The mornings at the shrine are a ritual for Reimu. Wake up, freshen up, change and prepare for whatever comes her way. Some days end with her talking to Marisa, others she is annoyed. Yet on certain days she hangs out with a Youkai named Nahumar. Since the incident of Undying Joy, Nahumar has been interested in Reimu's ability to suppress her emotions well. This would have been more annoying to Reimu but Nahumar had this weird aura about him. He was weak but he had a heart like a kind and gentle human. She wondered if Nahumar was going to use any information he obtained from her to attack or something.
She didn't let it bother her much, and today was a special day. While no one was around or looking, Reimu pulled out a box of Macarons. She saved up her yen to buy a nice box of the sweets. All with varying flavors. Just looking at the assortment was causing her to drool. "Marisa is occupied and so is Yukari. Nahumar has yet to show his face and the day is still young." she narrated to herself with glee. Once a cup of tea was made, she sat out on the steps with the pallet of colored sweets right next to her. As she picked up a pink one with white filling, she sensed a presence. In her mind, she wanted to kill whomever it was. Then from the shrine entrance, Nahumar came and with him were two black cats with different eye colors. One yellow and the other a light green. He waved to her, "Afternoon Priestess. I hope you don't mind me bringing my Shinigamis to see the shrine?" smiling with glee. Reimu looked at him as her rage was building deep behind that smile. "No. I do not mind at all. Do not let your cats eat my Macarons." she gritted her teeth at the last sentence to emphasize how important these were to her.
Nahumar took her word as did the Shinigami like cats who shifted into their human counterparts. Twins of course. The two introduced themselves. "I am Incubo. I am able to manipulate the sight of man and cause hallucinations they would otherwise not think of." the male with yellow eyes said to her. The female grinned to Reimu as she said, "I am Sogno. I can manipulate the visage of various items and disguise them in an illusion." Reimu sighed. They were not going to leave that easily. "Well as long as you do not cause trouble here, I can grant you some access to the shrine for today. You can't go inside though." Reimu made itclear as the two surprisingly sat down and listened to her. Eying her and generally curious about Reimu. Then Sogno spoke up. "Say, what do you think of Nahumar-Sama?" she asked while laying on her stomach. "...I think he needs to learn not to bother me so much." Remiu replied while taking a light sip. Sogno rolled over onto her back as she watched her brother Incubo chase birds in cat form. Then Sogno told her, "Nahumar-Sama is just curious about you I think. I can see why...You don't smile at all." as if mocking Reimu's lack of showing emotion. This caused Reimu's glare to beam on Sogno. "I can show emotions too. Right now I am feeling annoyed because I want to eat some of my-"
When Reimu went to grab a Macaron, she noticed that the chocolate ones were missing. "Oh no..." Sogno quietly said while hiding behind the donation box. Reimu looked over to see Nahumar playing with Incubo. She walked up to him and shouted out loud "You ate my Chocolate Macrons!" causing Nahumar to try and clean his ear out. "Easy Priestess, I never even knew you had chocolate ones." he tried defending himself. Reimu just glared at him before slapping a Talisman on his forehead to freeze him in place. She huffed in anger. "Regardless, I was saving those Macrons for last." Reimu turned to look at the plate, seeing that indeed only the chocolate ones were missing. Nahumar on the other hand couldn't move the charm off his body and was left to stand like a statue. Incubo spoke in his defense, "But priestess...Nahumar-sama was playing with me the entire time. I never saw him eating anything." as Sogno nodded. "He is innocent after all Reimu." Yukari said, lazily slumped out of her gap with the chocolate macron in hand. A smile on her lips as she placed the uneaten one in her hand. Giving her a little lesson in exchange. "Just because Nahumar can only taste chocolate does not mean he would go out of his way to downright steal it. Honestly, sometimes you get a bit defensive over the simplest of treats." she said to Reimu. Reimu removed the Talisman from Nahumar's head before tossing a small orb at Yukari to shove her back in the gap.
When their time was up, Nahumar and his two shinigamis bid Reimu a goodbye. Reimu only looked on and waited for them to leave before returning to the silence that is her shrine. The sound of the wind and leaves rustling. The occasional sight of someone flying past. This is what she always wanted, right? The silence when no one spoke. The emptiness of no one around. This is what it was like to be alone and Reimu liked it...at least she thought she did. Yukari on the other hand just watched Reimu quietly from her gap. Seeing if she would do anything different. Reimu decided to sweep her walkway to keep herself active. To and fro to broom swept and yet no one was coming around. Marisa was tied up at the mansion so there were no real visitors to come by.
"Looks like you could use someone to talk to." Yukari's voice resonated in Reimu's ears as Yukari was now sitting on the steps behind her. Reimu turned to face Yukari with a cold stare. "The last person I want to talk to is you, Yukari." Reimu said. Yukari however turned her head to look over her shoulder with a sly smile, "And you would rather talk to Nahumar? I am quite hurt. You know it's bad to make friends with a thing like that." she said. Reimu turned away to reply back, "Do not get me wrong. Nahumar is tolerable but he is still an annoyance here and there." sweeping an area that was clean. Yukari then dropped the ball.
"I saw him replace the thing he broke. Not many creatures would give to humans."
Reimu stopped sweeping. She looked back as Yukari had anger building in her eyes. "Nahumar, like his sisters, are nothing more than Social Parasites for humans. They only accept the title of Youkai to cover this. They feed on the emotions that not just humans emit, but also Youkai. Yet in time of need...they would rather protect humans for the sake of their emotions coming in a wider variety." she stood up and gently took the broom from Remiu's hand. "We wouldn't want Nahumar to feed on your emotions now would we? Just keep those feelings inside and he should have no reason to come by anymore." Yukari whispered in her ear. Reimu looked unphased by the odd whisper. She extend her hand to Yukari and asked, "Give it back." to which Yukari shook her head. "Sorry my dear priestess, but I need to borrow this broom for a moment." Yukari took out from her gap some strange container filled with a white powder. She sprinkled some on the shrine and started to spread it around. It exposed the footprints of what seemed like insect like limbs skittering across at night. "You see those, right? Those belong to Nahumar's 'Children'. Those infernal rabbits- or should I say...bugs?" she wanted Reimu to know before it was too late. "Those little rabbits feed on fear much like Nahumar, yet they also can sneak a taste when you are at your most vulnerable..." Yukari cleaned up the powder but also made it fall on the stone path below to expose more prints...and what looked like the imprint of a ball rolling at the shrine. "Late last night, Nahumar came by your shrine. You gave him access to visit, right? Well that night he came in. He sent his little rabbits to see if you had a barrier up and surprise, there was. He couldn't get into your room but imagine if he managed to find a way."
Yukari soon left the shrine through a gap as Reimu was left to ponder the situation. Nahumar was either stalking her or possibly feeding on her. The latter was impossible since he has no idea what she fears at all...but the first part may be the one she was concerned with. Just then, Nahumar walked up the steps and into view. He waved his hand with a big smile. "Hey Priestess. I bought some-" but he was halted by the external barrier to prevent his entry. "What? Priestess, you must of raised the strong barrier. Mind lowering it please?" he asked in a kind manner. He even raised a box of treats to give her. Reimu approached him. "You were trying to spy on me last night!" shouting at Nahumar and turning her back to him. He blinked for a moment "Huh? What do-" then he remembered. "Oh that! Last night I was taking a walk through the shadows and decided to give you a donation as a gift for helping me." his story seemed flawed. "Then explain your rabbit things mucking about as well?" once more, he was confused. "My parasites? I did not order any of them to approach your shrine but...mind letting me see your donation box?" this prompted Reimu to toss a charm at his head, forcing him to tumble down the steps. "You are not allowed at my shrine for an entire week until you realize what you did is considered creepy and perverted!" her words hurt Nahumar but not as much as confused her. Why was she talking to Nahumar like he was a human? He was a Parasite that thrived off emotions and nothing more...but disregarding what he truly looked like, he was more or less like a human.
Nahumar managed to pull the talisman off his head, seeing it had the words 'Idiot' on it and tossed it aside. He sat there and thought why she was angry exactly? "I didn't send any parasites around here at all...and what does she mean creeping on her?" he was sure he wasn't trying to spy on her or- "Pervert...Isn't that a word to describe someone who would do whatever it takes to look at non-clothed humans? Don't know why I would be...but this must be an incident!" yet Nahumar was silenced as one of her orbs slammed down on his head. "NO PLANNING TO SNEAK IN AFTER HOURS EITHER!" shutting down his investigation plan. He took his leave for the time and headed towards the forest. Eyeing Marisa flying past, he assumed she was off to visit Reimu as well. Nahumar continued on until he caught his attention of Alice's home. She was outside, tending to some flowers on the side of the house with her puppets doing other tasks with her command. He figured if he was going to get to the bottom of this odd incident, he should start with Alice. "Pardon me Alice, but I am in need of some help." he approached cautiously. Alice turned to face him, her blue eyes beaming into his purple odd eyes. "I am glad you came to me for advice. Is it something to do with Reimu?" she asked as she stopped her puppets commands except for one. Nahumar scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah. She believes I was spying on her last night, but I only stopped by to donate some money for the shrine." looking ashamed of the accusation.
Alice walked him inside to sit down at her table while she made herself some tea. "Reimu, from what I know, is not going to hold this as a grudge. More as if it's another reason to keep you away. You have seen how she acts around others, right? That's just her. Let it settle and it will go back to normal. Besides, how much did you donate to her? Five Yen?" she gently took a sip. "Actually, it was this strange gold coin. Oval in shape and had some writing on it." what Nahumar described caused Alice to choke on her tea for a bit. "Y-you just gave her a Koban Gold Coin?! Those are worth twenty thousand yen at the least!" she shouted, almost wishing to steal that treasure before Marisa found out. Nahumar was even more confused. "It was just a gold coin. How can something like that be worth a lot?" he had no idea about economics at all. Alice then picked Nahumar up by the jacket to tell him some information. "Imagine if Reimu was to discover you were the one who put that item in her box? She would probably marry you at that point." Her eyes starting to seem scary. Nahumar eased himself away and out the door. "I'll just be off..."
He was back to square one. Nahumar had no help in who was at the shrine at night besides himself. He took a walk over to the shrine's steps at the base and thought for a moment. That is when Yukari appeared before him. Holding the coin out in front of him. Taunting Nahumar. "Seems like you dropped this in her donation box." her snake like voice called through as Nahumar tried snatching it back with a tendon. She kept it out of his reach. "You were the one who was framing me, weren't you?" Nahumar asked. Yukari stepped out of her gap with the coin still in her hand, replying "So what if I was? You are getting too close to Reimu at this point. I don't want you hanging around her anymore." and walking up to Nahumar as she didn't fear him. She knew exactly how strong he was compared to her, and she could kill him now if given the chance. She slipped the Koban Coin into his hands but grabbed his shoulder. "The priestess should never build any relationship to Humans nor Youkai. She is to be in the middle. To help with keeping Gensokyo balanced and prevent incidents like what your 'Mother' caused." Yukari's voice was drastically different than before. Her eyes aiming at him to kill. Nahumar examined the coin and said his reason for hanging around Reimu lately.
"I only wanted to be her friend...because I do not want to be lonely."
Yukari at first raised her umbrella to his forehead, then she lowered it slowly. "Why the priestess? The witches in the forest are closer." she asked Nahumar, now curious as well. She could see in his eyes that he really meant no harm. That underneath his shell, he was a defenseless black orb. Yukari slowly walked around him as if inspecting his person from every angle. Nahumar tried to keep his eye on Yukari, "She intrigues me a lot. Her emotions are hard to taste and understand. She is strong and fun to play a round of Danmaku with. Her patterns are even blissful in defeat. Yet the priestess has the kindness inside her... It just hardly comes up. I wish to-" yet Yukari then put a hand on his shoulder, gripping deep into it as if trying to break the human shell. Her eyes filled with a lust for blood. "Know your place, Parasite...You are in Gensokyo. In this realm, Humans and Youkai-Especially your type, are not allowed to be this close to one another. Some exceptions do come around, but in this case-" her grip intensified and broke the left arm and shoulder. Nahumar stood there in shock. Yukari backed up and finished "I will let you off with a warning. Only because I wish to see how this 'Experiment' will go down." she walked away from Nahumar, leaving him there for the moment to slowly regenerate the shell's arm. All while smirking to herself.
"Can a lowlife being of fear be friends with the Priestess of Hakurei? This is a show I wouldn't mind watching."
Reimu felt an odd chill as she laid in her bed. "Something tells me Yukari is up to something..." she rubbed her eyes and decided to worry about it tomorrow.