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| “ | Erma is like any other normal child. She goes to school, plays with friends, and even spends time with the family. It just so happens that she is the daughter of a ghostly spirit and tends to use her haunting abilities for everyday antics, whether for better or for worse. | „ |
| ~ Description of the her webcomic series on Tapas |
| “ | Spook me and you can forget about going to the toy store, young lady. | „ |
| ~ Sam after Erma attempts to spook him |
Erma Yureimoto-Williams, or just Erma, is the titular main protagonist of the comedy/horror webcomic, Erma by artist and writer, Brandon Santiago. She is a mischievous half-yokai, or hanyō who lives with her family in Blairwood, Illinois that, despite her affinity for the supernatural, is a kindhearted and fairly normal girl. The webcomic revolves around her daily life as others adapt to her presence and look past appearances, while Erma also learns to live in harmony with others.
Appearance[]
Erma is a young, Caucasian-East Asian girl resembling a stereotypical Japanese ghost such as Sadako from The Ring. She is completely monochromatic, having white skin, black sclerae with white pupils and long black hair which constantly covers one of her eyes. Erma wears a long white dress, white socks and black shoes. When enraged, Erma’s eyes turn completely white and are shadowed.
At night, she wears dark pajamas with skulls on them. During the summer she wears a black swimsuit and in winter she wears a blue and white scarf with earmuffs. In the Halloween special, she cosplays Roll from Mega Man and wears a red and white outfit with white gloves and a white cape, with her hair being held in a ponytail using a beartrap-like hair clip. In the Christmas special, she wears a red beanie with horns, a white scarf and a black jacket.
During the Yokai Parade she wears Emiko's old outfit, which is a light kimono with the Yureimoto family crest on the sleeves, as well as a sakura obi and sakura hairpins. She also wears traditional Japanese sandals.
In an April Fool's special about making the webcomic "edgier", Erma's hair was temporarily dyed pink with black tips, with a pink striped bow and several temporary piercings. She wore red contacts and an oversized ripped grey shirt with the words "RAWR" on it. She wore black spiked bangles on her arms with a red band on her right one, with her fingers being long and black tinted. She also wore red socks and black shoes.
As a teenager in an April Fool's special, Erma has much shorter hair and wears a black shirt with fingerless gloves. She also wears a white dress, white socks and shoes like the ones she wore as a child. As a baby, she wore a onesie with a pattern similar to her pajamas.
After escaping her torment in the Jubokko tree, Erma's hair was much messier and wilder, with her entire body being completely in shadow. Her fingers were also red and claw-like, with her eyes lacking pupils and being completely red with veins flowing from them. Fortunately, after being calmed down by her parents and cousin, these changes have reverted.
Personality[]
Being a yokai, Erma is a mischievous little girl befitting of her age, enjoying playing pranks on others. Taking delight in the macabre, she frequently uses her supernatural powers to scare people, ripping off her own skin for a show and tell on the muscular system and pulling off her own head, as well as laughing at horror movies. Erma's love for scares is so great that she apparently drives her previous babysitter, Nancy, to insanity, with the woman still bearing a grudge against Erma after being discharged from the mental institution. She's also shown to be somewhat of a cheater, levitating during jump rope, using telekinesis for dodgeball and phasing into a television to scare the opposing football team. Erma also isn't above threatening others as during the charity drive mini-arc, she blackmails the wealthier residents of Blairwood into donating using a small nuke.
Despite her reveling in the paranormal, it's shown that in her own life Erma is a fairly normal little girl, enjoying the popular children's cartoon Warrior Unicorn Princess and having a huge collection of its toys. This causes her to be embarrassed and causes her to hide the toys quite often, although after opening up to her babysitter Felicia and realizing her uncle Kentaro's also a fan, she becomes more open about her interests. Erma also isn't completely fearless, having a bizarre phobia of Santa Claus and being frightened by her parents when they rage at football, with her babysitter Felicia also managing to pull off a face so scary it scared Erma up the wall.
Erma genuinely cares for her friends as well, with them getting hurt being the only thing that causes her to fly into a rage. This is highly exemplified in the Christmas Special where she travels all the way to the North Pole just to try and find the toy her friend Sylvia wants for Christmas from Santa Claus. Likewise, she is on good terms with her rival Terry, giving him chances to one-up her fairly although his bad luck causes them to all be for nothing. It's shown she's on good terms with most supernatural beings, taking selfies with Bigfoot and leaving cookies out for Krampus.
Upon escaping the Jubokko tree however, Erma became much more merciless and crueler, brutally crushing/consuming Toru, Kiko and Mei with her pillars of hair before enveloping the yokai kids and dragging them into the darkness one by one before moving on to consume many innocent yokai. However, this change was apparently caused by Erma going berserk from fueling her powers with negative emotions and feeling betrayed by the yokai kids, who revealed that they never actually intended to become friends with her and felt nothing but contempt for the Yureimotos. Fortunately, after being calmed down by her parents and cousin Momo, Erma has reverted to her regular self. However, due to the mass destruction and terror she brought on during that time, Erma feels deep regret for what she did and thus tended to be more quiet and retrospective in the aftermath, feeling fearful at the prospect of her friends distancing themselves from her because of her powers.
Biography[]
Erma was born to a human father Sam Williams and yokai mother Emiko Yureimoto on October 13th, in Blairwood, Illinois. The plot of the comic revolves around her daily life adapting to normal human society, with most people slowly growing to like her and appreciate her quirks, especially her classmates who quickly become friends with her and engaging in shenanigans with her. While mostly episodic, there are some story arcs in between for introducing characters or making them grow.
Wittle Wallace Arc[]
During a babysitting session with Felicia, Erma's interest in Warrior Unicorn Princess is nearly discovered by her after she almost walks in on Erma watching TV and playing with her toys. Fearful of what would happen if her secret were discovered, Erma runs away to dispose of her toys in the forest. Unfortunately, while searching for Erma, Felicia uncovers the evil ventriloquist dummy Wittle Wallace who swaps souls with her. Now using Felicia's body, Wallace collects traces of Erma's hair and makes them into a powder, planning to use them in a spell to possess her and take her powers.
In the woods, Erma is about to tearfully burn the toys, but Wallace suddenly steps in, still in Felicia's body. He teases the young girl for her human side showing despite being a paranormal being, saying that everybody will laugh at Erma for her interests. In an outrage, she picks up Wallace with her hair and attempts to kill him, but seeing him in Felicia's body, she is unable to do so and breaks down in tears. Just then, the real Felicia arrives and warns Erma but Wallace grabs onto her and begins the ritual.
However, Wallace quickly realizes that during his fight with Erma earlier on all the powder he needs for the ritual was washed off in the lake. Springing into action, Felicia, who was covered in the powder after being shoved into the toy box, pounces onto Wallace and regains her body, hugging Erma and apologizing. Erma attempts to kill Wallace by burning him with a lantern, but he mocks her, stating that as a dummy, he is immortal and cannot be killed. Felicia comes up with an idea, so Erma orders her dog Siris to dig a humongous hole and animates her toys to chain Wallace to a boulder. The dummy threatens to kill her when he comes back, but Erma just drops him in the hole, which apparently was dug straight to Hell.
Arriving back home, Felicia cleans up the toys and comforts Erma, telling her that even though she enjoys maintaining a scary image, she is a little girl after all and that it's alright to like those kinds of things. The two decide to relax and watch an episode of WUP to calm Erma down, during which Felicia realizes the show is much more intense than she anticipated, with Erma falling asleep.
Rats in the Walls Arc[]
During lunchtime, a rat suddenly appears in the cafeteria, stealing Terry's sandwich. As the rat causes chaos, Erma is called on by Amy to help stop it, but to no avail. At her wits' end, she summons a storm of utensils to impale the rat, but they all miss, with the shower hitting her teacher Ms. Bierly instead. Erma finally catches the rat by levitating it but Ms. Bierly, unamused by the mess orders Erma and her friends to the Principal Phibes' office, with the rat adding fuel to the fire by launching itself at Ms. Bierly's face, knocking her out.
At the office, Principal Phibes sentences the trio to detention for their actions, which they protest against due to the recent rat problem. He insists that there has never been a rat infestation, although he instantly mistakes a nearby rat for his hamster due to being blind. Calling in the Hall Monitor Sidney, he sends them on their way to detention. In the room, Erma notices skittering in the walls and listens in, but is quickly interrupted by somebody, who turns out to be Connor, who has been sent to detention for going to the toilet without a pass by Sidney. Suddenly, they hear loud scratching from the walls, so Erma rips off her head and sticks it in to investigate, where she finds rats running into a corridor in the walls. Spotting a giant rat, she races after it, overhearing Phibes discussing the rat problem with one of the staff on the way. Following it, she narrowly bumps into Sylvia after her friends discover a hole in the wall, but she gets lost eventually.
Exiting the walls, Erma makes her way back to detention, but overhears Sidney talking to herself in the toilet, venting about having to hide something about herself. She realizes she's being watched so Erma leaves just before she turns around. Returning to detention, Erma is almost suspected by Sidney but fortunately, once the coast is clear she and Terry, Connor and Sylvia come up with a plan to investigate the situation. Sneaking out at night with some equipment, the gang meet up to sneak into the school. Casting an invisibility spell on them, Erma and her friends break in, planning to search the Janitor closet but are nearly heard by Phibes and Sidney. Keeping silent, Erma and the gang see a group of rats uncovering the hole Sylvia spotted, and, entering it along with Phibes and Sidney, see the latter lift up a secret trapdoor. Following them down a staircase, they arrive at an underground city, where they are surrounded by rat people.
The leader of the people, Delapore, greets Phibes as an old friend, expressing his worry over the rat problem on the surface and how he and his people are struggling to fix it. Delapore reveals that Sidney is in fact his daughter and that she has been behind the rat infestations, with her expressing that she feels it's wrong that the rat people are forced to live underground in solitude. With the spell running out, Erma and her friends duck behind a wall and continue listening in, with another rat angrily insisting that they should just go to war with the surface dwellers. Delaphore protests against the plan, but Phibes tells him that they inevitably have to plan for a meeting with the surface-dwellers, suddenly revealing he knows of Erma and her friends.
The rat people arrive to try and bring them over, so the kids fight back. Terry and Sylvia are captured but Erma, saving Connor as well, begins to use her powers to fight, causing Sidney to respond by summoning a tsunami of rats to counterattack. Fortunately, Phibes calms them all down and ends the conflict. Delaphore excuses the four for attacking his people, seeing it as self-defense, but is confused why the principal would allow himself to be followed. Phibes tells them of his belief that people have changed and will be more accepting of the rat people, with Erma possessing human friends despite being a ghost being a prime example. However, the other rat is dissatisfied with the answer and continues arguing with Phibes and Delaphore.
Sidney, apologizing to Erma and her friends for her past actions, explains the truth: the rat people used to live in peace underground, being able to surface anytime they wanted but one day when humans built the school aboveground, they were forced into hiding and living in constant fear of being discovered. One day, Principal Phibes and a group of staff from the school arrived to make peace with the rats, agreeing to help keep their existence a secret. Among the staff was Sidney's mother, who'd fall in love with Delaphore and give birth to Sidney, though she'd pass on before her child was old enough to remember her. Sidney reveals that her gift of controlling rats is due to her mixed heritage, and she accidentally caused the infestation as she wanted them not to feel lonely. She also reveals her true, rat-like appearance, despite her father's protests. While shocking Erma and her friends, they quickly accept her and are more impressed by her shapeshifting abilities. Seeing how accepting the kids are of his daughter, Delaphore and Phibes decide to formulate a plan for his people.
Sometime later, Erma and her friends are back in the canteen with a new change: the rat children have also joined them as students and are quickly accepted. Sidney arrives to sit with them and Erma, seeing her Warrior Unicorn Princess lunchbox, is utterly entranced by her new friend. With that, at the end of the day Erma says goodbye to her friends and heads back home.
Yokai District Arc[]
Family Reunion Sub-Arc[]
One day, Erma and her family receive mail from a monster postman, which is revealed to be a letter from Emiko's sister. Peeking through a gap in the door, Erma overhears her parents discussing the letter about a family reunion, with Emiko having worries about a mysterious "him" manipulating the letters and "his" reaction upon seeing Sam and Erma, with both of them being either part or completely human, being scared her family would hurt them. However, Sam comforts Emiko and assures her that they'd go to the reunion together. Just as she is discovered Erma slips back into her room and Emiko enters to explain the reason of their trip to her: every year there's a one-night parade that all yokai must participate in, and thus she and her family must go back to meet Erma' Grandfather Osamu to participate in the parade. Emiko tells her that her sister Yori is coming to pick them up from the airport, but also warns Erma to stay close to her and Sam as some yokai are unfriendly.
Leaving Siris in Felicia's care, Erma and her family board a plane to Japan, where Emiko admits she's nervous about going back as the last time she was home, she had an argument with Osamu. Arriving at the airport, Erma has her doll stolen by two mysterious yokai girls and gives chase, resulting in a scuffle between them. Their mother intervenes but after taking a good look at Erma, apologizes for the trouble and introduces herself as Erma's aunt Yori, with the two girls being her daughters Mitsu and Momo. Yori greets Sam and hugs Emiko as they arrive to find Erma, and together they leave the airport, although the twins keep gossiping about their cousin behind her back. On the way to the Yokai District, Sam reveals he only chose to take a flight so that Emiko could calm down, while Yori tells her that Osamu hasn't said anything about them for a while.
Driving through the city, Erma is enamored by all the Warrior Unicorn Princess merch but is despondent when told they aren't sticking around to buy any. Driving into a misty forest, they venture into a misty staircase, where Erma races her cousins down the stairs. She arrives first, with Mitsu and Momo complimenting her strength but comments she's boring, causing another scuffle between them. Smacking Erma, they fly into an abandoned town, causing her to angrily chase them into an old house. In there, she is surrounded by a host of yokai who, after examining her, realize she's Erma. Emiko arrives to protect her, but after realizing Erma's safe, introduces the yokai as Erma's aunts Ena, Mayumi and Fumiko and her uncle Kentaro, with Ena also introducing their servants Kenji and Haru. However, Erma's other aunt Rin is distrustful of Sam and begins constricting him, so Emiko orders her to back off which she does so.
With Yori fetching the twins from the rafters, the Yureimotos leave from the gathering crowd. Concealing Sam with an umbrella, they walk through the city back to the Yureimoto family castle. They're greeted by a servant, but as Rin ventured off alone earlier, Fumiko orders him to search for her sister. As they walk to the elevator, Erma, Emiko and Sam are met with gossip from the servants. They arrive at the penthouse, where Ena shows the group around the place and brings them to the pool installed in the roof while Emiko stays back at her old room to reminisce on her old life. Erma arrives at the rest of the highest floor, and, seeing the door to her grandparents' room is ajar, ventures in. There, she sees Emiko distraught as she sees that Osamu and her mother Amaya aren't home. Erma accidentally reveals herself, so Yori confesses to her siblings and Sam that Erma's grandparents aren't coming. However, Fumiko informs them that Osamu and Amaya are on a business trip and are returning in a few days. Concerned for Erma and her parents' safety, she constructs a portal for them to leave, but Emiko decides to stay so as to finally settle old debts with her father. Accepting whatever will happen to her and her family, she asks Fumiko to close the portal, which she does.
Relaxing at the window still, Erma overhears her aunts and uncle discussing how Rin still hasn't returned, but she's forced to quickly teleport back to her room balcony when Emiko walks past. Back at her own window still, Emiko recounts to Erma on her days as a child before sending her to bed. Erma wakes up the next day, walking in on Mayumi making origami birds, frightening her accidentally as she goes to breakfast. At the table, she gets into yet another food fight with Mitsu and Momo, although Yori stops them as well as sending out Erma to give Mayumi breakfast. However, upon arriving back at the dinner table, she hears that Rin still hasn't returned and thus the Yureimoto family and their servants decide to split up and search for her. Despite her parents telling her to stay at home, Erma and Mitsu and Momo decide to go out as well to search for Rin.
On the way, Erma finds Mitsu mugging a bunch of other yokai kids, upon which she quickly stops her and returns them their money. Hearing a bunch of explosions, they discover Momo setting off a cartful of fireworks and racing down the alleyway on it. Stopping her and arriving at a bridge, Erma is upset at the twins' behavior, so they attempt to apologies. Suddenly, they hear scratching and notice a strange yokai woman standing near them. The woman introduces herself as Mei, threateningly teasing them before asking for Erma's picture of Rin, which she tears up, insulting Erma's competency as a "half-breed". Just as the kids are about to leave, an oni named Toru and a Yurei-Onna named Kiko surround them, blocking their way as they advance to attack Erma. She teleports the twins away, causing the trio to mock them for being cowards, but Mitsu and Momo both reassure the three yokai that they're not worth their time. However, when Toru begins laughing at Mitsu and Momo's father, they fire a firework into his mouth which explodes, knocking him out.
Walking through town, Erma bumps into a friendly yokai who, just as he's about to help her up, is suddenly frozen in ice. The yokai trio arrive, injured but relatively unscathed from the firework and more irritable than ever. While the twins deal with Kiko and Toru, Erma faces Mei head-on, who reveals she can cut through the former's magic hair. Enraged, Erma throws her into a tree before sending a volley of items from huts to cabbage thrown at Toru, tackling Kiko to the ground which causes her to accidentally freeze him. Mei arrives, applauding their efforts and is about to attack, but Erma simply dismantles the part of the bridge she's clinging onto and flings her into the distance. Noticing that the twins are missing, Erma goes off to find them, but feeling lost, she is about to return home when suddenly she hears panicked voices from the forest. Venturing through a mist, she hears more panicked voices until she reaches a tree with many skulls under it. Erma spots Rin by the river who is skipping stones. Rin is annoyed by her niece's presence and is irritated by how concerned her family is. She recalls how they used to be closer as siblings until Osamu wanted to raise them to be the horrifying yokai of legends, causing Emiko to leave the family to find her own way of life. Rin remarks that even though her sister ended up with a human she hates and that her fights with humans have left her with scars, she envies Emiko running away and wishes she'd done the same.
Hearing Rin's story, Erma comforts her by giving her a hug. Her aunt admits that she knows Sam is a kind person and that she'll get used to him soon and together they go back home. Erma arrives at home, where she's greeted by her anxious mother, who also goes to give Rin a hug when she enters along with her siblings. Rin apologizes for hiding away and tells Emiko of what Erma did, causing her to praise the latter for her bravery. Washing Erma up later, Emiko notices that a portion of her hair is missing thanks to her brawl with Mei but ignores it as she believes it was an accident.
The Night Parade sub-arc[]
As the days pass, Erma helps her family get the parade set up. While walking through an alley, she meets the group of yokai kids again who, hearing of her heritage, are utterly enamored by her, more so when she decides to show off to them with a display of fire. However, Mitsu and Momo arrive again and attack them, distrustful of the kids and prompt Erma to leave.
Later on, that night, Erma sees Mayumi walking about alone again during dinner and decides to investigate. She follows her to a shrine where she sees her lighting several candles and winding a music box. Bringing her dinner, Erma sits down next to her and the two quickly warm up to each other, enjoying the music box. In the end, she even manages to convince Mayumi to arrive at the dinner table and eat together with the family.
The next day, Erma, the twins and Mayumi go shopping together, with Mitsu and Momo throwing a water balloon at her which she deflects, accidentally hitting Rin who angrily chases the twins, with Erma also being pelted by another balloon, causing her to pursue the two as well with Mayumi tailing them. Suddenly, loud gonging is heard and a shadow envelope the town, signifying Osamu's arrival but the children are too busy to notice. Chasing each other back home, Mitsu and Momo open the castle door and cause Erma to fly right into Osamu's back. The old man slowly picks her up, but instead of showcasing his wrath, Osamu begins doting on her and gives her a tender hug, shocking everybody, especially Emiko. Cradling Erma in his arms, he walks Erma throughout the palace to his hidden throne room, therein he recounts the old days to her. One of the servants is thrown in by the others to attend to Osamu, but he simply asks him to fetch a drink for Erma as her grandmother, Amaya enters the room as well. While she doesn't initially recognize her own granddaughter, a quick examination lets her realize Erma is indeed Emiko's child, despite her small size, though Osamu remarks he sees potential in her.
Suddenly, Emiko bursts into the room, demanding that Osamu put Erma down, with Amaya also snidely remarking on Sam. The old man obliges, so Emiko quickly checks on her daughter to ensure she's alright. Mitsu and Momo enter the room, greeting Amaya along with the rest of the family, to whom Amaya displays disappointment in for being sloppier than usual. Delighted at the family being reunited once again, Osamu asks of Emiko to stay with them a while to catch up, although she quickly interjects and tells him she and her family are leaving once the Night Parade ends. Osamu shrugs it off and decides to hold a celebratory dinner, inviting all the citizens of the Yureimoto village into the castle to join them. Despite Fumiko's protests, she gives in thanks to her father's encouragement and her mother's orders.
Later that night, the festivities are in full swing as villagers flock around the castle enjoying dinner. As the family eat dinner in the throne room, Erma notices her mother tap out a message to Osamu at the table. Suddenly Ena shows up, telling Emiko about how she spotted her high school friends in the crowd and the two, along with Sam, go off to meet them. With Mitsu and Momo running off and Yori and Rin tailing them, Erma and Kentaro decide to leave as well. Mingling among the crowd, Erma parties with her uncle's friends and does tricks when she sees one of the yokai kids from earlier bringing food out to his friends. However, when she approaches them, they immediately leave in fear.
With the party over, the servants clean up the mess that the villagers caused, with many of them being injured from the crowd. Spotting Fumiko carrying Haru back to his quarters, Erma hands him back his hat before heading back to the family living quarters. There, she and Emiko spot Osamu chatting with Sam, with the old man complimenting his tenacity and apologizing for his attempted murder attempts. Sam also thanks him for not doing anything dangerous to him as Emiko warned him. She is suspicious of Osamu's true intentions, but after realizing Sam genuinely had a good talk with her father out of his free will, she stays behind to have a talk with Osamu while her husband sends Erma to bed.
The following day, Erma helps to clean up the rest of the mess, although Emiko remains in a trance-like state from last night, visibly shaken from her talk with Osamu. At night, Erma and her family are all dressed up in their traditional garments to carry out the Night Parade, with Emiko noticing that she's wearing her old kimono. Mitsu and Momo playfully threaten Erma, so Yori orders the twins to throw out all the fireworks they snuck in their pockets. Erma notices that Emiko is nervous about going out on parade, so she comforts her with her father, finally convincing her to go. With that, parading on a makeshift float made by Kentaro's friends (created under Erma's suggestion), the Yureimoto family are about to set out when Osamu and Amaya arrive, hoping to invite Erma to join them at the front. Emiko quickly refuses but with Sam's quick thinking, he pacifies Osamu, and they remain together. Finally, the Yureimotos set out on parade, with all the villagers joining them as they go forth to greet a nearby human village, nearly running into a rival clan on the way. Arriving at the town, they engage in the festivities together, watching the fireworks with Erma even setting off a few with her family.
Back at home, Erma is tucked into bed when she sees Mayumi walking past with the music box. Hoping to surprise her again, she flies down to the garden shrine, only to find one of the yokai kids from earlier. She pursues him as he flees but when he suddenly stops, she notices the silhouettes of the other kids, who throw a small bomb at her. It explodes into a bundle of chains and seals, gagging and chaining Erma up. She struggles, but one of the kids tells her that the chains and seals are binding her power, weakening her to the power of a regular girl. They escape through a magic portal but are spotted by Mitsu and Momo who attempt to save Erma but accidentally reel in one of the other kids as the portal closes.
They arrive at the huge Jubokko tree Erma found Rin at earlier. There, the true masterminds reveal themselves: Toru, Kiko and Mei, who return the hostage yokai kids to their friends as payment. The trio gleefully greet Erma, sadistically taunting her with the fate they have in store for her but are interrupted by one of the kids who wishes to speak to Erma. He expresses his anger at her doing nothing to stop Mitsu and Momo from tormenting them, with Erma's presence bringing even more misery to them as they were bullied even more. Mei gleefully laughs at their betrayal and explains Erma's fate to her: she will be put inside the huge tree where many have perished, with Mei remarking that nobody knows what happens to people in the tree and that she just wants to hear Erma scream.
Greeted by a giant eyeball, Erma is tossed into the hollow where she finds herself in a void. There, she's surrounded by tormented human souls who, accusing her of trapping them in there, begin assaulting her. Mobbed by the damned and desperate to break free, Erma's pupils begin glowing red and black veins trickle from her eyes, changing her into a monstrous form. Finally, as the moon and sky turn bright red outside, Erma breaks free of her bonds and destroys the Jubokko tree, much to the horror of her captors as she envelopes the land in her hair, consuming the three wicked yokai and the yokai kids. In her rage, she begins consuming Yureimoto village as well, much to the horror of her parents and Momo, who are trying to find her. All this happens while the Invisible Man watches on.
Fortunately, Erma begins to hear the voices of her parents and Momo calling out to her, comforting her. Remembering a similar moment where her parents comforted her when she was too scared to enter a swimming pool, she begins to cry as Sam, Emiko and Momo all embrace her, calming her down and causing her to revert to her old self.
Reunion's End sub-arc[]
The next day following the events of her rampage, Erma wakes back up in the Yureimoto castle, where she overhears the adults having a conversation. Eavesdropping in, she hears Fumiko informing her parents that while Osamu has managed to intimidate the villagers from investigating and that a manhunt is ongoing for Toru, Kiko and Mei, suspicion will eventually be cast upon the Yureimoto family for the chaos last night and thus Emiko and her family should leave before the Yokai Council arrives to investigate themselves. Erma comes out of the room, ashamed of her actions so her relatives and parents quickly reassure her that whatever happened that night wasn't her fault and that she's a good kid, with Fumiko also promising to find those three yokai.
With Emiko and Sam packing up for their return home, Erma sits in the lounge, dejected over her actions but Mitsu and Momo arrive, once again assuring her that she didn't cause the carnage on purpose, with Momo apologising for getting her caught up in the twins's fights with the yokai kids. Mitsu however, comments that the yokai kids were the ones who started the fights in the first place as they used to bully the twins for being Yureimotos, causing them to fight back. Seeing Erma's shame, Momo gives her a hug to comfort her with Mitsu joining in as well, cheering up Yori as she realises her daughters have matured.
Preparations complete, the Williams family prepare to leave but Emiko decides to bid her parents farewell first. While Amaya promises her daughter that she and Osamu would be able to smite down any who wish to hurt them, Emiko and Sam assure her that their departure is for the best. Just before she leaves, Emiko whispers something into Osamu's ear, causing him to collapse from shock. When asked what she said by Sam, Emiko tells him it's something "Osamu won't forget". As Erma and her family prepare to leave the yokai realm via a magic scroll, Mayumi arrives and, finally speaking, presents a small replica of her music box to Erma, hoping that it would comfort her just as it did for Mayumi. Mayumi shares one last embrace with Emiko as they prepare to depart back home.
As the adults discuss future reunions together, Erma notices Rin hiding in a bush and goes to meet her. She tells Erma that it was a great honour to meet her and her father and that Erma helped her remember an important truth: never give up on family as there's always one of them who will fight for you. Rin assures Erma that she'll always back her up and the two embrace, with Rin also joining in the rest of the grown-ups as she exits the undergrowth. Ena gives Erma's family multiple hugs, expressing her happiness that Emiko has found the perfect husband and thus, the family decide to take a family photo before departing. While initially hesitant, Haru and Kenji accept Ena and Fumiko's requests for them to join in the photo and thus, take a picture. Looking at the photo, Emiko notices Amaya and Osamu in it, the latter who remains hidden in the shadows. Emiko bows to her mother but as she turns to face her father, Osamu retreats into his castle, causing her to smirk as she recognises that he's finally been humbled. The family prepare to leave, with Emiko asking of Erma to always remember who she is and that she'll always be loved. With that, Erma bids her relatives farewell as Yori starts the van and drives them to the Williams family to the airport. At the airport, Emiko bids farewell to Yori while the twins playfully tease Erma, promising to cause trouble with her when they visit.
With that, the Williams family board their flight back to the US, where they're picked up by Erma's uncle and driven back to Blairwood. At the house, they're greeted by Felicia who, after spending a week taking care of Siris, is bruised and tired from the dog's antics. Emiko offers to pay extra for her troubles, and as the family slump on the sofa, Sam notices Erma's friends at the door, who excitedly greet her and welcome her back.
The Aftermath Arc[]
Shortly after returning home, Erma begins having nightmares of her demonic self back during the blood moon, with her classmates shunning her and becoming horrifying apparitions. Despite this, Erma attempts to continue her normal life, spending time with her friends who cheer her up despite her regretful thoughts on what she did back during the blood moon. During a call with her relatives, Erma experiences flashbacks to what she did so her relatives agree to call another time instead. Erma and her parents decide to bake cookies, but as memories flood her head she ends up losing control of her powers and makes a mess. Fortunately, her parents forgive her and, cleaning up the mess, continue baking the cookies which they enjoy. Furthermore, Felicia arrives later on to comfort Erma on her experiences, assuring her that no matter what, her friends and family will always be there for her.
Christmas Special Arc[]
Occurring sometime after the Yokai District arc, Erma arrives at her friend Sylvia's house to play. Walking upstairs, she hears her friend's parents discussing how Sylvia only wants a specific toy sword for Christmas and refuses to get anything else. Sylvia greets Erma, expressing her excitement for Christmas as well as revealing herself to be a huge Warrior Unicorn Princess fan, having collected nearly all of the merchandaise ever produced and confesses to be missing only the Sword of Power in her collection. Erma is entranced and, playing with her friend, decides to find one of the Swords to give to her.
Later that night, dressed up in her winter garments, Erma sneaks out of home, planning to break into Santa's workshop and steal a Sword for Sylvia. Remembering a well entrance she saw in a Christmas ad, she seeks out the very same well where she witnesses the Night Detective (another character from the Erma continuity), cast a spell on it, turning it into a portal. Entering the well, she realises that its destination is random, so Erma steals a Christmas bauble from a nearby Christmas Tree and throws it in, causing the portal to lead straight to the North Pole.
Sneaking inside Santa's workshop, Erma spots a lone Sword on a conveyer belt but just as she's about to grab it, she's spotted by an elf who alerts security. Dodging the elves, Erma dives after the Sword into Santa's bottomless bag, where she finally grabs onto it. However, Santa himself arrives and calmly picks her and the sword out of his bag. While he greets her very cordially, Erma is shocked by his gigantic stature and warps away into the shadows. From there, she keeps running from Santa who appears to be just around every corner, wishing to get the Sword back. Finally cornered, Erma runs into the Video Game testing room and leaps into one of the beta games: Chloe (another character by Brandon Santiago).
Entering the game, Erma finds herself under attack by robots but is saved by Chloe, who quickly guesses she's a ghost. Suddenly Chloe's nemesis Lady Balmoral appears and demands Erma to hand over the Sword, due to it being considered a relic in the game's far future setting. Withe the elves switching TV channels in an attempt to force Erma out, she's sent into yet another beta tested game, this being a prototype for Warrior Unicorn Princess. Bumping into her idol, Erma is utterly enamoured but is forced to exit the digital realm when the elves turn off the TV. Finding herself in a small room, she finds herself face to face with Mrs. Claus, who remarks that the Sword rightfully belongs to someone else and that if Erma's stealing it she must really need it. Realising that her actions weren't that pure, Erma sadly hands back the Sword and leaves back home, going back to sleep defeated.
The next morning, Erma wakes up to find a letter from Santa praising her for her kindness, along with her winter clothes and two copies of the Sword of Power, for both her and Sylvia. Arriving at her friend's house, Erma excitedly presents Sylvia with her new sword and, constructing a bunch of snowmen resembling villains from WUP, they happily begin to slash the snowmen down, ending the arc on a positive note. It's also revealed that the Sword Erma attempted to steal earlier actually was meant for Kentaro, due to him being a WUP fan as well.
Powers and abilities[]
- Hanyo physiology: Being the child of a human father and yokai mother, Erma has inherited multiple supernatural abilities from her maternal family, and as of now is one of the strongest characters in the webcomic, with the prequel comic Spirit's Bloom hinting she may have apocalyptic abilities. Thus far, she seems strong enough to even overpower her notoriously powerful grandparents, Osamu and Amaya.
- Supernatural physical attributes: Despite being a child, Erma is absurdly strong and durable, being capable of batting a baseball into orbit with minimal effort. She can also sustain being thrown around by beings such as the yokai trio with minimal injury.
- Supernatural hair: Erma's signature power. Erma can manipulate her hair in whatever way she wants, extending it and allowing her to use them as dextrously as extra limbs. Her hair also instantly grows back unless cut magically, much to Erma's annoyance. Upon going berserk after escaping the Jubokko tree, her hair control has grown tremendously as she can effortlessly summon huge pillars of them which can envelope whole landscapes, and she would've consumed Yureimoto village had her parents not calmed her down.
- Teleportation: Erma can teleport by emerging from dark shadows. She can also teleport from any body of water or through digital media such as videos, just like her mother who is seen entering the house via the kitchen sink.
- Shapeshifting: Erma can pliably manipulate her own body, being able to restructure her own face and change parts of her own body.
- Biological invulnerability: As an undead being, Erma is nearly invincible to any physical threats, being capable of casually ripping off her own skin without any negative consequences and can detach and reattach her own head. However, it's shown she does need to breathe and judging from her nightmares she might be vulnerable to fire.
- Wall climbing: Erma can scale walls with ease by climbing on all fours, commonly sticking to ceilings to spook unaware passers-by.
- Intangibility: Erma can pass through solid objects without any difficulty. It seems that this ability is subconscious as it is active while she's asleep.
- Invisibility: Erma can disappear and reappear in front of people in an instant, although it seems she isn't capable of being invisible for long periods of time.
- Flight: Erma is capable of flying around at very high speeds with great agility, as well as hovering around in place.
- Telekinesis: Erma is an incredibly powerful psychic, being able to levitate objects with ease and fling them around at high speeds, even controlling gaseous or intangible substances such as air or fire. One of her most impressive feats is when she uses telekinesis to cause a small avalanche during a snowball fight with Amy, controlling several tons of snow at a time and even forming it into a face resembling hers.
- Possession: Erma is capable of possessing both living and non-living objects, mind-controlling people by talking to them in a demonic language as well as being able to control and manipulate non-living things she possesses, as shown from how she twists the TV into a demonic machine when possessing it and manipulates Felicia's reflection in the mirror.
- Life absorption: Erma is shown to passively absorb the life force of certain organisms such as plants, as shown from how the flower Connor gives her instantly wilts and how grass dies when she lies on it. In the aftermath of her Blood Moon rampage, Kentaro comments that the wreckage Erma left appears drained of life, implying that this ability (and potentially all her other abilities) gets boosted significantly when under her Blood Moon Superform.
- Yokai awakening: After being imprisoned in the Jubokko tree and released, Erma temporarily became extremely strong, likely being powered by her own negative emotions. This allowed her to gain an even stronger control of her hair so much that she could envelope half of Yureimoto village in a matter of minutes, as well as mold it to torment her victims trapped inside. Her awakening also caused a blood moon to appear which was visible worldwide, even to her friends back in the US.
- Technology manipulation: Erma can freely manipulate and utilise technology, using screens to travel around and even being able to twist appliances into horrific abominations. Furthermore, as revealed in the short animation Smile, Erma's face becomes distorted into a ghoulish smile whenever she takes a photo, though this effect probably isn't voluntary.
- High intelligence: In one comic Erma is shown solving a complicated maths problem relatively quickly despite stressing over it for a while, showing she's quite intelligent for her age despite being in elementary school. She also solved a Rubik’s cube easily seconds after seeing one and later solved another puzzle appearing to be similar to the Lament Configuration.
- Black magic knowledge: Using a book of magic spells, Erma can do things such as temporarily turn her friends invisible and possess the TV. She also has knowledge on black magic such as voodoo, keeping voodoo dolls of other people with her most cherished one being that of Connor.
- Trilingualism: Erma can understand English and Japanese, as well as speak in a bizarre demonic language which she can use to possess others.
- Supernatural knowledge: Erma is highly knowledgeable on the supernatural, able to seek out a bus for monsters that she and Amy take to get to school on time, as well as being able to befriend cryptids and other beings easily.
Trivia[]
- Despite never speaking in the comics, Erma isn't mute, as she does exclaim when she has strong emotions and does attempt to speak but is always cut off. Likewise, she actually talks to the reader in "She Speaks", but as she forgets to open the window, her voice isn't heard, and she has to leave before she can repeat herself.
- Erma's infamy in her hometown has caused her family to be hounded by supernatural investigators, much to the chagrin of her father Sam who always shuts the door on them.
- For some reason, Erma's ear canal leads straight to a hellish dimension.
- Erma apparently resembles a younger version of her mother Emiko.
- Judging by several out-of-canon artworks done by Brandon Santiago, it appears Erma's signature smug smirk was inherited from Emiko as seen from one where the latter wears a "bikini" (really just a drawing of one scribbled onto her usual dress).
- Erma is banned from ingesting caffeine, as doing so will cause her to levitate everything in her vicinity in a hyperactive fit of evil laughter.
- Erma is shown to have rather strange eating habits typical of yokai, eating sandwiches filled with worms and bugs, requesting cat meat as hot dog toppings and eating rocks like candy.
- She is also shown to have a bizarre fear of Santa Claus, having nightmares of him and his elves baking her alive as a gingerbread cookie and thus sleeps with a knife under her pillow during Christmas. This fear is so strong she beats up her uncle Kentaro when he dresses as Santa, mistaking him for Father Christmas. However, she does appear to get over this fear after the events of the Christmas special where Santa Claus is revealed to be a genuinely goodhearted and kind giant.
- Erma is shown to sleep-float, causing mayhem as she floats everywhere which forces Emiko to go pick her up.
- In a similar vein to Bloody Mary, Erma can be summoned by saying her name thrice, coupled with either lighting a pentagram of candles or looking in the mirror. This is often used by Amy and the rest of Erma's friends when they need her help for homework.
- It's revealed in The Night Parade: Part 60 that Erma was once thalassophobic, being unable to enter a swimming pool without her parents' encouragement.
- While blood moons were often thought to cause emotional outbursts in Japanese mythology, the opposite was likely true for Erma summoning the blood moon as it likely manifested from her sheer anger.
- Erma is shown to have a crush on her friend Connor, owning a voodoo doll of him and becoming extremely flustered after she accidentally kisses him when she exits his computer.