Without much reserve, I knock hastily on the sliding doors. I wasn’t really eager to get there, but it isn’t like I had anything better to do. That and free tea, I’m pretty sure nobody will die if I don’t help them out… probably… In fact with her in charge someone is bound to die, most likely the brilliant genius herself. But who cares anyway? Fairies can’t really die. So, since nobody will die then it’s perfectly all right if I don’t go.
The sliding door opens but my fist doesn’t recognize immediately the change in texture as my brain is too busy processing the fact that there’s some random Youkai trying to spy discretely in the bushes over there. Geez what a joke even the most senile human could tell there’s someone there, does it want me to walk all the way to it, grab a branch and spank it?
*Cough*-“Well excuuuuse me if I’m bothering you.” The voice of the person who invited me in the first place draws my eyes back at her.
I don’t know for how long but I have been knocking on her left shoulder for a while now. Oh well, shit happens.
-“Hey, you gotta see the bright side of things. If you were a little more off to the left I would have been knocking somewhere less comfortable instead.” I reply to her irritation with a risky but quite true comment. Actually now I wonder how she would have reacted if it DID happen that way. I’ll be sure to be a little more off to the right next time I come here.
-“Don’t make me regret this. I can always go back on my decision and just exorcise the living hell out of you. I could also get some friends and make it a 5-7 of ‘let’s torture our friendly neighbors’.”
-“Yes, you could. But that wouldn’t end well now would it? I’m pretty sure you don’t want to clean up the whole shrine that badly.”
-“I’ll get one of my freeloaders to clean up”
-“Freeloaders actually doing the job?”
This mistake was your demise, red-white.
-“…”
-“… really?”
-“Just get in already.”

I follow Reimu inside, waving a greeting to an Oni who most likely is not in any condition to even see my hand. On my trip toward my destination, numerous traps of varying nature usually await anyone who enters this shrine but it seems like the ghost who usually causes 99% of those is busy somewhere else. Without any peril to my life showing themselves, I can’t help but think of that it’s too quiet. Could this be… an ambush? Damnation! This miko lured me into a trap!
-“You!” I knew it! It was a trap! “If I got told I’d see you here.” The blue-haired excuse for an angel exclaims herself at my sight.
-“Likewise, Tenshi, I think I’d never see you here since you, like, destroyed the whole place.”
-“Hey, I’m also the one who got it rebuilt.”
-“You better damn well had done it! Else I would have had to fetch you back and make you do all the work by yourself.” Reimu interrupts us with a harsh but quite fair comment.
This blue-haired girl with the High and Mighty attitude soon to leak is Tenshi Hinanai, she isn’t too annoying but she still gets on my nerve whenever she tries to show off. My relationship with her can pretty much summarize as ‘we beat each other up each time we see ourselves’. Why? Let’s just say that it’s a long story. The fact that both of us are in the same room without trying to kill each other is amazing enough for me to forget about it.
-“If you’re about done with this you could just sit down and wait for the tea to be ready.”
I do as prompted, careful to choose the seat farthest away from Tenshi. Reimu sits between us, acting efficiently as a barrier.
-“So, why is she here, really?” I say, pointing at the local celestial. “Didn’t you kick her ass all the way to Heavens and back, several times?”
-“Well, she’s very persistent” Reimu drops simply, rolling her eyes.
-“And because of how much I improved this shrine.”
I got to admit it DID look a lot bigger from the outside but, to that extent?
-“Don’t be stupid, I’m just allowing you to stay here because no matter how many times I kicked you out you’d still ask for more.”
-“Tthat’s true too~” Tenshi admits with an amused tone, bringing her left index to her lips and glancing at me. “But why is that person here? I know there’s room for a lot of them, but it isn’t like you Reimu to actually invite people to stay without them practically forcing themselves in.”
-“ ‘This person’ differs from any of you freeloaders by the fact that the last time I had to go out instead of getting in my way and randomly attacking, [___]*1 actually helped.”
-“You must be suffering from the heat outside Reimu, there’s no way this would happen.”
-“Well I don’t see people helping YOU out after the commotion you’ve caused.”
Hmmm, No good, it’s already bad enough if me and Tenshi are in the same room, if she pisses Reimu off as well, things will get out of hand.
-“Ladies, TEA.” I cut the building tension between them with a voice that leaves room for no counter and even the shrine maiden looks surprised for a split second.
“Yeah, that’s right…” Reimu motions to stand up but instead shouts something I am not used to hear. “JADE, why don’t you make yourself for once.”
-“huh?”
Ignoring the shout as if it was a natural happening, Tenshi simply overlook it and continue as if I never interrupted.
-“So that’s why I have to bear with this presence? Because you got a little help?”
-“Yes, you’ll bear with it else you’ll be off to take a walk.” Reimu replies with a comment that definitely implied something as Tenshi reacts with something half-way between frustration and embarrassment. Actually I don’t want to know what she implied. Scratch this; I’d kill to know what she meant.
-“JADE!!”
As if it was his cue, a tall, black-haired man wearing a turquoise kimono enters the room casually.
-“What’s the problem? Is it this time again?”
-“Keep dreaming.”Her voice is harsh.” There’s water in this kettle” *she points at the said object. “There are tea leaves a few meters away” her finger goes slightly to the right “you know what to do.”
-“Right on” he says, walking up to the kitchen. He rummages into the stocks, but then turns back with a puzzled expression.
-“Hey, did you put the tea leaves somewhere else?”
-“Huh?”
The whole room’s attention swaps to the window as a box passes by, following a pair of long, giant, mantis-like forelegs.
-“Did I just…”
-“What was…”
-“err…”
Silence falls upon the room as everyone seems to brush the event away as if denying it ever happened.
-“Well, there’s still the tea in the--”
Another pair of identical forelegs, a box impaled in it.
-“O…kay…” I let out somewhat taken aback.
Without notice, a horde of those Mantis-like forelegs pairs pass by the window, carrying numerous goods and food, they must be passing right by the wall as we can’t see the lower part of their bodies.
-“Am I seeing things?” Tenshi declares in a skeptical voice. I am too dumbfounded to say anything.
-“Well, here goes the tea… and the food… and pretty much everything we own.” The Jade guy breaks the silence. As if his voice was the cue, both maidens storm out of the room, engaging pursuit. I follow them out of the shrine quickly. Once out, I immediately spot them in a low altitude flight not so far away. They must have spotted the perpetrators already. I take off myself, trying to catch up.

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