (similar to Ran Yakumo's outfit), wears her hair coiled up into her mob cap, and usually carries a pink parasol. She wears the same outfit in Imperishable Night, but her hair is left loose. In the Japanese community this outfit is known as the "Taoist outfit" (道士服).

In Antinomy of Common Flowers, her sleeves get black bands with a white design on them.

According to ZUN, the purple dress in Perfect Cherry Blossom is her casual daywear and the pink one with the Ba Gua symbol in Imperishable Night is her attire for combat.[40]

Trigram / Hexagram The outfit Yukari wears in post-Perfect Cherry Blossom games has two groups of solid/broken lines called trigrams on the front. A solid line represents Yang and a broken line is Yin. The top trigram (☱) is "dui" or "tui" (open) and is associated with west and lake/marsh. The bottom trigram (☷) is "kūn" (field) and is associated with southwest and earth, as well as Yoni (divine passage). The two trigrams together in that order form the hexagram for "clustering," "gathering together," and "finished".

The hexagram "Ts'ui" formed by the combination of "dui" and "kun" results in a meaning of gathering together to persevere towards a destination. This hexagram signifies also great wisdom which is necessary for leadership when directing an assembly together to create overall prosperity for everyone. Yukari herself can be seen as an overseer of Gensokyo. Her ability to manipulate boundaries would definitely give her the ability to bring everyone together while maintaining the harmony of the "created" world.