I think I own the eldritch horror Inei, and the Tsukumogami Kashihara, Itoshi, Hashirako, Metis and Yokuri are probably mine too (but feel free to use any of my characters. I don't think they're really worth that much.). Touhou Project and all of it's characters and locations belong to ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice, though.

-Senkai, Youkai Mountain.-

Kasen looked around if Onozuka had come to her home. She found no trace of her presence, and decided it was safe as long as no one particularly powerful came in.

She put the box on the table, and helped her father onto the high chairs of her living space. He looked worried, but acted calmly before the situation. He fidgeted like a schoolboy at the headmaster's office. Shizumu took a deep breath, and faced forwards, looking at the sealed arm. Kasen gripped her head, unable to deal with the situation. She knew she'd lied to her father. She wasn't exactly the Ibaraki he knew. She was a different and changed Kasen, no matter how long she'd loved him as a father, or he loved her as a daughter. The malice and evil that her arm held told of it. It was only a child's mischievous personality at first, developed in the care of Shuten's gang, but soon it grew uncontrollably into evil. Still, it was part of her, nonetheless. She'd grown fond of being a good person, and didn't want to stop yet.

"Hey…" his father got concerned and tired of waiting for Kasen to speak. He decided instead to leave it a matter for another day... But he couldn't deny Kasen's courage to tell about what she had hidden from him.

She snapped out of it, but the words wouldn't yet come out. The words choked in her throat, leaving behind only whispers and mutters. Kasen was not ready yet to tell her father, but he needed to know. He deserved to know better than it. She was visibly struggling to speak, which worried Shuten even more.

"...you…" he felt unable to tell Kasen to let go of the straws of determination to tell him. He knew the box had something to do with what she wanted to say, but he didn't know what was in it, or why it was contained in such a way. He definitely could say that whatever it was, it was something dangerous. He picked up the box. Kasen's eyes opened up. He weighed it, and shook it with gentility.

"Is this…?"

Kasen finally found the words she wanted to say.

"That's my arm." Shizumu was mildly shocked. "Oh." "I had it re-sealed a short while ago. Just yesterday, actually. It…" he stopped her from talking any further. Her voice was shaky and nervous, and... "I can tell you're uncomfortable. I don't like that. If you don't want to tell me, or don't feel like it yet, you should just stop from talking. I won't force honesty into you. I don't have the right to do it, anyway. If it's about how you aren't an oni now for whatever reason, it's okay, I'm not one either now. If this is your arm as you said, you don't have to explain why it's like this. You... should have let go of me as your father the moment I died. You don't have to tell me the truth. Now that I realize, I'm not the best dad you could have had, huh... I left you for so long... Should I have left you in the priests' care...?" He looked depressed. Kasen cleared her throat, concealing the hurt tone she would have spoken in otherwise. "You shouldn't say that kind of stuff. Don't do that, Dad. I wouldn't change you for anyone else. And you got killed; that's more than a sufficient excuse." She switched gears and continued. "This box has my arm, as I just said." He held silence but cocked his head to the side. 'Why is it sealed?' "And unfortunately, this arm has a part of me. It's what came into existence when I decided to join you, despite what you said. You were right, Dad. Pillaging villages and murdering people would consume me and end up scarring me for life. It's alright, though. I managed to leave it all behind." She silently gestured for him to open the box. Dad could seal it back.

The dried up and dark coloured arm jumped from the container. Shizumu caught it from the air with care and held it down to the table, maintaining a firm but gentle grip on the hand. Despite the little force that he put on the arm, it stood calm still. "I got cut using a special youkai killing blade. All of my oni spirit and malice were left in my arm and sealed, and after a thousand years, the seals that were put onto it had weakened, so I left it at the Hakurei Shrine for safekeeping. Then, it broke out, and Reimu managed to defeat it with some help after my arm dragged her to Hell and took over me in an attempt to eat her." It gripped back, a missing warmth previously unfound coming to the arm. "I thought it was for best you didn't know, but lying to you felt…" she stopped to think and take a breath. "wrong…" No more words were left to say on Kasen's side. Silence stood between the both of them. Shuten opened his mouth. "Can you leave me here for a second? I need to talk to "you". And well, even if you're trying to change… what is in this arm is part of you, Kasen. You can't alienate it as if it hadn't been ever. Hoshiguma, me, Kane, and everyone else chose to become oni because we didn't like the dulling human life that would have bound us to the rules. You were the result of rebellion against your own parents, no matter how petty. Also, I have to tell you something: being an oni doesn't mean someone is evil. It just drives people to look a bit more for fun, if you ask me. But it's fine. You must have been looking for some peace. I can relate. Years of being mostly alone at my shrine have dulled my trouble-seeking senses quite a bit if you compare it to my earlier days, and I can enjoy the calm that came along with it. Anyways, I need a moment; I have more stories to tell this little part of you. She is still "Kasen", after all. I can't leave my daughter in the dark. I orphaned you when you were still in your teens, and it's only fair that I make up for it now that I can."

Kasen left the room and closed the door, went upstairs, and jumped through the window to the balcony. Her expression turned sour upon seeing Yukari's upper body with her ear to the wall.

"What are you doing here?"

"Watch some drama unfold. It's not like you get to see stories like this one every day here. I did not imagine your father would be such a family man." Yukari spun her closed parasol with her golden eyes shut. The ever-looking gazes in the gaps creeped her out in their stead.

"I shall go now. Sharing this anecdote among the people seems like a fun idea for an evening~" Kasen reached out to her to stop her from escaping through the void, but she slipped right from her grip. Yukari's voice came from an open gap. "Just kidding, of course~" She sat down, tired of trying to think. She left most of her thoughts in the back of her mind, and started meditation.

'Yukari's just a pain to deal with…' was the last thing that ran through her head.

"Well, dearie, that's about everything wrapped up."

Shuten-dōji hugged the remainders of his troublemaker daughter. A proper oni she was. The ghostly and cold air wrapped around him, in a freezing embrace. The aged and mummified arm of Ibaraki-dōji had turned a healthier colour with a soft and fleshy texture.

"I am so sorry, Ibara-chan. I want to spend so much more time with you, but it's already running out for me. I still love you; always remember that. I'll see you someday. Sweet dreams, love."

He said his goodbyes in tears. He took off one of his necklaces, gave it to Ibaraki and sealed back the box with the arm carefully, not unlike how a father would tuck their child into bed after a bedtime story. After a few minutes, he came out of the door; drained of all curse.