On one seemingly normal and peaceful day in the Human Village, the peace for at least one person was about to end. Because lurking in the dark corners of the village was a karakasa obake ready to pounce on her unsuspecting victim.
Granted, there were a few disadvantages that the youkai faced. For one, it was the middle of a bright sunny day, so the corner she was hiding in wasn't very dark at all. Another being that the vibrant purple umbrella she carried was fairly difficult to hide, even if it was essential to her identity.
However, Tatara Kogasa didn't let that discourage her. She tensed up from behind the corner of the building where she was hiding, and heard the footsteps of her would-be victim approach. Soon after, she sensed them from right around the corner, and waited for a moment.
And when that moment finally came, she pounced. "Surpri- …Aaah?!"
Unfortunately for Kogasa, her sandals got caught on an uneven patch of dirt near her feet, causing her to trip and fall. The only saving grace from her tumble to the floor was that she landed on her face rather than her umbrella. Landing on her umbrella would have hurt less, but would have been more disgraceful to her.
"Ow…" Kogasa turned her head to see the human that had thankfully stopped in their tracks right before stepping on her head. It was a farmer who was on her way towards her crop field. Unfortunately they didn't look very surprised, and more just some combination of concerned and annoyed. At this stage, Kogasa just offered a weak smile. "Um… Good morning."
The farmer simply offered a half-hearted greeting in return, before stepping around Kogasa and proceeding with their business.
That was in fact, the usual response Kogasa had been receiving from the villagers lately, probably because she kept trying to surprise them while they were in the middle of their daily routine. Kogasa had hoped that abruptly appearing in front of the humans while they were working would mean they would be more likely to be caught off-guard, but the actual result was that she was now starting to feel bad for bothering them while they were busy.
Slowly, Kogasa let out a very long sigh before she picked herself off the ground and dusted herself off.
"I wonder if everybody in the village is too used to me…" Kogasa sulked as she walked down the streets. It occurred to her that it had been some time since she last successfully surprised anybody, and wondered if yet another change in approach was needed..
When her results in the Human Village became particularly pitiful in the past, she would usually change it up by frequenting other locations such as cemeteries or the like. However, after several recent unsuccessful stints in those very cemeteries, it felt far too soon to just give up and try somewhere else again.
"I guess today I'll have to go to a restaurant to fill my stomach. How much do I still have…?"
Even before Kogasa started mentally calculating how much funds she had left, she knew it probably wasn't looking great. She hadn't gotten a lot of jobs lately, for either her smithing or her babysitting services. It didn't help that one of the recent smithing commissions completely flaked on paying her, and her last sitting job had her deciding not to take payment from the single parent who hired her, since it looked like they were in a tough spot.
"I'll have to settle for miso soup today. Just like yesterday. And the day before…" Kogasa whined, daring to imagine the taste of some expensive beef or eel on either of her tongues. Fortunately, she had enough self-control to know that she needed to be smart with her resources. An independent tool such as herself wouldn't have survived this long otherwise.
One example of how she saved on money is how she got her news. Kogasa passed by one of the bookstores along the district. They often threw out their trash around this time of the day, and they stacked their newspapers among them for recycling. Kogasa picked out one of the newspapers as she passed by, happy to help recycle the paper by perusing it herself.
"Let's see. Anything spooky happenings…?" Kogasa flipped through the pages as she walked down the street. It was important to stay current on the trends, after all. If there was some news about any rising fears or concerns that people were facing, that was always potential for something to incorporate into her scaring techniques. "...Huh?"
What she found in the newspaper however, had nothing to do with scares, but something far more interesting to an abandoned umbrella.
On ○ the ○th, fishermen cited a strange phenomenon. Many objects ranging from mundane gardening items such as spades and hoes, to weapons such as swords and arrowheads, are mysteriously appearing along the river shores. After a thorough examination, these objects appear to date back possibly up to at least five centuries ago. The leading theory among experts currently is that the tools drifted into the river path all the way from Muenzuka, which would imply they originated from outside of Gensokyo. Thus, this phenomenon should not be taken as any sort of omen. In the next column, the experts on river geology elaborate on their findings about-
Kogasa read through the article a few times to make sure she properly digested the details. Old, ancient tools from the Outside World have drifted into Gensokyo. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw the single photo in the article. It showed a few antique, decrepit-looking items lying pitifully on a shore. Abandoned, covered in sand, and having gone unused for possibly hundreds upon hundreds of years.
It made Kogasa's heart ache. "These poor tools! They look like they've been forgotten for so long…"
She closed the newspaper, gripping it tightly. Any and all plans she might have had for the day would have to be put aside. As an umbrella who was once thrown away and abandoned, Kogasa couldn't stand to do nothing about this.
"Abandoned tools have to look out for each other! I have to do something…!" With a fiery resolve, Kogasa rushed towards the closest exit in the village.
The forest paths surrounding Misty Lake were typically quiet, save for the plentiful sounds of nature, whether it be from the wildlife prancing about, or the youkai lurking about. On this particular morning, however, there was one more distinct sound resonating through the area. A drumbeat, coming from a drummer who easily stood out among the scenery.
In a secluded spot under a nice bit of shade, a stylishly-dressed figure had chosen this location to practise with her instruments. With a drumstick in each hand, she sat on top of a large bass drum that floated some centimetres off the ground, and surrounding her were a ring of magically-constructed drum pads. With all these tools at her disposal, she filled the forest with an energetic beat.
Although she was content with playing humbly to herself, it hadn't taken long at all for a group of assorted youkai and fairies to gather towards the sound of the drumming. They were simply drawn in by curiosity at first, but found themselves sticking around, especially when they recognised the striking figure as Horikawa Raiko, the tsukumogami percussionist.
What had started out as a small practice session for Raiko had now turned into an improvised solo performance for an enraptured audience, not that she minded at all. Raiko hadn't done anything to acknowledge the audience gathered before her beyond the occasional glance in their direction, but she made sure to pick up the pace of her playing to make things more interesting for everyone.
Raiko didn't even need to really look at her audience to know they were following her rhythm. Their bodies tensed with each change in tempo, a drumroll stopped their breaths in anticipation, and their hearts jumped at the peak of a crescendo.
As fun as it was to have them playing to her beat, the performance needed to come to an end at some point. With an improvised finish, she hit the last note. Her hands stopped in the air and she looked up to her audience with a satisfied smile. Naturally, they all immediately started clapping and cheering.
"Ahaha. Thank you all for indulging me." Raiko dropped down to her feet on the grass, and tucked her drumsticks into the side of her belt. "I wasn't expecting such a lively audience here of all places."
One of the youkai gathered, a fox with a cheeky expression, spoke up among the crowd with a sardonic tone. "That's totally a lie, isn't it? You probably have people following you everywhere you go."
"Hm? You know, that might be true!" Raiko laughed as she bent forward towards the shooter fox, whose expression turned to confusion. That expression then turned wide-eyed when Raiko lifted up her chin with one hand. "I feel really lucky, knowing there are such pretty faces watching me at all times."
"A-a-awahah…!" The fox tried to stammer out some kind of response to that, but didn't quite manage. Instead, any words were just reduced to a stream of giggles.
The rest of the small crowd didn't keep quiet at that, with several others now shouting out.
"Ah, me too! Me too!" "What about my face!?" "Look over here, Miss Horikawa…!"
"Oh my, please don't crowd around me too much." Raiko said with a bright smile, barely hiding that she was enjoying herself. "If any of you are interested in listening to more of my playing though, there's an upcoming concert you can look forward to!"
It was a perfect chance to promote herself, since Raiko's trip to the lake today wasn't solely for a change of scenery. The famous, fantastical percussionist had been on an impromptu tour by herself throughout Gensokyo, not just to stretch her legs and catch up with people, but also to hype up the next concert she was to take part in.
"Ah, excuse me!" An excited fairy asked. "But who's your favourite band to play with?"
Before Raiko could give her answer, the gathered fans started quickly discussing the matter among themselves anyway.
"Obviously it's the Prismrivers! She's practically their fourth sister!"
"That's only in a professional sense. It's gotta be the Tsukumo sisters! They're fellow tsukumogami, and they're all part of her movement, right?"
"I bet it's Choujuu Gigaku, right? Miss Raiko's always looking out for the underdogs!"
Once they've all calmed down enough for her to get a word in, Raiko just shook her head. "It wouldn't be polite of me to pick favourites. The most important thing is that thanks to everyone I've played with, my beat has been spreading all through Gensokyo. I wouldn't be able to do it without their support, or without the support of a lovely audience."
Indeed, not only did she earnestly love playing for a crowd whenever she had the chance, her performances were also in service to spreading her music and her cause far and wide through the land, raising awareness of the power and passion of tools everywhere.
Slowly but eventually, the small crowd disperses, and Raiko is packing up her bass drum to get ready to leave for someplace else.
"...Miss Raiko!" She paused when she suddenly heard someone calling for her. Raiko briefly thought it was some of the youkai from earlier who decided to linger around, but when she turned around, she realised it was a tsukumogami instead.
"Oh!" Raiko recognised the small tsukumogami, born from a thrown away crown. "Did you come out here looking for me?"
"Yes! There's some stuff we heard from the tanuki, and we thought you'd want to know about it!"
This tsukumogami was part of a loose organisation of sorts, a news network of tools as one might call it. Minor tsukumogami who lingered around the Human Village made an effort to keep connected with each other and some other youkai, mostly tanuki due to their high compatibility, and Raiko in particular was seen as an important figure among their kind despite how relatively recent she came into being.
Thus, the network collectively believed it to be best for Raiko to learn about the recent strange news. Said news, as she relayed to Raiko, apparently concerned a case of very old, possibly ancient tools washing up on river shores, possibly originating from the Outside World.
"I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this!" Raikolistened with rapt attention, and now mentally chastised herself for not paying more attention to the news. After all, this was a shocking development, greatly relevant to a tsukumogami like herself.
Raiko thanked the messenger, who went on her way. Then, she quickly unpacked her bass again, using her power to make it float once more before sitting on top of it. This was no longer a time for easygoing strolling, but rather one that called for her to take to the skies.
"Sounds like I'm the perfect tool for this job." Having quickly gotten over her surprise, Raiko now proceeded with electrifying confidence as she rose to the clouds. "Those other tools could surely use my guidance!"
Raiko took off in the direction she was informed of. She glided swiftly through the air, her excitement rising at the thought of finding new companions for which to join her cause. If everything went well, she'd be that much closer to making a paradise for tools.
Within the large expanse that made up the interior of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the faculty, consisting mostly of fairy maids, were scurrying all about to fulfil their duties after most of them had pushed their chores off to the last minute.
However, even at their most hardworking, the fairy maids had a tendency to make a lot of mistakes. Windows that were to be wiped were left with dirty spots all over, laundry meant to be put away had dropped along the stairway, and the vases were still in need of dusting. But at least one fairy was aiming to handle the vases. With a feather duster in hand, she floated up towards the nearest, antique vase sitting on top of a stand, and did her best to clean it.
Unfortunately, one particularly clumsy motion caused her to instead knock the vase over with the feather duster. She had just enough time to gasp and freeze in panic as the vase went flying and towards the floor, and she shut her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable…
However, there was no sound of a crash. The fairy opened her eyes and realised the vase never hit the ground. In the mere second when the fairy wasn't looking, someone else now stood before her, holding the vase in her hand. The fairy gasped in recognition, and a rush of relief, nervousness, and awe swept through her all at once.
It was the mansion's one and only, perfect and elegant maid, Izayoi Sakuya, who looked down at the fairy maid with a sharp, lukewarm expression. "Cleaning requires a much more elegant touch than that. Feel free to watch me if you need a demonstration."
The fairy maid bowed her head several times while stammering out flustered apologies, though Sakuya had already moved past her to reposition the vase. She paid no mind to the embarrassed fairy before turning her gaze to the halls before her.
"Now, next for today should be…" Sakuya muttered to herself as she took a second to go over her duties for the day. "...Alright."
The fairy maid lifted her head, wondering what Sakuya was talking about. In the time it took her to blink, however, Sakuya vanished.
Moving with a speed only she was capable of, through space only she controlled, and with time following her whim, Sakuya went to work. She moved through the mansion like a streak of lightning, and everywhere she passed became cleaner. All the vases and paintings were dusted, the windows were made spotless, and the stray laundry picked up.
The fairy maid had made a sincere attempt to follow the 'demonstration' with her eyes, but it only resulted in her feeling dizzy. There was simply no matching the pace of the mansion's head maid.
Afterwards, Sakuya smiled to herself and dusted her hands, enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done for a moment. Only a moment, however, as she wasted no time before proceeding to her next order of business.
After a brief detour to the kitchen, Sakuya headed towards the mansion's library while holding a tray in her hands, and let herself in. The bookshelves within stretched on for unknown lengths, and the organisation of the countless books done in unknowingly esoteric methods. Sakuya was fortunately just as familiar with the place as the librarian who resided inside, and navigated around the bookshelves.
It didn't take long before she found the study located near the centre of the library. At a table was the librarian who governed this space, and sitting across from her was the mistress who owned the mansion as a whole.
"Mistress. Lady Patchouli." Sakuya greeted as she approached with the tray. "I've brought scones and tea for you both."
"Oh, you're just in time, Sakuya." Remilia, the maid's vampire mistress, beckoned her over. "Pache looks like she's about to dry out, and I would never have been able to convince her to follow me to the kitchen for a snack."
"Thank you for the tea, Sakuya. Also don't listen to her." The librarian, Patchouli, did not look up from her work at the table as she spoke. "Remi's even more invested in this as I am."
After moving closer, Sakuya set the tray down, and only then noticed that in the middle of the table was a crystal ball. "So you've both been gazing into this sphere all day? I'm not sure I see the fun in it."
"Scrying is a delicate art of magic." Patchouli explained, while hovering her hands over the crystal ball. "When all the elements in the air are perfectly aligned, I have the opportunity to experiment with how far I can expand the reach of my mystic vision."
"And it's fun to see what's going on across Gensokyo this way." Remilia said. "If the 'elements' or whatever really line up, Pache could even peek right into people's bedrooms! Can you believe this scamp of a magician?"
"How uncouth!" Sakuya exclaimed with a dramatic gasp. "You should know better, Lady Patchouli."
"You don't have to go along with everything she says." Patchouli flatly replied. "Anyway, both of you stop messing with me. I've almost adjusted this so I can see all of the nearby forest-"
"Wait, Lady Patchouli." Sakuya suddenly interjected, her eyes having caught something within the moving images inside of the crystal ball. "What was that just now? At those rivers?"
"Huh? Well, hold on…" Patchouli waved her hands so that the image within the ball settled back onto the shores of the rivers. "Is this what you wanted to see?"
"Yes." Sakuya nodded. "What are all those odd-looking things washing up on the shore?"
"Oh, we both saw that earlier when Pache first started scoping around the lands. Just some trash from the outside drifting in." Remilia said. "You know how this occurs a lot in Gensokyo, after all. Honestly, if someone tried to treat my fiefdom like a landfill, I wouldn't stand for it."
"But Mistress, those don't look like trash to me." Sakuya said, clearly fascinated by what she was seeing. "They look like valuable antiques, exactly like the kind of treasures that would sit nicely among our mansion's decorations. Don't either of you think so?"
"I don't really care?" Patchouli answered first. Frankly, she was more interested in moving past this topic so she could get back to trying to expand the scale of her scrying. "Remi probably only cares for shiny, new-looking things, right?"
"...Huh? Do you really think I'm so simpleminded?" As for Remilia, she made sure her nobility carried in her tone as a conceited grin cracked across her features. "You clearly just don't have an eye for value like Sakuya and I."
"I knew you'd think so as well, Mistress." Sakuya happily said. "Those rustic swords and blades look especially cute, don't they?"
"Cute…?" Confusion coloured Remilia's face for all of a second, before she quickly tossed it aside and resumed her noble demeanour. "...Well, I think they're all quite interesting, certainly! They'd make for a good display among our treasures."
A satisfied giggle escaped Sakuya, and she clasped her hands together. "In that case, shall I go retrieve them for our mansion? I can already see a nice spot in the halls for them."
"Hey, stop for a moment." Patchouli chimed in before Remilia could answer. "Remi, you don't have to go along with everything she says either. You don't actually care about some random old junk from the outside, do you?"
"Why wouldn't I care?" Remilia shrugged. "It's only natural that sophisticated nobility such as myself would be interested in historical craft such as this."
"You were calling it trash just a minute ago."
"...I was testing you both to see if you'd see the value hidden in front of you. Sakuya passed, and you failed."
Patchouli just frowned, but didn't care enough to grouch about it more. The magician has long since known that between Remilia and Sakuya, both of them liked to come up with new, pointless ideas of how to flaunt their collective status to the rest of Gensokyo, and they always had a very easy time roping the other into the same train of thought. Today, it happened to be Sakuya who came up with the idea, and Remilia who went along with it.
"Sakuya." Remilia said. "You may go and retrieve as much as you see fit for our mansion. I trust your eye for value and aesthetics."
"It shall be done, Mistress." Sakuya asserted. "And Lady Patchouli, I'll be sure to find something to help make the library less drab."
"It's the perfect amount of drab for me already, thank you." Patchouli said. "But Sakuya, we don't actually know for sure if there are any more of those 'cute' items appearing. The locals of Gensokyo might have already picked up everything there is. You might just be wasting your time."
"Thank you, but you don't have to worry." Sakuya regarded the both of them with an assured smile and a wink. "I am a perfect maid, after all, and you can always count on me to get any job done."