>You are Nue Houjuu, Gensokyo's premier shapeshifter! Yours is a long and storied past, ranging from hassling the Mikado's palace in the old days to being sealed underground to making your way among migrant oni and more. But by and large, you've gotten by. These days, you live in the Ancient City, and run a successful tavern, as well as a couple of side businesses. As well, you have taken to hanging with a group of surprisingly open-minded Buddhists.
>And you've been robbed. And so have practically everyone else. By Rinnosuke Morichika, of all people.
>You are an independent-minded person and prone to mischief. You are a confident and flirtatious, seldom at a loss of words or caught off guard. In the old days you had no problem terrorizing those in the highest seats of power, but these days you have calmed down somewhat. Even if you no longer aspire to your old heights of harassing Emperors, you still love to stir up trouble every now and again. Despite this, you find yourself surprisingly responsible these days, between running legitimate businesses and helping out your surface world friends. Some days, you wonder if you're losing your edge. Partially you blame Byakuren's influence; she has a way of making want to behave, at least a little bit. As well, having lived among the rigorously honest oni; quick to answer injury with violence; has done much to quietly shape you toward being a more socially-minded soul. Particularly after the end result of your first attempts to run scams and thieve your way through as you used to...
>These days you consider the oni as good friends, even if they're a bit more gruff than you'd like sometimes. Your tavern serves as a well-known peaceful spot, where people in the Ancient City can go to relax and not worry about the brawls and such, though sometimes they do happen right outside your doorstep. You are acquainted with one of the Four Devas that lead the oni, a woman calling herself Kay. She sometimes uses your tavern as a base of operations, though this has been happening less often lately. You have also found yourself tied to the people of the Myouren Temple, after they forgave you for your last big prank of interfering with their restoration of their leader. They've proven to be true friends, and have done what they can to assist you when you need it.
>A strange event orchestrated by Rinnosuke seems to have turned everyone's money into gemstones of roughly equivalent worth, reaching even into Hakugyokurou. You're not fully sure how he orchestrated it, but it seems to based upon an absolute faith in the power of commerce so strong that he can preform miracles. As well, he sent Tewi Inaba to steal your spellcards, which he plans to use as a component for exchanging all of the taken money to alter the nature of the universe. Chaos has started to break out in the Ancient City, while it is somewhat contained in the human town. The kappa are in a tizzy trying to figure it out, while the tengu town and Scarlet Devil Mansion have closed their borders, as have the Tengu. If things continue to degenerate, life could get very messy in Gensokyo. However, with Nazrin's help, you've made quite a tidy profit from this, assuming the problem ever gets fixed.
>Having spoken with Patchouli's magic circle, you were able to make some progress in cutting away other possibilities behind this incident. You've managed to independently find that the gems seem to have letters written inside them, and with Patchouli's assistance have found the gems seem to have been created from books in some manner. You joined with Mystia, who wished revenge against whomever took her money, and have chased Tewi to the seldom-explored southern reaches of Gensokyo; finding her in a place where two humans named Rika and Rikako, as well as a ghost named Kana, seem to live. You've gotten some information from Tewi, but you weren't able to get her to divulge more than vague information, nor did you succeed in finding any holes in her story. She insinuated the culprit was somewhere around the Forest of Magic, while Unzan seems to have sensed something in that direction during the event. You've deduced that the culprit was Rinnosuke, and confronted him in his basement, surrounded by the stolen riches, only to be unable to affect him directly. You ended up getting yourself cursed trying to steal something from his horde, which has been staved off for the time being with Patchouli's magic. You have come into the possession of a broken weapon of some power that seems to be akin to what Rinnosuke used, according to Patchouli, and you suspect it has been affecting your dreams.
>Presently, you are confronting Rinnosuke again, with the aid of Cirno and Mokou, in an effort to strike at him indirectly.
> "Well, I guess they don't have to come down all the way. Byakuren might be able to hang out on the stairs, at least."
>"Right," says Renko. "I'll fill them in."
>She heads up the stairs.
>_
