Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 5

Among the many crazy heroines that have appeared in 'Firefly of the Dark Night (Yamiyo no Hotaru)', one of the three most popular is Aoko the red-haired blue demon, commonly known as Aoko-chan among fans.

In the game, the main character mistakenly thinks that she is a member of the Kizuki family because she appears at the mansion dressed as a family member. So, if the players had played the game without knowing anything about her, they would have thought that she was a mere caretaker or a supportive NPC.

...But the true nature of this character is that she is one of the "Four Evil Ones" who attacked and nested in the capital of Fuso-kuni nearly a thousand years ago and was nicknamed the "Great Blue Demon" because of the place where she nested...

According to the story, she was originally a rampaging monster on the continent, and after crossing the sea, she literally "devoured" Ukyo along with many other monsters that had taken over the capital and neighboring villages. By the way, Aoko-chan at that time is called "EX Aoko-sama" by her fans and the production team.

In the end, however, the emperor ordered the "Seven Exorcists," a group of renowned Onmyoji, Samurai, and Buddhist priests, to kill all her subordinates, and she was literally torn to pieces as her limbs were repeatedly torn off, her internal organs were dragged out, and her head was repeatedly chopped off. I heard that she ran away in desperation. And until now, the wounds still seem to have not healed. Thanks to this, her fighting strength is said to be only 20% of her peak at the start of the game. Even so, I'm still no match for Calamity Youkai. More importantly, weren't the people who beat her at her peak of the game terrible?

Anyway, it seems that she had some purpose to infiltrate the Kizuki family at the start of the game, and depending on the route from the middle to the latter half of the game, she reveals her true identity only to the main character or her neighbors, or she can be controlled as a reassuring ally character. Her friendly personality, her high parameters of reassurance, and her relatively(?) low level of skill make her a good friend to the protagonist and her friends. Moreover, she is reasonably popular due to her better bad endings and her striking visuals, and for a while, she was ranked fourth in the number of illustrations posted among all the characters on a certain illustration site.

But, her image was considerably changed by the spin-off novels and manga that were produced a while after the release of the game. Especially her deeds during her "EX Aoko-sama" period, it was described in a rather brutal and gruesome manner and, above all, in great detail.

'It is clear that people and monsters are incompatible after all.'

"Before reading: 'The cover EX Aoko-sama's beautiful side breast and armpit are lick-lick-lick-lickious! ' -> After reading: 'We have to kill all the monsters (with a straight face).'"

'Is this an official secondary anti-hate story?'

'The only good monsters are dead ones.'

'I felt sorry for Aoko in the game, but this is too cruel. '

'I knew it... Demon is a big liar!?'

'Totally automatic chopping off the head technique, a mass of killing intent and rationality, all the exorcists of that time seem to have a thought process like a goblin slayer.'

'↑That's right (if the monsters keep doing such evil deeds).'

'Aoko-sama is so cute that she runs away from people who made fun of her with her intestines dripping in the latter half of the story even though even though she was so pissed off in the first half of the story.'

These are the opinions on an Internet bulletin board after reading the novel depicting the death struggle against the "Seven Exorcists" who were sent by the Imperial Court to run rampant in the capital. No, seriously, that was terrible. The fans were made to reconfirm the meaning of the name "Aoko the Red-Haired Blue Demon". In the game, they say "she used to be naughty" or "she's quiet now", but it's not that lukewarm.