Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Touhou characters, settings or any other original material created by ZUN or any other affiliates. All Touhou copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Ch. 31: The melancholic type
Day Six
"Glug glug glug! Hah! Hah… hah… Glug glug glug!"
"S-Suika… go easy on yourself…"
"Y-Yah… You're going to drown yourself at that rate… Not even I drink like that on my worse night…"
"Glug glug glug! Hah! Haaah…! Glug glug glug! Hah… This has been such a tiring -hic- week dammit!" Suika declared with a definitive slam of her gourd on the table.
Hoshiguma Yuugi and Mizuhashi Parsee looked at Suika nervously, then at each other. Something's gotten Suika upset was their unanimous conclusion.
Yuugi was once again at the Hakurei residences, with Parsee tagging along. Reimu had already headed out with Kogasa to the human village though to shop for groceries, and so the de facto (yes, still de facto) couple found only Suika trying to take her sorrows with her in a sea of sake.
"Hargh! Dammit!" Suika followed up her gourd slam with a palm slam, and Yuugi and Parsee jumped slightly at the move. Something's definitely gotten Suika upset.
"I won't lose…" Suika breathed. "I can't lose!"
"Er… Excuse me?" Yuugi was lost. "Lose to… who?"
"Kogasa," Suika said as she eyed her gourd, then brought it to her lips once again to take in more alcohol.
"The next hangover you'll experience will kill you…" remarked Parsee.
"Glug glug glug… So be it!" Suika declared, "Anything can take me, but I just won't lose to Kogasa!"
"Lose what?" Yuugi asked, a bit amused.
"Myself," Suika hissed.
… Even the cicadas have gone silent.
"Uh… huh. I get it," Parsee gestured to the air with a pale, smooth hand and leaned back, her golden hair tracing the movement of her head as she narrowed her emerald eyes at Suika. "Suika's being stuipid. As usual," her lips formed a suppressed smirk.
"Yeah… I'm a fool…" Suika readily admitted, to the surprise of Parsee. "I'm a fool for bringing her back…"
"Hey Suika, what exactly is the problem you have?" Yuugi asked concernedly. "Come on, you can share it with me, right?" Yuugi offered to shoulder some of her buddy's burden.
"Glug glug… glug…" Suika eased the rate of her drinking, then slowly came to a stop and gently put down her gourd on the table.
"Sniff…"
"Eh… A-A-Ah!" Yuugi started panicking. To her left, Parsee looked towards Suika to see what Yuugi was panicking about- Huh? Was… Was…?
Was Suika tearing?
"Sniff sniff…" Suika was biting on her lower lip, her body quivering.
"S-Suika! Oh dear, oh dear!" Yuugi was really panicking now. She had never seen Suika this delicate before. Parsee too was secretly uneasy on the side.
"Yuugi," Suika turned her face up to look at the larger, more handsome Oni.
"Y-Yes?" Yuugi replied nervously.
"Hic! Yuugi! ! !" Suika did something she had never done before and threw herself at the other Oni's bosom.
"W-Wha-!" Yuugi caught Suika in her arms, stunned at what Suika just did. She turned to Parsee to see her wearing a similar expression.
"Hic! Yuugi! Yuugi! ! !" Suika wailed into Yuugi's chest. "Waaah! Yuuugi! ! ! Waaah! ! !" Suika started bashing away at Yuugi's frame with a force only an Oni could stand.
Ah… Ouch! Ouch! P-Parsee! Help me out here! Yuugi mouthed to Parsee, but Parsee, still shocked, could only shake her head wide-eyed to demonstrate that she too was at an absolute lost about what to do.
Not to mention Suika was bashing Yuugi pretty hard, which Parsee was rather terrified of getting into.
"What am I going to do Yuugi? What am I going to dooo? !" Suika's cries came muffled amidst Yuugi's chest.
"E-Everything's going to be fine Suika! Everything will be fine!" Yuugi instinctively embraced and rubbed the back of Suika's head like a mother trying to soothe a crying baby. A baby that just happened to have the strength of twenty gorillas.
"No it won't!" Suika broke away from Yuugi's embrace and grabbed the Oni by her shirt. "No it wooon't!" Suika repeated, now taking to shaking Yuugi violently in despair.
"It'll be fine Suika! Truuust meee!" Yuugi was still trying to calm Suika down as she was being rocked back and forth with g-forces enough to kill a mere mortal several times over. "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah…!" Th-This was bad… Thought Yuugi. I'm already starting to lose feeling in my spine…
"S-Stop it Suika! This is getting ridiculous!" Parsee reached out as she tried to save what was effectively her girlfriend from being rocked to death. "You'll murder Yuugi at this rate!"
Suika stopped at the sound of Parsee's voice and immediately turned to face the now suddenly terrified bridge princess.
"No… No no no no!-" Parsee's pleas were cut off as she now found herself being flung at by Suika.
"Parseeee!" Suika was now wailing into Parsee's shoulder. "You're the smart one! You can help me right? !"
"Y-Yes I can help you Suika, just- Ouch! Just give me some space!" Parsee hurriedly lied.
"R-Really?" Suika stopped and held Parsee at arm's length by the shoulders, her eyes wide and pleading.
"O-Hah… Okay… Just give me a second…" Parsee took several deep breaths as she tried to re-inflate her lungs.
"P-Parsee…"
"Hang on! J-Just hang on!" Parsee gritted her teeth a little. At least the pain was subsiding a bit. "Okay… Okay…! I'm fine… I'm fine…!" Parsee held out a hand to Yuugi to signal she was okay. Yuugi slowly sat back down after having gotten up to intercept and protect Parsee should Suika decide to launch herself at the frail bridge princess again.
"Okay… Just. Exactly. What. Is. Wrong. With. Kogasa?" Parsee asked the question slowly and carefully.
Suika's lips started quivering again.
"Woah! Woah! Easy!" Yuugi placed an arm around Suika's shoulder. "Just… breathe calmly for a moment and start slowly-"
"… Hic… KOGASA'S OPENLY PLAYING ME AND I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! ! !" Suika shouted exasperatedly.
"… Huh?" went Yuugi and Parsee.
"She teases me! She tries to seduce me! She walks about naked in front of me like it's nothing! She's even kissed me and ARRRGGGHHH!" Suika roared, then quickly grabbed the gourd and started the water torture process all over again.
"Wait… You've seen her naked?- Ouch! I was just asking Parsee, don't get mad…"
"I…" Suika disengaged the gourd and stared at it with hopelessness, "I… have never… never… felt this powerless in my LIFE!" Suika breathed quick, shallow breaths.
"… So why don't you just give in like I said before?" Yuugi asked, reiterating the advice she had given Suika before the week started.
Suika's eyes shifted towards Yuugi with a shade of killing intent, "That is not an option."
"But why?" Yuugi was confused.
"I-I can't! I just can't!" Suika shook her head.
"But what's so bad about-"
"Don't you get it? !" Suika held out her hands to the skies in frustration, "She wants me to fall for her!"
"… Yeah I think you already told us that-"
"No! No! You don't get it!" Suika shook her head some more. "It's like… She's walking all over my head however she likes! If I… If I re-really do f-f-fall for her…" Suika's eyes were widened with terror, "Th-Then it'll be like- I mean... I'll be hers, wouldn't I?" Suika clamped her hands to her head and shook it with her eyes shut tight, "No no no no no! I can't let that happen! It'll…" Suika looked up at Yuugi and Parsee with bright red cheeks, "It'll be embarrassing!" she squeaked in an uncharacteristically girly tone.
Yuugi and Parsee stared at Suika, a side of her currently being shown to them that they had never seen before. Then the duo turned to each other and started sniggering.
"Heh… Hehehe…"
"…! W-What's so funny? !" Suika pouted at them indignant.
Yuugi and Parsee ignored Suika and kept on sniggering, and soon the giggles turned to open laughter.
"Heh… Hehehehe… Hahahaha… Hahahahahaha…! ! !"
"S-Stop that!" Suika pounded her fists onto the floor at either side of her body, her face an utter mess of tomato-red embarrassment. "S-Stop that! It's not funny!"
"Ahhh… Hahahaha… Ahhh, Suika…" Yuugi beamed at Suika, "Suika, Suika… Tsk tsk tsk…" she clucked her tongue in good humour. Next to her, Parsee had one hand covered over her mouth to hide the last of her unusually unruly laughter, but she could not hide the twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
"Wh-What!" Suika demanded of Yuugi instantly.
"Ahhh… Let me just ask you a quick question, 'kay?" Yuugi leaned in towards Suika, her lips still forming a big, hearty smile. "Just exactly what's so embarrassing about letting that nice little girl- Ouch! You don't have to get jealous every now and then Parsee, sheesh…" Yuugi nursed her forearm that just got playfully pinched by Parsee.
"I was just fooling around…" Parsee was in uncharacteristically high spirits at the moment.
"Yah, but don't interrupt me… As I was saying," Yuugi continued, "Just exactly what's so embarrassing about letting Kogasa own your heart?" Yuugi asked innocently.
… Suika looked at Yuugi as if she had gone mad.
"… What? Wh-What's wrong? !Y-Yuugi! I'm a proud Oni!" Suika declared to Yuugi. "An ONI! Humans tremble in fear! Youkai tremble even more! ! ! I'm strong! I'm tough! I'm one drunken, invincible, rock kicking, butt throwing machine! ! !"the fuming chibi prattled on. "And you want me to just… just hand over my heart to some… someone that…" the thought of a certain karakasa was making Suika lose some of her conviction, "Someone… someone that shouldn't even matter… Someone that makes me really, really uneasy and…" Suika started rubbing her hands together nervously, looking very much like the drunken, invicible, rock kicking, butt throwing chibi that she claimed she- wait, did Suika mess something up?
"Fu… Fu fu fu…" Yuugi and Parsee were giggling again.
"Grrr… What is it this time? !" Suika found the couple increasingly annoying.
"Heh… Your tongue's all tied up…" Parsee smirked.
"Yah… You said 'rock kicking, butt throwing'," Yuugi grinned.
"Ah- I-I did?" Suika's ears blushed, which she attempted to cover up by drinking vaso-dilating sake from her gourd, her face a mix of being pissed and being really shy about something. Or maybe she was being pissed about actually being shy for once.
"Ah… Listen Suika," Yuugi tried approaching Suika who was actively chugging away her sake, her way of giving the cold shoulder.
"Glug glug glug…"
"Aw, c'mon… We were just teasing you."
"Glug glug glug glug… Gulp! Hah…!" Suika placed her gourd on the table firmly with a thud and eyed Yuugi irately. "I'm not some plaything," she said.
"I… get the feeling you weren't just talking about us," Yuugi observed.
"I'm not yours. Not Parsee's. And I'm… hic! Definitely not Kogasa's!" Suika picked up her gourd and started drinking away again, her face looking more pissed then ever-
"Suika!"
All three underground dwellers snapped their heads towards the source of the voice. Standing there with bags of groceries laden was Kogasa, with Reimu standing behind her, similarly carrying bags of groceries. Kogasa looked rather anxious yet angry, while Reimu was standing a certain distance back apprehensively, like a stranger that knows not to mess with a couple about to quarrel.
"Um… We're back?" Reimu hesitantly announced their return from the human village.
"Suika!" Kogasa ignored everyone else and went straight for her beloved.
"A-Ah!" Suika uttered, rather shocked and confused at Kogasa's outburst, and a little frightened to be honest. Wh-What have I done this time- Suika looked down at the gourd in her hand. Uh oh…
"Suika! You've been binge drinking again!" Kogasa knelt down at Suika's side, her face close to tearing and yet frowning with disapproval. "I already told you to please not do that! It's bad for your health!"
"K-Kogasa, you really should give up on-"
"You look horrible!" Kogasa did not even acknowledge Reimu's words. "Those bags under your eyes! And your complexion! You look like you've lived underground for years!"
"A-Actually, she kind of did-"
"I'm worried for you, Suika!" Kogasa did not even know Yuugi existed. "I'm really worried for you!"
"Well, there's no point in worrying over someone like-"
"I'm worried about you even more than myself Suika!" Parsee's words flew over Kogasa's head as Kogasa grabbed one of Suika's hands in her own two and placed it on the area of her breast above her heart. "So please… Don't do this to yourself okay?" Kogasa pleaded, "Promise?"
Suika just sort of stared blankly at Kogasa, unable to respond while Reimu and Yuugi looked on the scene bewildered. Paru was biting her thumb at being secretly jealous of the skill Kogasa had when it came to displaying her affection.
"U-Uh…" was all Suika could muster.
"T'ch… See? You're all disorientated! Come! I'll take you back to your room! You need some rest!" and immediately, Kogasa started dragging Suika off with the intention of once again spending the night looking after Suika.
"N-No! W-Wait! Wait!" but Suika's conscience had kicked in too late. Oh, how much she wanted to say that the alcohol had nothing to do with her disorientation!
"…" Yuugi, Parsee and Reimu stared after the dragger and the dragged down the corridor, feeling as if they had just seen an embarrassing side of Suika she would not have wanted them to see.
"… I… I kind of get how Suika feels now…" Parsee uttered, her logic telling her this was way over the top. Plus, she was still envious of how brazenly loving Kogasa could be.
"You know… Maybe I should bring some of my best sake for Suika tomorrow," Yuugi suggested out of earnest good will, "Make her feel better, maybe…"
"Well… At least Suika's right about not being Kogasa's play thing, because she isn't. She's already past that mark…" Parsee looked to the side, her lips sarcastic.
"What do you mean?" Yuugi asked, but before Parsee could explain, Reimu burst out with the answer.
"G-Geez! Isn't this supposed to be my house? ! And in less than one week, those two have made it their love nest!"
Give them your blessings, Reimu, it's your job (: