(D3-Lunch) (Ask) Drowning Sorrows in KFC

She sets down her cup

"Would that it were all of it" she smiles "I set about to emulate my sister. To banish the loss that I felt when I thought of her, to be more driven and active. To be the girl that she wanted me to be in the sculpture. It was hard work, but over the first year of school, I became more of who you see today.

"Finally, the priests declared I too, had been blessed by lady Benten. The soul of my sister must have passed the gift to me. I felt like I had achieved something, to be a part of her, that would not be let go. Some of her lived on in me...

"Then the dreams began. I remember feeling her presence, but corrupted some how. No longer warm, but freezing cold, and oh so inviting. I saw her there, not the radiant girl she had been, but fallen, twisted, grasping. And hungry. Kami yes she was hungry. Not just for the food she had lacked when she died, but for all of it, the sculpture, the glory, me.

"They went on for a while, until I could hear her voice even when I was awake, pushing me as she once did, but this time without a care for my needs. I kept it to myself, what could I do? She was my perfect sister, and I could not have her image tarnished by what might very well be my madness."

She takes a breath, a deep one. She is clearly not done, but takes a moment to compose herself.

"My body began to change. I was never a large woman, but my flesh melted away, as though I had not enough to eat. No matter what I ate, I seemed unfulfilled. My life became listless, unless I pushed myself to extremes. All the while, my sister's voice was there, pushing me on and on."

A sad smile

"I came to rely on it, a comfort. The way that it used to be. She would push me further and further. It was when my womb stopped quickening that I went to the shugenja. I feared I might have fallen pregnant. No though, my womb stopped because my body did not have the nutrition to power it any more. I was being fed by something else.

You see, my sister, because of the way she died, maybe because of who she was. She did not pass to the realm of the honored ancestors. I was right when I said that her memory became tainted. She has been cursed to Gaki-do, the realm of the hungry dead. And through the bond we shared, I was touched by this realm. When I say I am a gaki, I am only half lying

"My sister, who I loved more than anything else, died, and gave this to me... this 'blessing' if it can be called such. And sometimes I hate it, fear it and despise it. And sometimes it is the only connection I have left to her. Most times though, it is the pain, that lets me know I am alive"

A sigh. Her story, told to a practical stranger

"I think, I called myself a gaki first ne?" she offers a smile "I am sure that anything you cook would be delicious, and I would never say no to such things, but it is a different hunger that pushes me forward now"

"Oh, anybody can help for a time. Bad food, bad boys, bad girls." Her eyes are wicked. "My misfortune is a part of me, it is how I know I am alive, against all the rest of it"