> "Oh. Well, uh, your straight face is too good."
> Giggle.> "Of course. The delivery is everything."
> "Of course. You'd have to be a special kind of stupid to wander into the Ancient City if you didn't have to, and I almost never have to."
> Shrug.> "Even outside, trouble doesn't normally come my way unless I'm dumb enough to go looking for it. There was that one time with the red-white, I guess, but that's about it, really."
>"I live in the tunnel, near the aboveground entrance. Oni don't really come that way too often."
> Have they? We'd have a good vantage point of oni coming and going.
> "I guess one of the Devas has been back and forth a lot lately. She doesn't pay any attention to me, though, and I'm not about to give her a reason to."
>"Of course, I got angry at this one human and tracked him down, it ended with me saving Gensokyo from an invasion. So safe may not be the best measurement."
> Give her a wave.
> "Yeah. So, I'm willing to try this again if you are."
> Where's VIVIT?
> Wait until the hair ruffling stops, then speak up.> "Oh, where did VIVIT go?"
> Nod.> "Good."> Let a small grin creep in.> "So did you notice anything unusual about her?"
> "There's a reason for that. Did you happen to listen to her? Not anything she said, just her herself."
> "It would have been easier to hear in a quiet area, I guess. VIVIT's not just a person, she's also a machine. You can sometimes hear her body making machine noises."
> Look to Eiki ourselves.> "I gotta admit, I've been wondering how that would work myself."