expiationmeme | (meme) TELL THE TRUTH...

[Douman considers for a moment how much he ought to say before he takes a deep breath and moves his mask partially to the side. It still covers his nose and the right side of his face, and his long, shaggy bangs obscure his eye, but it's still a tell-tale sign that he is going to offer a truth rather than obscuring anything.]

Any story about good and bad always has two sides.

Abe no Seimei might have been a hero to humans, but to youkai he was a monstrous being who attacked and killed indiscriminately. And his way of gaining shikigami didn't exactly give the chosen spirit much of a choice of whether they wanted to do his bidding.

... Indiscriminately? Weren't those yokai the ones killing and eating humans? He protected the capital.

[She would have just dismissed this out of hand... but Seimei himself told her that Douman wasn't what the stories told.]

Would you call somebody murdering all cats or dogs justified, just because they happen to kill and eat smaller animals like mice?

Many humans settled smack-dab in the territory of a youkai, hunted and ate all of their usual food and then had the gall the cry when the youkai turned to them when nothing else was left.

Many youkai were born out of grudges and turned against those who had abused them during their mortal lives.

Is killing the ghost of a murdered woman so that their murderers can live a comfortable life and keep on with their ways of raping and discarding serf women as they please justice? Does a parent deserve to die for not wanting to see their family starve to death, just because some humans have decided to call them 'monsters'?

I'd call the mouse fighting back justified.

[She wants to argue, but unfortunately, Douman stepped on one of her hot topic buttons.]

... Tch. I wonder if that parent who wouldn't want to see their kid starve really exists.

[She sounds... much more bitter and angry all of a sudden. But at least, that anger isn't directed at Douman.]

Yes. The mouse. But not some random god with a machine gun, heat-seaking missilets and some extra bear traps and lasers just for the fun of it.

[There is a note of passion in his voice that Douman is usually good at suppressing. He knows those things because those were the cases that were usually fenced off to him. Douman the evil. Douman the unsavory. The one only half a step behind in power of Abe no Seimei, who got his hands dirty because somebody had to. And as a 'Curse Master', as Seimei had been so font of calling him, he hadn't had a choice but to learn the circumstances and origins of the 'evils' he'd had to battle.

He hadn't liked or respected most of his fellow humans for very obvious reasons at that time.]

They exist. I've lived long enough to see plenty of them. Women who sold their bodies and men who sold their lives to be used as cannon fodders in hopeless wars, just so that their child has a chance see another day. Even in modern times a parent's instinct is still nothing to scoff at. ...though I won't deny that there are shitty ones too.

If the humans are being attacked, there's nothing wrong with the humans fighting back.

[... But the rest is making her grimace.]

... Maybe Flora's parents care that much. She had a nice family. But aside from hers... I've never seen anything like that you're describing.

Naturally. Just like youkai and other spirits should have the right to fight back if humans attack them. But there was no fighting back when Seimei got involved.

Flora?

They have the right. So it just comes down to whoever's stronger. That's how the world works.

[... She doesn't sound happy about that, though.]

... My friend. The hero I fought against.

It was. But I didn't like it, so I changed it as soon as Seimei was gone.

[There is a smug little note in his voice that is born out of both pride and fondness. It had taken an eternity and more than just hard work to change the world of youkai from something following the law of the jungle into a civilization that can easily rival that of humans, but Douman had done it. The one thing that even the almighty Abe no Seimei had been never about to do.]

I see. That sounds complicated. Sometimes great enemies can be just as great friends, even if the animosity will never change.

... Tch. I wish it was that easy. I'm still trying to change the world...

[She sounds bitter. She won't meet Douman's eyes.]

... I don't think what we have is animosity. We fought, and fought, but... now I'm on her side.

[Is she now. He could tell her that it'll take way more than the span of a single mortal's life, but that doesn't mean that those sentiments or attempts will be meaningless. After all he has seen it before.]

Mmh. That's quite the different tale than the one between me and Seimei. I was really impressed by him once, but in the end co-existence was just never an option.

... You and Seimei?

I read the storybooks we had about Abe no Seimei a lot when I was a kid. Nuraripyon wasn't in any of those.

Because I'm a youkai who slips past normal mortals notice.

[That's an easy, clean little omission by telling another truth. Douman also notes her misspelling his name, but blames it on her not knowing any better.]

So you really are slimy...

[She isn't even saying it judgmentally. Just like. "Ah, I knew it."]

"Slimy"?

[There's that small hesitation and gently amused curiosity in his voice that'd tell any of his canonmates that they'd just royally fucked up and better ought to pick their words VERY CAREFULLY around him now.]

[Fortunately, she's oblivious.]

That's what your name means, right? The youkai I know about tended to have really descriptive names, so...

[ Siiiiiiiigh ]

I swear, you animals and your illiteracy.... What you are thinking of is "nurunuru", not "nura".

They're the same thing, right?

[weren't we having a moment a minute ago. no we're doing this now.]

Only if you ignore grammar, context and several brush strokes. [Which is absolutely what most animal-type youkai Douman knows always do. Hell, they can consider themselves lucky that she didn't end up calling him "Van Gogh" instead!]

It's "滑" like slip or cunning. Not some silly comic sound effect.

Oh.

... Close enough, anyway. Aren't slimy things slippery? Like slugs and frogs? Though I guess you're a rabbit, if you're 'pyon'...

Hyon.

[ Guess we're at the 'Van Gogh' level after all. ]

Close enough.

It'd still be a failing grade if you did this on a test. Anyway.

The point is that I'm a youkai that humans find generally really troublesome to deal with. I'd daresay that Seimei got a lot of good use out of me before I finally decided to give him the 'slip'.

[Of course he was still Douman and an aspiring Onmyoji himself, back then. Fortunately having to tell the truth doesn't mean that he has to do it chronologically accurate or deliver any necessary context needed to not misunderstand. Hmmm, coming to think of it, he had gotten fed up with Seimei and decided to ditch him really fast even as a kid, hadn't he? The big name and fame hadn't dazzled him long.]

I dropped out of school back in middle school anyway.

... That still doesn't seem right.

Is that so? I'm the Principal of a school for youkai. The biggest and best known, actually.

[Does he talk about himself or his school? It's both, actually. Everybody in the realms of the youkai and the gods know that 'the Principal' is synonymous with "Nurarihyon".]

That I didn't want to be in any stories?

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