Vengeful spirit

怨霊 (おんりょう) ; Vengeful Spirit; Evil Spirit, Akuryou (悪霊)
	; Portrait of a vengeful spirit in Subterranean Animism
Location	Underworld, Underground Geyser Center
Notable Members
	Mima; Mizuchi Miyadeguchi;
Appearances
Official Games
	Subterranean Animism (Stages 4, 5 and 6 enemy); Hopeless Masquerade (Background cameo);
Print Works
	Foul Detective Satori (Chapter 4.5-5);

A vengeful spirit (怨霊, onryou), or earth spirits (地霊, chirei)^[1], is a special type of ghost created under special circumstances. When a person dies, they must wait on the Sanzu River for a shinigami to ferry them across. However, if a youkai steals their body away before they cross the river, that person will become a vengeful spirit.

Vengeful spirits in Touhou

An apparition being held by Kasen Ibaraki

Not to be confused with normal ghosts, vengeful spirits appear to mostly take on a non-human form, their appearance mostly involving a skull in a form of a spirit. The rare humanoid vengeful spirits have been consistently shown to not have legs. Unlike normal phantoms and poltergeists, vengeful spirits are hot to the touch.

In Wild and Horned Hermit, Kasen Ibaraki describes them as criminal spirits, those that committed sins while alive. These vengeful spirits were confined to Former Hell, but leaked back to the surface due to the acts of Rin Kaenbyou during the events of Subterranean Animism, who learned how to control them.

Vengeful spirits are feared by humans and youkai alike throughout Gensokyo because of their ability to possess people: a possessed human would start to resent his own kind, while for a youkai, if a vengeful spirit manage to possess and change their personality, the spirit would take over the youkai's whole existence, leaving nothing of the original core.^[2] Mizuchi Miyadeguchi is an example of a vengeful spirit with such ability.

Another common ability of vengeful spirits is making lightning fall. Small vengeful spirits can only make a rumbling sound at most, but as their level of resentment increases they can make crackling sounds. Great vengeful spirits such as Soga no Tojiko can actually cause lightning, although Tojiko herself is described as losing her grudge and becoming a simple thunder-causing ghost.^[3]

Venngeful spirits are wordless beings that long to express their thoughts by conversation, which explain why they are particularly attached to Rin Kaenbyou and her ability to communicate with spirits. On the contrary, they seem to dislike and fear the mind-reading Satori Komeiji, they are described as "two-faced, like any beings that use words" by Hieda no Akyuu.^[4]

Recently, the Underground Geyser Center has been plagued by these vengeful spirits.^{[citation needed]}

Sub-Species

Evil Spirit

An evil spirit (悪霊, akuryou) is another kind of vengeful spirit, briefly referenced across the series.

Mima is described to be an evil spirit in her profile in Mystic Square, making her the only known one thus far. Evil spirits were mentioned by Reimu Hakurei on the first stage of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and again in Chapter 25 of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, where she describes an evil spirit (presumably Mima) taking over the Hakurei Shrine. It is unknown what exactly makes evil spirits distinct.

Vengeful Spirit's Appearances

Mima, a vengeful spirit, is one of the bosses through Highly Responsive to Prayers, the main antagonist of Story of Eastern Wonderland and one of the protagonists of Mystic Square.

Sprite of vengeful spirits in Subterranean Animism

Subterranean Animism

Vengeful spirits appeared on stage 4, supporting Rin Kaenbyou during her midboss appearances as a cat. On stage 5, they independently come in groups and cause an explosion of danmaku towards the player if destroyed. They are again supporting Rin during her battles on the stage. On stage 6, there are some scrolling down the screen in long queues. Strangely, they are not shown to have a skull. Despite their similarities on their sprites, they are not to be confused with the divine spirits in Ten Desires.