maiji: fight / flight part 4 (Yu Yu Hakusho North Bound fancomic)

[images: First two pages of a comic drawn in a digital ink-brush style with greyscale shading.]fight / flight: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 (to come!)Alt text, full transcript and commentary continue below the cut.A YYH North Bound story. This story takes place after I Heard A Cicada Cry (4 parts - all 4 parts are linked in each post) and Survive (one-shot).Content warning: People with blood on their faces.[READ-MORE][images: Remaining four pages of comic.][page 26]*Otake and Tomoe Gozen are still facing off with their respective weapons at the ready when a flash of light appears in the air just over Otake*Tomoe: ??Otake: ![page 27]*A beautiful woman descends. She is bathed in moonlight, her long hair tied up with gilded ornaments, a beauty mark on her lower face near her lips, and with a halo of robes fluttering behind her.*?: Otake, stand down.[page 28]*The woman notices Otake's bloodied state and responds with comedic expressions of disgust*?: Eeuuugh!! Yuck!!! Gross!!!Otake: *looking annoyed* Go away.?: Didn’t you hear me?? I said stand down!!Otake: I don’t have time for your games, tennyo.Tennyo: Games? This is a command from the great Enma Daioh Himself.Otake: …Enma Daioh has canceled my quest?(Footnote: Tennyo = "sky maiden", heavenly beings in Buddhist mythology)[page 29]*The tennyo folds her arms self-importantly while Otake continues to look irritated. Tomoe Gozen observes their exchange alertly*Tennyo: Not specifically. He’s calling everyone back. It’s important.And not that you asked me, but I think you should quit wasting your time on this silly pet project of yours.Otake: *walking away from her* You’re right. I didn’t ask you.Tomoe: ...Tennyo: Well, the great Enma Daioh hardly needs to rely on a dirty toy mirror to achieve his goals. Anyways, even if you don’t care about promotions, Yoshinaka’s days are numbered. It’s going to be a bloodbath even worse than the mess you made of that body.*Tomoe is silent but clearly alarmed by this mention of Yoshinaka's name and the scenario the tennyo is suggesting.*Tennyo: Don’t get yourself caught up in petty human affairs.[page 31]Otake: Hmph.*He sheathes his sword, then walks towards the tennyo as she tosses a cloth over him. They both disappear, leaving Tomoe staring up at the empty sky over the forest.*[page 32]*Tomoe continues looking up at the sky for several moments, then turns to Hokushin behind her* Tomoe: What did you do to get emissaries from the Underworld after——you——!!*She breaks off as she realizes Hokushin appears to be lying fully unconscious on the ground. The view changes to the moon high above the forest and mountains*Tomoe: Come on…!! A demon like you can hardly die that easily...!!Obviously, Hokushin’s not dead. He’s just in need of a very very long nap. “Tennyo” (Sky, or Celestial, or Heavenly Maiden) is a new character I needed to create for some important reasons. One is to be a pain in her coworker Otake’s side, and the second (maybe more important reason) is to do some of the plot work I need done that Otake won’t be able to do. Tennyo is not her name; it’s just a descriptor. Otake referring to her as “tennyo” is like when Tomoe calls Hokushin “rokurokubi” - similar to saying, “look, woman,” or “hey, kid,” or “listen, squirt”, etc. She will have a name, to be revealed in time!Tennyo are based on apsaras of Hindu and Buddhist mythology, and are sometimes described as the Buddhist version of angels. They are obviously not the same by far but is mostly sufficient as a general comparison. There’s actually a tennyo in the first Yu Yu Hakusho movie, Kotennyo, who had a relationship with Koenma. The movies are not main series canon and the first one was more silly than anything.In North Bound, tennyo are the predecessors to Reikai’s ferry girls like Botan, Ayame, Hinageshi - just a different appearance/presentation for the time period they are in. I have planned some stuff around this oooh ahh. Here, instead of floating on oars, the tennyo’s robe allows her to fly (per the hagoromo tradition). Hence, the cloth she uses to teleport Otake back to the Spirit World is an Easter egg - a reference to the cloth that Shishiwakamaru uses to teleport Kuwabara around during the Dark Tournament, hahaha. That cloth in Japanese is not-so coincidentally 死出の羽衣  or Shide no Hagoromo (roughly, "feathered cloak/robe of death"), so very obviously connected to the tennin (sky/celestial/heavily people) tradition. (My headcanon is that's all Suzuki's doing - as the leader and source of all of Team Uraotogi's tools, that he's the one "designed" the team, coming up with the names including all their items and special moves. He clearly seems to have a thing for thematic drama.)The tennyo’s comment on Otake messing up “that body” is also a reference to the fact that Spirit World folks are not beings with physical bodies. Had Hokushin managed to “kill” Otake in this battle, he wouldn’t be dead; only his physical vessel would be destroyed. We see this in the actual series, where Botan uses a temporary physical body to interact with people in the Human World. The most obvious instance of this is during the fight against Sensui, when she jettisons the vessel to return to the Spirit World to deliver an urgent message, shocking Yanagisawa. Whoohoo, only one more part to go to finish fight/flight!! And then… we can move back to the core time period of North Bound with Raizen…!![/READ-MORE]