kukuri

 

Kukuri-Hime-no-Kami (菊理媛大神, Kukurihime ōgami), better known simply as Kukuri (くくり, Kukuri), is the resident God of the Land of the Hakusan Shrine. She is one of many gods known as Kukuri, with this incarnation residing over Kamioka. She guards over the region, dispersing curse and assisting Kazuya in his job as an exorcist.

Appearance

Due to her status as a God of the Land, Kukuri doesn't age, regardless of how much time passes. Instead, her appearance is tied to the amount of power she possesses, boasting a youthful but adult aspect when at full strength but rejuvenating when her power decreases. Some traits are consistently carried over, such as her green hair and blue eyes. She always sports the same attire consisting of an orange haori, a kimono jacket, and a pair of black hakama, divided trousers that extend all the way to the ankles. As well as a white bandana. Because of certain circumstances and, after her test to appoint Kazuya as the new Exorcist of Kamioka; Kukuri suffered a drastic change in looks that resemble that of a very young girl. In her daily life when not attending her duties as the Local God, she's also seen wearing all different kinds of casual clothing typical of girls of her physiological age.

Personality

Kukuri is an affable and cordial individual that keeps an amiable disposition towards those around her. Despite her status and position, she's always broke as she lives entirely on donations from the local population and barely receives any offerings for living, resulting in her living an extremely humble life with barely any comforts. For a long time, she and her assistant Kokuyou lived in very poor conditions. After the destruction of their temple, during the appointment of Kazuya as Kamioka's Exorcist, they found themselves homeless and having to spend what little money they had for its repairs, even having Kokuyou work on part-time jobs in order to get money, forcing them to live an even more vagrant life by eating grass and living on a children's park. While she puts up with it, she's always frustrated and distressed by their lack of money. However, Kukuri herself is a very humble individual that treats everyone with respect regardless of their position, inherently lowering herself to living a life akin to that of average human beings.

She's diligent, regularly overextending herself in order to purify her region from Curse, while also attending to more mundane tasks like washing the dishes or helping with the cooking at Kazuya's house without being asked to collaborate. In spite of her simplistic lifestyle, she still has her pride as the God of the Land and would often remark her status as a deity, but she struggles to be seen as an imposing and mighty figure regardless of her efforts and is often ridiculed by those with more assertive personalities like Kiriha. She is quite scatterbrained, clumsy, and works hard to be taken seriously, but generally comes off as just pitiful by those around her. She's surprisingly childish and cheerful, with her behavior often resembling that of a real kid in both appearance and conduct. She's also very prudish and somewhat innocent, heavily contrasting with the indecent Kiriha who regularly exposes her in all sorts of embarrassing situations, where she tends to easily lose her cool and panic.

Despite her demeanor making her come off as pitiable and miserable, at moments of crisis, she proves to be a very reliable ally and she's still highly regarded and respected by allies in such situations, who have complete faith in her knowledge and abilities. She cares deeply about Kazuya, who she grows to love very much throughout the series. Their relationship appears to be closer to that of an elder brother and sister, but there's shown strong implications of being romantically interested in him on more than one occasion. Naturally, she's willing to do anything within her power in order to protect him, even going as far as placing a barrier throughout Kamioka in order to prevent Azami's entrance, which severely weakened her in the process and left her vulnerable. She also greatly values her subordinate Kokuyou and will be thrown into a binding rage if she was hurt. She has a rocky relationship with Kiriha, as their personalities directly contrast with the other and they're constantly competing with the other. Kiriha finds great amusement in making fun of her prudish nature, which greatly irritates Kukuri.

When using the Mask to its full potential, Kukuri is able to employ several techniques that would otherwise be unable to in her weakened state:

• Water Bullets (みづまり, Midzumari): Kukuri shoots a barrage of water drops at blitzing speeds. Not a particularly strong attack, but of simple and effective use.^[1]
  
• Water Spear (みづやり, Midzuyari): Kukuri gathers enough water to form a short spear that she shots at her opponent. Considerably stronger than the Water Bullets. Potent enough to easily tear apart Kiriha's Double Layered Shield Weave.^[2]
• Water Bulwark (みづがき, Midzugaki): Kukuri raises a torrent of water to serve as a sturdy protective barrier.^[3]
  • Frozen Water Bulwark (しむみづがき, Shimu Midzugaki): A more powerful version of the regular Bulwark. She lowers the water's temperature until it's frozen, further increasing its resistance.^[4]
• Water Mirage (みづかげろ, Midzukagerō): Kukuri forms a projection that allows her to dodge enemies' attacks and catch them by surprise.^[5]

• Minazuchi (水槌みなづち, Minadzuchi): One of Kukuri's most powerful attacks, it requires a chanting on Formal Language. Kukuri summons a massive flood from the heavens, crushing the target under a huge mass of water.^[6]
• Water Wheel (みづぐろま, Midzuguroma): Kukuri creates a wheel of water, which spins at high speeds and launches it at her target.^[7]
• Suzuro Mizuchi (すずろみづち, Suzuro Midzuchi): Another of Kukuri's most powerful moves, it also requires a chanting in Formal Language. Kukuri summons a giant water serpent that frontally attacks the opponent with extremely high speed and power.^[8] It might be even stronger than Minazuchi, as Honoka was impressed when revealed that Kazuya managed to block it.

Weakened State: Normal

Without the use of her Masks, Kukuri's weakened state presents her with a lot of limitations, like her Purification of Curse being more exhausting and lacking in effectiveness. She also becomes incapable of employing most of her more powerful techniques without being ridiculed to pathetic extents, with the tremendously powerful Minazuchi being reduced to a tiny water spray that would kill little more than a fly.

However, while her weakened state would suggest that she's in a vulnerable and helpless position, Kukuri still remains a formidable opponent that very few people could potentially defeat.

• 
  Water God Fist (水神拳すいじんけん, Suijinken): While most of her more advanced attacks become inaccessible for her, Kukuri's primal fighting style actually revolves around the use of a combination of her control over Water with an extremely refined level of martial arts. With this style, Kukuri "wears" her water as an empowering tool on her fists and feet, increasing her strength and speed enormously. She can also shoot this water through punches, similar to the Water Bullets but with a considerably higher potency, as she's launching them with her own fists. When making use of this fighting style, Kukuri's impacts are powerful enough to easily tear apart through flesh and bone indiscriminately, as most of her opponents would be torn to pieces without being given a chance to react.
  

She's an extremely skilled martial artist, with inhuman reflexes and mobility. During the Assassination Arc, Kukuri employed this combat style to defeat six Tsugumomo on her own, all of which wielded power comparable to an experienced Exorcist. After reading her, Mimane claimed that even eight of Mayoiga's Elites would be unable to defeat her in her current state.

• Water Needle (水針功すいしんこう, Suishinkō): Kukuri uses all her strength to shoot a powerful bullet of water towards her opponent, penetrating in a straight line at an inconceivable speed and destroying everything in its path.

Fully-powered State

When Kukuri is at full strength her fighting ability skyrockets to extraordinary levels, gaining access to all the techniques she would wear the Akujou Mask. Her combat style primarily revolves around the use of the Water God Fist as well, occasionally combining it with other large-scale attacks like Minazuchi as well. During this state, she becomes nearly unbeatable to the point she was able to swiftly and effortlessly defeat the Legendary Tsugumomo Miurahi who had a Stone Shard embedded inside his body. She was also able to quickly dispatch the corrupted Obi Tsugumomo Azami in a brief encounter, despite the latter having been strong enough to inflict fatal wounds on lesser Gods like Kaneyama. The only one that was able to give Kukuri an even fight when at full strength was the extraordinarily talented Exorcist Kanaka Kagami.

• Divine Water Fortress (水天陳すいてんじん, Sui Tenjin): One of Kukuri's most powerful moves. She extends a film of water until it contacts with a specific target, capturing and restraining his movements on that instant. The amount of distance she can extend it is seemingly limitless, but the bigger it is the more energy it consumes. Kukuri utilized this technique to serve as a barrier around Kamioka when it failed to capture Azami, which she left activated for many years in order to prevent her entrance.

• Water Moon Kannon (水月観音すいげつかんのん, Suigetsu Kannon): Kukuri's definitive technique and trump card. She covers her body with what resembles a water tunic, vastly increasing her combat ability. On this form, Kukuri was strong enough to overpower even Kanaka on their first encounter, with it being the only time on her life that the Exorcist was bested on the battlefield, and on their second encounter, it was required an extreme level of affinity between Kanaka and Azami to reach Ascension for her to finally be able to overpower this form.

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Freya - Huntsman -Snow Queen

Freya, also known as the Ice Queen, was the secondary antagonist and anti-hero of The Huntsman: Winter's War.

A powerful sorceress with the ability to manipulate ice and snow, Freya was the second-born daughter of an unnamed sorceress, the younger sister of Queen Ravenna and the older sister of Finn, the secret lover of the late Duke of Blackwood, and the mother of her late infant daughter and Sara's adoptive mother.

Although she seemed to be as cold, ruthless, and manipulative as her sister, Freya was also as much a victim of tragic circumstances as Ravenna had been, and showed in numerous instances that she still had retained some semblances of decency and compassion. Ultimately, she proved to be a sympathetic character, especially given how she helped Eric to destroy her evil sister once and for all. Though this act of redemption cost Freya her very life, her open rejoicing at seeing Eric and Sara reunited in love before she died was a testament of sorts to her never being truly evil, and that she had finally found peace in seeing the power of love conquer all.

Magic: Freya was born with latent magical abilities, which lay dormant for majority for her life. After the death of her daughter, Freya unleashed her long dormant powers in a state of agony. Transforming her eyes blue and her hair white. Her powers manifest as an icy blue in her eyes when using some of her powers such as casting illusions and astral projection. Within a short period of time, Freya emerged as a powerful and dangerous sorceress during her rise as the Queen of the North. Over the years, the strength and proficiency of her magic grew, allowing her to battle her sister and briefly weaken her.

• Cryokinesis: Freya has control over the elements of ice, frost, and snow. Even after gaining her magic, she was able to freeze the duke into an ice statue. She later took over the lands of the north and transformed the land into an icy landscape, casting it into an endless winter. When she approaches, she can lower the temperature of the area and create frost on all plants and trees as well as undo all of it when she leaves.
  • Cryokinetic illusions: Freya had the ability to cast illusions to make others see and hear what she desired them to. For instance, she made Eric believe that Sara was killed by showing him a vision of her dying through the ice-wall she had conjured to separate them. She did the same thing to Sara, letting her believe that Eric had abandoned her by showing her a vision of him running away.
  • Cryokinetic astral-projection: Freya had the ability to project her consciousness into an astral-form of a white owl outside her physical body. She accessed this ability by putting on an ice eye-mask shaped like owl feathers, and uses her astral-form mainly to spy on people.
  • Cryokinetic blast: Freya had the ability to release ice, snow, and cold on a specific target area, which serves as one of her primary means of defense and offense. For instance, when her powers were unleashed for the very first time, she killed the Duke of Blackwood by unleashing a powerful wave of cryokinetic energy that froze his entire being, and subsequently shattering it. Later on, she froze Sara's arm when she attempted to kill her.
  • Cryokinetic telekinesis: Freya was able to telekinetically move her ice statues during her chess game with Ravenna.
  • Cryokinetic transmutation: Freya had the ability to transform matter and objects, including living beings, into ice. In fact, as the Ice Queen of the North, she was infamous for transforming her victims into ice statues. During the final battle against Ravenna, Freya attempted to freeze her sister into becoming an ice statue and, though she was unsuccessful, Ravenna was still briefly distracted and somewhat weakened.
  • Cryokinetic construction: Freya had the ability to create objects out of ice, such as walls, slides, platforms, and shields. However, this ability appeared to require her to first accumulate the necessary strength for it, as demonstrated by the instance where she raised an ice-wall to separate Eric and Sara. In a state of extreme emotion (such as anger), she was able to conjure with ease, as seen by how she raised an immense ice-wall to block Ravenna's onslaught against her Huntsmen.
  • Cold immunity: Freya had the ability to be immune or invulnerable to cold. Though she often wore gowns that exposed her skin in her frozen kingdom, she suffered no ill effects from the extremely low temperatures, and she was also not visibly affected by her magical generation of ice and cold.

• Enhanced reflexes: Freya is able to react quickly, as she casually stopped Eric's knife attack, gripping his arm and freezing it. She later quickly froze Sara's sword before she could attack her.
• Resurrection (possibly): Freya was shown using the Magic Mirror to bring her older sister, Ravenna, back to life. However, it was never confirmed as to whether she truly possessed the power of resurrection itself, for it is unknown as to whether or not she could have successfully accomplished Ravenna's resurrection if Ravenna's spirit had not possessed the Mirror to begin with. It should also be noted that Freya herself was shocked by how Ravenna came back to life, as if she had not been expecting it at all, and that Ravenna (a far more experienced and knowledgeable sorceress) herself did not possess the power of resurrection.
• Immortality: Though it was also never confirmed, it is possible that Freya is immortal, with youth and beauty that are preserved through subconscious magic. This theory is plausible, given how Ravenna preserved her own youth and beauty through magical means despite having lived many lifetimes, and that Freya - who did not appear to possess any magical powers before her daughter died - had served as her sister's companion for those numerous lifetimes, and yet had never aged beyond her prime.
• 

Abilities

• Knowledge of the Magic Mirror: Freya was shown to have an extensive, thorough knowledge of the Magic Mirror. She once said the Mirror would enhance her powers to greater proportions, implying that she knew well how to utilize it to her best advantage. Later on, she showed that she was able to read the writings - which, when coupled with the legendary question of who the fairest one was, functioned as a resurrection spell - engraved around the Mirror. Through the Mirror, she was even able to exert a level of control over Ravenna, given how Ravenna was actually bound to answer her since she was the one who had summoned her from the Mirror. During the final battle against Ravenna, Freya was the one who froze the Mirror so it could be properly destroyed by Eric's axe, which shows her knowledge of it being her sister's one true weakness.
• Master tactician/Leader: Freya is a capable leader, having leader her own army and plan out her attacks flawlessly for many years. Freya is also an excellent chess player, skilled enough to beat her sister, Ravenna.
• Intimidation: Freya is very feared throughout her own kingdom, many dare not cross her in fear of becoming one of her ice sculptures.

As compared to the seductive and alluring Ravenna, Freya is a beautiful and kind-looking woman in her own right. Unlike her siblings, who both had blonde hair, Freya is brown-haired with grey eyes, but after her cryokinetic powers were unleashed, her hair turned silver-white, her eyes became light blue, and her complexion went as pale as snow. Her attire, though, is as elaborate as her sister's: gowns resembling metal or ice in shades of pale blue, white, and silver, along with a silver headdress resembling owl's feathers, which project an overall cold regal appearance reflecting her title of "Ice Queen".