Bright orange light bathes the outside of the Shining Needle Castle in dusk's glow. Hanging off one of the many inverted eaves, using her legs to anchor herself, is a certain infamous amanojaku. She gazes off into the horizon, taciturn.


I feel… off somehow. Is it because of what happened underground…? No, I don't think that's it.

"Seija! You out there?" calls a voice from a nearby window.

"Huh?" mumbles Seija, pulling up with a jolt. She sees Shinmyoumaru, human-sized, leaning on the windowsill in front of her.

"There you are! It's our first day back, why are you moping?"

"I'm not 'moping,' thank you," Seija responds indignantly.

Shin grins and hops over, sitting in front of her friend. "Riiiiiiiiight, you were just joyfully staring at the horizon in silence, my mistake. Though maybe you're only showing the opposite of how you feel?"

"Aw, shut up."

"Dang, not even a witty retort. Well Doctor Sukuna is on the case! Tell me, how do you feel?" says the inchling, leaning forward to get a better view of Seija's embarrassed expression as the latter looks away.

"What's with you today?" Seija asks in an attempt to deflect the topic. "You're being weird."

"Excuse me for attempting to cheer up my partner," Shin says with a shrug.

Partner…

"I… guess I'm in a funk," says Seija hesitantly, fiddling with her hair. "Lacking motivation."

Gah, can't believe I'm saying this.

Despite Seija's trepidation, Shin earnestly listens and says, "Did our loss in Former Hell really shake you that badly?"

"O-of course not!" Seija shouts, standing up and letting out her best fake maniacal laugh. "Who do you think you're talking to?! I just need some inspiration is all!"

"Y'know, it's okay to be honest with me. I realize your nature makes telling the unadulterated truth hard but know you don't need to hide your feelings from me."

"…"

"Wanna eat something?"

"…Sure."


Seija slaves away in the Shining Needle Castle's kitchen, cooking meat and vegetables while preparing the rice. "When you asked if I wanted to eat," she says, "I thought the implication was that we'd either get food or you'd make it."

Shin, now at her original small size, sips tea from a cup nearly as tall as her; the Miracle Mallet lays next to her. "You said you'd make dinner next time we were home. I even went to get the ingredients before finding you."

"Hmph, fair enough."

A momentary distraction wouldn't hurt, anyway.

"So, wanna hear about the info I got while I was out?" says Shin, a glint in her eye.

Seija flips the food over the fire with her power. "Oh? What might that be?"

"I ran into Reisen near the human village. She was peddling her wares as usual and we chatted for a bit. She told me about a little contest the village would be holding during its next festival in two days: a dango cook-off."

"Where are you going with this?"

"You know Seiran and Ringo?"

"Those bit-player moon rabbits you invited to help crash the fireworks festival?"

"Yeah, apparently they're participating. They started selling their dango here after that debacle with the Moon a few years ago. Their cooking is delicious."

"And…?" Seija trails off while dumping the rice into two bowls.

"Well my idea is twofold: gorge on delicious dango from some of the best chefs in Gensokyo, then cause a little chaos afterwards. A few other youkai in the mix can make it more fun, too."

"Huh. I'm not against that, but what gave you the idea? And what's your goal here?"

"Humor me and find out," Shin says with a sly smile.

She's playing more coy than usual. But it sounds like it could be fun, so why not?

The amanojaku throws the finished meat and veggies on top of the rice. "Alright, you got it. Dinner's ready."

After Seija brings the food to the table, the duo brainstorms their plan of attack for the cook-off while eating.

Something this small scale is also a good idea after how high profile our previous failure was. Having Reimu or whoever else breathing down our necks is better avoided for the moment.

Seija fidgets with a necklace fashioned out of a piece of metal cut from a certain person's sword, hidden under her usual attire.

You'll be getting this back one day, I swear. But it's probably better not to worry about that for now.

"-and since we don't have your cheating tools at the moment, we'll have to be extra careful about being seen by anyone dangerous. Seija?"

"Huh? Oh, my bad, got distracted."

"You gotta keep your head in the game," the inchling says, tapping her head with her index finger. "We don't wanna cause a huge scene in town or Reimu and Marisa will be on us immediately."

"Yeah," says Seija, doing her best to stay focused.

Shin gives her a worried look. "Are you sure you're okay? If you'd rather not do this-"

"Hey now, I'm raring to go! I promise I'll be fine, if anything you'll need to do your best to keep up with me!"

Despite the bravado, Seija feels her companion staring right through her.

She's the only person who always knows exactly what I'm feeling, which at the moment is kind of infuriating.

"Look, I wouldn't let my partner down, alright?" Seija continues, holding up a fist with her folded index finger slightly jutting out.

After a moment of consideration, Shin relents and meets Seija's closed finger with her own tiny fist; her worried expression is replaced by a determined smile.

"I'm holding you to that, alright? And I promise the same. Now let's get going, we'll need a lot of ingredients for this."


"I swear we've stopped at a dozen stalls and still haven't seen any sign of Seiran or Ringo," Seija complains while picking her teeth with a leftover dango skewer.

The ill-intentioned duo wanders the streets of the human village, which is very crowded and immersed in festivities. Seija wears a kasa to hide her horns that mark her as a youkai; Shin also has one on and made herself human size before arriving, keeping the Miracle Mallet and her still small bowl hidden in her clothes. In the days leading up to the event, they decided the best way to sneak around during the festival would be traveling among the crowd and blending in until the time is right.

"I'm sure we'll find them eventually," Shin responds. "At least the dango's been tasty."

Eh, I've had better.

"Oh, Akyuu, let's try this one!" yells an excited voice behind them.

"You need to slow down, I'm having a hard time keeping up," says a more reserved and tired sounding voice in response.

Akyuu?

Seija and Shin glance backwards to see Kosuzu Motoori and Hieda no Akyuu behind them, the former leading the latter by the hand without a care in the world.

"That's not good, those two might recognize us," Shin says worriedly.

If they notice us then we're in trouble. They'll probably go get Reimu immediately.

As they get closer, Seija flips the direction they are running in an instant. This momentarily causes the bookkeeper to pause.

"Huh? Didn't we just come from this way?" says Kosuzu.

"Now's our chance, let's move!" whispers Seija to Shin.

Grabbing her partner's hand, the amanojaku forges a path through the crowd to put some distance between them and the potentially problematic pair. Seija keeps her head down while doing so, causing her to bump into a woman in front of her.

"Oh!" exclaims the woman, turning to face Seija. "Pardon me, dearie, don't mean to be in the- hm?"

The woman wears glasses and a large robe with a checkered scarf. Her hair is long and brown, with a leaf accessory on top of her head.

What's this lady's deal? Get outta the way.

"Excuse us," Seija says with false remorse. "Just trying to find the best dango stands before they run out."

The bespectacled woman gives Shin a brief once-over; the smaller girl averts her eyes, using her hat to conceal her face. Said woman's countenance shifts from slight surprise to contemplation until it settles on an affable smile. "I see. Well, I just came from two very good stands that are a bit further down the street. They like to compete with each other for customers so it's a very lively time. I'm sure you two will have some fun there."

What's that supposed to mean?

"Thank you very much," Shin says with a small bow.

The increasingly mysterious woman pushes up her glasses. "No problem at all, dearie. You should hurry along."

She lets the duo by and waves as they walk past, appearing oddly smug.

After gaining some distance, Seija asks, "Do you know her? She gave you a look."

"I don't recognize her, but at the same time she seemed oddly familiar," Shin muses.

"Thanks for the informative answer. Well, she gives off a suspicious vibe, so let's avoid her if we can."

It takes a few more minutes of walking, but eventually the two reach dango stands with a noticeable crowd around them. Mutterings leak out from the large group of people.

"These two girls are the frontrunners in the contest, right? Aren't they youkai?" asks one man.

"Yeah, but they've been working the streets here regularly for a while so they don't seem dangerous," a woman next to him answers. "They constantly compete on who can sell more and their dango is heavenly. Both are making all sorts of variants to impress the judges and attract customers."

"Well, no matter which of them take the prize, we're the real winners!" the man says with a laugh, the woman joining him.

"Looks like we've found our youkai," says Seija, happy to have finally arrived.

Shin nods. "Let's get to the front so we can see them."

With a bit of shoving they force their way to the action, where a sight to behold awaits them. On their left is Seiran, her bluish dress covered by an apron while her rabbit ears jut through holes in the bandana tied to her head. Her hands are a blur as she juggles multiple batches of dango at once, quickly switching between cutting the dough, forming it into spheres, and cooking it in the pots of boiling water in front of her. Meanwhile, to their right is Ringo; her ears shoot out from under the sides of her cap and she too wears an apron over her usual orange and yellow attire. As she forms her own dango, she munches on a few of her finished pieces. With every bite her strength grows, allowing her to cut and form the dough more efficiently. Neither moon rabbit has a single wasted movement; despite their speed, everything is calculated. The crowd is awestruck at their techniques.

"This will be the day I finally beat you, Ringo!" Seiran exclaims. Her declaration inspires in the crowd an image of a fierce challenger pointing and glaring at a champion.

"You say that every time we do this but I still always manage to sell more," Ringo taunts. Her words give the image of a smug champion looking down on her opponent. "And this contest will end the same way!"

"Whoa, look at them go," says Shin with genuine wonder.

Seija flashes a grin. "They're definitely in their element, not a single mistake I can see. But what audience wants a show where nothing goes wrong? Let's shake up this performance!"

While keeping her arm lowered, she discreetly points a finger up; at that moment, Seiran's bowls that boil the dango spill over, causing a collective gasp from the crowd.

"What?! No!" yells Seiran, distraught.

"Gettin' nervous, Seiran? You're gonna have to be more careful if you wanna-" Ringo is cut short when she realizes her own stand is flipping over with seemingly no impetus. She barely manages to catch it in time, but much of her dango falls to the ground.

Seiran chuckles and says, "What was that about nerves?"

"It was a freak accident! You're still going down!"

The sudden developments only further the crowd's engagement, the people obviously enjoying the show.

"Folks love a little chaos when it doesn't happen to them," says Seija.

Shin gives her partner a side eye and says, "So you wanna raise the stakes a bit? I might be able to help with that." She flashes the Miracle Mallet between her sleeves before withdrawing from the crowd, leaving Seija alone.

These people haven't seen anything yet!

About a minute later, more strange phenomena occur at both Seiran and Ringo's stands: random tools and ingredients disappear when they look away.

"Ringo, are you doing this?! It's low to mess with another chef's craft!" Seiran calls out.

Ringo scoffs. "You can't hide the fact you're cheating from me! This will end in your loss like always, no matter what tricks you pull!"

Shin must be using the mallet to shrink their stuff to a size almost unnoticeable. Honestly I'm amazed neither of those rabbits have figured out something else is going on yet. Maybe we should be a little less subtle!

Seija makes another hand motion which causes all the dango sitting on their tables to shoot up in the air as she flips their relative gravity. Both rabbits stop what they are doing to look at what is happening as the crowd lets out many "oooooo"s and "awwwww"s, apparently believing it to be all part of a performance. Just as they go out of sight, Seija precisely manipulates the pieces to scatter everywhere, raining down on the audience and herself. Everyone goes to catch and feast on the delicious bounty. Even Seija snags a few to munch on.

Okay, I'll admit, it's not bad.

The two moon rabbits stand there in disbelief at the turn of events, neither left with the necessary ingredients to make any more dango.

"You, uh… didn't do that, did you?" Ringo asks.

"No, I did not," Seiran answers.

"Neither did I."

"So it was someone else pranking us?"

"Probably, yeah."

Heh, took you two long enough.

As Seija thinks that, Shin comes back to her side looking pleased with herself. "A brilliant finale, nice job."

"This is child's play. I saved you some dango," says Seija, handing over a few pieces to Shin.

"They really are the best around," Shin observes after eating one.

"Hmph. That was fun, though. Glad to know our warm-up went off without a hitch. Now we wait for the real thing at the award ceremony."

"Mhm! Wanna keep roaming in the meantime and see more stalls? There are plenty of games and non-dango snacks around."

Seija shrugs but finds the idea of exploring with Shin enticing. "Sure, why not?"


The dastardly duo does decidedly non-dastardly activities in the human village while waiting for the evening's award ceremony. One stall they happen across is home to a throwing game where anyone who can toss a sandbag into a hole five meters away gets any desert on display, which Shin becomes interested in. These include large quantities of dango, daifuku, manjū, and more.

"The sign says it only costs fifty yen a throw! This looks super easy too!" Shin exclaims.

"We didn't bring much yen so don't lose it all," says Seija.

It's weird just hanging out with someone at a festival like this. Most of my life I didn't have anyone to go with to events like these, and I liked it that way.

Shin throws the sandbag but comes up short by a meter.

I still don't get why Shin approached me again after what happened between us initially. Or rather, what changed about her.

Another throw, another miss.

The only time I asked was when she came back and I didn't get the clearest answer.

Determined, Shin gives it a third try, but that determination causes her to give the throw too much force and it appears as though the sandbag will overshoot. Yet suddenly, its momentum almost appears to reverse and it lands in the hole. The runner of the stall blinks in surprise but finds the bag in the goal, declaring Shin a winner.

"Yes! Seija, I did it!" she cheers.

Seija cannot help but smile as she stretches her arms over her head. "Yeah, looks like you did."

But maybe this isn't so bad.

They happily share the platter of manjū Shin chose for her prize as they continue down the street. Eventually they take a break at a bench on a narrow path between buildings, out of sight from the main road.

"Are you having a good time?" asks Shin, licking her fingers clean of the last pieces of desert.

"More than I expected to," Seija admits. "I thought the only fun parts would be messing up the festival."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"Hm, I suppose that means everything's going according to your plan?"

"And what exactly are you implying?"

"I'm not blind. I can tell the reason you suggested this wasn't just for messing with the festival. Acting secretive about your motives before, making sure I'm having fun, this was all a set-up. You want to cheer me up."

"Hey, can't have a layabout partner who spends all day staring into the sky."

"...Thanks, Shin."

"Oh?" the inchling feigns a gasp of surprise. "The friendless amanojaku Seija Kijin offering thanks? The contrarian who would never be caught enjoying frivolous gatherings like these? Have you overturned even yourself?"

Seija forces down an embarrassed smile.

Heh, idiot. It's not the gathering I'm enjoying.

"Don't get too comfy, I'm not about to get all cushy at a human festival. We're still rocking this place later!"

"Now there's the Seija I know!" Shin puffs out her chest, obviously pleased with herself.

While the partners in crime bask in the moment, neither hear the distinct sound of a danmaku bullet whizzing by until it goes right past their heads.

"What the-" Seija cuts herself off when she turns to see Seiran and Ringo standing four meters away, the former holding a giant wooden mallet and the latter cracking her knuckles while chewing on dango.

"Fancy meeting you two here," says Ringo, barely hiding her anger.

"I suppose it makes sense that the ones who'd crash a fireworks festival wouldn't value the sanctity of a dango festival," Seiran says with utmost seriousness.

The pure fury emanating from the moon rabbits is enough to make Seija recoil slightly.

What the hell is this aura?!

"Why are you two so angry?" Shin asks, feigning ignorance.

"What happened earlier at our stands made no sense," says the blue rabbit. "The villagers might have been fooled, but Ringo and I have been at this long enough to know neither of us were responsible. But that left the question of who."

"Luckily we got a tip you two were in town and it all made sense," the orange rabbit continues. "Now we might have been complicit in what happened the night of the fireworks festival, but messin' with our sales and craft crosses the line."

The dango chefs get into fighting stances. Shin gives Seija a look that suggests they should do the same.

We'll have to figure out who caught us later. But while I fully believe we can beat these bunnies, we can't cause a ruckus before the intended time. Let's make this quick.

The inchling and amanojaku stand shoulder to shoulder, prepared to attack. For a brief moment, the two teams stare each other down on the path devoid of humans. A quiet breeze passes by. Seiran sprints forward, mallet at the ready, with Ringo right behind.

A telegraphed frontal assault seems too basic even for them, given their history in the Lunarian military. From what I know of Seiran's ability, that means…!

Without exchanging a word, Shin gives Seija a nod before the latter flips their position with the bullets that silently appeared behind them. Seiran's bullets from a different dimension shoot towards their owner, who immediately drops prone to avoid them. Ringo does not react fast enough and takes many direct hits, though her dango-boosted strength lets her continue her charge.

"Ow! Seiran, watch where you're shooting those!" Ringo complains.

"Not my fault your reflexes are slow!" Seiran retorts.

One's fast and one's strong which could make them a good team, but the fools are too caught up in themselves and don't have good coordination. Seiran reacted quickly enough to potentially help Ringo get down in time but didn't. Combined with how angry they are, they probably aren't entirely rational.

"Charging in with an empty head like that, can you believe this girl, Seiran?" says Seija, easily dodging Ringo's charge alongside Shin. "A partner like that can't be pleasant."

"I never said-"

Seija cuts off Seiran, "Though you didn't even help her dodge, so maybe you never cared about her to begin with?"

"What?!" yells Ringo.

"She's trying to pit us against each other, don't fall for it!" says Seiran.

The blue rabbit brings her mallet to bear on Shin and charges, using her danmaku as covering fire; Ringo comes up alongside her.

Another charge? There must be more to this. They're moving too slowly for it to be any threat.

As if in response to Seija's thought, Ringo grabs Seiran and begins spinning extremely fast. Before being let loose, Seiran summons more bullets between Seija and Shin, forcing them to split up to dodge. The moment their adversaries are off-balance, Ringo lets go, sending a dangerous spinning mallet attack in Shin's direction.

What kinda nonsense is this? I'll just reverse her momen-

The idea is interrupted by Ringo, who closes in while Seija is momentarily distracted, throwing a punch that the amanojaku narrowly dodges. Seija counters by flipping Ringo upside down and pelting her with a few more bullets, thoroughly discombobulating the rabbit.

"I remember hearing a while back that you Lunarian military types were trained where 'not even a single hit was allowed,' but you certainly don't have much to show for it. Even with the element of surprise, you're way too slow," says Seija, partially bluffing. "You'll have to do much better than that."

That punch had enough force to send me flying. She's quicker than I gave her credit for. But if they think we're easily countering them, that'll make them hastier and more desperate.

As this exchange occurs, Seiran reaches her target, though Shin seems largely unconcerned. The inchling calmly retreats into her now large bowl and, at the last second, uses the Miracle Mallet to shrink Seiran's mallet. Shin covers her head with the bowl top and Seiran's attack plinks off harmlessly.

"You can do that?" Seiran asks, incredulous.

"It takes a lot of concentration and the effect isn't permanent, plus items and weapons with their own powerful magic take even longer to the point of it not being practical in a fight," Shin explains.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Simple: you two never stood a chance, so this knowledge won't help you."

Seiran is at a loss for words but her irritation is evident.

Nice, Shin! Just a little more fuel to the fire and…!

"At first I thought you two might be dangerous given how furious you were," Seija interjects, moving next to Shin. "Yet this is all you've got. I didn't even need to help Shin stop that combo attack. Your teamwork is pretty basic."

"Grr…" Ringo growls.

"Awww, is the wittle owange wabbit angwy?" Seija jeers.

"Gah, that's it! I'm taking you down right now!"

"Oh, you're gonna fight me one-on-one again?" Seija winks at Shin, who shrinks herself and moves away, before continuing, "Bring it! Maybe you'll actually do something this time!"

"Wait, Ringo, stop!" Seiran calls out.

Her warning falls on deaf ears as Ringo, seeing red, charges Seija again, the latter simply floating there with a smug grin. Just as it appears Ringo will reach her target, Shin quickly makes herself large again and smashes the charging rabbit with the Miracle Mallet, who hits a nearby building with a thud. She falls to the ground unconscious, Seiran managing to catch her.

"Hahahaha!" Seija bursts out laughing, clutching her sides. "She really fell for the 'one-on-one' trick? C'mon, you're making this too easy!"

After setting Ringo down, Seiran says, "That was risky, half a second off and Ringo would have either averted at the last second or done major damage to you."

"Partners trust each other!" Shin proclaims proudly. "You two need some work."

I didn't doubt for a second that Shin would follow through.

Seiran lets out a sigh. "I concede, a well-trained Lunarian recognizes when they've lost. I'll take Ringo back to her stall to rest, but know that we won't forget what happened today."

With that parting statement, Seiran runs away with Ringo slumped over her shoulder.

"I'm annoyed she escaped before we could find out who told them about us, but luckily we handled that quickly enough to not draw attention," says Seija.

"Yeah," Shin agrees. "Though this might affect our plans for the award ceremony. Seiran and Ringo were the obvious favorites to win, but with them out of the picture early we might be messing with a different winner."

"All the other entrants are humans, right? If anything this makes our job easier. Not like the winner could be any more dangerous than those two losers."


"Hohoho, I'm so flattered by your praise," says a familiar bespectacled woman, the back of her left hand under her chin as she motions with her right.

A small crowd gathers in front of a stall as three judges are about to declare the woman that Seija and Shin bumped into earlier the winner of the festival's contest. The judging board includes Hieda no Akyuu, Keine Kamishirasawa, and Rinnosuke Morichika. Keine is holding a wooden plaque meant for the winner.

"I get Akyuu and Keine being judges due to their respected positions in the village, but why Rinnosuke?" Seija asks Shin as they blend into the crowd.

"Beats me," the inchling responds. "Though none of the judges seem overly thrilled about the prospect of that woman winning."

As Shin says, the three judges appear less than enthused. Akyuu looks downright annoyed, a rare sight to most. Meanwhile Keine wears a nervous smile and Rinnosuke's tired expression indicates he does not want to be there.

That old lady's the one who told us where the rabbits' stalls were. Didn't realize she was a contestant herself.

"Where have I seen her before…?" Shin trails off.

"This was bothering you earlier, too," says Seija. "You good to go or do you wanna abort?"

"No, it's fine. Let's do this."

The duo turns to exit the crowd when they hear a voice call out, "You two girls in the hats, would you like to try some soon-to-be award-winning dango?"

All eyes turn towards Seija and Shin, both standing stiff in response to the sudden attention. They turn around sheepishly to see the brown-haired woman beckoning them to come to the stall.

Shoot! Why did she single us out? If we get too close then Akyuu will definitely recognize us, potentially the other two as well. And if Akyuu's here then Kosuzu's likely close by. This lady's up to something.

"Uh, sorry, we have to be somewhere soon and it wouldn't be right for us to eat before everyone else," says Shin in a hurried voice.

"Not to worry, dearie, I just wanted to do this as an apology for bumping into you earlier," the woman responds without missing a beat. "Won't take a minute."

Insistent old hag. What to do?

Seija quickly scans her surroundings. Only lines of buildings surrounding a long path on a cool autumn day. The crowd of people stand around them with occasional passersby joining in, currently around seventy people. Clear skies above that slowly turn orange as the evening progresses with a few scattered clouds. In all respects, it is a very nice day with nothing that can serve as a natural distraction.

It'll be obvious I'm a youkai if I create a chaotic phenomenon when everything's calm like this. We can't afford being outed right now. Ugh.

"Uh, sorry for the delay, you see my friend is very shy in front of crowds," says Seija, breaking the deafening silence. "If it's alright, can she stay back while I come up?"

The woman narrows her eyes the slightest bit before saying, "Alright, that's fine."

Giving her partner an affirming nod, Seija slowly walks up as the crowd parts for her. She tilts her hat to cover her face from the judges.

I got the focus off you, Shin, so I really need you to pull out some trick right now!

The nervous amanojaku reaches the stall, still looking down.

"Dearie, no need to be bashful, why not take off that hat so everyone can see how much you enjoy my dango?" says the woman, seemingly enjoying Seija squirm. "Here, have some- YOWCH!"

She grabs her foot and rubs it, a small mark on the side as if she had been lightly poked by a sharp weapon or tool. In response to the pain, something strange happens. While the confused crowd cannot see the woman's lower body behind the stall, Seija has a full view of it; around her legs a small mist-like essence appears and, for the briefest of moments, Seija catches a glimpse of a giant striped brown tail.

That tail, she's a bake-danuki! And taking into account these mannerisms, she must be-

A devilish grin forms on Seija's face. Leaning in, she whispers, "Mamizou Futatsuiwa, I'll be glad to reveal who I am to this excitable crowd if you do first. I can promise you won't have a choice if you continue this farce."

Mamizou, while maintaining her smile for the crowd, squints at the youkai in front of her. "You finally caught on, congratulations. I knew you were up to something by coming up alone, but I didn't think Shinmyoumaru would try something so base as to prod my foot with that needle of hers."

Good ol' Shin.

"So I take it you tipped off the rabbits about us?"

"A good way of dealing with problems is to pit them against each other. It's no good to have you two running around here, but I can use you to get rid of competition. I was hoping they'd drive you off afterwards, though."

"I almost respect you for coming up with something that devious, though you clearly underestimated us."

"Seems we've hit a bit of a stalemate, dearie. How about I let you go and we call it even?"

"Heh," Seija chuckles, "I don't think you have enough leverage to say something like that, dearie."

Before Mamizou can ask what Seija means, a nearby Akyuu says, "Um, excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt but we need to move on with the festivities."

"I'm terribly sorry," Seija lies while bowing. "I'll be going now."

Without giving anyone a chance to stop her, she swiftly walks off and retreats to an alleyway down the street, out of the crowd's sight. Shin soon follows, still small to remain hidden.

"Quick thinking back there, nice job," says Seija.

"You too, splitting us up was a good play," Shin responds. "Now onto the main event."

The duo flies up and peeks over the building to see Akyuu handing Mamizou the award, the latter still appearing distracted by her previous encounter.

"You got the ball of dango?" Shin asks.

"Right here," says Seija, pulling from her hidden pocket dango the size of her hand. It has a fuse sticking out. Using a match she kept in the same pocket, Seija lights it and says, "On three."

The Miracle Mallet can hypothetically do nearly anything, but it has limited energy reserves. Should it run out, then Shin is stuck being small and can't do as much. And that's not even taking into account costs for any non-size altering wish she makes on it.

"One…"

Barring herself and her personal effects like the needle and bowl, making something bigger than what it should be uses a lot of that energy; as opposed to making an object smaller which uses much less. Plus releasing too much energy causes tsukumogami to pop up.

"Two…"

So by taking something big and making it small, she can return it to its original size later with minimal effort and risk.

"Three!"

Seija lobs the dango directly over the crowd. In response, Shin pulls out the Miracle Mallet and waves it, causing the foodstuff to grow to eleven meters in diameter. The suddenly huge shadow overhead causes the crowd to see what is hurtling towards them, throwing everyone into a panic as they flee. However, many of them cannot get out of the way in time.

Can't have anyone getting hurt lest we fear Reimu's wrath. Soooooooooooooo…

Before it makes contact with any villagers, Seija reverses the dango bomb's relative gravity which causes it to rocket up.

"Oh, this is like the trick those other dango salesgirls did earlier! It's amazing!" a female villager, one that was at Seiran and Ringo's stalls before, says to Mamizou.

"Uh, yes, of course!" the bake-danuki lies. "I launched it earlier while everyone was looking away. Apologies for the scare, seems the expansion was a bit bigger than anticipated."

Able to hear the false gloating from the nearby rooftop, Shin says, "Dang, can't fault her for being good at turning situations towards her favor."

"I'm almost tempted to let it fall on her," muses Seija, "but her saying that is about to backfire much more. Any second now."

Right on cue, the fuse Seija lit reaches the center of the dango and an explosion erupts above the village. It is neither very bright nor very large, but more than powerful enough given its height to easily scatter the dango to a major portion of the human village. So many pieces come down that it briefly sounds like a light rainfall.

"Wow, this is quite impressive," says Rinnosuke, standing up after initially taking shelter beneath a table he is conveniently near. "After the quality of your earlier dango, I'm sure this will be good." He puts a piece he caught into his mouth and instantly his eyes go wide. "Eurrgh…"

Many others in the area similarly gag after trying one of the fallen pieces. Eventually the judges and crowd all turn to Mamizou with an incredulous look, the trickster sweating buckets.

"O-oh, so terribly sorry, I guess that was a bad batch, hoho… ho…" she trails off.

Akyuu marches over to Mamizou, a fierce look in her eyes. "Your little stunt, while interesting on a technical level, scared everyone here half to death. And now we have who knows how much dango littered throughout the village that we will have to clean up, and it doesn't even taste good. Your award is revoked, we will find someone else to give it to. To be honest, I'm glad it's not you."

"B-but!"

Mamizou's protests are promptly ignored as Akyuu snatches the wooden plaque off the stand and walks away, the other two judges following suit. Kosuzu emerges from the crowd to go with Akyuu.

"The way you told her off was so cool!" says the bookkeeper.

Akyuu subtly puffs out her chest and says, "Well I have my pride and I will not tolerate someone inconveniencing the village."

"We'll have our hands full cleaning all this up," says Keine.

"I might have something at my shop that can help. You see, it's called a 'vac-uum' and…" Rinnosuke rambles on.

Soon the rest of the disgusted crowd disperses as well. The bake-danuki balls her fists and struts off.

That much vitriol from Akyuu must mean she knows who Mamizou really is; the other judges likely do as well.

"That went even better than expected!" Shin cheers.

Seija nods. "That old lady was dumb to think she could use us like that."

"Oho, this 'old lady' is rather peeved at you two," says a furious voice behind them.

Turning around, the duo sees Mamizou, having dropped her disguise, standing tall with her arms crossed.

She found us and got up here that fast?

"I must know, before I forcibly remove you from this village," growls the trickster, "how you knew I'd lie and take credit for your stunt initially."

"We never meant for you to," says Seija.

"What?"

"I overturn things, it's what I do. Seeing all these people having fun without a care in the world is disgusting. Shin and I figured that a good way of flipping the script on this festival would be to scatter sour tasting dango everywhere."

"And," Shin chimes in, "doing it during the award ceremony is a good way to cap it all off."

Seija continues, "Originally we meant for Ringo or possibly Seiran to be the one accepting the award while we did this, which might even cause one to assume the other is responsible given our prior messing with them earlier today, though we didn't care too much if that happened or not. In other words, we were fully prepared to run so the firework wouldn't be pinned to us in the inevitable investigation."

Realization slowly dawns on Mamizou. "So my interference just made things easier for you."

"Bingo! Singling us out earlier nearly threw everything off, but all it accomplished was making your self-destruction all the more satisfying to watch. Claiming credit for our dango firework was the best part since now we have complete deniability. I guess you can't resist an opportunity to make yourself look better."

"There's nothing stopping me from telling Akyuu and the others the truth about what happened," Mamizou counters. "They know of you and would likely believe me, which could also get you in trouble with Reimu."

"Sure, if you don't mind me spreading the rumor in the village that the sweet brown-haired old lady with spectacles is actually a youkai. And yeah, maybe you could just transform into a different appearance for your forays here, but all your credibility would be washed away and you'd have to start over. Plus it'd give tanukis a bad name. I know you youkai leader types like to extend your influence in the village, that's probably why you wanted to win this contest to start with; Aya and her newspaper are the same way." Seija leisurely paces over to the obviously perturbed Mamizou. "Maybe after you won, you intended to have some of your ilk start a shop that you were the manager of, with tanukis as a mascot. Slowly sway public opinion of tanukis among humans as something to be trusted."

"That imagination of yours is running a little too wild, dearie," the bake-danuki says through gritted teeth. "Though obviously you've been paying attention to our little society in spite of how much you claim to hate it."

"Knowing your enemy is the best way to subvert it."

"You're correct that I like to incite a bit of sympathy for my kind in the village from time to time, and I suppose I can't have you destroying that reputation."

"Like she said, we just wanted to cause a little chaos and flip people's expectations at the last second," says Shin. "Everything that went wrong for you today is your own fault. I highly doubt you would have cared about what we did had it not been you down there. You were presumptuous to try and use us and got your retribution for ratting us out to the rabbits."

"Hmph," Mamizou grunts as she pushes up her glasses. "As much as I'd love to teach you two upstarts a lesson, I cannot deny the truth of your words. I let my overconfidence get the better of me this time. But know this, you're talking to the perennial trickster. You're a few hundred years too young to think you'll get this lucky a second time."

Don't know how she can say stuff like that and still act insulted when called old.

"It certainly isn't hard when you do all the work for us," says Seija with the smuggest smile imaginable.

"You can savor your little victory, but I recommend you leave the village before someone with less restraint finds you."

"We were about to leave this boring pit anyway. C'mon, Shin."

"Coming!" the inchling responds.

Once they have flown out of earshot, Mamizou muses aloud, "They're brats, but I can't help admiring their gumption. They better be careful about who they cross, though."


Back at the Shining Needle Castle, Seija and Shin hold a toast to a job well done.

"The show with the dango, our fight with the rabbits, the explosion, it all went beautifully!" Shin exclaims. "It makes all the ingredients and time we spent making that gigantic dango bomb worth it. And the way you adapted to and undermined all of Mamizou's threats was awesome!"

Seija sips her drink. "You don't become the most wanted youkai in Gensokyo by being stupid, I know the politics. Every major player wants a piece of that village."

"You mean stuff like the religious wars?"

"Yeah, but not just that. The human village is the center of a very delicate balance of power. Youkai need it to exist so they can exist, but they also want to control it."

"You're right, though as long as people like Reimu and Marisa are around, none of them can do too much."

"Yukari, too. That hag is always scheming one way or the other to preserve Gensokyo's well-being or whatever. Makes messing with the place like we do all the harder. Almost wish we could try overturning somewhere else…"

"Well we kind of tried that with Former Hell, though it backfired horribly."

"Former Hell is still part of Gensokyo, is the thing. So the influence exerted by youkai like Yukari remains."

Shin takes a large swig from her cup. "Honestly surprises me that she's so willing to let youkai like Mamizou and the moon rabbits run around since they're not from Gensokyo initially."

"Well Mamizou seems to be on Reimu's side whenever she isn't pushing tanuki propaganda while the moon rabbits are mostly harmless. Though I've heard stories about how dangerous some Lunarians can be."

Can't be any worse than some of the things I've had to deal with here, though. Plus no Reimu or Yukari to worry about…

"Seija? Something on your mind?"

The question snaps Seija back to reality. "Oh, just thinking, don't worry about it. And… thanks again, Shin. Today was better than I expected."

"You gotta admit, my plans can be pretty fun, huh?" says the inchling, smiling ear to ear.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get too big a head. I'll say that between this and the fireworks festival, you've got quite the devious little brain."

"Well it's a two-youkai job, your quick thinking saved us a lot today."

"It helps having a partner you can trust," Seija says with a soft expression, surprising Shin.

"Aww, Seijaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Whoa!"

The half-drunk Shin rushes over to give the amanojaku a huge hug, knocking them both to the ground.

"Agh, get off me!" yells Seija in protest.

Shin sits up and says, "But I thought we were having a moment."

"Who do you think you're talking to?"

"...Fair point."

There are a few seconds of silence while they sit there before both burst out laughing at the absurd situation.

Maybe some things can change.

The jovial pair make merry well into the night.