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Nue Houjuu

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(ほう) (じゅう)  ぬえ
hoːdʑɯː nɯe (♫)
Nue Houjuu
Nue Houjuu
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl
More Character Titles
Species

Nue

Abilities

Making objects unidentifiable

Age

More than 800 Years old

Occupation

Scaring people

Location

Myouren Temple

Music Themes
Appearances
Official Games
Print Works


"Oh, I found the mysterious shining thing! Is this really an alien encounter?"
"What's an alien?"
Sanae Kochiya and Nue Houjuu (Undefined Fantastic Object Extra Stage.)

Nue Houjuu (封獣 ぬえ Houjuu Nue) is said to be one of the most mysterious and feared youkai in many years and has been defeated by humans many times. There are differing legends according to her appearance due to her concealed true form. At some point, she was sealed underground, but the events of Subterranean Animism caused her to resurface in Gensokyo during Undefined Fantastic Object.

General Information

Nue Houjuu first appeared in Undefined Fantastic Object as the midboss of Stages 4 and 6 hidden in a ball of light, and takes on her true form as the Extra stage boss. She later appeared as the Extra stage midboss of Ten Desires. Based on one of Reimu Hakurei's quotes in Touhou Hisoutensoku, as well as Chapter 12 of Oriental Sacred Place, she is currently living with Byakuren Hijiri in the Myouren Temple.

Personality

Nue is a mischievous girl who is sensitive about her true form. She enjoys playing pranks. Being over 800 years old, most people are younger than her. She usually treats them as such due to her nature as an ancient Youkai. After the events of the Extra Stage in Undefined Fantastic Object, she trains at the Myouren Temple. However, she is not well-acquainted with the other youkai, and has been seen near the edges of the property looking bored.

Abilities

Making objects unidentifiable

Nue is able to conceal the true nature of other objects. She used this ability in Undefined Fantastic Object to conceal the nature of the fragments of the Flying Storehouse. An object that has lost its "identity" will appear to be a different thing depending on who observes it.

Concealing her true form

Nue can modify her appearance to some extent at will. She has been seen as a ball of light in Stage 4 and Stage 6 of Undefined Fantastic Object as well as in a humanoid form (which she considers her true form) during the Extra Stage of Undefined Fantastic Object.

Contact with the outside world

Nue is able to contact the outside world, which is evident from her relationship with Mamizou Futatsuiwa in Ten Desires.

Possessions

Three-pronged Trident

Nue wields a trident that she carries wherever she goes. She uses it as a conduit for summoning Danmaku. It's possible that it can also be used for physical combat.

Character Design

Nue, as illustrated in Symposium of Post-mysticism

Name

Her full name is Nue Houjuu (封獣 ぬえ). Like Satori, her first name is also the name of her species, nue. Nue's family name, Houjuu (封獣), literally translates to "sealed beast". "" might be in reference to Nue's imprisonment underground prior to the events of Undefined Fantastic Object.

Design

Nue has short black hair and dark red eyes. She has three red metallic-looking wings on the right side of her back, and three blue arrow-shaped tails coming out from her left side. She carries a trident and has a snake on her right arm (which might be the Seed of Unknown Form), and she wears a black wristband on her left wrist. Her dress is black with blue and white trims in the middle, a red bow on the front, and a small, yin-yang tomoe design at the bottom corner of her dress. She wears black thigh-high stockings and red shoes with bows on them. In most official artworks, she is drawn with pointed ears.

Appearances

Games

Attention: This section is a stub and it needs expanding with more information related to the section's topic. If you can add to it in any way, please do so.
Undefined Fantastic Object
Nue's sprite in UFO
Sprite of Nue as a ball of light

During the events of Undefined Fantastic Object, she found out that Minamitsu Murasa and the other youkai sealed underground resurfaced and were planning something. Not knowing exactly what, she decided to play a prank by putting the Seed of Unknown Form in the fragments of Flying Storehouse, one of the elements needed to revive Byakuren Hijiri. The snakes contained in the seeds caused the fragments to scatter into the air; the characters initially believe that the geyser from Subterranean Animism was the cause. These fragments are the UFOs that the player encounters during the game.

During stages 4 and 6, she hides her true form in a ball of light and observes the heroine collecting the storehouse fragments. She decides to secretly follow her, hindering her progress with bullet patterns and aiding her with power items and extra lives. Once she realizes what the plan of the other youkai is, she figures that the resurrection of Hijiri would benefit her and settles on helping the heroine. She appears in the Extra Stage in her true form during the heroine's investigation of the Seed of Unknown Form.

After Sanae B's scenario, it is implied that she and Sanae Kochiya have their picture taken by Aya Shameimaru.

Ten Desires

Nue Houjuu calls her "trump card" Mamizou Futatsuiwa from the outside world to defeat Toyosatomimi no Miko, though she is defeated by the heroine prematurely. Mamizou eventually encounters the heroine and is defeated.

Violet Detector
Attention: This section is a stub and it needs expanding with more information related to the section's topic. If you can add to it in any way, please do so.

Spin-offs

Nue in HM
Double Spoiler

In Double Spoiler, Nue appears as a Stage 12 target, where she uses spell cards against Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou as they photograph her danmaku.

Hopeless Masquerade

Nue makes a background cameo in Hopeless Masquerade on the Palanquin Ship stage. She is seen floating behind the ship.

Literature

Attention: This section is a stub and it needs expanding with more information related to the section's topic. If you can add to it in any way, please do so.
Symposium of Post-mysticism
Forbidden Scrollery

In chapter 31 of Forbidden Scrollery, Nue is revealed to be the one who spread the rumor of a bull-headed monster that tells a story that would make its listener die of fright, wishing to turn it into an urban legend. She explained to Mamizou Futatsuiwa that she got the idea after seeing other members of the Myouren Temple use urban legends and wanted to join in on the fun. Due to the rumor causing a fear of the unknowable, Nue can benefit from a world of terror without lifting a finger. With the help of Mamizou's tanuki transforming into bull monsters, more and more villagers came to believe in the story until Reimu Hakurei spreads a flier claiming the bull-headed monster to be Gozu-Tennoh the bull-headed emperor and that the deadly story was a misunderstanding. In the end, though the rumor didn't develop quite as planned, Nue is still satisfied as something unknowable has still taken hold of the human villagers.

Relationships

Minamitsu Murasa & Ichirin Kumoi

Nue appears to have known Minamitsu Murasa and Ichirin Kumoi before the events of Undefined Fantastic Object.

Byakuren Hijiri

Nue currently resides at Byakuren Hijiri's temple near the Human Village, because Byakuren was too nice to ostracize her.

Mamizou Futatsuiwa

Mamizou Futatsuiwa is Nue's friend. Nue summons her during Ten Desires to defeat Toyosatomimi no Miko.

Gallery

Illustrations

Spell Cards

Spell Cards
Name Translated Comments Games Stage
Total: 20
妖雲「平安のダーククラウド」 Ominous Clouds "Heian Dark Clouds" UFO St. Ex
正体不明「忿怒のレッドUFO襲来」 Unidentified "Red UFO Invasion of Rage" UFO St. Ex
鵺符「鵺的スネークショー」 Nue Sign "Mysterious Snake Show" UFO
GoU
St. Ex
正体不明「哀愁のブルーUFO襲来」 Unidentified "Blue UFO Invasion of Grief" UFO St. Ex
鵺符「弾幕キメラ」 Nue Sign "Danmaku Chimera" UFO St. Ex
正体不明「義心のグリーンUFO襲来」 Unidentified "Green UFO Invasion of Justice" UFO St. Ex
鵺符「アンディファインドダークネス」 Nue Sign "Undefined Darkness" UFO St. Ex
正体不明「恐怖の虹色UFO襲来」 Unidentified "Rainbow UFO Invasion of Terror" UFO St. Ex
「平安京の悪夢」 "Nightmare of Heiankyou" UFO
GoU
St. Ex
恨弓「源三位頼政の弓」 Grudge Bow "The Bow of Genzanmi Yorimasa" UFO St. Ex
正体不明「紫鏡」 Unidentified "Purple Mirror" DS St. 12
正体不明「赤マント青マント」 Unidentified "Red Cloak, Blue Cloak" DS St. 12
正体不明「厠の花子さん」 Unidentified "Ms. Hanako of the Toilet" DS St. 12
「遊星よりの弾幕X」 "Danmaku X from a Wandering Star" DS
GoU
St. 12
アンノウン「軌道不明の鬼火」 Unknown "Will-o'-wisps in Unidentified Orbit" TD St. Ex
アンノウン「姿態不明の空魚」 Unknown "Skyfish with Unknown Shape" TD St. Ex
アンノウン「原理不明の妖怪玉」 Unknown "Youkai Orb of Unknown Mechanics" TD St. Ex
神星符「正体不明の怪光人だかり」 Divine Star Sign "Unidentified Ghost-Light Crowd" Co-owner with Mamizou VD
GoU
Nightmare Thursday - 1
緋星符「正体不明の落雷」 Scarlet Star Sign "Unidentified Lightning Strike" Co-owner with Iku VD Nightmare Thursday - 4
輝星符「正体不明のドンドコ太鼓」 Shining Star Sign "Unidentified Dondoko Daiko" Co-owner with Raiko VD Nightmare Thursday - 6

Additional Information

  • Similar to Kogasa Tatara, she tends to scare off people by using the fear of the unknown, or the fear of her true form.
  • A number of Nue's danmaku have various references:
    • They're heavily reminiscent of other characters', such as Flandre, Yukari, Rumia, and Hina. Specifically, they tend to act as combinations of spell cards, often using one element from one, and one from another.
    • The spell card "Danmaku X from a Wandering Star" in Double Spoiler has danmaku in shapes resembling that of the PlayStation's button logos (×, ○, ∆ and □).
    • In Kyoto, the streets are laid out in grid-like pattern. Her spell card "Nightmare of Heiankyou" refers to this.
    • Nue's first non-spell card attack resembles Vivit (Erich's daughter)‘s first attack as her second form in Seihou Shuusou Gyoku.
  • Nue is the only Extra Stage boss to appear as a midboss in multiple stages. Ran Yakumo is also an Extra Stage boss who has been a midboss, albeit only for one stage.
  • Nue's appearance as a ball of light on stages 4 and 6 is similar to the stage 2 midboss of Mystic Square. Yuuka also turned into a ball of light during her battle in Lotus Land Story. However, she bears more similarity to the Mysterious Orb in Lotus Land Story. Their appearances are identical, and both drop items when leaving the screen, each ending with an extra life.
  • Nue has the tag "Heian" on her song and a some of her spell cards. Heian may be referring to the Heian period (794 AD–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–1868 AD), "Heian-Kyo" (平安京), 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.
  • Nue is the first Extra stage boss in the Windows series to have not met the final boss prior to the beginning of the game.
  • Nue is the first character to appear as a boss in the Extra stage of two different Touhou Project games.

Fandom

Official Profiles

Undefined Fantastic Object - Settings and Extra Story.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: Making 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 Unknown Form to the fragments of the Flying Granary.

The Seed of Unknown Form 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 Flying Granary had been scattered about by the geyser, but it was in fact thanks to the Seed of Unknown Form.

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.

Ten Desires - Settings and Extra Story.txt
Nue Houjuu UFO  ○エキストラ中ボス  古の妖怪その1


  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


  命蓮寺に棲む不可思議な妖怪。

  白蓮が押さえつけていた聖人が、ついに抑えきれずに復活してしまった。
  その話を聞いた彼女は、前回(星蓮船)での恩返しのつもりで旧知の妖怪を呼び寄せ、妖怪の力を強くしようと考えた。

  もちろん、白蓮には内緒である。


  その結果、命蓮寺に棲む妖怪が一匹増えた。

  結果、白蓮の仕事が忙しくなっただけであった。

 ○Extra Mid-Boss  Old Youkai #1


Nue Houjuu

Species: nue
Ability: Making her true form unknown


A strange and wondrous youkai that lives in Myouren Temple.

The saint that Byakuren had been holding back had finally resurrected.
When she heard about this, she decided to pay back what she owed Byakuren from last time (UFO) and called on an old youkai friend in order to increase the power of the youkai.

Naturally, she kept this a secret from Byakuren.


As a result, another youkai came to live at Myouren Temple.

Thus, she only served to make Byakuren even busier.

Official Sources

Official sources