THE STORY SO FAR: The world has ended, but five (well, it’s complicated) humans get a chance to do it over, and make things right. Only problem is, for their second go around, they're not going to be 'human'...
Kudamaki Kosuzu has reawoken, and promptly been given a task; escort and advise the Dragon Miko for her last few days in the Animal Realm, and her entry into the world of the living. Fortunately, said Dragon Miko is actually her old friend, Reimu, reborn as the heiress of the Kicchou line and the Kiketsu family as a whole. Now, the two of them prepare for the final steps of their journey, including properly examining the Kakkushi-Seki, a tool developed by the Yakumos to allow the Immaterial Children to blend in among the humans they once were a part of.
But while they prepare, a star falls from the sky… and the mysterious figure Ichi waits, with bated breath, for one of the most important events she had forewarning of to begin…
[9] Focus on the transformation feature.
[7] Investigate the tracking.
[13] Scan the whole thing. -{4} If Chen tries to stop you from reading, dart your gaze around the floor and pretend there's a mouse spirit to distract her for just a moment's more time.
-{2} Take a mental note of how that debug display was opened. It might be helpful to know later.
Kosuzu could do a deep dive into the main functions. She really, really could. But it was probably better to give the whole thing a once-over, to see if there were any features that were missed in the explanation. She started from the top, scrolling down through a long list of bits and pieces.
Nothing stood out as too aberrant, for the most part. A quick scan over the transformation revealed nothing too interesting, though some of the choices were rather hard for Kosuzu to understand without asking Chen some questions. Chen, for her part, was happy to explain the pieces.
“...What’s this ‘haptic’ function do?” Kosuzu asked, pointing her finger at the particular line that included it. Chen looked over, examining it closely.
“Oh! Thank you for reminding me! That’s essentially just a feature to tell you if the illusion breaks - usually because you’re getting into combat. You’ll feel it like a little tap on your finger. See?”
Kosuzu nodded, browsing over it. …She guessed that made sense. “So how does it tell we’re in combat? Was it that list of conditions I saw earlier - what were those numbers, by the way?”
“Ah, yes! Those numbers were for different weightings of the various conditions. For example, an increased heart rate isn’t worthwhile on its own, but if you have a high heart rate, along with sustained danmaku fire, then you’re probably in combat. Some are standard, some are custom - you can see the list a bit back, just… here! Most notably, it’ll break if you start doing things that are obviously superhuman - like, jidiao can dive super long, right? It’ll catch if Reimu exceeds two minutes underwater, or she dives three meters deep.”
Kosuzu nodded, humming. “I see…” At a quick glance, she couldn’t see anything particular there. She scrolled down a little more, reading each bit piece by piece.
While she was examining the debug function’s controls, Chen scooched a little bit closer, then a little bit closer again. Kosuzu tried to ignore it, moving on to the next section when she was satisfied she had a grasp of the debug. Next was the tracking function-
Was Chen sniffing her? She was, wasn’t she? It might be subtle enough that the jidiao might not notice, but whether it was intended to be or not, the sound was incredibly distracting to Kosuzu. The bibliophile squirmed under the auditory assault of olfactory examination, looking for something to distract her with. Her eyes darted around, before she locked on a corner of the room.
“Ooooh, is that a mouse?” Chen took the bait hook line and sinker, her head craning around to look. Kosuzu took a deep breath, steadying herself and encouraging the cat to really examine that side of the room. She turned back around, giving a glance over the tracking function. …It looked like everything regarding the tracking data was sent to some kind of coordinates.
The coordinates were put with a shorthand ‘MYHG’. …Surely that was a coincidence, right? Hopefully. Kosuzu didn’t want to get the cat’s attention back too soon, so she didn’t pry, instead continuing her scroll. When Chen turned back, Kosuzu had already moved on, checking a few more subroutines.
It was a few more minutes before Kosuzu finished her scan. “...Well, I can’t spot anything…” Kosuzu hummed. “I think that’s everything, then.”
Yachie nodded, before turning a full-bore glare on Chen. “That is everything, right?”
Chen shuddered under the jidiao’s intense gaze. “Um… yes. It should be, unless I forgot something else.” She sighed. “I rehearsed this like three times, I can’t believe I forgot the haptic feedback…”
Yachie kept staring at her, then sighed. “If you’re both satisfied, then… all that’s left is to test it. Apologies for making you wait, Reimu.”
Her daughter sighed. “Honestly, if you were gonna have Kosuzu examine it, I could have just sat and waited…” She took the ring off Kosuzu, slipping it over her finger. A few more seconds, and her own figure flickered.
The jidiao traits just… vanished. Flickered away, into thin air. What remained was… something a lot closer to the Reimu Kosuzu remembered, though obviously younger, and with brown hair rather than her old black. Reimu spun around, seemingly looking for her tail.
Kosuzu stepped closer, reaching out to touch Reimu’s back. Her fingers stopped a short distance from the projected back, instead resting on her shell. The miko turned back, and Kosuzu felt an invisible tail bump against her.
“H…how do I look?” Kosuzu realized, belatedly, that the room didn’t include a mirror, and began to anxiously look around for one.
“U-um, you look great! Aside from your hair being a different color, you’re pretty spot on to old Reimu!” Not spotting anything she could use to show Reimu, she turned to look for support. “What do you think, Lady Yachie?”
Yachie’s expression was… complex. She said nothing at first, slowly standing up and walking closer to her daughter, examining her closely.
After a few seconds, she reached out, gently laying her palm on Reimu’s forehead. Her fingers swept back and forth, bumping into and then closing her fingers around her hidden, stubby horns.
“...It’s a powerful illusion. I can’t spot any issues with it.” She stated, matter-of-factly. Then, with just a little too much emotion to fully mask, she followed that statement with another. “Please do not use this unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Chen beamed. “So you’ll take it, then?” Yachie hesitated for a long, long time, before giving a curt nod. “Great! Then that concludes my business here.”
Reimu stepped away, looking for a mirror. “Mmm. Then I’m going to check myself in a mirror or something.”
“There’s no need to walk away.” Kosuzu jumped, looking around for the sudden new speaker. Chen seemed surprised as well, looking around rapidly. The two jidiao merely narrowed their eyes.
An all-too-familiar gap appeared on one side of the room. Out of the gap, an oval-shaped, full-length mirror emerged. As Kosuzu watched, the mirror slowly began to turn upside down, revealing…
Yakumo Yukari stepped off the back, grinning. “I believe this will suit your purposes, won’t it?”
now... what is going on with Chen right now? she was disappointed about something she already knew... and while she wasn't trying to stop Kosuzu from examining the code too closely... she was sniffing her for some reason? what is going on? it seems that Chen thinks something is off, so what is it? something to do with scent? did they run into each other before and Chen is trying to see if that is, or does Kosuzu have something on her that Chen is smelling?
>>209807 Eh, screw it. I don't reccomend reading the spoiler because I'm not sure if this is actually me reading way too far ahead or just me being crazy, but I'll say this anyway.
Maybe one of the paradox-whatevers turned out to be a fox - Ran's kid - and for some reason wasn't taken in or was long lost by the Yakumos. (Hard for me to believe, honestly.) Could Yukari and Chen be expecting Kosuzu to be Ran's child who happened to be taken in by Tsukasa when in actuality she is just Tsukasa's kid?
reading the epilogue, maybe chen's disappointed because yukari was told kosuzu was gonna be a fox and they were expecting a kitsune friend and not a tube fox
Reimu - Dragon Sign "Breath of Sacred Fire"
Reimu does a traditional miko dance but more passionate and frenetic near the enemy between each turn and movement she throws flames out of her mouth leaving small embers all over her body, the dance ends once she hits hard from the air with the gohei covered with fire.
Lunatic sign "Psychoshock Barrage"
Akyuu creates several images of herself approaching the enemy, once close she uses her red eyes to disorientate him for a couple of seconds once she regains control several clones of akyuu fire with a great charge of psychic power from various angles.
>>209809 Wow, I had a similar crazy theory with Ran lol
yeah, that thought went through my mind myself as a possibility, or at least a similar one? granted Kosuzu was able to squeeze through the keyhole gap... so you'd think that would be proof that Kosuzu is Tsukasa's kid...
alternatively to Ran Kosuzu could be the... I'm going to say sister as the one I am thinking of is around Reimu's age... that one Fox that Reimu meets that gives us the first run-in with Tube Foxes in WaHH ch.8
Reimu was flatly unamused. “And how long were you hanging, upside-down, off the back of that?”
Yukari chuckled. “When it comes to presentation, timing is more important than raw preparation, you know.” She straightened a bit of her hair. She had the sort of look Kosuzu associated with fearing being late and ending up early - the signs of both a hurried exodus, and an equally-hurried attempt to hide the signs of the previous.
Chen flopped her ears back. “Lady Yukari, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the haptic feedback…”
The gap youkai reached out, petting her shikigami’s shikigami. “It’s alright Chen. You remembered when asked - and there’s no telling that you wouldn’t have remembered eventually.” The catgirl sighed, but began to purr. Kosuzu, watching the two of them… felt a little something flare in her heart, but shoved it down.
Yukari turned her attention to Kosuzu, stepping to the side so Reimu could look at herself in the mirror. “But I have to say, young Kosuzu, I’m impressed. I knew you could read any language, but I didn’t think coding languages were included, too.”
Kosuzu tilted her head, and the sage chuckled. “Ah, I’m being slightly facetious there. Still, you might have a latent talent you’d never find in most circumstances, you know. Still… should I say nice to meet you, or long time no see?”
The fox bowed. “N-nice to meet you, Lady Yukari. And, u-um, I don’t think it was that much, really. Everything was really neatly written, a-and it seemed quite sophisticated, too.”
Yukari nodded, smugly. “Well, of course it is. My Ran is a magician few foxes can compare to. She grinned, swooping close. “But you, little Suzu, have caught my eye too.”
Yachie let out an irritated noise. “So I finally find someone who’s not compromised and who Reimu accepts, and you immediately try to compromise her, do you?”
The gap youkai chuckled. “Oh, come now. I just want to see the talents of the Immaterial Children given proper opportunity to flourish, you know.” She grinned, turning back to Kosuzu. “Little Suzu - I have… a boon to grant you.”
Kosuzu glanced at Reimu, who was still puzzling over her reflection. “Um, a boon? What do you mean by that?”
The gap youkai reached into a summoned gap, pulling out… a pristine, heavy tome, with a deep indigo cover. Kosuzu felt her heart skip a beat. “This is… an instructional book penned by Yakumo Ran herself. It contains detailed descriptions of many of the spells her fox magic can cast, as well as numerous applications and optimisations of each. And even further, it includes a bunch of reference material on all things fox-related.”
Kosuzu stared at the book, transfixed. Yukari moved the book left, right, up and down, and the book-keeper’s head dutifully followed.
Reimu’s arm stuck between Kosuzu and the book, breaking the not-so-literal spell. The fox blinked, not realizing she’d dried out her eyes. “Really, Yukari? Even for you, having something that convenient strains credibility.”
Yukari shook her head. “I understand your confusion, but it’s misplaced. There was a time when I was looking at creating another kitsune shikigami, after the first worked so well - but I’ve found shikigami work best when recruited and trained from a young age. So this book was intended to be reference material for said young kitsune to learn from, before formal training began. I’ve asked Chen to create her own book as well, when the time comes. Right, Chen?”
Chen was staring at the book, slack-jawed. “U-um, yes! Yes, ahahaha…” She had the guilty look of someone with homework long overdue, that she’d hoped the teacher had forgotten. Headbutt Bait, to use the Human Village’s vernacular.
Yachie sighed. “Does that mean you’re going to try to make Kosuzu a shikigami? I can only imagine her mother would have objections to that.”
Yukari hummed. “Oh, I’m sure I agree with you on that. I believe she has strong potential as one… but any plan to do as such would be well into the future. Like I said, this book’s more of a well-detailed primer than anything else.”
She held the book low, in front of the Kuda-gitsune. “Little Suzu. Would you like to borrow it, for a time?”
[ } Don’t take-
Reimu blinked. The book was now in Kosuzu’s hands. She traced her hands along the spine, marveling. It was in absolutely immaculate condition.
She looked up at Yukari, who had a mischievous smile on her face. “L-lady Yukari. Even holding this book is…” She gulped. “I-I don’t know if I can truly use this. I-I’m just a kuda-gitsune, after all. A-and not a good one, at that.”
Yukari’s smile lost a bit of its luster. “Do be a bit more ambitious, Little Suzu. The boundaries between one type of fox and another are not insurmountable - you can learn beyond the limitations of any one title, in the right conditions.” She pointed to the book. “And if that’s not enough, I’ve taken the liberty of bookmarking a few spells in particular that’d fit right up a young infiltrator’s alley. Even the most meager of foxes should be able to put a couple of spells from this list together in a few days.” She reached out, petting the young fox on her head.
Kosuzu blushed, but nodded. “I-if you say so, Lady Yukari…”
Yachie scoffed. “There has to be a catch or condition, surely?”
The sage sighed dramatically. “What has happened to my reputation that everyone expects a catch in anything I offer?” Yukari shook her head. “Fine, fine, if you insist that having conditions you know is better than no conditions… how about this? If the book gets damaged in any way…” The gap youkai smiled. “...You’ll have to come up to Ran, who’s worked so very hard on this book, and apologize to her. In person, of course.”
Kosuzu gulped. It didn’t take a lot to imagine how such a conversation would go. “I-I’ll take good care of it, I promise.” She bowed before the sage.
Yukari nodded. “Well, with that, I’ll be off. Chen, can you make sure that little Suzu doesn’t damage that book? That is the only copy, after all.” Chen nodded, gulping. “And with that, it’s back to the shadows for me!” She stepped back to the mirror, waving. “Do let me know if that inspires a desire for further training, will you? Have a good time, little fox.” And with that, the youkai of the gap was gone.
Yachie groaned. “First Kosuzu gets into Reimu’s room, now this… I’m giving all the otters some opsec training this week.”
Reimu reached out, patting her mom’s arm. “...speaking from experience, most of Yukari’s training has some kind of purpose to it, even if that purpose is to fix a mess she’s already made. I doubt the book by itself is a threat to Kosuzu.”
She turned to her friend. “...Now, Mayumi’s probably been waiting for us. And I’m sure if there’s a spell in there you want to try, we’ll all be able to help. So… if you want, you can pick something and give it a shot.”
Kosuzu nodded, looking down at the book. She had a lot of questions, still… but as she examined the book, she found herself wondering.
Which section should she try first? If it didn’t take, she could justify that just putting it safely away was the smart thing to do. All three sections seemed to cover some basic concepts, and a few rather clever applications of them. It fell to Kosuzu to decide what to check out first.
[ ] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
[ ] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
[ ] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
I am legally obligated to vote for the option to improve spellcards. Overriding motivation. Plus, we're the daughter of a stage 5/6/Ex miniboss, surely we have the potential for some Ex-boss tier danmaku.
>>209810 >>209815 I'd have to double check if Touhou has any specific lore on the matter, but going by what I know of the folklore, tube-fox is a job, not a species. Bakegitsune and kudagitsune aren't special kinds of fox - ordinary foxes are just assumed to be magic in folktales.
[X] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
I'm trying to remember, though, if Kosuzu's ever used danmaku. Because if that's the case, then it'll be something to remember if it's the chosen option.
[x] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
Silence has additional use for fighting for getting Kosuzu to move to another position without the enemy noticing where she went. I think this would overall be a better option than danmaku.
As for Sealing, Kosuzu isn’t the most magically inept, so I feel her sealing abilities would be limited in strength. Though, there is Reimu to learn more about sealing powers.
>>209819 And while I was typing that out, it got addressed in-story. Cool! As soon as I thought of the possibility, I was all-in on teaching Kosuzu to do some classic fox magic. I didn't expect to get handed the opportunity on a silver platter!
Maybe gold platter, even. An educational spellbook written by Ran herself is unbelievably good. If I were a more cautious person, I would say too good. But I'm not and Kosuzu sure as hell isn't.
[X] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
Boundaries and barriers are the Yakumo clan's stock-in-trade, so let's start there.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Kosuzu has basically no experience with fighting, and I don't remember any mentions of things being different in this timeline.
Much as I'd like to hope we could just dodge all of our fights, we certainly haven't been able to the last three times we tried, and we're going to need to fight the pyres eventually one way or the other, so it's best to actually learn how to fight rather than have to learn on the spot.
Besides, we can always take the bells off. It'd be horrible, but we could. Similarly, we could always just jump through the holes of locks of closed doors, which is almost as good in a chase.
[X] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
It's a tough choice between the first two, but >>209826 makes a pretty good point. Also, Kosuzu is 100% going to use this to lock herself into a library at some point.
>> The dragon miko - no, she knew her too well for that. Reimu - no, that wasn’t quite right either. As she examined the figure’s scaly tail, and stubby, golden horns, it became very, very clear who this was. Kicchou Reimu glared down at her, coldly.
>> “So. I presume you’re one of Tsukasa’s minions?” She flicked her tail, glaring down at the trembling fox. “A bold one, at that, to sneak in here. I told Mama I didn’t want anything to do with her, but she wanted one last shot, I guess…”
>> Kosuzu had frozen up. A part of her was screaming at her to move, to transform back into a human shape, or at least to run, but she stayed transfixed, unable to break eye contact with the furious jidiao. “Well, anything to say for yourself? Or are you just gonna stare, slack-jawed?”
>> The fox knew that she had to transform back, and say something, but she still couldn’t move. Some alarm bell rang off, panicking, in the back of Kosuzu’s head. She’d never met Kicchou Yachie, but she had heard of her ability - the power to sap the will to fight back. Was Reimu using it on her? Probably not intentionally… but Reimu was someone who tended to rely on intuition more than anything else. It was very possible, terrifyingly so, that Reimu’s own fury at her intrusion was triggering it automatically.
>> “No? Nothing to say, little fox?” …Then again, she could just be feeling the impending oblivion any youkai would when Reimu was about to exterminate them. Especially a Reimu that could very definitely breathe fire oh god move Kosuzu move right now-
Nice lore drop, I'm sure Kosuzu can put such a codex to good use.
I'll be rereading everything and comment on some points in my next post, and then off to a new drawing.
and I suppose this does make up for thanks to going into Reimu's room she never made it to the library.
Thankfully on the fighting front Reimu and Mayumi would have it covered, and either being able to seal problems they can't handle and need to escape, or unseal to open escape routes for everyone would be good. so Kosuzu should have time to catch up with that later.
[x] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
-[x] Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer!
I say we take this opportunity to mitigate our greatest weakness as a tube fox.
I would really like to choose the seal option but kosuzu has no combat skills.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
[x] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
-[x] Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer!
That's another good point, and Kosuzu did get a bit of trauma from the experience so it would make sense, and of course as others have said this is the strong point of the Yakumo family.
But I'm gonna admit that Danmaku training is also a good option, she probably would need it more than the other IC, and in general as a human she hoped to take a more active role this time around.
Silence is also good, it has obvious uses outside of combat and in a fight not being detected through sounds made can have it's uses, but for proper combat utility it would probably need to be developed further before it becomes truly great, probably on the level of manipulating or silencing the sounds of our danmaku bullets to make sneak attacks or confuse the opponent.
[X] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
> It fell to Kosuzu to decide what to check out first.
hoping this means we're gonna be checking out the other sections eventually, because all of them are looking really tempting for kosuzu.
seal is. hopefully reimu remembers enough of her miko training to handle that in our stead. just to narrow down our options even further. figuring out how to UNseal is neat and all, but i think we should prioritize the others first while we still have access to reimu.
between danmaku and silence... while it's true that we're probably going to get into a danmaku fight eventually, that doesn't mean we shouldn't take notes on stealth while we can. the animal realm is full of other gangs besides the kiketsu, keiga, and gouyoku- and chances are they're going to go into a situation where they can't fight their way out and really have to stealth through. saki's on the lookout for the dragon miko, and if we're really unlucky yuuma might have recovered enough for a rematch. doubt that since i don't think gooboi wants to rehash that fight again, but saki is still on the table.
but... kosuzu wanted to be a hero, doesn't she? a true incident resolver, fighting alongside reimu and the others. this reincarnation... she wanted to take this chance to finally step up and give herself the opportunity to stand on equal grounds with them.
unfortunately, we don't always get what we want in life.
[X] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention- it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
sticking to my guns and playing for the tactical option here- reimu and mayumi will probably do fine in terms of danmaku firepower, but if we join them that means tsukasa's the one in charge of stealth. which is. she's our mother and all, but reimu's right to trust her even less than she can throw that fox. they were previously working for the tengu- and could still work for them in the future. now armed with knowledge of the immaterial children and before they get marisa into play to fully announce all five of them at once... not great. best to not disregard her entirely and make sure we have what we need to support the rest.
>>209832 i forgot just how young they're all supposed to be. kosuzu's turning 10 next week, and if they're all within a few years of each other... sure, she's the youngest out of the five of them, but yikes. anyways, just want to say, reimu is absolutely adorable. great work!
>> Yachie’s expression was… complex. She said nothing at first, slowly standing up and walking closer to her daughter, examining her closely.
>> After a few seconds, she reached out, gently laying her palm on Reimu’s forehead. Her fingers swept back and forth, bumping into and then closing her fingers around her hidden, stubby horns.
>> “...It’s a powerful illusion. I can’t spot any issues with it.” She stated, matter-of-factly. Then, with just a little too much emotion to fully mask, she followed that statement with another. “Please do not use this unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Awww Yachie doesn't want to lose her daughter. She understands that the disguise is necessary but is conflicted to see her as a "human".
>> Reimu was flatly unamused. “And how long were you hanging, upside-down, off the back of that?”
>> Yukari chuckled. “When it comes to presentation, timing is more important than raw preparation, you know.” She straightened a bit of her hair. She had the sort of look Kosuzu associated with fearing being late and ending up early - the signs of both a hurried exodus, and an equally-hurried attempt to hide the signs of the previous.
I love Yukari trying to look cool and mysterious a little too much.
>> Kosuzu stared at the book, transfixed. Yukari moved the book left, right, up and down, and the book-keeper’s head dutifully followed.
>> She held the book low, in front of the Kuda-gitsune. “Little Suzu. Would you like to borrow it, for a time?”
>> Reimu blinked. The book was now in Kosuzu’s hands. She traced her hands along the spine, marveling. It was in absolutely immaculate condition.
And Kosuzu being completely entranced by a cool new book, taking it without even a hint of hesitation was really funny, too. I can imagine her like a cat looking at a laser dot.
Poor Yukari, destined to be doubted by everyone (of course, with good reason but still).
>> Yachie groaned. “First Kosuzu gets into Reimu’s room, now this… I’m giving all the otters some opsec training this week.”
Welp, this sucks for the otters. I imagine there'll be a good ear-chewing in the near future for them.
Now, about the actual options:
Silence is useful, essentially having Luna's power, but not as useful as other things could be plus she could just use her fox form, this would be only useful to support others, she doesn't really need it.
Seal, as people said above, could be very useful to lock AND unlock, great for escaping and preventing escape.
Danmaku is a good option, too. Tsukasa doesn't have a lot of spellcards to work with, but as >>209817 said above we have a mom whose "power level" is at extra stage level, with Ran's spellcard designs to base ourselves from, Kosuzu may evolve into a force to be respected.
I'll go with danmaku, just in case, but Seal is a great option too. I don't think Silence is worth it, right now.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
[x] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
-[x] Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer!
This is basically a thief's lockpicking skill, a handy skill for any dashing rogue, and can end up mandatory in a party. As for not voting for danmaku, I could see Kosuzu internally justifying remaining untrained as either "fighting is too scary for me" or "other people should do the fighting for me", depending on how pipe-foxy her mind is.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
I'll say it again, Kosuzu herself doesn't need the silence because she IS sneaky and silent in fox form (her bell in that form doesn't have the "ringer"). At least the "seal" option makes sense, but this is just bait.
[UNDO] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize, and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
was mulling over the choice anyways. with tsukasa around and bound by contract, it's not like they're lacking a better stealth specialist. and if kosuzu was already training to use danmaku in her past life, then maybe some instructions could knock a few memories loose.
and who knows. sometimes you're better off not forcing yourself to stick to one skillset and just learning another one instead. maybe kosuzu will unlock some hidden talent for danmaku. and it's not like that's going to be the only thing in the book she'll read at all, just what she's reading first.
>>209846 I shyed away from silence under the basis that it mentions Kosuzu's bell but (at least for her fox form) she took the noise-making part out. Plus sealing would work as a plan B escape option if she's ever alone doing pipefox things without Reimu's supervision.
[x] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
-[x] Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer!
I’m honestly not sure which option is the best from a tactical standpoint, and this one feels the most in character. Trauma has a weird way of shaping people after all.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize, and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Kosuzu agreed to become a youkai so she could actually help and not be a burden. Being able to defend herself for once will give her a lot of peace-of-mind.
The unsealing is also important, but so long as she hides the book well, whenever she does get sealed she can just reference that section while sealed.
>>209855 Reading the book while sealed depends how much time and room she has to transform from animal to humanoid, pull out the book and read through it, and also assumes she's bringing the book along on potentially dangerous missions despite it being one of a kind (it belongs in a library or other bookshelf), and possibly being watched by whoever sealed her.
The thing about the Danmaku option is that 1. Most of the other Immaterial Children are already high tier combat beatsticks and 2. While I'm sure Kosuzu has potential, she'd be starting from a much lower point.
The "party" so to speak already has more than enough Frontline fighters, and putting in the effort to put Kosuzu up to par is likely less efficient than giving her other ways of contributing, at least to start with.
I also don't think it synergizes with her aptitudes as a tube fox. I think we can lean into that and be the "trickster" for the party.
Kosuzu is already quite sneaky so I don’t think we’ll need the silence spell just yet. Maybe a bit later though.
This leaves us with danmaku or sealing spells. Now I’m not too sure, but I’m pretty sure that seals can work as a kind of shield in a defensive manner. Sealing also has more general applications compared to pure fighting danmaku, so I’m going to go for sealing.
[X] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
[X] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
-[X] Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer!
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize, and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Let's review what is most likely to be an immediate problem:
- We're built for stealth, and so is Tsukasa. The only one silence might be useful for is sneaking Reimu around. Handy, but we're trying to improve ourselves here in a way that benefits us.
- We have Reimu right here as a seal cracker if we somehow come across one in the middle of the Animal realm. Useful skill to have long term, but we have her with us right now.
- Fighting might seem boring, but let's be real: We're definitely getting into a fight at some point, and if we don't prepare for it we're going to be useless and force Reimu/Tsukasa/anyone else with us to play defense.
If we come to a point where we need to sneak Reimu past something or deal with sealing/unsealing something, we can probably flip open to those sections and grab what we need. Can't do that nearly as easily if people are shooting at us.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
I'm not sure we'll have the option in the future to just flip through the book if we need those skills, even if we assume there will be no external pressures involved.
...y'know what? Fuck you, Kosuzu. I'm voting this anyway. I don't care if it's not a real choice. No trust for the Yakumo.
[X} Don’t take-
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Counting to >>209867:
Main Choice: [6] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
[13] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it. [11] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Potential Additions: For "Seal, to block passageways...": -{5} Specifically, the UNseal section. Those tube clasps would thwart her no longer! (>>209834, >>209836, >>209845, >>209854, >>209862)
That should be it? Oh wait...
Miscellaneous Additions: -{1} Resist. (>>209866)
:3
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Honestly, I just Kosuzu to be able to fight without relying on Re/Incarnation so that she can knock some heads and take some names. The girl has spent too long cooped up in bookshelves and fox tubes, she deserves some bloodshed. As a treat.
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
We are absolutely going to get into a fight at some point, and Kosuzu is by far the weakest of the group fighting-wise. Little to none muscle memory from the last go around either. Best to boost that now if we can.
Anonymous 2024/06/22 (Sat) 04:24 No. 209869 ▼
[X] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would, inevitably, go wrong at some point, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Considering the timing of the vote, it sounds like whatever tool we 'grab' is what we have for whatever we're going to be hit with soon... if I had to guess, it would be before we leave the Animal Realm that it happens. Since Yuuma I think is still out of commission (its only been a month, and I think she was expected to be out for longer than that.) which means the likely culprit would be Saki... so really Strong, but not smart...
so what would be the best one against her? danmaku? probably not? especially since we already have Reimu and Mayumi covering that, not to mention that it would be contesting strength vs. strength.
Seals? I did vote for it, but if it IS Saki... hm, how hard can she burst through barriers? might be helpful in tripping her up as the party tries to get away by locking doors behind them, getting through barriers in the party's escape path, or trap Saki somewhere.
Silence...might help the others be able to sneak past Saki? if they want to? a bit more useful than my initial thought I think. might work best if it is not caught out.
hm... a sudden strike of Danmaku from the flank might still be helpful though...
>she had the guilty look of someone with homework long overdue, that she’d hoped the teacher had forgotten. Headbutt Bait, to use the Human Village’s vernacular.
I really liked that! XD
>the mysterious figure Ichi waits, with bated breath, for one of the most important events she had forewarning of to begin…
uh oh...
>The boundaries between one type of fox and another are not insurmountable - you can learn beyond the limitations of any one title, in the right conditions.
gogo Magikarp Kosuzu? also, maybe our mystery stat is related to that? I do hope that we want the stat low in that case... I would feel bad lowering it because we needed to refuse Reimu's request to snack with her. (similar to when I had thought that cutting the rock might've been a Jenny say Kwah boost, but still didn't want to pick it as it would be spooking/ cutting at Koishi.)
on the note of the silence section, I had a idea of an interesting project that Kosuzu could do once she has had a chance to look and study the book a bit:
have a pair of bells tied up like how she used to, but have the clappers out of it... but have them be enchanted to jingle like they still had it. then have them tied with the ring so that when the disguise system drops, the sound enchantment drops with it. Any opponent that had been around or seeing and hearing them jingle would be trying to follow the bells, but suddenly not hearing any (or maybe have a spell to create bells in a spot away from Kosuzu or something like that.)
A nasty gash had been torn in the landscape of the city. Where once had been an all-too-pristine street, now there was churned asphalt and shattered cement.
Kurokoma Saki had to admit, she was impressed. It had been quite an entrance. She flew over the gash, trying to guage its total distance. …Four blocks, at least.
Still, all good things had to come to an end, and so had this one. She came down to a landing, looking at the strange vehicle that had made its mark on arrival. It seemed to have spun around at some point in its landing, leaving what Saki assumed was its front facing her.
It was an odd thing. It vaguely resembled a helicopter cockpit with all the actual helicopter-y parts removed, replaced with borderline-random choices from various other vehicles, and strange glass tubes dotted along its top. It had taken more than a small beating, as well, though it generally seemed to have survived the landing. For at least a generous definition of survival - it clearly wasn’t going anywhere fast.
There was a figure Saki couldn’t quite make out from behind the glass. Whoever it was, they were turning their head rapidly, as wolf spirits slowly circled around the vehicle.
Saki flared her wings out. “Hello there! That was quite an entrance!” She chuckled, as the pilot whirled their head around at her. “I have to say, even if you didn’t stick the landing, you certainly made an impression.”
The pilot paused, before grabbing something in the cockpit and speaking into it. A mechanized speaker started projecting her voice. “Halt! Come any closer, and you will feel the might of, uh, Crisis!”
Saki tilted her head. The voice was from a young girl, maybe a bit younger than the Dragon Miko, and the silhouette within had the right proportions for such a conclusion. She chuckled. “Crisis, huh? Well, we can at least hear you out, I’m sure. So, what brings you here, Crisis?”
“...Um.” ‘Crisis’ fiddled around inside. “You’re going to answer my questions, and listen to my demands! And if you don’t, I’ll give you a broadside from the PSV’s main cannon!” Saki raised an eyebrow, but didn’t respond. “First question! U-uh, um…” She faltered. “Wh-where am I?”
The Keiga matriarch chuckled. “You’re in the Animal Realm, in Keiga territory. My territory.”
“Animal Realm, Animal Realm…” There was the sound of rustling paper. “Uhhh… is that east or west of Kansei?”
“...You mean like the Settsu Province?” Saki asked, before shrugging. “It’s neither. You ain’t in the world of the living anymore, Crisis. You’re on the other side of the Sanzu.”
“Eh?” She could see Crisis moving around inside. “You mean I’m in some kinda afterlife?”
“Yeah, to put it short. You’re a human, I’m guessing?”
There was a pause. Saki waited for the revelation to hit her.
“That… that is…” Crisis hopped to her feet. “That is SO COOL!” The pegasus blinked. “Ooooh, does that mean all those red things are actually ghosts?! But they’re wolves, huh… wolf ghosts?! Do wolf ghosts live in…” She walked away from whatever device she was speaking with, causing her voice to trail off. Saki waited until she returned to her podium. “...subway systems? DO WOLF GHOSTS EAT SUBWAY SANDWICHES?!”
Saki chuckled. “You have a lot of questions, Crisis. And I’d be happy to answer them. But why don’t you get out of your… Pee-ess-vee, first?”
Crisis seemed to catch herself. “Ah, um - n-nice try! I won’t be tricked, Miss… um.”
The pegasus sighed. “Saki. Kurokoma Saki.”
“Kurokoma? As in - I won’t be tricked, Miss Kurokoma Saki!” The young girl rallied with considerable fervor. “After all, you haven’t heard any of my demands yet! Firstly, I’m gonna need-”
“Yeah… no.” Saki flapped her wings out. “You come in here in a blaze like that, tear up my streets, and then start making demands? That’s not gonna fly.”
“You better listen! This things’ got weapons that’d blow the pants off even the best stuff of your time!”
“Izzat so?” Saki chuckled. “Well, then I might just have to commandeer that vehicle myself.” She marched over, to the visible panic of Crisis.
“I-I’m serious! I’m charging the, uh, the Crisis Cannon right now! You’re gonna stay back, or else!”
The pegasus spread her arms and wings wide. “Or else what? Come on, Crisis. Your weapons are either worth ripping off that thing, or they’re not gonna save you from me. So which is it? Why don’t you show me?”
“You asked for it!” A device like a pair of pincers emerged from the top of the vehicle. “Get ready for the power of a railgun, Kurokoma Saki!”
The weapon began to thrum with power. Saki paused, realizing belatedly that this might be a real danger. Still, she wouldn’t back down now. She found herself halting, staring at the building energy. It grew, and grew. A pellet of some sort was raised between the pincers, and spun between them, beginning to whistle.
“Last chance, Kurokoma Saki! You're gonna stand down, or face the might of Crisis!”
…Well. She’d never be able to face the Keiga if she wussed out now, would she? She got into a fighting stance, putting on a big grin. “Hit me.”
“Three… two… one…”
Saki thought back, to her noble Crown Prince. Perhaps they’d meet again soon.
“FIRE!”
Crisis slammed her fist down.
…
…………
Saki opened her eyes. “What, was that-”
There was a deafening explosion. Saki felt her hat fly off, somewhere into the distance. When the spots in her eyes finally started to fade, the cockpit had been completely consumed by black smoke, spewing it out into the sky. She heard the sound of the windshield landing behind her, but didn’t bother to check. She just stepped closer.
The girl calling herself Crisis emerged. She was wearing a school uniform, and covered - absolutely covered, head-to-toe, in black soot. She stepped forward, unsteadily, and collapsed.
Saki flapped over, chuckling. “I think you’re gonna need to make some repairs, Crisis.” She hoisted the girl up, checking her over. …Didn’t seem to hurt, but was definitely, definitely unconscious. “Still, you might be just the thing the Keiga family needs to put us back on top.”
She turned to the stunned wolves, grinning. “Right! Well, I’m taking this girl to the third-street safehouse. If someone could find my hat and bring it to me there, I’d be much obliged.”
Crisis mumbled something. Saki tilted her head, listening in… it was an odd thing to say, but apparently, that was where the girl’s mind went. …Well, it didn’t hurt to restart things on a good mood, huh?
“Correction.” She turned to the wolves around her, readjusting the girl’s unconscious form. “Bring me my hat… and if you could, some strawberries for Crisis.”
[6] Silence, and its variations. Largely about sound control and prevention - it could be a good thing for the bell-bearing fox.
[13] Seal, to block passageways and lock doors. Easier to keep to your escape route when you were the only one on it.
[14] The general danmaku section, with various ideas to optimize, standardize and reinvent output. Things would,.inevitably, go wrong, and this might be the best choice when it did.
Kosuzu took a deep breath. She tried to shut her senses off, listening for even the slightest sound of movement.
Before her mind even consciously registered it, her body twisted. She threw her arms out, firing off a wave of danmaku. The first otter dissipated immediately, and the destabilization of its form caused a shockwave, knocking out the one next to it, as well.
The third otter swooped in from below, but Kosuzu was ready. She flipped back, firing a powerful shot it skirted around - but it wasn’t ready for the scattershot behind the initial burst, and got caught in the backdraft. She landed on the ground, grinning, and turned to the observing crowd. “Well? How was that?”
The three young girls observing her shared glances. Reimu was the first to speak. “...That’s way more than a few hours training, isn’t it?”
Kosuzu blushed. “W-well, I did a bit of spell card duel training last time. I’ve kept more of that than I thought, it seems. And any kuda-gitsune eventually learns how to really hotfoot it. Escape is victory, after all.”
The next to speak was Mayumi. “That won’t cause overheating, will it? Still… you’re doing quite well with that danmaku. Is the book that informative of a source?”
The fox got closer, grinning. “Yeah! It’s really, really good.” She walked over to the book, opening it up to the same page again. “It’s super-duper detailed, and it’s really good at describing the movements. And some of these ideas are really, really clever, too - like look at this one.” She opened the page, spinning it around.
Slow danmaku generally tends to be more efficient than faster equivalents, and when in prolonged tasks, every bit of energy you can save is a boon. It will rarely be the sole part of a successful attack, but it can be very useful for ambush situations. If you can reliably provoke the target into a single position, you can spend some time building up an area of slow-moving danmaku to clutter the field, then use fast and directed shots to herd your opponents into it. This leaves them dealing with much more than they likely expected to have to deal with at once from you, and quickly puts the odds in your favor.
Alternatively, you can set up a ‘trap’ of danmaku of increasing speed on a single area, such that everything will coalesce on one point at once. This can be useful for at least a single good strike on a much stronger opponent, if necessary - if such a situation develops, I recommend using your resultant time to get away from the threat, or call in aid while it’s stunned. The following pages will contain some tricks for modulating danmaku speed with different rates of acceleration variance…
Kosuzu smiled. “...So, what’s the final answer? How do I stack up, compared to a real incident resolver?”
Mayumi tilted her head. “Mmmm… well, Yachie’s elites aren’t the very best among the spirits, but you’re handling them comfortably enough that I wouldn’t be too worried about having you deal with a pack of wolves.”
The jidiao nodded in agreement. “But… I’d say that a fight between you and Chen without her shikigami powers would be roughly even. You could probably beat someone a bit tougher than that with the right strategy, but in the animal realm… there’s a pretty big gap between the grunts and the outright youkai.”
Chen nodded. “So basically, if it’s more put together than these otters… be really, really cautious about fighting it.” She stretched, before giving a rather toothy grin. “And I bet I could still beat ya, anyways.”
Kosuzu’s smile turned mischievous. “Well, maybe we can try a proper duel later? Once I’ve had some time to catch my breath?”
Reimu smiled, as a couple of otters came out, bringing a few glasses of various drinks. “Sounds like a plan. Come on, let’s have a bit to drink, shall we?”
The four girls sat down, starting to pass out the drinks. Kosuzu took a deep gulp of her juice, enjoying the taste.
Mayumi looked over at her, curious. “I have to ask. I thought a kuda-gitsune would prioritize utility over combat prowess?”
Kosuzu hummed. “Well, I was gonna start with the stuff on sealing… but frankly, combat is utility. If things go wrong, I gotta be able to at least fight enough to take care of myself, right? Besides… I’m decent at sneaking around with the stuff I can do already. Better to plan for when things go wrong, rather than immediately toss new tools on top, right?”
Mayumi considered it. “I guess I can see that argument. Apologies for the stare this morning, by the way.”
Kosuzu shrugged. “You’re fine, you’re fine! If you’re not suspicious of the tube fox, you’re not doing your job right.” She turned, looking at the faded green mist and the loose scales. “...By the way. These otters… what’d they do to get lined up to spar with us?”
Reimu tilted her head. “What do you mean? Didn’t you see the whiskers? They’re the messengers and the guard that was supposed to be outside my room when you came in.” Kosuzu didn’t know whether to be more surprised at Yachie’s rapid application of karma, or Reimu’s ability to apparently tell the otters apart.
Chen finished sucking on her straw. “Puah! This stuff’s really nice… you’re lucky to drink stuff like this all the time, Reimu.” She idly stirred the drink with her straw, producing a tink-tink-tink of the ice against the glass.
Kosuzu twitched.
Reimu finished her own sip, looking at Chen. “Well, I’m sure Yukari can get it too, can’t she? ‘S just some kinda juice, after all.”
“Ran-sama’s pretty stingy on that sort of thing.” Tink-tink-tink-tink. Kosuzu shivered. “‘Cos it’s bad for my teeth.”
“Ah, Mama’s been hounding me about my teeth, too…” Reimu sighed.
“-uzu?” Kosuzu blinked, turning back to Mayumi. “I wanted to ask what your drink tastes like. Is it good?”
“Uh, ummmm… i-it’s good.” Kosuzu did her best to focus on Mayumi. “It’s a fruit that I don’t think we have in Gensokyo, so-” Tink-tink-tink-tink. “So, so, so, um… it’s… new.”
Mayumi tilted her head. “Kosuzu? Are you… okay?”
The fox nodded. “I’m fine, I’m just-” Tink-tink-tink-tink-tink. “J-just, just…”
The Haniwa stared at her, then reached out, stopping Chen. There was a moment of silence, with all three of the others staring at Kosuzu.
The fox struggled, squirming under the stares. Reimu was the first to speak. “Kosuzu? What’s wrong?”
[+30] “Ah, the sound’s just very sharp on my ears…”
[0] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
If Option B is selected: { } Tell Reimu privately.
{ } Tell all the girls.
Time remaining: ::Timer ended at: 2024/06/23 (Sun) 07:00
There will be times when stats cause votes to be weighted towards one option or another, and strictly timed. These weightings will be a multiplier of the stat(s) in question.
[X] “Ah, the sound’s just very sharp on my ears…”
While other option will be healthier for kozusu, I feel this plotline should be unresolved for now.
I believe it would be hard for kozusu to open up about her trauma now and can lead to interesting situations
Yeah I agree, hell, Yukari basically told in her face that she might think one day of making her a shikigami, also this is a pretty personal thing, I think that is understandable that she would want to share it only with someone she already knows pretty well.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately
Pissing against the artificial tide. Jesus Christ, 30 of us need to vote for this just to break even.
We are supposed to be Reimu’s bodyguard, so Reimu should probably know about our limitations. It would really suck if Reimu had us get into a tube so we could pop out and surprise our enemies, only for Reimu to traumatize Kosuzu by locking the tube “for safety.”
Besides, Reimu is our friend. If you can’t tell your friends about your trauma, who can you tell?
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
(X) Be wary of eavesdroppers.
I think its wiser to confide in just Reimu, because letting Kosuzu's fear be known to them may lead to the wrong people getting wind of it, not even considering the fact that Chen or Mayumi may be the wrong people.
Better to be safe, and this option seems to bring the best of both worlds.
mystery stat's only at three? and it's stacked +30 on one choice. fucking hell.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
better to get this out of the way before it could potentially compromise us on the journey. or at least, make sure one of the party is aware so they could cover for us if it's going to prove too much of an issue. we don't know much about the other girls. best to keep it a secret between us and reimu for now.
calling all tidepissers, i repeat, calling all tidepissers. overwhelming tide spotted, help requested.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
Look, this tide is begging to be pissed on. Plus, we should at least tell Reimu, both 'cuz Kosuzu already trusts her and also to avoid what >>209893 described. It obviously can't resolve anything, way too early for that, but it's help that we need, especially if just this is giving Kosuzu a panic attack.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
from the wording before the vote, this just seems like a big one, sounds like some other stat dependant votes might be less than a x10 multiplier (so we could start out with a weight of, let's say using the current Jenny say Kwah stat with a vote starting with a weight of 2(x1), 4(x2), 10(x5), or like our current one 20(x10)
at least it gives us another clue on what the stat is. Something that lessens when we are more open and trusting around other (accepted Reimu's offer to snack together.) and determines if she opens up on her trauma to her friend (and maybe new friends too, but probably not right away from the vote results so far...)
so, self-isolation? distrust? anyone else have any guesses?
also good job Mayumi for watching out for Kosuzu there!
I might change my vote on whether its just Reimu to share it with or the rest, might stick with the everybody for now.
and we're making good progress on catching up! keep it up!
The mystery stat is probably BAD, I guess. That means reducing it is probably a good thing. This would probably a +40 weighted impossible to win vote if Kosuzu hadn't pigged-out on the sweets, especially with the tidepissers actually being able to make this more difficult by moving the goalpost.
yeah, agreed on it probably being bad.
Though if we managed to pull in all those that had voted on what origin Kosuzu would have there would be a chance, heck even at what I'm guessing is the max Stat of 5 it would be possible with all of them it would just need the grand majority of them voting against the weighted option.
>>209903 {Undo} Tell all the girls.
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
[x] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
I'm in "wait and see" mode again for now, but I'm worried about some kind of conditioning in Kosuzu's head.
Either that or the clinking awoke some kind of PTSD or something like that.
Better to talk about it, if we can.
I'm pretty sure that yeah it is some ptsd from the incident we saw in the intro for the arc where she got stuck in a glass(?) tube because the hole had been sealed behind her, leaving her battering against it until Tsukasa(?) got her out.
that does ask the question of what village was seen in that one that her rescuer warned her never to approach? its not the Tengu Village as she's apparently done work there, same with the Human village as they were there when Kosuzu picked up the manuscript...
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
I like how everyone immediately flocked to this choice- me included- because of Kosuzu's natural reaction being to not choose it.
>>209931 it feels like a tide because while there are a lot of readers not many people vote, with most votes being during the start of an arc. but counting the votes on my own were are currently on 35 votes in favor of [] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
our previous vote was barely over 30 total (33 in fact.) and with some people voting for the option means that the odds are notably against it. so you never could know, and there's still just under 11 hrs for it to go either way. and hey it was a new introduction to it, we got hyped!
now think of what it will be like when we get a Youmu portion and get a Jenny Saw Kwah version of this!
I've been thoroughly convinced looking at the conversation since my original vote
[UNDO] “Ah, the sound’s just very sharp on my ears…”
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
>> In came Orange, holding a small box. “Hello, hello! I-it’s just me this time.” The girl was clearly anxious. “I’ve come with a new model of the Kakkushi-Seki!”
>> Reimu looked the girl up and down, assessing her for a moment. “...And you’re demonstrating it yourself, Chen?”
>> The girl nodded, reaching for her hand and tapping on something. Kosuzu watched, fascinated, as her form flickered, dispelling. The girl underneath the guise had a decidedly different visage - red dress with a green hat, brown hair, two cat ears, and two cat tails.
>> She lifted up her hand, now revealing a small ring.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell Reimu privately.
- {X} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet.
- {X} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell all the girls.
I'm honestly not too concerned about Yukari finding out about whatever this is. She's sketchy in so many ways, but not frequently malicious. Actually, if something I've started being suspicious of turns out to be correct, I'd prefer it if info did get passed along that grapevine. Keiki maybe finding out is, let's say, collateral damage, and probably not earthshaking either.
[X] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{X} Tell all the girls.
For 2 main reasons 1) it will help Mayumi grow and learn a little more about humans.
“Why, my dearest little Mayumi, of course.” The figure next to her started to blush. “I’ve been working on more subtle models of guard haniwa. After all, the appearance of the Dragon Miko has the various Animal Gangs in a bit of an arms race looking for allies, and if any living allies manage to lock down my haniwa, the animal spirits are free to attack anyone else.” She smirked.
Kosuzu caught on quickly. “But if there’s haniwa blended in among the human spirits… then they’re gonna be on the back foot!”
Keiki smiled. “A bright girl, I see. Yes, that is the point. But the problem is that most of my models cannot convincingly portray a human. And there’s no advantage to anything less than that. But my extra-special Mayumi here has incredible learning potential, and with us reaching a level of… cooperation with the Kiketsu, the original task she was prepared for is lower priority now. Hence the smaller chassis.”
Kosuzu turned to inspect Mayumi. The haniwa, eyeing her up as well, might be in a ‘smaller chassis’, but that didn’t mean she was actually less of a threat. “And you put her with the Dragon Miko? Or at least, you’re trying to?”
Keiki nodded. “Yes, of course. Mayumi is the closest thing she has to a playmate her own age, and inversely, the miko’s one of the best sources of data on how human children behave - albeit with obvious caveats.” The goddess gave a wink. “I imagine your mother intends for you to be the same? Or perhaps you are already affiliated with her?”
Kosuzu shrugged. “We’re really just here for a consultancy. It’d be nice to be her friend, but… I can’t guarantee anything, of course. Besides, I know a stronger miko, anyways.”
2) It might not be a bad thing if Yukari learns of Kosuzu weakness. She might come up with training to help Kosuzu through it.
Reimu reached out, patting her mom’s arm. “...speaking from experience, most of Yukari’s training has some kind of purpose to it, even if that purpose is to fix a mess she’s already made. I doubt the book by itself is a threat to Kosuzu.”
[4][34] “Ah, the sound’s just very sharp on my ears…”
[42] “…About a year back… I made a mistake.”
{35} Tell Reimu privately. {7} Tell all the girls.
-{15} Be wary of eavesdroppers.
-{13} Tell the others that it's just your hearing. They don't need to know just yet. “Ah, the sound’s just very sharp in my ears, you know?” Kosuzu said, gesturing to them. “Just - never been a sound I’ve been able to deal with. Honestly.”
The other girls shared a glance. “Is… is that all?” Mayumi said. “That seems unlikely to provoke that sort of reaction.”
Kosuzu flicked her ears back. “Ahahah, well, that sort of thing is… it happens for some people, you know?”
Mayumi leaned in. “Does it? Is it a human thing, or a kuda-gitsune th-”
“It’s just a me thing, honestly.” Kosuzu said, waving it off. “Just… a sound that I really, really don’t like. Makes my hackles stand on end.”
Reimu just gave Kosuzu a really hard look. The fox did her best to rally. “A-anyway! It’s not that big of a weakness, but a weakness nonetheless. So I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t spread it around too much, y’know? Ah- but Reimu, I can go over all that sorta stuff with you so you know it in advance. How does that sound?”
The jidiao nodded, curtly. “Yes. Let’s talk, Kosuzu.” She stood up, looking at the other two. “...By the nature of the topic, this is going to be a private conversation.” Chen and Mayumi shared a glance, but nodded.
Reimu and Kosuzu flew a short distance away, up onto one of the nearby rooftops. According to Reimu she knew it was out of the way enough that they wouldn’t be overheard, and the open area around them made it hard for anyone to sneak up.
Reimu took their drinks with her. She sat next to Kosuzu, quietly. The shrine maiden always had a way of… having an almost infectious relaxedness to her. Just sitting with her did a lot for Kosuzu’s nerves.
…The bookkeeper took a deep breath, trying to decide where to start. “...So, that was… a lie.”
“Mmmm.” Reimu looked down at Chen and Mayumi. The two of them were discussing things. “I figured. So… what’s the truth?”
“…About a year back… I made a mistake.” Kosuzu leaned back. “It was just as I was getting the hang of… you know, the kuda-gitsune thing. Jumping in and out of tubes, and all that. My mother was starting to give me a bit more reign, but… there are some places I’m never, ever supposed to go. Because… because they hate tube-foxes with a passion.”
She looked down, at the wandering otters. “...one of those places was… a settlement in the mountains. Really tucked away. I was always told that I was supposed to keep far, far away from it, but one day… I went to check it out. Sneak over and see what I was like.”
Reimu’s look sharpened. “...What happened?”
“Well… I was caught. And… and I was punished.” Kosuzu shuddered. “I… was put into a little test tube, and… I got pretty roughly shaken in it. Banging up against some other tubes. And, and when I couldn't even tell which way was up anymore, the test tube I was stuck in was thrown away. I-I landed out in the grass, and… and nobody came to help me. Not for hours.”
Reimu looked at her. “Kosuzu, that’s…”
The fox waved her hands frantically. “Ah, i-it’s all okay now! I-it was my fault, after all. And… and lesson learned, right? I’m not going back there again, so… so there’s no problem!”
“Kosuzu, you’re freaking out from ice in a glass. There’s very clearly still a problem.” Reimu reached over, giving Kosuzu a small hug. “Even if they really, really hate kuda-gitsune, doing that to… what, a nine-year-old? Eight-year-old?”
“Eight, but, but nearly nine! A-and, besides, I’m sure you went through worse, right? I mean, by that point you were already out and solving incidents the first time around, right?”
Reimu sighed. “Kosuzu, it’s… it’s not a contest.” She scooched closer. “And besides, I don’t think they’d have gotten off as lightly as they did in the greater community if I didn’t absolutely kick their butts. Everyone thought they were helping my mom train me, after all.”
“Really, Reimu, I’m… I’m fine.” The fox didn’t resist Reimu’s attempts to hug her. “I know what not to do now. Something like that… it isn’t going to happen again.”
Reimu looked at the fox, before sighing. “...You’re absolutely sure?”
“As long as I don’t do anything that dumb again… I’m sure I’ll be fine, Reimu.” The fox managed a small smile. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a tough girl - a youkai! I can take a bit of a beating, especially if I deserve it.”
The jidiao’s tail curled around her. “...Just remember that just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to. Alright?” Kosuzu… nodded, slowly, and the two of them sat together, watching the bustle below them.
It was a few minutes later when Reimu turned to Kosuzu, a small smile on her lips. “Hey, the people at that settlement - want to give them a bit of payback?”
Kosuzu blinked. “Payback?”
“Yeah. Why don’t we go and raise a bit of hell there when we get topside?” Reimu gave a toothy grin. “I’m sure if they’re treating tube-foxes that poorly, they’re gonna be guilty of something else. Probably got some big secrets to hide.”
The fox hesitated. “...Um. Well-”
A flash of light distracted them both, drawing their eyes out into the distance. A massive black cloud had suddenly seized a piece of the city skyline. Then a boom, a shockwave of sound that ruffled the girls’ hair even this far away.
The two stared, in shock. Reimu was the first to speak. “What the hell was that?!”
Kosuzu gulped. “I-I don’t know… will one of the otters?”
Reimu nodded. “Or one of the haniwa. Come on, let’s go check it out.”
This meeting room was much different from the one they’d been in earlier. Where that had clearly been a public-ish space, lit by the outside ambience and meant to be warm and inviting, this room was below ground level, a serious, official bunker. A war room.
Kosuzu was on her tip-toes to look over at the map of the city on the central table. Mayumi and Reimu were on her sides, watching the adults prepare to debate. Chen had been sent away with a bit of loose fur brushed from Kosuzu’s tail - though Reimu openly doubted that preparing Kosuzu’s Kakkushi-Seki was her priority. Not when something so incident-like was clearly unfolding.
Tsukasa was the last to enter, oozing in and shutting the door behind her. “Ladies Yachie and Keiki… do you know aught of that strange explosion?”
Yachie nodded. “Yes, we do. We’re assuming it came from a craft that fell from the sky while we were inside.”
Mayumi looked at Keiki. “Was that the classified matter you didn’t want to discuss with me?”
“Well… yes.” Keiki looked somewhat remorseful. “I was leaving it to the reconnaissance team to handle. I didn’t want to have you all worried about it until we knew what was happening.”
“Is that true?” Tsukasa leaned in, a teasing tone in her voice. “Or was it that you didn’t want to give Lady Yachie a sign that you weren't in control?”
There was a momentary glance between the two matriarchs. Reimu sighed. “Alright, so everyone’s been waiting for someone else to blink, have they? What do we know, then?”
Her mother sighed. “About the time you two were meeting each other, a mysterious craft came in for a crash-landing. It landed square in the middle of Keiga territory, and for a time, that was all we knew.”
Keiki nodded. “Our information was much the same. The vehicle in question is… rather strange. Though we only have a few, fleeting images, it appears to be an outside-world vehicle… but it doesn’t match any that I know of from the outside world. So it must be very modern.”
The door opened. Kosuzu turned her head to look. “Actually… postmodern would be a much, much more accurate term for it.”
The woman entering now was garbed in a red robe. She wore some kind of ornamental mask, and yet, what little Kosuzu could see of her face bespoke a relatively young, vibrant woman. She strode into the room, her grand entrance… slightly spoiled by stepping on Tsukasa’s foot in the process.
Reimu, to her credit, didn’t even blink. “You’re Ichi, I assume?”
The robed girl nodded. “Yep, in the flesh! Nice to finally meet you in person.” She offered a hand, which Reimu… hesitantly shook. “Both of you… ahh, and Mayumi too! You’re so cute!”
Yachie tsked. “I assume you have some connection to this, Ichi?”
Tsukasa’s head whipped back and forth. “H-hold on- who is this?”
Ichi turned, offering a hand to Kosuzu to shake. “Call me Ichi. I’m… well, I’ve been plying myself as a fortune-teller of sorts, hoping to help you young ones deal with the Pyres.” She smiled. “Nothing would make me happier than seeing you all through this, safe and sound. …And especially today, I hope you’re successful, because this is gonna be… a rough day.”
The fox took her hand, shaking it. There was just… something to the girl’s expression. It was just a bit forced, trying a bit too hard to hide some genuine concern under a mask of cheerful flightiness. Kosuzu tilted her head. “...Miss Ichi, are you okay?”
Ichi’s smile faltered, just briefly. “Nnnot quite. I’m sure everything’s gonna work out in the end, but… you never know, right? Could be any number of devils in the details.” She looked at the fox, her other hand starting to twitch. “...But… there’s one thing I’ve always found therapeutic. Young Kosuzu. This might be a strange question, but… can I pet you?”
Petting was…
[ ] Off the table, completely. It just made Kosuzu uncomfortable.
[ ] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[ ] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
well Reimu's done it a couple of times already without an issue from Kosuzu, so off the table doesn't quite make sense, and well, being a fox, and knowing that she is in fact cute might make for a slightly mischevious bit of fun here, also petting something might make people talkative, good for intelligence gathering!
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
This just feels more fitting. Besides, Akyuu has the always-headpat role on lockdown.
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
Adding to >>209963:
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Being real, this is the most realistic response for nearly anyone to give.
[ ] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
seeing as the issue of petting is sort of un tube fox-y behavior and the scare we got from the stat-weighted option, i'm all for disappointing our mother and trying to lower that stat, actually!
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
i don't particularly trust ichi, but i dislike tsukasa even more. she's already trying to drive a wedge in between keiki and yachie, which doesn't bode well.
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
I'm reporting Professor Okazaki to HR, she needs some animal-people sensitivity training.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Only Reimu and his mother are allowed to pet those majestic ears.
>>209961 Heheheheehhe AHAHAHAHAHAHAA
Feeling an existential crisis coming on there Ichi? Must be awfully concerning when your own past self is in mortal danger. Who knows, the immaterial children who change fate with their mere presence might get you killed this Tim around and poof you straight out of existence!
I’m calling it here. Ichi is and always has been Yumemi and it’s her who we will have to save this time, if only to ensure that she’s capable of enacting her master plan to help things along in this stable time loop she’s created.
[ ] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
I have a feeling we will be offering Crisis quite a few stress hugs later today as well. Ganbatte strawberry maiden, trvst vn thv plvn.
>>209984 Damn, after reading the side story thread now my prediction doesn’t look nearly as clever considering that Chiyuri’s segment all but confirms everything I threw out here before I threw it out. Oh well, I figured this was the situation ever since I first heard they were going by Ichi/Go.
Adding in a vote for
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
To my vote above. Hopefully crisis gives us a reason to allow Ichi to indulge :)
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
Kon-scripted into our service. If Ichi wants to demand pets from us, she has to do it by our rules.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- [X] And only from people she trusted! Like her mom and close friends.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Look, headpats are nice and all, but this is literally their first interaction. You gotta earn that right.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Kosuzu knows about stranger danger alright.
Also as to the side story: I think it mostly proves that Yukari has SOME plan, but we should be cautious about its details. While Yukari is actually fairly reliable when the goal is to help preserve Gensokyo (even if half of the time its shove Reimu at the problem so she can sleep). I'm still half convinced that Yukari wants to grab strong control over one of the immaterial children, if only because when everything is over she wants to be ahead if they can't actually be separated. Kosuzu is the easiest to manipulate in this regard because she has the smallest foundation, but I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to know where Marisa was to make the move to take control of her first (before she got her memory back and knew it was a bad idea at least).
As to anything Chiyuri/Yumemi related, all that really got confirmed is that their foreknowledge is semi-limited (mostly as we haven't written those parts yet). Now, this part of the Story may be us saving Yumemi as a consequence of Immaterial Children fate distortion putting her ability to help in question, but I'm not entirely certain Ichi/San would disappear, depending on what time travel rules they are operating off of.
Kakkushi-Seki: Chen and ReimuKosu2024/06/23 (Sun) 22:26No. 209992▼
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Sorry, professor, but petting is quite personal, after all.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
We have good hands for a reason. Pet the fox girl :3
{X} change into fox form for maximum morale boosting floof!
also adding to my vote:
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
for those that have the situational vote, but do want to let Ichi to pet her might want to put that as an add-in as the 'but not let ichi pet her' will probably also be chosen if the option wins.
>She strode into the room, her grand entrance… slightly spoiled by stepping on Tsukasa’s foot in the process.
ok, I am hoping we get something will happen to show the motherly side of Tsukasa... but that does win points with me for Yumemi.
though speaking of...
>The gap youkai reached out, petting her shikigami’s shikigami. “It’s alright Chen. You remembered when asked - and there’s no telling that you wouldn’t have remembered eventually.” The catgirl sighed, but began to purr. Kosuzu, watching the two of them… felt a little something flare in her heart, but shoved it down.
sounds like Tsukasa doesn't show much affection and Kosuzu feels Jealous (where is Parsee? there's some food for her here!) might be a reason why she would consider wanting to be pet often.
[X] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
>> Tsukasa gestured, grandly. “This is my daughter. [/b]She’s a bit behind the proverbial curve of a normal kuda-gitsune[/b], but she’ll get there eventually, and there’s nothing like practical experience, no?”
>> "As long as I don’t do anything that dumb again… I’m sure I’ll be fine, Reimu." The fox managed a small smile. "You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a tough girl - a youkai! I can take a bit of a beating, especially if I deserve it."
>> "…And besides, she wasn’t that good of a Kuda-gitsune, anyways…"
>> The gap youkai reached out, petting her shikigami’s shikigami. “It’s alright Chen. You remembered when asked - and there’s no telling that you wouldn’t have remembered eventually.” The catgirl sighed, but began to purr. Kosuzu, watching the two of them… felt a little something flare in her heart, but shoved it down.
This Kosuzu has very low self-esteem, blaming herself for everything. She really wants to be praised, rewarded. To stop feeling "inadequate", useless.
Especially since Tsukasa highlights her flaws constantly.
Now, is she being malicious? Or is this tough love?
Maybe I'm only projecting, but I've been there. Impostor syndrome let's go!
I think in part this is compounding Kosuzu's existing mentality with her just being slightly behind par for a Kuda-gitsune.
As far as Kosuzu is concerned, she is the dead-weight of the Immaterial Children that died before she could even fulfill the job of backup record keeper. She wasn't a fighter in her previous life, and while she wants to participate now even she can tell she isn't a prodigy combat wise. Despite this, she wants to contribute and not be left on the sidelines.
>>“Eight, but, but nearly nine! A-and, besides, I’m sure you went through worse, right? I mean, by that point you were already out and solving incidents the first time around, right?”
Her immediate reaction when she believes that Reimu may use it as an excuse to sideline her? State immediately that is fine and Reimu must have dealt with worst so she will manage just fine, despite her having a very obvious weakness that anyone with knowledge can exploit.
This isn't any ordinary imposter syndrome, this is full blown imposter syndrome with an anxiety disorder. I prescribe headpats from trustworthy individuals... which may just be Reimu and Tsukasa right now.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
Barring further revelations, I think "tough love" is more likely. At worst, she's grooming Kosuzu as a potential asset, but I think she'd already have been abandoned if that were the case. Tsukasa's conniving, but I don't think she's sadistic.
Tube Foxes don't garner much respect, so it's entirely possible Tsukasa wants Kosuzu to "shape up" for her own good, much like Yachie wanted for Reimu.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
I just want at least one of the Immaterial Children to go "native" and abandon the cause, instead focusing on her own benefit and embracing her new life as a youkai. I'd like it to be Kosuzu because of being reincarnated as a pipe fox, especially since she's shown to have some imposter syndrome that she can try to make up for, and I absolutely will vote towards it as best I can; for an entertaining narrative rather than to "win" against the pyres.
Marisa would also be possible, due to her strong work ethic falling short behind Reimu's effortless natural talents resulting in jealousy, but I'll still try to push Kosuzu for it and treat Marisa as a fallback.
Counting to >>210003:
Main Choice: [0] Off the table, completely. It just made Kosuzu uncomfortable.
[20] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort. [10] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
Potential Additions: For "Situational": -{1} And only from people she trusted! Like her mom and close friends. (>>209987
For "Always allowed": -{1} Change into fox form for maximum morale boosting floof! (>>209997)
Contrary to what most people may think about these two potential additions, I feel that they're not tied down to either choice. The main choices are talking about Kosuzu's thoughts on being petted in general, while the potential additions are Kosuzu's thoughts on being pet for this specific moment in time. Obviously, they can be bound to their respective choices but they're not completely bound, y'know?
Of course, my thoughts could be wrong. After all, I'm merely a tallyanon. :/
It's probably an instinct choice anyways... :3
@.@ and what just happily wait for everyone they not only knew, but now know to all burn? just don't even try to fight it, give up and sit back doing nothing? Sounds pointlessly boring.
heck "going native" and abandoning the cause are two different things, you want someone going pretty native, we already have Akyuu going pretty far on that point as Youmu has noticed a bit and Eiki is worried about, just without the dumb decision of ignoring the upcoming doom for the lols even deciding to go full Youkai isn't going to have them turn on their friends and their goal because that's just wishing for oblivion.
so yeah, I think a few of us that want the story to keep going and be interesting are going to be voting against you.
I don't think that post was written as "lol just abandon the main quest and do whatever." Obviously even a completely self-involved sociopath would work to prevent the Pyres, that's just rational self-preservation.
But an Immaterial Child "going native" in the sense of being completely swayed by their new nature and nurture and becoming fundamentally different people in a moral sense feels like an incredibly fun possibility, which would lead to entertaining narrative developments, so I will also be voting in that direction.
>I just want at least one of the Immaterial Children to go "native" and abandon the cause
well "the cause" that they would be "abandoning" is preventing the Pyres from destroying Gensokyo soooo yeah, at the very least very poorly worded, or I was quite spot on.
and again, that's pretty well describing Akyuu right now, which I had been voting myself to happen. Interesting how you can do that without being a boring and pointless nasty backstabber like people were talking about during the background vote...
Adding onto this, explicitly this is the main concern of Eiki, who in-universe appears to be the character most able to detect the Human/Youkai alignment choices we have made. As an example, Akyuu is enjoying being a Moon Rabbit a bit too much and is already setting off alot of alarm bells. Seeing a Kosuzu whose main alignment choices seem to be Kitsune/Kuda-Gitsune rather than Human/Youkai would be firing off massive alarm bells to Eiki (and could undermine the efforts of Ichi/San, since getting everyone to cooperate is based on the premise that in the end everyone gets what they want, and if Eiki suspects that they are trying to pull a fast one then it could lead to expanded conflict).
At the moment the main factional division would be between Animal Hell (since both Yachie and Keiki have a massive interest in keeping Reimu in Animal Hell), and the Netherworld/Human Village (While Youmu isn't setting off alarm bells, Akyuu NEEDS to be in the human village, and Eiki/Haru are going to make sure that the Immaterial Children return to being humans). While the different sides are working together now, seeing any Immaterial Child embrace their Youkai nature outright would cause both sides to fracture the tenuous alliance they have.
Yukari is likely always going to be on the side of the Immaterial Children, but that is likely because Maribel/Yukari knows entirely what process they are going through (assuming that is the correct conclusion to be drawn from the side story), and doesn't particularly mind the immaterial children existing as long as it strengthens Gensokyo's defenders.
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
it honestly does work.
>>210010 honestly I still am in favor of kosuzu being a pointless and nasty backstabber (not boring though) but in a fun way.
like yeah if you invoke her help you can expect her to take some of your sweets without asking, but she's not going to literally betray you to your enemies the first chance she gets.
Though they are being cryptic about it, I do think that Ichi&go do already have a plan for this. we know that the first part of it required Youki... someone that can cut very precisely, AND can cut souls, granted this might be me reading into things due to how I perceived something during the first arc
using Youki and a couple of other factors to separate the original souls of the immaterial children from the lives that they were reborn in, such as separating Kicchou Reimu from Hakurei Reimu whom from the rather judgemental voice of H.Reimu throughout the arc I was treating as a seperate character from K.Reimu.
thus despite sounding like they are promising two mutually exclusive things, they are actually being honest to both sets of parents, the original parent will get their kids back... but the new parents will also keep theirs
though you'd think the timeframe would be years before you'd want the split to happen to take advantage of the Re/Awakening... might be a weakness of my theory.
>like yeah if you invoke her help you can expect her to take some of your sweets without asking, but she's not going to literally betray you to your enemies the first chance she gets.
That's called being mischievous, not a nasty backstabber, completely different things. Though granted that "first chance she gets" might still be you nasty backstabbing waiting, which again, is stupid, boring and well, Kosuzu shows no sign of even at this point.
If I wanted KKTHA or something like that, I'd go watch that rather than read this great story.
To be honest given the current characterization we are going for, I'm not really feeling the conniving Kosuzu anymore. Her path seems to be defined more by wanting to be useful at any cost, and being a backstabber doesn't really help with that.
Of course, that instead opens up the question of what lengths won't she go to to be useful (see my Yukari speculation in >>209991), but I feel thats less likely to go wrong then a hypothetical power-drunk Marisa that wants to take the opportunity to spar with Reimu now that they are evenly matched (and Reimu no-longer has a massive innate talent advantage). And there is no guarantee we will get Mad!Marisa anyway, so that discussion is moot right now.
>>210008 >>210010 I don't mean she should accept everyone's deaths "happily". More along the lines of "Why should I bother fighting the pyres? Reimu and the rest are already so strong and I'll just be dead-weight and get in their way." Poor choice of words on my part, sorry.
To use a mundane example, imagine you're in a bank when a bunch of thieves decide to do a heist. There's multiple armed thieves taking hostages, going around and cuffing civillians. They're going to cuff you soon, and you're clearly going to be endangered if the heist goes poorly, but what can you do? You shouldn't be a hero, because that would only complicate things for the cops. The best thing for you to do is to remain calm and hope for the best. Even if you live in America and you're concealed carrying, there's one of you and five of them; and you're not trained for this. You're not supporting the thieves, you're simply not being reckless. If they get away, then you go to the cops and tell them everything you can about them, like maybe you overheard one robber call another by name, or one has a distinct accent, or you noticed a tattoo or something.
All that to say, I don't want Kosuzu to be hostile to the other reincarnated humans, nor helpful towards the pyres. I want her to back up and let those more capable than her handle it, while also embracing her new life and maybe securing a cushy life as a konsultant or something for after this threat passes, trying to live up to Mama Tsukasa's hopes, or even just living her best (youkai) life as a (metaphorically) free spirit.
if this is an instinct vote, wouldn't that be even more of a reason to vote always? regardless of why, I recall seeing some enthusiasm in seeing if we could max out Kosuzu in Spirit & Instinct, or was that just me?
this is the one against the backstabbing talking btw, you can still have her max out on those stats and be mischevous and whimsical, have her be a slightly annoying little sister that uses even her tube fox powers (as well as the others that she pick up to get everywhere
~~~~~
"AARGH! KOSUZU! What are you doing in my sheath!!? I Nearly Stabbed you!"
"Toobing practice!" Kosuzu says as she toobs out of Mayumi's scabbard and scampers off.
~~~
"HEY! Get outta my pocket!"
:"sorry Reimu!, gotta keep my practice up!" =P
~~~
and just her being silly with her powers to the exasperation of the rest of the party. (I ran out of silly things that could count as tubes that might be more difficult to fit into that would be on hand for them of the top of my head anyone got any other ideas?)
>>210005 Bruh that would literally never be in the cards for any of them. Abandoning their humanity and not wanting to ever reconnect with how they were as a human? Indulging in their youkaihood? Sure. But ignoring the pyres??? That’s literally knowing that you and everything you know and love is going to die in a few years, not just suspect or feel or project, but literally know exactly what happens when, and actively not do anything about it. That’s absurd and self destructive on a ridiculous level. That’s not an interesting narrative direction that’s completely antithetical to the story and characters across all interpretations.
yeah, doing that would in essence say, 'end the character's arc here and skip to the next one.' the story is how the group is preparing to fight the pyres and the consequences of it and their new lives, but if we cut out the first part of that, what's the point?
if we're talking characterization here, i'd honestly like kosuzu to be somewhat of a foil to akyuu- rather than enjoying her new youkai nature or even just being (mostly) neutral about it like reimu and youmu have, she feels a bit apprehensive about this and actively disregards being a tube-fox, trying to shift focus to combat and being more "incident-resolver"-like since that's what she's wanted even before being reincarnated. she's probably the one with the most unfinished business when the pyre incident happened- reimu and the others were pretty fine with their roles and lots in life, but kosuzu was actively working towards stepping up and becoming a full-fledged incident resolver, and that goal carries over to her next life as well. sitting back and letting the others handle the pyres while living a cushy life like tsukasa would is just completely out of the question.
honestly did not think my opinion of tsukasa could get any worse, but unless she steps up big time on the way to the surface, then i'm all for voting to leave her behind.
if only kosuzu had a human spirit option, but she's probably the most likely out of the initial 5 to have become a youkai in the first place, other than marisa.
and besides, if kosuzu were to become an active combatant instead of sitting on the sidelines, then shouldn't that be enough of a juxtaposition with her old life to be grounds for re/awakening?
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- {X} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
While I hope I am wrong, I feel like the petting thing is some type of distraction/misdirection. Like it might be an excuse to get close enough to study, examine or even steal either the rings, Ram's tome or Akyuu's manuscript.
>>Keiki nodded. “Our information was much the same. The vehicle in question is… rather strange. Though we only have a few, fleeting images, it appears to be an outside-world vehicle… but it doesn’t match any that I know of from the outside world. So it must be very modern.”
>>The door opened. Kosuzu turned her head to look. “Actually… postmodern would be a much, much more accurate term for it.”
A good chance for Kosuzu to act as she was hired to do.
-{X} Ask what is this vehicle and how do you know about it?
I apologize for not using the right syntax for quoting last time.
>>210016 While I'm not going to talk about all of this discussion (because there's still a lot in this arc yet to be seen), I am going to say that this... kinda misses my personal point in bringing Kosuzu and Akyuu in; having those two, normally non-combatant, roles step up into active incident resolution in at least some sense. And it's particularly something I'm fond of imagining Kosuzu doing.
With that said, my personal hope is that R/R inspires a few stories which take the core premise of "2hus reborn as other species" and go wherever they like with them. I've actually got a couple of wholly different ideas like that myself, as well (as people who've read The Young Girl's Name will recall).
[X] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be definitely a time where she needed comfort.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
>>210016 I didn't really want to get involved in this discussion since people seem to think a lot more critically about what is going on in stories then I do sometimes, but I will say...
> Why should I bother fighting the pyres?
Everything in Gensokyo could perish if you don't at least help. All hands on deck. Besides, what are you gonna do if you don't fight? Stack papers? Plan things out? Akyuu and Reimu can do that better than you can.
Intelligence gathering? You can't do that without being able to fight when things get extra nasty and you can't run. Now we go in circles.
> Reimu and the rest are already so strong and I'll just be dead-weight and get in their way.
Akyuu wasn't strong before this. You don't want to try attaining it just because you didn't have the strength handed to you by your reincarnation? What happened to how eager you were to skill up and get stronger in your last life, then?
This is something that holes can be poked into because it doesn't align with Kosuzu's current characterization at all. Maybe it would be an interesting narrative direction, but not for a CYOA where every other update the narrative needs to come to a halt so we can vote. Things would slow to a crawl if Kosuzu didn't have to deal with any confrontations head-on. Like how Reimu's arc crawled a bit until we met with Keiki.
We might as well skip to the end of her arc and move to the next one, as some other anon pointed out.
>>209982 - {undo} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
I don't know if it's too late, but I changed my mind.
Alright, I'm gonna need a tiebreaker for the write-ins, I guess. they're not fully mutually exclusive, so she will have that one spot between the ears either way, but are we getting pets, or no pets?
- [X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
[X] There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears.
I think a lot can still be done regarding the characterization of Kosuzu. Considering the other arcs, I think there will be plenty of opportunity to course-correct and redefine.
And I think that's mostly what I want out of Kosuzu's story. A lot of what I find fascinating about the concept of this story is how characters react to having lived such a different life, not just with a different upbringing and family, but as an entirely different class of being. I think that's part of this story's thematic - what stays the same? What changes?
And I think that, as the most Youkai-leaning of the characters, Kosuzu makes the most sense to be deeply changed. I think that her priorities and desires in her previous life as a human should not necessarily echo in her life as a Kuda-Gitsune.
Remember, in the first post-background vote, we didn't try to reinforce Kosuzu's desire to be a hero. We focused on her own personal desire and combined it with Tube Fox's sneakiness.
Of course, I don't want to blow off the story. I don't want a Kosuzu who blithely ignores the threat of the Pyres for no reason or doesn't want to help the people she cares about. I don't want a Kosuzu who's a chronic backstabber or a snide villain.
But I do want Kosuzu to be as much of a tube fox as she can and still be a hero. I want a Kosuzu who cares more about helping by being clever and subtle than being a flashy frontliner. I want a Kosuzu that can compensate for the super direct approach of most other Immaterial Children. I want a Kosuzu that can be conniving and mean when she needs to be.
tl;dr, I want a Kosuzu that, if given the option to become more human, would say "No, I don't want to."
Because of this, I actually like the dilemma that others see that Kosuzu's alignment appears to be Kitsune/Kuda-Gitsune rather than Human/Youkai. When her priorities appear to be so far from retaining her humanity that should be concerning to everyone. If her priority is "how can I best help fight the pyres (as a proper incident resolver) then she could easily appear to be mostly healthy to onlookers at a glance, while having vastly distorted priorities.
Kosuzu could even not realize that she doesn't care at all about retaining her human connections, in the vein of only wanting to return to Suzunaan to get access to its books again rather than actually wanting to reconnect with her human family.
Well, I think it'll be fine as long as she doesn't start doing stuff for the evulz. I don't think she'll have lost all care for her family. Ot was seemingly her grandpa who started teaching her about Youkai and got her on the path of youma books. But I think she'll find it more satisfying now, with the chance to spread her wings as a Youkai than when she was just fantasising about being able to make a difference. And her being the trickster of the group could be fun, although Marisa might also end up taking shades of that.
[0] Off the table, completely. It just made Kosuzu uncomfortable.
[23] Situational. Kosuzu did find it comforting at times, and with how stressful this day was shaping up to be, it was definitely a time where she needed comfort. [10] Always allowed. She actually quite enjoyed it. …Hopefully none of the others would see her as weird for that.
-{14} There was a caveat, though. She wasn't some common housepet, she was a majestic and noble fox who allowed others to show respect by grooming. And that meant they had to show extra respect to this one spot between her ears. -{12} But I don't think I want petting from someone I just met.
Kosuzu gave a cheeky grin. “Well… you can, but only if you do it right. I’m a pedigree fox, after all.” Maybe she was a little needy today, but… well, it wasn’t like she’d been the one who asked for it.
“Oh yeah? How’s this do, then?” Ichi grinned back, reaching out to pet her… and immediately zeroing in on the Good Spot. That small spot, just a bit-off center between her ears. Kosuzu cooed, feeling her tail starting to wag. That was genuinely impressive! She hadn’t even known she’d had the Good Spot until about a week of Megumu’s scritches, and Ichi figured it out immediately.
The red-robed woman smiled at her. “Ahhh… there’s something so soothing about petting something cute and fluffy… I’ve missed this fluff.”
Kosuzu looked up. “You’ve… missed it?”
Ichi gave a small, slightly sad smile. “Mmm. I knew a cute little fox a few years back. Nothing softer, in my mind.” She turned to the group. “Right. Enough stalling.”
Yachie nodded, her lips drawn taut. “What do you know of this event, Ichi?”
Ichi reached out, tapping a part of the map. “A few hours ago, a craft known as the Probability Space Vessel came crashing into Keiga territory. It’s a one-of-a-kind craft, with some very, very powerful technology inside it. Including some powerful weapons. More powerful than anything the Haniwa Corps can wield.”
She gave a small smile. “Fortunately, two things work in our favor, there. One, the craft’s a wreck - that boom was its internal engine becoming an external engine. Two, even if it wasn’t, it’s incredibly complicated to operate, only ever made for one specific person.”
Keiki let out a small sigh of relief. “Good thing it’s in Keiga territory, then. They’re probably not going to be able to operate it… at least for a time.”
“Yes… but that’s not the only problem.” Ichi looked down at the map. “The real problem is that the craft was not unmanned. The inventor, a young, human girl, was aboard when it crashed.”
Mayumi gasped. “I-Is she alright?”
Yachie let out a sigh. “Well, if she wasn’t at least functional, then our problems would only be taking a tool the Keiga can’t use off their hands. But if she’s still around, she can be… pressured. Into making less… idiot-proof designs.”
Ichi nodded. “Exactly. So… she needs to be rescued from the Keiga. Urgently so. I can give you the location of where she’s being held - I scouted it out earlier.” She put her finger down, in one spot on the map.
Tsukasa clapped her hands. “Wonderful! Then we just send some haniwa trotting out, and-”
Ichi cut her off. “It’s not going to be that easy.” She turned to the young girls, crowded around one section of the table. “...She’s already terrified. If a bunch of other spirits, or big blocky haniwa show up, then she’ll likely try to run away from them - and could easily end up in even more danger. What we really need… is a few more approachable faces.”
Kosuzu blinked. “Y-you mean Mayumi and Reimu?”
“And you.” Ichi smiled. “After all, Reimu and Mayumi can look pretty human, but you’re outright soft and fluffy. I bet she’ll be drawn to you - she’s gonna need someone like you to be there for her.”
Yachie gave off a venomous glare. “Ichi. Are you absolutely sure these girls need to do it?”
“They need to be the ones to get to her, I’m sure of it.” Ichi said, firmly.
Keiki stepped forward, offering a reassuring hand on Yachie’s shoulder. “I’m sure young Reimu and Mayumi will be good for the muscle. And if a cunning young fox like Kosuzu is with them, that should help round out their… rough edges.”
Kosuzu raised an eyebrow at that, turning to the other two girls. Neither of them met her gaze.
Tsukasa smiled. “Well, I’m sure we can do other things to make their task easier. After all, they’ll need some kind of distraction to sneak in with, right?”
Yachie nodded, after a moment. “...Yes. Especially with their new allies around.”
Reimu groaned. Kosuzu looked over at her, and she elaborated. “A jiang-shi and a blue-haired b- blue-haired witch. That ring a bell?” The fox shook her head, slowly.
Keiki looked down. “They’re relatively fresh faces. Both Gouyoku and Keiga have been looking to bolster their forces, with the Kiketsu and the Haniwa Corps in rough alignment. Gouyoku fished up a tenkajin from who-knows-where, while Keiga’s been courting some taoists - presumably calling on older connections, there.”
Kosuzu gulped. “H-how many of them will be guarding this girl?”
Yachie hummed. “... The particular spot Ichi’s highlighting is pretty far from the crash site. We can realistically create distractions that go where the… Probability Space Vessel? Landed, and split their forces up. Which most likely means that they’ll leave the jiang-shi guarding this young girl, and go to face our distractions themselves. You should be safe from extra interference, at least.”
Ichi’s gaze hardened. “...Mmmm. Hopefully. Just… prepare for the worst, hmm?”
Keiki smiled. “We’ll prepare a transport to get all the girls back safely, once they’re done. That is… if you three are up for it?”
“I was made to protect humans!” Mayumi pumped her fist. “I won’t let you down, Lady Keiki!”
Reimu nodded in agreement. “And… frankly, the thought of those dumb brutes having access to super-weapons is making me ill. We gotta get that girl out of there and send her home.”
Kosuzu took a deep breath... and grinned. “I’m coming too! We’ll get her out of there, I promise!”
The trio had gone just outside the front of the beach house, where both they, and their getaway vehicle, were being prepared. Kosuzu could only hope its driver was more competent than he looked, because he looked like he was about to run screaming from the car at the first opportunity.
Keiki was running some last minute diagnostics on Mayumi’s systems, making sure the haniwa was in tip-top fighting shape. Yachie, meanwhile, was anxiously adjusting the cloak Reimu had donned, and giving the girl a hug - which Reimu seemingly found mortifying.
Tsukasa… had gone to scout ahead.
…that something Kosuzu had pushed down earlier flared up again. A tiny, little voice. She took a deep breath, quietly silencing it again.
“Something wrong?”
The fox turned around. Ichi knelt down next to her, giving a gentle smile.
Kosuzu couldn’t meet her gaze. “...It’s nothing. Nothing I can’t handle.” She turned to look towards where there was still smoke rising in a column. “...I can’t let myself hold Mayumi and Reimu back.”
“What if I said that’s exactly why we need you there?” Ichi said, giving a small smile. The young tube-fox turned to her, confused. “Trust me, when you get out there, holding those two knuckleheads back is gonna be very, very important. They’re gonna need some foxy cunning to get the girl out safely.”
Kosuzu rubbed her arm. “...If you say so.” The fortune-teller chuckled, reaching out and scritching Kosuzu again. The fox wasn’t quite so distracted, this time. “Miss… Ichi? How do you know all this stuff, exactly?”
Ichi smiled. “It’s a tough story to sell at the best of times. In fact, what you know kinda runs counter to my story, at least for now. But… once you bring your young charge back to safety, things will be a lot clearer. I promise.”
Kosuzu nodded. “...Mmm. And anyway, all we’ll have to deal with is one jiang-shi and some wolves, right? I’m sure we can do it.”
Ichi’s face sagged a little. “Hopefully. As long as everyone is doing their part… then a jiang-shi should be the scariest thing you have to face. But… if one of us adults let you down… Promise me you’ll be safe. That you won’t lose hope. Alright?”
Kosuzu gulped, but nodded again. “Yeah, I will. I promise, we’ll be safe.”
Reimu approached the two of them, side-eyeing the soothsayer. “Kosuzu, I wanted to ask something. Would you mind shifting to fox form for the trip?”
Kosuzu raised an eyebrow. “Lemme guess. You want to minimize the body count? Easier for two girls and a fox to hide than three girls.” She hummed. “...I can do it, but if we’re going as the crow flies, I’d need someone to carry me. I can’t fly as a full fox.”
Reimu nodded. “If you’re fine with it… you can climb into my hood. That way, if we get caught in a fight midway, you should be safe without falling out.”
The fox bowed. “As long as you’re fine with it, we can do it for the trip, at least.” She smirked. “Hope you don’t mind a kuda-gitsune possessing you for a bit?”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” Yachie stepped up behind her daughter, looking at Kosuzu. “...It may be worth… talking yourself up a bit.”
The fox tilted her head, as Yachie sized her up. “If you were to call yourself a kuda-gitsune, you’re likely to suggest to anyone you come across that you’re weaker than Reimu and Mayumi. But few can tell the difference between various types of youkai fox, so if we spread claims you're a kitsune, you’ll provoke a much more cautious response.”
“Ah, you were thinking much like me, weren’t you, Yachie?” Keiki was walking over, now. “Taking a fox with no presence in the area, and playing her up a bit?”
Kosuzu turned her head. “Eh?”
Keiki smiled. “You’re an unknown quantity, young fox. Might as well make yourself out to be a big one.” She chuckled. “Well, I was on a slightly different path. I was thinking you might want to present yourself as an Inari - a fox that serves the gods.”
Yachie’s tail flicked. “Now now, she’s using kitsune techniques, is she not? Might as well claim she’s actually a kitsune, no?”
“But she’ll be working right alongside a Shrine Maiden.” Keiki hummed, grinning. “I think a lot of people would quite easily accept an Inari doing that.” She caught Reimu’s glare, and quickly clarified.
The two Animal Realm leaders stared each other down. Kosuzu looked between the others. Reimu and Mayumi seemed just as confused as her that this was some big debate, and Ichi was stifling a chuckle.
Well… it never hurt to play one’s own powers up to one’s enemies. Maybe it was just a little tug of war to get the new recruit going their way? And it might sell Kosuzu as a real partner to the other two, not just their advisor.
[ ] Claim to be a Kitsune.
[ ] Assume the title of Inari.
[ ] Take neither title.
{ } For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
{ } Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
{ } As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either. .
[X] Take neither title.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
There's value in being an unknown, underestimated quantity, I think. This might give us the best chances to take things at our own pace and surprise any foes.
Also, I enjoy the idea of tiny fox Kosuzu hanging around inside Reimu's hood and giving advice like a Zelda companion.
> “A jiang-shi and a blue-haired b- blue-haired witch. That ring a bell?”
might want to check that typo for the AO3 release. I guess it could just be a stutter but it seems off.
Well, unfortunately, with the choices we've made we stand opposed to Seiga. Maybe we can at least get one over on her though. I'd love to obtain her tools for tube foxery. (maybe not the zombie one though. you'd have to be pretty bold to steal her.)
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
Both titles are good, and we are in service (sort of) to Keiki so how much of a lie would Inari be. That said, I feel it'd be more believable that a Kitsune was down in the animal realm than an Inari, just because of its location.
{X} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either. .
All hail the almighty opposable thumbs. Useful for the manipulation of many devices. Considering we are a species known to be manipulators, it only makes sense to value them. (Do not poke holes in my thin justification please.)
[x] Assume the title of Inari.
{x} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
-{X} Think back to the magic coding of the rings and try to work on a basic illusion spell to appear to have more tails on the ride over.
Considering that we're learning kitsune magic, this feels like the option that'd hold up under the most scrutiny, though I'm not fully opposed to the inari option. The important thing is that Yachie and Keiki are right. Considering that Kosuzu's not that strong (yet), it'd be better for her foes to overestimate her instead of underestimate.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
Mmmmmmmmmh, fox time. Comfy is good. Comfy is relaxing. Comfy is cute.
Anyways, I'm thinking back to how Goob said every route for Kosuzu would have a mother or motherly figure, and I'm wondering here. Tsukasa may be Kosuzu's new mom, but she doesn't feel like a very good one. Not to say she doesn't care or that she's abusive or anything. She just seems cold and distant outside of training her, nor does she really have any faith in her. She feels like pre-Reimu arc Yachie but kinda worse 'cuz at least Yachie clearly still cared about Reimu as her kid outside all that. Meanwhile, though, Totally-Not-Yumemi already seems like she's acting surprisingly motherly towards Kosuzu in Tsukasa's absence, and considering the stable time loop in play with her and Chiyuri, I am VERY curious to see what happens when we try to rescue younger Yumemi.
I could be way off base, but that's my read on it this early in so far, at least.
It seems that kosuzu doesn't get much affection from her mother... it seems that she gives priority to her work than to her daughter's happiness...
Regarding the choice both titles are very tempting apart from the possible long term implications once the "rescue" is finished from my point of view.
Between being a Kitsune and appearing to have Ran abilities or an Inari and appearing to have Reimu-like holy abilities.
I'll wait to see more opinions from the chat and some debate on the mystery stat.
I don't particularly mind one or the other, but I do think Kosuzu should take a title.
>> "Maybe it was just a little tug of war to get the new recruit going their way?"
I don't know if this is going to play out later, or at all.
I don't particularly remember any huge difference from the foxes serving Inari from "regular" kitsune.
For what I can remember, the only big differences between "regular" kitsune and Inari's servants, is the amount of tails and that the latter are white foxes, but the powers are more or less the same.
For now, I want to let Yachie have the win since we'll be working alongside Reimu and her aide should show at least a little bit of allegiance to the Kiketsu before anyone else (just in case the tug-of-war does play out something in the future).
But it's really close. Anything said after this post may make me sway to the other option.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
>>210037 Hey! Listen! I hope Reimu doesn't end up "hating" Kosuzu as some Zelda players hate Navi lol
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
If things get too rough, she can also enter one of the many pockets in Reimu's cloak.
hmmm, I'm leaning on a trickster Kitsune interpretation for Kosuzu, but since Kitsune are the broader term it could be clarified later to an Inari later
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
I'm largely in agreement with this, Kosuzu was the most comfortable with possibly being a Youkai in Canon, when Akyuu brought up the possibility of Kosuzu turning into a Youkai from her Youma book reading was to just say that would mean that Akyuu could interview her about being a Youkai. adding onto that her wish entering the Re/Incarnation of hoping to be an incident resolver and yeah, I'd like (and am voting) for mischievous trickster Kosuzu that helps her friends in the sneaky ways and hitting big power through the Kitsune powers she seems to have a chance to get.
now completely ignoring her original family I don't see...
>Keiki was running some last minute diagnostics on Mayumi’s systems, making sure the haniwa was in tip-top fighting shape. Yachie, meanwhile, was anxiously adjusting the cloak Reimu had donned, and giving the girl a hug - which Reimu seemingly found mortifying.
>Tsukasa… had gone to scout ahead.
>…that something Kosuzu had pushed down earlier flared up again. A tiny, little voice. She took a deep breath, quietly silencing it again.
...especially with things like that I do hope that we get motherly Tsukasa scenes for Kosuzu... and from what I directly see with her interactions with Kosuzu 'on screen' is ... well, isn't bad, but not entirely encouraging right now, especially with those reactions from Kosuzu. and if this keeps up, then yeah Imma gonna agree with someone earlier about Marisa feeding Tsukasa a Master Spark.
-----
>Reimu groaned. Kosuzu looked over at her, and she elaborated. “A jiang-shi and a blue-haired b- blue-haired witch. That ring a bell?”
whelp, looks like we do have ol' Seiga as a problem! I hope Keiki and Yachie kicks her butt! (before she inevitably ends up as our final boss or something...)
Also for the ones seeing a character doing something else other than dealing with the Pyres... there's I'd say about 15+ years before the week of fire, there's going to likely be plenty of downtime where there's a gap between one plan to prepare for it an the next where there's room for both official and non-offcial omakes with various combinations of characters doing their own thing. we could get an arc of us being able to see Yachie and Reimu working together with the otters to deal with some animal realm operation. Akyuu and Sakuya being forced to work together on something. Marisa pulling a heist with Kosuzu.
and heck, this is Touhou, any of those arcs could have a couple of the immaterial children facing off in a spellcard duel against each other without it being a betrayal. Youmu could have been tricked or convinced to go against Yachie and thus ends up duelling Reimu. they could just be having fun and trying out each other's spellcards, that sort of thing with the Duel done they just dust each other off afterwards and do as they usually do after an incident.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{x} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
I personally am going to view the Kitsune/Inari choice as being between independence or dependence on Reimu (as Keiki says, claiming to be an Inari inextricably ties Kosuzu's appearance to Reimu). Since the boundary between the three foxes should be fairly malleable between the three for Kosuzu, she should go big and claim to be a big fish and maintain some of her independance.
As for the fox form preference, while I probably could read something in related to the Kitsune/Inari option (Kitsune would almost certainly try to maintain human form at all costs as part of the prestige, while Inari/Kuda-Gitsune would be degrees of more maleable), I'm just going to choose the flex option.
>>210038 pretty sure it was a last second, 'oh there's kids here, might not want to say that' word swap just swap the first letter that was caught off with the first letter of the word that came out instead.
Are we helping a younger Yumemi? I'm pretty sure she's either not born yet, or in the outside world (and tus why would she be in an afterlife, and the animal realm in particular right now?), I saw some people thinking it was Yumemi, but not where they picked that up for sure? for now it seems like we're helping Chiyuri.
I was teetering on the edge of picking it for a while, but this post convinced me.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either. .
I am confident the second choice is some kind of spirit option, and I much prefer trying to go for neutral for more well rounded interactions and I will die on this hill.
[X] Assume the title of Inari.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
Fox cuddles sound fun. Hopefully Seiga isn't too much of a pain, because I certainly didn't expect the Taoists to come in this early.
As for a reason why an Inari might be in the Animal Realm, could always pull the "divine business" card so nobody questions it. After all, who dares to question the Gods amirite? /s
>>210047 >>210049 Pretty sure you're both right. This definitely feels like a spirit choice.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either.
[X] Take neither title.
{X} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either.
>>210038 As I was reading that, I asked myself: "how could you even steal Yoshika? She's an intelligent being who would probably resist being kidnapped at every step of the way."
But, actually, Jiangshi are controlled by the talisman attached to their heads, right? We know Kosuzu understands programming languages, and Reimu has a lovely set of dragon-horn tools for making amulets that could probably be used to write a sufficiently powerful talisman. You see what I'm going for here.
I don't know what we'd do if we reprogrammed her, but maybe she'd be a useful double agent. Or we could just have her as a cheap substitute for a personal shikigami.
>>210046 I'd love to see all 5 immaterial children (or all 6 reincarnators from the start-of-story timeline, or all 8 confirmed reincarnators) get into a duel at some point. Imagine the potential for spellcards...
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
Inari actually sounds more fun to me, but kitsune seems to fit better with what Kosuzu's doing and wants to do.
"The Keiga have brought in masters of the mystic arts, and the Gouyouku found some shut-in somewhere!" Toutetsu, are you even trying? But hell yeah, Yoshika's here! Love Yoshika. Shame we probably aren't in a position to explore the conspicuous hole that is her backstory, though, I love seeing what different authors do with the vague implications and real folklore there. Maybe we can just zombienap her.
Hm, you know, there's a folktale about the historical Miyako no Yoshika being visited by the goddess Sarasvati and composing poems with her can't believe he'd cheat on Ibaraki-Douji like that. Maybe if we cozy up to the gods enough, we can get her to just show up and solve our Jiang-shi problem for us.
>>210054 I think the same, I would like the main characters to have a friendly duel, especially Kosuzu vs Akyuu because they have gained the most powers and also because they are close friends.
I'd like to pick Inari but the other option would suit her because she's learning from Ran's book with her kitsune spells and that would be a good way to convince the enemy.
{X} Claim to be a kitsune.
{X} For the trip, curling up in Reimu's hood sounded pretty good. She always liked those kinds of cozy places.
> “A jiang-shi and a blue-haired b- blue-haired witch. That ring a bell?” The fox shook her head, slowly.
fuck we can't ever escape the doki doki waku waku can we
[X] Claim to be a Kitsune.
{X} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
if inari are supposed to be white, then kosuzu claiming to be one while decidedly not being white might give the ruse up quickly.
>>210048 Yumemi and Chiyuri are already explicitly time travelers doing a stable time loop, as established by one of the Youmu arc epilogues. Add on the suddenly wrecked PSHV (which Ichi/Yumemi watched happen and seemed to have expected), the fact that Go/Chiyuri is probably currently captured at this moment and definitely not on board, and how Ichi said pretty much no one else would be able to figure out how to pilot it, and that means that the pilot has to be one or both of them from before the start of their time loop. Also, "not born yet" is a moot point. They're time travelers: thus, the PSHV can travel through time, and given that it was able to enter Gensokyo, it can cross dimensional boundaries too, which would let it reach the Animal Realm. This wouldn't even be their first visit either, given that PoDD happened earlier (which we especially know thanks to Kotohime last arc). It was also making a crash landing, so this may not even be where she wanted to end up. Also, Ichi explicitly said the inventor was on board, which is almost certainly Yumemi herself (as that's the only interpretation that makes sense for the context of this fic), and she referred to her as "a young, human girl". The only explanation is that it's young Yumemi, likely not long after the events of PoDD, and we're probably gonna see the events that lead to her starting the time loop she's in. Hell, meeting the Immaterial Children here is probably how she learned about The Week of Fire in the first place as she would've had no chance of living long enough during it to escape to the past, due to being fully human.
Also, we can likely surmise that the Ichi/Go time loop is specifically isolated to this timeline, due to their time travel rules being different from Keine's history erasure (anything they do is something they already did, according to Go/Chiyuri in Youmu's arc), and if I'm right about this arc being how Yumemi learns of the Week of Fire in the first place, then it could ONLY happen in this timeline. At least, in this manner.
>>210054 YOU'RE A FUCKING GENIUS! We gotta keep this in mind if the opportunity arises.
unless you're saying that Yumemi and Chiyuri are just different time version of themselves.. we know that the person flying the thing was Go, aka Chiyuri, so she's the inventor, and pilot. she's looking for Yumemi (thus the "strawberry" comment that Saki heard.)
Go is no longer captured as if you look at the latest epilogue, Yukari released her before Suwako could... give her a frog's tongue? I think? some sort of curse.
[X] Take neither title.
BUT -> [X] ONLY IF ASKED, claim to be a Kitsune
She's a proud kuda-gitsune. If she starts calling herself something else, being a being of suggestion, will start believing being something else. Also plays into Yukari's hand and her shinigami plans (she will become a "living computer" and lose her identity...)
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
Comfy.
P.S: Will not answer anybody replying to me since I won't come back to the thread until a new choice is to be made (ie vote).
Kitsune and Inari are both appealing, that's a tough decision. I'll go with Kitsune since that lie is supported by us studying kitsune magic, and might work better if we need to act independently from Reimu.
Cute cuddly animal, on the other hand, could never be a hard decision.
[x] Assume the title of Kitsune.
{x} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
(X) Take both titles and alternate between them to different groups of enemies. Foxes are supposed to be sneaky after all, and if she is ever caught she can just claim to be a messenger between the Dragon Miko and her two fox servants.
{X} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either.
(X) Mention the idea of writing a talisman to interfere with the Jiang-shi's talisman if or when the trio meet her; enough to make her either glitch out or otherwise disable her rather than cause a flashy battle that will get everyone caught.
Apologies for write-ins, but playing both fakes feels more foxy to me, and using her coding knowledge intelligently would play well to Kosuzu's strengths...though tbh I think she'll have to read Yoshika's a bit to make it in the right language.
I'm not so sure that Yukari's actually trying to make Kosuzu a shikigami. Sounded to me like she was just playing along with the assumption to deflect. Feels like if she were actually going for that, she wouldn't be so open about it.
My read on the situation is that the Yakumo clan is looking for someone/something very specific, and trying to ascertain whether or not Kosuzu is that person (or thing). Chen seems to be investigating her (by scent) for reasons unrelated to the Immaterial Children thing and doesn't seem to believe Kosuzu when she says she's a tube fox, for instance.
Yukari's condition for Kosuzu on borrowing the spellbook reads to me as trying to engineer a meeting between Kosuzu and Ran, so maybe whatever they're looking for has something to do with Ran? If I'm not completely misreading the whole situation.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
Foxes like holes. And hoodies are kind of like shallow, clothy holes.
>>210046 Yeah, Tsukasa is not super affectionate. She's kinda treating Kosuzu like a slightly troublesome coworker right now. Best case scenario is that this is her in "work mode" and she's just hyperfocused. But hey, Yumemi might end up being the mum who stepped up for Kosuzu. About the time loop though. I'm wondering why Yumemi came back to Gensokyo at this time. The Hyperspace Tourney has already happened in this TL, and was won by Kothime. In the OG Touhou timeline, Yumemi(and Chiyuri) never came back after Dim Dream. So something about this timeline must have drawn at least Yumemi back in. Maybe something about the hyperspace vessel itself makes it easier to remember other timelines? That could explain how Kotohime could remember timeline B and the Paradox Pair, at least. Unless Kotohime is just built like that.
>>210054 here.
lol, why not? we can bring up the motion.
Adding to my vote.
- (X) Float the idea of replacing the Jiangshi's control talisman to reprogram it to your side of the cause.
I don't know if we could get away with it in-story or if we'd even be allowed to try, but there's no harm in suggesting it to the others.
While I don't think that Mom!Ran is the actual truth (and Shikigami is probably going too far, since Kosuzu's status would prevent many effective holds on her), Yukari manipulating the Boundary between Tube Fox and Kitsune in Kosuzu's favor would help keep Gensokyo alive, so she is going all in to ensure that this outcome happens.
While Yukari is a schemer, it is important to know that generally her priority is to preserve Gensokyo at all costs. An immaterial child having 0 foundation and also having a high affinity for Fox Magic? Thats almost as good as one showing up as a Gap Youkai for Yukari to actually offer support and training.
While I won't speculate much more on this because its still too early in the Arc, I'm wondering if one of the elements adapted from the Buddhist path was the opportunity being offered by Yukari (though obviously it would be the barrier between maneki-neko and bake-neko rather than the barrier between Kuda-Gitsune and Kitsune.
I'm fairly certain that the core part of the timeline we are learning for Kosuzu is the relationship between Ichi/San and the Immaterial children, though it appears that whatever caused them to return to Gensokyo got them roped into arranging for stable timeloops to happen so everything stayed on track. At the minimum Ichi already knows Kosuzu (as much as her obvious lie about the fox being separate is), so Kosuzu could end up going alot of ways right now.
>She hadn’t even known she’d had the Good Spot until about a week of Megumu’s scritches
so she has met Megumu, sounds like something involving something more series than forging a newspaper's business accounts...
>“And that’s assuming [Marisa]’s even the one they saw, right? …I certainly think I’d notice that blonde-and-braids anywhere.”
You never know, she could actually be a redhead right now, that was the hair she had when Reimu first met her.
----
>and Kosuzu found herself under the eyes of the Kiketsu Matriarch once more. Tsukasa, for her part, slithered over to the young Reimu, whose face was crystal clear in her apprehension.
Another point that makes me leery of what's going on with Tsukasa and Kosuzu. She didn't even apparently look at Kosuzu at all, just locked on to Reimu immediately... she hasn't even said a good job or anything for getting the deal to escort Reimu when Tsukasa couldn't... >=|
-----
>Ichi gave a small, slightly sad smile. “Mmm. I knew a cute little fox a few years back. Nothing softer, in my mind.” She turned to the group. “Right. Enough stalling.”
I wonder who that is, if its a character we do know that would leave us...
-probably not Ran, "little" would probably disqualify her on that
- not Tsukasa, that foot stomp says a lot on that, not to mention age
- The Fox that disguises herself as Marisa in WaHH and "helped" Reimu via Tubefoxes (or maybe one of those tube foxes too I suppose.)
- the little fox that was learning in Kiene's school during FS that Kosuzu ends up helping out.
- Kosuzu in the future? might be how Yumemi knew exactly where the spot was?
Granted all of the possible options might be them in the future from before Yumemi came back in time... anyone I am missing?
Ichi knowing the exact location of the "good spot" seems to be fairly indicative that the fox she knew was Kosuzu rather than any of the other foxes. It also explains why she insisted that only Reimu, Mayumi, and Kosuzu go on the rescue operation, since that was how it went the first time (and since Reimu and Kosuzu can change fate, not playing with chance is pretty important for their own survival.)
>>210071 If this is a stable time loop for the dimensional duo (which Chiyuri Go told Yukari) and we're saving a younger Ichi Yumemi, the fox she met a while back could very much be Kosuzu herself, in a couple minutes/hours.
So yes, "Kosuzu in the future" I think is the correct option here.
>“...I see. So the term ‘Paradox Pair’ means nothing to you?”
>“...Sounds like some cringe my boss’d cook up. Wait, you don’t mean me and Ichi, do you?”
---
>“I-I’m serious! I’m charging the, uh, the Crisis Cannon right now! You’re gonna stay back, or else!”
...I wasn't inclined to the theory... but, ah yeah, that looks like it is a ... something something timey Wimey ball Yumemi that has arrived...
yanno looking at her getup in the Touhou wiki, her ensamble resembled the at least shape of Sumireiko's clothing, I wonder if Yumemi knew Sumi (and possibly in that case how she knew about the Animal realm.) or at least attended the same school perhaps? And then (from Chiyuri's reaction in the epilogue.) then later taught Sumi's ...neice? grandneice? (considering that Renko has the same last name.) or descendant of some sort...) and also her best friend.
[X] Assume the title of Inari.
{X} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either. ting last time.
If we are moving with the dragon miko might as well go with the title that fits.
>>The jidiao hissed, pulling out a mask. “Don’t play dumb. Asami found this in Reimu’s room.” She threw it down to the table with a clatter.
>>The sculptor goddess duly inspected the mask. It was a classic kitsune mask, porcelain white with red markings, and its surface was completely unbroken. Keiki looked up at the furious Yachie, and smiled innocently.
>>“Do you like it? Or would you have preferred if I made it a dragon? I could make one for you too, if you like.”
>>“Keiki.”
>>“I made sure to make the ears nice and tall, so when her horns grow in, they’ll still be hidden nicely.”
>>“Keiki.”
>>“And it’ll also stay on her face until she removes it, so her face can’t get exposed for her vigil-”
I know that we got the disguise ring from Chen, but I would love it if Reimu still wore the mask for this mission.
-(X) See if we can get Reimu to wear the dragon miko mask.
There are three things that are still unresolved and I'm wandering around.
The first is that kosuzu mentions a memory of when she was human and that her mother sang a lullaby, which tsukasa seems to have sung something similar when she rescued her.
The second thing would be the settlement in the mountains which is kind of weird to me even reimu didn't know there was such a place unless it's a place restricted only for youkais.
The third is tsukasa was never warned that her daughter is an immaterial children unlike the other families or mother figures even satori had youki as a pseudo messenger.
Although they have already mentioned that they don't know Marisa's whereabouts so they are not going to warn her either.
> The elder fox gently spun her around, walking her home. Kosuzu stumbled, falling out of the entrance of the tube and into the inky blackness below. She was tired, more physically exhausted than she expected from a memory, and as she fell, she heard a song. Gentle, and sweet, sung with a warm heart.
>It sounded… familiar…
the italic parts ends just before the song is heard and
>My… my current mother’s not exactly the type to break into song.
it doesn't sound like Tsukasa was singing at all in the intro, more like it was the final memory Kosuzu had before the Re/incarnation actually kicked off.
---
agreed on the second point... its not anyone we know of, they hate particularly tube foxes very strongly though "restricted to only youkai would depending on the interpretation of touhou mean most of Gensokyo so its not that its hidden from humans, but pretty much everyone.
and for the third point, considering that Yumemi made it a point to stomp on Tsukasa's foot as she passed is probably a big clue. Yumemi doesn't like the fox... and the warning she just gave too...
>Promise me you’ll be safe. That you won’t lose hope. Alright?”
I just dunno, I'm hoping its not as bad as it seems, why do i get the feeling that Tsukasa is going to be playing both sides of this incident and be part of the reason why we get jumped by something greater than a jiang-shi?
Arriving at the Animal HellKosu2024/06/24 (Mon) 23:29No. 210081▼
>> Kudamaki Kosuzu groaned, still half asleep. “Mmmmmngh…”
>> “Hey, come on.” A fluffy tail whapped in her face, startling her and waking her rather abruptly. “No sleeping, alright? From the moment we entered the Animal Realm, we’re on the job, remember?”
>> “S-sorry, Mom. I… It was just so interesting-”
>> Her mother let out a long sigh. “Kosuzu, Kosuzu, Kosuzu… just take this, will you? Something to read other than that treatise of a novel script?”
Sorry this took too long, I think this one turned out great.
I had to correct something and deleted the last post, sorry.
>>210082 Let's not exaggerate shall we? ^_^U
>>210083 Thank you both. I've been trying new stuff, some different things, and I can feel the improvement over the last couple drawings.
Still a long ways to go, but getting there steadily~♫
[X] Assume the title of Inari.
{X} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places.
Y'know, a thought occurred to me, which may be relevant to the "Kosuzu is actually Ran's daughter" idea:
Ran Yakumo isn't a singular entity. She's actually the combination of two entities. "Ran Yakumo" is a shikigami mind inhabiting a youkai fox's body. Yuuma recognises Ran in UDoALG, which would mean that the shikigami mind of Ran was originally from the Animal Realm.
Although, apparently Ran has lived long enough to be able to create Chen as her own shikigami, we're not really sure whether that's Ran Yakumo or the youkai fox underneath. So there's really three options when it comes to the possibilities of Kosuzu's mother:
1) Ran Yakumo is Kosuzu's mother.
2) Ran the beast spirit is Kosuzu's mother, having abandoned her daughter either when she left the Animal Realm or when Yukari approached her for shikigami stuff.
3) The unnamed kitsune who would become Ran's body is Kosuzu's mother. Tamamo no Kosuzu?
All of these options reflect somewhat poorly on Ran and/or Yukari, with Ran either abandoning her daughter by herself, being ordered to abandon her daughter by Yukari or "killing" Kosuzu's mother by possession and leaving her effectively an orphan.
As for the possibility of Kosuzu somehow being a pipe-fox regardless of being a kitsune or beast spirit, there's no reason why she couldn't have been raised and taught how to do pipe-fox things despite not being a kuda-gitsune.
there's one more option that ties into the theory that >>210078 had: that the village that hates tube foxes is Mayohiga, which makes the intro into the arc even more tragic:
they hate tube foxes because one (AKA Tsukasa) kidnapped Kosuzu the Kitsune Kit, but Ran and Yukari couldn't find her when they checked the suspects afterwards because all they found from the biggest suspect was Tsukasa raising a Kuda-gitsune kit (if they found any sign of Kosuzu at all), not a Kitsune. it might be why Yukari had Ran make the primer, they had Kosuzu already in mind when it was started.
but that also means that their lost child had stumbled right back to them.. but then got caught in the test tubes, shaken about and discarded because they only thought it was one of the Tube foxes...
though... why would Mayohiga have a bunch of glass test tubes around...?
>>210090 If it was Yukari/Ran that punished Kosuzu, wouldn’t she be afraid of them? She had no real reaction to Yukari as a clearly-traumatised girl would, and she said she’s never met them in this life.
The idea of Tsukasa managing to kidnap baby Kosuzu from Mayohiga, get away with it, and then develop a big-brain scenario that would prevent Kosuzu from being retrieved feels a little contrived.
I guess it's not completely outside the realm of possibility, but it doesn't strike me as likely without significant support from some powerful third party.
>>210092 yeah, that's what I'm thinking too, Yukari, Ran, and Chen do not have any sort of test tube thing going on, Tsukasa Does.
But sadly it could still in fact be the greater tragic explanation, Yukari and co, might've used test tubes as the trap to be ironic in their attempt to go after Tsukasa if she tried getting in again, and just didn't realize that it was Kosuzu in there rather than a random minion of Tsukasa. if that is the case and Chen both hears of Kosuzu's tale, and relays it back... oh that's gonna hurt all three of them...
I will say that I am generally skeptical of the Ran!Mama theory, but if it does turn out to be true it would be very tragic.
Of course, I have no idea what chain of events would cause Tsukasa to think its a good idea to steal the child of an actual Kitsune (even a shikigami that would be somewhat restrained). That its instead an intentional hand-over works slightly better, but still leaves more questions than answers on why Tsukasa/Ran maintained the charade (unless it was instead done to keep Kosuzu from Yukari. As much as I will defend Yukari's intentions, she would totally shikigami Kosuzu if she didn't have anything else to put on the table.)
Granted, I still believe that Yukari's goal is to change Kosuzu into a Kitsune proper (or as close as boundary shenanigans would allow). I actually wonder if Yukari would try to make Human!Kosuzu the shikigami of Fox!Kosuzu (if its even possible). That would also explain alot of the fishy behavior with the apparent hints being dropped while giving Kosuzu a legitimate advantage that other immaterial children have with raw experience.
>>My mother was starting to give me a bit more reign, but… there are some places I’m never, ever supposed to go. [...] I was always told that I was supposed to keep far, far away from it, but one day… I went to check it out. Sneak over and see what I was like.”
>>Reimu’s look sharpened. “...What happened?”
>>“Well… I was caught. And… and I was punished.” Kosuzu shuddered.
Caught by who? Punished in what sense, to leave her so emphatic that she deserved what she got and learned her lesson from it?
>>“Hey, the people at that settlement - want to give them a bit of payback?”
>>Kosuzu blinked. “Payback?”
>>“Yeah. Why don’t we go and raise a bit of hell there when we get topside?” Reimu gave a toothy grin. “I’m sure if they’re treating tube-foxes that poorly, they’re gonna be guilty of something else. Probably got some big secrets to hide.”
Counting to >>210096:
Main Choice #1: [18] Claim to be a Kitsune. Note that this includes >>210057, >>210063, >>210085, >>210088. [8] Assume the title of Inari.
[3] Take neither title.
[1] Take both titles and alternate between them to different groups of enemies. Foxes are supposed to be sneaky after all, and if she is ever caught she can just claim to be a messenger between the Dragon Miko and her two fox servants. (>>210064)
Main Choice #2: {19} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places. {6} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
{5} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either...
Potential Additions: For "Claim to be a Kitsune": -{1} Think back to the magic coding of the rings and try to work on a basic illusion spell to appear to have more tails on the ride over. (>>210040)
For "Take neither title": -{1} If asked, claim to be a Kitsune. (>>210062)
Apologies for the modifications :/
Miscellaneous Additions: -{1} Mention the idea of writing a talisman to interfere with the Jiang-shi's talisman if or when the trio meet her; enough to make her either glitch out or otherwise disable her rather than cause a flashy battle that will get everyone caught. (>>210064)
--{1} Float the idea of replacing the Jiangshi's control talisman to reprogram it to your side of the cause. (>>210069)
-{1} See if we can get Reimu to wear the dragon miko mask. (>>210075)
For future votes, please don't just combine choices together like this: "[x] Assume the title of Kitsune". It's much easier on me (and possibly Gooboi if he's double checking) if you just vote normally instead... :/
Of course, I will still count write-ins, but less confusion is generally better.
>>210093 she never made it into the village, and being shaken after being picked up with a bunch of other test tubes means that she was likely too disoriented to be able to see who it was that had picked her up and discarded her tube.
Now I don't know if it is Yukari/Ran thinking its a Tsukasa minion and it turning out to be her daughter, Tsukasa doing it to scare her into not approaching Mayohiga, or if I'm wide off the mark withthis line of thought and its not either group and instead someone that will pop up later... I'm still a little hopeful we'll be able to get some MomKasa moments like with Yachie... but if something fishy is going on, well I still look forward to reading it!
-{X} Think back to the magic coding of the rings and try to work on a basic illusion spell to appear to have more tails on the ride over.
--{X} Float the idea of replacing the Jiangshi's control talisman to reprogram it to your side of the cause.
First: avoiding fights by looking like a bigger fish than you are is a tried and true tactic. Let's hope no one calls that bluff, if Kosuzu can even pull it off. Second: well, I did say I was interested in stealing Yoshika. If someone comes up with a plausible plan to pull it off, I'm kinda obligated to support it, right?
[UNDO] Claim to be a Kitsune.
[X] Take both titles
In my case, not to be more cunning/sneaky (inconsistent false identities is, if anything, less sneaky. Creates unnecessary weak points in both disguises), but because I think foxes are foxes. I don't think the lines between different flavours thereof are as hard as they seem, and in any case, Kosuzu's already got a start on crossing the boundary between boundary between kudagitsune and bakegitsune/youko. Why not get greedy and gun for holy and monstrous at the same time?
>>210103 Thank you! Kosu asked me to come up with an idea and to do that animation, for now I need a lot of practice and improvement in graphic design and animation.
It's worth noting that is seems like 'Crisis' probably comes from before Dim. Dream.
> Her ship is called the Probability Space Vessel, not the Probability Space Hypervessel - likely an earlier model/prototype
> Saki guesses she's maybe a bit younger than Reimu - Yumemi in Dim. Dream is 17, whereas Crisis is probably 10-12
[17] Claim to be a Kitsune. [8] Assume the title of Inari.
[5] Take neither title. (Or both equally..)
{19} For the trip over, cozying up in Reimu’s hood sounded quite nice. She always liked those sorts of snuggly places. {6} Well, one did as one had to, sometimes. She didn’t particularly mind going into fox form, but she didn’t mind staying out of it, either.
{5} As soon as she could, she was hopping out. She much, much preferred the power of opposable thumbs, and she wouldn’t be able to read much on the way, either.
-{1} Mention the idea of writing a talisman to interfere with the Jiang-shi's talisman if or when the trio meet her; enough to make her either glitch out or otherwise disable her rather than cause a flashy battle that will get everyone caught.
--{1} Float the idea of replacing the Jiangshi's control talisman to reprogram it to your side of the cause.
“We-ell…” Kosuzu gave a small grin. “If I’m already sneaking around, the only time someone would be able to tell is if they caught me halfway through a keyhole, right? Might as well go big, and call myself a kitsune.”
Keiki pouted, while Yachie put on a small, satisfied grin. “If people end up asking, we’ll spread word you’re a proper youko, then.”
Reimu and Mayumi shrugged, the former pulling out a mask of a kitsune. Kosuzu switched over to her fox form, jumping up on a proffered arm to curl around Reimu’s neck.
Reimu glanced at her passenger, seeming… a little uncertain. “Uh… comfortable?”
Kosuzu snuggled in. “Yep! Very comfortable.” It was always nice finding a little warm spot to snuggle into, and snooze in. And there was probably no place safer than with Reimu in the entire animal realm.
Instinct has risen to +1.
Mayumi nodded. “Then it’s time to move. I’ll make sure the Immaterial Children come back safely.” The three figures nodded, and with that, the girls were off.
Ichi watched them go, sighing. “Right - I’m sure we’ve all got places to be?”
Keiki raised an eyebrow. “I mean, me and Yachie will be coordinating attacks. What will you be doing?”
The fortune-teller watched the trio go. “Me? Oh, nothing all too significant. I can’t fight the inevitable.” Her expression hardened. “...But… with luck, I can understand it.”
“I was thinking.” Reimu turned her eye to look at the fox. “We’re gonna be facing a jiang shi, right?”
They were now flying over the Haniwa territory. They were going to get fairly close to the nearest border crossing, and then make the jump into the Keiga's home turf.
Reimu nodded. “Most likely. Why do you ask?”
Kosuzu hummed. “I was just thinking… How much do jiang shi work like shikigami? Because, maybe we can… reprogram her, or something?”
“Mmmm… maybe. But the problem is where the talisman is.” Reimu tapped her forehead. “It’s right in biting range, and that’s the one thing we don’t want.”
The fox gave it more thought. “...What if we gave her a second talisman? Like a shikigami one? Could you make something like that, Reimu?”
“...I don’t think so.” Even through the mask, Kosuzu could see Reimu’s expression shift. “I’m… no good at making shikigami.”
Mayumi turned to Reimu. “...You’ve tried to make one before?”
The jidiao nodded. “...Yeah. And it didn’t work. It was… right before the very end, last time. When Aunn stopped moving.”
Kosuzu adjusted herself a bit. “...Now that you mention it, she was pretty… off that morning.”
“Mmmm. She was shutting down… losing her power and reverting back into a statue.” Reimu’s gaze was distant. “I… I panicked. Tried everything I could - even making her a shikigami. But… it didn’t work. She stayed still.”
She gave a hollow chuckle. “I got pretty desperate. Did more than I should have to try and make it stick. …For all I know, maybe she was just preserving herself, and would have recovered if I didn’t screw her up. Or maybe my meddling just attracted one of the Pyres to her. But… whatever happened, the next time I saw her, she was torn to pieces.”
Kosuzu nuzzled her friend. “...You can’t blame yourself for that, Reimu… There might just not have been enough power left to revive her.”
Reimu’s voice was still glum, “Hah, maybe my talismans are the right trick. Just seemed to doom Aunn, maybe it’ll doom the jiang shi, too.”
Kosuzu straightened up a bit, trying to think of a way to change the topic. “A-anyway! What’s the difference between a jiang shi’s programming and a shikigami’s programming? It can’t be the exact same, right? For that matter, how does a haniwa compare?”
Mayumi caught on quickly. “Well, each has their specific use case, at least as a tool. Jiang shi programming tends to be fairly crude and simple, and it has to be, because the bodies they’re running are either corpses, broken-down and only partially functional, or unwilling victims. Complexity only makes it more likely to not work as intended. You can’t expect much of them, but they’re also the least likely to do something unexpected. Good for being muscle, but not much else.
“If you don’t like the idea of creating something so clunky -” Kosuzu quietly noted Mayumi’s assumption that the primary issue she might have with necromancy was of a functional nature - “You can create a dedicated frame for them, rather than puppeteering a corpse. And because it’s made for them, you can get a bit more sophisticated with the programming - giving them more thought and independence. Haniwa are like that, but because we’re the only things in our frames, we have to dedicate a good amount of our resources to actually running our bodies. So the more ‘alive’ you make a construct, the more of its resources you have to dedicate to running itself.” She smirked. “If you want to make a powerful haniwa, you need other sources of some form - like the faith of the human spirits.”
Reimu spoke up, at last. “If you want to get the full processing power, you do what Yukari does - you embed a shikigami into a living youkai. That way, the Youkai’s mind will instinctively manage things like its bodily functions, leaving the shikigami to dedicate itself to processing. But the counterpoint to that is that a shikigami like that is relatively hard to control. A shikigami that someone doesn’t want is just like a weak jiang shi - largely resisted by the youkai.”
Reimu reached up, stroking Kosuzu’s chin. “Yukari said that the secret to a good shikigami is that you need to make the shikigami to be… as closely-aligned to the youkai’s wants as possible while still serving its purpose. So close that the two can lose any sense of distinction between them - obviously a lot easier if the youkai host is already a loyal, competent servant. You can see it in Ran and Chen, even - the reason why Ran’s such a powerhouse is because she’s a naturally dutiful, inquisitive person, while Chen is… well, a cat, so she’s a much patchier shikigami.”
Kosuzu thought back. “Now that you mention it… I remember a story about Ran calculating the length of the Sanzu River because she was bored?”
Reimu raised an eyebrow. “...Really? Well, I guess my point is that’s the sort of question even a non-shikigami Ran would really ponder. She just wouldn’t be able to come up with a real answer for it.”
“I see…” Kosuzu folded her paws over, humming. “...But thinking about that, it’s probably a good thing Aunn didn’t move, right?” Reimu blinked, as Kosuzu continued. “If she’d managed to move despite that, that might have just meant she was acting more like a jiang shi. Her not moving just means Reimu’s was a gentle program, right?”
Reimu frowned. “...I guess…”
Kosuzu snuggled up to her. “And for that matter… I’ve never met her myself, but surely Akyuu’s told you Aunn’s a shikigami this time, too? She’s - well, my mother always told me she was annoying and a pain, but I know her well enough to know that just means Aunn’s really faithful and thorough. Hard to mess with, you know?”
Mayumi nodded emphatically. “Everything you told me about Aunn tells me she’d make a very willing shikigami to a good master. I don’t think the Aunn you knew back then would have minded you trying to save her that way.”
Reimu… gave a small smile. “...Thanks for trying to cheer me up, girls.” She took a deep breath. “...Alright! We’re gonna have to cut the convo here, we’re entering enemy airspace. No more talking, not even a white fox’s wicked whisper.”
Kosuzu chuckled, but dutifully quietened down. Perhaps she could spend some time trying to think of a way to make illusory tails? When it came to selling a lie, go big or go home, right? …It really was cozy in Reimu’s hood. So cozy, Kosuzu could almost feel herself drifting off… Not! She wasn’t gonna sleep in the middle of a mission, even if she was still a bit tired from obsessing over the manuscr… no!
The fox fought back a yawn, trying to hold herself together. Come on, she couldn’t fall asleep on her first serious mission! All she had to do was wait for a little bit… in the snuggliness of Reimu’s hood- ah, no, now Reimu was petting her, slowly and gently, and… and it wasn’t helping at all! No, no, she wouldn’t fall asleep, she wouldn’t, she, she…
…She.
Would…
…Not…
…fa…
Aware we've autosaged, but I'm gonna start the next thread with this update's part 2.
Hope you don't mind me hijacking your jiang shi question to give some Shikigami Lore (tm)
interesting discussion on the various types of magical constructs! even if one of us actually programming a new control scheme into Yoshika is out of the question, I'm happy to have some more info on how things tick. you never know when a tidbit might come in handy.
Assuming Aunn being a shikigami isn't just Yukari and Okina actually working together to preserve Gensokyo given that Haru wasn't actually strong enough to do her duty, I actually like this explanation. It also fits in with Reimu having bizarre interactions with Keine's abilities that led to different outcomes.
Would that make the shikigami spirit working in Aunn also Aunn? Are we actually dealing with Aunn^2?
I imagine Haru wasn't too happy to learn that the Komainu statue is a youkai, but Aunn does legitimately work to help out (and she seems to be doing at least an acceptable job at it).
Shikigami Lore™ is always a good time. Besides, it brings up a valid point about the idea, being that we would have to actually get in biting range of a Jiangshi. Maybe if we served her a steaming hot plate of animal spirits she'd get her mouth full?
Or even better, "Fox Sign - What in the world can that be?!"
Kosuzu points behind her target and calls upon centuries of vulpine trickery, calling out "Look! A distraction!" If the target properly turns around, they are clobbered in the back of the head by a heavy book and hopefully knocked out.
"Exploiting one of the classic blunders. Other effective callouts include the sighting of a three-headed monkey or a Tsuchinoko."
>>210113 made me chuckle. but as for the first part you bring up an actually good point. Could Yoshika eat animal spirits? She's rather infamous for consuming spirits in TD. And what is the upper limit on spirit power? Could she eat, say... Junko?
>>210120 Depending on how efficient (and large) you want your Bad Apple to be, you could do it in one incredibly long command, but that's no fun.
So, here's how we're going to do this. First off, we need the frames. At a cursory glance, we don't appear to have any form of array or anything, so we're going to need a lot of zombies. 6,570, to be exact. We could probably do it in less but I'm not counting out how many monoblack frames there are.
We'll format these thousands of undead like so:
FrameOne is a zombie
summon
remember "the entirety of bad apple's first frame in ASCII format goes here"
bind
Repeat for every single frame. I suggest bringing a friend or two along, it will take a long time to write all of these down on each individual jiangshi talisman by yourself.
Now that we have 6,569 zombies and the local graveyards in the surrounding continent have been picked clean, we need one to manage them.
So there you go! 6,570. One zombie for each individual frame, one zombie to groan it out for you in ASCII, and probably a couple of incident resolvers who aren't happy about your army of the accursed as a bonus.
The Prismrivers are free-willed undead
summon
remember "insert a text-based version of sheet music for Bad Apple here"
play moan
animate
Play is a necromantic order of my own invention. Commanding an undead to "play" is a lot like commanding one to "say", except they will attempt to output it musically rather than groanishly.
>>210124 The Prismrivers aren't undead. They're more like robots, being artificial constructs created by Layla to replace her lost sisters after they all went their separate ways.
>>210125 okay, yes, they're not really undead but they're close enough to spirits to fit the joke and probably interface with zombie programming.
If you're going to poke holes in anything, go for the fact that I'm trying to fit over 30,000 lines of code on the forehead of a single jiangshi, would you?
However I will concede the point that it is not literally correct. I will work to correct such errors for the sake of all zombie-based programming endeavors going forth.
>>210127 We had a thread where we didn't have to worry about hitting autosage and a chapter's worth of discussion on the computational mechanics of magical entities as an inspiration. It was practically an inevitability.
Never underestimate the Internet. They can be rather koncerning at times. But don’t worry, I’m konfident you can handle it, so I hope you don’t mind me konfiding a couple of koncepts with you. Actually I probably shouldn’t, I don’t want to break your koncentration on writing, the konecctions you make between these characters kontinue to be really nice. Plus I suppose there’s only so many things you can konceivably konceal from us even without the thread throwing ideas at a wall, so I should probably konclude my post now.
>>210128 We can take this thread of discussion and turn it back into valuable resources for the Yoshika-Conversion-Plan. I haven't given up on the YCP despite the chapter pointing out the blatant flaws in it.
Since rewriting the talisman would clearly require thousands of other zombies, it wouldn't be efficient to use them all to control one jiangshi. Instead, we'll reanimate a horde of zombie inchlings, whose smaller size will allow them to fit under her hat all nice and snug for far less managerial labor.
The next problem we'll have to face is how to actually attach the talisman. This one is simple too: we'll have to rescue Crisis, build a new time machine, go back to when Layla was alive, make her create a bunch of poltergeists, travel back to the recent past before Crisis was rescued, feed Yoshika the poltergeists, and swap out the talisman while she's busy eating.
Of course, just because Kosuzu knows how to read programs doesn't mean she knows how to write a jiangshi script all on her own. To remedy this, we'll need to study one. How will we obtain a jiangshi in order to obtain a jiangshi? Simple: if you remember, we have a time machine from the previous step after already completing the mission we're trying to get this jiangshi for. We'll just go back in time to the Youmu vote and convince people to vote for the Miko route, thus giving us a Pegasus Youmu who is allied with Seiga and by proxy Yoshika. We'll take Pegasus!Timeline Yoshika back to the normal timeline and carefully study her programming, learning everything we need to know. Then we can take the poltergeists to main timeline Yoshika and then return Pegasus!Yoshika to her own timeline.
Now, I know what you're thinking. How are we going to build a time machine in the first place in order to get these poltergeists and alternate timeline immaterial children? Simple! We'll just need to be a kappa. How will we be a kappa if we're a fox? We find Keine, and have her send Akyuu back in time to tell us to become a kappa and then to tell our kappa selves to go down to the animal realm and build a time machine with that timeline's Crisis so they can bring it to our timeline.
Simple, right? We just defile the corpses of thousands of inchlings, find Keine, have her send someone else back in time with information so that we can use that information to build a machine to send ourselves back in time with information to make somebody else go back in time and use that information to ally ourselves with the person we're trying to ally ourselves with and study her, as well as claim an incredibly high number of poltergeist sacrifices to feed to the person we're trying to ally ourselves with so that we can replace her brain with those inchlings so that we have a solution to a problem we've already solved twice now.
>>210117 Technically 1 if we have yoshika eating divine spirits continuously or is wired in a Shinto shrine as they are the most popular in gensokyo generathing faith in this timeline.
>>210127 Well we have a shikigami computer theme, sooner or later they will talk about how to build a yoshika that can run Doom. 2016.
Something terrible just occurred to me. Earlier in this thread, we had a challenge that required essentially perfect inputs. Right now, we're standing on top of a turtle's shell to get altitude.
Kaizou/Kosuzu is actually living up to its name.
Maybe she could manage it if you let her go ham on Former Hell, the Beast Realm and Hakugyokurou. Although, I think the irony of Yuyuko potentially being eaten might cause the Black Pyres to come back or the timeline to rupture.
While we wait for the next thread, what would you like to see drawn next? I do have a couple ideas but I want to hear others to keep in mind.
I'm currently at work but I've got one drawing at 50% complete (more or less) that I plan to finish today if I can make time for it.
