[x] Go with whatever Mokou and Sanae have been arguing about? (Don’t let common sense bind you!)

God it’s boring. There’s never anything fun to do. I just sit around waiting for something else to happen. This morning was just rolling out of bed, eating the same thing as always, and wandering around outside. I don’t get why people strive to live like this.

All I’m doing is fishing at this point, not that I expect to catch anything. I wonder how long I’ve been sitting here, just feeling the breeze comb through my hair and play with my dress. It’s definitely been a while, the sun’s already poking at the horizon, and the clouds betray the lightest hint of a brilliant evening orange.

I guess really what I want is someone to be around and entertain me. Where’d that little drunkard go? She always livens things up for me. Or that unfortunate girl. She was alright. Having her sing my praises felt great, but it did also grate after a while.

Heh, what a stupid pun that is...

The rod in my hands remains as limp as always. I’m zoning out on it, not really thinking much of anything.

It shuffles a bit.

Oh?! Something’s tugging on the line?!

How is that even possible?! Something real stupid must have gotten caught on it. What the hell would even let itself get snagged like that?

I yank and tug the line in practiced motions, catching the line with my free hand and passing it over to the rod hand. Despite it being purely for show here, I do know how to fish where it matters. The line pulls against me erratically. The thing on the other end doesn’t know what it wants or where it’s going. There isn’t a struggle for life or death, per se, but it is playing against its current restraint. With enough finesse I land my catch and raise one green headed girl above the dense cloud sea.

That’s… not what I was expecting. She sits in place, her collar held up by the end of the hook, without saying anything or reacting in any way. She’s just as surprised as I am right now.

No, literally, what the hell? Who is this? I feel like I know her, but it’s been a while since I last had fun with the earthly residents of Gensokyo. She looks at me and springs back to life

“Found you, Tenshi!” she joyfully says, slowly raising her gohei. Actually, that one was called something else, wasn’t it?

Oh wait, she plans to–

---

“You really found her just like that?” I say, baffled that Sanae could just pick a random direction and find who she wanted. That isn’t even going into the chunks they tore out of this floating island in the fight afterwards.

“It honestly pisses me off that you can just do shit like this, Sanae…” Mokou groans.

“I count my blessings everyday,” Sanae says, proudly hauling the beat up blue-haired girl over her shoulder. “This makes four today. Yesterday was nine.”

A long sigh comes in unison from Mokou and I. Ran doesn’t join only because she seems to be out of it right now.

She’s been steadily more absent looking as we’ve flown up to heaven. That sounds so wrong to even think. Just fly up to heaven, catch a celestial being sitting around, easy. On any other day the weirdest thing here would be the floating islands and waterfalls dotting the sky above the vast field of clouds. Not today, though. Today I get the pleasure of seeing how one of the two shrine maidens stumbles through incident resolution.

“So now that you have a knocked out celestial,” I start, pointing at the blue sandbag on Sanae’s shoulder, “how do you expect to convince her to help us?”

“Convince her?” Sanae asks in return, clearly confused by what I’m thinking.

“No, no, no,” I quickly attack her vexation. “You need to convince her to help us. If we just have her with us that isn’t going to do anything.”

“But it will…” Sanae says, saddened that I’m not keeping up with her.

I turn to the only other sane man here and ask, “Mokou, what is she talking about?”

“How am I supposed to know? I’m not some encyclopedia like the fox… usually is,” Mokou argues back. “Sanae, what are you on about?”

Sanae brightens up, lifting the girl on her shoulder higher to stand up straight and proudly explain, “Well… A while back I went to a Hakurei shrine flower viewing party and that one poverty goddess was there, but so was Tenshi. It was a horrible experience, but I did learn that celestials apparently have natural luck so strong that it counters that goddess, so they stuck around together. Hearing about Hina’s problem makes me believe that the same thing could work here.”

I take in the explanation and conclude, “So she’s here as a good luck charm. You don’t care if she’s even conscious.”

“Yes,” Sanae confirms. “I’m going to throw her at Hina and this problem will resolve itself.”

I bury my face in a hand, disappointed that I would listen to Sanae’s idea this far through.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to talk with that brat, either,” Mokou jokes. “Anyway, we’ve wasted enough time, let’s hit the source of the issue… wait that came out wrong. Just shove along already!”

She pushes Sanae over the cliff and then disappears into the clouds herself. Ran grabs me and pursues the two… three.

We make our way through the sea of clouds. The place is worse than any kind of fog could ever dream of, it’s so thick. Looking again, it was miraculous that Sanae would get caught by Tenshi’s line. That goes without saying, though, just because it’s Sanae I’m talking about.

We eventually wander out of the clouds, catching our bearings in the brilliant evening orange. Not too long before the sun sets completely. Ran is the first to make a beeline for Hina’s cabin after breaching the cloud line. Seems she’s stirring somewhat if she could tell where to go that quickly.

It doesn’t take us too long to touch down in the cursed forest once more. Ran landed without a word and waits for Sanae and Mokou to follow suit.

There’s a bit of shimmer in her eyes, like she’s already back to full attention. Not only that, but she’s focused on something. The ears under her hat turned toward the deeper forest.

The moment the other two land, she about faces and treads into the barren area.

“Wait, Ran, why did you land here?” Mokou calls.

After a moment without reply we awkwardly gesture between each other for who goes after her first. I end up caving and take the second position.

The cursed forest is just as gloomy as before, only made creepier by the knowledge that something is out to get everyone that comes here. Or, it wants to, at least. It might very well be sealed with Kagiyama back at her hut. Anything that can ignore the rules as other Gensokyans know them is a heap of trouble, though, and not one that we can play reactionary to.

It’s been several minutes of brisk walking, but we haven’t caught up to Ran, much less spotted her again.

“Yaah!” Sanae squeals behind me. I pivot on my toes to see what happened.

Mokou also takes stock of the situation, but it appears to be a false alarm. A beetle flies around the miko’s head, maybe taking interest in the unnatural display of fertile and wet colors that the girl and her baggage radiate. Whilst an annoyance, it isn’t cause for panic.

“Swat the thing if you’re so scared of it, girl,” Mokou says, pantomiming the motion.

“But I don’t want to hurt the poor thing!” Sanae pleads. “He’s just living out here and I walked into him.”

Living out here… A thought occurs. If the misfortune is sealed, and bugs are coming back into the area, then we’re safe to move without any worry. That might be why we haven’t caught up to Ran yet, as she’s already determined this.

It doesn’t take more than a few words to convince Sanae of this, as she hurdles past me to escape her tormentor, but Mokou is hesitant to fully believe that conclusion.

“Why are you so confident in that? It’s just one bug,” she comments.

I think on my answer, and claim, “I guess I just trust Ran’s work to, well… work.”

Mokou scoffs at the only mildly embarrassing vote of confidence and starts to dash ahead as well. It is at this point that I realize that they’re flying through the woods at high speeds while I’m stuck on regular human legwork. Damnit.

One healthy jog later and I’ve caught up to the others. The forest was abuzz with activity as the insects of the surrounding healthy forest sensed the opening to scavenge to their heart’s content. It at the least kept me from feeling lonely, but a normal person would have been better for that. Or, you know, someone just carrying my because I’m a frail human being that can’t fly.

Ran and Sanae study the trees a distance out, while Mokou takes a crouch next to Ran with her hands on her head. Maybe taking a bash from Ran for leaving me behind. A part of me is happy that even when she’s still too absentminded to speak Ran keeps my safety in mind.

Moving on from the thought, I take a tree near the others, and begin to whisper across, “What are we waiting on?”

I spot Ran crossing a finger over her lips, and points further into the forest. After a few moments I acclimate to the silence around us. It’s not quite perfect, though. It seems some commotion is happening a ways out, and when you listen for it the sound of people becomes obvious to identify.

Mokou picks herself back up and walks toward the noise without even the faintest sound of footfall, and we pursue behind her.

It’s a tense and quiet moment as we hope that nothing catches our group since there isn’t even so much as the cover of leaves. Mokou seems to care less, sauntering in her steps over random debris on the ground and taking a silent stride despite her heavy looking boots. It’s another of those times that I question if she’s just floating off the ground ever so slightly or if she’s just that practiced at stealth.

Mokou takes a stop and halts our company where we stand. We each careen into nearby trees out of the forward sight line and find an angle to observe what Mokou stopped for.

First and foremost, I spot people. Quite a few people. Next, I notice that the area they’re standing is right where Ran set up the barrier. It might be pure chance that we’ve ended up back in the same location for me to recognize, or it’s more likely that there’s some kind of weakness here since it’s the source point. For now, I try to discern who’s crowding the barrier.

A lot of tengu, both the crows and wolves, and one individual in all red in front and above them. The waning light doesn’t make it easy to call at a glance. It’s not Reimu, they’re too large in frame to be that girl. There’s a bunch of pillars floating around her…

“Kanako?!” Sanae says with a bit too much volume.

Kanako? Kanako Yasaka, the main goddess of the Moriya shrine? If she’s here, then anything could be happening. It’s really a wonder that I wanted to find her of all people in my idiotic stupor.

I need to stop and think for a few moments on what this could mean…

“Tanner–“ Ran queries me, but I pause her mid speech to dive into my thoughts more.

Starting with what I remember now: a capricious goddess, both of sky and war, acting as the main body of faith for the Moriya shrine. By multiple accounts she is stated as the sole cause to numerous incidents over the course of two, potentially three, years. No stranger to getting her hands dirty, she was a direct party of conflict for two.

Now capricious isn’t entirely correct, as she’s seen as that only because her decisions are so heavily handled by one factor: faith. Her greed for worship, human or otherwise, allows anyone to gauge the cause of her actions, but the outcome remains elusive because of her strategic intellect. She’s a general that would make any tyrant blush, and under other circumstances would run Gensokyo. Thankfully there are too many parties to involve herself with for that to be physically viable, so she instead weighs herself on political ventures.

That all said, what about here? Kagiyama, a separate god of a completely different field is under duress. Without help, she’d be taken out by the tengu crowd there, at least my assumption is they’re not there to sit and drink with Kagiyama. That would mean Yasaka does not get involved, but does not gain from the event. An antithesis of the opportunist. Helping the tengu would marginally benefit her, as they would be thankful for her support in stifling an observable calamity in the making, but it would never be publicized to the public of Gensokyo in the name of peacekeeping. Helping Kagiyama…

Would show her hand in acting as a major authority? Shows the tengu how unphased by their actions she is, enforcing her alignment with gods of Gensokyo? Could be construed as a peace by force act in order to protect Kagiyama, and… maybe even followers if she strings it along.

It’s not hard to deduce that she’s here on our side, thankfully. There’s more to gain from it than being against us. But a good politician is a scary thing. There for you one moment, against you the next.

I stand from a crouch I had apparently taken.

“Tanner?” Mokou now also addresses me.

“Yasaka is here to help Kagiyama,” I announce.

“Well, of course,” Sanae says in naive virtue.

“That hag? Bullshit,” Mokou groans.

“I’m in agreement with Fujiwara,” Ran comments, back up to full speed.

“You may not agree, but that’s what I’ve concluded. I can explain later if you want, but we’re going to have to either take my word for it, or we’ve got a way bigger issue on our hands,” I argue back.

Mokou thinks on it for a moment, screwing her face for a rebuttal. She gives up and says, “Fine, I’ll believe you for now. If it ends up being less trouble, good. If not, I’ll let Keine know what torture to give you later.”

“Good. So what now?” I ask the others. They glare at me. “Hey, I was trying to figure out what the scary goddess might be here for. I was hoping you all thought of what to do.”

“Sneak in,” Mokou states.

“Help Kanako,” Sanae states.

They turn to each other, their opposing answers not meshing well.

“That’s it?” I reply somewhat deflated from my expectations.

“Not everything needs to be that complicated,” Sanae advises. “And someone doing good should be helped to do that good.”

“Yeah, in your dreams. I’m here to fix a problem, not play along with someone more fog than steam.”

I notice Ran’s remained silent as the two stare daggers at each other. She hasn’t moved much from her tree.

“Ran?” I prod her.

“Yes?” she responds.

“You good?”

“Indeed,” she mootly replies. “If you are worried that I have provided no advisement, feel no concern. The two here have presented both valid methods. Do you require an error check on a different option?”

Mokou and Sanae seem to have run from their earlier deadlock to another now. I guess it’s again my choice what the hell we’re doing here. Maybe I should transfer a few of these decisions to Ran at some point.

[x] Go with Mokou’s plan. Better to avoid whatever that whole crowd is doing.

[x] Go with Sanae’s plan. Whatever Yasaka’s final goal is, at least it involves working with you.

[x] Ping pong an idea with Ran. (Write-in)

*Careful now, I might be open to some ruthless behavior on your choice.

---

Man it’s weird being able to scroll to latest update again. Anyway,
Yeah >>44198 I 200% forgot this. It’s two hundred because I even remembered at one point while in this chapter. We’re really bouncing places, here. We’ll all just have to live with the idea that Sanae spawns ghost frogs for her attacks and live with it. Also, it was nice to write Tenshi perspective for that short moment. It’s fun to tap into the rude brat vibes she gives off.

[x] Ping pong an idea with Ran. (Write-in)
-[x] Approach openly, announce your intention to fix the problem, negotiate entry with Kanako.

Actually, on that line of thought, maybe Ran could help me fact check an idea.

“Ran,” I address.

“Yes,” she replies, ready for whatever crazy thing I’m going to say next.

“Do you think Yasaka knows you’re here?”

“Please specify: here as in position or here as in participating party to this circumstance?” she feeds back.

“The latter.”

“It is unlikely that whomever notified her of the current circumstances has explained that a separate participating party is involved. That said, if the goddess Yasaka can read barriers then she would at the least know the Yakumo signature is tied to the current field holding the miasma in,” Ran explains. Her relapse into robotic speech is almost comforting after how heavily our affliction got to her.

“Then let’s walk up and say that we’re taking care of the problem,” I claim.

“Wait, what?” Mokou breaks from her bickering with Sanae to some confusion. “Did I hear you right? You want to waltz up and tell everyone there to piss off? Do you still have some gunk in your system or are you usually this suicidal?”

She emphasizes the point by waving over to the crowd. There’s no small number of tengu there. It’s a whole city block’s worth of people, at least. They must have hoped to take care of the whole thing on their own with a military unit’s worth of brute force.

“I’m perfectly present now, despite how I look,” I state, lightly tugging the paper tag stamped to my forehead. With Tenshi here, I may not need this, but I’d rather be safe and not work on that conclusion.

They look eager for me to continue my thought before arguing, so I elaborate, “If the goddess Yasaka is out there despite not being directly involved before, Sanae not withstanding, then she’s doing it because she believes there’s some political benefit to her taking a stance.”

“Yup, I get that much,” Mokou assents. “But now what about the tengu, they seem to want to deal with it themselves.”

“The tengu won’t get in the way. It’s my understanding that they’re too politically bound with Yasaka’s decisions. So, if, say, we were to walk up and claim that we already have the solution, then they’ll gripe, but won’t have a legitimate reason to stop us this time,” I argue.

Ran remains indecipherable to her opinion on the idea, while Mokou seems very skeptical still. Sanae, on the other hand, is immediately onboard, even dragging Mokou off before she can give her grief. It takes Ran and I a moment to realize what just happened and start running after her. The sudden burst of noise we make draws a few eyes from the crowd, maybe wary of intruders or feral beasts.

They seem surprised but also relieved when they see Sanae. They also retract that relief when they notice who she’s carrying and who’s following after her.

The crowd gazes at us. Bafflement spreads through their entourage as they realize that the individuals arrested earlier are waltzing up to this mess once again. None take the initiative to apprehend us as we cut through the crowd towards the front. Some are outright terrified that we’re standing here since at least two of this group are carrying something misfortune related.

Despite the noise their stares feel like they cause, no sound breaks the current silence. Even the goddess patiently waits for our arrival at the head of the pack.

Yasaka seems keenly focused on what’s happening, but also shows the slightest hint of surprise. Who that surprise is pointed towards is up in the air, but either way that’s what I was hoping for.

“Sanae,” her deep voice booms over the crowd.

“Hello, Lady Yasaka,” Sanae happily greets with a wave. I’d go so far as to say that she gayly greets.

“You’ve come present with something useful to smother this trouble. However, why do you know what is happening?” her eyes pierce with a similar intensity to Ran’s. The dominating pressure she has is no magic, it’s the raw intensity of her persona.

“Ah, they came to us for help!” Sanae declares gesturing Yasaka’s attention over to our crew.

The preeminent goddess eyes us down. The tengu are more than happy to move out of the way of her gaze.

“Fujiwara… an individual I am unknown to… Yakumo..?” she takes stock of our heads. “An odd assortment. I will forego asking what brought the three of you together and instead ask, what do you hope to do here? I assume now that this barrier behind me is your doing, Yakumo.”

“Indeed it is,” Ran curtly confirms.

Step two: convince everyone to let us go in and fix the problem.

“We are here to resolve the incident,” I claim. Supposedly, this mixture of words is no small announcement in Gensokyo, being something that is usually reserved to Reimu, Marisa, and a few others. Incidentally, Sanae seems to have also had a time or two in that spotlight.

“Is that so?” Yasaka replies unimpressed. “Now that is the true oddity here, given the Yakumo’s prior blind eye to matters on the mountain.”

“The Yakumo are the ones to determine what Gensokyo requires,” Ran retorts.

Yasaka doesn’t take kindly to the implied curtailing of the conversation and the two stare daggers. Each woman has eyes that could cut right through stone.

“So the Yakumo directly resolve incidents now?” Yasaka questions.

“Nay,” Ran denies. “The Yakumo have never done such, we have only ever supported our proxies.”

“Proxies..?” Yasaka asks with a tone demanding a specific reply.

“These two humans,” Ran states, offering attention over to Mokou and I.

This gets a chuckle out of Yasaka. “We both know that first one is a lie,” she mocks, “and the second one is… hm. A… foreigner? How..?”

In Yasaka’s moment of calculations, Ran takes charge, saying, “Enough. Now is not the time for questions. What must be done is before us, not among us.”

Not allowing the goddess a moment to retaliate her undermining of the situation, Ran steps forward towards the barrier. Right under the goddess floating in the air.

One of the pillars held aloft behind Yasaka takes offense to this and hurtles down right in front of the fox, kicking up a swathe of dirt in every direction. Ran appears unphased, but she has stopped walking.

“Miss Yasaka,” I beggar her ear. “Please allow us to work this.”

She turns on me, clearly losing patience with us. However, it isn’t me that she stops her glare on, instead catching Sanae’s eyes.

“Lady Kanako, please,” the shrine maiden doesn’t back down to her god’s cutting stare.

After a tense wait, Yasaka breaths out, hiding the sound that would otherwise be a sigh.

“Very well,” she says. “The Yakumo and company will resolve this incident. However, my shrine maiden must join you as insurance,” she directs to Ran.

Ran looks up to the goddess and offers a silent nod in agreement. With that, the pillar blocking her lifts itself back into the air and joins its companions behind Yasaka. She walks up to the border awaiting the rest of the group.

We look between each other, making sure nobody has anything else to bring up. Even the tengu gave up trying to stop whatever it is we’re doing. It seems they didn’t come with any leadership, so they’re at a loss for what to really do now.

They mumble amongst themselves, but don’t really come to any unanimous decision, so we decide to leave them be.

We get to the edge of the barrier, where Ran has been doing some amount of incantations to open a space for us to use. The Moriya shrine’s goddess oversees the process, but otherwise keeps watch on the mob of tengu surrounding us. It’s tense, but by no means out of the realm of usual business for these people.

Unprompted, Ran starts to explain the circumstances at play, “Regis, the inside of this barrier is unexplored territory. There is no certainty what state it is in.”

“Ran, what do you mean?” I ask, oddified by her sudden bluntness.

“Gods of misfortune are not well documented, and one that has lost control of its power is seldom seen. This is unexplored territory,” she repeats.

Ran mixes no words nor does she obfuscate the reality of the situation. No one here knows what is happening. Kagiyama doesn’t even seem to know what is happening. But we want to fix it before anything worse happens.

Mokou speaks up first, “So what is stopping us from walking in right now? Why all the dramatics?”

“Should the barrier be entered, it must first be completely dispelled,” Ran explains.

Mokou goes to argue, clearly with more curses, but Sanae first replies, “Wait… that doesn’t sound right. Barriers can be entered and exited with no problem, the border of Gensokyo does that all the time to hell and the netherworld.”

Ran stops her motions controlling the magical symbols in front of her to explain, “Gensokyo’s barrier is planned, and required a long time to prepare in terms of barriers. This example is… what you may define as a ‘rush job.’ Something not complete by any standard but does the bare minimum to classify it as a border.”

“Does that mean we can’t enter without breaking open the whole barrier?” I ask.

Ran takes a moment to think. Or, maybe not think, more like contemplate something. After some time she replies, “There is another way.”

“Oh?” Mokou mutters.

Ran elaborates, “The barrier is set to use my power. However, there was not enough time to set it to use my power whilst I am inside. Therefore, if I were to not join you when entering the area, the barrier would remain intact.”

“In other words, we go in and are on our own,” I reiterate.

“The barrier is invisible, so you would still be able to leave if you find me again.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Sanae says in confidence.

Mokou and I aren’t as sure. It doesn’t help that we still don’t have a real plan for what to do. Sure we have Tenshi to help alleviate the worst of the effects, but that’s only prevention, not a solution.

Now’s not the time to argue, though. We can’t show Yasaka or the tengu that we’re fibbing. Mokou, Sanae, and I stand against the barrier by Ran’s direction, ready to walk into whatever madness is happening inside.

I can see in, clear as late evening, and while there isn’t anything that looks different, we can’t say for sure what’s happened throughout the day deeper in.

At Ran’s command, we step forward. And everything goes black. It isn’t that it’s dark like nighttime. It’s more like I’m sitting in some extremely dense smoke. Immediate confusion sets in since this isn’t remotely what it looked like from the outside.

Before I can start speculating what’s happening, Mokou calls out, “Are you two seeing this? It’s not just me, right?”

“If you mean not being able to see, then yes, I’m seeing the same thing,” Sanae jokes.

A flicker of light sparks next to me, then a palm size blaze bursts alive in Mokou’s hand. It does little to abate the crippling haze around us. Seeing the light in contrast, this dark really is a mist. It’s a gas swirling in the air. Mokou looks around with the flame to get what few feet of view she can with it. Sanae waves a hand through the air to feel the homogeneous mass constantly dissipating and reconstituting.

My first priority is to look down at my shirt. Using Mokou’s light I can tell that the charms are just fine. Only the bottom one is burnt out right now, no change otherwise. Hopefully that’s a good sign. Very little else is right now.

My eyes trail down to the ground. Nearly pitch black. It’s like the ground I’m standing on died and started to decay. This place was already decrepit, but this is far beyond the cusp.

“Alright, come on you two. In a line behind me and grab the person in front of you,” Mokou orders.

Sanae does just that, and asks, “How are we going to get to that little hut with everything pitch black like this?”

Which is a very good question. I saw this area just earlier today and it all looked the same then, but it’s unnavigable now.

“You’ll just have to trust my sense of direction,” Mokou whims. “I haven’t lived in that damn bamboo forest without learning how to get my bearings when I can’t see.”

She holds the flame at the edge of her reach, and watches it. She stays like that for a chunk of time before feeling satisfied with her reading. The flame was gently moving in the direction of the fog. We walk perpendicular to it, likely walking transverse to some air current.

“Wait isn’t that still using your sight?” I jab to lighten the mood a bit.

“Shut up. Be glad that the bamboo forest of the lost is really good at its namesake or I wouldn’t have had to come up with this,” Mokou retorts.

“I mean, it’s also a simple caver’s trick, too,” Sanae comments.

We move slowly through this blind region, taking care not to disturb the vibrant compass Mokou holds. She takes the lead, Sanae holds her off arm behind, and I take up the rear holding Sanae’s arm still carrying Tenshi.

Only the sound of our steps pierce the dead air. It was the same before, but this illusory crammed space made by dark walls forces it to feel evermore present.

After several dozen meters, I notice the flame start to lose magnitude and directionality. Mokou notices as well, but trudges on.

A thought occurs to me at this point, “Hey, is this all misfortune around us?”

“You mean this situation?” Sanae asks.

“No, like this stuff in the air. I thought it was some chemical reaction, or whatever equivalent that would be, between the misfortune and the ground rising into the air, but this is just too consistently dense.”

“That’s… uncomfortable to think about…” Sanae trails.

“I’m trying to figure out why the air has any motion, though,” I continue. Now I'm waving my hand through the air to try and feel some resistance.

Mokou nips at my casual attitude with a, “Quiet, we don’t know what’s here.”

Only a few steps more and Mokou pipes up again, cursing, “Damnit!”

“What’s wrong?” Sanae chitters, not hiding her nerves well.

“The fire isn’t picking up any draft now,” Mokou explains. “Either of you have another idea that could keep us moving without mapping the area?”

I ponder for a moment, and fish something from my pocket. One of the flash rocks I’ve been holding onto. Thankfully unused to now.

“Hey, can either of you do something with this? It shines when striking something,” I hand it off to the two. Mokou puts out her flame when taking the rock.

She looks at it for a bit in the pitch black, and starts questioning, “Is it some magic? Does it work multiple times? How bright is it?”

I answer in order, “I think. Not entirely sure, but without some kinda mojo definitely not. Bright as the sun in July.”

Mokou stays quiet for a few extra seconds before I hear her grab it tight. It lights up better than a lantern. It also doesn’t instantly burn out.

“What? Could I always use it like that?” I ask, surprised that I apparently didn’t check everything I could do with the set.

Mokou grunts, and replies, “Not really. It took me a while before I really settled on pyromancy. Stuff like light is always useful, though. Glad I could remember this little tidbit to keep enchanted crap going for more than a second.”

“I didn’t know you studied magic, Mokou,” Sanae chimes in.

“Didn’t, really. It’s more like it’s hard to not learn stuff when you’re harassed by things that shoot lasers on the daily,” Mokou brags.

The shining rock is a lot brighter than a regular fire, so we’re able to see a total of ten feet now! That’s a three times improvement, so I’ll take it.

Mokou has a much easier time keeping our bearing toward the center by seeing the foliage around us. In some short moments we tunnel through the impossible blackness, the fog dissipating around us as we move forward.

Suddenly we’re in an open area. The misfortune let up on this area, and with the bright lighting I can see why. A jet of this crude misfortune ejects upward from Kagiyama’s now crumbled shack. The entire area is a diorama for angular forces: spinning material at the edge being drawn in and spit out upward, hitting the ceiling of the barrier and trailing back down around the encasing to loop once more.

It’s beautiful, it’s horrifying, and someone is sitting in the center of it making this.

[Please wait warmly…]

---

Had to play around with this one in my head for a bit. I think it came out naturally in the end. No vote this time because I’d like to believe that I can finish this portion of the Hina chapter within the next update. We’ll have more time with the poor girl after, though, so don’t you worry.

[Continued]

“Either of you have something to say to lighten the mood?” I request of my companions while standing in awe of the nightmare around us.

“I don’t think now’s the time for that,” Sanae refutes. “Do either of you see where we need to start looking? Are we even standing in the right place to find Hina’s house?”

“I could swear that Ran set up the barrier with the house smack in the center,” I reply.

The place is moving as if it were itself living. The vortex of dark clouds create their own weather patterns that phase in and out of existence as the mass hits the ceiling of the barrier only to precipitate back down. The reason we could see so little before is because the misfortune settles at the edge of the barrier and only inches back towards the central source point.

Mokou flips around, the light in her hand making conspicuous rays against what was clearly the house here, and it doesn’t appear to be in any state that could be called a building now.

“What the hell was that?” Mokou curses.

I turn to look the same way Mokou is, only the dense wall of fog greets me.

“What is it, Miss Mokou?” Sanae asks, also staring into the dark wall.

“Don’t damn know,” she replies back. “Thought I just felt eyes on me. Place is freaking me out. Never seen something like it.”

She starts moving towards the building remains, taking the light with her. Sanae follows suit, but I linger a moment more to study the wall. She felt eyes on her? Is there an animal in here? Hopefully not, since it’s probably been mutated beyond recognition.

The fog begins to form an eddy current around something inside the blind space.

That can’t be my imagination, right?

“Hey, you two, I think there’s something here…” I attempt to get their attention, but they’ve already started to make their way to the most of the wreckage.

I retreat back to them, and I can only hope that whatever is causing that is some emergent property of the misfortune itself.

I get back over to the two, who are inspecting the space before us. I move to start looking as well, but I remember something. I check the condition of my shirt charms. The second one took on a small amount of rot. I’ll have to be pretty pious to these seven after this is over.

I turn my attention to the house… what’s left of it, anyway. It doesn’t just look like it fell apart, it might be closer to say it broke apart. Violently. It would be closer to call it a wreckage, and I imagine a gross amount of paraphernalia is buried under here, considering what I learned about Kagiyama before.

“Hina!” Sanae calls out for the goddess.

We stick close together and fan the pile of wood, calling for the goddess every few paces. The devastation that this area has been under is beyond comprehension. I can only wonder if you’d need to track healing from misfortune like this in half-lives.

A shift in the wood near me catches my attention, so I walk over to investigate. Something catches my ankle. I yelp in stressed panic, and I can already hear Mokou and Sanae rush beside me.

Mokou snags what caught me and grunts as she yanks it from the wood pile.

She’s fished up a particular goddess, one who’s too tired for conversation, or even standing for that matter.

The goddess appears beaten. Worn down. Having no more spirit left to give this place. She seemed ragged last time I saw her, but now all of her demeanor has been killed. Her outfit is shredded in places, torn at the hems, and caked with ample amounts of dirt. Her eyes and face are sunken and nearly hollow. It’s hard to know that she’s even alive if she hadn’t grabbed my leg like that.

Mokou is the first to speak again, “Holy shit. What happened to her..?”

What she said summarizes my own thoughts pretty well. It looks like she’s been living destitute for a whole month after we left. Is that a statement of the misfortune’s magnitude?

“Go…” Kagiyama rasps, still held aloft by Mokou’s clutch. Mokou realizes this and settles the goddess on her back.

“Hina!” Sanae exclaims, kneeling down next to the goddess and taking care of Tenshi’s hair not to get in her face.

“Hmm..? Oh, you. From the shrine at the top…” Kagiyama pushes her speech through an obvious lack of energy. Her words are quiet and slow. The eerie silence of the fog came in handy to hear them clearly. “You… all… should go.”

“Yeah, not on your life,” Mokou states. “You need help and we’re the only people here to try and do anything right now.”

“But… what are you going to do?” Kagiyama asks, regaining her breath bit by bit.

“Ah, right,” Mokou trails off.

“Well…” Sanae tries to find the right words.

“We don’t have a damn clue,” I bluntly explain.

Kagiyama stares between us in disbelief. Instead of berating our foolishness, she breaks out into a weak, joyful chuckle, only stopped by a coughing fit.

“I guess that’s how it is for Gensokyo,” she jokes.

“Ah! We do have Tenshi, since I think she protects against bad luck,” Sanae remembers, presenting the celestial like a person-sized doll.

“Prevention isn’t gonna solve the problem, though,” Mokou undermines.

“There’s other things to worry about, though,” Sanae leads the conversation.

“What do you mean?” I ask. “What’s stopping us from sitting here and deducing how to dispel Kagiyama’s curse?”

Sanae points past us, over to the vortex of misfortune now only a couple dozen meters away, and explains, “She’s here, and not in the middle of that. So what is at the center?”

She looks back down at Kagiyama, hoping for some level of explanation. The sullen goddess looks around in thought, not sure how to word herself.

“You… I don’t know how to say…” Kagiyama fails to explain.

“Well, I guess we gotta kill whatever the hell that is, then,” Mokou determines. “Tanner, can you carry Hina?”

I’m mildly surprised by the request, and answer, “I don’t know. I’ve never been much of a macho man.”

“Just be a regular man and pick up the damsel,” Mokou complains. “If I’m gonna be beating something up, I can’t be carrying someone flammable.”

“Alright, alright. I get it,” I nag back. It takes a bit of knee work, but I get Kagiyama off the ground and hold her in front of me. I’m not as weak as I used to be when teaching, but people are pretty heavy.

Even I can tell that Kagiyama is no more than a twig right now, though. It’s like half her body’s left her in the last several hours.

“Is something wrong, Tanner?” Kagiyama asks.

“No, Miss Kagiyama. Just making sure I have a good grip on you,” I deflect the question.

“Please… just call me Hina,” she requests, nestling into my arm to conserve her strength. “I’ve never been one for formality. Is Nitori fine?”

“Based on how Ran reacted, I’d say she’s probably doing fine at Eientei.”

“Good,” Hina responds, contented.

“Alright, less talking, more walking,” Mokou demands, taking the bright stone away with her.

Sanae and I scramble to keep up with her. The tempest is blasting from the hill over, but it’s hardly doing anything at all to us. This stuff is in every way otherworldly. Understanding it might be just as difficult as the barrier itself. Thank the gods that it’s unable to do anything to us.

We sneak a view over the knoll to spot what the cause of the storm is. Mokou doesn’t have much choice but to raise the bright stone over the bump. It doesn’t end up helping, we’re sitting inside the inner wall after all. We’re barely able to see past our own face. We signal amongst each other to move up in the densest portion of the fog.

I ask Hina to grab Mokou in front of me and Sanae takes my shoulder. We start to walk inward, only a few steps before completely breaking into an open space.

There, standing in the center of this mass, and more so conducting it, is Hina.

“What?” Sanae asks what’s on our minds.

The conductor Hina slows her raised hands from their wave. As she calmly lowers them, the wall around us lowers in turn. Soon enough, the misfortune is no longer piled on our position, and we can see out to the far fog walls.

The conductor turns around, eyes closed and face at peace.

Her eyes open and leak gaseous misfortune from empty sockets. Mokou slides a leg back, preparing to launch into an assault to protect us.

The conductor folds her hands over the front of her pristine red dress. The same as what Hina’s wearing. Her entire outfit is in fact identical.

“Welcome,” the conductor speaks in Hina’s voice, a pleasant ring to this strange situation. It would be more pleasant if it weren’t for the fact that when she opens her mouth more of the black fog escapes from it.

She continues, “I was wondering when you would finish traipsing through the woods. I see you’ve picked up my lesser, as well.” She gestures to me and the sullen Hina I’m holding.

Mokou raises an arm between us and asks, “What are you?”

The conductor twists into a gnarly smug face, and answers, “Exactly what you’d expect. A god, a Youkai, and a part of my other self. Though, that might not be so true at this point, as I’m something of a purified essence of misfortune,” it contradicts with a polite bow.

“I’m guessing you’re not particularly friendly, then,” Mokou surmises.

“That would depend, how are you all with inflicting suffering and strife on the world around you?” it asks.

Mokou snorts, “Yeah, not surprised you would be some messed up piece of filth.”

It replies, “Let’s not mix words: I am pure, raw misfortune. ‘Messed up’ only means that I am living my existence correctly to your standards. Just as Youkai seek fear and gods seek faith, I seek misery, hopelessness, and contempt.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Kill you and no more problems, right?”

“Is that the case?” it questions right back.

Mokou wastes no more time with its wordplay and leaps into the air. Setting herself ablaze, the area lights up far brighter than the rock she just dropped could manage. The conductor Hina stands with arms open to embrace the fireball. The din of scorching flames is deafening against the utter silence from a moment ago.

Sanae sets Tenshi down next to me so that she might support Mokou, but Mokou herself is going all out to finish things now, allowing no one near. A set of fiery wings sprouts from the woman, and beat back, launching herself as a projectile feet-first into the false goddess.

The conductor does nothing to stop the torrential flame from colliding with her, barreled down by the impact that morphs into an erupting pillar of fire. The heat is intense. I’m more than a safe distance away from the fight, but I can still feel it as if I was sitting in an oven.

Sanae stays until the pillar collapses, and casts several bright stars around her as she rushes in beside Mokou. From what I can see, there isn’t anything left of the body. Either it turned to ash or back into the misfortune fog around us.

Wait… would it be made of fog? Then wouldn’t that mean–

A bang as loud as a cannon sets off right behind me. I can’t see the dark projectile speed down to Mokou and Sanae, only the dirt shoveled up by the blast. My hearing takes a few moments to recover from the noise, to which I can hear Mokou cursing up a storm.

The two were sent skyward, catching themselves and preparing more spells to launch my way. The light from their extensive firepower clearly shows a false Hina standing behind me, finger pointing at the spot she shot.

It tilts its head up with a ceramic scratch. “Why did you assume that was the only form of my being?” it mocks.

“You really should have remembered that part where I’m a god,” Hina’s voice comes from the left behind some trees.

“Remembered? As if those two are even thinking right now,” a third Hina chimes in from the right.

Right, Shinto god. If the area is any indicator, she’s pretty strong right now, and that would mean that she could be as many copies as she wants.

Wait… why didn’t we use that to find the Goddess Moriya earlier?

Three streams of pitch black projectiles assail Sanae and Mokou’s position, forcing them to dodge and shield against it. Sanae rose up further to narrow the direction the shots came from, coming out unscathed but otherwise too surprised to counterattack.

Mokou… is not so lucky. She took multiple shots through the chest, and these are not the playful dueling kind Gensokyo is bound to normally. She keels over unceremoniously, with blood pouring out of the gaps in her body. It pools up immediately. The two Hinas hiding in the trees burst up to the same height as Sanae to continue their assault.

The first walks around me, taking careful stock of what I’m doing. I can’t tell what she’ll do in the slightest. I can only realistically fear for my life. First time in a while.

I hold the original Hina tightly, covering her.

“Now, now,” the false placates, “you are better off making sure she is just fine. I wouldn’t want myself to die, now would I?”

The words resonate a bit in my skull and I look up to the creature. It looks down to Hina with a morose smile. Hina looks back, spiteful of the creature.

“Ah, this one, though,” the false Hina grabs Tenshi’s ankle and flings the unconscious girl into the air before loosing another blast. Tenshi is sent into the distance, tumbling through the air until she’s buried in the sea of misfortune fog. “Wouldn’t want her around. She just felt like a bed of thorns. Now relax there, odd human.”

That last part catches my attention, “Wait, what do you mean–“

She floats off to deal with the literal explosive rebirth of Mokou soaring into the air. While we weren’t looking, Sanae seemed to have taken a major hit and tumbles down through the air before Mokou knocks into her, kipping her back into a stable float.

The two take to fighting the three false Hinas in the air, but even more are waiting on the ground, still as statues, only observing.

“I wish I could say I’m to blame for this,” Hina starts to speak, “but I don’t know why this happened at all.”

“It’s alright, they’ll pull through, won’t they?” I lie for a shred of confidence.

“But will you?” Hina asks, shifting in my arms to prod my stomach.

Oh, shit. That.

The second charm from the bottom is already burnt out, and the third one up is going that way, too. I didn’t even think about how I was only protected because Tenshi was sitting next to me. I was just relieved that the fake Hina didn’t immediately kill me.

That also means that the misfortune is going to start heavily effecting Mokou and Sanae as well. It already has been the moment they had to start fighting away from Hina and I.

I panic and shout to the two, “Go find Tenshi! It threw her into the woods!” I point out in the direction she flew after catching one of their attentions.

A Hina at the ground doesn’t take the call out nicely, and turns in place to aim a shot directly at me. I don’t have much time to grab another bright rock. I curl in on my Hina and smash one to the ground, and a bang goes off right at the same time.

It seems to have saved me for this short second, but I can already feel a searing pain in my shoulder. My entire shoulder. I must have gotten a hell of a flesh wound just now.

“Aargh!” I cry. The pain is too much for me and I crumple over on top of Hina.

“Tanner?!” Hina shouts. “Tanner, please!”

She’s too weak to even budge me, and I’m too focused on the pain to pay attention to my surroundings.

I can feel the extreme heat emanating nearby, as well as hear the sounds of numerous explosions on the ground. Mokou must have retreated down to help me. The firing squad at the bottom might have made things difficult on that end.

This isn’t looking good for us. I can’t think of any way that we could pull around the fight in our favor. We only have two active combatants and neither of them can do any meaningful damage to the target.

Come on, brain, work through the pain. Your adrenaline addled thoughts need to find it. There’s got to be something else…

“GOD THAT FUCKING HURT!” a shout cries, surprisingly not from me, though. It came from out in the woods, where… Tenshi… fell…

I force my head to look in the direction of the roar.

An intense gout of red light much like Mokou’s eruption pierces through the darkness, shredding a sector of the fog wall from existence.

“Why’s it so damn dark?! Where the hell am I?! THIS PLACE IS DISGUSTING!” a younger female voice rings in stark fury. I would assume Tenshi’s voice and fury.

Scarlet light shines from her position, clearly pointing out a target for the many Hinas in the area to now make a priority. One loud and very impending priority. They send a wave of dark bullets out into the distance, only doing to incense the increasingly agitated celestial.

The light blitzes our direction, screaming, “I’m going to smash you to dust!”

A massive swath of earth is picked into the air and Tenshi perches atop it, still going at full speed. She drives the small hill into the first target she can spot, which is unfortunately Mokou, who is a bright white beacon in this lack of lighting. Tenshi stands on the top of the boulder, looking around at all of the Hinas, who are now realizing their own misfortune to come upon them. A lot of them gasp, releasing a black cloud that clues in the celestial to their rather unholy nature.

Tenshi stands proud, raising a small rod emitting a blade of energy above her head, and sinks it into the ground, causing a ripple of blasts from the earth around her. The Hinas are skewered by the fragmentations of earth and scarlet energy, profusely bleeding their misfortune fog. Those downed don’t even bother getting up, knowing another pounding would come if they did so.

Or, I mean, even a gaseous monster body might be expended by that much force. I’m no expert.

Sanae floats down to the scene, fleeing from a few other Hinas. Tenshi hears the chase and sends smaller rocks into the sky that hone in on multiple Hinas, but instead of colliding directly the rocks themselves repeatedly fire lasers.

Tenshi stares Sanae down and flips her off for knocking her out. And, obviously, taking her to wherever we are now. Maybe also her hat, if she noticed. Thankfully I held onto it.

Sanae doesn’t get to apologize as something else catches Tenshi’s attention, turning her view over to me. I had thankfully avoided her blitz by keeping my head low, though I was kind of already there since it’s hard to sit up with the pain in my shoulder.

She hops the distance in one go, landing right in front of me. Sanae busies herself with the edges of the rock, frantic that Mokou is buried under it.

“Who are you, and why do you feel like someone I know?” Tenshi asks to me and Hina.

“Me or her?” I retort.

“The goddess, obviously. You can screw off elsewhere for all I care, human.”

“I don’t… know you, though?” Hina more asks than answers. She looks around for anyone to explain what’s happening to her, but both Sanae and Mokou are out of the way. I sure as hell wouldn’t know.

Tenshi poses in thought before snapping her fingers and reiterating, “You are someone I know! Hang on, I think I’ve got the idea now.”

She fishes out of her skirt pocket a… fishing hook. Go figure. Taking the sword hilt and placing the hook at the base, a bright glow emits to heat up the metal bit in whatever crazy energy she uses. The hook appears red hot now, but Tenshi grabs the thing without issue.

Before I get the chance to ask what she plans to do with the small item, she tosses my torso off of Hina. Ignoring the screeching sting from my shoulder, I roll to see what Tenshi’s doing, and find that she’s stuck the hook in Hina’s nostril, pulling with all her might.

Guess I hadn’t seen the strangest thing yet today, because this probably takes it.

Sanae came over to see what’s happening, but is too baffled to stop Tenshi. So am I, for that matter.

After enough effort, Tenshi pulls something out of Hina, the hook passing through her nose without injury. Or, wait, maybe not? Her nose is still caught on the hook, but the bottom of her head is against the ground. Some more pulling and I get an understanding that this is two faces splitting from each other.

It most certainly looks as weird as it sounds, too. I can see both faces, despite one being physically below the other. Is Tenshi pulling out a ghost?

With some more area for leverage, namely the two heads split from one another, Tenshi sticks a boot into Hina’s face and really wrenches the second person from her. This is unpleasant for every party involved, and shouldn’t need explanation for the amount of grunting involved across the three of them.

With the heads and torsos separated, Tenshi gives one last pull and peels out a darker blue haired girl. This one is as ragged as Hina is right now, and just as horribly skinny.

Hey, isn’t that..?

“Shion?!” Sanae shouts.

[x] A time of rest.

[x] A time of investigation.

---

And thus, here we are. The finale of what might be a more action packed section for this chapter. I still plan on going through a good deal more (this doesn’t even remotely cover ideas in the original lecture!) and I haven’t gushed over Hina yet. As for this vote, consider it more of a little explanation of what happened or a lot of explanation, not too difficult this time.

[x] A time of investigation.

Questions are flooding through my mind at this point. Why the hell is one of the Yorigami sisters here? How was she in Hina? How is it possible that we lucked into having Tenshi here to do that? Why the fuck did using a fishing hook work? Sanae looks like she’s just as curious as I am, but holds herself back.

I can’t feed my curiosity, either. Not because I don’t want to, but because I think the adrenaline in my system has subsided, so now the pain of the shoulder injury is settling in. Did I say injury? Because I think it would be more correct to say it feels like my arm has separated from my body!

The intensity only seems to ramp up in the next few seconds as my mind is purely kept on the area. I can’t even tell my eyes to focus or my head to move, only my voice works to shout in pain. Tenshi and Sanae turn their attention from whatever they were talking about over to me. One of them pins my opposing arm away from my shoulder, which I hadn’t known I moved to put pressure on the wound.

“Hey, so what am I looking at, here? What is this guy?” Tenshi asks, unimpressed by the show.

Sanae kneels down beside me and answers, “He’s just a regular human …Oh that’s really bad. Uhm… is anyone a medic?”

“Like any of us would know medical junk,” Tenshi states matter-of-factly.

Sanae scrambles around for something to use for my wound, even taking one of her long separated arm sleeves off to see if she could purpose it for a knot. It only agitates my exposed flesh, and stains the article more red than white.

I feel sweat clamor me worse than any hot flash could do, and my continued cries are giving Sanae an anxiety attack.

“Ugh, his screaming is annoying,” Tenshi revolts. “If it’ll shut him up, then let me… wait, where’s my hat?” She checks her head for the missing piece. Thankfully, I know that it’s in my pack and try to lift the entire thing out from under me. Sanae notices and helps to retrieve it. She undoes the strap and picks out the wide brimmed hat.

Tenshi snags it back to her head and proceeds to pluck something from her crown. Right, there were fruits attached to the hat. I couldn’t even tell how, but they were definitely there. In between an uncontrollable moan and a wail she stuffs the fruit in my mouth. There’s not much thought for me to give about the taste of it, only the confusion about how this is supposed to help.

Clenching my teeth down, I eat a large swathe of the fruit’s flesh. In no time flat the pain gradually subsides. Pinkish fruit, a celestial, right, that was a thing they had. Something about body strengthening, but I didn’t pay it much mind since it seemed so moot of a point for people from heaven to have food that strengthened their already powerful bodies.

With the pain subsumed by whatever I just ate, I have control of my muscles again. My eyes go back into focus to see that Tenshi is looking just as miffed as I expected, but also holding Shion at the waist tightly in her arm. She releases her boot from my arm when she can tell that I’m fine...ish.

Sanae, on the other hand, seems to be on the verge of tears. Poor girl must take my wellbeing more personally than I expected.

I try to roll up, but I have no strength, so I only nudge upward a bit. I note just how little control my left arm has. Looking down, yeah, that’s just a whole chunk of the shoulder completely rended. Luckily it was the top of my shoulder, otherwise I would have bled out already. Or so I say, but it seems that my blood pooled up more than a person should survive from, much less remain awake.

If I were a betting man, then I’d say the combination of the seal on my forehead, the celestial fruit, and the charms on my shirt are probably to thank. Only three of the charms seemed to survive after I last checked, but that’s still more than I was suspected.

“Here,” a pleasant, calm voice chimes in. Hina got up at some point. There’s a fullness to her that I haven’t seen yet, and it might be some level of delirium speaking, but she looks positively divine.

In short, she’s looking unnaturally healthy, all things considered. Ah, no, it makes sense. The misfortune is seeping into her, the clouds evenly floating into her body. A god of misfortune would obviously need the stuff as a core part of their existence, so absorbing it probably replenishes her energy, too.

Hina removes a ribbon around her forearm, revealing a series of scars, and wraps the top of my arm in a tight knot to lessen the blood flow. I look up to her, expectantly.

She giggles, and follows with, “No, there isn’t any magic in that ribbon, you just needed something to help tie down the bloodflow.”

Sanae and Hina attempt to raise me to my feet, but there’s just no energy for them to use.

“So, uh, when am I supposed to talk?” Shion asks nervously.

Tenshi goes to answer coyly, but the sound of a blast from under the boulder shudders the ground. A loud, and more than mildly aggrieved, roar comes from under the rock, blowing open an edge in a gout of fire. Mokou climbs out of the opening, looking plenty pissed off, but otherwise no worse for wear.

“Hey, Tenshi!” she shouts. “Try and kill me harder, why don’t you?!”

“Shut up and help these two with the dying pig over here!” Tenshi shouts back.

Mokou perks up at the words and bounds over in an instant. Shion seems rather crestfallen that she’s missed her chance to announce herself to the group.

“Gah… shit. Well now both Keine and the fox are gonna kill me,” Mokou bemoans. “What even happened to you?”

“One of the fake ones shot me, that’s what. It’s a wonder I even have an arm left,” I gripe, rousing my coarse voice. I look over the group and clear my throat to say, “And thanks for keeping me alive. Not in the best mood with all the blood loss.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get sappy with me,” Mokou jests, working to lift me up. She gets me in a piggyback leaning on my arm. “Hey, grass head, hold onto his pack. Don’t want him having a cow later.”

“Why do you people even know an English saying?” I bicker, lost in the amount of absurdisms I have to absorb from just one day.

“Is that English? I always thought it was a common saying,” Mokou ponders as the group starts to make steps to the edge of the barrier.

“No, no, no. Surely you heard it from somebody recently, Mokou,” Sanae argues.

Keine told me this, but the people of Gensokyo really take life too much at their own pace. One moment Mokou was dying over and over and now she’s arguing about common phrases. What a place I’ve found myself.

While the two make their own comedy show, I take a glance over to Tenshi and Shion. Shion being here at all is no small surprise, even if it makes some sense. She’s supposedly capricious, or maybe just wily, when compared to Hina. But while their powers are similar, they’re not exactly the same. When I’m back on my feet I’ll need to interrogate both of them for all they’re worth.

I almost leave it at that before I really pay attention to the fact that Tenshi is still holding Shion at the waist. At first it looks like something possibly obsessive on Tenshi’s part, but there’s an oddness to Shion’s body.

Shion emits wisp like flames at all times from the tips of her hair and her feet. I would expect it to look like a flame rising, but right now, though, the ‘flames’ are gravitating in Hina’s direction. Hina is over a dozen paces out, and yet there seems to be an almost magnetic attraction between them.

If I look closely enough, it seems as if Shion’s legs trail a few degrees ahead of their natural hanging tendency from Tenshi’s grip.

“Hey, Miss Yorigami,” I address the pestilence god, “is that odd attraction you have normal?”

Shion seems more confused than anything by the question, staring back blankly without a call to respond.

“Is he hitting on you of all people?” Tenshi grimaces. She perks back up when further noting, “Wait! He addressed you properly! Show me respect too!”

Mokou chuckles, adding a small bit of pain to my shoulder, and jeers, “Maybe when you start acting like somebody respectable. Hell, both gods here have you beat and they exist on negativity.”

“Huh… an attraction…” Shion absent mindedly comments on my question. “Yeah, that’s weird.”

“Well, it doesn’t take a genius,” Tenshi claims. She points to Hina and moves to Shion, saying, “One sucks in, the other spits out.”

“Could it really be that simple?” Sanae muses to the idea.

“Mm,” the front of the group chimes. Hina shares her thought on the matter, “It’s not impossible. Seeing Miss Shion separate from me was quite startling, but it makes the most sense when put how Tenshi said. I take in, she gives, and together we wouldn’t be able to do either, instead it would pile up worse than snow.”

“Hang on, I’m no misfortune expert,” Mokou interjects, “but wouldn’t the two of you combined like that make nothing happen at all? Why would misfortune miasmate worse than the little vampire brat on a temper tantrum?”

Hina remains silent. Her gait is very structured, even when walking with her eyes closed in thought. It wouldn’t surprise me if you could balance a book or even a glass of water on her head. Wait, is that how her bow stays on? Not to mention that her crowning bow is back on her head, even though it was all shredded up before. The thing must be mystically attached to her–

Snapping fingers in front of my face attract my attention. “Hey, genius, start your speculating thing. Less fawning over the hot stuff that can get you killed,” Mokou mocks my poor tunnel vision.

“Oh my,” Hina giggles, “is that high praise from someone of your experience?”

“It wouldn’t be high,” Tenshi insults. “I’m sure the most experience she’s ever gotten is back country farm boys.”

“Hey now,” Sanae states wedging between Mokou and Tenshi. “Let’s all act a little mature, yeah? There’s only an angry mob of tengu outside.”

“Ah…” Hina deflates. “I guess it would come to that.”

“No, no, it’s fine now!” Sanae reassures her.

We approach the edge of the barrier, I can only really tell because a group of people are gathered. Thankfully, Hina has been absorbing the blinding fog on our way out, so we didn’t have anywhere near as many visibility issues.

I get a good look at Hina absorbing the unnatural atmosphere. She pirouettes on the balls of her feet, arms laid on her skirt front. She continues to rotate, showing no signs of friction affecting her. Is she floating while doing that?

The visible misfortune gas gravitates into her like water in a sink. The swirl makes me think of the personification we saw, conducting the misfortune outwards. That creature made no motion, though, unlike Hina. Perhaps the motion is what causes a restorative force on this miasma.

That point pales in comparison to another observation. It isn’t lost on anyone that Shion is also directly effected by Hina’s spin. Her wisps and limbs are pulled in like she was the only one to experience a heavy gust of wind.

It begs an obvious question: can this happen again?

As the mist clears further, a familiar face starts to make motions outside. Ran moves her hands in practiced circular motions before beckoning us to come out.

We move past the line of separation and are greeted to a much brighter world. The sun may have set, but it’s clear as day to see compared to inside of the dead zone. My eyes adjust to spot the nearby group of people. They’re not who I expected.

The tengu aren’t crowding around the edge of the barrier anymore. Instead they’ve taken to the treeline a short distance out. Replacing them is a cavalcade of colorful girls. Reimu, Marisa, a girl with white hair in green carrying samurai swords, the western styled maid from the vampire mansion, and a haughty tengu mixed in with them. From my understanding this is the usual crowd of… what you might call ‘fixers.’

What exactly they are ‘fixing’ is up for any given whim they’re here for, not to mention how much it gets fixed. Mileage may vary and all that.

An extra I hadn’t noticed at first but sticking out for the wrong reason is a girl with tied up purple hair hiding under a large straw hat. She’s wearing plain white work clothes like a village worker would, contrasting the eccentric colors and fabrics of basically every single person around us. Wait I think I’m part of that group now, too, with my decorated dress shirt, and the talisman stuck to my forehead.

The other colorful individuals react to our arrival, but the workman moves faster, ignoring any impede even from the goddess Yasaka.

She rapidly checks through our group, returning to me after she’s finished, and starts ordering Mokou to help her. I get set down against a close by rock and she cracks open a large wooden box she’d been carrying. She begins perusing various bottles and medical pieces as Mokou strikes up conversation.

“What brought you out here, Reisen?” Mokou asks.

“A certain loudmouth kappa. One who made it obvious things could get this bad,” the medical girl responds. She continues to sift through her box in a panic. I’m beginning to believe there’s something off about the box itself based on how many items she’s already gone through.

Mokou looks at her increasing frustration and grabs the girl’s hat off, revealing a pair of tall standing bunny ears. She looks back up to Mokou with piercing red eyes as the ashen haired girl admonishes, “Hey, cool it! He’s stable right now, so stop stressin’ us out!”

“A-ah,” she stutters, the sharpness in her eyes settling down. “Right. Yes, you’re right. First aid gets to me, that’s all…”

“Sadly, I know what you mean…” I commiserate with the scrunched up rabbit.

As she treats me I keep a close eye on the conversation happening between the rest of the group. Not really what they’re saying, more just body language and emotions. It figures Reimu is disinterested to a comical degree the moment she heard that no fighting is needed. Marisa at least shows attentiveness, though that may just be because she’s a magician. The others have similarly mixed responses. Yasaka being the most troubled by the events.

Nothing seems to be of concern, besides the implications. That is, before a tengu swoops down on the group. Iizunamaru has shown herself again, and she doesn’t seem deterred like her cohorts.

I get up against Reisen’s wishes and wander over to see what they’ve started talking about now. Reisen continues to apply bandages to me as I’m walking, disregarding a few odd looks from the other denizens around us. Being even more hopped up on drugs and magic than before makes me feel like I could take on the world, fainting isn’t even a remote concern.

“You are to be tried by the inner circle of tengu society as an immediate threat to Gensokyo, Kagiyama Hina,” the present tengu authority declares.

“Under what jurisdiction do your people think they function?” Yasaka rebukes the tengu acting larger than life.

“One which refuses to administer harsh terms for an obvious threat, Lady Yasaka,” Iizunamaru stings back. “With all due respect, this scenario here could happen again, and action needs to be considered immediately before another catastrophic event transpires. The tengu have decided that we are the only ones willing to humor longer term solutions.”

“But nothing even ended up happening!” Mokou interjects.

“And that is due to how many circumstances to keep this monster down?” the golden pauldroned tengu points up at the area of the barrier. Still clear looking, but we all know better at this point.

Some murmurs start in both the crowd around us and within the trees. It quickly grows into a din of speculations and possibilities. Not many with a positive outlook.

“You are not the highest level of power involved in this incident,” Ran dominates the crowd’s worry. “The Yakumo withheld the tide now minimized. It is up to our decision what happens to the goddess.”

“The Yakumo are planned to be involved in the proceedings,” Iizunamaru placates. “You, Lady Yasaka, and three others others outside of tengu society will act as judges for the sake of Gensokyo’s safety. This was after much deliberation over the scope this incident could have.”

“You can’t seriously think that arbitrating this will go well,” I comment, a bit too high on my own impulses. Reisen shoots a hand over my mouth to stop me from further aggravating someone.

Iizunamaru doesn’t bother to respond to the provocation, instead pointing to Sanae and commanding, “Your Moriya shrine will have four days to produce their defense for the curse goddess, as you have claimed responsibility in resolving this situation. Use whatever means you need to present in her favor.”

With that, Iizunamaru turns around and whistles to the trees. A wave of her hand and the birds fly from the leaves and the wolves the roots. She looks over the gaggle again, giving a stern but not wholly dispassionate eye before soaring off as well.

“Those bastards really think they can just do whatever they want, huh?” Mokou gripes.

Sanae seems stunned over her sudden promotion to defense attorney, and so she doesn’t have much to comment on the matter.

The fixer crew disbands from the area, leaving the original assortment, now including Yasaka and my good partner.

There’s much to do, I suppose, and so little time to keep Reisen away from dragging me to the hospital.

[x] Support Sanae’s investigation.

[x] Help Hina rebuild her home.

[y] Go to the hospital, you unhealthy bastard.

---

I hadn’t made it clear, but the previous choice was actually a scene skip to Eientei or continuing as is. I ended up doing a lot more banter between Tenshi and Mokou than I expected to do, and I think it’s just fun to imagine what kind of dynamic they’d have with their wildly different backgrounds. Shion also didn’t get much light, but that’s just unfortunate, isn’t it?

Oh, and take this plot development as you may because I am too.

[y] Go to the hospital, you unhealthy bastard.
-[X] Promise Hina you'll help rebuild her house once you're well enough to do so.
-[X] Excuse yourself to Sanae. You're in no state to help her right now, but you can at least pledge to assist her if you recover in time for the trial.

Log initiated.
Date time: 08/12/19 21:07:36
Protection target health unstable. Medical attention required.
Potential of observable bystanders misinterpreting requested actions as dangerous: 45%
Potential of observable bystanders misinterpreting requested actions as dangerous given explanation of reason: 10%

WARNING! Violent act capable of injury/incapacitation to protection target requested. Form of reason required for submission to Adm. Y at earliest convenience.

Proceed anyway? Y/N

>Y

Initiating combat usage of shkgm_04.tlsmn

A paper doll is released in a cutting arc. The doll flies, splitting the spirit binding talisman on Tanner Regis’ head. Using his moment deep in thought is ample time to incapacitate him.

It has been approximately over twenty minutes since Tanner Regis obtained a critical injury. It should be expected that the medical professional from Eientei would take him, however she has become shaken by the sight of an intense fight injury, instead choosing to attempt first aid treatment.

He needs to be forced elsewhere for treatment. The talisman was meant to focus his spirit back into his body, as the misfortune had strung it out. He decided to treat the boon as a makeshift stimulant, pushing his body beyond normal human capacity. The fool.

Sanae Kochiya and Hina Kagiyma shout in surprise as the human’s body collapses. Fujiwara no Mokou assumes a combative stance in front of the man’s body.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Fujiwara no Mokou shouts.

“He must be subdued for medical care.”

“He would’ve gone if you’d just asked!” Fujiwara continues in hostility.

This unit raises right hand in gesture to convince Fujiwara no Mokou to hear out reason.

“We both know Regis would not have listened in his current state. The moon rabbit supplied him too many medicines, causing him to turn hyperactive.”

The moon rabbit averts her eyes in a deserving shame.

“Tch,” Fujiwara no Mokou clicks her tongue, but removes herself from the body.

“It still would have been better to try and convince him, Miss Ran,” Sanae Kochiya argues.

“Regardless, he is unconscious. A moment before you carry him yourself, medic moon rabbit.”

Connecting to grtst_shkgm.dll via neural transmission…

Chen

Yes, Lady Ran?

Are you available at this current time to carry another body?

Did that old guy get hurt? No, sorry, Lady Ran. Only curious. I am at the human village attempting to scare roadside humans. I am available for transport… Both teleportation and the body, I mean.

Good.

Activating spell based teleportation.
Target grtst_shkgm.dll acquired.
Please channel raw energy into spell channel runes before dropping to floor.

The runed doll glows a brilliant blue before falling as a drop of water. A flash conceals the method Chen materializes in. A quirk of the spell Lady Yukari deliberated on to reduce replication from others.

“Lady Ran,” Chen salutes in a soldier-like fashion. Who taught her that? Only recently has she done that repeatedly.

I point to the protective target. Chen requires no further explanation. Chen does, however greet numerous members of the current group. Including Shion Yorigami. This child knows more individuals than would be expected.

Chen hoists the human body over her shoulders. A fully grown adult human male is nearly twice her size, but that means less than nothing to Youkai. Chen does need to be reminded of a human’s frailty. Tanner Regis has no less than 80% of his arm severed from his shoulder. It was by pure chance that the major artery there was not shredded.

Sanae Kochiya did admit that there was more blood pooled around Tanner Regis than a human could commonly produce before succumbing to anemia.

Investigation note added for later reference. Documented under happenings.dir folder as part of rgs_status.txt.
Launching bindings.exe using shkgm_05.tls through shkgm_55.tls…

A series of paper shikigami dolls fly from the units’ sleeves to tie down Tanner Regis arm to his chest. A tourniquet would not be enough to stop the free motion of Tanner’s arm from further injuring him.

Executable complete. Please set timer/distance for termination of structure.

>Set radial location eientei.domain center

Eientei grounds set as termination threshold. Please ping a used shikigami for a change in setting or manual termination.

Chen flies from the mountain down to the bamboo forest with Tanner Regis in tow. That concern may be dealt with as is, aside from the bill Doctor Eirin Yagokoro may deliver for formality, but there are more matters to attend currently. The other members of this current party are conversing amongst themselves, though appear to be preparing to leave.

“Kochiya, do you require assistance to investigate this event currently?”

Sanae Kochiya looks over in surprise at the offer and states, “Oh, uhm. No, I should be fine with Mokou. Thank you, though.”

“No, Sanae, I only said tonight, I really didn’t mean more than that,” Fujiwara no Mokou complains.

“Very well, best of luck.”

The two walk off in the direction of the barrier. They must have forgotten about it and the contamination zone that will need cleanup. Hina Kagiyama is currently speaking with Shion Yorigami and Tenshi Hinanawi. They are projecting possible reasons for the event.

“But if she went in me… which I still find wholly strange… why did more misfortune pile up? I can’t really explain it,” Hina Kagiyama speculates.

“How should I know? I didn’t even know it was already Monday. How many days does that mean I was stuck like that?” Shion Yorigami questions.

“Seven,” Hina Kagiyama answers surely. “I remember because I couldn’t take in any more misfortune right then, which I can’t think of another reason that might be.”

“Theoretically, it could have been more, had the pestilence goddess incubated before that period.”

“Smaller words, fox,” Tenshi Hinanawi shows her lack of upbringing.

“Shion Yorigami could have been inside Hina Kagiyama for longer than that week in which Kagiyama could not fully use her power.”

“Well, what do you think poor stuff?” Tenshi Hinanawi addresses Shion Yorigami.

“Uhm, I don’t really know any dates. It’s not something I think about,” Shion Yorigami confesses.

“Oh, yeah. I get what you mean. I only know what day it is when February rolls around into March,” Hina Kagiyama agrees.

“Remain on topic for now, this initial period will be vital to collaborating a single understanding of the events.”

“Hey, at least give them a moment of peace here, you dumb machine,” Tenshi Hinanawi rebukes.

“No, no, Miss Ran is right,” Hina Kagiyama assents. “I’m not safe just yet. I want to visit Nitori and make sure she’s fine, but… Walking away from here won’t look good. I don’t even have access to my own home right now.”

“Is that to be interpreted as requiring help in purifying the zone inside the barrier?”

“If you’re able to, then it would be a huge help for me. Even if it wasn’t my fault, this misfortune is still piled up because I’m here,” Hina Kagiyama explains. “I want to show the tengu that I do not wish to harm anything.”

“Do you understand how to purify an area of this scale?”

Hina Kagiyama contemplates the question, and shakes her head to say, “No. I haven’t done anything quite this size. Would you be able to support me, Miss Ran?”

“It is within the interests of both Gensokyo and Tanner Regis to do so. You will have my support on the matter.”

Hina Kagiyama is content with the answer and awaits further instruction to begin the process. Tenshi Hinanawi is unenthused by the current outcomes.

This unit beckons Tenshi Hinanawi for elaboration of her thoughts and mood.

Tenshi Hinanawi rolls her eyes and says, “Yeah everything’s just great now. I’m sure you’re only forgetting the part where you knocked me out and kidnapped me by chance.”

“That was Kochiya’s idea, which resolved the incident itself most amicably. There is another perspective that directly involves you. Your friend is half the cause. The tengu will not ignore her. The coming trial is only prosecuting Hina Kagiyama out of a lack of full context.”

The lack of a priori knowledge to Shion Yorigami’s involvement does not need to be discussed.

Tenshi Hinanawi appears skeptical, but does relent, “So, what? Should we help out as well or something? Wouldn’t that get Shion in even more trouble for sticking around?”

“Tenshi, I think we should,” the pestilence goddess comments. “That Hina lady seems to have been through a lot. For me it was a nice nap. Even if I don’t remember a week…”

Tenshi Hinanawi seems hesitant to argue back to Shion Yorigami. Their friendship was prior known information, however the celestial listening to any other person’s concerns is an unusual occurrence.

Note added under peoples.dir as part of ptlhitlist.txt

“If you are in agreement, there is much to be done. The four here will work to purify the area, Sanae Kochiya and Fujiwara no Mokou will begin investigation for the trial in four days time.”

This will be enough information to relate to Tanner Regis directly. Another log will need to be started should Sanae Kochiya or Fujiwara no Mokou find information of note.

>End current log

Current open log closing.
Please note that this log type is not allowed further editing or recording after closure. Continue to close? Y/N

>Y

---

Shit. Feels like I banged my head into a wall. A lot. And maybe my arm, too.

No, wait, my arm is probably worse. That dull yet sharp pain that spreads to every blood vessel around the wound. That kind of feeling sits there, telling me to remember what the fuck I did wrong to cause it. I should start working on that before it starts to really get pissy with me.

“Oh?” a subdued voice announces herself next to me.

The metallic ring of a curtain opening combined with sudden light scrapes my senses together, even causing me to flinch and raise my left arm as a blinder. Or rather, I flinch because I attempt to use my left arm. It’s easy to feel the whole thing wrapped up to a point that it can’t move.

I crack my eyes, first noticing the ceiling light obscured by a silhouette, then the woman’s round head protruding two long rabbit ears. Ah, this sounds familiar but not something I can immediately place.

She flicks on a light directly above the bed I’m in, this one thankfully not as blinding, and says, “I thought I heard you waking up. How are you? Can you speak?”

“Mm?” I blearily grumble in my stupor. “Yeah, I’m good. Why would I not speak?”

“We’ll come back to that. First, what do you remember?” the bunny girl asks, rolling a stool over to my bedside. Interesting that she’d have a rolling one here.

“Hey, try to focus, this is important for me to know,” she lightly scolds.

“Right,” I reply, parsing out what I can from earlier… today? Maybe today. “I was… in the misfortune storm, but I got shot at by the misfortune creature in it. And then I– no, we– left out of the barrier with Hina. At least, I’m pretty sure. It gets blurry around that point, was it just dark or something?”

“No, you made it out of the barrier and were even walking around before fainting,” the rabbit explains. “In fact, I was treating you at that point. Do you remember any of that?”

“No, sorry,” I answer, rocking my head in a pillow.

Thinking on that, this pillow is fairly soft, and this seems to be a proper cot rather than a futon on the ground. Where am I, exactly?

The rabbit senses my curiosity and speaks up, “Alright, let me introduce myself. I am Reisen Udongein Inaba. You have been brought to the Eientei clinical section. My master Eirin Yagokoro has already seen to you. Is there anything else confusing you?”

“Well, yeah, but…” I start before shuffling up in my bed. Inaba is kind enough to tilt the pillow up along the back wall for me. “I’d guess you know, but my name is Tanner Regis. A researcher from the human village.”

Inaba giggles, “’From the human village.’ That’s quite the stiff introduction. I guess master was right that you’re an outsider.”

“Foreigner, actually,” I correct.

“What does that mean?”

“I’m from a different continent, not the land of the rising sun.”

“Huh…”

“Anyway, I’ve got a lot to ask about,” I return to topic. “I think I should prioritize my health first, though. How bad off am I?”

“Would you prefer if I said you can’t use your arm or do you want the hard answer?” Inaba jokes.

I give a… not slightly nervous laugh, responding, “I’m a big boy, you can tell me.”

Inaba clears her throat and answers, “Two months in a cast.”

I slowly nod, taking in the logistics of it, and comment, “You know, that’s shorter than I was expecting, but that’s probably really bad around here.”

“Since we’re accounting for my master’s medicines, yes. It wasn’t good… that’s for sure,” Inaba states with some trouble.

A moment passes in silence. I’m about to ask if something’s bugging the girl, but a noise breaks my tempo.

“Yawww…” a small yawn comes from on top of my lap. A black cat has been sitting there the whole time without my notice. “Are you two done, yet? It’s honestly amazing you didn’t get shot until now. You’ve been going around with nothing but politeness and words in Gensokyo of all places.”

I easily recognize this little scamp, replying, “Settle down, Chen. I’ve also got my smarts and sarcastic commentary. Did you carry me out here?”

“Wish I could answer no, but I’m sure Lady Ran wouldn’t like hearing that.”

“Wow,” Inaba reacts, “she’s like a whole different person when you’re awake.”

“Wait, what..? Not another word you alien fiend!” Chen threatens in her diminutive form.

Inaba slides next to me with a wily grin, whispering, “She didn’t know I saw, but she was pacing around a lot while you were asleep. I think she was worried.”

“Hey, I can hear you. Cat, remember?”

“Oh, no, a cat. I’m so terrified,” Inaba chuckles at Chen’s clear irritation.

“Hang, on, we’re getting off topic again…” I input. “What happened while I was… no, how long have I been out?”

Chen and Inaba look at each other awkwardly, neither choosing to answer me.

“What? What’s wrong?” I ask. Their reticence can’t be anything good.

“No, well…” Chen starts.

“It’s only been a few hours,” Inaba finishes.

I feel misled. I thought it would be something bad. “Isn’t that a good thing? It means I haven’t missed much,” I conclude.

“My master estimated that you should have been asleep throughout the night and most of tomorrow. My master is never wrong,” Inaba adds.

“Well, I mean…” I try to add some humorous comment, but fall short. This is something strange, obviously, and it’s happening to me. Or my body, I mean, but me. Even if it’s helping me, it’s… “This isn’t natural, huh?”

“I don’t think so,” Inaba confirms.

“We can worry about you being a squishy human when we’re not in a time crunch,” Chen blatantly ignores the issue. “Right now there’s a lot to do.”

“You say that as if being human should be an afterthought,” I argue.

Chen smirks as much as a cat possibly can when she says, “Alright. Then start thinking about it. I’ll let Hina know you’re fine with her getting sealed away by the tengu.”

“Wait what?”

“He didn’t remember,” Inaba notes.

[x] Let’s help stop that sealing, then! Albeit I might be tied down to my bed.

[x] Should I maybe report this whole event to other powers in Gensokyo before the tengu do? I don’t know if they’ll go that far, but it would be better if I jump the gun before they even consider it.

[x] No, hang on. I really should be digging into the part where I’m abnormally healthy after getting so beat up.

---

I hope you like how I’m deciding to do Ran perspective. If you have any critique on it, let me know. It’s difficult to do the current style because I’m so used to Tanner’s rough and tumble style of smart guy speak.
Oh, and yes, sorry that the vote looks so similar to last week. I guess there wasn’t really a choice needed there, huh? I’ll be serious about diverging from here.

[X] Let’s help stop that sealing, then! Albeit I might be tied down to my bed.
-[X] Stay the night at the hospital and try to negotiate (temporary) leave with the doctor in the morrow.
-[X] Get Chen to deliver messages to the human village (Keine, Akyuu, Elders) and the buddhist temple to inform both of the situation.
-[X] Check in with Nitori to apologise for getting her into this mess and to inform her of the situation, if she's still at Eientei

“Well obviously I wouldn’t remember. This is something from after we jumped out of the barrier, isn’t it?” I argue.

“Ah, yes. That’s true,” Inaba realizes the gap in her train of thought.

The two give me some cliff notes on what’s happening. The tengu being a bunch of asshats, Yasaka being part of the judge panel, and for some reason Sanae being the one designated as the defense.

Realistically, there’s no way this trial ends well, right? This whole thing sounds like the tengu griping over something out of their control, and then them trying to drag down the parties involved to make themselves look better to the rest of Gensokyo. Is there a deeper meaning to their reaction? It would be so shallow if that’s really all there is to it, but I also can’t discount the politics being like this.

How exactly does Sanae plan on scratching together something resembling a case in four days? And what will be the angle that the tengu try to pull as prosecution? Too many questions.

Before anything, I need to see if Inaba here is willing to let me run around outside the premises. I can’t gather much information sitting by here.

“Inaba,” I address the good nurse. She tilts her head for me to continue. “May I leave Eientei to rejoin my group on the mountain?”

“Oh,” she gasps, “no! Obviously you need to rest here and recover!”

“Come on, it should be fine,” the cat on my lap rebukes. “He’s got a dedicated escort right here.”

“That’s not the issue. He’s only just been patched up, so the injury is probably going to flare up again while he’s recovering. If he’s not here for me to administer some of Master’s medicine it could be bad,” the rabbit explains.

“Hold on, what do you mean flare up?” I ask with some concern.

“You’re regenerating some of your body using Master’s medicines, but that doesn’t mean no pain is involved. If I had to explain it… maybe think of trying to build a bridge from one side to the other. Master knows how to make your body go from one side to the other without anything under the ‘bridge’ as it goes up, but at the same time your ‘bridge’ might want to collapse midway because nothing is supporting it. That’s the pain that you’d feel.”

“That makes as much sense as it doesn’t…” I complain.

“I hear that a lot,” Inaba concedes.

“I don’t think I see the issue, though. If I’m pain, I just come right back, don’t I?” I point out.

“Well… ehhh… kind of, but also not really,” she uncertainly states. “I can’t, under good conscience, let you leave in case you’d get hurt again because of the same injury. Not to mention, I can’t allow you to leave if you’re fine with getting hurt intentionally.”

“So you’re saying I’m on bed arrest for my own good,” I paraphrase.

“Well, I’m not that good at explaining things, but if that’s what you want to think of it as, I can’t stop you,” she parses her words while twiddling her fingers.

“But you will stop me from leaving?”

She loses some of her lameness when she says, “Undeniably. And I wouldn’t lose to this cat, either, if it means Master’s good name is on the line.”

“Hey, don’t look at me, I never said anything about fighting you, rabbit,” Chen defers attention from herself.

I stay silent for a moment or two, considering if I’m okay with this. While I want to be of direct help for Hina alongside the others still there, I also can’t be a bastard and have Inaba on my ass while doing so.

“… fine,” I relent. “I’ll stay here for the time being, but you’ll have to kill me if you want me to sit still while I’m here.”

“Ha!” a largely muffled snort comes from nearby. I look at Inaba for some explanation. She gets up to reel back more of the curtain from my bed. I see that I’m in a room with other curtained beds around it, a wooden hospital center of sorts. She continues over to another of the curtains and slides the covers out of the way.

A blue haired mass of bandages looks over. Even in a white gown and hair let down I can tell that it’s Nitori. Not because I know her, but because obviously she’d be the only person in reason to have her entire head bandaged up.

“He can see you,” Inaba tells the clump of wrappings.

“Mm. Yo!” the mummy greets, most of the sound muffled.

“Nitori..? Right, I can’t be surprised, Chen already brought you here earlier,” I remember. “How are you doing, I guess I should ask?”

Instead of even attempting to answer the question, Nitori points over to the rabbit nurse to give explanation. Inaba is looking towards me, though, so I point out the gesture for her.

“Ah! Right. Nitori is doing alright, but much of her face needs reconstitution. The bleeding was quick to subside but the majority of her face is still unwell. Her eyes will also take some time to regenerate. Thankfully, the brain damage was minimal, so it won’t take anywhere near as long to heal,” the nurse lists off.

“Youkai can get brain trauma?” I ask out of curiosity.

Inaba looks back, somewhat dumbfounded, and replies, “Yeah, why wouldn’t they? Unlike humans they can heal it off, but they can still get hurt physically like that.”

I shake my head, sarcastically commenting, “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t people whose bodies are made through some spiritual magical nonsense not have brains?”

Inaba harrumphs, but doesn’t further argue my point.

I continue to prod Nitori, “So are you mad about getting hurt at all? I know you were dragged into this and all.”

I’m worried that Nitori doesn’t hear me, but am proven wrong when she swats away the idea. This is even more surprising given Nitori’s usual attitude with me. I thought she’d take the whole thing personally even though it was by chance. I won’t look that gift horse in the mouth, though.

It’s too bad that she’s been so injured. It would have been a great help if she worked with me or Sanae for that trial. She isn’t moving around too much when literally missing eyes, though. A fair bit utilitarian of me, but I need to consider options I have to support the cause when I’m anchored down to a hospital.

On that line of thought, I look over to Inaba and ask, “Do you have pen and paper that I can use?”

The nurse thinks on the question before nodding and leaving the room. I’m thankful that I don’t have to make some argumentative point for every request in here. It was starting to feel like she wouldn’t even let me out of this bed.

“What do you need writing stuffs for?” Chen questions, relaxing back onto my lap in a curl.

I naturally go to pet her head, taking care to avoid an ear piercing. She mumbles in a little agitation at first, but decides to ignore it when I slow down.

“It’s going to be important that we have as much information as possible on hand,” I respond. “That includes observations from each person that was inside the barrier. I think it’s obvious enough to say that my perspective was different from Sanae and Mokou’s.”

“Why would that be obvious to me?” Chen retorts. “It’s not like I was there. Is that really gonna help in some dumb court trial, anyway?”

I consider her point and admit, “Maybe… maybe not. There’s no way to tell. Either way, I still have a job that I’m supposed to do, so coming to a better understanding of whatever this was would be good.”

“Eh, whatever you say,” Chen dismisses.

After waiting some time I notice that my belongings are set onto a side table to my left outside of the curtain. Not my backpack, sadly. I move over to grab the watch on top, but a sharp stab from my shoulder reminds me to not try anything unnecessary. I leave it be and continue waiting for Inaba to return with some writing utensils.

As I’m sitting around, another line of thought starts to take over. Passive at first, but domineering after being left to fester.

Politics. The tengu, or even just all of Gensokyo, don’t seem to be immune to nonsense power struggles. People always trying to get a hand up on other people. I saw it with the yamawaro and Yakumo, but this is different.

Meaningless efforts like this never leave anyone happy. It’s an idiotic play to throw someone’s name under the bus, and anyone even tangentially related. In a world where people are literally able to be made of magic that sciences can’t explain, I guess this is just something of a disappointment.

But that’s probably just me projecting this place as a damn utopia because the word fantasy was strapped on at some point. Maybe I’d just hoped that the more mundane issues of the world I came from wouldn’t be so present.

Oh well…

If the tengu are gonna play some big reactive undermining scheme using Hina, then I should use my position in the sidelines to alleviate the problem. So, what will bureaucrats try to do first when things happen?

I’m sure they have some kind of investigation team giving Sanae hell, but that isn’t all they’d do. Surely they’d try to do anything that could give them even a small advantage. But what could that be?

What is it in the real world? Something like… convincing public opinion?

Wholly mundane and sounds ridiculous, especially for this setting where the various factions living so close together outright despise each other. But you can never underestimate the mob mentality. Whether it be pressuring a judge’s decision or swaying their opinion before proceedings, the ‘common knowledge’ of something can change how a ruling plays out.

Is the idea worthwhile enough to invest incredible amounts of time and resources into? Hell no, just make a solid case. In an isolated environment such a scenario should be laughed off. It can help take that minimal advantage off the table for the other side, though. We’re talking about Hina, and if you spin her description correctly, she’s the equivalent of a dirty bomb…

“You alright?” Chen disrupts my thoughts.

She’s looking up to me, my hand clenched and shifting a small tuft of her hair out of place.

I force myself to relax, and respond, “Yes, it’s nothing.”

My thoughts really are just as bad. It’s a wonder I never tried to get into politics if all I’m thinking about is ways to take advantage of a situation. Even if I’m trying to help who I consider the victim this time, I can’t always be so sure about that being the case. That should be some kind of wisdom that comes with age. Should be.

Maybe Ran can kick my ass over making baseless assumptions or jumping to conclusions. She loves doing that, after all.

Inaba slides the door open to the room, but no tools or materials in hand. She walks over and before I have the chance to ask her where the tools are, she asks, “Are you capable of standing? I’ve set up another room with what you’ve asked for. If you can’t walk there, even assisted, then you shouldn’t be working.”

She states this with a sort of exasperation that gets me curious. That is until she glances over at Nitori, where I can feel an amusing story must have happened.

“Hmph,” I scoff, “I’m not decrepit, you know. It’s an arm injury, so I can at least walk on my own.”

Inaba seems nonplussed by my moxie. I pick up Chen from her comfortable home and place her on the ground, then move from my bed. I can tell my legs are rather hollow feeling before I collapse. My shoulder despises this greatly. After many a pained grunt and curse, Inaba sighs and supports me to a hunched stand.

“Everybody thinks they’re invincible, huh?” she comments.

“Yeah, sorry, sorry,” I remark, more frustrated with my own predicament than her indifference.

I need to lean into her, and every step reminds the wound that it’s supposed to hurt like hell, but I can in fact move around with enough effort. Here I was talking big about getting out by the morning.

She walks me over to the room next door, Chen following along underfoot. We enter a large room floored with tatami mats and hosting low tables along the length of it. I can already tell this is supposed to be a meal room much like what I saw in the Buddhist temple, but I can’t really say why they’d have this, considering their small group of residents. The cushions for seats also outnumber the tables by a good margin.

“This room is for the Youkai rabbits to eat,” Inaba explains as if hearing my thoughts. “For now, please use this table as a workspace, and I’ll let the troublemakers know to not clear it off when they come by.”

With Inaba’s help, I settle down at a table with some ink, a pen, and a few sheets of blank paper. Chen mounts a table next to mine, spectating my troubles getting seated while also not hurting myself.

“Thank you, Inaba,” I say.

“Please just call me Reisen, Inaba is way too awkward,” Reisen requests.

I puff a small, humored snort, and reply, “Yeah, I thought so, too. Thank you, Reisen.”

Reisen waits for me to check that I have what I need before leaving the room. Chen leans in, anticipating what I might start writing, but before I pick up a quill and begin to scratch text to paper, I turn to her, and ask, “May I request something of you, Chen? A task, if you want to call it that.”

“Oh?” Chen answers, prompting me to continue.

“I want to make a sort of report to the village and the Buddhists that you’ll deliver in my place. Are you alright with doing that for me?”

“My, I didn’t realize you–“

“Were your master. Yeah, yeah. Quip with me all you want, but I’m being serious. Besides, I’m asking you, not ordering you.”

Chen eyes me down, miffed that I’m not playing along with her banter right now. The glare hardly phases me at this point. I know that a stern look from some people is only for show, and that goes for both the real world and Gensokyo. Some seconds pass that Chen and I are just staring each other down, a rather comical looking scene from an outside perspective, I’m sure.

When I think she’s going to give up, she remains stalwart, tired of me winning arguments with her in the same way again and again. We’re past the point of no return, whoever talks first loses.

After what feels like ten minutes, I finally cave and gripe, “Fine! Do I need to tell Ran that you’re being a little miscreant and not helping an injured man with important errands?”

“Aww, you’re going to tattle on me? Tattle on me to my mama?” Chen mocks. She breaks into a mad chuckle at her own joke.

I grumble like a senile bastard, and relent, “Oh just shut up.” I follow up, clearing of my throat to grab her attention, and calmly say, “Chen, could you please help me with something I think is important to do?”

She hops from her table onto the neighboring seat cushion, shifting to her human form and wiles, “There’s that magic word. Something even I know is good to use. It’s nice to hear it from you, even better since it’s for me!”

“Please go easy on me…” I plead, realizing she’s going to sit here the entire time that I’m writing my report.

[Please wait warmly for continuation…]

---

Another early update! Have I found a rhythm? No, of course not. I’m just really good at filling space with random thoughts. With that in mind, no vote for this week. I may or may not have enough material for a proper length update next week, but it was a bit too long to contain here. Depends on how much I want to swing my hamfisted plot devices around.

[Continued]

I start drafting out a formal letter to the village as a whole, but notice an alternative. There’s no reason to have Chen run around spooking some old men in the middle of the night, Keine will be able to do that just fine if she wants to. I can make a letter to Keine as the village representative and double up with a quick update for her on where I am. I’m sure she’s worried to death again since I’m out.

I write out my report as carefully as I can. Writing on paper means there’s little room for error unless I want to start over. And that’s even more annoying with how I need to choose my wording carefully. I’m trying to make a report that won’t put Hina in the burner, but also not omit too much information that could undermine myself later. The last thing we want is for the village to directly be involved in a pseudo-legal matter on ecological safety. The tengu are going to make this messy enough as is with their political stunt.

Finishing up the main report, I check it over a few times, Chen also nodding along with what I’ve written. After letting the ink dry for a few minutes I flip over the scroll paper. Chen questions what I’m doing until I put more word to paper. I’m writing an informal letter to Keine, one that lets her know that I’ve been hospitalized.

“You sure you want to add in the part where you’re hurt?” Chen comments as I’m going.

I stop writing to not screw up the words and respond, “You should have seen her last time. She was a wreck after I’d been out a week. Nobody ended up telling her that I was fine. She was pissed off enough to scare Ran into submission. So even if she’s mad, she’ll know this time.”

“Hmph. Drama queen,” Chen grunts, but without the bluster I usually hear in her taunts.

I continue making headway through my writing. I’m not as careful on this side, instead hoping to be genuine in my words. Get across that I’m not too concerned with my injury, but I do understand how bad it is.

I sign off the letter and whip out another page to copy the formal report. This one will go to the Buddhist temple, but it’s not going to need much changing since I made the first one agnostic to the receiving group.

I finish up the second one in record time and hand both pages to Chen. She takes the two letters and folds them for me in a specific style, like what I might see on Akyuu’s desk. Seems there’s some etiquette in her yet.

She’s been paying close attention to what I’ve written, so I don’t need to tell her who each letter is going to. Without another word she stands up and picks a door on the other side of the room to leave. She’s greeted by the outside air and flies off into the night posthaste.

Now there’s only one problem... the person attending me has just left, and I still don’t have the energy to stand and walk on my own.

My bed is next door, not here in a serving hall.

Guess I’ll have to do this the hard way…

I shuffle my way along the ground, really feeling the blunder I’d made as I get back to the next room over. I should say I’m disappointed in myself for not thinking this through, but I’ll just lie and say I’ve been on more important ideas for the time being. I get back over to my cot, and barely clamber back on top of it. My fatigue from this idiotic episode sinks in quickly, the sweat not helping with my general discomfort.

My mind attempts to keep itself active with thoughts of what to do next, but there’s no stopping the sandman this time…

I awake to some conversation near me, a voice I recognize and one I don’t. I can place the first as Reisen’s, but the second voice is beyond me. I crack open my eyes to the rabbit and a fairly tall white haired woman in a red and blue checkered dress at the foot of my bed.

“Oh, he’s awake again!” Reisen exclaims. She shuffles over to me from the curtain, checking parts of my body for… anything abnormal, I guess? “Mr. Regis, are you doing fine this morning?”

I grumble in my gravelly, just woken up voice, “Mm. Think so…”

“My…” the white haired woman utters with a tap at her cheek. “Then my calculations were off.”

Reisen looks to her, and rationalizes, “A different sleeping pattern couldn’t mean you were wrong, could it Master?”

The woman, Reisen’s master, sits in thought, pondering… not what Reisen said. I think she’s trying to go over calculations mentally. Her hand goes from an interested tapping at her cheek into a statuesque hold of contemplation.

“Sadly, it does. The level of injury must match the resting period, especially after the rejuvenating mixture is administered,” she reaffirms.

Just as Reisen implied, but I’ve got no grasp of the implications here. I interrupt their conversation, “Sorry, I’m still lost here. Reisen explained this last night, but I didn’t get the full scope. Would you be able to explain to a guy not into medicines… Dr..?”

“Yagokoro, the only resident in Gensokyo that title may apply to,” she muses. “As for your question, there’s not much you’d be able to understand, even should I attempt to explain. Do not fret over it, it is simply beyond human understanding.”

“Oh, no, I get it. Some subjects are hard to explain to the uninitiated. You get the same thing with higher level mathematics,” I console her of headaches I imagine she’s had before me.

Dr. Yagokoro chuckles, “A charmer, are you? But, I’m always happy to see someone… brighter… than the average villager.”

“Don’t say that in front of Keine. But, really,” I insist, “what’s the problem that you’re having?”

Dr. Yagokoro picks up a clipboard at the foot of my bed. A damages sheet, I’m sure, but one with a surprising number of lines from what I’m used to seeing. She takes some time to study it and mull over her thoughts before giving me an answer. Reisen and I wait with bated breaths, not sure what to expect from this.

“I’m not sure,” Yagokoro answers.

“What?” Reisen responds first. Her ears go to a pencil straightness out of surprise.

“I mean that whatever afflicts this man is an unknown variable to me,” she elaborates.

“Should I be worried, then?” I ask. I knew this part already, but hearing her confirm it just seats it further in my mind to worry about.

“That’s not a judgment for me to make. Health-wise you are in perfect condition for full recovery in under a week. I can conclude that what effects you is magical in nature. Something more obscure than I would know offhandedly.”

She sets down the clipboard and informs Reisen that I am allowed to leave as soon as I’m able to walk unassisted again. Reisen’s oddified by the statement, but doesn’t question her master’s orders. Yagokoro walks out of the room, very consternated by the major change on my timescale.

I don’t care to stay in the hospital for too long, anyway, so I’d prefer if I can recover fast. Or, maybe… there’s no way I already am, right?

Reisen stares blankly in the direction her master left from. When she looks back I’ve already shifted in my bed, getting my legs out of the covers I don’t remember putting on, and scooting out of the bed. I lift off from my ass, and am met with a bastard of a head rush.

Reisen catches me, and helps me take a few steps. I start to move around on my own as she lets go. Turns out, my anemia is already gone. Which would mean that I recovered my entire body’s worth of blood overnight.

How ‘bout that?

Reisen looks just as surprised as I probably do. I’m no medic, but yeah, no. That’s not supposed to happen. Whatever’s got me, it’s effective, if nothing else.

“I should go inform Master,” Reisen states after ensuring that I’m stable. She dashes out of the room, and quickly retrieves Dr. Yagokoro.

Yagokoro steps into the room and inspects me. It doesn’t take long for her to come to some conclusion and sigh, “Yes, I had a feeling this would be the case. As I instructed, you’re free to go, but check back in daily for me to monitor you. I do not enjoy when something is left to vex me.”

She just as quickly leaves the room once more, Reisen pursuing her with questions. I won’t bother asking anything else of the doctor, as she seems more frustrated than anyone by this development.

Before I gather up my things, I check Nitori’s cot. She’s asleep, but it seems a guest has taken the seat next to her. Takane’s come by to check up on her, passing out at some point as well. Since they’re both asleep, I leave the sisters be and make my way out.

While it’s easy enough to find doors outside, I forgot to ask anyone what direction the proper exit is in, so I end up wandering for a while. I eventually find some kind of entrance gate, and spot someone I was expecting walking up to the clinic.

“Hey, Keine,” I call out to her in the distance. You can see her feather topped hat flap as she perks up.

She jogs up to me and inspects my cast, mumbling, “Huh? But I thought it was bad? What?”

“No, Keine,” I try to calm her down. “I’m fine, see?”

“But… Chen said you couldn’t even walk last night. How?” her unpointed questions continue. The mix of worry and confusion is very clear to see, and I don’t want to add more…

“Dr. Yagokoro treated me, see?” I put a hand to her shoulder and lie. I’m not entirely certain why I’m playing this off right now, but here I am. If it at least calms her down, then that would be enough for me. I can always explain later if it comes up.

“But that can’t…” she trails off and sighs. “Okay, okay. You’re fine.”

Her shoulder relaxes considerably, I didn’t even realize how stiff it was until then. She doesn’t follow up with anything, so I start to direct the conversation.

“I’m happy that you’d come to see me,” I comment.

“Yes, yes. Obviously I’d come to check up on you. I was worried that you were wandering out of the clinic to continue working without permission,” she somewhat nags, somewhat bemoans with a rub at her temple.

“Well, I mean… I have permission.”

“Ha ha,” she monotones. “What a good joke that is. Should I tie you down to a bed after all?”

“Please don’t,” I whimper. “And, sorry to be very business right now, but you did read my whole letter, right?”

“The elders have been informed. None of them seemed to take any particular stance for or against the matter. I couldn’t tell you if it was from apathy or uncertainty, though. It could have been that they were too tired to think it over,” Keine recounts.

“Either works out in our favor, really,” I reply.

Keine grows a weary face and asks, “In ‘our’ favor? You’re going right back out, aren’t you? Whatever happened to not wanting to do this?”

“Ah, well, that is…” I stumble my words. “I’ve still got stuff to do..?”

“And you need an escort, don’t you?” she says shaking her head, keeping a step ahead of me.

“Are you offering?” I only half joke. It also doesn’t come out in the most confident tone, but I’ll act like it did.

Keine slides away from my hand, walking away responding, “Not particularly. That hospital bed is calling for you more and more, though.”

“You wound me,” I joke, getting in line behind her.

I check the time. 7:05AM. Keine came here first thing in the morning after getting ready. Looks like I was on the money with sending that letter to her.

What comes now can be a number of things. First, I’ll need to double check my things in case anything is missing, though I doubt that. By the time that’s done and I can review the notes on Hina, hopefully someone will have come by to grab me. Wouldn’t that be just perfect, though?

If I have my information and guesses right, Ran is working on purifying the area, Sanae is busy with investigation, and Mokou is supporting Sanae. One of them coming by would be very unlike–

“Is that Mokou?” Keine interrupts my thoughts.

I glance around her up the trail of bamboo forestry now packing us in. Sure as hell, that’s one white haired girl calmly wandering around.

“I thought she was helping Sanae?” I question no one.

“Oh, so then she was helping you out?” Keine notes, continuing forward. “You know, there’s a few ways to get her to talk.”

“Oh?” I mouth, curious where Keine is going with this.

“Yes, one way is to ask her to talk. She’s very straightforward, you know,” Keine chuckles to herself over my deadpanned reaction.

“Well ain’t you in a good mood?” Mokou states on approach. She then spots me and continues, “And you… are already out? Hm?”

“’Already?’” Keine questions. I immediately signal from behind Keine for Mokou to cut her chatter in a panic.

To my gratitude, and surprise, she shifts gears and tries to play it off with, “Uh, yeah. I guess it was better than it looked…”

“And how might that be?” Keine narrows her query down.

“Uh…” Mokou tries to think it through. I’ll admit, she’s not bad at being coy, acting like she’s thinking and everything. I raise my hand with a five. She raises a finger against her opposite shoulder and continues, “It was about the size of a five yen coin. Yeah, a hole clean through his shoulder. We’ve all been getting so used to bash wounds that I thought it was worse.”

“Uh huh,” Keine, not really accepts, but allows for now. “Well, Tanner. I believe you have an escort, now. How long until I expect you back in the heart of this forest?”

[x] Try to see if Hina’s house is safe enough to visit and interview the woman herself, as unfortunate a time it may be. And no, that’s not any form of pun.

[x] Check in on Sanae’s progress of investigation. Last time I let her do her own thing she beat up and kidnapped a celestial.

[x] I’ve got time available, let’s go with something else. (write-in)

---

Well, got something here. Not too much to discuss here specifically. Instead, I’d like to thank the couple guys that plopped in since my last post. I do try to keep details oriented safely, but at some point I may need to find a way to better organize all of the little nuances I fit in. (Kisu who?)

[X] Check in on Sanae’s progress of investigation. Last time I let her do her own thing she beat up and kidnapped a celestial.

I respond in kind to Keine’s jab, “Depends on what the great living goddess herself is up to right now. Can’t let her run around beating people up, now can I?”

Keine scoffs as I maneuver next to Mokou, “Maybe you’re getting ahead of yourself? Have you stopped to consider that one? Even in top shape, you’re not at rights to make that argument.”

“Pfft, nahhh,” I mouth whimsically. “We’ve been over this: I’m invincible and the world revolves around me. I hope to be back for dinner. Seriously this time.”

Keine takes a second to interpret how much I seriously believe my own words, but gives up with a puff and a smirk, choosing to instead walk back to the village. Mokou stares to make sure she’s well out of range before speaking up.

“Can’t say I’ve ever seen Keine in a marital spat,” she remarks. I whack her arm for the comment. “What?! I don’t think there’s any other way you could see that!”

“Yeah, maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s called for,” I argue. “We understand that it might look odd. I could care less, though. We’ll figure out what we want ourselves.”

“That’s cute and all, but it sounds like you’ve already decided,” Mokou snides.

“Fuck off,” I reply in defeat. “Back on topic, what is Sanae up to? Why are you here and not with her?”

“Cool it down. Sanae went to follow up on a lead and I’m here to check up on you.”

I give her a raised eyebrow to the explanation and she seems to understand how flippant it sounds outside of her own context.

She raises a defensive finger and continues, “The furball asked me to. You do remember that you had your arm hanging by a tendon, right? That’s the kinda nonsense that I would take out of a fight. Not something for a regular human. I’m no Eirin, but you got up way too fast.”

“Yes, yes, I know what you’re saying. It’s weird right now. I don’t know. I’ll tell Keine later. Right now we’re in a bit of a time crunch, aren’t we?”

Mokou just stares at me for a spell, taken aback by my outright callously casual attitude.

“Hmph,” she snorts, getting comfortable against a bamboo stalk, “guess she talks about you so much for a reason. That attitude would piss off a lot of people, which is a good thing in Gensokyo.”

I trail my eyes upward and exasperate, “I’m flattered. Can we get on topic now?”

“Sure thing, killjoy,” she jokes. “Sanae wanted to find Shion’s sister. I’ve met both before myself, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they cooked up something this stupid for basically nothing.”

I think on the logic for a moment: loose, but maybe there’s something to it. Or, at least, it’s better than nothing…

I remember one important question, though. “Where do you even find said sister?” I ask.

---

Several hours and many questions in the village later brings Mokou and I to the front of a quaint little bar in the village. Funny enough, it’s one I personally frequent. Well… one of five, but that’s besides the point.

The owner of this one decided it would be cute to use some western saloon doors. While fun for the aesthetic feel, it’s less quaint when you can see magic blistering around inside because of it. Mokou and I stare on in… I wish I could say disbelief, but it’s entirely believable, huh? It’s a wonder that the bullets aren’t flying out of the roof, or the walls, or the actual windows.

“After you,” I gesture to Mokou.

She scrunches her face, looking for a good argument, but comes up short, groaning, “Shit, fine.”

She screws her face into a false battle fervor and kicks open the doors on their hinges, walking into the middle of the barrage. I sneak in and stay close to the walls, observing the scene.

“Alright, you two idiots! You’re gonna quit fighting right damn now!” Mokou shouts throughout the room.

Sanae, at one end, has taken an assault against a fashion criminal, it seems. The girl on the other end is wearing an assortment of gaudy colors and jewels, turning herself into the most visible thing in the room. That’s even considering the fact that the magic flying around consists of frogs, snakes, and coins.

What is with these random objects being used for magic? First I’ve seen of it, I’m pretty sure.

Mokou has added to the madness by placing herself directly in the center lane and attempting to block all of the projectiles, but she seems to be doing so with her face just as much as her magic. The other two don’t care to stop for her sake.

I sneak under some of the thick wooden tables that canopy against the barrage, crawling slowly by one arm, and make it to the bar proper while the combat is still raging. A massive man sits at the counter, less than enthused by the event, but just as well knowing he can wait it out.

“Foreigner,” he states as I take one of the few seats still upright. “You look worse for wear.”

“I could say the same to this place,” I joke to the bartender. A number of new pocks mark the tables that have been nailed down. I had a feeling this place was for ruffians, but to see the tables end up withstanding this storm is outright impressive.

“Would both of you stop?!” Mokou shouts in the middle of it all. “We can always talk it out!”

“Fuck off!” the gaudy one, I’m assuming Shion’s sister, shouts back. Sanae doesn’t deign a response as the bullets continue to fly.

They don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. The bartender grabs me and keels my face against the bar as a stray frog goes overhead. Sanae immediately stops her firing and jumps through the barrage at Shion’s sister. The coins also stop streaming out as the girl goes to block a cleaving swing from Sanae.

Mokou shifts gears as the two go into a close range brawl, jumping from table to table in an attempt to catch them. The two girls move around in a blitz as they exchange blows, Sanae using a stick with a paper sticking out of the end for harsher strikes than I’d expect it to take, and Shion’s sister, Jo’on I think her name was, tossing out some kind of golden flames with her punches.

Mokou tackles Jo’on against a table, the thing standing proud against the force, and the three of them end up in a stand off, already looking worn down. They launch into an all out war, tossing each other, trading hits, firing magical blasts right in each other’s faces, a real brutal sight.

“Sanae, why are you hitting me?!” Mokou shouts above the din.

“There’s no helping that, is there?” I ask the bartender, carefully watching for what direction their clamor is traveling.

“You shouldn’t look for more bandages,” he responds in kind. He doesn’t sound amused by current circumstances, but he’s also not agitated by it. He’s always quiet, so I have trouble getting to what he’s thinking.

I turn my attention from the fight and point over to one of the shot glasses against the wall. He picks it up, and before I ask for my usual he lifts a finger for me to wait. Rummaging through his counter for an unmarked bottle I assume is whiskey, he pours me a shot. I down the thing, savoring a taste of another home, and think on the flavor for a moment.

“Sweeter than the other stuff… is this Bourbon?” I ask the man.

“A good guess,” he answers with a matching hand gesture. “I told my supplier what you told me about the stuff. They came back with that. Didn’t know what it tasted like, so I held it for your take.”

“A happy taste,” I reply, inspecting the bottle with charcoal pen marking it. “You really gotta tell me how the hell you source this stuff, since I won’t be fooled into thinking the village grows corn outside of my sight.”

“Not on your life,” the bartender declines.

The chaos still roars behind me as the girls tumble back and forth through the shop, but I know there’s nothing I can do about it at this stage, and just enjoy a conversation with the poor man whose place is getting broken apart by the natural disaster.

Several minutes pass before a decisive move is achieved by Sanae launching Jo’on with a burst of wind across the room straight into the man I’m talking with. While there aren’t any drinks on the wall, he’s got a proud collection of shot and whiskey glasses that would be a shame to break, so he redirects the girl’s face straight into the stone counter, halting her momentum.

Mokou and I cringe at the impact. For any normal person, that’s at least three, maybe four, teeth that will need sticking back in. Jo’on slumps to the ground like a corpse, while the counter top remains unphased.

Silence reclaims the bar for a brief second, before the bartender announces, “Oops.”

The rest of us huddle around the girl’s frame, curious to see the damage. Most of the scuffs and scrapes on her clothing are similar to the state Sanae and Mokou are in after fighting, but a large bruise marks the entire center of her face. Her nose is broken and then some, coloring the whole region a blackish purple.

She jumps back awake, knocking over the stool I was on a moment ago and causing the group to expand from her wild swinging. She’s still set in a combat stance, glaring down Sanae for another round.

“Hey, you really need to stop,” Mokou suggests. “You already lost, take a look at yourself.”

“Again…” Jo’on tiredly retorts, “fuck off. This crazy bitch attacked me out of nowhere, and I’m not letting that slide so–“

She cuts herself short as she stumbles into the counter top, catching her footing with some support from the bartender and I.

“Mokou’s right,” I say. “You’ve got a concussion. Assuming a god is allowed to get one. Just hear us out, it’ll make sense after.”

Jo’on swats her arms free of their restraints. Everyone reacts with caution, waiting to see if she’ll continue to try and fight in her condition. She glances around at the lot of us, like a wounded animal weighing her options. If anything, it’s her pride that’s wounded, and she knows it.

She sighs and relaxes back to full height of her diminutive stature, straightening her coat to act in some semblance of class. As if that could fool anyone after the obscenities, brawling, and throwing money as a weapon. A pulped face doesn’t help, of course.

She tilts a bit from her straight posture, immediately forgetting that you can’t really balance when concussed. I pick up the stool and convince her to sit down while everyone fills her in on current events.

“Wait, so…” Jo’on contemplates through a nasally voice while nursing her temples. “This Hina is in an honest to other gods’ trial while my sister got away scott free? How is that even physically possible for her?”

“I think all of us have asked the same thing,” I admit.

“But you’re looking for a reason that she got caught up with my sister, right?”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah,” Mokou surmises.

“Then why did this grass headed bimbo ambush me?!” Jo’on shouts, clasping her head from the pain of the volume.

“I thought it would be easier to take you with me like I did with Tenshi. She gave up after a while,” Sanae explains with a touch of embarrassment.

“Tenshi in particular is an idiot, so of course she’d just want to be taken for a ride. Wouldn’t surprise me if she was bored again.”

“That is to say that you didn’t know about any of this?” I ask very pointedly.

“What? Oh come on. Not everything I do is a problem, stop acting like it.”

“Using perfect possession to steal money,” Mokou states.

“Attempting to use the underground oil for financial gain,” Sanae adds.

“I’ve seen at least three separate articles calling you a belligerent in town,” I drive home.

“Alright, shut up, jeez,” Jo’on relents, hiding her face. “But really, my sister and I split again after the underground episode. I heard the place had a few too many dangerous types and needed her help to check up on the oil. Too bad it all dried up.”

“Wait, but I thought the blood pools were still roiling because of some beast Yakuza…” Sanae questions.

“Nope! All dried up,” Jo’on insists. She points to the bottle of Bourbon that’s still on the counter. The bartender pours a shot with one of the glasses on the wall. She downs it and gets up, saying, “Well, if that’s all, I’ll just trip outta’ here. Foot the bill for me, you pricks.”

“Wait, hang on!” I exclaim, grabbing Jo’on’s shoulder causing her to tumble to the ground again in some agony.

She takes her time getting over the continued beatings to her head before turning up and seething, “Oh for– what now?!”

“We still need you for this case. I don’t think you’re involved here, but there’s some thoughts I have that could be useful to test,” I clearly demand.

“Fantastic,” Jo’on exasperates. “I’ve been promoted from goddess to mugging victim and now lab rat. I have less than zero reason to help, so bye.”

She climbs to her feet, and another hand catches her opposing shoulder. She turns ready to throw a punch, but blanches in the face of Sanae, who looks no worse than earlier, ready to fight again with a smile.

Surrendering to the shrine maiden, Jo’on slouches over depressed. Sanae takes the opportunity to sling the goddess over her shoulder as if it were an act of permission. No words are exchanged in the act, only everyone else’s bafflement fills the air. Sanae does not take ‘no’ for an answer.

“Objective accomplished,” she states with a fist pump.

Before I can ask her to at least leave Jo’on with some dignity to move around herself, Sanae walks clear out of the bar and takes off. I mutter in confusion for who’s going to pay for the damages, but the bartender waves me off with a simple, “Just the drinks.”

I thank the man for his saintly nature and leave plenty extra for him as Mokou drags me outside to continue chasing Sanae and her second kidnapped heavenly body within a day. Granted, both ‘bodies’ have been anything less than heavenly, but I don’t make the definitions.

The travel by way of Air Mokou ends up being uneventful. Which is good, since the closest we come to a notable event is the tengu stopping us following Sanae up the mountainside. They are dissuaded from their usual bluster before even getting into audible range, probably paying attention to the individuals of our group.

Back at the mountaintop shrine activity seems to be the same as before, but with a number of tengu slipped into the various corners of the main foray. There might be more as well, depending on how many are not dressed in their usual white collar attire. Thankfully, none of them approach me with that usual misunderstanding, either because they’ve seen me or know that a wackjob with four burnt talismans on his shirt is not gonna be good company.

Sanae continues to the back of the shrine where we find a sitting room much like the one Reimu often occupies at the Hakurei shrine, open to the air past a single sliding door. This one has been heavily repurposed overnight to examine a number of artifacts that Sanae claimed from the rubble at Hina’s house, now strewn about a long table.

A log with dried blood on it, likely that support frame that hit Nitori. Tattered paper remnants of something. A damaged ornate doll, childlike in appearance. The makings of a regular horror movie with Japanese occult elements. Maybe we should double check if Hina had a well nearby to really sell it.

As we’re standing in the doorway, spectating Sanae tying down her captive to a chair for whatever reason, something bumps my bad arm eliciting a grunt from me.

“Oh, right, sorry,” Mokou apologizes. “Just trying to get your eyes on these things here. We picked them up because Sanae wanted to, but I don’t know why they’d be important.”

“Well don’t look at me,” I repudiate. “I need to be told what these are as well before I can make out anything meaningful.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Sanae, stop hog-tying your prisoner there and help with the important stuff!” Mokou scolds Sanae’s continued attention with Jo’on. There’s enough rope tying Jo’on to leave her on train tracks and wait. Also–

“You realize that’s not what ‘hog-tying’ means, right?” I inform Mokou.

“It’s not?”

“Alright!” Sanae shouts in excitement. “It’s time to get to work now that we have a solid amount of evidence to go through!”

“Evidence?” I ask.

“Yes! Evidence. Evidence that Hina is not to be worried about,” Sanae states conclusively.

Mokou and I look at each other. Jo’on is staring off into space, waiting for it to all be over.

“I’m not sure that’s how we should frame our case…” I venture.

“What do you mean?” Sanae asks innocently. “We’re trying to tell them that they can leave Hina alone, right?”

“Yes,” I confirm, “but we need an argument, not an objective.”

“So, like… ‘Here are reasons why Hina Kagiyama should not be sealed’?” Sanae tries a new title.

I sigh, knowing this is going to be worse than I thought, and reply, “No. You’re not making a high school paper. And don’t give me lip about the irony of hearing that from a high school teacher!”

“Actually, I forgot you were a teacher,” Mokou comments.

“He’s not a drunkard?” Jo’on asks a little too soberly for my taste.

“You’re not helping!” I retort. “Sanae, listen. Do you understand the weight of what you’re doing right now? I know Gensokyo is pretty relaxed, but this sounds serious even from an outsider’s perspective. We gotta treat it the same.”

Sanae is taken aback by my shift in tone. She huffs up, looking a bit hurt, and states, “I am taking it seriously! Maybe you should try to help before telling me why I’m wrong!”

“What is this noise?” a voice presents itself through a sliding door opposite of the open space. The goddess of the shrine appears, ready to berate the idiots causing her shrine maiden grief, but stops herself at the scene.

The mature goddess inspects the room and all of its oddities before concluding, “This is part of the investigation, then?”

“Yes, Lady Yasaka!” Sanae immediately answers. She points to me and continues, “He’s being rude and interruptive, though!”

The goddess Yasaka stares me dead in the eyes, evoking an image of a predator to prey. She seems to size me up quickly, maybe having also done so when we spoke at the barrier, and calmly states, “Good. Be as rude as you need to. Maybe our girl will learn something.”

The venerable goddess leaves the scene without another word. We’re not sure how to comment on her words, harsh as they were.

Well, that’s a lie. One of us does…

“Mommy doesn’t wanna give you love?” Jo’on jeers from her captivity.

Sanae kicks her over through a sliding door along the side wall into another room, still bound to the chair. Jo’on moans for a few minutes due to the continued head trauma. It’s probably head trauma at this point, anyway.

Sanae isn’t faring much better, clearly holding back some tears, chanting to convince herself, “I can do this. I can do this!”

How old is this girl? Maybe I wasn’t entirely off to think she was acting young for her age. Sadly, that means a temperamental ego to fight off. It doesn’t help that she’s this emotional after a bit of prodding. No help from a certain pestilence god, either.

I don’t want this to be some kind of moral dilemma, though. I just want to get to work. What to do?

[x] Help guide Sanae in making a case based on what we have and know currently. It may take a while to get her to focus, though.

[x] Convince Sanae to let me take charge of the investigation itself. I could run some risk intervening in the matter at this stage, but the tengu seem to care less about appearances, so I shouldn’t, either.

[x] Maybe there’s another angle I’m not thinking of, yet.

---

Took a while. Touhou 19 may or may not have collapsed my creative mind for the better part of a week. Hopefully this piece with Sanae here doesn’t seem too blunt, it was hard to get across an idea of ‘ditziness’ without it turning into sheer incompetence. Also, I like the idea of Jo’on just constantly being angry at everything, it amuses me.

[x] Help guide Sanae in making a case based on what we have and know currently. It may take a while to get her to focus, though.

Well… it would be better if Sanae does this herself. Wouldn’t want the tengu to have anything that could throw the trial off course. However, that doesn’t mean that she’ll be on her own.

Sanae isn’t in the right mind to get down to business, so I might need to be heavy handed with it, if I’m understanding Yasaka correctly.

“Sanae,” I address the emotional girl.

“Hm?” she responds, tone detached, while getting out writing materials and minor observational tools. Interestingly, there’s some talismans and ropes snuck into an old box.

She’s lost a lot of her cheer from earlier, probably from the criticisms everyone’s been giving her. Maybe a bit of positive reinforcement could help steer her back on track, use the critiques as a fuel to do more.

“Sanae, look at me,” I address her again, blustering up more of the ‘old mean guy’ tone.

Mokou gives me an odd look, unsure of how I’m following through on this.

Sanae sighs, turning to me and dismissing with, “Do you want me to take this work seriously or do you want me to stop and listen to you?”

“Simmer if you want, that’s fine, but I’ll ask the same back to you. Do you want to seriously do this job?” I ask with emphasis that this is a question, not rhetorical.

She takes a moment to think on the question, unsure if there’s some deeper meaning to it. She shakes herself from the thought and stands upright, opposing me. She’s screwed up her face to try and hide her instabilities, but not too well.

“Yes. Hina is kind, and shouldn’t have to deal with this,” she affirms. At least her voice doesn’t hitch up, belying her expression.

“Good,” I reply. “That means you’re motivated.”

Sanae sighs once more, and asks, “What are you even saying? I don’t get it.”

“I don’t think I’m following this motivational talk, either,” Mokou comments, sitting down at one side of the long table and glancing over at Jo’on’s feet from the room over.

“Who said this was any motivational talk?” I question. The two eye me with even more confusion, now. Following up, I raise my voice, faking a surge of energy. “I could care less about worthless words like that! If you’re motivated to do something, then do it. Sanae, what is the first thing you think we should be doing right now?”

“Huh?” Sanae reels a bit at my sudden shift in tone. “Uh, what I was about to start doing, I guess.”

“Come on, use your words, what are you doing?”

“E-examining what we know right now and what we have available!” she states, more in a cadence now.

“Then let’s start. I want to hear your entire thought process. Every detail! Remember, we’re arguing with a bunch of assholes why they shouldn’t go one step of killing an innocent woman,” I command to the girl.

She flinches, maybe realizing the severity we’ve been ignoring up to now. Were she trained to, she would most certainly salute when saying, “R-right!”

Sanae gets the rest of the materials ready, moving with a terrified fervor while I hover over her. Mokou looks on, giving me a bit of a sideways nod for my unorthodox methods. What I’ve said is only what I think, though. I hate motivational talks, because they never lead to someone really getting their shit together. If they want to do something, they’ll tell you, and you can help from there. It doesn’t matter if neither of us are practiced lawyers or whatever, that’s not the point of what we’re doing.

We’re here to help Hina. Maybe spite the tengu. That’s a nice bonus for giving us the runaround.

In her fluster, Sanae writes a new angle of attack, Reasons Sealing Hina is Wrong.

While I appreciate the more pointed thought, I take a couple of minutes to elaborate a stronger statement. We rework the argument to, Sealing Hina Kagiyama is without fair reason.

“But how does this help us? Why bother?” Sanae asks after I set the pen back down.

“It shouldn’t. It’s incomplete right now,” I explain. “We need information to put a ‘because of’ after that.”

“I don’t get it,” Sanae continues. “What’s the point in being so picky about the wording?”

“The devil is always in the details, and so we need to be very thorough in everything we do. That includes writing everything we think of. Not because it’s better to put it in writing, but because we may forget about it later as we continue to hunt for the argument we want. This statement here is meant to keep our attention.”

“You’re not doing a good job explaining this, you know,” Mokou stops me. “Tell us something we get.”

I pin my eyes to her, narrowing in distaste for being interrupted in the middle of a point. I don’t really mind, but it’s become a habit to try and stop people from doing it too often.

I clear my throat, skipping forward a small bit in my speech, and point to the table, “These things you found, why are they here?”

“They had a lot of misfortune in them, I could feel it,” Sanae answers. “I figured they could be important.”

“They could be, but why? Pick one, let’s take a look at it.”

She picks up the scraps of paper and presents them to me.

“Can you tell me what that is? To me this just looks like any other ripped up paper,” I prompt the girl.

“This is… I think it’s one of the paper dolls that Hina makes around the end of winter, for Hina Matsuri,” Sanae inspects the item.

“Is that the only one that has misfortune in it, or were there more at her house?”

“There were more with misfortune in them, but this pile felt… hotter? Kind of like some kindling that wasn’t cooled right. It was also the only one ripped up,” Sanae attempts to elaborate.

“So then what do you think it is? Why would it be important?”

“It’s… maybe she was carrying it when Shion possessed her? It has the same feeling as that black fog.”

She walks across the room and hands it over to Mokou as well, who says, “Oh, yeah. That feels like the same nasty stuff. I’m no expert, but it’s hard to mistake that.”

“So then,” I finish, “why is that important to the case, specifically our argument that Hina should not be sealed? It’s fine if you think it doesn’t, of course.”

“... No. I don’t think this helps us prove anything,” Sanae concludes. I wave my hand in circles for her to continue. She mutters, but follows up with, “This only shows that when Hina and Shion are together, misfortune maybe gets more powerful.”

“Maybe?” I ask. “Does it or does it not? It sounds like you already knew before.”

“It does,” Sanae stakes down.

“Alright, so stuff near Hina when she’s possessed gets a worse kind of misfortune. We already knew her ability, but this confirms that misfortune piles around Hina even when Shion possesses part of her.”

“That doesn’t really help, though?” Sanae asks in confusion of my point.

“For right now it doesn’t, but as we keep going, that might not be the case,” I explain. “So, instead of keeping it in the back of our heads, let’s put it to paper.”

Sanae follows my instructions and does just that. We take time to construct a format for the various items, even though we conclude that none of them help us. In fact, if anything, they would hurt our side of the case.

Before moving on, though, I ask, “So, you two keep saying you’re not experts, but have you seen your other Goddess, Sanae? We tried yesterday, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need her now.”

Sanae thinks on it, and elucidates, “Lady Kanako said… Lady Suwako might be hiding to keep herself out of the current situation. She doesn’t like being associated with misfortune, even though she has the native misfortune god with her.”

“Well… we’ll have to do without, then,” I say. It does stick with me, as it’s odd for that goddess to have no involvement even though Yasaka is at the helm, but I can only wonder what’s happening there.

Regardless, now that I’ve directed Sanae to the materials we have, we’ve exhausted what we can infer. Sadly nothing of use to us, but definitely a heads up for whatever the tengu might argue.

Now before we run back out to continue investigating Hina’s area, the main point of interest: Jo’on.

It’s odd that Jo’on didn’t come up except as an after thought to the case. The others sound so certain that she must have something to do with this. Even I’ve seen plenty of evidence to say that she’s not too good of a person, and generally shouldn’t be trusted.

Sanae props Jo’on back up, the mass of rope still looking ridiculous, especially since we all know it wouldn’t hold her. The black mass plaguing the center of her face hasn’t healed, or only done so little that I can’t tell.

“Have you decided to let me go yet?” she asks. Her voice is at least clear now, less nasal to the tone.

“No, no yet,” Sanae refutes with a cheerful expression. “We need to ask questions. Then we’ll see.”

Jo’on rolls her eyes, and points out, “I’ve already told you that my sister and I split a while ago. I can’t give you anything you probably couldn’t figure out by asking her.”

“Sure you can,” I argue. “Here’s one: if you wanted to get your sister to do something, what would you do?”

She stares at me with vile intent, saying, “What the hell would you do with that?”

“Did you listen to what I was saying earlier?”

“Not a word,” she proudly claims. “I was taking a beauty rest as you idiots were playing law.”

Mokou pipes up from her seat next to us, “To be fair, that is a pretty gross question.”

“Jo’on, please. We want you to help us,” Sanae pleads.

“Well I don’t want to help you. This is the same as usual, you ask from me and I don’t get anything in return.”

“Jo’on, that’s not the problem.”

“Sanae, hang on,” I stop her. She looks at me with a curiosity of why I would do so. Mokou does as well. I let a stiff knee go to the floor, making sure I have good balance on it. It wouldn’t be fun to fall on my recovering shoulder.

“Are you going to give me a ring?” Jo’on mocks. “I’m more expensive than some homeless old man could even look at without being stabbed.”

“No,” I assert. “I’m here because it’s annoying to talk down to someone. I try not to do it with students, and I don’t try to do it with people who think they’re better than everyone.”

“Well aren’t you cocky?” she appraises.

“I’d prefer ‘sick of other people’s shit,’ but that sounds more polite,” I banter. “Now in all seriousness, because I haven’t used that word enough, apparently, you have as much reason to worry about this case as we do.”

“That’s a load of bull,” Jo’on crudely calls.

“What I find bull is that your sister isn’t on trial, too,” I argue.

“Woah,” Mokou reacts. “That’s harsh, ain’t it?”

I hold up a hand, hoping to continue. Mokou doesn’t persist, and Sanae is shocked that I shifted tone so suddenly.

Jo’on puffs at my contempt, “Why are you idiots acting so offended? We all agreed she should be.”

I go on the offensive, “And what about you? Do you want your sister sealed?”

“Excuse me?” she responds in a much lower, threatened tone.

“We lose this case, Hina is put away. What’ll they do next?” I ask, rhetorically this time.

“That’s insane. There’s no point,” Jo’on rationalizes.

“They’d smell blood in the water. They wouldn’t need convincing to claw at anything in arm’s reach. If you want to find a point, you can come up with one post mortem.”

Jo’on attempts to give another hot headed answer, wanting to shut me up, but she stops herself. Her brain caught up, and she doesn’t have a counter argument. It was more of a guess, but the tengu must really be some bloodsuckers if the pestilence goddess herself doesn’t want to deal with them.

“So it’s a threat after all, just not from you,” Jo’on concludes.

“Yeah that would be nice if you didn’t think I was threatening you, because I’m not,” I reply, maybe a bit too coyly.

“Go fuck yourself, you old bastard. Now somebody get me out of these ropes already!” she demands, struggling against the bindings like an animal.

Sanae complies, letting Jo’on stand again to her still fairly stout stature.

“Now,” Jo’on continues, “you can have my help. It isn’t gonna get you far, and frankly I could care less about this other bitch, but there is some sense to your words.”

In a show of good faith, she pats my shoulder. My bad one. Hard.

As I crumple over in the sudden onset of excruciating pain, she snides, “Oh, woops. Clumsy me. You most certainly didn’t deserve that for being a filthy rag, no sir.”

Sanae smacks Jo’on over the head. Again.

That isn’t quite how I wanted it to go, but fair’s fair with these people. Instead, we focus on talking with Jo’on properly now. Although…

“That’s it?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“Yeah. For as smart as you like to think of yourself, you’re also pretty retarded,” Jo’on insults. “Obviously the only thing my sister would need is some food, sweets, a present, just about anything. She’s not picky.”

“Well, I guess we can use that as a statement to say she wouldn’t have caused this out of ill-intent,” I parse.

“Why did you have to ask? I thought that was obvious knowing Shion,” Sanae asks, returning to her natural diligent student attitude.

“Well, she could have either done this of her own idea, been coaxed into doing so, or very unfortunately been around by coincidence. We can’t rule these things out without a supporting voice.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if she was promised food for doing something bad, though,” Jo’on admits, shrugging to her disappointment. “I doubt anyone would try to see through that argument. It’s so stupid it must be true.”

I shake my head and relent, “Sure, but I was really hoping there was more here to put an argument together, not fib one. Like Shion was tricked, or blackmailed, or something. Not much is here, though. She’s almost like a force of nature, if anything.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Jo’on agrees placidly.

“Well, now what?” Mokou is quick to move the point along.

“To Hina’s, I guess,” I give up on thinking for now.

“Or we could move around looking for more witnesses,” Sanae suggests.

“By looking, you mean…” Mokou voices everyone’s concern.

“Best behavior, I promise,” Sanae emphasizes with her fingers crossed.

“I have a feeling that was your best behavior,” Jo’on jabs.

[x] Head directly out to Hina. It’s about time to do a proper meet and greet.

[x] Survey the mountain for any possible witnesses. There’s a lot of people, someone must know something.

[x] Convince the group to look into something else. (Write-in)

---

I remembered to write the write-in the the option this time… Joking aside, this update was a little mixed for me. Some parts were easy to push through, but the latter half took a while to think of how I wanted to put it together. I’m always worried about making Tanner sound… too confident, I suppose? Obviously, he’s not an idiot, but it’s difficult to strike that balance without making things seem too much of a breeze.

[x] Head directly out to Hina. It’s about time to do a proper meet and greet.

“Enough banter,” I scold the two gawkers, Mokou included. While she’s been good to me, she’s also been acting as a distraction since we’ve sat down. I return to the matter at hand, saying, “Alright, Sanae. I want to emphasize that you will be the lead on this, but could I convince you that going directly to Hina is our bigger priority?”

She scratched at her cheek and retorts, “You’re making it sound a little dramatic, if anything.”

I raise my… hand, singular, in defense. Jo’on puffs in pleasure at my pain from over animating.

Restraining myself from reprimanding her, I continue my train of thought with Sanae, “It’s important that you remember you’re the one that will be at the table as the defense of this trial. Still, not that we can expect this to be exact to outside world courts.”

“Hmm… I guess so,” Sanae looks off in thought as she confirms to herself. “So… convince me… I guess?”

I take the offer to start a small bit of lecture, “While there is value in making a broad sweep, I still think we are gonna want to go with the straightforward approach right now. The broad sweep could net us people that act as witnesses, but will otherwise have no use for us as we’re still trying to find some context to argue our case. Going back to our client and directly questioning things is likely to get us what we need to know.”

“That all sounds like a fancy way of saying you don’t have an angle to argue still; go back to step one,” Mokou pokes.

I sigh. Not because Mokou is missing the point, nor that she’s ignored my previous dismissal, but because she’s one hundred percent correct. We don’t have much to go on, and we really need to take this back to the drawing board. Anything we could come up with on our own would be moot right now.

“Alright, let’s go with that,” Sanae assents. The three of us look over at her, surprised that her attitude hasn’t been dissuaded by how little we accomplished sitting here.

We start to head out, but I make sure Sanae carries the paper scraps with her. While the bloody support beam and the ornate doll are related, I already have a grasp of where they came from. The paper scraps are different, though. They appear intentionally torn apart, but we need to know why exactly that is.

The trip down the mountain is completely uneventful, aside from some bickering between Mokou and I about needing to be carried everywhere.

Approaching Hina’s resident forest, we get a good view of the aftermath. Most present is the giant stone Tenshi planted straight into the ground, warping the ground around it from the collision. Hina’s torn down house barely avoided complete destruction from the fighting, although half of the land it was sitting on is now an uphill slope instead of flat ground.

The literal misfortune gas is gone without a trace, not even remaining as a smog anymore, so that’s a good sign. The ground and foliage haven’t recovered, though. The area remains a blotch now more black than its previous gray, only overtaken in presence by the neighboring golds and reds of the Autumn goddesses.

One new structure stands out in the daytime light. As we approach the grounds I can tell that it’s a small wooden awning that must have been erected overnight. Ran and the others are now surrounded by a few new individuals I don’t recognize. A couple of men with skin separately hued orange and purple, and a small blonde woman in brown and yellow clothes.

Behind them, under the awning amidst jars and crates sitting and talking with Hina, is one more I don’t recognize. Another tengu, judging by the white collar attire. A woman with straight hair black hair in a bob cut with thin rimmed glasses. The glasses are particularly interesting, as the only people I’ve seen have them in Gensokyo are those that are constantly in book work or those of high renown. Also Rinnosuke, but he’s more of an exception.

We settle to the ground nearby and the tengu stands up to leave. While walking off, the entire group of people surrounding Hina give her glares. The kind that tell her she’s not welcome, but she’s less than phased by the reactions. Hina, however, seems…

“What happened here?” Mokou questions the tengu as she passes by us.

She stops and eyes us over, not concerned with the group she’s walked away from, and answers, “Proceedings of this investigation. Do excuse me as I need to write up my findings for later.”

The woman floats off, and we continue to the group in the shaded spot. Yes, Hina doesn’t look too well. Distraught would be too energetic to describe her. Hopeless would be too intense a descriptor. Depressed wouldn’t be wrong, but there’s some level headed thought still in her eyes.

“Hey everyone,” Sanae greets, though subdued by the mood. “What’s happening?”

“That was the tengu’s prosecutor,” Ran explains. “They had more information available than could be expected in this timeframe. Is your investigation progressing similarly, human goddess?”

Sanae stumbles to reassure everyone quickly, so she instead mutters, “Ehh… well… I mean…”

“It’s a work in progress,” I pick up. “We have information, but it’s not as easy for us to put it together into a counter argument for defense.”

The group eyes me oddly. Particularly the cast upholding my arm and shoulder. Ran more than the rest eyes me curiously, probably having done an estimate of how long I should have been at Eientei.

Before she can comment, a small voice speaks up, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

The voice, surprising the group, comes from Hina herself, looking down to the ground and resting her arms on her lap. The brightly colored men and the small girl accompanying them give a berth for Sanae and the rest of us to join the circle around Hina.

“What?” Mokou speaks for us first, not hiding any blunt edge to her voice. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I mean..!” Hina livens a small amount to retaliate against Mokou’s tone, but only further manages to eek out, “maybe the tengu are right to seal me…”

Sanae acts fast, kneeling next to Hina and telling her, “Hey, don’t say that! You know there are people that would be sad if that happened.”

“But… the people close to me are always hurt exactly because of that…” Hina refutes with glossy eyes.

Before I get to witness Sanae demonstrate a god’s charisma and optimism, Ran drags me by the (good) arm away from the group.

“Explain yourself, human,” she commands of me, pointing to my shoulder.

“I’m healing fast? I really don’t know how to explain it. The doctor there was baffled, too, so this isn’t common.”

“Eirin Yagokoro was ‘baffled’ you say…” Ran remains pensive in thought over the image. “Even when not knowing, she released you from hospice?”

“That’s… yeah I guess so,” I confirm. “Maybe she thought it was benign?”

“Unlikely. She’s not one to make snap judgments. Much more likely is that she plans to allow you back into your environment hoping you will come to further bodily harm,” Ran hypothesizes.

“But why, though? Does she think she could use me as a lab rat to get an idea of what’s possessing me?”

“Possession? No, that doesn’t hold on inspection,” Ran tangentially adds before returning to the question. “But yes, this would be within reason for Yagokoro to do. It may be hearsay or common rumor for the village but there are things she does that may be considered malpractice in the outside world.”

“Wait, seriously?” I ask, reconsidering what I thought of the good doctor in the forest.

“Indeed.”

“That’s scummy as hell,” I tell Ran my honest opinion on the matter.

“That will not change her view. Nor the view of others, as free medicine is too valuable to refuse.”

“Augh, let’s just move on,” I concede.

“Certainly, you will require further investigation later, but miss Kagiyama is the person of the hour, as it were,” Ran muses.

“What exactly did the tengu know? What did she say to get Hina so… that?”

“The tengu woman described the accrued damages and the reasons later events are stochastic and spontaneous. The arguments were sound given the lack of knowledge is available on misfortune.”

“Right,” I sigh, thinking through the major points there. “There’s obviously nothing we can do about the damages, but hopefully we can find a solid argument to make the randomness not an issue.”

“Out of interest, you may wish to know that this entire area is deemed unrecoverable for the needs of local flora.”

“It just gets better by the moment, huh?”

“The tengu have ample evidence at this point, you will need good counter arguments to reduce their impact.”

“Noted,” I finish, walking back to the group first.

Sanae has calmed Hina down, a trail of tears on her face from the stress she’s under. To her credit, Sanae looks unshaken by the episode, instead focusing on continuing to comfort Hina.

The rest of the group looks on awkwardly, maybe not sure if they should have stepped away to give the two some space. Their own senses of worry must have kept them rooted, though. Even Tenshi hasn’t stepped away, but that’s because Shion looks ready to cry herself.

I quietly step next to Sanae and Hina, tapping Sanae on the shoulder. Hina takes a moment to wipe her tears with the ribbons around her forearms.

Sanae looks up, and serenely asks, “Yes, Mr. Regis?”

“I know now’s a bad time, but…” I address, scratching the back of my head. “We need to keep on a schedule. If the tengu are this far ahead of us then there’s ground to cover.”

Sanae doesn’t react for a moment, before changing back to her childlike energy with a declaration of, “Yes! Right! I’m the lead investigator, so I need to keep investigating.”

The sudden burst of volume surprises the group, but it seems to be welcome from the somber atmosphere some minutes ago.

“You’re the defense, numbnuts,” I scold. “You’re investigating to find something to defend her with. A lame distinction, but important to keep in mind.”

“My, you sound like a mentor,” Hina infers. She stands up from the crate she was sitting on and takes Sanae’s hands in her own. “Thank you, Sanae. I think I’m feeling better now.”

“Eh he he, of course,” Sanae chuckles merrily.

“Alright everyone,” I address the group as a whole, “I and Sanae both plan to talk with Hina for a while. So, if anyone has something for us, now’s the time.”

I look around at the group, Tenshi seems to have mentally checked out the moment I started speaking, Mokou and Jo’on are both acting pretty laid back in general, Jo’on fishing out a cigarette from her overcoat, and the trio I don’t recognize are starting to get antsy.

“Yamame, it’s fine,” Hina addresses the smaller woman. Albeit, now that I’m paying attention to it, Hina isn’t on the taller side either. “I trust how you’ll decide to build my home again.”

The short blonde woman, Yamame, apparently, nods and turns to her cohorts, barking out, “Come on you drunkards, you heard her! Let’s get back to moving the debris!”

They march off to the rubble some yards out and I notice that about half of the structure has been cleared away. At least of what I expected to find.

“Out of curiosity, who are they?” I ask the remaining collective.

“A couple onis and a ground spider,” Mokou answers in turn.

“I asked them to help rebuild my home,” Hina elaborates. “Yamame is a kindred spirit.”

“Interesting,” I note of the existence of these oni and Yamame above ground. As I recall, there are articles detailing oni being stowed away underground at some point in history, so this must be a very recent change.

Before anything else takes my attention, I rest my pack to take something out of it. The dream-catcher from yesterday. The wood looks in fine condition even after the battering I took, but the webbing, as it figures, seems to have some kind of dark crud on it. No surprise if the misfortune decided to stick to the strings like burnt coal.

Regardless, I present it to Hina, saying, “I meant to give this to you as a sign of good will, since I needed to work with you on a separate topic throughout the week… Sorry it’s looking under the weather.”

“Oh, I’ll pay it no mind,” Hina cheerfully holds the ring. She inspects it for a moment before determining, “This is not a custom I know of. I would love if you could tell me what it is.”

“Sure,” I return the pleasantry. “Now, Sanae, would you like me to start the conversation with her or did you have questions you wanted to ask first?”

“What are you planning on talking about?” Sanae questions.

“My work. General research of her life, habits, physiology, anything I might be able to learn about her. Think of it as similar to Akyuu’s Gensokyo record.”

“You mean Miss Hieda?” Hina checks.

I clear my throat and reply, “Yes. I’m just bad with last names.”

Hina giggles, letting the slip up pass.

“I would ask a lot of basic things…” Sanae surmises. “I think it would be better if you started. I’ll pay close attention.”

I rest down on the wooden crate opposite Hina and state, “Well I’ll be stealing this spot, then. Hopefully we can find a couple of birds to kill with this conversation.”

“Is that to mean tengu?” Hina asks with a hint of concern.

“No, that’s a metaphor,” I repute.

“Oh, I know,” she jokes. Sanae did wonders to calm her down if she’s already back in a joking mood.

“Well, then,” I recompose myself. “Let’s start with the obvious: your name, please.”

Hina Kagiyama, of no middle name, is a Nagashi-bina doll turned Youkai-part-goddess. She informs me this is less strange than it may sound due to the nature of all things spiritual within Gensokyo. Her dominion is of misfortune, acting as a natural purifier for that which resides in her body. That is the reason she is normally not effected by surrounding misfortune that is drawn to her.

We all know the magnetic force she seems to have on this normally invisible energy, so it’s suffice to say yesterday’s happenings never happened before now.

We spend a while in conversation finding every detail we can about Hina’s life. After a while Mokou and Jo’on step away in their inactivity. Tenshi and Shion stick around for a time before wandering off for some reason or another. I’ll need to be sure to check what I needed when I see Jo’on again, but the basics come first.

But speaking of other gods…

“I’ve not met another god of misfortune, until miss Shion, that is,” she explains. “I could not have known I was able to ‘absorb’ one, if that’s how you’d say it.”

“Yeah, it would only be obvious in hindsight, huh? But you’d never figure beforehand,” I note.

It’s with that I realize something important. I decide I’ll quiz Sanae after she’s done with her own questions to see if she catches it.

In the meantime, after I finish the interview, Sanae steps in and I lend her my notebook for the time being. I snag Ran away for a moment to go over something I noticed. I have no idea how feasible such an idea is, but that would need to be checked after coming to some agreement on its value.

“Certainly the tengu would not be satisfied with such a stopgap measure,” Ran bickers.

“But do you think they’d have enough fuel for their fire after that?” I ping.

“A tool to separate the misfortune goddess from misfortune… If one is possible, then it would hinder their case a great measure,” Ran contemplates. “However, you must get the goddess herself to agree, as well as your pupil.”

That’s doable. Easily, surely. I mean, what else would I do, ask for Sanae’s opinion on what to do next?

… Right.

[x] Pitch the idea to Sanae and Hina as something to prioritize. It could prove fruitful, though there will be inevitable drawbacks I haven’t thought of yet.

[x] Ask Sanae if she’s come to a new lead that might be useful to us. She’s smarter than I give her credit for. It just takes a bit of coercing to show it.

[x] Maybe I’m the one that needs coercing to act smarter… (Write-in)

---

I feel like we’re getting somewhere now, we should be able to start cooking through this. A trial will come and I will finish this unplanned section, damnit! Anyway, new tengu will get a name come time (and when I decide on every other character detail, lol).

>>44272 Thank you for the kind words and analysis. It means a lot for me to see so much dissection happening in my posts. Keeps me on my toes and whatnot when thinking about foreplanning.

[x] Ask Sanae if she’s come to a new lead that might be useful to us. She’s smarter than I give her credit for. It just takes a bit of coercing to show it.

I stop dead in my tracks.

“What is it, Tanner?” Ran asks, concerned that I would inexplicably freeze up like this.

I relieve a heavy sigh, explaining myself, “Ran, Sanae’s in charge.”

“Is she? It’s shocking you did not take the case for yourself,” Ran deadpans.

“Oh come on, you can’t think that bad of me,” I retort. “And, yeah, she’s really the lead here. I need to temper myself down. She needs to come to conclusions on her own.”

Ran doesn’t respond at first, only looking between me and Sanae out some distance. After, she says, “It’s not entirely convincing to ask Kochiya, of all people, to come to higher function conclusions.”

“It’ll be fine, you don’t need to be that pessimistic,” I refute her.

“She knocked out a celestial as a convenient answer with little logical reason for it solving an issue.”

“And got into a bar fight with Jo’on after deciding she would be a good direction to take the case. It’ll be fine.”

“Ugh.”

We take our spots under the supply roof again as Sanae is checking over notes she took. The notes read loose ideas, like visiting human village less, doesn’t talk to a lot of people, doesn’t feel lonely out in the woods. She’s clearly focusing on the social aspects still, but she’s being somewhat more scientific about her understanding. Hopefully this should be the last push I might need to keep her on track.

“Alright, pop quiz,” I announce to her.

“A pop quiz..?” she repeats, concern clear.

“Yes, if you aren’t able to answer well then you’re gonna be going through the wringer.”

“Oh my… that sounds intense,” Hina adds in.

“Uh… uh,” Sanae scrambles to skim the information that I wrote as well before I get the first question out.

“What is the main point of contention to absolving Hina in this case?” I ask my first question.

Hina tilts her head, pondering the answer herself. Sanae realizes the question is at a level above the detailed notes I was taking.

She takes several minutes to think of her answer, conscientious that I’m watching, though I try not to seem like a pressuring factor to her thoughts. “That is… Hina’s power… is bad for-… no, it’s dangerous to… the area around her,” she answers with much uncertainty.

“Is that all the time?” I prod for detail.

“No! No, that’s not what I mean!” Sanae flusters, understanding what she just said. “It’s when Hina loses control of her power, like when Shion was in her.”

“I know what you meant,” I reply, raising a hand hoping she’ll settle down. “I’m asking to make sure you know you’re saying what you mean.”

“R-right,” she accepts with some trouble. She’s not happy I’m leading her by the nose, but I want to be certain that she’s thinking about all of this.

“Next question… gimme a sec, actually,” I pause. “I want to be sure I’m asking this in the right order. Let me see my book again.”

Sanae hands back my notebook, curious what I meant by the ‘order’ of questions. I write them down and run through the logical flow between them. Ran checks over my shoulder to read the questions as well, maybe making sure I’m not being pedantic.

After I’m satisfied, I ask, “What is your main counterargument right now?”

Sanae takes time to think over the answer once more. She buries her mouth in her hand, imitating me. She changes her pose to point her finger up and tries answering, “The tengu are making this a bigger deal than it is? Like, we can separate Hina and Shion, like what Tenshi did.”

“Sure,” I acquiesce, “but while that’s true, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a good argument as well. Such as, say, what happens if no one is around to separate the two? Can they eventually become so powerful that even Tenshi couldn’t separate them?”

Hina gasps, “I didn’t even think about that. Oh goodness, just how powerful were Shion and I?”

“Rather, the thing you ejected,” I correct.

“A celestial should be able to extinguish the misfortune of that reported creature even should it be left to fester for a week more,” Ran states. “Longer than that it would be a grueling fight even for the most powerful of their people.”

“But it’s unlikely that the misfortune could go unnoticed for that long, right?”

“Correct. The tengu are able to argue about possible damages, but it is now known what forces can negate the issue, thus possible future events would not be considered catastrophic to Gensokyo.”

“Ah,” Sanae utters, putting fist to open palm. “So we need to look at how to say that shouldn’t be an issue?”

“I’m getting to that part,” I hold her off. “Next question, now. What do you think we should do next to strengthen our case?”

“It would be figure out how hard it would be for the same thing to happen later,” Sanae confidently answers quicker than I’d expected.

“Right,” I agree, taken aback by Sanae’s speed on the uptake. “That’s what we want to find evidence supporting, but what are we going to do, exactly?”

“We…” Sanae pauses, wrapping her head around the question. I only have a vague idea myself, so what she answers should be a well informed thought we can work off of. “We should check out where Hina and Shion fused together. Maybe they were closer together than the tengu think they were. I mean, like, physically, though.”

“Do not worry, Sanae. I wouldn’t take offense to the idea of being on good terms with Shion,” Hina reassures.

“That’s definitely one avenue to take,” I conjecture. “We’re gonna need everyone back here before we go out, though. Shion, obviously, and her sister as well.”

“Miss Jo’on?” Hina confirms. I nod. “Why would miss Jo’on be important to also have present?”

“It’s been a thought I wanted to confirm: would other ‘misfortune adjacent’ gods be effected by you the same as Shion?”

“Oh, so then her sister would be the closest we have to testing that?”

“Well, we could always use lady Suwako’s partner god,” Sanae notes. “That doesn’t sound like something we’d really want to deal with, though… Regardless if nothing happens…”

“I mean, Moriya is also in hiding,” I point out. “Anyways, we’re gonna be waiting here for a while, so I might as well continue asking you questions, Hina. Would you be fine with that?”

“By all means,” Hina says, gesturing to the crate across from her. Sanae hops out of the seat for me to take again.

It’s only a short time before Mokou and Jo’on return, followed by Tenshi and Shion several minutes later, but I do learn something of interest in that time. There’s a sort of active period that Hina has where she cannot contain the misfortune she absorbs. As it turns out, she has it tracked down to the day, and despite the trouble yesterday, she feels like it will still happen some couple of days from now.

There’s something worthwhile for me to see. Ran pesters me, knowing that I’m eyeing down the exact time Hina speculates, and says it would be stupid to go with my injury.

Correct. It would be, but I’m going anyway, since I need to see firsthand what misfortune of a not apocalyptic level does to the world around Hina.

With my cohort still unwilling to back down on the subject, I decide it’s time to move on now that everyone returned. Hina guides us out to her common ritual ground, where the center of the cursed forest used to be. We deduced that must have been where it happened since the last thing Shion remembers was being in the forest, drawn to something in this area.

We observe the opening in the trees, circular, with the tree branches just above cleared away. The ground is etched with a spiral pattern blatantly etched in the dirt. Hina assures us that this happened after a while from channeling the misfortune here, and that she could always choose to ‘perform’ somewhere else.

Choosing to not explain the odd word choice, Hina takes one of the paper dolls she brought with her and places it at an edge of the circle. There’s no obvious reason for the spot she chose, other than it sitting on a tendril of the multi ended spiral.

Hina places herself in the center, and I suppose, begins to perform. She spins on the balls of her feet, hands folded to the front of her skirt. The movement is too consistent and at a speed too slow to normally be possible. Yet still, she spins in place, as sure as the movement of the clouds in the sky. At the end of the ritual circle the doll seems to permeate a dark gas. It’s so light you’d think it was just a hallucination, but I’ve seen misfortune much stronger than this, and can tell that the doll is giving off an absolutely minuscule amount by comparison.

I glance about to the rest of the group, seeing if anyone else is paying attention to the doll. Ran, unsurprisingly, stares at it in an attempt to calculate… something about it. Mokou and Sanae are entranced by Hina’s spinning, so they don’t notice. Tenshi and Jo’on are looking at something else entirely.

Shion. It isn’t supposed to be a surprise at this point, but seeing Shion’s limbs trail towards Hina, as if compelled by a natural attraction, doesn’t look natural.

“Keep a good grip on the idiot,” Jo’on commands of the celestial.

“Sis, that’s mean…” Shion moans.

“Yeah, obviously I’ve got a good grip on her. I’d be the one that has to pull them apart again,” Tenshi bickers.

The others don’t pay attention to me nudging Sanae and murmuring, “Remember what I was talking about before?”

She sits mouth agape for a second, but then a gleam sparks, a mischievous yet innocent smile takes over her. She sneaks around the back of our line of people, ambushing Jo’on with a bear hug from behind, and begins to walk toward the inner ritual circle.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?! Put me down before I need to smack you around more!” Jo’on snarls, flailing about in Sanae’s grasp. She also forgets that her nose is still somewhat bruised, weakening the weight of her threat.

Sanae doesn’t show any hesitance, continuing forward unabated.

“What the hell is she thinking..?” Mokou comments. She starts to step in and stop whatever madness this is, but I hold my hand to stop her. She acquiesces, maybe getting that this is my idea or just being fine with seeing whatever insanity transpires.

“Hey, we can talk about this, right? Like sane adults…” Jo’on pleads with her captor as they further approach Hina.

Hina herself is only curiously watching the two as they continually approach. In between each rotation, anyway.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Jo’on shouts, bracing herself for anything.

Our group collectively react the instant Sanae pushes Jo’on directly onto Hina. No half measures, Sanae shoves them into each other, keeping an iron grip on Jo’on just in case.

And then, in that very instant..! Nothing happens. We all release a held breath, thankful that nothing went wrong. Hina even stopped spinning, but that’s more likely because she’s supporting Jo’on’s body weight as much as Sanae is at this point.

Sanae, for her part, makes sure to push her luck and really rub the two people together, acting as if a sudden surge of static electricity would do something. When sure nothing is going to happen, she releases Jo’on, who keels over from shock, and declares, “Nothing happened, Mr. Regis!”

“Yeah, I can see that,” I exasperate.

Jo’on is quick to recover after realizing she’s still alive, and proceeds to smack Sanae in the back of the head, shouting, “What the hell are you thinking?! You wanna get us all killed?!”

“I was testing if you were the same as Shion!” Sanae explains, more emotionally hurt than physically.

“But nothing happened!”

“And what if something did?!”

“I would’ve backed up!”

Jo’on growls out her frustration, but before she can start another all out war, loud clapping calls everyone’s attention. Hina has put her hands together, looking stern for once.

She starts speaking in a tone I’d expect of a daycare worker, “Now, you two! None of that! Think about each other’s view.” She points to Sanae, implying her last sentence wasn’t just rhetorical.

Sanae stutters a bit, but scratches her chin and answers, “Jo’on didn’t want to do something that could be dangerous?”

Hina harrumphs, satisfied with the answer and then points to Jo’on.

Jo’on flinches back at the sudden shift and shuts up for a moment to think, stuck with a concerned stare at her accuser. “This vegetable–“ Hina interrupts her, thwacking her head. “This idi-… girl here, was… researching..?” Jo’on eventually answers with more of a question. The last word was especially drawn out because she wasn’t sure how to describe it.

Hina harrumphs once more, and in the two’s bewilderment grabs their hands, forcing them into a handshake. The girls look at each other, with more than a little confusion that this is really happening. At the very least, their contempt is gone. Not sure if treating them like children solved the issue, but they’re not paying attention to it, so… sure?

“So… uhm…” Sanae attempts to reign control of the situation again. “Jo’on, did you feel anything?”

Jo’on looks at her oddly, asking, “Feel? Like what?”

“I don’t know. Like, an attraction to Hina, or something?” Sanae guesses.

“Attraction?” Jo’on states, with a bit too much bile for it to be considered a legitimate question. “Not on your life I would be attracted to this European nanny.”

“Answer the question, jackass!” Tenshi pipes up for the rest of us.

“Up yours, damn tomboy!” Jo’on tags back, not missing a beat. I’m beginning to wonder if Ran or I should step in to bring this back on topic…

“I didn’t feel a thing. No tingles, no shocks, nothing,” Jo’on decides to give a straight answer. “I hope that helps.”

“A lot, yes,” Sanae answers as the straight man, reddening Jo’on again.

Hina attempts to calm Jo’on back down again as Sanae marches back over to me, her next mission completed. She stands tall and proud, hands to her hips, awaiting my praises.

“So… what did you learn?” I tepidly ask.

“Hina does not combine with Jo’on,” she confidently answers.

“Right,” I lamely confirm. “So, if we- I know rather laxly- but if we were to extrapolate from this information…” I wave my hands, hoping for Sanae to continue my thought.

She breaks her confident pose, attempting to answer me in a way I might word it, “Hina… will at no point in the future… fuse with a god that isn’t Shion.”

“Yeah, pretty close,” I nod and praise. “Just remember that it can be any god that is basically misfortune, which Shion happens to be. The point being pestilence, and maybe curse gods depending on our definitions, are not ‘made of’ misfortune. Whatever the hell that means in the grand scheme of things…”

“What should we do next?” Sanae asks, hungry to continue her productivity with the case. At the rate she’s currently going, she’ll definitely come to a decent argument that’s sure to give those winged snobs some headache.

“For now, I think I should turn in for the day. My meds are starting to wear off,” I deflect the girl for a moment as I think of what to do with her.

“What, Eirin didn’t give you any packets?” Mokou questions me.

“Well, sure she did, but there’s no way in hell I’m taking her powders and pills without something to drink.”

“No, you can’t mix alcohol with your medications, Mr. Regis!” Sanae scolds.

“Just because I say drink doesn’t mean alcohol…” I bemoan. Perhaps alcoholism is the true affliction plaguing Gensokyo. “Here, let me give you a homework assignment. Something to keep you focused before the next time we meet. Alright?”

“Oh, uhm, sure,” Sanae accepts.

[x] “Finalize your case argument. A solid foundation should get you on the offensive from the get go.”

[x] “Make a list of plausible arguments the prosecution will use and come up with counterarguments. Being the defense doesn’t mean you need to play reactionary.”

[x] “Any fun ideas, Ran?” (Write-in)

---

If it’s not obvious, this is gonna be a time jump a couple days over to that little bit I mentioned in this post. If I gotta take a blunt object to bash the story over the head with, then damnit I guess I have to.

Particularly for this section I noticed it was very difficult to give a sense that all of the characters were present. Such that they have presence in a scene. It’s not been something I’ve thought much about since this is the first time I’ve had so many characters together in the story with a proper reason to be so.

[x] “Finalize the draft for your case argument. A solid foundation should get you on the offensive from the get go.”

I give Sanae a straightforward answer, something that should be easy to follow through on. She chews on my words for a spell, deciding if it’s an easy or hard task.

“Is… -n’t that what I’m doing anyway?” Sanae questions.

“Yeah, fair point. Let me rephrase it, then. Do what you’re already doing, but work on finalizing the argument,” I explain. She seems dissatisfied by this and starts to question me again, but I halt her and continue, “Yes, yes, I know. Let me stop kidding and actually explain. You could either go after making your side of the case better or looking for ways to make the prosecution’s case worse. Does it make sense why those two would likely be mutually exclusive?”

“Mutually..?”

“Like you can’t do both,” I break it down.

“Oh. I guess?” Sanae more gives up than comes to understand, but she’ll get there later.

“And that’s it?” Tenshi critiques. “Do exactly what you two have already been doing?”

“Sure,” I simply answer. “… Although. Make sure to join Sanae for whatever she might need. It’s her show, here.”

“What are you gonna be doing?” Mokou asks. I eye her a bit. She seems to be asking less out of concern for the case and more for my sake, maybe as expected.

“I will be writing the incident report before anybody else decides to, since it’ll be easy to wedge my firsthand account over the secondhand information the tengu will have,” I detail to the group. Of course, I also plan to visit Hina a couple days from now, but the rest don’t need to know that.

“Will that be enough guidance for you, Kochiya?” Ran queries Sanae.

Sanae is still unsure, so I decide to shove some words in her mouth, answering, “She’ll get there, even if she doesn’t think so right now. Why, did you have some fun idea in mind, Ran?”

Ran looks over at me, and stifles a sigh into a long breath. She judges me unfavorably, without even so much as a word, only using her eyes. I nervously laugh, hoping to play off her disappointment as a regular jab.

“Kochiya, convene here two days from this time,” Ran commands.

“Hey, Ran!” I start.

“Two days from now? Oh… right. Yes, will do,” Sanae assents without further comment.

Mokou grunts with some interest, “Something you care to share with the rest of us?”

“I’m going to be further interviewing Hina as part of my research, that’s all,” I try to deflect.

“But that will be when I need to release misfortune to the area,” Hina worries, having heard me as she walked back up to the group.

Mokou raises her eyes at me for lying so fruitlessly.

“Haah…” Mokou shrugs and sighs. “Well, I won’t get in the way, then. Not exactly like I’m immune to the stuff, either. Hell, I’d probably end up burning the house down if it’s done by then.”

Done? The entire house in that time? Do those horned men work that fast?

While I’m not paying attention, Ran starts to drag me away from the scene, bidding everyone farewell. In her usual stiffness, of course.

---

Over the next day I do as I said I would: write. With my one good arm I write, and write, and write. It makes a good excuse for Keine to not worry about my injury, since I still can’t tell her the real nature of it. Not yet, at least. I need to finish this next interview with Hina before I open up the floor on that can of worms.

Ran also decides to personally oversee that I’m working and not attempting any insane plans that could further stress my body. Her presence also invites some concern during a surprise visit from Byakuren. She decided to check in around the early morning because of the formal missive I sent out. Not being satisfied with completely sitting out, by her admission. My injury doesn’t escape her notice, and nor does my current house arrest under Ran’s thumb. We ease her worries, somewhat, but she does leave her prayer beads with me after mentioning that I was still planning to return to the cursed forest the next day.

Now armed just that little bit more, Ran and I arrive to Hina’s new abode in the early evening before the day of the trial. Sanae is awaiting our arrival as we touch down. She says it was a wonder to watch the oni work on the house, erecting the skeleton in no more than a couple hours after Ran and I left.

While it’s pretty amazing that three workers would be so organized to get an entire house done this fast, something else captures my attention. The wood on some of the patio beams already seem to be showing the beginning signs of weathering. That’s probably because they reused whatever good wood they found in the scrap heap, but a part of me also doubts that. I jot a note to ask how old the house is alongside my growing list of questions. I also scribble in the correction: how old the house was.

We cease the initial small talk and knock the freshly constructed door. Hina greets us merrily, maybe satisfied that I’d wanted to have a regular conversation. Or at least something not having to do with the trial. Or maybe even just showing interest in learning about her.

Even Akyuu had to send a servant to see Hina, choosing not to come out herself. While for the best, since frankly Akyuu could snap like a twig in a mean breeze, I doubt it feels good to Hina’s ego to warrant so much precaution.

Hina shakes my hand and thanks me again for the dream catcher I found, informing me that it was one of the first decorations she put up in the house. She even made sure Yamame put a proper hanger above her bed for it.

While her sentiments are appreciated, it’s a little embarrassing to hear her sing praises of a simple gift so openly. But then again, the rest of her house makes it clear that she stocks all manner of occult interest. Items that reek of dark origins, from voodoo dolls to statues of probable chthonic origins, line walls and shelves in the living room, the upstairs near her bedroom, and even the kitchen.

Sanae and I take seats at a small circular table at Hina’s request as she readies a tea kettle that has been sitting on the kitchen burner. The kitchenette strikes me as odd since it not only has a mix of modern outside world cabinets surrounding the older style of cookers used by Gensokyans, but the stove is also a model of the dirt and ceramic that would usually be integrated into the ground. I know that it’s like that because the house is raised at least a foot off the ground by supporting beams, but as to how Yamame managed to recreate such a mundane fixture almost like an art piece is something of a wonder.

Hina collects some serving dishes and apologizes for not having proper cutlery and ceramics. I think she’s being pedantic until she presents Sanae and I with thick, colorful plastic cups and trays, like what I would use when I was a child. Seeing our faces, she realizes that it must be strange for people of the outside world to look at these reclaimed articles. Sanae gives a short explanation that the kitchenware evokes more… youthful spirit, to put it kindly.

It makes perfect sense that Hina would have this, considering that her misfortune effects her own house. Any ceramic plates would have a death sentence sitting around here. I keep that thought to myself, of course.

We have tea with Hina (Ran excluding herself from being served) as she tells us the story of how she acquired the plastic finery from a group of fairies in exchange for a few paper dolls. The scene would be heartwarming, if not for the disconnect of colorful, childish cups in the same view as a well framed depiction of Baphomet.

Hina’s collection is nothing short of impressive if she’s including even pagan traditions from western cultures.

With the tea drying up, Hina notices my interest in the depiction and bids us to start the proper interview in the living room where she can explain what she knows and feels from a lot of her collection.

Our way out of the kitchen is interrupted in the doorway when I stub my toe on the framing.

“Ow!” I exclaim in surprise. “Shit that hurts. Getting clumsy in my old age…” I brush off habitually.

Hina thinks otherwise, claiming, “Oh, is it that time already? I thought we had a little longer to talk in peace.”

We disperse around the living room. More of an entrance room connected both to the kitchen and the upstairs, but still a living space with items such as sewing needles, knitting threads, and an overfilled bookshelf that would eat someones time away. As well as the many antediluvian knick knacks.

Sanae is brave enough to risk taking a wooden chair while Hina uses a padded chair hugged by the knitting materials. I, on the other hand, decide to stay where it’s safe: behind Ran and with my back to the thick bookcase. I’m not risking the support beams coming for a second strike.

Ran takes interest and investigates Hina’s previous comment, asking, “Is that to say you do not have the active period defined to the minute?”

“No, not quite, but… that’s not it, either. If I had to say…” Hina wracks her mind to come up with an explanation. She decides to go by analogy, “If I had a bucket… we can fill it with water…”

Hina pauses for a moment, prompting Sanae for an awkward, “Yeah..?”

“Yes,” Hina agrees. “That bucket with the water is like me with misfortune.”

She remains quiet again, Sanae looks back to us prompting me to ask, “And what does that mean?”

“The bucket can keep filling with water and be fine, but it’s hard to tell just how full it is at any time if you aren’t looking at it.”

“Then why don’t you just, uhm, ‘look’ at it?” Sanae asks.

“I cannot. I am the bucket,” Hina haphazardly explains with confidence.

This line of logic is starting to strike me as strange. I question with less uncertainties, “Then why doesn’t someone else look inside using a spell of some kind?”

Hina looks me square in the eyes, and eerily states, “As is often said, ‘stare into the void.’”

She’s read up on a lot of bad influences, hasn’t she?

“Then you consider yourself as the vessel more directly than initially assumed,” Ran hypothesizes. “Should that be to the extent of a sense of communication with misfortune as a form of energy?”

“Nothing like a couple days ago, let me rest your worry,” Hina is quick to deter. “However, it’s easier to tell a full bucket from an empty one, but as for when it might overfill…”

She shrugs. It seems to be on a level of normalcy to her, for all that’s worth. It’s all the more tragic that she sits here on her own with this demon, others unable to be close to her.

That said, after stubbing my toe nothing seems to have happ–

The thought is cut short by a book falling square on top of my head from the upstairs banister. Felt like it was the binding, too. I slump into Ran’s tails, who is quick to understand what happened. She weaves into a hold on my arm over her shoulder, and she helps me to one of the few empty chairs. Hina whims at the bad luck getting to me, while Sanae remains confused as to what happened behind her view.

Ran checks me over for injury as the conversation continues.

“So that’s why you could tell it was today, but not what time?” Sanae confirms what Hina last stated.

“Correct. It’s easier as it draws closer, but never quite what miss Ran may want,” Hina elaborates.

“Alright, then, what do you do on days like this?” I ask, bringing a hand to rub my skull as Ran finishes checking me.

“Well… for a long time, I thought that doing my regular ritual to draw out misfortune might be helpful. A monk once thought that I would hold it in while it clears away, like dirt in water.”

“… Wouldn’t that just make dirty water?” Sanae retorts.

“He wasn’t very good at explaining things…” Hina admits.

“But does his idea work?” I redirect to the topic.

Hina stands and answers, “Sadly, no. But it would be better to show you.”

She fishes out a paper doll from under one of her ribbons, apparently she keeps a lot on her, and asks Sanae to hold it.

“Been meaning to ask,” I interject, “sorry for bringing up the investigation, but why did you have shredded paper scraps on hand? Were they one of these paper dolls?”

“Paper scraps? Oh, yes. I had thought a malicious god buried itself inside the torn one, since I was carrying it when Shion found me in the woods. I was hoping to try and release it by force,” Hina explains.

The moment Sanae touches the intact doll an extremely faint wisp of misfortune seeps out. No more than that which would fit through a pinhole.

I suppose it would make sense that misfortune also tries to actively avoid Sanae, of all people. Her luck is her literal power, after all.

Hina seems mildly surprised by this and comments, “You truly are blessed, Sanae.”

The half goddess herself blushes, saying, “Oh. Thank you.”

“This should be even better to show, then,” Hina notes, taking a spot in the center of the seats of the room.

She spins. The ephemeral, otherworldly movement entrancing us once more. This time, however, the wisp from the doll doesn’t budge. Not even slightly. Not even while it’s being ejected to the open air already. So this is what she means. She no longer gravitates the misfortune, it’s just sitting around her at this point and doesn’t tend to move. As if it were in complete equilibrium between what she could pull and the space around her.

But something doesn’t make sense here.

“Hina,” I ask her attention, “If you have this period where you can’t absorb misfortune which you described as like a bucket with water, why would the bucket be emptied out, so to speak?”

Hina continues to spin, thinking on my question, and answers, “I… do not know. I suppose I’ve always taken it for granted. Oh my, is that bad?”

“It is unlikely that anything has changed due only to your pseudo possession by Shion,” Ran speculates.

“But what if the release doesn’t stop?” Hina worries, ceasing her spin.

No sooner does she finish her sentence do the back legs of my chair give way, tumbling me over. My head slams straight into the ground, and next thing I know the three women are surrounding me overhead.

“Wait! He’s awake again,” Sanae holds Ran off from picking me up. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

She puts up her hand and two fingers.

“Fuck off,” I reply, groggily.

“He’s actually rather rough, isn’t he?” Hina conjectures.

Ran helps me off the floor. She holds me lightly to see if I can still stand. “You overestimate your own durability, human,” Ran scolds.

“Screw off, I know,” I grunt and shove myself out of her grip.

This… was a horrible mistake. I lose my balance instantly and fall face first into the staircase.

[Please wait warmly…]

---

Finally got some loose ends I was worried about. I reread the original lectures from time to time only for the chapter at hand, so it can end up touch and go around the midway points. That said, I really wanted to spoil myself and think about some of what Hina’s house might be like.

Also, pardon the liberties of using western occultism as opposed to true to form eastern. I imagine Hina would have quite the interest in the historical use of goats in religious practice.

[… Continued]

The pain comes before the realization of consciousness. It feels as if my skull is cracking across my entire head. Even the pillow my head is on makes the feeling worse. I open my eyes more easily than time I was in a hospital bed, understanding that no amount of lying down will make the feeling go away.

To my surprise, I’m not in a hospital bed. With only a glance I can tell this is still Hina’s home. Ran stands tall beside the head of the bed. It’s an amusing sight since with the bed is stuffed into the corner and the triangular roof sloping down so much, Ran is forced to lean forward.

“He is awake,” Ran calls to the rest of the home.

I roll up in the bed, intense vertigo washing over me. I hold myself steady, Ran lending a hand as well, and sit along the edge. I don’t look up to check, but hear Hina and Sanae clamber the top of the stairs .

“How is he?” Sanae asks, noticing my lack of motion.

“Regis is highly likely to have a concussion,” Ran states. “A migraine is also possible, but it is not possible to determine how long either may last.”

Hina kneels next to me, clasping my hand and saying, “I’m so sorry that I keep doing this to you.”

“No… you’re alright,” I manage to speak out.

“Well I don’t think you’re alright,” Sanae says to me. “Ran, shouldn’t you take him to the hospital? I mean– Eientei.”

Ran puffs and answers, “Yagokoro will certainly prescribe him more pain reducers. Anti-inflammatory medicines were already prescribed. Let him feel the consequences of his choices for longer.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re always right,” I grumble to the devil woman.

Sanae stutters a bit, unsure if she wants to argue with Ran or not. I appreciate her concern for me, even if it’s undeserved.

“Tanner? How are you feeling?” Hina asks.

“Like a hammer was dropped on my head,” I answer.

“Without the amount of protection you adorned on your person, it would have been far more than a comical metaphor,” Ran warns.

We settle down for a brief moment. A welcome respite for my head, as I let it sort itself.

Sanae breaks the silence with the obvious question, “So, will he be able to go to the trial tomorrow?”

“I’ll be there,” I somewhat slur out in my haste.

Ran bickers with my answer, “He will attend so long as Yagokoro does not disagree. How helpful you may find him is an entirely separate question… Hm. Perhaps it would be best to expedite him to Eientei immediately, after all.”

“Oh?” Hina mutters as Ran shifts in front of her, moving to grab me from the bed.

I don’t bother arguing, even if Ran did leave me here I would complain nonstop to get some pain medication for my damn migraine. I’m only on a small dosage to help with my shoulder’s healing, a bit of pain tells me if something goes wrong, Dr. Yagokoro said…

I wonder if she was bullshitting me?

---

One trip to the clinic, and one disappointed doctor writing me off, later, and we’re back at Keine’s for the evening.

Keine is only somewhat surprised by my dangerous trip out, but is otherwise relieved that a concussion is the worst I received. Ran helps me to my room and onto the bed before stepping out for the evening, noting that she won’t be able to escort me tomorrow as she is part of the judge’s panel. We bid her a good evening and all that, leaving just Keine and I in the same room.

It’s been several days now since we last spoke about anything of importance, my work being a convenient excuse to let me get around her and go out today. Can’t really do that while she’s sitting down next to me. And the part where I’m unfit to work.

She’s not wearing her hat, so I know she isn’t going back out for the evening. I expect a very long lecture about my duplicitous behavior as seems to be half of our chats, but instead Keine starts with a question, “Tanner, why do you take your work so far?”

I’m taken aback. Not only from the simplicity of the question, but also by how Keine seems to be asking this out of concern and curiosity. For a split second I think I’m having some auditory hallucination from head trauma, but Keine stares me down with intent of an answer, so I know I didn’t mishear her.

“What do you mean ‘so far?’” I ask for clarification. My head is still reeling from a newly forming concussion, so I don’t blame myself for being a bit slow.

“You research what is asked of you, and you are expected to do it within a two week time frame. We agree on that much, right?”

“Sure…”

“So when you aren’t able to do your job, instead of putting it off or going back and saying it’s unreasonable to work like that, you force the work.”

“Yeah, that sounds like what I’ve done,” I agree.

“Why?”

“Why?” I repeat her question.

“Yes, why? Why did you decide it was reasonable to follow a fairy around Gensokyo to any number of places she could have taken you? Why did you think things would go smoothly by living with the yamawaro for an entire week? Why did you obligate yourself to help resolve the misfortune miss Kagiyama was building up?” Keine barrages me with questions.

As I’m processing the questions, attempting to think of answers one by one, Keine sighs. “I just… I don’t get you,” she says.

“Well… that makes two of us,” I jest with a smile. “I don’t really get myself either. I guess I do whatever feels right. Only thing about it is that Gensokyo is a pretty messy place, so what feels right is muddy.”

“Maybe that’s it,” Keine bemuses. “Maybe you think about others before yourself to the point that you tunnel vision. Dragon knows Mokou is much the same…”

“So, why bring it up right now? Did something happen?” I caution to guess.

Keine shakes her head and replies, “No. It’s more like nothing happened that seemed unusual. I thought about when we spoke in the bamboo forest a few days ago. I thought about how I’ve been… against your modus operandi. That maybe I just don’t see your view of the world.”

“What?” I utter in shock. “What got you thinking like that? You’re right to worry about me the way you do. I constantly put myself into places I shouldn’t be without even thinking about it. I got hurt today because I didn’t take your warnings seriously!”

“But even with all of that,” Keine argues, “you still were the reason that we didn’t have Kagiyama destroy a sizable chunk of Gensokyo as a whole. Have you thought about how much damage could have happened if you didn’t need to visit her? How many days would have gone by that she was sitting in her home gaining strength? A lot of people shudder to think of the consequences that could have been…”

“Keine, that isn’t a reason that you should excuse me for my choices,” I argue back.

She seems almost sad when she says, “I think it is, though. If your choices help people– help the place we live, then wouldn’t it be wrong if I didn’t?”

That’s… a depressive state of mind. Not one that I can answer confidently against, either. It’s all too philosophical for me right now. There is something that I know, though, and that’s Keine is conflicted because of me. I sidle over to her side from the bedding, my balance barely able to handle the motion, and embrace her.

“I’m sorry,” is all I can really say. I’m not sure what I even say it for, but it just… ‘feels right.’

We sit like that for a while into the night, letting the time pass. People are right to poke fun at us, we really do have an estranged relationship. At the very least, though, we care for one another. That’s the best I can do.

---

The next morning rolls over with a strange mood persisting in the house. Nothing really came of our talk last night, only more concerns and confusion. For right now, though, a clear objective is at hand. Make sure the trial goes well.

I beggar Keine to have Mokou take me to the tengu village, but to my surprise she says she planned to cancel classes today to attend herself. She tells me that this trial is a lot more important than I might think it is, but doesn’t elaborate further from that.

Our journey to the tengu village takes a while, and is notably uncomfortable. It’s the first time I’ve had to be flown around by Keine, and neither of us are really in the mood to try and continue any conversation that might bring up last night, so instead we remain silent.

By the time we get to the village, we’re ushered through the area in a rush to arrive at the official’s building. There’s not even enough time for me to speculate what the various buildings in the village are for, much less memorize the layout.

The trial room is intensely official. A dimly lit wooden flat space that evokes stuffiness and atrophying bones. With two low tables a few paces into the room the rest of the space is dominated by a semicircular collection of draped seats, hiding the identity of occupants from the rest of the room. A single row of people against the wall adjacent to the entry suggest next to no public seating, and the low tables are for the prosecution and defense, not even necessarily enough space for their clients to be seated next to them.

That said, Hina sits beside Sanae without any accompanying seating arranged. Whether it be because the tengu didn’t accommodate her or because she decided to be there on a whim is hard to say. Keine helps seat me in the little open space left against the wall.

With my concussion in full swing, I can’t sit in seiza like the rest of the crowd, at least without falling over. I get a couple weird looks from the other public watchers, tengu mostly with a few kappa and yamawaro mixed in, but they decide to ignore me after spotting the cast on my shoulder.

Or… no. They start mumbling something to each other. It’s too quiet for me to catch.

“All, the proceedings will be started now,” a wizened female voice from one of the center curtain boxes calls to the room. A low amount of light from the far back wall allows a vague silhouette through the covers.

It’s not hard to spot the box Ran is sitting in, but the others aren’t as easy to place. Two of the boxes look like Yasaka is sitting in them, without her massive pillars, that is, but the rest have fairly regular builds. There is one box that has someone with an odd accessory taking up their sides. It’s a bit familiar, but it physically hurts to try to reach for things in the corners of my mind.

Speaking of… it physically hurts to think hard. Yeah maybe I shouldn’t have left the hospital… Christ I just had a conversation with Keine about getting hurt by trying to be helpful. Oh well, in for a penny.

“To those in attendance, let it be known that one member of this panel has been substituted due to injuries sustained prior to the trial,” the official woman speaks again. Wait… why would they have positioned someone who was injured for the trial? How could that have happened?

No, I could probably take a guess that the tengu did something on that end. No, that doesn’t make sense, either. Ran told me the non tengu judges were supposed to be chosen by her and Yasaka…

A second voice clears his throat, nasally and higher pitched. An older man, but hard to say if he’s older than the female by voice alone. He speaks, “As per tradition, I will now describe the basics of the proceedings so all may follow along. The apologist will present their opening statement and first argument to which the vindicator will rebuttal their own opening statement and counterargument. After this is completed the vindicator will open the second argument to which the apologist will counterargue. This will continue until both sides have concluded their points. At the beginning of an argument the presenting side may bring in witnesses for questioning. The panel have already been given the items of interest to the case...”

Fancy names. I guess it’s not surprising, though. Sanae at the ‘apologist’s’ table appears stiff as a brick. She’s been prepping for this but it’s test nerves with gross repercussions tied to them. I don’t envy her position, but even injured I would still feel better shouldering this for her. The tengu woman from the other day sits in the ‘vindicator’s’ position. She appears cool and collected, ready for a long haul.

“… And as such we will not tolerate any interruptions during the trial, regardless of their severity.”

Oh, crap. The older man was still talking. Maybe Ran wasn’t joking when she said I’d be useless like this…

“That is the end of your explanation, yes?” Ran asks. I don’t imagine she’s in a rush, but at the same time I wouldn’t put it past her to be on edge. She’s usually the one to be at the top of the pecking order.

The older man grumbles, “Nrgh, yes. Apologist, make your opening statement. Bring in a witness before the first argument, if you intend to.”

Sanae sits paralyzed, seemingly not paying attention. Hina nudges her, and even the vindicator waves an arm for her to start. She stirs, scrambling to her feet.

“Yes, of course!” Sanae starts, jogging her energy. She takes a script and carefully follows with mild practice, “The… apologist side argues Hina Kagiyama, nagashi-bina and misfortune goddess, to not merit sealing. Reasons being a lack of chance for dangerous events to occur as they did four days ago and the clear actions that can be taken should another event still occur.”

Ah, it’s felt like a while since I guided her to write that. A lot of it was convincing her that it’s fine to sound pretentious if you’re right. Also that she needs to be sure of herself that she’s right until proven otherwise.

This is only getting started, though. I need to pay attention if I’m to even pretend like I can be of use.

---

Good, we’re here. Now to fumble my way through a courtroom scene… yeesh. As for the obvious lack of vote… I just didn’t have any ideas here. Turns out it’s difficult to give a character agency when they’re not allowed to ‘protagonize.’ That said, the next vote should be a good one, even if you might consider me egotistical for it.

As for fun discussion: it won’t come up in the trial, so who do you think caused this and why? There’s a real answer here, and I believe you partially know the answer.

[Whoops, I forgot to ask you to wait warmly… oh well, I guess we’re continuing cold now]

“Hold, now,” a different male voice interrupts Sanae before she can present her first argument. His tone is brutish and unforgiving if I am being rude. Distinct if I’m being nice. “Explain yourself on the latter point. What ‘clear actions’ are there? This has seemed opposite of what the tengu know, and I believe it should be addressed before anything else.”

“No need to be impatient, friend,” the higher pitched man warns his cohort. “She would get to it within the trial. That being said, I do agree with my compatriot, this topic is extremely important to open the case with for some amount of perspective. If no chair sees it impertinent, would you be willing to speak on this not as your first argument, but as a preliminary, apologist?”

Sanae looks over my way, unsure what to respond. I wave her up, she should be able to talk about this part fairly quickly. It only depends on how much the tengu woman is going to poke at her arguments. She’s keenly aware of that being the case, after all.

“Uhm, right…” Sanae mutters, sitting back down and scattering her notes across the table, searching for the page that can help her. The room waits in silence, only perturbed by the pages flipping and Sanae’s growing frustration in the moment. “Just one second, I need to find the note for that one… aha!”

She stands up again, the silhouettes jump back to attention, waiting for her to start.

“By ‘clear action’ I mean steps that can reduce damages another event would have, if not stop it before anything happens. Ran Yakumo had sealed off the area, what we would say as quarantining it. Then Tenshi Hinanawi was contacted to help purify the misfortune, ultimately separating Hina Kagiyama from Shion Yorigami. These two steps would not be hard to do again, should it be needed,” Sanae brandishes the previous event in a simplified description. Perhaps overly simplified, given the logistics of it all, but it should be easy enough to follow that the logistics can be ignored.

“Hold, apologist,” the tengu woman retorts, standing to argue. She seems to have a flair for the dramatic, tossing her arm in Sanae’s direction as she states, “It is a large leap of logic to claim that both Ran Yakumo and Hinanawi Tenshi would be both available and willing to sort out a new event. Hinanawi especially is known to be apathetic to the needs of others, inciting an incident directly atop the Hakurei shrine maiden’s abode solely out of boredom.”

Yeah, it was pretty optimistic to assume a prosecutor wouldn’t pick up on that issue.

“It would be apt to note that the young Hinanawi, while belligerent, is still subject to reason,” Ran counters as part of the chairs.

“A moment, my lady,” another new male voice criticizes Ran. His distinctly smooth tone is nothing short of the slimiest son of a bitch I’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing. “The report given by the human describes the process of ‘subduing’ the misfortune. It sounds like much danger was involved in doing so. Even before sealing in the cause, one of our poor chair was injured.”

“You refer to Kawashiro, yes?” the old man clarifies.

“Indeed,” the slick man assents, sounding of grease to my ears. “In fact, one of her siblings is also here, if I recall. Might we have word for the rest of the chairs on the state Kawashiro is in?”

“Tch,” a woman, or maybe a girl, clicks at the question. “I’m not gonna give you the pleasure. In fact, not hearing you at all sounds much better!”

It’s Takane. The silhouette with the strange object is Takane with her large weapons box. Unsurprisingly, it seems I’m not the only one with a negative opinion of the slick man.

“Order, all of you!” the old woman commands of the room. This seems to pull the chairs into a pause, not even so much as a breath from them. “We are getting off topic. Vindicator, your point is given, and as such we will move on in topic. Apologist, present your first argument.”

Sanae appears confused over the sudden shift in the room, noticing that even the prosecutor has shut up from the woman’s demands. I look next to me and see that Keine has a stern expression, mixed between worry and hopefulness.

“Right, then,” Sanae takes a page from the table without even having to search this time. “The… apologist’s first statement is that the chance that the same event happens in the future is extremely low. From what Tanner’s report lists, Shion Yorigami and Hina Kagiyama have to be within three meters of each other before the two ‘pull’ together. This is also only while Hina is performing her regular ritual within her forest outcrop.”

“You said ‘Tanner?’” a new, younger woman’s voice asks. “No, never mind. It makes sense how he would be involved, this report is his, after all.”

Wait, I know that voice. Who was it again?

“To the chairs, then, how rare would be rare enough?” she continues, inflecting the question to the panel of people.

That’s Akyuu’s voice, isn’t it? It’s been a hot second since I last talked to her, but there’s that daintiness hiding a self assured nature. She’s characteristic for it, at least.

“Preferably never,” the brutish man states. “Of course, that isn’t realistic unless we decide to take drastic measure after this hearing.”

“Presuming a conclusion before knowing all facts is of poor judgment, chair,” Ran doles the man.

“One can never know all facts, my lady,” the old man notes.

“Let’s move on before you start arguing semantics, of all things,” Kanako suddenly makes herself known. She’s been quiet up until now, given that Sanae is the defense for this case.

“Agreed,” the old woman coincides. “As for an answer that we may agree on, I propose once within each half a century. I understand that to those with shorter lifespans in the room this may seem unwieldy, but the impact misfortune can have on the entirety of Gensokyo should not be trifled with so.”

“If I may, my lady,” the tengu prosecutor finds a point to interject, “if it is within so large a time frame and is worried about the impact, then would it not be better fitting to think on hypotheticals where it can happen?”

The old woman harrumphs, and tuts the girl, saying, “Did the chair say that it is time for the vindicator to state their counterargument?”

“No, forgive me, my lady. I believed that what you are touching on is the same point that I had in mind,” the tengu defers her pressure.

“You need not ask for apology, fledgling, now make your statement.”

“Yes, my lady,” the young tengu says in order. Without consulting any notes from her table, she continues, “If we imagine an amount of time between each event, it would diminish the average impact the events have over a long time, this is true. That does not mean, however, that each event is small or inconsequential, as we’ve learned from the one prompting this hearing.”

“Is that to say that discussing a time frame for where we want nothing to happen is useless?” the slick tengu asks.

“If I may be so bold, that is precisely what I’m saying,” the prosecutor stakes. “When we imagine a time where nothing happens, we only design for around that set timeline. Should we want only allow one thing to happen within a month, then so long as it only happens once, it would be acceptable. Should we want only one thing to happen in fifty years, then so long as it happens once in those fifty years, it would still be fine. This argument does not take into account the circumstances of what is designed to be contained.”

“Ah,” Kanako grumbles in understanding. “So your point being that we can stop it for a time, but if we let it eventually happen by believing that it can’t be completely contained, then we must accept the damage it might cause.”

The prosecutor nods, “Indeed. That would be the logical conclusion. I cannot further press this point as it is separate from the current argument.”

The brutish tengu grunts and answers, “Very well, vindicator. Then move on to your first argument.”

The tengu prosecution then goes into her first note of contention, related to the previous, the spontaneity that Hina presents to the area. While logistics for the exact frequency are highly debatable, the pure chance that it can happen as by how I reported is concerning. Even I admit it.

The crux of her argument is that tracking both Hina and Shion, both of whom are dangerous to be around or at least actively obstructing others, is virtually impossible to consistently do. This means that somehow, some way, the two will meet again by accident. It’s effectively ordained by the bastard nature of misfortune itself that the worst possible outcome is guaranteed.

Sanae then argues back that it is easy to implement a check, maybe weekly or so, where one or two people find and checkup on Hina and Shion. This was met with a lot of contention from the panel, the tengu mainly arguing whether that could even logistically work. Again, we’re dealing with people who live in a magic force that muddles the wants or desires of those around them.

Taking a page from her competitor, Sanae forces a segue into her next major point. Or rather, the last point we worked on. Most of our evidence has shown a lot of counterpoints to the prosecution, but nothing to definitively stand our ground with.

Hina lives alone, in a cursed part of the forest that is obvious even to the dullest of animals. It would be hard for Shion and Hina to encounter each other again so long as Shion knows to avoid the cursed forest if she wanders near there. One of the two would obviously need to be supervised during any gathering, but it’s a better bet than arguing with the judges on logistical nightmares.

Of course, that’s ignoring a lot, and hopefully with good intent. After all, Hina isn’t bound to her forest. She takes her namesake dolls from the mountainside river, just past the edge of death and decay surrounding her. She sells her dolls in the human village on occasion, but it’s entirely on whims. ‘The way fate decides her to go,’ she said to me. She only stays in those words a vast majority of the time.

It’s sketchy at best, even the judges are bickering over the tenuous consistency of the argument. The prosecutor dissuades the thought of even arguing against the idea, thinking it completely fallacious based on her previous arguments to use Hina’s regular isolation as proof of security.

Instead, she pushes along the court to her next argument. The one I’m afraid of: the damages. Saying this is the most vital part of the case for the panel is an understatement. Hell, if it wasn’t for me needing to talk to Hina more, damages would be the only thing Ran is sitting here for.

The tengu girl flourishes when presenting a new idea, “Though it may be abnormal, I believe it would be fit to ask Tanner Regis to the witness seat.”

That incites a real stir between the seats, unsurprisingly.

Shit. I expected something like this, but if I wasn’t notified then she must have come up with it on the spot. Maybe she saw something in the report that I didn’t think of. Sanae looks over to me, blanched from the surprise.

I unconvincingly get up to move toward the seat, but Keine catches my arm, nearly toppling me, and says, “You don’t have to go up. She didn’t even mention to the panel that you’re a witness.”

I kneel back down and relay to Keine, “I know, but it would also look really bad for us if the incident report writer didn’t participate in questioning even though he’s in the room…”

“Vindicator,” the old man pipes up, “is the human in the room? It is of interest to all of us as he has a report more whole than our own reporters. Of course, it is unusual to have a witness that wasn’t verified before the proceedings.”

“Yes, I understand the irregularity, but I believe it pertinent enough to warrant,” the tengu girl belies intentions of poking holes in me.

Keine lets go of my arm and I take a couple of steps before nearly toppling over on a yamawaro. The girl catches my torso and Keine gets up to lend me her shoulder. She escorts me to the room’s center just past the apologist and vindicator tables and smack in front of the judges’ veiled boxes. It didn’t even occur to me that it would be right here, since we haven’t had a witness yet, surprisingly.

“Is he alright? What happened?” Takane speaks up.

“He tumbled onto one of the other observers. Thankfully, Miss Kamishirasawa was kind enough to lend her assistance and help him to the witness seat,” the tengu prosecutor states.

“What? Is he still injured? He should be healing fine if it was a small injury as by his report,” the old tengu ponders.

I feel a flinch in Keine’s hand as she’s helping me down.

After I’m seated she leans far in and breathes, “You lied..?”

A chill runs through me. My mind races to try and parse what part of the lie she’s specifically mad about. She keeps a hand on my shoulder to keep me upright, but it feels like a lot more pressure than it really is.

“Sir,” the tengu woman tries to focus me back to the here and now. “If you are not in the mind to testify, then please do not approach the seat.”

“No… no, I’m fine,” I mutter out.

“Very well… Kamishirasawa, does he require your assistance to stay seated?”

“Indeed he does,” Keine states back. “He has a concussion.”

“What does he–?” the tengu stops and composes herself. She addresses me again, “Why do you have a concussion?”

“It is unrelated to the matter at hand,” I deflect the question. Even when my soul was leaving me I wasn’t that stupid.

“Very well…” the tengu repeats, a hint of agitation in her voice. “Let me go over information we should already know, then.”

She moves behind me and takes a piece of paper from her table, stepping back over and asking, “You claim you are a researcher for the human village, yes?”

“Yes,” I answer.

“Can anyone confirm this?”

“Yes,” Akyuu answers.

“Indeed,” Ran chips in.

“Affirmative,” Takane adds.

“Sadly,” a voice that has spoken little for the panel remisses.

“Good,” the prosecutor nods in content. “Then, if you may forgive me for being direct, you work with Ran Yakumo, yes?”

“That is correct,” I answer.

“How does the Youkai Sage’s shikigami support your work, exactly?”

I attempt to think a step ahead of her, but the back of my head isn’t having it. Instead I simply answer, “She protects me as I’m in the field.”

“But from your report: during the incident, the Yakumo was outside of the barrier, was she not?”

I pause a moment. Only the feeling that I know where this is going sets in; the intuition itself escapes me. I answer, “Yes, she needed to tend to the barrier over the area.”

“It was safe for you to enter the barrier, then?”

“Certainly, Kochiya and Fujiwara were with me–“ I stop dead. Oh that was a mess up. The tengu does her best to freeze a grin from forming.

“In other words the danger present required someone of either Ran Yakumo’s caliber or the combined force of a shrine maiden and a Hourai immortal to keep you safe?” the tengu relishes in one upping my rhetoric.

“Now, hold on!” Sanae exclaims from her seat.

“Let the vindication finish, apologist,” the old woman demands.

“Am I incorrect, witness?” the prosecutor taunts.

“I would rather see it as they were fighting the misfortune, not protecting me,” I lamely disparage.

“This does not change the point here, Mister Regis. Because you were injured it should go to reveal that even the two with you were not enough to hold back the force of the misfortune. If that be the case, then would that mean there isn’t some point that the misfortune grows in power, enough so it would be equal in power to a celestial?”

“I believe that is enough, vindicator,” the old woman stops the rampaging attorney. “You have made your point. The chairs do not need your further speculation on the matter. Unless you should make that a separate point of topic, that is.”

“Indeed, my lady. I would claim that as the last argument for the vindication.”

The old woman waits a second before commanding, “Take your seat, vindicator. Apologist, is there any questions you have for the witness?”

I look over my shoulder to Sanae. She’s stumped. Stumped to the point of frustration.

In this frustration, she makes a call that surprises the room. “I have no questions for the witness. Could we have a recess to discuss the ‘apology?’”

“Apologist… you do understand that you will not be allowed to put the witness back to the stand after, correct?” Yasaka prods Sanae’s judgment.

“Yes, I understand,” Sanae ensures everyone.

So she wants to restrategize… that’s alright. But she should have attempted to ask me something, still.

Well, I can’t fault her too much… that was my fault for falling for that quick ruse. Not to mention… what do I plan to bring to the table for Sanae?

[x] It may be conceited, but the tool idea from before might be helpful if we can pull any resources in a short time.

[x] Maybe we need to have another opinion, like Hina’s.

[x] Perhaps there’s a better way out of this situation? (Write-in)

---

How we feeling? Tell me on a score of ‘fell asleep in lecture’ to ‘had to grab snacks to enjoy.’ The beginning and the end felt solid to write up, but the center portion felt iffy at best. Hopefully I can round this out believably.

[x] Perhaps there’s a better way out of this situation? (Write-in)
-[x] I am a pathetically weak, powerless little human that walked directly into the middle of a bad luck hurricane, and I only suffered a broken arm. Surely the Tengu are not so cowardly as to fear something that couldn't even kill 1 [one] powerless human.

In the back of my mind, my state of stunted thought urges baser desires to be acted on. A piece of raw spite takes hold. In this case, antagonism.

While I could continue to be passive and support Sanae from the sidelines, this obviously needs an intervention. I’ll do just that in the way I know best: pissing people off.

“Your honors. A moment,” I beggar the room’s attention. Keine stops helping me up, careful not to jostle my arm.

“What is it, witness?” the old man speaks, having not even bothered to move an inch.

“I think there’s more to talk about here. I offered the report so I think it should only be fair that I offer my understanding of the case.”

“A witness giving arguments for the case? How errant,” the prosecutor states.

“We’re already outside of your usual trial codes, though,” Yasaka counters. “If the apologist doesn’t wish to use the witness, then maybe the witness themselves might have something worthwhile to add in the opposing camp.”

“I agree with the vindicator, that’s as errant as you can get,” the brutish man opposes. “It’s to the point that the madman should be tossed out immediately.”

“And what’s stopping you, big man?” Takane taunts from her high chair.

“My,” the slick man muses at me, “how presumptuous we are to add more of our own paint to the canvas.”

Oh, he’s handing this one to me. I make sure to speak clearly, “Oh, you want presumptuous? I can do better. I don’t see why everyone’s so afraid.”

Anyone that had been moving for the break now freezes. Those last words are clearly ringing in a few skulls, and in most scenarios are words liable to kill me instantly. Here, though? Well, I guess it’s still pretty suicidal but at least they’re gonna have trouble finding an excuse to hang me.

“Choose your next words very, very carefully, human,” the old woman cuts into the silence.

“Isn’t that it, though? I’m human,” I lead. Even if the prosecutor wanted to stop me there’s no way the judges wouldn’t want to hear out such a blatant provocation to practically everyone.

“Make your point,” the woman says, patience thinning by the word.

I try to not beat around what I’m saying, “I’m a human, one with absolutely no combat potential in Gensokyo, and I have walked into what should be the most deadly scenario I can find myself in. Did I die? No. I got a nice puncture wound, but that’s about it. What would you all be worried about? Gods, Youkai, experts in magic, the lot of you wouldn’t even need to worry about injury with enough preparation, right?”

“What are you fibbing?” the old man posits. “It is in your own report that Kawashiro was injured before the misfortune became immensely dense! It’s absurd to claim that a set of charms could cause such a gap in outcome!”

“You wouldn’t trust the protection of fortune gods or barrier charms from the Yakumo themselves to stave off misfortune?”

“That’s a fallacious question,” the prosecutor refutes, attempting to find a legitimate striking angle on me. “Not to mention this line of reasoning is entirely beggaring emotional ploys against the chairs!”

“Let me rephrase, then! Charms with the protection of fortune gods or the Yakumo barriers would stave off misfortune, correct?”

“Correct,” Ran calmly corroborates.

“Yeah, what else would they do?” the seldom heard voice makes herself known again.

“If they could stop a human like myself from dying, could the same be said for any other specie?” I ask the main point.

“Any specie may be stretching the definition, but for species that this room may wish to circumstantially refer to, yes,” Ran elaborates in her usual cantor for specifics.

“Right,” I allow. “Then it would be unlikely that a tengu, much less a celestial, strapped with fortune charms would be in any meaningful danger against the misfortune storm.”

“That is still only an assumption. A dangerous one, that could lead to injuries or fatalities in the worst case,” the prosecutor speaks, staunch to my shenanigans.

“The human does make a point, however,” the brutish man speaks. “It does ease my mind to know there are ways to combat a catastrophe, and maybe even make it possible for tengu to handle one on our own. That is not the source of the problem, though.”

Looks like I’m breaking through to at least one person here. That’s basically the best reaction I can get on this point. Asking to switch sides for one detail, even if it’s pretty substantial, is too optimistic.

“Sir, that still doesn’t negate the damages that the misfortune has on the surrounding area! Nor does it lessen impact to bystanders that are not prepared for the area,” the prosecution speaks in full swing against me now.

“Hina lives in only one place,” Sanae returns to the conversation, cutting in before the chairs get a chance to consider the thought. “Even if we look at environmental damages or the location being dangerous for others, it’s still only one location. People would already know to not laze around there. Forest animals are turned away by the misfortune, already. You can’t even grow any plants there, it’s just barren ground. Moving Hina away wouldn’t change that.”

“That last point,” the old man comments, “is it true that plant life cannot survive in the cursed forest? Though not any surprise, we should have a confirmation from experts.”

“That much is true,” the prosecutor allows. “The kappa have confirmed the ground to be… ‘unnaturally dried, more like weathered down stone than dirt’ is what they wrote for me. They were concerned that the state of the ground there would spread to places around it, the misfortune unable to occupy the space already filled. They did not specify if they meant during incidents like the previous or at any time.”

Sanae jumps in again before the chairs get a chance, countering with, “We know that the spread is based on the power of misfortune Hina has, so any spread they saw was from that.”

“So it’s a literal sphere of influence, much like native gods,” the old woman concludes. “That isn’t terrible if it isn’t growing with time, but is problematic if an incident gets out of hand.”

“My lady, I would say that is no less concerning since we would not know when the area is spreading from a sort of ‘high-tide’ time,” the prosecutor rationalizes.

“However we’ve also discussed that there would need to be periodic checkups to the misfortune goddess’s abode,” the old woman persists.

Oh? Maybe… that sounds like somebody’s been hooked to another side.

The prosecutor clams up, unsure how to proceed from here. She chooses to let the point drop and instead asks, “Witness, would you say we’ve run this topic through? I’d prefer we take a break at this point as well.”

“I have nothing more to add,” I say.

Once more the chairs agree to a break. The crowd feeds out the door, the prosecutor following after stowing her undisturbed stack of papers. The chairs feed out to the opposite side of the room where a door hides in the corner. The light is dim enough in their section to keep identities obfuscated. The old man still doesn’t bother to move around.

Keine lifts me to my feet. She seems less happy with me as the day progresses. Of course, I said something a bit too bold that would normally be stupid if I didn’t have so much reasoning behind it. We’ll have to sit down and talk after this, since she seems to have a few pressing questions now.

Before that, though, it’s time to convene with Sanae for a bit. She looks relieved that I pulled some nonsense to help her. The case isn’t over yet, but we did find an out for the strongest argument the prosecution has against us.

She has trouble gathering the papers on the table, trying to keep some semblance of organization with them. After a few moments of this a tengu official comes into the courtroom to see if we’re ready to move to a small seating room.

We arrive to a small room with a low table and pillows surrounded by bookshelves holding scrolls and books at full capacity. The decorations aren’t lavish, but the furniture surely is. Sanae once more spreads her papers out for us all to see. Her notes are extensive, but it’s obvious that she would have some trouble finding anything like this. She basically wrote down whatever came to her mind at the time that she wrote.

“Alright. I think things are going good,” Sanae speaks to Hina, Keine, and I as we each take a seat. “Thank you, Tanner. I was stuck on what to do when that girl started working on the fly.”

“Please don’t boost his ego,” Keine interjects. “His actions could have very quickly backfired if the prosecutor noticed that one of the misfortune creatures probably didn’t target him only to incapacitate.”

“You read the report?” I ask.

“Yes. I was really hoping it wasn’t the final draft since I knew your injury was worse than you told me,” Keine admits.

“I’m just doing what I think I need to. I promise I’ll explain later!” I rationalize feebly.

Hina clears her throat, grabbing our attention, and she says, “Before we move on in topic, thank all of you for everything you’re doing. It’s all for me and I simply don’t know what I could ever do to repay you all.”

Keine and I stop our current spat and Sanae looks away bashfully. Hina’s gratitude is so honest compared to the cutthroat nature of the courtroom. That prosecutor was more cunning than I expected, not even being afraid to cut corners in an attempt to win. A far cry from the nonsense I’d gotten used to with that Iizunamaru person from the other day.

“Wait, don’t thank us!” I say, coming back to reality. “We’re not even done yet!”

“R-right…” Sanae also comes to. “Things are back on track, but is there more that we can do?”

“It’s impressive how things are going for you as it is, even garnering the Tenma’s interest,” Keine notes.

“The Tenma?” I ask, “You mean one of those men?”

“No,” Sanae corrects me, “the Tenma is that woman sitting in the middle. She’s the only tengu voice I could tell apart in there. I don’t even know the vindicator.”

Right, that’s my fault for using assumptions more in line with the outside world.

“Moving on,” I redirect, “what else might the prosecution have? We don’t have any further point ourselves, do we?”

Sanae checks through her papers meticulously, but comes up empty, saying, “No, we didn’t find anything worthwhile we didn’t think the prosecution wanted to bring up. I mean, she’s obviously saving the whole ‘we don’t know how strong Hina is’ thing for last, right?”

“While I agree, I also don’t want to underestimate her. We just got out of a fix from me doing that,” I contemplate. “Sanae, you have your arguments ready for when she brings it up?”

“Yes!” Sanae confirms with pride.

“Then we’re probably good for now. I’m starting to feel light headed again from the heavy brain work today… Just keeping up is taxing,” I complain, feeling against my temple.

We sit for a couple more minutes in general silence, Keine glancing at the books and scrolls at her leisure, likely to take her eyes away from glaring at me. A tengu comes back around to receive us for the trial. We get back to the room just before the small crowd trickles in and the judges take their places.

“Is everyone ready to continue?” the old man asks.

“Yes sir,” the prosecutor answers.

“Yes,” Sanae answers.

“Good,” the old man states. “Then we can keep going. Does either party have any more to add from the previous topic? Certainly we don’t need to bring the… ah… ‘witness’ back to the stand?”

Sanae and the prosecutor look at each other, waiting for the other to speak. The prosecutor shakes her head and Sanae gestures for her to go ahead.

The tengu clears her throat and says, “No, sir. We do not have any more to discuss, we can move to the next point.”

“In that case, does the apologist have a topic to discuss?”

“No, sir,” Sanae tells the panel.

“Hmm,” throats the old man, “What is your next statement, vindicator?”

“Yes, I wanted to discuss the lack of information we have on Kagiyama’s ability,” the prosecutor states. “Specifically we don’t know how powerful Kagiyama’s ability truly is, nor how she combines with other spiritual entities, nor how she could possibly purify misfortune.”

“I can guess, but please tell us why this is an issue,” the brutish man commands the prosecutor.

“Of course, sir. If we do not know how her power works, then there’s a possibility that something even worse than before can happen,” the tengu explains.

“Right, then would you have any backing on this concern? Any witnesses to forward?” Yasaka asks of the girl.

“Yes, my lady,” the tengu is quick to comply. “I ask that the witness Lady Moriya be brought to the room.”

“Wait, what?” Sanae gasps along with the audience.

“What is the meaning of this?” Yasaka demands of the tengu, any of them.

“Stay your nerves, dear goddess,” the old woman’s imposing voice matches Yasaka. “I knew things would have gotten out of hand if it was public knowledge that Lady Moriya herself was taking the stand for today’s hearing. I preceded this decision, so I ask that you all allow it.”

Yasaka grumbles but doesn’t argue against the old woman’s wishes. The rest of the panel is either stunned by the sudden new addition or generally unimpressed by the whole debacle.

A guard comes into the room, escorting a small girl. A girl with a short dress emblazoned with frogs. Her hat is a wide brimmed bucket adorned by two porcelain eyes, giving good competition to Keine’s for strange design. If she weren’t a goddess I would pin her as a modern fashionista. One that likes frogs.

Or… wait. Is she a goddess of frogs? That might still be true…

The guard waves the diminutive goddess forward. Diminutive should have been reserved for her, Jo’on was average size by comparison. Moriya is more akin to the size of Cirno or other fairies.

She holds a palm towards the guard and replies, “Thank you, but I can find my way to a seat. Take your leave.”

To my surprise, the guard obliges and leaves the goddess unattended to take her seat.

“Sanae, Amitsu,” she greets Sanae and the prosecutor as she passes.

“What hell did you summon to get her to talk about this?” Yasaka exasperates to the old woman.

“Nothing, Kanako. I came because I decided I should,” Moriya says when taking her seat. I thought it was an accident but she seems to have no patience for the smoke and mirrors the tengu asked for with hiding identities in the courtroom. “Now, then, Tenma. Why don’t I tell you about curse gods?”

[Please wait warmly…]

---

Here we are once more. A courtroom where Tanner isn’t able to contribute much. Oh well, this next section should be the end of it. That isn’t to say I expect this next part to be boring, however.

And, of course, I’d be the remiss one if I didn’t bring up the sheer amount of discussion happening. It’s fantastic seeing everyone wrack their brains on these different issues and points of view.
I totally don’t steal it when convenient to generate good ideas.

[A frogged continuation.]

“Hold a moment, dear goddess,” the old man pipes up. “Whilst your words will surely be insightful are they relevant to this trial? A curse god and a misfortune god are separate things, are they not? At the least, the goddess on trial is her own person, and no two gods are alike.”

Moriya tilts her head back and forth, deep in thought on the question. She then replies, “Ah, I know that old ragged voice. I’m surprised they could get you out of your workroom, old Sophocles.”

“Please, do not use nicknames. Furthermore, you are not supposed to refer to individuals in the courtroom,” the old man bemoans. “Now if you could answer my concern.”

The little goddess waves her hand, dismissing said concerns and replying, “Gods love stepping on each others shoes. Curses and misfortune stem from the same place, so you really gotta look at them with some knowledge. One is more directed than the other. Boring, but important.”

One of the silhouettes raises their hand, what looks to be Akyuu, who asks, “Forgive me for my lack of background on this subject, but are you saying that curses are misfortune?”

“Sure,” Moriya answers laxly. “You can look at both of them as the human belief that some bad force in the world is against them. That’s how it was in ancient times and the same for how it is now.”

“Err, right. So may I ask how this relates to testimony involving Hina Kagiyama?” Akyuu tries to move the point along.

Moriya chuckles, lowering the cheerful facade when replying, “I see you all are thin on patience today. Alright, let me be clear, then. Curses are negativity. Misfortune is the same negativity. A few of you are gonna think its funny to hear me say so, but a god that controls misfortune is a recipe for trouble if not treated right. Kinda like Kanako’s old underground experiment.”

“You’re right, that is funny. But not for the right reasons,” Yasaka grumbles. “Bringing up the underground incident on a whim isn’t very informative.”

“Oh? I think it’s very fitting. Something able to destroy this little slice of the world is the usual for these situations,” Moriya retorts.

The chairs aren’t feeling very talkative, now. I had the impression when she came in, but it seems like she might be the highest of the pecking order in the room right now, or at least on par with her partner god Yasaka. It’s strange she decided to come here at this time, or rather that the prosecutor, Amitsu apparently, brought her so late into the trial. What is the prosecutor hoping to add by just letting the goddess speak her mind? She hasn’t even said a word since Moriya entered…

“Uhm, forgive me, Lady Moriya, but I don’t know why you’re the one talking about this. Could you explain for me?” Takane squeaks out in an uncharacteristically formal way.

Moriya shifts tone back to her more lighthearted demeanor, replying, “Oh, sure, kid. Back in the long past, before the lands were even called Japan, a certain deity sat itself on the humans of a region. That deity was called Mishaguji, the curse god, and the land was called Suwa. He was a nasty piece of work, Mishaguji. Cursing harvests, births, weather, you name it. The native people were so afraid of him that he had enough faith to rival the Yamato. Now, of course, I tamed him and he’s still around with me today, but that’s a different story.”

“The question now would be why is Kagiyama on trial if there were never any measures taken against Mishaguji, correct?” Ran examines Moriya’s story, trying to remain a step ahead of the conversation.

“Sure, that’s the next place your mind would go to, but now we’re back to misfortune and curses. I said they come from the same place, but they don’t end up the same,” Moriya explains. “Curses are directed, misfortune is not. Curses are usually some farmer or another despising a rival, misfortune is the wrath of something on existence.”

“Spare the dramatics,” the one voice I haven’t pinned down says, remaining heartily disinterested.

“Oh, I’m sorry Hakurei, I didn’t realize these stories bore you,” the goddess remarks. She loses her jolly temperament when continuing, “Let me try this again, then. Curses are controlled, misfortune is a part of nature. Controlling nature is of the divine, but not everything…”

She pauses, hesitation on her face. There’s no telling why such hesitation is there, but it’s clear whatever she’s about to say will change someone’s opinion of her. Drastically.

“Lady Moriya?” Ran queries the small goddess.

Moriya sighs, “A god of misfortune will eventually lose control of itself. They are already disgusting, but one fat as a pig on their own power isn’t something anyone here can handle. Don’t get me wrong, I know the girl here is prim, but… we ain’t worried about her body, are we?”

It apparently isn’t rhetorical as she waits a moment for someone to answer. She realizes no one cares to do so and continues her deliberation.

“Whatever game you’re all playing here, make sure to take it seriously. Talking’s fun and cheap; cleaning up dead and diseased ain’t.”

That last sentence was said with layers I can’t even start to unravel right now. Clearly a hatred for how the tengu do things and stick their long noses where it doesn’t need to be. But just as well, there’s a full belief she herself seems to have in disliking misfortune gods, especially one like Hina.

While irrational to take one person’s word of mouth for a decision like this, hearing a god’s belief of something rings a complicated emotion. Something I imagine could rattle the boxes the chairs are sitting on.

“I think we’ve heard your concerns, Moriya,” the Tenma states, stony voiced same as before. “But if you have nothing to add to what we know, then we must ask you to step away. That is, unless the vindicator or apologist actually have questions.”

Not surprising that one of the judges would notice the mouthy prosecutor being so quiet, it’s been bugging me for a while as well.

“No, my lady,” the prosecutor declares, “I only have my closing statement to give before relieving the floor to the apologist.”

“You have our ears,” the slick man appeases.

The prosecutor stands to her feet, paper in hand ready to deliver her last gasp, “To the chairs, I surmise that sufficient arguments have been presented to show the goddess Hina Kagiyama as a dangerous entity for Gensokyo. Capable of causing mass amounts of environmental and personnel damages, being near impossible to keep under surveillance, able to go critical on any occasion,–“

It’s clear she only wrote that up intending to win every argument, but I think it’s fair to say that hasn’t been correct.

“-and holding a power that is only poorly understood, one meant to bring about disasters of unforeseen degrees. This has been corroborated by the goddess Moriya as an unpredictability that should not be tolerated. For these reasons it is of the vindicator’s suggestion to the chairs that Hina Kagiyama be sealed for an intended permanent period so as to not jeopardize Gensokyo.”

“Yes, good, good. We will keep your words in mind as we hear the apologist finish out the debate,” the old man states.

Sanae springs to her feet at the old man’s word, walking up by the boxes in front of Moriya. She doesn’t seem concerned that Moriya has taken the prosecution’s side here, instead showing intrigue and understanding on her face.

“Ugh,” Moriya grumbles, turning away from the shrine maiden, “It slipped my mind that you were the defense, Sanae. Sorry you have to see me act all serious.”

Sanae giggles, finding amusement in the odd situation she has found her two gods in, saying, “It’s pretty refreshing. Sometimes it feels like the only thing you take seriously is the menu for dinner, so it’s nice to hear you care about where we live.”

The little goddess looks up to Sanae. Her cheerfulness is infectious.

“Kochiya,” the old woman berates in tone, “please leave small talk for after the hearing.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry, it’s just been some days since I’ve seen Lady Suwako,” Sanae apologizes, almost giddily.

She returns her attention to the goddess. At first her smile fades, and in the next second her face is completely screwed into thought. She didn’t seem to have come up with a question in the window she made for herself, she really just wanted to talk to Moriya.

“Uhm…” she intelligently utters.

“Uhm?” Moriya repeats back.

“Why…” Sanae starts, clearly delaying as she to formulates a proper sentence. “Did the tengu find you? I couldn’t find you anywhere the last few days.”

“What?” Moriya says, baffled by the thought. “I told you when I came in that I’m here because I decided I should be. I reached out to the prosecutor and she forwarded me as a witness to the Tenma.”

Sanae grows quite the grimace as she takes in this information. She slowly nods in understanding and does something questionable, but probably for the best, once more saying, “I have no questions for the witness.”

The chairs have a bit of indigestion processing Sanae’s decision, prompting the older man to ask, “Are… are you sure? This will be your only chance to ask this witness anything, after which will be your rebuttal statement and closing statement.”

“I know, thank you,” Sanae says unabated.

“Then the witness is asked to retire from the room or to the observational seats without further comment,” the brutish man commands.

Moriya stands up and eyes Sanae, attempting to scrutinize her priestess’ thoughts. It doesn’t seem to work, so I guess it isn’t just me that can’t always tell what Sanae is thinking. She walks back to the entryway, where instead of leaving she points to a kappa sitting next to the aisle and then to the door. The kappa blanches, getting clear out of the way and out of the room. Moriya takes the seat unceremoniously afterwards.

That wasn’t pecking order, that was outright harassing someone. Is this just how it is with gods?

“Apologist, your word on this current topic, if you will?” the old man asks of Sanae.

“Of course! The vindicator argues that Hina’s abilities are dangerous because we do not understand them entirely, however I will state that we do know some things. Hina does not combine with gods related to misfortune or curses or similar, she combines with gods made of that energy. We also know that she does not spread misfortune endlessly, as she has times where the misfortune cleanses from her body and instead thins out. Lastly, she does not spread misfortune far from herself, instead only a very short distance which eventually pooled into the cursed forest’s environment. Because of this, we can say that Hina’s abilities are not entirely a mystery even if we don’t know much about how they work. But even though we don’t know much more, we do know that it is easy to avoid danger from it. So long as a person isn’t close to her, Hina does not spread misfortune to them. This is back to my point that Hina most often being in the cursed woods means there will be less chance for things we don’t know about her power to become a new problem,” Sanae dictates to the chairs. While largely from a script that I helped her workshop, it’s still an impressive spiel. Or maybe it’s just impressively long..?

“Do the chairs have any questions?” Sanae finishes by turning the discussion back to the judges. Nobody speaks up, but I don’t think it’s from disinterest. Rather, I think that they’re either thinking through what Sanae said or have no disagreements with it.

None of the judges end up asking anything after several minutes. It could easily be that they’ve come to their own conclusions at this point, so nothing else is needed. Regardless, the old man states, “We seem to have nothing to discuss on this, thank you, apologist. Now if you could conclude the hearing with a final word, we should be quick to come to a consensus.”

Sanae clears her throat, her voice having long since mixed with gravel after talking for hours. She states, “I have provided to the chairs evidence of the fact that Hina Kagiyama is of no great danger to Gensokyo. Her power is most often used in an area clearly showing her presence, does not further spread with time, and any major issues are rare and able to be dealt with timely. Anything we do not know about her power only further supports these points, as she has not had any issues historically for where she lives.”

“Good,” the Tenma speaks up. “I think that should conclude the hearing, then. It was a tenacious bout, leaving rules behind at points. Perhaps it would be good if I looked over the records explaining the proceedings, sometime.”

The brutish man grunts, noting his queue to speak, “With the hearing over, the presiding chairs will discuss our individual decisions, with a majority vote deciding the sentence. This will be a closed room decision, meaning all spectators, no matter their importance to the case, will leave now. Only the apologist and the vindicator will be exempt to hear the decision and communicate it to the accused. Such is their burden and responsibility.”

Keine helps me up to leave the room. I realize as I’m getting up, Hina’s getting up, too. The judges really did mean everyone. That’s why they explained how the attorneys tell their clients about the results. That has to be bad for the nerves, waiting out your sentence without a hint of the outcome.

Sanae sees us off nervously, but I’m not too stiff about it. Hina seems to be fine as well, though understandably quiet after having Moriya come in to speak against her. At first you’d figure the mountain gods would all be tight knit, but it seems that isn’t the case. The tengu guard from earlier escorts us back to the small room, now claustrophobic with the pressure of waiting.

It’s been a long day, and none of us are much for conversation now. Hina holds a smile, but it ain’t hard to see some nerves freshly opened to the air. Keine picked out a book from the many shelves to read. Seems she knows that being nervous won’t change anything. Of course, she’s correct, but it’s a hard thing to internalize.

The time passes in a grinding shuffle. I’m not left with much to do but twiddle my thumbs and check my watch. The halls outside of the room are deathly quiet, with only an occasional set of footfalls to break up the silence.

Exactly twenty three minutes later, a knock at the door grabs our attention. Sanae slides the door open and greets us.

She’s elated, and it lightens the room in an instant.

“They said Hina’s allowed to go! There wasn’t any penalty given at all!” she cheers.

Sanae can hardly contain herself, taking Hina’s hand and bouncing up and down with her in the hall. Hina seems to loosen up with Sanae’s goading, and returns to a natural smile because of it. All in all, I’d say that this should be the end of the hill we’ve been climbing. It’s an easy walk down from here.

At least for some of us, that is. One incited woman is quick to excuse us and take me away from the conversation, before even giving me the chance to ask for specifics on the decision itself. It burns me even worse when I spot Moriya pass us by in the direction we came from. What I wouldn’t give to hear two principally opposed gods speak to each other.

Keine tightens the hold on my arm, knowing that my curiosity is like a burning hot iron.

We descend from the mountain, mostly in silence. I know she wants to talk and has decided that it needs to be before I find an excuse to stay busy again. Or perhaps that applies to herself, as well.

I guess it’s time to decide if I should keep quiet about… no. I can’t. Not necessarily out of my own morals, but because I know how her power works. If it’s important enough for a newspaper to know about it, then it isn’t a secret to her. I would be shredding up her trust if I don’t say a thing and it comes up later.

So, maybe what I should contemplate before she sits me down is not what to say, but what I think about it.

What do I think about this strange occurrence with my body?

[x] Clearly it’s useful. Consequences be damned if it means I’m not dead now.

[x] Clearly it’s malicious. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

[x] There’s another perspective, it’s not so black and white. (Write-in)

---

And we’re out of the building! It felt longer to me than it really was because I had shoed this section in. It wasn’t quite right to leave things back at the midway point of this chapter since it wasn’t necessarily about Hina. Even here you would say it only loosely is about Hina, but I think that’s fine. Some characters have circumstances that make them more important by just existing, rather than what it is they do.

To peel back the curtain again, Suwako was a late addition to the plan, so if it felt a bit moot for her to be there, that’s one reason why. I can be fair on myself and admit that I don’t think she’d be good with bureaucratic nonsense like Kanako, though. She always strikes me more as the doer rather than the talker.

It will also be good for you to know that the judge decisions are not quite what you might expect, and it will come up again at some point, but maybe just as a commentary.

And, of course, this choice. This will be an important choice, but remember, it’s a choice. No option is entirely right or wrong here.

[x] There’s another perspective, it’s not so black and white.
- [x] Be cautious about it. It's helped you get back up and going when you needed to. But it's definitely not something you should be relying on. You never know when it'll suddenly stop working and sustain an injury that'll incapacitate you indefinitely. Figuring it out should be one of the highest priorities.

Here I am again. Sitting at Keine’s living room table while she keeps a stern look meant to chastise. I understand that she has every right to. After all, we’re talking about me not being a trustworthy person.

“So, what is it this time?” she asks, cutting from usual small talk and banter.

I can’t hold a chuckle when responding, “I seem to be good at making you worry.”

“Tanner,” Keine reprimands, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not playing right now. You just lied to the tengu during one of their formal proceedings. It wouldn’t take more than a trip to Eientei for them to learn the truth. Now explain what’s happening with you.”

“R-right, sorry,” I recoil. She’s more serious about this than I expected. “I guess it’s time to tell you that something abnormal is happening to my body.” I put a hand to the cast on my opposite shoulder.

“Abnormal how?” she continues in stride.

“As in, I’m healing faster than I should,” I state. “It’s helped me, so I haven’t looked into why, but it doesn’t take Dr. Yagokoro to tell me it’s strange.”

“Right, Dr. Yagokoro treated you. Did she not say anything about it? That’s strange for her,” Keine contemplates.

“No, she tried to figure it out, but couldn’t tell why I’m like this.”

Keine’s eyes go wide. She is taken aback thinking of the implications.

After some thought, she asks in a low voice, as if the sentence itself is amoral, “How bad was your shoulder, really?”

“It was almost entirely torn off,” I answer matter-of-factly. “From what Reisen was saying, I should have been knocked out overnight from the blood loss alone.”

Keine doesn’t say anything. She just looks at me, disbelieving what she’s hearing. I sort of knew she would react like this, so I’ve only delayed the inevitable. Lying to use it as false evidence in a trial for someone’s life was only happenstance compared to the rage that burns deep in this woman.

“Keine?” I try for a reaction. “Keine, this is a good thing. Even if Yagokoro couldn’t tell me what it is, it probably saved my life.”

“But…” Keine attempts a thought, false starting instead.

I wait for her to collect herself.

“But, you don’t know anything about what it is? You went right back to work instead of looking into it?” she interrogates.

“I… yeah. I suppose I did,” I unsurely answer. “I was in the middle of helping with the whole Hina case.”

“No, your health is clearly something that you should prioritize!” Keine simmers.

“I couldn’t just leave things as they were!” I argue. “Is it really so bad for me to try to do good?”

“If it means you’re throwing all self preservation to the wind, then yes! Yes it is!” she boils.

“Then I’d do it! If it means I help someone then I would, damnit!”

“You’ll get yourself killed like that! Why can’t you shut up and drop your pride when it matters?!” she steams.

“Because I have a chance to do good by someone! I can’t let those chances slip by because I’m told to, not even by you!” I burst.

A moment passes in gouging silence. At some point, we had stood up and gotten into each other’s faces. My finger points to her in accusation. It’s stubborn. It’s shameful. It’s misguided.

She looks as tense as I feel. Spite or aggression or something clearly in her eyes. Trying to prove that she’s right and I’m in the wrong. The raging and shouting seems to have not affected her, but on closer inspection I can see the faintest tinges of red on her cheeks.

We’re in the post phase of two waves constructively combining in a head on collision, the trough soon to come much the same. It takes some time to calm our breathes. We find ourselves with a sigh and sit back down.

“Listen to us, we didn’t even talk through the first issue,” I whim. “It’s like I left all rationality in the courtroom.”

“Speak for yourself,” Keine retorts. She gets back up and wanders over to the kitchen. With a bit of clinking she’s fetched two cups and the alcohol I brought home a while ago. We haven’t had the mood to sit down and drink together in a while. She waves me along to the back porch.

She’s already poured us a couple of servings when I sit down.

“’Speak for yourself?’ You’re not drinking ‘cause you’re stressed, right? Trust me when I say that doesn’t really help anything,” I joke.

“If we can just relax for a moment that would be nice,” Keine says. “I’m only ever bickering with you, it seems.”

“Does that mean we’re good or terrible friends?” I jest, taking the cup to my lips.

She doesn’t answer.

“Sorry… I guess that isn’t nice to ask, even as a joke,” I apologize.

“You haven’t even wondered why you suddenly changed?” Keine returns to the previous topic.

“I have, but I was busy. There weren’t any red lights to tell me something was completely off, either. I heal faster, don’t know what else. You’re right to think it’s irresponsible I haven’t looked into it, but I’m sure you can imagine it would be touchy to find the right people to go to for this,” I explain myself properly this time.

She takes a sip and responds, “I… can’t say I can imagine, actually. What do you mean?”

“Well, it wouldn’t look good if I were becoming more like a Youkai.”

“Are you?” she asks partly in concern and curiosity.

“No, Yagokoro was able to rule that out. Doesn’t mean anyone in the village would think the same,” I mutter.

A moment of silence passes as we take drinks in sync.

“I would vouch for you,” Keine calmly states.

I grumble, “I don’t want to get to that point. You’ve already put yourself out for me so much as it is.”

“Whatever do you mean? Bashing the skulls of village elders has always been one of my duties. Telling villagers what to trust in is another,” she replies with a devilish smirk.

“You know what I mean,” I state. “I need to be a big boy and fix my own issues once in a while. Doesn’t help that I’ve been sneaking away from here like a grounded teenager.”

Keine looses a cough, “I would’ve tied you down, so you aren’t entirely exaggerating.”

“Still, whatever this magic or whatever is, however helpful, if I don’t understand it, it’s a liability. It’s not like I can’t die.”

“Well, it’s nice to see someone can remain cautious in Gensokyo,” Keine muses.

“… Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke about Mokou’s immortality?” I find myself surprised.

“What? It’s not like my sense of humor is dead when we’re in the middle of these serious talks,” Keine chuckles.

We each down a cup in silence. The sun closing in on the horizon. The vibrant orange of sky and light gives Keine a fickle shading, something not quite fit to her dominant blue colors.

As if affected by this blurring, she quietly asks, “Hey, do you think all I do is nag you?”

I keep my eyes trained on hers, though she isn’t looking my way, and respond, “What gives you that idea? You’re always right, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m just more of a handful than I think.”

She puffs, and replies, “I’m not always right. No one is always right.”

“I think you could fool me,” I playfully remark, feeling a smile creep it’s way on my face.

We do a little more light banter for a few drinks. Both of us realize we didn’t directly address the issue, but I think she understands that I do intend to look into it when the chance comes up. I didn’t realize how worried she was about this. I really should have figured it out after I saw her on my way out of the clinic.

I seem to be good at distracting myself from obvious things, huh?

Distracting myself and making people mad. What a skill set.

…

My smile’s faded. A thought… a need to ask something that has appeared as a pattern surfaces in my mind.

“Tanner?” she asks for my attention, already standing with the drinking articles in hand. “You’re thinking about something. What is it?”

She sets the pieces back down.

I’ve half a mind to take another swig before asking, “Keine, would you say we have much of a… healthy… relationship?”

Keine stares down at me. Some inner voice tells me I’ve lost the right to look up at her. Maybe because I’ve burdened her even more with the judgment of the question, a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe because I feel like I’m acting more shameful than I knew I could be, reaping the consequences of not trusting everything to my closest friend here.

She thinks… And thinks… And continues to think…

The pressure is agonizing. I would prefer Ran glaring at me like an unholy abomination any day over this.

After what feels like forever, her hands lower to lift my head. Before I can look at her, she embraces my forehead against her belly. It’s warm. A kind warmth. One that yearns for me to realize how blessed I should feel to have it around. We stay together like this for only a short time.

Cautiously retracting her hands, Keine releases me and is quick to head inside. I can’t imagine that she was smiling…

---

The time before the lecture passes faster than usual. Part of it is that there’s less time to directly interview Hina due to the multi day ordeal, but the main factor is doing my report in conjunction with the interviews. I’d once thought it was a pain in the ass using computers to do writing when they started being commonplace in colleges, but I now understand the pains of my forebears in research. Even investing in a typewriter hardly makes it faster to redraft large sections of writing, much less a single sentence. And yes, I can type with one hand faster than I write, so I still don’t regret the purchase!

That isn’t even covering the content that I needed to adapt to the lecture. There was… a lot I needed to change out in my public facing version. Nothing fibbed, of course, but quite a lot’s omitted.

In fact, I took a separate trip out to Hina’s abode when Ran notified me that Hina was having another ‘episode’ the week over. I tried to come even further prepared than last time, but as if in response, my misfortune ended up being even worse. I’m starting to understand just how much of a bastard misfortune truly is. Also, it apparently slipped everyone’s minds the other day to tell me that I tried sitting in a chair after falling into the stairs. The chair decided to take issue with that. Further explanation why I was not all present.

To a little more of my luck, though, I was able to heal up enough to convince Yagokoro to leave me with wrappings instead of a cast for the lecture. That meant no questions even remotely concerning the entire catastrophic event. That’s the most I can ask for. Hopefully I’ll heal up the rest of the way in another week. I’m at the point where it looks like something ripped the skin clean off of my shoulder, but the muscles, sinew, bones and whatnot are back in the places they should be.

I dared not ask if there would be a lot of pain when my nerve endings came back, but that’ll have to be an unpleasant surprise to come.

The crowd for today’s lecture were pretty receptive to the topic, if not a little to quick to banter. I even got an opportunity to start rambling about a theory I was working on with tsukumogami. Nothing concrete, but made for a fun exercise in terms of real research, and not the ‘research’ I usually do.

That’s my own personal preference talking, though.

“That’s quite the different story from what was on your report,” Saki, one of the Hieda servants, calls me out after the room’s cleared and I’m packing up. “You think it’s alright to leave out as much as you did?”

“I’m more worried that you are also reading the full report. Whose eyes is it for, anyway?” I question in kind.

“Whom ever’s asking for them,” Saki continues the back and forth with a shrug.

“Right, whatever. The villagers don’t need to know about the ordeal I was a part of. I don’t want any fear mongering to take place,” I sternly state.

She laughs, “I thought that’s what Youkai were in the first place?”

I eye the brunette down. She acts younger than I expected, or maybe is just prodding me for a reaction.

“Saki… don’t,” I grimly state. “Fear is good. Letting fear fester, though, doesn’t bring people to good places.”

She looks oddly at me, maybe expecting more light banter from the mood of the lecture, but when contrast with serious topics like your home turning to ruins, it’s hard to keep a light attitude. I walk out with her fresh stack of papers before she can further disagree with me.

I glance down to the cover page. The name Hong Meiling appears at the head of a page. Or, rather, Meiling Hong.

It hasn’t come up in a while, so I sometimes forget, but something about the barrier to Gensokyo decides to let me read Japanese. While it remains fairly consistent, some oddities arise, such as name ordering. Usually it gets placed into English order, and even fools me into thinking people address names in English order, but not this one. I’ll have to look into what reason that might be.

---

Hello everyone. I could move into the next chapter now, including the basic descriptions, but I’ll cut it short for my little intermediate corner!

So, of course, side story time (if you so wish).

[x] Yea
-[I] Dreams…
-[2] Shrooms…
-[C] A wolf…

[x] Nay, get on with the story!

Now I can sprinkle tidbits of sillies or gags I didn’t get to in that last chapter, since it was dense with possible details to add. First up, I did decide on a definitive writer for that silly little poem way back when. It was Hieda no Aya, when one day tasked to create a short piece to put with other bedtime stories to scare children from wandering the woods. It was one of her less proud works, enough so that her current incarnation would be quite mortified to see it again in person!

[x] Yea
-[ I] Dreams

It’s a night like the rest. As we’re moving to the end of summer, the nights still grow hotter. It’s like how something cooking in an oven still gets hotter after the gas is turned off. Not applying heat doesn’t mean lack of heat, per se.

Things get to me. Stress with Keine, my recovering injury, any clausal nonsense the tengu might try to apply after the trial. This is all simply compounded by the fact that my body is changing without a single explanation.

In short, I’m having trouble sleeping. It’s just too hot for me to rest. I toss my sheets off and swivel aimlessly in place for a bit, but to no avail. I decide to dress myself and take a short walk outside. Keine has warned me that while rare, it’s still technically possible to encounter a Youkai right at the edge of the village wall where her house and school are, but my insomnia is a far worse opponent right now.

The night breeze isn’t refreshing, but the fauna of the dark make for a soothing ambiance. The crickets chirp in the distance, the occasional bird calls, I even hear an owl at one point. While to a small city goer this may seem like a cacophony, something that can’t be droned out like motor vehicles, these night sounds are a far better volume than the terror of the daytime cicadas. I used to think mosquitoes were the worst bugs in existence, then I learned how the cicada mating call sounds in the summer.

I could swear I’m accumulating a case of tinnitus with each stacking day of the noise. It’s still too early for me to be reminded of my age, damnit!

And the worst part of all is that they’re resting soundly while I’m up and wandering about like a moron. Ugh, I should probably go back and try to sleep again. Spite isn’t much of a sleeping supplement, but I could care less when nothing else works at the witching hour.

I return home, heading back to my room and preparing for bed again. I skip the sheets entirely, knowing they won’t help, and land my head on the pillow. Nothing’s changed, but the pillow feels like it’s enveloping me, letting my head sink. It’s comforting, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve gone delirious if my pillow even feels different. I’ve never been one to handle sleep deprivation, it’s just one of those things that you live with in the modernity outside.

I sink, my eyes closed and yet I see. I feel as if I’m spread out, yet I’m wholly together. My vision cannot pick a single direction that I’m looking in, so instead I take in all directions in a pitch black void. I land.

The visions are more vivid than casual daydreams. I can understand what I’m doing, though that understanding only runs so far as conscious thought is concerned. I’m running through some part of a forest, but it’s not taking me anywhere. As soon as I question this impossibility, another happens. I’m standing by the lake, the weather familiar, and Cirno floats next to me.

“What?” I ask.

“What?” Cirno asks in turn. “Are you okay, old guy?”

I try to ascertain my own thoughts on the question, but my mind escapes me, “I… don’t know, I…”

Cirno stops me and asks in a serious tone, “You need your pants back, right?”

What?

I’m on the lakeside, back on the first day of my field studies. I seem to have lost my pants somewhere. This is a dream, then. I’ve never experienced a lucid dream. Cirno looks at me concerned. She must think I’m out of it, or at least my idea of Cirno thinks that.

I do wonder, though, “Cirno, what are you up to?”

“Learning to be stronger!” she answers with the same bravado of the real article. In the end, that is her entire being.

A splash comes from the water next to us. A vague recollection surfaces of this. What I could expect is a mermaid with blue hair. There appears to be too much blue, though. The woman stands up, not a drop of water drips from her clothes. The water doesn’t pretend to be physically sensical, instead leaving her dry.

Keine looks at me with disappointment and fatigue, thinking she’s going to have to help me with yet another problem. Being without pants is a grave misdemeanor of public decency. I’m walking around without a part of me that I left the house with. A complete blunder of my reputation. Who would trust a teacher without pants?

She wordlessly instructs Cirno to search nearby for my drawers, the forest next to us now being a sandy shoal, one the lake definitely doesn’t have. While I’m paying attention to the forest, Cirno finds the tree, a wooden chest of unremarkable make. It’s quite remarkable to find one like that, though. She digs into the chest, the thing having a rusted open lock that can’t secure anything, and lo and behold she holds my underwear.

The underwear I am presently wearing, in fact. I look down and shriek like a schoolboy, realizing the dire strait I’m in. Keine looks at me unimpressed. She already looked at me that way before I covered up.

What is happening? Aren’t I supposed to be controlling what’s taking place in my own dream?

Laughing fills the world. My embarrassment is the subject of this entire dreamscape’s amusement, the cackling taking up all sense of anything not me. As it happens for more than a small unit of imaginary time, I can focus on it. There’s something peculiar about it. The cackling, no longer a cacophony, is resolved into one person’s voice. I focus more, and as I do it goes down to a single direction of origin.

The world fades. Not entirely, but enough to show the seams that make up my false reality. The sky fades to an inky blackness dotted with many stars, and the ground degrades into a bright pink mush. The lakeside takes on the same color and texture, but somehow in liquid form.

I observe the world around me and focus back to the source of the noise.

Two women sit on a couch, one of them munches from a bag of chips.

I stare at them, surprised that I could feel baffled while dreaming. A blue haired one dressed in black and white with a Santa cap grouchily sits next to the blonde one feeding on chips. The slob is the one taking pride in her own booming guffaw.

The grouch catches me staring and smacks the arm of the other woman, berating, “Look what you did now! He noticed us, you idiot!”

“Huh?” the blonde contains her giggles to utter. She looks over to me, too. “Oh,” she emits, less than amused by the development.

Whichever controls it, lets the couch scoot forward, approaching conversational range. The blonde proudly opens her mouth to start whatever horrendous conversation this will turn into, but I hold up a hand to stop her.

“Uh, before we talk, can you help me get decent?” I ask, huddled on the ground in my half clothed form.

The Santa-hatted woman wryly… curls her lips? It’s more than a simple smile. Not really giving off any feeling of well meaning joy, either. She gets up and tells me, “That is easier to do than you’d think.”

She squats down and traces a finger through the ‘ground.’ She shapes it into the rough outline of a pair of pants, like what a toddler would manage if focused on the task. With her sketch completed she grabs the article from the top hem and pulls it out. It really doesn’t looks anything like a pair of pants, instead more like a blobby pink mass with two outstretched arms, but I reluctantly take it anyway.

I manage to get a leg through it, and to my surprise this works. I am now wearing a crudely drawn pair of pants in a dream, fantastic.

“Oh, don’t look so disappointed,” the woman muses. I look at her skeptically. “It’s a perfect fit. They love you.”

She points back to my legs, and I look down to see the crude drawing has been replaced with tailored drawers. In a hot pink, sure, but basically a real pair of pants that fit to my less than impressive form.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘they?’” I realize what she said.

“Hey, I’m right here, still,” the blonde woman grunts. “You don’t get to ignore me.”

“Quiet, you,” the magical dream woman tuts. “And as for your question, those pants are made of dreams. Literally. Don’t let any hyper-dimensional objects get close.”

“I… what?” I ask once more. Everything she says leaves more questions. Her lax attitude and uncanny smile continues to perplex me.

“Oi!” the blonde woman gripes, shoving the other out of the way. “Introductions, now! Hi, I’m Yukari.”

The blonde does a curtsy in an oversized white shirt stained with a noticeable amount of grease stains. Yukari is… not at all what I’d expect her to be.

“Is something the matter? You’re staring at me as if I weren’t real,” Yukari remarks.

“Well, technically, nothing should be real here,” the Santa-hatted woman elaborates.

Yukari sighs, disapproving of her cohorts wiles, “That’s quite enough, Doremy. I’d like a normal conversation with this man, now.”

Doremy raises her eyes to the command, and from a sidelong gaze mocks, “Who was the one that wanted to spy on him in the first place? Which of us was having the time of her life watching a grown man bereft of clothes?”

“My, you make me sound like some sort of perverse individual,” Yukari dismisses. “I simply wish to know about the human that my dear shikigami has become so fond of.”

“You’re laying it too thick if you think she’s ‘fond’ of me,” I dispute.

“Agreed. How gross, trying to steal someone’s trust through flattery,” Doremy bolsters my point.

Yukari pauses for a moment, stupefied by the direction of the conversation. She then asks, “Have I actually done anything to you? I sense hostility but I can’t place why that would be.”

“Consider it paying forward Ran’s anxieties,” I retort. “I had to convince her to house herself on the first day. Imagine if I wasn’t the type to care so much. She’d still be sleeping out in the wild like a beast.”

“Hah, beast,” Yukari snorts to herself. “No, not the point, forgive me,” she catches herself and attempts to reclaim some modicum of decency. She looks far from the regal master of Gensokyo that precedes her name.

“This is the part where she tries to convince you that she planned everything out from the beginning,” Doremy snarks in a low voice.

“My dear Sweet, whatever are you on about?” Yukari feigns ignorance. “Clearly I had a role in the very conception of this man. Nay, his previous generation, even.”

Never mind, she’s just being sarcastic.

“Wow, how convincing. Maybe you could even trust ‘this’ Yukari,” Doremy murmurs.

“Of course you can. But don’t ruin the fun for him, Doremy,” Yukari admonishes. “It’s no fun if he isn’t left with more questions than he started with.”

“That would involve giving me at least one answer,” I stab at the topic.

“Ooh, his canines are growing in,” Doremy reacts.

“See what I mean?” Yukari glows. “Ah, and as to your point, here’s one answer to the many questions left to your subconscious: I’m testing.”

“What?” I say again in repetition.

“No, no, that’s all you get,” Yukari giggles. With a wave of her hand, she continues, “And now, you should be off.”

I stand still, waiting for something to happen. Nothing does, and Yukari breaks her statuesque expression to complain, “Hey, Doremy. Could you be a dear and send him off?”

Doremy floats on her side, reading from a book that she took out of nowhere. She looks up and responds with false surprise, “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was at your beck and call.”

“Doremy…” Yukari sighs.

“Listen, it’s alright to come here and ask for simple things once in a while, but to outright spy on a dream self and interrupt this natural balance by disturbing them pushes the limits,” Doremy lectures.

“Oh, my, I don’t remember telling you off when you decided to start selling your pillows in the real world,” Yukari retaliates.

This confuses me on how that’s supposed to be some kind of comeback, so I ask, “Why would selling pillows be a problem? Were they defective somehow? Can pillows be defective?”

“Oh no, they were excellent,” Yukari states, “but they were made from dream matter. It happens to be what we’re standing on. I shouldn’t have to tell a physicist that mixing matters from separate dimensions is a poor business decision.”

Doremy glances aside in embarrassment and defends herself, “I mean, it was only a few people that couldn’t wake up. I worked out the kinks pretty quick.”

“I’m not sleeping on one of those pillows right now, am I?” I throw out.

“Hm? Oh, of course not. I used one of the more recent articles,” Yukari dissuades.

Wait, they’re still being sold, then?

“Actually, I think he is on one of the old pieces,” Doremy notes. “I keep the old ones in the surface layers since they aren’t dangerous to dream denizens.”

“Oh, that does make sense,” Yukari casually admits.

“Wait, so… I’m trapped in a dream?” I ask, concerned for my life. The both of them don’t seem to share the same concerns, though.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Doremy shrugs while floating along. “It only takes someone to come along and jolt your body awake. They were discontinued because people would be asleep past their usual waking time.”

“Ah, and you live with your romantic partner already,” Yukari furthers. “Excellent. I didn’t want to do it myself.”

“That’s assuming that she didn’t leave the house already,” I argue.

Both of them freeze up, unsure what to do if that is the case. Yukari pops open one of her tears in space to peek through.

She takes a second to observe before informing us, “Ah. She’s actually–“

I snap to consciousness. A burning sensation on my cheek. I rub it while my eyes adjust to the daylight.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Keine says in relief. “I was worried that something happened to you.”

“What? What did I do?” I ask, groggy and unable to grasp any thoughts of what I dreamt of.

“You weren’t waking up. I called for you to get out of bed but you were nearly comatose.”

“Oh, yeah that’s bad,” I casually dismiss. Keine helps me up, making sure that I can stand on my own.

“Yeah, that is bad,” Keine emphasizes. “We don’t understand your condition, so this might have to do with that. Hopefully we don’t need to keep a watch of your sleep.”

“It… should be fine, right?” I try to dismiss.

“We’ll need to talk about that later. For now I need to get to the school,” Keine defers the topic to another time.

I stand in my room, sheets strewn about during my desperation last night to properly fall asleep. I go to the closet to grab my clothes for the day, and on the top of the rack, displayed above the rest of the pieces, is a hot pink pair of pants. The things are absurd looking, but undoubtedly tailor made with a professional hand. Of course, I don’t remember where these came from, but I feel like it was recent enough for me to know.

---

Here we are, back at it again with making fun of everyone in the story simultaneously! It’s been a hot second since I was engaged in this story, so exacts I wanted to deliver from this side episode were somewhat vague even to me. I think it came out alright, though.

Well, looks like it’s time for me to meet some fellow foreigners. Meiling Hong is a gate guard for a western styled mansion called the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Colored per its namesake. Inhabitants mostly per namesake, specifically including a European vampire all the inhabitants are related to in some way. Europe may be as distant as Japan is for a western American, but the cultures are much closer overall.

Of course, that isn’t the case for Hong. She’s clearly oriental by both characteristics and dress. If I’m to believe the ridiculous title Akyuu gave her, then she’s from China. These odd titles Akyuu gives are only getting stranger as I read more of them. I mean, how is it that her only important characteristic feature is that she hails from China? Surely there’s more people in Gensokyo that come from an entire neighboring country.

I decide to not let the thought bug me too much. After meeting Hina in person her title seemed to be something from left field, nothing truly important to understanding her.

For Hong it might be pertinent for at least one thing, though. Why is she enlisted under the mansion’s master, a western immigrant to Japan? Europe may as well be on a separate hemisphere of the planet for a majority of the countries that the word includes. Hell, is the Lady Scarlet Turkish? That wouldn’t be my first pick for the origin of a vampire.

You know what, I’m getting stuck on the lesser of the questions here. Hong has something far more absurd about her than anything else, her species. She is strictly listed as a Youkai, but not as any specific Youkai. I didn’t even know that was possible.

Akyuu’s own words have no species used to describe Hong. This strikes me as absurd for the context, since that would be the equivalent of attempting to describe the traits of a species of dog without naming what that species is. It’s serviceable, but only at the most rudimentary level. It means that Meiling Hong has no historical precedent that I can use as a frame of reference. Hina was similar, but she was created off of a known object with significant cultural value. Here I only know Hong is Chinese and works for a vampire.

“Still pouring through those?” Keine asks me as she walks by, ready for bed. “You had a late morning, but make sure it doesn’t turn into a late night, as well.”

“Yes, I know,” I reply without leaving the newspaper page I’m reading. “I’ve got to get back to field work tomorrow. Ran would especially hate it if I were late to the first day.”

Keine sniffs in amusement, replying, “Someone keeping you punctual is a blessing. You can never be too early, after all.”

“Oh, I know. Students love to hear that one, after all,” I joke back.

She walks out of the room with a yawn, her sliding door shuffling into place a few second later.

I finish reading the article that’s caught my attention, and idly note, “A crop circle in the middle of their own garden, huh? They’re pretty easy going to show zero concern for that kind of thing.”

I pause and search my senses, trying to catch a hint of what I did once before.

“Ran, do you have a moment to chat?” I say to the empty air of the room.

The front door slides open as quietly as it can, Ran attempting to not disturb a certain lady’s sleep. She shuffles over by the table and sits at my behest. While she may begrudgingly do so, I appreciate not having to talk with a crook in my neck.

“Your senses are acclimating further,” Ran notes.

“Maybe. It helps to know it isn’t my imagination playing tricks on me. I could always be a good guesser, too,” I share.

“You aren’t going to ask about the crop circle, correct?”

I fan my hand and reply, “Of course not. I can ask Hong about that. We’ve got something more important to discuss.”

I shift around a few pages to find the article that caught me earlier. An article from the Gensokyo Chronicle on a magician, Patchouli Knowledge. She resides in her own domicile just under the mansion.

“If what Akyuu says here is true, then she’s the most likely to know if what’s happening to me is magical in nature,” I inform Ran of my thoughts.

Ran hums at the idea, and replies, “You wish to enter the mansion and speak to the witch, then? A suitable idea, but logistically troublesome.”

“In what way?” I ask.

“Numerous,” Ran surmises. “Chiefly, the mansion residents are an eclectic group. This is from previous experience dealing with them.”

It’s also from someone who has to deal with the most nefarious schemer in this world, so I shouldn’t take the statement lightly.

“What’s your take on the group, then? Maybe we could glean some important ideas from their personalities,” I press my intrigue.

Ran eyes me, knowing this is purely curiosity taking over and not something of necessity. Even so, she responds, “So long as you understand this as only idle gossip, then it’s fine to indulge your whims. The head of the mansion, Remilia Scarlet, is the vampire the mansion takes its name for. She is very egotistical, yet immature. She hides it behind a veil of aristocracy thicker than Lady Yukari’s.”

Nothing different from Akyuu’s own words so far, but that might just be expected. Scarlet does seem like a straight forward individual. I’m going to let that comment of Yukari pass by, though. Now’s not the time to ask.

“There is something to keep in mind, however,” Ran continues. “Her nobility is certainly falsified, but due to not wanting any challenge to it, she reserves all actions to her subordinates.”

“Wait, so you mean… she doesn’t lift a finger because that would be her going against her own lie?” I paraphrase.

“Correct. Anytime that she does act on her own would be after her lowers have been bested. This includes even the gate guard outside of the mansion, should it be apt. It is very rare that she accepts a direct challenge.”

I think on it for a moment, but come up empty and say, “Not something I’d hope comes in handy. Thanks, though.”

“Then on to the next resident,” Ran points to one of the other chronicle pages, the maid’s, and explains, “Sakuya Izayoi. Head maid. Head grunt worker. Head of arrogance. If it doesn’t involve her lady or the betterment of her house, she scoffs at it. And that is no exaggeration.”

I wait a moment for her to continue, but when she doesn’t I ask, “Is that it? From what I’ve read there sounds like a lot more.”

Ran closes her eyes in thought before relating, “Indeed. There is certainly more, but there is also too much more. With how likely she will appear after our arrival, she will surely be brought up again. You need only worry about the basics for now. She should not have direct need to intervene in our goals.”

“If you say so,” I defer, still looking at the extensive article that Akyuu wrote about her. Izayoi is going to be the hardest enigma to unravel, so hopefully she’s not around too much. “What about the witch? Think it’s going to be hard to get the attention of someone literally named knowledge?”

“Possibly,” Ran confides. “The witch of the Scarlet mansion may be temperamental, but is also the most in tune to the nature of witches within Gensokyo. When discussing witches, she should be the most prominent figure to come to mind.”

“Something of magical intrigue should catch her interest, then. That’s good news,” I conclude.

“It’s highly likely, yes. A sidenote, though. ‘In tune’ is the appropriate description but there is also a certain level of naivety that her thirst for knowledge brings on occasion. Take that as you will.”

“Right. Then Hong, now.”

“Gate guard. Gardener. Martial artist. Generally lighthearted.”

I pause again. “And?” I press.

“She’s surprisingly detached from the other residents of the mansion. Not emotionally, but in terms of position and duty. It may be hard to gauge how her mind truly works, as there’s little people know about her,” Ran deliberates.

So she’s much like someone you might see more often, but don’t think to stop and talk to about anything important. I guess that fits for someone at the gate of a mansion. Kind of like the novelty guards at the royal house in London. I’ve never thought about how their days go.

“So where does that leave us?” I move on with the topic. “Do we need any kind of self defense measures like what I needed for Hina? Any master plan to get inside? Do we need someone to introduce us?”

Ran sniffs, the faintest hint of amusement from the sound, and replies, “Nay. It will be a more direct approach this time. Little arrangements are needed for this group. You have become accustomed to these political maneuvers, I see.”

“Yeah, well I guess it’s better to be adaptable,” I retort. I’m taken aback. Ran sounds like she’s enjoying the conversation. This isn’t her usual attitude with me. Political drudgery must be something that keeps her interest. Not my first pick of conversational topics, though.

“That should round everything up, then. I know we didn’t talk about the younger sister, but personally I’d prefer to not even think about that one, lest I will meeting her into existence,” I only half joke. At this point of knowing that bad luck is a real and serious force of nature, tempting fate would be the next best thing to kill me.

“There is one more oddity that you may be interested in,” Ran attracts my attention. I started sorting papers together but stop and prompt her to continue her thought. “The mansion employs more maids than Izayoi, but they are all fae.”

“An oddity, sure, but why does that interest me? Don’t tell me I’m that much of a subject for fairies after interacting with Cirno…” I groan my concerns.

“Nothing emergent like that,” Ran defuses. “You, however, should have a good understanding of the nature of fairies, and as such should find their employ not simply a statistical outlier.”

That’s an odd idea. Does Ran mean that there’s something more to fairies than I already know or that there’s something strange to their employ at the Scarlet mansion in particular? I go to ask her but as soon as I turn my attention back to the conversation Ran has fled. Without a sound and in just a fraction of a second she’s exited the room.

Looks like she really just wanted to get the last word in for the usual Youkai mystique. Jerk off.

---

The morning starts uneventful. Part of my brain still thinks I’m going out to Hina’s house again, but I know that job’s packed up by now. I still need to pester Ran and see if she’ll tell me the results from the judges. I’m too curious and it’s too useful to know. I need to treat it with respect, though. If Keine gave me an earful for my little stunt with the tengu, then Ran may just gut me.

I haven’t been stopped by such a thing before, though.

I grab all of my utilities, unsure what I may need for sitting in front of a wall all day. Maybe a chair would be good. I notice I’ve put on my charmed shirt without thinking, and while I have a few extra button ups after searching the shops, this (less than) white shirt feels sheltering. A sort of spiritual armor. I make my way out of the house while Keine has already headed out for the day.

I spot Ran at the Northern gates. It’s obvious that she’s been driven from the shrine again. Her clothes have been pocked with light scratching and a spot on her visible skin is burnt from something. My mind may be playing tricks, as I think I even spot a needle stuck in her tails again.

“Host get rough with you?” I joke.

“The Hakurei shrine maiden decided she no longer wanted Youkai at the shrine,” Ran answers in her usual unamused tone. She’s frowning more than usual, though.

“Oh, uh… is that going to be a problem?” I change my tune from how severe this sounds.

“No,” she simply answers, opening her arms to grab me.

We lift over and across the lake. Ran takes a few moments to explain that Reimu tends to have bouts of distrust for all nonhumans. It ends up being to Gensokyo’s benefit, so nobody ever feels concerned about it.

In other news, Ran sounds perfectly fine to go right back this evening as if nothing happened. Daily occurrences like these are what I’m steadily finding normal.

The mansion comes into sight. I’ve seen it from a distance plenty already, and even up close it still seems like a stain or blotch stabbed into the land. The greenery surrounding the place only amplifies the otherness. The treeline along the outer wall is basically pressed up against the red stones, forcing its position in nature. The walls along the front gate on the other hand are kept as a bare strip of dirt, wide enough to land a small plane.

We aren’t a small plane, but it’s the best place to land regardless. At the front gate stands the mixture of these natural and unnatural colors: fiery red hair down to her waist, green Chinese tunic, one Meiling Hong.

It takes me a moment to observe the scene, but it quickly becomes obvious that we’re going to have a problem. She isn’t standing, she’s leaning against the wall. She’s asleep while standing.

I look over to Ran and gesture at the gate guard, asking the obvious without a word.

“This is a common sight,” Ran truncates to a bare minimum explanation.

“So… do we just wake her?” I ask the second obvious question.

This time Ran gestures to the sleeping gate guard. “You would be one of the first to do so.”

“Ha ha,” I emit dryly.

It’s not much of a surprise to say that I need someone to be awake to talk to them, so there’s really only one thing to try.

“Excuse me? Meiling Hong?” I call to the woman.

She doesn’t react in the slightest. I walk over in front of her and try again.

Still nothing. I yell straight into her ear and shake her shoulder. A few woodland creatures scatter from some brush in the distance.

She moans in disturbance, but not much else.

I look back at Ran, dumbfounded as to what I’m dealing with. This is supposed to be the expert guard to a mansion filled with extremely powerful individuals. Those inside may be a different story, but Hong is… disarming. To put it lightly.

“Any ideas?” I ask Ran as she walks over to me as well.

“Continue as you are, something is sure to work,” she blandly prompts. It’s only barely hiding her clear enjoyment of my frustration, but that’s neither here nor there.

[x] Feign various actions nearby her. If she’s like an old cinema martial artist, maybe she detects things in her sleep.

[x] Screw it, just walk in. Not like there’s anything other than a wall protecting the interior.

[x] Might as well have a bit of fun with it. (Write-in)

---

Here we are. Starting a new chapter has been a different feeling every time, but I’m excited for this one. That’s for sure.