Chikabori Blues Incident

Propaganda art of "Mirror" harrassing a local oni

***The Chikabori Blues Incident***, also known as the "Night of the Pink Demon" (ピンクの悪魔の夜) by the Chikabori youkai, is an incident that occurred in the Border Realm city of Chikabori on September 21 2023, where members of the Snake Tong were cursed and turned into puppet familiars by the Hijiri Clan, resulting in a Snake Intervention in the city, as well as Osaka in order to investigate the cause of the curse and also save their affected members. The incident resulted in city damages that the Snake Tong had to pay for due to Unit 9's operation in the city, and their members being returned by the Hijiri after they finished testing out their curse. The conflict was resolved when negotiations were opened between the high ranking Hijiri and the Snake representatives led by Kaoru Musashibou.

## Background

Months prior to the incident saw the Hijiri Clan in Chikabori investing in different methods for creating a more cost-efficient security force, and their "Summon Security Project" was conceptualized as a way to get magi of high magical potential and or physical condition to become bound familiars to the Hijiri as agents and elite security, and most importantly, highly mobile due to their status as "familiars" that can be summoned to their masters' side via a curse that binds their souls to the Hijiri's mystics. The Hijiri would make secret deals with the Shameimaru Tengu who run the Chikabori Chronicle newspaper in order for their journalists who sneak into Japan to monitor any potential magi who visit the region and make a list of candidates for the project. The Hijiri made sure to only target foreigners to avoid the attention of the Bureau of Mystics. In case the Bureau would interfere if they discover a foreign mage goes missing, the Hijiri would have had the controlled mage to just testify to Bureau agents that they willingly want to work with the Hijiri.

### The Night of the Pink Demon

By September 21, a total of 14 foreign magi in Osaka fell into comma due to the curse's dormant state. By placing secret "nodes" in the city where Chikabori's entrance was located, the curse could be cast beyond the Border Realm and into the Physical Realm. Due to a clumsy Tengu journalist being caught by Clara "Crosshair" Agnote and Elaine "Mirror" exactly a few seconds after the rest of their unit, John "Cap" Agnote, Isa "Sleeping Demon" Agnote, Monika "Grimoire" Bergmann, and Jonathan "Courier" Holme, were affected by the curse and were put to sleep during the Curse's dormant state. Through a series of coincidences, the Snake Tong Unit who were supposed to be on vacation became wrapped up in the Hijiri project. The Snake Tong's Osaka Security Unit have already been monitoring the situation, but when their own agents fell victim to the sudden sleep curse that they could not dispel, Crosshair and Mirror were deployed to investigate the cause. Using the photo of the tengu that they caught, and posting it on Mirror's Twitter for social media clout, Crosshair and Mirror were accompanied and assisted by Kanda Souichi and Alice "Crane" Yamada as they navigated Chikabori to try and find the mage who cursed the rest of Unit 9, while Kaoru Musashibou monitored Osaka for any possible suspects in the Physical Realm. Mirror accidentally assaulted a tengu and in the process, broke her phone and lost their original copy of the tengu that they caught, which resulted in the Snake agents seeking out repairs from the Kappa while at the same time attempting to gather intelligence from the different clans to determine their main culprit. After sneaking into the Chikabori Chronicle headquarters, seeking an audience with the Oni clan leader, the Snakes were soon attacked by Isa, who was now bound to the Hijiri as a familiar, in an attempt to get rid of the Snakes and test out the extent of the spell. Crosshair was able to figure out how Isa was able to track them and captured one of the Hijiri's agents, a Tanuki spy, while Mirror and Kanda snuck into the Hijiri's clanhall and spa. During their attempts of infiltration, Mirror had to violently knock out a spa employee and steal her clothes. That employee would later testify that Mirror physically and sexually assaulted her. After trapping an Umbrella Youkai employee in a closet, the two would later find documents detailing the Summoned Security Project and were able to escape the clan hall and Isa chasing after her. Interrogating the captured Tanuki resulted in the Snakes learning that only certain mystics are allowed to practice magic in the city, and they would proceed to try and find the mystics working under the Hijiri. After a failed attempt of gathering information and being labeled as humans who tried to rob a mystic shop at gunpoint, the Snakes soon fought both Isa and Monika, after Yamada warned them that the Hijiri have fully broke Monika's magical resistance and turned her into a familiar. Their battle resulted in Monika escaping and Isa being knocked out by a well-placed dart by Crosshair. It was at that point that Yamada went to Chikabori to attempt and dispel the active curse on Isa's body, and was able to do so after a rather violent purging ritual. Isa's curse was dispelled and she was able to return to consciousness, while Yamada relayed all the intelligence gathered to Kaoru, who now opened communications with the Hijiri, presenting all the evidence they gathered.
Meanwhile, Ryouta Okita, who was recently reassigned to Japan and just arrived on the same day of the incident, was immediately given a mission to find the Nodes the Hijiri set up in Osaka to prevent the creation of new victims of the curse. After he killed a Tengu swordsman and Hijiri agent who was guarding one of the main nodes, while shuffling problems with his friends from America, Ryouta was able to destroy a total of two nodes, while other Osaka Security Unit agents found and destroyed 3 other nodes. The destruction of the nodes was used by Kaoru Musashibou as part of negotiations with the Hijiri, who fought back saying that the Snake Tong has no business causing wanton destruction in Chikabori. To which Musashibou retorts that it is simply the consequences of the Hijiri targeting the Snakes' Unit 9, who are experts in unconventional operations. As the negotiations continued, the Snake Agents in Chikabori were surrounded by Chikabori police, resulting in them attempting to escape via a magical ofuda raft and the Chikabori Canal, however, Mirror and Kanda were hit by Tengu flyers and sent into the canal's waters as a result. During this escape attempt, Crosshair and Kanda also started a fire in the Hijiri district, resulting in a majority of the police force's personnel to be diverted to firefighting.

## Aftermath

The moment fire was involved, and when Kaoru mentioned that they'll report this to the Japanese Bureau of Mystics, the Hijiri delegates finally relented and dispelled the curse from Monika, as well as the other victims still at a dormant state. In exchange for their silence and a pact stating that the Snakes and the Hijiri will not get in the way of each other's operations, the Snakes were made to pay for a portion of the damages caused by their agents, and Crosshair, Mirror, Kanda, Yamada, Isa, and Monika being banned from city. The project was also scrapped by the Hijiri clan. The compromise was timely as the Snake agents in Chikabori were surrounded before the Hijiri put an end to the conflict.

The Incident was kept under the rug, while it was possible that the Snake Tong leaked information to the Japanese mage officials anyway, the Bureau did not publically acknowledge the incident and did not send any of their own agents to Chikabori. The Hijiri and the Shameimaru immediately followed up on this incident the next day via the newspaper and broadcasts across Chikabori, stating that the humans that ran around assaulting, robbing, and nearly burning down a district were unexpected and "crazy" tourists. Propaganda would later be spread about the "Pink Menace" who injured and sexually assaulted locals, much to Mirror's chagrin. Some Tengu and Oni who are not in good terms with the Hijiri view this as all their orchestration to justify the tighter security and visitor monitoring protocols that was put in place 4 days after the incident. The Hijiri of course denies this and simply states that they are acting for the good of Chikabori. The Oni, in particular, accuse them of causing conflict with outsiders, and using outsiders as puppets to justify their increase in security and borderline criminal intelligence gather and breach of privacy in the city.