/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Sou & rat 3

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Chisazu slid the pencil underneath her leg cast. “Uwaaa~” she exhaled in relief as she scratched at the itch. While she was discharged from the douji’s care and returned to her room-turned-office in the Myouren temple. There was also the well-appreciated care of actual semi-medical professionals who wouldn’t chant obscenities into the night while dancing around you. No more sucking cheese soup and sake for her, NO SIR!

Chisazu’s scratching was interrupted by a knocking on the door.

“Chisazu, it’s me.” Came Shou’s voice from the other side of the door, “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” The rat responded, “This temple is home to two shapeshifters. Identify yourself properly or leave.”

A long sigh came from the other end of the door before she heard Shou’s voice respond. “Stella, Astra, and Lu,” Shou answered back from the other side of the door.

Chisazu had wanted to chide her for picking such obvious names; at the very least, she didn’t name them Marumaru, Shoushou, LufuLufu, or Toratora. It was a small miracle that the combined might of Nazrin and Chisazu were able to talk her down from such names. “Come in,” Chisazu answered as she sighed.

“Anything notable happened during my hospital visit?” Chisazu asked as Shou closed the door behind her. “I saw Murasa talking to Nue; they seemed to be up to something. Other than that, I had to chase Yoshika off for scaring people again.” Shou answered.

Chisazu nodded; she didn’t trust Nue, especially after that amanojaku friend of hers attacked a villager, although last she saw of either of them, they were hand-in-hand. However, neither seemed particularly happy with whatever arrangement they had. She supposed the worst case could be old hell involvement, but Okina said that was ‘handled’ in the same breath. She said that Koishi’ probably’ wasn’t pregnant in the same breath, whatever that meant.

“Although.” Shout started as she pulled a rolled-up poster out of her pocket. “The Tengu and some others have been spreading these around,” Shou said, unfurling the poster. Nazrin had been the one to show Chisazu the mock-up that Okina had gotten her hands on. Apparently, it wasn’t a very ‘Yukari’ idea. So it almost certainly was deliberate sabotage, probably not from a Kuda-gitsune, but perhaps from a Tengu who had one.

“Byakuren already publicly condemned it, although I was surprised Miko didn’t show up.” Chisazu laughed. “Hahaha, Shou, you actually manage to be pretty funny sometimes.” The idea of the Taoists going out to lecture Byakuren about hypocrisy was hilarious. With as good as their ability to monitor things is, they probably knew but would reserve that for blackmail later.

Shou just looked confused at Chisazu’s outburst. “Well, Oina will probably be making her move at the festival, so that’s our time frame as well. We probably don’t want to be directly involved in the fighting, except for Byakuren.”

“I was hoping we’d be more directly involved.” Shou said, “I know my main advantage is range, but..” SHe trailed off, looking towards the ground. It was obvious what she meant: she wanted to be useful, not just be an idol who barely resembled the god she was supposed to represent.

Chisazu fiddled with her flute, trying to think of an answer. “We’ll have to move as a unit, and we probably won’t be in a position to do the rescue itself. Our action will probably be limited to the area around the temple; fighting is sure to spill out over here. We can use your range to suppress targets that might normally have freedom of movement. As long as we can shoot down anything from the air, the tengu won’t be able to mobilize in force.”

Shou nodded, “Byakuren won’t like it, but…” She paused for a moment before bowing at the waist. “Thank you for dealing with our unreasonableness Chisazu.”

“Aside from that, preparations for grounds expansions and supply stockpiling have gone well.” Shou said, returning to rest, “although I do not believe Murasa has obtained all of them by legitimate means.”

Chisazu sighed again. She certainly had a lot of work ahead of her. At least she worked for such a handsome god like Bisha-kun, unlike that dusty hag Nazrin was stuck with.
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This is set after Goro-kun gets out of the hospital, so it's actually a bit far in the timeline, this is probably the last Chisazu and Shou chapter since they're where they need to be during the endgame and have a plan. I tried to hint towards other things while leaving room open for other Anons, like setting up Nue as the contact of Seija, I imagine she's actually pretty well informed right, not as much as Oka though.

>>43520526
I think Zounose just doesn't really *get* Shou as a character, she isn't some wild beast about to make a snack out of anyone that comes close to her on a bad day as shown in the dead baby doujin.
He leans on her being unleashed at any moment and toys with the idea of her being a starved beast among sheep, but also doesn't really show us any strong character out of Shou, which she would need to keep her beast self in check.

To be fair, that's just how Zounose is and I don't expect or want him to change but I disagree with your sentiment that:
>not even he could salvage her.
Evey artist has strong and weak points, and Zounose clearly doesn't care to or can't make a character reject being a meat hungry animal even if that is essentially their point in canon.

Shou really only has a handful of good doujins that show her as something more than just the butt of a joke and they are basically all from DYNAMO and the one off Hungry Tiger mentioned here >>43509322 while I agree it really lacks in direction I think it did an excellent job of showing how much effort Shou puts into her public persona by showing her takes that mask off against Flan.
Good Bye beast does tackle a slightly different idea, in that her tiger self doesn't exist anymore even if she wished to return where as Hungry Tiger makes it clear it still exists and she just keeps it under control.