[image: rough sketches of Kirin from Yu Yu Hakusho as 1) a Heian era nobleman or courtier; 2) in the
[image: rough sketches of Kirin from Yu Yu Hakusho as 1) a Heian era nobleman or courtier; 2) in the actual series timeline as Mukuro’s second-in-command; and 3) a modern-era interpretation wearing a face mask and removing it to reveal that his mouth is slit from ear to ear with jaws full of sharp jagged teeth.]
What does Kirin look like under his mask? (The Loyal Retainer fanseries interpretation)
I already drew what I thought he might look like 1,000 years ago during the Heian era in Mirror Most Dark, historically-inaccurate hair and all. So here’s how I think he looks now, under his mask. I had doodled something like this on a tablet several years ago, but the tablet has since died and I can’t find it anymore…
This idea is based on a couple of things.
One, I have this very vague, fuzzy concept that Kirin had some sort of horror-story-esque encounter something-something (like I said, it’s very vague and fuzzy) from the early days of his time under Mukuro before he became her second-in-command, well over a century ago. Possibly even part of how he joined her territory and army in the first place. After that he started covering his face.
The second thing is one of my convoluted little “in-joke" references. I’ve written lot of Kirin and Hokushin as coworkers, especially in the Left and Right Hand of the Emperor. So it was amusing to me to play with a slit-mouth design for Kirin, serving as a contrast to Hokushin with the latter’s stretchy neck ability. Slit mouth and stretchy neck are the hallmarks of two very famous, very classic yokai - kuchisake-onna and rokurokubi, respectively. Both yokai are well-integrated with regular human life, as they look almost completely human and can be found in normal everyday life settings… and both are yokai who are almost always presented as female (this is also a part of Hokushin’s backstory in North Bound). So this kind of flips it on its head.
Kuchisake-onna, or slit-mouth woman, is a well-known tale about a woman with long black hair with her lower face covered (in modern times, she’ll have a face mask). She seems very beautiful, and indeed she’ll approach you and ask you, “Am I beautiful?” If you say no, she’ll kill you. If you say yes, she’ll take off her mask to reveal that her mouth has been sliced open from ear to ear, and ask you “Even like this??”
If you say no, again, she’ll kill you, and if you say yes or scream, she’ll tell you that she’ll make you beautiful just like her and then slice your mouth as well. The “correct” answer is apparently “you’re average/so-so”, after which she’ll leave you alone. There are also various “neutralization” tactics that have been spread around. e.g., that she’s scared of certain things, like hair gel (I’m just picturing Yusuke and Kuwabara going “well I’m armed and ready!!”) or loves candy, etc. etc. I’ve always had a very strong impression of kuchisake-onna due to reading Jigoku Sensei Nube since childhood. It has a very sympathetic portrayal of the legend, explaining how it’s been distorted via urban legends and social-cultural broken telephone through the ages. In any case, the tale of kuchisake-onna continues today, scaring many small children and even adults and perhaps fueled even more by the fact that there are tons of people wearing facemasks these days. So very trend-setting!
Not sure what else we might want to take away from this. Maybe that Kirin really, really likes candy. Yes, I think that’s another headcanon we can have.
More stuff about Kirin in the Kirin cheatsheet, and here’s a whole tag’s worth of him!
