A/N: This chapter is rather short I'll say because the ending is where I thought it was good enough to stop at. I'm also pleased to see that people found the last chapter to be funny. I must ask that you guys be sure to tell me if I did anything wrong with depicting Touma this chapter. He is from late NT to give you an easy starting point.

For Review Responses:

WilliamZO: Yes, there aren't a lot of things Touma finds surprising really, he's a really chill guy who didn't even bat an eye at Aihana Etsu proclaiming himself a Level 5. Touma will not experience PTSD from Remilia's Gungnir I'll tell you that. Even with Birdway's and Index's one he still had a clear head to disrupt the actual source for what manifests their Gungnir copy. He will absolutely catch Remilia's casually in a straight face because he has so much experience otherwise after all. He is IRON CLAD after all. People tend to exaggerate the PTSD Touma has when it's not that severe. No disrespect to Remilia and the cast of Touhou, but... there's no way they can match up to the higher ends Toaru brings on the table in my honest opinion. Saying that Remilia's Gungnir is half as strong as Othinus's is giving her way too much kindness. Touma's earth is definitely not weaker than Gensokyo's world. I could go on, but that's not what I'm here to debate or write about so I'll stop there and apologize for taking up time with something like that. You're definitely right that Koishi has finally come to play.

wiliamsusanto: I'm neutral about Touhou pairings, being open-minded about yuri pairings and straight pairings. People can like what they like.

No good name: Ah yes, the three goddesses. I will say that you look forward to their interactions. Hmm... one of the members of Team 9 will be relevant this first night I suppose.

Disclaimer: To Aru Majutsu No Index belongs to Kazuma Kamachi and Touhou Project belongs to ZUN. I don't own either of these properties.

Chapter 2: First night in Gensokyo II

"Kamijou-kun." Rinnosuke called, the words that left Rinnosuke's mouth had no emotion in them.

"Yeah?" Touma replied without emotion as well.

"I've got a favor to ask." Rinnosuke stated with deadly seriousness, turning his front body to face Touma's.

"I'm all ears." Touma said firmly, providing him his full support.

"Please pun-"

"YOU DONKEY!"

"Bufwu!?"

Rinnosuke wasn't given a chance to finish his request. In a flurry, Touma jumped on top of the counter to make up for the height, rushed forward and swung his clenched right fist onto Rinnosuke's left cheek. The bare-knuckles brushing against his skin had sent him flying across the room and slamming on the door.

With a loud bang, the shopkeeper landed his back head then his back on the door and slid down until he was flat on his ass leaning against it. The impact made the adjacent walls tremble a bit.

(All those times I had to practice my English has paid off!)

Touma had made it his goal to learn English whenever he got sent to England. From how often that happened, his priorities were clearly justified. The phrase he uttered he acquired from some angry Scottish man on TV he'd seen. It also helped that he fought against a Scottish man some time ago and that made the idea stick in his mind.

"You have a mean right hook..." Rinnosuke groaned out, rubbing his new red swollen cheek.

"You idiot! What are we gonna do when that woman and her mistress barges in here for that mockery!?" Touma raved furiously, holding his right fist to emphasize his anger. The man sold their death warranties, after all.

"Fear not! There is very little chance someone at the Hakurei party will recognize the carriage is meant for babies." Rinnosuke tried to appease to him, thinking that it was impossible for anybody in Gensokyo to recognize the vehicle.

"Which means it will happen because of my misfortune! You have to have some idea for who could know!" Touma denied him coldly and then questioned with a point of his finger. It was silly at this point for anybody in Gensokyo to be that ignorant.

"Well, there's the Moriya group..." Rinnosuke added weakly, feeling very foolish in thinking there was a way to escape their new predicament.

Touma had never heard of this Moriya group before, but it brought him despair knowing that there was a certain party who'll realize the embarrassment.

"We're so screwed..." He breathed out, slowly bending his knees before sitting on the counter.

The two of them became quiet for a moment, thinking to themselves despondingly and calming down. Thinking the ceiling was a lot more appealing to look at, Touma raised his head to stare at it. The occupants of the room lost all liveliness now that their unknown fates could very be under a guillotine. They stayed that way for a while before Rinnosuke tried to bring up some ridiculous odds in their favor.

"There's the off chance her mistress will like it and keep around..." Rinnosuke commented from the floor, his swollen cheek slurring his voice a little.

"Fat chance of that! Not unless this mistress is that gullible not to find it embarrassing!" Touma rejected angrily, lowering his head to look at man sprawled on the ground. It was unthinkable for a high-class lady to be that unaware of the possible humiliation.

What Touma received back was silence from the shopkeeper who turned his head away. Immediately he closed his mouth in shock and contemplation for what kind of personality this mistress had.

Unbelievable he thought.

"...She is isn't she." Touma deadpanned with a blank stare.

"Indeed. She's a perfect fit for the vehicle." Rinnosuke mumbled cheekily; his attitude appeared to have shifted again into a smug one from what Touma noticed.

The man still had the balls to joke around even when they had metaphorical guillotines over their necks.

Or was this his true nature?

"Tell me anyways who that person was..." Sighing weakly, Touma moved on and wanted to know who they were potentially facing against and how they might appease their inevitable fury.

"Sakura Izayoi, she's a human maid working full-time at the Scarlet Mansion beyond the Misty Lake," Rinnosuke reported from the ground without any fluctuations from his voice.

"And her mistress?" Touma asked just in case.

"Remilia Scarlet, a vampire." Rinnosuke replied.

"Oh cool, vampires do exist. that's neat." Touma commented casually, making him look to be a bigger weirdo in the eyes of Rinnosuke.

It didn't bother Touma until he realized who they likely just pissed off. Wordlessly, he sighed from the dark horizon in the future.

"You don't sound that surprised," Rinnosuke noted curiously. It really made him question what kind of lifestyle the boy experienced on a daily basis. "Have you interacted with vampires before?"

"I know a friend who've met vampires before," Touma answered offhandedly. "She said they weren't that different from humans."

Rinnosuke raised an eyebrow in surprise. The boy before him had deep connections to the supernatural from the Outside World. How involved and knowledgeable the boy is he wasn't certain, but he had experience for sure. The shopkeeper stopped having those thoughts when the pain on his cheeks flared up.

"...your punch really stings. Wait here until I patch myself up." Rinnosuke said grittily, trying to force down a groan.

"Take your time; I'm not going anywhere." Came the reply from Touma.

Nodding at the boy, Rinnosuke stood upright and walked away into the hall to the right, probably looking for some ointment and some cloth.

It was now Touma alone in the room, or so he believed. Touma searched around the room cautiously using his eyes.

He felt it earlier, subtle movements of giggling hidden somewhere in the room. He scanned the place to find a corner one could use to make themselves hidden from sight. His eyes trailed from the shelves until he moved his head to look behind his left shoulder and stopped at the giant jar from the corner next to the counter.

He and the shopkeeper were in fact not the only ones here.

(Is it that presence who was tailing us earlier?)

He jumped off the counter and took a few small steps approaching that jar until he was right in front of it. He gulped and attempted to peer down inside. Until he got interrupted when the shopkeeper returned with a first aid kit and ointment in hand.

"Geez, your punch is truly something. Do you practice martial arts?" Said Rinnosuke as he set down the items and opened the kit to apply a patch job to his cheek.

It would've been more appropriate to do the job in his bathroom. But since he had a guest to provide, he needed to keep on eye on him should something unpredictable happen under his suppose jurisdiction.

"No, never had the time." Answered Touma.

"So, are you naturally gifted?" Rinnosuke asked, rubbing the ointment around the sore spot with a cotton swab.

"He he he..." A dark miasma leaked from Touma as he giggled creepily. The air became stagnant and caused Rinnosuke to slow his work nervously. "Are you kidding me? Me? Gifted? Are you mocking me?" Touma asked a series of questions, cracking his head at Rinnosuke and staring with murder in his eyes.

The shopkeeper swallowed his saliva and composed himself a little to meet with the piercing gaze of the boy. "Then I suppose you get in a lot of fights." Rinnosuke stated after figuring out the real reason why his punch could send a 185cm man like himself flying.

"I wish what you said wasn't true!" Touma cried in a miffed tone. That broke him out of his fixed position.

"Well Kamijou-kun, maybe all of us have some role to play in life. Perhaps, you stepping into conflicts so much has a meaning." Rinnosuke explained, feeling the pressure and trying to figure out the right words to calm the boy down while sweating profusely.

"I'm going to really punch your other cheek if you're going to imply that me getting involved with conflicts has to be an expected matter!" Touma yelled angrily, winding his left arm to indicate that he wasn't joking. His words only enraged him even further.

He needed to say something to save himself from this predicament, or else both his cheeks will be swollen. "Well, what do you think?" Rinnosuke finally let out from his strained throat.

That seemed to work when Touma flinched from his pissed mood. "Urk..." He groaned out, not wanting to admit what he said is true. Of course, he would never accept such a sad reality. "W-whatever, it's none of your business. Anyways, what's this party at the Hakurei Shrine?" Touma stuttered and changed the topic to something more relevant.

"Important people or those who have substantial influence in Gensokyo are joining at the shrine to relax and discuss what needs to be done about the dragons." Rinnosuke replied.

"The dragons..."

Detecting the sudden downturn on Touma's mood, Rinnosuke interjected. "Now don't be hasty Kamijou-kun, you said it yourself earlier to me that you were forced against your will to be here. You may not have known this, but the people here are adept at solving incidents as I said earlier. You can leave things to the professionals."

"Forget about that for a moment." Touma deflected from the topic of dispatching the dragons in hopes to keep his swirling thoughts to himself. "If there's an ongoing party over at the shrine that means the shrine maiden must be there to perform as supervisors, right? Then wouldn't it be ideal to go there now?" Touma said, placing his left hand under his chin.

"It's possible..." Rinnosuke rubbed his cheek using his right hand. "It's too risky. There are too many unpredictable elements such as a sharp person who might connect the dots about your relations with the dragons. You'll most likely become hated by the masses. Even if the shrine maiden were to agree to send you home, others would want to keep you around to vent their frustrations. Do you still want to go regardless?"

It was as Rinnosuke said, there were too many odds against Touma. Heading over to the party could very well spell a meaningless death unless he wanted to as an atonement. There was little benefit to going under these circumstances where too many people will learn of his existence this early.

Even so...

"I've decided that I'm going there and that's final. I don't care about what other people think of me." Touma declared resolutely.

Rinnosuke stared into his eyes to confirm the determination behind them. It was enough to give him pause and cause him to hold his breath. They had a wellspring of experiences that saw many trials in its life that betrayed the youthful look. He had met many people before in his life, and he could tell that it was pointless to argue with such an unyielding attitude.

He let out a sigh and finally said. "There's no stopping you from going is there? Very well." Rinnosuke relented exhaustingly.

Touma nodded back and crossed his arms to seal the deal, making Rinnosuke rub his forehead exasperatingly.

"Before that though, there's someone outside who's been following us the whole time," Touma whispered carefully, looking sideward at the door. "I don't know what it could be, but it's invisible."

It spiked up again from his senses nearing the store, and it could very well knock upon them any time soon.

"I might have a few ideas who that could be," Rinnosuke finished applying a patch of white cloth to his cheek and brought out a newspaper from inside a dresser and down the counter. "Was there any specific feeling it gave you that stood out?"

"How do I describe it..." Touma trailed off. "It felt sort of like a ghost or pebble on the road." And finished from where he left off.

"Pebble you say? Then there's no doubt it has to be Koishi Komeiji." Rinnosuke figured, looking at some headlines to make sure his suspicions weren't wrong.

"Koishi Komeiji? Little rock [1]? Who's that?" Touma asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"She's a special type of satori youkai who closed her eye. Because of that, she lost all conscious thought and people who perceive her forget her right after she leaves their line of sight." Rinnosuke clicked his tongue, feeling another migraine running around his head.

"What reason would someone like that have to follow us?" Touma said a bit intrigued about learning of another person in Gensokyo.

"Who knows, I'm sure even she doesn't. However, she is whimsical from what I hear, and that sort of person will be unpredictable along the way. It's best to shake her off our trails if you want to get to the Hakurei Shrine." Rinnosuke put out, making clear how much of a threat this Koishi person could be.

There wasn't a lot to plan out with so little information on hand, so Touma asked. "So, what are we supposed to do?"

"let me handle her."

"Eh?"

Touma didn't expect such a response from him. With the little time they've interacted with each other, he could tell this man is the kind of person who kept to themselves. Exactly what kind of reason did he have to do something so against his defined character?

(Act out your character damn it!)

"I'll negotiate with Koishi to lose interest with us before we embark towards the shrine." Rinnosuke claimed out.

"Are you going to be alright? No offense, but you don't seem to be a person who can handle themselves." Touma asked worriedly for the sake of this man.

"Trust me, I may not look the part, but I've been in a few brawls before in my life. You, however, need to stay put under the shop until I come back in here." Rinnosuke said, gripping the sword by his waist.

He then made his way to the door, grabbed a rain cloak and placed his hand on the doorknob before Touma stopped him.

"Wait, wait! You make it sound like fighting her is a given!" Touma called out from his position at the corner of the room next to the jar.

"Truthfully it is. When people tend to have disagreements, they end their disputes using the Spell Card System all the time." Rinnosuke illustrated by holding up a piece of paper.

A spell card Touma thought.

"So, fighting here is also a regular occurrence, only less bloody..." Touma uttered out quietly, feeling satisfied with the simple logic used in Gensokyo.

It allowed violence sure, but it was nonlethal and opened a solution to vent their pent-up emotions which he found all right in his book.

"Now that you know, I'll be going out to deal with her." And with that, Rinnosuke turned the doorknob and opened the front door.

"Yeah, just be careful." Touma gave his farewell before the door was closed in front of him.

There were no more interruptions that could occur inside the room now. Touma waited there for a few moments, letting the seconds pass quietly so that the shopkeeper can't hear what was about to happen next.

"He's gone now. Come out whoever you are." Touma called out to the unknown occupant lying inside the jar.

Touma was waiting for Rinnosuke to leave the store due to this. He learned something from when he punched him. And what he discovered was the man was weak. Though he looked confident in handling the stranger outside, Touma doubted he could handle another behind him, so he thought they could split the work. He couldn't afford to endanger the man he relied on any further since he got here, so he had to do his own part to pay it back. That was why he didn't say anything earlier.

And if anything, he wanted to avoid a fight if possible and solve things ethically.

It was the moment of truth. Swallowing nervously, he sensed movement and saw the jar shaking slightly. What climbed out was something he didn't expect.

It was a swarm of chibis colored in orange with primary colors following them was what he could make of initially. That was all filling his eyesight. Looking more closely, it was a swathe of orange hair and two brown twigs stabbed into their heads. There were shackles on their wrists and right ankle. Attached to them are chains that are connected to yellow spheres, red triangles, and blue rectangle polygons. They all wore white blouses with the sleeves torn off and purple and pink skirts.

It left him confused on what the hell he was looking at internally, but externally, he didn't bat an eye.

"Hoowee~, I didn't think he'd ever leave the store!"

Squeaky voices filled his ears as the chibis echoed from each other in relief. He could imagine it was quite cramped inside the jar.

Getting his bearings back, Touma addressed them "Wha-who are you people!?"

"Who me? I'm Suika! Suika Ibuki!" One of them acting as the group's representative brought her hand up and told him her name.

"And what about all of them?" Touma asked, bringing his eyes to look at every one of them. He raised an eyebrow seeing all of them being completely identical to each other.

"They're also me! Suika!" A different one answered him this time, waving her arm up and making one of the polygon flails and hit another's head.

"All of them!?" Touma exclaimed as sweat dripped from his cheek.

"Yuh-huh, I dispersed my body into smaller mes to hide in the jar." Suika said, indicating with how one of them disappeared into mist and morphed back into a chibi.

(This is magic used in Gensokyo?)

Touma was not unfamiliar with magic when he sees it. Though as to how it works in Gensokyo may be different than the one outside since this is but only one form he witnessed. But then again, he never had an extensive depth in understanding magic, so it wasn't that troublesome in his mind. It just means he'll have to change his methods to how he will approach Gensokyo.

"And why exactly did you hide inside the jar?" Touma asked, putting his hands on his hips like she had done something naughty.

"Waiting for someone interesting!" All of them said with a buzz of enthusiasm.

"...And who's the unlucky fellow you're looking for?" Touma asked slowly, completely drained from his voice. He had a feeling he knew who she was looking for but didn't want to ask anyway to spare any sliver of hope.

"That's you! Totally you! Who else?" The little Suikas mercilessly said those words and dashed away any optimism inside Touma. They flailed around, pointing at him to hammer in the inconvenient truth even further.

"Me huh... why?" Touma asked unenergetically, suppressing another sigh from rising.

"I saw it! You were with them dragons in the sky earlier! I was there too!" They all yelled and pointed at him wildly.

"Great, that makes two stalkers in a single night..." Touma dropped his head down and raised his arms as a gesture of giving up.

"I know! I heard you talking about that special satori earlier." All the mini Suikas looked at each other before turning all their eyes back at the human. "Hey, I introduced myself so you should too!" They all nodded in agreement from the representative of the group.

"Eh? Oh, um, my name is Kamijou Touma, nice to meet you Ibuki-san." Touma greeted respectfully.

"Call me Suika instead!" The representative said, jumping from the group and landing on the counter. "You see, I saw you getting carried away by a dragon and followed your direction and hid here seeing the shopkeeper was absent."

"Okay, but that doesn't answer what you want with me." Touma brought up, wanting her to get to the purpose of their presence in the store.

"I was planning on kidnapping you to heaven for a good time!" Suika said, some of the mini ones jumped out the jar on to the floor and tottered around him.

"S-so blunt!" He exclaimed in a panic, feeling trapped without knowing what her true powers extended to. "W-wait! You said 'was,' does that mean you changed your mind?"

He analyzed her word choice and saw a path in getting out of being kidnapped.

"Mn-Mn" Suika nodded her head in confirmation, causing the boy to release a relieved sigh. "I heard everything from your conversation with the shopkeeper and how you want to head over to the party going on at the shrine." Suika continued. "I also want you to get there. And because I'm here I want to go there as a group!"

"Eh, you want to help me?' Touma said in disbelief. Here was the first youkai he met, and instead of finding him as a meal she wants to help him. He wasn't sure if he had gotten lucky or not, but it was too early to tell.

"My real body is at the party right now. I wouldn't call it a party though..." Suika said sadly, her the rest had their mood plummeting. "Everyone is so tense they keep looking behind their backs instead of talkin'. They aren't livening things up like usual despite the sake and snacks being passed around, and the air is so cold. Even my sake isn't tasting so good to me."

That made the guilt in Touma's heart stab deeper. His landing in Gensokyo had changed the people more than he thought to stir discourse between them. He closed his eyes and moved his hands in his hoodie pocket.

"But, not everything is bad. I got to stay and hear something funny! Like how the shopkeeper sold that maid a baby carriage! And I think it was because you were there for it to happen!" Suika burst into laughter that caused the rest to join in. Their squeaky and silly voices filled the ground.

"You can't prove that!" Touma objected loudly, jumping his entire body back up and feeling accused of something he hadn't done.

"Oh really? Then what was that about how your misfortune was bringing you trouble?" Suika smirked, and so did the rest. She got a decent grasp of how this human worked from his conversation with Rinnosuke.

"Ugh!" Touma put his hands to his chest, reared his head back and took five steps back twitching all the while.

"I gotta say though, it was pretty smart of you not to get the shopkeeper involved any more than this. There's a high chance you'll get ripped apart at the party and Rinnosuke mighta faced the same." Suika captured his attention back with that statement. "You'll need a lot of protection at the shrine and Rinnosuke totally doesn't have enough to give you. But I do."

From the way she presented herself and puffing her chest, she carried a lot of self-confidence. And because her real body was at the shrine, she had a better grasp of the situation than him and Rinnosuke. The information she had was invaluable to Touma. There was no doubt in his mind; he had to ally himself with Suika. Her reasons for helping were harmless too in a way.

"He seemed different somehow, but I'm still way more reliable than that shopkeeper, and I have a feeling it'll be waaaay more entertainin' if you were there with everyone present too!" Suika guffawed, imagining the chaos it would bring if the one who brought the dragons to Gensokyo stepped right in front of everyone.

"You're only helping for the thrill huh..." Touma stated, having recovered from that fatal blow.

"And you don't seem to be going so you can run home are you?" Suika stated mischievously. Her eyes were looking at him piercingly, almost as if she had seen through his facade earlier.

She was right; he had different plans he set for himself when hearing about the discussion happening over at the shrine.

"...Yeah, I don't plan on leaving so I can dump my problems here for everybody to solve. This crisis right now was brought here by me." Touma paused for a second to gather his resolve before continuing. "The dragons are my responsibility, so I'm going to join in on reigning them."

"Hmm, are you going to be alright with just that? I don't feel a lotta power from you. You might get in the way more likely." Suika stated solemnly, her jovial demeanor was replaced with graveness in a split-second which surprised him.

"That's harsh, but me lacking power is no excuse to turn away and not stand up to keeping the peace." Touma countered, making a stand for himself.

"The world isn't as kind as you think Touma. You're still human, and we're not so weak to be needing your help." Suika said sharply.

She was trying to intimidate him into reconsidering, and to do so she and the rest of the swarm fixed stared at him with their red-eyed slits.

It impressed her that the human's facial expression didn't flicker, not even by a minuscule instant.

Within his mind, he mulled over why he wanted to go there so badly. Why would he give up the chance to go home? Back to his Academy City where everyone was waiting for him? To stay and fight for something that he can't provide a helping hand or change substantially?

(Othinus… Index… Misaka…)

It was also a lot more logical to stay in hiding then achieving nothing from being there.

There was also the matter about answering Suika in a satisfactory way. Evaluating everything about her so far, she was an honest person who didn't hold back what she wanted. Going from there her character would despise lies and deceitfulness.

He couldn't afford to hold back and the answer he came to-

"… Maybe leaving it to the professionals is nice and the most obvious. No, it is the choice that would help me the most. Back home I have people waiting for me. If I decide to forget about this place, I know nothing about, nothing would change, and I won't feel pain. I can live the rest of my life being ignorant and still probably find happiness down the line. Gensokyo has nothing to do with me."

Touma admitted that there was nothing wrong in this choice to back away. And that encouraged him to stay even more. His body invigorated itself from his will, and the mist shrouding his mind was swept away by a raging tempest.

"Even so. Somewhere down the line I'll remember my choice and regret it. There's nothing in it for me, but when did I stood up and raised my fist in the interest of what will reward me or how much gratitude I'll be given? There might not be people who will thank me or consider me anything else but the guy who brought this hell into their home. But that never mattered to me from the beginning."

He mustered energy into his legs so he can make a few steps until he was 25 centimeters apart from Suika. His voice was calm, so calm and collected like he was struggling to hold back his smoldering intensity.

"Gensokyo has nothing to do with me, but the opposite is true. I'm going to finish what I started and be the one at the front against the dragons. To walk away from this is the same as betraying myself. That's right, in the end, it's just to appease my own self-interest! But Is that so wrong!?"

He stopped holding himself back from how he truly felt about his position in Gensokyo. His new conviction became steady and unbreakable transmitting them through his eyes gazing into Suika's.

All of them stared at him where time extended into the minutes between seconds. A snort escaped their lips, slapping their knees in amusement until they stopped to look at him again.

"...I think I can understand why them dragons were flocking around you. Just a little bit though. Nyahaha~, you're really interesting Touma." Suika and the swarm giggled together, ending the previous tense dispute.

That appeared to have convinced her.

The swarm and her dispersed into black mist and reformed into her normal body shape standing on the counter. He guessed her height to be reaching his knees. Observing this magic, he had never seen before, he mused on its possible applications.

(She can assemble and disassemble herself into a smaller mass… wonder if she can do the opposite?)

"You think so?" Touma considered, letting a small smile to grow from his lips.

"Uh-huh!" Suika agreed instantly, nodding their heads and feeling very excited. "Before we get to business, let's make a promise here!"

"A promise?" Touma asked, wondering about the meaning behind the promise she wanted.

"I will take you to the shrine, but you have to do me a favor." Suika said, striking a pose with a hand to her hip and the other outstretched at Touma in a stopping gesture.

"And what is this favor?" Touma asked anxiously; a foreboding sensation passed through his body.

"Drink from my gourd!" Suika declared, bringing out a purple gourd with charms decorating it like she said out of the jar and jabbing it towards Touma, indicating for him to take it.

"...Uhhhh, can't I do something else instead?" Touma suggested hesitantly, wanting to avoid the notion of drinking alcohol. He was a person raised in Japanese society for crying out loud. And that one time doesn't count since he needed to make an apology.

"Are you rejecting an oni's promise!? Drinking sake in Gensokyo is customary for everybody! It's a representation of our new-born friendship!"

(So, she was an oni.)

That made him think back to what he learned about oni. They were either vicious brutes that brutalized and kidnapped humans into their caves to feast on their flesh, or they were rarely virtuous beings that took pride in their strength. Suika so far fell to the latter category.

"And where I'm from its frowned upon for people my age to start drinking." Touma rejected her deal seriously.

"Geez! The Outside World has turned into being so boring! The party's moving and you need to join with the spirit! Otherwise, I ain't takin you there!" Suika complained and threw down her ultimatum.

It was the final moment for him to make his decision. And he needed an experienced person to guide him in Gensokyo, a land where he is unprotected by its laws or possess any power.

He ultimately had to weigh two options. Go with Rinnosuke and die together or go with Suika and die alone.

"...You know what? I don't have the energy right now to argue. Here, pass it forward." Touma conceded, gesturing for her to give him the gourd.

Perking up in reply, Suika handed it to him gladly.

Grabbing it out of her hand he uncapped it and peeked inside to inspect the contents. Not done with that, he removed it from his eye and held it to nose to find anything suspicious mixed inside it. His actions provoked Suika into a fit.

"You dare doubt an oni's sake!? We're not the dishonest folks and break promises!" Suika glowered, feeling very offended by Touma's insensitivity.

"Sigh... yes, yes, I hear you. Then here I go. Wish me luck." Feeling the heat from her glare, Touma hurried up and moved the gourd above his mouth, tilting it slowly down.

Consequences will be damned.

God help us all.

[1]: Koishi's name can be written as "little rock." It might be a connection to her ability to make her presence unnoticeable.

A/N: Be honest, how many of you really thought he was going to have a good night's sleep on his first night in Gensokyo?