Yabusame Houren

"I'm gonna go look for a culprit that's even stronger than I am!"

- Yabusame in Earthen Miraculous Sword

Yabusame Houren (鳳聯藪雨 Houren Yabusame) is a ditzy strange person who has been given the job as the protector of Mugenri, having the power to cross into another dimensions. She is one of the main protagonists of the Len'en Project and is a playable character in all games.

Personality
Yabusame is described as a weirdo who is plain and boring, as well as a thoughtless idiot. Yabusame often makes bizarre and apparently nonsensical remarks and sometimes seems to overlook the obvious, leading to everyone thinking of her as stupid. However, at other times she will reveal an extremely perceptive side and will also sometimes display an extraordinary level of knowledge. For example, in Evanescent Existence, she was the quickest to identify the culprit as Tsurubami Senri. She is also known for her bizarre taste in food (such as eating raw salt). She seems to be cheerful and friendly to others, prone to giving them nicknames.

Although it's said that she goes to solve incidents tasked by the Senri Shrine without understanding them, she's a person who somehow gets the job done regardless.

Abilities
Yabusame can cross dimensions and get in everyone's way. During Evanescent Existence, instead of being spirited away by Tsurubami Senri, like the others, she arrived to Mugenri by crossing over to the other dimension. Yabusame commonly uses this ability to teleport the danmaku in front of her and zooming in to replace it. Despite the incredible potential of this ability, Yabusame is too much of an airhead to consider its implications. Since Earthen Miraculous Sword she's been given a "two-dimensional cloth" by Tsubakura Enraku, so that she doesn't fly off into another dimension on a whim.
 * Crossing dimensions

Name
Her full name is Yabusame Houren (鳳聯　藪雨). The kanji in Yabusame (藪雨) means "grove" and "rain" respectively. Although it's spelled with different kanji, yabusame is also the Japanese word for the Asian stubtail, a type of bird. The kanji in her family name Houren (鳳聯) literally mean "phoenix" and "link" or "group" respectively.

Design
Yabusame has shown to have silver eyes and short silver hair with long locks. She dresses in black and green clothing, with a light brown coat with a reddish-brown bow.

Yabusame's Appearances

 * Evanescent Existence



Yabusame and Tsubakura are swept away into Mugenri. She searches for a way to escape and finds out that all her allies and acquaintances are trapped in Mugenri as well, having been convinced that if they defeat Yabusame, they'll find a way to escape. After defeating them, she finds that Tsubakura is acting very strange and is talking about a "prize" if she defeats everyone. When she defeats Kuroji Shitodo, she tells her that the answers are in "a sun that casts a shadow". Unfortunately for her, after arriving, she finds out that the annoying Clause has reached first and believes that if she defeats Yabusame, she'll gain more power. Yabusame defeats her and reaches the mysterious sun.

During the Extra stage, the sun that casts a shadow turns out to be a portal to the Senri Shrine. After defeating Clause again, she is transported to the Mugenri Barrier and finds the true mastermind, Tsurubami Senri, a priest who has been impersonating Tsubakura in order to test their powers, since she wants a strong person to replace her. Annoyed, Yabusame defeats her, but soon realises that the real Tsubakura has already defeated Tsurubami before. The priest was considering for Tsubakura to be her replacement, but after witnessing Yabusame's potential, she hands both of them her job as a youkai exterminator. After that, Yabusame and Tsubakura settle in Mugenri.


 * Earthen Miraculous Sword

Shortly after settling in Mugenri, the two girls live a carefree life at the shrine. The time of peace ended in the autumn, one day, mysterious thick clouds covered the land. Upset, the familiar of the shrine, Jinbei, forces one of them to go. Yabusame and Tsubakura can't acutally decide who should go, so they decide on a game of rock-paper-scissors and they both head out. After dealing with a few youkai, she finds herself in a ritual chamber, where the orochi Adagumo no Yaorochi and her partner Sukune Katano are. The two were gathering the spiritual energy of the weather to restore a replica of the Tasouken sword, but Yabusame stops her before she completes it. However, the sword is completed anyway and attacks Yabusame on its own.

Luckily, the clay vessel was too much for the Tasouken and it stopped attacking. After everything was cleared, Sukune reveals that the clay replica is actually a sword-shaped bottle opener, much to Yaorochi's chagrin. In the end, Yabusame drinks some sake with them.


 * Reactivate Majestical Imperial

Yabusame and Tsubakura are bothered by the abnormal long winter in Mugenri, so they go investigate. After dealing with a few youkai in search for answers, they arrive to the Frost Cavern, where they bump into Yaorochi and Sukune, who tell the humans to go home as they are more interested in the mastermind's identity rather than the long winter. Yabusame and Tsubakura ask them to resolve the incident together, but the youkais refuse. Offended, they defeat them and continue their way. They bump into a strange road, where Taira no Fumikado is, who was trying to collect spirits for her resurrection ceremony. After defeating her, they find out that all the spirits are attracted to a certain location. Finally, they end up in the Withered Grove, where they find the chimera soul Shion, who is the avatar of the soul-eater flower Harujion and was absorbing spirits causing a long winter. Shion decides to absorb the souls they had been collecting through their adventure and they defeat her.

In the end, Yabusame and Tsubakura return to the Senri Shrine, bringing Shion with them. Shion indicated that she was attracted by the essence of the shrine and is particularly interested in Tsubakura.

While the two are flying through the Frosted Cavern, they bump into Kuroji and Saragimaru, much to Kuroji's chagrin, who hates Tsubakura with passion. Tsubakura asks them if they are going to resolve the incident, but Kuroji and Saragimaru refuse to reply. Given Kuroji's unlikeable and arbitrary personality, the humans are surprised that the scholar and the young orochi have teamed up. Upon watching the harsh treatment Saragimaru receives, Tsubakura concludes that she was forced to come and makes fun of Kuroji's inability to get along with anyone. An offended Kuroji and a confused Saragimaru fight against them. In the end, Kuroji and Saragimaru defeat them and continue on their way.

As shown on a screenshot, Yabusame is a playable character in the upcoming game, Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle.
 * Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle

Relationships
Yabusame has co-operated with many other major characters, but generally not close to them personally.

She and Tsubakura Enraku have been friends since long ago, but being gullible and slow, Tsubakura tends to pick on her a lot, much to Yabusame's chagrin.
 * Tsubakura Enraku

Additional Information

 * Some of her spellcards are similar to those of Yukari Yakumo, the gap youkai. Justified, since their powers are based on dimensions.
 * Yabusame has the ability to "cross dimensions", but ironically she herself hasn't travelled to any dimensions since Earthen Miraculous Sword.
 * Likes giving people nicknames, sometimes to show fondness (like Tsubakura) or that she doesn't remember their names (like Saragimaru).
 * Her surname, Houren includes the kanji of the Len'en series. (Houren-Enraku --> Ren-En --> Len'en)