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Description

Name: Okubi

Alias: 'Giant Head', Yukkuri, 'the greatest nuisance mankind has ever known', 'shitty manju'

Faction: None

Status: Active as of 2049

Alignment: True Neutral - Chaotic Neutral (in their own words 'taking it easy')

Rank: 1-2 (typically only Dosu and mature Okubi reach this size)

Measurements: 45-100 sq. ft. or a medium storage shed for a Dosu or Okubi, the size of a basketball for adults, the size of an apple for fully formed Ko's, the size of a roma tomato for newly formed Kos.

Weight - superlight to heavy though Okubi levitate much of the time.

Race: Yokai

Clap Your Accessories If You Believe - The young, Yukkuri, are a perfect example of mind over matter. Their very existence is a conundrum within a riddle within a cosmic joke. They think therefore they are. As limited as their understanding of the world often is, they can be convinced of many things. Such as being able to drown even though they have no lungs. If they believe it's possible, the strange flow of enigma that created them manifests itself as possibility, however remote. This allows them to exist in a world where expiration dates, biology, and physics still apply for the most part. The oddities that Yukkuri manifest are usually so minute that one would think it's a trick of the mind. If enough of them gather however their group think can sometimes cause larger phenomena to occur. For the most part, this strange state of being simply allows the Yukkuri to exist at all.

Immune to Pain - Okubi, the fully matured and adult form, has no pain receptors or any inclination of pain once so ever. What would otherwise be debilitating or horrific injuries simply make the Okubi laugh. One could stick a chopstick into an Okubi and meet no resistance or sign of pain. To the younger Yukkuri, Okubi are embodiments of 'easy' and as such have not a care in the world.

Supernatural Flight - Okubi can freely float and fly through the air. They aren't effected by wind resistance unless it's powered by Enigma or some other supernatural ability.

Wind Shear Breath - The only aggressive ability Okubi have is that their breath causes rapid inflammation. Those exposed to it find their limbs and exposed flesh ballooning and swelling from what feels like a slap of cold nettles across the skin. This more as a tool to scare people or chase wild animals away than cause serious injury or kill....usually. The intensity of the breath is often akin to a comical storm, scattering anything not tied down and tearing umbrellas out of people's hands but not causing anything close to hurricane force destruction. It usually just makes a mess of things.

Food Physiology - Okubi and Yukkuri share the general body make up of being a sort of animated, living pastry. Their bodies are made of dough, their insides some sort of filling that ranges from anko (bean paste) to meat to other cuisine, their eyes something resembling gelatin and their other bits being made of sugar formations that imitate hair, accessories and teeth. Stress causes them to concentrate their sugar and makes them 'sweeter'. Sugar itself and other sweet things are their most sought after sort of meal. Fruit juices, especially orange juice, heal them from almost all forms of injury or damage. Salt and spices make them extremely sick and can make them spontaneously catch fire (peppers in particular). Fire itself can cause permanent damage and effectively cripple them if it burns their 'mr. feet' as if they can't manipulate the elastic bottom parts of themselves they can't move. In the absence of some form of braid or tassel like accessory most Yukkuri use their unusually long tongues to hold and manipulate things. It is common for Yukkuri in particular to 'arm themselves' by gripping a stick or rarely a small knife in their mouths. Water causes them to dissolve if fully immersed but they 'think' they need a bit of it to drink every now and then. They have something resembling a digestive system in that they eat whatever they presume is edible, turn it into the sort of filling that makes up their insides and then defecate the expired paste. However, nothing but the original food source is truly unique as Yukkuri do not truly defecate and their 'poo poo' is actually just dried filling. They are subject to mold and parasites but only if they get overly wet and soggy. So long as they stay dry and away from dark damp places, they rarely suffer such discomforts. The truly supernatural bit of their anatomy is a 'core' within the lower center of the 'manju'. It often appears as either a shiny sphere akin to a cough drop or jawbreaker and has a inner sphere of compact complicated, pulsing filling. This is where the all elements of the Yukkuri's personality, memory and functionality comes from. If the core is damaged, the Yukkuri is effectively brain dead or retarded. This part of the Yukkuri is what later allows the Okubi to fly and it moves around inside of it freely, allowing it to avoid being attacked by darting somewhere else in the Okubi's mass.

Imprinting - Yukkuri, during their infancy as Kos, look almost entirely identical. Like comical cue-balls with a mop of black hair. As they fully develop, the Kos imprint and take on the appearance of the most 'easy' person they see. This is usually their parents which creates entire lines of them to look and act a certain way but if a Ko encounters a human during this process, they often assume their likeness instead. This molds the Yuukkuri into a caricature of that person with a certain 'quirk' that parodies something that person does and having accessories that emulate the look of that person. Their filling even becomes something either symbolic or well liked by that person. Such as a Yukkuri imprinting on a teen idol and their filling becoming the pop idols favorite color of cotton candy.

Breed Like Rabbits - Due to their place in the pecking order or food chain, adult Yukkuri focus on having as many Kos as possible when possible. If not kept in check, a Yukkuri population can explode and effective quadruple with a single mating. This makes routing out Yukkuri infestations difficult as while they are fairly fragile creatures, weaker then even rats, they make ten more Yukkuri for every one of them destroyed. Only sweeping measures like mass extermination can get rid of them. Yukkuri can survive in both the wilderness and in more urban areas though have markedly different approaches for doing so. Okubi, when something actually tears them apart, will scatter themselves everywhere in a shower of manju and from these wads of filling will arise new Yukkuri. Thus the cycle starts all over again.

All Becomes Anko - Everything eaten by Yukkuri becomes filling. As long as it can fit in their mouths and be chewed, it will be turned into filling no matter what it is. Okubi however do not need to eat at all, only Yukkuri have this desire in order to increase their mass.

Weakness:

Universe's Chewtoy - Yukkuri are a joke on the world and though in ancient times they were more secluded and isolated, outside the Toho Plane Yukkuri seem to have the entire universe against them. Bad luck and misfortune seem to plague them constantly in their quest for 'easiness'. They live only to suffer and suffer to live. Wild animals will go out of their way to attack and prey upon Yukkuri. Every human on Yukkuri conflict ends decisively in the human's victory. Other Yokai enjoy tormenting, exploiting and toying with Yukkuri when they aren't being just flatly eaten. It doesn't help that from a Japanese standpoint, Yukkuri are incredibly arrogant, rude and selfish creatures who are as offensive as they are pathetic. Truly nothing can upset a human being faster than being accosted or having their house invaded by a wild family of Yukkuri declaring the house theirs and demanding the 'shitty slave' bring them 'sweet-sweets'. It is almost supernatural how Yukkuri can cause otherwise uncharacteristic levels of anger, sadism and cruelty in humans and have it only directed at them. Ironically the harder Yukkuri try to be 'easy' the worse this stigma seems to afflict them. Only Yukkuri that try to make others easy can escape the cycle of ruinous death. Mature Okubi meanwhile hardly care about anything but causing mischief and using their bizarre and morbid appearance to scare people who deserve it.

Fragile - Both young Yukkuri and mature Okubi have no real resistance to damage once so ever. The only difference is that Yukkuri over exaggerate every discomfort while Okubi simply continue cackling and flying about. Attacking an Okubi or a Yukkuri is like literally attacking a very lively piece of food.

Description: Okubi, the progenitor and eldest form of the species, resemble giant flying heads with wild hair. They often appear as grotesquely old women (the decapitated head of such) whose teeth are completely black (dense sugar crystal) and whose hair is a wild tattered weave. They sometimes appear as the heads of old men but they are predominately female. Ko's the infants and newborns, are like little oval pastries with a bowl of black hair and shiny black eyes and a small mouth. All Yukkuri lack a nose. Some can develop ears if the ears are iconic to the one they imprinted on, they otherwise have none. Once they've imprinted and grown, Yukkuri resemble a comically cute parody of whoever they imprinted on. Sporting hair and accessories that can sometimes be prehensile in a nature depending on the Manju. Dosu are very large forms of Yukkuri that lead and protect entire colonies of adult and Ko Yukkuri. They often exhibit some form of Enigma manipulation in order to protect the other Yukkuri from wild animals or humans and are the closest to becoming Okubi.

---

Okubi/Yukkuri Bio: The way Kaitheros said 'Yukkuri' was in the same fashion one would discuss mosquitoes or intestinal parasites. To Amaro this was odd as the name was simply the word 'slowly'.

"Kaitheros-Sama, are these 'Yukkuri' so named because they somehow induce slowness in humans?" The Arbiter actually began to laugh, huffing even as his mental booming chuckles rang through their heads.

"HAH! The likes of a Yukkuri being able to induce slowness is about as likely as a Yuki-Onna breathing fire. The universe would implode before it gave Yukkuri anything resembling an edge over humans."

"Hrmm...that name could also mean 'easy'...If the Okubi is the adult and the Yukkuri is the offspring, wouldn't that mean the species as a whole simply breeds extremely well?" Ruki asked, putting some more deductive reasoning into how she looked at unknown Yokai. Kaitheros caught his breath so he could reply.

"You're pretty close and technically right, the species as a whole breeds like rabbits. You smash one of them and ten more appear. However Yukkuri are so named for 'easiness' because that is all they care about."

"Easiness? So they are some sort of lazy Yokai?" Amaro speculated. Kaitheros snorted.

"It would better to think of Yukkuri and even Okubi as 'annoying'. For the most part they are fairly harmless far as Yokai go. But to understand Yukkuri you have to understand their origin, the Okubi first."

"The chicken before the egg I guess." Ruki mused.

"Anyway, Okubi take the appearance of giant severed heads. They have the look of wild haired old women with solid black teeth, many of which end up missing. Unlike the Tsurube Otoshi, Okubi levitate and fly about. Cackling the entire time."

"Do they crush and eat people? It's bad enough Tsurube Otoshi need a tree or other high vantage point to kill humans but one that could fly would be even worse!"

"Thankfully the Okubi doesn't eat people and it very rarely create circumstances that result in human fatalities. The Okubi's primary interest is in causing mischief and scaring people. They fly about laughing and blowing on things. Hard enough to knock things over, tear umbrellas from people's hands and generally make a mess of the area. In a crowded market they can cause quite a bit of trouble."

"So they are more of a nuisance then. They can be driven off pretty easily right?"

"One would think." Kaitheros growled. "But the Okubi are difficult for normal people to fend off for two reasons. The first is that they don't feel pain."

"None at all? So you can't hurt them?"

"It's like this: do you think a dumpling feels pain when you eat it?"

"Well no...it's not alive and well...it's food." Ruki mumbled.

"Because it has no organs, or skin, or muscle to feel pain with correct? Well you can think of the Okubi has a giant animated cake...in the shape of a old woman's head."

"So it's like a cursed pastry?!"

"Possibly...though none have ever verified exactly how Okubi came into existence. Regardless Okubi are completely immune to pain. Despite having the resilience of said pastry. You could quite easily stab, chop, burn, splatter, or tear a Okubi to pieces and it would just continue laughing at you. Okubi have hardly a care in the world other than amusing themselves. However in order to do so you have to get past it's breath,"

"Is it rancid or poisonous?" Amaro asked.

"Sickeningly sweet...if I bother to remember. But second thing that keeps normal people from dealing with Okubi is that their breath causes rapid inflammation."

"Like...a huge bruise?"

"Similar though you might liken it to 'wind shear' in that it feels like hundreds of cold needles slapping your skin. Every exposed area becomes swollen and raw. You can imagine how fighting a giant, floating head that feels no pain and causes your exposed limbs and face to swell to ghastly proportions would be so infuriating and difficult to stop."

"Yeah...but I'm guessing that because they have no real defense to speak of that destroying them isn't that hard if you can reach them." Ruki concluded.

"That much thankfully is true. Slaying the Okubi is never the hard part. It's what comes after that is truly obnoxious. For if completely destroyed the Okubi bursts apart and scatters in all directions. Leaving pieces of it everywhere. These pieces then become what we call Yukkuri."

"So destroying them outright just spreads them all over the place."

"And oh how they spread." Kaitheros sighed. "From the moment they are created, the Yukkuri appear much like tiny younger versions of the Okubi...save for that they have no ears, noses or even convincing human eyes. More like semi solid balls of gelatin. This is when Yukkuri start diverging from the Okubi in many, many ways. For starters they imprint on the first 'easy' person they see. Usually this is their parents but sometimes it's a human. Either way they imprint on this 'source of easiness' and their features become a caricature of that source."

"Awwww, so they turn into little cute bodiless versions of whoever they see first." Ruki blushed imagining it. Kaitheros simply groaned.

"Oh they would love to convince you of that and more. The newborn Yukkuri is called a 'Ko' and usually small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. Over time they grow into a full 'adult' Yukkuri or 'Manju' that is the size of hand basket or ball. They manifest what they call 'accessories' which are more or less the hair, and anything adorning the head of the source they imprinted on. A full adult Yukkuri can breed true and create more Yukkuri on their own. They can have half a dozen spawn within a single mating and can technically breed throughout the year though often choose to do so in the spring. They are fairly pathetic creatures, unable to handle extreme variances in temperature or humidity. Extreme heat, cold, or total immersion in water will easily kill them. As can anything else really. Rats are stronger than they are and any predator worth it's fangs could wipe out an entire family of the things in seconds."

"But why would you want to thoooough~" Ruki whined, not understanding what could be so bad about cute pastry head critters.

"Aside from the one in a hundred chance they actually live long enough to become an Okubi? Yukkuri are the most infuriating, annoying, RUDE, and selfishly obnoxious wastes of air to ever be conceived. Their very existence is a cosmic joke. By all rights they shouldn't even live more than a few days outside of a pantry but by some fluke of the Toho Plane they persist. As long as they do not venture into truly sodden and wet places too long they will not suffer parasites, disease or mold. They do not 'expire' as food is supposed to. They are literally a living animated meat bun that has 'filling' ranging from Anko(bean paste) to all manner of cuisine. Usually with some sort of meaning or importance to whoever they took their identity from. They are 'food' and yet they believe themselves to be 'living things' and so they act out the part as dramatically as possible. They eat, defecate and breed with abandon yet have no real reason to do any of it. Everything they eat becomes filling and defecated filling is just dried up. Their 'urine' is sugar water and their teeth are made out of dense sugar crystal. They move by either hopping or rolling their underside or as they refer to it 'mr. feetsies'."

Kaitheros had to stop his tirade for a moment as the sound of Ruki giggling in a fit on the floor filled the air. The Miko had tears rolling down her face as she continued to giggle uncontrollably. Amaro was beside himself though hearing Ruki laugh was making the boy smile as it was quite contagious. Kaitheros waited until the Miko had control of herself again, nursing her sides.

"*snicker* P-please Thero-kun, tell me that was all an exaggeration or something because that's hilarious! 'Mr. Feetsies'! Hehehehehe!"

"Yes, one of the many 'quirks' of Yukkuri culture- if you could call it that -are that they refer to everything in third person. They have no personal pronouns. Everything is Mr. this or Miss that and when referring to themselves they simply use the name of whatever they imprinted on in all cases. Though families will still use sibling and parent identification you'd be familiar with. As amusing as I'm sure this is. You have to understand Ruki that I was not kidding about the Yukkuri being extremely bothersome."

"Oh come on."

"*sigh*, well for starters everything they eat becomes filling. I do mean everything. If they can fit in their mouths and chew it, it will become filling and simply add to their mass. They don't even have the decency as living creatures to reinvest the matter they take into a form that returns what they took. Even scavengers and parasites are better than that. Yukkuri only care about making themselves comfortable and 'taking it easy'. Making a big family and eating whatever they want when they want is seen as 'easy'. If they were more hardy creatures they'd be a plague on any habitat they entered. Their culture has rather alien ideas of ownership. They would raid your garden and eat your harvest under the assumption that 'vegetables grow on their own' and because their designate a home via 'home declaration' they will break into your house and declare it 'their easy place' and then proceed to try and convince you to be their slave and give them 'sweet sweets'. As sweet things and anything with sugar in it are one of the driving desires of a Yukkuri."

"Okay...that's a little worrying." Ruki admitted.

"Yukkuri logic is very different from humanity's. It's even more different from the animal kingom's or even that of most Yokai. I mean...puffing your cheeks is seen as a death threat in Yukkuri culture. Mating with the same 'type' of Yukkuri as yourself is taboo. The species is unisex so they can be either mother or father despite a majority of Yukkuri breeds being based on human girls and women. One that survives long enough may become what they call a 'Dosu'."

"A 'thump'?" Amaro asked.

"The sound they make Amaro. The Dosu is quite heavy, around the size of an Okubi and very close to becoming one. They emerge when the a large clan of Yukkuri gather and desire a protector of sorts. This protector is the Dosu who uses its massive size and limited ability to manipulate it's life force to drive off at least native wildlife. A Dosu can crush a human...if a human ever bothered to fight it without a weapon. The Dosu appears as it wants to make others than itself 'easy'. This is what leads a Yukkuri to becoming a Dosu by helping other Yukkuri take it easy and then gradually making everything 'easy' and become an Okubi and near have a care for anything again. To Yukkuri an Okubi is like a kami of 'easiness' and they revere the things."

"Alright~" Ruki conceeded. "They can grow into a big problem if allowed to persist anywhere too long...but they aren't that difficult to exterminate are they?"

"The Yukkuri's saving grace is that have perhaps the worst case of misfortune you would ever witness. They are the universe's chewtoy and they persist only to have more outrageous and comical deaths. They breed so much, so quickly because everything is trying to kill them. Animals instinctively toy with and eat Yukkuri. Humans innately feel aggravated and offended when in the presence of most Yukkuri. And the world sees fit to aid humanity every time they conflict with Yukkuri. In a fight between the two, humanity always wins no matter how bizarre the circumstances. I recall during that particular incident, an old man somehow regained mobility and strength enough to swing his cane hard enough to volley every Yukkuri within reach into the sky...only to go right back to being infirm and unsteady on his feet the moment they were dead. It's hard to explain but Yukkuri are perhaps the Yokai most notable for persisting on pure belief. If enough of them think it's true, it happens. That's why you could drown one despite the creature having no lungs. Or why feeding one peppers would make it spontaneously burst into flames. Why fruit juice, especially oranges will instantly heal all none fatal wounds on a Yukkuri. The mystery lies in what we refer to as their 'core'. A gem or candy like sphere inside of every Yukkuri and Okubi that holds all of their memories and sense of self passed down their entire line. This core is what allows an Okubi to fly and if destroyed or damaged, the Yukkuri goes comatose or becomes a buri, or retarded Yukkuri."

"So Yukkuri are basically a...allegory for the most obnoxious and wasteful aspects of human nature...but they still strive to be happy even if the world is uncaring or against them." Amaro thought aloud. Actually surprised when Ruki and Kaitheros both stared at him in mild shock.

"Well, that's actually a rather novel interpretation of them. Probably giving the little shit balls too much credit but all Yokai are fractions of human nature so I suppose Yukkuri follow suit...in their own way."

"Thero-Kun, the Yukkuri were involved in the little war between the Inchlings and the Imori?" Ruki asked, finally getting back around to the topic. Kaitheros nodded.

"Oh yes, in fact they started it."

"What?!" Ruki and Amaro exclaimed jointly.

"Mmmm-hm. Those shitty manju got into the Den somehow, likely a stray Okubi that got picked off near the fields and had hundreds of its offspring infect the valley near Yamatai and allowed them to spread. They began bothering the people and invading houses and gardens as they are want to do. This put pressure on the Inchlings who were trying to hide as the Yukkuri stole and broke things in a way that made people suspicious. The Inchlings wanted to leave no evidence of their being there so they tried retreating back a ways into the foothills. Unfortunately they disturbed the Imori who were not pleased at having their territory upset. It was time for the seasonal market and the Yukkuri began to hassle people en masse. The people took offense to this and used an old remedy 'pepper oil'. The stuff is extremely aggravating to small and sensitive creatures like the Yukkuri but the people were overzealous about it and unknowingly sprayed the secret dwellings of the Inchlings with it as well. This upset the Inchlings who turned on the people and the Yukkuri at once. The Imori, sensing 'glorious war' and the market adjacent to their resting place being attacked, dived in as well. Resulting in the entire market place becoming a battlefield for the three types of Yokai. It was a colossal mess and after the remaining Imori were properly buried and purified, the Inchlings were relocated and the Yukkuri hunted down and exterminated with simpler methods. One more Okubi emerged from the incident but thankfully the Hoshoku Miko at the time used my eye to see its core and shot it down in one shot. So you can imagine how these tiny Yokai can be so bothersome, especially the Yukkuri. If they hadn't gotten in, it's likely the Imori would have stayed undisturbed and the Inchlings wouldn't have been pressured into finding resources elsewhere and escalating the situation."

"I guess they aren't very compatible." Ruki mused. It had gotten dark and so the two set up sleeping mats.

"Tomorrow I'll need you two to start making preparations. There are other parts of the Den I need checked on and it's likely it take a least a few months to get around to them all."

"Where should we head first Thero-kun?" Ruki asked while trying not to yawn.

"I need you two to investigate the Claw Rivers for me. It seems that a lot of scavengers are gathering near a choke point in the river and the water coming east from the graveyard is turning foul. If left alone it may spread to Yamatai. It doesn't feel like just a case of a large kill clogging up the river. There are other...issues I'm picking up but they can wait as this one is the most immediate and closest problem."

As the two tucked in for the night (on opposite ends of the study naturally). Kaitheros wrankled his nose in the direction of the Claw Rivers. Whatever was there must be quite foul indeed...and perhaps not entirely natural.

----

Description

Name: Okubi

Alias: 'Giant Head', Yukkuri, 'the greatest nuisance mankind has ever known', 'shitty manju'

Faction: None

Status: Active as of 2049

Alignment: True Neutral - Chaotic Neutral (in their own words 'taking it easy')

Rank: 1-2 (typically only Dosu and mature Okubi reach this size)

Measurements: 45-100 sq. ft. or a medium storage shed for a Dosu or Okubi, the size of a basketball for adults, the size of an apple for fully formed Ko's, the size of a roma tomato for newly formed Kos.

Weight - superlight to heavy though Okubi levitate much of the time.

Race: Yokai

Clap Your Accessories If You Believe - The young, Yukkuri, are a perfect example of mind over matter. Their very existence is a conundrum within a riddle within a cosmic joke. They think therefore they are. As limited as their understanding of the world often is, they can be convinced of many things. Such as being able to drown even though they have no lungs. If they believe it's possible, the strange flow of enigma that created them manifests itself as possibility, however remote. This allows them to exist in a world where expiration dates, biology, and physics still apply for the most part. The oddities that Yukkuri manifest are usually so minute that one would think it's a trick of the mind. If enough of them gather however their group think can sometimes cause larger phenomena to occur. For the most part, this strange state of being simply allows the Yukkuri to exist at all.

Immune to Pain - Okubi, the fully matured and adult form, has no pain receptors or any inclination of pain once so ever. What would otherwise be debilitating or horrific injuries simply make the Okubi laugh. One could stick a chopstick into an Okubi and meet no resistance or sign of pain. To the younger Yukkuri, Okubi are embodiments of 'easy' and as such have not a care in the world.

Supernatural Flight - Okubi can freely float and fly through the air. They aren't effected by wind resistance unless it's powered by Enigma or some other supernatural ability.

Wind Shear Breath - The only aggressive ability Okubi have is that their breath causes rapid inflammation. Those exposed to it find their limbs and exposed flesh ballooning and swelling from what feels like a slap of cold nettles across the skin. This more as a tool to scare people or chase wild animals away than cause serious injury or kill....usually. The intensity of the breath is often akin to a comical storm, scattering anything not tied down and tearing umbrellas out of people's hands but not causing anything close to hurricane force destruction. It usually just makes a mess of things.

Food Physiology - Okubi and Yukkuri share the general body make up of being a sort of animated, living pastry. Their bodies are made of dough, their insides some sort of filling that ranges from anko (bean paste) to meat to other cuisine, their eyes something resembling gelatin and their other bits being made of sugar formations that imitate hair, accessories and teeth. Stress causes them to concentrate their sugar and makes them 'sweeter'. Sugar itself and other sweet things are their most sought after sort of meal. Fruit juices, especially orange juice, heal them from almost all forms of injury or damage. Salt and spices make them extremely sick and can make them spontaneously catch fire (peppers in particular). Fire itself can cause permanent damage and effectively cripple them if it burns their 'mr. feet' as if they can't manipulate the elastic bottom parts of themselves they can't move. In the absence of some form of braid or tassel like accessory most Yukkuri use their unusually long tongues to hold and manipulate things. It is common for Yukkuri in particular to 'arm themselves' by gripping a stick or rarely a small knife in their mouths. Water causes them to dissolve if fully immersed but they 'think' they need a bit of it to drink every now and then. They have something resembling a digestive system in that they eat whatever they presume is edible, turn it into the sort of filling that makes up their insides and then defecate the expired paste. However, nothing but the original food source is truly unique as Yukkuri do not truly defecate and their 'poo poo' is actually just dried filling. They are subject to mold and parasites but only if they get overly wet and soggy. So long as they stay dry and away from dark damp places, they rarely suffer such discomforts. The truly supernatural bit of their anatomy is a 'core' within the lower center of the 'manju'. It often appears as either a shiny sphere akin to a cough drop or jawbreaker and has a inner sphere of compact complicated, pulsing filling. This is where the all elements of the Yukkuri's personality, memory and functionality comes from. If the core is damaged, the Yukkuri is effectively brain dead or retarded. This part of the Yukkuri is what later allows the Okubi to fly and it moves around inside of it freely, allowing it to avoid being attacked by darting somewhere else in the Okubi's mass.

Imprinting - Yukkuri, during their infancy as Kos, look almost entirely identical. Like comical cue-balls with a mop of black hair. As they fully develop, the Kos imprint and take on the appearance of the most 'easy' person they see. This is usually their parents which creates entire lines of them to look and act a certain way but if a Ko encounters a human during this process, they often assume their likeness instead. This molds the Yuukkuri into a caricature of that person with a certain 'quirk' that parodies something that person does and having accessories that emulate the look of that person. Their filling even becomes something either symbolic or well liked by that person. Such as a Yukkuri imprinting on a teen idol and their filling becoming the pop idols favorite color of cotton candy.

Breed Like Rabbits - Due to their place in the pecking order or food chain, adult Yukkuri focus on having as many Kos as possible when possible. If not kept in check, a Yukkuri population can explode and effective quadruple with a single mating. This makes routing out Yukkuri infestations difficult as while they are fairly fragile creatures, weaker then even rats, they make ten more Yukkuri for every one of them destroyed. Only sweeping measures like mass extermination can get rid of them. Yukkuri can survive in both the wilderness and in more urban areas though have markedly different approaches for doing so. Okubi, when something actually tears them apart, will scatter themselves everywhere in a shower of manju and from these wads of filling will arise new Yukkuri. Thus the cycle starts all over again.

All Becomes Anko - Everything eaten by Yukkuri becomes filling. As long as it can fit in their mouths and be chewed, it will be turned into filling no matter what it is. Okubi however do not need to eat at all, only Yukkuri have this desire in order to increase their mass.

Weakness:

Universe's Chewtoy - Yukkuri are a joke on the world and though in ancient times they were more secluded and isolated, outside the Toho Plane Yukkuri seem to have the entire universe against them. Bad luck and misfortune seem to plague them constantly in their quest for 'easiness'. They live only to suffer and suffer to live. Wild animals will go out of their way to attack and prey upon Yukkuri. Every human on Yukkuri conflict ends decisively in the human's victory. Other Yokai enjoy tormenting, exploiting and toying with Yukkuri when they aren't being just flatly eaten. It doesn't help that from a Japanese standpoint, Yukkuri are incredibly arrogant, rude and selfish creatures who are as offensive as they are pathetic. Truly nothing can upset a human being faster than being accosted or having their house invaded by a wild family of Yukkuri declaring the house theirs and demanding the 'shitty slave' bring them 'sweet-sweets'. It is almost supernatural how Yukkuri can cause otherwise uncharacteristic levels of anger, sadism and cruelty in humans and have it only directed at them. Ironically the harder Yukkuri try to be 'easy' the worse this stigma seems to afflict them. Only Yukkuri that try to make others easy can escape the cycle of ruinous death. Mature Okubi meanwhile hardly care about anything but causing mischief and using their bizarre and morbid appearance to scare people who deserve it.

Fragile - Both young Yukkuri and mature Okubi have no real resistance to damage once so ever. The only difference is that Yukkuri over exaggerate every discomfort while Okubi simply continue cackling and flying about. Attacking an Okubi or a Yukkuri is like literally attacking a very lively piece of food.

Description: Okubi, the progenitor and eldest form of the species, resemble giant flying heads with wild hair. They often appear as grotesquely old women (the decapitated head of such) whose teeth are completely black (dense sugar crystal) and whose hair is a wild tattered weave. They sometimes appear as the heads of old men but they are predominately female. Ko's the infants and newborns, are like little oval pastries with a bowl of black hair and shiny black eyes and a small mouth. All Yukkuri lack a nose. Some can develop ears if the ears are iconic to the one they imprinted on, they otherwise have none. Once they've imprinted and grown, Yukkuri resemble a comically cute parody of whoever they imprinted on. Sporting hair and accessories that can sometimes be prehensile in a nature depending on the Manju. Dosu are very large forms of Yukkuri that lead and protect entire colonies of adult and Ko Yukkuri. They often exhibit some form of Enigma manipulation in order to protect the other Yukkuri from wild animals or humans and are the closest to becoming Okubi.

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Okubi/Yukkuri Bio: The way Kaitheros said 'Yukkuri' was in the same fashion one would discuss mosquitoes or intestinal parasites. To Amaro this was odd as the name was simply the word 'slowly'.

"Kaitheros-Sama, are these 'Yukkuri' so named because they somehow induce slowness in humans?" The Arbiter actually began to laugh, huffing even as his mental booming chuckles rang through their heads.

"HAH! The likes of a Yukkuri being able to induce slowness is about as likely as a Yuki-Onna breathing fire. The universe would implode before it gave Yukkuri anything resembling an edge over humans."

"Hrmm...that name could also mean 'easy'...If the Okubi is the adult and the Yukkuri is the offspring, wouldn't that mean the species as a whole simply breeds extremely well?" Ruki asked, putting some more deductive reasoning into how she looked at unknown Yokai. Kaitheros caught his breath so he could reply.

"You're pretty close and technically right, the species as a whole breeds like rabbits. You smash one of them and ten more appear. However Yukkuri are so named for 'easiness' because that is all they care about."

"Easiness? So they are some sort of lazy Yokai?" Amaro speculated. Kaitheros snorted.

"It would better to think of Yukkuri and even Okubi as 'annoying'. For the most part they are fairly harmless far as Yokai go. But to understand Yukkuri you have to understand their origin, the Okubi first."

"The chicken before the egg I guess." Ruki mused.

"Anyway, Okubi take the appearance of giant severed heads. They have the look of wild haired old women with solid black teeth, many of which end up missing. Unlike the Tsurube Otoshi, Okubi levitate and fly about. Cackling the entire time."

"Do they crush and eat people? It's bad enough Tsurube Otoshi need a tree or other high vantage point to kill humans but one that could fly would be even worse!"

"Thankfully the Okubi doesn't eat people and it very rarely create circumstances that result in human fatalities. The Okubi's primary interest is in causing mischief and scaring people. They fly about laughing and blowing on things. Hard enough to knock things over, tear umbrellas from people's hands and generally make a mess of the area. In a crowded market they can cause quite a bit of trouble."

"So they are more of a nuisance then. They can be driven off pretty easily right?"

"One would think." Kaitheros growled. "But the Okubi are difficult for normal people to fend off for two reasons. The first is that they don't feel pain."

"None at all? So you can't hurt them?"

"It's like this: do you think a dumpling feels pain when you eat it?"

"Well no...it's not alive and well...it's food." Ruki mumbled.

"Because it has no organs, or skin, or muscle to feel pain with correct? Well you can think of the Okubi has a giant animated cake...in the shape of a old woman's head."

"So it's like a cursed pastry?!"

"Possibly...though none have ever verified exactly how Okubi came into existence. Regardless Okubi are completely immune to pain. Despite having the resilience of said pastry. You could quite easily stab, chop, burn, splatter, or tear a Okubi to pieces and it would just continue laughing at you. Okubi have hardly a care in the world other than amusing themselves. However in order to do so you have to get past it's breath,"

"Is it rancid or poisonous?" Amaro asked.

"Sickeningly sweet...if I bother to remember. But second thing that keeps normal people from dealing with Okubi is that their breath causes rapid inflammation."

"Like...a huge bruise?"

"Similar though you might liken it to 'wind shear' in that it feels like hundreds of cold needles slapping your skin. Every exposed area becomes swollen and raw. You can imagine how fighting a giant, floating head that feels no pain and causes your exposed limbs and face to swell to ghastly proportions would be so infuriating and difficult to stop."

"Yeah...but I'm guessing that because they have no real defense to speak of that destroying them isn't that hard if you can reach them." Ruki concluded.

"That much thankfully is true. Slaying the Okubi is never the hard part. It's what comes after that is truly obnoxious. For if completely destroyed the Okubi bursts apart and scatters in all directions. Leaving pieces of it everywhere. These pieces then become what we call Yukkuri."

"So destroying them outright just spreads them all over the place."

"And oh how they spread." Kaitheros sighed. "From the moment they are created, the Yukkuri appear much like tiny younger versions of the Okubi...save for that they have no ears, noses or even convincing human eyes. More like semi solid balls of gelatin. This is when Yukkuri start diverging from the Okubi in many, many ways. For starters they imprint on the first 'easy' person they see. Usually this is their parents but sometimes it's a human. Either way they imprint on this 'source of easiness' and their features become a caricature of that source."

"Awwww, so they turn into little cute bodiless versions of whoever they see first." Ruki blushed imagining it. Kaitheros simply groaned.

"Oh they would love to convince you of that and more. The newborn Yukkuri is called a 'Ko' and usually small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. Over time they grow into a full 'adult' Yukkuri or 'Manju' that is the size of hand basket or ball. They manifest what they call 'accessories' which are more or less the hair, and anything adorning the head of the source they imprinted on. A full adult Yukkuri can breed true and create more Yukkuri on their own. They can have half a dozen spawn within a single mating and can technically breed throughout the year though often choose to do so in the spring. They are fairly pathetic creatures, unable to handle extreme variances in temperature or humidity. Extreme heat, cold, or total immersion in water will easily kill them. As can anything else really. Rats are stronger than they are and any predator worth it's fangs could wipe out an entire family of the things in seconds."

"But why would you want to thoooough~" Ruki whined, not understanding what could be so bad about cute pastry head critters.

"Aside from the one in a hundred chance they actually live long enough to become an Okubi? Yukkuri are the most infuriating, annoying, RUDE, and selfishly obnoxious wastes of air to ever be conceived. Their very existence is a cosmic joke. By all rights they shouldn't even live more than a few days outside of a pantry but by some fluke of the Toho Plane they persist. As long as they do not venture into truly sodden and wet places too long they will not suffer parasites, disease or mold. They do not 'expire' as food is supposed to. They are literally a living animated meat bun that has 'filling' ranging from Anko(bean paste) to all manner of cuisine. Usually with some sort of meaning or importance to whoever they took their identity from. They are 'food' and yet they believe themselves to be 'living things' and so they act out the part as dramatically as possible. They eat, defecate and breed with abandon yet have no real reason to do any of it. Everything they eat becomes filling and defecated filling is just dried up. Their 'urine' is sugar water and their teeth are made out of dense sugar crystal. They move by either hopping or rolling their underside or as they refer to it 'mr. feetsies'."

Kaitheros had to stop his tirade for a moment as the sound of Ruki giggling in a fit on the floor filled the air. The Miko had tears rolling down her face as she continued to giggle uncontrollably. Amaro was beside himself though hearing Ruki laugh was making the boy smile as it was quite contagious. Kaitheros waited until the Miko had control of herself again, nursing her sides.

"*snicker* P-please Thero-kun, tell me that was all an exaggeration or something because that's hilarious! 'Mr. Feetsies'! Hehehehehe!"

"Yes, one of the many 'quirks' of Yukkuri culture- if you could call it that -are that they refer to everything in third person. They have no personal pronouns. Everything is Mr. this or Miss that and when referring to themselves they simply use the name of whatever they imprinted on in all cases. Though families will still use sibling and parent identification you'd be familiar with. As amusing as I'm sure this is. You have to understand Ruki that I was not kidding about the Yukkuri being extremely bothersome."

"Oh come on."

"*sigh*, well for starters everything they eat becomes filling. I do mean everything. If they can fit in their mouths and chew it, it will become filling and simply add to their mass. They don't even have the decency as living creatures to reinvest the matter they take into a form that returns what they took. Even scavengers and parasites are better than that. Yukkuri only care about making themselves comfortable and 'taking it easy'. Making a big family and eating whatever they want when they want is seen as 'easy'. If they were more hardy creatures they'd be a plague on any habitat they entered. Their culture has rather alien ideas of ownership. They would raid your garden and eat your harvest under the assumption that 'vegetables grow on their own' and because their designate a home via 'home declaration' they will break into your house and declare it 'their easy place' and then proceed to try and convince you to be their slave and give them 'sweet sweets'. As sweet things and anything with sugar in it are one of the driving desires of a Yukkuri."

"Okay...that's a little worrying." Ruki admitted.

"Yukkuri logic is very different from humanity's. It's even more different from the animal kingom's or even that of most Yokai. I mean...puffing your cheeks is seen as a death threat in Yukkuri culture. Mating with the same 'type' of Yukkuri as yourself is taboo. The species is unisex so they can be either mother or father despite a majority of Yukkuri breeds being based on human girls and women. One that survives long enough may become what they call a 'Dosu'."

"A 'thump'?" Amaro asked.

"The sound they make Amaro. The Dosu is quite heavy, around the size of an Okubi and very close to becoming one. They emerge when the a large clan of Yukkuri gather and desire a protector of sorts. This protector is the Dosu who uses its massive size and limited ability to manipulate it's life force to drive off at least native wildlife. A Dosu can crush a human...if a human ever bothered to fight it without a weapon. The Dosu appears as it wants to make others than itself 'easy'. This is what leads a Yukkuri to becoming a Dosu by helping other Yukkuri take it easy and then gradually making everything 'easy' and become an Okubi and near have a care for anything again. To Yukkuri an Okubi is like a kami of 'easiness' and they revere the things."

"Alright~" Ruki conceeded. "They can grow into a big problem if allowed to persist anywhere too long...but they aren't that difficult to exterminate are they?"

"The Yukkuri's saving grace is that have perhaps the worst case of misfortune you would ever witness. They are the universe's chewtoy and they persist only to have more outrageous and comical deaths. They breed so much, so quickly because everything is trying to kill them. Animals instinctively toy with and eat Yukkuri. Humans innately feel aggravated and offended when in the presence of most Yukkuri. And the world sees fit to aid humanity every time they conflict with Yukkuri. In a fight between the two, humanity always wins no matter how bizarre the circumstances. I recall during that particular incident, an old man somehow regained mobility and strength enough to swing his cane hard enough to volley every Yukkuri within reach into the sky...only to go right back to being infirm and unsteady on his feet the moment they were dead. It's hard to explain but Yukkuri are perhaps the Yokai most notable for persisting on pure belief. If enough of them think it's true, it happens. That's why you could drown one despite the creature having no lungs. Or why feeding one peppers would make it spontaneously burst into flames. Why fruit juice, especially oranges will instantly heal all none fatal wounds on a Yukkuri. The mystery lies in what we refer to as their 'core'. A gem or candy like sphere inside of every Yukkuri and Okubi that holds all of their memories and sense of self passed down their entire line. This core is what allows an Okubi to fly and if destroyed or damaged, the Yukkuri goes comatose or becomes a buri, or retarded Yukkuri."

"So Yukkuri are basically a...allegory for the most obnoxious and wasteful aspects of human nature...but they still strive to be happy even if the world is uncaring or against them." Amaro thought aloud. Actually surprised when Ruki and Kaitheros both stared at him in mild shock.

"Well, that's actually a rather novel interpretation of them. Probably giving the little shit balls too much credit but all Yokai are fractions of human nature so I suppose Yukkuri follow suit...in their own way."

"Thero-Kun, the Yukkuri were involved in the little war between the Inchlings and the Imori?" Ruki asked, finally getting back around to the topic. Kaitheros nodded.

"Oh yes, in fact they started it."

"What?!" Ruki and Amaro exclaimed jointly.

"Mmmm-hm. Those shitty manju got into the Den somehow, likely a stray Okubi that got picked off near the fields and had hundreds of its offspring infect the valley near Yamatai and allowed them to spread. They began bothering the people and invading houses and gardens as they are want to do. This put pressure on the Inchlings who were trying to hide as the Yukkuri stole and broke things in a way that made people suspicious. The Inchlings wanted to leave no evidence of their being there so they tried retreating back a ways into the foothills. Unfortunately they disturbed the Imori who were not pleased at having their territory upset. It was time for the seasonal market and the Yukkuri began to hassle people en masse. The people took offense to this and used an old remedy 'pepper oil'. The stuff is extremely aggravating to small and sensitive creatures like the Yukkuri but the people were overzealous about it and unknowingly sprayed the secret dwellings of the Inchlings with it as well. This upset the Inchlings who turned on the people and the Yukkuri at once. The Imori, sensing 'glorious war' and the market adjacent to their resting place being attacked, dived in as well. Resulting in the entire market place becoming a battlefield for the three types of Yokai. It was a colossal mess and after the remaining Imori were properly buried and purified, the Inchlings were relocated and the Yukkuri hunted down and exterminated with simpler methods. One more Okubi emerged from the incident but thankfully the Hoshoku Miko at the time used my eye to see its core and shot it down in one shot. So you can imagine how these tiny Yokai can be so bothersome, especially the Yukkuri. If they hadn't gotten in, it's likely the Imori would have stayed undisturbed and the Inchlings wouldn't have been pressured into finding resources elsewhere and escalating the situation."

"I guess they aren't very compatible." Ruki mused. It had gotten dark and so the two set up sleeping mats.

"Tomorrow I'll need you two to start making preparations. There are other parts of the Den I need checked on and it's likely it take a least a few months to get around to them all."

"Where should we head first Thero-kun?" Ruki asked while trying not to yawn.

"I need you two to investigate the Claw Rivers for me. It seems that a lot of scavengers are gathering near a choke point in the river and the water coming east from the graveyard is turning foul. If left alone it may spread to Yamatai. It doesn't feel like just a case of a large kill clogging up the river. There are other...issues I'm picking up but they can wait as this one is the most immediate and closest problem."

As the two tucked in for the night (on opposite ends of the study naturally). Kaitheros wrankled his nose in the direction of the Claw Rivers. Whatever was there must be quite foul indeed...and perhaps not entirely natural.

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