I was going to toss up the other alternate setting fic I had, but given this is the day after the date in question I couldn't help but post this one first.
Remilia paced in the moonlight.
It was terribly unladylike. She should have been sitting calmly waiting for her maid, but her blood itched with power. She couldn't bear to be still.
There were some downsides to being a western style youkai in an eastern land. Usually it didn't matter. The full moon was the full moon, new years day was new years day, and every culture had some kind of harvest festival. But this month the bonds of that annoying faith made her blood burn.
Halloween was coming up. And every devil that had been touched by distant Europe would be bubbling with power.
The worst part was she couldn't enjoy it. Halloween made Remilia incredibly antsy, but it made Flandre outright drunk with power. Koakuma as well, but that was Patchouli's problem.
Flandre was normally a good sister, really. In fact she'd been getting better and better. But on Halloween she'd become an unstoppable thirsty terror.
Which is why for the last 450 some odd years Remilia had gone and picked a fight with Flandre on October 30th. And they would proceed to beat each other into bloody smears, get scraped up by Sakuya, then spend Halloween and the utterly miserable All Saints Day regenerating.
Remilia hated it, but it was a fate that she couldn't change.
She sighed, dropped back into her seat, and began skimming some books she'd borrowed from the library. Then an idea hit her.
She couldn't change that fate, but maybe she could help soften the blow.
She put the book down, then opened her eyes wide calling upon her powers. Her vision blurred. She saw the myriad of paths before her. Ones where nothing changed, ones where things got worse...
And a few, just a few, where things got a little better.
Remilia grabbed at one of those futures... and found a book in her hands.
"Planning something mistress?"
Remilia looked up to find Sakuya standing there waiting. She'd obviously gotten there a while back, because Remilia could smell her sweet blood lingering in the air.
Remilia shuddered. Perhaps Flandre wasn't the only one who needed to be sequestered on Halloween.
Shaking off that worry she turned back to the book. "Indeed. I was thinking of doing something different this year." She opened the book to find out exactly what she would be planning.
Then she slowly smiled.
"We'll be having a party on the 2nd Sakuya," Remilia said slowly. "The second on the Gregorian Calendar of course. Invite everyone. And send a special invitation to the puppeteer. We'll need her for the festivities."
Sakuya nodded. She was used to getting strange (and occasionally impossible) orders from her mistress. "What exactly will this party be about?" she asked.
Remilia smirked as she showed the book to Sakuya. "Elementary my dear maid. We will be celebrating El Día de los Muertos."
Sakuya blinked at the page. Remilia was almost certain her maid stopped time to talk a good long look at the book, but she couldn't prove anything.
"I see. Will your sister be invited as well?" Sakuya asked hesitantly.
"Of course," Remilia said simply. "She should be healed up as well, right?"
Sakuya coughed lightly. "Indeed. However she might still bear a grudge..."
Remilia winced. "Ah. Add that immortal girl to the list of required guests. Offer her a new set of clothing in exchange for her help."
Sakuya bowed. "Of course my lady. Any other particulars?"
Remilia thought for a moment. "Oh right, I want to write an outline for the puppet show myself."
Suddenly there was a pen, inkwell and several sheets of parchment before her. "Thank you, Sakuya. You may take the rest of the night to start the preparations."
"Thank you Mistress," Sakuya disappeared.
However Remilia could hear her voice in the air muttering, "Where am I going to find a mariachi band in Gensoukyo?"
Hatate'd never been inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion before. She'd mainly used spirit photography to capture the events that had gone on inside there. It was safer then fighting that crazy maid. But recently that annoying hack Aya had pointed out the weakness of that technique. She needed to cover these events personally. Though with a little more journalistic integrity then her rival.
Fortunately the gate guard had accepted her press credentials after a bit of consultation. They'd forced her to wear a stupid hat with a press card tied to the ribbon above the brim, but she made it to the party with no fuss.
And she was very glad she did.
The display was incredibly macabre, even for a place called the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She'd been hoping for foreign flash, and here it was!
Flowers and skulls covered the room in a riotous display. After a bit of inspection, Hatate was pretty sure the skulls were real too. Pictures of skeletal figures had replaced the usual art. Here and there crosses stood out, usually intricately designed, and hung with wreaths of flowers.
Meanwhile in the massive ballroom itself, fairies wearing skull masks and elegant dresses flitted about, occasionally carrying plates of food and drink, usually on a bed of flowers. Drinks that Hatate couldn't place sat beside candies and breads shaped like skulls, and foods that looked like eggrolls.
At the far end on the room a small band played music on the western harmonic scale. Hatate found it as lively as anything the Prismrivers played, and more folksy then their concertos. Still it was fairly intricate music. Hatate took a quick snapshot of the group, and wandered over to interview them. She wanted to know how Sakuya had gotten them there and why they weren't panicking.
Unfortunately she was intercepted. "Sorry, but they're not taking interviews," Yukari said, stepping in front her her.
Hatate considered briefly pushing the matter, but she didn't want to get kicked out just yet. "Then perhaps you could explain their presence, Miss Yakumo?"
"Oh it's simple. I brought them here with my power. Of course I told them they were performing at a very rich costume party, but that's neither here nor there," Yukari said with a smirk. Then she sighed. "But sadly the maid accepted my payment demand all too easily. I guess I should have asked for more."
Hatate punched in notes. "I see, and what was this payment?"
"You'll find out. Now go circulate little fledgling," Yukari said with a flick of her fan. "Go make Aya self conscious about her age."
"Whatever," Hatate said as she wandered off. She hated when people pointed out her age. She was almost 300 years old. Not a kid like Youmu or the humans.
Still she should enjoy the party. She grabbed one of the candied skulls, as she started to wander the crowd. The candies didn't have any human in them, but they were pleasantly sweet. They matched the slightly bitter chocolate drink very well.
Scanning the crowd she saw Aya over with some of the other big name Tengu and exchange glares with her. She moved on and took a picture of Flandre as she made a rare public appearance. She seemed to be talking with Koishi, Medicine and Yamame, everyone else having quietly fled her presence.
Similarly no one was approaching Satori except the animal youkai. Strangely that appeared to include Nazarin, Shou and Ran in addition to the usual suspects. It seemed even animal youkai that approached divinity were still animal youkai.
Finally she snapped a picture of Youmu trying to pull her ghost half away from the flowers. "Wonder why that's happening?" she muttered to herself.
"She's stuck because the flowers are placed to draw the spirits of the dead."
Hatate turned to find the mountain's wind preistess looking at her with a smile. Hatate gave a nod to Sanae and started typing into her cellphone. "I see. So what else can you tell me about this outside world event?"
Sanae laughed lightly. "Ah, I'm sorry. I just know about this because of a class we had on events similar to the Obon festival around the world."
"Oh. So you don't know anything more?" Hatate asked. She didn't expect much out of the priestess but there might be something she could make into a story...
Sanae thought for a bit. "Well I did hear something about why they have lots of skulls around, but that's a scary story," Sanae said as her voice fell to a fake whisper. Hatate assumed it was intended to be frightening, so she played along.
"Really? Well perhaps some of the braver readers would like to hear about it."
Sanae looked both ways in an exaggerated manner before continuing. "Apparently the Aztecs used to keep the skulls of the defeated as trophies, and they brought them out to show on the day of the dead." Hatate must not have kept her boredom off her face because after a moment Sanae continued. "Um, and they practiced human sacrifice! They believed they needed to sacrifice people to get the sun to rise. So they took prisoners to the top of their giant temples, and cut them open! Then they pulled out their still beating hearts as a sacrifice." Hatate typed furiously into her phone as Sanae's voice sunk to a whisper. "And I heard they ate the victims afterwards."
"Oh man! These Aztecs sound totally awesome!"
Hatate jumped slightly at the voice beside them. Turning she saw the kassha staring at them with open admiration.
"So those step like buildings on the pictures on the walls, were those the temples? And they worshiped the sun? What kind of clothes did their priestesses wear?" Hatate could almost swear she heard the Kasha purring.
Sanae looked at the kassha in confusion. "Um, they didn't have priestesses I don't think..." Then her face turned to understanding. "Wait, you are NOT setting this up in the underground! That's not a proper ritual for the Yatagarasu!"
"Aw, you're no fun sis. I'll ask the magician."
"No you won't!" Sanae cried while bringing her gohei down on Orin's head. The kassha yelped. Hatate of course snapped a picture. "Besides what makes you think she'd be willing to help you?"
The kassha rubbed her head. "Well they obviously aren't that picky. I mean they got two thrones worth of skulls here."
Sanae and Hatate both looked around. "I don't see any skull thrones," Hatate stated. "Just the ones on the walls."
"Wait, those skulls are real?" Sanae asked with wide eyes. Hatate just gave the shrine maiden a look. Surely humans could recognize their own skulls right?
Rin rubbed her head. "Thrones are how you count skulls of course. 91 skulls to a pile, 3 piles to a throne."
Hatate blinked at the kassha, then headed off to find a story people would believe. Behind her she could hear Sanae saying, "I've never heard anyone use that measurement before, and who actually make's a throne out of skulls?"
Seeking something a little more reasonable Hatate angled for the drinks. As she reached the first table she overheard Wriggle yelling at one of the fairies, "What do you mean they drown a poor larva in the bottle? Why would you do that!" She decided to just take a picture and move on.
The next table looked more promising. It seemed like a collection of hard liquors, given the small size of the glasses. Hatate grabbed the one that said Fire God. It had a strange odor, unlike any plant she'd come across before. Shrugging, Hatate threw the drink back.
The taste of the liquor was strange, though Hatate could tell it was strong. Not that it mattered much to a Tengu like her. She waited a second for the aftertaste.
Then sputtered as her mouth seemed to catch fire. She looked around, and on finding a glass of water proceeded to drain the whole thing. There was a brief respite, but then things only seemed to get worse.
The white haired immortal walked in front of her with a malicious smirk. "Hah. Looks like you fell for it. Here, this'll help a bit." She handed Hatate some of the flattened bread that had been part of most of the dishes. Hatate stuffed it into her mouth. It didn't taste great, and the pain didn't really go away, but it was at least reduced.
After she'd finally finished swallowing the food, she looked up at Mokou. "What the hell did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. That drink's called fire god because they mix it with some kind of spice. Jalapeno I think they call it," Mokou snickered. "Though I do admit that it's amusing seeing a Tengu finally find a human drink they can't take."
"I was just surprised, that's all," Hatate said. "Next time I'll be ready!"
"So you want another shot?" Mokou asked with a grin.
Hatate hoped her face didn't show her stomach's rebellion at the thought. "I want to be able to taste the rest of the food being served."
"Of course," Mokou said with her irritating smirk.
Hatate was about to get away from the annoying human when the lights suddenly dimmed, except those around a decently sized puppet stage. "Presenting the Margetroid Puppet Theater Troupe, and the Many Faces of Death"
As the room stood quietly the curtains parted to reveal a startlingly accurate background of the Hakurei shrine. With a puppet figure that looked almost like Reimu sweeping the steps. Almost in that in addition to being only about a foot tall, the doll had a horrible oni mask for a face.
The crowd laughed as the tiny oni miko chased off a Rumia doll (that looked twice as innocent as it had any right to) by whacking it with a broom. Then the miko went to bed, and a skeleton faced figure in black robes holding a scythe tiptoed in.
It moved to the side of the bed gave the crowd a lave and a silent laugh, then whacked the oni miko with the scythe. The room exploded in laughter again, as Reimu yelled out, "Hey! What's the big idea!"
"Since when did death have such a big rack?" asked Hatate quietly.
"You've seen Komachi right?" Mokou replied.
The backdrop fell away to reveal a forest scene, this time with a familiar figure in purple standing about. The mini Yukari proceeded to steal a bottle of sake, beat a cute Ran puppet with her parasol, then was crushed by a falling moon to the laughter of the audience. Laughter that quickly turned to boos when two Lunarians appeared on top of the moon to wave, then to cheers when the death figure slammed down a plunger and blew the moon up.
The scenes continued, with a Marisa puppet pickpocketing a stick of dynamite off death, a Eirin puppet drinking a potion with a skull and crossbones on it (helpfully placed their by a rabbit eared death), and an Aya puppet getting tarred and feathered before being carted off by death. Hatate got a good laugh out of the last one. The recipients of course reacted with varying degrees of enthusiasm. No one seemed to care enough to stop the show though.
Finally the backdrop changed to the SDM itself, where a familiar vampire tossed about fairy maids and acted generally spoiled. Then the death poked it's head in and pulled a lever sending the little vampire doll down a trap door. Remilia's "What!" only caused the crowd to laugh louder as the curtain fell, the lights brightened, and Alice stepped out to make a bow.
"What was that?" Remilia repeated. "Didn't Sakuya give you a script!"
Alice shrugged. "Yes, and I followed it."
The human maid appeared behind her mistress. "I altered the script slightly my mistress. After all, it would be unseemly to leave you out of the performance since all the other major players in Gensoukyo were involved." Hatate could see Yukari hiding her amusement in the back.
Remilia's face blanked. Then her eyes narrowed. She realized she was getting played, but the logic was unshakable, from Remilia's point of view anyway. "Very well, carry on."
Hatate chuckled again as she punched in a few more words to her notes. "This is excellent. Never thought I'd get to report on Aya's humiliation so directly."
Mokou's chuckle reminded Hatate that the immortal was still present. "Heh. You're pretty young, aren't you kid? Two, three hundred years old would be my guess."
Hatate briefly wondered how the human had known but she shook that off. "What are you acting so smug about human? That's still longer then your race usually lives."
"Yeah, but you're still younger then me kid. Always will be." Mokou sighed and grabbed a beer off the third drink table. "And, Aya wasn't humiliated there. All you other reporters were."
Hatate frowned. "What are you talking about. They killed her on stage for laughs."
"Exactly." Mokou smiled. "That means she's the most important reporter in Gensoukyo. You don't rate being offed in effigy."
"That doesn't mean she's good, that means she's a jerk." Hatate pointed at where Gensoukyo's oldest magician stood, "Byakuren's pretty powerful, and people wouldn't laugh if she was one of the featured characters."
Mokou nodded. "You're right there. Byakuren's not loved by all, but people aren't that annoyed by her." Mokou raised a finger. "But Byakuren's a priestess. You're a journalist. It's your JOB to piss off the people in power." Mokou waved her hand across the room. "And we're the people with power, to some degree."
Hatate opened her mouth, then closed it. She wasn't sure how to reply.
Mokou smiled a little more kindly this time. "Well you'll figure it out for yourself. Or maybe you'll prove me wrong. Whatever. Anyway I'm going to go celebrate life and death by killing the princess a couple of times, so if you'll excuse me..."
Hatate watched as Mokou grabbed the bottle of Fire God and strolled off towards the Eientei crew to deliver a spicy alcohol related death to her eternal foe.
Hatate wondered about the humans words. What was the point of her journalism? What were her words supposed to convey? The Great Tengu printed basic happenings. Aya printed mostly trash interviews with unique headlines and perfect pictures. And Hatate... she printed, well a newspaper based on research. Where did that put her?
She looked over her notes and realized that she was just repeating what had happened again. She looked over to where her rival was chatting with Flandre Scarlet. Aya wouldn't just repeat how there was a puppet show and strange foods like all the other Tengu in the room would. She'd make something up. Something new and different. If Aya had her notes she'd go write a story about Orin's plan to revive the Aztec sacrifices. Or about Yukari's little deal with the maid.
She was just about to go pump Orin for more ideas when a pale figure moved in front of her. "Hello Miss Tengu," Yuyuko said cheerily. "So do you find this festival fun?"
"Yeah. It's pretty nice. It makes me forget I'm working sometimes."
"Ah, that's good." Yuyuko hid her smile with her fan. "Well hopefully you'll find something related to the topic at hand. It's so easy to get distracted by the side details, that the reason for the festival becomes a surprise when it's brought up again."
Hatate blinked, then looked around again. Yuyuko's words rang true. In her haste to fix the mistake Mokou had pointed out, she'd forgotten the reason she was here. There was no part in coming here to make an article if she didn't fit the scene. "Hm... You're right. The story should be about death. Youkai are fascinated by death. But the people here aren't likely to die. Not sure I could get a story out of that."
"Very good. And don't forget, humans are fascinated by death as well. After all, they created this holiday on their own." Yuyuko's smile became a little more melancholy. "Sadly I can't offer you suggestions myself. I've forgotten about my death. But some others haven't."
"Anyway have fun Miss Tengu. And do send me a copy of your paper." Yuyuko waved and flew towards one of the appetizer plates. A small number of marigolds tumbled after her. Apparently she drew the flowers to her, instead of the other way around.
Hatate sighed and thought things over again. She wanted to learn from Aya's success, but she didn't want to fall into trashy journalism. What could she do?
Her eyes flitted about the room until she saw one figure. A figure that tied everything neatly together in her mind. She quickly moved across the room to catch the woman before she got sucked into another conversation.
"Excuse me Miss Hijiri? Hatate Himekaidou, Kakashi Spirit News. We've met before."
Byakuren looked up at her with some surprise. Then recognition. "Indeed. I do recall you. What can I help you with?"
Hatate took a deep breath. "Well, I was thinking about what to write about this festival. And since this festival is honoring the dead, I decided my readers would want to hear about the lives of some of the people who had passed on from those who knew them. So I was wondering if you were willing to tell me about your brother?"
Byakuren froze. When she recovered she said, "Um... Well, there's a lot of work on his life already written down. A historian would be of more use really."
Hatate shook her head. "I'm not interested in the history really. I wanted to hear your personal thoughts, if you're willing to tell me."
Bayakuren chewed her lip for a moment, then slowly gave a weak smile. "I'm not sure if it'll be interesting, but I'd like to tell you all the same, if you don't mind?"
Hatate nodded and began writing, as Byakuren started telling stories about her brother. Not the stories of mystical feats or timeless wisdom. But the time he tripped from a discarded mop, or when one of the senior monks taught him something he'd overlooked. She smiled slightly as a crowd began to form. Perhaps this would be a fitting report for the "Day of the Dead."
And if that failed she could still put the kassha story on page two.
