The Cheery Forgotten Umbrella
Kogasa Tatara

Ability: Surprising humans
Threat level: Low
Human friendship level: High
Main place of activity: Human Village, Myouren Temple, Hakurei Shrine, Moriya Shrine and so forth

A divine spirit attached to an ownerless umbrella, a crooked tsukumogami. When it comes to kami attached to tools, they show up when the tool is treated nicely by its user, but bare their fangs at humans who carelessly throw them away. Because it's difficult to tell at what point the tool developed a kami, they should not be treated roughly. If the tool is no longer needed, rather than throwing it away it should be completely destroyed. The tool's kami won't hate you for that.

After becoming a tsukumogami, they simply spend every day surprising humans. Tsukumogami get revenge on the people who ignore their existence by surprising them.

While they are exemplary youkai, they never attack or eat humans.

Although she has that kind of history, her personality is good-humored and sociable. While she often comes to the village to surprise humans, and is hated by the adults, the eccentric design of her umbrella makes her surprisingly popular with children(*1).

She often hangs out at the Myouren Temple, but not because she has joined it. Because humans often visit the graveyard, she finds it easier to surprise them from there.

1: This seems to displease her.

The Lame Umbrella

She holds an umbrella with an exceedingly individualistic design, having one giant eye and tongue(*2). She aims to scare people so it seems it ended up that way.

It's an eggplant colored umbrella, but for some reason it was unpopular and no one used it.

Having one leg and one eye, she resembles a fiendish youkai called an Ippon Datara. It is said that this youkai kidnaps humans that get lost in the mountains, then does things like kill them or take them in as friends. The design of the umbrella appears to have been modified based on this youkai(*3). It also goes without saying that these modifications have made the umbrella appear increasingly ridiculous compared to the original form.

However, the umbrella isn't just for decoration. Even if you cut her, she won't be separated. She is a tsukumogami who can't exist except as a form holding an umbrella.

2: Less that's she holding it and more that it's part of her true form.

3: It's also presumed that her name is derived from it (Ippon Datara).

Countermeasures

She is a tsukumogami who is glad just to see you surprised, so she isn't very dangerous. Your blood pressure might suddenly increase, and you might be afraid of having a heart attack, but her threat could only deceive a child so it's not a problem.

If you ignore her she'll become very depressed. If there's really a problem, it's that her depressed form is itself depressing, so it's best that you pretend that you're afraid to please her.





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