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Season 121 (2006), 2nd of Mutsuki (January)
What Is the Future Of The Worn Out Tool?
A youkai babysitter saw it
Recently, a youkai carrying an umbrella, even when it's not raining, has been seen wandering around the Human Village. Its identity is, interesting enough, a babysitter.
On its own accord, if there are crying children in the east it startles and comforts them, if there are laughing children in the west it startles and makes them cry. The individual responsible for this is Kogasa Tatara(Karakasa obake).
Why did she take up this sort of job? She spoke on the matter.
"What, you don't know? It's the job of a babysitter to fly through the sky using an umbrella."
A karakasa obake is a type of Tsukumogami, an umbrella neglected for many years, finally turning into a youkai. A fairly classic youkai, how to put it, one that works to trouble humans. Though I do wonder how that's at all connected to babysitting?
"I don't really understand completely, but in the human world babysitters fly through the sky using an umbrella. When I learned of this I decided to take up that occupation. I mean, children are pretty easy to startle."
I didn't have much faith in her story, so I decided to look for other sources. According to them, a babysitter that flies through the sky using an umbrella does exist, but they are a small minority of magic-using professionals. I totally mistook it for a play on words of "Koumori (komori) umbrella"....
"Nobody wants to use me as an umbrella, so I'd like to turn myself into a more useful tool. All I can do is scare people though... I try to imagine what humans desire, then try to match a tool that humans would utilize for the purpose. This is what I believe to be the new form of a Tsukumogami."
| Someone that goes around startling children is not much of a babysitter and, I'm afraid to say, can only be seen as a simple weirdo. In fact, among the human parents, wanted posters are currently being made. Whether or not she will discover the true meaning of existence for a Tsukumogami is a quest that has just begun.
(Aya Shameimaru)

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