/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I led a strange life.

There I stood, hand-in-hand with my wife, an earth spider youkai who lived underground. I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with three legendary oni, an ex-celestial who had been expelled from the heavens, a witch, a shrine maiden who I considered my big sister, a Shinigami, and the judge of the afterlife. We all stood in the Garden of the Sun, home to a flower-loving youkai so powerful that most feared and avoided her. Said youkai had just been responsible for leading the ceremony that had joined my wife and I together. A ceremony attended by a significant population of the valley that we lived in, plenty of whom were not human.

And we stood over a sealed box, inside which sat an amanojaku. "Right, here's the deal. You get one chance to explain yourself. If I don't like the answer, then the only way you're leaving that seal is as a corpse."

The amanojaku by the name of Seija Kijin crossed her arms and defiantly stared right into Reimu's eyes. "What's the point, then? You're so straight-laced that you'll twist any answer I could give until it lets you kill me regardless. That's not leaving me much reason to cooperate, is it?" Reimu growled, going to raise her gohei, but Marisa managed to slap her arm back down before she could strike. "Yeah, that's more like it. Listen to your superiors, Hakurei. There's a bad dog."

"She's not my fucking-"

Reimu began to shout, but Tenshi put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed tightly, pulling her back. "Amanojaku, remember. Don't let her get a rise out of you." I turned to Reimu and watched her for a few moments. She stared back at me, seemingly fighting the impulse to turn Seija Kijin into little more than a memory. After a few such moments, she let out a long breath. "There. Better?" Tenshi asked quietly, and Reimu nodded.

"You have attacked people and caused as many upsets as you possibly could." Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu murmured, her eyes impassive. "You have chosen to cause as much negativity as you can."

"Oh, fuck off, Miss holier-than-thou." Seija replied, rolling her eyes and defiantly staring down the Yama. "When I croak, I'll just fucking bribe you. Money's the best lawyer in hell, right?" This time, it was the Yama who grit her teeth and stopped speaking.

"Er, Lady Eiki, don't-" Komachi tried to whisper to her boss, who shook her head.

"No, Komachi, I am perfectly calm. This, too, is in her nature." Despite her words, the judge of the dead didn't seem entirely calm. "Your soul is wreathed in black. Perhaps, if you were to work hard, you could perform enough good deeds to earn some level of redemption." She eyed Seija impassively. "I believe that this is not your intention."

"Wow, you sure have a lot of free time to pass judgement on people who aren't even dead. You're a real great judge, you know?" I got the sense that she did not mean what she had just said. "Why don't you go off and beg a few more people to be goody two-shoes, huh? Clearly, I'm not about to have an uninteresting conversation with you." Seija crossed her arms and defiantly stuck her nose up.

And...Somehow, it seemed to work. Eiki Shiki watched the amanojaku for a moment longer, then stepped back. Komachi hesitantly followed her, looking concerned. Seija stepped to the edge of her sealed box, watching her leave with a smirk. A second later, she flinched and threw herself back against the other side of the box when a fist crashed into the sealed space so hard that it made the entire barrier shiver. Ibaraki-douji stood on the other side, towering over the amanojaku. "You've interrupted the wedding of two people who are very precious to me." She said coldly, her eyes like two chips of ice. Just behind her, Suika Ibuki and Yuugi Hoshiguma watched with crossed arms. "You've caused a great deal of pain to one of them. If I were to revert to my wilder instincts, you would no longer exist, even as a memory. I would tear you limb from limb. I would cause you so much pain that the oni in Hell would be jealous."

"Taking this seriously, huh?" Yuugi muttered from behind Kasen. "That's a breath of fresh air. I'm so used to seeing her being reserved when she's split in two." Kasen didn't look back at her, continuing to stare at the amanojaku, who was just getting back up after flinching and falling backward from Kasen's punch.

"That's why she's the best." Suika murmured. Her eyes had that quality - That intrinsic something that only existed in a few people's eyes. She, Suika Ibuki, saw Kasen Ibaraki in a way that none of us did, I thought. Oni saw emotions in a way that few others did. They saw beauty in sorrow. Love, hatred, sadness and happiness - They saw these in the same way. I suspected that when Suika Ibuki looked at Kasen Ibaraki, she saw something that no one else saw. Something very special. Perhaps, through Kasen she saw the world anew.

>>25837396
Wouldn't endless chaos be ideal for an amanojaku? One can think of amanojaku like Seija as agents for active change, and if the world around her is constantly undergoing tumultuous change, she would find herself in complete bliss. After all, the opposite of chaos would be order, so ironically she'd still have a cause to fight for even in such a situation.

>>23776635

>>16549693
She's a youkai that even other youkai detest.

>>16005816
I think something's wrong with The Yama.

>>15899850
>>15898368
>>15897874
Old hag.

>>15816315
Imagine if Seija were your wife. It'd be awful.