Teruko Reiheit

Teruko Reiheit (ライハイト輝子), née Amano Teruko (天野輝子), is a fictional character in the Shaman King manga and anime series. She is married to Hans Reiheit.

Appearance
She has light gray hair and wears a headband with a pair of lit tapers. She also wears white robes and always carries straw dolls, nails, and stakes.

After marrying Hans, she wears more casual clothes.

Abilities and Powers
Teruko was a professional Ushi no Koku Mai-er (丑の刻ラー), in which she used her shamanic abilities to casts curses on others.

Spirit

 * See More: The Loafers

Teruko uses her shaman abilities to kill people within 2.00 minutes, giving her the nickname "2 O'Clock-Curse Master Amano Teruko". Her curse works by using hair from a person that is added to a straw-doll and then by putting a nail through it with a wooden hammer. Her ritual must, however, not be seen by anyone else than her, or it will have no effect. Unbeknownst to Teruko, The Loafers has been instead making the victims lose consciousnesses because of the spirit's dislike of violence.

After falling in love with Hans and giving up curses, Teruko uses her technique to impart Loafers' love to a target and to befriend them.

Before Shaman Fights
Teruko committed multiple suicide attempts for her miseries of continuous losing loves. These experiences ironically enhanced her spiritual powers and awoke her as a shaman. At some point in the past, a high-school girl nicknamed The Loafers was fatally involved in Teruko's suicide attempt and was killed instead. However, Loafers did not hold a grudge against Teruko, but worried about her and became her Guardian Ghost.

Invading the Plants
When a fleet of ships attacked the island Tokyo where the Shaman Fights were being held, Teruko was with Hans Reiheit, hired by Oyamada Mansumi and told that if the ship that all three were on survived they would each receive 1 billion Yen as payment.

After Asakura Hao targeted the ship during the battle, Reiheit took his aim at Hao and fired his Archangel Azazel, but Hao simply crushed the Over Soul and Reiheit was killed by the strain. Teruko, having survived the attack together with the ship, prepared her straw doll and while lamenting the restrictions of her curse, decided to kill Hao first. However she was killed by Hao who had reflected her curse back at her.

Teruko awoke on the beach next to Reiheit and dressed only in his coat. He told her that he had removed her soaked cloth to let them dry and explained that everyone who had been killed during the attack had been revived and was now going home.

After expressing her concerns about the money and crying that she could never marry now someone had seen her naked against her will, Reiheit suddenly proposed to her. Yelling that he was making fun of her, Reiheit only asked if he was not good enough. She was last seen leaning happily against his chest on the beach.

Flowers
Teruko would eventually marry Hans and when Jeanne and Ren were married, she, along with Hans and the other members of the X-Laws, sans Marco, participated in the wedding.

During the event of the Flower of Maize, Loafers who once ascended to the Great Spirits after seeing Teruko's marriage, returned to help Teruko. With help from Loafers, Teruko managed to calm Santa Muerte down and the three became friends.

Anime/Manga Difference
Amano Teruko does not appear in the 2001 anime series.

Etymology

 * Teruko means "brightness, radiance, shine, sparkle, gleam, twinkle" (輝) (teru) and "child" (子) (ko).

Maiden Name

 * Amano means "heaven/heavenly, sky, imperial" (天) (ama) and and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).

Trivia

 * Teruko's ability is based on a dark ritual called Ushi no Koku Mairi (丑の刻参り, "Shrine visit at the Ox Hour"), which must be performed on a Shinto shrine's grounds during the Ox Hour (between 1:00 and 3:00 AM), wearing a white kimono and a trivet with burning tapers on one's head, and driving a 15 cm nail into a straw doll containing a small piece of the victim's body, while holding it against the shrine's sacred tree. The ritual must be performed night after night, and if anyone witnesses it the curse will rebound against the caster.