SO THERE I WAS, SNUG IN THE TOASTY LOFT

So there I was, snug in the toasty loft on a cold snowy winter evening just a moment ago, when the peaceful air was suddenly rent from here to there by a woman screaming at the top of her voice: "ONI WA SOTO! FUKU WA UCHI!" Lifted me right out of my chair. It was Echo, who definitely has a stage voice, doing Setsubun.

She had bought the necessary roasted soybeans, which come with a scary mask for extra terror to scare the poor general-purpose demons with, but Setsubun had slipped her mind (though much less than it had slipped mine, we're talking continental differentials here), what with the big snowstorm today and the grandkids aren't visiting at this time like they were last year - with little kids around you sort of automatically remember Setsubun, since the littlies keep you well minded of devilishness - but like I say it was peaceful here till Echo opened an email from Kasumi that had as an attachment a Setsubun mask Kaya had made in kindergarten, being worn by Mitsuki in the photo-op, for whom it is a bit too big as you can see, so shortly after that came the aforementioned celebratory screams and the ratatat of soybeans everywhere outside as demons were sent packing and good fortune was invited indoors. First via the door toward the south, then the east, then the north, then the west, Echo (who has a powerful stage voice), screaming each time far loud enough to scare the demons out of probably the village down below, but certainly any of them so unfortunate as to be lurking in the dark vicinity, and getting hit in the eye with a roasted soybean is no fun either, you can bet.