The next morning, the excavation of the site was still progressing smoothly. The haniwa moved all over the place and worked with unmatched fervour, and without rest. Their swift progress was mostly owed to Mayumi commanding them with expert coordination, who always knew the most efficient method to assign and distribute labour among the other haniwa at any given time.

"Alright, settle the sand over there. And you over there, go that way." Mayumi ordered, and the haniwa efficiently followed suit. "Now, move those over- …Huh? What's that sound?"

In the midst of giving orders, Mayumi started to hear something break up the sounds of their working. All the other haniwa noticed too, as they all paused what they were doing. There was a distinct sound in the air of… string instruments, and it was only growing louder and more vibrant by the second.

Mayumi headed to where the sounds grew louder, and she soon spotted something beyond a declining hill. It looked like two people testing the sounds of their instruments consisting of a biwa and a koto. "More youkai?"

"Hm?" One of the musicians below looked up from her biwa, and towards Mayumi standing from atop a hill. Upon spotting the haniwa, her eyes lit up. "Oh! Look, Yatsuhashi, someone's already entranced by our sounds."

"Oh, you're right!" Yatsuhashi didn't waste any time waving over to Mayumi. "Hello there! We were just about to start our practice session."

"Practice session?" Mayumi stared curiously, and most of the other haniwa had followed out of curiosity as well, now gathered around her. "...Ah, wait! You shouldn't play here!"

"We shouldn't?"

"No. We're doing some very important excavating work nearby! Your playing would be distracting, and would probably disrupt our work."

"Whaaaat? That's no fun!" The koto player wasn't discouraged however, and floated up into the air to better address Mayumi and the assortment of haniwa, and strummed her koto. "We don't mind an audience, so you all should take a break from whatever you're doing, and enjoy a few melodies from the Tsukumo Sisters! You definitely won't regret it! I'm Yatsuhashi, by the way."

"Oh, my name is Mayumi- …Hey, wait!" Mayumi tried to remind herself this wasn't the time to be courteous. "The Haniwa Army Corps don't need to take breaks! We're-"

"And my name is Benben." The other of the two strummed her biwa as she spoke in a soothing voice, and hovered closer as well. "You don't look like you're from around these parts, but the language of our music is universal. Please take a listen, at least for a little while. It might just be a new experience for you all."

Without any further prompting, Benben and Yatsuhashi began playing a calming, yet engaging melody together, drowning out Mayumi's protest.

The haniwa that had gathered watched the two play with varying levels of intrigue, and several more from the site were coming over, curious about the music.

Mayumi's face didn't hide her mixed feelings on the matter, but seeing the pleasant mood surrounding her troops and the two youkai before her, it would have felt awkward to be too much of a grouch about the matter right then and there. "...I suppose we were just about done anyway, so we're not in an urgent rush. But only for a little while! Then you two really need to go elsewhere!"

The two performers only offered a half-hearted 'okay' in response to Mayumi's condition, and continued happily playing their concerted melody.

As their melody filled the air, occupying the attention of Mayumi and the other haniwa, that music was also the signal for others waiting elsewhere to make their move.

Floating in the sky above was Kogasa, using her umbrella to slow her descent. She looked down to see that there were no haniwa currently present around the tomb-like structure they had been digging up. It was also the first time she saw the structure from such a high angle, noting for the first time how truly large it was, and how the top appeared to be vaguely built in a keyhole-like shape.

"Coast is clear. Looks like part one of the plan worked!" With an excited grin, Kogasa descended to the ground right in front of the structure. As far as she could tell, it appeared to be completely unearthed at this point, which meant the haniwa were likely to take all the tools with them before the day ended. "And not a moment too soon!"

Once she was on the ground, Kogasa glanced left and right once more. She wasn't only looking one more time in case for any haniwa, but also for any sign of her allies. They had all agreed to approach this spot from different routes to reduce the chances of being spotted. Yet, she appeared to be by herself. …At least, until the very next second.

"Looking for someone?" Sakuya's voice suddenly sounded from Kogasa's left side, causing the latter to jump.

"Eep!" After Kogasa managed to keep herself from stumbling over, she pouted at Sakuya. "Yes, I was looking for you! I wish you wouldn't sneak up on me, like that…"

"Really?" Sakuya was staring unnecessarily close, with a sly smile. "But don't you think more experience being snuck up on will help you learn to surprise others better?"

"Eh? Would it?" Instantly, Kogasa's pout disappeared as she fell into serious contemplation. "I don't know, maybe? I mean, I'm always looking for inspiration from all around me. I guess I'm not opposed to-"

"Well, I was just kidding, anyway." Sakuya suddenly interrupted in an aloof tone, before she turned around and shrugged her arms. "There's no way a mere karakasa obake could move as stealthily as a maid like myself."

"Eh?! You were just messing with me?!" Kogasa whined. "That's so rude! I honestly thought I could get some pointers for surprising people…"

"I'm not so sure about that, but if you're ever earnestly looking for tips on how to be a maid, I might be able to provide."

"Would an umbrella who's a maid be more surprising than one's who isn't?" Kogasa appeared to think deeply about the matter for a second or so, before quickly shaking her head. "No, wait, nevermind all that! I just remembered, there was something I wanted to give you, Miss Sakuya! Do you remember when we talked about your knives yesterday?"

"Hm? I do, yes." Sakuya nodded. When they finished discussing their plans the previous day, Kogasa had asked for Sakuya's broken knives, feeling sympathy as fellow tools. Since they were unusable, Sakuya didn't think much of letting Kogasa have them, and assumed she intended to give them last rites or something. "Did you end up burying them somewhere?"

"Oh, not at all! They were in bad shape, but not quite unsalvageable! So I went and fixed them up as best I could!" Kogasa cheerfully said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small article wrapped in cloth. "It was a bit of a rush job, since I knew you'd need them the next day."

"You did? That's very generous of you." Sakuya took the article into her hand. "It wasn't necessary though. I already went and retrieved a spare set of knives."

"I'm sure you could have managed without, but… I wanted to do it!" Kogasa said, a somewhat bashful smile on her face. "I could tell that these tools have a long history with you, and that they're important to you too. Owners as trustworthy as you are rare, so I wanted to give them a chance to help you today!"

"Well, thank you very much. Having even more on my person can never hurt-"

Sakuya had started to say as she unwrapped the cloth, but she went quiet when she saw the repaired knives within. She silently gasped, her face flustered with an inscrutable mix of emotions.

When she spoke again, her voice was just the slightest bit tense. "...It was Kogasa, right?"

"Y-yes?" Kogasa ignored how unlikely she thought that Sakuya was still unsure of her name, and instead was lingering on the maid's odd reaction. "Is something wrong…?"

Sakuya pulled out a single knife, holding it by the handle with her right hand as she waved it slowly in the air in front of her. "You said you repaired all of these in one night?"

"Yeah, I did. …Do you like how they came out?" Kogasa tentatively asked.

"Do I like it? This is incredible ." Sakuya said, as if in disbelief. "The blade is polished to a sheen, and sharper than it's ever been. The edge's angle is aligned in just the right way to enhance cutting or skewering motion, without making the face of the blade uneven. The spine has just enough width to keep it aerodynamic too."

"Ah, so you do like it! I'm happy to hear-"

"And the handles!" As she kept speaking, Sakuya made swift motions with her right hand to repeatedly adjust the way she held the knife. "It's been extended ever so slightly, with a more ergonomic shape. There's an added heft to the holster, so it's sturdier than before. I can also feel more weight on the butt, giving more balance if I use it up close."

Suddenly, Sakuya unfolded all of the cloth with one strong motion, tossing all the knives inside into the air. Kogasa almost shouted in surprise, before Sakuya made several quick swipes with her free hand, and caught all the knives mid-air between her fingers.

With an expression of deep thought, Sakuya tested their weight with various poses, while her right hand simultaneously twirled the single knife idly.

"W-wow. You're like a juggler…!" Kogasa couldn't help but stare with her mouth open.

A moment later, a satisfied smile appeared on Sakuya's face, and she glanced over to Kogasa with her raised fistful of knives. "Kogasa, you did-"

"Eek!" Kogasa suddenly shrieked and shielded her face with her arms. After a second or so of Sakuya staring at her in confusion, an embarrassed Kogasa lowered her arms. "S-Sorry for the sudden reflex. Bad experience once. You were saying?"

"You did a wonderful job." Sakuya continued without missing a beat. "The quality of these knives is truly professional, any maid would be proud to wield them. "

"I'm really happy to hear that! Coming from you, I know that's saying a lot."

"It is." Sakuya put away the knives, and gave an appreciative smile. "I can't claim to understand the feelings of tools like you or Raiko do, but I can confidently say that my knives are as grateful to you as I am."

When Sakuya's smile grew even brighter, Kogasa was sure it was the most pleased she had ever seen the maid. It was quite disarming, and Kogasa even found it difficult to maintain eye contact. "Um, haha… I-I'm really happy you feel that way! You can always come to me if you need any smithing services, whether it's for knives or something else. This time it was on the house, but I'll have to charge you for any future jobs!"

"Oh? Can't I get a discount, in exchange for giving you the experience of being surprised? That should be just as useful for your livelihood as money, shouldn't it?"

"...I thought you said you were kidding about that."

"I was kidding about kidding."

"Okay…" The smile that Kogasa now saw on Sakuya's face was looking less radiant, and more just irritatingly cheeky. Against all odds though, Kogasa found herself returning that smile. "I'll tell you what my fees are if you ever come to me with a job."

"Fair enough." Sakuya put away her new knives, and turned back towards their current goal.

The two of them stepped closer to the structure, moving down the steep declines that the haniwa had dug up, which led to an entrance.

At that moment, their remaining ally arrived, descending from the sky from atop her bass drum and announcing herself to them.

"Looks like we're all here to start some excavating of our own." Raiko hopped to her feet in front of the others. "Are you both ready?"

"We wouldn't be here otherwise." Sakuya said. "Is your plan ready, though? Also I still want to say we could have come up with a more elegant solution."

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't ready, and it's better to approach this with a bang!" Raiko wore a confident smile as she pushed herself off her bass and onto her feet. "I've never been more glad to have so many reliable connections I can call on in a pinch."

Raiko and the others knew there was not a lot of time before the haniwa finished their work, and so simply infiltrating the tomb didn't seem productive, since they had no idea how many tools were stored inside, or how long it would take to retrieve them.

Indeed, a plan had to be put together in a hurry, relying on whoever would be easy to reach and called upon on extremely short notice. Fortunately, Raiko had plenty of tsukumogami allies who shared her passion, and were more than willing to lend a hand if it meant apparently saving their ilk from destruction.

Other than the Tsukumo sisters, who were there to provide a distraction so that the three of them could approach, Raiko had also called upon several smaller tsukumogami to wait down the river stream leading down from the high hill the tomb was built on.

The current plan was to go inside the structure, find the patched hole that the tools inside were originally drifting out of, and to blow it wide open, possibly even flooding the inside. Then Raiko's allies, who were waiting near the river stream with fishing nets in hand, would pick up the tools along the stream before they were washed out to further parts of Gensokyo.

"I think we arrived just on time too." Kogasa said. "It looks like they've completely unearthed this place already. I'm surprised they haven't started bringing out everything inside."

"Then let's not waste any more time and head inside." Sakuya asserted, and everyone agreed as they started moving towards the closest opening. Raiko and Sakuya taking a comparable pace at the front with Kogasa slightly behind alongside Raiko's bass floating along.

"You know, Miss Raiko," As they began to head into the structure and into a hallway with stone on all sides, Kogasa spoke up again. "I was surprised you didn't decide to be part of the distraction too. Since you're a musician and all, and good at getting people's attention."

"I think they got enough of me yesterday, and I trust those Tsukumo sisters to keep an audience engaged." Raiko said, then glanced towards Sakuya. "Not to mention, I have to make sure Miss Maid doesn't take the chance to snatch up all my potential new companions for herself."

"Shame, I thought you would have warmed up to the idea by now." Sakuya shrugged. "If these ancient antiques are so badly looking for a purpose like you claim, then they'll find no greater honour than being displayed and cared for within our wonderful mansion."

"I don't doubt that you'd treat them right, actually. Owners as caring for their tools as you are a rare commodity. …But this many tools in one place that are all on the cusp of becoming tsukumogami? I can't pass up the chance to lend them a hand, and it'll be a massive boon for our goal towards a paradise for tools."

"Yes, yes, you talk about that noble cause plenty. But there is no nobler cause than serving under my mistress."

"Hey, you two…" Kogasa tentatively chimed in.

Truth be told, Kogasa also wanted to interject about how, if possible, she'd like if the tools themselves could be given a chance to decide what they want to do. …But she had a feeling her point would get quickly swallowed up by the combined intensity of the other two.

"You're not going to start fighting right here and now, right? We're on an important mission!"

"Of course we're not." Raiko said. "But it does sound like we're going to have to settle this between the two of us later, huh?"

"Indeed. I very much intend to take everything I can from within this place and give it new life in our Scarlet Devil Mansion." Sakuya glanced towards Raiko out of the corner of her eye, wearing a cool smile. "But I wouldn't be opposed to also claiming a flashy drum at the same time. With a few alterations, you might fit in nicely next to our piano in the music room?"

"That's a good joke!" Raiko returned with a sly smile of her own . "I think living in a house of devils has made you too complacent as a human. It might do you good if I personally and thoroughly teach you how to be in fear and awe of thunderstorms again?"

" ...I can't tell if they're getting along or not. "

Kogasa wondered to herself, and was a little afraid to ask aloud. For now, she was content with just watching Raiko and Sakuya trade what she assumed were friendly barbs. That is, until she suddenly remembered something.

"...Wait, I just realised something. None of us saw that sculptor god outside, did we?"

"I didn't see her today, no." Sakuya said.

"Neither did I, and she'd be pretty hard to miss." Raiko added.

"What if she's in here then?" Kogasa asked, suddenly trying to keep her voice down. "We might run right into her!"

"Well, with all those strange haniwa occupied outside, I don't think it'll be a problem." Raiko was comparatively less concerned. "Between the three of us, she shouldn't be a problem!"

"If we do run into her…" All of a sudden, Sakuya had a single knife in her hand that she made a few swiping motions with in the air. "...I've got some new knives courtesy of a professional, that I'm twitching to put to work!"

"Oh, well, okay…" Kogasa was certainly still flattered, but also just the slightest bit worried that knife was going to start swinging in the wrong direction.

They moved further down the stone halls. Raiko had thought at first to provide a light source, but it turned out to be unnecessary. Though visibility had initially gotten dimmer, the area soon became bright again as they all entered into a large, tall open space, with rays of sunlight seeping in from many cracks and cavities above.

Everything they might have expected to see was there, as the space was absolutely filled with all sorts of ancient objects. Mirrors, bells, spades, saddles, various bronzeware lined the floors, different textiles lined the floors, and many more.

"Wow…" Kogasa's gaze couldn't fix on any one thing. For every single object she laid her eyes on, she felt like the weight of their history was going to burst out of their shells. She theorised that the only reason they hadn't become tsukumogami much sooner was because being sealed away down here must have dampened the growth of their inner spirits. Yet those spirits still remained all this time, and Kogasa felt a lump in her throat. " Each and every one of these… They've all been waiting so long! "

"Amazing…" Raiko walked towards the middle of the large space, spinning around as she tried to take in everything there was to see. She too could sense the faint spirits of the unused tools, their lingering current wishing to burst forth, but unable to in their current state, but Raiko also wondered if perhaps that was for the best. " Poor things would probably be so confused if they woke up down here. It's a good thing I've arrived to bring them salvation, then. "

"Hm…" Sakuya meanwhile, walked slowly beside the walls while surveying all the items she passed by, not unlike browsing a store. She was already picturing what she could do in order to restore these items to a more displayable state, and pondering just the right spots back home that she'd put them in. " My design sense will certainly be tested with all these eclectic shapes! But I'm sure I can make anything here into a beautiful addition for our mansion. "

Kogasa managed to keep herself from tearing up, and instead chose to think about how fortunate it was that they had arrived to rescue these tools in time. She passed by a tall vase, it too held a budding spirit like all the others. Perhaps it was projection on Kogasa's part, but she really felt the vase was just aching to be useful to others. She smiled softly at the vase and inserted her closed umbrella into it, giving it brief validation as an umbrella stand.

After that, Kogasa turned around towards the others. "So, what's next?"

"Right, now we find the part of this place that connects to the stream outside." Raiko said, as she beckoned her bass drum towards herself, and sat on top of it. "Then you can leave it to me to blow it wide open!"

"Don't forget that anything that looks like it can't withstand water will have to be taken by hand." Sakuya said, pulling down a worn, looking textile from the nearby wall. "Thankfully, there doesn't appear to be a lot of those."

"I wish we could take a gentler approach, but I guess we're pressed for time…" Kogasa mused aloud, as she reached for her umbrella again, ready to move on deeper into the tomb.

However, despite pulling on the handle, she couldn't pull the umbrella out of the vase.

"Eh?" She gripped the handle with both hands and started tugging, but it refused to budge. Or rather, it was more like the vase refused to let go. "Grr! Hey, I think I'm stuck?!"

"Kogasa, did you really go and shove your umbrella somewhere it can't fit?" Raiko asked, unable to help a chuckle at the other's expense. "That's so silly…"

"I didn't force it in or anything!" Kogasa stopped tugging and peered closer at the vase, but unable to spot any obvious reason why her umbrella was stuck. "That's odd…"

While focused on the vase, Kogasa failed to notice the bronze bell with a short chain attached. The bell slid across the ground, closer to Kogasa. She only became aware of its presence when she felt the chain looped around her ankle, and tugged on her hard.

"Aaah-?!" Kogasa fell onto her back after being tripped by the bell. After wincing in pain for a second, she opened her eyes wide with shock.

Several mirrors, jars, and other assorted bronzeware were now all floating in the air, and coming directly for her.

"What the...?!" There was no time for Kogasa to do anything other than raise her hands uselessly in front of her, before being dogpiled by the suddenly animate objects.

"Kogasa?!" Raiko cried out. She hovered towards Kogasa to try and help… but quickly drew back to avoid a shovel that tried to fling itself at her head. "Woah! What's going on?!"

"I'll help her!" Sakuya tossed the textile in her hand asides and intended to run over to where Kogasa was.

Unfortunately, she only made it on step when her foot suddenly fell right inside a bronze pot that she was certain was not situated there a second earlier.

"Gah!" Sakuya stumbled for a moment as she hopped on her other foot. She quickly realised the pot, which was somehow now latching onto her foot, was actively trying to throw her off balance. "Irritating little…!"

Her arm reached for a knife, but she then noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The textile she had tossed aside earlier was now slithering across the ground like a snake, and it quickly leapt up at her. Precariously balanced as she was, there wasn't much she could do to stop the old, shockingly sturdy cloth, from wrapping around her torso and trapping her arms.

"What kind of trick- Ow!" Sakuya fell over to her side as she was finally tipped over. From the ground, she saw many more moving objects inching closer towards her. It was enough to even make her gulp. "Some kind of ancient curse?!"

"No, it's the tools! They've come alive! They must be acting out…!" Raiko was certain this wasn't the work of poltergeists, so the only other explanation that she could think of was that they've all awakened as tsukumogami.

Thus, she floated higher into the air and summoned her drum pads all around her, pulling out her drumsticks as well.

"I'll get them to stop! My beat as a fellow tool will reach their hearts and calm them down!"

"W-Wait, Miss Raiko!" Kogasa tried to call out from below, desperately reaching out towards Raiko. However, her voice was drowned out by both the pile of tools on her, and by Raiko's playing. She kept trying to yell out even when they buried her to the point that everything was dark. "These aren't-"

The beat Raiko played had started at full force, it was an aggressive and steadfast rhythm using both arms and legs that meant to convey her feelings directly to the tools, and to convince them to follow their rhythm.

Unfortunately, her beat fell on deaf ears, as the animated objects showed no signs of even registering her playing. "They're not listening? Or rather, it's like they don't care to listen…?"

Raiko considered upping her tempo, but she didn't have the chance before an assortment of spearheads came soaring towards her from behind, aiming directly for her back. She heard them coming only at the last second, and moved to dodge. While her body avoided the sharp objects, they unfortunately landed squarely on the face of her bass drum, puncturing the membrane.

"No…!" With her bass badly damaged, Raiko was unable to keep it afloat at that critical moment. Both she and the ruined drum fell gracelessly onto the floor below with a painful thud. From the ground, Raiko raised her head, just to see herself surrounded by the very tools she had come here to save. "W-Why? Why couldn't my beat reach your hearts…?"

"Well, obviously." A familiar voice had answered. It came from up above, and Raiko only needed to glance upwards to see the sculptor god, Keiki, looking down with a pleased smile. "Their hearts are loyal only to me."

"What…?" A puzzled Raiko started to ask, but wasn't given much time to ponder before the ominous objects all converged on her.

"Lady Keiki! Are you alright?!" Mayumi called out as she entered the tomb's large open space, alongside the rest of her squad of haniwa. "I'm so sorry! To think intruders would let themselves in on my watch…"

"It's fine, Mayumi. Didn't the messenger I sent said everything was taken care of already?" Keiki reassured, before gesturing over to the middle of the room.

"Waah…" Kogasa whined pitifully as she, Raiko and Sakuya all sat on the floor with their backs to each other. Every textile in the room had wrapped themselves around the three to keep them all tied up. The textile's collectively thick yet flexible bodies tightened and pulled whenever one of them so much as fidgeted.

To make matters worse, surrounding the three was a circle of living hoes, rakes, and other assorted dangerous-looking implements, all pointing their sharp parts threateningly at them.

Perhaps most worrying for Kogasa was that the rest of her, her purple umbrella, was still in the clutches of that vase in the corner. It was starting to feel clammy in there. "How did this happen…?"

"Bested by furniture, the very thing maids are meant to care for…" Sakuya muttered with a sullen expression. "...This might just be the greatest shame in my career."

"You think you have it bad- Ugh!" A frustrated Raiko grunted as she strained against her restraints, though a constriction from the textile and a pointed gesture from the nearby rake got her to settle down again. "...That was no doubt the worst show I ever put on just now."

"...Ah, wait, Miss Raiko! You- Ow!" Kogasa suddenly jerked, which made the textile wrap around her harder. She then looked over her shoulder towards Raiko. "A-Are you okay?! You were hurt really badly!"

"I was? …Oh, you mean that?" Raiko glanced over to the sorry state of her broken drum off to the side. "I get why you'd be worried, but it's okay. …Well, no, it's awful, but I'll be okay. My spirit isn't so closely tied to a single object, like most tsukumogami are.

"Really? I see… If my umbrella got holes like that punched into it, I don't want to think about what would happen."

"I'm relatively alright, but that bass was still really important to me…"

"Instead of playing them a rousing song," Sakuya said. "You might have been better off just bringing down a thunderstorm on them."

"I came here to save these tools, not destroy them!" Raiko turned her attention back to the tools surrounding them. "But I still don't understand… I can tell these aren't phantoms at work, but how are they moving?"

Now that she had a moment of clarity to observe up close, Raiko had also realised, just as Kogasa did earlier, that these weren't tsukumogami at all. These moving objects had some sort of spirit to them as well, but it was something very different, and it occurred to her then and there that it felt very similar to all the haniwa nearby…

"Surprised?" Keiki stepped towards them, feeling generous enough to offer an explanation for their confused faces. "I told you before that everything in this former burial mound, every treasure and every brick in its foundation, was built with the same design philosophy I use. They may be far more rudimentary compared to anything I would make today, but I only needed to make a few modifications so that my loyal followers could make use of them."

"Modifications? Make 'use' of?" Raiko asked, failing to understand. "What do you mean?"

"My Haniwa Army Corp. Their flawless clay bodies are designed by myself, and within them reside spirits that hail from the Animal Realm. As such, all I needed to do was apply a bit of my clay and runes in all the treasures here, and then the spirits were able to reside within them too, even if it be something as small as a cup!"

Keiki clapped her hands, and several bells and mirrors answered her call. They proceeded to fly around her like some kind of dance. Her three captives took another careful glance upon the living tools. They all noticed that every single one carried splotches and markings that appeared incongruent with their designs, probably because they were recently applied.

"How did you think we intended to move everything here? Naturally, the easiest way to transport all these goods is to have my followers reside within them, so that they then just need to move 'themselves' back to our own realm." After explaining, Keiki looked down at the defeated group and chuckled. "...Of course, the fact that this method also helped catch three foolish robbers who thought they could pull a fast one on me is a very nice bonus."

"To think the transport crew would show me up…" Mayumi sighed. "I clearly have a long way to go as head of the corps. …Speaking of, what shall you have us do with these robbers then?"

Raiko and Sakuya both frowned and were about to each have a snappy response to that. But Kogasa suddenly cried out first, her face heated as she lurched forward and addressed Keiki.

"Are you still serious about- Agh!" Kogasa winced, her restraints constricting her, but she continued. "...Are you still serious about breaking down all these tools for material?! You have the power to make them move like this, so you could easily fix them all up if you wanted to! If you're really a god, then can't you tell they're all aching to fulfil a purpose?! You…!"

Kogasa had more to say, but was stopped when her chin was harshly seized by Mayumi's iron grip, tilting her head so that her eyes would meet the idol's intense gaze as she spoke. "A lowly umbrella has no place speaking to our goddess like that. Keep it up if you want to end up as a one-eyed youkai."

Mayumi let go of Kogasa, still frowning. "... I'm already a one-eyed youkai, for your information."

"Oho, the residents of the Human Realm sure are an opinionated bunch." In contrast, Keiki's demeanour was downright cheerful as she moved closer and addressed Kogasa. "But when it comes to sculpting, only I know best how to make use of the resources at my disposal. Everything I've collected in this land will be fuel for my creativity… And that includes you three, by the way."

"...Huh?" Kogasa uttered, and similar sounds of confusion came from Raiko and Sakuya as well. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm saying all of you are coming with me back to the Primate Spirit Garden. Your unique forms have piqued my creative senses. Youkai born from a stylish drum and an off-coloured umbrella, and a rare human maid, all showing up right on my lap? That's too good to pass up."

"Off-coloured?!" Kogasa cried. "You don't have any other descriptors for me?!"

"Hah!" Raiko suddenly let out a derisive laugh. "People today keep thinking they can make me their personal drum set, do they? Sorry, I don't do exclusive contracts, even for gods."

"And I only have one mistress that I serve." Sakuya coldly remarked. "You'll have to consult her if you wish to borrow my services as a maid."

"And I, uh…!" Kogasa started, and immediately hesitated. "I'm helpful to people, sometimes. Just not lately because both business and the weather have been really dry, but…"

"You don't quite get it." Keiki said. "You all provide me with inspiration simply by being, and so in return, I shall give you all my greatest blessing once we're back in my workshop."

Keiki held her hands in front of her, framing her sight of Kogasa, Raiko, and Sakuya, and an enthusiastic grin cracked across her face. Her mind filled with visions of the designs she would soon sculpt.

"I'll destroy all your current bodies, whether it be made of wood, paper or flesh, until only your pure spirit remains. Then I shall remake you from scratch using only the highest quality material. Oh yes, you'll certainly become my finest works of art yet!"

All of them were taken aback by the grand proclamation, especially Kogasa who felt herself breaking into a cold sweat. They didn't get a chance to say anything in response before Keiki turned to her haniwa troops.

"Mayumi! Is everyone accounted for?"

"Yes, Lady Keiki! Everyone is present, and we're good to go."

"Then let's be on our way." Keiki raised her hands in the air and clapped twice. "Take off when you're ready!"

" Take off? " Kogasa mulled over what that could mean for all of a second, before she noticed it on the walls of the tomb.

On the walls and even parts of the ceiling, there were many large markings on them, the same as the 'runes' the sculptor god applied to the ancient tools to make them move. And those runes began to glow.

"No way…" Kogasa uttered, but her suspicions were confirmed when the entire structure, the walls, the ground beneath them, began to shake and rumble.

"Gosh, that didn't show had a bit of a bummer of an end, didn't it?" Yatsuhashi grumbled as she flew alongside her sister through the air.

"It was far from ideal, I agree." Benben nodded. "What do you think happened? I really thought those haniwa were enjoying our music."

"I thought so too! But when that weird flying bell appeared and landed on that Mayumi girl's shoulder, she totally freaked out!" Yatsuhashi started pouting again, just thinking about it. "We had a good rhythm going, but then she had all those haniwa chase us away. The nerve!"

"I wonder if that bell was a signal or something?" Benben said, with a thoughtful expression.

"No idea. I just hope we kept them occupied long enough for Raiko..."

The two kept a fairly high altitude until they saw the river stream up ahead. Below were the other tsukumogami called upon for the task, on standby with their fishing nets ready.

"All of them look like they're in position." Yatsuhashi remarked. "So, uh, what's supposed to happen now?"

"What, you don't remember what the plan was?" Benben asked.

"Well, I really only got the gist of it yesterday. Raiko talked really fast…"

"It was a lot to take in at once, true. But right now, they should be waiting for…" Benben's words trailed off all of a sudden.

"...Sis?" Yatsuhashi asked, concerned. Her sister's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. And so, Yatsuhashi turned around, and immediately saw what was so shocking as well.

In the distance, a gigantic stone structure, with a vague keyhole shape built into the top, was rising high into the air. It ascended until it reached the clouds above, where it turned in the air and then flew away in another direction.

Yatsuhashi stared at the huge object as it flew further and further away. "Is… that part of the plan?"

"I… really don't think so." An astonished Benben answered, and whatever it was had already flown well out of both their sight.