Afterword Long time no see. Urin here. This was a Sekibanki vs. Kijin Seija story revolving around the Miracle Mallet, but how did you like it? Originally, the idea was born from me thinking just how Sekibanki ended up with this personality of "clashing with both humans and youkai" and "taking a cynical view of things" like the festival in Hopeless Masquerade. This Sekibanki used to be a wandering rokurokubi who led an amusing life among humans, but Seija came in and ruined that peaceful daily life, leading her to believe that "humans and youkai getting along will only lead to misfortune down the road". She still likes humans deep down, which is why she lives in the Village, but tries to live quietly without really associating with them, which is why she doesn't know how to feel about events like Hopeless Masquerade's where humans and youkai have fun together in the Village. That's the feeling I had in mind.

As for Seija, just reading her omake.txt from DDC will give you the impression that her history of weaklings being oppressed might be all a lie, but as she says in this story, weaklings who try to become stronger by attacking humans and thus stand out end up exterminated right away... You could say that she took "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" and expressed it as "oppression", or that's how I figured. I wanted to see how that Seija, overflowing with ambition and seething with hate for humans, would clash with Sekibanki, who has accepted her weakness and decided to live with humans... and this is where we ended up. When it comes to Seija and Sekibanki's physical toughness, Gensokyo has youkai who feed on human "flesh" and those who feed on human "hearts". Seija and Sekibanki are both in the latter group, but I figure that they too could feed on "flesh" as a way to inspire terror and get a lot stronger that way. Just as humans can use weapons to easily kill each other if they get the element of surprise, even originally non-maneating weak youkai like them can easily kill a man. However, they're easy to exterminate if they get surrounded, so they can probably only attack about 1-2 people at once. Then again, in this story Seija lost one of her eyes and had her carotid artery bit open, but I think a youkai's body can regenerate that sort of damage with enough time.

In Impossible Spell Card, the Grassroots Youkai Network that had spread across was Gensokyo helped pass news about Seija (so one could get information from weak youkai). At that point, Sekibanki got an eye witness report from Grassroots Myouren Branch member Kyouko and rushed to the temple at full speed... that's what I like to think...! Also, people who've patronized my circle in the past may have realized that this story is connected to "Welcome Home Princess Sukuna" which was published at Reitaisai 2014. If I just have the time, I hope to one day make a sequel Shinmyoumaru book, then one for this Sekibanki book... and at the end, one featuring Seija after ISC~ Finally, about the Miracle Mallet replica left at Sekibanki's apartment. An underlying theme of this time's story was "fakes". The invading oni was a "fake" known as an amanojaku, Sekibanki's hairpin was a "fake" Shining Needle Sword, even the humans' friendship was "fake"... Even Sekibanki herself may have been just a "fake" Issun-Boushi, no, a "fake" hero with pretension of chivalry. As a symbol of that tale full of "fakes", the Miracle Mallet replica was left behind... no, sorry, I'm just making stuff up. Truth be told, I made too many changes along the way, and the replica ended up not being very relevant...