01x01 - One Eye, One Leg

[bunniefuu]

We beg you.

Please be calm.Our goddess of wisdom.

Oh, it must be time already.Thank you.

Hello. It's been a while.

I'm sorry. Who are you?Wait, You

don't remember what the personwho saved your life looked like?

It's safe to say I haven't been

through any life threateningevents in the last decade, atleast.

It was two years ago.It happened here.

Are you going to be all right?

Uh, thank you.I guess you saved me.

Oh, sorry. It's fine.Has the one who saved your life?

All I ask is that youremember me forever.

That's going a bit overboard.Although I guess

it is possible to die that way,right? I'll remember.

He reminds me of a goat.Goats are skinny,

spacey beasts that spendtheir whole lives

obliviously munching ongrass day in and day out.

But you can feel a bizarresort of vitality in them.

Yes. One mustnever underestimate a goat.

An extremely agile creaturethat has no problems

living in highlandsor even wastelands.

And depending on the breed,it may

also have two powerful horns.They're almost like demon horns.

Horns of undeniable sharpness.Is this what

they mean by loveat first sight?

Oh, that girl was you. But thatgirl wasn't wearing a beret.

I feel like I wouldhave remembered that.

And you can only tell girlsapart by which hat they'rewearing.

Hey. Sorry. I'm not that goodat remembering girls faces.

And if I remember them too well,it just makes sarky grumpy.

In that case,please try to remember it again.

My name is Kotoko Iwanagawritten with the characters forKoto.

Like the instrument,then Child Rock and Eternity.

I'm yearsold and quite lively.

Cool. I won't forget this time.Yeah, I'm so sure.

Considering I heard that youand Saki broke up.

How do you know that?What are you doing? Kuro?

Oh. Oh, Saki.

Actually, she sortof saved my life. I saw.

Oh. I'm so sorry for the troublehe caused. And thank you.

Uh,why are you the one apologizing?

What is she,his older sister? Actually,

she could be his younger sister.

His name is Kuro Sakuragawa.He's a second

year at homeuniversity studying law.

He comes here often to visit his

cousin,who's a long term patient.

Is this cousin of his.A somewhat

tall woman with long, dark hair.

Oh, no. They're notrelated to each other.

That's Saki. She's a year older.And his girlfriend?

They've dated sincethey were in high school.

Kuro even decidedto go to the same

university that shewas attending. Oh.

Then, two years afterour first encounter.

Apparently Kuro and Saki aregetting married after theygraduate.

I heard they just meteach other's parents recently.

They'll be gettingmarried any day now.

Uh huh.

He's alone today. Did Kuro andhis girlfriend break up orsomething?

What? I doubt it.You know, he stopped talking

about his girlfriendright around February.

You're right. And he hasn'treally talked to anyonerecently.

What is this hospital's policyon handling personal informationanyway?

They said they had no obligationto protect a visitor's personalinformation.

Is that how it works? It really

is a bit shady,though, to be fair.

They never did tell me who your

cousin is or why they're in the

hospital.Never even said a word.

You're better off not knowingthe reasons.

People are hospitalized longterm aren't usually thatamusing.

So in regardto the rumors that you

and Saki broke upright before spring.

They don't careabout my privacy at

all, do they?You weren't kidding.

The point here is that you'reback to being single again.

Have you maybe thought abouttrying a fresh start withsomeone new?

Could you getto the point already?

Very well, then. How aboutdating me with marriage in mind?

I've held thisone sided love for

two years.Just waiting for this moment.

You're surprisingly direct,despite how you look.

And if you waited two years,pretty persistent to..

A young lady canalways wait for fate.

Thing is,there'd be problems on account

of you being a middle schooler.

I told you, I'm yearsold and in high school.

I even plan on applyingto your university next year.

What do you have?The memory of a chicken.

Was what I said.Really? That funny?

No, it just made me feel happy.

A high school girl just askedme to go out with her.

I guess maybe I'm not a total

lost cause I haven't feltthis great in a while.

I see. Did Saki dump you?

It wasn't Saki's fault.There was no way around it.

So I'm not sure I'm readyto see anyone new.

So what was it? And be specific

that ended your courtshipin a sudden breakup.

Over the winter. Sakiand I went on a trip to Kyoto.

But you weren't married.What would people think?

What decade wereyou born in anyway?

So late one night when we werewalking along the Kamo River.

Mm.

What? Those things that showup on shorelines.

Yup. It was a copper. It wasn'ta gotaro. Suiko or Hyosube.

You sure know your stuff.Whatever it actually was callingit,

A Kappa seemed to fit best.All I know is that what I saw

wasn't a human or an animal,

but it was definitely some kindof moving, breathing life form.

The moment we realizedthat it became

something so terrifyingthat it felt like

all the rules of our worldwere about to cr*ck open.

But generally speaking,copper's aren't bad these days.

They're very trendy creaturesthat can recommend good sushi orshrimp chips.

Well, the one I saw looked like

he'd drag youinto the river and suck

out every lastdrop of your blood.

The next day,they actually found a

body in the river near there.

It was ruled an accident.Cause unknown.

Saki's a brave,no nonsense girl. And she

doesn't believe inyokai or ghosts.

But she saw that thingand got so scared,

she just clung to me shaking.And then what happened?

Without a secondglance saki's way. Well,

there were some cowardlywhimpers running off like ascared rabbit.

Well, it was a Kappa after that.

She said she never knew I was

that kind of personand things got awkward.

She was already planningto move away for her new job.

That was her excuse to break up.

And honestly,who could blame her?

I don't really careif you believe me or not.

If you don't.And I'm just a crazy

college kid whoblames a coppa for

the fact that hisgirlfriend dumped him.

Or maybe I'ma college kid who went

crazy from the shockof getting dumped.

Regardless, I'm not worthyto be your boyfriend.

You got to go.My bus will be here soon.

But we aren't done talking yet.Please

clarify the subjectof your statement.

Who exactly leftSaki and ran off?

It wasn't you that ran off.It was the Kappa, Right?

The Kappa saw you next to Saki,

got scared and ran off.There's no doubt.

An awful experiencefor that copper just

randomly running into youin the middle of the night.

I feel sorry for it. Saki saw

that terrifying Yokairun away after seeing you.

She wondered who youreally were and got spooked.

And that's whenshe said she never

knew you were that kindof person. Isn't that right?

You've made one key mistakein your investigation.

Kappas don't existto begin with.

Even though youjust said they did.

Well, that was a lie.Think about

it like I'm going to tella girl about my breakup.

I'm really onlyslightly acquainted with Kappas,

but I am quite knowledgeableabout creatures like it.

This town and eventhis hospital has yokai,

ayakashi specters and evendemons are lurking everywhere

in the shadows of the azaleasand atop the dogwoods.

They are quietlyobserving all we do.

Most of them are justcurious and mean no harm,

but they do in factexist everywhere you look.

I hear them whisperwhen they see you.

Their voice is strained in fear.He's something different. He's.He's terrifying.

Who the hell are you?And what makes

you so certainthat these things exist?

When I was , I was kidnapped

for two straight weeksby these mythical creatures

deep in the mountainwhere they took me.

They pleaded with me.The girl they had kidnapped.

We beg you, please become ourgoddess of wisdom, they said.

Goddess of wisdom. Most of thesecreatures were of low intellect,

so they were looking forsomeone who could help them.

Someone to quell their fightingand to establish peace amongthem.

Please, please help us.We beseech you.

So I gave them my answer.Yes, I'll do it. My.

Thus, ever since then, wheneverthey have problems or conflicts,

they come fromall over the country

to ask me to mediateor find solutions.

That's hard to believe to true.Since that's the case,

find a newspaper fromJuly th years ago.

There's an articleabout a fifth grade

girl named Kotoko Iwanaga whodisappeared from this townrather suddenly,

and how,two full weeks after vanishing,

the girl was found nappingquietly on a park bench in town,

though her left leg was severed

and also her right eye had been

completely gouged outof the socket.

Unsurprisingly, the culpritwas never caught. It's

time by now.We'll pick this up later.

The doors are closing. Pleasebe careful. Now departing.

Hey, lady, are you hurt? Oh,please tell me you're all right.

I was so frightened.I thought that vile

creature might tryto eat you alive.

There's no needto worry so much.

He didn't even laya finger on me.

But, my lady,what could you possibly

see in that smelly,terrifying monstrosity?

I'm sure it'sdifficult for all you

yokai to imagine, but to me.

Well, this curl guyis quite the looker.

Could it be possiblethat your left

eye was taken out as well?

Do you wantto get forcibly exorcised?

Oh, no, my lady. I still have

so many Harlequin Romancenovels left to read.

I couldn't possibly move onto the afterlife just yet.

Those are probablythe last words I

ever expected to hear from you.

But that creature I mentionedbefore is still at the library,

so I haven't been ableto go in days.

Please get rid of that thingas soon as you can.

I haven't forgotten.I might be able

to take care of it tomorrow.As long as Kuro is able to help

me out.It shouldn't be too hard.

In Japan's greatestliterary work, the Kojiki,

there is a mentionof a God named Kuebiko.

It cannot walk becauseit only has one leg,

but it is a God of wisdom,full of knowledge of the world.

It also mentionsthat at times beings

with only one eye were alsoregarded as gods or somethingsimilar.

The kinds of godsthat have either

one leg or one eye can be found

in storiesthroughout the world's cultures.

The surface is rough,but it's been melted

and hardenedby some kind of acid.

We won't haveto take any further action.

Her right eyehas been gouged out,

but there's no pus or swelling.It's basically healed.

What in the world happenedto this little girl?

Can you tell me where you werethese last two weeks? Kotoko.

Who were you with? Someone.

What If there's anythingyou remember, you can tell me.

Does that meanthe reason my left

leg and my right eyewere taken was to make me a God?

That isn't a.. Bad trade at all.

SoI don't really remember. Sorry.

Hello. Did you finishwith your research?

Apparently there wasa Kotoko iwanaga involved

in some kindof incident six years ago.

That's all I found.There's still not

any proof about monstersor yokai or you becoming

some kind of god to them.

Indeed, that could allbe a fantasy in my head.

And if that's really the case,I'm

just a girl who went crazy after

being kidnapped by somelunatic Mutilator.

Whether you believe me or notis entirely your choice.

But I may be the only one

in this world who cantruly understand you.

You're saying thosewho ended up with

either one eyeor one leg sometimes

become a sacrifice to the gods?

That's right. A sacrificeto forge a connection.

Or sometimes a priestess who canhear the voices of the gods.

Huh? Huh?

My lady. Oh, no. Hey, slow..Down. What is it? Bake Danuki.

Yeah. The library boundarybeen broken. That's

gonna cause all kindsof trouble. Please help us.

Yeah.My lady. How many times did

we ask you to stay awayfrom this terrifying creature?

Now, Kuroe don't scarethem like that.

I didn't even do anything.Maybe. But it certainly

isn't goodthat the barrier is down.

Time to go. Why don'tyou come with us, girl?

Huh? We'll get rid of any doubts

you may have by engagingin an actual battle.

No need.I don't doubt anything. After

seeing monsters asking youfor help, I believe you. See ya.

Oh, don't be like that. Theyokai in the library isdangerous.

It's a monster,both violent and evil.

There might be an articlein tomorrow's paper about it.

A girl with one eye and oneleg who was brutally m*rder*d.

A tragic end for a girlwho confessed her love for you.

Even if you weren't ready.If it came to that,

you wouldn't be ableto escape your

pangs of guilt, now, would you?

Thanks for your help,but I'm not

sure about the wayyou're carrying me.

Isn't the princess carryingnormal in these situations?

To be fair, I don't know. Whatabout? This situation is normal.

Huh? Um. Are you okay? It's you.

Easy, Caro. It's justa fallen warrior spirit.

My lady. I'm utterlypowerless against the

sheer.. v*olence of fancy.

That's quite enough.The human world in Ayakashi

realm haveto maintain their balance.

Those who disregard the rulescan't.. Be allowed to.

We tried running your big mouth.So what do we do now?

That's unexpected. What?I should have been

able to easilycontain a rogue yokai

like that after it tookone look at you.

But no, it's in such.Panic that it can't

see what's going on around it.

So in other words,you only wanted me for my body.

I was serious whenI asked you out.

It hurt me deeplyto go after your

body like this on ourvery first date.

Do you have some kind of plan?Any talismans you can use?

If it doesn't..Want to listen to me,

we'll have to use force.Use force?

Uh

huh. That's it. I definitelyprefer being held like this.

I feel so close to you now. Thisisn't the.. Time for that.

I suppose you do have a point.

We should flee for now.

Curl. What gives?

We can do all the naughtythings you want later.

Not that I can't letyou do anything reckless.

Run curl.

Two years ago, and now you have

that same unfazedlook on your face.

Why are you so calm? How can

you be so unfazed whenyou're in danger?

Someone as reckless as youshouldn't be lecturing me onthat.

Besides, I thought you'd alreadyfigured it out by now. Huh?

Uh, I guess my flesh reallyis poisonous to them.

Huh?

Wait, girl, I want to know.Who are you really?

You mean the onesasking for your

wisdom won't tell you who I am.

Everyone avoids talking aboutcertain things, especially ifthose things terrify them.

You're right.If I were to borrow your words.

When I was just , I consumed

two different kindsof yokai flesh. All I could eat.

The Guardian serpentof Sukuna Swamp asks

me for help concerninga problem that's

been keeping them up at night.

A m*rder*r apparently disposedof a body in their swamp.

But something aboutit's been bothering them.

Next time with the guardianSerpent. Heard.