Takenaka Hanbei

Takenaka Hanbei (竹中半兵衛) is an onmyōji who is part of the Oda clan. She previously held position as a master strategist in the Mino province under Saitou Dousan, but aligned with the Oda, and swore loyalty to Sagara Yoshiharu after Saitou Yoshitatsu declared war against his father.

She is considered a brilliant tactician, and was known and feared among other strategists such as Niwa Nagahide and Akechi Mitsuhide. That with her powers in ommyoudou make her a force to be reckoned with. She defeated all others who tried to outwit her in battle, and only came to the Oda clan after being saved by Yoshiharu, Mitsuhide, Inuchiyo and Goemon, and becoming friends with Yoshiharu. She is based on the real-life historical figure of the same name.

Her seiyuu in the anime is Ogura Yui.

Appearance
Hanbei is petite, and somewhat child-like in appearance. Her appearance would make one assume she is very young, even though her age isn't revealed. She has large hazel eyes, and medium-length silver hair tied up at two sides. She wears what looks like a small, turquoise, sleeveless yukata, with two poofy armwarmers, and fingerless gloves. A white sleeveless top covers her yukata, with a bright blue bow tied on the left. She also has waraji, which she wears with tabi.

Personality
Despite being one of the most, if not the most, powerful characters in the series, with her magical abilities, and genius intellect, Hanbei is very shy, and usually timid around strangers. When she first meets Yoshiharu and Nagamasa, the first thing she says is, "please don't be mean to me," but she becomes comfortable with Yoshiharu later on.

Despite this however, Hanbei can be a great leader, and very easily gives orders. She is very decisive, and is always the first to come up with a plan, or figure out the enemy's strategy. Due to her nervousness around people, she usually has her "double," Zenki, relay her orders, but she will give them in person without a problem if the situation calls for it.

Like Yoshiharu, Hanbei prefers to avoid bloodshed in any way, and will always try to defeat her enemies by causing minimal damage. When the Oda clan tries to capture her, she defeats them by causing minimal causalities, but demoralizes them at the same time. Hanbei will however, abandon this attitude, and respond with great wrath to someone who harms or threatens Yoshiharu, as shown with Danjo.

Because of her frail body, Hanbei is aware of her short lifespan and has developed the belief that even should she die the world will remain unchanged, so as a result she does not have any dreams of her own. However, in place of dreams, she has a strong sense of righteousness and a strong ideology, and it is this which ultimately draws her to the overly righteous Yoshiharu. Ultimately, she does end up developing feelings she can't explain towards him and creates her dream: to make him shine and protect him forever. This is the source of her undying loyalty.

Background
Hanbei was reportedly bullied rather frequently in the past which led to her timid and isolating personality.

Her parents died young, the closest thing she has ever had to a family is her uncle, Takenaka Shigetora, whom most refer to as Ando.

Invasion of Mino Arc
Hanbei is first mentioned by Saitou Dousan and Sagara Yoshiharu during the meeting to bring down Inabayama Castle, where she and Kuroda Kanbei are referred to as the two greatest of the current Japan's strategists.

Later, as she was to officially move to Inabayama Castle and become Saitou Yoshitatsu's underling, she held an event in a local shot to recruit some retainers for herself, which both Sagara Yoshiharu and Azai Nagamasa took advantage of to try and convince her to join their respective sides. Ando leads Yoshiharu, Inuchiyo and Nagamasa to Hanbei's room and she has Zenki take her place to speak with them. After Zenki's prank angers Inuchiyo and she stabs him with her spear, the illusions he cast subside and reveal the real Hanbei Takenaka.

Skills and Abilities
Hanbei is a near perfect strategist and has been compared to the infamous Zhuge Liang himself, one of the most gifted strategists in Chinese history who was even acknowledged by the equally famous Sima Yi after pulling off what is perhaps one of the most impressive stunts in history for strategists: he faked faking his own death so his men could pretend it was a trap and escape. Merely being compared to that man is enough for most to acknowledge Hanbei's ability. She is familiar with many of Zhuge Liang's strategies, including the Stone Sentinel Maze, a dangerous trap which causes the enemy to become trapped between the 8 Gates, an Onmyouji theory where if one passes into two specific gates they die, typically by drowning, one of the two is fittingly called the Gate of Death.

As an Onmyouji she is also very powerful, she initially had access to several spirits, Zenki, her most powerful spirit and her substitute, was also an incredibly powerful Onmyouji himself before he died, and he is so powerful in fact that his mere presence can crush weaker spirits. However, in order to prevent others from abusing this power and to invite the new Era of technology, Hanbei sealed the Dragon Veins, the source of her power, and ultimately, due to the loss of energy, her already weak body is dying and she can only barely support the summoning of Zenki. She has now entered a state in which she cannot survive for very long without a powerful magical object to support her. Upon receiving the sacred wood, her body recovered and she was taken to a hotspring with the rest of the Sagara Corps to rest.

Shikigami:


 * Zenki - a powerful spirit who was in his past life also a very powerful Onmyouji himself. He assumes the form of a fox, following the loss of Hanbei's power and his subsequent final battle with Ukita Naoie, Zenki has returned to heaven and is no longer a spirit of Hanbei's.


 * Gouki - Hanbei's second named spirit, he is powerful and fiercely protective of her. He assumes the form of a wolf


 * Twelve Heavenly Guards
 * Snake
 * Phoenix


 * Rikogu


 * Kouchin


 * The Azure Dragon


 * Bourgeoisie


 * Night


 * Day


 * Genbu, the Black Tortoise


 * Great Couture


 * Shirotora


 * Great Sky


 * Spellcraft
 * Using her shikigami Hanbei is capable of a number of spells, on one occasion she held off an entire army of men using fire arrows by forming pillars of water to block them.