A Cosy Vacation In An Underworld

[Jello Shot Mischa]

"Ow!" Reaching up, she grabs the bucket and rubs the top of her head. "Where the hell did this come from?" She looks up before looking in it.

As Usagi looks into the bucket, the head of a little green-haired girl pokes up out of the bucket! "Ha! I got you!" she announces gleefully, before a shout from Yuugi makes her wince!

"OI! Kisume! What'd I say about ambushin' people like that?" the oni yells, frowning at the girl in the bucket.

"But... but it's what I doooooo...!" Kisume whimpers, looking downcast!

[KonokoHasano]

"Yeah, you got me, alright." Usagi said with a bit of a grumble. She then gave the girl a poke on the nose. "But now I got you back." The teen turned her attention back to Yuugi. "It's alright, there was no harm done. I probably got a small bump on my head at most, but it'll heal in a few moments."

[Raleigh]

*Yawns.* Well it is what a tsurube-otoshi does. Isn't that kind of like telling you not to be super strong, Yuugi?

[Blaze]

Jean gives a tiny giggle and pats the green-haired girl on the head.

"Oh, be nice Miss Yuugi. It was just a harmless prank."

[Jello Shot Mischa]

The oni crosses her arms, looking at Jean and Usagi. "And how long will it be before one of those demon-hunting humans comes down here, and uses that 'harmless prank' as an excuse to kill her?" She sighs. "I'm just trying to look out for her," Yuugi says softly. "it's fine if she wants to ambush people in the Ancient City, but here in the upper caves... it's dangerous."

Her eyes narrow, and she steps over to peer closely at Raleigh. "And who might you be?" she asks.

[Blaze]

"Oh yes... you must be careful of them." Jean says, eyes flicking left to right.

[KonokoHasano]

"Yeah, that's true. Some people just aren't as nice and generous to oni." Usagi said, giving a nod.

[Raleigh]

Oh? I'm just a cat. Nothing suspicious about me. Other than that I talk and am red furred of course.

[Jello Shot Mischa]

Yuugi frowns at the talking cat for a moment, before she finally shrugs. Pulling out a jug from somewhere in her clothing, she uncorks it, and takes a long pull, before finally corking it back up. "Ahhh! That's better." She flashes the cat a fangy grin, before motioning for everyone to follow after her as she heads deeper into the caves.

"Hey... you ever hear some of the stories about humans and oni?" she says, glancing at Usagi. "There's a reason a lot of us ended up moving down here."

[Blaze]

Jean follows after Yuugi, breathing a small sigh of relief.

"So this Underworld is a safe haven of sorts?"

[KonokoHasano]

"I imagine that humans and oni used to live together, but then humans grew fearful or something else and decided to attack? Or maybe there were a lot of skirmishes and attacks from both sides?" Hears Jean. "And like Jean asked. Is that what this is?"

[Jello Shot Mischa]

Yuugi nods to Jean. "See, oni used to live on the surface alongside the humans! We used to have a tradition where if we found a human we particularly liked, we'd challenge them to a contest! Usually a drinking contest, or a wrestling match, or something else fun like that. And if the oni won, well, they'd take the human away!" She laughs boisterously. "Ahhh, those were the days!"

After a moment, however, she sighs. "However, some of the humans didn't like that. They resorted to sneaky and underhanded tricks to win against oni, instead of trying to be fair. Eventually, the oni got tired of being tricked and killed all the time, so we retreated underground."

Yuugi takes a drink from her jug, and shrugs. "However, we've made the caverns down here our home now. We drink and party and fight all that we want, without any worry about offending human sensibilities. Still, there's always the risk a human with a grudge will come down and start killing youkai again. So we try to be careful."

[Blaze]

Jean listens carefully, tilting her head at the mention of the kidnapping of humans

"What did the oni do with the humans they beat?"

[KonokoHasano]

"I can understand in a way why things ended up going south, what with the taking of humans and all." Usagi said, nodding. Though I'm still sorry that you all had to move underground.

[Raleigh]

I can imagine there are a few people above ground that wouldn't have a problem offering the oni some land to set up in again. In fact I know of probably two who would be more than happy to do it.