3/9

Goro

I had insisted that the gambling den bust be completed as soon as possible, if for no other reason than that I wanted to avoid my "fate" on White Day. Thus, Reimu invited me up to the shrine so that we could go over the details and hash out a plan before diving straight into it.

"Good morning," I said, making my way inside.

"Good morning to you as well," Reimu nodded. She was seated at a table with Marisa and Nitori. On it was a hand-drawn map as well as some notes. Reimu poured me some tea as I sat down.

I looked at the map in front of me. "Is this the location of the gambling den?"

"Yes," Nitori nodded. "Aya made it and the notes last night and gave them to me to bring here and assist you all."

"Must not be easy to get to," Marisa commented. "I've lived here all my life and not once have I seen the entrance to it."

"If it is an underground operation, that would not be surprising," I said. "Similar gambling dens Outside are very good at staying hidden, often masquerading as other, legitimate storefronts."

Reimu studied the map, which included Tengu City and the Moriya Shrine as reference points. "So, you're the boss, how do you want to do this?"

I thought for a moment, then said, "we should use a similar strategy as we did for the Underground drinking date: I go in first, while Reimu and Marisa wait outside ready to swoop in and back me up if needed. Of the three of us, she is least likely to be familiar with me, as I am a recent arrival to the area."

"Hm…" Marisa wondered. "Y'know, that was a pretty good strategy back then, but Iunno if it'd work again this time around. Your name's been spreadin' like wildfire across Gensokyo, and even random-ass minor youkai have at least heard your name. I wouldn't be surprised if this Sannyo chick also knows 'bout you, overhearin' your name from all her patrons gossipping."

"Right, he's more likely to be suspicious this time around," Reimu conceded. "But, he's still less suspicious than either you or me, so the plan is still probably our best option."

"Indeed, she's much more likely to let her guard down if it's me," I said. "She might even welcome my presence, if only for the sheer novelty alone." I put my hand on the table. "However, I still do need to know who my opponent is, as I am still rather inexperienced in dealing with Gensokyo criminals who are all powerful youkai."

"Here's the info Aya gave me," Nitori said, pointing to her notes. "She is specifically a Yamajorou, a rare subset of Yamanba, or mountain hags, who themselves are members of the Oni family. Now, the Yamanba in Gensokyo are different from what you're probably familiar with, since they tend to give people the cold shoulder, preferring to scare 'em away from their territory rather than treating them with false kindness before killing them. Some of them, however, are more sociable than the norm, we call these the Yamajorou. Sannyo has been running her operation for quite some time, since at least when the Barrier went up, and as far as anyone knew it was exclusively a youkai hangout."

"But now we know humans were getting caught up in it, and perhaps still are," I said. I turned to Reimu. "I'm surprised you had never even heard of this operation before, much less stepped in to help out humans getting victimized by it."

Reimu shook her head. "I rarely get involved in matters that only involve either humans or youkai. I did mention that I've put down human criminals, but I only intervene in village affairs in serious cases; for the most part, I leave things up to the village elders and the volunteer watch to keep order there. Likewise, I don't involve myself in intra-youkai affairs unless there's a power struggle or something similar which threatens to start a Gensokyo-endangering incident. So long as humans and youkai don't meddle with each other's business, I'm not likely to drop what I'm doing to go see what's going on." She took a sip. "Of course, now that we have evidence that youkai are luring humans into this place and then ransoming them for money, that's grounds for me to come and kick down the door and start having words, if you catch my drift."

"Except this time, you've got live bait," Marisa grinned.

Reimu chuckled. "Why, yes I do." She then looked at me and said, "I think it's a good idea, before we go, to do some spell card practice. Should you get into a duel with her, you'll be more on top of your game if you're warmed up first."

"Absolutely," I said, getting up. "Let's go do it."

When we stepped outside, we were met with the sight of Sunny, Luna and Star giggling while tossing a broom around in the air, just out of Maruki's reach as he tried to grab it back.

"That's- HEY! I need that broom to sweep up!" he pleaded, but the fairies just ignored him. At one point, Sunny got hold of it, then began "riding" it like a witch.

"Hey, guys! I'm the Ordinary Witch, ze!" She led Maruki on a chase around the courtyard, before he tripped and fell, after which a rock materialized where he had tripped, while the other two simply pointed and laughed. Over to the side, I could see Clownpiece messing around with a bunch of pots and pans, and the presence of rice and beans suggested she was making botamochi.

We stood and watched this scene. "Looks like he's having fun," I commented.

"You're not gonna help 'im?" Marisa asked.

"Why should I?" Reimu smiled. "He's the prisoner of the shrine, after all. A criminal who almost destroyed the Barrier. I think it's fair to let the fairies do what they do best and torment him. Besides, I can always make them clean up later, since all of his chores were their chores before he came here." She shrugged. "Still…" She walked toward the center and waved her arms. "Alright, break it up, everyone. We're going to do some spell card practice, so take your bullying somewhere else." The fairies complied, laughing as they blistered off with the broom, with Maruki trying to chase them before simply giving up.

"Hah… hah…" he panted. "Why must they be so troublesome?"

"They're fairies," Reimu said, arms crossed. "Expecting fairies to not play pranks on humans is like expecting fish not to swim." She went over to Clownpiece, who was still busy cooking. "Except for this one, it seems."

"I was just making sweets, since it's almost spring," Clownpiece said. "Master has this really good recipe she taught me a while ago."

"'Master?'" I asked.

"Hecatia Lapislazuli, the ruler of Hell," Reimu said. "Clownpiece was one of her minions, before she came here to see the surface world." She frowned. "Of course, that means she engages in 'visitation' from time to time, and I have to say she's painfully eccentric, to put it lightly. That she's one of the strongest beings on the planet doesn't really help matters, either."

"If she rules Hell, then she obviously sounds quite powerful," I noted.

"Uh-huh! Nobody can beat Master!" Clownpiece smiled. "Except for miss Reimu!" She picked up a piece of mochi. "What do you think?"

I looked at it, then leaned over for a sniff. "It seems quite delicious."

"Hehe~" Clownpiece then passed around a piece for everyone, Maruki included.

"Why do you always insist on full-dead?" Reimu asked.

"Cause 'ya gotta go all the way!" Clownpiece insisted. "It's all or nothing!"

"I don't know, half-dead seems good enough to me, but I'm not going to argue."

"Er… 'full-dead' and 'half-dead?'" Maruki asked.

"They're different ways to prepare the bean paste," Marisa explained. She glanced over to Maruki. "You're not headed to Higan quite yet, bubba."

"I… didn't say anything," Maruki said awkwardly.

After the snack, we jumped right into spell card practice. We chose Nitori as my opponent, since by her own admission she wasn't too great at spell card duels, and Marisa believed the two of us to be of around equal skill. She also challenged Nitori to go without her gizmos and gadgets and take me on with nothing else except pure magic. Since we were only practicing, we settled upon the "three-and-out" ruleset. Predictably for a kappa, all of her cards were water-themed, and the bullets even flowed like water too. The natural thought from me then was to answer them with Electricity-themed cards; after all, what worked for Pikachu in a water-soaked Rock-type gym would work for me here, too. But then I recalled that Reimu was present, and using any Electric-based attack (which would create sparks and bolts) would send her into a panic, something I didn't want right before a mission with her. So instead, I simply gave it my all, relying on superior tactics, dodging, weaving, slinging my gun and applying everything I had been taught and had figured out for myself up to this point. Nitori did manage to get a hit in, but not before I was already close to victory.

After the sparring match, Nitori shook my hand. "You know, I have to admit. Reimu might not be all that great at some things, but she's got a good eye for talent. And the way you use all of those Personas as spell cards, too, it's unlike anything I've ever seen!"

"I told him that as well," Reimu said. "He's making the Spell Card Rules work in ways I never thought possible."

I smiled. "Of course, you put up a good fight as well."

Nitori shrugged. "I mean, I'm not the best, especially when I'm not using my gadgets. I am a gifted aquamancer, but that's not a very strong power to have in landlocked Gensokyo. Remember, us kappa are seafarers, we're native to the islands and waves. It's also why we eat livers and put salt on everything, we're used to all the salt in the ocean."

"Eh, liver," Marisa grimaced. "Can't imagine why anyone would actually like that crap. Like, Eirin told me that the liver's entire purpose is to clean out toxins, so I can't think it would be very healthy either."

"Waste not, want not," Reimu smiled. The rest of us… just kind of gave her awkward glances.


Reimu locked Maruki back up and ordered the fairies to finish cleaning up the shrine, before we went up the mountain, Nitori leading us toward the gambling cave. It was in an isolated ravine, starting toward the path to the Sanzu River, Reimu explained. The cave itself was nestled in a grove of trees, sitting on a ledge overlooking a path which was lined with small storefronts, which were supposedly staffed by condemned souls attempting to work off their debts.

We hid in some shrubs and spent some time casing the joint. The plan was to observe patrons coming and going to get an idea of the kind of the clientele that we would be dealing with, before I went inside to question Sannyo, with Reimu and Marisa on standby to back me up in case things went south. Predictably, there were all sorts of clients, ranging from nearly-human figures to freakish monsters with unfittingly polite accents and demeanors to talking animals, representing a good cross-section of Gensokyo's diverse youkai population, with a wanyuudou serving as the bouncer.

"That's a lotta guys," Marisa whispered.

"I think I know some of them," Nitori commented. "Whenever we hold tech fairs, they'll come out in droves. That's how I make most of my money these days."

"I'm almost certain there are tons of shady things going on in there, but we have to stay focused on the objective," I said.

"You're not scared of all those youkai?" Nitori asked.

"I've been inside yakuza dens. Those men are far more intimidating than what I'm seeing so far."

"Ah, good point," Nitori nodded.

Reimu looked at me. "Alright, so you go in first, we'll wait nearby in case anything happens. Remember, this is all your idea, and we don't want to cause a scene, so don't mess this up."

I tipped my hat. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

I waltzed right up to the entrance of the gambling cave, hands in my pocket, head lowered and hat tipped to hide my face, like a private eye right out of a film noir. If it weren't the middle of the day, one could add ominous, jazzy music to complete the scene.

"Whoa, hey there buddy," the bouncer called out. "Whoddya think 'ya are, just walkin' up here like that? I gotta make sure 'yer not up to any funny business, or I'll burn 'ya up!"

I looked up just enough to reveal my mouth. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked, in a slightly gruff voice. "I am here to enjoy myself and have a good time."

The bouncer turned himself upside down and floated in front of me. " Weeeellll, I don't know about that, buddy. You seem miiiiiiiiiighty fishy if 'ya ask me. Ain't no one in Gensokyo's got a suit as snazzy as yours, where'd 'ya get it?"

"From a good friend of mine," I told him. "I'm a man of good taste."

The bouncer circled around me for a bit, examining me from every angle. "Hmm… hmhmhmhm… 'ya seem like a human, but I can tell you've got just enough shadiness to 'ya to be a real scoundrel. 'Ya seem pretty youkai-like to me. Any chance 'ya hang around that there shrine maiden?"

"I know Reimu, yes," I said. "In fact, we're quite close."

The bouncer chuckled. "Well, buddy, I can tell 'yer a real charmer if 'ya managed to charm 'er. Then again, I heard the rumors 'bout her keepin' a pet human at the shrine. That's a pretty big scandal if a charmer like you is mixin' in with 'er while she has that guy locked up." He backed away from me. "That's it. 'Ya strike me as my favorite kinda scum. I'll let 'ya inside, but don't say I didn't warn 'ya 'bout the shit inside."

"You never did, but I'll take you at your word," I said, tipping my hat again and letting myself inside.

The inside of the gambling cave was largely as I anticipated: extremely smokey, brightly lit, with all manner of hooligans and other suspicious characters crowded around bingo tables, card tables, pool tables, dartboards and pachislot machines, not to mention packed bars full of patrons chugging alcohol of dubious quality. Despite everyone in there being a youkai, they were all acting just like the unruly clientele at mob-run operations.

I simply shuffled past all of them, ignoring the leering remarks and chatter regarding my appearance there. I was only interested only in the purple-haired, red-robed crone occupying the lavish seat in the middle of the den, being fanned by attendants, counting money, and smoking from an expensive pipe whose fumes wafted all throughout the establishment.

"Greetings," I said, stepping up to her level. "You must be the one called Sannyo Komakusa."

Sannyo put down the wad of cash she was counting and addressed me with a crooked smile, speaking with a drawn-out wisp and low voice. "Why… yes… I am the… humble book keeper of this… establishment… "

"I'll just cut straight to the point," I said sternly. "I'm here to inquire about debts that some village humans allegedly owe you. I am concerned with the manner in which they are being collected."

"Hmm…" she looked up and scratched her chin with one, long-nailed finger. "Oh… yes… I… suppose you are talking about the… couple and the… shopkeeper, are you not?" She inhaled from her pipe, then blew out a thick, smoky cloud right into my face. This tobacco smoke was certainly stronger than the type emanating from the thick, expensive cigars chomped by crime bosses in Tokyo, but I kept a straight face and my composure all the same. "You are… attempting to… reclaim those debts which they owe us…"

"Yes. And I am armed with evidence that you are doing so in a malicious and predatory manner. If you do not comply," I reached into my pocket and revealed part of a spell card, "then I am prepared to settle the matter by force."

Sannyo slightly reeled back, as though the answer I gave her was not the one she had expected, before settling back down. "I see… you are a… tenacious sort, one who is not swayed by the mystical aroma of my 100% Youkai Mountain tobacco." She stood up and pointed at me. "I suppose… you are the one they call… the Charismatic 'Ace' Detective… Goro Akechi."

When she uttered my name, everyone in the den stopped what they were doing, put down their cards and drinks, and stared right at me.

"Izzit that Akechi dude? The one everyone's been goin' on 'bout?"

"Yeah, I hear he's that Outsider dude who charmed the miko and witch!"

"Nah, I heard he has 'imself a whole damn harem!"

One of them started to rush up. "I wonder what he tastes like!"

Shit, I thought to myself. Well, I suppose I expected something like this would happen, sticking my nose in a hive full of youkai, who unlike human yakuza gangsters had a very weak grasp on the concept of self-restraint. Time to put my police-mandated self-defense training, spell cards, quick reflexes and thinking to the test.

I let the youkai run up, then swiftly kicked him in the gut, sending him down the steps and onto the floor, before flipping away from Sannyo onto the game floor, leading the mob on a chase through the cramped passageways between game tables and machines. It was clear all of them were out for my blood, so to throw them off my tail I used a spell card based on a Persona I hadn't yet used in the Metaverse: Medusa. It worked by sending out a wave which froze its targets in place briefly, before following up with bullets to capitalize on their helpless state. While it didn't actually hurt them, as it was only a spell card, it did put precious distance between me and them.

Soon, I came to a chandelier dangling above the pool tables. Thinking quickly, I jumped up in a fancy, graceful way, aided by my flying abilities, and allowed the mob to gather below, all trying to jump up and get at me. I then cut the chain and leapt away, leaving a glassy, fiery explosion which engulfed most of the crowd.

By now, I had raised enough Cain to make even the most reclusive and inebriated patrons away from the game floor aware that I was there. I ran toward the bar next, jumping over it and knocking the bartender out while searching for an escape route, given that the main entrance had been cut off. While searching, I noticed a lighter on the table next to an ashtray and some cigarette butts; I took it for myself, hoping it would come in handy.

The mob started coming toward the bar, so I quickly searched for something there that I could distract them with. For a bar in the middle of the woods in rural Medieval Japan, they had quite the selection, ranging from sake on tap to bottles of Western beer to colorful liquors to-

…aha. An awful idea crossed my mind. If they had liquor, there was a good chance they distilled it on-site. I opened the sake tap and threw some bottles into the crowd, hoping to distract them, and based on how they were gathering around the Devil's bathwater like flies on a corpse it seemed to work. I used the distraction to slip into the back of the establishment, which appeared to be more of the cave leading deeper into the mountain. After some poking around, I found what I was looking for: a room filled to the brim with casks of pure, distilled liquor and the machinery with which they produced it, and above it, a venting chimney leading back outside.

"Ah…"

I turned around, and saw Sannyo right behind me. She took a smoke from her pipe. "How dreadful. You appear to have… made a mess within my… place of business… " She levitated and fired up a magic circle. "I will… allow one last chance of mercy… a spell card duel, just as she who is clad in red and white decrees…"

I considered my options. I could accept her challenge of a fair fight and then win, which would allow me to negotiate with her. But I also realized the mob would start flooding into here in not too long. Realizing I lacked options, and knowing she probably wouldn't let me escape otherwise, I acted on my just-made-up backup plan: I took my gun and fired at one of the casks, opening its valve and spilling alcohol on the floor. I then took the lighter and threw it onto the increasingly large puddle, setting it aflame and causing fire to rush up the stream and inside the container. I then took flight and made a beeline up the venting chimney.

Back in the fresh, open air, I made my way back down to where the trio was waiting beside a patch of knotweed. Already, several patrons were scrambling out of the cave, no doubt because Sannyo was warning them away from what was about to happen next.

"That was fast," Reimu commented.

"What's going on in there?" Nitori asked.

I took a moment to catch my breath, before readjusting my suit. "Well, it was a bit complicated-"

*KABOOM*

Suddenly the whole cave was engulfed in a fiery, hellish explosion, forceful enough to send me and Marisa's hats flying and ejecting flames out of each of its orifices, setting the knotweed and other plants ablaze and forcing Nitori to put it all out with her water magic. There was a moment of silence, after which a figure came falling down to earth, crashing down and sliding right in front of us.

All of us approached Sannyo, her body now covered in soot and burnt fabric. Her eyes focused on us, and she addressed us in the same tone as before. "Ah… if it isn't the… red and white… and the… black and white… "

Reimu stood over her, arms at her side. "Yes, indeed. Now, let's have a nice, polite discussion over tea back at the shrine, shall we?"


We spent the evening counting out the cash and making sure it matched what was printed in Sannyo's files that she had given us. "It's too bad we can't keep this," Reimu sighed. "She seems to have quite the operation set up there."

"Or perhaps had," Marisa commented. "Prolly gonna take 'em forever to rebuild and clean that mess up."

"Indeed," Nitori added. "If there were youkai in Gensokyo who didn't know about you before, they sure as hell have at least heard of you by now."

I chuckled. "Well, I'd say I've established that I am not a weak human who can be easily intimidated."

"True," Nitori said, "but I mean, that was a pretty decent-sized explosion that wrecked a distillery, and to youkai, that's like a capital offense or something. I hope you understand that."

Reimu smiled. "No, I think he did great considering the circumstances, given he was in a cave full of drunk youkai and all." She turned to me. "Still, you should be ready to take responsibility for your actions, given the hell of a first impression you left on some of them.

Take responsibility for my actions… that was what Igor had instructed me to do…

"So, we just go return the money to those folks?" Marisa asked.

"Afraid so," Reimu sighed again.

"Eh, don't sweat it," Nitori assured her. "I'm sure they'll be grateful enough that they'll let us have a cut as payment for our services."

"I wouldn't demand it," I said, "but I wouldn't be surprised either."

We finished counting and stacking the cash, before Reimu said, "oh, that's right. Sannyo did mention one other thing to me. It's about Seiga."

We all perked up. "Seiga? That's our new target, right?" I asked.

"Yep." She got out her device. "In fact, I think the whole group needs to hear this.

"Not a bad idea," I replied.

aburaage: We have some new info on Seiga.

autumnsky: How did the bust go?

pancakeman: Explosively.

turbogranny: We saw the blast from the temple.

godlygeneral: We heard it all the way from the Forest of Magic.

ghostmochi: I was shopping in the village. People thought Youkai Mountain was erupting.

seeingstars: And now we're returning all the money to those folks who got scammed.

cheshirecat: Starburst returning money? That's ironic.

aburaage: Anyway, back to the topic at hand. As I was grilling Sannyo, she mentioned she had hired Seiga to appropriate the goods from the shopkeeper so that youkai didn't have to sneak into the village.

ghostmochi: Wait, Seiga accepted money for a job?

pancakeman: What's wrong with that? Criminals do that all the time.

turbogranny: Seiga is a hermit, just like those at Senkai. Hermits typically separate themselves from materialistic desires such as money, and Seiga is no different. For her to accept a job for money is highly unusual.

seeingstars: What about that time she dressed up as Santa and took people's possessions so she could sell 'em back to the people they bought them from?

autumnsky: I'm still trying to figure that one out.

pancakeman: Maybe it's related to her distortion? How was she able to appropriate the objects to begin with?

ghostmochi: She possesses a pin which she can use to make holes in anything to pass through.

aburaage: It's like a much weaker version of Yukari's powers.

pancakeman: I see. In any case, we'll need to continue investigating Seiga, now that this task is done. However, my ledger for the next few days is full, so we'll need to pick it back up next week.

turtlepower: Sounds good.

turbogranny: Crow, you should come to the temple when you are ready to further the investigation.

pancakeman: Will do. Good night.