Tenkai Zuifeng

瑞風（ずいふぉん） 天堺（てんかい） Tenkai Zuifeng zɯᵝiɸõ̞n tẽ̞ŋka̠i
Tenkai Zuifeng in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle, wearing their everyday outfit
Character Titles
One of the Old Dictators Flying Melon of Terror (As Tenkai [Melon])
Information
Species	Human
Abilities	Producing barriers
Music Themes
顕界オーバーホール (RMI) 決壊オーバーフロー (BPoHC)
Appearances
Reactivate Majestical Imperial Extra Stage Boss Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle Prologue Playable Character Possible Final Boss (Stages 6:4) Possible Extra Midboss

Tenkai Zuifeng (瑞風　天堺, Zuifon Tenkai) is an apprentice barrier builder at the barrier shop, "Azumaterasu". They're also Tsurubami Senri's ally and the Extra Stage boss of Reactivate Majestical Imperial, as well as a playable character (and possible final boss) of Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle.

General Information

Tenkai is a descendant of a particularly famous barrier builder, and has a lot of acquaintances, both human and otherwise, across all Mugenri, including the Senri Shrine. Despite their lack of experience and notable achievements, they're known as a prodigy. Tenkai is the right hand person of Tsurubami Senri and, similarly to them, are feared across Mugenri as an iron-fisted dictator.

Personality

Tenkai is a straightforward, often snarky person. They are quick to point out someone else's flaws to make jokes at their expense. They're very knowledgeable about the state of Mugenri and have been shown to research previous incidents thoroughly. As they were Tsurubami's second-in-command, they're rather stern and believe that Mugenri's balance was easier to keep in check through force. Despite this, they've been shown to be willing to forgive wrongdoings, such as letting the Dragonfly Army off without pursuing it if they were to withdraw.

Abilities

Manipulating barriers

Tenkai has the versatile ability to build barriers, which are typically shown in-game as inverted areas in space. They've shown various uses of it, such as teleporting bullets in their attacks, setting a barrier within speech or making one synchronized with their memories in a futile attempt to overcome Suzumi Kuzu's ability. They're also capable of repairing barriers to some extent, as shown in Reactivate Majestical Imperial's Extra Stage. However, they're not nearly as good at repairing as they are at building barriers, especially when it comes to those made by other people.

Background Information

Origin

Tenkai is loosely based on the Buddhist monk "Tenkai" (天海), who was famously an advisor to the shogun "Tokugawa Ieyasu" (徳川家康), as well as the two shogun that came after. This relationship with Ieyasu is referenced in Tenkai's relationship with Tsurubami Senri, the former dictator of Mugenri, as well as Yabusame Houlen and Tsubakura Enraku, Tsurubami's successors. Other than this, the relationship between Tenkai and the monk is mostly in name.

Name

Their full name is Tenkai Zuifeng (瑞風　天堺, Zuifon Tenkai). The kanji in their given name contains ten (天) that means "heaven" and kai (堺), an old-fashioned way to say "border". Their name might be based on "Tenkai" (天海), a Japanese Tendai Buddhist monk of the Azuchi-Momoyama and early Edo periods, whose first Buddhist name was "Zuifū" (随風).

The kanji in their surname Zuifeng (瑞風) literally means "rising wind". The spelling that ends in "feng" is pronounced the Mandarin Chinese way, whereas in Japanese it would be pronounced as "Zuifon". The reason for this is because Tenkai is related to the Chinese Ideology of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements (陰陽五行思想). A possible connection is that "Wind" (風) is considered to be a part of "Wood" (木) in the Feng Shui (風水) and Chinese Medicine (中醫) branches of the ideology, as well as in some older iterations of it. Another possible connection is that barriers (結界) in Feng Shui utilises the ideology of the Five Elements to set up.

Tenkai is often nicknamed "Melon" (メロン) due to their general appearance, especially by Sukune Katano and Sese Kitsugai. Despite it being their favourite food, this generally annoys them.

Design

Tenkai has bright orange hair and eyes. They have separate outfits for work and daily life. The former, seen in their boss appearances, has them in a short, plain green robe with white edges, a yellow mantle with various glyphs on its long sleeves, light brown shorts, red leg wraps and yellow and green shoes. They also wear a long, blue scarf with white ends and a black hairband (a red and black one in Reactivate Majestical Imperial), which is seemingly based on traditional Japanese rounded roof tiles (丸瓦, marugawara), possibly the nokimarugawara (軒丸瓦) specifically, commonly found on roofs at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine. Their casual outfit is rather similar in design, albeit with some differences - Tenkai's robe has a more elaborate design and goes down to their knees, their mantle has frills and is tied in the front with a red ribbon, they wear zori instead of their usual shoes and ditch the blue scarf.

Their clothing often leads to being likened to a Yubari King melon in-universe (which, perhaps not so coincidentally, is also Tenkai's favorite food). Hilariously, Tenkai's Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle boss art shows the kanji for yubari (夕張) inscribed on their left sleeve, as seen here.

Appearances

Reactivate Majestical Imperial

Tenkai in RMI

After a berserk Lumen Celeritas absorbed moonlight by accident during Earthen Miraculous Sword and weakened the Mugenri Barrier, Tenkai was tasked to repair it by Jinbei shortly after the incident. However, they neglected to do so, indirectly leading to this game's events as the soul-eating flower Harujion sprouted in Mugenri and started to absorb spirits from the Outside World that came from the hole in the barrier. This resulted in the birth of the chimera soul Shion and a long winter in Mugenri.

Despite Shion's defeat, the warmth didn't return to Mugenri. Jinbei recognized that the cause is the hole in the barrier, so the protagonists go to chastise Tenkai, who's currently repairing it at their masters' request. By the time the heroes arrive, the barrier builder's work is almost done. Tenkai challenges the substitute priests to a fight in order to test their strength and is eventually defeated.

Tenkai in BPoHC as a Boss, wearing their work uniform

Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle

Tenkai is worried about the upcoming war between the Dragonfly Army and the Imperials. They go to warn Yabusame and Tsubakura about it, but the two were already gone. On the way to the shrine, Tenkai encounters Sukune Katano and Sese Kitsugai, who were plotting revenge on Yabusame and Tsubakura, and now they want Tenkai to help them. The barrier builder finds themself dragged by the two youkai around Mugenri, as they find out more about the war and what caused it.

In all routes, it's revealed that Tsurubami and Tenkai were either feared, hated or respected due to being the dictators of Mugenri and their immense power. Tenkai starts to realize how much Tsurubami's decision to leave for the Outside World has affected Mugenri. At the end of the Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle routes, Tenkai is asked to be the new ruler, but Tenkai declines, saying that their loyalty lies with Tsurubami. In the end, they meet Suzumi Kuzu, the one responsible for the words about the "The mirror of Heaven shall split" in order to lure Tsubakura. Suzumi reveals their intention to make Tsubakura's life a living hell and after a hard fight, Suzumi erases their memories again (with Tenkai being the only one who vaguely remembers).

Relationships

Tsurubami Senri

Tenkai already knew Tsurubami before the start of their conquest of Mugenri. They helped each other on multiple occasions, including resolving incidents together, and they bonded as fellow outside-worlders. In addition, Tenkai's family has ties with the Senri Shrine, which could be the reason for them becoming acquainted. As Tenkai knew Tsurubami for a long time and was close enough to them to be considered their right-hand person, they were similarly feared across Mugenri. They hold Tsurubami in extremely high esteem and miss the adventures they departed on together. Tenkai believes Tsurubami's approach of using force to unify the people had merit, and that Mugenri has gotten lonelier without them around.

It's unknown what exactly Tsurubami thinks of Tenkai, but they call them by their last name, Zuifeng, as a sign of their special relationship and because they like the sound of it. In addition, they both have the ability to turn monochrome based on the same principle and have similar spell cards with a crane motif. It appears that Tenkai is also the only one who knows the real reason why Tsurubami left Mugenri.

Their superiors

Tenkai appears to not get along particularly well with their superiors, as they often put Tenkai to work on barrier upkeep not just in order to train them, but to damage their reputation as well. As they've given them the task of fixing the Mugenri Barrier, Tenkai is fed up with them and ended up altering the barrier in a small way in order to get back at them. The results of this have yet to be revealed.

Jinbei

The Zuifeng clan and the Senri Shrine had known each other for generations, which includes being acquainted with Jinbei. However, thanks to their relationship with Tsurubami, Tenkai knows Jinbei personally. Jinbei asked Tenkai to repair the Mugenri Barrier in person shortly after Lumen damaged it. They chide Tenkai as soon as they meet in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle's prologue, but Tenkai doesn't seem to particularly mind it.

Sukune Katano & Sese Kitsugai

Sukune and Sese rope Tenkai into their treasure hunt in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle. Unlike most others, they don't fear Tenkai - Sukune knows of Tenkai's lineage, while Sese simply doesn't know much about them.. Tenkai considers the two a nuisance, but still expresses concern for them and goes along with their whims because it reminds them of their adventures with Tsurubami.

Adagumo no Saragimaru

Tenkai taught Saragimaru the sealing ritual for the Tasouken. Saragimaru dislikes Tenkai due to their slyness and because Tenkai scammed them into paying a high amount of money for the ritual.

Tsubakura Enraku & Yabusame Houlen

Tenkai is stern with the substitute priests, as they believe the two can't maintain peace as well as Tsurubami could. However, they're still keeping an eye on their growth, as Tsurubami also had difficulties starting out, and they share small gifts with them.

Haiji Senri

Haiji is Tsurubami's biggest fan. Tenkai considers them a hindrance.

Yago Amestsukana

It is implied that Tenkai and Yago know each other, but the details of their relationship remain unclear. Tenkai considers Yago only "technically" an important God, due to Yago's casual demenor. Even so, they appear to be shocked when Yago says they want to retire.

Clause?

While not confirmed, when asked about Tenkai's relationship with Clause, JynX dodged the question much more strongly than usual, implying that there's a link between the two. There are a scant few subtle connections between the two lending credence to theories about the subject:

• Clause cuts in while the Preschool Team's discussing Tenkai's origins in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle and Tenkai appears surprised for an unknown reason.
• Clause believes that words hold an innate power, while Tenkai has been shown to use barriers to exert influence through speech.
• The color schemes of the two's outfits are close to being inversions of each other, which is also carried over to Rei's YouTube account - the colors in the videos with their themes are likewise inversions of each other, and the two are the only characters to have unique patterns on their silhouettes instead of solid colors.
• The intro to "Present World Overhaul" sounds similar to a phrase from "Empire Power ~ Big Star" (starting at around 28 seconds). JynX dodged a question regarding the similarity.

Additional Information

• A large amount of Tenkai's spell cards make reference to Nikkō Tōshō-gū, where Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried and enshrined as Tōshō Daigongen (東照大権現) or Azumaterasu (東照大神), in which the latter is the namesake of Tenkai's workplace.

One of Tenkai's options from BPoHC.

• Tenkai's shot options are identical to the "guri pattern" found on the inverted pillar of the Yomeimon Gate at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū. The same pattern is also referenced in the spell name Inverted Pillar "Guri Carving".
• JynX made a reference to the "Trumpet Boy" meme with Tenkai's theme "Present World Overhaul". Coincidentally, Tenkai's theme was already a big meme in the fan community.

Gallery

• 

  A rough sketch of Tenkai [Melon] used as a teaser for May Update of BotC

Official Profiles

Official profiles

Reactivate Majestical Imperial - Official Profiles

○EX面ボス　古き独裁者の片割れ 　　瑞風 天堺（ずいふぉん　てんかい） 　　Zuifeng Tenkai 　　種族:ヒト 　　能力:結界を造る的な能力 　　結界屋「アズマテラス」の見習い結界師。 　　高名な結界師の血をひいているらしく、 　　まだ未熟ながらも数々の業績を残し、その才華を証明している。 　　仕事柄、顔が広く様々な種族に知り合いがいるのだが、 　　その中でも先代神主とは因縁があるらしく、 　　闡裡神社代々の式神であるジンベイとも良く知った仲らしい。 　　結界を造るのが得意である一方、結界を直すのはてんで苦手で、 　　特に他人が造った結界にはほとんど歯が立たないという。 　　そのためか、師匠や先輩から弱点克服の修行（という面目の嫌がらせ） 　　の為にと、よく結界修繕の仕事をまわされる。 　　今回はどっかの馬鹿な偉人がぶっ壊しかけた 　　"内側"の結界の一部を直す、っという大仕事を 　　何故か単独で任され、いい加減に嫌気が差してきている。 　　だが、破壊されかけた結界の一部は丁度自分が担っていた 　　ものでもあるので、繕い直すのは容易いものであったが、 　　今回はその結界にちょっとした悪戯を仕組んでみた。 　　生兵法は大怪我の基・・・ 　　それは天堺なりの小さな反抗であったのであろうが、 　　それが後に大事となり、 　　師匠にこっぴどく怒られるのであるのだが・・・ 　　それはまた別の話。

◯ Extra Stage Boss — One of the Old Dictators Tenkai Zuifeng Species: Human Ability: Something like producing barriers They are a apprentice barrier builder at the barrier shop "Azumaterasu". It is said that their blood descends from a particularly famous barrier builder, and despite being inexperienced, they have a number of notable achievements, proving their talent. Thanks to their job, they have a large circle of acquaintances from various races, but seemed to be particularly close with the last Senri Priest, They are also familiar with Jinbei, who has been the Senri Shrine's shikigami for many generations. While building barriers is their strong point, they are extremely bad at repairing them, to the point where repairing those made by another person is almost completely beyond them. Because of that, their teachers and superiors often give them barrier repairing jobs "as training to overcome this weakness," they claim. (When it is in reality to attack their prestige.) For some reason, they left Tenkai a great job to be done by themself this time. The job was to fix a part of the "inner" barrier that a certain idiot hero from somewhere broke. This made Tenkai fed up with their superiors. However, the broken section of the barrier happened to be within the area they were in charge of, so it would be an easy fix, but they had the idea of arranging a very small prank on the barrier this time. A little learning can be a dangerous thing... Will this be considered slight insubordination on Tenkai's part? Or will it become something much greater and cause their teachers to become severely mad with them...? That is another story.

Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle - Official Profiles

古き独裁者の片割れ 瑞風　天堺 Zuifeng Tenkai ●種族 ヒト ●能力 結界を造る 　　　　的な能力 結界屋「アズマテラス」の見習い結界師。 以前は前・闡裡神社神主の闡裡鶴喰と共に无現里を支配し、 独裁者の片腕として活躍していた。 一部の者にとっては恐怖の象徴であり、 また一部の者からはその功績を評価されている。 今回は休暇中だったので、 現・闡裡神社神主達の様子を見に神社に寄ったのだが、 そこで今回の戦乱に巻き込まれることになった。

One of the Old Dictators Tenkai Zuifeng ●Species: Human ●Abilities: Something like producing barriers An apprentice barrier builder at the barrier shop "Azumaterasu". They used to rule over Mugenri alongside the old Senri Shrine priest, Tsurubami Senri, acting as the dictator's right-hand person. To some people, they are a symbol of fear, whereas others hold their achievements in great esteem. Since today was their day off, they decided to go to the Senri Shrine to see how the current priests were doing, but then they got dragged into the ongoing war.

Spell Cards

Spell Cards

Name	Translated	Comments	Games	Stage
Total: 11
陽明「日暮ノ門」	Youmei "Higurashi-no-mon"		RMI	St. Ex
「龍頭牌」	"Dragon Head Tiles"		RMI	St. Ex
「弾幕結界【不堪】」	"Danmaku Barrier [Incompetent]"		RMI BPoHC	St. Ex St. 6: H/U
逆柱「グリ紋」	Inverted Pillar "Guri Carving"		RMI BPoHC	St. Ex St. 6: H/U
境斬「三池の刀」	Border Slash "Blade of Miike"		RMI	St. Ex
元牌「次元削除」	Origin Card "Dimensional Deletion"	Flash bomb	RMI BPoHC	St. Ex Use
閉目「眠り猫」	Closed Eyes "Nemuri-Neko"	The Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle upgrade is simply titled Nemuri-Neko (眠り猫).	RMI BPoHC BPoHC	St. Ex St. 6: E/N Upgrade
三猿「世は穢れ、全てを閉ざせ」	Three Monkeys "The World is Impure; Shut Everything Out"		RMI	St. Ex
「黒衣の宰相」	"Prime Minister in Black Robes"	Bomb	RMI BPoHC BPoHC	St. Ex St. 6: E/N/H/U Use
「番いの鶴」	"The Twin Cranes"		RMI BPoHC	St. Ex St. 6: E/N/H/U
「十二の柱の二本の逆柱」	"Reversed Second Pillar Among the Twelve"		BPoHC	St. 6: E/N
平穏「東西廻廊の雀」	Calm "Sparrow in the East-West Corridor"		BPoHC	St. 6: H/U
「弾幕結界【古拙】」	"Danmaku Barrier [Quaint Artlessness]"		BPoHC	St. 6: E/N
飛間「スライドバリア」	Flight Space "Slide Barrier"		BPoHC	St. 6: E/N
叩界「断裂ハンマー」	Border Strike "Rupturing Hammer"		BPoHC	St. 6: H/U
四神断界	Four Gods' Interstice		BPoHC	Upgrade
強化決死結界	Strengthened Desperation Barrier		BPoHC	Upgrade
夕張「メロンバリア」	Yubari "Melon Barrier"	As Tenkai [Melon]	BotC	Use
甜瓜「メーロペポーン」	Oriental Melon "Melopepon"	〃; Bomb (BotC)	BotC	Use
マスクド・メロン	Masked Melon	〃; Flash bomb (BotC)	BotC	Use
メロンはおいしい	Melons are Tasty!	〃	BotC	Inherent Trait

Notes

Official Sources

Official sources

• 2014/10/09 Reactivate Majestical Imperial - Official Profiles, Extra Stage Boss
• 2016/12/01 Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle - Official Profiles, Prologue, Preschool Team scenarios, Possible Final Boss