Nirusha and Reipin, cursed by destiny.
Fushigi Yuugi: Byakko Ibun (ふしぎ遊戯 白虎異聞?, Mysterious Game: The Curious Tales of Byakko) is a Japanese one shot manga written by Yuu Watase. It was published by Shougakukan's Monthly Flowers magazine in February 2015. A prequel to Fushigi Yuugi: Byakko Senki, it's set some time before the Priestess of Byakko, Suzuno Ohsugi, arrives to Sairou; it features two lonely and powerful people named Nirusha and Reipin, whose paths met by chance and chance their lives completely...
Note: Byakko Ibun is a prequel to the official story of the Byakko no Miko, Byakko Senki, which officially began in 2017. Therefore beware of MANY spoilers, marked or not.
Fushigi Yuugi Byakko Ibun has the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Poor, POOR Reipin is treated like shit by her family, who not only beat her bloody but also treat her like a servant, force her to work even when she's injured after all the beatings, and barely feed her. It's also strongly implied that her older brother sexually abuses her.
- Adrenaline Makeover: When Nirusha renames Reipin into Neiran, he also gives her his mother's old clothes to replace the rags she's wearing, and she walks into her abusive household with more confidence than ever while dolled up in them. It's helped by a protective charm that lets Neiran deflect any hits thrown at her.
- Animal Motifs: Tigers. Justified, since Byakko the God is the "White Tiger of the West" among the Four Gods and by a certain tigress's role in the story.
- Asshole Victim: Neiran's entire family. They physically, and in her older brother's case also sexually, abuse her on end, make her do slave labor that is tough for a child and barely give her enough food to survive. The fact that her father openly insults her, and her mother that she had just killed by accident , does not endear him any more to the reader and it's practically a joy to see him and his family, and the entire village that were assholes, too, be killed by Neiran's tiger form.
- The Atoner: Reipin, now Neiran, decides to travel alone after killing not just her family but everyone in her village.
- Back Door Pilot: The story feels so off for a Fushigi Yuugi chapter, has only a tiny cameo of Suzuno on the last page and overall seems to have nothing to do with the plot of the story to begin with that it feels almost like it's a completely different manga. One only knows it's part of the Fushigi Yuugi universe because Neiran mentions the legend of the priestess and her warriors and the revelation that Nirusha is actually Seiryuu Seishi Miboshi. The proper story of Suzuno, Fushigi Yuugi: Byakko Senki, would not start until two years later.
- Badass Adorable: Reipin, capable of wrestling tigers and shoot them with arrows. Played for horrible tragedy later, when her first victim turns out not who she expected.
- Birds of a Feather: Nirusha and Reipin bonded over how lonely they are and how people consider them cursed.
- Curse: Nirusha's father tried to master a curse technique made by killing felines to make them demons, but lost his life in the process. The curse was passed on Nirusha himself, and he's trying to undo it by killing ther strongest felines... aka tigers.
- Darker and Edgier: Like Genbu Kaiden before it. The first chapter is not shy about showing how terrible Reipin's life until she befriends Nirusha and how badly her family treats her, as well as the horrible discovery of her actual origins... and how she dealt with it.
- The Dog Bites Back: The audience will NOT feel sorry for Reipin's horrible family when she murders them.
- Fallen Hero: It's kind of a shock to learn that the cruel, sadistic Miboshi was a pretty decent guy in his past. And from what the audience sees in the first chapter, his kindness to Neiran is for real.
- Give Him a Normal Life: Attempted by Reipin's mom, who gave infant!Reipin to her father since she couldn't legally keep her and told him to raise her well, under threats of coming in ten years and destroying the village if he didn't. He and his family didn't listen, and when Reipin finds out (after unknowingly killing her mom), she kills him and the others, before destroying the place.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Reipin means "beast child", and she's subjected to this since her mother was a tiger with the power of shapeshifting into a woman.
- Hero of Another Story: This prequel is focused on Nirusha and Reipin/Neiran rather than Suzuno. She only appears in the last page.
- Heroic Bastard: What Reipin turns out to be, since her human dad had an affair with her shapeshifting mom.
- Hope Spot: At one moment Reipin has gained a new best friend, has been renamed "Neiran" and is going through quite the Adrenaline Makeover, so it looks like she'll soon turn her life around. At the other, she unwittingly kills her mom and has her muddled origins revealed her, and then everything goes to shit.
- Inter Generational Friendship: Nirusha (early-to-mid twenties) and Reipin (10) strike one in the first episode.
- Magic Knight: Nirusha, who uses curses to fight.
- Meaningful Rename: Nirusha takes Reipin under his wing, and renames her as Neiran. Also his case, since "Nirusha" is just an alias: his actual name is Rasensei... and his Seiryuu Senshi name is Miboshi.
- Mercy Kill: Averted. Tiger!Reipin begs Nirusha to kill her and use her bones for his quest, after her fatal and bloody rampage. Nirusha refuses and insists that both of them are human.
- The Nose Knows: Reipin is said to have an excellent sense of smell, and she can find Nirusha by scent. It's one of the first hints of her heritage as a half-Fuuin.
- Only Friend: Nirusha and Reipin become this to one another.
- Sailor Fuku: In her brief and only apparition at the end, Suzuno is seen wearing one. Justified, she's from the years when the seifuku was officially implemented as a school uniform.
- Self-Made Orphan: First, Reipin shoots down a tiger trying to help Nirusha, but the tiger turns out to be a shapeshifter... and her biological mother. Later, when she snaps and destroys her village, her first victims are her Wicked Stepmother, then her father and stepsisters.
- Voluntary Shape Shifting: The Fuuin, tigers that can transform into humans when they wear pendants named tiger skin. Reipin turns out to be the daughter of a fuuin woman and a human man. And she only finds out when she unknowingly kills her mother.
- Nirusha also mentions renfuu, aka humans able to transform into tigers. This might not be as voluntary, though: Reipin's abusive older brother was turned into a tiger by a curse.
- Too Dumb to Live: Reipin's dad was supposed to raise her well, since his fuuin mistress said she'd destroy the village if she ever found out that he didn't. He allowed Reipin to be mistreated and was very dismissive when she found out the truth. Man, he brought his shit on himself.
- Two-Faced: Nirusha, one of the POV characters from the first chapter, has quite the marks on one side of his face and his whole body. He covers the face marks with his bangs.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Poor Reipin LOSES it when she first accidentally kills her shapeshifting mom and then is told about her origins. She then turns into a tiger, murders her abusive family and destroys the whole village.
