When you wake up in the morning, the rain still hasn't stopped. You're rudely awoken by a loud noise from outside your door once again, but luckily this time it isn't someone banging on your door like it's a stuck escape hatch on a sinking submarine. Instead, it's a rather nearby lightning strike.

When you check your PDA for the time, you find that it is 6:53 in the morning.

For a brief moment, you consider going back to sleep. You stop considering this when you realize that you aren't really all that tired. You went to bed fairly early last night.

But if you're not going to go back to sleep, that means you have to figure out something to do. After all staring at a wall isn't very entertaining. And it's not very likely someone's going to just show up and drag you off to go do something. Even Rin.

Luckily, it's going to be a lot easier now that you actually have your stuff.

[ ] Write-in.

[x]Unpack and organize your stuff
[x]Water Nemo

[x]Unpack and organize your stuff
[x]Water Nemo

While I'd really like to go and look for Mokou to make sure she's alright, I can't think of a plausible reason to do so.

[x] check on Nemo and Have breakfast.
[x] Now is as good a time as any. Ask Yuka about Nemo.
I wonder...

[x] Unpack and organize your stuff
[x] Check if Nemo's still red.

[X] Have breakfast first, check on Nemo again, then ask Yuuka about why he turned red last night.
--[X] Accidentally call the plant by its name when inquring about this.

[X]After doing so, barring interruption, go unpack your stuff.

My thinking is that letting slip the fact John named his plant will either make Yuuka think he's nuts, think he's taking his plant seriously, or both.

[X] Have breakfast first, check on Nemo again, then ask Yuuka about why he turned red last night.
--[X] Accidentally call the plant by its name when inquring about this.

[X]After doing so, barring interruption, go unpack your stuff.

[X] Have breakfast first, check on Nemo again, then ask Yuuka about why he turned red last night.
--[X] Accidentally call the plant by its name when inquring about this.

[X]After doing so, barring interruption, go unpack your stuff.

[~] Have breakfast first, check on Nemo again, then ask Yuuka about why he turned red last night.
--[z] Offhandedly refer to the plant by its name when inquiring about this.
[e]After doing so, barring interruption, go unpack your stuff.

>Accidental
Bitch, please.

>>20866

I don't care how it gets mentioned, just so long as Yuuka knows John named his plant.

Well, the first thing to do would be to have breakfast.

You walk into the kitchen and take a look at the stuff you have to cook.

Another incident of thinking "holy shit I never went and bought any of this stuff" before opening the door to a fridge with an adequate amount of food.

Though there isn't much. Just a carton of eggs, a half-gallon of milk, a bag of bread, a block of cheese, butter, and enough ham for a couple sandwiches. However, this is plenty for breakfast. You'll just make yourself an egg sandwich with the given materials.

After eating breakfast, you check on Nemo. He's back to his usual green color now.
...Human pronouns.
Well, whatever. There are no aphids and no sign of any disease. You remember that you didn't water it last night, so you do so.

As you're doing so, you remember that you thought to go ask Yuuka about that red-turning.

Immediately upon opening your door, you're hit with water. Looks like the wind's blowing in just the right direction to make the awning above the walkway completely useless.

You shut the door and throw on a jacket. On the off chance she invites you in for some reason, you don't want to be sitting around in wet clothes.

When you knock on her door... Nothing.
When you knock on Elly's door... Nothing.

It's actually quite possible that they left for work already.

As you walk back to your house, Letty's door suddenly opens. The fact that you were standing right next to it makes you startle a little.

"Oh, you're already outside my door. That's convenient, it means I don't have to get wet." She smiles at you. "I have a small favor to ask. I got a call from a client whose air conditioner got hit by a bolt of lightning, and I have to go replace some electrical components. She sounded like she was in a real hurry and even offered to pay me extra if I just ran out and did it immediately that I couldn't refuse. But someone has to watch Cirno while I'm gone. I was hoping that that person would be you."

[ ] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.
[ ] Politely decline.

[ ] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.

[x] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.

[x] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.

[ze] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.
In before brat.

>Seeing Reimu smiling like this is definitely a bit odd. It doesn't really fit any of the other personalities she's shown you before. Well, considering that you're about to buy her a delicious dinner that she wouldn't be having otherwise, it's not that unreasonable... But, really, which personality is really her? Is it the lazy girl sipping tea at a kotatsu in an empty shrine? Is it the firey girl who beat the shit out of a gang just to go tell someone that no, she's not going to move? Or is it the excited, energetic girl who rushed to the party, and who is now humming excitedly beside you waiting for a delicious meal? Reimu, who are you really?

Most shrine maidens live lives of humble desperation.

[x] Yes, you'll watch Cirno.
-[x] Facetiously, tell her that in return you'll use this chance to snoop around a cultist's apartment, and she won't be allowed to be indignant about it!
-[x] Tell Cirno when Letty leaves that you're not "babysitting" because she isn't a baby, and frankly you think chairs are much more accommodating.
-[x] But do ask Cirno if she wants to play "P.I."

If it turns out she's clean and otherwise on the level, we'll give her a copy of our house key.

If she becomes blustery, or tells you she wanted you to watch Cirno in your apartment, then something is definitely up.

If we do find something weird, we ask her about it, even if it's just for our own edification about cult minutiae.

Plus, it's a game where we can have Cirno play along.

You realize that this could be a good opportunity to gather information on your neighbor. She's not really that suspicious, but you've been doing a good job keeping up your paranoia anyway. Besides, you could make it a game to play with Cirno.
...No, that's not really that great of an idea. It's not particularly that bad of an idea either, but you just don't really feel like doing it. It'd probably be easier on you just to make sure Cirno's not going to blow the place up, really. And snooping around in someone's stuff without their permission isn't a good idea, even if you DO suspect them of something.

"Yes, I'll watch Cirno."
"Great! If you get hungry, there's ice cream in the fridge. Here's a copy of my house key, lock the door if you end up going out somewhere, alright? I'll see you in a few hours, when I get back!"

And with this, she's gone.

Stepping into the house, you find that it is, as expected, rather chilly. The lights are all off, the only light in the visible room coming from the open door and a small night light plugged in next to a blender in the kitchen. You immediately flip the light on, so you are capable of seeing stuff.

This apartment... Is not the same as the last time you were here. Last time you were her, it was fairly normal, nothing standing out as odd. Given that this was only a few days ago, the number of empty ice cream cartons with plastic spoons in them sitting on the previously clean tbale is alarming. Is this how they normally eat? It can't be healthy to eat that much ice cream, can it? And if she does, how does she keep her figure the way it is?
...Granted, it's not particularly skinny. But still, you'd expect someone to be fat if they eat that much ice cream, unless they have a miracle metabolism and exercise a lot.

The lack of a visible Cirno leads to you checking the bedroom, where you find her sleeping like...well, a kid coming down off of a sugar high, basically. Hopefully that's not how she ends up going to sleep every night...

...

After a few minutes of sitting in the apartment, messing around with the PDA to see if you can find any neat new features, you come to the realization that you ought to be at least wearing a jacket, given how you aren't very used to the temperature of this room.
By the time you've gotten back from retrieving one, Cirno's gotten up and out of bed.

"Auuuuu. I'm hungry." She complains as she opens the freezer door.
"Uuuugh, ice cream. Too... sweet." She closes the door and turns around facing you.

"Where's Letty?" She asks.

"She had to go to work all of a sudden, so she asked me to watch you until she gets back."

"Oh. I'm hungry." She complains once again.

[ ] Write-in.

[ze] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?

[ze] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?

[x] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?
[x] If not you'll have to order a pizza.

[x] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?
[x] If not you'll have to order a pizza.

This. This is awesome.Until Cirno melts

[x] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?
[x] If not you'll have to order a pizza.

[x] Check out the refrigerator and freezer to see if Letty has anything other than ice cream. Hell, they have to eat something other than ice cream, right?
[x] If not you'll have to order a pizza.

Right. She's hungry, and you're taking care of her. That means you should feed her something.

"Alright, let's see what there is that I can feed you."

Her expression immediately brightens up as you begin moving closer to the fridge.

Looking into the fridge, there's all the usual contents of a fridge: milk, eggs, cheese, butter, meats. Stuff that someone who knows how to prepare food can use to make a meal, but which a child wouldn't be able to work with very well. You could make some sort of breakfast with this. Of course, the problem comes in deciding what to make.

[ ] Write-in

[X] Search the fridge for weapons

[x] Make her some scrambled eggs with a side of toast. Letty would probably have some bread and a toaster.

[x] Make her some scrambled eggs with a side of toast. Letty would probably have some bread and a toaster.

[ze] Make her some scrambled eggs with a side of toast. Letty would probably have some bread and a toaster.

The wait between this update and the last one is entirely my fault for laziness. Sorry about that.
---
Well, might as well make it simple. No real need to break your back. She probably doesn't really care what you make her as long as it isn't a can of spinach or something like that.

You pull out the eggs and butter, then get to work scrambling some eggs for the girl.

...

"I'm bored!" she exclaims a few minutes after finishing her food. Well, she's a kid. You can't expect her attention span to last for more than a few minutes when you're literally just sitting there doing nothing.

Well, finding something to do would be a good idea.

[ ] Write-in

[x] Does she have any video games or board games she might like to play with you?
[x] There's always TV.

[x] Does she have any video games or board games she might like to play with you?
[x] There's always TV.

[x] Does she have any games she might like to play with you?
Death to the shining box.

[x] Does she have any video games or board games she might like to play with you?
[x] There's always TV.

.>input for speed.
---
"Do you have any games or anything?"
"Nope. Videogames make the room hot. But my friends do."
Make the room hot? Well, yes, but this room is already cold enough, and they don't heat it up THAT much.
"How about TV, then?"
"Boooooring. There's only grown-up shows on now. Ick."

Well, damn. You're stuck.

.>input

[x] "Have you ever visited the local shrine, Cirno?"

Do not want to get mugged with Cirno in tow, so best to minimize outdoor exposure.

[x] "Have you ever visited the local shrine, Cirno?"

[x] "Have you ever visited the local shrine, Cirno?"

"Have you ever visited the local shrine, Cirno?"
"Yeah! The girl there is fun to play pranks on! But then she runs us out with her stick thing."
"Well, let's go then."
"Okay!" She sounds enthusiastic about doing something fun. Well, of course, she's a kid.

When the door to the apartment opens, it happens just as Rin's walking by. Really, this place seems to have a thing with doors opening right as someone's walking by. It's happened to you a couple times, and now a nuissance has had it happen to them.

"OH! There you are! I was wondering where you were, cuz you weren't answering your door!"

Uh oh.

"Let's go do something, kay? Like, uh, breakfast!"
"I've already eaten, Rin."
"I never said you had to eat too."
"...Anyway, I was just about to take Cirno out to do something fun, so I'll have to blow you off here."
"Hey! Are you saying that there's things more fun than I am!?"
"Yeah."
"How mean! And here I was going to treat you to breakfast."
"I told you, I've already eaten."
"You can eat more, can't you?"

Ugh, she's persistant. You may not even get anywhere before Letty gets back if this keeps up. Still, though, she's a pain to be around.

[ ] Go with Rin.
[ ] Don't go with Rin.

[ ] Don't go with Rin.

[X] Don't go with Rin.

[X] Invite Rin

[X] Don't go with Rin.

[X]Don't go with Rin.

Poor Rin, like an affectionate cat she just wants John's attention.

[x] Ask Cirno what she would like to do.

"No, I can't. Look, just leave me alone, alright?"
"But-"
"No."
"...Fine. See you." She leaves, the energy that she usually carries seemingly drained.

"Alright, Cirno, let's get going."
"Okay!"

You begin walking. Of course, you don't have a vehicle. You could call a cab, but that's a lot of money when you can really just walk there. Unless Cirno complains, walking's fine, isn't it? It's good for you. And it's good for Cirno.

"Hey John." Cirno speaks up while you're walking. "Why were you so mean to that girl?"
"She bugs me a lot and won't leave me alone, Cirno."
"But she was nice. You're not suppose to be mean to nice people."
"Annoying things are still annoying if they're nice."
"Oh." She goes silent.

You make it the rest of the way to the shrine with no distractions, conversations, or otherwise. Automatically you drop a few coins into the donation box, a move that makes Cirno look at you strangely, and knock on the door.

"Coming." Reimu's voice comes from inside, followed by the sound of her footsteps as she walks towards the door. It slides open, revealing the usual Reimu.

"Eh? What're you here for?" She notices Cirno. "And why's that brat with you?"
"Well, you see, my neighbor asked me to take care of her kid while she was out on a sudden errand, and I quickly realized that there was absolutely nothing to do, so I came here."
"Eh. But there isn't really anything to do here, either."
"Doing nothing here is better than doing nothing in a freezing room and only a little kid to do nothing with."
"I guess you're right about that. Well, I'll put on some tea. Don't let her break anything. Last time she was here it took an hour to repair all the holes she poked in my walls."
She leaves the door open for the two of you to enter.

You take a seat at the kotatsu. Cirno takes a seat near the kotatsu, not actually getting under it.

Reimu comes back a few minutes later with tea. Does she have tea water constantly prepared or something? You can see her doing that. Makes for less work and all.

The result is the two of you sipping tea in silence and Cirno appearing progressively more bored as time passes.

---

Geez, nothing's happening. Why'd he bring you here? There's nothing to do! And it's so hot. And boring! You can't take it any more, you're running out of...what did Letty call it, pay-shuns? Come on, there has to be something to do!

.>input

[x]Go outside and find some frogs to play with.

[ze] Go outside and find some frogs to play with.

Yeah! You should just leave them behind and go have fun by yourself! Letty said not to, but it's fine. You've done it a lot of times before, right? Let's go!

...

The cold water of the stream feels good on your feet as you step in barefoot. Cold things always feel good. This is what Letty's always taught you, and Letty's never wrong, right?

But, well... There are no frogs. This isn't any fun either. You could splash around and get all wet, but then Letty will scold you for getting your dress dirty. She said it needs to be "dry cleaned" every time it gets dirty, but you're not sure she knows what they're really doing with it. You've never seen anyone clean stuff without getting it wet, or else it'd just end up no cleaner than it already was.

You step out of the stream and put your shoes and socks back on before going back the way you came, down an old path no one knows about but you and your friends and some frogs. Usually you'd be here with Mystia or Wriggle or Rumia, but you didn't want their parents to call Letty. Mystia would have done it herself, even. She's not much older than you are, but she's so much like a grown up at times! She even has a job and everything. And she gets to stay up late. Really, who does she think she is? Even you, the strongest, smartest kid in this town aren't allowed to go to bed past nine! You've snuck out to see when she closed, and she was just putting her stuff away at one in the morning! What's with her?

You hear rustling in the bushes.

Could it be...

A FROG!"

[ ] IT'S A FROG!
[ ] It's not a frog, they're all too scared of your awesomeness to let you hear them.

[ ] IT'S A FROG!

[x] IT'S A FROG!

[x] IT'S A FROG!

>>21158>>21159>>21160

oh u

Wait, where the hell is Cirno? She just...disappeared. Out of thin air. What the fuck?

"Reimu, do you know where Cirno went?"
"Eh? She's not here?"

Fuuuuuck, this is bad. She's gone and gotten herself lost, hasn't she?

.>input

[x] Calm yourself. She's got to be around here somewhere. Check around the shrine grounds. Call her name.

[x] Calm yourself. She's got to be around here somewhere. Check around the shrine grounds. Call her name.

Calm down, calm down. She's got to be around here somewhere.

A quick search of the shrine grounds proves fruitless. She's not here. Calling her name doesn't help, either. She must have gone off somewhere. If something happens to her, Letty's going to be pissed.

If she's not at the shrine, looking for her is going to be annoying. And time-consuming. If you had some help, it might not be as bad, but if it's just you, or even just you and Reimu, it could take forever.

.>input

[x]Chill out a moment. Oh look you made a funnTHIS IS NO TIME FOR JOKES.
[X] Think Cirno, Think cold, Think ice, Think water.
[X]Ask Reimu if she might have any idea where she might have disappeared off to, or if she knows anyone who could help.

[x]Chill out a moment. Oh look you made a funnTHIS IS NO TIME FOR JOKES.
[x] Think Cirno, Think cold, Think ice, Think water.
[x]Ask Reimu if she might have any idea where she might have disappeared off to, or if she knows anyone who could help.

At first you were scared when you jumped into the bushes after the frog because you landed on someone. Letty said that people hiding in bushes are usually bad men who will do bad things to you, but luckily it turned out to just be your friend Rumia. For some reason, she's crying. You said you were sorry but it didn't help, and it looks like she was crying before you jumped on her anyway.

But... Rumi isn't supposed to be alone. Shes young. More young than you. Even when it's you taking her somewhere to play her parents make you take Mystia or Wriggle with you too because they're older.

Taking her home might be good, but you might get yelled at and they might not let you play with Rumia again for a while because they might think you're the reason she's here.

But you can't just leave her here, she might get hurt.

.>input

[x] Maybe mister babysitter could look after her. He's not as strong as you are but he's very nice and Letty seems to like him.

[x] Maybe mister babysitter could look after her. He's not as strong as you are but he's very nice and Letty seems to like him.

[x] Maybe mister babysitter could look after her. He's not as strong as you are but he's very nice and Letty seems to like him.

[ze] Maybe mister babysitter could look after her. He's not as strong as you are but Letty seems to like him.

Cirno is bored with his ass, remember? But I bet she knows how to delegate.

[x] Maybe mister babysitter could look after her. He's not as strong as you are but Letty seems to like him.

Recently, the kids have been talking about silly superstitions. They don't matter much to you, usually, because of your swordsmanship training. Between training yourself to be better with a blade and recieving treatment for your illness, you've got no time for things like silly rumors about magic and other silly subjects.

Until you heard the story you heard today.

Earlier today you heard someone from the next town over, that Gensokyo place that they built just recently, saying something about your tree. Yes, your tree is bound to attract rumors and such, it's rather large. Other than being large, it looks rather dead. But it isn't. It may never bloom or grow leaves, but somehow it lives on.

Such is the source of the rumor. What that girl said was that the tree contains some kind of mysterious power that can keep the living alive forever or even resurrect the dead, and when the tree blooms, this power will be released.

Usually you'd ignore all of this. However, recently a child was found dead at the foot of the tree a few months ago. There was a big mess with police and reporters, so you almost missed it, but... One of the branches, high up in the tree, bloomed beautifully that day, only for all of the petals to fall and scatter afterwards. Thinking back on that, if the rumor is true, then your mistress...

"Youmu~" someone's voice snaps you out of your meditation. You open your eyes and find yourself face to face with your late mistress' best friend, who has been visiting weekly to make sure I haven't died myself.

"Youmu, I have something to talk to you about. We could talk about it over tea, or while eating lunch somewhere. Your choice."

Well, you've got no real choice. When Yukari wants to talk to you about something, she will, no matter what you do. Usually she gives good advice, too.

[ ] Talk about it over tea.
[ ] Talk about it over lunch.
[ ] Talk about it later, you should go do something fun. You don't have much time left, afterall. (specify)

Whu...."Buh.... Euh....

[X] Talk about it over tea.

[ ] Talk about it over tea.

Dead Yuyuko and dying Youmu?

[x] Talk about it over tea.

>>21269
In City of Weirdos, Touhous die when they are killed.

[x] Talk about it over tea.
[x] "...Can't keep much else down, you know."

Well, it's been about a month since you moved here. You've mostly adapted. Mostly. You still get the feeling that one of these weirdos is going to break into your apartment, but that's not going to happen. This place is locked down. No one gets in or out without both keys, and there's only 3 people with both of them: yourself, Letty, and Reimu. Well, actually, that's a bit false. You had to give your landlord a key as well. They started yelling at you one day for putting up a new door with new locks without asking permission, but they said it'd be alright if you just made them a key.

In any case, it's been a month, and you've most adapted.

The weather's been a bit chilly as of late. Not that it's late in the year or anything, it's just been raining nearly nonstop to the point where it'll occasionally freeze into hail and you'll hear a lot of crunching noises under your feet while walking someplace. You've had to buy an umbrella. With this much rain, even a jacket wouldn't really stop you from getting wet unless it's one of those plastic ones, and those make you look worse than a normalish umbrella. It was difficult to find one that didn't stuck out too much, though. You were just about to take a train to the next town to buy one when you found a small umbrella stand that someone had put up downtown in an attempt to cash in on the amount of rain. of course, you were just about their only customer, the rest either making their own or ordering them or something. They can't just be buying them in normal shops, considering how strange most of them are. Even the somewhat normal ones have something like a large ribbon added for no apparent reason. These cultists and their affinity for anything frilly and unnecssary. It gets on your nerves. Not as much as when you first got here, but it's still a little bit irritating to see someone whose umbrella is literally made of lace except the handle. Really, what use is that? It's useless! All those holes make it perfectly incapable of preventing you from getting rained on! But she used it all the same, unsurprisingly.

Well, that's enough thinking for now. You're just about home. The store isn't very far from the apartment, but it's raining so hard right now that it's unpleasant to walk in. If you had a car, it'd be so much easier on you, but you really don't have the money for that, and you're really not going to carpool with anyone. The only person who you wouldn't mind carpooling with is Reimu, and she's clear across town. She's not going to drive clear down here just to give you a ride to the store, no she isn't.

You insert both keys into your locks and turn them, causing two separate sets of clinking sounds from the bolts retracting. You swing open the door, ready to just plop down on the couch and watch TV or something, but you find a small letter at your feet. There's no mail latch on the door, so they'd have had to slide it under the door. How they did that is a mystery considering how little of a gap there is, but oh well. The return address is the main building for your company, so you're not particularly worried right now. Considering that they're footing the bill for this apartment, it's even likely that the landlord gave them a copy of the second key.

You slip your finger under one of the ends of the envelope where it isn't sealed and open it. Inside is a small note, handwritten in handwriting that looks familliar but which you can't place. The note reads:

"Dear John,
I have realized that I've been paying for your housing and food for a month now without making you do anything. It's a bit unfair on the other people from the company who I had move here and who have been given plenty of assignments, so I've decided to give this one to you: you are to deliver a package to an address in a neighboring city on September 15, 2009. The address will be included in a note inside the package. The package will arrive somewhat soonish, so watch out for it. And be careful with it. It breaking would be really terrible, you know. Anyway, please complete this assignment and wait for any further notices.

Your employer."

Right. Easy enough of a task, but why couldn't they just mail it, or have one of their usual runners send it? And why a specific date?
Oh well. It's time to do something. Preferably something less boring than staring at a wall.

[ ] Write-in.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.

Damned Dear John letters.

[z] Water Nemo.
[e] Visit Yuuka.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.
-[x] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[x] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it.

We need a reasonable excuse for a social call with Yuka.

We're taking care of something of hers, so it's perfectly reasonable to temporarily ask something similar of her. More importantly, unlike Letty if she tells the delivery man that she can sign for it, no one is going to tell her she can't. Yuka's also less likely to pry than Letty (and especially Cirno) and if she did, then even if the contents were clearly illegal, she probably wouldn't bat an eyelash.

This is also an opportunity to gauge if she really is trustworthy enough to deserve a housekey.

Finally, we need to install a key-less slide-lock on the inside of the door, the kind that only latches from the inside. For when we sleep or when we can't trust our keyed locks anymore (the landlord in particular is a liability).

I'll delete >>21376 later; revoting.

[d] Water Nemo.
[a] Visit Yuuka.
-[z] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[e] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.
-[x] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[x] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.
-[x] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[x] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.
-[x] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[x] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it.

[x] Water Nemo.
[x] Visit Yuuka.
-[x] You're expecting a package from your employer to arrive soonish, so if you're out and she sees the mailman come around, ask if she could sign for it and hold on to it. You don't want it being left out, where any hoodlum could damage it.
-[x] Tell her you plan on having a key made for her, but you haven't gotten around to it

Sorry for the delay. I blame Mabinogi. Because it's totally the game's fault and not mine that I played it instead of updating.
---
If only you could just set Nemo out in the rain, it's save you a bit of trouble. You love your plant, at this point; having taken care of something for so long does that. But it's still a bother to have to water him every day like you need to.

You're not sure if you're glad Yuuka gave you the plant in the end or not. It's nice to have around, giving you SOME sort of responsibility in a situation where you usually have none, while at the same time making the place look less dead, but...
Well, you're still not sure whether she was being truthful or not with her threat of killing you if you don't take good care of the plant. You don't see much of her. She's either at work, asleep, or somewhere else. You're not quite sure. Elly isn't, either.
Oh well. Whatever she's doing, as long as you're not involved you don't care.

Speaking of that, you should probably go and give her a visit sometime. You've visited the other two apartments in between fairly often, but... Well, you've just given up on catching her, for the most part. It's gotten to the point where you've decided that if she wants to talk to you, she'll catch you herself. But it kinda doesn't feel right to do that. Sure, she came off a bit creepy at first, but that's not likely to get helped any by avoiding her. Even though she seemed a little harsh, she's not as strange as some of the other people you've seen here. That one girl, for instance, called herself Melancholy. Always carrying a doll, which isn't that strange, but the way she holds it, if you didn't know better you'd have a difficult time telling whether it was the doll that was alive or her. It's such a realistic doll, and she controls it with such ease... But when you complimented her on her abilities, she got angry at you and went off on a rant about how dolls aren't toys and how they should be treated like people and all. Luckily Reimu was there too or you'd have had a faceful of whatever kind of poison that was. Reimu's incredibly strong, on that subject.

Well, might as well play Yuuka a visit. You'd rather not go back out into the rain, which is most likely completely ignoring the awning and blowing right against the walls, but if you were to wait you'd completely forget.

Once you reach her door, you knock. There's no sign that anything's happening on the other side, but you patiently wait. It takes a while. You're just about to knock again when the door opens, leaving your fist dangling in the air.

"Yes? What is it?"
Well, now that you think about it, just coming to visit for no reason is kinda dumb...
Oh right.

"Well, I'm expecting a package from my employer to arrive soonish, so if I'm out and the mailman comes by, I was wondering if you could sign for it and hold on to it. I don't want it being left out, where some hoodlum could come by and take it or damage it somehow."
"Hmm. I don't know. You've been taking care of Nemo pretty well lately, but..."
She pauses.
Hey, wait. How'd she know you named him Nemo?
"Well, holding onto it is a bit of a bother. I'd have to be awake when you get back from wherever, or else it'd be a big pain to wake up when you knock on my door. An even bigger pain if it ends up taking a few times of this happening. It'd be better if you just gave me a copy of your keys."

Hmm... She wants a set of keys to your house. Does this mean she knows that Letty has them and she feels left out, or...

"That's right. I was planning on having a key made for you, but haven't quite gotten around to it. I'll do that...tomorrow. Today, I don't really feel like going out in that rain again."

"Oh, I love the rain. It waters all the plants that don't have someone to take care of them. But if you don't like it, suit yourself. If you make a key, I will sign for the package for you."

"Thanks, Yuuka. I appreciate it."
"Whatever. I just want to go back to sleep again."
"Ah, sorry. See you."

Well, now that that's taken care of...

Wait, you didn't actually do any socializing. That was a massive failure. Nothing was taken care of but asking someone to sign for your package! Argh. Didn't even take that much time, and you still have plenty to blow until you feel like going back to sleep.

[ ] Write-in.

[x] Work on turning your apartment into a crystal meth lab.
[x] Watch some television.
-[x] Local news.
-[x] The home shopping network.
[x] Search the phone book or look online for a number for the nearest pizza parlor. Order a pie for delivery.
[x] Shower.
[x] When others are staying indoors may be the best time to explore the city. Wait for a break in the rain, throw on a raincoat and head out.

[x] Watch some television.
-[x] Local news.
-[x] The home shopping network.
[x] Search the phone book or look online for a number for the nearest pizza parlor. Order a pie for delivery.
[x] Shower.
[x] When others are staying indoors may be the best time to explore the city. Wait for a break in the rain, throw on a raincoat and head out.

This.

[x] Watch some television.
-[x] Local news.
-[x] The home shopping network.
[x] Search the phone book or look online for a number for the nearest pizza parlor. Order a pizza for delivery.
[x] Shower.
[x] When others are staying indoors may be the best time to explore the city. Wait for a break in the rain, throw on a raincoat and head out.

Because calling them pies just sounds dumb.

...Meh.
Television...Doesn't sound very enticing. But...There's no better ideas. Not while it's raining, at least. Later on, maybe, if there's a break in the rain.
First, you watch the news. Nothing interesting is happening. Just mentions of traffic accidents due to the rain and the usual national and international news. Said national and international news, you've come to realize, doesn't really affect Gensokyo much. Or at all. Gensokyo has been isolated just as much as was originally intended, maybe more. Not that it's a bad thing or anything like that.

But alas, it's boring and uninformative. Knowing about the world around you is great, but the world around you is Gensokyo, and the rest...

After flipping through channels, looking for anything interesting at all, you settle on the home shopping network. It's good background noise at least. It's more boring than the news, but the news is already over by the the time you go to see if it's back on.

A slight pain in your stomach reminds you that you skipped lunch today. You're hungry. You don't know of anywhere near enough to be worth it, so you decide to look up the nearest pizza chain's number and order a pizza for delivery. Yeah, let that delivery guy bring it here, you don't need to go out. He has a vehicle, anyway, unlike you.

After you've eaten your dinner and put the leftover pizza in the fridge, you decide to take a shower. More because it's something to do than because you need one. You took one this morning, of course, and you haven't done anything particularly demanding that would make you sweat and need another shower, so...

...

A few hours later, it's gotten pretty late. Late enough that most of the normal...ish people would be at home and not looking to go out. There's a break in the rain, though, and you've grown restless. You've been sitting there for a while, watching nothing interesting on television. It's time to do something. You decide to go out for a walk, after grabbing your umbrella.

As much fun as aimless wandering is, you've still got to choose a direction to start said aimless wandering.

[ ] Write-in.

[x] Go to Mystia's Stand.

If not to eat, then to at least talk to her.

[x] Go to Mystia's Stand.

[x] Go to Mystia's Stand.

Would Mystia's stand be open on a night like this? Unless she has some sort of temporary awning of sorts she can put up, it seems like she's unlikely to get as many customers, since even though it's a fast-food-ish place, most of the point of going there is sitting down and enjoying it with Mystia's singing, which isn't likely if you're going to get wet by doing so.
Well, might as well find out, anyway.

Eventually, you find the place. There's a large umbrella, the type you usually put over an outdoor table, providing cover in front of the stand. It's obviously a makeshift approach for cover, since it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the stand.

You take a seat.

When Mystia sees you, she originally appears delighted to have a customer, then her mood suddenly shfts to sadness.

"Oh, it's you."

...Did you do something wrong? Was she waiting for someone?

"What's wrong? I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"
"No, it's just that seeing you reminded me of her."

Ah.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If me being here depresses you, I'll leave."

"No, stay. You're the first customer I've gotten in a week with this weather."

"Alright then."

A few moments of awkward silence pass.

.>input

[x] Buy something to eat
[x] Strike up a conversation
- Ask her if there's anything wrong
- ????

[x] "Sorry if I brought up bad memories Mystia. I hadn't realized Reimu was persona non grata here."
-[x] Unless it's not Reimu she's talking about...
[x] Buy the both of you a drink. (She can look at hers if she says she's not thirsty or shouldn't drink on the job.)

[x] "Sorry if I brought up bad memories Mystia. I hadn't realized Reimu was persona non grata here."
-[x] Unless it's not Reimu she's talking about...
[x] Buy the both of you a drink. (She can look at hers if she says she's not thirsty or shouldn't drink on the job.)

[~] "Sorry if I brought up bad memories Mystia. I hadn't realized Reimu was persona non grata here."
-[z] Unless it's not Reimu she's talking about...
[e] Buy the both of you a drink.

She probably means Mokou.

>>21715

Forcing a misunderstanding is a good way get her to admit to who it is, along with the revelation of her exact relationship with said person.

[x] "Sorry if I brought up bad memories Mystia. I hadn't realized Reimu was persona non grata here."
-[x] Unless it's not Reimu she's talking about...
[x] Buy the both of you a drink. (She can look at hers if she says she's not thirsty or shouldn't drink on the job.)

I'm quite concerned about Mokou's status after the party and this seems to be the best way to find out right now. Hopefully she's not in some basement getting the Pulp Fiction treatment right about now.

Updates when I get off work.

>>21812

hooray!

"Sorry if I brought up bad memories, Mystia. I hadn't realized Reimu was persona non grata here."
"Uh..."
Wait, how can you be sure it was Reimu she was talking about? It could be something else.
Come to think of it, you haven't seen Mokou since then either.
"...It wasn't Reimu? Who, then?"
"Mokou. I haven't seen her since that night you brought Reimu here. I'm worried..."
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"Well, she's a good friend of mine. We share customers and all, since we're open at opposite times of day. Yet, she hasn't come by here, and people keep asking me about her, and the fact that no one knows where she is makes me worry."
"I see. Yeah, now that I think about it, it's making me worry too."

She just nods, and the conversation dies.

"Hmm. Hey, Mystia. I'm going to buy both of us a drink."
"That's kinda difficult~"
Woah, a tilde. Progress?
"Why? What's the problem?"
"I'm underage~ So I can't drink~"
"Wha- Really? How old are you?"
"Thirteen."
Haha what.
"No, that can't be right. There's no way you're thirteen. You're too adultlike. You can't possibly be less than sixteen, and even that would be stretching it." Though, she is a little short.
"I get that a lot~ But really, I'm thirteen."

Wow, this city sure is full of oddness. Just when you thought you'd gotten over it all, too.

Though, thinking back on the conversation. Mokou's missing. No one knows where she was. You might not worry much if you didn't know people really were actively trying to kill her. This is concerning, to say the least.
Gaaah, this on top of the existing problem of that package you're supposed to deliver. If they're mailing it to you, why can't they just mail it to the recipiant? It's downright bizarre.

But, you can't just think about that all night.

[ ] Write-in.

[x] Try to take our minds off of things for a bit by sharing some of our experiences here, excluding Mokou related things.

[x] Try to take our minds off of things for a bit by sharing some of our experiences here, excluding Mokou related things.

[x] Oh hell. You should go look for her. Ask Mystia for any info on where she would be/where she lives.

[x] Oh hell. You should go look for her. Ask Mystia for any info on where she would be/where she lives.

[x] Oh hell. You should go look for her. Ask Mystia for any info on where she would be/where she lives.

My pessimistic attitude leads me to think of no other possibility than Mokou getting repeatedly raped and murdered in some cellar.

[ze] Oh hell. You should go look for her. Ask Mystia for any info on where she would be/where she lives.

>>21829
That's not a pessimistic mind, that's just creepy.

[x] Try to take our minds off of things for a bit by sharing some of our experiences here, excluding Mokou related things.

I think if Mystia knew where Mokou stayed, she might have looked for her already. Let's try and fill in the gap in our experiences.

[x] Oh hell. You should go look for her. Ask Mystia for any info on where she would be/where she lives.

Still, Mokou being missing is really, really concerning. You feel that you should do something, even if it's just checking where she lives. Of course, if you knew such a thing yourself, you would have checked already.

"Hey, Mystia. Would you happen to have any idea where Mokou lives?"
"Uh. Sorry, I don't have a clue. Or, I'd have checked myself by now."

Right. That should have been pretty obvious, but...

"Even a section of town that's a likely spot? I have a lot of free time, since my job right now is getting used to this city. I could go check the whole area."
"No, sorry~ But, I know someone who might~ She's a teacher at the elementary school Cirno and Rumia go to. She apparently knows Mokou better than anyone else~"
"I see. I'll go look into that tomorrow."

It's getting pretty late. Going and knocking on someone's door and waking them up just to ask about a missing friend doesn't sound like a good idea. Especially given that it's perfectly possible that they're just as worried as you are.

The sound of rain on the roof of the lamprey stand suddenly gets a lot louder, as the falling rain starts coming down frozen into hail. It's probably best to get going now, since at this point it's only going to start getting worse.

"Ah~ It's getting pretty bad out there~ I'd better head home. My roommate is probably worried~ Sorry, I have to close now. Come by tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright. Be careful."
The way she worded that, you figure she isn't living with her parents. Perhaps that's why she's running this place even though she's so young.

Ah well, it's not a big deal.

Hmm. It's late, but that doesn't mean that heading home right now is strictly a good idea. As it stands, you have a few options.

[ ] Head straight home.
[ ] Wander the streets a bit.
[ ] Maybe visit Eientei.
[ ] You get the impression that Reimu sleeps too much.

[x] Maybe visit Eientei.

[x] Walk Mystia home.

Shame on you, letting a little girl wander the streets alone and in the rain.

[x] Walk Mystia home.

This seems proper.

[x] Walk Mystia home.

Then

[x] Head straight home.

Nemo~

[x] Walk Mystia home.

Then

[x] Head straight home.

It's the noble thing to do and if you intend on snooping around Eientei, it's best done in daylight.

[X] Walk Mystia home.

Then

[X] Head straight home.

Myschii~

[x] You get the impression that Reimu sleeps too much.

This seems like such a bizarre and out of left field option that I had to choose it.

Woah, I kinda surprised myself with the length of this.
---
Wait, no. She's too young to be walking by herself at this time of night, even if she acts more like an adult than you'd expect by a long shot.

"Hey, Mystia. I'll walk you home, if you want."

"Hmm, why not~ It's always better to have company~"

So the two of you head off. The ever-increasing hailstones are irritating, but you have your umbrella. And it's a sturdy one, too. Most of the umbrellas that you see people carrying, that look like they may even be made of silk, wouldn't be able to take this. No, this is a proper umbrella for keeping yourself out of the weather.

Eventually you arrive in front of an apartment building somewhat near the lamprey stand. Still far enough for walking her home to have been justified.

She reaches into her pocket, so as to unlock the door-

"Oh, it appears I forgot my key~"

She presses a button on the side of the door, and a ding-dong sound comes from inside. After a few minutes of waiting, the lock turns and the door swings inwards, revealing the person opening it.

With dark green hair, which was quite a good dye job you'd have to say, and some sort of accessory in the form of insect antennae the person inside is definitely one of the cultists. But more than that, androgynous. You can't tell their gender. Their hair and clothing give you the feeling of being male, but the feminine face counteract that. You truly can't tell.

"Mychii, who's this?" the still androgynous voice speaks up.
"A friend of Mokou's and mine, who happened to be there when I closed down and offered to walk me home."
"I see." The androgynous person looks you over.
"Hmm... Somehow you remind me of something." She shoots you a distrusting look. "Well, Mystia, let's go to bed. It's pretty late."
"Okay~ Goodnight, John~" she says as she closes the door.

Well, now that that's over with, you've got nothing left to do out at night. The walk back to your apartment goes as expected, and sleep doesn't come too difficultly.

---

Knock, knock.

Ugh, it's happening again. Someone's waking you up by knocking on your door. How annoying. It can't be later than six in the morning, and you didn't intend to get up for quite some time.

You ignore it. It's best to just ignore irritating things.

...But the knocking continues, so you're forced to get up and find out what it's all about.

When you open the door, you're shocked. It's such an abnormal sight, you even ignore the girl standing in front of you. Everything has turned white, a layer of snow blanketing everything. It's pretty bizarre, since it's definitely not winter yet.

"Yes, the snow's pretty bizarre, but it's rude to just ignore guests, you know."

Your attention immediately snaps back to the girl in front of you. Dressed in her usual attire, Reimu anxiously awaits being invited in. Not that you can blame her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just, that's really odd. Come on in." You invite her in, and she immediately rushes over to your thermostat and turns the heater on.
Come to think of it, it's pretty cold. It was only raining yesterday, so you hadn't turned on the heater, but if it's snowing outside it's got to get pretty cold in here.
You can only imagine how freezing the room next door is. That's a somewhat scary thought, actually...

"I'm going to make tea. You want a cup, right?" She says as she heads into your kitchen to help herself to your tea, of course without asking. Well, she's why you have a stock kept up, anyway, so it's not a big deal.

The click-click-click sound informs you that your stove has been turned on. Reimu shortly returns to the living area of the apartment and takes a seat across from you at your kotatsu.

"Geez, the weather recently has been horrible. All of this snow really is unnatural, you know."

"You're right. It's definitely not the season for snow."

"It was so cold this morning that I had to walk here because my car door was frozen shut."

Wha, she walked here even though it's so cold?

"Well, whatever. How's it been going here?"

...

The two of you engage in conversation for a few minutes until you hear the whistle of your kettle. Reimu immediately gets up and re-emerges a few minutes later with a tray, on which a teapot and two teacups sit. She immediately pours herself a cup and drinks some of the steaming liquid.

"So, about why I'm down here. I need your help with a problem in the next town."

"Hmm? What kind of problem?"

"I've been contacted by the local Shinto shrine in a request to help them seal something big that has recently begun to unseal its self. It's nothing serious, but it's kinda lonely to go there all by myself, so I want you to come with me."

Hmm, if it's just going with her to a neighboring town for a few days, it's not too big of a deal. You can't think of any reason not to go. And on top of that, it's probably the same neighboring town as the one you need to drop the package off at, since it's really the only neighboring town.

But still, there's this whole issue with Mokou. Decisions, decisions. At least this time, you get to be the one making them.

[ ] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
[ ] You'd really rather figure out where Mokou disappeared to.
[ ] Just asking for a decision like that is too soon.

>"Hmm... Somehow you remind me of something." She shoots you a distrusting look.

I see what you did there.

[x] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
-[x] This package you're waiting on is important, so you can't head yourself until you get that spare key made for your neighbor Yuuka. Which you were going to do today anyway.
-[x] Ask Reimu if she's seen Mokou around as of late; the lamprey stand owner has been worried about her.
-[x] Maybe Reimu would like to fraternize with your neighbors while you go do that? Letty is a really nice person.
-[x] You do need to ask her to stay to sign for it in case it arrives before you get back from the locksmith.

Reimu has her own key, so she can lock the door in case she needs to head out.

I like Mokou, but there honestly wouldn't be much we could do if she were captured by Eientei folks. The best we can do is to ingratiate ourselves with Reimu and back her up in the likelihood she comes into conflict with them and storms their compound. We also don't want little Mystia attempting any daring rescue missions on her own.

>>21994

I second this vote

[x] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
-[x] This package you're waiting on is important, so you can't head yourself until you get that spare key made for your neighbor Yuuka. Which you were going to do today anyway.
-[x] Ask Reimu if she's seen Mokou around as of late; the lamprey stand owner has been worried about her.
-[x] Maybe Reimu would like to fraternize with your neighbors while you go do that? Letty is a really nice person.
-[x] You do need to ask her to stay to sign for it in case it arrives before you get back from the locksmith.

[x] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
-[x] This package you're waiting on is important, so you can't head yourself until you get that spare key made for your neighbor Yuuka. Which you were going to do today anyway.
-[x] Ask Reimu if she's seen Mokou around as of late; the lamprey stand owner has been worried about her.
-[x] Maybe Reimu would like to fraternize with your neighbors while you go do that? Letty is a really nice person.
-[x] You do need to ask her to stay to sign for it in case it arrives before you get back from the locksmith.

[d] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
-[a] This package you're waiting on is important, so you can't head yourself until you get that spare key made for your neighbor Yuuka. Which you were going to do today anyway.
-[~] Ask Reimu if she's seen Mokou around as of late; the lamprey stand owner has been worried about her.
-[z] Maybe Reimu would like to fraternize with your neighbors while you go do that? Letty is a really nice person.
-[e] You do need to ask her to stay to sign for it in case it arrives before you get back from the locksmith.

[x] Being alone on a trip IS pretty lonely.
-[x] This package you're waiting on is important, so you can't head yourself until you get that spare key made for your neighbor Yuuka. Which you were going to do today anyway.
-[x] Ask Reimu if she's seen Mokou around as of late; the lamprey stand owner has been worried about her.
-[x] Maybe Reimu would like to fraternize with your neighbors while you go do that? Letty is a really nice person.
-[x] You do need to ask her to stay to sign for it in case it arrives before you get back from the locksmith.

to be clear.

Well, she's right about going on a trip by yourself being lonely. However, knowing Reimu, if you say "yes" she'll be dragging you out the door no matter what protests you put up.

"Wait, Reimu. If I'm going to go with you, I need to get a spare key made for my neighbor so she can pick up a package I'm waiting on and water my plant while we're gone."

"Plant? You have a plant? That seems somewhat unlike you."

...You swear you've mentioned it before, but whatever.

"Alright, I'll let you do that before dragging you off."
"I'll go right now, then. If it gets delivered while I'm gone, will you sign for it?"
"Alright, fine by me. I'll just help myself to your tea while you're gone."

...

Ahh man, you really should have brought a thicker jacket with you. The one you usually use is locked up at one of the company's lockers somewhere since you decided that you didn't need it yet and that it'd just make packing and unpacking a pain. Man, that was a bad call. But in any case, traveling to the nearest hardware store while there's still snow on the ground is getting irritating. Since she woke you up so early, most people haven't woken up yet to notice the sudden layer of snow, so barely anyone's bothered to shovel it at all. It gets better in the commercial areas where people are more obligated to keep the sidewalks walkable, but the fact that it's still snowing means that even then there's a small layer of slushy snow that does just enough of a job to force you to be more careful than if you were normally walking. Given your large stature, it's easier to slip and harder to get up than for normal people, so you have to be careful.

Eventually you arrive at the hardware store to get key copies made. The line isn't very long in actual customer count, but the guy currently at the front of the line is making a big deal out of something stupid. You feel like just walking up to him intimidatingly. Just your presence tends to make people back off, usually.
But then, you get the feeling that it'd be a much bigger bother if you got involved, so you don't bother.
When the guy gets out of the way, the line moves fairly quickly, so you get your keys made in a flash and start to head out when your Rin sensor goes off. You sneakily sneak your way around her without her noticing. It looked like she was heading towards the wheelbarrows. What's with her and those, anyway? Oh well, best not to worry about things like that this early in the morning.

...

Knock, knock.
You knock on Yuuka's door.

After a few minutes, you hear her lock turn and the door swing open. Inside, Yuuka stands wearing her pink pajamas.

"Uhh. What do you want."

Seems like you woke her up. Normally she'd be just a bit less irritable.

"I just went and got those keys made, since I've been asked to go on a trip with someone. Oh, and on that note, if you'd take care of Nemo while I'm gone, I'd appreciate it a lot." Oh, that's right. You still haven't watered him this morning.

"...I see. Anything else?"

"No, not really."

"Goodbye, then." She closes her door and locks it. Probably going to go back to sleep.

You head back over to your apartment's door and open it to head inside. Reimu is patiently waiting at your kotatsu, sipping tea like she seems to do all day if she's not beating someone up.

"Ah, you're back. The package came." She points to a box on top of the table. You walk over and open it, mainly to get the address inside.

Reimu, who is suddenly looking over your shoulder, cuts into your thought processes before they have time to activate.

"Ah, that's the same place as where I'm supposed to do the exorcism! Same address and everything. Isn't it strange?"

Wha- Really? That's almost too much to be a coincidence. Sometimes you feel that the higher-ups of your company are too shady. It's entirely possible that they're emulating some large sealed monster unsealing its self just to laugh at the priests and priestesses who come and seal it. You're tempted to examine the contents more fully, but besides the note all that's in the box is a small red marble, and a small locked jewelery box. There isn't anything interesting about either of them that you can see like this, so you close the bo-

"Oh, this note says to keep that marble, for some reason." Reimu points out. You can't understand it, but whatever.
You reach inside the box and remove the marble and examine it a bit more.
It's just an ordinary glass marble with a ruby-red color. Nothing particularly notable about it. It's a bit strange even for your company to give something like this to you, but you pocket it anyway. There's no telling what they're thinking, really.

"Well, let's get going, then." She suddenly stands up and drags you out of your house, picking up a small suitcase on the way. Either she just grabbed an empty one out of your closet expecting it to be pre-packed, or she decided to take the liberty to pack it for you. When this girl wants something done, she definitely makes it happen, whether people cooperate with her or not. You have a feeling that this was a good place for her to set up her shrine for that reason. The people around here generally live that way anyway.

...

The train ride to the next town goes uneventfully. Gensokyo City is far enough away from the neighboring town that it's still about a 10 minute ride on the train, so you decide to talk to Reimu about the other issues you've ran into recently.

"Hey, Reimu. Have you seen Mokou around lately? That girl who runs the lamprey stand I took you to has been pretty worried about her, and so am I."
"No, I don't think so. Then again, I don't see many people besides those who come to the shrine, who are very few."
"I see. Well, she's gone pretty much missing. Normally I'd think someone like her just decided to take down her yakitori stand for a few nights and try to have fun somehow, but I know she was getting in fights with the residents of Eientei."
"Hmm. Maybe. I'll have to look into it. But really, if Eientei did something it'd be really difficult to dig it up by now."
"I see."

The conversation halts until you arrive at the station. Reimu hands you a piece of paper with the address of the hotel you'll be staying at written on it, saying that she has some business to take care of with the rest of the people called to help and that you should head there before her. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to. It might be your first chance in a long time to experience normalcy from somewhere.

[ ] Head to the hotel.
[ ] Find something else to do first. (specify)

[x] Head to the hotel. You should at least relax a bit before going out into a normal town.

[x] Go grab something to eat.

[x] Go grab something to eat.

[x] Head to the hotel.

Rather wait to eat with Reimu. There's probably a restaurant in the hotel.

>normalcy
Mr. Harding strikes again.

Okay, to break the tie, the next person who posts should re-include their vote and whether they want heads or tails.
Or someone could vote.

[x] Head to the hotel.

[x] go to the hotel

Heads

Nah, that's not needed. You'll have some time later, anyway. Right now, you'd rather head to the hotel and settle down.

...

Well, you've arrived at your hotel room. The entire time here, nothing notable has happened, except the fact that nothing notable has happened. It's all normal. It even feels strange, after being in Gensokyo City for so long.

Reimu rented two rooms, right next to each other. Of course, her renting one room for both of you would be pretty strange, so it's not too unexpected.

Both of the rooms are pretty normal. A bed, a dresser, a mirror, a television, a small fridge filled with alcohol. You choose the one closest to the elevator, and drop your bag on the bed. Reimu's key is still in your pocket, of course.

Well, what now?

.>input

[x] Go look around the place and get familiar with your surroundings.
[x] Go see what Reimu is up to and see if she wants to come along and grab something to eat.

[x] Go look around the place and get familiar with your surroundings.
[x] Go see what Reimu is up to and see if she wants to come along and grab something to eat.

[z] Go look around the place and get familiar with your surroundings.
[e] Go see what Reimu is up to and see if she wants to come along and grab something to eat.

Well, of course it's time to explore. You should look around the place and get familliar with your surroundings.

...

Well, this place is pretty big. Not bigger than your average hotel, but definitely bigger than buildings you're used to. It could swallow your apartment building whole without water.
The decoration inside is average. Nothing particluarly remarkable.

Pretty quickly you tire of just randomly walking through the halls, and head to the hotel lobby to relax. Given that it's the middle of the day, not many people are sitting around. You overhear a group of three discussing a bizarre chain of murders, or something. Not interesting enough to catch your attention. It doesn't concern you, anyway.

Soon after, Reimu arrives back from wherever she went.

"Okay, John. We're going to be here about a week. They had some preparations to take care of, so it'll be a few days before we can actually attempt the sealing. I figured that staying here for a while would be a nice break from Gensokyo, so we're staying for now."

"I see." Well, you can't really complain. You needed to come here anyway.

After the two of you get lunch, you pass the rest of the day talking to each other and relaxing. Nothing eventful really happened. When it starts getting late, the two of you split up to head to bed.

While you sleep, you have a depressing dream. When you wake up in the morning, you can't remember what it was or why it was depressing, but it was depressing nonetheless.

Well, it's morning. It appears that being woken up early has become normal to you, since when your eyes open it's 6:30 in the morning. Given that her door is still locked, Reimu's probably still asleep. This gives you a good opportunity to deliver that package, but you don't know if Reimu has anything planned already.

[ ] Deliver the package.
[ ] Wait for Reimu to wake up.

[x] Leave a note
[x] Deliver the package.

While it's best to leave sleeping mikos lie, the note covers the possibility of her wanting to do something.

But I suspect that dream might be Mokou related.

[x] Leave a note
[x] Deliver the package.

[x] Leave a note
[x] Deliver the package.

[x] Leave a note
[x] Deliver the package.
>[x] Watch out for ASCII-encoded orders to kill.

Nah, you'll head out and deliver the package. Of course, not without leaving a note.
Just before you leave the room, a strange thought tells you to look out for ASCII-encoded orders to kill. You have no idea where it came from, but it somehow reminds you of something. You can't remember what. Your memory is foggy. You get the feeling that it's unimportant, though.

...

The streets are somewhat busy. And, very much a relief to you, there's only one or two stragely dressed people you notice during your entire travel to the address your package is supposed to be delievered to.

About halfway to the address, you notice a black cat following you. For the most part you ignore it. By the time you look back to see if it's still there, it's gone.
Oh well.

...

You arrive at the address. The place is amazing. A rather large mansion surrounded by an absolutely huge garden filled with cherry trees stands shaded entirely by a massively huge tree that appears to only be starting to come into bloom. It really is amazing how huge this tree is, but you don't pay it much thought. That's not why you're here. You're here to deliver a package.

You approach the door and knock. After a few minutes of waiting, the paper door slides open, revealing a young-looking girl in a green dress. Her silver hair does stand out, though, and she seems somewhat frail.

"Yes? What is it?" the young girl politely asks, eyeing the package in your hands.
"I'm here to deliver a package from Enpen, Inc." You offer it to her.
"Oh, I see. I'll recieve it, then."
You hand the package over to her. She thanks you, and you take your leave.

...

Halfway back to the hotel, and everything is going by just normally for walking. No sudden tackles from girls pulling wheelbarrows behind them, no accidentally getting smacked in the nuts by a young girl's wing accessories, no green-haired shrinemaidens shooting you glares when you walk past each other. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary.

And for the most part, the other half is the same, but halfway through the walk, you're approached by someone wearing a dress that isn't TOO far out of the ordinary. It does look like something somene would actually wear. The weird part, though, is that she's carrying a rather thick book and and holding a few dolls in her arms.

"Ah, you're the guy who was with her. Say, could you take me to where Reimu currently is?"

You don't recognize this girl at all, though something in the back of your head tells you that you do. You suppress that feeling, though.

Still, you're not sure how to answer her question.

[ ] It's good to tell the truth.
[ ] You can't trust someone you don't know.

[x] It's good to tell the truth.

Chances are Reimu knows her and that they're on rather positive terms

Chances are by the time you get back, she will be awake.

[ ] It's good to tell the truth.

[x] It's good to tell the truth.

[X] Introduce yourself.
[X] It's good to tell the truth.
[X] Ask how she knows Reimu.

Of course, telling the truth is always a good idea.

"Yeah, sure. I was on my way back, anyway."

"Great."

...

Walking goes normally after this. Neither of you say anything or do anything but walk towards the hotel. There's no reason to. Neither of you have anything to say to the other, so you keep your silence.

You shortly arrive at the hotel, and enter the lobby. Reimu appears to be lounging on a couch in the lobby. Alice immediately heads over to where she was.

"It's been a while, Reimu." She states.

"...Huh? We've only just met, though."

"You don't remember me? Well, that doesn't really matter. You still owe me, regardless."

"Huh? Owe you what?"

...That can be contested.

"Your life."

"Wha- what the hell are you talking about? Like I'd just let you take my life."

"Your two colors are only two sevenths as powerful as mine!"

"..What?"

Yeah, this isn't making any more sense to you than it-

Your thoughts stop and your body reflexively moves when she flips a switch on one of her dolls that makes a knife blade pop out like a switchblade. If you had been just a fraction of a second earlier, it would have been plunged deep into Reimu's stomach.

"Don't interfere, human." She elbows you in the stomach with her free arm with enough force to knock the wind out of you.

"What the hell, who the hell are you and why the hell are you suddenly attacking me!?" Reimu yells at the girl who suddenly began the assault. She merely ignores Reimu and hits another switch on another doll and tosses it at her. Of course, this doesn't go too well, as Reimu simply swats it away with her gohei like a baseball.

Of course, this instantly means that Reimu is no longer going to just take it easy, and this girl who suddenly attacked her is going to get some sense beat into her. You've seen it enough times to know it's true.

The girl grabs another doll and flips the switch, throwing it in Reimu's direction.
Reimu easily evades the doll and dashes forward into the girl's newly made opening, bringing the gohei down hard on her shoulder. If the girl hadn't moved ever so slightly like she did, she'd be knocked out immediately, but instead she's probably only got a badly bruised shoulder.

Of course, hitting her opponent doesn't mean she's going to stop there. When Reimu gets serious, she doesn't stop until either begged for mercy or until the person she's knocking around passes out. That's fine in Gensokyo city, but this isn't...

You look around at the hotel's guards. They're watching with a look of "there's nothing we can do." on their faces. The same look the police around Gensokyo city have for street fights.

Right, you're probably not going to be needed in this fight with this girl at this point, so you should at least prevent Reimu from getting murder charges.

"Hey, you. Security guard. WHY THE HELL ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE."
"What am I supposed to do? Those cultists are all crazy strong from all the streetfighting they do. I don't want to get involved."

GAH. Infuriating. You had thought that this mentality had become confined to Gensokyo City. Well, this is a neighboring town, but still.

Looking back at the fight, it appears... Well, Reimu's not doing as well as you expected her to, but she's still pushing the girl back. The girl, having run out of all but one of her dolls, which are useless at thsi point anyway, has been using that thick locked book to defend herself. She scores a couple hits in addition to blocking Reimu's, but Reimu just walks right through them and continues.

Until suddenly the girl turns around and sprints towards the door. Grabbing the other doll, she pushes a button and throws it in Reimu's general direction. In response, Reimu effortless throws a long needle at it, hitting it in mid-

BOOM.

!"

The windows near the doll shatter and blow outwards from the pressure created by the bomb that detonated when pierced with Reimu's needle. Everyone present immediately hit the fucking floor.

The explosion was closer to that girl than anyone else. It doesn't appear she got any serious injuries, though. The force simply knocked her back, though she appears to have fallen unconscious.

Regardless of all that, though...

A FUCKING BOMB!" Jesus, even for these cultists there's a limit on how nuts is too nuts. That could have seriously hurt a lot of people if Reimu's aim or reflexes had been just a bit off. Ugh, you just know this is going to be bad news. Then again, the courts might just ignore it for the most part and only demand that the girl pay for the damaged property. That would normally be terrorism, but for these cultists, who are almost expected to be a nuissance in ways not quite as extreme but definitely similar to this, it just gets overlooked.

"Haa... I think I recognize her from somewhere, now that I think about it."
Reimu states as if she's used to it. Well, she probably is, considering.

Well, you really don't even know what to think right now. That was fucking frightening. And on top of that, even if they're likely to just dismiss everything, police are definitely going to be called, and that's going to be a huge mess.

.>input

[x] Check Reimu for injuries.
-[x] "How many people have you pissed off?!"
[x] Get the useless security guards to hide the body.
-[x] "I don't care if shes not dead just get her out of here."

[x] Check Reimu for injuries.
-[x] "How many people have you pissed off?!"
[x] Get the useless security guards to hide the body.
-[x] "I don't care if shes not dead just get her out of here."

[x] Check Reimu for injuries.
-[x] "How many people have you pissed off?!"
[x] Get the useless security guards to hide the body.
-[x] "I don't care if shes not dead just get her out of here."

The first thing you do when you get over shell shock is check Reimu for injuries. She tells you she's fine, so she must be fine. You check the girl who got knocked back for injuries, but without medical knowledge you can only tell that she's not dead by the fact that she's breathing. You'll leave the rest of that to whoever is in charge-

Hey, wait.

"Hey, you useless guards. Do something about this person. I don't care if she's not dead, just get her out of here."

They realize that they're standing there doing nothing after a bomb exploded and get to work like they should have quite a while ago, getting on the phone with emergency personnel. Meanwhile, you have something to say to Reimu.

"Reimu, how many people have you pissed off? It just gets more absurd every time."
"Me existing tends to piss people off, you know. I'm pretty much the "police" of Gensokyo City, given their tendency to ignore the real ones."
"So pretty much everyone in Gensokyo City that acts up at all."
"Yeah, that's about right."

Guh, this is dangerous. Well, she handled the situation well this time, so she probably will in the future, too, but...

Well, given that those incompetent idiots only JUST phoned the police, it'll be a few minutes before they get here. You've got a bit of time, if there's anything you want to do.

.>input

[x]Invite Reimu for a drink, she probably needs something to take the edge off after being attacked.

[x]Invite Reimu for a drink, she probably needs something to take the edge off after being attacked.

[x]Invite Reimu for a drink, she probably needs something to take the edge off after being attacked.

[ℤℯ] Invite Reimu for a drink, she probably needs something to take the edge off after being attacked.

Might as well spend that time enjoying a drink with Reimu. This is just the situation where a small dose of alcohol will help fucktons.

"Reimu, let's go have a drink while we wait for whatever the hell happens next to happen."

"Alright. Yeah, a drink sounds good."

...

You've been waiting for a couple hours for the police to come by, but it hasn't happened. It's been more than one drink, by now. How many...five? Six? Doesn't matter. Reimu's had just as much to drink as you. Obviously, given how much smaller she is than you are, she's feeling it a lot more. That thought reminds you of Suika, a girl who often hangs around her shrine drinking sake all day. She's got to be an elementary schooler, given her size. The strange part, though, is that she can easily take what you just drank. She'll be a little tipsy, but she won't be almost falling out of her chair like Rei-hey wait

You catch her just before she falls. That was close. These stools are pretty high, she might have broken something. If her body weren't made of steel. Hmm. Is she a robot? That would be interesting.

...Hmm. Yes. You're starting to feel it a bit. However, no police yet.

.>input

whoops, forgot my trip
then almost posted my trip for all to see, lulz

[x] Take her back up to her room if possible, if not, yours.

I doubt there'll be really any police at this rate.

[x] Take her back up to her room if possible, if not, yours.

[x] Take her back up to her room if possible, if not, yours.

Ugh, fuck it. The police don't seem to be coming at this rate. If they are, they'll wake you up anyway. The best solution you can think of is to go to bed. And, of course, carry Reimu to hers.

...

Well, it's morning. You woke up earlier than Reimu, which isn't really surprising. She was really rather drunk, while you were only a bit buzzed. You can only feel a bit of the leftovers from the alcohol, but you know Reimu is going to be feeling it whenever she wakes up. She'll probably sleep in a bit until it gets to a bearable level.

Looking at the time on your phone-PDA-thing, it's 5 in the morning. Not surprising given how early you turned in last night. You've probably got an hour or two before Reimu's up.

.>input

Goddamnit, who keeps eating my cookies

[x] Check to see if today's paper came in
[x] Read it
[x] Get some aspirin and water for Reimu when she wakes up. Preferbly sometime before she does wake up lest she ends up in a nasty mood.

I'm tired of no votes. .>input means I can write whenever the fuck I want, so I'm updating.
---
Right, the paper, the paper. It's always good to read the paper in the morning so you know what the fuck is going on. Also, it occurs to you to check the obituaries.

You find a newspaper dispenser in the lobby of the hotel, drop in a hundred-yen coin, and recieve your newspaper. Quickly browsing through it, nothing of particular interest seems to have happened. Or, rather, the thing of interest that DID happen appears to have been ignored. Because, yeah, some crazy girl throwing a bomb at someone in the middle of a hotel lobby isn't news at all, right?

...Right. Well, this IS a difference from Gensokyo. While you'd have the same lack of police intervention, the incident would be all over the newspapers, especially that one girl's.

The obituaries... No one you know is listed. Only after looking through them do you realize that if Mokou were going to appear in any obituaries at all, it would probably only be the ones in Gensokyo City. Actually, you think Rin would have paid for the obituary if no one else could, but she's just weird like that.
...You don't really want to ask her about it, though.

You put down the paper, having learned jack shit. You still don't know anything about Mokou, and nothing of particular interest is happening. Also, it's like they're completely glossing over the truly bizarre weather in the nearby town of Gensokyo City.

...

Well, you had to find a nearby convenience store in order to buy a bottle of aspirin. There were none at the hotel you were at, and you didn't feel like asking people for painkillers, so you just bought a bottle. After letting yourself into Reimu's room, an easy feat given that you didn't lock the door last night, you leave a glass of water and the bottle of aspirin on the nightstand next to Reimu's bed. She's still not up, so you head down to the lobby.

It's mostly cleared out by now. People who were here have left for whatever they were here, with the exception of just a few. All of which are strange in some way. Yourself, strange simply for your height. Not that big of a deal.

The other two, however. One's a girl wearing a french maid costume silently sipping tea while reading the newspaper you discarded. You don't recognize her at all, but she seems like the kind of person to have come from Gensokyo City to here for some reason. The other is Marisa. She probably followed you here. Ohh man, you're probably going to get teased the second she sees you. Of course, you could always just leave before she does that.

.>input

[x] May as well see what Marisa wants.

[x] Leave and head back to your room before Marisa's see's you.

[x] Leave and head back to your room before Marisa's >sees you.

[x] Leave and head back to your room before Marisa sees you.

[x] Leave and head back to your room before Marisa sees you.

[X] May as well see what Marisa wants.

Yeah, you'd rather not bother with her right now. This, unfortunately, leaves you with just the television in your room, but that's alright.

...

A knock at your door. You've been watching television for about an hour and a half waiting for it.
"Hey, let's go get this over with already." Reimu's voice comes through from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, alright. Let's go." To be honest, leaving to do whatever it is that Reimu came to this city for is probably going to be more interesting than daytime television.

You make sure that you have the essential things on you, such as your cellphone and knuckles, and make your way out the door. Thankfully, you delivered the package yesterday, so there's not much to worry about.

"Did you see the news? I fipped over to the channel real quick and saw a breaking report they were giving on Gensokyo City. It's been snowed in. Pretty strange, right?"

"Ugh. Yeah." It was a good idea to choose to come here after all. Snow's alright, but when it's deep enough to call a town "snowed in" you'd rather be somewhere else.

"Well, let's go. I'm going to be late."

---

I'll finish this tomorrow. I caught up with the planning I had, so I need to plan more.

The two of you arrive at the mansion. The cherry tree looks like it's just about to go into full bloom, as if it has its seasons backwards.

Standing by the entrance is a small group of people, mostly older adults. They're murmuring about something.

"Hmm? I thought I was going to be late. What's going on? I'd have expected you to have started already without me." Reimu speaks to the group.

"We seem to have run into a problem. There's a group of performers who adamantly won't let us near them, since they want to practice in peace. And they're doing it right under the tree."

"...Sounds like a bunch of idiots."
"Yes. It's a dangerous place to be, after all."
"I'm used to dealing with idiots who don't want to comply, though. Just leave it to me and there will be no problems." Reimu pushes her way through the crowd, into the vast garden inside. Following behind her, you step into the large lot that is the Hakugyokurou Mansion.

Upon stepping inside, the temperature feels a couple degrees warmer. It's nothing big, though, so you brush off the feeling and follow after Reimu.

As you near the large tree, the sound of music grows louder and more clear, until you're right in front of the band. The music they're playing is pretty harsh on the ears. If you had to guess, it's an instrumental death metal piece, but you don't know much about this kind of music.

...A thought occurs to you. Instead of going and forcing them off of the property with force, like Reimu is so good at, getting that girl you met yesterday to ask them to leave would probably be a lot better.

[ ] No, Reimu's way is best.
[ ] Peaceful solutions are best.

[x] Peaceful solutions are best.

[X] No, Reimu's way is best.
[X] Follow her lead.

Why else would she come all this way?

[x] Peaceful solutions are best.

It's a good way to impress Reimu, and I'm sure Youmu knows about Reimu's job.

[x] Peaceful solutions are best.

[ℤℯ] Peaceful solutions are best.

No, peaceful solutions are best. The way Reimu does things, incidents like last night's are bound to happen.

You make your way to the mansion. The paper door slides open easily, as if made for someone with little strength. The hallway it opens up into fits the image of the rest of the mansion, with wooden floors and such.

You catch yourself. You're examining the hallway way too much. No, there's no need to pay attention to details right now. What you need to do is find that girl.

Eventually you find a door that's slightly ajar. Hoping that the girl is in the room you

GUH

Before you manage to do anything, you're suddenly hit in the solar plexus with something hard and blunt, with enough force to knock you over. When you're able to tell what's going on, you find the girl standing in front of you, holding a long sword pointed at your face.

Gee, this sure backfired.

.>input

[X] "How cliche"

[x] "I didn't see anything!"

[x] "I didn't see anything!"

[x] "I didn't see anything!"

[x] "I didn't see anything!"
[x] Try to calm her down before explaining things.

Who said anything about her being undressed? The fact that she's holding a sword should preclude the fact.

[x] "Woah, slow down, killer! Your musicians are just violating local noise ordinances. Figured I'd let you know before somebody calls the authorities or the irate audience storms the set. Ain't no reason to karate chop a man and brandish a scimitar in his face!"

[x] "Woah, slow down, killer! Your musicians are just violating local noise ordinances. Figured I'd let you know before somebody calls the authorities or the irate audience storms the set. Ain't no reason to karate chop a man and brandish a scimitar in his face!"

[x] "Woah, slow down, killer! Your musicians are just violating local noise ordinances. Figured I'd let you know before somebody calls the authorities or the irate audience storms the set. Ain't no reason to karate chop a man and brandish a scimitar in his face!"

>>22399

The joke is flying way over your head.

"Woah, slow down, killer! Your musicians are just violating local noise ordinances. Figured I'd let you know before somebody calls the authorities or the irate audience storms the set. Ain't no reason to karate chop a man and brandish a scimitar in his face!"

"Oh, really? Is that all you came here for? Well, you've accomplished your goal, so get out. And take your friend with you too." She pushes the sword closer.

"That's not very polite -ze!" A somewhat familliar voice comes from the other side of the external paper wall, right before a girl dressed in black barges through, swinging her broom like a madwoman. The sound of metal hitting metal resounds when the swordgirl raises her sword to block.

"Go ahead and help Reimu-ze. I've got this.

[ ] Go help Reimu.
[ ] Write-in.

[x] Go help Reimu.
[x] Apologize (it'd been quicker if we went with Reimu's suggestion)

[ ] Go help Reimu.

[x] Go help Reimu.

Right, helping Reimu is definitely what you should do.

When you arrive at the scene, it's chaos. All three of the bandmembers are all simultaneously attacking Reimu , who is not only defending all of the attacks, but putting up quite an offensive against the three herself. The two girls wearing red and white are attacking with blue-colored drumsticks, while the girl wearing black is causing loud, painful feedback with her guitar. The noise is quite disorienting to you, but Reimu seems to be just fine.

Right now, there's a few options for how you can actually help Reimu. First, that girl causing that feedback with her guitar. It really is annoying, and on top of that she's an open target. You could also pull one of the girls currently swinging drumsticks at her away, but that does seem somewhat dangerous. In the same vein as the first idea, you could also pull the plug on their power, but it wouldn't necessarily be any more effective than just attacking the girl making that noise.

[ ] Attack the girl in black.
[ ] Attempt to pull one of the other girls from Reimu. (specify)
[ ] Try taking out the power.
[ ] Write-in.

[x] Attempt to pull one of the other girls from Reimu. The one in red; that'll allow Reimu to focus on the one in Pink, since she seems the fiercest.

Then he might be able to disrupt the black one if John gains the upper hand. (Advance on her using the red one has a human shield if she ends up attacking)

[x] Attempt to pull one of the other girls from Reimu. The one in red; that'll allow Reimu to focus on the one in Pink, since she seems the fiercest.

[x] Pick up some sound equipment and smack one of them with it.

[X] Attempt to pull one of the other girls from Reimu. The red one.

You've got to get one of those girls off of Reimu if you want anything to happen. It seems obvious that if it were just one of them attacking her, Reimu would win pretty quickly, but having to defend yourself from two angles at once limits your ability to attack back quite a bit. The way it's going now, they're all going to get beat up pretty badly before this is all finished.

But how exactly do you pull one away? Just jumping into the fight seems pretty stupid, you're just going to get hit by one of the three sticks being swung around. You've got to find a method that won't get you hurt and that will for sure pull one away.

...Well, you have an idea. It's quite a cruel one, but really, it's probably less cruel than letting them both fight Reimu. You'll have to use "smash." It's an extremely strong blow, but given how these girls are lasting this long against Reimu, even considering that they're in a team, she should be able to take it. Of course, you're going to do it without your knuckles.

You move yourself within range, then take your stance. Really, this technique isn't very useful for anything but attacking an opponent that doesn't know you're there, since it's quite obvious what you're going to do and it takes long enough between starting the movement and the blow landing for them to see it and move out of the way, or hit you first. However, right now, it'll work quite well.

You push your fist forward, and it connects with your target, producing a small scream of surprise. The force from the blow pushes her back, making her fall into the other girl, knocking her over as well. You quickly put your knuckles back on and prepare for retaliation.

"Wah, where'd he come from? That startled me."
"He's been there for a while now, you know."
"Ahh well. He doesn't look that tough, so I'll handle him." The girl who you hit stands back up and walks towards you, drumstick in hand.

"Hey!" she shouts at you.
"...What."
"YOU'RE HUGE!"
"Yeah, I get that a lot." You're not sure you want to just suddenly attack if she's talking to you. It might be a trap of some sort.
"THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS!"
Oh god no.
"RIP AND TEA-"
The girl attempts to use the same basic principle behind your smash attack on you, modified for use with the drumstick, but you see it coming and hit her in the stomach before she can hit you. You fear that if she'd actually landed that, your guts really would have been ripped and torn.

She steps back and begins eyeing you. You eye her right back.

.>input

And just for fun, first vote wins.

[x] wait for her to attack, then counter.

Let me guess we got to deal with Merlin, right?

[x] wait for her to attack, then counter.
[C]Keep playing defense.

>Jerl!Qj7OhFhEyA
>Test!IbT8er9eAQ
..."

[x] wait for her to attack, then counter.

[x]Update?

Right, in this kind of situation, where you know the opponent can easily stick a hole in your neck if you're not careful, it's best to be defensive. For her, your knuckles are less of a threat. As a result, she's more likely to attack.

"Hmm..." She slowly walks closer, stopping a few feet away from you. You keep your stance, ready to counter whatever she tries.

What she does is somewhat unexpected. You see her lower to the ground, then suddenly you've been tripped. You're unsure of what happened, but you scramble to your feet.

Taking advantage of the fact that you got up first, you deliver a strong blow to her head, knocking her unconscious. You hope you didn't do more than knock her unconscious, but in a fight like this there's no holding back.

The sound of not really that harmonious guitar harmonics stops.

.>input

[x] Take drumstick hostage. That should end the fight pretty quickly, if it's not already over.

[x] Hold her just in case you need to take a hostage
[x] See what caused the music to stop.

[x] Hold her just in case you need to take a hostage
[x] See what caused the music to stop.

Hooray, it's back! ...sort of...

Right, you've got to come up with a method for ending this fight pretty quickly.

AH! Hostages! That's right!

Ripping it from her tight grip, though loosened by her unconsciousness, you grab the drumstick away from the girl and hold your knuckles to it threateningly.

"NOBODY MOVE! I'VE GOT THE DRUMSTICK, AND IF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN I'LL HURT IT!"

Everyone stares at you like you're an idiot. Seriously, taking a drumstick hostage? Everyone's so dumbstruck that no one notices the maid carrying knives suddenly appear and attack. The two remaining girls, caught by surprise by an opponent wielding knives, quickly go down.

You suddenly realize how lucky you were that she had done that, or your extremely stupid decision to take a drumstick hostage would probably have been fatal.

"Wha-" Reimu looks confused. "What the hell just happened?" It's visible that thinking about it is hurting her head.

You're not much better yourself. You don't even know what happened to make you try that.

Now your head hurts too.

.>input

[x] "Ummm... thanks random maid lady with amazing knife skills?"
[x] "Should I just leave them somewhere while you finish preperations?"

[x] "All part of my plan."

TIMESKIPS - the best way to get yourself out of situations you never actually decided the outcome of

Hey, it's better than not updating, isn't it?
---
The alarm clock wakes you up. The coldness of the air and surrounding fucking everything make you want to crawl up into a ball under the blankets and go back to sleep to preserve every single bit of heat you can, but you can't do that. You have work today. Nothing serious, Mystia just asked you to help her improve her lamprey stand. Mostly improvements to make it less freezing fucking cold in the upcoming winter.

Right, winter. It's been about two months since that incident got resolved. You're not even sure what was going on or what exactly happened. Shortly after that fight with the Prismriver band, you got dragged away in a limosine by the CEO of your company. When you asked her why, she blew off your questions, dodged them, or told you obvious lies. It all just seemed rather suspicious.

All you know is that when you got back, the weather was already back to normal. Aforementioned CEO said something about her plan failing upon seeing this, but seemed generally cheery anyway. She left you in front of your apartment. You immediately called Reimu to explain to her exactly why you disappeared. She seemed a little irritated, but accepted the fact that you have to do what the person paying for you to survive says. The alternative is finding a new job, which you don't really want to do. This one's great. Especially right now, when you're getting paid for learning to fit in.

The alarm clock displays the time as 8:15 AM by the time you successfully drag yourself out of bed. It's only 8:45 by the time you're done showering, eating, etc. This leaves a good hour before the time Mystia asked you to show up at her stand for the work you're going to do. A few ideas come to mind for what to pass the time, none of them really seeming any better than the others.

[ ] Visit Letty and Cirno. It's been a while.
[ ] While it's on your mind, visiting Reimu and asking her what went down after you were abducted might be neat.
[ ] You haven't really done any investigating involving Mokou. Perhaps you can ask a few people some things.

[x] You haven't really done any investigating involving Mokou. Perhaps you can ask a few people some things.

We should look into this.

[x] You haven't really done any investigating involving Mokou. Perhaps you can ask a few people some things.

[x] You haven't really done any investigating involving Mokou. Perhaps you can ask a few people some things.

[x] Visit Letty and Cirno. It's been a while.

Well, considering the update speed of Nightmare, I should be able to pull off updating both of these again.
---
Yeah, it's been too long since you did anything about Mokou. She still hasn't shown up.

...It seems like Mystia managed to pull herself together fairly quickly, for someone whose close friend just died. She must be stronger than she looks. Well, considering she's operating a food cart at night, being only 13 years old, that's not that difficult of an assumption.

Is it too late to look into it, though? If she's dead, or was in danger, probably. It's been over two months without a word. However, if it's something else, like having abruptly moved, you could find out where and why. Maybe it's something as simple as being forcibly brought back to school after habitual absence, which was really cause by entrepreneurial spirit. Or something. In any case, you haven't brought it up much when you've eaten at Mystia's stand, since you didn't want to upset her, and otherwise it hasn't come to mind.

Why do you care so much, though? You only knew her for a couple days. And it's not like with Reimu, where you actually ended up DOING things in those few days before you started caring about her. You ate her food, ate Mystia's food with her, and fought with her in an alley, that's pretty much it.
Maybe it's because she's one of the very few non-cultists you know, even if her mode of dress is still abnorml in comparison to outside of the city?
Bah, who cares. You care, and that's all that matters. Time to find answers.

...

A visit to the police office yielded nothing. The place felt like it wasn't capable of much in the first place, seemingly underfunded. It's not that it felt run down or anything, it's just that it seemed like there was just a few too people to keep it running smoothly while at the same time being able to answer questions from people like you who are worried about friends. You do find out that Mystia has been coming in and frequently asking about her yourself, which makes you feel somewhat better. It at least means someone's been here to push them to try and do something, even if they can't.

Anyway, the next place you check is her yakitori stand. As expected, it's empty of pretty much everything except dust. It seems in the month or so since it was closed, someone or other came by and cleared it out. Whether it's looters who noticed that the place wasn't in use anymore, or Mystia trying to prevent the place from becoming full of mold, all this tells you is that there's not much you can learn from the place. It looks like it really hasn't been touched since about two months ago, maybe a little less.

It's a slightly depressing thought.

Your moment of melancholy is interrupted by a moment of hunger as your stomach growls. It seems that not eating breakfast before investigating wasn't that great of an idea, and since you've been walking all around the city all day, you've worked up quite an apptetite.

You've got a few places that you can pick from to fix this problem.

[ ] Eat at home.
[ ] Eat at the cafe.
[ ] Eat with Mystia.
[ ] Bug Reimu for food.

[x] Eat with Mystia.

[x] Eat with Mystia.

Cheaper and friendlier.

[x] Eat with Mystia.

Well, this is worrying. Hope we didn't miss the window of opportunity to find and/or help Mokou.

The best option you can think of is heading to Mystia's stand. Ever since Mokou disappeared, Mystia's kept it open all day to pick up the customers Mokou was serving. She had to hire someone to work for her while she's at school, and even offered the job to you, but you turned it down. Mainly because you know you'd never pull off eel as delicious as Mystia's. Anyway, the stand is cheaper than the cafe, easier than eating at home, and better company than bugging Reimu.
...It's not that Reimu's not a good friend. She's a great friend. It's just that when you bug her for food, she gets in a bad mood, since she usually can barely afford to feed herself. And, well, when she's in a bad mood like that, she's not fun to be around. Of course, you might want to go over to her place after eating

When you arrive there, you find a slightly unexpected sight. Crowded around the stall are various young girls, varying in age from slightly younger than Mystia to a few years younger than Cirno. All of them are talking animatedly like friends, with Mystia joining them. She does seem to be in a similar age range to a couple of them.

"-and then he tried throwing them at me! So I just clobbered him, and he went right down." You hear a green-haired girl wearing a pretty usual headband with two rather realistic looking antennae attached brag about what sounded like a fight as you draw closer.

"Ah~" Mystia notices you, her already upbeat expression getting slightly moreso.
"John~ I was wondering if you'd come by today~" She immediately begins preparing you a serving of your usual order, humming happily as she puts the eel on the grill.

"Hey, Myschi, who's this guy?" The youngest-looking girl in the group, with blond hair accented by a red ribbon asks the chef. She's actually fairly normal looking, given that her black dress wouldn't look strange as a school uniform in some school outside of the city. Well, the dark red contacts change that a little. Hey, is it alright for her to be wearing those? She looks to be about six years old, or so.

"He's John~ The guy who lives next door to Cirno~" She answers with her usual singsong voice, an amused tone sneaking in. "I'd have thought you'd have met him~"

"Ehh? Really? Awesome! Hey, hey, do you know where Cirno is?" The young girl excitedly asks, pulling on your sleeve. "She didn't come to school today, so it was all boring!"

"Eh...I don't know. I've seen Letty around, but I haven't heard anything about Cirno."

"Aww..." She looks disappointed, then turns back to the girls and they resume their conversations.

Mystia finishes up making your food. Before she hands it to you, you see her pull out a pen and a piece of paper. With great concentration, she starts to write something down, then passes it to you with your food.

Come back later~ I have something to talk to you about~

That's what it says. You nod to her, and begin eating the delicious food.

...

"Well, I'll see you later then, Mystia." You give her 600 yen for the food and 200 more as a tip, then get up to leave.

"Lat~-" She gets interrupted by the small girl, who quickly stands up as she notices you're about to leave.

"Wait! Wait wait! Help us find her! It's boring!" You can only assume that "her" refers to Cirno.

Hmm. Help the girls find Cirno, or do something else? You're positive that she didn't go missing or anything, since you'd probably find out immediately from Letty, and Cirno's apparently been missing for a few days. Hmm. Actually, thinking about it, it's likely that she just caught a cold.

...But the girl tugging on your sleeve, she's so demanding that it's quite coercive. It's getting harder and harder to say no as she stares into your eyes.

[ ] Might as well help them find their friend.
[ ] You want to go visit the shrine. It's been a while since you last saw Reimu.
[ ] Something else? Write-in

[x] Might as well help them find their friend.

Sucker for a good deed, and it'd help cheer Mystia up more.

[x] Might as well help them find their friend.

[X] Might as well help them find their friend.

>>25536

Just so everyone knows, the same is true for this story. Just to clarify, the limit is 3. There must be at least 3 votes for an option for it to win.

[x] Might as well help them find their friend.

I think he has a expectation of three; what a diva.

[x] Might as well help them find their friend.

[x] Might as well help them find their friend.

"...Alright. I was planning on heading home anyway." Well, not really, but it was an option anyway.

"Yay!" Rumia giddily jumps up and down. The others present give you a slightly apologetic look.

"Well, let's go, then. See you later, Mystia."

"Later~"

...

Well, getting them here was a pain. Rumia started complaining about walking when you got about halfway there, so you were forced to take a bus the rest of the way. Of course, you had to pay for it, except in Wriggle's case. Wriggle being, what you assume to be at least, the nickname of the green-haired girl with antennae. She's 12 years old, so she was probably born before all of this cultist stuff started getting popular, so it's probably not her real name. You don't decide to pry on things like that, though. In any case, she had a bus pass. You still needed to pay for Rumia and Daiyousei, a girl who looks to be a little older than Cirno but not as old as Wriggle. You imagine that's a nickname as well.

After the bus ride, and the subsequent walk to the actual apartments, you find yourself in front of Letty's door. Wriggle and Daiyousei are patiently standing behind you, but you're being forced to hold Rumia back from machinegun-doorbelling. You already rang it yourself, and if she's home, that should be enough.

"Coming!" You hear her voice from the other side. A few minutes later, the door cracks open, causing the cool air inside to blow on you. It's not exactly a pleasant thought that the air inside a building is colder than outside of it at this time of year...But you've gotten used to that by now. It seems that really, really liking the cold is pretty much the only strange things about Letty and Cirno, which you're glad for.

"Ah, John, and...Cirno's friends?" She looks surprised to see you grouped together like this.

"I ran into them at Mystia's food stand. They're worried about Cirno, so when Mystia told them I live right next to you, Rumia here did a pretty good job forcing me to bring them here."

"Ah, I see. Well, Cirno's just got a little chill." Anyone living in that apartment would always have a chill. "She should be back in school on Monday, since her fever broke today." Geez, that must have been a persistant fever to even be noticable in that house. You can't be sure that she's actually okay, given that.

"Ah, I see. Sorry for troubling you."

"It's no problem at all. In fact, I'm glad that you're concerned." She smiles warmly at you. "But I need to go back to taking care of her, so if you would..."

"Alright. See you later, Letty."

"Ehh, we're leaving already?" And of course, Rumia has to protest.

...

Well, in the end, you got forced into getting the girls home. Since Wriggle is apparently usually one of the two girls in their group, along with Mystia, trusted to take care of them when they go out without a parent, you decided to split the two girls who can't ride the bus on their own between the two of you. Wriggle took Rumia, leaving you with Daiyousei.

Daiyousei is really quiet. She told you where to take her, but otherwise kept pretty quiet the whole way. When you tried to start a conversation with her, she usually gave lots of one-word answers. It seems like she's a little shy.

Well, you've got no time left to worry about that. You just arrived at your destination. Some sort of mass girl's dormitory. There are lots and lots and lots of girls with fairy wings on their backs here. In fact, they're all you see, other than the occasional adult in charge of them. They appear to range in age from Rumia's age to almost highschoolers. Daiyousei hastily says goodbye when she gets off the bus, leaving you to leave alone.

Leave to where?

[ ] Write-in.

[X] Mystia said for us to meet with her. We might as well.

[X] Mystia said for us to meet with her, if it's late enough.
-[x] If not, shoot the breeze at the shrine.

[ℤ] Mystia said to meet with her. Do so, if it's late enough.
-[ℯ] If not, shoot the breeze at the shrine.

Ah, that's right. Mystia passed you that note telling you to speak to her alone. Might as well be now, since you can't think of anything better to do. Of course, if she's still busy, you can always head over to the shrine to visit Reimu. This time, though, you're going to walk. Taking the bus just isn't your thing. Well, that's a bit of a lie. It's just that until earlier this month, the public transit infrastructure hadn't been completed, so you've gotten used to walking. Acutally, that's probably a good thing. Being in shape so that you can get away in case you piss off someone who isn't particularly scared of your stature is a good idea. This is because if someone in this country isn't scared of someone as tall as you, they've got to be pretty good at fighting, enough to be confident that they can take you. You'd rather not risk that if you don't need to, so being able to get away is great.

Along the way, you pass by a television on display in a shop. The reporter says something, and then the background imagery changes to a factory. The camera zooms in on the smoke coming from the smokestacks, which is a strange dark shade of red. You've never seen smoke like that before other than from fireworks and such. It strikes you as a bit odd.

Well, back to heading back towards Mystia.

...

"Hey, Mystia." You greet the person you came to see as you get closer.

"Oh, John~ How unexpected, to visit again so soon~"

"I remember the note you passed me, and thought that we could talk about it right now"

"Ah~ Let's talk, then~" She sneakily takes a glance to the left, and then to the right, and finally reaches under her stall and pulls out a bottle of sake.
"Let's have a drink first~" She also pulls out two of those tiny sake cup things and pours you one. You thought she wasn't supposed to serve alco-wait, two cups?

"But you're only 13."

"Oh well~" She pours her own cup, and downs it before you can stop her. Haah, you wanted to be a responsible adult, too.

"So, John~ I wanted to talk to you about Mokou." Her voice suddenly becoming serious comes off as somewhat worrisome.
"I think... That Eientei had something to do with her disappearance. I know they've had a history of not getting along, and then Mokou just disappeared. There's also...This." She reaches into a pocket and pulls out a lighter that you instantly recognize as Mokou's Phoenix. "I found this in an alleyway, and nearby, there was a...a...a bloodstain. There was also this." She pulls from her pocket and pulls out a bullet casing, seemingly from a handgun. "The only people in Gensokyo who use guns nowadays are the police...And Eientei." She sets both of them down on the table.
"I want you to take both of them for now. And, if you find anything out, let me know. Okay~?"

"Yeah. Just earlier, I was looking into it myself. I'll keep my eyes open. Maybe I can get invited to one of their parties again."

"Alright~" She caps the bottle of alcohol and re-hides it under the counter.

In the corner of your eye, you can swear that you saw a Rin. Avoid, avoid.

"Well, I'm going to get going." You down your shot thing and wave goodbye to Mystia. "Later."

"See you~"

...

Every time you walk up those steps, it's a little easier. It's just another sign that you're getting more into shape. Before coming here, your athletic ability was so-so. You could run faster than most, but having a bigger stride helped that a lot. You didn't really have the stamina to keep up with walking all day. Sure, you didn't have many problems when you first got here, but you didn't really climb these stairs that often. You've been doing it nearly everyday recently, since you've been finding yourself with less and less to do as the days go on. There's only so many times you can explore it starts getting annoying. You've got the basic layout memorized like the back of your hand, and could probably find any address without thinking too hard about it.

Now that you're at the top, you drop in your usual donation. 500 yen isn't that much to worry about given that you don't have to pay rent, yet you get paid as if you did; Reimu, on the other hand, struggles every day to make ends meet. The donations she gets aren't that much, so she gets forced to work as a mediator for...pretty much anything someone wants a mediator for. And then they underpay her. After all, if she charges more, they can just settle it without her, even though it involves an actual fight.

"Oh, hi, John." Reimu notices you as she steps out the shrine's front door, broom in hand. "Do you need something, or are you just here to visit?"

"Just visiting."

"Great, an excuse to put off sweeping. Take a seat, I'll prepare tea." Awesome, Reimu's tea is practically a reason in its self to visit.

When you sit down at the kotatsu, you see that the television is turned on, but muted. It looks like the same story as you saw on the way here. Must be something important.

You oblige yourself and unmute it.

-mist from this factory has been slowly building up in the lower atmosphere, lowering the amount of sunlight that gets through. As of right nowthe problem isn't big enough to be noticable, but a notable scientist from Enpen, Inc. has informed us that within a week, the sky will be almost permanently overcast. Furthermore, an environmental exp-

"Here's your tea." She sets a cup down in front of you, then takes a seat next to you.
"Ah. Have you been following this story?" She gestures towards the television.

"Nah, I haven't been watching the news much."

"Oh. Well, one of the factories owned by the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion has been emitting some strange red smoke. People are making a big deal about it, but apparently no one can do anything about it since it isn't violating any pollution laws."

"I see." Hmm. If they can't do anything about it, does that mean you'll be looking up at scarlet-colored skies from now on?

"Hmm...Hmm. I've been meaning to look into it, but I've been pretty busy lately. Hey, John, do you mind looking into it for me?"

[ ] Yes.
[ ] Yes, under these conditions. (specify)
[ ] No.

Oh, since I forgot to add this onto the bottom of the update:

I want feedback on my writing.

What I DON'T want is whether you like it or not. I don't really want feedback on the content. I want feedback on the writing its self.

Does it seem clunky? Is it ever difficult to understand? Long-winded in any way? Is there anything else wrong with it? In what ways?

And I'd also like comments on what's good about my writing so I can make sure to keep it going, and maybe even make it better. Or at least use it in anything else I may write.

[X] Yes.
-[x] What can I expect from them?

[x] Yes, under these conditions.
-[x] She aids in your search for Mokou.

Well, we can probably rule out a peaceful reason for Mokou's disappearance. Also, may as well recruit aid for one case while working on another.

Your work is rather baseline when it comes to good stories here. There's nothing technically wrong that I can see, but not much that makes it "OMG Awesome." Of note is how clear your writing is. I rarely find myself wondering what your meaning is or what's going on in a scene.

Your stuff on a technical level is kind of like cornflakes: nothing spectacular about it, but still heartily enjoyable. This particular story, though, is more like that same bowl of cornflakes with like a tablespoon of sugar sprinkled on it. It's the extra coherency and refining of plot (and sub-plots) that ups the quality.

On an unrelated note: I shudder to think of what's happening to Mokou in Eientei.

[x] Yes, under these conditions.
-[x] She aids in your search for Mokou.

[x] Yes, under the condition that she aids you in your search for Mokou.

Hmm... If she's going to selfishly ask you for a third time to help her with something like this... You might as well ask for help with one of your troubles, right?

"I will, if you help me look for Mokou. She's been missing for quite some time now, and Mystia and I are really starting to get worried."

"Didn't you ask me about this before? I said I'd help, didn't I?"

"Did you find anything out, then?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then you aren't helping enough."

"There's not much that I can do. If, like you suspected when you first asked me about it, it was Eientei's fault, it'll be far too late to prove it or do anything for that matter."

"Even if we were to break in and snoop around, or something?"

"Haaah. That would probably be really difficult, you know? They've got so much security that sneaking in would be nearly impossible."

"Yeah, but-"

"Look, John, I'll help you the best and any way I can, but I can't just wave my wand and make problems disappear. Give me something specific to look into, or a plan, or something, and I promise I will help you to the best of my ability."

Gah. It sucks, but... She's right. Well, at least you have your support when you DO figure out what you need to do.

"Alright, Reimu. I'll help you, then. But, the same thing you just said is true for me as well."

"I know, I know. I'll think of something, but for now I just wanted to know that you'd help." She takes a sip of her tea.
"...So, by the way, you said you tried that new fast food place. Was it any good?"

And the conversation changes to the mundane everyday topics that friends discuss. New restaurants (which there sure are a ton of opening recently), some of the strange people you've met, your favorite brand of beer. Actually, it turns out she's never had any. You'll have to fix that sometime.

...

You unlock your door when you get back to your apartment. It's still early afternoon, but you decided to come back here. As soon as you got here, you found yourself wondering exactly why you did. There's not much interesting to do other than to watch the news, and you don't think it'd be the best time to visit Letty. As for Yuuka, you're not even sure if she's home right now. She seems pretty dedicated to her business. You think you've heard her coming home at 1:00 AM after a full 36 hours of working. It's unlikely you'll ever understand her, and you're not sure you want to try.

So...What's the plan?

[ ] Watch the news. Maybe you can figure something out.
[ ] Take another walk. Maybe you'll meet someone interesting.
[ ] Go visit the library. It's been too long since you've read a good book.

[x] Go visit the library. It's been too long since you've read a good book.

Maybe it might have something interesting here.

[x] Go visit the library. It's been too long since you've read a good book.

Patchy, with a connection to Remi?

[x] Watch the news. Maybe you can figure something out.

[X] Watch the news. Maybe you can figure something out.

Maybe we can find some info on the SDM and Eientei at the same time.

The next vote will pretty much decide what happens. Just throwing that out there.

[X] Jump out of the window

>>25687

Well, shit. I walked right into that one.

---

An idea has struck you.

It's a horrible idea, and you know it. Yet, you can't shake it loose.

The other parts of your psyche are telling it to stop, to do something else. Unfortunately for them, they're in a dead heat on what else to do. This one particular idea, however, has no competition.

You're going to walk out of your window.

You don't know why. Something just struck you. You have no real intention of dying, nor of getting hurt. It just seems so silly that you're actually going to go through with it, but you can't stop yourself at this stage. You're already leaning out of it, looking at the ground below.

It's not that big of a drop. That doesn't matter. You're not trying to kill yourself, after all. Just to jump out a window. It wouldn't matter to you if it were a mile up in the sky or not an inch above ground level, you're just going to jump out of a window.

So you do.

The ground comes closer and closer.

Hello, ground.

Wait, OH FU-

...

When you come to, you're in a hospital. It seems like an emergency room.

Hmm. You're not hooked up to any IVs, and you don't feel any different from normal. What exactly happened that led to you being brought here?

Well, you imagine getting knocked out by the fall by its self would be reason enough, but...

Hmm. When you sit up, you feel no pain. Your legs and arms move just fine, and you don't feel light-headed or nauseous or anything when you try walking.

"Ah, you're awake. That's good." The familliar voice of Eirin comes from the doorway. When you turn to her, you find that she's dressed in that same red-and-blue attire you remember. In her hands, she's holding a clipboard, flipping through a few pages and writing things in them with a blue pen.

She finishes up, flips the papers all back down on the clipboard, and looks up.

"Alright, now that that's finished. You suffered a very, very minor concussion that led to you being knocked out. Scans show that no major brain damage occured. The impact occured mainly on your cerebellum and occipital lobes, and perhaps a little on your parietal lobe. You're pretty lucky that it didn't bounce off and also damage your frontal lobe. Tell me, while you're standing, do you feel any dizzy? Are you having any troubles with balance?"

"No, not really."

"Is there anything strange about your vision? Any spots where you can't see anything, reduction to your peripheral vision angle, or anything else like that?"

"I don't think so."

"Are there any other problems with any of your other senses?"

"Not that I know of."

"Alright." She caps her pen and sets the clipboard down on a table. "You're free to go. Don't do anything strenuous or that may otherwise your damage your brain for a while, and avoid driving or operating machinery. You should come back in tomorrow for a checkup. Do you have any questions?"

Hmm. This is Eirin, one of the big people at Eientei, a place you're suspecting of being involved in Mokou's disappearance.
Hmmmm.
A thought strikes you. Maybe you can get invited to another moon-viewing party? It seemed like they enjoyed your company, and it was pretty fun for you as well. And if they let you come, you can snoop around and blame it on alcohol.

Then again, maybe it'd be better to just be direct and ask her about Mokou. Might as well give it a shot, right? Even if it's not likely to help any.

[ ] Ask about moon-viewing parties.
[ ] Ask about Mokou.
[ ] Ask about how you got here.
[ ] Ask about (specify)

Feel free to choose as many or as few of these as you like. I don't care what you write in for the write-in option, or how many you ask, so knock yourself out.

[X] Ask about how you got here.
[X] Ask about Mokou.

Crazy enough to have some benefit, plus we might know who knows we are here at Eientei.

>>25687

Yeah, you really did kind of ask for that.

>>25692
you seriously expect people to pick this up when they see you going along with stupid ass shit like this?


[x] Ask about how you got here.
[x] Ask about moon-viewing parties.
[x] Ask about Mokou in a way that doesn't accuse anyone of Eientei.

>"You're free to go. Don't do anything strenuous or that may otherwise your damage your brain for a while, and avoid driving or operating machinery. You should come back in tomorrow for a checkup. Do you have any questions?"

I do seriously hope that this won't affect our investigation on the Scarlet Mist, remember, we did agree to do that for Reimu.

[x] Ask about how you got here.
[x] Ask about moon-viewing parties.
[x] Ask about Mokou in a way that doesn't accuse anyone at Eientei.

[x] Ask about how you got here.
[x] Ask about moon-viewing parties.
[x] Ask about Mokou in a way that doesn't accuse anyone at Eientei.