[x] Test it out on Cirno

[0] Test it out on Cirno

[X]Test it out on Cirno

[X]Sukia estimated that you could use up to three, but screw that, make at least ten more.

Hate Sign [Helldoken]
Dream Sign [Magnificent Illusion]
Boundary Sign [Border of Life and Death]
Border Sign [Boundary of Dreams and Nightmares]
Death Sign [Black Death]
Life Sign [Long Live the King]
White Inferno [Compelling the Waiting Dream]
Nightmare Sign [True Destruction]
Creation [A New World]
Taboo [Apocalypse]

We'll need to up our power levels to Phantasm to properly escape Yukari. We don't need to make all of them right now, but it will help us in the future.

[X] >>26035

[X]Test it out on Cirno

>>26035
Duly noted, even if that didn't win I'm going to save those ideas...
---
[X]Test it out on Cirno

"Hey Cirno, mind if I test this one out?"

"I guess, on who?" Cirno didn't seem entirely happy about this.

"You."

"You plan on dueling me multiple times?" I'm not sure what to think of her anymore. "I want to duel you at your strongest!"

"He's only just starting out. Nobody's at their best until they've had time to practice." So Wriggle's the logical one?

"Hmph. Fine." Cirno rose into the air and after I reverted my right arm and put the blank cards in my pocket I followed suit. "I've got three cards, but since you've only got one untested one I'll just use one this time too."
It looked like she was declaring hers first, so I followed suit. Hopefully this was legal.

"Cold Sign [Perfect Freeze]"

"Black Sea [Shatter the Lurking Nightmare]"

I wasn't really thinking about it but at the time there appeared to be conflicting backgrounds to our patterns. Cirno had a blue glacier and snowy sky, while mine was a black sea of clouds that acted like water, and it was the ceiling too. Coulds and glacier sunk into the black sea in places while the same sea gave way to the clouds and galcier in others, if I were watching it at the time I probably would have been hit far more than I was.
Speaking of which, bright bullets of all colors sprayed out from Cirno while my faster burst shot outward, making a large crack noise in the process.
At Cirno's range she avoided it easily and froze her own bullets before making them slide around in random directions, which I managed to avoid while closing the gap. By the time Cirno was ready again I was already close enough to her to hit without much trouble. Watching my bullets dissapear on contact with Cirno was a nice sight, but I payed for it when some of hers slammed into me, which while it didn't feel particularly pleasant, though it wasn't enough to stop me.
The exchange of bullets lasted about twenty more seconds before I got a lucky break when Cirno ran into a couple of my bullets trying to set up her attack to catch me and caused her spell to end. In truth I wasn't doing much better, but I still won that one somehow.
The background faded and the view of the forest was back to normal.

"I thought I had you with that one!" Dissapointment and mild anger was what Cirno was feeling right now. "That was one card though, if this were a real duel you'd have to face two of my normal patterns and three of my spellcards! So you better make more, 'cause I won't be happy with just this!"

"Alright already..."
I had more ideas now, though figuring out how to implement them would make it interesting. It made me wonder exactly how dense and complicated I could make a pattern before I simply couldn't use it anymore. But to test the limit you have to reach it first, and Shatter the Lurking Nightmare isn't going to get there unless I revise the pattern to make it more difficult.

Upon returning to Mystia's stand Cirno and I were greeted by the others.

"Not bad for your first try~" Rumia was perfectly happy to congratulate me. "One card's not going to cut it in later duels though."

"Plus Cirno's never going to accept it until you've well and truly beaten her?" Mystia seemed to be grilling some kind of aquatic creature while singing. It actually smelled pretty good.

"Like he'd beat me!" Man, going for multiple spellcards would be worth it to wipe the smirk off Cirno's face. "'Side's, right now he's a stage two midboss at most, he's only got the one card!"

"If you feel like eating, feel free? Think of it as my returning the favor?" So I guess I did encounter these four previously.

[X]"Excuse me, but I am not a Mid-Boss!"
[X]"Returning the favor?"
-[X]Go ahead and eat.
-[X]Politely decline.
[X]Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.
[X]Ask what I did previously.
[X]Write-in

[X]Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.
-[X]Waking Dream [Travel to a Distant Land]
-A single bullet travels around the duel area leaving behind bullets in its wake, As time passes the travelling bullet splits into two while shooting bullets.
-[X]Lucid Dreaming[Pink Elephant in the Room]
The opponent is trapped in a laser cage alongside a large pink bullet. The pink bullet slowly mover around the cage while you shoot a light barrage at your opponent.

We can use lasers, right?

[X]"Returning the favor?"
-[X]Go ahead and eat.
[X]Ask what I did previously
[X]Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.

in this order; things are easier with food in your gut, and we should find out more about what puppet wade did. Then work on new spell cards.

[X]"Returning the favor?"
-[X]Go ahead and eat.
[X]Ask what I did previously
[X]Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.

[x] "Returning the favor?"
-[x] Go ahead and eat.
[x] Ask what I did previously
[x] Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.

[x] "Returning the favor?"
-[x] Go ahead and eat.
[x] Ask what I did previously
[x] Work on crafting more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.

I still want this spellcard in our future: >>25857

Yes, lasers are permitted.
Also there's quite the pool of possible spellcards to choose from, so variety isn't a problem. Though if I do decide to implement Boundary Sign [Border of Life and Death], I'll need to be inventive with it because I'm pretty sure that's one of Yukari's cards. Nightmare Sign [True Destruction] is something I have a solid idea on how to do, and Creation [A New World] will be quite interesting.
---
[X]"Returning the favor?"
-[X]Go ahead and eat
[X]Ask about what I did previously.
[X]Craft some more spellcards so I can wipe that smirk off Cirno's face.

"Thanks Mystia."
I grabbed what appeared to be grilled eel and took a bite out of it. It was quite good, and the sauce did nothing but help.

"Not a problem?" And back to grilling she goes, singing her odd little song.

"So what exactly was that favor I did for you Mystia?"

"It was a couple things? First you basically got me a full day's worth of eel in a matter of minutes, and second you got that ghost princess to leave me be the last time she came around?"

"But no talking, not even a name?"

"Nope? You were very weird, but effective?"
Another grilled eel, this time Rumia took it.

"Makes me wonder exactly who I helped and who I angered for the last year."

"I think that weird blue-haired girl with the peach hat wants to beat you up, but she tries to beat up everyone so I wouldn't take it personally." Gee, thanks Cirno.

"I can't think of anyone who might be angry with you other than what Cirno already said." Wriggle got her grilled eel next, and took a bite out of it.

"That half-ghost may want a rematch next time you meet? Apparently she didn't take too kindly to you using strings to win last time?" Mystia seemed uneasy any time this 'ghost princess' or 'half-ghost' is mentioned.

"I can't think of anyone either~" Says the blonde man-eater. Wait, man eater? Why I remember tha-

"So you do recognise me~ Took you long enough~" Rumia looked at me with her usual cheerful expression, but I found it very creepy now. "You taste nasty, so you don't have to worry about me trying to eat you again~"

"That and the village guardian would have your ass if you did?" Mystia directed that at Rumia, who merely shrugged in turn.

"Village guardian?"

Wriggle turned to me and answered.
"You should know of Keine already. She's a school teacher and a protector. Even more so during the full moon, when she's at her most powerful."

"I'm hoping the 'have your ass' bit isn't intended to be literal."

"I'm afraid it is? Keine during the full moon acts normal, but any sort of stimulus causes her to have the inhibition of a horny oni? Which is to say, none at all?" Sheesh, just how often is this poor girl harassed? Mystia's shuddering enough to almost miss the timing on that flip.

"Getting off that subject, what's up with your arms? You didn't try changing them before." Another question from Wriggle.

"It was just something I decided to try on a whim, nothing particularly special about it is there?"

"Guess not. It is kind of interesting though." Wriggle's cape shifted up on its own and the top part extended outwards before becoming a insect's claw, then Wriggle gave a rather scary smile. "It seems we have something in common then."

It was a bit early for lunch, but it was appreciated all the same. Next was to try and come up with a few more spellcards so I could duel Cirno properly.

I had a couple more ideas, one of which I was going to hate myself for thinking of, and got those transfered to two more cards to join the first.

Lucid Dreaming [Pink Elephant in the Room]
Dream Sign [Magnificent Illusion]

The frist was was simple enough, focus on creating a box around the opponent to restrict movement, stick a big, slow, pink homing bullet in there with them and fire some additional bullets at various speeds to try and trap them, increasing the speed and shrinking the room as time goes on.

The second was perhaps simpler in design.
A white beam bounced between large white glowing bullets to break off smaller bullets, only the color determines which ones could hit and which ones could not. Bright white could not hit, but small blue and red bullets, which I would attempt to get somewhat square, could. I got the feeling this would be pretty confusing to those not used to it.

[X]Good enough for now. Now beat Cirno.
[X]Maybe a few more just to have the variety.
[X]Go for broke, Yukari could find me any day now.
[X]Write-in

[x] Go for broke, Yukari could find me any day now.
-[x] Revert my right hand back to normal.
-[x] Find Nariko. After you're done with these head off for the Hakurei Shrine.

[x] Go for broke, Yukari could find me any day now.
-[x] Revert my right hand back to normal.
-[x] Find Nariko. After you're done with these head off for the Hakurei Shrine

[X]Good enough for now. Now beat Cirno.

The Shrine is the FIRST place Yukari'd check.

>>26062

And Alice said it'd be the best place for us to be just in case she does find us, Reimu could help us out.

[0] Go for broke, Yukari could find me any day now.
-[1] Revert my right hand back to normal.
-[2] Find Nariko. After you're done with these head off for the Hakurei Shrine

>>26063

Didn't she send us away from the Shrine for that reason though?

Sheesh, first someone lists some spellcard ideas and says we don't need to make them all at once, but the moment a Yukari encounter is considered almost everyone starts picking the 'make them all!' option.
Please wait warmly, Wade is stockpiling...
---
[X]Go for broke, Yukari could find me any day now.
-[X]Revert my right hand back to normal Already completed. Pay attention next time.
-[X]Find Nariko, when you're done with these head for the Hakurei Shrine.

No, three isn't enough. Alice estimated a week or less and it's already been three days. I need to prepare, get organized, ready myself to repel the gap yokai, however futile an endeavor it is. As such I start thinking, racking my grey matter for anything that could help.
And boy did it come through.

Hate Sign [Helldouken]
Charges a large single firey bolt that moves quickly, leaving a trail of firey bullets in its wake. Upon impact the main ball breaks apart and more fire bullets spew out, though they tend to fizzle out just as the next fireball is launched... A real 'heated arguement'.

Waking Dream [Travel to a Distant Land]
A metaphor to my current life. A lone bullet moves across the field, leaving a ghostly trail of bullets in its wake. It is eventually joined by a second bullet that also traverses the field leaving a trail behind, their paths intertwining and seperating, but never unavoidable.

I didn't even notice Nari curling up in my lap, nor did I notice Cirno looking over my shoulder intently as I frantically tested and saved more patterns.
"Wh-whoa, you don't have to get so serious! Calm down!"

I didn't listen.

Border Sign [Boundary Between Dream and Nightmare]
A pattern that frequently shifts between serene and frantic.
Brightly colored bullets float around from all directions with no direction of their own. Five bullets then shoot outward from the center of the background, colored red, blue, green, white, and yellow before the scene changes to a twisted nightmare realm where the brightly colored bullets wink out and are slowly replaced by black-core homing bullets that pursue the opponent. The five bright bullets reappear and converge before the nightmare pattern becomes unavoidable, which causes the black-core bullets to be replaced with the lazy white-core bullets. Repeat until spell break.

Nightmare Sign [True Destruction]
Starts out with a giant blue-green bullet that quickly becomes an ashen black before crumbling and dissipating in a dense duel covering spray of small black-core grey bullets. Represents what could happen to matter if it was deprived of its binding energy on the most basic atomic level.

Creation [A New World]
Starts out as nothing, but brown bullets of varying sizes are pulled together with increasing speed until the single resulting firey bullet reaches its final size, after which it spews out smaller firey bullets while small brown bullets continue to spontaneously impact the giant firey bullet. Next the firey bullet cools down into a blue-green bullet that changes the background into an upper atmosphere, during which the planet bullet continues to spew out the occasional batch of firey bullets while it changes even further. Final phase is when 'life' develops and begins launching its rainbow colored assault at the opponent. Ends after a period of time, user has an extremely durable spell shield for the duration.

I didn't even notice the yokai bear charging me. Not until Cirno hit me over the head and made me look at it.
Nari jumped off my lap and stayed near Cirno while I got up and declared my first card.

"Hate Sign [Helldou-"

"MASTER!"

A blinding rainbow-colored laser obscured the bear and stunned me into silence.

"TRINITY!"

A gold laser that was half again as big as the first cut across the stunned bear next, and I could swear I could see it smoke.

"TWILIGHT!"

Finishing the combo was a black-cored gold and white laser that tore across everything in its path, and the bear was swept clear across the lake and into the forest on the other side.

"Wade, you're a moron." No mistaking that voice.

"Hello Mima."

She walked right over to me and flicked my forehead, the look on her face told me she was annoyed at the very least.
"Your dedication to learn how to fight off Yukari is admirable, but putting on blinders in a forest where almost everything is out to eat or rape you is about the dumbest thing I've seen you do so far."

Nari hopped up on my shoulder and made a murr noise while rubbing her head on me. Now I felt guilty, Nari was completely reliant on me to defend her and what do I do? Ignore the possible threat around me to focus on spellcards.

"I won't chew you out this time now that you realise what almost happened, but you have to keep it in mind next time. I may not be there to bail you out." Mima's cross look softened just a bit. "I am going to drag you back to the shrine, however. Yukari left about two hours ago so your confrontation will wait at least one more day."

I didn't have it in me to argue.
I picked up my new cards, made sure Nariko was secure, and bade Cirno farewell, promising to have a duel with her tomorrow before flying alongside Mima.

"Hate Sign huh? Didn't think you were the type to hate anything strongly enough to turn it into an attack." Mima was flying backwards, fixing me with those eyes that I just couldn't tear myself away from right now.

"You'd be suprised."

"To be able to do that means you have one HELL of an issue with someone. And trust me when I say you don't want to go down that route. It's not pretty."
I stayed silent.

"So, aren't you going to ask me about my one-two-three special?" That charming smile of hers came back, and with her hair trailing behind her like that... I was snapped back to reality by Mima putting me in a headlock and rubbing her fist on my head.
"Ah! Cut that out!"

"C'mon, ask!"

"Alright, alright, what was that?"
She let go and stayed ahead of me this time. Looking ahead I could tell we were getting close, and it must only be one pm.
"Hey, pay attention. You're gonna miss something with all that monolouge. Anyway, I got the idea after..."

The rest of the trip turned into an explenation of her spark combo. How she got it, how she uses it, and how it can reduce one's lifespan by a considerable amount if you were unlucky enough to be on the receiving end, and even showing off her wings.

The shrine was in sight, and we touched down moments later.

[X]Ask for some tea.
[X]Discuss spellcards.
[X]Ask about what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status.
[X]Talk to Suika.
[X]Write-in
---
Note: Suggestions for the following would be appreciated...
Boundary Sign [Border of Life and Death]
Death Sign [Black Death]
Life Sign [Long Live the King]
White Inferno [Compelling the Waiting Dream]

And Taboo [Apocolypse] won't be received right away.

[x] Discuss spellcards.
[x] Ask about what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status.
[x] Ask the reason for Yukari's visit.

[x] Discuss spellcards.
[x] Ask about what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status.
[x] Ask the reason for Yukari's visit.

> Boundary Sign [Border of Life and Death]

Yukari used it, and so did we. So why not have it as well?

> Taboo [Apocalypse]

This was with apocalyptic power in mind. As in 'could take a large chunk out of Gensokyo' power.

>>26071

I don't think we can get that powerful anytime soon... and that might cause Reimu to go after us (her job to take care of any threats)

[x] Discuss spellcards.
[x] Ask about what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status.
[x] Ask the reason for Yukari's visit.
[x] Ponder why you'd even make something with a Hate Sign.

>>26049 here
R.I.M., you just gave my spellcards an upgrade in wording, I like it.

Life Sign [Long Live the King]

Two golden magic circles appear and rotate around me, spraying out long gold and white core grain bullets forward which break apart into smaller circular bullets with semi-homing ability. After around 5 seconds the magic circles stop rotating and danmaku knights on horses shoot forward from them lead by the king in the middle.

If someone could help me make this seem better I'd appreciate it.

[x] Discuss spellcards.
[x] Ask about what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status.
[x] Ask the reason for Yukari's visit.
[x] Talk to Suika.

Now I have an idea about how to do Life Sign [Long Live the King]. Not quite what was suggested though.
---
[X]Discuss spellcards
[X]Ask what it would take to boost Nari up to Neko status
[X]Ask the reason for Yukari's visit.

"Come on, you. I was to see those spellcards of yours."
Mima then dragged me into the dining room and had me sit down, and she followed suit not too long after.
"So what have you been making?"

I lay the finished cards on the table like a hand of playing cards.
Black Sea [Shatter the Lurking Nightmare]
Lucid Dreaming [Pink Elephant in the Room]
Waking Dream [Travel to a Distant Land]
Hate Sign [Helldouken]
Border Sign [Boundary of Dream and Nightmare]
Nightmare Sign [True Destruction]
Creation [A New World]

"Not bad, variety's good, but..." Mima was stifling laughter now. "Why a pink elephant?"

"It's what I came up with, something you'd find in a dream."

"I see. A border sign card? Pattern looks solid enough. The last one practically has you playing god. I'd hate to have to try and avoid that." Mima was looking over each spellcard in turn, picking them up one by one to observe the memorized pattern. "Keep making cards like this and I may just make you my minion if I ever feel like annoying Reimu."

"Haha, no. I'm not interested in finding out how many ways Reimu could systematically kick my ass."

"Your loss." Mima switched gears after that. "You seem to have cardmaking down, and it seems you can make some pretty complex patterns in a relatively short timeframe. But just because you can make them doesn't necissarily mean you can use them all at once. You're still inexperienced and an EX level duel is exhausting no matter how energy effecient you make your cards, Phantasm even more so."

"So where would I rank?"

"I'd say you'd normally be stage two, maybe stage three at most. Your more complex cards could place you as an EX midboss, but it still wouldn't really be enough."

"So how do I get up to the point where I could take on an EX boss?"

"Same as most everything else: Practice. Duel lots of people, learn from them, and never stop being creative."

"Sounds simple enough." I scooped up my cards and almost placed them in my pocket, but Mima stopped me before I could.

"Here, something to hold those cards in. You'll thank me once you get a bigger deck of spellcards." She handed me a blank case, which I accepted and placed the spellcards in that before storing it.

"My next question: How do I boost Nari to Neko status?"

"Desperate for a girlfirend?" The tone was teasing, but...

"Har har. I mean so she doesn't have to be helpless and totally reliant on me."

"I know, couldn't help it." Mima repositioned herself before continuing. "I think the only way to boost her up to becoming a Bakeneko would be to forge a skikigami contract with her and make up the difference with your own energy, or find some kind of powerful magic energy to accelerate it. Wouldn't reccomend either, as artifacts are typically well-hidden and heavily guarded, and you just aren't strong enough yet. I get the feeling the problem will take care of itself though." She rolled her eyes at the last bit.

My next question actually had me somewhat curious, as it involved the gap yokai.
"What was Yukari here for?"

Mima began listing the reasons off on her fingers while leaning on the table.
"Looking for you, molesting Reimu, arguing with me, playing with Suika, contemplating how you slipped in under her radar and where you came in from... Y'know, little things."

"Those don't sound little."

"You're right. She's a right bitch when it comes to arguements, and playing with Reimu like that is my job. And Suika's."

[X]Write-in
---
I'm going to be gone most of the day today.

>>26085

[x] "Well, aside from making spellcards I've learned how to do interesting things with my body now."

[x] Demonstrate for Mima.
[x] Right Hand in sequential order.
-[x] Praying Mantis scythe hand.
-[x] Large Claw
-[x] Long Sword Blade
-[x] Heater Shield

[x] "Well, aside from making spellcards I've learned how to do interesting things with my body now."

[x] Demonstrate for Mima.
[x] Right Hand in sequential order.
-[x] Praying Mantis scythe hand.
-[x] Large Claw
-[x] Long Sword Blade
-[x] Heater Shield
-[x] Tentacle, just as a joke.

[x] "Well, aside from making spellcards I've learned how to do interesting things with my body now."

[x] Demonstrate for Mima.
[x] Right Hand in sequential order.
-[x] Praying Mantis scythe hand.
-[x] Large Claw
-[x] Long Sword Blade
-[x] Heater Shield

[0] "Well, aside from making spellcards I've learned how to do interesting things with my body now."

[1] Demonstrate for Mima.
[2] Right Hand in sequential order.
-[3] Praying Mantis scythe hand.
-[4] Large Claw
-[5] Long Sword Blade
-[6] Heater Shield

[X]>>26086

Mima's gaze didn't leave me for a second, it looked like she was expecting something.
"Anything else interesting?"

"Well, aside from making spellcards I figured out how to do interesting things with my body."

"Such as?"

"For starters, this."
A bit of focusing and my right arm became a praying mantis' claw, then the large blade arm from before, then the heavy claw, and finally a heater shield, all with a black and silver theme.

Mima looked on with her sly smile, head propped up on one hand while the other lay across the first.
"Matches those gloves nicely. That sort of thing should be useful in spell melees where only a handful of people ever bother with extensive physical options. Just don't show that to Yukari, especially when her mind's in the gutter."

My right arm snapped back to normal when I contemplated what Mima meant, followed by my face feeling warm.
"Is Yukari that big a pervert?"

"Depends on her mood, really. Sometimes she's perfectly civil and other times we'll be cleaning up the mess she makes trying to seduce Reimu."

"Spare me the details."

"I will." Mima sat up properly again. "I am curious if you can change your whole body since you can change bits of it. But don't go trying it right now. Reimu isn't in the best mood since Yukari left. She'd probably mistake you for a random yokai and beat you up."

Almost on cue the miko walked in, pulled a few cushions together and crashed on them.
"Ugh..."

"What happened to you?" I turned my head to look at Reimu, though she didn't bother to look at me, preferring to keep her head in the cushion for now.

"Hungry..." Was the miko's muffled response. The added stomach rumbling only confirmed this. "I missed lunch dueling Tenshi..."

"You used Fantasy Heaven at every conceivable opportunity again, didn't you?" Mima looked rather annoyed now.

"And I pitched her into the deeper recesses of the forest when I knocked her out so she won't bug me for a few days." Reimu turned her head so she could look at Mima. "Food please?"

Mima got up and walked in the direction of the kitchen, sighing along the way. "Fine, but you do realise the more you humiliate her like this the more likely she is to try and pay you back for it."

"Mmmph." Was the only response she got.

"Aside from being hungry, are you sure you're not sore or something? Because I think I see bruises..." I cringed when I looked at her skin. Those dark blotches just should not exist to blemish such skin.

"Yes, I am sore. If you know how to help, do so." She looked straight at me with her commanding eyes. What is a guy to do?

I moved along side her and-
In the span of two seconds Reimu stood up, pushed me down and threw a yin-yang orb against the wall, which bounced off and shot behind a cabinent, bounced up from there to strike a black-haired girl holding herself up in the corner of the room with both legs and one arm, while the other held a camera that was aimed right at us.

"The press isn't allowed to take photographs of the inside of the shrine." No wonder no one actively challenges Reimu. Her face, despite being quite pretty, was in fact terrifying.

The black-haired girl recovered from the hit and stood up. Well, she tried to, but Reimu tossed several pieces of paper at strategic locations to pin her down.
"R-reimu, no hard feelings right? I w-wasn't about to put these in my newspaper!" I almost felt sorry for her until Reimu plucked the camera out of her hand.
The miko wasted no time getting it open and carefully looking through the negatives before cutting out a rather long strand of film and removing a small yet necissary part from the camera. Yet she placed the camera and part next to its owner a moment later.

"None whatsoever Aya. Just stop being a peeping tom already." Reimu didn't remove the seals, and as I opened my mouth to ask why she shot me a look that shut me up instantly before poking my chest. "I have one good reason for it. You."

"You mean this isn't just a shrine-goer, this is"..." Man Aya got excited fast... Those seals bent out when she tried to launch herself off the ground, which means either Reimu didn't use her strongest seals, Aya was just that fast, or both. "Reimu, let me go!"

"The moment you put that article in that tabloid of yours Yukari will practically be living here until he stops by again, and I would sooner go into the deepest recesses of the forest of magic naked and defenseless than have that happen." Reimu seemed to lose that terrifying aura and crashed right into the cushions again. "Now please get started, I really need this."

Mima walked back in with lunch for Reimu, and just as my hands were about to start on her back she popped up and started eating. Making sure to thank Mima of course.
Then she lay down again and finally had me get started on massaging her. "Don't get any funny ideas either."

[X]Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something. (specify)
[X]Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[X]Nari's been awfully quiet...
[X]Didn't Reimu just get her maid back yesterday? Where is she?

[x]Ask about this 'Tenshi'

I am now imagining Nari staring at Aya, then pouncing and nibbling on her wings while she cries out desperately for help.

[X]Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
- [x] Ask about some of your earlier misadventures
- [x] Ask about anything else strange occuring besides us.

I think I'm going to leave voting open a while longer. Largely because the time I was going to take to write got eaten up by chores, and my writing quality drops like a rock when I get too tired.
I happen to have hit the point where it'd be better to sleep than try to write.
Remember, write-ins are always welcome, and you can usually vote for more than one thing.

[x] Nari's been awfully quiet...
[x] Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[x] Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
- [x] Ask about some of your earlier misadventures
- [x] Ask about anything else strange occuring besides us.

[0] Nari's been awfully quiet...
[1] Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[2] Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
- [3] Ask about some of your earlier misadventures
- [4] Ask about anything else strange occuring besides us.

Changing vote.

[x] Nari's been awfully quiet...
[x] Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[x] Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
- [x] Ask about some of your earlier misadventures
- [x] Ask about anything else strange occuring besides us.

[x] Nari's been awfully quiet...
[x] Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[x] Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
- [x] Ask about some of your earlier misadventures
- [x] Ask about anything else strange occuring besides us.

[X]Nari's been awfully quiet...
[X]Ask about this 'Tenshi'
[X]Aya... She's supposed to know a lot about Gensokyo isn't she? Ask something.
-[X]Ask about some of your earlier misadventures.
-[X]Ask if anything else strange besides you is occuring.

I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Nari for the last half-hour or so, so I looked around and saw Nari having a staring contest with Aya, who looked increasingly nervous as Nari's tail began to flick back and forth more rapidly.
"Nice kitty..." Cats don't get deterred that easily. "N-no pouncing me..."
Nari then pounced on Aya, sniffing her all over and then licking her legs, "Mmmphahahaha-n-not there!" her hair, "Ahahaha, cut that out!" face, "K-kyahahahaha- h-heeeelp!" neck, "Eeeyahahahahaaa- Reimuuuhuhuhu!" and then finally laying on her with a content look on her face which made me wonder what had gotten into Nari. She also started bapping those weird tassles with the poofy balls that were attached to Aya's hat while purring.

"Aya's a crow tengu." Mima looked on with an amused look on her face. "That cuddly little fuzzball probably thinks she's an overgrown bird. Not that she's wrong mind you."

"That would explain it." Just how many bunched up muscles and bruises can one miko have? It'll take a while before I can safely call this done. "So who's Tenshi?"

Aya recovered from having a cat lick her everywhere and answered.
"H-her full name is Tenshi Hinanai, she's a troublemaking celestial who got bored with heaven and decided to try and cause a catastrophy. Reimu, along with quite a few other people including myself, decided to go beat her up since she threatened Gensokyo as a whole."

"How?"

"By threatening to unleash a massive earthquake that would have leveled Gensokyo if no one had stopped her."

"I heard she wanted to beat me up." I was working on Reimu's back now, and she looked half asleep now.

"Yeah, she does. You rank pretty high on her 'people to make lick my boots' list, just under Reimu I think."

"What did I do to her?"

"Beat her up in front of a crowd. She hates that."

"Okay, how did I beat her up?"

"How? It's kind of strange, but during the harvest festival last year Tenshi showed up and started making a ruckus. You showed up dressed like a shrine priest and challenged her to an 'insult swordfighting' duel, which you won. After that she declared a spell melee and you called in multiple large yin-yang orbs to use in beating her up. It's part of the reason the number of donations to the shrine shot up for a while afterwards, people thought that the shrine's god had woken up."

Mima interjected.
"That's only after you started that little rumor in your paper. Everyone originally thought Reimu found a worthy priest to help her." Her attention turned to me. "No offence, but you're not what I'd consider deity material."

"None taken. Attaining godhood isn't even really on my list." Then I turned my attention back to Aya. "So aside from the harvest festival event, what else did I do?"

"Anything noteworthy? Out of the norm even for Gensokyo? Well, aside from being friendly with most everyone and getting killed every few days, not much. I haven't really been able to dig anything up on you. Give it a few days and I'm sure I could find something."

"Somehow I'm not reassured." Lower back now, if Reimu's still awake she's showing no signs of it. "Has anything weird other than my showing up happened?"

"Nothing yet, but I'm confident something will! Outsiders who don't die right away usually get wrapped up in an incident of some sort, and I think you'll continue the trend."

[X]Write-in

[x] "I used Yin-Yang orbs? This body must have more powers than I thought"
[x] "If this incident is Yukari-related, it will spill out into the outside world for certain."
[x] "And with Tenshi wanting revenge, I'm going to have my hands full"

[x] "I used Yin-Yang orbs? This body must have more powers than I thought."
[x] "If this incident is Yukari-related, it will spill out into the outside world for certain."
[x] "And with Tenshi wanting revenge, I'm going to have my hands full."

[x] "I used Yin-Yang orbs? This body must have more powers than I thought"
[x] "If this incident is Yukari-related, it will spill out into the outside world for certain."
[x] "And with Tenshi wanting revenge, I'm going to have my hands full"

Had a nice update all done, then the site decided to be retarded and I lost the entire thing.
I'll try again tomorrow.

>>26114

You don't save your updates in a text file?

>>26114

Seriously, get a text editor like Open Office or Notepad++ if you don't already. It'll save a giant hassle.

>>26114
This happened to me so many times at first, until I realized I was being retarded and started saving my stuff in Word after each paragraph.

That's the problem, I don't use a PC to do this. I use my Wii's opera browser, which is the only reason I'm able to get 2-4 updates done per day. If I restricted myself to my PC, I'd only be able to update once every two to three days since I only have one hour on that per day and it can take me two or three hours to make a reasonable update. The only upside to that is that you'd get a picture with the update.
So no simple copy-paste or saving of any kind thanks to Nintendo's utter incompetence about what goes in a browser.
---
[X]"I used yin-yang orbs? This body must have more powers than I thought."
[X]"If this incident is Yukari-related it will spill out into the outside world for certain."
[X]"And with Tenshi wanting revenge, I'm going to have my hands full."

"I used the yin-yang orbs? This body must have more powers than I thought."

Reimu suprised me by answering, as I was certain she was asleep by now.
"Suika wasn't exact in her gathering so some of those misty bits may have attached to other etheral things, resulting in you having a wealth of untapped potential." Reimu repositioned herself to look at me and to make my hands go where she wanted. "Though they're all weak as a result of bits of those abilities being gathered. I think you should just ignore them and focus on what you're already good at unless you're willing to make a long-term commitment."

"What kind of commitment are you talking about?" I was curious about this to say the least.

"A lifelong commitment to a mentor. In the case of the yin-yang orbs, to the only one who can teach you properly." Dramatic pause as she locks eyes with me and made her tone deadly serious. "Me."

What.

Mima chose to jump in there, outright grinning at Reimu.
"Sounds more like you want a personal masseur than anything else. Especially since you know full well Yukari could teach him the ropes just as easily, and that it's hardly a lifelong commitment to learn how."

"I'll admit that's a major part of it since very few people around here give normal massages for free." Reimu shifted her attention back to me. "You're going to find quite a few girls would want to keep you once they found out you're pretty good at this."

"I guess if everyone beat each other up constantly..." Time to shift subjects before Reimu decides I'm a permanent resident for my back-rubbing skills alone. "I'm betting that if an incident occurs and it is Yukari-related, it'll spill out into the outside world for certain."

"Mmm... Don't be so sure of that. Despite being a pain, Yukari is a responsable person who would never selfishly gamble Gensokyo or its inhabitants without a very good reason. And if she did, I'd beat her up until she quits." Despite saying she'd rather get raped than have Yukari live here earlier, Reimu's now sort of vouching for her. What is your true opinion of that woman, Reimu?

"She's sort of a responsible/irresponsible loving bisexual big sister. That describes Yukari pretty well in my opinion." I didn't ask for the peanut gallery commentary Mima. And just what definition of bisexual are you using?

"Well, surely I'll have my hands full dealing with a revenge-driven Tenshi."

"I wouldn't worry about it. She usually comes after me first, and even if she did go after you I doubt you'd have much trouble." Reimu just...

"Are you ever worried?"

Reimu grinned in response.
"Very, very rarely."

Then a Suika barged in.
"YAHOOOOOO! I'M BAAAAAACK!"

"So noisy..." Reimu didn't cover her ears though.

Suika walked in, followed by an unfamiliar green-haired person wearing a blue and white maid outfit.

Reimu shot up, toppling me, to greet this person.
"Ruukoto! You're back!"

"Yes Lady Hakurei, I should not collapse on you again." Ruukoto then noticed Aya. "Though I must question why you enjoy pinning Miss Aya to any avalible solid surface anytime she visits."

"I have my reasons. Oh yeah, Wade, meet Ruukoto, my personal nuclear-powered robot maid!" No, Reimu's not happy at all is she, with that smile on her face and that shine in her eyes.

Still, I got up, "Greetings." And gave a polite bow.

"Likewise." Ruukoto returned the gesture.

Focused conversation was largely impossible now that Reimu released Aya, it got lively with six people and a cat.

[X]Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[X]Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[X]Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.
[X]Train Nariko to pounce Aya.
[X]Write-in

[X]Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[X]Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[X]Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.

I'm tempted to tell Suika in private that if we're awake we might not mind some... quality time with her, but not sure about Wade's character (the matter of if he's a lolicon or not)

[x] Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[x] Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[x] Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.

[x] Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[x] Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[x] Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.

[X]Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[X]Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[X]Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.

Wonder if we'll learn how our relationship with Yukari is.

[x]Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.
[x]Train Nariko to pounce Aya.

[0] Ask Suika about what else may have been gathered in me other than me.
[1] Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[2] Now's a good time to learn about the rest of the inhabitants.

Why are we asking *how* like this when we're in Gensokyo? And why does it even matter?

[X] Teach Nari to pounce on Aya

Far more important.

Update late due to 'can't connect to remote server'.
Also testing tripcode.
---
[X]Ask Suika about what may have been gathered in me other than me.
[X]Just how is Ruukoto a robot? She looks human.
[X]Now's a good time to ask about the other inhabitants.

The most pressing issue right now is to ask the little oni to the right of me how precise she was in gathering just me, wether it was because she wasn't paying attention or that there was nothing she could do about it.
"Hey, Suika?"

"Eh?" She turned to look at me. Why does damn near every woman I've met here fall under cute and/or sexy?

"Were the bits of me you gathered attached to things that aren't me, such as spirits or sources of magic power?"

"Reimu told you about that, huh?" She didn't quite meet my gaze after that. "Some bits of you were practically fused to things that aren't you, but I couldn't just ignore those bits since you would be less you without them."

"So that would explain why I have no trouble crafting complex spellcards or casting them, along with the yin-yang orbs..."

"For magic I think you only got a modest boost from magic-soaked bits. The yin-yang orbs were because all the pieces floating around the shrine already gathered with something else, so I used that as a base to get the rest of you put together. It's probably why you look wrong."

"Could you tell what it was?"

"Nope, gathered you hid it from my sight and senses and I didn't want to damage you any further than you already were." She finally looked me in the eye. "You're not mad about me forgetting to tell you?"

"It was an honest mistake, so no. I'm not mad." I couldn't help but ruffle her hair, it just felt right.
Then I felt the need to shift topics.
"So how is Ruukoto a robot? Her appearance, movements and mannerisms are more human than machine."


Ruukoto responded first.
"Thank you, my creator designed me to be able to blend in with other humans, and I have done my best to continue my creator's designs. However, unlike a human I am dependent on a nuclear fusion power source and regular matinence to function properly, and I rival a youkai's durability if not exceed it."

Suika added on to it.
"I can vouch for her, I watched the hell raven recharge her."

"Fair enough. If nobody minds the subject change, could someone tell me who I should look out for aside from everyone here, Marisa, Ran, Yukari, and Yuuka?"

"I'll go first." Mima spoke ahead of Reimu or Aya, who both looked as though they were about to speak. "First off there's Shingyoku, the guardian to the Path to Heaven and the Path to Hell. Poor duo does their best but gets beaten up anytime anyone strong wants to pass, and adding insult to injury those two paths aren't even the only way in or out of their respective places."

"Then there's Kikuri, who is the moon of hell. Well, figuratively, she's actually humanlike and pretty attractive. She settles disputes among the residents and those who work there and in her off time can rival an oni when it comes to drinking. Apparently she visits that slacker reaper Komachi to have drinking contests, much to Shikieiki's chargin."

"Next is Konngara, an astral knight from the stars who became trapped in hell for some reason. I'm sure she's got an interesting story behind it, but she always changes the subject whenever I try to bring it up, hence I never found out."

Reimu took over from there.
"There's the Bhuddist temple at the Human Village, led by the youkai savior Byakuren and her merry little group. I don't really know too much about them since technically they're a rival religeous group. Even if they do more 'help everyone' rather than gather faith."

Mima cut in.
"Plus I think Byakuren's figure rival's Yukari's. Reimu gets kinda jealous of busty girls."

Reimu again, this time with a light blush.
"Who asked you?! Anyways, there's the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which is owned by Remilia Scarlet. She's an aristocrat through and through, borderline insufferable at times. It's only made even worse because she can act like a child sometimes."

Mima jumped in again.
"And yet another girl who wants to dominate Reimu in a non-violent way."

Reimu's blush got brighter, that's for certain. She also seems to be rushing through the descripitions now.
"Stop interrupting! Next there's those weirdos at Eintei, Kaguya, Eirin, Reisen, and Tewi. Kaguya's royalty, Eirin's a busty mad scientist of a doctor, Reisen's Eirin's assistant and Tewi's a painful little prick."

Ruukoto was showing concern now, placing one hand on Reimu.
"Lady Hakurei, perhaps this should wait until Miss Mima has left the room."

Reimu glared daggers at Mima, who just gave that charming smile in return.

Late afternoon, 4:00pm I think...

[X]I think I've forgotten something... someone cute... Getting some distance from this ticking timebomb is fine too.
[X]Are they always like this?
[X]Against your better judgement, help Mima fluster the miko.
[X]Talk to someone in private.
-[X]Aya
-[X]Suika
[X]Write-in

[x] Go find Nariko.
-[x] Leave the Shrine and go check out that Buddhist Temple at the Human village. It sounds interesting.

[x] Go find Nariko.
-[x] Leave the Shrine and go check out that Buddhist Temple at the Human village. It sounds interesting.

Byakuren~

[0] Go find Nariko.
-[1] Leave the Shrine and go check out that Buddhist Temple at the Human village. It sounds interesting.

[X]I think I've forgotten something... someone cute... Getting some distance from this ticking timebomb is fine too.
[x] Go find Nariko.
-[x] Leave the Shrine and go check out that Buddhist Temple at the Human village. It sounds interesting.

[x] Go find Nariko.
-[x] Leave the Shrine and go check out that Buddhist Temple at the Human village. It sounds interesting.

[X]Go find Nariko
-[X]Go visit the buddhist temple in the human village, it sounds interesting.

"Ahh, no one objects to my leaving for now do they?" Somehow I think this just isn't going to end well no matter what I do, so why get caught in the crossfire?

"I was thinking the same thing! Aya Shamemaru signing off!" And with a gust of wind she was off.

"I don't really want to be here for this either, seeya!" Suika walked out as well, and I followed suit with a Nariko on my shoulder. Just in time too, I heard spellcards being declared and a very distressed Ruukoto trying to at least get them to take it outside.

Suika and I parted ways at the bottom of the stairs, saying her buddy was due to show up and she wanted to give her a proper greeting. I didn't object to that so I continued on to the human village alone after telling Suika where I was going. Instead of walking on the ground or flying high in the air I floated along at a reasonable clip along the path, and spotted someone I probably should have spoken too sooner.
"Hello Tokiko."

"Hmm? Oh, hello. I see your technique has improved." She held a different book today, but she's still cute...

"I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last time, my name is Wade."

"Well met Wade, so what are you doing out here?" She decided to float alongside me to make conversation possible.

"Going to visit the Buddhist temple in the Human Village. It sounds interesting enough, and I don't remember ever being there. Might I ask what you're doing?"

"Me? I'm just wandering around, Reimu trashed Kourindou and returned my books to me yesterday so I haven't had any reason to go near that place, and very few other people really notice me." We were floating parralel to each other yet facing one another now as if we were on an invisible bus. We still had to lean in the direction of where we wanted to go.

"Not notice you? What stone-hearted boneheads manage to ignore someone so cute?" Wait, did I just say that out loud?

Tokiko seemed suprised and her cheeks colored themselves with a faint blush and she held her book tighter, only serving to make her cuter and the task of talking to her without being an idiot harder. "Cute? Most people don't look at me that way, most just tell me to go away or go overboard... Thank you."

"For what?" Yeah seriously, what? I was just running my mouth and saying what I thought, what's worth thanking there?

"For treating me like a person." I improved her mood it seems. Just what does she have to put up with on a routine basis to make her thank someone for that? "Eh? Look out!"

I was about to answer that when an eggplant colored umbrella opened up suddenly in front of me, followed by someone saying "BOO!"
I wasn't amused, since I ran into it before I had a chance to stop, and the giant tongue wrapping around my legs an- wait, giant tongue? I got a better look at my 'attacker' and she was... odd, to say the least. The umbrella she was using to hoist me up had one eye, a jagged mouth pattern and the giant tongue I mentioned just a minute ago coming out of said mouth, and there was a sandal at the other end of the umbrella. The girl weilding it has sky-blue hair, one deep blue eye and one red, a sky-blue and white outfit and light skin. Her tongue was out too, and it was twisted like the umbrella's, obvously alot smaller but still.

"Were you suprised?" Was the first thing out of her mouth.

"I'm suprised that someone randomly hoists people up by their ankles with a giant tongue to ask them if they're suprised." I actually was suprised by that.

"I suprised you but not in the way I wanted? Aww..." She kicked a small rock off the path while looking down at the ground.

Does everyone here have some kind of problem? Alice, who lives all alone with nothing but lifeless dolls for company, Tokiko, who seems to be considered a pariah, and this girl who wants to suprise people but can't. Okay, not everyone, but I hope this doesn't become a trend.

"Could you let me down now?" Nari's claws were getting kind of painful and I wanted to see this temple before sundown.

"Fine..." The girl gently lay me on the ground and let go. "I may as well just go."

"Well, can we ask each other's name at least? Mine's Wade."

"Kogasa Tatara." She was already floating away on the wind.

Tokiko didn't seem to have too much to say, she just floated there. She did offer me a hand up which I gladly took.
"That was a Tsukunogami, a tool that has gained a soul after existing for one-hundred years. Kogasa appears to be one that was neither used well or mistreated given her intentions. I'm guessing she was abandoned."

I was really hoping that wasn't it.
It didn't stop Tokiko and I from reaching the village, but once we got in sight of it I felt a tug on my arm. Tokiko was holding it and locking eyes with me. "This is as far as I go. I don't want to go in there."

"Why not?"

"I have a mixed reputation with the inhabitants. Though even if I don't go with you, I wouldn't mind spending time with you again." Before I could really answer her she was off, leaving me alone again.

Since I no longer had someone to talk to, I headed for the temple-looking building in the village and the tiger-woman sleeping on the roof. And I couldn't help this next bit when I got close to her:
"Tiger lying in the sun,
Fast asleep, her day is done.
Lying there was warmth she sought,
The sun has made her tummy hot.
But one sad fact she overlooked,
Her brain is now completely cooked!"

That woke her up at least.
"Do you always greet people with weird poetry, or is it just me?"

[X]"Just you I'm afraid."
[X]"Sorry, sleeping cats cause me to think up stuff like that."
[X]Introduce yourself.
[X]Write-in

[X]"Just you I'm afraid."
[X]Introduce yourself.

[x] "Just you I'm afraid."
[x] Introduce yourself.

[x] "Just you I'm afraid."
[x] Introduce yourself.

[0] "Just you I'm afraid."
[1] Introduce yourself.

Writing this story makes me learn new things.
---
[X]"Just you I'm afraid."
[X]Introduce yourself

"Just you I'm afraid, sleeping tigers always seem to bring out the strange poet."

The tiger-woman snorted, but seemed somewhat amused.
"So what brings you up here? Most people walk in through the doors, not float over the roof."

"Honestly? It's because I heard about this place and thought it'd be interesting to see."

"Plain old curiosity? As good a reason as any I suppose."

"And I suppose I should introduce myself, my name is Wade, what's yours?"

I've referred to this person as tiger-woman simply because she does in fact resemble a tiger. Yellow hair with black stripes with matching cat ears and tail, yellow-orange eyes with vertical slits not unlike a tiger's, an orange mid-length skirt with more tiger print and a white shirt. She also has a spear along with an odd looking glowing lamp hanging off her belt, which didn't quite fit the rest of the outfit suggesting she didn't normally wear it.
"Shou Toramaru. Not to be rude, but now that I'm up I'm going to head into the temple. Feel like tagging along?"

"That was my intent." With that we floated down to ground level and entered the temple. I wasn't well versed in buddhist ways, but simplicity must be part of it as the temple wasn't extravagant in any way. A few scrolls were carefully lined up on a pedastal which I assume held buddhist teachings, what appeared to be a slightly fancier version of a ship's steering wheel over the scrolls, a couple doors leading off somewhere else and not much else. It was eerily quiet however, so it must be soundproofed from outside noise.
Shou must have caught on to this, as she spoke not too long after we entered.
"Not what you expected, is it?"

"I've never really heard of Buddhism up until now, so I didn't know what to expect. The only religion I've dealt with is Christianity and its countless bickering subdevisions, but I hoped this wouldn't be like that."

"In turn I wouldn't know much about Christianity or its values. Is it the religion you practice?" She seemed curious enough now.

"I do not. Most of those who do practice that religion try to cram the whole 'believe on the Lord and thou shalt be saved' junk down your throat, treat the bible as if it were law, and the leader of the church in my hometown is in it for the money, not the religious significance. Oh, and according to them, anyone who doesn't mindlessly practice it will burn in hell for all eternity."

I don't think Shou expected that answer, she was looking at me with raised eyebrows and suprise was practically written on her face. She even stopped opening the door.
"Is it really like that? Surely there must be some redeeming factor."

"If there is, it's lost to me."

"I see."

"I don't mean to offend, but I don't follow any religion. I live my life, and that's all I should need. I don't think I should have to be told how, especially since I don't kill, steal, or anything like that."

Shou opened the door all the way and stepped through, gesturing me to follow.
"I don't believe you have offended. So you chose to forge your own path through life taking simple virtues to heart?"

"Not killing, not stealing, no sexual misconduct, telling the truth... it's pretty universal don't you think? Those are things humans should take to heart anyway."
Upon reaching the next room I was greeted with two sights that were just as odd as Shou. One was a was a black-haired girl in a black shirt and miniskirt, with black stockings and black shoes with little red ribbons on them, and three red blade-like things with a hollow circle at the joint coming off her back to the right, along with three blue tentacles, or tails, that have spades on the ends coming off to the left sitting on a large object that could only be described as a UFO glowing red, blue, and green. And apparently asleep if the gentle snoring is any indication. How does she sleep sitting up?

The other was a rather impressive-looking woman who's black dress and exposed white undershirt could blend in with colonial America without much suspicion. Her hair seemed to have a sunset gradient to it, starting from purple at the top to orange in the middle and golden near the end. She also possesed the air of a motherly figure. I wonder is this one is Byakuren?
Regardless, she spoke first.
"You brought a guest?"

"Yes Lady Byakuren, or to be more precise I saw him in." Shou's response answered my question. "I see Nue still thinks meditation equals sleep."

Byakuren gave a soft sigh and shook her head. She showed no signs of anger, but rather seemed to look at the sleeping girl like a student or daughter who hasn't gotten the knack of something but was trying their hardest.
"She stayed awake longer this time so I can hardly complain."
She then turned her attention to me. "Might I ask for your name?"

"My name's Wade."

"Welcome to our temple Wade. Is there something you wish to ask?"

[X]Write-in

[x] "Could I hear about the history of this place?"

[X]It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how does this place came to be and how do you exactly help people around here?

R.I.M: I like your story and speed of your updates. Thought I'd let you know.

[0] It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how does this place came to be and how do you exactly help people around here?

[X]It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how does this place came to be and how do you exactly help people around here?
[X]I may be actually in need on assistance: someone seems focused on pursuing me. Could you help me get stronger? I plan to use my skills purely for self-defense.
Forgot to add that last one.

[x] It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how does this place came to be and how do you exactly help people around here?

See, this is why I stick those little [X]write-in blocks at the end of every update. Because someone's going to take this in an unexpected direction and it keeps things flowing.
And it's good to know that people enjoy this, it makes it easier to write.
---
[X]It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how this place came to be and how exactly do you help people around here?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Byakuren Hijiri. May I ask how this place came to be and how you help people around here?" Adding to that with a polite bow, only then did I realise that I haven't actually heard Byakuren's surname before. Chalk up one more to messed up memory.

"Oh? You recall meeting me before, then?" Byakuren seemed curious at my knowledge of her full name, but must've pushed that thought aside. "Ah, a question for later. Come, sit. I'll answer yours first."
I could hardly argue with such a person, so I did as she suggested.
"This temple came to be about a month ago when a pair of shrine maidens and a witch released me from my seal and defeated me in a rather pointless duel due to our conflicting views. Each told me of the status of this world, and I did not believe them until the Moriya shrine maiden ceased channeling her godesses and showed me herself where humans stand here, and the Hakurei shrine maiden showed me where youkai stand."

"Centuries ago, I worked in the outside world to bring harmony to humans and youkai. For a while I succeded, solving the root problems that the youkai had and letting them live on in peace. But eventually I was found out and was sealed within the deepest part of Makai until just over a month ago when those I helped previously came to free me. But at the time of my sealing humans oppressed youkai to a great extent, and I had no way of knowing that it was possible for the scales to have tipped the other way."

"Hence the construction of the temple of Myouren, to aid humans and youkai alike in their times of need. The construction numerous people aided in, along with yourself and the godesses of Moriya. It warmed my heart to know that even the godess who proclaimed youkai evil was able to see past her veiws to aid us. As for what we do to help, we seek out the root cause of discomfort among humans and youkai and attempt to remedy it to the best of our abilities."

"You're more peaceful incident resolvers?"

"Yes, more so than those who usually take it upon themselves to resolve crises. Violence begets violence and starts a downward spiral that is best avoided."

Right around then the girl sitting on the UFO woke up. She looked around groggily and realised she had in fact fallen asleep, letting out an exclamation of suprise as she did so.
"Ah! Miss Byakuren, I'm sorry! I fell asleep again!" She then noticed me, and her red, pupil-less eyes widened even further. "K-kyaaaaaa! Who're you? Why are you here? Don't look at meeee! Whoa- Whoaaaaaa!" In her panic Nue shifted herself off balance and waved her arms comically before falling off backwards, sliding the UFO forward as she did.

Shou sighed while facepalming, though she was smiling, and Byakuren hid her smile behind a sleeve, perhaps to hide her amusement? She stopped the sliding UFO with one finger regardless. "There's no reason to be alarmed Nue, you've met this person before."

Nue raised herself up on her blue tail-things before simply floating up and leaning on the UFO. "Have I? Hmm..." She took a closer look at me, staring at me with those unnerving eyes of hers. "Huh, I have. Even if I never got your name. Who're you?"

"Wade, you?" I half wanted some distance between us, but there wasn't really anyplace I could scoot off to without falling over backwards.

"Nue Houjuu, youkai chimera." She stuck her hand out, which I grasped, and she shook. I never would have thought anyone here would use a more western style of greeting. "What kind of creature is that in your lap? It looks fluffy and cute."

"You've never seen a cat?" That suprised me. Unless you lived in the north or south pole one would most likely have seen a cat-like creature.

"Yeah I have, but I thought they all looked like Shou." Nari seemed perfectly fine with letting Nue itch her and expressed it by turning my legs into pincushions. "This one's different, its tail is splitting into four and it's got fur all over."

Four? Sure enough Nariko now had a four-way split at the tip of her tail, making me wonder how I managed to miss that. I briefly turned my attention to Byakuren, who watched our exchange with a kind amusement. "To answer your question from before, no, I don't recall our previous encounter."

"I thought as much, though I wished otherwise."

[X]Write-in
---
I got lazy with the options again...

[x] "I'm sorry about that. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has managed to gather enough for me to have memory, now, so I doubt I'll have trouble forgetting anybody any time soon." Smile at her reassuringly.
[x] Turn to Nue. "Cats actually only have one tail. Nariko has started to change since she started coming along with me."
[x] Turn back to Byakuren "Can you tell me more about Buddhism?"

[x] "I'm sorry about that. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has managed to gather enough for me to have memory, now, so I doubt I'll have trouble forgetting anybody any time soon." Smile at her reassuringly.
[x] Turn to Nue. "Cats actually only have one tail. Nariko has started to change since she started coming along with me."
[x] Turn back to Byakuren "Can you tell me more about Buddhism?"

[x] "I'm sorry about that. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has managed to gather enough for me to have memory, now, so I doubt I'll have trouble forgetting anybody any time soon." Smile at her reassuringly.
[x] Turn to Nue. "Cats actually only have one tail. Nariko has started to change since she started coming along with me."
[x] Turn back to Byakuren "Can you tell me more about Buddhism?"

[x] "I'm sorry about that. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has managed to gather enough for me to have memory, now, so I doubt I'll have trouble forgetting anybody any time soon." Smile at her reassuringly.
[x] Turn to Nue. "Cats actually only have one tail. Nariko has started to change since she started coming along with me."
[x] Turn back to Byakuren "Can you tell me more about Buddhism?"

>>26156
[X]I need help becoming more proficient with magic and making my cards more energy-efficient.

Or, if you want the long version:

"This may sound strange, given the temple and your own philosophy of peaceful resolution to conflicts, but I need to become stronger fast and I can't possibly do that on my own"
"You see, I'm being chased by the easily-bored Youkai of Boundaries, both in this world and on my own. Should I fall into her grasp, I'll probably become another of her playthings, living only to amuse her self, losing all connections to my world, losing all my freedom. You, of all people, should be able to sympathize with my fears.
Alas, I don't intend you to go against your principles: like you said, violence always begets violence. Surely are you familiar with spellcard battles, yes? Somehow, probably due to my 'condition', I'm extremely proficient at creating spellcards. Alas, although a sword may be strong, without sharpness it cannot last; likewise my self won't last long at a spellcard battle without more energy.
If I don't become stronger, I won't be able to defend myself, If I don't become stronger, Nari will never be able to stand on his own, a crime on its own worth in a world that allows her to do so, If I don't become stronger, I won't be able to meet my friends in the other side ever again. I can't, won't allow that."

>>26162
Wow, is that really what you guys think of my yet to be introduced Yukari? I'm kind of impressed if this is the general level of paranoia when dealing with her, it means I've built up her image well.

Update tomorrow by the way, just checking what the votes are like.

>>26162
Wow, is that really what you guys think of my yet to be introduced Yukari? I'm impressed if that's the general level of paranoia in this story.

Also, update coming tomorrow. Boy do I have my work cut out for me...

>>26164
>Wow, is that really what you guys think of my yet to be introduced Yukari?
Yeah. And even if I didn't, I'm pretty sure that Wade would.
I don't think that he's running from Yukari, either on Gensokyo or on America, just for the fun of it. Just my opinion though.

>>26164

A healthy dose of paranoia is welcome when you find out that a person who can screw around with reality is looking for you.

>>26164

Sounds rather normal and Hot (Mmmmm Braless Yukari). And One might wonder, perhaps being her plaything isn't such a horrible fate.

I think though the best thing is to eventfully talk with her lest Wade end up going down a path he shouldn't (having a spell card with "Hate Sign" is never a good sign, even Mima remarks as such)

The reason we remember Yukari more than anyone else and the reason she's after us...

Could it be, any of our previous dreams with her in them turned out to be the only wet dreams we've ever had out of all of the girls in Gensokyo? A year's worth of dreams and not one from which we awoke to soiled undies? As a healthy young man? Slim chances.

I mean, hell, we can morph our arms into weapons; what's to stop us from growing a second dick or sprouting naughty tentacles? Apart from the fact our spiritual fragments have bonded themselves to magical items, we really are her perfect little plaything.

Along with Alice, I'd say her actions are perfectly justifiable. We're just that awesome.

>>26171
Yukari had so good sex with Wade that she was resolved to find him from the outside?

Oh ho

>>26172

Who knows, we should prepare ourselves in case talking with her doesn't work.

I think we should try talking with her sometime to find out what she exactly intends on doing with us, since we do not really know what she intends to do with us. We're just assuming things at this point.

Mixed views on the subject, hmm?
---
[X]"I'm sorry about that. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has gathered enough for me to have memory, now, so I doubt I'll have trouble forgetting anyone." Smile at her reassuringly.
[X]Turn to Nue. "Cats only have one tail. Nariko has started to change since she started coming along with me."
[X]Turn back to Byakuren. "Could you tell me more about Buddhism?"

Somehow I felt guilty over forgetting things like this, but how is it my fault exactly? I was only in control since a month ago. Regardless, I felt I needed to apologize to Byakuren for forgetting her, and to explain why that is.
"I'm sorry Byakuren. It seems my spiritual self was split into fragments every time I awoke in Gensokyo. The Hakurei shrine has gathered enough for me to have memory, so I doubt I'll forget anyone anytime soon." I still felt the need to smile reassuringly at her.

Byakuren smiled back, perhaps it was relief?
"That is good to hear, though you had best be careful, as anything can be broken again with enough effort. Despite appearing whole, you appear to be ready to fall apart again."

It was good she accepted my apology and explanation, but her warning wasn't very reassuring.
"Ready to fall apart again?"

"Yes. To make a comparison, you are like a shattered statue that has been put back together with sheer will. This is not to discourage you, this is to encourage you to locate the remaining fragments as soon as you can, as that would stabilize you further." I guess those fragments are more important than I thought with Byakuren telling me as much.

"What would it take to keep me from just collapsing again?"

"Perhaps finding all your lost fragments would be enough. Though you should ask yourself what is capable of shattering a spirit to begin with, since while your condition is a problem all on its own, it is also a symptom of the full problem."

"Then what's the full problem?"

Byakuren smiled again at this.
"I do not know. That is something you must find out on your own."

I stayed silent, there just wasn't anything I could think of saying to that. "I see." I then turned to Nue, who was scritching Nari behind the ear. "Cats don't normally have a split tail like that, Nariko's been changing ever since she started coming with me."

"Mm, I know normal cats only have one tail. I was saying Nariko is different from other cats." You could have said that instead of leaving room for confusion, Nue.
"The cat came through with you?" Now I had Byakuren's attention again. "And yet she is whole. I wonder what the difference between your appearances was."

"I don't know, but I do my best to keep her from harm regardless." This was truth. Nari meant a lot to me. "I know this is changing the subject again, but could you tell me more about your religion?"

"Buddhism? I'd be glad to. This will take a while though."

"I'm in no hurry." This was also true, unlike in the outside world I don't have much of an obligation to be anywhere.

"Buddhism is at its simplest a way to understand the true nature of reality in order to transcend suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth, to achive a state known as Nirvana, or Bodhi. Depending on which teachings you follow they could refer to the same thing or be different states of enlightenment. I belive them to be the same thing as they both require one to extinguish greed, hate, and delusion."

Byakuren looked as though she were about to continue, but changed expression upon her inspecting me more closely. "Evening causes you to shift from one world to the next... And that process is starting now, isn't it?"

Looking out the window confirmed this. Where did the time go?


[X]Ask if I can stay here for the night.
[X]Head back to the shrine.
[X]Write-in

[x] Ask if I can stay here for the night.

[x] Ask if I can stay here for the night.

Perhaps motherly (in more ways than one) Youkai Jesus might shed some light on our dream self by staying over.

But her insight is definitely interesting in regards to ourselves.

Perhaps we have to go to all the spots in the dreams to see if our fragments are still there.

Yeah some of us think we shouldn't be so gung ho about fighting her (but I do believe we should get stronger in case diplomatic means fail)

[x] Ask if I can stay here for the night.
I can't imagine a safer place than one who is bound to give help to humans and youkai alike.

Hell, they might be able to find more about our condition by watching our spirit's behavior while sleeping... although if they do that or not is up to them.

[X]Ask if I can stay here tonight.

Sunset. If I left now I might have been able to get back to the shrine, but why make such an idiotic gamble? I told Suika the general area where I'd be so on the off chance Reimu or Mima actually get worried they can drag my location out of her. Heh, I wouldn't mind watching that sometime. Back on the main monolouge topic I might try asking Byakuren if I could stay here the night.
When I finally payed attention to my surroundings I found Nue's face uncomfterbly close to my own with her red eyes staring right into mine.

"You don't blink at all when you monolouge." Oh come on, next you're going to tell me the next person who calls me out on this can actually tell what I'm monolouging about!

"Do you mind?" I inch away from her.

"Yes, I do mind." What? That doesn't even make sense!

"Not so close!"

"That I don't mind."

"You're impossible."

"No, just Lunatic." Was that some weird attempt at youkai humor?

I facepalmed. Hard. And then I turned my attention to Byakuren, who was patiently sitting there watching the exchange.
"I was wondering, do you mind if I spend the night here?"

"I wouldn't mind at all." Simple, direct, beautiful in the light of the setting sun... God dammit hormones, go be active somewhere else.

I followed Byakuren out of the room and through a few corridors lined with sliding doors and empty doorways leading off into all manner of rooms, such as what appeared to be a meditation area, a garden, a library, a pool... sometimes being a guy lets me come up with some wonderful mental images, but it should wait until she leads me to the room I'd be using.
Which doesn't take too much longer as we quickly come to a stop in front of a particular door, which Byakuren opens and shows me inside. Like the rest of the temple but unlike the entry room, it's simple but not bare. But quite frankly I'd be happy with a bed and a roof over my head, and of course, a functional bathroom.

"Will this do?"

"Byakuren, I'm imposing on you here. This is fine." I can't believe I actually said that, but I smiled regardless because it was true.

Nue walked in with Nari on her shoulder. "Your cat's a little strange." Gee, you think?
Still, she hops off Nue's shoulder and onto my chest before crawling onto my shoulder and lying there. Which is pretty impressive considering that she's not exactly small.

"Yes, but she's my weird cat." I got a tail flick for that comment.
I walked over to the bed I'd be using and almost took my shirt off before remembering that there are two women in the room too. "What?"

"You're going to sleep now?" Byakuren seemed somewhat suprised. "I thought it would be when it becomes dark, rather than now."

"I think it varies, but the sun's almost below the horizon isn't it?" The window's view doesn't lie. It'd be dark soon and I didn't want to collapse onto the floor or something.

"It is. I will take my leave then." Byakuren exited the room, leaving Nue.

"Well?" I ought to be asking that, not the girl with tentacles growing out her back.

"Well what?"

"You're going to get undressed right?"

"Out. Shoo. Go. Get. Away with you." I punctuated each word by pushing Nue out of the room, which she put up some serious resistance as I got her to the doorway.

"It's not nice to shove a girl out of her own room." I felt one of her tails wrap around my arm, another around my waist, and bring me in front of her to see that her eyes were half-lidded and her tongue sticking partway out. To this I had no response, I thought Byakuren would-

"Nue, put Wade down and get out of the guest bedroom." Shou hooked one of Nue's red wings on her spear causing the chimera to look crestfallen.

"Aww... You're no fun Shou." She let my arm and waist slide out of her tail's grip, which concerned me because I actually didn't mind being in her grip like that. I hope this doesn't turn into a weird fetish or something.

"Sorry about that. Nue's something of a prankster. She doesn't mean any harm, but it's still annoying sometimes." Shou started walking away with the rather comical sight of Nue hanging off her spear. "Night Wade."

"Good night." I retreated into the guest room and took off my shirt, pants, boots and fedora before crawling into the bed and letting Nari curl up on me. Sleep comes quickly after that, or rather, that weird process that feels more like a long blink than anything else.

Day three: Outside world

Get up, yawn, stretch, get dressed...
Breakfast is taken care of shortly after I got up, and it's a Monday. I don't really have to worry about it much since I've already graduated from high school and thanks to yet another mother-based roadblock have yet to go to college or get a decent job that wasn't more than under the table work. And then she complains about it constantly. Which means I'm going to have serious trouble later in life if this keeps up.

[X]Head to the city, it ought to be interesting.
[X]Park, I don't feel like doing much.
[X]Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
[X]Wander aimlessly.
[X]Write-in
---
Yes folks, Nue's tails are prehensile!

[x] Wander aimlessly.
-[x] Take Nariko with me.

[X]Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
-[X] Take Nariko with me.
-[X] Make a mental note to bring my MP3 Player with me next time I head back to Gensokyo. At least then I'll have something to listen to.
-[X] Make another mental note to be on the lookout for Yukari. She may not know what you look like out here, but better safe then sorry.

[X]Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
-[X] Take Nariko with me.
-[X] Make a mental note to bring my MP3 Player with me next time I head back to Gensokyo. At least then I'll have something to listen to.
-[X] Make another mental note to be on the lookout for Yukari. She may not know what you look like out here, but better safe then sorry.

[0] Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
-[1] Take Nariko with me.
-[2] Make a mental note to bring my MP3 Player with me next time I head back to Gensokyo. At least then I'll have something to listen to.
-[3] Make another mental note to be on the lookout for Yukari. She may not know what you look like out here, but better safe then sorry.

[X]Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
-[X] Take Nariko with me.
-[X] Make a mental note to bring my MP3 Player with me next time I head back to Gensokyo. At least then I'll have something to listen to.
-[X] Make another mental note to be on the lookout for Yukari. She may not know what you look like out here, but better safe then sorry.
-- [x] If you must confront her, do so in a crowded place, and be on guard for any tricks. Also try to find some answers in such a scenario.

[X]Coastal town, even on an off day there's still plenty to do.
-[X]Bring Nariko
-[X]Make a mental note to bring my MP3 player with me next time I head to Gensokyo. At least then I'll have something to listen to.
-[X]Make another mental note to be on the lookout for Yukari. She may not know what you look like out here, but better safe than sorry.

Yeah, heading out for the coastal town sounds good, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.
As such I get Nari's harness on, ready my stuff... only to remember someone jacked my bike yesterday. Jeezus, doesn't anyone respect other people's property anymore? Still, I'm not sitting around here all day hoping something will happen. So I just start walking.
Nari made a questioning murr noise, so I responded by telling her my bike was stolen. She seemed a little saddened by that, opting to lay across my shoulders instead of her usual regal sitting position. That in turn worsened my mood, because I wanted to find out who stole it so I can get it back, then maybe teach the sonuvabitch a lesson. Of course, all my body strength is in my legs from all the biking so it may not work out too well unless I took up Regal's style of fighting from Tales of Symphonia. But that's fantasy, unlike Gensokyo which while logic gets drop kicked out the door, it's still very much real.

Ugh, sunny and warm already. Sure it makes the coast look good but unless you have sunscreen and deoderant you weren't going to smell that great once you got home. Which is a big gripe for me because I can actually smell myself instead of being blissfully ignorant. But now I'm just rambling and complaining and no one's really that interested in that kind of thi-

I glanced behind me and some kid was riding up to me on my bike. My bike. I was about ready to pull out my crowbar and yank it out from under her, but she stopped, parked it and waved at me. Odd looking kid too, the way her hat sat it was like it was covering ears... And she was already skipping off without waiting for me, leaving the bike.
Yes Yukari, you sent your shikigami's shikigami to prove a point, didn't you?

I considered just getting it, but Nari batted my shoulder as if to tell me not to go get it. I was inclined to agree since that could result in gapping so I continued onwards. I could get gapped anyways, but I still had a chance to deny my identity if I don't take the easy way out this time.

Also, I brought along my MP3 player so I could listen to my music collection while I rode, excuse me, walked and I decided it might not be such a bad idea to bring it along the text time I shift to my Gensokyo self. But why wait till then to listen to the music? Naomi lives for paint, Marine lives for creative experiments, and I live for the music in life. I happen to enjoy more instrumental music instead of those with lyrics since in order to truly enjoy it the music has to speak your language so to speak. A lot of song lyrics don't do that for me, so I'd rather use my discerning ears to pick out individual instruments, how many of them there are... I pay alot of attention to the melody and I cringe when I hear something off.

I let the random song list pick what to play and would leave it alone unless I heard something I wasn't in the mood for, at that point I'd just skip it for now.
It picked Tallon Overworld, and that was a nice leisurely song to listen to while I cover the rest of the distance to the town.

Where to in the town?
[X]Marine's shop. To be honest that, or maybe she, is a big reason why I'm here.
[X]Beach, despite my aversion to strong sunlight, there's plenty of nice sights to behold.
[X]The lighthouse. I don't want to be bothered right now.
[X]The aquarium. It ought to be fairly crowded, it's big, plus the enviroment is perfect to listen to music without much interference.
[X]Write-in (Yes I'm bringing Nari.)

[x] The lighthouse. I don't want to be bothered right now.

[X]The aquarium. It ought to be fairly crowded, it's big, plus the environment is perfect to listen to music without much interference.

>> The lighthouse. I don't want to be bothered right now.

Also a good place to get Gaped due to no one being there.

Yukari has found us, and is just playing with us at the moment. The moment she can do so without interference, she will.

[X]Marine's shop. To be honest that, or maybe she, is a big reason why I'm here.

We should spend some time with our other female friend before thinking about drawing Yukari out.

[X]The aquarium. It ought to be fairly crowded, it's big, plus the environment is perfect to listen to music without much interference.

[0] The aquarium. It ought to be fairly crowded, it's big, plus the environment is perfect to listen to music without much interference.

How will you handle this I wonder?
---
[X]The aquarium. It ought to be crowded, it's big, plus it's a good place to listen to music without much interference.

I settled on the large seaside aquarium since there would be a few benefits. One was the fact that Yukari would have to work around a decent sized crowd to gap me without anyone noticing or attempting to interfere. Next was that Nari likes looking at the fish and penguins in there. It was a decent walk to the aquarium, adding even more of a workout to the hour-long walk just to get to town, but once I got in it wouldn't be too bad.

Turns out it's a little less crowded this morning than my paranoid self would like, which meant I'd have to be in someone's line of sight to keep Yukari from pulling anything. Not that it'd help necissarily, seeing as even though there must have been close to a hundred photos of her driving like a maniac total she still managed to remain unknown to everyone who saw her. Myself exempted of course.

I followed the sparse groups of people, stayed in sight of the security cameras, and even turned down my music to the point where I could still hear everything going on around me. I spent some time watching the brightly colored fish swim around while Nari had her nose pressed to the glass trying to work out a way to catch those tasty morsels. It's rather amusing to watch her various reactions to fish. She'll jump at massive tuna, trot away from pufferfish, spook the penguins if at all possible and stare at the captive beluga whale as if she were talking to it. Who knows though, maybe she really is.

And one of the major topics of discussion between the people who came here was that crazy driver two days ago who tried to plead not guilty, got sentenced, and got his liscence revoked. There wasn't really any way to prove the man's innocence without blowing Yukari's cover wide open, but honestly? She came very close to snuffing out Nari. I couldn't care less what happened to her after that right now. I walked into another tropical fish area and a couple things struck me as wrong. First, the bunch of people ahead of me that just entered wasn't in there, I saw them letting the door shut when I came in. Second was the absence of the security cameras I knew were there. Third, all the aquatic life looked ready to bolt even though no one was there.

But I was looking at the fish instead of in front of me and walked straight into a pair of mobile pillows. Then one hand kept my head where it was and an arm wrapping around my mid-section to hold me close to the female figure. Her smell was pleasant yet invoked a feeling of power. Kind of like what would happen if lightning strikes were lavender scented.
"It's not nice to keep ignoring a lady, Wade." And that oh-so-familiar voice.

Couldn't let me hold on to my delusions, could you.

[X]Jig's up, she probably knows already.
[X]Try to deny it, I look different in Gensokyo. But don't tell her that.
[X]Nobody's here, declare a duel if possible.
[X]"I am not the droid you are looking for."
[X]Write-in

[X]"I am not the droid you are looking for."
[x]"But really now, couldn't you just have met me on the other side, talk it over some tea? Being followed around is just scary."

[x] "I am not the droid you are looking for."

[X]Move my right palm in front of her face from left to right.
[X]Say "I am not the droid you are looking for."

GODDAMNIT YUKARI

[x] "I am not the droid you are looking for."

[x] Make no attempt to remove yourself from her bosom.
[x] "If I knew you were this soft, I'd have started paying attention much sooner."
[x] "Somehow I remember your name, but I don't remember anything else. Why exactly are you after me?"

>>26230
Oh ho

[x] Make no attempt to remove yourself from her bosom.
[x] "If I knew you were this soft, I'd have started paying attention much sooner."
[x] "Somehow I remember your name, but I don't remember anything else. Why exactly are you after me?"

[0] "I am not the droid you are looking for."

[x] "I am not the droid you are looking for."

[x] Make no attempt to remove yourself from her bosom.
[x] "If I knew you were this soft, I'd have started paying attention much sooner."
[x] "Somehow I remember your name, but I don't remember anything else. Why exactly are you after me?"

This sounds great and we can get some questions answered.

[X]"I am not the droid you are looking for."

Haha, this couldn't possibly work.
"I am not the droid you are looking for." It came out kind of muffled but it was still legible.

"I think you're twenty or thirty years off if you're trying to impersonate Obi-wan Kenobi." Said in her playful voice.

I tilt my head up to actually look at the woman in front of me and sure enough it's one Yukari Yakumo, staring back at me. "So, you just couldn't leave me be could you."

That happy look was replaced by one of confusion. "Eh? Wade... I thought we made up already. Why are you angry at me?"

"Gee, I don't know, the fact that your insanse little joyride almost killed Nari and I twice?" Like you even need to ask?

"So you don't remember. You're going to sadden more than a few people that way." Yukari herself lost that confused look, with some degree of sadness replacing it. "I manipulated a boundary or two to make it impossible for me to hit anyone. I don't randomly kill people, I'm no murderer."

"Could've fooled me."

"Let's sit down for this shall we?" I didn't have much of a choice since she kept a hold of me as she floated over to the bench, setting us both down on it. Though I was still on top of her. Her capricious smile returned after a few seconds in full force. "Ufufufu~ Happy to see me now?"

Oh hell. I didn't notice I was prodding her like that. I tried to get out of her grip but she just pressed me into her harder. Next was an attempt at logic. "What if someone sees this?"

"I tweaked some boundaries so no one can walk in on us, so it's just you, me, and Nari here." So much for that. "You say that like this is some kind of horrid fate to be with me like this."

Time to try and de-rail that train of thought. It's going somewhere I'm not sure I want to go, at least not with her. "So why stalk me for this long?"

"Well, aside from the fact that you slipped into Gensokyo right under my radar and managed to stay under my radar for six months? The fact that you've left good impressions on my friends who wouldn't mind seeing you again? The fact that you're an anomoly that I haven't been seen before? You make some wonderful waffles." With her expression and tone I'm betting that last reason may very well be the real one.

"Waffles." I couldn't really believe it either, that waffles were important enough to this woman that she'd hunt me down across entire worlds just to have me make some. It truly boggles my mind at least.

"It does sound rather silly doesn't it?" That goes without saying gap youkai. "I don't plan on spriting you away just yet though, you already exist in Gensokyo so it'd be pointless. Though I'd be curious about how you'd react to the paradox."

[X]That's enough, I need to get away from this woman.
[X]As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something. (specify)
[X]Against my better judgement, snuggle up to her. This feels nice.
[X]Write-in

[X]Against my better judgement, snuggle up to her. This feels nice.

[x] As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something.
-[x] "Mind regaling me about what exactly I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
[x]"Also, could we do without the whole spiriting away? Other me is still on that side, This me belongs here. I'll come make waffles for you, promise."

[x] As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something.
-[x] "Mind regaling me about what exactly I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
-[x] "Was it you who had my bike stolen? If so, why?"
-[x] "What exactly are you going to do now that you've finally found me?"

[x] As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something.
-[x] "Mind regaling me about what exactly I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
-[x] "Was it you who had my bike stolen? If so, why?"
-[x] "What exactly are you going to do now that you've finally found me?"

[x] As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something.
-[x] "Mind regaling me about what exactly I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
-[x] "Was it you who had my bike stolen? If so, why?"
-[x] "What exactly are you going to do now that you've finally found me?"
-[x] "I did wish you'd approach me in a sensible manner, I got the wrong idea about you due to your driving"
-[x] Snuggle; might as well take this rare opportunity.

[0] As long as I'm stuck like this I may as well ask her something.
-[1] "Mind regaling me about what exactly I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
-[2] "Was it you who had my bike stolen? If so, why?"
-[3] "What exactly are you going to do now that you've finally found me?"

Five out of six majority, gonna call it so I can write without worrying that the votes are going to change rails mid-writing.

This is where a comment would go if I could think of one.
---
[X]As long as I'm stuck like this, I may as well ask her something.
-[X]"Mind regaling about what I've done to get on your friend's good sides?"
-[X]"Was it you who had my bike stolen? If so, why?"
-[X]"What exactly are you going to do now that you've finally found me?"

My face is squarely planted in Yukari's ample braless bosom, she's holding me down on her soft body and my dick is prodding her thigh because I find this all incredibly hot and I'm a healthy young guy with excited hormones. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, largely because my body doesn't want to. So Q&A time it is.

"Just look at you!~ Trying your hardest to maintain composure just for me!~" No, now she's just being Yukari, groping my ass like that trying to make my mind go in the gutter. "I wonder how long it'll take before it breaks~"

"Har har. If you don't mind my asking a few questions, first, would you mind regaling about what I've done to get on your friend's good sides?" I was red in the face already wasn't I.

"Taking a more responsable approach I see. First, Yuyuko. Once I got my hands on you I had to go to my ghost princess friend to get her expert opinion on what you are, and that's when we discovered you could cook. You aided Youmu in getting lunch ready, so some points with both of them there. You showed genuine interest in what they were interested in and made visits over the next five months to help out or just talk. Though Youmu wants a rematch with you sometime, you beat her in a duel by hanging her upside-down and defeating her ghost half. Her face was so cute... I had to take photos!~"

"You and the Prismriver sisters share a great love of music, which made it easy for you to get along with them despite their initial indifference to you. You really began to hit it off when you started playing an instrument along with them." Apparently Yukari doesn't understand the concept of personal space or the fact that groping someone like this is entirely inappropriate, case in point, the hand feeling me up made its way around to my manhood. "So stiff and big~"

"C-cut that out." And now I'm stammering thanks to her playing with the tip. Wonderful. "Were you the one who had my bike stolen?"

"No, but I got it back for you. It'd be even more difficult to get you alone like this if you couldn't go anywhere." Makes me wonder who did then, and why. "I understand you don't trust me, but it was rather rude to just ignore a token of goodwill like that." Thankfully or no her hand shifts around again.

"Are you done?"

"Maybe~"

"So what do you plan to do now that you've caught me?" I was shuddering. With anticipation. I did not want to go down that route until I could trust her. Perhaps not even then.

"What am I going to do..." She pondered this for a moment. "Right now playing with you like this is fine, but I might plan to do something else later~ Someone like you is wasted on the Outside."

"Playing?" Surely that doesn't mean what I think it does...

"Keeping an eye on you, talking, getting you all alone like this... My mind isn't always dirty you know."

"Uh-huh, you're almost always perverted and it's a well established fact."

"Ufufufu~ Guilty as charged~"

[X]Write-in

[x]"So uh... wanna tour the aquarium with me?"

Maybe she's not all bad, might as well get on her good side.

[x] "I'm glad we talked like this, and I'm sorry about ignoring your favor."
[x] "I'll pay the area a visit sometime since I'm still trying to remember all the things I did. Thanks for filling me in."
[x] "I wonder... if the two me- Never mind"
[x] "If I didn't know better I'd say you were about 17"
[x] "So uh... wanna tour the aquarium with me?"

A bit of a compliment to catch her off guard. I think we should do things civilly with Yukari (it'll be quite an achievement when we tell Reimu and Co.) And a Tour wouldn't be a bad idea at all, it's akin to a date... one with a woman that's hotter/more powerful than you could hope to land.

[x] "If that doesn't matter to you, I'd really like for things to remain as they are. I might be wrong, but the whole 'Being really really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land full of monsters after my blood"
[x]"Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man"
[x] "Long story short: leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you"

[x] "If that doesn't matter to you, I'd really like for things to remain as they are. I might be wrong, but the whole 'Being really really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land full of monsters after my blood"
[x] "Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man"
[x] "Long story short: leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you"

[0] "If that doesn't matter to you, I'd really like for things to remain as they are. I might be wrong, but the whole 'Being really really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land full of monsters after my blood"
[1] "Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man"
[2] "Long story short: leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you"

[x] "If that doesn't matter to you, I'd really like for things to remain as they are. I might be wrong, but the whole 'Being really really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land full of monsters after my blood"
[x] "Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man"
[x] "Long story short: leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you"

>>26254

thing is not sure if he really likes the outside world that much, since his position seems on the bleak side.

That and I suspect Wade would have to choose one world or the other.

>>26260
He loves his friends and has expressed fear of never returning to this realm again. before

That said, even if he is presented with that choice someday, it'll of his own choice, not Yukari's.

>>26261

You've proven your point, but I wonder if a possible mass travel might occur since it seems Naomi seems terribly confined in her life. Dunno about Ben or Marine. But we must consider what if he thinks about taking his friends with somehow? Or what is the cause of his dream self? And can he keep up this "double life"?


[x] "If that doesn't matter to you, I'd really like for things to remain as they are. I might be wrong, but the whole 'Being really really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land full of monsters after my blood"
[x] "Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man"
[x] "Long story short: leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you"
[x] "I'm glad we talked like this, and I'm sorry about ignoring your favor."
[x] "I'll pay the area a visit sometime since I'm still trying to remember all the things I did. Thanks for filling me in."
[x] "I wonder... if the two me- Never mind"
[x] "If I didn't know better I'd say you were about 17"

I think we should give Yukari a bit of civility as to make things easier for ourselves.

I think the 'leave my body in America' option won with five votes, so I'm calling it there since I want to get another update or two out before the day is done.

[X]"If it doesn't matter to you, I'd rather things stay the way they are. I might be wrong, but that 'being really hard to kill' sounds kinda useful in a land of monsters out for my blood."
[X]"Besides, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the Outside' is just, like, your opinion man."
[X]"Long story short: Leave my body in America, or no more waffles for you."

For all the excitement of being held like this, I had to keep myself from just taking her lips then and there. It'd only encourage her.
"If it doesn't matter to you, I'd rather things stay the way they are. I might be wrong, but the 'Being really hard to kill' bit seems rather useful in a land where monsters are out for my blood."

"I suppose. Your spiritual body takes damage better, but right now you should really consider how risky it is to have one's spirit destroyed, even if you merely become fragments." Now she's countering my arguements. "And there are creatures who devour spirits such as yourself, even if they are rare."

"Also, what you said, 'Someone like you is wasted on the outside', that's just, like, your opinion man."

"What use does the Outside have for someone like you? Or rather your abilities? As far as I know humans today do not accept magic like they did in the past. If you ever displayed them, you would never be left alone. People would ostrachise you and either take you apart to see what makes you tick or use you as a weapon."

"Fine. Let me put it this way: Leave my body in America, or I won't make waffles for you anymore."

"Ran makes waffles you know, and I can make them too. I'm not Arcueid, Shiki." Oi, throwing a Tsukihime reference out there? That's been done before you know.

Any counter-arguement I might've made was squashed by Yukari tilting my head back down to where I couldn't speak, only listen. "I have no intention of spriting you away, so I'll leave the decision up to you. I realise you have friends out here, perhaps even a lover, but you can't ignore those within Gensokyo either. Some may very well take a leaf out of your book and figure out how to cross over to the Outside from Gensokyo. You have friends there too Wade, you can't forget about them. You can't ignore them."

Moving though that was I was starting to suffocate. My hands found their way to Yukari's breasts and I started pushing on them to try and free up either my nose or mouth before I drowned. It worked but...

"Ah! Wade, you're being rather frisky today!" My head was out of her bosom but she hadn't let go, and the look on her face was that of suprise, though she quickly recovered. "I might need to punish you for that~"

"Please don't." Great, she just calmed down too. So did I.

"I might just overrule that~ Naughty boys should learn to take responsiblity for their actions~"

"You faceplanted me into your breasts to begin with!"

"But that was my doing, feeling me up like that was your doing~"

"I bet that makes sense to someone, but not to me."

[X]That's it I'm outta here.
[X]Suggest that we go somewhere. (specify)
[X]What does she have in mind exactly?
[X]Do something to throw off that train of thought. No good can come of this.
[X]Write-in

[X]What does she have in mind exactly?

[x]"I don't intend to forget the people on the other side, but I still have people that count on me on this side, I can't just abandon them."
[X]What does she have in mind exactly?

[x] That's it I'm outta here.

[0] What does she have in mind exactly?

[X]What does she have in mind exactly?

[x] What does she have in mind exactly?

[X]What does she have in mind exactly?
She's just teasing us, but let's roll with it. Yukari will probably hold her promise for as long as she's happy.
Then again, making her happy may break her resolve and make her send him to Gensokyo anyway so... on damned if we do it and damned if we don't.

Don't take me wrong: I'm sure that he'll be happy on that wonderland but... I believe he should give his friends a chance to come along or, at least, bid them farewell on his own.

Funny how Yukari shot down the winning write in. I wonder how that other write in would have done...

>>26272
Actually Yukari was telling us just that, I doubt she'd change her mind so quickly; but I figure her punishment might be in the confined space that both are in.

Choosing to let Yukari do as she wishes with you, hmm?
I may very well sleep on this, I'm not sure how I want to approach this next update as I have several possible ideas for how Yukari's 'punishment' is going to work.

[x] "Seriously, I need to breathe. Physical lungs and all that, out here."
[x] "Would you like lunch?" try and get off of the punishment subject.

[X]What does she have in mind exactly?

I shiged. I would've facepalmed too but my arms were trapped at my sides. "So how do you plan on punishing me?"

"Hmm? I didn't seriously expect you to just give in like that, but since you have..." Dun dun dunnn! Quit that Yukari. "I think I want you to show me around this town, like a date. If you're going to fondle girls you can at least get to know them better~"

Unfortunately there was a certain amount of logic to that as I didn't remember Yukari all that well. Then there was a good chance to fill in even more gaps in my memory, and as long as I don't run into Naomi or Marine this should be okay. Though I'd have to do something about Yukari's scent afterwards since it's now clinging to me and completely overpowering my own.
"Where do you want to go first?"

Yukari's grip slackened a bit as she thought about it. "I think starting with the rest of this aquarium is fine, to be honest I've never seen most of these fish before."

"And I thought you'd be overpowering me right here in this confined space." Well, I do remember her trying that on Reimu. Didn't work out to well for Yukari, though perhaps that's a good thing. The shrine maiden wouldn't be a maiden anymore if she ever gave in to the gap youkai.

"Oh my, that's more of a second date, maybe third if you really want me to do that to you." Wait, was she being serious? "My interaction with my friends does not involve sex exclusively you know, I'm not entirely like that."

She finally let go of me. One part of my brain was screaming to continue on from before if not go farther but another was relieved I didn't lose it then and there. Regardless, I got off her then offered my hand, which she used to pull herself up. Nari resumed her perch while giving Yukari that look, the sort of look a cat gives when someone steals its human's attention.

"Being a gentleman today I see, well, this isn't the apropriate state of dress for a lady is it?" When your nipples are pushing against that shirt that hard I tend to think so. Yukari opened a gap beneath her and one above, then sank into the bottom one while coming down from the upper one in a full poofy dress with her family symbol on an overlaying tabard and matching hat and parasol. "What do you think?"

"It looks good on you. But won't you get hot in a dress? It's probably going to be seventy to eighty degrees outside today." I was displaying genuine concern, but wether she saw it as that or not...

"Oh don't worry." Yukari displayed that the dress she's wearing is nowhere thick as the usual one, as it didn't have the same bell-shaped lower part, opting for a looser varient and both the top and bottom looked like it was made from a light floaty material. "I'm wearing my summer dress. I do have to wonder where your intentions really lie when you told me that."

I just rolled my eyes and let the comment slide as I wasn't in the mood to banter all day. "Shall we begin then?"

"You can't dodge the question forever~" She took my hand regardless and I led the way.

True to her word Yukari hasn't seen most of these fish before, her explenation being that there's only one big lake with some rather ugly monster fish in it where she lives so everything from the tidepool display to the shark tank to the pool that held the beluga whale, all that interested her.
It was about noon when Yukari decided we should go eat lunch, but left it up to me as to where.

[X]Write-in
---
Kinda rushed but I didn't want to lose what I had.

Somewhere our friends wouldn't find us. You said something about a major city, right? Any fast transportation out there besides by bike?

Something like a bus isn't out of the question. So long as it isn't too rediculous I can work with it.

Would you take the bus if you were in a date with the goddamn Demon of Boundaries?

[x]Let's eat in a fancy restaurant -Do we have enough cash?
-[x]Let's go using her portals -The objective of all this is to humor her after all and... I sense some potential on this choice. Comedy potential? Drama Potential? I dunno.

[x] Local Burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean a fast food chain here.
-[x] Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[x] Show her around a bit on the way.

Though to be honest she knows Reimu longer than she does you. So it might be some time before she has her way with you.


But I don't think a fancy restaurant would do much good; since chances are Ran could easily cook up anything fancy. Something more down to earth would do just well.

I think now we won't have to worry about making such a spell card like "Hate Sign" That and no shame in having some fun with Yukari.

>>26301
Isn't he acting a bit OOC with this date thing?
Making a Hate Sign requires a... intense yet 'genuine' feeling. Maybe he's planning something that we can't totally control? Or 's just another faggotry created due to Anon's incosistency with his votes?

[x] Wasn't there a Shari's nearby? A fast food joint was out of the question, too cheap.
-[x] Inquire if Yukari can use her powers to make it so other people won't notice Nariko so you can bring her in with you.

>>26302
To at answer that question at least partially, consider for a moment where the strongest, perhaps single strongest source of genuine hate might be coming from. Yukari barely registers in comparison so Wade can still act normally around her.

>>26302

Question is how would he have such a thing in the first place (Remember how Mima reacted when we told her about it?)

Also we were doing this in the case we had to fight Yukari (assuming the worse case), but seeing how she's being civil and such and not planning on gapping us anytime soon, the general idea is be civil right back.

That and the date is a 'punishment' for groping ourselves free. Perhaps this will be a chance to get to know her better and have a better idea of what she's thinking.

In short the major factor of change is finding out that she's not going to do anything horrible to us. (sadly, not anything particularly fantastic)

Since the whole braless Yukari in t-shirt and jeans does leave a strong impression.

[x] Local Burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean a fast food chain here.
-[x] Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[x] Show her around a bit on the way.

[x] Local Burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean a fast food chain here.
-[x] Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[x] Show her around a bit on the way.

[x] Local Burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean a fast food chain here.
-[x] Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[x] Show her around a bit on the way.

One of the few rare times mature and elegant can be degraded to moe - when a burger is added.

[x] Local Burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean a fast food chain here.
-[x] Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[x] Show her around a bit on the way.

I wonder if we'll run into Naomi and make her jealous~

Where's the update? Oh wait, I'm writing this. Hurr.
---
[X]Local burger joint; she might not have had American food before. And I don't mean one of those fast-food joints.
-[X]Perhaps walk there, being the envy of many guys.
-[X]Show her around a bit on the way.

"There's a good local place to eat around here if you're interested, a family owned grill restraunt." Nothing overly fancy, nothing too cheap and it helps keep those fast food cash cows that care about nothing but money from taking over.

"I'm trusting your judgement, so it's fine. Lead the way." She walked alongside me for this as we exited the aquarium out onto the beachfront. It wasn't one of those tropical gold sand beaches, it was a grey sand beach that was just as nice in my opinion. Not so many people out here by comparison. "You don't see beaches like that where I'm from, the only real beach is the one the Scarlets put in a few months ago. It's supposed to be private property but nobody cares, and Remilia has done nothing to stop it. I think she enjoys having guests even if they're uninvited so long as they're behaved."

"I wouldn't know, I don't remember much about the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"Ah, but you do remember. Coincidentally, you may wish to check for fragments there at some point."

Something struck me as odd just then, something about her voice that I had to strain to hear. "Yukari, what language are you speaking right now?"

"Japanese, specifically one of the more commonly used varients, why?" You know damn well why.

"I don't speak any Japanese."

"You do now~"
A smile and a wink from Yukari and a rather disgruntled groan from me told me she had been waiting a while for me to catch on to this. It partially explains the looks we're getting, the other part being Yukari is a foreign beauty and I'm just an above average native. So some of the looks we were getting were from disbelieving and envious men.
Then one had the balls to come over.

"What's a gorgeous chick like you doing with this guy?" Huh, I guess he's fluent too, or at least enough to not embarrass himself.

"I'm with him because I want to be. Well-toned abs, while attractive in their own right, do not make a man." She spoke that bit in perfect English. "You have a bit of an accent. I'm guessing you learned a second language at school?"

"Uh, yeah. Why don't you ditch this guy already?" Not getting the point, is he?

"You don't listen too well, do you?" Yukari then rattled off a list of rather nasty insults in at least seventeen different languages, flipping between them so fast it'd make one's head spin trying to translate it all. I understood every last word however, and my face was bright red. I didn't even know there were that many cuss words out there. "Since I have your attention now, you've been re~jec~ted~"

"What does this clown have that I don't?" Clown? I have good legs here. Better than yours by a long shot Captain Steroid.

"My interest. Now go away." Ouch.

Yukari was leading me away from that, leaving that guy struggling to understand what just happened. "I didn't want you getting hurt. I knew you were about to give that man a nutcracker, but his upper body strength and mass would've won out in the end." Back to her native tongue then, maybe. "And I would have had to have hurt him in response. Now Wade, please continue."

"Okay, off to the left here there's a nice little gaming lounge where you can waste a day without worry. They don't sell alcohol there though."

"Respecting the whole family hmm? Still, trying to play video games drunk is always good for a laugh."

As we continued along I pointed out various places, confectionaries, all manners of stores, museums, and my personal favorites among them. I conveniently forgot to mention Marine's shop as I'm not sure I want the two to meet. Ever.

Eventually we get to the grill in question, and I could already smell the meat cooking. It meant they already had a fair few customers but the wait at this place was well and truly worth it. These guys had cooking down to an art form, everything from ribs to steak to tenderloin, even the simple hamburger, was all juicy and ready to melt in one's mouth. They also buy from a more local butcher who sells them what amounts to entire livestock for a low flat price, so stuff that might cost twenty-plus in fancier restruants for a tiny piece you could easily get something three times that size for much much less.

"I think I'll stay away from ribs today, can't make a mess of myself with a whole day ahead of me now can I?" It was a rhetorical question that I felt no need to answer.

A waiter saw us to a table and handed each of us a menu. A little talking between us got us to order the same thing, a not so simple hamburger. The fires were already going so we didn't have to wait long before the food arrived. Talking was kept to a minimum while eating, but Yukari stated that while this isn't the first time she's sampled American food, this happened to be one of the better instances.

Still, food was paid for, a tip was left, and we walked on out.

[X]Let Yukari take a pick again.
[X]I haven't shown her anything yet. (Specify)
[X]Write-in.

[x]Marine's shop
PIME TARADOX

[x] Let Yukari take a pick again.

[0] Marine's shop

>>26316

Yukari roasted that muscle head so many different ways. But it's nice being on civil terms.

>>26317
Not so much that, but it'd be unpleasant, and we do not want Yukari in a bad mood.

So I vote this:
[X]Let Yukari take a pick again.

[x] Let Yukari take a pick again.

[x] Let Yukari take a pick again.

[x] Let Yukari take a pick again.
[x]"This is nice. You should show me around on the other side in turn"

Second date get.

[x]Marine's shop

I'm actually kind of glad going to Marine's shop lost this vote. It'd be OOC for Wade to say he might never want Yukari and Marine to meet then promptly introduce them to each other.
---
[X]Let Yukari take a pick again.

"So, where do you want to go next?"

"Me? Not to the beach, that group of musclemen would never leave us alone, and they're boring." We were more or less just wandering aimlessly at this point, not caring where we went other than my occasionally steering her away from Marine's shop. I didn't want to try explaining to Marine why I can suddenly talk fluently in a language I've barely heard or why I'm taking a gap demon who takes the form of an utterly delicious seventeen year old she's never heard of out on a date. "I think one of the confectionaries first, a nice lunch should be followed by a treat don't you think?"

"Works for me." Well, we have one thing in common: A massive sweet tooth.

Still, I lead her over to one of my preferred shops to buy some sweets. The place in question is a place that sells some quality chocolate, usually in decorative styles, as drinks, even plain old chunks. Toss in the overall cafe feel and it's a nice place to spend unwanted money.
It doesn't take long for Yukari to pick out enough to break my bank and then some, but it turns out she had a rather deep pocketbook of her own, letting me keep mine for now. After making a mental note to hide whatever I don't eat I wound up buying some chocolate for myself as well as a mocha with cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate mint to drink. Once I started riding my bike again it wouldn't matter since I'd be burning off whatever this chocolate does.

After exiting the store, after Yukari gapped her sweets to Mayohiga, the next stop on her list was the gaming lounge I went to all of two days ago and soundly kicked my ass at almost everything we played. Even the local pros had trouble with her when they challenged her, which made me wonder what Yukari does when she's not sleeping or being a pest.
Two hours later and she became bored with it, dragging me out to go somewhere else. To be more specific, the lighthouse.

Once we got there Yukari hid us from prying eyes again and we ascended to the top of the lighthouse to look out the glass at the ocean. I notice she was trying to keep herself from yawning. She failed, but it was still cute.
She then turned to look at me.
"Thank you for indulging me today Wade. It's rare for someone to take me out on a real, innocent date." She then pulled me over to the glass.

"Someone like you?"

"Ahaha~ Yes, someone like me has trouble getting a real date~" Her tone was singsong and amused, but her eyes told a different story. She yawned before speaking again. "Fw-uaaah... You're going to make it difficult if you continue indulging me like this. Keeping my word."

"Oh, so I should ignore you then?" I was teasing her and she knew that.

"So mean~ But you shouldn't ignore me." Another moment another yawn. "Excuse me, I wanted to finish up before I fell asleep on you."

"If you're tired you should do what you need to." Could've worded that a bit differently, but oh well.

"Mmm..." She closed the miniscule distance between us and licked the corner of my mouth. "You didn't clean yourself off properly when you ate that chocolate~..."

Then I found myself embracing her. Yukari seemed suprised at first but returned the gesture for a few moments before breaking away.

"Consider your options Wade... Meet everyone and choose your fate, I'm not the only possibility..." She opened a gap in her shadow. "Good night Wade~ You should make sure to get to a bed before nightfall, falling asleep on a hard surface is no fun." She then fell backwards into her gap, then it closed behind her. Suddenly a couple people came into view as Yukari's manipulation ended, and it was four pm by my watch.
Nari had grown bored by all this and had fallen asleep, yes she got lunch too.

[X]There's still time to look around.
[X]Get back home, walking is going to tack on an hour in transit.
[X]Go bug Marine.
-[X]Ask if I can stay over.
-[X]Just a quick visit.
[X]Write-in

[X]Go bug Marine.
-[X]Just a quick visit.

Let's see how she's doing, while hiding certain things from her.

Interesting point Yukari makes, but I guess we'll have to get home and dream to go on more adventures and find more fragments, and meeting more people.

But this story's Yukari is delicious, but I know that we should see more about Reimu and Co. (since otherwise this would be in /th/ I'd figure)

I think areas we have yet to cover.

[] Youkai Mountain
[] Netherworld (sure Yukari told us about what happened, but I think a visit wouldn't hurt)
[] Eientei
[] Mokou and Keine
[] The underground if we were there.
[] Higan (we might have made our way there)

[x] Go bug Marine.
-[x] Just a quick visit.

[X]Go bug Marine.
-[X]Just a quick visit.

It's rare to see Yukari not be the evil villain. I like it.

[X]Get back home, walking is going to tack on an hour in transit.

>>26339

Yeah we did assume too much at first about her. I wonder how the other characters will do in comparison to her. Since sure so far the characters we have met are nice, but so far Yukari's kinda beating them.

But I do say we should give the Hakurei Shrine more time to shine as well meeting everyone else.

But there's a few other stories where Yukari isn't a villain, like that Chaotic variations story in /sdm/ or that landlord story in /others/ (Yukarin-onee-chan)

>>26339
I like it too, but I can't help but wonder who would be the villain then...

[X]Go bug Marine.
-[X]Just a quick visit.

>>26304
Thanks for the tip. And sorry: it seems I keep underestimating your story.

>>26342

Wade's got mommy issues?

>>26345

Enough to form a festering pool of hate that would inspire a Hate Sign?

Though I think out of his friends, Naomi would be interested in Gensokyo (no family nagging her, freedom to do art) Dunno about Ben or Marine

But I suspect something: What would Yuuka know about this, since wasn't it said that she was once a dream dweller?

[X]Go bug Marine.
-[X]Just a quick visit.

>>26346
You go to fight her in the dream world in Lotus Land Story, I think...

[x] Get back home, walking is going to tack on an hour in transit.

We smell of woman. Best not to have another woman notice this little detail.

>>26350
Too late, calling it.
Update will be up later, I have something unavoidable to do this morning. Might try to get an update off before then, who knows.

[X]Go bug Marine
-[X]Just a quick visit

Now that Yukari's back at her home sleeping I could go visit Marine and see how she's doing, and hope I could keep it a quick visit. Of course I had to question the wisdom of going straight there with the gap youkai's smell still on me... Little late for it now since my mind's already made up. I'd have to think of something to tell Marine once I get there otherwise she'll never let it drop.

The trip there takes a remarkably short time considering I'm just walking, the shop being in sight within minutes of my leaving the lighthouse. The main store's still open but Marine's not at the counter so I can spend some time thinking of something to tell her- My thought process is cut short when I found myself being hugged from behind.

"You did lock the door didn't you?" Don't really need to make this kind of display when other people are around.

"Yeah, I did. More importantly, why do you smell like this?" Here I thought I would have more time than that.

"Like what?"

"Don't play dumb Wade, you smell... girly. I know you don't use perfume and I doubt there's any kind of soap that could make this smell, so what were you doing?" Did I mention Marine's pretty sharp? Now you know. "I'm not going to get mad unless you gave another girl your first time."

"Wait, sex?" Marine already got my first kiss, so that was out of the realm of possibility on what she meant.

"Well?"

"Marine, you know that I'm not comfterble with the idea..." That's not entirely true, but Marine would have gotten mine a while ago if it were a lie.

"So just a date then? Scent's on your face too... Did you put your face in another girl's breasts?"

There was no right answer to that.
"Fine, I went on a date with a girl. She was being persuasive prior to that to say the least."

"So who?" Marine's grip tightened if anything.

"An aquaintance of mine who wanted to get to know me better."

"She must not care about personal space much." Good, she wasn't asking for a name yet. "I won't pry any further than that for now. You're not off the hook yet though."

"Duly noted." Huh boy, maybe coming here was a mistake...

"So why'd you come here? Didn't want your parents asking about it?" Back to her teasing tone, she really is dropping it for now.

"Actually I just wanted to see you." Honestly, Marine may as well have been the reason I came here. I wasn't really in the mood to buy anything from her.

"Oh, go be sweet after taking a shower so I don't feel like I'm playing second fiddle." She turned me in the direction of the stairs and gave a gentle push.

I did as she said, but not before I had my say.
"You're no second fiddle Marine, not to that girl."

"I'm going to close up shop, try not to take all the hot water." I couldn't see her face at this point so I didn't know what she was thinking. Could be good or bad considering how she works.

I made my way to the bathroom, and by extension the shower, then started taking my clothes off. I had the foresight to keep a couple sets of clothes in the duffel bag, including the Alice-made set. Nari decided to curl up in the open duffel bag for now so she can shed on everything.
Once I was down to my boxers I heard a knock.

"Wade, may I come in? I still want to talk to you."

[X]"What's wrong with having a conversation the way it is now?"
[X]"No funny buisness."
[X]"What, you want to shower with me?"
-[X]Be serious about this, she's probably jealous.
-[X]Kidding, kidding!
[X]Write-in

[x] "No funny buisness."

A chance with Yukari is a rarity indeed, since it seems in many Touhou COYA's she's something of an unobtainable star if she's not the villain. HLA is an exception due to how easily the lead gets into particular social circles.

I wonder how things with other characters will develop. (Out of the ones we met, most of the cast seems nicely typical.) Since this story's Yukari seems hard to top so far.

But may I ask why this is in /shrine/ as opposed to /th/?

>>26350

Perhaps so, but it might boost our stock, since girls seem to want guys other women are interested in.

[x] "No funny business."

[x]"What, you want to shower with me?"
-[x] You're kidding. But if she says yes, and she's serious, then...

[0] "No funny business."

[x]"What, you want to shower with me?"
-[x] You're kidding. But if she says yes, and she's serious, then... let things go as they may.

I think we can try our luck, after all we did get a rather fun date (for both, despite its somewhat forced nature, both did have some fun; and if groping your way out of a breast suffocation is punished with dates with said woman, such cases might go up)

[X]"No funny buisness."

[x] "No funny buisness."

How are you writing this on the Wii?

I cant imagine anyone waving that remote to write something this long.

[x]"What, you want to shower with me?"
-[x] You're kidding. But if she says yes, and she's serious, then...
Because getting teased like a kid once is not enough.

>Alice made clothes
Wait what, the things created in Gensokyo travel with him to America?

>>26361

Yeah so it's time to do some teasing back, since it's clear she likes Wade on some level, so it might be time for him to do some teasing of his own.

Guess I shouldn't put off writing any longer. A potential shower scene and you go for the more modest option, I bet if it were Yukari asking Anon would be all over it.

>>26354
It's because the Hakurei Shrine is ultimately the base of operation in Gensokyo, and if you pursue the right route for it or focus on a power more associated with the place then the story will focus closer on the Shrine. Though I think there might be some difficulty with that if Anon chooses something else. You'll never quite be free of the diminutive oni though.

>>26360
By being very patient, that's how.

---
[X]"No funny buisness."

"Alright, you can come in, but no funny buisness." I've still got boxers on at least, though the thought of Marine naked in the shower was a rather pleasant one.

"Oh, afraid I'll make you mine?" She opened the door and walked in, though she seemed to be somewhat dissapointed. "You're wasting a good oppertunity here."

Rolling my eyes, I responded.
"Fear's got nothing to do with it. So what did you want to come in for?"

"I wanted to ask what happened yesterday. You didn't have your bike parked where it usually is, did something happen?"

"Someone stole it, then someone I didn't trust tried to return it."

"That girl you dated?"

"A friend of hers, but one who listens to that person."

That wasn't why Marine was in here. That wasn't why she got me in here. That wasn't why she wanted to get me more or less alone.
"You're worried, aren't you."

She nodded her head. "I'm going to be straightforward, I saw you running around with that blonde girl. I don't like her, she gets her scent on you like that, she drags you around... And it seems you know her. Wade, what is she to you? What am I to you?"

"That girl is an aquaintance, nothing more. You, you're a close, irreplacable friend of mine. Hell, you stole my first kiss and showed that you know how to french someone in the process."

Marine blushed at that, smiling at the memory. "It was so cute watching you babble like that for a few minutes straight. I'm still worried about it, I can't explain why. You don't... you haven't been acting quite the same lately."

"How so?"

"I can't put my finger on it, but I know something's off. The crowbar in the duffel bag is kind of off for you." I doubt anything short of marrying her is going to get her concerns to go away, and I guess I did leave that thing uncovered. "I'm taking up too much time, you should get that shower taken care of."

Fifteen, twenty minutes later I'm done and wearing Alice made clothes.

[X]Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.
[X]Ask if I can stay here for the night.
[X]Write-in

[x] Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.

[x] Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.

[X]Ask if I can stay here for the night.
Funny buisness at while we're out? impossible

[X]Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.

[0] Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.

[X]Ask if I can stay here for the night.
Suddenly, NORMAL HUMAN ROUTE.

How's that for originality?

>>26372
Also, there's the chance that she somehow ends up in gensokyo with him. You know, Gensokyo? The land full of not-so-legal cute girls as far as the eye can see?

[X]Head home already, at this rate it's going to be nightfall before I get there.

I don't feel I should stick around much longer, so I get my stuff together, bid Marine farewell, and set out into the evening.
It's kind of warm out even though the sun's setting, but it's not too bad considering I have what amounts to a furry heater on my shoulder. I remembered that my bike was left on a rail on the side of the road a ways out so with luck I can speed up the process and get there before my mind leaves this body.
So I run.

It's not there.

Yet I keep running.

Getting home is the highest prority right now, preferably in one piece.
Nari's shifted around and fell asleep, which probably meant I didn't have too much longer before I followed suit.
It's a good thing my legs are in such a nice shape, I'm making good time here. Maybe I'll get home before sundown.

Ugh, my thoughts are fuzzy. I don't even know how I managed to get through the usual interactions with my parents before crashing onto the bed. I didn't even take my clothes off.

Day 4: Gensokyo side

That scent of alcohol. Don't tell me...
I open my eyes and sure enough Suika found me again, eyes closed and drooling. I pulled at her cheeks, the ones on her face you weirdos, to try and wake her up. One minute, two, five... She woke up.

"Waaade... I was having a nice dream..." Suika stared at me sleepily, threatening to nod off again. My getting up would have fixed that if I could, for some odd reason there's this naked catgirl pinning me down and Nue wasn't helping matters either by sitting on me.

"Mind explaining why a bunch of girls decided to sleep on me?" I shot Nue an annoyed look.

"Welp, the oni came in the middle of the night and flopped on you, your cat just transformed, and I thought you'd make a nice seat." Is there any understanding this gir- Wait.

"Nari transformed?"

"Your thought process could make a snail blush you know. Yes, your cat changed into a Bakeneko overnight, count the tails." She pointed at them with a red trident-like thing, which drew my attention to the four tails sticking out the girl's rear.

"How'd that happen?" Seriously, I'm not awake yet.

"Beats me, for some reason you spontaneously aquired clothes and have that weird bag in your hand. If anyone's not making sense it's you." Nue floated off and walked to the door. "Finish up your buisness and come on out, breakfast is ready."

[X]"Nari?"
[X]Shove the Oni off, she doesn't need to be on me.
[X]Mystery later, wake up now.
[X]Write-in

[X]"Nari?"

[?] "Nari?"

[x] "Nari?"

This should be fun to explain to other people.

[x] Try to get Suika off of you.
[X]"Nari?"
[x] Try to come to grips that your cat is now an cute or hot catgirl.

>>26366

I think they choose against it due to Wade's noted discomfort around Marine (while some of us tried to change that)

Wade doesn't have that problem with Yukari though.

Well we have more news to tell Reimu and Mima in addition to resolving things with Yukari (in a very nice fashion)

[0] "Nari?"

[x] Try to get Suika off of you.
[X]"Nari?"
[x] Try to come to grips that your cat is now an cute or hot catgirl.

[X] Try to get Suika off of you.
[X] "Nari?"
[X] Look at what Nari looks like, and (gently) get her off of you as well.

inb4'acatisfineto'routeandjokes

[x] "Nari?"

>>26382

Chances are she'd end up the story's little sister figure.

[x] Try to get Suika off of you.
[x] "Nari?"
[x] Examine your creation. It lives!

You guys vote for physically staying in the outside world, and then deny a relationship with one of the girls.

Here's to a "Dies alone; wife in dreams" end. How sad.

If we don't take the full leap, then I seriously want a Naomi route. I'm sorry if this sounds insulting, R.I.M, but so far I like your sub-characters better than I like your Touhous.

>>26386

I voted for making the shower move, blame others for taking Wade's seeming hesitance towards Marine too seriously.

And His Yukari is great, and his other characters that we have met are shaping up nicely.

>>26388
Actually, I really enjoy his Yukari, too. She's much more likable with mild-mannerisms.

I think it's because R.I.M's 'eccentricity' scale is a few notches lower than most. The personality in the characters seems to be lacking, but I agree he is getting better.

>>26389

I think that's just due to on the Gensokyo side of things we're still meeting people and such, and other than Yukari, the only other characters we spent quality time with are Alice and Suika.

I think with time we'll get to know the shrine crowd better as well as others.

Also the thing with this story is that Wade is basically living two lives... and somewhere he will have to make a choice.

But as of the moment we have a catgirl to deal with and some good news to deliver. That and finding out if Byakuren has found out anything.

(in this regard it's the first story with her in it for sure)

I figured out what one of the spell cards you wanted done.

Death Sign [Black Death]
10 black bullets are fired, bouncing around the area at a normal speed, before stopping and disappearing. The area is then filled with lasers along the paths that the bullets took. This repeats of course.

>>26391

I wonder if Wade'll use some of those more ominous sounding spell cards now that we've made peace with Yukarin. That and in time depending on which powers we pursue we might end up making new spell cards to replace those. (Anything that causes shock from Mima is a sign that you're going into something that you really shouldn't)

>>26392
RIM implied that the source of his hate was located somewhere else. He can still easily use and create cursed spellcards.

>>26386
This is my first time making a story, I don't expect anything to be perfect, so no offense taken. It is nice to know my OCs are liked.

>>26389
My eccentricity scale is too low huh? I'm sure writing long enough and spending more time around here will fix that.

>>26390
That is at least partailly right, it's only day four and Wade's only spent any significant amount of time with Alice and Yukari. Suika just keeps popping up. But there's dozens of characters to manage so creating personality quirks for all of them is even more difficult while Anon's taking its whirlwind tour to find something or someone to settle on, I apologize if any seem overly bland because of that.

I also hope I can do Byakuren justice. I know someone will establish the norm for her, I don't expect to set any trends.

Though I do look forward to writing Tenshi, and at least one other character more fully.

>>26391
Thank you, I had a spellcard block on how to do that one. I'm starting to put together how White Inferno will go, so hopefully I can add the Life Sign, Death Sign, and White Inferno cards to Wade's deck eventually.

Also, remember the suggestion for Dream Sign [Raining Little Girls]? I actually do plan to use it, and have a good idea how.

---
This useless Q&A post has been brought to you by those god damn site hiccups! And your writefag's own stupidity!

Update tomorrow morning at the earliest. At least I have the idea more or less worked out, just need to change how certain characters act.

>>26397
>implying that this story isn't perfect

>Also, remember the suggestion for Dream Sign [Raining Little Girls]? I actually do plan to use it, and have a good idea how.
FUCK YES!

>>26399
How about a 'Shikigami Sign: Nari'?

>>26403
I was thinking the same thing. However, we need to train her, first. Hell, we still need to train more ourself. Better leaving that one for a later date.

>>26397

It's not a bad thing, since we like your rather normal (and prone to bralessness) Yukari; she seems nicely down to earth to Wade. Still quirky but not "above" everything as some Yukaris might be.

But I wonder if we'd get more hints on the source of this 'darkness' is... since does he hate his mother that much? Since he seems to be a mellow guy without much grudges outside of his lazy mother (it's believable actually, I've known some women after losing their job or such refuse to find work for a long time)

Still I suspect this will be a plot point, since such hate and using it can easily twist a person into something worse than Yukari or Yuuka at their worst.

Only thing close is his hesitance towards Marine who seems to like him a bit too much in spite of Wade finding her attractive. (How things go from here with her is up to Anon; though they seem to dislike trying to change things between them)

>>26406

I originally put up Hate Sign [Helldoken] as a dark version of Marisa's Love Sign [Master Spark]. Never thought it would become a plot point.

>>26407

Thing is doing a Hate Sign is a serious thing in Touhou, not even Mima would do something like that, and she was once known as a hateful evil spirit.

In short, one never does anything like "hate sign" remotely seriously.

And it was out of character for the rather mellow Wade. (Frustration Sign would have be more like it)

>>26411
That's the thing with good authors: they may turn strange or OOC write-ins into plot points instead of ignoring or changing them.
Remember that write-in regarding Byakuren's name? Exactly.

>>26413

True true... I'm curious to see how that point pans out.

But even then there are limits, if you give voters too much freedom you'd end up doing a repeat of DoLF/LAE R1.

which post was that write in made?

More on the Hate Sign matter: I wouldn't assume Master Spark is light or dark, just power. (Remember the spell card originally belonged to Yuuka of all people) And also Love can be a very twisted thing.

I think I need to update before the discussion pushes this into autosage.

Wade's creation of a Hate Sign card could become important depending on how the story goes. His frustration twoards his mother is part of it, being stuck even well after when he should be able to live his life because his mother doesn't want to lose the convinience... Trying to keep that kind of thing bottled up so one can appear mellow is never good.
---
[X]"Nari?"

Seriously, this girl is Nariko? This fluffy, four tailed beauty is my cat?

"Nari, wake up." I strated petting her head, which got a response.

I got a rather blearly blink in response, as well as a yawn before she stretched out and sat up. If this were an anime, my nose would be bleeding right now. "Mrrr... Morning already"..."
Why is her crotch wet like that? Why does she have that cup size? Who did this?

A note was attatched to Nari's pink collar, I pulled it off and read it.
>Suprise!
There was a little heart next to it, meaning it was either Mima or Yukari as I'm pretty sure both have the means and capricio to do this. I may very well have to ask them about this.

"Nyaaaaaaa~ What a sight!" I forgot about her. Suika turned to me and gave a tumbs up. "Wade, I approve!" Who asked you?!

Nari was now sniffing the little oni and the gourd while Suika looked about ready to pull the stopper and force her to drink. "Sukia, cut that out. You're not getting her drunk." I pulled Nari away from Suika, the latter looking a little disgruntled at my statement.

The former, on the other hand, wiggled around in my arms and put hers around me, threatening to fall back asleep. "Nari, wake up already."

"Nnn, don't wanna. My human." Great, now I've got an erection from this, and there's no way she could miss the shaft prodding her stomach. "Mm, what's that? Feels funny." Mind out of gutter Wade, it's not impossible! She's trying to pull my pants down, Suika too!

"Quit that!" I'm trying to yank my pants back up, but they're more likely to tear than go my way.

"Nyahahahahaa, how else is she gonna learn Wade? You have to teach her sex-ed some time!" I start shoving her off, then feel a draft.

"SUIKA!"

"Mr. Pants wants to be freeeeeee~ Nyahahahaha~" Suika was running off, and I tear off in pursuit despite having a sleepy naked catgirl- wait, duffel bag full of clothes. Duh.
I take a set of clothes out and get Nari to wear them, somehow, then tear off after the oni. I put on another pair of pants beforehand.

Suika was waiting just outside the door. "Got another pair huh? Have to fix that!" She then yanks off Nariko's pants and mine, then continues running off.
Our little chase took us by a few open rooms before I tackled the obnoxious little Oni from behind, almost wrestling my clothes away from her before she gets my boxers. It was only then that I noticed the little pest had let me catch her as we had an audiance.
Byakuren and Nue stared at us in suprise. My face went red, Nari regarded them sleepily, and I continued running after the watermelon with horns before they could say anything.

Some time later I got my clothes back and walked to breakfast with a more awake Nari walking alongside me and Suika sitting on my shoulders declaring that her new objective is to gather a harem. I quietly hoped I could ditch Suika at some point.

First thing I noticed was that there were three people that I was unfamiliar with sitting at a table with Byakuren, Shou, and Nue. Second was that there were nine places to sit total, meaning Nue must've told whoever made breakfast that there were a couple unexpected guests.

"I see you've settled things with your friend." Byakuren was smiling, so I guess she's just that accepting, or totally unflappable.

"If you're referring to the oni here, 'friend' is kind of stretching it." I rolled my eyes and sat down. Suika hopped off my shoulders and gently landed on her seat, while Nari simply sat down. "Might I ask who your friends are?"

Byakuren nodded to the girls I was unfamiliar with, and each spoke in turn.

First was a mouse-girl with a grey outfit and a blue jewel pendant. "The name's Nazrin, Youkai treasure hunter."

Next the girl with the middle-eastern garb and the ring. "My name is Ichirin, and this is Unzan." At the mention of 'Unzan', a large angry-looking cloud formed around Ichirin.

Last the cute girl in the sailor outfit with the ladel and giant anchor. "Captain Murasa Minamitsu, at your service! Or, I would be if the Palanquin's steering wheel wasn't being used as a chakram." She shot an undecipherable look at Byakuren.

Breakfast passed rather uneventfully sans a few questions and jabs, and after thanking Byakuren, I was ready to start another day.

Where to?
[X]Hakurei Shrine. I need to ask the resident evil deity something.
[X]The Scarlet Devil Mansion. Yukari pointed it out as a possible lead.
[X]Netherworld. A place full of spirits could have answers. I'll have to hope Youmu takes a raincheck on that duel...
[X]Prismriver Mansion. Another place Yukari pointed out, and I think I remember the sisters.
[X]That slacker reaper Komachi works with spirits...
[X]Why does Moriya ring a bell?
[X]Look for the pheonix of the bamboo forest.

[x] Why does Moriya ring a bell?

[X]Hakurei Shrine. I need to ask the resident evil deity something.

[X]Hakurei Shrine. I need to ask the resident evil deity something. (Also to inform Reimu that Yukari won't be a problem anymore)

>Why does she have that cup size?

Oh hell... so much for the little sister route theory...

>>26415
Hate sign write-in:
>>26035
Byakuren's surname write-in:
>>26151

Also, what is DoLF/LAE R1? I'm kinda new here so...

[x] Why does Moriya ring a bell?

[0] Why does Moriya ring a bell?

[x]Hakurei Shrine. I need to ask the resident evil deity something.

[x] Why does Moriya ring a bell?

[X]That slacker reaper Komachi works with spirits...

I wonder if Komachi's afraid of us. Maybe we helped Shiki lecture her. Fun times~

[X]Hakurei Shrine. I need to ask the resident evil deity something.

Four votes Hakurei.
Four votes Moriya.
One vote slacker.

Someone break the vote so I can get on with this.

[x] Why does Moriya ring a bell?

If a mod wouldn't mind deleting my previous post, I'd be grateful. I accidentally fucked up the copy and paste.

Calling it, construction under way.
I mean, update underway.

Dreadnaught Update complete.
---
[X]Why does Moriya ring a bell?

Something Byakuren said yesterday has been bugging me, specifically about the Moriya shrine maiden and her godesses. Something about the name Moriya felt familiar, so I ask around to get general directions before heading off to Youkai Mountain and the shrine atop it.

"Wade?" When I strated to fly Nari got my attention by tugging on my arm. "I want to ride."

"You're kind of big..." I didn't know how flight worked here, but I figure I'm already going to be stuck carrying Suika...

"Big?" Nariko looked herself over, compared our heights and sighed. "I guess... I can make myself small though!" True to her word, where there was a catgirl right around my height a second ago there was now a properly proportioned Neko-Arc sized Nari, who I picked up and put on my shoulder. "Onward nya!"

Now I can take off and head for the shrine.
The trip went smoothly except for the cannon fodder fairies who wanted to play danmaku with anyone passing by, which I handily took out and picked up the little blue, red, and green pieces of paper they dropped. The red ones made me feel a little stronger, the blue ones gave a sense of accomplishment and the green ones... I couldn't tell what those were doing, but I felt better than before when I picked them up.

"Those little guys are wimps, they barely shoot back." Suika had to add her commentary in the middle of this. "The big ones aren't much better though. We're at the base of the mountain now, fly lower so they'll ignore us."

I did as directed and sure enough the remaining fairies decided to disperse. The odd wind-orb looking thing was floating around, but they didn't bug us.

"You're lucky you've got me along today!" Suika seemed happy.

"Why's that?" I tried my hardest not to make eye contact as I floated along the path since there were plenty of sudden inclines to watch out for.

"The Tengu aren't as likely to bug us, makes your going alot simpler don't ya think? Saves you a stage four boss fight." Suika took a swig out of her gourd after that.

"I'm not sure if that's intended to be genuine help or a veiled insult."

"Help, honest, Oni don't lie! Don't want to have to try and fit those pieces of you back together again 'cause you got in over your head, 'specially since I can't do it drunk." Is Suika even listening to herself anymore?! "Sad part is you're not as likely to meet some of the other people around here, but finding fragments is top priority!"

Nothing to continue as far as I'm concerned. Still, I spot the oddest hat on the ground. A brown hat with a pair of googly eyes that were just staring off into space. This belongs to... Suwako! That's why Moriya sounds so familiar!
I walk over to it and contemplate what to do.

[X]Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[X]Best place for a hat is on one's head. I'm not wearing my fedora right now anyways.
-[X]In the hand is fine.
[X]Leave it, Suwako probably knows where it is.

---
Choice determines how Suwako gets introduced.

[x] Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[x] In the hand is fine.

[0] Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[1] In the hand is fine.

[X]Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[X]Best place for a hat is on one's head. I'm not wearing my fedora right now anyways.
HILARIOUS bad end.

[x] Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[x] In the hand is fine.

Fffff; Well I guess telling the group the good news will have to wait then...

But the amazing shrinking catgirl is pretty cool.

[x] Suwako might've lost it, I'd better return it.
-[x] In the hand is fine.

>>26439
Sheesh, stop being so paranoid anon, nothing bad was going to happen regardless of the option chosen. Like I said, it was to determine how Suwako will be introduced so you missed something funny.

Also, next round of voting hits autosage, so the next update will be up later tonight.
---
[X]Suwako might've lost it, I should return it.
-[X]In the hand is fine.

I pick up the hat without hesitation and carry it. While the temptation to wear such a hat is great, I'm kind of worried what would happen.
I take off again going further up the path, blasting the wind-orb things that got in the way and collecting the pieces of paper they drop. It's a rather nice distraction as I head up the waterfall and pass over it. I guess Suika was right about the lack of opposition, oni must be feared up here.

Now we were in sight of a large lake with giant pillars with ropes and weird zig-zagging paper on them coming out at various points in the lake. First question in my mind is how do they manage to stay like that?
The lake wasn't my interest, but rather the building near it, the one with a green haired girl in a blue and white shrine maiden outfit sweeping under a pillar by picking it up. To be fair, it doesn't seem normal to me. But what is 'normal' anyways?

She finishes up and enters the building without noticing me so I walk up to the building myself and knock on the door.
I don't hear footsteps, but the door slides open a few seconds later revealing not the shrine maiden, but a mature looking woman with red eyes, purple hair, a large rope floating behind her with more paper off it, four rather impressive dark blue logs attatched to the rope, a mirror on her ample bosom and... a really skimpy dark red two-piece swimsuit. Wasn't expecting that.

This woman noticed the hat in my hand, looked at me, then looked at Suika, then Nari. "Don't say a word." Apparently she's angry too.

"Kana, you're going to scare the guests!" I look around wildly for the voice that was practically beside me, then I looked at where 'Kana' was staring. It can't be the hat can it?

"This is degrading for a goddess Suwako, I don't want visitors today!" Something clicked in my head just then.

"Kana... Kanako? Wind goddess of the Moriya shrine?" Maybe it wasn't wise to talk, but I had to be sure.

"Least of all her!" Kanako pointed at me? No, Suika, who was almost drooling at the sight. "And yes, I am Kanako. If you want to talk, let me finish sacrificing the frog."

"Not going to happen Kana!" The hat slipped out of my hand and rotated around as it hovered in front of, and just above Kanako. Then Suwako's upside-down head popped out the bottom of the hat. "You lost the bet fair and square. You made your bed, now you have to lie in it!"

That prompted a menacing growl from the wind goddess, but she didn't do anything more than that. "Yeah, yeah... Come on you three, I might as well invite you in now that you've seen me."

Suwako's head pulled back into the hat before landing, then it started spinning as Suwako emerged feet-first from the hat, spinning at the same rate as the hat until it popped off her head and landed back on it. "And I know just how to do it! Watch this!"

Before I had time to object, Suwako brought her hat down on me, which swallowed the three of us into a strange void...

Hat End.





Gotcha.
I could hear Suwako talking despite that. "And now, I will produce not one, not two, but three guests from my hat!"

"Just get them out, I doubt they appreciate being used for a lame hat trick." Got to be Kanako.

"Isn't this a little overboard Suwako?" A third voice I don't quite recognise.

"Nonsense! They're just fine, geeze! See?" Suddenly I hear the large thump of Suwako slapping her own hat and Suika, Neko-Nari, and myself came out in a heap. "Good as new!"

"Nyaaaaaaa..." Nariko seemed kind of dizzy. "Frog smell..."

"Ah, I can live with that price for a nice sight." Only you, Suika.

[X]Write-in

[x] Introduce yourself and the others
[x] Explain your story
[x] Inquire about your past deeds with the shrine.
[x] Do a bit of talking, perhaps asking about any fragments they might have found.

side note
[x] Try to stop by the Hakurei shrine just so you can pass on the good news regarding Yukari, of course leaving out the parts involving close contact of the large, soft kind.

[x] Introduce yourself and the others
[x] Explain your story
[x] Inquire about your past deeds with the shrine.
[x] Do a bit of talking, perhaps asking about any fragments they might have found.

side note
[x] Try to stop by the Hakurei shrine just so you can pass on the good news regarding Yukari, of course leaving out the parts involving close contact of the large, soft kind.

[x] Introduce yourself and the others
[x] Explain your story
[x] Inquire about your past deeds with the shrine.
[x] Do a bit of talking, perhaps asking about any fragments they might have found.

side note
[x] Try to stop by the Hakurei shrine just so you can pass on the good news regarding Yukari, of course leaving out the parts involving close contact of the large, soft kind.

>>26442
[x]"Good to see you..er.. again I guess, Kanako-San, Suwako-sama, Sanae"
[x]Due to my... condition, I forgot a lot of things. Regarding this place I only remember an incident with... frogs? Is that possible?
[x]In that matter, did any of you happened to find a piece of my soul hanging around here?

Stirring the Hive~

[x] Introduce yourself and the others
[x] Explain your story
[x] Inquire about your past deeds with the shrine.
[x] Do a bit of talking, perhaps asking about any fragments they might have found.

side note
[x] Try to stop by the Hakurei shrine just so you can pass on the good news regarding Yukari, of course leaving out the parts involving close contact of the large, soft kind.