~Hakurei Shrine~ > Kosuzu's Grand Bookstore
Makai Shopping Trip
IcedFairy:
The first thing Patchouli saw when she woke up was two Koakuma's peering down at her with worried expressions. She sighed and closed her eyes again. ?Koakuma I seem to have suffered more damage then I thought. I'm still seeing double.?
Her familiar gave a nervous laugh. ?Ah Patchouli-sama, OL is here with me.?
Patchouli took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Sure enough on closer examination the two devils were distinct. ?Ah yes. I had to name her in order to break my spell. I guess that would bind her to me. My apologies to you both.?
Koakuma put on her best smile, ?I'm just glad your safe Patchouli-sama.?
The other devil managed to smile nervously, ?It's not bad for me either master. It's not like there are many job opportunities for me down here.?
?Oh hey! She's awake.?
Patchouli slowly sat up and turned towards the voice. Unsurprisingly it was Yuki. Mai was slightly behind her sitting on what appeared to be a dead dragon. Both of them were smiling too much, which raised alarms in Patchouli's mind.
?I am conscious,? Patchouli responded. ?I am surprised you are still here though. You've completed my request.?
Yuki's smile grew wider. ?Yep. But you haven't completed mine.? Mai idly whistled and Yuki frowned. ?Okay you haven't completed Mai's. Since she saved your life from this dragon and all.?
Patchouli looked at Koakuma who winced in apology. ?It was the only way I could be sure you wouldn't get hurt.?
Patchouli sighed and once again vowed to look into strength enhancing magics. ?So what do you want??
Mai pointed at the devil sitting by Koakuma's side. ?Her.?
?EH!?? Yuki turned to stare at her friend, as did a good portion of the other devils. Patchouli on the other hand just considered why the magician should make such a request. She felt mild amusement when she got the answer.
Patchouli nodded her acceptance. ?Very well. A year and a day I believe is the standard for such things. We'll use the human worlds time for this matter if you please, just in case someone decides to alter time in our respective realms.?
?Hold on one second!? Yuki pointed at her friend. ?What are you doing? We've got a boon off of someone who's got at least 2 unique spells and you're spending it to grab a secretary devil??
Mai sighed. ?A devil with a direct connection to her and whose powers will include message transferal. Come on Yuki. If it was easy enough to learn the spell in a day, then the notes I made would be enough. Just like you'd be able to get most transmutation spells off the notes.?
Patchouli couldn't help smirking. ?Quite astute. I admit this is also good for me as well.? She nodded towards the young devil whose fate was being decided. ?I'll need at least a year and a day to convince Remi to let another devil in the house anyway. However, you forgot one thing.? Mai blinked at her. ?If you ask for this young devils services for a year you'll have used your boon without getting the spell off of me.?
Mai smacked herself in the forehead. Yuki buried her face in her hands. ?You blew it, Mai.?
Patchouli coughed to get the other magicians attention. ?However, I'm a reasonable person. I'll trade you the spell, in exchange for two things. Firstly, an explanation of how you'll use it. As you can see it's far to dangerous to use at random. ?
Mai considered the matter for a bit. ?I believe actually binding the rest of these devils would be the best course of action.?
Yuki put her face back in her hands. ?You can't be serious. Why would we need a whole passel of lesser devils? Even this spell does name them??
?Because they're all skilled at some job without possessing a flaw that makes their presence not worth their skill. With them working full time we could have a whole mansion to ourselves while still being able to conduct research whenever we wish.?
Yuki blinked, thought about it a little while, then turned to where the other devils were huddled. She called on one of her more subtle spells to listen in on their whispered conversation.
?We'd all have names. That's a big plus.?
?And we'd get out of the slums.?
?It's better then that. They're magicians. We can get some magical training done in between work and wind up as mid tier demons. You saw how much Librarian, er Koa, learned.?
?And they are kinda cute. That's a bonus.?
Yuki dismissed the spell and turned to Mai. ?You know people are going to think we're perverts.?
Mai shook her head. ?We'll be rich, and soon after that powerful. That makes us eccentric. Besides think of the research.?
Yuki gave a good natured sigh and shrug. ?Well, I wasn't expecting to become the head of a coven of succubi but I can't argue with the potential results.? The black witch turned towards the impromptu meeting. ?So what do you lot think.?
Allouette took her place at the head of the group and curtsied. ?Please look after us Master.?
Patchouli held up a hand. ?Forgive me but there are two things that need doing before that.? When she had gained everyone's attention she continued. ?First I need to give this one a public name.? She pointed at OL. ?Elle should suffice.? The newly christened Elle blushed and murmured her thanks. Koa looked mildly annoyed, while the other devils nodded in acceptance.
?Secondly I need an item from you two witches to seal the bargain. An item you should be able to acquire easily, and that I want you to give to Koakuma here....?
--
Alice looked for words to properly express her thoughts on the scene in front of her, and couldn't find anything.
Marisa of course had no such issues.
"What the heck, Patchouli? Did you suddenly decide to try and kill yourself cloning Koakuma?" Marisa stated, pointing at the mass of devils who were busy trying to decide if they were terrified or honored to be in Shiki's presence.
Patchouli simply gave the black white witch a glare. Alice figured that Patchy didn't realize Marisa was just acting stupid to get an easy answer. One which her mother was happy to provide.
"Oh my. I hope you aren't planning on taking all those youngsters with you miss... Patchouli was it?" Shinki pouted. "I would hope some of them would stay here at home."
Yuki and Mai looked at each other, then Yuki stepped forward and cleared her throat. "Well, actually we're the ones actually offering them a job Shinki... sama." Yuki added hastily as Yumeko glared at her. She waved at Patchouli and Koakuma. "We just wanted to see these two off."
Marisa whistled. "A quick way to name and bind devils? Impressive. Not as useful back in Gensoukyo of course. Most of the ones there aren't exactly bindable."
Patchouli nodded. "Yes. And there's no way Remi would allow that many other devils in the mansion." She sighed. "Vampires can be so needlessly territorial."
Shinki smiled. "I see, so you're taking all those little ones in then. I'm so happy for you all. I'll be sure to check up on you girls later on." Yuki and Mai managed weak grins, while the crowd of small devils were all too starstruck to keep gossiping. Once again Alice remembered that Skinki was a ruler, even if she was normally terribly remote. Shinki's off hand offer was carefully constructed to keep Mai and Yuki from going too power mad with that spell.
Fortunately soon Alice would be back in Gensoukyo, where no one cared about any of that.
Marisa shrugged. "Huh, well I'll have to steal that spell from you later. Anyway, I think the angry ghost on the deck is signaling us to get a move on so I guess we gotta go." She waved to the residents of Makai. "Bye Yuki. Bye Mai. Bye crazy maid chick, and you devils. Nice meeting you again Miss Shinki. Feel free to write me any embarrassing stories about Alice."
Alice turned to Shinki and Yumeko as Koa began her long goodbye process. "I..." Alice searched for the right words. She was never really good with this.
Shinki just stepped forward to hug her. "I know you need your space. But I still love you, and I miss you. Please keep in touch, okay."
Alice flushed from embarrassment. She only hoped nobody was paying attention. "I love you too mom. I'll try to write more."
"Please do Alice dear." Shinki said. Alice took a few moments to regain her composure and turned her attention to Yumeko, who was attmepting to look cool, as usual.
"A pleasure seeing you Yumeko. I hope you can find some more time to relax in the future," Alice stated to the maid.
Yumeko managed a smirk. "A maid worthy of Lady Shinki can't afford to waste time on relaxation."
Alice returned the smirk. "Even the 'perfect maid,' finds time to relax. Besides, I don't think mother wants a perfect maid." She began to head back towards the ship. "Goodbye Mother," she said, waving.
"Bye bye!" Shinki called after her while waving.
The goddess of Makai didn't stop waving until the ship had passed out of sight.
---
Alice stretched as they cleared the barrier back to Gensoukyo. So much for a quiet shopping trip... Apparently dimensional travel wasn't meant to be simple. She began checking her dolls for wear and tear from the magic they'd been exposed to when Patchouli approached her.
"Here," the older magician said, holding a wooden box towards her.
"Huh?" Curious, Alice looked in the box. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the object within. "What is that?"
"The heart of a dragon, gifted three times," Patchouli said as if that explained something.
Alice was about to make a comment when Marisa interrupted. "Wait, what? 'Hearts gifted three times' is for love potions. And even if western dragons are lame for dragons it's still gotta be pretty powerful magic. Are you proposing or trying to play matchmaker?"
Patchouli turned away and began reading again. "It's a gift. Use it as you wish."
Alice wasn't sure if she should be flattered, annoyed, or exasperated. She settled for sighing. "I appreciate the gift, but there's a reason it's the 'language of flowers' and not the 'language of useful body parts you just harvested.'"
Patchouli just muttered and turned away. Meanwhile, Marisa did her best to look totally uninterested in this while nervously watching as much as she could. Koakuma, of course, was smiling like a cat who had found a creamery.
Alice sighed again and smiled weakly. It seemed she'd have something to write to her mother about....
-----
Extra:
Yuki was sure she was going to snap soon.
She had no idea how she had let Mai talk her into this. Sure the little devils were skilled at their jobs, but they were still devils! And every single one of them had a different job. They'd all agreed to set up the mansion first, but now each one wanted their own personal workspace. And while they were making serious amounts of money, there was no way they could buy everything each devil needed all at once, much less actually get poor Ferra to construct it all in a day.
Currently she was sitting in the makeshift main office pouring over the accounts one more time, trying to maximize profits so they could keep expanding faster. Elle was running back and forth scribbling out copies (and complaining about not having a machine to do it for her) while the accountant devil, Cassia, sketched out profit loss plans. "We'll have time for more research," Yuki muttered in a sing song voice as she compared the two latest charts. "Dammit Mai! I can't believe you suckered me into this. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Three months of nothing but numbers!"
The door slammed open revealing Marie. "Yuki-sama! You can't cut funding! You'll regret this! Without the full hospital room functioning I can't treat anything past basic first aid and simple diseases!"
Yuki slammed the pen into the table. "Your full hospital would take more money then we have and then some! And it produces almost no income. We need the brewery set up next so we can finance the rest of the expansions!"
"Yuki-sama," Ferra stormed past the annoyed nurse waving some documents. "I need more money then this to get the proper tools to continue work! Without the smithy running there's no way I can get the quality metals for these projects!"
Yuki burried her face in her hands. "IT'S JUST A BAR! It doesn't need fancy metalwork, and if it does we can buy it! I need a good reason before I just hand out funds!"
Mai sighed as she heard Yuki continue shouting through the door, "And unbuttoning your blouse is not a good reason!" The magicians wings lightly twitched, then relaxed again.
"Yuki really needs to calm down," she said lazily to the devil girl who was kneading her shoulders. "Maybe you should visit her after she's done. This really helps get the tension out."
The devil smiled. "I'm glad I could help Mai-sama. I'll offer my services to Yuki-sama later if you desire it."
"Yeah, good idea." Mai yawned. "I'll have to make sure to name you first though. I'm not going to let Yuki steal away someone as skilled as you."
"Thanks."
Mai's mind wandered a bit. "Hey, how did masseuse become a separate bit from doctor anyway?"
"I heard it had something to do with medical practices in the outside world. Something about Chiropractic work not being covered...."
Mai yawned as she heard a blast of fire go off in the room next door. "Oh, you probably shouldn't offer Yuki any special service. I don't think she'd take it well."
The devil laughed nervously. "Yeah..."
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(Yes it did take me this long to write and edit that small an amount of text. No I have no excuse. Hopefully more devil shenanigans make up for that.
I have another connected piece in my mind, but that's so different in tone and style that it wouldn't fit even if I could write it correctly)
Edit:(Note: My OCD commanded me to also paste this into the first posts so the story can be read in one fell swoop)
FinnKaenbyou:
--- Quote from: IcedFairy on March 23, 2010, 09:36:03 PM ---You can't cut funding! You'll regret this!
--- End quote ---
I laughed hard.
Ackman:
--- Quote from: Roukanken on March 23, 2010, 09:42:40 PM ---I laughed hard.
--- End quote ---
Same here.
Also, idle dreams about magi-economic management games. >.>
Alfred F. Jones:
--- Quote from: IcedFairy on March 23, 2010, 09:36:03 PM ---"I appreciate the gift, but there's a reason it's the 'language of flowers' and not the 'language of useful body parts you just harvested.'"
--- End quote ---
But that goes against my whole gardening ethos :(
This was a hilarious finish to a great little story, Iced. I do home Yumeko takes a break sometime, though :ohdear:
Yamachanadu:
Econo-Magic management games? What a puny dream
Succubi management game, now that would sell like hotcakes.