/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Sumireko getting called a cow by the bullies at school because her breasts are so large!
Sumireko's boyfriend (me) only caring about paizuri, keeping her virginity intact and pushing her sexual frustration trough the roof!
Replacing all of Sumireko's underwear with cow-print bikinis!
Finally cumming inside Sumireko on our graduation day, so that she'll get pregnant and start lactating!
Sumirecow!!!

>>45634206
Here you are, anon. I'm breaking this into two posts because it is too long for just one.
I plan on making a continuation of this, as it turned out to be much longer than I expected (because I thought giving some context for how Anon will meet Yukari and drink with her in the first place would be important).
I thought of other ways this could have gone down. Maybe Anon would be working at an izakaya and receive an unexpected, purple visitor after closing, or maybe he would have been returning home from work and suddenly noticed a certain someone staring at him from a gap while he rested and got drunk, but I got excited writing this idea of him being a relatively ignorant gapped human who settled in the village coming across the Yakumos (hence also the length and why it does not cut directly to him drinking with Yukari).
It is my first time writing a story like this. I hope you like it and apologise if it is bad.

————————————————————

You would have done well to heed the advice of the villagers, you thought to yourself as the door before you opened to reveal a tall, blonde woman… and her nine tails. A tall, blonde youkai and her nine tails.
“Don’t stay out late! There’s beasts out there!”, you heard countless times. But could they blame you? You had only been here for some months by now, and you barely knew your way around. Sure, it might have been a stupid idea to go so far the village upstream, but your catches had been getting better and better, and you got a little too excited with fishing, or the sen your haul promised, and lost track of time.
Then, on the way home, the low light of the dusk, a step off the path you had taken and a walk in circles in the forest as your anxiety grew to fear, and then dread when you realised you had become hopelessly lost. And to top it all off, that… thing, not unlike a young child, that had chased you with glistening red eyes through the dark, that forced you to drop everything you had caught as you entered a frenzied sprint into the unknown. You ran and ran for who knows how many hours, until you knew no more. The only thing to redeem this spell of bad luck had been the fact you had woken up on the forest floor the next day. And in one piece!
Still, it all seemed hopelessly lost. Though, contrary to expectation, your sense of direction was not entirely dull, the thick forest canopy made it impossible to know where east or west was. Pick a random direction and walk down it it was, then. But how many days had you walked by now? Three. Three? You had counted three last time it got dark. Or was that the time prior? And, at any rate, when was the last time you ate? Had you not seen this tree already once? Twice? You no longer knew. Your only option was to keep walking and pray none of those beasts would cross your path.
Which leads us to now. Night was approaching again, so, naturally, you felt quite relieved when you finally came across a path cut through the foliage, and that soon grew to excitement once the trees started clearing up, then followed by a light, and another one, and another one! Oh, thank God, you thought, as at last a large house came into view, your excitement and half-crazed mind from the hunger preventing you from asking yourself who exactly would be living here, in the middle of... nowhere.
Well, at last your question had been answered, if now your cheer had fallen through the roof, along with any hopes you had held for a brief moment, just one, of getting out of this alive. So much spent running away from youkai, and now, face to face with one… Though this one didn’t seem interested in going after you. She just stood there, glaring, as though waiting for you to say what could have possibly led you to her door. She slowly moved her tails from side to side. Each reminded you of a swaying snake about to strike.
Should you run? Plead for your life? Do nothing? Charge at her? Your mind froze thinking of what to do. Was this the end? It was not a bad run, but you wished you could at least have lived to se-
“Can I help you?”
…Why, yes, she could he- What?

>>45638865
>>45639233
>>45641692
>>45642386
>>45642498
>One of the most anticipated moment in the entire series of Satoko finally meeting Satoshi is in a God awful story that ruins Satoko character and is done in a way that is such a God awful asspull

lol. Imagine thinking this trash is actually good, it's forced emotional trash only put in there to trick retards like you into thinking this is somehow a good well written ending. It's like having the entire Ushiromiya family meet Ange when she's on top of the roof getting ready to kill herself, it's so fucking trash at least sotsu had the fucking respect not to have Satoko and Satoshi interact. What a joke, thank God this garbage is ending next chapter

>constantly bugging Miss Cupid and annoying the shit out of her since she has a spot she likes on top of the roof of the office building I work at
>incessantly talking her head off whenever she's on lunch break up there bombarding her with useless questions about Eros, like "What's Eros' 401K?"
>she never responds, she just has to put up with it and listen while I rant on until she has to go back to work
>sometimes embarrassing her by saying flirtatious things like 'You know you have really pretty wings Miss Cupid.'
>she's always internally debating whether or not she should stick me with a black arrow just to shut me up
>still a mystery to her whether or not I do it intentionally just to be annoying or if I genuinely just want to talk to her

>>45635924
Yukari raised an eyebrow, ordering him to continue.

"The weapon's pooling faith as well. What happens if the first time it's used, the sword misses? That would cause it's image as a All-Slaying weapon to be falsified. It's identity isn't set. Take 'The Root' as an example." Goro said, lifting the bracelet. "It's a sterile grudge, a stable curse, neither growing nor shrinking. It's identity is fixed, immutable. You talked about severing two parts from a whole, but what of something atomic? That sword's characteristics are still nebulous until proven. It could still fracture."

Yukari nodded her head and tapped her fan to her lips, taking in the information. "How insightful. The way you talk about it, it's almost like you referring to a Tsukumogami." She commented.

Goro shook his head. "Not so. 'The Root' is surly not such a Youkai and that sword, if it becomes one, wouldn't be the ultimate weapon you desire. If it does become like that, you could say it's 'spoiled' as a tool. You know, before I used to wonder why magic items were so uncommon in trade, now I realize the issue is how hard it is to hold them apart from the legends that color them."

"Quite so, quite so..." Yukari said. "I'll take this into consideration, in the meanwhile I'll have you two visit some Tsukumogami to validate some of this, you know some don't you Seija?" She asked me.

It has been awhile since I payed those two-bit players a visit. Ha, it's gonna be a hoot seeing their reactions to all these strange children. Maybe we can fish out some information about Tsukumos births that'll help us with our own kids...

"Oh, but don't be afraid to take a break at the HSE, I've actually prepared a room for you two! I'll bet you'd enjoy spending some time with Yacchie, Biten, and the rest of our little cohort."

"I'm not staying under the same roof as those strange women." I said crossing my arms.

"Ah, sharing bunks with all manner of strange Youkai, just like the Mouyren Temple." Goro sighed nostalgically.

"Both of you will be welcomed at any time. Just ensure you man your stations at the solstice. Now, if you two excuse me, I have a birthday to attend." She said, before slipping back into the gap.

I turn to Goro. "I have a question, that pool of screaming skulls, was that made from the bracelets magic?"

Goro tilted his head left and right. "In part. This thing is very specifically human powered, which is why it didn't 'spoil' into a Tsukomo, that pool has Oni, Gap, and a few other magics mixed in as well. Short story: Yes."

"So that's what she used the stolen, I mean, 'displaced into an imaginary or whatever space' bead for?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Uggh, you know, I have to ask. If Yukari displacing that bead is the reason we're gonna have kids, does that mean were related to her now? Like, she's the kid's godmother or something?"

"Maybe. I feel like sometimes were in some sort of strange fairy tale with all these strange births and rituals. Don't drink from any rivers or you might get pregnant with a bird or something." He said, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, so, if I'm following, then if we're related to Yukari, by way of our kids, and if Yukari gave 'birth' to the HSE building, which is also Anon's child, then we're now related to half of gensokyo and if that sword 'spoils' into a Tsukomo-"

Goro held up a hand. "The Inaba have a saying 'Families family'. So, let's sort out our new family tree AFTER our children our born okay? And we probably shouldn't say 'spoil' in front of Tsukomos, now that I hear you say it, it sounds like a major faux pas."

Oh gods, we're gonna be related to the Inaba? I had cross-referenced their family registries for hours just to make sure I wasn't naming our children after one of those cheery scamps and I saw at least thirty different pronunciations of 'Tewi'. I'd rather die then remember all those names. Speaking of which...

"Let's call her Oiwa, the child in the HSE." I said.

"The vengeful ghost from Yotsuya Kaidan? How bold!" Goro laughed.

"Hey! It's a good name for a Youkai alright! Plus, It'll be a good reminder to her husband to treat her well!" I defended.

"Alright alright. He waved. Oiwa, it's a good name." He said.

It was nice hearing it from his mouth.

---

"i'll just write a little and then stop procrastinating on that on other thing"
More Sword-Lore-Tism, it tees up some Tsukumo content, which I always feel doesn't get a lot of appreciation because the Grassroots network, Seija, and Sukuna are so popular.
If you caught the Horus Aximand reference, your going to Hell.

"My, this one's got it all! Fear! Shock! Worry! Confusion! It's a veritable feast!" I blinked once, then twice. Huh? I couldn't tell where I was, but it seemed to be a balcony. I'd definitely not been here earlier. And who was talking? I couldn't see anyone. Wait, no...There, in the distance. There was a light. I tried to run toward it, but noticed that I was moving very sluggishly. I forced myself forward, then burst out into the light and found myself...

On a rooftop. The night sky was a deep blue casting everything in a cool light. There was a slight breeze, enough to ruffle my hair and make my coat billow. Long strings of clouds littered the sky above cast in dark grey and breaking the sky up. I couldn't see any stars despite the clear segments of sky, which I found a little confusing. There was a railing in front of me which I stumbled forward to and wrapped my hands around to ground myself. I could hear noise, and a lot of it, though it was all fairly distant. A blaring noise which increased and decreased in volume, somewhere off in the distance, and the murmur of a thousand voices having their own conversations. Somewhere, I could hear faint music, something that sounded strange and unfamiliar to me. When I'd been kidnapped by Hearn, I'd heard music in the background of the restaurant she'd taken me to, but it hadn't been too unfamiliar to me.

I looked over the railing, keeping my grip tight, and felt my jaw drop. Below me was a blinding number of light, coming from all sorts of sources along the long street. It took my eyes a moment to get used to it, especially with the variety of colours. There was a light dusting of snow across everything, but it clearly wasn't showing. It was nothing like what I'd seen in the village, or anywhere in the valley, for that matter.

It was the Outside World. It had to be. Nowhere else looked quite like this. I could see countless figures walking past below, indistinct and blurry. Opposite me were more buildings, and in the distance, as much as I could see, taller buildings. They seemed to consist of mostly windows, a large number of which were lit up with yellow, orange, or blue light. I wondered what could possible be happening inside them. Could there be people in there, living out their lives? I wondered what sort of problems they had to contend with. Probably fantastical stuff, I imagined, like working with all sorts of strange devices and being able to go anywhere across the entire world. They probably didn't have to deal with their spider suddenly appearing as a hollow shell, though.

Ah. I remembered. I'd passed out, which was a little embarrassing, but in my defence, I'd had a bit of an exhausting conversation with Keine before finding Yamame like that, so I felt like I was allowed some slack. But...If I'd passed out, I couldn't have ended up here, could I? Plus, it was daytime, and the large signs I could see opposite me were still readable, so I had to be in Japan, but if so, it shouldn't have been night. And the sluggish way I'd moved...

A dream.

"Yes, yes, bravo, well done, salutations." I heard from behind me. Spinning, I wasn't surprised to see Doremy Sweet approaching me from the stairs that led up to the roof. I was surprised by her outfit, though. Gone was her sleeveless dress and strange shawl, replaced with a suit like the ones I'd seen on my last trip to Tokyo. The top button of her white shirt was undone, and she looked a little confused about the whole ordeal. "Funny thing, the Dream World." She said, strolling toward me, then spinning and leaning against the railing. Her hat was still the same, and I wondered where exactly her tail was coming from, but decided that I shouldn't stare. "An outsider or two shows up, and they start having dreams about where they've been, or where they wanted to go, or places that are an amalgamation of the two, and the Dream World begins to understand how to put it together. How to complete it. And before you know it, things from your dreams become meshed with things from other dreams. These clothes...I was curious, so I let the dream take control of it. Something from your subconscious?"

I thought about it. I supposed it could be. Maybe...It did look similar to the clothes that Ran had been wearing in Australia. Frowning, I asked Doremy why I'd appeared here of all places. "Hard to say...Something from your mind? Something from somewhere else? I call myself the ruler of the Dream World, but by no means does that mean I know what it's doing at all times. Dreams are malleable. They're just a little bit amazing and more than a little mad." Doremy reached out a hand holding it palm-up, and her book, the dream journal, materialized in a bubble of pink smoke before dropping into her hand. She flipped through it. "No, no, no - Oh, maybe...No. Hmm...Eugh, what's that supposed to be? No, no, mayb- No." I watched her in confusion for a moment, then asked her what she was doing.

>>45609690
>Be anon shitposting on Christmas Eve
>Hear a large thud on your roof following by a rap-tap-tap at your door
>The sounds echo throughout the empty house
>Jokingly, you tell yourself that it’s probably a White Horn having a laugh
>Open it to find a Krampus leering at you, her face half obscured from the door frame
“May I come in?”
>Part of you is wondering why she hasn’t just sacknapped you yet, or why you’re being visited by a goat known for going after naughty bo—
>The shitposts, she tracked you with the shitposts those slimy cocksucking Janni—-
>Various sounds of clanking and jostling from her massive sack bring you back to reality as she walks into your dining room, sizing everything up
>She smiles when you ask her what she wants
“Just to spread a bit of… holiday cheer.”
>Suddenly, the Krampus throws open the bag and out pours a massive Christmas feast— Roast duck and cranberry glaze, gooseberry pie, beef stew, Christmas punch, roast ham making a veritable mountain of food in the room
>She just smiles as you look at her dumbfoundedly
“Abra kadabra~”
“Go on now, eat!”
>It’s weirdly pleasant to attack the massive feast with the Krampus watching you, no matter how much you eat you never feel quite full
>As the last of the punch disappears down your gullet you ask her why she didn’t partake, her smile turning sinister and lascivious as the drink boils in your stomach and your pants feel far too small
“Oh my dear, dear naughty little Anon. My feast has just begun!”
>Opening her robes, you see her naked body criss crossed with ribbon and a nice bow on top of her cleavage
>There’s even some mistletoe dangling right above her steamy womanly folds down below, so invitingly pleasant and wet
>Tale spreads quickly on the imageboards of Anon, unvirgin fraud supreme
>The last image and post being uploaded being a selfie from the Krampus’ giant black furred claw of her quarry in the sack, her face a bright red and body pockmarked with hickeys
“I finally nabbed him.”

Anon looks at the glowing, tall, and mystical tree; then at the barren landscape around him, a disturbed godly child—one of his, apparently—, staring at him, her powers and existence beyond his very comprehension. He grimaces, dreading the question: "Would you know, by any chance, of the name 'Ymir'?"

Hata no Sekai blinks, her smile turns a tad bigger. "You mean big sis?"

Anon sighs.
—
Last time in the HSE:
>Anon gets distressed by his mythical daughter, who shows him her AU fanfics involving their family;
>Hana has the best day of her life; she dances, eats, and talks a lot with people she likes—it's all so fun and full of love from all sides! Nothing can destroy this perfect day!
>Yukari throws a party for the ladies—a ladies night, if you will—on her side of this war. Ends as well as expected;
>Ran gets her estrus going and is suffering because of that. Breaks down crying after telling Anon how she fucking hates everything surrounding them, gets comforted by him. Feels man;
>Kasen speedruns a bunch of traumas, gets ambushed by Konngara, they spar before Konn goes on about Oni victory, killing Yukari and Okina and then Reimu and Hana. It takes a lot of Kasen to not sperg right then and there;
>Aya participates in the birthday party, takes so many pictures of so many embarrassing situations Bunbunmaru is not getting out of content for an entire week! As the overdrive calms down, decides to pull her shogi game and bullies Mima into fighting her. They play together and despite jobbing initially, it was all part of keikaku, and Aya the Tyrant commits unspeakable gravitacional crimes before the war settles into a truce with the first Dairy republic;
>Satori gets harassed by Okina, then by a bunch of other older women, namely Kanako and Byakuren, after spreading the information about the sword in the pond and Yukari and Kasen's bicker. She makes sure to lock the door this time;
>Yuuka pampers Hana, gets ultra jealous and plays on a cool ass violin. All very cute.
>Sanae has her first protagonized chapter… 700 entries in. Damn. She's in the party and does a lot to make Hana even happier.
>Kosuzu is so tired that she space travels to another timeline for a bit, then gets embarrassed by Mamizou at the birthday party, though it's all, as expected from this angel, immensely cute. She also has a lot of fun. Good for her!
>Seiga makes everyone in the ladies night jobb to her sexual depravity;
>Remilia and Yachie fake being sexually depraved too, and it's very cute;
>Alice and her dolls also pamper Hana and sing for her when she decides to dance upside down on the roof. The dolls shake up the party all times~;
>Tewi is smug, tells everyone about her BIG family and Anon's place in it. Then she's suffering to Aunn's love. Sana and Sara are cute as hell;
>Keine makes amends with Mokou and she joins their family with the twins; it's very wholesome. Retard Express comes the next day with a cursed letter, and, putting together all the pieces—the ShitJaku, the shitbracelet; the shit Yakumo uniform—, comes to the conclusion this is an attempt to introduce her and Keine's storyline into the main story. Rightfully burns Seija, Goro, and their dog alive for that, though they're saved by Keine. Proceeds to teach Goro-san the dangers of retarded ideas, then makes him jobb to a baby; same with Seija, but she does that by herself. Very cute. Then, topping it all off, Mokou asks Keine to be her bride. She kind of accepts in a funny way, and Mokou ponders destroying the neighbors' eardrums;
>Mima gets way too invested in a board game; Marisa is there to laugh and jobb when the time comes;
>Seija and Goro beat the retard record by a landslide with their new idea. Show it first to Eirin, a paragon of morality, trust me; then almost get killed by Mokou because of it; get info from Keine and jobb to her jobabies—Jesus…—, then they go beat Tenshi to get information about Yuuka, apparently wanting to speedrun suicide. All that with sides of Goro getting really comfortable in crossdressing as Yukari, breaking down because of the magical fetus and having a Myouren certified intervention;
>Rikako and her gang sneak around the party, but the clap of their humongous jobbcheeks keep alerting the traumatized Shrine Mainden;
>Eirin completes her Warhammer 40k deck and makes three 'perfect' unfertilized eggs using Yukari's genetics. Ponder the future and conquest of the universe, as you do;
—
Father and daughter watching SnK together edition
—
This thread is for the spinoffs of the spinoffs of a fan work, read below to catch up.
OG work here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43718466/chapters/109935363
Read Hana's story here:
>“Hana Hakurei is the daughter of Reimu Hakurei and her husband, Anon. As the future protector of Gensokyo, Hana was never going to have a normal life, but it was worse than it should have been.”
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52050766/chapters/131634781
—
previous thread: >>45515120

"You look like a Buddhist." Reimu told me. Her gohei tapped against the ground very casually. "Makes me want to beat something up." Like me? "I thought about it." She said, very guardedly. A moment later, the façade broke, and we both cracked wide smiles, then rushed up to hug each other. "Feeling better?" She asked me. I nodded, then returned the question. "You know, better than I expected, actually." I asked her what had changed. "Oh, there's a surprising number of visitors today. Misumaru wasn't quite as annoying, Marisa and Tenshi are still being punished, and Ran showed up with Chen to do some sort of barrier maintenance that I don't understand. Oh, and Aunn's been having fun in the snow." Lively, then? I could already see Aunn over Reimu's shoulder, constructing some sort of igloo. "Really lively." Reimu did look like she'd suddenly found a hidden store of energy.

I'd found Reimu up on the roof of the Shrine after I'd managed to make it all the way up the steps. I was already pretty exhausted, but she'd then tossed a few icicles that she'd been knocking off of the Hall of Worship at me, shouting "Danmaku Practice!" as she did so. Happily, they'd all been fairly weak and poorly aimed throws, so I didn't have to dodge too much. After that, she'd finally deigned to come down and speak to me properly, which had resulted in the standoff about my hat.

"Seriously, why are you wearing that?" Reimu asked me as we headed around from the Hall of Worship and toward her rooms. "Did you lose a bet?" I growled and muttered that I'd been tricked into it by a cruel, heartless, irredeemable spider. "Yeah? What'd you do? Not satisfy her in bed?" I looked down at Reimu and asked her if a Shrine Maiden should really be saying those things. "What? Because you're that worried about my religion? Not that worried, with that hat on." I sighed and pulled the hat off. Yamame would just have to come up with something better, though given the selection of hats she'd given me, I wasn't sure I was looking forward to it. "Ah, that's better." Reimu said, reaching up and ruffling my hair. Here, I started to gain an appreciation for why Yamame found it annoying. Not that it would stop me from doing it. It seemed like every Kurodani had hair that was made to be ruffled. Muttering about retribution, I put the hat back on for now.

I could hear something. A noise, growing in volume as we got closer. "Hey! Reimu! Get this damn cat off of me!" Well, Marisa shouting her lungs out was about as recognizable as anything got. "Seriously, she - Hey, you little - Ouch! I'm not your damn toy!" We got onto the veranda and I kicked the snow from my boots, wondering if Reimu was still having too much fun to consider releasing Marisa and Tenshi from their imprisonment. "Seriously, she keeps chewing on my hair, it's so gross!" I...Couldn't really imagine Chen doing that, since she was still human shaped. I looked over at Reimu, who rolled her eyes and kept on walking. We passed Reimu's room and headed toward the spare room, the one I'd once woken up in with Reimu yelling at a whole host of people while she was recovering from her illness.

I opened the door and stopped. When Reimu had said that she'd tied Marisa and Tenshi to a post in the Shrine, I figured that there was probably at least some level of exaggeration at play. Some sort of joke, and I'd get here to find that maybe she'd tied Marisa and Tenshi up and left them at a post in the Shrine for a while. Maybe their hands would be tied, or their feet.

I wasn't really expected that they'd be actually immobilised, tied up in so many knots that I couldn't even begin to understand why Reimu even had the rope for it. And more importantly, I wasn't expecting the post Reimu had referred to would turn out to be the central beam across the ceiling in the middle of the room. She must have created a hole with the needles to feed the rope through. The end result, as baffling and difficult to believe as it was, was Marisa and Tenshi, bound in so many ways that I was amazed they could even breathe, hanging from the ceiling. They were tied so that the blood wasn't all going to their head, and while it was undoubtedly uncomfortable and probably slightly painful, it didn't look like it would be dangerous unless they were kept there for a long time, and even then, I wondered if it would only be dangerous to Marisa, since Tenshi was a celestial, if an exiled one. Marisa was swaying slightly, because she was shaking her head a lot. The cat, it turned out, was not Chen. It was an actual, normal cat, a small thing with white fur that was pawing at Marisa's hair from where it dangled down to the floor. As I watched incredulously, I saw the cat try to take a bite of Marisa's hair, and she shook her head again.

Keine's power never ceases to amaze me.

One would expect the people you just almost burned to death to be hostile, yet here we are, gossiping in the living room after eating a hearty yakitori dinner I cooked; experience forgotten and only knowing it happened… Well, Gensokyan cultural mores post-violence are very soft, anyway.

A lot was discussed between Keine and Goro, especially something about childcare institutions. I didn't hear much; busy playing with Aki, Mochi and Seija—the latter who decided to try her hand at playing with a baby, full of bravado and tenacity… Then Kuramochi began crying, and she was panicking. It was very funny—, though Keine seemed interested, she postponed her involvement, hands full with recovering her job and cleaning her reputation, fiercingly stating she'd be there to help when all was figured out.

There was also the 'replacing a sage' thing. Keine looked weirdly at Goro, then said that if a sage needs to be replaced, it means they've died, meaning there isn’t a ‘Gensokyo’ remaining to govern.

He seemed thoughtful after that one.

Conversations turned more lighthearted as afternoon turned evening. "It's commendable, Sensei—to adopt. Knowing some will be growing already with loving parents is very nice." He fondly looks at Aki, who was curiously focusing on a random spot on the roof. By my crossed legs and laid on his belly on a blanket wide spread on the ground was Kuramochi, mischievous blue eyes on the lazy dog, wings still. "But I wonder: how's being a parent like, Sensei?"

Keine pauses at the question, smiling as she rests her chin on top of Aki's soft, pinkish hair. "Well… It's a responsibility above anything you can ever imagine. But also hope to guide you in your darkest moments. It’s wonderful." Goro hums, sinking a bit on the couch as if unsatisfied with the answer. Keine giggles a little. "Someday I may tell you how I first met these two. Then everything will make sense~" She pauses again, kissing Aki's scalp gently, sharp eyes on the cursed bracelet. "Until then, why not exercise it a bit?" She gets up and approaches Goro, the latter curious, then tense as bamboo as Keine kneels by him, bringing Aki to his arms.

"No, Sensei! I cannot; there could be side effects I still don't know and—" He shows the bracelet, desperate to not have the baby in his arms. Seija is looking at everything with an agape mouth, still as a monolith, hands joined together, and, if I'd guess, throat dry. I'm also tense, but it's Keine doing this; she must have a plan… She picks up one of the towels we'd put on our shoulders when nurturing the twins after feeding them and puts it over the bracelet arm. Oh. Goro looks shocked. "B-But, Sensei, it might not be enough—"

The baby was in his arms.

Goro struggles, jumping a bit to get the bracelet as far as possible from Aki, and I swear I could hear his frantic heartbeat.

What followed was silence thick as honey, Aki's legs gently supported on his belly, his arms all trembling, breathing held… Then he looked Aki in the eyes, breathing slowly released, arms steadying. "… I'm doing it, Sensei."

"Yes, you are. Aki seems very calm, doesn't she?" He wide-eyed nods, shifting to a more comfortable position. Seija watches as if her eyes were cameras. Keine smiles, hands beneath her chin. "Careful with her wings—they're on the sensitive side."

"Like this…?" He moves his forearms, not touching Aki's wings anymore. Keine hums. "Hey, Aki Kamishirasawa. Nice weather, huh…? N-Name's Goro. A pleasure."

Aki giggles. Goro laughs in disbelief.

My heart full, I reach for Kura—all my body tenses up, cold spreading as I don’t see him by my side, instead munching his closed fist… cuddling with the fucking dog! The hound seemed to not care. "Mochi!" I rush to him, trying to get him away from the darn thing, but he holds onto the dog’s thick-fat, giggling, wings swaying lovingly. "Geez, I take my eye a second away from you, and you cuddle with a mighty beast?!"

"That's a cool baby right there." Seija comments with faked placidity as she approaches, struggling to keep her eyes off Goro, who is still being instructed by Keine on how to handle a tiny and fragile baby. "Man, it's always like this; we go around, he just HAS to stop and talk and do weird things with whomever he sees… It's hard having a wife, heh." She jokes, though it falls flat, eyes big, seeming as if she had just had a great revelation.

I know exactly what she's feeling…

"… First time seeing the person you love holding a baby?" She glances at me, then at Goro and Keine, the latter teaching the first Aki's favorite funny faces. Aki was sweetly giggling.

She nods slowly.

… I went through the exact same recently, after all.

Mochi mumbles, climbing on top of the hound, wings flapping a bit. Seija huffed. "Okay! Not losing again—second round, little man!" With those passionate words, Seija began joyously playing with Mochi and the dog. He doesn't cry now.

The dog, though, seems even more tired.

"I see" it was Sonson's turn to get serious "Hey, sorry for making fun of you for liking fighting, i didn't know it meant that much to you"
Meiling smirked "What's this? Sun Wukong apologizing sincerely"
"Yes yes" Ki joined in "it appears you pulled on her heartstrings my dear Meimei"
Sonson blushed "Oh fuck you both! I'm never being considerate with you assholes again!"
Ki chuckled "In all seriousness i'm sure that girl is very proud of how far you've made it"
"Oh she wasn't a girl she was a dragon" Meiling corrected naively
Both Ki and Sonson spilled their drinks
The night went continued as a drunken stupor, at some point Meiling found some VHS tapes with all sorts of fight recordings in them, she practically bullied Sonson and Ki to watch one of them with her
"SEE?! SEE?! NICOLINO GETS THE OPPONENT ON HIS SIGHT AND THEN HE PAUSES! THAT'S HOW HE BAITS YOU! THAT MAKES YOU PREDICTABLE BUT THEN HE TAKES IT EVEN FURTHER AND BAITS THE PUNCHES SO THAT HE CAN SPRING THEM AWAY WITH HIS SHOULDER!" Meiling was frantically pointing at the aforementioned boxer on a black and white video on the tv doing what she was describing "AND THEN AND THEN-"
"MEILING!" Screamed an aggravated Ki "IF I LET YOU TAKE THESE TAPES WITH YOU WOULD YOU HAVE MERCY ON US AND STOP?!"
The morning after the three of them woke up in the middle of what looked like a tornado after going through a bar and a Chinese restaurant, they were all quite tired but thankfully Sonson had booked a visit to a high class spa for the three of them, it was a much nicer day that day, the rest of Meiling's days on animal hell would be quite uneventful besides trying to make Ki and Sonson control themselves with heir spending until finally the day had come.
The three of them stood in front of a portal "So this will send me back to the surface?" Meiling asked
"Yeah, should put you somewhere near the entrance to the underworld, sorry if we can't get you anywhere else" ki replied
"Sorry we couldn't get find a better place, the underworld is the closest to animal hell" Sonson added
"Hey before i forget" Ki took and envelope from her pocket and handed it to Meiling "I acknowledge i couldn't convince you to stay but here, if you ever need a roof over your head just open this and you'll be sent to me"
"How romantic~" Sonson added and was swiftly elbowed in the head by Ki
"It's...going to get lonely without you" Ki commented
Meiling teared up a bit "There were some hardships, but it was a lot of fun because we were in it together"
"Yeah, it was fun" Sonson added
...
Meiling hugged the two of them, they hugged her back
Meling looked at Ki "See you later you dumb chunii turtle i hope the casino is still there when i come back! then she looked at Sonson "And you, you hairy bitch! Take good care of her! No one else tolerates you like she does"
Ki and Sonson grinned also tearing up
"You better not laze around and forget what i taught you at your dollhouse, your tits don't need to get any fatter!" Sonson replied
"You better be back! I still haven't punished you for breaking my ribs you damn titcow! Saki's also coming for your fat ass when she finds out you're back! Take care" Ki followed
"Bye you guys" Meiling ended
And just like that they broke the hug and began walking their separate ways
While a bit frustrating Meiling couldn't deny that she had yet another place she had to come back to at some point

>>45551568
Yukari would definitely pull the card where Chen living under her roof means Yukari gets a claim on everything she brings in just to ride him. Ran would try and be polite, but there's no stopping mating season instincts from kicking in even if he didn't fall for her womanly charm.

>>45536221
she's on diet.
>>45536255
because orins are red
reimus are blue
but the most cute ones
shine gold on the roof

That is, if her ranting didn't already make us conspicuous enough. Finally, I had to turn through a back alley and kiss Yamame until she forgot what she was complaining about.

Not that I was particularly upset about that. It worked, too, since she remained quiet as we headed up the streets and past my house, which was looking the same as always. That, I thought, was probably suspicious in itself. The roof had even been cleared of snow at some point, because the pile that was forming now was definitely not quite as large as I'd expected. I wondered if the tengu I'd seen during the storm had a hand in that.

And then, finally, we were at the entrance to the Bamboo forest of the Lost. "Are you...Sure you know where you're going?" Yamame asked me, sounding a little worried. I breathed in a lungful of cold air and nodded. I knew the direction, at least, so as long as we stayed on the same path, I thought that we would probably be fine. If worst came to worst, I hoped that we'd be able to find Eientei and get someone to guide us. "That's...Not the most fool proof plan I've ever heard." Yamame told me doubtfully. I shrugged. I wasn't exactly a fool proof person. I looked over at Yamame, who smiled at me lightly. "Me neither." She said, offering me her hand. I took it and - Taking a moment to plead under my breath for things to work out - We entered the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

About five minutes after that, we both fell into a hole, together. Except, it definitely wasn't a hole, because holes in the ground usually just led to more ground slightly further down, not into a swirling void of bloodshot eyes. I think I yelled something about this happening again, then had to throw my hand out in midair to catch Kagerou's package after it fell from Yamame's grasp. She had latched onto my arm with her entire body, presumably from her spider instincts kicking in. This time, the whole thing seemed to be taking slightly longer. Long enough that I heard something else entirely. "Whoa! It's Miss Yamame and her human!" I tried to turn my head - Difficult when spinning out of control in a weird nightmare world - and just barely caught a flash of red and white that I assumed had to be Chen. "What are you guys doing inside the Boundary!?" I shouted something back about falling through a gap in the Bamboo Forest, but I wasn't sure how much of it got through. "B-But, why did Lady Yuk-?" Chen didn't get a chance to finish asking that question, because a second later, the world of eyes had disappeared and we'd both been spat out into...A bedroom. I crashed into the floor, bounced, rolled twice in the air, then crashed into the wall and fell to the ground, while Yamame was knocked into the air from which - I presume - She had launched herself at the nearest corner of the room.

Silence reigned, until I started to hear a soft breathing, like that of someone sleeping. Restricting my groaning to be as quiet as possible, I whispered Yamame's name, then caught her eyes from the corner of the room above me. Staggered upright as quietly as I could, I looked around for Kagerou’s hood, and thankfully found the box also in the corner of the room, perhaps slightly worse for wear, but the clothing inside was undamaged. After a moment, she managed to lower herself to meet me, and I caught sight of her spider limbs once more, though they faded after a moment. Looking around, the gap that had brought us here had disappeared, leaving the room in darkness apart from the vague light coming from the one window which ran from the ceiling to the floor which was covered by a thin curtain that restricted it to just vague suggestions of shape and light. Now more confused than worried, I looked around again. Clearly, this hadn't been a scheduled visit. If it had, I doubted that we'd have been flung into a wall at high speed. Plus, I could still hear the sound of someone sleeping. Looking away from the window, I saw the large bed, and the shape of a person sleeping on it.

Yamame and I exchanged a glance, then tiptoed around to see for ourselves. I imagine that we both already expected what we saw, but there was Hearn. Asleep, in what looked like purple pyjamas made of silk and embroidered with a fancy looking ‘YY’ on them, and her floppy hat on the table next to the bed. I had no idea what ‘YY’ stood for, but it was hardly the most pressing of concerns at the moment. Her mouth hung slightly open and there was even a thin line of drool running down her face. She shorted, rolled over, then continued sleeping without a care in the world.

Even though it was a potentially dire situation, and even though - Or perhaps, because - We'd essentially just been sleep-kidnapped, Yamame and I looked at each other again, then both slapped a hand over each other's mouths before we could burst out laughing.

The way back home is short, yet my heart keeps skipping beats. Having Mokou back in my life… Feels like a dream. I fear it might actually be—I glance at her flying by my side, thrown at how quickly she turns her eyes away from the lower half of my nightgown to meet mine. "A-Aren't you cold in that skimpy thing?" She utters, blushing, hands crossed behind her nape, flying as if floating on water.

I hum. "I was feeling cold when I left to meet you." My eyes soften, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. "Not anymore."

Her blush deepens, making a sulking noise. "At least it's dark so no one can see it…" I blink at her words—chest clenching—and can't resist snickering. She gets even redder.

Ah~It feels good. It really does. Like having a thousand tons lifted from your shoulders, the world more colorful and the moon shines a silver so pronounced you can lose yourself in it for hours—oh, that's not the moon, that's just Mokou's hair. Heh.

Our flight finally ends, landing on my bedroom's window. Mokou looks rather tense as I open the window—the room hardly illuminated by moonlight, so she has to squint to understand her surroundings, watching me walk towards the half-spent candle. "Be quiet, okay~? They're sleeping." She lifts a brow, looking at me as if I said something stupid.

"'They'?" She parrots, coming to my side.

I giggle and, with a flick of my fingers and a bit of magic, the candle is lit again…

… Mokou turns absolutely pale.

During our apology, when I laughed, I'd thought her brain had shut down… Here, I'm certain it did.

She gazes at Aki and Kuramochi, utterly mystified, moistens her lips, and unconsciously holds onto the cradle to keep her balance. I stare at her expressions with a guttural feeling of sheer happiness throbbing my entire body, drinking from the tiny movements of her muscles; the confusion; the sweet, stupefied smile as she turns to me and, in her speechlessness, have her wide eyes make the question: “Who?”

I titter, eyes glinting. "These are the two beautiful souls I saved in my last stand… My two children."

Gently, I reach inside the cradle and grab Kuramochi, handing him onto Mokou—and, oh, I think the likes of Aya would pay a mountain of gold to see the almighty Fujiwara no Mokou like this: a mess, fumbling hard and stuttering as she confusedly tries to hold the baby without letting him fall, looking at his little face as if worth thousands times more than the just mentioned mountain of gold. "K-Keine…" She looks at me, gulps something down, then looks back at Kuramochi, specifically his wings. "… W-What?"

In the meantime, I had picked up Aki, nestling her in my arms. "They're night sparrows, like Mystia… I adopted them, and they've chosen me as their mother. Things have been hard—really hard—," Mokou's eyes soften, the baby in her arms moving a bit, probably going to wake up soon. "But with them in my life, I've found strength to keep on going. A motive, changes of view—hope and responsibility…" I watched as her red eyes met the baby's blues for the first time, tired and a little numb from just waking up, yet stark under the tender candlelight. The immediate veneration in her eyes was enough to bring back the tears. "This little one here is Aki, as in Akyuu… And that one," he giggled, trying to reach for Mokou's head, likely to eat her hair. "Is Kuramochi." It comes out as a whisper.

Yet it shakes her entire world.

She stares at me, a trembling smile rising as if a phoenix, then at Kuramochi… "Kuramochi… That's your name, huh?" Gently, her index finger meets his stretched hand, and it takes his entire tiny palm to hold it. Her smile is blinding. "Be proud of it—i-it was the name… of a great man." She giggles through tears, swinging her held finger up and down to entertain him.

Aki moans, and I sigh, albeit not losing my smile. She'll be so grumpy tomorrow~

"K-Keine…" I look at Mokou, who, with trembling steps, approaches me, my heart flipping with expectation. "I… want to be part of t-this." Whatever expectation I had was blown out of the roof, my eyes bulging. "Of their lives—of yours. I want us… to be a family…" She carefully touches Aki's cheek, who mumbles. "… Can we?" Her hand goes up and rests on my own cheek. I lean onto it as if it were water in a desert.

I can't resist: am laughing again.

Aki isn't fond of the noise. Kuramochi munches on Mokou's finger.

"Why are you asking that, Mokou? And you really called me a dork? Don't you have any shame?!" I close the distance, placing my forehead on her plain chest, Aki’s and Kuramochi's wings brushing together. She looked down and I up, and our smiles were clear mirrors of the soul. "You're already part of this family, you big, flat idiot~" Mokou pauses, her chest swelling—the sweet sound of the heartbeat there my favorite melody. "Don't shout, please. The neighbors will be mad."

She nods with a snicker, leaning on me and using her free hand to bring all four of us into a tight hug, giggling on my scalp.…

… Perfect.

"I miss your food… but also the way you'd sit upside down on the couch; the way you'd hug me and get me off the ground—you're just so tall~" She laughs, and it's accompanied by a soft, pained gurgle. "I miss your excitement and the way you'd light up my mornings… Mokou, I never blamed you for anything." There's so much I want her to know, feel. How'll her eyes shine when she holds Aki, Kuramochi? When she learns about my plans, the things I went through? Excitement pumps my blood. "I miss you in my life." I whisper.

Somehow her eyes got even bigger, her hand on mine so tight it hurts—in a good way. "Y-You don't blame me for all that?! I said awful things! Was a terrible friend! I could've done more; could've listened, but I did not and—"

I laugh. It's sudden and hearty; the moon hears, the fish hear it, and Mokou looks so befuddled I don’t doubt her brain had shut down for a second. Laughter dies as tears roll, the smile on my face hurting, denying with a head sway. "All you did was react, Mokou…" My smile turns guilty. "All the lies I told, letting the charade build. It all hurt so much, and I could've stopped anytime… But the peer pressure of knowing your smile would fade… I gave in to that and let that bomb explode." Her face contorted into a bunch of difficult emotions, confused on what to express: rage, guilt, pity, empathy…? I squeezed her hand, and she showed understanding. "It was my fault; I was weak and paid the price—and, for everything, Mokou, I'm sorry… Do you forgive me?"

To say those words, to let it all out of my chest… It feels good—

—but Mokou stops that with one word. "IDIOT!" I’m taken aback by the yell, gawking at her; her face burned with frustration—literally: flames danced around her pristine hair, perfectly framing red eyes. "Acting as if you carry the world around! You're not alone, idiot! I did wrong too; I was a shit friend, Keine! Even Kaguya realized that! You deserve as much of an apology! It's not just because you can mess up with history that you should live yours alone; you're not Almus… no, wait, that's not the guy—uh—Atlc…"

Beyond the utter feeling of being flabbergasted, I laugh more.

"Atlas, who carried the skies."

She snapped her fingers, excitement shown in the twisting flames. "Yes, that's the guy! You're not him—you don't need to carry this weight alone, dork!"

… Oh, the tears have returned.

It's true, right? In that fear, surrounded by lies, I pushed people away. No wonder I crumbled under the pressure…

I look into her eyes, Mokou struggling to regain her breath, pulling her hand back as to clean her face… "I accept your apology, Keine… Do you accept mine?"

… Ah…

This feeling… It's like flying across the sky with my babies. It's freedom unlike anything else, an enchanting moment, and it sees me true. It's enough to fill this restless heart with a thousand feelings that bubble to the surface.

"Y-Yes. I do."

Mokou pauses; her chest swells… Then she giggles lowly, gets up, turns to the moon and— "HELL YEEEEAAAAAH!!" She shouts to the skies, probably awaking Heaven's residents and I can't; I simply can't: I'm laughing. Out loud. Very loudly. Mokou is also laughing, pumping her fist, flames as if wings behind her—just watching her… The undescribable feeling inside my heart gains a name, and it is 'freedom'. "Man, this feels so good~I feel like I could take on a mountain!" She jitters, rushes at me, and before I even know it, I’m lifted off my seat, Mokou spinning around and laughing, holding me as a bride. "I think I'll go cause the Tengu some problems! I'll start a forest fire! OH, THEY'LL GET SO MAD!!" She puts me down, and I hold her hand—her heartbeat is through the roof, smile shining—giving her a disapproving look. She scratched her nape. "Heh, sorry~"

I giggle, my head feeling light. "Ah~all these emotions… I'm starving now."

"I know, right?! Come!" Even though she says that, she picks me up again and carries me to the table, gently sitting me down. "You'll love it~I've been preparing it for days! Most was me trying to remember your tastes—you big picky eater—Japanese," she counts on her fingers, frowning. "—things with cultural background; mild and sweetened; but nothing greasy or spicy." My face is pure red, smile wide, heart full. So thoughtful of her~the look in my face gave in. "Nailed it, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did, Mokou."

She was laughing, bringing the food to the table. Blissful moments followed as we ate good food and talked, mostly about what we did and the terrible rumors that have arisen about me. She was fuming with Mr. Hieda's delusion, mumbled about punching some kids when I told her about the stoning—an idea I promptly dissipated—and was entranced as I described my last stand to protect two poor souls, not telling her they were babies or Mystia's actions; the first was a surprise and the latter would be discussed more thoughtfully later.

As we finished, I caught her hand, excited. “Mokou… I want to show you something wonderful."

>>45511691
>Monsters won't care about me.
You say that but your Harpy dasher will start thinking you seem a little lonely and then next thing you know she's made a nest on your roof with the excuse that it's just to deliver faster since you're her number one customer.

>man all alone in his house mashing the tv remote
>it's snowy outside
>so frustrated with his gremlin box he punches it and breaks it
>suddenly a Monster dashes along his roof
>IT'S KRAMPUS!!!!!!
>she slinks into view from his chimney
>he turns his head
>"WHAT WHAT?"
>Krampus smiles
>"Alright buddy you got two options here, you can either be a Husband, or you can be an Order. Those are your two options. So what's it gonna be? Huh? Huh? Will you be a Husband (HOOSBUND) or an Order (OHDUR)."
>Krampus fades from sight
>the man rapidly shifts to the appearance of an Order Paladin in a full helm and plate armor
>he writes down in a diary "Have I truly become a virgin?"
>goes out into MGC square and sets down a Shog boombox he found and presses an eye to turn on music
>starts dancing
>his performance catches the eyes of monsters all around, a Chesh and Hellhound turn their heads
>he stands looking proud
>And that's the story of the Inquisutorial Cretin

>>45467126
*haaaa* "Finally! You made me work for this mister, so i hope you're confortable there because you aren't leaving until i get the full story! And don't even think of attempting an escape, even if i wanted to i cannot stop the other tengus from doing what they want to you!"
She pauses to drink a full cup of green tea n one go
*Pwaah* "Okay look sorry for the outburst, but you must admit you're kind of frustrating"
She said as she readied pen a paper
"Now... let's start with-"
*CRASH*
"ENOUGH OF YOUR BULLSHIT TENKO! WHO IS IT?! TELL ME! TELL ME RIGHT NOW!"
Marisa had power bombed Tenshi through Aya's rooftop landing squarely on top of the tengu knocking her out instantly.
The sounds of gunshots and heavy machinery could be heard through the hole on the roof
"IS IT YUUGI?! SHE KEEPS GOING TO THE CAVES SO IT'S SOMEONE FROM THERE! SATORI?! KOISHI?! THE BUCKET?! KASEN'S BEEN THERE A LOT TOO! IS IT HER?! ah..."
"YOU!" she finally noticed me
"Finally! I can hear it from you!"
hahahahahaha
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!
Tenshi was sadly still too dizzy from the fall to stop Marisa
Much to Marisa's dismay however i felt a familiar falling sensation while my vision began to be quickly covered by floating eyes
before i lost sight of Marisa entirely i could hear
"WAIT IT WAS THE HAG?!"
And then i landed on a...chair? It was quite a strange one, it had the frame of chair but it was a lot more...horizontal and had what felt like strings across it rather than common materials like wood or cushions.
"I sincerely can't understand why you would willingly walk into youkai mountain in the middle of a kappa war when one of the top crow tengu is hunting you down" a bemused Ran stood in front of me, i tried to explain why but she cut me off shortly
"Listen i'm not in the mood to hear this, i only saved you for miss Kurodani's sake, i will now send you to the Hakurei shr-"
"RAAAAAAN Chen wants the pool noodles!"
From a corner walked a soaked Hearn wearing what i could only describe as something that made her feel younger
She froze when she noticed me
"...Don't tell Reimu" both Ran and Hearn exclaimed at the same time before i was sent to Reimu's
Quite literally in fact since as soon as i landed i heard a yelp
"Ow! What-what are you doing here?!"

Right as Sekibanki finished her round and went toward the tanuki to show them the exit, the outsider girl stood up and walked up to their table, arms in the pockets of her jacket.

"Oi, should you really be talking about that kinda stuff here? There're kids here, ey?", she asked them with a wide, bright smile not fitting her words.

The younger tanuki's face barely betrayed annoyance. "None of your business."

His companion was a bit less reserved. "Yeah, get lost!"

"Is something the matter?" Sekibanki asked as she walked to the commotion.

"Oh, nothing. Just some crooks who mistook a 'sweets' shop' for a 'tea house'." The said crooks looked mad, but she shut them up before they could say anything. "I just wanted to offer 'em to go someplace more fitting, say...", she took her glasses with her left hand and put them back into her pocket "...prison?" Her yellow eyes started to look familiar...

Less than a second later. She quickly pulled out her hands toward tanuki's faces, holding an octagonal box to the beard on her left and a couple of vials between her fingers to the ponytail on her right. Sekibanki could not believe it - black-white witch was about to make a shootout in the cafe! Just her luck!

There were gasps and whispers throughout the hall. Some customers chose to leave while they still could. "Hey! If you're gonna fight - do it outside!", shouted Saburo while hiding behind the counter with his wife.

"There won't be a fight if these legitimate businessmen will go with me to the precinct! Now get up, nice and easy."

It happened in an instant. The bearded tanuki grabbed Marisa's hakkero hand and tugged it up. In a rush, Marisa fired the furnace, its two ken wide rainbow beam annihilating most of the ceiling and four of Sekibanki's heads. Her right arm jerked toward the ponytail tanuki, breaking the vials with his face. What followed the sound of cracking glass were sun and thunder up everyone's eyes and ears.

The one head that was outside quickly flew into the newly-made entrance in the roof. All of the customers who didn't leave were on the floor, screaming in confusion as they lost their senses. The ponytail tanuki was adding to the chaos, shooting danmaku blind, breaking walls and furniture. Marisa and the bearded tanuki were still struggling for her hakkero - no wait, he picked her up with his other hand and threw her out the window! What a savage!

It was time to show these barbarians where their place was! Dropping her deaf and blind head, Sekibanki replaced it with a fresh one. Then, she smacked the tanuki closest to her upside his ponytail with her tray, breaking it in half. "Get out! Out!" she screamed while grabbing onto his clothes and adding him to witch's company - out the window!

She turned to the one fluffy prick left. He was rubbing his eyes, blinking rapidly. Good, he ought to be just as easy! As she tried to repeat the feat, he, quite deftly, knocked her arms from him and created some distance with a straight to her chest. He got up from the seat, his eyes looking in her general direction, unfocused. He extended fully his left arm, presenting a spellcard with only his thumb and index finger holding it - two card duel, melee allowed.

"I saw your neck was bandaged. Good! Makes ripping your head off so much easier!"

Sekibanki got a card out of her pocket, repeating the gesture. "Be careful of what you wish for..."

[x]Help whoever chased after him. Whoever that was, they were probably less shady than this guy. Probably.

---

Sekibanki didn't even think about it, how obvious the choice here was. Who was this guy fooling? His cash was guaranteed to be flat, yellow-green and bendy, and not the ten thousand yen kind. With this kind of attitude, he likely just swindled some blokes, possibly some youkai bigger than him, seeing how scared he seemed. So she would hold him here until his victims catch up for a "talk".

One thing caught Sekibanki's attention - despite being disguised, he wore his clan colours! He was right, this was a good opportunity - she could publicly embarrass a whole tanuki yakuza clan! This wasn't exactly the kind of reputation she wanted for herself, and it could lead to trouble, but from what she understood, the clan would rather attempt to maintain face by getting rid of him, rather than her. All in all, it was a risk she was sure would pay off.

"Hmm, that sure sounds like a lucrative deal.", Sekibanki slowly said with a mock pondering, "But I have a better idea. Why don't I ask the other guys first?"

"Woah, woah, 'ey, wait a minute.". His voice retained the same salesman qualities, but his smile looked a bit strained. "They're not the kinda guys you'd wanna deal with. There's no need for that."

"Exactly what a conman on his last leg would say.", she shut him down with a smug smirk. "Why should I trust some tanuki to tell me the truth?"

"Whatever ya think of me, those guys are ten times worse!". The tanuki now began sounding really nervous, "Don't do this to yerself, they'll kill ya! Slowly!". He was thrashing in Sekibanki's grip frantically.

"Yeah, yeah, keep on yapping, dog. Should've stuck to bothering farmers." Her head on a nearby roof brought something to her attention. "Oh, I think I see some lanterns! They're getting... close...", she said with dying confidence, that was rapidly replaced with worry.

Sekibanki's train of thought crashed with no survivors when she realised what she saw. There were twelve men in total. Six of them were in simple clothes, some with lanterns, and all with shimenawa-adorned mancatchers. The other four wore dark-colored haori, the Hieda kanmon displayed proudly on them. Two men were in front of the group. One of them wore an expensive-looking beige haori and a round metal helmet, and waved his jitte around, shouting orders. The other man...

The other man made Sekibanki feel fear for the first time in a long time. They brought an exorcist with them, and he looked like the sort of guy red-white would call if she ever got into actual trouble. With his tall stature, long grey hair and beard, and a yamabushi garb, complete with a tokin and a shakujo, one could easily mistake him for a tengu. And his hard gaze was fixed on where the two youkai were.

Pulling herself together, Sekibanki screamed her lungs out. "Why didn't you say you got the fuzz on your tail!?".

The tanuki was unprepared for this assault. "Agh, my ears!".

"What did you do!?", she asked, shaking him for a good measure.

"Nothing, I did nothing! It's just a misunderstanding, that's all!". Somehow she didn't believe him.

This was bad. She could try to untie the tanuki in time and make a break for it, but the cops would still see her and give chase, taking her for an accomplice. And if they didn't, she was haunting out of season, they'd definitely give her crap for that. They were both screwed, one more than the other.

There was no getting out of this unscathed, she just had to bear with it. The police squad has finally arrived. Shouting orders to stand down, the men surrounded them, weapons at the ready. The frightening exorcist's gaze became quizzical as it focused on the rokurokubi.

The man in a helmet pointed his jitte at Sekibanki. "You! Youkai! Hand over the suspect, immediately!". Must be the yoriki.

"Alright, alright.", she said, her body's hands lifting. "He was getting annoying anyway. Fair warning, his hands will come out first."

A few patrolmen came closer to the yarn ball, the tanuki was getting nervous. "'Ey, I've told you already, chief! You've already got yer man! Or woman. Whatever, I've got nothing to do with this!".

"Shut up already!", simultaneously rang from both Sekibanki and the yoriki, eliciting a mutual stare full of confusion and, somehow, understanding.

I was about halfway up and the crowds had thinned out considerably when I heard the drunken singing that I recognized immediately as Lady Kasen. It was coming from a street over, and after a moment, I realised that I was hearing two voices, but they sounded identical, so I assumed that it had to be Lady Kasen and her wayward arm. I followed the path around, trying to find where it connected to whatever road the two Ibaraki's were on, and finally, I managed to catch up with them, only to find them with their arms over each other's shoulders, big bottles of sake in hand, staggering across the street. "Yuugi~! Where’ve you gone…?" Raki slurred, spilling some of her bottle as she waved it around. "Where's she gone, partner~?"

"Oh, I don't know, partner~" Lady Kasen replied in a bit of a sing-song voice. Fortunately, her voice wasn't particularly hard on the ears, so it wasn't as aggravating as it could have been. "We can beat her up any day..." the two got a bit further away from me, and I wondered if approaching them was actually a good idea. I'd dealt with drunken Lady Kasen before, and she wasn't...Too bad, but drunken Raki would be a mostly new challenge for me, and the both of them together would be rapidly approaching dangerous territory. The two looked like they'd been at it for a while; Their clothes were a little wrinkled and haphazard. I strongly considered calling out to them, but decided against it only because I knew that if I tried, they'd both have me stuck with them for hours. So, I waited silently until they made it to the end of the street and turned, shouting something about bog moss.

Distraction concluded, I climbed higher and higher, and after I'd passed the hot springs that Yamame and I had met Lady Kasen in, I found a ledge with a railing from which I could see across the whole town, which I found to be breath-taking. It was hard to see from the ground, but there seemed to be great waterfalls of steam falling through the ceiling and cascading off of the houses. It was amazing, and I wondered how something like this could go hidden underground for so long. I’d have thought that a villager or two would have wondered down here by now and returned with tales that were completely unbelievable.

Then, someone leaned on the railing next to me. "Enjoying the view?" I looked to my side and was surprised to see Yuugi Hoshiguma, one hand on the railing and the other holding her sake dish. "You're one of the only humans who's gotten to see it properly, you know." She seemed to be in a contemplative mood, if I was reading her face right. She wore the blue kimono that Yura had mentioned and had her hair in a ponytail tied with a red bow. "It's a nightmare to keep the place running properly, but I love it." I said that it was clearly worth the effort, and Yuugi cracked a smile. "Heh. Thanks. So, what're you doing here? And by yourself, no less." I lifted the sheet of papers I held. Business, unfortunately. "Ugh. I hate dealing with business. I'd much prefer to let old Komeiji deal with that, but I'm supposedly in charge of this place specifically, so...I'm rambling. Come on, step into my office."

Yuugi stepped back and stood up straight, which meant that she was tall enough that I even felt a little short in comparison. She turned beckoning me to follow her up to the top of the cavern, where the ceiling was close enough to reach with my hands. At the very top, the roof brushing against the top of the cavern, was what I assumed was Yuugi's house. "So, I assume the Kurodani sent you?" I nodded, then said that I was here to discuss the contracts. "Ugh..." Yuugi sighed heavily, drinking from her sake dish. "Of course. Work's coming to an end, huh?" I shrugged and said that I'd been sent only to deal with this because the others were busy with...Things. "Well, I do know you, at least. I was worried they'd send the redhead up here again. She's…Uh, kind of hard to deal with." I snorted. Of course she was, I said under my breath. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have managed to shout three big, bad oni into total silence. "What a vocabulary on her. Ugh." Yuugi said, shivering slightly as she slid open the door to her home, which was in surprisingly neat order. "Have a seat." She indicated the table in the room, and I stepped inside and headed over to it, sitting down. "Alright," Yuugi said, sitting down opposite me and slamming a full bottle of sake down on the table between us. "What have you got for me?"

I spread the sheets out across the table and hoped that I wouldn't be making every Kurodani in the underground mad at me if I said the wrong thing here. As far as I was aware, I was discussing the matter of payment, but I didn’t really know more than that, apart from Yura’s words about possibly trading a portion of the payment for food and drink for her party.

I had a suspicion that something like that would make marrying Yamame a much more difficult prospect.

Unfortunately, by that point we were truly through the looking glass, and there was no going back, so I whispered to Yura if I could put someone else in charge of handling this party business, and after a moment of biting her lip, she nodded. “Damn.” She muttered. “I think I’ve gone and caused some problems here.”

I shook my head in slight resignation and took on Yamame's cadence again, yelling for everyone to be quiet. Once they'd all calmed down, I asked if Nai was present. "H-Huh?" Ah, there she was, hiding in the back corner of the room. "Um, hi?" She got to her feet, and I was surprised to see that she looked a little unsteady and had a bandage wrapped around her arm. Had she gotten attacked by some ornery oni like that other sister of Yamame's had? I had a feeling that Yamame wouldn't be too happy when she found out about that, but I decided to try and ignore it for now, so I asked Nai to come over here. "Er, sure." Nai said, floating over the heads of all her sisters and coming to a halt in front of me. "Hello?" She said to me, sounding a little uncertain. "Is, er, Big Sis Yamame not with you?" She asked me and I shook my head but reassured her that she would be coming down soon. She hadn't forgotten her promise to Nai that she'd make it down again without such a long wait. "Oh, good!" Nai looked a little bolstered by that, then asked what exactly I had wanted her for. I pulled her to the side of the room while Yura told the others to talk amongst themselves for a few minutes, which immediately turned the room into a barely-audible mess. Still, now that I could talk to Nai properly, I asked her if she would be willing to help plan this impromptu party thing. "Huh? Me?" I nodded. "But - Why me? I'm just one of the workers." I shook my head and told her that she was wrong. She wasn't just one of the workers, she was Yamame's little sister, and I knew very well that Yamame absolutely loved Nai to death. She'd be really happy if Nai was responsible enough to put together whatever this party idea that Yura clearly wanted to make happen.

I eyed the bandage on Nai's arm, and then added that she'd probably also have an easier time forgiving Nai for getting injured after all of her worrying that Nai wasn't old enough to be partaking in the real work yet. "Oh, um...This was just, er..." I said Nai's name sharply. "I'm explaining!" She insisted slightly petulantly. "I fell off a roof near the big springs while getting some fragments of the big fu- Er, the big rock." I told her to stop letting Yura influence her language. "You're not my big brother!" She told me with some exasperation, and I decided to keep quiet that I hoped to be exactly that one day. "A-Anyway, I fell, bashed my arm against a rock on the way down, and Big Sister Kisami helped me patch it up. That's all." I told her that Yamame would probably be a little upset about that, but as long as Nai was certain that she could keep herself safe, I would tell Yamame to not overly worry herself about Nai. "Oh, um, thank you. I really like working with everyone, too. Before, Big Sis wouldn't let me come down here without going with one of my other big sisters." I did remind her that the first time she came down here on her own, she nearly got conned into going to the Hell of Blood Pools by a pair of con artists. "That wasn't - Okay, maybe it was." Nai seemed to have matured a little in the time since my last visit. Perhaps not being coddled so much had been better for her than Yamame could have thought possible? "But I've learnt! I'll never let that happen again."

That was good, so I nodded appreciatively and asked Nai if she was willing to do her big sister Yura the favour of helping to plan out her impromptu party. "Er...Okay, I'll do my best." I sighed in relief and thanked her profusely, and she scratched at her head. "Is she - Um, she just didn't want to send us all home, did she?" I watched Nai for a few moments, and then remarked that she'd gotten very perceptive. I told her to keep quiet about it, and she nodded seriously. I just barely restrained myself from trying to ruffle her hair, reminding myself that I wasn't actually her big brother and doing so would be a little weird.

Stepping back over to Yura, who was facing away from the rest of the group and wringing her hands, I told her that Nai had agreed to help with setting up the party. "N-Nai? Really?" Yura asked me, looking a bit perplexed. "But she's too yo-" I cut her off with Yamame's favourite trick of saying her name very insistently, and it derailed her train of thought instantly. "Sorry, er, yes. Nai. I guess we still think she's too young, huh? She's gone and matured a bit behind my back. Okay, so...I'll have to, er, help with this, won't I? I've started it." Sighing a little, I nodded. I was only a little worried that Yura had opened quite the can of worms, but I would have to handle talking to the oni on my own. Yura, it seemed, would need to go and tell Reiko.

>>45372461

The warmth was being sapped from Hana, despite the thick material of her dress the occasional gust of wind found her body even from behind the windbreak of a boulder she sheltered under. Yukari had just finished talking her ear off about what she considered the ‘basics’ of barrier construction, and it took all Hana had to pay attention to her words. At first Hana had followed along, Yukari had gotten a measure of Hana’s knowledge about barriers earlier, and tailored her lesson well enough. She did know more than most about their construction and how they could be overlayed with spells of all kinds, but she quickly learned just how much of a novice she was.

Hana had always thought she was good at messing them, she liked playing with them at times and could make a good barrier that could trap most kinds of youkai. She could even keep spirits out and seal off areas with them if she needed to, though she did admit the bigger it was the more of her energy it stole from her to make it; she rarely tried using it in danmaku.

Still, Yukari’s explanation as she went into the multiple layers of the Great Hakurei Barrier and its foundational principles, how it interlayered with the terrain, was dependent on the earth and sky itself for maintain it’s shape, and how it worked on principles of fundamental physics on the metaphysical and quantum level entirely flew over her head.

It was like trying to keep up with a chat between Shinki and Mima as they talked shop… At least Yukari seemed like she was enjoying herself, which was a plus… probably…

By the time Yukari switched tracks and got Hana into a meditative pose Hana was desperate to do anything but listen to her blab on and on about mathematics that hurt her head the more she tried to understand them. Hana sat down on the rocky surface littered with small fragments of boulder from processes she didn’t quite understand. Yukari was more prepared it seemed and pulled out a thick looking blanket made out of some strange material and laid it out on the ground before taking a seat of her own in front of Hana.

Yukari didn’t seem disturbed by the stronger wind over much, wind that strangely didn’t seem able to remove her hat from her head, nor by Hana’s looks of jealousy at the warm looking blanket that Hana went without. Instead, Yukari instructed Hana to close her eyes, which Hana did without fuss. She didn’t even have time to muse of how trusting she’s become of a youkai before Yukari’s voice guided her.

Hana ‘floated’ around the peak of that mountain, not really, she was in a mental space she knew how to construct as part of her miko training. It allowed her to visualize the barriers as a physical and tangible thing, to touch them and ‘read’ them like they were a book as long as she could focus on them. Something that she knew was still a sign of immaturity, her mother could read barriers much easier and Yukari could alter them on the fly.

She listened to Yukari’s voice, as if they were a guiding light in that space she was in, they lead her around as Yukari helped Hana to focus on the massive wall in front of her. Instead of some grand sheet of solid stone Yukari helped make sense of everything, unlike before where she babbled on and on about things Hana didn’t understand.

Today’s message was simple: Instead of looking at a barrier like some imposing force, you should see it for what it was. A wall with a purpose, a purpose that can be summed at any segment of it much like how a stone was a fraction of a boulder. Each barrier could be reduced to a piece of itself yet still carry all its properties. As Hana ‘touched’ one of the layers in front of her she could see it, it was like looking at a roof made up of clay shingles. Each little bit overlapping and slotted together to form a whole, and if you could remove just a part of it… You could manipulate it without ruining the whole thing and place it back without anyone ever noticing…