Azami

Azami (薊) / Azami (アザミ) is a being who is known in legends as the Medusa. The wife of Tsukihiko, the mother of Shion Kozakura and the grandmother of Marry Kozakura. Long ago, she created the Kagerou Daze, the never-ending world, which was originally made for only her and her family to live in.

Azami is also the creator of the real world, which she unintentionally made with the Snake of Combining Eyes as a setting for her to be able to understand herself.

Centuries after entering the Kagerou Daze alone, Azami witnessed Shion and Marry's deaths by humans in the real world. She had them be taken into the Kagerou Daze to save their lives and gave Marry the Snake of Combining Eyes to allow her to return to the real world. This caused Azami to lose control of the Kagerou Daze, which continued her last command to swallow those who die on the same day Shion and Marry did, August 15th.

Appearance
Azami has very long, thick, curly black hair that she ties in a high ponytail with a long red ribbon. It reaches down past her hips and sometimes appears as snakes. The locks of hair she wears in front of each shoulder split into two locks that intertwine around each other. Her bangs are cut straight above her eyes, which are crimson red with elliptical, snake-like pupils. She has a youthful face with pale scales on each cheek.

Azami wears a white dress that ends below her knees with a black and red-accented coat over it. She wears what appears to be a black neckband and black shoes with black straps that intertwine up her legs.

Personality
Azami first explored the world with a strong curiosity to learn about who she is. As all the humans she met feared her, Azami spent a large majority of her life alone; she recalls loneliness being the first emotion she remembers feeling. Not any human nor creature she met could answer her questions about herself, and while some people worshiped her as a god, many persecuted her as a monster. The fear and despair from these experiences caused her feelings to manifest as the rest of her snakes and their abilities, which gave her powers that allowed her to protect herself from them. Because she is immortal, she thinks of humans as "dull creatures that die easily".

Despite trying to escape from humans for good, she eventually met and fell in love with a young albino soldier named Tsukihiko. He was the first human to not fear her and offer to help her for nothing in return. After he built her a house in a forest, he asked her to marry him. After having their child Shion Kozakura, Azami soon realized that she will outlive both new members of her family. This realization and her love for them caused her strongest wish to change from learning her own identity to being with her family forever. The Snake of Clearing Eyes, which feeds on her strongest wish and knew that it had changed, gave her a solution to create the Kagerou Daze, where time no longer passes.

In the Anime Route, after nearby villagers attack them, Azami concluded that she herself is a curse to her family and leaves to the Kagerou Daze without them. When Shion joins her after being killed, she blames herself for their unhappiness. She has shown kindness to others who have entered the Kagerou Daze afterwards, such as Tsubomi Kido, whom she even shed tears for after learning about how she ended there.

Eye Ability

 * Snakes: Azami's snakes and their abilities were born from her strong emotions and desires, and they allowed her to fight against humans who persecuted her. When she had the Snake of Combining Eyes, Azami was able to use the eye abilities of all of her snakes to an even greater degree of strength and control than even the most experienced members of the Mekakushi Dan and without suffering from any of the drawbacks that they have. While in the Kagerou Daze, she was able to use the abilities of snakes that she still had in her possession (such as Opening Eyes).

Songs
Main: Minor:
 * Shinigami Record
 * Outer Science
 * days
 * Kagerou Daze
 * Children Record
 * Konoha no Sekai Jijou
 * Losstime Memory
 * Ayano no Koufuku Riron

Trivia

 * Azami's favorite word is "xxx". In the fourth novel, she used this word in her diary entry, hinting as her ideal initial.
 * Azami uses "omae", a masculine pronoun, to refer to others in second person, yet she uses "watashi", a feminine pronoun, to refer to herself.
 * In the Children Record booklet, it is stated that Azami is seen in the song Kagerou Daze, assumed as the laughing heat.
 * Azami's birthday, August 15th, is the same day she commanded the Kagerou Daze to swallow her daughter and granddaughter.
 * Jin calls Azami a very irregular character or "the presence of the fantasy world".
 * Jin mentioned Azami's meaning in the language of flowers is "Independence", "Revenge" and "Do not touch". However, there also is the meaning "relief". He also mentioned the birthday flower for August 15th seems to be a sunflower, with the meaning, "I only have eyes for you."
 * While gorgon is the proper term for her species in mythology, Jin instead uses Medusa as the term instead.

Etymology

 * The name Azami means "thistle" or iris in depending of the context (薊).
 * Tsukihiko named her after the flower.

Quotes

 * "I was a fool... I refused to acknowledge the natural order, and what's worse, even tried to involve you two... Somewhere inside, I knew. I knew everything would go wrong because I was here. If I were gone, you two could be happy in this world. If only I hadn't wished for my own happiness. I... just wanted to dream for a little while. To dream a fantasy that I could live with my family. You were dear to me. More precious than anything..." - Azami to Shion Kozakura as she decides to enter the Heat Haze all by herself (Act 10: Kuusou Forest)
 * "How many more times will the three of us be able to greet summer together?" - Azami in her diary (カゲロウデイズ IV -the missing children-)