AN INTERVIEW WITH ICHINOMIYA KANTAROU by Tengu
Standard Disclaimers
Warnings-potty language, dodgy sexual situations, smoking...None of it too serious...FOOTNOTES!
Thanks to JP for Betaing.
"Mmmmm..." said Ichinomiya Kantarou, Folklorist and sometimes Exorcist thoughtfully.
The subjects of his thoughtful grunt were two young men, seated before him in the old book and paper strewn confusion of his office. They had introduced themselves as Ikegami Okuno and, Takase Kumakusu, journalists working for the main rival to Kantarou's employer.
Yesterday he had received a phone call, asking if he would consent to be interviewed about his books on the supernatural.
Kantarou had agreed with a grin, this paper was one of the so called progressive ones, in favour of modern science and scoffing at all things traditional.
Kantarou had been particularly dismayed by their sneering report of the proscription of the Omoto religion, true this cult had been involved in anti imperial activities, (Kantarou was very pro Mikado.) and had had it coming to them, however Kantarou did not like their attitudes at all.
Here was a kami sent opportunity to spike their wheel.
So Kantarou had invited these smug modernists to come and see him at his house the next day, he had briefed Youko and Haruka very thoroughly on their roles in his kabuki play, what Kantarou was going to do would stretch their loyalty a bit, and he did not wish to hurt their feelings.
The journalists arrived at 2 pm sharp, Youko, who was doing her usual act of the good hostess, let them in. She directed them to Kantarou’s study where the young exorcist was occupied in pretending to work. (Actually he was practicing his shurikenjutsu.)
The visitors gave formal greetings and their calling cards. Kantarou surprised them by flinging the cards accurately into a space on a book crowded shelf; the shurikenjutsu was going just fine.
"Sensei..." Ikegami Okuno opened.
Kantarou waved his hand airily, "No need to call me that," he gave a mock bashful smile, "unless you fear you may actually learn something from such an insignificant personage as me."
Youko came in with the tea tray. She placed the tray on a miraculously clear space on the table, bowed and made her way out.
But not before Kantarou waved to get her attention, "Will you bring me my pipe, Youko?" he asked.
So Youko went out for her master’s pipe and tobacco box.
Kantarou had been a boy scout (1) and generally avoided tobacco, when he indulged, he smoked after the Japanese fashion, a system that required lots of pokings, and tappings, and fiddlings...It was an excellent way to keep his hands occupied and mind distracted during this kyogen (2)...and he had one trick to pull with his pipe.
Kantarou looked around, "Haruka! Where are you?" He called.
Haruka came in, a look of indifference on his face. He bowed politely to the journalists and kowtowed to Kantarou, who ignored him. He then sat at his master’s side.
Haruka was the very image of a wild ascetic...or a wild tengu (which amounts to pretty much the same thing.) His hair was shaggy and elflocked, and his eyes steely. He wore just a white cloth about his middle, not even tied up in a fundoshi; this item was grimy and improperly see though. Nor did Haruka pay any attention to pushing it modestly around to make sure it did its intended job. The position he sat in left practically nothing to the imagination.
Kantarou eyed his interrogators thoughtfully. He was always careful to observe people meet his two youkai for the first time. Few commented but some, deliberately or inadvertently gave indication they knew they were dealing with a kitsune and a tengu. However these young men saw nothing out of the ordinary...This is what he had hoped for. If they had been in the know, Kantarou would have modified his plans, however he had several backups, as was his wont. Kantarou knew he had to be cunning in order to get on in life.
Kantarou blew out smoke, managing not to cough.
Now a Japanese pipe has a very small bowl, enough for a few whiffs, then it has to be tapped out and relit. Kantarou gave a final pull; he nodded to his haggard disciple, who obediently held out his hands.
Kantarou tapped his pipe out into Harukas outstretched palms.
The visitors started and winced as one. That was not ash, but a pea sized ember. Ouch.
Haruka would suffer burns to his hands, nothing worse than moxa burns though. Kantarou had been punished as a child by his mother burning moxa on his back. This was for creeping out in the night and playing with youkai in the woods. He had resented this, the youkai were his only friends.
It was as an adult he realised just what dangers he was so innocently putting himself in.
Haruka, of course made no sign of pain. He had been burned far worse with miscast lightning. His lean body was covered in moxa scars too.
Kantarou refilled his pipe, he opened "Hasumi, yes, he’s far the better folklorist than I ever would be" Kantarou had a dreamy look on his ascetic pale face. "But he was right to send you to me."
"He thinks highly of you.” Takase Kumakusu , the elder prompted.
Kantarou gave a girlish laugh. "I bet. He thinks I’m a credulous antiscientic fool!"
Ikegami Okuno suppressed a grin, "He didn’t `quite` say such things Just that you were a tad too old fashioned."
"Hasumi is different to me. He was chosen as a cultural ambassador to Britain, after all." Kantarou tapped out his pipe again. "Hasumi has been all the way to the other side of the world, and do you know what he found there?"
"He’s adopted a little British girl,” Takase Kumakusu said
"Who keeps on sneaking out and coming to me to hear folktales." Kantarou laughed "`Kantarou, have you stolen my daughter yet again? `" He mimicked Hasumis inevitable shout.
"I’ve heard the British are a nation much given to scientic progress,” Ikegami Okuno added
In reply Kantarou gestured to his shelves of books. "I keep up with all the latest discoveries." Kantarou said. "When I was at school I learned a lot of current thinking, also French, English and Mandarin. (3) Don’t think of me as being a sokushimbutsu” (4)
There were lots of nods of disagreement from his guests at that.
"No, Hasumi has been all around the world and what he has never found is himself. Nor has he found his tama (5), and he certainly hasn’t found any broad mindedness."
They all laughed, save for Haruka, who seemed to be meditating
Kantarou took a long draught of tea. "What does scientific thought mean to you?" He asked suddenly.
Ikegami Okuno had to pause. He had not thought his subject would be asking him the questions, -still less one as penetrating as that one. "It means experiments, ones that if repeated get the same results, whenever and wherever you do them."
Takase Kumakusu snorted out his tea "speaking as a failed chemistry student...Something that any youth can mess up."
Kantarou smiled to himself "Well, to me, it means stuff you can see and observe and test, things that have patterns, right?"
"I think you have described it well, there." Ikegami Okuno said thoughtfully.
"Has it occurred to you that different people see different things? Or see the same things differently?"
"No."
"Not at all remarkable. We are told cats can see in the dark, and hawks have sharp eyes, don’t they? As well as the way their other senses are so different to ours. But different humans see different things." Kantarou pointed to his own glittering red eyes. (6) "I’m an albino; this means that my eyesight isn’t good, at least by day. I see well enough at night, and indeed as a child I was very averse to bright light, I was a nocturnal creature." He sighed, "I can see in the dark and I also can see well into the Secret world that Hasumi is blind to, as are many people. I have gantsu and mimitsu (Clairvoyant vision and hearing.) My world is very different to yours...Very different indeed."
"That’s what we wanted to talk about, the Secret world."
Kantarou was looking at Harukas hands. "Go put that out in the garden...No, not in the pond, and don’t you dare chuck it on Youkos chrysanthemums!"
Haruka silently rose and left.
"Mmmm, and you wondered if I was willing to divulge such hidden teachings?" Kantarou sniffed, "maybe. Anyhow, Hasumi has been round the ordinary world but I have been to the Secret world, and indeed worlds as there is more than one of them. Have you heard of that thing in Quantum physics, the Many Worlds Hypothesis?"
"I left physics with that Einstein guy. It did my head in." Takase Kumakusu said sadly.
"I’m familiar with his theories, I was thinking of Niles Bohr `If you are not shocked by quantum physics then you have not understood it?` See, our science is getting perilously close to religion. Anyhow, both Buddhism and Shinto teaches us of other worlds. Now this much vaunted western science of Hasumi is getting there too."
Haruka came in and resumed his lowly post. His palms were indeed reddened by burns.
Kantarou ignored him, he continued. “To get to the Other world you must be pure of heart, and of great spiritual power, it’s like climbing Katana-watari (the ladder of swords)...One slip and you are mincemeat.” Kantarou gave a cutting gesture. “There are ways of increasing your spiritual power, of course. Many methods of gyo (ascetic practices).”
“So you have been in a monastery?” Takase Kumakusu asked.
Kantarou shook his head. “You need no formal religious calling to do gyo. (7) Anybody and everybody can embark on such a life. Some are called by the Other Worlds, Some end up there by accident, and some choose to go. It’s as simple as that.”
`So what happened to you? ` Thought Ikegami Okuno. `Were you called...or did you choose to go? ` However he never said this. (
“I did many gyo. I fasted until I could no longer stand, I meditated under waterfalls, I hid myself away from the world in caves.” Kantarou had a self satisfied look on his face. “I gave up everything in order to get to the Secret world.”
"So you gave up everything to pursue your goal?” Ikegami Okuno asked.
"Give up everything...Do you know what that means?" It was obvious that Kantarou knew they did not understand.
"Everything." Takase Kumakusu picked up his teacup and examined it as if he thought the answer might be written on it.
Ichinomiya Kantarou gave a sad little laugh, "you have no comprehension as to what it truly, means...All your material goods, to be sure, you give up your friends, your family, your health, your sanity, your morality, your soul...Possibly your life." He paused. "Do you know a person may become a tengu?"
"No." said Takase Kumakusu. It was obvious that such wild pronouncements were what he had come for.
"I thought they hatched from eggs” Ikegami Okuno added thoughtfully, completely derailing the conversation.
Kantarou gave a knowing laugh. "They do not! It’s true that several shrines hold what is vulgarly said to be a tengus egg." Kantarou tapped out ash and relit his pipe, "During the Tokugawan period Dutch traders brought the eggs of big birds, such as emus as gifts, naturally the credulous thought eggs of such a superlative size would not be from birds, but from tengu."
"Garuda hatched from an egg, didn’t he?" Ikegami Okuno interjected.
Kantarou nodded, "He did indeed, however the link between tengu and Garuda is tenuous, the word `tengu` derives from the Chinese `tien-kou` Heavenly Dog. It refers to a meteorite." Kantarou smiled, "But in saying stuff like that, I’m starting to sound like Hasumi who has made much study of names and language changes...This isn’t what you came to talk to me about, is it?" he gestured.
Ikegami Okuno and Takase Kumakusu nodded enthusiastically.
"You came to me to learn about the Secret world, didn’t you? And more to the point, how a curious but none too cautious person might get to the Other world?" Kantarou gave a knowing smile, the sly grimace of one who has seen rather too much of things otherworldly. “I am very, very, careful in what I do...And what I reveal to others...I have seen it happen. I have seen a human become something else.”
“Is this where you got all your information on the Onikui Tengu?” Asked Ikegami Okuno. He really wanted to hear more about that individual.
“The Onikui Tengu? He who eats demons? The strongest tengu of all?” Kantarou nodded. He had been carefully watching Haruka for any reaction to that name. He had been warned not to move a hair. But then Haruka no longer answered to that exalted title any more. Kantarou never knew whether to be relieved or saddened by this indifference.
“You mentioned him in your book `My journeys in Gyo`.” His visitor prompted.
Kantarou nodded, “I heard about the Onikui Tengu when I began my studies. This was something new to me; I had read about the different tengu and their hierarchies but the Onikui Tengu was something different, -he seemed to stand outside the norms of tengu society.” Kantarou traced a pattern on his cup. “I have met tengu. They may seem a wayward bunch of anarchists but in reality they are just as status and pedigree driven as us humans.”
Takase Kumakusu gave a small laugh “that’s surprising.”
Kantarou emptied out more ash into his ambulatory, self emptying ash tray. “Yes, and when I mentioned the Onikui Tengu it was all `you shouldn’t mess with the likes of him` `we don’t let him near our mountain` `he’s a wild one. ` Sort of statements. I gather he’s got quite the reputation.” Kantarou smirked “So I did the obvious”
“And?”
“I went to Onigashima. Now normally I don’t like to deal with oni...a dangerous bunch indeed. I have had several frightening encounters with oni.” Kantarou rubbed his chest in memory, “However I obtained an introduction to the wife of the chief oni...I was pretty sure I would not end up in the pot.” Kantarou sighed, “I did end up in her bed and I had to work pretty hard to get any information out of her.”
“You...slept with an oni?” Ikegami Okuno was incredulous.
Kantarou gave a knowing smile `if you realised the sort of beings I have frak in my time you would not be sitting here in front of me...` “Yes. I did. Humans mean two things to oni. Food. frak. Also possibly both. If you ever meet an oni remember to not get so frightened you cannot perform, is my advice.” Kantarou was laughing innocently inside, he knew a bit of scandal always distracted people from the `real` issues at hand.
“She exhausted me. But I managed to keep her contented enough to not eat me, and eventually I felt brave enough to ask her things. What she knew about the Onikui Tengu.” Kantarou refilled his teacup. “She was scared. The oni are all in utter terror of the winged guy who likes to eat them. Oni normally are the consumer, not the dish. It’s a bit of a shock to find themselves on the receiving end of culinary interest...I will say that I was told the Onikui Tengu tears his victims up and eats them raw like a hawk or eagle. Most oni have a hibachi, a cook pot and a recipe book.” He paused to let the last sink in. “I’m thinking of doing a cookery book next `Recipes from Onigashima. `”
They all laughed heartily at that.
“Might have difficulty in getting the main ingredient though.” Kantarou smirked “I’m told pork is a good substitute for human flesh. I was very, very, careful as to what I ate when I was a guest of my horned and tusked beauty.”
His guests laughed again. This was getting very amusing.
“Anyway, to cut a long and complex story short, somewhere in the land there is a shrine dedicated to the Onikui Tengu. I have not been able to locate it, and neither has Hasumi, whose knowledge I greatly respect.” Kantarou waved his pipe airily, “But there are a lot of areas we folklorists are not fully familiar with. Japan is a country where there are a lot of remote coastal and mountain villages, each with their own protective deities. I’m pretty sure I will find it one day. And.” He stopped.
“What will you do?”
“I’ll make offerings there and I may get to meet the Onikui Tengu...Tengu are very territorial creatures and not given to roaming. If I find his shrine he will be there.”
“So you want to become as strong as he?” The elder journalist asked penetratingly.
“No.” Kantarou gave a harsh laugh, "of course, if I became a tengu I would have all the time in the world to practice my gyo...Tengu live long lives, which they spend in practically nothing but martial arts and ascetic practices...They are trapped in what amounts to a meido of their own making...And they are unable to get out."
"Is it like that?" asked Takase Kumakusu, "I always thought that being a tengu sounded like fun, fights and parties and not a care in the world. And of course you can fly. I think that sounds pretty good to me."
"That’s where your cute stories are wrong," Kantarou said with the air of a stern teacher, "I made it my business to find out about the tengu...I knew that by pursuing my art, I just might be putting myself at risk of becoming one." He sipped more tea. “Anyhow, I have never been on the Tengudo...Yet. But there are people who have been...I have met them.” Kantarou fixed his guests with a sudden wide eyed stare “All completely mad.” He paused. “But to us, tengu are all completely mad. Who are we to judge? That’s one thing you learn in the Other world...one hell of a lot of broadmindedness.”
He let them laugh again.
“But I did get one lucid report of the Tengudo.” Kantarou sat up straight, he closed his eyes. “The Tengudo, well, when you are on it, the real world seems like a dream, and when you are back in the real world, then the Tengudo seems like a dream. “(9)
“Is that it?” Takase Kumakusu asked.
Kantarou nodded. “So, you may be prepared to even give up your humanity.” The folklorist tapped out more ash thoughtfully. “I think you now know what `everything` means.”
“Scary stuff.” Ikegami Okuno shuddered.
“Scary stuff indeed.” Kantarou agreed.
All were silent for a long minute.
"The Other world is a ruthless and terrifying place, once you have seen it, it will haunt your nightmares forever" he shuddered, "it’s as inhuman as the ocean." Kantarou filled his pipe again "and yet, and yet it is beautiful too " he picked up his lighter, then put it down, "I would not be without the Other world to retreat to when this one gets too much for me."
And in a sickeningly egoistic display of his powers, Kantarou lit his pipe with a flick of his fingers.
Tragically, his guests, though they were sat less than a yard from that exalted personage, missed this.
`Bugger` thought Kantarou, he changed his tack. "Take my disciple here." he gestured with his pipe at Haruka, who made no reaction. "I met Haruka while doing gyo, nearly a year ago. I had almost finished my hundred days retreat; he came warily out of the forest, dressed, or rather undressed as you see him now. He was pretty wild and fearful. I thought if I made any sudden move, he would have gone bounding back into the forest like a deer. So I bade him approach, he came crawling up to my feet like a dog, shivering all the while. Haruka had already spent time as a hermit in the woods, long enough to make him nervy around people, and he could see my well developed powers. He begged for the privilege of serving me. How could I resist such a charming young man?" Kantarou stroked Harukas rough hair, his underling craned into his hand like a pleased pet.
Takase Kumakusu and Ikegami Okuno looked slightly amused at this
"I asked him his name and he told me he had gone beyond names” Kantarou sniffed approvingly "So I call him Haruka."
That person gave a slight start at mention of his name.
"Who is he?" asked t Ikegami Okuno
Ichinomiya Kantarou shook his head, "I don’t know and I don’t care, Haruka is my disciple now, that’s all that is important he had no identity and is dependent upon me for food, clothing and shelter what he was in the past is no longer of any relevance. He has truly given up everything!"
"What if he is a madman or criminal?" asked the ever practical Takase Kumakusu.
Kantarou shook his head. "I don’t get involved in such things. First thing I did, -`after` I had Haruka bathed and dressed, was to take him down the police station and have them check his fingerprints against their records. He seems to have no criminal record as far as anyone can tell, nor could the police identity him." He looked directly at Haruka “say something, Haruka."
"Like what, master?" Haruka spoke for the first time.
"Anything..."
Haruka sniffed disdainfully, "I said my past wasn’t important, but master here has to drag me to the police and have them question and pester me until I was half mad!"
"Go, on, Haruka, get it off your chest," Kantarou looked at his teacup.
"They put me in the cells overnight, me who has never done anything wrong in my life! The shame of it."
"Can you identify Haruka’s accent?" Kantarou laughed. "Hasumis pretty good but even he cannot."
Haruka had modified his manner of speaking over the months he had been with Kantarou, freshly unbound he had spoken perfect antique Japanese, gradually he had modelled his language after Kantarou, (but not after charming Reisu-san with his formalities.) until it was reasonably modern. (Though he still stumbled over some foreign words.)
Hasumi indeed had been mystified by the tengus accent. (And half suspected Japanese was not Haruka’s first language.)
The two journalists shook their heads, Haruka did have a strong accent, but it was pretty odd.
"And now to get my own back for that little tantrum," Kantarou gave a low chuckle, "On your back, Haruka."
And Haruka lay down.
Kantarou took a final draw on his pipe, and tapped the ash out into Haruka’s navel.
Haruka did not flinch, of course. Takase Kumakusu and Ikegami Okuno did flinch, "I don’t like to see this." Takase Kumakusu said chidingly. Ikegami Okuno thoughtfully reached forwards and tipped the cold dregs of his tea into Haruka’s navel, which `did` make him grimace.
“He’s tough, he can take it,” Kantarou refilled his pipe. “I hope you’re not going to tell the public that I abuse my disciples, are you?”
“I heard you ascetics were a rough lot, I never expected to witness it.” Ikegami Okuno said warily.
Kantarou nodded in agreement. “I treat Haruka like a possession, yes, he’s in a numinous state, a potentially dangerous state and so we are in a master/slave relationship...He accepts that.”
“Is he free to go?” Takase Kumakusu said sadly.
Kantarou paused, even for the sake of this game he did not want to lie about Harukas Free will...Or lack of; it was an uncomfortable part of their life. “He will be free to go when he himself feels ready for it.” Kantarou hoped that was the truth. There were so many different ways that their relationship could go in the future. Kantarou realised that it could easily end in a certain overconfident Exorcist in getting thoroughly killed by a powerful demon he had bound.
The conversation tuned to more mundane matters.
-------
“You owe me one big-time.” Growled Haruka as he used his loincloth to mop the tea from his belly. He put out his wings and made a big show of angry preening.
“The look on your face, -priceless!” gushed Kantarou. “I wish I had a camera!”
“How about we go off and do some gyo together, neh?” Haruka offered, “I can dangle you by your ankles over a precipice while you confess your sins...Of course, that might take a long time. However I am patient. We miserable tengu have a lot of sins to think about, after all. I’m sure your tales of your lovelife will keep me from dropping you out of boredom.”
In reply Kantarou pulled his purse from the breast of his kimono.
This was such an unexpected gesture that both youkai, hardened as they were to the impossible, took an involuntary step back in shock.
“Youko, Go to the butchers and buy the biggest lump of meat you can. Its treat time for kitsune and tengu tonight.” He turned to Haruka. “Still feel like gyo, my diligent one?”
Haruka, not trusting himself to say anything, shook his head. He got up and went up to his room to dress for dinner.
“What do you think they will put into print?” Youko added. Youko had `not` been listening behind the shoji, like a good Japanese woman, but with her fox hearing, she hardly needed to.
“I’m not sure; -I think I have scared them a bit.” Kantarou smirked, “I gave them what they wanted after all...Let them chew on that.”
-------
“Ichinomiya Kantarou is as big a loon as Hasumi claimed he was.” Ikegami Okuno said crossly as they sat on the tram.
“I don’t know, a lot of things he said made perfect sense” His companion had enjoyed the interview immensely. There were just the right ingredients, science, spirituality, sex, ascesis...it was all there.
Ikegami Okuno snorted. “That’s the charm of it. Our Folklorists madness makes perfect sense.”
“And that Haruka guy...Do you think `he` is the Onikui tengu?” Takase Kumakusu asked.
Ikegami Okuno shook his head. “I’d like to see someone stick hot ash in a tengu’s navel and not get their head screwed off. True, he’s weird. I think he’s just a crazy monk from some mountain retreat, what makes you think that?”
“A hunch. Tengu are supposed to be masters of disguise, aren’t they?” Takase Kumakusu waved his notepad, “they are said to have taught the ninja their tricks.”
“Hiding in plain sight, eh? Next you will be saying that nice girl is a kitsune?” growled Ikegami Okuno; he had been satisfied with the interview, even though their victim had been predictably reluctant to speak on several key subjects. This was only to be expected. No one spoke openly about the occult.
He had a feeling Ichinomiya Kantarou was playing both of them for fools.
They argued all the way back to the office.
-----------
And now here I lecture, something I said I would never do in fanfic.......
I wrote this story as a response to the new agers who talk about shamanistic practices light-heartedly, as if it was just a game, and fail to see the true grimness of such life. Shamans may have been founts of knowledge mundane as well as esoteric, they may have been leaders in their fields, but they were also dark characters on the edges of normal and acceptable society...If not way beyond the pale. They were lone wolves who moved in dark places, given power by the Other world, but also vulnerable to its frightening inhabitants...Or a more powerful Shaman. A shaman always walks on a knife edge between respectability and a witch burning.
(Another thing that really gets me is those who talk about a `moral code` in animistic religions, no such thing, trust me, and if you put one in, you are only recreating Abrahamic faiths which is one thing these people are trying to get away from! Shinto has a few guidelines to avoiding ritual uncleanliness, Buddhism has none. You may do as you please if you are prepared to accept the consequences, let no one tell you otherwise...In the Other world you may be required to go completely against conventional morality.)
This is the stuff of bowdlerised fairy stories...the Other world is a pretty dreadful place, trust me. I’m not going to warn you against so say dabbling in the occult...The Other World may call you, and if it does, it’s best to answer.
It’s like the fire of the sun, you are dependent on it, but can you control it or even replicate it?
Yes, I am a folklorist too (winks) Now you know why I have so little time for modern fantasy. Yes, I love a certain Oxford Don, but JRRT did a lot of censoring. His elves are much tamer than the real deal. (`Smith of Wootton Manor` is his closest to real myth, but the Silmarillion is one of his most authentic mythopoeia books. )
I do not talk about `my experiences with the Other world, or about the elves I have met. The Other worlds, those who live there, and those who visit, value their privacy above all else...Do not get too curious. And if you do, be prepared to pay the price for such dangerous knowledge.
Kantarou is a trickster, and he is also an expert at getting people to do exactly as he expects them to. Its sometimes best not to take him `too` seriously...But of course, then you would be playing right into his hands...
(1)Kantarou as Boy Scout; He would make a good one, wouldn’t he? He always tries to do the right thing and is constantly sticking up for tolerance.
(2) Kyogen; Farce, in between the Noh plays.
(3) We know Kantarou went to University; it’s easy to assume he went to a good school. He would be familiar with modern science and foreign languages. (Canonically he `can` read English...)
(4)Self made mummy; (Look, I’m too tired tonight to pontificate about Japanese ascetic practices, go look it up on line.)
(5) Tama; Soul
(6) Kantarous eyes; Something that threw me for a while. (Too used to Elric of Melibone, eh?) The albinos I have met all had light blue eyes...There are exceptions.
(7) Gyo; Ascetic practices. (Something canonically Kantarou never seems to indulge in. Though it would be an essential part of his work. Not seeing Kantarou gyo would be like seeing the elven blacksmith I know bash at metal, but never heat it up...(And yours truly acting as bellows slave in return for this honour...)
(
“Some are called by the Other Worlds, Some end up there by accident, and some choose to go; “So what happened to Kantarou? Was he Chosen by the Other world...Or did he simply barge in?
(He didn’t end up there by accident; that is the most dangerous route of all, and one which generally results in madness, or more often, death.)
(9) The description of the Tengudo; Which is one of the few accounts we have of that most secret of places. I think this says it all, don’t you?
Subject: An Interview with Ichinomiya Kantarou (Non DE fic) 
Mon Feb 03 2014, 12:02
Those are the best ingredients lists!
