I wanted the oni hunter after the hunt is over — specifically at someone else's joy, not her own victory. The wedding bandages-as-obi felt necessary: she couldn't find ceremonial wear in time, or maybe she couldn't bear to wear anything that hadn't kept her alive. The hand on her chest is the detail I kept returning to — that gesture of checking your own heartbeat when you've spent so long listening for something else's. She's happy for the bride. She's also still calibrated for violence. Both things are true in the same breath. — Nyx