 | Name | Toki Alley Tales (II) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, Toki Alley Tales | |
| Rarity |  | |
| Description | Mother once warned that a beautiful face can hide deceptive intentions. If she looks as lovely as the moonlight, she must either be a fox spirit, or some old bake-neko hag of significant power — Tanuki Historical Commentary |
Item Story
| Osen's Tale I left Yoichi's house and followed the winding alley for a while, then turned into a narrow street to arrive at that old lady's home. When the night is pitch black and the moon has climbed to its peak, the neko awaken from their slumber. It is said that neko who have lived up for hundreds or even thousand of years can easily take on the form of a young woman, tempting people into doing funny and foolish things or chasing innocent travelers out of some sense of spiteful vengeance. But that's just the stuff of mortal imagination. In fact, the bake-neko only take on the form of young women when they're especially angry. Most of the time, they prefer to take on the form of an older woman, partly because it matches their crafty and cantankerous nature, but also because they can use old age as a disguise, portraying themselves as gentle souls to poor, unsuspecting passers-by. "Hey, that's not free!" At the sound of the voice, I raised my head to see a young woman sitting on the eaves, as if she'd been waiting there for a while. Her face was obscured in the shadows, and all I could make out was something resembling a smile on her face and the golden-green light reflected by her eyes. Moonlight flowed from her semi-exposed shoulders down her dress, trickling through the gaps in the hem of her skirt and outlining her long, slender legs with a porcelain-white luster. She was absent-mindedly playing with a kendama in her hand. Yep, the old lady was definitely furious... "Tut-tut, you're late again tonight." "Of course, s—sorry." Mosquitoes kept bumping into the paper lamp, causing it to flicker lethargically in response. As the moon shone down, a humid wind arose. Before long, it had brought the cicadas' cries to a stop. With her hair flowing down, the lady turned the spinning wheel with a perverse smile on her face. It was quite terrifying. Now, despite my being a tanuki on friendly-enough terms with the tengu to sit and drink with them, even I have to be on my very best behavior around the bake-neko. So, I promptly prostrated myself and apologized profusely for my transgression. "Never mind, never mind. Since the snapper is still fresh, you can get up." With great difficulty on account of my rotund tanuki form, I resumed a normal seated position. The young woman slowly transformed back into an old woman, who had a kindly but strange smile on her face. "Thank you, Auntie Sen." Call me Osen! I was relieved. But something still felt off. "Hahahaha, anyway, how's that fool doing these days?" With a slurp, Osen swallowed one of the fish whole, including the tail. As for the story of how her fate became intertwined with that of the Great Tengu, the facts can only be described as farcical. We have already heard the ridiculous tale from Yoichi's perspective, but the bake-neko tells a completely different story. Osen wasn't born in our world, but in one where mortals were much more savage. One night, in a bamboo forest, the young Osen was captured by a wandering monk. After passing through many hands, she was eventually sold to the shogun and became some sort of "Obake-Neko." She has few memories of those days beyond wondering why the high-ranking officials of the mortal world enjoyed annoying her and playing with her. Every day, she was driven to scratch her enemies to pieces, or forced to play boring games which only they seemed to enjoy. This went on for such a long time that any normal person would have been driven to madness. But youkai live such long lives that they have far more patience than mortals. Later, when her shogun and the rebels' shogun started fighting, Osen transformed into a ninja. "This is where the story gets even more boring..." Osen squinted her eyes as she said this, letting out a huge yawn that stretched from ear to ear. On the night of that naval battle, the shogun thought of an ingenious scheme... The shogun ordered Osen to transform into a beautiful young woman and stand on a small boat with a golden fan to humiliate the rebels so that they dare not approach. Even if they did, the bake-neko would teach them a brutal lesson. But of course, Yoichi was standing amidst the ranks of the rebels... "But of course, that fool suddenly stood up and starting ranting and raving about shooting down the fan with a single arrow." Then, the Great Tengu... "...Slipped and fell, landing in the ocean with a great big splash." The old woman's feline face failed to stifle a smile, and erupted into jeering laughter. "She was so drunk that night that she thought the seas were the stormiest she'd ever seen. In fact, the moon shone calmly and coolly, and there was not a trace of wind." "But, it'd been a few hundred years since I'd seen someone so entertaining. So, to save her the humiliation, I stifled my laughter and took the paper fan down myself... Then, a roar of cheers came from their fleet. Just thinking about it amuses me to this day..." Next, the Great Tengu unfurled her gigantic wings and leaped into the air, like a cloud covering the moon, and swooped down towards the beautiful woman... "A flurry of arrows later, and she fell into the sea looking like a hedgehog. I couldn't keep a straight face any longer and started laughing uncontrollably." Laughing raucously, Osen dragged the ill-fated tengu from the sea, put her in a headlock, and flew over the fleets from both sides, laughing manically and causing both generals to lose their tempers. People say she flew over eight ships in an row, then disappeared into the night. The feline youkai's laughter could be heard for more than three days after the battle had finished. "I couldn't stop laughing, so I scratched her as hard as I could... But the sorry state she was in made me laugh even harder, and the harder I scratched, the harder I laughed, hahahahaha..." The neko transformed into an old lady and laughed uncontrollably. "Afterwards, she brought me to this world and treated me like I was some kind of trophy!" The old woman pursed her lips as her face transformed into that of a sulky young woman. But this looked quite comical, because her cheeks were still flushed bright red from having laughed so hard she could barely breathe. "I am NOT a trophy!" "Hmm, now I think about it, that's probably the whole reason why she doesn't dare to visit me herself." The elderly female with feline features and the face of a young woman sighed gently, then smiled a cunning smile once more. "You should go. Leave the door open, and come back on the next full moon." "Also, don't forget to take this raincoat over to our old friend." |
A lot of it, just check the leaks sub-editor or Google it