"Farsighted Sentry"
Momiji Inubashiri
Species: White Wolf Tengu
Ability: Able to see anything in range of 1000 ri (approx 2,440 miles)

Story: A mountain tengu whose duty is to patrol the outskirts of the Youkai Mountai. With the outbreak of the black fragment incident across Gensokyo, naturally it piqued the interest of certain youkai looking to expand their own power and influence, namely the tengu. As a tengu who can see far distances, this naturally makes Momiji perfect for scouting out these so-called fragments, so she was ordered by her superiors to locate the positions of these fragments so that the tengu could claim them for themselves. Of course, given Momiji's long-standing bitter rivalry with Aya, who is also looking for the fragments, Momiji hopes to get to them first in order to prove her worth to her superiors.

Momiji is another one of those characters who I've been wanting to make for some time, but did not appear in any of the official Touhou fighting game spinoffs. Unlike most characters, Momiji has had very few appearances and the majority of information about her comes primarily from the print works, so there was a bit of flexibility to take some creative liberties in terms of her style. Due to each character in Incident Zero having their own Unique Skill or Drive, I immediately knew off the bat that I wanted Momiji to have some kind of mechanic involving her shield; of course, I knew that I couldn't give her a parry or she would end up too similar to Youmu, so I opted to give her a Melty Blood-esque shield mechanic instead. I also wanted to her be more of a rekka-styled character in comparison to Youmu, so I designed the majority of her moves to have some kind of follow-ups to give her a different kind of rushdown gameplay.

Screenshots:



Moves:

Specials:

• Wolf Fang Blade - //
  A rushing move where Momiji thrusts her sword forward. Moves her different distances based on button press, and has different followups on hit or block.
  
• Wolf Fang Blade ~ Repel - // (During Wolf Fang Blade)
  The first of two followups to Wolf Fang Blade. Momiji swings her sword in an arc to push the opponent away, and causes a wallbounce on hit.
  
• Wolf Fang Blade ~ Bite - // (During Wolf Fang Blade)
  The second of two followups to Wolf Fang Blade. Momiji does an overhead swing with her sword to cause a groundbounce on hit. Has slower startup of the two follow-ups and deals less damage, but opens up more combo potential.
  
• Falling Leaf - //
  An overhead leaping strike with Momiji's sword. On block, the move has a different follow-up chain depending on which version is used, with the first hit of each followup being a slow shield bash that breaks the opponent's guard.
  
• Scarring Autumn Wind - //
  Momiji's projectile move, which travels across the ground. The hitbox isn't very tall, so it can easily be jumped over, but is more useful for applying pressure on an opponent to assist in her rushdown.
  

Unique Skill:

• Maple Vanguard -
  Places Momiji in a guarding state with her shield. The shield can continue to be held, but drains Momiji's Power gauge in the process. Upon successfully guarding an attack with her shield, the recovery animation can be cancelled into one of her Specials or Spellcards.
  

Spellcards:

• Sword Sign "Wind Tornado Fang" - , //
  Momiji's primary combo ender, she rushes forward with a thrust of her sword, before performing a spin attack upwards.
  
• Dog Sign "Rabies Bite" - , //
  Momiji's command grab super, helpful for breaking past an opponent's defenses, but requires her to be up close.
  

Last Word: