Adagumo no Saragimaru

"The ritual was wasted effort if Yaorochi-sama remains unhappy...I have dishonored her with my failed plan..."

- Saragimaru in Earthen Miraculous Sword

Adagumo no Saragimaru (徒雲 蛇穴丸 Adagumo no Saragimaru) is Yaorochi's younger sister who is a youkai born from Yamata no Orochi's severed eye. Straightforward and dilligent, she secretly looks after her big sister. She's also Kuroji Shitodo's subordinate.

Personality
Saragimaru has a straightforward diligent personality, and because of it she is often manipulated by those around her, like Kuroji. For this reason, she often fails at whatever she is doing, but she particularly excels at instantaneous speed and concentration power. As pointed out by Shion, she has a self-sacrificing personality, fitting for a subordinate.

She lacks stamina that keeps her from doing any physical activity for long periods, as shown during Reactivate Majestical Imperial. The only reason she is so strong in Earthen Miraculous Sword is because she is angry at the heroines for defeating her sister. In comparison to Yaorochi, Saragimaru has the fewest number of tails for an orochi, and it's a clear sign of Saragimaru's power.

Saragimaru is devoted to serving her big sister, Yaorochi. She loves her big sister very much because she is her only living relative, but due to Tasouken's curse (to sever relationships), Yaorochi doesn't care about her. She even threats to kill the heroines in Earthen Miraculous Sword for stopping the ritual that would restore the Tasouken and thus interfering with Yaorochi's happiness.

Perhaps due to of being isolated for so long, Saragimaru is a loner by nature and chooses not to socialize with humans or youkai. When she does associate with anyone, she acts rather awkward. Like her sister, she looks down on humans, Kuroji being an exception somehow. Nevertheless, to those whom she's acquainted with, she speaks bluntly and has a snarky personality. She's presented as the most no-nonsense character out of all the Len'en Project, and having lived for over centuries, she doesn't mince words when noting she has to deal with the equivalent of kids from her perspective.

Abilities
Saragimaru is able to control clouds and create cloudy weather. In the Extra Stage of Earthen Miraculous Sword, she creates clouds around Mugenri in order to lure the heroines into a deathly trap, though her plan is foiled. She also has spell cards based around cutting clouds (Suppressing Force "Formation of the Cloud Mowing Sword", "Cloud Mowing Sword")
 * Manipulate cloudy weather

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 several fragments. Saragimaru was born from his eye, and because of it, she is very knowledgeable. 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, 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. She searched for it for several years and was very dissapointed when she found it, as it was all rusted.

Saragimaru, who had silently looked after her all those years, requested Sukune Katano to make a clay sword for her sister, but afraid of her sister's rejection, she never went to pick it.

Name
Her given name Saragimaru is spelled with the kanji for "snake", "hole", and "circle". The maru (circle) suffix was historically added to names of swords and sailing ships. Her family name is the same as Yaorochi's.

Design
Saragimaru has red eyes and short green hair tied in a short side ponytail. She dresses in black and green clothing with a green capelet. As an orochi, she has one tail.

Saragimaru's Appearances
It's revealed that she soon regretted requesting the sword, as she knew it was dangerous for the Tasouken to be restored. However the essence of the Tasouken was too strong for the clay vessel and during Yaorochi's fight against the three heroines, it attacked them on its own, only to be defeated. After Yaorochi is defeated, the clouds dissipate. However, a few days later, the cloudy weather returns. The heroines go to investigate and they found that this time the culprit is Yaorochi's younger sister, Saragimaru. She wants revenge for the heroines sabotaging the Tasouken's ritual and thus ruining Yaorochi's happiness.
 * Earthen Miraculous Sword

Saragimaru introduces herself to Yabusame Houren, which causes the latter to believe the orochi is joking, since her name sounds similar to the word salami. The orochi starts complaining about how Yaorochi must be unhappy because of the failed ritual for the Tasouken, so she decides to attack Yabusame in revenge for it. They fight and Saragimaru is defeated. She appears to calm down afterwards, still upset at Yabusame for not really listening to her rants.

When Tsubakura Enraku finds Saragimaru, the orochi threatens to kill her for ruining her sister's ritual. Tsubakura recognizes Saragimaru's snake tail as a sign that she is Yaorochi's sister. She asks if she wants to drink with her, but Saragimaru declines and proceeds to attack. They decide to have a danmaku battle, and Tsubakura eventually emerges victorious. Tsubakura insists with her offer to drink sake together and the orochi reluctantly accepts.

Kuroji Shitodo encounters Saragimaru, who wants to attack her for ruining the ritual. Because of the snake tail, Kuroji recognizes her as Yaorochi's sister. Saragimaru becomes furious and threatens to kill her when the scholar casually insults her sister. They have a danmaku battle and Saragimaru is defeated.
 * Reactivate Majestical Imperial

She worries about Yaorochi going to resolve the spirits incident, so she accepts Kuroji's offer to tag along. She has decided that she won't tell Yaorochi of their parentage, preferring to protect her from the shadows. They keep bumping into weird youkai, while Kuroji steals their money much to Saragimaru's surprise. On the Frost Cavern, they bump into Yabusame and Tsubakura, who are curious about their partnership. Kuroji wants to prove once again that she is stronger than Tsubakura and settles on a danmaku battle. 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, Kuroji and Saragimaru arrive at the Senri Shrine, bringing Shion with them. Shion indicated that she was attracted by the essence of the shrine. Meanwhile, Saragimaru is interested in Kuroji so she stays as her subordinate, while Kuroji wants to sell the remaining spirits to collect money.

While the two are flying through the Frosted Cavern, they bump into Yaorochi and Sukune. Saragimaru doesn't want to be noticed by her sister, so she conceals her face. Yaorochi recognizes Kuroji as one of the humans who foiled her plan to restore the Tasouken months ago. Yaorochi also notices the concealed Saragimaru, but Kuroji diverts her interest to prevent Saragimaru from being recognized. Sukune asks Kuroji whether she still has problems with money, which she confirms. Kuroji decides to attack the orochi and the haniwa for this line of questioning. Saragimaru is reluctant to fight against her sister, but acquiesces. In the end, Yaorochi and Sukune defeat them and continue on their way.

Relationships
Saragimaru is devoted to serve and protect her eldest sister. In the past, they had a fickle relationship and they distanced when Yaorochi slashed her. She loves and respects her big sister very much (calling her "Yaorochi-sama") and wishes to be close with her, but Yaorochi doesn't notice or care about her anymore, too obsessed with the Tasouken to notice her. In order to make her happy and to stop Yaorochi's confinement from the world, Saragimaru requested Sukune to make a clay sword that resembled the Tasouken, despite knowing it was dangerous.
 * Adagumo no Yaorochi

Even if she is aware that Yaorochi cares very little about other people, much less her, Saragimaru doesn't mind and she is happy as long as she could continue protecting her older sister from the shadows.

They met after the weather incident during Earthen Miraculous Sword, when the heroines foiled Yaorochi's plan to restore the Tasouken. Saragimaru was very angry at the heroines for deafeating her sister and in Kuroji's scenario, the scholar badmouths her sister, earning her rage. In Reactivate Majestical Imperial, their relationship seems to have mellowed out a bit. Kuroji forces Saragimaru to tag along and resolve the incident. Despite Kuroji's mistreatment, Saragimaru puts up with her and has no trouble with Kuroji badmouthing her and calling the orochi as her subordinate, but there are times in which she talks back.
 * Kuroji Shitodo

Saragimaru only sticks up to Kuroji because she wants to help Yaorochi and because the finds the scholar interesting, but has trouble understanding her and her obsession with money. The two are generally on friendly terms, and it's suggested that Kuroji cares about her in her own way, such as consoling her when the orochi is feeling cold or distracting Yaorochi when Saragimaru hides from her.

Additional Information

 * Saragimaru's musical theme, Mono Eye ~ Ironic FATE, may also read as "Mono Ai". According to Jynx, it could refer to her "single eye" or maybe it's more like her one-sided love towards Yaorochi.
 * She seems to have low stamina, getting tired for the smallest things during Reactivate Majestical Imperial.
 * According to Jynx, she is the most mature and the only one with common sense in Mugenri.
 * Yaorochi's and Saragimaru's color schemes are inverted in Reactivate Majestical Imperial.
 * Yabusame can't remember her name and calls her "Salami".
 * Her character might be a homage to Youmu Konpaku, the half-ghost girl from Touhou. Both are young and inexperienced, with a straightforward and diligent personality. They're also often mistreated by others and use dual wielding weapons.