The Former Capital of Hell was never the most well-trodden road, given the heat, the less than hospitable youkai that tended to attack unwanted guests on sight, the heat, the general reputation given it being formerly hell and there being vengeful spirits and the like lurking around every corner and of course, the heat.
Not that Yuugi Hoshiguma minded a dearth of company, it was understandable that the Underworld would be avoided by anyone who wasn't fully prepared to be assaulted by vengeful spirits, spiteful bridge princesses and worst of all, bucket youkai.
Not to mention Yuugi herself being a threat, a tad too eager to engage in danmaku combat to whoever crossed her path whenever she was in the right mood for it. Which was pretty often, but today in particular was a very warm day in the Underworld and Yuugi was relaxing outside of her home, attempting to keep cool but still raring for any reason to fight and distract herself from the uncomfortably warm atmosphere.
" Jeez, I know that Satori is a bit of a recluse, but this is a ridiculous attempt to make me visit her. " Yuugi complained to herself, wiping her forehead and horn free of sweat. " Feels like I went a round against Yachie without actually fighting her. "
Her frustration was only multiplied by the fact Parsee despised warm temperatures as much as she was jealous of… Most everything and everyone, so there was no chance for a visit from her today. How frustrating.
A sigh escaped the muscular oni's lips. As much as she enjoyed Former Hell for many reasons, including not having to worry about ruling the tengu and kappa of Youkai Mountain, it led to the opposite problem; The place was too damn boring! Drink, party, drink, party, that's all anyone did around here! Even Suika left for greener pastures a while ago and she was the biggest drunk the oni knew, given her gourd of infinite sake, so why did Yuugi of all oni stay?
Her melancholy musings were interrupted by the sound of an unfamiliar voice echoing through the Capital, brash and uncaring about who heard her song.
" Born underground, suckled from a teat of stone! Raised in the dark, the safety of our mountain home!~ " A masculine but still very female voice belted out the lyrics to a song she seemed to be making up on the fly as a figure ambled into Yuugi's view. She was tall and well built like most oni, but missed the iconic horn or horns all oni tended to have. She also dressed in a simple black shirt and skirt with green chain highlights and belt. Strangely she wore no footwear but had several orange ribbons neatly tied to her lower legs, with identical ones on her arms.
The stranger continued to merrily make her way past Yuugi, her ashen gray hair bobbing with her head movements as she swung her left arm, filled with a shovel with a brass finish, her other arm carrying an identical pickaxe, rather wisely opting to keep it firmly attached to her shoulder.
The singing was one thing, but now this strange youkai had mining tools on her? This could prove to be interesting. "Hey, stranger!" Yuugi called to the gray girl, attracting a look of ashen gray eyes to match her hair. "Attractin' a lot of attention with that song of yours, aint'cha?"
The stranger chuckled with a light shrug, careful not to dislodge the pickaxe on her shoulder. "Girl can't sing a little minin' ditty on her way to her next dig? Thought you Oni were all about parties and singin' and drinkin' anyway."
"We are," Yuugi admitted with a sly smile, getting up from her porch to close the gap to the tool-wielding youkai that caught her attention. "And that can prove to be an issue if say, some drunk oni considers you a nuisance and tries to shut your trap, ya know?"
"I'd like to see them try." The foreman gripped her tools tighter with a menacing grin, stepping up to Yuugi with determination, the tension in the air becoming electric.
The two powerful youkai stared each other down, neither moving as some of the more sober oni decided to make themselves scarce before a brawl broke out.
The gray-haired youkai suddenly stepped back with a hearty laugh. "Come on Yuugi, I know you remember ol' Momoyo!"
The tall oni shook her head with a sigh. "Been a while, ya. What's Megumu's number one pal doin' down here, anyway?"
"Day off," The Oomukade smiled cheekily. "Well I snuck out the Rainbow Dragon Cave, but what Megu doesn't know won't hurt her, right?"
Yuugi shook her head with a worn smile. "She's going to flip her feathers when she realises you're gone. Where you plannin' to go, anyway?"
The pair started to walk through the Former Capital, rows of oni housing flanking them as they headed towards the deeper parts of Former Hell.
"Places." Momoyo shrugged again, forgetting her equipment was there and nearly knocking her brass pickaxe to the ground. "Plus Megu wanted me to stop minin' Youkai Mountain after I gave some jewels to a magician who wanted some after fightin' me, so a new place to mine would be cool."
Upon further inspection, Momoyo's clothing was singed in several places and parts of her pale skin were bruised and she had a slight limp in her gait. All signs of a pretty recent danmaku battle and one the gray-haired girl was trying to downplay the pain she was in.
"Momo, are you sure you're alright?" Yuugi wanted to make sure her old underground friend was alright, but she knew all too well that directly asking her would elicit either denial or a fight, the latter the oni especially didn't want to give her more bruises.
"'Course. Ya think Megu'd work with someone who can't take a few hits?" The centipede youkai laughed a little too hard and choked on her words slightly before continuing. "Tengu may be manipulatin' scum but at least Megu puts up a good fight. Strength, sister. Strength speaks louder than mere words."
Yuugi sucked in her lips. Hearing those words from Momoyo reminded her to apologise to Parsee for saying similar things the last time she took a beating, clearly her brave face annoyed the bridge princess more than… Well, most anything annoyed her that was besides the point.
"How did ya get past the kappa anyway? Last I heard they had some pretty good security outside the Underworld to stop curious humans from accidentally getting… You know, killed." Yuugi opted to try and change the subject before she could think any more about the small tsundere girl who stole her heart.
"Gods dammit Yuugi, you got into a fight with that bitch matriarch Jidiao again, didn't you?!" The bridge princess spat while dressing Yuugi's bruises.
"Are you going to try fighting Yachie again if I say yes?" Yuugi knew the answer already, but needed to hear the words from her partner's chapped lips.
"No shit I'm going to find that overgrown lizard and rip off her damn horns one at a time and ram them so far up her tailhole- "
"Parsee. What have I said about letting your emotions take over? C'mon girl, reel that jealousy in. "
Parsee sighed before the atmosphere in Yuugi's cozy bedroom lightened a bit, letting Yuugi let out a breath she didn't know she had. "Thanks."
"Thank me when I'm done with your bandages," Parsee's tone had flipped entirely to one of pure kindness. "Though it might take a while because-"
"My bulging muscles make it difficult, I know." Yuugi interjected, only to be smacked in the back of the head by the Hashihime sat behind her.
" Because you keep moving about. Sooner I get done with this, the sooner we can get back to work." Her unamused tone informed Yuugi that her flirting would go unappreciated and promptly quieted and let Parsee tie the last few bandages while silently contemplating another attempted attack on Hell.
Yuugi averted her gaze with a small blush. Sure their relationship was common knowledge in Former Hell, but it had been a long, long time since she was on Youkai Mountain and she wasn't entirely sure how Momoyo would take her new relationship.
"Come on 'Gi, it's me we're on about." She flexed with a cocky grin, threatening to fling her pickaxe off her shoulder and seeming to ignore Yuugi's gaze entirely. "I threatened to mine my way through to the reactor. That quickly got me through."
"And Yamame? Parsee?"
"The spider youkai wouldn't even look me in the eye, let alone trying to stop me and the blonde green-eyed girl got really flustered with me for some reason… Feh, it beat diggin' through the earth." Momoyo recounted with some confusion, but she was too simple to think anything more of it.
Yuugi had to hold back her laughter, sputtering at the idea of Parsee inadvertently being attracted to Momoyo's attitude, much like how they first met. " Deva dammit, now's not the time for that! " She tried to get herself back on track with much difficulty, but Momoyo spoke up again before she could shift the conversation.
"Speaking of diggin' though, was wondering what kind of gems would form near the Nuclear Furnace I've heard Megu flip feathers over because it's apparently made the Moriya Shrine mad bank in the last couple o' years… Not that I understand Megu's deal with 'economics' and 'kappatalism' and t'like."
Hazy memories floated to the surface of the oni's mine of her interactions with Megumu. Namely ones when she was "merely" the financial advisor for the oni (Though dealing with the kappa and tengu was mostly Kasen's job, she recalled.) and it seemed she hadn't really changed since then. "Still focused on profit? Sounds like Megu."
Truthfully Yuugi wouldn't even be shocked if the recent incident was orchestrated behind the scenes by Megumu herself, given how much the tengu were tied up into it, but Momoyo didn't need to know that.
A silence fell between the youkai as they stood on the outskirts of the Former Capital, the Underworld opening up before them like a mine shaft stripped of its valuables, with only a far away palace indicating any life beyond this point.
"Should be a good place to start diggin' somewhere around here," Yuugi motioned to the entire general area with a smile. "Sadly I can't really go any further. Don't like dealing with the satori who like in the Palace of the Earth Spirits and her pets."
"Not like you to back out of a fight." Momoyo noted, sticking out her tongue cheekily, the snake-like appendage the other sign of her youkai nature on first glance. "Guess this cozy hole has made ya soft?"
"Not on yer life." Yuugi punched the centipede's shoulder with a similar grin crossing her features. "Still the Unexplainable Phenomenon for a reason, you know?"
"Certainly a damn sight warmer down here, so I don't blame ya for taking it easy for a bit." She noted with a wistful sigh before snapping herself out of her funk. "Right then. Gonna find somewhere to dig my teeth into and try an' pass the time. Be seeing ya, 'Gi."
With a light wave, the oomukade walked away from the oni, still limping but not letting it bother her as Yuugi shrugged with a final sigh before turning and starting to make her way back to her home.
A strange friendship to be sure, but for the Unexplainable Phenomenon? One she didn't mind having. Not at all.
"Parsee is going to flip her shit when she finds out me an' Momoyo go way back… " Perhaps the oni was going a bit soft.