Kuroji Shitodo

"Well, perhaps this is just a natural consequence"

- Kuroji in Evanescent Existence

Kuroji Shitodo (鵐　黒巫鳥 Shitodo Kuroji) is a serious and taciturn person who specializes in lots of fields of study, including prehistory. She is a recurring character in the Len'en Project, first appearing as the stage 5 boss of Evanescent Existence and later appearing as a playable character. Kuroji is the oldest sister of Hooaka Shitodo and Aoji Shitodo, who all live in Mugenri.

General Information
At some point she became a scholar. She seems to be very knowledgeable of various fields of study, but no matter what she does, Tsubakura Enraku always surpasses her.

Personality
Kuroji is very responsible and because of her incredibly high intelligence; she can come across as aloof and condescending towards others. She isn't self-centered, but she tends to be disliked by others because of her arbitrary way of thinking. She's also very hostile towards youkai, as shown in her treatment of Adagumo no Saragimaru and when she goes on "youkai extermination". Kuroji is also obsessed with getting money by any means and has no qualms in stealing money from youkai. She does everything for her younger siblings.

She is very smart and is knowledgable in many areas. It seems that prehistory is her forte, but besides that she dabbles in other fields of study as well. It seems she often has arguments with Tsubakura and the others, but it's never gotten quite this bad. She's especially antagonistic towards Tsubakura, probably because of they similar personalities. As shown in Evanescent Existence, Kuroji has an inferiority-superiority complex regarding her.

Apparently, however, she actually has a caring side to her. For instance, while annoyed at her sisters lack of participation upon moving to Mugenri, she still cares for them and only resolves incidents to get funds for the family. In Reactivate Majestical Imperial she forces Saragimaru to tag along with her and mistreats her badly, however she is shown to be nice and supportive at times.

Abilities
She's able to reverse the front and back of things, to an extent, as shown in her spell cards. But because she only acquired that power upon arriving to Mugenri, she is not very good at it.
 * Ability to reverse front and back

Although not good as Tsubakura Enraku, Kuroji also has some technological weapons of her own. For example, her shooting type in-game are little robotic birds that shoot lasers, and her infamous bomb; RNA "Retrovirus".
 * Using technology

Origin
Her character may be an homage to Sanae Kochiya, the shrine maiden from Touhou. Both are new to the magic land they find themselves on and they live on a family of three. They also work as youkai exterminators to advertise themselves.

Name
Kuroji (黒巫鳥) is the Japanese word for the grey bunting, yet another kind of bird. Kuro (黒) also happens to be the Japanese word for black. Her family name, Shitodo (鵐), uses a kanji which is used in an alternative spelling of black-faced bunting.

Design
She has short wavy black hair and black eyes. In all the games, she wears the characteristic Shitodo outfit: a black necktie and puffy shorts with a long, hooded, purple jacket. She also wears a black and white mob cap on the front of which is a hitaikakushi with a black insignia.

Games
Like everyone else, Kuroji and her sisters are spirited away to Mugenri. She tries to find a way to escape, but realizes that now she has the ability to reverse things.
 * Evanescent Existence

When looking for a way to escape, she meets her rival Tsubakura Enraku, impersonated by Tsurubami Senri. Noticing that "Tsubakura" might know about way to escape Mugenri, the two fight, but Kuroji is defeated. The scholar realizes that there is something wrong and Tsubakura is not being her usual self, not realizing that this is Tsurubami.

After being defeated by "Tsubakura", she runs into Yabusame Houren who asks for Tsubakura's location. Being disagreeable as always, Kuroji refuses to say anything and the two fight, but she is defeated again. After being defeated, she tells Yabusame to go to the sun that casts a shadow.


 * Earthen Miraculous Sword

Kuroji and her sisters have settled up in Mugenri but have trouble adjusting to it. She built a shabby cabin for her sisters to live, but it's slowly falling apart and her sisters are too dependable on her, much to her chagrin. In order to advertise her family and have some funds, she decides to resolve the incident. After dealing with a few youkai (and stealing Hibaru's money), she finds herself in a ritual chamber, where the orochi Adagumo no Yaorochi and her partner Sukune Katano are. The orochi was gathering the spiritual energy of the weather to restore a replica of the Tasouken sword, but Kuroji stops her before she completes it. However, the sword is completed anyway and attacks Kuroji 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, Kuroji asks them to treat her for some sake.


 * Reactivate Majestical Imperial

Kuroji goes around Mugenri because the only thing she is interested in is fighting with some youkai and stealing their valuable things to make money for family funds. On the way, she bumps into Adagumo no Saragimaru and forces her into cooperation. 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
Kuroji cares about her younger sisters and provides the house, food and money for them. However, sometimes they annoy her with their lack of ambition and easygoing attitude. On their side, Aoji is afraid of her while Hooaka dislikes Kuroji's dominant personality.
 * Hooaka and Aoji Shitodo

She and Tsubakura hate each other because of their arbitrary ways of thinking. Kuroji is secretly jealous of her talent.
 * Tsubakura Enraku

Kuroji forces Saragimaru to help her with the ghost incident in Reactivate Majestical Imperial. Kuroji is very hostile to her because she is a youkai and treats her as nothing but a servant and a way to gain more money. Saragimaru only sticks up to her because she wants to help Yaorochi and because the finds the scholar interesting. 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 while Saragimaru is hiding from her.
 * Adagumo no Saragimaru

Additional Information

 * Kuroji's age is unknown, but conversations in-game imply that she is older than Yabusame and Tsubakura.