Noriko Shindayū Inue

Noriko Shindayuu Inue (犬江 新太夫 典子) is a character in the manga series Tenjho Tenge. She is a member F.



Character outline
Noriko Shindayuu Inue is a woman with short black hair, despite her young appearance she is in fact centuries old. She has been kept alive and young by Sōhaku Kago, and she is one of his most loyal followers. Her appearance alters slightly later in the story as she is missing quite a few teeth.

She is often entrusted with Sōhaku’s experiments and seems to have a very possessive love (or adoration) towards him. This leads her to be highly protective of him, and vengeful to anyone who harms him in even a minor fashion. She is a member of F, and the head advisor of the Akabane Clan.

She tends to be very demanding, and has an elitist attitude. She does and says whatever she pleases to just about anyone with the exception of Sohaku, as she believes she is immune to reprocutions due to her power, the Dragon's Roar. For example she continuously refers Souichiro by his family's honorific name, Kengo; which irritates Souichiro usually making him attempt to assault her.

Shindayuu is a title given to Shinto priests, whether or not Shindayuu is in fact her middle name or just used to designate her as a Shinto priestess is unclear.

Manga
Noriko was never animated as the anime didn't proceed that far, she appears solely in the manga. It is revealed that the Takayanagi Family has historically been supported by the 12 founding families. Mitsuomi Takayanagi's takeover disturbed this setup, displacing most of the family heads. A new alliance has formed with the assistance of Sohaku, calling itself 'F'. Like the majority of F, Noriko holds allegiance to Sohaku as opposed to Mitsuomi.

Sohaku Arc
Noriko first appears after Sohaku had kidnapped Souichiro Nagi. After one of Souichiro's many attempts to escape, Noriko has conversation with Sohaku. Sohaku asks her if he will be ready for the tournament and Noriko insists she will make it happen. . She appears to be given the job of finding people for Souichiro to steal the powers of, and forcing him to fight them. Usually referring to the people he is forced to fight as meat and such. Some notable "meat" she fed Souichiro includes Katsumi Kabuto, and Shidzuru Kamura. As a result of these fights Souichiro learned to control his Demon Exorcist powers much more freely than before.

As Shidzuru is brought in to be fed to Souichiro she attempts to assault Sohaku. She drops three guards, and goes to kick Sohaku in the face but Noriko intervenes. Noriko takes control of Souichiro with her Dragon's Roar and forces him to punch Shidzuru, stealing her dragon in the process. As Shidzuru managed to barely touch Sohaku, Noriko forces her to ram her own knee into her face repeatedly as punishment.

She later meets with Mitsuomi in an attempt to add 24 people to the Enforcement Group's roster for Todou Academy's annual election tournament at Sohaku's request. Mitsuomi declines this even banning all currently unregistered students from competing. She compares Mitsuomi to the Emperor Kai of the Qin Dynasty in China; an emperor who lost all his power, and his life, as a result of his over-confidence. The implied threat irritates Mitsuomi, but Noriko continues to point out Mitsuomi's takeover of his family's estate was all thanks to Sohaku. Noriko even takes it a step futher as she powers her drink on his head, suggesting she will take Mitsuomi out of power and put his younger brother, Masataka Takayanagi, in his place. This greatly irritates Mitsuomi who insists Masataka is not to be involved, touched, even saying he wished he made it the foremost condition in the deal with Sohaku. As Mitsuomi stands up and points out he knows Sohaku's intentions, his anger is clear; yet Noriko continues to press him under the belief she can control Mitsuomi with her Dragon's Roar preventing him from assaulting her. Unfortunately for Noriko, Mitsuomi has mastered the art of Muukuuken, which uses repetition to take the brain and central nervous system out of the action of a punch; her power can't stop his punch as a result. The resulting punch severely damages Noriko's face, and knocks several teeth out. She then flees from Mitsuomi, controling Madoka Mawari and forcing her to attack Mitsuomi as a distraction.

After Mitsuomi allies with Maya Natsume, Madoka, and Souichiro to kill Sohaku. Sohaku is beheaded by Mitsuomi, and Souichiro still. She pokes out Souichiro's right eye, and it is implied she inserts Sohaku's in its place.

Historical Arc
As Aya Natsume uses her Dragon's Eye to witness events in Feudal Japan with the assitance of the Reiki, Noriko once again makes an appearance. After Sohaku is killed by Aya's ancestor, Noriko, with the assitance of Senihime's dog, gains possession of Sohaku's right eye. Sohaku can store his conciousness in his right eye, if it is inserted in the bodies of others he can take control of them. Noriko and Tetsuhito Kagiroi, attack Tokuan Shōjō, Honda Sadonokami Masanobu, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tetsuhito kills Tokugawa, and Noriko uses her powers to prevent Honda from moving and subsequenty crushes his testicles for betraying Sohaku. She then pokes out Tokuan's right eye and inserts Sohaku's in its place.

Powers


Noriko's power is that of the Dragon's Roar, it uses her words to control others. Her ki is sent through the vibrations of her voice, this can allow her to make a link with another person's brain and grant her immediate control. This power seems to be assisted by a tattoo or design on Noriko's tongue.

Possible Origins of Her Power
Strangely enough Noriko's Dragon's Roar appears to be a Red Feather Power, yet Inue is not one of the 12 founding families at all let alone the Red Feathers. It is possible she is a member of one of the 36 branch families, or that her power is the result of one of Sohaku's spells. For example Sohaku used an actupuncture spell, combined with Makiko Nagi's eye to give Sohaku access to all her powers. As a result a strange pattern appears all over Tetsuhito when he uses one of these Dragon's Gates. Similarly, Noriko's power seems to be assisted (possibly even created) by a tattoo/design on Noriko's tongue. It is also a possibility that her powers spawned from the Red Wing Resonance Effect, which is based on the concept that people with similar powers in proximity to each other can make the use of each other's powers easier, even awaken latent powers in others. The amplification of the RWR Effect is one of Sohaku's goals, in Feudal Japan the RWR Effect created one person with voice related powers for sure, but he was subsequently killed by Ichiyo Nagi.