Mentioned Characters: Aya, Hatate, Tsukasa, Megumu

Tsukasa Kudamaki is Megumu Iizunamaru's devoted kuda-gitsune servant. Megumu trusts her to consistently deliver above and beyond whatever she orders her to do. Of course, this also means that Tsukasa inevitably meddles in things outside the scope of her orders. Despite no one knowing exactly what she gets up to, the god of marketplaces and the oomukade also seem to trust her. For now, at least. As an avid dissembler, building trust is Tsukasa's primary means of survival. People often doubt her intentions initially, but she uses her silver tongue to gain their confidence.

The word "quiz" has only entered the common parlance relatively recently. In the past, such games of wit would've been called riddles. In ancient Japan, the idea of testing people with riddles evolved from poetry contests called uta-awase. Emperor Saga created a particularly famous riddle in the Heian era (784 to 1185). He asked one of his advisors to decipher the meaning of a scroll where he had written the kanji character for "child" twelve times in a row. Like most kanji characters, "child" has multiple pronunciations―"ne," "ko," "shi," and "ji." The advisor used these to answer, "Neko no ko koneko, shishi no ko kojishi," which roughly translates to "Baby cat: kitten, baby lion: cub." Buddhist monks also greatly enjoyed riddles, with many of them publishing their own riddle compilations. These games later evolved to include aspects of comedy and performance arts to become the quiz shows we know today.

Riddles, games of wit, and quizzes have not only led to many cultural advancements but have also been a staple of radio and television. When televisions became a mainstream form of entertainment, high-stake quiz shows that drew people in with promises of extravagant prizes were majorly successful. These later developed into even more competitive quizzes that severely challenged the brain power and reaction times of all the contestants. This studio, situated somewhere on the Youkai Mountain, was apparently based on these outside-world quiz shows.

Golden Onigiri Quiz The quiz started with a bang. The audience was abuzz with everyone trying to predict the winner, and the cries of joy and despair of the contestants filled the studio. Tsukasa, the quizmaster and the mind behind this whole operation, was standing right there in the middle of it all. Before long, everyone was on the edge of their seat, waiting with bated breath for the next question. A key strategy to winning buzz-to-answer quizzes is anticipating the answer before the full question is given. The contestants tried to ignore their racing hearts as they focused on Tsukasa's every word...

Aya, the fastest tengu, had full confidence in her reactions. On the final question of the round, quicker than anyone, her hand shot out to press the buzzer... but instead, she accidentally pressed the pointy hat worn by a spirit floating next to her. "I give up," she shrugged. It seems Hatate had also lost interest in the competition as she sat at the table next to Aya with a blank look on her face. However, the clever Tsukasa knew just what to say to motivate them. "Remember, there's sweets on the line for the winner and a punishment for whoever comes last. This quiz is sponsored by the Great Tengu, Lady Iizunamaru... I wonder what kind of punishment she's prepared." That woke them up. This was a quiz they couldn't afford to lose.