Megumu Iizunamaru

飯 (いい) 綱 (ずな) 丸 (まる) 龍 (めぐむ) Megumu Iizunamaru iːzɯnamaɾɯ megɯmɯ
Megumu Iizunamaru in Unconnected Marketeers Chief of the Crow Tengu More Character Titles
Species	Great Tengu
Abilities	Capable of manipulating the starry sky
Occupation	Chief of the Crow Tengu
Location	Youkai Mountain
Music Themes
星降る天魔の山 (Unconnected Marketeers)
Appearances
Official Games
Unconnected Marketeers (Stage 5 Boss, Marisa Good Ending, Sanae Good Ending) 100th Black Market (5th Market Boss)
Print Works
Lotus Eaters (Chapter 38)

"The Ability Cards? I don't just 'know' about them. I created them, as a matter of fact!"— Megumu Iizunamaru

(Unconnected Marketeers Stage 5)

Megumu Iizunamaru (飯綱丸　龍, Iizunamaru Megumu) is a Great Tengu who acts as the official leader of the Crow Tengu. She is the Stage 5 boss and primary antagonist of Unconnected Marketeers.

General Information

Personality

In Unconnected Marketeers, Megumu is initially polite yet cunningly deceitful, willing to set different factions against each other to achieve her goals. She lies through omission to the protagonist and convinces them to battle her former business partner, Chimata Tenkyuu, when Chimata eventually grows powerful enough to not require her assistance. She is singularly concerned with concentrating power into the hands of the tengu, and is obsessed with the pursuit of profit to that end.

Abilities

Capable of manipulating the starry sky

The exact meaning of this is unknown, her powers over the starry sky are seen in her in-game danmaku patterns in Unconnected Marketeers, as she mostly uses star-shaped bullets.

Occupation

Megumu is a great tengu, so she can give orders to tengu of lower rank, and it's mentioned the great tengu's orders are "absolute." However, she is still not as highly-ranked as Tenma. According to her in-game profile, she can also give orders to other mountain-dwelling youkai as well, although some choose to disobey her as they are not so strictly bound to the hierarchy of tengu society.

Background Information

Origin

Megumu Iizunamaru is based on Iizuna Gongen, a god originated from Mt. Iizuna of Nagano Prefecture. The god is portrayed as a crow tengu and riding a white fox, alluding to Tsukasa Kudamaki. The god is associated with warfare, which shows Megumu's status as the chief of the crow tengu, and the practice of controlling pipe foxes. The god is also associated with a colony organism of fungus and bacteria called "Tengu's Barley Rice" (天狗の麦飯). The original name for this is 飯砂 (cooked rice sand) which is thought to be the origin of the word Iizuna. The name is also used in Megumu's Ability Card, "Great Tengu's Barley Rice" (大天狗の麦飯).

Name

Her given name, Megumu (龍), is an alternate reading of dragon (龍, ryū), and is the same dragon as seen in Kouryuudou (虹龍洞), or Rainbow Dragon Cave, the Japanese title of Unconnected Marketeers. It is also likely a pun on megumu (恵む), which means "to give money to." Given the name of the Rainbow Dragon Cave, and Momoyo Himemushi's stated ability to eat dragons, it's unclear what plot significance this has.

Her surname, Iizunamaru (飯綱丸), is a combination of fox spirit (飯綱, iizuna), and round (丸, maru). Maru (丸) in particular is typically seen in other names of tengu characters, such as Aya Shameimaru.

Design

Megumu wears a modern dark blue dress with white trim and belts, and a golden pauldron on her left shoulder with a large blue inset gemstone. She wears a black waistcoat with white fur tufts lining the bottom, a blue tokin, and dark violet geta, all typical clothing choices for tengu. She carries a tripod over her right shoulder, which she uses as a blunt weapon, as well as a test tube similar to the one carried by Tsukasa Kudamaki strapped to her belt. She has blue hair and red eyes.

Appearances

Games

Megumu's sprite in UM

Unconnected Marketeers

In Unconnected Marketeers, Megumu forms an alliance with Chimata Tenkyuu for the purposes of distributing Ability Cards. It's described as a somewhat self-serving and one-sided alliance on Megumu's side, where Chimata was in a weakened state and required help to regain her divine power. Megumu had Chimata use her marketplace abilities to further her own goals, which was to introduce centralized currency into Gensokyo by backing it on the speculative value of the Ability Cards. Until Megumu's scheme was put into motion, the concept of currency having an inherent value or being centralized was not something that existed in Gensokyo, and Megumu saw this as an opportunity to seize power for herself by distorting people's sense of value beyond the inherent value of labour.

At end of the Ability Card Incident in Unconnected Marketeers, she decides to willingly cease distribution of the tengu's currency due to losing her alliance with Chimata, but not without first attempting to manipulate the protagonist into defeating Chimata for her.

Spin-offs

100th Black Market

In 100th Black Market, Megumu appears as the one of the 5th market bosses. Her ability card, two balls of barley rice, can be acquired.

Relationships

Chimata Tenkyuu

In Unconnected Marketeers, Chimata was initially Megumu's business partner for the distribution of Ability Cards, to further the tengu's goal of introducing centralized currency into Gensokyo. They had strong ideological differences with how this new "Ability Card marketplace" ought to be run, with Chimata preferring a more ritualistic and regulated exchange of goods, and Megumu preferring a place with as few rules as possible, just so long as the tengu's interests could be served and furthered.

While Chimata entered into the "business arrangement" under duress and in a severely weakened state, she had always planned to gain enough power so that Megumu could no longer keep her under her thumb. By the end of the Ability Card Incident, their relationship had finally descended into outright hostilities when the protagonist arrived and ordered them to cease operations, when Megumu had realized Chimata had rapidly recovered and become a threat to her plans and when Chimata orders Tsukasa to tell Iizunamaru that she knew she was being manipulated by her.

Tsukasa Kudamaki

Tsukasa is an assistant and advisor to Megumu. However, her loyalty is doubtful, as she pits all sides off against each other for her own benefit. Megumu doesn't seem to be aware of this and is evidently concerned about her; as she forbids her to intervene in the fight with the protagonist, fearing that she might be injured.

Momoyo Himemushi

Megumu hired Momoyo to dig up gems in the Rainbow Dragon Cave. Momoyo doesn't seem terribly loyal to Megumu, however, and only mines for the "fun" of it. Ultimately, Momoyo doesn't seem to care if anyone steals gems from the cave so long as she gets a good fight out of it.

Minor Relationships

Aya Shameimaru

Megumu is the Chief of the Crow Tengu, which makes her Aya's superior. However, nothing is known about their personal relationship.

Hatate Himekaidou

Megumu is the Chief of the Crow Tengu, which makes her Hatate's superior. However, nothing is known about their personal relationship.

Tenma

Megumu's chief is Tenma.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  Megumu in Lotus Eaters

Spell Cards

Spell Cards

Name	Translated	Comments	Games	Stage
Total: 9
禍星「星火燎原の舞」	Calamitous Star "Dance of Star-Sparked Wildfire"		UM	St. 5: E/N
禍星「星火燎原乱舞」	Calamitous Star "Wild Dance of Star-Sparked Wildfire"		UM	St. 5: H/L
星風「虹彩陸離の舞」	Stellar Wind "Dance of Dazzling Iridescence"		UM	St. 5: E/N
星風「虹彩陸離乱舞」	Stellar Wind "Wild Dance of Dazzling Iridescence"		UM	St. 5: H/L
光馬「天馬行空の舞」	Luminous Horse "Dance of Sky-Racing Heavenly Steeds"		UM	St. 5: E/N
光馬「天馬行空乱舞」	Luminous Horse "Wild Dance of Sky-Racing Heavenly Steeds"		UM	St. 5: H/L
虹光「光風霽月」	Rainbow Illumination "Clear and Tranquil Wind and Moon"		UM	St. 5: E/N/H/L
星符「天真爛漫の星」	Star Sign "Star of Ingenuous Brilliance"		HBM	5th Market
風符「空々寂々の風」	Wind Sign "Wind of Lonesome Emptiness"		HBM	5th Market

Fandom

Main article: Fandom: Megumu Iizunamaru

Official Profiles

Unconnected Marketeers - omake.txt

○５面ボス 　　鴉天狗の大将 　　 　　飯綱丸 龍（いいずなまる めぐむ） 　　Iizunamaru Megumu 　　種族：大天狗 　　能力：星空を操る程度の能力 　　山の頂上付近にすむ大天狗の一人。 　　天狗の社会は縦社会で、大天狗は天狗社会の中のボスに相当する存在である。 　　なので普通の天狗に命令を出すことも出来る。大天狗の命令は絶対だ。 　　山に棲む他の妖怪にも命令を出すこともあるが。こちらは逆らう者もいる。 　　命令する権利があるからといって、私利私欲の為に命令することはほぼ無い。 　　大天狗には天狗の社会を成長、維持させる義務があるのである。 　　彼女は山に眠っていた龍珠に目を付けた。 　　龍珠には勾玉に加工しなくても、ほんの僅か魂を込める効果がある。 　　これを使って交換したくなる娯楽品を作れば、一儲け出来るだろう。 　　しかし、ただ作って売るだけでは儲けも一時的でたかが知れているだろう。 　　 　　そこで彼女は、広く流通させて、交換専用の通貨システムを構築する事にした。 　　カードの売人が交換する度に、通貨システムが広まりそれで儲けられると言う訳だ。 　　物を作って売るより、大儲けできる事が判っていた。 　　しかし、その為に必要なのは、独自の通貨システムで交換しなければいけない理由である。 　　そこで目を付けたのが、行き場を失って今にも消え入りそうだった『市場の神』だった。 　　市場の神の力で売買を成立させた場合のみ、カードの魔力が補充されて、アビリティカードの 　　能力が発現する仕掛けである。それ以外ではただの紙切れに過ぎない。 　　大天狗の目論見どおり、アビリティカードは自由に流通し、十分な利益を上げた。 　　しかしそこで問題が発生した。 　　カードの流通が活性化した結果、市場の神が本来の力を取り戻し、天狗の社会を 　　脅かしかねないところまで来ていたのだ。

Stage 5 Boss Chief of the Crow Tengu Megumu Iizunamaru Species: Great Tengu Ability: Capable of manipulating the starry sky One of the Great Tengu who live near the mountain's peak. Tengu society is vertically-oriented, with Great Tengu corresponding to a mid-ranking boss. As such, they can give orders to regular tengu as well. The Great Tengu's orders are absolute. They can give orders to other mountain-dwelling youkai as well... but in that case, some tend to disobey the orders. While they have the right to issue orders, they rarely (if ever) give orders for the sake of personal gain. Great Tengu bear the responsibility of growing and maintaining tengu society. She took notice of the dragon gems sleeping within the mountain. Dragon gems have a very slight soul-capturing effect, even without being refined into magatama. If she used them to make an entertainment product that people would want to trade, she could probably make a fair profit. However, if she simply made and sold them, there'd be a limit to both how long and how much she could profit. Therefore, she decided to put the products into wide circulation, and construct a currency system specifically for exchanging them. Whenever a card merchant made an exchange, the currency system would spread further, and she'd be able to profit off of that. She knew that this would earn her a far greater turnout than making and selling things directly. This, however, meant that she needed a reason as to why the cards could only be exchanged via that unique currency system. It was then that she took notice of a marketplace god who no longer had any place to go, and who seemed like she was about to vanish any moment. They designed the Ability Cards such that the cards would only be supplied with magic-- thus activating their ability-- when a successful transaction was made with the marketplace god's power. If used in any other way, they'd simply be scraps of paper. Just as the Great Tengu planned, the Ability Cards began circulating freely, and she made a fine profit indeed. But that was where a problem arose. As a result of the cards' active circulation, the marketplace god regained her original power, growing strong enough to threaten tengu society.

Official Sources

Official sources

• 2021/05/04 Unconnected Marketeers - omake.txt (profile, stage 5 dialogue, Marisa and Sanae's endings)