You fumble around with the rectangle of cloth and gingerly wrap it around your neck. Knowing the cloth’s origin doesn’t help you to relax any. “Won’t this just fall if I’m flying around in a duel?”
“If you wear it like that it will. You should wrap it tighter. Perhaps tuck the ends in.”
“Like this?”
“No, no, no.” Byakuren steps closer and grabs the cloth, unraveling it from around your shoulders. “Here, try it this way.”
The nun holds the yellow cloth like her scroll, gently weaving it through the air. She steps even closer and pulls the cloth against the back of your neck. Byakuren is staring at the fabric as she wraps it around you in a practiced manner.
With how close she is you have nowhere to look but at her. For a thousand year old woman, she’s remarkable. You’d think that someone her age would have-
Have, uh, well, she doesn’t, because they’re definitely nice and-
And it’s not like you’re thinking or looking about anything in particular, especially given how unreasonably close Byakuren is standing with her body pressing against you where-
Where it doesn’t bother you, really it doesn’t, but it is kind of awkward. Standing here quietly while Byakuren’s hands occasionally brush against your shoulders or in a way that-
That doesn’t matter. She’s helping out, so you just have to keep on waiting. Byakuren doesn’t even notice your stares as she’s working, although you feel like she’s probably used to it anyway. How can she not be, given how beautiful she-
She has some strange hair. You imagine her trying to dye her hair purple in teenaged rebellion but failing, instead leaving the artsy streaks that look rather appealing in how they accentuate her near-perfect face.
Uh, just stand around.
No need to think.
She’ll be done soon.
Really soon.
How long does it take to tie a scarf?
Oh, good, she’s finishing up. She’s tucking the-
Her hands are kind of cold.
Uh, she tucks the ends of the cloth and tugs down on them, tightening the scarf to a perfect fit.
Then she lets go of the scarf and-
She lets go of the-
She lets go-
She isn’t letting go.
Byakuren is staring down at the cloth in her hands. She’s fondly stroking the impromptu scarf with her fingers, feeling the material while your chest acts as a conveniently placed support. You can feel the slight pressure the drag of her fingers creates.
Uh.
There’s a thing that should be done here. Something you should do.
There’s no threat, so you don’t need to cause your ribcage to violently rupture outwards. That leaves, uh, saying something to get her to-
“There.” Byakuren takes two steps away from you, leaving behind her expertly tied scarf. She’s smiling. Probably not at you, but at her work, because it seems very well done.
“T-Thanks.” You swallow and look down, lightly touching the scarf around your neck. You have to admit, it’s a nice scarf. It’s high quality material. Cashmere, maybe? You think that’s a thing that your sister has talked about. Whatever it’s made out of, it seems fancier and more luxurious than the modest garments you saw the other Myouren Temple monks wearing.
You briefly wonder what Myouren was like. How did he act when he was alive? What was his relationship with his older sister like?
“H-Hey, Byakuren?”
“Yes?”
“Is this okay?” You grab the end of the scarf and wave it at the nun. There has to be a limit to how generous a person can be. Giving away a presumably prized personal possession to what amounts to a complete stranger?
“I don’t see why not.”
“Isn’t this important to you?”
The nun’s gaze shifts from your eyes to the scarf around your neck. “My supply of spiritually potent items is not infinite. There are few other options available at this time.”
“No, I mean-” Wh-Wh-What is she doing?
She’s warm. So warm it’s hot. Your face is definitely burning up now, even while the rest of you is frozen stiff.
You didn’t see this coming at all. Well, technically, you did. You saw her take two steps forward, but didn’t expect her next move.
Objectively, you know this is a hug.
B-But…why?
Byakuren’s speech is loud and clear, given her chin is resting on your shoulder. “It does nobody any good if I were to keep it stored away in my room.”
“I-I see…” She’s just interested in checking the tying of her- your, scarf. Sure, she’s rubbing your back with one hand and combing her fingers through your hair in another, and her head is tilted inwards and leaning against yours, but she’s…
Screw it, you have no clue what the hell is going on.
Where’s help when you need it?
You stand around like a scarecrow, unmoving while held in Byakuren’s embrace. You don’t push her away, but you don’t reciprocate the embrace either.
It’s unexpected, it’s strange, it’s awkward, but it’s also surprisingly comfortable.
When you close your eyes, memories of your own sister’s warm hugs come back to you.
The slightest creak of a door opening signals the end of the incomprehensible exchange. As swift as a swallow, Byakuren is standing an appropriate distance away, her eyes closed and her face set in a mask of calm.
“Hey, that doesn’t look half bad!” Mokou calls out as she exits her house, a pitcher of water in her hands. After dropping the pitcher off at her food stall, the immortal stops a few paces away and nods in approval at your stylish new garment.
You choke up and don’t respond. Thank God she’s socially awkward enough not to notice or care about the full-bloomed blush reddening your face.
Or she does notice and isn’t saying anything. Either way, you’d thank her.
The immortal takes one last look at your new scarf before pumping an arm. “Time to get practicing, right?”
“Come. You should test your new ability.” Byakuren speaks up and opens her eyes. She looks directly at you, no sign of whatever the hell just happened evident in her countenance. All is quiet on the female front, while you’ve been left spluttering and confused.
“R-Right.”
Byakuren jumps right into her lecture, calmly giving you direction. “There are a few different ways you can activate the flight enchantment. One would be through the appropriate chant. Repeat after me.” A litany of syllables ushers forth from the nun’s mouth.
Focus. Focus. With work in front of you, it’s easier to reign in your emotions.
Damn. All the focus in the world won’t help you with whatever she’s saying. “Uh. Wooooh myaaa chaa yarrgh blaah laaah-”
Mokou breaks out in laughter at your attempt, while Byakuren satisfies herself with a polite giggle. “Another method would be to channel your magical energy through the garment while it is contact with your body. Vary the flow to adjust.”
“Couldn’t we have started with that?” You grumble and do as the nun suggests.
Shockingly, you don’t shoot into the air, flip around, or otherwise lose control. Under Byakuren’s direction, you gently rise into the air. “This feels normal.”
“It does? Were you a bird in your past life?”
“I’m just saying that compared to Reimu’s method, this feels right.”
There’s a flare of something from Byakuren. She speaks slightly faster than she normally would during her answer. “Reimu has already given you a method of flight? If she had done so, you could have mentioned-”
“It was just a temporary thing,” you interrupt the nun, forestalling any further misunderstanding. “Besides, I like this a lot more. It’s surprising how comforting the pull of gravity is.”
The nun directs you further as you get used to your new source of travel. “I shall warn you that the enchantment is not perfect. Most things that are not related to you maintaining elevation are unaccounted for. Go too fast or turn too sharply without suitably reinforcing yourself at your own peril. Likewise, flying towards the sun won’t remove your flight, but you are liable to freeze to death. I would not advise falling unconscious while flying, either.”
“Makes sense. I should be good for spell card duels, right? Or coasting around Gensokyo?”
“Assuming you do not fly into a tree, then yes.”
Byakuren reaches out to correct your posture while you fly around, the quick taps of her hand impersonal and efficient. Mokou follows you around in the air, giving you different exercises to practice your flight.
“Just a bunch of kid games that you should know, but in the air so you can get a hold of your flight and all that,” as she described it. Air tag and air dodge the balls of energy go embarrassingly poorly for you, but you get the feel for flight. By the time you start air hot fireball, you’re flying…well, better than a bird with no wings.
Once you begin air run away from the fiery impersonation of a wolf with teeth as large as you are tall, you wonder what kind of games Mokou played as a child.
Eventually, the immortal dials it back and allows you to peacefully float around.
“I’ve never managed a flight spell on my own, so this is amazing. If I could have flown around before, I would never have- Gurk!” A truck slams into you from above, its arms wrapping around your shoulders.
Wait, trucks don’t have arms.
“Master flying! Eheheh~!” Your bones might be crushed, but the bubbly elation is infectious. You’re laughing as you’re spun around by Yoshika. Then the zombie girl is giggling as you put some effort in and twirl her around in the air.
I’m glad to see you haven’t died or something. You’re glad your sister didn’t spontaneously disappear.
Thanks for worrying about me. That’s sweet. You were worried, on some level. Not as much as you expected, though. You guess you really did trust Yoshika to watch over your sister.
Well, my mind seems to be just peachy. Assuming you kept yourself and the rest of me in good shape, we’re perfectly capable of doing this again. That’s good to know, it opens plenty of-
By the way, you should watch out above you. Dodge if you can. You should wha- Whattheflyingevade evade!
A quick jaunt sideways saves you from more pain. The flurry of paper talismans continue to streak downwards until they plough into the dirt.
As you raise your head from looking down, you find yourself staring at one upset shrine maiden. “Did you do it?”
Reimu looks like shit.
If you had to hazard a guess, she’s been flying around Gensokyo ever since you last left her. There are dark bags under her bloodshot eyes. Her outfit has gained even more small rips and tears, and her skin has likewise suffered under new scratches and bruises.
You should probably answer before she hits you. She’s running on a short fuse, at the moment. “No, I didn’t.” She’s talking about the murder, right?
Right. “You can check with Minamitsu. Or Akyuu. Or Yoshika, really.”
The shrine maiden deflates at your answer, her stern countenance dropping away in favor of exhaustion. “S’fine. Almost last, ‘nyway.” With whatever business she had attended to, Reimu floats downwards and lands at Mokou’s food stall. Her head thumps down on the counter. “Needa drink.”
The immortal rushes over and quickly attends to her customer. “Yeah, sure. Water or something stiffer?”
“Wa’ever.” The surprise entrance of the shrine maiden and others puts a halt to your flight practice. You, Byakuren, and Yoshika drift slowly over to where Reimu is slumped.
This was unexpected.
She’s had it tough. Apparently, she hasn’t been able to find the murderer through her usual methods. What, beating people up? That’s unsurprising.
No dummy, not just that. Her weird light-intuition-border thing. I couldn’t give you any specifics myself, but the cute shrine maiden there taps into the border around Gensokyo for a lot. Like how she arbitrates spell card duels, then?
How she what? If Reimu can know where any spell card duel is occurring due to the border, it makes sense there are other ways she can use it. Anyway, continue?
Right. Well, she’s beaten up someone from every corner of Gensokyo without luck. You were the last one on her list. Actually, you weren’t even on the list, but we ran in to someone and I couldn’t explain it away. Who did- Whoa!
Yoshika suddenly reverses direction and jerks you into the air. “Tojiko~!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. You two fly too damn fast for reasonable people.” Your zombie latches on to a new girl that has floated into the clearing. Yoshika hasn’t let go of your arm, either, giving you a nice forced view of the newcomer.
She’s a green ghost. There really isn’t much more to say – short green hair, long green dress, and a traditional ghostly tail.
“Is this him, then?” The ghost speaks, her voice lower than what you expected. She’s appraising you as much as you’re appraising her.
“Yes~” Yoshika let’s go of the ghost in order to completely envelop your left arm.
The green-haired girl nods and introduces herself. “Tojiko of the Soga clan. I do not appreciate how you managed to rile Seiga up, by the way.”
You introduce yourself and give the ghost a quick bow. “Nice to meet you. I don’t regret it.”
“Pfh. Good on you. That bitch had it coming for stealing my hairdryer every morning.” Tojiko snorts and gives you a thumb up.
“What does a ghost need a hairdryer for?”
“I’m a woman first; do you have a problem with that, you idiot?”
You like her.
Are you really an idiot? What? There’s nothing wrong with the new ghost girl. “Not at all.”
“Good. Next time, find a way to tick Seiga off without making it harder on the rest of us.” Tojiko bends at the waist and pokes Yoshika in the head. “Can I go now?”
The zombie looks at the ghost before opening her mouth widely for a loud moan.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stick around for a bit. By the gods, you’re such a whiny servant.”
With nobody else suddenly entering the clearing, you float over to the food stall. Byakuren is already seated at one end and sipping tea, Reimu slumped over at the other.
You snag the middle seat for yourself, Yoshika deciding to claim your lap as her seat. Tojiko simply floats off to the side next to Reimu.
Why do you like her, exactly? Who, Tojiko? You feel like she’s a direct kind of person. You appreciate that. It’s not like her insults sounded particularly heated, either. She didn’t mean anything by it.
You’re just the master of emotion and inflection now, huh? Well…forget about that. Why are Reimu and Tojiko here?
We managed to find Reimu and got to talking some, but then we ran into Tojiko. Yoshika got friendly with her, and then Tojiko asked about Yoshika’s new master, which riled up Reimu because- “You lied.” The shrine maiden pokes you with her tasseled stick and then waves it in your face, the little slips of paper threatening you with terrifying paper cuts.
“No I didn’t.”
“Necromancer, not magician.”
“A necromancer is a kind of magician.” You think back on your interactions with Reimu. “I’m pretty sure Byakuren said I worked with flesh.”
“Hmph.” Reimu might be annoyed, but you feel as if she already knew about you anyway. At the very least, she had her suspicions. The shrine maiden has shown herself to a have a critical eye for detail in some cases. “Tell me important things.”
Or I’ll beat you up, her threat goes. She can slump on the counter while still getting her message across perfectly.
It can’t be healthy for her to still be flying around. “You should rest, Reimu. Pulling all-nighters isn’t good for quality work.” They’re really more for panicked something-is-going-to-eat-me life-or-death work.
“Ngh. Got to solve incident.” Your advice has the completely opposite effect you wanted. Reimu staggers to her feet and prepares to take her leave.
To your left, Byakuren sets down her tea and speaks. “I find him to be correct, Reimu. Excess in all forms should be avoided. Dedication to your work is admirable, but destructive in this particular case.”
Tojiko pipes up with her own opinion. “Byakuren is full of it, as always, but you should listen to her here. Don’t be an imbecile that pushes herself too much.”
“Taking a break won’t kill you, Reimu.” Even Mokou throws in her two cents.
Reimu warily glances between all of you before collapsing back into her seat. “Might kill someone else.” Despite her concern, Reimu doesn’t try to fly off again.
Mokou offers food, but nobody wants any. You all just sit around, sipping water or tea.
The atmosphere feels tense. You think there’s something going, something that you’re missing.
“So Tojiko, what’s your relationship with Yoshika?” You ask, curious as to why the ghost would bend to Yoshika’s whims.
“I’d say mutual acquaintances, but the simple girl would probably shout about friendship if she could, so there you go. She’s bearable company.” Yoshika groans in a delighted way, happy with any perceived compliment.
Someone isn’t as satisfied with Tojiko’s back-handed compliment. “Yoshika Miyako understands her emotions. Is it just to belittle her for that?”
Tojiko turns to look at Byakuren, the nun reciprocating the eye contact. You think that’s the first time the two have looked at each other, actually. “Oh please, don’t you start. People can have their own damn opinions on the same thing.”
“How crass.”
Oh. That’s right. The Buddhists and the Taoists don’t get along.
“I swear, you get more insufferable every time I see you. If you want to fight then just start one instead of trying to provoke me, you shrew. Your games are tiring as hell.”
“I do not believe one such as yourself understands how tiring hell might be, not matter how well you should.”
“Fuck it, I’m not getting into this again. I’m not going to float here and wait ‘till I explode. Glad to hear you’re doing well, Yoshika.” Just like that, the ghost girl floats off, with nobody moving to stop her.
“Master…” The zombie sitting in your lap places her hands against your chest, staring at you with puppy-eyes.
“What’s wrong, Yoshika?”
“Wanted master and friends to be friends…” You frown and rub Yoshika’s back. She sounds genuinely upset. She’s too friendly and affectionate for her own good.
Mokou is the next one to speak up as she refills drinks. “Byakuren, you’re driving away my potential customers, you know? Not that I mind so much given that you eat quite a bit for yourself and she probably doesn’t eat much at all, but it’s really the principle of the matter. Oh, but this isn’t to say I don’t like you because after today I think you’re pretty pleasant company and you’re nice enough not to make fun of me so, uh, I really don’t know why I brought this up. Sorry.”
Byakuren sighs and rubs her forehead. “No, my apologies. You are correct, Mokou. It was my mistake. I…should have better control of myself.”
Abruptly, the nun stands up and excuses herself. “It has been a confusing day. I think I shall return to the temple early to take care of matters and reflect on my behavior.” You think her eyes flick over to you once, but then she takes off after mumbling a quick farewell.
Uh.
Mokou is cleaning glasses behind the counter, Reimu is slumped face-down on the counter, and you’re sitting around with a slightly distressed zombie mewling in your lap.
What just happened?
Beats me, I wasn’t paying attention. Did you do something? Don’t think so.
Well, you do what you think is best. I’m going to continue to catch up on what’s happened to you. There’s nothing important you need to know?
Probably not. No concrete leads on the murder from Reimu, anyway. From what I understand, nobody has any good leads or, if they do, they’re hiding it. If anything occurs to me while I dig through what’s happened to you, I’ll bring it up. Sure, that’s fine. You’ll talk more with your sister later, then.
Now. What to do? From what you can see, you still have a few solid hours before the sun comes close to setting.
[ ] Follow the nun. What was all of…that?
[ ] Hunt a ghost, make a friend. Maybe.
[ ] Shrine maiden watch. You can’t trust her with herself.
[ ] Women, who needs them? Strike off on ad-
Hey! –on adventure!
[ ] <Write-in>
---
Whew. Interviews and tests and junk are too stressful and too time consuming (and will be for another couple of months, I suspect). All I want to do is write shitty Touhou stories.
>>166039 I was wondering if anybody ever read the filenames.
>All these references Naturally, we need to combine them all. Plus a few more.
