Waking Up from the Dream - Welcome Home - Story Thread

[Gappy]

OOC: My apologies for the wait. I was away on rather serious family-related business and I expected the GMs to start things out in my absence. Seems that didn't quite happen. So here it is, the start of 'Neo-WuftD'. Enjoy~

Courtyard, Hakurei Shrine, 6.00 AM, Day 1, 1 day before the Great Hakurei Shrine Flower-Viewing Festival, Reitaisai

*Clap Clap Clap*

A light crisp, slightly chilly spring breeze blew across the ornate flagstones lining the path up the shrine, licking at the dancing heels of a certain shrinemaiden. Her feet swept across the stones in a series of gracefully learned steps, sweeping along a few errant sakura petals. This was the season for them, Spring, the season for flowers, rebirth and new beginnings. And yet the trees were as yet barren of flowers, with the exception of a few tufts of early, eager petals.

A young man?or perhaps more a boy trying to seem older beyond his years, watched from a corner, leaning on his staff of office and comrade-in-arms/commanding officer, his trusty shrine broomstick, Sergeant Sweep. His rather messy jet black bed-hair and bright, gleaming hazelnut eyes were rather at odds with his rather worn uniform of office, a dark blue hakama and gi (traditional shirt and trousers). Rather, most visitors to the shrine consider it the shrine janitor?s uniform of office, mainly because that?s all he?s ever seen doing ? doing odd jobs about the shrine (as well as getting kicked about by the shrine's other residents).

?They are waiting?, the boy, Mitaka had been told by the local know-it-all, Alice Margatroid. ?The sakura blossoms, or, rather, their spirits, they are waiting for her to invite them to bloom.? It was something unheard of in Britain, or the ?outside world? in fact ? flowers and Spring, the first dawn of New Years, the first harvest of Autumn, even the winter snow, having to be ?invited? forth by a shrinemaiden. It was irrational, unscientific?and yet here in this world it was ?Real?.

For this world was anything but ?Real?. It is the land of Fantasy and Illusion, Gensokyo. A land where vampires are behind greenhouse gas leakages, glutton ghosts steal Golden weeks, and hikikomori NEETs play hide and seek with cosmic bodies.

*Clap Clap Clap*

The shrinemaiden clapped thrice before raising her gohei and continuing her slow, graceful dance, her long, silky black hair flowing out in the gentle breeze. The first glow of sunlight from the east lanced out from behind the Youkai mountains, lighting up her face, highlighting her expression of absolute serenity and intense focus. Mitaka felt his heart skip a beat as the light rays danced across the beads of sweat on the shrinemaiden?s face.

?Look but don?t touch, ?kay, Niichan.? He felt a sharp nudge in his ribs. He looked down and found the resident drunkard Oni shrinemaiden and adopted little sister, a certain Ibuki Suika, grinning sideways at him. Neither of them quite remember how they became adopted brother and sister?but it felt as if it has always been so, and so they swung with it. Strange, considering the old mountain deva oni is older by a factor of 100, but the issue?s never been brought up for some reason. So far it?s been a mutually rewarding sake-filled relationship.

?Wouldn?t come close with a 10 yard broomstick, Suika-chan.? Mitaka chuckled heartily as he swung Sergeant Sweep across his back. ?Wouldn?t dare look either, not even with a welding mask.?

?I heard that.? the shrinemaiden of Paradise (and local overlord) Hakurei Reimu did not snap, she merely commented, as she twirled and stomped her feet into the ground, a little harder than the dance really required.

?Oni ears.? Mitaka sighed.

?Hey, that?s insulting? Suika giggled.

?I heard that too. Please, don?t make me come over there.? It was a very polite request. It was heeded, wordlessly.

?M-Mitaka-sama, Suika-sama, good work this morning.? A tray bearing chilled barley tea sailed up to Mitaka.

?Thanks, Ruukoto-chan? Mitaka said with a grateful smile as he exchanged the tea with a pat on the tray-bearer?s light-green hair, followed by a quick hair-ruffle. ?Hmm, always divine, as expected of Reimu?s little sister.?

?Th-thank you, you?re t-too kind, M-Mitaka-sama? Hakurei Ruukoto, maid Karakuri (tea-serving) doll of Paradise, and Hakurei Reimu?s own adopted little sister, stammered, her biometal cheeks glowing a deep red.

?Yep yep, excellent stuff, Ruu-chan.? Suika nodded in agreement, ?Could do with some more sake in it though, yep?

?Mouu, i-it?s only s-sunrise Suika-sama! You s-shouldn?t be d-drinking this early in the d-day!? The robot maid protested at a retreating Suika who ducked behind the safety of Mitaka?s wiry frame.

?Just so happens I?ve got some right here, yep? Suika grinned, brandishing her gourd.

?N-no, you know what Reimu-neesama said about drinking in the m-morning! P-please, g-give me that!? Ruukoto made a lunge for the gourd, which the oni sidestepped neatly, using Mitaka as a shield. ?S-Suika-san!?

?There, there, she?s just pulling your leg with her usual oni nonsense, Ruukoto.? A calm, gentle voice, serene and tinkling like a little stream, said. ?Mitaka? The stream turned stern into white rapids as it turned its attention towards the shrine janitor.

?Yes, Alice-san?? Mitaka, live-in punching bag, braced himself as he turned to face the dollmaker and volunteer temporary shrinemaiden, Alice Margatroid. ?I swear we haven?t been up to any pranks.? Suika giggled at this, for which she received a quick nudge from Mitaka. Alice didn?t need to know about the superglue in her sarashi.

??.That?s?.reassuring?? The steel-eyed golden-haired girl clad in shrinemaiden garb cleared her throat. ?Mitaka, the invitations for today?s spring flower viewing festival?.?

?I?ve delivered all of them, personally, even the ones you addressed to the Earth Spirits Palace people at the end of the world.? Mitaka replied. ?I dodged murder attempts from a bucket loli, a jealous bridge hobo and a drunken unicorn, all for you, m?lady.?

?Good, I was worried we wouldn?t make it in time for today?s festival.? Alice nodded. ?Now there?s just the few final details to take care of??

?Mitaka-dono~? A sweet, melodious, yet solid and commanding voice, like a natural-born mother?s, called out from the direction of the shrine.

?Yes, Byakuren-san?? Mitaka turned to face another volunteer shrinemaiden, Hijiri Byakuren, her strange, gleaming irridiscent long hair tied into a smart ponytail, twirled around a fishbone (She's been trying ever so hard to fit in. She's even chosen Suika as a rolemodel). ?What is it??

?I?ve just finished writing the last of the invitations~? She chirped cheerfully. ?Would you be able to run out and deliver them??

An awkward silence fell, broken only by Reimu?s soft footsteps.

??ah, pardon me if I said something untoward?? Byakuren brought a hand up to her lips in apology.

??deliv-?.wait, then what was in the invitations I just delivered yesterday?? Mitaka turned to look at Alice.

??.ah?well?err?.? Alice shifted nervously. ??.I?.? She cleared her throat and rallied herself, ?I was reasonably confident they were ready to be delivered.? She said, before looking away. ?Now, if you?ll excuse me, I must see to the food and drinks.? She said, retreating into the safety of the shrine. 

??.Well, looks like I?ll have to brave the geysers to deliver all them invitations again. It?d help if Jeremy?d move his gap-bum of a girlfriend out of the hotsprings though?.? Mitaka sighed. ?Suika-chan, care to take care of Yuugi for me this time??

?Sure thing.? Suika cracked her little knuckles. ?One order of Miko-miko Suika brand disaster resolution, coming right up, yep?

?B-be careful you two, please don?t push yourself?and Suika-san, please don?t drink and fly?? Ruukoto said, this time successfully snatching the gourd away from Suika with the help of her trusty rocket punch.

?Hey, what if I need to lay waste to a few cities and?.? Suika began, before she was interrupted by a rather shrill shriek.

?KYAAAAAH!?

?What was tha-?? Everyone turned towards the shrine just in time to see a dark figure explode out the front door, smashing the donation box up into the air.

?It?s?.big?? Mitaka blinked at the thing?s size which took up the entire width of the shrine?s double sliding doors.

??It?s?.cute?? Byakuren gasped at its cute, fluffy pinkness.

??it?s?eaten the invitations?? Suika nodded at the thing?s mouth, which took up almost the entirety of its entire spherical body not occupied by its big, cute baby eyes.

?It?s also eaten Marisa's cookie-...I mean, all our food!? Alice shrieked from inside. ?GET IT!?

?It?s also damaged my shrine?? A dark, ominous voice muttered. Everyone felt a cold chill run down their spine. They slowly turned around to find Reimu, radiating a calm so intense it could freeze nitrogen. ??and my donation box?? She added, catching the donation box as it spiraled out of the air in one hand before setting it down on the ground with a slam. That must have concluded the spring-inviting dance, as just then, as if on cue, or perhaps by intimidation, all the sakura trees around them exploded into bloom, spreading out sakura petals up into the air. The shrinemaiden?s hair billowed in the sudden breeze as thousands of petals raced up into the sky above Gensokyo, just as Gensokyo itself sprang into a bright pinkish bloom of Spring.

??.A god of plenty, huh?.?? Reimu nodded at the spherical big-mouthed pink fluffy creature who had taken a step back in abject terror. ?Well now, the question is, will you bestow upon us your abundant feast miracle willingly?.or at gohei-point?? She twirled her gohei menacingly before pointing it at the god.

The creature, apparently a god of plenty, gulped down its non-existent throat, before crying out ?Kyuuuu!? and bouncing off across the front yard, flattening Mitaka, before sailing high above Reimu, and into the skies above Gensokyo.

?After it! That?s our entire food supply for the next month, and profit on the side, and then some!? Reimu snapped.

??and today?s feast.? Byakuren added.

?And today?s feast.? Reimu nodded, correcting herself.

?And the invitations.? Mitaka added in a muffled voice from where he lay half buried in a Mitaka-shaped crack in the ground..

?And the invitations.? Reimu echoed.

?And our pride, yep.? Suika added.

?And our?.can we get moving?? Reimu asked.

?Can I have breakfast first?? Mitaka asked, pealing himself from the dirt. This earned him a dark look from the shrinemaiden of Paradise. ?Err?.nevermind, I wasn?t hungry. Ate enough dirt anyway.? He sighed.

OOC: Instructions:
Now the rest of Gensokyo can expect a visit from the god of plenty, bearing the invitations to the festival as well as the promise of a splendid feast! Good hunting!

You can start out by detailing your daily happenings at this point in time. Please fell free to focus on yourself and your partner characters at this point, introduce them, flesh out your character and his/her relationship with his/her partners, etc., as well as give us a brief glimpse of their life. Then you can in some way join the chase for the god of plenty. It may crash into your home and eat up some of your stuff, or maybe you catch sight of the Hakurei shrine group running after it, etc. It's up to you. The god of plenty will also drop invitations to the festival and maybe even random trinkets and treasures if you can keep up with it.

Also, some of you and your partner characters may already have volunteered to help out at the shrine in preparation for the festival, maybe even as shrinemaidens. You might already be on site or are on your way to the shrine, you decide.

Btw. in case you need help imagining it, it looks sort of like Kirby.

[LordVant]

Moriya Shrine, 6.30 AM, Day 1

Usual day, usual morning cup of tea, usual birds chirping, usual lack of energy. Vant sat on the front porch of the Moriya Shrine gazing out at the always beautiful landscape. Tomorrow was the flower-viewing festival so he had nothing really to do today. He'd usually aid Sanae with chores, but she had gone to help with the preparations at the Hakurei Shrine. "Hehehe, she's probably spacing out again at this very moment."

"Who, Sanae?" Kanako spoke out from behind Vant. She had brought an extra pot of tea since their first was running low. She was actually rather nice in close-quarters, despite the fierce appearance she gives everyone else. She was wearing her normal attire, a black skirt with a red shirt and white long-sleeve under-shirt, her mirror and a simple pair of sandals. Her long blue hair fluttered a bit in the cool breeze. "I wouldn't doubt it honestly", she gave out a small sigh, "I do worry about that girl."

"For good reason, if it weren't for you two watching out for her, she'd....I'd rather not actually go into that." Vant deterred from the subject, given he normally thinks of worst-case scenarios. He was wearing his black t-shirt, blue jeans, and large boots. His silver hair was loose about his head as it always was.

"Oh shut up, she'd be fine either way, I'm just glad she's here with us~" Suwako chirped out, sipping her tea calmly and kicking her legs over the edge of the porch. She really did act a lot like a child, but the wisdom that Vant gathered from her tells that there's far more to Suwako than meets the eye. She was wearing her casual white long-sleeve shirt and blue sleeve-less shirt and skirt along with her hat; her lengthy blonde hair hung loosely about her shoulders. She seemed rather normal to Vant now, unlike when he had first met her, the only thing bothering him was her hat....though it still bothers him a bit even now. "I can't wait for the festival tomorrow~"

"Yeah~ can't wait for all the sake we'll have!" Kanako stretched a bit, still a bit tired from waking up not long ago.

"Please don't make me carry you and Sanae home again. That was a bother, especially with the constant fear of you hurling all over my back" Vant grimaced, thinking again of the image.

"Oi! If you would walk more carefully I wouldn't!" Kanako blurted out. "...then again, it is my fault for drinking so much."

"Yes, yes it is." Vant said rather matter-of-factly before getting smacked upside the head by Kanako.

"Hey, do either of you see that?" Suwako pointed out a round, pink object in the distance.

"Yeah I do...also looks like Ms. Hakurei is chasing after it. Shall we join them?" Vant looked between the goddesses, wondering if either cared.

"Might as well, I need to do something before I fall asleep again." Kanako hopped up and stretched a bit more, Suwako and Vant joining her.

"Alright, so which one of you is lending me a hand?" Vant asked to the morning air.

"She will!" Suwako yells out, already having taken off while Kanako was getting her shimenawa on.

"Must you wear that thing?" Vant poked the large rope bindings.

"Just get on dammit!" Kanako wasn't in the mood for his comments about her style.

"Fine fine, let's go." Vant always chose to hop onto the large rope, lying back-to-back with Kanako whenever he was flying with her. Suwako would just grant him the powers and they would have fun doing circles. "So, incident or just someone screwing around?....wait..."

"Sounds normal either way to me." Kanako took off along with Vant towards the strange pink blob floating through the sky.

[Yuyuko Yakumo]

7 AM, Day 1, Human Village, Center Plaza

Wow, everyone seems to be so busy today. Yuki thought to herself as she walked through the bustling Human Village from her house to the center marketplace. Usually, the village has a rush of people during afternoon hours, but now, many people were getting ready for the Flower-Viewing festival due to happen tomorrow. It relates somewhat to New Year's Day in the outside world, except it takes place during the day and not at night. People would invite others over to watch the new cherry petals of Spring fall while they had a huge party. Of course, being new to Gensokyo, Yuki knew very little about the details of the event. She had heard people around the village mention the event, which was how she picked up on what she knew.

Despite the business going around the center of the village, Yuki still took her usual post and her violin and began to play. As people passed by, she was rewarded with money for her beautiful playing. She saw some regulars every day, such as Kamishirasawa Keine, who were always generous to her. After some time had passed, she paused to take a break from her performance. At that moment, she recognized someone in the distance.

"Hey... Luna-chan! Hi!!" She waved erratically at Lunasa Prismriver, even though she was still pretty far away. Yuki, in her excitement, took her violin and earnings and ran to where Lunasa was.

"You don't have to chase after me every day," Lunasa said as Yuki ran up. "I'm not going to run away from you."

"I know, but I'm just excited to see you! It's not like you come here every day."

"I would if I could, but I have a lot of performances. Plus, it's hard for me to blend in here without getting noticed." Though the Prismrivers' concerts were originally meant for youkai, they have recently become popular with humans too. To avoid being swarmed by fans of the Prismrivers, Lunasa wears a dark blue shirt and skirt, as opposed to her usual black band uniform. Unfortunately, due to Yuki's outburst, people were starting to take a second look. "Ah, actually... We probably shouldn't stay here much longer."

"Then let's go to the place in the forest." Before Lunasa could protest, Yuki took her arm in one hand and her violin in the other, and ran towards the outskirts of the village, in the direction of the Forest of Magic.

Forest of Magic- Secluded Clearing

Though the forest was usually filled with dangerous mushrooms whose gases would be impossible to breathe, there was one area of the forest that had very few mushrooms in it. The area was near the entrance to the forest, but it was blocked by thick tress so it remained undiscovered for a time. Lunasa was the first to find it; in fact, this was the location where she encountered Yuki for the first time and guided her to the village. Now it has become their own place where the two can be alone and secluded from the rest of the world. (OOC: It's clean here, mind you. >_>)

"So," Yuki began as they arrived at the clearing. Yuki was full of energy as always and hardly seemed tired; Lunasa, on the other hand, panted because she was more accustomed to flying rather than running. There was really no need to run anyways, but Yuki always enjoyed whatever excited her and Lunasa tended to play along. "What brings you here this time?"

"Have you heard of the Great Hakurei Flower-Viewing Festival?" Lunasa asked.

Yuki nodded. "I've heard a bit. It's the biggest party for the yearly flower viewing event that takes place tomorrow."

Lunasa cut right to the point. "We'll be performing there tomorrow. Would you like to join us in our performance?"

Yuki was shocked. "M-Me?" she pointed to herself. "But why would you need me to help you tomorrow? You already sound great!"

"Good, but not great. With only three people, we have very limited options with harmonies. Having a fourth player, and another violinist at that, would make us sound much better." Lunasa's response was very matter-of-fact. She showed little care for the fact that Yuki was playing, only that they needed another violin.

However, in Yuki's naivety, she noticed very little of that. "Ok, then. I'll do my best tomorrow!" She gave a big smile and raised a hand to the air.

"We better start practicing then. It wouldn't do any good for us for you to go in not knowing anything." In Lunasa's hand, her famous phantom violin materialized with a glow. It was capable of producing beautiful and entrancing sounds that could outclass any violin the outside world could ever hope to produce. Its secret was that the violin itself was a phantom. What this meant, nobody, not even Yuki, knew. She played the first few notes of Phantom Ensemble. Yuki hastily picked up her violin and began to play as well. Individually, they both sounded great, but together, a whole new sound was created. Of course, Lunasa was much better than Yuki, and she needed some (a lot) of help along the way.

"Stop here. Let's take a bit of a break." After about an hour and a half had passed, Yuki was tired out from playing. In the village, she usually played for half hour blocks at a time, so she wasn't used to such a long session, especially one filled with mistakes. However, she was better and more prepared for the event than she was an hour and  half ago. She could probably go through the concert without making too many major mistakes though Lunasa, being the perfectionist she is, was not satisfied with this. But, even she has a heart for Yuki, and her stop after seeing her exhausted from playing.

"Phew," Yuki sighed. She proceeded to fall back on the soft grass below and gaze at the sky above. It was still morning; the sun hadn't risen above the tall trees of the forest. Some clouds passed by, none of which looked very threatening. The day so far was fairly average, save for Lunasa's surprise. Though Lunasa did her best to act as dignified as possible, seeing Yuki lying in the grass was tempting her to try the same. She put her violin down and lay next to Yuki, looking at the same sky, the same clouds, and the same treetops.

However, something suddenly obscured the sky from Yuki's view. She blinked. It seemed to be floating in the sky. It was large, pink, and round. After what seemed to be a few seconds of hovering, the blob passed over them and landed with a thump nearby. Yuki and Lunasa scrambled to their feet and took a long look at the creature. It seemed very out of place compared to the graceful scene of the forest behind it. It suddenly took off in their direction. They jumped barely in the nick of time to avoid getting rammed by its soft squishy body. Everything seemed intact except...

"Hey, that's my violin!" Yuki shouted. She tried to chase after it, but it jumped off into the sky. Despite its appearance, it was surprisingly fast. It was impossibly to catch up to it by foot. Lunasa collected herself off to the side, checked to make sure her phantom violin was secure, and walked over to Yuki who was still staring at the sky where the creature disappeared to. "Now what are we going to do, Luna-chan?"

"That was a god of plenty. It always shows up before the flower viewing festival. Don't worry, Yuki-chan, I'm sure we'll see it again. In the meantime, I think we've practiced enough. Take the rest of the day off. Here's some money so you can support yourself for today." Lunasa spoke like a teacher to her pupil rather than a friend to a friend. Yuki didn't mind, but she wished that Lunasa would be more open from time to time. "Let's get back to the village, shall we?"

OOC: If I defined too much about the flower-festival, sorry. I'll change it if it needs changing.

[Kakyoin]

9:00 AM - Day 1 - Ken's House - Human Village

"Hey, Kenno!"

Ken put down the book he had been intensely reading, hearing a familiar voice and a light fluttering sound. She's come early, he thought to himself. She always calls me by that name, after all.

A fairy with long purple hair poked her head around the corner of the room's entrance. "There you are, Kenno!" The fairy grinned, letting off a short victorious laugh. "Heh heh~ I see you're studying already."

"Of course, Reisa. I really should...Miss Keine has helped me so much, this is the least I can do for the Village." Still looking at her, he reaches over several times unsuccessfully for the nearby bookmark. "Besides, aren't you here a bit early?"

The fairy cocked her head to the left, watching him finally glance over and mark his place in the book. She placed her hand beneath her chin. It was nearly time for the Spring flower festival, where many gathered at the Hakurei Shrine to celebrate the blooming of beautiful sakura blossoms as they danced across the sky as far as the eye could see. She herself had only gone once before, three years ago. Having been one of the few hard-working fairies at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the head maid allowed her to come to one of these festivals. She had only fond memories of the celebration, the dancing, the feasting, meeting so many important people of Gensokyo...

"Reisa...?" Ken waved a hand in front of her face, adjusting his glasses.

The fairy flapped her wings as she snapped back to reality. "Ah! Sorry, sorry! I was just remembering the festival...you know what I'm talking about, right, Kenno?"

He placed his book inside a drawer in the desk. "I believe so. This is the day before the flower-viewing festival Miss Keine mentioned, right? And please stop calling me 'Kenno', it's not really a nickname I'm fond of..."

"Hee~ You're no fun sometimes, Kenno. Lighten up a bit!"

Ken stood up and yawned, then smiled at her. "I will tomorrow. I'm rather honored that Miss Keine wants me to go this year, no way will I miss out on such a special event!"

Reisa watched as he stretched out a bit and rubbed his eyes. She was still adjusting to her time away from the Scarlet Devil Mansion. At first she was rather disappointed when Lady Patchouli had sent her to the Human Village to help a young man she didn't even know, but she had quickly become accustomed to this place. And thanks to her help, Ken started picking up magic much faster! She prided herself on her curiosity, as that got her into reading the magician's books in the first place. Magic is really fun, she thought with a grin. I'm probably the only fairy to ever think that. Granted, I only know one tiny spell, but it's certainly better than what those other fairies back at the Mansion could muster.

"All right fairy, now that you're here, let's continue." He sat back down at the desk, pulling the book out of the drawer again. "I think I'm definitely getting the hang of this lightning spell now, but I still have problems..."

"Hey! I have a name, you know! Kenno, don't be so mean~" Reisa stuck her tongue out at him.

He shrugged with a slight smile, opening the book to the page he had left off at. "All's fair in love, war and nicknaming, wouldn't you agree?" He had a strange respect for her, even though she could be annoying at times. She was so whimsical but he could tell she honestly enjoyed her current job.

Putting on a pouting face, she sat down on his desk. "Fine, today I'll call you Ken. So, same spell as yesterday?"

"Yeah. Yesterday I got off a small bolt, but you know me. That's not good enough."

"And that will be enough for today, actually." Keine stepped into the room, holding his jacket in one arm.

"Miss Keine!" Ken exclaimed, standing up again. "What do you mean? The festival isn't until tomorrow, I thought..."

The teacher walked over to his desk. "Oh, I thought everyone should just relax on the day before the festival, as well. You don't need to study all the time, although I appreciate your desire to work hard."

Reisa waved at Keine energetically. "Hi teacher!"

"Haha, hello there. Anyway, would both of you take a look at this?" Keine put his jacket on the desk in addition to a strange-looking envelope with a special slip of paper inside.

Ken pulled the paper out of the envelope, holding it out so his fairy friend could read it too. "It looks like..."

She completed his sentence. "...an invitation? This is an invitation to the festival at the Hakurei Shrine!"

Keine folded her arms. "Precisely. According to some witnesses, a very large, fluffy, pink entity found its way around here...it dropped a few of these in addition to various food items."

"Food? Invitations? Sounds exciting already!" The fairy flapped her wings in approval.

He sighed. "Right, but...aren't you forgetting that they were dropped by a giant pink thing that floated here? Do you have any idea what it is, Miss Keine?"

She nodded, appearing unfazed by the mention of a giant, living, floating pink balloon creature. "Someone said that the Hakurei Shrine maiden and some of her friends were chasing it. It must be the 'god of plenty'..."

Ken and Reisa looked at each other quizzically.

She flashed a smile at them. "Don't worry, I'll explain. In the meantime, let's go check out what happened to the rest of the Village. C'mon, you two."

The two nodded in agreement and followed the teacher out of his house.

(OOC: This post establishes that starting at or just before 9:00 AM on Day 1, the 'god of plenty' finished passing through the Human Village. Any poster who wants to post at or after 9:00 AM can decide where the 'god of plenty' goes next, but it does not stick around the Human Village area from 9:00 AM to roughly 10:00 AM.)

[Gappy]

Somewhere above the Forest of Magic, Day 1, 6.45 AM

"It went that way!" Alice, pathfinder extraordinaire pointed a confident finger up into the sky.

"No, that way!" Suika, AKA Oni-nose(TM), declared, pointing, as far as Mitaka could see, in the general direction of whatever's opposite.

"You're both completely off by a whole 120 degrees. It's that way." Reimu, the profit radar, said, pointing in a third direction.

"Perhaps it went...." Byakuren was about to suggest, before the others turned to Mitaka who was strapped securely atop a rather weary Genji.

"Mitaka!" Alice, Suika and Reimu rounded on the team's tie-breaker. "Which way did it go?!" In essence, Mitaka heard 'which of us is right?'. Pity he's not the fairest tie-breaker around. To be fair, Mitaka, being a product of survival-based evolution, has learned to base his tie-breaking decisions on Darwinian probability - i.e. whichever decision allowed him the highest probability of survival. And up here, 500 yards above ground, said survival was already very much in doubt even without the attention of these three.

At this point, he was offered salvation in the form of a pair of goddesses. 'O-oh, Yasaka-san, Moriya-san!' He called out. "And....the...thing...strapped to your....butt."

"....excuse me?" Vant poked his head up over Kanako's shoulder. "It's still a little too early in the morning, but I'll show you what things-strapped-to-butts can do, especially to your butt."

"I mean, good ol' Vant, of course." Mitaka grinned.

"A good morning to you all, Hakurei-san, Margatroid-san, Ibuki-san, Hijiri-san and....the Hakurei broomstick's assistant..." Kanako bowed stiffly. "Hakurei-san, I note your work with the spring bloom was quite....satisfactory."

"How gracious of you to notice the work of us commoners," Reimu bowed in return, rather woodenly. "Perhaps I might see how a real goddess does it one of these days and learn how it should truly be done."

"Ahahaha, Kanako, please do act your age, you old maid." Suwako giggled, slapping Kanako's back as she flew over upside down. "How is everyone? Sarashi boy?" She nodded over at Mitaka with a playful grin.

"All the better for you asking, Moriya-san. Your hat looks absolutely stunning today, I must say." Mitaka nodded back, amiably. "Have you guys seen a big pink fluffball fly by?"

"A pink fluffball who's about to pay for eating my shrine's torii and oinari as well as several dozen trees on the way." Reimu corrected.

"You mean that thing?" Vant asked, pointing down.

"Hey, that's my violin!" An indignant voice cried out from the forest below where Vant was pointing.

"It eats violins too...." Byakuren noted down in a notepad underneath 'dolls' and 'paper talismans'.

"...I think soon it'll be easier to list down what it DOESN'T eat, and it'll be a very short list indeed." Mitaka sighed. "C'mon, let's check it out."

"Isn't that...." Vant looked down as they descended towards the clearing. "Oh, if it isn't Yuki." He said, noticing one of their fellow outsiders looking up at the sky with a forlorn look.

"Guys, a ridiculously cute beachball just ate my violin for breakfast and ran off. I may be relatively new here but I'm sure that's NOT how busking works." Yuki said. "I'm also quite sure violins aren't good for one's digestion.'

"....violins....well, at least it sounds tasty..." Suika commented.

"Aren't they part of our five a day?" Byakuren asked.

"Hijiri-san....which planet did you come from?" Alice sighed.

"You aren't getting mine." Lunasa clutched hers protectively, eyeing Suika and Byakuren warily.

"That's okay, not eating anything without a proper drink, nope nope." Suika sighed, looking over longingly at Ruukoto, who similarly clutched Suika's gourd protectively.

"Heads up, everyone, it's flying off towards the human village." Suwako said.

"Maybe we should get a proper shrinemaiden like our Sanae, just to be sure." Kanako said, with a sideways glance at Reimu.

"Hmmph....on to the village! We've got loot to ga-...I mean, a disaster to resolve!" Reimu declared.

"And a violin to retrieve!" Yuki added vindictively.

"That too." Reimu nodded. "Move out!"

[E-Nazrin]

Posted on Trance's behalf

The Cottage on the Hill on the outskirts. 0530. Day 1.
In between the Forest and the Human Village.

The girl... boy... thing could feel cold, mechanical hands pushing his body gently. He could hear several faint voices from the background. The boy tossed and turned in his sleep, today, he was feeling quite lethargic, and could not get up. Around this time of the day, it would be when he and his friend Meira would go sparring very early in the morning. Meira was looking over him alongside the one pushing him in an attempt to wake him, the Saboten-powered VIVIT. The boy, Hirowaza, was tossing and turning in the futon as VIVIT pushed him gently over and over again, moaning as she did so. Meira blushed faintly watching this sight, and gestured for VIVIT to stop. Meira took matters into her own hands and literally kicked Hirowaza right into the wall, forcibly waking him. He screamed in pain as he felt his body hit the wall hard. "Ouch!" he groaned as he sat up and rubbed his sides. "What was that for?" he exclaimed while staring at a displeased Meira and an apathetic VIVIT. Meira's arms were crossed and she looked at Hirowaza with disdain. "What's up with you, Meira-dono?" Hirowaza groaned as he rubbed his eyes. It must have been a painful impact, having breasts that big. Still, even with the sarashi, it was uncomfortable. VIVIT tilted her head and took note of the occasion. "Yoh-sama, did you forget about the festival?" she chirped. Meira and Hirowaza looked at each other in confusion.

"We aren't involved in it, sadly." Hirowaza said.

"Why?" VIVIT asked curiously.

"Well, we sort of are, I guess..." Meira corrected quickly as Hirowaza opened his mouth to answer. "See, the two of us... aren't really on good terms with Miss Reimu."

"I see. I don't ever remember you explaining this to me."

"Mostly because it's irrelevant hogwash!" Hirowaza sighed, looking to the side before getting up and getting dressed. VIVIT looked outside and recalled about a weird fluffball and wondered what was special about it. She hadn't seen it yet, but wondered about what it was. "Hey, Meira-sama, Yoh-sama?" she called. Meira and Hirowaza turned to face her (with the latter half-naked while getting dressed) to see what she wanted.

"I heard about some strange puffball around this festival, what is that?" she asked.

Meira laughed. "Don't they call that the god of plenty, or something? That's what they tell me," she said, looking out the window. "Anyway, let's not worry about it now, it's the time for our daily spar, is it not, Hirowaza-dono?" she said, as Hirowaza just finished getting dressed into her typical wear.

"Man, Hirowaza-dono, you are trying too hard. Unconventional clothing like that is only going to hinder you."

"Still thy tongue, Meira-dono! I wear what I like." Hirowaza retorted back with a slight tinge of venom.

Meira laughed. "Well, VIVIT, you know the drill. ST Field and all that nonsense."

VIVIT nodded. The ST Field is actually nothing really, it was a nickname that Meira gave for VIVIT's Saboten energy radiation, that affects Hirowaza adversely, like a radiation sickness. Hirowaza rolled his eyes at the name, and muttered something incomprehensible to himself before waving his hand out. "Let's go to our clearing in the forest already, okay?" he sighed.

The clearing of sparring. 0600. Day 1.
In the Forest.

Hirowaza and Meira were standing opposite each other. They were fairly far apart from each other, with VIVIT sitting down against a nearby tree, eyes closed as if in deep thought or concentration of some sort. Meira cracked a joke at Hirowaza. "You think that god of plenty will drop by and watch our fight! Wahahaha..." Hirowaza shook his head. "Keep your head in the game, Meira-dono."

"You are no fun!"

Hirowaza sighed as Meira suddenly drew her blade and rushed forth at him. "Those who aren't any fun need to be punished! You know, I don't like the fun police!" she laughed as she charged, and Hirowaza was taken a bit offguard after that joke. He rushed to magick up a charm from his repertoire, but Meira was already so close, so he only eked out a clay shield that released some dust, as it crumbled into pieces from the impact of Meira's blade clashing against it. "Woah, I'm sorry!" Hirowaza said as he rolled away. Quickly he magicked up another charm, it was a thin rapier that seemed to be nothing special, except that it was extremely lightweight and it seemed to increase Hirowaza's reaction speed, almost as if he could charge furthermore. He lunged at Meira with the rapier, but she stepped aside to evade it, but right as she tried to counter with her own weapon, the rapier that Hirowaza held in his hand faded away and he was about to conjure yet another charm, it was a rather non-descript great-axe and he spun with it, about to bring it down on Meira's head, but she was also quite reactive, and stopped it by impacting the matte edge of her weapon against the hilt of the axe, causing its motion to stop. She forced her weapon against his, and brought him to a halt, pushing him with much force that he fell backwards on to his bottom as the axe faded away.

"Damn!" Hirowaza cursed. "How do you keep doing that?"

"Well, you have much to learn. Besides, you're tired as ever-loving hell. Look at all that sweat on you. You look terrible." Meira said, as she placed a hand on Hirowaza's forehead to check if he had a fever or some sort of diseased reaction to the "ST Field," or rather, VIVIT's presence. VIVIT opened her eyes and looked up at the sky.

"Well, let's head back, eh?" Meira laughed, winking at Hirowaza.

VIVIT continued looking up at the sky.

"I still wonder about that god of plenty..." VIVIT murmured to herself audibly.

Meira and Hirowaza sighed.

[日巫子]

6:35 AM, Day 1, Youkai Mountain (Kasen's dojo)

Himiko, by nature, was not an early riser.  In fact, her sleeping schedule often consisted of staying up until almost midnight and not waking up for at least nine hours.  Right around now, she would have been asleep.  Today, however, Himiko was sitting fully dressed on the porch, stifling a yawn as she watched the sky.  She had been wearing a winter vest over her clothes at the beginning of the day, but she had since shedded it in favor of letting her hair down; the vest was now lying next to her as she enjoyed a pleasant breeze.  Himiko closed her eyes to listen to the trees rustling.

The girl sitting next to her with a bandaged-covered arm sighed contently.  ?It?s so peaceful around here, isn?t it??

Ibara Kasen fit in rather well with spring scenery, now that Himiko thought about it.  Her current wardrobe consisted of a green skirt, white blouse, and brown panel.  There was that flower ornament on her chest, too.  Part of her hair, which was a bit darker than pink cherry blossoms, was in covered hair buns while the rest hung freely around her shoulders.

?Himiko??

?Y-yeah.?

The shackle on Kasen?s left wrist jangled as she lifted the tea pot and poured a cup of tea.  She handed it off to Himiko.

?Want some??

Himiko jolted.  ?Eh??  She took the cup from Kasen and hesitantly took a sip.  Shivers ran down her spine, and she actually had to turn away to keep Kasen from seeing the disgust so clearly written on her [Himiko?s] face.  When she had recovered, she turned back to Kasen, who was watching her with an oblivious smile.  It?s not like Kasen?s tea was bad, it?s just that she bought all the bitter kinds?or maybe she was just sensitive to that kind of thing.

?It?s bitter.?  In fact, Himiko didn?t want to know what kind of tea she was drinking.

?It?s supposed to be.  Do you feel more awake?? Kasen asked.  Himiko shrugged and looked back at the sky.

?Sort of.  How can you drink that kind of stuff, anyway??

?Discipline, perhaps.?  Kasen took a long drink out of her own cup, completely unfazed.

?I could never be a hermit with that kind of discipline?? Himiko mused.

?That?s a shame.  You'd make a good hermit,? Kasen said.  ?You could become immortal.  A lot of humans desire that, don?t they??

?I wouldn?t know.  I?d probably go mad from it.  Also everything would eat me.?  Himiko raised the cup to her lips, and hesitated.  She was used to Kasen offering her the chance to become a hermit at this point.  Himiko didn't really see why Kasen even thought she could, though: she was too attached to material items, unlike Kasen.  Then again, she was the one who brought it up in the first place...

?Are you saying I have a few screws loose?? Kasen teased, draining the rest of her cup.  She didn?t even have that much to begin with, did she?

?No.  But what is ?normal? anyway??  Himiko rubbed her eye.  She set her cup on the porch and let it grow cold, not wanting anything else to do with it.  After a few moments of silence, she spoke up again. 

?Isn?t there a festival tomorrow??

?Where did you hear that from?? Kasen asked, a note of curiosity in her voice.

?Some faeries in the forest told me,? Himiko said, swirling the contents of her cup around, content with leaving them where they were.  ?A flower-viewing festival at theeee?Hakurei Shrine.  I?ve never heard of it happening before.?

Kasen blinked.  ?I figured you would?ve found out about that while traveling down the mountain.?

Himiko shook her head and looked back up.  That was one habit she didn?t feel too inclined to kick, especially after coming to Gensokyo.  The sky was just so?

?What.?

?What?s wrong??

Himiko leapt off the porch and pointed to the sky.  ?What, what, what, there?s, um, something up there!?

Kasen looked into the sky to see a few figures drifting through the clouds.  It was too far away to make out any details, but there was no way they were balloons, or birds, or?

But they was flying.  Himiko fixated her eyes on the unidentified flying objects, the pupil in her green eye thinning to a sliver.

?They can fly.?  Himiko grabbed her vest from the porch and broke into a run.  ?They know how to fly!  Get them!? she called out to Kasen as she ran into the trees.  Kasen watched her go, wide-eyed, then started running after her.

?Wait!  Himiko!  You don?t even know where you?re going!?

Editted by request

[Yonowaaru]

The Great Waterfall, Day 1, 0630.


The man had woken up early, as always. After he'd been tossed into Gensokyo, landing on the Youkai Mountain and meeting Aya and Minamitsu, he had set out to find a better place to stay than the Tengu Village, with all the drunken birdmen and women at every hour of the day. He had discovered the Great Waterfall, and had discovered a small furnitured  cave behind it, lit by torches, which seemed to have once been someone's home. At this moment, however, the furniture was covered in cobwebs and small spiders were crawling all over. He had decided to clean the place up and call it his home and base.

That morning, he had left his cave after grabbing his trusty Claymore and left for the village to see if he could find any supplies, but instead, he met Aya, flying down from the village.

"Ah, Shameimaru, up early as always?" Umbron asked.

"I could say the same to you, Whitestone! My motto isn't 'The best shots are surprise shots' for no reason, is it?" Aya responded.

"I suppose so! So, where are you heading on this early morning? Any scoops you'd like to share?"

"Definitely! This night, while all of us Tengu were partying, some flying ball flew over the mountain, spreading all sorts of food items and invitations for the flower-viewing festival at the Hakurei Shrine. Hatate had a cake fall on her head! Skillfull as I was, I snapped some pictures before she could shake it off!" she says, nodding proudly, perhaps even smugly. "We tried to stop it using our fans, but drunk as we were, we weren't really able to.." she adds, blushing. "Right now, I'm heading for the Shrine. Oh, and I left some food at Murasa's for you! Be sure to pick it up."

"Ah, interesting. I will definitely join you later, but I think I'll be heading to Murasa's for now. Be sure to make some good shots for me!" he said.

Aya nodded, and flew away in a dash. Even though he'd always had a distaste for journalists on Earth because they were too weak, Aya was the exact opposite; willing to risk her life and limbs just to take some good pictures. She was definitely admirable in her own way.

After this encounter, he started climbing the mountain. On his way, he saw other Tengu flying over, presumably also headed to the Shrine. He arrived at the Tengu Village, and walked over to the Palanquin. He'd heard it had once been a ship, but it had left for the Mountain some time ago along with its occupants. Murasa was the ship's captain. Some other youkai also lived there, a mouse and its tiger master, a gipsy in control of a humongous pink cloud (which he thought was absurd) and a youkai magician revered by them for her equal treating of humans and youkai. They had all left, though, so the only person left there was Murasa.


The Palanquin, Day 1, 0700.

Murasa's house was mostly buried inside the mountain. Only a small hut with a slanted roof was visible from the outside, but he had gone inside before and climbed down the ladder inside to see how vast it actually was. The bottom floor functioned as some sort of church, with an altar at the far side and settees left and right from a path leading to it. The altar was richly decorated with all sorts of gems, and showed the youkai magician aiding youkai who are being hunted down by humans. Murasa had told him that was how life had been in Gensokyo about a thousand years ago. When he arrived, he knocked on the door twice, and Murasa opened it. She was wearing a white nightgown.

"Ah, Whitestone! Aya left a package for you with me." she said

"Yes, I met her on my way here." Umbron answered

"I'll get it for you!" she says, and looked around the room. This was the room where she slept and ate, and had all sorts of objects and pieces of clothing lying around. "Please don't mind the mess here! I was planning on cleaning today, but then Aya came and told me everyone in the village was invited to the flower-viewing party at Reimu's, so I didn't really have time" she murmurs, while looking around for Aya's package.

"Ah, here it is!" she yelled, and presented him with a cotton bag. He took it, and looked inside. There were all sorts of food inside it. "All this was apparently dropped by some flying fluffball that also spread the invitations. Speaking about those.." She looks around again and hands you a small piece of paper with a hand-written invitiation on it. "So, you are going too, aren't you?"

"I was planning on gathering some supplies first, but since Aya supplied them to me already, I don't see any reason not to. It'll be nice to relax for some time and meet some of the other denizens of Gensokyo" Umbron answered.

"Sounds good to me!" she answers. "I'll be getting dressed now, but I'd like to join you, if you don't mind waiting for a second?"

Umbron nodded, and left the building.

[Tsunade Gakudan]

House of the Human, The Ancient City, Former Hell. 10:00, Day 001.
[The Prologue: Part 1.]

‘Another day, another tiring session of work last night. I say tiring but what I mean is that it was busier than usual. Not like I expect it to be peaceful anymore; in fact, I like it this way. Wait, I’ve probably said that before; ignore me.’

‘Either way, it was pretty good last night. To think I used to drop sake dishes quite often when I started shows how much I’ve improved. I’d put that down to being new here in general, but with someone like Yuugi around, I really can’t. I owe a lot to her; more than I give off I’m sure. Maybe she’s like a guardian to me or something. Gah, I really should stop writing that sort of stuff down first.’

‘Speaking of Yuugi, she seemed as lively as ever last night. Well, I say last night, I mean early morning. She had that grin on her face again; makes me wonder if she got into yet another fight. Well, it’ll take some time before someone beats her; I’ve never seen her lose yet. She walked me home too, talking about the time I first came here. Makes me wonder what that silly little bucket girl is up to. Haven’t seen her since Yuugi dragged her out of the city; no idea what she did, but she looked happy enough.’

‘I didn’t sing last night; I couldn’t. I mean, I love singing; it’s the very reason the bar keeps me around. A human who loves drinking and has a beautiful voice are rare in Former Hell. Well, that’s what a lot of oni have said to me. I wouldn’t call my voice that good, but it helps with my confidence, if anything. Anyway, I needed a break and they were fine with that; guess they know the limits of a human more than I thought.’

‘I had a dream about the outside again. No matter what, it always seems to involve the sky. Maybe it’s because it’s the one thing I don’t see anymore. I always do wonder how much the sky has changed; call me stupid, but I’m human. We’re bound to think that way about things we haven’t seen in ages. To be fair I don’t really mind; I mean, this IS home. I wouldn’t give this place up for the world.’

-

Tsunade stretched a little and looked down at the book in front of her. She would have never dreamt of writing such words in a diary before, let alone in her past life. That’s what she considered her life before Gensokyo now; a life that had finished. A life she no longer cared about. She didn’t have to worry about moving anymore. No more states of depression for saying goodbye to the rarity of friends she made. For a place that sounded so ominous and evil, Tsunade had called it, ‘Former Hell’, her paradise. Her home. She re-read her sentences again and smiled; through all the noise and drunken stories she had heard every night, she was at peace here. She placed a little paper marker in the book and sealed it before tucking it away in a small hand-bag. It wasn’t really a hand-bag, well, not in the way the outside would see it as. Sure, the size was one that matched it, but the strap was no where near the length to sling it over your shoulder without causing issues. Tsunade had experimented with it several times over before finding a way to conceal it inside her kimono. This meant she had to carry it by the straps if she was wearing anything other than her usual green kimono, which she was sat in right now, or the purple-ish one she used for work. Of course, since the purple one was normally always done up properly unlike the green one, getting to the bag would be more of a challenge. They had told her not to worry about wearing it, but she had insisted on it; if anything, it made her look the part when she sung. Well, that’s how it was in her head.

Before long, a random burst of noise came from outside and attracted her attention. Not all of it, but enough to break her from her thoughts. Whatever had happened, the oni were being as lively as ever. As she rose to her feet, she glanced at a chart of sorts hanging on the wall. She called it a calendar, even if it was just a list of her working days. It was her day off for once. As the money Tsunade had worked so hard for jingled as she picked up the bag, she knew it was going to be a pretty good day. Shopping aside, she had all the time in the world right now. But that would have to wait a little longer; first she had to clean up the state of her current place. Tsunade sighed a little as she began to tidy up.

[Sect]

8:30 A.M., Day 1, Crop Fields Outside of the Human Village

The sun was already high in the air when the farmers collected the last of the winter crops. A small handful of men and women trudged along the rows of crop, pulling beets, cabbage, and onions from their beds and stacking them in wooden carts. Behind them, other farmers began digging into the remnants with spades, grinding up the stems and roots of the plants in order to provide nutrients for the seed that was to be planted that spring. The whole lot of them were tired: they had been up since before the sun fully rose, and they still had work to do even after harvesting the vegetables.

Ahead of them, a man wearing brown pants and a denim jacket kneeled in the dirt, inspecting a recently uprooted carrot while holding a ring bound notebook in his other hand. Satisfied by what he saw, he laid the vegetable down in front of him and opened up the notebook, covered in neatly ordered scrawls. He reached up into the band of his faded blue hat, emblazoned with a white, curvy "A" on the front, pulled out a pencil, and began scribbling into the notebook.

"Hey, Hugh, why did you call me out here?" a voice called out from behind him, feminine yet gruff. The man, Hugh, paused in his writing, then snatched up the carrot, hiding it from the view of the person behind him momentarily.

"Naz, I got a bone to pick with you," he said, tossing the carrot over his head at the girl, short, mouse-eared, and clad in a grey dress. The youkai caught the carrot with her free hand: her other hand were occupied by her iron dowsing rods.

"It's Nazrin, you jerk. And what's this?" she asked, looking at the carrot, obviously chewed on. Hugh straightened up from his crouch, dusting dirt off his knees, and turned fully to Nazrin.

"That right there's evidence that your little mouse buddies decided to snack on our crops," he said, walking up to the youkai, who only came up to his chest. "Jeez, a little commander like you can't keep control of her troops? For shaaaame..."

Nazrin's eyes, once hooded in boredom, were now wide with indignation. "Wh-what?! My friends would never do anything like that! I keep them fed and warm during the winter, and they didn't get into the stores!"

"Is that right? Then explain that big chunk taken out of the carrot." Nazrin flipped the carrot in her hand, to look at the large bit of missing root. Her nervousness began to ebb away, to be replaced by irritation as pieces began to fall into place.

"There's no way they did this, the bite's too fresh. Also, it was a single, large bite that did it, say, a bite from a big, dumb, bearded human..." she explained, giving Hugh a cross look as he scratched at his short red beard.

"Oh? That's a pretty big accusation. Where's your proof, Naz?" Nazrin only gave him a flat stare.

"You still have the piece of carrot in your mouth, dunderhead." Hugh quickly spit the vegetable out, and wiped his lips dry, prompting her to sigh. "Jeez, why do you keep doing stuff like that? It's not fair, accusing my comrades just because they're little."

The human only shrugged as he finished up the notes he was writing. "Because it's funny watching you panic like that," he remarked, ruffling Nazrin's hair and just barely dodging the halfhearted swipe the youkai made with her rods. "Anyways, you're here a bit early: after we finished getting the winter crops out I was going to check out that field over there," he gestured to the north of them, further away from the Human Village, "and see about marking out some boundaries for expanding the field. Would you mind helping me out, keeping an eye out for rocks or stuff underground?"

Nazrin shrugged as she tossed the carrot at Hugh's head, smirking at the satisfying "thunk" it made when it bounced off his hat. "I guess, but won't you guys find that kind of stuff when you dig up the plot?" she asked as Hugh bent down to pick up the carrot and shove it in his jacket pocket.

"Oh, yeah, we'd definitely find them," the human said as he continued down the rows of crops, stopping every now and then to pluck one of the produce out of the ground, inspect it, and set it down in order to write notes. "And then we'd have to fix or replace equipment when we bang up against them like we did two years ago. Might as well go through first and dig it up before we cause more trouble for ourselves." Nazrin's mouth formed an "o" in understanding, and she leaned around him to peek at his notebook.

"So, crops did all right?" Hugh nodded, tapping the notebook with the worn pencil.

"Yeah, almost all the crops did well, thanks to us putting down mulch. The cabbages didn't do so well, because we planted them too soon, but most of them survived. The rest we'll just use as compost. But, we definitely made a killing this winter, so our stores will be just fi-" Shouting interrupted his explanation, and human and youkai turned behind them, where they saw the other farmers crowding around where they kept the wagons full of produce. Nazrin eyebrow was arched, as her ears twitched, much to Hugh's amusement. "Hey, Mickey, what do you hear?"

The youkai gave him a sharp, questioning look. "What is Mick- anyways, seems like something's gotten into the wagons." Hugh opened his mouth to speak. "Not my friends." Hugh deflated, and began to pout, looking utterly ridiculous for a man in his mid-twenties.

"Well, fine then. Let's go see what's going on." He put action to words, and strode to the gathered crowd, Nazrin following quickly with her shorter legs. Hugh and the youkai had to push through the small herd of farmers. "Hey now, what's everyone getting upset over a... few... pests...?" he trailed off, seeing what the farmers were fussing over. Nazrin broke through the crowd just behind him, and stared with wide eyes.

"... Wow, Unzan really let himself go," the mouse youkai couldn't help but say. Hugh grinned slightly.

"My thoughts exactly." The farmers had came out to the fields with five carts to carry produce in: one of the carts was still out in the field, but they had filled the other four already. Now, two of the carts were completely empty and knocked over on its side, and a spherical, pink... thing was busy dumping the contents of another cart into its enormous cavern of a mouth.

Of the final cart, there was no sign.

Hugh, Nazrin, and the farmers stared at the thing as it gorged itself, and Hugh couldn't help but comment, "I don't think that's Unzan. No beard, see?"

"Of all the reasons why it can't be Unzan, it's because of his beard?"

Hugh gestured at his own beard in response. "Well, yeah. I mean, it's his trademark, or something. The epitome of manliness, right up there with Sean Connery or Grizzly Adams or something."

Nazrin scratched her ear. "Well, I was thinking that he was better known for being, well, a cloud or something, but I guess that's true. Plus, that thing's just way too cute to be Unzan." Hugh nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, there's many things Unzan can do, but 'cute''s not one of them. Now that I'm thinking about it, 'eating' is probably another." A farmer tapped the postulating man on the shoulder, and Hugh turned to look at her.

"Er, Mr. Hugh? Aren't you going to do something about it?" Hugh blinked at her, then turned back to the scene.

"Yeah, we should do something, huh? Naz, hop to it!" The mouse youkai whirled around to glare at the human.

"Me?! That thing could eat me in one bite!" The human rolled his eyes.

"It can probably eat any of us in one bite, stop using your tinyness as an excuse. Fine, someone, give me a hoe!" Ignoring Nazrin's sputtered rage, he accepted the farming implement. "Not quite what I was asking for, but it'll do." The human took a dozen steps towards the pink vegetable eater machine, hefting the tool like a javelin. Taking a few short breaths, he snarled as he threw the tool, hitting the thing squarely in the side, forcing it to burp. Hugh blinked as several radishes, cabbages, carrots, a violin bow, and a half dozen folded pieces of paper were coughed up by the pink thing. "Oh, hey, a pinata," he remarked, before the thing turned to glare at him.

Nazrin stood, rooted in place, as Hugh swallowed and began backing up. "I think you just made it mad..." she noted. Hugh laughed woodenly.

"Maybe a bit... hey, we outnumber it, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder, only to gawk as he realized that the other farmers abandoned them, leaving him and Nazrin alone with the pink terror. "Oh, thanks!" he shouted, and turned back to the puffball, who was glaring at him in adorable fury. Nazrin, behind him, looked from side to side, and made the decision to follow the farmers' suit.

Unfortunately for her, before she could scamper off, Hugh had already tucked her underneath her arm with his notebook and started running through the fields. "H-hey! Let me go!" she cried.

"No can do!" Hugh huffed, other arm pumping and legs pounding against dirt. "Y'know that, huff, story with, huff, the lion chasing, huff, people?" Nazrin thought quickly, remembering the old joke about one of the runner putting on tennis shoes.

"That doesn't make sense!" she shouted, looking back and seeing the pink blob pursuing them in the air. "I'm faster than you!"

"Exactly!"

[Gappy]

8.30 AM, day 1, outskirts of the human village

"So...pardon me for asking, but just to clarify, Yuki-san...." Byakuren began, looking thoughtful, while munching on a dango they bought from Mokou's stand for breakfast a while back.

"Yes?" Yuki looked up at the magician-cum-shrinemaiden from where she was sitting on Genji, now official mundane human transport.

"....your violin causes indigestion and constipation. Is this due to low fiber content or otherwise?" Byakuren asked, flipping to a new page on her little notepad.

This elicited a facepalm from Alice, a sigh from Kanako, and a giggle from Suwako.

"....err...." Yuki looked towards the others for help.

"Well, it won't make a difference, as when we catch up to it, it WILL suffer some SERIOUS indigestion." Reimu growled.

"You're going to make it eat Alice's cooking?" Mitaka asked. This earned him a charge from Hourai which he narrowly avoided, thanks to reflexes honed through years of surviving day to day life at the shrine. "H-hey, I have a passenger here!"

"No, we're going to feed it something more disgusting." Reimu said.

"Implying Alice's cooking is disgusting to begin with." Suwako giggled.

"Hey!" Alice protested.

"Taka-kun." Reimu said.

"....yes?" Mitaka replied.

"Well, you're its dessert." Reimu said.

"...Oh, that's okay then, nice and healthy." Mitaka said. "....I'm disgusting?"

"High sugar content though, yeps." Suika giggled. "Oniichan's sweet~"

"And disgusting." Alice muttered.

"....why though?" Mitaka asked. "I mean, it's not particularly easy to find shrine janitors in this economic climate."

"Not permanently, silly." Reimu said, sighing. "You're going in to get everything out."

"....and if it doesn't work?" Mitaka raised an eyebrow.

"...." There was a pause. "We'll....think of something else." Reimu said.

"Hey! I don't like that pause! It was a non-committal pause!" Mitaka

"You'll always come out the other end, Niichan, yep." Suika giggled.

"Disgusting." Alice muttered.

"You're the only one who could do it, Taka-kun!" Reimu declared, encouragingly. "And no matter what, we'll come save you!"

"It's all you're good for, Mitaka!" Alice added.

".....y-you guys...." Mitaka shed a few tears. "You....you all....for me....."

"There there, we know...." Suika giggled, patting him on the back.

"You all....think I'm that expendable......" Mitaka sniffled. "I'm...I'm so touched...."

"....Oh, and you're also bad for digestion." Suika threw another in.

"Oh, sure, thanks. Now, in answer to your question, Yes, yes it does, Byakuren-san, and it's mainly down to the material and make. That's why rich people buy Stradivarius violins - they're richer in fiber and better for you too." Mitaka explained.

"I see...." Byakuren noted this down. "Wow, you really do know a lot, Mitaka-dono."

"I try not to flaunt it." Mitaka grinned. This earned him a shove from Alice which sent him flying off Genji and into freefall. "I REGRET NOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa-..........!!!"

"You've got to respect him for putting his life on the line for a few lame jokes." Suwako nodded with approval as the doppler effect carried Mitaka's scream further and further away.

"As expected of the Hakurei Shrine's janitor." Kanako nodded with a sideways smirk at Reimu.

"Better than your resident overglorified breast cushion...though I guess it's important to have something to rest those huge watermelons on, lest it cause you trouble in your old...oh, sorry, I forgot, you're already in your old age. My apologies." Reimu replied, nonchalant.

"For the record, they're not tha-...." Vant began, before he was quickly interrupted by Yuki.

"What about Mitaka?" Yuki ventured. "Can he...fly?"

"...." There was a pause as everyone considered this.

"Last time I checked, no." Alice shrugged.

"......" There was a longer pause.

Meanwhile, down below....

"Let me go! I don't have to run fast! I just have to run faster than you!" Nazrin struggled against Hugh's grip.

"Like I'd let you!" Hugh replied, looking over his back and noting the pink balloon's proximity. "Besides, if I let go of you now, you'd only become monster bait!"

Nazrin looked back, considered the truth of this statement, and shouted, "Then run FASTER! That beard's not just for show, right?!"

"There's absolutely no correlation between the awesomeness of one's beard and one's GTFO speed. Only with one's manliness!" Hugh explained in between puffs.

"....so it's useless...." Nazrin sighed. "It's gaining. Think I should start praying?"

"For a miracle to fall out of the sky? Why not?!" Hugh panted.

".........aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" BAM, something indeed did fall out of the sky, bash the god of plenty smack dab on the head, cause it to regurgitate a huge pie, before bouncing off and landing squarely in said pie. "....AAAaaaaa.....it's custard....why is it always custard? It can be cream, maybe even pear or apple, but it has to be custard...."

"....Oh, hey, Mickey, it worked." Hugh turned around to find the god of plenty bouncing away from the collision, seemingly somewhat phased, leaving behind the human cannonball from the sky with its head stuck in a large custard pie.

"...it did? Oh, I mean, of course it did!" Nazrin said, trying her hardest to peel herself off Hugh, but to no avail. "Still....who is that who answered our prayer? Some fallen god?"

"....or just a poor sod who couldn't pay proper air fare." Hugh shrugged.

"....such mockery....I've reached the human village, haven't I?" A muffled voice from the custard pie sighed.

[E-Nazrin]

Guest/Jeremy's Bedroom, Yakumo Residence
5:00 AM, Day 1, 1 day before the Great Hakurei Shrine Flower-Viewing Festival, Reitaisai

I'm not a morning person.

Normally, neither is Yukari.

But somehow that didn't stop her from waking me up at the crack of dawn that day with a couple of umbrella jabs to the side.

"Ow. OW! Damnit, I'm up!"

After announcing my consciousness, I rolled off the futon, away from her poking implement, and failed to fight off a yawn as I glared up at her. Fairly tall, long, flowing blonde hair, smiling/smirking down at me with an umbrella in her hand... the usual Yukari, naturally.

Except for the part where she was wearing a deep purple yukata, with abstract flower decorations instead of her usual poofy dress. Come to think of it, the white towel flung over her shoulder wasn't typical, either.

She grinned a little. "I see you like the outfit."

On the upside, her teasing DID tell me I was staring, so I looked away. Am I blushing? Damnit, I'm probably blushing. Bah, salvage what dignity you can...

"It's certainly unexpected." I replied, staring over at the wall. And now that I notice it to use as an excuse, at the desk where my laptop was sitting. Damn old thing can barely run games anymore... but it's still usable, at least.

Yukari giggled a little at my reply. Okay, time to change the topic before she decides to push this further and I start digging myself a hole I can't get out of.

Since I take after Yukari's erratic, night-friendly sleep schedules, there was no window in my room. But I could tell from the ambient light from the sliding door she'd left open that it was early morning. So I looked past Yukari, out the door, and asked the obvious question.

"What time is it?"

"Oh, probably five or so." Yukari answered, resting her parasol on top of the towel on her shoulder. "Need to be up bright and early for Reitaisai!"

I blinked up at her a few times, trying to process that, and yawned again. Damnit, I hate mornings.

Then it hit me. "... wait, Reitaisai? Isn't that the Touhou doujin event?"

The gap youkai chuckled. "Of course it is, Jeremy! But that's what Reimu's been calling her spring flower-viewing festival~"

She smiled down at me and let me do the math on that. I came to two conclusions. I brought up the one I expected a simpler answer (or lack thereof) first:

"Was that your idea?"

"That would be telling~" Yukarin sang back, shifting her pose a little.

Yeah, that's about what I expected. Damnit, Yukari.

"And you woke me up because..." my intended brief pause was lengthened by another unwanted yawn, which ruled out having her interrupt me with the answer - so I finished, "... you want me to go, right?"

A grin. "Fast as usual, Jeremy! Though perhaps I should have told you last night, ne?"

I groaned a bit and sat up on the floor. "Damnit, Yukari."

Well, at least I probably got a few hours' sleep... what was it when I signed off last night? Eleven? Lucky I'd drifted back onto a relatively normal schedule by then. And maybe I should have noticed Yukari turning in early...?

I sighed. Oh, whatever. It's not like I can stop her dragging me along, so...

"Can I at least get dressed?" I asked.

"Do I get to watch?" Yukari countered, a twinkle in her eye.

We had had this exchange many times. Sometimes it manages to retain its humor, sometimes it doesn't. I wasn't sure which it was this time, but my answer remained the same: A level deadpan glare.

After a few seconds, Sukima laughed and shook her head. "Oh, fine, you silly." She raised one finger. "I'll be back in one minute. Make sure you're ready by then~"

I gave her a nod. "Yes ma'am."

Yukari gave me a small wink, a little wave, and stepped sideways into a gap beside her whose appearance I had apparently failed to notice. It quietly slid closed again, and vanished. With any luck, Yukari had actually left the room for me to change.

Which didn't stop me from sighing again. Damn crazy woman. Now to try and find some decent clothes...

-----

Front Porch, Yakumo Residence
5:05 AM, Day 1

At least I wasn't the only one tired this morning. Chen is a somewhat uncommon sight at the Yakumos' place, but damn if her yawning isn't adorable. With or without the little fangs, for that matter.

Fortunately Ran's presence made for a good reminder not to stare at the catgirl. Though those tails of hers seem a little better-groomed than usual... Yukari must have warned her kitsune shikigami, at least. Damnit, Yukari.

And both of them are wearing yukata, too... Chen red, and Ran blue. Fitting. And some decent style choices with Chen keeping her hat and Ran ditching hers... Now I feel a little out of place with that sweater and slacks I threw on... oh well.

"There!" Yukari said, once she was done literally dragging me over to the porch by a forearm, "That should be all of us, then!"

Ran gave me a small nod and her usual polite greeting. "Good morning, Jeremy-san."

Chen waved in my direction and roughly echoed her master with her own "Morning, Jeremy-sam...aaaaaaahhh..."

That last part was actually one of those adorable yawns, interrupting the end of the honorific. Damnit Chen, you're too cute.

But I had my oft-rehearsed answer to use, even if it never seemed to stop them.

"Just Jeremy, please." I requested, calmly, then nodded at the two for my own greeting. "Hey."

Yukari ruffled my hair with a hand, and I... well, cringed away from the touch a bit.

"Always trying to be so modest, aren't we?" she teased.

"Yes." I muttered back.

She chuckled a little, and a soft 'zwuun' hailed the appearance of a fairly large gap floating just above the lawn, surface shimmering with a strange dark blur of red and purple.

"Shall we get going, then?" Yukari said, but didn't wait for an answer, immediately hopping off the porch to float through it.

"Haaaai~" Chen answered, sounding a little sleepy, and stepped off the porch to enter the gap as well.

That left me and Ran. I've done it a few times, but gap-travel still weirded me out a bit. That brief moment of 'empty' running over your body and the weird zero-gravity sensation when jumping right through are kinda disturbing, no matter how you slice it. That and the part where Yukari's dumped me into some less than enjoyable (at the time, at least) scenarios, so I don't think being wary of them is unreasonable.

Ran snapped me out of my hesitation with a polite question. "Would you like any help getting through, Jeremy-san?"

"Huh?" I replied, glancing over. Damnit, must have spaced out for a bit if she was doing that.

... it's close enough to the ground for me to jump through. Just hope I make the landing on the other side.

"Nah, I should be good."

And I was, sort of.

-----

Courtyard, Hakurei Shrine
5:10 AM, Day 1

The top of the Hakurei Shrine's front gate... archway... thing, I forget the name, was not my first choice of landing spots. I'm not terrible with heights, but never learning how to fly after arriving in Gensokyo made getting down rather inconvenient. Fortunately, Ran's arrival a moment afterwards rescued me from that readily enough. Though getting carried down was... fairly awkward. No, she's NOT... hugging me. Remember that, Jeremy...

Fortunately, Yukari's conversation in the Hakurei Shrine courtyard served as some distraction. Especially the person she was talking to - not Reimu, not Suika, but... that had to be Ruukoto. Green hair, maid dress, slightly odd eyes... the only real possibility in context. Not who I would have expected... but I guess I never did find out what the fallout of PC-98 actually was in Gensokyo. Pretty clear it happened, though...

Oh great, is Mima going to be at the shrine, too?

Ruukoto seemed to be rather timid under Yukari's interrogation, at least from what I managed to catch of their conversation during our descent. "... very early, Yukari-sama, the main festival is tomorrow..."

I noticed that the gap youkai hesitated just a moment too long before replying, "Well then, I suppose I've set a new record for being early to the festival, haven't I?"

Ruukoto silently bit her lip for a moment, then nodded. "I... I suppose."

Hm. Something's up here.

It was about then that Ran gently placed me on the ground and let go, my weight settling onto my legs once more. She floated a foot or two away and landed, herself.

I glanced over and nodded at her... bowing slightly, I guess. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Jeremy-san." Ran replied, and turned around. That was abrupt...?

I turned to follow her gaze and saw Chen curled up at the base of one of the shrine-gate-thing's pillars, snoozing contentedly in that dark red yukata. Awww...

Ran sighed a little and started walking over to her shikigami. Er... that means I should probably leave them to themselves, shouldn't I?

Right, let's bother Yukari instead. Even if that's almost as suicidal. Almost. Or maybe I can help peel Ruukoto away...

"Damnit, Yukari."

Or Reimu could interrupt, walking out onto the shrine's porch with a half-eaten onigiri in her hand.

"The last thing I needed was an interruption halfway through breakfast while those two lazybones are falling asleep before they reach the table and I still need to take care of the main festival preparations."

Food? Yes, food does sound good. Yukari dragged me out here without breakfast, didn't she?

Fortunately hunger wasn't getting in my way enough to actually SAY any of that, or I might have earned myself some violence. Which would have been bad.

Instead, I simply walked up a few feet alongside Yukari, and a bit behind. She and Ruukoto both turned to face Reimu, as well.

Yukari gave the shrine maiden a cheerful wave, and called back, "Good morning, Reimu dear! I came early this year~"

'This year?' So this is a regular thing?... I guess Yukari didn't insist on dragging me along last year. I guess she's considerate sometimes, at least...

"Yeah, and I know better than to think your arrival is a good sign." Reimu replied, grouchily. She took a bite of her onigiri and glared at Yukari for a moment... then at me. I tensed up a bit as she frowned, staring and chewing for a moment before asking, "Is this the guy who's supposed to be staying at your place?"

"Sounds about right." I quipped. At least she didn't call me her boyfriend or something. My stupid, hormonal fanboy fantasies do not need that sort of encouragement. Damnit, Yuyuko.

Yukari laughed a little and confirmed it as well: "Oh, yes, he is! It's nice to have a human around for entertainment every once in a while, and he does quite a good job at it~" She turned halfway towards me and put a hand to her lips, half-covering a smirk. "Though he gets so nervous when I try to catch him changing..."

Damnit, Yukari. I blushed and tried to focus on Reimu instead of amusing Yukari's smirk, which made it easy to catch the miko rolling her eyes and sighing.

"Whatever." Reimu said, heavily, "Just no funny business with him. You know my job."

The gap youkai dismissed this with a small wave of her hand. "Yes, yes. Don't worry, Jeremy is just fine~"

Reimu frowned at Yukari for a moment, then looked at me. She raised an eyebrow inquisitively, obviously asking me to weigh in.

... while there are a lot of things I could complain about, none of them are overwhelming enough to really rock the boat at this point.

I gave the miko a shrug. "Yeah, I'm treated okay."

"Hmm." Reimu... replied, for lack of a better term. She took another bite of her onigiri and looked at Yukari again. "So why are you here, anyway?"

"To help with preparations, of course!" Yukari replied, cheerfully.

Yeah, I call bullshit on that. What's she up to this time?

Reimu nodded slowly, looking clearly unimpressed. "Uh-huh. 'Help.'"

Sounds like she agrees with my assessment.

"Oh, Reimu dear, that's hardly fair!" the gap youkai said, sounding hurt. "I helped out last year, didn't I?"

Wait, what?

The miko on the porch chewed thoughtfully for a moment, swallowed, and answered, "You just dumped Ran here and had her help."

Ah. That explains it.

"But she did, didn't she~" Yukari sang back.

Reimu put the last of her onigiri in her mouth and chewed for a moment again. "Then why are YOU here this time?"

"To help, of course~"

"With what?"

I could see just enough of Yukari's face to catch the enormous grin she grew before replying, "Testing the hot springs, of course!"

A heavy, telling silence fell over the Hakurei Shrine courtyard as this sunk in.

I lowered my forehead into a palm and tried not to laugh. Damnit, Yukari. That's so you. And I guess it explains the towel, too. Heh.

"Uh, um, Yukari-sama, I don't think..." Ruukoto began to say, apparently recovering first, but she was cut off by a heavy sigh from Reimu.

"Okay. Fine. Whatever. Just don't mess things up." the red-white said, waving Yukari away in annoyance.

"Thank you, Reimu-chan~" Yukari sang, and took to the air, making a quick flight over the shrine and to wherever those hot springs from after Subterranean Animism showed up.

Hm. Now I wonder if she'll run into Genji.

And I know that the back of the shrine is now strictly off-limits to me, because if I ended up peeking, accidentally or otherwise, Yukari would never let me hear the end of it.

Reimu rubbed her forehead for a moment, sighed, and looked at me again, frowning. I took a nervous half-step back as she walked over to me in order to speak more privately.

"You sure you're alright with her?" she asked.

I shrugged. "She can be obnoxious, but it's kinda fun, too."

The miko sighed. "You're a weird one."

"I try."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Well, I hope you're not all the real help she brought this time..."

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, back towards where I'd last seen Ran and Chen. "I think Ran and Chen are both right over there... er, if you think they'd be willing."

"They'd better be." Reimu said, darkly. "I don't even know how far along things are, Alice's been taking care of the invitations and I've been spending all my time making those two lazybones actually pull their weight..." She trailed off, and sighed.

Two lazybones...? Well, Suika's a shoe-in, but I don't know about the other. Genji? Mima? Who else would be here?

And Alice is here? That's a little odd... I think. I guess I don't really know what's fanon and canon anymore... even at the Yakumos' there's been a weird blend. Hopefully I don't make any stupid mistakes on that front.

Reimu shook me out of my introspection with a rather pointed question. "I don't suppose there's anything useful YOU could do?"

I jumped a little, startled. "Uh... I'm not sure, but I hope we can find something. I'd like some breakfast."

She sighed. "Breakfast. Right." The miko shook her head and said heavily, "I hope you like rice."

"I'll live."

She muttered a little and looked me over, then frowned again. "And I hope you're willing to change out of whatever the hell those are."

... and here I thought Yukari in a yukata was enough of an excuse to get away with casual clothing. Sweater and slacks is Western casual, isn't it?

"I... suppose." I replied, a little uncomfortable with where this was going. "Into what?"

Reimu smirked at me a little. "Well, I do keep a few spare miko uniforms..."

Ah. Crossdressing. Fabulous.

-----

Dining Room, Hakurei Shrine
5:35 AM, Day 1

Okay, not QUITE crossdressing. Before getting breakfast, Reimu insisted on getting me into a reasonably masculine hakama and pants - surprising to find in a Gensokyo shrine. But apparently Armpits was also keeping a few more... male Shinto uniforms around, thanks to her live-in... well, he doesn't seem to be treated affectionately enough to be considered a boyfriend. But he was male, he was staying at the Hakurei Shrine, he was strangely familiar for reasons I wish I knew, he was scrawny, he was apparently the other 'lazybones' Reimu had mentioned, he'd just been dragged out of bed to nurse some tea before cleaning up (a glare from Reimu had cut off his request for having one of the limited number of completed onigiri)...

"Still say you've got to be Yukari's boyfriend. That's what everyone's been saying!"

... and he was somewhat annoying.

"He's the only guy in the house, right?" Suika added, lounging over the table in her somewhat inexplicable miko-miko outfit.

Though it's difficult to say if he's just getting egged on by Suika...

"Yeah, and knowing Yukari..."

... or egging HER on...

I wonder which one's the boke.

"I'm entertainment, not a sex toy." I asserted, gruffly, around a bite of onigiri. Yeah, just rice, but it was pretty good rice. Or maybe I'm just that hungry.

"What kind of entertainment?" Suika asked, smirking.

I sighed. Ran and Chen hadn't come to my defense on the matter, even with their own riceballs to munch on at the table. Well, at least Chen had the courtesy to frown at the two between bites. Mikomiko Alice was silent as well, sipping her tea with her eyes closed... probably trying to drown out the whole conversation. Joy.

Luckily, Reimu came to my rescue by peeking into the room and spotting the two lazybones not even pretending to be finishing their tea as an excuse to avoid work.

"You're done, aren't you?" she asked, sternly, making the two jump.

"Uh, well, we were talking with Yukari's boyfriend..." Suika started, a little nervously. The guy... what was his name, Motoko?... just tried to smile.

"Not boyfriend." I cut in, tersely.

"Whatever he is, he's not as important as getting the courtyard clean for the spring-inviting dance." Reimu growled.

... the what?

I couldn't help it. I turned and gave the genuine miko a perplexed look, stunned by the notion of Reimu dancing.

"Don't give me that look." she told me, coldly.

"Not stepping outside." I replied, turning around again to focus on my riceball.

Armpits muttered something I couldn't hear, sighed, and added, "Alice, get these Yakumos something productive to do."

Alice nodded, still nursing her tea. "Right."

"Not a Yakumo either." I muttered. Cheeks burning. Blushing again. Damnit.

"Maybe get them to help with whatever Byakuren's up to."

That was an unexpected name. I spun around again.

"Byakuren?!"

... did Ran's ears just twitch?... why am I assuming the name is important to her, too? What's going on h--

"Yeah, Byakuren." Reimu went on, giving me a puzzled look. "She's here to help out."

Well yeah, but why...?

"What do you care?"

Oh dear. Delicate question. Choose words carefully. "Uh... well... I... rather respect her philosophy." I explained, cautiously.

Reimu nodded, the interest in her face promptly vanishing. "Right, whatever. Now would you two get the front cleaned, already?"

It took a minute or two for her to chase the drunkard oni and her distinctly male cohort out of the room, leaving us with just Alice, still sipping her tea.

There was an awkward silence as the sounds of Reimu chasing away the lazier shrine residents faded into the distance, and the shikigami and I finished our rice.

Ran pressed her hands together after she finished. "Gochisosama deshita."

Oops. I always forget that bit of etiquette. I mimicked her, rather quietly.

After a moment, Ran broke the relative silence again with a question.

"Alice-san, how should we help prepare for the festival?"

Alice finally opened her eyes, and looked each of us over carefully.

"Can you keep a secret?" she asked.

Maybe for a little while...

-----

Guest Bedroom, Hakurei Shrine
5:50 AM, Day 1

It didn't take very long to figure out why Alice wanted to keep the last-second invitation writing a secret: The day before is really not enough time to respond to, or make arrangements around, an invitation. And since Reimu mentioned that Alice was supposed to be responsible for them and didn't know what Byakuren was doing, well...

Whatever. It'll bite Alice in the ass soon enough. Might as well not make myself the target for retaliation.

Unfortunately, Ran was the only one of us three that had good enough penmanship to make the invitations look as attractive as they should. And she was very fast at it, too. Between her and Byakuren, it was enough to keep both Chen and I folding up finished invitations and carrying nondescript stacks of them over to the front room on a regular basis.

But after a little while, we caught up, and I tried to make some... well, admittedly small talk with Byakuren, to try and touch on a few things that I was curious about. After seeing everyone else at the shrine in miko outfits, I was willing to assume that it was due to some whim of Reimu's, and not worth trying to get an explanation for. There were more important questions to ask, anyway.

Such as why she was here.

"So... Byakuren, right?"

She looked up for a moment and blinked at me. "Hm? Oh, yes." She smiled warmly; between the soothing voice and those first few hints of her personality, she was looking like the motherly sort. I am okay with this.

"I'm surprised, not many humans really know my name." Byakuren continued, looking down again to better focus on her repetitive writing task.

"I'm not especially normal for a human." I countered, "Especially if living with three youkai is any indication."

Byakuren's pen paused. She turned to look at me again, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Being Yukari's plaything isn't a bad existence, really."

"So she treats you well?" the gradient-haired magician asked.

That question again. "Yeah, it's okay. She's mischievous and uh..."

A glance at Ran cut off my impulse response of 'sometimes obnoxious,' so I toned it down a little.

"... can be a pain sometimes, but if you're willing to laugh at yourself a little..."

... well, unless that's Stockholm Syndrome setting in.

... nah, probably not. Still got a fair share of complaints, and I've been careful to squelch any romantic impulses, even at Yukari's suggestion. Especially at Yukari's suggestion. Still...

Byakuren nodded at her paperwork, putting the finishing touches on an invitation and setting it aside for proper folding and sealing. I still really wasn't very good at it, but a little guidance from Byakuren had made it pretty easy. And if our recent timing cycle is any indication, Chen should be returning...

"Stack delivered, Ran-shama!"

... right about now.

This time it was Ran's turn to look up, and give her shikigami a beaming smile. "Thank you, Chen. Why don't you take a break for now, and let Jeremy-san get the next stack."

"Yeah, yeah." I replied. The usual for now. But I still wanted to finish that train of thought with Byakuren... I still didn't know why she was bothering with all this. She had a temple in the human village to run, didn't she?

"Does Yukari seem to care that you're human?" Byakuren asked.

I blinked. Huh, I guess she's curious, too...

"I don't think we make a big deal about it, at least."

Okay, where was I in folding this? Crease...there, fold this way... right?

Byakuren chuckled softly. "So, there are youkai that have learned what I forgot..."

I looked up and blinked at her. "Huh?"

Her pen hesitated. "... I suppose it's something personal. It shouldn't be much of a concern for you..."

... am I willing to take a risk here, and try to push for an explanation?

... yes. Yes I am.

"Is this about the Temple's philosophy about humans and youkai getting along?" I asked.

Byakuren chuckled again. "So, you know about that, too?"

"And for what it's worth, I respect it deeply." And I was dead serious about that.

Her pen paused again.

"... I truly wish there were more humans like you at the village." She said, wistfully.

... maybe I went a little far.

"It's so difficult to convince them to give youkai a chance, even with all we do at the village..." she sighed. "I just hope that helping them come to enjoy this flower-viewing festival will help them understand..."

Ah... that would explain why she's here. Makes an awful lot of sense, really... she'd have a harder time convincing humans as a youkai, wouldn't she? Even if she once was human...

"Byakuren-dono." Ran said, calmly.

... why did she use that honorific? I know she tends to be a little formal, but... there was something about -dodo that meant more, somehow. And why do I find it significant? I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I can't put my finger on it... maybe the two have some sort of history?

Well, with Ran involved, I'm not about to pry further. For my health, you see.

"Ah, yes, yes." Byakuren said, her voice growing even again. "We're not here to reminisce, are we? These invitations won't write themselves, after all."

"Or fold." Ran added, a little pointedly.

Whoops...

-----

Living Room, Hakurei Shrine
6:15 AM, Day 1

I ended up taking the last stack of invitations into the corner of the shrine's front room. And OCDly trying to organize them into easily managed, evenly sized towers, just right for carrying an armful. Chen's staring at my unnecessary fiddling made me a little uncomfortable, but I couldn't really do anything about it. Ran and Byakuren were talking quietly in another corner of the room, though I couldn't catch any of the details... it sounded amicable enough, though. Good that those two get along. Two of my favor--

No, oh god no, stop thinking like that. This isn't an internet fandom anymore! I can't do that sort of shit!

I smacked the side of my head with a palm. Bad thoughts! Out!

"Is something wrong, Jeremy-sama?" Chen asked, curiously.

I glanced over at her and blinked. "Uh... not really. Just stupid fanboy stuff."

"Ohh..." Chen nodded, and left it at that.

"Well, I should let Mitaka-dono know that the invitations are done." Byakuren finally announced, sounding rather cheerful. Guess she did enjoy that talk with Ran, though I'm a little curious about what it was about.

I turned, and caught the youkai magician smiling over at Chen and I, bowing reasonably low to both of us. "Thank you, Chen-san, Jeremy-san."

She faced Ran again, and gave her a bow as well. "And Ran-san. You were all a great help."

"No problem." I replied.

"You're welcome, Byakuren-san!" Chen added, with an enthusiastic wave.

Ran was more formal, as usual, and gave Byakuren a proper bow - at least as low as the one the magician had given her. "It was a pleasure, Byakuren-dono. Shall I prepare some tea?"

Byakuren laughed lightly. "Oh, yes, that would be very nice. Thank you again, Ran-san."

The kitsune smiled and gave her another, smaller bow, then backed towards one of the other exits from the shrine's main room. Probably the kitchen - with Yukari's shenanigans I suspect she has some knowledge of the shrine's layout. Convenient, isn't it?

"I'll help!" Chen chirped, and rushed after her, skirting around Byakuren en route to the door Ran had used.

Byakuren chuckled a little at Chen's behavior, and gave me another small smile. "Even youkai can be children, it seems. If you'll excuse me..."

I nodded, and she headed out to the main porch to announce the results to the shrine members outside.

... so now what do I do?

Lounge about, I guess.

Oh yes, getting off my feet and flopping down against the wall next to those invitations was a definite relief. Ahhhhh... yes, that was worth a contented sigh.

... wonder where Alice is, and when her invitation negligence is going to get discovered. I'd rather not be there to see it, but the event would probably be morbidly amusing. Hopefully it won't dash Byakuren's hopes, either...

I closed my eyes, mind wandering. Oh... now I'm all tired again. Maybe I can doze off for a few minutes... mmm, were those footsteps? Ugh, don't feel like messing with it right now...

"KYAAAAAH!"

What the-?!

Wasn't that from the kitchen?

That means Ran and Chen--

My train of thought was interrupted by an oversized Kirby abruptly poofing through the door to the kitchen, and belching.

The fuck?

... wait, that isn't a Kirby. It's too fluffy, and the mouth and eyes aren't quite the right shape, and I don't see any arms or legs...

... and it seems to be staring right at me. And it still looks hungry.

Oh dear.

"HELP!" I cried, scooting backwards on my rump, silently praying that the main shrinegoers outside would be able and willing to save my ass, and that I'd live long enough for them to try.

Luckily, the... fluffy... pink... Kirby... thing made a beeline for less mobile 'food,' in the form of the stack of invitations that were off to my side. Damnit, we worked hard on those!

But they're not worth my hide. I managed to scramble into one of the other doors leading further into the shrine, and hid around the corner, hoping that it would lose interest in me.

It seemed to, fortunately, and instead zipped over to the front doors of the shrine with incredible speed, ramming straight through the front doors and... into Reimu's donation box, launching it into the air.

This thing is so dead it isn't even funny.

I stuck to my hiding spot and watched for a bit as Reimu caught her precious donation box, the sakura trees around the shrine spontaneously burst into full bloom, and the Kirby-like 'god of plenty' was threatened at gohei-point to provide some sort of abundant feast.

It was clearly frightened by the (metaphorical) oni miko, but apparently decided it was better to smack her boytoy into the dirt and take off into the skies like a rocket.

God damn that thing is fast. It'd probably give Aya a run for her money. Not that I've seen her in action in order to compare, mind, but jesus.

Reimu roared after the rampaging god, others from the shrine chiming in on things other than money that it had interfered with. Including a less familiar voice from the kitchen - must have been those footsteps I heard. And... was that a whimper? I think something other than food got hurt in there...

A rather frazzled Alice walked out of the kitchen, obviously alarmed by whatever had happened in there. She saw me peeking out from behind one of the other doors in the shrine's front room, and scowled.

"You didn't even try to stop it, did you?" she asked, grouchily.

"And you?" I snapped back.

... fuck that was a bad thing to say no change topic NOW

"Sorry, I'm not exactly danmaku-capable."

She snorted, and turned her glare away. Phew, dodged a bullet there.

"Wonderful. And now there's another thing to add to that mini-incident list Reimu mentioned."

"Er, what?"

She frowned at me again. Eep. Stop shooting your mouth off, Jer, or you'll shoot yourself in the foot soon enough...

The dollmaker shook her head. "Something about weird little things that Aya told her about and she's got a hunch about... I think she was planning to explain once the festival got underway, since she doesn't want to repeat it a dozen times. So she didn't tell us what the deal is, but apparently it's nothing Incident-level..." She looked out the broken front doors of the shrine, and into the sky beyond, where Fluffball God Kirby was surely running amok. "... unlike this, I suppose."

"Ah."

Alice continued peering out the broken doors. "And I see Mitaka's already strapped down for the chase... I suppose I should join them." She grinned cruelly, and raised the grimoire in her arm.

"Um... ganbatte." I offered. No, I do not want to go chasing that thing. And come to think of it, I need to make sure Ran and Chen are okay...

Alice turned to smirk at me, in a... more sinister fashion than Yukari generally gave me. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up...

"Not going to come along?" she asked, dark mocking in her voice.

This girl can be scary.

"I've already proven that I'm useless for something like that." I tried to explain.

Much to my relief, she seemed to buy it, smirk vanishing into indifference. "Hmph. Well, make sure Yukari and her pets don't make a mess. I suppose you should check on them as well..."

Well, I'm not about to go see if Yukari's alright on my own. She MUST have heard what's going on, one way or another... and she must have watched it through some stealth gap after that scream, right? She's not about to let herself get hurt, either...

But I AM worried about the shikigami, Alice's insulting referral aside.

I gave her a nod, and repeated my only real advice on the matter. "Ganbatte."

"Hmph." Alice dismissed the encouragement with a flick of her hair, and silently took to the air, dashing out the broken doors at roughly running speed, following a small squadron of other specks fading in the open sky... was one of them turtle-shaped?

... ah. Genji. That must be what Mito... Mati... what's-his-face got strapped on to.

Deodorant. That's his name.

... wait, why am I so convinced of that?

Fuck, whatever, the shikigami are waiting!

-----

Kitchen, Hakurei Shrine
6:30 AM, Day 1

The shrine's kitchen was not in pretty shape.

Which is rather an understatement, considering that the remains of the pantry were limited to a few stray planks of wood the... Kirby F.O.E., yes, that's the perfect name... had apparently failed to eat during its sweep of the kitchen.

Not much remained of the non-food stuff, either. If that means it can eat knives, then we may be in for trouble...

More importantly, Ran and Chen were huddling in the far corner of the room, among the remains of a simple stove that had mostly fallen victim to The Hunger.

"Ran? Chen?" I called out, looking them over. Neither of them looked hurt, at a glance, but something didn't seem quite right... and even if Chen curling up in Ran's lap is normally benign and cute, the nekomata's choice of the fetal position in her master's arms and the wide-eyed shock on her face were worrisome.

Ran looked up from, I presume, comforting her shikigami for whatever had happened, and looked me in the eye, still looking a little frazzled herself. Those tails weren't nearly as tidy as they'd been earlier.

"Ah, Jeremy-san. You're alright." Ran said, in a rather neutral tone, all things considered.

"It went for the invitations instead." I supplied, though I suppose the detail was ultimately irrelevant. "Sorry I took so long..."

"An... and it ate the invitations too..." Chen whimpered, nuzzling up against Ran a little more.

If it weren't for realizing that she'd been crying, I'd have found it very cute. But as it stands it was... not encouraging.

... yeah, this warrants crouching down closer to them. Yes, even if it risks Ran's wrath. I don't like seeing a girl cry without trying to help somehow.

"Chen." I said, quietly, "What happened?"

Ran cut in crossly. "Can't you see? That thing ate half the room and ran off!"

Okay, playing with fire here. Um... how to do this...

"Well, I... think there... might be something more specific?" I provided, lamely.

Shit. This wasn't going to reflect well.

Ran just glared at me, but after a few seconds Chen spoke up again, in a small voice.

"...hat..."

"Hat?"

"... it ate my hat... my favorite hat...!"

And with that, Chen started to tear up again.

Right. Kirby F.O.E. just earned a few more hells to pay.

... now if only I could actually help with that.

[Nemo★Ma]

0700AM, Amarillo's Hut near the Forest of Magic

"Something Wrong?" Amarillo don't to see the fairy who just flied in from her window to know something like that.
After all, doorways is supposed to be used regularly.
"Lily...Black?" However the visitor's identity makes her surprised.
"No, nothing is wrong, just want to surprise you." Lily Black lands beside her desk.
"Hmm, let me guess, you are wanting me to go to the Festival again?" Amarillo sighed, "a lot of fairies just forget I helped the preparations of it. It's just today is not the time it opened."
"Well we may be forgetful, but yeah TODAY is the day the festival started." Lily Black flashes out a sheet of paper.
It's the news that Aya had wrote.

-40 Seconds of Slience-

"How Did I forget that?!" Amarillo bounce up from her chair.
"Well, you see, sometimes my sister like you because you are similar to our kind. Heh."Lily Black just followed her out of the door.
"Oh cut the unfriendly comments, will you?" As they starting walking to the Hakurei Shrine, Amarillo added.
"Said of "Sister", " As they went across the Human Village and greet the townspeople, "Where is your sister now?"
"Don't know, never saw her this morning, maybe she just remembers better than you and actually is on the festival scene." replied Lily Black, "Why don't you just look for her using Telepathy?"
"Oh you don't want to use Telepathy on everything, you know." Amarillo slightly walks faster, as if wanting to avoid that topic.
"Hmm, I get it, make sure you drink some sake there, since I read from the tengus that drinking sake helps with ability activation." It works on Lily Black, since she really don't have a clue as what she just suggested.

0730, Human Village[/b]

And then the two's conversion get stopped as the sister they just discussed is flying towards them in a high speed.
"Something is Wrong!" as Lily White claims something unnatural has shown up in the Hakurei Shrine and messed up the final preparation.
"Ok, you, calm down a bit." as Amarillo listens to what Lily is saying.

"So there is this dark-looking, thing, or whatever that is eating everything and is roaming around?" Asked Amarillo after Lily finish her sentences.
"Yes."

then they heard a whoosh sound, and look upwards.
Here it is, the unidentified dark object that they cannot even describe its color appears, roams across the morning sky, leave a trail of black marks as it went by, and triumphantly disappears from their lines of view.

"终于……开始了啊……异变什么的……"As Amarillo mutters in a language the fairies tried to understand, they saw a group of other people running towards it.
"追！, er, I mean, go pursuit!" As Amarillo finish her sentence, the three of them joins the chase as well.

[Kakyoin]

9:20 AM - Day 1 - Residential Clearing - Human Village

Ken gazed around at the mess the 'god of plenty' had left. He was confused as to why there were several concentrated messes of food and various items strewn throughout the village as far as he could see, including more of the invitations similar to what Keine had shown him. Earlier he almost stepped in a large pool of what resembled pudding, just outside his door. Here and there, the ground was littered with food of all kinds.

"Uhhhh!! Ah!"

He turned to see Reisa...who was now coated in what looked like chocolate pudding. "Eh--Reisa? Are..." He held back a laugh. "Mmm...are you all right?" he said as he ran over to her.

The fairy sat up, her whole body covered. "Yes...that was really stupid of me..." she mumbled, pointing to a large object sticking up from the mess. "I tried to pick up this really big piece of watermelon..."

"Ha...wait, what were you doing trying to pick that up?" Ken grinned at the situation, circumnavigated the pudding pile and leaned down, carefully picking up the watermelon half.

"Bleh! Pluh!" She spit some pudding out of her mouth, not knowing where it had come from. "It was so heavy, but I thought I could lift it if I stayed on the ground..."

"Why did you try to pick it up in the first place, silly? Oh well, what's done is done, I guess." It seemed larger than any other watermelon he'd seen before. "Well, this thing is pretty darn big. I bet that huge floating creature...that 'god of plenty' dropped it, you think?"

"Yes...but how about putting that thing down and helping me out!" she whined. "My poor wings...hey, c'mon!"

"Yeah, all right." He lowered his hands down, only to have the pudding-covered watermelon half slip out of his hands and fall to the ground. Looking back up at her, he noticed that even her wings had pudding on them. "Ah...oh well. Here, hold my hands, I'll pull you up." He reached out to her she immediately took his hands. Looking down, he first made sure he wasn't standing in something slippery as he proceeded to help her to her feet.

Reisa groaned, trying to flap her wings and failing to rid them of the sticky pudding. "Help!"

Ken closed his eyes and focused, muttering a short spell chant as water formed in the palms of his hands. He reopened his eyes and held his hands out in front of her. "I hope this is enough. Reisa, close your eyes!"

"Huh? Wait, what are you--AHHH!" She was suddenly subjected to a brief shower of water, washing away almost all of the pudding on her but drenching her clothes. "C-Cold! Ahh~!"

He sighed as the downpour cleaned her up. "Sorry...I guess I still need practice. I tried to make it not be cold, I swear!" He watched dejectedly as the water in his hands evaporated. Oh well, that's what I get for trying to use a spell I only recently learned, he thought. At least I can reliably cast a decent earth and wind spell.

All this studying had only slightly paid off for him. He had practiced swordplay for several years now and even Keine was impressed with his progress, but learning magic made his head hurt all too often. It frustrated him that he wasn't doing as well as he hoped he could do. "It looks like I failed to finish the job, too. I guess I have to keep practicing, huh..."

Shivering slightly, she opened her eyes when the water stopped running over her and looked back. Her clothes were soaked, but at least she was relatively clean. "T-Thanks anyway, Kenno..." She succeeded in fluttering her wings, water droplets spewing every which way as she took flight once more.

He disregarded her use of the nickname again. "Oh, I bet you want to be dry again. I could--"

Reisa shook her head from side to side, her long purple hair sending a tiny bombardment of water drops flying through the air. "No, that's okay! I can dry quickly in the sun~" The fairy flew over to a nearby patch of grass and flopped down, rolling around several times.

"Okay then, if you say so..." He hoped she wasn't afraid of his magic now. Ah well, I can't let it get to me, he thought to himself.

"Kenno~ Come sit here, let's talk while I dry out!"

Ken strode over to a dry patch of grass and sat down near her. "I'm trying to figure out what all of this mess is for..."

She looked at him, already noticing his disappointment. "Kenno...don't feel so bad. Magic is really hard to learn. Really!"

"No, I--"

"Don't lie! I can tell you're lying, you always look around everywhere...like that!" She pointed at him from her lying position, wearing an unsatisfied look on her face.

He sighed again, turning his head to face her. "Yeah...you're right, I am really disappointed. I mean, I have a few spells down, but I really want to learn all I can. I don't know when I'll ever get such a good opportunity to become useful and pay back Miss Keine for everything she's done for me. And you too, Reisa..."

She fluttered her wings faster in acknowledgment, blushing slightly. "Aww, c'mon...I don't do much, just what Lady Patchouli asked me to do..." She decided to put the focus back on him. "But y'know, it's hard, so you should keep at it!"

"Yeah, I can't disagree with you on that. It's just like programming on a computer, back when I...well, I won't talk about that right now."

Reisa frowned. "Why not? I never got the chance to hear about this 'other world' you came from. I wanna know! Tell me, tell me!"

He chuckled at her antics. She'll learn someday, he thought. One of these days I'll finally get around to telling her.

"Hey, what's wrong? Do you not trust me?" She put on a pouting face, trying to get him to tell her what she wanted to hear.

"No, Miss Keine has returned." He pointed towards the teacher's approaching figure. "And she has something in her hands. Wait, is that--" His eyes fell on two plates in her hand, and his expression turned to mock horror. "That's...no way..."

The teacher smiled. "Yes Ken, it's exactly what you think it is. Somehow, the 'god of plenty' left quite a few gifts for us, including whole cakes..."

Reisa burst out with a laugh. "HA! Cake? Really?! Hee, that's funny~ This whole place is turning into a dessert!"

"Cake..." He took a plate she offered to him. "Wait a minute...what kind of creature floats around spitting up desserts? WHOLE desserts, at that..."

Keine sat down and held out a fork to each of them. "Most of the Village is as surprised as you are. This 'god of plenty' has intrigued me, as well..."

Reisa reached out for a fork. "Wait...are you saying you want to follow that big thing?"

"I'm more concerned with what that 'god of plenty' is doing with so much food, and with those invitations..." Ken took a bite of the cake slice on his plate. "This is pretty good, by the way."

The teacher paused to swallow the cake in her mouth before speaking. "It is. And yes, Reisa, I want to see what that thing is up to. Interested in tagging along?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun! A lot more fun than being buried in pudding..."

Ken closed his eyes, glad that she was letting his lack of magical prowess drop. It was probably her own way of cheering him up. "If you wouldn't mind, I would like to check it out as well. Is this fine, Miss Keine?"

She nodded in approval. "Yes, I was going to ask you anyway. Most of the Village inhabitants are already cleaning up the mess. They're having quite a good time with it, since, you know, cake and other things..."

After a bit of silence with the three of them eating the surprisingly tasty cake, he stood up and started walking towards his house. "I'll go get my sword then, just in case."

Suddenly, a flying piece of cake struck the back of his neck. "Wha-?!" He whirled around to see the fairy doubled over with laughter. "You...!"

Reisa paused to stick out her tongue at him. "Ahahaha~ Kenno, that's for drenching me earlier!" She quickly got up and flew around him, avoiding him as he slipped on a bit of pudding.

"Guagh! Darn you, come back here!" He got to his feet and took off after her, his clothes covered in pudding on the side he fell on.

Giggling at their sudden antics, Keine yelled to them as they ran towards his house. "Make sure to clean up and meet me soon! We're heading out in half an hour!"

I'm glad he feels comfortable with Reisa, she thought. This is the first time I've seen him so comfortable here. Now, I wonder where that 'god of plenty' is...


(OOC: At this point, Ken, Reisa and Keine will head out at approximately 10:00 AM to try to find the 'god of plenty'. I did not give an actual location for the god of plenty at this time because I wanted to leave its location up to others. At any time from 9:00 AM onward, the 'god of plenty' can be somewhere else besides the Human Village, it's up to the other posters. UPDATE: Based on the intentions of others, it seems like it's heading towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion next. That's where Keine, Reisa and Ken will be headed.)

[Janitor Morgan]

8:00 AM, Day 1, Entrance to Chireiden

The mouth of the cave leading to Former Hell, dark and intimidating, was a stark contrast to the cheerful spring atmosphere that surrounded it.  The spot of forest in the vicinity was decorated with several different types of flowers, creating a colorful and vibrant view, whereas the cave entrance was adorned with a lone spiderweb, the message "SHOP AT KOURINDOU" etched into its design.  For outsiders looking in, it was a rather dreary change of scenery.

For those exiting the cave, however, the change was very pleasing to the eye, as evidenced by a certain red-haired kasha's reaction as she pushed her wheelbarrow into the sun.  Most of her time was spent carting corpses to fuel the fires underground, so being able to step out of the dank environment was a refreshing change of pace.  Despite this, she had to squint a bit to keep from being blinded by the sun; she was not used to the amount of natural light outside.

"...man, it's bright out here today.  I remember it being darker the last time I came to the surface, though I suppose it's because it was wintertime," said the kasha, rubbing her eyes.  "And something tells me I should find a lighter-colored dress for any future trips up here..."

"Yeah, dark colors absorb more light, and thus more heat," replied a brown-haired human coming up behind her; he squinted a bit as well, but did not have as much difficulty adjusting.  "Though don't you spend a lot of time around fire anyway, Orin?  I'd think you'd be used to that kind of heat, and this is nothing compared to the area around Okuu's reactor."

Orin nodded, allowing her eyes to focus a bit.  "That's true, yeah.  Still, it'll take a bit of getting used to; new environment and all.  I suppose you're more accustomed to it because you're always running around up here?"

"More the fact that I was raised in the outside world, where this environment is standard," said the human.  "The errand-running does help me stay accustomed, but it's not the only reason."

"Ah, that's right.  It's good to have someone at the palace who can adjust to the surface, I suppose!  ...ah, but we're getting sidetracked.  Roark, tell me what we're going to the human village to buy again?"

"Lemme check the list," said Roark as he pulled out a sheet of paper from the small bag hanging from his belt.  He began reading off the list, which consisted mostly of edible commodities that weren't produced in the Ancient City, such as various farm products and certain types of fish.  Also on the list were a few books that Satori had heard about from Iku Nagae and Tenshi Hinanai's visit a while back; the literature in the Ancient City was rather limited, so she rather enjoyed the opportunity to read something new.

As Roark finished, Orin grinned. "I can see why you asked for my help, then; that's a lot of stuff to carry.  Should be easy enough with the wheelbarrow, thou--"

"HEY!  YOU TWO!" interrupted a voice from above.  Orin tried to look up, but was only blinded more by the sun.  Roark didn't fare much better when he shifted his gaze, but could make out the outline of a certain blue-haired celestial rapidly approaching them.  She landed in front of the human and kasha, and was evidently very excited about something, judging by the look of mixed amusement and urgency on her face.

"Hey, Tenshi," greeted Roark, slightly surprised that she hadn't immediately taken to picking on him like she had the last time they'd met.  "What's got you all riled up?"

"Well, I was looking for someplace to mess around, since I was really bored today," started Tenshi, not even pausing to catch her breath, "when I saw this huge fluffy pink thing running through the Forest of Magic!  It was eating pretty much everything it came across, and a bunch of people were trying to catch it, including both resident shrine maidens!  Plus it was dropping food wherever it went!  If it can attract the attention of both shrines AND drop free food like that, it's got to be worth a fortune!"

Wheels immediately began turning in Orin's head as the celestial said this. "...hmm...Roark, I think we may have found a way to make this errand more interesting."

"Huh? ...wait a minute," said Roark, quickly becoming concerned.  "Are you saying we're going to try to fight this thing?  What if it eats us?!"

"Then we'll just smack it from the inside until it spits us out," said Tenshi matter-of-factly.

"Right!  Plus, if we can manage to beat it, given all the food it's dropping, we'll have the first part of our errand taken care of for...well, months!  I say lead the way, sis!" exclaimed Orin, clearly very interested in the current chain of events.

Roark opened his mouth to object, but realized he was outnumbered and sighed instead.  "Okay, okay, we'll go after it.  Tenshi, where is it right now?" he asked, climbing into Orin's wheelbarrow since he had no flying ability.

The celestial ascended into the air from whence she had come, looking at gaps in the forest canopy to see if the puffball had moved on.  "...Looks like it's leaving the forest now.  Let's get after it!" she exclaimed, making a beeline for its position.  Orin followed suit, lifting the Roark-laden wheelbarrow into the air and chasing after the celestial, trying to make sure she didn't pull out of view.

[E-Nazrin]

Posted on Trance's behalf

The Cottage on the Hill on the outskirts. 0630. Day 1.
In between the Forest and the Human Village.

Hirowaza, Meira and VIVIT had returned to their little cottage on the hill after the spar, to eat some breakfast. VIVIT was busy preparing something on the mini-range that she helped Hirowaza build from rudimentary materials, it was a wonder it even managed to work right now, because at first glance it's definitely something that didn't look like it'd work properly. Today, VIVIT made some small pancakes with the range. Meira looked at the robot curiously while Hirowaza smiled and wondered if VIVIT knew how to make waffles. Mmm, waffles. Anyway, Hirowaza and Meira were discussing some matters regarding the festival. They did not really want to directly get involved with the so-called god of plenty, if it even properly existed. Hirowaza had already prepared a special set of trinkets and wooden weaponry for the festival, which were lying on a pile right by his futon. Meira tilted her head. "You made all those?" she asked inquisitively. Hirowaza nodded. "I'm going to try and sell them over at the Human Village." Meira nodded. "You think you can do that?"

"I hope so." Hirowaza said bluntly.

"Well, then let us get going after we eat breakfast?" Meira exclaimed, wolfing down the pancake on her stone plate thing. Hirowaza had just finished his as well, he was quite hungry after the sparring. As for VIVIT, well, she just ended up drinking some strange sort of liquid right by the mini-range. Afterwards, Hirowaza was quickly washing these dishes and such, while VIVIT had lugged out the wheelbarrow with which to store all the trinkets and such in. Meira wanted to hold the wooden naginata, so she did. After Hirowaza was done, he held the wheelbarrow, thanking VIVIT for helping out.

"Well, we're moving out." Hirowaza said softly.

Nearby a market in the village. 0740. Day 1.
In the Human Village.

Hirowaza would always set up shop right by wherever the market would be at the time of assembly in the human village, and with the festival mood in the air, it was in quite an obvious place. Hirowaza was carrying most of the parts needed to assemble the stall in a home-made pack he was carrying on his back, and was sweating madly by the time he got there - after all, he was wearing autumnal/winter gear during such a time. He quickly assembled the stall and asked the trinkets from VIVIT who was now manning the wheelbarrow, and soon placed the good luck charm bracelets and statuettes on the table, and hung the wooden swords, knives and such behind him. He took the wooden naginata off of Meira's hands after she played around with it and planted it firmly on the ground next to the stall. He then sat behind the table like a shopkeeper and sat on the ground.

"Well, I sure do hope I make more money today." Hirowaza said to himself.

VIVIT looked up at the sky curiously.

"Do you think that god of plenty will come? You think anything will happen?" the robot asked curiously.

"By ye goddesses, I'd certainly hope not!" Hirowaza sighed.

[Zengar Zombolt]

7:30 AM, Day 1, Middle of the Human Village

Mrf... I didn't sleep so well last night. Wodan sat up, only to realize he had fallen out of his bed last night. No wonder why his shoulders were so stiff. The sun's light creeping through the window's opening straight on his face, the morning breeze entering the cottage from the small gaps on the shoddily built wall... yes, it was time to wake up.

This day would soon prove to be busy, too. Not too son after Wodan ended the regular cleaning around his cottage and himself, someone knocked at his door.

"Ah... It's kinda early for you to be up, isn't it?" Wodan's expression quickly became easygoing. Not that kind of easygoing, mind you.

The small girl standing in front of Wodan's door was smiling brightly. She was evidently proud on being so early, somehow.

"Well, we need to get things ready for tomorrow's festival!" The young girl was Aiko, the only daughter of one of the families on the village. Lil' Aiko was always curious about Wodan's odd jobs and his past, so they quickly became good friends.

"That's right... your parents got to do the desserts this time, no? I'm definitively looking forward their creations." Due to being Aiko's friend, Wodan got to taste some of their very delicious treats.

"Eheh, that's why I woke up so early! I wanted to help them too, but first I thought I'd ask you what would you do for the festival!"

"Eh... I don't have anything to contribute myself." Wodan shrugged. "I guess I'll help people around with moving heavier stuff like I always do."

Surprisingly, Aiko didn't take it too well. "But you should have some secret talent that you can show the world! Impress them with your inner strength!"

"Inner strength... I'd need something that's not from this world to show it. Besides, it wouldn't be a good idea to show it around if it's so foreign, don't you think?"

Aiko was clearly confused. "Uh, I don't get it... but you know about it so I guess you're right!"

Wodan pats Aiko's head, smiling at her. " You should get going, your parents are going to need all the help they can have!"

"Sure! See you later, then!" The young girl went off running to her home, that wasn't too far away.

"Hm... I'll go to the market. Surely someone will need my help there!"

7:50 AM, Day 1, Village Market

"Lots of stands put up early... Maybe I was wrong?"

Since the festival would be tomorrow, a lot of people put up their stands way earlier than normal. Some stands were newish, even.

Still someone would need some help, right? There's always someone that needs help. Wodan started wandering around, until something caught his attention.

"Is that a goddamn SWORD SELLING POST!?" His mind was filled with the thoughts of finally having a sword, even if wooden. Gathering a bunch of cash he always brought with him, he approached the stand.

"So I see you're selling wooden swords, huh?"

[Yuyuko Yakumo]

8:45 AM, Somewhere near the Human Village

"Nii-chan..." Suika chuckled. She flew quickly down to where Mitaka fell, leaving a gust of wind behind her.

Reimu and the others paused in midair, heard a distant *squish* followed by a *splat*, and sighed. A few seconds of awkward silence passed. "H-Hey, shouldn't we go get him or something?" Yuki asked nervously.

"He'll be fine," Alice retorted.

"But--" Yuki was cut off in the middle of her protest by Kanako.

"I see why you've taken the boy under your wing, Hakurei-san. You just needed somebody lazier than you to make yourself seem active. Quite an impressive move under your part," Kanako said in obvious sarcasm.

"You're one to speak," Reimu responded. "What about your guest? I'm guessing he does all of the work around your shrine as you order him around while you relax and sip sake?"

"If anything, I've at least taught him to be a bit more respectful of his elders. " Kanako said with growing contempt. "Where do you think Mitaka's terrible attitude comes from? Obviously this ignorant little shrine maiden here."

"If you're looking for a fight, don't forget I've beaten you once, and I can do so again. Even if you are a god, I could--"

"Reimu!" Genji snapped. Everyone but the shrine maiden flinched, because they hadn't heard Genji at all during this journey. His deep voice was certainly a huge difference in pitch from the girls' high voices (except for maybe Kanako's). "Now is not the time to be bickering. You too," Genji glared at Kanako; she scowled and turned her face away to avoid his look.

Another set of awkward seconds ensued. These were apparently going to be a habit with this group. "Yuki-san," Byakuren spoke out against the silence.

"Yeah, Byakuren-chan?" Yuki always ended with the familiar honorific, no matter who she was talking to.

"About the Stri... Stre... Strum... Suterivadius," Byakuren stammered.

"Stradivarius," Yuki corrected.

"Yes, the Stradivarius. What kind of wood is it made out of?"

"Why? Do you want to have one for yourself?"

"I certainly would like to try one. It seems healthy and delicious. I'd also like the recipe for it."

"Violins, much less the Stradivarius, are not meant for consumption," Lunasa corrected dryly.

"Didn't Mitaka-san say that they are high in fiber? I might need some of that," Byakuren said.

Yuki giggled. "No, you see, violins are a kind of instrument. You play them to make beautiful sounds. Eating them would be like saying you want to take a bite out of paper even though they're clearly used for writing." She put her hands on her hips, proud of her explanation.

"I... see..." Byakuren said, though she, and clearly no one else, did.

During this conversation, Suwako whispered to Vant, "You do know that they're talking about you."

"Ah, let them," Vant responded. "Genji's already solved the problem. Worst comes to worst, they'll just start bickering again. But knowing them, I doubt any real violence would occur. Not now at least."

"Well, I'll let you know if we need to start dodging bullets," Suwako said. She took a peek down to where Suika disappeared to. "Hey," Suwako spoke out to the rest of airborne group. "Are we going to find the giant balloon of desserts or are we going to pick up Mitaka?"

Reimu gave a loud sigh. "We'll go back for him. After all, we need him for our god-feeding plan." Everyone seemed to agree. Simultaneously, they flew down to head back for Mitaka. As they grew closer, they spotted him next to Suika, who was rubbing off traces of what appeared to be a pie, another human, and a tall gray mouse.

[日巫子]

10:00AM, Day 1, Human Village

?I told you you didn?t know where you were going."

?shutupshutupshutup.?

Kasen could only sigh as the two continued to stroll along.  Himiko's idea of running down the mountain to catch up with whatever had been flying only ended in her running out of breath after three minutes and being forced to walk the rest of the way down with Kasen.  This took much longer than anticipated, and they saw nothing flying in the sky anymore.  Both girls were beginning to think that they were probably just overreacting over a few birds.  Himiko, in particular, could be heard grumbling if Kasen listened closely enough.

Of course, she stopped paying attention when they neared a familiar sight.

"It's the Human Village."  Himiko blinked as she gazed ahead at the houses and fields.  She came down here to buy groceries before, but...

"I wonder what they're going to do to celebrate the coming of spring?" Kasen wondered as the two walked past.  "Maybe they'll go to the fl--"

squelch

Beside Kasen, Himiko was grimacing.

"I stepped in..."  She looked down, and chills ran down her spine.  "...pudding."

They both stared.  There was pudding in the grass.

"Geh..."  Kasen looked like she didn't know what to think, but to say she looked disgusted was an understatement.  "What is this?!"

Himiko gingerly stepped out of the pudding and scuffled across the grass, trying to get the pudding off her shoes.

"....In Spain..."  Himiko stopped moving and stared Kasen in the eye.  "...They have La Tomatina, where they throw tomatoes...In Gensokyo..."

...

"La--"

"Okay, okay."  Kasen hastily interrupted Himiko.  "It's fine, I'm sure this is normal.  Let's just keep going.  Whatever was flying around can't have just disappeared, right?"

"Uh..."  Himiko nodded hesitantly.

"We'll find out about this later, let's just keep going."

And then they kept walking at a brisk pace until they were out of the Human Village.  Why there was pudding on the ground, neither of them had much of an inclination to find out.

[Caber Knight Etch-A-Sketch]

8:21 AM, Human village, Hieda Household.


Out of the way of the general hustle and bustle that was morning, a young girl sat in her room.  She was hard at work writting a very long document, stopping every now and then to take a sip of her tea, or to brush the hair out of her eyes. Every now and then, however, she would look up from her work at the man laying on the floor. His hair was rather mess, as if he had just woken up, although his trimmed goatie would argue otherwise. His blue alien shirt was as slightly faded as ever while the contents of his favorite pair of cargo pants lay scattered around. On top of the
neatly folded longcoat sat a slim, grey rectangle with the word "Toshiba" emblazoned on the top. The faint hint of the name "lappy" remains as a tiny stain of sharpie.

"You know Etch," Akyu started, breaking the easy silence between them, "It's not that I don't mind you coming over, but nowadays it's like you're living here."

"Well, it's not like I'm being a bother to anyone." Etch said, sitting up and looking at Akyu. "There's just nothing to do over there, you know?"

"But you don't do anything here either."

"Well yeah, but you're here, so I don't mind it so much." The silence became uneasy just like that. The two of them just looked down at the floor awkwardly when they were interupted by a knock.

"Miss Hieda, there's a nun with a cloud here, wanting to address your guest."

The man had a guess who the nun was...

"Excuse me." A voice called out from the hallway as a nun let herself into the room. The nun in question was none other than Ichirin, accompanied silently by Unzan. She crossed her arms, looking at the lazing Etch before starting "What happened to helping out at Myourenji? You did make that promise the other day."

"Hey, you never said when I had to do it, though. Besides, today's the flower festival, isn't it?" Etch argued in his defense before turning to Akyu for help. She merely coughed, getting back to
her work. "Uh, right, well, uh, leave you to your work." The two of them stepped out into the hallway, where the heated discussion was to continue.

"Now look here, buster," She said, poking Etch's chest. "You said you would do anything to get some money, right?"

"Well, maybe not anything..."

"Regardless, you promised that you'd help us out when we needed it. Well, we need it now. With everyone gone and Byakuren visiting the crazed shrine maiden, we're a little undermanned."

"Fine, fine, give me a sec." Etch said, walking back in.



8:45 AM, Human village.


"So..." Akyu began, the four of them walking through the village on their way to Myourenji, "Why do you need me to come along??"

"Come on, it's fun to do things in the company of friends." As they continued, there was a shout, followed by a clamor of voiced as everyone looked the the sky. A big, pink, round and fuzzy thing soared through the air, in a direction that would make Etch's heart sink as he heard tales of things being consumed by some sort of god.

"Come on, let's go!" He shouted, grabbing Akyu's and Ichirin's wrists as they run back Etch's shack.

[E-Nazrin]

(OOC: This is a somewhat summarized post. The full version can be found on Nemoma's archival site here.)

8.45 AM, day 1, outskirts of the human village

"Must be a far-fallen god if he's expecting to get mocked at the human village, eh Mickey?" Hugh teased the mouse youkai wriggling under his arm as he walked over to Mitaka's fallen body, reached down, and sampled the custard pie he had fallen into.

"You never know, Hugh, male gods aren't so popular in Gensokyo..." Nazrin retorted, voice trailing off as the pie's scent distracted her from her indignation.

"Um, are neither of you going to help me up...?" Mitaka asked pitifully, still facedown in custard pie.

The rodent-carrying farmer licked his fingers clean and shrugged. "I dunno, it tastes pretty good." He turned his head to grin down at Nazrin. "You want a taste, Naz?"

"It'd help if you put me down." the dowser replied, grumpily.

Further exchange between the group was cut off by a rather high-pitched, cutesy growl from a few feet in the air behind Hugh and Nazrin.

"We forgot about something, didn't we?" Hugh quipped, and took a step forward to start running again...

"Nii-chan!"

... but stopped and turned when a female voice from just above the growl cried out, just in time to see a small, flying oni miko diving down at the God of Plenty, hands clasped and arms raised to deliver a devastating hammer blow.

But the fluffy pink godling heard her and quickly darted to the side, just enough to make it more of a glancing blow - sending the rubbery-skinned god bouncing away at a low angle, spinning wildly... and spraying the area with a thick arc of low-flying fruits, snack cakes, and a large wedge of gorgonzola cheese that hit Hugh directly in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Nazrin took the opportunity to wriggle out of her captor's grip, and got a good look at the wedge of cheese that had freed her.

"Karma," she concluded, hefting the cheese and taking a bite.

-----

Suika was otherwise occupied with rubbing mushy crumbs out of her eyes, thanks to a rum-scented snack cake that had smacked her in the face. Sadly, the scattered remnants licked off of her lips did not contain enough alcohol to remove her sobriety.

But after a few seconds, her face was clean again, and she looked around at the food-covered landscape below. Suika didn't see any pink, fluffy disturbances to the peace nearby, but the mouse youkai sitting on a fallen human did catch her attention.

She dropped to the ground and approached to see if the human was her unfortunate Nii-chan, but was disappointed to see that it wasn't.

"Uh, Nazrin, lemme up."

"Karma." Nazrin repeated, taking another bite of the cheese from her perch on top of Hugh's stomach.

After another glance around at the mountains of food in the area showed no sign of Mitaka, Suika decided it was best to ask about the matter.

"Hey, did you guys see Taka-nii drop down here?"

Nazrin pointed at a nearby pile of pears, and swallowed her mouthful of cheese. "We had a fallen god drop in, yeah."

The human she was sitting on retorted with a smug, "Air fare."

"Mmph!" the pears objected.

Suika chuckled a little, and walked over to start digging through the pile of fruit. "Looks like niichan got himself in trouble again, yep."

"Oi, Suika, you found him yet?" called a voice from above.

"White..." Hugh muttered, staring up at the sky.

Nazrin craned her neck back to stare up as well, and paled a little. "... and red."

"Think I found him, yep yep!" Suika called back, pulling a battered and pear-juice-soaked Mitaka out of his grave of fruit.

The shrine janitor wiped some sticky juice out of his eyes, looked up at the sky, and smiled mischievously.

"Ahhh! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Gensokyo!"

A small red-and-white orb plummeted from the sky and bounced off of Mitaka's forehead, knocking him back to the ground.

"Worth it." he giggled.

Hugh stared at the exchange, Mitaka's weirdness proving more interesting than Reimu's bloomers. "Uh, what IS he, again?"

"Our janitor, yep!" Suika replied, dragging the Hakurei punching bag to his feet again.

"See, Mickey? Air fare!" Hugh said, triumphantly, looking up above his chest to find only air. "Oh hey, and you already let me up for winn-eh?"

The outsider-turned-farmer blinked in confusion as Nazrin picked him up by the waist, youkai strength making up somewhat for the size difference.

"I'm faster than you." the mouse youkai said, tersely, and started running towards the village.

"Um, what?"

Nazrin started to run away from the infamous Hakurei miko and her entourage, but was easily cut off and surrounded. Luckily Byakuren's kind greeting and Kanako's sniping criticism kept her from engaging in her violent reputation, but it took a firm suggestion from Genji to return the focus to the matter at hand.

"Perhaps we should focus on the God of Plenty, Reimu." the flying turtle suggested.

Alice gave him a steely glare. "Then perhaps you can tell us where it went, Mister Turtle."

The two glared at each other in silence for a moment before a cry from Suika distracted them.

"Heeeeey guys!" the oni cried, dancing between piles of (sadly unfermented) grapes to approach the main conversation as she dragged Mitaka through the air, "Guess what!"

"We know you found him, Suika." Reimu said, calmly. "Now we need to find that stupid god for him to be useful."

"Oh, it was just here, yep." the oni said with a nod, as Genji lowered himself within human-flinging distance.

"It WHAT?!" many of the god's pursuers cried.

Suika grinned and effortlessly tossed the shrine janitor on top of Genji again, his fall cushioned by the delightfully soft surface of ancient turtle shell. "Yeppers! Sounds like Niisan bounced right off it, and then I smacked it good!"

"You WHAT?!"

"Yep! And then it spat this food stuff all over the ground." The little oni frowned. "And in my face. Dunno where it went, nope."

Byakuren put a pen to her notepad once again. "Spits out food when attacked..."

Ever hopeful, Yuki added a question of her own. "Hey, uh, mousey-chan!" she called down, "Did it spit out a violin, too?"

Lunasa shook her head at her new prot?g?e. "I wouldn't hope for much more than avenging it, Yuki..."

"Actually, it did spit out a violin bow when I threw that hoe at it." Hugh provided. He wriggled in Nazrin's youkai grip. "Naz, could you let me down?"

"Spits out high-fiber instruments when given farming implements..." Byakuren added to the list.

Lunasa raised an eyebrow as Yuki cried out in delight. "Then let's find it! We'll need it for the performance tomorrow, right, Lunasa-chan?"

The poltergeist shook her head. "We can get another bow more easily than a new violin. And it's probably ruined by all this food already..."

Yuki's face fell. "But..."

"Another pair of eyes to look out for it would be more useful than looking for the bow through all of this." Lunasa continued, nodding down at the sea of food below.

"Speaking of which..." Reimu growled, and turned to glare at Hugh and Nazrin again. "I don't suppose either of you saw where that stupid pink thing went?"

Nazrin silently shook her head, while Hugh apologized, "Sorry, ma'am, I was too busy getting hit by cheese."

"Bet your pet enjoyed that." Alice quipped, dryly. The cheese still in Nazrin's free hand supported her point.

"Oh, no, no, Nazrin isn't anyone's pet, really!" Byakuren said, with a giggle. She paused a moment, then clapped her hands together and added, "Oh, there's an idea! Nazrin, do you think you could track the God of Plenty for us?"

The mouse youkai glanced between Byakuren's beaming smile and Reimu's fierce glare, readily concluding that she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

"Yes, Byakuren-sama."

"Um, can I go now?" Hugh asked.

"You are sticking around for getting me involved in this." Nazrin growled back.

[LordVant]

8:45am, outskirts of Human Village

"While hilarious, this is getting rather boring. Think I'll just slip away for now." Vant thought to himself before hopping the short distance from Kanako, who barely noticed him leaving, to the ground.

"Going somewhere?" Suwako asked.

"Just off to the mansion, see ya later~" Vant waved before walking off.

"Have fun." Suwako smirked with a knowing twinkle in her eye.


9:30am, Road to SDM.

"Heh." Vant couldn't help but smile at what had happened earlier at the outskirts of the Human Village. There was food everywhere, and it was whole too. "Maybe I should've grabbed a bite to eat...ah well, I'm sure I'll see it again. *chuckle* "

Vant continued down the simple dirt path, heading towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but more importantly, to the gateguard that was situated there, Hong Meiling. Vant had known Hon for quite awhile, ever since he saw her in a visit to the SDM in order for Kanako to spread faith. He'd decided to stay outside and talk with her, and found out they both had interest in martial arts. Since then, he'd taken oft oppurtunity to meet with her and train or just simply talk about their lives. They'd gotten closer over the months and eventually hit it off. It's settled down into a more casual relationship lately.

Vant stepped out of the darkness of the overhanging trees up to a solid wall surrounding a large stone castle. He always did like Victorian architecture. He looked towards the front gate and noticed a familiar figure, sitting perfectly still next to the gate. She looked as she always did, green hat with a gold star on front, perfect long red hair, green vest with white shirt underneath, green gloves, long white loose pants, and green china-dress with both sides open so that they won't inhibit her kicking with her black steel-toe'd shoes. She didn't move but the slightest bit to breathe, sitting cross-legged in meditation, her focus absolute. Vant slowly and quietly walked up to her until he was just a couple feet away. He quickly launched out his hand and snatched a hair from her head, only to have his arm grabbed by her hand.

"I gotcha~!" She said with a smirk of satisfaction.

"Move a little faster and you might get to keep your hair, Hon." Vant retorted with his usual nickname for her. He moved in quickly and gave her a warm hug which she responded to in kind. "How have you been? Sorry I haven't been able to visit earlier, been busy with all the faith gathering."

"Generally well off." Meiling stood up and stretched. "It's been the usual here, the black-white stealing books, the young mistress playing around, The Mistress doing what she likes, Sakuya watching over everything, Jan is helping Patchouli in the library, and I've been here." She moves over and kisses Vant before settling against the wall.

"Well at least it wasn't like earlier this morning." Vant notices her quizzical look and fills her in on the "god of plenty". "So if we're lucky, it'll fly by here and bring us something to eat...though they won't like it." Vant hooks a thumb at the mansion.

"Hmm, I could go for some cake~. Though the mess would be a hazard....it's a hard choice." Meiling caught her chin in her hand and thought about it for awhile.

"Well Hon, doesn't matter to me anyway. These things always sort themselves out around here, so why bother?" Vant smiled at her.

"You're too easy-going, someone has to deal with it." Meiling chirped back at him.

"I know, I know. Still, it's after food and such, so it'll obviously come he-...speak of the devil." Vant looked out into the woods and noticed a bit of pink moving quite fast. It burst out of the depth of the trees and rocketed over the gate and straight through the large double-doors of the SDM, breaking them open.

"Gah!! THAT WAS THE GOD OF PLENTY?!" Meiling was shocked at what it was, despite it being described to her before. Though her attention quickly changed to the fruits and sweets lying in it's trail. "Well...I guess let's eat up while we can eh?" She was quick to grab a few apples and a cantelope. "Mmm~ it's quite good."

"It is~ Can't wait for the noises that will come out of there since the thing broke in. You're supposed to guard the gate...but since the gate itself is still intact...I think you're okay Hon." Vant nudged her with his elbow while chuckling.

"I doubt it, they'll blame it on me anyway. *sigh* Maybe I shou-" Meiling was interrupted by a shrill scream as a few fairy maids flew out of the mansion covered in chocolate pudding.

"I guess we should finish this while we can and get to looking like we're doing something productive, eh Hon?" Vant finished his apple and cantelope as did Meiling.

"I get the feeling it's gonna be a long day, glad you're around to suffer with me Vant." She smiled warmly at him.

"As always~" Vant pitched back.

[Kakyoin]

10:25 AM - Day 1 - Forest Edge - Between Human Village & Scarlet Devil Mansion

Keine laid her hands on a tree and peeked her head out past it. "Oh Ken, Reisa, there you are." She happened upon the two of them examining a shiny, teardrop-shaped pendant in the grass. It had a red and white glow with a very ornate design. The chain was golden and looked like it could glow very brightly in the sun, if it was exposed to sunlight. The face of the pendant had a streak of green and blue, with rubbed-off white separating each color. "That's a very beautiful pendant you have there...I bet the 'god of plenty' dropped that too."

"Yeah!" Reisa grinned in delight at her find. She picked up the pendant and stood up, her hair and wings gently flowing in the wind. "Heh heh~ I'm gonna look pretty wearing this." She leaned her head forward and slid the chain around her neck, looking down at the glowing pendant. After a quick twirl, she put her hands on her hips and winked at Ken. "What do you think, Kenno~?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Erh...well, it suits you, I'd say. I guess purple and red go together, heh." One of his hands was behind his back, hiding the doll he had found. Apparently the 'god of plenty' dropped plenty of items, true to its name.

The teacher folded her arms. "That's nice. But I was searching for you two for a while...I started to get worried."

"Sorry about that, Miss Keine. This crazy fairy saw something shiny and stayed behind to find it..."

"Hey!" Reisa blew a puff of air up from her mouth, briefly lifting her bangs. "It caught my eye! You know us fairies..." She dug the toe of her right shoe into the grass.

He adjusted his glasses. "Yeah, yeah...It was my choice to follow you. I got worried when I turned around and you suddenly weren't there." She actually looked even prettier with the pendant, he thought.

Keine sighed and smiled. "At least everyone's okay. We ought to continue after the 'god of plenty' now, right?"

Ken nodded in agreement. "Yes...although I found something else while I searched for Reisa..." He began to bring the doll out from behind his back.

*rustle rustle*

Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind them. Someone was approaching. He turned around, instinctively placing his hand on the hilt of his sword at his side. "Somebody's here..." His countenance grew serious.

Reisa, who had been trying to see what he was hiding behind his back, looked in the direction he was facing. "Eh?"

Into the clearing came a young woman; she seemed as surprised to find them all staring at her as they were to find her. Her long, dark brown hair swayed to a stop as she paused almost mid-step. He noticed that she wore casual clothes similar to what many from the real--no, his world wore. Upon closer examination, her expression seemed like a mix of curiosity, amazement and shock.

"Ah...this is..." she started to walk backwards, turning around to go back the way she had come.

"Wait!" Ken called after her. "Hold on...!" She did not seem dangerous, and besides, Keine was with them. He had never seen her before, not in the Village.

The woman turned back around, and he saw that her eyes were not the same color. One looked as brown as her hair, the other a shade of emerald. "Um...what?"

Reisa pointed to another figure approaching quickly. "Kenno, look!"

Another woman stepped into the clearing in front of the woman with differently-colored eyes. She had a very serious expression on her face and had distinctly pink hair. Ken was used to odd hair colors by now, but she seemed to have an aura of calmness around her.

Her eyes scanned him and then Reisa, then she walked in front of the brown-haired woman and placed her right arm, which was wrapped in innumerable bandages, in front of her. She then looked over to Keine, who had her arms crossed. Smiling slightly, the woman lowered her arm. "Don't worry, Himiko, they aren't dangerous. The were-hakutaku is with them..."

Unfazed, Ken took a step forward and held his hand out in a friendly, explanatory fashion. "My name's Ken. My apologies, but who might you be?" Had he not been trained as he was in swordplay, he probably could never emit such calmness in the face of the unknown. Yet he couldn't help but wonder how this woman knew Keine, he had never seen either of them before in his life.

The woman with the bandaged arm stepped forward with no hesitation and looked at him. "I don't believe we've met before. I am the hermit, Kasen." She turned to the brown-haired woman. "This is my best friend, Himiko. I'm sorry if we caused you worry..."

The swordsman looked over at his teacher for some form of validation. Kasen, a hermit? It was coming back to him...yes, he had heard of her, he thought. Keine had told him about her previously, but it was at least a year ago.

"Kasen, well met. It's been a while. I'm glad you still remember me." Keine adjusted her hat and ran her other hand through her hair, also smiling slightly.

"Miss Keine? Ah, then..." Ken sighed with relief. He suddenly remembered that he had a doll in his hands, and quickly pocketed it. "Kasen and...Himiko, right?"

The woman Kasen called Himiko looked almost quizzically at him. "Yes?"

He stepped closer and held his hand out. "Pleased to meet you, Himiko." She reached her hand out somewhat nervously as he shook it gently. "You too, Kasen."

"Aww..." Reisa had a sad look on her face. She was disappointed that the attention she was getting about her new treasure had quickly evaporated.

"Ah, yeah, that's right. This is Reisa, she's...helping me learn magic. We're all from the Human Village." He thought he saw Himiko perk up slightly when he mentioned magic, but dismissed the thought as Reisa spoke up.

"Hello, new friends!" The fairy grinned cheerfully and waved her hand at them.

Kasen placed her left hand on her hip, the chains on her shackle jingling slightly. "Pleased to meet you. Now, you wouldn't happen to be searching for something suspicious flying through the air, would you?"

Keine nodded in affirmation. "That sounds about right, actually. According to several people in our Village, a very large, flying, fluffy pink creature has worked its way around the area...it was last spotted headed that way." She pointed in the direction they had been traveling. "It sounds rather incredulous, but..."

"Is that so? We just came through the Village about...I'd say, half an hour ago. There was quite a mess there..." Kasen looked over at Himiko, who was looking at her, and saw her nod. She suspected they were both thinking the same thing.

Reisa groaned. "Tell me about it...I, um, fell in this really big pile of pudding...hey, don't laugh!" She glared at Ken as he started to crack up a bit.

"Haha...sorry about that, Reisa, I probably should have paid more attention when we stepped outside." He put a hand on the fairy's shoulder apologetically.

"Pudding..." Himiko murmured to herself. She absentmindedly scraped her feet on the clean grass. Stepping in it had certainly been an interesting but bothersome experience.

Ken turned back to Kasen and Himiko. "Apparently, there's this creature called the 'god of plenty' floating around here and there, and when it passed through our Village it left a mess of food, trinkets and some odd-looking invitations. Something to do with a Spring festival, and whatnot."

"A 'god of plenty?' " The hermit sighed and looked over at Himiko. "Well, there you go, I guess there was something. Are you happy?"

"I guess so..." Himiko was feeling a bit uneasy being around three people she'd never met before. Normally she just had Kasen around. She thought the fairy was cute though. If Kasen thought they were okay, maybe tagging along wouldn't be so bad.

Keine tapped her foot once in the grass. "Would you like to come with us? I'd like to see what this 'god of plenty' is doing...I want to study it a bit."

"Yeah, that sounds fine. Right?" Kasen looked at Himiko, who nodded in agreement.

Ken put one hand in his pocket. "All right, then. Let's get going towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion again! Reisa, soon you'll be close to your old home..."

The fairy flew close to him as the five of them started to travel, with Keine and Kasen in front, Himiko walking closely behind Kasen and the two of them bringing up the rear. "Yep, maybe I can say hi to everyone there! But, Kenno..." She suddenly wore a sly grin. "They're pretty nice, eh?"

"Huh? What are you going on about...your necklace looks great, I already--"

"No, silly~" She flew closer and whispered in his ear. "So, which one of them do you prefer? I saw it in your eyes..."

His expression turned to irritation. "That's--no, that's not--gosh darn it, Reisa! Now's not the time for that!" He made lazy attempt to grab her, but she flew just out of his reach, continuing to tease him.

Himiko looked back at them. The purple fairy flying around him with a gleeful look on her face. What interesting people, she thought. Her mind was digesting all of what had happened. She turned to see Kasen and Keine conversing periodically about this 'god of plenty'. This wasn't so bad, and Kasen seemed okay with it now too. Despite the scoldings she gave her about running after what she saw earlier around Youkai Mountain on impulse, her hermit friend seemed interested in it as well.

At least they were doing something exciting now.


(OOC: At this point, Himiko's and Ken's group are on their way to the SDM. Depending on the timestamps of others' posts, they might arrive just in time to see the 'god of plenty' leave the SDM and head towards its next destination, or they may happen upon the 'god of plenty' and those chasing after it at or inside the SDM somewhere.)

[Gappy]

8.45 AM, Day 1, Human Village, just before Vant and Meiling witness the GoP plough into the SDM

"I see, so this 'ice cream' of the outer world comes in a variety of colours?" Kasen marvelled at the myriad of different coloured fat drops of frosty dairy adorning the bushes and thistles along the winding road leading up the village.

"Yes, each one's a different flavour, like chocolate, vanilla, chocolate chip, strawberry, chocolate cookie dough...." Himiko rattled off a mental list of flavours.

"....green tea....?" The hermit suggested.

"Green tea, yes....though I wouldn't have thought of that one. How'd you..." She turned around to find her hermit friend smacking her lips through a curtain of dark green cream oozing down her face.

"Your 'outer world' must be a mad place, to have tomato throwing festivals and green-tea-flavoured ice." The hermit concluded. "Still, I believe further study may earn it my approval. At any rate, I surmise that we've found the source of our little 'cake walk' as well as our elusive unidentified flying object, all in one stroke."

"What makes you say that?" Himiko asked, turning around to follow Kasen's gaze...

....and saw a pink balloon smash out of a storeroom in a shower of short cake, profiteroles, broccoli and tomatoes, followed closely by....

"....I didn't know Gensokyo has Bull Running festivals like they do in Spain too..." Himiko murmured in awe as she watched a madman in a rather worn hakama and gi pass by, laughing maniacally as he spun a lasso over his head while gripping a candy rose tightly in his teeth, all while balancing precariously at the front of a runaway wheelbarrow pushed along at breakneck speed by a crazed cackling oni miko.

"I must see this Spain of yours." Kasen said, watching as a blue-haired Celestial waving around a rather dangerous looking blade in the air ran after the two, screaming theft and murder, followed closely by a rather concerned looking kasha and what seems to be a human male. "If this is but a mere impression of the real thing, I am curious to see the genuine article."

"My fish! It ate all my fish!" The Kasha cried in panic. "Hey, sister or brother or whatever you are, give me back my fish or I'll....I'll....I'll do something really bad to you! Like...like...leave a lot of corpses under your pillow!"

"Shouldn't you be more worried about your wheelbarrow?!" The human gasped, trying to keep up.

"I don't know about that..." Himiko said, doubtful. She had a feeling Bull running didn't involve girls (and a big bearded guy) riding turtles....or flying shrinemaidens...or girls riding logs either....all of which just passed by, screaming death from above.

"This is an uncommon sight, seeing a god of plenty in broad daylight." Kasen observed, picking up a short cake off Himiko's head and sampling it. They watched as the huge pink balloon flew past again, this time dragging the man in the worn hakama and gi through the dirt by his own rope with the aforementioned oni miko riding him like a surf-board. This was followed by the Kasha's male companion standing atop a runaway wheelbarrow carted along by the fish-avenging Kasha, carrying a bloodthirsty sword-totting threat-calling Celestial on his back. "Though seeing it pursued by so many is not."

"Here's a question for you, Himiko." Kasen said, picking up a random lemon that rolled up against her foot. "When life gives you lemons, what do you do?"

Meanwhile...

"Oh dear....that was Myourenji's storeroom...." Byakuren said, worriedly, looking over her shoulder as she picked an ear of broccoli out of her ears. "I fear Ichirin and Shou won't be too happy about that...."

"What about you, isn't that your temple?" Reimu asked, tossing a few paper talismans at the god of plenty while eating her way through her third profiterole.

"I don't like tomatoes and broccoli anyway." Byakuren said with a smile. "....Reimu-san, at this rate you'll gain a few pounds by the end of this pursuit."

"Hugh, do you have any more farming implements?" Yuki demanded, sitting poised atop Genji, holding her stricken violin bow like a blade of vengeance.

Hugh looked into his empty farming tool sack, the contents of which had all been thrown at the god of plenty in the hopes of getting a violin in return. Then he looked down at Nazrin. "I don't know. How do you define 'human resources'?"

"I'm no human." Nazrin pointed out, pointedly, poking Hugh with the sharp point of her dowsing rod. "Don't make me prove it."

"Resources anyway." Hugh shrugged.

"I-Incoming wave!" Ruukoto warned. "E-e-evasive maneuvers!"

"Evasively maneuvering!" Hugh declared.

They all ducked and rolled their way through a very nutritious storm of strawberries and cherries.

"I think we can safely say it has passed the dairy and confectionery period." Reimu observed.

"That means no more cheese?!" Nazrin groaned.

"D'ya think there'll be a beer period? Ya'know, a period full of beer?" Suika seemed to get drunk on the very idea alone.

"Then Gensokyo is doomed." Alice sighed.

[Nemo★Ma]

?我不会忘记的
?现在，我有一个使命??如果要维持现状必须要这么做的话，我也没有办法

0840AM, Human Village

When Amarillo and the two Lilys arrive at the center of the Human Village, they are given a clear view on this strange creature who is causing all kind of trouble. It's even causing trouble now as it sucks in the food from villager's kitchens (while blow half of their kitchen away with it), played with the pets of them for a bit (while having their furs "trimmed") and pay its thanks with hundreds or thousands of random objects.

"We need to stop it, attack it now!" Amarillo shouted, while drawing her lightspear.
"Heh, are you sure this thing works?" Lily Black asked in a "Oh I know it will fail" tone.
"Well, I believe in Nitori's works, however I can't quite handle it, it seems lighter than my previous weapon though." Amarillo looks at the design of the weapon - It really is super light, and looks different than what a normal beam blade would be.
"OK, here goes." As Amarillo claims, she extends her hand and did a spin, and the weapon's laser blade is flipped out.
"I still don't know why Nitori designed it like this, it reacts to the force of actually drawing the weapon instead of a switch like my previous one."
"Now, Black, shower it with danmaku first, White, follow me!" As she commanded, the three of them instantly spread out into 2 directions.
This Creature - seemly aware of what they are try to do, spitted out a big ledge - or what was a big ledge anyways - towards Lily White. However it's blocked by a single swing from Amarillo's weapon. Then after a blinding flash, it stops in curiosity and confusion as its target fairy now disappeared. and the human it's chasing suddenly has a shiny wing on the her back.
"Now I wonder who will you chase, the one who will baffle you from behind, or the one that will face you straight in melee?" smiled the girl, and she quickly fly upwards and soon disappeared from the creature's sight.
While the creature is try to get upwards, its back have been hit by a stream of bullets. In response, more random stuff falls down, including a violin.
"Now this is some serious stuff to bring on. Guess it have swept the Prismrivers some time ago?" As Lily Black thought so, she quickly rushed down and picked that up before it smashed to the ground.

As she turns back, she saw this pink figure closely behind her, and is spawning another huge log.
"Oh you never realize you are no match with the speed of a fairy?" As Lily Black quickly does a backflip in the air and shoot 3 lines of streaming bullets towards it.
The creature didn't seem to realize so.
Because its reply is shooting the ledge straight at Lily Black, who dodged it without moving.
"Still, thinking that several huge logs can hit me?" as Lily Black is finishing her sentence----

"LOOK OUT!"
"Sword-Skill [Awesome Chop]!"
        劍技          【輝煌爆斬】
(    Jian Ji      [Awesome Chop])

"Oops," as Lily Black quickly makes way, she saw a white light cuts from the sky.
It went though the pink creature behind her, and shocked the earth when it hit the ground.
"Whoa, nice one, sis." As Lily Black looks at the pink creature, now in half, slowly falling back to the ground. and her sister now appears beside her.
"Not that soon." The other girl replied, "When things that heavy are falling down slowly, you are sure this-"
Her words are cut off (again) with the pink creature, now in two, slowly rise in midair, while leaving a huge pile of food on the ground.
The two of them stopped for a while, and suddenly launches off in a very fast speed, towards 2 different directions.
One of them is heading to a shack towards the end of Human Village.

"Yeah, that will happen." as the girl finished her sentence, the two started another pursuit.
They are not the only ones that chases after it, anyways.

"That's MY home!" as a young man and his crew runs towards them.
"Oh, Akyu." The girl greeted one of them, "what blows you here?"
"Well, as Etch said, this God of Plenty - as others call it - is heading to his house, and we are here to stop it. By the way, How do I call you in this form? Amarillo, or-"
"Whichever name are ok, we are both of them so it didn't matter." replied the girl.
Etch slows down and is looking at her.
"Do we met somewhere before?" he asked.
"Well I live near the Forest of Magic, you may saw me several times. Name is Amarillo White, at least now I'm this. "
"Don't get what you are trying to tell, but okay with that, so what do you gonna do with that thing? and oh shoot-"
As they are talking, the creature has descended onto that shack, and its roof have been blown off.
"Seems, we need to finish this as quickly as possible, before things get really ugly." the nun that's with them muttered. while firing some lasers at it.
Its reply - throw the roof at them.
"Gah, that's my roof!" as the gang dodges past the flying huge cluster of construction materials. "can it even fights with spellcards?"
"Nope," replied Lily Black, "It tried to impale me with some huge logs, but no bullets so far."
"Great thing that you don't die when killed, you are a fairy right?" Etch replied.
"Another word on that and I'll pass judgement on you like a fairy does!" Lily Black summoned a bullet right in front of Etch's eyes, for a split second no less, "Oh well, Amarillo will not glad if she heard that, but only I can do things that dangerous."

"You guys, can you just stop fooling around?" Shouted as the girl is busy fending off the creature, which is trying to suck up more of Etch's shack as weapons.
"Sorry~" Lily Black shouted back, and as her reply, shoot another 3-way string of bullets at the creature.

However, their fending didn't seem to do that well, since more and more of the shack's contents have been suck up by the creature, and was used by weapons.
"Nah, this is not good." said Etch as he dodged the a sink-like object. "at this rate my shack is going to be destroyed! Please think about some big attacks to deal with it!"
"Well, if you don't mind..." The Girl, after hearing that, swiftly descended on the ground, facing the creature, and rise her spear.
"Step back." she called out as the creature is cautionously waiting for her to make a move.

Then, a huge pillar of light is seen erupting from where she is standing.

"Blade-Skill [Cristierra]!"
       劍技      【地流光】
(   Jian Ji   [Di Liu Guang])

The light engulfed everything like a wall of flame after where the girl is standing.
"Uh-Oh, I don't like the outcome of this...." said Etch.
As the Wall of Flamey light disappears, there is nothing left in that area,
The creature, with the remain of Etch's shack, have completely disappeared without a trace.

"Er.. I overdid it a little..." The girl sat down and sighed,
"My shack...... at least we finished that thing." Etch facepalms.

"No, we are back to square one on this." Lily Black explained the splitting creature.

The gang falls speechless.

"Well, seems we must go hunt down the other half." As Akyu states, they quickly runs/flies towards the direction where the other half of the creature went.

Meanwhile..
A pink mist can be saw emitting from the ground, and slowly floats out of the Human Village.


Blade-Skill [Awesome Chop] - This spellcard that has a seemly stupid name is inspired by Komari Kamitika's signature spellcard HugeStar[Awesome Drop] while Komari rides a huge albeit hollowed star from above to crush her enemies. Amarillo's adaptation utilized her weapon's lightweight nature and strikes down from high in lightening speed via the help of the fairies. It may not chop something to half, but the gravity alone will be enough to pose a threat.

Blade-Skill [Cristierra] - This Spellcard make use of the Lightblade's "Light" part, by erupting a pure energy of beam light from where Amarillo is standing, this spellcard release a pillar of light that deal heavy damage in front of her. However, the attack lasts shortly - Not like the short time lessen the power of the spellcard itself though.

[E-Nazrin]

Posted on Trance's behalf

Stand: "Gensou no Kyoukai". 0755. Day 1.
Hirowaza's stall.

Hirowaza was met by a guy who seemed quite interested in his wooden swords. No, not that sword. This guy had silvery white, short hair, that seemed a little out of place, but Hirowaza didn't really mind that. He was a potential customer and potential customers were always welcome. "Yes sir, I am selling an assorted collection of wooden weaponry and some good luck charms, all of them were hand-crafted by me," Hirowaza said. "You seem to be interested mostly in my bokken, which are behind me. Each of them are crafted in a different way, you can see some are more curved than others. Take your time to pick wisely." Hirowaza said, smiling. VIVIT tilted her head and Meira fingered the hilt of her own blade impatiently.

[Zengar Zombolt]

8:00 AM, Day 1, Gensou no Kyoukai Stand

Ah, so much to pick from... All the wooden blades were very well crafted, each one slightly different from the last one. All of the swords were unique in their own right... Even if they were made of wood.

"The one with the five degree curve... yeah, that should do. Would you mind if I could check that one myself?" Wodan pointed at the aforementioned sword.

"Oh, that's a rather classic choice. You look like you know this stuff, don't you?" The stand attendant had a serious face, even after expressing such surprise.

"Well yeah, I had some experience in the past... but after some, er, events, I became unattached to the art of the sword. Let's say that this is a reminder of something I really want to get back on." Wodan's right hand grappled tightly the handle of the wooden sword.

"So you have a different past? That sounds familiar, but then many people from the village that came from the outside tend to be like that. Normally they don't stick for long, however... they all miss their modern ways and eventually return to their old lives."

Wodan chuckled. "Maybe I'm sillier than the rest of them, but I prefer the laid back lifestyle of this place." Wodan was able to talk calmly, even if he was pulling off a successful sword kata while doing it.

"It is quite a thing, isn't it? Life in Gensokyo is really peaceful, unless you go out of your way to search thrills, and believe me, there are plenty of these in this world."

Wodan would have asked something else, but he remembered there could be other people needing his help later. Besides, there are a lot of stands that become regulars of the makeshift marketplace, so he'd have more time to do so other day. So he took a hand to his pocket, and payed for the sword's price.

No, actually he took all the money on his pocket. About four times the sword's price. That way he'd have a reason to meet this person again.

"Well, I hope we meet again soon..." Wodan said while shouldering the wooden sword, leaving quickly. He'd have to return to his cottage to store the sword somewhere... it's not a good idea to carry such a big thing when you may need your physical strength to help people.

And so, he left the center of the Village, eyeing the sword. There were a lot of little details on it... It wasn't just a fancy named wooden piece. It was definitively worth it's price.

Five minutes later, the stand attendant realized that the payment was way more than the sword was worth. A collective facepalm was soon issued.

"Man, did he have to give /all/ his money? I would have been satisfied with just the retail price. Ah, I'm not going to complain!"

[Gappy]

OC: Sorry, Nemo, I can't resist. :3 Let me know later if you don't like it. Also, quality is meh due to hurried writing.

8.50 AM, Day 1, Streets of the Human Village, just shortly after Amarillo splits the GoP in two....

"That's my temple!" Ichirin was trembling inconsolably, despite Etch's attempts at calming her down. "That was our entire supply of broccoli and tomato! Byakuren-sama loves broccoli and tomatoes!"

"Well, our course of action now is quite obvious." Akyu said, trying to keep up with Amarillo's determined stride. "We need to stop it befo-...ouch!" She gasped upon walking straight into Amarillo's back, poking her eyes on the wide brim of Amarillo's straw hat. "W-what's wrong? Why the sudden..."

"R-r-red white!" The fairy-possessed girl gasped.

The Gensokyo scribe peeked over Amarillo's frozen shoulders to follow her gaze...and saw an approaching contingent of shrinemaidens in Hakurei colours as well as a few other familiar and some not-so-familiar faces. "Oh, it's just Hakurei-san, what's wro-...." She was interrupted again by Amarillo turning about face abruptly away from the approaching crowd, her shoulders hunched in internal monologue.

"Calm down, calm down Lily, it's just a shrinemaiden....lots of shrinemaidens....just...." Amarillo repeated over and over under her breath.

"....Yo, sis, what's....wrong?" Lily Black stopped in her tracks to look around at her sister(?) fairy.

"Lily, we've been over this issue of yours, danmaku isn't the most appropriate way of expressing....yes, yes, I know you can't help it...." Amarillo muttered to herself in a manic whisper. "But shooting people to death to announce the rebirth of all things defeats the purp-....Lily....please, list-....Lily....LILY!"

".....Hey, what'd we miss?" Etch asked, catching up with a slightly less upset Ichirin in tow.

"I'm not sure, but Amarillo-san is...." Akyu began, before she was interrupted a third time, this time by Lily Black grabbing her and her companions bodily and making a dash for a nearbly lean-to. "W-whah! B-Black-san, w-wha....?!"

"It's spring!" Lily Black hissed.

"Yeah, so it is....I don't see how that and you manhandling me have anything to do...." Etch began.

"No, not 'that' Spring. 'THAT' SPRING!" Lily said in way of explanation in a rather exasperated voice.

"That....spring?" Akyu blinked.

"...." Etch's eyes widened. "You don't mean...."

"Yes, THAT Spring." Lily nodded gravely.

"No, actually, I don't really know what you mean...." Etch admitted. "You're being a little too cryptic."

"...." Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Take cover and take care not to bite your tongue."

Meanwhile, just a few minutes before....

"Right, Mickey, are you sure this is the right way?" Hugh asked the dowser who was now leading the GoP hunting party, dowsing rods swinging gently to and thro. The rods were quivering more and more with each step they took.

"Yeah, we're close....close....reaaaaaaaaaaal close...." Nazrin said excitedly. "Aaaand...." The dowsing rods swung open rather abruptly. "It's here!"

"Where?!" The entire group exclaimed, leaping into combat position, which pretty much meant taking cover behind the most expendable member of the group - Mitaka.

"....I like where this is going." Mitaka said with a nasty grin. "Okay, where is it so I at least know what hit me."

"*munch* Right'ere *Chew*" Nazrin said through a huge mouthful of cheddar. "*gulp* Knew it was still spewing cheese! Hah!"

"Trust the rodent to find the cheese." Kanako sighed.

"But you know, we don't really need to rely on that." Yuki said. "I mean, it's not like the god is making it hard for us." She nodded at the slew of debris it left in its wake, both nutritional and non-nutritional.

Everyone blinked as the weight of the obvious sunk in.

"....I knew that." Kanako announced. "It was just so obvious it was superfluous to mention."

"Except the trail split two ways here." Byakuren observed, nodding at a huge, rather precariously balanced pile of food sitting in the middle of the street. From there the trail of wanton destruction and wantonness in general split in two directions, one out of the village towards the Misty Lake, the other towards the village outskirts.

"I found the wheelbarrow thief!" A voice boomed out across the street. "Now cough up our ten million yen in unlocked currency, jewels and treasures, and my peaches!" Everyone turned around to find a certain peach-topped Celestial sitting astride a rather bewildered young man's shoulders, who was in turn standing at the bow of a wheelbarrow.

"....and my fish, you fishy thieves!" The Kasha wrangling the wheelbarrow turned her fists in a revving motion around the wheelbarrow's handlebars, eliciting a low, threatening rumble from the otherwise innocuous-looking wheelbarrow.

"....err....and Satori's books as well, if you please...." The man cleared his throat politely. "I mean, if you don't mind, that is."

".....Mitaka, I know you're disgusting, but to stoop to stealing stuff, from a peach-brained Celestial no less...." Alice sighed, shaking her head.

"Says the girl who joins a certain BlackWhite to raid the SDM library every now and then...." Mitaka deadpanned.

"T-that's....t-that's plain, innocent borrowing!" Alice declared, indignant. "Th-the nerve!"

"Explain that to Patchouli-san then." Mitaka said. "Now....what's this about peaches and fish?"

"And one thousand million yen in unlocked currency! And our jewels and treasures and other shiny stuff!" The celestial demanded.

"....and....err...our books, please?" The celestial's mount added.

"Hey, the value just went up by a factor of 100.... and iss a thousand million even a number?" Mitaka turned to ask the others.

"Interest rates these days are rather atrocious." Kanako nodded in sympathy. "You may have to mortgage your shrine. We know of a rather good mortgage scheme though."

"It's the ~*~*Economy~*~*~ Thing." Suwako trilled.

"Ummm, are you okay?" Everyone turned to look at Yuki shouting out at a lone girl in white and yellow standing in the middle of the street, trembling a little. "It's all right, that monster's gone now. We'll make sure it doesn't return here...after I get my violin back."

"Hey, isn't that...." Reimu squinted to look at the girl. "That girl who lives in the forest...."

"Ya mean the fairy-loving weirdo?" Suika asked.

"Yeah, the weird one." Alice nodded.

"Is she alright, however? The poor thing is trembling." Byakuren said.

"Aaaah! I-I can't help it.....It's....It's....aaaaahn.....IT'S S-S-SPRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIING!" The girl in yellow and white suddenly turned around and threw her arms open wide with a huge, bright, nervous smile on her face.

"....incomi-...." Ruukoto began her proximity warning, before she rudely interrupted by a flying-tackled from Reimu into cover behind a nearby half-eaten stall. They tumbled into its shadow just as bright white danmaku lanced over their heads, blasting everything within its field of fire.

"Oh ME! She's channeling that spring fairy!" Kanako gasped from behind a number of haphazardly planted logs acting as a danmaku shield.

"...I think she IS the spring fairy...." Suwako added, peeking out a little before a shot glanced off her hat, forcing her back into cover.

"D-Danmaku pattern s-signature confirmed t-t-to be identical to subject 092, t-t-termed 'That Darn Random Immortal Spring Fairy'." Ruukoto said, her maid cap split apart to reveal a handy periscope.

"Why is she here?!" Alice hissed from behind Mitaka as a stray bullet frayed her bow. "We're not even shooting anyone....yet!"

"Didn't you hear her?" Mitaka looked around at Alice from where he was crouching behind the protection of Genji's shell. "It's Spring." Sparks flew around them as fierce Lunatic-level danmaku glanced off Genji's shell. It would have been beautiful if the situation weren't so potentially lethal.

"More importantly, what do we do?" Yuki asked. "We can't get bogged down here! I still need to find my violin!"

"What she said." Lunasa said. "That and I don't plan on dying here. It'd be rather pathetic."

"You guys go on ahead." Mitaka nodded over to the others with a grin. "I'll hold her off."

"....with...what?" Reimu asked, incredulous, from her stall halfway across the street.

"What are you going to do? Tremble at her? Shake your knees at her?" Alice demanded with a nod at Mitaka's shaking knees.

"This? This is excitement! I can barely hold it in!" Mitaka said dismissively, stumbling shakily onto his feet. "Besides, I've always wanted to try my luck with Amarillo-san."

"Disgusting." He heard Alice mutter.

"I mean try my skills." Mitaka elaborated.

"Very disgusting." He heard Alice mutter again.

"At martial arts." Mitaka explained, exasperation mounting.

"Disgus.....oh." Alice blinked. "....You should have said so, you disgusting person."

"....what exactly were you thinking?" Mitaka asked with a sigh. "Anyway, go on, all of you. I got this."

"So, bets on how long he'll last?" Suwako asked as Mitaka stepped out of the cover of Genji's shell and walked into the maelstrom.

"3 Minutes." Reimu suggested.

"I'd say....2 minutes." Alice shrugged.

"That's generous. I give him one." Kanako said. "Oh wait, he's a Hakurei. Make that half."

"5! 5 on Taka-kun!" Reimu shouted in retaliation. "Oh, you know what?! He'll KNOCK HER OUT! 100 yen on Taka-kun knocking her out!"

"Disgusting." Alice muttered for the umpteenth time.

"100 yen. That's a LOT of confidence, coming from you and your coffers." Kanako scoffed.

"Hah, and where's YOUR over-glorified breast pillow then if he's any better?" Reimu challenged. "At least Taka-kun there is here in our time of need, even if only as a bumper-sub!"

"At least I value my followers! All you have is that armpit-warmer of yours and even then you squander him!"

"Followers?! You must be getting so senile you can't count, old hag!"

"Stay right there while I prepare you an onbashira sandwich!"

"Heeeeeeeeeey! Can we come kill you yet?!" The Celestia's voice sailed over from the other side of the street from behind the upturned wheelbarrow acting as a shield. "I still want my one thousand million billion yen, you know!"

"In unlocked fish currency!" The Kasha's voice joined in.

"SHUT UP!" The goddess and shrinemaiden roared in unison.

Meanwhile, Mitaka strode up the street, through a roaring, blinding storm of what had become a Last Word level pandemonium, praying silently that Suika doesn't somehow suddenly turn sober (or drunk, he can never really tell) and forget to maintain the mass dispersion spell protecting him. He walked onwards, grabbing a wooden sword off a half-blasted stall as he passed.

"Oy, Mita-whatsyourface, you have to pay for that!" A voice shouted from behind the stall.

"...." Mitaka, a little irritated that someone felt it necessary to ruin his moment of cool with ~*~*economics*~*~, ignored the voice.

"I mean it! I'm putting it on your tab!" The voice added, a little more nervously.

"Look, this is a moment of dramatic awesome." Mitaka turned around to point out. "Here, have an IOU." He said, taking out a ready-made IOU from his pouch of Hakurei-sealed IOUs.

"Now.....Amarillo...." Mitaka turned again to face his adversary as he dug into his pocket to bring out his ace-in-the-hole. "At last, the circle is complete. When I left you I was but the learner; now I am the master!"

"He's....Niisan's resorting to his ace-in-the-hole, yep!" Suika exclaimed.

"....Does this mean he's going to die?" Hugh asked.

Mitaka tied his ace-in-the-hole to the wooden sword before spinning the sword around.

"FRENCH SKILL! [AWESOME SURRENDER]"

(法國藝術 [真棒投降])
 (Fa Guo   [Yi Shu] )

He waved the white flag triumphantly.

French Skill (Awesome Surrrender) -  [/i]This....ability.... is inspired by the French ability - Fail Surrender. Mitaka's version improves on the original French version by simple virtue of sheer awesome. Considering the user, it's probably a lot more useless though.

[Tsunade Gakudan]

House of the Human, The Ancient City, Former Hell. 10:30 AM, Day 001.
[The Prologue: Part 2.]

Stepping out of the house always warranted the same bustling noise of oni moving around; today was no exception. If Tsunade hadn?t known any better, they had probably stayed up all night; most of them were normally seen drinking anyway. It didn?t change the fact that they were all out in force; going about whatever business they had to attend to. By now, Tsunade had learnt to just go with the flow as opposed to trying to force your way through. For her, it never worked. People like Yuugi could do it if they so desired, but she was human. Her strength was no way near their level. Not that she was strong anyway; carrying heavy stuff was always a strain for her. Bar work aside, there wasn?t much else she could physically do. If she had the training, maybe she could improve. But in her head, an oni training a human felt quite intimidating; even if she knew them.
The smell of food rose through the air and reminded Tsunade why she had left the house in the first place; shopping. With that, she slipped into the crowd and began walking to her left; being aware of how close everyone was to her in the process. So often had she stepped on the heels of someone, and vice versa, when she began living here. Now, it was almost second nature; though there was still the odd moment or two. But it didn?t matter to most of them either way; they?d normally shrug it off. The only time it had been a real problem was when she was still adapting to the travel to and from work. Yuugi saved her on that occasion, but Tsunade knew she wasn?t planning on letting it happen again.

As her eyes darted around, she noticed the usual amount of sake dishes carried by the oni. She had been after one for ages, but every time she had gone to buy one, they always ran out. It was like someone was telling her not to bother. But she loved her sake and hated drinking it out of a bottle all the time. The cups she had were broken during her first few days and she had discarded them before she realised she could have actually fixed them. Not that she complained; she never liked holding on to stuff which were in a bad state. With each drink the oni around her had, a slight trickle would run down the side of one of them; from over-drinking or accident, she would never know. If anyone ever said they had seen an oni drunk, Tsunade would have probably asked them for proof since it was rare for her to see one in such a state. Her mind flicked back to a little oni she encountered a while back and, after seeing how much she flailed, was certain that was the closest she would get to seeing an oni ?drunk.?
The crowd began to part as the end of the road came up; splitting itself into two different directions and a lot of stands in the distance. The main path was always such a relief to her since everyone would spread out and you wouldn?t have to worry about being shoved in any...

OOF!

To her surprise, someone charged straight into the side of her; sending her back into an oni behind her. To her relief, the oni didn?t mind so much and simply moved on after pushing her out the way; even her instinctive sorry was brushed aside. Tsunade quickly glanced back to see where the figure went and saw the person dart round a corner. From a quick glance, she didn?t see any horns, and she was certain there weren?t any shackles on the figure?s wrist when they barged into her. So it wasn?t an oni. But this had happened before; in fact, several times. Tsunade sort of wished she could see the person?s face at least once; if only just to see what they looked like. She was certain it was a girl, yet had no real way of confirming that.

?Gakudan!?

And no sooner had she started to go towards the direction she vanished in, the familiar sound of a strong oni came from behind her.

?Ah, Yuugi.? Tsunade turned and waved as she acknowledged her. ?Good morning.?

?Like every other morning.? Yuugi replied as she stood in front of her; her sake dish in hand. ?I do hope you haven?t got anything planned today.?

Tsunade tilted her head slightly. For Yuugi to tell her not to have something planned meant either lots of drinks, or lots of fights. Not that she didn?t mind watching the fights; in fact, it secretly inspired her to learn at some point. Just not against oni.

?Well, I was about to go shopping. I sort of need to stock up.?

?Ah, it?s not a problem then.? Yuugi smiled as she patted her shoulder. ?I was hoping you could have come with me for a bit. I have something to give you, actually.?

That quickly changed the expression on her face. Suddenly, shopping could wait a little bit. If it was indeed a gift, especially after the last present from Yuugi, she didn?t care about anything else.

?Re... Really? I mean... What is it??

Yuugi took a sip from her dish and grinned at her.

?Telling would be a surprise.? She chuckled. ?Plus, you?d have to drink with me first to get it.?

?You?re not trying to pull anything are you?? Tsunade asked; she had seen Yuugi goad others into drinking contests with her before and knew how they all ended. ?I won?t end up like everyone else.?

?Relax, Tsu-chan.? Yuugi smiled as she ruffled her hair. ?I wouldn?t dream of it. It?s only a friendly drink.?

Tsunade pouted a little as she attempted to straighten out her hair. When she wasn?t working, her hair flowed down her back, but it was never permanently straight. The attempt was useless as was trying to straighten it in a normal day.

?Fine, I?ll go with you.? Tsunade sighed; yet looking pretty happy with the situation. ?But not to my place; I don?t want to be dragged into work again.?

?Wouldn?t dre...?

Yuugi stopped mid-sentence as a scene began to un-fold out of the corner of her eye. In one swift movement, she had pushed Tsunade to her side and into a group of unsuspecting oni. After that, she swung round, sake dish in hand, and delivered a solid punch to, what could only be described, as a giant pink, fluffy creature. The fluff-ball groaned as it went soaring into the air; coughing up various amounts of food and pieces of paper, before it came soaring back down behind Yuugi; resulting in a considerable impact that shook the ground around them. Everyone around them began to murmur about the scene in front of them as a green hat landed on Tsunade?s head; blinding her view temporally.

?Wha... What was that?!? Tsunade called out as she lifted the hat slightly over her eyes.

Yuugi walked over and helped her up before looking back at the fluff-ball.

?I?m not sure.? Yuugi replied in a serious tone. ?Whatever it is, it?s still alive; must be pretty tough.?

Tsunade knew that line coming from Yuugi wasn?t always the best one for someone to hear. From the times she had heard it, a fight normally followed. This time, however, Yuugi gently kicked it; testing to see whether it could actually move or not. For once, Tsunade was glad to be standing quite a bit away from her. A sudden spew of cream engulfed Yuugi as the fluff-ball darted up and shot right into her. The oni stumbled backwards instantly, yet some how managed to keep her sake dish, not only out of the spray of the cream, but without dropping any of her sake. Tsunade knew she was too close to the scene now and quickly ran to the other side of the street. Unfortunately for her, the ball of fluff went right down the middle of the street. Tsunade barely missed getting bowled over by it, but felt something come off from the inside of her open kimono.

?NO!?

Her hand instinctively reached for her bag and, some how, caught on to it; just as the fluff-ball began to take it. How it managed to remove the bag from her in the first place was a mystery; but its mouth was open, ready to consume it. Tsunade attempted to pull it free, but just didn?t have the strength. In fact, she felt her feet leave the ground for a split second before the creature moved forward; it?s mouth even bigger. And that?s when she really felt her weight shift backwards. Yuugi, cream-covered and all, threw a giant ring at the ever-consuming fluff-ball and caused it to not only release the bag, but sent it flying into the distance until the ring faded out. The creature began to fall, but some how continued to bounce along the ground in the direction of where the bridge was.

?Well... that was quite something...?

Yuugi licked a bit of the cream off her and went to take a drink, before hesitating and leaving it for the time being. She walked up to Tsunade, who was quickly checking her bag to see if anything was missing.

?I think that should be the least of your worries.? She spoke up again. ?You almost went for a ride no one would have liked.?

Tsunade paused for a second, looked up at Yuugi, glanced at the scene around her before lying flat on the ground.

?I?m sorry.?

?Hey, it?s not your fault.?

Yuugi held out a hand to help her up again. This time, however, Tsunade ignored it.

?You?re filthy right now.?

Yuugi smiled as Tsunade picked herself up; holding on to the hat she had 'obtained' from the scene. She gave it a quick glance before putting it back on her head and started to walk in the direction of where the bridge sat in the far distance.

?And here I was thinking I was the one who looked for a fight.?

?That?s not it at all.? Tsunade muttered as Yuugi stood next to her. ?That thing took my money. In fact, it took everything but my d... notebook.?

Yuugi looked at her and sighed before setting off into the distance.

?Well, let us get going then.? She grinned. ?Can?t let it get it away with that.?

[Janitor Morgan]

Meanwhile...

~10:30 AM, Day 1, Palace of the Earth Spirits

The Ancient City began to bustle with activity as some of the slightly less smashed oni started opening up their bars, businesses, and roadside shops, and pedestrians started filling the streets.  For a city that never saw the natural sun, it was surprisingly productive, producing much of Gensokyo's alcoholic beverages and other commodities that could only be manufactured within the cave.  This was due in part to the power of the raven youkai, Utsuho "Okuu" Reiuji; she had swallowed a dying sun god, giving her control over the process of nuclear fusion, which she used to supply energy to the Ancient City.  Because of this power's great boon upon the oni, the Ancient City had flourished over time and had become more lively over the years.

Satori Komeiji closed the curtain that draped in front of the window she was sitting near.  The activity in the city was a bit too exuberant for her; with all the oni milling about, her Third Eye would simply flit about from one to the next, reading the mind of each one it looked at and flooding Satori's mind with their thoughts.  It had happened several times before, and she did not particularly want a repeat experience.

This was not to say that she disliked the oni; rather, her power just did not allow her to handle huge crowds.  She far preferred the palace, where it was much quieter.  She could far more easily handle three other minds -- Okuu, Orin, and more recently Roark -- as opposed to a whole city's thoughts.  Her sister Koishi was present on occasion as well, but her mind could not be read on account of her Third Eye being shut.  Regardless, Satori greatly enjoyed her sister's company as well.

Satori turned to her left, where there sat a glass of water, half full; the latest edition of the Bunbunmaru newspaper, turned to an article about the coming of spring; and a book titled Crime and Punishment, which Roark had picked up at Kourindou while on an errand.  The book was about a man who believed himself to be "extraordinary" and thus above the law...at least, until he committed a horrible atrocity.  Given the psychological nature of both the book and her powers, Satori rather enjoyed reading it; it gave her an interesting look into the human perception of the mind.

The pink-haired woman picked up the book, ready to start where she left off, when she heard the flapping of wings from somewhere above.  She glanced toward the ceiling and saw a raven flying through a skylight, sharply swooping downwards to meet her.  As the raven approached the ground, it leveled out and slowed its momentum, then shifted its form into that of a black-haired woman with large wings, as well as what appeared to be a boot made of cement on her foot and some sort of control rod on her right arm.

"Ah, Okuu.  I hadn't expected you to be back so early," said Satori, putting the book down again.  As her Third Eye focused on the raven youkai, the reason was clear: "...there's nothing wrong with the reactor today?  How odd."

"Mmhmm, that's what I was thinking," said Okuu.  "...no pun intended, of course.  But yeah, the reactor didn't need very much adjustment today, which is unusual.  Gives me some free time today, though!"

"It does...which is why -- and I'm sorry to ask you this -- I would like you to do something for me today," said Satori, smiling apologetically.

"Unyu?" came the response, Utsuho's face falling slightly.  This was supposed to be her day off...  She knew that Satori wouldn't ask for much without a good reason, however, and smiled back.  "Whatever it is, I can handle it, no problem.  What's up?"

Satori turned to grab the newspaper and showed Okuu the article.  "According to the Bunbunmaru this morning, it's spring above ground, or about to be.  This means that there should be a festival soon.  Could you go up and find out when the festival will take place?"

"Ooh, a festival!" exclaimed the raven, pumping her left fist in the air.  "Sure, I can figure that out.  Are we all going?"

Satori nodded.  "Yes, we'll all have fun at the festival together.  If it gets too noisy for me where the festivities are taking place, we can still go to the flower viewing and watch the wind pick up petals, at least."

"That's true, yeah.  Anyway, I'll get on that.  If I see Orin and Roark, I'll say hi to them for you!" said Okuu before becoming a simple raven again and taking to the sky.

"Take care, Utsuho, and good luck," replied Satori as she waved goodbye to her pet.  Sighing contentedly, she picked Crime and Punishment back up and prepared to read. Let's see what Raskolnikov does next...

---

Man...I really wanted to take today to just relax.  Still, there's going to be a festival!  I can't wait!

Thoughts about the festival raced through Okuu's mind as she, in the form of a bird, glided across the cityscape.  To someone on the ground, she would be near-impossible to see against the dark backdrop that was the cavernous ceiling.  Not that she minded; her goal was not to be noticed, but to get to the surface and figure out the date of the spring festival.

Looks like the city is as lively as eve--...what the heck?  There's some sort of pink fluffba--

The raven's thoughts were replaced by panic as she suddenly got a face full of key lime pie, which had evidently hit her from the direction of said fluffball.  Not able to see where she was going, she fired a small burst of nuclear energy from her beak, forcing the dessert off of her face and temporarily lighting up that part of the cave.  She looked for the strange creature and noticed that it had been flung back towards the bridge, and was beginning to run away.

...hmm.  That seems like something else I'll need to investigate today, thought Okuu as she, too, made her way towards the bridge, swooping downwards from the ceiling of the city's cavernous chamber.