I wanted a big change of pace, or to be more accurate, three of them.

1: I wanted to write a character who received little to no attention in my time as a writer, and Momiji fit the bill. She was a supporting protagonist for about five chapters in my first fanfic, but even then, she didn't do that much. Writing for Momiji also meant I'd have access to Youkai Mountain and the tengu city; two places I almost never write at. Youkai Mountain is usually there for just a little bit, and the tengu city I've used but once, ever, so it had to be Momiji.

2: I wrote it in first-person. I want to try and make this more about the character than any plot that may appear, and first-person writing is (in my opinion) the best way to do that. That way, we're seeing it from Momiji's perspective; not mine whose attention needs to cover everything at once~

3: The pace in this fanfic is slower than all other fanfics so far, even being more relaxed than my Youkai Temple fanfic. It's also the first thing I've written in some time (not counting my recent Daiyousei fic) that is purely about ONE character, if not the first one ever (again not counting Dai-chan) which is naturally a big pace change.

So, I hope you enjoy seeing how I work at a more relaxed pace~

"It's hot out today," I told myself. It was usually hot in summer, though, and there wasn't really much I could do about it. But I couldn't just head back home and cool off, either. No way! I was a tengu guard, given the task of keeping intruders off of Youkai Mountain and chasing off the ones that decided to try and climb the mountain. It was probably one of the most enviable jobs for a tengu. Aya, my superior, also happened to be a guard, but she also did the photography, writing, editing, and producing for that Bunbunmaru Newspaper nobody reads. Once in a blue moon, on days where guard duty got especially boring, I would read it just to see what was going on beyond this cozy mountain. It seemed that there was always some kind of incident happening somewhere, with the red-white miko from the shrine on the other side of Gensokyo was trying to resolve, or more recently, Sanae, who lived in the shrine up here on the mountain. There were two gods there, and one was a sky goddess, so in exchange for faith, Kanako would give us good weather. I usually wished during the summer that she could also make it a bit cooler; the heat was really irritating for my ears.

"Momiji!" I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Aya, no doubt with either important orders, the newest edition of the Bunbunmaru (since I was her subordinate, she gave them to me for free~) or a big lump of boredom and a desire to bug/tease me a little. Since the last edition of the Bunbunmaru was handed out yesterday, and she wasn't in her usual journalist outfit, I could only assume she had some kind of orders for me. Today she was in her guard uniform, and was carrying her weapon of choice; a fan that boosted her control of the wind. I preferred swords myself, but sometimes I wondered what controlling the wind was like…

I wouldn't let myself get distracted, though. Once Aya hit the ground like the black and white blur she was when she was flying, I got my already straight posture as straight as it could go, complete with tail sticking straight up. "What's up, Aya?"

"Tenma-sama wants to see you immediately!"

"T-Tenma-sama?" The big boss of all the tengu? The only tengu (or kappa, or any mountain youkai for that matter) who ever fought an oni and won? Our charismatic leader who threw weekly parties with the goddesses at the Moriya Shrine? That Tenma-sama? All of a sudden, I was shaking and nervous. As skilled as I was at being a tengu guard, it was a little embarrassing to say that I wasn't really that high up in the ranks for my skill level. A rough draft of the tengu ranking chain went a little bit like…

Tenma-sama

About six other tengu

A few dozen more tengu, plus Aya-sama (she insists that I just call her Aya)

About a hundred other tengu

Me, plus a few hundred tengu guards

Everybody who wasn't mentioned yet

…what did Tenma-sama want with me? Should I have asked Aya? Or was I supposed to wait and let Tenma-sama herself tell me what she wanted? My brain was so occupied with thinking that my body forgot to move, or even acknowledge these orders that were coming straight from the top. Tenma-sama lived in a big mansion at the top of the tengu city, which occupied the tip of Youkai Mountain, effectively making her mansion the highest point in Gensokyo. I'd seen the mansion once or twice, and it's Chinese-inspired architecture stood out in the tengu city where the architecture was more Japanese in style, but never did I expect to actually go there, much less with a reason to go! Especially when that reason was that I had orders from Tenma-sama herself to go and see her!

"You alright over there," Aya asked me. "You look about ready to pop like a little furry balloon or something~"

"H-Huh? Oh, sorry. I wasn't really ready for that; orders from Tenma-sama herself was one of the last things I was expecting to hear." Scratching the back of my right ear (it always itched in hot weather; part of why I didn't like summer that much) and turning to face the top of the mountain, I finished "I'll be up there as soon as I can. I almost want to ask if you know what she wants to see me about, but…I also don't know if Tenma-sama wanted to explain it to me herself."

"You're pretty serious about this," Aya said. Then she put her hand on her chin. I've been around Aya long enough that I know this; when she puts her hand on her chin, it means she's ready to start teasing somebody. I guess she couldn't help trying to make me laugh a little bit to break the tension. Was it that obvious that I was so tense? "You're really cute when you're serious~"

"No I'm not! When I'm serious, I'm serious!" Even if I knew she was teasing me, I could never stop myself from reacting like I wasn't actually being teased. I think that's part of why Aya enjoys teasing me so much; because even if I try to tease her back, I'll just say something to try and defend myself from her teasing.

"If you say so, cutie~ You should probably head up to Tenma-sama's place soon; she told me it was important that you see her as soon as you can."

"Oh! I'll be right there!"

Tenma-sama's mansion…

Every time I looked at this place, I felt a little intimidated. Just the path to her mansion alone was bigger than my house, and then Tenma-sama's mansion was…massive. If I didn't know better, calling it a mansion was just Tenma-sama being modest; this place seemed more like a castle to me. There were guards along the path to the mansion, none of them paying me any mind. They must have known that Tenma-sama was expecting me. The second I started reaching for the door, a realization struck me. I'd never seen her with my own eyes! In fact, I'd never seen her at all. Tenma-sama didn't leave her mansion often, and when she did, she was fast enough to not be seen by even other tengu. She didn't have any special powers, not unlike myself, but her speed was incredible. Tenma-sama put even Aya to shame if the rumors I heard were true.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

My hands were shaking out of control. Being here, at Tenma-sama's mansion because she asked to see me was one of the greatest honors for any tengu. Even Aya rarely saw her, and she was really high up in the tengu ranks. Some people said that Tenma-sama was a hikikomori, and others said that she just didn't really have any reason to come out. I heard that once, long ago, tengu and kappa were the slaves of the oni. Tenma-sama was allegedly alive for that time, and I heard that she once fought her master - I forget the oni's name - and won her freedom in battle. From there, she started freeing other tengu and kappa, or so I heard. I'm not really sure how true all of that is, but…

Creak… Oh! Somebody was answering the door! This was really tense and nerve-wracking, and I made a mental note to ask where the bathroom was on my way out. Then the door finished opening, and I could see the person answering it. She was a crow tengu, with short silver hair that had one lock on the left side reaching over her ear and down to her breasts. Her wings were beautiful; even blacker and grander than Aya's, and she had a red sake dish in her hand.

"You must be Momiji."

"Y-Yes, ma'am. I'm here looking for…T-Tenma-sama."

"Well, you found her~"

GASP! "It's an honor to finally meet you in person," I quickly said, getting on my knees. Looking back, I'm not really sure why I kneeled down like that. It just seemed like a respectful thing to do, to be completely honest. "Momiji Inubashiri, tengu guard, at your command, ma'am!"

"Relax~ You're too serious about the whole thing," Tenma-sama said to me, taking me by the hand and pulling me back up to my feet. For just a second there, I was afraid that I wouldn't have to ask about the bathroom anymore. "You look kind of uptight, though, and not in a dutiful way. Something bugging you?"

"Y-Yes, in fact. If you don't mind me asking…where's your restroom?"

"It's down…oh, come in." Tenma-sama took my hand again, this time pulling me into her house. "It's down that hallway," she told me, pointing down one of the three that I was met with the second I walked in. "Third or fourth door on the right, I'm not sure which. I'm a little drunk right now and I tend to forget stuff when I get alcohol in my system."

"Thank you very much," I said, speeding off down the hallway in my frantic attempt to beat my bladder. It was strange. I didn't have to go before I got here, but just being here intimidated me so much that I was asking Tenma-sama herself about it before I even got my orders. It was still so great to finally meet her. She wasn't that much like I'd imagined her, but that was good! I always had this image of a sort of frightening leader who visibly leaked authority and power; it was an image I'd built off of things I heard from Aya. Instead, she was laid-back and seemed to enjoy enjoying life. I wasn't really sure if it was okay for her to be drinking on the job (isn't she always on the job?) but she seemed to hold herself pretty well with alcohol in her system. I counted the doors, one, two…three and four. One of these was the bathroom. Or maybe the bathroom was so big that it was both of them?

Girls are now locating/using the restroom…

"Thank you for waiting, Tenma-sama." Now that that was done with, I could focus on what I was called up here for. Was there something that I had to do that would be critical to the entire tengu race? Was I going to get promoted? If Tenma-sama was personally giving me a promotion, then good things were going to come my way; I just knew it. I didn't get my hopes too high up, though. Aya once told me that Tenma-sama told her that she was reminded of herself at a younger age when she saw Aya. That meant that it could be a task so simple that I couldn't possibly think of what it was, or even being called over here just to be teased by the big boss of the tengu. The last one was pretty improbable, but it was best not to rule it out.

"Let's walk and talk," Tenma-sama told me, heading back up the hall and turning down another one, waiting for me to follow.

"You have a really beautiful mansion," I told her now that I had the chance to really see its inside. Red seemed to be the big color for her house, with white furniture and black decorations. It really was beautiful. I wouldn't mind being one of Tenma-sama's personal guards if I got to see this place every day, though I was certain that the day I got that job, if it ever came, was a long way off. It wasn't a very long walk before we were at a room with really soft carpet flooring, and a big red cushion in the back. This must have been where Tenma-sama took on visitors. My suspicions were confirmed when she made herself comfy on the cushion, and told me to make myself comfortable. "If you don't mind my asking, why did you send for me specifically?"

"Because you're extremely dedicated to your job. I have a package that needs to be delivered to an old friend of mine, and I don't really trust most of the other tengu to meet this friend of mine. They might get the wrong idea about the kinds of people I associate with. Now that you know that she's just a friend of mine, hopefully, you won't get the wrong idea as well. Even Aya, your superior, would probably get this wrong idea, and because she's about equal to a tabloid journalist, I can only imagine that ending in disaster. So she recommended you to me~"

"A-A delivery? If you don't mind me asking, unless it's classified, what am I delivering exactly?" And more importantly, why would people get the wrong idea about the kinds of people Tenma-sama associated with? They couldn't be too bad for our wonderful master to enjoy being around them, right?

"The package is a box, filled with the finest alcohol money can buy; special-ordered from the human world. I figured she'd like to see how much humans progressed in the breweries since last she saw them."

"I'll make the delivery immediately," I promised.

"Fantastic! The address is on the box; I don't want to say the place aloud because again, people may get the wrong idea about the company I like to keep. Now then, follow me, and we'll get that package."

"Yes, ma'am."

Bet you're wondering who the friend is~

There's a really subtle hint or two in the chapter, but they're so hidden that you might not find them unless you consider EVERYTHING a hint!

Now then, a couple more points I wanted to address…

Astoundingly, this is the very first time I've used the word "hikikomori" in a fanfic. And Patchouli has appeared in quite a few, as well as Kaguya and some of Gensokyo's other expert recluses. And it was used in the direction of Tenma of all people…

Speaking of the tengu boss, I made Tenma a woman because even if (s)he's LORD Tenma, I could find no fanart that depicted a male Tenma, so I had no image of him/her in my head that I could work off. Plus it's Touhou, so naturally everybody must be either a girl, dead, a turtle, a cloud, or Rinnosuke. Even Toyosatomimi no Miko, the Crown PRINCE, is a girl!

Now then, I should start figuring out how Momiji's gonna react when she meets this friend of Tenma's~