Ability: Making objects unidentifiable
Threat level: High
Human friendship level: Low
Main place of activity: Myouren Temple and so forth

A nue, a youkai with an unknown true identity.

In the Tale of the Heike there was a youkai that scared the Emperor: a chimera (*1) described as having the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki, the limbs of a tiger and the tail of a snake. These descriptions became the image of the nue, but there are actually no written records saying that this kind of youkai was indeed a nue.

The truth is that the youkai nue and the monster are completely different beings. Nue is truly a youkai whose real form cannot be known. However, we do know its cry. The saying goes that nights with Nue's cries are ill-fated.

Her current form has mysterious tentacles that are inexplicably either wings or tails. Each of these appendages can be moved freely, which is disorienting to those who see it.

Although she temporally lived underground, it seems that she has moved to the surface with the recent commotions going on around the geyser. She is currently training with Byakuren Hijiri.

1: This is a kind of synthetic beast created by combining different animals. Most of them are artificially created, but occasionally you get some natural ones. They are generally short-lived.

While she is a youkai with an unknown true form, she can also conceal the true nature of other objects. Her power works on both living and non-living things, and she can take away form, sounds or even smell. She usually leaves only its behavior. For example, if you have a bird flying through the sky and she takes away its identity as a bird, what you have left is "a mystery object flying through the sky".

Things with their true forms taken will be perceived differently depending on the observer. The form is completed by the observers themselves, and in the end it will only look like something the observers can accept. Even if it is a bird that looks like a UFO because its true form was taken, its still possible to see that it's the shape of a bird. In this case though, what people see is an illusory and unstable bird.

The youkai at the Myouren Temple are all centered around Byakuren, it looks like they all trust each other. However, for Nue who joined much later, her position is a bit touchy.

She doesn't seem very close to other youkai, often looking bored outside the temple.

When the saint beneath the Myouren Temple was resurrected, she thought it was a threat to youkai, so she called in a powerful youkai from the outside world without Byakuren's permission. This is not what Byakuren had wanted. Nue did it because she felt it was the right thing to do, but her action ended up straying from the Myouren Temple's plan.

Incidentally, the youkai she called in was her old friend Mamizou Futatsuiwa, they get along very well. Of course, neither of them has quite settled in at the Myouren Temple yet.

Her ability is indirect, so there's really nothing you can do about it.

However, she doesn't appear to think of those disciples as anything more than servants. Which is quite natural; a hermit's disciples are mere gophers. (*2)

Yuurei that are often seen on street corners, will-'o-the-wisp, things that should not be; no one knows if these things have Nue's "seeds of unknown form" mixed in them. However since it's likely that these things have always been there, there is probably no need to be too scared of them.

If she attacks you directly though, then it's a completely different story. As she is a classic youkai, she is very strong. It is very difficult to win against her if you don't have weapons like "Yorimasa's bow(*2)". Even running away from her is extremely difficult. So when you see her at the Myouren Temple , please don't provoke her by saying things like "Hey outcast".

2: The one for sale at Kourindou is a fake.