The Ministry of Right and Wrong only looked large on the outside, where its pavements were lined with the scythes of countless Shinigami- war memorials, if Keima heard Komachi, correctly- and its pagoda-shaped structure towered up towards the darkened clouds till it could repel them to let one ray of sun shine on its majestic form. Inside was much, much larger, and much more crowded than he had expected. There were what he supposed to be the Enmas strolling by, and countless souls lying in wait for whatever and whenever anything happened. The place glowed, as well, perfectly well-lit without an inch of shadow, so perfectly brilliant that it felt surreal to exist without any such concept of having a shadow following you. Keima, though, found his surprise rather lacking, even before he realized that such a development had been seen in countless games before. There was no need for surprises here, he supposed, seeing how he wasn't gonna stay her for too long, anyways, and so without so much as a gawk or an 'oh wow', he followed the slightly baffled Komachi further in.
At one point of the tour, he was checking on an intricately carved entrance to somewhere beyond his imaginations, but was pushed aside by the now irritated ferryman. Upon laying his inquisitive eyes on her, she scolded him of the consequences:
"Don't think about touching that door. Inside's one of the courtrooms, and you don't wanna be in there when you're alive."
"Ah, so in there's what I see last, before I ascend?"
"Or descend," she solemnly retorted, before nodding a yes at his prior question. "Anyways, not every soul even goes through the Ministry, anymore."
"Why is that?"
"Well, New Hell's got better judging systems, now. The Ministry's a bit… old-fashioned, and a lot slower at what they do, and when you're trying to make trials for 6 billion people-"
"9 billion people."
"Whoa, what did you guys do, get together for some huge orgy or something?"
Keima deadpanned back.
"Anyways, when you're makin' trials for that many people, service's gonna be slow- like REAL slow. It's slow as it is now, and I don't think any of the big families of Hell want their kid- or their jizou statues- becoming crazy Enmas."
Keima nodded, understanding of her words. His curiosity over Hell, though, did not bloom, and he showed her that with faux-concerns that hurried her, and thus him, through the building. That was not something he had to write a thesis about, right now.
What he was doing, though, was just looking around to marvel quietly at whatever he fancied.
Before long, they arrived outside a door. With nonchalance, she dumped the hagoromo and her scythe on her new buddy- much to Keima's own surprise- and instructed him to wait, before she entered into the room. Keima, though, found himself astonished by the weight of what had been given to him. He cursed under his breath of the scythe's strain on his hands: so, without so much as a care for the consequences, he dropped the thing with a hard 'clang'.
Well, now that he was alone, he supposed he could check around the close vicinity. How high were they-
Ooh, very high. The window's view did not lie, at all.
And next to him was a potted plant.
Fascinating.
This place is really standard-looking, save for the main entrance. Wooden boards, glass windows, traditional Japanese architecture.
He looked at the door's frame, and that was when he noticed the name carved into the wooden plate next to the entrance.
He recognized it almost immediately.
Well, it made sense for Komachi to meet with her, seeing how she was the ferryman of Gensokyo, and this particular Enma was in charge of the same place. Still, it did provide him with a rather uncomfortable feeling in his head. He had received- and declined- a hugpillow of that character that morning, so to meet, or at least be in the proximity of, her gave him rather annoying trepidations that he himself had to contest and curb.
But then, all of a sudden, his ears caught the sounds of a group of feet traversing the floor, coming ever so closer to him. At first, it was but a soft thudding, but by the sounds of it it was getting closer by the second. Someone was, evidently, coming.
Ah, this development is…
Wait a minute, what's with this development!? Komachi's in there, and if she isn't here to explain my presence, then what's going to happen to me!?
But then he remembered her hagoromo. Without further ado, he struggled to get it to turn invisible.
"Oh, come on!" he whispered in sibilant agitation, "Work!"
The group drew closer. He could hear their voices now.
"How did I forget what Haqua taught me!?"
They were just round the corner-
And then Keima, in a moment of panic, stretched the hagoromo. In an instance, the thing flashed invisible. Relief, and promptly after, panic, overwhelmed him, and he hurried in donning the thing around him. The cloudy fabric enveloped his body, and with a second to spare, he had disappeared.
The group, as expected, passed by.
No one noticed the scythe on the floor.
Keima sighed in relief. His living presence in the world of the dead would have done him in, if not for the hagoromo, and he had to thank the thing for saving him.
Before he could do that, though, Komachi exited the room.
"Okay, I'm done," she said, before the absence of Katsuragi seeped into her consciousness. "Eh? Katsuragi? Oh no, did that idiot-?"
"I'm right here."
Not surprisingly, she jumped from the shock, shrieking out a cry as he tore the hagoromo off himself to shed off the invisibility that had cloaked him moments ago.
"W-what? You can do that!?"
"Eh? I thought all Runaway Spirit Squad members knew how to use the hagoromo?"
"Well, excuse me, then, for not knowing you, a buddy, knew how to, yourself," chided the insulted Komachi before she swiped the fabric off his hands.
Keima, on the other hand, let her have the thing, and inwardly sighed at her vanity.
A hand promptly smacked in the face.
"Why is my scythe on the floor!?"
O - O - O - O
The two descended down the Ministry of Right and Wrong without so much as a single word. It was not long, though, before they were once again walking in between the old scythe gardens around the building. Keima, rather disturbed by her silent treatment, and willing to believe that better relations with her would increase her chance of survival if danmaku were a thing, decided that, perhaps now, was a good time to do just that.
"So how is your Enma like?" he asked, breaking the silence between them. A simple question first, then the more complicated ones later, especially after her violent outburst just now.
Komachi, pleasantly surprised by the conversational starter, and fortunately forgiving of the fact that her scythe was on the spotless ground of the Ministry, was happy to answer back. "Oh, eheh~ She's a doozy to work with. Always lecturing people, and stuff. You know, even in her breaks, she goes up to Gensokyo to lecture people about this and that. Everyone's terrified of her wasting their day."
"Are you two close?"
"Bah," she waved her free hand at him, a jocosely dismissive smile on her face, "She's really stuck-up, especially with me. All because I just wanna snooze, too." Now she deflated at the thought. "She can have breaks, but I can't?"
"I don't know- I think she's just trying to make you do your best."
"Hey, I am! Well… 'was'. 'Sides, I think that old jizou statue's just jealous of my figure."
Keima made a convincing attempt to disbelievingly spit out all the air in his lungs. Sure enough, it worked.
"Hey, she really was a jizou statue before she got promoted!"
"No," the God of Conquest groaned as he wiped away anything that might have been left behind on his mouth, "I was reacting to your figure."
"Oh," she gasped, a light red blotching her cheek. Amused by his straightforwardness, she slammed a caroling hand on his back- nearly breaking it- and, in between a loud guffaw, said to the boy massaging his spine, "You perv! The Enma's gonna kill you for liking tits like mine! 'Sides, I just now got proof of her jealousy!"
"O-oh, really?" Keima answered, one twitching eyebrow raised.
HOW STRONG ARE YOU
"Yup. Looks like this little sensor here," she pulled at her Runaway Spirit Squad sensor, the tugging pulling up some of the fabric and exposing a little bit of skin- either unintentional, or some way of teasing him after the last comment, "Is a lie detector, or something. She was there all 'Oh, sure, I'll be fine with your replacement', and when I tried to have a bit of fun with her- you know, 'So you're happy this busty ferryman's gone'?- and she said no, the thing started beeping, going 'dorodorodorodoro' and stuff! Coincidence? I think not. She even poked at it to shut it up. Seems she's not just jealous of them, huh? Hahahahahah!"
She laughed. Keima laughed too, so he wouldn't feel left out.
And they laughed, as they exited the scythe garden.
They laughed some more as they traversed through Higan.
And they, in their merry, got on the boat, still laughi-
"WAIT A MINUTE."
The boy- no, the teen Vajra, with teeth clenched and brumes of steam leaking from the gaps, with eyes wide with a wildness most were unused to, and with a gait comparable to that of real ghoulish monsters, might as well have snapped his own neck in his turning of it towards the Shinigami. The suddenness took Komachi off-guard, and she gave a little 'eep' at the sudden change, a failure of a good response, because now he was seething at her absence of any care, whatsoever.
"The sensor… It… RAAAAAAAANG?"
"Yeah," she, almost casual in her tone, answered. She even shrugged. "Lie detector, right?"
She cocked her head to one side, a joking, yet terribly assured grin on her face. She didn't really understand his concerns, especially since she just came out of some adult joke she cracked moments ago.
Keima looked at her like anyone would look at a sad village idiot.
Komachi's grin flattened. Something was really wrong with the way he looked.
Keima's right lower eyelid twitched.
Komachi's deadpanned mouth folded into a frown. Was he trying to tell her…?
Keima grew ever hollower in appearance.
And finally, Komachi realized.
"Y-you're not trying to say that… that she has a-?"
For Keima, palming his face was the right, and only thing, he could do in response to her realization.
The right, and only thing to do.
Komachi screamed her lungs dry.
"YAMAXANADU HAS A RUNAWAY SPIRIT!?"
The flowers swayed, listless, as the Sanzu River brought its next breeze upon the land of purity.
