/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46643496

“No” I said again. “I could abandon Keine and Mokou, I could wait around for the Heida to punish me and grovel and beg to be let off, but for what?”

“If he gets what he wants, then Keine and the others will be exiled, or put into prison, or worse! Sanae would have done something terrible on his orders, and nothing would have changed” I grab onto him, fists balled and crumbling the fabric of his clothing. “He might get his way for the moment, but it won’t last. All those children will still be around, and they’ll have nobody to look after them. What’s going to happen then, huh? Will it be up to his successor to keep them driven away in an attempt to keep things how they were before? He’s a deluded old man, he just can’t have his way! This isn't a problem you can ignore and hope it goes away. What makes you think he’s going to stop after dealing with Keine? Or he’ll decide to not drag me away in chains regardless of what I do to stop it?”

Kato looks down at me “I..” he spits out. I feel a bit guilty for delivering such an emotional gut punch,

“Those children aren’t going away. They’re going to grow up without proper families or support, or an education. Keine wants to change that, to give them better lives. Can you think of what’s going to happen if they’re just pushed away and ignored? They’d be miserable, and we’ll just pass down all their struggles to our descendants. We can fix this now, change it for the better!”

Kato’s grip on my shoulders tightens. “Listen to yourself, they’re youkai! We don’t know what's going to happen if we let them in. Don’t you know what they can be like, or has your friendship with them made you forget?”

“I know. Some of them are dangerous. So dangerous and viscous that just standing in their presence makes you tremble. But many of them aren’t like that. They’re more like us then you think. They can make friends, enjoy life, do more then sit in the woods and scare people! This is a chance to change all of that, to make it so they don’t always have to be our enemies. If we just bow our heads and take it, then things will only get worse! He’s hurting others, not acting like himself, we can’t just ignore it and act like it's normal! Nothing good will come of just letting him do what he wants!”

I pant, trying to catch my breath. Kato stared at me, wide eyed, caught off guard by my outburst, and I’m almost surprised as him. “You might be right that he can’t be reasoned with. He’s unstable, and I can’t agree with what he’s doing. Marching an army into the village to-” He sighs, face crestfallen. “I don’t want this either. The Heidas are out of control. Even if he wants to protect the village, he’s going to commit a massacre. I know Keine would never betray the village, but don’t you think she’s making a mistake here? Regardless of how many good youkai you know, they’re stronger then us, live longer then us. If we give them equal footing here, they’ll walk over us”

I...never considered that. Half-youkai they might be, but they would still have many advantages over us humans just by their birth. It would cause issues, no doubt. Keine got along just fine with us all, but making sure an entire generation behaved would be another thing all together. No, there’s no point in worrying about that now.

“That’s a good point” I say “But there’s no point in worrying about that now, not with this crisis looming over us. We need to get out of this, then we can think about it later. But know this is how I think things should be. I think it’s about time we tried openly living together with youkai. When I was first was initiated into their world, it was fun. I knew all these secrets and could meet all sorts of fascinating people. Back then, it seemed like the whole world opened up to me. Nut then I realized I had to keep it a secret. Always making excuses, or playing dumb, keeping what I knew from everyone. Even from my own family.” Kato’s arms move down to hold me closer. I take a moment to enjoy the feeling. “I felt like I had one foot in this world, and a foot in the other. I had a whole secret side to me that I couldn’t even tell you, for our children. There were so many times I wanted to let you in, or times where I thought I was going to be caught, but it just never happened. I know it’s selfish, but if Gensokyo changes and the barrier between humans and youkai is torn down, I won’t have to keep up the lies anymore. So I can share my life with you, fully and honestly”

There’s silence for a while as he takes it in before he speaks. “So you might as well start now”

(43)

>>45263663
this will be Suzu's greatest challenge, resisting the gap hag. She has shown time and time again to be a bastion of light, but the hag and therefore evil only knows how to destroy, no wonder Yukari can't get pregnant. Suzu has to resist her dark intentions.
Suzu WILL persevere!
shitposting aside, I doubt Yukari has any use for Suzu, beyond maybe control the boom of written merchandise about Anon, or maybe even cataloging all those porn comics just cause… though that last one could easily lead to the corruption route.