"Ga, Ga, Ga, Asore!!"— Shikyou
Shikyou (死凶) is the main antagonist of the Onibi series.
Shikyou is described as a god who has the power to kill anything, including other gods. Seeing as how one of her main powers is to take the borrowed lives of humans and return them to the gods, it would seem she does this by "starving" the gods of their own lives.
Her main goal is believed to be preventing Mai and Akari from meeting each other.
Akari's clan forbids even going outside of their main gate, as it would end their main contract with Shikyou.
Appearance[]
Shikyou is modeled after Kagamine Rin.
She appears to be a woman with short, flaxen yellow hair and glowing red eyes. She wears a gray or brown kimono with green sashes, which is secured by a green obi, and a large white bow on top of her head.
Personality[]
"I saw Shikyou. They asked. I could not answer."
Shikyou is seen to be a cunning character who really values fate, disliking anyone who dares try and disrupt it. She also seems to lie a lot to get things to go her way and for Akari to trust her.
It is also shown that she has some morals, as she views humans taking away lives as a "serious sin" and punishes Mai for it.
Background[]
Origins[]
Shikyou is an amanojaku, which is a type of yokai in Japanese folklore that causes mischief and harm to humans, making people act upon urges that they normally can suppress, such as cannibalism, murder, kidnapping, etc.
Despite her apparent status as an amanojaku, Shikyou is also mainly the goddess of death and has unique and deadly powers.
The main role of Shikyou is to return life to the gods by causing death. All human lives are merely borrowed from the gods and must be returned to them in time before the thing they control fully decays.
Ruling over the Land of the Dead and/or Hell, which in Japanese mythology is called Yomi and/or Jigoku, one of her jobs is to collect the souls of the dead and control death/when people die as well, which is why she must never trade her soul or be trapped in an alter as then nobody would be able to die, the gods wouldn't be able to get their souls back, the things of nature would decay, and then the world would drastically end.
In the past, Shikyou had cursed an entire village by making its inhabitants cannibalize one another; the reason for this is because they were atheists.
This is known as "Shikyou's Procession," which we can only assume means Shikyou cursing multiple villages one after one, whose inhabitants are atheists and non-believers, and making them kill each other, resulting in a genocide.
This seems to also be an event that is possible with the aid of the Oborodzuka brothers or other clan members; as a man who lived in one of the villages that were later cannibalized, when describing Shikyou's Procession, he mentioned how the Oborodzuka brothers were ruthless when it came to killing members of other villages.
This alludes to the fact that Shikyou hates atheists and is most likely annoyed at them for not fearing or worshiping and appreciating the gods and Shikyou herself.
The Oborodzuka Clan[]
Shikyou has been protecting the clan ever since she failed to "save" Tsukuyomi with a contract, resulting in the clan's cursed powers. It is heavily implied that the contract with Shikyou doesn't even exist, as it is stated it will break and end once a clan member goes outside the clan's gates, yet Akari and her brother Kanishiro go out just fine, but it is possible that departure is allowed in specific situations.
Kitsune no Yomeiri[]
"The ones who abducted you seem to have been instructed by a man named Shishikusa. It looks like he has a daughter. Hehe, he seems to be quite fond of her."
Shikyou first appears in the story in front of Akari after calling out her name multiple times after she has been kidnapped.
Shikyou reveals that the reason she was calling for Akari was because this was the day that she was going to die, and she "saved" her. When Akari asks her why she helped her, Shikyou replies that it's her responsibility to help her clan and that she is glad she made it on time.
When asked what they can do, Shikyou offers Akari to give her consciousness to her. But she must restore her to the rank of a god after fulfilling a few conditions: the first one being that Akari must part from the world that she grew up in.
Akari then asks her why she cares so much; Shikyou admits that she feels guilty for not saving the Oborodzuka Clan's founder.
When Akari asks about them, Shikyou is bewildered at how Akari doesn't even know about her own ancestor but recalls the story of Tsukuyomi, mentioning that, in the end, she dealt with her and sent her to hell, which she rules over. Clearly lying.
After Akari talks about her powers, Shikyou concludes that her powers must be a punishment from the gods, as everyone in her clan has received some sort of punishment, with Akari receiving the ability to commit the most serious sin of all: taking lives.
Shikyou says that she doesn't know why Akari received that punishment, as it's even more severe than the punishment one would get for killing a god and that it strongly resembles Tsukuyomi's powers.
Next, Shikyou offers two ways to help Akari at the moment: the first is to inform her clan about what's happening. The second option is for her to lend Akari the authority of Shikyou to solve the problem herself, not recommending the latter.
After Shikyou explains the lengths of her powers, Akari chooses the first option. Shikyou identifies her kidnappers – supposedly instructed by a man named Shishikusa, who values his daughter.
Akari asks if she can take a nap, and Shikyou allows her to do so, informing her that she will watch over her.
Kimikage Enbukyou -Kitsune no Yomeiri-[]
In the song, Shikyou is shown screaming, possibly because she is angry at Akari and Mai's meeting. She also appears on the same closet door that is shown in Onibi and Onigumo to Kitsune no Shishi to.
Shikyou Amanojaku[]
"Our shoddy creations won't even praise us! Ga, ga, ga, asore!"
In the song, she makes fun of Ryou, who was an atheist, and Mai, for possibly following her mother's footsteps and not believing in the gods, while also reminiscing about her method of punishing these disbelievers: beheading.
Kubinashi Enbukyou[]
Towards the end of the series, Mai gets killed and beheaded. It is highly likely that Shikyou is responsible for this. Shikyou has a theme for beheadings, and the intro to Kubinashi Enbukyo is the same as the bridge into the second verse of Shikyou, the Amanojaku: "首無シ御寥ト死凶天邪鬼 首桶返セ | Kubinashi oryou to shi kyō amanojaku kubi oke kaese | Headless Oryou and Shikyou Amanojaku, return the head basket!"
Relationships[]
Akari Oborodzuka[]
(TBA)
Mai Shishikusa[]
It is pretty obvious that Shikyou hates Mai and the Shishikusa Clan in general due to them being atheists and thinking they are better than the gods. She also hates Mai because she met Akari, and that wasn't meant to happen.
Emi[]
It is theorized that Emi helped Akari and Mai meet each other, which would likely mean that Shikyou hates Emi as well. Although they could be allies since Shikyou offered Emi a deal that would do her good at some point.
Tsukuyomi Oborodzuka[]
Shikyou describes Tsukuyomi as a girl whom she failed to save and seems to feel guilty about the fact that she couldn't prevent her fate.
Theories[]
- A theory states that Emi is the reason Mai and Akari met; therefore, Shikyou became extremely upset and angry at her.
- Maha's Story seems to be a conflict and war between heaven and hell, posing a possible connection to Shikyou; however, Shikyou doesn't appear in the story in any way at all. But it's possible that Shikyou did not bother to care and only watched from the sidelines.
Trivia[]
Conceptualization and Origin[]
- Shikyou's name is made of two kanji letters: 死 means "death," whereas 凶 means "misfortune, ill luck, or evil."
- Shikyou is referred to as a species multiple times in Masa's blog. Since Amanojakus are a type of Yōkai, it is likely that there may be other Amanojakus aside from Shikyou.
- It seems that Shikyou wasn't even planned to be in the series since in the 2011 version of Kitsune no Yomeiri, she wasn't mentioned by Akari. It was only in Kubinashi Enbukyou that she was finally mentioned.