Chapter 11: Cassida moves in
It is now a cloudy day in Gensokyo. Despite this, our heterochromatic heroine, Nijiko Akimitsu is seen in a good mood today. A few days ago, she was deemed to have developed enough to be trained for danmaku battles and she even managed to befriend with one of the Yokai, more specifically, the Tortoise Beetle Yokai: Cassida.
On this say, Nijiko is sweeping the courtyard in front of Kourindou, like she tends to do so anytime she doesnt need to help inside the shop. For a moment, she stops and summons her rainbow-colored light sphere in her right hand:
"I dont know why, but I feel more and more accomodated to the life here... I wonder why..." she says to herself, gracing the colorful sphere in her hand with her eyes. All of a sudden, a familiar figure appears on front of her face, looking right into her eyes upside down. It was the familiar Beetle Yokai:
"Morning, Nijiko-chan!" Cassida says with a huge grin on her face.
"WHOAH!" Nijiko yelps as she tumbles backwards from the surprise, ending up sitting to the ground. "Oh hey, Cassida-san. Coming to train with me today as well?"
"Well, not exactly." the beetle-like Yokai responds. "I have decided I will leave the Forest and move into Kourindou."
"Say what?!" the black-haired girl is surprised to hear that. Did Cassida just say she would move in to her?
"Yep! Since we are friends now and I am your go-to sparring partner for danmaku battles, it is just mandatory for me to move to where you live."
"I know but... I am afraid we have to ask Morichika-kun regarding this. I mean, he is the one owning this place, after all."
"Alright, then lets go and ask him!" Cassida responds with confidence.
"O...Okay. " Nijiko nods. She wasnt exactly sure if Rinnosuke would allow Cassida to move in and live with them. After all, it took the combined efforts of Reimu and Marisa to convince the half-Yokai shopkeeper to allow her to stay here, backing it up with reasons. But for Cassida? What is her reason besides being friends with her and being her sparring/training partner? With these questions in her mind, she goes with Cassida into the shop.
...
"Sorry, but no." Rinnosuke says, after the Tortoise Beetle Yokai asked him to stay.
"Hey, why not? I am her friend and sparing partner! Its just natural I would move to where she is living." Cassida argues.
"Listen. I am generous enough to let Akimitsu-san to stay here, because she is a good help in the shop and Reimu-san herself asked me personally to look after her. However, I can only take care of two people here at the same time: myself and her. A third one would be too much." Rinnosuke says matter-of-factly.
"I knew it..." Nijiko sighs. She had a feeling that the half-Yokai shopkeeper would refuse the request from Cassida to stay.
"Oh come on, dont be so stiff, Morichika-kun!" Cassida pouts as she flies around Rinnosuke. "I wont disturb anything, I promise..."
She then looks at him into the eyes. However, the stern glare of the half-Yokai shopkeeper tells her he is clearly not convinced.
"And... I can be a great help too!" the beetle Yokai then blurts out.
"Huh?" this surprises Nijiko and causes Rinnosuke to raise an eyebrow:
"Really? Then show me what you have got. Tomorrow will be your trial day. If you can manage without messing up, maybe I would allow you to stay."
"Alright! You are the best, Morichika-kun!" Cassida feels her excitement level to be turned up to eleven as she is flying circles above them. She then descends down to the ground and gives him a thumbs-up: "I will do my best tomorrow!"
"Okay then. We will begin early on the morning, so dont dare to be late." Rinnosuke said without changing his expression and turned his attention to some boxes.
"Roger that!" the Tortoise Beetle Yokai salutes to him, before returning with Nijiko to the courtyard, where the latter resumes her work.
"I hope everything will go well." she remarks.
"Dont worry, I can promise you that I wont fail!" Cassida says with confidence.
...
In the meantime, Yukari and Ran, like usual, keeping their eye on Nijiko from their pocket dimension. The gap Yokai finds it amusing that someone like Cassida would live with Nijiko.
"It seems that Tortoise Beetle Yokai really became fond of Akumitsu-san." Ran remarks. "I am curious how this friendship between them would go."
"It is indeed interesting how fast our girl became more comfortable around Yokai in general. And this current development will be interesting to watch." Yukari responds with a sly smile.
...
On the next morning, both Nijiko and Rinnosuke are up early. The human girl has made the breakfast and the duo are seen eating together. She looks at Rinnosuke. Despite seemingly not bothered by it, she could tell that the half-Yokai shopkeeper is not pleased with Cassida coming today. Frankly, she know by this point that Rinnosuke isnt used to be constantly around more than one people.
"Umm, Morichika-kun... I think that Cassida-san isnt that bad. She has just became friends with me and... " she tries to speak up.
"If she stays, she is going to be under your watch. Unfortunately, I have my own issues to deal with." she half-Yokai shopkeeper responds.
"Okay, she is my friend, after all." Nijiko responds with an awkward smile. She then glances aside: somehow, she has an unnerving feeling about this.
"Morning!" they then hear Cassidas voice as she enters the ship, with the doorbell ringing as she opened the door.
"Good morning, Cassida-san." Rinnosuke stands up having finished with the breakfast. Nijiko carries the leftovers and the empty plates away on a tray back into the kitchen, before returning to the main room.
"Alright, where shall I start?" Cassida pushes her kimono sleeves up, eager to begin her trial day.
"At first help Akimitsu-san to wash the dishes. Afterwards organize the new items I got yesterday." the shopkeeper responds.
"Alright!" the beetle-like girl nods.
She follows Nijiko to the kitchen, as Rinnosuke minds his own business. There, the duo begins to wash the dishes. While they are doing so, Cassida has a huge grin on her face as she turns to her friend:
"This is great, isnt it?" she remarks. "Any activity is thrilling if you are doing it with friends!"
"Well..." Nijiko begins with an awkward grin, when suddenly the sound of a breaking plate is heard. It turns out because Cassida wast paying attention, a plate from her hands fell to the floor and broke into pieces. The heterochromatic girl was shocked: "No way, that was the favourite plate of Morichika-kun!"
"Oh, huh?" Cassida looks down, the glances at her friend with an awkward grin. "Sorry about that, sometimes I am a bit of a ditz."
"You should have said it a bit sooner!" Nijiko snaps back, a little frustrated.
Unfortunately for them, Rinnosuke has heard the plate breaking. He goes to check on the girls and sees the broken plate.
"Girls..." he folds his arms.
"Okay, okay. Since its my responsibility, I will bring a broom and clean this up." Nijiko sighs, since she has been already got used to Rinnosuke and his quirks. As for the half-Yokai shopkeeper, he looks at Cassida with a stern glare. He knew it was her breaking the plate, since Nijiko is always that careful.
"One more mistake and its over for you." he warns the Tortoise Beetle Yokai.
"Wait, dont have to be that upset about this! It was just a plate... " Cassida says awkwardly, taking a step backwards, intimidated by the glare from Rinnosuke.
Soon, Nijiko is back with the broom and cleans the broken plate up. Unfortunately, it is too broken to be fixed. Seeing that how upset the half-Yokai shopkeeper is already, she knows she have to pay extra attention to Cassida. After they finished with washing the dishes (Nijiko had to do it alone i order to prevent Cassida from breaking more things), the duo goes to the back of the shop. There is a large heap of items, all of them which are originating from the Outer World.
"Wow! So all of these items are originating from your homeworld? Awesome!" Cassida beams as she is looking at the large heap.
"Yes. Our task is going to be to sort these items according their usage." Nijiko explains. "And I have to ask you to be careful this time."
"Roger that!" the beetle Yokai salutes.
They then begin their task of sorting the items. As they are doing so, Nijiko briefly explains to Cassida which item is how used, much to the latters excitement. Everything is going fine, until the Tortoise Beetle Yokai finds a baseball bat.
"Hey, what is this?" she asks her friend.
"It is a baseball bat. It is used in a sport named baseball to hit the ball away." Nijiko responds, being busy of her work.
"Like this?" Cassida then picks up a rock and uses the bat to hit it away. Unfortunately, it hits the item heap, causing it to collapse.
"Cassida-san!" Nijiko yells, her eyes going wide from shock. She jumps backwards, while Cassida flies up in surprise as the heap collapses, scattering the items everywhere.
"Oops..." the Tortoise Beetle Yokai sweatdrops. Luckily both of them were fine and uninjured. However, Nijiko is not happy.
"CASSIDA!" she yells. "Now look at what you have done! Rinnosuke-san will kill us for this!"
"Hey, hey calm down! I just did what you have said..."
"I just informed you about how that item is used, but it was not the time and place for it, you stupid beetle!" Nijiko bursts out in frustration.
Cassida is shocked. Even though she has already seen Nijiko upset, but never this angry.
"What is more, I am trouble as well, since it was my responsibility to look after you. How could I be this stupid!" the black-haired girl continues to fume as she leaves the room.
"Nijiko-chan..." Cassida frowns as she glances after her friend walking away. Failure... this is what the Tortoise Beetle feels right now. She had failed her friend... the first and so far the only person she would call a friend. Looking down, she opens her wings and flies out of the room.
...
At the meantime, Nijiko is enters the shop to get the broom. However, for some reason Rinnosuke is not there, despite the fact Nijiko could sense his presence.
"Hmm, this is weird... Morichika-kun is usually found here, unless something happened." she says in her head.
"Oh, Akimitsu-san." Rinnosuke then pops his head from behind the counter. He only wasnt seen by Nijiko, because he was crouching down behind it. The heterochromatic girl looks at him and immediately could tell what is wrong. The shopkeeper didnt have his glasses. "Dont know where are my glasses? I cant find them."
"I have no idea. You had them in the morning." Nijiko responds.
"It seems it was those three again." Rinnosuke sighs.
"Those three?"
"Yeah, the Three Fairies of Light. The like to prank on people and sometimes steal anything which catches their fancy, just for the fun of it."
"Oh, that sounds mean!" our heroine groans.
Just then, something catches Nijikos attention: from behind a box, she sees the glasses to emerge, like it is floating in the air just by itself. However, from Nijikos perspective, she sees the glowing outlines of three tiny humanoids with wings holding into the glasses and flying away with it.
"Hey, wait!" she yells and runs after them.
"Uh-oh, we have trouble! That human just saw us!" one voice of a young female sounds.
"But how, I thought nobody can see through my invisibility!" an another one says.
"Come on girls, lets go before she could catch us!" a third voice adds.
Rinnosuke glances after Nijiko as she is running after the invisible thieves in order to reclaim his glasses:
"Please get it back, Akimitsu-san... I cannot see well without my glasses."
...
Meanwhile with Cassida, she is sitting underneath a tree. She is actually considering going back to the forest and abandon her plan to move to Kourindou.
"Well, if I am just making things worse, I might as well going back to the forest." she says loud out to herself, still feeling guilty about what happened. "I have made Nijiko-chan mad at me... I guess she doesnt need a useless friend like me."
"Hey, stop!" Cassidas thoughts then are interrupted by the voice of Nijiko.
"Huh?" the Tortoise Beetle Yokai stands up and flies up to the tree. "Was that Nijiko-chan? And what is going on?"
From the tree, she sees Nijiko chasing after a floating pair of glasses, which looked quite funny. Cassida is about to giggle, when she suddenly remembers who tends to do such a thing. For a moment, she considers not to interfere as she remembers what happened back in Kourindou. However, she suddenly slips on the branch, causing herself to fall down. The Tortoise Beetle Yokai opens her wings just in time to stop herself in mid-air, when she finds herself face-to-face with the floating glasses.
"KYAAAAH!" a triple scream could be heard as the glasses plop onto the ground, with whomever carrying them being spooked by the sudden appearance from the beetle Yokai. Then, the little thieves are also revealed as them being spooked dispelled their invisibility.
Indeed they were three tiny fairies. One of them has short red hair braided at the sides of her head with red ribbons, blue eyes, as well as a pair of wings. She wears a red and white dress with long sleeves and frills, along with a yellow neckerchief attached at the top of the dress. She also wears black-and-white shoes, as well as a maid headband between her braids.
The second fairy as red eyes and yellow hair, arranged into six princess curls on both sides of her head, as well as a pair of crescent-shaped wings. She wears a white and black dress having long sleeves and a few black ribbons at the front of her dress, along with a big one below her neck and an even bigger one in her back. She also has a white shoulder cloth having black outlines, and a white beret with black ribbons attached on its sides. She wears a pair of slippers as well.
The third fairy is having long black hair, a blue ribbon attached to it, and gray eyes, as well as butterfly-shaped wings. She wears a white and blue dress, the top part being mostly white, having a blue shoulder cloth, and the bottom part being blue. She has long sleeves and a blue piece of cloth attached around her waist, attaching as a ribbon in her back. She also wears boots.
"Oh, hello guys! Doing some pranks again?" Cassida asks, being familiar with the three fairies.
"Huh, Cassida-san?" Nijiko is surprised to see the beetle Yokai. "Thanks for stopping them."
"I just happened to be nearby... Just a coincidence, thats all."
"Hey Cassan! You are here to spook us and ruin our fun again?!" the fairy with the maid hairband asks, clearly not amused.
"As I said, I just happened to be nearby. However, stealing what isnt yours is not right, Sunny Milk." Cassida responds
"But he put it aside to the counter, besides it is interesting how you look the world through glasses." the fairy with the black hair flies behind the glasses and sees through them, giggling in the process.
"Okay, can you tell me, who are these three?" Nijiko asks, folding her arms.
"Well, they are the Three Fairies of Light. The redhead is Sunny Milk, the blonde is Luna Child and the black-haired one is Star Sapphire. They are widely known as notorious pranksters, even among the fairies of Gensokyo. Just like me, they used to live in the Forest of Magic." the Tortoise Beetle Yokai explains.
"Oh..." Nijiko tilts her head. It is the first time she sees real fairies, after all.
"Hey, its not fair to randomly pop up and ruin our fun!" Sunny Milk points at Cassida, before turning to Nijiko: "And the same goes for you as well, human girl! Before you came along, nobody ever saw through my invisibility. I demand a danmaku battle!"
"WHA...?!" the heterochromatic girl is taken aback.
"Go easy on her Sunny, she is new here!" the beetle Yokai holds an arm out in front of the fairy. "I suggest for you to wait for a bit until she will be ready and you can be the first one to challenge her."
"Hmpf, okay. But remember that I wont forget this easily. Keep your word, Cassan!" Sunny Milk pouts, then turns to her companions. "Alright girls, lets withdraw for now."
The other two fairies nods and they fly away into the woods.
"Oh wow, this hit me like a truck, thanks for helping out, Cassida-san. You were a life saver." Nijiko turns to the beetle Yokai.
"Dont mention it, it seems that I am useful for something, after all." Cassida responds.
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"You know, when you became mad at me, I genuinely thought you dont want to be friends with me anymore, because I messed up things for Morichika-kun. I thought..." tears are coming from the eyes of the beetle-like girl. "I thought I was a failure of a friend. You are the first person whom I could call truly a friend during my life and..."
She then is stopped in her words as Nijiko hugs her (carefully because of her tortoise beetle features):
"I am sorry for lashing out at you, I shouldnt have to. You are my friend, one of the first I made in Gensokyo so far. I dont want to lose you... "
"Nijiko-chan..." Cassida smiles and hugs back.
They remain like this for a couple of moments, before going back to Kourindou. Once back there, Rinnosuke is happy to have his glasses back, but is nevertheless upset at Cassida because of the mess she caused at the back of the shop.
"I am sorry, Morichika-kun. In order to make it right, I am going to clean it up right away!" Cassida says.
"And I will help her to do so. She is my responsibility, after all. I am just as guilty as her." Nijiko adds.
"Oh..." Rinnosuke raises an eyebrow, them smiles a bit. "I can see that the two of you have grown more closer to each other than I thought. Okay then, Cassida-san can live here. But she have to work extra hard!"
Hearing this, the two girls looks each other and smiles. "YAY!" they both jump into the air.
And with this, Cassida officially settled down in Kourindou in order to live together with our heroine. But what will her person bring to the chemistry in Kourindou? And what will happen now that the Three Fairies are aware of Nijiko?
To be continued...
Author Note: Sorry about the three-month hiatus. I hit a huge writers block and couldnt come up with a continuation for a while in order to not rush the story. I would like to warn everyone that the schedule of the upcoming chapters will be a bit fluctuating, but I am going to do my best to have at least one chapter per month.