She extends her hand to the butler, strapping it to a metal device wrapping around her forearm. His gloves grazes her skin as the Jidiao rests her head upon the wooden counter, peeping her rival with her peripheral, the inaba herself has completed the preparations before her. After making sure that the device is safely locked, the butler shows her an injection needle, its tubing branches from the inside of the mechanical jaws.

“The chemicals will be injected directly to your veins, more specifically, your median antebrachial vein.” The butler says as he wipes her forearm with an alcohol swab, aiming the needle into it. “You’re not unfamiliar with needles, aren't you?”

“Seldom, I have no issue with it.” She points to the strapping device. “What are these cuffs for?”

He picks the double-sided tubing into her attention. “Aside from holding the IV tight, it serves as the switch mechanism, a valve between the tubing that decides which chemical will go through the needle.”

The butler presses the cannula into the device's plug, pushing its needle and locking it in place. Yachie feels a brief pain as she watches the elastic small pipes being connected to her body. Now, both Yachie and Tewi are locked into the machine. The wide screen in the middle walls activates, displaying the following statistics:

###

Current wager: 20.000 yen, 1 mg

Yachie: 120/80

The light travels through the room, crossing through the liquid as it passes the glass of iced water. The tired Jidiao and her subordinate rests their body upon the wooden counter as they wait for the butler to prepare the third round.

“Coffee.” The pink-dressed Inaba requests. “Hot coffee.”

The butler replies as he picks a coffee pack from the back shelves. “On it, Miss Tewi. How about you, Kicchou?”

Yachie glances at her previous drink, untouched from the previous round. “Another iced water, use a jug this time.” She presses her neck with her fingers.

The butler doesn't question anything of her request, going to work on it immediately. Yachie flashes a smile, looking at the well-mannered Inaba before her subordinate obstructs her view.

“You—” The Sarugami bites her tongue. “You don't have to do this, Yachie.” She clenches both of hands, looking down. “This whole mess is my problem. I— We shouldn't risk your life because of this. That rabbit, I underestimated it at first, but her luck is… It's real… As if the world bends at her will.”

Yachie peeks at the Inaba, taking a sip from her cup of coffee as the butler serves her request. Not long after, the butler comes with the Jidiao's request, bringing a jug full of iced water. She stares at the drink, seeing the reflection of an exhausted leader, blood tracing from her nose. She uses the sleeves of her light blue shirt to wipe it.

“Let me tell you something, Biten. You’ve maybe heard of it, this is before you joined our faction.”

Beware, for here be a dragon! Many brave and powerful adventurers challenge the new master of this cave, but none have proven successful yet. In this lair where all see their last, where did their eyes fall upon before their demise? Some would look up at the ceiling that once had numerous stalactites, now smoothed out by his hot flame. For others, it was the walls and ground littered with treasures from their homeland or foreign lands that they have never seen or ever will. Most saw the new master, Money the Red Dragon, as their final sight. 
 
In his current human form, he wears clothing decorated with gold and a crimson-red cape. However, his more beastial side is shown by how damaged they are after he fought the gods of the marketplaces and by his flames. His eyes are golden with slit pupils, poised to kill anyone who enters until he sees it is merely an unarmed human. A hint of divine magic dwelled in her pouch strapped to her waist. Whatever is in there, it's his now. He focused on the human before him.
 
Her hair is as pitch black as her eyes. She wore a dull, almost bland outfit as if attempting to appear humble. The smile on her face went from ear to ear, and the wrinkles near her eyes showed that it was genuine. An unarmed human who's excited like Money gets when he makes his pile of treasure bigger. Humans were usually weird to him; they got angry at him as if he took something from them, but he had a feeling this one would take the cake.
 
Perhaps it's the blood loss or how odd this woman is, but he didn't react when she took her first step into his lair. He stares at her with bored interest while comfortably indulging in his treasures. She glances around, not giving the gold a second longer of her time before looking elsewhere. It was then when she saw the pile he was lounging on, that her eyes settled. She looked up at him and bowed.
 
"Greetings, Money, the rich and powerful." She says it in near-perfect English. "I am Tenkyuu Chimata, the most esteemed and humble merchant in all of Japan."
 
"State your reason for being here, human." He orders
 
"Why, I heard a being from a foreign land h

WHITE BOY SUMMER BABY!!!!!!!

Misty Lake.

Day 1 of the Amanojaku Hunt.

0600 Hours.

She didn’t need to wait long for the arrival of the next goon.

Then again, she willingly entered a terrain known to inhabit many of them. Aquatic youkai and fairy alike, dodging the tail slap from one that belongs to the former category, Seija snaps a picture of the water turned into bullets that comes her way before landing with ease on one of the smaller islands.

“What’s this? Are you trying to outlast me?” asks Wakasagihime, a woman with dark blue hairs and eyes, small fins for ears and a frilly green leaf patterned kimono which fades to teal at the bottom. Her tall blue grey tail whipped back and forth in a smug way at the thought, like a dumb mutt Seija thought but still she didn’t answer the mermaid. “Sorry to say, but timeouts won’t be an option!”

“Nah, just figuring some things out.” Seija replied with cheek, tone meant to convey the little truth as some lie. Both of her hands were on the camera, one any resident of youkai mountain would notice belongs to the tengus. The fact it erased any bullet that it got a picture off was something anyone could understand. Hence the mermaid was trying to use banter time to think of another plan.

She wouldn’t get the opportunity if Seija had a say in it. And she did, by shooting an array of arrow shaped bullets at the mermaid again. The mermaid however acted as fit of her namesake and simply delved deeper into the water to evade both the bullets and the sight of her opponent. Whether the rumors of her becoming stronger the deeper she goes is true or not, it still gave an advantage.

It's always nice to see characters who don't usually appear in stories get some screen time. This is an entertaining vignette but a little too safe and small to say much more about.

I loved it,

Reminds me of episode 19 of Nichijou with the shrine related bad luck

>>2799
Well spotted, it was an intentional homage to that scene! When I saw that Nichijou scene, I thought "since the Hakurei Shrine getting destroyed is such a memetically common theme in fanworks, maybe this series of events could happen there too" and that formed the starting point of the story.

>>2445
Fucked up my trip, this is still me.

>The new Matriarch's instructions have unfolded perfectly.
>Just as instructed we "surprised" our target in plain sight and left no sign of ourselves in doing so.
>It was almost too easy to drag him out of sight while the others turned on eachother in the smoke.
>Now we merely need to dispose of the evidence...
>Onions,
>Garlic,
>Cumin,
>Salt.
>Today we beat the Gouyoku at their leader's game. Tomorrow the same. But soon our brothers on the surface will be free. Free to take vengeance on the dire birds that devour them.
>Ave Urameshiya!
>We who are about to feast salute you!

Oh, shit, a surprise update. Good to see.

Can't say I get it, but I guess I'm going to have to re-read the whole thing again and see what I can get from it. Neat that it finished, in any case.

I appreciate any actual story with Achoo. Would be nice to see more, in general.

always good to see a story to completion well done.

Congrats on finishing. Was fun to read it through, and quite touching. The letters idea was also very well handled.

===> [ X ] Accept their offer, into the gap you go! (Proper, polite, kind.)

“As you can see in this fine-tuned, graph. The increase in aggressiveness amongst the Neko population is directly proportional to the ‘France 1789 role playing’ that’s currently happening inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The consequence of these events alongside your latest harmless prank towards the Hakurei have resulted in her senses to demand your impromptu clobbering.”

You have no idea what the Gap Youkai is talking about and feel like she’s talking in such an oblique way for exactly that purpose. Still, the cookies and tea that were promised are quite the delicacy.

“What she’s saying is,” The princess of the Netherworld --the one that took every single cookie except the one you still have-- is more than happy to make it simpler. “Someone is causing trouble in the SDM, this trouble is starting to affect the outside as well. Which is where you come in.”

“Seeing how you’re already familiar with the place and are already planning to go there.” Yukari continues, her tone implying mischief and knowledge to your actions. “Why don’t you do us a favour and find out who or what is causing this trouble and make it a whole lot worse?”

“A whole lot worse?” you can’t help but question mid-bite, disinterestedly at that.

“It’s fun to watch and there’s nothing better to do today.” Yuyuko confesses, admitting that whatever is happening. The two hags see it as nothing more than a fun distraction.

“Also Reimu won’t stop chasing you until it’s over anyway. It’s almost endearing how she’s willing to spend more effort in an attempt to avoid exactly that. That and well, you know what you did.” Yukari pushes up the fake glasses she has on, as if to appear smart as they gleam a white light.

[ ] “I want… your hats."

The only proper demand.

[👒] “I want… your hats."
Basically asking for their souls.

This was really good.

The bath kills the stank elemental.

This was a really good read. Depressing, true, but also memorable

Reimu lay down, arms outstretched, on the cold wooden floor. Cicadas hummed in the distance. The shrine offered some shade from the oppressive summer heat, but she was drenched in sweat regardless. As she laid there she cocked her head and made a level attempt to kill the sun with her glare. The sun seemed to mock her as it remained firmly rooted in the sky. The miko's rage built and built as the giant red fireball continued to defy her. How could it possibly be this hot?!

A realization hit Reimu. The sun shouldn't be strong enough to resist her powerful Hakurei stare. She's the Shrine Maiden of Paradise damnit! That subterranean sun does what she tells it to, what makes the one up here think its so special?! It must be so strong because someone else caused it to be that way. An incident! A streak of red fabric shot away from the Hakurei Shrine to solve the incident at once, leaving rustling summer leaves in its wake.

Reimu rode the arid currents around Gensokyo on the hunt for suspicious people. As she glanced around the Human Village, Reimu caught sight of a redhead floating in a basin of water. Wait, no. On closer inspection it was a literal red head. Next to it, a headless body dressed in red and black fanned itself. Sekibanki was beside herself with heat exhaustion and could not see that her presence as a decapitated torso scared the whole village out of their now empty streets. It obviously was her fault and had nothing to do with the blazing red sun overhead, and what was about to happen next had nothing to do with jealousy over someone else getting to cool off in a pool. Reimu nodded to herself at this line of logic, confident in her deductive skills, and dropped down to chase the poor overheated rokurokubi out of town with her gohei.

The sun continued to shine and Reimu seemed no closer to solving the incident. Clear dry skies made it easy to spot some of the more unusual floating fixtures of the realm. Flying near to the Shining Needle Castle, she noticed the drum Tsukumogami reclining in front of a strange machine. It was a small white box that showered the girl with such a gale that her crimson hair splayed out behind her like a fan. Reimu got a glint in her

“Lee, have you finished moving my materials inside?”

Shizuha poked her head out of a window, searching for the newest addition to her and Minoriko’s household. She soon spotted him stagger around the corner of the storehouse clutching several cloth bags.

“Almost!” he managed to grunt, panting from both the weight of the pigments she had asked him to fetch and the smothering heat of the Gensokyo summer.

Shizuha muttered something distinctly unbecoming of a goddess of even her modest stature, then ducked back in. Internally, she scolded herself. Wasn’t she supposed to be the responsible one? At least Minoriko was tending to her fields and not around to witness the gaffe.

Lee had finished putting away the bags and was laying down in the shade by the time Shizuha walked over with a pitcher of water and a few worn cups. She sat down beside him while he caught his breath and poured him a cup.

“Thank you.” He accepted the water with a grateful smile.

Shizuha found her eyes drawn to him as he drank in silence. She lingered on how his larynx punctuated the contour of his neck and followed it as it moved up and down as he swallowed the water. Out of habit, she found herself rendering her subject in terms of shapes and lines, of color and shading - means by which to more easily depict him with her brush.

Perhaps as a painter, it was natural for her to see her shaman through the lens of her art. By the same token, however, Shizuha had to wonder how she appeared to him.

The ambush was executed flawlessly. It took place at the bend on the narrow trail as it dipped downwards around a small hill. The dense, thorny, and berry-laden bushes hedged the path on the sides. At the extremely-close range, the moment it would take to turn around and run was pointless. Short of leaping upwards and flying, there was no escape.

The ambusher stared at me firmly, her eyes showing little of their usual emotion. Likewise, her dark lips were drawn taut and her breathing silent. There was tension in her haunches as she leaned forward, appearing ready to leap should she detect a false move. Countless generations of careful breeding had endowed her with confidence in the hunt and prowess. That this was quite underappreciated in the village at present was a shame.

Her ancestors had been the proud sort, no doubt, used to the hard life of tracking and cornering youkai. How many cousins had been killed in their pursuit? Survival was never guaranteed, even when the conditions were favorable. Surprise was certainly something that favored the hunter but so did wits and the ability to collaborate with others. Before my time, only a few generations ago, hunters had gathered in groups and set out to exterminate troublesome youkai together.

Of course, today she was on her own. She may have been tracking but she was not hunting. Extermination was not on her mind either. Her behavior was instinctual, something that originated in her blood but was, ultimately, a vestigial impulse. Though impressed, I did not smile, instead crouching down to level my gaze with hers.

The bitch remained impassive for a few moments more. As I stretched my hand out, however, flickers of her usual gaiety reappeared in her dark eyes and the black lips curled at their base into something that could be generously interpreted as analogous to a smile. Her pink tongue flitted out as she brought her face close to my hand, making something of an imperious showing as she wrinkled her nose to sniff me.

I brushed my fingers against her soft cheek. It was more an acknowledgement than an act of affection.

She had managed to find me yet again.

I had left home early, bef