#hidden Douman reference :)

[bimbosupreme]

ever since I saw her this is all I could think about

#fate samurai remnant #fate #tamamo aria #hidden Douman reference :) #mine

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

Heian-kyo Thoughts

First I think this is one of my favorite chapters yet, no doubt because of my biases, though that means I’m better able to point out my complaints with it too. I was super hyped for it the whole time! As this is my thoughts it will mostly be focused on my interests namely Limbo and Danzou

The setup for this chapter was perfect, one of the most well done things about it, most of my complaints actually stem from that I think they could have taken better advantage of it. Limbo creating a singularity and planning a grail war for the purpose of establishing a lostbelt with them as its god, and it reflects what they learned from Shimousa? Yeah that’s good! And best of all! Inviting ONLY the master of Chaldea who keeps interfering (we wouldn’t have a plot if we weren’t invited too lol) and Danzou, who has been an obvious object of their fixation since then! Blocking even Mash and Kotarou (and making sure they KNEW it was him doing it)

Furthermore, after establishing contact with Chaldea it’s further established that this not for the purpose of defeating us or anything, but rather for Limbo to toy with us and I quote “indulge in his…. proclivities”. So you have it known that he’s doing this for his own pleasure, and what does he do? Invite the one who has been getting in his way, and his favorite toy from Shimousa of course!

This line from Seimei at the end made me laugh cause YEAH. That’s exactly it and it shows in Limbo as well. I have been saying all this time that he doesn’t hold affection for Danzou, but absolutely has a weird fixation with her. That manifests in trying to cause her and specifically her as much suffering as possible. Even restoring her memories is to make the pain he can inflict greater. Her interlude apparently further goes into it but I sadly don’t have her yet so I haven’t seen it myself yet (I’ll probably break down and watch it online soon lol it’s too relevant to me not to)

On the flip side this setup also means she has the chance to settle the score with him, and of all people she’s the one who is most fitting to do so. Limbo has manipulated plenty, and caused pain to countless others too, but the difference is with Danzou he has that fixation not present in say, Amakusa or Junao, or any of the Crypters, not to mention that she was directly under his control from the moment he repaired her, and once she turns on him, he makes her fight the people she now cares about and then blows her up. And the end goal wasn’t anything other than tormenting her unlike the other cases. His fixation means she has been the most intimately hurt by him and so this setup in Heian-kyo both further emphasizes this fixation as well as giving her the chance to strike back. Just a god-tier setup right there!! And I like Limbo here giving their evil villain speech to introduce the grail war, complete with creepy ways to refer to Danzou

And now knowing he is “Ashiya Douman” the living Douman is brought up as well, who I think is another one of the most interesting parts of the chapter. (Of course he had already been consumed by Limbo at this point too but it’s being hidden so it’s probably a good reflection of what he’s like..?) I kinda wish we got to see at least a little more of him (like the confrontation between him and Limbo sounds especially good the way they described it). Cause they’re not an evil person at all, nor do they want to be, but they do have their deep flaws and like…

He acts like he’s okay with this, and being treated as the villain, but I highly doubt it, his fixation with Seimei is the most famous one of all. And Limbo even takes advantage of that to break him.

Anyway for the main grail war section, I liked seeing some familiar faces and it did get me to care about them all the more, and Tsuna and especially Kintoki get good arcs across the whole chapter. Shuten is always a delight for me too lol, she’s great. And you can see how it reflects what Limbo was researching in Shimousa. The main thing I wished for here is at least some of what was going on with Limbo, or perhaps them toying with their guests a little more directly…? This is his entertainment so I wanna see them enjoying it.

The turning point was really exciting and got me hyped, also I LOVE that art for it

And this here is SO GOOD I wanted to see it, more human Douman please! He’s so fascinating in how someone like Limbo could be born from him and yet he barely appears!

The second part… I think could really have benefitted from being longer? Especially the parts about Kagekiyo and Ibuki, they show up then are gone in 2 sections, and I was pretty interested in them, especially Kagekiyo, so I would have liked more on them… and once again, Limbo is taking a more active role and establishing the tree, but there wasn’t enough showing their thoughts or toying with us more.

The final section had some both REALLY GOOD stuff as well as wasted opportunities. One thing I had liked is that Danzou tended to be the most outspoken against Limbo throughout the chapter, which of course is fitting with their history even if she didn’t personally remember Shimousa. The first direct confrontation was good, he’s calling her his puppet, she’s the one who seems most angry with him, he’s being his delightfully over the top evil self, it’s great!

Ibuki should have been in the chapter more but him just being like oh yeah I lied I’m gonna become a god instead was good lol

I also love that he’s unable to become a Beast because of a lack of love for humanity, which makes sense, and it’s a fascinating part of him, he fixates on people but it’s not affection.

But the thing I was annoyed about here is that Danzou and Limbo don’t really say much to each other….? She’s a major object of their fixation and she’s been so deeply hurt by him yet not much from either side? Why…. I knew my hopes of him tormenting her in some scene framed a highly sexual way was getting my hopes up, but the game has always been good about emphasizing this relationship in the past so I was disappointed there wasn’t something involving him attempting to inflict pain on her specifically… or really any sort of toying around with his guests? It’s the whole point of this so I wanted more of him doing exactly that….(you had machine destroying insect shikigami right there come on, so many ways to toy with his favorite doll, give me something)

On the plus side though, I’m delighted she was the one to finish him off, if he had to die, this is exactly how it should be.

The one who had been most personally hurt by Limbo getting to deal the finishing blow on him is perfect. It’s satisfying, it’s closure for her, it’s just GOOD!!

As for the aftermath, the scene with human Douman right here is one of the best parts of the chapter, I adored it, I cried a bit even…

Perhaps he’s the one hurt most by this whole incident… coming face to face with the embodiment of the evil dwelling within him, of what he fears becoming, and breaking down weeping once freed, and nearly killing himself knowing it’s a potential future for him. (Honestly I think Seimei is kinda an ass to him lol I mean oh I thought you wouldn’t fall to Limbo as an excuse for not trying to help him?? He’s terrified of that potential and Limbo struck him at his weakest point, that fixation with Seimei)

And finally, I wish Danzou got some sort of epilogue section, most people did, and it would have been nice to see her reflecting on being rid of Limbo, either by herself or with Kotarou….

And for some final words on Limbo, I love that he gets extra my room lines after finishing, unsurprisingly YEAH it’s Limbo, and he even remembers everything, which is uh, quite the situation! When it comes down to it, I think what Da Vinci said in the opening puts it well,

I don’t think his evil is even subconsciously trying to help anyone or anything like that. It’s a genuine wish for destruction but it’s also rather pitiful…. His whole thing with Seimei probably doesn’t help with seeing no worth in even himself too. Like at the end he’s right back to yelling out at Seimei

And he’s quite a fascinating character for it too, having someone so truly evil, but having originated from an “ordinary onmyouji” who feared becoming old that. Someone who is a “monsterous rakshasa devoid of love”, and I don’t think anyone can magically make him ~love~ but like… it’s interesting to me how someone who CANT love in any way has these fixations on people, and what they’re like as a result (which is why I’m especially interested in his thing with Danzou, it captures that aspect of them well) Best you could hope for I think is them maybe seeing some sliver of worth in things…? They’re both comically evil and also complex in their own right and that’s why I love them so much, I’m really gonna miss them showing up to toy with us all!

TLDR- Heian-kyo GOOD, godly setup that could have been utilized more especially when it came to Limbo and Danzou’s interactions (why wasn’t there more?). Best possible way for Limbo to die and I love human Douman a lot too and he makes his character all the more interesting.

#Infel’s fate tag #the long tangent about limbo’s fixation with danzou was def necessary you see lol #anyway I probably missed something I’m just typing this on my phone at work to spit out all my feelings #I love douman so much! and I love danzou too!!! #aaaaaaa HEIAN-KYO #heian-kyo spoilers #long post

[thessaliah]

Hell World Mandala’s Douman and Abe no Seimei’s reunion epilogue

As requested. Apologies I took so long but Granblue Farming consumed me, many thanks to my friend AC who corrected a few mistakes, helped me out with suggestions and edited this in understandable English language. Normally I wouldn’t care much, but since I kept you guys waiting. See the notes at the end for translation choices:

Ashiya Douman: I am... Ashiya Douman: I'm shaking with fear. Douman: Though I was freed from that curse, I can feel it continues to linger. Ashiya Douman: Will I one day become such a vile demon? Ashiya Douman: One who delights in the suffering of the masses? Ashiya Douman: In the end, will this wretch achieve such a pinnacle of heresy? If that's the case... Ashiya Douman: I need not that future. Ashiya Douman: Right here, right now, I'll eradicate the consequences of my heartless deeds-

Voice: Suicide, is it? That's a bit difficult for someone who has mastered the Secret Techniques of a Taoist. Voice: Cease this pointlessness, Ashiya Douman.

Ashiya Douman: Abe no Seimei...? So you've finally returned to the Capital. Ashiya Douman: Or perhaps, the claim that you'd vanished is a lie. Did you anticipate everything from the beginning? Ashiya Douman: Then if so, if the fault for all this is mine, why did you do nothing to stop me?

Abe no Seimei: Why did I do nothing? Abe no Seimei: That Ashiya Douman himself would fall to the likes of a fragment of his own shadow was something beyond even what Abe no Seimei could predict.  You fool. Abe no Seimei: And furthermore, Abe no Seimei: Fixating on the individual seems to be a weakness of yours, Douman.

Ashiya Douman: Abe no Seimei- 

---

Translator notes: 

Douman sometimes refers to himself (a clarification, I will refer living Douman as male as the narration while Limbo is unknown because of the absorbed goddess in their saint graph) with a special pronoun which can be translated literally as “This humble Servant of Buddha” or “this mere priest” but AC pointed out it would flow weirdly while the original japanese text doesn’t have that issue and I agree with her. So I opted to keep it as “I” which is also a translation and what it meant just it’s a special, archaic “I” that priests used.

I was waffling to translate 道人の奥義 as hidden or secret technique of Taoists or try to put mystery or mystic but I checked the wiki in case it’s ever used but doesn’t look like it does. In short, it seems Seimei is implying that Douman nurtured his body to reach a pinnacle of Taoism (which explains his design motif combination: yin yang, eastern and western clothing) that suicide is either impossible or too difficult so what he was going or going to do was trying to harm himself until he succeeded. 

There are some changes and tweaks made to fit English better. One is, when Douman is about to try to commit suicide, he says “on this day, on this time/hour” (この日この時) but in English, I felt the equivalent for that phrase is “right here, right now” so I went with that instead. There are other phrasing examples but are minor.

I think, that’s all. As additional note, Douman’s expressions were all soft, sad and helpless in the entire conversation. A stark contrast with his “Limbo” self who is usually vibrating “smug cat surrounded by knives” energy.

Oh, right, there's a prologue to this scene, which explains that Douman survived when Limbo was defeated. But since the request wasn’t specific to include it, I got lazy.

#fate request #translation #ashiya douman #abe no seimei #fgo #i won't be taking more translations request because my schedule is hell #fate grand order #lostbelt 5.5 #hell world mandala

[originlist]

[ from ]

> @bonmotx

Seimei accepts Bei’s decision to change and die wordlessly. He watches their own future, the immediacy of it, and knows that if nothing else, this will succeed. (It’s a formality he doesn’t understand his own choice to do. Generally — at least, before a certain event — Seimei did not ever bother to use foresight on Ashiya Douman. Because, certainly, Douman is a skilled and good onmyoji, thus can take care of themselves. Why check? Is this paranoia, or, hm...)

The warding charms settle themselves in a star pattern around Laurel and Seimei. They throw up a wall that protects them from all outside, impassible. To enemies and to the curses that Bei swallows and becomes. It’s opaque, for Laurel’s sake. Seimei's mystic eyes look past it, impassive and recording.

He watches as Ashiya Douman becomes ‘Ashiya Douman’ becomes only curses and monstrosity and the thing they were accused of being once. He watches and does not flinch. Something of it feels uncomfortable within him, but that he does not understand either, nor does he try to.

The wall only dissolves once everything but the monster stills. It’s gorged heavy on curses and corpses, teeth red and black with blood, curses bubbling from the tear ducts on eyes that are not all on its face. It turns to Seimei and Laurel bristling.

Laurel freezes, eyes wide. Unlike Seimei, she wasn’t able to watch. She didn’t see the shift, but she knows this is Bei. (This is her beloved friend, this still has a similar shape to the little ferretlike thing that has curled up in her lap before, this is a person she’s held and who is her family and who she must protect, even as it is a thing that is huge and monstrous and does not recognize her, wants her dead.) “No,” she says, as Seimei lifts a hand with sealing charms at the ready.

The charms flick to what was Bei, impacting and turning to glowing white bindings that bite into fur and scales and skin. The monster hisses. It strains against the ties as Seimei shifts his stance into something Laurel can feel the decision of. He is going to kill her friend.

He is going to kill Bei, and she cannot allow that. “Stop!” she says, as Seimei walks forward.

“Let the wrongs be forgiven,” Seimei begins. A magic circle gathers beneath what was Bei.

“Stop!” He does not listen. “Caster, stop!” Seimei ignores her completely.

She doesn’t have time, and she needs it, because... because in stories, it doesn’t end with this being the outcome. It’s about the power of love and friendship and whatever other bullshit, right, not about someone saying they’ll die and just letting it happen. “Stop!” Laurel screams, her voice tearing and echoing with all the power of the unified language she can barely tap into. It nearly rips her throat, but she ignores the pain. “Stop!” Blood wells on the back of her tongue. With such a simple order and in such a tongue, it cannot be disobeyed. Both Seimei and the creature he faces shudder to a still, as if abruptly chained.

The thing that was Bei bristles, growling and shaking, only barely restrained as Laurel tries to run over. “You can’t-- you can’t kill them, you have to save them. You’re supposed to save them!”

“It won’t be undone. Laurel, this is not Bei, nor is it Ashiya Douman.” A rare time when Seimei refers to them by the name that was put upon them. Not Ashiya Douman nor ‘Ashiya Douman’ nor their moniker.

“I don’t care! Shut up and fix them, you have to!” She goes far as to stomp her foot, tears in her eyes and too close to Bei as the power her voice had fades. Seimei feels the command to stop weaken.

Seimei casts two seals aside as soon as Laurel’s binding snaps. The first catches the monstrosity in the muzzle and releases a flash of lighting, redirecting the teeth away from Laurel, and the second hits Laurel in the chest and turns to chains. She’s thrown aside, some meters behind Seimei, and held with seals keeping her to the ground. One covers her mouth. “I will take care of them as they asked. Kindly do not risk us again.”

“The vengeful will rest. The cursed will be cleansed. The harmful will be neutralized. The dead will be quieted. Seiman no Seimei.”

Laurel still screams at Seimei through the seal, her voice muffled enough to be lost almost entirely. Seimei ignores her. He has a job, a request to do. He could use his talismans to incinerate the demon on the ground before him, but... maybe it’s sentimentality?

A promise to be fulfilled. There is a knife kept tucked hidden in the belt of his robes, just in case. He uses that instead of summoning something else. “You did well,” Seimei says, quietly, in the tone of an afterthought. When he stands before the creature, it tenses, hisses, tries desperately to reach him with a palpable desire to rend him open.

Seimei doesn’t flinch. One of the many eyes on the monster’s face stares at him with what he’s not going to pretend is lucidity as Abe no Seimei pushes a blessed blade into the neck of a demon. He murmurs a cleansing and a prayer as he does. It doesn’t do much, but it makes him feel better. The blood is black and noxious and seemingly never-ending as he cleaves through a vessel. Tiny malformed limbs of curses spawn around the wound and from it and try to grab at him, then shrink back as if burned.

He decapitates the monster. It goes quicker than it should, given the size of its neck and of Seimei’s knife, but his blessings do help this endeavour. When it dies, the thing that was Bei vanishes not in the gold light of a Servant, but with a dissolution into a disgusting black gunk that melts into the mud at Seimei’s feet.

The entire time from behind him, Laurel screams. Even if she can’t be heard, even if it’s not words, her rage and sadness is potent enough a miasma to be felt. She screams for Seimei to die, that he’s a monster, she hates him, how could he, she hates him, because —

(it’s easier to hate Seimei for killing what was Bei than it is to mourn a loss. She’s terrified and refuses to acknowledge that perhaps Bei won’t come back.)

He waits for a moment after the body vanishes to turn and release the seals on Laurel. They vanish and she’s caught midscream, crying and cursing him. Seimei supposes it’s understandable, given her emotional volatility. Still... he doesn’t really deserve it, does he? (Does he? He doubts, a little....)

She still barks her hatred for him as she hauls herself up, voice cracking intermittently and with a little too much magic in her voice when she says she wishes he’d die, too. It’s a physical stabbing feeling Seimei gets from it. He walks over and tries to help her up anyways.

His offered hand is immediately yanked on. Laurel throws him to the ground and gets up with Seimei as leverage, kneeling over him. A white smudge on bloody soil.

“You’re a monster,” Laurel rasps, blood dripping over her lips and her fingers tightening around Seimei’s neck enough to bruise, to draw blood with her nails. He looks at her with a neutral expression she can’t decipher and eyes with nothing human behind them. It makes Laurel’s head hurt more than it already does. Rather than what it should be, where even messes of emotions are things she can draw from, Seimei seems to her like a black hole, sapping her energy with his sheer void.

She lets his neck go and spits blood at him. they both stand, Laurel making a point to keep a distance. “If you can’t bring them back when we get to Chaldea, I’ll kill you myself.”

A bland smile that seems more like a plastic expression than anything else and a placid voice that’s hardly changed answers her. “They ensured we would be able to return. We’ll be fortunate on the way back.” They are. Without the miasma of ill will and curses, those things that have been eaten and then killed, Seimei’s blessed fortune can take effect again. The rain slows and the sky begins to clear. Laurel tells Seimei to go fuck himself and slogs off, mud sucking at her feet.

#drabble #drabble : seimei #drabble : laurel #ic : seimei #ic : laurel #GOD theres going to be so MUCH going on when they all get back to chaldea