Touhou Gensokyo Girls
Episode 55: Eyes in the sky (Nuclear Sect of Mystic Maiden)
It was breath taking, when the residents of the earth palace exited the last tunnel of the underground, to see the sun rise up from the east, showering its golden light upon the grasslands below.
Satori has seen a sunrise through other people's memories before, but it was still an experience to witness with her own three eyes, even if the light of sun was beginning to become a bit too bright for her taste.
Utsuho too found the light pretty and warm, she wondered if she could do something similar with the fusion powers she possessed.
Rin was neither really impressed nor interested; she preferred the moon's silvery light over the sun's golden glow any time, "I just hope we have more luck." she had already heard if the onis knew something, but they were more interested in seeing how strong she was in a fist fight.
Utsuho stretches her wings as she asked, "Where do we search first, miss Satori?"
"In order to cover more ground, we will split up, Utsuho, you will accompany me, Rin, you will go and ask the shrine maiden Reimu, see if you can get her to contact the youkai Yukari, she may know something of value." Satori commanded of them, she didn't like to do that, but sometimes it was just necessary, "I wish to visit miss Margatroid first."
"You mean the magician of the youkai forest, miss Satori?" Rin asked casually.
"I've given Alice Margatroid some of my best works, I wish to know if she likes them." Satori had an excited smile on her face.
FOREST OF MAGIC, ALICE'S HOUSE: midday
"I tell you! They would look much cooler if they were dressed in black, with blood red stripes and with dark gloomy purple hair." Medicine argued her statement.
Alice shook her head, they had been debating for hours on the design for her next generation of dolls, "No, you may use those colors if you wish for your own clothes, but my next dolls will be something in the line of white, blue and green, not some twisted colors, they would only make me depressed every time I look at them." she counter argued.
"But that wouldn't bestow terror in your enemy's eyes if they look so... unthreatening." Medicine complained; clearly annoyed, after all she was a real doll herself, she knew better than anyone, why wouldn't Alice admit that, she, of course was right all along.
A few knocks could be heard from the door, Alice opened to find Satori and her nuclear pet outside.
"Excuse me Miss Margatroid, could I borrow your time for a moment?" Satori made a polite bow.
Alice was a bit unsure on how to react, but the hospitable part of her won out in the end, "Of course, what seems to be the matter?"
"My sister Koishi has been gone for months, I worry for her wellbeing, I was wondering if you seen or heard anything?" Satori asked, and sensing Alice's discomfort, she decided to add in a soft voice, "Don't worry… I've decided not to use my third eye to read your heart and mind, without your consent that is."
Alice felt flattered, "I appreciate your trust in me."
"So please, speak truthfully with me about the matter of my arrival." Satori pleaded in unest.
"That was my intention in any case." Alice smiled a little and thought for a moment, but came up empty, "No… I'm afraid I've neither seen nor heard of your sister in awhile now, last I heard, she was at the Youkai Mountain visiting the Moriya Shrine, but that was one hundred and thirteen days ago, or so."
Utsuho shrugged, before uttering, "Well that means we have to fight our way to this shrine on the mountain..."
Alice had read the news describing the corpse thefts; she could not find it anything but despicable and plain wrong.
"So far, our only lead is the Moriya shrine, getting to it is crucial no matter what.." Satori seriously informed her hell raven pet, while turning back to Alice and bowed slightly, "Thank you for your time."
Alice gave her a serene smile, "You are most welcome."
"One more thing, just for sake of curiosity, do you like the books I've given you?" Satori wondered, hoping for a quick review.
"If I like them?! I adore them!" Alice had hoped that this was what Satori had really come for, "When would you make a sequel to your Demons of Light novel?!"
Satori sparkled with proudness, this was the first time someone had directly praised her work, "Well I'm working on it, though it might take some time before it's ready, especially with the current situation at hand."
Satori and Utsuho was just about leave when Alice stopped them, "Wait! I know how to get your to the mountain shrine undetected!" the look on Alice's face as she said that, was almost that of a small panic, "As long as she is not at home writing, the novel will not progress!"
Satori stared at her in disbelief, "How would we do that?!" She would very much like to know.
Alice smiled a mischievous little smile, "Read my mind to find out."
Satori did just that and answered with a surprise gawk, "You can do all that?!"
Alice smirked confidently, "That and more." For once in her life, she got the feeling that she knew how Marisa felt all the time, she began talking about the plan with the underdweller who were ever more than eager to see it succeed.
Marisa was hovering around in the air looking around for plants for various reasons, when she spotted a fairly recognizable cat sprinting over the hills, she flew over and held the same speed, "What are ya doin kitty cat? Up to no good again?"
Rin mostly just wanted to continue in her current form, but she could only Meow as a reply, so she transformed into her more humanoid self, "Well… hi *sis* I'm on my way to see the shrine maiden, do you know her?"
"Know her! She is my best pal! *ZE*" Marisa boldly claimed, then she briefly wondered, in a rare case of sentimentality, "I wonder if she thinks the same of me?"
"I've thought that watery chick was your best pal?" Rin had assumed otherwise.
"No… she is my newest pal." Marisa clarified with a wide smirk, "I got lots of pals all over."
Rin just casually nodded as a reply.
For a moment no one said anything, until Marisa asked the following question, "So what are you doing up here? I'm just here for some fresh air *ZE*."
Rin told the whole reason of their search for the lost sister, "So that's why we are on our way to seek help."
"Her sister… is that the one with the weird hat, right?" Marisa asked with a grin.
Rin began to snicker, "Not weirder than the old piece of cloth you call a hat, but yes."
"Don't insult my hat! That's immoral, you know!" Marisa retorted, this insult was inappropriate… in her mind at least.
"Chill it *sis*" Rin's grin was all over her face, "You are taking it way too personal."
"My hat is awesome, and you know it, end of discussion." Marisa stated firmly, with a look of disapproval.
Rin just shook her head and laughed, it was such a joy to be around a person like this at times, they continued to chat for the rest of the trip to the Hakurei shrine.
Reimu was trying to do as little as possible, so that if others came to visit, she could instantly put whatever down, she had had a number of lonely days with practically no one visiting her, even Marisa and Alice had kept to themselves as far as she knew, "They may be making a spell that transforms a frog into a squirrel or something." She monologued to herself.
She liked and adored her peace & quiet time, but at the same time… it felt too quiet, like something was about to happen, she had read about a few corpse thieves on the youkai mountain, but nothing she would call an incident, since it seemed resolved already.
She just wandered about, when suddenly... someone knocked on the front door, it startled her quite a bit, after she got her nerves under control, she opened the door to find Marisa and the underground cat, "Hi." she just uttered with no feel or emotion attached.
"Hi *SIS*" Rin exclaimed happily, putting a paw in the air.
"Heya Reimu, the pussycat here wants a word with you *ZE*" Marisa grinned and waved a hand over to the feline.
Reimu just looked indifferently at the kasha, "So? What is it?"
"Well miss Satori's sister. Koishi. has been gone for a long time," Rin told them the tale of the missing sibling, "So I was wondering if you could get the almighty world warping youkai to help us?"
Reimu shook her head, "I'm afraid Yukari is sleeping this time around and I hadn't heard from her underlings in quite a while now."
Rin's mood dropped when she heard that her part lead to no end, "Darn it, do you have any idea where else to look?"
"Youkai Mountain is the only place where I have seen your missing sister… ever." Reimu told the cat flat out.
Marisa dramatically pointed into the sky, "Youkai mountain here. we. COME!"
When that accursed mountain was mentioned, Rin got a feeling of dread, chilling her bones, "There is just one… slight problem," She uttered in a carefully meek tone.
Reimu grinned as she spoke, "Let me guess, if you were caught up on the mountain… you'd be dead."
"Something like that yes." Rin had to admit it, no matter how much she'd like it to be otherwise.
"Well a dead cat is not very useful *ZE*" Marisa pointed out in good fun.
MORIYA SHRINE: evening
Sanae just stood, looking over the mountain side, not really having much to do at the moment, she had already cleaned the shrine and the surrounding area from top to bottom, "Maybe I should just practice my spells now that I've have the time." She pondered inside herself, it was beginning to be late but the sun hadn't gone down yet and there were still time before dinner.
Sanae suddenly saw what looked to be some sort of small sun, coming down from the sun itself, she stood watching this newly discovered phenomenon, when it suddenly descended quickly towards her, seeing it as a possible danger she readied herself for battle, but to her relief it landed very gently and the sunlight dispersed to show three individuals.
"We made it!" Utsuho exclaimed cheerfully as she stretched her wings, they had felt pretty cramped during the trip.
Sanae was unsure how to approach them, until she was, to her surprise, called by name from one of the unusual visitors.
"Hi Sanae, remember me?" Alice asked with a smile on her lips.
Sanae thought long and hard but she only had a vague idea of who it was, but the voice did seem familiar somehow...
"Welcome to the Moriya shrine." Kanako proudly addressed the newcomers, giving Sanae, who had her back turned, as small heart attack.
"IT'S YOU!" Utsuho exclaimed in surprise, "You are the one who gave me these awesome powers!"
"Yes, it is indeed me, this is where I live, high above everyone else." Kanako proudly presented her home with a handwave.
Alice looked a bit confused at first, but it clicked into place in her mind as she remembered what Suwako had said some time ago.
Satori, by now, already knew the whole reason behind the incident under her courtyard so she had nothing to add.
"I must congratulate you on disguising yourselves as part of the sun, it was truly a well-perfected technique." Kanako congratulated them in admiration.
Satori was quite proud of their combined ingenious, "it was a combination of Okuu's powers and miss Margatroid's genius that we were able to create the 'sun cloaking spell'."
"I only noticed you when I felt some unusually different vibrations in the air below the sun." Kanako explained to them, "But something tells me that you didn't came to discuss spells, am I right?"
Satori nodded in reply, "You are correct, In fact we came to ask if you knew where my sister Koishi is!?"
Kanako stood with a speculative look before she answered, "Unfortunately, I don't know where your sister is."
"But we traced her to your shrine?" Alice commented on that fact, "This was the only place I've ever seen her."
"While it's indeed true that she did stay here for a few days, after that she continued on her travels. I'm at this point unable to sense her, even with my divine powers." Kanako frowned slightly, something like that should not easily happen, "She is a person who easily disappears from the common eye."
"Well she was always the best at playing hide and seeks." Utsuho smiled fondly.
After a long sigh Satori uttered, "Well... I hope Orin has better luck than we do."
Not long after these words were spoken, did Marisa land with Orin in her cat form behind her.
Satori got her hopes up at first, but then her mind reading eye found no new info on her sister's current whereabouts.
Rin also had her hopes up, but one look from Satori told her everything she needed to know.
Sanae didn't know whether she should get involved or not, but she couldn't just sit back and do nothing, "If I may come with a suggestion, I believe the best person you could ask for help would be the newspaper Tengu, she always seems to know where people are, and I believe she talked about interviewing your sister some time ago."
"You mean Aya? Aya Shameimaru?" Alice hadn't considered a journalist to be their solution.
"Well I don't think they have any chance of convincing any tengu for help after the last stunt they pulled off..." Kanako implied with an extreme emphasis of disapproval in her tone of voice.
Satori knew even before it was brought up how bad their image was on the mountain, "You have our word, we will never do such a thing ever again."
Rin nodded and spoke in earnest, "Tengus are off the hunting list, I assure you, we barely made it out alive."
Utsuho didn't want to declare defeat against a challenge, but an army of those were truly a force to reckoned with, so she nodded too.
Satori made up her mind, "If that newspaper Tengu… Aya, is our last hope, then I have no choice but to ask a favour of you all."
"What would that favour employ?!" Kanako asked to specify the details.
"It's very simple, next time you see her, ask her to pay a visit to miss Margatroid." Satori had thought about all options and this seemed like her only cause of action.
Alice caught on rather quickly, "And you want me to tell her of your Sister's disappearing… am I right?"
"You are indeed, and in return you can read as many of my books as you want to, my library is officially open to you, effected immediately." Satori announced, she knew that little tidbit would do the trick.
"It's a deal!" Alice smiled in blissful happiness.
Kanako acknowledged the plan, "If you just keep the geyser going and tell of our great religion, we will do our part."
"We will do our part, but I doubt our words would persuade many." Satori had to inform, on the basis of what they are.
"That is unfortunate... but even small flames can start a large forest fire." Kanako began chuckling… a little too much and too creepy.
The others looked at her with some hesitance in their eyes.
