Nokimi Mayutsubo

Nokimi Mayutsubo
Tenjho Tenge character
Nokimi Mayutsubo, from the manga.
First appearance	Volume 17, Page 49
Created by	Oh! great

Nokimi Mayutsubo (繭壺の君, Mayutsubo Nokimi ^?) is a character in the manga series Tenjho Tenge. She is a trusted Confidant of Sōhaku Kago.

Character outline

Despite having a different last name, Nokimi is a member of the Rikudou Family, which is a branch of the Kago Family. She seems to work for Sōhaku Kago and she is one of his trusted confidants; however, Jushi Mataza Tsumuji seems to indicate she is also important to the Executive Council’s plans as well.^[1] This theory is also supported by Hirohiko Myouun Kabane’s attempts to interact with her.

Nokimi is a very strange girl that appears to have an unusual attraction to insects particularly those she uses in association with her Dragon’s Gate. She calls them her beloved insects and doesn’t like anyone getting near the bag she carries them in. She claims to have plans of turning the school into a “pot of isolation”.

Techniques & Abilities

Whether or not Nokimi actually knows martial arts herself is unclear, but she is not weak either. The captain of the 5th Jujutsu Club, Hitomi Koumikawa, who was considered the “queen of sleeper holds”, yet Nokimi found being in a hold from her boring and thought it was weak. Despite that Nokimi doesn’t appear to be all that skilled of a fighter. Hirohiko even points this out, saying those she has taken over were the type who get needlessly worked up making them “suitable” opponents for Nokimi since they leave openings in their defenses.

Koushin Dragon's Gate

Nokimi’s insects in what appears to be a larval form.

Nokimi has the power of the Koushin Dragon’s Gate,^[2] which allows her to inject her ki into parasitic insects. There are two known kinds of these insects a queen and adolescents, and Nokimi's power seems dependent on the queen. She puts the insects into the bodies of others and afterwards she can control the host and make them exert an immense amount of power until the insect’s ki is exhausted. However it’s not hard to identify something is wrong with the host as their eyes are wide, and they tend to drool or have runny noses. Similarly they fight with poor form, and seemingly have no sense of pain. For example, Hitomi Koumikawa, is regarded as having the best form in the school yet fights with horrible form as she fights Kagesada Sugano; her form is so bad in the fight her strikes start to rip off her fingernails. This power has two known weaknesses. The first weakness is it leaves a string of ki that connects Nokimi to the insects. This string, if seen, could allow someone to follow this trail to her, and attack her much like Aya Natsume did. The second weakness is that if the queen dies all the adolescents might no longer be under Nokimi's control and could possibly die.

She typically carries some of the adolescent insects with her at all times, which come from the queen that lives inside of her body.^[3] They are stored in test tubes that are in turn stored in her bag. The insects appear to be in a larval form, much resembling worms; Nokimi even refers to those she takes over as a pupa which supports this idea. Once inside the body they seem to change into a caterpillar like form.^[4]

Nokimi may even be able to create illusions with bugs as she tricked Kagesada into confusing a praying mantis for a “god of death”. This may be an illusion unrelated to her gate however, much like the one Souichiro Nagi used to show Kōji Sagara the difference in their power.

Synopsis

Manga

Nokimi was never animated as the anime and OVA's didn't get that far into the storyline. She appears solely in the manga and rather late into it at that.

Tournament Arc

Nokimi attacks Hitomi.

Nokimi first appears after the second round of the tournament. Shinichirō Kurei points out that several teams have lost to opponents that should not have been able to beat them, which Kagesada also picks up on. This was a result of Nokimi’s interference. Nokimi assaults Hitomi and uses a box cutter to slice her across the stomach. In the initial struggle some of the test tubes Nokimi carries her parasitic insects in got shattered and she has them enter Hitomi through the wound in her stomach.

She encounters Kagesada as he attempts to run and hide, as the strange occurrences have freaked him out. He knocks over her bag and when he tries to pick it up for her she clutches it to her chest and insists he not touch it. Hitomi is with her at the time and Kagesada sees something is clearly wrong with her, Nokimi makes up a story, but Kagesada does not believe her. Nokimi references three people in Kagesada’s group have special powers and her goal is to “help” them by turning the school into a “pot of isolation”. She then says a “god of death” is at Kagesada’s back giving him an illusion of a skeletal monster with scythe-blades for hands is behind him. Turns out it was just a praying mantis, and Kagesada runs away confused.

After some inspiration so to speak from Bunshichi Tawara, Kagesada elects to stop running and fight. He steps up as the Advanced Guard for the Juken Club in their fight with the Jujutsu Club, and subsequently defeats the whole team except the captain. After the captain, Hitomi, arrives he fights her despite knowing she is enhanced. He doesn’t fair well, even getting his right arm broken at the elbow by Hitomi. Meanwhile Nokimi is up on the roof of the school listening to an mp3 player and telling her insects to spin the cog of fate. As Nokimi goes to look through a pair of binoculars, complaining the match is taking too long and her ki is running out, which would lead to her insects dying. She only notices Hirohiko is sitting there when he speaks to her, which causes her to reach for her insects. The test tubes are quickly sliced in half by Hirohiko, before she can do anything with them. She prepares her box cutter out of sight, but Hirohiko knows what she’s doing and says it’s pointless. She asks what he plans to do with her, but apparently he doesn’t plan to do anything. He then tells her she has made three mistakes. First her attempts to spin the cog of fate also work for the Takayanagi Family’s goal of bringing forth the ultimate warrior; thus they have no plans to interfere (himself included). Second she underestimated Aya’s Dragon’s Eye.

Aya picks up on a string of ki running from the insect to Nokimi and follows it to the roof. She comes across Nokimi and Hirohiko and goes to attack Nokimi. She is stopped however by Hirohiko who slices the floor out from under her, and warns her to back off. He then tells Nokimi her third mistake is being to naïve, and that although he doesn’t want to, he will function as the sword that protects her. Seeing that Hirohiko is protecting her, she becomes arrogant and tries to order him around. She commands Hirohiko to fight Aya, even suggesting he rape and kill her in the process. This irritates Hirohiko to the point that he uses his swords to shred her clothes leaving her naked, he also comments that Nokimi's words disgust him. As the fight progresses, Hirohiko begins to gain the upper hand. Nokimi is so excited by this that she starts to masturbate as she watches the bout.

As Aya forms an imitation Reiki using her hair, Hirohiko is concerned since the Reiki could easily slice through his dust-armor. Nokimi gets nervous as well since Hirohiko is her protector; she insists he make more flying blades to attack Aya with but Hirohiko claims that's impossible while forming his armor (later it's revealed he was bluffing). Hirohiko shatters the imitation Reiki, but Aya starts to disintegrate his dust armor also. The fight is interrupted by Souichiro before a final blow can be dealt by either side, and the entire Juken Club arrives on the roof. Kagesada managed to end his fight with the Jujitsu Club Captain in a double KO. Hirohiko decides he'll make up an excuse to give Mitsuomi, that since Aya gave him so much trouble he didn't want to try and take on the entire Juken Club. He stands by and does nothing, much to Nokimi's dismay, as she is held still and hit in the stomach so hard she coughs up her queen insect.

References

1. ^ Ōgure, Ito (2007-07-19) (in Japanese), Tenjho Tenge, 17, Shueisha, pp. 111, ISBN 9784088773056 
2. ^ Ōgure, Ito (2007-07-19) (in Japanese), Tenjho Tenge, 17, Shueisha, pp. 110, ISBN 9784088773056 
3. ^ Ōgure, Ito (2007-07-19) (in Japanese), Tenjho Tenge, 17, Shueisha, pp. 168, ISBN 9784088773056 
4. ^ Ōgure, Ito (2007-07-19) (in Japanese), Tenjho Tenge, 17, Shueisha, pp. 140, ISBN 9784088773056