/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Um, I'm actually getting a little bit warm." she said with a frown. When she tried to pull her coat off, we identified the major flaw in her plan to wear so many layers. She couldn't quite bend her arms around enough to pull the thing off. I asked her dryly if she needed a hand. "Nope. I've - I've got this." She grumbled. Finally, she did manage to get the coat off of one shoulder, but that seemed to be her limit, so I took pity on her at that point and pulled the rest off of her myself. She was wearing a very thick sweater underneath, along with a long skirt and tights. "There. That's better." She still seemed to be quite warm, though. After a moment, she rolled up the sleeves.

For a moment, Wakasagihime watched us. "Do I spy...?" She murmured narrowing her eyes. "Miss Yamame, please could you show me your hands? I won't bite, I promise." Yamame got that slightly self-conscious but pleased smile that she usually got when someone mentioned the ring, and she raised her hand. "Oh!" Wakasagihime exclaimed, her eyes positively sparkling. "Kagerou! Kagerou, look!" She waved the wolf over frantically.

"What? Hime, calm down." Kagerou asked with a frown, stepped over. "What's so...?" She looked more closely at Wakasagihime, and then at where she was looking. At the ring on Yamame's hand. "Ooh, that's really pretty." She commented, nodding approvingly.

"Pretty!? It's beautiful! It sparkles just right!" Wakasagihime cried sharply in response. She looked at me. "That's my stone, isn't it?" I nodded and thanked her for gifting it to me, since it had gone to very good use. The mermaid princess reached out and gently brought Yamame's hand closer so that she could look a little closer. "I didn't think it could look like that." She said quietly. "You have to stay and tell us, you know. There's no way I'm letting you leave. Neither will Kagerou." It almost sounded like a threat, except Kagerou looked like she was just as threatened as Yamame and I were.

"Oh, er, yeah. I'm really curious." Kagerou mumbled. "Do you want to sit down? I've got some sake." She lifted a bottle and several cups. "It's not much of a moon viewing, I know, but..." I smiled and took a cup from her. It wasn't like I'd ever needed much of an excuse to have a drink, anyway. Passing the other cups over to Wakasagihime and Yamame, who had to take it with her free hand since one was currently trapped in Wakasagihime's hand, I let Kagerou open and pour the bottle. "Was it - Well, romantic?" Kagerou asked me quietly and calmly, compared to the mermaid. Yes, I replied. I thought so, anyway, and Yamame seemed to have thought so, which was good enough for me. "Good, that's a relief. I was worried that you'd...I don't know, propose in Eientei." Dryly, I laughed and told her that I had thought of doing it right after falling off a roof, if that counted. "Somehow," Kagerou replied, taking a drink of her sake, "That doesn't surprise me."

No, I doubted it would be a surprise. Not when I'd been practically cooked by a Master Spark on Kagerou's first night knowing me, anyway.

>>45978556
With everything set, Sekibanki declared her card.

"Flying Head [Seventh Head]!"

She could see his face change to confusion for a brief moment, trying to mouth out "se" and "be". Just perfect, he was ignorant of what was coming for him. Her English skills were finally of some use!

She then flew backward, following the path to the yard, goading him to follow with some shots from her eyes, to which he obliged with enthusiasm. The trap was sprung.

As they flew to the first turn, Sekibanki stopped right at the wall. When the tanuki was about to grab her neck, she saw him through four angles - most of them above. That was a signal, there was no escape. Hearing the sound of beams sizzling in the air, he just barely managed to dodge lasers shot from the front and left sides of a roof's valley of a row house making the corner, jumping away, only making himself an easy target for the head looking down from a roof's hip to his right. A direct hit to his side launched him right through a wall, with screams coming from the inside, a resounding success! Using that, Sekibanki rushed to the next ambush spot.

"Hiding familiars?" He peeked from the hole he made to the roofs surrounding them, his hair having returned and his sharkskin now absent. "Clever, but not enough." He threw some danmaku onto the spots he thought the shots were coming from, and for that, the unseen heads rewarded him with a shower of blue spheres. "Ah, shit!", he cursed as he jumped away from the bombardment.

Recovering from his sudden dodge, the tanuki saw his target running to another corner. Thinking himself clever for not getting fooled by the same trick twice, he flew higher, pelting the rooftops with danmaku. Sekibanki judged his joyful expression as him finding that ensuing explosions of blue spheres left nothing but scorch marks on tiles. Good, he must've not noticed the heads getting away, and thought that he got rid of all her familiars. She cemented this illusion with a look full of worry and bolted straight to the finish line.

The yard was just a few ken away when she heard a shout behind her. "You ain't getting away!"

"Transformation [Tsuchinoko's Lies]!"

Running past some drying racks full of wet clothes, Sekibanki saw herself from above, moving closer to the center of the yard, which would be fine if there also wasn't something long and dark brown moving quickly from the tanuki's right arm towards her. She tried to dodge it while turning to face him but suddenly saw how it wrapped around her back and stuck to her right arm. A jolt of sharp pain went through her, as she realised what it was - a big, fat snake had it's fangs in her shoulder, her red kimono becoming a bit darker. What the hell?

"Come 'ere!", the tanuki shouted as he pulled his snake-arm-thing. Sekibanki tumbled to him with a spin and soon was nearly completely bound with a snake. Thug's left arm added to it, grappling her neck in a chokehold. This was it, now he'll force a surrender, or try to knock her out... Only instead he suddenly started to painfully pull her head up, forcing a choked cough out of her! What was he doing? With an effort to keep her neck the same length, she tried to turn her head to get a look at him, and found him with an evil smile and murder in his eyes.

"What, ya thought I was joking? About your head?", he sneered, straining from effort. "Ha! That was our wager! Boss'll have a snitch's noggin for his head-viewing ceremony!"

Oh really now? Was he hoping she would get somewhere isolated to assassinate her? Or was this some pathetic tough guy act? Sekibanki couldn't help but chuckle.

"Wh-What the hell?! I'm killing you right now, you know!" His murderous facade crumbled, and the chuckles became harder to resist. "That's no laughing matter!". That's it, the dam was broken. She was now howling with laughter.

"Ahh... Sorry, but you're going to need more than this head for your rank, you two-bit hatamoto!"

It was time to finish this. Her many angles on him confirmed it - he was in the middle of a perfect killbox. It didn't matter if he was going to kill her or not, for that snake bite she wasn't going to spare him. With some struggle, she pulled the card out of her pocket and spoke its name through her teeth.

"Glinting Eyes [Hell's Ray]!"

With the declaration finished, she bit his left hand as hard as she could, there was no escaping this. Tanuki's cry of pain was silenced by the cavalcade of lasers shot from the rooftops surrounding them. They filled the air, most of them hitting the tanuki in the back, she felt every impact.

By the time she ended the spell, his back was a mess of small burns and bruises, his fine kimono totaled. His grip was nonexistent as his arm was no longer a snake. Sekibanki slipped from under him, and he fell like a cut tree. His ears and tail were for all to see, just as messed up. She felt a foul taste in her mouth and spat out a tiny piece of flesh she had bitten off his hand. Disgusting.

>>45978548
With the tanuki distracted, she sent all of her heads sans the one on her shoulders up the hole in the ceiling, hoping to hide them among the rooftops. This would be difficult - roofs in this district were more tile than thatch, but they'd have to do. Remembering how she finished off that tanuki this morning, a plan was forming on the go.

By the time she got up, the brave and foolish carpenter was flying through the wall near his table. The crash woke up his partner. "Sankichi?! Shit, not again!", he shouted as he got up and went to fuss over him through the man-shaped hole. Foolish humans.

Feigning nervousness, she looked back to the tanuki. Credit where credit was due, he did sport some bruises and a dislocated nose that he was in the middle of fixing. "Gah... Back for more? No worries, I'm not done with you yet!"

She allowed herself to be shaken off his side by his sudden kick, flying into the window, right into a crowd of villagers gawking at the duel above them. The black-white witch and the ponytailed tanuki were going at it about a chou high in the sky, dropping enchanted rice and star-shaped pastry below, with the onlookers moving aside from the danmaku falling near-harmlessly beside them, trying to stop their children from catching some.

Seeing her dynamic exit from the half-ruined cafe, the crowd gave Sekibanki some berth. Good, she needed that thug to see her to lure him. She also needed a place to lure him to. Her heads flew from roof to roof, hidden from the view of those below, trying to look for a good spot. She was hoping that they would be distracted enough by dueling above and below to notice them.

Soon enough, the bearded tanuki jumped from the window, all smug and with a card in his hand. "And just where you're going? Givin' up already? We're just gettin' started!" She retreated to the middle of the street, with the crowd dispersing even more, parents hiding their overjoyed and cheering children.

"Sharks've gifted me with sight without eyes." Sharks? The hell was he talking about? "No need to leave you out of their generosity!"

"Transformation [Shark's Crocodile Tears]!"

Out of a sudden puff of smoke emerged the tanuki, a bizarre variant of his previous, more human form. He no longer had any hair on him, his skin became a smooth gray-white gradient, and on his neck, a few protrusions appeared, almost like gills.

He fired streams of danmaku, a mix of shining blues and reds, like sapphire and ruby teardrops. They flew in horizontal and vertical arcs, forcing Sekibanki to stay within one area or be hit, with every third or so red sphere bursting into pellets upon hitting the ground, keeping her on her toes. Was this an attempt at sophistication? To make matters worse, he seemed to be closing in, slowly picking up speed. Never mind then, he was still a brute.

She needed to avoid friendly fire on Kanfukutei, any mon that could saved by not hitting it counted. Thankfully, the space here was just right to avoid collateral. Figuring the right amount of power needed for them to dissipate around three ken away from her, she fired off short, wiggling, spine-like strings of danmaku, forcing him into a corridor to make him move slightly at an angle, finally making them parallel to the cafe. Add to that triple shots of bullets about one shaku in radius, and she could keep the tanuki off her long enough for her heads to finish their search.

"The main street? No, too crowded, same with the market square."

"Shame, the angles near that pawn shop looked good..."

"What about this garden? I could make potshots from the trees, and-"

"No, you talking manju! Can't you see it's in the back of this manor? Do you want to get in trouble with a noble?"

"Keep quiet! The humans might hear us!"

"Hmm... This residential backyard seems empty..."

"Let me see... it's rather close too, good."

"And the closest path there is through this zigzag of an alleyway... Perfect."

Now she just needed to lure him into the ambush. The tanuki was getting close, prepared to jump at her, but Sekibanki got ahead of him and leaped through the wall of danmaku to the northern alleyway, narrowly avoiding bullets to her neck and three rows of teeth to her leg (In the middle of a crowd? Was he nuts or something?), pulling out her card as she landed. Her heads were in position on two corners, hidden in the shadows made by the roofs' dormers and valleys. She would have angles on him on every turn, and even if he would make it through, the backyard would be his doom.

>>45922742
She actually works there for free. Around the time of the 6th game, it was said somewhere that she was getting paid in having a roof over her head and getting something to eat. And that was her choice in the matter.

Later on, she apparently got a better deal once Remi got in the swing of things.

On it were the words 'Hi! Kagerou and Hime here. Hime says that she misses both you and Yamame and wants you to come to the next GYN meeting, and I happen to agree, so I'm inviting you both. We're holding it on the eleventh of the month, which is the new moon. It'll still be at the lake, obviously, because travelling is difficult during Winter for Hime, but we'll clear away as much snow as possible and maybe make a fire so that Yamame doesn't get too cold. So, hoping to see you there!' At that point, there was a crossed out section, followed by 'From Kagerou and Hime', but I could tell that the crossed out section had said 'Love', which I thought was sweet.

My estimations about Kagerou being kind were going up the more I interacted with her, and I already knew that Wakasagihime was kind. "Wow." Yamame said, having just finished reading the letter. "That's really nice of them." I looked over at asker her dryly if she was going to require some more convincing before agreeing to go to that. She slapped me on the shoulder. "I'm not going to back out of something like that...Though if you want to-"

"Hey!" Reimu suddenly called. "Stop flirting while I'm standing here." She turned to us with a frown. "Come on, we're getting this over with before you find excuses to talk yourself out of it. Or before you both decide that you need to go home and-" At this point, I decided that letting Reimu finish wasn't to anyone's benefit, so I hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth and told her that I got the point. After a moment, she glared at me enough to make me move my hand away. "Look, I'm only in a bad mood because I know that this will probably leave you in a poor spot." I nodded soberly. I understood, and I was thankful that she was with me...Though I did remind her that if she went in throwing ofuda everywhere, it would probably cause more harm than good. "What kind of image do you have of me?" She asked me with a frown. "I'm not going to do that." I stared at her for a few moments, because she was exactly the kind of person to do that. Finally, I shook my head and decided to just walk over to my house.

A moment later, it was Yamame who had her arm locked around mine and was guiding me forward, because my legs felt like they were locking up. "It's fine." She was whispering to me. "I'm here." And there we were. In front of my eyes was my house. My home. The house I'd left abandoned for so long. The roof was clear of snow, so I knew that someone was doing something about it. I knew it was just a house. One I'd lived in just fine. And I had to deal with it. So, I swallowed, got Yamame to let go of my arm, and forced myself forward and up to the door. Then, with almost mechanical movements, I raised my hand and pushed it open. It creaked. I'd forgotten that it did that, and it almost made me jump, even though the place looked completely normal inside. In fact, it looked like it was being taken care of, and that Chiyari Tenkajin hadn't seemed the type to do that.

"Hello?" Reimu called, moving in front of me and getting into the entrance hall. "Anyone here?" I thought that she was looking around, but I was struggling to focus. My entire thought process was getting tied up, because there was a door. There. Right there, right in front of me. A door next to the doors that I remembered. This one was always there, but I'd never opened it. Never even knew it was there. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, then felt a shiver run through me. There was something in the back of my mind. A memory, or a thought. Like a waking dream of me opening that door. Of seeing - Seeing my mother inside. Running to her in tears because I'd fallen and bruised my knee outside. And she'd...Calmed me down and helped me treat it. My father had come in to talk to me. I just...Couldn't remember what he'd said.

And then I felt a touch on my shoulder and jumped, but it was just Yamame, and once I'd looked over at her, she threaded our hands together and squeezed tightly. Ahead of me, Reimu had stepped through the entrance hall and into the living room. "What's going on here?" She muttered. Shaking my head, I gestured to Yamame and we stepped inside, closing the door behind us. In the living room, Reimu was standing at the seat, where there was a big lumpy thing underneath a blanket. Cautiously, she motioned us all back, then poked it with her gohei. It didn't move. Now frowning, she tried it again.

I hauled Shameimaru upright, and released her hand quickly, stepping around her and over to Reimu. She looked a bit scattered. "W-Well, uh, you..." Stammering, she ran her hands through her hair, ruffled it, then began straightening her clothes. "Good - Good catch. Er, thank you." Her wings shivered slightly, before folding themselves back around her. Was she okay? "Fine! Just fine. Reimu, can I have my camera back?" She extended a hand that was shaking slightly. "That picture you took - I'll...Develop it. Just to see what's on there. If it's any good, I'll bring it with me next time." She nodded shakily, then took the camera back from Reimu as she offered it. "Well, er, I'd best be going." She said, heading for the door again.

"Hold it!" Reimu said sharply. "You just got blown over the first time. What makes you think it'll go any differently now?" She crossed her arms and stared at Shameimaru, who spread her hands and seemed to recover a little of her old self.

"Now? Well, I'm prepared now." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a large fan shaped like a maple leaf. "I was caught off guard a moment ago. No breeze will ever get the best of a crow tengu, let alone me!" She grinned, looking rather excited.

"Wait, what are you doing with that?" Reimu questioned her, sounding a bit worried. "Don't use that thing in here, you'll tear the whole roof off! Hey, are you listening to me!? Aya Shameimaru, you better not-" Shameimaru threw the door open at that point, the fan held tightly in her hand. Again, a strong blast of wind blew through, but this time, Shameimaru stood her ground and raised the leaf, before suddenly sweeping it downward. A massive blast of wind shot back in the opposite direction, enough that I actually stumbled forward in the direction that she'd blown the wind. A second after that, she raised a hand and, with a wide smile, snapped her fingers.

And just like that, the wind stopped. Like it had never been there in the first place. I peered outside and was pleased to see no lasting damage from Shameimaru's trick with the fan. Instead, I could just see the snow gently falling outside, as if things were perfectly calm. "Quite so." Shameimaru said quietly and with more than a hint of smugness. "That should take care of the wind here for a good few hours. I do apologize for worrying you with my fan, Reimu. I would stay and apologise properly, but...This is where I get off." She smirked, then shot out of the door, past the veranda, and out into the open air. Her wings unfurled to their full wingspan at that point, making her an imposing looking figure in the sky.

"She doesn't even need to snap her fingers like that." Reimu muttered, stepping up next to me with her arms folded. "Just did it to show off. Tch. Tengu are so dramatic." I looked over at her, then asked her why she'd taken that picture. "Oh, er...It just...Looked really, sort of...Showy? Like something from a painting. I didn't really think about it. She left the camera on the table, so I just grabbed it. Probably shouldn't have, because she's going to love having that picture now. Especially if it's any good. Sorry, I've probably just given her ammunition for more articles." Given her face, I didn't think she'd do it. It would make her look silly too. "Oh, you've got a point, I suppose. Maybe you'll be fine, then. Hopefully. Why'd you grab her like that? She's a youkai; A little knock to the head won't kill her." Hadn't really thought about it, I replied with a shrug. Just instinct. "I think she liked it." Reimu said, conspiratorially. "I've never seen her make a face like that. Ever." Fantastic, I replied dryly. I'm sure it would cause no problems in the future.

"Speaking of problems, how about you go and solve one of them right now?" Reimu said, finally stepping back onto the veranda. It was dry, thankfully, though the snow past it was coming down fairly heavily. I followed behind her in the direction of her room. "Your wedding venue. You were supposed to fill me in, you know." Oh, I had been meant to do that. It was the reason I'd come slightly earlier to the Shrine than I was supposed to. I'd gotten a bit sidetracked after getting hit in the face by danmaku and then calming down Reimu's argument with Lady Tamatsukuri. "Oh. Er, sorry about that." She finally said, getting back into her room. "So, what was - Oh, hang on." She pointed over to the torii gate. "Company." I followed her gaze, seeing Lady Kasen climbing the steps. Raki followed a moment later. And then, inexplicably, so did Kisami, her arms wrapped around herself and shivering intensely. Why was she...? Had she really stuck around the dojo for all that time? "Huh." Reimu commented. "What's Yamame's sister doing there?"

"I am not going back out there." This was a point-blank refusal, and I was absolutely certain that I was fighting a losing battle. "It's too cold! I can't do it again so soon." Yamame's fifth refusal of this kind in the last four days. She was wrapped up in her chair up in her workshop, with plenty of clothes and a blanket around her. I'd asked her very blankly if it wouldn't be easier to just warm up the house, but she'd informed me very sharply that this was much more comfortable, so I'd decided that pushing the question seemed like a pointless endeavour. "Look, when that freezing wind dies down, I'll brave the snowy Hell again, but I'm staying right here until then. Or, I'm going to Former Hell and sitting in a nice, warm hot spring for several hours." If she did that, Yuugi would probably want to challenge her to hanafuda. "Fine by me. I'll get her this time." She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out, so I leaned down and kissed her while she wasn't expecting it. After a moment, she gently pushed me back, red-faced. "Yes, well, er...Yes." She stammered, blinking rapidly.

After a moment, she got her wits back. "Alright..." She pointed a finger at me, then rolled her hand so that she was pointing downward. "Sit." I lowered myself into a cross-legged position in front of her, and she lifted the thing she'd just spent the last day or so working on. A scarf, it seemed. It was thick and looked very warm. She'd done it in black, so it went with my latest sweater, a black one with thicker sleeves that meant that I wasn't feeling it so much when the wind rushed up the sleeves of my coat. She'd even gone ahead and added gold bands in diagonal patterns, though they weren't at consistent distances, but they were only on one end of the scarf anyway, so it didn't look particularly awkward either. She lifted the scarf over my head and brought it around my neck, then wound it over itself. "Long enough?" She asked me. I wasn't sure a scarf could be too long. Reimu had gotten that multicoloured thing from Hearn and it was probably longer than I was tall.

"Yes, well...I'm not looking to create a fashion disaster like that, I don't think." I snorted, then examined the scarf myself. It was very pleasant to touch, though I was happy that it didn't feel that coarse either. "I made it with, uh...I think they call it cashmere?" What did Yamame call it? "Er, 'that wool stuff'." I snorted. How very Kisami-like. "What?" Yamame asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face. I shook my head and just said that I was thinking about similarities. "...Uh, okay? You're really weird sometimes." Said the spider youkai who had broken her teeth three different times attempting to bite me. "Shut up!" She snapped with a smile. "It's not my fault that you're the perfect counter to bites."

I shook my head and laughed. Speaking of which, how were her teeth? "Ah, look." She used a finger to pull her lips open. "Ahll be'ah." Indeed, her tooth did seem to have healed perfectly. "Helps that I wasn't wasting all of my energy repairing my sisters' webs this time." I rolled my eyes and asked how many times I'd have to apologise for that. After a few moments of silent, I decided to move on. The scarf was perfect, I finally told her. It was warm, it looked nice, and it was long enough to wrap around myself several times without dragging on the floor. I'd definitely find a way to pay her back at some point. "No, er, it's fine, I'll just-" I jumped up from the floor to gently cup her face with my hands. It was important to me. She did so much for me. "O-Oh..." Yamame stammered as I released her. "Um, o-okay. Er, but that'll be later, right...? For now, I'll just - Er, I've got some work, so..." She vaguely gestured behind her to the desk.

It wasn't a lie. I had no idea when she'd managed it, but she'd picked up some new requests for work. I supposed that she'd been a little busier in the New Year's party than I'd thought. Perhaps during that period of time between her storming off from Kisami and Komachi to meeting me again at the torii gate, she'd done a little bit of searching for work. I asked her just what work she'd gotten, considering I'd been with her for the last several days.

"Er..." She spun her chair around to face the desk, then began to rummage through her papers. "There's...Narumi Yatadera...She wants a smaller version of her coat for the summer months." She raised one sheet, on which seemed to be an invoice, and then a large sketch of the coat in question. I had no idea when they'd gotten together, but I'd definitely heard her talking to Kagerou about Yamame's skills, so I supposed that it had been at some point before I'd fallen off of the roof of the Shrine.

>>45850410
—
My blood was frigid, limbs trembling. What's Koutei doing?! I looked at him, the Dragonscale Chiljido gleaming with murderous intent and towering over Yukari, who reciprocated the stare with odd placidity, eyes cold and focused, not an ounce of fear, as if she had no worries that, in a fight, she'd win. Seiga hummed, pulling her chisel from her tousled hair, ready to run away if things went awry. Ran had a Gap opened by her hand, and a droplet of sweat on her forehead exposed the true feelings beneath that calm facade. The dragon had an infinite wrath behind his eyes, clutching the handle of the seven-branched sword and ready to move the very world with the promised swing. “K-K—”

“Kasen,” he spoke in dragon tongue, halting my words, my powers allowing me to understand. “We can kill her together. End your torment.” Yukari was staring at me with an intrigued smile.

“K-Koutei… I know you want the best for me, but this is not the answer—Gensokyo depends on Yukari to survive—”

“Then we kill her, and so Gensokyo dies together.” His voice rumbled the world with deep-seated rage, Seiga looking tenser by the second, the people on the shore staring as if watching a world-shattering event. My heart rate already through the roof had reached a new level, body suddenly stopped quivering as sobering thoughts washed over me. “A forest cannot remain unchanged forever. It has to burn its old to make way for the new—and this woman is a parasite that needs to burn.” Yukari's smile was growing, parasol's end against the ground, meeting Koutei's death glare head-on. How can sh—

“Your pet seems to be misbehaving, Kasen.” She said, Ran trembling with the tone; Seiga looked morbidly aroused.

“I-It's not like this; K-Koutei is just—”

“Done. I am done with Kasen's enslavement!” He yelled in Dragon tongue, my eyes bulging even more and my teeth clenching. Yukari hummed, nodding to herself… I gawked at her and, calmly, she smiled at me, a dangerous twinkle in her purple eyes—

—She was understanding everything. She used the Gap to manipulate the boundary of comprehension…

“Don't worry, Kasen. I'm not mad at your misbehaving pet, who is proclaiming to kill me; I'm just disappointed. Control it, please.” I gulped glaciers, slowly turning to Koutei. Behind that deep wrath, a sadness threatened to sprout.

“Please, Kasen… It's unbearable to see your defilement.” Somehow, the whimpering and imploring voice of a massive beast that could level mountains in minutes was especially gut-wrenching. Tenderly, I reached forward, the dragon moving the sword to the side—the displaced air making violent air currents—, to be eye-to-eye with me, my hand brushing the rough skin beneath his massive eye. “I came back to you… But you are fading away…”

I contained my tears, knowing full well the three stares piercing my back—Ran had pity and ears down; Seiga looked thrilled and amazed; and Yukari kept that confident, cold smile of just now. “I know, Koutei, I know… But I love this land! I cannot burn it down…” Reimu flashes in my mind, her smile; Hana's; Anon; Satori, Yuugi, Suika—I simply cannot let all die because of me; not when there's a chance things will change… No matter how low the chance is, “And I know Y-Yukari is working to make it better! When the sword comes out, too, I'll be free.” My whispers didn't seem to reach him, unlike my lies, the large eye closing as if in incisive pain. “Just… wait a bit more, okay? Things will get better.” I place my forehead against his skin, hugging his face as if a kid trying to hug a tree.

Koutei whimpers one last time before moving away from me, burning eyes over Yukari, my heart throbbing—a small hope pleads him to strike her down, but I swiftly snuff it like the weeping cry it is—and, with a defeated look, Koutei stores back the sword inside his body, the thing disappearing in a billion contrasting greens. “I am sorry for my display.” He uttered and before the entire Underground, a dragon bowed to a woman.

Yukari's smile grew tenfold, almost silly-looking. “Good~very good!” The ground beneath us suddenly faded, a Gap consuming and throwing us by the foot of the dragon statue—

—which sprouted from the water as if with life of itself, Gaps all around it—

A shriek of anguish jammed me cold, wide-eyes rushing to Koutei and… My heart was ripped apart: the statue's mouth closed around his neck, caving into the strong scales. “Y-YUKARI, WHAT ARE—”

“Bowing is not enough. Bad pets should be punished~” Hundreds of Gaps started opening and chains, loud and terrifying, began sprouting—n-no, those aren't chains… But 'trains' melded together to look like massive chains—which caved into the statue, making a cruel and makeshift contention collar—

I'm crying. I'm utterly crying; each of Koutei’s cries of sheer suffering destroyed what remains of my soul. My friend, one I watched grow since the egg… Was being chained like a mongrel, his echoing pain a song—

—Because of me. Of my egotistical wishes…

>>45850403
—
The numbers were grim.

About two hundred years ago was the last time the Dragon God blessed Gensokyo with its presence, the magic saturating the air like particles of gold, persisting through passing ages. Theoretically, his magic could even be used as a measure of time the same way carbon is, though I leave the thought for later, fastening my sleeves before proceeding to my last point of interest—already having visited Youkai Mountain, the Village, the Sanzu, the Underground, and even the Blood Pools, saying hello to Toutetsu and that purple-haired friend of hers—the Hakurei Shrine. As usual, I felt proud of the changes as I landed on its roof. An urge tried to make me go inside and say hi to Reimu, but I resisted, pulling out my notebook and beginning to use my Gap to test the levels of magic saturating the air.

As expected: nature magic, barrier magic, and Buddha magic are overpowering. It's situated in an area where fairies like to play; it’s a shrine and is right on the barrier—found it.

Pulling up the function, I checked and… Hm. The Dragon God's residual magic, mere atoms yet powerful anyway, radiates readings close to those of the Moriya Shrine…

I tsk, sighing and looking at the Sun.

0% chance of the Dragon God having entered Gensokyo or the Underground as a whole…

… So it seems there's no almighty God on its way to save Anon from Yukari…

Well, it's the reality we live in and, though unrelenting, it’s not hopeless: we have allies—I look at the shrine beneath me, a sweet, small smile opening on my face—and a big surprise element. Our chances are as good as it gets against Yukari… “43.645074, -115.993081,” I mumble to myself as I open a Gap back to the Underground to relay the information back to Yukari—

—hm, weird… The script caught an unknown variable, which makes me frown. Magic without categorization? It must be a bug that avoided the Pass if. With numbers so outstanding, almost equivalent to the Dragon God's magic, it cannot not be a bug, so I scrap it and leave the Shrine—

And my jaw almost dropped. W-What in the…?

A massive Gap cracks the ‘sky’ above the lake where Onikirimaru lies, so great I can't see either of the ribbons Yukari likes to have on their extremes. But that's the lesser of it, as a massive veridian dragon—Koutei?!—is connected to the Gap, dwarfing its surroundings with a body the thickness of a sequoia, having to do rounds as it descended from the 'skies' onto close to the lake, its gargantuan head hovering about ten meters above the already massive dragon-shaped statue. One of its large hands touches the stone, eyes close. Waves of Draconian magic shifted the still surface of the lake, making my tails bushy.

Puzzled by the development in my one-hour absence, I Gap myself to the top of the statue by Yukari's side—going from far away to up close to Koutei is jarring, but I recover quickly—ignoring Seiga, who's still naked; Kasen was sitting on the stone, her eyes closed, though her face looks pale and sick. “Took you a while, Ran-chan~losing your touch?” Seiga mocked me, but I ignored her. Her words of control strike true, but in Yukari's presence, she holds no power over me. Yukari didn’t move her eyes.

“Yukari-sama, I have found no new trace of the Dragon God's magic anywhere, be it in Gensokyo or the Underground—there's a… 0% chance he has been here in these last two centuries.” It was barely perceptible, but Kasen winced.

Yukari hummed with her eyes closed, nodding to herself. “You did well, my Shikigami. Seiga's reading of the Feng Shui has shown no alteration of the sword’s core chaos. Whoever tried meddling with it could only do it at a surface level. Still, it led her back to traces of godhood, so another God rallies against us~” Her tone carried no worry, just a certainty of her actions; she has been like this since the day after the party…

I calmly nodded, my heart pounding; another God means more firepower to Okina's side, taking this was done by someone on her side.

… Still, why is Yukari so calm?

Koutei's eyes opened, head lowering to our level as Kasen got up to pet the massive and shining scales—

“This is not our magic. It's but mimicry.” The dragon’s thundering voice resounded through the air, shivering my body whole. My heart felt like about to burst. Kasen froze and Seiga had finally lost her smug. On the shore, who wasn't prostrating and praying was now.

Yukari remained placid. “Three out of three—99.9% chance the Dragon God hasn't stopped favoring me~that's very good—”

“—This.” Koutei cut her, his voice carrying a rage that could send lesser people mad. Yukari's smile evaporated, and I swear I could sense Kasen's soul leaving her body. But all that was ignored: reaching for his own scales, the massive dragon pulled effortlessly… something. A pole made of billions of tones of green, shining like a star; six hooks spread evenly along it. “Is a true Dragon’s sword.”

He put the sword in front of Yukari.

A mountain and a woman.

There was a sight I'd not gotten to see. Lady Kasen without her hair buns. I'd already suspected that she was probably hiding horns underneath, especially since Raki's horns were exactly where Lady Kasen's hair buns were, but now that I'd accidentally torn one of the hair buns, I could actually see Lady Kasen's horns. They were...Small. Really small, about the length of my thumb. Something...Seemed familiar about them, but it filled me with a sense of unease. I couldn't quite place it. "What?" Lady Kasen asked, looking a little annoyed. "I've got a murderous headache and you kicking me in the head isn't helping it." I snapped myself out of it and stopped staring, then asked her if Raki was around. Lady Kasen slowly nodded. "Yes, she's...Actually, how did you even get in here? I changed the route only the other day." I pointed at Kanda, who had landed on the roof of the dojo and was watching the interaction curiously. "...Of course. Kanda, you're definitely due for more training."

Kanda cried and took off in the opposite direction of the dojo. "I'll get him..." Lady Kasen muttered under her breath. "What were you saying? Oh, Raki. Well, she's at the waterfall." Lady Kasen pointed over her shoulder in the direction of the waterfall that I'd been made to stand under plenty of times. "She's...Trying it out. Wanted to see if it would help with the instincts." I nodded and said that I hoped she'd succeed. "Why did you need her?" I blinked, remembering what I'd actually come in here for. Yamame and Kisami were still out in the cold since I'd gotten distracted. Quickly, I explained what was happening to Lady Kasen, who tried to nod along at first only to decide that it was hurting her head too much, so she just verbally agreed instead. Finally, I asked her I could bring them inside so Kisami and Raki could give each other their outfits back. "Well, Yamame already knows about us, so...This is her sister, yes? The one with the red hair." I nodded. "She seemed very...energetic." That was Ki, alright. "But my partner seemed to trust her, so I'm willing to agree. Just...Let me sort out this." She indicated her visible horn. For a moment, I felt like I'd figured it out, but it slipped away just as quickly. 'I'm an...' No, it was gone again. I wondered if it would come back, but given the unease I felt, perhaps it would be better if it didn’t.

Lady Kasen turned and staggered off toward her dojo, and I turned back to the clearing and poked my head out. For a moment, I wasn't sure what my plan was, because I didn't think that I'd be able to get the path right from just one attempt, and I didn't want to ask Kanda if he could guide me a second time, but fortunately, I didn't need to. Yamame and Kisami, apparently having gotten bored in my absence, had started searching by themselves, and while they'd found the clearing, they clearly couldn't see the actual entrance to Lady Kasen's senkai, nor could they see me. "-Just saying, I think you should start thinking about a wedding dress now. It's never too early, right?" Kisami was speaking to Yamame. "Look, I don't want my precious little sister getting stressed because she hasn't thought her wedding attire through. What about your fiancé? Are you going to make his outfit too?"

That...was a good point, but I didn't think we needed to think about it right now, and both of the Kurodani sisters were looking very cold, so I reached out and grabbed both of them by the collars, then yanked then into the senkai. This actual, as expected, didn't go down very well, and Yamame barely managed to stop herself from breaking her other tooth just in time. Ki, on the other hand, punched me in the face and sent me flying back into the ground. "Kyah!" She cried. "O-Oh...Sorry about that. Startled me...Um, nothing broken?" I felt my nose, then confirmed that I seemed to be fine. "Oh, good...Wait, why is it sunny? It wasn't sunny earl- Ooh, that's nice..." Kisami seemed very pleased by the warmth, and a moment later, she actually noticed that we were no longer on the mountain. Her shivering subsided and she squinted as the bright sunlight hit her. "Wait...Where...?"

"This, dear sister, is a hermit's senkai." Yamame filled in, placing her hands on Kisami's shoulders. "I guess you could say that this is Lady Kasen's cave, as you put it." I supposed it was a bit of a shock to go from the cold and snowy mountain to the bright and sunny senkai, and Kisami seemed a little lost for words. On the plus side, at least she was warming up now. "So, er...Where is everyone?"

>>45831197
—
Still, my mind rushes for alternatives.

Writing that Seiga will never eat babies again would be noticed by people around her, mainly Yukari, and it could be traced back to me—I have to work with the supposition Yukari will always notice any remarkable change I make to Seiga, be it circumstances or her core personality and self. Working without it against a sage would be foolish—her suicide; leaving Gensokyo; turning against Yukari… After they met Mokou, all could come back to me. Writing Seiga's death might not even be enough, considering Yukari might just come after us and our babies herself. The possibilities were harrowing, the initial plan looping inside my mind again and again, nothing better surfacing.

Writing combined hundreds of years in 12 hours of a full moon—in the best-case scenario—could kill me out of exhaustion, but would also mean my family would live safely…

… But I don't want to die.

I want to be here with my future wife and my two kids—I want to see them laugh, grow, hold them when they need to cry and shower them with love whenever possible! I don't want to lose my family… It's so very egotistical after talking extensively about responsibility, but every human in history has dreaded parting ways with those they love and care for; why would I be any different?

There must be an alternative. An alternative so we all can have our happy endings, where our family remains us four—maybe even bigger somewhere down the line…

I can't think of a better way to secure their souls…

… I love them so much…

It hurts. It hurts so very much.

I smile at Mokou anyway, kissing her back and delighting in a soft and peaceful 'now', though there's more we need to discuss and do.

She sulks hard when I leave her hold and bend to pick up Mochi and Aki from the bed, nestling them in my chest. “Tonight I'll be busy monitoring the letters spreading and tomorrow we’ll be answering the villagers’ question, possibly dealing with Mr. Hieda and talking to the press, so we'll be attempting the Blue Moon plan after tomorrow—okay?” She simply nods, a mischievous smile rising on her face as she cleans up her remaining tears, her eyes gleaming with something primal. I softly lay Mochi and Aki on their cradle, both so tired that it takes no time for them to go back to sleep~looking at the clock, I notice it's almost time for the letters to be spread; my role in this being monitoring flares and, if things go awry, eating the story behind each one so the youkai dealing with that route can have enough time to re-route and be safe. They're color-coded, so it should be very easy. “I'm leaving now for the roof, Mokou. Stay here with th—”

Suddenly, strong hands reach me from behind, holding my breasts with might and pinching the nipples as if a hungry baby, A knee separates my legs as a warm mouth pecks seductively at my neck. W-What…?! “No,” Mokou whispers.

WHA—

“M-Mok—ah~—I need to be outsi—” A hand goes down and enters my dress, moving all the way back to my chest, flesh on flesh thrilling. I'm blushing like a squashed tomato…

Embarrassingly leaking like one, too.

“The flares are like fireworks, right? They'll make a whistling sound that should travel the whole village.” Her rough knee pressured a sensitive spot, one hand rising to caress my neck as her mouth now hovered behind my ear. My trembling hands are pressed against the wall, eyes bulging and cursing my throbbing heart, legs begging to cross yet enjoying the knee action. I nod, red like blood. “We'll both hear if one does go out; you'll be able to eat history back to this point and, since I won't forget too, I'll immediately stop and let you do your work…” Her hand leaves my neck and grabs my face, moving it to meet hers; our eyes on each other are like burning coals. I swallow. “… But until that happens, I'll make you never forget what you are: my woman.”

A moment of silence extended as I processed her words. ‘They do make sense’, said my mortified, horny consciousness. “… O-Okay.” I whispered.

And before I can even register it, I am lifted off the ground and hurled onto the bed, with a powerful, warm body kneeling over my own. I watch Mokou rip off her shirt and breast bandages, same for the ribbon keeping her rain put—a tsunami of beautiful white hair falling over me.

Beautiful.

I throw care to the wind and let my hands explore, blazing lips meeting mine, a love so passionate and powerful burning her on my very skin.
—
For the teacher’s and the immortal’s delight, no flare was set off.

Outside, the letters are plastered all over the sleeping Human Village. Tomorrow, it'll know the struggles of a teacher and guardian; the injustice thrown at her by the grieving father that has gone mad; the stones thrown by ignorant children that didn't know better; the harrowing yet sympathizing tale of a night to remember; and the brewing tide of change that is to come.

When the village awakes, it'll have to face the reality that its leader is a lunatic.

"Hey, why don't we stick around for a while, actually?" She said to Marisa, who paused halfway through putting her hat on. "We'll help Reimu get all of those freeloaders next door out of here." She pointed a thumb in the direction of the spare room that was currently housing half of the party's attendees. "Then we can make sure she's not too hungover to function for the next day or so." It was probably a good decision, actually. "I think I know a few hangover remedies, actually. Heavenly ones." She got a very smug look on her face when she said that, and I wondered if they'd actually be good or not.

Either way, I looked over at Yamame and asked her if she wanted to help with waking people up. She nodded. "Yeah...I want to wake Ki up. She's still wearing Miss Raki's clothes, too." That was a good point, and I didn't know where Raki herself had disappeared to. Maybe she was up on the roof? If she'd gone home, then returning her clothes and Kisami's clothes would become a bit of a headache. Lady Kasen didn't seem to be around either, though...Knowing her, she'd probably show up before long. Yamame got to her feet and extended her hand - The one with the ring. I took it and pulled myself up to my feet.

Reimu was next, and she breathed in deeply before closing her eyes for a moment. Once she'd opened them again, she looked a little better. "Prayer to Konohana-Sakuyahime. She's the goddess of sake. She's always telling me what I should do to make my sake taste better." I blinked. Somehow, I'd completely forgotten that Reimu could speak to gods. From time to time, she'd mention something that a god apparently said completely off-hand, and I'd never been quite sure if I should take it seriously. Still, Marisa and Tenshi were up by the time I'd gotten over it, so we headed out as a group and over to the spare room.

Surprisingly, it had already started to clear out. Miss Yuuka was still there with Elly, but Miss Narumi had disappeared, as had Seiran and the man from the village. Yuyuko and Youmu were there, and so were Remilia and Sakuya. "Alright..." Reimu muttered, rubbing her eyes. She looked very tired, and I imagined that all of us probably needed a proper night's sleep. "I'll deal with these two." She indicated Yuyuko and Youmu. "Uh...Marisa, you can do Sakuya and Remi. Tenshi..." She got a slightly pleading look on her face.

Tenshi took one look at it and sighed heavily. "Fine, I'll do the flower youkai." She muttered in an exhausted tone. I supposed that waking up a youkai as powerful as Miss Yuuka was probably dangerous. Waking up Reimu got me a punch, so I already suspected worse.

"Thanks. And finally..." She looked over at Yamame and I. "Komachi and Kisami?" Yamame nodded and I followed suit. "Alright, let's...Well, it's probably not going to be fun, but let's get it over with." And with that, she pulled both of Youmu's swords out of reach, then began nudging the half-phantom with her foot. Almost immediately, Youmu shot up, her hands moving as if she was swinging a sword that wasn't actually there. "Seriously, you always do that." Reimu muttered, dropping the swords into Youmu's arms. "C'mon, scram. Party's over."

I left her to that and the ensuing headache. Meanwhile, Marisa was doing the exact same thing with Sakuya, but by removing all of the knives she could find. And just as Youmu had, Sakuya immediately attempted to throw a knife that wasn't actually there. Almost immediately after, Sakuya's eyes shot open, and her hands went to her head. All that alcohol she'd drunk seemed to have caught up with her, and Marisa told her to take Remilia home and sleep it off.

Tenshi, meanwhile, had taken a different approach. Nudging Miss Yuuka didn't seem to be working, so she'd progressed to harder nudges, and was almost reaching full force kicks, but the flower youkai just kept sleeping. "What the hell...?" I heard Tenshi mutter. "Alright, fine..." She turned and poked Elly, who immediately swung her scythe at Tenshi. Tenshi, in a casual display of her combat prowess, simple spun slightly to the side and allowed the scythe to sail past her, then poked Elly in the forehead. "Hey! Wake up your boss, will you?"

Meanwhile, Yamame and I approached the sleeping redheads. There was a notebook clipped to the side of Komachi's outfit, and I felt like it was pulsing, even though I wasn't sure how a notebook could do that. Yamame went around to Kisami's side while I went to Komachi's, and we both crouched down. I didn't really have a plan, so I decided that I'd like Komachi's scythe out of the way. Just in case she decided to attack like the others had. Unfortunately, she had her arms more or less wrapped around it, so I stood up and grabbed the scythe by the shaft. I looked over at Yamame, who watched me for a moment, then nodded slowly. She mouthed a countdown, and I yanked the scythe upward right as she poked Ki on both sides of her waist at once. This had a very fun effect.

"Komachi, please stay silent. Your ledger is already less than exemplary thanks to the number of times you slack off. Do not make it worse." The Yama said sharply. She turned back to Yamame. "Please, Miss Kurodani." I wasn't all that surprised that she already knew Yamame's name.
Yamame didn't last all that long after that, though I supposed that she didn't really need to keep it secret, either. "I, er, startle easily. Instinctual. I tried to bite him, and, uh..." She awkwardly opened her mouth and pointed to the chipped tooth. "I chihhed hy-" Realising that wasn't going to work, she spoke normally again. "Um, chipped my tooth on his skin."

"On his skin?" The Yama repeated. "How did you...?" She fished in her vest and pulled out a small mirror, which she held up so I could see into it. I frowned, then progressed into confusion when my reflection did not. "Hmm." She murmured. "No good. A peach from the orchards of Heaven?" She directed this toward me, so I nodded. "I see. This is...Highly irregular. Perhaps that former celestial needs a talking to..." I wondered what Tenshi would think of getting lectured over that, then decided that I'd best not dwell on it. "Komachi?" The bruised Shinigami looked up. "Apologise."

"R-Right, Lady Eiki." She looked over at me. "I'm sorry for accidentally using my power to throw you off of the roof, and I'm sorry to you, Yamame, for him hitting you." She looked over at the Yama, who stared at her with her rigid posture. "A-And I'm sorry for accidentally crashing into Lady Eiki when I did accidentally use my power to manipulate distances, as well as for asking her if she had been forced to cash in all of her favours for a night off. I als-"

"Komachi." The Yama spoke softly. "You know which incident I am referring to."

Komachi stared at the ground for a moment. "I'm really sorry for offering to sleep with you." She mumbled to me. "Knowing how you felt about Yamame." I thought we'd already sorted this out, and Yamame seemed to have felt vindicated since she'd given Komachi a fever, but apparently the Yamam wanted things a little blacker and whiter. Blankly, I told her that I had forgiven her, though she probably shouldn't do it again. Yamame agreed with me, nodding to Komachi innocently. "Um, Lady Eiki, can I go now?"

"Yes, Komachi. Take better care in the future." Komachi nodded and immediately disappeared. I saw her reappear down by Kisami. "That's better." Lady Eiki said. "Now, let's talk about you." I blinked and shrunk back slightly against the very imposing figure of the Yama. "Yes, you've been getting a little too comfortable with youkai." I frowned and opened my mouth to ask her what exactly I was doing wrong. "Humans are to fear youkai, and youkai are to attack humans. This is the immutable law of Gensokyo, and one that we as Yama must uphold. Yet, you..." She watched me silently. "You've been meeting and befriending youkai from every corner of Gensokyo." I didn't see how that was a problem. "If others follow your example? If fear fades from humanity's perception of youkai? This will cause instability." I certainly still had very healthy amounts of fear for certain youkai, I replied. "But you believe that you understand them." The Yama did not state it as a question. "Even though you understand the loss a youkai can inflict better than others." I grit my teeth at that. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear tonight. "The measure of your soul is not yet black. You must perform good deeds in your life to receive a white judgement in death. The consumption of a peach from the orchards of Heaven has put you in a unique position. If you wish not to fall to Hell-"

And here, the unexpected occurred. A hand reached out and plucked the Yama's hat from her head. With the other hand, a figure behind Komachi began to ruffle her hair. "Aw, you make Hell sound so foreboding, Lady Eiki." I heard a cheerful voice say over the Yama's sputtered protests. "I think it's quite a lively place." Blinking, I focused on the figure standing tall over the Yama. Her blue hair fall in waves that looked like the ocean I'd seen in Australia, and the chains that connected to the choker around her neck glinted in the light of the torches. Lady Hecatia Lapislazuli smiled at me. "Why, I think he might even have a nice time there."

A crowd which, I noticed, was parting somewhere ahead of us. The hole in the crowd seemed to be coming toward us, as if there was something in the middle that people were giving a wide berth. I looked over at Yamame, they decided that it probably wasn't worth the effort to avoid. Knowing my luck, it was meant for me anyway. So, I swallowed, gripped her hand tightly, and stepped forward.

As I'd expected, there was no way that it wasn't for me. Not when I could see Komachi, looming a little bit roughed up, being dragged along by the ear as if she was a misbehaving child. She was protesting, but it seemed to be falling on her the deaf ears of her companion. Here, I paused. Then, the dots connecting in my mind, suddenly straightened my posture and squared my shoulders.

A girl approaching me wasn't exactly new at this point even if the reasons usually varied. This girl was tall. Easily as tall as Komachi, even with her thick sandals on, meaning she was probably taller than the Shinigami was if both of them stood barefoot. Her eyes were sharp, her mouth a straight line and her brow furrowed. Her green hair came down asymmetrically, her right shoulder covered in mossy green, and her left shoulder devoid of it as it hung just over her ear. Her vest was deep blue and impressively adorned with symbols on her shoulders, and a white shirt sat underneath. Her skirt was surprisingly short only coming to about midway down her thighs, but her long legs meant that most skirts would come up slightly short. On one side, the ribbons adorning the outfit were red, and on the other side, they were right. Asymmetrical, just like her hair. The shoes followed the same pattern, flat like she worked in an office.

But most striking were two things. On her head, a hat that I'd heard mention of. With golden segments coming up and sinking down like the points of a crown, and the representation of a scale on the very front. Two loops of ribbon, again in red and white, and two more gold bits sticking out.
The other striking thing was what was in her hand.

Almost like a pillar, and with symbols etched into it. She held it tightly in the hand that wasn't dragged her subordinate along. I'd heard talk of it before. It was in all of the stories of the afterlife. The Rod of Remorse, that which your sins will be written on when you die, and you will be beaten until you have repented for those sins. How many hits would I have to endure in the future?

Of course I recognised her status, even if I hadn't seen her myself. How could I not? I was sure that every Villager could recognize her. Keine's lessons had mentioned her, as had Akyuu's. That outfit could only mean one person.

I was looking into the verdant green, sharp eyes of the Yama of Gensokyo. Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu.

"L-Lady Eiki, I think this is a bit- Ouch!" Komachi cried, her eyes already looking even more red than her irises from the tears of pain that seemed to be spilling out of them. "It- No, I can apologise myself, you don't have to-"

"Apologizing for pain you have inflicted." Her voice was mature, serious. Intense, and I could tell that she could probably shout anyone into silence. "That is the good deed you can do right now." She looked from Komachi to myself and Yamame, her eyes sharp. "Good evening. My name is Eiki Shiki. I am the Yama of Gensokyo, and I believe I owe you an apology on behalf of my subordinate."

Komachi raised her head, her hand on the back of her head. "No, no...Lady Eiki, its fine. I already apologised to you, and I can handle myself. So, I'll just-"

"Silence, Komachi." She looked poised to smack the Shinigami over the head with her rod. Komachi let out an 'eep!' and fell silent immediately. "Now, from what I understand, my ferryman here was attending Miss Hakurei's New Year's Eve party. Then, while suffering a fever," Yamame coughed slightly, then mumbled about her nose, "She has accidentally sent you," Eyes at me, "Off of a roof, where he landed on you. Is that the size of it?" She tilted her head, the curtain of mossy hair on her right side breaking apart on her shoulder. "Were you injured in any way?" She asked, this time to Yamame, who stammered slightly.

"U-Um, no. Well - I mean, no, not by him falling on me." She scratched her head and stood up straighter, though she was still shorter than all three of us.

The Yama raised an eyebrow and looked at her more closely. "Your answer suggests that there is something more...?" Her eyes were the kind for whom no lies could escape. She held the Rod of Remorse in her two hands, clasped tightly in front of her chest. "Please do not refrain from speaking the truth. Komachi's sins will be measured regardless, but I will save time if you simply speak."

"Lady Eiki, I don't think this counts as a real sin when all I did was-" Komachi was still trying to protest, and I honestly wasn't sure why considering the Yama had already made it clear that she was not accepting her excuses.

Was that...How it worked? "Yep." Reimu looked very convinced. "Anyway, I'll let you two, uh, enjoy yourself." Before she could disappear again, I congratulated her on both the speech and the spectacle. "Heh. Thanks. It's - Well, basically, I have to do a huge amount of running around in the days leading up to it to get everything set up, but once it all works out, it's usually pretty great." It definitely seemed to be. "Ah, there's never enough praise. Alright, have fun. I've got a date with a sake bottle up here." She immediately disappeared from view, presumably pulling herself back up and onto the roof properly.

Yamame and I stepped off of the veranda. The first stall we came across was, funnily enough, belonged to that rabbit. 'Seiran's Delicious Dango' graced the sign on the bottom of the stand. She did look slightly familiar now that I was seeing her close-up. Something about her face...Perhaps it was one of my muddled up memories. She was turning gently sizzling dango atop a box of charcoal, her eyes flicking between the box and the dango that she'd already made. There was a lot of it, and I wondered how her business was. Perhaps she'd brought a lot of stock to run through? Either way, she seemed focused enough that she hadn't actually heard us approach, which was rather impressive given the size of her ears. That golden thing I'd seen glinting earlier turned out to be a cuff, wrapped around the top of her ear, past where it bent. There were bits cut out, and I thought that perhaps they spelt something out, but whatever it said was unreadable. The cuff looked like it had seen better days. It was meticulously polished, but there were scratches that ran deeper than the rabbit could buff out on her lonesome. Her dress was the same; I could see spots where she'd scrubbed at them harder during washing, and there was a patch or two where she'd sewed it back up as best she could. Practicality was the word that came to mind. I'd seen outfits much more elaborate tonight.

After a few moments, I cleared my throat and apparently started the girl enough that she nearly dropped the dango sticks that she was still turning over. "Yes!" She cried, her hands flying behind her back and her posture going stiff. After a moment, I slowly asked her if she was okay, and she seemed to realise what she was doing. "Um." She replied, her hands slowly coming out from behind her and her posture relaxing. "Yes. Yes, er, customer." She looked from side to side, then at Yamame and I. "Fine." She nodded. "You - Er, want to order?" She asked. It seemed that I'd caught her on the back foot. I looked down at her menu. Black sesame dango sounded good to me, and I turned to Yamame, who agreed. "Right. Yes. Coming - Coming up." The rabbit nodded and reached down to fetch two new skewers.

While she got to work, I watched her quietly, then looked over at Yamame. She shrugged, then gestured toward her. I shook my head, poked Yamame in the chest, then gestured toward the rabbit instead. Yamame breathed in sharply, put her hands on her hips, and gave me a strong stare. I crossed my arms. She tilted her head. An intense standoff followed.

Finally, I admitted defeat and asked the girl - Seiran, I assumed - if she was alright. "Yes." She replied sharply. "No one bothered to inform me of the venue change." I winced and offered my sympathies. "Well, it's fine now. Rushed my ears off getting everything disassembled and the like. Only barely managed to get over here and set up before the rush started. It's all fine. Now." She turned the dango atop the charcoal box. I cast an eye over her stock. Slowly, I asked her how business had been, then felt Yamame squeeze my hand slightly tighter as if I'd just made a mistake. "Things sell. Law of the land at a market, no? Could sell more, could sell less, but it sells all the same." That, I thought, sounded like a lot of words for 'sales are good' and I wondered if sales really were that good. I asked Seiran if she'd done this sort of thing before. "Thing? What thing?" I waved a hand around us at the Shrine. "The Shrine thing? Yes. Not many vendors who haven't. Never done the end of the year, though. Wasn't really a thing on-" She snapped her mouth shut, then shook her head and muttered something under her breath. "Anyway, I'm nearly done." She went back to her work, her ears drooping down over her head.

>>45762715
>Ryu hatches nasty plot to make man her husband ever since he donated to her shrine and caught her eye
>>makes it rain over his house
>>and rain
>>and rain
>>and rain
>>and rain
>>raining for days and days
>>she gets impatient after a month passes and comes to see his whereabouts
>he's built a boat with a roof so the rain doesn't get in
>after the ryu explains that she caused the rain and apologizes for flooding anon's home, he thanks her for letting him live out his fantasies of sailing the high seas, and tells her stories of trading the leftovers of his gaming PC for fishing supplies
>in the end she joins him on the boat, and tries a weather she hasn't had a use for yet: half-clear skies with bright white clouds and a nice gale perfect for sailing off into the sunset
there you go i fixd your story, that'll be $3 commission me on github for more like thid

And then, Komachi made a face. I could already tell what was about to happen, so I moved away slightly. But, in defiance of all sense and completely in line with my luck, any attempts to save myself from an awful face would go completely awry. Komachi sneezed. At that moment, I felt that sort of vertigo sensation that only comes before a fall, and I had a split second to realise that I was no longer on the roof of the Shrine. In fact, I was now just slightly beyond the roof of the Shrine, in the stretch of land leading between the Shrine and Reimu's rooms. Komachi, I could see, had somehow managed to activate her abilities in the sneeze, which had resulted in me getting sent over here. She turned to try and catch me, but sneezed again, and this time, it seemed to have the same effect that it did on Kisami. Suddenly, she was shot forward like a cannon, disappearing out of view. And I began to fall.

It wasn't a particularly far fall to the ground from the top of the Shrine, which was at least a tiny bit of consolation. It was a big building, but I was fairly confident that the peach would protect me. I had been falling straight, but I ended up falling forward, just in time to see the blonde thing rushing up to meet me. At the split second before impact, I realised who it was, and I all could think was that I really needed to have a word with Remilia. If she really did control fate, that is, because falling onto Yamame Kurodani, exactly the same way I'd first met her, just seemed like one bridge too far.

I glanced off her shoulder, which was probably painful enough, but I was more impressed by the speed with which it made her spider instincts kick in, because I hadn't even hit the ground yet before she'd managed to react. I still did hit the ground, which was fairly painful, when Yamame's arms grasped me and forced my head up. I didn't even have time to get a word out before I felt her land on my chest and she tried to sink her teeth into my neck, just as she'd done back then. For a split second, it all came flooding back, but then my mind caught up and told my instincts that Yamame was safe, and I loved her, so it was okay if she tried to bite me.

And then there was a resounding crack and Yamame threw her head back. "Gah!" She cried, holding her hand to her mouth. She breathed in and out heavily, then seemed to get her wits about her. "Where did you come from!?" She sharply exclaimed, frowning intensely. "Look!" She pulled at the corner of her mouth. "Hy hooth! You chihhed hy hooth agaih!" Indeed, her left canine was chipped once more. “Ouch, ouch! Oh, this is just a great way to end the year, isn’t it!?” The fates seemed to have decided that everything was coming full circle. I'd fallen because of a youkai – Well, Shinigami, but I’d count it - again, dropped directly into Yamame, which was actually a downgrade from dropping onto her web last time, and she'd chipped her tooth on my skin again.

In that moment, I decided that Yamame Kurodani was not making it to the end of the dawn without a ring on her finger.

With a grown, Reimu smacked her in the back with her gohei. "I heard that, you washed-up waste of space!" Somehow, I thought that it was possible that Tenshi had hit a nerve. At that point, they started to move out of my hearing, so I looked back at Raki, who hadn't moved all that much. She was still staring out over the courtyard at the front of the Shrine, which was suddenly much busier. In fact, I saw what looked like some more stands being set up, which I found slightly mystifying. This close to midnight? Although, come to think of it, it'd probably be better to do it around now, since this was the one night of the year where everyone was guaranteed to be staying up late, and we'd eaten hours earlier. Perhaps that poor rabbit had jumped ahead of everyone else and was now paying for it.

"Phew, too much choice!" I heard a voice say, and I turned to see that Komachi was suddenly on the roof. She'd found a coat, a thick and baggy thing that seemed to completely swallow her up, leaving just her head visible against the darkness. "Don't know how Yamame made it all the way here wearing all of those. I'd have passed out! It's like that on the Sanzu, you see, since it's warmer there and slightly more humid, so if you wore that many coats, you'd be sweating so much you'd sink my poor Titanic! In fact, once..." She continued talking, but I stopped making sense of it eventually. Komachi did have a tendency to talk for a long time when she was feeling like it. Raising my hands, I asked her if she'd run into Kisami while she was looking. "Huh? Oh, yeah. She was in Reimu's room with Yamame and that schoolteacher. Her and Yamame were hugging when I went in there, and they were talking when I left. That's fine, right?" I nodded, pleased that it seemed like they'd sorted out Yamame's annoyance.

"What's happening?" Raki asked blankly. "I thought this was my peace and quiet zone, but now there's some loudmouth here, and the entire party has moved to my view." She gazed pointedly at Komachi, who laughed and scratched her head. Raki smiled slightly too. "Well, maybe it's time I stopped sitting up here on my own, anyway." She looked at me with a slight smile. "Thanks. For talking to me." I smiled and nodded. Any time she needed, I said. "Can I - Um..." She awkwardly opened her arms before closing them again. "No, sorry, I shouldn't-" But I rolled my eyes and stepped forward to wrap my arms around her first. "O-Oh!" She sounded a little surprised, but she still managed to keep her strength completely under control. I squeezed gently and told her that I would keep believing in her. To my surprise, I saw the faintest of blushes appear over her face. "Um...Thank you." She mumbled, squeezing back one more time before letting go. She nodded, then turned and dropped down from the rooftop and landed out of sight.

"Aw, how cute." Komachi muttered, throwing her arm over my shoulder. "You've got everyone going to you for hugs, don't you?" It just sort of happened, I replied. "Yeah, well, who doesn't want a hug from a bunch of cute girls?" Komachi did raise a good point, but my favourite hugs were from a specific cute girl, and she was possibly still in Reimu's room. "Oh, you've got a thinking face on." Komachi reached behind my ear, and when she pulled her hand back, there was a golden coin in it. "Care to tell me what you're thinking?" She asked with a cheeky smile. I simply rolled my eyes and told her that I was thinking about Yamame. "Aw, that's adorable. Y'know, I really wish I'd managed to get you before you'd become quite so smitten with Yamame. Ah, well...You definitely seem completely enraptured by her. I'd hate to come between that now." I thanked her for that. It would have been a little bit cruel to try and do something like that at this point, and I was glad that Komachi seemed to recognize that.

I thought that she was probably a kappa. Dressed in blue and with a green hat? It seemed the most likely option. With the money handed over, Reimu headed in the direction of the back of the Shrine, but just as she started to be obscured by the roof, I saw a massive burst of danmaku shot straight up into the air from just at the edge of the back gardens.

I suddenly heard shouting. Curiously, I edged closer to the edge of the roof and looked out. "Alright, start moving to the front of the Shrine!" Reimu was yelling and directing people with her gohei. "C'mon, c'mon! It's nearly midnight!" She took to the air slightly and kept yelling, and despite some grumbling, everyone did start to move, carrying their drinks. I saw Yuyuko and Yuuma carrying food with them as they moved, and I wondered how much they were planning to eat. "Hey!" I heard Reimu yell, pointing the gohei at Miss Yuuka. Sitting on her shoulders was that fairy with the torch. "You're not gonna cause trouble, are you!?"

"What reason do I have to do that? You're very paranoid, Reimu. It's not good for you. Try breathing in and out slowly." Miss Yuuka replied lazily. "I think it's this lovely fairy that you should really be worried about. Clownpiece, I believe?"

"Th-That's right, um, Miss Yuuka!" The fairy on Miss Yuuka's shoulders said. "Um, are you going to put me down soon...?" Miss Yuuka didn't seem inclined too. "I'm sorry for trying to drive you insane with my torch!" Clownpiece cried as Miss Yuuka continued walking.

Reimu watched them go. "Ugh. Should have figured something stupid would happen. Stupid torch..." She muttered. Turning back to the rest of the partygoers, Reimu regarded them.

Over on the far side, I could see that blue-haired rabbit rushing to take her stand apart. That villager who'd tried to approach Kisami seemed to have stuck around to help, which was nice of him. I wondered why Reimu hadn't mentioned that she was planning to move everyone over to the front of the Shrine in the first place. Surely it would have saved a lot of effort? Maybe it had been a last-minute thing.

I spotted Kagerou, who was shivering slightly and had pulled out the cloak that Yamame had made for her. She was talking to Miss Narumi still, but as they passed nearby, I caught some of the conversation."-So pretty! So, this was...Miss Yamame? The tsuchigumo from the underground? I met her, actually. I ran into her at the bookstore in the human village. It was pouring down, but she was still really nice."

"Really? Oh, was she with that funny human she's together with?" Kagerou replied. I frowned, not really sure how I should take being identified as 'that funny human.' Still, could be worse. "Yes, she did an amazing job!" Kagerou agreed excitedly. "I didn't even know it was possible to make something this thick that would still be so soft." I did think that Yamame had done an excellent job with Kagerou's hood, so I got where Kagerou was coming from.

"Wow, I wonder if I should ask her to make me something, too. She made that coat that her human was wearing, so..." Miss Narumi and Kagerou began to move out of my hearing at that point, so I looked back in the other direction to see who else was coming. Immediately, I saw Marisa and Tenshi, arms slung over each other's shoulders and clearly very drunk already. "Hey..." Marisa drunkenly called. "What happened to all that stuff we got from the kappa, huh? Man~ I wanted to study it all!"

"Reimu destroyed it!" Tenshi cried back, stumbling slightly, though I thought it was from Marisa's height difference more than anything. "So unfair, too! What's a little laser beam gonna do to the planet, huh?" It seemed like she'd turned a little bit more childish while drunk. "I bet she just got mad because I, a beautiful celestial, was having more fun than she was!"

Taking the opportunity to embarrass her for a change, I ruffled her hair to her weak protests and pulled her in for a hug. Doing so meant that I could see all of the party, and I definitely spotted that tiny fairy who'd been talking to Kisami staring at me, her little fists clenched. Over my that blue-haired rabbit's stall, I also caught the sight of someone else watching me, and I wondered if he was the mysterious second bearer of sake. He caught my eye and raised his cup, then turned back to the rabbit, and carried on his conversation. Finally, I released Kisami, who tried to straighten her hair, failed miserably, and breathed in deeply. "Okay, I'll, um, go and apologise." She looked over at Komachi. "In case I don't make it back, I want you to assume my identity, okay?" I blinked. What?

"Oh, sure. We can work out the details while I ferry you across the Sanzu." Komachi replied with an easy smile. "But if your sister's fever kills me first, you have to assume my identity instead." Kisami laughed, then walked away. "Somehow, I think people would figure it out. No way I can grow my hair as long as hers." I wasn't sure many people could, I replied. "Matter of fact, she probably-"

Here, Komachi was forced to stop and step to the side just in time to avoid Youmu Konpaku, who'd acquired two banners with long poles from somewhere. She held one in each hand and was swinging them as if they were swords, and she'd just barely missed Komachi. Next to her, something transparent and ghost-like was flying in erratic circles. I blinked, struggling to comprehend the scene. "Oh, I'm not doing this while I'm sick..." Komachi muttered, landing a kick square against Youmu's forehead, and knocking her flat on her back. "C'mon, let's go somewhere quieter." She muttered, grabbing my arm. I went to open my mouth, but suddenly the world was enveloped in colour and light, and then I was standing somewhere else.

"Shh." Komachi muttered. "We're just on the roof of the Shrine. I compressed the distance between the bottom and the top." Ah. That made more sense. "Hey, that's how I met you, wasn't it? I sent you up onto the roof of Kasen's house and you fell off." And I wasn't looking to do it again, I replied dryly. "Yeah, well...I think I apologised enough for that. The lecture that Kasen gave me seemed like enough of a punishment too." She probably wasn't wrong. "What was I saying?" She asked with a frown. "Oh, right. Yeah, Kisami probably wouldn't want to cut her hair to match mine, either." Komachi's hair was about the same shade, though, so she potentially could have done it.

And then she sneezed again. "Ooh..." she groaned, long and painfully. "Okay, I need a coat, or something. This is the worst." She looked over at me. "You'll be alright on your own, right?" I nodded. In fact, I thought that it would be nice to have a moment to myself. I told Komachi to take her time, and the Shinigami nodded weakly before turning and disappearing in a single footstep. Suddenly, I seemed to be alone, apart from the noise of the party at the back of the Shrine. I seemed to be on the main building, facing the torii gate and the valley as a whole. Sighing, I lowered myself to the rooftop and sat down.

Then, I heard footsteps. "Hi." A voice said quietly, sitting down next to me. "I thought I was the only one hiding up here." The Arm of Ibaraki-Douji muttered to me. "Want to talk?" She asked me, and I thought I could hear a slightly hopeful note in her voice." Certainly, I replied. "Here. I, uh, brought some of that weird Outside World alcohol from down there." She lifted a square bottle, some dark liquid sloshing inside. “No idea what it is, but I figure it’ll get us drunk all the same.” Raki rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "We can share, if you want." She took a sip, then coughed. "Strong. Not as strong as some of the oni stuff, but still." She offered me the bottle, and I took it since I didn't want to seem rude, though I hadn't had a great experience with the stuff from the Outside World. I took a sip and coughed more than she had. "Heh." She laughed shortly. Her arms were wrapped around the legs of Kisami's suit, but she turned her head to look at me. "Guess neither of us are that good with it, huh?"

I smiled slightly but shook my head as I replied. We'd get there eventually. It just took practice.

>>45746201
—
Me, sensei, and Aunn had left Alice's house almost ten minutes ago to brave the dark, cold skies of winter towards the Shrine, the travel silent and though Aunn kept close to me, my heart pounded all the way with cryptic speculation—it'll be all the same: an uncared-for dump without Father to fix things up, overgrown taking over; wood rotten and an acrid smell all over… But it'll be safe. At least that's what everyone believes in—fear grows rampant inside, as no one would stay with me since they must contact their other allies to concoct a plan for the Solstice fast; I said I'd okay alone, of course, I don’t want to burden them anymore—though a silly ember flicks inside, wishing things had changed; that Mother fixed the Shrine… As if…

I looked at sensei—one hand steering the broom and the other holding a bag filled with my presents, even the unwrapped ones, and sleeping essentials—, feeling lost, confused, exasperated, hopeless: I have seen this situation so many times…

… I remember Mother's eyes; their gleam.

Shaken, too.

The shrine was visible on the horizon, a decently lit fire amidst the darkness. “Here we are,” Sensei mutters as my heart tries to jump off my mouth, eyes widening and Aunn's hand on mine so tight—

Then we got close, and I was speechless.

… The shrine was repaired.

Even if covered under thin layers of snow, the changes were instantly noticeable. W-What the…?

We landed by the Torii gate and, frightened, I touched it—gasping and taking a step back. “H-Hana?!” Aunn jumped at my reaction. Sensei watched her surroundings wide-eyed.

“I-It's new—entirely new wood and paint… And the seals…” The sealing magic inside was unlike anything I've ever seen or felt, a complete contrast with the past, where the magic inside the gates was absent because Mother never bothered with it… But this? “… It's staggering—so much stronger than Yukari's sealing barriers inside the Fake Shrine.” I left the Torii gates with a confusing, ablaze feeling rumbling inside my stomach, looking around with doe-eyes; the path up and towards the Shrine had been entirely remade, not an ounce of overgrown in sight—

I stopped in front of the stairs by the donation box, hand trembling before gently touching the wood of the rails; the pylons; the walls…

… Everything was new. Made by her hands. Maintained with care.

Sensei whistled. “Reimu has kept herself busy…” Aunn nodded, her face contorted in a frown—a waggling tail revealing her true feelings about the sight of the revamped Hakurei Shrine. Somehow I doubted even the roof tiles were the same.

I can't help but remember a passage from one of Agatha's poems:

'Over time, a ship is fixed by replacing its parts. At one point, every part had been replaced. Is it still the same ship as before, or a new one?'

As always, she didn't answer, expecting the reader to do it… Nightmares echo inside, the crack of wood against flesh and bone, tears hitting the ground, the moaning of sinful pleasure—all the same in a parody of this place, a parody I partook in…

No matter how much it changes on the outside, it's still the same ship.

Sensei's hand lands on my shoulder and Aunn stands by my side, giving me worried eyes—warmth cascades down my face. “Nothing, just… Remembered some bad things.” I clean the tears and sensei is about to say something, probably along the lines of 'we don't need to do this', but inside a flame rages all of a sudden—of pride? Compassion…?

Or of vindication?

A flame that sees all this change and all it can utter is: 'lie'. A leading flame. “I'm okay.” Expression contorting in determination, feelings waging a war inside of me, I knock on the door…

Nothing…

Sensei knocks, her frown creased. “Oi, Reimu! Open this!” Nothing. “I know you know we're here—open this fucking door!”

Nothing. For minutes, nothing.

The flames inside roar. Doesn't she want to see me? After giving that show and begging for forgiveness…?

Who does that woman think she is?!

My fists tremble as hot tears well behind my eyes, mind consumed by a desire to turn tail and never come here again—run away from the venomous feeling of betrayal—, but something inside my heart holds me, and instead of keep knocking, I stomp hard around the shrine, making my way to the back door in the veranda, sensei to my side miming my actions. “I'm so sorry, Hanarin…” she whispers, her face trembling to hide a mass of feelings. Aunn whimpers, tail lowered and embarrassed—

—?

Was the backyard always so… bright?

From the skies and through the tarp of darkness, it just looked like torches, but torches don't shine so brilliantly. A supernatural feeling fills my heart as my pace turns shy, something in the very air compelling me to walk forward; hands sweating; and—

Turning the corner, I just…freeze at the sight: a massive ‘cocoon’ of scarlet fire floats on the Shrine's pond, reflecting on the petrol blue of the water like a radiant pyre.

I whisper the only word that comes into my mind: “Mother…?”

>>45735081
>Next day is a complete blur, starting with a series of speeches by your new wife to the court and the public
>She's as inspirational as she is seductive. Monsters and beasts twice your size stand in awe before her.
>The nobility aren't present or are walking with limps - evidently getting a similar treatment as you did or more intense
>After her speech, she walks you by the hand around the capital streets - streets you only rarely glimpsed from behind the palace walls
>Already seems less squalid than before
>She starts to talk about the invasion, and of the art of ruling a nation,
>Resources, supplies and gold being brought in by the wagonful - gifts and charity from the abundant coffers and lands of pro-monster states.
>Such gifts were made before, but your wife explains how accepting them as a pro-order state would most likely end in complete diplomatic isolation and excommunication from the others.
>She explains how this invasion had been staged for a while without your nation's notice. A full diplomatic corp of ratas and succubi are already hard at work drafting plans to win over your order neighbours (by sword or by pen)
>Your old army are almost all now on honey moon leave. Your new army (the unmarried ones) line the streets in expensive, jet black armor.
>As imposing as they are, they are obviously trying their best to be nice to the locals. You see one helping a crippled man cross the street. Another one with wings is helping someone clean their roof. Almost every shop has at least one or another inside browsing the wares.
>Your new queen says it will take time for monsters to be accepted, but she will try her best as ruler to set a good example
>But, she adds with an affectionate squeeze of your hand, she will set aside as much time as she can spare for you
>She wants to, as she very bluntly puts it, fix you and your sheltered upbringing. Let you see the wonders and joys of life. Care for you and make you happy.

>>45675354
chin implants are an easy job
the rest is solved by accutane
anything else besides is on her to stop wearing those creepy contacts, learn how to do her own makeup without looking like her blood toxin levels are through the roof, AND to stop doing those weird unconfident mouth manipulations whenever she feels awkward

>>45634609
—
I could only watch with a hand over my mouth, wide-eyed. What is that? That… abomination?! Constructed with gold, marble, and the darkest of feelings. It was vomit-inducing, an affront, and poor, sweet Hana was being led there with body clunk as a sculpture and eyes of absolute uncertainty. Offense gave way to a most perilous rage, the feeling unanimously shared: Yuuka seemed about to explode—and so play on Yukari's hand—only keeping herself together by Mima's hand on her shoulder; the power behind the hold could've busted a normal human's arm. The ghost still had an expression that told a million stories of pure wrath. Alice had lost her softness, and in place was… something from the depths of Makai.

Dolly tried lunging on Yukari, yet held back by her sisters; pulling Yukari's hair was a way for them to get back on her, but just attacking Yukari would involve Hana.

… Marisa had her mini-hakkero in her left hand; any semblance of an easy-going woman gone. I walked to her, holding her hand down, and she hissed at me, "… She's fucking with us, isn't she?" The agitation in her voice mirrored that of her hakkero.

I nodded, "It's not the time…" Marisa looked at her belly, her eyes wide, letting out a strangled sigh as she hid the dangerous thing.

Yukari looked at us, enraptured in our reactions and inactivity—her hand on Hana's back a terrifying promise—before returning to the red miko and gapping the uniform to her hands. Hana gawked, weak and tense. "Did you like it, Hana-chan? Both were made by me! That statue I'll put on full display in front of your house; remove that silly shrine you have and put something worthwhile there." Aunn growled; Sana and Sara in her arms felt the room's tension and held tight to the Komainu. Hana tried to say something, drowning in confusion and dread, pacing in place, shaking—I burned the desire to go there, the roof of my mouth acidic, and destroy that woman and hold Hana in a tight hug, and— "As for the uniform, here, Hana-chan~! Let's see how cute you are in this!"

"W-what?! B-But…" She looked at us. 'Help' was written there.

Yukari grasped her forearm, bringing her forth, stopping us from moving. Suzu, sobered up by the sheer pressure, stepped back, the dolls flocking around her with drawn-out knives and small weaponry. "They won't mind, Hana-chan!" A Gap suddenly covered Hana's body, the Yakumo uniform disappearing—

—Suddenly, a cloud of shreds of red and white flew upwards as if confetti, and Hana's eyes had confusion before being wholly tainted by unadulterated horror. Even if no one could see her naked body, the mortifying sensation of being forcefully stripped down in front of friends painted Hana's face as if she were in a waking nightmare.

The Gap lasted a moment, revealing the girl in the intrinsic Yakumo uniform.

Her tears spoke of a fear that’d last a lifetime.

"My~! It looks so beautiful on you!" Yukari said as the rags of the Hakurei uniform rained down like volcanic ash.

It was enough.

"GET AWAY, YOU MONSTER!" Yuuka was the first to move, punching at where Yakumo stood a second ago, though she was gone—

—"Are you okay, Yuuka-san? You look mad." She was behind Hana, arms around her neck.

"Y-Yu—" Hana tried.

"Stop the pretending, you debauched monstrosity! What insanity do you think you're doing to the poor girl?!" Alice marched forward, a pillar of golden flames, pure ichor, exploding upwards, the doll-maker its core, sheer incandescence eclipsing the house's lights. It lasted two seconds before it vanished, revealing a flaming grimoire in Margatroid's hands—her blue eyes gone, now a threatening molten gold staring at Yukari.

"… PLEA—" Hana was crying harder; her eyes bulged.

"Calling yourself her 'Mama'?! And that gross thing?!" Marisa yelled, her mini-hakkero gathering energy and causing the whole area to tremble as if victim of an earthquake, her face contorted in searing anger—a certain experience there, maybe a promise. Her Ire whispered 'not again'.

Before I could notice, I was there too, Gohei withdrawn; the exuding choler leaving my chest could burn Youkai Mountain by itself.

"Out." Mima proceeded, her eyes of iron leveled with Yukari's. "You are not welcome here." Tewi and Mamizou shared a look and within seconds, they were guiding Suzu and Aunn out, the latter struggling to be released, thick tears streaming down her face; the former looked haunted.

A wall of some of Gensokyo's most powerful stared Yukari down, her arms still comfortably around a shaking Hana's neck.

The Gap Youkai's smile could only be described as eternal. "My, my~look at this, Hana-chan. It seems they don't approve of our relationship." She chuckled, nose on the girl's hair; another entire layer of fear surged, tears dense, mouth open to say something but unable to.

Cold spread like a dire sickness, an implication burning into a fright of the most terrible kind. A question formed, yet no one wanted to look our mistakes in the eye…

… So I asked it.