"With the pointless things you mortals do all day? I could handle all of it blindfolded. The way you bellyache about your insignificant burdens only makes you sound even more pathetic."

"Uh-huh. Wanna bet you could pull it off, then?"

"Pull what off?"

"Life as a normal human! Say, a whole day of posin' as a normal human and doing normal human work."

"Of course I could! I'm almost insulted that you'd offer me such an easy bet."

"Great! I know just the place. Meet me at the shrine tomorrow morning and I'll show ya the way."

"Hey, Kosuzu! This is the girl we told ya about."

Tenshi was already disgusted by this whole situation. Her clothes—refined, tailored to accentuate her best features, made of material finer than any that existed on Earth—had been exchanged for a simple yukata. Compared to heavenly fabric, it might as well have been made of fraying twine. The air in this village stank of impurity. This little library that Marisa had led her to was so small and dingy that it might as well have been a child's hideout made out of mud and sticks.

The girl—'Kosuzu'?—was arranging books on a table when they walked in. At Marisa's shout, she glanced up. The shop hadn't even opened for the day yet, but she had a tired, frazzled sort of expression as she said, "Oh! Well. Welcome to Suzunaan."

In response to a goading prod from Marisa, Tenshi shuffled deeper into the building, like an inmate being marched to her execution.

Kosuzu walked around the table, adjusting her glasses to get a closer look at Tenshi, then looked to Marisa. "So… you really just want me to let her work here for one day?"

"Yep. Don't even gotta pay her."

"She probably doesn't know what money is for, anyway." Reimu stepped up on Tenshi's other side. She rested a hand on one shoulder, like she was subtly ensuring that Tenshi couldn't turn and run.

Insulting. Like a noble celestial like herself would ever flee something. It would be a dignified march, if anything.

"Um. Huh. That's kind of a weird request… Is this a youkai extermination thing?"

"Nope! Nope." Marisa answered just a bit too quickly to sound natural. "Nothin' like that! Just, uh… trying to get her some work experience!"

"Huh…" Kosuzu didn't look convinced, but neither did she have the energy to argue. "Well, I could definitely use the help. Today's just for the release of the new Agatha Chris Q book, and there was a line out the door all morning last time…"

She sighed, then looked to Tenshi. "Oh! Um, I don't think we've been introduced though, Miss…?"

"Oh, this is…"

Reimu started to introduce her, only to trail off herself, shooting Tenshi an uncertain look.

It took several awkward seconds for her to realize what Reimu was getting at here. Yes, mere humans didn't tend to have names like 'Tenshi', did they?

It took several more, still-awkward, seconds for her to mutter her response, just loud enough for Reimu to hear.

"Right, um," Reimu continued. "Kosuzu, meet… Chiko."

In the back room of the shop, Tenshi changed into her uniform.

It wasn't much of a 'change,' really. The uniform was nothing more than a yellow apron that said 'SUZUNAAN' near the lower hem. Her only consolation was that it went over that trashy yukata that Marisa had given her, so she wasn't going to have more of this rough cloth chafing at her skin.

She was still fussing with the apron when she stepped back out into the shop.

"Oh, good!" Kosuzu glanced back over her shoulder, already mid-work again. "I wasn't sure if it would fit. Are you ready to get started, then?"

"Yeah, sure." After a quick survey of the room, Tenshi determined that the least-decrepit place to sit was probably the table in the corner. She made a beeline for it. "You can bring me a cup of whatever barbarian tea you have. If you have any snacks, I could—"

"Tea…?" Kosuzu only seemed to be half-listening, as she hastily scrawled a sign with a paintbrush. Peeking at it, Tenshi could just make out the words 'LIMIT OF 2 COPIES PER PERSON.' "We won't really have time for a while. Oh, would you mind grabbing the cash box from the back room? It should be in the cabinet by the door, on the lower shelf!"

Tenshi bristled. "Do I look like some lowly pack animal to you?! If you're going to ask me to work, at least give me something suitable."

This time, Kosuzu shot her a half-confused, half annoyed look, wiping her forehead with an ink-stained hand. "... are you from a noble family or something?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious?! I'm from—"

Tenshi caught herself mid-sentence. The bet had been that she could pass as a normal human for a full day of work. If she gave her real surname, clearly any human would recognize such a dignified clan. Her cover would be ruined.

It was a strange realization. In Heaven, her family name practically defined her. Everyone knew that she was there because she was a member of the Hinanawi clan, and treated her accordingly. Here on Earth, people got deferential or quarrelsome when they learned where she'd come from. Pretending that she was neither a celestial nor a Hinanawi practically meant abandoning every way that she'd ever interacted with other people.

More immediately, though: it was dawning on Tenshi, to her horror, that she might have to actually do some work today.

"Look, I'll get your stupid box. You should be grateful, though."

As she returned with the cash box, Tenshi could hear a crowd clamoring outside the entrance. She'd barely managed to put the box down before Kosuzu shoved a stack of leaflets into her hands.

"Can you pass these out to the people outside?" She was already heading to another task before Tenshi could even answer.

Tenshi grit her teeth, but went along with it.

It was a chilly, damp sort of day outside. That hadn't dissuaded the humans, for some reason. There were dozens of them waiting to enter the store. More customers than leaflets, in fact. Once Tenshi had handed them all out, she headed back inside.

The doors had opened now, and the front of the store was filled with a crowd of customers, elbowing each other to reach the table of books, then elbowing each other some more to go to the checkout desk.

"Oh! Miss Chiko!" Kosuzu's arm waved over the sea of customers. "Could you bring up another crate of books from the back room? They're stacked by the printing press!"

As soon as she sat down the crate: "Miss Chiko! Can you please count out a five hundred yen refund for this gentleman?"

This, too, was strange. If these people knew that she was a celestial, they'd all be bowing to her or something. Asking for divine guidance, maybe. Instead, they were casually accepting leaflets from her, waiting for her to count out their refunds, asking her questions… like they believed that she really was a mere mortal or something. It was absurd to think about. Although really, that just showed how good Tenshi was at acting. It shouldn't have been a surprise.

On the other hand, it was also bewildering how many requests this girl had. And undignified, too. The amount of patrons crammed inside was already making this cramped little building uncomfortably warm. Now Tenshi was hurrying around on top of that. She was starting to work up a sweat. The next thing you knew, she'd have calluses and a tan, like some laborer. Urgh.

Somewhere around, "Miss Chiko, could you sweep up by the door too?" she snapped.

"Stop calling me that!" Tenshi was a pro at indignant shouts. The crowd of customers fell silent.

A dozen pairs of eyes turned toward her.

She didn't let it slow her down for a moment. "I'm not helping any more of these grungy peasants!"

Kosuzu shot her the tired, distant look of somebody who had nineteen other things to deal with right now and couldn't even properly register her complaints. "If you want something quieter to do, I have a crate of books in the back that need delivered."

Tenshi trudged down the muddy street, carrying a faded wooden crate full of books.

Against her better judgment, she had agreed to deliver them. The crate had come with a handwritten list, outlining every stop, the books to be delivered there, and any further instructions—the washerwoman, red house by the river – The Enigmatic Tale of the Dolls – make sure to get her returns!

Looking up from the list, she caught a glimpse of a storefront window.

Well, not so much the window itself as the scene reflected in it. That scene mostly contained a bunch of grubby buildings and a dingy dirt street, but there in the middle of it was a girl. A girl in a shabby yukata, a yellow apron with a few ink stains on it, and with her long hair frizzled from spending half the morning hurrying around and sweating. In such a sorry condition, it took a moment for her to even recognize her own reflection.

Well. That sealed it. Any doubt that she'd had was gone now. This whole bet had been a stupid idea. She couldn't even remember what Reimu and Marisa had demanded if she were to lose, but it couldn't possibly be worse than this humiliation.

It took a few seconds for her to find what she needed. Spotting a narrow alley, she marched into it, upturned the crate and dumped the books to the ground, dropped the crate atop them, then tossed her apron onto the resulting heap.

"And good riddance!"

As she stepped back out onto the street, she was already trying to rub some of the ink off of her hands.

It was weird, though, walking down the street after seeing herself like that. She really did look like one of these people. Farmers, merchants, and craftsmen alike were walking past her, and none of them shot her more than a cursory glance. It was just like interacting with people back there in the shop. Had she ever been simply… ignored like this?

No, 'ignored' wasn't the right word. People noticed her. They just weren't making a fuss about it. Here and now, everybody viewed her as a part of the village. Not a daughter of an upstart family, not a celestial interloper to be placated or defeated. Just a person, in a normal place for a person to be.

She shot a pointed look at a woman who was pulling a cart down the other side of the street. The woman shot her an uncertain look in response, but no more.

Truly a strange feeling.

Before she could dwell on it more, a voice behind her shouted, "Hey! Lady!"

A few seconds later, louder and closer: "Hey, lady! Hold up!"

Tenshi kept walking, until somebody skidded to a stop in front of her. "You dropped your stuff!"

It was a ruffled, dirty sort of kid, who looked like she'd been playing in the mud. She was out of breath as she thrust the object in her hands up at Tenshi.

It was, of course, that stupid crate. She'd even put all the stupid books back into it, with that stupid apron on top. They were all a bit dirtier for the experience, but accounted for. Tenshi stared at it in disbelief.

"I saw you walk into that alley, an' then when you came back out you didn't have your things. Good thing I caught up to ya, huh?"

The kid had such a dopey smile.

"I didn't need them!" Tenshi snapped, as she, paradoxically, yanked the crate out of the girl's hands. "They're garbage."

"The books still look good, though… hmm… 'wa-sher-wo-man'… Are you goin' to see Ms. Komatsu? Down by the river?"

"Give me that!" Tenshi yanked the list, too, out of the girl's grubby hands. "And it's none of your business where I go!"

"Oh, it's just, I'm headin' down that way too! Here, I'll show you a shortcut!"

"Hey, Ms. Komatsu! A book lady's here to see you!" After calling toward the back of the house, the girl looked to Tenshi and added, "I'm gonna go find my friends. Good luck, miss!"

"I don't need it!"

Why had Tenshi followed her? On the other hand, it wasn't like she had anywhere better to go right now. Following her had been the only way to ensure that the girl wouldn't do something more ridiculous, like trail after her to make sure that she didn't 'lose' her books again. Now that she was here, though…

Before she could resolve to leave, a woman stepped out around the corner of the house.

"Oh!" She had long, graying hair, walking stooped over and wiping her hands dry on her skirt. "Are you from the rental library? I'm used to seeing the other girl."

"Yeah, well! I'm not her."

Okay, this one more thing, and then Tenshi could ditch this crate of books and go do something more interesting, such as: literally almost anything. After glancing at the list, she dug through the books until she found the one in question. She thrust it out at the woman.

"Here. It's dirty because I tossed it in an alley."

The annoyed defiance in her voice drew a confused glance from the woman, but no more.

"Oh, well, here." The washerwoman pulled a lightly-stained rag from some pocket, then swiped it across the cover a few times. "Good as new, eh? Now, just one second…"

Before Tenshi could open her mouth to protest, the woman had disappeared into her house.

Amazing. This was turning into an even bigger waste of her time than staying in the library itself had been. It was like the universe itself was conspiring to annoy her with these pointless diversions.

"Here."

The woman shuffled back out through the doorway, proffering a small box toward Tenshi.

Tenshi stared at it. When it was still in her face after a few seconds, she hesitantly accepted it. The box's opaque lid didn't tell her anything further.

Fortunately, the woman didn't seem inclined to stop talking anytime soon. "It's just some sweets I put together, nothing special. That usual girl from the library is such a darling, and these books have been so nice for keeping me distracted since my husband passed… Thank you for coming all this way, yourself. I know it's a long climb back up that hill."

The box had a light stain on the lid. She was sure it was reused from something else. The sweets within were probably just as unappetizing. The smart thing to do would be ditch them so she didn't have to think about them anymore. Who knew, maybe she'd be saving some human from getting a weird disease by eating such low-class fare.

She frowned thoughtfully down at it. When was the last time that somebody had thanked her? Okay, it happened constantly. The servants in Heaven were so servile that they'd practically thank a celestial for spitting in their face. But, that was the thing. Those didn't really count. The meaningless behavior of a prey animal trying to placate a predator. Down here on Earth, even when she did something nice for one of those youkai or incident-resolvers, they'd just complain, or make some wiseass comment, or something. The few times that she'd even heard the words on Earth, they'd concealed a bitter edge: thanks for helping, I guess.

Needless to say, thanking her and handing her sweets was a new one.

She hesitated. If she wanted to chuck them, the river was right there, and yet…

Tenshi glanced back down to the list. "… it… says you've got some books to return too?"

Tenshi went through the rest of the deliveries.

Why not?

Each one came with its own set of annoyances. That was 'why not,' or at least it should have been if she weren't in some kind of deranged state of mind. One house was down a long path that had been trod into sticky mud by animal hooves. Another had screaming kids running around outside. One housewife had started gossiping to her, until Tenshi made it abundantly clear that she had no interest in such banal matters. One man had taken almost ten minutes to find the books that he needed to return in his trash pile of a house, while Tenshi waited with increasingly short patience.

A few minutes into her return trip, the gray clouds overhead reached some tipping point. It started as a scattered mess of raindrops, big fat ones that impacted the ground with a firm smack. For a few minutes, it drizzled in intermittent bursts. By the time that she reached Suzunaan again, it was building toward a crescendo. She hurried inside, rushing past the 'CLOSED' sign mere seconds before the sky cut loose.

The shop was closed, the customers were gone, and the scene that was left behind looked like some natural disaster. The table by the front desk now lay empty, with only a few remaining books scattered on it. Kosuzu's hand-painted sign was drooping. The entire front of the store, where the customers had been walking, was coated in a solid layer of muddy footprints.

Kosuzu herself was standing at the desk, tidying the—now rather more full—cash box. She looked about as beleaguered as her store did, with a few new stains on her apron, her pigtails hanging sloppy and loose, and a look of exhaustion on her face as she looked up and said, "Oh, Miss Chiko. Welcome back."

"Yeah. There's your dumb books."

Tenshi dropped the crate onto the desk with a satisfyingly dramatic thump, then headed over to flop into one of the chairs along the wall.

No more work, she'd decided. This was it. She was drawing the line here. The important part for the bet was to prove that she could work, not that she would. Not that it was hard, of course. She'd simply seen how pointless, petty, and degrading it was. Obviously.

She'd really been expecting Kosuzu to protest her treatment of the books, or give her another errand, but she didn't seem to be rushing to do so. As Tenshi fumed to herself, Kosuzu finished counting down that cash box, then piled it onto that crate of returns and carried them both to the back room.

A few minutes later, she emerged with a tray, carrying, among other things, a steaming pot of tea.

"Miss Reimu might have said that I don't have to pay you, but it would be rude if I didn't at least offer you tea after all of that, right?" After resting the tray on the table, Kosuzu sat out two cups, then started filling them. "It was a pretty short business day, but it felt like it took forever."

The smell of the tea hit Tenshi's nose, and she reflexively cringed. Any tea that they drank down here wasn't even up to the standards for dirty mop water in Heaven. Although… it had been several hours since she'd arrived at the shop. That was several hours without anything to eat or drink, most of which had been spent on her feet. Her thirst made the tea smell uncharacteristically potable.

Before she could reach a verdict on it, Kosuzu held out another item. "Oh, and this…? It was in the crate with the returns, and, um…"

Tenshi gave a dismissive wave. "It's trash. Some lady gave it to me."

"Oh! The washerwoman?" When Tenshi only stared back at her, Kosuzu pressed on. "She did say that she was going to make something for me, but I really didn't think she'd go through with it. Ehe. How about we split them, then? We deserve a treat after a day like that, don't we?"

Tenshi was sure that they were made with ingredients that were about one step up from old dung scraped up off of the street. She didn't have the energy to protest, though. Kosuzu opened the box—the scent that wafted out bore surprisingly little similarity to dung—and slipped into the seat across from her, already cracking open a book that she'd brought for herself.

Now that they weren't talking, Tenshi was aware of the rain drumming on the roof. It thrummed away, a low static sound, underscored by streams of water falling from the rooftops to splatter on the ground. Unless she wanted to get soaked, it sounded like she was going to be here for a while.

Kosuzu settled in, reading her book and nibbling on a manjuu from the box. Tenshi, after several minutes, took the slightest, hesitant sip of her tea. Her gut response was the same as ever: calling this swill 'mop water' would be an insult to hardworking mops everywhere. Compared to the tea in Heaven, this was more like... scum-filled pond water, that had gotten trapped in somebody's boot, then poured into a spittoon, maybe. If she was honest with herself, though… it didn't taste half bad. After the chill outside, a warm drink was nice.

How ridiculous. Had it only taken a few hours of this work to lower her standards so far that she could enjoy this kind of thing? Why was she even sitting here, anyway? At the latest, she should have just told that kid to keep the stupid crate of books and gone to do something better. Sticking with it this long was beyond any good taste.

Especially now! They weren't even doing anything! Just sitting here! If she wanted to sit around doing nothing, she could have stayed in Heaven.

This felt different, though, she had to admit. They weren't sitting in endless idle luxury. It was a reprieve—warm drinks and a place to relax after spending time on her feet in the cold. The work made the subsequent relaxation feel more meaningful, apparently? Yeah, sure. As if toiling like a beast could improve anything.

A bit too late, Tenshi realized that Kosuzu was looking at her. Tenshi couldn't even say how long she'd been doing it for. To her bewilderment, she found that she'd drunk about half of her cup of tea while she'd been spacing out.

"Ah, sorry," Kosuzu said. "I guess I'm not much of a conversationalist today, huh? Dealing with that many customers always leaves me pretty tired…"

"If you can't handle this job, then you should have picked something else. Even an animal knows that much."

"Do you think so? I really like it overall, though! It's hard sometimes, but…"

"What's there to like about taking orders from grungy farmers all day, getting your hands covered in ink, slouching around in the mud to deliver books, and then sitting around doing nothing and drinking unrefined tea?!"

Kosuzu didn't quite suppress her look of annoyance this time. She seemed to channel the energy into fidgeting with her glasses, looking over Tenshi with renewed interest. "Miss Chiko… you really are from a noble family or something, aren't you?"

Tenshi couldn't quite bring herself to answer. She'd suffered through all of that, gone the extra mile and done work, and now she was getting found out at the end of the day?!

"… I thought so," Kosuzu continued. "You kind of talk like another girl I know. But, um—"

She was cut off by a shout from the doorway.

"Hey, Kosuzu!" It was hard to mistake Marisa's voice for anybody else. "We're back."

"Oh!" Kosuzu shot a tired smile over Tenshi's shoulder. "Good afternoon. Come right in."

Tenshi's seat was facing away from the entrance, but she could still hear the two pairs of footsteps as Reimu and Marisa approached.

"So?" Reimu asked. "How did she do?"

"Yeah!" Marisa slapped a hand down onto the back of the chair, right behind Tenshi's head. "Tell us everything. How's Chiko here at this shopkeepin' thing?"

"Um." Kosuzu glanced between them and Tenshi, looking confused. "You're sure this isn't a youkai extermination thing or anything? You're acting pretty weird about it…"

"We'll explain it when we're done," Reimu said. "But only after you tell us how she did."

"Okay. Well, um…"

Kosuzu shot Tenshi a thoughtful, uneasy look. She was sort of cringing. Tenshi could tell that whatever she said next, it wasn't going to be good.

"She did complain a lot… and kind of insulted me once or twice… and called my customers 'grungy peasants' in front of them…"

"Only once!" Tenshi protested. "There were hardly even any of them in here!"

"... she did the work, though. Today would have been harder if I didn't have the help."

"So what d'you think?" Marisa asked. "Gimme your best guess of where she came from."

"Well…" Kosuzu shot another hesitant glance toward Tenshi. "… she's not a normal human, is she? She talks like she's a noble or something, but she isn't from any of the noble families I'm familiar with, and she… acts pretty weird, really… Sorry, Miss Chiko, but it's true."

"Hehe." Marisa had a very I-just-won-a-bet sort of grin. "Go on, 'Miss Chiko.' Tell Kosuzu the truth."

Tenshi scowled. Rather than do so immediately, she tilted her cup back and drained the last of her tea.

… she really had drunk that tea, huh? If anybody had served her such swill at a shrine party or something, she would have spat the first sip back in their face and dumped the rest on the ground. But here, she'd finished a whole cup of it.

She'd wanted to drink it, even. She'd even been considering trying one of those sweets. She would have been content to just sit here sipping tea and listening to the rain, if only all of these dumb questions about her heritage hadn't come up. After the work she'd done today, hadn't she earned that much?!

"Isn't it obvious?! I'm…!"

Finishing that sentence was hard, all of a sudden.

"I'm, um."

She opened her mouth, but no more words came out.

She knew what was supposed to happen now. She'd announce her true name and lineage, wad up that dingy uniform and throw it in Kosuzu's face, then walk out of this dump and go find somewhere more aesthetically pleasing to spend her time. Reimu and Marisa would gloat about her loss for weeks to come, but it wasn't like she wanted to be some lousy mortal. Right? Right.

Except…

If she did that, word was going to spread pretty quickly. News that Suzunaan had employed a celestial of all things would be a hot topic, especially since an entire crowd of villagers had seen her here. This wasn't a trick she'd be able to pull again, anytime soon. If she walked down the street, wearing normal clothes or not, somebody would eventually spot her and start a fuss. She'd get the whole 'bowing and asking for guidance' thing she'd been missing earlier.

Usually that kind of treatment felt good. But when humans did that, it was because she was a celestial. If some other celestial showed up, they'd get the same treatment. It locked her out of other things, too. If people knew she was a celestial, they wouldn't gossip to her about their day, or casually offer her directions, or give her a box of sweets as earnest thanks.

Not that she wanted such trite things, obviously. Obviously. A mere human was a pathetically small, petty, insignificant, imperfect thing to be. … it had felt strangely nice, though, being treated based on what she was doing, rather than where she'd come from, or who her parents were.

"I'm… a noble! From a super-important family. You had it right the first time, jeez." That part was just close enough to the truth that she got it out without too much struggle. Each successive sentence, though, was more of a mess. "You just don't know my family because you're an ignorant commoner! But, I've taken a liking to this little shack of yours! I've decided that from now on, I'm gonna work here sometimes. Next time I show up, you'd better have a better uniform waiting for me than this old rag!"

"Er," Reimu said. "Tensh—"

Tenshi silenced her with a 'do you want me to level this entire village with an earthquake' sort of glare. Well, she liked to think of it as one, at least. It might have looked a bit pleading toward the end. She could worry about settling their bet later, assuming they wouldn't let her wriggle out of it on this technicality.

Tenshi turned back to Kosuzu, feeling Reimu and Marisa's bewildered stares at her back. "So? How about it? I'm doing you a real favor here, you know."