[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

Stand up for yourself, Kosuzu! You're you, you know this is you! And if she doesn't believe it, drill it into her skull until she finally does!

Both of these options are still centered on what would make Tsukasa most happy. Not sure I like that, but I don't know what to do about it with a write in that would seem natural.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

I don't think we'll see any arguments to go for the other option, but I'll be reading just in case.

[x] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

Honestly I think that this disbelief of Tsukasa’s in the existence of the IC is actually pretty useful for Kosuzu, as it means that she doesn’t believe their to be any reason for Kosussy to have any loyalties to anyone but her. This means that she will probably be more open to sharing parts of her plans with her.

Knowledge is power & as such keeping the knowledge of the truth of ICs out of the hands of someone as untrustworthy as Tsukasa is probably worth it.

Finally we are shown what Tsukasa is like with Kosuzu and I think many people will think the same thing that she doesn't care much about the alliance and is already thinking about somewhere else to go, even selling information about Reimu... besides, she doesn't seem to have realised that Yukari is already in the animal realm helping with various things with Yachie and the alliance in addition to keeping an eye on Tsukasa possibly to find out more clues about the kidnapping.

Regarding the options

Telling him that everything about the IC really happened is a bit difficult but Tsukasa could also reveal some relevant information about Kosuzu's past or another secret and give more space for Kosuzu to help Reimu, but on the other hand Kosuzu may also say something that will make tsukasa find out that they are discovering her lie that she is not her mother and she could be even more cautious.

Not telling him can be useful, as they already mentioned, having important information that Tsukasa doesn't have, it will also make it seem like she still controls Kosuzu and the situation in general, apart from the fact that she can share information with Reimu's group, although I don't see any problems, I'm worried that there will be a "BUT" in the situation.

the theory that Tsukasa kidnapped Kosuzu because she was an IC is now hardly credible.

Although I am more inclined to vote for the second option, I will wait to see more opinions.

>>211133 forgot to vote

[x] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

Oh Tsukasa, if you really think that the alliance would fall apart without Reimu present, you still don't understand the actual root of the alliance...

But then again, I don't think anyone would realize that Reimu is the kid of both faction heads, that was always going to be fairly unbelievable

Anyway, while I could construe that the second option is more likely to keep Tsukasa unaware if she is going to betray the Kitketsu, I also want to give her a chance to not make the massive mistakes she is planning to make.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

If she says that something bad is going to happen, It because something really really bad going to happen

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Tsukasa needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

Assuming she still doesn't know Yukari's around, I wonder if name-dropping her would be useful at some point. Of course it would have to make sense in story so that it doesn't seem too meta.

Hm, interesting. On the one hand, Kosuzu standing up for herself and insisting she’s really an IC is probably better for her mental state and character development, but on the other hand, it gives Tsukasa important information and alerts her that Kosuzu’s growing without her “help”.

I’m not sure on this one. Leaning a bit towards standing up for ourselves, since I think things are about to go wrong no matter what, but that’s meta gaming it.

Keeping Tsukasa out of the loop seems like the tactical decision... but Kosuzu doesn't seem to be thinking about tactics right now.

Honestly, I think I feel like taking a page of Tsukasa's book: telling her what she wants to hear, then reporting to Yacchie & co. about her skepticism regarding the whole Immaterial Children thing.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Tsukasa needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

OK, there are good points on both sides. This might be a bit hard…Mmmmmmmmmm…

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Tsukasa needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

> Perhaps hearing she ended up with the girl who should be the Hakurei has her bending over backwards to indulge her.”

>“Hearing she was meant to be the Shrine Maiden must have broken the little girl’s mind. All this talk about the IC’s time traveling is simply delusional.”

that is an interesting bit of info that fills in a gap pointed out by >>211110 :

>I am now of the belief that Shirohime is not Tsukasa, but is instead either an accomplice or the one who hired Tsukasa to kidnap Kosuzu. And Tsukasa raised Kosuzu either because she wanted to or because she was ordered to. Part of the reason I am thinking this is Shirohime should know that Kosuzu is an Immaterial Child (from the spell) but Tsukasa either didn't or pretends she didn't know that.

So Tsukasa acknowledges the Immaterial Children incident… but only the part where the children that were supposed to be born human have been born as Youkai instead. Not the time travelling part. Which explains how Tsukasa could be Shirohime and yet disdain the explanation about the immaterial children, if she is Shirohime, then she should be the third/fourth person behind Yukari and Ran, (with Kosuzu’s grandfather being the other third/fourth person.) to know that the missing children were being born as Youkai.

>Now, let’s just hope you don’t screw it up again, hmm?

>=(

On top of that, a little interesting quirk I noticed.

Tsukasa keeps referring to Kosuzu as koko, so something along the lines of “little-little”

Compared to Yukari who largely changes the name to “Suzu” or “bell”

anyways , for the vote… I wonder if this is the vote to determine which boss we are going to face:

So in Arc 1 we had the choice of Yuuma or Saki

Arc 2 was between Remilia and Komachi

Arc 3 was the Tengu Horde vs. Suwako

I am pretty sure Arc 4 is going to be between Seiga and/or Saki, vs. Tsukasa

Who are the rest of ya interested in facing?

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

Kosuzu still probably has some trust in her mother, and the week of fire is really important. And not something Kosuzu would think she would need to hide, I think anyway.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

>>211134
well... If Tsukasa gets into trouble we can try to help her apart from making Kosuzu happy.

[UNDO] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

:3

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

Sliding along with Tsukasa's greasy plans hasn't helped, and telling her 'no' to her face ought to shore up Kosuzu's confidence.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

I've decided. This will have bad consequences, and is potentially still Kozuzu reacting to how to make Tsukasa happy, but this is a step in the right direction.

Counting to >>211150:
Main Choice:
[13] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.
[4] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

:3

Mm, this is murky. Kosuzu isn't thinking about risks or benefits, she's thinking about her relationship with her mom, so it's hard to evaluate what we're given clearly.

But I just can't see the "honest" route being a good idea here. I don't know that Kosuzu is even able to convince Tsukasa of the truth, but either way the main thing Tsukasa would learn is that she isn't Kosuzu's biggest loyalty anymore. Getting Tsukasa any more interested in the IC thing doesn't seem helpful either, nor does potentially giving out more information about them.

Also, while both options are framed around Kosuzu wanting to please Tsukasa and all... I can definitely understand interpreting it differently, but to me the first option actually seems more dependent. There's a desperation to convince her mom out of unnamable dread and the worry that mom won't let her help more. To me at least it doesn't seem like a confident affirmation, it feels like not being able to get Tsukasa on her side just scares her, because she lacks confidence to go against her. The second option is definitely still focused on making Tsukasa happy, but at least "She wanted to show off how much she'd grown" is a little more amenable to building self-confidence, and it lends a little more to the experience of having her own stuff going on without Tsukasa, and watching her be wrong!

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

>>211152
When you put it that way…

[UNDO] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

>>211152
Fair points.
[UNDO] Make things clear, urgently. Tsukasa needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.
[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

[X] …No, not now. For now… her mother was happy. She wanted to enjoy this. She wanted to show off how much she’d grown.

I've actually written most of the update already, so... I'mma call the vote here, sorry.

[X] Make things clear, urgently. Her mother needed to believe that they were really reincarnators. If she couldn't convince her of that, it... it'd be really, really bad.

Both options are high risk options. Not telling Tsukasa now will sabotage any good will she has on us (if any) if/when she finds out later. Telling her now risk her betraying us now, a fight starting now or her not helping out or start lying to us (if she thinks she can't trust us anymore). The main thing here is when do we want Tsukasa to betray us now or later (if she does).

My current feel on her thoughts is she trust us because of the parent/child dynamic that currently exist, even if it was created just to raise Kosuzu. Everything Tsukasa has done is to control the situation as best as she can, she doesn't trust anyone other than herself and a little bit Kosuzu, which is why she is talking about her plans to us now. Her reaction after she learns the truth will be telling about how she really feels about Kosuzu especially now that we have a chance to catch her off guard.

This is also most likely a part of Yukari and/or Yachie's plan. The fact that Ysukasa feels safe enough to plot in this room because Yachie used it to "hide info from" Keiki tells me that this is a trap for her.
From: >>211127
>>The little voice in her head rumbled. Besides, your redirect nearly got us caught. She shook her head to push it away, looking ahead. “Where are we going?”
>>“A room that’s out of sight for the Haniyasushin. Or at least, Yachie thinks it is, and that will have to do for us.” The steps they were following were… rather familiar to Kosuzu. But… honestly, that was to be expected. Neither of them had been here too long.
>>Sure enough, the room they went into was the same one Tsukasa had been chewed out in before. “Just to be safe…” The elder fox did a scan of the room.
From >>211098
>>The gap sage bowed. “Counter-insurgency is a vital tactic in matters like this. And… let’s just say that Tsukasa is a bit of a subject of interest.” The gap slid down, revealing her body in full.
From: >>209685
>>“...Right. So a bunch of Tengu swarmed over the human village, huh?” Reimu scowled. “And how exactly was your mom a part of it?”
>>“W-well…” The fox felt a drop of sweat trickle down her face. “A-a cloaked figure in wh-white came up to Lady Iizunamaru, right? A-and she said there was an Immaterial Child - the Samurai, so I guess Youmu? - in the human village. And my mom, sh-she uh… she encouraged Iizunamaru to do a full investigation.” The fox felt Reimu’s eyes turn to her, then close, taking a deep breath. “...We stopped by the village to see the results, and then we came down here. So we’d be out of the way when the blowback came. P-please don’t be mad…”
A room that she thinks is "safe" from bugs from one of the factions is the perfect bait to try and get her to spill the beans on what she knows. If we pretend to not be an IC she will likely tell us more of her current plans, if we correct her on us being an IC she might spill more of what she knows about the ICs including 1) Why was Tsukasa and Megumu are interested in the ICs in the first place. 2) Kosuzu's past (from Tsukasa's perspective) to a lesser extent might be partially spilled here. 3) We might get a suspect of who Shirohime was, if Tsukasa lets loose a name after being told (not too likely but a chance).

Of course I am most likely overanalyzing/over rationalizing here.

I forgot to refresh before posting, can't believe I spent over an hour on my last post

ladies and gentlemen can now use master spark on tsukasa's face

>She looked up, slowly, her heart beginning to beat frantically in her chest. The test tube… the test tube was there, in her mother’s hand.

>Kudamaki Tsukasa spoke, in a voice that was almost sing-song.

>“Koko? Koko dearest?” She smiled, sweetly. “Koko… you don’t need another lesson, do you?”

And another piece locks into place, Tsukasa just admitted to being the one who trapped Kosuzu in the test tube outside Mayohiga!

Though... It doesn't seem that she knows that Yukari has been in play here the entire time... So who was the one spying in the library...?

Hopefully Kosuzu has 2 groups nearby here, Yukari (and possibly Chen.) And Yumemi trying to return the pin.

Though on that first group, i wonder if Chen listening is going to connect the dots on why her little sister was so shaken when Chen was stirring her drink this morning... If so... Well:

Rip and Tear Chen, until it is done.

Time to fight! If we get a chance.

If this leads to a Pyre fight, it’s gonna be a lot harder than Suwako.

we/Kosuzu is kinda in a bad position here... while our choice of what to study from the Bluebell Grimoire helped us when they came up, but that means that we never got around to studying on seals, which some of us were thinking were possibly going to be useful in case Kosuzu ended up in a sealed test tube again... aaannd she's also been separated from the hairpin, which was our other hope for getting out if stuffed into one... so yeah. spot of trouble there.

On a different note, I noticed that while Yachie is in the know regarding Kosuzu, Keiki does not appear to be. I wonder if the reason one is in the know over the other is related to this:

>“Ah, yes, tit for tat…” Yachie shrugged, casually. “I suppose that if Kosuzu’s mother asks me to respect such a boundary, I have no choice but to oblige, hmmm?”

one part of Ran or the other was an active participant in Animal hell, and while it is known that she knows Yuuma, its not unlikely that she would thus know Yachie as well, and either by her own words, or via Yukari, has asked Yachie to help rescue Kosuzu. (meanwhile Keiki the new arrival is not acquainted with Ran and thus was not brought into the plan.)

Speaking of Yachie and in a far lighter topic, I wonder if in this story she does what her portrait in UDoALG implies and sticks the end of her tail in people's faces while talking to them XP

Well, that pretty much hard confirms that Tsukasa is a direct antagonist.

She seems a lot more ignorant of the broader situation than many assumed, though.

> Kudamaki Tsukasa spoke, in a voice that was almost sing-song.

> “Koko? Koko dearest?” She smiled, sweetly. “Koko… you don’t need another lesson, do you?”

[R] Kill Tsukasa
[M] Kill Tsukasa
[Y] Kill Tsukasa
[K] Kill Tsukasa
{Y} Kill Tsukasa
[C] Kill Tsukasa
{R} Kill Tsukasa
[X] Kill Tsukasa

>>211165
i pointed this out last thread, but ran and yachie do know each other. in udoalg's vs dialogue, if yachie defeats ran, she asks if ran remembers her. ("wait, aren't you ran? do you remember me? it's yachie!") ran, sadly, does not seem to recognize her and instead calls her an incompetent youkai, though that might be just mockery on ran's part.

>>211168
There’s a story in CoLA where Yachie calls ran for tech support, and it’s implied to not be the first time.

>>211168
oh yeah, I forgot about that! well that works! That ends up changing the context of Yachie's little interrogation of Kosuzu early on, she was getting info for Ran!

That does raise the question of when she was informed, was it before the arc? must have been since she was with Tsukasa all before that negotiating between the time that Kosuzu talked with Chen (and thus Chen would know to ring the 5 alarm fire that she had spotted Kosuzu to Yukari.) and when Yachie met Kosuzu.

>>211169

huh, neat, do you know which CocaCola CoLA that was in?

also, something I keep forgetting to add to my posts, I wonder if Tsukasa's little reveal about the lesson is new to Kosuzu... or if it isn't, and the gr_p stat was just too high when talking about it and she didn't add that part when telling it to Reimu.

>And another piece locks into place, Tsukasa just admitted to being the one who trapped Kosuzu in the test tube outside Mayohiga!

I don't think its the case here, mainly because there really is no reason for Tsukasa to trap her own daughter at that time (unless it's yet to be revealed). I think its more of her attempt to control her (using her trauma, yikes) rather than a confession of sorts.

>>211169
Ran calls it a personal favour too, which naturally implies that she wouldn't do it for just anyone, so it seems that they're on pretty good terms now that they've reconnected. In current canon, anyway - what we have over here is a significantly changed timeline with a significantly changed Ran and well before they're supposed to have reconnected (and subject to authorial disposition, such as Gooboi deciding "Nah, I want to do something else with this"), so who knows how it's going to play out here.

>>211171

There was a reason to trap her, remember that Mayohiga is Chen's residence and likely closely connected with Yukari's residence, Kosuzu was risking being found by her family and I'm pretty sure that Tsukasa just admitted to being the cause of it to teach her not to approach her family's location again. why carry a test tube with not only a cork, but a cork with a clasp?

Oh man, Tsukasa is going full toxic mom mode. Whatever happens next, Kosuzu needs to either book it or fight back.

Wow Tsukasa, way to dig a grave uh, so we can add to the charges mentally scar with trauma Ran kit too? (Well, even more than she already did by kidnapping her)

Seriously curious about who or what is backing her, because to do what she did to the Yakumo of all people she must be really confident on managing to pull off what she wants and get away with it, and I don't see it working at all if she was doing it alone.

From >>209492
I noticed that in the chapter where the Kuda-Gitsune (Kitsune) route was chosen, the descriptions of the missive trying to take her away and the black hand that wants to catch her seem to be a more abstract version of the kidnapping of Kosusu

>>The little voice in her head rumbled. Besides, your redirect nearly got us caught. She shook her head to push it away, looking ahead
>>The young book-reader hesitated. The little voice in her head was suddenly alight. Don’t give it to her. Don’t you dare.

I really like that Kosuzu's mind voice (his human side) is more active during conversations

>>211170

It's the very latest chapter of CoLA, chapter 37. Sumireko makes a 'channeling' AI that hacks Yachie's network, so Ran comes in as a tech support white hat(heh) to help the Kiketsu deal with their problem.

>>211174

Kosuzu definitely needs to get out of there. Though, given the trauma and the fact that Tsukasa still has 2 Grip on her, she might just end up freezing instead.

>>211177
Wait, didn't grip go down to 1?

>>211178
>>211177
Nevermind, my bad. I checked again, it's 2.
I don't know why I thought we got it to 1.

>>211177
yeah, Kosuzu's situation is 50/50 but if she had only 1 grip she could probably face Tsukasa

something that has me puzzled regarding what Seiga is doing... if the spell is to allow the spirits to be ableto harm the Haniwha... why isn't Mayumi and Keiki more concerned about how Mayumi's cheek was cracked? are they just assuming that it was from debris and/or Kaze's driving?

Welp.

This has been a less-than-pleasant development.

Damn, things have really gone down the drain in one update.

Considering the hairpin was left behind, maybe Yumemi will use it to try and get to Kosuzu to help her?

[X] Total Tsukasa Death

>>211181
i don't think they know about seiga's spell. and haniwa get damaged all the time- and given how trigger-happy (artillery-happy?) mayumi seems to be, i think she's more than gotten her fair share of scrapes and cracks. not really something to be too concerned about.

anyways, with that out of the way: FUCK. lock and load, fellas, because we're all falling in line to fire off not master sparks, but final master sparks in tsukasa's stupid face.

hoping yukari or someone else gets hyachinthoides out of tsukasa's hands and back to kosuzu's before too much damage is done to it. this could still be salvaged, hopefully.

>>211185

[X] Kill Tsukasa. Backstab Tsukasa. Dryleaf Whirlwind Kick Tsukasa into the Hell of Blood Pools.

>>211186
makes sense. though the fact that the stat is locked...

speaking of Yukari et all, where the HELL were they?! they can't of thought that Tsukasa wasn't going to pull something after that!

I knew things would end up this way. Doesn't make seeing it hurt any less.

Poor Kosuzu.

Ouch. Brutal. That's going to make things a lot harder moving forward.

I'd tried to think Tsukasa's actions might be redeemed at some point, but now I just can't see it happening. And with the amount of (deserved) hate she's receiving and the fact that it doesn't feel out of character or forced, I'd say it's a very well written antagonist.

I really want to see how this follows.

What they have done to Kosuzu is unforgivable...

I hope Yumemi connects that something happened between Tsukasa and Kusuzu

>Grip has been restored to 5.
>Grip has been locked.
So all that work to get it down to 2, and it's all reset just like that? Was there even a point to lowering it in the first place?

>>211194

best case scenario this is a trick and something will unlock it next update,

or if we had managed to get it to 0 then Kosuzu would've been able to resist it and act and thus not have it boost back up.

or something...

Well..... Ran is definetly gonna kill her now, at least if she manages to get her before Reimu does.

The stat being locked is very worriyng, not sure how reliable Kosuzu is going to be in combat or stressful situations forward because of it, which will make her now shattered self-esteem and sense of worth even worse.

Also are we even sure that Tsukasa will actually destroy or burn the book?
Because I'm worried about her giving it to Seiga or someone else to buy a way out.

>>211195
Agreed, I can see there being a potential way out in a future update. Maybe someone connects the dots (probably Yumemi) and they'll be able to help get Kosuzu out of her shell again.

>>211196

Seiga would probably be the only one that there would be a chance that the book would be worthwhile considering that only those that are allowed to can open the book. Seiga might(?) be able to eventually bypass that somehow.

>>211194

Presumably, there's either a way to unlock the stat/recover our progress or... we blew it. It happens.

There were moments in previous arcs that could have gone very badly if we had mishandled them; this might just be one of those. The possibility of genuine failure adds narrative tension.

Of course, this might also be planned as the abyss from which Kosuzu will achieve her rebirth and transformation. Either or.

>>211197

I'm wondering if a few of them straight up saw it, but are still stuck where Yukari has stated about the situation, where they can't currently act for fear of what the reprisal will be to Kosuzu...

but I still am hoping that maybe someone else that had the lullaby sung to her might start singing it. pretty sure there is one in the building right now... at the very least to unlock the stat again.

Something I see from the update, at least a potential partial motive for kitnapping Kosuzu from Tsukasa, apparently she have a particular grudge against the Yakumos? Something connected to why she is/became a Kuda-Gitsune.

[X] Everyone, Yukari and the Reimu of the past created the spell card rule to settle disputes without having to kill anyone, but when they and the rest of Kosuzu's friends found what that blasted Tsukasa did to her… she’s going to die.

>>211199
It'd be a serious difficulty spike if that was the case, since those sorts of consequences have previously been reserved for bossfights, and even those left some room for error. Here we had to not only get every hidden -grip option (at least the ones Gooboi has told us about), but also needed to come up with a -grip write-in on top of all that. So yeah, either Gooboi went insane or this is only a temporary setback.

>>211203

we have 5 overall chances (that does include the write-in.) but the opening background vote at the start of the second thread could have started us at 3 unless I am missing my guess, and even then we picked the one that put us at 4 instead. and we could have gone with the do whatever mother wants option which I am sure would have put us at 5.

so if we had succeeded in taking every vote that would have reduced the stat from the start we would have been at zero at the library, even before the write-in stealth vote. so we did have plenty and a make up bonus one, we just didn't succeed.

Yeah, this is what I was dreading when people voted for the tubefox route... But I'm fine with it. It's compelling, if unfortunate, and I'm interested to know where it goes from here. Maybe I'll throw together a "Tsukasa gets atomized" thing for O/O, but the best thing to do is move forward.

At least we still have the lullaby.

>>211204
That's assuming that every option we didn't take would have lowered Grip, which seemed likely enough before, when being proactive generally lowered it and being passive generally didn't affect it.

But this last string of updates was obviously a trap playing on that assumption - we had Kosuzu stand up for herself directly to the toxic authority in her life and it ended with her in a worse state than she started - and that calls the assumption that proactive actions are universally good against Grip into question. We don't know what the options we didn't pick would've resulted in - how many traps like this do you think we never noticed because we didn't fall into them?

(For what it's worth, I expect the answer is likely to be "at best one and quite possibly none, and since Tsukasa wasn't around to turn the screws, it wouldn't have been as devastating." Still, something to watch out for in future)

>>211207
Additionally - sorry, only had this thought after posting - unless I'm misreading what people are saying, there's the assumption that getting to zero Grip would've avoided this. That's plausible, but I would say it's also plausible that this could be a demonstration that, as things are, Tsukasa can recover Grip anytime Kosuzu gives her a reason to think she might need to. In which case, lowering Grip is primarily for defying Tsukasa's influence while she's not around, and when she is, we'd be best off playing along so that she doesn't feel the need to put pressure on Kosuzu, and in the meantime looking for a way unrelated to Grip to cut off her dominance.

All of that being said, I'm of the mind to think that this is serving a narrative purpose rather than a gameplay one. I'm assuming that this is a Darkest Hour kind of thing and we'll get the opportunity to reverse our fortunes soon enough. In fact, I wonder if the other option wouldn't have ended up having the same effect on Grip with a different direction to the overall narrative and surrounding context? I have no way of knowing, of course.

Well this is a fucking awful development. I hope we can do something about it, but I'm not optimistic. We really fucked up.

>>211210
Well, if it helps, I don't think this is the first time an awful development occured; there was the whole thing with Akyuu flipping out about Koishi being able to read minds, and that turned out alright.
Although that might just be me being optimistic and hoping that, like that incident, things will turn out fine in the end.

Welp, that was a worse outcome than I ever dreamed. But neither the game nor the story is over! Surely Gooboi has earned some faith from the audience to at least keep our failures interesting... And even if we assume the worst, that we really have messed up badly enough to torpedo some important stuff, I'm sure there are still things worth continuing to fight for.

One thing is clear: Kosuzu won't be openly defying Tsukasa anytime soon, and we're going to have to work with that. Mechanically, Grip so far has been about making it harder to take certain options, so I guess there will be times when the preferred course of action may be unattainable.

Anyway, I do really like how the Grip stat works thematically, even with how Sisyphean it feels. Heaven knows overcoming a toxic upbringing is a long struggle fraught with setbacks.

TBH I'm OK with either way this pans out.

If this is a "night is darkest before dawn" type beat, we pick ourselves up, kick Tsukasa's teeth in, and party with our friends and Mama Ran.

If this is a permanent misstep, we get to enjoy the texture it brings to the story, salvage circumstances as best we can, and read more of this emotionally harrowing writing.

>“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.”
i hope that this comes into play if Tsukasa plans to damage the book in any way.

So what happened to the book?

On one hand, the book being destroyed is not absolutely bad, as there's always Ran to teach Kosuzu the contents of it. (If it really gets destroyed and not just stolen and/or sold by Tsukasa, which would be way worse)

On the other hand, it's absolutely terrible. All the hard work put into it, the sentimental value for both Ran (a beacon of hope, shining for her lost daughter) and Kosuzu (yeah, it's a special book alright and she would feel terrible if something happened to it, especially since she's supposed to take good care of it, but more than that it's something that marks her growth, independence, self-worth and self-confidence). If Tsukasa even scratches it it might turn out to be REALLY bad for her later. The Yakumos might take it personal, if it wasn't personal already.

>After a few moments, the elder fox yawned, and stood up. “Welp!” Tsukasa stood up, stuffing the book under her arm.

Very sad.
:/

On a note about the book, I feel like the book going missing would be a pretty big red flag to Reimu, or anyone else who knows Kosuzu well. In FS, we're shown time and time again how much she loves books, so I feel like if Reimu sees Kosuzu without the book and in such a depressive state, she'll realize something major must've happened because Kosuzu would probably jump into Hell than lose a valuable book so easily.

Knowing Reimu, she might be able to sus out with her instincts that it may have had something to do with Tsukasa; after all, this is happening after the two of them + Yukari eavesdropped on Tsukasa getting a lashing, so who knows, the order of events might be too coincidental for others to overlook.

Hmmm... what are the chances that the book was intended to be trap for Tsukasa? Because I'm pretty confident the Yakumos could've easily installed some tracking, security, and wiretapping enchantments on a magical tome.

>>211218

the missing book won't even be needed, considering what Kosuzu said to Yumemi, not to mention both otters and Haniwha seeing kosuzu's flight back to her room, everyone is going to know something is up within the hour. Yumemi is probably going to go to Reimu and/or Mayumi (who will probably get the other.) and the otters and Haniwha are going to tell their respective bosses.

This isn't going to be quiet for anyone.

Was just thinking that trusting Tsukasa, considering what she did canonically, as well as if she really is not Kosuzu's real mother, would be a horrible idea

Probably should've written my concerns

Fuck

Seeing how much she mentions the lullaby, the only one she can say would be Chen, apart from the fact that she is disguised as Orange so as not to be seen by Tsukasa.

but there are also more options as many have mentioned for Kosuzu to move forward...

> As long as Gensokyo stands as it is, we’re doomed to be crawling in the muck and mire. To be worthless gutter-foxes. There’s no escaping the name Kudamaki. Not for me, and certainly not for you.

I’m going to assume that this is [X] Kill Tsukasa’s motive for kidnapping Kosuzu, either to just spite Ran and Yukari or maybe she’s playing dumb and is actually helping the black flame.

Spiting the Yakumo would probably make more sense, but helping the black flames actively moves towards [X] Murder Tsukasa’s goal of becoming more than a tube fox.

Also, congratulations to whoever suggested grip first! You were correct!

Lastly, as >>211208 said, if this chapter does stretch on longer and/or grip is still relevant afterwards, we need to openly defy [X] Gap Tsukasa when with friends and play the good little girl when under her supervision. Which is honestly so obvious, that I’m hitting myself just thinking about it.

>>211222
I I forgot to add this too.

Ichi had already said that this would happen at some point.
>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?”

You know, much of what Tsukasa has to say about being a Tube-Fox seems to come from a place of genuine resentment.

It makes me wonder how much of her treatment of Kosuzu is carefully calculated abuse and gaslighting and how much of it is an emotional venting of her frustrations and inadequacies on someone she can look down on and have authority over.

How long until Tsukasa will become Shadow Pyre?

NOOO! MYSTIA! Not AGAIN!

ALSO YEEEAAAH RAN!

>The Bluebell Grimoire was gone.

>She felt her heart quicken in her chest. Had somebody stolen in again…?!

so wait... so was the bluebell grimoire the tome that Shirohime had...? that doesn't make sense, that would require someone to have snuck into the Yakumo's territory twice in quick succession, once to grab the book, and then once the spell in the book had pointed out Kosuzu, again to grab her? or was the book stolen later than that? What is going on there?

>That was very bizarre. Not even bringing along the means to uncap her gap range just wasn’t something Yukari did when traveling to other jurisdictions, as she normally… prioritized efficiency in traveling time. Either Yukari had wanted to avoid disturbing her sleep entirely, or there was something particularly important about this Child, and she needed either top-speed intervention or close supervision.]

or Yukari knew you wouldn't be able to wait once you learned the news and needed time to try to make sure Kosuzu was safe to rescue first. though at this point, yeah I think waiting isn't going to matter anymore in terms of Kosuzu's safety and wellbeing.

It's happening!

Ran is finally coming and man do I feel bad for her, she must be happy in this moment and that happiness will probably be ruined by the psycological state she will find Kosuzu in, soon the happiness wipl be replaced by pure, sheer anger.

Honestly I already tought it in the chapter where she took the book and walked away, but I think that Tsukasa has probably ran away already, no way she remained after everything she did when basically everyone except Kosuzu held less than zero trust in her, at least Ran coming might spare Kosuzu from thinking that her own mother abbandoned her in that case (she has already more than enough trauma).

>>211228

The exact word is “stolen in”, not “stolen it”. Ran’s worrying that she’s had a second burglar/kidnapper, not that the book specifically has been stolen twice.

Reinforcements are on the way!

>>211228
The Bluebell Grimoire being gone is because Yukari took it to give it to Kosuzu. It would seem that Ran had not been informed of anything. The first time that someone stole in was presumably the kidnapping of Kosuzu way back when.

MYSTIA NOOOO..... gensokyo is so mean to her :(

well at least the cart doesn't seem to be destroyed this time... right?

anyways. it's finally been officially confirmed! yippee! i would feel bad about what's coming tsukasa's way, but i really don't. i, for one, am looking forward to whatever ran has planned for the bastard who stole her daughter.

on another note, the way ran's pov is written is really interesting. the shikigami program's narration being encased in brackets and being the more analytical and logical parts, while ran's own narration is normal in both tone and text format.

>>211231

ah, not used to seeing Stolen in, thought it was a potential typo of n instead of t... though yeah, that does make sense.

>>211230
but if she was running away, why would she leave Kosuzu behind?

>>211232

yeah, as i said above, not used to the phrase 'stolen in', but yeah, agreed that Ran hadn't been told because of the precarious situation that a rampaging mamma bear Fox would complicate.

>“I’M COMING, KOSUZU!”
Lets f_cking go!

The best thing of all is that Tsukasa thinks he has control of the situation but he doesn't know that all the adults and guards are watching her.

Kosuzu just needs to get the book back.

INB4 Kosuzu chooses Tsukasa over Ran because of grip Stat :laughing:

Although basically every character has a reason to convince her that Ran is her mom.

>>211236
Oh yeah and Ran is going to get Pyre'd

Big oof

Oh. I guess that last choice was choosing between Stage A and Stage B then. Tsukasa as a boss or Ran as a boss? Maybe?

>>211236

That would be really sad, but also pretty interesting (at least in my opinion).

>>211237

Possible if it goes that way, having your lost daughter believe her kidnapper over you would be horrible for any parent.

>>211238

oh dear, which mean that somehow Ran's arrival just ends up removing/trivializing Saki and Seiga from the situation entire somehow.

probably not, its probably going to be, either engaging Tsukasa head on, though probably how Again/Akyuu's final boss was and how Yester/Youmu's alternate fight was wherein its not a straight fight but in this case a verbal fight between Kosuzu and Tsukasa trying to trick her into revealing the info she has of how and why.

where our alternate fight is Kosuzu taking on Seiga and Saki somehow, to prove herself to herself? or something?

Saw that coming from... 100 kilometers away the minute that Yukari wanted Kosuzu to become a kitsune... ... ... because she is one by birth and Yukari was playing 4D chess. Like always.

And now, I feel Tsukasa will... not exactly have a great time.

Also another huge L for Mystia. Or F?

Whether or not Ran gets Pyre'd, I just hope by the end of this, Tsukasa gets what she deserves.

And at this point, her “daughter” is not what she deserves.

Can't wait to find out how Marisa somehow manages to inadvertently ruin Mystia's day! This poor bird. If it continues like this she's going to be the most miserable, long-suffering character in this whole story... and I'll laugh every time.

Man Tsukasa is fucking dead lmao

Mama Ran has been engaged. Woe to any that come between her and Kosuzu.

Poor Mystia, hopefully she’ll get some sort of konpensation, like an endorsement by the Hakurei shrine or something.

Also, I would like to preemptively vote:

(R) Kill Tsukasa

I forgot to comment on the update itself. I'll just say that this update made my day at work, these Mystia appearances make me smile (even if she's having some bad luck lately lol).

I can't add much to what has already been said here, so I'll just say I can't wait to see what happens next.

I just had a sudden thought that I think this song really fits this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ctlBP-YvPI
Nioh's soundtrack is so great, both games.

>> The figure began to roar once more.

>> “I’M COMING, KOSUZU!”

>> The nine-tails’ flash through her clearing was like a shockwave. The trees rustled, and what she hadn’t managed to hastily pack away scattered into the distance. A few of the skewers stabbed into the ground around her, pinning her clothes to the ground.

Sorry, had to do it. Quick drawing before going to sleep.

>>211249
POV Tsukasa

crows, am i right?

>>211249
Regardless of how serious you meant the sketch to be, it genuinely does give off an awesome aura. Ran is implacable.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

At the moment, my guess is that Yukari is checking on Kosuzu after Ichi slipped that all of the progress of getting her out of Tsukasa's Grip was undone, if only because she 100% knows that Ran is rushing to Animal Hell, and if she finds Kosuzu in this state there is a near 100% chance that Tsukasa is immediately killed and the chance to uncover the real mastermind behind Kosuzu's kidnapping is lost. [Ran] would likely have been able to win over Ran to slow down if she was in a good state, but at the moment she will just rush over to kill Tsukasa and their isn't much Yukari can do to intervene.

Ichi is probably doing something more relevant to the other half of that timetable, and may need Reimu's (hidden) backup. Additionally, since it wasn't experienced by Yumemi, Ichi probably won't pick up on Reimu being there, so she may slip more info we aren't 100% on.

I believe that what’s most likely happening is that one of the two is going to protect Kosuzu while the other goes to slow down Ran. Due to Yukari’s direction I’m guessing she’s going to confront Tsukasa (though really, it may have been best for her to go slow down her own Shikigami instead of the random human).

Following Yukari would mean we can comfort Kosuzu, while Ichi is fighting Ran. However, Ichi (the squishy human with a gun) is going against RAN an extremely angry nine-tails. It would probably be best that we go as backup for Ichi.

But keep the element of surprise, it might be useful.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

>>211255
>>211256
They are right
If Tsukasa gets involved in any way in the fight because she is cornered or is forced because she has no escape, Reimu can take the book from her when her guard is down or she has lost it during the fight.

>>211254
[undo] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

{undo} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

>>211256

Considering that Yukari is letting go of her anger and how much anger she had when she starting going in the first direction, and that Yumemi is "picking it up" I am very certain that it is Yumemi that is going to confront Tsukasa while Yukari (who is trying to calm down.) is going just to comfort Kosuzu.

I am leaning towards having Reimu go after Ichi still in that case, since it means that at both ends there is the capacity to change fate... but on the other hand the one that Yukari is going towards is in very rough shape and might not be up to doing that...

Though this is somewhat similar to the end of FS... and Reimu trusted someone then to help Kosuzu.
soo

now should Reimu be going openly or secretly... openly might limit how much Yumemi presses Tsukasa on info, or open her options up as what happened already from her perspective is now changeable with Reimu there.

not sure yet, might change later.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

>>211260 here

yeah, already changing my mind

>“If you need any help, Kosuzu, we’re here for you.”

REimu has a promise to keep, and while facing Tsukasa will probably need an immaterial child to change fate in order to stop her... that Ic needs to be Kosuzu. as someone else said, it will be the only way for Kosuzu to be free of the test tube.

[UNDO] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

>>211260 I’m thinking that what’s happening is that Yukari’s going to help Kosuzu somehow, and Yumemi’s going to retrieve the Grimoire before Tsukasa destroys it.

>>211264

That will likely end up with a confrontation with Tsukasa anyhow. And i think its going particularly for a confrontation. Especially since yumemi is going locked and loaded and how Yukari was going full palpable bloodlust pressure before yumemi got her the change to her plan to helping Kosuzu instead. (Which props to Yumemi there grabbing a fully enraged Youkai as a nearly mundane human!)

[x] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{x} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

:3

If we go with Yukari, Tsukasa will most likely escape with the grimoire.
If we go with Ichi, we might be giving up our best opportunity to help Kosuzu.
The grimoire is, at the end of the day, replaceable. Kosuzu is not.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

The second choice is probably another one of those choices where the "correct" option depends on which option we picked in the first choice. In this case, stealth would have made sense with Ichi (it might give us a chance to jump Tsukasa) but is pointless with Yukari.

{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

A pity that we don't know where Ichi is headed, otherwise I'd also want to send Mayumi that way if we run into her.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

I'm all aboard the help Kosuzu train, and I'm pretty sure that's the direction Yukari is moving in.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

I'm honestly curious where Ichi's going and what she's doing, and very worried that she might need help. She's clearly gearing up for a fight, and Reimu's generally a handier person to have around for a fight than for emotional support... but like others have said, Reimu promised to be there for Kosuzu when she needed it. Time to make good on that.

>>211269
>I'm honestly curious where Ichi's going and what she's doing, and very worried that she might need help.

Big reach but maybe something happened with little Yumemi? Iirc the last thing we saw with her was grabbing Seiga's pin.

Is the genji plushie close to hand? Kosuzu did "quietly resolving to herself to ensure that didn’t happen. After all, the last thing she wanted to do was hold the others up any more than she already had." Having Reimu show that she did have someone even at the beginning before even Marisa to help her, and by proxy during the lead up to her fight with Yuuma might be able to help ease Kosuzu a little on that front. (And hey if it isn't on hand... Well Yukari is right there and could grab it...)

>>211270

She found Kosuzu right after tsukasa broke her and Kosuzu ran away from her back to her dorm with someone running after her that probably(?) was Yumemi.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

I'm torn between options. I'm worried about Ichi's safety, but we kinda promised to Kosuzu we would be there for her, right? Also, I don't think we'll be able to do more than stall Ran a little, so voting for the "go with Ichi" option might reveal to us that she in fact is the future Yumemi and such, but little more than that.

Going with Yukari allows us to get more info on the whole problem with Tsukasa stealing Kosuzu far back, and allow us to question her and learn her motive and if there's actually an employer or not. Maybe even learn more about Shirohime.
Also, Reimu promised to be there when Kosuzu needs her, so let's honor that.

I'm choosing to stealth, because if Kosuzu doesn't want to be found she'll have to hide from Yukari. If she doesn't know there's someone else searching for her, she might be able to be caught by surprise.

Here's hoping for the best.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

If Chen isn't going to follow we can at least get her to know which mechanic needs a break and get some of the otters to follow the person we aren't following (in my case Ichi) or inform the otters herself if some are nearby. They wouldn't be able to help but would be able to get Yachie, Mayumi, Keiki and/or us (it will likely be too late when we get there but who knows) once they know what is going on. Another reason I would have Chen do this is that it would take too long to explain what we want to another person. In this way Chen doesn't get in trouble with Yukari and we get eyes and ears on the situation.

From: >>207370
>>Youmu hummed. Last night, before recommending she made a visit, Lady Yuyuko had been talking about Yukari being poor at understanding humans at times. Reimu was clearly lonely, and the best excuse she had to go out and talk to people was being taken by someone nominally trying to help. No wonder Yuyuko had sent her here, on a ‘courtesy visit’.

As >>211263 stated
>>Reimu has a promise to keep
From: >>210947
>>“If you need any help, Kosuzu, we’re here for you.” Reimu gave her a gentle smile. Kosuzu did her best to return it, quietly resolving to herself to ensure that didn’t happen. After all, the last thing she wanted to do was hold the others up any more than she already had
I agree with >>211267
>> The grimoire is, at the end of the day, replaceable. Kosuzu is not.

Reimu needs to know what is going on, Yukari is not the most upfront about what she is doing. By following Yukari, Reimu will find out what is going on and be able to act accordingly. After all despite Yukari's intentions she will need help calming down Motoori Kosuzu (as Lady Yuyuko said she doesn't understand humans at times), she hopefully might be better at calming Kudamaki Kosuzu as she did in >>210834 and >>210871.

From: >>211182
>>Click. Whatever she’d been trying to say escaped her. “You’ve gotten suckered in with this Dragon Miko’s lunacy, haven’t you? You really do believe the tripe she’s spouting.” Snap. “Honestly, if you were anyone else, I’d expect you to know better by now.
...
>>“I-it, Reimu wouldn’t lie-”
>>Call Reimu! Get her help!
>>She lifted her other hand. “That young Reimu doesn’t have a deceptive bone in her body, sure, but that doesn’t mean the things she says are true. She’s just a little girl lost in a fantasy land. And she’s swept you up in her wake.”
>>Kosuzu shook her head. “N-no, she’s not-”
>>Click. She didn’t dare continue. “I wasn’t done talking, Koko. Those sorts of deceivers are the most dangerous kind, because their crazed sincerity can make fools of the best and brightest. You stand no chance.” Snap. “Especially if they tell you exactly what you want to hear.”
...
>>“I-I thought…” Kosuzu pulled her feet up. “I th-thought… they were giving the book to help me…”
>>Tsukasa rolled her eyes. “Hardly. If you haven’t noticed yet, Kosuzu, you’re a kuda-gitsune. The people that’ll trust us are few and far between. If this book was to do anything, it was to deal with you before you became a problem.
...
>>It was only at the doorway where Tsukasa paused. “Don’t go blaming me. If you want to blame anyone... blame those Yakumos. They run this little backwater, after all." She stepped away, leaving her daughter alone.

The biggest issue here is Tsukasa's lies have targeted Kosuzu's trust in both Reimu and Yukari. We will likely need to get past a full power grip check (vote?) to overcome this.

From: >>211182
>>The younger fox started to reach for it, but the elder kuda-gitsune pulled it away before she could. “You thought you were learning from this book? Are you sure it’s not acting as a crutch, giving you power artificially to make its spells work? No, no, whatever the supposed purpose of giving you this book was, it simply cannot be trusted.” The elder fox stood up. “I believe I’ll have to dispose of this.”
...
>>After a few moments, the elder fox yawned, and stood up. “Welp!” Tsukasa stood up, stuffing the book under her arm. “I’ll go find some way to deal with this toilet paper. Maybe a nice warm fire? And you - I think you’re best off… sleeping on what we’ve learned today. By the morning, I expect you to put this ridiculous talk of becoming a kitsune behind you.” She gave a gentle grin. “All good with you, Koko?”

From: >>211227
>>[...Wait.] She paused, in her frantic search of the room. [...Yukari’s note. Her mistress had said she’d borrowed from several rooms and parts of the house. Could this be part of it?] …Perhaps, if the Immaterial Child could benefit from it. [...and strictly speaking, any fox could, but…]

I know what Tsukasa said what she is going to do with the book, but I think she might have a different idea. She might try to use the book to grow more powerful. If she is trying to destroy it if the otters follow Ichi they might be able to save it.

>>211275

good point on that additional vote

>>211263 here adding to my vote:

-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

>>211275 Excellent point regarding our promises and Yukari's (lack of) personal skills. Kosuzu is in an extremely precarious position right now and while Yukari might have good intentions, if she bungles this it could be very difficult to undo the damage. Having an actual friend on hand would be better, especially since Reimu can emphasize the truth of the Immaterial Children's existence. Plus, if we stick with Kosuzu, Yukari can go and calm down Ran once her arrival is known about so she doesn't burn down the entire animal realm.

>> “Lady Yukari? I believe I can explain this matter.” She gave a devilish grin. Reimu’s face paled.

>> “Kosuzu, don’t you dare-”

>> The fox tuned it out, focusing on the spell in the book. The air rippled around them, as the younger girls were enveloped in a bubble of silence.

>> Kosuzu gave a big grin, feeling it go up. Only her ears seemed to pick up the deadening of sounds across the library - for the rest, Reimu’s stammering seemed to catch it.

>> The fox turned graciously to the muted Yukari, who seemed to have noted the wall of silence. Seemingly to someone who couldn’t hope ot hear her, she spilled the beans with gusto. “Reimu has a massive collection of plushies.”

>> The jidiao reared back, letting out a dramatic howl of despair. Mayumi jumped up to quiet the sound before it disturbed the other library-goers… before realizing that nobody seemed to react as she’d expected. Yumemi looked over, eyes wide in shock.

>> Kosuzu continued, grinning. “In fact, I think quite a few of her plushies are actually named after - even customized to resemble - her friends. She even gave me my plushie counterpart.”

>> Reimu turned to Yukari, arms flailing in abject panic as she thrust out panicked denials and blatant lies. Yukari, for her part, just smirked from the far side of the barrier, chuckling at the jidiao’s abject panic.

>> Then she slowly, emphasising the movement, reached up and tapped at her ear. The jidiao stuttered to a halt, letting out a weak whimper.

>> The very sound of it - the idea of Reimu, of all people, making a sound that pathetic - broke Kosuzu. She doubled over, laughing her gut out, and heard the sound of Yumemi doing the same. Reimu spun around, her face heating up. “Kosuzu!”

>> “Sorry, sorry, I just…” Kosuzu did her best to regather herself. “It was just… I never, never would have seen you for a plush collector, you know?”

>> Reimu leaned in, gritting spiky teeth in a still-rather-frantic expression. “That’s. The. Point. I don’t want Yukari to ever find out about the plushies.”

A little intermission from the voting, sorry to interrupt but we needed to laugh a little after these last updates, and maybe for the next ones.

I'll also add this, too.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

I’m actually of the exact opposite opinion of the crowd here. I don’t really see the book as just replacable, but the bigger issue is the timeframe.

The book is the how to escape Tsukasa. It’s a source of strength for her outside of what Tsukasa allows her to have. And it’s also something Tsukasa has just tried to take away.

Getting that back proves that Tsukasa can’t just take things away from Kosuzu whenever she wants. And it’s tangible proof that we can work against what Tsukasa tries.

Also, it’s looking like the big events will all be happening tomorrow morning. The last thing we saw on Kosuzu’s end was her going to sleep. I highly doubt there’s much we’re gonna be able to do concrete to help her there.

Inversely, there’s no way Ran is getting to us before whatever the wolves are doing breaks out. If we lose the book, we lose something BIG for Kosuzu right before the probably-a-fight begins.

And that’s all assuming we actually are reading it correctly. Rather than the book, it could be what’s at risk is Yumemi herself.

Just running directly at Kosuzu is not the only way to help her. If it was, Yumemi would be heading that way too.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person, or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

I think for Reimu, going with Yukari is the best option. As people have pointed out already, Reimu made a promise to be there for Kosuzu, so that's what she should do.

Also, when I first read about the two of them going separate ways, I interpreted like this:
Yukari: Going to find Kosuzu to try and undo the damage
Ichi: Going to put a cap in Tsukasa's ass. I feel like you don't just walk off with a gun in hand, getting angrier, with no intent of using it.

>>211261 here.

Saw some of the other commenters make some good points and decided to change my vote

[UNDO] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

Adding to my vote:

-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

>>211258
I'm going to change my vote again... i will regret it.

[undo] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

also:

-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

>>211280

Eh, my perspective is that for this to truly stick, its going to need to be Kosuzu who seizes it back, which means we need to get her on her feet first.

Also if Kosuzu doesn't recover by the Time Ran arrives, she is very likely going to be seeing Ran as the monster of her nightmares, rather than the lullaby singer of her dreams... and if that happens, its going to rip Ran apart.

>>211286
That’s another reason why I think saving the book is more important than just running directly at Kosuzu. The book almost certainly has proof that Kosuzu is Ran’s daughter, and in a tangible format that can’t just be explained away as someone trying to manipulate her.

>>211280
If Kosuzu gets the book back before she escapes Tsukasa's grip, I think that Tsukasa will probably just take it away from her again. Even if Kosuzu hides it, that's an extremely precarious position to be in for uncertain gain - Tsukasa could find out at any moment, and do you really think there's an amount of strength that Kosuzu can gain where Tsukasa can't break her confidence in it again unless she breaks her conditioning first? If Tsukasa just finds out and takes it away again, that will only reinforce the hopelessness of going against her. If she doesn't, it may, as you say, bolster Kosuzu's confidence, but that's a slim chance IMO. Kosuzu has to get hiding it right every single time. Tsukasa only has to get finding it right once. And Tsukasa will be looking for it - if Kosuzu's friends snatch it back from her, of course she's going to figure out that they want to give it back to Kosuzu.

And all that's assuming that Kosuzu would even accept the book back in her current state. With Grip locked at 5, I doubt she'll willingly have anything to do with something Tsukasa has made it very clear she's not supposed to have.

But, yes, I do agree that the trade we're making here is completely uncertain, and that helping Ichi is likely to still be being there for Kosuzu. The trouble I have here is that while we all know that this is about Kosuzu, Reimu in-character doesn't. Even with our votes guiding her actions here and there, it might not be for the better if she goes off half-cocked. My inclination has been to assume that going with Yukari will get her the best picture of what's going on, and she can proceed from there as needed.

But then again, Ichi knows even more about what's going on, having already lived through the end of it. Is she likely to be looser-lipped than Yukari? Hard to say. I really am torn here. Ichi going into a violent confrontation on her own is really worrying, but so is the possibility of Yukari failing at her task.

I'm torn right now. There doesn't seem to be a right choice here. Right now Ichi is getting angrier and likely going after Tsukasa with that gun. No clue if she'd win the fight she's likely going to pick in her current emotional state, not to mention the possibility of things going wrong if she loses. With Seiga's ritual coming soon, the last thing we'd want is the time traveller as a hostage or, even worse, dead. And while I'm all for popping a cap in Tsukasa, we still need the information out of her, and Kosuzu's fragile mental state probably wouldn't be helped if her "mother" was suddenly murdered.
On the other hand, Yukari is likely going to comfort Kosuzu. Problem being, despite her good intentions here, Yukari is a known schemer and manipulator with poor interpersonal skills. There's a fair chance she'll say something that accidentally hurts Kosuzu, as well as the possibility that Kosuzu would be unwilling to believe her.
My main worry now is that if Yukari messes up with Kosuzu without Reimu as backup emotional support, and Ran arrives, it'll go very poorly. While I think it's HIGHLY unlikely, powerful despairing mom and kid together sounds like the spark needed to light a Pyre. Think our best bet is to keep our promise of supporting Kosuzu when she needs it while trying to give Ichi at least some backup.
[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

>>211267
Adding to this:
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person, or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

While I am not currently changing my vote. I am going to try to create an argument that could be used for the other (follow Ichi) path. Ichi is clearly out for blood, she has her weapon out and is angry. One of the reasons why Reimu in timelines A and B established the spell card rules was to minimize the number of deaths (unless a human in the human village becomes a youkai... which ends poorly).

In this case the otters would follow Yukari and after finding out that Kosuzu needs help calming down gets either Yachie or us. Yachie's making people lose the will to fight back ability might be very helpful in temporary calming down Kosuzu. Best case we help Ichi stop Tsukasa save the book, and is able to do something to help Kosuzu. More likely we stop Tsukasa, get attacked by the Keiga where Kosuzu will have a difficulty 5 grip check during the fight, as Tsukasa does something here like order Kosuzu to run away with her.

From: >>211182
>>Weak, assorted, jumbled memories surfaced. Vague, half-remembered. Moments of her past life. They’d never believe her, would they? That she was their daughter, and not some sneaky kuda-gitsune out to steal her funds. She just… she just wanted someone, anyone.
>>…One memory surfaced, stronger and more clear than all the others. The lullaby. That dream of someone singing to her. …She still didn’t know who it was. In fact, she was less certain than ever who it was.
>>But… somehow, her mind filled in the gaps. It wasn’t either her mother from her past life, or Tsukasa, and yet… the voice was filled with warmth. With sweetness. With what she wanted to believe was love.
>>She tried to imagine what that was like. What she was like. Someone who’d be willing to read rare books with her. Someone who’d always forgive her, no matter how badly she screwed up, as long as she said sorry, and truly meant it. Someone who’d be there for her, a light in her darkest moments rather than the source of the gloom.
>>…What was she even trying for? Was she trying to invent someone whole cloth, from a single lullaby? And yet… the lullaby’s tune was all that was echoing through her head. Somehow soothing, even now. She tried to picture the face of the woman who’d been singing… but exhaustion of the mind, body, and soul caught up to her, and she drifted off to uneasy sleep, slumped against the door.

________________________________________
>>Grip has been restored to 5.
>>Grip has been locked.

The strongest argument that I can think of for why we should follow Ichi is there is that we have no way to currently save Kosuzu (I don't think that but will argue for it). Gooboi has locked grip and provided the clue to undo it, Ran's lullaby it is the only thing that can overcome Tsukasa's grip and thus if we follow Yukari to Kosuzu we will not be able to save Kosuzu and the book is destroyed.

>>211293

a counterpoint to the first argument, if Ichi wanted Tsukasa dead (or worse) she could have just let Yukari handle it, instead she grabbed Yukari (Which agian I have to say is an awesome moent just from the sheer balls it would take for a (outside of her inventions.) bog standard human to knowingly grab one of the most powerful Youkai in Gensokyo, who mind you, is comepletely ticked off at that moment. whenever Redo/Reimu ends up with a tvtropes page, that needs to be in the awesome section!) to get her to go to Kosuzu instead.

also note that the grip 5 check will quite possibly be at the x10 modifier it was from the 'tell friends about the glass trauma' vote... which means it will be modified by 50 and (not likely, but still an option.) if its made to be controllable helplessness it could be a -50 for the likely vote we want, and a +50 on the one we don't

>>211294
I am of the belief that no matter what choice we make here we will have a guilt 5 check and remember the x10 modifier from last time. I am on the side follow Yukari, the reason for my last post was I wanted to help the follow Ichi anon. I will agree that Ichi isn't trying to kill Tsukasa, but will try to fight her, Reimu doesn't know what is going on just that Ichi has her weapon out and seems to be out for blood.

>>211296
If that's the case we'll just need to get... what, 30-ish readers who normally don't vote to vote?

We'll be fine, I'm sure. Just pretend like we're voting for an origin and it'll be a new thread next update anyway.

>>211294
I wonder if that's Yumemi having balls of steel, or just mot quite registering that she should perhaps be more cautious of Yukari than she is with Merry. Being stern with a misbehaving student is one thing, but being stern with one of the most dangerous women alive should probably be another thing entirely. Except if you're her old university professor, I guess.

... Assuming that Yumemi outright recognises her as opposed to Chiyuri only faintly thinking she's familiar. And that I'm right about why she's familiar to Chiyuri.

Counting to >>211292:
Main Choice #1:
[12] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
[5] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

Main Choice #2:
{12} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{4} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

Potential Additions:
-(9) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters. (>>211275, >>211277, >>211278, >>211279, >>211281, >>211283, >>211285, >>211291, >>211292)

:3
This should be right?

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.

{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

=-=-=

I really don't know what to think about these choices tbh.

>>211296
fair point, done that myself on a previous vote.

>>211298
she also stepped on Tsukasa's foot early on too, so its not just Yukari. and she did face down the contestants of the Hyperspace Tournament in all 3 timelines, including Mima (before spellcards at that!)

>> A pop. The sudden rush of cold, fresh night air. Kosuzu turned, and scrabbled, desperately, for the entrance. She was out, in the air, staggering-

>> At once, a pair of hands were around her. “Shhhhh, shhhhh… it’s okay, Ko-ko. I’m here now.” The younger tube fox whimpered, before breaking down into sobs.

>> Her mother held her with one hand, looking at the tube she’d been freed from. “...So with just the addition of a clasp - a seal that can’t be undone from the inside - our refuge becomes a prison, huh? Hope that doesn't catch on around here.”

>> Kosuzu tried to speak, but her throat was too dry. The elder Kudamaki pulled her other arm around her, holding her steady. “...a harsh lesson, one I wished you’d never have to learn so literally. But for a tube fox, escape is victory. Don’t go to that place again. The people there are dangerous, Ko-ko - very, very dangerous, and we can’t go near them under any circumstances. Now… promise me you won’t do something so foolish again, hmmm?”

I had this one done a long time ago (June 18th), but because of reasons I couldn't post it before.

>> “...So with just the addition of a clasp - a seal that can’t be undone from the inside - our refuge becomes a prison, huh?”

Now, with more information, I can finally post this new, redrawn version.
I'm using the opportunity to showcase my improvement from a month before. I'm very happy on how this turned out. The drawing, I mean. The story, on the other hand... :'(

>>211302
>>211303

what a difference a few weeks makes, both in improvements there Kosu, nice work! ...And also outlook on a character eh?

if we are worried about Yukari's lack of social ability... why are we sneaking after her to try to avoid her notice? as >>211267 sadi

>The second choice is probably another one of those choices where the "correct" option depends on which option we picked in the first choice. In this case, stealth would have made sense with Ichi (it might give us a chance to jump Tsukasa) but is pointless with Yukari.

as for Kosuzu running, right now she is sleeping against her door, so not in a position to run, and not like the door is going to stop the two people in the building that can make gaps.

also i forgot to add in >>211306 but also great work on >>211279 there! I really enjoyed the little comic, poor Reimu XD

>>211255 here

[UNDO] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.
{UNDO} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

I see where the vote is going, and I would also like to encourage players who only swapped who to visit that they really should be open about going with Yukari. Stealth made sense when Ichi could help she doesn't 100% telegraph, it really doesn't make any sense when going to try and get Kosuzu to a better state of mind.

>>211303
>>211279
Nice job!

>>211308
The only two favorable things that come to mind for Reimu to be hidden would be:

- Not telling Yukari about Kosuzu's story so Yukari wouldn't be more angry than she already is.
- Kosuzu tries to escape because there is a possibility that she is afraid of Yukari and Reimu could intervene if that happens.

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring

>>211309
Alright, I'll trust you all on this one, changing my vote >>211273

{UNDO} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

>>211252
Sorry, I missed this. That one was only a joke and not meant to be taken seriously but yeah, I wouldn't want to be in front of Ran right now lol

>>211303
>>211306
Looking at the dates again, it's been more or less 2 months and a half (forgot we're actually at the end of August!). Still, really proud of the improvement!

>>211258
>>211285 changing the vote... again

{undo} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{x} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring

I'm sorry for all the vote changes I'm making

>>211291 here
{undo} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{x} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring
In hindsight not quite sure why I voted to tail Yukari instead of be direct.

>>211315

Hey, I don't think you're close yet to hitting my record of, what was it, 5(?) changes with additions to each one from the first arc. Though i suppose tallyanon and gooboi are more the ones that os directed to.

{UNDO} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{X} Or she could approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring

In my opinion, one or the other works, with potential benefits and draws. Being sneaky could be useful if something unprecedented occurs, but being open could also be a good, honest choice that'll work out well in one way or another.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

[X] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

{X} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

>>211278

{UNDO} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.

{X} Or she could approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring

Good point regarding the Yukari option. Being open is probably a good idea, both for supporting Kosuzu, and for avoiding any unfortunate misunderstandings with Yukari. She might be calming down, but she'd probably not react well to a perceived spy.

Counting to >>211322:
Main Choice #1:
[15] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
[6] Ichi, who was picking up all the anger that Yukari was letting go of. Wherever she was going, she was checking her weapon as she went.

Main Choice #2:
{8} She could tail without revealing herself. Both of them seemed to have a bit of tunnel vision, focusing directly on their targets.
{12} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.

Potential Additions:
-(9) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters. (>>211275, >>211277, >>211278, >>211279, >>211281, >>211283, >>211285, >>211291, >>211292)

Asutnima, I don't mind :3
Should be right...?

[X] Yukari, who’s initial anger was quickly giving way to concern. She was moving towards the dorms where the girls were staying, or at least that general direction.
{X} Or she could just approach them openly. Clearly this was important, and neither seemed to be willing to go back and get assistance… knowing some was already coming might be reassuring.
-(X) Ask Chen to either get some of the Kiketsu's otters to follow the other person or send one of the mechanics to send the otters.

Yumemi is pretty strong(she's a final boss after all). Strong enough that there's a chance she'll actually win whatever fight she picks. Or at least get out relatively alright.
Yukari can be pretty persuasive. But also, it's been pointed out that she isn't always the best at understanding humans. And despite Kosuzu's stat being Youkai-2, she does still retain a lot of her humanity. Also, Reimu said she'd back Kosuzu up. So she should probably keep that. Also, the otters are more likely to be useful in a combat situation than reassuring a girl they've known for like a day.

>>211328

yeah, speaking of Kosuzu's spirit stat, I'm a little surprised we haven't had many chances of changing that stat (or rather any so far.), or instinct (which we've only had 1 chance to change iirc.)

a little bit of an ouch there, not in a made a bad choice sort of way, but, yeah, ________ has been running hard this last month without anyone to talk to. =(

Sounds like it really just hit her that even if the faces are the same (especially consider how compared to her many of the faces are ageless, so they would practically be the exact same face as she knew before the week of fire.) its not going to be the person she knew...

This went in a different direction than I was expecting.
But it ended in a good way. So yay!

I'm glad we went this way.

Explains a lot why Reimu was being so neglected by Yukari, even if it's easy to guess in hindsight, these are not the same characters we know even if they're similar.

And what makes it worse is the emphasis on "Kicchou". It strikes directly to _______ Reimu inside her, the one that's been mourning for her death.

I find especially sad that in Reimu's perception she went from a sort-of protégé of Yukari to just another youkai, important to the chessboard of Gensokyo but ultimately unrelated to her at this moment and basically "undeserving" of the attention since the Hakurei Miko is still alive and kicking, there's no actual need to focus on the heiress unless it's to prepare her, which would be absolutely low priority (especially with Kosuzu's whole story). Being completely denied by someone bearing the face of one of the people that's basically always been there (even if Reimu herself hated it sometimes lol) must be a bucket of ice cold water dropped on you.

I think both needed this. It helped Yukari to calm down, and Reimu could connect with her, even if just a little bit. And I'm glad Yukari, even stressed out and very angry as she was, still has a heart.
I was very worried for a moment there, ngl.

It's good to hear that Reimu can have some time together with Yukari so that she understands how important she was in her past life.

>>Yukari… gave Reimu a gentle rub on her shoulder. “...Alright, if you’re certain. But… we will talk about all this once matters are settled, alright?” She gave a small smile. “I promise I’ll make time for you, Reimu. As soon as I can.”

I think it was a victory to choose those 2 options

This was a nice moment. Not a pleasnt one but a nice one.

I just hope that Ichi can hold her own alongside Chen. It feels like they're heading to give Tsukasa an as whooping. Not sure what Ichi can do, but we at least know that Chen has gotten more competent than last time since she decided to be the older sibling.

Well, at the very least, I'm glad that bit of internal conflict wasn't left to fester. Reimu really does love her mum that stepped up.

> Mima disappeared.

Looks like Marisa won't be meeting her surrogate mum/teacher(?) in this story. Though her meeting with her human dad is probably going to be a real doozy.

>>211339

I mentioned it earlier, but Ichi/Yumemi was the final boss of Touhou 3: Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream. She's got a moon, star(of David) and cross theme to her attacks, and is considered by some to be the toughest boss in the franchise history. Granted, I don't think she's the strongest person in this story, or even one of them, but I don't think Tsukasa will one-shot her at least.

Granted, it might still go against her. She's angry, and so she'll be sloppy. Tsukasa might pull some sort of tricky trick against her. Maybe the Keiga squad get involved. Maybe Ichi is unable to fight without her weapon and gets disarmed. But I reckon she'll put up a good fight. Hopefully even win

>>211343

> Mima disappeared.

Probably because she didn't have a grudge anymore and ran out of juice. Since she doesn't have a Marisa as an orbiter or a Reimu to harass this time she may still be around. Albeit she is probably sealed.

>>211343
>>211345

Gooboi did mention during the Q&A that Mima was going to be the equivalent of Youki in one of the future arcs. so whether that means that Marisa is going to be rescuing her mentor/whateverherrelationshipis. or it being either Sanae or Tenshi instead, she is going to appear somewhere.

>>211339

Chen isn't going with Ichi, she was staying with the psv on Yukari's orders...

though there is something to keep in mind... hopefully not something to worry about now... but

Yumemi is Human... which means even as tough as she is, she's vulnerable to the black fire... now hopefully I am wrong about Tsukasa possibly having a hand with getting the Endless Ember to Suwako... because otherwise there might be a problem.

on a closer topic...

I don't think Yukari is going to succeed.

>>210796

>“But it’s surprising your travel allows you to change the timeline! The current scientific theories - current from my time - can’t account for that.

>>210036

>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

>>210109

>I can’t fight the inevitable.” Her expression hardened. “...But… with luck, I can understand it.”

From the sounds of it the timeline that Yumemi experienced didn't have a good ending in regards to Kosuzu. So unless Yukari has some ability to chance fate. in fact from Yumemi's and Ichi's conversations (including from the epilogues.) there's only 2 here right now that can change the course of events that Ichi knows, one is locked in Tsukasa's grip, thankfully the other one will be outside the door if I had to guess where Yumemi is right now.

our last choice thankfully calmed Yukari down and opened her up to Reimu a bit more... if things aren't going well she might be more open to letting Reimu try.

>>211343
>>211345
From the Q&A a few threads back:
>[?] With all these PC-98 characters roaming around, does Mima have a noticeable role to play in this story?
>She does! In fact, she might well be a Youki for an arc.

So, something I noticed...

>“...I will say, Reimu. There’s one thing you’re not aware of.” The Sage had just a touch of sadness in her eyes. “I can’t promise that everything you’ve lost will come back, but… perhaps you’ve kept just a little more than you think.”

>Reimu looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

>The sage gave a small chuckle. “You’ll see. When you get back to your shrine, Reimu… you’ll see.”

Aunn is awake far earlier than she should be in this timeline. Aunn is also a shikigami in this timeline... and IIRC, there was a bit towards the end of the last timeline where Reimu mentioned making Aunn a shikigami to try to save her. Combine that with this cryptic comment from Yukari, and I think that Aunn made the timeline jump as well. In a different way from the IC's somehow, but if I'm right, Reimu's going to have a happy reunion waiting for her.

>>211348
I caught that too, but I wasn't quite sure if it was referring to Aunn or Haru or both.

>>211349

I am pretty sure it is referring to Aunn, she had already lost Haru long before the end, meanwhile Aunn was there until the last day before shutting down, and all the hints that we've gotten from Again/Akyuu and Yester/Youmu (and itheir epilogues.) point in that direction (especially Remilia's combined with one of the flashbacks of Youmu's.)

>>2901

>Sakuya paused, standing up. “...What about embedding the programming on whatever soul is already in there? Would that be possible?”

>“Mmmm…” Patchouli muttered under her breath, a free hand making notes. “...That’d only work if it crystallized into a fairly solid and neat form, and assuming they already have a magatama in them, it’d be… impractical. Most likely, you’d have to rip the magatama out of the statue’s chest - and even among artificial creations, there’s not many that can survive having their hearts ripped out. The even less likely alternative is pushing through the stone body to program it with pure spiritual power. To the point that you’d be much better off just making the shikigami from basically anything else, unless you were some kind of savant and that was your only option for a shikigami.

>>208466

>Youmu looked up, and… saw Reimu, standing over the toppled Komainu statues, and the corpse of the gap youkai. Yukari had rolled onto her back, and her face was burnt, but… still, somehow, eerily peaceful. The back of one Komainu didn’t seem like anything special, but the one Youmu could see the front of had a cavity driven through its chest. And… whatever Youmu had sensed about the Komainu before was-

Poor Reimu is still processing that she lost essentially all of the connections she had in her past life, and she just doesn't have the reputation or opportunity to reforge them again naturally (or coast of the Immaterial Children reputation to try and rebuild them).

I guess it also doesn't help that her big "feat" as a Immaterial Child is saving Youki, which while certainly important and helpful (especially as he can continue training Youmu and Okuu), isn't nearly as impressive to Gensokyo at large as preventing Haru's death or fighting a rampaging God, especially for a former Hakurei Shrine Maiden.

>>211350

Yeah at this point I suspect that [Aunn] managed to make the trip over by piggybacking off of her connection to Reimu, inadvertently waking up Aunn substantially earlier (and returning Okina to being a unhelpful grouch, contrary to my earlier speculation that she was trying to prevent Gensokyo from falling apart).

Given that [Aunn] was likely in even worst shape then the Immaterial Children, she probably only retained the vaguest idea of who her master was, which is why she latched onto Haru so strongly as the current Hakurei Maiden. Hopefully for Reimu's sake she remembers her.

whelp, I'm going to be worrying the entire time till the next update...

no warning about starting possibly down a strike yet...

let's hope my worry in >>211346 doesn't have a point.

So I'm assuming if Reimu followed Yumemichi, Yumemini would have gone off on her own to find the book? Not sure which route would be worse.

And Reimu's little sister comes in for the last second save!

Hopefully that medical droid Haniwha is really good.

[X] Chop off Tsukasa's limbs, gouge her eyes out, self her as an onahole to oni, and finally eradicate every trace of her soul when she finally succumbs to death.

>>211358

Lets be fair... Ran gets to choose exactly what happens to Tsukasa, not us.

>>211356

From the looks of it this was the bad one either way... Yumemini would have probably stuck by the door till by the time reimu and yumichi were already confronting tsukasa. Which means Reimu would probably know that Tsukasa isn't Kosuzu's mom and... I don't think they would have caught her? Doesn't sound right. But maybe. Feels weird with how she's built up that Kosuzu wouldn't have some sort of showdown with her... But well it seems that not only is Keiga going to be able to counter the Haniwha, but also going to be prepared for the Kiketsu

Arrg, sorry guys, my bad for bringing up Reimu's promise and rallying the vote for Yukari.

Between this and the first arc Reimu is probably going to develop as much of a complex regarding her instincts that Akyuu is starting to develop regarding her memory...

>>211360

Ah, it's fine. I don't think we can fully anticipate how something will go, and besides, the choice we were voting on for Reimu to make was one that came after Kosuzu had just been emotionally shredded, so I think we were all thinking about direct ways to help her, and at the time, having Reimu help was likely one of the best choices.

Additionally, Tsukasa is a sly one; maybe she would have escaped Yumemi regardless if Reimu had followed or not.

>>211360
Ichi and the book survived anyway, and Reimu and Yukari got to take the first steps towards working out some issues that would've been difficult to get the ball rolling on under normal circumstances. The Keiga issue and Tsukasa's double-dealing seem like they'd have been a problem either way - sure, the Keiga get a bit more information this way, but they already had a decent chunk. Plus, the confrontation with Reimu might've helped Yukari get into a better mindset for helping Kosuzu, maybe?

I'd say you've got nothing to apologize for.

On another note, Yukari said that Ran would arrive the next morning, right? And Tsukasa said she's going to be coming back for Kosuzu then, too. Sounds like we've got a deadline on being prepared for the boss fight... especially making sure Kosuzu's fighting on the right side. Though, then again, something Tsukasa openly said to an enemy who can use that information to prepare... seems pretty likely to be disinformation.

>>211360
I think >>211362 is right with Reimu and Yukari needing to talk. Reimu might somewhat trust Yukari with matters regarding Gensokyo as a whole, but this Yukari barely acknowledges that Reimu is necessary for Gensokyo.

I'm very late to commenting, but yeah this general outcome is not as bad as it could be.

I mean, of course really bad and sad stuff happened, Kosuzu's confidence is in the gutter for now and Yumemi got shanked plus we have a literal army on the way to attack Keiki's base of operations, but overall like >>211362 says Yumemi survived, the book is recovered, Reimu and Yukari will hopefully connect a little (I'm still hurt at that one) and I'll add that Ran is on her way to help (she will be an asset against Saki/Seiga/probably Tsukasa and the army of wolves) and there's hope of Aunn having kept her memories and reuniting with Reimu later.
Of course, there's still a chance for things going wrong. I'll knock on wood.

>>211361
I agree that Tsukasa would have probably escaped anyways. Escape is victory after all, right?

All said, I'm very interested in this last sentence:

>> Worst came to worst, and the Keiga turned on her too, then she’d have to fall back on the oldest tactic she knew. It was a tactic she hated despite her skill at it; one appropriate for what she was, but shameful for what she’d once been.

What tactic? What she'd once been... I have my guesses, but since I'm always wrong I'll keep it to myself for now. Also, we still have the mystery of Shirohime to uncover.

Let's wait and see what happens.

>>211363
Forgot to address this part.

There must always be a Hakurei Miko. Sadly, this means that Reimu is not that necessary for Gensokyo as long as Haru is alive. Will she have to take the reins eventually? Yes, of course, but she's not a priority.

That's why she's not as important to her this time around and therefore, kinda ignored. Especially with the whole thing with Kosuzu.

>>211364

You know, I'd missed this bit:

>>Worst came to worst, and the Keiga turned on her too, then she’d have to fall back on the oldest tactic she knew. It was a tactic she hated despite her skill at it; one appropriate for what she was, but shameful for what she’d once been.

Was Tsukasa a kitsune once upon a time? If she was, and then she fell to being a tube fox, that explains her obsession with ruining Kosuzu. As well as why she's so upset at the idea of being stuck as a tube fox. (Of course, that kind of behavior is probably why she got stuck as a tube fox, but I don't think she's self aware enough to realize that.)

Can we kill Tsukasa already?

>>211366
Yes, Yachie implied in their last conversation that Tsukasa used to be something more than a pipe fox. To take it further, I'd like to point out that the grimoire refers to Kosuzu as Ran's second daughter, and that there's no actual evidence that the first one refers to Chen. It sure would explain why Tsukasa is so fixated on Ran and Kosuzu in particular.

>>211366
>>211364

Something funny I came across while looking at tube-fox lore (and rather funny considering USiL just below.) that had an origin of Tube-foxes being the tails of Tomamo no Mae.

>>211368

considering YukarI's spiel In >>210871 :

>Ran’s always been the maternal type - as anyone who’s seen her with Chen knows

I highly doubt that it would be Tsukasa as the first child and the end result was what we see here.

seems like she was a big fox of some sort (Tomamo no Mae perhaps.) and did something to absolutely piss off the Yakumos and either something they did, or something Tsukasa did resulted in her falling from whatever she was before into a Tube-fox.

[x] Find out how the chase started.

It's been a long road, but this is it. This is the moment where Suzu can start getting her psyche put back together. And more than anything else, she needs to know that Ran is her mom. That tells her she really is a kitsune, that she really does have a family that loves her. It gives her hope.

Or else Ran is just a stranger to her, and poor Suzu is just a tube fox.

It's time to blow this lie to hell.

Okay, either we find out some information about Tsukasa, including any weaknesses etc, and probably some dialogue with Ran that might explain some things (I’m still banking on the Tsukasa was Ran’s first child theory). But most importantly, we might see this old, last ditch tactic.

On the other hand, Kosuzu will hopefully finally find out that Ran was her mother, which should help to lesson Kosuzu’s fear, help her trust Yukari more and make it so that when Ran arrives Kosuzu doesn’t try and hide in fear. If this doesn’t change grip to 2 or lower I would be surprised.

I say we give Kosuzu hope.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

Oh and also, we might see how Tsukasa initially gets in and out while avoiding Ran, which might be useful to catch her if she tries using the same tactics to sneak about.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

I usually start with "on one hand... on the other" yeah I'll just get straight to the point.

Hope of a better future and realizing where her family and happiness is.
Information about how did Tsukasa pull the disappearing act.

There will probably be more to unpack from the latter option, but for now I just want to see Kosuzu happy.

Let the little bell chime joy.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

Kosuzu deserves to know the truth and be given hope, she needs to know that she had a family that loved her.

I think this will greatly affect the grip....

Oh boi, the insights that the end can give us would definetly be helpful to ensure that Tsukasa doesn't manage to pull the same trick twice, but her escaping is really a problem only if she gets the opportunity to grab either Kosuzu or the book with her, but...

[X] Find out how the chase started.

I think that the Grip needs to go as much as possible if we don't want Kosuzu to potentially suffer in battle more, especially against Tuskasa herself.

To me it feels like a situation were you offer the key of the prision door to a prisioner, but if said prisioner doesn't believe that he can get far away or would end up captured again and back in the cell if he tries, then he would think that he might aswell just stay in the cell anyway, not sure if I managed to explain it properly but I simply think that with her current mental state she needs to know that what happened and that she has a mother that actually loves her.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Discover how the chase ended.

My gamer senses tingle, I think there could be some kind of weakness of Tsukasa's we could exploit here that we could use to turn the power dynamic that's been established around and is more readily applicable than what we're likely to get from the start of the scroll. Kosuzu already trusts The Gang (TM) and she already has plenty of reasons to not like (to put it lightly) Tsukasa.

finding out that your abuser has weaknesses too - that they're not invincible - could also help reduce the grip stat.

>>211377
>finding out that your abuser has weaknesses too - that they're not invincible - could also help reduce the grip stat.
Potentially. Inversely, finding out your abuser has powerful backup might do the opposite.

I feel like in terms of function, the choices are pretty obvious; seeing what happened after will give us new information, while seeing beforehand will free Kosuzu’s heart.

It’s also worth noting how the previous update ended:
> But in the end, escape was victory, after all. And when it came to running away… she knew she was faster than Kosuzu.

To me, this sounds like her final gambit is just outrunning Kosuzu if the wolves turn on her. Which sorta implies that whatever means she used to get away from Ran aren’t easily at hand - maybe it requires something or someone she didn’t bring?

At the very least, I highly doubt this choice will completely lock us out of anything. I doubt Tsukasa’s just gonna be able to get away without us having a chance to prevent it, even if we don’t know how it works beforehand. So… let’s give the poor kit the proof that her mother loves her.
[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

I don't know which will show more of how much of a shitter Tsukasa is while making it clear that Ran is involved, so....

By they way, it's fucking amazing how terrible Tsukasa mom turned out in hindsight. At least when you look at it in a vaccum and ignore how it contibuted to the story.

[X] Find out how the chase started

Ah, so that's what we got from having Reimu go with Yukari.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

Sssssuuuurrrrreeee Yukari, you're only a figment of Suzu's imagination... that's why you can repeat a line that Reimu just said to you that kosuzu didn't hear. suuuurrreee, whatever you say!

[X] Find out how the chase started.

yeah, Ran, Yukari, Reimu, maybe even Yachie can find out how Tsukasa escaped afterwards... And I'm guessing they will prefer to extract that information the hard way. what Suzu needs right now is to break free of Tsukasa.

going back in topic a little:

>"perhaps you’ve kept just a little more than you think.”

I wonder if this is slightly more true than even Yukari thinks... it entirely depends on whether Eirin can heal the Endless Ember she grabbed from the aftermath of the Suwako fight, and who emerges from it afterwards... or I suppose my idea could be summarized into one question.

Where did the endless ember come from? The present? Or somehow from the previous timeline?

[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

This could be the first piece of definitive proof to Kosuzu that there's something much better for her than Tsukasa. Finding out how the chase started can clear up her memory regarding the incident, and potentially help her get away.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

I'm now kicking myself over not realising that of course Kosuzu was covering for Tsukasa when she talked about being punished for going to Mayohiga, but never actually assigned any blame. I'm not really sure why I'm getting like that over it, I really don't think we had enough information available at the time for at least me to figure that out, but in hindsight, it really was pretty suspicious. Kosuzu only says that she was punished, not by who, and acts hesitant when Reimu assumes it was the village. And anyway, who goes to the effort of capturing intruders and then just leaves them out in the open with a lock that doesn't even need a key to open as long as you're not inside?

>>211400

And to make things worse?

Remember that Kosuzu mentions that the tube was shaken when she was inside.

[X] Find out how the chase started.
I must say, everyone, that forgiveness and empathy are virtues. I'm sure there's an incredibly good reason for her actions, if only we take the time to look.

Not that I care about that reason, of course. The only reason I bring up empathy is to suggest teaching her some by locking her in a tube herself. Forever.

[X] Find out how the chase started.

Hm...?

[X] Find out how the chase started.

I mean... why was there a chase to begin with? How it ends seems less important to me than why it happened.

I also have my theory as to what this refers to.

>>211404
My suspicion is that the chase was the result of Tsukasa essentially kidnapping Kosuzu, with the "monster" actually being an angry Ran trying to get her child back.

>>211404
>>211405

Yukari told us that it was exactly that (just without connecting for Kosuzu that her tale and Kosuzu's nightmare were one and the same.) in >>210871

[X] Find out how the chase started.
Let's save Kosuzu.
From: >>211332
>>“There isn’t, Kicchou. You’re the last person I want involved with this. There’s nothing you can do to help me.” Yukari kept moving. “This task requires discretion that, frankly, you haven’t proved you have.”

From: >>211370
>>Yukari nodded, smiling. “And then there’d be nothing keeping you away from your friends. And from the real Yukari, of course.” …Then her expression fell. “But… if you don’t remember, I may as well just be some stranger talking nonsense.”
>>Suzu looked up. “...Huh?”
>>Yukari waved it off. “Ah, pardon me. It’s something Reimu said earlier.”
Love how this is helping Yukari realize that Reimu isn't as useless as she thought. Also is a very good indicator of which one is the correct choice here.

>>211236 >>211237 >>211238 >>211239 >>211240 >>211242
As the ones above noted (and any others that I missed) if Kosuzu doesn't realize that Ran is her mother it will hurt Ran and might trigger a Pyre Ran boss fight if there is a endless ember in the area. By seeing the start of the chase we will likely reveal (to Kosuzu) that Ran is her mother making the Ran vs. Tsukasa portion of the next morning more easy to deal with.

---

What seeing how to chase ends might reveal (AKA Why we might want to see the end).
From: >>210871
>>Kosuzu blinked, as the older youkai sighed, rubbing her head. “There’s still… too many questions. Why did they do it? Did they act alone, or did they have an accomplice? And… how did they vanish into the night? Until I have those answers, Ran’s child could be right in front of me and I still would have my hands tied.”
Just because how the chase started will (likely) reveal that Ran is Kosuzu's mother is Ran doesn't mean that seeing the end doesn't reveal that Tsukasa isn't her real mother, there is a chance that Tsukasa says something along the lines of "don't worry young one I will raise you from now on" or something along those lines especially if she didn't work alone (like if she was working with Shirohime) and is asked what she is going to do with the child, if this is the case it would reveal that Tsukasa isn't her mother but not who is. If Tsukasa isn't working alone seeing the end will likely reveal who she was working with. This option is more likely to answer most of Yukari's questions and give her the knowledge that she needs for any countermeasures she needs to come up with.

---

Shirohime's Identity
From: >>210832
>>“While we were still grieving, a certain woman came into Suzunaan.” He scowled. “A blonde woman who called herself Shirohime. And… she encouraged me to use the magics from a certain book.”
>>“Shirohime…” Kosuzu mouthed the words, uncertainly. The faintest hint of a memory tickled in her, so vague she wasn’t even sure it was real. “What was this book?”
>>“I don’t know if she found it or brought it, but… it was a dangerous tome. One dealing in forbidden magic. Cruel magic. She encouraged me to use a certain spell, one that would… well, one that would bind an animal spirit to serve as my eyes, while making them almost undetectable to anyone else.”
...
>>Grampa nodded. “It was against my better judgment, but… Shirohime wore me down. Eventually, I… I did what I needed to do to make the spell work.” Kosuzu looked down, trembling.
>>He closed his eyes, thinking back. “...And what I saw, Kosuzu, was you. The very same girl in front of me now, sleeping peacefully in your mother’s arms. Well, I assume your mother’s, at least. And when I saw you like that, my own hands still stained with the sin I had just committed… I knew I’d made a terrible mistake.”
>>…So while she’d been sleeping away… Grampa had been damning himself. For her.
>>He looked down. “I told Shirohime that I wouldn’t… pursue that magic further. I later realized that all she wanted was to find out it worked… the book was stolen not long after, and the only one besides me who knew it was in Suzunaan was her.”

The only clue to Shirohime's identity is that she is a blonde woman with forbidden magic that Kosuzu has a faint memory of. I have 4 ideas of who it could be.

1) Tsukasa not likely since she doesn't seem to believe that Kosuzu is an Immaterial Child while Shirohime should know.
2) Okina Matara the most dangerous one that could be Shirohime. She has the best ability to help Tsukasa escape Ran, would have access to forbidden magic. Would likely look into the IM incident. The problem I have with this one is why would she help Tsukasa kidnap Kosuzu from Ran.
3) Go (Chiyuri Kitashirakawa) if it is the Chiyuri from the outside world it would make sense why she cannot use the tome (she cannot use magic). She would know that the IC became Youkai so she could think of using this method of finding them. She could help Tsukasa escape Ran either by using the PSV or Ruukoto's holograms. Depending on where on the timeline she is from this could be her doing an anything to restore the timeline method before she later regrets it and teams up with Ichi. As seen with Yumemi Okazaki one can have more than one codename as Yumemi used both Crisis and Ichi.
4) The Unnamed kitsune from Wild and Horned Hermit. I think she is blonde and I could see her helping Tsukasa since she has been seen teaming up with a kuda-gitsune in the past. She might look into the IC incident if she was curious enough.

---

Ruler of Dreams
From: >>211370
>>Yukari shook her head. “Your split dream self will already attract the baku’s attention, and this would be fairly explicit tampering by a lucid dreamer. I’m sorry to say that we’re unlikely to get to both, at least tonight.”
Doremy Sweet the Ruler of Dreams would be interesting, with her ability possibly knows more about the ICs then most as I bet more than one of the IC's nightmares are about the failed timeline(s) (I wonder what she thinks about all this). Without the help she provided in resolving the Perfect Possession Incident Yukari doesn't know that she could trust her (and possibly visa versa?). If nothing else Doremy probity wouldn't like Yukari messing with dreams without permission even if it was for a good cause.

---

Final Thoughts
Instead of could Tsukasa have been Ran's first child what if she was an Inari?
While we could learn much more with the second option last time I prioritized knowledge over safety (the vote of >>211127 to >>211160) we got locked at grip 5. Let's not make the same mistake and take the safer route this time.

>>211405
Well, yes. That's what I'm thinking as well.

>>211407

the unnamed fox is a little harder to pin what her... well any features are because she is disguised the entire time, as either Marisa, or for a short bit when Marisa was there in an undrunken state, Sanae (though I wonder who she disguised as in timeline 2 instead.)

also as I stated above in >>211369 , I find it VERY hard to believe that Tsukasa was a child of Ran's

>>>210871 :

>Ran’s always been the maternal type - as anyone who’s seen her with Chen knows

[X] Find out how the chase started.

[X] Discover how the chase ended.

Counting to >>211413:
Main Choice:
[21] Find out how the chase started.
[2] Discover how the chase ended.

Hm...?

Inb4 locked grip means it didn't matter

>>211415
Never say never!

>> Eiki sighed. “...For now… let’s just try to regather the other children, get you integrated back into the Hieda, and get the Chronicle started. And when we do have everything in place, I want to ask you to do one thing in particular.”

>> “What do you need me to do, Lady Eiki?”

>> The Yama smiled. “Akyuu… I want you all to live a little. As children. Yes, even Inaba Akyuu - especially Inaba Akyuu, the child soldier.” Eiki stroked Akyuu’s hair again. “This disaster is years and years away. Squandering your second youths trying to chase a mastermind who may not even have an inkling of their own plans yet is an exercise in futility, and it’ll only burden your souls. Take some time to enjoy yourselves. Will you promise me that?”

>> Akyuu gave a nod, her face feeling slightly flushed. The Yama smiled, and sat back. “Good. Please, Akyuu, do enjoy your life. Whether you see that as an order, or as a request from a m… from a friend, I want you to live a long, happy life. Even if it is as a lunar rabbit.”

Interrupting the voting to deploy a tactical happy bnnuy to cheer up while we wait the next update.

>>211417
She's not actually a happy bnnuy right now but thank you!

This is cute. Looks like she's gearing up to trip and hurt herself, though...

>>211420
Yeah I almost included that part in the message but this particular scene I view it as just before contacting Youmu, just happy of being able to help with deliveries ^_^

I have another drawing to post later, just missing some finishing touches (it's nothing special). And I might have one or two other drawings in the backburner, already planned, sketched and ready to be started on. Even though I haven't been posting a lot of drawings lately, I've not been slacking with some other stuff. I plan to pick up the pace a little with the actual drawings for R/R, though.

I've asked this in the past, but to have as a refresher (and since a lot of stuff happened in the story since I last asked), what scenes would you like to see? I really should make a list so I don't forget... ^_^U

>>211420
Maybe if she didn't have that ear over her face all the time... :p

Probably gonna start the next thread with you-know-what. Also, this is a very busy week for me, so it will likely take a while. Do bear with me.

But I'll use this chance to quickly announce something. Because of just how dark this arc has been, I've actually changed my plans slightly - Now there will be only one double-up in potential character origin.

The double-up I was gonna have Marisa and Sanae share... I feel like Marisa couldn't take. It's just a ROUGH life for her particularly, and doing it justice would seriously risk her going pyre. and to put things short, if an IC pyres, we're gonna need a new timeline.

So Sanae and Marisa both will be getting three unique origins, while Tenshi gets one double-up (unless I come up with something new I like for her by that time.)

And once again, Ill point you all to the Outside/Omake's thread, made by Lost Soul! >>/shorts/2947 There's a new one up now, again with my oversight. Rather sneakily timed on his part too.

People who have read both stories may not be particularly surprised to hear we've been trading notes. In fact, the pause where I said I was 'investigating some bits'... was opening up a line of dialogue with him to just check if he didn't mind me doing a couple of things. And I really do have to appreciate him being willing to let me lean in a bit with his ideas on this. Because, frankly, there's no way I could do tsukasa justice and make her a good mother at the same time.

>>211421
i'll repeat what i suggested the last time you asked, and put a few new ones in as well:

- youmu perching on suwako's hat

- yukari offering the book to kosuzu

- kosuzu headpat. very important scene to draw.

- ran singing to kosuzu (+ chen and yukari watching)

- motoori kosuzu arguing with kudamaki kosuzu

- hieda no akyuu and konpaku youmu watching their current selves interact

- reisen comforting akyuu after her nightmare

that's all i can think of for now. got really intrigued by human!kosuzu showing up and remebered gooboi's answers in the qna.

>>211422
Honestly, I do agree that this arc has been quite dark and that we probably need a refresher after this one, haha...

>>211424
I dunno if it's been THAT dark, but it's had a few moments for sure.

I feel that Marisa is probably a ways off still but she's gonna be a fun character to vote for.

[×] Steal the mini-hakkero.

[×] Avoid the Kirisame Shop.

Yep good times.

The Kosuzu arc was not so dark but it was very dense, but I am glad that the other missing characters will have a better fate.

also:
[m] Steal spellcards

>>211422
>Probably gonna start the next thread with you-know-what. Also, this is a very busy week for me, so it will likely take a while. Do bear with me.

Since you've started this story we've gotten nearly daily updates. I think you can afford to take a little time off.

>>211422

>It's just a ROUGH life for her particularly, and doing it justice would seriously risk her going pyre. and to put things short, if an IC pyres, we're gonna need a new timeline.

Well that at least partially answers the question I asked back in >>210469

When this arc is over I’m a little curious how close Tsukasa’s meddling came to accidentally causing that for Kosuzu (though part of the answer might be tied to how bad we could end up in a game over…)

Huh, did the plan change? Last I recall it was that we were going to be doing Marisa, then have the second timeline Sanae and Tenshi and then go into the next arc of the Immaterial Children finding them? Or am I misreading what the double up means?

Yeah, between Tewi’s hostility to Akyuu, and then the buildup to the full realization of what Kosuzu has been through, a bit lighter of an arc for Marisa would be nice, though I do trust you that it would still be a great arc. Heck, despite how virulent I was of the fox option during voting ( or at least after people started voting on it so Kosuz could backstab her friends… that caused my opinion of the option to degrade rapidly…) once it was shown that she could still do normal fox magic, I would have been fine if it had turned out that Kosuzu was a Kuda-gitsune and you made Tsukasa somehow more like how Yachie turned out. (which BTW Yachie is still my favorite character in regards to how she has turned out in this timeline! Probably helped that this fic was my main introduction to her, but still.)

Also on that note… from what has been hinted as a possible Marisa background… yeah I can see that being at least a foundation of an issue, it probably would take a bit more than just the background to push her over the brink… but most of the possible backgrounds that would have her in the village would be really bad for Marisa. I’m a little surprised now that I think about it that Akyuu and Youmu didn’t react to the possibility of Marisa being living in the Village with concern. I’m slightly surprised that I didn’t myself but I think that’s largely because I was already planning on not voting for that option. (still hoping that a Faerisa option shows up.)

Lets see going off of backgrounds in the village that wouldn’t be just made from whole cloth

Sekibanki: not the worst… but hiding in the village, not a lot of magic in general from the background, and that is before Marisa wouldn’t be allowed to practice it would really grate on her, especially once the memories start coming back.

The worst one in the village for Marisa… which is a little funny as I do like the character… but

Miyoi

Not a lot of magic inherent or at least of the types Marisa likes, still worried about being caught and expelled from the village/drawing the shrine maiden’s ire so she can’t even pick up or show off any on her own, and having people forget about you when she leaves their sight while again still being able to be caught and thus can’t act out… even if she’s anti-social enough to stay out of the village most of the time… I see Marisa as a Anti-social Extrovert so yeah… that set up would be torture for her. And it wouldn’t even be malevolent like Tsukasa is…

Both of the above would have Marisa… narratively speaking go from hoping to be some powerful Youkai… to coming to to find herself in the same position she was before even Mima

There is one that would sorta work, but 1. Kinda welds two characters together that weren’t connected before, aaaaannd 2. would double up on one of the Youkai types of the ICs. namely Marisa being the big sister of the Fox that goes to Keine’s school from Forbidden scrollery (whom considering that age and assuming that they actually are the age they appear would be possibly born just about now…), possibly with the Fox that disguised herself as Marisa in WaHH being Marisa’s mother in that case. The fact that it would result in the ICs having two foxes probably rules it out, though would still possibly be interesting, Foxisa and Suzu would be book/ magic study buddies, at least when Kosuzu isn’t worried about Marisa swiping her mother’s tome. Though Kosuzu would probably also be weary considering said foxmom employs Kuda-gitsune. (and Marisa would find herself with a little envy towards Kosuzu as she would be picking up her mother’s magic as easy as breathing, while MArisa would be working hard with the same magic.)

Though on that note as an aside… considering that she was almost a fox equivalent of Mamizou (a fox boss around the village.) I am a little surprised that Mamizou stuck up for her in front of Reimu in WaHH, bah whatever.

That kinda reminds me… I have an idea of what I would like to see as an option for both Marisa and Tenshi… not one for Sanae yet though… hm.

>>211421

Which thread was the last you asked? I believe I had a couple listed, but uh… It’ll take awhile to find your posts within this arc with ctrl-f as instances of Kosuzu pop up as well…

I’m not sure if I already requested this one but one of Kosuzu facing down the wolves, trapping them in… whatever the aura thing is called (I have something picture in my head of it being head on and Kosuzu posed so that it looks like she’s holding the aura like an open book in one hand while she looks at the trapped wolves head on, but it's up to you.) a chance to see Kosuzu being Badass.

Oh also a half-scary, half-funny one, but how about one showing the moment Yumemi knocks out Seiga with the chair?

I’ll look in the previous arcs if some of my previous requests haven’t already been done… though this arc will be a little hard to look up if I requested some here…

>>211430
>It’ll take awhile to find your posts within this arc with ctrl-f as instances of Kosuzu pop up as well…
I don't know about Chrome, but on Firefox, the Ctrl+F popup has a "whole words" toggle. Enabling that returns 20 results in this thread for "kosu", all of which are either posts by the artist, or one person addressing said artist. (It'll be 21 after I post this, because I mentioned the artist's name)

>>211431
22 now.
Something even easier would be to add a space at the end so you search for "Kosu " and it will be 99% related to my posts. Sorry for naming myself similar to a character lol (23 times now. btw I've had the name Kosuka since like 2002-03, but I've shortened it here since it's easier to pronounce). I searched for it and it was on thread 16 >>210136

>>211423
Youmu perched on Suwako's hat I've already done >>210379

>>211431

I use brave, and sadly it does not appear to have the option to search whole words

I'll try looking for "drawing" or "scene" instead, that might work.

and yeah, only just realized that Kosu wouldn't need to ask for a refresher on the list if they could find the list.

oh and Kosu responds while i was finishing the post! and hey! my list of requests was right below the post linked! so here's my previous suggestions:

-Bishop's spit take into Yachie's face.

- Kosuzu looking at Reimu and Mayumi with them not looking at her (
>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.
)

- The Reimu & Kosuzu reunion hug.

>>211430

I'm pretty sure by double up Gooboi is just referring to reusing unchosen background options rather than changing the flow of Marisa or Paradox/Pair.

As for WHERE Marisa could be, there are probably a few valid options (village or otherwise), either playing into her being the Ordinary Magician or going nuts.

- I could concieve Marisa ending up living with either the Youkai Alliance OR in Shining Needle Castle, as both would be remote enough that they wouldn't necessarily hear word about Immaterial Children while accessing the Village easily. Though in either case most likely Marisa's introduction would be caused while Shinny is causing her incident. Having a IC being involved with an incident before regaining their memories would be rather funny, if unfortunate for when the rest of the IC show up to train using the incident.

- I'm also holding out that its still entirely possible that we get Dragon!Marisa related to Iku, though that would still entail providing a fairly good reason for Iku/Marisa to go to Gensokyo without Tenshi messing around with keystones to cause an earthquake.

Really the only places I wouldn't expect to find Marisa is in New Hell or Makai, if only because they are both fairly remote and would have very few reasons to send out a small youkai child to enounter a trigger item.

While I don't think it's likely to happen, part of me wants to see fairy or nature spirit Marisa. If only for the possibility of her getting taught magic by Yuuka this go around instead of Mima. Gotta train those Master Sparks early!

Probably it wont happen but i want to see an oni IC, IaMP didn't happen yet and maybe Suika arrives with a daughter.
If she's in the village maybe Kogasa is around? I don't remember if she arrived with the buddhists or if she was there already.
Most of the youkai that could be in the village didn't arrive yet, like Mamizou so I don't know what to expect apart from Sekibanki or Miyoi like >>211430 says

>>211435

ah, right, forgot about the reusing backgrounds possibility... though that means that whatever the original marisa option that had been removed would be known to us... so my idea was off... hm, I wonder. we have:
Daitengu, tsuchigumo, it probably wasn't the scarlet sister.choice that sounds like one Marisa would like from the open access to Patchouli's books alone... amanojaku/whatever the sugume option was, Pegasus under the thumb of Seiga, Wolf Tengu, Kappa, and bakeneko under Mamizou.

I don't think it would be Shining needle castle... that would possibly require a large timeskip of years before DDC Shinmy is notably young when she got tricked into causing an incident wasn't she? she would be single digits right now.

also I am drawing a blank on what you mean by Youkai alliance. (not the grassroots Youkai Network?)

hm, I wouldn't count Makai completely out due to them successfully setting up the tourism plan in this timeline... (heh, she would be the servant of Alice or something...)

>>211430
>Sekibanki, Miyoi, Kogasa
Reminds me of an earlier comment by the good fox in >>209753
>Kosuzu nibbled away at her cookie. “...Ah, maybe I can talk to that. Chances are she’s one of the ‘forward-thinkers’, or at least her parents are.” Kosuzu pointed skyward. “There’s a lot of youkai who… value being able to stay in the village long-term over living it up now. So, at least while they’re in the village, they do their best to blend in with the humans. A lot of them had grassroots youkai networks or similar setups in place even before Haru started to get weaker, or they just work somewhere in the village undercover.”

Could be a reference to these.

Personally, Sekibanki would be cool. Consider that Sekibanki has Laser Eyes, and tell me Marisa wouldn’t be interested

>>211436

Yes! another person wants a Fairisa route! (though hopefully we could still get some learning from Mima too.)

also, to build off of my comment in >>211430 :

>That kinda reminds me… I have an idea of what I would like to see as an option for both Marisa and Tenshi… not one for Sanae yet though… hm.

what would be some interesting options for Sanae?

>>211438

Oops, your right its the Grassroots Youkai Network. No clue where alliance came from.

TBH if it was Shining Needle Castle with Inchling!Marisa I actually think it would be Seija putting Marisa up to it rather than Shinny, especially if we got older sis Marisa background. Seeing as we already could afford to be on a accelerated schedule (even if Suwako is down for the count, Kanako still is perfectly capable of causing havoc), I wouldn't rule them out completely.

I didn't even think of the possibility of Alice living in Makai and having Marisa working for her! It would be cute, even if Alice would be distressed by Marisa becoming more of a delinquent the moment she got her memories and fell into old habits.

>>211436
Fairisa would also be fun option, especially if we get to be terrorized/awed by Yuuka.

TBH I just want Marisa to be either a weak youkai or a strong youkai. Either one has interesting story potential with her character, and still would be lighter than what poor Kosuzu is dealing with at the moment.

>>211440
The one thing I can think of for Sanae, given that it took Tenshi forever to actually track her down, is that she has an excuse to be in one of the bizarre outskirts areas that just don't interact with Gensokyo often. While Animal Hell is likely somewhat off the table (beyond the meme universe where all three heads are hiding a kid), that still leaves a regular Hell Origin, an Outside World Origin, and a bunch of the anti-social youkai options.

>>211441
I think one interesting one is the one she and Marisa would have shared, because we can infer a bit from that. And reading between the lines, Marisa got a new one, but snae probably kept the shared one for herself.

Firstly is that it was catastrophic for Marisa, but not as bad for snae. Considering Marisa’s the worst of the ICs for past memories, it’s probably a life that wouldn’t give her a lot of what she likes, but either snaes memories serve her better, or she’s not as deprived of what she likes.

Then there’s the fact it’s one that the two of them shared. So there was at least some dynamic there they both could play into. perhaps something regarding Reimu?

>>211440
>what would be some interesting options for Sanae?
Watatsuki no Sanae, daughter of one of the Watatsukis (and by extension, granddaughter of the other), living a pampered sheltered life as an elitist snob.

>>211441

huh,a part of why I was thinking Fearie Marisa was that it would have her still be the shortest of the IC's even after turning youkai... (or rather supernatural in this case, since Faeries are not considered Youkai for some reason... ) but you found the option that takes that even further! XD didn't think of that!

>TBH I just want Marisa to be either a weak youkai or a strong youkai

funnily enought Faerie Marisa would have potential to be both. Faeries are the mooks of Gensokyo, but Cirno and Clownpiece show that they have potential for much more power (Cirno morso because most of her climb up the power scale was on her own with only occasional temporary boosts.)

that and I could see Faerie magic potentially work together with Marisa's magic.

huh, I have a thought of Tenshi being Meiling's daughter (Meiling faced down the Catfish and it would have Tenshi be in timeline B one of the first youkai that Reimu faces down as the full fledged Hakurei shrine maiden and means that they were friends for awhile.) but also with Marisa's wish to be a dragon could point instead to Marisa being Meiling's daughter... the mom is asleep at her post, and the daughter has swiped a book and is reading at her post! XD

and for what the removed Marisa option was... I realize I might have it backwards... it might be everything she wanted... and especially due to being the worst off memory-wise, being pressured in some way to instead be with the Kirisame's.

>>211421
Since you ask if there is any request here are some of mine hope it isn't too many. If nothing else you could save these if the story goes darker again.
- R/R Thread 4 Again/Akyuu 206479: Akyuu at Geidontei
- R/R Thread 7 Again/Akyuu 207259 and/or Epilogue 2901: Sackuya
- R/R Thread 7 Again/Akyuu 207292: Eiki lectures Akyuu about ...other matters (Rod of Remorse)
- R/R Thread 10 Yester/Youmu 208092: Something from the Youmu vs. Parsee fight
- Epilogue 2812: Saki victory picture with Yuuma
- Omake 2965: Komori playing with Reimu's Plushies with Reimu running away

>>211422
On Outside/Omake's do you want oversight or is that something you are offering to those that want to check if their Omake is lore compliant or was that just something you are offering to Lost Soul?

>>211445
Me and Lost Soul have been editing each other's updates, providing feedback and the like, since about midway through K/K. It's because of that level of correspondence that he's been sending me the omakes, and i've been fine-tuning them in regards to character and the like.

likewise, a lot of my more recent updates have been reviewed and edited by him.

for example, the original idea for the marine haniwa that chase Koji was Haniwa piranhas. I felt like that was rather violent for what was essentially an 'ally', so we bounced ideas back and forth a bit until we got to the haniwa crabs. I also suggested the name for Koji, but otherwise Koji and Komori are his OCs (Otter Characters)

If you wanted to make sure that your Omake is Lore/Character compliant, I'm happy to take a look before you post, but there's no obligation (and some things I may not be willing to answer, for obvious reasons). I try to be constructive and offer alternatives to anything I raise a stink about.

>>211446
I may as well chime in and confirm all this. I forget exactly how it all began (and by this point our Discord chat log is much too long to check), but Gooboi and I have been going back and forth over our stories, various omake or crossover ideas, and just fun what-if scenarios for a while now. Us beta-reading each others' updates pretty much arose from that since we were already discussing writing stuff so frequently.

I believe the question that either started it all or kicked it into high gear was how Greg and Kosuzu would interact, assuming some cross-dimensional shenanigans let them meet and compare notes. Those of you who are up to speed on USiL are probably aware of why that specific pair of characters was considered... and then it branched out into other pairs (our respective Satori's, our respective Yukari's, and so on and so forth), and then other scenarios. Most of them are in the vein of what various forms of alternate characters would think about each other or how a given character would perform if swapped into a different IC origin, but there's enough origins and enough characters for there to be a lot of variety, and a few scenarios that are particularly compelling.

(There's also a few scenarios that get quickly dismantled in hilarious ways. Akyuu in Kosuzu's place is a good example of this. Perfect memory, plus being able to prove she's the Child of Miare? Tsukasa's kidnapping lasts a day or two, tops.)

Anyway, I'm bringing all this up because there's at least a chance a few of these concepts actually get written as omakes in the future. The above-mentioned Greg/Kosuzu meeting would be one possibility, as would be rewriting a few of the canon scenes from this arc with Greg in Kosuzu's place. I'm not going to guarantee anything, but I do hope that at least a couple of the crossover concepts between our universes make it to paper.

There's also one crossover idea in particular that I really hope to write down the line, but it would be a major undertaking, and is only actually viable once USiL is finished. No more details on that just yet (Both because of how far away actually writing this would be, and because the very premise of the story contains spoilers for USiL's climax), but I do want to eventually get there.

And for the record, I'm extremely happy with how everything K/K-related is turning out; this is my favorite arc of R/R so far, and the Tsukasa-origin as a setup in general is my personal favorite out of all the IC-origins I've seen. I generally don't comment with my tag on unless me being the writer of USiL is actively relevant, but I have been following and voting since this story started. (>>211371 was me, for instance).

>>211443
That'd be fun. Do you suppose she'd take after Yorihime (as a closet earthaboo whose confidence and patriotism are largely bluster), or be a dyed-in-the-wool Lunarian (and maybe enough of one to sell out her own family?)?

Then again, I guess it'd be up to votes to at least some degree, and unless I miss my guess, it'd be easier to move heaven and earth than to get this voting pool to lean Lunarian.

>>211449

it would also end up a bit funny when Akyuu gets the full description of Sanae and go... "HEY, WAITAMINUTE! I saw her all the time when the Watasuki sisters wanted to pet a bunny!"

>>211436
>>211444
I like the idea of fairy Marisa as well! Firstly, it fits her mischievous and somewhat short-sighted personality well; secondly, the camaraderie of fairies, chaotic as it may be, would be a nice contrast to the depressingly dysfunctional family relationship of Kosuzu and Tsukasa in this arc; and thirdly, weak as fairies may generally be, being a fairy *would* give Marisa one very useful ability: being able to resurrect endlessly as long as she is not "erased at a conceptual level".

Ah, whoops.

New thread here:

>>211466