Waking Up from the Dream - Welcome Home - Story Thread

[日巫子]

10:30AM, Day 1, Between Human Village and Scarlet Devil Mansion

?We saw a lot of people chasing this God of Plenty earlier,? Kasen noted as she strolled along the path, Keine walking beside her.

?Really?? Keine asked.  Her walk was a little more brisk, perhaps in anticipation.

?It dropped quite the variety of sweets.?  Kasen couldn?t help but smile a little.

?It seems like it drops a lot of things.?

As Kasen and Keine made small talk about the God of Plenty, Himiko followed closely behind, eavesdropping every now and then.  She had never seen this pagoda lady before, but it seemed like she and Kasen were already acquainted??

But there was another pressing matter at hand?

Himiko glanced back at Ken.  He was exchanging banter with that faerie wearing the pendant, with a sword at his belt.  It seemed normal, but?There was something she noticed when she first came across him.  It couldn?t have been that his eyes were two different colors as well.  Something about it gave her a vague feeling of d?j? vu, as if she were supposed to know of someone else with different-colored eyes.  It kind of made her wonder how people felt when they saw her, but that wasn?t the problem?

Ken seemed to notice that Himiko was staring at him, and glanced over at her.  ?What?s wrong??

?N-nothing,? Himiko muttered as she quickly turned back.  Ken raised an eyebrow. 

?Huh??  That was odd.

Reisa looked confused, too, but that didn?t stop her from continuing the conversation.  ?So, Kenno, maybe this God of Plenty will have dropped enough food for a feast by the time we catch up with it!?

?If you don?t mind having paper and other non-foodstuffs, be my guest.?

?Excluding whatever isn?t food!?

Meanwhile, Kasen felt someone tug at her sleeve.

?Himiko??

?When we first came into the clearing??  Himiko?s voice was barely above a whisper.  ?Why a doll??

?What??

[Sect]

8.55 AM, Day 1, Streets of the Human Village, just shortly after Mitaka splits his credibility in two....

"I'm not sure if I should be insulted by that..."

Nazrin glanced at Hugh with raised eyebrows. "Whad wath that?" she asked around a mouthful of cheese.

"Nothing, nothing," Hugh muttered, before snaking a finger into Nazrin's collar and pulling her behind cover, into the shadow of a shop. "I guess we'll be making a quick stop while that kid gets his ass handed to him by a girl half his size, right?" he asked, peering at the confrontation from behind the cover of the building.

Nazrin also watched from around the human. "I guess. I'd love to sneak away while the red-white's distracted, but..."

Hugh smirked as he nabbed a bit of cheese from the mouse. "But you can't say no to Byakuren?" He munched on the cheese thoughtfully, then glanced down at the mouse youkai. "Hey, Naz. Whaddya know about all these people? Hakurei, the woman with the ropes, all them."

Nazrin looked up at Hugh, then glanced at their companions, who were either watching the poor sod or talking amongst themselves. The low tone, the neutral expression on the human's face... it wasn't the usual mischief that most people were used to from the man. Nazrin, however, had seen it many times over the last three years that she'd known him, ever since she had helped rescue him: the cold, analytical side that he kept carefully hidden behind snark and general jackassery. She chewed on her lip, formulating her answer to him...

[E-Nazrin]

Posted on Trance's behalf

Stand: "Gensou no Kyoukai". 1000. Day 1.
Hirowaza's stall.

"What a terrible mess." Hirowaza groaned as he finally fixed the mess of his stall since danmaku had razed part of it over, and that Mitaka fellow outright just took one of his products, and decided to pay using a Hakurei-sealed IOU? Didn't Mitaka know those things meant absolutely nothing to him? He sighed, looking out and not really paying attention to much. Meira was sitting on the ground, she had apparently managed to take a nap amidst all the chaos, whereas VIVIT just looked confused, but said nothing. It seemed perhaps she didn't WANT to know what was going on in the minds of these people. Hirowaza then realized, that perhaps it was a bit of a blessing that fellow had generously paid several times more than he actually needed to, especially since Mitaka just outright took (stole?) one of his things, without even paying for it (properly, at least...). VIVIT had also helped Hirowaza with the repairs while Meira was napping, so she seemed a little tired, and by now was sitting down on the ground.

[E-Nazrin]

(OOC: I think I did a better job trimming this time. Again, full/verbose version can be found on Nemoma's archival site - here.)

7:00 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Kitchen

After Chen's whispered explanation of her emotional breakdown, I ended up in the rather awkward position of trying to help comfort her while she was already curled up in Ran's arms and there was nothing I could possibly do in addition to that. But it would have been neglectful and awkward to just leave, wouldn't it? And Ran didn't even really glare at me when I slumped down against the wall a bit across the room and offered the occasional hopefully-soothing "It's okay."

After a while, Chen's crying softened. I risked glancing over, and Ran put her finger in front of her lips in a 'hush' gesture. Once I'd spent another few very awkward, increasingly restless minutes waiting in silence, I noticed that Chen's breathing had begun to slow.

... she cried herself to sleep, didn't she? Damnit.

I tried (and failed) to fight down a yawn as I realized that, remembering that I could certainly go for a nap myself. Bah.

"Is she asleep?" I asked, quietly.

Ran nodded.

... now what? I'd uh, rather get out of here without pissing her off, but I really don't know what else I can do here aside from invite Yukari to pick on me, so...

... well, actually, now that I think about it, I could at least try and clean up some of that mess Kirby made. Or go take that nap... I guess if Chen's feeling a little better, I don't have much reason to be here begging Ran to eviscerate me, do I?

Following another awkward exchange, I managed to safely escape the room.

-----

7:30 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Living Room

After fleeing the kitchen, I took a minute or two to survey the damage and figure out what I could do to clean up the shrine a bit. The donation box and broken door were beyond me, but cleaning up the leftover invitations and smaller door fragments would be manageable enough.

Though, it did get me thinking about why Reimu had left the Yakumos and I back here, while bringing Deodorant along... I wonder if he's, ah, emotionally important somehow. Probably not, but it's an amusing thought after his teasing this morning...

Whatever. Uh, right. Let's see what I can manage here...

-----

8:00 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Living Room

Ultimately, I only really had the patience and endurance to take care of the stuff I had identified as being easy to handle. The invitations were easy enough to sweep up and re-pile in a corner for someone else to figure out what to do with, and sweeping up the smaller rubble in the front courtyard was more tedious than difficult. Though the new pile of broken shoji pieces by one of the front corners of the shrine didn't look very pretty, with or without the pink from already-fallen sakura petals mixed among them.

Gotta say, that lawn is pretty. Peeking in on the flower-viewing festival would have been worth it, even for me. Arriving at 5 AM a day early, on the other hand, was rather excessive.

Oh well. At least Yukari's been leaving us alone for whatever the hell she's doing in the hot springs.

I yawned. Now, where can I nap... hm, the kotatsu cover looks fluffy enough to serve as a makeshift blanket, or pillow. Even if I'm already sweating after sweeping around in this shrine getup for... however long it's been.

... and I'll push it back into a more central position first. The top got detached from the heater underneath, mostly; that was easy enough to fix. And oh, oh, curling up beneath one side of it and using a corner as a pillow... yes, I can nap like this. Mmm...

-----

9:15 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Living Room

I was later awoken by... Marisa, of all people. Somehow she mistook me for Deodorant while I was napping. And when I tried to explain, well...

"Uh... Yukari dragged me here..."

The witch stared at me for a moment, then slowly started to smile, mischief twinkling in her eye.

"Ohhh, you must be the gap hag's boytoy!"

Damnit. Marisa's grin widened as I glared at her. Yep, that's the tomboy witch I know from the games, all right. Now to try and get her off my case.

"If you're looking for Reimu, she's off chasing Kirby." I grumbled, crawling out from beneath the kotatsu and blinking out the front door. How long have I been out? And... oh right, the property damage... damnit.

Marisa tilted her head at me. "Kirby?"

I reconsidered. "Well, okay, not really Kirby. Uh, big, pink, fluffy, fast as hell, eats stuff, uh... Reimu called it a god of something?"

The witch frowned at me, bouncing the broom over her shoulder as she interpreted that. After a moment, she chuckled and grinned. "Heheh, it tried to eat and run this year, didn't it, ze?"

That made me blink. "... this is a regular thing?"

Marisa nodded, still grinning. "You bet, ze! Great fun when it tries to run off for a chase all over Gensokyo!"

Lovely. I'm in a land of lunatics. Well, at least they're fun lunatics. "And I'm guessing you want to join in the hunt, right?" I asked, almost rhetorically.

She laughed a little. "It's more fun than having Reimu make me help out at the shrine, ze!" Tilted her head at me again, with a bemused smirk. "And it looks like you did okay with that already."

Yeah, I guess the pile of rubble outside isn't exactly subtle... but, "I don't suppose you feel like helping me get the donation box back where it belongs?" It was a bit too heavy for me to drag, let alone carry back onto the 'front porch' - especially without being able to fly.

"Reimu'd smack me if I messed that up, so I'll pass, ze." Marisa replied, as a relatively feeble excuse. She quickly changed the topic to avoid any pressure, too: "So where'd that god-thing go, anyway?"

That's... a good question. I shrugged. "Dunno. Reimu and the rest all ran off after it, but I don't know where--"

"Oh, it just left the human village."

That made me jump. I turned tow-- NO! Don't look! She might have included a visual view for that communications gap, and she's probably still in the hot springs!

"Damnit, Yukari."

Sukima giggled, and Marisa frowned at the air off to my left, where Yukari's voice had come from. Yeah, probably safe to assume there was a gap visible there.

"Keeping an eye on things, ze?" the witch asked.

"Of course." Yukari replied. "I think it's picked up a new trick or two this year~"

"'Zat so, ze? I'd better check it out, then." Marisa smirked at me. "Y'want me to give your boytoy a ride over?"

Damnit. "I'll pass, thanks." I said, gruffly.

"Oh, no need. He's just as entertaining to have close at hand~" Yukari sang.

The witch grinned. "Sure thing, ze. You two have fun~"

Marisa laughed and walked out the door, hopping on her broom and, for lack of a better term, blasting off into the air in pursuit of that Kirby thing that Reimu was chasing.

I sighed. Yukari wasn't helping with squashing that rumor... but I guess she isn't encouraging it, at least. That's something...

[Zengar Zombolt]

10:15 AM, Day 1, Human Village Marketplace

Wodan just wasn't able to resist the temptation, and spent a whole hour practicing his old self-made sword katas on his cottage. Somehow, the knowledge never left him, even if he hadn't even touched a wooden sword for more than two years.

Alas, the time passed quickly, and the peak hours would reach the stands on the village. Surely someone would have to need Wodan's help sooner or later!

What he found in the marketplace was a lot more different. A familiar stall looked in pretty bad shape.

"H-Hey, what the hell happened here? The whole place is a mess!" Wodan checked if any of the girls had wounds, thankfully, it seemed like they were fine.

The stand attendant sighed. "Someone went on a spring-related rampage, and my stand got looted, but I already fi- Hey, what are you doing?"

Wodan was using a leftover piece of wood to hit a nail. "What does it look like I'm doing? This nail is loose, so I'm helping you with it. Besides, I like helping other people, too. I live off that, so often I do stuff for free. By the way, what is your name?"

"E-Eh?" The question was seemingly rushed, to say the least. "Why do you ask me that all of a sudden?"

Wodan grinned widely. No, not the evil kind of grin. "Well, we seem to be running into each other a lot by now, so I think it would be nice if I at least knew how should I call you! By the way, my name is Wodan."

"Uh... My name is Hirowaza... nice to meet you, I guess."

Wodan quickly stood up as the nail was properly placed. "Well, that's odd! I guess that sounds like a man's name... but don't bother explaining stuff to me. Your red eye already tells me you're something unnatural, maybe a youkai!"

"That's not right, I'm a human..." Hiro looked quite confused by his reaction. Such a short time, and he already realized that something was up with the eye's color.

"Is that so~?" Wodan grinned again, mimicking the speech patterns of a certain youkai he had escaped from not too long ago.

"Heheh, it is so!" Hiro seemed to catch the reference. Score!

And then a log fell from the structure.

"Just... how often do you nail stuff into place?" Wodan had already kneeled down, prepared to fix this one up.

[trancehime]

Stand: "Gensou no Kyoukai". 1020. Day 1.
Hirowaza's stall.

Hirowaza sighed and upon further inspection on the haphazard job he did with VIVIT, since Meira was still sleepy for the most part, the stall was, in fact, in a bit of a shambles still. He sighed. "To be honest, they're usually done pretty tightly... I guess the damage was a bit more than what I'm usually used to..." Hirowaza said, flipping a card from his pouch of charms and blowing into it, causing a tiny, animated hammer to fly about hammering the nails into place. "And you know, thank you for your kindness, sir Wodan," Hiro said, curtseying as the animated hammer continued its work before suddenly fading into the wind. Most of the nails pounded by the hammer were tight, but some kinks and such still needed ironing out. "I greatly appreciate your kindness and generosity. I'd love to give you another thing for your toubles, but as you can see, a bunch of my wares got stolen." he continued, bowing in apology. VIVIT giggled.

Wodan smiled after seeing the animated hammer do its work. "I figured you'd have something going on," he said. "I knew it the moment I saw your eyes!"

Hirowaza made a rather crooked, nervous smile. "Eheh, well, sir Wodan," he said, dusting himself off and placing his arms beneath his chest. "Is there a problem with that? It's part of my job."

"Your job? You're just selling stuff here, though, I can't see why you'd need to do something like that for marketing!" Wodan responded quite heartily to this question, ignoring the disdain on Hirowaza's face.

"Ah, well, my old job, that is."

Suddenly, Wodan looked a bit more serious than he did a couple of moments ago. "Your old job? Now I'm curious."

"I used to hunt down ghosts and demons, and then exorcise or exterminate them, much like a certain Shrine Maiden we both know. Ever since I crashlanded here in Gensokyo, I've had little reason to continue my monster-slaying business when we have much more efficient people around," Hirowaza exposited. "Furthermore, I've been taking care of poor VIVIT here, who I found in a complete wreck, and the fact she runs on Saboten has... been... quite detrimental to me in high quantities, I must admit."

VIVIT looked a little sad after Hirowaza said that, though it was less about herself and more that Hirowaza still was willing to keep her around despite knowing her presence was a disease to him. Hirowaza saw VIVIT's face and then pet her.

"So you can see that life for me has been pretty peaceful for me, too, you know?" Hiro said, smiling for the first time in a very long time.

First official post by me! Woooh!

[Yonowaaru]

9:00 AM, Day 1, The Forest of Magic.

Umbron and Murasa had started climbing down the mountain after Murasa had gotten dressed. The trip down the mountain had been long, but uneventful.
Once they arrived in the forest however, a peculiar thing happened...

Umbron walked down the mountain with Murasa.


"Have you ever been here, Murasa" Umbron asked.


"Not for a very long time, really! I've been sealed underground for a long time, but I've visited here before that. Most people that lived here left, though.."


"Ah, that is a pity. But there's Byakuren and...."


Suddenly, Umbron turned around because of a rustling behind him.


"Is someone there?" Murasa asked, and readied her anchor.


From somewhere in the bushes, they heard a girl speaking in a squeaky voice.


"Sakuya, how many times do I need to tell you I don't need you to follow me! I brought my umbrella, and I'm a five-hundred year-old vampire! I can take care of myself!" the girl said. Another voice, a bit lower than the vampire's, says: "But it is my duty to help you in your endavours!"


Murasa looked at Umbron, and started walking towards the girls. He followed her, carrying his trusty weapon on his shoulders. They arrived at a clearing, and saw a vampire with leathery wings and a maid clutching some kitchen knives. Suddenly, knives appeared at all sides, floating in midair around them. Umbron and Murasa staggered, but managed to regain their sang-froid.  Umbron repressed swearing at the maid.


"Who are you, and why are you sneaking up on the Mistress? You'd better explain yourself quickly!" the maid said, but the vampire said: "Sakuya! Stop this at once! They're just travellers like us, going to the shrine, right?"


Murasa responded:"Ehe-ee, yes! Yes, that's exactly why we're here! This is Umbron Whitestone, a swordsman who recently crossed over to Gensokyo. I am Minamitsu Murasa, the captain of Byakuren's holy palanquin!" "Ah, the senchou! I am sorry for my paranoia, but I had never met you before.." the maid says. "I am Sakuya Izayoi, head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and this is the young mistress Remilia Scarlet. My pleasure." Sakuya says, coldly The knives dropped around them, and Umbron unsheathed his sword. "I do not know who you are, but if you are magicians, I will show no mercy!" Murasa nervously giggles...


"Magicians? I don't like magicians either! They're so selfish! Like that black witch flying on a broom that one day flew into the mansion and beat everyone up!" Remilia said, and Umbron lowered his sword. "So, you're from the Outside World, huh? How's stuff back there? It's been ages since we left..." Remilia asked "Wait, you're from the Outside World?" Murasa asked her.....


And so, the odd quartet headed to the festival together.

[Tsunade Gakudan]

Inside the Entrance to Former Hell. 11:00 AM, Day 001.
[The Prologue: Part 3.]

If anything could beat the day she was having right now, she?d buy them a drink herself. Well, that?s what she would have liked to have thought. The truth was that sure, the contents of her bag had been emptied by some pink, fluffy creature, but she was still alive. And to top that off...

?I wonder if it?ll be warm outside...?

She had a soaking wet oni walking beside her. The reason why, of course, was because Yuugi had to make a quick stop to at least get cleaned some what. It may have only been a dive into the nearest source of water and continuing on in soggy clothes, but at least she could be taken seriously like usual, as opposed to being coated in cream. Tsunade had half a mind to let her borrow her outer robe, but she didn?t like getting her clothes dirty unless she was at work; in which case, it happened all the time. These were her daily life clothes; she?d be upset if anything bad happened to them.

?Well, even if it isn?t, it?ll still be good to see the surface again.?

?Again?? Tsunade asked. ?I thought you had lived down here forever.?

?Don?t be silly.? Yuugi chuckled. ?We used to rule a mountain up there...?

Tsunade remembered almost immediately no sooner had she mentioned it. Yuugi was, and still is, referred to as one of the four devas. From what she remembered, the little oni she encountered briefly was also one of them; meaning she had at least seen two of the group. It sort of made her feel special, not only having met them, but actually being able to drink and be friendly around one of them

?Do you think we might see them up there?? Tsunade chirped in again. ?The devas I mean.?

Yuugi sighed a little and took a sip from her sake dish.

?Who knows? Other than Suika, I don?t know where they could...?

Yuugi stopped suddenly and grabbed Tsunade by the collar; pulling her back as quickly as possible. As Tsunade stumbled, a bucket dropped just centimetres away from them; swinging back and forth as it slowed to a stop at eye-level. Tsunade didn?t need to ask who it was; there was only one person who would attempt to ?greet? them like that.

?Good day to you~?

Sure enough, a head poked out from inside the bucket to reveal a green haired girl with the usual white robe just being displayed from under the neck.

?Can?t you descend in a manner that doesn?t target my head??

?But that wouldn?t be fun.?

No matter how annoyed Tsunade got with her, that child-like manner of speaking always got to her. The bucket girl, Kisume, is actually a pretty scary youkai. It just so happened that she inadvertently sent Tsunade tumbling into Former Hell in the first place. As a result, Tsunade lived and, even though Kisume made her a target each time they crossed paths, Yuugi was always a step ahead. Three steps, some might say.

?Either way, we need to get moving.? Tsunade sighed. ?We?ve got something to recover and...?

?To recover?? Came a new voice. ?This wouldn?t be the same thing the bird was flying after??

Behind Kisume came a blonde haired girl wearing a brown dress; dangling upside down as she came down from the roof of the cave. It was common knowledge for the people of Former Hell that where Kisume?s bucket was, Yamame was probably not far off. It always confused her as to how Kisume would end up in the city but Yamame wouldn?t; but she soon realised that Yamame was simply watching the entrance and, on most occasions, would stay there.

?If by bird you mean the hell raven, then it depends on what she was chasing.? Came Yuugi?s sly grin. ?It wouldn?t happen to be huge and pink??

Yamame nodded as she flipped the right way up and floated towards Kisume.

?To be fair, everyone seems to be heading out today.? The spider went on. ?I mean, at this rate, we might get scolded by the...?

Yamame saw the stare coming from Yuugi before she attempted to finish the sentence. Yuugi knew better than anyone else the terms and agreements originally made involving those in Former Hell. If so many had left already, it would be part of her job to bring them back. And if that meant a side-quest on the way, then it would kill 2 birds with one stone. Yamame shrugged and pulled on Kisume?s bucket; almost signalling her to ascend back to their original positions.

?I?ll leave you two be then.? Yamame said as they moved upwards.

Tsunade went to move onwards before Kisume suddenly dropped right in front of her face again.

?You may want this first though.? She giggled as she emptied a pile of papers from her bucket.

Tsunade braced for impact as they flew over her and grabbed her hat in the process; like the number of papers were going to summon a gust of wind from somewhere. She opened her eyes again to a stare coming from the bucket girl; like she was trying to be serious or something.

?What?s with the hat?? Kisume asked as she stretched for it.

Tsunade quickly moved backwards, right into Yuugi for that matter, and pulled it down slightly.

?It?s nothing... Just something that thing spat at me.?

?And you?re still wearing it because...?

?It smells like a cat.? Tsunade quickly replied. ?I kind of like cats.?

Yuugi shrugged and patted her head in response before looking at the piece of paper in her hand.

?The Hakurei Shrine, huh?? Yuugi murmured. ?Could it be...?

Tsunade looked at one of them on the floor and saw it was an invite to a festival. Whilst it sounded like it would be fun and nice to get away from work, the fact that a giant pink fluff-ball had spat them out made it seem like trouble.

?So whoever caused this will be here then??

Yuugi turned to Tsunade as she started to walk past Kisume, who was still dangling around her.

?Well, I don?t think a shrine maiden would cause an incident.? Yuugi reassured her. ?Well, not intentionally.?

?In either case, it must have originated from there.?

The determination in her voice was quite surprising. On any other day, it would be simply ignored since it normally had to do with being pumped up for work. But this was different. This was an incident that had affected her and there was no way she was going to just go home and pretend like it had never happened.

?Well, the festival isn?t happening till tomorrow.? Yuugi pointed out.

?Then we have till tomorrow to get my stuff back.?

At first, Yuugi was taken back by the sudden declaration from her friend. But then she grinned. If Tsunade was that determined, then Yuugi knew she?d run into a fight or two along the way. It couldn?t have worked any better; more so since she was making the red-white maiden a target. Perhaps this time, she?d show her the true strength of an oni. The two walked on towards the light that signalled the beginning of something more than just a simple step on the surface...

[Zengar Zombolt]

10:30 AM, Day 1, ?Gensou no Kyoukai?.

?W-What?? Hirowaza was shocked after the sudden proposal of Wodan.

?Hey, I kinda need something to do consistently? After all, doing random errands will only get me so far in life.? Wodan looked dead serious.

?I don?t think I need any further help, with VIVIT and Meira around??

?Are you serious? I mean, you could make a lot more swords if I helped you with that. Besides, it?s fun to hang around you already!? Wodan?s expression changed to a widely smiling face.

?A-Ah, do you think so??? Hiro looked away, apparently embarrassed. Promptly, Wodan walked towards her, and patted her back.

?Of course I do. The fact that you have people to live with confirms it! Hell, it?s been two years for me and I still stay alone at my old cottage.?

?But in Viv?s case it?s different; I?m the only one around that can repair her??

Wodan?s senses tingled. Wildly. ?Oh god, is she? a gynoid??

?I didn?t mean that, It?s just tha-? Wodan was quick in interrupting Hiro, starting to show an interest he hadn?t the chance to express for years.

?I can?t believe it! What is her armor?s made of? Steel, Titanium, Chogokin? Is her power source an annihilation engine?? Wodan was already examining the maid?s body (With his eyes only, you perverts) throughtly.

?Aren?t you taking this a little bit too far? I mean, it?s rare in Gensokyo, but it?s not that much of a big deal??

Wodan quickly dismissed this. ?Are you kidding me? This is? This is great! Fantastic! Amazing! No, this is??

And then Wodan said the forbidden words.

?This is Sweetdiculous!?

Hirowaza promptly lost her shit, and started laughing loudly.

?Hey, it?s not funny! Well it is, but? Ah, forget that! I am really interested in how does she work??

Hiro sighed. ?First the swords, now Viv? Jeez, I wonder if he?s into spirit busting, it would be too much??

[Kakyoin]

10:35 AM - Day 1 - Forest Area - Between Human Village & Scarlet Devil Mansion

"Ouch!"

Ken gasped in surprise as he walked straight into a tree, falling backwards to the ground.

Reisa stuck her tongue out, flying back to pick up the doll he had dropped. "Ha! Kenno, stop being silly! You've been staring at her for too long, watch where you're going!" She had been watching him for some time now, and wondered when he was going to fall victim to obstacles in the road. He was normally very attentive, but this was something that seemed to hold his interest rather firmly.

"Ugh...sorry, it's just--" He squeezed his right hand--empty. "Oh, where'd it go..."

The fairy held up the blonde-haired doll in her hands. "Looking for this?"

"Yeah, thanks." He got to his feet and took the doll back.

"Hmmph. You've been studying that girl for a while now...what's so good about her, huh?" Reisa's face was twisted in extreme mock jealousy.

Ken sighed as he got to his feet. "She's not a girl, she's--well, she's a female doll, yeah." I know I've seen someone that looks just like her before somewhere, he thought. But where? Maybe a few years ago, in one of Keine's lectures...

He looked back down at the doll. Lifeless, blank blue eyes stared back at him. The doll seemed human, showing no joints whatsoever. She was cold to the touch and stayed quite firm when squeezed; she definitely felt like a doll. He had never seen such an intricately crafted work of art before. Her white wings felt soft and almost like Reisa's; they were as white as her leggings. She wore two bright red ribbons, a large one in her hair and a small one on her soft, maroon-colored shirt. A lengthy, bright red skirt flowed down to her thighs.

"Hmm..." Ken briefly and tightly closed his eyes once, reopening them with several blinks. He looked at her again. Where did he see such a girl before? Perhaps--no, he couldn't bother Keine about it. She was still talking with Kasen, although they had stopped to rest briefly as he was getting back up.

He looked around briefly only to find Himiko nearby, looking at the doll in his hand. When his gaze met hers, she slowly looked away and brushed at her sleeve. Himiko seemed rather interested in the doll, although he wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps she was driven by curiosity as much as he was. That made sense; finding a doll like this was completely out of the ordinary.

He looked back at the lifelike doll a third time and gasped.

The doll blinked.

No, he had to be imagining things. He held the doll in his hand and stared at her for a while...no movement. His eyes must have played tricks on him. Grimly, he slipped her back into his pocket, trying hard to remember where he'd seen her before. "Sorry about that, everyone, let's keep going now."

"Silly, so fascinated with a doll..." Reisa glided closer to him and lowered her voice so only he could hear her. "I didn't know you loved cute girls' toys~"

"Argh..." He felt the warm pulse of embarrassment on his face. "That's not it! I swear I've seen someone who looks just like this before, though." He knew it would bother him until he found out, but now wasn't the time to worry about it. "Whatever, let's just continue on."

Reisa raised an eyebrow, but decided to leave the subject alone. "Say, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, Reisa, what is it?"

She stuck her tongue out again. "Do you like chocolate-covered fairies?"


(OOC: At this point, Ken's and Himiko's groups are still walking towards the SDM. Don't worry about trying to fit either of our groups into an important 'god of plenty' event, as we'd prefer to hang back and not chase it or do anything else that would extremely involve our groups in its pursuit.)

[Jana]

9:25 AM - Day 1 - Deep Inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion Library

Far removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life was the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Further removed was the mansion's expansive library, known to many as Voile. And furthest removed was a small corner of the library, where the librarian Patchouli Knowledge slept.

However, at this time of day, she was the only one sleeping. Fairy maids affiliated with the mansion flitted about with dusters, and the librarian's two employees oversaw their work. Koakuma, the Little Devil Without a Name, and Jan Monteiro, the Moderately Useful Outsider (Perhaps), wandered through the library's maze of shelves with carts of books in tow.

Scratching the back of his head, Jan yawned as he moved some thin volumes from the cart and to their proper places in the shelf next to him. He and his coworker had been hoping to finish putting away their Lady's entertaining picture books so that the librarian could work unobstructed. They had lucked out in that she had been up working for much of the night, and was sleeping later than usual... But Remilia Scarlet, mistress of the mansion, had left many books for them to put away. She had told them that they were for her younger sister, and as he saw the pictures of automobiles and airplanes on the covers of the books, Jan couldn't help but think about how long it had been since he had seen one himself.

Being Moderately Useful may have been as much as he could have hoped for (Perhaps), but the young man knew why he was being allowed to stay in the library. As an Outsider, a human from the outside world, the knowledge of the complex machines he brought to Gensokyo could be considered valuable. (That, and he knew that Koakuma appreciated him handling the books in the lower shelves while she flew above.) Even if he didn't know the specifics of how to build an airplane or car, Patchouli still asked him about various things he had used to consider a part of everyday life.

Hearing some fairies chattering in panicked tones of voice above, Jan looked up in time to see a new fairy. He couldn't make out what was being said, but it had gotten them into enough of a frenzy that he felt it was worth checking out. Little did he suspect that the mansion was about to receive a very rare sort of visitor...

[Nemo★Ma]

0900 AM, Day 1, Outskirts of Human Village
As Mitaka is waving the flag,it seems something is triggered at Amarillo's side, since instead of attacking, she put down her weapon.
"That's what I don't like about her, just blow him up already!" Lily Black facepalms.
"About what?" asked Akyu, "Something bad will happen when people are weaving white flags at her?"
"Yes and No." Lily Black sighed, "Just see. It's called something among the words of a Emergency System or some sort."
As she is saying that, the danmaku storm  just stopped.
and Amarillo just froze in the position where she was standing.
"You see, when people surrenders in front of her when she is attacking, she will stop the attack. She told me she have disabled that program, but it seems sis triggered it again. But still, I don't understand why that program exists in the first place, you humans can totally wave the flag, and then stab her in the chest." Lily Black replied.
"Erh, I don't really think most humans will act that way." Etch said, "But I do admit something is sick with that system."


?系統警告：對手明確了投降傾向。?
(SYSTEM WARNING: OPPONENT CLEARLY SHOWED SIGNS OF SURRENDER)
?按照預定義程式行動：強行停止並且重啟界面。?
(FOLLOWING PREDEFINED PROGRAMME: EMERGENCY HALT AND REBOOT THE INTERFACE.)
?注意：同步率超出100%，啟動強行離脫程式。?
(CAUTION: SYNCHRO RATE GREATER THAN 100%, INIT EJECTION.)

When Amarillo snaps back, she saw these texts flashing in front of her eyes, that others couldn't see.
Which is obvious since these are directly projected by herself, alerting what just happened before her system goes haywire.
As the green texts starts dissolving,  she saw Mikata, still waving that flag thing, and Lily White who is currently sleeping (or more precisely, fainted from the shock of herself just get "rebooted") on her back.
"So...."Mikata lowers the flag thing, "did that mean I have beat you?"
"........" Instead of replying, Amarillo just lower down her weapon and tied it back on her belt, then rises her hand...
And draws a cross in the air.
"It's more like you surrendered than actually fighting Lily. Plus, I'll never rise my blade against you, Mitaka. I don't think Lily will either, but.. err what I'm supposed to say..... yeah something goes wrong at the moment she sees Reimu. Donno why." Amarillo quickly finished that sentence in a lower voice.
"You know, could it be something like the mental trauma Reimu had inflicted on her."
Seeing the ground is totally safe now, The others returned.
"I'll deal with it." Amarillo, still carrying the sleeping fairy, started to walk towards them.
"Hey, wait up! Don't tell me your memory got rebooted too and don't remember me!" Lily Black quickly runs after her.
"Hah, This fairy just claimed that she won't trust humans, yet she do developed a bond with her." Etch smiles.
"Well that's called Tsundere you know." said Mitaka, who follows up with the rest of the party.

Then they discovered when Amarillo said she will deal with it, she really mean it.


0907AM, Day1, Outskirts of Human Villages

"Don't tell you that actually worked!" exclaimed Reimu as she saw Mitaka walking unharmed.
"Well, knowing your opponent is a great way towards success."
"Hey," Etch said "do you know beforehand that Amarillo won't fight you?"
"Err..."Mitaka stopped.
Reimu facepalmed.
"So you REALLY don't know what you are getting yourself into though,"
"Yeah, yeah, but see, I'm fine, so let's don't push this more, right?"
As they prepares to leave since there is no trace of that creature in the way..

"Reimu. I need a word with you."
Amarillo suddenly appears behind them.
"Woah, didn't she left already?!" Etch turned back to see Amarillo standing there with the two fairies behind her.
 "Yeah, I remembered she was in front of us, but now she is behind us." As Mikata is commenting on that, Now everyone has turned back to see Amarillo, who just took off her hat.
"And she probably means business too." said Reimu.

"So I just heard from Lily that everytime you guys met, you will shoot her down, is that correct?" Amarillo begins.
"That depends. But I shot down too many fairies on my way so I don't really know whom I shot down though." Reimu tried to dodge Amarillo's direct stare, not because that is scary (in fact Amarillo can't be scary even if she tried), but with other reasons.
"Well you are not lying, but shooting down fairies is still not acceptable in my book." Amarillo just rise her hands in the air, "Just try to hurt as little of them as possible after this, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I get it." Said Reimu, "now please excuse me, we have a God to pursuit."
"THEY, not YOU or me, " a huge plate like object is seen forming in Amarillo's hands, it's shiny with an bright orange color, and the letters NSWE can be seen on it.
"What's that?! that's almost like a huge compass!" shouted Alice.
"Oh this isn't good, Reimu, Dodge that! Don't-"
As Mikata warns about the unidentified object that's just thrown out of Amarillo's hand, Reimu has already moved.
She tried to graze that, thinking it is some oversized bullet.
However, that bullet, instead of pass by her, homes on her "hitbox" and locked it in place.
"Oh Reimu you looks funny now." Commented Etch, as you can't really see people with a huge compass plate as decoration.
"Well, it's not funny once you know what this is." Mitaka started, "That's Amarillo's power manifested in Spell Card form, this thing locks some of your abilities...."
"Nope, it didn't seem to lock anything for me." Mitaka is cut short by Reimu, who tried to move around, jumped and floats in the air, "I can move as I wish, seems she just threw something for bluff."
"Hmm, If you insist on shooting Lily down everytime you encounter her, then I'll shoot you down until you apologize to her! I wish you have trained in the way of Gradius. It will help! En Garde!" As they are discussing what have happened to Reimu, Amarillo started her attack.
"No Spellcards this time, since I just drained most of my strength fighting that creature, but this would be enough." As she is saying, she fired four lines of surprising slow lasers towards Reimu.
"By the way the word Gradius seems so familiar....." thought Mitaka.
"If you are tired, then why don't-" As Reimu tried to graze though the slowly travelling lasers.
*PI-CHHUN!*
It seems she got hit even though the lasers have just reached her clothes.
"What? How is that be!" Reimu tried to land her foot on the ground, "How did that hit me?!"
"Oh YES!" Mikata finally thought up what Amarillo is referring, "Be careful, she had locked your ability to GRAZE. Now your hitbox is as large as you!"
"Oh that's ridiculous." Reimu flies into the air again, and was greeted by 5 Homing Missile-like bullets to the face.
*PI-CHHUN!*
"Yeah she got missiles too, even though this is only bullets that looks like them." Mikata looks at Amarillo who is ready for her third attack, which seems like some spreading bullets. "I think we should go hunt down that god, guys. It seems their fight will be not very easy for Reimu."
"I still don't get why there are people who love fairies." Alice smirks, "However, losing the ability to graze.... Reimu is in a hard time today."
"Reimu, try to catch up with us when you're done, all right?" As they are leaving, Mikata shouted.
"All ri-" As Reimu is replying, she got hit by a bullet.
*PI-CHHUN!*
"Gah, I'm sorry, Okay?"
"Well, apologize not to me, to Lily!" Amarillo summoned four tentacle-shaped lasers around her and starts spinning.
*PI-CHHUN!*
"Owwwwww.......Just tell me how many times I need to get shot down already!"
"Until you realize what you have done."
*PI-CHHUN!*

"这样就行了，再拖延点时间吧，谁知道隧道的尽头是什么??如果恐惧的话，那么就永远不要到达这样最好了??"

OOC: Big Core, Death MK-II, Crystal Core(Gradius Gaiden), and Tertan. Yeah Gradius is a good game, since it teach you to dodge.

[Jana]

9:45 AM - Day 1 - Scarlet Devil Mansion Library Lobby

Koakuma found herself at the sudden forefront of an impromptu defense operation. According to some fairy maids, an intruder was rampaging through the hallways of the mansion, spreading food and mess wherever it went. Fairy maids throughout the mansion had been trying to halt it, without success... And with the chief maid (and the mistress gone), as well as her own employer asleep, Koakuma decided that it was up to her to take charge... At least, for a little bit.

Giving instructions to the few maids in the library, she then took a look at her newest helper in the library, the outsider named Jan. Unlike the fairies, he couldn't fly at all, but he was a fair bit taller and physically stronger than them. Perhaps she could find a way to use him to the library's advantage...

9:50 AM - Day 1 - Just Outside of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Library

As the fairy maids positioned themselves in the hallways leading to the library doors, Koakuma and Jan made sure to close them tightly. Whatever this intruder was had managed to make it past the gate guard and the gate, possibly by flying, but it had also managed to get into the mansion prior... It was possible that the door would only be a temporary barrier. They needed to find a way to keep it from getting that far in the first place.

It wasn't too much longer until one of the fairy maids shouted in surprise. "I-It's coming this way-!" Her voice was cut off by the sound of a splat... It wouldn't be until later that she was dug out of a large mound of pudding.

Koakuma and Jan flew and ran in the fairy's direction, and rounded a corner to come face to face with a large, bouncing pink puffball. As it bounced, it seemed to be dumping copious amounts of food and paper out of its gaping maw. "Damn..." Jan thought to himself. "We do't have much time to come up with a plan of attack."

However, Koakuma vanished from his side and reappeared directly in front of him. With her hands in front of her, a magic circle appeared at her feed and she fired off a barrage of large blue bullets. One of the streams hit the pink ball, but it only served to stall its movement. Jan backed away, not being used to danmaku in any form, and took some time to gather his wits while Koakuma kept showering the pink ball with a flurry of small knife bullets.

[LordVant]

10:00AM, Main Hall of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Vant and Hon walked along, looking at the shattered glass, broken vases, torn pictures, and food scattered everywhere. There was quite a bit, and the trail of food headed down the corridor towards the Voile.

"Seems like it's caused quite a bit of hell." Vant looked around at the destruction.

"I'm gonna have to clean up too...glad we have so many fairy maids." Meiling sighed.

"Doesn't stuff like this happen often enough that you have a plan for it?" Vant asked.

"Yeah, clean up everything and have Sakuya fix the damaged paintings." Meiling pouted.

Vant left it at that and continued walking along the corrider, gazing at the various bits of food and parchment laying about. He picked one up and read through it.

"Hey, an invitation to the flower-viewing festival. Wanna go?"

"I'm sure I'll have to stay behind and guard while everyone else goes." Meiling continued her pouting for a bit before perking up. "There's fighting going on...this way." She took off in the direction the noise was coming from with Vant following behind.

[Zengar Zombolt]

10:45 AM, Day 1, ?Gensou no Kyoukai?.

That was... an interesting amount of revisions, truly. Wodan literally looked through every part of VIVIT that could be seen with the naked eye without being labeled a pervert.

"Incredible... it's completely sealed, there's no way to tell she's a machine... Tell me, how experienced are you at repairing her?"

Hiro laughed weakly. "Well, I'm barely decent enough so she can work, but apart from that I can do nothing to her..."

Once again, Wodan stood up with determination in his eyes. "Tell you what! I'll help you with her, should you need to!"

Hiro cleared her throat. "I don't think I need any help, there's little to do to her. I mean, it's all maintenance..."

"But then you can do the work more efficiently, faster! There's no loss!"

Not a single word came up, as a long haired girl appeared out of nowhere, collapsing into the ground. The gasps were loud.

Wodan hurried to pick up the green haired girl. She was cold.

"H-Hey, are you allright? Can you- She's out! Wake up, damnit!"

Nothing. Shaking her wouldn't wake her up. Hiro approached her too... odd shivers going down her spine.

"Hey, Wodan... there's something odd about her."

"Of course there is! I mean she appeared out of the blue, and is unconscious! Quick, help me get her to my cottage, it isn't so far away!"

Doing a motion with her hand, Hiro asked Meira and Vivit to guard the stand, as bot her and Wodan cradled the girl.

Once at the cottage, Wodan and Hiro placed the mysterious woman on Wodan's bed.

"She may feel cold... but she's breathing. At least she's still alive..."

Hiro's face revealed how preoccupied she was. "I'm not sure... Something about her makes me feel uneasy. Are you sure that you want to keep her here?"

"Of course I am!" Rather than foolish determination, Wodan's expression showed concern and seriousness. "Once she wakes up, we'll learn what's up..."

[trancehime]

Wodan's House. 1050. Day 1.
In the Human Village.

Indeed, the cottage where Wodan lived was not such a far sight from the stall. Hirowaza had left VIVIT and Meira to stand guard for the meanwhile, VIVIT expressed similar concern for the girl who had fallen, while Meira remained as apprehensive as Hiro was with regards to this unconscious girl. He knew Wodan meant nothing wrong, yet he wasn't sure Wodan knew just exactly what this girl could be. Hirowaza's exorcism instincts were going mad, he wanted nothing to do with this girl, lest he may do something to her that would not be so pleasant, as he was afraid of this fallen child's true nature. He looked away and turned to face VIVIT and Meira in the distance, entertaining potential customers who suddenly started flocking to the stall after Hirowaza left.

"Good sir," Hirowaza said, still not turning to face Wodan. "I hope she is indeed as harmless as you treat her to be, simply by virtue of her unconscious state." He continued, turning to face Wodan with a grim expression. Wodan still remained concerned and did not really believe Hirowaza at first.

"What makes you say such a thing? She needs our help! You can't just say that." Wodan said firmly.

"I'm getting some very ghostly, poltergeist vibes from this young woman," Hirowaza said bluntly. "Then again, I could be wrong, and I hope I am wrong."

"..."

[Zengar Zombolt]

11:00 AM, Day 1, Wodan's Cottage.

"Poltergeist... I guess it was time until I came into contact with any kind of supernatural creature." Wodan was at the same time excited and terrified. What would happen now? Would he be in danger? Or would this be the start of a new friendship? His thoughts were cut quickly as Hiro stepped forward.

"Worry not... I'll exorcize her as soon as possible. She won't cause you any trouble."

Wodan put a hand on Hiro's shoulder. "No, you won't do that. There's something different about this girl. She's obviously in trouble."

"What tells you that? Chances are that in any moment she'll stop faking to be asleep, draw a knife from that dress and kill you!"

"I dunno... there's something human about this girl.  Or at least it's different... Look at her. Her sleep isn't pleasant at all..."

Hiro walked in closer. Wodan was right! In closer inspection, the girl looked like she was struggling  to breathe, even if she might not be breathing for real.

"She looks like she's suffering... I'm not willing to let anyone suffer like this, be it a human, a Youkai, a ghost or whatever."

Hiro let out a small chuckle. "Remember, in the real world things won't work like that... death awaits all, in the most unexpected ways. I just hope she isn't your fated demise."

"N-Nhhh... S-Sisters... Don't leave..." The girl started stirring... she was waking up. Would she be a friend? Or a ruthless murderer...?

[Kakyoin]

10:45 AM - Day 1 - Traveling Path - Near Scarlet Devil Mansion

"It's...another pile of pudding." Kasen sighed, carefully stepping around one of the huge globs on the trail to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The hermit looked further on down the road, watching Keine quickly move on ahead of them. Hopefully the teacher could uncover this mystery by the time they got there. "Himiko, make sure to watch your step, okay?"

Himiko nodded in silent approval. Her curiosity had finally shifted from the doll to something else. What could have dropped so much dessert everywhere? She was certain she had seen something in the sky earlier in the day...but how could just one creature carry so much?

"You wondering the same thing, Himiko?" Ken caught up to her, deftly hopping over the edge of a pile of invitation-riddled tapioca pudding.

"Possibly..."

"Whatever it was, it's got to be big..." He briefly looked back to see Reisa looking down at the invitations stuck in the pudding. "But I've never seen or even heard of a large floating creature like this before, and certainly not one that spills all kinds of fruits and candy and whatnot everywhere."

She quietly thought out loud. "Maybe...there's more than one..."

Ken leaned closer. "Huh? Sorry, I didn't quite catch that." She's awfully quiet, he thought. But she keeps looking at me. I wonder why...

"No...that's probably not it..." Himiko wondered where all this pudding was actually coming from. Such a large monster would have been easily spotted. She sighed and dismissed it as a mirage, or perhaps she was just groggy in the morning--

"Himiko!" Ken grabbed her arm and shoulder brusquely, keeping her from walking straight into a sloppy mess of rainbow-colored gelatin. "Stay alert, all right..."

She snapped out of thought. "Ahhhh..." Looking down, she saw the impending spillage and retracted her foot.

He sighed, looking around nonchalantly. "Be careful, wouldn't want you to become a pudding mess too..." She looked rather deep in thought, and although he was curious about it, he probably shouldn't press for it. After all, he didn't want her to become a victim of walking into something like he had done earlier.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something...I'll be more careful now." Jerked into an aware state, she stepped around the danger and continued forward.

"Uh, I didn't mean to grab you so roughly, sorry...I don't want you to get dirty like that ridiculous fairy did earlier..."

Himiko shook her head. "It's okay..." She looked around. "But, what fairy?"

"Huh?" Ken looked around again. "Wait..." There wasn't any sign of the lightning fairy anywhere! He heaved a sigh. "Reisa! Gosh darn it...what are you up to this ti--!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it. A rather large, floating pink creature--and it was carrying a struggling Reisa headfirst in its mouth! "Wha--Himiko, watch out!" It was going to collide with her!

He shoved her into the nearby tall grass as the creature zoomed by at an astonishing speed. He grunted as it slightly buffeted him, sending him tumbling down on top of her. "Ungh!" He heard her cry out in surprise as he landed on and rolled over her on his way down. "Gah--sorry!"

Hearing the commotion, Kasen rushed over and immediately felt a breeze fly past her in the creature's wake. She caught a glimpse of the creature making its way along a crosstrail. "Are you two all right?!"

His heart racing, he hurriedly got to his feet. "I have to chase that thing down, it's got Reisa!" He drew his sword and hurried off after it. "You two keep going, I'll catch up later!" He shouted back to them before clearing the area in hot pursuit. This must be the 'god of plenty', he thought. I need to catch up to it to observe its behavio--wait, what am I thinking, I have to rescue Reisa!

On her toes, Kasen hesitated, debating whether or not to follow, but decided to stay. She walked back to find Himiko getting up. "You're unharmed, right?"

"Yes...I think so..." Breathing somewhat heavily, Himiko started dusting bits of grass off of her clothing. She probably didn't have any bruises, but she nearly had the wind knocked out of her. She certainly didn't expect to almost get run over. "That must have been..."

"...the 'god of plenty'." The hermit completed her sentence. "I've never seen something so large in the air move so quickly. Do you think it was okay to let Ken go off on his own?"

"Probably...he said so. Hey..." Himiko pointed into the sky near the nearby mansion. "What's that?"

Kasen turned to look where she was pointing. "That's..."


(OOC: At this point, Ken's team is separating from Himiko's. Keine is heading towards the SDM and will reach it just shy of 11:00 AM. Ken and Reisa will be nearby, but not at the mansion. Those at the SDM around 11:00AM, feel free to include Keine in your posts until my team reacquires her.)

[Tsunade Gakudan]

Outside the Entrance to Former Hell. 11:10 AM, Day 001.

The sky? the earth? the sun? the wind? It had been a long time since she had walked under the rays of the sun; and she had missed it. She had missed the brightness of it. The air smelt so fresh compared to how the underground was; and the sight was?

Colourful?

Well, it certainly wasn?t a natural happening. All manner of food, and large amounts of paper, were scattered around the surface; most of it forming a sort of path, leading away from where the two were. Whatever had happened, the fluff-ball had certainly been occupied.

?I don?t think it?ll chase itself.?

Yuugi nudged Tsunade, who was still looking up towards the sky, and started to walk beside the trail of sweets and cream. Looking around, it wasn?t as different as she had first imagined it to be. Sure, it was vastly different from the underground; but that was to be expected. But this was the surface of Gensokyo; not the usual place she had lived around. If anything, it was still different; but not in the way she was expecting.

?It?s so nice to be up here again.? Tsunade finally smiled as she walked alongside the oni. ?It?s good to see the Sun once more.?

?You should be thankful it hasn?t been that long for you.? Yuugi replied. ?I?ve been down there a lot longer.?

Tsunade looked up to the sky again; the Sun wasn?t in her eyes this time, but it still was bright to her.

?What was it like when you were here then??

Yuugi took a deep sigh; like the thought of it alone had triggered some memories she didn?t quite want to remember.

?The main mountain in Gensokyo was like our little playground.? The oni answered. ?The tengu would kiss our feet and our mere presence changed the mood of everyone in the area. It was back in a time where there were no rules; anyone and everyone could be seriously hurt or killed. Making off with one of us was simply the last thing anyone would consider.?

?So why did??

Tsunade knew how the question was going to go down and quickly thought better of it. She knew Yuugi didn?t like talking about it just by the sigh beforehand; pushing her for more wasn?t the best thing to do either.

?Or? why does that little oni follow you around when she comes down??

?Oh, Suika?? Gasped Yuugi, before giving a little chuckle and sipping more of her sake. ?Deva of the Mountain, remember? She comes down because we?re there. She loves the surface too much though. It?s why I like it when she comes down from time to time; even if she gets dragged away by??

Yuugi started to rub her forehead a little, trying to remember the name of Suika?s chaser.

?But why don?t you go up to her then??

Yuugi glanced back and laughed a little.

?Oh, I?ve thought about it too. But I like the place right now; I feel like I couldn?t leave it if I tried. Plus, the rules say??

?Since when did an oni care about the rules??

The pair of them laughed again for a while; the Sun reminding them that it was indeed a hot day. The steam rising up ahead of them also signified this?

?Wait a second. What?s happening?? Tsunade asked.

Yuugi ran towards the rising steam, with Tsunade chasing after her. As the view came into their sights, Yuugi whistled a little.

?Is this from what I think it is??

Tsunade looked on and had a sneak feeling it was an open bath. But it was way too hot to be deemed a bath, surely. Unless?

?Is this? coming from Former Hell?? She asked, in a hushed tone.

Yuugi simply nodded and began to walk towards it. Tsunade thought about stopping her for a second, but shrugged it off; Yuugi wasn?t scared of anything. She?d be safe as long as she was with her. Yet there was something else amiss. The place seemed untouched. Almost like no one had been round it for a while. She was certain that the fluff-ball would have seen this place and rampaged around it; but there was no food around it at all. If Yuugi was as focused as she looked, Tsunade knew that anything could still happen.

?

?So it IS a hot spring.?

The two got to the very edge of what was indeed water and looked around; the amount of steam billowing around them made it hard to see anyone? or anything for that matter.

?Shouldn?t we do something about it?? Tsunade looked to Yuugi. ?I mean, it is linked to Former Hell, right??

Yuugi nodded and looked towards the silhouette of a building.

?Yeah, we definitely should.?

A grin crept on to her face and began walking around the water.

?We should test it out!?

Tsunade looked baffled for a split second. All of a sudden, the seriousness of the oni she knew twisted into that fun loving drinking side she knew from the bars. However, this was a proper bath, unlike the quick shower she took after the attack; so it was only fair for her to have one. Plus, it did look quite tempting.

?Oh fine.? Tsunade sighed. ?I?ll come in with? HEY!?

Yuugi had already started to walk off ahead of her. Tsunade quickly hurried after her; oblivious to the little gap that had appeared behind her.

?My? this could get interesting.?

[Kakyoin]

11:00 AM - Day 1 - Side Path - Near Scarlet Devil Mansion

High in the air, a young woman flew gracefully, threading herself through a hole in a low-flying cloud. Today was a special day, just like tomorrow. Exciting, too; some flying monsters had appeared and were shaking up Gensokyo. Finally something good to investigate.

She descended lower, her long hair flapping fervently in ripples behind her head. The weather was absolutely perfect, she thought. No way could this day be ruined! Smiling to herself, she rolled twice in the air. Flying was amazing; it was so hard to not take it for granted. It was the best feeling in the world sometimes...

..but flying through clouds was just as exhilarating. So what if it was a bit dangerous? She tucked her arms in and closed her eyes, shooting into an approaching large cloud. Regardless of her specialty, she should enjoy her natural ability to its fullest. Although she could not tarry for long; she might miss out on a good opportunity to see what was happening. Her senses told her that a particular mansion would be a good place to start looking.

She was probably getting close now, she thought. This was an awfully large cloud though. Bigger than a cloud normally is--SMACK! Suddenly, something large collided with her!

"Uwaaaaah!?" The woman gasped in surprise as she collided head-on with something firm but bouncy. Regaining her momentum in the air, she saw herself face-to-face with an extraordinarily large, pink creature. Wait--was that a--someone was in its mouth! Those were definitely legs! She pulled out her phone in anticipation. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't going anywhere...what was it doing?

Before the woman could react further, the creature moved forward and greedily tried to bite down on her phone, causing whoever was caught in its mouth to tumble out. "Ergh! Go away!" It was pushing her down; they were quickly losing altitude. She jerked her hand back and flailed in its direction, but not before it opened its mouth again...

The woman gasped as the cloud cover ended. What WAS this creature?! Why did it have so much food inside of its mouth? The person that was caught earlier had either escaped or fell into its mouth. She had to get footage! She held her phone up...only to have her hair get chomped on by the large, pink creature as it tried to go for her phone again.

"Eeek! Get away from me!" She successfully kicked it away from her without pulling on her hair much, unaware that she had dropped her phone and altitude further in the process. Finally...but now her photo opportunity was nearly gone. "No...gotta...!"

She realized she had lost her phone at the precise moment she realized how low she had descended while it was chasing her--without warning, her left arm and upper body slammed into a tree. "Augh! Ugh!" Wincing in pain, she saw stars as her head banged against the tree trunk. Stunned, she fell down onto a tree branch as the creature flew away with remarkable speed. That stupid floating oaf of a creature had ruined everything for her! How could such an insult to flying creatures have bested her...this definitely was not her day.

"Ah! Nooooo!" She cried out as she slid off of the branch and fell towards the ground. With her right arm, she made an attempt to grab the branch, but it slipped out of her grip, a rough edge of the branch slightly cutting into her hand. She was too low...no way could she make a diving swoop to save herself. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact--

And suddenly her fall was broken rather abruptly. "Uhhh! Nnnnn..." Groaning, she rubbed the arm that had slammed into the tree trunk. It felt broken...

"Ouch..."

She gasped, instinctively rolling off of whatever she had landed on. It was...a human?

He looked up at her, grimacing slightly. "Well, that was quite interesting..."

Bewildered, she sat up, gasping in pain. This was not good...she couldn't afford to get injured now. "Why did you try to catch me? I was going to hit the ground..."

A rather wet, grumpy-looking fairy suddenly flew into view. "UGH...Kenno, you suck...why didn't you save me earlier?! Now I'm all dirty, everywhere! And sticky...eww, so much saliva!!" She started rolling around in the grass, moaning unhappily. "I was almost a fairy snack! Uuu~ Can't believe I forgot I could use lightning..." She continued to grumble to herself. This must have been the person stuck in that...thing's mouth, from before.

The woman reached for her camera to take a picture of this fairy she'd never seen before, but remembered too late that it was missing. "Blast..."

"Sorry, Reisa...that thing moved much faster than I expected it to..." He was catching his breath and--

The woman gasped. A very faint light faded from his fingertips, which were hovered over an injured spot on her leg where her sock had gotten torn by a piece of the branch. The scratches on her leg were very slowly healing. She rubbed her eyes with her one free hand and looked again. "N-No way...you can heal yourself?!" He must be a wizard, then, like that Patchouli. No way would a human be able to heal...she winced suddenly as her left wrist gave out. "O-Ouch..."

"Ma'am, hang on..." Worried, he scooted over closer to her, his fingertips lighting up slightly. He was sweating now, probably due to concentration. His healing was rather slow...maybe he was a magician-in-training.

She stared in wonder for a while. "Thanks...you don't even know me, why are you--"

"Cuz Kenno loves to help girls!" The now mostly-clean fairy had flown over to where they were sitting.

The woman looked up and groaned. "Hey...quit that..." What an annoyance, the woman thought. She was one of those bratty, teasing fairies...

"Hehe, you're embarrassed~" the fairy stuck out her tongue and flew in a cicle around them.

"Reisa, now is not the time for that...I'm sorry, she's really childish sometimes." He sighed. "Anyway, this is all I can do. I'm not the best healer, so..."

The woman shook her head. "No, this is fine...ah! O-Ouch..." She gasped for breath, sighing unhappily. Her body still felt like fire. "Hopefully nothing's broken...stupid pink thing!"

"Hey, help her out!" The fairy seemed in much better spirits, but she had now grasped the gravity of the situation. The woman looked pretty banged up and disheveled.

Grunting, the woman slowly got to her feet with his help. "Tch...this is annoying...I can't fly well like this..." She hovered slightly above the ground, looking for her camera. "It must've dropped over here somewhere..."

"Hey...you sure you're okay? You just hit that tree pretty hard, don't push yourself!" He sighed, walking to catch up to her.

Reisa watched as the woman tried to resist his aid. She had never seen someone like her before. That hat, though...it looked like the hat of someone she'd seen before at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The fairy sighed, finally glad to be free of the creature. What was she, a special on the dessert menu?! She blew her bangs up with a release of breath from her mouth. Fairies are not snacks...

He finally gave up trying to help the woman, even though she looked rather pained and injured still. "Okay, fine, have it your way..." He was getting an independent vibe from her. "By the way...who are you?"

"Me?" She flapped her wings a few times, smiling as much as she could manage. "Just call me Hatate."


(OOC: Hatate GET! Otherwise no changes since my last post, all conditions remain the same. Ken, Hatate and Reisa will try to rendezvous with Keine now.)

[E-Nazrin]

(OOC: Once again, summarized. Full version at Nemo's Orizone.)

9:30 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Living Room

It didn't take long for me to get bored.

What can I say? I'm not the type to stay idle for long, and I'd done about all I could for getting the shrine back together. And after hearing some more about that Kirby of Plenty thing, I was starting to wonder... I sure as hell can't catch or fight that thing, but if it's still running amok after what it did to Chen... there's got to be something I can do.

A little consideration led me to the poor decision of asking Yukari for help. "Hey, Yukari." I paused. "You still listening in?"

"Is poor Jerry-Jerry having trouble sleeping~" Yukari's voice sang, from above the kotatsu I was lounging beside.

Yeah, still not looking. Though I did stop to think about her taunt for a moment. I really wasn't feeling that tired anymore... mostly distracted by that Kirby thing. "I guess. Wondering about that Kirby thing that ran off."

"Oh my, I'm not sure what the God of Plenty would think of that nickname." the gap youkai replied, amused.

"I'm not sure I'll bother learning to call it anything else." I quipped, "But I kinda what to know what the deal is. Is this really a regular thing in Gensokyo?"

Sukima chuckled a little. "Oh, yes, about yearly. Reimu dear always calls it up to help with the feast for Reitaisai."

"'cause she can't provide it herself, right?" I said, then paused. Whoops. I get a little hasty with the offensive jokes when I'm chatting with her... at least Reimu isn't here to shank me for it. Gotta be more careful...

Fortunately, Yukari just laughed. "Oh my, yes, exactly! Sometimes it just gives up, but most years it bounces off to cause a little havoc in the rest of Gensokyo, until it surrenders enough meals and blessings for Reimu. And everyone else following, of course~"

Figures. "And how do they pull that off, usually?"

"Danmaku, of course." She chuckled. "Though it's rather difficult to keep up with, let alone catch properly."

"And I take it just gapping into its face would ruin the fun?"

Yukari's reply was prompt. "You bet! Watching it all is much more entertaining~"

Yeah, that's about what I figured. Though... time to tread on some thin ice... I took the risk of trying to convince her to help figure out some way to get back at it. Thankfully it didn't go too badly, but as for what to do...

"Such as?" the gap youkai asked, sounding bemused by my enthusiasm.

Erk. Okay, I deserved to go on point for that one. "Uh... letting her and Ran chase after it, helping with that as much as you feel comfortable, retrieving the hat somehow, remaking it, um..."

"Hm... well, they're certainly free to join the hunt..." Yukari said, then paused to consider. "... and I believe one of its new tricks is returning eaten things intact..."

Wait, what? "Really?"

"It spat up that violin bow just fine." she replied, sounding... somewhat distracted. Must be something unusual about that... "It could very well return Chen's hat..."

"So how would we..." Whoops. "Er, they manage that?"

Sukima chuckled. "Danmaku, of course. It's no powerhouse, but catching it is rather a problem~"

"What about ambushing it?"

A second or two of silence, followed by a 'zwuun' I was willing to assume was Yukari opening the communication gap a little farther to take a look at me. I tensed up a bit; getting too much attention from her tended to mean trouble...

"Are you scheming something~" she asked, rather playfully.

"Probably."

A chuckle. "Well, go on, then."

I spent a little while asking her about that Kirby god thing, to find that it rather liked foods... especially sweets. And I think I know one or two ways that could be used against it...

-----

10:00 AM, Day 1
Hakurei Shrine Living Room

So I spent a while scheming, asking for info from, and bouncing ideas off of, a rather bemused Yukari-gap. It took a little while to get the details right, but eventually I worked out two big targets it could shoot for, depending on how good its memory and intelligence were: Hakugyokurou's absurdly overstocked pantry, and making Minoriko Aki conjure up tons of food out of nowhere. Assuming she was capable of that, at least... Yukari wasn't sure, though a description of her powers suggested it was possible.

The next problem was figuring out how to go about it. I mean, there are two locations that are worth heading to; conveniently, there are also two shikigami that have reason to want to get a piece of that Kirby thing. The problem is that I rather doubt Ran would want Chen to split up, and sending Chen alone to either location would have its risks; Chen alone would have trouble defending Minoriko, and if PCB was any indication, the way to Hakugyokurou was a bit more dangerous even if Yuyuko and Youmu were much more capable of setting up a respectable ambush once alerted. So either way, there's a risk of some danger to her, and I rather suspect putting Chen in any danger would make Ran a bit upset... and an upset Ran is a danger to my health.

My concerns were interrupted by footsteps from the kitchen and a small yawn. I looked over to see Chen shuffling out of the kitchen, with drooping ears and bleary eyes. Looks like I don't have more time to plan...

"Good morning." I said. "Feeling any better?"

The catgirl blinked at me, and gave me a dull nod. "Yeah," she replied, in a small voice, "A little."

Damn, she looks down. Those ears... shit, moe nosebleed.

I turned away to try and discreetly wipe away the blood on my face. Thankfully Ran's footsteps didn't enter the room until after I'd managed to turn away and start mopping it up. After a moment, she calmly said, "It does look a bit cleaner here."

Oh, right, that's what I left to do first... "Uh... thanks." I replied, a bit timidly. There, face should be clean now...

"Ah, Ran, little Jerry-Jerry had an idea to send you two off to fight the God of Plenty~"

SHIT. Damnit Yukari! Why'd you have to put it that way?! Okay, salvage the situation, salvage the situation!

I managed not to piss off anyone, even if Ran wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. Still, despite Yukari mentioning that Kirbygod was risking its life at the SDM, Ran showed at least enough willingness to ask her master if she should join the chase.

"I'm not the one to ask right now, am I?~" the gap youkai sang back, to put me on point again. The shikigami's gaze focusing on me again made that extra clear.

Time to explain then. "Well, not really. I was uh... more thinking some sort of ambush."

One of Ran's ears twitched. I tried not to stare, because damnit that was cut-NO DON'T NOSEBLEED.

"Hmm. I suppose that could work." she said, coolly, "I assume you have a location in mind?"

Time to tread carefully... "Well... sort of. I mean - it's supposed to like sweets and food, right? And er, if it found Yuyuko's pantry..."

Yukari laughed a little. I'm not sure if it was at my nervousness or the simplicity of the explanation.

Ran was still frowning. Not a good sign. "That's true, but I believe Yuyuko-sama would be able to fend it off herself."

I shrugged a little, trying not to get TOO nervous. "W... well, a warning would still be good, right? And there's another place... well, person that might be worth protecting..."

"Very well."

This isn't going very well. "There's... a minor goddess at Youkai Mountain - near the foot of it, I think - named Minoriko Aki. She's the harvest goddess, so I'm guessing she'd be able to create food, so..."

"I suppose, though I wouldn't expect it to be that... clever." The kitsune didn't seem to be very supportive of this plan...

Okay, I can salvage this... I hope I can salvage this. I just need... oh. Yukari DID give me something for that, didn't she? "Apparently it's been acting weird this year, if what Yukari's been saying is any indication."

... in fact. I grinned a bit and gave her a REAL reason to be enthusiastic about this. "Actually, didn't you say it might be possible to get Chen's hat back?"

Chen had silently listened to the exchange so far, but that got a reaction out of her. The catgirl's ears perked up, and she jumped forward with an eager "Really?!"

The way Ran straightened up after that line made me think I'd caught her attention as well. "Is that true, Yukari-sama?"

Sukima giggled through her gap. "Well, it already ate and spat up a violin bow, so it's a reasonable thing to assume, isn't it?"

Chen clapped her hands and danced in place with glee for a moment. I brought a hand to my nose to hide a thankfully-small nosebleed, easily concealed on my palm and discreetly wiped off on the underside of my clothes. Sorry, Reimu...

Anyway, the catgirl quickly recovered and eagerly grabbed her master's sleeve. "Let's go, Ran-sama!" she paused. "Though, uh... which one should we go to...?"

I'm probably taking too many risks today, but... "Act...ually, I was thinking it might be a good idea to split up...?"

Ran's subtle enthusiasm faded, and she hesitated before responding, "... I'm not sure that would be wise."

"Well, uh, I'm not entirely sure, either." I admitted, "But there's two places to go, right? I uh... just dunno whether it's safer to get to Hakugyokurou than Youkai Mountain, if Yuyuko just needs a warning..."

Yukari interrupted my incoherent excuses with a chortle. "Oh, silly Jeremy. If Yuyu-chan just needs a warning, why don't you go?"

I failed to pick up on two warning signs that would have kept me from turning around to look in surprise in response to that suggestion: First, the soft 'zwuun' that the gap youkai's chortle had masked, and second, the fact that her voice was a little louder and closer than it had been until now.

As it was, I got an eyeful of Yukari's naked torso sticking out of an enlarged gap, covered only by the arms crossed over her breasts.

"Ghk!" I commented, before turning away and attempting to stem yet another nosebleed. "Goddamnit, Yukari!"

She giggled. "Gotcha~ ♥"

Damnit. Well, at least Ran seems to be alright with me reacting like that, if the lack of eviscerating me for similar antics in the past is any indication. That didn't stop her from sighing, but at least it didn't end with me getting violenced.

Rather, after a moment Yukari went on: "Really, little Jeremy, if you're being so helpful, why not be the messenger yourself? I'm sure Yuyu-chan would love to see you again~"

Yeah, and both her and Yukari would love to see her mess with me... though maybe setting up defenses would keep her occupied..... no, it wouldn't. That'd be all Youmu's work, wouldn't it. Well, maybe that'd keep her from trying to kill me?.. urgh, damnit. She's right. Well, except for one thing.

"Uh, I can't fly." I paused for a moment before realizing the other loophole - Yukari gapped me over there the first time around, anyway. "And I thought you weren't going to interfere."

"Oh, I think I can make a small exception for Yuyuko." she explained, "And it's not much more than telling her myself, is it?"

Well, except for my getting abused by the mischievous ghosts being far more amusing...

I sighed. "I guess you're right. Just... don't let Youmu shank me, alright?" She really wasn't fond of me, after hearing about how the Touhou fandom treats her and Yuyuko. Well, rather, that h-doujins of either of them exist. Both Yuyuko and Yukari ordered her not to hurt me for it, but I'm not sure how well that would keep her temper in check alone with me...

"Oh, don't worry, I'll keep an eye out." Sukima said, sounding amused once again. "Bon voyage~"

I felt the floor vanish from beneath me.

Oh, damnit Yukari! At least let me stand up first so I have some chance of landing on my feet!

Gravity briefly made itself known to me, before the feeling of empty air brought me through the gap under me.

(Executive summary: Jeremy comes up with a plan to ambush the God of Plenty. Jeremy is gapped over to Hakugyokurou. Ran and Chen leave for the foot of Youkai Mountain to find Minoriko.)

[Zengar Zombolt]

11:10 AM, Day 1, Wodan's Cottage.

The eyes of the girl opened completely, as she sat in her bed. Her breath was heavy, her pupils were dilated. Hiro was prepared to take any action, yet Wodan approached the girl first. Putting his happiest smile on, he proceeded to engage with the poltergeist.

"Good morning, Ma-am! Welcome to the Ymir Residence! I am the owner of the place, Wodan. What may I do for you?" Hiro's face met her palm at an astonishing speed. Thank god she didn't wait to pull of this maneuver!

"U-Uh... a british breakfast, with a can of beer..." The ghostly girl wasn't even completely awake. And it showed. "...Oh, and a couple of brass knuckles, too..."

Sweatdrops were falling. Oh so fast. I think that room would have drowned within minutes. Thankfully, before that happened the young phantom reacted.

"Eh... Where am I? Where are my sisters? Who are you?" These questions were far more rational. After hearing Hiro's sighing, Wodan started to adress her questions.

"Well, like I said I'm Wodan, she's Hirozawa and this is my house... you kinda appeared in front of us and fell unconscious, so we took you here to help you recover. What is your name, by the way?"

"Huh? Oh, right... My name is Layla... Layla Prismriver. I'm a po-" She didn't get to finish that before Wodan interrupted her. "A poltergeist, right? Hiro over there was clever enough to realize that inmediatly. And your last name gives it away... you must be related to that Phantom Ensemble, right?"

Layla's face changed quickly. She was now interested in what I was saying. "Y-You know about my sisters? Can you tell me where can I find them? Please, I've been searching for so long, and I-" She stopped talking suddenly... at least she realized that she was kinda talking too quickly. "Please, you have to help me find them..."

"Well, finding them wouldn't be that much of an issue... After all, they are somewhat popular, and there's going to be a festival soon. So I guess your reunion is going to be just matter of time. But for now you should get some rest... After all remember that you just woke up from collapsing horribly."

Layla streched. "I'm afraid that rest isn't going to change my state... The reason why am I so exhausted is that as a poltergeist, I need a place to haunt... and well, I haven't haunted a house ever since I became this..."

Zengar was somewhat amazed by this fact. "All this time, without fading out of existence? I remember reading texts about your sisters... really old texts! Are you sure that you haven't haunted a house ever since?"

Layla nodded. Wodan was quick to react. "Well, given the circumstances why don't you spend the rest of the day haunting this house? I'm sure you'll feel better just in time for you to meet your sisters!"

Hirowaza was quick in yelling at Wodan. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't you know what does the word haunt mean? By the end of the day you might be dead!"

Wodan patted Hiro's shoulder. "Look at her, Hiro. Does she seem threatening at all?" Hiro's sudden outburst brought small tears to Layla's eyes. "She's just a poor girl who has been lost for too long. I thought I might as well give her some peace, you know. She deserves it."

Hiro smiled widely. "I guess you're right. I'll trust that you won't cause any harm, do you understand?"

Layla wiped the tears off her eyes, and smiled back. " I promise I'll be gentle and careful!"

"Jeez, Wodan... you're so nice you'll get killed one of these days..."

[Kakyoin]

11:25 AM - Day 1 - Forest Area - Near Scarlet Devil Mansion

"Not too much farther, right?" Reisa flew low to the ground, looking a bit fatigued.

Ken nodded back at the fairy. "We're close to the gate of the mansion, I think."

Reisa sighed. They were being boring. "Hey...Hatate, right?"

The tengu spoke without looking over. "Yes, fairy?"

"So, you're a reporter, huh?"

"Yes..." Hatate looked around, ever so vigilant. "I do enjoy serving up news to everyone. This 'god of plenty' is an excellent opportunity for me." Unfortunately, it had thrown her for a loop a short time ago. She subconsciously adjusted her tokin hat and flipped her hair ribbons. Thank goodness her phone hadn't been damaged too much by the fall, or else she would almost be out of a job!

"Hatate, are you feeling okay?" Ken looked back at her again.

"Pffft." Reisa stuck her tongue out and blew a small raspberry. "He's still lacking in magic."

"Reisa..." He groaned. "That's not helping."

The tengu's checkered skirt flapped in the wind as she smiled at them. "Haha, well I appreciate it, I feel fine." She really was appreciative, but her mind was on something else. This was her chance to get the jump on Aya! Cell phone at the ready, she kept scanning the skies near the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

*BOOM*

"Whoa!" Ken jumped a bit at the sudden crash emitting from the mansion.

Hatate's ears perked up. "Something's happening! I'm gonna investigate, see ya later!" She shot off at a high speed.

"Wait, be carefu--" He held his hand out in vain. She had already zoomed out of earshot. "Eh...she'll be fine, I hope." He half-expected Reisa to make a joke about his worrying, but looked back up and saw that she was preoccupied with something else.

The fairy was looking in the distance, her eyes squinted. "I think...I see someone...it's Keine! Kenno, she's up there in the sky, coming this way!" She eagerly pointed towards a corner of the mansion.

"Reisa, I can't fly. I can't see what you're pointing at..." He jumped up and grabbed onto a sturdy-looking tree branch, grunting as he pulled himself up to a higher vantage point. By that time, the figure was drawing closer. He shielded his eyes from the sun and stared, trying to ascertain its identity. It was...a woman? She definitely looked like Keine, although why she was coming back he had not a clue. "That's..." He looked again, his mouth twisting into a surly frown. "Wait a minute, that's not Keine..."

"Eh? You su--waaa!" The fairy gasped as she saw the thing that ate her, making a beeline straight for the woman in the distance! "Kenno, hurry!" She flapped her wings energetically in preparation for taking off. Looking up again, the woman had stopped and...was that fire in her hands?

Ken had already descended from the tree and, drawing his sword, had taken off to help. However, he slowed to a quick jogging gait and then a standstill as he suddenly witnessed a tremendous spectacle: The woman, her silver hair trailing every which way, placed her hands together as they began to glow. The god of plenty was slowing down in the air; perhaps it was realizing that it had underestimated its target. With no warning, she shot a frothing, screaming torrent of fire out of her hands, engulfing the god of plenty. He gazed in awe, but suddenly remembered something...

Ken dropped his sword. "Wait no, that thing's full of...! It's gonna explo--!" He yelled to the woman in futility; it was too late. The god of plenty, drenched in roaring flames, detonated like a bomb!

He heard Reisa cry out behind him as he instinctively shielded himself. The sky around them was instantly peppered with a pink liquid-like spray. The woman screamed in surprise as she was simultaneously drenched and launched at an odd angle, her body flying directly towards him--

"UGH!"

Careening into him, both of them gasped and rolled at least 15 feet. He felt dizzy after the impact, both of them sprawled out near a tree trunk. Was that--he felt a burning sensation everywhere. This was not good...was that a fire starting, or...no, it was this woman of the flame draped on him...he tried to move his arm but it felt jarred; he gave off an uncomfortable groan.

The silver-haired woman groaned as well. She quickly sat up and surveyed the surroundings. There was no fire; that was good. That was the second time she had been attacked like that, although she certainly didn't expect that awful creature to explode. She felt rather sticky, and now she smelled like--

"Ah...hey, can I..."

The ground beneath her shifted. Startled, she coughed before looking down. When she saw she was sitting on a man, she quickly scooted away, dusting herself off to avoid awkwardness. "Sorry about that, didn't expect it to explode..." She donned a cool face of dissatisfaction at the situation.

Ken sat up, rubbing his left elbow to try to restore its feeling. Thank goodness nothing was broken, she had hit him at what seemed like a high speed. He wondered why collisions seemed to be in store for him today. "That's fine, I'm glad no one got seriously hurt."

This woman seemed remarkably similar to his teacher, although she wore red overalls and a plain dirty-white shirt. Her overalls were quite eccentric and attention-grabbing; he guessed that the god of plenty perhaps had confused them for invitations or other similarly-shaped, attractive objects for consumption. The ends of her incredibly long hair seemed to be also be decorated with them. He finally found himself staring into her distant eyes, which were colored similarly to that of her overalls.

"Something on my face?" She coughed again and wiped her hands on the outsides of her pockets. Her wrist cuffs looked rather scorched.

He deferred his gaze. "No...sorry, I'm just...you look kind of familiar..."

She quickly got to her feet and shook her head, causing her sea of hair to ripple freely. "Sorry, I don't think we've met. You must be thinking of the wrong woman." She put her hands in her pockets. "I'm in a hurry, I'm supposed to meet with some swordsman, or something."

"Whoa, hey! A swordsman? Kenno's a sword dude." Reisa, hands on hips, floated closer. "You have business with this guy?" She tried to look intimidating, or at least on par with the serious countenance of the silver-haired woman. "You didn't even say thanks! He broke your fall!"

She only returned with her serious gaze. "I never asked anyone to save my life. Now, please move out of my way, fairy..."

Ken got to his feet, his only apparent injuries revealing themselves as slight burns on his arms. "Reisa, that's enough. I think I know what's going on...are you in league with my teacher?"

At the sound of the last word that escaped from his mouth, the woman raised an eyebrow. "You know Keine? Hmm...maybe it is you, after all..."

Reisa sat down cross-legged on a large rock, with a pouting face. Her wings were once again sticky and weighed down. The curse of being a fairy, indeed.

The silver-haired woman paid her no mind. "You're this Ken guy? Keine sent me to out here, but I don't know if you're up to the task...hell, you might not even really be him. Maybe I should just do it myself..."

Suddenly, it came to him. He'd seen this woman around Keine before, plenty of times, but they had never been introduced to each other. She must be Keine's friend, the one called Fujiwara no Mokou. Her fiery personality certainly matched the description he had been told. "So you would be Mokou...?"

The woman took her hands out of her pockets. "You know my name...I guess you must know Keine after all."

The fairy was irritated. This woman thinks she's all that, huh?! How unappreciative! "This is the guy you're looking for! Jeez..."

"Reisa, that's enough! No more fighting." He stepped in-between them. Mokou was certainly not very trusting, that much was a certainty. "Yeah, I'm Keine's neighbor. What do you want?"

"Neighbor? Oh, that's right...she's told me that much. All right, I guess it's really you. Listen, there's word going around that that floating pink thing--"

His hand shifted to his side, where his sword once was. "The god of plenty?"

"--right, that...Keine wants you to go back to the Village now. Let's go."

"What? Why should we trust you, anyway..." The fairy, arms crossed, avoided eye contact with the woman.

Ken sighed. "Reisa, don't be like that, okay?"

Mokou grinned. "Ha, your fairy is poorly disciplined. At least you've got some manners. Now come on, no more sitting on our thumbs."

The swordsman stopped in his tracks. "What's so urgent, anyway?" Suddenly, his nostrils realized the smell of watermelon. So the god of plenty was filled with watermelon juice, perhaps? No wonder he felt slightly sticky.

She turned back and looked at him, wearing a cool, serious face. "You want the Village to suffer? That god of...whatever it was...it can split...there's more than one of 'em, you know."

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "Is that so? Interesting...we'd better get going then. Truce?"

Mokou gave a slight grin again, the kind of expression a dealer wears when a juicy deal has been sealed. "Sure, why not."

"Why isn't Keine coming with us?"

"She's investigating at the Mansion still. That kind of thing bores me and she asked a favor, so, eh..." Hands thrust in pockets again, she shrugged offhandedly.

"I hope we aren't a burden, then." His expression was slightly piercing.

"Nah, this ain't half as bad as fighting with that ridiculous, childish--gah, nevermind."

Keine had mentioned Mokou a few times to him. She spoke rather fondly of their friendship, but also disappointingly about Mokou's war with her rival, whose name escaped him at the time. Every time he heard it, it did not make sense to him. Perhaps Mokou was just destined to fight with her rival forever. She certainly seemed stubborn enough and willingly up to the task.

"I see your fairy has decided to hang back."

"Wha?" Surprised, Ken looked around--no Reisa in sight. "Hey, Rei--!" He saw her flying back to the front doors of the mansion, which were surprisingly left unguarded. He sighed. "I don't think she likes you..."

Mokou folded her arms across her chest. She looked rather imposing, like a free spirit who could never be tamed. "Yeah, well that's too bad. Now c'mon, we can't dally." The slight, challenging grin returned. "You up for jogging?" She looked at him not quite scornfully; he chose to interpret it as challenging yet accepting.

"After you."

"Ha! Try to keep up, then!" The challenge was indeed accepted. Today was certainly turning out to be interesting enough for her. It was time to see what this guy was capable of...


(OOC: Hatate is now free, Mokou GET! Ken and Mokou currently heading back to the Village at this time, although they may have a fateful encounter with some Eientei members on the way there. Reisa and Keine currently at the SDM at this time.)

[ES-Anthy]

TIME 5:30 AM
LOCATION: EDGE OF MISTY/SCARLET LAKE


The sky was a dark blue, just on the fringe of dawn as a lone person exits his shack with a fishing pole on hand, an empty stomach, and all of the time in the world.  The alone man walked a few paces to the edge of the lake, sat down, and threw out his line, the light plop of the tackle and hook sounds out with the ripples on the water, and soon it went silent.  As he continues to wait, the sky soon lightened up, the sun rises up into the sky, and the life of the land awakes, the occasional rustle in the leaves, and the sound of the man's stomach roars.

?Damn I'm hungry...?

Several hours have passed since he started his fishing, and no results to show for his time.  The tackle bobs lightly on the water, and Joey wriggles the pole, and it bobs again, tempting, and drawing in Joey as he yanks the pole back, and a crack fills the air...

?Shi-....it broke.? he mutters, the pole snapped nearly in half, just dangling from a few wood fibers, the hook had caught itself on a rock, and Joey's simple fishing pole failed between the immovable object and the unstoppable force, and in the end, left Joey a hungry man. He stands up, pulls in the line and puts his broken rod back inside his mess of a house, a small, single room cabin on the edge of the Scarlet lake and forest, with a bed, a table, a chair, a candle, lots of scattered tools and assorted junk.

?There's no food in the shack, and I ate my backup rations last night, my rod is broken, and I really can't get away with hunting, so searching for berries and shrooms it is.? Joey speaks to himself, soon walking off into the forest with the clothes on his body and the bag on his back with only a few items.

DEEP FOREST NEAR SCARLET MANSION ? 8:00AM

Joey continues to stroll through the forest, pushing past brush and sifting through bushes, slipping between trees until he stumbles on a small clearing, he takes a seat and sighs ?Uugh, where's a damn berry bush or a mushroom or anything around here!? Joey cries out, and is replied to with a small pebble from above!

?Jeeze could you be any louder your dope?? A young voice sounds out from the tree behind Joey, and in it is a young bo- girl, with neck length green hair, a white dress shirt and shorts, the most outstanding parts being two little black antenna on her head and a black cape that splits into two parts at the half way point.

?Sorry Wriggle, just been up since before the crack of dawn and haven't even gotten a bite yet.?  Joey speaks out, turning to the tomboy bug, ?I ate the last of my food last night and there isn't much I can get without my fishing rod, and I can't find anything so far.?

?Did you think of the fact it's barely the beginning of spring?? Wriggle crosses her legs as she sits high up on the branch of a tree. Joey looks down and sighs in realization.

?You know where some food would be then?? Joey looks back up, drooling a little as his stomach growls in its own questioning.

?Yeesh you weren't lying, I don't have any on me now, I tend to bum some off of Mystia though she's busy now.? The bug girl hops off of the branch, landing next to Joey.

?Ugh...this sucks...? Joey mutters, despairing over his growling stomach, the Nightbug walks over and pats him on the back. ?If it was at least winter I could at least eat the snow...?

?You do know that isn't too good for you right?? Wriggle crosses her arms, looking off to the side ?Either way I'm sure you could just grab a bite from someone in the village.?

?Yea yea, just that the odd job business has been drying up...?

As the two mull over the possibilities, a set of feet sound out as they rustle through the grass with each step towards the pair. ?Hello?? another girl calls out from that direction, a girl in white and blue, with short lavender hair and a white hat like a beret. ?Is that you Anthony??

?L-Letty? I thought you left!? Joey perks up, walking briskly to Letty, hugging her tightly, his arms wrapping around her soft body in the cold, brisk air.  Her hands wrap around Joey's waist, gently stroking his back a bit.

?I don't know why I haven't left yet...? Letty trails off a little, continuing to hold Joey close, stroking his head a bit, petting him.  The two stay like this for several moments, in each-others' arms, holding one another.

Joey soon lets go, stepping away from Letty with a tint of red on his cheeks ?Ah, s-sorry, I uh, just, kinda missed you.? He pokes the tips of his fingers together, looking down at the ground.?  Wriggle just giggles, watching the two from a few steps away, and Letty smiles warmly, though the sounding out of Joey's stomach breaks the silence.

?So, how about that Makai place? I know you're familiar with that Sara girl? Wriggle speaks out, poking at Joey's side.

?That could work, I don't really like mooching off of people but...it is a desperate situation.?Joey contemplates, bringing a hand to his chin and nodding.  ?You two don't mind following along do you? It'd be kinda lonely without someone to travel with.?

?I'm good with going with you Joey, it's, interesting seeing everything not covered in snow.? Letty speaks up, walking over to him, taking his hand into her own, their breath visible in the morning air from Letty's presence.

?I'll tag along, always been curious about that Makai place.? Wriggle nods, walking a little ?We might as well get going now.? As both Letty and Joey nod, following the bug in the direction of the Hakurei Shrine, and the gate to Makai.

DEEP FOREST, HEADING TOWARDS GATE OF MAKAI ? 8:30AM - END

[Bias Bus]

7:00 AM, Day 1 - Makai ~ Luize's Abode

The curtain was closing...

The curtain to the wonderous dream that was playing through Owlbear's mind. It had all been glorious experience, one he didn't want to end or something he thought wasn't even possible. Then, like a hunter in the night, reality backstabbed fantasy with it's cold knife, bleeding it dry of all it's chimerical goodness and slowly pulling the 22 year old slacker back into the waking realms of what was real. With a stubborn groan, Owlbear fought against the current, hoping to regain dominance over the urges of his own mind and, for a moment, he felt that he was going to win this battle. Until...

"Owlbear~!"

That cheerfully polite voice from the kitchen rang in his ear and did well to spook whatever sleep he held right out of his body, much to his disdain. Sleep was one of Owlbear's favorite things to do...but, alas, he was already awake thanks to a certaind demon's calling. No use in trying to return within it's embrace...once Owlbear fell out of sleep it was hard for him to go back into it. With his mind now waking up, Owlbear begrudgingly pushed the covers off his face, the morning rays of the sun seeping into the room he called home...at least, home here in Makai. Unlike the woman who called him...he wasn't exactly a native here. At least...he thought he wasn't. It's hard to remember where you come from when alot of your memories were pretty much wiped from your mind.

"Ugh...screw this..." Owlbear grunted under his breath, as he turned onto his side and pulled the covers back of his head, not in any mood to make any moves that required him to get out of bed. Sleep was his mistress...and she had been good to him all his life. With this logic in mind, who was he to ignore the caress of the sleep that he loved so much?

"Owlbear," That same voice called back to him, the sound of a door opening behind the bed letting Owlbear know who was in here; his roommate and landlord, Luize. Owlbear didn't make any attempt to move, hoping that Luize's naturally polite demeanor would help ward her off from bugging him any further. Unfortunately, her busting into the room was proof enough that she wasn't going to leave him be. "What are you still doing in bed, I called you almost 3 minutes ago."

"Mrgh...I dun wanna get up..." Owlbear whined lazily, his tone very similar to that of a child who refused to get up for their first day of school. "Can't you lemme sleep in for like...another minute...?" Luize responded only with a surpressed sigh as she stepped forth to force her roomie out of bed. He was always difficult to get out of bed, especially on days when they had to do somethings. And of all days to do this...

"Well tough kitties, we have something to do today." Luize remarked, taking the drapes in hand and pulling them apart to let in the full brilliance of the sun, the brightness of it all evoking a defensive response from the lazy outsider who moaned rebelliously and wrapped himself up within the covers. Luize turned to the crumpled mass of covers and stood akimbo, her lips pulled into a frown as she fixated her (still closed) eyes on the unmoveable Owlbear. "Now, wake up those lazybones, we have somewhere important to go and you're going with me."

"What do ya want me to go for?" Owlbear asked, wondering just why Luize was so bent on dragging him with her. She could do whatever it is she was gonna do on her own...couldn't she? "...I'll just get in the way, you go ahead..."

"Oooh no you don't. You're not pulling the wool over my eyes with that one again." Luize knew this routine of his...the 'I'll make myself look useless so I don't have to do anything' card. Owlbear's played it before and she fell for it like a sack of bricks. Not this time. "Now, get dressed. Miss Shinki has requested our presence at the palace and we mustn't be late." Upon hearing this, Luize heard a rustle behind her, turning around to see that Owlbear was at full attention in bed. If she wanted his attention, then it seems she's already managed to gain it...

"...Sh-Shinki requested wants us to come to the palace?" Owlbear parroted, "What for? Is it because of the clogged toilet explosion? I swear to god that I was on break when that happened!"

"...It has something to do with the outside affairs of Makai, preferably Gensokyo." Answered Luize, ignoring how and why Owlbear would. "I can't recall all of the details but, that's why we're going to see Miss Shinki. It was, after all, her idea to send us." This was  apart of a much broader plan that was in part of the reconstruction of Makai. Years back, there was a grave incident that took place in this realm, one that resulted in thousands upon thousands of destroyed homes and broken communities. Outsiders from Gensokyo came into Makai (some would argue they invaded it with malicious intent) seek to solve a problem with demons overruning Gensokyo due to a problem with Makai's tourist agency. It eventually led up to a destructive battle between the intruders and Shinki, the fight itself destroying most of Makai in it's wake. After the incident, and Shinki's defeat, Makai was immedieatly sealed off from Gensokyo entriely as Shinki made time to rebuild her world from the ground up. Owlbear wasn't present during the incident or the reconstruction, so much of his know how on what happened back then was only accessable through stories and rumors.

"Gensokyo...aren't those the guys that came here wreckin' junk some odd years ago?"

"Not it's entirety, just several of it's natives, but they still caused quite a ruckus here nonetheless." Luize nodded, recalling her struggle against them all those years ago. In all honesty, she had forgotten alot about it but, this recent chore Shinki seemed to want to impose on them was a good way to remind her of what happened back then. Because of her forgotten experiences with the intruders, Luize didn't think she harbored any sort of ill feelings towards them but, the destruction of her home was something she wanted to blame them for...everyone in Makai wished to pin the blame and hatred on the outsiders, especially for their crimes against Makai. "Now then, get up and put some clothes on...I doubt Shinki would think highly of you if you came to her palace in your night clothes~"


7:25 AM, Day 1 - Makai ~ Pandemonium - Throne Room

"And that's how it happened, Miss Shinki." A demon maid concluded, her story finished as she and several others who accompanied her bowed to the silver haired woman who stood before them. This was the one and only goddess of Makai, having forged the land and it's people from her own hands long ago. As a result, Shinki was the ruler of this realm and it's people,  "Please, don't punish us about the...erm, explosion in the restroom."

Shinki looked to the maids for a moment, her confusion obvious on her face as she turned to the head maid of Pandemonium and the strongest known creation she ever had; Yumeko. "...What is this 'explosion in the bathroom', everyone keeps going on about, Yumeko?"

"Something that's simply been overblown by rumors." Yumeko replied to the goddess surpressing a tone of annoyance as she turned to the maids and thrust her finger to the immense doors of the throne room. "Leave. All of you. There's much work to be done around the palace." The maids arose and took their leave of the room, their silent exit only doing well to increase what little was said between the demon goddess and her head maid. Eventually, Yumeko's lack of words evoked a curious response from Shinki.

"Yumeko...is there something I should know?"

"No, I assure you Miss Shinki, everything is perfectly fine." Yumeko told the goddess, Shinki's suspicious expression staring at the maid for several seconds before it finally relented and a smile returned to her lips. Yumeko always told her the truth and made sure everything within the palace was in working order, of course, Shinki could trust her judgement on the situation.

"Very well, I'll take your word for it, Yumeko." Shinki remarked, rising from her throne. "But, if I find out something different, I'll expect you to take responsibility for this ordeal. So let's hope there are no more exploding toilets~"

"...Indeed, Miss Shinki..." The entire exchange about exploding toilets was Yumeko's share of weird junk of the day. It probably didn't help matters that she wasn't exactly sure where this rumor even originated. Although, if she could make at least one guess...

"No, you can't use my flying suitcase." And it centered around the one 'busted leg' of all the staff of this here demonic castle that had just walked in behind Luize, apparently wanting to use her prized suitcase in which she carried with her on her many different travels. The so called, 'busted leg' was a human that fell into Makai and took up residence with the resident tourist and the only one who seemed to have alot of knowledge on outside cultures that are otherwise foreign to Makai as a whole. As Shinki looked on with curiosity on as to what Luize and her little earthen roommate were discussing, Yumeko's golden eyes narrowed as she glared at Owlbear's visage. "Good morning Miss Shinki, I hope we're not late." Luize spoke up to the goddess,

"You're not late at all, Luize. In fact, you're much earlier than I expected." Replied Shinki.

"Hm, which is quite surprising given how someone has a poor preception of staying awake and active." Luize knew who this directed to, one of her closed eyes, opening slightly to look to her room mate.

"That was messed up and you know it." Owlbear muttered, giving the tourist a dirty look. Luize, didn't seem sorry about the comment at all and even came to chuckle at Owlbear's reaction. Luize had always given the air of how she seemed to act polite and well mannered around other folks, but Owlbear has seen a fair amount of instances where she shed this facade and showed a much more sinister side. Oddly enough, this only seemed to crop up one of Luize's eyes open up...Owlbear isn't sure how trolley she'll get if she opens BOTH eyes, but he has always made it his best effort not to be near her when that happened.

"In anycase, I'm glad that the both of you volunteered for this, I was afraid no one would come up and take the challenge." Shinki began, as she gave the demon tourist and the attention impaired human a grateful smile. Owlbear was still in the dark as to what this all meant and what she wanted them to do...but judging by what Shinki was talking of, it seemed like it would be fairly hard. Owlbear disliked things that were difficult...especially if said tasks were difficult for no reason. "Now that I've successfully managed to rebuild Makai from that...accident years ago, I think it's time I mend our relations with the realm of Gensokyo by allowing the gate to be re-opened. That said, I can understand why many of the demons would be hesitant to accept this, many of them rather dislike Gensokyo for the outcome of the incident. However, I don't wish for our relationship with the residents of that realm to linger on our past squabbles, so I feel it's only best to send several of Makai's residents to Gensokyo and have them live amongst the locals for a while.

"Oh, so it's like...playing Ambassador and all that, huh?"

"Yes, that's exactly what the both of you will be doing." Shinki nodded in agreement, "My main reasons for doing this is that I feel we all can benefit from a reestblished connection with Gensokyo. It not only shows the demons in Makai that Gensokyo shouldn't be disliked for their past relations with us, but also works as a way to open new paths to what Gensokyo has to offer to us, and perhaps even allowing the residents to see our world, as well. It's a chance to make Makai better than it was before and we'll need Gensokyo's help for it. In anycase, I'll have the gate opened for you to begin the task at hand." So that's what this was all about, Makai was about to be reconnected to Gensokyo via a reopened gate. Of course, Luize saw the oppurtunity to point out a possible hidden motive to all of this...

"...Are you sure, it's not so you can see Alice again?"

The room fell eeriely silent, Yumeko glancing to an expressionless Shinki and Owlbear looking to Luize who merely smiled to the goddess as she awaited her initial response. Alice was the 'supposed daughter' of Shinki, the only one so far to have left Makai entirely and never returning after the gate itself was closed to beging reconstruction of Makai. Luize told Owlbear of how Shinki was greatly saddened by her disappearance from Makai, but ultimately, put it out of mind to focus on rebuilding her world. "...Seeing Alice again has nothing to do with my overall goal of this mission." Shinki finally answered, her straight face seeming to faulter for only a moment as she spoke once more. "...But it certainly wouldn't hurt if I could meet her again. Unfortunately, I can't really leave with you so, do you mind if you do one more favor for me?"

"Sure, what would that be?" Luize already had a good idea where this little 'favor' would end up going...

"Tell Alice that her mother misses her...and that she'd love it if she would visit sometime."

8:05 AM, Day 1 - Makai ~ Luize's Abode - Luize's Backyard

"Hah, sweet ASS we get to use you're Flying Suitcase!" Owlbear cheered, Luize seeming to pay his excitement no mind as she revealed her fabled 'Flying Suitcase' to the human. At first glance, one would have mistook it as a normal, everyday suitcase, one that told of all the places Luize has been to in her days as a tourist. By this point, though, Owlbear wasn't detered by the rather average appearance of the flying luggage bag and instead embraced a ...that is until he realized on thing about it. "Although, I'm kinda worried about...y'know falling."

"You're not going to fall, do you think I would let that happen to you~?" Luize said, dropping her things into the suitcase and sealing it shut. Owlbear had really no idea as to how much space that thing had, but it certainly was bigger on the inside than what it appeared...he could have sworn, Luize dumped at least 3 weeks worth of clothes in that thing. All Owlbear had was a backpack of sorts that didn't even hold two days worth of clothes.

"Well no, but there's always a possibility for an accident, y'know." Owlbear said.

"Well don't worry, I'll be willing to catch you if you (somehow) fall off." Luize replied, the odd suitcase beginning to levitate off the ground. With the suitcase, effectively airborne, Luize hopped onto her cubical stead and motioned Owlbear to follow behind. "Come along now, we had better get moving~"

Owlbear nodded and stepped forth to begin his new adventure on the outside of Makai for the first time...

"What the...?" Too bad, he had suddenly come down with a strange form of full body paralysis, one that froze him in place fully erect and frozen in place. "I can't...move..." Not only that...but his senses to the world around him were all but dampened; he couldn't hear, he couldn't speak, his vision of Luize and his surroundings were beginning to grow distorted and fade from his eyes. Owlbear could only stand in his frozen state, his mind in a rush of questions on what was happening to his body as a chilling aura began to encroach upon.

Then, out of nowhere, a pair of arms drapped around his neck as an otherworldly presence manifested directly behind him.

You didn't think you were going to Gensokyo without me, did you?

It sounded of a woman...one who's voice was like silk to his ears, yet menacing to his heart.

"Wait, who are...?"

Shhh, don't talk. The less we say the better~

And just when things couldn't get weird enough, Owlbear could feel something slithering into his body. A cold presence that felt like nothing he had ever experienced before was slowly invading his person.

"Wh-wha...what're you...?"

Just need to hijack your body for a while. Hope you don't mind a strapping young woman inside you~

... ... ...

"O-Owlbear, Owlbear!" And just like that, the voice in his head, the chilling sensation running through his body, and the odd form of paralysis subsided as the outsider's mind regained awareness of the world around him. Owlbear's body convulsed as his muscles relaxed once again and he regain control of his motor functions, the outsider let out a deep gasp as his head snapped back into normal position and his eyes realigned themselves. Naturally, Luize was more than a little concerned about what was happening to him. "Owlbear, my goodness are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah...I'm fine." Owlbear muttered, rubbing the side of his head. "Dunno what that was about..."

"Maybe you should stay here, I don't want to bring you along if you're under the weather."

"Naw, I got this." Owlbear shook his head, hopping onto the back of the flying suitcase. Just as if he was riding a motorcycle, Owlbear braced himself onto Luize...only to find his hands wander...

"Ooop!" Luize yelped in surprise, turning around to see her room mate's palm resting on her bottom. "Owlbear, you-!"

Owlbear blinked in confusion at Luize's angered expression before his eyes traveled down to the source of her annoyance. Automatically, he recoiled and tried to clear his name. That certainly wasn't his doing...he knew his boundries and what not to touch on Luize. "I-It wasn't me! Well, it was me but I didn't do that on purpose!"

Luize merely turned her nose up in disgust and silently commanded the suitcase to take off into the skies above Makai...

Hmhm, sorry. I just had to give your body a test drive~

[Kakyoin]

11:40 AM - Day 1 - Grassy Path - Between Human Village & Scarlet Devil Mansion

Mokou spat onto the ground, putting one foot up onto a small rock. "Yuck, what was inside of that thing, anyway? I'm so sticky...and I'm tired of smelling like this..."

Sighing and panting slightly, Ken took a seat on the grass. Mokou was a pretty fast runner. Fortunately, they had decided to take a break here in the clearing. He decided against asking if she wanted to be drenched. Mokou was fiery in both spirit and ability, surely she wouldn't respond well to such a suggestion. "There isn't really much we can do about it, sorry."

"I smell like...like strawberries, or something!" Her face twisted in disgust, she leaned against a rather out-of-place tree, choosing not to sit down.

Ken's mind was racing, as usual. He hoped Keine and Reisa were okay. Reisa in particular; she didn't seem to hit it off well with Mokou. But then again, she had her specific tastes and besides, he was like that too. Regardless of all that, the day had definitely been nothing short of exciting so far.

He was suddenly distracted by an interesting, oddly pleasant smell. It wasn't just the fruity scent that plagued both himself and his company; it seemed like an amalgamation of the former, and additionally like that of body odor.

She looked at him. "What, what is it?"

"Ah, nothing really." For some bizarre reason, the smell of her sweating body mixed with--no, he shouldn't think of it further. What was wrong with him? Maybe he didn't sleep enough last night, or the day's events had worn on his mind somehow. Reisa would have a field day poking fun at him right now, if she was still here. Maybe it was best to just let it go without mentioning anything else.

But Mokou had already read his facial expressions. "Heh. Sorry I'm not your typical girl, staying clean isn't at the top of my list."

He closed his eyes, his face slightly flushed. "That's--"

"You can complain if you want, I don't mind. I'm rather used to it." Her expression cracked a small smile. "The fruity smell probably helps, right?"

"I suppose, and I don't have any complaints." This conversation could use a change of subject before it got too awkward. "So, you're Miss Keine's good friend...I've seen you plenty of times but never really got a chance to say hello."

She idly twiddled a lock of her long, flowing hair. "Yeah, I don't have many that I call 'friend', but your teacher is--well, you know the deal with Keine and humans."

"Human?" He leaned forward. "Oh, that's right." He thought she might be a youkai of some sort, with the power of fire she held.

"Surprised I can use fire so well, as a human? It's an interesting story, but for another day, maybe."

"I see."

There was a slight pause in the conversation. Ken spoke up after a few moments of silence.

"So why are you doing this, anyway?" He got the impression that she tended to roam and do what she wanted to do. Based on his experience so far, he guessed that she wasn't very happy about spending time with him in tow. Not much he could do about it, though.

"Isn't it obvious?" She tried to uncross her arms, but they were too stuck together to be worth uncrossing.

"So you're doing this just because Keine asked you to?"

"That, and because it's something exciting, sort of. But she's pretty much my only friend." She bit lightly at one of her fingernails. "Not only a friend, but somewhat of a guardian too." She quickly added, "not that I need help too often!"

"I wonder why Keine hasn't introduced you to us." Mokou was mostly an enigma to him even though he'd seen her multiple times.

"'Us'? You mean you and that stupid fairy?"

"Reisa isn't stupid! She just--I don't know what happened back there, I hope she's not going to be like that for too long." He sighed and wound several longer blades of grass around his fingers.

"Oh well, too bad. But I don't really care too much. It's easy to make friends, but it's also very easy to lose 'em too."

He wrinkled his nose briefly. She wasn't very personable or open, but she likely had some good reasons for it. "I understand. I hope I'm not dragging you down or anything."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Surprisingly, she smiled rather warmly. She probably was just being nice because he was associated with Miss Keine.

"Ouch..." Mokou winced as part of her hair got tangled together in her fingers. Whatever that 'god of plenty' had covered her with, it was causing her whole body to stick to itself. "This is not...ugh."

"Do you..." He hesitated before asking. "Would you like some help?"

She gave a short laugh. "Ha, what're you going to do? Showers and baths don't roam freely in the wild."

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe they don't, but I know a little magic..."

"You do? Didn't think people actually kept up with their training these days." Since when did humans try to learn magic? Was it not too complicated and pointless for them to learn in their meager lifespans?

Ken produced a small cloth that he kept in his waistline at his back. "You'll need this afterwards."

She looked at him skeptically. "Wait, you're serious? What are you going to do, shower me with water?"

He tucked the towel under his arm and held his hands out, concentrating on bringing up the image of rushing water in his head. Hopefully this time, he would actually do it right.

Mokou stood there, waiting impatiently. "So..."

Unresponsive, he continued to focus. If anything, he needed to get this down. Keine would be delighted at his progress, but it was almost making his head hurt.

"This isn't a joke, right? I appreciate the effort, but if it's just kiddie magic then--"

Suddenly, a miniature surge of water engulfed her! She gasped in surprise, closing her eyes and holding her arms up in front of her. It was very cold but strangely welcome on her sticky body. "Plfgh!"

No sooner had it began, the water finished crashing over her as it settled in the surrounding grassy domain, hungrily consumed by the dry land. She shook her incredible mass of hair as water leapt from it in all directions. "T-That was...interesting..." Shivering slightly, she took the cloth from his outstretched hand and began methodically wiping first her skin and then her clothes off as best she could.

Exhausted, he sat back down without saying a word. He felt a headache coming on, but he put on a serious face in an attempt to mask it. Magic was tough on the mind, and it would only get worse from here on out, the more complicated the spells got.

She wrapped her hair around her left shoulder and tried to wipe it, but soon gave up. Feeling cleaner, she summoned a warm fiery light in her hands to restore her temperature. "Not b-bad, I guess..."

"I'm still rather novice at such arts. I need more practice...much more practice."

She felt a surprisingly warm feeling stir in her, and she offered the cloth back to him. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine, it's not too much farther." Putting on an air of slight humility, he attempted in vain to brush the grass off of his sticky clothing. He was trying to convince himself that he had only done it for the sake of practicing magic. "Mokou, why don't you live in the Village with other humans?" Before she could interrupt him he continued. "Surely if they accept Miss Keine..."

She flipped her hair back and fiddled with one of the many tags on her somewhat poofy pants with her right hand. Her expression had turned to that which looked not the least bit humorous. "You don't know much, do you? I--bah, we should get going now."

He reached up to scratch his head but stopped upon realizing his hand was too sticky to continue effectively. Perhaps he had touched a tender subject. She didn't look too old, but looks could be deceiving; maybe she was hiding a tremendous secret. Perhaps it had something to do with Keine not introducing her even after all these times seeing her. He shook his head; he was too curious for his own good. "Sure, I'm ready to go if you are."

"Eh...we talked for too long." She clicked her tongue and held up a hand, feeling a slight breeze lift the fire that was resting in her palm up and over her body. The flames licked at her limbs and dried her clothes ever so slightly with each passing moment. Why did she talk so much with a stranger? She was trying to convince herself that she had only done it since he was Keine's neighbor.

"Your control of fire is astounding. I wish someday I could become half as proficient as you in that regard..."

Hands now in pockets, she shrugged. "Well, when you've--" She caught herself before spilling the beans. "It, it just takes practice."

He noted that she seemed rather irritated. "Anyway, the Village isn't too far from here." He yawned briefly, his eyesight temporarily blurring as he blinked many times over.

"Yeah, let's get outta here."


(OOC: Ken and Mokou are heading back to the Village at this time. Nothing new to add here.)

[Tsunade Gakudan]

The Hot Springs; Near the Hakurei Shrine. 11:20 AM, Day 001.
[The Prologue: Part 5.]

Money missing, bag stolen, chasing an unknown being all the way to the surface of Gensokyo, and what were they doing now…

“Come on Tsunade; can’t wait on you forever.”

Taking a break at a spring. Tsunade sighed a little as she wrapped the towel around her and headed outside. Her eyes caught the green hat she had been wearing for most of the morning. Whilst it seemed silly to take it with her, given the area she was in, something about it kept telling her to take it anyway. Tsunade sighed again before grabbing the hat.

…

“Honestly; you humans take so long.”

Yuugi grinned back at her as she finally emerged. Tsunade was half expecting a comment regarding the hat and towel combo; but Yuugi seemed to ignore it. It was almost like it was a part of her now.

“I didn’t mean to take that long.” She answered back. “It’s not like my mind wanders on to…”

“Relax!”

Yuugi’s hand playfully slapping her back caught her by surprise; almost causing Tsunade to lose balance.

“We’ll get your things back soon enough.” Yuugi beamed. “So just relax for a little while.”

Tsunade was tempted to pout and retaliate, but thought better of it. To be fair, Yuugi was right; this was the first time she had actually explored any part of the surface of Gensokyo. The pair of them picked up a bowl each and headed outside.

…

The steam clouded their vision for a few short seconds before the water could finally be seen in front of them. For Tsunade, it seemed to take a lot longer; she wasn’t sure if it was just her eye-sight or if it was because she was human. It certainly lived up to its name of being hot; even outside of the water. Tsunade’s imagination, however, was almost certain that the water would burn her. As she took a step forward, the familiar ‘pulling back’ grip of Yuugi’s hand kept her from going any further.

“Can’t you see it?”

Tsunade looked back to ask why, but thought better of it and looked back to whatever Yuugi was staring at. Sure enough, there was some sort of silhouette in the steam; the figure becoming more and more human like as her vision got better.

“It? That’s quite rude of you~”

Tsunade whirled round in confusion as Yuugi continued to look on.

“And just how long do you plan on being mysterious… Yakumo?”

The steam started to subside, almost in response. As it did, Tsunade began to see a long, blonde haired lady wearing nothing but a grin on her face. The lady was sitting in the spring itself, her top half above the smoking water.

“Honestly.” The lady giggled. “It’s nice to be playful once in a while, no? You oni sure like being serious.”

Tsunade chuckled a bit this time as Yuugi glanced down at her.

“If we were being serious, would we really be standing here in a towel?”

“Oh my, such a funny little human you have there.” The lady smiled evilly. “Is this what a Deva has been reduced to, huh? Guiding humans around?”

Yuugi clenched her left hand slowly; her anger beginning to rise ever so slightly.

“I’ll have you know that we’re chasing a…”

“God; yes I know.” Yakumo interrupted. “Everyone is currently after it up here.”

Tsunade’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Wait, you know? Then can you tell us where it is?”

The lady whipped out a fan and held it up to her face; covering the obvious grin.

“I could, but then where would the fun in that be?”

“Would it be fun if I beat you for it?”

“Relax!”

This time, it was Yuugi who got a slap on the back. A hand appeared from some small gap in the air and gently tapped her.

“Don’t play with me, Yakumo.” Yuugi growled. “You know what we’re like.”

“Which part of you though?” Yakumo asked playfully. “Your lack of fun or your lack of chest?”

In a single second, water exploded into the air. Yuugi had taken one step forward and punched the water; sending a wave in her direction. The lady vanished and reappeared in an alternate part of it. Tsunade was showered as the stream of water began to fall down around the area as Yakumo seemed to float up into the sky. It was beautiful to Tsunade, almost; the sight of her figure, before the barrage of small arrows rained down on to the spring, was quite something. Yuugi moved around and flung her towel to the side; to her, it probably didn’t matter at this point. For a few seconds, Tsunade was frozen on the spot; witnessing yet another danmaku fight with Yuugi involved. Sure, this time it was vastly different; both Yuugi and her opponent were naked, and, instead of just danmaku, water was flying in the midst of all the steam that rose around them. But it was a fight nonetheless. In any other normal circumstance, she would have lingered around and watched from a safe distance. But there was nowhere she could go. If she ran back to the changing area, she would be likely swept off her feet. So Tsunade turned away from the spring itself and ran.

…

“You sure haven’t lost your abilities.” The gap youkai chuckled as she sent a stream of lasers out from another gap.

Yuugi flew cleanly out of harms way before diving into the water. The impact sent water shooting up like a geyser. But it wasn’t just water being aimed at her; a mix of danmaku, big and small, had launched up with it. For anyone else, this would be extremely hard to dodge; but she knew Yukari well. Her gaps had saved her one too many times. But she still could fall like everyone else. Another attack narrowly whizzed past Yuugi as Yukari poked out of another gap; sending small arrows towards her. Doubling back to outside of the spring, Yuugi realized she was missing one crucial thing; spell cards. Yukari, almost sensing this, pulled out one from her gaps and grinned at the oni.

“So, do you concede yet?”

“Like hell!”

…

Tsunade wasn’t the best runner; in fact, for a human, she was half decent. Hanging around Oni taught her how to keep her stamina up throughout the evenings; but she never did run much. Plus, it didn’t help that she only had a towel around her. Of all the times to be on the surface, she had to be making a first impression by streaking with a towel. As she got further away from the spring, however, she took note of another building coming into view. It didn’t take her long to realise that it was a shrine. But the amount of debris nearby sent warning bells through her head. If what that lady had said was true, it probably ran through here too. She sighed a little as that would also mean no one would be there. It was the perfect place to stay inside and...

“Huh?”

She heard it all at the last possible second. And she saw something that, for everything she had witnessed in the Ancient City, seemed impossible.

…

Yuugi had swung every possible pattern she could towards Yukari; almost in a sense of urgency. If she attacked without her cards, Yukari would have even more to hold above her. But if she carried on like this, it would do her no favours.

“Perhaps I should end this…”

Yukari looked down at the oni, fighting off her cruel patterns with grit determination. She knew an oni would never try to fight unfairly; but she couldn’t help but play the ‘fun but evil’ card on her when the chance arose. Suika had been caught out like this before. Yuugi, however, was handling it differently. Yukari glanced at the card and smiled before focusing for what seemed like a few seconds.

“Abandoned Line - Aimless Journey to the Abandoned Station!"

A huge gap opened up in front of Yuugi as the danmaku began to subside. Yuugi took several steps backwards; almost waiting for the next wave of danmaku to appear. But it never came. In fact, even after ten seconds, nothing came out. The oni knew that something wasn’t right; however, getting closer to it screamed ‘trap’ more then getting further away. She glanced behind her, spotting Tsunade nearby. A Shrine stood close by too; one she had heard about before. Her thought was to call out to her, but something else caught her attention first. A horn, of some sort, sounded behind her; followed by the sudden noise of something approaching. No sooner had she turned around, a huge metal object was hurtling towards her very position. In the blink of an eye, Yuugi’s foot stomped into the ground hard as her right hand clenched up. The train was going to hit her, but not if she could hit it first. It was at that exact moment, Yukari looked on and realised what was about to happen.

“HYA!”

Yuugi punched the front of the object with all her might. In a split second, the moving ceased. In fact, it did more then just that. The object crumpled like it was paper; the force of the punch was far greater then the speed it was travelling at. The object, unfortunately, was connected to others exactly like it. No sooner had the front one stopped, the rest were still travelling at the same speed. One by one, each took off into the sky; departing in different directions.

…

She had to be dreaming. She just had to be. Tsunade looked up in disbelief as something very familiar flew over her head. It was something she hadn’t seen for quite some time. Something that looked like a carriage from a train. It flew clean over her; debris scattering around her as it went. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a couple more; but they vanished pretty quickly. Maybe it was all a dream…

And then the earth rumbled below her; knocking her clean off her feet. If that didn’t signal the fact that something monumental had just happened, the sound of destruction certainly would. The train came down on its front; right in the heart of the shrine itself. Everything began to crash down around it as the train began to tilt. It came down onto its side as it crushed everything beneath it. The breaking of wood and everything else that made the shrine what it was, mixed with the roar the train made as it collapsed onto the ground was simply too much for Tsunade to take in. She stood up slowly as the train fell into some form of hole; leaving only the remains of the shrine in its place.

[日巫子]

11:20AM Day 1, Near Scarlet Devil Mansion

It had been a short while since Himiko and Kasen had been left alone, and they were now continuing their search for the God of Plenty once again.  Over the tops of the trees, however, Himiko could see something that caught her eye.  Halting right in the middle of the path, she stood on her toes, trying to get a better look at it.  Kasen stopped walking and turned her head, looking over at her human companion with an expression of slight curiosity. 

?Hm??

?That?s totally a haunted house.?  Himiko, who was still standing on tiptoe, deescalated to her normal height.  Kasen blinked, and walked over to join her in looking.  From where the two were standing, they could see the roof of a brilliant red mansion, peeking out from over the treetops a distance away.  Kasen hummed in thought for a few moments before smiling a little.

?It must be the Scarlet Devil Mansion.  I?ve heard a little bit about it, but I don?t know whether or not it?s haunted,? the hermit explained.

?Heheh.?  Himiko was getting a bit excited just looking at the mansion, trying to imagine it as an amusement park attraction.  There would be paintings with eyes that followed you and boarded up windows, complete with skeletons decorating the walls and cobwebs in every corner of the ceiling.  It would be a little chilly, too, with a draft that you couldn?t quite tell the direction of.  And then you got lazer guns and shot everything down in a seizure-inducing rampage of glory and blinking red lazer beams.  As long as she thought of it as harmless and staged, it was fine?

?Well, whatever we?re looking for is probably around there,? Kasen said.  They both turned, ready to continue on towards the mansion

Fweeeeeeeeeeeeee

?Followed by a rumbling sound.  The ground itself didn?t rumble, but the noise was sudden and loud, causing both girls to jump out of their skins.
Kasen whipped her head towards the direction of the sound and furrowed her brow. 

?What was that???  Could it be what they were looking for?  She grabbed Himiko?s hand (?Eh?  What?  Where are we going??) and started backtracking down the path they were taking to the mansion.

~

11:25AM, Day 1, Outside the Entrance to the Underground

Utsuho had a bird?s eye view of Gensokyo, literally.  As she exited the tunnel leading to the Underground, she was treated to the sight of a huge, expansive blue sky ahead.  It was quite different to the cave she was used to, to put it lightly, although she didn?t mind this, either.  Now that she was above ground, it was time to find out where this festival was being held.  Swooping low, she shifted back into her human form, briefly wondering how long it took for her to get from the Palace of the Earth Spirits to the surface.  There was that run in with a key lime pie, of course?and the pink puff ball.

Catching herself with her wings, Utsuho landed feet first on the ground and started walking away from the entrance of the Underground.
~

11:37AM, Day 1, Steps leading to the Hakurei Shrine

It was a torii.

?Shinto Shrine??  It was a rhetorical question for Himiko, even if she had never been to one.

?It?s the Hakurei Shrine.? 

The name of the place the flower viewing was being held, right?  Himiko let go of Kasen?s hand and started hopping up the steps.

?Be careful, okay??  The hermit called out her warning as she started following her friend up the stairs at a leisurely pace.

Himiko turned and waved back.  ?Yeees.?  She went a bit faster, going two steps at a time until she was standing underneath the torii.  Looking out past that, she expected to see something amazing?but then her heart sunk when she saw the ruined remains of what was most likely the shrine in question.  That was the first thing she saw.

[Kakyoin]

11:50 AM - Day 1 - Ken's House - Human Village

Mokou sniffed and walked around inside the abode. "Smells good in here...does Keine hide her perfume in your house, or somethin'?"

"N..." Ken fought back an unamused sigh and an eye roll. "...no, not that I know of."

"Really? Well, something smells good in here, and it most certainly isn't me."

"It's probably something of Reisa's, she leaves her toiletries here occasionally. That, and the bathroom is nearby, it's right around the corner."

"Ha, if you say so. Still smells like lady in here." She paused and turned around, looking at him playfully yet suspiciously. "That fairy's not someone special, is she?"

Taken aback, he blushed slightly. His face transformed to that of slight irritation as he began to dig the toe of his shoe into the carpet. Whatever was she saying? Reisa was only sent here upon special request, anyway. "She's helping me with magic." He was getting overly defensive about it; Mokou would surely jump at the chance if he left his response as vulnerable as it was. "Reisa is a good friend of mine, even if she's rather spontaneous sometimes."

"Well, whatever. I wasn't really interested in her anyway." She blew some air from her mouth up at her slightly greasy-looking bangs.

He sighed. Little did she know that this was a habit of Reisa's. He took this opportunity to change the subject. "By the way, sorry if the watery surprise earlier was inconsiderate. I wasn't sure if you were weak to water, or something like that..."

Mokou raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips.

Ken quickly continued. "Well, since you're a fire user..."

She looked like she were about to explode in laughter. "Wait, are you serious? What do you think this is, Pok?mon?"

He tensed up. How did she know about something like that?! His eyes visibly widened. That was a real-world thing...he thought that didn't exist here! Suddenly, his curiosity for this strange female grew stronger. Just who was she?

She chuckled coarsely, her mouth twisting into an asymmetrical grin. "Haha, I'm just kidding. I'm okay with water, I just can't use my magic as well around it."

His eyebrows lowered. "Still..."

"You're wondering where I heard that phrase from? One of my...well, someone I...spend time around...she uses that as a comeback quite often. I don't know why I even said it, it just sounds stupid."

Slightly disappointed yet intensely mystified, he relaxed. "I see. Well in any case, please go right ahead and freshen up, I'll be outside checking out the Village." Without waiting for a response, he left her to her own devices, closing the door behind him.

"What a wired guy...he needs to chill out sometimes." She noted how he had closed the door: twisting the handle before closing the door, and then releasing it upon the door's closing. "Kinda weird too. Wonder what Keine saw in him." Dismissing it for the time being, she locked the door and began to remove her still-sticky clothing in preparation for a nice hot shower.



11:52 AM - Day 1 - Ken's House - Human Village

Not surprisingly, Ken had gotten distracted from checking outside.

He took a deep breath and stared at the art on the CD case in his hand; one of the only reminders of the real--no, his previous life. He remembered when Keine had taken him to that vendor's shop, Kourindou--and how shocked he was at the items he saw. Gensokyo seemed relatively primitive compared to the world in his past life; yet this shop was alive with a collection of items he was more than familiar with. Fortunately, he had just enough money on hand to buy what he recognized and valued: A CD player that half-worked, and this single album. And now Mokou mentioning a game he used to play so many--was it really that many years ago? He popped the CD into the player and pushed the half-mashed-off Play button, praying the batteries still worked.

It was no use. The player wouldn't play the CD.

"Damn." He used it sparingly in the hope that the batteries could stretch out, but maybe it was a problem with the player. The whole thing seemed like a lost cause. He pushed the Stop button and half-threw the CD case gently down onto the table near his bed, on which also rested the player. Maybe next time.

Suddenly he remembered the odd doll he had found. He felt around in his pockets--had it fallen out at some point? Curses. This was certainly a day of ups and downs. His mind drifted back to the now fading memories of living pre-Gensokyo...

His thoughts of the real world were interrupted by a rather hard knock on the door. Was it Keine, back already? Looking down at himself, he gave off a slight groan. He certainly wasn't presentable, but he was obligated to answer anyway. "Coming..."

Upon opening the door moments later, he was greeted not by the sight of the teacher, but the visage of a very elegant-looking girl with long, flowing black hair. She looked familiar to him, for some reason.

The woman spoke before he could analyze her further. "Excuse me, do you have a towel?" Her face was rather emotionless. "I stepped in something sticky, and now my shoe is nearly ruined."

His eyes quickly scanned her body as he looked down, finally settling on her feet area. She had on a very clean pink shirt and a rather long dark red skirt. He frowned, as her shoes were completely hidden beneath the skirt. Fortunately he had plenty of clean towels at the ready. "I suppose, one moment please..."

He walked quickly towards the bathroom and opened a cupboard containing fresh towels. Mokou was clearly enjoying her shower, as the sound of humming reached his ears. Pausing only slightly in his towel retrieval, he listened to her somewhat odd melody. He didn't think Mokou was one to normally produce a tune. Maybe this was a rare occasion. Chuckling to himself at her antics, he closed the cupboard and reappeared in the front room.

The black-haired girl--or so he thought she was rather young, as her face was very flawless and youthful in appearance--snatched the towel from his outstretched hand and smiled slightly. Then she started to walk away.

"Um...wait a minute," he called out to her, and she slowly made an about-face. "I would like that towel back at some point."

"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Well, then can you wipe my shoe off?"

"Wait...what?" He raised an eyebrow in surprise. What was she thinking? Was it so hard to--

She brushed past him and entered his home, taking a seat on the nearby couch. Her face was rather plain still. She held up the towel as if to encourage him to follow through.

"Ugh." He certainly didn't find her friendly. "Why can't you wipe it yourself?"

Her expression dissolved into that similar to agitation. She cocked her head slightly and stared at him. "What's wrong? Can't you help me?"

"I already got you a towel, isn't that enough?"

"But if you want it back, you can help me, can't you?"

He put the back of his right hand against his hip. What in the world did she think she was doing? How illogical and rude.

She sighed and lifted the bottom of her dress up. He noticed that the dress seemed rather clean. How odd that her shoe would be dirty, but not her dress. What's more, her shoe was hardly dirty! It wouldn't take much more effort to clean it by herself.

Yet still she was insistent. "Can you please...?"

He snatched up the towel and leaned down. "Yeah, whatever." Not more than a few moments later, he had wiped off what appeared to be smushed banana, due to the smell and color.

She smiled slightly and got to her feet. "Thank you, I appreciate it."

He looked at her warily. It seemed more like a victorious grin to him, as if she was used to getting her way. "You're okay now, so please watch your step here in the Village today."

Placing a sleeved hand to her mouth, she nodded. Without any further adieu, she turned and left.

Half-slamming the door in disgust, he muttered to himself. "Where was she raised, a barn? No respect at all..." Thankfully, her appearance had saved her. Maybe she was just really young. No matter how much it ground on him, it couldn't be helped. Many children in the Village were like this, so he shouldn't expect too much.

"What happened just now?" Mokou came around the corner, wearing only a towel.

"Err..." he forced himself to stare into her eyes. "Some rude girl came and wanted me to clean her shoe off."

She gave a short laugh. "Ha! I know someone who would behave like that. Spoiled little brat, that one. You didn't do it, did you?"

"I did, although I wanted to smack her for her insolence...honestly, who assumes that people are just willing to clean what you wear...I even gave her one of my towels, thinking she'd do it herself." His face looked unsatisfied and annoyed.

Mokou frowned and continued. "That sucks. This bratty girl I know, every time I see her do that, I wanna smack her until her black hair turns as white as mine."

He gave a start. Black hair? The girl in question had long black hair. "Well, that girl did have black hair, but..."

"Eh?" Mokou stopped biting her fingernail and looked directly at him. "What was she wearing?"

"She had a pink shirt with a ton of ribbons on it..."

Mokou's eyes widened. "Wait...was she wearing a really long red skirt?"

He hesitated before confirming. "Well yes, but--"

Suddenly, her eyes were full of hate and anger. "Where is she?!"

"Whoa there, hold on, maybe it's just a coincide--!!"

She had grabbed his shirt with one hand and pulled him closer. "Is she still in the Village?!"

"M-Maybe...listen, Mokou, you can't just go out there looking like thi--oof!"

She had pushed him onto the couch. "This is my chance!"

Before he could do anything else, she had thrown open the door and departed in haste.

He scratched his head and got to his feet. "Oh dear, this won't end well, will it..." He wondered why Mokou held such fervent hatred for this girl she mentioned. Maybe it was the same girl, but...

"Wait..." It suddenly hit him, what could happen. "She's going to--"

He quickly grabbed his sword off of its resting point on the wall and ran to the door. He had to stop her. "Dammit Mokou, don't you dare!"

Flinging open the door, he raced outside in hot pursuit.



(OOC: Ken and Mokou will remain in the Human Village for some time after this post.)

[Kakyoin]

Double-posting, yes. Haterz gonna hate, but I've had this ready for a while.


12:00 PM - Day 1 - Clearing outside Ken's House - Human Village

Ken skidded to a stop, sword still in hand. He was too late.

He stared at the spectacle before him. Mokou, wrapped only in a towel, had tackled the pink-shirted girl to the ground. Glancing side to side, he could see villagers starting to turn and see the commotion for themselves.

Suddenly, Mokou threw a fierce punch, hitting the girl square in the back with a force that gave off a solid thumping noise. Gasping and wincing, the girl tried to struggle free, but Mokou had grabbed her arms

He had to stop them right away! "Hey, Mokou! Quit it!" Ken started running forward only to find himself face-to-face with a shield of fire, which flared up out of nowhere. Shielding his eyes with his free hand, he yelled as loud as he could through the roaring flames. "MOKOU, STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!"

Eyes blazing with the same fury as her flames, Mokou angrily yelled back. "Why should I?! You don't--urgh!--know anything! This girl is nothing b--argh!--but trouble!" The hothead quickly raised a hand swirling with flames, intending to bring it down upon her victim's head, only to be knocked off the girl by several magical-looking orbs. Coughing blood, the girl quickly got to her feet as Mokou got to hers with a kickstand. He had to act now or else the Village could be in danger!

He dashed forward at the flames, preparing to roll through them. "You stop this immediately!!" His blood was boiling now. How could she beat up this girl so offhandedly?! "Get away from her!!"

Mokou spat on the ground and assumed a fighting stance. "What are you, dumb?" She was looking directly into the girl's eyes. "I'll have your head for your insolence!"

To his surprise, the girl answered back by shooting a large, glowing bullet-shaped object towards Mokou, which Mokou sidestepped. The girl spoke up, but in a much different tone than when he had aided her in his house. "Go to hell, and say hello to your father for me!"

Ken fell back as a thunderous explosion nearly knocked him off of his feet. "Ugh!" Mokou had cloaked herself in flames. Her eyes glowing white-hot, she nearly roared in fury. "YOU'RE DEAD, KAGUYA!"

The hair on his arms raised. Her name was Kaguya? He shook his head; now was not the time to think about such things. This was about to get extremely messy, he sensed. Before his very eyes, the flaming shield had lowered. Mokou had gathered the fire around herself. Now was his chance! Sweating from the heat of the flames, he gripped his sword and dashed in towards them.

Mokou made the first move. She feinted a kick to Kaguya's right, only to spin and land a firm kick on her side, and she grunted as she lost her balance and fell over. She was a mess of robes on the ground. Mokou reached down and grabbed the girl's robe, ripping it slightly as she lifted her up, setting fire to her clothing. Kaguya yelped and gasped hoarsely as Mokou forcibly got her in a choke hold. She struggled savagely, but could not free herself.

Suddenly, several multicolored orbs of tremendous size formed around them and closed in. Gritting her teeth, Mokou braced for impact...

Ken had his arms out and, as he was not more than a few feet from them, prepared to tackle them both and get them separated. He couldn't let them destroy the Village, much less each other!

An older woman's voice suddenly pierced the battle noise. "Medicine Sign - Galaxy in a Pot!"

*BOOM*

Crying out, he was bowled over backwards by the impact. Turning to face the fight scene, he saw an amazing array of dancing blue and red lights among several light-blue explosions. He heard Mokou scream in surprise--or was it both of them? He couldn't tell. Regardless, the battle was over in a twinkling.

Disoriented, he closed his eyes and felt the ground to regain his balance. When he opened them again, he saw a beautiful, mature woman wearing red and blue standing near him. She wore her hair in a single long silver braid. He immediately recognized her upon running his eyes over her clothing: the great pharmacist, Eirin Yagokoro. Suddenly everything made sense--the girl was indeed Kaguya! Why didn't he realize that earlier?

Groaning, he got to his feet, mindfully aware of Eirin's presence near him. She had her bow on her back, and stared hard at Mokou and Kaguya with hands on hips. "That's quite enough of your uncivilized shenanigans!"

Mokou rolled off of Kaguya, coughing and trying to get to her feet. It seemed she too was disoriented and fell over, blood dripping from her body. To Ken's surprise and relief, her towel was still barely hanging on. Mokou seemed to have noticed it too, but dismissed it. Clutching her head in one hand and stomach in another, she swore under her breath and looked up at Eirin. "Ergh...curses, why do you keep interfering...it's none of your damn business..."

"It's every bit my business!" Eirin bent down. "Princess, you--"

Kaguya moaned angrily, spitting out dirt from her mouth. He noticed how much more different she looked when she was in a fighting mood. She interrupted her caretaker. "Eirin, just lemme kill her...she just never learns, the dumb--"

Mokou attempted to lunge at her, but Ken held her back by her upper arms. She growled as he pulled her away from Kaguya. "That's enough out of you."

Eirin sighed as she healed Kaguya. "Honestly, you two need to grow up and get over it...or at least have the smarts to take it elsewhere."

Ken also sighed. Finally someone understood. "Mokou, please try to control yourself more. I don't care if your greatest enemy is here, don't burn the Village down! Keine would be all over you for that."

"Keine?" Eirin looked up at him. "Who are you? Did Keine have a son since the last time I saw her?"

Hearing this, Mokou half-coughed, half-laughed. "Son, ha..."

He shook his head in disbelief. He didn't look too much like a kid, did he? "I'm not related to her, but I live here. She's my neighbor."

Letting go of the Princess, Eirin curtsied politely as she closed her eyes, smiling softly. "My name is Eirin. Pleased to meet you, Mr...?"

Slightly taken aback at her formality, he caught his breath and responded quickly. "Uh, I'm Ken. Nice to meet you, I guess?"

"Yes~" Her smile quickly dissolved as she saw Kaguya moving out of the corner of her eye. She reached down and slapped Kaguya's wrist before she could perform a sneak attack on Mokou. "This ridiculously childish female beside me is Kaguya. She's supposed to be a Princess, but she certainly doesn't behave like one at all. I'm starting to have doubts myself..."

Eirin seemed to have the sense he hoped for. "Well, Mokou struck first..."

"Yeah!" Kaguya narrowed her eyes. "And all I did was go to this dude's house...I didn't even want to fight."

"She bothered you?" Eirin looked confused. Kaguya usually didn't talk to anyone, unless it was for...

It was his turn to appear unhappy. "She wanted me to clean off her shoe, even though it was hardly dirty!"

"Ha, what a stupidly spoiled--mmmph!"

Ken covered Mokou's mouth with his hand. "Enough! You ran out with only a towel! I'm surprised it didn't come off already..." He felt rather important, taking charge like this. "Go to my house and get some fresh clothes on."

Mumbling to herself, Mokou surprisingly obeyed. "Whatev..." She limped off.

He turned back to speak to Eirin, but she was already dragging Kaguya off and talking to--wait, someone he'd never seen before. He could hear their conversation slightly. He walked around nearby listening to their conversation, and politely asked the other villagers to leave in the meantime.

"So, Udonge, please do sell a good deal of medicine, okay?"

"Yes, master..."

"Oh, and please be a dear and clean up where the Princess fought, okay? I need to...give her a very stern talking-to."

He heard Eirin sigh and Kaguya groan.

The other girl spoke up. "Master, what should I do about the burnt grass?"

"Just...be creative. Or ask that guy over there."

Ken tensed up and pretended to turn with a purpose in the direction they were talking. Sure enough, Eirin was pointing directly at him.

"Okay..." The long-haired girl looked at him with no perceivable emotion.

He rubbed his eyes and stared again. Sure enough, she had bunny ears! He scratched the back of his head, hiding his surprise. Today was most definitely interesting...

"Make sure to sell lots of medicine before the Festival, too~" Eirin patted the bunny girl on the head before continuing to drag a now struggling Kaguya off.

The purple-haired girl sighed. She turned to wave at them, but she stopped mid-wave as they were turned in the opposite direction. She bent down and picked up a rather large sack, walking over in his direction.

He couldn't help but notice how sad--no, not nearly as sad as they were...empty. Her eyes were glowing, but empty-looking. For unexplained reasons, his chivalrous side took over. "Ma'am, would you like some help? I'll clean up this mess Mokou made..."

"Eh...that's okay, I can manage..." heaving a sigh of discontent, she looked at the scorched, ruined area where the two rivals had fought. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the surrounding area. Nothing ever changed, it seemed. She was always cleaning up after the Princess.

"Ah wait, watch where you're g--!"

"Huh?" At that moment, she stepped in a puddle that did not feel like water. Looking down, she saw that her foot had put a clean imprint in a tiny patch of jello. "Ugh...just great." She always had the worst of luck. Even the day before the festival, she knew that would not change.

Folding his arms, he stepped closer. "You all right?"

"Yes, just..." instead of finishing her sentence, she looked around. "Wait...where is Keine?"

He raised an eyebrow. This...bunny girl, she knew the teacher? "Keine is not here at the moment. Please, rest assured, I'll clean--"

"No, I'll do it." She forced a smile. "But, thank you. No one usually offers to help me."

"Eh...well, if you say so." He'd seen this bunny girl a few times. Or was his mind playing tricks on him? He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. First that doll, then the quiet girl--Himiko. he had nearly forgotten her name already. She and Kasen were rather interesting if not quiet. Then that Hatate girl, the one who could fly--and then Mokou, now Eirin and Mokou's rival and this...whoever this girl was.

I swear I've seen her before, he thought. He remembered Eirin mentioning something about selling medicine...so she would be around after this. "Er...ma'am?"

She had placed the bag down and was on her knees surveying the area, trying to figure out how to fix the mess. "Hmm?"

"Would you like to st--" He suddenly remembered that Mokou was here. "Ah, nevermind."

"Okay..." She smiled again. "Sorry, I am not very cheerful right now. I don't like being left by myself, but I do what my master asks of me." Most humans stayed away from her. This one seemed different, somehow...

"That's not really any of my business...but I've seen you around before. Who are you?"

One ear of hers perked up. "Me?" Inside, she frowned. She wasn't supposed to get too friendly with anyone in the Village. Well, maybe this once was okay.

"I'm..." She almost said 'Inaba', since that's what Kaguya called her frequently. "...just call me Reisen."

"Reisen, huh? Cool name." He was curious as to why she called Eirin 'Master', but decided to not pursue it. "I'm Ken, training to be a Village guardian here. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Uh...the pleasure is mine?" She closed her eyes and opened her mouth in awkwardness. The close encounter with the huge pink thing earlier, the one that tried to eat her...she still wasn't over that. No wonder she was still nervous.

"Heh. Well, Reisen, if you need anything, please let me know. Today's been a crazy day so far, so we can't be too careful." His heart was still beating quickly from the fight earlier. "I'm going to go lay down for a while. I don't know if Mokou has a beef with you or not, so..."

"Ah, no, not particularly." She was strangely quick to answer. Mokou did not really mind her in the past, though.

"Say...you do sell medicine here, right?" He couldn't help but ask. "Where do you stay when you come here?"

"Uh..." This was one reason why she didn't like staying in the Village by herself. Last time the inn was completely full, and not wanting to trouble anyone, she had chosen to sleep outside. But, he didn't need to know that. She simply said nothing and picked up burnt bits of grass.

"Reisen?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

He was curious, but he got the sense that she wanted to keep to herself. "Well, okay then. Here, lemme help you with that for a bit..."

"No no, I can--"

"Nonsense, this is partially my fault anyway."

She looked at him. "Mmm." Had she seen him before on a previous visit? He seemed more approachable than the other humans in the Village.

"Huh..."

"Eh?" She looked back down and realized she had grabbed his finger on accident. "S-Sorry..." She let go. This was getting even worse for her. She would probably end up being hated by him too. Everyone looked at her oddly when she came to sell medicine here. This was a good reminder that she shouldn't get her hopes up. Still, she was glad to finally be around someone who didn't seem too strange or crazy...

"That's okay." He smiled and stood up. To avoid more awkwardness, he decided to go check up on Mokou. "I'll be back in a bit, I need to check something really quick."

"Sure." Reisen scooped everything up and took it with her. "Um, can I throw this away somewhere?"

"Yeah, sure. Come swing by my house, all right?" He noted her hesitation. As she stood up, he observed that she was quite pretty. Swallowing, he turned back around towards the direction of his house. She had amazingly beautiful red eyes. For some reason, he had run into an unusually large number of females today...it seemed that many of Gensokyo's women were very--

"Ergh!"

Hearing her, he turned around only to see...the 'god of plenty' again! It was trying to suck her up! "No!" Surprised, he quickly looked around and saw a wet trail beneath it. Perfect! This time, he would get it for sure. He threw his blade to the side and it stuck in the ground, its glint in the overhead sunlight attracting the attention of the creature. He took a short running start and leaped in front of her, towards its gaping maw...

He prayed the trail was not sticky. Much to his delight, he slid just underneath its mouth and to the other side. As he was preparing to kick it as hard as he could, suddenly the sound of laser beams was heard. Wanting to remove this pesky creature once and for all, he disregarded the noises and focused hard on creating a gentle breeze. Everything was going according to plan!

Reisen was firing beams from her eyes at the creature. She wanted it gone! This was the same thing that had nearly consumed her earlier. The creature was, unfortunately, unrelenting. It moaned and tried to move closer. Dropping everything, she prepared a heftier attack. What was the guy doing? If he was going to help, he should do it soon!

Ken's head hurt, but he succeeded in casting the spell. It wouldn't last more than a few moments though. Now was his chance! He sprinted alarmingly quickly towards the creature and brought his foot back...

*POOM*

His foot collided with the creature's rubbery skin. It was as light as he'd suspected. Surprised, it moaned loudly and flew off like a rocket. He watched it soar off. About time that creature got what it deser--

*PSHEW*

"AAAAAUGH!" Suddenly, an intensely hot, painful wave of energy flooded over him. He flew back, spinning and yelling in surprise as he hit the grass hard and rolled over several times before stopping. His body was throbbing with pain. He felt disoriented, like his skin was on fire...

"O-Oh goodness-!!" Reisen's face blanched. She thought she was going to hit that big pink thing, only it had suddenly moved away, leaving him at point-blank range...

"Oh no...are you okay?!" Flying over to him, she put her hands to her face in horror. "Ah...I'm so sorry!"

"Nnnnnnngh..." He held his breath and released it in a single painfully loud groan. The spinning was slowing down, but he felt incredibly dizzy. What had happened? So much pain and bright lights everywhere...

"H-Hey...please...you're okay, right?!" She kneeled down and tried to help him up, only to get no response. This always happened with her around, it seemed. "Oh dear..." Eirin was going to kill her...

She shook her head and took a deeper breath. Now wasn't the time to panic; she turned towards his house. Mokou could help, she had to! Forgetting the pack of medicine she had left nearby, the moon rabbit took one more look back at his nearly unconscious figure before sprinting off to get help.



(OOC: Reisen GET! Otherwise, nothing new to add since last post.)