Naomitsu Momoji

Not to be confused with the similarly spelled Momiji.

Naomitsu Momoji (百地 尚光, Momoji Naomitsu) is a secondary antagonist in Geten no Hana. He can be unlocked as a romanceable character by the player's second playthrough of the main story.

His image song is called Wasureenu Omokage.

Background Story
Momoji is the lone successor of his family's craft, one of the three influential branches of the Iga ninja. He had lost his parents and siblings when he was barely old enough to comprehend his surroundings. Despite his personal hardship, he braved his ninja training when he was six years old and, after several years of training and missions, matured to be the finest shinobi of his home.

When he was twenty-one years old, the village had to lay two of their own to rest. Their lone daughter, Hotaru, wept uncontrollably by their grave. Momoji stood over her and patronized her to cease her crying as the dead won't come back to life. He left her when she insisted on wailing her sorrows until an order from the village elder brought him back. The elder gave him the responsibility of looking after the orphan and teaching her in her parents' absence. Momoji bluntly offered her the choice to either stay there or live as a shinobi. Hotaru stood and chose the latter. As he trained her rigorously through her protests, the pair soon bonded as they lived together. He would be called away for an occasional mission, but Hotaru would always anticipate his return to their home.

Six years later, on his way back home from a completed mission, Momoji experienced déjà vu when he happened to spot a young man crying at a grave. The young man was a samurai noble yet strangely alone and unattended. When Momoji subconsciously came to chide the man to stop his tears, the youth broke down and confessed his every worry to him. As he listened, it didn't take long for Momoji to learn the youth was Nobuyuki, well aware of the Oda's meanderings near their village. The shinobi was compelled to stay near the lad and silently observed his supposed followers turn against him. When Shibata threatened to kill Nobuyuki, Momoji was prepared and had secured measures for Nobuyuki's immediate escape.

Upon seeing Nobuyuki dumbstruck by the sudden betrayal, Momoji was frank and thoroughly explained Shibata's change in judgement for him. The truth struck harder than the shinobi had expected when Nobuyuki became obsessed with murdering Nobunaga. The youth recognized the shinobi's usefulness to him and offered to pay for his services. Momoji accepted the proposal and returned to his village once to report his new mission to the elder. He chose to go without telling Hotaru, not noticing that the girl had tried in vain to chase him when he left. The shinobi serves as Nobuyuki's secret confidant and has lived in a hidden hut near Azuchi Castle. He wears a mask when he is on active duty.

Story Events
Momoji is vaguely aware of Hotaru's presence when she first arrives to the castle, reporting the news of a rival spy to his master. Choosing to act quickly against the new threat, Nobuyuki orders him to assassinate Nobunaga within the week. Momoji observes the lord's mannerisms and finds his chance to strike after Ieyasu's tea tasting meeting. As he readies to kill the lord with a blow dart, Hotaru discovers him and ruins his cover by throwing a warning kunai near Nobunaga. While the Oda lord and his page are alarmed by the projectile, Momoji sneaks behind the enemy spy and readies to decapitate her. The shinobi immediately stays his hand once he leans closer and recognizes his pupil. Nobunaga hurries towards their location before she can react, forcing them to flee and avoid capture. Momoji uses a smoke bomb to mask his escape.

Players will not see him in their first playthrough until Hotaru receives the mission to assassinate Nobunaga. Since their masters are now allies, Momoji removes his mask and reveals his identity to her. He sees her hesitating to accept her duty the night she receives her final mission, patronizing her to remember their ninja teachings. Nobuyuki has ordered him to be on stand-by, meaning that Nobunaga's fate lies solely in her hands. If Hotaru refuses to throw the fatal kunai in the default route, Momoji will again scold her sympathy and throws his own in her place. He is disgusted when she panics at Nobunaga's injury and disowns her as his apprentice.

Subsequent playthroughs will include supplementary scenes with him and Nobuyuki reacting to the main story events. After he escapes, he reports his failed assassination attempt to Nobuyuki. Rekka boasts the elder is overrated and swears to do a better job. Over the following weeks, Momoji allows the other ninja to do as they please and acts as reconnaissance for the castle patrol. He keeps his past and knowledge about Hotaru a secret from his master and business partners.

After Nobunaga leaves from the castle for the capital, Momoji is the one who infiltrates the gaols to free Nobuyuki, Rekka, and Shigure in most scenarios. He and the other ninja help their master's attack at Honnōji and is present when the temple is set ablaze. When Hotaru finds him at the temple grounds, Momoji insists he is only following his contract when she protests the repercussions of toppling Nobunaga. He comes clean about his lord's inability to rule to her, sharing his opinion that Nobuyuki's life is over even if he should happen to kill his brother. The shinobi remarks Nobunaga may live if he has heaven's favor before disappearing.

During the "Shield of Azuchi" route, however, the sullen Nobuyuki discourages Momoji from freeing him from his cell. He silently leaves his master alone to brood.

Yumeakari takes place after Nobunaga's survival from Honnōji. Momoji had returned to Iga, but another mission he accepts calls him back to Azuchi Castle.

Personal Route
Hotaru feels it's imperative for her to focus on her ninja training the day after her encounter with the masked man. As she trains, she begins to wonder why the enemy spy spared her. She senses Momoji's presence, and he drops down from his treetop perch to chastise her form and focus. He slurs her with the familiar nickname from her childhood before leaving with a warning to not interfere with his job. Suspecting that he could be her mentor, Hotaru keeps up her training in the hopes of once again seeing the masked man. She gradually becomes nostalgic for her childhood beside him as she keeps practicing.

Momoji vigilantly keeps tabs on Hotaru while ensuring that the other ninja do not notice her presence. After Shigure is captured, Rekka tries searching for her and voices his frustrations to Momoji outside the castle. The veteran brushes aside his concerns with a reply to focus on his current mission, remaining passive to the accusation he knows something. When the younger shinobi leaves, Momoji demands for the eavesdropping kunoichi to reveal herself. The kunoichi walks into the open and asks him to remove his mask. Momoji replies he might consider if she can prove herself to him. She chooses to comply, and the ninja engage in a fist fight. Hotaru finds an opening on his left side, but her skills aren't a match for Momoji's perceptiveness. As she lies beaten, he repeats his warning to stay out of his way and leaves.

She rises to her feet moments later and realizes that he had held back. His lecturing and his merciful blows reminds her too much of her master to be a coincidence. Therefore, Hotaru chooses to actively search for the masked man once her strength recovers. Momoji briefly drops from his perch to once again warn her to keep her distance, yet Hotaru doesn't want to give up until she sees the man underneath the mask. After successfully completing a session of personal training, she chases after him in the nearby thicket. He states he is annoyed with her tailing him and uses a smoke bomb to daze her. Then he knocks her out with the blunt side of his blade. An unconscious Hotaru dreams of the day when her mentor left the village, her regret at not trying harder to follow him, and her loneliness with his disappearance. Once she awakens unharmed, she knows she is completely unmatched yet doesn't want to give up on her mentor again.

Brute force and stealth have failed her, so Hotaru believes she should try to approach him with her transformation spells. She transforms into a bird and flies near Momoji. Whilst in this form, she plots to untie the strings for his mask while acting natural. Her winged form doesn't make the task possible, so she transforms into her princess disguise. She attempts to approach him with an invitation to entertain her, dispirited when Momoji insults her bad impression. Hotaru says that his knowledge of her bird and princess transformations is proof that he is from Iga, pleading for him to show him her face. Finally giving into her request, Momoji reveals himself. He is surprised when Hotaru tearfully embraces him moments later and voices her joy for their reunion.

Telling her to part from him, he readies to leave and refuses to tell her his destination. Their past can't change their current allegiances and their missions, something which Hotaru understands. Even so, she voices her wish for them to spend a little more time together. Momoji uses the time to castigate her; if he wasn't fighting her, she would have been dead countless times already. Apologizing on reflex, Hotaru is happy to once again receive her mentor's scoldings and can't bring herself to hurt someone so precious to her. He is exasperated by her sentimentality, yet she lightly protests that he held back in their encounters. Ignoring her observation, the teacher scoffs at his pupil's naivety. He instructs her to stay alive if she wishes for them to reunite again. Since he disappears from her sight for the next four days, Hotaru continues her training to relive her memories with her mentor.

Nobunaga's speech from the casual firefly gathering still remains with Hotaru, distracting her from her training the next day. Momoji reveals himself then, asking if she is becoming empathetic for the conqueror. Once he begins lecturing her again, Hotaru believes he has been worried for her and thanks him for watching over her. He stops himself from continuing, choosing to instead accept her unchanging candidness with her feelings. The smile which he allows on his face causes Hotaru to realize her peaceful days spent beside him are still precious to her. She wonders if Nobunaga's dream of unified peace could someday make her memories a reality.

Rekka is behind bars a few days later, and Hotaru receives her final mission from Mitsuhide to assassinate Nobunaga at the firefly viewing banquet. The kunoichi's hesitation for ending Nobunaga's dream is clear to her mentor. Rather than leaving her to brood on her thoughts alone, Momoji guides her outside the castle for another lesson. He reminds her the requirements for all ninja: to be unfeeling machines for completing the mission. Arming himself with his kunai, he instructs her to think of him as Nobunaga and fight to kill. Hotaru complies and once again finds the previous opening in his attacks. Although he barks for her to be merciless, she instinctively reverses her blade in her strike. Momoji easily catches the weak blow and surmises she would rather cling to her dreams. Hotaru apologizes, yet he warns that her feelings cannot change her mission.

The kunoichi continues to ponder between Nobunaga's dream of peace or her kunoichi duty to complete the mission. Midway the week before the banquet, Momoji approaches her in nightfall and is not surprised to see her undecided. Stating that it is his mission to watch her, he escorts her to the river outside the castle to entertain her mushiness and shares his past meeting with Nobuyuki. After his story, he believes he misspoke earlier when he told her to kill her emotions. Momoji rewords his warning to instead focus on nothing else but her mission. As she absorbs his history with Nobuyuki and his ninja views, she feels morose and requests an embrace to warm herself like they did in the past. Hotaru uses his words against him, so he entertains her wish.

Whilst in his arms, Hotaru is comforted by his scent and smiles for the first time in days. She uses the opportunity to thank Momoji for raising her, stating her life long admiration for him. She believes Nobuyuki must have felt truly happy to have met her mentor. The kunoichi wants to know if he was happy back then too as she now realizes she was quite the burden for him. When Momoji shares his joy to her, she wonders if her mentor felt the same loneliness being apart from her. The shinobi admits he did which pleases her. As she smiles at him, he shoves her away and warns that he might mistake her to be a woman. Hotaru is sheepish by his comment so he returns back to the castle by himself.

Character Symbolism
Momoji's symbolic item is maple leaves, a famous tourist attraction for Iga or modern day Ueno city, Mie Prefecture. The rows of maple trees have stood for generations within the area, admired by spectators since at least the Heian period. Within the same vicinity stands Iga Ueno Castle, one of the castles rebuilt by Tōdō Takatora after the Takigawa clan was dismissed from it. The castle is most famous for housing Iga ninja (in popular folklore) or rioters (plausible historical truth) when it became one of the stations used by Momochi Sandayu to oppose Nobunaga in 1579. Sandayu's alleged fight to the death in Iga –like most other last stands– has been romanticized since the Edo period, and the castle continues to be a recommended spot for ninja enthusiasts to this day. The prominent maple trees standing within the vicinity of his supposed demise led to maple leaves being commonly associated with ninja in various fictional mediums.

The maple leaf has been endeared as a seasonal beauty for centuries in Japanese culture. Traditional aesthetics particularly praise the changing shades of the leaves and how the leaves scatter when falling, tying into the Buddhist philosophies for cherry blossoms except in autumn. The trees were thought to have been named based on the shape of the leaves, which apparently was thought to resemble a frog's foot (kaede). Residents particularly adored the stark crimson of the leaves (momiji) over time and preferred to name the maple after them. Both terms continue to be used today, although momiji is reserved for when the leaves are a vibrant red. Many Japanese locals are so familiar with the leaf's distinct shape in Japan that they call maple found elsewhere "Western maple".

Within the Japanese flower language, the leaves symbolize restraint or self-control, especially if they are still green. Red maple leaves tend to represent nostalgia or cherished memories.

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