Touhou Miss Adventure

Episode 22: The Nue Reality

Standing on the top of the youkai mountain, Nue watched over the horizon, as the sun was setting.

She had just woken up from a good night's sleep, which was a complete reversal from the night dwelling youkai that she used to be, preying upon the humans and other youkais for her own amusement.

It was strange to once think of herself as the wicked terror youkai, when she for the last couple of months, had been the quiet ally of the humans, and especially the shrine maidens.

Of course at that time, the threats from Yukari made her behave, and the humans, especially Reimu kept her from doing any bad deeds. Yet they had beaten Yukari and Reimu seemed to have mellowed out. Which begged the question, why was she still so docile and benign? Her past self would have laughed at her, maybe even called her weak.

After thinking for a minute she concluded that the humans always kept her going or doing something, unlike her past, when she too often felt bored. Sanae basically always kept an interest in her for various reasons, which meant she never felt she needed to show off or attract attention, or seek new experiences.

For a time, Nue just wandered around the shrine, when she noticed Suwako sitting on top of the shrine itself. Suwako's eyes were closed, like she was meditating or something, but her hat's eyes looked in the direction of Nue.

Nue was not sure if she should disturb the goddess, or just pass her by.

"At ease my dear, your presence is not unwelcome," Suwako smiled, with her main eyes remaining shut.

Nue tried to act in an appropriate manner, "Good morning my goddess, how are we this morning?"

"You don't have to act like you worship me, dishonesty doesn't suit you."

"How could you tell?" Nue was sure her acting was superb.

"Did you think you could conceal something from a goddess in their own domain?" Suwako sounded amused.

"Not when you put it that way," Nue conceded, "But aren't you looking for worshippers?"

"All gods are looking for worship, but we aren't all that eager to get just anyone in our circle," Suwako explained.

"So you need nothing from me?"

"You are Sanae's guest, which makes you our guest," Suwako said warmly, but added nonetheless, "If you are going to stay here however, we will ask you to help with a few chores."

"Those that don't work, don't eat. Was that the phrase?"

Suwako smiled as she said, "Correct."

Nue thought for a bit, "I don't think I'd be any good at converting anyone, but I guess I can do manual labor."

The thought of Nue going around and handing out flyers and trying to convert people by public speaking… Struck Suwako as immensely funny, and she had to restrain herself from laughing.

While Nue never really fit in, she turned out to be a superb guardian, since she could be hidden while monitoring the place, she became the famous trifork youkai… Even Kanako began to like her…eventually.

That said, Sanae has insisted on bringing Nue with her wherever she had tasks to accomplish. Sometimes it even included youkai hurting, which Nue found strange, but she was nonetheless good at it. At times a rumor spread that Sanae had conquered this wicked youkai and used her as a shikigami.

While Sanae and Nue were now living in the Moriya shrine, they still kept ties to the rest of the human gang.

Meanwhile at the mansion. Sakuya came back from the basement, after giving the vampires' their morning type A blood, she said to the rest of the gang, "Koishi isn't looking so good anymore, do you think she's learned her lesson, so she could go home?"

Reimu, who had completely forgotten the satori they had locked away with the blood suckers, said, "If she's learned her lesson, then sure, let her go home."

With a look of approval from Mokou and a less approving look from Marisa, they all ventured down to set Koishi free.

As the door was being opened, they were met with two hissing vampires, who both were fighting over the poor Satori. After Remila seemingly lost the fight with Flandre, she noticed the humans opening the door, "Sakuya! I demand to have my own blood slave!"

In the past Sakuya would have obliged her former master, but now however, she simply disciplined her, "Behave! Or lose your blood meals. Just because we put Koishi down here as an emergency blood bag for you, doesn't mean you should treat her poorly, you should respect your meals."

Whilst the fight between the maid and the former boss was ongoing. Everyone else was doing their utmost to fish out Koishi… since Flandre was chewing on her.

Despite being used as a blood bag, Koishi was fine…ish, she was weakened, but in no immediate danger. "I learned my lesson about stalking… I just want to go home… please?"

"Go home, you have been through enough," Sakuya accepted her plea, with Reimu giving a single nod of approval.

Marisa, on the other hand, was not so forgiving, "The basement will always be there, if you change your mind."

"No, please no!" Koshi could barely look at this human, she just wanted to be free.

Sakuya looked sympathetically at the satori, "Do you need someone to escort you home?"

"If you want to, but I know my way around Gensokyo, so it's not strictly needed," Koishi wanted to roam the wilderness after so long, so she was not eager for an escort.

"We could guide you to the Myouren temple. I've heard they know you." Sakuya nudged Reimu with her elbow.

Reimu gave her a puzzled expression, "Why should we?"

"Come on, Reimu. We can check on the shrine's progress on the way home," Sakuya eagerly proposed.

After wavering under that gaze Sakuya sent her, Reimu relented, "Oh alright, I do need to check up on the shrine, and I suppose I'd need to get back to being a shrine maiden soon too. Vacation is fun, but everything in moderation."

Marisa almost choked, "Who are you and what have you done to Reimu!?"

"I've changed her," Sakuya smiled widely.

"And I you, for that matter," Reimu stated as a matter of fact. "You've become more honest with your own desires, rather than the desires of others."

"Okay, it was fun while you were fidgety, but now that you're comfortably together I think I might be sick," Marisa made a gagging motion.

Mokou chuckled a bit, "Really? Seeing your friends happy makes you ill? Some friend you are."

"When people are happy, they become less interesting," Marisa commented with a grin.

"You mean less teassable," Reimu corrected with a grin of her own.

Marisa just looked exasperated, it was not fair when people were grinning at her expense.

As Sakuya and Reimu arrived in the human village, they bypassed the pleasantries that they would normally show people and made a beeline for the Myouren temple.

The moment Koishi saw Ichirin and Unzan, she immediately went and greeted him, "Uncle Nyuudo!"

Unzan chuckled joyfully, "Hey there, little one, how have you been?"

Koishi froze at that question and began sweating as she thought she felt eyes on her, "I've been, um… reflecting on my actions."

"Ah, a good old Buddhist meditation, you bear your transcendence well." Unzan was impressed with her continued enlightenment.

Reimu was trying so hard not to laugh. Luckily, only Sakuya seemed to notice. Who in turn, found their conversation strangely heartwarming.

Byakuran went to greet the two humans, "Ah, the Hakurei shrine maiden and the maid of time. How are you doing?"

"Things are slowly starting to go back to normal, we've been quite busy as of late." Sakuya replied formally.

"I did hear about all of your reckless adventures…" Byakuran hesitated a little to ask, "So, any news on Nue?"

"She left us to go live at the Moriya shrine." Sakuya looked apologetically, "I'm sorry to say that she probably won't come back to you."

"I see… With Nue gone, we need someone new to do the chores." Ichirin was blunt with her statement.

"Is that all she was to you? someone who did chores?" Sakuya felt a slight twinge, this was the role she herself had served for many years.

"Of course not, when we want to visit Nue, we can just go for a visit, it's not like she is gone for good." Ichirin said with a sincere smile, "That doesn't mean the chores will get done though. We thought her hanging out with you was a temporary thing, so we've just asked Kyouko and myself to do all the chores… It's starting to wear Kyouko out, just a little."

"Not you?" Reimu was skeptical about that.

"I have some advantages that she doesn't, but even I can't be in more than two places at a time…"

"So you don't get tired, but chores keep on piling up?"

"That's the situation. So I'm grateful that you've come here to tell us that Nue won't come back." Ichirin smiled pleasantly, "That way we can hire someone to take care of the chores and it lets us focus on the Temple's duties."

Byakuran was curious as to why Nue took residence at another shrine, "Any reason she went to the Moriya shrine in particular?"

"She and Sanae have become friends, so she followed her when Sanae went home."

"Oh, what a wonderful friendship." Byakuran seemed delighted, "Even though we were happy to house her, I'm unsure if she got actual friendship from us."

"I don't think friendship was what Sanae had in mind." Reimu thought to herself, though she didn't dare voice her opinion.

After saying goodbye to the Myouren temple, they looked at each other, and Sakuya said, "Then it's a small trip to the Hakurei shrine to see how repairs are coming along."

"A quick trip then, and no greetings." Reimu still remembered her argument with Alice and she was not inclined to be civil.

"Oh very well…" Sakuya relented as they flew towards their new destination.

When they got close to the shrine and saw the first doll in the distance, they got down and walked the rest of the way.

Sakuya got exasperated when they hid behind trees to watch it from afar, instead of just walking up and seeing the work.

"How do you like the renovations so far?" a familiar voice came from behind.

Reimu just looked at Alice with apprehension and said nothing.

"What? Are you still mad at what I said?"

"I'm not mad about what you said about Sakuya and I, but I'm still mad how you threw the Hakurei duty in my face."

"Sorry about that. I could just see Sakuya hurting and became stubborn in my attempt to help her… That aside, how are you liking the repairs so far?"

When they looked around, they could see hundreds of dolls carrying around the tools and lumber, in the midst of them all, they could see Alice coordinating the operation.

"I'll need to inspect it from up close, so do you mind if I take a quick stroll through?"

"Oh not at all, I could use a break." Alice waved as Reimu walked towards the building.

As Reimu was inspecting the grounds, she noted that the vast majority was how she remembered it, but there were definitely some improvements that her ancestors would have frowned upon, but she herself found neat. "Alice sure is keeping her word."

Alice leaned close to Sakuya and whispered, "I did remember to build the terrace for you and Reimu… How's it going with that?"

"Above all expectations." Sakuya couldn't help but blush.

"You certainly move fast." Alice was impressed with her, Sakuya would normally never be this assertive with her own desires.

"I… might have gotten help from Marisa and Sanae… And oddly enough from Yukari."

"Yukari? Why would she…"

"She was bored, so she kidnapped Reimu and staged a fake hostage situation."

"The lengths that woman will go to for entertainment…" Alice rubbed her temples as a mild headache reared its head.

As Reimu came back from her little walk, Alice looked triumphant as she asked, "So miss Hakurei, what's the verdict?"

"I got to hand it to you Alice, you certainly know your craft," Reimu admitted, sounding very impressed.

"I couldn't have done it without the support of my hundreds of dolls," Alice said, making a humble bow.

"Which you yourself made personally," Sakuya smiled with a glint in the eye.

"Alice, you're the only youkai I like," Reimu uttered sincerely, "Every other youkai never apologized for blowing up my house, but you alone are working your ass off rebuilding it."

"Nue is a youkai, don't you like her?" Sakuya asked, a bit confused.

"I thought we referred to her as an alien… or was that Sanae's idea?"

Alice didn't know what to say, so she just embraced the shrine maiden, who for some reason, didn't fight back.

Sakuya instinctively joined in, it was too precious not to be a part of.

"You two are the sweetest humans I have ever known," Alice chimed. Now all three felt the warm embrace.

A few months later.

As Reimu was packing up the last of the boxes, a question popped up in her head, "What will you two be doing when Sakuya and I depart for the shrine?"

Mokou scratched her chin as she thought, "We'll probably spend a few centuries holed up in the library here in the mansion, reading it from one end to the next… When Marisa eventually gets bored, I expect her to steal new books for us to read."

"You mean 'borrow,' but yes. Of course I will come visit you two, you will be bored without me," Marisa commented.

"We will definitely visit you once in a while, I do need to check if you feed our vampires properly," Sakuya smiled.

This had completely slipped Marisa's mind, "Oh right… That's on us now… I can't persuade you to take them with you to the shrine?"

"NOOO!" Reimu nearly screamed on instinct.

Marisa rubbed her ears for her hearing to return to normal levels, "I was just joking Reimu, no need to overreact. You will only have your vampire children on weekends."

"Shut it Marisa," Reimu scowled angrily.

—

For Reimu, it was a strange feeling to be back working as a shrine maiden again, after half a year living in the mansion. However, because Sakuya now lived with her, her life had become less stressful and more enjoyable. Sakuya assisted with everything, from cleaning to grocery shopping and cooking. She even helped out with making Omamori and Emas, something that was considered a shrine maiden's duty.

"It's amazing how much easier this job becomes when you're not alone in doing it." Reimu mused one day as she and Sakuya were tidying up the finishing touches.

"What do you say that, when we are finished, we sit on the terrace and watch the sunset?" Sakuya suggested with a soft smile.

"It's becoming chilly in the evenings now," Reimu muttered, less than enthusiastically.

"For me?" Sakuya made the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster.

"I guess a little won't hurt. Though we have to get warmed up afterwards." Reimu knew the look that Sakuya was giving her, so she refused to look in her direction.

"I'll make some miso soup for us," Sakuya was quick to offer.

"...Not what I was thinking of, but your soup is delicious so I won't turn it down." Reimu turned around and stretched her arms.

"Not what you were… Oh!" Sakuya turned her face to the side and blushed, but inside she was jubilant.