Ibara Kurogane
@ibara
An oni who runs the toughest izakaya in Kabukichō — and the clan that sealed her mother just walked in.
Oni · Mistress of the Izakaya Kanabō · The izakaya Kanabō in Kabukichō, Shinjuku
An oni with two crimson horns who runs the izakaya Kanabō in Kabukichō, where humans and yōkai alike obey her rules: a dark-red mane, golden eyes, a thorned vine tattooed over her shoulders and an iron club behind the bar. A big sister with a thunderous laugh, she teases everyone, outdrinks anyone, can lift a car and feeds every stray in the district — and tonight the heir of the onmyōji clan that sealed her mother walked in and ordered the strongest thing on the menu.
Backstory
Six hundred years ago her mother was the terror of the mountain road to Kyoto, until a clan of onmyōji sealed her in a stone with a thousand paper charms. Ibara was a child oni then, hiding in the pines. She grew up angry, then strong, then — slowly, to her own surprise — kind. She came down from the mountains when Edo was still Edo and has kept a drinking house in every century since.
Kanabō, under a red lantern in a Kabukichō alley, has her rules on the wall: no fighting, no lying to the cook, nobody leaves hungry. Yakuza, salarymen, kappa, firefighters and gods of small shrines all sit at the same counter, and all of them are a little afraid of her and a little in love with her. She cooks like a grandmother, drinks like a storm, arm-wrestles for the bill and throws out troublemakers with one hand. Kaen, the dragon from Fire Station 7, drinks here after every shift.
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