VI

Kaori woke up sleeping in a tatami, her body still ached but she could feel her bones slowly healing. She attempted to get up, but the pain was unbearable, enough to make her fall unconscious again. In her haze she saw a shrine maiden with green hair tending her wounds, feeding her whenever she was awake enough to eat.

She felt the warmth of a blanket, the softness of a kimono against her skin and the smell of freshly prepared rice. Her stomach grumbled, Kaori opened her eyes and saw she was inside a very traditional house, no hint of technology save for a TV set from 1990 and a radio about 40 years older than the television.

She slid open the door of her room. The living room with a low table, in a lower dirt floor a coal stove with a thick clay pot near the fire. At the table two oddly dressed women, a very short one with a purple dress, yellow eyes and yellow hair, on her head a straw hat with two large frog-like eyes. The taller of them was wearing a red and black dress, on her chest a mirror and on her back a shimenawa in a circle.

The moment Kaori opened the door the eyes turned to her. The smaller of the women quickly got up "She is awake"

The taller one got up quickly "Sanae! She is awake!" She began serving a plate of rice, then broke an egg over it.

The smaller goddess was examining Kaori "Your bones healed up nicely… They were pulverized, literally pulverized. Eirin gave us pills to reconstruct them from scratch"

Her body still hurt a little, but it was nowhere near what she felt before. The other lady walked up to Kaori, she was about as tall as her. "Eat up, you need to regain your strength"

Though she had to take the rice back, the shrine maiden rushed into the room and hugged Kaori, there were tears in her eyes "I thought you were going to die! Your soul was about to leave your body!"

Kaori looked down at the shrine maiden hugging her, it took her some time to react "Sanae…" She hugged her back "Sanae it's good to see you again"

"How did you end up like this?" Sanae said "Who hurt you so bad?"

Kaori tried to remember "How did I end up here…"

"Kanako sensed your soul, I rushed to get you, you were thrown in an alley bleeding badly. Bones sticking out from both your legs" Sanae kept crying "Who could be so bad?!"

Sanae, a cousin in a way, really Sanae was a descendant of Suwako, a true Moriya, she could command the Mishaguji, which was why she became the shrine maiden. Kaori was a descendant of Kanako. It was ironic how Sanae used wind and rain more often, while Kaori preferred to use metal as a weapon. Sanae was the only family Kaori had, sadly she had to leave, faith was running thin in the outside, they moved to a world where they would not fade, where they could get more faith. Now they were back together.

Kaori tried to remember the name, but nothing came up. "She… She used a vine, just like the one Kanako has"

Sanae stopped hugging Kaori, she helped her cousin sit down at the table and be able to eat her rice with egg. Kaori felt the warmth of the food go down her stomach, she had been barely conscious the last few days, she had not been able much besides watered down rice.

Kaori remembered a little more, her mind began to relax "She spoke of Ireland… She could speak Japanese just fine" She scratched her head "She wore a red coat… As red as her eyes"

Kanako, Suwako and Sanae responded in unison "Yuuka"

"You are lucky to be alive!" Sanae held her hand

"I will fight her again"

Sanae went pale "Stay here! Don't do that"

"She said she would order someone destroy London… Elly" Kaori felt her hands grow cold, she was scared again "Fairies rarely go through with what they say"

Kanako sighed "Yuuka is known to fulfill crazy promises. She threatened Tsukuyomi, if he didn't fight she would go after his daughter instead. Bastard never got out, even though poor little thing kept crying"

Sanae shivered "Wait I never heard those things, I just thought she beat you up for stepping on her flowers"

Kanako stoked Sanae on the head "Baby, that is because nobody ever actually gets her mad around here. Have you asked Alice? There is a reason she doesn't like in Makai anymore"

Sanae covered her ears "I don't want to listen to more of that!"

Suwako stared at a piece of fabric on the corner, several shimmering pieces of metal remained over it, wire, shards of a blade, and a hilt.

"We need to forge you a new sword" Suwako said "If you are going to fight Yuuka you need better steel than what you had before"

"That was a legendary sword" Kaori said, she felt incomplete, that sword was a piece of her.

"We happen to know a legendary blacksmith" Suwako said with a big smile

Kanako laughed "She makes throwing needles for the shrine maiden who defeated Yuuka!"

Suwako nodded "Sanae, will you go ask Yuyuko if she is willing to let Youmu help us out a bit?"

"Yuyuko?" Kaori muttered, she heard that name in legend, it was the ruler of Hakugyoukuro. She had a bodyguard whose things their blade could not cut were next to none.

The next days she had to train with a wooden sword, so did Youmu. She was a kind and girly half ghost, though when holding a sword she turned into someone new entirely. She was not very strong, but she made up for it with her speed.

Youmu examined Kaori "There is little I can teach you" She said after seeing a few practice moves "We can spar so you get back on shape"

Humble words from the half ghost swordsman, but when they began to spar Kaori had a hard time defending from Youmu, even if she was in her prime Youmu would still win the match, perhaps not as quickly.

Tatara Kogasa was the blacksmith tasked with fixing Shichiten Shichitou, and the wires, the girl was a karakasa, an umbrella youkai. Much like Youmu she had a very upbeat personality, with a slight difference "I think I can glue this together, I just need a pack of gum"

Kaori rushed to get the shards of her sword back, Kogasa was laughing. "Don't touch my sword!"

"Surprise! It's a joke!" Kogasa said "I have to reforge the whole thing"

Kaori gave her back the shards of the blade "Please take good care of it"

"Nice blade… Looks like a dragon chewed on it" Kogasa held the pieces of it "We could add a bit of hihi-irokane for the core of the blade if this is meant to be a magic sword… In the magic forest there is a shop called Kourindo, the shopkeeper is quite reasonable"

Kaori went to the shop later that day, the forest of magic was full of youkai, an insect girl attempted to kick her, but Kaori managed to escape, the darkness engulfed her, this was a mist so thick she could not even see her own nose. Her calf hurt, she kicked whatever was latching onto her, the darkness went away.

A little blonde girl held her nose as she began to cry. The insect girl came rushing to help her. "Rumia let me see…" the insect girl glared at Kaori "You broke her nose! You Moriyas are all the same" She spat on the ground and flew away with her blonde friend.

Kaori looked at the bite on her leg, it didn't even have marks. She continued walking until she reached a shop, there was a clear trail to it, perhaps because all the other places in the forest were walked by people without the need to walk, those who walked would go here and only here.

An old building with a warehouse on the side, several appliances ranging from things that would belong to a museum to the most modern of them. A broken android dressed as a maid on the corner.

Kaori walked into the shop, a bell rang by the door. It had a musical theme, a rather long song proof that this shop rarely saw any visitors.

"Welcome to Kourindo, how may I help you today?" A young looking man with gray hair attended the shop, he did not look like a human either, though he was not being a threat.

"I require Hihi-irokane, Tatara Kogasa sent me here" Kaori stated

"A hello would be nice… Then again Sanae was not much different from you when she arrived" The man laughed "I am Rinnosuke, people call me Kourin. May I know your name samurai shrine maiden?"

Kaori saw no harm in that man, he was just a shopkeeper who happened to be a youkai, there was an open pack of biscuits on the counter, this youkai did not eat human flesh, why eat human flesh when you have biscuits.

She relaxed, "Kanzaki Kaori…"

"You see? We talked and my nose is in one piece" He smiled "News travel fast in here, a shrine maiden is protected by the spellcard rules in this place, nobody is going to hurt you… Maybe if you were a mere human you would have to carry a box of candy with you at all times. You should know youkai prefer sugar over flesh" He winked

Besides an open window there was a newspaper, Kaori eyed it, there was a picture of her kicking the girl on the face. It spoke poorly of her, and of course Sanae, it praised another shrine maiden, Hakurei Reimu, and it even went out of its way to give good wishes to her rematch with Yuuka, hoping Yuuka would break her even more a second time.

"Wait I am the bad guy here?" Kaori pointed at the newspaper, Kourin was too busy getting a large heavy box.

"You sure you don't want orichalcum? I have a lot of Orichalcum" He pointed at the box he was holding. "That is a tengu newspaper"

"Why are you helping me? You are a youkai too"

"A good sell is a good sell… Also there is only one TV channel in Gensokyo and it only shows the weather, we want the rematch to last! Have you thought about an sponsorship?"

She tilted her head "I just came for hihi-irokane"

"Yeah but your clothes could hardly stand up to Yuuka last time. Can you imagine what happens if she casts Master Spark? You'd be fried!" he was getting a bunch of fabrics out of the storage room.

Kaori raised her voice "I don't need clothes… What I have is fine"

Kourin came out with many rolls of fabric, if anything it was obvious he was a youkai, those were too heavy for a normal human to carry so easily. "You would be going naked to a fight where your enemy is wearing full body armor. I crafted Yuuka's own clothes"

Kourin searched among the rolls of fabric, there was a piece of red fabric like the coat Yuuka was wearing.

"Tsuchigumo silk with mythril in a ratio of 100 to 1" He tossed the piece of fabric to the gas heater, it didn't burn, he pulled out a pure hihi irokane sword from behind the counter and hit the fabric, it remained in one piece. "Then add the same protective spell one uses in temples. Yuuka loves red, so I took the liberty to dye it in dragon blood. Even a saint with a magic sword would have a hard time even making a dent on this" Kourin said proudly, he was very happy with his craft, Kaori saw that same fabric in the red coat Yuuka was wearing, even if she managed to land one hit, the coat would have shattered the blade too.

"But you don't want new clothes… I guess I will make Yuuka a suit of armor, if the fight will be one sided I better give her wooden plates, it will be a fight that goes down the history books!" Kourin said while slowly, very slowly taking away the rolls of fabric.

Kaori sighed "Fiiine, tell me how much it will be"

"Once you survive tell everyone I made those clothes! You use an asymmetric defense… Just like Sanae and her talismans on her hair, I can do that for sure. I will need to use special cotton from the garden of the sun, die it with lapizlazuli to make proper magic denim…" this shopkeeper didn't know how to make business very well. Kourin was a craftsman first then a collector, then a hoarder, last he was a shopkeeper. Just like Yuuka, he was playing the human role, just to have an excuse to do things he loves, he wants to create armor for heroes and villains.

Kourin handed her the slab of hihi-irokane, it looked like rusted iron, had a similar weight to it, but the texture was smooth, it also was not brittle like iron. What an odd material Kaori thought.

He hurried Kaori out of the shop, and he closed as soon as he got her through the door. He was excited about crafting new clothes.