Abilities

[awakenedchaos]

Because I should probably write this down somewhere.

Combat abilities

• Overall, Nu can pretty much be described as a glass canon. She's fragile - in Calamity Trigger, she's tied with Ragna for the character with the second lowest HP - but on the other hand, her offense is insane. She's also relatively quick, so fights with her can be a little troublesome for close-range fighters. It sort of comes down to a game of tag, in a way.
• Nu's fighting style varies depending on her distance from the enemy. For close-range fighting, she relies on kicks and the blades on her arms to attack, as well as her eight floating swords. For an example, just watch this video until 0:56 or so.
• For long-range combat, she relies on the Drive ability provided by her Murakumo unit - Sword Summoner. It does exactly what it says on the tin; that is, it summons swords out of nowhere, which she launches at her opponent with simple hand motions. If you'd like to see that ability in action, look no further than here. It's her primary means of offense. The swords dissipate into seithr after flying a certain distance, or a little bit after hitting their target.
  
  • While her Azure Grimoire is active, her Drive allows her to summon swords in pairs, rather than one at a time.
• She also has access to several more unique attacks that use her Drive ability.
  • The first of these is Gravity Shield, which allows her to summon a small energy field at a distance - either right in front of her, a little distance away or far away from her. Stepping on this field causes a person's walking speed to slow to a snail's pace. If, for some reason, they're above the field (either because they jumped or because they were knocked into the air), they'll slowly hover down to the ground.
  • The second attack is Sickle Storm, which is essentially a sawblade variation of her normal blades that spins along the ground. And that's just about it. It's... not that fancy, really.
  • The third one is Spike Chaser. Spike Chaser causes a row of spike-like blades to shoot out of the ground in front of Nu. If hit, they launch a person into the air. This is only usable while on the ground, naturally. The exact range of these blades varies a little; normally, they only cover a small area in front of her, but at the cost of a slight delay in summoning them, they can cover a much longer distance.
    
    • When used while her Azure Grimoire is active, Spike Chaser will always cover a longer distance, with no additional delay while summoning the blades.
  • Then there's Crescent Saber. I'll let the video speak for itself here. It's noteworthy that it can be used as a feint - even if Nu does the motion necessary for the attack, she doesn't necessarily have to summon the accompanying blade. This one's only usable in the air, although even a small jump off the ground is enough to give her a chance to use it.
  • Aside from these four, there are three more moves she can use, though they require a bit more effort. These are her Distortion Drives and her Astral Heat.
    • Her first Distortion Drive is known as Calamity Sword. When using it, she summons a giant sword and... well, drops it on the ground in front of her. When used in mid-air, she hovers while using it, and the sword won't hit the ground.
      • If used while her Azure Grimoire is active, the attack drops four giant swords instead of one, covering a much larger range.
    • Her second Distortion Drive is known as Legacy Edge. To activate it, Nu summons what looks like a portal, which then launches about 20 of her drive blades in a straight line.
      
      • If used while her Azure Grimoire is active, the portal launches a much larger number of blades - up to 35, though generally at least a few of them will miss
    • Finally, there's her Astral Heat, Sword of Destruction. In order to use it, Nu needs to grab the enemy. She then proceeds to stun them, then summons a giant sword from yet another portal. If it hits, it's safe to say that it'll likely be fatal. However, she can't use this at just any time - in-game, she has to weaken her opponent significantly first. In Luceti, it's more of a desperation attack, and will leave her fatigued after using it.
• Aside from these, Nu has one more ability - Act Parser. It's a short-range teleport that can only be used after some of her attacks, namely all of her ground Drive attacks and most of the ones involving her normal swords. Using this allows her to teleport either forward or backward a small distance.
  
  • As of Continuum Shift, we know that she has access to three more variations of this particular ability, collectively known as Act Parser Zwei. What exactly they do depends on which variation she uses.
    • Act Parser Zwei itself is essentially Act Parser, except it's limited to forward movements. It also leaves her more open than the original Act Parser. This particular variation is often followed with a grab, as seen in the video.
    • Act Parser Zwei: Blade (the first hit seen in the video) is a forward teleport followed by a low-hitting tackle once Nu reappears. This is generally used as a means to catch her opponent off-guard, or to get them away from her.
    • Act Parser Zwei: Cavalier (the second hit seen in the video) is a forward teleport followed by a spinning tackle. This not only means that she can cut at her opponent using the eight blades at her back, but if this attack connects, it also sends her opponent flying into the air. This is often either used to get her opponent away, or as a setup for an aerial follow-up.

Other abilities

• Nu's Azure Grimoire, aside from amplifying her Drive when consciously activated, has the passive effect of granting her a healing factor. This allows her to recover much faster from most injuries than a normal person would, and makes it much more difficult to keep her down during a battle. In Luceti, it heals as a much slower rate, but it's still faster than the average human.
  • Outside of the barrier, however, this healing factor is not limited, making it much more troublesome to fight her. In addition, and this is important, without a power cap to limit it, the Azure Grimoire will absorb life force from its surroundings to fuel itself and the aforementioned healing factor. This shouldn't be a problem most of the time, as it would take more than a week for the effect on an individual to be noticeable, but individuals who spend a lot of time near her during multiple drafts (or simply a particularly long one, should that happen) may begin to feel drained eventually as a result.
• Lastly, all of the Murakumos appear to possess some sort of natural ability to create a bolt of light from their body that slams into whatever is threatening them at the time. This doesn't necessarily have to be done consciously - Nu is shown seemingly intentionally using it against Jin, but on the other hand, we have Noel, who does so unintentionally against Arakune twice in one of Calamity Trigger's story path. The bolt of light seems to be extremely painful, severely injuring Arakune and Jin when it is used against them. This seems to be something of an emergency ability, though, as it only seems to be used against particularly tenacious opponents (like Jin) or if the Murakumo somehow panics (as seen during Noel's encounter with Arakune).

Filial magic (Luceti only)

• In Luceti, like many others, Nu has contacted some of the Filial spirits over time. This gives her access to a few additional abilities she doesn't have in canon, thanks to the spirits' magic. Spirits not listed below are ones she either hasn't contacted, or ones that refuse to teach her for one reason or another.
  • Eferin - Fire magic. First attempt at contact made in December 2009/cycle year 3.
    • Eferin was the first Filial spirit Nu attempted to contact. Initially, his magic was supposed to serve as a way to deal with Jin's ice-based attacks, as a precaution in case he attempted to attack her again. Though their personalities mostly clash, the more destructive aspects of Nu's personality combined with her old habit of spending a lot of time in the forest eventually led to him allowing her to learn from him.
    • Somehow, his magic ended up being used for much more... mundane things than initially expected. Though the intended use for it was to combat ice-based attacks, Nu more frequently uses it to simply keep herself warm by creating heat, or to light things.
    • In combat, she's figured out how to incorporate it with her Drive for the sake of strengthening her attacks a little, but this is something she generally only uses against more troublesome opponents, or under circumstances where fire magic would give her an advantage.
  • Hyt - Light magic. First attempt at contact made in January 2010/cycle year 3.
    • Hyt was the second Filial spirit Nu attempted to contact, this time not for the sake of self-defense, but simply as a way to occupy herself. Thanks to her own affinity to light, she had a somewhat easier time hearing the spirit, and though it took some time, Hyt was eventually willing to allow her to learn how to use light magic.
    • Nu has spent a lot of time practicing Hyt's magic. and as such, is relatively proficient with it. Primarily, it serves as a somewhat mundane utility, as her main use for it nowadays is making use of illusions to prevent things like blood stains from being visible temporarily,  or to demonstrate what something looks like (say, by creation the illusions of an object or person). Maintaining illusions is draining, however, and the more complicated it is, the shorter the time she can maintain it. Other mundane uses include lighting up the area (temporarily through a burst of light, or permanently but to a lesser extent by amplifying the light in a small area) or increasing the amount of shade in a certain spot temporarily.
    • In combat, she makes use of short bursts of light to temporarily stun her opponent - this is generally done if she needs a moment to activate her armor. Her other use for Hyt's magic is creating illusory blades to accompany those she summons to throw her opponent off-guard, but this is exhausting and thus only used if she absolutely needs to distract her opponent somehow if she wishes to hit them.
  • Kipinn - Wind magic. First attempt at contact made in March 2010/cycle year 3.
    • Kipinn was initially contacted when Nu temporarily went to the mountains rather than the forest following February 2010's experiment. Contacting him was a practical way to pass time, and he proved to be rather willing to teach her.
    • Her primary use for Kipinn's magic is muting sounds. Combined with a concealment ars, this allows her to hide her presence very well if she wishes to go unnoticed. Alternatively, it's also a pretty nice way to simply have a moment of silence.
    • In combat, Nu mainly uses for three things: accelerating the speed of her blades, increasing her own movement speed a little, or to augment the illusory blades created using Hyt's magic by replicating the sound created when her normal blades appear. As with the other types of Filial magic, she generally prefers not to make use of any of these most of the time, however. Especially that last one - though it makes the illusions more believable, both creating sounds and illusions is tiring, and thus it's not something she does often.
  • Tsinku - Lightning magic. First attempt at contact made in March 2010/cycle year 3.
    • Tsinku, like Eferin, was contacted as a means of self-defense of sorts - during her first month, Nu had been struck by lightning (thanks to Nami), and so it seemed logical to try to find a way to prevent a repeat of such an event. It took some time, but eventually, he allowed her to learn from him. Her partially machine-like nature and resulting patience likely helped.
    • Tsinku's lightning magic is used almost solely for combat; specifically, like Eferin's magic, Nu has learned to combine it with her Drive to strengthen her attacks. In this case, it's by creating lightning on the surface of one of the blades, the general intention behind this being to stun the opponent and prevent them from guarding against whatever may follow next. It's effective, but draining, since the lightning uses her own energy. Naturally, it's also used to redirect other lightning-based attacks... when it's actually possible and she's aware of the attack targeting her, anyway.