Touhou Gensokyo Girls

Episode 38: News paper tengu (Black Kyoto)

YOUKAI MOUNTAIN: early morning

A strong wind was present as Aya was on her way home, the cool air made her freshen up her mind, "What a crazy night, so much fighting, so much drama, AND I AM THE ONLY TENGU TO RECORD IT!" The last thought made her extremely giddy, she accelerated to reach home as soon as possible.

She blazed past a group of fellow crow tengus, who stood talking on the mountainside, who only registered her because of the enormous amount of wind pressure that followed in her wake, "HI AYA! WHERE ARE YO-?!" one shouted after her, but she was out of earshot before the tengu finished.

She purposely ignored them, not taking the chance to let them get her scoop, she truly couldn't wait to begin the article, disregarding the fact that she hadn't had any sleep for the past 36 hours, but she was used to late hour work, so it didn't bother her the slightest.

BUNBUNMARU NEWS PRESS: early morning

Aya landed in front of the entrance to her home, which was also the base for her newspaper, "Home sweet home." she whistled a happy tone as she walked inside and began unpacking her backpack.

She sat down at her desk and took a look at her notebook and mentally prepared herself, "I've got soo much to choose from." she thought, and looked back on the events of yesterday, "What should the title be?" she wondered about it for several minutes until it struck her like a stroke of genius, 'Crazy Night Party at the Mansion… perfect.' she giggled

She then began writing down the events of yesterday, "I will be famous for this one." she muttered happily to herself as she began humming a favored tune of hers.

BUNBUNMARU NEWS PRESS: midday

"This is going to be the best news article I have made to date!" she thought positively as she neared completion, "DONE!" she exclaimed with glee, she then proceeded to take a deep breath in satisfaction.

Aya looked at her own creation and inspected it thoroughly, "is there enough depth in it, I wonder?"

"I would say you should have added more contrast to it, its a little one-sided." a voice said right behind her.

"Maybe you are right" Aya replied calmly then added in a light tone, "but an even bigger question is, what are you doing here Yukari?!"

"Just made sure you didn't leave out important details." Yukari explained with a charming smile.

"You have my word, I would never ever slack at my work." Aya honorably promised.

"That is good to hear." said a third voice nearby.

Aya gave Yukari an odd look, "So you invited a ghost as well?"

"She did indeed." Yuyuko said in her usually spooky voice as she came into view.

"It's not that I mind visitors, quite the contrary." Aya replied in a cool expression, then changed her expression to a more hardened one, "But could you use the door from now on! I don't like surprises while I am working."

Doors was never something Yukari normally bothered with, but she understood the need for privacy so she nodded in understanding without arguing the point, "Of course."

"But since you are here, would you be so kind to give me your thoughts on my latest issue." Aya polity asked the two of them.

"That is what we are here for." Yuyuko answered with a bright smile.

"Excellent!" Aya replied thankfully with a joyful expression on her face, "Do you desire something to drink? I can make tea if you like, I got Sencha green tea and cherry blossom grape tea." she polity offered the two of them.

"Green tea, please." Yukari accepted gracefully.

"Cherry blossom grape tea for me. Oh and something sweet to eat as well?" Yuyuko looked at Aya hopefully, it had been a whole hour since she had lunch.

Aya thought about it for a moment, "I think I got some cookies left." she searched her kitchen from top to bottom before returning with a plate, "I only got five old cookies left." she sighed knowing fully well that, that was well below the ghost princesses' hopes.

Yuyuko made a sad expression as she looked at the five tiny bland human cookies.

Yukari knew that it wouldn't do, so she opened a gate to her home, "RAN! GET A BARREL OF SWEETS!" she called loudly through the gate.

Then a large barrel came rolling out of the gate, "Anything else, Master?" Ran politely asked her master from the other side.

"That will be all, thank you." Yukari replied very pleased, and closed the gate off.

No matter how many times she had seen Yukari do this feat, Aya was equally surprised every time, "I hope some day, I will have the honor of interviewing you on your legendary borders."

"Not today, but some other day, I may let you in on a few of my secrets." Yukari replied and gave her a smile of mystery.

"I will await that day with excitement." Aya returned the smile and headed for the kitchen to warm up water for tea, while Yukari and Yuyuko made themselves comfortable in Aya's couch.

Aya returned a few minutes later, "Tea is ready." she said and handed her guests their tea and sat down beside them.

The three of them looked everything over piece by piece, until it couldn't be better.

HAKUREI SHRINE: midday

Reimu had to lay in bed all of the day, because of the worst hangover she had ever felt, she suspected the thing Remilia drugged her with may have weakened her health, or the medicine Eirin gave her, or maybe both, no matter what, she felt utterly terrible.

And she barely had the energy to turn her head when the door opened up, she more or less pleaded that it wasn't a deadly youkai powerful enough to get through the shrine's defenses and who wanted to eat her now that she already felt she was one foot in the grave, but to her surprise it was Mokou, with a sigh of relief to see a friendly human, she allowed herself to relax.

"Reimu, are you okay?!" Mokou asked worryingly by seeing Reimu in such a bad shape.

"NOT SO LOUD, I HAVE A HELL OF A HEADACHE." Reimu yelled at Mokou, which only made her insane headache that much worse.

"Sorry..." Mokou said just loud enough that she could be heard, "just wanted to check on you, It was a very... eventful night yesterday."

"You don't say." Reimu completely agreed, "Could you fetch me some water? I am dying of thirst."

"Sure." Mokou smiled and turned to get some water, she had helped others in similar situations before, her own friend Keine included, "By the way, where is your oni friend?" she asked when she came back, she had a feeling that Oni would be there, but was glad to be wrong for once.

Reimu tried to remember the last time she saw her, but her brain wouldn't cooperate, "I don't know where Suika is, she comes and goes." she told her friend, as she was handed the water and drank from it vigorously.

"She was one of the reasons I decided to visit, I can't believe she would be healthy to be around in your state." Mokou stated her beliefs.

"Properly not." Reimu agreed, she properly wouldn't have been as drunk if Suika wasn't around, not that she could blame her entirely for the terrible pain she was now fighting.

Reimu then slowly began drifting into sleep while Mokou sat silently watching her.

A few hours passed, then Mokou could feel something approaching, but was unable to register it before it quickly opened the door to the room and stood beside her, "Hi Reimu, I hope you are fresh, I got my latest issue and I wanted to make sure you approve of it, before I release it for the public view." Aya exclaimed in fanatical excitement.

Mokou wanted to yell at the intruding Tengu but was mindful of Reimu and kept it to a minimum, "Can't you see she is in no condition to read or review anything!" she wanted to roast the loud crow, but start a fight here wasn't the wisest choice, so she firmly retorted instead, "Get. Lost. Tengu!"

All that noise interrupted Reimu's descend to the dreamworld and made her head spin, she wanted puke but kept it at bay.

"Well excuse me for making sure I've portray her right!" Aya countered, but took the hint and said it in a lower voice.

Reimu was getting insane, why did they have argue in her bedroom, "Shut up, just shut up," she yelled at them, but mostly at the interrupting tengu for starting, "Aya, get me something... anything to remove the pain and I'll look at the damn thing." she cried out.

"We have a deal, I'll be right back" Aya quietly left.

Mokou just looked at Reimu with a thoughtful mind, "I didn't know you were on good terms with the Tengu."

"Nor did I.' Reimu mumbled, then turned around and went back to sleep.

ALICE'S HOUSE: midday

Marisa awoke from sleep by an elbow in the face, "Ouch!" she mumbled, she tried to get up to see who did that, but her head hurt when she tried to look around, secondly, she found herself unable to move her body, because something or someone laid right on top of her, she turned until she saw the owner of the house laying across her back, then yesterday's events flashed through her mind in an instant, she remembered Alice and herself, headed home, but she couldn't remember where her own house were at that moment, so she slept at Alice's house, but now that she remembered more clearly, they weren't the only two.

The movement of Marisa awoke Alice, who had a terrible pain in her stomach and had a huge headache of her own to make matters worse, "What happened?" she asked, her mouth dry like sandpaper, and barely loud enough to be heard at all, she then noticed that something was increasingly holding on to her, and found a certain vampire who used her bent back as a pillow, she tried to move Flandre and at same time get off of Marisa, but because of her bad state she ended up tilting to the floor with a crash.

The impact made Alice's head spin and she nearly lost consciousness, Flandre on the other just stood up and straightened her body, "Good morning" she cheerfully exclaimed, but then she noticed that her companions looked rather ill, one laid on the bed with a pale face and a look that expressed nausea in the highest degree, the other was on the floor in a similar state, "Are you sick?" she asked worryingly.

"Why, the hell, are you... so fresh?" Marisa mumbled irritatedly.

"What?" Flandre asked confused, that's how she usually wake up every morning.

"Vampires don't have hangovers like we do." Alice explained as she climbed back up in her bed, "Something about a more efficient way of cleansing their system."

"Okay... That, is, so, cheating!" Marisa declared in her own right.

"You said it Marisa..." Alice groaned in agreement.

"I didn't cheat!" Flandre replied in mild annoyance.

"Not so loud Flandre!" Marisa winced slightly, then added, "or I'm going to throw up" to hopefully make her stop.

"...Please use the bathroom." Alice strongly advised.

Flandre was fully and utterly confused, "Why are you all so weird today?"

Then the door opened and a grumpy Medicine stood in the doorway, "What is all that noise!"

Marisa and Flandre, but especially Flandre, just stared at the little talking doll, who just entered.

"Wow... Alice… didn't know. you had a talking doll." Marisa admired the little thing, though it was halfheartedly.

"Can I play with it?" Flandre asked politely, though it was clear that she really wanted to play with it.

"You can try!" Medicine blustered in a threatening tone.

Marisa and Alice both felt too ill to act, they just looked at each other and then at Medicine, then made a small prayer for her soul, like she was already dead.

"YAY!" Flandre exclaimed highly with a sudden display of her fangs and a swift move, she grabbed Medicine around the wrist.

Medicine, who apparently for a second, forgot that she didn't have her poison to protect herself with, and in the next second she found herself being used as real doll again, and not in a good way, as Flandre was dancing around with her at extreme speeds, "HELP MEEE!" she screamed helplessly.

"FLANDRE, STOP!" Alice shouted in concern, but because of her very dry mouth, it could not be heard over Flandre's joyful singing, however, even in her bad state, Alice still tried to use her dolls to stop Flandre and keep her furniture from harm's way.

Marisa, who was in an even worse shape, just watched, as a catastrophe seemed to unfold right in front of her, "now that I think about it, that doll do look familiar, have seen I Alice build it or something?" but she couldn't quite place her finger on it in her current state.

Then Flandre began throwing Medicine around , but then as ran she over to retrieve Medicine. she got her hand burned by the sunlight coming from one of the many windows, Flandre spun around because of the sudden pain she felt in her hand.

"Haha, you stupid vampire!" Medicine laughed at Flandre with vengeance in her eyes.

Flandre, who had just felt a sudden burning pain, and was being insulted... she lost it, she grabbed Medicine with the other hand and she hammered Medicine into the nearest bookshelf which broke into pieces and crumbled down on the floor with a loud crash.

She suddenly found herself covered in dolls, some of which were Marisa dolls and even one of herself, then she snapped back.

Alice entered to find everything everywhere, "What do I do" she thought, hoping she would wake up any minute and find everything in order.

"I am so sorry Alice." Flandre deeply apologized, as she looked at all the damage she caused.

"It's okay Flandre." Alice accepted the apology, but added a lecture anyway, just for good measure, "but please don't be so reckless next time."

Flandre nodded in acknowledgement, "It will never happen again." she promised with a lowered head.

"Hey! I was in danger too!" Medicine angrily pointed out.

"No, you started it by threatening and provoking my friend!" Alice scolded, even though her headache was getting worse.

Medicine looked like she wanted to argue, but decided against it.

Alice got her dolls to clean up and throw out the destroyed bookshelf in a trash-bin, and then, tired as she was, she left Medicine and Flandre in the living room, wandered to her bed, only find it occupied by a snoring Marisa, "Whatever will I do with you." she mumbled in a low voice, then she pushed Marisa over to make room herself.

Flandre in the mean time, looked around to find one doll of everyone she knew, and began playing house with them, all while Medicine looked on from afar, not daring to accidentally provoke the deadly vampire even further.

HAKUREI SHRINE: midday

Five minutes later and a crow tengu landed, followed by a loud booming sound, "Here, this one should help." Aya smiled happily and handed Reimu a small bottle of some kinda black liquid inside.

Reimu opened the bottle and gulped it down in one go, it was working like a charm, her headache quickly evaporated, when she felt well enough to focus, she looked at the bottle, "it's Eirin's medicine, have you been at her store at the human village?"

"No, I bought this one from Eientei's own store." Aya told them.

"Wow, that's a long trip." Mokou had to admit, as she calculated the time it would take her to get to Eientei and back again.

"Funny thing, it took the lunarian some time just to find it and I persuaded her to take a quick look at it before I returned here." Aya explained to them, a bit proud over her accomplishment, then turned her head to looking at the recovering shrine maiden and asked, "are you well enough to honor your part of the deal?"

Reimu nodded and replied, "Let me get dressed and I'll look at it."

Aya smiled, then she and Mokou left to give her some space to get op.

ALICE HOUSE: evening

Later that day, when both Alice and Marisa felt well enough to do something, plus Alice had some medicine which helped on their headaches, also from a Eientei, though these were her own set.

"Dinner is ready, it's my special soup, try it while it's still hot." Alice called to them from out of the window.

"Finally, food!" Marisa had taken Flandre outside to get a light exercise by playing Danmaku, taking extra care to not accidentally damage the house.

"Yeah" Flandre exclaimed, but not as loud or as happy.

Medicine just sat down beside Alice without uttering a word.

Flandre just looked at the soup with a sad expression, "But! I can't eat this!"

"Here." Alice handed Flandre a glass of something that looked like some kind of exotic spice, "This is dry human blood, put some in your soup and stir it around."

"Human blood, eh!" Marisa was a bit stunned that Alice, of all people, would have something like that in storage. Though after it settled in her mind, she shrugged it off and began eating the soup herself.

Flandre looked at the glass then did as Alice instructed, "YUMMY!" She exclaimed in joy, as she tasted it.

"Can I have some as well?" Yukari asked as she appeared at the end of the table.

"Yukari!" Flandre called in a surprised and joyful tone.

Marisa just continued eating undisturbed.

"Sure, it's a pleasure to have you for supper." Alice replied politely and sent one of the dolls to the kitchen to get an extra deep plate and a spoon.

Medicine was wide eyed by Yukari's magic-like arrival, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Medicine more or less screamed.

"Relax, silly dolly, its just the highly dangerous, all powerful, super youkai, demigod Yukari... nothing special." Marisa smirked at the horrified doll, with a nonchalant handwave, before returning to the awe-inspiring soup.

Yukari just gave the doll a friendly smile, not that it helped in the least, she then opened a small portal and a newspaper plopped into her hands, "this is the report of everything that happened yesterday." she told them.

Marisa skimmed through it first, and much to her surprise, it was filled with stuff about her, "Damn, I don't remember half of the stuff I did."

"What did you do?" Alice asked curiously, she knew what kind of mischief Marisa normally got into, so she was not surprised that there was something.

"A lot of stuff… Though it seems you were also involved in most of it." Marisa replied and showed her the newspaper.

Upon seeing the photo Alice screamed in shock, "I DID WHAT!"

Medicine got startled by the sudden outburst.

Flandre looked over to see what that was about "So did I." she said in very neutral tone, "OH, and that too, oh, THAT, was fun." as soon as she saw that last picture, she couldn't stop laughing.

"So that's why we got thrown out." Marisa said in a wondrous tone, after piecing it together with a few of her own memories.

Alice managed to get a few words out, "That would seem to be the case," Before she cringed and looked away in shame, "I can never show myself there ever again."

Yukari was quite calm and objective in her statement, "They do need a renovation in the kitchen after that, and they spent hours trying to untangle all that string. You're very thorough when you're drunk."

"...True." Alice mumbled in mild shame.

After several hours of fun and laughs, as well as a few cringes, Yukari decided that now was the time to return home, "...It's time, Flandre." She called in a soft voice.

Flandre looked down in sadness, "Okay." she muttered, then ran over to Marisa to give her a big hug, one of those hugs that usually resulted in broken ribs, "please come and visit me sometime, okay?!"

Marisa just replied with a smirk, she had adjusted to the strength of the little vampire and as such took a deep breath right before the hug, "Like I'd want to be boring by not doing so. *ZE*"

Flandre then turned to Alice and gave her a big hug as well, "Thank you for letting me stay over, Lady Margatroid."

Alice was profoundly flustered of being called a lady, "When you say lady makes me sound old, just so you remember, I am younger than you." She smiled with a youthful glint in her eye.

"*ZE*" Flandre replied with a grin in perfect mimicry of Marisa.

Yukari couldn't help but laugh wholeheartedly, nor could Alice keep it at bay.

"I am so proud of you." Marisa smiled and ruffled Flandre's hair.

Flandre shone as Yukari gestured for her to follow through a newly opened portal.

IN ANOTHER DIMENSION: night

"Chen~!" Flandre exclaimed as she saw Chen together with Ran.

"Oh, no..." Chen uttered, as she spotted Flandre arriving beside Yukari, she didn't hide the overwhelming amount of discontent she felt near Flandre.

Chen had been using more and more time in Gensokyo, to avoid Flandre, so she really hoped that the troublesome vampire stayed away for just a little more, time with her master had been scarce and she really missed being around the one she considered her older sister.

Both Yukari and Ran had tried to make it possible for them all to live together, but Chen was too disgruntled to even consider the whole thing, and Flandre really wanted the Cat shikigami as her playmate, which could get extreme at times.

HELL: SHIKI'S MANOR: night

Shiki sat at her desk searching, then one of the Yama's servants asked to enter.

Shiki allowed the intrusion, the servant gave her some sort of newspaper, bowed and left quietly.

Shiki then unfolded it and thought, "It's a gensokyo newspaper," she then skimmed it through, then she had read enough, she rose up and headed to her personal Grim-reaper's cottage.

"KOMACHI! GET! OUT! HERE!" Shiki shouted to get her underling's attention.

Komachi opened the door, found her boss standing right outside, with a painful hangover she asked, "What... why are you yelling at me?"

"IS THIS TRUE!" Shiki shouted even louder while waving the newspaper in front of her her subordinate.

"What is that?" Komachi asked, while having serious trouble just focusing at the paper being waved in front of her face.

"A Gensokyo newspaper! Which, by the way is about a party, that has a picture, showing you, drinking together with vampires, youkais and even a few humans," Shiki explained in painstakingly great detail.

Komachi's brain hurt with every syllable so she was hurting too much to come up with an excuse of any sort, "Well I just got side tracked... I think."

"You got side tracked for nearly TWELVE HOURS!" Shiki screamed the last part, then she decided what would be fair, "You don't deserve your day off."

Komachi's eyes widened immediately, which she just as quickly regret, "But! But!" she frantically tried to think of something to make an excuse with, but her mind went blank because of her overwhelming headache.

"GET TO WORK! OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED!" Shiki was furious, she quickly calmed herself, however little it might help, then added in a more calm but still firm voice, "Have I made myself clear!?"

"Clear! Very clear! Crystal clear... I-I will leave immediately." Komachi was quick to answer.

"Good." Shiki replied in a light and soft voice, and watched as her reaper took off for Gensokyo.