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Ao Bozu ‘Blue Monk’ An enigmatic Youkai with a multitude of descriptions. To some it is a towering blue-skinned giant. To others, it is a small child. They can be virtually any size, with any number of eyes, in any number of locations. This enigmatic and contradictory being was first recorded by Toriyama Sekien, with only its name as a description. Its color denotes inexperience or immaturity, making its full name a commentary on the unskilled novices of the Buddhist priesthood. Ao Bozu may appear in barley, millet or wheat fields during sunset. Here they wait for children to snatch and kidnap. Other times they are human-sized figures who appear late at night down dark streets. Terrorizing women and children with the question ‘Would you like to hang by your neck?’ If one refuses, it vanishes. If ignored, it will attack with surprising speed. Other times they are giants who appear in abandoned homes, or child-sized travelers who challenge wanderers to sumo-wrestling contests. Due to its unknown nature and varied attributes, it is wise to treat this Youkai with extreme caution. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the figure lumbered forward into the hall, Oscar could feel Agappa letting go of his leg. Scurrying as quickly as she could, she dove for one of the pillars, scrambling her way up towards the supportive struts overhead. The sorcerer didn’t have time to get her down. The shambling beast was approaching his two friends fast. The frightened pair was shaken from their terror as Cirno’s face hardened. Interposing herself between the awkward giant and Wriggle, she held out a hand. Cold mustering in her palm as she focused all the energy that she could into it. She didn’t have time for Perfect Freeze, and she doubted anything else would really stop it. But she had to try. Ice formed in the palm of her hand, magic pulling water from the air and the rot in the walls. The familiar warmth built in her chest as she pulled all she could. Teeth gritting as those eyes glowered down at her. “Would you like to hang by your--” In an instant, the flare of a red satin cape engulfed the two of them as Oscar stood over the two. His hands thrust out, the gloved hands making a set of motions before his palms extended towards the lumbering blue face which crept ever closer. “SHAZAM!” A sound like thunder burst from the man’s hand. A flare of light more like lightning than a lantern or fire. The beast roared. Hands rising to its eyes. Before the arms of Oscar surrounded the two, and he ran. His fancy shoes rang out on the wooden floor as he sprinted. Cape billowing after him doing little favors. Cirno hung from under one arm, her half-formed ice magic in one hand. Wriggle held under the other. Cirno was still stunned from everything that had happened, from her fight with Wriggle to their escape. The youkai on the other hand was faster to regain her senses. She glared up at Oscar, a low growl escaping her. “Are you going to stop running and fight that youkai?!” “Working on it.” The answer wasn’t his best. But it was the best he could manage. Even as he spoke, he heard a roar rising as though from three throats. The thing lumbered after him blindly. Using a long, powerful forearm to propel itself with surprising grace to compensate for its less impressive limbs. Oscar dared not look back as wooden beams snapped behind him, and stone jars shattered. Rooms whipping by to either side. The thing roaring after him. “I will hang you by your neck!” He raced on, passing rooms long ago left to barren neglect. There was a warehouse full of rotten wooden boxes, a room with a low table and faded screens. And a low room that descended down a set of stairs into a dark foreboding atmosphere. Of course, there were other routes. The yellowed paper walls tinting the light a sickly yellow, could always simply be broken through. Or he could just return the way he came up the stairs. Or he could try something a little more tricky… Whatever it was, he knew he should do it fast. The monster was getting closer… =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = "Don't worry girls! We will lose him in the mason jars! He'll never find the right one." = "But Mister Youkai...I have no neck!" = "Cirno! We're running by the cellar stairs again. I need you to freeze the ground in front of it!" = "Hold on tight girls! We're breaking through the wall out into the street!"

oh yeah, this exists. it bangs!

Not this time Yume... Hello everyone, it's always funny to see how everyone gathers here around this time! To keep things short, flashbang has been one of my closest allies since immemorial times along with the trusty smoke grenade, when I saw that option, something inside me screamed that it was the best course of action, until I read Yume's line above me, so despite being skeptical at Ozzy's Japanese skills like my ally pointed out, I felt like it was a risk worth taking for a breakthrough in the magic side of things. Mostly because we can only go so far with funny tricks and bravado... Speaking of which, tonight's options are a bit more troublesome than usual, hiding in the jars feels like another Scooby-Doo type of action and it could lead to another horror scene of the youkai trying to find Team 9, going up the stairs is probably the "safe" option but it would likely keep us from going downstairs again, then there is the going through a wall into the streets option but that would be counterproductive unless we want to stop the expedition here. That leads me to the "risky" choice! I feel like this "I have no neck!" could be another magic trick (those are quickly becoming my favorites) and if we successfully pull this off then maybe we can deactivate this Youkai like Yumetou mentioned in the Ao Bozu entry, basically a high risk but high reward choice.

I knew it! It's perfect and you just proved it to me! From the start, I knew we were going to get along just fine, but this is just what I needed to confirm it. For starters, I feel like I need to apologize, despite calling you my ally, I still had my doubts about our alliance and never actually had plans to uphold this relationship... until right now! With this single move, you have already acquired my eternal loyalty, from now on, I'll be the first to back up all your decisions whenever I can. Alright, let's be serious now, to answer your unasked question, I actually missed my cue to review in the day, Yume posted the last update, and then in the following week, I decided to wait for his update so I could review both at the same time. Turned out Yummy didn't post anything at all... kinda funny no? So, I was stuck in this awkward loop of Should I wait? Should I review it? Thankfully, my dilemma is now over, although, I would 100% send you a message the moment I read "Yummy Toes". Ah, and before I forget, don't worry about the misunderstanding because such a trivial thing won't get in the way of our alliance ever. By the way, this is a nice remix, sounds so much like Cirno's math class. Aaaay Yumeee, I get the feeling, but don't worry, I'm not sure if you noticed but even with your brief absence your fanbase is still steadily growing, call it the fruits of honest work, and be proud because you really deserve it, friend. Now, if I could help you with something... oh I get it, listen, "The walls here were pain, flecked with dust and little else.", I think you meant plain instead of pain? Just one small typo, nothing to sweat over but it's enough to make me feel a bit satisfied considering that I finally managed to write an actual review at least once because, you know, most of my "reviews" are just me rambling haha. Nice to meet you master Gri, for some reason, I think of a Jedi Master whenever I read your nickname, are you an actual Jedi, master Gri? Well, since both Master and Ally have given their opinions about Aggapa then it's only fair I give my take too. First of all, despite my thoughts on her, she is someone we absolutely can't afford to lose in any circumstances, why? She fills an essential role right now, spiritual perception, Ozzy can't see past what normal eyes can see, be it curses or loot (don't think I forgot how she was looting that corpse when we first encountered her). The second reason is rather simple, she calls Oscar "Ningen" or human, which further proves my point about her perception stat being above the norm and it also means that, even if unknowingly, Aggapa is the closest person in Gensokyo to Oscar's true self, this is both good for his mental health and it also means that we can safely pull a Joseph Joestar near her without fearing any damage to his magician persona. Ops, I forgot to mention what I think about her, hmm... how do I say it? I can't tell for sure how she is going to act, at first, she seemed like any youkai interested in Oscar, perhaps scouting him to see if he could be safely eaten? Then, she passed the Keine radar without problems, which made me think that she was just a quiet girl who was being a bit curious about the weird guy, until her apparent outburst against Marisa put me on edge again, until now, this recent chapter had her act like a scared girl. I can't figure her out at all, feels like she might change sides at any moment but at the same time she is probably our closest ally. Hello there Sosh! I'm glad to see you are probably having as much fun as I am reading this, I wish I could advise you about writing, but I'm completely untalented in this, in fact, I'm mediocre at best in most forms of arts that the human being could ever invent, music, drawing, painting or writing you name it! The only thing I can do reliably is rambling, so if you ever start writing something, you can count on me being there to ramble about your story as soon as I can. Before I forget, Ozzy used to be a roleplaying project that Yume started a while ago, I believe the name is Illusionary Nirvana, you should take a look if you feel like it. Without further ado, I believe it's time for me to finally talk about the update... actually, I took so long to greet everyone that I forgot about what I wanted to discuss, thankfully I can just open another window and re-read it real quick. Coin Flip! I wrote a fun review for Nyoko a while ago, I remember asking for a coin flip to deal with a tie that I had with my ally, never expected I would see it here again and even less win! That's quite the winning streak. For my choice this week, I went with the only option that remotely presented us a chance to know what might be behind that suspicious door, maybe the right answer for such an unprepared duo would be to go past it as soon as possible and then return with the whole squad for safety but we can't rule out the possibility of that door hiding something useful, asking Aggapa a question probably won't get us in trouble as long as we don't go near it.

Hey! I've been lurking here following the Survival Guide for a bit now and thought it was about time I pop in to say thank you for your work, I love it! I've been thinking about trying to get into creative writing for a while now and if you don't mind my asking, do you have any advice on how you structure stories? I know the Guide is a CYOA but it still reads as well thought out. Also, Agappa is definitely my favorite character. She has this dark & mysterious yet also silly and at times even lighthearted energy that really matches with the essence of touhou :)