Adagumo no Yaorochi

"Taste the power of Orochi, you ignorant human!"

- Yaorochi in Earthen Miraculous Sword

Adagumo no Yaorochi (徒雲 八尾呂智 Adagumo no Yaorochi) is an aloof expressionless girl who is a youkai born from Yamata no Orochi's severed arm. She has an obsession with the sword Tasouken, the legendary Sword of Kusanagi.

Personality
At first glance, Yaorochi is aloof, composed, and dignified. Her personality is indifferent to others, and because she ostracized herself for so long, Yaorochi is a loner by nature and chooses not to socialize. She is hostile towards humans and looks down on them, but if she has to cooperate with them, she acquiesces. In speech, she speaks with in an archaic Japanese language, all the while using a belligerent and haughty tone.

Because she was born from Orochi's arm, she has an attachment to the Tasouken. She loves the sword more than anything else, even to the point of idealizing for its return to splendour. She wants it to be as magnificent as it was in the ancient times. When she was born, she executed those who killed Orochi's clan in vengeance, as she felt she had an obligation for it. After she found what was left of the Tasouken, she understood that she never wanted the sword in order to exact revenge or to revive the old clan. It was simply because she was attached to it. She is shown to be manipulative and cunning (such as manipulating Sukune Katano to restore the sword) and will attack any person who gets in the way of herself and the Tasouken. For instance, cutting down Saragimaru in the past and attacking the heroines in Earthen Miraculous Sword, because restoring the Tasouken brought a cloudy weather to Mugenri.

Abilities
Yaorochi's main ability is to cut down clouds. If one notices closely in the Stage 6 of Earthen Miraculous Sword, during the last half of the fight Yaorochi and the heroines are seen floating in the sky away from the Ritual Chamber and the clouds around the orochi are seen moving past her. She also has spell cards based around cutting clouds (Suppressing Force "Formation of the Cloud Mowing Sword", "Cloud Mowing Sword") Being born from the arm of Orochi gives her a natural swordsmanship. Because of her connection to the Tasouken and its ability to sever relationships, Yaorochi’s sword’s ability is defined in such a broad manner.
 * Mow down clouds
 * Natural swordmanship

Background Information
The leader of a powerful clan (implied to be Yamata no Orochi) was betrayed and killed by other enemy clans and his body was dispersed in eight fragments. Yaorochi was born from his severed arm, and because of it, she has an attachment to the clan's legendary sword, Tasouken. Yaorochi and her seven siblings decided to get revenge on Orochi's murderers, but most of them died before achieving their goal. Yaorochi was very cold and distant to her younger siblings and for some reason she never got particularly well with the youngest, Adagumo no Saragimaru. It eventually escalated to violence which culmined with Yaorochi cutting Saragimaru down. Given the nature of the Tasouken, their bond shattered and they distanced. Shortly, Yaorochi abandoned her in order to look for the sword.

Yaorochi looked for centuries for the lost Tasouken and was very dissapointed when she found that it was all old and rusted. She was so dissapointed and heartbroken that she isolated herself for years. One day, she travelled to Mugenri and she saw a clay sword that greatly resembled the Tasouken. She convinced the creator of the clay sword, Sukune Katano, into transferring the essence of the Tasouken into the clay sword. In order to transfer it, she required a "vessel". And so as a place to perform the ritual Yaorochi had Sukune prepare a huge clay "vessel". Yaorochi pulled the sword out from storage. She thrust the sword along with the clay sword into the ground, and began the ritual. She began the power transference, and the rusted sword crumbled into dust in an instant. Outside, the sky was enveloped by gathering clouds, so the heroines went to fight against them in order to stop the cloudy weather.

Name
Her given name Yaorochi, spelt to mean "eight tail bone knowledge", is based on the name of Yamata-no-Orochi. Her surname, Adagumo, means "vanishing cloud". It refers to the concept of ephemerality, giving the impression of a cloud that disappears as soon as you reach out to touch it.

Design
Yaorochi is of moderate height. She has long black hair tied in a side ponytail. She wears a green scarf with snake designs, a black and purple hakama with floral patterns and a pair of black detached sleeves which expose her armpits. As an orochi, she has seven tails.

Yaorochi's Appearances
Sukune was tricked by Yaorochi into transferring the essence of the Tasouken into a clay sword, but said process made the weather in Mugenri very cloudy. The heroines fight against her in order to stop it, but after Yaorochi is defeated, the Tasouken attacked the heroines on its own because the essence of the Tasouken was too strong for the clay vessel. After Yaorochi and the sword were defeated, Sukune reveals to her that the back of the sword acts as a bottle opener. The orochi was devastated at first, but in the end she decided that she did not mind at all because she had the sword in her posession after centuries and it was all that mattered to her.
 * Earthen Miraculous Sword


 * Reactivate Majestical Imperial

There is a long winter out of season and there is a sudden flow of spirits. This bothers Yaorochi and Sukune, who want to find out who's responsible for it and will be the first team to know why. After dealing with a few youkai in search for answers, they arrive to the Frost Cavern, where they bump into Kuroji and Saragimaru. The latter recognizes Yaorochi, so she conceals her face. Offended after Sukune casually mentions her money problems, Kuroji attacks them and forces Saragimaru as well. After defeating them, they continue their way, where they find Taira no Fumikado, 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, Yaorochi and Sukune arrive at the Senri Shrine, bringing Shion with them. Shion indicated that she was attracted by the essence of the shrine. Angry at Yabusame and Tsubakura for staying at home rather than resolving the incident, Yaorochi scolds them, but it goes on deaf ears.

While the two are flying through the Frosted Cavern, they bump into Yabusame and Tsubakura. Yaorochi and Sukune tell them to go back home, as they will resolve the incident and they consider the humans too stupid and inept to do anything. Yabusame suggest that the four of them could go to resolve the incident together, but the orochi and the haniwa refuse and call them idiots again. Yabusame is offended and she and Tsubakura fight against them. In the end, Yabusame and Tsubakura defeat them and continue on their way.

Relationships
Yaorochi's little sister. In the past, they had a fickle relationship and they distanced when Yaorochi slashed her. Saragimaru has not forgotten her older sister and secretly watches her from afar. Yaorochi is too fixated on the Tasouken and has already forgotten about her and the rest of her (now deceased) siblings.
 * Adagumo no Saragimaru

According to game manuals, Yaorochi sometimes wonders what happened with her remaining siblings and she has starting noticing that someone frequently looks after her.

Yaorochi manipulated Sukune into transferring the essence of the Tasouken into a clay sword (requested by Saragimaru to make Yaorochi happy) by posing as a holy servant. Despite her attachment to the sword, the orochi felt guilty about lying to the haniwa and tried to tell her the truth multiple times. Even while in the end it was revealed that said clay sword was actually a bottle opener, the two became good friends after that.
 * Sukune Katano

Additional Information

 * Her name has the kanji for "eight tails", but in artworks, she has seven tails. She also has a spell card called "Seven Tails". Since she has seven siblings and she is supposed to be the head of the family, this implies that she isn't precisely the oldest.
 * She is often calm and collected, except when talking about the Tasouken. As shown when she uses her final spellcard in Earthen Miraculous Sword, she is seen with a radiant smile on her face.
 * Yaorochi's and Saragimaru's color schemes are inverted in Reactivate Majestical Imperial.
 * According to Jynx, she is only powerful when she is using the Tasouken. She is also not so aloof and dignified as she pretends to be.