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Ch. 20: She says one thing but feels another. In other words…
"You know… you sure you're not tsundere, Nazrin?" Suika asked.
"… Huh?" Nazrin turned around, completely baffled at Suika's sudden suggestion. "Why are you spouting such nonsense right now?" Nazrin snapped out an arm towards the Myouren temple welcome sign.
Ibuki Suika, Tatara Kogasa and Nazrin stood before the grand Myouren temple, formerly a gigantic, magical ship named the "Palaquin Ship". This was no seedy miko's shrine, not the one on the border nor the one on the mountain. This was a truly grand temple.
First off, its welcome sign was beautiful. It was apparently crafted out of one of the smaller ribs of the hull, inverted on its ends. A deep, sharp arch of solid, quality wood, with intricate, flowing semi-cursive script written on its sides, the three most prominent letters right at the top spelling out Myouren temple's name, high, high off the ground.
Second, its flight of stairs leading up to its entrance was most impressive. It was not that it was really long, like some stairs that had the number of steps run into the hundreds. It was moderately long, but it was wide. It led up the side of a huge, artificial mound of dirt that surrounded the entire building, and spanned the whole length of Myouren temples's keel.
For call it a temple, but the third and most impressive trait of the temple was that although it was not a grand complex like most other temples, its single building was HUGE. It also largely retained the look of a ship, although the masts had been taken down. This was also the reason for the mound of dirt; an elevated entrance was necessary to access the main floor due to the temple still possessing the schematics of a ship.
"Wow… I've heard stories but…" Suika whistled. Reimu and Sanae in her opinion? Well, they should just hang their head in shame. "But ah… Nazrin? Don't you think it's a little… too grand? I mean, for the faith of Buddhism? Isn't Buddhism supposed to be about moderation and all that?"
"Well… I'll just ask you to reserve your judgement before you see Byakuren-sama…" Nazrin smiled mysteriously as the three started to make their way up towards the entry. "Oh, but about before… What was that 'tsundere' nonsense you were talking about?"
"Oh, that?" Suika raised her eyebrows, "Your tail is wagging," she directed her eyes towards Nazrin's behind.
"W-Wagging?" Nazrin stopped and looked at Suika with an sceptical look. "Don't be ridiculous! I'm a mouse! Mice don't wag! It's probably just twitching, it does that all the-"
"Nazu! Nazrin! Is that you? You're back, aren't you?"a gentle voice called out.
"-time…" Nazrin looked up, tail twitching a lot more. The gentle voice, as it turned out, belonged strangely to a tiger youkai. But this particular tigress had a look of civility, of humility even.
Or maybe it was air-headedness, hard to tell.
But Toramaru Shou was far from being a savage beast. Shou had every look as a monk, or at least a monk-in-training. Wearing flowing white robes with a red and orange tunic over it and a lotus-shaped ornament on her neatly kept blonde, which was streaked with black, Shou looked more like a gentle, kind and sincere girl than a tiger.
Or maybe she is just an air-headed girl, hard to tell.
"Wow…" Suika murmured, growing impressed with Myouren temple every second. "That has got to be the tamestlooking tiger I have ever-"
"SHOU-SAMA!" Nazrin launched herself straight up the steps and into the arms of Shou. Suika smirked from the sidelines. From the sound of her complaining, one would think Nazrin was entirely fed-up with her "Shou-sama!". Kogasa on the other hand, was looking very inspired by Nazrin's display of affection. The umbrella-youkai and chibi Oni exchanged glances.
"Suika-sama, I-I mean, S-Suika… can we maybe…?"
"Don't get any ideas, Kogasa…"
"Shou-sama! Shou-sama!" Nazrin was meanwhile pounding her little fists into a sheepish Shou's front, weeping a little. "Look what trouble you have created! I can't find that scripture anywhere!"
"I-It's okay Nazu…" Shou was petting Nazrin's head in an effort to try to calm the little mouse down. "It's all my fault-"
"It is! You stupid tiger!" Nazrin wailed into Shou's front. Shou sweat dropped. "But… But! You're going to be in trouble, Shou-sama!" Nazrin looked up with great concern at Shou.
"It will be fine, Nazu-"
"And I even sent the whole of 4th and 6th division to help me look for it… I'm such a failure as an underling!" Nazrin's eyes started tearing again.
"Nazu… listen…"
"I was asked by Byakuren-sama to assist you, but I can't even do the simple task of watching over a priceless scripture… Shou-sama! Shou-sama!" Nazrin continued wailing.
"N-Nazrin… Oh… I'm so sorry to make you worry," Shou was still trying her best to try to calm down her cute little underling.
"What are we going to do?" Nazrin asked. "Shall I try to look harder? There was this area of the forest I had yet to cover-"
"No, Nazrin," Shou said firmly as she clamped a hand gently over Nazrin's mouth. "Weare going to look for it together this time, okay?" Shou said as she stooped down smiling to look at Nazrin at eye level.
"… Shfou-shama…" Nazrin's muffled voice came through Shou's hand as she puppy-eyed the tigress.
Kogasa, greatly inspired, looked at Suika. "Suika-sama…" Kogasa ventured, both conversationally and physically.
"The answer is still no," Suika stood unmoved.
"My… how touching it is to see so much love between my dear disciple Shou and my dear little Nazrin," Hijiri Byakuren sniffed into a handkerchief she held in one hand, her other hand clutching an infinitely priceless scripture in the manner of a magazine. "Suika-san, was it? You could learn a lesson or two from them and be a bit more compassionate and less icy."
"Icy? Me?" Suika rounded on Byakuren. "I'll have you know that I can be all warm and fuzzy when I want, but this umbrella youkai sometimes just oversteps the line too much, you know what I mean, er… How do I address you, lady?"
"Byakuren," Byakuren smiled. "Hijiri Byakuren. Just Byakuren will do."
"R-Right, Byakuren," Suika continued. "Wait… B-Byakuren!"
At Suika's alarmed response, everyone turned to see one smiling Hijiri Byakuren standing just shy of the main entrance, waving her hand holding the supposedly "lost" scripture cheerily.
Hijiri Byakuren. Despite being one of the younger denizens of Gensokyo, at only a little over a millennium in age, she had a distinctly mature look. Perhaps it was because of her rather formal tunic, unsurprising due to her occupation as a monk. Adorned in a black and white layered dress, the white within and the black without, with criss-crossing lace holding the front together, Byakuren also featured a cape, usually pulled together to keep her warm during one of those really long meditations. But second most striking of all was her hair; it was a purple colour that faded into brown at the ends. Really, really mesmerizing.
But Suika noticed something else. Despite her really mature look, there was no doubt that her physical stature was of one that had just emerged from her teens, her face looking like that of someone in their early twenties. Is she… someone with…?
"Oh… Suika-san! What are you staring at?" Byakuren asked, blushing a little out of Suika's incessant gaze.
"Oh! N-No… I just thought how 'zen' looking you were... I-I mean-" Suika accidently let slip embarrassingly. Behind her, Kogasa, Shou and Nazrin were nodding their agreement.
"Why, thank you!" Byakuren smiled warmly. "Well, if you don't mind, shall we not stand around the doorway any further? I'll have Shou prepare you some tea and snacks to welcome you-"
"E-Excuse me!" Suika suddenly interrupted before Byakuren could head inwards. "I uh… couldn't help but notice from the way you look… Do you have like, have any elder siblings?"
Almost immediately, a hush descended upon the other three, and indeed, Shou even attempted to move to chastise Suika.
"No, Shou-chan, it's alright," Byakuren stopped her moving disciple, her face suddenly carrying a little sorrow. "You see Suika-san," Byakuren emerged from the entrance out onto the steps and waved a soft hand towards the immediate vicinity of Myouren temple, "This temple was named in honour of my deceased brother."
"Oh…" Suika, "I'm uh… sorry…"
"Don't be…" Byakuren urged gently. "Well, that being said, that was quite the interesting read!" Byakuren turned her attention to the scripture Shou had lost in the toilet. "Can you believe it? I went to the toilet, and such an amazing philosophical text was sitting just right there!" Byakuren clasped her hand over the scripture and grinned.
Both Nazrin and Shou stared wide-eyed at the book. That… no… It can't be…
"Although I do wonder," Byakuren stared at the text thoughtfully, "Why does this scripture seem so familiar to me?"
"Ah… Byakuren-sama! That…" Shou began.
"That's… the scripture that was on loan to the other temple the other day…" Nazrin continued.
"That I… lost…" Shou pathetically finished.
Byakuren looked over at the her two extremely sorry disciples, then looked at the manuscript in her hand. "Oh, I guess it's a good thing I found it then, huh?" Byakuren smiled. "And at such a convenient time too… That was quite the long time I had to spend in the toilet-"
"Ah-Ah! B-Byakuren-sama!" Nazrin interrupted before Byakuren could continue with her saga on how she found the text in the toilet. Clearly it was making Kogasa and Suika a little uncomfortable that a monk of her esteem would be telling such rather tasteless tales. "Where did you find it? Shou-sama and I spent all day the other day as well as today looking for it!"
"Oh, I found it on the toilet on the second floor, next to the tea room," Byakuren explained.
"That's strange… don't tell me…" Nazrin suddenly rounded on Shou, "Shou-sama! You said you lost it on the third floor!"
"Eh… Oops… I may have gotten the floors mixed up?" Shou shrugged her shoulders sheepishly.
Nazrin stared at Shou speechless. Kogasa hugged Suika just to make sure it was her and not Shou who was her new owner. Suika absentmindedly placed an arm around Kogasa's shoulder in response just to make sure Shou would not somehow cause one of them to be displaced. Byakuren smiled, albeit a little awkwardly.
"How… the… E-Excuse me, Byakuren-sama," Nazrin suddenly very politely approached Byakuren, "Do forgive my lack of civility in the coming moments."
"You may be forgiven for the explicit use of light profanity, Nazrin," Byakuren sweat dropped a little.
"Thank you very much, Byakuren-sama," Nazrin turned back to Shou. "Shou-sama… How. The. HELL! Do you mix up FLOORS? !"
"I-I… I was sure it was lost in the toilet next to my bedroom-"
"Your bedroom and the tea room are highly dissimilar!"
"I-I… I know, Nazu… I know… S-Sorry-"
"They're even on the opposite ends of the building!"
"I know… Sorry Nazu! I really am! Nazu? Nazu-rin?" Shou placed a hand gently on Nazrin's shoulder, who had turned her back to Shou with a huff.
"Hey… I'm sorry okay?" Shou pleaded. "I really, really am." The little mouse youkai remained unmoving.
"Nazrin, as I always say, forgive and forget!" Byakuren placed an even gentler hand on Nazrin's other shoulder. "After all, we do have guests," she indicated towards the observing Suika and Kogasa. "Let's not make a scene, okay?"
"Fine…" Nazrin grudgingly reconciled with her masters. "But please don't let it happen again, okay Shou-sama?" Nazrin pouted.
"O-Okay! Okay!" Shou had to fight back a nose-bleed. Nazrin could be so cute when she threw a tantrum.
"So…" Byakuren turned to Suika and Kogasa, "Shall we finally make our way in?" And the party turned to enter the temple building, a cheery Byakuren leading the way.