Marisa/N: I'm more than willing to 'borrow' the Touhou Project series of games, but as of now, it still belongs to ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice.
A/N: Been busy playing Touhou LostWord! It's a pretty cool game, and I got really lucky; Sakuya, Medicine, Youmu, Daiyousei are all on my team! And I still have 20 rolls saved up for future banners! The 5% pull rate for characters is going to break me someday, though... Well, I can't wait for a Kasen banner!
-Kasen's Home, Youkai Mountain.-
The hermit had taken it upon herself to interrogate her father. It hurt them both to look at one another, especially Kasen, who'd seen the full force of his mistakes through witness of the eagle.
"Yes, it's my fault. I dropped the curse seals on my way from the Moriya Shrine, and they have probably activated in many, many places. The wind must have carried them quite far. I am sorry, it was not in my intention to quite possibly start an incident." they acted like strangers.
"How do I know you didn't want to do so? Even if you used to be an Oni, people change and lie. They trick the innocent into believing they're guilty, and say they're innocent."
"I have a daughter who I've never lied to once in my life, and trust my own judgement I never will..."
"Funny, but please don't do that right now."
"*haah*. Even if I am one of the closest things to a curse god without being one myself, I do not want to be feared. I would prefer to be granted faith, and grant blessings. I did become a god to fix people's heads, after all; not to bring madness wherever I go." he explained. "...Is that enough? My ass is getting sore..."
"Yes, good enough. Call it nepotism, if you will. I don't like seeing my dad tied to a chair."
She freed him. The tightly knotted strings suddenly collapsed, letting Shuten free. He looked both ready to spend an entire day babying his thousand year old daughter and compensating for the years he had let her pass without her father for centuries to come, and ready to die of sleep deprivation.
"Thanks, darling. C'mere!" he decided to erase any traces of tiredness on his face, and went for the first option, seeing as a once in a thousand years chance for father-daughter bonding time was standing right in front of his eyes.
Although those words implied he would be carrying her in his arms in a hug, the difference in height... let Kasen pick up her father and put him on her shoulders.
"Dad, you really can't fool me like that. You need to rest for a while, at least."
'I wish I could have met her at a better time...'
"You're tiny now, huh?"
"...True. I'll grow up along with my faith, though. Or fear. Depends on what I do. Choosing to be either a god or a deity-level youkai is like choosing between pizza and a hamburger."
"Huh..." she had to recognise that her father was a god now, whether she liked it or not.
Aya had been working on another article, this time at a rushed pace, hoping she would be the first to publish something on this topic.
She had express ordered a camera through the Kappa Letter-Delivery Service, and hoped to get one to shoot her adorable new tsukumogami assistant Kashihara (カシ原). She seemed quite scared of something, though...
"What's wrong? Something happen?" She had already forgotten about what she learned while that thing was in her skull. (Thank your birdbrain, Aya.)
"Panty shots... Nudes..." she seemed to remember the less tasteful photos Aya had taken throughout her use.
"It's okay now, I'm not going to hurt you anymore..."
"Rumia-chan's bloomers... Reimu-san's armpits... Uwaahhh..."
"..." Aya shut up, with a look of guilt.
A sudden mischievous grin formed on the girl's new face. A click was heard. "I'm totally going to frame this and hang it on the wall. Just look at your face! Worth even putting on an article; 'Infamous Crow Tengu is ashamed of her horrible act-' *woosh*"
A gust of wind had slapped her cheek. "Well, sorry for putting your ass into place for once! You're a real hypocrite, you know? I did the exact same thing that you do to everyone you meet! You're going need an ego check one day, and it's better late than never to do it." the camera-girl took a moment to breathe. "You've been alive for more than a thousand years, and I've only known you for thirty, but even I can recognize that you're getting a bit out of control."
"And how are you helping in any way? The only thing I'm hearing is someone bitching and moaning about how I'm extracting vital information-" "Bloomers are not vital information" Kashihara interrupted her. "Those photos are part of a fetish I prefer not to share with the rest of the world, thank you very much. And your 'putting me in place' isn't even going to help anyone, if anything, you're just getting off from insulting me!"
They took a moment of silence to think about their words, so they both decided to shut up and do their jobs instead. Kashihara went back to tidying up the studio, which was a mess after the entire course of events that provoked her earlier-than-expected existance. Witnessing her owner grasping at straws for air after Kashihara had let loose of the thing was not the best experience to awaken to. She was quite worn.
...
"I'm done. Hand this over to the Yamabushi along with my leaf fan. Let them check it, and come back with it afterwards. I'll pick them up when they're done."
"Aye, aye, miss."
They were in the Moriya Shrine. They looked for the goddesses and Sanae, finding nothing but the remnants of a fight. There were multiple onbashira sticking out through the floor, roof and ceiling of the shrine. The worst was come to be expected, but they found no bodies to check out, be it lucky or not.
Kasen talked to her eagle. It had seen nothing except the aftermath of the fight, unfortunately. They decided to look in the bottom of the mountain, where at least someone must have heard or seen the Tsukumogami run away. They searched for any people passing nearby, including youkai.
"Did you see anyone dragging the entirety of the Moriya Shrine around?" asked the Oni.
"No." the autumn goddesses replied.
"No." the Kappa replied
"Unfortunately, no." the pestilence goddess said.
"Yes, but..." Momiji said.
"You saw someone?"
"Well, I saw someone running with a quite abnormally big sack. They wore a shrine maiden outfit, much like Kochiya-san's own, but lacked her distinctive neon-green hair. The problem is..."
"What's the problem?"
"They were abnormally fast. Faster than me, even. I couldn't catch up to them through any means, even if I showered them with danmaku. I hate to say this, but their dodging was pretty much flawless, too."
"Can you tell us where this person is right now with your eyes?" said Kasen.
"They went to the Forest of Magic. I lost them when they entered, because I don't have their exact location right now... They shook my eyes off when they started jumping through the bushes."
"Thank you for telling us all of this."
"I hope you can solve this incident soon. I apologize for not being able to give you anything more."
The two had taken off to the Forest of Magic. They asked the Magic Shop's owner if he had seen anyone wearing a shrine maiden outfit come into the forest, and where they went.
"If you're talking about Reimu-san, then I don't know where she is right now. If you're talking about a red-haired girl... then she's over there."
He opened the door to reveal a teenager, wearing the Moriya shrine maiden uniform digging excitedly through the items that came from the Outside World. She had shoulder-length hair, bangs covering one of her green eyes. She looked quite innocent, despite what Momiji's words must have implied. One of Kanako's onbashira was on the floor, though smaller, and missing the shimenawa rope that usually wrapped around them. It still had faith, in spite of that.
"Well, if this isn't the culprit, then I don't know where they must be. She doesn't look like it, though." Shuten commented.
"Hey, your gods disappeared into thin air, and your fellow miko has been very possibly kidnapped along with them. Hey. Stop digging through there. Are you the one who kidnapped them?" Kasen began to pull on her hair, and lifting her up.
"Ow ow ow ow! Sorry! I didn't! Itoshi (糸子) was the one who took them away! We were in it together! I was a distraction! Uwaah..." the girl confessed extremely fast.
She let her down.
"So, where is your partner? What are your motives?" Shizumu wall slammed the girl with a kick. He let his horns show (+intimidation!), and his voice took on a deeper tone. He had grown into his adult form, fueled by fear.
"Umm... She's in the Misty Lake. We kidnapped them because..."
"Why did you kidnap them?" he pressed on further.
"...I don't remember..."
He kicked through the poor shopkeeper's wall, knocking down several pieces of stored merchandise and leaving a hole in it. He grabbed the Onbashira Tsukumogami by her collar.
"Tell me what you can then. I'm not going to hurt you~" His eyes screamed of anger at both sides' incompetence, including his. He faced the girl from up close, in a threatening manner. A fake smile poorly hid his true expression.
"Wewokeupafterbeinginyectedwithcurseenergy,whichturnedusintotsukumogami,andthenwesuperhatedthemoriyaforsomereason,soItoshi-sankidnappedthemwhiletheywereasleep-"
"You're exactly as easy to threaten as Sanae, you know? Respond in the same way, too. Ain't that just fuckin' hilarious?" A terrifying fang-toothed smile showed on his face, laughing at her and scaring the girl even more.
Kasen slapped her father's back, who was going overboard.
"Don't do that, Dad."
"Do what?"
"Look at the poor girl!"
She'd pissed herself. Shame piled up on her face, and her eyes moistened.
"Oops, I guess." He let go of her, liquids leaking through the wooden floor.
After dropping down to her knees, the fragile tsukumogami started crying.
"Now you made her cry! You're not going to get faith this way, Dad! You're not even acting like a decent person anymore!"
He realized he had made a couple way too many mistakes about his own personality. He wasn't funny; he was being a dick. He self-reflected for a moment. He was a god. What happened to what he said about trying to make people's lives better? What happened about not actually wanting to be feared? He wasn't an oni anymore. He didn't need to be feared just to get stronger anymore. He could actually start acting decently and not raid villages! 'Well, crap.'
"You've got to be more careful about what you do!"
He crouched down, and made his horns shrink.
"..."
He took a deep breath, and his eyes stared without focus through the hole he had made. 'I'm not a youkai anymore, right?'
She looked at him, the emotions in her eyes unknown to him.
"Well, let's get her to the Hakurei Shrine, then." she said in a forced monotone.
"I've been waiting to ask- What is that that place? Why is it so important?"
"No time to explain."
He squinted for a second, and gave up.
They went through the Human Village, and headed towards the Border. An worn and old shrine was found.
'That's the Hakurei Shrine? It looks a thousand times worse than mine...'
"We have arrived." An imposing torii gate stood before them, which they entered into. 2 shrine maidens sweeped the grounds, both with brown hair, the only thing setting them apart in appearance being that one of them was wearing a huge red bow on her head.