Youmu Konpaku

Youmu Konpaku is a character from the Touhou Project games.

Youmu is a half-human half-phantom who lives at Hakugyokurou in the Netherworld as a gardener and fencing instructor, who also serves for Yuyuko Saigyouji.

In the Unlikely Heroes Chronicles fics, Youmu is a member of the Unlikely Heroes.

Appearance
In Perfect Cherry Blossom, Youmu has short silver hair worn in a bob cut, and bright red eyes. She wears a dark green and white dress with several ghost insignias along the edges and a ghost insignia as well on her breast pocket, and a black ribbon tied off-center in her hair. She carries the Roukanken; a long katana with a cherry blossom insignia and a flower attached to it, and the Hakurouken; a wakizashi (Short Japanese sword). Her ghostly half is a formless white phantom as large as her human self.

In every later game, Youmu has slight design alterations such as white hair in Immaterial and Missing Power, eye color changes, and lighter green on her dress. In every game after Perfect Cherry Blossom, Youmu wears short sleeves.

As of Ten Desires, Youmu's appearance stays mostly the same, the only major change being her hair arranged in a messy style.

According to ZUN, her height is "fairly short".

Personality
As she has a straightforward diligent personality, she is often manipulated by those around her (especially Yuyuko). For this reason, she often fails at her task, but that does not mean that she has no real power, and she particularly excels at instantaneous force and concentration power. In Immaterial and Missing Power, as literally stated by the shishou, "truth-slashing is something which you know," so she often performs tsujigiri-like moves, but Suika Ibuki pointed out that she does not think that Youmu understood her shishou's teachings.

She has strong sensitivity, and in the good ending of Imperishable Night, her human half was unable to resist the insanity-inducing effects of the true Moon, causing her to become "half-insane". Ironically enough, considering her species, she is afraid of ghost stories, dares, and darkness, but she is calm around phantoms since she is half phantom herself. In Imperishable Night's Extra. After defeating Fujiwara no Mokou, Yuyuko pretends there is a ghost under a tree, earning a terrified shriek from Youmu. Much further on in Ten Desires, as a result of being mistaken as a hermit, she temporarily mistook herself as being a hermit. Due to artworks and her sprite in the fighting spin-offs, Youmu may be ambidextrous.

Abilities
Youmu is, as a gardener attached to the Saigyouji family and the bodyguard of Yuyuko Saigyouji, a swordsperson of a two-sword school of fencing.

According to the Saigyouji family, Youmu is the second generation to take her position, the former generation being Youki Konpaku. Youki was Youmu's fencing shishou. Youmu is also Yuyuko's sword instructor, but she is fundamentally treated as a gardener.

Possessions
The katana, carried from her left shoulder to her waist on the right side, is Roukanken ("high-building sword"). It has been claimed to have been forged by youkai, and has the power to kill ten phantoms in one slice. The shorter sword on her left waist is a wakizashi named Hakurouken ("plain-building sword"), which seems to be the heirloom of the Konpaku family, and can slice through people's confusion.
 * Roukanken and Hakurouken

Trivia

 * Her theme song is titled "Hiroari Shoots A Strange Bird ~ Till When?", named after a story in Taiheiki, which a warrior named Hiroari slays a youkai known as Itsumade. This is an homage to the storyline. Judging from the story of Perfect Cherry Blossom, the heroine plays the role of Hiroari, Youmu is Itsumade, and the corpse is probably Yuyuko Saigyouji.
 * In Touhou Hisoutensoku, one of Youmu's new Spell Cards resembles one of Grant's supers from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
 * Also in Touhou Hisoutensoku, one of Youmu's palette swaps seems to resemble Nue Houjuu.