"…Have you felt them?"
"It would be hard not to. Their very presence distorts the world."
"I suppose it is within their domain. Still, this troubles me. That group may destabilize the careful balance of power we have painstakingly built."
"We must be fair. They have done nothing wrong except settle on the Earth."
"Indeed. But the fact that their existence harms the world is troubling in its own right."
"That thinking is a dangerous slope. We are gods and goddesses, but even so, we do not have the right to establish judgment based on their birth."
"You are too kind dear sister. If we do not act now, their threat shall grow. It is better to err on suspicion than to misplace trust."
"What a disgusting sentiment. You reach too easily towards violence when peaceful means are available."
"Are you sure you are not biased dear sister? Even now you do not face me-"
"Do not dare to cast suspicion on my judgment! You might be one of the eldest, but you can still be in error! And I am not some weak spirit that shall bend to your whims."
"And you remain too soft dear sister. You shine the brightest but it blinds you of the darkness."
"Enough! We are here to discuss the threat this group presents. If you wish to continue this petty argument, then do so afterwards!"
"Petty…!"
"How dare…!"
"SILENCE."
"…"
"…"
"We rule this pure world of the Moon. Any business the impure may have shall be left alone."
"That is incredibly careless. We must remain ever vigilant, or the impure may start invading once more…"
"And we shall be. But as long as these impure gods and goddesses remain in their impure world, we shall leave them be. We will honor the immemorial pact."
"Very well…"
"Your will be done."
"Now then, what is this about a rebellion I hear…?"
"Recently, someone has been calling on us…"
"wHAT a sTRANGE wORLD wE aRE iN, wHERE tHE mOON hIDES tHE pURE aND tHE hOLY."
"hAH! a sELF-pROCLAIMED dISTINCTION. tHEY aRE nO bETTER tHAN tHE tERRAN."
"pERHAPS. iT iS sTRANGE tO sEE a wORLD tHAT iS aLIVE aGAIN tOO tHOUGH. wHAT nEW sIGHTS tHERE mUST bE. "
"wHAT aRE tHESE sTRANGE cREATURES? yOUKAI? aRE tHEY nOT tHE sAME aS uS? yOU tHINK tHEY tASTE gOOD~?"
"iNTERESTING. tHE sIMILIARITIES aRE tHERE. iS tHIS nOT a sUITABLE aNSWER?"
"iNDEED. cAN wE nOT uSE tHEM?"
"Make a decision already~ I want to play again~ I want to play, I want tO pLAY~!"
"…zZZ…Zzz…"
"aND oUR Dreamer rEMAINS aSLEEP. lAZY bITCH…"
"wHeRE is THE HErAld?"
A city. Smoking, cloudy, dark. Mist all over the area.
Abandoned.
Forgotten.
Dilapidated buildings and soot-covered streets. But the streetlights are on. Bright. Blindingly bright. Harsh. Burning.
What a nostalgic place.
"Hello."
A voice. Familiar. Faint.
He closed his eyes. He kept them closed.
He knew how to deal with this.
"So here you are."
He was lying on the bench.
A shuffle.
Gently lifting his head, then putting it on a lap.
HER lap.
He kept his eyes closed.
Cold hands. Dead hands.
"Is this right."
A cold voice. Empty. Almost incomprehensible. Meaning without words. Words without meaning.
"Even now."
Even now.
"I see."
Cold hands. Running through his hair. Softly. Gently.
Disgust. Resignation. Apathy.
He would rather take the nightmares.
Tai yawned. He swept the grounds of the shrine. The cold air blew in, caressing his red cheeks. He rubbed his tired eyes.
He kept sweeping. He looked over the world. The trees seemed bare today. The red leaves have fallen, and the empty sea of canopies seemed to tug at his heartstrings.
How sad.
From life unto death. From spring unto fall. From death unto void. From fall into winter. And from the darkness into the light.
Nature's vicious, gentle cycle. An equal chance for her cherished children. A season for the fall creatures, the winter creatures, the spring creatures, then the summer creatures.
Nature is fair. Mercilessly fair.
He kept sweeping. Oh, he was done. He put them in the compost, and stretched his back. His body felt sore. It was a horrible night's sleep. It was not in his nature to complain, but he will never take Kochoumugan again, he thought as he grasped his new charm.
He managed to finish planting his seeds. He bought a new lock for the storage house, which now contained several materials for making a greenhouse as instructed by a book he read from the Voile. He found quite a treasure during his brief stint at Kourindou too.
It felt like only yesterday when he worked there. It was in fact the day before yesterday, but he digressed…
He had enjoyed the hospitality of the Scarlet Devil Mansion for four days. He spent quite a bit of time with Flandre, just playing with her and teaching her control.
Tai was pretty sure that Remilia suspected them about the bloomers incident. He really had nothing to do with it. He just did what Flandre asked him after all.
He did wonder why a vampire mansion contained a store of Holy Water. Flandre mentioned something about spicy seasoning, but still.
He also spent quite a bit of time in the Voile. It was a magnificent library. Much bigger than he was used to. It extended to what seems to be a mile, and it rose an impressive sixty feet in height. A marvelous repertoire of knowledge. Patchouli Knowledge deserves her name indeed.
"NYAHAHAHA~ THANKS FOR THE BOOKS PATCHOULI~"
"WATER SIGN: Jellyfish Princess!" Boom.
Tai took out his umbrella and opened it. Just in time for the sudden spray of water. He made sure to angle the umbrella away from the tomes he was reading, though Koakuma, Patchouli's servant, did assure him that they were essentially indestructible.
He was reading The Apprentice's Guide to Other Apprentices: Magical Fundamentals by some person's name in a dead tongue. He was reading on how people could draw in mana from the air and od within the body and mixes them together to create prana. He had another book called The Apprentice's Guide to the Apprentice's Guide: Magical Definitions by the same person. He referred to it often when he needed to figure out the meaning of some of the magical technical jargon he was reading. And besides that was The Apprentice's Guide to the Apprentice's Guide to the Apprentice's Guide: Magical Vernacular by the same person once more, who decided to dumb it down so that even his non-magical family members understood what he spoke about.
Tai had the sneaking suspicion that this person was very rich during his time.
"Taaaaaaaai~ I'm booooooooorrrrreeed~ Stop being a Patchouli and play with me!" Flandre complained, kicking her feet up as she sat beside him. She reached for a cookie and dipped it into her red tea, biting into it boredly.
"Just a minute." Tai muttered, writing some notes into a notepad he bought from the village.
"You said that sixty times already!" Flandre whined.
"Fifty-eight."
"Fine, fifty-eight times already! Wait, you know? You jerk!" Flandre pointed at him accusingly. Tai smiled a bit before sighing, closing all three tomes. Koakuma appeared behind him.
"Are you done Tai-sama? I'll take them for you then, koa~" Koakuma cheerfully stated.
"…First off, no –sama. Secondly, thank you Koa-chan. You're a great help." Tai smiled at her. Koakuma blushed prettily and nodded. She took the three books and flew off, her head wings flapping happily.
Flandre gave Tai a disgruntled look. Then she kicked his shin.
"Ow." Tai winced, rubbing his shin.
"Hmph." Flandre looked to the side, crossing her arms.
"What?" Tai looked at her confusedly.
"Nothing. Come on, let's plaaaaaaaay~" Flandre tugged at his arms.
"…This sight is so weird." Reimu declared unhappily. She had one of all five different snacks on her plate and was sipping some hot chocolate. Yu-Reimu had her own plate of pudding that she was voraciously destroying. Mimi-chan was off somewhere, archiving more and more books. She was so excited she literally busted a nut. Tai quickly fixed that with Patchouli's help, though the Unmoving Great Library was confused by the urgency.
"What's so weird?" Tai and Flandre chorused. They tilted their head to the side and scratched their head, looking at Reimu quizzically.
"Indeed. This is quite the scene." Remilia elegantly sipped her tea, eyes closed. She didn't really know how to feel about the sight.
On one hand, Flandre has calmed down a lot and was a lot cheerier. On the other hand, it was all because of an outsider.
She did not admit to herself that she was jealous. Because she was not.
Alice Margatroid, the Seven-Colored Puppeteer, currently guest of Patchouli, closed Marisa's grimoire. Marisa gave it to her to read before she started taunting Patchouli by 'borrowing' her books again. Marisa might actually mean to do that, but Alice was also confident that Marisa acted up to get Patchouli moving. It was a Marisa thing to do.
The grimoire contained all of Marisa's research over the year. It has all of her notes and calculations over evocational magic involving celestial elements, the alchemy she was so fond of that was based on the magic-infused mushrooms of the Forest of Magic…
It was…Fantastic. Utterly brilliant in design and organization.
Alice was very surprised. She thought her boisterous neighbor would be a much messier researcher than she actually was, and she honestly expected a diary more than an academic report.
"Yahahaha~ That was fun Patchouli~" Marisa giggled, flying down with her new broom. Her hat was slightly smoking on the top, and her right side was wet.
"You…You…" Patchouli panted, flying down and slumping down a chair. Patchouli was very miffed that her important research over Spell Resistance and other like phenomena was stopped by her invader/guest.
"This is actually a brilliant work Marisa. I'm surprised. If I don't stay vigilant, you might actually surpass me." Alice complimented Marisa, still quite shocked.
Patchouli blinked at that. She wordlessly held out her hand, and Alice gave Marisa's grimoire to her absent-mindedly.
"Ahahaha~ Thanks a lot fer the praise Alice~ It means a lot coming from my shy, hermit neighbor~" Marisa smiled widely, scratching her head. Alice felt her eyebrow twitch. She felt some regret praising the witch in front of her then. She was just so…Marisa.
Patchouli didn't say anything for a while. As Tai and Flandre left to do havoc elsewhere in the mansion and Remilia and Reimu sniped at each other, she read over the grimoire, sipping the tea Sakuya suddenly provided.
Patchouli closed the book and her eyes.
"Well~? What'cha think Patch-"
"Do you really not mean to become a Magician, Kirisame Marisa?" Patchouli asked, her eyes still closed. Alice bit into a cookie, watching the two.
"What'cha mean? Of course I do, I'm the Ordinary Black Witch after all~" Marisa cheerfully stated.
"You know what I mean Marisa." Patchouli patiently said. Marisa is just so…Marisa sometimes.
For a while, the three magicians said nothing. Marisa reached for the last cookie and bit into it, looking up into the ceiling.
"Your work really is superb…" Patchouli eventually said.
"And, it just would be a shame to lose your knowledge and skills due to old age." Alice added in, looking at Marisa, puzzled.
"There are just so many advantages to becoming a true Magician. You gain a larger well of power, a longer life-span…You can actually finish in your own lifetime that grand scale project you told me about before." Patchouli finished, still keeping her eyes closed.
"…Well…"
A quiet voice. It was so unfamiliar. For Patchouli and Alice, the two others who spent the most time with Marisa besides Reimu and Morichika Rinnosuke, it was different to the point of jarring. It took them a few seconds before they actually recognized it as Marisa.
"I guess…That would be fun too…" Marisa gave a quiet smile. She wasn't looking at the two Magicians. She had her face to the right. Looking at where Reimu began swinging her gohei threateningly at a smirking Remilia.
Patchouli and Alice didn't understand. So they said nothing.
A shocking request.
"N-No." Remilia was shocked.
"Why not? She said she wanted to go out. She promised to behave too." Tai tilted his head to the side.
"Can you really guarantee that NOTHING will happen, human?" Remilia snapped off. She glared at Tai darkly, insulted by his daring.
"Yes. I trust Flandre." Tai simply said. Remilia flinched at that and grit her teeth, inadvertently baring them at him. He calmly watched as Reimu reached for her seals, watching Remilia warily.
"Do you think I do not?"
"Do you think you do?"
"YES! I trust my little sister, human!" Remilia clenched her fist. How dare he question her…!
"Then you will let her outside." Tai declared confidently.
Flandre looked from the side, intimidated. She was just venting to her older sister like she often did, demanding that she let her go outside. One thing was different though:
Tai.
He agreed with Flandre. When Remilia said no as she usually did, and before Flandre can throw her tantrum, he intervened. And suddenly they're arguing.
On one hand, it was her older sister.
On the other, it was her friend.
On one hand, her amazing older sister only had her respect.
On the other, she really did want to go outside the mansion.
She felt torn, and was delegated to spectator instead.
"Don't you dare use sophistry to trick me human. I have played that game many tens of times your lifetime." Remilia hissed.
"It is not mere sophistry. It is simply a fact. Hear my words: I trust Flandre. Flandre wants to go outside. She can go outside. If you are worried about the sun, she will bring a parasol. If you are worried she will get into trouble, she is strong. If you are worried she will go into a rage, she won't." Tai listed.
"And what do you base this confidence of your on? Your five-day 'friendship'? She has been my little sister for several centuries! I know her better than anyone else on this planet!" Remilia shouted.
"Then you should know what is only obvious to me, who has been her friend for 'only' five days. She promised she will not cause trouble, and she will not." Tai calmly defended.
They stared at each other. Remilia's eyes flashed red from her rage, and Tai's eyes remained the ever calm oasis of black.
"…Flandre." Remilia calmly stated.
"Y-Yes onee-sama?" Flandre stuttered, unconsciously backing away.
"Do you promise not to 'kyuu' or 'boom' anything?" Remilia commanded more than questioned.
"Yes! Yes onee-sama!" Flandre screamed out hopefully. It stabbed through Remilia's wavering heart.
She closed her eyes and turned away. "Tch. I hold you responsible for what happens, human." Remilia stalked away.
Flandre spun in place, joy singing in her heart.
"Oi, are you seriously bringing her out with you?" Reimu asked, disturbed.
"Yes." Tai looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
Reimu sighed, massaging her forehead. This man…
"WOO~ Go Mimi-chan~!" Flandre cheered, riding on Tai's shoulders.
Mimi-chan laughed a bit before accelerating towards Kourindou. Tai was smiling happily at the flight. Reimu bit into a cookie, sitting behind him. She felt lazy and didn't want to fly on her own that day. She left behind Marisa who wanted to 'play' with Patchouli and Alice some more. Yu-Reimu snoozed on in her arms.
"What exactly are you looking for in Kourindou, Tai?" Reimu shouted out her question.
"I'm looking for something for Flandre, a refrigerator, and a generator!" He shouted back.
"Something for me~?" Flandre screamed out joyfully.
"Yep! It should help with our lessons. And I think it's something you've needed for a long time." He shouted back.
"Yay~! A gift~" Flandre cheered.
"A refrigerator?! You mean one of those cold boxes?! What would you need them for?!" Reimu shouted out.
"I need them to keep my vegetables in good condition! Winter may get too cold for them after all!"
"Oi, you don't have any vegetables yet!"
"I'm planning ahead!"
"Then where are you putting it!? We don't have electricity!"
"That's what the generator is for!"
"Oh!...What's a generator?!"
They continued that loud conversation as Mimi-chan neared Kourindou.
Flandre floated off Mimi-chan, looking around wildly. She was burning everything she was seeing into her memories. Her body began smoking. Tai put her under her parasol, which she grabbed. Carefully, she remembered. It didn't break, and she smiled brightly at Tai, who smiled his congratulations.
Reimu opened the door. "Oi, Rinnosuke-san! You up?"
"Ah, Reimu. Hello there." Rinnosuke waved from his counter, reading a book. It was empty as always.
Flandre, Tai, and Mimi-chan entered the store, looking around. She floated around the store, ooh-ing and aah-ing at everything, refraining from touching anything. Mimi-chan began scanning every object.
"Nope, that thing is broke."
"That thing too."
"Yep, that thing too."
"Oh, that's salvageable."
"Mint-condition!"
"Nope, this one is broke."
Mimi-chan cheerfully reported. Tai smiled in amusement as Rinnosuke got up, intensely interested.
"Ah, Tai. Welcome to Kourindou. May I ask who and what is she?" Rinnosuke inspected Mimi-chan who kept firing reports on the merchandise.
"Hi! I'm Mimi-chan, and I'm a nuke." Mimi-chan cheerfully introduced herself.
"A nuke…? I have not heard of those…" Rinnosuke mused, reaching for Mimi-chan.
Tai reached for the bottom of a pile, making it fall towards Flandre who 'eep'-ed and flew back. Flandre glared at Tai who winced and apologized.
"Please! Do not hurt my merchandise!" Rinnosuke hurried towards them.
Reimu felt like she luckily avoided something troublesome.
Tai spent two hours explaining the functions of many of the merchandise alongside Mimi-chan. Flandre got bored and decided to explore the area around the shop, prompting Reimu to follow her, exasperated.
"…And that is what a Game Boy is."
"Oh, I see! It is an entertainment tool using interactive pixelated artwork. Pixels, being several dots that create an image when seen far away. So it seems like a mind control device only in as far as it 'controls' the pixelated characters within the game. What an amusing invention the outside made…" Rinnosuke enthusiastically muttered.
"Indeed. The allure of it is surprisingly large. Many people could waste entire weeks on a game like this." Tai nodded.
"Yep~ Mimi-chan plays games on her own time when she waits for the mistress to come back home~" Mimi-chan cheerfully said.
"Oh? What games do you have?" Tai looked at Mimi-chan, confused.
"Oh, just those bullet hell games the old mistress was so fond of." Mimi-chan shrugged.
"Hmm, well, that would be the eightieth item! According to our deal, I owe you four items then. What will they be Tai-san?" Rinnosuke politely reminded.
Tai walked over to a pedal-powered generator, a broken but fixable refrigerator, and a stress ball. "Well, I would definitely like these three. Would you know anybody who can help fix the machines up?"
"Oh yes. The kappa and I could do that for you. But we would have to charge you-" Rinnosuke was about to warn.
"Done. Here." Tai reached into his kimono and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out a large wad of bills and dumped then on Rinnosuke's counter.
Rinnosuke said nothing. He just stared at the bills.
"If possible, I want the refrigerator to be powered by this generator. I'm not sure when you can have them ready but-"
"I will get them ready tomorrow." Rinnosuke said oddly.
Tai and Mimi-chan blinked at Rinnosuke, who suddenly had flaming bright eyes.
"I will make them better too! Faster, stronger! I have the craftsmanship!" He proudly declared.
"…Ah, yes. Thank you." Tai shook his head.
"Uwaa, how energetic~" Mimi-chan giggled.
"Ah, but I owe you a fourth one. Which one do you want, or will you just hold off-"
Another mini-avalanche. The three turned around to see Yu-Reimu pitifully calling out for help. It seemed she was buried by…
Tai blinked. He lifted the book off Yu-Reimu, who remained flattened. She weakly 'Yu'-ed out her thanks as Tai stared at the object on top of the book.
What on Earth is it doing here?
"Ah, that was a curious trinket I found during my earlier travels. I'm not entirely certain what the shape of it means, but it apparently has the purpose of protection, so I believe it to be a lucky charm of sorts-"
"I'll take this." Tai faintly said.
"What? Are you cer-"
"Yes!" Rinnosuke and Mimi-chan blinked at that instance of excitement. Tai shook his head and coughed.
"Yes, I definitely want this."
"O-Oh, very well. Go ahead." Tai nodded at Rinnosuke in thanks and put it on.
Tai felt a huge weight suddenly lift off his shoulders. He blinked, before smiling brightly.
It was real! It was the real deal!
Afterwards, they went home. Flandre enjoyed her time outside, no matter how brief. Tai promised her that he will take her with him when he finally journeyed all over Gensokyo, and she excitedly agreed. He gave her the stress ball and told her to squeeze it whenever she felt like squeezing an eye. It was reinforced by Reimu's seals, which she applied after a trip to the eel stand. The mistress of the house, Remilia, seemed to disappear, and Sakuya said she didn't know where she was. After picking up Marisa and waving his farewells at Sakuya and Meiling, the group went home.
Tai had someone make stronger chains for his new trinket, and now he had taken to wearing it every day. Reimu shrugged and thought it was some odd Outsider thing and didn't question further.
All in all, he had a good day the day before yesterday. Yesterday was even better.
"Kappa-pa~ Here it is~! Nitorified, Version 2.3! The Awesome, Shiny Fridge of the North!" Kawashiro Nitori happily declared to the seated Reimu, who was blankly looking on from the veranda.
"…What."
"It has 300% more efficient cooling capabilities, is 122% more fuel efficient, and it can talk back to you when you feel lonely! And it's shiny!" Indeed it was. It shone like mirror it was so shiny. Considering it was high noon, Reimu squinted with her eyes to look at the fridge.
"…That's good?" Reimu tried.
"It gets even better! Using kappa certified technologies, a little bit of luck, the Kourindou shop keeper, and some blessings from the mountain goddesses, we have made this fridge capable of defending against any ill-intentioned intruders, and can transform into something Sanae-chan called a 'robot'!" Nitori happily pressed a button, and the fridge transformed into a fridge with arms, legs, and a rectangular line that opened on the freezer that beeped red periodically.
"…" Reimu sipped her tea, bored.
"…C'mon Reimu-chan, give me something to work with here." Nitori whined.
"Oh? I mean, that's great. Really. So amazing." Reimu deadpanned.
Nitori pouted at Reimu.
"What's going on?" Tai called out, turning from the side of the shrine, wiping his dirty hands with a towel. He wiped his forehead and took a drink from his water bottle.
Nitori hid behind the refrigerator.
"Oh, your 'robot' fridge came by." Reimu sipped her tea again.
"Oh, that's gre- 'Robot'?"
"…U-Um….Who is this Reimu-chan….?" Nitori shyly peeked out from behind.
Tai blinked at the small kappa girl. "Yo."
"Meep!" She hid again, blushing shyly.
"…Oh right. Nitori is shy around new humans." Reimu realized slowly.
"Is that so? Don't worry, don't worry Nitori-san, I don't bite." Tai smiled.
Nitori peeked around the fridge. She saw Tai's smile and giggled embarrassedly, scratching her head as she moved back to the front.
"O-Oh…Sorry for showing you a weird side of me Tai-san. I'm Kawashiro Nitori, and I'm a kappa, kappa-pa~ Kappa and humans of Gensokyo have been friends for a long time, so I hope you'll be my friend?" Nitori asked hopefully.
"Of course. It is always good to have and make friends." Tai nodded, smiling.
Nitori began repeating the features of the refrigerator, with Tai nodding and awing at the right moments.
Nitori waved her farewells at them, and flew off cheerfully. Rinnosuke came up the shrine soon after, just after Nitori disappeared into the distance.
"Hello Tai-san! And Reimu, hello." Reimu twitched at that. She was the afterthought, was she? It was her shrine, she grumbled in her thoughts.
"I have your generator right here Tai-san! I must say, for one day's work, it turned out magnificently."
"…I'll say." Tai managed.
The pedal-powered generator was actually floating. The bottom was replaced with an octagonal sort of device which let out a blue energy into the bottom, keeping the generator floating. The pedals, if they can still be called that, became a foot rest, and well, the seat was converted into a chair.
"I managed to combine the energy collecting matrix of the mini-hakkero into converting arcane energies into electrical energy, and I have taken the liberty to apply every sort of outlet you described into the generator. I have plugs stored here," Rinnosuke opened up the side of the chair, showing off coils of cords, "and this blue one here is the one that will connect the refrigerator into the generator. What do you think Tai-san? Every bit your money's worth."
Tai stared at this man in awe. The man made a self-powering generator for 20, 000 Yen. Holy shit.
"…Thank you very much Rinnosuke-san. You are truly a credit to your craft." Tai honestly praised.
"Thank you for your praise Tai-san. I feel that I must do my best for my paying customers after all." Rinnosuke chuckled. Reimu twitched at that. What did that mean?
Rinnosuke chatted with Tai and Reimu for a bit before waving his farewells, flying off.
"…You make friends with youkai so easily, Tai." Reimu commented, biting into a rice cracker, seated by her table. She looked at Tai, leaning into her knuckle, her arm on her leg. Tai commanded the fridge robot to bring in the generator, and had connected them. He opened the fridge and found it cool already, further amazing him.
"I suppose. The youkai are just naturally friendly though, and it's easy to be friends with people who want to be friends." Tai shrugged.
"I suppose. You just…Never really freak out about them. Most Outsiders do. Heck, most humans from the Human Village still do." Reimu explained.
"Hmm…" Tai whispered something then went into the shrine to take a bath.
Reimu said nothing. Yu-Reimu bounced towards her, and she smiled, opening her lap and letting it bounce into position.
"I wonder Yu-Reimu-chan…Did you hear what Tai said?"
"Yu~ Yu~" Yu-Reimu cheerfully cried out.
"Thank you dear." She patted her yukkuri.
'…I've lived with worse…'
Reimu mused on that a bit. Then Yukari gapped in and attacked. Reimu sighed, calling in the gods and goddesses again.
"Oh, Tai-san? You are up early." Sakuya said, surprised.
"…I must say the same to you Sakuya-san." Tai raised an eyebrow at the Perfectly Elegant Maid as she landed.
"Oh, I was flying by and checked to see if Reimu was already up." Sakuya explained.
"Reimu does not usually awaken until a few hours from now Sakuya-san." Tai shrugged.
"Really? Why not wake her up to help you sweep the grounds?" Though, Sakuya mused, looking around, it looked like he didn't need any.
"I wake up too early. Even I can admit that. So I decided to spend the time making myself useful before Reimu awoke." Tai shrugged again.
"Oh? If only I had help like that in the mansion…" Sakuya sighed.
"So what brings you out of the mansion so early Sakuya-san?"
"…Well, I suppose I am here to speak with you too." Sakuya shifted around.
Tai leaned on his broom, looking at Sakuya. He gestured at her to go on.
"Please do not think badly of Milady. She just feels conflicted over the Young Mistress. She had been trying for centuries what you managed in barely a week." Sakuya explained. She knew that, despite the fact that Remilia could survive Flandre, it would have hurt Flandre a lot more to see her break her own sister repeatedly. That was what probably occurred long ago, Sakuya speculated. Probably why Remilia refrained and floundered for so long.
"Don't worry, don't worry." Tai shook his head. "I am only happy to help the friend I made in your mansion."
"Even still…" Sakuya tried.
"…It's not something Remilia-san should worry about. In the race for Flandre's affections, big sister has been and always will be first after all." Tai smiled at Sakuya.
Sakuya blinked before smiling back at Tai. She bowed before turning around, about to fly off.
"…You wouldn't happen to know about rockets, would you?"
Tai blinked before calling over Mimi-chan.
A shooting star fell down that night. It flew into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.
Afterwards, a lone youkai rabbit stumbled around before falling into a hole. Her eyes swirled as she fell unconscious. The next day, Tewi brought her into Eientei. A fluttering kimono of ethereal beauty drifted on a bamboo shoot, before disappearing into the dark.
"She shifted in her sleep."
"Congratulations to her. Should I make her a medal?"
"This new forms feel…Odd. And limited."
"I suppose it comes with the territory. Wish I could negotiate though."
"I'm bored, entertain me~ Let's dance under the moonlight~"
"Alright, alright, calm down Milady. We should eat first after all~"
"Zzz…Zzz…"
#$%Once more, I thank Touhou doujin writers like Giselebon and the man himself, ZUN, alongside artist Aki Eda for creating this Land of Fantasy.%$#