jigokulogs | 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

(He is, in fact, too stubborn to use the belt. He's still insistent on the fact that he's fine and will be fine. He doesn't need help or anything to get through this. And while Kim won't have to deal with teeth marks in his belt, he will have to deal with the marks from where his fingernails dig into the leather instead.

He braces himself, controlling his breathing and groaning in visible discomfort as Kim picks inside him for the bullet. Once it's out, he lets out a breath he didn't even realize he'd begun to hold in the first place and tries to will himself into relaxing. He can't. His body is still tense and stiff, practically locked in place as the adrenaline from everything winds him up.)

Shut up.

(He doesn't want to hear about how lucky he is when he's in pain and out of the fight. His bed manner is terrible and honestly, it doesn't get much better.)

[ Hizen is in an awful lot of pain, and hadn't seemed to be particularly well-mannered in the first place. A little testiness is only to be expected and truly, Kim doesn't hold it against him. But that doesn't mean he takes that sort of mouthy behaviour in stride either; he may not say anything, but the severe, unimpressed look he sends Hizen's way is an entire lecture encapsulated in a single raised brow. ]

Uh-huh.

[ Even if he had the desire to give Hizen a real lecture - though he does not - there's still too much work to be done. He wipes his hands down again before grabbing a needle and some stitching. He would really prefer to pack the wound and believes that the gauze in the first-aid kit would do the trick, but when he stops to think about whether or not the man he found staggering around the battlefield with a gunshot wound and resisting treatment in the middle of the battlefield will actually go somewhere to get it properly removed, he decides against it. Packing the wound and not having it adequately replaced will be more detrimental than just closing the wound altogether. Besides, he doesn't need the man coming after his head once it gets infected.

Instead, he sets to stitching it up. Bad eyesight or no, this is the easy part. The needle glides easily through Hizen's flesh until it's as well sealed as Kim can muster underneath the circumstances, the stitches as tiny and as neat as any professional's. He cleans the wound one last time, then bandages it with as much pressure as he can muster and tapes the whole thing shut. ]

There. [ He takes pain to look at Hizen in the eye. ] Listen to me. This is very important. After this, you need to see a medical professional to get this properly looked at and get antibiotics. You will take them, or else you risk infection, at which point you'll be out of the fight for even longer. You will keep it dry for at least the next 48 hours, and if you bleed through your dressing, you will change the bandage, or get a friend to do it for you. And no soaking the wound until it's fully healed. Keep it dry, and keep it clean.

[ He rises to his feet, stretching out his back from where he'd been hunched over until it lets out a satisfying crack. ]

That's it. My advice would be that you go and recuperate so that you'll be useful in the next fight - [ that does seem to be a priority for him, after all ] - but you're a grown man. You'll figure it out.

[ Or not. But Kim did his best to keep him alive. The rest is his problem. ]

(His personality is definitely not one of his charm points.

When he's better and away, he'll surely reflect and realize how poor his own character had been; worse than usual which is pretty bad. The only thing he has in his favor right now is that he at least stays quiet and still as Kim continues his work. Even if it's uncomfortable, even if he hates it, he at least behaves for the rest of his care and when he's biting down on his tongue, he can't make it worse.

What he doesn't expect is for Kim to make such a point at looking at him. It immediately sets him on edge. He hates being looked at. He always assumes the worst when people look at him. They're looking down on him. They hate him. It always makes him defensive and irritable which just gets him more looks when he ends up yelling and picking fights. He just sets himself up like that.

Hizen, however, is a tsukumogami; the kami of a tool, something made by humans, meant to be used by humans, and summoned to serve them. He naturally follows orders and when Kim speaks to him in a direct way, he can't help but listen, committing each and every word to memory and accepting them easily. These are orders. He isn't good at many things but he's good at following orders.

When it's all over, he's left stunned, still staring at him and just sort of... recovering from the effect of what Kim just said. He looks down at the stitches and then back at Kim before lowering his shirt slowly,)

... Right.

(The easiest he's been this entire exchange. Sometimes what a punk needs is just #authority to behave.

But this means accepting retreat for now. He still doesn't like it but any spirit he had for arguing seems to be gone. He begins to get himself back up on his feet and makes a point to now show too much discomfort. He hisses but quickly recovers,)

... What's your name?

(A spirit always repays debts. It'll be easier to do if he knows who he's looking for later.)

[ Much to Kim's surprise, the man actually seems to be listening. He is quiet and attentive, which is far more than what Kim's used to receiving, if he's being honest about it. But it's a relief too. He was just trying to be helpful in the crowd, to help mitigate what is doubtlessly a tragedy that will impact many, many lives, and Kim has no desire to see him unduly suffer from either ignorance or pride.

He exhales slowly, nodding. ] Okay. Good.

[ He straightens fully again, hands tucked neatly in their home behind his back once more. ] My name is Kim Kitsuragi. What is yours?

(Kim Kitsugari. It sounds Japanese but not quite... Well, at least that makes it easier to remember,)

Hizen Tadahiro.

(He'll return the full name with his own.)

... Be careful.

(It's awkward, like he really doesn't know how to say anything that isn't mean-spirited or meant to offend. But like a good sword spirit, he will follow his orders and start to retreat-- away from the fight, along with the others who are fleeing. He hates it but... he'll listen.)

APRIL 2022 EVENT

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