| “ | Scott: "Yukimura is Japanese, right?" Ken: "Yes, but I'm actually Korean. When my wife and I married, I took her name, as she was the only surviving member of her family." Noshiko: "[...] We were married in Japan, where the law says that the couple must share the same name. To belong to the same koseki." Ken: "My wife's lineage is quite unique. I was actually going to discuss it in class." Kira: "Please, don't." Noshiko: "Kira, you should be proud of your heritage." Ken: "It was a profound honor to join your mother's family." |
” |
The Yukimura Family is a Japanese and Korean-American family who live in Beacon Hills, California and who were a major family in the Teen Wolf series in Season 3, Season 4, and Season 5.
The family has been implied to be predominantly Kitsune, a type of spiritual fox-based shapeshifter, and it seems to have existed for millennia, as the oldest living member of the bloodline, Noshiko Yukimura, is approximately nine hundred years old. However, thanks to Ken Yukimura marrying into the family, the Yukimuras now have a human member as well.
History[]
The earliest known history of the Yukimura Family began in the 11th century, when Noshiko Yukimura was born. She presumably gained the ability to take a human form in the 12th century after one hundred years of life and lived in Japan for much of her life.
At some point in the late 19th or early 20th century, Noshiko moved to the United States of America, where she settled in what became Beacon Hills, California. However, in the 1940s, Noshiko was one of many Japanese immigrants who were forced into internment camps as a result of a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment following the Pearl Harbor bombings. Noshiko ended up at the Oak Creek internment camp, where she made friends with Satomi Ito, who was eventually revealed to be a bitten Werewolf, and began a secret romantic relationship with one of the MP medics running the camp, Corporal Rhys. In spite of the dismal conditions of the camp, Noshiko used her Kitsune powers to steal food and other necessary supplies so that her fellow internees could be taken care of as best as they could.
However, a riot broke out at the camp when it was revealed that one of the doctors and two of the MPs were selling critical medications such as morphine and antibiotics on the black market, which had resulted in a number of deaths caused by untreated pneumonia. This riot caused dozens of internees to be shot and killed, including Noshiko, who only survived due to her accelerated healing power. Devastated by the deaths of her friends and innocent bystanders, Noshiko prayed to her Kitsune ancestors for kitsune-tsuki, or possession by a fox spirit, hoping that she would be possessed by a Nogitsune, also known as a Void Kitsune, a type of fox spirit who feeds on chaos, strife, and pain. Unfortunately, since fox spirits, and especially Void Kitsune, tend to have dark senses of humor, the Nogitsune possessed the body of the deceased Corporal Rhys, who had died from his burns caused by being hit with a Molotov cocktail.
By the time the slowly-healing Noshiko made it back to the camp, the Nogitsune she had summoned had gone on a killing spree, massacring both the internees and the camp employees alike. Horrified, Noshiko teamed up with Satomi and slayed the Nogitsune's vessel with her katana, which shattered from the force of expelling the Nogitsune's spirit from Rhys' body. She then trapped the Nogitsune in its fly form in a jar and buried it in the roots of the Nemeton in hopes of trapping it forever.
Noshiko apparently went back to Japan after fleeing the internment camp, still traumatized by everything that happened at Camp Oak Creek and furious that it was covered up by the US government. Several decades later, Noshiko met Ken Yukimura while the latter was studying history at a university there. Since Ken's specialty was World War II and the Japanese internment, he and Noshiko grew very close; Noshiko eventually revealed her nature as a Celestial Kitsune, and the two bonded over their mutual interest in history, making Noshiko a source of information for Ken's studies. They eventually married, and, since Noshiko was the only remaining member of her Kitsune bloodline, Ken decided to take Noshiko's name in honor of her heritage, particularly due to the fact that Japanese law dictated that a married couple share the same name and belong to the same koseki.
The Yukimura family then grew in the 1990s when they gave birth to a daughter, Kira, who seemingly inherited traits from both of her parents; she inherited her appearance and her Thunder Kitsune nature from her mother, and inherited a human form from her father. The three lived in New York City for years, where Ken taught history at Columbia University. However, when a surrogate sacrifice ritual performed by Allison Argent, Scott McCall, and Stiles Stilinski to save their parents in Beacon Hills caused the Nogitsune to be released from its prison in the roots of the Nemeton, Noshiko uprooted his family and moved them back to her former hometown so that she could slay it once and for all.
While Ken and Noshiko still seemingly reside in Beacon Hills, Kira has since moved to Shiprock, New Mexico to train with the Skinwalkers there and learn to control her unbalanced Kitsune powers. Though Kira and Noshiko are the only surviving members of the Yukimura Family, there appear to be a number of Kitsune ancestors whose spirits can be called upon in times of need, implying that they may reside in some other dimension, such as the afterlife or some realm specifically for Kitsune.
Known Members[]
Noshiko Yukimura[]
Celestial Kitsune; alive
Noshiko is the oldest living Yukimura, having lived for around nine centuries as a Celestial Kitsune, and she is the wife of Ken Yukimura and the mother of Kira Yukimura. She presumably took on a human form after at least one hundred years of life, as is the case with typical Kitsune. Throughout her life, she has lived in Japan and the United States, and she was a Japanese internee at the Camp Oak Creek internment camp in Beacon Hills, California during World War II.
During her time in the camp, she was nearly killed after being shot a dozen times by the military police when a riot broke out following the revelation that some of the MPs had been selling medications on the black market, causing several internees to die of pneumonia due to not having the antibiotics they needed to fight it. Afterward, a furious Noshiko prayed to her countless Kitsune ancestors in hopes of them sending a Nogitsune, also known as a Void Kitsune, to possess her and both heal her severe injuries as well as give her the strength to defeat the MPs who caused so much harm to those she loves.
However, the Nogitsune has a dark sense of humor and decided to possess her dead lover, Corporal Rhys, instead, using his body to cause chaos, strife, and pain. When the Nogitsune went on to kill dozens of internees and camp employees, Noshiko had no choice but to slay the Nogitsune's new body, once again killing Rhys and exorcising the Void Kitsune spirit from it, allowing her to catch the Nogitsune, who had reverted to his fly form, in a jar that she buried in the roots of the very powerful Nemeton. She then left Beacon Hills for several decades, not returning until autumn of 2011, when she learned that the Nogitsune had been inadvertently freed from its cage due to the Nemeton being given power due to Allison Argent, Scott McCall, and Stiles Stilinski's surrogate sacrifice ritual.
Sometime after her time at Oak Creek, Noshiko returned to Japan and met Ken Yukimura, then a history student at a university whose specialty was World War II, causing the two to bond over their shared interests. They eventually married, with Ken taking her name, and the two went on to have a daughter named Kira Yukimura in the mid-1990s. After returning to her hometown in late 2011, Noshiko was forced to admit to her daughter that they were both Kitsune in addition to her history with the Nogitsune. Though this secret caused tension between them at first, it ultimately led their relationship to become stronger.
Ken Yukimura[]
Human; alive
Ken is a human history professor at Beacon Hills High School and is the husband of Noshiko Yukimura and the father of Kira Yukimura. He met his wife while studying history for graduate school in Japan, where the two bonded over their passion for history regarding World War two and eventually married each other; Ken took his wife's last name to honor her unique lineage and became obsessed with learning more about Kitsune after the revelation that Noshiko was an ancient one.
Following the birth of their daughter Kira in the mid-1990s, the family settled in New York City, where Ken taught history at the Ivy League school Columbia University until 2011, when Noshiko uprooted Ken and Kira and moved them back to Beacon Hills, California, where Ken was hired as a history teacher at the high school. When the family had no choice but to reveal Kira's Kitsune heritage to her as a result of the release of the Nogitsune from its cage, Ken acted as a calming support system, tempering Noshiko's more aggressive methods and encouraging Kira to go to her new pack for help. However, like Noshiko, he believed that there was no other way to defeat the Nogitsune except to kill Stiles Stilinski, the Nogitsune's newest host, though he admitted that he was wrong when it became clear that Stiles could still be saved.
After the Nogitsune's defeat, Ken acted as an ally to the McCall Pack through the Deadpool, the Dread Doctors' reign of terror and that of the Doctors' Chimeras, assisting them however he could in order to keep them safe. He supported Kira in her pursuit of a way to learn to control her inner Kitsune spirit, which had become unbalanced due to the Dread Doctors' manipulations. Ken still apparently lives in Beacon Hills with Noshiko while Kira is in Shiprock, New Mexico to train with the Skinwalkers.
Kira Yukimura[]
Thunder Kitsune; alive
Kira is a Thunder Kitsune and the daughter of the ancient Celestial Kitsune Noshiko and the human Ken Yukimura. She believed herself to be just an ordinary girl until her family moved to Beacon Hills, California in the fall of 2011, though the real reason for their move (Noshiko's intent to defeat the Nogitsune she imprisoned in 1943 after his escape from within the roots of the Nemeton) was kept secret from her for several more weeks.
Another secret kept from Kira was the fact that she is a Kitsune, which she ultimately figured out on her own when she began manifesting mysterious powers, such as electrokinesis and manipulation of foxfire, a fiery aura, intuitive aptitude, and superhuman physical attributes including strength, speed, agility/reflexes, senses, and an accelerated healing factor.
After Noshiko finally came clean to Kira about their lineage and Kira's powers, she assisted Kira in repairing the katana that Noshiko used to kill the Nogitsune's previous vessel, which shattered from the impact, using her foxfire and gifted the sword to her, explaining that Noshiko's power was now hers as well. However, when Noshiko insisted that Kira would need to kill Stiles Stilinski, the Nogitsune's new vessel, if the Oni she summoned weren't strong enough to do it themselves, Kira refused and made it clear that she intended to find a way without killing her good friend. Kira ultimately made good on this promise when she and the rest of the members of the McCall Pack managed to once again revert the Nogitsune to its fly form and trap it in a box made of wood harvested from the Nemeton, though the battle to do this cost them the lives of Allison Argent and Aiden Steiner.
As Kira and her friends protected Beacon Hills from additional threats, such as the supernatural hit-list known as the Deadpool, Kira came into her powers and became a much more confident person, even gaining her first Kitsune tail after successfully triggering her [[Accelerated Healing|accelerated healing ability. Unfortunately for Kira, the arrival of the Dread Doctors and the hybrid creatures they created known as Chimeras caused the relationships between the pack members to fracture. Kira was one of the most affected members of the pack by the Dread Doctors machinations, as a procedure they secretly performed on her by summoning a lightning bolt into her eyeball caused her inner fox spirit and human spirit to become unbalanced, allowing her inner Kitsune to take control.
Once this disharmony between her two natures became great enough that she nearly killed a Werewolf-Scorpion Chimera named Lucas, her own mother Noshiko, and actually did kill a female Chimera in a fugue state, Kira and Noshiko left Beacon Hills and went to Shiprock, New Mexico to seek help from the Skinwalkers. Though Kira did not initially agree with their methods and briefly returned to California, her continued blackouts and loss of control combined with the deal she made with the Skinwalkers to repair her katana led Kira to decide to continue her training after all, where she remains to this day.
Trivia[]
- The Yukimuras are the first and the only Kitsune-based family to appear on Teen Wolf, with all but one of the members (Ken, who is human) being some type of fox spirit.
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