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Yin-Yang Orb

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Note: This article is both an Items entry and a Character.


陰陽玉
Yin-Yang Orb
Th05Yin-YangOrb.png
The Yin-Yang Orb in Mystic Square
Species

Spirit??

Abilities

Spiritual Power

Occupation

Reimu's aid

Location

Hakurei Shrine

Relationships
Appearances
Official Games
Print Works
Miscellaneous Works
Other

The Yin-Yang Orb (陰陽玉 In'yō-dama) is an orb with the appearance of a yin-yang symbol. They are weapons belonging to the Hakurei Shrine, and are only able to be used by a blood member of the Hakurei clan. Thus, they have been passed down through the generations. They are an extremely effective weapon against non-humans(youkai). Because Reimu is the only living member of her clan, she's the only one that can use them.

Concept

The tiny wish-granting fairy
The joyful spherical creature

Name

It's sometimes referred to in full as the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb.

Appearance

The Yin-Yang Orb simply looks like a typical yin-yang which suppose to be made of some type of crystal. It's true form is unknown.

Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow

In Highly Responsive to Prayers Makai route good ending, the ball transformed into a tiny fairy, who wore a white dress with pink hair, and appeared with transparent wings. In the Hell route good ending, the ball transformed into a strange ball creature, which was a white spherical body with a red top hat and two beady eyes. It had stick legs and it seems to be well taller than Reimu

Spoilers end here.

Story

Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow

In the endings to Highly Responsive to Prayers, the Orb appears to transform into either a tiny wish-granting fairy or a joyful spherical creature. In Makai route good ending, Reimu thought the tiny fairy can grant wishes, so Reimu wished for money, a cake, a hot meal, "the truth of the Universe", and the "destruction of Earth", with a response from the fairy: "Who'd wish something like that!?". In the Hell route good ending, the joyful creature starts destroying parts of the Hakurei Shrine and Reimu gets angry.

In Story of Eastern Wonderland, depending on which ending you get Genjii will explain the orb's "true power", each of which is hilariously mundane and is never spoken of again in the series:

  1. The ability to eat sweets and not get fat
  2. The effect of giving its user whatever scent they desire
  3. The ability to turn into a cat whenever the user chooses
Spoilers end here.

In Subterranean Animism, Yukari modified the Yin-Yang Orb to act as a communicator to stay in touch with the other youkai while Reimu went to Old Hell. In Oriental Sacred Place Chapter 10, the Yin-Yang Orb is shown to still have this function and was thrown onto the ground by Reimu in disgust.

After this, the Yin-Yang Orb stayed as Reimu's weapon all the way up to Ten Desires and may stay like this for all of Reimu's life.

Additional Information

Trivia

  • The Orbs function by constantly draining the user's power bit by bit. Once they have been filled with the user's power, they can release all the stored energy at once - and as Mima puts it, it can be used for good or for evil.
  • They appear next to Reimu Hakurei in several games and are used in many of her attacks, either as danmaku or as part of her Spell Card.
  • All the Windows games does not have a portrait of the Yin-yang Orb (including Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream) and can only be seen by sprite next to Reimu, a shield use in the fighter spin-offs, and as Danmaku bullets. Even large sized Yin-yang bullets are classified.
  • The Yin-Yang's are somewhat a generic enemy in Imperishable Night as they are destroyable.

Fandom

  • For many years, not many fans saw this character as being classified as a returning PC-98 character.
  • For some reason, many fans were mistaken the little fairy in Highly Responsive to Prayers to be Sariel, where Sariel died and was reincarnated into this fairy. Please fully note that this is speculation and there's no proof to back this up.

Official Profiles

Highly Responsive to Prayers - 靈異伝.TXT

<toggledisplay showtext="Show profiles" hidetext="Hide profiles">

Yin-Yang Orb   ★ 陰陽玉 ・・・ 博麗神社最大の秘宝

     正体不明の玉、非常に霊力があるので、何かの霊魂が宿っているか、     生命体であると思われる。 通常、霊体や魔性の物には、こういった     霊力のある武器でないと倒すことが出来ない。

  ★ Yin-Yang Orb ・・・ Hakurei Shrine's Greatest Treasure

     A mysterious orb with an unnatural amount of spiritual power. Perhaps a soul dwells within? It appears as though it could be alive. Normally you cannot defeat spirits or devilish powers without a weapon such as this.

</toggledisplay>

Story of Eastern Wonderland - 封魔録.TXT

<toggledisplay showtext="Show profiles" hidetext="Hide profiles">

Yin-Yang Orb   ★ 陰陽玉 ・・・ 博麗神社最大の秘宝

     霊力のこもった不思議な鉱石で出来た玉。一見するとただの玉でありとて     も武器とは思えないが、博麗の血を引くものが使うと、恐ろしいほどの霊力     を発する。      今回は、2個の陰陽玉が靈夢の左右に付いている。

  ★ Yin-yang Orb ・・・ Greatest Secret Treasure of the Hakurei Shrine

     An orb storing spiritual power made from a wondrous type of crystal. At a glance,     it looks like a regular orb and nobody will think of it as a weapon, but when used by     somebody of the Hakurei bloodline, it can release tremendous power.      This time, two Yin-yang Orbs follow Reimu by her sides.

</toggledisplay>

Lotus Land Story

<toggledisplay showtext="Show profiles" hidetext="Hide profiles">

Yin-Yang Orb N/A

</toggledisplay> All the Windows games don't have profiles for the Yin-yang Orb, or even a portrait.

Official Sources

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