Sezuka

TL:DR

Sezuka is a spirit of a woman that Yoshitsune abandoned, currently unable to pass on because the spirit of Yoshitsune still transfers itself into the wielder of the sword. Doomed to haunt the wielder for the rest of her days until freed, she torments his descendants. Until recently, she had been a form of nightmare, a vision, but after that, she began to appear in the physical world, at least to those who also had a connection to the spiritual world. By Jim's time, he now has to worry about a spirit of a former ancestor's lover that is out for his blood, cannot die, but only be grievously injured and feel pain, and will not stop until justice has been made. How Jim solves the situation is up to him, but if he is not careful, she may decide for him.  Even then, she may try to force him into the same circumstances of her death, rather than have it quick and clean.

Winter literally follows her where she steps, and if she does appear in reality while in her demonic phase, it will cause freak snowstorms regardless of the location. She carries her own sword, The Lady Sorrow, and only individuals who have a connection to the spiritual world can interact with her, although Lady Sorrow is able to inflict physical harm upon those who can.

Jim still doesn't understand why this has been happening, nor why these visions have gotten much more vivid. He'll have to keep researching all of his grandfather's gatherings to figure out anything about this.

The Long Version, for context.

Sezuka is the daughter of Fujiwara no Hidehira. From the moment that Yoshitsune arrived at their estate to be fostered, the two were immediately good friends, largely due to their similarly witty and light-hearted personalities. They pulled many pranks on her brother, Fujiwara no Yasuhira, and spent more time in the forests playing around than in the palace.

One day, after Yoshitsune gained Usu-Midori and the powers that came with it, he went to show it to Sezuka, whom he assumed could be trusted despite the old crone's urges not to do so. Furthermore, the crone had insisted that if he intended to hand the sword to anyone, he must speak an incantation to "tell" the sword that it is in safe hands.

Being a boy, he had neglected this, and thus he handed her the blade without uttering the incantation. She took it, and all seemed well. However, after a minute, she fell unconscious, and ice formed around her. Somehow, due to Yoshitsune's connection to Usu-Midori, she gained powers, although rather than the ability to see into the past, it granted her the power to control the cold. Furthermore, it somehow caused a partial link of their consciences, occasionally leading them to hear, and occasionally speak into each other's thoughts and dreams.  In fact, their friendship quickly became romantic as they inadvertently learned of their feelings for each other, and garnered the ability to interact with each other via dreams.

While at first it appears to have not affected their personalities, as time progressed, both of them underwent significant changes in temperament, and to some extent mental stability, particularly in the case of Sezuka. Sezuka and Yoshitsune shared nightmares on a frequent basis, including many of which they foresaw their own deaths.  The visions caused Sezuka to become very attached to Yoshitsune, almost unhealthily so.

Eventually, Yoshitsune was forced to end their relationship, which had continued for a decade even after Yoshitsune had married and fathered a daughter with his wife. Sezuka, who had just given birth to their illegitimate son, became mentally unstable, and had taken to raving and occasional bouts of madness.

His news was the final straw: Sezuka retired to bed in a catatonic state, staring blankly at the ceiling and only able to nurse her son with the help of others. Her handmaidens shivered with cold every time they approached her to bathe and clothe her, and water froze at her touch. However, her mind was very much alive, and violent and painful apparitions haunted Yoshitsune for months afterwards.  After Yoshitsune had committed seppuku, her handmaidens saw her wander out of the house, towards the ocean, where she flung herself and her child off of a cliff.

While this would seem like it would have ended here, the story actually continues. Because Yoshitsune's daughter Manoko had touched the sword and gained its powers, the bond was reforged before Sezuka could die and finish it off. Manoko cried every night for a month, claiming that a scary frost woman was trying to kill her. The visions disappeared after that, but would return later in Manoko's life, very faintly.

This vision continues to haunt everyone who is awoken by Usu-Midori, although it has been traditionally faint, happening only once in a person's lifetime, to the point where it is sometimes written off as a coincidence. Conversely, some people are very affected, to the point where the visions are very realistic, and very disturbing. Jim's grandfather, Sonny, was wounded while fighting in Europe because he had been distracted by a frighteningly real hallucination of a woman able to freeze the ground around her, and failed to see the German soldiers behind her.

Sezuka And Jim:

The sword, as well as the visions, favor those who are most like Yoshitsune in personality and in skill, as the sword is able to detect these qualities. If the sword recognizes its master, it will attempt to forge the same bond it did with Yoshitsune, so as a result, direct pieces of Yoshitsune's personality and experiences are passed along to those who are activated by Usu-Midori. Unfortunately for them, Jim and Grandpa Sonny are the strongest of the Awakened Minamoto in very many years, even perhaps since Yoshitsune himself.

Sezuka's soul is, for lack of better terms, infused with the spirit of the sword, doomed to haunt the descendants of Yoshitsune until her soul is freed by the wielder Bound by a thirst for vengeance and grief, the only ways of doing so involve destroying the sword, convincing Sezuka to try and move on, and forcibly removing her via a spell.  However, the relevant incantations that would be required to do so haven't been known to the Tanaka/Minamoto since Yoshitsune himself. Destroying the sword is also nigh impossible, as it is forged from an unknown metallic alloy that is highly resistant to physical and environmental damage. So, either Jim needs to learn that incantation, or somehow convince Sezuka to lift the curse.

(OOC Powers-wise, she is completely invisible and not interactive to everyone but those who have spiritual abilities and powers, although she is very much there and able to kill him. )

At one point in her life, she was able to manipulate the cold directly, and voluntarily. The spirit of Sezuka, when it chooses to manifest itself in the physical world, can cause freak snow-storms in a small area within the vicinity of her haunt, as happened with a blizzard in July of 1944, where Grandpa Sonny had been fighting in Southern France.  However, while Sezuka can still use limited cold powers such as binding a target in ice, her powers have ultimately become involuntary and independent of anything within her control.

Her spirit also carries a sword, called Lady Sorrow, that belonged to her father in life. Somehow,  it has become part of the apparition, and is able to cause physical harm to the wielder of Usu-Midori. On the flip-side, Usu-Midori, and other items that can interact with the spirit world, can only cause her physical pain, because as is, her spirit cannot be truly destroyed by the sword. This is going to be something of a plot mover, as every time that Hindsight manages to win in combat, it's really just causing her to hate him more and become more pissed.

These confrontations wouldn’t happen very, however, and Jim hasn't had one yet. Much of Sezuka's modus operandi involves occupying the thoughts of her victim. As such, Jim is regularly tormented with visions of her, a grey, almost dead-looking woman with wet hair concealing fiery-red eyes. However, he has also been visited by her in her pre-death form, in which she appears as very beautiful, but obviously grief-stricken, although on one occasion, it was only to bait him to stop resisting her mental attacks. Typically, she accuses him of betraying her and leaving her to die, for example (although he's still yet to understand why, as he hasn't done all of the research yet.), and this is particularly obvious when she is in her demonic form. Her pre-death form appears to be more calm and diplomatic, although it's much rarer to see than the more unstable form.