Better Late Than Never

But what about his unrelentingly critical side? She totally knows about that. It's the first thing she notices about him when he enters a room (or reveals he's up a tree, as the case might be). I am loaning that volume out right now and can't snap a photo in context, but here's that panel from the Zenshuuchuu Drill books which even explains the "nechinechi" word she uses to describe him.

"Iguro-san aikawarazu nechinechi shite hebi mitai."

I don't know what official translations did with this, and I can see how someone might mistranslate it as "sticky like a snake," but more accurately, this is "persistent/nagging/obstinate like a snake." There's no "oh, he just strives for perfection and pushes others to be their best" about it. Nechinechi is not a compliment for people who have a stick up their butt and won't shut up about other people's tiny mistakes and stuff.

By "Iguro-san is as persistent as always, like a snake" that doesn't mean snakes have a reputation for this. Rather, in Mitsuri-speak, it's like Obanai is trying to squeeze Giyuu like prey with all his accusations and insistence on punishment. And how do we know she finds that a fine and wonderful thing? Her next line:

"Shitsukokute suteki!"

Shitsukoi is a more common phrase, and it also means stuff along the lines of "insistent/persistent/obstinate." This is also not a compliment; it's the kind of word mothers snap at their children who are throwing fits or otherwise being annoying. But in Mitsuri-speak:

"It's so cool how obstinate he is!"

“I’ve always been angry.”

"Is it that bad?" The man said, picking tufts of his bangs between his fingers and peering at them, as though he'd be able to see how they looked like from that angle.

"No, no!" She said, her side in stitches. "Well, kind of! Did you use your sword?"

His eyes widened, and the former butterfly pillar snorted at the thought that he was surprised someone could tell.

"No shears in your master's house?"

"No, there are. But well... it's faster."

"Faster?" She piped, raising an eyebrow at him. This man, really. She sighed sympathetically as her laughter died down. "Tomioka-san, you're not supposed to do these things 'fast.' It should be done with care! You know, so that it'd look good!"

"I just needed most of it gone," he shrugged. "It was pretty heavy."

"Hm." Shinobu hummed, nodding. Thinking back at the former state of his hair, she realized that he must not have thought about how it looked like once. He only ever did tie it up and call it a day. Not that she could blame him. "When was the last time you got a haircut?"

"Last w--"

"No, Tomioka-san. A proper haircut. Not this... this murder you committed with your sword."

"Oh." Shinobu had to bite her lips to contain her laughter. He didn't even deny it. "Well. I just... cut off the ends with a blade when they obscure my vision... but it was Tsutako-neesan who used to cut my hair for me."

A pang shot through Shinobu's heart. His response hit too close to home. "Of course..." she murmured.

They fell silent, each visiting their own memories of the sisters they lost to the ugly war against demons. The man looked off in the distance, but unlike before, he did not have an empty, angry, and jaded stare. It was soft. And pained. Like the eyes of a child lost and unable to find the way home. Much like her own eyes in the mirror everytime she was alone.

"Tomioka-san..."

"Ah. I'm sorry," Giyuu apologized after he realized he had gone quiet.

Shinobu simply shook her head. "That's okay," she said, offering him a smile that she hoped told him she understood completely.

Giyuu returned it. It was a brief, frugal smile, but Shinobu knew it was genuine.

"Anyway, I shall not trouble you any further. I'm visiting the Kamados and the rest today."

"With that hair?"

Giyuu turned to her with a glint of his signature scowl. But before he could think that she was teasing him again, she immediately followed up.

"Oh, no! I mean, I think you should have it fixed! You know, so that the kids would love it. I'm sure they'd be so proud of you!"

Giyuu sighed. "I guess. Well, I'll go back to Urokodaki-san's and borrow his shears--"

"I have shears in my office, too."

"Ah, that's nice." Giyuu answered automatically, missing the implied invitation. "It's probably time I get myself one."

Shinobu sighed, rolling her eyes. "Tomioka-san, I'm saying I can cut your hair for you."

"Ah. I see." A pause. Then, a realization dawning. "Oh. Oh, I don't want to take up much of your time, Kochou. Thank you, but I'll just--"

Shinobu sighed again. This man! Really! She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the direction of her office. "No, no. You're not touching that hair again. I'll do it."

"But--wait, Kochou--"

"It wouldn't take too long! What else is there to do around here anyway?" Then she beamed at him cheekily, adding, "Besides, you've already got my work cut out for me~"

It was Giyuu's turn to roll his eyes, "Very funny."

"Of course~ I'm very funny!"

Giyuu chuckled. Probably the first time she had ever heard him do so. The most he had done in the past was smile. This was new. And it was very welcome.

"So, how would you like your hair? Shall I style it like Murata-san's? Shall I make you bald so you wouldn't have to mind it for a while?"

"Kochou!"

She giggled. And it was answered by another chuckle from him. And then, after a pause, he very quietly and solemnly murmured, "No, really. Please don't cut it all off."

Shinobu could not help the fresh wave of laughter and snorts from his plea. This man... Really.

--

guess who just posted a part 2.

OBAMITSU WATCH OUT !!!!!

icymi, tumblr used to do an elaborate april fool's prank every year, but this year they suddenly stopped. here's a somewhat detailed recap of everything they did over the decade:

2013 - mishapocalypse (honourable mention): tumblr staff didn’t start doing april fools until 2014, but the mishapocalypse happened on tumblr in 2013 and i feel like this list would be incomplete without it

2014 - tumblrpro: upon opening your dash you were greeted by an “inspirational” video, that ended with the option to get “tumblrpro (for free)”. all it did was put a top hat on your icon.

2015 - tumblr executivesuite/coppy: a copying machine appeared in the corner of your dash. it would offer tips on how to use tumblr, like clippy the paperclip used to do in microsoft word. as the day went on, it slowly broke down and died right in front of your eyes. many people hated him (but not me). you could also make a (small) spreadsheet. @executivesuite2016 is the official blog.

2016 - this is decision/lizard election/tumblrdecides: a parody of the 2016 US elections. there were 4 lizards (well, one of them turned out to be a salamander in a scandal) to vote for. the dash looked different and there was a live news report with election updates, as well as an election blog for each lizard. they all had their own slogans and you would get an "i voted" button after you voted that would get slapped next to your icon. there were built-in functions to make an election poster for your favourite lizard and to create a text post that supported your lizard of choice that autogenerated a statement for all your followers to read. imo tumblr’s april fools peak. @thisisdecision2016-blog is the official blog, @mop-2016-blog @wretchedtooth @timefordeborah-blog were candidates. rick also had a blog (rick-official) but that now seems to have vanished because he ended up dropping out of the election. mop won, if you're curious. by far the most elaborate prank tumblr ever did.

2017 - horse friend: a tamagotchi-inspired game where you had to take care of a little horse in the corner of your screen. it came with a randomly generated name, and you had to feed and clean up after it. if you didnt take good care of it, it died. you could then hatch (yes, hatch) a new one. there was also an option to look at the names of all your dead horses. this is now available to buy in the tumblr shop. @horse-friends is the official blog.

2018 - tumblcoin: a parody of cryptocurrency (this was the year bitcoin took off). you could ‘invest’ in tumblcoin, with which you could in turn buy things with to spice up your dash, including last year’s horse friend, coppy from 2015, and a frame for around your icon. you could share the amount of tumblcoin you owned in an automatically generated gif post which would be tagged #tbc2018 and #tumblcoin. @tumblcoin is the official blog.

2019 - @memories: this blog still functions the way it did on april fools itself! it's like mad libs, where it takes post templates and then adds in tags you use a lot and users you frequently interact with on your main blog. like a personalized shitpost bot.

2020 - group chat prank/@storybot: it was so hard to find info on this because it was contained entirely in the now-defunct group chat function, which no one used. i had to go through the notes of this post for information because no one cared enough to actually write anything explaining it. turns out, you could write a story with your mutuals by adding storybot to your group chat. it also kept working after april fools (well, up until the group chats were deleted) just like memories. many people missed out on it entirely because they did not use the group chat function.

2021 - tumblcryptids: tumblr allowed you to adopt “non-fungible tumblcryptids”, a parody of NFTs. clicking a button that said "Summon thy Tumblrcryptid" would spawn an image of a little blob-shaped creature with a short description, which would always read "Hi! My name is [randomly generated name]. I love [thing most people like]. I hate [thing most people dislike]. Like my parent, I can't get enough of #[tag from your main blog]." you could share them in a post, which would automatically add the tag #NFTumblcryptids to your post. and yes, people on the piss on the poor website freaked out about it because they thought they were real NFTs harming the environment. @tumblcryptidadoptioncenter is the official blog.

2022 - click-a-thon: when you clicked a light switch on your dashboard, a bunch of colourful things showed up, like a sponge you could move around, an "engagament meter", clickable buttons, and a “Summon Crab!” button, which would summon a crab when you clicked it. you could. the crabs, like horse friend, are still available in the tumblr store as of 2025. here's some screenshots. there were various ways to share your crab activities, which would all get tagged #april fools 2022. the prank was presented as a marketing technique created by Brick Whartley, a fictional businessman character created by tumblr, who (afaik) originated in a post on the official blog of the 2018 april fools prank, albeit originally in a different role. around this time he also started functioning as the mascot for tumblr's shop ( @emporium )

2023 - abstract reactions (emoji reacts): buttons were added to every post that allowed you to add emoji reactions, many of them based on tumblr inside jokes (horse as a reference to horse plinko/horse friend, vanilla for the vanilla extract meme, pikaman, bug for bug race, and brick whartley, who wasn't a meme but staff really wanted him to be). if one specific emoji was used a certain amount of times it would add an effect to the post, eg many cheese emoji reacts would cover the post in cheese. this was also attributed to Brick Whartley ("his" blog @brickwhartley also documented the day)

2024 - boop-o-meter: allowed you to “boop” other users who had opted in to the booping, like facebook’s poke feature back in the day. depending on how long you held the button, you would either boop, super boop, or evil boop. on the dashboard there was a counter for both how many times you had booped others and how many times others had booped you, as well as how many boops were given side-wide. when booping someone, an image of a cat paw appeared. you would get badges (which can still be used) for booping 1, 100 and 1000 times. if you got more than 999 boops, the counter would simply say “WOW”. this was brought back for halloween 2024 (as BOOp-o-meter. get it), with a ghost, skeleton and mummy paw. no official blog, but here's an official recap for april first from staff. i believe this was the only april fools prank that was mobile user friendly.