So, okay, okay, in tactics we've got this naming system -- human names youkai, youkai is bound to serve human. It's not that unusual in terms of folklore; various mythologies work on the idea that someone's name is power, and I've read at least one where a man named a succubus-type creature and made her his wife and just came short of dying before he released her.

But what happens if a youkai recieves two different names from two different people? It's brought up in the manga version of the tanuki story -- instead of Youko being captured by the tanuki ringmaster, it's Haruka. When Kantarou shows up to set him free, he asks if Haruka has been named. And that's sort of a weird thing to ask, because he IS already named; does this mean a second contract would be established, either voiding or superceding the previous one? (This I find highly unlikely, because then it would make it so very easy for Raikou the Psycho to just rename Haruka, break the contract, and go -- though certainly Raikou's motives appear rather different in the manga.) I mean, also in the manga, we know that Haruka had a previous master, and one who did give him orders (Rather Questionable ones too, haha) and there's at least ONE scene where we see her in brief flashback, saying part of a name.

And even Sugino brings it up, when he's introduced: "I've missed you, Onikui~~~~~ or not that, your name was ... eeerm, it was so long ago I forget~~"

Haruka: "Ahh, it's nothing ... my name is different now." [...] "My current name is 'Haruka'."

However, he remembers nothing of how he was sealed, or the circumstances leading up to it; the only thing he remembers about his former master is "that woman betrayed me" -- and given how this woman seems to be the special sort of obsessive-crazy (what do you call stalking your ex over a thousand years, when he's, yanno, been sealed in a giant rock for most of that time?), it seems entirely possible that "Haruka" was sealed still bearing his previous name. Also, the nue, Tsugumi, was a youkai who apparently betrayed her former master (also of the Minamoto clan? I cannot remember |D), but Raikou is (was!) her current master, but there is no shown direct conflict between her two masters, like the potential exists for Haruka.

Does the fact that Haruka doesn't remember it have any bearing on the compulsion to obey? Maybe it's a matter of seniority of name-bond, though unless there is an actual direct confrontation with "Fuji," it's hard to say. >_>

... I should get back to work, even if the websites are down, huh. _o_
So, Master Mao.

SHE IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.

Man, I'm going to have such a conflict when I get Hildegarde. D: Because I have no idea how I'm going to give up my American Ninja OR my Drunken Master Cat for the Chubby Goth Loli Heroine.

WOE.
.

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