~Hakurei Shrine~ > Kosuzu's Grand Bookstore
Pure Lotus of the Sunken Stars (Complete)
ray10k:
you know you had a good meditation session when...
... the first thing you see when you come back is a fish swimming in front of you.
It is true. Byakuren says so!
FinnKaenbyou:
After being pulled out forcefully onto dry land and laid out in front of an overexcited bystander (namely, Koishi), Shou learned another interesting fact about water. Namely, that wet clothing got very cold very quickly.
"Brrr..."
Nazrin probably had it worse - at least Shou had pants for extra cover, but Nazrin was more or less stripped to the bone. She was very much tempted to wrap her arms around her servant for cover, but she had already been caught in one embarrassing display of affection today. Fool me once, shame on you and so on.
Ichirin was luckier than either of her companions, since she'd been forcefully ejected out of the water and hadn't needed to undress, but her robes were heavier as a result. Even on land she was struggling to walk alongside everyone else, her clothing weighing her down heavily.
"Oh yeah, you people have trouble with the whole soaking fabric thing. Guess it's not really something you consider when you spend most of your time on land, is it?"
Sango had never experienced any sort of trouble along those lines - for one, her clothes never impeded her movement in the water, and even if she was soaked she could wring out the water automatically with a single click of her fingers. It left a few awkward puddles behind on the ground, but she splashed water onto the lakeside anyway so it was no real issue.
Nazrin in particular looked so cold now as to be unhealthy. If she stayed like much longer, she'd probably end up catching something nasty even if she'd avoided the imminent danger. Sango had been told several times that there was no need to worry about the ship's final passenger - she'd emerge when she felt like it, and something as petty as the ship crashing headfirst into a lake would have no chance of stopping her.
Sango needed confirmation from another crew member that this was not a joke.
"Anyway. I figure you guys need to get some new clothes fast if you don't want to freeze to death. We can deal with cleanup duty when you three aren't about to catch pneumonia."
Sango pointed into the distance, tracing the path alongside the river.
"You'll find a store there that should sell something a little more protective. Tell the girl running it that Sango sent you, and she should give you the OK - I did her a bit of a favour a while back."
The shipwrecked crewmates were more than willing to take the dolphin's advice on that one, standing up collectively and making their way down towards the store in the distance. Nazrin and Shou wrapped arms around each other's shoulders - affectionate without being too clingy, which was what they needed now - and Unzan offered his master a little breeze to help her keep up.
For a moment, it was back to just being Sango and Koishi. The cheerleader took the opportunity to finally offer Sango a hug from behind in congratulations.
"Sango-chan, you did great out there! I'll bet the White Pearl must be so proud of you, huh?"
What was the White Pearl, exactly? Koishi had come up with this entire fantasy herself, but she hadn't bothered to fill Sango in on any of the important details. It sounded like the sort of joke that would end up expanding into a dramatic story all on its own.
"Yeah, sure. Just doing my job."
Sango wasn't as cheerful as Koishi would have liked her to be. Of course, given that it was Koishi, her standard of happiness was just about unattainable by the rest of Gensokyo, but Sango didn't even come remotely close. Koishi pouted, sitting down on the side of the lake along side her.
"Sango-chan, cheer up! No-one's dead or anything, so there's nothing to feel bad about!"
That did nothing to lift Sango's spirits, and only served to raise a deep sigh from her. It sounded childish, as if letting out a whined 'phwee'. Koishi seemed intrigued by the sound, as if taking note of it to use later.
"What's gonna happen when all's said and done, Koishi-chan? These people will fix their ship up, take it up to the sky again, and fly off like nothing's ever happened, right?"
One of her hands curled up into a fist, as the other rubbed against her temples.
"Yeah, I know that these people have been through a ton of trouble, but is it that much to ask for an apology from this captain of theirs? She's the one who caused all this trouble for everyone, so is it too much for her to just say sorry?"
Was it petty? Maybe. But the fact was that this ghost girl had caused her crewmates no end of suffering - hell, two of them nearly died because of her acting so irresponsibly. So why was it okay for her to just get away like nothing ever happened?
She would get an apology from this Minamitsu girl, sooner or later. Maybe she'd have to stalk her around the shipwreck, or poke at her steering wheel until it snapped, or feed some of those books in her room to the local fish. But whatever it took, she was going to make her apologise for what she'd done.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long before an opportunity emerged. The sound of something walking out of the water distracted Sango from swearing vengeance.
"Yeah, thanks for that little releasing ritual, Hijiri. I was about to go crazy waiting around..."
"No need to thank me. I'm certain you're keen on starting up on repairs right away, aren't you?"
Two people emerged from the side of the lake, but only one of them was walking. Long purple hair ran down her back, shifting colour to a dark brown on the way down. Her dress was running wearily along the ground as she left a long, heaving puddle in her wake. She was carrying something black under one of her arms, but Sango couldn't make out any more than that. She was talking cheerfully with-
"YOU."
Sango's attention immediately turned to the woman's companion - the ghostly captain who had caused this whole mess. Murasa sighed at the sight of her, her eagerness draining away double-time.
"Aw, great. The fish hung around to lecture me, huh?"
The monk - Byakuren, they'd said her name was - watched the staring contest that resulted with a puzzled look on her face.
"Oh, have you two met before?"
Koishi walked over to Byakuren's side, taking her by the hand and pulling her away from the feud. Byakuren followed willingly - a relief, because otherwise she would have been pretty much unmovable.
"Lady, let's go take a walk. I think these two need some time alone..."
-----
The store was much more impressive now than it had been when she'd started it up. It had taken coming into a good bit of money to make the first big jump, but now she'd earned a reputation her little emporium jumped from strength to strength. She'd grown a little more confident with every purchase, and by now she was just about willing to call herself a pro.
Gone was the nervous wannabe who'd been glad to get a single commission a month. Nitori Kawashiro was open for business, and business was booming.
Still, she'd always had an appeal for the dramatic, and thus she was sitting with her back to the door waiting for that beautiful ringing sound as someone opened it. It could be a long wait on slow days, so she tweaked at one of her latest contraptions to pass the time. The idea had come to her in a flash - she'd finally discovered what a television was. She would build a machine that could transmit a visual message across to other monitors across Gensokyo through radio waves! It'd be faster than the Bunbunmaru, and with a lot more content as well, not to mention more genuine facts. She'd have the Tengu pretty much at her feet asking for rights to broadcast-
Oh, who am I kidding? An idea this absurd is never gonna catch on.
Ding, ding!
That was it. The glorious sound that signalled the arrival of a new customer. Nitori dropped the remote she'd been prodding at so eagerly, twirling around in her chair.
"Gooood morning, good morning, good morning! Welcome to the Kawashiro Gadget Shop, where we put in 99% inspiration so you can settle for 1% perspiration! I'm Nitori, and I'll gladly do what I can to meet your needs. If there's water involved, I'm the kappa you nee-"
Her sales pitch stopped abruptly as she noticed the state of her customers. All three of them were soaked to the bone, and two of them were huddled together to conserve warmth with almost their entire bodies exposed.
"...Yeah, looks like you three need me pretty badly."
Ichirin was the one to do the talking, mainly because her companions were too busy shivering in each others' arms.
"Apologies for barging in like this, but Tororetsu-san from the lake nearby said that you could help us with our...wardrobe malfunctions."
She'd dropped a key word, and Nitori's eyes lit up in delight. It was thanks to the dolphin that her business had flourished to this extent, so she figured there was no harm giving out freebies where freebies were due.
"Oh, Sango-chan sent you guys? Well, in that case, you three had better come on in!"
Nitori jumped out from behind the stall, pushing the three customers off into one of the side rooms. All manner of gadgets were lined up on the shelves passing by, most of them mechanical, and none of them with a purpose that was obvious from first glance. Shou caught sight of something unusual called an Ip Od, which according to the note written beneath it was some sort of instrument given that it could produce music. Who would carry something like that around?
But now wasn't the time for silly sound gadgets. Now was the time to stop Shou and Nazrin freezing to death, and for that Nitori had them well and truly covered. She pulled them into the room at the end of the corridor, with the fancy sounding title 'Fashion of the Fathoms' written above it. Three cubicles were placed at the end of the room, ready to be locked from the inside. She nudged each of the customers into her own cubicle, throwing a towel in after each of them. They needed it.
"Alright, so I understand you're in a bit of a rush to get clothed, so I hope you don't mind if I pick out some designs for you. Don't worry, I'm a professional, really! Just undress in there and I'll take care of the rest."
No-one was in any rush to argue, and after drying themselves off the three crewmates quickly discarded of their soaked clothing. Nitori pressed a button on the side of the wall, and a panel in front of her flew forward, revealing a rack on which several dozen swimsuits had been hung. There were three panels opposite the cubicles, along with slots for the swimsuit of choice to be slotted in.
"Hm, first is the girl in the fancy robes, right? You seem like the simple, refined type, so pure white should suit you just fine, right?"
There was no complaint from Ichirin, and silence was consent in the language of the shopkeeper. Nitori quickly pulled out a white one-piece from the rack and placed it in the slot. The machine swallowed it, sending it around whatever mechanical system the kappa had installed.
Shou had no idea what was going on. All she could hear were mechanical whirrs and beeps. It unnerved her slightly, but she didn't hear any obvious complaints from Ichirin so she assumed that everything had worked as planned.
"Next is the mouse. I assume you'll settle for that shade of grey, won't you? Stoic, yet proud. Or at least, that's what the colour booklet told me..."
Well, that was reassuring. Not that they were in any position to complain, given that they were being handed all of this for free, but she had to wonder how much of this 'professional' shtick was just plain fiction. She listened out for cries of pain coming from Nazrin as the machine descended upon her.
Nothing. She relaxed her body, relieved that this wasn't some sort of deathtrap after all. She was probably just high-strung after all she'd been through today-
"And finally, the tiger. You're the lucky one - you've stepped into my prototype deluxe cubicle! I know just the thing for you, so sit back and have a blast!"
OK, that sounded really, really bad. Shou was torn between the urge to get the hell away from whatever this machine was going to do to her and the need to keep her levels of public indecency down to a minimum. Not that she had a choice either way - the door had already locked itself.
A variety of mechanical devices emerged from the wall behind her. Most of them were definitely NOT for changing purposes.
"Oh, for the love of-"
-----
"We will not speak about this."
Shou was the first to leave as they left the store, the kappa attendant offering them a final wave as they made their way back to the lake. Her swimsuit had a simple tiger print running along it, presumably Nitori's attempt to act clever with her fashion choices. It didn't work.
"I heard something whirr in there. Was there a saw in that thi-"
"I said we weren't talking about it, Nazrin."
After Nitori had let her out of that...thing, she admitted that there were still a few fine points she needed to work out before she could use it properly. Apparently, her various complaints and yells had been very instructive and gave her a variety of points to improve on.
More importantly, she'd supposedly mixed up some of the wiring with the machines from the hardware department, located on the other side of the wall from the cubicle. She would have offered a refund, but that was pointless considering they hadn't paid for it anyway.
"And what was that you said about a drill coming up from the floor?"
"Nazrin, this conversation is over."
"But why did you shout-"
"OVER."
Kasu:
Pro-Nitori is crazily awesome.
Alfred F. Jones:
I gotta admit, I'm with Nitori here. Three soaking wet girls come to my doorstep and need whatever clothes I can put on 'em? Dress-up time! :]
Esifex:
--- Quote from: Roukanken on August 29, 2010, 12:12:59 AM ---It sounded like the sort of joke that would end up expanding into a dramatic story all on its own.
--- End quote ---
I lol'd