peanut butter jelly peanut butter jelly

“Hot?! I know right!”

Mira shoots Zoey a look, but she can’t help but crack a smile at the over enthusiastic girl. “No, but he seemed suspicious right?” Mira asks, turning the memory back of you holding that smaller garment bag.

Rumi shared a look with Zoey, both of them were less sure about the pink haired girl’s theory, “I dunno Mira, he just seemed nice..” Rumi suggests, Zoey nods. Mira visibly steps back on her claim, but deep down, she commits to it.

She knows she’s good at reading people and she thinks that the boy in red isn’t just a boy. Maybe a demon, if not the outlier Celine was talking about. 

“Let’s try and focus on what we do know, like how the Saja boys are on a show tonight, we can ambush and kill them all then!” Rumi hypes, trying to shift the topic into something more certain. The two others aren’t slow to follow as the three share a highfive.

Over in a different apartment, four demons all collectively flop over onto the soft cushions on the couch, a sensation unavailable in the depths of the hell where they reside. Only one of them doesn’t succumb to their exhaustion just yet.

“I have a suspect on who’s the Yokai..” Mystery announces, and despite his low voice, the leader’s head raises, urging him to go on.

“I was giving out the flyers, and this one boy.. He was so anxious and spoke Japanese,” Mystery explains.

A man in bright pink interjects, rolling his eyes, “So what? Apparently Korea is big on tourism, are we going to target tourists?” Mystery's expression doesn’t budge at Baby’s dismissal. 

“But he panicked so hard that he ran off, like speaking a different language was something.. Bad, like he’d get caught for something.” Mystery adds, Jinu finally sits up.

“Yokai is from Japanese folklore, right?” He asks, Mystery nods in clarification. The leader of the Saja boys looked up at the ceiling with a look that showed he was deep in thought.

Jinu had a theory why Gwi-Ma was asking them to hunt this being. Well, it was more or less proven as he had said it himself. Power.

If he has the Yokai on a leash like the rest of them, what's stopping him from asking directions across the sea to find more souls, more monsters to rule over. It prevents the honmoon from completing, maybe even destroying it for good. 

And suddenly, the demon king becomes an emperor.

“Regardless, a loose lead is better than none. We just have to find him, look for signs, and if he’s our guy, we earn his trust.” Jinu plots, the boys, in all their demonic glory, their eyes flash in agreement.

All of them were intrigued by having a wish of their own granted if they brought back the misplaced and foreign force, some are more sure than others on what’d they ask for. And some are more curious about the being than others.

“And for now, we got a crowd to please, so let’s get ready for that.” Jinu pushes himself up, he didn’t know that holding a facade for fans would be so energy consuming. His members seemed to share that sentiment.

You walk back home, quiet and cautious, keeping an eye out for the man that actually lives here. When you confirmed that he wasn’t, you stored your kimono into an empty box, closing it, you let out a sigh.

Peaking at the window, you noticed that the sun was already done setting below the horizon line. If you’re wondering what you’ve been doing for hours? 

Simple: people watching. You were looking at clothes shops for fashion, parks where children played, department stores, arcades (you left quickly because you felt like you were staring too much at screens and felt awkward), and the last stop, you wanted to visit a makeup store.

Zashiki Warashi as well as a lot of the female dominant Yokai wore makeup, traditional was classy, but you couldn’t help but pique interest at modern makeup. You didn’t get good looks back in Japan because you always stayed in rural areas. After an incident, Daikokuten banned you from busy and trendy areas like Shibuya or Harajuku.

It’s not like you had a mother figure, but back when you were very little and people perceived you as ‘normal’, they’d let you join and do their makeup with them because only the really old spirits would think makeup is for girls only.

And so, you’ve learned how to do your makeup, at first it was only the usual pale face with bright lips, but you’ve adapted on your own to find ways to incorporate eyeliner and find colors that suited your natural skin tone.

Needless to say, you were so enamored by the rows of makeup, powders you don’t recognize stocked the shelves, different shades of lipsticks and tints. You were so invested that you didn’t notice the weird stares from adolescence and the elderly until you were in line to pay with your filled bag. It felt like your skin was burning from the stares, but you did your best to keep your cool.

You recorded a lot from the places you visited, but you made sure to go back to the market stands from the plaza, where you bought a soda pop for yourself. The group was singing about it so much with so much enthusiasm, so it has to be good right?

Right when you got home, you counted how much money you had left, it was definitely less, but thank goodness you didn’t have much of an appetite, being not human and all.

You decided that you wouldn’t give up on that job hunt and try more tomorrow. You opened and tested the makeup you bought, and somewhere while applying fun colors that bolded the highlights in your [e/c] eyes, you realized that you were having fun.

Sure, doing your makeup was not something Yokai made fun of you for, but doing it here, using human makeup with techniques they found in the human world in a body you crafted to blend in, writing and learning new things that were exclusive to this world. 

You were doing things that you were shamed for doing for practically your entire life: expressing yourself.

That thought, the idea of you being free from the shackles of ridiculement and discomfort for simply being yourself. You couldn’t help but tear up a bit. Your eyelashes grew raindrops from the stormy clouds of your irises.

It wasn’t a sad cry, no, it was a cry of finally letting go of the tension. You got this far, and even though people could argue that you didn’t have many skills, that doesn’t matter. Your existence itself does. You’re an artifact living amongst nature.

So why bother hiding? Of course, don’t show off your spiritual side, but express yourself in strategic ways, makeup for instance- you don’t have to do it flashy, just make it you. It can be a personal rebellion. Like the lady at the dry cleaning, you kind of noticed that not everyone cares about what you do unless you’re specifically doing it for attention.

The thought comforts you, and you smile into the mirror. Not the one you’d do to strangers to be polite, not the one that you give to inanimate objects that used to sit on shelves or lay in your arms. 

But a smile that hasn't seen the light in years, a smile that’s directed to yourself, simply because you appreciate what you see. This smile was always tucked away so you’d be able to shield yourself from the bullying.

You continued to do your makeup, playing around and experimenting, learning new words and writing them down. By the time you cleaned up your clutter and took out the soda from the fridge, your face was covered in colors that did nothing but compliment your features.

You looked, objectively, flattering, pretty, handsome, striking, soft. Any and all adjectives you could fit into a description of yourself.

So what better way than to end the night on a light note? You’d tune into the show with the Saja Boys and then go to a bathhouse. What could go wrong?

You double checked the working hours of the bathhouse as the intro of the show echoed across the room, you finally turned your attention back to the large screen.

A placid and dormant smile playing on your lips as you read watched everyone in baby highchairs and bibs, there you learned the member’s names. Being written in English, you were less sure of their names.

‘Jinu’ was the most familiar, ‘Mystery’ and ‘Romance’ were just beyond your comprehension (Why is there an ‘Y’ and not ‘I’??) this late into the day. ‘Abby’ you guessed was a name like Bobby or Zoey, a foreign name. ‘Baby’, you felt like you were being given a trick question. Was there a hidden meaning you missed somewhere?

But alas, you watched behind a TV screen as all members and one of the hosts chugs down what looked like hot sauce. You couldn’t fathom who’d make this their job but you could see why everyone liked it so much.

One by one, the members started to fall and come in second to the hotness that you could assume was burning their insides.

You let out a laugh at all their expressions along with the commentary, “Anddd Abby is done for!” You smirked as the buffer man slinks down in his highchair with a psyched out look on his face.

The same voice booms, “Mystery is history!” as it shows the guy that handed you the flyer earlier today, you spot a single tear roll down his cheek as he looks away in defeat.

The next boy to fall, Romance, one with a voluminous haircut in pastel pink, you can’t help but let out a sound of amusement at his comedic expression, his table bumping as his face falls onto the small platform. “And Romance is out for.. Heartburn?”

“Now it’s a fierce competition between Baby Saja and my handsome co-host!” The announcer sings, zooming in on the growing red and sweaty face of the co-host and then zooming in on Baby Saja, sucking the bottle with an almost relaxed expression on his face. Like he does this everyday.

“He makes it look easy..” you mumble in your first language, the camera pans out and the man on the left finally gives up. Making Baby the winner of tonight’s show!

You caught sight of the time in the upper lefthand corner, prompting you to turn off the show, cutting off the hosts saying their goodbyes to the debut group. You needed to start heading over to the bathhouse now!

Exiting the apartment, you knew that it could get busy, and people seeing you more or less naked was the last thing you’d want, so you decided to go a bit earlier as a precaution.

You reached the bathhouse, it was exclusive for men, you walked in, you found some helpful posters- with Japanese translations! So you knew what to do precisely, of course you’ve heard of hot springs and bathhouses, but you never have been to one before today. So you decided to just copy what the customers were doing.

You wiped your makeup off and did the mandatory shower, scrubbing your body with suds, enjoying the warm water that ran down your skin. Grabbing a longer towel with a short one, wrapping the longer one securely around your waist, slipping into a tub in a secluded corner.

You sighed, and tried to copy the man across the room, having his hair completely blocked out with the towel around his head. You couldn’t get it. And so, you gave up and just let it sit on your head.

You faced the wall, your back turned towards anyone who’d enter, and you were losing yourself to the calming sensations of the tub. The steam melted the air around you, your chest shifted slowly, is this what being a tofu feels like when in sundubu jjigae? Probably.

You don’t even notice the sudden and rushed intrusion of the very same boys you were watching on television. Your eyes were lidded, dazed by the warmth that engulfed you, beads of what water or sweat beads down your neck.

You hear yelling behind you, you get worried and whip your head around, but it seems like you forgot that staring someone right dead smack in the eye isn’t something a human would do.

And no, for the audience at home, humans don’t have pitch black eyes naturally, and it's not recommended to wear color contacts when you visit bathhouses.

So to Mira, with this knowledge, in the moment where they met eyes, his captivating and haunting eyes. She concluded that this guy has to be the anomaly Celine was talking about.

As she fought back the water demons, swinging her weapon around like it was a boomerang. She drew closer and closer to you, she was so quick you couldn’t keep up. The drips of water that descended your face slowly, that abnormal twist in your neck, your damp hair that had some short strands stuck to your forehead. 

The greenish air in the building didn’t help with that eerie energy that clouded around you, and despite her tight leather suit, the humid air of the bathhouse, she felt a shiver run up her spine. 

Was she going too fast or was time slowing down? The girl in black couldn’t tell, for your eyes were unblinking, not a twitch in your face. 

But she was so absorbed in studying you that she was ambushed by a demon, ramming into her side, a sick grin on the perpetrator’s face. Like he just made the funniest joke in the world.

“Ugh!” Mira yelled in surprise, trying to counter as fast as she could, but it was too late, another, less important demon pounced onto her, distracting her from the demon and yokai in disguise.

The man flashes you a sneer as he turns his head half way towards you, his eyes flashed an evocative shade of yellow, he looked you in the eye before you could even register he was there. But he saw it.

That grieving shade of black, the freakishly hollow circle that just happened to sit in your eyes. He knew that you weren’t human, he even managed to look down to your shoulders, his eyebrows raised with interest as he saw patches of what's behind you, through your body.

For you, you only see a flash of pink fly into the stranger with long darker pink hair, and for a split second, a human silhouette- the offender, only to be swallowed by pink smoke that felt oddly familiar to you. 

This was when you’re beyond freaked out, stepping out from the bathtub, you finally take in your surroundings, no more were the normal teal green tiled walls of a bathhouse, but instead, strings that open corners to a bright red world sitch open in numerous spots.

Crawling out of it were beings with long, damp hair, freakishly big eyes that bulged out of their sunken green skin. You felt your senses heighten, at the horrifying scene. Grotesque figures with bones as skin, they attack mercilessly at shadows, the cause of those shadows you can’t see.

Even if these supernatural beings weren't done, you were.

You stand up and bolt out of the bathroom, securing the towel around your waist. You subconsciously dematerialize your feet, you don’t slip, almost as if you were running on normal pavement. The towel sitting on your head slips off, giving the hunter closest to you, the best view of your hair.

She doesn't miss the transparency of your feet and ankles. Instead, she gasps.

Your footsteps are soundless as you pass the sauna, noticing two powerful figures duking it out, one of them bears a weapon that vibrates with energy and light, you couldn’t see their opponent, but you would much rather not find out.

But he sees you, your wide eyes, your even wider pupils, he could even see the reflection of the hunter’s weapon in the darkness of your eyes.

But he blinks, and you’re gone.

You’re back in the locker room, changing with much urgency you could muster, but the lasting effects of the steam linger on you, causing you to have to cough and shiver, slowing you down.

Maybe you should avoid bathhouses.

You realize that your locker is half open, you curse and as you suit up in your clothes, you check for anything missing. Nothing. Thank goodness.

Your hair is damp but you could hardly give a care, you grabbed everything raced out. Once you reach the exit, you basically fall against the wall in exhaustion and shock, you didn’t register much of what just happened- you didn’t want to.

You slide down and take deep breaths, trying to calm yourself down. You didn’t know if you had a heart or a pulse, but if you did- it’d be pounding under your skin.

ꕥ  ꕥ  ꕥ  ꕥ

Jinu walks alone on the streets after the bathhouse encounter, so many interesting factors were revealed. A demon hunter who’s a demon as much as he is. The yokai fled like a scared cat- he knew who the yokai were. There’s nothing to deny it.

After all, it takes a monster to know one.

my bad sketches (it was like midnight)

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