Article#13 : Mystia Lorelei, Wonder of the Night Sparrow
ミスティア・ãƒãƒ¼ãƒ¬ãƒ©ã‚¤
[size=12]Mystia Lorelei [/h]
Age : Unknown, but implied to be young
Species : Night Sparrow
Personalities : Egocentric
Abilities : Confusion song, night-blindness
Occupation : Grilled lamprey vendor, tricking humans into getting lost.
First Appearance : Imperishable Night ( Touhou 8.0 )
Mystia is a little Night Sparrow with an egocentric personality - at least she sounds arrogant - that enjoys infusing confusion and terror into the hearts of humans using her ability: a song that creates confusion in those who hear her. Her song seems to attract nearby monsters as well. She roams a road near the Human Village that Keine tries to protect, in search of humans to frighten. She is indeed feared by the locals as people around her become blinded by darkness.
During the events of
Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Mystia aimlessly wanders around singing, hoping to catch and eat humans attracted by the flowers. Instead, she attracts (or rather, annoys) the other protagonists and ends up fighting each in turn.
[size=15]Perfect Memento[/h]
- Main place of activity :
Night Road
- There are relatively many youkai who use songs or cries to make humans lose their way at a dark night road or an empty forest. Mystia is undoubtedly one of them.
- Without a source in sight, a singing voice from nowhere in particular can be heard, and while one is taken by that voice they lose their way and are attacked by youkai.
- She is not often seen at noon and there are few witness reports, but it is said that she is a humanoid youkai with large wings.
- Mystia's songs are unexpectedly vibrant, and have an energy that would not normally be expected from youkai.
- Because of this, she is popular amongst the young people.
- On the other hand, amongst the elder song youkai, they say, "
The young youkai lately are just loud and sing senseless songs, it's such an annoyance, it's nothing but noise."
- She also possesses an ability to make humans night-blind as well as luring them with song.
- If one continues to follow the faint light and song on a night road, they will most likely be attacked by this youkai.
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Eyewitness Reports
- "I thought that the Prismriver Ensemble hired some vocals, but when I went closer nothing good came of it." (Anonymous)
Comment : Unlike the Prismrivers, her friendliness towards humans is considerably bad. Even if you hear a singing voice, you should not approach out of curiosity.
- "While walking along an animal trail, I saw a single red lantern food cart. Wondering what it was I went closer, turns out it was the night sparrow's cart." (Boozer Rokusuke)
Comment : There are rumours that she has started a food cart. Perhaps youkai also become bored from time to time.
- "That's definitely not a night sparrow!" (Anonymous)
Comment : I think so too.
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Countermeasures
- The only time anyone is affected by this song is when they are walking alone.
- If walking in pairs, the person who becomes confused by the song can be brought back to reality by the other person who is yet to be affected, so attacks are very rare.
- The countermeasure would be to not walk alone at night.
- This is not just limited to this youkai, but is the most basic form of protection against other youkai.
- Then, how does one deal with becoming night-blind ? Eating lamprey is good for that. Eat it everyday, and your eyes will gradually improve.
- What must one do to exterminate this youkai ?
- Since there is little chance of winning at night, you must resort to doing it during the day, but since she hides during the day that is not a simple thing to accomplish.
- The most effective extermination method is to set up a trap in the evening, and if you find that she is caught in the trap by morning, extermination follows from there.
- If you do not regularly exterminate this kind of youkai, they will eventually appear at human villages, so make sure to exterminate them once in a while.
Bunbunmaru Trivia
# Mystia's self-confidence makes her one of the only enemies that attacks as a midboss but does not run away to recover when defeated the first time, while another character who also does not run away after defeat is Yuugi Hoshiguma. Instead, Mystia immediately launches into another attack, firmly believing that she will win.
# The "Lorelei" part of her name most likely is a reference to a German poem about the siren Lorelei, that also had a mesmerizing song.
# Even though the "ti" part of "Mystia" is supposed to be 「ティã€, many fans have found it more convenient to represent it by 「ã¡ã€ (pronounced "chi") instead. Thus, Mystia's name is commonly abbreviated 「ã¿ã™ã¡ãƒ¼ã€ or 「ã¿ã™ã¡ã€ ("misuchi" or perhaps "Misty") instead, which has become a nickname of sorts.
# Even though her songs are meant to scare and confuse humans, in many fan works she is depicted happily singing with a graceful voice, sometimes viewed with a microphone. It is also common to find her alongside the Prismriver Sisters in fan works, where the four makes up a band in which she serves as the main singer.
# In fan works, she is often seen with other lower level, childish characters such as Cirno, Rumia, and Wriggle, making up Team 9.
# She gets "eaten" by Yuyuko of the Ghost team in Imperishable Night's story mode, making her a popular "joke character" as she's usually pictured as food (
lol and
lol). Even ZUN mocks her in his spell card comments.
# She hates Yakitori (grilled chicken on sticks) because she is a kind of bird. So she started a grilled lamprey stand instead of a Yakitori stand. (It was believed that lampreys had eight eyes and are able to cure night blindness.) She uses this as part of a con-act: she will travel with her stand at night, use her power to make unwary travelers night-blind, then sell them grilled lamprey, and slowly remove the effect as they eat it, claiming that the lamprey was what cured them.
# Mystia is also apparently a skillful cook, since even Aya concedes that her grilled lampreys taste good. In many fanworks, her stand is also very popular with people, especially heavy eaters like Suika, Yukari and Yuyuko.
# From
Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Mystia says that she cannot read the tiny letters on the newspaper. Aya takes this as Mystia admitting that she cannot read.