Shikigami of the Sukima Youkai

Ran Yakumo

The Nine-Tailed Calculator

Character Information

NAME: Ran Yakumo
AGE: At least 800
GENDER: Female
HAIR: Blonde/gold
EYES: Gold
HEIGHT: 5'9
WEIGHT: Variable
BUILD: Curvacious

SEXUALITY: Pansexual
OCCUPATION: Shikigami of the Border Youkai

Player Information

NAME: gsai
CONTACT: PM this journal or use my HMD post
TIME ZONE: CST

A youkai fox grows a tail every century...

One of the first degrees of Ran's personality that most will notice is that she has a very maternal way of going about things. She mothers people, whether they're part of her bizarre little "family" or not. This can be a bit endearing at times, and probably annoying at others. But it's still very much a thing for her, and where it came from is something of a mystery, as she had no real mother figure in her life, unless you want to count Yukari towards that. It's hard to say. She tries to keep it in check when it's not appropriate at least. But expect her to fuss at you for one thing or another.

But on top of that, Ran has a quality that is much more deeply endearing, and that is her ability to form lasting, trust-based bonds. Once Ran's loyalty to someone is won, it will never falter. This is specifically shown in her relationship to Yukari, whom she follows without question and trusts with her whole being. She also forms similar, though not as intense, relationships with others, willing to stand by them and stick things out. She doesn't like the idea of going through life alone, as she had to for some time, and will do all in her power to insure those she cares for will not have to do so.

Which isn't to say Ran is always so serious. In fact, more often, she has a pretty playful side to her that shows in more casual interaction. She likes to tease people and play little tricks from time to time. She hardly does this to intentionally upset anyone, but it's in her nature to do so. Ran identifies as a fox, after all, and she does as foxes do. Whether it's illusions or just simple mathematical tricks, Ran enjoys doing rather "foxy" things when the mood hits her for it.

Though, what Ran falls into most in her idle time isn't being the trickster fox, but rather just doing stupidly hard mathematical tasks. Or even beyond that, just anything that would probably seem silly or a waste of time to most. When she's bored, she may just go and casually draw up an equation for determining the width of a river that varies from person to person (the legendary Sanzu). Why? Because she had the time for it. It may seem pointless to most, but for Ran, she sees very little reason not to indulge in number juggling.

If you haven't already figured it out by now, Ran is exceptionally intelligent. She can do complex math in head and has a profound understanding of things she hasn't even properly studied, such as military strategy and thermodynamics. Her mind is like a puzzle constantly making itself more complicated with each new thing she learns or masters. This is likely Yukari's influence on her, but it seems more that Yukari simply fostered a talent that was already there. And she can only grow more as Yukari continues to allow her to serve her. Eventually she will take over Yukari's loft position, after all. She will need to be prepared.

All in all, Ran is described by most as having a very gentle personality. Between her mothering, her playfulness, and her intelligence, it all comes back to her sort of coming to embody the essense of the Japanese concept of "yamato nadeshiko", or the ideal Japanese woman. Whether or not this was ZUN's intention all along or just came as a consequence of how the character shaped over her time in canon isn't certain, but it is indeed a good way to sum up what is a surprisingly complex character, in spite of her seemingly minor role in the overall story of the games and extended media.

Abilities/Talents/Equipment

Ran's abilities come in three catefories; what is innate to her as a youkai fox, what was taught her by her master Yukari, and her own natural talents outside of all of those.

Kitsune Abilities: Ran is incredibly fast and physically strong, far more so than a normal human. It would take effort, but she could lift a small car if she needed to, and she can move fast enough that the human eye has trouble keeping up, if a person can at all. Her reflexes are also incredibly sharp.

In addition to being physically adept, she also has the kitsune powers of illusion and Fox Fire. Her illusion powers are based around making false images and possibly even sounds if she needs to, though they are intangible and incorporeal. She can create much more solid disguises for herself, however, using magic broad leaves worn as hair charms if she needs to. However, as much as these can change, they cannot hide her tails, and she must get creative to make them unnoticeable. Fox Fire is a blue, mystic flame she can summon that only burns what she wills it to burn. Burns from fox fire do not heal normally and leave unique scars and marks compared to regular flames. In legend, the significance of the marks is debatable and was likely formed from a lack of understanding of the difference between flame burns and chemical burns. So it's probably to best to just leave that factor out.

Onmyoudo: Onmyoudo is an ancient Japanese mystic art, brought to fame by historical astrologer Abe no Seimei. Yukari Yakumo practices this as well (mistranslated in some games as 'black magic'). She trained Ran in the arts, allowing her to use them. Onmyoudo has dozens of frustratingly vague applications. In the games, this translates into Ran's 'spell cards', but they're just different bullet patterns as per the genre of game. But things like creating shikigami (servants or tools, usually made from inanimate objects), sealing demons and gods, and elemental magical attacks could all potentially used in game on a case by case basis.

Ran's talents: Ran is a living calculator. No seriously she is outrageously good at mathematics, able to mentally deduce incredibly complex calculations and resolve seemingly impossible equations. Combined with her already fast reflexes, this makes her a top level strategist, able to assess probabilities of actions of others based purely on breaking things down into mathematical concepts. This is where the 'scheming' part of her in-game title comes from, really. However, as much as this bolster's Ran's intellect, she's not actually an all-around super genius. She is simply just so good at math that she can apply it to other situations in order to come out on top, mentally.

Ethereal Blades: One of the talents Ran has developed is concentrating her foxfire into the form of physical blades, namely a short jian she uses for short range combat and burning, explosive kunai she uses as 'danmaku' bullets. She can freely form both in nearly infinite amounts, so long as she does not grow exhausted.