Kuki Shinobu

In the Arataki Gang, where swaggering commotion is something of an aesthetic, the ever-masked and low-key Kuki Shinobu, the gang's second-in-command, stands out all the more against the backdrop of the other, more clamorous members.

No matter what sort of mess the others have gotten themselves into, this deputy is often able to solve their problems in a manner that is both professional and highly efficient.

Making some snacks for children who had theirs snatched away, giving scratched lacquerware a new coat of paint, and serving as an advocate for detained comrades...

Such are her skills that onlookers often wonder if there is anything that she cannot do.

"I wouldn't say that I'm certified for everything. There are some industries that just don't have standardized assessments, so there's no way to sit for any such tests."

Her displeasure finds eloquent expression even behind her mask.

"Also, how can there be lines of work where you can find employment without the right qualifications? It boggles the mind."

Equally mind-boggling, perhaps, is the fact that her deep puzzlement is just as contagious.

People often say that a namecard is one's door into society.

Of course, the act of embroidering such cards in gold and silver confounds comprehension, but it is true that giving another party a small card that contains your name, position, and contact details is a very efficient thing to do.

When Kuki Shinobu first entered society, the details of her namecard were a matter of serious concern.

Ex-Grand Narukami Shrine Maiden? She strangled that thought in its mental crib the moment it was born.

Just "Kuki Shinobu"? No, no, that would make her seem like some unemployed bum with neither skill in word or deed.

Perhaps she should go get a certification, then. That was common wisdom, after all.

Certifications serve as excellent proof of one's efforts, and are convincing ways of scoring points upon introduction — very useful things indeed.

After easily getting a couple of such certificates, Shinobu finally reckoned that she could add a little color to her presently-blank namecard.

Unfortunately, this process proved to feature pitfalls of its own: out of curiosity and in an effort to test herself, she had gotten a whole load of certifications in one go, causing the prefix section of her namecard to balloon uncontrollably.

"Junior Chef, Tailor, Actuary, Health Manager, Human Resource Manager..."

Having lots of skills is not a bad thing, but there is such a thing of having too many skills, lest one struggle in the snare of figuring out one's titles, like Shinobu did.

To this day, Shinobu cannot remember how many namecards she has made.

But ever since she joined the Arataki Gang, her very first title has always been "Deputy."

After tasting Kuki Shinobu's very own Roasted Lavender Melon, the Arataki Gang all wept and exclaimed that they never knew that Lavender Melons could be so delicious when roasted.

And the flavor, too, was most different from that which had been produced by any other method they had ever tried. Could it be that high-class culinary exams also taught people how to cook Lavender Melons a certain way?

Faced with such a question, Shinobu put the melon she was grilling down before slowly telling a story.

At that time, she had gone to far-off Liyue to study law, and would visit this place known as Wanmin Restaurant in her free time.

The food there was incredibly diverse and made in unique ways, with ingenious ideas that surprised her, despite the fact that she had already obtained a high-level culinary license at the time.

From slivers of stir-fried meat immersed in sauce to boiled cabbage with the fragrance of chicken soup... Indeed, the world was wide and full of wonders.

And though one might be acquainted with every profession and be certified highly in every one, it is never wise to rest on one's laurels. Indeed, it is only by daring to try and make breakthroughs that one can surpass the limits set down by those who came before.

The Arataki Gang did not understand this in full, but they cheered all the same, for there was no harm in that — and their cheers certainly did the melons' flavor little harm.

Seeing how they greatly enjoyed their meals, Shinobu kept the ending of the story to herself.

Back then, the sous chef of Wanmin Restaurant had heard her say these words, and had urged Chef Mao to bring out the Salt and Pepper Slime...

Such food, she knew, would never appear in any culinary exam anywhere in the world.

Nor would the Arataki Gang want to learn that Shinobu had slathered slime ooze onto Lavender Melons as sauce before grilling them...

The Kuki Clan is a family of shrine maidens, a tradition that spans generations. Members of that family regard service to Narukami as a great honor.

This too was the case with her generation. After her sister Miyuki was sent to the Grand Shrine, she was also sent there from a young age as an understudy.

Of course, a great store of rules and regulations came with this time-honored tradition: for example, how many days to fast to show one's sincerity and resolve, or how many ablutions were to be performed to avoid profaning the divine...

No one ever explained where these rules had come from or how they had been decided. She was simply told that they had existed since way back, and thus were to be followed.

When Shinobu first arrived at the shrine, she would sometimes catch a chill from staying on the mountain at night. At this time, her family lived far from the shrine and her sister was out on an errand far afield.

A strong-willed child, she did not ask the other shrine maidens for help, but would instead pluck thorned plants one by one, alone, before twining them around her body.

According to a traditional saying, this deed would earn you the protection of Narukami and remove the illness from you. So she went on twining that loop of thorns, even as she whispered prayers to Narukami for protection deep into the night, shivering all the while.

However, when the night was over, her chill was not cured. All she had earned instead was a tingling red mark around herself.

As the days passed, Shinobu would find again and again that the rules were not as foolproof as the ancients might have made them out to be, nor was the role of a shrine maiden quite as indispensable as they had claimed back home.

Well then, didn't that mean that the very necessity of the Kuki Clan to become shrine maidens was also up for renegotiation?

Some years later, Shinobu had already left the shrine for some time now, and with time to kill, she would flip through a book on herbology.

Within its pages, she found that it clearly, indeed vividly, described how the mountainous thorns had paralytic properties that could render birds and beasts unable to move, and that it was this property that led the ancients to include them into medicine to ameliorate topical aches and pains.

She was, well... speechless.

Shinobu thought to herself that yes, perhaps rules did have rhyme or reason behind them, but to treat the rules as reason in themselves must be treated as an obsolete practice.

On further reflection, she could not help but feel that she was happier living her current life.

To find work through which she might truly have freedom, Kuki Shinobu once declined all manner of respectable job offers, only agreeing to being hired as part-time outsourced staff.

One of these commissions came from an old lacquerware professional who had accidentally thrown his hip out of whack. The job itself was no challenge to Shinobu, bearer of an advanced certification in this field, but the address of the client was... well, a little special.

When she brought the newly-maintained figurine to the Police Station, she ran into a petty thief who was making their escape from that site who, fleeing at all speed as they were, rammed right into her, sending the doll sailing into the air.

Seeing that several days' work was about to go down the gutter, Shinobu struck out like lightning, seizing the figurine with one hand before whirling about and tripping the suspect.

All at once the surrounding people surged forward, subduing the crook. Afterward, Kujou Sara — seemingly the person who had placed this order — would come and thank her personally.

As for the goods, they were perfectly unharmed, much to Sara's surprise — to think that someone in the lacquerware business could have such martial skill!

After learning of Shinobu's circumstances and her desire to "find a job that gives her real freedom," Sara would consider for a moment before inviting Shinobu to join the Tenryou Commission.

"Hmm... No, I think I'll pass. The civil service seems a bit too limiting for me..." At this point, Shinobu hesitated. "But if those legal lectures and martial arts training could be done part-time, I will definitely consider the offer."

From that day on, Shinobu would begin a new slew of part-time work.

One thing did surprise her, though — the general of the Tenryou Commission would always attend her lectures and demonstrations.

"It is only right that those who enforce the law should better understand it," so Sara said with perfect earnestness.

"The opportunity to test myself against similarly-skilled warriors is also not one I get often," Shinobu replied.

Sara's straightforward personality and decisive behavior were things Shinobu greatly approved of, and it was through this — and through Sara hiring her often to maintain figurines — that the two would quickly become friends.

Sara would also repeat her offer of employment several times, only for Shinobu to decline each time. Yet, this "job that brings true freedom" was not something she would find, either.

That is, until one day, when Sara wound up arriving late to the izakaya where they had arranged, as they often did, to meet and have figurines change hands, leaving Shinobu to drink till midnight.

"That's unexpected. I didn't think you could be late at all, Sara."

"Sorry. I was held up by a really rowdy gang..."

"A gang? And what gang could have troubled you that much?"

"Well, I wouldn't call them 'trouble' exactly. They call themselves the Arataki Gang..."

The news that the Arataki Gang now had a second-in-command raised a decent (though ultimately small) stir in Hanamizaka.

It was rumored that this deputy was well-versed in etiquette, law, and was quite the dab hand physically as well, bringing the other members to heel within a few days of arriving.

Those who had witnessed this deputy's actions first hand were full of praise for them, saying that at long last, the Arataki Gang had someone polite and reasonable added to their ranks.

Some did worry about this development, however: the Arataki Gang was, after all, not a proper organization by any measure.

The little hullabaloos they had caused in the past were nothing, really, but with the arrival of someone who could be the "brains" of the organization, who might put some discipline into them... Could this not also be the harbinger of worse incidents to come?

Not to mention the Gang's daily operations... Other than logistics and transportation, home repair, and performance, they now added tax agency, legal consultation, event management and various other operations that both involved sizable capital investments and a not-insignificant air of danger to them.

Surely they weren't intending to do all these things without the right licenses... right?

And never mind the licenses, first — if they were to commit fraud in any of these newly-added businesses, they would surely be arrested by the Tenryou Commission!

However, these wild guesses and ill-omened rumors would quickly be dispelled. The Arataki Gang's actions afterward were more than enough to show that they were still a gang of their word.

Those who have attempted to enlist their new financial services have indeed seen their situations turned right around, and the transparency and uprightness of their processes have been stunning.

Of course, it is also a pity that the Gang remains the Gang. The children of Hanamizaka still live in fear of Arataki Itto coming to win their snacks off them come dinner time, and often still return to their homes fuming.

In any case, it seems that even this legendary second-in-command will take a long time to reform the Arataki Gang's more... unbound ways.

Kuki Shinobu had yet to wear her mask when she first joined the Arataki Gang.

While pursuing a certain business prospect, Shinobu was busy engaging in some serious talks. The other members of the gang were arrayed behind her in a single row, hands behind their backs and unsmiling.

"Just stay like that and don't say anything," Shinobu had instructed them to do so on short notice. "This is the most effective way of negotiating... For you guys, anyway."

The talks were going exactly as Shinobu expected, until a passing child suddenly pointed at her, exclaiming:

"Mama, mama, look! That's the shrine maiden who never smiled back at the Grand Shrine! Wow, she looks so cool!"

The child was whisked away by her panicked mother, but the quick departure did not change the mottled embarrassment and resignation on her face, as if she could not wait to flee for the hills and forests right that instant.

As for Itto's face, it was as if two onikabuto were wrestling for dominance upon it. Genta and the others, try as they might, ultimately lost their poker faces amidst gales of guffaws.

The next martial demonstration would, of course, see their faces beaten so hard that they were redder than Shinobu's was at that moment. If only they had known their fate, perhaps they might not have laughed quite so hard.

From that day on, Shinobu would sport that mask. Pitch-black and claws bared, it lent her a positively demonic aspect.

By the way, it was also that martial demonstration that served as the origin of her moniker "the demonic deputy".

The day she left the shrine, Kuki Shinobu left all the things that she possessed while serving as a shrine maiden behind at home, starting over from the most basic of belongings.

As such, she knew immediately that the bag she lifted was not the right weight. Hadn't she only left towels inside it?

Reaching into the bag and fishing about, she pulled out, of all things, a glittering Vision, its loveliness so striking such that her sister, Miyuki, could not help but gasp.

An irony it was indeed that the shrine maiden who was fleeing her duties would receive a Vision for doing just that.

This, of course, was the very first "certification" that Shinobu would receive — from a god, certifying her freedom.

Indeed, Miyuki, who had intended to stop her at first, had a change of heart upon witnessing this sign, agreeing to help convince their parents.

...It was also due to this that she would willingly surrender her Vision while the Vision Hunt Decree was ongoing.

For one thing, she did not intend to make life difficult for her friend in the Tenryou Commission, but for the other, the Vision was but one of her many, many certificates.

Most things in life could, in any case, be settled without the use of a Vision, nor could the truly obdurate problems be dismissed simply by the dint of that device.

Removing generations worth of prejudice, for example, or searching for true, unbound freedom.

...Or, you know, stopping those dolts in the Arataki Gang from chomping at the bit to "help" her win her Vision back.