Thread by @sakaimii

And here is a thread of the Katanashu story. It's the full story, so this will be long. Enjoy!

The Katanashu are a top-secret special task force created by the capital to manage the yokai of Hikagemachi. Their main job is to oversee the gate between the human realm and the town of Hikagemachi, where yokai reside.

Hikagemachi is a town that mirrors the human realm. As such, it isn’t rare for humans to accidentally wander into it. It is the Katanashu’s duty to find any humans who have wandered into Hikagemachi and manipulate their memories before returning them back where they came from.

...At least, that’s what their job is on paper.

In truth, the Katanashu serves as nothing more than a cage where Central HQ sends elite soldiers who have fallen from grace and the children of nobles who are merely soldiers by name.

And as one would expect, any hint of morale or motivation within the Katanshu was almost non-existent because of this.

“Wasn’t curry on Fridays originally a Navy thing?”
Kasane murmured to himself lazily as he looked at the way his spoon warped his reflection.

In the mirror world of the spoon, even the fine haori coat he wore that signified him as the captain of the Katanashu’s 2nd Battalion seemed to stretch out into oblivion.

The Katanashu’s cafeteria was anything but spacious, with antique-looking long tables and chairs that brought to mind generations long past.

But instead of having any aesthetic appeal, these items only served as a reminder that the Katanashu was a relic of time, a dead-end job that was as forgotten as the furniture it came with.

Behind the counter, a cook clad in apron quietly stirred a pot. The cooks here were eerily quiet, mainly because they were shikigami made from paper cut out in the form of a human and enchanted to move. The only humans who worked in the office were the Katanashu themselves.

Curry was a staple of Friday, and its smell wafted through the room along with the echo of spoons meeting plates. Aside from Kasane, none of the other humans spoke a word, which in turn spoke volumes of their comradery, or lack thereof.

Many old families of renown were descended from military families. That meant that those who hailed from such backgrounds had a tendency of ending up in the same places by nature.

“As far as I can recall...the Navy decided to have curry on Fridays since they’d lose track of the time at sea.”
Kasane watched as a silver tray of pork curry with a large helping of toppings was placed in front of him.

The reason why they had curry on Fridays was not unlike the Navy. Like the sea, Hikagemachi had a way of dulling one’s sense of time. It was never clear whether it was day or night, and there was no TV or radio, let alone cellphone service.

And as long as they floated uninhibited in the sea of time and space they were just like the Navy, the entrance back to reality being their only way of returning to land.

“Y’know, I get that and everything, but curry every week? Aren’t you sick of it?”
Kasane thrust his spoon forward like it was a microphone towards Madoka, who was sitting directly across from him.

“Please stop playing with the cutlery. It’s bad manners.”
Madoka spoke flatly, pushing Kasane’s spoon down.

“But does it have to be curry? Could be anything. Like udon, or soba...I mean, the menu has a wide selection and all. Right?”
Since Madoka had turned him down, Kasane now focused his attention on Aoi, who had left an empty seat between the two of them.

Aoi fixed him with a weary stare before returning to his curry in silence.
“Hey, don’t just IGNORE me! I’m your superior, y’know.”

“And I’m not part of your Battalion anymore.”
Aoi coolly answered Kasane, who had begun to puff his cheeks out in irritation. He reached out to the middle of the table, grabbing some sauce and putting a healthy amount of it on his curry.

“Ah!” Kasane suddenly exclaimed, pointing his spoon at Aoi.
“W-what?!” Aoi yelped out, startled by Kasane’s outburst.
“Aoi-kun! Y’mean to tell me that you’re a sauce kinda guy?”
“Y-yeah…? Do you have a problem with that?”
“Have you always eaten it like that? I never noticed.”

“Does it really matter what I put on my curry? I mean, Captain Hanabusa puts mayonnaise on his and—”
“Mayo?!

Without letting Aoi finish, Kasane exaggeratedly leaned over to glance at Hanabusa, who was sitting at the end of the table. On his plate was a dollop of mayonnaise.
“What are you... Didn’t anyone ever teach you that staring at someone else’s plate is rude?!”

Hanabusa yelped out just as Aoi did earlier, possibly out of surprise that Kasane would point out his mayonnaise habits now of all times when he never did before.
“So that’s how it is…I see…”
Still looking at Hanabusa’s plate, Kasane sat back down, a satisfied grin on his face.

“To think the captain of the 1st Battalion, the guy all the yokai call the “Demon of the Katanashu” would put mayo on his curry…”
“And what’s wrong with that?!”
Kasane smirked as Hanabusa raised his voice in defense.

“Didn’t say anything was wrong. It’s not like I was thinking about how a tough guy like you can’t handle spicy stuff or anything.”
“Ugh…!” Hanabusa gripped his spoon until his hands were trembling. Whether it was because Kasane saw right through him or not, he wouldn’t say.

Meanwhile, Madoka quietly cracked a soft-boiled egg over his curry, grateful to his parents for teaching him how to offset its spiciness without using any condiments.

“Ah, so you prefer soft-boiled eggs, eh?”
Madoka jumped, hearing a voice behind him. He turned around to see Uta, a silver tray in his hand.
“I’m more of a fan of raw eggs myself, really.”

Uta pushed his tray out towards Madoka. In the middle of his steaming curry was a single raw egg.
“Well isn’t that a rare sight. You almost never eat in the cafeteria, Uta.”
Kasane called out to Uta, who sat nearby.

He was right. It wasn’t often that Uta, who preferred eating at Hikagemachi’s ramen establishments, ate in the cafeteria.
“Sometimes you just have a craving for curry,” Uta said as he began to excitedly mix the egg in his curry.

“So Aoi prefers sauce, the Demon Commander prefers mayo, Madoka prefers soft-boiled eggs and Uta raw. Guess I’m the only one who prefers to eat his curry as-is.”
“You don’t put anything on yours, Captain Kasane?”
Uta asked as he began to stuff his cheeks with his egg & curry mix.

“Hmm...if I had to choose something, I guess cheese? But rarely.”
“Huh. Sometimes I wanna put all of them on mine.”
“Everything?”
“Sauce, and mayo, cheese...ah, but I’d stick with raw egg since they’re almost the same.”
“Isn’t that a bit much?”
“What can I say? I want it all.”

Uta grinned as he reached for the bottle of sauce.
“The curry here is pretty hot. They use an interesting array of spices that gives it a kick,” Uta continued, mixing the sauce in his curry just like he did with his egg earlier.

“I concur.” Hanabusa nodded from the end of the table in a rare display of agreement.
“Me too,” Aoi timidly raised his hand.
Once he did, the rest of the room quietly turned their attention to Madoka, as if to check if he agreed with popular opinion.

“I...um, I, too, think the curry is a bit spicy…,” Madoka muttered in resignation.
“Ahaha, looks like we all thought the same thing,” Uta chuckled, this time reaching over for the mayonnaise.
“An interesting array of spices, huh...Sounds a lot like this job.”

Though no one responded to Kasane’s murmur, it was something that they all felt, if only slightly.

It wasn’t that the job was distasteful. If anything, it was on the flavorful side. It had a kick that made it lively at times. Hikagemachi was the same. It was full of humanoid yokai who jostled about. A fantasy world full of beautiful and merry creatures who lived forever.

And that’s exactly why it was frightening to them.
They feared what would happen if they got too used to their lives here. And so they tried to keep themselves from forgetting who they really are, from losing themselves in the darkness around them.

No matter what, they would not allow themselves to become part of this world.

“I kinda understand wanting yokai and humans to live together,” Kasane said as he separated the curry on his plate from the rice with his spoon.
“But didn’t yokai and humans live together way back in the past?”
“Yeah, a long time ago.”
Madoka spoke up, answering Uta’s question.

“The history of humans and yokai living separately is relatively recent in comparison to how it was before.”
“Oh really?”
Uta sounded like he knew none of this. Madoka looked at him in disbelief. Hanabusa voiced Madoka’s concerns.
“Weren’t you briefed on this when you came here?”

“You expect me to remember all of that? I slept through the whole thing.”
“You slept through it…”
The wave tremendous anger from Hanabusa’s side of the room was almost palpable.

Madoka nervously looked down at his curry, trying to ignore the daggers the aptly-named Demon Commander was glaring at Uta.

“Why did humans and yokai even end up living separately to begin with?’
Uta, on the other hand, paid Hanabusa’s rage no mind, continuing the conversation without a beat.

“Wasn’t it because the strongest yokai of the time suggested it was best for human and yokai to part ways?”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about why that yokai even suggested living separately to begin with.”

“Wouldn’t that have been because living with humans wasn’t working out?”
Aoi sighed, picking up from where Kasane left off.

“Ages ago, humans depended on the great natural power of yokai to live. They worshiped yokai as gods, and set up priestesses to communicate with them through contracts that would allow them to use the yokai’s power."

"As a result, yokai eventually couldn’t bear their powers being used for wars and retreated to Hikagemachi by their own will, leaving humans with the duty of guarding its gates from the human realm."

"...What do you even talk to the yokai at the ramen places you sneak into all the time about?”

“We just chat?”

“For goodness’ sakes… You’re the reason yokai look down on us, you know. The other day, Ungaikyo wouldn’t even give me the time of—’
“Geez, when you start talking you never stop do you, Aoi?”
Uta plugged his ears, looking at Aoi with a grimace.

“It is quite odd…,” Madoka murmured.
“What’s odd?” Hanabusa said, dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief.
“Er, that is...I wonder why the yokai who had their power abused and was so far as blamed for the war gave the task of guarding the gates of Hikagemachi to humans?

Madoka continued, deep in thought. “Even though they had their home stolen from them and were driven away, why would they…”
The room fell quiet.

“Ah, I get it.” Uta said, breaking the silence. “Maybe it’s like this curry.” He began to mix the curry on his plate once
more.
“If you try to have curry and rice with just curry or rice it’s either too strong or not enough at all, right? In the end, they need each other."

Hanabusa stood up in displeasure and left the cafeteria, perhaps out of dissatisfaction with Uta’s answer. Uta turned to Kasane.
“What do you think?”
“About?”
“About curry, clearly. Do you prefer mixing it up, or keeping the curry and rice separate?”

“What the heck are you talking about?”
Kasane gave an awkward laugh, standing up. There was still about a third of his curry left on his silver tray.
“Didn’t you know? I hate the curry here.”

He walked towards the door, only to stop and turn around as he remembered something.
“Ah, right. We’re getting a new recruit tomorrow.”
Wonder how he likes his curry, Kasane murmured, breaking out into a smile.

***
It was Fuuka’s grandfather, the head of an old family, who decided that Fuuka would join the Katanashu. As Fuuka was the eldest son, his grandfather was worried about entrusting his life to an organization.

And so, when Fuuka’s assignment to the military was decided some months ago, his grandfather got on the phone that very night. When he was done he called Fuuka over to tell him that he had been assigned to the Katanashu. It was the 1st time Fuuka had learned about the Katanashu.

Tomorrow Fuuka's first day. He stood in front of his mirror, adjusting the collar of his uniform. Its design was unbefitting of modern day, and yet it suited him very well.

The sword at his side was given to him by his grandfather, an heirloom passed on from generation to generation, and a symbol of the leader of his house.

On his acceptance letter to the Katanashu were the words, “From now on your name shall be Momiji”.
It was practice in the Katanashu for members to remove one character from their name so that yokai could not claim their real names.

“Yokai, huh…” As Fuuka spoke, he was suddenly felt wistful.
To think that creatures like that existed in the real world. Even as he thought that, his heart knew deep down that it had always been that way.

Of course it had. For some reason, he had always known he would meet one. He had always felt that way. But who? He didn’t know.

“Your hands are real small. Like a maple leaf*.”
He could still hear the voice in his head. He was soon going to meet the owner of that voice. It was more than a premonition now. He was sure of it.
(*Maple leaf is "momiji" in Japanese.)

And that's the end! Lots of curry talk...and I learned that the whole Curry wa FRIDAY line in Hypmic is because curry is on friday for the JP Navy apparently LOL

Got some nice little hints about Shisei (Minami's character) here...fascinating...

And there are typos, because of course they are...Ugh, sorry 😐

A few things that aren’t clear in English:
-Kasane’s Kyoto accent, and just how questionable it is lol...it really does feel overblown
-The voice in Fuuka’s head sounds a lot like someone who speaks like Tamaki (Ungaikyo)

Still laughing at the Gintama reference re:Hanabusa LOL

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention is that the “sauce” Aoi puts on his curry is a specialty kind of like semi-sweet worcestershire-like sauce that people usually put on okonomiyaki and yakisoba, among other things. It’s just called “sauce” in JP, but it has a specific taste.

It’s kind of funny that they’re all talking about how the curry is spicy bc as far as I can tell they’re eating Japanese curry, which is super sweet, even when it claims to be spicy, haha...