Hakurei Honor Ch. 10

Author's Notes: Here's the start of Mirai's chapters. Oddly enough this will be a continuation of the expo speak… Then again… ahhh… at any rate here's the next chapter!

Chapter 10: Investigation #1; Witches and Hysteria

Mirai regarded her guest as they a small break from their conversation. Currently the girl was having a weird silent conversation with her housemate Kururu, wherein they had some debate going on as both girls made gestures, nods and shrugs. It was a little freaky to say the least, though thankfully she had seen weirder things. Shaking her head, she left the two as she walked to her fridge, as their earlier talk granted her the desire for a cold drink. At the same time she went ahead and gave a once over at their situation:

There were currently existing entities called `Witches` (which Mirai deemed somewhat insulting to `actual` witches) that was laying havoc, not just all over the country but around the word as well. The statistics that showed the current casualties was going from large to astronomical. This included the victims of the witches, who was spurned into suicide but also the deaths of the contracted `puella`; the magical girls that combated these abominations. According to her father, the ruler of Makai Lucifer; a 'puella' dies for every 3 of 5 encounters with these 'witches', it doesn't even tell if they were killed by the actual 'witches' or their 'familiars'. And for every one dead 'puella', Kyubey (the asshole that he is), also known as the `incubator`, contracts two or more girls to replace them. This has lead to the large amount of missing person cases, wherein the victim was always female and was the age of about the minimum of 7 to the maximum of 16. According to her father, her sempai Raido and his girlfriend a reporter named Takeba, Yukari; the government could barely conceal and control the information of these cases to the public. There have been a lot of angry and/or grieving parents that have been filling complaints and demands that shook government offices that was ashamed of being unable to aid them. Not to mention the police who was haggard enough dealing with the mass cases of suicides that these witches left in their wake, but with the wails of anger and sorrow of parents missing their children. Hell one could only shudder if any mystical art was not involved in these matters. The last thing they needed was the ignorant shouting that it`s the end of the world, the gods are taking their children or some other nonsense. It was a bleak picture, and all her lessons of humanity told her that Makai would soon be filled with the foolish and the Sanzu River would be overflowing with the hopeless. Then again the Sanzu has problems on it's own. Due to the nature of the witches, being the despair riveted souls of young females; the Sanzu was amassed of them, unmoving, unflinching, only drowning in their grief. Their wails and cries have completely disturbed the flow of the dead causing grievous repercussions to the land of the living. According to Reimu; Onozuka, Komachi the shinigami of our realm; dropped all pretenses of her laid back attitude and began the painstaking process of calming the dead, bequeathing peace to the fallen 'puella' and guiding them all to other side. Yamaxanadu, Shikieki was afraid of her shinigami for the first time, as the shinigami was pissed beyond words. She became irritable and violent. Her fury was so great that she snarled that, again according to the miko, if she wasn`t busy fixing the flow of souls that she would go to world of the living herself and smite the very core of `these vile disrespectful and unnatural beasts` as she called the incubators. In fact when Reimu brought to her one of incubators she gave a very unsettling toothy grin before hitting the creature with the back of her scythe on the head, then pinning it on the ground before shooting a powerful concussive blast. Reimu left the room where they were after that, and she couldn`t blame her as it got worse after that. She was even glad that she did not witness that. Mirai could only shudder at that.

"Your calendar is wrong." Homura`s voice trailed, disrupting her thoughts.

"And you`ve been gawking at the fridge for a while now." Kururu added before lifting her hands showing an empty plate.

Mirai blushed and gave a bashful smile at the pair. She was embarrassed as she was caught spacing out in front of her fridge. Shaking out of it, she took the empty plate and opened the fridge. A minute later, a new slice of cake was deposited on it and was then given to Kururu. Accepting it with a small smile, the small girl left leaving the other two behind.

"Cake again?" the younger of the two asked.

"Yeah. Is something wrong with that." Mirai asked the girl.

"No. It`s just... well cake... really?" Homura said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Why not? I mean I first bonded with Reimu and Mami due to cake." Homura just raised an eyebrow to that.

"Anyway sempai, were you thinking about our current crisis?" Mirai smiled at this. If anything, for the girl`s disbelief (thankfully, now corrected) her intellect shines through.

"Yeah. Well, part of it." She told her while taking a drink from her fridge. Mirai then began telling her about her previous musings about the witches before she was interrupted. The other girl nods as they made their way back to the living room, wherein Kururu was busy devouring her slice of cake. Continuing with her thoughts, now with the 'puella' assisting her, Mirai went over the information once more:

Heading away from thoughts about the currently angry shinigami, the most important thing about the witches, was what she mused earlier: that they were former 'puella' who was swallowed by despair. That alone was a great part of the vicious cycle. One of the current solutions to this was what the many denizens of Gensokyo did to Homura. But the data given to her told her that this was not a practical and permanent solution. The process took far too long, and far too complicated. Looking at her guest she thought more about it. According to both the girl with her and her miko friend, various procedures was made for Homura to be carrying a gem necklace that looked like an ornate round shield and no ring or soul gem. This was the end result of that process, enabling her magic which unsurprisingly was within her the first place. Digging into the steps Mirai recounted them. Firstly, a very shocked and frightened so called 'Curse Goddess', Kagiyama, Hina; took all of Homura`s misfortune from her soul gem (i.e. her grief). And that consisted of a pale scared Hina glancing back and forth from Homura to the girl`s soul gem. This admittedly raised a dozen eyebrows from the group with them (not to mention making Komachi even more furious). Next was one that did not sit well with Homura, and that consisted of the shinigami smashing her shining soul gem (that almost gave her a heart attack, despite the fact that even with her soul gem destroyed she was still moving and alive so to speak) and the yama forming the puella`s soul in her hands and finally returning it back to her body via... well Mirai didn`t know. Reimu kept laughing about it and a furiously blushing Homura told her to forget about it. At any rate after that was the part where Reimu began adjusting the magic inside the girl`s body via her aura, with Gensokyo`s sole doctor assisting. Again Homura was uncomfortable about that part as according to her, it was similar to that thrice damned incubator`s contracting method... It consisted of Reimu embedding her hands into Homura's body and manipulating the girl's aura. According to the miko, Homura was one of the few individuals that she could not manipulate their aura remotely. One could blame the incubator for this very fact… But that was the worst part of everything wasn`t it? What did they know about the incubator?

#0#

Kai: Tada! A new chapter!

Mirai: Yeah, not to mention not that long.

Kai: Hey! I have a life you know.

Mirai: Sure you do.

Kai: *groan* Well in any case see you in the next chapter!

Mirai: We do have omakes you moron!

#0#

Omake # 5: Mirai meets Mami and Reimu

The redhead was staring, and stared she did. Why shouldn't she? The last time she saw a girl with blonde hair with princess curls… well, easy to say that they did not get along too well. Then again, she wondered if said girl was still out there. The redhead groaned as she did not like what happened to them. Even if the girl was haughty she would have like to have known her. And now there's a new one in here. Thinking for a second, the child of the devil smirked. This time, the blonde girl will be her friend!

#0#

"Ah I see…" the miko told the blonde. The girl's story was sad, and her aura of despair could drown anyone. But thankfully her resistance was halted by minor aura manipulation. She didn't wanted to, but she doubt that the girl would heed her if she didn't. The blonde for her part was sighing but now smiling. She did not know if she could fully trust the black haired, giant red ribbon wearing girl… but she felt… she felt that she could be her friend. Unfortunately, due to her telling the girl her story, the atmosphere became awkward and she could not find away to get the conversation going again. That is until…

"Hiiiiii~yaaaaa!"

The miko clutched her chest in shock while the blonde jumped from her seat.

"Oh sorry… did I scare you?"

"Of course you did!" the miko shouted, annoyed. The blonde just nodded.

"Ahh… sorry you guys looked so serious! I mean the school year is just about to start and the both of you looked like you failed the final exam!" the two girls snorted at this.

"Excuse me! But I have yet to fail an exam in my life!" the blonde exclaimed, a little miffed that anyone could say that to her. For despite the hardships in her life, she never failed her quest for education. After all, it was the few things she could do to honor her parents.

"If I ever fail an exam I would gut myself. I was thought better than that." The miko said smugly. She was a genius after all…. Then again nobody knew that.

"Well at least I got you out of that funk. The name's Kaname, Mirai!"

"Tomoe, Mami nice to meet you."

"Hakurei, Reimu… I guess it's the same here."

"Soooo~ what where you guys talking about?"

"Something awkward, please do not mention it." The miko answered and the blonde nodded.

"Sure sure, then what are you gonna do now? Classes are still later."

"Well we we're having this conversation…"

"That you admit became awkward."

"Yes… yes… your point?"

"Well, how about I hang out with you two… I mean I don't know much about this place myself." The blonde didn't know how to take this, but the miko seeing another opportunity nodded.

"Sure, we were just getting to know each other."

"Ahhh… that's good. So trading life stories already or debating which or your hair style is better."

"Eh?" "What?"

"I mean… come on! You don't see many other girls with giant red hair bows now do you? Nor do you see girls with princess curls… large big princess curls… like drills…"

"You… have… a very strange mind."

"Why thank you! Being normal is boring!" The redhead exclaimed while proudly puffing her chest.

"Being… normal… is… boring… huh?"

"Don't think about it much Mami…"

"Well what now guys… want to eat before classes… I mean… like I said we're really early."

"Like what?"

"Cake."

"Cake?"

"Cake!"

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds wonderful to me!" the blonde exclaimed, while the miko buried her face into her face. After that they did have cake despite her grumblings… and many more despite her disapproval… Later that day, Reimu could not deny how powerful cake was… and how it tied them together.

#0#

Omake #6 : Your soul goes in like this

Homura was still in shock as she saw (which was weird) her soul form into a blue wisp in the yama's hands. It was scary and entrancing… but mostly scary. After all, a container of her soul that said to keep her alive was broken right in front of her, so all her distress were founded.

"Now is the hard part." The yama exclaimed making all eyes in the room turn to her.

"No surprise. We're going to put her soul back into her body usa…" the earth rabbit said. Surprisingly the shinigami snorted at this.

"Actually it's easy but…" the shinigami trailed off as she tried not to guffaw.

"If it's easy then why Shiki said it was hard?" the miko asked while turning to the yama. She was taken aback as the yama blushed furiously while the shinigami finally broke down laughing. The affected girl was displeased.

"What do you mean?! And why are blushing?! Why is it funny?!" the girl demanded. The shinigami finally controlling her laugher faced her with a very serious look and said….

"Because souls are to be inserted in the mouth… via another person's mouth!"

"What…"

"Wait…"

""""""""""WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!""""""""""