Hyou Shoukun

Shoukun (薔君 Shōkun) was the wife of Kou Shouka, the biological mother of Kou Shuurei and the adoptive mother of Shi Seiran.

Appearance
Shoukun is a woman of legendary beauty compared to whom even the moonlight is said to incomparable.

Immortal
She is a tall woman with long and shiny dark crimson hair and light colored eyes. She has beautiful white skin with a pink tone as noted by Kou Shouka when they first met.

Human
She takes on the appearance of a White Daughter of the Hyou clan who is still a very beautiful fair-skinned woman with long and shiny jet black hair that is partially tied up in two loops behind her head and chocolate brown eyes.

Personality & Characteristics
Shoukun was known as a legendary beauty with a kind heart to match and taught Kou Shuurei how to make manjuu buns (though later discovering that Shuurei was a better cook than she was), how to pick tangerines from the trees, and how to behave like a lady.

Before living a human life with Kou Shouka, the Red Immortal was shown to be very prideful and short-tempered. She deeply loathed the humans for their arrogance but still could not bring herself to abandon them due to her kindness. After meeting Shouka, she became a lot more calm and composed in nature. Her personally changed to a more jolly and cheerful one once Shuurei was born, and many remember Shoukun as a very kind person.

Plot
When Shoukun first descended in human world as the Red Immortal, she found a young boy on the street who was injured, whom she healed out of pity. The Yellow Immortal, as Dr You, warned her not to become too involved with humans and brought up a prophecy made by the Blue Immortal, which suggested that either Shoukun, himself  or the Purple Immortal would get into some sort of trouble. Angered by his remark, she left the human world.

Years later she felt a human calling out for her. So she descended to the human world only to find that boy she once saved now a grown man, who lured her into a trap and captured her and forced her into a living human vessel. The man was the previous head of the Hyou family - the father of Ruka and Riou - and kept her imprisoned to make use of her powers. She remained with the Hyou clan for almost two centuries, even after Ruka took control of the clan. She eventually became known as the "Rose Princess" according to the Blue Immortal's prophecy. Upon meeting her, Ruka's brother, Riou, who was a White Child, instantly fell in love with her and became motivated to find ways to please her, though the only thing she liked about him was his erhu playing. He eventually worked with Ruka to kill his father and became the next head of the clan as well as the "Rose Princess' master" who locked her away from the world.

As she was considered a threat by emperor Shi Senka, he sent his personal elite assassin group called the Wolves of the Wind to claim her life. However, they failed and died at the hands of the Assassin Dolls. The previous Black Wolf immediately died after returning from her mission. Devastated at her death, Kou Shouka under the alias Kaito, succeeded her and swore revenge as he blamed the Rose Princess for her death. His first meeting with the Immortal made him interested in her and eventually free her as a retribution on behalf of all humans for the crime of imprisoning her. His noble reason for freeing her greatly moved the Red Immortal's heart. As she lost a lot of her powers after freeing Shouka and herself from the clan's domain, she decided to allow Shouka to look after her until she fully recovered. She lived with him and her attendant Shusui for a year in Kiyou. During this time, she and Shouka slowly fell in love with each other. However, the Rose Princess couldn't return his feelings knowing that if she were to live with him, one day he will die leaving her to roam this world all alone for eternity. Instead she urged him to marry another woman so that she could continue to watch over his descendants for years to come. However, Shouka refused to give up on her. After some time and difficulty, she returned his feelings. They eventually get married. Soon after their marriage, Shoukun gave birth to a daughter, surprising both Shouka and herself as it was considered to be impossible for a child to be born from the union of an Immortal and a human. She was named Kou Shuurei.

However, because Shoukun had the body of a Hyou clan member, Shuurei's body could not survive outside of the Hyou clan's pure environment and she was constantly sick. When it became apparent that Shuurei would die from high fever in her early childhood, Shoukun revealed to Shouka her plan to save their daughter: she would enter Shuurei's body, using her as a vessel so that her powers would sustain Shuurei's life. As the city's purity could keep her healthy, she instructed him not to let Shuurei leave Kiyou unless she chose to. Before entering Shuurei's body, Shoukun finally told her husband that he had made her happy and that even if she were to reawaken and wander the world alone for the rest of eternity, she would not regret loving him and giving up her life for the miraculous child born of their love. Soon afterward, she left her vessel and entered Shuurei's body and entered a deep slumber, not to awaken until the day Shuurei died.

She gave the name 'Seiran' to the boy she and Shouka found lying in the snow when the family traveled to Kiyou. The name meant 'Silent Orchid', and was given because the boy that they found never said a word and was presumed to be a mute. She grew very close to both Shuurei and Seiran, and encouraged Seiran to smile all the time to make Shuurei happy. Seiran promised at Shokun's deathbed that he would protect Shuurei until Shuurei could walk her own path. Shoukun was perhaps the only person Seiran regarded as a mother figure, and her death devastated him. From time to time, he would visit her tomb on a hill facing the city. He also visited the tombstone alone before he left for Sa province to guard Shuurei and Eigetsu.

Though the process that Shoukun uses to become dormant is similar to what the White Immortal Byakuya does for Eigetsu, the Red Immortal is stated to be dead by the other Immortals at the end of the series. It is uncertain why this is the case, though it is suggested that it was the result of the process.

Etymology

 * Hyou means "light blue" (縹).
 * Shoukun means "rose" (薔) (shou) and "I, me" (君) (kun).
 * Shoukun is similar to Bara-hime in a sense, as Shoukun is composed of one half of the kanji for rose (薔薇 bara) and kun (君 -kun), which is a Japanese honorific, much like Bara-hime (姫 -hime) is.

Trivia

 * Shoukun is not the Red Immortal's real name and her real name is only known to Kou Shouka and to the other Immortals, but it wasn't revealed.