jigokulogs | APRIL 2022 EVENT

APRIL 2022 EVENT

1. HANAMI

The week of the Night Parade is marked by the traditional symbols of Spring in Japan. Somehow, several city blocks have been turned into cherry blossom groves as a show of goodwill by the Sutoku Alliance. These cherry trees don't feel normal. They are more like spectral manifestations. Rumor has it they grew so quickly because they're planted on top of a graveyard. That's just a rumor, though. Don't pay it any mind! Don't listen to any whispers you might hear if you walk through the rows of trees alone and certainly don't dig under them for proof of their provenance.

Accompanying the hanami are copious amounts of food and drink. Such as dango, specialized bento, sake, and festive drinks. They are all available to purchase from stalls near the spectral grove. The refreshments may have a little something special added to them:
Ingredients that promote peace (calming any angry or upset feelings)
Ingredients that promote romance (gives soft, warm feelings towards the first person you see).
These effects are mild and only last as long as you're in the boundary of the grove. Eat, drink, and be merry with your fellow lost souls.

2. KANAMARA MATSURI (NSFW IMAGERY)

In addition to the simple joys of flower viewing and the cherry blossoms blooming, new festivals pop everywhere. They are inspired by various regional festivals from all over Japan. Some of these are benign and feature your normal festival fair. Others are a little more unusual, such as the Kanamara matsuri-inspired treats. You can thank the Tamamo Clan for this. Don't mind the giant phallus being carried down the street or the wooden phalluses you can ride on or the interesting mascots walking down the sidewalk, or the suggestive vegetable carvings.

Surprisingly, none of these foods are spiked, at least not more than the experimental recipes had been during the parade preparations. The spirit of the thing is more just the amusement of genital-based foods rather than anything meant to entice a sexy sort of good time. That will come as the parade rounds out onto the bath district...

3. HADAKA MATSURI

cw: nonsexual nudity

If that cheeky festival isn't your kind of fun, maybe the hadaka matsuri is more your speed. The Department of the Enma are probably the most stressed out faction in the entire city, so the Enma has allowed them to put on a festival to blow off some steam! It's a bit different from the traditional celebration: it's not contained to just men and it's not contained to a shrine.

This event is a mobile mob of nearly naked people and youkai running after a cart with a masked person throwing out small sticks. They represent good luck for the people who manage to nab them. There are far fewer sticks than there are people present and everyone will do a lot to get one of the coveted prizes. Try not to get in their way!

Or you can get caught up in it all and try to snag one yourself to see what your fortune holds. (No, the Enma isn't participating. Too dirty, for his tastes.)

4. FESTIVE FUN

A. SUMO
Some other festivities you might come across are miniature sumo tournaments put on by the Shuten Clan. Raised dirt circles with chalk rings on the outer perimeter pop up seemingly everywhere. Two people are allowed in the ring at one time and there are strict rules to be followed. If you disobey the rules, you may find yourself suddenly ejected from the ring with magical or physical means, and at the mercy of a Shuten enforcer.

Play by the rules to beat your opponent and victors will find themselves rewarded with a strong bottle of booze. The winners of each bout are handed out a commendation by Toraguma himself, which comes in the form of a commemorative sake gourd. This is probably the kind of prize you'd expect from an Oni at a festival like this.

B. FOOD RUNNERS WANTED
If you're in the mood to pad your pockets, maybe you want to help the Tamamo Clan out by running food delivery. This opportunity is available to anyone regardless of affiliation. Runners will be fitted with a contraption to carry the food orders on their person and may proceed either on foot or on a small motorbike. Be careful and make sure not to drop anything! Any ruined or undelivered orders will come directly out of your pay.

It's harder than it looks not to drop the food with all the excitement going on and your delivery recipient may be similarly hard to locate.

C. HOT BATHS (NSFW + cw: optional aphro)
The Tamamo Clan has set up a sanctioned orgy in one of their larger brothels. Rooms are available for whatever your heart desires, including one with exposed windows if you like being watched or if you want to watch in kind. Baths and pools are available for all your indulgent fantasies. Everything you could need is at your disposal: toys, restraints, costumes, lubricants, condoms, aphrodisiacs in many forms. It's a proper bacchanal celebration!

All that matters is your consent and enthusiasm.

5. NIGHT PARADE

One of the primary highlights of the Night Parade are the fantastical floats depicting scenes of legendary events. Keen-eyed observers may note that the humans are portrayed as the bad guys in most of them. While a few of these are mounted on motorized vehicles, most of them are carried by people. That means you'll probably be called on to help carry one along the parade route. It's a fun job, if exhausting.

If you're not the type to wear yourself out carrying a float, ride on one instead! There's plenty of things to toss out into the crowd along the street; candies and trinkets. Dress up in a fitting costume and walk around the float. Have fun scaring bystanders or just have fun hamming it up and celebrate the peaceful night.

5. FIREWORKS

The parade's central stop is the festival square in the heart of the city, just under the shadow of the Kaigo no Bou Tower. There is a stage set up here where the four faction leaders and their personal entourages have assembled. All of them are giving pretty typical speeches. The Enma has declined to give one, having no patience for unnecessary oration. Tenkohime gives praise to the unifying factors of love in the city, while Toraguma rallies the crowd like a sports hero; encouraging them to get stronger and do better in the coming year.

The Daitengu is the last to speak and they also seem to have the largest entourage. The entourage is quite conspicuous: White Wolf Tengu, each standing well-taller than the Daitengu themselves. They are carrying massive broadswords strapped to their backs and hunting about the area for anything suspicious with keen eyes that seem to see right through the crowd and the heat of night.

The Daitengu's speech is also pretty typical, although much more humble than their fellows. Mostly, they just wants to hurry up and get to the fireworks. Just as they finish speaking, the sky lights up.
There are a few peaceful moments beneath this spectacle as the crowd enjoys the display of unity and phantasmal wonder that this unique and strange world has created.

But the explosions aren't just in the sky. One particularly loud boom seems to rattle the very earth beneath the crowd. That is the only warning anyone gets before...

6. A NIGHT PARADE TO REMEMBER

Every manhole cover on the street bursts open, injuring anyone that was standing nearby. Far worse is the deluge of steam that rushes out from the underground. Pillars of hot, blinding steam spill into the air, quickly filling the streets. The luminescence of the festival lamps and city lights are diffused and blurred into singular blobs of color, obscuring all vision and making it impossible to see what's going on. The panicked cries of the crowd also make it impossible to hear. Everything happens so suddenly, so violently, that ascertaining what's going on takes time.

Too much time.

In the chaos, gunshots are heard. They seem to come from several directions. Fighting is breaking out. It's difficult to tell from where and who is in the brawl. Previously unseen figures in full-body black coverings appear from nowhere, rushing the stage. They zoom past any Lost Souls nearby, ignoring their presence. They are focused on a singular goal. The barking of the White Wolf Tengu further indicates the goal of the attack.

Struggle in the steam, help others get to safety, get caught up in fighting the other factions, try to protect the Faction leaders, or try to keep up with the black-suited youkai rushing the stage; do as much as you can.

When the steam finally begins to clear, however, there will at least be one thing that is certain: the Daitengu has been killed.

Welcome to the April event!

If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
We also have OOC top levels for Shuten Sumo Results, Tamamo Partner Cards, and Hadaka Luck Draws!
If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Lalli sees the glances, and they instantly make sense to him. While words can be confusing at times, quick instructions in the middle of battle make more sense. So when Matoba moves, Lalli does as well, kicking away the ayakashi he had stabbed before diving to the smokestack.]

No. It's just the quietest.

[A quick flick of the knife to get most of the blood off, and then it's tucked away on his belt. That's when he shifts the rifle off of his shoulders and into his hands. It's only a small distance, but if Matoba is going to shoot then it's safer for Lalli to shoot too.]

[Having the backup of a gun to face other guns was probably an advantage Matoba shouldn't discount out of pride, so he nods wordlessly as Lalli takes his rifle in hand. What would be the most advantageous way to split up their targets...?]

[Matoba glances at the ground- the ayakashi left no shadows in the foggy light cast from the festival behind them, and ayakashi lacking a shadow was typical. But their steps were nigh inaudible, and that made it a dangerous proposition to stick their necks out to fire back.]

I can hit the ones from afar more easily, [He slowly pieces out,] Which would leave the three remaining to your rifle.

[Reaching into his kimono, Matoba draws out a small paper package- sweets or something from the festival- and gives it a calculated fling out from their cover. Gunfire erupts as it skids across the ground, then stops when the object is identified, but that was enough to try and position the location and number of guns.]

About 30 feet back. If we can shoot to disarm...

[Say no more, Lalli gets the message loud and clear. Rifle in hand, he waits until the ayakashi start to shoot, and it's only after he hears the gunfire that he turns from his spot and aims carefully.

One shot, right through the knee of an ayakashi. He reaches up and pulls back the lever to reload his rifle, and he refocuses. The other two are starting to scatter. Lalli tracks the shot, and hits the second one, right through the thigh. Another reload, his movements automatic and his eyes never leaving his target. Then he tracks the third ayakashi, and-

The third shot clangs off of another pipe on the roof. The third ayakashi had gotten to safety. Lalli's eyebrows scrunch up in annoyance as he does the quick-reload once more. Six shots is all he gets before he has to stop and put more bullets in his gun, so these next three need to hit their mark or else he'll have to go back to the knife. Reloading the bullets takes over a minute and they just don't have that time right now.

Unflinching, methodical. Lalli is a seasoned hunter, and he shows no sign of hesitation right now.

He is paying absolutely no mind to Matoba right now, by the way. He's trusting Matoba to handle the others, and silence is key to remaining undetected, so he won't say a thing until either all of their targets are down or the situation changes to the point where communication is needed. He gets extremely focused in situations like this, which is both a valuable skill and a difficulty to working in groups.]

[Neither of them have their senses to rely on in order to track the assailants; it was a good veil for them to have enacted. Matoba's arrows are quieter than the rifle, but he hides the twang of his bow in the crack of rifle fire as Lalli shoots, using it to keep the distant targets at bay and keep the movement of the nearer ones limited as Lalli shoots.]

[Lalli reaches for his lever, Matoba reaches to knock an arrow. It was a methodical partnership.]

[The third ayakashi escapes the rifle fire and Matoba adjusts his following shot to track it, letting the arrow fly as the attacker leaps backwards and striking them in the hand. Their gun fumbles and then drops over the side of the building- Matoba sees the chance and is prepared to take it, but the assassin chooses to retreat, and suddenly vanishes as if into thin air. His arrow whistles off into the fog with no target.]

--Tsk. [Silence. Matoba waits for another moment with his bow taut, sensing for any further movement in the fog. Had they retreated?]

[That frown quickly changes to confusion as the ayakashi simply disappears from sight. Lalli forces out his limited senses as much as he can, trying to seek out where that last one had gone, but they must have gotten out of his range by the time he thinks to try it because he can't sense anyone in the immediate vicinity besides Matoba. How irritating.]

Mrr.

[His irritated sounds are vaguely catlike, which is definitely a strange habit but is slightly less so when someone knows just how much of Lalli's life is ruled by catlike behaviors.

But with the immediate threat gone, Lalli straightens himself up and tucks his rifle back over his shoulder. His primary goal of 'protect Matoba' has been met, so he can't complain too much. Even if he would have preferred to incapacitate all of the attackers.

Speaking of which, Lalli casts a glance to where the injured ayakashi should be. Are they still there, or did they escape too?]

It seems our prey has escaped, [Matoba murmurs, at last lowering his bow and unknocking the arrow. He wasn't entirely convinced yet- and he tried to keep his awareness searching, seeking anything in the blanket of fog that might give a hint of their enemy's movements. But it was no use. The thick of the souls that had been vaporized into the air completely dulled what little of his senses were left, and whatever ability they were using to vanish from sight eliminated any chance beyond that.]

[Hearing Lalli's irritation beside him, Matoba lets out a tiny puff of a sigh that sounds suspiciously amused, and follows his glance to the spot where his gaze led. In the kerfuffle, even the injured had managed to escape, huh? Either their allies had scooped them up along the way, or their armor was that good.]

Were you able to sense anything from them? [Matoba asks, turning to the other man.] It seems this fog was meant to counter those like us. There are too many presences all around us to tell anything of their nature. That armor doesn't seem like something an ayakashi would use....

No. Too different.

[Too different from what he's used to, at least. If it were a human or a Troll, he would have known instantly. But ayakashi are neither, so he couldn't get a good sense of them at all.]

It could be armor from another source. Who makes armor like that?

[It's a sensible question he will ask the other Enma members about, but Matoba is right here and he knows at least some things about strange beings in this world. Or at least he gives off the air of being in the know.]

[Interesting- so the spirits that Lalli was used to had a totally different feel to the ayakashi here?]

Ayakashi are generally very --archaic creatures, [He replies, navigating the explanation around cultural expectation,] For whom even a century or two of human advancement is too "modern" to be familiar with. Armor that advanced strikes me as quite human, but then again, as does much of this city. Perhaps there has been cross-pollination.

...Still, some clans are a little more advanced than others, aren't they? [The Tamamo seemed quite traditional, from his time spent in their territory; the Shuten seemed similarly married to a sort of archaic aesthetic. But the Sutoku seemed embracers of the future. If any clans were to carry such equipment covertly...]

...Does it not strike you as something the Department would supply? It certainly suits riot gear. [Better to push that trail and let Lalli investigate internally, than to start raising suspicion his own clan's way. There were still the sounds of chaos and clashes down below, and spending too much time pondering the origin of their foes when they were still pursuing their target was valuable time lost. Matoba turns towards the sound of fighting on the stage, then glances back to Lalli.]

For the time being, I intend to head down and continue providing support. It seems that they are after the clan leaders, whoever they are.

[...huh. That angle is one Lalli hadn't considered. Though now that Matoba has planted that seed of doubt in his mind, Lalli is going to pick at it for a while before he eventually starts asking people within the department about it. Matoba has definitely managed to get an internal connection to (eventually) look into it, at least.]

They might. But I don't know why they would supply things to people trying to assassinate the leader of another faction.

[Lalli is from a world where 'person vs person' conflict to the level of assassinations is, in his experience, nonexistent. It actually does happen sometimes, as people will always be people, he just doesn't see it because he's so used to his enemy being trolls instead of other humans. His lacking life experience has led him to believe that this is a problem of Jigoku-cho, not a problem of 'living beings deal with conflict via violence.']

You do not?

[Matoba turns to regard Lalli with a raised brow of disbelief, as if such naivety was shocking to him. But he senses no sarcasm or deceit from him, at least not on the surface of his reply; and to himself, he considers explaining the threads of logic behind that, that he had taken for granted.]

...Traditionally, the Enma is the ruler of Hell. But it's clear that the rise of the clan system has weakened that ruling power. By eliminating the heads of each clan, it's possible that the Enma could weaken the power of the clans themselves, and thus regain total control. Were that the sort of tactic he would resort to.

[Not to be untoward]

Although one would think that such an action would create quite a bit of disorder in the meantime. [Something which seemed antithetical to the Enma's purpose, but... Sometimes a bit of chaos was needed in order to achieve a greater control.]

Control means nothing if the people under you don't listen. It's smarter to break up the leadership so that each person is in charge of a smaller group, and they can unify the groups under different ideals while the leaders cooperate with each other. Then the group doesn't get too large to be controlled by one person.

[Control through smaller groups, basically. Which is a concept he does get, because something something military background.]

Someone like the Enma would know that, right? He's been around for a long time, and the structure of the people within the department is like that too, with ranks and leaders and subordinates and stuff.

Perhaps so, but I get the sense that there isn't very much cooperation between the leaders, despite what this festival would have you believe...

[Maybe that was indeed how the clans started- Matoba doesn't know, hasn't been able to find very many here ancient enough and willing enough to talk. Matoba was used to ayakashi being unwilling to talk to him, but he was also used to having other methods to get that information....]

[Oh well. With time, and power.] Though that does beg the question: perhaps there is someone within the Department who sees things differently from the Enma?

Something worth looking into, if nothing else. [Matoba inclines his head.] I am grateful for your skilled assistance. If I learn anything more, then perhaps we can exchange notes the next time we meet. Assuming we are both alive by the next morning.

[Well. Lalli is going to go looking now. If he gets in trouble for this later he's blaming Matoba for it.]

We survived so far. Getting back to the others will further our chances.

[Something something safety in numbers. Lalli will step up to the edge of the rooftop, scouring the streets below for familiar faces. The fighting seems to have spread out now, with more and more of the ayakashi fleeing. This definitely would be a good time to regroup.]

Be more careful next time.

[This is Lalli's way of saying 'I'm glad I could help.']

[He can blame Matoba- but he'll still have the info. Right. Right??]

The others.... [Matoba's eye draws over the crowd; there were certainly other members of Enma trying to contain the Chaos. He could spot other Sutoku members, also, rushing towards their clan leader at the stage. He should join them.] Yes, I suppose so.

[With his bow strung onto his back, Matoba turns to head for the fire escape at the side of the building. It was how he'd gotten up here in the first place, and he's hoping it isn't blocked by the fighting below.]

Haha, well, I'll consider it a valuable lesson learned. But I can't promise that. [Being careful- whatever was necessary to be done, right?] Then, next time.

[He hops onto the fire escape, disappearing into the fog below.]

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APRIL 2022 EVENT

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