Touhou Gensokyo Girls
Episode 11: Shrine party (Colorful borders)
HAKUREI SHRINE: morning
Reimu was cleaning the front yard in preparations for the evening party at her place, when Alice was walking towards her, "good morning Reimu."
Reimu wasn't in the best of moods but replied nonetheless, "morning, what brings you out here?"
"I just came back from shopping and decided to say hello." Alice explained, she was in pretty high spirits.
Reimu chuckled a bit, "and here I thought you used your dolls to do all of your work."
"I can't control them from such a long distance, but I did let them carry all the groceries." Alice told her and pointed down the stairs leading up to the shrine, where a small battalion of dolls carried a host of shopping bags.
Reimu noticed the large group of dolls accompanying her, "Wow! You buy a lot of stuff!"
Alice smiled as she continued talking, "I did buy a lot of sake, now that you are holding a shrine party and I even got some wine from someplace far, far away."
"So you want to join my party, I take it." Reimu asked indifferently.
Alice gave her an uncertain look, "Am I, not invited?"
"Well… For a youkai, you are at least a decent person," Reimu complemented her in her own way, "unlike many others I could mention..." she mumbled in a low voice.
"I'll take that as a compliment, and a yes." Alice replied, she felt a bit uneasy.
"As long as you don't eat humans or look like a monster, you can come." Reimu's voice was monotone, like she was reading up from a law book.
"You make it sound like all youkais eats humans!" Alice was filled with a feeling of dread.
"Am I wrong?" Reimu pressed, she mostly just wanted to make sure.
Alice was getting tired of being accused, "you are wrong! I may not speak on behalf of others, but I could never ever eat a human, I was once a human myself you know!"
"And that makes you a non human-eating youkai?" Reimu asked, sounding more aggressive than intended.
"YES! The mere thought of it disgusts me." Alice retorted, hoping she finally got through to the shrine maiden.
Just as Reimu was about to give her reply, Marisa came swooping down and interrupted both of them, "hi Reimu, I got the sake you requested, oh and hi Alice, are you coming to the party too?"
"I am, if Reimu will let me, that is." Alice answered a little hopefully.
"You can come if you like." Reimu allowed with a smile.
Alive smiled in returned and accepted the invitation.
"Awesome!" Marisa wrapped her arm around Alice's neck in cheer, "I am curious to see how much sake you can drink?"
Alice blushed at their closeness, "I really don't want to test it, to be honest."
"Reimu, who else do you think will come?" Marisa asked coarsely
"I don't know, some human worshipers would be nice..." Reimu looked up at the sky with a wistful look in her eye.
"I bet the vampires will come and maybe those spring stealing ghosts as well." Marisa added with a grin.
A cold shiver ran through Reimu's skin at the mere mention of them, "I hope not... but I am most certain they will."
"Will that maid friend of yours come as well?" Alice asked curiously.
"You mean Sakuya?" Marisa asked in return, just wanted her to confirm, even though she was pretty sure it was the chief maid of the Scarlet devil mansion she meant.
Reimu was grumbling a little, "I doubt the vampires will go out without their chief maid to support them." She wished that the maid would go without the vampires instead.
"The vampires from the Scarlet mansion are coming here?!" Alice asked concerned, there was even a trace of fear in her voice.
Marisa shrugged her shoulders a little bit, "They aren't all that bad, there is even one I want to introduce to you."
A mental flash of Flandre appeared in Reimu's mind for just a second, "And you think she would survive that?"
"I meant Patchouli, we all have a common interest in magic." Marisa reproved Reimu, and then addressed Alice, "You should see the enormous library they've got."
"First of all, Patchouli isn't a vampire, just a normal magica youkai." Reimu corrected her friend, "and secondly, I start to think you got most of the books, after all of your raids on it." she pointed out with a grin, for the fun of it.
"Still!... Just borrowing them." Marisa retorted, feeling a bit offended.
Alice decided to get home to do a few things as well as prepare herself for the party, "I will be going now, I will be back tonight, oh and I'll just let the sake stay here."
"Okay, we will keep it safe." Reimu was in a much better mood now than before these two showed up, not that she would ever say so.
Marisa waved her arms above her head in a grandiose manner, "SEE YEAH!"
NETHERWORLD: midday
Inside the Hakugyokurou, where lady Yuyuko Sagiyouji was preparing the things they needed for the party, when suddenly, she stopped, her tummy rumbling, so she called upon her most faithful servant, "Youmu~ when is the lunch ready!?"
"Mistress, the cook is just about to prepare paella for your pleasure." Youmu announced quickly as soon as she was within ear range.
"But I am hungry now~" Yuyuko was acting spoiled.
Youmu stopped what she was doing, and didn't like how her mistress was whining, "I know... you always are, but you have to wait at least an hour before it's done."
"AN HOUR!?" Yuyuko nearly screamed, then relaxed the next instant, "...Now where did I put the candy?" she mumbled mostly to herself.
With a giant perspirating sigh, Youmu shook her head, "...You never change Mistress."
SCARLET MANSION: evening
Patchouli was getting pretty annoyed by the little vampire that was disturbing the peace, "keep still Flandre, you are moving the table."
"But I am so excited!" Flandre exclaimed with glee as she was rocking the table side to side.
Patchouli huffed, "It just a simple shrine party, nothing special."
Flandre had stood up and was making pirouettes while being so happy, "but Marisa will be there and it's a party and I love parties."
Patchouli removed the book from the table before Flandre accidently stepped on it, "it's just a feast where people get drunk; I have better things to do." she commented before continuing reading the book in her lap.
"Oh, but you and Koakuma are going with us." The queen of the night made her best expression of innocence as she told that.
Patchouli sighed heavily and closed her book, "fine, I will come along; I hope no one will-"
"YEAH!" Flandre pumped her fist into the air before Patchouli finished speaking, "this will be funny!" she added in excitement and ran downstairs to her own room to make herself ready, even though there was still hours before the event started.
"Are we even invited to come at all?" Patchouli asked a with strong feeling that answer was no.
"No, but that has never stopped us before and we got sake as our entry ticket." Nothing was going to stop Remilia from attending this event.
"…You really think that will get us in?" Patchouli was perplexed that her old time friend believed such an old trick would work.
Remilia smirked, "Patchy, It's foolproof. Trust me, I know Reimu."
Patchouli gave in with a sigh, "have it your way, Remmy."
IN ANOTHER DIMENSION: late evening
Ran was in the midst of packing various stuff for the party that night, when she realized that she hadn't woken up a certain mistress yet, "Chen, is lady Yukari up yet" she called to her shikigami.
"No big sister, she is still sleeping." Chen called back in a light voice.
Ran sighed, but then perked right up, "let's awaken her then, she said that she wanted to be ready in time for Hakurei shrine party for tonight."
But when they walked to Yukari's room, they found her already up, with a very sleepy-eyed expression, "I am awake, I am awake." she yawned a great deal.
"Everything have been made ready for your departure to Gensokyo" Ran proudly presented to her master.
Yukari looked very pleased, "thank you Ran." and rubbed her shikigami on the head.
Ran cooed in delight for a few seconds. before she stood proudly and replied, "always a pleasure to serve my lady."
"Loosen up will you, you are so intense today." Yukari was rather displeased by how prim and proper her shikigami was behaving.
Ran could see that her master was displeased, "if that is your wish..." she was getting a bad feeling about this.
"You are going with me anyway." Yukari declared.
Ran knew she had an unfinished border to repair so she explained, "but I have to-" but was cut off by her master.
"No buts!" Yukari commanded firmly, then she continued with a much more friendly voice, "You need to have fun from time to time."
Ran resigned herself to her mistress' command, "yes... I will do as you ask."
"Good, now gather our sake and snacks in a circle," Yukari enjoined in a cool tone, "We're moving out."
"Lady Yukari I have your dress ready." Chen chimed in, always happy to please.
Yukari smiled back at the little Shikigami cat, "Thank you Chen, go and get one yourself, you are coming with me to the party."
Chen's eyes widened in delight, "Yay! Thank you Lady Yukari, going with you to a party would be tons of fun." and she made a beeline for the dressing room.
HAKUREI SHRINE: late evening
Reimu, who was still cleaning the shrine, even more thoroughly than normal, because of the night's festivities, when she saw three poltergeist ascending the stairs to the Shrine, with all sorts of musical equipment hovering around them, "Good evening mrs. Hakurei, we are the Prismriver sisters." Lunasa the older sister introduced them very politely.
"Oh I remember you poltergeists, why are you all here?" Reimu asked, she couldn't remember she had ever asked for music, not even once.
"We are here by the request of Lady Yuyuko, to perform this night." Lunasa told in a friendly and controlled voice.
"Terrific!" Reimu said in a tone dripping with sarcasm.
With 'that' node of sarcasm, Merlin got angry and her temper got the better of her, "THAT'S MEAN! We are popular you know."
"Shut up Merlin, it's not helping," Lunasa retorted at her little sister, then turned her attention back to Reimu, "look! We came here to perform tonight, speak to Lady Yuyuko if you don't want our presence here."
Reimu sighed in resignation, "fine, have it your way, just don't play anything weird, okay!?"
"What do you mean by weird!" Merlin retorted, she was very offended, one of her blood veins looked ready to pop at any moment.
"Relax sis, she is a human, so we should keep down on our 'special' sounds." Lyrica the youngest sister told her cooly.
"Alright... I understand." Merlin was still displeased, but she did cool down.
"Good." Reimu was rather glad that they'd tone it down for the guests.
Lunasa smiled by their agreement, "Then if don't mind, we will set up the stage and prepare everything." and with an approving nod from Reimu, they began.
NETHERWORLD: night
"Do we have everything ready?" The lady of the netherworld asked her gardener.
Youmu had double checked that everything was in order, and so she could reply with certainty, "Yes we got the sake and the food for tonight."
"Wonderful, let's go." Being as lazy as she was, she ordered the ghosts of the netherworld to carry all the baggage, including herself.
HAKUREI SHRINE: midnight
Everyone came more or less all at once and the human shrine was invaded by youkai that had no intention of praying or giving any donations, surface to say, the Hakurei shrine was full of monsters that wanted to have a good time and get drunk.
Remilia's plan to get access to the party using sake was successful, much to Patchouli's bafflement, "...I can't believe it actually worked."
"MARISA!" Flandre exclaimed loudly the moment she saw Marisa, she charged and gave Marisa a full body glomp.
Marisa, who had barely time to react, got Flandre right in the face and nearly lost her footing, "what's up Flandre... oh hi, Alice?" because she couldn't see from the fact that her line of sight was full of vampire, so she resorted to guessing.
Alice stood with wide eyes, and was quite perplexed, she didn't expect a vampire to behave that way. When Flandre more or less climbed off of Marisa, "Hello again Marisa, and you must be Flandre Scarlet, my name is Alice Margatroid nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Flandre greeted politely in return, then she remembered Marisa had already told about this youkai friend of hers, "you were the one that tried to beat up Marisa when you were a child, right?"
Alice was quite composed, or so it appeared from the outside, "Well yes, I was young and unwise." Inside she was freaking out, "What else have you told her Marisa, you promised to keep it a secret!"
"She sure was cute back when she was a kid." A gentle smile and a look of nostalgia was upon Marisa's face.
"Wha?! What are saying all of a sudden?" A giant blush spread across Alice's face, because of the way Marisa said it.
"It was cute how you tried to beat me up in cold blood, and suck at it." Marisa was the only one who would find something like that 'cute'.
"Right… Thanks…" And just like that, Alice's illusion about being flattered was crushed.
"Now, why don't three beauties like us start to drink, all~ night~ long~?"
Alice swore not to get taken in by Marisa's natural charm ever again, but still wanted to have a good time, "...Sure why not."
Yukari dropped out of a gap in the air, "there is my favorite shrine maiden, how do you do Reimu?"
"There you are Yukari, I was wondering when you would show up." Reimu greeted her guest.
Yukari gave her a small smile, "I brought snacks and drinks for everyone."
Then out of nowhere opened two large portals and out of them came Ran and Chen carrying a lot of delicious snacks and very large bottles with wine, sake, vodka, and beer.
The instant Yuyuko saw it coming, her eyes opened wide, "looks wonderful!"
Youmu already knew what was on her mistress' mind, "please, don't-"
"Don't worry; I will leave some for the rest." Yuyuko's pearly laughter could be heard, though it didn't sound so innocent.
Youmu knew how to tackle this so she said, "I'm glad you think that." But in her mind, Youmu knew otherwise, "Yeah right!"
In the background, the Prismriver sisters performed for the night and every youkai or otherwise was captivated by their beautiful music, even Remilia was humming the very catchy tune, but not everyone found the band so desirable, human ears, for example, couldn't comprehend the sounds very well, "I love this music," Remilia said after listening to their music for a while.
Patchouli shrugged her shoulders, "I could live without it."
"To me it just sounds weird." Sakuya had a mild mannered smile on her lips, despite what she said.
"I have been to several of their concerts." Koakuma told them.
Remilia had her interests intrigued, "do you know who they are?"
"They are the Prismriver poltergeists; they are quite famous for their live performances." Koakuma was happy to finally have someone to talk about her idols with, lady Patchouli didn't really care for them, as was evident.
"I want to hire them, to perform for us, at our next party." Remilia told them, Koakuma was really happy about that.
Patchouli look almost startled when her longtime friend decided her next move, "I am seriously going to need an anti noise spell." She thought to herself.
When the Prismrivers were done with their concert, Remilia flew up to them and landed right in front of Merlin.
Remilia made a small curtsy, "excuse me, I am Remilia Scarlet."
Merlin stared in surprise, "oh, the infamous vampire." it wasn't exactly polite.
Remilia huffed slightly, "well yes, but back to business, I have become quite fond of your music and I want to hire you and your band for my next party." Her voice was almost brimming with excitement.
"B-but I am not the one in charge, my sister is." Merlin knew she had started this conversation in the wrong way.
Remilia began asking further, "Then who is your-?"
Lunasa stood up between Merlin and Remilia before she even finished speaking, "I am, and it's an honor to be admired by you Lady Scarlet."
That form of manner was very pleasing to Remilia, "It's good to see that at least one of you have manners."
Lunasa decided to be on her good side, "Please forgive my sister my lady, she is not used to be in the presence one of such as yourself."
"I understand, we have a deal then, I will send my personal chief maid when I have the exact date for my party." Remilia then unfolded her wings and flew back to her friends.
Lyrica's face was drained of colour, "That was scary."
"What if we already have an appointment on that date?" Merlin asked a very reasonable question.
Lunasa was shivering slightly, which was no mean feat to be sure, "then we cancel that appointment, it's too dangerous not to accept her request!"
At the center of the party, Marisa noticed that Reimu didn't seem to be enjoying herself, "what's wrong Reimu? You haven't been drinking anything, you aren't usually that shy 'round sake?" she asked worriedly, a Reimu who didn't want a drink was very unusual.
"...I just have the feeling that if I don't stay awake, my shrine won't be here when I wake up." It was quite clear that Reimu was pensive about letting youkais roam around her shrine.
With the widest smile, Flandre decided to be helpful, "Don't worry, I will just kill them if they break anything."
"that's taking it a little too far, cleaning up blood is such a pain." Reimu didn't want more stuff to clean up than necessary.
Alice replied with a small nervous giggle, "I am sure it will be okay, no need for anyone to get hurt, or die for that matter."
"Come with me Alice, there is someone I'd like you to meet." Marisa just took her hand and dragged her off, much to Alice's embarrassment.
Reimu didn't feel like standing around on her own, in case Remilia should get too close, so she followed the three of them.
"Let me present one of my dearest friends, Patchouli Knowledge." Marisa presented with the usual grin on her face.
Patchouli closed the book she was reading and looked at Marisa with an odd expression, "I had no idea you saw me in that light."
Marisa decided to ignore that last bit and instead introduced Alice, "And this is Alice, one of my good old friends."
Alice curtsied to her new acquaintance, "nice to meet you miss Knowledge."
Marisa was looking around for a little bit, "By the way, where did the rest of your household go?"
"As soon as the noisy sisters started playing again, Remilia forced everyone else to dance with her." Patchouli pointed in the direction of the dancing.
Putting a hand above her eyes, Marisa spotted them in the distance, "oh I see them now."
Flandre heard the comments from Patchouli, "that's not noise, that's music! Come on everyone, let's dance." and forced everyone up at once, but instead of dancing, they just continued their conversation, only the jewelry vampire did swing around.
"I think the music sounds different from species to species, I personally find it very relaxing." Alice closed her eyes and just enjoyed the music for a while.
"Vampires apparently go party crazy!" Marisa was saying it like it was a good thing.
"Fairies do too... apparently." Marisa looked in the direction Reimu was pointing, and saw Lily White and Cirno just chugging it down, with a worried Daiyousei on the sideline trying, to no avail, to get the other two to moderate their intake.
"Weeee, weeeee, weeee, it's spring." A certain Spring obsessed fairy was running in circles with her arms spread wide.
Cirno on the other hand, did not partake in that joy, frankly speaking, Spring had her agitated, "I knooow, iiiits toooo hoooot..."
"P-Please don't drink so much!" Daiyousei was the only sober of them, and she did not have fun with trying to make them take it easy.
"I neeed tooo driink tooo staayy coool." Cirno proclaimed, despite alcohol doing the complete opposite.
Daiyousei sighed in resignation, "what am I going to do with the two of you."
"IIIITTT'SSSS SPPPPRRRRIIIIINNNNNNGGGG!" Little miss Lily White was flopping around until she finally had hit her limit and fainted.
"Ah… she passed out." Daiyousei went and picked Lily up and then put her against a tree trunk to rest, after which she checked in on Cirno again.
"I'm theee strongeeeest, soooo.. I don't paaaass ouuuutttt beeecaaauuussee ooof thissss liiittttle amounttt oooof aaalcooohoool." Cirno was still going strong, for a fairy, she had a good amount of alcohol tolerance.
Little did they know, that they would be partying for a long time, as the mist began to gather…
