I own nothing. The Touhou Project belongs to ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice.
Reimu dragged herself out of bed and put on her clothes. The hangover hit. Inei offered her a cup of water. She accepted it without a second thought and sipped away.
"Thank you, Yokuri." she mindlessly commented. 'Wait.' Reimu looked up in horror. "not you again..."
"I'm afraid not, Hakurei-sama. That girl is sweeping the grounds. T'is me." the eldritch horror smiled, alerting Reimu. She sprinted to grab her gohei. Unfortunately, she had to stick to her original one because Hashirako had to go to the Moriya Shrine to join their faith, and she required her half. Itoshi followed after her, of course. Inei stood in front of her with a flash.
"Well, that's rude. I open up to you for a night and you receive me like this? Shame on you!" A massive explosion was heard from afar. Marisa kicked in the door, making it slam down on the floor. "Reimu, cheater!" Marisa was not as quiet as she was about their relationship. "What do you mean?" Marisa took a good look at the little girl with clearer eyes. "Oh, sorry, my bad, Inei. Hey, Reimu, I'll be at Alice's this evening. Do you want to come? I can guarantee you there'll be tea and cookies." she got closer to Reimu, and pressured her into accepting. No way was she going to not show off her youkai grimoire to Alice without her darling around. It was not uncommon to see Marisa dragging the shrine maiden around everywhere at least once a day, who always looked severely tired after these tours. Of course, Reimu had no choice in it, but it was something she learned to accept was part of the witch with time.
"Alright..." she put her hands up in surrender. Marisa hopped onto her broom excitedly with a grin. "We start at six! I'll see you there! (ze!)" She headed back to the Forest of Magic in a burst of speed. Inei looked back from the little show that the couple held in a matter of minutes. "How fun~" Gensokyo seemed like a good place to pass some time at.
Sanae gripped her head trying to explain to Itoshi how to do her duties. She didn't expect that there even was someone on this blue Earth inept enough to not know how to even sweep properly. Hashirako, though, was doing more than fine. A bit clumsy on the speeches and raising her voice side, but her technique in the practice rituals was pretty much flawless. She had begged Sanae to let Itoshi in, so they did, but now, managing that woman was such a pain Kanako had considered kicking her out.
"Please put back that rope where it was. Hey, don't throw the broom in the bucket! Where's your outfit? What do you mean you lost it?!" It was quite painful to watch the brainless fool mess everything up. 'We haven't even gotten to the rituals...' she let Suwako take over the task.
Tea break. Hashirako was at the kotatsu, peeling some tangerines. She waved energetically at Sanae, who'd just entered the room. "Kochiya-senpai! Are you done with Itoshi yet? I'm really worried about her; she seems to be pretty confused about how to... do everything." she looked sideways and ignored the groans coming from the hallways. "I can't wait to work with you all, though, and I hope she feels the same." Sanae turned the electric kettle on and picked out a tea cup from the shelf. "I cannot say she is doing well... So, do you want some, Hacchi?" she said, holding another cup. "Oh yes, thank you so much! Here's the tea leaves." She grabbed the box from the table and passed it over to Sanae's free hand.
She poured the steaming water into a teapot and sprinkled the leaves. The nice, grassy smell that spread throughout the room was a perfect mood setter in any formal occassions. A bit irrelevant, but it was a neat sometting. She set both the cups and the teapot on the wooden board and let herself slip under.
"God, I wish you could help us with Itoshi, but Kanako is being really stubborn about setting a power dynamic between her and them both, which I think is reasonable, but it's not going to help our current case."
Sanae slumped down on the table and grabbed one of the tangerines from the bowl. Her nails dug into the fleshy skin of the fruit and started peeling away at a steady pace in circles. "Ooh, I want to try that!" Hashirako's fingers moved with great precision, speed and care not to break the peel. Suddenly, she had some people figures in her hands. "Well, I made something cooler! But I think it's missing something.." She had an innocent expression, unaware that she'd done something ludicrous in a matter of seconds. She then suddenly ripped off their heads. "There! Better!" 'That's bloodthirsty. Wow.' She stared at the widely smiling tsukumogami. "You know, I think I might just forget the fact you're a youkai someday." Sanae twisted her gaze towards the horizon through the open door. "Maybe I might too. But I can't really say for sure, can I?" Hashirako followed after Sanae. "The sky looks really nice." "It'll be boring once you get used to it."
Aya stretched from her chair. 'Another article done! Only a few more until I can take a break. The last issues have been doing well, so I trust this one will follow suit.' Kashihara handed her a bottle of ice tea. She took a sip straight from it. "Want some?" she asked her assistant, offering a bit. "Thank you, Aya." She grabbed it and slowly brought it to her lips. Aya realized the implications and let it ocurr; it wasn't worth getting teased over. Kashihara drank from it. She blushed anyways. "Ah, look at you! Blushing like a schoolgirl!" Aya snatched the bottle away and chugged it. She kissed the tsukumogami straight in the lips, who immediately faced away. She was the one wearing the pants. She was her boss, after all. "Well, you've got back at me. Congrats. Now I'm the one blushing." she turned back a bit. Her cheeks were dyed a light pink. "I didn't expect my first kiss to taste of lemon ice tea, though." Aya giggled.
A/N: What was that about a sex scene? I didn't write anything like that. Not ever in a thousand years. Whatever you must have read must be not true. Oh, yeah: Shuten is alcoholsexual. Just to remind you.
Shuten asked Kuma to show him the yakuza group he led. The question had him puzzled, but he guessed Shuten wanted to compare both of their followings. Which would win: the original mountain gang or the Underground yakuza/mafia family?
Kuma held Shuten's hand, as not to let him get lost in the dense crowd. Shuten held his with his other free hand. This is not gay, because this is the exact same emotional scene as a father guiding his child to a neat place in the forest he wants him to inherit. Now that the obscure incredibly specific reference to a possibly non-existent film is over, they finally reached the Kuma-kai headquarters.
"This is it, Aniki. It's my own gang's main base."
It was a towering three story building. Banners of the 熊 kanji representing the group emblem decorated the walls and doors in abundance. They passed through the gate, and Kuma clapped twice to announce his arrival. The members suddenly kneeled, leaving a path for them both. It was definitely a fancier entrance than whenever Shuten came into the main hall of the fortress, but still less grand than the cheers of the entire mountain gang. He always liked being in a one-to-one relationship with all his subordinates as equals, after all. One of them looked funny at Shuten. He decided to kick his arm. Everyone at the yard heard an audible snap. The kobun collapsed on the floor. "I don't like people who judge by physical appearance, Kuma. You ever hear?" Shuten poked the trembling oni with his foot. He expected a bit of fear to flow in, but there was none, not even from the man whose arm he broke. He could definitely see the energy haze in the room, but it wasn't entering him.
"I haven't." Shuten helped the underling get back up on his feet. Suddenly, a tall, blue haired woman came out of the building doors. She wore an exaggeratedly long purple skirt and a teal shirt with a spiderweb pattern. A little bow in the same colour as skirt rested on her head. 'I really don't have or want to wonder what her legs look like, do I?' thought Shuten.
"Ah, Kakushi, you're here. Are you bringing another abandoned child?" she sighed. "It's the eighth time you've pulled this off in the last week, and I've had to tell you every time to leave them at the orphanage. It's nice of you, but you can't just do this every day." She was unamused by her husband's actions. It was rare to see the day Kuma didn't bring a homeless child from the streets in order to give them a safe place to eat at. The Kuma-kai had been unofficially labeled by some as the town's biggest soup kitchen. Kuma's charity was not unheard of in the Underground and kept only an open secret in the yakuza group for newcomers to discover.
"No, it's my former boss. I'm just showing him around." His wife nagged him quite often for his actions, though they were more often than not acts of kindness or bad decisions he made drunk. Mostly the latter.
"Of course. Well, I've got a giant palace to raid. I'll be back by tomorrow morning this time. See you, darling." She kissed Kuma, climbed over the wall and headed towards the elevator with a steel bow in tow.
"You've got a lovely spider wife, haven't you? I'm proud, boy." "Thanks." They entered the building. He showed him around the more-or-less public side of it. Various people greeted them politely in the halls. The only places of note were the meeting room, which looked quite fancy and was filled with various banners from different clans, and the formal punishment room, which had various uses: Tsunotsume (Horn shortening), normal Yubitsume for the non-oni members, torture devices to get information out of moles... They ended up going in circles, dealing with trouble around the building, until they reached the highest floor, leading them to the actual household. It looked quite luxurious, much different from the life Shuten had been dealing at his shrine. Of course, he wasn't jealous. He was happy enough as is. They sat down at the living room. Kuma brought out some soda for the both of them. Unsurprisingly, they were old brands and types which had recently fallen into obscurity. He even had Ice Cucumber Pepsi. Shuten wondered if Ibaraki was into coffee.
"I'll tell you a bit about my wife: so her name is Takibuchi Aigi (滝淵 愛木), and we got together about a couple decades ago. She's a Jorougumo. How we met: I saw her singing at the Hashihime's bridge, thought she was pretty, and got friendly. She told me to come back the next day after a few hours' talk, and so I did. Next day, boom: half spider-lady. She looked huge, and I thought she wanted to swallow me up, but you know, we shook hands, I told her about some stories from my subordinates, and she looked even prettier. So, after a few months of hanging out at the bridge and sharing conversations, we got pretty close, decided to go out and now, we're here. Happily married with lots of children. By the way, she's hyper fertile. The doctor and I freaked out when she pulled off five children in one go. They're about 43 right now, and I've told them all about you. Man, they're going to love finally seeing you in the flesh." he reminisced fondly of memories with his family. "Oh, right, how have you been? I need news. Living good? Bad?" Shuten told him about his modest life as a small god. Sweeping, donations, blessings... It was quite a simple day to day life over at the shrine, but he liked the crowded atmosphere of the city, too. He learnt Kuma had arrived recently, in 1966. "Man, if I'd met you while I was still there. I was over in Osaka after running away with the rest. We went our separate ways after slowly falling out of touch. I don't know where any of them are now, so, ironically, you're the only one I've managed to find out of us all. The one who died." He looked away. Shizumu kept quiet about Kasen and stared at the decorated clock on the wall.
"Oh, it's already night. I have to go now. I need my sleep. I'll be at the shrine if you ever need me. It's been a busy few days since I arrived, and I'm done with meeting most people in and out of the underground. It seems we can't get out, so I might as well get comfortable." He got up from the table and headed to the streets. The party had died down by a lot. There remained only the chattering of youkai at stalls and between friends. There was a warm breeze. He took it as a good sign of things to come. He once again found his shrine. He sat down at the torii gate and drifted off to dreamland. His house's futon didn't see as much use as this gate did.