Sure it's almost 4:30 am. But sure why not, let's update anyway!
Here's chapter 3 of this shin-dig (noone uses that term anymore, do they?)
I do quite enjoy narrating as Komachi. I suppose I should. Komachi and Suwako are my two favorite touhou characters.
Everyone is awesome and I like them all, but still those two tie for my Number one slot. Tojiko is close, but she gets 2nd.
Enough about me, lets get on with what brings you guys here. Wonderful Shinigami-sempai time is now.
Chapter 3 – The Welcome Wagon part 1
"Kyan!"
I was launched at high speed into the ground, my body smashing into the ground like a ragdoll, forming a tiny crater and a kicking up a whole lot of dust.
It took a second for me to heal, and looking up, I could see my cute little boss fuming, floating in the air high above me.
Komachi, you really did it this time.
Eiki had finally stopped whacking me with that last one and began to descend from the air. Hopefully...she got it out of her system...
"What in the world were you thinking Komachi?!" She yelled again
Or not…
"We finally get our sub, you scare him half to death, and now you lose him because you wanted to shoot him there! He's probably halfway across Gensokyo now!"
She landed by my side, and extended her hand to help me up.
I took the helping hand, until it moved it and bonked me on the fresh bump she made on my head.
"You knucklehead" She told me.
I blinked and flinched again grasping my already throbbing head.
"What the heck were you thinking?" She said
I pouted and answered "I was planning on giving him a prime view of his hunting ground, that's what." I responded.
It looked like Eiki was calming down, well, a small bit.
"And you thought that was the best way to do it? With barely a warning?" She asked me.
"I didn't expect him to let go." I argued to her.
She just sighed
"And how many have let go? You do remember how many people manage to hold on the first time you do that to them, do you? None of them do. Remember when you first tried it with me? You – literally - shot me out of orbit."
"Oh yea, I remember that, you crash landed on the moon captial and they-"
"Oh right th…"
…..
…damn
….
I looked away from Eiki and pouted.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time." I said childishly.
She said nothing back.
I then looked back to her.
She looked at me.
We looked at eachother.
And…
I crossed my arms "Alright alright, I'm sorry. I should have thought about it before I actually did it."
"Goo-ahhh..." Eiki broke her composure and her word, breaking into an uncontrollable yawn. It took her a moment to get back to speaking
"I accept your apology. But Liam's the one you really need to apologize too, figuring you just shot him at supersonic speed. I'll be waiting to hear him accept your apology too." She said to me.
Hu-oh I know where this is going.
We looked at eachother.
…and it seemed she did too.
"You know you gotta go get him now."
I turned away again. "I know..." I groaned. Well, I suppose I ought to anyway. I did cause this. But when am I suppose to go see Fuka today? I was planning to visit where they were keeping our fallen friend.
Reluctantly accepting this mission, I gave another sigh and began to get up. Eiki gave me her hand to help with that, this time with no whacking either.
My friend helped me up, and gave a yawning stretch afterwards, as my spine also straitened out as it put itself back in place.
"Alright. Let me go find the kid." I said, dusting myself off. "Where would you want me to flash us-"
"No. No distance-warping Komachi. Just normal travel, ok?" Eiki told me.
Awww. "Really?" I said.
"I'm sure he's been traumatized enough today." Eiki jested
We looked at eachother.
"Well, by us".
We both nearly laughed.
I gave a shrug. "Fine." I said nonchalantly. "Where would you like me to meet ya when I pick him up?"
"Meet me back at my house, ok?" Eiki told to me. "I need to go back to my office and make sure everything's ready for my replacement. After, they'll probably make sure I stay here."
...that I did know... last time we threw her on a "mandatory" vacation she started sneaking in after hours and started cleaning and organizing everyone's stuff. She managed to clean half of our department offices before we finally caught her.
Ahhh...such a workoholic that girl. That's why I love ya Eiki.
Hmm, I wonder if she's gonna manage to sneak in again...we all know she's gonna. I am totally not gonna lose the betting pool this time, especially to that Fuji reaper again.
"Well, enjoy it Eiki-sama, I'm off, and see ya later!"
After departing my adorable boss, I entered inside the nearby forest.
Getting off my feet, I saved myself the trouble of walking and floated through the forest.
I sighed.
So much more work to do today. I could probably find the kid if I searched hard enough...but...It'll take a while, and if I slack she'll catch me today. Especially if she's about to have a LOT of time on her hands very soon...
Geeze, I still gotta do today and yesterday's workloads today. And I know I'll be giving him some sort of a tour of his new stomping grounds. I mean, it's just one of those things I just don't think about until it happens. How much time is that gonna give me now? Geeze, and then if I even want to go visit Fuka-chan too. When in the world can I do all of that? What about Komachi-time, I need time too. And nap time too.
Ahhhh. I don't wanna...but I gotta...Eiki's gonna be super watching me now.
"Looking for someone?" I heard.
Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. I see a medium sized fairy infront of me, stopping my path.
I jam on the proverbial breaks and stop floating along, seeing this fairy infront of me.
She wore a elegant purple dress, with a pink little cap on her head. She had normal wings, almost too perfectly normal wings that flapped in the air. With golden eyes the fairy flew up into my face.
"Yea, I am. Quite busy too." I said, hoping she'd leave me alone.
I looked again at her wings. Something seemed off about those things.
"Really?" She said, in a manner that seemed to fake curiosity. I noticed the wag of her finger in a strange way before she flew right into my face, her golden eyes shining in my face.
"Could you tell me please? " She then said to me, "I've been out of the loop so much lately, I'd love to know."
As the fairy's eyes glistened, as I looked into them, I felt obligated to lay it all out.
"Some dumb-ass celestial who I haven't tracked down yet beat Fuka almost to death, nearly destroyed that shinigami's entire soul and ever since Fuka hasn't been able to reap. Eiki and I have been covering the reaping for some time now, and finally, we now have a temp who just got out of the academy to fill in while Fuka heals up. Liam Albius's is the kid's name. He's a cute little kid, but I've meet much cuter men."
Was I just totally honest there for a moment? Well, Liam was cute for his age range...
"Then I kinda screwed up and launched him halfway across gensokyo. Now I gotta find our newbie, give him the grand tour and put him through the ropes. I don't know how strong he is, but if he needs it I was thinking a friend of mine in the bamboo forest might be able to help for some training. She's usually good in that manner of toughening people up. But I don't know about it though, I'd probably need to go over it with Eiki first."
Wait a sec...why am I telling her all this?
...Oh yea! She asked me with those golden eyes... I could see her making one of those "ahhhh, it now makes sense" arm folding thinking poses from the new information I told her, before she locked eyes with me again.
"I never knew, thank you very much shinigami-san" she said to me.
"Just don't go telling everyone ok?" I told her, our eyes still locked. "Eiki and I haven't been telling people about it, we don't want everyone to know there's been a deficiently here, and I as hell don't want the youkai or hermits to find out they got a easy reaper to contend with. I totally know a bunch of dumb-asses waiting for their fight against a reaper will flood here to like they always do when there's blood and fresh meat in the water."
Wait...didn't Eiki tell me not to tell people about this?
I broke eye-contact with my fairy friend. The moment I did, my mind possessed the thought, why am I telling her all this?
"Hey, I don't think I've meet a fairy that ever cares about this. You fairies are pretty much immortal anyway, we never deal with you. Why are you asking me this? " I questioned her.
The fairy flew past me like she was in a hurry. "Oh...my shikigami wasn't collecting info like I asked, so I decided to go straight to the source. That's all. Thanks again for the info Komachi-san."
Wait wh-
I heard a voice behind me. A much older voice.
"Your forgetfulness is too much, you should be more retentive. That's a boundary that you should not forget."
I looked back immediately to see the voi...
Um...the what? I looked back, and I didn't see anything. There was absolutely nothing behind me.
Was I looking for something?
Oh! Yes!
Yes, I was looking for Liam.
Wait...no, wasn't I suppose to be looking for something else too? A fairy...no, haven't run into one today...
I scratched my head of what just happened, my only memory of the past minute was a pair of stereotypically normal fairy wings, and someone saying thank you. But like I remembered I haven't run into a fairy today.
I shook my head. Must have been one of those annoying fairy tricks. Couldn't have been anything else.
I shook it all off.
"Girlfriend, just forget about it. Whatever it was...just whatever." I said to myself, giving up on whatever just happened. "Just go up, just get a eagle-eye view and get this over with."
I knew I was right. Just get this over with, and hurry my butt up.
With that, I took flight and flew far above the forest. Flying higher and higher into the sky and just below the clouds I began my search. Looking around I started to scan for a sign of something that happened.
North, south, east and west, I saw nothing whatsoever.
So I skipped around.
Using my power to manipulate distance, within a second I was at a large open area next to a giant misty lake.
High above the lake I searched again. No signs of life again, expect for the fairies playing below me. I didn't see anything here.
Before the fairies below noticed me, I skipped around once again.
I moved to the very top of YoukaiMountain, former capital of the oni kingdom, and current home of the their successor, the Tengu settlement.
Well, a good chunk of the mountain is the Tengu's territory, the rest is all wild territory where some of Gensokyo's strongest wild youkai reside. Like those dang bears.
...
...bloody youkai bears. They drive everyone away from the best honey points in Gensokyo. Leaving me to fend off that dang mama bear so I can get honey for Asakura's honey ales. I don't know how that guy does it, but Asakura-san's brews are totally worth getting mauled by Youkai bears for. He's as good as his father, grandparents, and great-grandmother.
Arriving to Gensokyo's highest point, I landed on the flat surface of Gensokyo's highest point. It's a moderate flat area, not too bad. There's a few trees here, but aside from that nothing else makes their home here.
"Ahem."
Except for the Tengu watchguards.
"Oh! Hello!" I said, looking up to see a wolf tengu with a flat, very huggable bushy white tail standing ontop of a tree. She had short silver hair with a tiny little tengu tokin on it. She had a nicely woven white shirt with detached sleeves, one that reminded me of what a shrine maiden wears.
"Looking for something?" She asked me flatly.
Man, this one always gets to business fast. What was her name again? Dang, I always remember Aya, but I keep forgetting her underling's name.
"Um...yea. It's official afterlife business stuff." I said.
If there's someone who blabs things to someone else, it's the tengu. Keep my tongue in my mouth...
"So I suppose you're responsible for that sonic boom that crashed into the mountain?"
She said with that hint of adversarial journalism she usually has.
If it wasn't a shinigami, I would expect Ms. Serious to draw that sword of hers that's hanging by her side. She always draws her sword, like a dog bearing fangs at a possible foe.
But she knew me. She knows she wouldn't last five minutes against me, and thus, no point to figh-wait...
Sonic boom? That's it! That's got to have been him. Woohoo, this is going faster then I had hoped. Hasn't even been 30 minutes yet and I already found his trail (of destruction)!
"No, just heading to the source of it myself. Mind telling me where that happened? I got a date with the kid who was that sonic boom. Gotta show the new meat aroun-" I stopped myself cold.
ohhhh crap. I said too much.
I fidgeted, my mind reworking what I was about to say, despite letting the cat out of the bag right there. She knew, she totally had to know. Those eyes of hers refused to let go of me, taking in everything I was doing and clearly making mental notes.
...crap.
Oh screw it, just cut to the chase Komachi.
"Ok ok, um... can you just tell me where it happened? I said "I need to deal with stuff there."
"Stuff. Right." She didn't act like a normal tengu, trying to get a new "news" story out of this. Instead, fluffy tail gave a simple reply that clearly showed she really didn't give a damn. "It's on the wild side of the mountain, close to the mid-center, not too far from where those feral youkai have been acting up."
Oooo...That means I gotta find him before he's youkai-chow.
"Thanks a million...um"...oh crud I forgot her name again "...Inuyas-"
"Inubashiri Momiji, Onozuka-san" she said cutting me off. I suppose she realized I forgot again...
Hey, points for trying?
She leaned in. "Please try not to forget my name Onozuka-san."
Ouch... I guess not.
Passing by her, I got that sense that she'd be keeping her eye on me. And with those eyes of hers, she probably just from standing on that tree-top...and figuring who she works for...
Great.
Well, I suppose I oughta be ready for that bridge when it's crossed. I suppose I should also save her the time and just show him the Tengu later. If I'm with him when it happens, we should be mostly ok.
"I will" I said to the Tengu who's name I'll probably forget by day's end.
...
I'm a face person. Not a name person.
I flew off towards where Inubashiri-san showed me, and low and behold I began to see it. No destruction though. weird. The trees got blown a bit, but nothing really was destroied. Well, execpt for one uprooted tree.
And the kid was right there. Looking deeper, I saw another figure with him,
Ahh, Hina-kami.
That explains it.
Once into view I waved my hand and shouted for him. "Kiddddd! Heyyy!" To get their attention
I succeeded, and I made a bee line to the duo "Kiddd! I finally found you!"
Landing on the ground, I gave a welcoming bow to Hina-kami.
"It's good to see you once again Komachi-san" She said to me.
Liam gave a relief on his face, before thinking.
"Sempai...um...what happened to me?" Liam asked. "I know that you were taking me here to gensokyo, and next thing I know I'm here. Um...what the heck happened?"
I saw Hina-kami in thought.
"If what I guess...I assume he let go?"
...
...busted already...
I brought my hands and my scythe behind my back.
"Yea...he kinda did."
Liam didn't know what was going on.
Oh yea! He doesn't know of my power. Of course he doesn't know
"Let me explain. I have power to manipulate distance. I can make distances very long become very short, or vice versa." I explained to him. "I tried to bring you here really fast, using my power...and well..."
"Reaper-san let go, and with the momentum he was launched into the sky."
uhhh...
"Supersonically and nearly killing two people..." She added...
Uhhh...
"Yeeeea, something like that." I tacked on.
Liam took it a bit better then I thought he would. Infact, instead of anger, he sighed and it looked like he felt sad about the whole ordeal I just put him through "Sorry Sempai." he said to me.
Before I could speak, Hina-kami did "Don't be sorry Liam. Everyone lets go the first time. Even I did. I got launched quite deep into the ground. Straight into the underground actually."
Ahh, Komachi's greatest fails, let's just bring them all u-
"And speaking of, Komachi-san, please refrain from doing that. You know the sky can be crowded. Please stop shoot people into the sky like that."
uhhh...um...
"I'll um...make sure that doesn't happen again." I said.
She gave me a lovely smile.
"I assume you two have some business to take care of?" She asked me.
"We do Hina-Kami." I said back "Come-on kid, lets go to Eiki-sama's home. She said to meet us there."
"Where is it?" He asked me.
"Oh, It's Not too far." I told him.
I took to the air, but Liam did not.
"Um...Sempai...are we going to do that thing again?"
My eyes saw Hina's eyes, remembering what I had earlier vowed before I answered. "No. We'll take the slow path."
I could see them give a sigh of relief.
After Hina-kami gave her goodbyes to use we departed.
I lead Liam high above into the sky. Finally reaching our point someway off the mountain, the entire land of gensokyo, or at least enough to give Liam a good view of his new territory.
Gensokyo...gensokyo is a very beautiful place. It's a place of awe and beauty. A place untouched by time. Nature in it's purest form. The mountainside and the flowing rivers, the green bamboo forest and the forest of magic, all of it.
This view, as I looked below me, was one of my favorites.
I turned to see how Liam was taking this in. He was quite awed be the view. I had a smile of pride seeing that. It looked like the first time he ever saw such a sight.
This was how I wanted to introduce Gensokyo to him.
It's pure...awe-inspiring beauty.
"Like the view?" I asked him.
I didn't need to hear his response, his eye said yes for me.
Granted, that didn't stop him from saying "Yes. It's...amazing."
I had a little chuckle, and put my free hand on my side. "You look like this is first time you've ever seen a forest."
"In a way it kinda is." He said to me.
Huh?
"Back where I lived, there really wasn't any forests, or anything like this. Most of my world was developed metropolises, or just desert. Well, most of it was desert anyway...I think."
He floated in a circle around me, taking each part of Gensokyo's view in.
"They're just so much of it here. I've never seen so much of it in one place." Liam told me as I saw him enjoying this perfect view. He turned to me "It is like this all over the planet here?" Liam asked.
"It use to be." I said. "But over the past few centuries humans, which is the unchallenged dominate species on this planet, began to develop it."
"They have developed lots of the land, but there's a lot of spots where you can find nothing but nature just like this. Infact, the humans themselves have made and quartered off a few of those areas, they call them nature preserves or something like that. Gensokyo, in a way is one too, for totally different reasons."
Figuring no-one's told him yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam.
"Figuring no-one's told you yet, I might as well give you a quick history lesson Liam."
Looking at the boy answered it for me. Liam seemed more then willing to listen to me speak.
And I am more then happy to speak.
"In the past, all over the planet youkai use to live in places where humans didn't populate, such as these massive forests, and humans themselves carved out their own land. Human and Youkai interaction was very common and both races clashed from time to time, then repopulated, then fought again and whatnot. That was pretty much the way things were. But, the balance of power began to shift in the past few centuries, mostly the past two thousand years in favor of humans, through technological achievement. Unlike many worlds, the humans here use to use magic once, but they've forgotten it, and use electricity and technology to build their civilization in lieu of magic."
"Really?" Liam asked me.
"Yep" I confirmed. "Infact, magic and youkai are treated as fiction by humans, denying it's existence all together. Nobody thinks they're real, and whenever there are small little "slip-ups" the humans themselves rationalize the mystical parts of it away. It's made our life a lot easier when it comes to reaping them. Won't last forever of course, but it's how things are now. But that's not gensokyo. As you've seen, everybody knows we're here."
"Anyway, human civilization and their magic-less cities began pushing youkai out, and before long humans practically took control and settled on every landmass on the planet. Losing their home and existences, the Youkai found themselves at a crossroads. Some changed and adapted into human society hiding their true nature, others decided to stake out their own land and drive everyone else away, and the last group of youkai decided to make lands hidden from humankind, using magic as the key to entering into their secret worlds so they can keep on living how they use to."
"I'm guessing Gensokyo is the later." Liam accurately guessed.
I snapped my fingers and pointed them at him as he got it right "You're catching on quick kid" I said with a smile.
"As you said, Gensokyo is one of those hidden away lands. It's a mountainous area that is tough to get to by mortal means, and is very disconnected from the rest of Japan, the country Gensokyo is located in. We've had a presence here long before the barrier was set up, due to some of the planet's most powerful deities and youkai making Gensokyo their stomping grounds. When they started living here, we shortly followed and created the Gensokyo branch."
Ok, his brain seems to be soaking this in well.
That's good.
"A little under two hundred years ago, the youkai here decided that instead of dealing with the growing humanity presence, they decided to seal Gensokyo away in a giant magic barrier, putting it in a pocket dimension that existed right ontop of the real Gensokyo."
That boundary going up, It was quite an sight to behold. I even took pictures for my personal photo album. Ahhh...
"And that's the land you see today. You can't see the barrier unless you apply something against it, but it's there. It's actually easy getting use to living under a giant dome, especially since you can't see it... the people who made this thing thought this thing through, they really wanted to make something that would last. And aside from a single lynchpin, the people who made it did a pretty damn good job."
"You getting all of this sofar Liam?" I asked him. "It's a lot to soak in, and I can show you the info on this place later."
"No, I'm good sempai. Is there more?"
"Of course" I said prideful.
I'm not sure how much of this he'll remember, even if he says he does. Oh well, I can refresh him later. Let's see...let's get the rest of the boundary team 101.
"Let me tell you about who made the barrier. The boundaries was created with a tri-fecta of entities that are still around today. A family bloodline of humans, a youkai that could alter reality, and a powerful dragon god."
"Wait, dragon god?" Liam interrupted me.
Oh...o boy. Dragon god, how do I describe him...um...hmm...what might he relate to...Oh I know!
"Uhhhh...Heard of Overlord Babylon?" I asked him.
"Yea. That giant dragon overlord that ruled a good chunk of the multiverse at one time? I remember reading about him in the academy." Liam answered.
Oh good. That makes it easier.
"They're the same species." I told him.
"Seriously?" Liam said with shock.
"Yep." I said with a nod. "The Dragon God's a cool dude, and his mere presence keeps the rest of earth's superpowered creatures in check. Nobody wants to piss him off, and sans a couple of crazy souls virtually everyone gravels at his feet whenever he actually does appear. Usually, he just chills up in clouds at his palace with his servants and the celestials that reside there."
Of course, I omit that he can be even lazier then I am (which is saying something), rather not leave a bad first impression on the guy. "But he's the least active of Gensokyo's powerplayers. You'll barely see him, I'm sure about that."
"Wow, I didn't think someone so powerful would live here. Someone that powerful just causally going around..." He told m-haha...
mmm-I felt a laugh about to come out, taking all my willpower not to laugh.
I turned to the side let out my emotion with a little misleading chuckle "If you think he's something. The other two sides that created the boundary are a whole other bag o worms."
Liam looked at me, confused.
Sigh.
"The other two, the boundary youkai Yukari Yakumo, and the Hakurei shrine maidens are very, very involved in Gensokyo's so going-ons."
"First are Priests and Shrine Maidens of The Hakurei shrine, who are a family of very powerful humans that live here. They helped create the barrier, and they have a very important role in maintaining the barrier too, or so I'm told cause noone ever told me the fine details except that the barrier would collapse without them alive. They're also usually the protectors of Gensokyo. When incidents and big stuff happen, usually they're behind stopping it."
"Currently though, the family is well, just a mother and daughter. Seika Hakurei and her little daughter, Reimu Hakurei. Lately she's been trying to raise her daughter, so she hasn't been all so active lately unless it pertains to her little girl."
He "ahhhh'd" to that.
"But assume she's a pushover and Seika will leave you in a crater a kilometer huge. Seika's one of Gensokyo's strongest fighters, definitely stronger then the majority of youkai here. She and her friend Clementine are the two who deal with the incidents that happen around here, they've spent their lives beating up gensokyo's troublemaking youkai. Also, she's also a friend of mine, so I don't want to hear from Seika you're causing her or little Reimu trouble. Ok?"
I should go pay Seika a visit lately. She's been so shut in this whole month. I know the humans at the village said she's come by, but still. Raising Reimu alone might be taking more of a toll on her then I thought. She seemed ok when I was there for her birthday last month, but I still need to see her myself. I've been so busy I haven't even had the time to even say hi.
I should take Liam to meet her at least once...
!
That's it!
That'd be a great excuse to go visit her. I know Eiki's replacement isn't gonna let me get off easy, so I'll need a reason to visit on-hours. I'll take him to meet her in person. Could snatch up some of Asakura-san's Honey ale, go visit her and have a nice drink. That does sound quite per-
"Got it Sempai." He said.
My little reaper snapped me out of my thought.
"Oh, um..alright." I said as I adjusted my mind back on the rails.
...
It kinda took a moment.
"Alright, that's all for Seika. Now time for number three."
Now time for the last member of the boudnry trio.
"You're going to need to remember this one. The last and most important of these three is Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries and the De facto ruling authority of Gensokyo. One of the strongest, if not the strongest youkai in Gensokyo." I told him,
"Wait, what did you said she was the youkai of?" Liam asked me.
Attentive kid, some don't catch that first time through.
"Of Boundaries." I replied.
"Boundaries?" he parroted.
"Yep" Confirmed me. "As you know, many youkais, humans, demons and the whatnot can develop some sort of innate power, some special ability of their own. Yukari's, as strange as it is, is that of manipulating boundaries."
Liam took a minute to try to think in his own head, what does boundaries do?
I don't blame him, took me a bit longer the first time too. It's quite a shock to see what she can do with it.
"That doesn't sound very strong, or make much sense." He said.
"I thought so too. We had a sparring match once, and then I realized how wrong I was when she wiped the floor with me using those powers alone" I fidgeted a bit, cleanly passing over that humiliating defeat "...and then again without using them." cleanly passing over the second humiliating defeat.
But, instead Liam was just confused. "How are boundaries strong?"
I'll be honest. I don't know. I just don't freaking know. And I really don't know how she made them so strong. I can control distance, that's kinda self-explanatory. But her, but for Yukari, I just don't bloody know.
"I'm not sure really" I told him straight "But somehow she's evolved her own power to manipulate the boundaries between similar concepts and intangible things, and the ability to screw with them at will. As she said to me, as long as there's a middle ground between two things, nomatter what they are, she can manipulate it."
"Like the distance between two trees?"
"That's my own power, but yea, something like that. She's also a very powerful magic user and just flat out extremely strong in pretty much every regard. She also has the uncanny skill of somehow uncovering information. Don't know how she does it, but she's a pro at that."
Seriously, she does. It's hella annoying. How in the world does she figure our secrets out?
"On a personal level, She's usually a friendly person if you can make friends with her, and well, slightly troublesome regardless if you're friends or not. She's one well...very youkai-like youkai I suppose. She's very cunning and quite sneaky when she wants to be, always aiming to achieve some sort of goal she'll be extremely vague about telling you, even if she's got no goal in mind."
Liam looked as confused as I usually am when dealing with Yukari.
Ahhh, confusing people before they even meet. Yukari would be proud.
Speaking of confusing, how do I tell her about her. Geeze...hmmm...
"Um...well."
Hmmm...think girl think
She's...complicated. She sleeps for most part of the year, barely active, extremely lazy in her doings, and usually manipulates other people to get done what she wants done.
My hand met my hip as I began to think about it more.
Still, I really wish she stop...being so vague and cryptic about almost freaking everything. Even if it's "Happy Birthday Komachi, I got you a new necklace," she goes through freaking leaps and bounds instead of just telling me to my face. It's annoying as hell.
I suddenly reopened my eyes.
uh...turns out I said all of that outloud.
...
"..."
ooohhhh...
"uhhh..."
Liam had a "I didn't like the sound of that" expression. That fearful "what the hell am I getting myself into" expression.
I brought up waving hands to try to calm him down.
"Hey hey. You shouldn't need to worry about her. As ambiguous she may be, Yukari's one of the good guys and one of the few pillars of order that exist here in Gensokyo. Most Youkai revere her, for a variety of reasons, and when she speaks others listen."
"If anything, she's on our side, infact her closest friend works for us. Eiki and I need to introduce you to her later, but that's not now. For a rule of thumb, As long as you don't go threatening Gensokyo, Yukari won't mess with you."
Or if she finds it funny. Or if she's in a prankster mood. Or if she's... eh, good enough on Yukari 101. He can discover the rest himself.
"Ahhh...umm...I see..." He said.
"Like I said she's on our side. She's well, it's easiest to get a feel for her if you just meet her in person, she'll probably try to meet you eventually. And FYI, She loves to stroke her own ego and talk about herself, so there's a in for ya."
It seems our conversation has reached it's conclusion, he went a bit more silent after I told him that.
I held onto my scythe, and Liam's still had his weird white scythe still folded up and strapped around his lower back. We entered that awkward moment of silence that happens when conversations end. Looking around Gensokyo from my favorite spot won't cut it anymore.
"Hey, Liam, let's go meet up with Eiki-sama now, ok? I haven't showed you where she lives yet."
"Alright Sempai" He said as he began to take off.
Just before I moved, I felt a buzz behind me.
"Huh?" I said to myself, my attention turning to it and seeing nothing.
My senses told me otherwise.
The corner of my eye caught it. a small little nat. Something so small, something so unnoticeable, totally not moving around like small little nats should. Instead, it was just flying in place.
It was like it was watc...Ohhh...
"Wriggle...You sneak" I muttered under my breath, and I gave a gentle blow, seemingly snapping it out of it's trance and back to how nats normally act.
Oh well, was gonna happen anyway. Surprised so soon. Maybe Yukari found out?
...nah...we've been keeping this under wraps, sans my loose lips to Aya's lackey a moment ago I haven't told anybody when our sub was coming, and Eiki said she hasn't either. Fuka wasn't around to tell anybody either, so that's out. Yuyuko knew Fuka was out and that we were getting a temp replacement but...
Hmm...maybe she leaked it? Yuyu gave us her word she'd stay silent, and she's not the type to lie like that. Maybe when I'm back to my boring routine I'll check it ou-
"Sempai? Which way do we go?" I heard him say.
Oh well, whatever, this was gonna happen to the kid anyway.
"Right. Just follow me kiddo. If nothing gets in our way, it shouldn't take too long" I lied.
Of course, I knew that something was in our way. I don't think she's want it any other way .
I lead Liam into the forest below us. I noticed a few more bugs flying in place as we did.
...Buckle up kiddo, seems like the first member of the welcome wagon is headed your way.
Chapter 3 - The Welcome Wagon - End
And so we get a bit of worldbuilding, foreshadowing, and some answers.
Like I said, with this chapter's end I introduce a few things.
Out of technicality, this is crossover. Well, more like a shared universe. We really won't be seeing much of non-touhou things, but they do exist.
Such as overlord Babylon from Makai Kingdom (one of my favorite N1 games, BTW).
I can promise a few other things non-touhou will appear during this story, but like said they aren't the focus, and more-so the consequence of creating a shared multi-universe that multiple franchises can exist in. But don't worry, if you're not familiar with the other series you shouldn't have much of a problem, I'll make sure instory you know enough not to get lost. Even though it's not a joke, "Don't explain the joke" as they say.
Second, that this story is a prequel to the actual series. Reimu's a little girl and her mother is still around. The spellcard rules haven't been invented yet (Between Mystic Square and EoSD that happens, as per canon) and as mentioned in ch1, well, the quagmire that is Phantasmagoria of the flower view hasn't happened either (shame too, Eiki's gonna lose her perfect record when that happens)
Though, I do wonder who that Clementine person is Komachi mentioned. He or She sounds like they might be a important...*shrugs* what do I know, I'm just the guy who writes this stuff. XD
Anyway, the welcome wagon is heading to our "innocent and starting shinigami", I wonder how he'll do. Read along and let's find out.
And if you enjoy the story, please let me know what you think through some C+C and reviews, I'd very much appreciate it. And even if you don't I still appreciate you taking time to read this story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am writing it.
See you next chapter!