Zanmu Nippaku

日 (にっ) 白 (ぱく) 　残 (ざん) 無 (む ) Zanmu Nippaku
Zanmu Nippaku in Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost King of the Silent Bliss of Nirvana More Character Titles
Species	Human oni
Abilities	Manipulating nothingness
Music Themes
逸脱者達の無礙光 〜 Kingdam of Nothingness. (Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost)
Appearances
Official Games
Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost (Playable Character)

Zanmu Nippaku (日白 残無, Nippaku Zanmu) is main antagonist of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost. She was formerly a human monk before turning into an oni after falling into hell.

General Information

Zanmu Nippaku was formally a human monk during the Sengoku Jidai period. Zanmu discarded her humanity by absorbed beast-youkai spirits. Sensing her imminent fall to Hell, Zanmu ventured there prematurely. There she transformed into an oni and ruled Hell using her intelligence and charisma. She proposed the relocation of Hell from Former Hell, creating a great amount of resentment from those that stayed behind. Currently she resides in Hell. She is said to command great admiration and respect from the dwellers of Hell.

During the events of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, she uses her ability and influence to manipulate the other protagonists to achieve her end goal.

Personality

Zanmu is described as the perfect oni according to Suika. She has both the strength and intelligence that an oni should be portraying. That said she is also seen to have a sense of grace, seeking a (relatively) peaceful resolution to the beast wars and to protect Gensokyo from destruction. In this sense, she shares much in common with Reimu, feeling a sense of communality.

Zanmu is not easily upset. She frequently forgives her bumbling assistant, Hisami. Although, it might be to not encourage Hisami's masochism.

According to Saki, Zanmu is a popular figure in Hell. So much so that Zanmu was able to sway the oni's to calm down and let her handle the beast spirits situation.

Abilities

Capable of manipulating nothingness

Zanmu has the ability to manipulate nothingness. This causes the victim to lose their desires and motivations. It can be subtle, such as distracting the victim, or outright, causing them to lose their will to fight or will to continue investigating. In Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, she uses her ability to distract Marisa and Sanae from the true cause of the incident. Then, she uses her ability to cause the beast spirits leaders to lose their will to fight. Finally, she uses her ability to convince Reimu to stop her investigation.

While Zanmu is able to manipulate nothingness of her victims, some appear to be less affected than others. Reimu's instincts continued to point to Zanmu as the true incident culprit and Reimu was not able to be manipulated to accept her plans for "resolving the incident". Similarly, she was unable to stop Mamizou from continuing her investigating into the incident. Also, due to Hisami's unpredictable masochism tendencies, Zanmu was not able to control Hisami the way she wanted.

Character Design

Origin

Zanmu is inspired by the similarly-named monk Zanmu Nichihaku (日白 残夢, Nichihaku Zanmu), who lived in the Sengoku era, and who was recorded in some accounts of Buddhist immortals as a very eccentric individual. Some of these accounts can be found in modern-day compilations, such as the Honchou Shinsen Kiden (本朝神仙記伝)12 by Izuo Miyaji et.al.

Name

Her full name is Zanmu Nippaku (日白 残無). The characters for Zanmu's surname, Nippaku (日白), literally means "white sun", a term generally used with the meanings of "broad daylight" or "bright sunshine". Nippaku and Nichihaku are different but both possible readings for "日白". Her first name contains Zan (残), meaning "remainings, leftover", and Mu (無), meaning "nothing, none", differing from the character used for Mu (夢) in Zanmu Nichihaku, which means "dream".

Design

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

<-to be completed->

Appearances

Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost

Zanmu is main antagonist of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost. Her goal was to manipulate the other protagonists such that she would be in a position to subsume both the animal spirit realm and Gensokyo into Hell. That way, she could easily manage everyone and avoid bloodshed. She recruited three minions and tasked them with infiltrating each of the three animal beast spirit clans. Then, manipulating them to fight each other, allowing her to defeat them piece-wise. However, several nosy actors begun disrupting her plans. Being one step ahead, she implanted teleportation traps in her minions, sending these pests to hell to stop their meddling. Ultimately, Suika hatched a plan to foil her plans, resulting in a final battle with Reimu.

Relationships

Hisami Yomotsu

Hisami is Zanmu's assistant, carrying out orders and bringing people to her. Hisami has a one-way infatuation with Zanmu, she tries her best to gain Zanmu's attention. When Zanmu gives her the cold shoulder, she purposely does her job badly in order to get Zanmu's attention and punishment.

Enoko Mitsugashira

Once upon a time, Enoko ate Zanmu's flesh while Zanmu was a human. Even as Zanmu's flesh was being eating, she kept laughing. Thus, Enoko was eternally cursed by Zanmu with immortality. Zanmu then ordered Enoko to eat a gemstone which transformed her into an immortal Youkai. She then told Enoko to devour all the spirits around and introduced her to Saki. During the events of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, Enoko begrudgingly does Zanmu's bidding. However, she seeks to rid the curse Zanmu placed on her.

Son Biten

Zanmu manipulated events such that Biten was able to transform into an oni and met up with Yachie. Biten then became a loyal minions of hers'. Biten is the only one out of the three minions to hold an unwavering loyalty to Zanmu, addressing her with honorifics (様) and being truly disappointed when Suika told her she was abandoned.

Chiyari Tenkajin

Chiyari and Zanmu knew each other back when Former Hell was known as Hell. Chiyari holds great admiration for Zanmu due to the resentment she caused for all the creatures left behind by moving Hell. During the events of Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, Zanmu reached out to Chiyari for help in resolving the incident. Zanmu introduced her to Yuuma in order to get her to spy on the Gouyoku Alliance. Chiyari agrees as she thinks by allying with Zanmu, more resentment would be created by the underworld dwellers. Much to her delight.

Minor Relationships

Reimu Hakurei

Zanmu laments how Reimu resembles how she was like back when she was human. She entrusts the balance and security of Gensokyo to Reimu, abandoning her plans.

Saki Kurokoma

Saki was infatuated by Zanmu's oni coolness. Her high regard for Zanmu convinced her to back down and monitor the situation instead of fighting.

Yuuma Toutetsu

Zanmu holds Yuuma in high regard, naming her the top dog of the animal realm. Their relationship seems to be antagonistic.

Suika Ibuki

Suika and Zanmu know each other since Former Hell was known as Hell. Suika shows a high degree of respect in Zanmu, noting she is a true oni among oni. Zanmu on the other hand chastise Suika for her un-oni like behavior, telling her to behave more like an oni.

Rin Kaenbyou

Rin is familiar with Zanmu and was honored to meet her. Rin notes that many remaining in Former Hell are against Zanmu, hinting a less than cordial relationship.

Spell Cards

Spell Cards

Additional Information

• Zanmu is the first character introduced as a final boss in a main game to not appear on the game's jewel case since Eirin Yagokoro.

Official Profiles

Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost - omake.txt

○寂滅為楽の王 　種族　　人鬼 　名前　　日白 残無（にっぱく　ざんむ） 　能力　　虚無を操る程度の能力 　不思議を極めた鬼。 　元々は、この世の全ての道から外れた破戒僧である。 　戦国の世を生き延び、世の無情さとしぶとさを覚る。 　僧侶として殺生を禁じられていたが、殺した数を自慢する戦国の世に矛盾を感じていた。 　彼女は霊体ならば、それは殺生ではなく救済だと考え、幽霊や動物霊を吸収するようになる。 　妖獣の霊も吸収したのか、その結果人間としての命を捨てるが、 　聡い彼女は地獄に堕ちる前に自ら地獄へ向かった。 　地獄に堕ちてから、その類いまれなる能力と、不思議な話術で鬼の信頼を得るようになる。 　既に自身も鬼化していたのだが、その事も関係していたのかもしれない。 　高圧的な鬼とは対照に、対話で地獄を支配するインテリ鬼となった。 　古くさくて機能が麻痺していた旧地獄と分離させて、新しい地獄を作ると提案したのも彼女だった。 　そのため、旧地獄で残無の名前を知らぬ者はいない。 　頭の悪い悪人ならともかく、悪知恵の働く悪人には、高圧的な態度だけではコントロール出来ない。 　そういう時は、彼女が上手く宥めたのだ。 　今の地獄が悪人達のセーフティネットとしてちゃんと機能していたのは、彼女の優れたバランス感覚にあった。 　それから数百年経って、畜生界の動物霊達は地上支配の野望を持つようになる。 　そこに必然か偶然か、地上の所有権が無に帰す出来事が起こった。 　その事が畜生どもに伝わって、地上に進出するのは時間の問題だった。 　その事を危険視した地獄の鬼達が、今まさに戦争を起こそうと武力を集めていた。 　鬼と畜生の戦争が地上で行われるとしたら、文字通り地上は地獄絵図である。 　残夢は戦国時代を思い出す。あの無情さは、幻想郷には要らないだろう。 　残夢は、この件は自分が引き受けるから、少し待って欲しいと願い出た。 　彼女はそれぞれの動物霊のリーダーを裏からそそのかし、あえて同時に地上に進出させた。 　そして、畜生達を三つ巴にして分割統治させて、最終的に全て自分の物にする作戦だった。 　それぞれの畜生達の思考は知っている。 　思い通り動かすのは簡単だった。 　しかし、今の幻想郷には、妖怪の支持を集める人間がいる事を知らなかった。 　だとしたら話は別だった。 　ちんけな畜生達にくれてやる必要はない。 　幻想郷はその人間に委ねよう。 　まるで、鬼や畜生の支持を集めた自分のような人間に。

○King of the Silent Bliss of Nirvana Species: Human-oni Name: Zanmu Nippaku Ability: Capable of manipulating nothingness An oni who's reached the absolute pinnacle of eccentricity. She was originally a corrupt monk who distanced herself from all the ways of this world. She lived through the Sengoku period, and remembers all the cruelty and stubbornness of the world. As a monk, she was forbidden from killing, but sensed a strong disconnect between that and the Sengoku-era culture in which one boasted about the number of heads one had killed. She thought that if they were spirits instead of physical bodies, it'd count as salvation instead of slaughter, and started absorbing phantoms and beast spirits. She also absorbed some beast-youkai spirits, thus discarding her life as a human, but she was wise enough to venture into Hell herself before she fell into it. After falling to Hell, her unparalleled abilities and mesmerizing eloquence gained her the trust of the oni. She herself had transformed into an oni already, but perhaps that only helped things along. In contrast to most haughty and overpowering oni, she became an intelligentsia oni who ruled over Hell via dialogue. She was also the one who proposed that they separate Former Hell, given its age and how paralyzed its functions were, and create a new Hell. As a result, there's nobody in Former Hell who doesn't know Zanmu's name. While it may be possible to control unintelligent evildoers with just an overpowering attitude, evildoers with cunning take more finesse. She was very good at pacifying them at such times. Modern Hell functioned very well as a safety net for evildoers, and it had her fine sense of balance to thank for that. Now, several hundred years later, the Animal Realm's beast spirits have set their sights on taking over the surface world. And then-- whether by coincidence or by necessity-- a particular event returned the surface land's ownership rights to nothing. It'd only be a matter of time until the beasts got wind of this, and began to march up to the surface. The Hell oni who saw this as a threat began to consolidate their forces, as if getting ready to wage war at any moment. If a war between oni and beasts occurred on the surface, it'd quite literally be Hell on Earth. Zanmu remembered the era of warring states. Gensokyo surely had no need for such cruelty. She submitted a request for the oni to wait, in exchange for her taking care of the situation. Then, from behind the scenes, she goaded each beast spirit leader into deploying their troops at the same time. Her plan was to put the groups into a three-way deadlock, have them divide and conquer, and ultimately claim them all for herself. She was well aware of each beast's thoughts. It was simple to make them act exactly as she wished. But she didn't know that there was a human in Gensokyo who'd gathered support from the youkai. That certainly changed things. There was no reason to give it to those measly beasts. She'd leave Gensokyo in the hands of that human. That human not unlike herself, who had gathered support from all the oni and beasts.