#i think about the heian four so bad

[justsomerandomplanet]

Uraume talking about how sorcerers of old disregarded their humanity....looks at tengen who has been called a "higher being" and sukuna who is a natural disaster, a calamity....kenjaku who's whole curse technique means to disregard the human body....

[gatorbites-imagines]

Kinktober day 23

Ryomen Sukuna + Power Bottom

True form Sukuna my beloved. I want him so bad. Had a lot of fun writing this, I miss Sukuna so much. Gojo clan reader, cuz hehe. Uh, mentions of cannibalism in this, cuz its Sukuna. Takes place during the Heian era.

2024 kinktober masterlist

It was difficult to breathe, feeling the sheer weight that was Sukuna pressing down on you. Or maybe it was the fact that one of his four hands was wrapped around your neck, his hand so big he couldn’t even fit the entire thing around your fragile neck.

Your arms were pinned above your head, pulled taught just enough to ache but not break, another of his hands easily holding your wrists with just his thumb and pointer finger. Your chest shuddered as Sukuna ground his hips down on you again, pulling a whimper of overstimulation out of you around the fingers he had inside your mouth.

It was hard to keep track of where his four hands went at all times. You knew one was choking you, one was trying to bruise the back of your throat, and a third was holding your arms. But, where was the last one?

A muffled yowl forced its way out your chest as you felt a sudden pinch of pain in your ballsack, tear filled eyes shooting open to look up at Sukuna as if begging him for an explanation. His grin was feral, like it always was when he wanted to “use his favourite toy”. It brought him some kind of thrill to have someone from the Gojo clan under his bulk, bending but not breaking under his strength, and wrung dry until you couldn’t feel your legs.

“What? My ass not good enough for you? why are you thinking about something else Brat” he snarled, the one arm you hadn’t kept track of moving behind him, followed by a cruel squeeze of your sensitive sack. You couldn’t apologize or explain yourself, nor did you want too, since you knew Sukuna loved to see you cry. His face might be stuck in a sneer, but the mouth on his stomach was smirking and licking at your abdomen, showing his true emotions.

You wanted to shake your head, you were here, you just couldn’t help but float off somewhere else after Sukuna had been riding you all night. He always got extra excited after slaughtering sorcerers, you had an inkling he must have killed some of your former clan members with how hard hed ridden you.

For the most part you didn’t even understand why he liked you enough to keep you alive. You were nothing like your clan. You didn’t inherit any of the clans known abilities, and you were even the result of one of the higher ranked women spreading her legs for a no name sorcerer with no clan, leaving you with a bloodline that left you near indestructible.

Maybe it was the fact that you had successfully killed one of your younger cousins, one who had been born with the six eyes, out of nothing but hate for your clan and jealousy. Maybe it was the fact that you had fled to his territory, carrying that younger cousin’s corpse like some sick trophy. Or maybe, it was because you had offered him the corpse, knowing it would anger your clan more than anything else you could have done.

It wouldn’t have been strange for him to have killed you right then and there. But instead, Sukuna had grinned big and feral, with the same glint in his eyes he got when he was about to wipe out a village of innocent non-sorcerers. The mouth on his stomach had licked its lips, and at the time you had imagined it was because of the priced corpse you had given him. When in reality, it was the sight of you, with that dark look in your eyes, covered from head to toe in the blood of your so-called family.

There hadn’t been much to live for, there never was, so swearing your loyalty to Sukuna didn’t mean much to you. Uraume had been quite suspicious of you for a while, until you had proven yourself enough for him. Sukuna had simply been entertained, sending you on trips to kill more of your clansmen or allies of your clan, just to see how far you would go.

The first time he decided that you would be more than just a simple tool had been out of your understanding. You were a sorcerer, but you had never been trained to the same level as those around you, which meant you didn’t notice the flicker of cursed energy unfurling inside you.

It was familiar to Sukuna, and enough to make him salivate. He had been human once, and he knew what to look for when it came to someone turning into a curse. The hate you had festered for your clan and all the abuse they put you through had put you on the right path, and you starting to eat human flesh to please him only watered the seed you had always carried.

You had been stunned at the time as Sukuna invited you to join him in his personal bath, but who were you to turn your lord down. You had seen Sukuna naked multiple times before, having seen him strip down from his hunts and killings, you had even helped Uraume in scrubbing him down, but this was different.

It was even more shocking for you when he shortly told you to wash him, the curse sitting back with his thighs splayed apart and his arms resting behind him outside of the pool of water. You couldn’t truly say no, and you really didn’t want too either, so the choice was easy. You ended up dropping the sponge though, when Sukuna rose out of the water, just to bend over the edge of the natural spring, as he told you to use your mouth to clean him with one of his hands pulling himself open.

From then it was like a fountain had opened. Sukuna had many men and women passing through his chambers, most sacrifices or those that thought they could curry favour with the king of curses, but none of them ever left alive, instead ending up as meat stuck between his teeth.

But you, you survived, even if you felt like he had drained the very life out of your cock with his hungry mouths and ass. If you thought the mouth on his face was lethal, then you hadn’t expected just how skilled the mouth on his stomach was.

Sukuna regularly enjoyed just pressed down on top of you, the mouth on his stomach licking and sucking until you were sobbing from overstimulation. That was never the end of it, of course. He wouldn’t be the king of curses if it was. Instead, Sukuna used cursed energy to get you hard again, just so he could ride you.

A sharp pain in your taint forced you back to the present again, a warbled keen passing your lips as tears ran down your face, what had to be your tenth orgasm of the night rolling through you. your toes curled against the floor, kicking uselessly under Sukunas muscular body.

You heard him tsk above you, his rocking hips coming to a stop on top of your own, his plush muscular ass pressing against your bruised hips and thighs. “Hey, Brat” he grunted, pulling his fingers from your mouth to pat at your tear-stained cheek, strings of spit still hanging from his fingers to your tongue.

Even without his clawed fingers inside his mouth, it still wants impossible to speak. Your tongue felt too thick and heavy, useless and limp and impossible to curl into letters to form words. It was hard to even see his face from how blurry your vision was, a pleasant ache running through your body. You may be half Gojo and near indestructible, but you truly were nothing against someone as powerful as Sukuna.

He gave a huff above you as you turn your head, nuzzling against his palm like an affectionate puppy, which was as close as you could get to express your feelings right now. Sukuna sighed out a longer breath, his hands releasing you, allowing you to take a deep shuddering breath, your arms staying above your head as you felt too weak to move them.

“Guess I can’t expect more out of you” he grumbled, sounding almost annoyed but there was an undercurrent of something softer and warmer. The ache of overstimulation shot through you body as Sukuna rose off you, your poor abused cock falling limp against your stomach. “Oh, shut up, it’s not so bad” the curse rumbled, sounding closer to a purr than his usual growl.

The mouth on his stomach licked its lips hungrily at the sight of your dick, clearly wanting to lick up all the fluids still covering it, or the many streaks of cum, blood, tears and what other bodily fluids covering your body. The thought of that large tongue running over you made you shudder again, part of you yearning, another part wanting to shy away.

“Come here” the curse huffed, picking you up with ease, your body limp in his hold as his two bottom arms held you against his torso. The world felt like it was running together around you, your legs still felt limp and useless, continuous shudders running through your body as you melted against him.

It sounded like Sukuna had called for Uraume, but you couldn’t be sure, as even your hearing felt muffled. Maybe you really had cum more than ten times, you normally didn’t float this far away with just that.

One of Sukunas free hands ran through your sweaty hair, letting you arch into it as he carried you towards his personal bath. You were the only toy who entertained him and that he couldn’t break, so he had to take care of you. that was it, no other reason. The king of curses couldn’t care about anybody, but Sukuna did hate you less than everyone else.

[clairewritesjjkxreader]

Sukuna’s Wife and Yuuji’s Onee-chan (Sukuna x Reincarnated!Y/N) scenario: Heian era childhood

Request by @serendipitylovescat

A/N: This is a possible origin story for Sukuna and Y/N in this onee-chan au, but I haven’t made up my mind as to how the two met and what their lives were like in the early days. Much like with the Joker’s multiple choice past, it’s the mystery that keeps on giving. Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE.

Trigger warning: child abuse, bullying, violence, swearing

Ryomen Sukuna. Two-faced Sukuna. Bastard. Murderer. Halfling. Demon.

Normally, parents give extra thought when naming their children. For a lot of boys, they’re usually named based on desired traits like “strong” or “powerful.” But for this son, his father snidely called him “two-faced” and the name stuck. 

Like every baby when they are born, Sukuna arrived in this world covered in blood and weeping. The other villagers could only think of the worst outcome for his mother. After all, so many young wives who were healthier than she died during labor, so it was only normal to expect the stick-thin woman to pass on. 

But for better or worse, she survived. 

A smooth delivery would normally be a thing of celebration, a living mother and her plump baby were supposed to be a blessing. For Sukuna’s parents, such a thing was a curse. 

Born with four arms and four eyes and suspiciously symmetrical birthmarks, such an abomination could only be a curse. 

His father suspected his wife of seducing a yōkai, he became a drunk and beat his wife daily, unwilling to even look at the thing that she claimed to be his own son. The other villagers believed that he ate his twin inside their mother and was punished by the gods. 

No one knew the truth, not even the child himself. 

One thing they could all agree on was this: Sukuna was a monster. 

He was a monster who pushed his father into doing bad things. He was a monster who caused his mother shame and suffering, as she loved to remind him every single day.

Sukuna leaned on the tree, watching as the other kids in their little village played tag. His stomach growled but he could only ignore it. If he returned home to eat, his mother would yell at him. He only ate when she was asleep or beaten into unconsciousness by his father.

“Found you.” 

Sukuna looked up and beamed. That’s right, everyone except one person hated him.

Unlike him, you were normal as far as his eyes could see, but you didn’t like staying in your house and you didn’t talk about your family. Neither of you liked anything or anyone in this village, only each other. 

“Onigiri with fatty tuna I caught this morning,” you said, sitting next to him. 

Sukuna voraciously bit into the rice and fish, savoring every moment with gratitude. “You’re the best cook I know.”

“Tell me if you want some tea. I managed to sneak some out.”

“Thanks–” his grin faded when he spotted familiar black and blue spots on your inner arm. They were the same bruises his mother had when she tried to block her husband’s hands.

“Who did this?” He asked, his three free hands grabbing your wrist.

“Ryo-chan,” you said his nickname–you were the only one who was never afraid of saying his name–“you’re hurting me.”

“S-sorry.” He pulled away two hands and softened the grip on the remaining one. He gently rotated your arm to get a better look. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” You grinned. “I know you didn’t mean to.”

“Did you—”

“Hey, Ryo-chan…” You shook off his grasp, causing him to frown, but you quickly intertwined your fingers together, making him blush. “If I told you I plan to run away, will you come with me?”

He almost dropped the onigiri. 

Your smile became sad. “I… You’re the only one I will ever miss. I don’t like this place.”

He put his remaining hands over your connected fingers and he blurted out, “Yes!”

You blinked, wide-eyed.

He cleared his throat and looked away. “I-I mean, yes, let’s go.”

Your face brightened and he smiled back. 

That’s right. Even if this damned village burned to the ground, as long as your hand never let go of his then nothing else mattered.

Additional headcanons for this scenario:

Sukuna’s dad never hit him because deep inside the man was actually afraid. So he took out his frustrations on his wife, who in turn, blames her misfortune on her son. 

Speaking of Sukuna’s mother, she was a vain beauty, the most gorgeous in their village during her prime, and was distraught when her appearance faded due to malnutrition during her pregnancy. The entire time, she silently prayed that the baby would die early so she could recover quickly. So in addition to her husband’s mistreatment of her, the loss of her looks has made her resent her son. 

The other village kids didn’t like Sukuna because he gave off a “disgusting energy” (or “bad vibes” as today’s lingo would call it). Some avoided him but others went out of their way to gang up on him, beating him up and stealing whatever he carried, be it food or toys from you.  

Sukuna didn’t fight back because he truly believed that he deserved every bad thing that happened to him. That being said, he allowed himself one selfish choice and accepted your company, enjoying your friendship. The only warmth in his otherwise dead existence.

The first time Sukuna resorted to violence was…it was a few days after your proposal. It was a few minutes before day break and he caught the other kids holding your head down a nearby pond. He didn’t know what he did, only what happened after: you were crying into his chest, hugging and thanking him despite the blood all over him. 

After washing himself, he walked you home, hair and clothes still wet from the pond, your mother was the first person to see you. Instead of concern or worry, she slapped you across the face in front of everyone before dragging you away by the hair.

Because it was your mother, he could only watch on, until your eyes met and you whimpered his name.

That night, a little village with no more than fifty people, burned to the ground as two children watched hand in hand. 

A/N: Speaking of multiple choice past; in JJK (and sadly, even in real life parts of the world), twins are considered bad luck. What if Sukuna didn’t consume his twin in utero and they both survived? What if both fell for Y/N? What if the current Sukuna killed and ate his own brother because he wanted to, in his own sick way, combine himself and his twin into one being so that Y/N wouldn’t have to choose?? Hot damn. The perfect yandere love triangle. But what a pain that would be to write without illustration LOLOLOL.

@shadowywizardarcade @hannya-exists @nineooooo @lilachaeyo @pumpkindudeishere @jessbeinme15 @fluffy-koalala @cringeycookies @frogzxch @isimpfordanielpark @marvelsgirl4ever @sanzusmom @sheccidoscar @alastorhazbin @satosuguswife @lumanii @leahlovesreading @blackstaw @boba–12

[inukag-archive]

Do you happen to have recommendations for stories where Kagome is feeling insecure about Kikyo and InuYasha comforts/reassures her?

Hello @serafeen - one Insecure Kagome fic rec list coming up! We aimed to give a good mix of long and short stories, but either way prepare to have some feelings felt.

Moonlight Reflection by tigerjade (K+)

[COMPLETE] Kagome has a dream about Kikyo and Inuyasha and doubts arise. She runs off in the night to be alone. Inuyasha suspects something is wrong and follows her, something that Kagome doesn't need, but Inuyasha is determined.

--

Darkest Before The Dawn by LunaKat (T)

A bad dream leaves Kagome shaken about deserving her happy future. Inuyasha reassures her of her place by his side.

--

Slipping by paynesgrey (E)

Kagome feels that her relationship with Inuyasha is slipping, even more so with Kikyou's frequent visits. She makes her fears known, and Inuyasha makes a move to reassure her.

--

Requiem by dolphingirl0113 (T)

[Oneshot] Inuyasha, what am I to you? Will you ever be able to see me without thinking of her? If Kikyou hadn't died, who would your heart have chosen?

--

When He Won't Say by Almandine-Azaleea (T)

An innocent mistake leads to a heart to heart between Inuyasha and Kagome.

--

To Walk A Mile In Her Shoes by Kanna37 (M)

Inuyasha runs off to Kikyou again, which results in another fight when he finally gets back - but this time, someone else is listening in, and decides to take things into her own hands. 

--

Weight Watcher by @clearwillow (T)

All it takes is one comment to completely wreck a girl's self-image. Sometimes it can take years to shake that comment and move on. For Kagome, help comes in the form of a foul-mouthed hanyou who tells it like it is... in about five minutes. Slight InuKag fluff. Set after episode 140.

--

Not Good Enough by Wolf Blossom (T)

Kagome sees Inuyasha and Kikyo and decides that perhaps there is no room for her in Feudal Japan. [ONESHOT]

--

The Deception by @fandomobsessions016 (E)

Kagome and Sango have just graduated college, and Kagome is set to return home… to the city. The city she left behind four years earlier. Almost as soon as she arrives and is unceremoniously reacquainted with her ex, Kagome realizes she’s made a mistake. Four years of distance and alleged personal growth have done nothing to tame her tumultuous heart or lessen her pain. Now, she has to confront her agonizing past while traversing through a myriad of emotions as she comes face to face with the very people she left the city to avoid; Inuyasha and Miroku. Thankfully, she has Sango by her side, as not all is as it seems…

--

The Warlord's Tribute by @omgitscharlie (E)

With a kingdom built upon the blood of his enemies, Inuyasha is the leader of the Taisho Clan. A vicious warlord who scours the lands for power and has made a name for himself amongst his rivals. Even as a hanyou, he is revered and looked upon as a king amongst the neighboring villages. Elders near and far come to give their offerings, one of them bringing a young woman with a fiery spirit. Another beauty to add to his ever-growing harem of women. Little does he know, she is more than he bargained for.

--

Behind The Silk Screen by @Eiennobasho (E)

When a twist of fate brings the common-born priestess Kagome to serve Inuyasha, Divine Emperor of Japan, will she be able to help him claim his place on the throne and bring order to their country? Or will court intrigues and their own burgeoning feelings tear the two and their nation apart? A historical romance set in Japan’s Heian Era.

--

Restless Emotions by EmberFalcon (T)

What would happen if Kagome couldn't take the pain? What would happen if Inuyasha actually HAD to choose who he loves more

--

Unexpected Destiny by @splendentgoddess (M)

After defeating their most dreaded enemy and purifying the jewel, Kagome discovers she's trapped in the past. Afraid now that Inuyasha only sees her as a substitute for Kikyou, can he get her to see what's been in his heart all along?

--

Wish For Me by Vesper_ness (M)

Everyone's aware of Kagome's feelings for Inuyasha. What everyone's not aware of is how emotionally invested she is and that the one thing she longs for is Inuyasha's happiness. That wish will be her biggest test of strength. A one-shot on how Kagome deals with Inuyasha's feelings for Kikyou after he goes to see her.

--

Body Language by Fenikkusuken (M)

Kagome still needs some convincing that Inuyasha doesn't see her as a replacement for Kikyo...Rated M for citrus content

Feel free to add your own recs in the comments or reblogs! Check our Masterlist of previous lists to see which topics we've covered.  Check our Submission Guidelines then send us an ask (here).

[jujumin-translates]

Event | Act 3.5 Event - NEW ERA GARDEN | Chapter 1

*Contains spoilers for Act 12 - eternal moment*

Hakkaku: What’s this? I thought you weren’t here, but then I realized you were out here taking an afternoon nap.

Yukio: I’m awake.

Hakkaku: What are you doing?

Yukio: It’s great to just lie here and feel the four seasons that I love so much along with the wind, the smell of the earth, and the temperature of the ground.

Hakkaku: The four seasons, huh? Anyway, have you decided on a theme for each troupe’s next show?

Yukio: For Spring Troupe, I couldn’t decide between either something in medieval Europe or Japan’s Heian period, and for Summer Troupe, I was torn between some kind of adventure and something to do with sports…

Yukio: And for Autumn Troupe, I’m split on whether to do something with spies or mercenaries, and then for Winter Troupe, I’m tied between something with rice or something with fruit.

Hakkaku: What on earth are those last two choices? Have you talked to the others?

Yukio: I talked to everyone a little bit, and they said that as long as you’re the one writing it, they’d want to do it, Hakkaku-san.

Yukio: Then they got into a fight over it.

Hakkaku: What about making it mixed then?

Yukio: Then the casting would have to be decided via rock-paper-scissors~.

Hakkaku: If you say that, they’ll just get mad at you again.

Yukio: …Truthfully I just wish that he were here. There’s a role I wanted him to play…

Hakkaku: You should make up before things get any more complicated. These things get messier the longer they go on.

Yukio: You’re right… I will someday, I promise. Because to me, Reni is--.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Yukio: …

Reni: Hey, Tachibana.

Yukio: Eh? Ah, sorry. I spaced out.

Reni: Good lord… we’re in a meeting.

Board of Directors Member: No need to worry. I understood enough of what you just explained. I think it’s a great system.

Board of Directors Member: We feel that the new Fleur Award is appropriate in the sense that it renews the previously closed Fleur Award.

Reni: Now then, let’s continue to work out the details.

Board of Directors Member: However, we’ve been inundated with inquiries from our clientele asking about what’s going to happen with next year’s Fleur Award.

Board of Directors Member: And it’s impossible to maintain silence any longer for the client’s media…

Board of Directors Member: How about we make some sort of progress report regarding this to dispel the client theater companies’ anxiety about losing their goals?

Yukio: That’s true, it may be a good idea to report on the plans you’re working on, Reni.

Yukio: There’s no timing problem over here, and sooner or later information could leak out from somewhere within the construction situation.

Board of Directors Member: Correct. I’ll leave it up to you to decide when and how.

Reni: Well then, let’s get an official press release out ahead of time.

Yukio: Ah!

Reni: ?

Yukio: I just got a great idea for the report.

Reni: …I have a bad feeling about this.

[ Next Part ⇢ ]

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 387: Congealing

Howdy, everyone, guess who had an unusually high amount of research to do for this post? Next chapter's should be up faster, between being extra short and largely Todo-centric.

Content Note: I will be talking quite a lot about the Himura inter-family marriages below. An enormous chunk of this post is going to be dedicated to dispelling some of the most frequent misconceptions in the fandom response to the Himura situation, which I don't think is anywhere near as drastic as a lot of people are making it out to be. That's not the same as saying there's nothing wrong with it at all! However, I want to be very clear on what I believe Geten is describing before I talk about what we can gather from it.

(Spoilers: A lot of people don't have the first clue what the phrase "branch family" indicates and good lord, does it ever show.)

Hit the jump.

On Geten and the Himura

O Wow, you guys.  Wow.  Okay, so, obviously, lots to cover here, and I know I’ve said before that I try to make these posts with minimal reference to Bad Takes I’m seeing out there in the wilds of the fandom, but holy shit, people, the takes are SO INCREDIBLY BAD.  I should have known better, I guess, than to expect the fandom to be remotely reasonable about a reveal that intersects with both the MLA and the Todoroki.  So, first things first:

Please, please, please, knock it off with the inbreeding jokes and the screeching panic about Rei’s only choices being an abusive arranged marriage or a cousin-marriage.  Geten specifies in nearly every translation we have that the intermarriages within the Himura clan were between distant relatives.  And I strongly, strongly suspect that the majority of people who are making banjo jokes or fretting about the deleterious effects of inbreeding on their faves have not the faintest idea what Geten is talking about when he says “branch families” and “main family.”

As an illustrative example, let’s talk in brief about the Fujiwara clan.

The most dominant clan throughout virtually all of Japan's Heian Era (794 – 1195) was the Fujiwara clan, whose whole shtick was marrying their daughters to Emperors and then relying on the practice of raising the future Emperor in his mother’s household to take advantage of filial piety traditions—which applied even to in-laws!—to secure the loyalty of the Emperor/future Emperor to his Fujiwara father/grandfather.  Even after they fell from the heights of their influence, they still monopolized powerful positions as imperial advisors and regents all the way up to the Meiji Restoration in 1868!

That’s over a thousand years of first marrying into the imperial line and then being the only family who were even eligible to be chosen as regents for child Emperors or Empresses Regnant.  They certainly didn’t achieve that by being a single family for a thousand years!  Rather, there were branch families under the clan umbrella, four of note—

—Well, actually, it was four during the Heian Era.�� Once the Kamakura period rolled around the most powerful of those four further subdivided into five.  So eight families total—

—Well, wait, those were really just the most important and chief of the families.  Actually there were five more cadet branches, too.  So thirteen families total—

—But actually, those five cadet branches were subdivided even further as well.  According to Wikipedia, the total number of subfamilies in the Fujiwara clan, families that were specifically aristocrats in the Imperial court (the kuge class) or higher—is…

Uh.  Ninety-seven.

Now, I don’t know how many of those families existed concurrently, but with numbers like that, I hardly think it matters.  All those families—and they are families, not individuals—fell under the broad umbrella of the Fujiwara clan.  So, you know, if some of them intermarry, it’s not exactly on the same level as you marrying your first cousin!  Or your second.  Or your third or fourth or fifth.

Obviously I don’t think the Himura were anywhere near that big or influential, but I hope it illustrates my point: Japanese clans that have had a few hundred years to develop can be fucking enormous.  Please banish from your mind the idea that the Himura have been marrying their direct cousins this whole time.  When Geten says they created multiple branch families, and started marrying distant relatives, the plural on "branch families" and the adjective "distant" are giving us crucial, meaningful information, not just superfluous clutter.

Truthfully, I think a lot of this panic is due to the fact that most people aren’t very into genealogy and thus have no idea how quickly you can become very distant indeed from people with whom you share a common ancestor.  I mean, how many of your third cousins can you name?  For me, that answer is zero.  Heck, I can’t even name any second cousins.  The best I could do would be to tell you of their existence in broad strokes—the son of one of my mother’s cousins, whose name I don’t remember but who I know exists; the hypothetical children one of my father’s cousins might have had at some point after the last time I heard anything about him, well over twenty years ago, at which time he was still single.

Now, it’s a little easier to look down the family tree rather than across, in this case.  To wit, you almost certainly know your cousins much better than your parents’ cousins—your children and your cousins’ children will be second cousins.  That’s probably much closer feeling, right?  But put yourself in the shoes of those kids—unless you live in the same town as your cousins, and see each other pretty frequently, your children and theirs will probably meet only a handful of times before they grow up and head off to live their own lives.  After all, look back up—how well do you remember your parents’ cousins’ children?

And, again—that’s second cousins, the outer periphery of what people who study this stuff class as “close relatives.” [1]  Geten specifying distant relatives means we’re talking farther removed even than that.  Your second cousins once removed, for example, would be either your second cousins’ children (that is, your parents’ cousins’ grandchildren) or your grandparents’ cousins’ children.  Your third cousins, meanwhile, would be your grandparents’ cousins’ grandchildren.

Have you ever met family that far removed?  Have you seen pictures?  Do you even know if they exist?  How many members of your extended family do you know of, generally, perhaps because your parents brought you along on visits a few times as a child, but you’ve long since forgotten their names or their specific relation to you?

Now, in a situation like Geten is talking about, you probably would be able to positively answer some of my questions above, because you’d be mid-level ruling class; your parents would be talking about marriage to someone (hopefully) your age in a branch family.  But that doesn’t mean you would have met them.  They’d probably live in a different part of the country entirely, your common ancestor married to some outside group before the Advent of the Exceptional.  The branch families of, for example, the Tokugawa shogunate lived in four strongholds, each a hundred or more miles distant from the next.[2]  You can track descendants of Queen Victoria through royals from England, Spain, and all three of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

What all this boils down to is that, no, it really is not that strange for a widely spread clan to do a bit of intermarriage now and then to consolidate power.  People in power want power to stay in the family.  Duh.

However.

That all said, I am not saying the situation Geten describes is 100% fine and cool.  Obviously if it were totally normal and unremarkable, there’d be no point to even bringing it up, much less having Mr. Compress disparagingly comment on it!  But look at the timetable here.  The Himura began as village leaders a long, long time ago, and even after the land reforms, they still went on creating branch families, enabling them to maintain their wealth and pride.

It’s after the Advent that the marrying between the families starts.  And even this, done a handful of times and then abandoned, would not be a damning thing—as I said, those big families in power do have marriages across branches sometimes.  The real trouble is carrying out such marriages repeatedly, across many generations, within a small group.  Some research on the Habsburgs, for example, surely the most famous inbred royals in the Western hemisphere, turned this up:

From 1516 to 1700, it has been estimated that over 80% of marriages within the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty were consanguineous. In other words, they were marriages between close blood relatives. Most often, these unions took the form of marriages between first cousins, double-first cousins, and uncles/nieces.

Nowhere does Geten suggest that things with the Himura got this bad.  In fact, I would argue that the text is quite clear that the family slowly stopped intermarrying, and this is what led to their demise!  Consider the following points:

The Advent happened in modern times.  The glowing baby is delivered in what is very clearly a modern hospital; the very next panel shows a geeky dude levitating a volume of manga, which didn’t even exist in the form we know today until after WWII.  Technology stalled in the wake of the Advent, but the characters now still have cellphones and laptop computers—the Advent was modern.  My rough estimate for how long it’s been since then is a bit over 150 years.    

Because the Advent happened in modern times, the Himura family would have known about the dangers of excessive intermarriage.  This isn’t something they’ve been doing since the Stone Age and refused to change their minds about until the last twenty-five years!    

Because the Himura family would have known about the dangers of inbreeding, look at what happens: they do inter-branch marriages to “distant relatives” for about 125 years and then they stop.  Over the course of that time, the clan shrinks and wanes, for one reason that is immediately self-apparent and a few others that we can guess were probable.     The self-apparent reason is that, even though the families started out as distant relatives, the divide would get shorter with every wedding that produced children.  Thus, the pool of marriageable candidates for those children gets smaller and smaller as the families become more closely entwined.  Avenues close off, marriages become unavailable that would be illegal under Japanese law (which allows marriage between first cousins, but not between uncle and niece/aunt and nephew), or which would have too high a concern of congenital defects—which, remember, a modern family would be aware of.     We can hypothesize plenty of other reasons for the clan’s diminishment.  Once it became clear that quirks were there to stay, entire families might have broken away rather than go along with an inherently doomed endeavor.  Some marriageable candidates likely ran away or otherwise abandoned the family rather than continuing along the path the family had laid out for them.  There would probably have been otherwise acceptable candidates who became unacceptable due to developing quirks that were undesirable to the bloodline.[3]  And so on and so forth.    

Eventually, Geten says, the head family—presumably the one Rei’s from—started selling off their children to outsiders, and that was the end.  If the head family threw in the towel on preserving the bloodline, the branch families certainly weren’t going to be bound to do it anymore!  And so the remnants of the clan shattered.

So, no.  Rei’s choices were not, “Marry Enji or marry a cousin.”  Rei’s parents were looking for someone who could bring money to the family; by that point in time, I don’t think they would have let her marry within the family even if she’d wanted to!

By the same token, Dabi and Geten are not cousins—not in the way people have been using the word, at least, to mean “someone I am imagining to be as close to me as, like, my first cousin, ew.”  While the repeated intermarriage would indeed have reduced the distance quickly as the generations passed, if the common ancestor (that is, the family founder) was from, say, eight generations ago, two and a half centuries prior to the point at which the intermarriage began, and there were at least five or six branches of family at the start,[4] it would have taken more than just one or two generations before the only options available to wed were close relatives!

And, to reiterate, that’s exactly what we saw happen—the Himura kept it up for a few generations, shrinking all the while, but fragmenting for good four or five generations after the Advent.  I would guess that, while Geten would have been more closely related to any children Rei had borne via intermarriage, Dabi and Geten are third or fourth cousins at best.  The Himura were in denial about the new state of the world; they weren’t idiots that managed to forget everything history has ever demonstrated about what happens when you keep marrying off first cousins in a closed environment.

That all said, what else have we got this chapter??  Because make no mistake, the fact that I’m pushing back against reductive cousin-marriage takes in no way means that I wish to shy away from examining the darker implications here!

O I love how ambivalent about all this Geten is.  Given that Rei was married to an outsider over twenty years ago, if the branch families scattered around that time, Geten must have been very young, so he’d have been profoundly impacted by it.  This is especially apparent given the harshness of the language he uses to describe the event: the families don’t merely admit defeat and grudgingly set to integrating; they “scatter.”  The main line doesn’t just start marrying outsiders; they start “selling their children.”

This suggests incredibly bitter feelings in the family, and no wonder!  I imagine there were a lot of people, especially in the branch families or among younger members, who’d hated the clan’s insularity, and they would have left the moment they had an excuse to!  Conversely, though, there would also have been people who’d been indoctrinated into the clan’s worldview all their lives, people who’d quashed their doubts or discomfort down long ago, who would be clinging to sunk cost fallacies with all their strength because change would be terrifying to them.  Those people, I think, would be particularly likely to have complete breakdowns (or meltdowns) when the main family surrendered.

Whatever happened, it must have been quite dramatic, given the way Geten talks about Re-Destro having found him.  Counter to a couple of, just, woefully awful takes I’ve seen around, Re-Destro did not buy Geten; it doesn’t even sound like he found him via any official channel.  It was the main family members who were being “sold off,” remember; the branch families, which Geten explicitly associates himself with, were “scattered.”  It sounds, then, like Geten was basically an orphan, and not one living in any kind of facility or home.  He clearly had family, but whether he bolted on his own, was abandoned,[5] or whatever, that family’s no longer in the picture.  This despite the fact that, again, he would have been a very, very young child at the time.

On a similar note, because of that youth, it’s also probable that his view on the family tragedy is colored at least in part by whatever Re-Destro’s reaction to it was when he got Geten’s story upon taking him in.

Re-Destro, of course, is all for radical quirk acceptance, but he’s deeply entangled with issues of bloodline himself.  Although he uses some pretty flowery language to talk about his inherited blood from Destro, he also views that duty as a huge burdensome responsibility from which he is deliriously happy to be freed by Shigaraki.  So we might suppose that he himself is pretty cold on chaining children to bloodline purity politics, especially in absence of a Worthy Cause.  And rejecting the glorious future of everyone using their quirks to become who they were meant to be is the very opposite of a worthy cause!

O  Gee, I wonder what Spinner would have thought about this.  What a shame we didn’t have a three-month period where the League and the MLA were living together to explore oh wait.

O  Congratulations to everyone who ever ventured to suggest that the Todoroki microaggressions against heteromorphs might stem from Rei, with her old money, traditionalist family, rather than New Money Endeavor, who went whole scenes being mad at Hawks and never called him anything dehumanizing even in his own mind.  Guess there was something to Natsuo not bringing up his mouse-eared girlfriend in the hospital scene after all!

I’m mostly being facetious about this, but you can check here if you want my thoughts on who in the Todofam uses animal insults, who doesn’t, and some analysis as to why. I'd add two observations in light of new information:

First, Natsuo's girlfriend isn't at the shelter with him and the others, despite having a far better justification for being with him than the Masegaki kids have to be hanging around Fuyumi. It's a small absence, but noticeable in the context of the Himura being specifically described as heteromorphobic by Compress.

Second, while a lot of people say that heteromorph discrimination is a recent retcon, it's got a lot of early evidence. In that same vein, it's notable that Rei brings up bloodlines and obligation to them all the way back in Chapter 39—Shouto's Sports Festival flashback—where she reassures baby Shouto that he isn't a slave to his blood as the two of them watch All Might on TV talking about quirks being passed on from parent to child.

It's a little obscured by both Shouto's fears of coming to resemble his father and All Might's (frankly pretty contradictory) claims about what his, "I am here!" catchphrase is meant to indicate, but even back then, Rei's comfort is phrased in terms of being free from obligation to one's blood. If Horikoshi already knew what the Himuras' deal was even back then, one can easily imagine that he already knew the sorts of people the Himura were rejecting.

   

On the Todofam Reunion:

I love all the information packed into Geten and Compress scene, but I do wish it felt less arbitrary.  Indeed, it’s the second scene we’ve gotten of the incredibly specific “captured villains sit in their cells and randomly, with no apparent prompting, talk about something relevant to the Todoroki situation” scenario. But then, this whole confrontation in the Todofam is wildly arbitrary.  Which is frustrating!  The family had that great scene in the hospital where they all talked about stopping Touya together and then did absolutely nothing to actually make that happen, and it really does not reflect well on either them or this whole scene.

Consider:

Dabi is only in this location, confronting Endeavor, because of spill-over effect from other villain actions (Spinner, Kurogiri).  This was not planned in advance because the villains didn’t plan for being split up.  Likewise, Endeavor confirms this chapter that he was trying to lure Touya away from the fighting at the Villa, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have intentionally led Touya towards one of the evacuation routes if he’d known there was a stalled box in the danger zone.  (Why exactly didn't one of the people at police HQ tip him off about that?)    

There are many, many other transports Rei and the kids could have gotten onto; they’re on this specific one rather than any others by total freak coincidence, not active choice.    

The transport only stops where it does because of outside villain interference (Skeptic, and, as of next chapter, AFO’s spies).  This interference was obviously not intended to stop the transport in the specific location it did because Skeptic was already interfering with them long before Dabi was warped in, and the AFO spies ought to value their own lives too much to willingly try to get themselves killed in a blue flame inferno.  (More on them next week, because my god, does their scene in 388 annoy the hell out of me.)

So, taken all together, the Todofam’s vow in the hospital has amounted to absolutely nothing, and the fact that they’re being reunited now is a result of villain actions at best, random chance at worst.  At no point have any of them been seen to make an effort at facilitating a full family action.  While, yes, it is the case that the rest of the family are civilians, why even talk about “dealing with Touya as a family” if they’re going to do nothing of the sort?  When did “deal with Touya as a family” become “allow the planners of this combat to move us all to different locations, leaving only Shouto—who knows the least about Touya of anyone in the family!—to try and talk down the brother who resents him more than anyone?”

It's just another point where Team Hero talks big but takes no action to back that talk up.    

On Enji and Touya:

O  The, “Watch me!”/”I don’t want to watch you die!” exchange is good stuff—all that telling people to watch him, and now Enji’s on the other side of that.  Even better is that ludicrously delightful panel of the two of them with hands and flame-hands entwined, Enji’s arms wide open as Touya comes in[6] for a landing.  As ever, Dabi’s dancing imagery is on-fucking-point.  Good work getting your dad to dance with you in hell, Dabs.

O  As to Enji’s actions here, I’m torn.  On the one hand, it’s extremely telling that Endeavor leaps straight to, “Guess we’ll die together, then,” when he fails to talk Dabi down, and that’s emblematic of the flaws of the hero mentality, which is so drastically bad at dealing with nuanced situations in which they or their society have failed.

On the other hand, Enji does try to talk to Touya here and gets nowhere, not necessarily because he’s saying the wrong things (though you could argue that he is) but because Dabi’s frying his own brain.  This is uncomfortably reminiscent of Spinner’s mental decay, and, as others have said, I’m Very Not Here for the villains being so damaged mentally that they can’t even articulate their own grievances, allowing heroes to get the last word by default even though their “solutions” are wildly insufficient and ultimately in support of the demonstrably failing status quo.

Anyway, Enji is obviously taking the wrong tack here, but I can’t help but feel like the writing has put him in a no-win situation by stripping Touya’s ability to reason from him, rendering him unable to even attempt to respond to Enji’s attempts at engagement. Enji’s still ultimately to blame for this, of course, thanks to all his many, many failures to engage with Touya at literally any point prior to this, but it’s just an ongoing disappointment to me that we continue to be deprived of a proper intellectual back-and-forth about this society’s ultimate worth because, at all times, either the heroes are unwilling to engage or the villains have been rendered unable to.

O  Travel times in this series continue to be unbelievably whack.  Endeavor has gotten 800 meters from the Villa ruins? 800 meters? That's less than half a mile! AFO is most of the way to U.A. by now! All Might has driven even farther, going all the way from the police HQ, which is probably in Tokyo near Central Hospital, past Kamino and every other active battlefront, to far enough out from U.A. to intercept AFO's flight path. That's well over a hundred miles, traveled in a matter of minutes![7] But Endeavor, even on injured legs, couldn't make it one single mile?? And Dabi couldn't have caught up to him if he was moving that slow?

God save me from these arbitrary fucking travel times!    

Stray Notes:

O  The “land reforms,” not “the agricultural revolution,” jfc C.Cook. There's a pretty huge difference between a family sustaining their power through an agricultural upheaval in 1947 vs. 10,000 BC!

O  Why is it so cold in there??  Get Mr. Compress a jacket!!! Also, like, Geten doesn’t seem terribly bothered, as one might expect from an ice quirk user, but it’s a bit inconsistent with his wearing a full-length parka during his fights, seeing as the parka would suggest he is, in fact, not totally immune to sustained chills!

That being the case, why is it so cold in there?  I wouldn’t think it’s actually just that cold in the prison, since there’s obviously a cold mist drifting into Mr. C’s cell, rather than being ambient in both of them.  Does Geten just generate it?  His whole thing up to now has been that he controls ice but can’t create it from nothing, so if it is coming from him, that would be—well, not quite a retcon, but certainly a swerve.

Does he naturally generate it but do so very slowly, not in sufficient amounts to use for his preferred Ballistic Iceberg fighting style?  If it’s coming from him automatically, can he turn it off?  Presumably not, since if he could and isn’t, that would suggest he’s doing this with a goal in mind, something you have to think his jailers would have Opinions about.

So if he can’t turn it off, and this just happens in anyplace he sits long enough, is the parka to protect other people from his chill, rather than to protect him from the cold of the ice he uses?  Recall that there wasn’t ice caked on his chair during e.g. the MLA dinner scene.  What a fascinating idea, and one that speaks to the need for support items like Detnerat makes!

Well, whatever the case, I certainly hope he’s about to use his ice to decisively break them out of there!  Because haha, why wouldn’t he be able to do that if he ambiently creates cold just by sitting there and the prison can’t even be arsed to crank the temperature up??  Surely no one thinks that those restraints on his hands are sufficient to stop him from using his ice?  I haven’t forgotten that he definitively does not need to touch ice in order to control it, and it can’t be that hard to find a fire suppression sprinkler system line or the plumbing connected to whatever the toilet situation is for prisoners or something!!

(Sigh.)

O  Unexpectedly good of the heroes to let Mr. Compress keep his prosthetic.  And a bed, no less!  I wonder where Geten’s bed is.  (My god, these jail conditions are so inhuman.  Get them a damn futon, at least.)

O  That hint that Mr. C has been talking to the cops and heroes—Geten asking about the conversation—I wonder if anything will come of that?  Because it would be incredibly lame for Horikoshi to promise us we’d see Mr. C again only for this to be his final appearance, doing nothing but weighing in with disgruntled expressions on Geten’s out-of-nowhere backstory drop.  It’s a pretty shit final scene for Geten, too, dropping backstory exposition for no reason save to layer in some justification for the ice powers Dabi is about to exhibit.

--------------------- FOOTNOTES ---------------------

[1] The cut-off between close and distant relatives is made here because, once you get further out than second cousins, there’s little to no difference in the impact of shared blood on the child of two such distant relatives and that experienced by any random person in the general population.

[2] I eyeballed this on a map, so it’s not exact, but it’ll do as a ballpark.  Two of them looked a little closer together than a hundred miles, but that’s also a straight overland route from Point A to Point B, which the roads probably wouldn’t have been.  Incidentally, traveling a hundred miles in a time before cars would have taken at least five days if you weren’t a military messenger in a hurry and trading out horses at multiple stops.

[3] Given that the characters in-universe still don’t know the origin of quirks, there’s no way to completely guarantee desirable quirks, or even to perfectly guard against the dreaded heteromorphic quirks.  Eventually, the Himura would get a kid whose ice quirk is tied to the fact that they were born looking like a snowman, or they'd crop up a polar bear heteromorph or something.  And whoops, there goes another viable bloodline.

[4] A very reasonable and indeed conservative estimate. Remember that Geten says “the few remaining families” scattered after the main family gave up; the plural indicates that there were still at least two branch family holdouts even after all the waning and shrinking.  In turn, those being the remainder means there must have been more previously.  Losing only two over the course of over a century of mandated intermarriage throughout the chaos of the Advent is possibly undershooting quite a bit!          I talked about the Fujiwara earlier, but for an anime example of how ridiculous the branch family situation can get, look at Kakegurui: we’re at ten and counting branch families under the control of the main line, and if we read the kanji of that main line's name literally, there could be ninety more in the wings.

[5] I lean towards some form of abandonment because it makes the Dabi foiling tastier if Touya left his family by choice when he became Dabi, whereas Geten was left alone through no choice of his own. Abandonment also provides more meaningful context on Geten’s attachment to RD and his determination to be useful and strong for him.

[6] Crotch-first.

[7] Maybe he gave Lady Nagant a ride and that’s how she got in range to start taking potshots at Shigaraki at U.A.? It'd be nice to have any kind of explanation for that particular feat, though it would mean All Might didn't leave Tokyo until after Kurogiri was freed, cutting into his travel time even more. But heck, what's a few minutes matter when your car can drive eight hundred miles an hour, right? Christ.

[kunoimochi]

Can you tell us more fact about yahiko Gakuen? I see you mentioned in your friend post that this school is haunted by a lot of yokai/ghost/spiritual being, but how can that happen?

Thanks youu for the ask :3

Yahiko gakuen is actually got a lot of support especially from this four family that help this school since heian period.

One of the family who supports the school is name Hatakeyama family, Hatakeyama family is the longest family that serve yahiko gakuen since this school started created. This family is practicing black magic that can made the school invisible from the eyes of evil and have bad purpose. But at the same time they can trick someone to enter that school unwillingly (like they're get possessed) Hatakeyama family is also very big, they have large amount of sons that also part of the business. Half of the Hatakeyama family live inside of yahiko gakuen (i will show u later in the map i created) and half of them just stay at they main estate. Hatakeyama family also have obsessed type personality, they don't have manner and they're always look down on people lead some of yahiko gakuen cast dislike them very much. Half of the Hatakeyama family also immortal that live since heain period,this is results from practicing black magic to much ig. They're also have a contract with yokai as they think "black magic are not enough". This family also like to adopt kids and teaching them stuff that's why this family is big as hell

A hint how the family look like and yes all the member in the house have something coverings their face or eyes. Sometimes it can be a paper that covering their face. Some of the Hatakeyama family also write something in their mask so people can easily tell them apart

And not all of them look like this hehe this is just a example

Other fact about yahiko Gakuen:

This school planted a lot of hydrangea flowers and sometimes the students will jokes about how this school should be name as Ajisai gakuen instead

But sometimes other than hydrangea this school also have a lot of lotus, it's funny since in my previous concept this school is named byakuren gakuen meaning white lotus

THAT'S ALL I HOPE U LIKE THIS AJSGJAHE IT NOT MUCH EHE

[solarsa1nt]

𐚁֙࿐ ENSHRINE

ryōmen sukuna x fem!reader

Tags — fluff , heian era , god!sukuna , shrine maiden!reader , four-armed sukuna

Notes — none

"I could kill them." Sukuna starts, watching out the open shoji door as the group of men from a nearby village make the tread down the hill from the shrine. "They would deserve it."

"Please don't." Y/N sighs, feeling the incoming migraine thrum against her skull. "The stench of blood takes days to fade, and their families always cause such a fuss."

Sukuna tilts his head slightly, observing Y/N from the corner of his eye.

"Then I'll simply kill them along with their families—"

"My lord." Y/N interrupts, tone imploring as she settles her god with an unimpressed look. "You cannot just end anybody who speaks ill of me."

"And what makes you think you have the right to gives orders to me?" Four red eyes narrow at her as the aura in the room becomes nearly suffocating.

The sight and feeling of the displeased god would be enough to make anyone tremble where they stood.

Save for Y/N, who has long since grown accustomed to the implied threats that's always were shown to be false— mere bluffs that the god knew she know longer falls for but continues with anyway.

"Merely a suggestion." Y/N gives a sarcastic smile before her expression falls flat once again, showing her displeasure to the god.

Sukuna huffs out a laugh at her unfazed behavior, turning to look out the shoji doors once again, the men having long since disappeared.

"I'll allow them to live this once, but if they don't correct themselves by the time they return they won't be granted a second chance." Sukuna allows, eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Thank you, my lord." Y/N dips her shortly before straightening her spine to full height— which wasn't much when compared to the god currently towering over her, but she didn't care much about that.

She supposes it's only natural that the two-faced specter— a being that lives on a plane higher than any other being —would only slightly resemble a human, his two sets of eyes and four arms making that apparent.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm sure your outburst moments ago scared some of the others." Y/N says, knowing the abrupt wave of power likely scared most (if not all) of the others in the shrine.

"I'm sure they'll be pleased to know I am not, in fact, dead." Y/N adds, the comment being mostly towards herself.

Although it would be annoying to deal with the younger ones, they always loved to hug her when she returned and then stay attached to her hip throughout the rest of the day.

"Hm." Sukuna hums noncommittally, waving his hand dismissively as he looks away. The reaction makes Y/N deadpan.

"Stop sulking, my lord."

━━━━

As fate may have it, the men didn't correct their behavior by the time they returned.

One of the men laughs, standing over the fallen figure of one of the younger shrine maidens— only around fourteen years old or so —as blood drips down from their lip.

The girl curls into herself pathetically, only resulting in more boisterous guffaws from the two men infront of her.

"You're bold for daring to spill blood at this shrine." Y/N interrupts, stepping forward with an unamused look on her face.

The girl looks up in surprise, eyes watering as Y/N steps infront of her.

"Ugh... such a nuisance this'll be." Y/N puts a palm against her forehead, knowing cleaning up the two bodies of the men will take an annoyingly long time.

"Mizuki, go find your older sister." Y/N orders, glancing down at the girl as her gaze softens slightly.

"Y-Yes, lady L/N! Thank you.." The girl— Mizuki —says before rushing down the hall.

Y/N watches all the way until Mizuki retreated down the hall completely— disappearing behind a corner.

"—ey! Hey!" Y/N was drawn back to focus as she turns her gaze back to the men.

"What?" She questions flatly, unwilling to entertain a conversation with the two.

"What the hell was that about? Do you even know who we are? It'll be bad for your village if you irritate us—"

"Oh, be quiet." Y/N cuts them off dismissively, annoyed with their threats that they wouldn't even get the chance to carry out. "Your in worse waters yourselves, spilling blood in a god's shrine..."

"Plus it'll be such a nuisance to clean." Y/N irks, looking down at the blood which was already drying against the wooden floors.

"Are you naturally suicidal?" Y/N questions mockingly, head tilting to the side as she glares at the men.

"Hah? Who the hell do you—" The man gets cut off as a sandaled foot kicks him square in the chest. The force launches him out of the doors and into the snow-covered grown.

Y/N watches impassively as the man grunts in pain, setting her foot back on the ground as the other man gawks at her.

"Please leave, I don't wish any more bloodshed within the shrine— bodies are much easier to dispose of in the woods." Y/N explains shortly, resulting in a flinch from the man beside her.

"W-We get it, lady!" The man shouts, scrambling out of the shrine to grab the other man who had been knocked unconscious.

The man lifts the unconscious body up, ignoring the blood staining his clothes as he starts to run down the path towards the torii.

"Dismantle." A familiar voice finally decides to speak from beside her.

The man running collapses as his body is sliced in half— the well-aimed attack easily cutting the two down as their bodies lay just infront of the gate.

"Ugh." Y/N grumbles, looking at the trail of blood in annoyance. "You could've at least let them make it into a more secluded spot, I don't want to allow any of the younger ones to get traumatized."

Y/N glances around at that last part— grateful to find the only other presence near her is the god himself.

"Unappreciative brat." Sukuna raises a hand to flick Y/N's forehead.

Y/N scowls, raising a hand to rub the red spot growing on her forehead. The attempt to ease the pain does nothing of the sort— effort quickly proving useless.

"Why do I even bother with you?" Y/N asks herself hopelessly. "I really deserve a raise."

© 𝓢OLARSAINT 2024 ─── all of my works belong me alone! do not copy, steal, plagiarize, or spread any of my works in any other social media platform. these have only been reloaded on my own accounts on ao3 and wattpad

[stephanythedramaqueen]

For the ask game (and if this is valid):

001. Jujutsu Kaisen

002. Zutara

003. Aleksander Morozova

— 💋

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my: Jujutsu Kaisen

Favorite character: The number one menace to society; Gojo Satoru.

Least Favorite character: Kenjaku. Give Suguru his body back, Kenny.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Gee, I don't have a lot of JJK ships. SatoSugu for sure!! GojoHime a close second. (I actually have a lot of GojoHime brainrot currently) ItaFushi definitely! They're so cute. And YuutaMaki bc they are the GOAT power couple. One is a descendant of Michizane no Suguwara and is as powerful as his very very distant cousin Satoru, and the other completely Uchiha Itachi'd her clan without a single curse technique. Queen behavior.

Character I find most attractive: my first gut reaction is to say GOJO, as I should tbh. But we've all seen Toji, and that dude ain't even animated yet! All the clout he's gained is deserved. idk what Gege was thinking when he was drawing Toji but he sure as fuck knew what he was doing. 😏

Character I would marry: Call me Mrs. Gojo Satoru. He is tall, he's hot af and he's filthy rich. Crazy, stupid rich. If being the strongest wasn't working for him, his deep pockets surely will lmaoooo

Character I would be best friends with: Yuuta. Because he's so shy and adorable, I would love and protect him. This was very hard bc I wanted to choose Yuuji, who is sunshine personified.

a random thought: JJK fandom grossly doesn't know how Gojo's Infinity technique works, it annoys the fuck outta me. In fact, there's so much misinformation about JJK in general such as the No One Can See Sukuna's Marks on Yuuji theory which is debunked in the text itself but it's still regarded as canon, when it's not.

An unpopular opinion: I don't ship Toji and his wife. I ship Toji with MEEE lololol

My Canon OTP: Gojo and I are canon every night in my dreams. JJK doesn't have a lot of canon ships and they sure as hell ain't my OTP but Miwa x Kokichi was sweet.

My Non-canon OTP: I mean SatoSugu is practically canon.

Most Badass Character: Sukuna or Toji idk. Sukuna for being such a wild threat to people that he couldn't even be killed nor destroyed as a curse. Toji bc that mf brought a glock to fight a dragon. And he WON!

Most Epic Villain: Sukuna! All these basic curses and sorcerers wished they were on his lvl. Peasants.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Suguru x Shoko. I just… nah. I don't like it. Utahime x Nanami. I love Nanami but I find him boring to be a love interest. Anyone x Mei Mei. She's a bad bitch, but she's pretty shady and an asshole (and also really creepy with her brother) lol

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): JJK is so young a manga yet, it hasn't really done any misses for now. But there's a lot Gege can and actually should expand on before he ends the manga. I really wanna see more politics within jujutsu society. Worldbuilding and lore on the Great Three clans. Flashbacks to Heian period society and its sorcerers. More jujutsu clans that aren't the three main ones, like Inumaki. And also, I'm biased so I want to see Utahime's curse technique before I die and it should absolutely be badass. (also revealing how and when she got that scar)

Favourite Friendship: Nobara/Yuuji/Megumi!! they are BESTIES in a way that Shoko/Suguru/Satoru has never been

Character I most identify with: Miwa. I, too, have an super mega gigantic crush on Gojo Satoru. And I, too, would likely get my butt whooped by Maki.

Character I wish I could be: Tsukumo Yuki. One of the only four special grade sorcerers, she don't even do shit, but still gets payed big money and she looks good doing it. Love that for her, wish that was me. Also her spending quality time with Choso. What a lucky gal.

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you: Zutara

When I started shipping them: Zutara? Oh boy, it all started a long time ago, when I was 13/14 years old when ATLA was still airing. More than a decade later, and I'm still shipping them.

My thoughts: bryke missed out on the greatest love story that could have ever been told on American TV.

What makes me happy about them: the fact that they are complete opposites and still so much alike. fire/water, blue/red, awkward turtleduck/fierce opinionated baddie– and yet both are incredibly righteous to help people, both are loud and have a temper and have absolutely the worst, lousiest sense of humor. The way they understand each other, the way they both had to grow individually and how they grew together. Nah, they're perfect, your honor.

What makes me sad about them: the fact that they were denied the opportunity to heal the world together. If the comics are to be believed (and I do NOT consider them canon) Zuko spiraled into loneliness and distrustfulness after the end of the war. While there was a whole bunch of nonsense in those comics, something which is absolutely true bc it's just something repeated in history again and again; a sudden change in regime will always have detractors; some more violent than others. So assassination attempts on Zuko's life is something that definitely would have happened. It's unfortunate he went through that alone. And if LoK is to be believed, Katara didn't do much in terms of reformation post war besides being Aang's GF/Wife. The disrespect. Nothing would have been a better show of unity than having the Fire Lord marrying a woman from the SWT and then they do everything to heal and regrow their communities together. Worlds of potential wasted there.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Bashing Aang. I do NOT fuck with that. Aang is a sweetie, innocent little bean. I understand he would have some emotional distress at Zutara, but fics bashing him or writing him completely OOC in lieu of Zutara is a no-go. I immediately skip. We love supportive, grown-out-of-his-childhood-crush Aang, not whatever the fuck some authors do with him to make Zuko look like the better option for Katara.

Things I look for in fanfic: Usually fix-it fics. But I'm a sucker for arranged marriage AU

My wishlist: I go back in time and somehow create ATLA when I was a kid and pitched it to Nick instead.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Jet. Both of them. Jetkotara is god tier!

My happily ever after for them: Fire Lord Zuko and his consort Katara, being so fantastic at repairing the world and ushering a golden age of peace and prosperity, that they're canonized into legend and protective spirits centuries down their line. Kind of like Oma and Shu, people make art about them, stories are told and rewritten about their love for each other, statues are erected in their honor, kids named after them, cities retitled because of them etc. forever after.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you: Aleksander Morozova

How I feel about this character: Aleksander, you deserve so much more than these books.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Alina doesn't deserve him either, but their symbolism together is so beautiful. And Nikolai with Sasha, that handsome bastard!

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Sasha and Ivan. Ivan really was his ride and die, till the end. Wish we had Aleksander's POV to know how he felt about his death.

My unpopular opinion about this character: He shoulda fucked Elizaveta. And let Alina suffer the consequences of being a Grisha for a few centuries on her own. That'll teach her.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He became the motherfucker TSAR! And won! And saved his people from death and persecution all around the world! Made his country flourish in culture and technology. Lived forever, yes. But happily. Knowing that no other child have to suffer fear and torture ever again the way he had when he was young

Favorite friendship for this character: Sasha and Nikolai and David. Completely fanon, but the potential of all three of their dynamics together would be hilarious, chaotic and ingenious.

My crossover ship: Aleksander Morozova, the Darkling, the Black General, descendant of Ilya Morozova and the Starless Saint x the Queen of Fire and Blood herself; Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Andals and the First Men. Protector of the Seven Kingdoms. Queen of Meereen. Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. Mother of Dragons, The Unburnt, and the Breaker of Chains. They would have too many titles between them lmao but they would absolutely rule like no other has before and they're the power duo of all power duos.

Thank you for this! I had a blast ranting and I will always wanna rant more lol. This was fun.

[tempenensis]

philosophy of “moving forward”

Human civilization as a whole is something that always changing. Culture as part of civilization construct adapts and evolves together with human who creates it. In the evolution of ancient to modern culture, believe in myth and words of mouth on the nature of unknown things changes gradually to studying them using science; in this science is the driving force of culture change and the old believe is the opposing force.   

A subtle theme that slowly surfacing is the clash of old tradition to the new, more progressive thinking. Old tradition and rules are opposed and changes are happening gradually - and while it’s been bubbling for long, it's now culminated in one controversial life of Itadori Yuuji. 

the old and rotting : the Great Three Families

One of main undertones during student fights in the Kyoto exchange goodwill arc is how old jujutsu tradition underlined to be contrasting with the more modern principles most Tokyo students follows. This especially prominent in the fights of Momo vs Kugisaki and Fushiguro vs Kamo, and secondary drive in Maki vs Mai.      

In one of elite jujutsushi bloodline, the Zen’in family, perfection is a must.  “Possessing inherited curse technique of Zen’in family”. Other than that, they are failure in starting life as jutsushi. Even among them, women are not allowed to stand in the starting line. 

Looking at these alone, it implies on how old tradition put manifesting inherited technique among anything else and especially the discrimination towards women. It reflects the view in our real history, where women used to be banned from doing works and jobs considered masculine -- a view that has largely abandoned since women rights to be in the same level with men gained approval worldwide. 

Momo’s saying this to Kugisaki is not wrong per se, since she herself probably experiences this; emphasizing Kugisaki’s naivety to old tradition that a lot of jujutsushi still largely follow. Kugisaki herself is also not in the wrong; she’s someone who puts her ego over everything - she has her own individualistic view that keeps her apart as her own person.

Another view of old tradition is the bloodline over everything else. It’s understandable if you consider the way they prized inherited technique over everything. To ensure that the inherited technique can manifest along the bloodline, one of the way is to keep the bloodline ‘pure’, to say. That’s why marriage among blood relation is probably the norm, even though the only clue of this is Naoya in the latest chapter, who considers which one of the twin is “good”, further emphasizing how little women is respected in this household. 

Ironically in bloodline with a lot of inbreeding, it’s not the strength that is accumulated, but rather the weakness. For example, in Habsburg dynasty who used to rule Europe in the past, their long history of inbreeding caused their offspring to manifest a lot of genetic disorder - one of which is a physical disability named as their own, Habsburg jaw. Charles II of Spain was the most famous example of this. As a result of inbreeding along the Habsburg bloodline, Charles II inherited a lot of genetic disorders including the Habsburg jaw. He was even know as “the Bewitched” because of his appearance. 

In line with this are Kamo Noritoshi and Fushiguro Megumi, who were born not out of inbreeding, but possessing the inherited technique of their respective clan. Noritoshi manifests Blood manipulation technique despite being a mistress’s son. While we don’t know Megumi’s mom, it is implied that she was a normal person since Touji had left the Zen’in and would be hard-pressed if he was to marry a woman from the same bloodline since he hated the clan. And I would not be surprised if Satoru is revealed actually to be a mistress son too in the future.

As if to condemn this believe, Heavenly Restriction sometimes manifest in these clan. Touji and Maki are bound with restriction of having reduced curse energy in exchange of superhuman strength. If you think about it, superhuman strength is actually way more effective weapon to be used in exorcising curse than innate curse technique that is usually simpler and weaker. All they need is some cursed tools to use. But of course, old tradition condemns them since barehanded, both Touji and Maki can’t exorcise curses.

Women being lesser than men, bloodline purity and inherited technique obsession, twins being bad omen, and the heavenly restriction being a viewed as a curse rather than a gift -- all of the believe that composed the old tradition is actually more harmful for the jujutsushi society as a whole. Theirs is an industry who is always chronically short-handed, so you would think that if there are more people available to do the job is better. But they don’t think so just because of outdated tradition. And Zenin Naoya is created as the poster child of it. He embodies everything old that Gojo Satoru discards and loathes. 

education as driving force : Kyoto vs Tokyo

Back in vol 0, Getou calls Kyoto to be holy land of jujutsu and Shinjuku, Tokyo to be crucible of curses, where large number of curses can be found.

If we look over the history of these two places, it’s quite reasonable. Kyoto used to be the old capital of Japan, used to be named Heian. As we know, Heian period when Kyoto was designated as Japan capital is known as jujutsu golden age, when jujutsu developed rapidly, curses ran amok, and Sukuna trumped over everyone as the King of curses. We still don’t know where each of Great Families (Osanke) designated locations, but as the remaining of old capital, it is actually not surprising if the Osanke is located mainly in Kyoto, especially the Zen’in and Kamo. This also implies in Naoya speaking Kansai dialect and how Kyoto school shaped.   

The influence of old tradition is prominent in Kyoto Jujutsu school. First, most of the students are somehow connected to jujutsu families. Noritoshi is Kamo clan’s heir. Mai is one of the Zen’in. Momo with her way of speaking seems also to be raised in a jujutsu family. Kokichi has Heavenly restriction which we know is inherited among children of jujutsu clan. Other than them, Toudou and Miwa seem to be not from jujutsu clan, but they are probably admitted because of influence of their mentors - and the two of them have different mindset compared to the rest of the students. 

Second, when the Kyoto principal asked the students to kill Yuuji during exchange meetings, the four agreed to it readily since that’s how their custom dictates. Todo did not like that idea and Miwa is reluctant, but she still goes along. However she then apologizes to Tokyo students via Maki.  

Contrasting to Kyoto school, the Tokyo school is a bit departed from old jujutsu custom. Most of the students are not affiliated with jujutsu families. Maki and Megumi does have Zen’in blood, but the two of them hate the clan and everything it represents. We still have not much information on Toge and Inumaki clan in general. This also applies to students in previous generation too. Nanami, Haibara, Getou; the three of them are not from jujutsu families. Gojou is from one of the Osanke, but he loathes their custom and tradition, which might  be his main motivation to go to Tokyo school. Other than them, we still don’t know about Mei Mei, Shoko, and Utahime.

If I have to name one main characteristics that drive Tokyo school foundation is that they learn. Different from Kyoto whose philosophy influenced largely by traditional value set in stone, Tokyo school learns from mistake, learns how the era changes, learns how jujutsu changes so that they can be more humane, then develops to be an unique entity. This is largely due to Yaga’s influence.

But because of him (Itadori), there are certainly lives that was saved. In fact this time he cooperates with Todo to drive away the special-grade (curse spirit). This is not limited on the students, but after this they will accumulate a lot of regrets. Aah, I should have done that, I wanted it to be like this. Aah, I should have said it, I wanted to say it. 

Whether the decision regarding Itadori is correct, truthfully I don’t know. But for now, how about we watch over him?

Yaga Masamichi is one great educator. Rather than binding them to the existing tradition, he let the students have their own view and act responsibly. This is the wisdom that build the foundation and general philosophy of Tokyo school. And his view influence Gojo, who used to be his student, in teaching the new generation. For example this; when he asks of  Megumi’s opinion of what they should do with Yuuji. And because of it, they bends an existing law to let Yuuji alive; a very blatant opposition to old custom. 

In addition, Gojo rather tends and teaches the new generation despite wants to kill the upper management; this might also largely because of Yaga’s influence. The two of them accumulate the same regret from the incident that makes Getou to stray and learn from it -- and that regret is what shapes the learning and teaching in Tokyo school in the current time.

While the two seemingly cut from the same clothes, Tokyo school can afford to be different from their Kyoto counterpart in their teaching because of several things. First is their location. As the capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, Tokyo’s population grows. More human means more negative emotion, meaning the curses also evolved to be stronger. The reason why Getou called Shinjuku the crucible of curses is because Shinjuku is red-light district, where negative emotion is probably the strongest, making curses found there also stronger than any other place. As their enemy grows stronger, jujutsushi themselves also needs to be stronger than them to be able to exorcise them. In addition, the school is where Master Tengen planted his root so to speak, and they also need the strength to protect him too. They can’t afford old tradition to weaken and hold them back, so the Tokyo jujutsushi’s thinking start to depart from old custom. The second reason is because of Gojo; that in itself is self-explanatory. 

All in all, education as a whole system is not only designed to merely giving knowledge, but also to give the young the necessities so they can develop into a proper member of society. Good education system adapts to the current era and relevant view on the development of society. In the real world, modern society aligns largely with science, so science and its philosophy are integrated as fundamental parts of modern education system. And character building is also important as part of the system -- for example being critical, to be curious and question things, is an important traits to have because human curiosity is what makes us study things we don’t understand and makes science develops in the first place -- subsequently modernize human society as a whole. 

But of course, it’s all not without repercussion. Since old tradition still prevails and holds tightly by the authority, it’s no wonder that Tokyo school is now facing difficulty after the chaos that is Shibuya. 

[demonslayedher]

Buri-senpai~, it’s Anon-kouhai (do I earn that title?) again and I’m here to torture us both today on Mitsuri and her family since my last ask involved her a bit, albeit tangentially. Don’t worry, I have a lighthearted blurb coming up to wash the sadness away. It’s canon that Mitsuri is close to her family, especially her five siblings. Somehow my mind went to how they would’ve reacted after her death in the final battle as out of everybody, 1/4

2/4 Mitsuri didn’t necessarily have a life-changing event that involved demons which turned her to the corps. It’s hard to gauge how they would react as they are basically nonexistent if we don’t count Mitsuri’s flashbacks. However, I’m sure Senjuro would be mourning the fact that he lost his elder sister figure, potentially even his motherly figure as he doesn’t really remember Ruka. At least the poor thing has his father and the Kamado siblings. 3/4 The same could apply to Senjuro’s reaction towards Obanai’s death depending on how close his relationship with the Rengoku family was. Also, why am I making us suffer? And while we're on this sad analysis train, what do you think happen to the Heian doctor that “cured” Muzan in the afterlife? 4/4 Same with Tamayo. We know she was headed to hell according to chapter 204’s cover page (I think), but did we ever get any information on what happened after she died? Was her family waiting for her so that they could head to hell together? A happier note regarding family-ish units, I wonder how close Himejima is to Kanao considering his relationship with the Kochou sisters.

Anon-kouhai, you are the fastest, as well as the most patient. Since you are a follower of my fics (thank you so much!) I’m going to refer you to two of my fics for my take on Mitsuri’s family who was left behind. To clarify, the second fanbook stated she’d the oldest of five, meaning she has four younger siblings. We know the one right under her is a brother, but otherwise we don’t know anything about the siblings. 1. “The Pillar Training Oath,” in which Giyuu and Sanemi, still in the early stages of figuring out their post-canon friendship, honor their fallen comrades by trying to fulfill the Pillar training they never got to do with them. For Flexibility Hell, Giyuu and Sanemi have an awkward, bittersweet stay at the Kanroji residence, and for better or for worse, the siblings help them figure out how to perform the training.

2. “Impatience and Hunger,” my big baby of a canon-divergent AU, in which Nezuko learns Flame Breathing. Senjuro suggests she pay her respects to the elder martial sister whom she’s always been curious about, and when Nezuko arrives at the Kanroji estate (now a Wisteria House out of gratitude for the place they gave Mitsuri to belong), she recovers her demon memories of meeting Mitsuri and how much she loved her. Other than that, they make a few brief cameos later in the fic, acting in a Wisteria House capacity.

On that note, things just don’t get any easier for poor Senjuro, do they? As far as I'm aware, we don’t have any canon indication of whether young Kyojuro and Senjuro ever met little Obanai, though, or if only Shinjuro did. I’m inclined to think they didn’t spend much (if any) time together, but I do really enjoy fanwork that suggests they might had.

While still following how close some characters might or might not had been, I had never thought about what sort of relationship Himejima and Kanao might have had. If it was anything, it was courteous and they might had been mindful of one another, but given their personalities, I don’t think they’d have talked to each other much. Kanao wouldn’t had proactively spent any time with him, and Himejima, who has been hurt so bad before, doesn’t go out of his way to make new relationships. The new ones he attains, especially with children, have been forced on him. He got close to the Kochou sisters because they showed up one day and he couldn’t make them go away, and likewise, he accepted Genya because he couldn’t make Genya go away either. (Great, now I’m sad thinking about how I want more Himejima and Genya.) (Stay tuned below the cut for more comments on deceased doctors, fandom theorists, and hell. Today's programming is brought you by the letter 'u.' See 'u' in the hell that is Japanese romanization.)

As for that doctor, in Chapter 127 he’s described as being a good person. With additional detail from Fanbook #2, we know he came all the way from the Kantou region to the Heian capital, and the blue spider lilies grew where he lived, and he was the only person who knew where they grew. Muzan’s condition initially got worse, which was why he killed the doctor, presumably before the treatment was complete. It was still only a first attempt on the doctor’s part, after all, to try to help a man who was said to die before age 20 to live even just a little longer. Even though his actions resulted in hundreds of tragedies, I think those sins can be pinned on Muzan rather than the doctor, and the doctor was probably not held responsible in the KnY version of the afterlife. As for Tamayo, she knows she deserves to pay for her sins, but we don’t know if she’s got family waiting for her. In the KnY take on the afterlife, it seems there is some limbo souls can stay in before they can either ascend or descend, but souls who are free to ascend can choose to stick around watch over their living loved ones or accompany their deceased loved ones to hell. Like in this fanart, I like to headcanon that Tamayo encountered Shinazugawa Shizu, told her husband to get lost, and then the two of them, who bore the same weight of having killed their own beloved children, could go off and face hell together. Tanjiro, as well as Sumihiko, seem to believe that with enough time, even demons can forgiven and reborn (which has basis in Buddhist thought). We can assume that’s what Yushiro is waiting for, and since Tamayo already spent a few hundred years working to take down the root of all demon evil, I’d like to think she’s already balanced out enough of her karma that she’ll be back on her way sooner than she otherwise would had. Now jumping ahead a bit on something you asked a little bit later on, I sometimes come across fanarts that I love so much that I instantly adopt them as personal trivial headcanons. As for other Japanese fan theories, meta, analysis, and trivial headcanons, I tend to share them as soon as they capture me as interesting enough to want to talk about, or I encounter them when I’m hunting for info on something I’m already in the process of analyzing. And actually, as I was drafting this response I was already planning to mention a YouTube theorist’s recent video on Rengoku family names and symbolism, but then it got relevant sooner than I thought over on this post. ^0^ I don’t go out of my way to watch all his (Sabito's) new videos, but I find a lot of his theories pretty well supported and with sound reasoning. That said, the click-baity thumbnails like “the real reason Kanao, Zenitsu, and Inosuke didn’t attain marks!!” annoy me because it’s like, dude, none of us work for Shueisha, we’re all just nerds doing our best with what Wani-sensei gave us, haha! Since my search history knows I will click on stuff like this and it's such a popular topic right now, I also come across articles from cultural experts pointing out the finer points and how they're linked to real life culture. Most notably, Prof. Owada, retired Shizuoka University professor who seems to enjoy retirement capitalizing on his background and his newest favorite manga. I’m sure he probably snapped his fingers and went “darn!!” when the second fanbook came out with more details that he could had used in “A Japanese History of Demon Slayers,” a whole book he published four months too soon.

So with the Ask answers out of the way...

Now onto the comic relief section for you, haha! (it's marked with letters)

This whole blurb is just to give you a giggle after that torture I put us through. I also struggle with fluctuating between romanization spellings, and I get slightly disappointed when I see official anime merch using the spelling that I don’t really like. I’m not sure if it shows through our previous interactions but I avoid writing Rengoku’s first name to avoid the struggle. Kyojuro? Kyoujurou? Kyojurou, Kyoujuro? A/D B/D What do the ‘rou’ names want from us? Why are there so many of you? Tanjirou, Muichirou, Kyojurou, Yushirou. I like the spellings I used for the first three but I’m iffy on the additional ‘u’ on Yushiro’s name. At this point, let’s add additional ‘u’s to names with an ‘o’ that don’t even include that additional ‘u’ syllable. Nezukou, Inousuke, Oubanai, Shinoubu, Kanrouji, Tamayou, Uroukoudaki, Sabitou, Makoumo, Koukushibou, Youriichi, Kanaou, Aoui. C/D This would be such an aggravating April Fool’s joke on people who struggle with this like us, where we just buddy up ‘o’s with ‘u’s. Looking over there? Lououking ouver there. Why leave it at just the ‘o,’ as double ‘u’ is also common (looking at you Giyuu). Need a vacuum? Need a vacuuuum. Would you help me? Wouuuld youuu help me? D/D Muzan stole your wallet? Nou, Muuzan stoule youuur wallet. Tirade aside, hope that I’m able to contribute some ideas for you to add into your theories, fanfics, and fanart. Which reminds me, are there any Japanese fan theories, meta, analysis, trivial headcanons that the English-speaking fans haven’t really pointed out? Until the next time we continue these prolonged back-and-forths!

Picture any Sanemi face you want, that's the face I'm making.

I’m a Tanjiro(u) type when it comes to trying to explain language, whether my own or a foreign one, so I’m just going to point anyone interested to the Wikipedia page on methods of romanizing Japanese and say different systems have all gotten some things right, but all of them do at least one thing to annoy me so in my fun fandom internet hours I blissfully ignore consistency. Extra ‘u’s I can take, sometimes I even welcome them. But nothing, nothing will ever get under my skin like romanizing つ as ‘tu’ instead of ‘tsu.’

Buuuut, while I’m here, for reference: 炭治郎 Ta-n-ji-ro-u: たんじろう

炭十郎 Ta-n-ju-u-ro-u: たんじゅうろう

杏寿郎 Kyo-u-ju-ro-u: きょうじゅろう

愈史郎 Yu-shi-ro-u: ゆしろう

妓夫太郎 Gyu-u-ta-ro-u: ぎゅうたろう 無一郎Mu-i-chi-ro-u: むいちろう

有一郎Yu-u-i-chi-ro-u: ゆういちろう 甘露寺Ka-n-ro-ji: かんろじ

伊黒 I-gu-ro: いぐろ

小芭内 O-ba-na-i: おばない 黒死牟 Ko-ku-shi-bo-u: こくしぼう 行冥Gyo-u-m-e-i: ぎょうめい 義勇Gi-yu-u: ぎゆう 鱗滝U-ro-ko-da-ki:うろこだき

錆兎Sa-bi-to: さびと

胡蝶 Ko-cho-u:こちょう 童磨Do-u-ma: どうま 竈門Ka-ma-do: かまど 時透To-ki-to-u: ときとう

Aaaaaaand that's enough, Muuzan, whoever that is, is getting away with my wallet.

[officialinuyasha]

Let's talk about Yashahime updates and more theories. Theories I posted about that have been confirmed so far as information was slowly being released. You guys can pause this video if you'd like. The top character is InuYasha and Kagome's daughter [Due to color and features] The bottom two daughters are Sesshoumaru's [Due to colors and because of the patterns that were behind them] The Tree Tunnel has to do with the Sacred Tree being tied to the Well like it did in the first movie [Confirmed in Animage Magazine] A pearl has to do with Setsuna's memory loss, referenced when InuYasha was being shown visions the second time he visits the Inu no Taishou's grave [This was confirmed in a PV] The rainbow pearls may be 7 individual pearls, this was speculated because of the website [This was confirmed in a keyword] Quarter demon would be officially called Shihanyou [Shi-hanki Han-bun You-kai] I wrote about this on Anispace years ago, along with Rikuo Nura who is a Quarter Demon from a series called Nura: Rise of the Youkai Clan [Confirmed in a keyword] Souta may be living in an apartment or condominium because the outside and inside looked different from the Higurashi house [Confirmed in the Keyword] Towa would be abducted in the same way that Kagome would be from episode 1 because she's from a different era and has different clothes [Confirmed in script reveal picture] Moroha would have spiritual powers [This was referenced in the Fourth movie and also speculated by many of us, for obvious reasons. It was confirmed in the trailer] Towa in the trailer was talking about the first time Root head was defeated [Confirmed in Episode 1 Summary] So if you guys had these theories in mind as well, you were also correct!

The new characters from the voice list for episode 1 are Munehisa, from the summary we know he's the one that tells Towa the story of Roothead that takes place over ten years ago. Kinu Gyokuto and Lord [I'm assuming the lord of the mansion]

In Japanese history Kinu is Golden Bird and Gyokuto is Jewel Rabbit [Moon Rabbit/Jade Rabbit]

Let's expand on the theories I previously talked about. So we don't know the origins of the pearls yet, on who created them or where they came from, so it can be speculated it may or may not be Hosenki or his son, as his son said Hosenki used all the jewels before he passed away. But there can always be secrets we don't know about. It's happened before in the series. It may be another Oyster demon or someone else entirely, we know there are people who have made fake jewels like Izumo. Kinu and Gyokuto may have something to do with the origins of the pearls. Since the name Gyokuto is Jewel Rabbit. As you know I joked about Towa looking like the Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland before the summary even came out ... You know, Tunnel of Ages, Rabbit tree tunnels. The English title of the first InuYasha episode seemed to reference Alice in Wonderland so this is just getting ironic to me. Remember Sango means Coral, Kohaku means Amber, Hisui means Jade. Would be interesting if they had a connection to the pearls because of their names or if Hisui's prayer beads had a pearl. That's all silly to say. But hey, doesn't hurt to have an idea.

The Pearls can also be related to the Seven Treasures. Shippo, or the "seven treasures", as in the Buddhist Scriptures, refers to gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, agate, red coral, and carnelian. But when it comes to Shippou, I know its referenced because of his seven changes and tricks because of InuYasha Feudal Fairytale for the PS1. I always thought that was cute.

There's also new merch and once again the character colors totally make me think of the pearls! I've been wondering if the Forest Fire will affect the sacred tree as well. We can also speculate a possible return of Roothead. A third return. Since it's such a big demon, its possible it could regenerate. What I've been wondering is how will they purify the demon corpse for the Corpse Shop? Atleast, if it is necessary for them to do so. In Episode 59. Remember how the Ninjas Serina and Suzuna stole Sango's weapons? Sango said that the parts needed to be purified. I'm hoping they use this in Yashahime as a way to show Moroha purifiying the parts for the Corpse body shop or even putting sutras where they are held in the shop. Maybe even Jyubei did the same technique at some point. I also wonder if Jyubei was an ex demon slayer himself. I'd like the idea of him or someone affiliated with the shop was an ex Demon slayer. Kougas sword looks like Morohas sword...It's unlikely they are the same sword. But, hey it's an idea. Towa's name means Eternity and Setsuna's name means Moment. This may be referenced to Sesshoumaru and Rin. From Episode 162 "Forever with Lord Sesshoumaru". In this episode Rin's mortality is brought up. Sesshoumaru can live for hundreds of years, while to humans can feel like an eternity. Rin is a moment in Sesshoumaru's life that can seem like an eternity. We had a short 15 second trailer that included zoom in of the promo picture that said Change the Future. they are referencing their names.

Towa [Eternity] Setsuna [Moment] Moroha [Double-Edged] Wish for eternity. Live in the moment. A double-edged bloodline. Traverse the past and present. Change the future.

As I speculated previously it's possible that Towa may be captured like Kagome was in the first episode because of being a demon or her attire, being speculated as "Not of this world" /"Not from around here" - or some kind of threat! - Let's talk about the possible changes to the future. We know that Towa has a History book in the Feudal Era. I noticed it the first time we saw the trailer that the Kanji said History. Kagome has brought her books many times to the Feudal Era. But we can speculate if bad guys got the book, bad things can happen. Of course. They can know about things before they happen and change it. I like to imagine crazy things changing like, if she's reading her History book and suddenly history changes on the page. That would be trippy. Or things in her era start to change and they have to go back and fix it. Stuff like this has been seen in many movies and other series about time changes. Even in video games such as - You guessed it. One of my most favorite video games of all time - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. My friend Lea is one of the people who help me with translations and from what can be read from the scripts that were posted on the Official Yashahime twitter. She said - “Towa’s captors are questioning about this "Reiwa” country she was in and call her Yashahime. Towa thinks to herself that she must'nt say anything or else history will be altered. Towa tells them she’s not Yashahime though"

I nailed it when I said that I thought she was getting captured like Kagome was from episode 1. So, let's wonder. Towa might not know she is Yashahime, yet or she knows that she is Yashahime and is hiding it. It sounds like the bad guys might be looking for the Yashahime or atleast know of them. The palace in the promo picture could be the Lord of Kanto's palace unless it's the demon slayers village. As it zooms into Towa and Setsuna. From the short Viz Media video.

We've seen the scripts posted on the Yashahime twitter, and there appears to be  13 scripts that were visible in the Yashahime twitter picture. Towa is shown on the front of Episode 2, Setsuna on 3 and Moroha on Four. We got Episode 2's summary and it's going to be called "The 3 Princesses" Episode 3 is called “The Butterfly of Dreams" which has Setsuna on the script cover. We know that the Butterfly of Dreams is what affected Setsuna's Memories. Episode 4 is called the "Door to the Past” that's the one that has Moroha on it We can also think about how Towa's first interaction with Moroha and Setsuna might be. It could be by complete accident that they ran into Towa while trying to go after the demon. Or it may be the moment in the Kanto palace that they are looking to save Towa. When we look at the trailers and episode summaries, it appears that Towa is shown first returning to the Feudal era, however we don't know if she will see Setsuna at that part, or even a glimpse. Or that Setsuna will meet Towa face to face when she goes to the Modern Era with Moroha in episode two. We can also speculate that Episode 1 may just be Towa explaining how she got herself into "this mess". There are times in series where a character is explaining how they got where they were. So it's unsure if Setsuna ends up in the Modern Era first or if Towa goes to the Feudal Era first. But based on what we have seen. We are atleast shown Towa in the Feudal Era first, but again it may not be in order. So let's talk about Souta. Grandpa wanted him to be a priest, his mom wanted him to be a doctor and Souta himself said he wanted to be a Soccer player. So I wonder if it's any of those. Maybe even a Technician or a Vet. Maybe he even was a Teacher or Musician like his wife is or even a Video Game designer. It is possible that the girls may go to another era besides the Feudal and Modern. There may be splits between those two. I'd like to see them go to the Heian Period where Midoriko and Inu no Taishou were! I talked about before, if InuYasha and the others are dead or even trapped I know that it would not be permanent and that there would always be a solution to save them or bring them back. Even finding them. Onto the "Butterfly of Dreams" whats interesting is there was actually a movie called the "Butterfly Effect" and in the the main character is afflicted with headaches so painful that he frequently blacks out. While unconscious, the character is able to travel back in time to difficult moments in his childhood. He can also alter the past for friends. But changing the past can drastically alter the present, and he finds himself in nightmarish alternate realities, including one where he's locked away in prison. But, whats further to look into is that the Butterfly Effect is a real thing in Chaos theory - "The butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state." Also if Setsuna isn't getting enough sleep. Impaired sleep has been associated with Alzheimer's disease. It's also known that not getting enough sleep in general can cause forgetfulness or memory loss. So there's alot that the Butterfly of Dreams can be related to.

We also got some more screenshots for the first episode. It looks like Towa may be looking at Kagome's bike seat. This Owl that has multiple eyes like the old man. I think it has something to do with him, and it may even be his true form. Because in the Trailer when Setsuna attacks the Old man he seems to vanish and his clothes drop to the floor. It's possible the Owl may be his true form and he flies away where they try to go after him!

Ca Mercadejas asked me what I think Moroha's screen time would be. I think that Moroha's screentime will be equal to all three of the girls, I say that based on the interviews when they talked about making her the third main character. Sumisawa said: To explain these three a little more, even if Towa and Setsuna were having a one way conversation, but if you add one more direction that is Moroha to the conversation, it completes the cross road and the focus becomes easier. If Moroha who is an external factor (sense of values) is around, then no matter how similar or how many confrontations Towa and Setsuna exhibit, the story will keep progressing further and further.

Rex Play's asked me "Have you rewatch all of inuyasha cause i have after knowing that there was a sequel" Yes I have especially with the release of the Blu-rays. I've been buying them and watching them. Even watching it on VIZ Media's Official Website.

With all of that being said. Relax. Sit back. Enjoy Yashahime. I'm going to rewatch all the Yashahime episodes millions of times. Remember about what Rumiko Takahashi said about Towa and Setsuna's mother - "Please forget the existence of their mother, for now."

[jaquesofdragons]

Headcanons, pt 3 - the Rukongai

I was recently reminded that we’re only told so much about the Rukongai and its alleys in addition to each Division’s responsibilities - and thus that what I’ve developed is probably wholly unique and could use a convenient explanation.

We know from canon that there are four Alleys - East, West, North, South. And that each Alley has 80 districts. 320 districts total. And that beyond the 50th district, there is such abject poverty that people don’t even have straw sandals. And of course, the higher the number, the more dangerous and lawless the districts get.

So I created a diagram (no, i’m not showing you my scribbles, srynotsry) and plotted it all out. I divided it all into 3 bands in a concentric circle around Seireitei: Inner, Mid, and Outer districts. Inner is the safest, most stable, most policed, etc. band covering roughly the first 20-25 districts depending on how the alley is layed out. Mid districts: roughly 25-50. Things start getting worse here leading into the Outer districts: 50-80. While there’s a big emphasis on characters like Kenpachi being from the absolute worst district, #80, it only really makes sense to me that distance from Seireitei is the largest factor. Thus the entire outer band of districts farthest from Seireitei (roughly 70-80) are actually fairly equally bad. There is something of a reputation bonus to intimidation when a soul can say they lived in 80, plus the bragging rights of saying they conquered 80 that drags in the competitive and the like, which creates an increased violent atmosphere the higher you go in districts.

Anyway, none of that is too surprising. The major thing I think I did differently than others is how I divided up the duties of the Gotei 13. I made the assumption that there wasn’t just one or two divisions that had the responsibility to patrol the whole of the Rukongai. It’s just far too large.

So I gave 10 of the divisions Jurisdictions in the Rukongai that they’re responsible for patrolling by just slicing up the pie and handing out pieces. They’re not in a specific convenient order like clockwise or counterclockwise, though it’s possible they may have been in the past. Basically a division stayed with a Captain, but the Captains could trade jurisdictions, change their duties, etc. resulting in the current lack of order. And of course, with 10 divisions and four alleys, two of the divisions have jurisdictions in two different Alleys.

The order for the time period of my story going clockwise from North:

North Alley:

East Alley:

West side of North, First Division (they also have a piece of West)

Middle of North, Third Division.

East side of North, Seventh Division.

South alley:

North side of East, Ninth Division.

Middle of East, Thirteenth Division

South side of East, Eighth Division (they also have a piece of South)

West Alley:

East side of South, Eighth Division (they also have a piece of East)

Middle of South, Sixth Division

West side of South, Fifth Division

Some additional thoughts:

South side of West, Eleventh Division

Middle of West, Tenth Division

North side of West, First Division (they also have a piece of North)

- First Division as the longest standing, most powerful division regularly (like once every century or two) takes over the Jurisdiction that is the most troublesome and reinforces law and order.

- Some Divisions have essentially been denoted as Noble Divisions. Sixth for example, is passed down by the Kuchiki. Second always has close ties to the Shihoin. Interesting things are going on in Tenth atm so you’ll have to read to find out more about that. Eighth and Thirteenth are usually grouped in with this because of the main side-effect/reason: Their jurisdictions don’t move often if at all, because their Family lands in the Rukongai are located in their jurisdictions.

(( Side note: The estates where Noble Families live are within Seireitei walls. But these are souls that have to eat, and thus they need land for farming, on top of land to collect resources. Which means they have lands in the Rukongai that they dedicate their own resources and men to guarding and overseeing workers (Rukongans). This is straight up Heian era stuff if you’re familiar with Japanese history. ))

I really could go on about the Rukongai, such as interactions between those with the hunger (those with spiritual power) and those without it, between the nobles and rukongans, who has memories and who doesn’t when they arrive, living conditions in the different districts, etc. But that’s probably a post of its own.

- Second, Fourth, and Twelfth took on duties that excluded them from taking a jurisdiction in the Rukongai.

Second patrols everywhere, acting as scouts and messengers for all divisions. Fourth is of course the medical division, and works with all divisions.

Twelfth is primarily responsible for patrolling in the Living World and the associated duties, though the other divisions also have smaller jurisdictions in the Living World. I came to this conclusion because I’m pretty sure Kirifune was the one responsible for the mod soul project which was about putting artificial souls in dead human bodies to even the number of fighters against hollows - clearly a Living World scenario. Kisuke is messing around with Gigai that is really only necessary in the Living World (until Aizen brilliantly creates a need for souls to need them in Soul Society, too) And then under Mayuri, the twelfth and the SRDI are the ones responsible for monitoring the balance, the Living world, the Dangai, etc.

So basically, even before Kisuke developed the SRDI, it seems to me that the twelfth and Kirifune were already heading in that direction and Kisuke just solidified it and really started dedicating resources to innovation/invention.

There’s probably holes in this reasoning, but it’s the headcanon I’m going with.

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

My Top Ten* Touhou Tracks

*...as of September 2019 because I love so many and I’m sure my favourites could change not just in order but be completely replaced by ten different tranks within a month.

Making this list felt impossible at times because I picked out 39(!) tracks that I thought were ‘top ten’ worthy, and obviously reducing that list to just ten was really hard and I’m pretty sure I just gave up at some point and tried going with what my gut told me more often than not. 

That sounds like I didn’t put as much thought into this list as I could have, but I would like to spin this as a testament to how good so much Touhou music is and how much it means- Okay that’s a bad excuse.

Behind-the-scenes-edit: I changed this to Top 11 at the last second because I was writing my number one and realised I forgot a song I liked more than number 10!

10 11. Concealed Four Seasons (Okina’s first theme from HSiFS)

I just really love this one. It’s one of the ‘subtly powerful’ kind of boss themes featuring a riff that I adore. That little snippet of Necrofantasia is also nice for lore and my ears.

10. The Clown of the Star-Spangled Banner (Clownpiece’s theme from LoLK)

I think this track is literally the perfect amount of chaotic, cheerful and dangerous for a super powerful fairy dressed like a clown. On top of that, it still manages to have those elements so many of the LoLK tracks have that really make me feel like I’m in space.

9. Night Sakura of Dead Spirits (TD Stage 1)

My favourite of all Stage 1 themes. I’m at complete peace while listening but it’s not too peaceful that I feel like falling asleep.

8. Flawless as Clothing of the Celestials (Pre-Battle theme from SWR)

This is probably my favourite rendition of that classic Broken Moon motif. It  doesn’t represent Touhou as a whole as much as any of the others, and is obviously more meant for Heaven and Tenshi specifically, but it’s still by far the prettiest to me.

7. Walking the Streets of a Former Hell (SA Stage 3)

It’s so happy and festive! The first time I played SA, I didn’t know anything about anywhere, but I could tell right away from this track and the bright lights of the background that I was flying through a cheerful party. ...which I also lost a lot of lives in.

6. Heian Alien (Nue’s theme from UFO)

My favourite Extra Boss theme. It sounds exactly like what I’d expect from the title: Otherworldly, mischievous, but also a really addictive beat. I actually get chills near the end of the loop where the track goes low and then the trumpets blare out. 

5. Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome (IN Stage 5)

It’s beautiful and manages to sound both epic and child-like at the same time. It really is the perfect theme to a bunch of rabbits.

4.  Lullaby of Deserted Hell (SA Stage 5)

I got really emotional while listening to this. I mean, that applies to 70% of touhou tracks, but this one was one of the... 50% that did it the very first time. It’s so good and makes me want to fall asleep among a bunch of sad skeletons!

3. Wind God Girl (Aya’s theme from PoFV)

Super bias time. This was the very first piece of Touhou music I ever listened to. I heard it used in a youtube gaming video, looked it up myself, discovered it rocks, found more tracks in the sidebar, and it all snowballed from there...

2. Desire Drive (TD Stage 4)

Super bias time isn’t over yet. I’ve basically listened to this track and multiple remixes I’d say.... several hundreds of times in the last few years? I’m no longer capable of properly weighing it against other tracks or even articulate why I love it other than ‘It instills happiness into my brain through the most direct of means’.

1. The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in the Air (DDC Stage 5)

Wow there are a lot of Stage 5s on this list. I feel like this track more than either of Shinmyomaru’s themes from Stage 6 actually best represent the entirety of her character and the conflicts of Double Dealing Character as a whole. Also it’s sooo beautiful it soothes yet ignites my spirit every time.

Honourable mentions:

Favourite title theme is a tie between Newshound (Double Spoiler) and Mysterious Purification Rod (Double Dealing Character).

Favourite Stage 1 boss theme is A Midsummer's Fairy Dream (Eternity Larva's theme) and I mention it here because it was the only Stage 1 boss theme among the 39 tracks I picked.

Favourite credits theme is Oriental Evening Sky (Scarlet Weather Rhapsody).

-

This all started because @pyramomo basically dared me to but I’m glad for it.

[chilly-territory]

Uchouten Kazoku 2, chapter 2 (part 1 out of 4)

Not a word on the Nidaime or tengu in this whole chapter... but lots of tanuki and shogi.

The Eccentric Family: The Nidaime’s Homecoming (Uchouten Kazoku: Nidaime no Kichou) by Morimi Tomihiko

Chapter 2 (part 1/4, pages 69-83) Gyokuran of Nanzenji Temple

When a male and a female tanuki fall in love, it's said that they're tied with the red fur of fate.

There was no end to tanuki whose hearts were set aflutter by that fishy myth prompting them to search every nook and cranny of the body in an attempt to pick out the precious single red hair. While they were busy with that, in the shade of trees in Yoshidayama, on the premises of Koujin-sama[*1], and in the greenhouses of the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Gardens, a discreet furry friendship between tanuki gentlemen and tanuki ladies was steadily deepening. 'There is only one tanuki like you in the whole world,' he says. 'No other tanuki is like you in the whole world,' she says. Lovey-dovey on display!

On that note, there was one particular deep and furry love story.

Once upon a time, in the Tanukidani-Fudou forest, located in the Ichijouji district of Sakyou-ku ward, there lived a certain tanuki girl named Tousen, as juicy and fresh as a peach and as nimble and agile as an enlightened mountain sage [*2]. From morning to night, she played on the stairway that counted 250 steps leading to the shrine. A single shout of 'Drop dead' was enough for her to repel any halfwit that dared make light of her. The little tanuki in the neighborhood called her 'Tousen the Stairs-Wanderer' out of respect and reverence.

One day, a group of unfamiliar tanuki kids appeared in Tanukidani-Fudou. Inspired by the tsuchinoko boom that was taking the tanuki world by the storm at the time, they were the self-proclaimed Tsuchinoko Expedition Team, a bunch of mischievous boys who wrought havoc on many nearby mountains. The brats started climbing the stairs, singing as they did, and met Tousen on the way; unaware of her fame and courage, they took the high-and-mighty attitude with her.

"Hey, you shortie over there." "What did you say, you jerk?!"

Tousen flew into fury and beat the mischievous invaders to within an inch of their life. "Drop dead!"

That was the start of a battle between the little tanuki of Tanukidani-Fudou and the Tsuchinoko Expedition Team with the long stairs to the temple on the line. Tousen fought bravely and protected their turf.

Time passed, and Tousen descended down the long stairs counting 250 steps that she'd defended in the past in a white kimono. Leaving Tanukidani-Fudou behind after her marriage, she set out to her new home in the Tadasu forest.

What she was remembering with fondness at the time were the mischievous boys of the Tsuchinoko Expedition Team, singing at the top of their lungs as they climbed the stairs, and herself as she stood in their way. The leader of the Tsuchinoko Expedition Team that called her shortie on that day was Shimogamo Souichirou, that is, our father. Needless to say, the tomboy who responded with a 'What did you say, you jerk' was none other than our mother. Were it not for furry love in this world, not a single tuft of fur would have existed of the Shimogamo brothers.

What preceded the birth of the round, little furballs was a furry love story.

〇

In the beginning of June when the rainy season had started, I sat in a cage in Kyoto City Zoo.

Kyoto zoo was located near Heian-jingu shrine in Okazaki, and the premises surrounded by a brick wall were lively with cries of birds and wild animals. Between the cages with such dignified creatures as elephans, lions, giraffes and hippopotami, there was a cage with tanuki, too.

That said, for tanuki being put in a cage was their greatest fear. And that was because our specialty, that is, shapeshifting, had a close connection with the idea of freedom; if thrown into a cage and robbed of their freedom, tanuki wouldn't be able to shapeshift. You won't find a tanuki who would like to be confined and rendered unable to shapeshift.

For that reason, from long ago, it was customary for the role of captive tanuki in the zoo to be played in shifts by the Okazaki tanuki who were professionals at that. When they needed to go out on an incentive trip, there was no choice but for other tanuki to stand in for them, but it went without saying that this job was not popular. The reason why I had accepted it was because the pay was high.

When I signed up for it, first of all, I was given a thorough crash course by the chief of the Okazaki tanuki on the correct way to conduct myself as a proper zoo tanuki. The Okazaki tanuki took pride in the activities of enlightening ladies and gentlemen of Kyoto on the subject of what a proper tanuki was.

"What's most important is charm. However, do not butter up to anyone." The Okazaki tanuki chief narrated their philosophy. "We play tanuki with pride. That's the trick to it. You can't just spring the raw realism on your visitors. If you do that, all our efforts will be for naught. You've got to catch the moment when you become more tanuki-like than a tanuki without exposing the truth. This constitutes one of shapeshifting techniques, too."

Naturally, being locked up in a cage felt very eerie, so I spent my first day in restlessness. To a tanuki not accustomed to having your shapeshifting powers sealed, denied the very possibility to go out and play mindlessly and with someone staring at you around the clock, it was an extremely exhausting ordeal.

Worried about how I was doing in a cage all alone, my mother dropped by in the evening to see how I was faring. As was in her habit, mother assumed the form of a handsome young man, Takarazuka Revue-style, which was already conspicuous, and an emerald frog riding on her shoulder didn't help to alleviate the effect at all. Said frog crawled into my cage through a crack.

"You won't feel lonely if you're with Yajirou," mother said.

And so, from my second day on, I had the company of my second elder brother, which made me feel at lot better. When I paced to and fro in my cage with a frog on my furry head, children that gathered in front of it were flabbergasted, "A frog is driving a tanuki!"

"You sure have your finger in many pies, huh. I'm so impressed," my brother confessed. "I just have nothing better to do." "Speaking of which, have you caught tsuchinoko, in the end?" "Oh, come on, nii-san, as if I'd be idling away in a place like this if I'd caught it. I'd be busy with press conferences and celebration parties and stuff right about now."

Later that night, my brother sat motionlessly in a corner of the cage, apparently thinking about something deep and hard.

"What are you up to?" When I peered closer, I found that he was solving shogi problems.

The Tanuki Shogi tournament, sponsored by Nanzenji temple, was scheduled to take place in the middle of June, and apparently, my brother was going to participate in the preliminaries.

"A bad bush is better than the open field," my brother said. "Not many tanuki like shogi, and I would feel bad for the Nanzenji family if it ended up being an empty tournament." "What a strange event our father came up with, I gotta say."

Our father, Shimogamo Souichirou, was an ardent shogi fan. As his love for shogi grew in intensity, he collaborated with the previous head of the Nanzenji family to start the Tanuki Shogi tournament, but tanuki were reluctant to even memorize the shogi pieces, and having to sit still before the shogi board made the fur on their butts itch. Our father's wish for shogi to stick in the tanuki worlds was fruitless, and then he fell into a tanuki hot pot, so the tournament had to be discontinued for the time being. It occurred to me that our eldest brother must be very proud of himself since it was him who brought it back to life.

That reminded me of something else, and I asked, "Come to think of it, father had a shogi room, didn't he?" "Ah, yes, yes, he did. Father's secret base, a fun room, indeed." "What became of it?" "It has to be somewhere in the Tadasu forest, but I don't know where."

Hiding away in the shogi room whenever there was a break in his bustling activity as the head of the tanuki world was father's cherished relaxation time. The room in question was a four and a half tatami mat chamber, filled with a collection of old shogi boards and shogi instruction books, and sometimes he taught shogi to us siblings there.

I recalled what that nostalgic room was like.

Surrounded by massive shogi pieces, almost as big as one whole tatami mat, that I had no idea what could be used for and shogi boards of curious shape, father looked happy, sitting there cross-legs on a zabuton. The room had a large skylight. Beyond it, the blue sky, clear and high, stretched, and overhanging branches bearing ripe persimmon fruit were visible. I remembered father's unease when I said I wanted those persimmons.

Oddly enough, father always made us wear blindfolds whenever he brought us to that room.

What I remembered with clarity was the sensation of jumping off to the bottom of a hole where wind whistled.

"Our eldest doesn't know where that room is, either?" "No, apparently not," my brother replied. "It appears he'd searched the forest high and low but found no hole resembling it. Father hid it really well." And then my brother added in a murmur, "I'd like to go back there some day."

〇

An unusual guest appeared on my last day of zoo life.

On that day, it was somewhat cloudy since the morning and from time to time it rained, so the zoo was mostly deserted. The choo-choo train with a red chimney running with clangity-clang and the small Ferris wheel both looked dreary drenched in the ashen rain. On such days, no matter how great my acting performance of playing a tanuki-like tanuki was, very few people paused in front of my cage. As such, it wasn't worth it to try hard.

I was yawning, bored out of my mind, when a little girl came. Her stature was small, like a kindergartner's, and the red of her umbrella and rubber boots was vibrant. Not showing the slightest bit of interest in the choo-choo train or the Ferris wheel, she headed toward the tanuki cage in a straight line while spinning her red umbrella and stopped in front of it. She must have loved tanuki a lot. Her red umbrella pressed against the cage, she watched me pace exultantly to and fro in my cage with big eyes. Soon, though, she started giggling.

"You give a marvelous tanuki performance, Yasaburou-chan."

Startled, I stopped dead in my tracks.

My brother, sitting on my head, said, "Oh, it's you, Gyokuran. What brings you here?"

"I heard Yasaburou-chan was standing in here, so I thought I'd show my support." "Hmph. I play the role splendidly, don't I, Gyokuran-sensei?" I said, to which Gyokuran smiled wryly, "Drop the sensei title, would you."

The tanuki known as Nanzenji Gyokuran was the younger sister of the head of the Nanzenji clan, Shoujirou.

In the past, when I was one of the Akadama tanuki pupils, Gyokuran already had both wisdom and good sense and was Akadama-sensei's favorite. A few honor roll tanuki from among those who studied under sensei were tasked with helping sensei. Nanzenji Gyokuran, along with our brother Yaichirou, served as Akadama-sensei's assistant, herding and controlling the furry mischeviuos boys bustling beneath the teacher's platform like a dog at a sheep farm. That's why I called her 'Gyokuran-sensei'.

Standing in front of my cage, Gyokuran gushed about how much she looked forward to the Tanuki Shogi tournament. Apparently, she dropped by on her way back from inspecting the preliminary tournament venue with her brother Shoujirou.

"You're coming to watch, right, Yasaburou-chan?" "I'm not sure. I have no interest in shogi, you see," yawned I. "Yaichirou-san worked so hard to bring the tournament back, but you're not coming? You shouldn't say such cold things. If you come, you'll find it fun, I'm sure." "Well, it's fun for you, Gyokuran."

Gyokuran was a known shogi enthusiast even as a child.

To begin with, the Nanzenji clan were always a family of shogi fans, but Gyokuran's love for the game stood out even among the rest of them, and numerous tales such as her never stopping solving shogi problems even when she fell into the Biwako Canal, or her loving shogi so much that she would even eat shogi pieces, or her sleeping every night with a shogi board, circulated about her as if they were true. According to Gyokuran herself, all of them were nonsense, but I knew for a fact that back when she was one of Akadama-sensei's pupils she did force innocent little tanuki to play shogi, and I was among those who ran around trying to escape from her as she chased us with a shogi board in hand yelling, "It's fun! It's really fun, you'll see!" Because of her excessive love for shogi, Gyokuran was unsuitable for shogi promotion activities. The numerous legends about Gyokuran circulating in the tanuki world were spread by the annoyed tanuki kids she had chased in the past.

Suddenly, Gyokuran said, "Yaichirou-san still won't get back to playing shogi, huh?" "Our big brother doesn't play shogi," my second elder brother said in a soft voice. "And you know that better than anyone else, don't you, Gyokuran?" "For how much longer does he plan to let it bother him? Even though he's turned into a fine capable furball already." "Did you tell him that?" "I can't. ...I'm not sure why, but I just can't."

In the Tadasu forest, there was a certain shogi board left by our father, and our eldest brother cherished it as much as he did the automated rickshaw. Although that shogi board was carefully stored in a box of empress tree, its surface was marred with deep teeth impressions. Those marks were left on it by our eldest brother who turned into a tiger in a fit of anger and bit into it. When he was little, he had a bad tendency to shapeshift into a tiger whenever he got angry because of finding himself at a disavantage in shogi. The reason why he quit playing shogi was because he started deeply hating losing control of himself like that. Playing against a girl his own age, bursting into tears from frustration and then biting into the shogi board were all memories hurting his honor, no doubt.

Eventually, Gyokuran said, "See you at the shogi tournament" by way of goodbye and went back to the Nanzenji forest, hazy with the rain. As she walked, she was spinning her umbrella like a real child. Seated on my head, my brother murmured, "Were it not for furry love in this world..." "What is it, nii-san?" "...No, it's nothing." "Being a tease, huh." "Even a frog at the bottom of the well has an obligation to keep a secret."

〇

On a certain evening in the middle of June when it was getting quite late, our whole family went out, heading to Nanzenji.

The sky was concealed behind bulky clouds, and not a single star was visible, with only moist night wind blowing. My little brother Yashirou took the point, his face lighting up in pride and elation as he hoisted a paper lantern with our family crest on it, looking like the leader of a drum and fife band. Passing through the dark town with its endless line of fences surrounding big mansions, we entered Nanzenji-keidai that was crawling with Kyoto's tanuki holding paper lanterns.

The reason was simple: tonight was the day when the Tanuki Shogi tournament organized by the Nanzenji family was to be held.

Mother was impressed as she looked around. "Look at that crowd." "That's because this tournament was on a hiatus for a long time ever since father's death," our eldest brother sounded boastful. "It was worth every effort I've invested. I'm sure father would be pleased, too." "If nii-san wins today, father would be even more pleased," I said.

My second elder brother riding on my shoulder stirred. "I don't know. Don't get your hopes up too much." "Don't say such fainthearted things, Yajirou. Protect the honor of the Shimogamo family," our eldest instructed. "Hold it, hold it, nii-san, I don't play shogi for the sake of protecting our honor." "I know you're capable of giving Gyokuran a run for her money." "I don't know about that," replied our second elder. "I'm sure you can win," joined in mother. "Though winning and losing are both down to luck."

Majority of the the tanuki assembled on the premises were hopeless at shougi, unable to tell a rook from a bishop, and they only came for the chance to gamble and party. Beneath the black towering gate of Nanzenji temple surrounded by pine trees, the owner of bar 'Akegarasu' on Teramachi-doori street was consulting with his friends on the matter of betting. For betting on all and every kind of competition was their raison d'être.

I walked up and called out to him.

"Hey. I can't believe you bothered to come when you don't know squat about shogi." "Do your worst for us, Yasaburou, because we're counting on seeing some fighting outside the shogi board, too." That was a scandalous thing of him to say. "Out-of-the-ring action is your forte, yeah?"

When I was about to retort, my kid brother waved the paper lantern with our family crest.

"Yasaka-san is here!"

The Yasaka tanuki sounded their trumpets shortly in a modest fashion and set foot on the Nanzenji temple grounds. Nise-emon Yasaka Heitarou expectedly wore an aloha shirt.

Noticing us, he passed under the temple's triple gate and clapped my eldest brother on the shoulder in good humor.

"Oh, Yaichirou-kun. It makes me so happy to see tanuki shogi revived."

Since spring, Yasaka Heitarou had been steadily advancing his preparations to retire, little by little transferring his Nise-emon work to my eldest brother. Despite my brother grumbling about how he had no time to even sleep, he didn't at all look dissatisfied, swimming energetically all around Kyoto like a furry fish that had found water after making a show of downing a dodgy energy drink procured in the Shinkyougoku shopping district.

Yasaka Heitarou chatted up my second elder brother squatting on my shoulder. "I gotta say, I was surprised that you survived the preliminaries, Yajirou. I had no idea you were so good at shogi." "Father taught me well. Besides, there is hardly anything else to do at the bottom of the well." "You, too, learned all the dubious entertainments from Sou-san, eh. I'm the same. When we were little, it was tsuchinoko hunting, and when we grew up, it was shogi, sake and Hawaii. All the good-for-nothing things that earn you no squat but are most fun in the world. That said, Sou-san was always good at everything he did."

Mother snickered at that. "And you, Heitarou-san, was always so clumsy." "Okay, wait, that's quite the comment to make, you know." "Oh? Well, even if you're clumsy, being able to always have fun no matter what is an admirable quality and what really counts." "You just say whatever you want, huh. I'm no match for you," said the Nise-emon in his aloha shirt and laughed.

T/N:

[*1] Koujin-sama 荒神様: a god of fire, the hearth and the kitchen (wiki); in Kyoto, Koujin charms and talismans are often put up in the kitchen. In this particular context, however, 'Koujin-sama' is a pet nickname for Gojoin temple (same as Kiyoshikojin temple jp wiki), used by locals (jp article on it). [*2] Tousen 桃仙: this name consists of the kanji for peach (桃) and the kanji for what is known as sennin (仙) or xian in Taoism (wiki), that is, a mystical enlightened mountain sage.

[tarithenurse]

On my mind, in my soul - 6

Prompt: Got three things to go by on this from @keepcalmandcarrieunderwood: “You Should See Me in a Crown” by Billie Eilish (as usual passages in block quotes), a bath robe (which I’ve taken the liberty of switching to a kimono), and a living room. Thank you very much for the prompt help! Pairing: Loki x Burglar!reader. Content: Crime mentioned, drinking, unwanted pining, stalking, unwanted physical contact, swearing (?), a tad of Japanese history, spelling errors because brain is broken. A/N: As usual: check bio/tab for Masterlist.

My own ruler

Routine has returned and with it a sense of numbness that you bask in as long as you don’t happen to come across a certain slim parcel tucked away at the back of the safe. You welcome any chance to focus on work in some manner whether it be working contacts or any phase of a job, as long as your mind stays occupied for hours on end until you’re too exhausted to do anything but collapse in bed.

Bed.

Sleep.

You’ve come to hate the handful of hours you spend in oblivious to the world of the living because each time the comfort of dark nothingness recedes in favour of all too vivid dreams. Colours of turquoise and emerald haunts your nights so regularly that it seems into the days too, bringing an itch to the back of your body but no one’s there when you turn to look.

It might just be in your head, like a sort of paranoia that no drug or therapy can cure your from because you know who you think is watching and no rational doctor has the means to convince you that He doesn’t have the skill or power to keep track of you.

So you do the next best thing you can do. You excel through spite. Each job has to be perfectly planned and executed in case Loki’s watching. Every time you step out the door, you’ve made sure your gear, costume, or even just normal clothes are on point. Nothing’s allowed to give the tiniest hint of the power he holds over you, and there’s the odd day where you almost manage to convince yourself that it’s not pettiness that fuels your every move. Until sleep catches up with you, and you dream of a silky-soft, icy voice that heats every cell in your body. The feeling lingers in the morning until you throw yourself at a project again.

Visions I vandalize Cold in my kingdom size Fell for these ocean eyes

Working brings relief, but the best part is the high that comes from executing a flawless plan and bring back a prize no one thought really would be possible to get their hands on. It pays well, both in cash and renown, and more than once the celebration escalate, and you find yourself at some party with a drink in one hand and the other shimmying over the body of an eager admirer for the night as your bodies roll and writhe to the music with a too loud bass that makes it impossible to talk.

You have a type, it seems. At least you end up time and time again with tall, slender people whose dark hair fall freely to the shoulders. Thin lips are soft and demanding, but never right, and in the end, you push the wannabe lover aside in frustration at their lack of…of…of being him. Booze helps for a while on those occasions and is often payed for by the pleased customer anyways until the party ends and you head back to the safehouse you’ve made your home.

No matter how convoluted the route home is, the pain and doubt haunt the steps like shadows on the verge of solidifying into nightmares unless you keep the drunken stupor going to stay numb. To keep from feeling or thinking of why it feels so crappy and lonesome.

Tell me which one is worse Living or dying first

…

It’s at a gala event when it happens the first time.

Waiters are passing hors d’euvres and tall glasses of champagne around on golden trays as you hang by the arm of the client who’s hired granted you access in the hopes that you’ll find a way of stealing a kimono from the Heian era which his ex had gotten in the settlement. The object of desire is on loan to the Japanese ambassador and is a part of the Heian collection displayed in the ambassadorial house the next month for special guests to see. Gazing at the treasures, it’s not difficult to understand, why the ambassador wanted to share the splendor in the only way she can.

“Excuse me,” your date whispers before bumbling through the crowd towards a group of people he knows.

On your own, you drift from one glass casing to another containing ancient artefacts of immense historical, cultural, and monetary value, but it’s a seemingly ignored item which you spot in another room that makes you stop despite the distance.

Replacing the empty glass, you bide your time before drifting through the doors and across the plush carpet of the living room, pausing as if to admire a painting which clearly is a replica, before finally reaching the new goal.

You’ve seen them before, although not often, these spears or Yari as they are called. More popular from the 15th century, they trace back centuries (almost a millennium) before, and the one before you just about the oldest you’ve seen. So old it makes you think of legends and myths of times long passed and cultures dissolved and appropriated into the melting pot of universal conformity. Maybe this spear isn’t even what we think it is. It’s hard not to doubt history now that it’s official how many races live beyond earth and how often they’ve meddled with the affairs of humans.

Perhaps a Yari’s like the spear of the Thuäthan Dae? It’s silly. That spear’s gone down in Irish folklore. You know that because after Loki had told you, you went home to do what research was possible, hoping to prove that it was some lie. If it had been…well then it would’ve been easier to ignore the pained defeat and self-loathing you’ve convinced yourself that you felt from him that morning.

That’s when you see it. Reflected in the glass of the display is a figure dressed in black which heightens the contrast to his pale skin…but when you turn, he’s gone. I’m seeing things. Your heart is hammering against the ribs, your stomach’s heavy with disappointment. The son of a bitch had promised to stay away, and you should be happy if he did, not long for the maniac…at least that’s what you tell yourself while stalking out of the living room and right into the arms of your date.

“There you’re, pretty babe,” he drawls loudly, the smell of something stronger than champagne on his breath.

You’re not oblivious to the sideways glance of furious indignation he sends another man, his ex. Whatever happened between can’t have been pretty, but it burns in your gut to be a tool in this way too. Just wait…price might just have gone up, ass hole. But you also notice the slender figure standing motionless in the darkness of a corner, green eyes gleaming with a fire as they notice how the man at your side holds your waist. A quick tongue darts out to wet Loki’s lips in a way you know too well.

You say Come over baby I think you're pretty I'm okay I'm not your baby If you think I'm pretty

…

Not even four hours later, and you’re carefully placing a duffle bag on the rooftop, knowing full well how carefully the old contents inside have to be handled. You’re not far from the rendezvous, but it’s only fair to send a text from the burner that you’ll require a better paycheck. Leaning back against the metal housing for the ventilation, you stretch your legs out.

“I know you’re around,” the words aren’t as hesitant as you feel, knowing that you might in fact be talking to no one, “don’t think I’ve not noticed you tonight.”

Silence reigns, with the exception of distant cars and a dog barking at the world. Then there’s a slight crunch of footsteps prior to a new shadow on the moonlit surface.

“I had no intention of spying on you tonight.”

“Then why’re y’here now?” You see the shadow flinch at your words. “It makes sense at th’event itself…but not now.”

Out of the corner of the eye, Loki becomes visible as he sits down on the edge of the roof. “Didn’t care much for the way your…date held you.”

“Too bad.”

“You don’t understand! I know this man!” The temperature drops at the god’s frustration increases. “He’s not the kind that pays the agreed price, and you would be lucky to walk away alive!”

“I survived you, didn’t I?”

You know it’s a low blow, so the pling from the cell phone is a convenient rescue that allows you from ignoring Loki’s silent protests even as you get up to leave with your head held high and oozing confidence. Only when you’re out of sight do you sneak the stun-gun into your sleeve…just in case.

You should see me in a crown Your silence is my favorite sound Watch me make 'em bow