Tsurue Horiuchi

Tsurue Horiuchi (Japanese: kanji 堀内鶴え, hiragana ほりうちつるえ) is the protagonist of The Tale of the Crane Princess. She is introduced as a teenaged shopkeeper who runs a small general store and cafe on the island of Ōmishima, in the Seto Inland Sea just north of Shikoku. As the story progresses, she is found to be a "hidden" kami, the enshrined spirit of Ōhōri Tsuruhime (Japanese: 大祝鶴姫, 1526–1543), a one-time Shintō chief priestess of the Ōyamazumi Shrine, and warleader of the people of Ōmishima who was known for driving off the invading forces of Ōuchi Yoshitaka by leading a nighttime boat-borne attack against Ōuchi's fleet.

The only problem being, the only historical record of this feat is recorded in a Japanese novel written in 1966. Only in Timeline 1287 Left Sub 6 does an actual manifestation of Tsuruhime's spirit appear in the town she ostensibly defended in the 16th Century. As Tsuruhime-no-kami (Japanese: 鶴姫の神), she is enshrined as the protector kami of the island.

Tsuruhime no kami attends the Mishima Suigun Tsuruhime Festival.

She has lived in the town since 1966, making her true age in 2215 either 689 years or 249 years, depending on whether it is counted from her "real" claimed birthdate of 1 Jan 1526, or from 1 Jan 1966, the year the novel was published and she manifested. The island and its people appear to be an "anchor" for her, and she cannot leave the island without fading away. Indeed, during The Plague (the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 viral epidemic, which in this timeline killed 90% of the Earth's population), the resulting depopulation of the island also would have resulted in her fading away completely, had not she been able to hide with her armor in the Ōyamazumi Shrine treasure house.

A feature of her manifestation is that she is thought to have always lived in the town, having been raised by foster parents who told her she came to them with the name "Tsurue", or "crane", apparently a shortened form of "Tsuruhime", or "crane princess". It is unclear whether the surname "Horiuchi" was that of her supposed foster parents or that of her supposed birth parents, but apparently it serves only as a quasi-reminder of her original surname "Ōhōri". She possesses official documents proving she is who she is, and proving she owns the building occupied by her shop and that she has a legal business there. It is also unclear if she ever knew who she was really supposed to be until Yamaguchi Yukiko and Higashikuni Mikoko showed up at her shop one day in 2215 and, through a series of events, awakened her to her true identity.

In March 2119 she meets Higashikuni Akira (son of Yamaguchi Yukiko) who is the Captain of the Imabari Company, JIDF Hiroshima Regiment which is currently encamped on the east side of the island awaiting a movement to secure the town of Imabari in Shikoku proper. Akira is a widower with four children who has always had a soft spot (or, let's be frank, a crush) on the legendary Tsuruhime since reading about her as a teenager. Akira, understanding she is limited to living on Ōmishima due to the way she was created as a kami, provides her with the same antithanatic nanos everyone in his family has, which render her sufficiently human to be able to finally leave the island and travel around the country. They are married shortly thereafter.

(Still working on this)

Children

1. Yukio (m), born 11 Jan 2221 – Kanji 雪生 – means something like "living snow".  He was born in the winter, after all.  And it's a nod to his grandmother's name 雪子, of course.
2. Noboyuki (m), born in mid to late 2222 (信幸, Joyous Faith).
3. Miyuki (f), born in mid to late 2224 (心幸, Joyous Heart).
4. Masayuki (m), born in October 2226 (勝幸, Joyous Victory).
5. (not yet born but on the way as of the fall of 2228 -- end of The Tale of the Crane Princess)

The children after Yukio are not named after their grandmother, but the kanji meaning "Joyous" (or happiness, good fortune, luck) 幸 is read in these cases with the same pronunciation as the kanji for snow (雪).