東方要塞 ~ The Western Impact
Touhou Yousai ~ The Western Impact
Touhou Project / Team Fortress 2 crossover fanfiction by FinnOtaku
I don't own the games that are being used as the base of this work of fiction. Touhou Project is owned by Team Shanghai Alice and Team Fortress 2 is owned by Valve.
Chapter 4: What's in the box?
Crap, this ain't good, Scout thought as he tried to keep himself out of sight with a couple of crates.
"Wahahahaaa! That's right, hide you coward! I will find you!" BLU Heavy yelled as he was shooting around with his Minigun, trying to make Scout reveal his location.
Scout was just about to reach his room after his visit to Engineer's den, when he had ran into some familiar faces from his earlier confrontation today. And with nothing but an empty shotgun and an angry Russian having some bones to pick with him, he had no choice but to make a run for it.
Ugh... This is just like back at the frickin' Basin, Scout thought as he felt some of Heavy's bullets sweeping across the crates he was using as his cover.
Scout's gaze reluctantly met with his only weapon at hand, trying to make up his mind whether he'll repeat the emergency bat sequence and just accept one of Engineer's chores afterwards.
Dammit, there's no way around this, Scout made up his mind, taking a good grip of his shotgun's barrel. 'Kay, as soon as that guy runs out of bullets, I'll smack his head in.
The sound of the Russian's laughter got slowly closer and closer, right behind the Scout's hiding spot, when...
Click! Click! Click! Click!
Now!
But just when Scout was about to leap out to confront the Heavy-Medic combo, ready to try his luck...
BO-
"Bleaaah... That dummy black-white witch..." Kogasa moaned as she tried to find her way out of the woods, leaning on the umbrella to maintain her balance. "She just crashed on me like that, it's not fair! She didn't even looked at me!"
Kogasa's attempt to surprise Marisa ended up being rather unsuccessful, as the black-white witch didn't even seem to notice her when she had jumped on the witch's path. The tip of broom hit right on her face, sending her straight down among the treetops, hitting her head on a branch, slowly dropping on her stomach on another branch, and finally dropping head first on a rock.
"Uwaaa... I'll just try to find a way out of here for now", Kogasa told herself with bit of a teary eyes. And after her long search, she finally caught a glimpse of one of mankind's greatest achievements in traveling. Or in other words, a road.
But as she got closer to the edge of the woods, she began to pick up bits of conversation further down the road, a one between a male and a female by the sound of it. Instinctively, she hid herself behind one of the trees.
And as the voices got louder, Kogasa recognized the voice of the feminine representative.
Huh? Isn't this... That weird puppeteer? What's she doing all the way out here?
"Are you sure there isn't some logical explanation behind something like that?" Kogasa heard the other voice, the one of male's.
And who's this guy? That's definitely not Kourin...
"Something like liquid hydrogen, or..."
"It's her power! Geez, why can't you just believe it, mister Dell?"
"Oh, sorry, but... This Cirno girl just sounds like that kind of a fellow who would attempt dumb stunts without second thoughts."
"...No argument there."
Kogasa concurred with a quiet nod.
Kogasa caught a glimpse of Alice and her mystery companion as they walked past her hiding spot. The man with the puppeteer was wearing rather odd clothes, and carrying some kind of a red box on his shoulders.
Could he be an outsider? Did he came here along with those lights?
Kogasa heard Alice let a sigh.
"I think you should just see it for yourself sometime. You really are kind of a man who believes his own eyes rather than others..."
"Kind of a necessity for my job, more or less. And I still don't quite believe you about this whole youkai-monster business, miss Alice."
"Uugh... Well, just don't say I didn't warn you when we run into some more ferocious examples... By the way, what's hydrogen?"
By this time Kogasa was already deep in thought, intrigued by the man with the box.
Who is he? Where did he come from? What's in the box? What's with his clothes? Where are they going? What's in the box? Why is the puppeteer with him? Why is he with the puppeteer? What's in the box? What's in the box? What's in the...
"I wanna see what's in the box!" Kogasa let out her thoughts, now showing little to no signs of her earlier beat-down. Luckily there was enough distance between her and the two that her outburst went seemingly unheard.
Slowly, Kogasa began to quietly follow them among the woods, with a curious glint in her eyes.
"Oi, Kyouko! ...Oooi, Kyouko-chan, rise and shine!"
Uuuhm... Mysti?
Kyouko got up as her dozing glance wobbled around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of her feathered friend. But even when she did, her attempt to greet her only ended up as a gesture to cover her yawn.
"Huaaaaah... Mornin' Mysti", Kyouko mumbled, trying the best she could to not fall over on the futon. "What are you doing in our temple this early in the morning?"
This made Mystia let out a bit of a sigh.
"Well the last time I checked, my stand was not part of your place, sleepyhead."
The reclamation made Kyouko finally take notice of her current surroundings, ones she did not relate to the Myouren temple. She noticed the grill behind Mystia, and the cupboards next to her futon, placing herself in Mystia's house. And as she noticed some sheet music scattered on the floor, she began to remember how the two of them were on quite a writing mood last night, and - by the looks of it - she never got the strength to walk back home after that.
"And I'm not sure if you could call this early in the morning, it's nearly 10 o'clock already", Mystia kept going while arranging some of her stocks.
Still half-asleep, Kyouko's brains slowly began to compare the given time of day to her today's schedule at the temple. She recalled that Ichirin had asked her to help with the breakfast around 8 o'clock, so that gives her about two hours to... hours to... to...!
"Aaah!" Kyouko shouted out and stood up in panic, when she finally managed to align her facts straight. She grabbed her clothes lying on the cupboard next to her, and began to desperately put them on.
"I promised to help Ichirin with the breakfast this morning! I need to go back to the temple right awa..."
"Now hold it right there!" Mystia said, grabbing Kyouko's shoulder and - by that - the yamabiko's attention. "No one is going anywhere without a proper meal on my watch!"
Even though this sudden offer did sounded appetizing, Kyouko's gaze still went back to the door.
"But, Ichirin..."
"Rushing into things with an empty stomach would just make you feel worse, Kyouko-chan", Mystia tried to comfort her friend with a calm tone. "I'm sure she's willing to forgive you, so calm down, I'll make an omelette for you."
The yamabiko was now being torn up inside by these two choices, her gaze going back and forth desperately between Mystia and the door. But just as her mind was beginning to lean on her initial plan...
Grooooowl...
Kyouko ceased her panic-like behavior and slowly turned her gaze down on her stomach, which let out another loud growl. When she finally began to calm down, her legs suddenly gave way and she fell down on the floor, bringing the insidious feeling of hunger finally to her full attention.
"Two eggs?" Mystia asked as she took her hand off the yamabiko's shoulder.
"Two eggs..." Kyouko replied as she slowly crawled her way to the other side of the grill.
"Well then, I shall be taking my leave now", Yukari said, giving one last look on her shikigami. "I'm counting on you on this, Ran."
"Ye... Yes, master..." Ran mumbled.
After the sudden giveaway of responsibility, Ran had insisted to make sure whether she was truly qualified enough to lead this kind of an investigation by herself. But after a reassurance after reassurance, the thing that finally made her accept the task was Yukari's suggestion to swap it with her's. And border maintenance sure ain't an easy job.
"I'll be seeing you, then", Yukari said, about to take her leave... "Oh, and Ran."
"Hm? What is it, Yukari-sa-!" Ran was about to ask, until she saw the look on her master's face.
"If you do well enough, I might just forget about your little mishap back there", Yukari added, before vanishing into thin air with her gap.
So she did hear it, Ran thought to herself, trying to not think of the possible list of all the penalties her master has in store for her.
"Poor Chen... To lose her master in such a miserable way..." Reimu said, putting her hand on the kitsune's shoulder. Ran didn't even have to take a look on the maiden's face to feel her mocking intent.
"She's not going to kill me for that!" Ran snapped, shoving off the shrine maiden's hand. "And you better be ready to take off, 'cause we got some work to do!"
This made turn Reimu's expression to that of reluctant, as she tried to avoid the kitsune's gaze.
"Don't you give me that look, you heard her, whatever was brought here managed to rip the border up pretty badly! Even the Moriya Shrine didn't manage to do that much damage, Yukari managed to fix those damages within an hour!"
The reasoning seemed to hit it's designated target, as Reimu's face seemed to indicate that she had no reason to leave the situation now as it is. And after a bit more of her futile eye-contact avoidance, Reimu finally let out a sigh of her mental defeat.
"Fine then", Reimu said, turning her eyes on the kitsune, still with a slight annoyance on her face. "So, any ideas how we're gonna do this then, miss Main Investigator?"
Even though Ran hadn't really thought on the following course of action as she was more prepared to keep persuading the maiden, the question made her quickly recap what she could remember from the earlier spectacle. Once she was done with that, she turned to the maiden to fill the possible gaps.
"Miss Reimu, from your point of view, how many of those lights did you see, and where did they landed?"
"Huh?" Reimu sounded, a bit surprised by the kitsune's sudden change of expression. "Oh, well... I don't really remember how many there were all in all, but I'm pretty certain that couple of them hit near the Village, the Forest and Remilia's place. And... I'm not sure, there might've been one that ended up somewhere in the Bamboo Forest and another one that hit near the foot of the Youkai Mountain. Those are the only ones I can remember, really."
"I see..." Ran replied, with a thoughtful expression on her face. "From my point of view, I'm most certain that one of them did hit near the Youkai Mountain, and I did see one of them flying towards the Bamboo Forest as well. And I believe there was another one, and it headed towards that new temple."
"A new temple? You mean the Myouren one?"
"Yes. So for now, that makes about six of them..."
Based on the information at hand, Ran now began to plan on the most efficient way to secure all of these crash sites in the shortest period of time. But for a mathematical genius like her, it didn't take her long to go through all of the possible scenarios and pick out the one she thought was the best for them.
"...Miss Hakurei, let me handle the ones near the Village, you go investigate the crash sites beyond the Forest of Magic", Ran finally said, pointing to the general direction of the Forest, with the Scarlet Devil Mansion and Youkai Mountain being beyond it.
"Huh?" Reimu asked, not seemingly following the kitsune's train of thought. "Why there? Shouldn't I go take care of the ones near the Village? You know, to make people feel safe."
"It would be better that way, your presence there would just make people unnecessarily upset."
Now Reimu was completely lost on where Ran was getting at.
"Wh... What do you mean upset?! I'm the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, why would they be upset seeing me doing my job?"
Ran turned her face to the shrine maiden with a serious gaze.
"That's just it. With your tendency to resolve incidents only when requested or when your shrine is involved, which - may I add - is not that often", the remark made Reimu grunt a bit, "your average human most likely see you as the one who's brought up when the things take turn for the worst. And if people hear that you've been investigating the mysterious buildings near the Village, they would immediately assume that something bad has happened. What I could see on my way here, that's not the case as of yet, so it's better not to make people feel too uneasy."
The argument seemed to be reasonable enough, based on the shrine maiden's frustrated, yet understanding expression. It is true that whenever she has business to do at the Village and such, some people tend to give her dubious looks, whispering among themselves whether the miko's presence is a sign of a new upcoming incident. Which isn't really the most ideal presumption for people to have, given her occupation and primary source of income.
But after a while, Reimu finally realized something, taking a dubious look on the kitsune. But as she was about to speak up her mind...
"As for myself", Ran interrupted, "even though I am Yukari's shikigami, I've never been that vocal about it, really. Most of the people probably just thinks of me as another human-friendly youkai, so even if someone did see me at a crash site, they'd most likely just disregard it as your average youkai's curiosity."
And that seemed to answer the shrine maiden's unspoken question.
"And since I tend to hang out with the youkai a lot, they wouldn't find it as strange if they see me going take a look at these crash sites as opposed to you, correct?" Reimu deduced, based on the kitsune's apparent logic.
"That's pretty much the gist of it", Ran concluded. "Well then, now that it's settled, let's get to work, shall we?"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it", Reimu said as she went back to her shrine to get her gohei lying on the parlour's floor. "So, what'll we do if we find anything strange from these places we're heading?"
The question made Ran give the miko a bit surprised look.
"Rather an odd question from a 'shoot-first' person like you, but appropriate", Ran said as the two of them were taking some distance from the shrine. "Let's see now... If you do find someone or something threatening that can't be reasoned with, just immobilize them for now, we'll ask the questions later."
"So basically just like any other incident, then... Well, anything else?" Reimu asked, as they both were now gathering some powers to take off.
"No, that would be all. Good luck out there, miss Hakurei", Ran said as she lifted herself off the ground.
"Right back at you, you kitsune", Reimu replied, and with that note, the two of them blasted off to their respective areas of interest.
But not long after they had left, something that Reimu had forgotten under her kotatsu began to call out for her, with a slightly intoxicated tone of voice.
"Reimu...? Where you at...?"
"Are you sure you're talking about the same fellow here?" Engineer asked as the puppeteer had shared him another piece of interesting trivia. "I mean, caring for flowers and murderous intent doesn't really sound like a common pair of traits if ya ask me."
"I'd love to say it's only speculation", Alice replied, "but those who have stumbled in her garden have found traces of human bones and such at times."
The current topic: Yuuka Kazami and her lovely sunflowers.
"Well, uuh... I have heard that corpses make a good fertilizer, but that sounds a bit..."
"Aah... But thank God for the Spell Cards", Alice said, letting a bit of a relieved sigh. "If I ever end up in her way, I might even stand a chance against her."
Suddenly Engineer stopped his walking, with an intrigued look on his face.
"Hm? What's wrong, mister Dell? Need to take a break?"
"These Spell Cards..." Engineer said, rubbing his chin with his free hand. "You've mentioned them quite a few times now. What are they, exactly?"
Based on the puppeteer's expression, it was only then that she realized that she had ignored a rather significant detail in her briefing.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about them", Alice said, taking out what appeared to be piece of paper out of her pocket and giving it to the Engineer to have a look. "Spell Cards are our way to settle things so that even the weakest youkai could stand a chance in a battle against the stronger ones. Even though they were first made to help resolve incidents, most youkai have been using them more for fun lately."
"Hmm... Well ain't that an intriguing tale..." Engineer muttered, examining the piece of paper in his hand. "So... How does it work?"
But as the puppeteer was about to reply, her expression suddenly went from know-it-all to uncertain. And after a few moments of observation, Engineer came to the conclusion that this was her first time trying to actually explain the principles behind these strange artifacts.
"Well... It's kind of like..." Alice began, taking her card back from Engineer. "There are these writings on a paper..."
An awkward silence fell between the two, and an embarrassed blush began to slowly spread around the puppeteer's face. Though it is given that there are such things as tacit knowledge, this question seemed to catch the puppeteer completely off-guard.
"Yeah, I can see that", Engineer replied, trying to break the silence as gently as possible. With little to no success.
The puppeteer was now pitch red out of embarrassment, but after a moment or two, she tried to redeem herself.
"N-No, it's not like that... Wait, I mean, it is like that, but... Th-There's just like much more to that than just some scribbles on a paper! It's more like, more like... Huh?"
Alice's eyes suddenly ceased their merry-go-round, and were locked on something behind Engineer. And whatever it was, it made her expression turn from flustered to that of annoyance.
"Uugh... Just when I'm actually busy for once..." Alice muttered as Engineer began to turn around to see what had caught the puppeteer's attention.
His gaze was met by a one-eyed eggplant colored umbrella.
"Aah!" Engineer wailed as he fell over with his toolbox, out of surprise.
The strange folded umbrella was sticking out of one of the bushes bordering the road. The umbrella had a big red eyeball, accompanied by a huge tongue sticking below it. By a quick glance, the latter's organic or non-organic nature might be quite debatable.
But before Engineer had even finished his observation on this unusual sight...
"You'll never be able to master the art of hide-and-seek if you keep standing out like that!" Alice yelled towards the umbrella. "Get out of there!"
It took a while, but the umbrella slowly began move towards the road, and it didn't take long for a head of a turquoise haired girl to pop out of the bush.
After this girl had finally got out of the bush and slowly stood up, it gave Engineer a good glance of the mysterious umbrella's supposed owner. The girl's clothes were pretty much same toned as her hair, varying in different shades of blue. Though one thing that stood out more were the colors of the girl's eyes, one of red and one of blue. And after his glance of the girl's looks, he finally took note of the girl's expression.
She was snickering.
"Pfft... 'Writings on a paper'", the girl imitated Alice's voice, making the puppeteer blush again.
Well, can't really blame her for that, Engineer thought, being a bit amused himself.
But when Engineer noticed the dolls slowly arming themselves, something in the back of his mind was yelling at him that he should try to change the subject. Immediately.
"S-So, who would you be then, little missy?" Engineer blurted the first thing he could think of as he got back up, trying to make the puppeteer snap out of her embarrassment.
"Hm?" the girl sounded, ceasing her compressed laughter and turning her attention to the Engineer. And oddly enough to Engineer, the girl's change of expression had a strange resemblance to that of the Scout, at moments when he's about to brag how "superior" he is.
"Fufufuu... Behold, you mere foreign mortal! You are in the presence of the all-mighty, all-powerful, all-knowinginly, Kogasa-chan!"
...Not that she'd be as good, apparently.
As an awkward silence fell among them yet again, Engineer couldn't help but feel a really strong sense of déjà vu. Though as apparent as it seemed, he couldn't help but wonder whether it really was just because of the silence, or because of the strange pose the girl had managed to hold for more than five seconds. But after a quick evaluation of these two possibilities, he eventually settled with the silence.
"...So, who is she?" Engineer asked Alice, back from her chamber of embarrassment.
"Kogasa Tatara. Self-proclaimed pro prankster and the local antique shop's freeloader", Alice retorted, clearly wanting to get even with the girl.
And seems like it was a bullseye.
"H-Hey! What do you mean 'freeloader'?!"
"Well, that's what Marisa's been calling you, has she not?"
"I help Kourin out with his shop, how does that make me a freeloader, you weird puppeteer?!"
"Wha-! W-Who're you calling weird?!"
"Uuh... Pardon me, little miss", Engineer interrupted the two's heating debate, facing the umbrella girl, "but we're a little busy at the moment, so if you don't have anything else to do, we'd just take our leave to the..."
"Ah! The box!" the girl suddenly exclaimed, pointing towards the Engineer with an excited look on her face.
It might've been because of the mood just a moment ago, but it took Engineer quite a long time to finally register the change of this umbrella girl's expression. And as he finally began to understand the meaning behind the girl's words, his gaze eventually turned to the closest thing that resembled the artifact in question.
"...The box?" Engineer said, tapping on the toolbox on his shoulders. The umbrella girl replied with an enthusiastic nod. This enthusiasm made Engineer a bit uneasy, making him take a few steps back. "...What about it?"
"I wanna see what's inside it!" the girl replied.
"Aah... Figures..." Alice shrugged, seemingly familiar with the feeling. But as she was thinking of how to deal with this enthusiastic troublemaker, an idea struck her. An idea that could quite easily kill two birds with one stone.
"You know what, how about this?" Alice said, catching the umbrella girl's attention. "Why don't we settle this with a little match of Danmaku? If I win, you'll stop bothering us for the day and if you win, we'll show you what's inside the box."
"Huh? Miss Alice, what are you...?"
"It's a deal!" Kogasa replied with excitement, as she jumped up high in the air, but instead of falling back to the ground, she remained floating a little below the trees' branches. On any other occasion, Engineer would've stared at the sight in disbelief, but now he had a bit more important issues at hand.
"What are you saying? I said I brought this thing with me as a reassurance, I'm not going to show it to just anybo..."
"Rest assured", Alice said in a calm voice, as her dolls began to take up their weapons again, "I don't feel like losing to some prankster like her today. And besides, it's better to see for yourself how things work in this world."
Engineer was a bit lost on the meaning behind her words, but as he saw the puppeteer taking out some more of those mysterious cards and the mystery girl doing the same, he recalled the conversation they had just before the intervention.
"And you might want to take cover, mister Dell. This could get ugly..."
Mystia's house stood quietly on the edge of the Forest of Magic, as the cool morning breeze gently swayed the building's lanterns.
After the sparrow's fame had reached to the point that she wasn't able to maintain her business with a portable stand alone, she had reached out to fellow youkai and her regular customers, asking for help to build a new place to sustain her business. And for a more permanent residence.
And just two weeks later, a new building had risen next to the road that bordered the Misty Lake, giving a nice view of the Scarlet Devil Mansion on the opposing shore of the lake. According to Bunbunmaru Newspaper, this was apparently "the first time in a while" when youkai and humans had joined forces like that for a common effort.
Opposed to the portable stand's seats for five, the new restaurant had seats for about thirty people, with one table for every four set of seats, and couple of extras next to the grill. The center of the restaurant was dominated by a large round pile of cobblestone, a couple of feet high and about double of that in diameter, with a concave surface on the top of the pile serving as a fireplace. Though initially planned to warm up the place in cold winter nights, Mystia had found it quite useful as an additional way to prepare her meals on a bit busier nights. The fireplace was surrounded by a sturdy wooden railing, just wide enough to have one's drinks on it while having a chat around the fire. And above this all was a wide chimney flue, hanging near the ceiling, but just close enough to the fireplace to capture most of the smoke.
And on the other side of the grill were all the common necessities of your average kitchen: shelves filled with ingredients, tools of food preparation and - something Mystia hasn't been too familiar with until recently - a refrigerator, built by the kappa. And on the floor was a wooden hatch, leading to a cellar filled with a bit more - as locals would call them - "exotic" ingredients.
Though not initially planned, the kappa of the work group had insisted to try out their new digging device, supposedly far superior to their previous gadgets of that sorts. And surprising to most, digging up the cellar and setting it up as a food storage was one of the least time consuming parts in those whole two weeks. And thanks to that, Mystia has been able to expand her menu by testing out new foreign dishes, next on her list being an outside world delicacy known as the "Ham Baaga".
But on little mornings like these, all one really need is a hearty meal, such as a one with two well-baked eggs.
"And heeere you go", Mystia said cheerfully as she reached out her hand with a plate of omelette, which Kyouko took in her grip. "Another fine start for another fine day."
"Th... Thank you..." Kyouko mumbled, as she placed the plate on the table and began to dig it down with a pair of chopsticks.
While Mystia was cleaning the dishes, she couldn't help but wonder about Kyouko's over-worried look. And as the gloominess didn't seem to decrease along with the dish, Mystia couldn't help but feel a bit worried herself that even her cookings aren't enough to cheer her friend up.
"Geez, Kyouko, just cheer up would you?" Mystia finally said with a bit of a scolding tone, as she finished cleaning up. "This is really not like you. Did something happen at the temple, or what?"
As Mystia had mentioned the word "temple", Kyouko began to cough, apparently after swallowing her mouthful the wrong way.
"E-Eeh? For real? Kyouko, you haven't got yourself into trouble with them, have you? I thought they were fine with this hobby of ours..."
After Kyouko had cleared up her throat, she looked a bit hesitant at first, but finally decided to speak up.
"It's not like that, really. I just... had a little disagreement... with Ichirin."
Now even though Mystia didn't know the folks living in this new temple that well, she had seen some of them couple of times at the Village, and some of them have paid a visit to her grill as well. And out of all of them, only one of the group seemed to fit best to her image of this Ichirin.
"So, this Ichirin... Is she the one with the sailor uniform and that large anchor?" Mystia tried to make sure of her assumption.
This made Kyouko give a bit confused look on the sparrow.
"Uuh... No, that's Murasa", Kyouko replied, making the sparrow give a bit surprised look. "Ichirin is the one with... one with..."
Kyouko had a little moment of consideration, as she tried to think of something that would make Mystia recognize the individual in question. And after a while, she decided to do what she does best, as she cleared up her throat a bit and put her hand gently on her chest.
"She's the one with this kind of voice", Kyouko said with a gentle voice, one clearly not her own.
"Huh? The nun in blue?" Mystia said, as she recognized the voice's owner from her few encounters with the Myouren folk. "How did you end up arguing with her?"
"Well, last time when we..." Kyouko was about to say, when she realized she was still imitating Ichirin's voice, making her cough up a bit to loosen up her throat. "Ahem... So, last time when we had our performance a few weeks back, I forgot I had promised to help Ichirin with some chores that night. When I finally got back to the temple, she was waiting for me, steamingly mad at that. She scolded me quite a bit for neglecting my duties, and... I might've said some bad things to her as well... and then... and then..."
Based on the yamabiko's expression, Mystia felt that now she's getting to the - as mean people would call it - good part.
"And then she said she would bring the house down next time I show up late! Now everyone's gonna have to build a new temple just because of me!" Kyouko concluded, with a slight tears flowing down her cheeks.
"...Eh?" Mystia sounded. "Uhm... Kyouko, I don't think she meant it... You know, literally."
"Eh?" Kyouko sounded, looking genuinely surprised.
Uuuh... She still takes things to heart this easily? Mystia thought, as she formed a palm on her face.
"Y-You know, she probably just wanted you to consider your promises more seriously and all, so you wouldn't just thoughtlessly promise things you find hard to keep, and... and...", Mystia tried to explain, but as the yamabiko's expression stayed confused, Mystia decided to keep it simple. "It's a figure of speech!"
"Oooh", Kyouko said, with the glint of realization in her eyes, "the thing when you say something but you mean something else?"
"Yes, that!"
"Oh, I'm glad. And here I thought she really would really crash the place up with Unzan", Kyouko said with a relieved voice, but something about the words stroke Mystia as odd.
Huh...? Is this Ichirin... Actually capable of doing that?
"Y-Yeah", Mystia tried to stay positive that she was right.
"...But she's probably still mad about me not being there, though", Kyouko stated, when she finally thought about it again.
"...Yeah, probably", Mystia had to concur, as she couldn't really think that being late is the most plausible thing to do.
But a sudden knocking on the front door brought the conversation to a well-timed conclusion, as they both now had their eyes locked on the other side of the building.
"Good morning, Mysti-san!" a carefree voice responded from the other side of the door. "Are you awake? 'Cause the chimney says you are~!"
"Oh, it's that time of the day already?" Mystia said, taking a quick glance on the clock hanging next to the refrigerator. "Kyouko, could you please go get the door for me?"
"Eh? Oh, sure... Who?" Kyouko thought out loud, as she didn't really recognize the owner of the voice just now.
Mystia began to take some plates off the shelf as the yamabiko opened the door.
"...Ah? Who would you be? A friend of the owner, perha..." BAM!
The sudden bang almost made Mystia drop the plates, but she managed to balance them back on her lap swiftly enough. As soon as she set them down on the table, she turned her head on the front door to see what the bang was about.
"M-Mysti!" Kyouko exclaimed with a terrified look on her face. "T-There was a giant fish eating someone's legs outside!"
"A what eating what?" Mystia asked, a bit confused on what her friend was getting at, because she knew that the one behind the door was just a...
"...Oh, that's right. You were living up on a mountain before moving to the temple, you probably haven't seen a mermaid before."
"Huh? A mere... maid?" Kyouko said, completely lost on this new odd word. And while she was spacing out, she failed to notice the door opening behind her.
"Owie... What was that for? Right on my nose..." the mermaid in question weeped, rubbing her sore nose as she crawled her way in, dragging her tail on the ground as she moved forward.
"I'm sorry, Wakasagi-san", Mystia said in a friendly manner, "this is just her first time meeting one of your kind. Please forgive her."
The mermaid replied with a little nod, as she cautiously tried to feel if it was okay to twitch her nose a bit. And after some time with her strange faces, the mermaid finally settled with a cute, clumsy smile.
"Now, I didn't have your breakfast ready yet", Mystia said, as she took out some fish meat and began to roast it, "but I hope some salmon sandwich will do until then."
"Yay, salmon", the mermaid rejoiced as she dragged herself across the floor, past the cobblestone fireplace and up on one of the chairs next to the grill. And all this time, the yamabiko had just starred at this stranger's tail, still not quite convinced it's not some giant leg-eating fish youkai.
"I... guess I have some explaining to do..." Mystia said, when she finally noticed the yamabiko's intense stare. "But first things first: Kyouko, I'd like you to meet Wakasagi-san, a mermaid from the Misty Lake and my new neighbor."
"Nice to meetcha, Kyouko-chan!"
Not long after the morning's spectacle, there was a little incident that occurred at the Youkai Mountain, near the kappa's residence. While the strange particles were still falling down from the sky, some sort of a large metallic container had came crashing down the mountain, eventually ending up at the Untrodden Valley. Fortunately, since one of the crash sites ended up near the valley, no major casualties were made by this container, when most of the kappa were checking out the crash site.
While the kappa were most excited by these peculiarities from the outside world, the leader of the tengu felt it necessary to go investigate the container's source. The task to send someone up the mountain was forwarded to one of the leaders of the Tengu Patrol, and after some intense consideration, the task to go and investigate was placed upon one of the fastest tengus on the mountain. Though, from this particular tengu's point of view...
"Ayaaa! How could you do this Momiji, right on this kind of a morning?!" Aya cursed as she was flying up the Youkai Mountain, circling around to check out every hole and rock the landmark contained. "What if something happens down there? Who would be there to capture the next big scoop? Why didn't you send that Hatanewb up here inste...? Aya?"
And after her wide and long search, she finally found what she was looking for.
The thing that caught her attention seemed to be a facility of some kind, that had neatly taken residence on the side of the Mountain. It's quite a sight, as the rock on the mountain and the rock where the facility rest upon were both entirely different type, giving a pretty strong impression of an act of cut-n-paste. The facility consisted mostly of red-ish wooden buildings - some of them having "Jenkin Coal Co." labeled on them - with a few exceptions of blue-ish concrete buildings, and a lot of railroads going around the place.
And by these few concrete buildings, Aya spotted some cut off wires, with signs of broken rock on the side of the Mountain below them. And as she took some distance from the facility, she noticed that these traces of broken rock made a rather straight line down the Mountain, to the general direction of the Untrodden Valley.
So that container was hanging by those wires, and them being cut made it come crashing down the Mountain, Aya thought as she went to take a bit closer look on some of the broken rocks.
"Well, since that doggie didn't tell me to do anything else other than find the source, I guess my work here is done", Aya said with a satisfied grin on her face. But as Aya was about to take a dive down back to the foot of the Mountain...
"Yo, dudes, this ain't funny anymore!" Aya suddenly heard from the facility, ending up making a little U-turn in the air. She quickly flew above the facility, and after a quick glance around, she managed to pinpoint the source; a young man with a red shirt and a shotgun on his shoulder.
"You know what, let's make a deal, listen up: You guys come out within the next 5 minutes, starting now, and I won't hit you. With my shotgun. Much. And if you won't come out, I'll smack your head in. For free. When I find you. With my shotgun. Much. There, like it, sound good? Now come out already, dammit, this seriously ain't funny anymore! Don't make me come over there, wherever you are!"
Boastful. Talkative. Distinctively dumb. When it comes to interviewees, these are Aya's top 3 favorite traits.
"Why hellooooo scoop", Aya said with a wide grin on her face, as she took out her pen and notebook, and took a dive towards this mystery facility.
Chapter 4 Afterword:
EDIT #1 (11.09.2013):
Edited some bits to look a bit better
Original afterword:
Even though I did said there would be ridiculous gaps between chapters, this was definitely not what I had in mind. =(
But anyway, after 9 months since the third chapter, I present to you: the fourth chapter... Lol.
Well, not much to say here now, I just hope that writing the fifth chapter won't take as long. But if I may add: Yay for the first Touhou mermaid! =3