Spin-off: Curse of the Were-Snow-Rabbit
Arare goes toe-to-toe with an unexpected opponent: another member of the Seven Wonders.
Arare's spiritual energy reserve wouldn't last much longer; he was in urgent need to find humans to scare. Before long, the surprise snow golems would wear out their novelty, and so he wandered the hallways of HQ, alternately observing its puny human residents and racking his brain thinking of new scaring tricks.
He was then jarred out of his thoughts by a guttural voice from behind him, "I've found you at last, Usuasagi!"
Arare turned around. A hellishly scorching aura filled the empty hallway; facing him was a walking skeleton in a chef's uniform, two balls of red fire ragingly bright in its eye sockets. Next to the skeleton were three mini-Balrogs – Greyham, Ballin and Thrranduil – all appearing just as enraged. Even then, Arare was not one bit intimidated. "Ah, good morning, good sir. I never thought I'd see you here," said he. "Red of the Kitchens, Manjushage Hinata 曼珠沙華陽向 the gashadokuro. Are you perhaps here to announce that I'm part of the Seven Wonders?"
"As if," said the skeleton named Hinata. "Filth like you will never join our ranks. I'm here to take vengeance."
"But why? I'm a yōkai, I have unmatched powers, my surname references a colour and my first name a weather phenomenon. Don't I satisfy all your requirements?"
"Shut your filthy mouth," Hinata roared, while one of his mini-Balrogs hopped on his shoulder. "Your crime is heavy: you put out my unknown flame barbecue in the Courtyard the other day while I was away. My boys told me everything. Do you know how unforgivable it is to touch a cook's tools without permission? I was in the middle of developing a new recipe Mistress requested; what am I going to say to her now that I can't deliver what she asks of me on time?"
"Those unknown flames of yours almost put me out!" Arare had lost his patience and started shouting. "What was I supposed to do, melt to death?"
"Spare me your excuses; your crime is unforgivable. Step back, boys, I'll teach this scum a lesson," said Hinata. Just after he peeled his mini-Balrog off his shoulder, the flames in his eye sockets grew brighter and both his bony hands were encased in infernal rainbow flames, so starkly bright they were short of searing any eyeball beholding them. "We shall fight until either of us can no longer attack. Taste the unknown flames, Snow White!"
And so pandemonium ensued. A whole section of HQ hallways was blasted, doused, flooded with waves of hellish fire and rains of sharp icicles as the yōkai duelled. One burst of fire, extinguished to nothing by well-timed ice needles. One icicle, melted in seconds by a rainbow flame. Amidst the dizzying barrages, of unceasing attacking and deflecting, Arare came to a painful realization that he hadn't much energy left.
And so he ran, quickly turned the corner and disappeared like a cat.
"Where are you? Come right out, you yukinbo scum!" Hinata cried. Right then, an army of multiple Arare, all identical down to the patterns on their robes, poured out like ants, completely surrounding him.
But he needn't determine which one was the real Arare; he'd already figured out none of them was. He summoned a ring of unknown fire that expanded from where he stood, and so the army of Arare clones, unable to fight back, melted in a blink.
Hiding behind a corner, the real Arare clenched his fists at the utter failure of his technique. Named Blue Lotus (嗢鉢羅), it was one of the more challenging yukinbo techniques: creating life-sized snow golems in the likeness of the user, with the unfortunate weakness that none of them had the user's powers. This, Arare figured, meant he had to put to use the strongest technique he'd mastered and hope for the best.
He stood on one foot, and the ground underneath began to freeze, spreading out from his foot. This technique was called Red Lotus (鉢特摩); the freeze was rather like a trap: when it spread to any person, it would slowly freeze the poor victim from the feet up until they were little more than large immobile popsicles, and would remain so until the user ended the technique and freed them. It could easily stop an army in its track, but sadly the spread was frustratingly slow. So slow was it that when Hinata noticed the thin ice on the floor creeping towards him, he simply summoned a ring of fire around his feet, and so the freeze could never reach him.
"It's all useless," Hinata gloated. "What a fool, trying to beat fire with ice. You can throw as much ice and snow at me as you like; I'll blast them as soon as I see them."
It was hopeless. From his hiding spot, Arare could hardly stand straight; his energy was running out. Both his strongest techniques had failed, yet he had no intention of surrendering. Then, an idea occured to him; with the last amount of energy he had left before reverting into a rabbit, he would unleash just one last technique. It was something he hadn't yet mastered, but it was the only choice he had left. He could only hope for a tiny sliver of a chance that it would work.
Suddenly, Hinata found himself unable to move. He tried forming balls of fire in his bony hands, but nothing came out. He felt something like threads wrapped around his wrists and ankles, but saw nothing. The invisible threads restraining him were deadly cold, like scalpel blades made from ice.
Arare finally showed himself, but he could no longer stand. Crawling on the floor, he breathed out, "You can blast any ice as soon as you see it, but what about ice you can't see? Behold my newly developed technique: Great Red Lotus, Arare style (霰式摩訶鉢特摩). These ice threads woven from my own breath are extremely thin, but also extremely strong and hellishly cold. Now that I've restrained you and suppressed your powers with my ice threads before you can react, you're now unable to fight. It should be clear who the winner is."
And so his body gave out and he transformed, but he was happy nonetheless…
… until someone came along to interrupt the moment. The person, seemingly a little girl, said to the two, "That's quite enough, boys."
Deep within the freezer level of the Horror Fridge sat a masked female tengu wrapped in layers of warm clothing. Upon her lap was a round white rabbit who was struggling to enunciate between profuse sobs.
"She told me she's never going to let me into the Seven Wonders," Arare said. "Since Manjushage can't develop the recipe she commissioned on time, I'm considered a business liability. Not only that, I still haven't truly mastered Great Red Lotus! What am I supposed to do? How will I ever be feared? How will I ever face my clan?"
"I already told you, you can be scary without having to try to join her stupid gang," Oshimo replied. "She's nothing but trouble."
~END OF SPIN-OFF~
