Of Swords and Parasols

Volume one of Canon set the series up to be a very good, if standard in concept, book about a girl who wanted revenge revenge on the vampire who killed her friends and was joined by a vampire who also wanted revenge against the same man.  The main thing that made it stand out from the norm was that Sakaki, the hero to Canon's heroine, seemed to be just as bad and as ruthless as Rod(I shall never stop loving that he is "Rod, the Vampire Lord"...I feel confident it sounds MUCH better in Japanese...rather like Oh! Great! is probably a cool name for a mangaka...somewhere...)  Volume 2, however, rather turns that idea on its head.

For Him: How to carry on a courtship when you’re possessed by two demons who are ancient enemies:

1. Have the Evil Demon, Kagara, awaken inside you, giving several thousand of your relatives dreams where you slaughter each and every one of them in a particularly brutal fashion.  This will lead them to ceaselessly hunt you down and try to kill you for the next several years.
2. Hunt down the very distant cousin(naturally of the opposite sex from you and approximately of the same age, to allow for romantic angst) who possesses the mortal enemy of your own demon inside of her because your soul tells you she can help you control Kagara.
3. Face the Evil Relatives who want you dead and bond over dead bodies.
4. At some point, said Evil Relatives must kidnap the female half(sustaining a fair amount of damage in the process…that Aria is a vicious one when provoked) to draw you out.  When this happens, you will naturally run off to save her a like any good hero, only to get caught in their trap.  The fact that your girl hates all their guts for relentlessly hunting you without ever trying to help you will not help the situation any (and, frankly, they are all Scum and she has many valid points.)
5. When one of them makes a move to kill her, feel free to attack him instead, even though you know that the first time you willingly shed blood, the demon will take over completely.
6. Be warned, though, that as everyone around is on Kagara’s hit list, he’ll probably slaughter them all.  On the upside, it may allow Kagara’s mortal enemy, Kurugi, to finally awaken inside your girl.
7. Don’t worry, even though the demon in your body tried to kill her, she will engage in a relentless quest to save you, despite all the relatives she never met before ordering, bribing and begging her to kill you to save them from you.  To her, they are the worthless scum who were trying to kill you and drove you into the corner that forced you to give in to the demon and you are the victim.  Sure, she’s going to beat up anyone to use the words “boyfriend” or “love” in reference to you, but we all know better.
8. As you are A) in love, and B) the hero(ok, hero’s love interest, really) of the story, you will be able to fight back against the demon inside you and keep him from killing her a few times.
9. This may also cause Kagara to remember what may have been a romantic side to his relationship with Mikage, the female warrior who killed him (with Kurugi’s help, of course) 400 years ago.  Of course, as Kagara is Evil, this will likely just make him even more determined to crush your soul and slaughter all your relatives(only a very few of which are worthy of being spared the brutal butchering.)
10. Please not that Kagara is a manipulative SOB, and you should NOT be tricked when he lets you regain control of your very wounded and bloody body in a place where your girlfriend is likely to find you.  As soon as she gets close enough for cuddling, he’ll likely take control back and try to choke her to death.
    

Yes, still loving this one.  I really do despise the relatives…really, the only flatout likable ones are Tohru, who’s really barely more than a kid and isn’t all “Kill Sakura! KILL KILL KILL!!” and Towako, who mostly wants all the idiots to shut up and start whining.  Akiya and Takikaido are both interesting, but are both destined to end up either broken shells or with their entrails dangling from Kagara’s fingers.

Night of the Beasts remains my favorite of Chika Shiomi’s books.  I loke both Canon and Yurara a lot, but compared to Aria, both their heroines are pushovers, and while Canon has promise in the “messed up psycho OTP area” Yurara doesn’t really show signs of it, and I like the history and mythology in Night of the Beasts.