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dollsandmasks · 2 years ago

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Hello, Youkai Watch fandom, today I bring you this.

I stumbled upon this alignment chart by accident, please tell me who made it if you have their info so I could credit them.

This alignment chart uses characters from Youkai Watch Shadowside and Forever Friends (mostly Shadowside, it's just this one guy from FF), and you can see I was scraping the barrel to fill some slots. It was very fun, though, and made me rewatch some episodes I haven't touched in a while, which is always a good thing. Also, I decided to only add one character per slot, the one who fits best in my opinion ( unless the characters are practically a single unit, such as the Onimaro Trio), but that ended up pushing some major figures to the side (like, for example, Keisuke and Akinori would both be Benefactors, and Fukurou and Douketsu would both be Soldiers, but I had to choose one for each category). I know that some characters don't really fit in these narrow slots, some are up for interpretation (how much do we really know about the Onimaro Leader or the corrupt royal advisers who framed Kuuten?), and some might be me misremembering the shit out of a show I'm in love with. If you have anything to add, please feel free to do so!

Here's the list, top left to bottom right, as well as some thoughts on their placement. Beware of spoilers, though, because it gets very spoilers!

Crusader - Tsukinami Touma. The post-movie Touma, obviously. He is a genuinely good guy who fights for what's right and is associated with sword imagery, what else can you say. Also, the reason he attacked the police station while under the influence of the Onimaro was because they made him believe the police weren't doing their job right and Touma was the only one who could fight crime efficiently, which means he must care about upholding the law, making him Lawful, alignment-wise.

Nurturer - Himeno Ayame. She is the kindest soul ever and doesn't want anyone to get hurt under any circumstances. She is the the only person on the show who is consistently nice to everyone, even the team's punching bag (Micchy, that is). And she is pretty social to boot.

Benefactor - Arihoshi Akinori. He is a free-roaming magical detective who will do illegal shit to solve a case, but will also do completely legal shit to solve a case, because he likes helping people and doing the right thing. Good for him.

Hero - Amano Natsume. I mean, who else would it be? She is literally the hero of this story, and she will try to deceive the villains by giving them chocolate bars instead of sacred swords, and I'm also not sure how legal jumping into that river from the movie was, she could have been fined for that if it didn't literally save a kid's life.

Vigilante - Jibanyan. All those Nyan Reno movies must have been one hell of an inspiration. He is a free spirit indeed, I mean, aren't all cats free spirits? And he is rough around the edges, but undoubtedly heroic and kind, and he will take on the supernatural law enforcements if they try to hurt someone who's dear to him.

Protector - Arihoshi Mitsue. She has high morals (some accidental dog-and-frogslaughter aside) and follows both the common Japanese laws and the laws dictated by the supernatural realm. She is not actively heroic (she tried her best during the movie, but at her age, she probably shouldn't have), but she is both a protector of tradition and a protector of the new generation of our spirit world doo-gooders. Respect the granny!

Counsellor - Whisper. Who else is there to give counselling to our leads if not the all-knowing butler himself? Whisper respects the laws of Youmakai, and appears to be working for Enma directly in the movie (I wonder if he still does during the show itself, that would explain where the detective agency gets the money to buy all these chocobars), but, as we can see from his past in the first anime, he is no stranger to barging into the royal palace and demanding laws be changed so he could keep hanging out with a friend. His relative closeness and complete lack of respect for Enma in some cases (the You-Tube prank and the Halloween boink come to mind) seems to indicate that he would be the most likely youkai to actually talk to Enma about changing the laws of the Youmakai if he disagrees with them, instead of following them begrudgingly (making him Lawful) or straight up breaking them (making him Chaotic).

Philosopher - Komasan. Why would a dog even care about laws? Also, he gives me general philosophical observer who would rather muse about the world around him than change it vibes. He is still a good doggo who will fight for his friends when they are in danger, and he follows his morals, but he will pay no respect to the silly human laws that forbid sentient creatures from urinating in the streets. Let him live, goddammit!

Rebel - Micchy. Acts without thinking? Check. Suffers the consequences? Check. Mantains a moral standing? Check. Would totally wear a leather jacket with a word "Rebel" etched onto the back? You betcha. I mean, many superhero comics and tokusatsu shows, which he is clearly a fan of, have rebellious protagonists who do the right thing and have high moral values without necessarily following the rules or staying in their lane, and many are at odds both with the criminals and with the law enforcements. Micchy himself has a delinquent background and would totally use underhanded tactics if necessary, but he is still a good guy and a self-professed hero. This guy is everything to me.

Trickster - Junior. Fudou Myouou Boy fits here too, to a lesser extent. Junior is still a little kid, so he views the world as a fun game to play, and being raised in a detective agency where exciting things tend to happen on a weekly basis is clearly affecting his development. He can be mischevious and cause minor trouble (including, but not limited to, eating someone's ark or cheating, like, twelve or so kids out of their Yu-Go-Oh! cards), and trickstery kinda comes with being a cat, but he is still a benevolent creature and will use his powers for good, even if using them for good means scaring a guy half to death (especially if it means scaring a guy half to death).

Judge - Lord Enma. Even with his throne usurped, he is still a just and honorable ruler who cares deeply about the safety of Youmakai and is willing to sacrifice himself to protect it. He is the law, or at least was the law before Lord Kaira took the throne for himself, but even then, saving Youmakai came first for Lord Enma, and getting his throne back came, like, third or so, he didn't even bother with it in the end. Nurarihyon could be in this spot as well, at least at the time of Shadowside, but the absolute shitshow that was his time as a consort in the second movie of the first anime makes me see him as more "Lawful Disaster" or "Lawful What the Fuck" than "Lawful Neutral". There was nothing neutral about him at the time, and even during Shadowside, his devotion to everything Enma kinda takes the neutrality out of him.

Soldier - Douketsu. Fukurou could be in this spot as well, but Douketsu had considerably more screen time than him, so I went with the teach. Fukurou can never win, can he? My poor owl child. Anyway, Douketsu is the devoted type. His moral compass is based entirely on what's best for the Oni clan, and, specifically, for Shutendoji. Shutendoji's wish is his command, and, even if he does not approve of his master's actions (see the Ayame/Jorogumo disaster for reference), he will always be there for him, will follow his every whim, and is more than willing to die for him (which he eventually does). Showing compassion to anyone but his fellow Oni clan members is out of the question, kidnapping little kids is the least he would do for his master. I wonder if his colleagues ever noticed anything strange about him during his short gig as a school teacher.

Undecided - Komajiro. Frog. That's it, that's the reasoning. He frog. Baby froggo. Dat boi. Why would he have morals, why would he follow the law? He loves his brother and is a friendly little creature, but he is more than capable of revenge, both petty and not-so-petty, and you will get your eye gouged out if he doesn't like you. This is what happens when you give a frog magical powers. Frogs cannot discern between good and evil, they don't need to, they are above that. Praised be the frogs. O shit waddup.

Rogue - Mitsumata Mizuchi. The Mitsumata Brother who did not grow out of his delinquent phase, but might begin to change his ways soon - not because he wants to be good or doesn't want to be evil, he just wants his brother to respect him. Laws, morals and alignments don't mean much to him, but his pride as a Mitsumata does, and so does his family (even if his reunion with an estranged brother did end up with a girl crying and a factory getting blown up). I don't think this guy respected a single law in his entire life, if he did not break a law, it means he just wasn't feeling like it on that particular day. His plan to get his brother's attention was to kidnap a girl, tie her to a chair and write a ransom note. I'm starting to think that watching too many movies and then poorly imitating them is a Mitsumata family trait.

Free Spirit - Ogu, Mogu and Togu. I'm including all three because they are an inseparable unit and play the same role in the story. While technically part of the malicious virus hive mind, they are not particularly motivated to do good or to do evil, they just float around doing what they are told, get attached to a guy and then help the guy in any way they can because they like him, whether it is by fighting the good guys, fighting the bad guys, performing a self-sacrifice or coming back after the self-sacrifice to float around once again. They even develop enough personality to get separated from the hive mind, all while not being technically good or bad. They literally become free spirits, after spending their entire lives as non-free spirits. Godspeed.

Overlord - the owner of NGEI, the power plant from the Robonyan 00 episode. His secretary also included because I couldn't be bothered to take a screenshot where he would be alone. A corrupt businessman who wants money and power, unsafe work practices be damned. You've seen these guys in the real world, now you get to see one on the screen. Not the strongest bad guy around, one combined effort from Whisper and Junior is enough to scare him into submission, and he gets his just desserts by the end of the episode. I know that the description says "bending" the law, and the guy clearly broke some laws in managing his power plant to get arrested at the end of the episode, but he fits otherwise, and bending the laws without technically breaking them can still get you in legal trouble if your power plant catches on fire and a group of kids nearly die. Shit, or was it a factory, not a power plant? I'd fact check if my browser didn't have a lethal amount of tabs open already.

Socialite - Lord Kaira. He wanted to lead all right, and lead he did. I don't think he was even that bad at it, like, everything bad that happened during Shadowside mostly took place in the human world, and the whole Soranaki kerfuffle wasn't even his fault. Nurarihyon is responsible for more ridiculous lawmaking than Kaira ever was, as far as we know. Lord Kaira's problem wasn't how he ruled, it was how he came to power (starting a coup and throwing a guy into a prison because he was more popular back in youkai school), and how he cared about power more than he did about effectively protecting his people (either that, or he genuinely believed he would just assimilate Fudou Myouou's power and slice Oni King Rasen in half effortlessly like a potato or something). On a sidenote, do we ever learn what kind of a human-youkai hybrid he is? Was he born from a youkai parent and a human parent, was he a human who somehow turned half-youkai, is he some weird magical amalgamation which resulted from some youkai scientists playing God? Either way, it clearly gave the guy some self-esteem issues that need to be adressed.

Schemer - the Onimaro Leader. You know, the guy from the movie who manipulated a lonely kid into doing lots and lots of crime, just so he could merge with Rasen, effectively stopping to exist in the process. We don't learn much about him, but he is hellishly good at manipulation (all of his scenes with Touma made me gawk at how good he was at reading that kid) and seems to be fairly smart and logical for someone whose goal is incomprehensible to humans. Like, why would you even want that? My theory is that all Onimaro are aspects of Rasen, one way or another, and the Leader represents his smart, logical and cunning side, you know, the traits that are kind of needed to be a competent king. This would mean that Ogu, Mogu and Togu represent friendliness, empathy and having an open mind, and these are the only three Onimaro he did not absorb. Says a lot about the guy, doesn't it?

Nomad - Shien. Yup, we are entering the Forever Friends zone, because it still counts as Shadowside, kinda, sort of, same game! He is a prince who hates his dad and wants to prove himself while also being a dick about it, and a lot of political and family drama follows, resulting in many senseless and tragic deaths among the common folk. You know, just like with real life monarchies. Also, Shutendoji was there, and it made things worse (of course it made things worse), and then Soranaki attacked, and Amaterasu of all youkai was there for some reason (it lasted for three seconds and he had, like, three lines of dialogue), and we ended up getting a baby Enma as a result. This movie was something else, I'm telling you. Anyway, Shien had zero respect for anything and anyone, ever, and his second life as Lord Enma is a big improvement (his second-second life as Hikage Mao is an improvement as well, he manages to be a background character for 214 episodes of the first anime without making it known that he can see youkai, despite everything that was happening around him in the classroom. A true legend).

Psychopath - Jorogumo. Hello, my favourite spider lady! We've all heard about women's rights, now get ready for women's wrongs. She does not. Give. A fuck. Morals can fuck right off, she will suck a guy's soul from his dead skull, and she will commit identity theft while commiting a different identity theft (theftception) to manipulate a simp into doing dirty work for her, and she will ridicule him every step of the way, and she will endanger all lives, any lives, as long as she gets to do what she loves (murder and consumption of human flesh). There has never been a better depiction of "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss" as a character, and that phrase originated long after Shadowside came out. I love how she got to hang out in the opening credits long after the gang had defeated her. That's how much of an impact she had on everything, all while not being even remotely connected to the Soranaki drama (if she was present during Shuka and Kuuten's time, though, she would totally meddle with them to make sure the drama gets even juicier and everyone suffers even more, all while pretending to be Shuka's bff, friendship bracelets and all. I want a fanfic of this, not gonna lie).

Dominator - the corrupt advisors who framed Kuuten. This is the only slot that I have genuinely pulled out of the depths of my ass. How much do we even know about these guys? Why did they frame Kuuten? Were they worried that he was getting too much influence in the Youmakai court due to being Shuka's lover? Were they planning to set Shuka up with a different suitor to further their political agenda? Did Kuuten do something to anger them, maybe he vetoed a law he shouldn't have or crossed paths with the wrong politician? Was there genuinely a plot to kill Shuka's father, and the advisors decided to frame Kuuten to cover up the true culprit's ass? Were the advisors themselves behind the assassination plot? Or... Maybe the advisors genuinely believed that Kuuten was scheming behind their backs, but they had no evidence so they faked it in fear that Kuuten will go through with the assassination while they are too busy trying to catch him red-handed, and it was their distrust of him, not genuine malice, that got him killed. Either way, I needed someone for the Dominator slot, so let's go with the assumption that they framed Kuuten because they were evil, and were most definitely methodical and intentional while doing so. Honestly, I'm not even sure if it's them in the picture I used, or just some youkai they hired to get rid of the pesky Kuuten supporters. That's how vague the Kuuten situation is. Real world history tends to do that too, actually.

Sociopath - Shutendoji. Let me make this clear, the alignment chart uses the term as a description of a character archetype, I'm not trying to actually diagnose Shutendoji with sociopathy or anything. He clearly needs therapy (don't we all?), but I'm not sure if that would be the right diagnosis for him, same as I'm not sure if an actual medical professional would diagnose Jorogumo with psychopathy (they would probably get eaten by her before they could finish the assessment). Anyway, this guy had an agenda (to put Shuka back in charge of Youmakai, whatever it takes), and he sacrificed everything for this agenda. We don't know if it was his personal decision or if he was raised like that by the Oni clan and just trying to finish what his ancestors had started; we don't know if he genuinely believed that life would be better for everyone under the Oni clan's rule, or if he just wanted to have political power and saw Shuka as the only way to get it. His devotion to Shuka is almost fanatical in nature, his one-track mind makes him miss obvious signs that Something is Wrong, and everything about him screams "a kid who got brought up in a literal cult and does fucked up things because he doesn't know any better", but does that absolve him of responsibility for, well, everything that happened? Not really. Also, by the time we last see him in Shadowside, his two closest friends and allies are dead, his plan has failed, he has nowhere to go and he plans on drowning his sorrows in alcohol so he wouldn't have to face the existential dread of having failed the task that he's been preparing for his entire life. The tragedy of Shuka gave birth to the tragedy of Shutendoji, and time will tell if it, too, will result in a Soranaki-level threat that some kid with a magical watch will have to fix in a hudred years or so. Jiba Jinpei's descendants better get ready.

Malefactor - Oni King Rasen. The first trial our heroes had to face on their journey to Time Timely. The monarch who actually does something, that something being smashing stuff, throwing girls into rivers, shooting blood spikes at people and generally being an evil piece of shit. He is so mindlessly evil, it's kinda hard to hate him, unless you consider him and the Onimaro Leader to be parts of the same personality, then yes, he is very hateable. Also, his defeat made for a very entertaining kamishibai play by an obscure, but highly talented artist Mike Shadowside. Look, I'm referencing my own old posts now. It's time for me to go to bed, and, thankfully, we are almost done.

Anarchist - Shiroda, the thug from the first episode. At first I misremembered his name as Sorada and wanted to have an entire bit about how him being the first enemy of the series proper was a subtle foreshadowing for Soranaki, but alas, my bad memory is to blame. Anyway, he is a criminal who does criminal things criminally and beats eleven year olds with a chain. A disgrace to all anarchists everywhere, good thing the ghost of a little boy who looks inexplicably like Kujo Jotaro got him beat up.

Destroyer - Soranaki. The grief of a wrongly accused and executed innocent which took shape and went apeshit on everything, but especially his ex-girlfriend. Destruction of beauty and life, indeed. He wants to take away lives the same way his own life was taken away once. Tokio Ubaune from the first movie of the first anime had something similar going on, but her scope was not nearly that big, and her ex actually had nothing to do with it, yet he becomes the reason she changes her ways in the games, which is kind of another parallel to Soranaki. I guess the Amano family is just doomed to keep dealing with bitter spirits who are murderously angry about getting wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit and dying in prison as a result (an understandable reaction, not gonna lie), and the best solution just happens to bring their long dead ex to them so they could make up.

Oh God, I'm going to have so much fun tagging all of this, aren't I?

Anyway, have a nice Youkai Watchi-chi day, I hope the time is timing timely for you.

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geminmyeyes · 1 year ago

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Chapter 2 - Beyond Light and Shadow (Tumblr Backup)

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Somewhere in the Youkai World, a palace plunged in the darkest shadow, leaking with powerful yoki energy much like a stray drop of ink darkening the once clear water. Lit only by faint azure flames, a cold, calculating youkai with a feminine form sat upon her throne of decaying bone.

“Goku Hyakki-Hime, your majesty,” Chiharu began, kneeling before the might of the frigid hearted queen he served so loyalty for saving his life. His Kenbumajin was by his side, being able to manifest without the need for him and Chiharu to switch places like they did in the Human World. “I’ve done the request of bringing back the requested youkai, however,”

“However, what?” The queen’s cold voice spoke, her voice not either curious or furious. It was devoid of tone, not even that or boredom or bemusement.

“There was a group of individuals who possessed various Youkai Watch devices that opposed my efforts, I was able to fend them off with the aid of the Genma and the Kenbumajin you have given me, even killed one of their Kenbumajin,” Chiharu began his report, trying to save face. “But they seem to have the current lord of the Youkai World on their side, meaning it’s possible for them to get intel on the location of the Sacred King’s Armory.”

“The Hellfire Judgement Lance is a big maybe given the Mikado Tribe’s connections,” Chiharu’s Kenbumajin piqued in, trying to remain as collected as possible despite the sarcasm and need to make a biting remark flowed through his veins. “But the others I greatly doubt, given how scattered a lot of them are, both in the Human and Youkai Worlds. Even then, it took me breaking the limiters on my armor to get rid of that one Kenbumajin, dunno when I’ll be ready for that kind of power again.”

“Don’t fret though, my queen,” The Kenbumajin added to his statement. “That lance wielder isn’t even the one that killed me the first go around, we should be more than fine.”

“Technically don’t we have a Scared King’s Armory in our possession?” Chiharu piqued. His queen looked dull, but something in her eyes gave something resembling worry.

“It’s grafted to something I’d rather not think about unless it’s a moment of desperation. Besides, there’s no telling where the holder of such a weapon is so we can’t even use the power of one of the Sacred King Kenbumajin against them,” Goku Hyakki-Hime gave a typical lifeless response. “The two of you can go recover for now. Chiharu, please visit me in this throne chamber when you wake up, there are necessary upgrades I must bestow upon you.”

As the two were dismissed, Goku Hyakki-Hime shifted her focus elsewhere, to a fellow Oni that had been dragged in by her loyal knights.

Shutendouji, who was gradually becoming more and more conscious, shot right back to reality when Goku Hyakki-Hime held up his chin. In her stiff motions, there was at the very least a valiant, noble attempt to try to give him a tantalizing look. Damn, she must’ve known his tendency to obey anyone who calls herself princess. Without Douketsu to tell him how much of a simpleton he was acting like, he felt himself not too keen to improve on such a weak spot. Plus he had to admit, despite her dead motions, this queen lady was really damn cute.

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The events from last week were, to put bluntly and simply, a lot to process despite happening in rapid succession. Not only was this Chiharu kid on their level, but had a Kenbumajin that was insanely powerful, leaving Asura greatly weakened and Fudou Muyoou dead in Youkai Terms. At least, that's what everyone guessed, not a soul had seen the ruffian boy form he took when he wasn’t lending his electrifying power to Touma anywhere. The kids had a vague idea on where to get help, but it was cryptic and they were at the end of the day, a bunch of first year high school students.

Yes, they saved all of Human and Youkai kind from extinction when they were only in middle school, but this felt different despite seeming initially, a much less pressing threat on the surface. Taking over the world at least had a chance of reclaiming it as opposed to full on extinction, but those wanting to take it had one hell of a dangerous ace up their sleeve.

Just who was that guy, anyways? Youkai existed in legends beforehand, the portrayal of the people being a bit different to how it is in the reality of the Youkai World (Lord Enma being a particular example, he can’t even grow a beard), and it puzzled Natsume. She had spent a whole night reading upon legendary archers with possible sun affiliations. Legends of an expert archer who shot down the nine suns upon request, punished with mortality alongside his wife. Another about a child of a sun god who started one of the bloodiest wars by being offered the most beautiful woman in the world. Several words were read about a prince fearful to fight against his family, but being assured it would be okay in the end by the literal universe itself. Stories of a god of sun, light, kingship, and the arts possessing a powerful sling and being the father to an equally great, if not greater, hero. So much information, such little time. A board originally for keeping memos and the occasional cute pin was now covered in thumb tacks and string with several handwritten notes from various paper pads she had kicking around in her room.

“The sun motifs and archery could have melded together, alongside a bitter resentment from becoming mortal for simply doing as he was instructed to do…” Natsume pondered aloud, gripping the pencil between her hands. “That guy HAS to be Hou-Yi! If I turn out to be wrong then I’ll be–”

“Natsume, sweetie?” A familiar, soft voice spoke, the door creaking open without a moment’s hesitation between the gentle knock that preceded. From that string of actions and voice, she recognized her as her mother instantly.

“Y-Yes, mom?” Natsume choked out as politely as she could, trying to ease up from the sudden entrance of her mother and about to yell a swear.

Natsume’s mother simply just looked at her board with a puzzled look but an earnest nod. “I hope you’re having fun with…whatever you’re doing right now, but remember you start school tomorrow so it’s not the best idea if you stay up too late, alright?”

Crap, she had been staying up too late going down rabbit holes of information again, hadn’t she?

“I-I will! Wow, time sure does fly sometimes!” The daughter answered back rather awkwardly, her mother closing the door gently as she left.

In a moment of awkward silence, Natsume realized she should probably go to bed soon. It was halfway past midnight already. Her brain was already fairly fried by looking up so much information and trying to piece it all together.

As she was turning off the lamp and main light in her room, the corkboard stared her down. “HOU-YI” was written boldly and confidently in the center of the board, alongside a crude scribble of what she remembered that Kenbumajin looked like. String connected points to points from different stories and legends.

She hoped that she would be able to balance all of this alongside the turbulence of starting high school tomorrow.

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A positive note for Natsume is that the day started out normally. Just take her seat, pay attention to what each teacher has to say, no sweat no problem. It was the first day after all, nothing too difficult would be given on the first day.

That would be the case if it wasn’t for the army of girls that manifested out of what felt like absolute thin air to crowd around one guy in particular.

Whoever he was, he radiated with the distinct scent of lavender vanilla, and his skin was a divine smoky quartz free of any blemishes, glittering like the finest copper. Hair was a dark oxide red that had a few lilac hair extensions brushed in for extra effect. He was practically a modern Aprhodite, just casually going about with a posse of girls.

“It’s. It’s literally the first day!?” Natsume thought to herself, casually picking up the pace with walking to her classroom to avoid getting roped into whatever nonsense was going on over there. She took a seat, closed her eyes, and hoped whoever would plop into the desk next to her for the rest of the year would be tolerable.

“I’m surprised that there’s a girl not instantly captivated by me,” The boy from earlier spoke, and to Natsume’s shock, was going to be right next to her for the rest of the year. Just great.

She didn’t bother to give him an introduction, making the kid’s smug face humbled slightly. This one would be a challenge, he thought.

“My name is Saito Mitsue, I kindly ask you to not forget such an important thing,” He tried to play it as smooth as he could, covering up his embarrassment and failing slightly at hiding it.

“I’m, uh, Natsume Amano,” Natsume answered bluntly within a bit of a bemused blurting out of an introduction.

Classes went by relatively normally, not even the homeroom teacher felt like they were secretly a malicious youkai this time around. Maybe this would all be normal. Aside from the aforementioned threats of a hostile conqueror of the human and Youkai worlds but that could wait until after a long drawl of classes. The last of these classes was next.

“Oh brother, Home Economics. Not my forte,” Saito bit his lip a bit in dread, Natsume looking a bit puzzled.

“Is it that hard? Mostly just learning a few different skills,” Natsume tried to reassure to the best of her ability. Saito looked off to the side a bit, his hand to the side of his face.

“Ehhh, I was never the best cook, I had to always get my brother to help me out–”

The rather fabulously eccentric boy’s train of thought came to a screeching halt when the door slid open and the one who would bear knowledge of home economics entered the room. He looked to be pretty toned and ripped. Slightly sunbaked skin could be seen through his mostly clean and professional look with a collared shirt and tie, but he had a scruffy, uneven beard, like he attempted to shave but the razor blades broke instantly on the first go around.

“Alright, let’s get this introduction brief and simple so we can get to the good stuff,” The man spoke, his voice strong yet gentle, crossing his arms to do his best to seem cool. “Name’s Mr. Kazama, and I’ll be your coach in showing you how to make the most of your home, from how to use appliances to how to cook well!”

As the last class of the day continued, Chiharu stood on the roof of the building, looking over something he was given this morning from his queen. It was a Youkai Arc, but the usually translucent white outer edge was pitch black, not a bit of light was allowed through despite its resemblance to a gemstone in terms of texture and weight.

“This is a Dark Arc,” Her words echoed in his mind. “It gives a boost to a Youkai’s Shadowside form, but it can only be summoned in its Shadowside form and they will not really listen to you all that well. Summon them from a safe distance.”

He had asked about wanting to summon two fierce looking youkai he saw among the Dark Arcs, one of lightning and one of wind, but was ordered to refrain from summoning them due to the summoning system still being a prototype and those youkai in particular being a little more unruly. But perhaps if these Youkai Detectives prove themselves as a particular thorn in their side.

Initially, there was hesitation. A small part of Chiharu wondered if this was the right thing to do, something about the arc he was given and the ones his queen presented felt ominous in some way.

But, an order from the queen is an order, and he had to obey to prove his gratitude towards his pointless life having been given some meaning.

In the same slot he would insert his Youseiken key into, Chiharu slotted in the arc, a shadowy energy coming out of the watch grafted to his arm as the face gave a faint glow. The words he was instructed to say flooded his mind and he held the dark arc over the watch face.

“One whose heart is sealed in darkness, let the world know your wrath!” The dark fog spread more and more until it summoned forth a youkai, where that youkai ended up or what it ended up being was unclear as the summoning coordinates seemed to be a bit off.

But what could be gathered was that this youkai had made the previously idyllically bright and sunny skies be covered in dense clouds that brought in buckets of hard hitting rain. Chaos was unleashed almost within an instant, it was quickly a record for schools to dismiss their students to let them go home early in this sudden freak storm.

The blare of grating storm warning sirens and frazzled looking weather reporters, it was a delight for the wicked child.

In the midst of the sudden shift of weather without a single warning, among all the panic, a silver eyed university student was staying level headed, but was puzzled by the sight.

“The weather patterns for today…they didn’t line up like this at all!” Shirogane muttered to himself, pulling up a somewhat shady website on his phone, the occult reporting site Usuranura. There was no way that this was a freak accident of weather, he had forecasted that it was going to be clear skies from sunrise until sunset.

But was this all a work of something supernatural, or was he just a fraudulent meteorologist in training? Was this path even right? His mind was quite literally clouded.

Even then, the request was submitted, sitting in his university's science ward peacefully to try to inspect this bizarre phenomenon.

To Shirogane’s surprise, there was a response to his request, and by the time he looked at it and put his phone down (the phone service on campus was a bit shoddy and slow), three spunky high school students stood before him.

“Oh hey, aren’t you that guy I ran into last week? Shirogane Inazuma was it?” Natsume asked, the aforementioned man nodding.

“Yes, it seems the rain keeps making us meet,” Shirogane commented, before getting back to the matter at hand. “As you can probably tell, there has been a sudden burst of rain despite there being no clouds as far as the eye could see earlier, and there’s no signs of it stopping either. It has the potential to become a Typhoon if it keeps up…”

“Shouldn’t you be headed home if the weather has the potential to be that bad?” Touma asked, Shirogane simply shaking his head in response.

“I’m a meteorology student, an understudy weatherman if you will, I can’t back down even when things look dire like this,” He answered, lost in thought.

“Well that settles it, this has to be the work of a Youkai, without a doubt!” Akinori concluded, Whisper looking up from his Y-Pad in a slightly shocked expression when the boy came to that conclusion.

Without further hesitation, investigation began to be underway between the trio, plus Shirogane and his knowledge of the facility. Something about this place, the Youkai causing this freak storm had to be around here somewhere…

Nearby weather radars kept monitoring, the rain being particularly intense around the facility’s building. The rain that was going over the building was less drops of rain and more of bullets battering the daylights out of the structure.

Amidst the pour of rain there was…crying…sobbing? How strange. The four of them were the only ones in the building.

A shadowy presence could be seen down the hallway, Natsume pressed a switch on her Watch without a moment of hesitation to shine a light.

Revealed within the cloud of shadow was a Youkai resembling a little girl, with blue skin and lilac hair that was sopping all over her crying face. Her torn umbrella dripped off waterfalls worth of water.

“I’ll try to lock the building where I can, we can’t have all that water trying to damage our equipment!” Shirogane made his intentions clear, meaning everyone would have to try to be careful within limited space confines, and a possible threat of flooding! Good thing this seemed to be a meeting room, so there was some space aside from a table in the middle of the room.

“Summoning, Shadow! Please come out my friend, Jibanyan!” Natsume didn’t hesitate in summoning the (mostly) reliable cat youkai, always there to lend a paw. That or perhaps it was merely just a habit. Regardless the feeling was summoned, but quickly reverted to his Lightside form when he was exactly what he was pitted up against.

“You expect me to square up against a kid?” Jibanyan questioned with a lot of hesitation to fight. “Look, I get it, I can punch a truck in half but I don’t beat up kids. I have a code of honor.”

The rainy youkai, having had enough of the bickering, casted forth some water to try to sweep the feline away, who just resulted in jumping onto a nearby fridge and hissed.

“You’re so…so mean and scary!” The smaller youkai sobbed, the water situation getting much worse by the minute.

“Possession, Genma! Yoshitsune! Lend me your strength!” Touma jumped in, figuring a smaller, less destructive Genma might be the key to winning this fight. In the meantime, Natsume fumbled around for another arc.

“Summoning, Shadow! Please come out my friend, Komsan!”

Within no time both the flute wielding Genma and the fierce shrine dog had made their appearances at last. Swiftly they took off into their own directions to deal with the situation at hand.

Yoshitsune was first to start things off, softly trying to approach the child.

“Is something troubling you, miss?” Yoshitsune asked politely, the child looking in the direction of the flute wielding Genma.

Her response was to smack the Genma silly, giving him a piece of her mind the whole time.

“There’s nothing wrong with me, you meanie!” She cried out, Yoshitsune backing off a bit after smacking the Youkai away with his small but handy sword. Something in her voice was a bit off however, like a child wasn’t this irrational to be calmly asked if everything was okay, right?

“It seems there is some sort of curse making this Youkai’s Shadowside much more violent and unreasonable than it typically is,” Yoshitsune gave his insight to the situation at hand.

“Alright, well it might be best to see if ol’ Komasan can get an opening on that kid and I can see if a little bit of Yojistu can get her out of her funk!” Akinori explained his plan, coordination on the fight being underway.

While waters began to rise in the small meeting room, Komasan tried to figure out how to knock over the Youkai without causing too much harm to a literal child. So using his finisher to summon a huge rock statue to crush her seemed to be an absolute last resort plan.

The dog’s thoughts were stopped by a jet of water being blasted into his direction, jumping out of the way made him run into a chair with wheels and nearly crashing into a wall had he not stopped himself at the last possible moment. Wait a second…perhaps…?

Leaping out of the chair, Komasan proceeded to kick it square in the direction of the rainy youkai, making her wobble a bit where she stood.

“Now!” Komasan barked, Akinori getting a smug look on his face.

“Alright, time to shine, take this!” The priest boy yelled, making a star formation out of magic and tossing it at the rainmaking Youkai, causing a burst of light to purify the troublesome youkai.

Finally, the rain had stopped. The sun started to break through the clouds, slowly starting to dry up the sopping wet ground.

“Is everything alright?” Shirogane asked from the other side of the locked door.

“All clear skies!” Natsume answered, all the locks in the facility being disabled and going back to normal.

All the flooding water that had resulted from the encounter had dried up and now standing was a much cheerier youkai bathed in sunny yellows and a less torn up umbrella. Her face was graced with an expression of pure, unparalleled joy.

“How did I end up here?” The sunny Youkai asked herself curiously, the teens approaching her.

“Hey there little miss, is everything alright?” Natsume inquired, the youkai just smiling in return.

“Yeah, I just got lost,” The asked youkai answered sickeningly sweetly. “By the way, my name is Hare-Onna, my shadowside there is called Ame-Onna but I often get mixed up with my mama if you aren’t super specific. Plus I like being happier and sunnier anyways!”

“Hare-Onna, do you know what happened to cause you to act out in such a way? You don’t seem like the type to do that often,” Touma added in, the girl thinking for a bit before giving a slight sigh.

“I don’t remember much, I remember seeing a mean looking boy as the last thing before my memory got really clouded.” Hare-Onna answered, trying not to seem too glum but perked right back up. “But! I think they might have put a spell on me to be really mean. Usually I stay in one place when I’m in my Shadowside form, I don’t like causing trouble.”

Mean looking boy, that’s probably Chiharu…

“So whoever this Queen of a Hundred Demons is, she must have something that causes Youkai to go berserk and violent,” Akinori thought for a moment, piecing it all together.

“An evil queen? That sounds awful, please, let me help out in any way that I can!” Hare-Onna called to action, handing out her Arc without a moment of hesitation. “I pinky promise that I’ll listen and be nice, even when I’m upset and go into Shadowside!”

“Thank you, we’re doing our best to figure out how to stop her before things get out of hand,” Natsume smiled back, the sunny enthusiasm rubbing off on her.

Meanwhile, Shirogane thought to himself, some of the words the priest boy was saying. A Queen of a Hundred Demons? Why did that sound so…so eerily familiar?

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Miles and miles away, far off in France, a museum tour to a group of high schoolers was underway, taking them through a special exhibition showing off various weapons from across the world.

Swords, spears, shields, knives, bows and arrows, you name it, from all corners of the globe, they were on display. While each was a crafted thing of beauty to behold, there was one that caught the pale blue eye of one student that came abroad.

“Excuse me, could you tell me more about this really pretty archery bow you have here?” Ayame politely asked one of the curators, pointing in the direction of a bow made of pure platinum highlighted with bright cyan accents.

“Yes, that bow was found by the curation team of this traveling exhibit, and they found it in the Yamuna River miraculously intact and without a scratch!” The curator gave a gentle smile and began to explain. “It’s a miracle such a thing of pure platinum didn’t seem to rust. Because of its ability to have been kept in pristine condition and where it was found, the curation team has decided to call it ‘Gandiva’. Shame that tomorrow we have to pack things up to go to our next stop in Japan…it’s a wonderful piece of weaponry and art.”

“Thank you, and I agree, it is quite a beautiful piece of artistry!” Ayame thanked, before starting to take mental notes, as something about the bow looked strangely familiar.

She got out her phone to scroll through her group chat log between her and the other detectives across the continent and to the sea, further inspecting the engraving from the Youkai World she had been sent in the chat. It was a rhythmic pattern of looking at her screen and then back at the display case.

There was no denying it had a similar four gem set up with a colored diamond much like the other Youseiken she had seen. The primary color of cyan matched the depiction seen in the large engraving, even some of the distinct patterns were translated.

Making sure her hands were steady, Ayame got the best photos she could, getting a few closeups as well, making sure nothing was missed by any glares from the glass or random museum goers being in frame. Then, the photos were sent alongside a message and sticker of a cute rabbit with polka-dotted inner ears making a shocked expression.

“Hey guys, I think this might be one of the Sacred King’s Armory Youseiken you guys were talking about to me last week!?”

“Woah! Do you know if it’s a permanent part of that exhibit or of a touring exhibit?”

“They said it’ll be on the road to Japan starting tomorrow, so it might be at a museum where you guys are all at! It’s called the Marvelous Weapons Of the Past Three Millennia exhibition!”

#yo kai watch shadowside #yokai watch shadowside #shadowside

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