/jp/ - Otaku Culture

(1/5)
Seija sat, floating, looking out my door at the forest that lied beyond my home.
The Amanojaku had been less of an issue as of late, in fact, I believe we’ve learned to work together.
I’m known for being courteous, level-headed, and agreeable, which allows me to deal easily in acquisitions and information gathering, and while I did take the odd dubious job or two, nobody would believe I’d go all out against Yukari.
Seija, on the other hand, is the archetypical rebel and her being at my side let my clients know I had no qualms about being rash.
Our dealings went like this: I would be the polite voice of reason while Seija would interject with whatever jeering came to mind and on occasion even get into spats with the clients, after which I would sympathize with the client and turn their ire toward Yukari. Like cleaning a stubborn stain, sometimes you had to agitate things and Seija did enjoy a little brutality.
So much was her satisfaction that she didn’t spend every waking minute with me hurling insults and sometimes, like today, was content to be quiet. Almost as if we’d grown a little trust.
I wasn’t so naïve as to think she changed on any fundamental level, my understanding, and handlings of Amanojaku behaviors had simply improved.
Which gave me cause to wonder: how much of her behavior was a circumstance of her birth and her own personality? She thought of herself as a ‘authentic’ Youkai, but what did that even mean? Seemed insane, I couldn’t picture the ‘humnaliest human’, ‘godliest god’, or ‘ghostliest ghost’, so what made her the ‘Youkaist Youkai’? And could she one day just decide to not be a youkai? And if not, why the lectures about ‘true Youkai’ and the like?
Would Seija be Seija if she was born as strong as an Oni? Would she still have her crafty nature and dubious personality? Or would she spurn that very strength and host tea parties to spite the own innate ability?
What’s more, how much does an Amanojaku really reverse and in what way does this make them different? If I see my reflection, it’s still myself after all and there’s parts of life where the good and bad balance each other out. I despise dog slobber, but feel an odd endearment when my hound sticks his tongue against my robe like some frog catching a fly, could it be that an Amanojaku experiences the same kind of endearment for the drool and despises the dog’s affection? And would these questions drive me insane?
I think about this while absent-mindedly filling out my report for Eirin and the young Inaba delivery rabbit feeds her meal scraps to my hound.
I pat her on the head. “Not too much now, you’ll make him sick.”
“Sorry sir.” She said, as she patted my dog’s head.
“Nothing to worry about young one. Here’s my report to Eirin, you may leave the pills on the table and see yourself out at your convenience.” I told her, sealing my envelope and handing it to her.
She got out of her chair, pushed it back in, rumbled around in her pockets for a small jar of pills, placed it on the table, took my envelope, bowed, pet the dog, and made her way back to her master.
On my table sat one other envelope, stamped with a seal resembling a butterfly. It was to let me know that my persistent petitions to have an audience with the Saint Toyousatomimi No Miko had finally been approved and that I was to arrive tomorrow at Senkai in formal garb.
If I were any number of other miscreants, I’d probably just barge in one day and demand to be seen, however meeting the right man in the wrong way attracted more attention than I’d like. Miko was known to be an eccentric after all and I’d hate to catch her eye, no, I wanted to bore her.
The Taoists seemed content to leave well enough alone and pick up the pieces after the HSE had crumbled, why not let them? There would be other treasure to have after the battle and it would be a problem if they clashed with the Buddhists during the assault or worse, join hands with Yukari.
The purpose of my mission was only to detect Miko’s intentions and that of her compatriots, which Seija would probably take exception to, so I decided to give her the run of things, just for today. Let her get it out of her system.
“Do have any business to tend to today? A client of mine cancelled on account of some harvest emergencies.” I asked Seija.
“You attend that witch’s Sultra readings, right? Can you read them?” Seija asked.
“The arising of dharmas, observes the destruction of dharmas, or observes both the arising and destruction of dharmas.” I recite.
She turns around and smiles.
“Now how about in reverse?”