> "Thank you. How has your day progressed, by the way?"
>"Oh, about like normal," says Tenshi. "Saw Merlin in here this morning, which was unusual. Not often you see them alone, so I asked her..."
> Take it easy! We could use some relaxing after today.
>You relax, and take it easy for awhile at the tavern, while Tenshi chatters on about her perfectly mundane day. Soon enough, having little else that demands your attention, you return home to begin to tend to duties there. There's a fair amount of work to be done; your primary role is coordinating the various efforts to work more efficiently and cover for each other. Once the basics of this have been completed, you move on to make your final report to The Dragon. This is something you've been dreading, you know that you've made some mistakes and that you've made some deliberately. But the meeting goes quite well. The Dragon is pleased with your efforts, and congratulates you on your success of restoring Bhava-Agra to its former place. It could do little, having been busy holding the islands in place. While it does not mention any of the less savory things than happened, you know it is well aware of them. It expects you to make amends for such things. Still, you are not dismissed as you feared; in fact The Dragon offers its blessings toward you visiting the surface periodically.
>The next few days are hectic. While you're able to resume some of your duties, you also have dances to plan. While you can put off Nue's for a while, the one on behalf of Scarlet Devil Mansion cannot wait. You spend several hours a day there, overseeing the set-up of a proper stage, and working with the Juniper and several of her faerie companions. As well, you add in a few celestials to make the choreography a bit more balanced. Training faeries to dance goes more or less exactly how you imagined it would; even though they are maids they fall into distraction and bickering pretty easily. But with some patience, you manage to herd them into a semblance of a dance troupe. Your only worry is that they'll be able to remember what you taught them.
>Soon, you are invited to the signing ceremony officially bringing an end to the hostilities between Bhava-Agra and Scarlet Devil Manson, or Volatilis Scarlet Regnum, as Remilia would have it known now. Pomp and ceremony accompany the whole thing: faeries playing music and a display of aerial acrobatics from the maids, which isn't very intricate but impressive for faeries memorizing a routine. Remilia gives a bombastic speech about fellowship and past errors and so on, which is followed by you being put on the spot to deliver one of your own which you had not prepared for at all. You think you did well for making one up on the spot. Then the treaty is signed, one copy for the Scarlet Devil Mansion and one for the Dragon Palace. Soon after follows the dance revue: you've prepared yourself for it as much as you can, plotting to cover for just about anything that can go wrong. Much to your surprise, practically nothing goes wrong. The faeries remember their routines well enough to cause no chaos; your practiced eye catches a number of small mistakes but nothing that disrupts things. Your celestials perform up to your expectations. It is a swimming success! In fact, it's a little too much of a success, as quite a few faeries decide they want to join in and mob the stage before Sakuya can stop them. You decide that it's a fitting enough end.
>Events pass peacefully and you find yourself able to descend down and visit Shuuei frequently enough, often with a pretense of doing some form of work or another to put your mind at ease that you're not just dilly dallying. She seems to be adapting well to her apprenticeship; while she has yet to move on to actually cutting the stones, she does polish them in a tumbler and does some basic setting work. It'll be some time before she can fulfill her obligation to Lord Tenma, but he seems content to wait. Oftentimes, Shuuei is stuck dealing with customers as well, which she endures. A week passes onto two, then a month, and still she remains around. As shy as always, but still there. Your worries for her ease away, even if she's not blending into society as seamlessly as you had hoped. You periodically linger around town to listen to people talk and find that she is being noticed. Predictably, their lack of knowledge about her becomes a subject of gossip. Shuuei starts to relax a little around people as time goes on, though she remains ever secretive and unwilling to volunteer any information about herself. She does adapt enough that she can at least venture out on her own. But, she never seems to break her habit of peering around corners before taking them; being surprised seems to become her main annoyance as she grows used to being seen. As well, it is difficult to get her to enter the tavern or other such crowd-prone places. However, you periodically find yourself wondering how much she doesn't tell you; you are rather surprised to learn that she is practically impossible to bore. You once thought she just had an empty life outside of staying hidden, but it seems that being left alone for long periods of time doesn't bother her in the least, she waits it out with no real indication of boredom or stress. This doesn't lead her to reject doing other things in favor of isolation, thankfully, but she doesn't seem bothered when there is nothing else to do; she simply seems to enjoy being alone for the sake of it.
>As far as Aya is concerned, you find that Tenma has decided to indenture Aya to Byakuren directly, forgoing jail time after speaking with Momiji on the events leading to her capture. You later learn that Byakuren was not actually informed of this decision until Aya showed up on her doorstep one day, bearing a writ from Lord Tenma. Left with little idea of what to do with the reporter, Byakuren puts her to work with several minor tasks. When you check in, it seems she's taking the punishment a bit harder than you would expect. Consulting with Byakuren about this, you find that tengu seem to consider service to other peoples to be more humiliating than to their own. In retrospect, that's not terribly surprising for such an insular society. You wonder if this part of why they find Suika and Yuugi so worrying? Regardless, it seems that she's doing alright, umbrage of service aside. She's well disposed toward you, though; you never have to pay for one of her papers.
>Tenshi remains Tenshi: ever brash, outspoken, and a pest. But, aside from that, the two of you continue to get along. Sometimes she visits you with her hat off, full of complaints about this celestial or that. When you investigate, you find that Tenshi's complaints seem to be exaggerated, if not wholly imagined. You puzzle over how to deal with it in a way that wouldn't require beating her in a danmaku battle directly afterward. Besides this, though, she seems happy to gossip about little things, which thankfully doesn't involve nearly as much mischief as you would fear.
>Eventually, you manage to arrange for a proper place for her to hold a class on self defense and talk her down into using wooden swords. You have high hopes after she meets with Keine on the subject of teaching, and she seems to have a good idea of what she wants to do. A couple dozen curious celestials attend the first class. Unfortunately, much of the class is spent with Tenshi ranting and raving at how she isn't going to take any insubordination or snootiness from any of them, punctuated with menacing inquires of "what're you looking at?!" toward various celestials and assigning arbitrary exercises as punishment until pretty much the whole class is caught in them. Eventually she shouts some homework and dismisses them all. The second class doesn't see nearly so much attendance, less than a dozen, and it largely repeats as the first one did. However, those that remain seem to draw her ire less, and some actual instruction happens. The third class goes quite a bit more smoothly, with only a few accusations of insubordination and punishments and a far amount of actual education. By the fourth class, things are going fairly well.
>You find yourself receiving a few guests, as well. Maribel and Renko appear practically the first day after you get back to your duties, and fairly often after that. You're happy to show them around, and let them sate their curiosity with various things. You also let them search through the rubble for discarded things, they seem to be pleased with the bits of scrap they find; you suspect they trade what they find to Rinnosuke. You're surprised to find that Utsuho, Parsee, Nitori, and Yuugi also take up your offer at one point. You have the sneaking suspicion that Parsee is the motivating factor behind it, given she periodically mentions things that you've shown Maribel and Renko. Their visit goes quite well, though Yuugi makes a great show of how not interested she is while looking through various parts of the palace with obvious interest. Chen never seems to take you up on your offer, though some discreet inquires via Tenshi suggest this is because she is busy with school.
>Eventually, you have to deal with the issue of the contested islands with Remilia. This takes place over the course of two days, one for each of the islands. As promised, you do your best to speak on Remilia's behalf. It's somewhat difficult, given the circumstances, but you manage to make a good case for the Scarlet Devil that doesn't leave you feeling as though you're distorting the truth. Remilia herself gives a much more bombastic speech, and you think, ultimately less convincing. Other celestials speak as well, contemplating the pros, the cons, and whether the decision really matters at all. In the end, the less populated mountain island decides to reject the idea. The forested island declines to join the nation, but officially allows for Remilia to appoint a symbolic head of state, so to speak, that holds some power over how official meetings may be run, and confirm appointments. Remilia is clearly irritated by the first decision, but the second seems to mollify her a bit. Both agree to her demand that monuments be put up, and the days of conquest be given proper observance.
>As time passes, Bhava-Agra slowly rises into the air, bit by bit. Winter passes below before it's fully restored, subjecting the realm to cold and wind beyond the norm. But the people persevere, as you expect they would. The wounded recover quickly enough; the clean-up effort completes and paves the way for the much longer and more involved rebuilding process. Thankfully, you can trust your subordinates to overlook the rebuilding enough that you can tend to your own affairs on the surface and elsewhere in Bhava-Agra without too much trouble; by and large you help coordinate the efforts and approve of large decisions. The food situation is more troublesome, but an inspection of the damage reveals that practically all of the peaches which didn't splatter on impact are still in good condition; you suspect Minoriko's influence. As well, you find that the farmers in the human village are willing to exchange some of their surplus food for small things; sometimes even rubble from the palace is accepted, as they are happy to pound it into gravel. There is still a small problem that many celestials refuse to partake of it, considering such foods too much an attachment to lower states of enlightenment, but it is not difficult to make arrangements for those who are willing to eat lower world foods to allow others to have their share of peaches.
>During this time, you find yourself reflecting more and more upon some of the things you did in desperation or in fits of thoughtlessness. Shikieiki's words stay with you, and you find that you will have to take some act of penitence to truly make up for these acts. After some thought, you decide the best thing to do, in light of some of the deceptions you've done and advocated, is to take a vow of silence until such a time that you feel amends are made. Your fellow celestials understand, and are able to compensate for your limits of body language and writing without much difficulty. Even Tenshi adapts to this, happy to take on the burden of taking about whatever when she visits you with her hat off; in fact it seems to coax her to say more than normal. Shuuei seems content to spend time in silence when you visit her, saying nothing more than she feels necessary. Still, she certain is willing to share more than she was when you first met, you're able to get general details about her day to day life.
>Working with Nue, when you finally go to fulfill your obligation to her, is a little more difficult. Tenshi is willing to come along and shout orders in your place. Your dance there goes quite well; oni tend to expect their dance shows to involve impressive moves or very little clothing, and you're easily able to fulfill the former quality without any need for the latter and still fill the house well enough that Nue and Tenshi together can only barely keep up with the crowds.
>Eventually Bhava-Agra finally reaches its place in the heavens again. Many look with great expectation toward the next harvest as spring comes. By all indications of the immense amount of blossoms, it seems like there's going to be quite a crop; you suspect Minoriko's hand at work once again. Tenshi seems to be settling in with her class, and even attracting a new student or two. Shuuei continues on with her jeweling apprenticeship, quietly making herself a part of the town background. When the time for cherry blossom viewing comes, you take her to the festival and are pleased to see she is willing to walk through the less crowded areas without hiding; though the more crowded areas lead to her moving around and being booths. Thankfully her mask isn't particularly out of place. Still, the improvement is obvious. Overall, you think things with her are going to be all right.
>You have gotten a
Happy End!>Original Inspiration: TranceHime
>Programming, Music, Typos, Database Errors: Purvis Hobotech
>Ending Art: Slaves
>Great Player: You!
>And now you must learn to dodge the rain.
>See you next mission!
