Rou's Random Shorts

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Ahahaha what. XD

[MysTeariousYukari]

Oh my... for the love of Yukari!(no pun intended) This is crazy! Yukari is officially even more awesome then she already is!

[ES-Anthy]

Oh god can't wait for the ending of this man, so far it's freaking awesome. Now I wonder who's gonna be the green ranger  :3

[Thata no Guykoro]

There are so many ways this can go.

And so many of them awesome.

(So what, will the rangers be Reimu, Suika, Nitori, Hatate, and Koishi? Sounds like a team...)

[FinnKaenbyou]

<@Roukan> Oh damn.
<@Roukan> I had intentions to make this romancy
<@Roukan> But suddenly I'm writing Medicine as totally psycho, and enjoying it.

Yeah. Consider yourself warned.

-----

The flowers were blooming well today.

The smell of the lilies wafted through the air, carrying a slightly bitter scent. It was an odour most wouldn't have expected from them - it was a hint too threatening, too nauseating. Most who strayed from their path and found their way to the foot of this hill would quickly find themselves turning back, feeling like there was something dangerous in the flower fields, something wrong.

The human body had instinctively learned to detect poison, even if the fleeing human found himself unable to put his fear into words.

The first sign a foolhardy adventurer would have felt as he walked inward among the flowers was the feeling of numbness running across his entire body, his nerves slowly paralysed by the spores released into the air. Then his body would grow heavy, almost unbearably, to the point where it became a challenge to maintain a walking pace. Finally, his leaden hand would clutch at his throat, as the paralysis gripped his lungs and left him choking helplessly on the flower-laden soil.

As if to spite the dying traveller, a shadow would loom over him in his final moments. It always belonged to the same young girl with short blonde hair, tied up in an ornate red ribbon. Her light blue eyes would stare down at the body with both curiosity and elation.

"Look, Su-san. The flowers have cut this human's strings."

An arm would reach down to jab at the sides of the choking man. Something was wrong with her, so thoroughly, completely wrong that even with all his nerves frozen he would be able to feel the chill run down his spine.

It would become clear by the time he got a proper view of her arm. The joint at the elbow, revealing a gaping hole where there should have been flesh, and showing that the entire arm was held together by a simple ball-and-socket.

That would almost inevitably be his last realisation, as at last his body reached its limit and he passed into unconsciousness. The doll-girl would sit over his body for a while longer, perhaps prodding at him occasionally. After a few minutes without a response, she would grow tired of the corpse and return to her normal hobby of strolling the flower fields.

They started off as grown men, with personalities and hopes and dreams. By the time they came to Medicine Melancholy, they may as well have been dead parrots.

-----

Another one. The same as the rest. The same look of horror in his eyes, the same hand clasped around his neck, the same limp and lifeless muscles. Medicine frowned - these humans weren't even putting up a fight.

It was satisfying to see a human die by her hand, true, but she wished that one of them would show a little more oomph one of these days. Not that she was lonely or anything - why would she be lonely? She was a powerful youkai, wasn't she? Strong people didn't need friends. Besides, people who came close to her had a strange habit of dying.

"And I have Su-san, don't I? Su-san, you like me, don't you?"

She spoke to a tiny puppet fluttering at her side, looking almost identical to her if several magnitudes smaller. Its head gave Medicine a tiny nod. Su-san always seemed to give Medicine exactly the response she wanted to hear. It was strange, but she saw no reason to it any thought.

She strolled along the flowers that dotted this unmarked hill, taking care not to slip over the occasional body. In time, the soil would take them, and the flowers would feast on the valuable nutrients held in their bodies. Honestly, humans were more useful as food for the flowers than they could ever be while they were alive.

The memories of her time before she awakened here were rare and unclear. She recalled sitting on a desk as an elderly man prepared a dress beside her. Its black and red tints contrasted in a way that would have caught her eye if only she could turn her head.

The next memory was further on. The man held her hands up, through strings she could do nothing to control. Her body was at his mercy, and she performed at his will towards the masses. That was when she had learned her name, Medicine Melancholy - a name she hated, but which she could do nothing to complain about. She remembered the faces of a dozen smiling children, laughing at her with teasing, hateful eyes. She wanted to hurt those children with every ounce of her heart, but she was still a slave to the strings.

Another fragment. The puppeteer was resting in bed. His breathing was heavy, and his face cold. Medicine watched him suffer from the desk with something resembling a smile on her face. Not that he would have noticed - after all, she had been built to smile. If she could, she would have taken his pillow and smothered him with it,

The last. The old man's son had claimed the house, and found some old doll that had apparently been his prized possession. That knowledge did nothing to stop him from hauling Medicine out of the house and leading her into the distance, finally laying her to rest in a field of flowers.

There were more fragments following that, but they all looked the same. Each of them were simply memories of lying face down, battered by the wind and rain and cold. She couldn't see with her eyes so close to the ground. Her world was nothing more than a wall of black that she could not penetrate or in any way change. For days, weeks, months, years, that was her world.

She had all the time she needed to think. For years, her hatred towards the race that had built her only to throw her away lingered, growing more and more venomous as the world moved on above her. She entertained herself with fantasies of vengeance - lucid dreams of giving that elderly bastard a taste of his own medicine. How she would adore the chance to see him hang powerless, bending to her will rather than the other way around. Would it be more pleasurable to see the terror run across his face, or torture him with a body that could not even show expression? She had more than enough time to fully play out both scenarios in her mind, and both of them were joyous.

Then her attention turned to the children, the little runts who had laughed at her plight. She had a special plan for them - she would kill each of them silently, and dangle the child's cold, smiling body in front of his mother's door. Strange how a doll was hilarious in that regard, but when a human was involved it was suddenly an atrocity. Medicine was disgusted by that.

But then, why stop there? There was an entire village of these humans, wasn't there? A whole city full of ungrateful, sadistic bastards who revelled in her powerlessness. It was a thought that initially infuriated her, but she soon realised that there was another way to view the fact - that gave her a full village of humans that she could punish. She gave them names, stories, lives, dreams and goals. She created an entire community in her mind, a job which took her no small amount of effort, but it finally paid off when at last she started killing the village's people off in a variety of ironic ways. Of course, she was the killer every time - she had created these people, after all, so it was only fair that she destroyed them.

There may have been a twinge of regret at one point near the beginning. Maybe they had been laughing with her, not at her. Maybe as a doll, it should have been her dream to please people, to make them smile. She was essentially immortal as long as the humans preserved her, while their bodies of flesh and bone would eventually wither and die. Was it not honourable to at least allow them to be happy in their short, fleeting, meaningless lives?

That thought was quickly discarded. They deserved no pity, no less from her, who had been brought up by them and thrown away when she was no longer needed. If she had been a girl, a human girl, the death of her 'father' would have incited a wave of saddened sighs, pats on the back and murmurs of 'you poor thing'. Someone would have taken her in out of the goodness of their heart and worked to give her a home. That was what humanity did - beyond greed and personal interest, there was a vital desire to help your fellow man and let him prosper.

Sadly, Medicine was not human. She had never been. She was a doll, and to humans a doll without her puppeteer was a worthless piece of junk that deserved to be forgotten. She was too old to be remembered, and too far from the village to be found. She had heard a youkai or two fly past once, but they saw no interest in a discarded doll either.

How was this fair? Why were dolls beneath the rest of society? Was there no human, no youkai, no creature in this land that had the kindness to look upon a doll and see her as an equal? It was a disgrace, a sham, and outrage! The dolls of Gensokyo were due more than they received! One day they would rise up, stand as one and take their revenge on the humans who had dared to treat them as toys! The roles would be reversed at last, and the humans would bow to their every beck and call! No mercy, no release, just an endless existence of servitude and slavery! And when they grew old and frail - why hold on to them? Just throw them away to rot and die!

The first sign that she had changed was when she heard laughter resounding through the flower fields. It was shrill, manic laughter, the sort that could not possibly have belonged to someone of sound mind. It puzzled her for a moment, wondering if there was perhaps a joke she had missed.

She soon realised that it was her who had been laughing.

Lifting her head upwards, out of the darkness that had been her world, Medicine finally returned to the Gensokyo that everyone else knew. The flowers were different now; tinted with a light shade of violet, as if her anger had seeped into the soil and infected them with malice. She found it beautiful.

Growing used to manual control had been difficult. More than once, Medicine had tripped on an unseen root and brought her entire body crashing to the floor. There was no pain, but occasionally an arm would come dislocated with a ghastly pop. It took a few minutes of difficult shuffling to lock it back into place in her shoulder, but there was no lasting damage like there should have been. Perhaps she was more than a doll now - maybe her time in an unwilling limbo had given her the will to stand.

It was a short while afterwards when she found the tiny doll, fluttering amidst the flowers and sniffing at them. She ignored the toxic spores that they were releasing, breathing in the scent like it was the most heavenly smell in all of Gensokyo. Immediately, Medicine knew she had found a friend.

She loved the lilies of the valley. The suzuran. So Medicine would call her Su-san, she decided. She asked the doll what she thought of it, and Su-san offered no objection.

As she became more and more aware of her consciousness, Medicine grew to realise that there was something very different about her. Something had grown inside her in the time she had been trapped, built up by her growing hatred for the humans who had abandoned her. The venom that had formed in her heart had grown literal, and she realised that in her body flowed every poison and toxin that had ever been discovered, not to mention several thought so dangerous they had been all but destroyed.

There were no words that could fully contain her joy at this realisation. Immediately, her focus became training herself, building her power so that the poisons that manifested within her grew stronger and bent entirely to her will. She would test her new-found powers on whatever animals were foolhardy enough to swoop near the hill, just out of reach of the flowers' spores. Initially, she could only clip the wings of a passing crow, but as time passed her prey became larger, and her poisonings more thorough.

When at last a foolhardy wanderer came to the foot of the hill, Medicine knew this was her one chance to truly test herself. He had wandered up to her, chivalry guiding him at the side of a young girl lost so far away from the human village. He had reached down, ready to pick her up and lead her back to her heartbroken mother.

His skin blistered where he touched her, and he leapt away in shock.

This was the moment she had been anticipating for years. The start of her plan to avenge the dolls that humans had heartlessly abandoned, and the beginning of an era where they would be given the rights they deserved. But before that, the criminals needed to be taken care of. Medicine had already performed the judgement, and the sentencing.

All that remained was the execution.

"What's the matter? Don't you want to play with me?"

The wanderer's eyes gaped open as his entire body trembled. He made to run, but with a single swing of Medicine's hand his legs buckled beneath him. He willed them to move, but no amount of will could counteract the venoms flooding his veins. His arms tried to pull him forward in vain, but there was no way for him to even hope of escaping his attacker. Medicine walked alongside him, smiling all the while with Su-san fluttering at her side.

"It hurts, doesn't it? The feeling of being alone without a soul to help you."

She saw the tears in his eyes, the murmured pleas for mercy escaping his mouth. It was every bit as fantastic as she had always dreamed, and she stepped on the man's back with a mighty thump. His skin turned black where her foot landed, and the blotch spread rapidly across his back and deeper into the flesh. The whispered words became desperate cries as the poison struck his nerves, filling his entire body with unbearable pain. He flailed pathetically beneath Medicine's foot, too weak now to even overcome a child of her stature.

"I went through this experience for years on end, and humans like you are crying for mercy in seconds? Pathetic."

She deliberately chose a poison with poor lethality, letting this human experience absolute agony until the point where he begged her for death. Even then she denied him it, letting the torture continue for as long as his body could withstand, until at last his brain surrendered to the nightmare and shut down of its own free will.

Medicine had frowned at that. It had been a fantastic experience, but it was far too short. No matter - she would have an entire city of villagers to expend her anger on in due time. She was not a fool, though - they would defend themselves, and as powerful as she was she could not defeat them alone. Whispers of a legendary warrior called 'the shrine maiden' also appeared in the fragments of her memory, so that was another foe to be prepared for.

So she would build an army first. The dolls of Gensokyo would gather here, the only of Gensokyo's creatures to be immune to her poison. They would unite under one banner, and when their army was full and prepared they would storm the village with all their might. There would be blood, and screams, and death in equal measure, and when the sun rose the next morning the human village would be a thing of the past.

Work towards that goal proved slow, unfortunately. The doll masses she had hoped for did not emerge, so her days were mostly spent honing her own skills with only Su-san for company. Her vengeance, it seemed, was still delayed until the day when her army was born.

Until then, she would satisfy herself with the fools who travelled onward into the lilies of the valley. Perhaps they all looked the same in death, but witnessing one of these filthy humans helpless would never grow old to her. This must have been how humans felt when they tortured insects, ripping the wings off while they were still alive and watching the creature writhe in agony.

Oh, if only she had a wing or two to tear away. It would be wonderful to watch this pile of filth squirm just a little more beneath her heel...

-----

I swear to god, some of this came to me disturbingly easily. :ohdear:

[Kasu]

Roukankan...  What have you done?

[Ryuu]

Roukankan...  What have you done?

Something amazing.

[MysTeariousYukari]

Roukankan...  What have you done?

The work of a god... or a youkai with the ability to write incredible stories :3

[Alfred F. Jones]

The nightmare fetishist inside me is grinning at this. Nice one, Rou.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

Ehh. *shrugs*

[ES-Anthy]

Well this is quite the interesting story, now I wonder where Medicine will go next. :getdown:

[nolrai2]

I just want to say that the Power rangers one was awesome.

And MM one was fascinating. Like bitter bitter tea.

[FinnKaenbyou]

This topic is too depressing. It needs some love. And justice.

-----

When there weren?t youkai running around wrecking everything, Reimu Hakurei got bored pretty damn fast.

There was only so long a girl her age could sit around and sip tea before the concept of sitting around and doing nothing lost its appeal. Even if being made to clean up the mess of whatever magical abomination was having a temper tantrum this week needed her to work harder than she?d have liked to, she had to admit that it was a comfortable change from her daily routine of sitting next to the donation box and mentally rehearsing her speech for the next lucky donator to make her way up those stairs and offer her enough money to eat something that wasn?t rice.

This speech had gone unused for weeks now.

?Geez...what?s with people being so stingy nowadays??

She figured that it couldn?t have been that hard a trip for residents of the human village. A couple of hours trek, with possibly a few youkai blocking the way to the shrine for their own safety. Nothing that she wouldn?t be able to escort them through, and then they could add a tip to her donations as payment for her services. She could get an extra donation for helping people make their first donation - that was two donations who the price of one! Who could resist a great offer like that?

?...Wait.?

As Reimu spent a moment pondering the paradox she?d just invented, she was too distracted to hear the sound of tiny footsteps making their way out the stairway to the Hakurei shrine. Too small, in fact - they weren?t the footsteps of a soldier, and no human without some sort of combat training would have been able to make their way here. That left only one option - it was one of the various youkai who used the shrine as a meeting point, girls who Reimu had at some point beaten senseless (or at least as close to senseless as the spellcard rules would let her get nowadays). She didn?t keep track of her youkai visitors, mainly because they usually showed up to drink her tea and leave without so much as a coin in the donation box. Even if she had been paying attention to the noise, Reimu wouldn?t have been able to tell which of the super-powered little girls was coming to visit her today.

The sound of her humming her own dramatic music was something of a bigger hint.

...Oh, dammit. Not her.

Reimu sighed to herself, taking her cup of tea and rewarding herself with a larger swig than normal. It was the sort of fortitude she?d need to deal with this nutcase, that was for sure. She stood up, any pretense of welcoming her guest long since out the window, as the youkai made her way up the last few steps.

She?d never even intended to meet the girl known as Koishi Komeiji, and in retrospect it was a meeting she?d have preferred to avoid. Something in that girl?s mind had...warped, twisted. She wasn?t really sure how, or why, but at some point her rational thought processes had apparently flown into the distance to seek more fertile grounds. What had been left behind was a girl who was bright and cheerful, true, but whose grasp on reality was strained at best.

This was the only explanation for the fact that Koishi had made her way to the shrine by herself, wearing a bikini, in the middle of winter. Her eyes seemed distracted by the frozen vapours blowing out of her nose as she made her way under the shrine?s gate and walked towards the resident shrinemaiden without a hint of fear. This was her current psychosis - the idea that she was some sort of dolphin-riding superhero, fighting for love and justice and all that other nonsense. Besides the fact that beating troublemakers senseless was her job around here, Reimu found the girl?s endless energy - and lack of common sense - was more than enough to give her a headache.

?Greetings, armpit-flaunting damsel! Stand aside so that I may traverse your border!?

Reimu raised an eyebrow first of all at the ?armpit-flaunting? comment, wondering if Koishi dressed herself with her other two eyes as closed as the third one hanging off her chest. When she heard the girl?s second declaration, that irritation expanded into outright concern.

?OK, Komeiji. What are you playing at now??

Koishi?s dramatic posing loosened up as she realised that she had failed to swoon her target immediately. A hero she may have been, but she prided herself on her practicality and sociability as much as she did on her ability to smite evil-doers.

?Ah, Reimu-chan, there?s no need to worry. I?m just going out on a rescue mission. Surely you?ve heard about those prisons they?ve got out beyond the border, the ones where they trap poor, harmless innocents and turn them into exhibits for the world to see?! They?re evil places, run by bad, bad men!?

For a moment, Reimu?s resolve wavered. She wasn?t particularly knowledgeable about the world beyond Gensokyo, but if they had places like that she was a little more content with her life here. Maybe the maniac was actually on to a good cause for a change with this one.

?...Where?d you hear about these prisons, exactly??

?They were in one of Onee-chan?s books.?

Onee-chan? That would have been...Satori, the animal-loving recluse from underground. Reimu couldn?t think of a good reason for a pet-keeper like her to have books on imprisonment, but for all her gusto the one thing Koishi couldn?t do was tell a convincing lie. Now that she thought about it, the girl had a way of screwing with people?s subconscious...she had to know better than to walk around in public throwing around spells with reckless abandon, surely.

The shrinemaiden sighed to herself. The girl was probably doing something to her head right now, because this was absolutely insane.

?...Alright, fine. Just don?t get caught, okay? And you?d better be back by this evening, or I?ll have a friend haul you back by force.?

She held her gohei upright, and tapped it against the floor once. Behind her, the shrine?s gate grew a little lighter, and the air beneath it started to ripple. Koishi let out a little squeal of joy as she looked at the opening gateway, before running towards it at full speed.

?...Komeiji, wait.?

She skidded to a stop inches from the gateway, as Reimu piped up with one last question.

?These prisons, I?ve never heard about them. What are they called, exactly??

Koishi responded without a hint of awkwardness.

?Aquariums.?

By the time Reimu?s mind had processed the word, and realised what Koishi was actually trying to do, she had already disappeared into the gateway, making her way into the outside world.

Reimu felt sick.

?...Grandma.?

A violet gap tore through the air next to her, and a young woman?s head soon emerged from within.

?You?ve been letting your guard down, haven?t you, Reimu-chan? And I?ve told you a dozen times that I?m not your gra-?

?Just make sure she doesn?t kill anyone.?

Yukari allowed herself a little chuckle as she saw Reimu?s face growing more and more frustrated. That was all she gave herself before disappearing back into the gap, because if she stayed for a moment longer Reimu would have vented her frustration in the most violent way possible.

As the gap vanished, leaving only air in its wake, Reimu realised she was alone again. This time, though, she wasn?t patiently waiting for a visitor to offer her a donation.

She was offering the world beyond the border a silent prayer, and apologising for the monster she had unleashed upon them.

-----

?This place is strange.?

The outside world was even more unusual than she?d expected it to be, and it was a change that struck her as soon as she finished climbing down the shrine?s stairs. The first thing that had caught her eye was the lack of trees - in their place were huge grey buildings, looking as if they were scraping against the sky. There were strange lights on their sides, spelling out names and terms she?d never heard of before - things like ?karaoke? and ?arcade?. She definitely couldn?t fly now - not with so many potential watchtowers on every corner.

And the people - there were so many of them on this side of the border. The streets were full to the brim, and they seemed to go on further than her eyes could see. Around her were rushed salarymen, bored looking teenagers and gossiping housewives, all contesting for the right to walk forward without being crushed by the surrounding crowd. Koishi had no trouble in that regard - for some reason, people seemed to just move to their sides around her, for no reason other than gut instinct.

Good. Looks like the stories of Dolphin Rider Koishi have even made it outside of Gensokyo!

Everyone around her seemed almost tied up in their own clothing, covered by at least two or three layers. All she could make out of most people as she walked past was a pair of distracted eyes, focusing on their destination instead of the journey. She shrugged, not sure what all the fuss was about - she?d never had a problem with the cold. It was a mind-over-matter thing, and even as the snow melted on her bare skin she didn?t so much as shiver.

?...Shit. You seeing that??

She heard a voice to her right, and looking over she saw a trio of teenagers looking at her with various expressions of confusion and awe. One had already pulled out a small, metallic object with what looked like a camera attached to it, pointing it at her face.

?Hey! Beach chick! Do some poses, why don?t ya?!?

Koishi was puzzled at first by the man?s request, but she smiled when she figured it out. To think that she would have fans beyond the border as well! She couldn?t help but blush as she moved closer to the three, all watching her enamoured. She didn?t feel a need to say who she was - given the adoring faces they were wearing, they already knew.

She could only afford to spend a few minutes posing here, though. Those fish weren?t going to free themselves, after all. She offered the teenagers a fond farewell before making her way along the street once again.

They sat for a while, looking through the photos, drooling slightly. For a moment, they forgot the cold.

?...Uh...I?ve gotta go.?

?Y-Yeah, same here. I need to, uh...see if my bunk is working.?

?Well, um, that?s a coincidence. I have an appointment with...um. My psychologist.?

They gave each other hasty goodbyes, before each of them split up and ran to their own homes. They had some...personal business to take care of, so to speak.

As he was running home, the first teenager placed his cellphone carefully in his pocket. The last thing he wanted was to lose it now, before he could use its new contents to their full potential.

It would have worked, too, had a tiny gap not appeared in his pocket and swallowed away the cell. Maybe it had done no damage, but a satori walking around the streets of Japan was hardly something Yukari wanted people to be walking around with evidence of.

The trio would later accuse each other of stealing the phone, falling out and refusing to speak to each other ever again. So far, Koishi?s attempts to spread love and justice hadn?t had much effect.

-----

She?d received a couple of glances on the way here, but no-one had done more than look at her awkwardly. She figured they must have been Black Claw spies, looking to warn their leader that she was on her way. She?d take care of them later, but time was of the essence.

The first thing she was do was try and appeal to the masses. Give them the chance to repent and accept their mistakes, and let the little fishies free while Koishi was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Failing that, she?d have to resort to a plain breakout - getting those prisoners back into the sea where they belonged.

After a good long walk - surrounded by nothing but city, a fact that stunned Koishi - the aquarium came into view. It was built into a pier on the coast, and the building?s front was decorated with a smiling dolphin, leaping happily out of the water.

Using cheerful imagery like that for a prison? ...You monsters.

Koishi?s conviction grew ever stronger at the sight of that, and her walking pace sped up to a hearty jog. There was a good attendance today, and a handy sign at her right told her that it was thanks to this being the day of the aquarium?s monthly whale performance.

Performance?! They have their prisoners perform?! OK, that?s just wrong!

The line moved along quickly, until at last Koishi was ready to be attended. The man at the counter flinched at the sight of her outfit, but eventually recovered.

?Ahem. Little girl, are you here with an adult??

Koishi tilted her head.

?Adult? What are you talking about? Do I look like the sort of girl who needs a sidekick??

He was taken aback by Koishi?s tone, but pressed on nonetheless.

?No, but...the law says we can?t let in children under the age of 16 unless they?re attended by a parent or guardian. Some of the pools are open, and if you fall in you might get into a lot of trouble. Sorry, you?ll have to come back with one of your parents.?

Parents? She hadn?t seen them in years, decades even. And she was probably older than he was, so he had no right to say she couldn?t enter.

...I get it. It?s a trick!

This was clearly some sort of clever plan the Black Claw had come up with to keep her out, refusing her entry under the guise of ?rules and regulations?. It was a cunning ploy, so ingenious that she?d almost missed it. Too bad for him that Dolphin Rider Koishi wasn?t that easy to fool.

?Well, if that?s how we?re playing it...?

Koishi looked at the path between her and the entrance. Nothing was stopping her other than a single bar, about chest-height, which wouldn?t move out of her way unless the attendant ordered it to.

However, nothing was stopping her from vaulting over it and running in unopposed.

?Iruka Jump!?

Koishi landed cleanly on her feet, leaving a stunned attendant to watch as she blitzed into the entrance. He grabbed a radio to his side, stuttering as he called for backup.

?C-Calling all guards! We have an unattended child loose in the aquarium! I repeat, we have an unattended child loose!?

A pair of men in black suits overheard the call for help on their earpieces, but they didn?t hear it soon enough to do anything about the girl dashing past them. Koishi ran down the hallway for dear life, sneaking between the smaller gaps in the crowd to gain the advantage. The guards may have been faster than her, but they couldn?t make it through the packed corridors like she could.

The only problem was the fact that they weren?t alone. With every corridor she passed, another pair of guards entered the fray. They were all over the place, and at this rate they?d surround her before she could even think of rescuing anyone. She had to admit, the Black Claw were pretty good when it came to protecting their facilities.

No worries. Those guys are wearing way too much to be any good in the water!

To her side, the corridor pulled outward, revealing an open pool about twenty feet deep. Koishi didn?t have any time to check what was inside, not with all those guards catching up on her. She cut a path through the customers looking over the pool and leapt in, diving under as soon as she dipped beneath the surface. She was really wishing she still had that ring now - breathing underwater would have been a really useful perk at a moment like this. She?d have to go without, though, and held her breath as she swam deeper and deeper down.

The fish in the tank looked over at her curiously. They probably hadn?t seen contact from an air-breather outside of feeding sessions, trapped in this aquatic prison with no hope of seeing the sea again. One or two brushed alongside her arm, and she could practically hear them crying out for help.

Don?t worry, guys! Dolphin Rider Koishi is here to free you from your enslavement! Never again will you be forced to perform at the Black Claw?s whim!

She needed a way out, though. She couldn?t surface, not with all the guards waiting up there, but at the same time she couldn?t stay down here and hold her breath forever. She glanced around the bottom of the pool, searching for another exit that wasn?t guarded.

Something poked her from behind.

?Gbl??

Turning around, Koishi saw a familiar face staring back at her - the ever-smiling face of a dolphin.

Whoa!? Sango-chan has a sister?!

The dolphin motioned towards the other side of the pool. Following its lead, Koishi could make out an indent in the pool wall, a little tunnel that led outwards. She had no idea where it went, but if this dolphin could be trusted it was an escape route. She gave it a quick thumbs-up before swimming towards it as fast as she could, just in case the guards found a way to chase her after all.

The tunnel continued for a good while, totally flooded, and started to branch out to her sides. It looked as if every tank in the aquarium was linked through these tunnels, so from here Koishi could get to anywhere she wanted. Right now, though, she needed a minute to catch her breath, and started following the helpfully given signs for the Dive Chamber.

After what felt like an eternity, Koishi saw the glass above her give way, and the water come to an end. She surfaced, gasping slightly as she realised she?d cut things a lot closer than she?d thought. How had she managed to lose that stupid ring?

?Hah, haah...I?m not gonna get anywhere like this.?

Pulling herself out, Koishi noticed that the room was unoccupied save for her. The walls were lined with various pieces of diving equipment, presumably used to let employees give the fishy prisoners their daily rations. Above the shelves, a clock kindly informed her that the whale performance was due to start in the next ten minutes. A map of the tunnels next to it showed that it would take place in the most distant tank, overlooking the sea off the edge of the pier.

Her eyes caught sight of a blank sign, and a pen lying next to it.

They glistened as an idea formed in the brain behind them.

?Looks like it?s time for me to put on my own show!?

-----

Twelve o?clock, on the dot. Time for the show to begin.

The missing girl was still a concern, but the guards were doing all they could to find her. For now, there was no point in causing unnecessary concern - not while there was still money to be made from this performance. They could hardly tell people to leave at the peak of their sale time, could they? The show must go on, as they said.

?Ladies and gentlemen, the show you?ve all been waiting for! Give it up for Oruka!?

An excited announcer made her declaration as the curtain around the tank unfolded, revealing its occupant. The children gathered here grabbed at the legs of their parents in unison as a heaving killer whale looked down on them with tired looking eyes. There were a variety of other, smaller fish in the tank alongside it, but everyone had their eyes on the largest of them all.

It swam around slowly, not seeming to be interested in the enawed spectators. Occasionally it would offer one a lazy glance, but otherwise its attention was focused on the distant window, looking out on the open sea. Everyone was too busy enjoying the sight of such a magnificent creature to bother thinking about its feelings - after all, fish were stupid, weren?t they?

The aquarium was smart, as well - they had positioned the glass panes of the tank so that the spectators could only see one half of the whale. They couldn?t see that its back fin had been kept in place with a massive chain, and that it could only stretch it so far before the chain stopped it from reaching the end of the tank. All it could do was lift its blowhole to the surface for air, but beyond that it was trapped. It had no chance of escaping on its own - not that the audience knew, or cared. They came to see a killer whale, and that was exactly what they were getting.

It took a knocking on the glass to distract their attention from it.

?Hey, is that a...??

?Holy crap. What is she-?

?Mommy, why is the lady swimming with the big fish? What if it eats her??

The audience broke out into frenzied murmurs as they realised there was something else in the tank as well. A young girl, maybe in her teens, had made her way inside, wearing the same diving gear the aquarium staff used. No-one stopped to think about how she got hold of it, or why she was using it, because everyone?s attention was on the sign she held aloft, saying in large plain letters ?SAVE THE WHALES!? She swam along the glass wall, waving cheerfully with one hand as she held the mural up in the other.

Immediately, a dozen guards stopped relaxing and started screaming.

?Dammit, how?d she get in there?! Someone stop her already!?

Koishi could make out their muffled shouts, and given that the crowd wasn?t joining together in a heartwarming attempt to care for the whale, plan A had failed. That left her plan B - namely, cut out the middle-man and free the whale herself. This time the aquarium staff were a little more prepared, and a pair of animal trainers dove down to try and apprehend her.

She swam towards the chain, seeing that it had already been stressed considerably. The bolts connecting it to the floor looked set to come off if she gave them a little twist. Sitting on the floor of the pool, she grabbed at the first bolt and started turning it with all her strength.

Halfway through, she felt a hand grab at her shoulder. On instinct alone she pulled her hand back and offered the trainer behind her an elbow in the face. She heard the sound of something cracking as he was knocked back, bursting back up to the surface. She forgot that humans could be a little squishy now and then, and people like Reimu-chan were the exception rather than the rule.

Using human shields to do your bidding...when I get my hands on the Black Claw creep responsible for this, I?m gonna give him a good talking to!

The bolt creaked out of place. Oruka, recognising the sound of straining metal, looked backwards and saw Koishi working to release him. A tiny ounce of life rose into his eyes, but the crowd was oblivious to it thanks to the general panic distracting them.

The second bolt was a little tighter, and despite her best efforts Koishi couldn?t get a good grip on it. After a moment?s thought, she looked down at the fins she?d ?borrowed? from the Dive Chamber. They were just thin enough to sneak into the gap beneath the bolt, and in a moment of ingenuity she slipped one under and kicked up. The bolt didn?t fly outwards, but it was loose enough that she could get a proper grip now.

By this time, though, another trainer had appeared. This one was more practical than the first, and rather than attempt to take her on in melee combat her pointed a netgun in her direction. It fired silently, and by the time Koishi was aware it was coming it had already entangled her.

Hey! No fair! You guys are playing dirty!

Koishi started trying to pull the net off of herself, but it was just complex enough to distract her. The trainer approached her now, coming from the front and wrapping his arms around her. The plan was to carry her to the surface, where the rest of the guards would be able to apprehend her with ease.

Unfortunately, the last step was still something of a problem, because even if he?d restrained Koishi by the arms, he?d done nothing to stop her feet from moving. And one of them was moving between his legs veeeeeeeery quickly.

Iruka KICK!

As the finned foot caught him in the crotch, the trainer squealed slightly. His grip on Koishi disappeared, and he slowly rose up to the surface with a look of agony on his face. He?d live, but he wouldn?t be having kids for the next week or so. Without no-one to distract her, Koishi managed to make her way out of the net with a little effort and some awkward flailing around.

By now, Oruka was aware that he was being rescued, and started pulling out towards the distant pane once again. The sea beckoned him, but the chain still barely held him down. Koishi put the last touches on removing the second bolt, effectively halving the strength of the chain?s connection to the floor.

As the last two bolts snapped off, and the metal plating holding him to the floor was pulled upwards, Koishi knew it was more than enough.

The crowd was screaming in panic now, and the trainers had decided they weren?t going to risk going down there again. Not with a killer whale on the loose, and not even if there was a juicy bonus on offer. Oruka had immediately started making his pledge for freedom, slamming his entire body against the pane between him and the waters of the ocean. The world seemed to shake as he collided with it, making visible cracks in the surface.

That?s it, Oruka-san! Just a little more!

Koishi had done all she could, but it was clear that the whale was going to take his chance for freedom. He rammed into the window over and over again, the cracks growing larger with every strike. Every hit looked like it would be the last, but the glass pane was surprisingly sturdy.

Not sturdy enough, though, to withstand the desperate onslaught of a killer whale. For the audience, the last hit seemed to be in slow-motion, and for a moment they saw the look of hope on Oruka?s face shift to one of joy as the glass gave way.

An instant later, the tank?s contents were being violently thrown into the waiting ocean. The makeshift waterfall carried fish of every size and colour, and among them Koishi was plummeting down into the sea. The sign she?d been carrying earlier stayed behind in the tank, serving as a souvenir for anyone who?d witnessed the entire ordeal.

Like everything else, Koishi hit the water at high-speed. She lost track of the mouthpiece, gurgling out a yelp of pain as she slammed into something hard beneath her. She was dazed by the impact, too confused to pull herself up to the surface and letting her air flow freely.

It was a relief, then, that the creature she?d landed on gave her a helping hand by carrying up back upwards.

?Hah...Oruka-san??

The whale let off a playful click as she called its name. She?d managed to land on his head, and she looked down to see him smiling as he looked back up at her.

Even if they didn?t share a language, the message of ?Thank you? was one that crossed the language barrier.

?No problem. Dolphin Rider Koishi always looks to help a friend in need!?

She petted Oruka, and he gave off another contented click. Around him, the other fish that had escaped the tank began to swim away, each set to return to its native waters. They were free at last, the lot of them, and they all had Koishi to thank.

?...Now, then.?

Koishi stood up straight on Oruka?s head, pointing into the distance.

?Onward, Oruka-san! To another aquarium, and to another rescu-?

?I think not.?

A hand emerged from the air behind Koishi, grabbing her on the shoulder. A violet gap appeared behind her, and Yukari Yakumo walked out to restrain her.

?You?ve had enough fun here for one day, little girl. It?s time to go home.?

Koishi fought against Yukari?s grip, but the youkai of boundaries was too strong for her. She knew not to give up, though - in this sort of situation, something always showed up in the nick of time to save the heroine! That was how these stories always worked, right? Right?!

?Oh, so you?re still refusing. In that case, I think it?s time to send you back to that friend of yours...?

This time, the gap emerged beneath Koishi, and she fell downward without so much as a chance to yelp. For a moment, she existed in a world of purple, with eyes glaring at her from every direction. They grabbed at her, pulling away the stolen tank and fins, presumably to be returned to their rightful owners. She felt something clink around her feet, and realised she no longer had the ability to hold them apart.

Then the gap opened up again beneath her, and a very familiar lake came back into view.

-----

Winter. I hate winter.

Sango floated along the surface, propelling herself lazily with the occasional kick. She was not a winter person - she was always rather prone to colds and sneezes in this season, but the people around her seemed to be fine. She wondered if she was taking in the bugs and viruses that had made their way into the water as well - if she was, it?d explain why she felt like her nose had been blocked up with solid rock right now.

There was a branch hanging above her, connected to some tree over at her side. It was almost sad to look at, hanging alone without so much as a leaf. For a moment, she thought she saw something purple in the sky above it, but she attributed that to the cold playing tricks on her eyes.

That judgement changed dramatically as something zoomed past her and landed in the water, connected to an iron chain that had looped itself around the branch.

?Phwee!??

Immediately Sango came to her senses and dove downwards. She had no idea what was going on, but whoever was down there was probably in grave danger-

Wait.

She knew that figure. She recognised it more and more the closer she got. It hung upside-down, held in place by a pair of locked ankle cuffs linked to the chain above her. Its captive made no attempt to free herself, and indeed didn?t seem frightened by the ordeal at all.

As Sango approached, Koishi looked up at her and offered her a cheerful wave. She was the reason Koishi had no worries about her survival. She offered the dolphin a greeting, still audible even in the water.

?Hi!?

Sango looked on in awe for a moment, then promptly slammed a palm into her own face. There was probably a story behind this, but right now she didn?t want to know. The cold was giving her enough of a headache as it was. She wrapped her arms around Koishi?s waist, pulling her up to the surface. The key to the lock fell from the sky soon afterward, allowing Sango to free her from the chains.

?Hey, Sango-chan??

Koishi was immediately set for casual conversation the moment she was free. Most people would have been busy thanking her or just being glad to be alive, but Koishi saw fit to skip that stage entirely.

?Uh, what is it??

?I never knew you had a sister.?

Sango blinked. She didn?t have a sister. In fact, she?d never even mentioned having a sister before.

Now I REALLY don?t wanna hear this story...

[Matsuri]

As I said earlier, this was a fun read. Definitely an hour of proofing well-spent. :3

(I still say that the should remain in the title. )

Unfortunately, titles don't work like that. :[

[matsuri]don't care do it anyway :<[/matsuri]

[Alfred F. Jones]

No-one stopped to think about how she got hold of it, or why she was using it, because everyone’s attention was on the sign she held aloft, saying in large plain letters ‘SAVE THE WHALES!’

Oh no. You didn't.

You did.

Never give a writer an idea that you aren't ready to expose to the world.

[Iced Fairy]

Oh man, I missed proofing this by minutes.  I am sad.

But I'm very amused by all this.  Dolphin Rider Koishi saves the day again, with copious amounts of property damage.  Serves them right for having such a poorly designed aquarium.   

[Von Stein]

The moment I realized that Koishi's legs were bound I realized exactly where the ending was headed...and I love you for it. XD

Also yeah! Stick it to Corporate AmericaJapan!

[FinnKaenbyou]

Welp, it's December. You know what that means.

...CRAPPY CHRISTMAS CAROL REWRITE MONTH!

-----

?Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the ?Soak,
Not a creature was stirring
?Cept magical folk.

Though the youkai had plotted
To sing through the night
The miko encountered
Their puzzling sight.

Said the maiden, ?What drives you
To party so late??
They replied, ?Morrow?s Christmas!
We hardly can wait!?

The miko knew nothing
Of this celebration
And smited the party
With one incantation.

A red-white with presents
For kids who?ve done right,
Who travels the whole world
In one single night?

Ridiculous, surely!
The youkai were lying.
She departed shrinewards,
Ignoring their crying.

?We heard it from others!
We?re not those to blame!?
She paid them no mind.
She was sick of this game.

She went home and slumbered,
Through words of frustration.
Too lazy to put up
Just one decoration.

But the source of the rumour
Still walked through the woods,
Her sack full to bursting
With valuable goods.

Though she wasn?t as large
As the stories declared
She was still clad in red-white
And silvery-haired.

In long gloves and stockings
She skipped on with glee,
Though the one-piece she wore
Was designed for the sea.

A satori maiden,
With third eye concealed;
A lock she had planted
To ne?er be revealed.

You?d never have guessed it
From seeing her face,
Endearing and cheerful;
Of sadness, no trace.

The story had come to her
Out of the air,
But one point had struck her
As hugely unfair.

The man offered presents
To humans galore,
But what if o?er animals
Needed them more?

So she?d puts things to right
Where the big man had wronged
And she put all those presents
Out where they belonged.

One name stood out cleanly;
A friend she held dear
Who thanklessly worked
Every day of the year.

It seemed an injustice
To be so ignored;
For surely, the dolphin
Deserved a reward.

So if the old man
Wouldn?t hand out his wealth
There was only one option;
She?d do it herself!

She?d searched high and low
For a gift worth bestowing;
To pass on to Sango
And leave her unknowing.

She?d chosen a toy
That the out-worlders made,
Though she knew not the manner
With which it was played.

She?d found it at Kourin?s;
His glasses were funny.
She hoped he was fine
With her leaving no money.

If he knew her intent
?Twould be simple to see;
His profit should give way
To fair charity.

With her prize held in tow
Just one issue remained.
How could she deliver
That which she had claimed?

To deliver the presents
?Fore Sango would wake,
She?d have to traverse
The whole length of the lake.

But the child was both cunning
And clinically mad,
And she stumbled on lakeside
In gaudy dress clad.

To start with, she?d picked up
An old kappa trick;
Two scarlet-red flippers
To add to her kick.

The tank on her back
Would supply her with air;
Another device she had
?Borrowed? with care.

Come morning she?d place them
Right back in their stall;
As if they had never
Been taken at all.

For now they would suit her.
The lakeside drew near.
She checked one last time
On the state of her gear.

Conditions were perfect.
The time had arrived.
She took a short run-up
Then gracefully dived.

She removed from her bag
A whole handful of snacks
So tomorrow the fishies
Could feast and relax.

She swam round the edges
And emptied the sack,
Save for one wrapped-up gift box
On which she held back.

This present was special,
With a target in mind.
She swam to the lakebed
And left it behind.

The present was labelled
?To Sango, with love?,
But its owner had already
Vanished above.

The gift would work
If she had any luck.
The dolphin would find use
In that rubber duck.

If humans would use it
At bathtime to play,
Then Sango would toy with it
Every day!

She rose to the surface
Her mission complete.
She skipped right back home
With a spring in her feet.

The moral; for all you
Who clean up the sea:
Merry Christmas to all,
And to all a good phwee.

-----

?The hell is this duck for?!
Just what does it mean?
And look at this mess
I?m expected to clean!

The fish are all stuffed
But there?s plenty to spare!
All this food-clearing?s making me
Tear out my hair!?

So the dolphin awoke
To a case complicated;
Her workload obscene
And her outlook frustrated.

The moral, in that case,
Is this circumvention;
Bad things can result
From a well-meant intention.

-----

And yes. This being me, I managed to convince some poor soul to draw a picture of the aforemented Koishi getup.
Now if you don't mind me, I need to go get a bigger stocking. Santa didn't have enough room to fit all that coal in my old one last year.

[Sect]

That entire time, I was imagining it being narrated by James Earl Jones. I couldn't come up with a good mental image of him going "phwee!", though.

[Alfred F. Jones]

And yes. This being me, I managed to convince some poor soul to draw a picture of the aforemented Koishi getup.

underwater thighhighs

At least Sango will probably like the duck after some time passes. :3

[Esifex]

At least Sango will probably like the duck after some time passes. :3

Suddenly and unbidden, the mental image of a dolphin swimming around, tending the waters, then stopping to give the rubber ducky a squeeze, made me giggle uncontrollable. Yes, I giggled. Like a schoolgirl.

[FinnKaenbyou]

*no updates for three months*
HEY GUYS I'M BACK SORRY I WAS GONE

Dunno why Succession got its own thread and this didn't. Eh. *shrug*

-----

There?s a saying among the white wolf tengu. It?s not one of those politically correct morals that you pass around as a kid?s growing up, like ?The great blue sky is yours to explore? or ?You are the shield that keeps the mountain steady?. This is the catchphrase that mothers whisper in their child?s ear when they see an unsightly sort across the street - someone with a glint in their eye, and a story on their mind.

?Momiji, never let a crow feed you. You?ll have a lifetime to wish you?d just gone hungry.?

In retrospect, I was probably too young when my mother told me that. Too trusting. Why was mommy being so mean to the lady with the wings? We were all tengu, weren?t we? That meant we should be friends and work together.

Boy, did that mistake cost me.

Crow tengu are an invaluable asset to the Youkai Mountain?s defenses in that they scare most armies out of attacking at all. They don?t fight with swords or bullets like the wolves do. Their weapons are quills, rhetoric, and as much slander as they can fit on a page. All too often a foreign youkai who thinks too much of themselves has invaded, been knocked back home, and finds that the story of their humiliating defeat has somehow managed to make it to their friends before they actually get back themselves. As a result, most of Gensokyo is frightened out of attacking us without the tengu having to so much as lift a finger.

Which is great and all, but it means us white wolves are sort of left out of the equation.

When most people in Gensokyo think of tengu, they imagine youkai flying around with black wings and cameras flashing every which way. It?s a common misconception, given that crow tengu are the only race to leave the mountain with any frequency. In fact, there are several tengu races that have no birdlike features at all, and the white wolves are one of them. Rather than the journalism that Gensokyo?s written off the entire race as specialising in, the white wolf tengu are assigned as the mountain?s guardians. We serve as guards on patrol, and fight off any intruder that has no place on our mountain.

Of course, thanks to the above issue with the crow tengu, there?s very little in the way of intrusion on the mountain. Which makes the white wolf patrol very, very dull. It?s not unheard of for sentries to slack off the job entirely and go unpunished, because the people who are supposed to be watching over them are slacking off as well, and no-one notices THEM because the level above is missing, and so on until it turns out there?s only one guard doing her job on the whole damn mountain.

That?s me, in case you hadn?t guessed.

Momiji Inubashiri isn?t a name you?ll hear often passed around the mountain. When it is, it?s usually along with labels like ?the workaholic? and ?the party-pooper?. I?m fine with that; I take pride in my work, and contrary to popular belief I manage to find enough time off duty to play a damn good game of shogi.

Being ?Momiji Inubashiri, Shameimaru?s lapdog?, on the other hand, I?m not so keen on.

Remember what I said earlier about never letting a crow feed you? The meaning?s about as simple as it sounds - never owe a favour to a crow tengu, or they?ll come collecting every chance they can. In the unlikely event that you manage to pay off your debt, they?ll have dug up some sort of embarrassing secret which they promise not to reveal as long as you help them with this little favour...and this other one...and whatever she can find to make you do after that.

Thus, whenever I?m not doing my REAL job or taking a break, I?m being hauled around on one of Aya Shameimaru?s little errands.

She caught me off guard after a long day at post. She probably heard my stomach rumbling from a mile away and sensed the opportunity. Crows have a sense like that - at least, that?s the only way I figure they can be so good at what they do. Before I knew it, there was a cheerful young woman at my side offering to buy me dinner ?as a reward for my faithful defense of the mountain?.

In retrospect, her plan was flawless. While one hand was placed around my shoulder, the other cunningly slid a camera across the ground. A camera that came to a rather neat stop between my legs, pointing upwards, and took a perfect shot of the contents of my skirt. Now I?ve got no choice but to do her bidding when she asks it of me, or the latest issue of the Bunbunmaru will have a breaking headline about the underwear choices of the mountain guard.

And I have the strange suspicion that I?m not alone in that. I said beforehand that the other white wolves were slacking off, but I?ve never actually seen anyone relaxing when they?re meant to be on shift. It?s perfectly possible that we?re all in the pocket of a crow, and Aya?s just thoughtful enough not to let her side jobs clash with my shifts so I can maintain my pride as a member of the white wolf guard.

Or she?s heartless enough to make me work two jobs instead of one. I haven?t decided which yet.

-----

It?s always easy to tell when Aya?s coming. As much as she brags about being the fastest in Gensokyo, there?s no way she?d ever qualify as the most subtle.

First of all, it?s always during my day off, or when I?m just coming off shift. Either she?s got a hold of my timetable and knows exactly when I?m available, or she?s just watching all the time and waiting for the first moment to haul me in. The latter possibility has stopped me from sleeping at night without first locking every door and shuttering every window in my house.

Secondly, I?ve developed an ability to hear her from miles away. White wolf tengu already have better senses than the rest of our kind, but experience has taught me how to pick out the noises Aya makes on her approach. The whooshing of wind, the muttering beneath her breath, and the plopping of her geta shoes on the ground as she lands behind me. (Always behind me, never in front. I wish she?d stop doing that.)

Thirdly, it?s always just when I?m about to take a break. If I so much as let out a deep breath, that?s her cue to decide I?ve not got anything better to do and intrude. Even if my plan was to go show one of the local kappa how bad they were at shogi, she?s not got time to listen to silly things that what I want to do.

My plan to avoid this usually revolves around looking busy for as long as possible, even if I?m not. Carrying my sword and shield around helps, mainly because it adds the threat of her losing that head of hers if she suggests something too ridiculous. But these things are heavy, and in the summers the mountain?s climate is almost unbearable.

This led to me finally giving in and trying to cool myself off with a fan before I ended up giving myself heatstroke. This meant that the sword had to drop out of my hand momentarily, and almost as soon as I?d let go of it-

?Morning, Momiji!?

Another fan starting blowing around behind me. This one was stronger than my lousy paper one, though - imbued with the magic of the crow tengu. For once, Aya?s specialty was actually being helpful, and the cool breeze made me forget for a moment why I couldn?t stand the woman.

?They say puppies die if they get too hot. What?re you doing outside??

Fortunately, she reminded me almost instantly.

Turning around, I was once again confronted with the woman who held my reputation in the palm of her hand. She was standing on one foot - most likely to show off - as she blew more of these cooling winds straight into my face. The baggy white blouse she always favoured blew about as she fluttered around her fan, but the black skirt never budged an inch. Aya was a highly powerful manipulator of wind - most likely she knew enough about tengu blackmail to not leave herself open to any other journalists looking to claim a scalp.

?...I?m doing what I?m supposed to be doing, Aya. My job.?

It was a lie, of course. The same lie I always told, and the same lie Aya never believed. She liked to rub it in, though, and as she put her fan away she took out in its place a small notebook. Quickly thumbing through the pages, she came across whatever note she was looking for and let out a gasp of faint surprise.

?Oh, really? Well, that?s a bit of a shock, because according to my research you usually finish up your shift at three in the afternoon. Which is...about half an hour ago, I believe.?

Her face was the sort I had to make a conscious effort not to punch. Red eyes glaring at me - maybe through me - and ears pointed up like the nose of a blue-blooded noble. Worse than any of that, though, was the fact she smiled all the time, even when she was in the middle of threatening me out of my place on the guard.

?Hey, don?t give me that look! I think you?ll like this job I?ve got for you, Momiji. Should help you...cool off a little, so to speak.?

Aya reached into the bag at her side, where she normally stored her papers. Rummaging for a copy of the latest issue, she threw it into my face just fast enough for me to not catch it. The paper caught me square in the face, and the wind was nice enough to hold it there until I pulled it off.

?New Discovery In Gensokyo - The Crystal Waters??

The picture on the headline was a lake, but not one I recognised. There seemed to be something beneath the surface at one side of it - reaching out from the lakebeds, like the branches of a tree. I squinted at the photo for a moment, not able to quite figure out what I was looking at.

?Ah, I see the eyes of the white wolf know how to pick up the interesting parts. The kappa insist that?s something called coral. It?s a long story, but just assume they?re sea creatures shaped like plants.

I wasn?t even aware Aya had moved behind me until she spoke up. That voice of hers was enough to send a shiver down my spine.

?OK, I don?t get this. How exactly do you ?discover? a lake? Is it in some hidden mountain valley or something??

Aya smirked at my side. I?d learned from years of experience that this was a sign of terrible things to come.

?See, that?s the interesting thing. Up until a few days ago, that spot was just a regular plain. Now all of a sudden there?s a lake there, and the water is stunning - they call it the Crystal Waters because it?s crystal clear, like nothing you?ll ever see in Gensokyo. My idea, by the way, and I think you?ll agree it?s perfectly fitting.?

She chuckled, patting herself on the back. What I?d give to join in and ?accidentally? push her too hard so she fell off the mountain.

?Anyway, this is big news for Gensokyo, so everyone?s eager to get the scoop. Thing is, there?s one level that no-one?s bothered to go to - everyone?s got shots of the lake from a distance, but no-one?s taken a look beneath the surface.?
 
I gulped. Aya had worded that sentence very particularly, and the point she was trying to get across made it to me with ease. In a vain attempt at self-preservation, I thought of anything resembling a better alternative.

?If it?s the water, I?m pretty sure the kappa are the people to go to. They?ve got the technology for waterproof photography, right??

?That they do, and I happen to have a camera for that right there. Thing is, none of the kappa want to go anywhere near that place.?

That was not a good sign. When Aya needed a kappa to help her out, she had ?favours? to collect from a good dozen of them. They were much easier to get hold of than the white wolves, mainly because we as a race are brought up to be cautious of the crows.

So if a dozen kappa had something to be afraid of when it came to that lake, something BIG was going on.

?...Dangerous??

Aya grinned.

?Sure as hell. They say there?s a youkai in the waters that gobbles up anyone who dives in. No-one?s gone in and come back out alive.?

I gulped again, louder this time. This time I could see the devilish glint in her eyes as she rummages through her bag again, holding out an all-too-familiar photograph.

I will not state its contents for the sake of my personal dignity.

?So, Momiji, feel like doing me a little favour??

And so, once again, I found myself facing a familiar dilemma: give in to Aya?s demands and take on a job that had a good chance at killing me, or refuse and watch as everyone in Gensokyo finds out exactly what colour my panties are.

Yeah, I?d go for the deadly job any day of the week.

-----

As it turned out, the Crystal Waters were only about half an hour?s flight from the foot of the mountain. I?d actually crossed the plains that had been here once, so it was strange to see that the land was suddenly replaced with what must?ve been tonnes of water.

Aya had decided not to accompany me. She had better things to do, like interrogate shrine maidens who had fallen into poverty or dig up the latest dirt on whatever drunken oni had found their way to the surface this week. Helping out a friend who she was potentially sending into a life-or-death situation? Not important enough.

I swore to myself that if anything happened to her, there wouldn?t be a court in the world that?d find me guilty.

At least she?d thought far ahead enough to offer me enough equipment to stand a good chance of not dying. The kappa who had turned her down had instead supplied diving gear for the poor sucker who WAS getting forced into the job. It came in the form of a tank I had to strap to my back along with the mouthpiece it gave me to breathe from, and a pair of fins that?d give me stronger kicks in the water. I was thankful for the latter in particular - my training in the white wolves hadn?t really covered water in detail, and I wasn?t a very strong swimmer.

She also offered me something...personal. And by ?offered?, I pretty much mean ?forced on me?. In her own words, she wasn?t sure if I had a swimsuit and thought this would suit me. It was a simple white one-piece with a maple-leaf pattern running in a line down the front. Sure enough, it fit me like a glove, and that was exactly what worried me about it so much. Every inch of it fit flawlessly, as if she?d had this thing custom made for my measurements. There was even a tiny little slit for my tail to slip through.

I eventually decided it was better than going naked. But only just.

I waited until I reached the edge of the lake before starting on getting changed. I had a sneaking suspicion that the moment I started showing skin there would be a barrage of camera flashes, and suddenly Aya would have twice as much material to hold against me. Out of precaution (or paranoia, depending on who you ask) I did my changing in a nearby set of bushes, and the fact I didn?t hear any photos being taken was already a weight off my soul.

From there, it was a difficult waddle in the fins to the edge of the Crystal Waters. I sat down at the side for a second to get my bearings and made sure I?d followed the foot-long list of precautions the kappa had included along with this thing. Do Not Use If Regulator Shows Signs Of Puncturing? I gave it a quick once over, and it looked fine. Ensure Tank Is Filled Before Use? Given how heavy it was, it?d better be full. Do Not Wear Upside Down? ...Yeah, I had that taken care of.

Do Not Use In...Space? I had to read that one a couple of times over to check if I?d misread it, but apparently they really needed to issue a warning about that. Whoever had written this list had a screw loose. Or two. Or maybe a dozen.

With the whole list checked off, it was time to get started on my little photography session. I?d been given one more present from the kappa - a waterproof camera, with enough film to take thirty shots. Aya was always going on about how this was some sort of secret art that took years of practice, but it couldn?t be that tough. Point camera, take shot, get photo. What else could there be to it?

I took a moment to look at the surface of the lake before I started the dive. The sun was starting to set in the distance, and as it fell its light bounced off the water with flawless beauty, turning it a radiant shade of orange. I?m relatively sure I sat in place for a few seconds with my jaw open before I came back to my senses. For once, Aya had been telling the truth - this was the sort of landscape that gods would savour. The only competition I?d seen was the occasional lake at the foot of the Youkai Mountain, but only in the mornings after whoever it was who took care of those waters had done their job.

To be honest, I was a little frightened as I bit down on the mouthpiece and fell into the water. Kappa had always come across as slightly unhinged to me, and the instruction manual they?d handed me was doing nothing to calm me down. Now I was expected to trust their inventions literally with my life. All it would take was one misplaced bolt and I?d be inhaling water rather than air.

It must have been thirty seconds or so before I built up the courage to breathe in. The lack of imminent drowning was enough to put my concerns to rest. By then, I was about thirty feet beneath the surface, but the bottom was still far, far beneath me. My vision was perfect, even beneath the water, and it wouldn?t have surprised me to hear that this thing was hundreds of feet deep.

Not just that - this water was warm. Too warm, even. True, it was summer, and the sun was hitting it cleanly, but that still didn?t explain how it was quite this warm. That left the obvious answer - magic - but the answer to that was probably somewhere deep down. I?d take care of that later; for now, I had to go examine this ?coral? stuff.

As I clumsily kicked my way over to the reef nearby, I was surprised at how abandoned the lake seemed to be. There was the occasional fish passing by, but in much smaller numbers than I expected from a lake of this size. The ones that did appear seemed frightened, cautious, darting away the instant I came within camera range. I wasted the first five shots of the film on blurry shots of fish that were darting away. Suddenly I understood why Aya claimed this was so hard - if your target wasn?t willing, getting good shots was impossible.

And all of Aya?s subjects were unwilling...damn, maybe she was good at this after all.

Thankfully, the coral promised to be less of a challenge. It didn?t slide backwards into the wall as I approached it. It didn?t pop out and try to stab me, either. It just...stayed there, totally still, as if it wanted to have its photo taken. This was a comforting change from the rest of the creatures I?d tried to photograph, so I had more than enough time to position myself before taking the shot.

?Gbblblblbl...!??

The kappa had found a way to electronically display the image without developing the film, giving me a chance to see my shots before I made my trip back. Imagine my frustration to find a perfectly good shot blocked by my own air bubbles. I took another one to make up for it, making sure to do it while I was inhaling this time. Damn kappa and their inventions.

Photos were nice and all, but I had to admit I was curious about this stuff. What was it, exactly? What purpose did it serve? Why did Aya insist it was a long story when it came to whether it was a plant or an animal? Unable to put the thought to rest, I reached out towards the material and ran my hand across it.

?Agglb!?

Bad move. Bad, bad move. Whatever this stuff was, it was sharp, and I?d managed to open up a gash on my right hand. Crimson blood leaked out into the water, darkening its shade slightly. I winced, muttering some sort of profanity through the mouthpiece. It wasn?t anything dangerous, but it was always the shallowest cuts that hurt the most.

I had some pictures. It was probably an idea to at least wait for this cut to fix itself before going any deeper. It?d be hard to hold the camera with a hand like this, after all, and it?d only take a few minutes at most. Clenching the hand into a fist to try and stop the bleeding, I made my way back up to the surface.

The first thing I did was spit out the goddamn mouthpiece. Maybe it was air, but that stuff was stale and only barely breathable. Coming from someone used to the high-altitude air of the mountains, that was one hell of an insult.

The hand would need a little while to heal. There was probably a little trail of blood in the water now, but there hadn?t been anything dangerous from what I?d seen. I?d need to be more careful on the next trip, though - I hadn?t had a chance to look deeper, and I hadn?t bumped into this super-dangerous youkai that Aya had been going on about. Then again, I had no reason to think she was telling the truth - I was no idiot. If no-one came back alive from the lake, who would pass on the story? I?d lived with tengu journalism for years, and I had faith in my ability to catch them in the middle of a li-

My foot.

Something.

Was digging into.

My foot.

?Ah-?

Before I even had time to cry out, I found myself plunging into the depths once again.

-----

It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up with current events. I put far too much breath into my yelling, and all it earned me was a stream of bubbles that no-one would notice. By the time I was aware I was underwater again, the mouthpiece had already drifted off to the side, and my flailing had left it tied in an unholy knot around my arm. By the time I got that thing undone, I?d have drowned twice over.

But the worst part was that my current lack of air was in fact the least of my worries. The feeling of shock from before evolved into a feeling of abject pain. There was more blood drifting upwards to the surface, and I knew for a fact that it was mine. Whatever had stabbed into my foot, it had gone in deep enough to practically leave the foot unusable. It had no plans of letting go, either, and it was dragging me down into the darkness of the lakebed.

In my panicked state, I only managed to get a few glimpses of my attacker?s face. I saw tanned skin, short, cropped black hair waving around in time with the currents, and a pair of dead black eyes staring up into mine without fear. Her teeth - plentiful, and horribly sharp - were currently digging into my foot with ease. On her back, I could make out the outline of a fish?s fin.

Not just any fish. A shark.

?Hmm-mmmmh!?

With my other foot I made to kick the creature, convince it to give up on the quarry. I slammed the fin into the side of its head with all the strength I could manage. The monster barely responded - in fact, all it did was bite down on my trapped foot even harder.

There were no words for how bad this was. Either I was going to be eaten alive by this creature, or fate would be merciful and let me drown first. Either way, I wasn?t going out of this alive.

For a moment, I forgot my peril, and took a note that this was the first time Aya had made an outrageous claim that turned out to be true.

More kicking followed, mainly out of sheer fear. I didn?t want to die - a fear I?m willing to argue is perfectly legitimate - but even in my state I could tell hammering this thing in the back of the head repeatedly was going to get me all of nowhere. My chest was burning, and the surface was only getting further and further away.

?G...gbblblbl...?

I became vaguely aware that I was letting out air without realising it. I?d had no chance to breathe before I was pulled under, and the screaming hadn?t done me any good either. Already my consciousness was beginning to fade, and the foot I was kicking with began to wander and flail at every point on the creature?s head.

I had all but given up. This was where Momiji Inubashiri, workaholic mountain guard and lapdog of Aya Shameimaru, was going to meet her end. I?d hoped for something more triumphant - sacrificing myself to win a major battle, or giving my life to seal some great evil. Getting munched on by a shark didn?t quite rank up there on my Best Ways To Die list.

Then came the three words that reinspired me to fight for my survival.

?Ow! My nose!?

Somehow, my free foot had caught the creature in the nose, and it released my foot as it recoiled from the blow. Apparently, its nose was its weak point - a fact I wished I?d known fifteen seconds earlier when I?d started. I?d make sure to mention that shark combat should come up in white wolf training.

There wasn?t time to celebrate my escape. I needed to breathe, and fast. It?d still take too long to untie the mouthpiece, so I had to break for the surface. One foot sent waves of pain up my leg as I kicked with it, and I grit my teeth while resisting the urge to scream. I was already low on air - I couldn?t afford to waste more on useless cries of pain.

For a while, I didn?t think I was going to make it. The light looked just a little too far away, my legs were moving just too slowly, my chest hurt that little bit too much. In that regard, I?m proud to say that I underestimated myself, and that the breath I took as I broke the surface was perhaps the best breath I?ve taken in my entire life.

?Haaaaah!?

Again, no time to rest. It wasn?t safe in the water. I needed to get out. Using the momentum I?d built up from swimming to the surface, I let myself fly upwards a few feet. No more than that - too much exertion, and I was hurting too much to try anything that drastic. Slowly and carefully I carried myself over to the side of the lake where, like any good person would do at that point, I promptly fell to the floor exhausted.

?Haah...haah...haaah...?

With all my panting, I was probably robbing the nearby plants of their air. Frankly, I didn?t give a damn. I?d basically stared death in the face down there, and I had the scars to show for it. Looking back, I could see the bite marks in my foot, still with faint trails of blood on them. This wasn?t a minor wound like the gash on my hand - this would take maybe an hour to recover fully, and until then I wasn?t really going very far.

I was in no mood to complain about a sore foot, though. What mattered more than anything was that I was alive. The camera was gone - I?d dropped it during the attack - and one of the fins had been mauled beyond recognition. But I was still breathing, and my heart was still beating strong, even if it had slightly less blood to work with than usual.

For a few minutes, I just lay on the ground smiling like an idiot. There was nothing like a near-death experience to remind you how wonderful life really was.

I was pulled out of my stupor by a tiny voice coming from the lake.

?Um...miss??

My heart sank. With what little strength I had left, I pulled my head upwards, looking down into the water. Floating barely above the surface, with only her head above water, was the creature that had nearly killed me five minutes ago.

Wait...was it? I wasn?t sure. It was the same tanned skin, same black hair, but there was none of the menacing presence of the shark that attacked me. Where it had giant, brutal fangs this girl had maybe one fang sticking out in front of her lip, and it was a tiny specimen. Instead of the soulless, black eyes that had stared at me, she had dark blue eyes that rang of innocence, of...apology.

?You, um, dropped this.?

One arm rose up from the water, throwing something up onto the shore. It was the camera, still in perfect working condition, and about twenty shots still to take. With that handed over, the creature looked ready to back off and disappear into the lake again.

?Wait!?

Not that I was going to let it. From the way her head was only barely bobbing up, this girl had gills. That meant she couldn?t get out of the lake, and therefore she was no threat to me at this point. Besides that, she seemed...docile now. Calm. Intelligent.

Honestly, my first surprise was that she actually responded to my request. Eagerly, in fact, like she was trying to atone for her earlier attempt to eat me.

?Y-Yes??

I had to allow myself a little smile. Maybe I wasn?t going to get Aya the pictures she wanted, but an interview with the dreaded shark youkai of the Crystal Waters had to count for something.

?I?m not going anywhere for a while. Feel like talking??

-----

We started off with the simple questions. Name, occupation, race, reasons for coming to Gensokyo. If anything, I probably sounded like a visa examiner more than a journalist. Maybe I just wasn?t cut out for Aya?s line of work. Maybe that was a good thing.

The girl answered slowly, stuttering on her words every so often. Her name was Jozu Manou, and she was apparently what was called an aumakua - a shark from a foreign island imbued with the soul of a dead human. After the two had become one, the aumakua was to work alongside their former family as their defender, helping with fish-catching and fighting off intruders. Jozu was one of those creatures - or at least, she had been.

?My family, um...died out. There were no sons, the daughters died with no children, and in the end the family I was meant to protect just...stopped existing. I don?t really remember a lot after that...I think I was drifting around, looking for someone else to take care of, but by then my people had stopped believing in the aumakua altogether...?

Jozu was sniffling slightly as she spoke. I wasn?t even aware that sharks could cry, but maybe youkai just followed different rules. I?d have felt sorry for her if it wasn?t for one tiny detail.

?...So, you?re meant to be some sort of guardian, right??

Jozu nodded quickly. She didn?t seem to get my point until I pointed at the still-obvious bite marks on my foot.

?So what exactly where you protecting from me when you did this??

That, it seemed, was the trigger that set her off. Not into another furious killing rage like I half expected, but rather a panicked leap out of the water followed by an unending stream of apologies.

?I?m really sorry about that! I do it a lot, I know, but I can?t control it! When I smell blood, it?s like something washes over me and I can?t do anything and all of a sudden I wanna eat and-I?m a shark, okay?! It?s what I do!?

Jozu?s webbed hands were flailing around in all sorts of desperate gestures as she spoke, still dripping wet. Her outfit reminded me of one of those other inventions Aya insisted I NOT use - a wetsuit, they?d called it. Hers was pure silver, with a long white stripe running down her front.

?Really, I?m not a bad person, I swear! Everyone gets so interested in the coral and cut themselves and then I realise I?ve managed to bite someone?s arm off again! It?s not like I?ve killed anyone yet, and it?s always been youkai so they get better, but I don?t know how to sto-?

The last word cut off in her throat with a choking sound. The gills on her neck started to flap around, trying to take in water from their surroundings, but there was nothing to be had. Grabbing at her neck, Jozu tumbled backwards into the water with a heaving splash, and I found myself with another layer of water on top of all the soakings I?d already had today.

She surfaced a few seconds later, panting for breath like I had been a short while beforehand.

?Um...yeah, sorry about that. When I get nervous, I kind of forget about the whole air thing...I?ve been practicing, though! Every day I try to step out of the lake and take a breath! It, uh, hasn?t gone anywhere yet, but it should work! Eventually!?

There was something almost adorable about this girl?s naivete, but at the same time she was almost pitiful in her inability to control herself. I could see that the apology she was giving was genuine, but this was undoubtedly the same girl who?d heartlessly tried to kill me. ?Conflicted? was the only word I could really find to describe my feelings at that point.

?...Look, I?m really sorry about the whole nearly eating you thing. It?s what sharks do, and I can?t go against my nature. If it means anything, you?re the first one to actually hang around and talk to me, and...I appreciate that. It?s really lonely around here, especially when you keep nearly eating all the people who might become your friends.?

That sentence was so strange even in context that I had to giggle a little. Jozu pouted at my response, and I couldn?t really blame her given that she was trying to be serious.

?So, uh, I know this might not be the best time to ask this after what we?ve been through...but do you think you could come around here more often? I?m pretty good with protective charms, so I should be able to make something that?ll stop me from trying to eat you again, even if you bleed.?

There was a look of definite loneliness in Jozu?s eyes as she looked away. She probably already expected me to say no and laugh as she sank back into the water, still friendless.

?...Huh. Why not??

She definitely wasn?t expecting me to say that. She almost jumped out of the water again in response to my statement, her face quickly widening into another broad grin.

?R-Really? You mean it??

I nodded. Even if this was a trick and she turned on me again, I knew her weak point now. All it?d take was a smack in the nose and she?d be back to normal. Jozu was ecstatic.

?Thank you so, so much! Wait a minute, I think I know what I can give you!?

Jozu fell beneath the water again, and didn?t surface for a few minutes. When she did, it was holding a pendant, made hastily out of well-folded kelp, with a large white object hanging on it.

A large, white, sharp object.

?I...Is that your own tooth??

Jozu nodded eagerly.

?You knocked it out with that kick of yours, so I don?t really need it any more. It?s a good luck charm among my people, and if you wear it I should be able to resist the bloodlust even if you come near me.?

She smiled, letting me see her teeth for a moment. They were much blunter than before, and for that I was eternally grateful.

?It?s not just that, too. It?s a sign we?re friends, and that you?ve got an aumakua watching over you. People treasured these a lot back home, so don?t lose it, okay?!?

She glared sternly at me as she handed the pendant over. Initially I wasn?t sure if it would stay together, but given how quickly it was made the kelp actually held together pretty damn well. In fact, it almost looked sort of cute hanging from my neck like that.

?Thanks. I?ll take good care of it.?

Slowly, I pulled myself to my feet. The wound was just about closed up now, and I could stand with no real problems. It was getting late, and I probably needed to get back into my old clothes before I froze to death out here.

?Make sure to come back, okay?! Bring friends, too! Just tell them not to touch the coral!?

I nodded absentmindedly. As if she needed to remind me about that after what she?d put me through.

-----

?Well, you?re back late.?

Aya was waiting at the foot of the mountain when I arrived. She looked disappointed, as if an earlier opening for her photos had never arrived. An opening like the time I?d changed into my swimsuit earlier. I grinned in response, claiming a moral victory for myself.

?Yeah, sorry. Got slightly caught up with your killer youkai and all that.?

Aya?s mouth fell open into a small circle. I couldn?t recall the last time she?d actually displayed surprise, so it was a satisfying look.

?R-Really?! You got pictures, right? Witnesses? A testimony?! Anything, everything you?ve got, Momiji! Right now!?

This was when I got to pull the smug face. I put an arm around Aya?s shoulder, pulling her in close and whispering in her ear with a voice of total confidence. It was a shame I didn?t have the scars anymore, but apparently we tengu have a special ability we pass along in the blood.

We?re all excellent liars when we choose to be.

?Oh, I?ve got a lot to tell you, Aya. About Jozu Manou, almighty shark deity of the distant seas...and my new best friend.?

-----

Thanks to Sect for helping me put this together. Hell, he's the one who came up with the aumakua idea, so thanks again. *hat-tip*

[Iced Fairy]

I was wondering if the shark actually spoke.  Nicely done.

Also, now you've got a shark loli and a dolphin loli.  Surely they will become beeeeest buddies right?   :V

[Kips McKipzerson]

I was wondering if the shark actually spoke.  Nicely done.

Also, now you've got a shark loli and a dolphin loli.  Surely they will become beeeeest buddies right?   :V

Crossover fic.
Fund it.

[Cystral Dragon]

I'm sure Sango and Jozu will get swimmingly along.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

I'm not exactly a big fan of Momiji, but I have to say, this was pretty good. But then, all your stuff's good, so that really wasn't a surprise. And no, I will not be surprised if Sango and Jozu end up meeting at some point.

Anyways, glad to see you're still writing something, and I hope you get back to DRK soon.

[Esifex]

I'm not exactly a big fan of Momiji, but I have to say, this was pretty good. But then, all your stuff's good, so that really wasn't a surprise. And no, I will not be surprised if Sango and Jozu end up meeting at some point.

Anyways, glad to see you're still writing something, and I hope you get back to DRK soon.

Suddenly, we dig through DRK and find that Jozu was one of Koishi's classmates in an earlier chapter!
CHEKHOV'S GUN

[FinnKaenbyou]

Sup guys, did I win the race for First TH13 Fiction?
(Obviously, TH13 spoilers follow. BEWARE.)

-----

Mountains are more than mere peaks of rock. Inside them, caverns and tunnels burrow deep beneath the peaks, some coming all the way out to the other end. Sometimes, these tunnels are inhabited; other times, there isn?t a sound of a living thing to be heard in them.

At least, not until a mouse speaks up.

?I honestly don?t understand why you pulled me up here.?

Nazrin squinted in both directions, unable to see the start of the end of the tunnel. Only the pagoda at her feet gave her the ability to make out her own hand. She could make out a variety of scuffles along her grey dress, grimacing at the sight of them.

Her companion didn?t answer with words, raising a hand up to silence Nazrin. She had lowered herself into a meditative pose, laying out the pagoda in front of her. It bounced off of her blonde hair all-too naturally, and against her black streaks its colour was even more radiant.

?Listen, Nazrin.?

The monk whispered so that her voice wouldn?t carry. Nazrin seemed confused, her ears twitching in obedience to her master?s command. Sure enough, she could hear a voice in the distance, bouncing back at her.

?...here...here...here...?

Nazrin blinked at the sound of it. Not because it was unusual, but distinctly because it was so thoroughly ordinary. As a precaution, she kept her voice down as she spoke to the tiger seated beside her.

?Shou, that?s an echo. I don?t get what?s so incredible about it.?

Shou sighed, but otherwise didn?t budge. Like Nazrin, her red and white robes had suffered their share of dirt on the journey up here. Shou if anything had it worse than Nazrin, given that as she sat down she was basically covering her robes in this grey muck. She paid it no mind - material possessions, after all. No use getting too attached to them. They were for keeping her warm and protected, nothing else.

?I?d have expected you to know the rumour before me, Nazrin. Haven?t you heard about the echoing voice of the fallen monk??

Nazrin looked at Shou as if she?d just claimed to be the latest reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Shou had been expecting this response, and continued on with her explanation almost immediately.

?Normally, the voice that echoes through this cavern is like any other echo. But when it comes to reciting sutras...?

With that, Shou allowed her body to relax, her attentiveness drifting off into the distance. Her eyes opened, seeing without looking. Her own ears perked up, hearing without listening. She was at one with the world, and yet at the same time she could be no more distant from it. This was a trance state she had built up through centuries of training, far beyond that of any human practitioner. If she so desired, she could have even repeated the 49-day meditation of the Buddha beneath the bodhi tree - but she was too busy with shrine duties to spend time on that.

Nazrin watched Shou intently, with something between irritation and curiosity. She hadn?t wanted to come here. It was her one day off, and she?d been planning to spend it in bed or something equally useless. Even in her spare time, however, Shou held sway over her, and thus she?d found herself hauled into some mountain cavern in the middle of nowhere. There wasn?t even anything interesting to look at - solid rock in every direction, no matter where she looked.

Shou?s mouth slowly opened. She spoke with impressive volume, the syllables slipping off her tongue with absolute precision and flawless grace.

?We respectfully invite the Green Vajra Who Banishes Disasters.
We respectfully invite the Vajra Who Banishes Toxins.
We respectfully invite the Yellow Vajra Who Grants Wishes.
We respectfully invite the White Vajra Who Purifies Water...?

Nazrin recognised the excerpt. It was from the Vajra Sutra - a condensed form of one of the highest tomes, the Diamond Sutra. At this point, Shou was to call upon the eight Vajra for protection, but she had only named four. The mouse tilted her head, not sure why Shou had fallen silent.

The voice that echoed back across the tunnel was a suitable explanation.

?...We respectfully invite the Red Vajra Whose Sound Brings Fire.
We respectfully invite the Vajra Who Pacifies Disasters.
We respectfully invite the Vajra Purple Worthy.
We respectfully invite the Vajra Great Spirit.?

Shou didn?t make any visible reaction to her own apparent voice, other than a slight grin rising to her face. Nazrin, meanwhile, was taken aback.

?How did-?

Again, Shou?s hand rose up to stop Nazrin from speaking. The mouse pouted, but obeyed. Entirely unfazed, Shou continued with the sutra.

?We respectfully invite The Bodhisattva Vajra Company.
We respectfully invite The Bodhisattva Vajra Rope.?

The voice in the distance spoke up once more. Nazrin paid attention to it this time, pricking up her potent ears. She grimaced - something was wrong with the voice that returned to her.

?...We respectfully invite The Bodhisattva Vajra Affection.
We respectfully invite The Bodhisattva Vajra Speech.?

It was too high-pitched. Too - how to word this - cheerful. It was not a sad voice, or indeed a voice that meant any harm, but it was not her master?s voice. Shou seemed unaware of this, continuing the sutra regardless.

Nazrin wasn?t set to leave this unanswered, and so walked off into the darkness by herself. She?d have to just follow the sound of the voice if she had to. Shou?s words still travelled through the cave, reaching Nazrin from behind as she walked onward.

?I bow my head to the one honored in all three realms, and take refuge with the Buddhas of all Ten Directions. I now make this solemn vow to always uphold this Vajra Sutra.?

?My rewards will repay the four kindnesses above, and aid those in the three sufferings below.
All who see and hear this, bring forth the resolve for Bodhi, so that when this mortal body is done we shall be reborn in Nirvana.?

The voice that came from in front of Nazrin - the so-called ?echo? - was louder than it had been before. That confirmed her suspicion - it wasn?t an echo at all, but rather some spirit just reciting the sutra in response to Shou.

It was close. Almost within grasping distance. It would take just a few more steps. Behind her, Shou pressed on with her chanting.

?How do I obtain a long-living body that the Vajra cannot harm??

Perhaps she was expecting an answer from the echo. Maybe a riddle - Buddhism was fond of those. Regardless, as Nazrin grabbed in front of her, the answer never quite came out.

?Tell me how to gain great stre-eeeh?!?

Nazrin?s hand grabbed at something, though given the lack of light she couldn?t tell exactly what. Given that it made no attempt to bite her hand off, she decided it was safe to pull her back towards her master. It struggled, letting off a light whining now and again as she pulled it along, but it did Nazrin no harm.

?...Gain great streeeeeeeh? That?s not how the sutra goes.?

Shou was outright confused as Nazrin returned from her trip into the darkness. She had ended her meditative posture, quickly dismissing the Vajra she had summoned and rising to her feet.

?Here?s your fallen monk, or whatever you said it was.?

Nazrin pushed forward whatever it was she had been pushing along. Now that she had the light of the pagoda to see with, Nazrin could easily make out her captive?s feminine figure. It was a youkai - very much alive, at that - in a pink dress with a white frill running along the bottom. Small green flower-shaped buttons ran along its length, and she was hastily doing them up in an attempt to make herself look more formal. She was still clinging to a broom in one hand, the sort made of solid bamboo. Her ears - what sort of ears were they? Nazrin hadn?t seem them before, but they reminded her of a bat?s wings more than anything.

?Uh. Hey there!?

The youkai smiled innocently as she finished fixing the last button on her dress. Her ears flapped a little in time with her grin, causing her dark green her to waver around in front of her face.

Shou had no words, but the look of sheer disappointment on her face said more than enough.

?So, uh. You?re the one responsible for this echoing, then.?

The girl nodded, still smiling. She seemed unafraid of Shou - a fellow disciple was no threat to her, after all. Nazrin made note of the fact that the youkai never looked back towards her - presumably hauling her over here had left the youkai worried about her.

?Well, what did you expect? I?m a yamabiko! It?s what I do! Do, do, do...?

As an example, she whispered the last word quieter and quieter every time. Her voice bounced off the cavern walls almost unnaturally, and came to Nazrin?s ears as if it was a genuine echo. She was impressed for all of half a second until she became aware that she?d been hauled up to this mountain for a false lead.

At that point she stopped being impressed, and started being angry.

?Shou, we?re leaving.?

Grabbing Shou?s pagoda, Nazrin started on a steady march back towards the entrance. Shou didn?t follow, more stunned by her actions than anything. Still, she?d have trouble getting back out herself without a light source, so she could hardly dally around.

?U-Uh. Sorry about all the hassle. You can find me at the Myouren Temple if you?re looking to discuss the sutras, miss...uh...?

?Kyouko! Kasodani Kyouko!?

Again, a cheerful smile as she gave her name across to a fellow disciple. Shou would?ve offered the same in return, but it was already getting difficult to see. She had to catch up to Nazrin before the pagoda?s light was gone entirely and she was tripping on every rock from here to the entrance.

?Toramaru Sho-hey, Nazrin! Wait for me!?

Shou dashed off towards the entrance again, leaving the mountain youkai by herself in the darkness. No matter - she?d grown used to this place, and the echoes of her own voice were enough to make her path clear. She spoke to herself as she made her journey back, a hand on her chin.

?Shouhei? That?s a weird name...?

[Sect]

Hm, interesting interpretation. My knowledge of moon runes isn't very good, so I can't tell you if you've captured Kyouko's personality (or even what the hell she is) accurately, but I rather like it.

Also, Shouhei. :3 I like how she's so serious and yet so dopey.

I used this as a reference for what I had. Didn't have dialogue to work with because RACE TO BE FIRST, so. :|

[GuyYouMetOnline]

*Has no plan to ever play the demo*

Yeah, I already know very well that I'll want the full version, and I don't want to already be familiar with the first three stages; that'd make the first half of any runthrough a lot less entertaining.