[X] Rest. That red eye should be enough of a warning for you to get more sleep.

Lets take a day off

[X]Village. Seek another opportunity for work in the village. Maybe Sanae could show you a thing or two…

We still need a steady income to survive here.

[x] Rest. That red eye should be enough of a warning for you to get more sleep.

He does need more sleep/rest, especially from the random trauma/stuff getting wrecked generator that seems to be in effect here.

[x] Rest. That red eye should be enough of a warning for you to get more sleep.

Dream sequence Go!

Called. Please wait.

Uh... Maybe you shouldn't go anywhere with that red eye. It's irritating to travel with an irritated eye. You need to be in your best condition if you want to learn something or work. You write your decision and your reason on your pad.

“Wise choice! I thought you'd push yourself too hard today,” Sanae smiles brightly.

“Well, let's treat your eye before you go to sleep.” Suwako gets up and goes to another room. “I'll prepare some green tea. It should help your eye cure itself faster!”

Sanae stares at Suwako. “Green tea? I don't think drinking it would help...” The goddess laughs a little.

“He won't drink it Sanae, he'll place it on his eye. Green tea has some substances that'll help against irritation. Later,” she pats Sanae’s back and walks off. Herbal treatment? If it works for your eye, you'll try it. It's not like green tea to the eye can blind you.

*Slluuurrp!*

You finish your noodles, along with the soup. Yummy. Not really filling, but delicious. Suwako soon comes back with a steel teapot and a piece of cloth and hands them to you.

“Here! You only need to soak the cloth with some tea and put it on your eye before getting to sleep.” She then looks to Sanae. “So what you will do now, Sanae? Since he's not going anywhere today.”

“Uh…” She looks outside through the open door. “I guess I'll sweep the front yard. It looks dirty.” You stand up and walk back to your room.

“Sleep well Nobu!”

---

You sit on your bed and pour the tea on the cloth carefully, so it won't make a mess. It's surprisingly cold... You inspect the inside of the pot, and find some ice cubes in it along the green tea leafs and some water. Maybe you'll drink it if you can find a glass around here.

*Hoam...*

Enough thought. You place the soaked cloth on your eye and sleep…

---

“How about Fuji mountain next month? Some skiing will be nice.”

Your father chats with someone, while you and the girl play in another room. You can hear their conversation.

“Sorry, I can’t. Families at the shrine call me.”

“…Again? I thought you-”

“Yes, I disagree, but they kept pushing me.”

“What's wrong with being a shrine maiden anyway? I mean, it's only temporary, right?”

“No… They want her to take the chief priest’s position. They say she's been chosen… Damn. I know I should’ve heeded the call and taken that position. Now they want to take my daughter instead. She deserves a better future than being a chief priest; the shrine doesn't even get a lot of visitors nowdays…”

“Uh…”

“Ah, sorry, it's my family’s problem; you shouldn't have to worry about it.”

“I'll help if you need it. It's not like we're strangers to each other…”

“No, it's okay! I'll manage somehow. I have to-”

*Tuk!*

The girl hits your shoulder with a controller.

“Hey, did you listen? It's your turn now! Move o-”

---

Ah... You can feel something wet on your face... Oh right. Your eye doesn't feel burned anymore; Suwako's treatment seems to have worked. You remove the wet cloth from your eye and find yourself-

[] Laying in your room.
[] Kidnapped by a flying magician.
[] Inside a smaller shrine.

[X] Laying in your room.

Though i have urge to chose the second choice i'll hold myself a little i think....

[X]Inside a smaller shrine.

I personally want to see how he ends up in what's probably Hakurei shrine.

[X] Inside a smaller shrine.

Flying magician high on magic mushrooms?
Hmm...

[X] Laying in your room.

Let's minimize the pointless and likely harmful hijinks.

[X]Inside a smaller shrine.

[x] Kidnapped by a flying magician.

[X] Inside a smaller shrine.

Called. Writing now.

You look around. Strange; this is definitely not your room. Where are you?

*Wooosh!*

The door opens, revealing a woman about your age in red and white dress. She looks surprised at first, but then she looks pissed. Uh oh.

“Explain why the hell you're sleeping in my room in my bed. Now.”

Shit. Where is your writing pad!? Wait, you don't carry it to sleep. Where the hell is this place? You frantically makes some sign to-

“What the hell are you doing?”

Argh, she doesn't get that you're mute. Screw it; you have to know where the hell you are right now. You run out from the room and check your surroundings… strange. This is a shrine, but it’s not the one you live in. It’s smaller than Sanae's-

“Hey, don't just ignore me! At least put the bed back you-”

“Reiiimmuuu!!!” A girl with horns runs at the woman. Uh… she must be a youkai. No doubt. “Here he comes, here he comes!”

The woman jerks you back inside the shrine. Hey hey hey, wha-

“Stay. If you do something funny inside, I'll throw you to hell myself.”

You nod without voice. Geez, she's scary. Granted, you're a stranger who slept inside her room using her bed… That's an atrocity. Better if you sit here like a good boy, maybe she'll forget-

“Hey, who are you?” Someone pokes your shoulder. HOLY- It's the horned girl earlier. She put a finger on your mouth. “Psstt, Reimu will get extremely angry if you disturb her meeting with her handsome donator!”

Ugh, whatever. It's her business, so you won't dwell on it. You’re still curious who he is, though, and start to peek through the window. She's attending a man who's praying now. He looks plain, but then you’re not the right person to measure how attractive a man is. After some talking, he gives her a box, covered in cloth, and leaves.

“Let's go out, it seems it's safe now!” the horned girl says, and opens the door. You follow behind her as she steps outside. “Reimu, who's this guy?” she immediately asks.

“I don't know! He suddenly showing up in my room, inside my bed. How he got in there without me noticing is a mystery…” She then stares to you. “You're an outsider, right? Well, if you tell me what happened, I'll send you back to outside world, free.”

Uh… You start making signs, trying to tell her what happened, since there's no other way for you to communicate.

“Seriously, stop making weird motions and say what happened!” She glares sharply now.

“Wait,” the horned girl says, then she pinches your hand. OUCH! What was that for? “He didn’t scream. Did you lose your voice?” Finally! You nod to her, confirming her guess. “I think he's not lying, Reimu.”

“Great, a mute outsider. It's really a surprise that you're still alive until now. Lemme guess, did you walk here to go back to your world and find no one home? Then decide that since this place's abandoned, you’d try to stay here instead?” She starts making guesses.

“Weren't you at the shrine this morning?”

“I had to collect some vegetables earlier,” she sighs. “I'll prepare the ritual right away, stay here.”

Waitwaitwaitwait! You quickly hold her shoulder and shake your head. You don't want to back to your own world, at least not yet. You try to explain who you are with signs.

“Grrr… what are you saying now?”

*Tuk!*

Ouch. Your head hits a branch, thrown by that horned girl.

“Use that branch to write on the ground, we can't understand what you're trying to say!”

Good idea. You start writing your explanation…

---

“Wait, you live with the Moriyas?” The woman glares at you, again. She does like to glare at you, doesn't she? “Tell me more. Did they plan something with you?”

Hey, take it easy lady. You scribe to her that they’re not using you for any plans, as far as you know. They helping you, and you try to help them back; that's it. You also add that they mentioned they need faith, and want you to believe that they're goddesses, which you do.

“Living with the Moriyas? I never saw you on the mountain before… Hold on a minute.” The horned girl starts to look your face closer, then realizes something. “Aha, this is the guy from the Bunbunmaru yesterday!”

“Uh, really? Which article?”

“The headline! He wear glasses and an eyepatch, that must be him!” She points. The red and white dressed woman inspects you closer, then shrugs.

“Yeah, whatever, I'll re-read it later. Now, I'm going to ask the real question: what were you doing inside my room?!”

Yikes. You quickly write that the last thing you remember was falling asleep inside your own room in the shrine, and when you woke up you had ended up here.

“You expect me to believe that you somehow teleported to my room in your sleep?” She rolls her eyes. You nod with serious face, and tell her that's the truth. She looks back sharply, locking eyes with you, then sighs. “Fine, it seems you’re telling me the truth. Not like I haven’t experienced weirder things before. Name's Reimu Hakurei, by the way,” she introduces herself.

“I'm Suika, nice to meet you!” The horned girl follows. “So, what would you do now?”

[ ] Ask the way back to the shrine and walk home. Nothing much can you do here anyway.
-[ ] Ask one of them to accompany you, in case your misfortune strikes again.
[ ] Stay and chat. Maybe you can offer to work for her, paying the rent for her room.

[X] Stay and chat. Maybe you can offer to work for her, paying the rent for her room.

[X]Ask the way back to the shrine and walk home.

"Paying Reimu back" for what's presumably a Yukarin shenanigan doesn't strike me as a productive use of our time. Particularly considering she wasn't even here to use the bed, so it's not like we were keeping her from sleeping or anything. We tresspassed on her property and all, but no harm no foul.

'Sides, she probably wants to get rid of us so she can meet with the guy who's paying for the ten thousand yen service.

[x] Ask the way back to the shrine and walk home. Nothing much can you do here anyway.
-[x] Ask one of them to accompany you, in case your misfortune strikes again.

What were you people thinking even voting for a detour? We'll be lucky if Nobu doesn't end up a cripple yet again due to his seeming bad luck.

[X] Stay and chat. Maybe you can offer to work for her, paying the rent for her room.

May learn something new, and considering our bad luck don't really want to risk going a long distance.

>>22213
You want this story derailed and over in /shrine/?

>>22214

What are you talking about?

The choice is basically too stay and talk, and since we ended up here for a currently unknown reason talking for a while may either enlighten us to the reason or teach us something new which are both beneficial.

The extra option is offering to find a way to pay her back since you slept in her room (which considering you got there accidentally and your circumstances it will probably be refused) and unless you somehow believe that Reimu will have you work there forever I don't see the problem with not immediately running back especially since Nobu's bad luck seems to spring up more when he traveling.

[x] Ask the way back to the shrine and walk home. Nothing much can you do here anyway.
-[x] Ask one of them to accompany you, in case your misfortune strikes again.

>>22215
>unknown reason
Maybe in universe, but outside it's due to the voters and their terrible sense of humor.

Besides the whole matter of having to pay for something you had no active choice in, working to pay the rent may lead to a cycle.

That and I think Reimu would rather attend to teh donator than to deal with Nobu.

Called.

Well, better haul your ass out of here. You ask to them if they can show the path to the Youkai Mountain.

“Hmm... I usually fly to there, I rarely walk when traveling far, so I'm not really remembered the way. Suika, can you help him?” The red-white dressed woman asks to her friend.

“No problem! You're not coming?”

“I have to eat first. I haven't filled my stomach since morning...” She sighs. “I'll fly to Moriya Shrine after that. I have something to talk with Sanae about.”

“Alright then, see you later!” She puts you on her shoulder and start running. Wow, she's much stronger than she looks, and she runs fast. Waitwaitwait-

---

“Nobuuuuuuu!!! Where areee youuuuuuu!!!!” Sanae throws her voice to the sky. Kanako and Suwako comes out from a room.

“Sanae, why are you yelling? He's sleeping inside his room, remember?”

“He's not in there, Lady Suwako, I can't find him around the shrine. I'm afraid he's missing!”

“Maybe he's just walking around the mountain, or going to the lake.”

“But it's unusual for him to go away without telling us! I'm afraid he-”

“Calm down Sanae. He's smart enough to not get into any trouble, you've told him how to deal with hostile youkai, right?” Kanako reminds her.

"Well, yes." She takes a deep breath. "You're right, I'm overreacting again. I'll start searching if he doesn't come back before nightfall."

---

“What do you want?”

She stops after you tap her shoulder a few times. You write on the ground asking if she can fly.

“I can, but I couldn't show you the path if we are flying. You are asking for the shortest path to the Youkai Mountain, aren't you?”

Uh, well... She's correct. You better remember the way around here, in case you somehow end up in that smaller shrine again. You scribe to her that she doesn't have to carry you on her back then, since you still have two functional legs to walk.

“Okay!” She drops you back to the ground. Finally. She starts drinking from her bottle, again. You can smell the alcohol from here. Ugh... You hope she's sober enough to guide you.

---

You walk following Suika. She sometimes has to stop to follow your slower pace. Somehow, the alcohol doesn't make her drunk, but there's something weirder that you notice: sake keeps pouring out from her bottle, no matter how much she drinks it. Must be some kind of magical bottle.

“Arrrggghh!!!” She suddenly stops and yells. “It's so boring! Try to say something, start a conversation, anything! It's so quiet that I feel like walking alone with an imaginary person! Not even a ghost could be this quiet!”

You're mute, with your only way of communication being writing on the ground. Of course it'll be quiet. You write a big 'I'M A MUTE' on the ground, because she clearly didn't get it earlier.

“Alright, alright, sorry! I'm not blaming you, but it feels weird to walk with someone else without talking whatsoever! I've got a feeling that you'll trick me or something!!”

Sigh... You start scribing that this is not your cho- wait. You'd been given the chance by that doctor that she'd create a medicine that can make you talk again, and you refused it. Ah, crap, looking at how she can quickly heal your scars and wounds, she should be able to make the medicine. But then, the price... Maybe Yukari can cover-

“Don't just stand there! If you don't have anything to say, move on!”

She snaps you from your thought. Well, better not waste time then...

---

After some walk, you can recognize the road again, indicating that you're on the right path. Wait, you hold her before she can walk further.

“What is it? We're close to our destination!”

You write on the ground asking her if it's okay that she enters the mountain, since the people on the shrine said that it's off limits to most people.

“Nah, it's okay! We Oni once ruled this place, until we got bored and moved out from here... Look!“

She waves at a woman with a shield and sword, maybe a patrol. She takes a glance at you both from distance, and then walks away.

“See, it's okay! I know this place better than you! I bet you don't know that you can reach Heaven from there!”

Wait, Heaven? Like, the place where you ended up when dead?

[] Sounds interesting. Ask her how she reaches it.
[] Nah, you'll see heaven eventually when you're dead. Maybe. Let's go straight home.

Optional

-[] Ask her about the Oni's past in this place. You don't have to hear it, just do it to give her something to talk about and feel less bored.

[x] Sounds interesting. Ask her how she reaches it.

Only knowing is not really harming.

[X] Sounds interesting. Ask her how she reaches it.

-[X] Ask her about the Oni's past in this place. You don't have to hear it, just do it to give her something to talk about and feel less bored.

[x] Nah, you'll take her up on that some other. Maybe. Let's go straight home.
-[x] Ask her about the Oni's past in this place. You don't have to hear it, just do it to give her something to talk about and feel less bored.

Better not leave Sanae waiting lest she goes through half of Gensokyo on some chase.

[X] Nah, you'll see heaven eventually when you're dead. Maybe. Let's go straight home.

[X] Sounds interesting. Ask her how she reaches it.
-[X] Ask her about the Oni's past in this place. You don't have to hear it, just do it to give her something to talk about and feel less bored.

Called.

Hm, what Suika said tickles your curiosity... You ask her to tell more about this 'heaven' place more.

“Uh... There's big sunflower field, and heavenly beings and... something like that!” She stares on your eye. “You doesn't look impressed.”

Well, of course it is a nice place, no surprise. It's called Heaven for a reason, yes? Unless you see the place itself, you can only imagine how good it is.

“Hmmm, I get it!” She grabs and puts you on her shoulder for the second time, and runs away. “I'll bring us to the place itself! I know someone good there, so we can have a little drink for a while!”

What the hell, this is not the way to the shrine! Stay back on the objective madam! You shake your body, trying to get off from her.

“Oh come on, it'll be fun! It's been a while since I'm visiting heaven, you'll definitely like it!”

---

“Reimu? Welcome! It's a rare sight for you to come here,” Sanae greets the red-white shrine maiden.

“Yeah, I have something to talk about.”

“Is it so important that you come here?”

“Not really, I come to check Suika as well, she's carrying an outsider to here. A male, he said he lives here,” Reimu informs the greed-haired half-goddess.

“Did you say a male outsider?” Sanae eyes get widen. “Let me guess: Black hair, wearing eyepatch and glasses?”

“Correct. Now where's he and Suika?”

“There aren't any visitors here since morning... I don't even know he's coming to your shrine. How?”

“I dunno. Even the man himself doesn't know how he ended up in my room,” Reimu raises her shoulders. “Now what took them so long to travel here...”

“Should we search for them? I'm afraid they get into trouble...”

“Nah. She's strong enough to defend him and herself. It's not their safety that you should worry about...”

---

“... and we Onis always tricked when challenging humans! It's rare they play fair with us! Although the one that isn't always lose and get kidnapped though, so...”

She climbs the top of the mountain with her bare hands, with you hanging tight on her back. Alright, this is scary, the attitude is higher than you've ever traveled before. It's even higher than where the tengus live. Your head feels funny, probably from the fear of falling. If she lose her grip, you're both screwed. Calm down... Close your eyes... It'll be over soon...

“Aaaand, we're here! Hey, get down from my back and feel the land of heaven itself!”

You slowly open your eye; Woah... It's, well, how to say it... Fluffy clouds, fields of flower, some small hills... Beautiful, but not really that impressive...

“Great, isn't it?” Suika smiles and drinks again from her magical bottle. You nod to her so she won't get disappointed. Can you go home now? “Follow me, we'll meet my drinking buddy!”

Goddamn, if you know how to descend from this place, you'll leave her right away. Better follow her for a while...

---

You've following her for about fifteen minutes, before you catch a look on a flying woman, with strange white and red shirt and shawl.

“Heeeyyyy, over here!” Suika calls the woman. She notices and flies down.

“Suika? What are you doing here? Who's this man?”

“Don't worry, I'm just showing him this nice place! Now, did you get problem again? You look messed up.”

“Yeah...” She massages her forehead. “Tenshi makes some troubles again. I feel like my main job keeps neglected...”

“Awww... At least it's not as bad as earlier's incident. Here, some sake to ease the pain! Pour all your problems to me, don't hold it!” She pours her alcoholic beverage onto a saucer cup and gives it to her. She pulls out another saucer, pours some sake, and give it to you. “Here, you should drink too!”

Uh, you're not even gone past the drinking age... Whatever, this is not your world. Maybe some sips won't hurt... You take it and drink in one sips...

*Hic!*

It tastes good somehow... And smells good... No wonder why she keeps drinking it like no tomorrow... Maybe another one...

“Wow, I don't know you're a good drinker! Let's make a little contest then! Whoever drinks more without got knocked out, wins!”

Heh... You can handle tiny sake like that... And you're thirsty anyway. You need more drink...

---

“...Well, talk to him tomorrow then! It's much better if he knows!”

“Uh... Okay, I'll tell him as soon as possible. Thanks for the advice,” Reimu drinks her tea.

“Good!” Sanae looks at the darken sky. “I'm starting to worry about them, it's already dawn...”

“Tch... What took her so long... I'll help searc- Wait, here they are,” Reimu points to a flying girl. She carries someone on her shoulder, he looks limp.

“Wait... Nobu!?”

“Hi hi~” Suika lands on the shrine ground perfectly. “Sorry we're kinda late, having some fun at the heaven first!” She puts the outsider back on his feet, but he looks like in half-conscious state.

“You giving him your sake? How much was he drink?” Sanae holds his drunken body.

“Uh, about 12 cups? It's not really much, honest!”

“Suika, not all person can handle oni's sake.” Reimu puts her palm on her face.

“I doubt he even ever drank alcoholic stuff before...” Sanae slowly changes her position so she can support his shoulder with hers. “Come with me Nobu, I'll put you-”

*Smoch!*

The man instead lands a kiss on her mouth when his face's close to her. She can smell the sake's smell from his mouth, his lip's tenderness... But only for a moment.

“Pervert!”

She reflexively cries and pushes the man hard.

*Buk!*

His body hits the ground. A grin can be seen from his face.

“Geez, Nobu! You're awful when drunk...” She raises his body and supports his shoulder again.

“I have to go to my own shrine now. Do you need help before I left?”

“It's okay, I'll can take care of this! See you later Reimu!” Sanae waves with her other hand. Reimu and Suika says their farewell and step away, going back to home.

---

“Slowly...”

She puts his body on the bed carefully, and puts a blanket on it.

“Haah... I first thought you're in trouble or something, but it seems you're having fun instead,” She talks. “That doesn't mean that you can drink sake like that, even though there's no police around here. Lady Kanako doesn't like a drunk, you know, saying that a drunken person either don't know their limit on alcohol, or wants to run away from their problem...”

*Zzzzzz...*

“Oh well, good night Nobu. I hope you can get some good rest tonight...”

---

“Reimu's done here?” Kanako throws her question to Sanae, who's recently enters the room.

“Yes, she's going back to her shrine. Nobu's back too.”

“Is he okay? Did he tell where he'd gone to? Please tell him to join us for dinner,” Suwako also throws her own question.

“Reimu told me somehow Nobu ended up in her shrine. He is... Sleeping again now. I don't want to interrupt him, he looks really tired.”

“How he can ended up at there... Another Yukari's act?” Suwako drinks her sake. “At least he goes back here safely...”

“Maybe I'll ask him directly tomorrow what's happening. I doubt he'll give different answer though...”

---

---Next Day---

---

'Ugh... What are those strange spirits...'

Sanae wakes up and goes outside, finding there are many spirits around the shrine.

'Wait... they are not ghosts, they're divine spirits. Weird... I don't know they can form everywhere like this...'

She thinks for a while, before decide something.

'Well, it's up to me to find out then! I can't miss this gathering opportunity anyway! '

---

*Nggguuuunggg!*

It... hurts...

Hurts...

*Whooosh!*

You open your eye and sit on your bed. Sweat comes down from your face, and your head feels hurt. Strange, Sanae isn't here to wake you up. You try to remember what happened after you have some sake... It seems vivid... You got carried away by Suika, and...

*Smoch!*

Shit. Sanae's angry because you kissed her. On the mouth, no less. Maybe that's the reason she don't wake you up today. Damn... You step out from your bed and search for her.

---

You've searched everywhere except the main room where Kanako and Suwako resides... You can't find her. Maybe she's gone to the village? Arrgh, you heart aches from the desire say sorry to her...

'What if she doesn't go back from her journey...'

'She'll hate you forever if you don't say anything...'

[]Calm down, she'll be back eventually...
[]You must go find her, now.

[X]Calm down, she'll be back eventually...

[X]Ask Kanako and Suwako maybe they know Sanae whereabout.
[X]Then search for Sanae.

Searching blindly will never resulting good.

[x]Calm down, she'll be back eventually...

From the tone of the other bit sounds like Sanae's already calmed down and didn't wake him up because she wanted him to fully rest.

[X]Ask Kanako and Suwako maybe they know Sanae whereabout.
[X]Then search for Sanae.

I agree with this course of action. Though, with TD, wasn't Sanae flying solo? It might be that Kana and Suwa have no idea where she is.

[x]Calm down, she'll be back eventually...

[X] Ask Kanako and Suwako maybe they know Sanae whereabout.
[X] Then search for Sanae

Adventure time, and a chance to meet with the TD crews is too good to pass.

I'll pick one of the even votes if there isn't any tiebreaker until Monday.

Coin flipped, '[x]Calm down, she'll be back eventually...' wins. Writing now.

This time I'll try to get a proofread before posting it.

Alright, calm down. You don't know where Sanae is, so it's a fool's errand to rush out and search for her. Big chance you'll get into trouble again instead. Better wait here; she will be back no matter how far she travels anyway.

“Morning Nobu!” someone calls you. It's Suwako, and she runs close to you before immediately pinching her nose. “Umph, I can smell alcohol from your mouth! Were you drunk yesterday!?” She glares at you. Uh oh. Instead of waiting for your answer, she sits on the terrace and takes a deep breath.

“Uhm, answer that later. For now, take a bath and brush your teeth. After you clean yourself first, I'll be waiting here!” Fuh… at least she gives you time to breath. Better wipe out that alcohol smell from your mouth.

---

After taking a bath and changing your clothes, you sit next to Suwako. You start to write yesterday's adventure on the writing pad: how you somehow woke up inside another shrine maiden's room, traveled to heaven, drank with a horned girl and a heavenly being, was carried by the same Oni to the shrine… everything except your kiss with Sanae. Better keep that hidden if you still want to live here.

“Uh huh… Yesterday, Sanae also told me and Kanako that you ended up in Reimu's shrine, but we didn't hear about any trips to heaven from her.” She raises points her finger at you and waves it around. “Why accept a drinking challenge from the oni? I don't forbid you from drinking sake, but you know youkai are way stronger than humans, right? You'll destroy your liver before you can beat her in a drinking game!”

Urgh… You can't find an excuse. You’d seen her always drinking from her magical bottle, but she didn't show a sign of being drunk. Heck, maybe sake is like water to her. You shouldn't have accepted her challenge. You bow a few times to apologize to Suwako.

“Let that be a lesson for you. I'll ask Sanae to make something to help with your hangover.” Suwako looks around. “Speaking of which, where's Sanae?”

“She might be investigating this anomaly,” Kanako answers as she walks in. “Just look at those spirits; they have to be going somewhere. It's abnormal for them to just show up en masse before heading to one place.”

What is she talking about? Everything's fine when you look around; you can’t see anything that resembles spirits or their kind, although…

“You can't see them with your eyes Nobu; they're spirits.” Kanako noticed you looking around, trying to see the spirits that she talked about. “Now, Suwako, did you mention something about hangover?”

“Yes. Nobu was drinking sake yesterday from Suika. You know, that oni girl who walks around this mountain.”

“The sake that she always carries is very strong, You shouldn't drink it if you’ve never dealt with alcohol before.” Kanako looks around. “Anyway, since Sanae is not here, someone has to take her place since it’s her turn to make breakfast.”

[ ] Volunteer. You have nothing to do while waiting for Sanae, so why not?
-[ ] Ask for help, so your cooking won't yield a disastrous pile of dust. Just in case.

[ ] Keep silent. You are not confident in your cooking skill.
-[ ] Ask the goddesses if they have a clue where Sanae is, then go find her.

[x] Volunteer. You have nothing to do while waiting for Sanae, so why not?
-[x] Ask for help, so your cooking won't yield a disastrous pile of dust. Just in case.

[x] Volunteer. You have nothing to do while waiting for Sanae, so why not?

[X] Volunteer. You have nothing to do while waiting for Sanae, so why not?

I'm sure he can cook alright...maybe...

You confidently raise your hand. If you planned stay here, then better do something useful while waiting for Sanae's return.

“Hm? I never see you cook before. Are you sure?” Kanako questions your decision. “I don't want any incident in the kitchen-”

“Oh come on Kanako, accept his goodwill. What can he do inside the kitchen?” Suwako pats your back.

“I'm more worried about what will enter our mouth...”

“Augh, it's not like that we need food anyway. Sanae's first meal is not really that bad either...”

“Don't remind me to that,” she breaths deeply and lets out a sigh. “Fine. Nobu, go ahead, cook some breakfast for us. Please, don't break the kitchen appliances. They're hard to replace it in Gensokyo...”

“Great, great! Come on Nobu, to the kitchen!”

---

Suwako leads you to the kitchen. There's stove, oven, refrigerator... You glad that you don't have to cook with some traditional stuffs. Suwako opens the refrigerator and gives you a bottle of cold water.

“Drink it Nobu, you must be very thirsty after yesterday. Have to refill your body fluid so it won't suffer from dehydration.” You take a glass from nearby rack and pour the water into it. “There's a recipe book inside the cupboard on your right. Follow it if you have no idea what to do. We have plenty of ingredients in the refrigerator, feel free to use it!” She says as you quench your thirst. “Need anything else?”

Hm... Everything seems to be in order. You tell her you'll be fine by giving her a thumb up. She smiles and walks away, leaving the kitchen to you. Let's see what you have... You take the recipe book and take a look at it; There are many handwritten recipes in there, presumably Sanae's. A quick check inside the refrigerator shows that everything necessary to cook some meal is here at your disposal.

The fate of this morning dishes are in your hands now.

[] Follow the recipe book
-[] Pick an easy-to-make recipe. Beginners should start with something simple.
-[] Pick the most delicious looking recipe, no matter how hard it is to make.

[] Screw this book, chef Nobu can't be bounded by any lowly recipes! Improvise!

Optional
[] Call someone to help. Another hand in the kitchen won't hurt.
[] SUDDENLY-

[x] Follow the recipe book
-[x] Pick an easy-to-make recipe. Beginners should start with something simple.

Best way to gauge his talent with cooking.

[x] Follow the recipe book
-[x] Pick an easy-to-make recipe. Beginners should start with something simple.

Yeah, "improvising" will get us kicked out of Gensokyo i fear.

[x] Follow the recipe book
-[x] Pick an easy-to-make recipe. Beginners should start with something simple.

>Best way to gauge his talent with cooking.
Agreed.

[x] Follow the recipe book
-[x] Pick an easy-to-make recipe. Beginners should start with something simple.

Sounds safe

You carefully search the recipe book for any easy-to-make food. You better not screwing up your first meal with overconfidence. Let's see... Sashimi... Sushi... Nah, better not start your cooking experience with cleaning fishes, it's maybe hard if you don't know how to do it. Tempura? Nope, same reason why you don't cook fishes, it's hard to clean shrimps from its shells. Next...

After searching for about 5 pages, you haven't seen any food that's easy enough to make. To think of it, if a recipe's easy to make that everyone can makes it, why bother put it into a book? A recipe book used to help someone when cooking, and Sanae should be skilled enough to cook something without any recipe unless the food is complex to make, so-

Ah, this one looks easy; Omelet. Crack some eggs, mix it with some ingredients, then fry it. You open the refrigerator and sort the ingredients. All is there. Alright omelet recipe, you win the audition. Let's see... First, prepare the ingredients. You take a leek and slowly cut it into smaller pieces.

*Krrrsh!*

*Krrrrrrrshh!*

*Krrrrrrrrrrrr-

---

*Krrrsh!*

“No, you're too young to use a knife young man. If you want to help me, go take some potatoes from the kitchen and bring it here. I'll turn it into some delicious soup that you like!”

Your dad rubs your head, but you frown and protest instead why he won't let you cook.

“Alright master chef, do you really want to cook too?” He slides a high chair to his side and lets you stand on it. He holds both of your arm very tight and directs it to a knife that's laying on the counter. “Grab that knife's wooden handle, not the shiny stainless-steel one.”

Your father lowers your right hand to the knife, and you follow by grabbing the knife. He then directs your left hand so it holds firm the vegetable on the cutting board. After that he release his grab.

“Go on, do your first slice on that vegetable.”

You put the edge of the knife on the green and start slici-

---

*Slit!*

OUCH. Pain suddenly strikes your left hand. Crap, you managed to cut your own index finger. You immediately open the freezer and take a bag of ice to stop the bleeding for a while. Damn your memory, revealing itself at the totally wrong time. Better to apply some bandages on it before continue cooking.

“Nobu, have you done with- Wait, what happened to your hand?” Suwako stands up and checks your finger as soon as you step out from the kitchen. “Good that the cut is not too deep. You should be watch out when handling knives Nobu!”

She opens nearby cupboard and fetch a green box with a white cross on it. You sit at the table side, preparing to get treated. Suwako takes an adhesive bandage and apply it to your finger.

“Good thing that we still have these stuff. Most of our first aid has used when we discovered you for the first time, and we don't really bother to restock it, since we're goddesses...”

She sighs and stands up after finished applying the bandage, then enters the kitchen. She takes a look on the opened recipe book and the sliced leek on the cutting board.

“Huff... Nobu, making omelet doesn't need leeks... At least the most basic one. You only have to mix it with something to add the tastes like salt to the eggs, then put it on the pan...” She puts a nearby chair to reach a circle pan hanging on the wall, then put it on the stove. “Do you want me to take over, or...”

No, you'll finish what you've started. Kanako and Suwako has given her trust to cook today's breakfast. A little cut won't stop you. You show your disagreement to her by shaking your head.

“Alright... But can I watch on you? In case another accident happens... No, I'm not saying that you'll be making mistakes again, but-”

Riiiiiight... But, like it or not, she does have a point; She can immediately help in case of you screw up again. You write to her that she can watch, but add that she better not help you unless you directly ask for it.

“I get it, I get it... Don't mind me, I'm just a thin air!” She slides the chair back to it's original position and sits on it. Great, now back to cooking. Leek has been cut... Now, crack some eggs into a bowl along with milk, pepper, and salt. You start grabbing one egg-

“Try to crack the eggs side in two with a fork, it's easier than using your hands alone.”

Okay... You grab a fork and crack the eggs. One eggs... Two eggs... Three eggs... This is enough. Next, the milk. You open the refrigerator and takes out a jar of milk-

“Pour it into a glass first before you mix it into the bowl, so you won't add the milk too much.”

You roll your eyes; Don't you already told her to not helping you unless you directly ask her? Whatever. You take a glass and carefully pour the milk into it. Hmm, one glass is enough. Then, add some pepper and salt... Done. Now your right hand pours some cooking oil and ready to unload the bowl-

“Wait until the oil is hot enough, or-”

Grrrr...

[]Remind Suwako that she's a thin air now. Thin air never speak, ever.

[]Let her guide you. She isn't directly helping you anyway, just giving some good advices.

[x]Let her guide you. She isn't directly helping you anyway, just giving some good advices.

[x]Let her guide you. She isn't directly helping you anyway, just giving some good advices.

[x]Let her guide you. She isn't directly helping you anyway, just giving some good advices.

Chill... Suwako's giving you some advice, not helping directly. And who could blame her for insisting to help you? First, you have no experience in cooking, or at least as far as you remember, so it's natural that she’d wants to help you. Second, and most important, you are cooking everyone's breakfast today, including hers. She has to make sure that her chef's doing the right thing, otherwise nobody in the shrine will eat anything this morning, including you.

“I think it's hot enough. You can pour the eggs into the pan now.”

You follow her directions and slowly pour the mixture. The egg quickly cooks into a fluffy yellow thing, and it smells delicious. So far so good, let's check the recipe again... Serve. That's it? You reach to take a spatula-

“Use the silicone one, Nobu. A steel spatula would scratch the pan.”

Yeah, yeah, Suwako. It's tiring to hear her 'advice' every five minutes; it sounds like a command in your brain. But look at the omelet; could you have made it this fluffy, this fragrant, this delicious without her help? You would've been screwed without her advice. Without using a glass to add the milk you’d have used too much, or if you’d cracked the eggs with your own hands, you would've made an unnecessary mess in the kitchen, and-

“Nobu, what are you waiting for? Move that omelet onto a plate!”

Oh, right. You lift the omelet using the silicone spatula and place it on a big plate set out before you started. Finally, it's done: your first omelet.

“Let me taste it,” Suwako says, picking off a small bit of the omelet to taste it. “Hmmm... Tastes nice! Bring it to the living room, I'll tell Kanako that breakfast is done.”

She quickly leaves the kitchen. Heh. It feels nice when someone compliments your efforts. You bring the omelet to the table on the living room, then come back to the kitchen and open the rice cooker to check if there's any rice in there. Hmm, seems like enough to feed everyone this morning. You unplug it and carry the rice cooker to the living roo-

“Oh, hello there sweetie~”

You're greeted by Yukari. She comes out from her hole, her hands holding a fork. You glare sharply at her; what the hell will she do to the breakfast?

“Don't worry, I won't eat it all.” She sticks her fork to the omelet's side and tears it, then lifts it to her mouth and chews slowly. “It tastes good. Not as good as Ran's, but enough to satisfy my tongue. Good job~” Uh... thanks? It’s great when you’re complimented by Kanako or Suwako, but when it comes from a person who literally comes out from nowhere... “Anyway-”

*Taptaptap*

Yukari quickly ducks into her hole once she hears footsteps coming from outside.

*Srrrkkk*

“...I'm not helping him! He made it on his own! Honest!” Suwako breaks the silence once Kanako slides open the door.

“Giving advice is one form of helping, you can't deny it,” Kanako says as they both sit down at the table. “You can set the rice cooker on the table Nobu, then please fetch some bowls and chopsticks for us.”

Crap, you must look like an idiot, standing around while holding the rice cooker. You quickly do what Kanako tells you to before you embarrass yourself even more.

---

“Sooo... How is it Kanako?” Suwako puts her emptied rice bowl on the table. “Come onnnnn, tell him that it's delicious!”

“It's plain. No cheese, or spinach, or anything to fill the omelet other than leek... You have to learn more from others if you want to make something better-”

“Geez, give him a break Kanako. I mean, it's his first time on cooking!”

“Doesn't mean he can't learn more, right? Harsh, maybe, but that's my honest opinion,” Kanako looks you in the eye. “Do you prefer to hear only good things from others? Will you listen to criticism as well? Without critics, you can't improve yourself.”

Kanako's right; sometimes you need someone else’s opinion so you know how to improve. It's better than sugarcoating everything. You write your thanks to Kanako for her comment, and add that one day maybe you'll ask her to teach you more about cooking, if she wants.

“I think it'd be better if you get taught by Sanae, or go to the village and find someone better who can teach you. I know what makes a good meal, but cooking is not something that I can teach,” she replies, denying your request.

“I'll be more than happy to teach you Nobu. You only have to say the word!” Suwako pats your back. “Not now though, I think we've had enough breakfast for today. Maybe you can watch Sanae later when she's making dinner; today's her turn to cook after all.”

“Speaking of Sanae, did you remember to save another omelet for her, Nobu?” Kanako points at the empty plate. Uh oh... you kind of forgot about her. You write to Kanako that the omelet that was on the plate was the only breakfast you cooked, and there was nothing else. Should you cook another omelet for Sanae?

“Don't worry, if she doesn’t have any breakfast, she can cook something for herself when she's home,” Suwako assures you. “Go rest now Nobu, I'll wash these dishes for you. Don't go anywhere else for now; I'm afraid the spirits will affect you. If you get bored, we'll play another game of shogi! ”

Uh, okay, it's not like you'll be going to anywhere else. You stand up and start walking.

---

You look at the outside while walking back to your room; still no signs of spirits. You wonder what the spirits would actually look like if you can see them. When you enter your room you see something on your bed: a box, with a red ribbon on it. You open it, and find several tools inside that you recognize are used for dealing with electronics: solder, test light, cutter...

*Knock Knock!*

“Nobu, are you inside?” Kanako’s voice can be heard from outside. You quickly open the door to the goddess standing in front of you. “Ah, sorry for interrupting, but may I ask a favor?”

Favor? You ask what she wants you to do.

“Simple, just plant this inside the village.” She shows you a little cylinder thing... Weird. You tell her that Suwako warned you not to go outside. “It's okay; most if not all the spirits have been dispersed. It should be safe to walk outside now.”

Hmmm...

[ ] Accept her request. She's doing you a favor by bringing you to the Tengu Lord, so let's help her in return.
[ ] No... At least not now. Tell her that you'll wait for Sanae, then you'll do her task.
-[ ] Play Shogi with Suwako while waiting.
-[ ] Rest.

[x] No... At least not now. Tell her that you'll wait for Sanae, then you'll do her task.
-[x] Play Shogi with Suwako while waiting.

I'd be more willing to do it now if A) Nobu was in better shape and B) there wasn't that tendency of him getting hurt or having his life threatened each time he goes out on his own.

[X] Accept her request. She's doing you a favor by bringing you to the Tengu Lord, so let's help her in return.
[X] Ask Suwako to assist you, since you don't want the weird incident happening again.

I'm sure Sanae pretty tired after dealing with the Spirit incident, better do it with someone else. (Since i'm pretty sure Sanae would offer assistance for Nobu even she's tired).

[X] Accept her request. She's doing you a favor by bringing you to the Tengu Lord, so let's help her in return.
[X] Ask Suwako to assist you, since you don't want the weird incident happening again.

Called.

You decide to help Kanako. You only have to plant this... thing in the village right? No sweat. You nod to her, and she gives you the tube thing. It's surprisingly heavy. What is this?

“Remember, plant it with the red side on the top. Don't plant it upside down, or it won't be work. Press the button on the right and put it on the ground, it'll automatically drill itself to the ground.” Kanako shows you how to plant this thing. “And one more, plant it in the center of the village. Find a dragon statue inside the village, then plant the device in front of it. Understand?”

Okay, sounds easy. You start walking outside-

“Nobu, where are you going to?” Suwako calls when you almost reach the shrine gate. She's sitting at the terrace. “What did I told you earlier? Bad Nobu, don't go to anywhere for now!”

You tell her that you're running an errand for Kanako, and she said that the spirits number has reduced, and it's save to travel now.

“Well... Yes, it's not as crowded as before.” She stares to Kanako, who recently walks out from your room. “Alright, but with one condition; I have to come with you. I want to visit the village too!”

“Suwako, if you were coming with him to the village casually, people will-”

“I know, I know!” She poofs and then turns into a... frog, and it's similar to the frog that Suwako given back when you're about to visit the village the first time. She hops very high and land onto your shoulder. “Come on Nobu, leave that nagging goddess and off to the village, will you?”

Woah, she startles you by speaking while in frog form. You immediately obey her command and start walking, leaving Kanako behind. You can see Kanako sighs before she enters the main shrine.

---

You ask Suwako, still in her frog form, how she can talk in her frog form, and why Kanako doesn't allow her to walk casually with him in the village.

“Uhhh, well... As a goddess, I can communicate with you directly, like through 'voices', or giving some 'visions', things like that!” Suwako explains. “And about Kanako... I dunno, really. It backs when we're still on outside world, we have to look... Charismatic in front of people, but that's a long time ago. Here, people are easy to believe we're goddesses, so I don't know why she's saying that...”

Well, sounds justified. They are goddesses; If they walk around with you like a normal people, how people can believe that they're goddesses? It could damages shrine's fame; Which mean less faith, and that's bad for them.

“Don't mind it, perhaps that's just Kanako. She's really careful when it comes to shrine's reputation.” Suwako leaps onto your head. “Focus on the way Nobu, or you'll ended up pranked by the fairies again, or worse, possessed by an evil spirit!”

---

You continue to walk until you can see a large wall; It's the village. The guards inspect you for a while, then they open the door and let you in. You traverse the village whilist searching for a dragon statue. The village's road looks much more crowded at this time, maybe because of the kids; They are scattered at the side of the road, playing-

“Watch out!”

*Buk!*

Your head hits something hard; In fact, hard enough to struck you down.

“Nobu, are you okay?” You can hear Suwako's voices, she tries to wake you up. You rub your head and open your eyes. Urgh... What the hell is happening...

“Apologize to him, you're the one who threw the ball to him!”

“But that outsider looks scary, he'll kill me if I confess!”

You can hear some children voices. You look at a strange object lying at your side. Probably this is the object that hits your head. Upon closer inspection, there's a 'Nintendo' trademark on the top. It's a game console. The hell? How this thing-

“Uh... Mister...” A girl comes to you. “I'm sorry for hitting you... Can I get the the ball back?” She slowly asks. This console? You take your writing pad and ask her where she gets this thing. She moves closer to read your writing. “Do...Ko... Uh... I don't know this word... Could you read it for me mister?”

You slap your forehead. Hasn't the schoolteacher teaches the kids all basic words? Think... You see a boy peeking behind a house. You sign him to come to your position. The boy is startled when he knows you are aware of his presence, and then he slowly walks to you. You show him the writing pad.

“Where... You... Get...” He carefully reads it. Slow, but at least he seems able to understand the word. “Oooooh! My father bought this from a store outside the village, near the forest of magic!”

A store outside of village? You only have seen one such store... Must be Rinnosuke's store. You ask him again why this thing is hitting your head.

“Mio, he wants to know how it can hit his head.” He tells the girl.

“Ah! I didn't mean it. Hiroshi showed me a new toy. He said that it's a new model ball from outside world, and we both play catch with it, but it's so heavy and hard! It's hurt just to catch Hiroshi's throw. I throw as hard as I can back to him, but...”

New model ball!? Looking at every angle, it's a big purple box. Why those kids can think this is a ball!? Enough with this stupidity, you will-

[] Give the game console back to them and go away. Leave those kids figure out on their own

[] Tell them the real way how to play it. Hell, promise them that you'll make it work soon, after you finish your errand with Kanako.

[x] Tell them the real way how to play it. Hell, promise them that you'll make it work soon, after you finish your errand with Kanako.

Portables are one thing, whole systems are not. What if they start tossing Xboxes around? Someone could get killed!

[X] Tell them the real way how to play it. Hell, promise them that you'll make it work soon, after you finish your errand with Kanako.

We should play some gamecube!At least I think thats what it is.

[X] Tell them the real way how to play it. Hell, promise them that you'll make it work soon, after you finish your errand with Kanako.

Called. Please wait.

You have to end this stupidity. Those little children deserve to know how people from your world playing this. If you leave them alone with this console, who knows how long until this box flies to another people's head. You write to them using the pad to inform them that this thing is not a ball, and ask them to stop tossing the purple box around, because it is not how they should played it.

“Huh? It isn't?” The boy looks confused.

“What did he wrote?”

“He wrote that it's not a ball.”

“I knew it! It's too heavy and hard to be a ball!” The little girl yells. “Then, what is that thing mister one-eyed outsider?”

Uh... You say to them that it is a thing that many outsiders use to have some fun, but it has to be prepared before this thing can be played, like attaching some cables to a power source, television, and many more, and add that it won't be work without all the required items.

“Mister, you're an outsider, so you must be know how to prepare this toy. Would you do it for us, please... We want to play the toy like outsiders too...”

“Please Mister...”

They both looks to you with puppy eyes. Gah... Sorry kids, but you still have an errand to do with Kanako. Oh right, maybe they know where the statue is. You tell them that you're looking for a dragon statue in the middle of the village, and asks for directions.

“I know where it is!” The boy says. “But promise that you'll prepare the toy for us!” He raises his little finger to you. Damn, he's smart for a boy on his age. Alright kids, deal. You won't know whether if you can prepare the console or not if you never try it first, will you? You raise your little finger and seal the deal with the boy.

“Okay!” He turns to his friend. “He'll prepare the toy if we show him the dragon statue!”

“Whee! Come along with us Mister! This way!”

They start running away from you. You shake your head and sighs. Kids... You pick up the console and stand up then start to follow them. Good thing they aren't running fast, it'll be hard to catch up if they are.

“Nobu, are you sure?” Suwako questions your decision. “You don't have to ask the kids to find the way, do you? Why helping them?”

You answer her question with some two sentences; Why not? It's not a bad thing to do.

“Well, it isn't... I'll help you too then. Look, we have some electronic parts in the shrine that you can use. Kanako is regularly selling those to Kappas for money. I could give you access to them, maybe you can find something useful before you have to search for more parts. I don't remember we have parts for modern toys like that though...” Suwako explains. “Also, you can ask Nitori for help if that toy need to be fixed. She'll be more than happy to repair it, I'm sure of it!”

“Mister, we're here!” The kids call you out. The boy points to an intersection with a large stone dragon statue at the center of it. The sculptor put many details on the statue, making it look more beautiful.

“Now do your promise Mr. Outsider, prepare the toy-”

“Not now Hiroshi, he must be need some time.” The girl halts the boy. “When the toy will be done, Mr. Outsider?”

Let's see..You have to go to the shop where they bought this thing, and search for some cables, controllers, a TV, and of course, a power supply. That's a lot of items, can you afford those? Does that shop even sells all of those stuff? Maybe you can get some common items like cables from Suwako, but still... And who knows if this console still able to run a game or not, if some parts of the machine has broken beyond repair, you have to find the replacement part... This is hard. You tell him to wait a few days before you get back to this place again.

“Aww... I thought we could play it today...” He looks disappointed. “Then what we play no-”

*Nggrrruukk!*

He suddenly clutches his own stomach.

“Hiroshi, what's wrong?” Mio ask her friend.

“Stomach-ache... Sorry, but I have to go! Good bye everyone! Don't forget with out promise, mister!”” He quickly runs away.

“I have to go too, Mister outsider. See you later!” She bows and walks away. Hah... You look at the purple console at your hand. It'll be troublesome to make this work, but at least you now have a task to do now. Back to your current assignment; You push the button on the tube.

*Tsk!*

It produces a small drill at the bottom of it, then you put it on the ground-

*Wrrrrrrrrr!*

The drill spins when it collides with the ground, and dig itself. Woah, where does Kanako get this thing? After a short time, it stops, leaving only the top of the tube visible.

“That's it, right? Now, would you rather go back to the shrine now, or stroll around for a while? Maybe we can search for items that you need for that toy. Just remember that I don't carry any money right now.”

[] Go home.

[] Walk around a while.

[x] Go home.

Let's try to get Sanae's help, and say it'll help them get some believers.

[X] Go home
Seems like sticking around won't do us much good so why not go home and see what parts we can find.

Called

Uhm... Let's go back. If you want to search for items that you need, you can start with whatever Suwako has in the shrine. You inform your decision to her using your writing pad.

“Alright, let's go home. Sanae'll be worried if we're going around until late,” Suwako's agree to your decision. You walk out of village, while holding the gaming device on your hand.

---

The sun starts to set down, signing that it'll be dawn soon. Sanae should've returned now. What should you say to her? Maybe if you buy a gift, she'll forgive you... But neither you nor Suwako carrying the money right now. How about some flowers? Maybe you can collect some nearby the road... Nah, she can misunderstand it. Perhaps-

“Nobu, watch out!”

Suwako pulls your shirt. Hey wha- Slowly the road in front of you turns into a tree. The hell? Since when she transforms back to her child form? And how the road-

“Arrghh! What a spoilsport!”

A little girl comes out behind a bush. Wait, that's the fairy girl that Yukari shows you some days before. What's she doing here?

“That's it! You ruin my surprises, your snake tried to eat me, and you destroy my reputation! I'll beat you up!” She angrily yells. Suwako looks at her lazily and sighs.

“Nobu, go on without me, it seems I have to deal with a nuisance!” She smiles and push you back to the road. Uh... She'll fight with the girl? But- “Don't worry Nobu, I'll be fine! Tell Sanae to save some of the dinner for me, okay?”

“Hey, don't ignore me!”

The fairy produces some energy thing and throws it to Suwako, which she dodges it. Suwako also flies and summons another energy ball thing. Uh oh... You follow Suwako's order and start to run as fast as you can to the shrine.

---

*Taptaptap!*

Huff... Huff... It seems safe now. You wonder if Suwako's okay... On the second thought, she'll be fine, she's a goddess whilist her opponent is a fairy. That energy thing looks dangerous though. And what's that fairy's problem? Why she-

*Whoosh!*

You can feel something pass over your head. You look up, and find a giant eagle flies across the sky. The hell? First giant snake, and then this? The eagle only flies towards to the shrine. Something's wrong... You start running again to the shrine. You have to warn Kanako and Sanae about it.

---

After some running, you finally arrived at the shrine. Breathe... Need... Oxygen...

*Whoosh!*

“See you later!” Sanae yells while the eagle flies again, leaving the shrine. You can see it carries a woman in chinese dress. Wait, you've seen her before. Sanae walks to check your condition.“Welcome back Nobu! Why are you gasping? Where's Lady Suwako?”

You quickly point to the flying giant eagle, which after flying for a while, lands on somewhere in the mountain.

“Don't mind that, it just one of Kasen's pet,” Sanae casually informs you. “And where did you get that game-cube?”

You make some handsigns so she could give you time to write it down. This will takes some time...

---

“Uh... Nobu, do you know how the console really works?” Sanae looks at the gaming device after she reads your decision to help the kids. “It's not only a matter of finding the right parts and plug it in...”

You tell that you can ask Nitori if the console's broken. She's an expert in this kind of thing, right? Sanae shakes her head.

“Nobu, kappas might be superior in technological advances, but you can't rely on them for something more complex like this.” Sanae starts talking. “Like your writing pad. It's supposed to have more features than writing, but it doesn't Of course, given some time, maybe they'll figure it all, but I doubt they can do it in less than a few days.”

If that's the case you can ask the kids to wait a little bit longer. You already make a promise to them, you can't just give the console back without fixing it, they'll be disappointed otherwise.

“Yeah, I'm understand... I'll help you! I don't want to make the kids sad too.” She smiles. “Hm... How about you make a to-do list? You know, it'll be better if we planned ahead what to get so we won't waste our time.”

Good idea, it'll be more efficient if you have a list. Let's see... First, you have to get all the necessary items; cables, adapters, a power supply-

“Hi there! I'm home!” Suwako walks onto the shrine grounds carrying- is that the fairy girl!?

“Lady Suwako, what are you-”

“Just catch of the day! I think she has something to tell to Nobu, right?” Suwako spanks the girl on her butt.

“Urgh... Five more minutes...” The fairy mumbles.

*Plak!*

Suwako spanks her even harder. So hard that the girl shriek in pain.

“Ouch! What's your prob-”

“Apologize, or should I summon him again?”

Suwako produces an evil grin to her, and the fairy's expression instantly changes. She quickly gets to her feet and runs to you. “I'm sorry , I'm sorry-”

“Louder, I can't hear you~”

*Plak!*

Suwako spanks her butt again.

“I'M SORRY! I WON”T PRANKING YOU AGAIN!”

She bows a few times, and Suwako finally lets her go, and the fairy quickly flies away. Wow. You ask to Suwako what she did to her so the girl looks so afraid.

“Nothing harmful! I'm just reminding her of Mr. Misaguchi's big mouth,” she walks into the shrine. “Let's go inside, you've cook something for our dinner, haven't you?”

“Oops... Sorry, I forgot!” She runs passing Suwako to presumably kitchen. Suwako rolls her eyes.

“She must be got too excited on something again... Go take a bath Nobu, Sanae should have finished with her cook when you're done!”

Fine. You need to change your dirty clothes and clean that sweats from your body after sprinting like a madman.

---

“...And he made a deal with those kids, so they would show us the way and he'll make the console working again!”

You enter the living room. Kanako, Suwako, and Sanae are gathering at the sides of the table, with some food on the top of it. It seems Suwako's telling everyone your adventure today. Sanae gives you a ricebowl, and you immediately gobble it up.

“Suwako, we can use this chance to-”

“Yeah, that's why I ask for your help.” Suwako knows what Kanako wants. “Open the vault for him.”

“Wait, what?” Kanako stares at her.

“Come on, don't play dumb on me. I've told him about the vault.”

“Suwako, it's our main source for money, you can't-”

“Please Kanako, give some investments to him! It'll do good for us if he does well, won't it?” Suwako persuades her. “At least it won't cost us much like that failed dam project,” she slowly grins.

“Humph... Fine, We'll show the vault...” Suwako immediately puts her bowl and stands up. “...After we finish our dinner.” Kanako immediately adds.

“Oh...” Suwako sits back on her seat. “Sanae, why don't you tell us about your investigation? We're eager to hear it!”

“Well... It was early in the morning when I got awakened by those spirits... ”

---

“...And when we searched the youkai who troubles Kogasa, guess what we found? The youkai's a jiang-shi!”

She straights her arms to the front makes impression of a zombie. Hehe... Suwako giggles at her act. You put your empty bowl on the table. You can ask Kanako to open the vault now, but you want to hear the rest of Sanae's story...

[] Go to the vault now.

[] Listen to Sanae's story.

[x] Listen to Sanae's story.

The Vault can wait. That and it'd be rude to not listen to her story.

[x] Listen to Sanae's story.

I agree. We can't interrupt the story, plus we have all the time in the world to go to the vault.

[x] Listen to Sanae's story.

Might as well hear about old fashioned stage 5 bosses.

[x] Listen to Sanae's story.

Called.

Take your time, Nobu. You don't have to search the vault now. Sanae's story is too interesting to pass, and you still owe to her an apology, so...

“She's really tough! I mean, she took our shots without even flinching! I tried to aim for her head, but it doesn't really work... She finally downed after a while though, but that's not the last of her...” Sanae continues her story. “After defeating her, we followed the spirits into a cave, and found a huge door lies inside it! The door is guarded by a... Well, I'm not sure...”

“Uh... What do you mean?” Suwako tries to visualize Sanae's word in her head.

“Well, she later calls herself a hermit, but she's... different than Kasen. One similarity, however; She can do summoning... In this case, the jiang-shi that we fought earlier was hers. She can re-raises it when her summon was down and she's not afraid of using her as a meat shield! As if fighting the jiang-shi alone was enough trouble for us... We managed to defeated them with some teamwork! Reimu and I continuously fired to the hermit from the front as a distraction, which the jiang-shi blocked, and when there's opening...Whoosh!”

Sanae mimics a sword slash.

“ Marisa and Youmu use their speed to attack directly to the hermit! Bam, another enemy defeated! Slowly the door opens...” Sanae makes a creaking noise with her mouth. “And we found a huge mausoleum inside!”

“Whose mausoleum is it?” Kanako also takes an interest in her story.

“Well, we also want to know for whom it is, since it might be related to where those spirits went, so we kept ventured deeper into the mausoleum until we encountered with another guards; A vengeful spirit that shoots lightnings, and a taoist who uses a boat! They both doesn't look like getting along with each other and their attacks weren't synchronized well, but it's hard to maneuver in a hall! I got zapped by one of the lightnings, and it's hurt.”

Must be a 'shocking' experience for her. Hehehe...Wait a minute. You quickly throw a question how can the taoist use a boat in a mausoleum.

“She's flying with it, of course!” Sanae simply says the answer. “Look, all the enemies that I fought can fly and shoot bullets; That includes the jiang-shi. Let me rephrase that: I have fought a flying chinese vampire that shoots bullets. Don't think about it too much.”

“Remember our encounter with the fairy? Do you notice that she shot some several shiny things to me?” Suwako helps Sanae explaining. “That's danmaku, this world's form of battle. Most beings in Gensokyo can do it. Don't worry, it's non-lethal, so you can think it as a sport or something.”

“All youkais can do it. They have to, as that's the rule set by Reimu. Otherwise, conflicts between them will be too destructive,” Sanae adds. “Anyway, after defeating them both, we proceeded to the main room in the mausoleum... It looks so beautiful! Imagine a large number of spirits teaming up in one room like stars in the sky! From the center of the room, a woman comes to us and introduces herself as...” she puts an old money to the table and points to the bearded man printed on it. “...Prince Shoutoku!”

You give a Sanae a disbelieving look. She said that she's a woman, but the picture says otherwise. You ask her if she's making this up, or hearing her wrong.

“I'm not joking!” Sanae glares. “Reimu said after the mess that she, along with the people with her is a shikaisen. Basically they abandoned their body to be resurrected in a different form, so if she decides to change her gender... There's other theory, maybe she is not exactly the prince Shoutoku, instead she's merely a product of his legends that end up in Gensokyo. I don't know which one is correct. Don't think about it too much, okay?”

Grah... Her explanation doesn't help. Good thing that you aren't following her this morning, else you would get caught in the middle of her battle. Hoam... You eye starts to get drowsy.

“You better sleep now Nobu, you seem too tired for tonight,” Kanako gives an advice. “If you want to go to the vault, ask me or Suwako to open it.” She pours some tea from the pouch to her glass. “And Sanae, would you wash the dirty dish-”

“Nah, go to rest Sanae, I'll wash the dishes! You must be really tired after the adventure!” Suwako volunteers.

“Uhm, if it just washing dish I can do-”

“Sanae, rest. It's your elder's order~” She insists. “But... You have to make Nobu breakfast next morning, he's cooked replacing your turn today!”

“Really?” She stares. You nod, confirming her question. “What do you make for breakfast this mor-”

“Throw those question later, okay?” Suwako pushes you both outside. Huff... She's right, you have to rest now...

---

You answer Sanae's question with your writing pad as you walk to your room.

“ 'Omelet'? What are you talking about Nobu?” She looks confused. Sigh... You tell her that you're making some omelets for breakfast this morning using her recipe book, answering her recent question. “ Ooh! Can you follow my recipe? Is it useful?”

You reply that it's good; Without it who knows what disaster you'll cook this morning, although you managed to cut your own finger in the process. You show your bandaged index finger to her.

“Uhm, I forget that it's my turn to cook today, so I'm leaving the shrine without preparing any breakfast... Sorry, I never intended to have you take my task...”

Nah, she doesn't have to say sorry, maybe this is a retribution for kissing her yesterday. Oh, right. She seems in a good mood, better tell her now. You write down your apology words for your lack of manner a day before, especially the kiss.

“Please, don't mention it,” she stops walking and opens the door to your room. “Good night, Nobu!”

Sanae walks away to her own room. Fuh, it seems you've been forgiven from your sin. Time to sleep.

---

“This is impossible...”

Kanako puts her glass on the table, pour another stream of tea into it.

“Suwako always keeps an eye on him, and I can't act directly either, or Sanae will-”

“Will know our wrongdoing?” Suwako comes back from the kitchen after washing the dishes. “Please, Kanako, could you please stop trying to bring harm to him? He's barely remember anything about Sanae!”

“I'm just trying to show him how dangerous the roads in Gensokyo, maybe it'll make him move to the village.”

“By bribing a fairy with several bags of coffee beans to constantly prank him whether he walks out from the shrine? Right.” Suwako jeers. “Look, he can be useful addition to our shrine, just like what he tries to do now. If you really worried about his memory, then keep him busy so he can't think anything about his past.”

“... Fine,” she gulps her tea quickly. “Why do you protect him so much anyway?”

“Doesn't it obvious?” Suwako sighs. “He's too nice to receive such disaster from you.”

---

*Chrip Chrip!*

Birds happily chripping from your opened window, waking you up. Thanks, birds. You slowly picks up your writing pad see what's left to do... Wait, you have zero progression since yesterday. Better start working on the console-

*Duk!*

“Nobu, wake up! Sanae had prepared some breakfast for you!” Suwako barges into your room. Damn, can she knock first before entering the room? You tell her to give you a couple of minutes, then she nods and gets out of the room. Hm... Wonder what Sanae's cooking for today...

---

After taking a bath and changing your clothes, you enter the living room, ready to fill your stomach.

“Morning!” Sanae greets while she's putting today's breakfast; Omelet, again. “Uhm, Lady Kanako said that I should show you what I can done with the omelet, so... There you go.”

Hmm... It smells nice... Much better than yesterday's omelet. You cut it in half; There are a lot of toppings in there: Cheese, meat... You immediately take your bowl and start eating.

“Anyway Nobu,” Sanae starts to talk again. “Any plans what we'll do today?”

[] Check the vault. Maybe you can find something useful to salvage in there. Maybe.
[] Go to Kourindou. The kids said that they bought it from there, so there must be more parts to buy.
[] Go to Nitori's place. Better have this console checked first before anything else.

[x] Go to Nitori's place. Better have this console checked first before anything else.
First things first. Although the vault option was tempting too.

[x] Go to Kourindou. The kids said that they bought it from there, so there must be more parts to buy.

I'd rather leave the vault for last.

[X] Go to Nitori's place. Better have this console checked first before anything else.
Perhaps Nitori has some random free stuff lying around

[X] Go to Nitori's place. Better have this console checked first before anything else.

It's closer.

Called. Please wait.

Let's see... You don't know if the console itself works or not. Better check it out first, so if it has missing or broken parts, you can search for it. You inform to Sanae your plan for today, then continue chowing your food. Hmm, the omelet is far better than yours.

“If you say so. I'll warn her to not altering the console,” Sanae eats her own food. “Oh, and how's my cook? Is it good?” You give a thumb- wait, two thumbs- nah. You draw four thumbs for her. That's how good it is. She returns with a smile to you. “Thanks.”

“Don't forget to learn more from her someday if you want to improve your cook. She's good at it,” Kanako says. “Anyway, the readings from the device that you planted yesterday has came out today.”

“What was inside the tube that he bury, Kanako?” Suwako asks after she puts down her empty bowl.

“Some sort of radar. I'm using it to calculate the exact range between the village and our reactor. Also, it'll show the layout and the size of the village itself,” she explains. “I'm only testing it now, so I don't know if the data that comes out from it correct or not...” She hands a paper to Sanae.

“Hm... I don't really count how far and big the village is, but I think the number's off a bit. I don't remember the village is that large...”

“There must be some errors either in the programming or the device. It seems I have to check the device again...” Kanako sighs looks to you. “Nobu, could you retrieve the device back? You don't have to do it now, just remember to fetch it when you're inside the village.”

Okay, no big deal. You nod to her and quickly finish your food. Yummy, Sanae's hearty meal successfully pleases your tongue and stomach. Now, to your task-

“Nobu, wait until I finish washing the dishes, then we'll go together, okay?” Sanae picks up the dirty dishes, but halted by Suwako.

“Nah. Sanae, go with Nobu now, you can wash those dishes later,” Suwako puts a frog on your shoulder, then she picks up the dirty dishes instead. “Or do you want me to wash the dishes?”

“No, you don't have to, I'll wash those dishes later then.” She obeys her command and stands up. “Come on Nobu, let's get going! We're going, Lady Kanako, Lady Suwako!”

Huff. You quickly drink your tea, bow down to Kanako and Suwako to say your goodbye, and walk away with Sanae.

“Have a safe travel!”

---

You walk with Sanae to the kappa's place. She wants to fly at first, but hesitant when after you insist to use your feet on the journey.

“Even though we could save time by flying... Well, your choice. I could use some exercise anyway.” She does some workout with her hands while walking. Hey, that's a good idea. You follow her by exercising your arm, while humming a workout song

*Tak!*

OUCH. Pain suddenly rises at your right arm. You cringe and immediately clench it. Damn damn damn damn damn... The frog on your head croaks loudly, alerting Sanae. She instantly checks your condition after looking at your pained face.

“Geez, it seems you sprained your own arm. Let's go back to the shrine, we have to treat your arm first...”

What? Hell no, you write to her- OW! You carefully write to her that you don't want to go back to the shrine because a sprained arm; If it's a broken bone or something to that effect, then you can understand, but a light injury likes this...

“Fine, it's not that serious; I'll treat it once we get back. Be careful from now on, okay?”

Yes, ma’am... You nod to her and start walki-

*Buk!*

You slip and fall to the ground, head first. Urgh... You can feel some dirt find its way to your mouth. Sanae helps you stand up and glares, while you can only smile sheepishly to her. Hehe, no excuse... Sorry.

---

After some more walking, you both arrived at the lake. The girls at first looks at you both, and then they back to their own business.

“Excuse me,” Sanae walks to one of the girls, working on a remote control. “Do you know where Nitori is?”

“Uhm...She said she wanted to go to somewhere, fetching some items, but I don't know the exact location where she goes to...” The glasses kappa replies. Sanae thanks her and goes back to you.

“Nitori's not here...” Sanae sighs. Should we wait for her?” She asks. You ask if another kappa can check this thing. “Well, I think one of them can, but Nitori's already familiar to you. I think she's more willing to do it than the others.”

Well, while she does have a point, waiting here is not a good idea either; You don't want to waste your time...

[] Wait. She'll back to this place, you only have to be patient. You can check some other kappa's while waiting.
-[] Ask some other kappa to check your console if Nitori's not coming until noon.

[] Search her. Someone must be know where she's going. Maybe you can find something interesting on the search too.

[]Go to somewhere else. You can come back later when she's here.
-[] Kourindou
-[] Go back to the shrine

[x]Go to somewhere else. You can come back later when she's here.
-[x] Kourindou

[x]Go to somewhere else. You can come back later when she's here.
-[x] Kourindou

I think Nobu would make Hina's day, with all that misfortune.

[x]Go to somewhere else. You can come back later when she's here.
-[x] Kourindou

>while humming a workout song

Wait, what?

>>22371
Let's get physical, physical.

>>22401

How was MC supposed to hum it though? Wasn't MC unable to talk or something? (which I assume would stop him from humming either)

I'm not dead yet. My laptop's broken (from the rain, no less), and I can't write on my old pc because she works so slow.(Yes, she took 10 minutes from boot up to opening word. And don't ask why I use 'she' on my computer.) Update as soon as possible. Probably 1 month. Sorry.

>>22403
As you can see in thread 2 post 22073 paragraph 29, he tried to laugh (although I think it looks like a chuckle.) even though he lost his voice. He may become insane if he don't express his feelings.

You decide to haul your ass to Rinnosuke's shop. You're a stranger to those girls, so it's kind of rude to ask them a favor when you aren't knowing them well. You tell Sanae with your writing pad about your decision.

“Uh... Maybe we should head back to the shrine if you don't want to wait here. I'm not forcing yo-” Sanae stops once she notices that you're glaring to her. You don't have to write it twice for her, do you? “Fine, fine, we'll go to Kourindou now, although I think you really don't have to rush it...” She turns around, shows her back to you. “Come, hop on, we'll be there soon.”

Uh...What? No, Sanae; You have a pairs of legs, you can walk your ass to the lake and human, village, and you will walk to Kourin's shop.

“Nobu, are you serious!? It's really far away from here. I'm okay if you want to walk to kappa's place or the village, but ther-” Sanae rants, but stops when she realizes that her rants fall to a deaf ear. She slowly hovers above the ground and moves forward while pouting. “Suit yourself.”

She begrudgingly agree and leads the way. What's wrong with her anyway? She said that the sprain is not that bad anyway, yet she keeps nagging about it, and doesn't she said earlier that you don't have to rush it? Sigh, women...

---

You have walked for about an hour, and you still haven't reached the shop yet, although the terrain is even now, so you don't have to watch your step like when you have to climb down from the mountain. There's no conversation between you and Sanae since the lake. She sometimes look behind to check if you're still following her, and when both your eyes and hers meet...

“Humph!”

...She throws her face forward. What's wrong with her?

---

Two hours. Sun shines your body with her light. You don't remember it take this long. You ask Sanae if this is the right way to the store.

“Hm... I'm not sure, since I usually... Uh, you know, flied to there,” she smiles while somehow producing an ominous aura. What. Slowly, you try to ask her why she's angry over a small thing like this; It's not healthy for her.

“Nuh uh, no! I'm totally not angry! After all, why I have to be angry when someone totally ignored my advices even if it's for their own good?”

The hell? Why she suddenly gets emotional about this? You have to do something, she's the only guide in this middle of forest. If she decides to ditch you here...

[] Write-in

---

Note: All my story notes are gone, along with my fried hard disk. I'll release some short updates in the future while re-writing all the notes that scattered inside my head. It'll take a while, but I won't give up on this story. Expect some quality drop though...

...what's is it with people and storing their notes on soddy HDs?

[X] Apologize, but explain that even though you're injured you don't want to become little more than dead weight - that's quite a blow to anyone's pride and dignity.
-[X] Not to mention, carrying you on her back like that...i-it's improper!

>>22474
>...what's is it with people and storing their notes on soddy HDs?

I know right? I've had HDDs ranging from 6GB - 1 TB and up to 15 years old. Only ever had one failed (Seagate whenever they switched to China, big surprise huh?). Other then the Chinese HDD, all still run just fine. And there's authors on this site that lose 5-6 HDDs Fuck you Taisa and dropping Gensokyo High, or at least use that excuse (not saying author is one). I call bullshit on them and think it's just an flimsy story and excuse to use for a break or just to drop the story.

/ragerant off

Called. Please wait.

>HD failures
Dropbox is a wonderful thing.

Think... It's your fault too, only hearing her words when she's backing you up. When she has different opinion from you... Sigh, you have to talk to her. You sign her to sit down at a large rock nearby, which she does. Both of her eyes staring at you. Her hostility has reduced, but not entirely vanished. You lay your back on nearby tree and start writing...

---

You write your apology letter, how you're sorry because not considerate of her feelings, and mentioning that you don't want to fly with her because you don't want to make her tired, you're still remember her pant when she's carried you to Kourin's shop. It blows your pride as a man and improper, even when you're injured. You should be the one carrying her, not the other way around.

“Nobu, you didn't think it thoroughly, did you?” She sighs. “If we go flying, we'll go there faster. Yes, it'll take a lot of my stamina to carry you there, but we don't have to worry about most danger on the road, or having to walk around the thick forest, or... other things like that.”

Wait, what about her-

“And don't write 'but you told me that we shouldn't rush earlier!” I mean we should go home first and treat your sprain, not wasting our time by walking through the forest full of youkai! You're basically forcing me to walk when we could arrive faster by flying. If only you could flying too...” She takes a deep breath and stands up. “Nobu, it's not that I'm can't understand your feelings, I know it's embarrassing to get carried by me, but the shop located at the edge of the forest, and I never see any customer other than Marisa at there, no one will see you! Well, at least none that you care, unless we got caught by Aya.”

She walks following the road. Not hovering on the ground, her feet are on the ground now.

“Let's go. It should be close now. Promise that we'll fly back to the shrine on the way home, okay?”

---

After half a hour of walking, you finally arrive at Kourindou. As Sanae said earlier, it's really quiet here. Oh right, the last time you come here there's no other person than the shopkeeper himself and the witch. Still, you don't want her carrying your body around like a baby, but she has the point on her speech earlier; You slowed her down. Maybe you should come here alone...

“Around three hours... This is way too long,” Sanae mumbles whilst wiping her sweat. Your clothes are even more covered in sweats than hers, since she only walked for a while. She opens the door to the door and goes inside-

“Nitori?”

You enter the shop, and find the kappa girl that you've been searched before.

“Ah! Good afternoon!” She quickly greets. “I'm looking for some items from outside world to tinker. Searched around the border, but can't find anything good.”

“Oh... If that's the case, could you help us with somethi-” Sanae notices the shopkeeper staring at her. “Sorry, I didn't notice you! Good afternoon Rinnosuke! Anyway, have you ever see this thing?”

You put the console on the table in front of him. He takes a glance of it for a while.

“Yeah, some days ago.”

'Did it comes with some other stuff? I mean, like a box thing with strange black rope attached to it...”

“Let me think...” Kourin tries to remember. “Yes, it comes with other things too. What's the matter?”

“Could you take those here? If that's the parts that we're looking for, we'll buy it,” Sanae asks him, which he complies and walks to the other room to take the items. She then turns to the kappa girl. “Nitori, could you check if this thing working or not?”

“I'll try,” she nods. Your give her the console and she starts examining it. “Could you tell me what's the device's purpose and how's it working?”

“It's a gaming device, used by humans at the outside to have fun. It... Uhm... Basically it creates a world that we want to play into a device called television. We control it using another device called 'controller'...” Sanae tries hard to describe it.

“Hum... What are these holes for?” Nitori points to a controller port.

“That's where you have to plug the controller in. There's this, where you have to insert the power supply, and-”

“Here,” the shopkeeper puts a box on the table. You look inside; Indeed, there are a lots of stuff for the console: Power cord, controller, some games... You shove them to Sanae. Her face brightens up.

“Yes, that's what we're looking for. How much for those?”

“Let's see...” He takes a calculator and counts the price. “Three thousand yen.”

“Deal!” Sanae instantly yells, pulls out her wallet and pays. If only that shopkeeper knows the actual price of these things... Then again, you are not sure if all of those items are actually working or not, so a fair price you guess. “Oh, and Rinnosuke, do you mind if we stay here for a while? Nitori's working on the thing, and-”

“Go ahead,” He gives his blessing before Sanae finishes her words. “You're one of my few paying customer after all.”

“Thanks!” Sanae looks inside the box again. “Let me plug these into the device first...”

You look inside the box: There are some discs here. Starched a bit, hopefully still useable. You better pick one that you should bring to the kids...

[] Dancing game. Nothing is more fun than some music and dance.
[] A platformer game, featuring a plumber that everyone knows and loves. Kids outside loves these, so maybe they'll love this too.
[] Zombie game! M rated? Sorry CERO, this is not Japan, your rating obsolete here! Not to mention this is a good way to teach self defense.

[x] A platformer game, featuring a plumber that everyone knows and loves. Kids outside loves these, so maybe they'll love this too.

To be human is to like Mario in some form or fashion

[X] A platformer game, featuring a plumber that everyone knows and loves. Kids outside loves these, so maybe they'll love this too.

Can't go wrong with a classic.

You pick the platformer game. You used to play this game too, and know that it's good for kids like them. Well, there's bad voice acting, but hey, at least you have something for them to play.

“Nitori, what are you doing?”

You set your eyes back to the console; The kappa girl hooks the power adapter plug to... something.

“It runs on electricity, right? It's a temporary power supply,” Nitori explains. “I'll insert a portable power supply later so you don't have to plug it into a power supply anymore.”

“Okay, but don't alter the device too much, okay? I mean, you can make some configuration on it, but keep the ability to able to 'read' games inside those discs that Nobu's holding now.”

“Uh huh...” Nitori push the power button. Surprisingly, it starts normally... Whew. That's a good start. “It's on... Now, how's this device reads discs?”

“Simple, you only have to insert a disc here...” Sanae points to the discs that you're holding, and you give it to her. She then opens the tray and insert the disc into the console. “It supposed to projects the game into an output device like a television or something like that, but we don't have any right now...”

Output device? You look again inside the box: You remember that this console has a portable monitor as an extension. Where is it...

“What are you looking for, Nobu?”

Sigh, it's not here... What a shame. You write to Sanae that you're looking for a portable monitor for the console, but you can't find it here.

“Hm... Nitori, could you create a small monitor to the device?”

“I can, but I need something that I can use as a base design.” Nitori answers while she still examining how the console works. Wait, this writing pad... It counts as a monitor, right? You give it to Nitori and asks if she can use this as a monitor.

“Yes, I can use it! I'll-”

“No, don't use it,” Sanae quickly grabs your writing pad and gives it back to you. “Please Nobu, this is your only form of communication, and I doubt we can find another book in a short time.” She then turns to the shopkeeper. “Rinnosuke, do you have any television?”

“I did, but some exorcists bought them months ago.”

“Exorcists!? Wha- Nevermind, I don't want to know,” Sanae slaps her forehead. “I remember we used to have a portable TV set in the shrine, but that's a long time ago. I'll ask Lady Kanako about it later. Nitori, could you work on the device while I'm fetching a television?”

“Okay, I can't done it today anyway. Come to the lake tomorrow, I'll study the device for a while,” Nitori packs her equipment back “See you tomorrow Sanae, Nobu!”

She smiles and goes outside with the console, leaving you with Sanae and the shopkeeper.

“We're lucky to find Nitori here, aren't we? If only kappa's are able to work together...” She yawns. “Well, we shall take our leave too. See you later, Rinnosuke!”

He just nods and lays on his chair puffy chair. Heh, wonder where he gets all those stuff... You and Sanae walk out from the store.

“Nobu, let's go home.” She says and prepares herself to carry you. Uh... Right. Don't complain, or she'll spew out her bickering again, it's tiring to climb back to the shrine anyway. She carefully hold your body, and flies away.

---

You're on your way back to the shrine. Sanae's face covered in sweats, probably from the sunshine. She can't wipe it since both of her hands are carrying your body. You want to wipe those sweats from her face, but it's improper, you afraid she won't like it...

“Huff... A little more... Keep going...”

She mutters some self-motivational words to keep her going. It hurts seeing her like this... But since she insisted to fly....

“Sanaeeeeeeeeee!” A voice calls, startling her. She turns around; It's Aya. Daaaaaaaamn.... “Huh, why are you carrying him? Does he got wounded again?”

“No he doesn't.” She quickly says. “What's the matter? Another interview?”

“Well, partly that and-” Aya notices her pale face. “I think you need to rest for a while.”

“Alright...” She quickly flies down back to the ground, somewhere at the base of the mountain, then she puts you back on your feet. “Sorry Nobu, this will only take awhile."

Yeah, it's okay. You write that she has all the time to rest, since without her you won't even reach this place now. She sits on a field full of grass, recovering her own stamina.

“Thanks. Now Aya, what do you want to know?” She asks the reporter.

“About the divine spirits incident. I'm about to ask Reimu, but I heard you're coming with her too, sooooo...”

“I get it. Huff... It started in the morning...”

---

“After saying my farewell, I part ways with Reimu and others... That's it,” Sanae finishes her story.

“Uh huh... It seems I have to interview the others for the complete story,” Aya quickly writes her on her notebook. Very quick. How is it possible to write that fast? “Anyway, do you know anything what's Myouren Temple?”

“No... What's about it?”

“Sources says that there's a ruckus at there since that incident. I'm sure there will be something big at there!” Aya puts her notebook back into her breast pocket. “Oh well, time to interview Reimu now! See you later Sanae!” She instantly flies away with astounding speed.

“Hm... Sounds fishy. Maybe I should check it, but...” She looks at you. You don't know what she's talking about, but it seems she wants to go to somewhere else...

[] Let's go home. If she wants to somewhere else, she can do it tomorrow. She looks too tired now.
[] Tell her that you can walk home, so she can go with her business. It won't take long to walk from here.
[] Go with her. She's already helping you so much, now you can help her back with her tasks.

[X] Let's go home. If she wants to somewhere else, she can do it tomorrow. She looks too tired now.

Better to rest up.

[x] Let's go home. If she wants to somewhere else, she can do it tomorrow. She looks too tired now.

Extra stages are best done in peak condition.

You ask Sanae what's in her mind, breaking her train of thought.

“Uhm... Nothing that's important to you Nobu,” she hesitates to talk it. “It just my gut feeling, but something big will be happened. Maybe I should investigate it, but...”

She stands up and takes a deep breath. You write to her again that she better go back to the shrine, since she looks tired. She can go investigate it tomorrow, right?

“Yeah... You're right, I shouldn't rush it. I'll be in disadvantage if I have to do danmaku battle in this condition.” Sanae agrees with you. “Let's go home then. I can't wait to rest in my bed...”

She readies herself again to carry you, and flies off. If only you could fly, she won't have to suffer like this...

---

After 15 minutes of flying, you finally arrive at the shrine. The sun starts to set down, indicates that it'll be night soon. Woah, time sure running fast here. Suwako's sitting at the terrace when you and Sanae land on the shrine's ground.

“Welcome home! What took you so long?” She greets as your feet touch the ground again.

“We headed to Rinnosuke's shop instead, because Nitori wasn't there when we come to the lake. Not to mention that Nobu insisted to walk there...” Sanae massages her left shoulder. “I'll cook right away.”

She walks into the kitchen. Suwako sighs and pulls you inside the living room.

“Come on Nobu, tell me your adventure today whilst waiting for the food!”

---

You're in the living room with the goddesses at each side of the table. You give Suwako your writing pad after you write the excerpt of your shopping trip today.

“Thanks for waiting, here's the dinner!”

Sanae puts some plates full of curry rice on the table whilst Suwako reads your story that you write on the writing pad. Oh boy. You quickly bows to everyone and chows down the food- OW! Damn, forget about the sprained arm... You use the other hand to pick the spoon and eat. Woah, this is spicy. Deliciously spicy.

“I don't know if people nowadays still able to walk that far,” Suwako comments on your story. “I mean, we used to walk far in the old days, then people know how to tame horses, moments later they know how to make automobiles...”

“But the travel took too much time than it should have! I'd rather carry him for some hours than having to walk all the day,” Sanae says as she passes a bag of ice to you to treat your sprain, then eats her own share of curry. “Seriously, if we're flying to there, we'll be able to treat that sprain faster.”

“Sanae, I already taught you about how to use wind to carry him, right?” Kanako stares.

“Well... I'm not really mastering it. Tried it on a stone once when I was sweeping the shrine, but it kept fly away instead of hovering.”

“You have to practice more Sanae. I mean, with Kanako showing it off how it's done. How's it, eh?” Suwako stares to her fellow goddess.

“Does she has the time? Doesn't she wants to help Nobu with the gaming console?”

“Tomorrow we will go to Nitori's place again. By that time she should have finished checking the console,” Sanae finishes her meal. “Speaking of which, do you know where does the old TV that we used to have? We need it for the console...”

“TV? I put it in the vault. I'm about to dismantle and sell it to the kaapas.” Kanako also finishes her dinner. “Isn't there any TV in that shop?”

“Already sold, unfortunately.” Sanae gets up. “I'm going to my room now. Good night everyone.”

She excuses herself and go out from the living room. You push your empty plate and put the compress on your injured arm. Ahhhh... Although much of the ice blocks are melting now.

“Then have a go at the vault tomorrow.” Kanako looks to you. “Now go get some rest and heal yourself, you can't carry a television with a sprained arm.”

It depends actually. If it's a small portable TV you probably able to carry it with only one hand. Large TV, however... Yeah, better follow her advice. You bow to them once again and go to your room. Let's hope your arm will be healed tomorrow...

---

*Bruk!*

Zzzz... Urgh... You open your eyes and look through the window: It's still inside the shrine, midnight, and you can hear some sounds outside. What's that? You go outside to the shrine grounds and check-

*Tak!*

It comes from the main building. You walk to the source of the-

*Whoosh!*

Shit. Your body falls and slides into a hole-

*Bam!*

-And lands inside a pitch black room. Damn, where is this place? Another Yukari's hole? You try to use your writing pad to illuminate your surroundings: Doesn't work really well though, it only produce enough light to shines itself.

“Hm... All the stuff that I've never seen before.”

Wait, someone's here. You carefully follow the sound, and found another source of light: A shiny ball hovering around a woman, in a teal dress and blue oriental hair, acting as her lantern. Who is she?

“I wish I know how to use these items. All of them looks interesting...”

*Duk!*

Your foot hits something when you walk towards her. Shit. She turns around and stares; She seems surprised with your presence for a while.

“Hm? A male? I thought that green-haired girl that'll found me,” she examines you with her eyes. “A priest? No... You looked too handsome for a priest. Hm... Her husband, perhaps? You're about his age when he picks me up. Didn't worked out well though, damn his families for forbidding me practicing taoism...”

What the hell is she talking about... Wait wait wait, better question: Who's this woman? And why there's a hole on the shrine's ground? What is this place anyway?

[] Demand her to answer some of your questions... Politely. She hasn't done any harm yet, or looks threatening, so...
[] Chargeeeee! Subdue her first, then turns her to Kanako or someone else in the shrine to... 'interrogate' her
[] Intruder alert! Raise the alarm! Wake the goddesses! Run out from this room and scream like a little girl!

---

Fix a glaring mistake with wording.

[X] Demand her to answer some of your questions... Politely. She hasn't done any harm yet, or looks threatening, so...

No need to go crazy yet.

[x] Intruder alert! Raise the alarm! Wake the goddesses! Run out from this room and scream like a little girl!

I don't want the MC to be her latest addition.

>>22602
Exept MC can't scream remember? By the way anyone know who this is? I want to say it's Seiga but I highly doubt that.

[x] Wait calmly until your vision is used from the darkness.
[x] Then ask Her if she having trouble with something.

Let's play it safe...?

>>22618
It IS Seiga from the description.

I'll pick one of these votes if there isn't any tiebreakers until tomorrow.

Coin flipped. '[x] Intruder alert! Raise the alarm! Wake the goddesses! Run out from this room and scream like a little girl!' wins. Writing now.

Let's think this: What should an one-eyed-mute do when seeing a probably-magical woman intruding his home?

Call the police?

Nah, there's no telephone here, not to mention that the only 'police' around are some men and women with wolf's ears and carrying a shield. Heh, it reminds you how weird this world. Better wake the goddesses, they know better what to do in this situation. You quickly run back to the ho-

*Buk!*

Your body hits something in the pitch black, and some items fall on your body. The teal-dressed woman chuckles and slowly walks to you. Shit, you quickly shove items on your body away and runs away again. The hole should be-

*Buk!*

You hit the wall this time. Where's the hole!? You desperately try to find the hole that brings you here, while the woman keeps walking closer and closer.

“It's already closed,” she chuckles and stops walking. “How about we make a deal: I'll create another hole for you to get out, but you have to convert to taoism and become my pupil onwards. Sounds good, isn't it?”

Uh... And betraying your goddesses? Why can't you just learn taoism? Having multiple religions are okay in Japan, right? Although having multiple religions isn't sounds good when the goddesses themselves are physically exist... You quickly shake your head in refusal, which she responses with a frown.

“No? That's too bad...”She slowly walks to you again. “Maybe... A little seduction may change your mind~”

She brings her face really near to your face. Uh... Did she... Well, now that's tempting, but a short term pleasure with someone that you don't know against your goddess's wrath? Nah, no thank you-

*Grauk!*

Something bits you. Hard. You silently scream in pain and look who bits your hand: Another woman, in oriental suit, with some kind of paper on her face, and she looks... Unholy. Crap. You reflexively hit her multiple times, but she won't let it go, while the other woman takes another paper and writes something on it.

“Relax... This only take a moment. Let me have some fun with you, okay~”

What... she... talking...

---

*Buk!*

“Huh? What was that?”

The green-haired half-goddess wakes up from her sleep, and steps outside. She finds her elder goddesses also awakened from their slumber.

“Sanae, did you hear that sound too?” Suwako asks. “Kanako said it comes from the vault.”

“Maybe rats?”

“Some rats can't make a sound that loud. It must be something else,” says Kanako, whose carrying a small flashlight. The goddesses then heads to a door behind the main shrine, locked with a huge padlock. “It's still locked, and there aren't any signs of intrusion.”

“Should we check-”

*Buk!*

The goddesses look at one another; yes they can hear that sound. Kanako quickly unlocks the door and they go inside. Suwako flips a switch once they go inside, filling the room with lights.

“Woah... What a mess,” She comments when looking at the items that scattered on the ground. She quickly stacks the dropped items back to their places. “Hey, I found a television here! Sanae, do you think this will do?” Suwako takes it out and shows it to her.

“Hm... Yeah, I think that will- Wait...” Sanae notices a familiar item on the ground. She picks up and takes a closer look on it: It's Nobu's writing pad. “How's thi-” She stops when realization hits her head, and quickly runs to the writing pad's owner room: She finds no one in there.

“Not again...” Sanae mutters and walks back to Kanako and Suwak-

“Whoops, wrong timing~”

She spots two person slowly flies out from a hole. She recognizes them both: It's that wicked hermit and her zombie.

“You two? Oh, what are you doing-” Sanae stops when the third person emerges from the hole: It's Nobu, and he looks... zombified. Her expression changes to anger. “Seiga, what the hell are you do to hi-”

“Wow, is this really the well mannered girl that I fought some days ag-” The hermit comments, but Sanae angrily yells again before she can finishes her words.

“Look, just give him back to me and go awa-”

“But he comes with his own will, isn't that right, honey?” She caresses his cheek, and he nods. “Come on, say it out loud~”

His lip moves, but no sounds produced from his mouth.

“He's mute,” The shrine-maiden says. “Please, he had enough bad stuff happened to his life. Let him go-”

“Mute? That explains why he's awfully quiet before. Poor thing, ” Seiga pats the man's head. “You said you didn't want to become a hermit, so I'll take him instead, he's suitable. He'll meditates easily with-” She stops when notices there are two other women walk behind Sanae. “See you later!”

The wicked hermit and her jiang-shis dives back into the hole. Realize that she'll getting away, Sanae tries to jump to the hole.

“Waaaaiii-”

*Buk!*

She hits the ground instead, because the hole quickly closes itself before Sanae can reach the hermit.

“Sanae, what are-”

“Lady Suwako, they're kidnapping Nobu! Please, chase them!” She turns to her goddesses. Suwako nods and summons Mishaguji, and it starts to tunneling it's way down. All the goddesses wait anxiously at the surface. After a while, it comes back to Suwako and shakes it's head.

“Sorry Sanae, Mishaguji can't find anything down there... What happened Sanae? What did they want from him?"

“The hermit takes him because I didn't want to convert to her. She'll turns him into a hermit instead,” Sanae sighs. “I'll ask for Reimu's help; I remember that they moved to somewhere else after the divine spirits incident, I don't know where exactly is, but I'm sure she knows: She and Marisa follows Miko to there. Let's-”

“Wait until tomorrow,” Kanako suggest. “If what you've said is correct, then no harm would come to Nobu.”

“But what if Nobu's really converted to taoism?”

“If he did then don't rescue him,” Kanako says coldly. Suwako glares to her fellow goddesses, and she holds Sanae's shoulder.

“Relax Sanae, he won't get converted that easily. Besides, this still midnight, it'll be better if you rest now. Reimu will be more willing to help if you ask her tomorrow, don't you think so?”

She stands still for a while, before walking back to her own room.

“I don't know if I can get some rest after this mess...”

Suwako sighs, and along with Kanako also walks back to their own room.

“Kanako... This is not your handiwor-”

“What? Of course not, I don't know who these people are.”

“Oh. I'm just asking, don't mind it~”

---

Urgh... You slowly open your eyes: There's a paper sticks on your face. You take and examine it. On the top of it lies a big word: Meditate. Uh... What is this for? You throw it away and look around, you can't see the room clearly, since you're not wearing your glasses now, but you can recognize that you're in a room, with wooden floor and very few decoration. Where's your glasse-

“Distant, as months and years pass away here,
the bustling world's racket grows distant.
Plowing and weaving provide all we use.
Who needs anything more-”

You look at your side: There's a woman here, her eyes look empty, and she says some rhyming words. A poem, perhaps? Wait, she's the one who bit you before, and there's a bite mark on your hand as the evidence. She doesn't look dangerous... Then why the hell she bit you before? Where is this place? You eager to ask her some question, but you have to go home, the goddesses must be worried now that you're missing, and there's no signs of that taoist woman...

[] Chill. The goddesses won't just stand down at your disappearance. They'll rescue you. Until that time, let's see if this woman can answer some of your question...

[] Sneak out. Sorry, being kidnapped is not in your schedule today. Time to get out of here.

HINT:

You can't escape by your own strength. However, you can meet different taoist if you choose otherwise.

[x] Sneak out. Sorry, being kidnapped is not in your schedule today. Time to get out of here.

[X] Sneak out. Sorry, being kidnapped is not in your schedule today. Time to get out of here.

Go home or die trying, it's not yukkuri time.

[x] Sneak out. Sorry, being kidnapped is not in your schedule today. Time to get out of here.

No time to chat, you have to get back to the shrine. You sure the goddesses will come to rescue, but how long? You're a man, not a damsel in distress, you can dig your own way out of here, and you will. You slide the door in front of you: it's not locked. Well, how you lock a slide door anyway? The girl keeps reciting her poem, it seems she doesn't care if you're going away. Well, see you folks! You step outside-

Well, shit.

---

Sanae walks out from her room, fully awake, ready to take back Nobu before Seiga can convert him. It'll be hard if she has to fight the wicked hermit and her jiang-shi, and there's a chance that the other taoists are helping her...

“Maybe I can talk to Miko about his kidnapping, she might be able to do something... I still need Reimu's help though, just in case,” Sanae starts flying away. She wanted to ask for her goddesses for help, but after what Kanako said to her earlier... She knows that what Kanako wanted to said that her panic was unnecessary, but it's still a cruel thing to say... “Lady Kanako, Lady Suwako, I'm going now.”

Suwako looks to Sanae from the window her shrine maiden flies.

“You're not going to help her?” Kanako asks her fellow goddess from behind.

“She's strong, I'm sure she'll bring Nobu back,” she sits back on her seat.

---

It seems that taoist brought you far, far away from your shrine. You check the area around: There is a huge building next to you, maybe larger than the main shrine back at home. Next to it are the building that you recently got out. It looks similar to the main building, only much smaller. You can see a road outside the temple's huge gate, but it leads to... Nowhere. You walk closer to inspect it: The road ends at an invisible barrier thing, not far from the wall. Beyond the barrier you can see skies and clouds.

Did she brought you to a floating island!? If you can fly, it'll be no problem to get out from this island, but... Now you know why she didn't bother to lock the door. Think, that hermit didn't fly when you saw her, she walks. There must be some kind of entrance that you can use to-

“Who's there?”

A voice calls behind you. It's not the taoist's voice. You turn around and find... A woman in white and blue-ish dress and a strange hat. You remember having seen that clothes in one history book, but can't remember from which era. Must be a member of the temple.

“A visitor? Tell, by what reason you come to this place?”

She might be that taoist's underling. If you tell that you want to escape from here, she might report to her master or hunt you down herself... But maybe if you tell the truth she maybe will help you out instead...

[] Lie. Tell her that you're a prospective disciple, looking to learn more about taoist.
[] Be truthful. Tell her that a woman kidnapped you here, and you want to go home. Now.

Optional
-[] Tell her that you're taking a vow of silence, and hence, won't talk to anyone.

[x] Be truthful. Tell her that a woman kidnapped you here, and you want to go home. Now.

oh god yes, Futo

[x] Be truthful. Tell her that a woman kidnapped you here, and you want to go home. Now.

Uh, disguising yourself as a prospect disciple won't help you escape from this island. Yes, it's less risky, but won't get you to anywhere. At best, you'll only buy some time before that taoist woman finds you. Be honest, and she'll help you getting back to your home. Maybe. You take your- Crap. Your writing pad is missing. AGAIN. Is this some kind of running joke from heaven or something?

“Let me ask again, what's your purpose coming to this place?”

Gah, she's getting impatient. You try to find a way to communicate with her, but you can't: The ground's covered with stone blocks, so you can't write on the ground, and your previous experience proves that no one understands your signs except for the simplest one. Meh, forget about answering her question, better ask her how to get out from this place. You point to the sky next to you, and then using your index and middle finger on your right hand to make a gesture of a person walking.

“Out...Walk... So you walk from your home to study here?”

Dammit, no! You quickly shake your head, and she tries to decipher your message again.

“Hm... Wait, do you want to tell me that you're running from a youkai, and seeking a safe place here? Fear not, this is the safest place-”

Pffttt.... This will be long...

---

Sanae lands on Hakurei Shrine. She finds both Reimu and Marisa on the shrine's grounds.

“Reimu! Marisa! Help!”

“Woah woah woah, easy there! Why so hurry?” Marisa calms the green-haired shrine maiden. “New accidents that we have to investigate?”

“No... I mean, yes! Nobu got kidnapped by Seiga!” Sanae quickly tells them both.

“Wait, that guy whose living with you?” Marisa looks interested. “How?”

“Remember the wicked hermit that we fought some days ago? Last night, somehow she turns Nobu into one of her jiang-shi and carried him away.”

“It's her jiang-shi's bite. Anyone that gets bitten by her turns into another jiang-shi,” Reimu joins into the conversation. “Luckily, it's only temporary, unless she decided to kill him instead, but I don't think-”

“That's why I need your help! I don't know how to reach her in... What is it called?”

“The hermit's world?”

“Yeah! I probably need to fight Seiga to take Nobu back, so please, help me!” Sanae pleas. Reimu stares at her face.

“I never think I'll ever seeing you beg to me this much... Give me a few minutes to prepare,” she enters her shrine. Marisa lightly punch Sanae's arm.

“Hey, I'll help too! This is a good chance to sneak into that big mansion.”

“Mansion?”

“Yeah, they rebuilt Miko's mausoleum in there! I bet there are many interesting stuff inside,” Marisa looks excited. Reimu comes back with her gohei and some amulets.

“Come, I'll show you ho-”

Another woman comes from the sky: The three immediately recognize her as Youmu, the netherworld gardener, whose joined them when the divine spirits incident happened.

“Oh, everyone is here. Good morning,” the gardener greets them all.

“What is it? We're kind of busy here,” Reimu seems a little bit irritated with all these people come to her shrine.

“Well, it seems the youkai have been in an uproar since the divine spirit incident. They said the Myouren temple has made some sort of move.”

“Move? Did the temple transformed into some kind of giant?” Marisa imagines what it looks like. Reimu rolls her eyes, but still hearing Youmu's word as she continues her speech.

“No, it's not like that. They said that they always knew Myouren Temple was right above Miss Miko's mausoleum, and said that they're preparing something...”

“I bet they'll cause problem again.”

“Eh, why?” Marisa asks.

“Byakuren's on youkai's side, and Miko's a saint. She must be thought that Miko would be an enemy of youkai. Not to mention that Futo was really hate Buddhist-”

“Uhm...” Sanae tries to cut their chatter. “About the rescue...”

“It'll be a big problem if I don't investigate what they'll do,” Reimu looks to Sanae's pleading eyes. “I'll help you once I know what Myouren temple is up to. Seiga won't harm any person that she finds interesting, and she won't get as far as kidnapping him if she didn't find him interesting.”

“Alright... I'll help you investigate too. The faster we do this, the better, right?” Sanae sighs. It'll be wiser to follow Reimu's plan rather than forcing her to rescue him first.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!” Marisa flies away, followed by both of the shrine maidens, leaving Youmu behind.

“Uh, they are away... Should I go with them too?”

---

“...Why won't you telling me with your voice? Perhaps you have some difficulties in speaking?”

After some dozens of guessing, she finally gets that you're mute. Damn, why people are so slow these days? You nod to her question, and she response with by bowing down.

“Ah, pardon my inability to realize it sooner. Still, you haven't-”

“Oh Futoooo~”

Uh oh, you know that voice. You quickly hide behind a pot. She looks puzzled with your reaction, but quickly turns to

“Yes, what is it Miss Kaku?”

“Have you seen a man wearing an eyepatch around here? He's my disciple, a soon-to-be hermit~”

“I didn't know that you're taking a disciple, Miss Kaku.”

“I brought him here recently. What a loss if I lost him now...”

You can look the hermit talks with her. The other woman opens her mouth and...

[]...Revealing your location to her.

[]...Saying she never seen anyone like that around here.

[X]...Saying she never seen anyone like that around here.

[x]...Saying she never seen anyone like that around here.

[x]...Says she never saw anyone like that around here.

Futo is a good girl, Nobu is safe!

[x]...Says she never saw anyone like that around here

Called. Please wait.

“Forgive me, for I never saw anyone looked like that.”

“I see... Well, I'm going to ask Tojiko. Let's hope he doesn't get zapped by her~” The taoist woman walks to the main build. Phew... You really want to kiss that other woman as a thanks, but you'll get slapped. You get out from your hiding place and bow a few times to her while smiling.

“Did you forcibly taken by her to this place against your own will?” The woman ask, which you nod to confirm. “Please pardon my teacher. She tends to not caring about another person feelings, but she doesn't meant harm...”

That person is her teacher? What does she teach? Kidnapping? Never mind, better get out of here before she comes back-

“I assume that the gesture that you made before was 'I want to go home', yes?” She guesses again. “Simply walk out from this island and think the place that you want to go, you shall find yourself at the nearest place that you want.”

Uh... Walk out? You point to the sky outside of the island, you'll fall if you walk out from the ground outside!

“Are you afraid?” She sighs and takes your hand. “Close your eyes and trust me. Think about your home...”

Okay... You close your eye and create the image of your shrine inside your head. She slowly leads your way forward...

*Whooosh!*

---

Your body feels funny. You wait for a moment before deciding to open your eye. You're in a small street between two buildings.

“Here you go, the only village that I know around. Miss Kaku must be picked you up from here, right?”

Uh... Not quite. You're thinking about your goddesses shrine on the top of the mountain, why you ended up in this place? At least you're free from that taoist, and you know where the village is, so it should be easy to walk back to the mountain.

“Do you able to go back to your home from here? I have to go back to my place now, I'll try to distract Miss Kaku so she won't kidnap anyone again,” she excuses herself., then points to the ground where she stands and vanishes. Wait... You forget to ask her name. If fate favors maybe you'll meet her again. Better start walking now, the goddesses must be worried now...

---

“I hope they won't make any trouble for the time being. Cherry blossoms bloom everywhere, but I can't enjoy it even for a while...” Reimu mutters as she and the others flies away from Myouren temple after beating the so-called ' youkai-triumph-card'.

“Reimu, about the rescue...” Sanae starts to bug her again.

“Yes Sanae, I'm not forget about that,” Reimu lands down to a patch of land with a small crack on it, the others also land nearby her. “This should do.”

“Huh? Here? Where's the entrance?”

“You're on it. The hermit world can be reached from cracks on the ground, Miko said it would keep the entrance hidden from the youkai.”

“Any cracks? Including the ones on the outside world?”

“You have to ask her for that one. Hold each other hands,” Reimu points to the crack, and start reciting some words. Marisa holds Reimu's free hand and takes Sanae's hand on the other, and she does the same to Youmu.

“Am I really have to go with them...” Youmu murmurs in her heart before they transported to the Hermit World.

---

Hours past... You are still walking to the shrine, on the road to the mountain. Your mouth feels really dry, you haven't drunk any water since yesterday. Can't hold the thirst anymore, you have to find a water source around here. Oh right, that accident where you got fallen into a river and saved by Suwako. It shouldn't be far from here. You start walking off the road and start searching...

*Brrrgghhh!!!*

You can hear rushing water nearby. You looked nearby and find the river: It's under the steep cliff. You walk along it until there's a better ground to descend, no matter how thirsty your lips are, you won't jump right into the river, that's suicidal.

*Wrsshh!!!*

The water flow goes calmer for every meters you walk to the downstream. You also find some stairs nearby, made of stone, most of them are covered in dirt. Looks old, but you can see some footprints on it, showing that the stairs was used not long before you come here. You step down to the lower ground and proceed to drink the water. It's kind of cool, really refreshing. After sating thirst, you stand up-

You can see a lot of objects on the river far into the downstream. You walk to them and examine: Dolls. Lots of it. Each one of them float on the river with a small straw boat. Woah, it seems there was some kind of festival here.

*Tuk!*

Huh? You can see a girl, green-ish hair like Sanae, but unlike her, she wears a red ribbon thing, and red dress with weird circle thing on the lower part. She quickly hides behind a tree once she knows that you're aware of her presence.

What should you do? You will be in deep trouble if she's a man-eating youkai, but have you ever encounter one before? All the youkai that you've met are friendly to humans. Maybe she just want to talk. Hell, she probably only a human girl wearing an eccentric dress, just like you with this all-green suit.

[] Approach.

[] Ignore.

[X] Approach.

[X] Approach.

[X] Approach.

She will probably try to chase him off, but well...

[X] Approach.

It's Hina, good thing as the guy has some serious misfortune to remove.

Called.

Uh... You better approach her. You start walking to her-

*Buk!*

Ouch! Something falls to your head. An apple? You look up: Many apples are hanging under the tree's branch. The tree looks too large for a local apple tree... Whatever. The fruit looks delicious. You bite the apple. Strange, it tasted weir-

“Don't eat the apple, it's infested with larvae!” She jumps out from behind the tree and yells. You instantly spit them out, and find out she's right: You can see some larva bits on the chewed apple. Eww! Quickly you dunk your head into the river to wash your mouth. How can't you see tha-

*Buk!*

Your head hits a rolling river stone underwater. Ouch, again. You quickly rise your head and massage your poor head.

“Mister, please get away from here, I'm not finished cleaning up the misfortunes from the dolls,” the girl advices. Alright Miss, you have to go home anyway. Better start walking-

“Where are you going!? The human village is on the other way! It's dangerous for a human to walk into Youkai Mountain!” She yells again. Grrr... This is getting on your nerves. You crouch and start writing on the ground-

*Tak!*

Your nail on your point finger's break. ARGHHH! WHAT THE HELL WITH ALL THESE BAD LUCK! FUCK THAT GIRL FOR YELLING TO YOUR EARS! FUCK THIS GROUND FOR BREAKING YOUR NAILS! FUCK THAT APPLE TREE FOR DROPPING AN INFESTED FRUIT ON YOUR HEAD! FU-

---

“What do you mean he's not with you!? I saw with my own eyes that you took him away from my shrine!”

Sanae keeps pressing the question on the hermit, while being watched by three other girls behind her, stunned with her change of attitude.

“He's escaped. Surprisingly, he recovered from zombification faster than I thought. Quite a guy that you marry, isn't he?”

“Escaped? Where is he-”

“What's with the noise?” A voice comes from the main building. Miko and her followers walk out calmly. “Miss Kochiya, do you have any problem with us?”

“Well, she kidnapped my friend yesterday! Black haired male, wearing an eyepatch...”

Futo gets surprised when hearing Sanae's describe of her friend's appearance match with the man that she escorts earlier. She quickly whispers something to Miko.

“Why don't we talk about it like a civilized person? I'm sure there's a good solution to your problem. Let's go inside, I'll ask my servant to make some tea for us,” Miko smiles, trying to swipe the tensions away. Sanae doesn't know how to response. A talk? If she knows where Nobu is, then why she doesn't tell her right now? Maybe she doesn't even know where Nobu is, and only wants to get her away from here. She takes a deep breath, then decides to follow Miko. Perhaps if she tells her what's going on, Miko'll help her searching for Nobu.

“What happened to her? ” Youmu asks to Reimu and Marisa. “She doesn't look like the girl that we've met some time ago.”

“Of course she's angry now, her friend's being kidnapped. Nobu's an outsider after all, being powerless and such...” Marisa shakes her head. “Why she doesn't brought him back to the outside world anyway?”

“She once said to me that the world outside is really harsh, bringing him back to the outside world without knowing his families or skills won't make him any safer either. I feel there's something more though,” Reimu speculates.

“Something more?”

“I'm talking about Kanako and Suwako. They might be using this man for some-”

“What are you talking about guys?” Sanae turns back, which silences them. Once they enter the lounge, Miko let them sit on the seat available.

“I'm sorry Miss Miko for the ruckus, but I really worried about my friend's safety. He was taken away by Seiga yesterday...Now where is she?”

Futo enters the room,

“Miss Seiga has gone outside, she refused to join us to discuss the problem, she wanted to find another interesting person to observe.”

“What!? But-”

“Calm down Miss Kochiya. We know where's your friend, and he's not with her. In fact, it's a good thing that my teacher is not here,” Miko quickly says before Sanae starts panicking again. “Futo, you may tell her now.”

“Thank you. Miss Kochiya, I saw the man matched with your description this afternoon. He tried to escape from Miss Kaku, so I brought him to the Human Village and distract Miss Kaku long enough so she lost her interest to him.”

“I see...” Sanae looks relieved. “Thanks for the information, I'll go now,” she excuses herself.

“Hm? Not waiting for the tea?” Miko asks.

“No thank you, I want to make sure he's fine,” Sanae stands up. She doesn't tell that he has to walk to Youkai Mountain to go back to her shrine, because Futo's hatred towards them might cause some misunderstanding. “Where's Maris-”

Reimu elbows her ribs before she can finished the sentence. Sanae walks out from the room quietly followed by Reimu and Youmu. They proceed to go back to Gensokyo afterward.

---

“Sorry for brought you there. I thought we'll have to fight with Seiga, but-”

“I'm actually glad that you solve this peacefully, kinda tired after the battle with Mamizou,” Sanae cuts her apology, since she feels it's unnecessary. “He lives on your shrine, right? You're not worry about Futo dropped him on the village?”

“I've told him the fastest route from village to my shrine. He should be safe once he enters the mountain,” Sanae looks around. “Are you sure Marisa will be fi-”

“Hi hi!” The witch hops from the crack near them. She carries many scrolls inside her rucksack. “Thanks for the opportunity Sanae! Now, where's Nobu? Did you guys able to rescue him?”

“Futo brought him to Human Village, so I think he's now either on his way to home now or already get there,” Sanae looks at the rucksack behind Marisa. “May I ask where did you get those-”

“Hey, let's make sure that Nobu's okay. It'll be troublesome if he's caught by a youkai, right?” Marisa quickly changes the topic.

“Sorry, but I can't go with you, I have to go somewhere soon,”

“Oh right, today you'll go on a date with... Errr, who's his name again?” Marisa teases the red shrine maiden. Reimu rolls her eyes.

“Whatever.”

“I have to go too, I'm afraid Miss Yuyuko will miss me if I gone too long,” Youmu also excuses herself.

“It's okay, you both can go now, we'll be fine. See you later guys!” Sanae gives her farewell, then they fly away in different direction. “Marisa, don't you want to put those scrolls somewhere before we go?”

“Nah, it's not that heavy compared when I borrowed books from Scarlet Devil Mansion.”

---

Huff... Huff... After venting off your anger to that damned apple tree, you sit on the ground. Fuck... What the hell is wrong with you?

“Mister... If you wish, I can remove your misfortunes,” the girl talks after she sees you tired face. “But you have to go stay away from that mountain, okay? It is called 'Youkai Mountain' because there are a lot of tengus lived there, and they do not like anyone who enters their mountain. They might harm you if one of the patrols see you walk on the mountain area...”

Misfortune? She can stop your bad luck? Wait, if it involves some kind of ritual, you might pissing off your goddesses... You reach your charm in your pocket. Is this not enough to ward all these bad lucks? Does this charm even work at all? Looking at the past events and your bleeding finger, it seems so.

“That charm... Are you a Moriya Shrine follower?” She asks, and you nod. “There's a small shrine just outside of the village, you don't have to go to the mountain if you want to pray. Didn't the shrine maiden has said this to you before?”

Hm, you can't recall something like a small shrine nearby the village... You do recall that Kanako said that humans can't enter the mountain, so it's logical if they set a smaller shrine in a more reachable place. Maybe you can pray to your goddesses from there so they won't be worry about your safety anymore. You can find it for yourself, or ask this girl to show where the shrine is.

[]Find the shrine yourself.
[]Ask her to show the shrine.

Optional

[]Ask her to remove your misfortune... The goddesses would understand, maybe.

[X]Ask her to show you the shrine.
-[X]Ask her to remove your misfortune... The goddesses would understand, maybe.
I'm sure they will, maybe...Oh god that'll end badly, won't it?

[X]Ask her to show you the shrine.
-[X]Ask her to remove your misfortune... The goddesses would understand, maybe.

Argh, I can't stand it anymore.

Look, I like your story. No, seriously! It seems interesting, so far. But you need a proofreader. And when I say "need" I mean "need" in the same way a floundering man needs a life preserver.

Which is to say: a lot.

Seriously.

Please.

[X]Ask her to show you the shrine.

You'll reach the small shrine faster if she shows where it is. She's busy, but you won't do harm if you ask her help first: Maybe she can cleaning the dolls later. You use your left hand to write your question on the mud asking if she has some time to show where's the small shrine.

“You want me to show the shrine's location? But...” She turns her face to the lake full of floating dolls. “If you really wish...I guess I can clean those later. How about your misfortunes? Do you want me to clean those before we go?”

Oh, right...Speaking about cleaning misfortune, better let her clean yours. The goddesses know about your streak of bad luck, so they should be understand... You nod to the girl.

“Okay! First, we need to get away from this place, misfortunes from those dolls tend to affect any person near them, including you. Those accidents that happened like the infested apple and your broken nail might be those doll's influence...”

What? Why didn't she told you that before? As if your luck is not rotten enough... If you stay here, maybe a lightning will strike from the sheer bad luck... You and her walk away from the river to somewhere under the cliff.

“Stand still, this won't be long...” She takes your hand, then releases it and spins around you. What a weird ritual... You cross both your hands, waiting anxiously while looking to her moves: She looks like a ballerina... You don't remember a ballerina's dance looked like, but it involves a lot of spinning too, right? After a while, she stops her ritual.

“Strange... This is way too much. I can't sense any items that brought bad luck...” She mumbles. “Mister, do you have any bad blood with someone else? You have way too much misfortunes... As if you have bad karma or cursed...”

Cursed? Whoa... You never make anyone angry before... Okay, you did made Sanae angry sometimes, but you are sure that she wouldn't curse you. Or would she?

“You don't have to answer it if you don't want to, I've cleansed all your misfortunes, but it might come back if you did cursed, so please solve the problem if you have one,” she takes your hand then walk out from the cliff. “Come, I'll show you where the shrine is.”

---

Another hour passed. You both now on the road just outside of the village's wall. Urgh, you'll be at home now if you walk straight to the shrine. If only she let you enter the mountain...

“There,” she points to a small building on the side of the road. You approach to take a closer look since you don't wearing your glasses right now: A stone shrine. Some people left their offerings here. You can see a frog on the top of the shrine, it looks like the one that Suwako gift to you. You close your eyes and sta-

“Nobu?”

You can hear a familiar sound from behind: Sanae. She quickly flies down and checks your condition. You also see Marisa flying behind her, carrying a large sack behind her.

“Are you okay? Seiga didn't do anything bad to you, did she?” She bombards you with question. You really want to answer those, but you need your writing pad. You make some gesture to tell her that you want to write.

“Argh...” She slaps her forehead. “I don't bring your glasses and writing pad, sorry. Let's go home, you can tell me-”

*Ngruuuuk!*

Your stomach growls, screaming for food. Dammit, you haven't eat anything today...

“You haven't eat anything since your kidnapping?” Sanae smiles.. “Don't worry Nobu, once we get back I'll cook some delicious-”

*NGRUUUUK!*

This time, Sanae's stomach growls, and it produces much louder sound than yours. Her face reddens, while Marisa laughs.

“Hey, wanna grab something to eat at the village? My treat!” The witch pat both Sanae and your back. Hm... Marisa's offer sounds tempting, but the goddesses must be worried about you now...

[]Go home.
[]Accept Marisa's offer.

Optional

-[] Pray to your goddesses first.

>>22742
Can't. See the anon who got banned at the end of thread 2? He's the one who used to proofread my story. And he votespammed. I used to ask Fyhlen to proofread my story, but most of the time, he's not on IRC when I logged in. I ask some other guys on IRC if anyone willing to proofread, but I can't get any. I also want to post the story as soon as possible, so... Sorry.

[x]Go home.
-[x] Maybe next time
-[x] Pray to your goddesses first.

[x]Accept Marisa's offer.
-[x] Pray to your goddesses first.

[x]Go home.
-[x] Maybe next time
-[x] Pray to your goddesses first.

We should stop making the goddesses worry.

Called.

“Uhm, maybe some other time. Lady Suwako and Lady Kanako will be worried about us if we went for too long...” Sanae refuses the offer.

“Your loss, I have some scrolls to read anyway. See you later guys!” She gives her farewell and flies away. Sanae doesn't even ask about your decision... Not that it matters anyway, wasting time in the village while the goddesses waiting for your return isn't sounds right... You should pray to them now. You close your eyes and start praying again.

“Do you want to pray? Well... Go ahead, I'll collect the faith and the offerings while waiting,” Sanae says while checking the offering box. You start to recite your silent prayer...

*Hop!*

“Nobu? Finally! We were worried about you!” You can hear Suwako's sound after the frog on the shrine hops onto your head. “Good job Sanae! Although why didn't you told us if you want to go early in the morning?”

“I'm sorry, but I was afraid that you wouldn't let me go...”

“We were not letting you go because we want you to be ready! Look, you were going without eating any breakfast, right? Is it wise to do something important like this rescue without any preparation? And, Reimu too, did she helped you?”

“Uh huh, along with Marisa and Youmu. I had to helped Reimu with some problems on Myouren Temple first though, since there is a suspicious activity at there.”

“Uh huh...You better get home now with Nobu as soon as possible and tell us about it. I've cooked some dinner for you. We'll be waiting for your arrival! And Nobu....” The frog hops back onto the stone shrine and stares to you. “Do not walk to the shrine, let Sanae carry you, okay?”

Meh, she doesn't have to tell it to you. You nod to the frog, then it close both of its eyes. You sigh and look around, where is that girl who removed your curse? You want to thank her before leaving this place, but it seems she's already gone away. You'll consult about the misfortune problem to everyone once you have your writing pad back, maybe they can help...

“Hold this Nobu,” Sanae hands you a basket full of offerings. You let her carry your body, and she flies away with you.

“Uffffh! Here we go!”

---

Fifteen minutes of travel, and finally you with Sanae arrive on the shrine's ground. The sun starts to fall down, showing that it'll be night soon. Suwako approaches once your feet touch the ground, then greets and asks about your condition.

“Welcome back! Are you okay Nob-”

*Ngruuuuk!*

Shut up stupid stomach. You fail your master twice this day.

“Uhm... Sorry Lady Suwako... I'm haven't eat anything since yesterday...” Sanae apologize in shame. Wait, that's not your stupid stomach?

“Hihi... Let's go inside, there are many foods waiting just for you!”

---

“See, this is why I told you to prepare first. What if it affects your condition? Do you think you can save him if you get yourself defeated by your stomach? Why letting your fear dominate-” Kanako harshly rebukes Sanae for leaving so early in the morning. She sits there accepting all Kanako's lecture. You want to say a word to defend her, but you afraid Kanako will scold you too if you say something wrong to her...

“I'm sorry...”

“That's enough Kanako,” Suwako emerges from the kitchen with some plates of food, and put them on the table. “You don't have to rub it on her. I think having to rescue Nobu with empty stomach is enough punishment for her.”

“...Give Nobu his glasses and writing pad, then fill your stomach.” Kanako orders. Sanae quickly stands up and does what she told to. It doesn't take long before she walks back into the room with your stuff.

“Here Nobu,” She puts them in front of you. You can see clearly again the moment you put your glasses back in front of your eyes. Much better. You quickly chew down the food on your plate. Yum... This is one delicious curry rice.

“So Sanae... “ Suwako ask the shrine maiden whose eating her food. “Tell us about your rescue mission. Did you have to fight with the hermit?”

“No, in fact I didn't rescue him. He managed to escape by his own strength. I don't know how, but he did it. I found him on the outside of the village, near our small shrine just before he prayed to you,”

“Woah... Tell us how you did it Nobu! ” Suwako turns to Sanae again. “You mentioned about helping Reimu with a problem on Myouren Temple. What problem is it? Did they started some trouble?”

“Yes... It's related to the recent divine spirits incident. The youkai are-”

---

“-After Byakuren gave her words that their followers and Mamizou won't cause any trouble, finally we went ahead to the hermit's world, the place where Nobu should be held. I immediately demanded Seiga to release Nobu, but she said he's already gone away...”

You give your writing pad filled with your story to Suwako. Hopefully, this will reveal the part that Sanae's story can't.

“Hm... Nobu write that he escaped because Seiga's pupil hid him from her.”

“Is this pupil is the one who brought you to the village?” Sanae tries to confirm something. You nod. “That's Mononobe no Futo. I heard from Reimu that Seiga actually doesn't liked among the taoists around because of her lack of regards about human rights, but they didn't try to stop any of her action. She's still their teacher after all.”

“I see. Myouren Temple are stand on the youkai side while The taoists under Seiga stand with the humans, it's natural if they are fighting with each other,” Kanako sips her tea.

“Actually the taoist leader is Toyosatomimi no Miko, Seiga only teaches them the way of Tao, but you're right. It's the reason why Nue called Mamizou, they want to prepare a war with Miko or something like that, until Reimu and us foiled their plans that is.”

“What a shame. We'll have less competition if they did waging war with each other,” Kanako looks to you. “I heard that you got brought to the village, did you recovered the radar that you've planted in the middle of the village?”

You slap your forehead. Crap... You are so focused on getting back to home that you forgot about the radar. Kanako sighs when she sees your reaction, then turns to Suwako. “What else did he wrote?”

“A mysterious green haired girl with red ribbon didn't allow him to enter the mountain, but she removes his misfortune.”

“That's Hina. She drives humans away from this mountain for their safety. She's nice though. I think I have to thank her next time we meet if after this Nobu won't get into any bad incident again,” Sanae drinks a glass of water, then proceeds to finishes her meal.

“There's more. She also said that Nobu had way too much misfortune, and those misfortunes could come from a bad karma or a curse. Hm...” Suwako instantly stares to Kanako.

“What?”

“Nothing! Nobu, finish your meal quick, I'll check if there are any curses or not in your body. Mishaguji should be able to lift any curses in you, if there are any that is.”

“Huh? Who's cursing Nobu? I mean, anyone in Gensokyo except us barely know him. Maybe... Nobu, you didn't angered any celestials when you're drunken on the heaven, did you?” Sanae asks. Uh... You can't remember anything after you sips that oni's sake, but you can't see anyone on there except Suika's friend, who joined with you in the drinking party. There is a possibility that you've done something... vulgar to her, considering your kiss with Sanae, but you can't remember you've done such act to her. You shrug your shoulders in doubt.

“Suika should be know what happened to you when you're drunk...” Sanae thinks. “Or maybe it's a bad karma related to your past, but I don't think you used to be a bad person...”

“Who knows, unless we have a clear memory about his past, it's possible that...” Suwako holds her tongue. “I'm not saying that you're a bad person Nobu. In fact, you're nicer than most people on your age, but... You know what I'm talking about, right?”

Uh... Even though your memory about your past are cloudy at best, but you sure that you're not a bad person. You're living in a some kind of electronics shop, your father teaches you how to tinker stuff... That's not how a bad person lives. You quickly finish your dinner and stands up, along with Suwako.

“Let's go outside, I'll call Mishaguji to help.”

---

Sanae and Kanako sit on the shrine's terrace, while you and Suwako stand in the middle of the shrine's ground.

“Ready? Remember, don't be afraid to Mishaguji's appearance. He is here to help you,” says Suwako. You nod, then Suwako starts reciting a spell, and a huge snake appear in front of your eyes. HOLY- Wait, you remember this snake... Oh, right, this snake and Suwako helped you when you're about to be swiped in the river current some time ago.

“Nobu, it's okay, you've met him before! Mishaguji, please reshape yourself to something smaller, you're scaring him...” Suwako commands, then the giant snake shrinks to a big-but-not-gigantic snake. “Mishaguji, this is Nobu, you've met him before. He has a curse problem, do you think you can sort it out?”

The snake raises its body, as tall as your head, then lowers it's head to you. Uh...

“Pat his head Nobu.” Suwako instructs. You slowly move your hand and touch the snake's head. Its cold and as hard as stone. After a while, it moves it's head to Suwako.

“Thank you! Let me see the result...” Suwako puts her hand on the snakes head.

*Dug!*

“Wha- How he gained this... I...”

For a moment, you can see Suwako's face looks really surprised, even almost panicking. Uh oh.... Does the curse really that bad? You touch Suwako's shoulder to ask what happened.

“Whoaa! Sorry Nobu!” She instantly turns to her cheery self again. “Well... The bad news is yes, you are cursed. The good news is, Mishaguji has removed it from you, so you don't have to think about it anymore!”

“He's really cursed? What kind of curse is it Lady Suwako? Who done that to him?” Sanae throws some questions.

“Uh, well... I'm not sure about the nature of the curse, or when it was cast on Nobu. You don't have to worry about it though, anyone who try to recast the curse on you must deal with us!” Suwako flex her non-muscle in her arms. “Speaking of which, did you noticed that the cherry blossoms fully bloom today?”

“Yeah. It was really beautiful.”

“Hmm... Nobu, how about we have a picnic tomorrow? You refused the last time because I asked it so sudden, but you have the time now, right?”

“Lady Suwako, he still have to give a television to Nitori...”

“We've found it! You could just give it to Nitori and let her working on it whilst we enjoy our time under a cheery blossom tree near the great lake. I'm sure Nitori want to left alone when she works on the television anyway.”

“Well... You have the point Lady Suwako, but maybe he has other plan in his mind.”

“Nobu... Please don't miss this moment. They only bloom once a year anyway...”

[]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.
[]Reject. You have more important things to do tomorrow...
-[] Go to the other's shrine to meet with the oni. Ask her if you've done anything that angered the celes...something.
-[] Watch Nitori whilst she tinkering with the television. Maybe some of your memories will resurface like before.

[x]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.

Some time relaxing wouldn't be bad considering his recent misadventure

[x]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.

Now, I'm really curious about this curse.

[x]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.

[×]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.

[X]Accept. You shouldn't put much strain on your body, enjoy your time. Suwako looks really want it too anyway.

Fine... Overworking yourself to death won't do much good anyway. And like what she said, Nitori probably don't like if you stare to her while she's working on the television. You nod to Suwako as a sign that you agree to her plan.

“Horray! Let's get started! I'll cook some rices for tomorrow's sushi!” She runs into the shrine.

“Lady Suwako, please check our supplies first! I don't know if we have enough for the foods!” Sanae yells and runs to her. Man...

“Well, be responsible with your choice. Go observe how they cook and learn from them,” Kanako says and goes into the shrine too. Pffttt, technically it's Suwako's choice. You only give her your approval to do it... Which is strange, she's the goddess, you should be the one who ask for her approval...

---

“Let me sort all the stuff for tomorrow's cooking. We have fishes, eggs, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, meat...”

You observe them from behind. You ask Suwako why they start cooking tomorrow if they can prepare it now.

“To keep the food fresh silly! We can prepare some ingredients this night, like carrots, and meat... But for the easily spoiled ingredients like eggs, we have to cook them early in the morning so they still edible when we open them tomorrow for the picnic,” Suwako looks into the fridge. “We don't have any dried seaweed, do we?”

“Uhm, no... I doubt that Gensokyo has any sea to grow any seaweed...”

“Wait, then how you can get these salt?” Suwako points to a jar.

“From a merchant in the village- Oh... But even if they do sell seaweed somewhere in the village, I doubt we can buy it now, merchants usually closed their shops at this hour...”

“I miss that convenience store back in our village... Well, you don't mind some rice balls for our lunch, Nobu?”

Uh... Whatever. If its edible, it's good enough for you. You nod to Suwako.

“Okay! We'll prepare some fillings so they has some variety. Sanae, get those fish and clean them, I'll prepare the vegetables,” Suwako fetch some carrots and slices it with a knife.

“Lady Suwako, what we'll do with the fish after I clean it?”

“Salt it, duh.”

“But it takes a whole day for the salt to-”

“Unless you do some miracle on it. There is a chance that it'll fully absorbed in less than a night, isn't it?” Suwako grins. Sanae sighs and start reciting some magical words. Uh...You ask Suwako if she needs help on something.

“Sorry Nobu, the kitchen is not large enough for all of us to cook... You better take a closer look on the television inside the vault so you don't have to search it anymore. Tell Kanako to unlock the vault for you.”

She's right. You hope they do well with the food, especially after Sanae's ritual to that fish. Let's hope your stomach able to digest any kind of magical food... You step out from the kitchen to the living room, where Kanako sits calmly. You rely Suwako's order to her.

“Why didn't she took it out yesterday...” Kanako stratch her head and walks outside, while you following her from behind.

---

After a small walk, you stand before a giant door behind the main shrine. It locked with a colossally huge padlock. Woah, you can't wait to see how big is the key-

*Pluck!*

Kanako touch the padlock with her hand, and it opens. What. What's the point of having a padlock if it can be unlocked by a touch? Perhaps it's a magical lock that only the member of the shrine can open it. Yeah, that must be it, no other logical explanations are available. Kanako and you use the stairs and then she turns on the light.

*Ctk!*

The room gets cleansed from darkness, and boy, this is a giant storage with a lot of things from outside: CD player, satellite dish, speaker... Where did they got all these items-

“Hurry up Nobu, I'm going to close the door as soon as you bring the television out!”

Fine... You can check those stuff later. You scan the room for a while: It doesn't take long until your eye catch a view on a television. Gotcha. You quickly take and examine it. It's a CRT television, bulky and heavy. It certainly can show the game, but to have this carried around by kids... Let's hope that Nitori's able to shrink it... Somehow. You haul the television out from the storage and she turns off the light and locks the door.

“Put it inside your room, then go back to Suwako,” Kanako orders. You slowly slide the door with your body and put the television. Fuh... Damn, you can't imagine how to carry that thing to Nitori's lake. You walk back to the kitchen-

*Srrrkkk*

Sanae comes out from the room in front of you, which startled both her and you.

“Whoa! Be careful Nobu!”

“Sanae, Suwako's done with the cooking?” Kanako asks from behind.

“Uh, no.... She told me to rest and let her finish the preparation for today, so I can wake up early to prepare the rest of the food.”

“Makes sense. Go to sleep Sanae, Nobu will take your place. He needs to learn more about cooking,” Kanako push you lightly into the room.

*Buk!*

This time your body hits Suwako's, whose wants to walk out from the room. Oops...

“Hey, watch it!” She glares. You quickly bow a few times as an apology.

“Already done with the cooking, Suwako?”

“Yeah, I've told Sanae to rest. You too Nobu, what is you do going back to the kitchen? You should rest after your kidnapping!” Suwako crosses her arms.

“I'm the one who told him to help you. This is a good time for him to learn how to cook, isn't it?”

“Still, our kitchen is not large enough for three of us to cook. Remember: 'The boat with many captains:-”

“-will be driven up a mountain.' I know that. Why not letting him swapping either your place or Sanae's? Either you or Sanae could get that television to the Kappa faster than Nobu.”

“Hm... Let me think...” Suwako processes what Kanako says. She gets an idea then turns to you. “How about we make a deal: If you able to wake up before sunrise, I'll let you take my place. If not, you have to carry the television to Nitori's place. That should make you motivated to cook!”

Ugh... Either you learn how to cook or do heavy haul all the way to kappa's lake. Very convincing.

“Lady Suwako, I'll carry the television, it's unwise to carry the television-”

“He's strong enough to do it Sanae! Yes, it's tiring, but that's why it should motivate him to wake up early in the morning without your help. You're okay with it, aren't you Nobu?” Suwako looks to you.

Okayyyy... You guess. Sanae shakes her head and walks to her own room. Hoam... You better get some rest too...

“This is just me or Sanae become more...Rebelliou-”

“Don't be like that Kanako, it's normal for every young adult like her.”

---

*Srrrkkk*

Zzz...

…

“Nobu, wake up...”

…

“Please wake up, or you'll have to carry this television...”

Zzz...

“He's not waking up...”

[]Let him sleep, he's tired after what happened yesterday...
[]Don't give up yet... Think something creative to wake him up(Write-in)

[x]Let him sleep, he's tired after what happened yesterday...

[x]Don't give up yet... Think something creative to wake him up
-[x]Spray water into his face

[X]Don't give up yet... Think something creative to wake him up
-[X]Spray water into his face

Yeah, sure, let's wake him up.

Called.

“Come on Nobu, wake up!”

The shrine maiden shakes his body harder, but there's no sign that he'll wake up. She sighs, then walks out from his room, and comes back with a bucket full of water. She pushes the television to the corner of the room so it won't get splashed with the water.

“Why he takes the big one anyway? I remember Lady Suwako showed me the portable one...” She scoops some water with her hands and splash it on his face. His face is twitching, but he doesn't open his eye.

“It seems I have to pour it all. Sorry Nobu...”

---

“...How's work?”

You are laying on the bench on a park, with your head lies on your father's lap. At his side, sits another man.

“Honestly... Quite bad. I'd rather not talk about it.”

“Don't be like that, we're friends, right? Maybe I can help.”

“It just... I got bankrupted.”

“What!? Why?”

“Strings of terrible accidents... Recent deflation doesn't help at all...”

“You still have your deposits in bank, right?”

“Yeah, but I'd rather invest it on something else rather than trying my chance to hold the compan-”

“Dad! Dad!” A girl runs and hugs him.

“Daddy's listening, honey. What is it?”

“Dad, cherry blossoms will be fully bloomed soon! Can we-”

“Yes honey, daddy knows. If you promise to be a good girl, we will have our yearly picnic. We will invite your friend if you want.”

“Promise?”

“Promi-”

*SPLASH!*

---

You reflexively open your eye after a sudden rush of water hits your body. Brrrrrr, it's cold! You see Sanae holding an empty bucket. The hell...

“Finally... I'm so sorry Nobu, I tried hard to wake you up, but....”

Grrr... Then why she didn't let you sleep? At least try something more... pleasant to wake you up, like stuffing a delicious riceball into your mouth. Whatever, since you're already wet, you better take a bath now. You hope Sanae has prepared some hot water to warm this body...

---

“Good morning No-” Suwako calls the man, but stops when notices that half of his body is wet. He nods and rushes into the bathroom. From his room, Sanae comes out with an empty bucket. “Sanae, did you pour water on him? That's not nice, you know...”

“I don't want him to carry the television all the way to Kappa's lake... Oh, right. Talking about television... Oh, and anyway, Nobu took the wrong TV.” Sanae drops the bucket and walks back to the man's room, and comes back carrying a huge tv, then puts it on the terrace.

“Woah, when I said he's strong enough to carry a television, I didn't mean the big one... He'll fall if he's trying to carry something that large downhill. Why Kanako doesn't show him the right one?”

“Because it is the right one,” Kanako replies behind her. “Take a closer look on the portable television.”

“Wait, I'll take it,” Suwako runs to the vault. It doesn't take long for her to find the small television. She then carries it to the shrine grounds. “There, what's the problem with this television?”

“It doesn't have any RCA sockets. You can't plug the console into that portable television without those.”

“Hm, you're right... But Nitori should be able to do something about it,” Sanae says after she checks the object in question.

“Well, why don't bring both of the television-”

“No. It'll be a waste of parts if we give her both of the television as whole. I'll dismantle the normal television first, then give her some necessary parts to modify the portable television. We can sell some unused parts to some other Kappas for money,” Kanako suggests.

“Sounds great! That means I don't have to carry the televis-”

“No, you help me dismantle the television and carrying those to Nitori. I won't let you idle while I'm doing the whole work.”

“What!? But who else will cook-”

“'If you able to wake up before sunrise, I'll let you take my place.' Don't pretend th-”

“Stop. Cutting. My. Sentence,” Suwako takes a deep breath to calm herself down. “Sanae, give him some simple task, okay? He has little experience in cooking...”

“I'll show him how to make some rice ball. Is that okay?”

“Good! I'll leave the kitchen to you both,” she takes the huge television with one hand, and walks to the main building along with Kanako.

---

After washing yourself, you put on another clothes and throw the wet one on the tray and walk out from the bathroom. Brrrr, you're freezing... There's only cold water in the bathroom. The chilly morning air doesn't help at all.... You quickly run to the kitchen to help Sanae.

*Ssssrrrr!*

You can hear something being fried. Must be Sanae. You enter the kitchen and find her cooking the fish that she salted yesterday.

“Morning! Lady Suwako told me to give you some simple task. How about making some rice balls?”

Well... Suitable task for beginner like you. You nod and proceed to wash your hands. Sanae moves the fish to a nearby plate and cuts it to small bits.

“Here, I'll show you the easy way to make it.”

Sanae shows you a small bowl, then she takes a wet plastic wrap and use it to cover the top of the bowl. After that, she press the plastic wrap to make its shape likes the inner side of the bowl, then she pours some salts on the warps surface.

“... Scoop some rices on the warp, put the fillings on it, then push the filling a little into the rice.... ”

She keeps explaining while her hands demonstrate her instructions. She scoops another rice on the fish bit, gather each end of the plastic wrap, and squeeze the rice inside the wrap, forming a rice ball.

“There! From here you can shape it to anything you want. Triange, round, circle... But for now,” She opens the wrap and gives you the rice ball. “Taste it first. I want to make sure that it's edible.”

You take a bite; Hm... Salty, like what you'll expect from a rice ball. Just salty enough to satisfy your tongue. Although... You write that the riceball is delicious, but mention that the process takes a bit time to do, and ask why can't you just make it using your hands.

“Nobu, making it with only your hands is harder and messy unless you have used to it. Yes, this method is slower, but the rice ball that you eat, it looks and tastes good, right? At least try my instructions first,” She smiles. “Rewash your hand, don't write until we finished our cooking, okay?”

Fine... You put your writing pad on the top of the refrigerator and rewash your hand, then make a rice ball using her instructions. Pour salts, put rice on the wrap, place the fillings, put another rice, squeeze them, and... Voila, you've created a rice ball. You open the wrap and give it to Sanae so she can taste it.

“Hm... I think you need to add a little more salt to the warp, but it's okay if you didn't. Better than too much salt in the rice,” She opens the refrigerator and takes a bowl full of some kind of... re paste? You can't recognize what's in that paste thing. She also put some plums on the counter next to you. “I'll fry some mini burgers. Put the finished rice balls on the plate on the right,” she points. Huff... This will be long. At least the heat from the stove and the rice will keep you warm. Sanae pours oil to the pan, make the paste some burger-like shapes with two spoons, then fries them with the oiled pan. You can see they slowly hardens and turns its color to brown. The air fills with its delicious smell. Yum, you can't wait to taste those burgers.

“Do you know, Nobu?” Sanae starts a conversation. “We have a hard time getting cooking oils in Gensokyo, since they are very expensive... Thankfully, Byakuren Hijiri, the leader of the buddhist are willing to make a deal with us, trading some vegetables with oils. Quite a lot, but at least it doesn't cost as much as buying it at a merchant. We understand why it cost much when we observe how its made: the workers had to extract them manually using some crude tools. It took a lot of time and the extract is not that much compared when extracting using chemicals...”

Uh... If she knows how much the extract when using chemicals, why didn't they extract the oils themselves? Probably because finding such chemicals in magical land is near impossible? But they're goddesses, they could make it-

*Srrrk!*

“Hello! Doing well?” Suwako opens the door and greets.

“Lady Suwako, you've done with the television?”

“No, we've only finished disassembling it. We'll go to the kappas lake soon, so I think I should check you guys first before going on,” Suwako shows the plastic bag full of parts that she is carrying then takes a rice ball and eat it. “Yep, you're doing well. After you both finished cooking, go ahead to the great lake, me and Kanako will meet you there as soon as possible. You want the portable television connected to the console, right?”

“Uh huh. Preferably permanently attach it to the console, so the kids can't done something bad like unplugging the console and don't know how to reattach it,” Sanae says whilst her hands still busy attending the burgers.

“Makes sense. I'll go now, see you later at the lake Sanae! And don't forget to pack a bathing suit!”

“Oka- Wait, bathing suit? Why-”

“Secret!” Suwako starts walking away. This is your chance if you want to go along with Kanako to Kappa's lake.

[] Stay in the kitchen.
[] Ask Suwako to switch place with you.

[x] Ask Suwako to switch place with you.

Maybe we can get Kanako to warm up a bit to Nobu

[] Ask Suwako to switch place with you.

You quickly tap Suwako's shoulder before she leaves. You need some exercise to heat up your body. Not that the kitchen stove is not hot enough

“Huh? What is it?” She stops and turns around. You grab your writing pad and write that you want to follow Kanako to Kappa's lake, just in case if you want to make a last-minute request to Nitori about the console. You also add that you can't hold your hunger much longer if you stay in the kitchen with all the delicious smell seducing your nose. Suwako laughs after reading it.

“Hihihi, I guess that can't be helped, Sanae's food is just that good! Sanae, he wants to switch place with me,” Suwako shows your writing to her.

“Well, if you wish...” Sanae gives the writing pad back to you. “But don't push yourself, if it's too hea-”

“Sanae, it's only a bunch of eletronic parts, it's not that heavy. Here, I'll write a note to her~” Suwako takes the pad from your hand, then gives the plastic bag full of parts to you. She's right, it's quite light. You can carry these with only one hand if you want. After that the goddess opens the refrigerator to grab some cucumbers, gives back your writing pad along with the cucumbers.

“Give the cucumbers to Nitori as a gift, she loves it.”

After putting those cucumbers into the plastic bag, Suwako push you out from the kitchen, and closes the door.

“See you later on the lake!”

---

“Nobu? Where's Suwako?” Kanako asks when her fellow goddess isn't the one who emerges from the kitchen. You hand her your pad to her.

'I'm switching place with Nobu, don't let him carry both the television and the parts, okay~

Suwako

p.s. Don't spend too much time haggling the kappa, we have a picnic to attend.'

Kanako sighs and shakes her head, then gives back your pad.

“Let's go. Be careful when carrying those parts, some of them are fragile,” Kanako picks up a small television on the ground and walks out from the shrine ground, and you follow her. Wait a minute, that's not the television that you took last night... Whatever, probably you took the wrong television. You wonder why Kanako didn't tell you the right one...

---

You tell Kanako that Suwako told you and Sanae to bring a bathing suit, then ask her what's Suwako's plan with that.

“Bathing suit? Perhaps... Well, yesterday I told her that Sanae could practice lifting you up with wind on the lake, so even if she's messing up, you'll only fall into the water. But I think you don't have to wear a bathing suit for that, unless-”

Something sparks in her mind.

“Maybe... She wants us to take a bath in the lake. Back on the outside, people built bathhouses around the lake. It attracted a lot of tourist the last time I saw it. I once thought that if we built one here- Wait,we have discussed this before.”

Yeah, trying to make it a recreational place, but can't because the mountain is off-limits to humans... You ask her if she does not mind if someone bath in the lake, since it looks sacred.

“As long as the person has proper respect to the place and to me, I don't mind at all. We could get more faith if we show the benefits of becoming our follower. I don't see how forbidding people to take a bath in there will get us more faith than letting people take a bath and make their wounds and sickness disappear, making them think that the lake is blessed by the goddesses...”

She takes a deep breath, then continues her speech.

“Which is why I support your idea fixing the game console and give it back to the kids on the village; Make the villagers know how useful the objects from outside, and tell them that this is the blessing from our shrine. They will come to us for more, some even willing to convert their belief to ours. Although I ” she stops on her track then turns to you. “But remember, whatever you do, do not tell them that the kappas help fixing the equipment. I heard the villagers are... very distrustful with the tools that kappas made. I don't want any ruckus inside the village about us, so don't start one.”

She warns then walks again. You don't understand, why they didn't trust Kappas? They are really friendly and nice. You ask the question to Kanako.

“Not all the kappas in Gensokyo live in the Kappa's lake. The ones that live in the wilderness are... stay true to their myth. Like humans, not all Kappa are friendly, so be warned if you meet one outside of the mountain.”

---

After the talk, you and her finally arrived at the cliff near the lake

“Stand still,” Kanako lifts you up using the wind then flies down from the top of the cliff to the ground near the lake. You can see some girls peeping from underwater before they climb out from the lake. “Good morning. I have some parts to sell, but could someone call Nitori to come here before we start trading?”

“I'm here!” The girl in question raises her hand in the middle of the crowd, and immediately runs to her, but stops when she sees you. “Ah, Nobu! Good morning! Is it about our secret project?”

Secret project? Uh, whatever. You give the cucumbers to her.

“This is for me? Thank you!”

Nitori immediately chews it. Heh, she looks really happy now. Kanako gives the small television to Nitori.

“Here, you know how a basic CRT display works, right?” Kanako says then grabs three sockets inside a small bag on her waist. “You'll need this to connect the game device to the television.”

“Uhm?” She grabs the sockets and examines them while still chewing a cucumber in her mouth, before she swallows it. “I'll see what I can do. Maybe it'll take a day or two before it's done.”

She puts her backpack on the ground and takes out the console that you've given to her yesterday. It looks bigger now, you wonder what she did to it... Kanako, on the other hand grabs the bag from you then take one of the parts in it.

“I'll start with the first item: A stereo speaker. Who wants to open a price?”

“I'll take it for one thousand yen!” Yells a girl.

“One thousand and five hundred!” Yells another.

“Three thousand!”

“Five thousand!”

What. You remember it won't cost more than five hundred yen in the outside. To think of it, you buy the parts for the console with the games only for three thousand yen. It seems no one in this world knows the real worth of those stuff... You should look it in a different light: Maybe the shopkeeper sold those at low price because the items were useless to him, whilst the kappa willing to pay a huge price on the spare parts because they thought those parts are useful to them.

One man's trash is another man's treasure after all.

“Sold!”

The lucky girl runs forward and give a sack of money to Kanako, and she gives the ripped-off speaker. The girl puts it inside her rucksack then dives into the lake, probably start tinkering with her new toy in her home.

“Next item, an electron gun-”

Oh boy, this will be long... You can chat with Nitori while she's tinkering with the game device, or ask Kanako to finish the auction quickly before Suwako starts to worry.

[]Have some chat with Nitori.
[]Tell Kanako to hurry up.

[x]Have some chat with Nitori.

Yeah, telling Kanako to get on with it might not be a good idea.

>>23108
[]Have some chat with Nitori.

[X] Have a chat with Nitori.


If you need a new proofreader, I'm willing to help.
I check THP pretty often, so I should be able to catch every update if you post pastebin links like before. Or I could give you my mail adress and you just send me the text, I'll check it for you and return it.
Whichever works best for you.

>>23431
Okay, I'll post it to pastebin like before. 2 weeks expiration date.

http://pastebin.com/N68CfvSL

Oh, and... Thanks.

Alright, so...
No response after two weeks. I'll post the update anyway.

---

Uh... Better let Kanako robs the Kappa a little more. If anyone were going to interrupt her, it's either Suwako or Sanae, a mere mortal like you shouldn't even try to stop her. Better if you have some chat with Nitori whose working on the television right now.

“Curious with my work, friend?” She smiles. “I've worked with a device similar to this item, so I can understand how it works without any explanation. Also, look at this!”

She push the power button of the gaming device and it starts powering up.

“I don't know if this device properly running or not until I hook the television and the console together. The works when it projects the game into this... 'television' right? I'm really curious what kind of game that it'll project and how to play it...”

Nitori turns off the console and works on the television again. You tell her that the game the device projects depends on the disc that the player inserted into the device, then tell if she finds another working device like that, you'll teach her how to play one.

“Uhm... Can't I borrow it from you after you've finished playing it?”

What? Oh right, you haven't told her before that this console is not yours... You write your story about the children that playing this device the wrong way some days ago, and your promise to show them how to properly play- Crap, you forget your request. You also add on the bottom that she should make the game device and the television can't be separated without proper tools, so the kids can't mess with them.

“Oh... Okay, I'll permanently attach those two. Anymore requests?”

Uh... Nothing in particular. Better change the topic. You scribe that you heard that there are some kappa that are dangerous to humans.

“Of course not! We kappa are really friendly to humans, why would we want to hurt our friends?” She protests. You continue that those whose are harmful to humans aren't live in this lake, so you're not referring to her and her friends, since they look really nice. She goes silent for a while, thinking something.

“No, they are not kappa,” she says coldly. “They may have similar power as ours, but they are not kappa. We kappa are friendly to humans, they are not, so they are not kappa, they are feral youkai whose dangerous to humans, “She smiles to you. “Remember that, okay?”

The way how she speak it... Its creepy. As if she holds a huge grudge against someone...

“Nobu, can I make a request to you too?” Nitori ask, and you nod in response. “Could you tell the humans that this is our work? We usually hold a bazaar near the human village as a token of friendship, but almost no humans come to this place, and those who do come said that they didn't trust our machines... Maybe if you tell them that we're trying to help them with our device, we'll gain more trust with humans...”

Uh... You want to help her, but Kanako directly ordered you to not tell them. But she deserves some mention, without her you can't make the console work again...

“It's okay Nobu, you don't have to answer it. It just a request,” she sighs and returns tinkering the television. Now you feel bad about her...

“Nobuuuuuu! Kanakooooo!”Someone yells from the sky. You turn your head and see Suwako flies down to the other goddess. “We're waiting for you both! What took you so long?”

“Selling those parts, as you can see,” Kanako hands the last part to a girl, and put the rest of the money in the sack that used to be filled with parts. “Come on, let's go.”

She lifts you with the wind and flies away. You see Nitori waves her hand before she's out from your sight. You should at least reconsider that when you give back the console to the kids...

---

“Did you get my message Kanako? The one that said 'don't haggling with them too long'?” Suwako complains.

“I have read it, the trade doesn't take too much ti-”

“It does. If it doesn't I won't come to fetch you and Nobu,” She cuts Suwako's defense. “Can't we just relax and have a good time together for one day?”

“...Look, I've agreed to have this picnic with you, and we're already on our way to the lake now, so could we stop this pointless bickering?” Kanako shuts her up. They both maintain their silence all the way to the lake.

“Lady Kanako, Lady Suwako!” Sanae waves to you three from the lake side, under a cherry blossom tree. Near her feet lies a blanket, to sit on, a picnic basket, and a backpack. Kanako lets your feet hit the ground gently as the wind slowly disappears. “I've brought the bathing suit. Seriously, what is it for?”

“Ready?” Suwako flies to the other side of the lake. There's a large cube at there. She gives a knock to the cube, and it shatters, revealing a small building inside it.

“Wait, is that-”

“Yep, replica of the bathhouse back in outside world! Looks similar, isn't it?” Suwako says proudly. You and Sanae runs inside to look around, and notice something: the front counter, the lockers, the floors, the walls... it's all made from stone.

“When did you built these Lady Suwako?”

“Last night! I didn't sleep just to make a replica of it. It's not perfect, since I only made it from stones, but the atmosphere and the bath itself is the important one, right?”

“You didn't separate the pool into two section?” Kanako looks from the sky.

“Yes, if I build a wall, Nobu'll bath alone, and that's not fun! I mean, we have to enjoy this together right?” Suwako stares to you. “You don't mind a mixed bath, do you?”

[]Yay!
[]Nay!

[x] Yay!

>>23935
[] Yay!

An update with questionable english is better than no update at all.

[X]Yay!

Wow, I feel bad now. After saying I could help you proofread I completely forgot to keep an eye out for this story.
I promise I'll do the next one, though. I won't forget this time.

[x]Yay!

If it's a trick question, I don't mind falling for it.

Called.

>>24070
Just letting you know, I've bookmarked this story and I'm checking it specifically now, instead of just scanning for updates. I'll be ready to help you proofread this time.

>>24078
Check the thread at least once a week, you don't have to do it every day.(I give the expiration date 2 weeks, it should be enough) I'm not that fast nowadays.(College works, spending 12 hours for multiplayer games, etc) I'll still try my damnest to work for the update, at least 50 words/ day.Yeah, sorry being a lazy bastard...

Thanks for your willingness to proofread my updates. I appreciate it.

>>24099
Eh, I'm checking this story at the same time as all the other stories I follow, which all have different update schedules.
It only takes a few seconds to just check the end of the thread and move on if there's nothing happening. (And I want to make up for completely missing the last one.)

http://pastebin.com/4Cmu5wRi

2 weeks expiration date, as usual.

Here's the proofed version. With a two week expiration there's lots of time if you want to look it over and comment on my changes. (But I mostly just fixed some past/present tense and one really long sentence that read better as two sentences.)

http://pastebin.com/jQ9hJDvJ

I just hope you can see it, I'm really not used to pastebin and I know I screwed it up with some other document before.

>>24298
Looks good, this'll do. Thank you.

---

Well... You write that as long as they cover their private parts with something, you're okay with her setup.

“Of course, that's why I asked Sanae to bring her swimsuit,” She smiles. “Although I'll be happy if you don't mind if we all enjoy the hot water without any clothes though-”

“Lady Suwako!” Sanae glares, her face turns red.

“Jeez, chill Sanae. I know, I know... I can't please everyone. Just saying my thoughts.” She flies out from the stone bathhouse. “At least we have our picnic.”

Sanae sighs and walks out with you to the-

“Stop right there Sanae.” Kanako holds both of you. “Try to carry Nobu using the wind to the side of the lake, now.”

“Eh!? But-”

“There's a lot of water for him if you mess it up,” Kanako crosses both of her hand. “Come on, you don't want to carry him on your back all the time, do you?”

She turns her eyes to you, indirectly asking for your permission. Sure, why not? Sanae sighs.

“Stand still Nobu, I need to concentrate,” Sanae orders. Okay... The wind starts to surround and lift you. Different from Kanako's wind, Sanae's feels... wobbly.

“Increase the pressure...” Kanako guides. Your body is slowly lifted by the wind upwards... “Now, move him forward using the same technique.”

You can feel the wind change its direction-

*Whooosh!*

The wind spins your body around. Urgh... You feel really want to puke...

“Lady Kanako, I- I'm losing control of him!”

“Stabilize the flow! Lower the press-”

*Whooosh!*

The wind flings you out from the bath house into the lake.

*Splash!*

-----

“Uh huh, I'll go to the shrine again. Daddy said that I'll stay there a bit longer while he does his job...”

You and the girl sits on the park bench, near your father and some other people, who're sitting under the cherry blossom right now.

“Will you go with me? I don't want to be there alone...”

You ask her where the shrine is, and tell her that you'll ask your dad if you can go with her.

“Jeez, you already forget it? It's on Shimosuwa-”

-----

*Whooosh!*

Brrr... You slowly open your eyes... And find yourself laying on Suwako's lap, shirtless, because it's wet. They didn't take off your wet pants though. You can see Kanako and Sanae on the other side of the lake, lifting a large stone with the wind.

“Ah, you're awake,” Suwako caress your head. You try to lift your head, but her hands hold your head to her lap. “Relax Nobu, enjoy the cherry blossoms~ How about a snack?”

She takes a lunchbox near her, and feeds you a rice ball. It also has a face on the top of it. You open your mouth, then she slowly shove it into your mouth. Hm... Delicious.

“The rice ball is good, isn't it?”She also eats one of them. “Please forgive Sanae, she only followed Kanako's order to lift you up. I've already scolded Kanako and told her to train with some rocks first. For now, just enjoy the picnic, okay?”

Uh... You can't enjoy it if she keeps your head on her lap. It's nice, but you want to do something more... fun.

“Hey, Nobu... Do you mind, if you tell me more about your memories?” She puts the lunchbox aside. “I mean... You did regain some of them, right? Is it good that you want to pursue more?”

Huh? You don't mind telling her all your past memories that you've gained, but what's with her words? It's only natural for someone to rediscover their past, right? You write your thoughts to her.

“Well, maybe... But what will you do after you gain your memory?” She looks deeply through your eye. “Will you leave us and go back to your old life?”

Probably so... Does she wants to keep you here? You did owe much to this shrine... But you also want to go back to your own previous life...

“No Nobu, we help you because it's the right thing to do! We won't charge you or anything! Well, maybe Kanako will, but-” She covers her mouth. “Don't tell her what I said before, okay? Although we do have some tasks for you if you plan to stay. You see, those villagers down there, their technology is really... outdated compared to the outside world. Now, if we bring that technology to the people and shows them how it can improve their life...”

Yeah, just like what Kanako said earlier. Speaking of which... You tell Suwako that when you walked down to Kappa's lake, Kanako told you to not tell the villagers that the Kappa helped you with the console or the villagers would distrust it. Nitori requested otherwise, so they would trust the Kappa more. You don't know which one to choose.

“Hm...Well... I dunno, both of them have their points...” She pats your cheek. “Do what you think is right, okay? Don't worry about Kanako, if you do have problems with her, just tell me, she won't dare mess with you as long as you're under my protection!”

Suwako proudly pound her chest. Uh... Doing so probably will split the shrine, and that's not a good thing. If you have problems with Kanako, you'll probably either stay silent about it or tell her directly about it. Running away from a goddess seems like...a futile effort to achieve.

“So... Will you tell me about your memories or not?” She asks again. Oh well, it seems you don't have any other choice...

-----

“Hmm.... Tell me more about this girl,” she gives the writing pad back. “I think its normal that your father appears often in your memory, but her? What's so special about her?”

You wish you knew.... Maybe someone important in your life, maybe just one of your childhood friend, maybe she's one of your relatives, since both of her and your parents are close... The possibilities are too many. Oh, the photo that Yukari gave to you, better show it to her so she knows what this girl looks like.

…

Crap, where is it? You start to search every inch of your body and your shirt. Goddammit, the only photo that links to your past...

“Nobu? What's wrong?”

You immediately tell her that Yukari gave you a photo related to your past some days ago, it's really important to you.

“Hum... Sorry, I've never seen it before. Don't let it bother you, okay?” Suwako pulls your head back to her lap. “Nobu... I'm not saying that you shouldn't care about your past, but I think it'll be better if you let it go. I mean, why do you struggle for something that you don't know? Mostly you only recall your childhood memories, what if your recent past was not as good? What if your mind unconsciously repressed your memories because it's so bad that your past self didn't want to remember it? Don't forget your condition when we found you: Full of wounds. Are you really sure that you want to remember that memory?”

Urgh... It will be unpleasant to remember, but you have to if you want to know what actually happened to you. Why does she worry so much about it? It's your memory, right?

“Doesn't mean that I can't be worried about it, you're part of this shrine after all.” She caress your cheek. “Look, I won't stop you if you want to pursue your past, I just don't want you to suffer and regret the memories that you'll gain.”

You can't decide if the words coming out from her mouth are because of her good will or her intention to keep you in this place... Whatever, you don't feel like talking to her about it again...

[]Sleep. The serene sky and the falling cherry blossom petals are really making you more relaxed than before...
[]Get away from Suwako and help Sanae with her training, since your body is already wet anyway...

[x]Sleep. The serene sky and the falling cherry blossom petals are really making you more relaxed than before...

With Nobu's luck trying to help in training would just get him maimed (some more) if not killed.

[X] Sleep. The serene sky and the falling cherry blossom petals are really making you more relaxed than before...


>>24303
You're welcome.

Called.

http://pastebin.com/WHnpmB2S

There you go.

>>24695
This line confuses me.
>there are some small bottles of sake and little .

And little what?

Other than that, here's the second paste. Just needs clarification on that one line, and it's done.
http://pastebin.com/KVrEAw11

>>24697

Oops. I meant little saucers-like cup. Sorry.

And, thanks.

---

Windy air caresses your cheek, cherry blossom petals fall under the blue sky... Your eyelids feel heavy now... Slowly you close your eyes and put your body to rest. Maybe you'll unlock another piece of memory in your dream...

“Do you want to sleep?” Suwako slowly pats your back as you lay sideways. “Go ahead, I'll wake you up when...”

Zzzzz...

---

“Okay, put the rock back on the ground gently then you can rest,” Kanako lays down the rock that she lifts with her wind slowly, which Sanae carefully follows. They both then walk back to Suwako and sit on the mat.

“How's the training?”

“So far, she's doing well,” Kanako looks to the sleeping man on her fellow goddess's lap. “Can you wake him up after this?”

“Why?”

“Practicing with rocks won't do the trick. We need to train with a real human body,”

“I'll volunteer. I'm a spirit so if there's any accident when Sanae trains she won't hurt me as much as she'll hurt Nobu. No offense Sanae,” Suwako says and grabs a lunchbox from the basket and put it in front of Sanae. “Go ahead, enjoy your lunch first before training~ The taste is... Miraculous. Hihihi...”

“Thank you, but it's only some rice balls and burgers...” Sanae chows down one of the rice balls. She throws a few glances at the man's peaceful sleep.

“Wanting to switch places Sanae?” Suwako smirks.

“Huh?”

“Admit it, you enjoy his sleeping face, right?” Her smirk widens. “You can look at him closer and even feel his head if you switch places with me~”

“O-Of course not!” Her face reddens. “Besides, we'll wake him up if we're switching places!”

“Shhh!” She puts her index finger on her lip. “You'll wake him up eventually with that high voice.”

“Sorry... But what's with that previous line? He's more like a brother to me than anything else.”

“Oh...” She rubs his hair again. “So he fills the big brother role or the little brother one?”

“I don't know... He sometimes gets himself in trouble really often...”

“Little brother that i-”

“Please don't tell him, or you'll hurt his pride...”

“Pride? By this time he should have learned that he has to swallow his pride in order to survive,” Kanako grabs the picnic basket to grab something. “Wait, why have you brought thi-”

“Psstt, that's for tonight's bathing,” Suwako snatches the basket, grabs a container filled with tea leaves and gives it to her. “You're looking for this, right?”

“Lady Suwako, what's in-”

“It's a secret!” She puts the basket away. “You'll know it later. Now, enjoy the scenery then go on with your training.”

“Okay... Lady Kanako, can I ask-”

“Sanae...” Suwako shakes her head. “Don't cheat~ Don't you agree, Kanako?”

“I think it's not something that you need to hide, it's only some sak-”

“Jeez, don't ruin the surprise! It's for Nobu anyway!”

“Sak- what? Sake?” Sanae guesses.

“Meh, busted...” Suwako gives the picnic basket to Sanae, which she peeks inside, and indeed there are some small bottles of sake and small flat cups. "We have to teach him how to drink these properly, right? I can't think of a better atmosphere than inside a hot spring, under the beautiful night-”

“This many!?”

“He won't drink them all, silly! We'll enjoy the sake together!” Suwako empties the basket on the mat except for the sake. “Mishaguji!”

The huge snake appears. Suwako knocks on his mouth and it opens, then she puts the basket inside.

“Hold this for me, will you? Don't devour them!” She pats it and the snake disappears.

“I'm not sure this is a good idea... And I never really drink these outside of rituals...”

“Then learn together with him. Isn't it fun to learn so many things in one day?” She slowly moves the man's head and stands up. “Let's give Sanae some examples, shall we Kanako?”

“I've not even drunk my tea yet...” She puts the glass full of hot tea on the mat and goes near the lake. “Ready?”

“Always.”

“Observe this Sanae,” Slowly Kanako lifts her fellow goddess with the wind. “It's not really that different from the rocks that you lifted earlier, but you have to be more careful since if he moves even a bit, it can screw the current and will throw the person that you carry.”

“Like thi-” Suwako starts moving around, and she starts to spinning uncontrollably. “Wheeeeeee!!!”

“...Just like that,” Kanako throws her to the nearby lake, then walks away to drink her tea.

*Splash!*

“Hey, you intentionally did that!”

“You can tell? I wouldn't have done that if you had taken this more seriously,” she rolls her eyes. “Besides, did you forget how to fly?”

“Why? The water is nice anyway,” Suwako swims back to the ground. “Come Sanae, your turn!”

---

*Splash!*

Urgh... You open your eye. The sun is a bit low now. You turn your eyes to the source of the sound that wakes you up: Suwako's swimming in the lake, whilst Kanako and Sanae watch from above, flying.

“Try it again Sanae, you can do it!” Suwako yells from below.

“I don't know, this is the twentieth time I screw it up...”

“Then you will do it on the twenty-first! Don't give up!”

You slowly massage your forehead and try to remember your dream: Nope, no dream, no memory. Sigh... Better take a look at Sanae's training.

“Go!”

Suwako gets lifted by a wind, and slowly moves forward. Sanae concentrated hard just to make the wind stable.

“First obstacle!”

Obstacle? Kanako suddenly blows a mild wind to Suwako, making the wind wobbly for a while, but Sanae quickly stabilizes her wind.

“Second obstacle!”

Kanako blows Suwako again, this time from both sides.

“Woah, focus Sanae! Remember: Both sides!” Suwako spins around, but she hover still again after some time. “Good job!”

“Final obstacle!” Kanako yells and summons a strong wind. A really strong wind that even stirs up the cherry blossoms petals on the side of the lake-

*Taptaptap!*

You can see someone run really fast into the bathhouse. The hell? Who's that? You walk towards the bathhouse too...

*Click!*

You slowly peek into the bathhouse: That's the paparazzi... She's taking pictures of the building's interior. It seems the goddesses aren't aware of her presence.

What should you do?

[] Ignore her. You'll ruin the 'picnic' if she shows up. Maybe she'll go away after a while...

[] Catch her off-guard. The worst that she can do is ask for an interview, so why not?

[]Warn the goddesses. You can't deal with her alone. Better call the others for help.

[x] Ignore her. You'll ruin the 'picnic' if she shows up. Maybe she'll go away after a while...

[X] Ignore her. You'll ruin the 'picnic' if she shows up. Maybe she'll go away after a while...


Let's leave Aya to do whatever she wants. This_can_only_end_well.jpg

>>24698
[x] Ignore her. You'll ruin the 'picnic' if she shows up. Maybe she'll go away after a while...

>>24698
[x] Catch her off-guard. The worst that she can do is ask for an interview, so why not?

Called.

http://pastebin.com/v8CiYWU2

Happy new year!

Happy new year to you too.

http://pastebin.com/xceH3x7V

There are two things I thought I'd mention. "You're" is usually only used as "you are", even though it can be used as "you were" it looks very strange if you do.

And there are some strangely places ellipsis (i.e. "..."), such as "he was looking at your... 'bath house'", but I left them as is because it's not an actual spelling/grammatical error.

>>25235

Thanks!

---

Nah, better leave her doing some... field reporting. She's not worth the trouble. You turn your back on her and walk back to the picnic-

*Whoosh!*

Something lifts you up and carries your body to the center of the lake.

“Kanako, what are you doing to him? Don't disturb his sleep!”

“Nobu's already awake, he was strolling around your 'bath house',” She looks to Sanae. “Now try to carry him.”

“But, Lady Kanako-”

“Catch!”

The wind that carries you vanishes, thankfully Sanae quickly catches you with her own wind. It's much more stable compared to when she tried to carry you some hours ago.

“Kanako!” Suwako yells to the other goddess. “Don't make sudden moves like that!”

“What? He'll land in the lake if she can't catch him, so no harm done,” She turns to you. “I saw you wandering around. Something on your mind?”

Uh... You shake your head. Better keep quiet about that reporter for now. Sanae lets you drift back to the edge of the lake.

“Hey, where did you take him Sanae? We're not done yet,”

“Can we take a break for a while? I'm tired after all the practice...”

Kanako sighs and nods, and the goddesses fly back to the picnic mat. The blue-haired goddess immediately grabs a cup of tea and drinks it all in one sip. After that she empties the tealeaves and put a new one in the cup, then pulling the flask to her and pouring hot water into the cup.

“We'll have one final practice after I finish my tea, this time with Nobu.”

“Only if he's okay with it,” Suwako looks to your face. “Trust me, she can carry you even if there's a storm! Still, it is much wiser if you find a shelter instead of flying through it...”

“I prepared her for special occasions too, like when being chased by a youkai. You don't expect every journey will be a waltz, do you? Especially with the accidents that occasionally happens to him.”

“I've removed his curse, remember? He shouldn't be in dire situations as often now. At least unless someone is deliberately causing the accidents...”

“Huh?” Sanae can't hear what Suwako mutters about.

“I said could you pass the basket? I can't reach the lunchboxes!”

“You could've said it louder...” Sanae passes the picnic basket. Suwako opens it and puts all the lunchboxes on the mat.

“Let's eat it all, we shouldn't waste foods, right? Especially you Sanae, you must be hungry after all the practice!”

“I think I've already had enough lunch. I didn't see Nobu eat one though...”

“Uh... I fed him some when you were practicing with rocks, but I agree: He doesn't eat enough of it!” Suwako takes one of the mini-burgers with a chopstick. “Aaaahn...”

Uh... If she says so-

*Bzztt!*

Your mind flashes about someone: The winged paparazzi. If she caught you getting fed by Suwako... You take the mini-burger that Suwako held with your right hand and eat it: Better safe than sorry... The delicious taste of the food makes your stomach scream for more. Well, since Suwako said you ought to eat more... You take another chopstick and start filling your stomach...

“Jeez, you're supposed to eat directly from my chopstick! Am I going to have to put your head on my lap again?” She complains and continues to eat. “You know Kanako... Why don't we perform something now? This is a picnic, we should've entertained one and another with some performance.”

“You've entertained me more than enough by falling into the lake so many times that I lost count,” Kanako jeers at the idea.

“I don't mean something like that... I'll give you an example,”

She mutters something, and moderate-sized-but-still-big snake poofs near her. She whispers something, and it digs some dirt from the ground and throws it to Suwako's hands.

“Look, a lump of ordinary dirt, just taken from the ground.”

She uses both of her hands to shape the dirt to a small ball, then closes her eyes, concentrating to the ball inside her palm. After a while hits it so hard that the ball of dirt cracks, revealing a small statue of frog inside. You and Sanae claps to her performance.

“Did you create the bath house replica like that too?”

“Not really... I only used the trick to shape the decorations inside the bath house. It would be troublesome to try building the whole bath house in one sitting, and the details would be lacking too. I know I can't make a 100% exact copy of the original one, but at least I could make it as close as possible, right? Oh, and I can't just build the bath house and be done with it, I have to direct the water flow, setting up the-”

“You do not intend to keep it for more than a day, do you? I doubt that the tengus are happy that you built this without their consent,” Kanako reminds her of who's in charge of the mountain.

“Well, I don't know.. I built it all night with all the details. It'll be a shame if we only use it once... Maybe I'll hide it somewhere later until we want to use it again,” She hits Kanako's back. “Anyway, it's your turn to perform! Do something good for us!”

“I know you'll force me to do it eventually...” She takes a quick sip on her tea and put it on the mat, then stands up. “I'll make this quick.”

She controls the wind to make a small tornado, then use it to gather the fallen cherry blossom's petals.

*Whooosh!*

Then she throws it on a clear patch of land nearby, and goes back to the mat and grab her tea.

“That's it?”

“That's it,” Kanako takes another sip of her tea. “Look at it from the sky,” Kanako smiles a bit. Suwako flies up and looks at where the petals fell.

“Wooaah... Come here Sanae, Nobu! You have to see this!”

Sanae grabs you and flies-

“Use the wind,” Kanako quickly tells to Sanae before she can depart. “Just lift him up to have a good view of my art and then put him back on the ground. Should be easy after our training, right?”

“Uhm, Nobu... Is it okay if I lift you up using the wind?”

Fine, you've seen her carrying Suwako all the way through winds that Kanako's blown, and she has caught and carried you to the edge of the lake anyway. You nod and stands still on the ground.

“Don't make any sudden moves, okay?”

*Whoooosh!*

Sanae slowly controls the wind around you. Her wind feels stable now... One metre from the ground... Two metres... Four metres...

“Look there Nobu!”

Suwako points to the site where Kanako threw the cherry blossom: They formed a giant letter on the ground: 'Sky'. Heh, clever. You clap as a sign of your amusement, followed by the other two persons who fly with you.

“Now, since we're all flying, why don't you do the final exercise?” Kanako also flies upward, still holding her tea. “Fly to the human village, fetch the radar device that he's planted before, then fly back to the bath house. You'll get some experience, Nobu'll get used being carried by the wind, and I can retrieve my radar device and check if there's something wrong with it. Suwako, you can watch them if you want.”

“You call that an exercise? More like doing some errands. You do have a point though,” Suwako poofs a frog on her hand and put it on your head. “There. We still have some time before it's dark, so you can go strolling around the village if you want. I'll recheck the bath house's structure. Just in case I built something wrong...”

“I'll try to camouflage the building later,” Kanako lands on the mat and sips her tea. “What are you two waiting for? Go ahead.”

Sanae nods and flies away with you. Kanako takes a deep breath, and grab the last riceball from the final lunchbox.

“Did he tell you something about his memory?”

“...Nothing that you should worry about. Just keep him busy, okay?”

---

You write to Sanae, asking if she feels okay with the... 'picnic', since you only see her practicing winds today.

“Uhm, you were sleeping when we did the rest earlier, after I finished practicing with rocks. Lady Kanako at first wanted to wake you up, so I could practice with you, but Lady Suwako volunteered and said that she shouldn't bother you when sleeping,” Sanae smiles. “Don't worry about me, okay?”

You both land at the outside of the gate. The guards that stand nearby backs up a little, probably surprised seeing how you can fly. They still open the door for you both anyway. You ask her while both of you enter the village why she didn't just fly over the walls.

“Uhm.... Well... Force of habit? I used to drop you just outside of the wall the last time we went to the village, because I carried you on my back.”

“Don't you think a flying outsider will cause an... issue among the villagers?” Suwako's voice hums inside your head, and maybe Sanae's. Sanae then points to a flying white-haired women in a maid outfit, carrying a basket of vegetables. None of the villagers seems to mind her.

“No, I think not. Anyway Nobu, where did you plant the radar? Do you remember it?”

You draw the dragon-statue that you looked at before, and draws a X in front of it. Sanae immediately recognizes it and shows you the way. It doesn't take a long time to find the statue. You quickly find the top of the radar and pull it from the ground. Easy.

“Hiroshi! Come back here!”

You hear a familiar voice. You look where it comes from: That's the schoolteacher that gave you a job some weeks ago. She's panting and looking around for something.

“Uhm...Miss Keine?”

“Huff... Huff... Oh, you're that Moriya priestess, Kochiya Sanae right?” She gathers her breath back. “I'm sorry, I have to find a boy. He's trying to escape from his punishment. Have you seen him? Half of your height, short black hair...”

You look around, and catch a glance of a boy, carefully peeking to the schoolteacher behind. Wait, you know him... He's the owner of the game console. Hm... Should you tell the teacher where he's hiding?

[] Reveal his location.
[] Do not reveal his location.

-[] Introduce him to Sanae, and inform the boy that the game device should be ready tomorrow.
-[] Walk away. This is between the teacher and the boy, not your problem. You've done your task.

[x] Reveal his location.
-[x] Introduce him to Sanae, and inform the boy that the game device should be ready tomorrow.

Keine may have some odd ideas about the proper way to keep discipline in her classroom, but she is always fair and gentle despite that.
If he is to be punished, he has earned it and should take it like a man.
Then we can discuss happier subjects afterwards.

>>25266
not sure if he'd be so inclined to listen to us if we rat him out.

>>25286
Eh, it's not as if we're trying to teach him the meaning of life, we're just telling him that his game will be ready.

Called.

http://pastebin.com/prQqQrWU
Partial update, I need to catch a break after the assignments from college, sorry. I'll try to write the other half as soon as possible.

I'm a bit later than usual, but here.

http://pastebin.com/hCwM6crp

>>25762
Thanks. Next update will come in about two weeks or less. Or more, if I can't stop playing games instead of writing. Sorry.

-----

You write to her the boy's location. He has done something wrong, and he must be punished, else the brat won't learn the lesson until it's too late... Right?

“Oh, thanks. I'll-” The teacher suddenly gets an idea. She gives you her weird hat and slowly steps backward behind a house, out of the boy's sight. “Please stay here and pretend that I am still talking to you. I'll catch him off-guard.”

What? You point out that you're-

*Tap!Tap!*

...Mute. Whatever. You inspect the hat: The shape of it looks weird, like a lunch box. You pass it to Sanae so she can look at it.

“I wonder where Miss Keine bought this unique hat... May I look at the radar that you dug up before Nobu?”

Uh, fine. You pass her the radar, and she starts examining it closely.

“Lady Suwako, is this the-”

“Yes Sanae, that's the device Nobu planted days ago.”

“I don't know what's wrong with it, Lady Kanako never tell me before about this... ”

---

“That's Miss Kamishirasawa's hat... Is she talking to him? I should take a different path to-”

“Hello there Hiroshi. Where will you going?”

The teacher shows up from behind and holds the boy's shoulder so he can't run away.

“Aaaaahhh!”

---

“Stop struggling! You're running away from your punishment, now tell me the reason or I'll call your parents!”

It seems she's successfully caught the brat. You and Sanae walk to them.

“No! Don't! I don't want to get hit again by my father...” He pleas. “I've made a promise to Mio that I'll show her some books that I have...”

“Mio? You mean the youngest daughter of farmer Himura?”

The boy nods. You haven't seen any farms around. Maybe it's on different side of the village?

“She wants to know how to read too after we met with an outsider that keeps showing us some words, so I promised to bring some books that I have this evening to her, but...”

“Hm, does the outsider look like him?” Keine points to you, and the boy immediately recognizes you.

“Hey, it's mister Outsider! Mister, please-”

Keine's stare shuts him up. Sanae also stares at you. What? You can only communicate with written words.

“If only he let his children attend my classes...” She sighs, then crouch so she can stare straight into his eyes. “Look, what you're trying to do is good, but that's no excuse to evade your punishment. If you do your homework earlier, you can go fulfill your promise, can't you?”

He slowly nods. Keine grabs his head and headbutt him lightly. The hell?

“Ouch!”

“I'll let you go, but you have to redo yesterday's homework along with today's homework. Is that clear?”

He nods again. The teacher smiles and turns to you guys. Sanae gives her weird hat back.

“Thank you Miss Kamishirasawa!” The boy bows to her. She pats him and walks away, leaving the boy alone. You moves closer to the boy. “Hello mister Outsider! How's my toy? Have you fixed it?”

You nod and pat him on his shoulder. Better use this moment to introduce Sanae to him. You write to Sanae that he's the owner of the console that you're trying to fix.

“I see... Hello there!” She bows to him, and he bows back. Uh, that's too formal, but whatever. “My name is Kochiya Sanae. I'm this man's friend. What's your name?”

“My name is Nakamura Hiroshi,” he turns to you. “Mister Outsider, what's your name?”

Oh, right. You haven't introduced yourself to him on the other day. You write your name on the writing pad and shows it to him.

“'Nobu?' Is that your first name or your last name, mister? Miss Kamishirasawa taught me to call older person with their last name, or I will disrespect the person I talked to.”

“Uhm, don't worry about that, Mister Nobu is fine. Right?”

She punches your side, and you respond by nodding a few times to the boy, then write that his game will be ready tomorrow, and ask when he can meet with him again.

“Really? Thank you mister! My father hit me yesterday... He told me that I must not trust any strangers, because no one will know if they are a bad person or not... But you are not a bad person, are you?”

Oops. Now you're feeling guilty about it.... But he and the girl are the one whose asking you to prepare the toy for them. That'll teach him to not ask any favor from a stranger.

“Of course, he's the nicest man that I've ever known,” Sanae smiles. “Anyway, don't you have something to do right now?”

“Ah, the books! Excuse me Mister Nobu, Miss Kochiya, I need to go now!” He bows a few times and runs away. Heh, kids... Sanae takes a deep breath.

*Croak!*

“Let's head back, Nobu. I think it'll be dark soon.”

She lifts you up with the wind carefully and flies off. You see some villagers watching as you depart from the village. Is it really okay to just fly like that?

http://pastebin.com/EurHiG82

Here's the other half.

http://pastebin.com/D7wKUVyy

Couldn't think of any really good word for it either. Wrote down some suggestions.

>>25911

Thanks a lot!

---

The moon starts to rise as the sun falls down to the horizon.

“About what Miss Keine said earlier... I wonder why some parents don't allow their children to receive education... It's free, right?”

“Well, it depends on the family background. Not everyone are aware of how valuable the education is for their children, just like the value of the energy that we're collecting,” Suwako's voice hums, answering Sanae's question.

“I know, but still...”

She hovers down to the lake, but there's no one around. There's also a huge pile of cherry blossom petals at the- Wait a minute.... Sanae puts you on the ground as she lands. Upon closer inspection, those petals are attached to the walls of the bath house as a cover.

“Hello guys!” Suwako comes out from the bath house. “Kanako didn't know any other good cover, so we'll ended up gathered nearby petals and attach it on the outer walls. I guess it's better than nothing...”

The frog on your head hops to her, then poofs out of existence.

“Let's go inside before one of the patrols sees us! I've prepared everything inside, don't worry!”

“Okay, we're coming!”

You enter the bath house. You can see Kanako sitting on a stone bench, with a shogi table just by her side. It seems you are interrupting their match.

“Welcome back. Did Sanae carry you around just fine?”

Uh huh. You nod, then proceed to give her the device that she wanted you to fetch. She takes it and looks at it carefully, before putting it on the bench.

“...I guess I have to ask the Kappa about it. I thought I could make this alone, but...” She turns her head to you. “Go clean yourself, then relax yourself in the hot spring. I'll join you later.”

“Men's room is on the right. Look at the top left locker, I've put a towel inside,” Suwako points to one of the room. “Let's change too Kanako, we'll continue our game later!”

“Yeah, I hear you...”

---

You walk inside the changing room. It's kind of dark here, since there are only some small candles to fill the room with light. You open the stone locker on the side: There are two towels in it, one to dry yourself, one to cover your private parts during the bath. You also see a soap in it; You take it and go to nearby stone bench to wash your body-

*Burble!*

Eh? The water comes out from a stone pipe nearby to fill the wooden bucket under it as soon as you sit on the bench. You stand up, and the water stops coming out. Wow, that's cool. You pour the water on your body with the bucket, clean yourself more with the soap while waiting until bucket is fully refilled, then you pour the water on yourself again to clean your body.

*Splash!*

Phew, that's refreshing. You wear the towel and walk to the hot spring area. There's no one here... You slowly enters the hot spring and let the water soaks your body. Ahhh... It feels good...

*Srrrk!*

“I never thought I'll actually wear this in Gensokyo...” Kanako comes out from the girls changing room and submerges on the other side of the pool. She's wearing a white two pieces bathing suit. “Enjoying the bath?”

You nod, trying to look straight to her face instead of her... Assets. You take a deep breath, telling yourself to have a better self control, or get kicked out of the shrine.

*Srrrk!*

“Phew, time to enjoy my hard-work bath house!” Suwako comes out and sits next to Kanako. She's wearing another two pieces bathing suit, only it's purple colored now. She's also carrying her shogi board and put it on the edge of the hot spring, between her and Kanako. “Let's continue out game. I don't want to leave our game session hanging!”

“...You can't wait until our bath is finished, can you?” She sighs and immediately moves a piece. “Your turn.”

*Srrrk!*

Sanae finally walks out slowly from the changing room, and quietly sit on Suwako's side. She wears one piece bathing suit, but it looks the one from high school. She looks uncomfortable in it.

“Lady Suwako, it's a bit too tight...”

“Well, after all you've grown since you bought it... If you feel uncomfortable, you can just, you know, go nake-”

“No!”

“Okay, okay, just a suggestion...” Suwako sighs as she moves a shogi piece. “I can fetch another spare towel in the shrine if you want.”

“No, it's okay, don't worry about me...”She sighs and closes her eyes, trying to enjoy the bath despite being uncomfortable with her suit.

“What's wrong with being naked anyway? He should have better self control to not think sexually about every naked women that he see. This is mixed bath after all.”

“I won't mind, but the youngsters will,” Kanako moves another shogi piece. Sanae and you nod in unison. “See?”

“Yes, but still, it just a bit of flesh that we cover because of protection and rules of society. In a mixed bath, none of that apply...”

“An agreement is a form of rule, right? In this case, you agreed with Nobu that we'll have a bath if we use something to cover our genitals. If you break it, he's free to leave the bath.”

*Tk!*

“Oh, and checkmate.”

Suwako take a quick glance to the board, then sighs.

“Fine, I won't talk about it anymore. Mishaguji!”

*Sstttt!*

The giant snake comes out from nowhere. Suwako knocks it's head, and it opens it's mouth, revealing a picnic basket inside. Suwako walks and sits next to you.

“Surprise!” She put some small bottles and cups from the basket. Wait, you know this smell... Alcohol? “Nobu, we decided-”

“No, it's just you.”

“Fine. I decided that you have to learn how to drink sake. You have to know how to drink these properly! All of us have drunk alcohol before, even Sanae!”

“Uhm, Lady Suwako I only drink it as part of a ritual, not to-”

“The point is still same,” Suwako cuts her statement. She hands you the cups and pour some sake in it. She also does the same to Sanae and Kanako. Uh... Can't you refuse the offer? After the incident with Sanae, you don't really wa-

“A word of warning Nobu: Don't drink sake from Oni or Tengu, no more than a few cups, unless you have exceptional alcohol tolerance! Their sake is much stronger than what humans serve. If you're offered sake by one of them, just drink one cup as a sign that you respect them then stop. Politely refuse if you offered more, say that your alcohol tolerance is-”

Yep, it seems you can't refuse the offer. Well, it's not like yo'veu never drunk sake before... You nod when she stops talking, and she smiles.

“Good! First, put your hands under the cup while the other hand holds the cup, so it won't spilled. Next, sip the sake, savor it-”

*Srupt!*

You slowly take a sip of the sake. Hmm... The taste is different from the one from the horned girl's bottles.

“...Yep, like that. Note that if you are offered to drink by another person, you may want to wait until the person signals you to drink. It depends on the person though, we don't mind about it, while the Tengu are really... Observant about it.”

“The same rule applies to commoner and higher ups of the village. Basically, be wary of your drinking companion, and act appropriately according to their status,” Kanako adds, then drinks all the sake on her cup in one sip. “Feel free to enjoy the sake while drinking with us though.”

“Uh huh! Basically, that's it,” Suwako pours to everyone's cup, and this time pour one extra cup for herself. “Cheers everyone!”

She raises her cup and drinks the sake, and followed by the others. Phew, you're even more relaxed now. Let's hope the hangover won't be as bad as the previous one.

“Hey, tell us what happened in the village! I heard from my other self that something happened back there!”

“About the trip to the village...” Kanako starts talking again. “Did you find anything interesting there Sanae?”

“Huh? Nothing important in particular. We met with the kid who owns the console that Nobu is trying to fix. We told them that we'll give the console to him tomorrow, and that's it.”

“You didn't telling him who's really fixing the console, did you?”

“No... What's wrong?”

“...Never mind.” Kanako glares to Suwako. Did something happened to them? “Tell the kids and the villagers that's interested in them that this is another miracle by our shrine. Do not mention that the Kappa fixed the thing.”

“Wait Kanako” Suwako stares back to her. “That was Nobu's idea to fix the game device, he should be the one who's explaining things to them. And why did you strictly want Sanae to say that this is our miracle? Nobu's supposed to choose whether he wants to tell them the truth or not!”

“Suwako, as a reminder, he can't speak. Explaining this to kids and villagers will take a long time to write. And don't you remember the villager's distrust of Kappa's works? It'll hurt our reputation if anyone finds out.”

“The truth will hit harder when you didn't tell it right away. I mean, there's that reporter...”

“We can deny any claims made by her, but if we outright say that we are working with the Kappa...” Kanako turns to you. “I hope you understand. We're helping each other here.”

Well, the Kappa are also helping... And they helping with the console even more than her, who's only donating a television to help make the console work. You won't bring the point up to her though, right now you only want to relax and enjoy the bath. You write that you don't want to talk about it, you want to enjoy the bath now.

“Fine,” she sighs. There was a moment of silence after that, until she grabs one of the sake bottle and pour it into her cup. “Want another round of Sake?”

[]No thanks, that's enough alcohol for you.
[]Sure, why not? It's not as strong as the one that the horned girl gave to you.

[x]No thanks, that's enough alcohol for you.

A safe call given Nobu's luck.

[X] No thanks, that's enough alcohol for you.

Let's start practicing politely declining more than one cup right now.

Called.

http://pastebin.com/WzKG3dc0

http://pastebin.com/gvP3n9x8

There we go.

>>26406
Thanks.

----

Uh, better not push your limits. You shake your head and tell her that you don't want to risk yourself getting drunk. She frowns for a moment, then nods.

“Good. Just like that!” Suwako also smiles. “You'll develop better alcohol tolerance if you occasionally drink it, so it might be a good idea if you drink some sake with us everyday from now on, just as a refreshment after meals.”

“I'm worried about his health if he frequently drinks it...”

“Just one or two cups of sake from the village, it won't hurt him! Tengu's or Oni's, on the other hand...” Suwako pours another bottle of sake into her cup. “How about you Sanae? Do you want another cup of sake?”

“No thanks, I think I have enough for today. I don't want to get drunk too, I have bad memories with that...”

“You mean back in the outside world, when one of your friends secretly brought some booze when you were in that karaoke place?”

“Please don't remind me of that...”

“Hihihi, you don't want Nobu to know that?” Suwako raises her cup. “Anyway, cheers!”

She drinks the sake in her cup, along with Kanako. After a while, Sanae gets out from the bath.

“I'm going back to the shrine now, or the air will be freezing on the way home. I have to cook dinner anyway...”

“Don't worry, just prepare some water, we'll eat instant noodles for our dinner. I'll be here with Kanako for a while,” Suwako rearranges the shogi pieces. “Last game!”

“Suwako, can't we wait until we finished bathing?”

“What? And only sit on the edge of the bath like an old geezer? No way!” She turns to you. “Uh Nobu, I think you should go with Sanae, or you'll catch a cold when you walk home. Me and Kanako will bury this building when we're done with our game, since I doubt the disguise will fool the guards for long...”

“Next time, tell us before you want to build something, we can ask one of the Kappa to cloak the building beforehand.”

*Tk!*

Kanako moves a shogi piece. You rise from the bath and walk back to the changing room quietly, letting them play their game.

“Oh, don't forget to blow out the candles when you're done with the changing room Nobu!”

Suwako yells when you enter the room. You dry yourself with another towel that you stored in the stone locker and put your clothes back on. Too bad that they have to bury this place. Well, at least it has served it's purpose. You blow the candles before leaving the changing room.

*Phoof!*

---

“...Damn, I thought I could convince him with some sake...”

*Tk!*

“You know, I was going to offer him sake too if you didn't ask to him that. What a shame... If he does accept your offer, I'm sure Sanae will drink with him too. Getting her drunk, however, will be a different story...”

*Tk!*

Suwako pours some sake into her cup and drink it.

“What do you mean with 'getting her drunk'?”

*Tk!*

“Well, since she sees him more as a brother than a man, it'll be hard to make her interested in him. So I thought perhaps some alcohol will make her... see him from different angle, and you know the rest...”

“You tried to intoxicate our own shrine maiden so she can mate with him?”

“Look Kanako, it can solve two problems at once. One, we don't have to find another suitable man for her, we need her to continue her bloodline to collect faith for three of us. He's suitable to be with her because he's an outsider, which means he's familiar with our gadgets and lifestyle, and he's nice. Two, we can... 'concern' him with that 'accident' so we can ask him to take responsibility, forcing him to forget his past and focus on his current family, which is us, so you don't have to worry about his memory whatsoever. I couldn't force them to drink with us earlier after they reject your offer, or either he or Sanae would get suspicious of my plan. I will ask them to drink with us someday... I probably have to prepare some sake from the tengu village...”

*Tk!*

“I'm not sure he'll be a good addition to our shrine. You saw it earlier, he refused to carry out my request to hide the fact that the Kappa is fixing the console.”

“If you want him to follow your orders, be subtle about it! If you force your 'request' on him, of course he won't follow you. Geez, you should know more about how to convince people than me...”

Suwako wants to move a piece, but her hand stops when she looks to the board.

“Kanako, it's already checkmate. You forget to call it...”

“Then consider it so. Shall we begin hiding this place now?”

“Certainly.”

---
Next day...
---

*Chrip Chrip!*

You eat your breakfast with everyone in the living room. Today's menu is grilled fish. The taste not really terrific, but it smells nice. Reminds you of your first meal-

*Hek!*

Argh... One of the bones stuck in your throat...

“Nobu?”

Sanae looks to your uneasy expression. You squeeze some of the rice in your bowl to form a ball, then shallow it. The pain goes away from your throat. Fuh...

“A fish bone stuck in your throat?” Suwako guesses, to which you nod. “You should be careful Nobu. Do you want your fish cleaned from its bones the next time we eat?”

Nah, you don't want to bother her more. You shake your head and continue eating.

*Srrrrk!*

“Bad news.”

“Whoa, easy Kanako, we're eating here. What's wrong?”

“Here,” She puts down the paper that she's holding. 'Moriya's secretly build a bath house out of stones.' The photo on the headline shows the exterior of the bath house, before Kanako and Suwako disguised it. “It seems one of the tengu reporters spotted us before we able to hide the building. We can expect a letter will come soon from those great tengus...”

“You speak like you never dealt with them before,” Suwako puts a bowl on the table, and Kanako put some rice into it from the cooker. “You can deal with them as usual, right?”

“This is your fault,” Kanako eats her portion of rice. “You're coming with me later when the letter comes.”

“Eeh!? You know... I have to go with Nobu today, he needs my help to talk to people, right?”

Suwako elbows your ribs. Ow.

“Don't back out Suwako. You are always accompanying him by sending a facet of yourself with him. And Sanae will be with him too, so you don't have to worry if he's in trouble, and if they are, she can always summon us.”

“But... I'm not good with people like them...”

“Just explain what you know. I'll handle the rest of the discussion.”

You put down your empty bowl and pat your stomach. Let's hope that fish bone will be digested.

“Thanks for the meal,” Sanae has finished with her food too. “Shall we go now, Nobu?”

You nod, the faster you deliver the fixed console and teach them how to properly play it, the better. Suwako poofs in another frog and put it on your head. Kanako stares, but she doesn't say anything.

“Speaking of which, Sanae, go to the market after you're done. We need to restock our rice now” She finally talks, but not to you.

“Eh? Didn't we receive some offerings two days ago? I remember there was a bag of rice...”

“We need to restock anyway, because of the picnic that we had yesterday,” Kanako stares at you again. “Nobu, please-”

Suwako stares at her too. Uh...

“...Please be careful out there.” She finishes her sentences. Thanks? Somehow you feel that she wants to say something else...

“See you later Sanae, Nobu!” Suwako waves her hand as both of you leave the room.

---

You and Sanae land by the lake. There's only Nitori at the edge of the lake when you land.

“Hello friends!” She welcomes you. “Here, it's done!”

She presents the boxy thing on her side. The portable television's antenna has been removed, and on it there's the console, both of them held together by four metal clamps, so it can't be moved from it's position. She pushes the power button on the console, and both the console and the television starts up. The console logo shows up, then the company logo...

*Wuuuung!*

It shows a plane, transporting the well-known plumber with the princess. Yep, it's working.

“Good job Nitori!” Sanae praises her. She smiles and rubs her own head. It seems she's proud of her work.

“It took some time to modify the television, but nothing that my hands couldn't handle. Is it all fixed, Nobu?”

You take the controller and play the first level, which doubles as tutorial. Looks fine... Yeah, the kids will like it, they better. You turn it off and carry it.

“Nobu...” Nitori taps your shoulder. “Tell the kids to treat the game well, please?”

“Of course Nitori, we'll tell them,” Sanae tells her, then lifts you again with the wind. “Thanks for the help!”

---

“Hey, Nobu,” Sanae stops once you and her arrives on the village. “Do you know where the boy is right now?”

Uh... Good question. He's probably near that dragon statue. You write your ans- Crap, your hand's full.

“Let me carry that,” she takes the tv-console from you. You write your answer, and she takes you to the place. There are some pedestrian here, but you can't spot the kid- or any children around.

“Hmm... Excuse me!” She puts down the tv-console on your side and heads to a nearby flower shop. “Did you know where the kids usually play now? I'm looking for a boy, about this tall, black hair...”

“There are many boys like that around here... But most kids are probably in Miss Kamishirasawa's school right now.”

“Thank you! I'll take that tulip too.”

The florist gives her the flower. Sanae opens her purse and pays for it, then walks back to you.

“I forgot the kids have a school to attend... What should we do now Nobu? I think it'll be a while until the kid is finished with Miss Keine's lesson.”

[]Go to the school and wait there. Maybe you can observe their lesson too while waiting.
[]Go to the market first and buy the rice that Kanako asked Sanae for. It shouldn't take too much time anyway.
[]Write-In.

[X] Go to the market first and buy the rice that Kanako asked Sanae for. It shouldn't take too much time anyway.


I like that they used the word "mate" instead of something like "sleep with". It really reinforces the feeling that they are far above us "regular mortals".

[x]Go to the school and wait there. Maybe you can observe their lesson too while waiting.

I'd think this'd be better, such as for his memory. But boy moriya shrine conspiracies? It's like 200X all over again!

I'll call the votes if there isn't any tiebreaker in 3 days.

Called. First vote wins.

http://pastebin.com/qzUzcAAh
First part. Will do the rest soon.

First part done.
http://pastebin.com/Mhp4phzq

>>27016

Thanks.

-----

Well, you can't think of anything better than doing Kanako's errand first. If you can do it now, why delay it?

“Yeah, you're right. Better do the errand now before we forget about it. Although...” She looks to the TV-Console on the ground right by your side. “Can you carry that while we're walking around the market? I mean it's a little bit heavy...”

Not a problem, but you point out that she could just carry it with wind. If she can carry you to the village just fine, she should be able to carry the TV-Console just fine.

“Sorry Nobu, the wind also affects everything around it, and since the market's usually really crowded at this hour...”

...Sounds bad. You nod and pick the tv-console, then both of you start walking to the market...

---

After a short walk, you can feel the street get more dense with people, left and right there are merchants selling their stuff, vegetables, fruits, fish, wooden toys, and more. The air is smelly, as expected from a traditional marketplace, but you don't know if it can be this smelly. Ugh... You can't cover your nose since you are using both of it to hold this tv-console. Sanae doesn't seem to mind the smell though...

“Hm... The merchant should be around here...” She looks around. “Ah, there!”

She runs to a nearby shop. At its front lies what looks like some variety of rice. They all look all same to you... Okay, one rice has brown color instead of white, but still...

“Welcom- My goddess Sanae! Welcome!” The merchant bows deeply to her. Eh? Is there something wrong?

“Good morning!” She greets casually. “I need to buy some rice, medium grain, one sack.”

“As you wish!” He bows again. “Mio! One sack of medium grained rice, the best one!”

Mio? Not long after, a little girl comes out from the back of the store, carrying a- wait a minute, you know that girl...

“Ah, mister outsider!” Mio puts the sack of rice on the ground, and waves to you. Yep, she's the boy's friend. No doubt about it. “Mister, have you-”

“Mio, don't be rude to the goddess's companion!” The man yells. Wait, she's her father? No way, the merchant looks too young to be her father. He takes the bag and gives it to Sanae. “Here you are, you should check it first.”

“Thank you!” She opens and take a quick glance inside the bag. “How much I should pay for it?”

“It's free, my lady. this year's harvest has gone really well thanks to your blessing.”

“I'm glad to hear that, but I can't just take this for free. The harvest has gone well because of your hard work too,” Sanae reaches into her pocket and put some money on the table. “There, please take it. I insist.”

“Thank you very much, my lady.”

He bows once again. Sanae looks to the little girl on his side.

“Do you know her, Nobu?”

Well, duh. You put the tv-console on the ground and write that she's the kid's friend from Keine's school that he mentioned yesterday.

“Ooh...” She tries to talk to her. “What's your name, young lady?”

The merchant pushes her back slightly, making her talk.

“Uhm, my name's Himura Mio. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

She bows. Sanae smiles and turns to the merchant.

“Kids her age are usually in Miss Kamishirasawa's school at this hour, right? Why isn't she?”

Right to the point. The merchant rubs the back of his head.

“Uh.... Pa's decision's. He said that she would be better helping me here or my brother on the field.”

“Have you or your brother attend Miss Kamishirasawa's school before?”

“No, my lady. We all have to work everyday for our needs, so we don't have time to attend her school.”

Hm... Such is the life of a peasant family. At least wage-slave workers are able to school their children... Wait, then how he's able to become a merchant? Where did he learn how to calculate and read? A merchant must be educated in order to become successful, right? You write your thought to Sanae-

'Nobu, Sanae, don't ask for his private life too much, you'll scare him off,” Suwako's voice hums. 'Maybe the girl is more willing to answer your question.'

Sanae sighs and nods. The little girl speaks again to you.

“Mister, have you fixed Hiroshi's toy?”

You tap Sanae's shoulder and ask her for help, and inform her that Mio can't read.

“Yes Mio, we'll give it to him today. Maybe you should come with us too, so he can play it with you together!”

“Uhm... But daddy said I have to help brother today...”

She's twiddling her fingers. The merchant takes a deep breath and pat her back.

“Fine, you can go with them. I won't tell pa, but make sure to come home before dark, and be a good girl, promise?”

“Thank you!”

She hugs her older brother, then quickly runs to you. You point to the console on the ground, and she starts checking it.

“Whoaaa... It looks a lot bigger than before...”

“Thank you. Don't worry, I'll keep her safe,” Sanae turns from the merchant. “Come on, let's go Nobu.”

“Mister, can I carry that?”

“Sorry Mio, it's too heavy for you. Let mister Nobu carry that, okay?”

Heh, such enthusiasm...You pat her head then steps back from the console, giving her a chance to lift the tv-console.

“Nobu, I don't think that's a good idea...”

Mio holds the tv-console and tries to lift it.

“Umph!”

She's finally lift it up, but her hands are shaking, unable to endure the weight for long. You quickly help her hold it before she drops it.

“It's heavier than a large sack full of rice...”

“Come on, let Mister Nobu carry it,” Sanae pats her shoulder. “I'll treat you some dumplings, is that okay?”

“Whoa, really? Thank you miss goddess!”

“You can call me Miss Sanae. Now, show us the nearest dumpling shop, would you?”

Mio immediately runs when commanded by Sanae. Well, better get going now. You and Sanae walk, following her from behind. Hmm... Maybe you could ask Sanae to buy you one or two sticks of dumplings too...

http://pastebin.com/TdX9s4WQ

Second Part. Last part will come soon.

http://pastebin.com/RVCccc1u

Part 2.

>>27217

Thanks.

-----

*Nom!*

Mio happily chews her dumpling. You and Sanae also eat your share, although not as enthusiastically as her.

“Mio, could you tell us about your family?” Sanae starts to talk. The girl quickly shallows her dumpling in her mouth to answer her.

“My family?”

“Yes, your family. Like, your father works as a farmer, right? What about your mother? Is she helping your father on the field or does she have another job?”

“I never see mother. Father said that she was gone to a very far place.”

“...Oh. Sorry.”

“Why you're saying sorry, miss Sanae?”

“You'll know it someday Mio, when you're older,” Sanae pats her head, trying to dodge her question. “Your father doesn't let you go to school?”

She shakes her head.

“Father said that I could learn better by helping my brothers.”

Uh... She could indeed learn how to farm or how to tend a shop, but it's useless if she can't learn something very basic like reading.

“Can you read Mio?” Sanae asks.

She nods. Huh? Then why she can't read your writings?

“How much?”

“I can read the labels inside the store for types of rices and their goodness. I don't understand most words on Hiroshi's book, but I want to know what it reads...”

“Hiroshi? You mean the boy that owns the toy that Mister Nobu carries, right?”

“Uh huh.”

“Did he bring some books to you yesterday?”

“Uh huh.”

“Did he teach you how to read?”

“No, he said he doesn't want to be a teacher like Miss Grumpyshirasawa.”

Sanae covers her own mouth and laughs a little. Kids.... It seems the brat doesn't really like his teacher. Miss Keine wouldn't be amused by the name if she heard that too.

“Hihi... Do you know that the person he meant is Miss Kamishirasawa the teacher?”

“Miss Kamishirasawa? But she isn't grumpy when she's coming to our shop...”

“It's his personal opinion, Mio. Maybe she's grumpy when teaching him in school, maybe it was just him, we don't know.”

“Oooh...” She nods a couple of times, then turns to you. “Mister Nobu, may I ask you something?”

Sure. You nod and looks to her.

“Why do you talk to me with your board-thing? Does all outsider in outsideworld do that?”

Heh. You give a signal to Sanae to answer the question for you.

“No Mio. Mister Nobu have to talk using his writing board because he can't talk.”

“Can't talk?” She turns to you. “Do you want me to teach you how to talk, mister Nobu?”

“Mio, mister Nobu can't talk because of an incident in his past. He could talk before I met with him.”

You nod to Mio to confirm Sanae's story. You can't remember how your voice sounds like, but you are certain that you do talk in your past.

“Hooh...”

“We're here.”

Sanae points to the familiar building on the side of the road. It's Keine's school. You look inside from the window: Keine's still going on with her lesson. You can also spot Hiroshi in there.

“Hmm... Miss Keine's lesson isn't over yet..” “Hey, Mio, do you want to hear what Hiroshi learns in school?”

“Uh huh, I want!”

“Stand near the window there and be quiet, okay?” She tap your shoulder. “Could you go lift her on your shoulder?”

Eh? Fine... You lower your body, then Sanae lifts and puts Mio on your shoulder. She grabs the frog on your head. Oomph... She's not really that heavy, but you doubt you can hold her on your shoulder for long. Let's hope Keine will finish her lesson soon...

“Mister, there's a frog on your head!”

“That's... What should I say to her, Lady Suwako...” She mumbles in low voice.

“I'll just introduce myself then.” Suwako's voice hums, then the frog jumps onto Mio's head. “Hello there little girl!”

“Whoa!”

Mio gets startled and almost lose her grip on your body. Sanae immediately holds her back before she can fall.

“Don't be afraid, I am Lady Suwako, one of the goddesses of Moriya Shrine!”

“Wow! Nice to meet you, Lady Goddess Suwak-”

“Okay, enough with the introduction, go hear what the teacher says in that building, you might be able to learn one or two things! Nobu, go stand up and give this little girl a nice view, will you?”

Okay, okay... You put strength into your legs, stand up, and walk to the window, allowing Mio to see what Miss Keine teaches inside the class too.

“...Write this letter carefully.” Keine instructs to her students while pointing to a kanji letter. Welp, an eleven strokes kanji...

“Miss Sanae... What's that letter that Miss Kamishirasawa pointed to?”

Mio asks to Sanae on your side. Her voice alerts Keine and the students inside the school. Hiroshi recognize you and waves to your group. Uh oh...

“Get back to your assignment,” Keine orders him, and he immediately turns his head back to the paper in front of him, along with the rest of his classmates. Keine stares to you three, then walks to the door.

“Mio, don't make any noises next time!” Frog Suwako jumps repeatedly jumps on her head. You and Sanae bow your head the moment Keine walks out from the school.

“I'm sorry Miss Keine, we're interrupting your class...”

“It's okay. I see you brought Farmer Himura's daughter.” She bows to your group as a greeting. “This is just my guess, but did you convince him to allow her daughter going to school?”

“Not really... We found her helping her brother's shop when we were shopping for some rice. He promised he wouldn't tell his father that we're taking his sister for a little trip.”

You put back Mio on her feet and she bows to Keine. You write to Keine that Mio can't read some basic hiragana letters.

“As expected...” She sighs. “Today's class is not for her, we're learning third grade kanji right now. She should be attending my other class for younger children, about three days from now.”

“If her father will let her to go to school. We can't secretly fetch her and bring her to school everytime, and if her father finds out, it won't end up good for us either.”

“Right.” Keine crouch in front of Mio. “Himura, do you really, really want to go to school?”

“Yes miss!”

“Hear this: When I come to your house someday to discuss the matter with your father, tell him that you want to go to school. Do you understand?”

Mio nods. Keine smiles and rubs her head.

“Miss...” A sound calls from behind, it's one of Keine's student.

“Get back inside, I'll join you soon,” She tells her, and the student walks back into the school. “My apologies, I have to attend my students right now.”

“I should be the one to say sorry...” Sanae bows down. “Before you go, how long until the lesson is done, Miss Keine? We want to talk to Hiroshi.”

“Shouldn't be long, I need to have my lunch soon anyway. See you later.”

Keine stands and walks back into the school to attend her student. Sigh... It seems you have to wait a little bit longer...

http://pastebin.com/91y5w5ms

Last part.

[X] No, it's the blessing of Moriya's Shrine that fixed it!

Frankly Sanae's little trick did fix it.

>>27270
Any particular reason why you can't post it?

>>27285
It's not proofed yet. I won't post it unless no one proofed it in 2 weeks, because my grammar is... Well, you can read it yourself, and I can't just walk over my current proofreader.
That, and I have to juggle this story with my older story on some other site that I picked up again recently. Its shit(I write it 4 years ago), but it's unfinished, and I have determined to finish it along with this story too, so I use the moment to write my other story while waiting until the proofreading is done.

>>27291
Current proofreader here. I don't really mind if you choose to do it some other way, that's all up to you. But as for now I'll have some spare time tomorrow so expect it within 24 hours.