The Anatomy of a Witch Hunt
July 21, 2025
After reviewing autumn’s posts on Tumblr and reflecting on my past interactions with the people involved—as well as conversations I remember having with autumn—I have arrived at the following hypotheses:
ladyyomi accuses me of making death threats toward her readers and claims my behavior violates AO3’s terms of service, yet she never files a formal report to the platform. Instead, she fixates on a few emotionally charged statements I made, ignoring the broader context. Her style of response suggests that she’s not interested in the truth of the matter—what she wants is for me to be labeled a lunatic, both in her narrative and in public perception. Whether her statements are logically consistent, or whether I expose her lies, simply doesn’t matter to her. She’s convinced that as long as I am effectively blocked or ignored by the community at large, anything I say will lose its power. That’s how she maintains her position of invincibility within the narrative.
This also explains why she refuses to acknowledge my clarifications, deliberately obscures my actual grievances, and portrays me as an obsessive, unstable individual. vicecommanderhijikata’s call for mass blocking follows this same logic—it’s all about creating the impression that I’m spreading toxic and dangerous rhetoric. He once stated that he “1000% supports ladyyomi,” and claimed that he persuaded the zine staff to disqualify autumn from being a candidate. This shows not only his alignment with ladyyomi but also his influence in the fandom. He has actively participated in the systemic targeting of autumn.
There’s something odd about his behavior as well—he once went out of his way to emphasize that he’s male. Perhaps he intended to intimidate me, or maybe to flaunt his supposedly unique identity or viewpoint. Either way, it struck me as an unusual and calculated move. The fact that autumn immediately blocked him upon recognizing his ID (as she did with me) suggests that he’s a central player in this event—at the very least, he participated in it under that specific account.
Another strange detail: SparklesandGlitter, who posted vicious comments about me in ladyyomi’s article thread, has not appeared under the same name in any of the related Tumblr reblog chains. Her sudden low profile contrasts sharply with her previous aggressive rhetoric. autumn once speculated that she and ladyyomi might be the same person. She could also be an alt of lightmelodyva, who owns a same-name AO3 account and writes original character fiction.
In March, autumn was accused of plagiarism, harassing minors, and sending NSFW Kazama stories to someone who claimed to be 14 years old. That person also falsely claimed autumn was a 40-year-old woman. autumn later clarified all this on Tumblr, and the defamatory tactics used against her strongly resemble the methods ladyyomi later used against me. In June, autumn told me personally that “Lucy,” the supposed 14-year-old, was actually an adult in disguise. Back in January, I received an anonymous comment that confused me with autumn and accused me of promoting her Kazama fic. All of this suggests that the conspiracy against me and autumn had already been set in motion by late December 2024 or early January 2025.
I suspect this was part of saltyneo’s plan to take down the increasingly popular autumn. While autumn had been granted adaptation rights to one of saltyneo’s works, she apparently developed plotlines that saltyneo found offensive or shocking. That may explain why saltyneo resurfaced the issue a year later and enabled the “autumn plagiarized me” narrative to spread. It’s clear that ladyyomi shares the same agenda: they both want autumn and me out of the picture.
There’s also history between ladyyomi and autumn. ladyyomi claims that autumn once left a derogatory comment under one of her LGBT-themed OC stories. Old grudges and new wounds have merged, fueling her resentment not only toward autumn but also toward anyone perceived as “aligned” with her. So why am I considered an accomplice? Because I supported autumn’s work in November and December 2024. I wrote her long comments, offered her headcanon ideas, and autumn quoted my feedback in one of her fic chapters. These unusually close interactions clearly upset certain people.
At the same time, I had published an anonymous autoethnography that bluntly criticized certain practices and defended autumn—right when their smear campaign was gaining momentum. autumn responded fiercely to the false claims (her comments have since been deleted), and in their eyes, I became “the emotional, unhinged autumn 2.0.” I liked her darkfics and stood up for her, so I must be a depraved Kazama fan—exactly the kind of strawman they were looking for. The truth didn’t matter. What mattered was finding a scapegoat and going in for the kill. That’s ladyyomi’s entire strategy in a nutshell.
It’s fair to say that saltyneo and ladyyomi form a united front—or at least appear to. Back in March, when saltyneo accused autumn, ladyyomi supported her in the comment section (she later admitted that two now-deleted comments were hers and even posted backups). Now, saltyneo is reblogging ladyyomi’s new posts. All signs suggest that saltyneo knows the truth: that I am not autumn, that autumn’s works are lawful and legitimate. And yet she still chooses to enable and spread these smears.
She wants to have it both ways—to shield ladyyomi from embarrassment while using me to erase past records that might expose her own role. She weaponizes the information gap between us to her advantage. vicecommanderhijikata, in turn, pretends to remain neutral while acting as her enforcer. He demands that we “prove our innocence,” and threatens to cut off communication if we don’t. This is a clear violation of the presumption of innocence. His behavior speaks for itself.
autumn believes their goal is to drive a wedge between us, but I’m not sure that’s the whole story. ladyyomi has remained silent about the rift between us—not because she supports reconciliation, but because she doesn’t care. Her only goal is for me to spiral alone into obscurity. Whether or not I publicly fall out with autumn is irrelevant to her. A person who’s already been blocked by the entire community won’t be heard regardless. And since I have no social ties or allies within the fandom, I was an ideal target.
In mid-June, autumn contacted me out of the blue to say, “Someone is leaving defamatory comments about you under some posts.” That wording was strange. She was a victim of the same attacks, yet she only highlighted my victimhood. It was clear: she wanted me to take action.
Her Tumblr notes suggest the comment storm had deeply disrupted her personal life. She was overwhelmed, unable to work, and burned out from arguing with trolls. Meanwhile, I had just returned from two months of recovery, was unemployed, and had time and energy to fight back. Most importantly, I was willing to defend her without being asked. She was moved, and told me she was grateful I was speaking up for her.
Later, I suggested we release a joint statement clarifying that we are not the same person. She didn’t like my sharp tone and wrote her own version, which she posted at the end of The Birth of Romantic and pinned to her Tumblr.
Her idea of “clarification” was limited to “I am not YGP.” As for everything we went through, and everything I did for her—she said nothing. You could argue, even harshly, that she didn’t want to make the boundary between us too clear. Because doing so would mean formally acknowledging that I exist as a separate person. Instead, she needed me as a sort of auxiliary persona—someone to absorb attacks, take blame, offer creative ideas, protect her reputation, and buy her time. When the tide turns, she can sever ties and say, “She has nothing to do with me.”
Other than the co-signed statement and a three-sentence update she reluctantly posted under pressure, autumn has never explicitly explained the difference between us. She just keeps repeating that she never did anything wrong, and urges people not to believe rumors. But she never tells them who I am.
Frankly, I find this disappointing. I now suspect that she never intended to protect me as a friend. She only wanted to extract value from me. And when I voice my hurt, she may throw it back at me: “Why should I help you with your case? You didn’t help me when I was being attacked.” I’ve told her many times that what I can’t stand is being treated like a venting bin or a comment machine, a tool for someone else’s needs. But she still did it anyway.
As for ladyyomi’s reaction to this article—I don’t care. I will cooperate with any platform investigation and provide further evidence if necessary. I do not ask the platform to favor any side; I only hope Tumblr fulfills its basic regulatory responsibilities. If either side claims to have a clear conscience, then the platform’s technical verification is welcome.
oninofukuchou’s so-called “defense” in comment section is not valid. He tried to rationalize his active exclusion of others and instigation of blockade in zine recruitment as “kind reminder” and “sensitivity to pronouns”, which is actually using performative caring language to cover up a kind of power intervention. He did not react passively because of the wrong pronouns, but participated in the instigation of structural exclusion earlier. The so-called advice is essentially resource control disguised as a moral posture, not a neutral behavior.
He claimed that he was “only advising the Zine editor not to choose Autumn,” trying to absolve himself of responsibility for excluding me. However, the fact is: it was precisely this systematic stigmatization and blockade against Autumn that created the entire public opinion premise for me, as a reader and writing supporter, to be implicated, misidentified, and excluded within the Fandom.
He is not stopping me—he is constructing a structural blockade mechanism that automatically removes anyone labeled as “Autumn-related.” My defense of my rights is not a misinterpretation of his personal actions, but a resistance against this joint exclusion through discourse power.
Besides, his comments reflect a double-bind logic: they no longer treat me as Autumn, but still insist on treating me as a carrier of her stigma. This proves the exclusion is not based on mistaken identity, but on symbolic contamination. I am not Autumn. I am simply her witness. And in their eyes, that’s already too much.
These words reveal a more complex logic of public opinion manipulation: separation in discourse, continuation in punishment. He no longer attacks by saying “you are impersonating her,” but acknowledges that I am a separate individual, yet still tries to justify his past exclusionary actions against me. The underlying implication of this logic is clear: “We know you are not her, but since you stand with her, you must bear her consequences.”
This is not a misunderstanding of identity, but a deliberate construction of a symbolic stigma contagion logic: any individual labeled as “Autumn-related,” regardless of their actual words or actions, can be by default excluded, suppressed, and blocked. They have created an invisible “community cleansing technique” within the platform—merging identity politics with moral punishment as a legitimate means to suppress dissenters. This means I am no longer attacked as “Autumn herself,” but rejected as her “heir,” “continuator,” and “carrier of contamination.” My very existence has become a threat they cannot tolerate.
This not only strips me of my identity as an independent writer but also exposes the true nature of this collective action: it’s not about who I am, but about the fact that I am not on their side. They are not punishing “identity errors,” but punishing “identity mobility” itself. They don’t need you to actually become the enemy; they just need you not to stand far enough away.