/jp/ - Otaku Culture

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1 >>44121508 >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694087896359134.png
2 >>44290289 >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694087962441371.png
3 >>44383367
4 >>44437040 (3&4) >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694088027969245.png
5 >>44487600
6 >>44550620 (5&6) see pic related.

Reisen route?

>>44622792
Yes. Reimu, Anon, Marisa, they are all going to take turns with Reisen now that they captured her.

So is this like a /qst/ thread or something? Do we get to make any choices?

>>44623140
Depends. How strong is your force of will?

>>44623140
Writeanon has included theories and funny posts in his story, so kinda.

>>44623140
Depends on how hard you make writeanon laugh

>>44623019
Yeah but a passive Reisen trying not to make any sounds or faces as everyone has their way with her one by one, or as a group is a very exciting thought. Especially when you consider that for rabbits even one cumshot inside her WILl get her pregnant

>>44624817
this is not that kinda story! (;ﾟДﾟ)

>'Now anon the only way to truly beat your fear of rabbits is to fuck one and by pure chance there's one tied up for you on the bed over there.'
I can't wait for the R18 doujin spin-offs from this story..

>>44626241
He almost imploded from opening Yamame's shirt

>>44626241
this fanfic is a good material for a diverging story novel

>>44626241
There's already full nudity involved, though...

"Have fun, you two. Keep on keeping her bed warm, huh?" Before Reimu could find something to hurl at her head, Marisa Kirisame had kicked off from the Shrine's veranda and shot into the sky, laughing all the while. Really, it was just so...Reimu. She always did try to hold things at arm's length, yet here she was, waking up in the same futon as someone else. A man, even. A shirtless man! Marisa couldn't quite believe it.

It hadn't even been in the plans. Despite what she had said about potentially setting up a date between him and Reimu, Marisa hadn't actually thought about it beyond one half-formed, drunken thought she'd had late at night as she working on a set of potions for Alice's dolls. It was some sort of plan to do with her sentient dolls project, but Marisa hadn't been particularly interested beyond the money she would be paid for it. Marisa was never one to miss out on a potential money-making scheme.

That, in fact, had been the unfortunate circumstance that had led to the Eientei Investigation. When Aya Shameimaru had let slip that she was working on a hot new form for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper that was sure to take the humans in the village by storm, Marisa had made sure to ask for a page. There, she had placed an advert, advertising the Kirisame Magic Shop for various purposes, one of which happened to be Romantic Fulfilment. She hadn't expected much from it, because everyone knew that Aya's paper was taken as a joke at best, and as spare rags at worst, but she had picked the first ideas that had come to her mind, which also included Treasure Hunting and Bloodline Prosperity. Youkai Extermination had been the first on the page, and she hadn't expected anyone to really read beyond that, since exterminating youkai was one of her main jobs.

So when a man from the village that she had never seen before in her life had approached her and asked if she was still offering her services, she had really been at a loss, especially once she remembered that Aya's hot new form of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper had never actually launched. She'd stumbled over her words, then slowly managed to put together that he'd overheard her talking about it to Reimu on one of the rare occasions that she'd managed to drag the Shrine Maiden out to the village to eat. It seemed like a story that just barely passed an examination, but she'd shrugged and told him that she was happy to do it, figuring that she'd just find the first person she could and get him off her back.

That, she was ashamed to say, had led to one of her worst decisions. While drinking some of the massive supply of plum wine that Reimu brewed every year, she had drunkenly mentioned the encounter to Reimu, then even more drunkenly set up a date that she barely remembered, with someone she couldn't remember speaking to at all.

It was only when Reimu had kicked down her front door, dragged her out of bed despite her massive hangover, and beaten her within an inch of her life that she had found out the unfortunate details. Rumia. She had drunkenly set a human villager up with Rumia. Reimu had threatened to murder her if she screwed up like that again, and stormed off.

Marisa, never one to take Reimu's advice, had promptly set up a date with a necromancer-and-slash-or-necrophile, which had resulted in her getting a series of bruises across her stomach that had taken a week to fade. Fortunately, his date with Junko had gone slightly better, because despite ending up back in Eientei for emergency burn treatment, he had somehow made friends with her. Hadn't stopped Reimu from giving her a black eye, but it was something.

All this to say, Marisa still felt like she was somewhat to blame for the whole thing. Sure, her client had turned out to not be the strongest reagent in her potion ingredients cupboard, but she had set up most of the incidents that had led to him being hospitalized and experimented on, so she had to do her best to solve the Eientei Investigation and make up for it.

And what better way to start than with an easy target?

It took Marisa only a few minutes to approach the Human Village from the air, and from her vantage point, she could see the villagers milling around in the streets, kids playing by the café, and on one street, she was certain that she could see Yuuka Kazami heading toward the flower shop. She wondered if she should intervene before Yuuka scared another poor man half to death, but decided that she had more important issues. She lazily began coasting across, her eyes sweeping the streets below. She was searching for someone.

Not the poorly disguised kappa that she could see hawking wares, nor the redheaded waitress that she knew was actually the rokurokubi known as Sekibanki, and not even the even more poorly disguised figure of Mamizou Futatsuiwa, who, it seemed, had spent the entire night in Geidontei again.

No, she was looking for someone in particular. Someone who looked shadier than the others combined, despite having likely the most human-friendly job of the bunch. She was looking for the medicine seller. She usually came out in the mornings, carrying a backpack almost as large as she was with ease despite the slightness of her figure - what little could be seen of it under the thick layers of clothing she wore to further remove herself from her true identity to the point that even telling her gender was difficult - and selling strange wares to the villagers that had an uncanny ability to always work, which even the kappa couldn't pull off. She sold all sorts, from medicines for headaches and fevers, to lucky charms that would keep rats away during the rainy season. She spoke with an exaggerated closeness, like she was trying to sound more human despite not really knowing how humans spoke to each other.

Well, that made sense, because she was even more of a youkai than most youkai who lived in Gensokyo were. In fact, she-

Wait, there she was, pacing down the road by the canal underneath the trees. Marisa redirected her broom and came for a landing in the alleyway behind her, then slung her broom over her shoulder and only her back and stepped out, her hands shoved deep in her apron's pockets. The medicine seller hadn't heard her, but she still froze as Marisa stepped out, which Marisa attributed to some sort of strange sixth sense that youkai had. When she froze like this, it meant that she was seconds from bolting.

Knowing how much she hated it, Marisa didn't waste a second in shouting to her. "Hey, you youkai rabbit!" She pointed like she was about to arrest her, and her quarry didn't wait a second longer before bolting in a dead sprint down the canal street. Marisa rolled her eyes, expecting this outcome but still a little annoyed that it was happening, and pulled her broom from her shoulder. Breaking into a sprint of her own, she threw the broom up beside her and jumped, landing with her feet on the broom. It was a technique that took an excellent sense of balance, and Marisa wouldn't dare attempt it any higher up than the street level, but since this particular street was deserted, she felt no need to be careful. As soon as she was in the air, she shot forward, putting her weight right in the centre of the broom to keep from tipping into the ground. Youkai may have been generally stronger than humans, but Marisa was still faster in the air.

Before she was even at the end of the street, she threw herself from the broom, leaping forward to land on the medicine seller's backpack, which instantly threw her off balance and sent her rolling to the ground, a motion which also threw her hat from her hair and freed her lavender hair. Her two long rabbit ears shot straight up as she dragged herself up and scrambled for her hat, which she threw back over her ears. "Ugh, do you really have to bolt every time you see me? We could skip this whole thing."

"You keep ruining my disguise." Reisen Udonge Inaba spoke in a voice that sounded perpetually disinterested, regardless of what was happening. Marisa suspected that it was due to her still very strong dislike of humans, or anything that had ears shorter than her own. "It's really getting quite bothersome." She was supposedly the highest in the pecking order at Eientei apart from her masters, though Marisa harboured doubts about who was really in charge between Reisen and Tewi Inaba. "What?" She finally asked, noticing that Marisa was staring.

"You already know what I want." Marisa said. She had been here just yesterday, while Reimu had been off falling in caves and catching illnesses that could only be cured by having big, strong men hold her while she slept. "I gotta know what's going on in Eientei."

"I already told you." Reisen said, getting to her feet and dusting off her clothes. "I'm not at liberty to discuss Eientei with you." She'd said the exact same thing yesterday. "It's a good thing that I had already finished with this batch of supplies, or you might have just destroyed more than your life is worth."

"I think you'll find that my life is worth more than a bunch of bottles of junk." Marisa said breezily, pacing a circle around Reisen. She was being evasive, but this time, Marisa had a plan.

"Well, back to Eientei. You can either tell me, or you can tell Reimu. Or, you can explain this to your boss." Marisa rummaged around in her pockets, before remembering what she had done with her bargaining chip, so she took off her hat and pulled a piece of paper out. It had a note scrawled on it in legible, if messy, characters, as if the writer wasn't quite experienced with writing in a human language. This was the note that had been slipped through the sliding door of the Shrine in the middle of the night. Reimu had rushed out, but hadn't found a culprit, and had confided to Marisa that she couldn't remember much of what had happened the next day.

Reisen paled slightly at the sight of the letter, and Marisa already knew that she had found her mark. It had been something of a calculated gamble, but there were only so many choices when it came to who could have written the mysterious note, and Reisen matched all of the characteristics. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Aw, c'mon, you youkai bunny, be neighbourly." Marisa pressed her advantage, stepping forward and throwing an arm over the moon rabbit's shoulder. She reacted just the way Marisa had expected, by violently throwing her arm away and assuming a pose that she could only assume was some sort of Lunarian martial art. "Wow, touchy - or not so touchy, I guess. Okay, sure. Look, you clearly wanted us to investigate. We know it was you who sent the letter. Why are you getting all cagey?"

Reisen didn't look away or do anything overtly obvious, but there was just barely something about the way she shifted her weight slightly to her back foot that made Marisa all but certain that there was some sort of reason for the way she was acting. "I'm...not going to speak to you about this. As I already said, I'll speak to the patient directly." Marisa wondered if that was Reisen's way of mentally separating herself from everything. Despite her different morals and Lunarian upbringing, even she couldn't have simply turned a blind eye to what was happening at Eientei.

"Well, you've got a choice, then. Next chance you get, come to the Shrine. Whatever excuse you have to make. If you keep dodging me, my fingers might get a little slippery and I just might drop this here note while I'm over the Bamboo Forest." Marisa felt a little mean, but considering what Eientei had been doing to her client, she also felt fairly justified.

Reisen almost growled, which wasn't a noise Marisa could really imagine coming from a rabbit. "Fine," She said, her voice losing that air of disinterest that was nearly always present. "I'll come to the Shrine as soon as I can." Knowing Reisen, that would probably mean at least a day or two, after she'd had enough time to psyche herself up to interact with humans without letting looks of disgust cross her face. It was clear that she had been the one to wipe the memories of the experiments conducted at Eientei, and the fact that she had wrote the letter at all meant that she wasn't quite on board with it, so Marisa hoped that she would be willing to talk before long. "Am I free to go now, Kirisame?"

Reisen only used last names when she was upset. It was a habit that she seemed to have picked up at some point relatively recently in her time on Earth, because Marisa couldn't remember her doing it when they had first met during the Eternal Night Incident. "For now? Yeah, I guess. I'll come and pull those ears off if you don't show up, though." She eyes Reisen's rabbit ears, which were haphazardly sticking out from underneath her hat. "You'd better not forget. Your dear Master's been experimenting on human villagers, and that sort of shit doesn't fly around here." Marisa found her voice dropping slightly, and realised that there was some anger deep inside her that hadn't abated.

"I promise that I will not forget." Reisen told her in a tone that just had Marisa dying to punch the rabbit in the face. The moon rabbit hefted her backpack back up onto her shoulders and readjusted her hat on her head, concealing the ears from view. "Again, am I free to go?"

The disguise was good, Marisa had to admit. She doubted she would have been able to tell if it was a man or a woman under all the clothing, and she knew that Reisen's powers over wavelengths could probably accomplish something with her voice. But that just meant that Marisa would have to try even harder to always call her a youkai rabbit as loudly as she possibly could. "Yes, get going. Go help your Master chop up some human brains or something."

"We don't do that sort of thing." Reisen said lazily, turning to leave. "And you'll find that I am as concerned as you for the way my Master has been behaving." She didn't waste any more time before she left, her footsteps silent against the sounds of the canal just to Marisa's left. Marisa groaned in annoyance and retrieved her broom, which had fallen to the side of the street when she'd jumped off of it. It wasn't what she'd wanted, but it was a start. It might take Reisen days to come to the Shrine, and there were so many things that could get in the way in that time. She swung a leg over the broom and took to the air, rising up into the sky.

Eirin Yagokoro's behaviour was still the greatest sticking point in the whole investigation. They knew a lot about what was happening, but were still drawing a complete blank on the why. Fujiwara no Mokou was involved, and Eirin was going as far as to conduct house visits with her, and she seemed to be working on an anti-Hourai Elixir, but it just didn't make sense. What could have happened to cause such a development? Marisa couldn't make sense of it, and it bugged her all the way home.

She touched down at her house, which was perfectly organised in just the right way for her to be able to grasp anything she needed at any time, and any rumours of disorganization were false, and were spread by liars or delinquents, and-



"Marisa." I snapped out of my trance, having become fairly absorbed in the story. Reimu had spoken, and I looked over to see a look of annoyance on her face. "You can lie to yourself, but don't bother trying to lie to us about your house." Marisa looked thunderous, and I imagine she might have tried to hit us if she hadn't already been injured.

"It's really a mess, you know. There's a whole room full of keys back there." Miss Tenshi stuck a thumb over her shoulder, toward the hallway. "Just a room, with keys filling up the floor and hanging from hooks on the walls. I don't think the locks that half of them were made to go in even exist anymore."

"Extreme difficulty in discarding items, regardless of their actual value, due to distress or a perceived need to save the items, is a known symptom of Hoarding Disorder." Reisen's uninterested voice came from the wall, and I jumped again, looking over to see her still slumped over on the ground, unable to properly get back up. The moon rabbit - I didn't know exactly what that meant - was unnerving me slightly. She had been in my memories, and she was also responsible for wiping a large number of them. I swallowed nervously and tried to keep myself calm. She was tied up. She couldn't hurt me.

"You," Marisa growled at Reisen, "Are a prisoner. Shut up."

"Extreme defensiveness when confronted is another symptom." Reisen said, not sounding slightly concerned.

"Not to get us back on track or anything, but can we get back on track?" Miss Tenshi asked, slightly loudly. She had her arms crossed and looked slightly annoyed at the interruptions.

"Fine." Marisa spat out petulantly. "If everyone can stop berating me for my house - which is fine - I'll carry on." Reimu looked like she was ready to continue berating, but I elbowed her in the side instead, and she looked at me with a frown and kept her mouth shut. "So, nothing much happened until a day or so later, when you two," She eyed Reimu and myself, "Decided to become the most annoying patients known to the world." Reimu rolled her eyes and I offered a frown, which Marisa ignored.

And so the story continued.

>>44627013
>that she knew was actually the rokurokubi known as Sekibanki
Wait hold on, does she mention this or is she just remembering it?

>>44627023
Despite her stoic face Reisen's smugness is palpable

>>44627096
I'm going to assume no, because I doubt that what we're reading is exactly the same as what she's saying. She probably just said that she wasn't interested in the other youkai she could see because she was looking for reisen

Reisen seems pretty pathetic honestly. She ran away from the moon out of fear, yet still essentially works for the Lunarians by considering Eirin to be her master? I wonder if she's even capable of comprehending freedom.

>>44627402
No different from other moon rabbits. One of reasons why Tewi is the better bunny.

>>44627096
Its not a proper narration but it is possible she said it as Reimu did interrupt , only writefag can comfirm though but its more than likely he knows bamki is a youkai now.

>>44627541
You're forgetting that Anon's head is dense enough to have its own gravitational pull
His first thought isn't going to be that the redheaded waitress he keeps trying to talk to is the youkai sekibanki
He'll just think it's somehow a different redhead youkai who works as a waitress

>>44627023
Why the fuck is Marisa collecting keys?

>>44627921
Extreme difficulty in discarding items, regardless of their actual value, due to distress or a perceived need to save the items, is a known symptom of Hoarding Disorder.

I think that Junko's burns triggered this fit of autism. I mean, she literally exists to kill Chang'e the famous "Hourai victim", and used her divine purification powers to become unreasonably upset in perpetuity. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to say that her flames have some kind of bonus (or even permanent) effect on Hourai immortals. And if Eirin were to somehow discover this, she seems exactly the type to get a little carried away corner cutting the ethics and planning division, especially if she's spent the last few millennia looking for exactly this sort of solution.

>>44627921
One of the keys among the pile is the key for her heart, the one who finds it keep it.

>>44627921
Long ago a certain vengeful spirit put a chastity cage on her that would grow with her. The purpose of this cage was to help her focus on magic instead of being a lewd beast who seduces everyone.
She'll never rest till she finds it so she can go on the grand youkai rape spree

Anon sure has given a lot of things to his Youkai girlfriends now that I think about it.
He gave a tasty meal to Rumia.
He gave his body and Soul to Seiga
Junko and Narumi kinda didn't work out, but they got him as a possible friend.
Eirin got a nice test subject
He cleaned Ikus room
He has been a good influence on Tenshi
Yuuka got a heavenly peach tree
Reimu got a brother
Hecatia got herself a new manservant
Komachi got a brand spanking new Hell brand t-shirt
Yukari can finally claim she has been on a date with a man
And finally, he has been working his hardest to give Yamame more family members but writeanon keeps interrupting him from beyond the 4th wall.

>>44627921
Never played an RPG in your life, huh?

>>44627402
Well, yeah. Moon Rabbits are to the original Lunarians what Goombas are to Bowser. I'm sure that Reisen also has her fair share of traumas that would justify her behavior in writeanon's story.

>>44627921
Why not? I'm sure they'll come in handy

>>44628331
here lies marisa
she never scored

>>44627007
Reimu is so forgiving of her best friend's mistakes!

Could you stay mad at this face?

>>44627023
Raisin is a cute autist

>>44634037
Can you imagine what Reimu would have done to Marisa if she had set up a date for anon with one of the animal realm yakuza?

>>44634935
Yachie is harmless as established by 19, Yuuma wouldn't have hurt him at least not intentionally but also wouldn't have been very engaging anyways, Saki would have been a more physical non radioactive Okuu.

>>44634961
Yachie is just younger Yukari

>>44634935
Imagine this, but she set him up with Yukari herself

>>44636036
It probably would have gone the same way it did when she kidnap him, maybe she would have attempted to be more romantic and less "look at me! I'm eating meat! aren't i scary?!"

>>44636066
You think Yukari knows the difference? Maybe she would have made a tasteless comment about devouring his meat.

>>44636083
In an attempt to offer oral sex Yukari says she loves eating humans and that she will devour millions of anon's childrens

>>44636109
In an effort to show that she is cool and hip, Yukari gaps him from his bed to the middle of a rave, and the sensory overload promptly causes him to pass out

>>44636066
>>44636083
Yukari would've done the exact same thing, read between the lines of Anon's first outing with her. She made herself vulnerable by talking about her fears of the future, showed concern for his well being in giving him anxiety pills to calm him down, flexed her important importance with the whole thing, showed her mystique and danger with the meat comments, engaged him in deep discussions with the whole youkai talk, and even went so far to impress him with the restaurant and high quality food.
Yukari would not have done a single thing different.

>>44636185
Eeeeh, maybe she could have put something a bit sexier.

>>44636263
Lol no, this is Yukari we're talking about. She'd probably have dressed even more conservatively for some reason like 'ensuring he likes you for you'

Who wants to bet that Marisa deserved getting the shit beat out of her?

>>44636717
Reimu overreacted a bit

>>44637279
Not really, she made a reckless mistake that got anon pretty seriously maimed by Rumia. Considering she swore to protect anon from this kind of thing I'd be just as mad with her. Any more dangerous youkai and she could have gotten anon killed.

"She's not gonna do it." Marisa Kirisame said tiredly, shaking her head.

"She absolutely will do it." Tenshi Hinanawi replied, punctuating each word by hitting her fingers against the bamboo she was leaning against.

It was sometime after dark, though Marisa had lost track of time what must have been hours ago. "No, she definitely won't." Marisa pointed a thumb at herself. "You might think you're very smart, but I've been in this game longer than you. Reimu's not that type of person. She doesn’t do that sort of thing lightly."

"Well, unlike you, I can read temperaments, so I'm better qualified to judge this. She'll do it." Tenshi rapped her fingers down on the brim of Marisa's hat, knocking it down over her eyes.

The two had been bickering about nothing to pass the time. They were sat on the cliffside above Eientei that Marisa had previously met Mokou at for infiltration, taking turns to watch down on the complex enigma that was Eientei below. The place looked almost deserted. There was not a rabbit in sight along the outer walls, and no movement inside. There was some light, but they seemed to be almost ethereal in nature, because Marisa couldn't tell where it was coming from for the life of her. She wondered if it was even real, or if the Bamboo Forest was playing tricks on her. She’d always suspected that there was something more about this place.

The pair had been sitting on the cliff since the evening, not long after their two charges at the Shrine had fallen asleep, wrapped around each other like they had been the last time Marisa had seen them. It seemed to be becoming a habit, once that Marisa would not lose a chance to tease Reimu about. "Well, unlike you, I'm not a delinquent who was so awful at existing that she got kicked out of Heaven, so I'm more qualified to judge character." Marisa picked up a tiny rock and threw it at Tenshi's head, then clicked her teeth in annoyance when Tenshi shifted her head just slightly and sent the rock whizzing right past her ear. "They're not going to do anything."

"Are you seriously telling me that you think those two are normal together? “He’s my personal heater right now.” Like that?" Tenshi looked down at Marisa, who had long since gotten bored and stiff enough to sit down. She crossed her arms and looked up at the moon, which was shining down with the brilliance of a full moon. "What, did you often sleep nearly naked and hugging Reimu, too?"

"I didn't sleep with Reimu, no. She has a spare futon for a reason. And spare clothes." Marisa shrugged, throwing another rock, this time at Tenshi's midsection. Again, she found herself annoyed when this time, Tenshi pushed herself off of the bamboo she had been leaning on right as the rock shot through where she had just been. It was beyond unfair. She doubted that Tenshi even realised that she was doing it. The ex-celestial came over and sat down next to Marisa. "She's never really gotten sick like this before. I mean, there were a few times where she was ill, but one was just a curse god attacking the village, so she was fine once she sealed it, and the other was a trapped snake’s regrets, and I freed that." Marisa rested her chin on her hand. "I'm with you when you say that she's acting differently with him, sure, but I don't think it's in the way you think it is."

The pair had gotten to discussing their respective people of interest after working their way through topics such as food, fishing, the best reagents to find on the ground, and even how to become a hermit. For Marisa, this meant Reimu, and for Tenshi, this meant the man she had willingly given a Heavenly Peach. "So, she gets all different around this one particular guy, and not around any other guys, and yet, you think it's not in that way?" Tenshi poked Marisa in the head. "I know you live in the forest, but surely you have more social experience than that."

"Oh, fuck off. I've got more social experience in the last week than you get in a year." A statistic that Marisa suspected to be true, because unlike the divine luck of Tenshi, Marisa had to do whatever she could to make ends meet, from brewing odd potions for weird youkai who lived out in the sticks, to random youkai extermination requests that she got when she was in the village for supplies. If Marisa couldn't be friendly enough to get jobs, she couldn't eat. She suspected that those rules did not apply to Tenshi Hinanawi. "And, anyway, I know what Reimu looks like when she's in different moods." Which was...charitably true, because despite knowing her for more of her life than not, Reimu was one of the only people in Gensokyo that Marisa couldn't truly read. She could make educated guesses, but the girl just existed in a different reality to her and it was impossible to say how she was feeling at certain times. Recently, though she wouldn't say it to Tenshi, had been one of those times. "She's definitely not interested in him like that. There's something deeper going on there."

Tenshi took her hat off and ran her fingers through her sky-blue hair, though in the ethereal moonlight, it looked more silver than blue. "Did you know?" She slowly asked. It was impossible for Marisa to not know what she was talking about. No one talked about it, but everyone remembered the Vampire Incident. Marisa didn't say anything immediately, instead turning to look up at the moon. It had been a full moon on that night, too.

"...Yeah. I'd barely started living in the forest when it happened." She fumbled around in her apron and pulled out the Mini-Hakkero, looking down at the miniature furnace. "For me, I was mostly just fending off relatively weak youkai for the whole night. Way too young to be doing that, but this got me through." The Vampire Incident was something that Reimu never spoke about, and wheedling Reimu about it had never had any results. For a long time, Marisa had wondered just what could be so important, but on one random night, Reimu had gotten just a little drunker than usual, and had told Marisa some key details. Yukari Yakumo, mysterious and enigmatic youkai extraordinaire, had taken her on a tour of where every bad thing was happening during the incident, and forced her to personally resolve all of them, regardless of whatever bad events had been happening. On the last one, which Reimu had still refused to truly explain, Yukari had stepped in and resolved things. Marisa got the sense that something had changed then, and she did have her suspicions. Apparently, Yukari had concluded the whole thing by wiping her presence from Reimu's memories, leaving Reimu to believe that she had resolved the whole thing by herself. "I don't know all the details, but I know most of them."

Tenshi shook her head. "It's not my place to reveal something that personal, but I don't think their relationship can remain the same." She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "Either way, I just hope it doesn't fall apart. You know he likes the spider, right?"

Marisa had never had the insanity necessary to introduce him to Yamame Kurodani, but somehow, he had managed to meet her anyway. It baffled Marisa, because his luck seemed to be simultaneously awful and amazing, and then she had helped him through the tunnels of the underground and through the Old City to the Palace of the Earth Spirits. Marisa didn't really hate the spider for anything particular, but as a magician she knew that her health was paramount because it would only take so long for the heavy metals she worked with to leech into her blood and leave her as weak as Patchouli. With that in mind, she made a point of sticking away from someone who could, and had a track record of, spreading infectious diseases. When he had explained how they had gotten past the oni of the underground, her client had been very cagey on certain details, though Marisa had a fair idea of what they were. "I...had some idea. So?"

"Well, I told him to talk to Reimu about it." Tenshi said, sounding a little conflicted. "I don't know if she'll tell him to forget her or not, but I think it'll be better for them both to get it out in the open. He'll have to make the decision on his own terms."

Marisa nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense..."

The pair were silent for some amount of time that Marisa couldn't fathom. It felt like an hour. "You've been really quiet for like, five minutes." Tenshi told her, and Marisa's heart sank. Five minutes? Really?

"Oh, fuck this." Marisa got to her feet and stretched, relishing the series of pops she heard from her back. "Any longer and I'm going to hurl myself off the cliff just for fun." She looked back at Tenshi and extended an arm. The celestial took it, and Marisa pulled her to her feet, then had to hop back slightly when the taller girl ended up nearly stepping on top of her. Without thinking, Marisa’s hand caught Tenshi’s and she pulled herself back on balance, then dropped it. "Let's just do some good old-fashioned infiltration. I think I remember the way in." She sort of remembered the way in at best, but it would be enough for this. If anything, she hoped that Tenshi's divine luck would pull her out.

"Fine, but if we get caught, I'm leaving you behind." Tenshi told her cheerfully, and Marisa couldn't help but grin. It felt much more natural to actually make a move like this. Too much of her time lately had been spent brooding, or sitting around watching something, or cooped up in her house brewing potions. "Let's get moving, before-" Tenshi cut herself off, staring down at Eientei. Marisa followed her gaze, then felt her jaw drop open.

Coming from a side of the building that Marisa and Tenshi couldn't see properly, there was movement. Two figures, one who's pale hair caught the moonlight like a reflective surface, and one who's hair seemed to swallow the light whole until there was nothing but darkness. The two were moving away from Eientei, clearly trying to be quiet about it. "Is that..." Marisa muttered, "Mokou and Kaguya...?" Marisa knew very little about the pair of immortals, but had learnt during her last infiltration of Eientei that Mokou had always known how to sneak inside without being spotted, and Kaguya must have known too, because she was capable of making the hallways completely labyrinth in nature, yet had disappeared along with Mokou in the aftermath of the vengeful spirit chaos. "Shit, that's perfect. We've gotta go in now, since Kaguya won't be there to manipulate Eientei’s hallways. Trust me, we’d be done for if she was."

Tenshi nodded, still squinting after the pair. "Something's up with her temperament." She muttered under her breath, staring at Mokou's retreating figure. Marisa frowned at her, curious, but didn't bother asking. Understanding how Tenshi read temperaments was on her to-do list, but it was far too low to think about now. "Let's go." Tenshi finally said, motioning Marisa into action.

She stepped forward, her foot falling off of the cliff and letting gravity take over as she began to fall in a controlled descent, her broom in her outstretched hand. Eientei spread out before her, and she took a moment to adjust her trajectory, then flipped in midair and shot forward, her broom underneath her feet. Within seconds, she had landed on the roof, though she nearly broke the silence of the night when she turned and saw that Tenshi had slammed into the ground and left a big crater, almost as big as her overinflated ego-



"No, I didn't, and no, I wouldn't." Miss Tenshi growled, looking like she wanted to give Marisa a fresh black eye to match the mostly faded one.

"You have to have some sort of fatal flaw somewhere. I mean, apart from the laundry list of mental ones you already have." Marisa told her, her finger outstretched in an imitation of Lady Kasen's lecturing pose, though it lacked the intimidating air. "I'm building up the perfect picture for you."

Reimu and I looked at each other. "I really don't care." Reimu finally told me. “Can you actually handle telling this story, Marisa? It’s hard enough without you trying to take shots at Tenshi mid-story. I’m sure she could tell it.”

"It is unlikely that the picture you are building will match with the events that unfold in this story." Reisen told the wall, since it was the only thing she could see from her position. "My Master is very clear on telling the truth."

"Yeah, well, your Master is a psycho, and I don't care what you think, so shut up." Marisa told Reisen, the finger now pointing at her. "And Reimu, I’ll tell the story the way I want to. Moving on..." She said, continuing the story.



Within seconds, she had landed on the roof, and she nodded satisfactorily as Tenshi landed silently behind her. "Is there usually no one here?" Tenshi asked her with a voice so quiet that Marisa barely heard it at all.

"No. That's what's so weird." Marisa leaned slightly over the sloped roof of the building. "It's never this quiet." She crept forward, throwing her broom back over her shoulder and securing it against her back. "Should be..." She was tapping at sections of the roof, and Tenshi looked like she was about to ask what she was doing when suddenly there was a shift, and a section of the roof came away in Marisa's hand. "Ah-ha. There we go." She looked back at Tenshi. "Make sure you put it back as you drop in. It'd be bad if Eirin realises exactly where Mokou and I got in from."

She nodded, and Marisa dropped through the opening and into the darkness.

there's a weirdly small number of pictures of Marisa and Tenshi together
anyway, I cut this in half because it was growing too long and it was getting too late

>>44637697
Those two aren't really know for being to friendly with each other, Tenshi in general is kind of anti social to begin with.

>>44636609
You drastically overestimate how much thought Yukari puts into things. If Yamame got her dating advice from Kanako, Yukari gets hers from Yuyuko (died before ever so much as holding hands with a man) and maybe Okina (serial molester and anal rapist that would make the Kappas blush.)

I have a bad feeling about this...

>>44638484
Yuyuko is a master manipulator, she would give good if immoral advice.
Yukari wouldn't dare ask anyone else for advice, it would hurt her reputation.

>>44639530
Yuyuko is also more than happy to do a bit of trolling to Yukari's plans, as she proved back in the second Lunar "Invasion." Her advice would probably be something that simultaneously gets Anon hot and bothered, but also wondering "what the hell is wrong with this woman?"

>>44638837
I have a great feeling, I can't wait until anon is captured by Eirin again where he remembers that he voluntarily submitted to Eirin' experiments out of love only for things to get out of hand

>>44641994
Give up man, you won't be able to influence the writeanon

I want more Mokou-tan! She should have gotten a chance for a date!

>>44642687
Mokou isn't really gf material, she's never going to get over the inmortality ordeal.

>>44642620
I don't care, DARK HORSE EIRIN will be the only ending as Anon will need the professional help only Eirin and Kaguya can provide!

>>44643226
Mokou's plan would be to get new immortal buddy by feeding you her liver. Its the only way to get a Mokou gf

>>44646007
mokou would kill herself (if she could) before letting anyone else become immortal on her watch

>>44646017
Would she kill anyone innocent to rid herself of her immortality?

>>44646518
Well... Mokou already committed murder to become immortal in the first place.
Whether she has changed enough to act differently when faced with the opportunity to put an end to her immortality is up for debate.

>>44646017
Well yeah duh you don't lay it on her at once, you have to romance her enough till she breaks down at reminders of your limited life. Its at that point that you start justifying it (for her sake) that you'd be happy living forever if its with her. It'd take some doing but it's possible

>>44643226
Think about it anon, what is Eirin doing and why?...

Please stop trying to emotionally manipulate Mokou, she's been through enough.

>>44647657
Its not about emotional manipulating a ruined shell of a human into making you immortal, its about loving her forever!

Eientei's attic was in need of a good dusting, but it seemed that none of the rabbits could find the time to get around to it. Marisa landed silently, in the square of light that the moonlight illuminated. She dropped to her knee, then quickly scanned the room to make sure that they weren't at risk of being caught immediately. Just like last time, there was nothing up here but some leftover objects that Marisa remembered Kaguya displaying at her Lunar Capital Expo. Marisa had considered stealing them, but decided that if they were here, they were unlikely to have any real value.

Tenshi dropped in behind her, and the square of light disappeared as she did so, meaning she had successfully covered their entrance. Marisa looked back at her, squinting in the sudden darkness. "I think I can remember where I went." She whispered, fumbling around in her pockets for a vial. It was something she regularly used to gather rare items during night storms. Finding it, she downed it, then smiled as her eyes rapidly took to the darkness, letting her see even in the near-pitch black of the attic. It wouldn't last very long, she they would have to hurry.

She turned, finding the stairs down from the attic immediately. Clearly, no one had done anything to secure the entrance after Mokou and Marisa's last infiltration. It made sense, because a lot of things had happened in that time. Slowly, she crept over to them, then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one at the bottom. She looked over her shoulder and motioned Tenshi to follow her, then stole down the stairs as quickly as she could.

Eientei's layout was confusing at the best of times, with far too many staircases and sub-levels. Marisa had been imprisoned in one of them on the last infiltration, and she had no desire to end up there again. She looked down the two hallways, which both simply receded into the darkness that even her enhanced eyes couldn't penetrate, then decided to head in the opposite direction to her first attempt. Right as she took her first step, Tenshi laid a hand on her shoulder. "Not that way." She whispered.
"How the hell would you know?" Marisa asked with a frown.

"I can feel the air currents at a far more minute level than you. That way will only take you further away. Besides, if we're looking for anything here, it's the Doctor, right?" Marisa was forced to concede that point, and nodded begrudgingly. “So, she’ll be nearer to the clinic.” Tenshi continued, clearly pushing her to accept the point. She turned, heading back down the same path she had taken the first time, Tenshi following behind her.

In the unnatural light provided by the potion that Marisa had taken, every hallway had the same almost monochrome shade. Tenshi kept her hand on Marisa's shoulder, both to ensure they stuck together and to keep either of them from running into anything suddenly. Tenshi proved to be a perfect companion for this sort of thing, because every time Marisa turned down a hallway that would have led her away from the entrances to the mansion and further into the subterranean confusion, she would squeeze Marisa's shoulder and shake her head.

"I thought you said that it wouldn't be confusing if the Lunarian Princess wasn't here." Tenshi whispered to her as they passed through another hallway that looked the exact same, that Marisa was certain they had already been through. "Because, as far as I can tell, it's still very confusing."

"I said we'd be done for if she was." Marisa said, looking back at Tenshi and trying not to think about how exposed she felt in the hallway. "Her power is eternity, so the layout is still messed up, but she's not here to mess it up further." She looked down the gloomy corridor, wondering just how far it went in the darkness. "If she was, we wouldn't be leaving without her say so." She couldn't help but get the feeling that they had already travelled further than physically possibly given the dimensions of Eientei from the outside. It reminded her of the Eternal Night incident, when Marisa and Alice had taken the path after Eirin, and found themselves passing through a corridor that had seemed to stretch on forever. Hopefully, the good Doctor wouldn't be waiting to skewer them with arrows on this attempt either.

And in fact, it was starting to look like no one would be waiting at all. The unnatural silence of Eientei was starting to creep into her mind, magnifying and amplifying the slightest sound, until at one point, she heard Tenshi take a breath and whipped her head round, certain that she would see a rabbit's mochi pounding hammer swinging into her head. When Tenshi looked back at her with something between curiosity and concern, she took a shaky breath and tried to calm her nerves. It was all the time spent avoiding Eientei, she was sure. It had built up Eirin Yagokoro's image in her mind, twisting her into some kind of monstrous figure that would swallow her whole, never to be found again.

Where the hell were all the rabbits?

Marisa and Tenshi were pressed against a wall somewhere in a nondescript hallway when they came across an open sliding door. Typically, this wouldn't have been cause for concern, but from what she knew of Eirin, it was unlikely. She was the type of person to ensure every door was shut after it was used, and she wouldn't have let the rabbits do any different. Perhaps Kaguya would have, but she had already left the mansion and if Marisa's internal map was correct, hadn't been moving in this direction. Someone, she was certain, had been through here recently enough for Eirin to not have closed it. Marisa turned her head back toward Tenshi and realised with cold shock that she was opening her mouth to speak. So, quick as a flash, she threw her hand over the ex-celestial's mouth, then frantically shook her head and put a finger to her lips. Despite her general haughty attitude, Tenshi slowly nodded, and Marisa pulled her hand back.

After a moment for Marisa's heart to calm down, she cautiously peaked around the door, finding an empty laundry room. There was a pile of clothes ready for washing placed on a bench in the room, which Marisa could only surmise to mean that someone had been in there recently, and would likely be coming back before long. She didn't know where they would be coming from, or how alert they would be, but she didn't want to hang around, so she frantically motioned Tenshi to quit the room with her and move further down the hall.

She was starting to recognize things. That hallway, just in the corner where it was barely noticeable, had a faint scorch mark. One that she was absolutely certain had come from her own Mini-Hakkero. And there, too, that bit of the wall had been repaired from a circular hole, like the kind that Reimu's orbs could create. If anything, it helped Marisa to understand where she was. And if that way led toward the part of Eientei where she had witnessed Youmu and Yuyuko fighting Reisen, then the other direction should be near to the entrance, where the clinic was. She was pleased to find that Tenshi didn't make any move to stop her once she began to move in that direction, but when she looked back, she could see that something was bothering the taller girl. She had stopped, and she was staring at the ground with an increasing frown on her face.

Marisa went to ask her what was wrong, only for Tenshi to repeat her gesture from earlier and throw her hand over Marisa's mouth. "Wait." She breathed, so quietly that Marisa almost didn't hear it. After a second, her eyes widened and she dragged Marisa through the first door she saw, which led to a storage room. She pulled the door shut behind them, then dragged both of them into a far corner, Marisa against the wall and Tenshi pressing her back against Marisa. For a moment, Marisa could hear her heartbeat in hear ears, but she had no idea what Tenshi had pulled her into the room for. Then, she heard it.

Footsteps. Coming down the hallway that they had just been in. Marisa's heartbeat was now so loud that she was certain that any youkai in the entire Bamboo Forest could hear it, and based on the bead of sweat she saw rolling down Tenshi's temple, she wasn't doing much better. The footsteps stopped, and Tenshi pushed herself further into the wall, her eyes fixed on the door. Marisa stared in the same direction, willing the footsteps to move on.

Instead, the door slid open, and Marisa's heart began to beat even faster. With Tenshi pressed against her front, and her arms splayed out against each wall, she was nearly invisible. Then, she saw a head poke through the door. Lavander, with two long rabbit ears. Reisen looked across the room, then turned her head in the opposite direction, looking at the other side of the room. Marisa squeezed her eyes shut, certain that they were about to be caught. What would Eirin do to them? Would she strap them down and experiment on them, too? Maybe Tenshi could escape, but Reimu was still too sick to do anything.

And then...the door shut. Silence reigned, filling Marisa's ears with a dull ringing. After a moment, she felt Tenshi relax, and she finally managed to breathe out. For a few moments, neither of them moved, until they were certain that they were alone. Finally, Tenshi stepped away from the corner, looking slightly exhausted. "That was close." She mumbled.

"Yeah, no joke. How'd you hear her coming?" Marisa managed to whisper after a moment, still willing her heart to slow down. "I couldn't even see her."

"I didn't." Tenshi raised her hands, and Marisa was surprised to see that they were shaking. It was all the more surprising since Tenshi was all but indestructible and would definitely be in no real danger if caught. Marisa wondered what had her so concerned. "I told you that I can feel the air flow in the building. I can read the flow of energy, too. I could tell that it was being disturbed in that direction, and we wouldn't be able to escape." Tenshi took in a deep breath. "Come on. Let's keep going. If the moon rabbit came from that direction, it's that direction we need to go." Marisa didn't much feel like complaining or trying to head in the direction that Reisen had just come from. She was the only person they had seen in the whole of Eientei so far, so it was good to know that she wasn't nearby.

Tenshi slowly shifted the door open and poked her head out, seeing nothing. After a moment, she stepped out, and Marisa followed behind her. They began heading down the hallway that Reisen had come through, though Marisa found herself casting furtive glances behind her every now and then, expecting to see Reisen coming up on them.

But then, Marisa spotted a light. It was the first light she had seen in the whole time they'd been inside, and it was only the way it left an outline against the wall opposite that Marisa could tell it was a light at all thanks to the potion affecting her eyes. She poked Tenshi and pointed, and the ex-celestial nodded, then lowered herself slightly closer to the ground and crept forward silently. Marisa followed behind her, wondering just what was happening ahead. As they edged closer, Marisa could see that a door was open, and that was where the light was spilling out from. Slowly, they pressed themselves against the wall next to the door, strained their ears.

There was a noise, the scratching sound of writing. After a moment, Marisa decided to throw caution to the wind and threw herself as quietly as she could over to the other side of the door. As she did so, she looked in. The room was dimly lit by some sort of light on the ceiling. Bookshelves, cabinets and drawers littered the room, some with thick, heavy tomes haphazardly jammed onto the shelves, and some with meticulously organised, perfectly arranged rows. And saw that thankfully, Eirin's back was to the door and she was hunched over a desk. Now safely out of view on the other side, she looked at Tenshi, trying to communicate to her that they needed to see what Eirin was doing. If they were going to have any hope of figuring out what Eirin's goal was, or more importantly, why she was so fixated on it in the first place, they needed to see her notes.

Marisa was just in the middle of trying to figure out a distraction when things went from bad to worse. She heard footsteps. Coming toward them from the corridor, and she knew that there was absolutely no way they could escape them this time. They drew closer, and Marisa looked at Tenshi, certain the panic was showing in her eyes.

The figure drew into the light. Reisen Udongein Inaba stopped walking, staring at Marisa and Tenshi, pressed against her boss's door. Marisa stared back, waiting for the noose to tighten. The seconds seemed to stretch out into eternity.

Then, slowly, Reisen raised a finger to her lips. She looked intently at Marisa, then at Tenshi. The message was clear. Do not make a sound. Feeling very faint, Marisa nodded, and she saw Tenshi mimic her. "Master, I got the samples back." Reisen said out loud, very casually, as if she wasn't currently refraining from outing two trespassers.

The scratching stopped, and Marisa heard Eirin's chair scrape against the floor. Now panicking again, she heard Eirin's footsteps coming toward the door, but Reisen moved forward to meet her, just barely close enough to prevent Eirin from spotting either of them. "Good. Results?" She asked, her voice sounding as professionally detached as it usually did, though Marisa could have sworn that there was a hint of something underneath. Some sort of...strain.

"They, um, didn't take. Regeneration showed after several hours, which is up from the previous attempts, but obviously not enough to actually counteract the effects of the elixir." Reisen's feet were scuffing against the floor, which Marisa suddenly noticed had changed to that emotionless, sterile tile that appeared in the clinic. "There's still more samples to go out, though, so the next batch might take."

Eirin was silent for a moment, and though she didn’t dare try to look, Marisa could imagine the impassive look on her face that somehow still showed disappointment. "...Yes, very good. See that the next samples are tested thoroughly." Eirin fell silent, and it lasted long enough that Marisa began to feel convinced that she had spotted them.

"Um, Master?" Reisen finally ventures, her voice finding some sort of emotion to settle on, which she had never once displayed when talking to Marisa. "We're almost out of samples. Why - Why are you doing this? I thought that the elixir was your magnum op-" She didn't get to finish.

"Go to Fujiwara no Mokou and collect more samples, then. I don't need to hear the questions, Udonge. I only need to find the solution. That is what I am here to do. It's the only thing that matters." Marisa could hear the sound of cloth rustling, then the sound of a gloved hand tightening, like Eirin had just clenched her fist. "Dismissed."

"B-But, Maste-"

"Dismissed, Udonge." Eirin's voice gained an edge to it, one that promised bad things if not obeyed.

"...Understood, Master." Reisen's voice sounded slightly dejected, but she stepped back out of the room, regardless. "Um, will you need anything else...?"

"No." The swish of clothing indicated that Eirin had turned around, and the scrape of her chair afterwards confirmed it. Reisen backed out of the room, not looking at either Marisa or Tenshi, but clearly not wanting to look at Eirin. "Udonge?" Reisen looked back up, a flash of hope crossing her face. "Tell Fujiwara no Mokou..." Eirin fell silent. "No, never mind. Dismissed." The hope disappeared immediately, and Reisen trudged away from the room with her shoulders slumped. After a moment, she looked back at Tenshi and Marisa, still crouched at the door, and stuck a thumb behind her, then pointed to the right. Marisa nodded, sure that she was telling them the way out. After a moment, Reisen disappeared into the darkness.

Now all was silent. Eirin hadn't started writing again, and after warring with herself for a moment, Marisa dared to look through the door. The Doctor was hunched over the desk, but a bottle had joined her on the table. She placed a sake cup next to it, filled it, then took a drink. After a moment, she leaned back in the chair, taking a second drink. She continued until she had worked her way through a third of the bottle, at which point, she stood up, staring out of the decorative window in the room. She took another drink, then became still as a statue. Marisa wondered just what she could possibly be thinking.

Then, with no warning, she spun and hurled the sake cup at the wall. The shattering of ceramic and the trickle of alcohol coming down the wall was so loud in the deafening silence that Marisa jumped. Eirin was facing the wall opposite from Marisa's side, so she still couldn't be seen, but she didn't feel all that comfortable either. She could see that the muscles in Eirin's jaw were stretched taut, like she was incredibly upset. Her fist was clenched, and Marisa noted that she was wearing thin, black gloves. They shone slightly where the light caught them, which made Marisa wonder if they were leather. Not surgical, then. Why? "Next time." Eirin whispered to herself. "Next time." She stomped back over to the chair and slumped back into it, rubbing her face with one gloved hand.

There was no chance that Marisa or Tenshi would be able to make her move, it was appearing. Still, they had learnt some valuable information. Marisa looked over at Tenshi, who looked troubled, and gestured toward the exit. After a moment, Tenshi nodded. Marisa took a moment to confirm that Eirin wasn't looking, then stole past the open door, and soon the pair were creeping back through the corridor. Before long, they were at an intersection, and Marisa chose to trust in Reisen's word. She pointed left, and after a moment, Tenshi nodded.

There were still no rabbits around, and Marisa was really concerned. She had never seen Eientei so empty. Where was Tewi Inaba? She practically had free reign over Eientei most of the times that Marisa had been here. Hopefully, Reisen would make good on her other word and appear at the Shrine soon, so they could get some answers. Fortunately, they were at the clinic moments later, and a moment after that, they were through the sliding doors that led outside again. The Moon had begun to sink slightly in the sky, meaning that it couldn't be too much longer before the morning, and Marisa wanted to sleep for a week. Too many near misses had a fraying effect on her nerves, not to mention the stress's effect on her hair. Tenshi still hadn't spoken, and Marisa wanted to ask her what she was thinking, but still didn't dare speaking while within the confines of Eientei. The large gate outside was right ahead, so Marisa pulled it open and stepped through. She turned, staring back through at Eientei, and was just about to tell Tenshi to come through, when her luck finally ran out.

"Oh my, whatever do we have here?" The voice was polite, demure, and kind sounding, but to Marisa it sounded like death. Slowly, she turned, and Kaguya Houraisan smiled back at her. "A certain black-and-white magician, alone at my front door in the early hours of the morning?" Marisa suddenly remembered that she was not alone, and realised that she had a choice to either implicate both of them, or only one of them.

Marisa could sometimes be selfish, but when it mattered, she could display her cunning side instead. "Damn. You caught me." She muttered, punching her fish into her open hand. "Yeah, just me. Thought I'd try a little borrowing." She was speaking just slightly louder than she needed, and hoped dearly that Tenshi would get the message. Stay hidden.

"Borrowing, hmm?" Kaguya asked her, leaning forward with her hands clasped behind her back. "Is that what you call it these days? You know, I've had some treasured items of mine disappear since you first came to my home." Marisa felt a bead of sweat rolling down her brow. She'd lose a danmaku duel right now. She was too tired. "You know, several centuries ago, the punishment for thievery was whipping." That sounded...bad.

"It's not thievery." Marisa said, trying to keep her voice light. "It's borrowing. You're immortal. It'll be a blink of the eye before you get it back."

"I am immortal, yes." Kaguya said airily, now pacing a circle around Marisa. "But you, dear thief, are immoral. Morally bankrupt. I'm so very lucky that I caught you before you could make off with any more of my valuables. The rabbits were good enough not to take anything when Inaba left, but you ordinary humans do amaze me sometimes." Happily, it seemed that Kaguya believed that Marisa had yet to enter Eientei, not that she was leaving after infiltrating it. And she seemed to believe that she was alone. "Now, I do feel that I need to punish you. But, I fear that I am rather inebriated, and I would lose any danmaku duel right now. Fortunately, a curious distraction of mine has been teaching me something new." Kaguya leaned in again, and this time, Marisa could smell the alcohol on her breath. Had she been in the village? "What do you know of...brawling?" Marisa felt like whatever knowledge she had would be no match for what was about to happen.

In fact, when the first punch came flying at her head, she managed to dodge it. Unfortunately, that didn't help her dodge the next one, and the ones after that were nothing but pain. Kaguya Houraisan may not have been experienced at fist fighting, but she had thousands of years of experience in learning new skills, and she had already learnt to put what little she did know to good use. Marisa soon found herself lost in a whirlwind of pain, unable to effectively dodge anything and left just trying to cover her head. At some point, she began to feel shocks, and found herself equal parts impressed and worried that Kaguya seemed to be using her magical abilities to augment her attacks. All she could do was grit her teeth and take it.

Eventually, the punishment came to an end and she collapsed to the floor, struggling to breath through her pummelled chest. "Well now, that did feel rather good. I'll forgive you for now." Kaguya leaned down to look at her. "I do apologize if I got carried away; my usual target rarely has any damage...stick." With that, the Lunar Princess stepped over her and made her way inside, singing cheerfully. Given the fact that it didn't stop, Marisa could only assume that Tenshi had managed to stay hidden. She heard the gate close behind her, and a few minutes later, she heard footsteps.

"Insane, the lot of them." Tenshi muttered down at her. "You could have died to that. Come on, I'm taking you back to your house."

"N'mine." Marisa gasped out between painful wheezes. "Alice. Go t' Alice's..." Tenshi looked down at her, and Marisa struggled to bring her into focus. "Pup'teer." She said.

She felt Tenshi lift her body up, and that was all she managed before unconsciousness claimed her.



"She actually beat you up? That Kaguya?" Reimu asked incredulously. I didn't really know her, though she had been present for a few of my fake treatments at Eientei, but she hadn't looked all that strong. "Wow. I'm going to have to talk to her about that. You weren't even resisting."

"There's a lot wrong at Eientei, Reimu." Miss Tenshi said. "The drunk Immortal is hardly the worst of it."

"The Princess was unnaturally cheerful when she returned inside." Reisen told us. "I assumed it was because she had successfully sneaked out, though it does make sense if it was because she was able to beat Marisa up."

"Fuck's that supposed to mean, prisoner bunny?" Marisa growled, trying to jump up only to wince in pain. "You saying that beating me up specifically is what made her feel happy?"

"I suggested the possibility due to your record of angering residents of Gensokyo." Reisen said, sounding like she was speaking to a child.

"Anyway - Eirin. What was that about?" Reimu was asking. I agreed that it seemed like the important part.

"Can I finish first? Not much left, but still." Marisa asked, looking like she had been enjoying her story. It was rather engrossing, I did have to admit.

"...Oh, fine. Might as well." Reimu shrugged. I told Marisa that I was enjoying it, and she grinned. "Shut up, you. She doesn't need more encouragement to rob people." I hoped that I wasn't encouraging that.

"Okay, so the next part is when I woke up." Marisa told us.

I wondered what Doctor Yagokoro could be planning as she continued.

Spooky

Must be really bad if Tewi was disgusted enough to leave

>>44648769
I'm guessing trying to find Tewi and her rabbits for information is just a waste of time

>>44648863
Finding Tewi is never a waste of time.

>>44648872
I bet it isn't but something tells me she decided to go into hiding and not get involved, had she not She probably would have let Reimu know something bad was going on.

>>44648863
Keep in mind that if Tewi wanted, she could evict everyone from Eientei. She's the real landlord of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.
So, the fact that she hasn't makes it seem that she believes that Eirin can probably come back from this, but wants absolutely nothing to do with it.
Actually, Tewi probably bailed relatively recently, because there were still plenty of rabbits around when Anon was going to the ohysical therapy sessions, so it's only recently that Eirin has become unstable enough for Tewi to say nope

>>44648930
More than likely she is just evacuating her cute little offspring before either properly telling Eirin to fuck off or she thinks it's none of her business and fucked off.

It's not just ZUN who likes to make Marisa get spanked, writeanon does too...

>>44649237
Marisa is the spiderman of touhou

>>44648291
Gee Tenshi, not even a "thank you"?

I hope that Marisa eventually has a chance to get back at neethime.

>>44648769
From what reisen and eirin were talking about, they've taken some "samples" and given them the hourai elixir, then the new potion eirin is perfecting with anon juices, and then maimed them to check if the potion would stop them from regenerating and actually allow them to die.
The most likely samples are the eientei rabbits, so it makes sense for tewi to have run the fuck away with whoever was left. Thus reisen saying "We're almost out of samples".

>>44651917
Fucking grim.
Honestly feeling really bad for Tewi, she was just some Youkai then she sacrifices herself and is rewarded with having her form emblazoned on the moon and gets to go there.
Only for the Lunarians to arrive and enslave her lunar descendants, her original master was imprisoned by said shitty Lunarians.
Now this happens, being Tewi is suffering.

>>44651917
>forcing hourai elixir on the rabbits and trying to kill them
Jesus Christ how horrifying

>>44651917
This seems overly grim and I can't imagine it actually being what's happening
Eirin told Reisen to get samples from Mokou, and considering how little she cares for her body, I wouldn't be surprised if the samples are actually just lobbed off mokou bits
I mean, it's still pretty fucking weird and Eirin acting like this would be why Tewi bailed, but even if she's unhinged, I cannot ever see Eirin giving someone else the hourai elixir

>>44651917
>"We're almost out of samples".
I think you missed the part, where Eirin then said:
>"Go to Fujiwara no Mokou and collect more samples, then."

While she could still mean rabbits, I think she actually means samples from Mokou herself. Like ripping a part of her liver or head and using that to conduct tests.
Brutal work either way, no wonder Tewi fucked off.

>>44651427
Get back how? There isn't much she can do to her.

>>44652415
That does make more sense.

>>44653259
The combination of Kaguya's ability and her immortality is a nasty one, but she isn't known to be inherently strong or fast. Besides, her carefree demeanor is a weakness that someone like Marisa would be able to exploit under the right circumstances.

>>44651917
>>44652285
>>44652363
>>44652415
To be fair, Kaguya and Mokou have been killing each other for a while to pass the time. Is it really that significant if Mokou hands over the occasional limb or organ if it meant potentially finding a way out of total immortality?

>>44654791
She just beat the shit out of Marisa by just punching her, the fuck do you mean not inherently strong or fast?

>>44655585
It's so insignificant it ends up not explaining why did Tewi leave eientei.

>>44655646
Tewi's rabbits may have been experimented on to some degree, either Mokou does not care about this or is unaware of it and just got told that there may be a way to remove the immortality.

>>44655637
Context matters. The story says that Marisa was worn out when she arrived at Eientei's front gates. Then Kaguya asked Marisa if she knew about brawling, which was followed by instant, no-questions-asked pummeling that Marisa could only block as Kaguya used her abilities to make them hurt.
To assume that Marisa is utterly incapable of standing up to Kaguya (it doesn't necessarily have to be in a fair or violent way, mind you, this isn't professional boxing nor DBZ) would be like saying that Reimu cannot exterminate Yamame for good, just because the miko was on the receiving end of an AIDS punch that one time.

"Maybe beating the living daylights out of you would improve the quality of your conversation." Marisa could hear speaking as she awoke, but it was tempered by the pain she also felt. It was like a cloud, settling over her whole body.

"My conversation adapts to the level of the person I'm talking it. It's like water. Did you ever get around to studying the form of water for your dolls? No? I didn't think so."

"Oh, you are simply hilarious. What-" Marisa managed to let out a pained groan, and the talking stopped. "Ah, look who's awake. Marisa, can you hear me?" Marisa groaned something that might have sounded like 'yes' if you let an immortal beat you up for an indeterminate amount of time. "Hm. Can you see me?" She tried to open her eyes, but seemed to be having trouble. "The left eye might struggle. One moment." Marisa heard the tell-tale sound of Alice's magic-enhanced wires moving in the air, then felt something cool and soft against her eye. "Try again." It took some effort, but Marisa managed to open her eyes.

She was in Alice Margatroid's spare bedroom, which despite being a room that Alice didn't regularly use, was still immaculately clean. There was not a speck of dust to be seen, and Marisa knew that if she were to sweep her fingers along the top of the cupboards or underneath the bed, she would find nothing. Alice used the room to store spare components for her dolls, and one of those dolls was sitting on her chest right then, a damp cloth that was almost too big for it to hold in her stubby arms. That was the cool and soft thing that Marisa had felt earlier. She tried to raise her head, but the doll in front of her - Shanghai, she thought - pushed her head back down. "I wouldn't try to move yet." Alice told her, now moving to the bed. Behind her, leaning against the wall, Marisa could make up Tenshi, who was looking off into space with her arms crossed. "I'm not a healer by trade, but I've picked up a number of tricks in my time." Marisa tried a second time, managing to shift her head just enough to look down properly, where she could see that she'd gained several nice bandages wrapped around her body. "I doubt I've managed to heal you as well as that Doctor in the Bamboo Forest could, but the earthquake girl here was very insistent that you are not taken there. Really, Marisa, what were you thinking?"

Marisa huffed and this time, managed to raise herself onto her elbows. "Needed - Ngh - somewhere to lie low." She managed to say after a moment. "Knew you had some healing stuff." She tried to sit up, but the intense pain in her abdomen forced her back down. "Ugh, how bad was it?"

"Bad. You look like you've gone a round with an oni. Tenshi says it was Kaguya Houraisan?" Marisa looked over at Tenshi, who nodded in her direction.

"Yeah..." Marisa mumbled. "Needed to see inside Eientei. She caught me on the way out." Her right forearm was numb, and she remembered that Kaguya had been using shocks. "Fist fight. I was too exhausted to defend myself, and she started using her magical abilities to augment the hits." Alice crossed her arms and clicked her teeth in something between annoyance and sympathy. "It's not like I was trying to get beat up, you know."

"No, I rather doubt it, despite your typical lack of care." Alice said.

"I don't have a typical lack of care. I have a healthy relationship with danger. Why would you think otherwise?" Marisa asked, trying to inject some sympathy-seeking notes into her voice.

"Because I'm not stupid like you." Alice responded with all the enthusiasm of someone attending a funeral. Sympathy-seeking had failed. "And you might be even stupider, given some of the knocks to the head you took. I fear that I have not put much research into the intersection of magic and melee, so I am unable to give you a clear explanation. Patchouli Knowledge might know, but I imagine that she is just as likely to attack you, and for good reason. Must you steal so many books?"

"Progress is important." Marisa muttered.

"Reject greed, Marisa." Tenshi called from behind Alice. She sauntered forward, her arms crossed. "As I told you. It'll make your life much happier." Marisa stuck her tongue out at Tenshi, who rolled her eyes at the childish response.

"Now, I've bandaged you up, but you probably have at least a concussion, and you're going to be far too sore to do anything for a while. I fear that your rest would be disturbed if you remained here, so I must recommend that you return home."

"Trying to get rid of me?" Marisa asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Alice replied, not at all sarcastically.

"I don't really care either way." Tenshi added, sounding uninterested.

Thus, it was a few minutes later that Alice helped Marisa out of bed, helped her get dressed, and then had Tenshi escort her out of the front door. "Now, you're supposed to heal by resting, so kindly resist the urge to be yourself."

"You're so cruel to me for absolutely no reason, Alice." Marisa said, trying not to let the pain colour her words.

"Hm." Alice looked down at the pair from her doorstep. "Well, you did decide to break into the only place that could heal you properly if you got caught. Perhaps the brains were already gone beforehand. At least that would mean that Miss Kaguya didn't do any real damage." Her gaze did soften slightly. "Marisa, I am not your parent, but do take some advice. Stop taking these sorts of risks. They're beneath you." Alice didn't wait for Marisa to respond. "Take care. Pass on my greetings to Reimu." She nodded once, then shut the door, leaving the human and former celestial to stand there in the breeze.

"So, she's always like that, huh?" Tenshi finally said, as they turned and stepped away from the door.

"Something like that. But she is good where it counts, so I put up with the rest." Marisa muttered, trying to stumble away from the door despite the pain each step brought her. After a moment, Tenshi tried to throw Marisa's arm over her shoulder, but the action caused Marisa to hiss in pain, and the height difference between the pair made the position awkward regardless. "You are not carrying me again." Marisa decided to cut that problem off right away.

"Hmm..." Tenshi rubbed at her chin. "Okay, I know." She gestured ahead of her, and after a second, a keystone had formed, floating in the air in front of her. "Up you get." She did sweep Marisa up into a carrying position, but immediately deposited her on the keystone and sat on the edge herself. Marisa sighed and let her head rest on the stone, trying to think of a way to get back at Her Royal Bitchiness for beating her up. "Where do you live?" Tenshi asked her, already raising the stone into the air.

Marisa opened her mouth to answer, but felt a sudden bad omen. Like something awful was approaching.

And then, she heard the click of a camera, and knew that a fate worse than death had arrived. A journalist in search of a story. "My, my, my, whatever do I spy with my little camera's eye?" Marisa squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to just die then and there. "As always, this is Shameimaru. Today, I'm studying the behaviour of a thief."

"You'll be studying the behaviour of the lost souls on the Sanzu river when I'm through with you." Marisa growled.

"How cruel." Aya Shameimaru said, in a mockingly hurt voice. "I merely came to learn about this Eientei Investigation, since Reimu's looking rather useless. But then, you're looking just about as useless as she is."

"Piss. Off. Shameimaru." Marisa ground out through gritted teeth. "Not in the mood."

Tenshi, who had seemed content to ignore Aya, now looked at her in annoyance. "Do you have anything of actual interest to add? It seems more like you're just here to be annoying."

"Ah, the ex-celestial can talk." Aya's voice had that smug air to it, like she knew that she had you participating in her little dance of words, and you could only dance well for so long before she took control. "Here I thought you were just Marisa's chauffer." Tenshi looked like she was about to start a fight, so Marisa decided to cut to the point.

"You want to know about Eientei? Why don't you try asking them?" She couldn't really sit up, but she didn't have to once Aya decided to hover horizontally above her. "It's a private matter."

"Is it? For that boy that Reimu's keeping at the Shrine? He's promised me exclusive publishing rights, so this is really a formality more than anything. I'll get the story from him, but I'll get a more complete story from everyone else." Marisa grit her teeth in annoyance, resolving to smack her dense client over the head once she was better for agreeing to work with a tengu. "Now, I know that you aren't happy about this, so I'm here to extend a peace offering." She reached into her pocket, removing what Marisa recognized to be a syringe. "I recovered this from the home of one Fujiwara no Mokou. Instant killer, by the smell."

Marisa now found that she had to pay attention, because Aya clearly knew things. "How the hell did you know that?" She asked. More importantly, why was it at Mokou's house. Marisa thought back to Eirin's words, about Reisen going to Fujiwara no Mokou for 'samples'. It didn't bode well.

"I'm very clever." Aya said with a patient smile. "I hear that you were injured during an attempt at infiltrating Eientei. Is that right?"

Marisa swallowed. "Busted before I could get started, actually."

"Is that so? Then, why was the gate opened from the inside?" Now, Marisa's blood ran a little colder. "Really, now, you thought you were safe from prying eyes just because it was night? I saw Kaguya Houraisan's little 'fight' with you. In fact, I'd be willing to work with you on some payback if you would be willing to talk about Eientei."

Tenshi turned from where she had been pointedly ignoring Aya. "This sounds like the worst blackmail scheme I've ever heard of. You're supposed to have something worth holding over Marisa's head."

"Oh, but I do. You see, I did say that I witnessed what happened. That means that I also witness you, ex-celestial, carrying her away afterwards. She protected you." Tenshi's mouth snapped shut. "Now, I don't particularly want to reveal that. But, if I don't have a good story about Doctor Yagokoro's shady practices, I could always run a story about a disgraced celestial turning to a life of petty crime, if you'd prefer." Now, Tenshi looked murderous, but didn't seem to have anything to say in response. "So, you see, I'm not holding much over Marisa's head." She smiled again, and Marisa would have loved to make her look as bad as Marisa felt. "Now, I'm sure you don't wish to discuss this here, so I'd like to ask us to relocate." Aya looked out into the distance, a scowl on her face. "There's a storm approaching. That'll make things difficult. Back to the Shrine? I'd imagine that Reimu would like to be involved in this." Now realising that she didn't have much of a choice unless she wanted to let Aya shred what little reputation that Tenshi had, she sighed heavily and told Tenshi to just take them to the Shrine. "Excellent! Perhaps I'll look through my old records. I might find something that shines light on Eirin Yagokoro's sinister plot. See, we can work together if we try. "

Marisa would dearly love to work together with Tenshi to smash Aya's face in, if she could.



"So, that's why you were all at the Shrine?" Reimu asked, looking annoyed. I remembered the way she had shouted when I had woken up there, and wondered whether it was because of Shameimaru. She had seemed okay when I had spoken to her, though I did get a strange feeling in my gut not to trust her or reveal too much. It seemed that I had been right in that assessment. "And - hold on - Aya blackmailed you?" She asked Miss Tenshi, sounding incredulous.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Though I wouldn't claim that the thoughts of surface-dwellers about a child of the Heavens bothers me much." Miss Tenshi did look bothered. Very bothered, in fact, and I patted her arm sympathetically.

"It wasn't so bad until that birdbrain showed up with him in tow." Marisa nodded toward me. I swallowed uncomfortably, remembering the circumstances that had led to me being there. "You're the one who got all bent out of shape." She said to Reimu.

"Aya Shameimaru once insinuated that writing about rabbits would make her newspaper low-quality." Reisen added to the conversation, still sounding like she would rather be anywhere else. Perhaps because of this, she went mostly ignored.

"Did it even go anywhere?" Reimu asked Marisa.

"What? Oh, Aya helping? Not...really? Maybe a little, since she had that syringe from Mokou’s place, but she said that she would need to do a lot of researching through old newspapers, so she wasn't sure how long it would take. Either way, I'm nearly done now. Just need to explain...her." Marisa said, looking at Reisen. "Then we can start trying to put it all together."

I was a little nervous about Reisen. She scared me a little, despite being tied up and stuck on her side facing a wall. Either way, I needed to face my fears eventually.

"So, you got violent, and then told me to lie down, and I fell asleep because...well, I was still pretty exhausted." Marisa began. "I woke up a little later..."

The final part of her story had begun, and I wondered how this increasingly complex puzzle could possibly fit together.

>>44658189
Something tells me Reisen got kicked out or ran away from Eintei

https://files.catbox.moe/7yvuff.jpeg

>>44658390
Jumpscare. Do not open.

>>44658390
Aah!

I can't help but think of that doll mutant from Resident Evil Village whenever I see Alice.

>>44658399
>>44658448
You guys tricked me into thinking it was a nice kogasa picture

>>44658399
Marisass truly is scary

>>44658573
Kogasa wouldn't hide behind catbox links.

>>44658189
>"Aya Shameimaru once insinuated that writing about rabbits would make her newspaper low-quality."
I love Aya's casual racism towards the rabbits, out of all of them Reisen probably deserves it the most.

I wonder how breaded crow tastes?

>>44658180
>boy
Aya-chan, your age is showing.

>>44658390
If only Marisa had lay on the floor facing down and sticking her butt up her ass would have absorbed most of the impact just fine.

>>44658390
>>44658599
>>44659520
https://voca.ro/1bynpvoEHGc3

>>44664043
"Reimu, i'm trying to sneak around the Scarlet Devil Mansion library naked to steal some books, but i'm dummy thick and the clap of my asscheeks keeps alerting Phatchouli!

>>44664043
Why is Kaguya British?

>"Trying to get rid of me?" Marisa asked sarcastically.
>"Yes." Alice replied, not at all sarcastically.
the marisa bullying continues

>>44666902
That's okay, Marisa has Tenshi now.

What if the writefag is pulling a sneaky one here and is going to do a Marisa and Tenshi yuri here.

>>44667354
Writeanon is based, but that would be too much even for him.

>>44667354
Maybe next time, when they go on an undercover mission in the underground. That's how that works, I think.

>>44664043
Heh, top post

>>44667354
Marisa isn't a lesbian, and they don't allow lesbians into heaven!

>>44667354
That wouldn't be very BALLIN of him.

>>44648284
>the rabbits were good enough not to take anything when Inaba left.
I NEED TO KNOW MORE

Marisa woke up somewhere above the Forest of Magic, completely confused by the fact that she couldn't see anything, but could smell peaches. She could feel the wind on her bare arms, and her clothes felt damp. After a moment, she registered the raindrops on her arms. She tried to lift her arms and see why she couldn't see, but barely managed to move them before a wave of nausea overtook her and she was forced to give up. Fortunately, this resulted in a rustling movement that in turn led to whatever was on Marisa's head being pulled off. Tenshi looked down at her, stood on the keystone that Marisa was lying on with her arms crossed. She'd crouched down and taken her hat off of Marisa's face, where it had apparently been blocking her face from the rain. She held it upside-down in her hand, seemingly contemplating. "Your hat's too big. The wind would have blown it away." She finally muttered. Before responding, Marisa had a moment of panic when she wondered where her own hat was, but then she realised that it was wedged underneath her arm, and her broom was underneath her other arm. "There's something wrong with Eirin Yagokoro."

"I could have told you that days ago." Marisa replied, closing her eyes before the rain could start hitting them. "What are you doing? You do know it's raining, right? About to be a full-blown storm? Yes?"

"I'm aware." Tenshi said, her gaze focused somewhere off the keystone. "I don't know where you live and it's too dark to see anything." She was distracted, Marisa could tell that much. "There's something really wrong with her temperament."

"Well, can we get out of the rain before you start brooding? Here, help me get up. I can find my way home in any conditions." Silently, Tenshi crouched down and slid an arm under Marisa's back, then helped her sit up, before helping her up to her feet. Marisa let out a pained gasp as she got up once the pain hit, but it faded just as fast. "Urgh. That was unpleasant." With Tenshi supporting her weight, she surveyed the area around where they were sitting, and within moments had spotted a particular formation of trees that she always used as a landmark to find her way home in the dark. It was something that she could only see because she'd spent years trying to memorize it. "There, that way." She said, painfully raising a hand to point at the trees. "Go right from there for a bit, then down." There was a sudden gust of wind as the keystone began moving, and Marisa found herself very off-balance and dangerously close to falling. She tried to step forward, but when her balance tipped even further back, she knew that it would be no use. Then, before she could fall, Tenshi pulled her forward by grabbing her waist with both arms, tipping her balance back the other way which made her stumble into the taller girl. After a moment for her heart to settle, Marisa breathed out in relief and stepped back, thankful that her legs had mostly escaped Kaguya's beating and she was still able to stand fairly easily. "Thanks." She muttered to Tenshi, who shook her head, still looking like she was mentally somewhere else.

"It's fine. I think everyone would be a little upset if I let you die because you fell off a rock in mid-air." Marisa snorted and stifled a laugh as the keystone came to hover over where Marisa knew her house was. "I assume you don't want this sitting in front of your house?" Tenshi asked, indicating the keystone they were standing on.

"You joking? Drop it straight down." Marisa loved interesting things, and a keystone from a celestial, even an exiled one, would certainly qualify.

"Seriously? What if I land on your house? Or block the door?" Which was a good question, especially since thanks to the wind whipping at her hair and the rain obscuring everything, Marisa wasn't entirely sure where her door was. But, she did know where the house roughly was.

"Okay, fine. Go...that way," She nodded slightly to the left of where Tenshi was currently looking. "Just a bit...okay, stop. Drop it down now. That's the back of the house." Before Marisa could blink, the ground disappeared from beneath her feet. She nearly screamed when she felt her body swing horizontally, only to then realise that Tenshi had put her in a carrying position again. "I told you to stop doing that." Marisa grumbled, annoyed.

"You can either fall with the keystone and break your back even more than Kaguya did, or you can let me just drop you down safely. Could you even fly right now?" Truthfully, she wasn't sure. She did have her broom, but with everything hurting, she wasn't sure she'd be able to manage it without some part of her body complaining.

Marisa woke up somewhere above the Forest of Magic, completely confused by the fact that she couldn't see anything, but could smell peaches. She could feel the wind on her bare arms, and her clothes felt damp. After a moment, she registered the raindrops on her arms. She tried to lift her arms and see why she couldn't see, but barely managed to move them before a wave of nausea overtook her and she was forced to give up. Fortunately, this resulted in a rustling movement that in turn led to whatever was on Marisa's head being pulled off. Tenshi looked down at her, stood on the keystone that Marisa was lying on with her arms crossed. She'd crouched down and taken her hat off of Marisa's face, where it had apparently been blocking her face from the rain. She held it upside-down in her hand, seemingly contemplating. "Your hat's too big. The wind would have blown it away." She finally muttered. Before responding, Marisa had a moment of panic when she wondered where her own hat was, but then she realised that it was wedged underneath her arm, and her broom was underneath her other arm. "There's something wrong with Eirin Yagokoro."

"I could have told you that days ago." Marisa replied, closing her eyes before the rain could start hitting them. "What are you doing? You do know it's raining, right? About to be a full-blown storm? Yes?"

"I'm aware." Tenshi said, her gaze focused somewhere off the keystone. "I don't know where you live and it's too dark to see anything." She was distracted, Marisa could tell that much. "There's something really wrong with her temperament."

"Well, can we get out of the rain before you start brooding? Here, help me get up. I can find my way home in any conditions." Silently, Tenshi crouched down and slid an arm under Marisa's back, then helped her sit up, before helping her up to her feet. Marisa let out a pained gasp as she got up once the pain hit, but it faded just as fast. "Urgh. That was unpleasant." With Tenshi supporting her weight, she surveyed the area around where they were sitting, and within moments had spotted a particular formation of trees that she always used as a landmark to find her way home in the dark. It was something that she could only see because she'd spent years trying to memorize it. "There, that way." She said, painfully raising a hand to point at the trees. "Go right from there for a bit, then down." There was a sudden gust of wind as the keystone began moving, and Marisa found herself very off-balance and dangerously close to falling. She tried to step forward, but when her balance tipped even further back, she knew that it would be no use. Then, before she could fall, Tenshi pulled her forward by grabbing her waist with both arms, tipping her balance back the other way which made her stumble into the taller girl. After a moment for her heart to settle, Marisa breathed out in relief and stepped back, thankful that her legs had mostly escaped Kaguya's beating and she was still able to stand fairly easily. "Thanks." She muttered to Tenshi, who shook her head, still looking like she was mentally somewhere else.

"It's fine. I think everyone would be a little upset if I let you die because you fell off a rock in mid-air." Marisa snorted and stifled a laugh as the keystone came to hover over where Marisa knew her house was. "I assume you don't want this sitting in front of your house?" Tenshi asked, indicating the keystone they were standing on.

"You joking? Drop it straight down." Marisa loved interesting things, and a keystone from a celestial, even an exiled one, would certainly qualify.

"Seriously? What if I land on your house? Or block the door?" Which was a good question, especially since thanks to the wind whipping at her hair and the rain obscuring everything, Marisa wasn't entirely sure where her door was. But, she did know where the house roughly was.

"Okay, fine. Go...that way," She nodded slightly to the left of where Tenshi was currently looking. "Just a bit...okay, stop. Drop it down now. That's the back of the house." Before Marisa could blink, the ground disappeared from beneath her feet. She nearly screamed when she felt her body swing horizontally, only to then realise that Tenshi had put her in a carrying position again. "I told you to stop doing that." Marisa grumbled, annoyed.

"You can either fall with the keystone and break your back even more than Kaguya did, or you can let me just drop you down safely. Could you even fly right now?" Truthfully, she wasn't sure. She did have her broom, but with everything hurting, she wasn't sure she'd be able to manage it without some part of her body complaining.

"Thanks." Marisa muttered. She was starting to feel a little useless, and wondered if this is how Reimu felt getting carried around by someone else now that she was sick. That said, she hadn't seemed all that sick when she was threatening to turn Tenshi's head into a pincushion. At least Marisa's injuries gave her a solid excuse, since being sick meant you just felt awful despite mentally being more or less fine.

She heard the keystone slam into the ground below her, and then saw the - already nearly non-existent - light around her grow even darker as the pair descended into the trees. Tenshi floated around to the front of Marisa's house, where she frowned as she spotted some of the things lying in front of Marisa's door. Slowly, she helped Marisa to her feet, then stepped back. Marisa, meanwhile, fumbled in her pockets to find her keys, and despite struggling slightly to force the key into the lock, finally pulled the door open and staggered inside.

Her house was dark, but she'd been sure to lock it up tightly when she had left, so no rain had gotten in. She stepped forward, her feet already knowing exactly where to place themselves to avoid tripping on anything, and twitched her fingers to light the various magical lights she had built. They worked on a similar principle to using familiars in spells, except they only shot a single, highly powered light bullet that glowed for several hours. Using the idea, Marisa had managed to install all sorts of lighting in her house.
She heard the shuffling of footsteps behind her and painfully turned to look back. Tenshi had stepped through the doorway, her arms crossed. "What are you doing?" Marisa asked with a frown.

"What does it look like? Coming in." Tenshi said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"I can see that. Why?"

"Because - I'm sorry, do you really think you're going to get anything done when you can't even sit up by yourself? Besides, didn't you want to talk about Eirin?" Tenshi was already practically on top of her, so Marisa turned and, supporting herself on the wall, dragged herself in the direction of her bedroom. She wasn't particularly happy about Tenshi's behaviour, but also wasn't strong enough to do much about it. She would recover fine on her own, and she could talk about the Eientei Investigation all she wanted at the Shrine once she was well and the storm had passed. She stormed into her bedroom and planted herself face first into her unmade bed, ignoring the pain it caused her.

Tenshi's footsteps followed her slowly. "Do you really live like this?" She asked, and Marisa grit her teeth. Everyone asked that. Reimu even did it from time to time, despite them knowing each other for as long as they had.

"What's wrong with it? Why don't I come to your house and complain about the way you live?" Marisa shifted her head enough to glare at Tenshi. The ex-celestial raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, and after a moment, Marisa let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Do what you want. I'm staying right here."



"Can I interject?" Reimu asked, a note in impatience in her voice. "Are you going to get to any sort of point any time soon, or is this whole thing just the story of how you and Tenshi realised your undying love for each other or something equally stupid?" I felt like I should reign Reimu in slightly, before she upset someone enough for a fight. "I don't think I really need to hear about how Tenshi caring for you woke a burning lust deep in your soul and-" At this point, I wrapped a hand around Reimu's mouth and dragged her slightly further from Miss Tenshi, who didn't look particularly bothered, and Marisa, who looked a little bothered. After a moment, Reimu elbowed me in the stomach and pulled my hand away.

"Ugh, you're so impatient." Marisa muttered. "Fine. I'll skip the other stuff. It's mostly her," She pointed at Miss Tenshi crossly, "Changing my bandages - poorly - and moving my things despite me telling her not to. If the house needed cleaning, I would clean it. I haven't, so it doesn't."

"If making excuses for yourself was a sport, you'd be winner every time." Miss Tenshi muttered, and I stifled a laugh.

"Extreme defensiveness is-" Reisen's monotone voice tried to speak up.

"Shut up, stupid rabbit! I don't have a problem!" Marisa shouted, sounding very much like someone with a problem. "Okay, whatever. Here's the conversation that mattered."

Marisa lay in bed and listened to the hammering of rain on her roof. The window next to her had been cleared while she was asleep of her very important collection of rocks she had found out in the forest, a fact which had her very upset, though it did mean that she could watch the rain form interesting patterns as it flowed down the window. From the other side, she could hear the sound of thing knocking together. "Do you need these old paper bags?" She heard Tenshi call to her from another room, and she grit her teeth in annoyance. "What about this - Huh? Why do you even have all these scraps of metal?" Now, she was audibly growling.

"Stop fucking messing with my house!" She finally yelled. "Come in here!" She heard an annoyed sigh from the other room, and after a moment, Tenshi paced into the room. She'd appropriated an apron from somewhere, and had dropped her hat on the first desk she'd cleared in Marisa's room, which she had cleaned while steadily ignoring Marisa's yells for her to just leave it all alone. So what if she hadn't used the desk in years? If she needed something, she knew it was on top of the desk. Now, she had no idea where it was.

"Yes?" She asked, pulling her voluminous hair back into a loose ponytail. "Something wrong?"

"You! I never asked you to clean my house!" Marisa crossed her arms and stared crossly at the ceiling. Happily, the pain had mostly receded in her arms and she could use them without too much trouble, though she still had the bandages on in case of scarring.
"You actually told me to, and I quote, 'do what you want', which I took to mean cleaning." Tenshi sounded not even the slightest bit perturbed. "Unless there's something else you'd like me to do."

Realising the futility of yelling at her, Marisa decided to try a different approach. "We need to talk about Eirin." Tenshi was silent for a moment, then pulled the chair from the other desk in Marisa's room, the one she actually did use, and sat next to the bed. "Something's wrong with her."

"Yes." Tenshi quietly replied. "Her temperament makes no sense. You remember when she threw the sake cup at the wall?" Marisa nodded. "It wasn't anger. Her personality is unchanged, so whatever's made her start acting like this isn't some weird spell."

"What, like...She's got brain problems?" Marisa didn't really get it.

"No, it's more like...like she's desperate. For a solution?" Tenshi crossed her legs and rested her chin in her hand. "Maybe she thinks that she has to do this. A need. I don't know why, because..."

"Because it's not like she's running out of time to do it?" Immortality was still difficult for Marisa to comprehend. She doubted that she would every truly grasp the scale, just as she still couldn't quite grasp the scale of Eirin apparently existing before humans did. "No ideas?"

"Nothing specific." Tenshi still looked distracted. "Why is she so obsessed with Mokou? Kaguya Houraisan is just as immortal and a lot closer. Is it because she's the princess? Or is it...?" Tenshi looked like she was on the cusp of something, but then it slipped and her features softened from the frown she had been regularly wearing lately. "I expect the only way to know is to ask her directly."

"So, there's no way to know." Marisa mumbled, watching as a spider built a web in the corner of her ceiling.

They sat in silence for a moment, consumed with thoughts on what could be happening at Eientei. Eventually, Tenshi stood and grabbed Marisa's broom from where it was leaning against the wall. Despite Marisa's complaints, she began to sweep.



"I don't think I learnt anything from that." Reimu complained, and I found myself agreeing. It hadn't explained much.

"Well, we can discuss it all properly when I'm done. If you'd stop interrupting, we'd get there sooner." Marisa shrugged. "It's complicated."

"Aren't we all?" Miss Tenshi muttered under her breath.

"So...Her?" Reimu pointed at the prone rabbit.

"Oh, right. Yeah."

"My name is Reisen Udongein Inaba." Reisen Udongein Inaba told us.

"I'm aware." Reimu patronisingly said, nudging her with her foot. I decided to ask Marisa for a more direct answer on how exactly Reisen had ended up here. "Yeah, I feel like I've been here for days. Please get to the point."

Marisa rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine."

The storm came to its end as all things do: With little fanfare. One night, Marisa went to sleep listening to the rain, staring up at the ceiling, and hoping she'd be strong enough to get up without it being a whole trial of endurance as she listened to Tenshi ruin more of her house's perfectly set out organization. The next morning, she awoke to blue skies and the sound of birdsong. "Oh, good, you're awake. The storm ended several hours ago, so I've opened your front door to let some fresh air in. Did you want something to drink?" Tenshi had seemingly settled into her role as caregiver with ease, and despite her misgivings, Marisa wasn't quite as annoyed with her presence as she pretended to be.

"Water." She finally said, taking a deep drink and gasping with relief when she was finished. "What-" Suddenly, she froze.

Marisa had spent years fending off youkai trying to get into her house and had long since become attuned enough to it to recognize immediately when something was amiss. And right then, there was a shadow pouring into the room that shouldn't have been there. Slowly, she slipped her hand under her pillow and pulled out the Mini-Hakkero, which began to hum with energy. Tenshi had already picked up on her unnatural silence, and looked ready to attack. Whoever it was, they were just outside, on the side of Marisa's window.
Marisa loudly stretched, then turned and pulled herself up to her knees and unlatched her window. "Ah, I need some fresh air." She pushed the window open and stuck her head out, leaning her arms against the edge of the frame, with the Mini-Hakkero pointed in just the right direction for whoever was lurking outside. She waited just a moment to confirm that no one was trying to run, then silently sent out a pulse of energy from the Mini-Hakkero which, while not a Master Spark, was enough to temporarily stun anyone in range. She heard a thump, and a broad smile crossed her face.

It was the work of a few moments to send Tenshi out to haul the unconscious rabbit inside, and a few minutes more for Marisa to direct her to the rope that, happily, Tenshi had yet to supposedly clean up by moving it to somewhere that Marisa would never find. While they were waiting for her to wake up, Tenshi decided to carry on with her new and incredibly annoying cleaning habit. Thus, when Reisen awoke, it was to the pair of them yelling at each other about some grimoire that Tenshi had found buried under a pile of other junk, and not long after that, Reimu had blundered in with her not-husband in tow.

"Finally done?" Reimu asked. "Never heard such a long story with so little happening. You?" She asked me, and I shook my head but said that I'd found the story fairly interesting. "My turn, then." She strolled over to Reisen, crouched down, and began poking her with the gohei. For a moment, I panicked, expecting similar results to when she had attacked Yamame, but it seemed that intent mattered, because nothing happened. "Okay, moon rabbit, you can either tell me why you're here, or I can beat it out of you."

Reisen's bored eyes flicked toward me, and I swallowed nervously. Miss Tenshi came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "My Master has directed me to bring him back by any means necessary." She finally said.

"Is that so?" Reimu asked, before grabbing Reisen's collar and hauling her to sit against the wall again. "And you're telling me...why?"

"Is it not obvious, Hakurei?" Reisen's voice injected some actual emotion, which I hadn't expected. "I'm disobeying her." Reimu actually looked surprised on that, which I hadn't expected.

"What, like the others? The Inaba, like Marisa mentioned in her story?" That was Miss Tenshi, who was now stood next to me with her arms crossed. "The ones who ran away?"

"Tewi has chosen to seek alternative shelter until events have run their course." Reisen's ears flicked slightly, and I suspected that I was not being told the full story. "I have not run away. I have come to seek help."

"Why has she left, then? The real reason." Marisa spoke that time.

"I believe that my Master may have...struck...some of the rabbits. She is under extreme stress. Tewi did not take well to it. She issued an ultimatum to my Master, to either cease her current research, or Tewi would leave." Given that Tewi had left, it was clear what the choice Doctor Yagokoro had taken was. "I believe that she still believes that my Master can be saved."

"Well, where's she gone now?" Reimu asked.

"I don't know. I refused to leave with her, but I did hear her mention that she knew a certain bag-carrier who might be able to offer shelter." I had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean, though Reimu frowned for a second. I think I saw her mutter a name under her breath before shaking her head. "I am here because I want you to save my Master from herself. She is acting like there’s something more personal in her mind than simply creating an antiserum to the Hourai Elixir."

"That's a tall order." Marisa muttered. "What, should we just walk up to Eientei and politely ask her to stop experimenting on humans?"

"You wouldn't get in." Reisen sounded certain.

"We did last time." Marisa sounded even more certain, and Reisen did look down slightly after a moment.

"Stop." Reimu finally said. "Look, can we take this back to the Shrine?" She asked. "There's so much junk in here that I can hardly breathe." Before Marisa could complain, she continued. "Besides, that's where Aya will go. We might as well already be there." I asked Reimu how she expected to deal with Eirin. "Beat her up until she stops needing to be beaten up, probably." That did sound very like Reimu, though I wondered if it would really resolve everything. Clearly, there was more to it than just that. Reimu had already dragged Reisen to her feet, untied her feet, and was pushing her through the house.

"Oh, fine. If it gets you all gone - especially you." Marisa said, glaring daggers at Miss Tenshi, who looked amused. "It's going to take forever to get my house back in order."

"Disorder."

"Fuck off."

Eirin may be immortal but it'll take her hundreds of thousands of years to pull herself out of Former Hells magma currents. A fate worse than death, really.

>>44670952
Eirin will have to experience floating in the empty void after the death of the universe unable to move hear or see trapped inside her own head possibly for all eternity, that's worse than any existing hell.

>>44670850
>"Disorder."

>"Fuck off."

They really are comfortable with each other huh?

>damn bitch, you live like this?

>>44671088
>>44672448
Tenshi is just too cool!!!!!! Even if its unlikely, I hope she wins!!!!

>>44670842
>not-husband
why do you have to remind me...

I do find it funny how thematic writeanon made this story.
Eirin is a doctor and Yamame is a disease youkai.

Shionbros, the black-eyed witch must not get away with this.

>>44672631
I will forever cry that Tenshi got herself out of the running before Reimu and wasn't even a real contender.

>>44673779
I firmly believe that if that one guy hadn't sperged out about harems and strong sperm or whatever we might have gotten a harem ending

>>44673819
Don't start again, this was never a harem story.
But on topic of Tenshi being out of the running, it felt weird that she was dropped so relatively easily when compared to the forced inclusion of Reimu and then Anon agonizing over figuring things out.
I'd like at least one more conversation between Anon and Tenko about why their relationship never grew to something more.
that and what has Kogasa been up to. It should have seemed like she killed a human to her and must be terrified right now.

>>44673850
>I'd like at least one more conversation between Anon and Tenko about why their relationship never grew to something more.
It would be cool

I just recalled that Reimu previously attacked Eientei in writeanon's story. Did that happen before or after Marisa and Tenshi's little adventure?

>>44674657
Before. It was when Marisa got BBQ'd by Patchouli.

>>44673850
Kogasa has been acting like a fugitive ever since she made a human fall down a hole, she shakes uncontrollably around any form of authority or Aya, eventually she couldn't take it anymore and locked herself in her house slowly going crazy as she waits for Reimu to find her.

>>44675887
Kogasa has barricaded herself in Bnankis house!

>>44675887
Lol, she would do that, it'd be funny if the next time she's mentioned she's either schizoing out or bursts out into happy crying as she realizes Anon is still alive.

>>44675887
>her house
I thought she was homeless

>>44676595
She lives in an umbrella bucket

>Kogasa visits the village to look for anon
>Villagers say that he disappeard days ago

>>44675887
Months after the lunar experiments are resolved Reimu bumps into a deranged Kogasa
"So you've finally caught up to me miss Reimu"
"Uh-"
"Tch... i culdn't hide from you forever after all"
"I was just here to buy some bre-"
"YEAH THAT'S RIGHT! IT WAS ME! I MADE THAT HUMAN FALL DOWN THE HOLE!"
"Wait do you mean an-"
"Of course i don't expect you to care if it was an accident or not, i know what you're like"
"Listen-"
"WELL I'M DONE RUNNING! GO AHEAD AND KILL ME!"
"I'm not going-"
"DO IT! DO IT ALREADY! STOP TAUNTING ME!

>>44676795
Anon walks out of the shop behind Reimu
Kogasa flips the fuck out thinking he's haunting her

>>44676749
Poor Kogasa...

>>44673819
This is a small board i am sure this writefag has read that one Reimu story and all tje negative receptions the harem ending got so i am sure he would not do that unless he is a mastermind who planning to piss off everybody invested in the story.

>>44677134
If he does in fact pull the ultimate fast one on /jp/ and do that I will be very impressed with the dedication to his craft and to trolling the increasing number of regular readers.
>>44673819
Nah, that guy was relatively mellow, it was the guy who kept responding to him that was sperging out and getting weirdly heated over a discussion of possible "routes" to writeanon's saga.

>>44677134
yeah the 'mu abuse story ending sucked

>>44674983
Ah, right. That makes more sense.

>>44677231
There's multiple reimu abuse stories and I've managed to lose all of them before finishing them .

>>44677231
https://archiveofourown.org/works/43718466/chapters/109935363
this one was originally posted on /jp/ a while back

>>44667354
I felt it a little in the Eientei chapter.

>>44678688
whoops, i was meant to reply to >>44678559

>>44679062
writefriend was just humoring us a little bit. I kinda enjoy it so I hope he keeps doing it (´ー`)

>>44677231
I liked it, but then again I like harem and happy ends. It was well lead up too.

>>44677221
That entire discussion was hilarious, that anti-harem guy sperged out way too hard at the mention of strongsperm

they were both spergs and I'd rather not have a repeat of their argument

>>44679649
You clearly did not recognize that the strongsperm poster was trolling him hard

>>44679592
>>44679649
To be fair, it was a retarded response to a retarded comment that should have never happened. Can you really maintain reasonable discourse with someone who accuses you of having "weaksperm" over a fucking Touhou fanfic on /jp/ of all places? Still, pretty hilarious to read.

>>44679861
>Can you really maintain reasonable discourse with someone who accuses you of having "weaksperm" over a fucking Touhou fanfic on /jp/ of all places?
The fact that there is anyone who would genuinely answer "no" to this says a lot about society.

>>44680094
>>44679861
>>44679649
>>44679592
Haremspergout II; who was the bigger sperg edition
FIGHTSTART!

Not to try and bloat this thing with even more characters, but Keine should really stop ignoring her girlfriend partaking in abusing a human villager.

>>44679592
You're the strongsperm guy aren't you? Not funny.

>>44680365
Welcome back, weaksperm Anon. I hope you've enjoyed writeanon's slow buildup to the Marisa/Tenshi Harem route.

>>44680365
No, thats me. However, its clear you are the WEAKSPERM anon, did you get your balls treated yet?

>>44680456
Lmao no he isn't

Look, I shouldn't need to say this, but would you please keep things minimally relevant to the fic? These kind of posts stick out like a sore thumb among all the others.

>>44680538
I so fucking called it though. >>44680304

>>44680538
Such is life when a lolcow presents itself, everyone wants to make him react

>>44675887
>>44676100
Sometime after it all Kogasa has been wracked with guilt. She barely ventured out of the formerly abandoned dwelling she made into her home/blacksmithing workshop anymore. Her friends were worried and didn't understand her woes; Kagerou and Sekibanki didn't understand the big deal if she killed a human by accident.

Wakasagihime understood her sadness, but Kogasa couldn't get out that much anymore to be consoled. It wasn't just because she feared the red and white coming for vengeance, it wasn't because of guilt driving her to become more isolated, nor was it because of the fear of those humans she has always wanted to be useful too rejecting her again.

It was because of one simple reason, the man she had killed has come back to haunt her as a vengeful spirit! Almost every day it seemed, while she was at market or simply hopping around trying to be of help to others she'd see him. A specter dressed as any other, not even arousing the smallest bit of suspicion from the magic-blind humans.

The first time she saw him was after she took a small job helping an old lady get her delivery from the market. She almost dropped the produce and other commodities as he sat there on a small bench. It was like a snapshot from another lifetime ago.

The specter didn't even appear to notice Kogasa, it simply stared off into the distance. It was unmoving, his hands holding his head as his elbows rested on his knees. He didn't move an inch as she stared transfixed. That was until he turned his head towards Kogasa!

Kogasa's legs went cold as it seemed his malevolent gaze swept her up into a clammy and claustrophobic head space. His eyes squinted slightly as if he found a victim to torment. Then it stood up! No one else seemed to pay him any mind as he walked towards her, as he seemed to gather air into his lungs to cast a curse on her she sprinted off with the groceries in hand and tears in her eyes.

>>44680644
>sperg in other posts
>lolcow
Fuck off.

>>44680851
This post is too green, crossie-kun

>>44680869
You're either too stupid to know how to blend in or don't care to. Either way you should fuck off back to /v/ or wherever else you came from. Don't bother replying anymore.

I warned you guys this would happen. why couldn't you just drop it?

>>44680770
Poor Kogasa. She didn't even kill Anon but his vengeful spirit still harasses her.

>>44680893
Okay, Retard-chan

>>44680959
Wrong honourific anon.

>>44680965

I was thinking about Eirin Yagokoro as Reimu, Reisen, Miss Tenshi and I walked back through the forest. Marisa had told us that she would join us at the Shrine later, since she wanted to sort out her house. Miss Tenshi had spent the first few minutes of the walk ranting about Marisa's untidiness and general lack of care toward her home, and Reimu had been pre-occupied with purposely stepping on the back of Reisen's shoes as she walked, leaving me alone to think about the Doctor of Eientei.

I'd spent most of my time being terrified of her. She'd stolen my blood, performed experiments on me that I still didn't know the extent of, may very well have kidnapped me, and was generally very scary. Even my interactions with her before all of this had started couldn't be called much more than unnerving. But at the same time, I'd listened to Marisa's story, and I was struggling to reconcile the Doctor Yagokoro that she had described with the one who I had known. She sounded desperate in Marisa's recollections, like she needed to accomplish her antidote to the Hourai Elixir. I couldn't understand why. It sounded like Fujiwara no Mokou was involved with whatever the samples were, and I wondered just what they were using to test. Was Doctor Yagokoro evil? An amoral sociopath who used whoever she could to get the results she wanted? Or was she someone who was so desperate for the result that she was simply willing to go that far?

And which would better justify her treatment of me? Was there any sort of answer she could give that would make it possible to understand why she had done what she had to me? At the end of the day, what exactly did I want to happen?

"Please stop kicking my shoes." Reisen was saying to Reimu, stumbling slightly.

"I'm not." Reimu said innocently, doing it again as she spoke. "And even if I was, you deserve it for working for Eirin and helping with her experiments, so I'm not taking your opinions into consideration."

"It is not as simple as you think." Reisen muttered, sounding slightly wistful. I didn't know what her motives were. She had betrayed her master by coming to Reimu and Marisa for help, but she clearly didn't want to be around any of us. "I'll fall if you continue."

"And?" Reimu asked, kicking at Reisen's feet again.

Miss Tenshi had finished her rant at some point, and she was now looking toward me with a curious expression. "How do you feel?" She asked me, quietly. I shrugged, saying that I would just have to get on with it. "You're holding together fairly well for being in front of someone involved in your traumatic memories." I was silent for a moment, because it was true that regardless of her intentions now and despite the fact that she had alerted Reimu then, she had still participated. I felt Miss Tenshi take my hand, and I smiled weakly at her. "Take a deep breath. It's fine." I breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly, and I felt slightly better. "I know you're probably struggling to think about all of this properly right now, but don't worry. You've got time." She squeezed my hand before letting go, and I nodded.

After some time, we'd finally managed to exit the forest and join the road to the Shrine. "Are you planning to go back to the village when all of this is over?" Miss Tenshi asked me. I paused. I hadn't really considered it. I'd been so focused on everything else that I hadn't really given much thought to what I was going to do with myself. I'd been living each day like I was in limbo, and I suppose now that I'd gotten my memories back, I had been in limbo. It was hard to say what my mindset had been back then, because now all I could remember was the missing pieces.

Could I go back to that house? The one that a blood-sucking youkai was living in? The one that was full of puzzle pieces that I'd never been able to fit together because I didn't even know what the puzzle was? I didn't know, and I doubted I would know until I tried. But where else would I go? What would I do with my life? Could I live at the Shrine? Stay with Lady Kasen? Abandon the village and try again with Yamame? "Well, keep thinking. Like I said, you've got time." Miss Tenshi patted me on the shoulder as we wandered down the road toward the Shrine.

I watched Reimu kick at Reisen's feet again, and I felt a sudden distaste for it. Something about doing whatever you wanted to someone who couldn't stop you. Sighing, I told Reimu to cut it out, and she frowned at me. "You're not my boss." She muttered, though she did only make one or two more half-hearted attempts after that, at which point she stopped entirely.

Yamame was on my mind. I hadn't seen the spider since my breakdown in her bedroom, and despite my misgivings, I missed her. I just hoped that she was doing a better job of improving than I was. It felt stupid, that I was still getting panicky over seeing youkai and being in dark places. It was never something I'd had a problem with before, and I wanted to go back to the way I once was. She'd been good to me, and I felt like I hadn't returned the favour in any amount.

We started to climb the steps to the Shrine. "You could stay at the Hermit's place." Miss Tenshi said to me. I nodded, because it had crossed my mind, though I hadn't really come to a conclusion. Lady Kasen was nice enough, and I enjoyed listening to her tell me about all of Reimu's escapades, but at the same time, she seemed dead-set on forcing something between Reimu and I, and I wasn't sure I could take it forever. Besides, the dojo didn't feel like home to me. It felt like a temporary place that I'd stayed at while in hiding.

What did I want?

At the top of the Shrine, Aunn - the one who wasn't talkative - greeted us with her arms crossed and the barest nod. Reimu ruffled her hair as she passed, and I thought that I saw the barest hint of a smile cross the komainu's face, though it faded quickly. Reimu pushed Reisen across to the veranda then sat her down on the edge. The sun had dried off everything by this point, and I did feel my mood improve slightly from being back at the Shrine. For a moment, I considered making tea, but then I remembered that Reimu was better suited to that job. I called out to her, and she left Reisen, who's hands were still tied, on the veranda and came inside. "Are you going to be okay with this?" She asked me as she began to prepare the tea. "Her being here, I mean." I slowly nodded and said that I needed to get used to being around youkai again if I was going to be capable of much at all. "...Okay, but if it gets too much, just...come to me. I told you that the Shrine was a safe place, and I meant it." I smiled and pulled Reimu into a hug. It was nice to have someone I could rely on.

After the tea was done, we all returned to the veranda. Reisen wasn't going to be going anywhere, so Miss Tenshi took her customary position, leaning against the wall, while Reimu sat next to Reisen. I stood on the ground in front of the veranda. Reimu had prepared three cups. Reisen was clearly not getting any concessions for comfort. "Right, I have a couple more questions." Reimu told Reisen. "Why'd you wait so long?"

"For what, Hakurei? To defy my Master's orders? How quickly would you betray someone to whom you owed your life?" Reisen's voice had gained an edge to it and a stronger level of emotion. "It was not as simple as just leaving."

"Okay, calm down." Reimu didn't sound particularly interested in making Reisen calm, so in a spur of the moment action, I offered her my tea without thinking. Both Reimu and Reisen, as well as Miss Tenshi, looked at me oddly, but after a moment, Reisen reached out her bound hands and accepted the cup. I had no clue what had made me do that.

"Er, thank you." Reisen said, sounding slightly bemused. I felt the same way. I'd just been thinking about how Reisen had been involved in my traumatic experiences on the way here. Reisen slowly took a sip and I watched her ears lose some of their stiffness. "As I said, I owe my Master my life. Do not take what I am doing to mean that I am putting the life of a human over hers."

"Your master came up with this whole scheme." Miss Tenshi said quietly. "Why should she be worth trying to save?"

"I...believe that she has been emotionally compromised." Reisen looked down at the steam wafting from the cup. "She isn't sleeping. I don't recall the last time I saw her sleep."

Miss Tenshi uncrossed her arms and pushed off the wall, coming to stand next to me. "What's the deal with Fujiwara no Mokou?"

Reisen looked even harder at the tea in her cup. "I don't know. She..."

"Well? What's all this about samples?" Reimu asked, leaning in.

"The samples are - it's to test the Elixir against, to see if they'll properly die." Now, even Reisen was looking a little squeamish, and I dreaded to think what would be coming next.

"Yes, but what does Mokou have to do with the samples?" Miss Tenshi was starting to sound slightly annoyed. "Stop dancing around the subject and-"

"It's her." Reisen cut the ex-celestial off. "The samples are her."

"...What?" Reimu faintly asked. I felt slightly faint too, because my mind had jumped to what I could only assume to be the worst possible explanation.

"There's, er, a special solution. Usually, my Master is the one who handles it. She injects Mokou, and it kills her immediately. When she returns, it's with bags of...Mokou." It was the worst explanation, and a wave of revulsion ran through me.

Reimu looked ill, and I felt the same way. "She's...chopping up a person...for testing...?" I stumbled over and sat next to Reimu, trying to hold onto my breakfast. "A-And...Mokou's letting her?"

Reisen looked slightly unsettled, too, and Miss Tenshi had turned away. "I think she knows. She knows that Eirin's killing her with the injection, and she must know that her body’s changed when she comes back to life. But I don’t know why she’s doing it like this. She’s never shown any indication that she wants to cure the Hourai Elixir before.”

"Why?" Miss Tenshi asked, looking murderous. "Why is it so important that she needs to chop someone up?"

"I...I don't know." Reisen finally said. "She used to tell me more. The most she told me is that she wanted to create the antiserum for the Hourai Elixir." Because she wanted to do the impossible. I had been there. "Um, yes. But I think she's not telling me the truth. She whispers to herself sometimes. About how she has to do this. About how she made a mistake. I don't know what she's thinking."

"Does anyone?" Miss Tenshi asked, though I don't think she expected anyone to answer. "I don't think I'm making it clear, but I am very displeased by this." She told Reisen, her voice sharp. "It goes against my sensibilities."

"Mine, too." Reimu said. "Even if she's immortal, this is a bit..."

"Well, I might have to interrupt this little tea party." I looked up sharply. There, squatting down on the edge of the Shrine's roof, was Shameimaru. "I hope you don't mind, but I've been listening in. It sounds like something very interesting is going on in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost."
"Great, more annoyances." Reimu muttered to herself. "Yes, Aya, what do you want?"

"Oh, just checking in on my favourite Shrine Maiden and her favourite human." Shameimaru dropped from the roof without a sound, and she spun on one of her long-toothed geta to get right up in my face. "How's my exclusive story coming along?" I mumbled something about it getting complicated. "Ah, but the best stories always are. Now, I've spoken to Marisa, and I've been doing some research while I wasn't out stopping boulders from landing in the Human Village's canal." I frowned and looked up. During the storm, I'd seen figures out in the distance by the village. Had that been the tengu? "Now, this is about recent history. At the beginning of spring, there was a fire in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost." I didn't remember that, and Reimu didn't seem to either, but Miss Tenshi looked up. "Not a major deal, and the last time it happened, it was definitely because of Fujiwara no Mokou's pyromaniac tendencies. But, when I went to try and interview her, I came across a curious scene." I was worried that I was about to hear another long story.

"Skip the story and tell us the details before I get annoyed." Reimu said, sounding incredibly annoyed already.

"Oh, you are just no fun, are you?" Shameimaru crossed her arms. "Fine. I caught the end of a conversation between Eirin Yagokoro and Fujiwara no Mokou. I didn't hear most of it, but Eirin was promising to work on an antidote to the Hourai Elixir at the end of it."

"So she's working on it for Mokou? I guess that makes the...other bit make more sense." Reimu muttered, looking interested in keeping Shameimaru from hearing the full details. I supposed I could understand why, since she might jump ahead and write an article about it before we could stop her. "Anything else?"

"I spotted Kaguya Houraisan in the village last night. She was with Mokou." Marisa's story had already alluded to this, so I let Aya fill Reimu in on the details. Wanting to keep my mind from spiralling into the darkness of Eientei, I thought about what Miss Tenshi had asked me earlier. About what I wanted to do. I think I wanted something relaxing. Something that I could do comfortably.

I got up and sat next to Miss Tenshi. Funnily enough, it had been how I had met her properly. Fishing, I told her. I think I'd like to fish. 

Tenshi date! Tenshi date!
She may not be a human, but at least she doesn't have an ovipositor.

>>44681630
Aya can't help the way she was born you know?

>>44681512
>Reimu had been pre-occupied with purposely stepping on the back of Reisen's shoes as she walked,
I love the grump
>>44681523
>Fishing, I told her. I think I'd like to fish.
FISHING END IS REAL
ANON SHALL BECOME AN OBJECT OF DEATH TO ALL FISH
WAKASAGIHIME SHALL DESPAIR

>>44681881
>FISHING END IS REAL
Anon, you fool! You overlooked the very first words of this new entry in your zealous aquatic bloodlust!
>I was thinking about Eirin Yagokoro
Eventually Anon's slowly developing single-minded obsession will have him drawn back into the clutches of the eternal doctor, whose embrace will never falter with time, there to watch over him for all eternity.

>>44682168
So what you are saying anon... is that a
DARK
HORSE
EIRIN
ending is back on the table??
Eirinbros where are we at????

>>44682453
Mucho texto.

>>44682467
A scarily accurate depiction of that bearded moon hag.

>>44682467
Got a heh out of me.

>>44682467
Embarrassing "raid" consisting of a single teen posting a singular wojack in different threads.

>>44681630
A ten day fishing adventure.

Just you wait, it'll turn out Eirin accidentally introduced the Hourai Elixir to Anon's system during one of the treatments, and now she's scrambling to produce an anti-agent before the whole thing leaks.

>>44682453
Any minute now, she's going to resort to seduction to bring Anon back into her clutches.

This story isn't grimsokyo enough...

This story is too much grimsokyo in my oponion

>>44683708
The mental damage anon has suffered here is pretty grim if you ask me.

>>44683708
Ssshhh, don't you tell writefag-san this isn't really how the Hourai Elixir works!

>>44683817
He handwaved it the vaccine Eirin gave to Mokou.

>>44683817
I get the impression that he probably didn't really think about what exactly eirin would be doing when he started the story and now he's scrambling to come up with something that halfway justifies her behaviour because let's be honest, in canon the hourai elixir is unbeatable in any way and even eirin can't create a solution for it, and not only would eirin not do any of this, but no one at eientei would agree with her doing it

>>44683904
Why is it difficult for people to understand that not currently understood/achievable != never understandable/achievable? Assuming that Eirin isn't lying and she has absolutely no means of reversing the elixir, they may very well be other individuals and/or methods capable of reversing it that are beyond her understanding, or perhaps through new realizations/discoveries of her own flaws in the elixir may become evident.

Now that i think about it: Do spiders wrap their prey in silk before or after biting and poisoning then? What if she trapped him in silk just to later discover she cant bite him?

>>44683956
I think it depends on the spider, but usually yes.

>>44683956
orb weavers (which is what yamame is) typically stun the prey with a bite first, then wrap them up, but if the prey is venomous, they might wrap them up first
anons are not venomous (to my knowledge, please correct me if wrong) so she went for the bite first, wrap up second method

>>44683974
I don't remember the last time I brushed my teeth so a single bite might be immediately fatal

>>44681881
Tenshi fishes!
Please bond with her over shared aquatic genocide!

>>44683974
>orb weavers (which is what yamame is)
More precisely, the Argiope spider is documented to first bite then silk the prey. If the prey is too big or too mobile, they may also shake the web first to further entrap it before going in for the bite.

In other words, if you want to see Yamame bounce, you must thrash around, either in her web or her bed.

>>44683988
Anon is a komodo dragon!

>>44683904
It's not really that certain

>>44683729
I think Anon should suffer more mental damage! He's too indecisive and Aya needs her scoop, so she should exploit his interest in Sekibanki, and blackmail her to pretend to be a decapitated corpse to show Anon she means business!

What happened to anon getting kidnapped by Aya and fed to the wolves?

>>44684617
that was just aya being a bitch and threatening him for fun
she also threatened to give him to megumu but thought that since he's got peach invulnerability, megumu would get bored too quickly because she's probably the kind of person who wants to beat him for fun

>>44684653
Megumu would never, she was just trying to scare him. If anon were to tell Megumu what Aya said about her Aya would be in a world of trouble!

>>44684617
I bet anon and the White Wolf Tengu would get along just swimmingly.
Aya so rarely spares them any young males.

>>44684617
Lots of rape, its about spring isn't it? There's a a good chance they're in heat

>>44684018
Isn't that the spider that shoots webs out of it's mouth?

>>44686386
No. They do, however, eat their webs when they relocate/rebuild.

>>44683708
It's not a grimsokyo story, but it can still be a lewdsokyo one or at least have a spin-off after the main arc is resolved. The Eientei human experiments incident is resolved and anon finally has his chance to go and see Yamame how he's made his mind up and made his choice. But on his way to the underground he's stopped by Aya who reminds him about his earlier pledge to tell her the full story and give her exclusive rights to it. But for the regular nuisance Shameimaru has been anon decides he shouldn't just give her his story for nothing, it's time to make the tengu reporter work for her story.

'So you know... I haven't... err... been 'with' a youkai before, yeah in... that way', 'I know spider youkai and tengu are different and probably have different preferences, but I really don't want to disappoint Yamame after all she's done for me. I want our first time to be well... special? So I was thinking perhaps you could show me how to... you know.. 'satisfy' a youkai properly? 'I know tengu are very ancient as a species of youkai and very social, so you know... surely you have some 'experience' and could help show me a few things? I promise I'll give you the whole story right afterwards, every last detail, just please help me with that one last thing before I see Yamame, please?'

Shameimaru stared forward with the emptiest and most resigned of expressions. 'You know certain relations with tengu and humans are really forbidden in tengu society so this never happens, no offence but humans are just too below even wolf tengu. If anyone were ever to know about this it would be a scandal of the highest magnitude'. Shameimaru grabbed anon from underneath the shoulder and pulled him away, a few minutes walk from the path the found themselves in thicker brush but a small clearing. Scanning the area with her unhuman, deep, red eyes before anon could take a moment to let events catch up with him the tengu gracefully and in an instant swung around him, straddling him with both legs and pulling him down in front of a tree trunk, both of her hands working his shoulders into a deep slump at the base. .

'This story better be good anon, I'll feed you to the wolf tengu if there aren't some of the juiciest and most scandalous stories in your experience of the Eientei human experiment incident.' Shameimaru couldn't bare to make eye contact with anon as she began to unbutton her shirt..

>>44687634
We lewding the story already?
There's a couple really good points at which we can, and not so good points.
I might write one out later if I have the time

>>44687634
come on anon, we both know that aya would be the rapist

>>44687694
I'm not saying anyone should listen to my nonsense, but I've certainly fancied the idea of Reimu using her shared bath time with Anon to get a little more acquainted with the male body before they call it all off. ("It's an experience. Can't have enough of those, right? Might come in, haha, handy one day.")

I'm also not saying I'd not illustrate such a scenario if it happened.

>>44687694
I mean Yamame and Anon have gotten pretty steamy with each other already

>>44687634
And then she gets morning sickness

>>44687634
I don't think Aya has shown the slightest sexual or romantic interest in anon

>>44689529
Thats what makes extorting her for one of the most scandalous stories of the century so worth it.

>>44689529
when has porn needed to make sense?
my contender for lewd scene for this story is aunn deciding that anon just doesn't know what he's doing and that's why he hasn't made a move on reimu, so both of her bodies double team him until he gets the idea

No thanks on the (((Tengu))) propaganda about being unfaithful.
I'll take writeanons smut of Anon and Yamame lusting for each other instead.

>>44689579
>propaganda
it's actually the secret R-18 doujinshi that the tengu produce.
Meiling buys it under the table when she buys her actual tengu manga and hides it behind a loose brick in the gate of the SDM.

>>44689448
ayayayaya is unhappy enough as it is fucking a human
if she got pregnant by one, she'd go ballistic

>>44687634
>>44689571
>>44689720
guys, stop giving me a boner in the middle of class (´﹃`)

>>44689772
Stop reading then dumbass

>>44689529
That's the point, this is a more devilish version of anon that pushes her to see just how far she'll go to degrade herself in the pursuit of a great story. She can barely conceal her disgust at the thought of doing this with a mere human.

>>44689598
She had to stop buying those

>>44689800
Imagine, she gets home feeling defiled and dirty, and the next day finds a fresh copy of Kakashi Spirit News on her doorstep, depicting her with tears in her eyes and gritted teeth as she rides anon's cock.

>>44689962
Worse is how she'll be stigmatized by Tengu socitety, with how strict their caste system is and how conservative their politics, with even the liberal Aya being rather conservative by Gensokyo standards, I don't imagine it ending well for her.

>>44690030
Nah, Megumu would never let it get past the crows because it'd damage her reputation too if one of her crows was caught engaging in that sort of behaviour
lots of private beatings for Aya and Hatate, though. Hatate for publishing it, and Aya for doing it.
Megumu would privately masturbate like mad to the idea of it though

"Master!" I looked up from my piles of money to see every girl I knew running toward me, all dressed in the skimpiest swimwear possible. "There was an explosion in Nitori's chocolate factory and there's liquid chocolate everywhere! You need to save the day by licking it all off of our bodies!" I smiled and stood, flexing my massive muscles as my harem of extremely horny girls surrounded me and-

"What the hell? Did you eat something funny?" Doremy Sweet, dressed normally, walked across my vision, somehow appearing in front of everything else, which I noticed was frozen in place. "Why are you dreaming about this? No, never mind. I don't care. It doesn't even taste good." I frowned and asked what it tasted like. "I can't put it in your terms. Let's just say it tastes like over-indulgence and leave it at that. The best dreams are the ones that balance realism with the fantastical. Like mountain climbing on a gorgeous mountain that could never exist in reality. That's like a perfectly balanced and healthy meal. Like - No, why am I telling you this? You know what? Just wake up. We can talk when you aren't having awful dreams." Doremy's hand swung out at my face and-

I recoiled, which only made me roll myself off of the veranda and crash into the - thankfully dry - ground beneath me. Oh, now I remembered. I'd dozed off while sitting on the veranda and taking in the sun after Reimu had poured me some more tea, since I had given my cup to Reisen. I felt a shiver run through me as I remembered the dream I had been having. I'd spent pretty much all of my time lately in the company of girls.

I needed some alone time.

I decided that I would go for a walk, and since it was unlikely that there was anyone left at Eientei to look for me, I simply poked my head into Reimu's room, where she was having a discussion with Shameimaru and Reisen, and told her that I was stepping out for a bit. They had started talking about possible motives for Doctor Yagokoro's actions, but since I didn't know any of the people involved, I had little to contribute. I wondered what their plan was to deal with Eientei, and I couldn't help but imagine it probably started and ended with smashing down the front door and doing whatever came to mind from there. Miss Tenshi had told me that she was going to run some errands, though she wouldn't tell me what they were. I wondered if she had headed back to Marisa's house. From the way she had acted, it seemed as if the uncleanliness had been almost a personal affront to her, and she would stop at nothing to fix it.

Or, she could be somewhere else. I didn't really know. Reimu, meanwhile, had nodded and stepped over to stand in front of me. "Is it too much?" She whispered, though I imagined that both of the youkai at the table could hear her. I shook my head. I just needed some fresh air and some time to myself. "Yeah, I get it. We have been stuck together for a while." I went to leave, but Reimu caught my arm. "Be careful. Just because it sounds like Eientei's all but empty doesn't mean you can just let your guard down." I nodded, telling Reimu that I'd stay somewhere safe. "Make sure you're back here or at Kasen's dojo by night. And don't forget to eat something." I tried to tell Reimu that I would be fine, since I'd gone without eating for longer, but she cut me off. "Oh, your hair is a mess. Here, just-" She used both hands and ruffled my hair despite my displeasure. After a second, I managed to knock her arms away. "That's not much better. Ugh. Okay, just be careful."

Feeling like Reimu had taken some pleasure in treating me like her younger brother in front of two youkai, one of whom could and probably would write an article about it, I managed to leave the Shrine with my face burning. I saw Aunn as I left, and she gave me a cold stare. I wondered if I'd upset her somehow, but I supposed that I wouldn't know until the talkative Aunn came back from wherever she had been during the storm. I began to descend the steps from the Shrine somewhat rapidly as I wondered where I should go. The idea of going to the village while I knew that there was a youkai living in my house made me nervous. I didn't think I could handle going in the caves, either.

It made me feel a little deflated. Satori Komeiji had put me in this state by uncovering memories that I didn't even know I had blocked. I wondered what had happened to her. The last I had heard of her was that she had left to pursue that case that she had come to the surface for while Reimu was recovering from her illness. I'd met Okuu after that, so I assumed that she was okay, but no one had mentioned her. Thinking about Satori led my thoughts back through to how I had met her, when Lady Patchouli had told me to seek her out, and I wondered how the reclusive magician was doing. I doubted I would see her, and I imagined that going into that mansion would trigger some of the same symptoms as the caves did, but I found myself desiring the lake that the mansion sat in front of. With the sun shining down brightly, I imagined that it would make for clear waters and, I hoped, some peace.

Once I reached the fork that led to the village and the mountain, I was able to find my way back toward the Vampire's mansion with ease, and before the sun had even reached its zenith in the sky, I could see the light reflecting off of the lake. I didn't really know where I wanted to go. Typically, villagers only came out this far when we needed to, like if there was danger of flooding, or if they were hosting an outdoor party. I'd once spoken to a man at the pub who swore that he'd seen the silhouette of the younger sister of the Scarlet Devil at a party there once, but I think he was just making it up, because he kept going on about strange radiant light with all the colours of the rainbow and seeing the crystals that hung from her wings, and it all sounded very unrealistic to me.

I settled for just wandering around the lake until I found somewhere to sit, but once I'd been walking for a while, I started to wonder if I'd underestimated the size of the lake. It just seemed to keep going. Finally, I found some rocks the colour of rice, with a big flat one that the water lapped at, creating a gentle sound. I decided to sit with my legs crossed on this rock, and once I'd gotten settled in, I felt quite at peace as I stared out across the surface of the lake. I almost couldn't see the other side from where I sat, though I could see vague movements out in the distance that I thought might have been fairies playing on the surface of the lake.

I looked down at the surface of the water and saw fish swimming near the surface, which I was surprised to see since I would have thought they would be further out. I thought about my recent desire to start fishing. I'd heard that old man Unshou in the village was an avid fisher, and I knew that Miss Tenshi dabbled in it, too. I didn't even know where to start. I closed my eyes and looked up at the sky.

"Say, Mr. Human? You're, um, sitting on my table." I had been leaning back slightly to catch the sun across my face a little better, and the voice made me jump, which threw my balance further back and sent me sprawling backwards onto the grass behind the rock. I waited a moment for the world to stop spinning and my balance to sort itself out, and then I scrambled to my feet, wondering just what I'd gotten myself into this time. Reimu was going to kill me.

Pulling herself up with water streaming from her hair and fin-like ear appendages, was a woman. She had blue hair that curled gently and framed her face well. She wore a strange kimono, with the top being a deep, verdant green, and each successive part fading in colour until the bottom was teal. Most interestingly, and this part had my jaw drop, she did not have lags. Below that final part of the kimono stretched a long, iridescent tail, which ended in two equally long and trailing fins. She leaned on the rock that I had been sitting on, her kimono's sleeves pulled up to her elbows revealing that her fingers were long and slender. I tried, but my gaze did flicker for a split second to the rather impressive size of her...chest. Her tail stretched out behind her, and I put her relative height at somewhere past the oni I had seen in Former Hell. "Oh, my. Are you okay? I didn't mean to startle you."

She was speaking to me, and I shook my head, stammering out that I was fine, just surprised. I asked her if she was a mermaid. "I am, yes. Wakasagihime is my name. May I ask for your name?" I told it to her, very slowly relaxing from my defensive pose. I asked her if she wanted to hurt me. "Hurt - Oh, not at all. No, I was just curious about who was wandering around the lake. I've never seen you before, Mr. Human." Despite telling her my name, she seemed more intent on referring to me as a human. "Are you okay? You look very worried. I'm not harmful to humans, I promise!" I was still keeping a healthy distance, though I managed to stand up straight and cross my arms in a more neutral pose. Slowly, I told her that I was just a bit cautious of youkai these days. "These days, Mr. Human? I was under the impression that the villagers feared youkai. I haven't been through the canals lately, but is that not the case?" She looked quite curious, and I had to admit that she was very polite. I told her that it was a long story, but I'd become far more cautious as a result. "I understand. I'm not a very strong youkai, so I get worried when the youkai in that mansion get up to some mischief, too. In fact, I'm part of a group for weak, more docile youkai like us. We call it the Grassroots Youkai Network." I'd never heard of such a thing, but then again, I'd never interacted with that many youkai before I'd met Marisa. "I wouldn't expect you to know any of us. I know that we've just met, but I rarely get to talk to humans, so I'd like to hear more about you."

I was very slowly beginning to warm to this girl. She was nice, and if her words were to be believed, not very strong. I'd spent so long interacting with strong youkai and humans that I'd forgotten that plenty of them weren't much stronger than me. I asked her, somewhat nervously, what she liked to eat. "I don't much like humans, if that's what you're asking. In fact, I'm not much of a fan of meat in general. Tofu is nice, and one of my friends sometimes brings steamed vegetables from the village which are particularly delicious." I relaxed slightly more, since I'd been worried that despite her words, she might just grab me, drag me into the depths of the lake and sink her teeth into me. "What about you, Mr. Human?" I liked some meat, I confessed. Beef was a particular favourite of mine, but it was a rarity in the village, so I didn't get to eat it often. I also enjoyed steamed vegetables, especially from Geidontei, and fried tofu, which had once made the redheaded waitress at the café next to my house ask me if I was a fox in disguise. I thought it was quite a good joke. "Oh, I never get to try fried tofu! By the time my friend brings it here, it's gotten soggy and rather unappetizing. Such a shame, too..." I managed to relax my arms from their crossed position, since I was beginning to get into the conversation. I asked Wakasagihime what else she liked to do. "Stones!" She smiled widely and broke into a giggle that sounded like musical notes to my ears when she saw my blank face. "I collect them, you see. There's plenty that fall deep into the lake, and they sometimes create the most interesting patterns of light." She reached into a pocket of her kimono and withdraw a strange, green stone. It was slightly translucent, and when she held it up to the light, I could see the sun shining through it and produce a beautiful pattern across the white rock that Wakasagihime had called her table. Soon, she had pulled out more rocks and placed them on the table, and I managed to find myself caught up in looking at the patterns they created. I wondered what other kinds of rocks could be found around the mountains, somewhere that Wakasagihime likely couldn't reach.

I hadn't thought about it, but I suddenly remembered the 'hime' part of her name, and I asked her if I should be calling her Princess. She giggled again, and I was surprised by just how musical it sounded. "You could, if you wanted. I'm not an actual princess, though." I wondered if she was a singer. She had the voice for it, certainly. "But I fear that I've spoken too much about myself. What are your interests?" I mumbled something about how I hadn't found much time for interests between all the other things I had going on, but I'd just started to think about fishing.

It left my mouth just milliseconds before my brain caught up, and I trailed off awkwardly, worried that I'd offended the princess. Surely telling a mermaid that you wanted to fish was a bad thing? She looked at me intently for a second, then shook her head. "Please, don't get nervous. Humans need to survive, too, and fishing is one way for them to do so. I confess that I wouldn't much enjoy watching a human eat a fish in front of me, but I won't hold a grudge for your interest. In fact, I might even be able to help you learn to fish well. There are some fish that are very overpopulated in this lake, after all. I can't bring myself to try and thin their numbers." I confessed that I didn't have any equipment yet, but I hoped to try my hand at it in the future.

The sun had dipped slightly in the sky, which could only have meant that it was edging toward late afternoon. the princess looked at me. "I'm afraid that I might have to leave you for today, Mr. Human. My friends will be meeting me tonight, and I've only so much time to get ready." I nodded and told her that I'd enjoyed speaking to her. "As have I. I should like to hear more about you in the future, I think. If you're planning to learn to fish, perhaps you could come by here from time to time." I nodded again and told her that I would do my best. "Well, until next time, Mr. Human." Wakasagihime waved, and with a splash, disappeared back into the water. I realised quickly that she had left one of her stones behind, the pretty green one that she had brought out first, and I picked it up and held it against the sun. Resolving to keep it safe for the next time I saw her, I slipped it into a pocket and secured it as best as I could.

"I thought I'd find you around here." I heard another voice, this time coming from above me, and I looked up to see Miss Tenshi dropping to the ground from above me. "Reimu said that you'd gone for some alone time." I frowned as I realised that I hadn't been very alone, in fact. I asked Miss Tenshi how she had known that I would be somewhere around here. "Well, I knew you wouldn't be near the caves, and I imagined that the forests would be out due to your...conditions. Somewhere safe and open seemed the most likely." I felt a little happy that she had figured me out so well. "Celestials are always amazing. Why would this be an exception?" I shrugged, knowing that as amazing as Miss Tenshi was, it likely had nothing to do with her being a celestial, even an exiled one.

I sat down on a different rock to the one Wakasagihime had used, and Miss Tenshi sat next to me. I looked up at the blue sky, thinking. I was thinking about a lot of things. Yamame. Reimu. My relationships or lack thereof. And there was a question that was coming to my mind. Hesitantly, I asked Miss Tenshi if she had given me that peach what felt like a lifetime ago for any reasons other than the ones she had already stated. "What do you mean?" Miss Tenshi asked me, looking confused in a way that made me wonder if it was genuine. "I told you. You were kind to me, and I knew that bad things were happening to you, so I gave you the peach." I stared at the water lapping against the rocks. It was an awkward question, but I couldn't see a way around it. Trying not to leave either of us in pain for too long, I asked Miss Tenshi if she had...liked me. "...Hm." Miss Tenshi hummed. "I think I did, at the start." I nodded in relief. It helped me put things into focus far easier if I could understand better. "I was lonely, like I said. At the time, I thought you had bigger problems, but now, I wonder..." I asked her what she was trying to say. "Your...family was gone. I...Were you lonely, too?" I felt a little cold now, even though the sun was still beating down. I think I was. I couldn't remember my family enough to miss them at the time, but I hadn't had all that much in my life. Slowly, I nodded.

"It's hard." Miss Tenshi murmured. She'd said the same when I'd met her on the mountain. "But then I met you in the tunnels, and you weren't quite the same. You looked happier. Like you'd found something you cared about. I know that it was Yamame Kurodani now, but I'd just found out that Shion didn't hate me, so I was feeling like a new person too. And then, that mind-reader unlocked your memories, and..." I was happy when she trailed off, because it was still painful to think about. It made my chest feel tight, like I was struggling to breath and exhausted. Miss Tenshi pulled me into a hug. "I saw you with Reimu afterwards, when you were both sick and practically clinging to each other for support at your most vulnerable, and it made me wonder if what I was feeling was romantic, or if it was just...misplaced emotions because I didn't have anything else." I asked her what she was trying to say. "I'm trying to say that - that I didn't want to try and be with you because I didn't have anything else. Suddenly, you seemed to have gained something. I didn't know what, because I could tell you were torn between two choices. I think...I think I just wanted someone to be close to. Someone who would confide in me and let me confide in them. Shion never really did that." I hugged her back, tighter. I hadn't realised that she was dealing with these sorts of feelings.

I asked her if she thought of me that way anymore. "...No. I think it's-" She shook her head. "I do like you, I suppose. But it's not in that way anymore." I was suddenly struck with thoughts of Reimu. I'd concluded that I considered her family, and I was starting to wonder if I thought that about Miss Tenshi too. "I don't want...I don't want you romantically, no, but I do want to see you. Talk to you." I think I was starting to get the picture better. Miss Tenshi was lonely, and since she'd been exiled from Heaven, it was likely that she'd been exiled from her family, too.

But, I'd found out over the storm that just because you'd lost one family didn't mean you couldn't find another. I told Miss Tenshi that I liked her too, just like I liked Reimu. Like family. "My family mostly ignored me." Miss Tenshi muttered. That was the point, I said. If your family isn't up to the task, you can find a new family. I hugged her tighter. I really did wonder, sometimes. Miss Tenshi had seemed very lost when I'd first met her, and I hadn't known what I'd lost myself. Was that why we had gotten on so well? Why she had felt like giving me that peach? "It's funny." Miss Tenshi said quietly. "I think I've gotten more hugs from you than I've gotten from my father. It's - It's nice."

And if a nice hug couldn't fix everything, it was at least a start.

It's Tenkover.

>>44690795
Wait, was Doremy one of those girls? Actually was Eirin one of those girls?

put this in the next chapter

>>44690825
Dad-zoned
Anon now has a Pseudo-incesitous relationship with a non-blood related sibling and a daughter-wife.
Now all he needs is a wife-wife and a hag-wife and the wife square is complete.

>>44688410
If it helps you fancy better, before I made the decision, the idea would have been for Reimu to start off a little pushy, but then discover that she has something of a kink for being restrained. Not like, shibari and all that, but pinning her down and holding her wrists against the ground so she can't move them, or putting your weight against her, or blocking her from moving, or anything of that nature. Not in a non-consensual way, but the idea gets her going.

Touhoufags gonna larp as a random Gensokyoan villager who somehow got lucky with the gals.

>though I could see vague movements out in the distance that I thought might have been fairies playing on the surface of the lake.

Damn, we nearly got a surprise Cirno appearance, but anon sat by the wrong part of the lake

>>44690933
>Actually was Eirin one of those girls?
Writefag's subtly telling us the Eirin ending will only be in our wildest dreams. Eirinbros I think it's finally over...

>>44691056
You are, perhaps, not a gentleman, but indubitably a scholar.

>>44691056
Reimu, the girl that has the ability to move completely unbounded, having a bondage/restraint fetish is patrician taste, truly we are gifted with write Anons of the highest quality.

This reminds me of a japanese tale of a man who got hungry so he decided to fish. With his net he ended up getting two fishes, but since he was a humble man he released one of them since one was enough for his hunger. Due to him releasing the other one a mermaid got interested in him and so she went at his house and offered him some soup. They ended up living together and her soup was very delicious but she kept the recipe a secret. One day the guy decided to secretly watch the girl making the soup for him and discovered that the secret was that she would piss at soup and since she was a mermaid that would make it taste good, when she realized he saw she ran away from him. Eventually he met her at lake again in her true form and ended up becoming friends.

No one would be able to hurt anon if he went to live with Wakasagihime at the bottom of the lake. Sure Reimu and co. would be puzzled about his disappearance but they'd live with it eventually!

>>44691665
Okay now you are trying to make Waka of all people grimdark

>>44691651
Now that i think about it there is a load of tales of men getting youkai wifes for being humble and kind. And a load of them losing them for not trusting them and trying to discover their secrets.

>>44691651
This sounds more like she's trying to justify her fetish

>>44691782
"Aah, mister Anon I'm so glad you're here. I have fallen out of the lake and i need help."
"No! There is no time to put me back in! I need you to pee on me or i will die!"
"W-what do you mean am i sure that's how that works?! You are asking too many questions! Hurry up and pee on me!"

>>44691850
Do NOT lewd the waggy!
This is treason of the higest order, cute lake lady needs to be protected and cherished.

>>44690795
This entire opening was hilarious

>>44690825
We've gone Reimunder...
It's so Tenkover...
And yet it's just webegun...

I've already long ago accepted that its all coming up Yamame, but it still hurts to that the keystone to Anon's heart is as far as heaven!

>>44690795
>>44690933
Doremy was mad because Anon imagined her with an F cup instead of a H cup.

>>44693545
Doremy was mad because she wasn't one of the girls covered in chocolate.

>>44696382
Doremy was mad because her new dream daddy dared not to feed her her favourite kind of dream. Typical youkai behaviour.

>>44693545
Even in this sitituation she can't get rid of the smug face

>>44654791
>but she isn't known to be inherently strong
She's pretty strong.

>>44690795
''The best dreams are the ones that balance realism with the fantastical. Like mountain climbing on a gorgeous mountain that could never exist in reality. That's like a perfectly balanced and healthy meal.''
I completely agree, Doremy. Despite your point being heavy handed. And unlike some of the uhh ''men'' who post here I do indulge in balanced and healthy meals, i just happen to have a voracious appetite!

I was joking about us wakasagihime-bros like a week or two ago, but by some miracle we've finally made our way into the story. God bless writefriend

>>44700554
one step closer to the Grassroots ending, bros
we're only missing Kagerou now, and anon will probably run into her soon anyway

>>44690817
>I confess that I wouldn't much enjoy watching a human eat a fish in front of me
Waggy-chan is so much more refined than Yukari "I eat humans, aren't I mysterious" Yakumo.

>>44700628
Waggy is a true hime, not a quasi old money pretender like a certian moonie bowing purple sage

>>44700628
Well is a fish, and there are lots of fish, which she probably eats.
It'd be like a human getting mad at someone for eating a cattle.

"That's when Yakumo collapsed the Shrine. Again." I laughed and Tenshi smiled. She was telling me about the incident she had once caused by collapsing the Hakurei Shrine and the various fallout that had occurred as a result. I finally felt like we had grown close enough for me to stop calling her Miss Tenshi, and it was oddly difficult to get used to the change in my head, since I was so used to referred to her as Miss Tenshi. The shadows stretching across the lake were starting to lengthen, and I knew that I would have to get going soon. Peach or no peach, it still wasn't particularly safe to be out at night.

My gambit to gain some alone time had fallen entirely apart. First I'd ended up talking to a mermaid, then Tenshi had shown up and we'd had our conversation. I did still want just a little proper peace and quiet. The sun was sinking slowly in the sky, and I suddenly had the thought that the Hakurei Shrine would be busy tonight. I didn't know if Reimu was planning to free Reisen or not, since she still had her wrists bound when I left. In fact, now that she had betrayed Doctor Yagokoro's orders, I wondered if she would be safe to go back to Eientei at all. She unnerved me, but I didn't truly want to see her hurt. To be honest, I wasn't sure I even wanted to see Doctor Yagokoro hurt. She seemed to have some sort of strange motive, and while I could likely never forgive her for what she had done to me, I could try to understand it. Maybe it would help me understand her better.

Either way, I didn't think I wanted to stay at the Shrine tonight, and Reimu had told me to either be in the Shrine or Lady Kasen's dojo, which I hadn't been to for quite a while. I hadn't seen Lady Kasen recently either, but if she wasn't there, at least I would be able to have some peace and quiet. I let Tenshi finish her story, then asked her what she would be doing tonight. "Oh, well, I was considering going back to clean Marisa's house some more. It's surprisingly fun." I laughed a little and told her that I had thought the same when I had cleaned Miss Iku's room back when I had met her. "I forgot about that! Well, I haven't seen it, but I imagine it's just as much of a mess again. That girl was never great at keeping things tidy." I hadn't seen Miss Iku since she had thrown me from her house, though I couldn't say I was overwhelmingly upset by it. It had been a very rude way to treat someone just because they didn't want to marry you. I told Tenshi that I'd like it if she apologised for throwing me from her house, but I didn't expect much. "Hmm..." Tenshi hummed as she rubbed at her chin. "Maybe. She's busy most of the time, though, and I can't exactly just go back to Heaven and ask my father to tell her to come and meet me when she next reports to him." I sighed and nodded, knowing that it had been mostly wishful thinking.

Tenshi and I got to our feet as the sky turned a brilliantly pale blue. She asked me if I needed a lift back to the Shrine, but I told her that it was fine since I would go to Lady Kasen's dojo, and she could get going to wherever she was heading. I would be better able to appreciate the walk, too. I'd spent a lot of time lying around while Reimu was ill, and it was in stark contrast to the training that Lady Kasen had been forcing me to do while I was at the dojo, so the exercise would be good for me. Tenshi nodded and took to the air, then told me that she would be back at the Shrine tomorrow, hopefully with Marisa in tow. I nodded, then waved as she shot off over the lake. I watched her go, wondering if I could learn to fly, then began walking. I could see the Vampire's mansion across the water, and I again wondered how Lady Patchouli was doing, but I couldn't bring myself to try and go over there. The idea of entering the mansion seemed to fill me with chills. Instead, I kept my head down and walked past it as fast as I could without overtly running, though when I did dare to look, I was certain I could see someone watching me from a window. That only made me more determined to leave, so I powered ahead and before I knew it, I was back on the path toward the village.

Eventually I reached the point where I turned and began heading up the mountain, and I did start to feel a little worried by how out of breath I was getting. It wasn't enough to make me stop just yet, but it was enough that I felt concerned by it. I would probably need to start training again.

Fortunately, Lady Kasen had beaten the route back to the dojo into me thoroughly enough that even though it had been some time, I still remembered how to get there, and the sun was only just beginning to dip into the mountains out of the valley when I found the correct path from about halfway up the mountain. With the shadows lengthening, I stumbled across the rough, uneven terrain that lay past the slightly more beaten path up the mountain - the path having seen significantly less use since the Moriya Shrine had unveiled their ropeway system. Soon, I recognized the area that I had sat and spoken to Tenshi and Shameimaru in, and I knew I was nearby, so I hoped that my muscle memory would be enough to carry me through the hidden path, since I doubted that I'd see Kanda, Lady Kasen's giant eagle, appear just in the nick of time to show me where to go.

It took me two attempts, but I managed to get the path right eventually, and I sighed in relief as I emerged from underneath the tree branches to see Lady Kasen's dojo. I'd been worried that she had changed the access route, because it was something that she had said she would do regularly, but I supposed that while she was attending to the Shrine and dealing with whoever those guests she had been talking about were, it had slipped her mind. I supposed that she was lucky Marisa hadn't tried to make an attempt at breaking in during that time, though I imagined that her locking skills would be superior enough to keep the thief out.

It had started getting a little cold, and it reminded me that Yamame had said she would make me winter clothes before I'd had my panic attack. I wondered if that deal was still on, and how I'd make up for the way our last meeting had ended. Lady Kasen's senkai was kept at the perfect temperature, so I could already feel the warmth suffusing in my body, and I wandered over to the edge of the peak that the dojo sat on to look down at the water that ran through the valleys inside. The sun couldn't reach down there unless it was noon, so I couldn't see too much, but I did see that Lady Kasen had left the boat moored at the bottom of the mountain.

I headed around to the dojo's entrance and smiled in relief when the door opened for me. My smile soon turned to a yelp when something big and striped barrelled into me and hurled me back to the floor, and I was only slightly relieved when I realised that it was Lady Kasen's tiger, Houso. He was licking my face, and I didn't have the strength to force the tiger back. Happily, he didn't seem interested in trying to take a bite of my face, so I tried - between licks - asking him to give me some space. I was fairly surprised when he actually did, and as I staggered back to my feet and brushed tiger hair from my clothes, I awkwardly thanked him and scratched him behind the ears, which elicited a purr, something I didn't have much experience hearing from a tiger. I could see some of Lady Kasen's other pets down the hallway, and I wondered what they had been doing all day, since it didn't seem like Lady Kasen was around. I tried asking, then realised that I was unlikely to get much of an answer. After a few moments, I stepped inside and closed the door, wondering just where Lady Kasen was, and what she had been up to.

First, I headed to the room that I had been using, where I was pleased to see that my belongings were all safe and secure. I'd been slightly concerned that one of Lady Kasen's pets - possibly Mukou - since the raijuu was prone to acting up when feeling neglected. Once I'd had a change of clothes - since no one was around, I decided to wear my last remaining t-shirt from Lady Hecatia - and felt refreshed, I decided to wander the dojo for a few minutes, just to see how everything was. I felt like a different me had been the one who was staying here given everything that had happened since I’d last been back.

I wandered through the halls and found myself in the kitchens, which I noticed were looking very bare. I didn't know how long it had been since Lady Kasen had restocked, though it was possible that the guests she had been entertaining were the ones who had eaten most of the food. I imagined that all the missing sweet foods were likely the fault of Lady Kasen herself, since it seemed to be her greatest weakness. There were still enough supplies for now, though, so I left it alone. Instead, I decided to keep walking. I was thinking about Eientei again. I didn't know what I wanted. I was still scared of Doctor Yagokoro, but I couldn't tell if I was scared of her, or what she had apparently turned into in recent times, because Reimu and Marisa had said, and then Reisen had reiterated, that she hadn't always acted in the way she was now. I still couldn't understand what had caused it. Was it something to do with the Hourai Elixir? I didn't know anything about it, and I wasn't sure I would understand anything, but I wondered if there was someone I could ask. For a moment, I thought of Miss Kamishirasawa, my old teacher from the temple school. She had always known the answer to every single question, to the point that I had wondered if she simply knew all of history like the back of her hand.

But that would be silly, so I put it out of my mind.

Somehow, in my wandering, I'd ended up in front of a door. After a moment, I reached out and grabbed the handle, pulling it open. I swallowed when I realised that I'd ended up in Lady Kasen's room, somewhere I had only briefly seen during my initial tour of the dojo. I didn't know why I was here, since I couldn't recall deciding to come here. In fact, I was just about to leave.

And then, I was in the room. There was a box, you see. A rectangular box, covered in what looked like Reimu's ofuda, though they looked worn and ancient, like they had been there for decades. I didn't have any reason to care about the box, but I found myself struggling to look away. It was like it was drawing me in, subverting my will and convincing me that it was a good idea to just pull those ofuda away and take the lid off. It was enough that I couldn't even hear myself think. Now I was standing right in front of the box, and I could almost hear it. Whispers, the voice of Lady Kasen, just telling me to open the box. That opening it would be the best decision I could make, and I would be becoming something greater than myself, so I should just do it.

Just do it, you human fool. Open the box and release me from my cage. Open it and summon me and return me to what I once was.

I could hear other whispers echoing in the far reaches of my mind, like voices on the wind.

The waves, the waves, the waves wash the old moss's beard. Looks like I'll have one more servant. I'm sure you'll make an excellent skeleton. It's been a while, o partner mine. Come to me, partner. Let us finally become one again!

The box was in my hand now and I could feel my will wavering. Something was in my head. My hand was hovering over the lid, and it was shaking wildly. I tried to breathe in, but the air wouldn't come and I was starting to wonder why I was still resisting. It...It wasn't my room. My possession. It belonged to...Lady Kasen. It was hers. But wasn't that her voice telling me to open it?

My arm descended. My hand grasped the lid. The ofuda easily gave way underneath my fingers, and I lifted the lid.

In an instant, darkness surrounded me. I felt a sense of vertigo, but after a moment, it subsided and I could see that I was still in Lady Kasen's room. The box was open, and I could see, impossibly, a dry, mummified arm inside. It was shaking slightly, like it was still alive despite the state of decomposition it was in. There was a swirling black mist around it, which had been the darkness I had seen, and I felt weak. It had gotten in my head, twisted my thoughts until I did what it wanted. I fell to the floor, trying to get my bearings again. I felt like I'd broken Lady Kasen's trust and done something incredibly stupid. The mist was starting to coalesce into a humanoid shape when I heard a crash and a bang behind me. "Oh, no you don't!" I heard a yell, and there was Lady Kasen, her bandaged arm stretching out and forcing the lid back on the box. "Quick, there's more of Reimu's ofuda in the drawer!" She yelled at me. "We need to reseal the arm, now!"

I threw myself toward Lady Kasen's desk, feeling like a strange humming was starting to sound, and more worryingly, the shape was starting to solidify. "Second drawer!" Lady Kasen yelled, and I pulled it open, dragging out as many of the ofuda inside as I could. "On the box, before she gets free! If she gets free, we're in for a whole world of trouble!" I fell to the floor in front of the box, hurriedly trying to paste as many of the ofuda as I could on it. I could feel the box shaking, like the arm inside was fighting to get out, and when I rolled onto my back, I could see that the shape of the mist was nearly solid. I threw the last ofuda on as the shape began to reach out a clawed hand for me, and at the last moment, I gasped.

The shape above me was reaching down toward me, and I could see the features beginning to emerge. Pink hair, horns, and eyes that contained malice and little more. The outfit was almost the same from the rose-patterned tabard to the broken chains running from her wrists and the giant chained ball coming off of her ankles, but in place of the accessories on her head, there were two fairly long horns. It was Lady Kasen without a doubt, but she was an oni. My heart was beating hard, and my blood ran cold. Why was something like this in Lady Kasen's dojo? Her right hand was reaching toward me, and I could see that she had extremely sharp nails that almost looked like claws. Just as I felt the claws graze me, the mist dissipated, and the box stopped shaking. The humming sound I had been hearing faded away, and all that was left was me, Lady Kasen and her bandaged hand, which was slowly winding itself back into the shape of an arm, the box and a room that looked like it had been blown through by the tengu. "Well," Lady Kasen panted, sinking to sit on the floor beside me with relief and exertion in equal parts on her face, "It's a good thing Reimu wasn't here to see that. She'd have a conniption!"

I wonder why Kasen is particularly wicked oni, and what the other oni think of it. Yuugi is a full blown oni but still seems reserved enough despite her brutishness.

>>44701181
Yuugi, Zanmu and Suika are balanced with their morality, Kasen probably was the same before her arm got chopped off, after so long of not having evil in her system and her arm not having good on it's system it's understandable that neither are very used to their opposite morality.

Aww, i was hoping for some armsen.

>>44701057
Anon almost got raped on the spot.

>>44701057
>contained malice and little more
Lust?

>>44701513
Poor arm-chan's been stuck in the same room as the youkai of sex, ibaraki kasen for years
That'd drive anyone horny

Anon leaves the dojo for maybe almost a week, and the first thing he does upon getting back is unseal arm-chan? And then Kasen seems not particularly bothered? lol

>>44701911
who will be bothered with this cute retard anon?

>>44701911
Kasen is bothered but she knows he'd lewd side tempted him way too much for any mortal man to endure. She'll still force him to go on a training spree though

>>44701911
I remember her telling anon to stay away from her room, she didn't specify the danger of what it may entail.

>>44701911
She'll probably give him some kind of lecture in the next chapter, then hear his side of the story. She probably knows her arm (ie. herself) better than anyone else, so I imagine she would expect it to try and manipulate him into breaking the seal if it caught him in the dojo alone.

>>44702511
She's probably going to be too busy coming up with a cover up for why she isn't an oni to lecture him.

Anon had a wet dream
Tried to find some peaceful place to be alone
Failed and took refuge in Kasens dojo
Arm-san clearly could feel his pent up sexual frustation and tried to give him a hand.
I just fear for anon now, what if Kasen figures out anon might become too horny and attempt another visit to Yamame?

>>44701043
>>44701057
The oni's abnormally slender finger traced a path along my jawline, trailing down my neck until halting ominously at my collarbone. An eerie smile spread across her face, flashing a terrifying array of sharp teeth as she lightly pressed the tip of her nail against my jugular notch. "Be proud, human. You'll certainly become one of my finest skeletons yet." As soon as she finished the sentence, she abruptly pushed me down to the cold floor beneath us, and began to ease off the fabric covering her shoulders with perverse anticipation in her eyes. "But for now... let's put that hardened flesh of yours to good use, shall we?"

>>44704050
arm-chan would not be this polite
makes sense for oni kasen, but regular kasen and arm-chan would need to fuse for that

>>44703342
>Anon had a wet dream
Thanks, I tried reading your post to the tune of Pumped-Up Kicks because of that line.

>>44704641
Thanks now I did too, it works lmao

>>44701043
>For a moment, I thought of Miss Kamishirasawa, my old teacher from the temple school. She had always known the answer to every single question, to the point that I had wondered if she simply knew all of history like the back of her hand.
>But that would be silly, so I put it out of my mind.
Anon...

>>44706592
"What kind of fool do you take me for?"
"The waitress is a youkai? Miss Yuuka is a youkai? You're a youkai?!""
"I'M A YOUKAI!"
"ARE THERE ANY OTHER YOUKAI I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?!"
"Oh hey anon long time no see"

I always thought Keine wasn't hiding her being a were-youkai

>>44707637
I don't think it would matter if she didn't, out dear anon has a skull dense enough to kill a hourai immortal.

>>44699807
Honestly I'm surprised writeanon decided to sperg out like that for the beginning of the new "chapter" as it were. Most of the debate was about harem endings in general, not a serious discussion about a harem ending in this story. Basically insulting a portion of his reader-base because he's got a hate-boner for harem endings with a sequence that had absolutely no further relevance really isn't the best look.

Guess he's just got weakestsperm.

>>44708520
What part about it was "sperging out"? I just saw it as a light-hearted joke.

>>44708520
You, out.
Not having this argument a third time, once was more than enough.

>>44708520
How's that a spergout? I read it as a topical joke.

>>44708587
>>44708593
Its an extremely unfunny "troll" that writes like a generic /v/tard. Ignore it.

>>44708520
Must be hard to interpret everything as a personal attack, it was a joke and a way for us to clearly see that anon is starting to get sexually frustrated having to spend every waking moment with these walking onaholes.
If you can't see this as the setup to him overcoming his fear of spiders with his raging erection you should leave.

>>44708520
I did roll my eyes at it, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it sperging out. Just an off-colour joke.

Anon had that dream because he's a red-blooded man with manly desires. Of course his heart only has room for a certain spider, but there's nothing wrong with dreaming.
Besides, I wish my dreams could be that awesome.

And now we have a samefag going on full damage control, like clockwork.

Ah shit, we're already at bump limit. Heads up that I won't be able to make another collage with writeanon's most recent work for another ~12h. If the thread doesn't sink before then I can bake the next one, otherwise someone else will have to do it.

>>44708793
A handier solution would be for our writer to compile the whole thing and put it up on AO3 or someplace more permanent. Maybe with the pics bundled in and everything.

Hell, I might do it, but I'm not sure you can hand off adminship of a story on AO3.

>>44709726
I don't think including the pictures would be a good idea, since they're, you know, other people's
I imagine anon's waiting until it's finished to upload it like the reimu abuse writefag did

>>44709726
They would also need a spell/grammar check pass, a few of those errors are a bit immersion-breaking.

>>44709746
>I don't think including the pictures would be a good idea
Unless it's paywalled behind some artist's pixiv, it's public domain and no one cares.
Maybe cutting down on the images to one per chapter would be fine, to avoid breaking the flow, but not over copyright of all things.

>>44709761
and also correct coherence errors

>>44709746
If only there had been pictures made specifically for this story...

"Just so you know, I'm definitely not an oni." Lady Kasen told me after we'd been sitting on a floor for a few minutes. "Definitely." I let out a vague noise that might have been agreement. I don't think she was telling the truth, though. I also wasn't all too certain that normal hermits had weird arms in boxes that turned into oni versions of themselves and tried to attack people. Lady Kasen was scrambling to her feet and with her non-bandaged arm, lifted me to my feet without a single sign of struggle. I knew that hermits could be strong, but Lady Kasen was very, very strong. It was almost too strong, and it was another point in the 'Lady Kasen is an oni' column. "What were you doing in here? You know these are my private rooms." Her finger was beginning to raise, and I could already hear the lecturing tone in her voice. "I told you to stay out of here for your own safety, so it isn't good if you forget my words.” She actually hadn’t told me that, but she had shooed me out of the room quickly once I’d seen the box when I had first been up here. “Perhaps you've been hanging around Reimu too much. She's due for another round of ascetic training, and now I'll have to have you join her. I mean, really! What is contained within that box is incredibly dangerous, and if I hadn't arrived when I did, I would have been arriving to your dead and likely stripped of flesh corpse!" That would have been bad, and I felt my fingers begin to shake as I started to realise that I'd been very close to letting something awful happen to me. I asked Lady Kasen how she had known to arrive right then. "I was at the Shrine, but Kume, Kanda’s predecessor, came and told me that you'd returned. I was just on my way back when I felt..." She absent-mindedly clutched her shoulder, but didn't explain what that meant. "I felt like something was wrong."

Finally, I managed to explain what had happened. That I hadn't tried to come in here, but I'd somehow ended up in front of the door, and I could feel something twisting and writhing in my mind, taking my thoughts and manipulating them until I believed that opening the box had been my idea. As I spoke, Lady Kasen's face began to pale slightly, and by the time I had finished, her lecturing had deflated entirely. "...I see." She muttered. "Okay, let's just...get out of here, first." She wasted no time in hauling me out of the room and slamming the door shut behind me, leaving the box on the floor. I let her guide me back through the house, then outside to the tables she had near the waterfall. She quickly set up some light in danmaku form, then sat me down. "So, er, I'm not an oni." The way that she kept repeating it was only making it harder to believe. "I'm just a hermit."

I suppose my disbelief must have been obvious on my face, because Lady Kasen only lasted a few seconds before getting flustered. "You were taken over too easily! You know, this is because you've been slacking on your ascetic training! If you were keeping up with your meditations, you'd be able to keep your mind clear of any foreign influences!" I opened my mouth, only to find the bandaged hand had extended across the table again and was now covering my mouth. Come to think of it, I still didn’t know what Lady Kasen really was. A hermit, as she was repeatedly saying, but I didn’t think that being a hermit let you use a bandaged arm in the ways that she could. "No excuses! Come on, you can start by doing five hundred sit-ups." It was practically pitch dark, and I would have dearly liked to complain, because it really seemed more like Lady Kasen should have explained better what that arm in her room was, but I could tell that I wasn't going to get a response until I'd let her work out her excuses. Sighing, I nodded and sat on the rocky ground. Lady Kasen got up from her side of the table and came to stand in front of me, her arms crossed and her shoes pressed against the tips of my own to give me something to push against. "Come on, get started." She was brokering no arguments, so I finally nodded and began. Thankfully, my training from before Reimu had gotten sick had yet to fade, so I wasn't having too much difficulty.

After the first set was done, I was beginning to sweat slightly, but Lady Kasen didn't seem interested in letting me stop. "If you're hot, take your shirt off. Now, I need to know. What did the voice you heard say to you?" I did pull my shirt off, since I didn't want to stain my last of Lady Hecatia's gifts with sweat for no reason. I folded it up beside me and continued, explaining that I'd heard the voice tell me to release it, so it could return to what it once was. It was slightly difficult to recall, because it almost felt like it had been Lady Kasen speaking, but it was my own mind telling me that I should do it. I think I heard it say something about partners, and threaten to make me a skeleton. Lady Kasen paled slightly more as I continued, and by the end she was looking into the distance with her jaw tense. Finally, I asked her to tell me what that had been.

She didn't answer immediately, so I repeated myself as I finished the second set. I was already having trust issues with youkai, so if Lady Kasen was hiding them in her own dojo, I felt like I needed to know. After a few more moments in which the only sound was my breathing with each successive sit-up, Lady Kasen finally cracked. "I...Okay. I'm at fault here too. I guess I need more training." I paused for a second, and Lady Kasen looked down with a frown. "Keep going." She finally said, her voice measured and controlled. I let out a slight grunt of annoyance, but did as she said.

As I did so, Lady Kasen rubbed at her head with a tired sigh.

"That was the arm of an oni." I swallowed heavily. I'd been fairly scared of the oni in Former Hell, but the only one I'd had to directly see was Yuugi Hoshiguma, and Yamame's...interesting trick to convince her to let us pass. "A long, long time ago, there was a fight between oni and humans on a mountain far from here, and one of the oni had all the concentrated malice and evil in her forced into her arm, which was cut off by the youkai blade Onikiri-Maru and sealed away. But, the arm was alive, in a way that the humans could not stop." Lady Kasen's eyes had softened, and she was looking into the distance like whatever it was she was seeing wasn't the same environment that I was currently residing in. "It waited, the seal slowly weakening, and it plotted." I asked her how it had come into her possession. "It's a complicated story, but I found it at a run-down old temple. It had already eaten a number of people by then. That's...likely what it was planning to do to you." I let out a shaky breath. Why did I just seem to stumble into these situations so easily? Would the arm have succeeded? I asked Lady Kasen if the peach would have been able to save me. "I...doubt it. Even the arm alone is still an oni. A single heavenly peach is not enough to prevent an oni from taking what it wants from you. You may have been able to evade her, for a time, but I expect that you would have died." I decided to concentrate on the exercise, though I followed up by asking Lady Kasen how she had learnt all of this.

"Reimu fought the oni in Avici, the endless expanse of Hell." Lady Kasen said bluntly, and I tried to breathe in and exclaim something at the same time, which sent me into a coughing fit. "She was victorious, and returned the arm to me for safekeeping." Reimu had never mentioned that, and neither had Lady Kasen when she was telling me about Reimu's various exploits. "But it's still there, and it's still trying to break free. Reimu sealed it back up after her victory, but I knew the seal would weaken again, just like it did in the past. That's why I had the spare ofuda ready. I just...didn't think it would be this soon. She must be impatient."

I asked her if the oni was that evil. "Evil? No, I shouldn't think so." I frowned, asking her why she was talking about the oni in the way she was. "It's...a complicated subject. The arm is the evil, and the rest of the oni is what was left behind." She looked at me softly. "Everyone has some kind of evil in them. That is the balance of the soul. The arm told you that it wanted to return that what it once was?" I nodded. Lady Kasen muttered something under her breath that I couldn't make out, but she looked a little...wistful as she did so. Her eyes seemed to have something that looked like longing in them. "Together, she's...it's hard to get used to having both sides as a whole again. It takes time to adjust. She'd want to go wild. That's why it's dangerous."

As I wrapped up my sit-ups and fell back, breathing heavily, I wondered how Lady Kasen seemed to know so much about the oni that this arm had come from. Perhaps she had met her at some point. My mind was still divided between the 'Lady Kasen is the oni' group and the 'Lady Kasen just knows a lot about oni' group, and I wasn't sure which was the right answer. "Do you feel better now?" Lady Kasen asked me. Surprisingly, I did. I hadn't realised that I'd had a lot of pent-up stress built up, and the exercise had done some good. I went to pick up my t-shirt, but Lady Kasen stopped me. "Ah. Don't bother. You're still all sweaty and I'm not done with you yet." She offered her hand and lifted me up without the slightest indication of effort again, putting another point in the 'oni' camp in my mind. I felt like I should be worried, but Lady Kasen had been kind to me, and she had yet to try and punch my head off like Yamame had claimed that the oni in the Old City might do. She had yet to do anything that made me think she wanted to harm me, though I was concerned that she wanted to kill me via pitch-black training and making me run until I felt like my heart was about to punch out of my chest. Lady Kasen dragged me to the waterfall, and I groaned. It wasn't fun in the middle of the day, but in the middle of the night, standing under the cold water would be pure torture.

Lady Kasen looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't groan like that. You've had your mind manipulated, so you need to clear it, and meditation is the best way to do that. Or perhaps, if you'd prefer, I could bring Reimu to do this with you, hmm?" I shook my head, because I was certain that Reimu would do several painful things to me if she was dragged out here in the middle of the night. Also, I suspected that Lady Kasen's motives were...shady, at best. "No? Well, get going, then. I'll bring you a towel in..." She trailed off, scratching her head. "Oh, I don't know. Soon? Soon." She slapped me on the back, sending me stumbling into the water before I could prepare myself. I held onto the belief that the shriek I'd let out when the cold water had suddenly hit my skin was actually a manly shout, though Lady Kasen didn't look all that impressed. "I need to go and secure the arm!" She shouted, her voice barely audible under the rushing water. "Try to clear your mind!" She turned, and gave me a vague wave as she walked back toward the dojo.

As for me, I stood, my teeth chattering, and tried to remember my training. I hadn't had the chance to take my trousers off, but I had managed to kick my shoes off in the seconds before Lady Kasen had knocked me into the water, which was a bonus. I'd have to leave the trousers somewhere to dry. Eventually, I resolved to cross my arms, close my eyes, and just let the water rush over me while I tried to calm my mind after all it had been through. It took surprisingly more effort than I had expected before I felt like I was beginning to relax. I took deep, controlled breaths, and felt like the tension in my shoulders was unwinding slightly.

After some time, I felt like I'd calmed my mind enough, and my thoughts began to turn to other things. Just like they always seemed to, it wasn't long before I was thinking about Yamame again. What was she doing? How was her dietary restriction coming along? I felt like I was putting off seeing her, and I felt bad about it. The caves were a struggle, but the darkness wasn't having as great an effect on me anymore. Maybe it was because I knew that Lady Kasen's senkai was safe, and I didn't need to worry too much about being attacked while I was inside.

At least, that's what I thought before the arm of an oni who definitely had looked like Lady Kasen had tried to eat me. For all her words, I was still unconvinced that Lady Kasen wasn't the oni in question, but she definitely didn't seem like she wanted to tell me. I thought about what she had said about the arm wanting to return to what it was. If she was the oni in question, had Reimu fought her in Hell? Perhaps keeping the arm by her was her own training. Or perhaps it was because she couldn't part with it.

Speaking of training, I knew that I would need to conquer my fear of the caves if I ever wanted to see Yamame in any real capacity again. I'd been rather rude on my last visit, and I wanted to make up for it. And truth be told, I missed her. I wanted to talk to her again. I wanted to hold her hand. I could get over the trauma that had crippled me on my last visit, I was sure of it. It would just take practice.

After some amount of time, I finally gave up and stepped out from under the waterfall. Lady Kasen hadn't returned yet, and I was shivering heavily, so I wanted to get inside and warm up as quickly as possible. I tried to dry my feet as best I could, then picked up my shoes and headed back around the mountain pass so I could follow the path back up to the dojo. I picked up my shirt on the way, then stepped inside. I could hear talking in the kitchens, so I first rushed to my room, dried myself off, put my clothes back on and changed my trousers, and then stepped back out to see what was going on.

I got as far as two steps into the kitchen when I was tackled, though I managed to keep myself from falling over. Lady Kasen was sat at the table, a cup of sake in her hand and a slight smile on her face, and when I looked down, it was to see red hair. Komachi Onozuka had wrapped me in one of the tightest hugs of my life, and she was saying something that I couldn't make out, but I did catch "Thank you!" a few times. After a moment, I awkwardly patted the Shinigami on the back, trying to ignore the way her chest was pressed against me. She was dressed differently. Now, she was wearing a t-shirt, which I belatedly realised must have been one of the ones that I'd convinced Lady Hecatia to give to her. And I was wearing mine, which made me feel slightly less self-conscious. Eventually, I decided to simply place my hands on her shoulders and push her back slightly, and she finally let me go. Now, I could see that her shirt was white, and had 'No Home Like Hell!' emblazoned on it, with a little heart in place of the 'i' in 'Like'. It seemed that Lady Hecatia's fashion sense really was universal, because the shirt was shoulderless, just like her own t-shirt.

Komachi's eyes were dry, but I could see faint marks that looked like she had been crying recently. Slowly, I asked her if she had received the t-shirt from Lady Hecatia, and that set her off again. "She actually met me in front of my boss at work and asked me to come with her, and then she told me that she was doing a favour 'for a boy' and asked me if I wanted a t-shirt, and-and..." She was starting to stumble over her words again, so I simply nodded and told her that I was glad that Lady Hecatia had come through. I managed to step around to join Lady Kasen at the table, and she wordlessly pushed a cub of sake over to me. I took a sip, and then Komachi joined us and told me all about how she had received her new t-shirts.

And while I now owed Lady Hecatia a favour, I felt like doing a good deed was enough of a reward by itself.

>>44710391
Wait a minute, does the peach make you pure enough to not be detected by moonies? I think i know what Hecatia wants

I probably shouldn't have posted this after the bump limit. No one's going to see it now.
In response to some of the things above:
I probably will put it on AO3 after it's finished, and there are absolutely a truckload of errors in there that need fixing. Every time I open the document, I catch one or two.
>>44710079
I don't know if I'd include the pictures that aren't the ones AI man made (which I very much appreciate) because it seems like AO3 etiquette is to only put art you commissioned or made yourself in your fics
That said, there's only a few AI pictures and this story is currently over 143,000 words, so it would be a little sparse.

i love lore

Incredible, Anon is now smart enough to suspect that the oni hag might actually be an oni hag...
He's learning

>>44710907
Its fine. Only the most dedicated readers will have the pleasure of reading it!
Regarding the story, anon is as dumb as ever
"Huh? Well, I guess it is weird that the arm in the box matched up Kasen's bandage one. I never made the connection. Probably just a coincidence."
>>44710582
It would be fun for Junko to show up again, sending anon on a nice little trip to the moon for some "grocery" shopping.

>>44711140
It seems Satori really did do him some good, he's actually smart enough to think now. The maidens of gensokyo would have to despair if it wasn't for his spider obsession

Posting the next thread in a bit.

Next:
>>44713561

>>44710391
>Komachi Onozuka had wrapped me in one of the tightest hugs of my life, and she was saying something that I couldn't make out, but I did catch "Thank you!" a few times. After a moment, I awkwardly patted the Shinigami on the back, trying to ignore the way her chest was pressed against me.
Thanks for delivering as per usual.