Houchou is a chaotic-aligned artifact weapon-tool, a spoon (yes, spoon) in SLASH'EM. It is thrown at a target, and if it hits, it instakills the victim. There is no defense against Houchou, but if it hits a target, the tool itself is always destroyed in the process. So, save this little item till later in the game, for a truly "deserving" adversary. Don't throw it up in the air; it will kill you. Randomly, Houchou is made of platinum.