/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46246530
>>46246566
It's still useless. Devs hinted it may get another upgrade soon. Highly doubt that limited quest would be the only route to it though. I think it's safe to ignore unless you're drowning in screws and res.

>>46170079
You're retarded with retarded ideas don't you ever classify me as one. Die.
>im satokofan because im drowning out posts in a shitokoOP.
k

"It's quite nice here." Yamame commented, looking around at the bank of the Sanzu River. "Warm, too." It was definitely a lot warmer than the valley was at the moment, that was for sure. The snow hadn't really touched here, possibly because it was a lot more humid.

"Sure," Reimu said, nodding. "But it does mean that you're leaving right next to, you know, the afterlife. It's a little weird when you think about it like that."

"Yeah, but I live in the underground, so I already lived right by where the old afterlife was." Yamame shrugged. "Actually, I like the underground too much to live here. Let's, uh..." She hefted the packages in her arms. "Yeah, let's just get going..."

I begged Reimu to not carry me by the wrists this time. My hands would fall off. She looked at me weirdly, then sighed and made me hold her gohei so she could carry me in a way that wasn't agonizing. Sighing with relief, I let her lift me from the ground and, together with Yamame, we left the Sanzu River behind. I was forced to shift the fishing rod that I'd obtained from Urumi to the side because Reimu kept complaining that it was poking her in the face, but apart from that, the trip back to the valley properly wasn't too bad. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about actually learning to fish from this point, but I was determined to do so. It had been something sitting in the back of my mind for half a year at this point. There were a few reasons, but some were better than others.

Tenshi. It had been because of Tenshi. The first time I'd properly met her when I'd been on my way to Marisa's house, she'd been fishing. And we'd just...Talked. It had been nice and relaxing, especially since I'd been half drowning in a deluge of confusing, half-missing memories and nightmares at the time, and I wanted to go fishing with her again. I hadn't really had a conversation with just her for a long while, too. Perhaps I could ask Wakasagihime to teach me. Or Tenshi herself, though I imagined that she was probably busy enough as it was. Then again, I also suspected that she would love to be the one to teach me. Hmm...Decisions, decisions.

"You've been, like, really quiet for the last five minutes." Reimu told me. I blinked, then realised that we were somewhere above the Forest of Magic. Looking around, I realised that Yamame had disappeared. "She spotted Narumi at a glance through a clearing, so I told her to just go before she lost track of her." Reimu explained. "This place is too hard to navigate even when it's not snowing." She grumbled. On the plus side, the sun was shining and it wasn't as cold as it had been, so I wondered if we'd start seeing the snow thaw soon. "Well...Spring's not far away, so...Maybe." I swapped Reimu's gohei to my other hand. Just for something to do, really. "So...I think we'll have to go and see Kasen and Raki in a few days. When's your next interview with Aya?" I thought for a moment. A couple days. "Alright...we could go after that. I just...I don't know. I'm a bit apprehensive about this, even if both Kasen and Raki are doing much better than they were." I was a little nervous too, but I really did believe in them, so I hoped that it would all turn out fine. "At least someone's optimistic."

Reimu mumbled in response, floating vaguely to the left of where we were. "What's taking Yamame so long? Shouldn't she- Oh, wait, there she is." She nodded down toward the Forest of Magic, and sure enough, Yamame was emerging from a clearing, coughing slightly. "That'll be the miasma. Gets in your lungs something fierce. I'll never understand how Marisa does it." Tenshi, too. "Yeah, but she's an ex-celestial. Her lungs probably refuse to store anything that isn't perfect oxygen." What was oxygen, again? "Air. Rather - No, it was complicated and I didn't really get it, but Misumaru explained it to me." Ah. I didn't hold much hope in identifying that, so I just nodded instead.

"Air's not pleasant in there..." Yamame mumbled once she'd returned, gasping in cleaner breaths. "Ugh. I guess she's immune to it because she's a jizo." She shook her head, then placed her one remaining package under her arm. "I invited her to the wedding. She sounded happy, but a little nervous about it." Even so, I hoped that she would come along. I still felt fairly bad about letting her believe I was dead for so long. "So...Myouren Temple?"

"Huh? Oh, er, yeah. That Mamizou hangs around there a lot. No idea if she actually lives there, though." Reimu spun around, my legs swinging until she was facing vaguely in the direction of the village. "Alright, let's do that so I can go home. Kuro's probably worrying." She began to move, then sped up once she saw that Yamame was following. "Hey, how much do you get paid for these?" She asked Yamame, who caught up to her shoulder.

>>46078996 (2/2)
—
“—And it was SO fun! WE hopped around, clashed swords, fought on top of the chandeliers when Ranryu opened a portal to the sea of something~we oughtta do that again! Can we now? Please?” Flan begs, hands together and eyes glimmering. Chen nods by her side, parroting every word as her tails wiggle. Keeping my attention on them is much better than the cackling Amanojaku or the amused man, my cheeks red while I struggle to remain neutral—not that I wouldn't like to repeat the pretending play, but I've got a reputation to mainta—

“Even a 'vixen' like you needs your fun, huh? Ha! Not so stiff after all!” The horned one snickers, and I let out something between a sigh and a huff as I open the door. Yukari's decor and thoughts are present everywhere from the very first moment, though I pay little attention to mine and Yukari's combined genius, my focus on keeping myself together. “Wait… This is boring!” With an infuriated gesture, she points to what can only be described as an arbitrarily infinite library. Flan reacted similarly, floating around with Chen and searching for anything vaguely amusing to do—was she… booing the bookshelves?

I raise an eyebrow, sleeves joined. “Not fancy with unlimited knowledge?” She looks all the more pissed, though the man by her side looks stunned.

“Nue-san could only dream with this… Stairs leading towards more stepping stairs,” his head bends back as he follows the winding paths leading up; his neck goes all the way back. “You could build a country on this foundation.”

“Blah blah blah—at least the bed is kind of nice!” One would expect a rugged fellow such as an Amanojaku to prefer the ruthlessness of a tough mattress, yet here she is, drowning in the fluff. “But a bed in the middle of the damn room? What if a book falls on my head?!” She faces up, looking at the hypnotizing climb towards oblivion, or maybe at Chen and Flandre trying to tumble one of the bookshelves—

“Yukari-sama thought about that; it won't.” To Chen's dismay and Flan's annoyance, we'd also made the bookshelves collapse-proof. I let out a small smile, enjoying the space I was given to calm down my nerves. “It was an enjoyable thought exercise, creating infinite bookshelves and filling them with infinite books~”

“How does that work, if you don't mind me asking?” The man comes forth, curiosity swimming behind those eyes.

“Ah, of course. It's a rather simple yet ingenious 'while True' loop using the Gap~let me explai—” Cleaning my throat for a short explanation, I'm cut off by a bored vampire coming from above and sitting on my head, striking a pose similar to one pictured in the book she was holding—The Thinker, if I am not mistaken.

“To bee or, ugh—ah: to not bumblebee…” She parroted, forgetting the line in the middle of the sentence and having to re-read it. Chen sat on the man's head and held one book too, though she struck a much more relaxed pose of a cross-legged Buddha performing vitarka.

“I'm frens with everyone.” She repeats the classic Buddhist quote.

With his hands joined, the grinning man mumbles “Namu Amida Butsu,” in response to Chen's pitiful religious take. I hum, gently taking Flan off my hatted pointy ears. Her words are immediate: “I'm bored, Ranryu…”

“And I'm, sadly, busy. I won't be able to entertain you, Flan-chan.” I put her on the floor, crystal wings flapping up and down cutely—reads ‘perilously'.

“But, Ran!” Chen asks, frowning with closed fists.

“That's all the time I can spare; this room doesn't have a mechanism to slow down time yet.”

—Flan kicks the floor, ripping an entire chunk from it that flew across the room and pierced one wall, awakening a drowsy Seija. Her pout seemed irritated. “Fine. You won't play with me, then. I'm not mad, just disappointed.” Her judgment laid, she turned her back on me to look at the others. Goro struggled to contain his laughter while holding a befuddled Chen. Seija stared with explicit amusement… Both died upon seeing the excited grin of the vampire, gleaming red eyes like a blood moon and fists closed, as if thirsting for a good brawl; it brings memories of her strikes with her sword in the pretending play... Ugh. “Okay! That leaves just us~let's play and have tons of fun, everyone!”

Chen cheers, though hides well her sadness and discontent; I've had no time for her recently, and with our family already shattered…

… Poor Chen.

Exchanging a quiet nod with the broker and the Amanojaku—Flan ignores me…—I walk up to Chen and give her a tight hug. It takes a moment, but she reciprocates: “We'll have fun later, okay? Anon and I will cook you something very nice, I promise~” I whisper, and she feels incredibly tense while nodding. “Che—”

“I wanna talk later… with everyone, 'kay?” She mutters, my tails bushing for a moment and whole body tensing. Softly, however, I just nod and release her…

She looks harrowed—tired.

I calmly leave then, mind on fire and estrus entirely forgotten…

I need to prepare for tonight’s meeting.

>>45732505
Well, yes. But they're exceptionally good at drowning out everything else despite being less sizable of a group than you'd think.

>The Hag bar, 2a.m. on a Tuesday
>2 Large mature Jinkos are drunk-pushing, almost real-fighting, with 3 Hag Minos over who used to be the toughest scariest mamonos 'back in the day'
>their half-fight is interrupted when one Jinko gets hit in the ear by a thrown shotglass
>they all turn towards the darkest corner of the bar
>"You ladies think you're 'big&scary', huh? Well, no Anons scared of you now... No, the only mamono that makes them fear is Me!"
>the gaze and shadows clear to reveal a small purple-hide pony... but despite her weak appearance, her grip on the almost-empty whiskey bottle is like iron sinews, and her purple eyes have that 'thousand-year-stare' of pre-transformation monsters
>the Satyros bar-owner waves her thumb for the 'fight' to take it outside as she moves to intervene
>the Purple-Pony collapses forward to lean on a bar-stool, drunk sobbing, "Yeah, their only fear is me... lonely me."
>the previously argumentative crowd is slinking out the door when they're slowed by another younger PurpleHorse coming in.
>
>"Oh, Miss Mare, I've found you. Uh, we need your help, we've got this Anon and... we, we're just not getting through to him."
>Instantly the older pony straightens up, empties the bottle, and turns to follow her out the door
>
>there are three junior Ponies clustered around Anon's bed as the senior arrival glides through his locked door
>the one 'in-charge', a tall leggy filly, starts babbling, "We tried everything in the books; war, plague, falling, being naked in school, falling naked into school, even CuShits ... nothing."
>a smaller pony beside a brain-scanner on Anon's far side checks the sensor-pads on his forehead, "I'm getting readings, but they're like nothing we ever saw in Class..."
>the Senior pony focusses her most-sober eye on the dials, "Okay, this is a rare one. You, 'Legs', get up here on the bed, now instead of those boobs on Anon's face, you need to step up here, facing the other way, that's it, then lower down so your tail is over him - you, lift her tail up so he can still breathe."
>the Purple filly complied tentatively, kneeling down gently so her lithe equine torso hovered just off Anon's belly
>Ms Mare nodded, "Okay, now when I say 'Go', you lower your horsepussi down over Anon's face and hold it there. You'll need to push to keep the pressure on, he'll stop breathing in his sleep, and start struggling like he's drowning."
>the pony monitoring the guages interrupted, "Uh, are you sure this is safe? He might wake up?"
>"Nah,", the senior Mare brushed her off, "The scariest thing for any Anon, no matter how tough and horny they think they are, the final battle is 'can you eat out the hosspussi?', and usually just the thought of it gets them all quaking. Okay, Now Drop!"
>The purple filly complied, trapping Anon's snoring face in her fragrant wetness.
>"I'm getting readings! They're off the charts!"
>"See, told you kids this would do it."
>"Uh, Miss Mare! He's reacting strange! Look!"
>In front of the frightened filly, Anon's erection was arching out of his pyjamas
>"Okay, you girls really did get a 'strange' Anon..."
>"Uh, Miss... what do I do now!?"
>The old pony grinned, "Well, you probably can't bend your mouth down there, so you might start with at least a handjob."
>"Wha...?"
>"Like this...", she took the terrified filly's hands and made a double-fist around Anon's raging erection, "Now jack it!"
>the filly obeyed instinctively, jerking wildly on Anon until her belly and breasts were suddenly coated in thick ropes of sticky coom
>"Okay, by the powers invested in me by the Dee-Elle, yadayada, I now pronounce you Anon and Waifu. You may kiss your Husbando... when he wakes and comes up for air. The rest of you kids pack up the machine and head back to school, tonight's excursion is over."
>
>As she waited outside, Ms Nigh T. Mare fished a small flask from her saddlebag and took a comforting swig, "Yeah, I'm the one they're all scared of..."

>>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.

It's raining—probably the last rain of autumn.

Ran is sat by my side, head nestled on Anon's shoulders, tails everywhere around the two of them; asleep—same for Chen on his lap, all tucked like the cats Lady Remilia had around when the mansion was situated on the most Northern Hemisphere of the world, with excuses that they were 'nice warmers during winter'. If Anon's sweet smile as he knitted and placidly watched the torrential rain were to go by, it was working…

… Jealously is a harsh and illogical mistress. I can't feel cold with my Shochu Blood Flow Technique, yet I long to be drowning in arms and fluff in an attempt to dispel the cold from within, drinking warm juniper tea just because. All hard in spectral form.

I huff, changing my eyes from the man and his entourage to Patchy in the middle of the rain in front of Yuuka's garden, the pond a bit to the north. She was unbothered by the many droplets as she constructed some type of complex magical sigil that'd hopefully let us communicate with the extra phantasm that also lives here, just in another dimension. "Oi, Patchy—shouldn't you rest…? It's been half a day already."

"Only half a day." She mutters, words almost lost in the rain if not for my razor-sharp hearing.

Great…

"Are you even making any progress?" I ask, tired, approaching the magician—sparing a moment to gaze at the droplets coursing through my spectral body. Weird how I can't see my bones and organs, but can see and trace the raindrops—and look around: Dozens upon dozens of handwritten books and notebooks, weeks worth of arduous work chaotically laid on the damp grass yet neatly surrounding the main sigil—spiritually carved on the ground—, forming a fairy ring. The sigil itself was unlike anything I've ever seen—small white flames inside ghostly crevices, burning on top of spectral glass, all reflecting and refracting light and rain. I walked up to the middle—Patchy stopping to give me a side glance before resuming working on organizing the glass in the crevices—, and spun, eyes focused on the many shards of glass.

I saw millions of angles of myself. Ugh, my head…

Freaky.

"I wouldn't be working on it without progress in sight, would I?" Patchy says as I stop spinning, eyes on her. "Why are you bothering me, anyway?" She rubs her tired, spectral eyes.

I sulk at her tone, though also feel a bit guilty. There's not really much I can do, a layman when it comes to magical affairs… "I hate when this place is silent—it's eerie, and makes me think of… all the clients. Thought you'd feel the same." I kneel by her, taking a closer look at the spectral glass. Not only did it reflect the outside world, but also its own insides—a window to somewhere else and a mirror to this world at the same time.

Patchy glances at me, expressionless; pauses… Then looks at Anon and the two sleepy shikigami. "Restless much? I thought you were a Master of the Ki."

"I've been here for only a couple of weeks! For him, it's been what? Almost 2 years in slowed down time…?" I stop upon hearing my own words, heart bleeding and eyes narrowing. "It's a miracle how he didn't break."

"He almost did." My head whips to Patchy. Her eyes… soften. "Almost. The star of his heart had collapsed into a black hole of emotion and trauma, sucking itself and ever-expanding, leading to an unfathomably terrible ending where his soul just wouldn't be capable of bearing its own weight anymore, and it'd choose to vanish." Her words make my heart tremble, yet Patchy keeps working as if not talking about the almost-suicide of a deeply broken man. "Yet, it's impressive how little as lines to hold onto can take you—" The shikigamis, the crow, his daughter, the tiny one, Yuuka, Margatroid, the black-and-white thief come to mind… "—Lines were all he had, and he held them for dear life… He reminds me of Sakuya.”

I slowly nod, heart withering, the silence punctuated by rain… Every time her struggles pop into my head, I'd long to give her a hug. It can help a lot sometimes.

Words come to mind. “When you're constantly under pressure, you either break or turn into a diamond. Glad he managed the second." Words that saw me through my training so long ago.

Patchy simply nods.

My eyes don't leave Anon—he gently places the thing he was knitting in front of one of Chen's tails, takes measures, then smiles, resuming knitting. "A black hole…" I mutter. Patchy doesn't look at me, but I know she's listening. "… Is his heart still—"

"No." She pauses, and a small smile takes over her face. "Not anymore—tsc…" she looked at a broken glass, fractured at a spectral level. "Failure."

"… Hm." It's little, yet the smile that paints my face is one of pride. When you suddenly have so little in your life in terms of connections, others’ achievements—even personal victories—can fill your heart with joy.

When—if—we all someday are free of these shackles, I'd like to have some tea with him.

"M-Meiling…" Patchy's tone is tense. Very tense.

I look at her—

>>45457668
>My intent is pure
And yet you're the retard that always ends up drowning the thread in shitposting, without fail. You've been at it for over a year now.
You're genuinely as bad as 114-kun, but you're not as easy to spot and dismiss. You should post with a name or something.

Then, I felt the pillow thing my head was resting on shift again. Curious, I tried to drag my arm up and over my head to see, and it landed heavily on something really soft which elicited a sharp gasp. "Ugh...You are...so lucky that it's me up here." Yamame's voice was about as faint and weak as I imagined mine was. "I'd be a little upset if you were squeezing someone else's chest..." I considered moving my hand, but I didn't think I could go through the movement quite yet, so I just shifted my hand upwards until it arrived at Yamame's hair, which I ruffled through painstaking effort. "You should know...I'll get you back for that." She grumbled. "Can you, er, get up at all? Not that I don't like this, but I need some water fast."

I tried my best, and after the first attempt failed and had my head falling back onto Yamame's navel and making her moan in discomfort, I finally managed to drag myself upright, despite the way the world spun, and my head threatened to pull itself out of my skull. After a moment, Yamame followed me up, and I got my first proper look at her that morning. Her eyes were red, bleary, and exhausted, and she was squinting with a furrowed brow. Her hair stuck out in every direction and her ribbon had completely collapsed, leaving her hair to stick out much like Kisami's but with a fraction of the length. She was gritting her teeth and breathing heavily through her mouth. Her outfit had also taken a hit. Her overalls were down, leaving half of her outfit pooled around her waist, and her shirt looked like it had ridden entirely up over the night, which made sense since my head had been lying on her navel. She must have been extremely hungover, possibly even more than me. "How do I look?" She asked me faintly. Beautiful, I said, and I wasn't lying at all. She weakly smiled. "Flatterer. You stay there. I'll get water." She used my shoulder as a brace and forced herself up to her feet, then staggered off, picking her way over sleeping bodies.

I took the opportunity to finally survey the room properly. It was full of sleeping bodies, empty food platters, more bottles that I'd ever seen in one place, and over by the front of the hall, a group of sleeping youkai who were clutching their instruments to their chest. Presumably they had been the band from the night before. I saw no sign of Yuugi, Suika, or either version of Ibaraki-douji, so I wondered if they'd actually stuck around or if they'd gone off to continue the party elsewhere. Over in the corner sat Okuu, resting against the wall with her eyes shut. Orin was curled up in her lap and the former's wings enclosed the latter. I imagined that it was rather warm and cosy. Over there, collapsed over the table was Nai. There were two bottles resting against either side of her head, and a sake cup balanced atop, which made me wonder if she'd made the grievous mistake of falling asleep first. Over there, Yura and Ruka had fallen asleep on their backs, each other's arms supporting the other's head. I heard a crash somewhere off in the distance, but even so - It sent painful tingles rattling around my skull.

I was hearing a noise. I hadn't noticed before because the headache from the hangover was drowning most things out, but I could hear it now. It was the sound of someone eating. Frowning, I slowly, gingerly, gently turned my head to see the opposite side of the table. "You know," The straw-hat girl said conversationally, taking another scoop of rice from the platter between us, "That took longer than I'd thought." I hadn't even realised that there was rice. Well, I suppose I might have, but I definitely didn't remember it. "That headache must be killer. Am I correct, boy?" She tilted her head up to ensure that her eyes caught mine. Her eyes shone silver like steel, and she looked as if she'd been entirely unaffected by the entire party. Slowly, I nodded. "As expected. That's oni liquor for you. Well, doesn't compare to the average uni party in the outside world, but alas..." I wasn't really sure what that meant, or what a 'uni' was, but I nodded regardless.

She was scraping at the bottom of her bowl with her chopsticks, seemingly trying to scoop up every last grain of rice. "Tell me your name." She didn't ask. No, she told me to do it and the idea that I might not want to tell her didn't seem to cross her mind. Slowly, still trying to get my pounding head to work properly, I gave her my name. "Hm. Interesting name. Suwako Moriya." She replied, pointing one of the chopsticks at herself. Moriya? "Yes, like the Shrine." That was a funny coincidence. Suwako stopped at that and stared at me for a moment. I wondered if I'd done something wrong, but then a flicker of a smile crossed her lips and she nodded. "You're right, boy. That is a rather funny coincidence. Why, it's almost like it was planned." She laughed, low and husky. "It was quite a party, this."

>>45307711
Bro, jump into water with a 50 lbs weight tied to your hands. That's the type of drowning she was going for. That's the type of thing youkai do.
If it was heavier than that her broom, the source of flight, the thing that has to support both Marisa and the baby in this scenario, would have snapped.
Yeah, you should stop trying to push your idiotic point, you're not gonna convince anyone.

Later that night, after Reimu had fallen asleep and Tenshi had said that she should probably go and find out if Marisa was being forced to work for the yamawaro or the kappa as a prisoner of war, since one would involve significantly more drowning than the other, Yamame and I stepped outside to sit on the veranda in the chilly almost-Winter air. Since it was so cold, I managed to extract my coat from Reimu and had Yamame sit on my lap, then draped the coat over us like a blanket.

I heard light steps coming from the side, and I turned to see Ran approaching, her arms buried in her sleeves as usual. “Since Reimu’s gone to sleep, we’ll stop work for tonight and resume tomorrow.” She told me. “I’ve replaced the majority of the damaged storm shutters, and I’ll look into the kotatsu and see if I can source a replacement. The tatami mats will have to wait until Reimu doesn’t need use of the room. Can you relay all of this to her?” I nodded and told Ran that I would make sure she knew. “My thanks.” Ran bowed deeply, then turned from me to Yamame. “And – Miss Yamame, I would just like to thank you once more for spending time with my Chen. Her duties keep her busy, especially during the Winter months, so it makes me happy that she was about to talk to someone besides the cats in Mayohiga.”

“Oh, um, you’re welcome. I wasn’t joking when I said that I’d love to teach her more. She’s a good girl.” Yamame said with a warm smile. “I hope she’s happy with the little addition we made.”

“She loves it.” Ran said, smiling back. I couldn’t imagine this happening with Hearn. When Hearn had kidnapped Yamame and I to Australia, Ran had been entirely expressionless. “I think, perhaps, you have gained an admirer for life.” Yamame looked very flattered at that. “We shall take our leave for now, then.” With another bow, Ran opened a gap behind her and stepped backward into it. Through it, I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a house. Perhaps that was where Hearn lived. Just before it shut, I spotted Chen inside, waving at us, but the gap closed before we could respond.

I looked over at Yamame and rested my head against her, breathing in the scent of her hair. She smelled like vanilla. Once I was satisfied that she wasn't going to freeze again, I asked her how working with Tenshi had been. Then, she told me about the conversation she had engaged in with Tenshi on the roof of the Hakurei Shrine.


"Miss Tenshi!" Yamame called as she jogged over to the Shrine, leaving her human with Ran, the shikigami of that Hearn woman who had kidnapped them in the past. It was a little worrying, but he seemed to trust her enough. Although, her human had the uncanny ability to make friends with just about anything, so even if she did hate him, she would probably be polite enough to hide it.

"Whazzat!?" She heard the ex-celestial shout, her head poking over the edge of the Hakurei Shrine's rooftop. "What'd you want?" She asked, frowning down at her. Yamame hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk to her yet, aside from a frosty conversation at her front door and a few exchanged words of greeting when she'd arrived at the Shrine just a little bit earlier. Yamame looked up at her and then had to shield her eyes from the sun. Being primarily an underground youkai, Yamame didn't find herself looking into the sun too often, and it really was rather bright.

"I'd like to help!" Yamame called up, cupping a hand around her mouth. She jumped, using just a tiny bit of flight to rich the ceiling of the veranda, which she latched onto by the tips of her fingers thanks to her spider aspect. Swinging herself into a flip and using some more slight flight, she landed on the edge of the roof next to the blue-haired girl, who looked at her with a frown.

"Er, I think I can handle it myself." Tenshi told her, frowning. "Done it before, even. It's like the whole building's just too stubborn to stay in pristine shape, though, because the whole place starts breaking apart way too fast for my craftsmanship." Tenshi cast an eye up and down Yamame, who put her hands on her hips and frowned slightly. "Are you sure you can help?" She asked, her tone equal parts curious and slightly dismissive.

"I've got plenty of experience with construction!" Yamame insisted, trying to keep her tone polite. She'd learnt enough of Tenshi Hinanawi from her human to know that she was quite dismissive and rude to people she thought to be beneath her, but being kind to her was a good way to start getting into her good books. Of course, her human could make friends with just about anyone, but she wasn't about to give up. "Besides," She tried, "I wanted to see the construction techniques of a celestial." Yamame doubted that they were as vaunted as Tenshi claimed them to be. There was a reason that nearly every youkai came to her and her sisters for construction purposes, after all.

>>45106376
I'll engage since this is nostalgic and fun.

First, you're making a false dichotomy. You don't have to do one or the other, you can do both. Reading 12 hours a day is probably not going to be something most people want to do, and Anki can be both fit into breaks and be an absent-minded activity one does on the toilet or when half-watching a stream or some other activity. I'll only allow a dichotomy if, as mentioned in my post, you have a very limited amount of time, in which case I agree you should prioritize reading, or if you're a turbo autist that can ofcus on reading for 12 hours a day. BTW, the moment you post on 4chan you already lose, since you're clearly doing something other than reading, and this is time you could have been doing anki. (No reading DJT is not as effective per minute as doing anki).

Secondly, you're not looking at Anki's strengths, probably due to being stuck in the above false dichotomy, and also due to being a beginner. Anki's strengths are in reinforcing *actually* rare words and rarer kanji readings which still come up and still are relevant, but don't get reinforced that much during reading. Obviously, as a beginner this will be less valuable since you're drowning in baby words already, but I'm talking long-term. You're not going to become a kanken 1 master from reading visual novels, and you're probably going to end up skimming most of the actual rare words you see without properly learning them, especially unfamiliar kanji. This is doubly true once you get good enough that you stop texthooking or bothering to set up rikai since they arent relevant 99.5% of the time.

And as a brief aside, one beneficial thing about Anki is it's easier to hold yourself accountable. A huge problem effecting learners everywhere which you will commonly see is an over-estimation of their abilities leading to holding themselves to low accountability. Let's say when reading you see a hard/confusing word, well perhaps you'll be like "eh I'm pretty sure that means X" and then move on. You may get stuck on a line or something then just shrug it off like "eh whatever, that was a fluke." With Anki, if you don't know a word it's immediately thrust in your face. You can still cheat and be like "aaah I actually knew that", but the dissonance is more apparent. Long-term, reading without any accountability will lead to big holes in your knowledge as you continually shrug off kanji/words without acknowledging your lack of proper comprehension for them. (This is how you get those gambs clips with a self-professed master being forced to acknowledge he can't actually read half the words he totally actually definitely knew from all his reading.)

>>45092705 (2/-)
—
Holding Chen's hand on mine brings me back to a distant past, one I look with eyes of the densest regret. I squeeze her hand, the ghostly red and white ribbon on her head fading as her ears twitch and her big, round eyes stare at me. "Ms. Reimu?"

"… Sorry, you said something, Chen?"

"No—are you feeling well? No bad thoughts?"

My thumb caresses the back of her hand, and though her eyes are gray as cobblestone for a moment, I nod. "It's okay, I swear—wounds of old just… don't fade away easily." Her hand squeezes back, eyes of worry, the scarf around my neck stopping cold thoughts from crawling up my spine. I smile, picking her up from the ground with a surprised yelp from the cat, placing her on my shoulders and holding her legs. "If you keep being this precious, I'll fall in love!" She giggles, opening her arms as if to resemble a plane.

With a tinge of good humor, I look forward, seeing Ran and Tetsu in the distance and—

—Aya Shameimaru…

… I knew she was part of the team. Yet, I wasn't expecting to see her so soon—actually, seeing her at all. A remarkably foolish desire.

I feel my blood cooling, my gaze narrowing, latent power at my very fingertips.

Yet I won't attack.

Aya is the root of many of my problems—the defamation, the humiliation, the fake news… But what she's not is the seeds, nor the sower of them. Chen notices my silence and growing aura of tension, her tiny hand gently caressing the top of my head. I don't look at her as I whisper, "Thank you…"

We approach the group of three, a weird conversation I pay no mind to, my eyes glued to the crow's back, softly picking Chen from my shoulders and putting her down. Ran notice me first, nine-tails getting bushy and a glare that said "no." I nodded back, calmly, and she understood. Tetsu remained quiet, smile mischievous, and Chen never took her eyes from me, frowning and watching with her little heart pounding…

"—I really don't see how that's my best option. I'm sure there's something else we can do and—" I give one hard step, the entire of the tengu's body tensing like a rod… Slowly she turns, neck timidly bending backwards and eyes broad as she stares at me, body towering over hers, a cold gaze probably making her feel naked—sure, I'm not going to attack… But, despite everything, I still do have a sense of humor, and scaring people is funny—even though she looks terrorized, all visible hairs standing up. "… Reimu…"

"Aya." And I simply walk past her. I can almost hear her body jolting with relief, and a slight smile breaks my semblance—Toutetsu openly laughs, Ran breathing a sigh of relief.

Puzzled, Chen looks at the crow, huffing as if she just escaped drowning. "Are you okay, Ayaya? Ms. Reimu is not scary."

"Bless you, Chen, bless you…" The tengu murmurs, struggling to turn around and face me. Now, the four of us are here, and discussion of important matters should start. I look at Ran, asking for the first word, and she nods.

"In about two months, we're going to save my ex-husband from Yukari." Aya's eyes shine with the 'ex', and I glare at her, but don't do more. "I've fought Yukari before, and whatever she has in store is more than we can see. She always has something more. Be quick to adapt. Moreover: when we all go down on her—the Moriyas, Okina, Byakuren; us—spellcard rules will be forgotten. She'll be intangible with her gaps and will be able to open our hearts if desired. But she won't do that. Killing—mos—of us—" I look at Aya and Ran; the first recoils, the latter remains undisturbed, at least on surface level. "—could lead to disaster: so expect her to try tampering our minds with her gaps. Any way we can counter her gaps, Ran?" I ask, arms crossed.

"… Me." The single word raises a collective eyebrow. "I can close the gaps she opens immediately—" A gap opens, and she pulls an interesting talisman. The duality of the symbols and color rubs me the wrong way, especially the power imbued there. Too much, simply too much. "—after using this, I'll be able to break Yukari's command over me, but not our seal; she'll need to concentrate to do so, and in the middle of a battle… But closing her gaps should take all of my concentration, which means I'll be an easy and, most likely, a primary target—you'll have to defend me."

"That's on me—no better defense than eating everything she throws at you, Ranni, keh." Tetsu grins, and Ran nods, the slightest of smiles on her face.

With that set-up, I turn to Aya and, swallowing bitterness, speak, "You're the fastest of us. You take Anon, then scram. Got it?" I expected a simple nod, but Aya became red and looked at the ground, cringing under my gaze, giving Ran a side glance, begging for help. The shikigami sighs. "… What am I missing here?"

"Aya… will be recovering from a straining process at the time. It's unsure if she'll participate in the rescue efforts." What…? I look at her, squint—! Something pops up in her aura—

The… five of them.

She’s pregnant with four… Huh.

>>45075498
Aya’s entire body was sore as she sat down and held her head in a bar on the lower section of the mountain. It was staffed by kappa, easy for crows to dive to and close to the white wolf patrol routes. It was a prime spot for trading rumors and making bad decisions. If someone got drunk, their pictures were gone, leads copied and clothes stolen. If they were sober, they wouldn’t be for long. Sometimes, humans snuck in to prove their bravery by drinking a tengu under the table or to seek a favor from one of the rare minor gods that bought advertisements from the less-scrupulous reporters. Aya recalled the one time she saw a human enter the bar herself: He was a cocky young man wearing wolf ears on a headband and a tail tied to his belt. When his hair shifted just enough to reveal his round ears, he found himself drowning in offers for free drinks. After he stumbled into a bathroom on the shoulder of a particularly helpful reporter, he didn’t come back out. Two more girls entered, and two girls left. After everyone else in the bar queued up for the bathroom in pairs, Aya knew that man wasn’t leaving for the rest of the week. It was strange to think that if she wasn’t focused on her paper at the time, she may have been part of that train. Definitely not because she was inexperienced with men! She could’ve joined at any time if she wanted to!

Sitting on a stool, she could feel eyes trained on her. Anyone who wasn’t drinking was obviously listening out for juicy tidbits. So, she gave them something else to focus on. Pulling out the last of Yukari’s bribe, Aya set the hefty sack down in front of an unamused bar-tending kappa.

“What’s this supposed to be, your tab payment?” Damn “tab” system, Geidontei didn’t track her debts! Of course, Megumu wasn’t invested in empowering Geidontei’s market viability.

“Nope. Drinks are on me!” A pang of silence came, followed by raucous cheers. It was a shame Aya couldn’t enjoy the rest of her dirty money, but she’d get something much better: A room full of loose lips. Flitting around from patron to patron, Aya’s subtle suggestions and clear head weeded out each and every tengu’s source of the Kanako rumor. Just like her, many of them were told by Megumu or picked it up from other tengu. However, some of them heard it by listening to the wind in the Human Village. Nobody had any claims of their own to seeing the virgin goddess nightcrawling Anon, so her leads weren’t much deeper than that. Partially recovered from her bout with Sanae, Aya made a quick detour to photograph some highly suggestible and gullible girls in the bathroom and headed out for Momiji’s patrol route.

The white wolf was expecting Aya when she arrived. While she led Aya to a secluded area, the crow took out her photos are rubbed them against her back. Feeling the sheets disappear, Aya could tell Okina accepted her bribe. She broke the silence first. “So, have you heard the latest rumor?”

“Of course I have. The other guards wouldn’t stop talking about it. Some of the less virtuous ones told me to keep an eye out for the goddess during my shift at Yukari’s establishment tomorrow. The nerve!”

“Great, you should know it’s fake. Someone’s trying get people to lose faith in the Moriyans and they’re using the tengu to do it.”

Momiji sighed and looked dour, the pain on her face evident as if the statement physically struck her. “Then it seems you’re not crazy. There really is an underhanded plot unfolding in our fair mountain. Do you have any idea who’s spreading these salacious lies? They must be stopped at once!”

“Settle down, we need to do this subtly. Whoever’s doing this is leaving late at night to support the myth. They know they’re dealing with tengu, so they’ve got their tracks covered well.” Aya paused for a moment, considering how best to word her plan. “Tomorrow, you’ll watch them from a distance and I’ll shoot past them, stripping their disguise. Then we’ll find out who’s behind this mess!”

“I suppose I’m in no position to argue… why not inform Ran-sama? Surely, she’d allow us to view the ledger and give us any information they know about the rumormonger?”

“Too risky. If this person is connected in any way to Yukari, they might have some dastardly method of circumventing Ran. We have to do this ourselves.” With their roles confirmed, the tengu went their separate ways. Aya retrieved a pill from home and set off for the HSE, feeling Okina’s gaze return shortly afterwards. That didn’t matter: Aya would have a good time, regardless of Okina watching, Ran watching, Yukari possibly watching, multiple tengu guards and kappa staff monitoring the rooms…

Aya crammed those dangerous thoughts deep down in her mind where they would never resurface.

(Part 40)

>>45044232
(2/3)
—
“What?” I utter before I can halt myself, astonished, as to how she could possibly know that: my true nature, my sealment—those are some best kept secrets in Gensokyo, then how—gah?! Red, I stare at her dumbfounded, rage boiling with her moving a finger up and down on a gap. I'm quick to slap her hand away… Still, my stomach feels warm, legs crossing with need of more touching. “How do you know that?!”

Giggling and sucking on her finger, the gap youkai starts; “The mind of a sad, lonely miko is an easy place to gather information—especially when straight from the source.” It takes a moment, but when I understand what she means, anger boils uncontrollably… Yet I remain calm and concise, not giving her the satisfaction of breaking my character.

“You tampered with her mind. Doing it once when she was little wasn't enough; you just had to do it again.”

Yukari shrugged, putting her parasol to the side, followed by her hat, fluffing her long golden hair in all of its shining, lush glory—focus, Kasen! “Details—let's talk about what truly matters.” A gap opened on her, and, in the next second, she was naked, smiling as smug as ever. “Your unnatural oni lust was never sealed, and, with the slightest provocation, your mind switches between the calm hermit and the never-satisfied sex beast—these words, of course, are based on observational behavior; thanks for the data~” I gave some steps back on the pond, watching as she entered the waters and soaked her massive breasts in the blue, her pink nipples glistening—no, no—

… Yet, she wasn't wrong. At first, it was easy to control—libido just a byproduct of the weight of the imminent broken seal removed from my shoulders—but then Anon showed up, a constant male presence in my life, and it spiraled out of control. At that time there were incentives to not go further with my lust: Reimu would get sad; it'd be unbecoming of me…

But with the HSE…

I almost jump when cottony hands reach my hips, and I stare at Yukari's purple eyes, not a foot between us. I felt her hot breath on my watering mouth, fingers deliciously caressing that tense spot on my hips, and my mind was losing itself in this sea of—

Before I even noticed that I was going to kiss her pink lips, she was gone, her back to me, cleaning her body. She murmured a sweet lullaby, tight ass exposed to me. “But you don't like that lust, do you, Ibarakasen? The things it prompts you to do—the sins you've committed. What would Reimu think of this? Hana? Anon despises you: he came to my arms to run away from Reimu and her abuse, looking for a way to heal her—but he never expected a friend to seek his body~”

I feel my heart pounding, the words piercing my clouded mind as my own hand reaches for my pussy, eyes never leaving Yukari's wet and perfect frame. Her words strike true, and though they don't affect the numbness of lust, I can feel my eyes watering—me, the hermit, the sage… captive to the curse of my birth.

“It doesn't need to be that way—you can have your mind, free will, back,” she turned to me, a gap opening above her head and pouring water as if a shower. I watched, entranced. “Though your options may look exasperatingly low: you can't go to Reimu for help without explaining where you discovered the fault in her seal, and good luck finding another piece of that sword…” She manipulates the gap between wet and dry hair, and I just want to sink my face into that ocean of gold. “But it's not hopeless. After all—” With a gap, she's in front of me again, smiling seductively as ever. “It takes one second to manipulate the boundaries between impossibly high and normal libido.”

She snaps her fingers, and suddenly, my mind is sane, the air feels fresh—the warmth disappearing. I gazed at Yukari, wide-eyed, before it came back just as quick as it went away, my body bending forward with a mewling, hands holding her shoulders…

… She gave me one moment of clarity. One moment of 'myself' back, then took it away.

Our eyes meet again, and I want to cry with quivering rage. This woman is the devil itself—ah…

Her hand attacked my lower parts, pressing her body against mine, halting my thoughts immediately as she whispered on my ear. “All you need to do to have your mind back, Ibarakasen, is obey.” She penetrates two long, slender fingers, and I moan louder, arms holding her and hips fucking her wet fingers. “You'll use your animal friends to gather information about plots against poor me; you're gonna be my first line of defense when Okina finally decides to play her cards—and, when Anon and Reimu are happy together again—only then, when all my goals are met, you can be free.”

She pulls her fingers out and hovers them over my mouth, knee grinding on my pussy.

Our eyes met… And I scandalously suck on her fingers. She grins devilishly.

“Good~for now, why don't we, hardworking sages, treat ourselves? Anon is waiting~”

I nod, red and horny, the thought of a good dicking and hot pussy drowning despair.

(1/1)
—
There was a lot of work put into this gilded cage. The barrier is a masterpiece—unwavering and tight. Unlike the massive and spanning Hakurei Barrier, it's basically impossible to pass through it without my knowledge.

Of course, every barrier has its weak link, and it'd be foolish to only have the barrier as a means to keep the rehabilitation patient here—so! There's the Lunar Incense, to destroy any possible fight and to make the clientele happy. Happy people don't complain. If the barrier and the incense fail, then I have my 'kappa' switch—oh, so sweet of them to willingly abide by the lie that 'we' made it 'together'. Sure, they love to parade it as 'their' creation in their closed circles, but that's a small price to pay. The switch is mere trickery. Better: bait—if the enemy is really settled on stopping Anon's rehab, they'll need to get rid of the switch first, and if the switch goes away, I'll know the time has come: someone is striking back.

The truth of the slowed-down time—and the time-stop in case something goes wrong—resides in the barrier itself. Even if the barrier cracks, it'll work and freeze in time everything inside but me and my shikigami.

It'd take something really strong to absolutely destroy the barrier.

Ah, the wonders of a barrier not the size of the Great Barrier~

I like to reminisce about my work of art here, on the futon with warm, strong arms around me, nude and covered only by a thin blanket, my womb full—stomach too, but with Eirin's sad attempts at fertility medicine. Just the thought of the faulty pills sours my humor. She blames me and my body, yet she affirms that I'm perfectly capable of bearing children. When has she become such a lousy liar?

"Everything okay, dear?" Anon's voice brushes against my ear, and it's almost enough for me to start another round.

"Simply mulling over feminine things, dear," his hand immediately starts caressing my belly, and I release a small giggle—oh, did he think his question made me mad? I turn, our eyes meeting each other, and I place my hand on his scarred chest, his body jolting a little back, filling me with raw anger that was promptly buried. He saw it, and his hand went down—oh, there, there... "My, you're eager tonight. Has autumn affected you so greatly? In primal times, this would be the most suitable time for humans to breed, since the easier months of pregnancy would happen during winter and the babies could come in about summer, the perfect temperature and atmosphere for sweet little things to see this world for the first time."

"You know a lot..." I giggle, gasping lightly and sending my hand downwards, catching my prize. Anon shivers. "... T-this time of the year can be harsh around the shrine—how's Reimu?" He asks, nervous.

Oh? Are these the fruits of my labor? I ignore the pinch in my heart, smiling. "Worried about your abuser's well-being, dear?" He looks down, ashamed, but I bring his eyes back to mine, free hand holding his chin. "Reimu is starving—every day she eats less, and every day she's weaker and can get even less to eat. I doubt she'll survive the winter."

"No..." Anon's body shivers; his eyes widen, and I can feel his heart rushing. Although I don't see in his eyes the burning love I saw when that sweet little lie of a promise was made—the punishment is working, but not quite there yet. "You gotta help her, Yukari..."

"Oh? Do I, now? This is her punishment."

"It'll mean nothing if she starves to death! The things she has done to me and my daughter are unforgivable, yes..." in his eyes, sympathy. My, my, he sympathizes with Reimu's terrible actions? This is great~"—and I never want to see her again—but that's not just about me: she's the Hakurei Miko; she helps this land; she solves accidents; and... it all got to her. Yukari, please help her; she doesn't deserve to starve..."

I stared, shocked at first... Then, a massive grin crosses my face. "Oh, look at you, Anon, begging for your other wife's survival~" I caressed his cheek, his dick rock hard in my tight grasp. "But a man like you should know very well: nothing in this world is free."

I climb onto him—still holding his dick—and sit on his thighs, kissing his cock with my pussy, the moonlight framing us like a masterpiece.

"If you want Reimu to not die like the miserable person she is, cold and all alone, just obeying will not be enough." I bit my lip, all the rubbing warming me. "I want something, Anon..." I laid on his chest, our drooling parts grinding even more, before whispering in his ear, golden hair drowning the man: "I want to get pregnant." Slowly, I returned to my sitting position, finding delight in his wide eyes and thumping heart, hungrily raising my hips and aligning his tip with my entrance, my other hand pressing on his chest. "120 days—Reimu won't survive more than that..."

And I lowered my hips with might, consuming his cock like a hungry beast. He trembled, and I smiled.

"Before that... make me a proud mother~"

>>44789500
Like watching thin glass shatter all the charades Anon partook in dropped away. He sprang up a drowning man grasps for a life preserver as his eyes widened.

His voice was no different, "Hana, Is that really you?!" He clambered off of the bed, the tray upturning as he scrambled off of the futon. Without care he knocked pillows off, futher messing up the carefully crafted illusion the room presented.

Hana felt a storm of powerful emotions, rage at Yukari, fear at the trap she was, hope at finding her father without the vile blonde bitch tormenting him, and something else clawing at the back of her mind as his robe spilled open. Surely, it was just the strange incense making her to force her eyes to his face?

Hana couldn't help it either, her eyes started watering as she rushed forward as well. Their arms wrapped around each other powerfully as if bonded together. For the first time since she could remember she saw her father crack and be anything less than her rock.


They stood there with only muffled and punctuated sobs between them until Hana's mind collected itself enough to form coherent thoughts again. Her voice found purchase as she spoke, "It's okay, I'm going to get you out of here! That psycho isn't here is she?!"

Anon seemed calmer now as he croaked out his thoughts, her father was always quick at recovering emotionally after all, "No, s-she... she leaves the operation of this place to her Shikigami. B-but more than that I thought you were dead!"

Hana must have looked confused because she didn't have to ask before an answer came. "At first Yukari liked to tease me that she got rid of you... that she sent you God-knows-where or had some youkai attack you, b-but I didn't believe her!" Anon stumbled some of words as he spewed out his story.

Still holding her with his arms around her waist he separated just enough to see her face in full as if confirming something. He continued "still I didn't believe her, it just... it wasn't until the... clients told me they haven't heard a thing about you for months that I started to believe she got rid of you after you saw her... assault me..."

Months? Clients? The assault... her face couldn't help but heat up as she remembered the heat, taste, and intensity of something that surely happened just earlier today. It was as the memories replayed in her head that she seemed to recall the state of undress she found her father in... she could barely help but resist to urge to angle her head to get closer look.

Hana brushed those thoughts aside for now as she took her father's hand and with a resounding, "come we're leaving now, I won't let anyone stop us!" she made for the door. Anon didn't say anything as he followed along, and as Hana reached for the sliding door she felt it, the same strange barrier.

"What the-" she didn't want to believe it at first as she tried the door again which wouldn't budge. She kicked it, tried punching through the paper, launched danmaku at it, but like earlier nothing seemed to even shake it in its frame.

It was then she heard her father's voice again, dark and thin, "a lot of... clients... are rather bullheaded, some try to rescue me and some try to keep me for themselves. Yukari had the foresight to keep up a barrier that would prevent me from being able to leave this room without her permission."

Hana couldn't believe this, what targeted cruelty was this?! She took her rage out on the door, striking it with her fists and gohei again till the skin of her hands cracked. Anon grabbed her to restrain her, "Hana please! I've seen it hold back Marisa's spark and stop Suika's strength! Don't hurt yourself just for me!"

Hana could feel the intense cold pit in her stomach grow, was it truly pointless? One last kick while her arms were restrained was all she had in her before Anon pulled her back, sitting her on the futon and with a rather weighty looking first aid kit he dressed the wound as Hana fell silent.

>>44453543
>Arguably because we don't really get the implication that Eirin does cure everything
She dosen't need to cure everything in person, that's why Reisen is sent to sell medicine in the first place, not to mention the medicine is said to be cheap.

Also Tewi literally indiscriminately gifts people who see her with good luck, and we know she goes to the village sometimes, there also Hina who takes misfortune, those sister gods of fall and the harvest, Suwako being an earth god and blessing stuff, and Kanako bringing technological innovation albiet slowly.

>PMISS and Symposium.
Written by Akyuu who admits in the afterword to having a strong anti-youkai bias, and writing the book from the perespective of dealing with a violent Youkai, not to mention the blatant factual errors or speculation that's printed as fact.

>But if they get lucky and end up in the human village instead
You didn't answer the real question, if outsiders are so disruptive, why do they Sages tolerate them in the first place, why allow outsiders a chance to live when they could just be killed on arrival
Especially if the problem with dissatisfaction is as big as you say, then basically every villager would become a vengful spirit after they die. Would Eiki stand for that? would Yuyuko? Would Satori? not to mention anybody else from hell(old or new) who wouldn't want vengeful spirits becoming an even bigger problem.

Not to mention that the one vengful spirit we do see wrecks so much havok while going for the non-lethal, imagine how big of a problem an actually dangerous one would be. Now why would the Sages even risk that scenario, the answer is they don't, the Youkai need the humans to survive and can't risk any serious mental or physical harm, and they don't, from what we've seen they even help humans when they don't need to.

>Old lore

>There's a element of drowning your sorrows there. That's not even getting into some of their behavior like the salt merchant going off the deep end for no reason or youths showing a borderline suicidal sense of self preservation.
The patron is talking about Youkai eating humans, which he's wrong about, not to mention Suzako's own revelation about the place of the human village.

>borderline suicidal sense of self preservation.
What?

>Literally the single best thing that could happen to them all is the Barrier being destroyed, for instance.
because going from a relatively safe existence to being penniless in the middle of nowhere with no more protection would be better. You even admit they're protected from harm but somehow try to spin that as a bad thing.(Not to mention Keine who erased the village from history the second she thought it came under any real threat.)
Gensokyo isn't perfect but it's not some Zounose style grimsokyo you're imagining it to be.

>>44404629
Spellcard rules are weird, but my assumption is that it just takes the idea of something and turns it into a painful force rather than one with any true weight behind it. So if someone throws a table at you, they're not throwing an actual table at you, they're just throwing a big table shaped wad of magic at you that stings more than a fair bit. So Okuu isn't actually giving you radiation, Nitori isn't literally drowning you, Shou isn't actually hitting you with bendy lights, so on and so forth.
>>44403293
haha

When I woke up in Eientei's physical therapy room, no one was there except for a couple rabbits. I stood, only to fall to one knee as a wave of dizziness hit me. I guess only two session wouldn't fix all that damage from the fall. As I left, I crossed paths with Doctor Yagokoro's assistant. She looked at me for a moment with a deep frown, then turned and walked off. I wondered what that was about, but I decided to ignore it and see if Marisa had any more girls for me to meet. Surely they couldn't be any worse than-
I was screaming. I don't know when I started, but I don't think it was recent because my throat hurt a lot. I couldn't stop. I was burning. I could feel it, like it had never stopped. From the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, a pain I couldn't escape and I would feel forever so I might as well die now because I couldn't live like this and-
"Hey! What the hell did you do!?" Someone else was shouting now, which I could only hear through the haze of my subconsciousness. "Hey, take my hand! It's not real. You're safe!" I felt arms wrapping around me.
"Trauma is merciless." Another voice said. "It does not discriminate. If it is too much, it might destroy you." I heard a chair scrape along the floor but all I could concentrate on was the burning, burning, burni- "Listen to me. You are not in Eientei. You are in my domain. You are under the effects of a Heavenly Peach. You are not burning." The third eye was in front of me. I could see it. "If you die here, my pet shall use your corpse as fuel. Do you want that?"
Slowly, slowly, my mind came back to me. I was in the Palace of the Earth Spirits. Yamame Kurodani was hugging me. Satori Komeiji was looking down at me. I was on the floor again, and I was trembling. "Ah, here we are. Reisen Udongein Inaba. Assistant to Doctor Eirin Yagokoro. The ability to manipulate wavelengths and induce insanity in anyone who looks into her eyes. She wiped your memory on the good Doctor's orders."
The tremors began to subside and I took a shaky breath. I felt like it had happened to me again, but even worse than before. "Well, that is how reliving trauma usually feels. Your mind knows all the worst parts and it knows exactly how to make them feel worse." She knelt down in front of me. "That was the hole in your memory. There are others, but I suspect that if I were to try any more, you would expire. I imagine that they are simply more of the same. You spent a long time going to the sessions, didn't you?" I shakily nodded. "Well, don't feel too bad. Surface youkai are one thing, but surface humans can make many easy mistakes." She stood back up and looked at Yamame. "Will you be able to escort him out. He should be fine before long. That peach-assisted physique of his will help. Though...hm, the luck may get a little worse for a while."
Yamame helped me to my feet and I stumbled to the door. Then, before I could leave, I had a thought that I desperately wanted to know the answer to. Satori Komeiji was already sat back at her desk. I noticed that she looked a little worse for wear. "Human minds make me ill. As for your question..." She looked up with a slight smile. "Do you remember seeing Orin collect a body from the ravine, by the mountain? She was rather upset to hear so many people calling her a nasty youkai who was interested in dead bodies. Now imagine her surprise when one of them shows up to her door asking for guidance to me. She's been hoping for you to die for a long time." The sheer impossibility of the coincidence was enough to actually make me laugh. "There you are. Humans say that laughter is the best medicine." Satori massaged her temples. "Now, if you don't mind..."
So there I was. Subject of experimentation. Miss Hakurei had better have an idea about what to do about this, because I didn't think I could dodge Doctor Yagokoro forever. Orin met us in the corridor, gave me another look of disgust, then offered to lead Yamame outside. By the time we reached the gates, I could stand under my own weight again, and as we reached the Old City again, I was almost physically fine. Mentally, I felt like I was drowning in a river, with Doctor Yagokoro just waiting to dissect me.

>>44158151
Drowning yourself so you can stare at blondie's perfect ass for just a second longer! All 10 desires focused only on her butt! Feeling light headed and your chest hurts, but her royal rump is so pretty! She knows you're killing yourself for her and she seems to like it!!

>>44147397
The 'bad writing' you're talking about - mamono mana - that guarantees everyone gets a happy ending is hard-written into the setting. This is porn. If you want fine literature, go read Dostoevsky or something.
No-one on that ship was mentally scarred, and anyone who was frightened of drowning was probably pretty quickly comforted by scylla rape or whatever.

>>44131023
6-9 are all different flavours, I like a lot of EoSD's musical tracks, particularly the stage themes.
Overrated? Only because some people want to pretend they're oldfags. Good? Absolutely.
But the original trilogy + PoFV are all in a totally different style from each other, so it's not impossible to like one more than the other for totally subjective reasons.

I like the old remixes from DiPP the best though, well balanced and true enough to the original.
A lot of fan mixes tend to have one instrument drowning out the rest of the track, or make poor decisions in instruments.
Looking at you, snare drum and electric guitar.