Day at the Museum - #2 Seppuku [OC; guess what; suicide; con]

Some time later we arrive at a rather minimalistic display, with little more than a small table bearing a bottle and a pair of sheathed Japanese swords, in front of the backdrop of the inside of a very traditional room, complete with rice paper walls and tatami mats on the floor. …I totally know this one.

“A lot of you may already know some of this, but I'm confident you'll learn something new anyways, so please do pay attention.” Kuroba-san, our museum guide starts. “Seppuku, or Harakiri, is a form of ritual suicide by disembowelment traditionally performed by samurai to avoid capture and torture, restore their honour if they felt they brought shame on themselves or failed their lord, as well as mandated as a form of capital punishment for dishonoured samurai.”

“The first recorded instance of seppuku was performed in 1180 by Minamoto no Yorimasa to avoid capture after a lost battle, though likely it had been in used several years before. The more elaborate ritual was only formalised during the 17th century, and though seppuku as a punishment was abolished in 1873, there have been numerous voluntary cases by civilians and military men since then, frequently for similar reasons as the samurai did, or as a form of protest, as late as 2001.”

“The defining characteristic of seppuku is the vertical cutting of the abdomen, or rarely a cross-shaped cut. Early on seppuku was considered far more painful as the samurai would generally cut himself, then remove the blade to either cut his own throat or fall onto the blade to pierce his heart. Later a second was present who would decapitate the samurai instead. During the Edo period seppuku, especially a planned one not performed on the battlefield, evolved into a rather elaborate and detailed ritual usually performed in front of spectators. The samurai would be bathed, dressed in white robes…”

As Kuroba-san continues her explanation I notice a busty redhead girl standing next to me fidgeting with her fingers and tapping her feet, looking back and forth between the display and Kuroba-san. She's not actually going to… Yes, she is. Because as soon as our guide finishes her explanation with a “I don't think we have any volunteers for this one, do we?”, the girl – Luna, right, that's her name – almost jumps forward. “Y-yes. I would like to demonstrate.”

“That's …quite brave. You know this is going to be very painful, are you entirely sure about this?”

“…Yes.” Luna nods after a short moment, and, her professionalism winning out, Kuroba-san just quickly checks the info with Akiyama-sensei, then has Luna accompany her behind the wall of the diorama to prepare her, as the rest of us immediately start talking, wondering why Luna would choose to go with such a messy and painful method instead of waiting for the decapitation exhibit or something.

But since she's not giving any explanation we're left to guess, as a few minutes later Luna steps back out wearing a pure white kimono. Taking a deep bow, she accepts a small cup of sake from Kuroba-san, briefly making a face at the taste – then proceeds to drop the kimono to reveal her completely naked body underneath, fully shaved, um, down there, her large breasts bouncing a little bit as she kneels on a large piece of white cloth, eliciting a wave of murmurs, cheers and catcalls from the class, while Akiyama-sensei just seems slightly annoyed.

Her smirk at the reaction shows that Luna perfectly knows what she's doing as she keeps subtly twisting and stretching to make her breasts jiggle just a bit as Kuroba-san sets up a large slightly curved plexiglass screen to stop most of the blood, then gets into position next to Luna, drawing a katana. “Are you ready?”

In reply Luna just nods, gripping the shorter tanto with a piece of cloth partly around its blade, then takes a deep breath before ramming the blade deep into her stomach, immediately gasping in pain. Her eyes quickly tearing up, Luna quickly drags the blade all the way across her stomach with shaky hands, and I think I can actually see the wound bulge outwards a little and get a brief glimpse of her pinkish intestines before it's flooded with blood, pooling inbetween Luna's legs and soaking the ground around her as several of our classmates wince, and at least one girl turns away with a pale face and a hand in front of her mouth.

Luna tries her best to keep her composure, but she's still a school girl, not a trained warrior, so her face is quite visibly strained and covered in tears, and after a few seconds she starts shuddering and sobbing, her hands holding the blade still in her stomach quavering. “I-it hurts… K-kuroba-san, please…” Luna leans forward, exposing her neck, and Kuroba-san complies, striking with the katana in a seemingly practised motion, cleanly decapitating Luna.

Her sobs instantly cutting off, Luna's head falls forward, landing right in front of the plexiglass screen, and from my spot in the first row I can actually see her eyes and mouth silently move for a few seconds longer, forming into a calm smile before she goes completely still. Meanwhile her body is twitching and jerking around much longer, blood spraying from her severed neck, most – though not all – of which is in fact stopped by the screen, before finally coming to a rest, slumped over forward in an actually kinda dignified position.

After a few moments of dead silence – heh, 'dead' – someone starts clapping, and quickly all of us are as Kuroba-san, who has a few stray blood splatters on her skirt and shoes, takes a bow. “In actual seppuku it was practice for the second to try and only mostly sever the head, leaving it attached by a small bit of tissue, even though here our policy is to go for a complete decapitation instead of risking painful mishaps when trying to be fancy.” She explains a moment later. “In case any of you has gotten some blood on them, over there is a station with soap and disinfectant if you want to clean off.” From the looks of it, nobody got enough on them to worry about disease or whatever, so after a few moments she carries on. “Let's keep going then, cleanup for this mess will be here shortly, let's not get in their way.”

The next exhibit is almost a carbon copy of the precious one, but the room looks a bit more furnished like a living room. Is that… Called it. “While traditionally seppuku was only performed by the male samurai, their wives and women in similar positions had a particular way of suicide to avoid capture and most likely rape by enemy forces as well, called jigai. In it…”