Twenty Years Later- Bunbunmaru Spirit News archives
Werewolves found living under rocks in Bamboo Forest of the Lost!
Gensokyo is famed for its diverse array of youkai, with many different types of Youkai coexisting with each other, even coexisting with the likes of humans. And while many types have been documented, a bizarre species of youkai thought to only exist in the western countries of the outside world has recently been discovered lurking within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost- the werewolf.
It is unknown how they have managed to exist undetected by the great information gatherers of Gensokyo, that is, we tengu, for so long, however, the current theory is that they have, in fact, been living under rocks.
This is based on clear evidence that nothing evades the tengu scope of information gathering beyond things that live under rocks, and similarly, anything that lives under rocks have not heard of us.
Upon hearing of the news that such a mysterious creature existed, this intrepid reporter set off to interview one of these so-called 'werewolves' so as to find out a little information about how they had evaded our attention for so long, and why it is only now that they have decided to bravely face the surface world. The transcript of the interview was as follows...
Aya: Hello. Me outsider. Me friendly. Me no harm you. I want ask you questions...
Kagerou: Oh, it's one of those Tengu things...
Aya: Huh? You've heard of us?
Kagerou: Well, of course I have. What made you think that we haven't?
Aya: Well, it's just that we tengu were unaware of your existence for a while, so I figured that the werewolves must have been a special underground tribe sealed from the rest of the world...
Kagerou: So, that's why you were talking to me like I was slow in the mind...
Aya: Well, I didn't want to overwhelm you with the complex speech that civilised people like us use.
Kagerou: Are you implying something?
Aya: Of course not.
Kagerou: I kinda think you are.
Aya: Honestly, I'm not. So, what's your name? Your primitive tribe gives names to their offspring, right?
Kagerou: Look, it's sounding like you think we werewolves are stupid or something...
Aya: Your name, please.
Kagerou: Kagerou Imaizumi. Now, tell me, do you think we're stupid?
Aya: I'm just taking into account the fact your tribe has spent ages hidden from society, and a great many discoveries have happened since then! I guess you could consider yourself the latest of these!
Kagerou: What makes you think that we haven't observed the world?
Aya: Well, if you had, we tengu would know about it, obviously...
Kagerou: You know, some people observe the world without blabbing about it to everyone they can find. Some people actually value stealth.
Aya: Observing the world without telling everyone? This is a totally unheard of practice! Most interesting, do tell!
Kagerou: Okay, I know it's difficult for you, but listen carefully. I... open my eyes.
Aya: Open... eyes... got it!
Kagerou: I then look at aspects of the world, and let my brain process them...
Aya: With you so far...
Kagerou: Then I return home, and keep my mouth shut for the whole time.
Aya: The whole time? But what if you find a scoop?
Kagerou: I don't care about gossip.
Aya: Don't care about gossip? What a backwards tribeswoman you are...
Kagerou: You're an idiot.
Aya: And so savage, too! Verbally assaulting an innocent civilian reporter! My goodness, what a scary tribe indeed!
Kagerou: Just leave here already, you're clearly not going to learn anything from me.
Aya: On the contrary, I've learnt a great many things about you! This whole exchange will be typed up in what we civilised people call a 'newspaper'. Can you read?
Kagerou: Leave before I bite you.
Aya: Oh my, how dangerous! Very well, noble tribal warrior!
As one can see, the werewolf culture is so very backwards that we civilised people cannot begin to understand it. It seems to have attained an understanding far greater than any modern youkai could possibly grasp, yet seemingly has sacrificed politeness in order to attain such knowledge.
While most reporters would give up on trying to gain a little understanding of these strange creatures based on their savage nature, this determined journalist is not one of these people, and expanded her search of information to members of species that have had histories with werewolves: vampires and western breeds of human.
And so, I visited the Scarlet Devil Mansion to ask Miss Remilia Scarlet and her maid, Miss Sakuya Izayoi, about the nature of these primitive creatures. Upon asking Miss Scarlet about them, she is quoted as saying, "Those ugly fur-bags don't deserve the title of 'creature of the night'. A bunch of uncontrolled, hairy brutes, the lot of them. The fact their blood is poisonous is such a hassle, because we can't just kill them while they're weak, that is, all the time. Also, a bunch of them became the only remotely competent vampire slayers in the west. I can't remember what they called that guild... the Illuminati, was it?"
From this, I could gather that the werewolves do have, at the very least, a strong sense of community, and have a fierce rivalry with the vampires, or at the very least, that vampires have a hatred for them. Their blood is poisonous to vampires, just like other youkai, and they are, as expected, savage beasts, although they do apparently have weak phases, just like vampires.
I then decided to take the human maid of Remilia Scarlet, Sakuya Izayoi, aside to ask her about werewolves. She claimed to be capable of slaying both vampires and werewolves, and was once a neutral party in the conflict, who worked for whichever side paid her the most. In the end, the vampires bid highest, and she is thus a loyal servant of Remilia due to her considerable offer of 'a permanent roof over her head'. She claimed that werewolves are weak to silver, and thus, all of her knives are made of a silver-containing steel alloy. They are also apparently weak to wolfsbane, a blue perennial flower used as a herbal aphrodisiac by humans. Although werewolves are weak to any dosage, humans can still be killed by large amounts of wolfsbane, so perhaps this isn't a particular weakness of the werewolf.
Overall, while the werewolf is still mostly a mystery to the tengu community, this intrepid reporter's attempts to uncover information have proved somewhat fruitful, and continual updates upon the state of Gensokyo's youkai diversity will be provided by the Bunbunmaru Spirit News.
Article written by Aya Shameimaru
Present-day hindsight: Like, this was so exciting back in the day! Like, now we know so much more about those super-scary werewolves, but back then it was like a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in, like... like... something unknown!
Aya is, like, so good at journalism, I can't help but, like, be a little jealous, you know what I'm saying?
Oh well, like, there are plenty of cool articles that I totally did research for myself in this archive, so, like, I guess I'm not too bad at it myself...