Translator
Chapter 2- A second encounter means a second surprise.
Location – Shining Needle Castle
"You don't look too good." Shion said, a remark Seija would find comedic another time since it came from the personification of misery and lack of self-care. "Did you get beat up?" The misfortune goddess continues, her bowl of rice held protectively as she takes a pause from her disgusting slurping. Her dead fish eyes looking the same as usual yet she has the audacity to visibly raise one eyebrow in curiosity and implied worry. Seija lets out a long painful sigh in response.
Then gives her the bird with both hands from the other side of the Kotatsu (A low table with a special futon placed under it, so it keeps you warm and you can still eat too), "Now that ain't none of your business, is it, Miss Misfortune?" That isn't a question as much as it is a warning to piss off, the slight shake of her bowl a following ineffectual threat seeing how the goddess has already expected it and is holding the bowl tight. "Besides, wouldn't that mean the opposite for me?"
"I don't think so." The blue-haired girl replies as answer to both questions. "Besides, even if we're not friends…" They definitely aren't, even acquaintances sounds like a strong word to Seija since Shion is at the most, the friend of her removed once, joined twice accomplice of an inchling. "Shinmyoumaru would be sad if you were to like, die. And that'd be a pain to me, so, don't."
"What makes you think you can tell me what to do? You disease-ridden hobo skank?" Seija replies with a smile and a sweet tone, her head lazily resting against one of her arms like a sort of pillow.
"I knew it, you are upset." Shion notes, an uncharacteristic tone of victory in her deadpan voice.
"Hmm...no, I'm fine. I've never felt better." Seija replies, letting out a yawn as she tends one of her legs further down the table, only to feel dissapointed when she realizes she can't kick the latter shins in this posture. "How about you? How has your day been?" so she changes the subject.
"Ok." Shion answers with one word, not taking the bait. "How about you? Met anyone perhaps?"
Seija had thought herself lucky when it turned out Shinmyoumaru was hanging out at the Hakurei Shrine for the entire day when she came to freeload in the Shining Needle Castle. Because if the inchling had seen her, she'd know something had gone wrong and interrogate her until she found out what. She'd interrogate out of the nosiness and care she has for everyone, which is if anything, double the reason Seija didn't want her to know. Whether the inchling would believe it in the first place, want to rain danmaku on the witch for messing with one of her 'servants', or even tell her some inanity about how she doesn't care which way the amanojaku swings, Seija would rather die.
"The real question is…" Seija replies, now finding herself to be rather unlucky….ooooh. "Whose day haven't I ruined by entering their vision? Surely you'd understand something like that."
"Someone who ruined your day right back at ya, I'm guessing…" Shion hits the nail, and ok, what the fuck is her problem right now? She's not dumb enough to try and befriend the amanojaku but her behavior is, if anything, really pissing the latter off. "That's the one, isn't it? Seija?"
"The fuck do you want?" Seija finally just asks it straight, the cheery mask put down.
"Food tastes better with gossip." Shion replies, "Not that this isn't delicious, it is…" that Seija can believe, the goddess's usual meal tends to be of the rotten type, so her standards are so low that even something like a humble miso soup would taste like a five star broth to her. That and the selfishness in bothering someone just so they can amuse you is something she can understand.
So Seija think for a moment, debates the pros and cons of even telling the slightest detail to the Misfortune Goddess, in the best scenario the latter wouldn't believe her at all or just don't care at all, worst case scenario she tells her two buddies: the smug celestial and the lord of the house.
"I'll fucking kill if you tell anyone else." Seija warns, already feeling this is a terrible idea, but maybe having the perspective of someone who isn't tired, distracted, stressed out and confused could help a bit. Even more if she can pretend this conversation never happened later on.
Shion doesn't reply, instead putting her back a bit more straight, clearly awaiting the rest.
"Someone kissed me…" Seija starts, already feeling a chill in her back and some minor voice that's repeating over and over that this is a bad idea, that if this news spread, she'll be forever ruined.
"And…?" Shion asks, a hint of interest gleaming into her eyes.
"And I hated every second of it." Seija replies, childishly pulling her tongue at the other, the same damn tongue that can't keep remembering that goddamn kiss whenever there's time to do so.
Fucking biology, am I right?
"Who-"
"I won't tell you that, you greedy fuck." Seija panics, as in, instead of saying that all teasingly, she moves to sit upright, glares down at the goddess and snarls the words with hateful venom.
For a split second, that was the worst thing she could have said, for it made the latter's irritating blue eyes meet with her own with a piercing stare full of power, the split ends of her long hair lightly flicker in flames the sight of which make her soul feel like it's driven deep into with nails and dragged across a chalkboard. An instinctual terror starts to creep it's way into the youkai's spine, but she refuses to show it, instead stubbornly looking down at the incarnation of divinity.
A moment passes, two moments, three moments, and then the next, Shion lets out a sigh, her eyes and hair lose their flame and she returns to her slouch. "Fine, what will do you now then?"
"Good question." Seija replies once she regains her breath, she had pondered the same thing for a while, if she should approach Marisa and start a conversation about it or see if Marisa approached her to do so. The encounter could go two ways. If Marisa went with her usual 'lie at all costs, because that's fun to me', wacky, 'silly goober' persona, she'd most likely pretend yesterday's kiss never happened, allowing Seija to do the same. In that case, if Marisa didn't bring it up, Seija would have the rare good grace of never talking about it ever again either. Thus ending that story forever.
But if she continued in the vein of the gal who'd forcibly kissed Seija just to mess with her mind, things could get very messy (Even worse if she still believes the 'first kiss' part, cause that alone makes the youkai look like a weak virgin in retrospective.) While Seija doesn't have a shred of a positive reputation to lose, Marisa could still subtly and/or overtly harass her in many ways, some possible sexual. Telling on the witch would get her nowhere because no one would believe her about the culprit and Marisa would probably just come after her harder, emboldened by that response. (The thought alone makes her cringe) If people did believe Seija, they'd either hate her even more because she had been kissed by and is spurning Marisa freaking Kirisame or look at her like she's a laughingstock for being unable to handle someone not even 1/3th her own age.
With Marisa on the warpath (of love, someone kill Seija now) and either of those two public reactions she'd have to get seriously underhanded to fight back, and do it in a way that nobody would be even be able to notice this battle between them, no easy thing to do, that's for sure.
If Seija confronted Marisa, she'd find out what would happen next faster, which could be good or bad. As stressful as waiting in the 'what the fuck is even happening' zone could be, at least it meant things still had the potential to go well. Unlikely, but possible.
"So you hate their guts and that kind of rejection might either end it all anticlimactically or somehow turn them even more on?" Shion finally concludes at the end of the heavily censored tale, to which just nods yes. "Huh...I think you missed the third possible scenario." She says with a grin.
"What?" Seija states, apprehension clear for what will most likely be a bad joke.
"The two of you falling in love slash lust. A happy ending or game over in your view." She states.
Shion naturally gains another foul insult in return. Because even in the infinitesimal possibility that could happen, Seija would never go with it, not when her very values run counter against something as disgusting that is any form of love and especially because since Marisa had started it by being the aggressive one, to Seija's passive, overwhelmed idiot, which suggested a relationship where all the power would belong to the human and she'd be in no flattering terms, the witch's youkai bitch.
"Ok, ok, I get it, I get it, that isn't, heh, an option." Shion states with some trouble, one hand on her stomach as she's blatantly holding in a laugh now. Seija just silently glares at her, which makes her stifle yet another laugh. "Ok, look, sorry, I didn't expect you to be this entertaining is all."
"Glad you're enjoying my suffering." Seija serves a plate of sarcasm and scorn, on the house.
"Oh, by the way. I almost forgot." Shion states as she puts a fist against her other flat palm like a hammer striking a desk. "Shinmyoumaru wants you to help her shop during the evening in the human village, today. Failure to attend means you'll be forever banned from the castle."
"If anything that would make me come here more often." Seija shoots back, but still keeping it in mind. Sensing a lull in the conversation and thus her chance of exit, she promptly stands up and opens one of the windows, the blue sky and land of Gensokyo awaiting just beyond it. "Anyway I'm tired of seeing your ugly mug. If anything it's one of the few things I can respect the celestial for managing to endure. Were it me, I'd have run back to heaven by now."
"So you're calling me beautiful?" Shion just doesn't let the insult get to her. If anything a flash of inspiration comes to her, as her face suddenly looks all-knowing. "I wouldn't recommend that, say that too many times and even… I might fall in love and try to smooch you "
"A-and where has that tongue of yours been recently?" Seija snaps back, unimpressed. "I can smell the stench of garbage coming from it a mile away."
"And I can see lipstick on your mouth."
"Wha-reallly?" Seija moves to check with one hand, then stops herself when she sees Shion's look.
"No~" The goddess looks like she like she won at some casual game, which she didn't, she did not.
"...Oh, fuck you." Seija simply remembers she has stuff to do...away from here...right now.
Location – Human Village
Seija waited for Shinmyoumaru on top of an abandoned building by the edge of the village as usual. As much as she wanted to give the status quo the middle finger by walking all smugly down the street with her original look. She'd have a greater risk of being bothered by youkai hunters than causing the local elders to suffer from heart attacks and forcing parents to hurriedly hide their kids.
So here she is instead disguised, having replaced her wooden sandals with normal brown boots made to travel through rough terrain and last a long time, because a good disguise has to keep in fact that most ordinary humans are not capable of flight. A warm large red cloak adorns her from knees to shoulders in order to protect against any harsh winds and rain. Her usual white dress with spade patterns of red and black colors lies hidden right under it, so there's no need to change that and finally a sandogasa (brown hat that swordsman wear) lies on her head to hide her horns.
All that combined with the shitty katana sheathed to her left, gives her the look of any other youkai hunter out there. Because what better way is there to blend in than to pretend to be part of a dime a dozen that happen to come and go so often that nobody would bat an eye at her young face and weird hair or even hold in a suspicion within them for not remembering her living here had she tried to disguise herself as any other villager instead. So far this disguise rarely, failed to serve its job.
Seija continued to wait, seated on the edge of the roof as the evening sun set lower and lower. But she held no doubt whatsoever about Shinmyoumaru's eventual arrival. The girl is the type to never miss a meeting and even if she has to, she'd have told you an hour beforehand at the latest.
"Seija!" She heard a familiar voice from below and saw the inchling wave at her to jump down, the girl wore no disguise whatsoever though she is currently the size of a small human teenager.
"Sup, princess." Seija greets her, then jumps down as instructed. Following right behind the princess for the rest of the walk, as she's the one with the grocery list.
"I'm glad you've decided to come." Shinmyoumaru speaks up seconds after their walk begins, her whole body turned Seija's way as she childishly walks backwards. "It's been a long time."
"What do you mean? We met yesterday." Seija decided to ask.
"But we didn't meet today, until now."
"That's at best, a one day difference."
"Well, it did feel long for me." This girl. As cheesy as the line sounds, it does absolutely nothing to Seija, if anything the routine of this is something she could even tune out on, but she doesn't because the consequence of being caught doing that make the trip even longer than usual.
"I see. Well, don't worry. It's not like I'm going anywhere."
"So what you really mean, is that you ARE going somewhere. Don't, idiot." See, this here is why taking the opposite of what an amanojaku says all the time simply doesn't work, Seija's more than capable of meaning the things she says if she wants to. Which happens to be case here since why would she bother leaving Gensokyo? Finding another land where the biggest punishment for pissing someone off is being shot with non lethal firework is nigh to impossible, so she's staying for now.
"Sure, wouldn't want you to just wish me back." Seija deadpans, then predicts the princess will say something along the lines off 'anything that summons you would be more like a curse' which surprisingly she says word for word. Afterwards the two just indulged in their usual banter as they went through the market place, with Shinmyoumaru occasionally greeting people she knows while Seija makes a point to avoid eye-contact with them. And soon enough, time quickly flies by.
"That's the last item on the list, wasn't it? I think it'd be best to end it there." Seija notes.
"E-eh! You're right, Seija. I didn't even realize. I guess age does fly by when you're having fun, huh?" Shinmyoumaru says with a hint of- Seija's not sure. The inchling uses the kind of tone when someone has their playtime taken away. Though her mistake slightly amuses Seija.
"It's time, princess. Not age." She corrected, holding in a snort.
"Wha-D-did I say 'age' just now? I was pretty sure I said 'time' though." Sure she did.
"Whatever you say, are we done here?" Seija doesn't bother, just moving the talk along.
"Oh, one last thing and then home we go!" and after that declaration, the inchling practically rushed into the sea that is the market crowd, forcing Seija with a held in swear to play a one-person version of hide and seek with her. Finally finding the girl standing next to fruit stand, in conversation with-
A certain witch. No, would rushing over to interrupt whatever they're talking about make things or worse? Seija doesn't know, and so decides to wait instead.
Shinmyoumaru wouldn't be smiling and laughing like that if Marisa had revealed anything to her. Finally the inchling nodded her head to Marisa, moved back to Seija, took her bag of groceries with her one free hand and said, "I'll see you at the castle, Seija!" then she went off alone in the sky, while a pleasantly smiling Marisa approached the dumbfounded and disguised amanojaku.
The face-off had arrived. Seija resolved to show no fear, no weakness, and no stupid attraction. No way in hell did she want Marisa to think that she only had to kiss and hold her to shut her up or make her run away. No way she wanted Marisa to realize how much of an existential threat she'd made herself into with that kiss and embrace.
Still smiling and pleasant, Marisa said, "Nice disguise," and before Seija could reply, quickly got to the point. "Hey, Seija, I have to talk to you in private," even using her real name instead of some taunting nickname like 'fake oni' or 'miss contradiction', etc, etc.
Seija quirked an eyebrow in response, using one of her many youkai skills: efficient nonverbal communication. Some creatures don't understand human speech or any sort of language, so the only way to get them to understand things is through body language. Like she's showing off now.
Marisa quickly understood it, saying, "Oh, no, no, no! I'm not asking for a private talk with you to do that! I'm just certain that neither of us want to have this conversation near other people."
Indeed some bystanders on the lower street were starting to notice their presence, some of them most likely wondering what kind of business a famous incident resolver has with some random youkai hunter and whether or not this will be some portent of another incident to come. Aka village people are fucking nosy gossipers that will overhear any potential conversation they can.
"I don't want to have a conversation at all. We should do the civilized, dramatic thing by pretending it never happened and never speaking of it again." To Seija's relief, she felt cold and clear and perfectly able to think. Somewhat venomous too. Ready to fight or flee within short notice.
"I-I…" Marisa trailed off for a second, tugging her hat down as the rest of her face takes a red shade. "- can't stop thinking about it."
"...what." Really, what?
And what had that look on Marisa's face been? There's no way she's looking like a real maiden! She's a forest dwelling tomboy!
Marisa smiled and patted the broom she's on. "Let's take this higher up and away from other people possibly listening in."
Yeah, fuck that.
"Sorry, but what you did yesterday gave me an irrational fear of humans. I'll never find myself alone with one, least of all you." Seija snarked, while mentally berating herself for not bringing a cheating item with her. Even if that might have caused yet another impossible spell-card incident, it'd be worth the opportunity to finally, finally, beat the witch for once. "Who knows what kind of fiendish things you'll do to some innocent maiden. Unable to control your lustful urges…"
"I can control myself." She replied, amused if anything. As if this is supposed to be fun banter.
"What did you tell Shinmyoumaru?"
"That I had to talk to you about something and didn't know how long it would take, ze."
"If it takes too long, she'll come looking for me. Maybe with friends." It felt so weird she felt the need to say that, that she has to insist that yes, there are people that will notice if she goes missing. Maybe threatening Marisa with this might not be a cool thing to do, but Seija has no shame.
"I know," Marisa replied, unworried, pleasant, maybe a little smug. "Stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?" Seija says with no mercy, still staring hard at Marisa as if she could see right through her skull to whatever currently ran through her shifty brain. "You're used to people looking at you."
"Not like that. Let's go somewhere private to talk. Things can't continue like this, without any resolution, and I think you need to know what I have to say. Not knowing will bother you."
When you look into the Abyss, the Abyss looks back into you. Great. She didn't want Marisa figuring her out but couldn't dispute that last point, which anyone who'd spent much time near her could've figured out. "...fine." Hopefully she wouldn't regret her lack of trump cards. If it came down to another attempted assault on her, maybe she could swing the katana for intimidation.
The cold increasing as they rose higher into the air made Seija even more alert. Neither of them spoke as they flew, and Marisa followed her and stopped where she stopped without a dispute, near the canal of willows. Some peaceful canal nearby the human village where few if any youkai like to hang around at. Seija hated the fact that the falling leaves gave the place a slightly romantic feel.
"You wanted to talk," She said bluntly. "So talk." She also stood out of arms' reach, for all the good it'd do her against an athlete who could move as quickly and suddenly as Marisa had yesterday, but at least it would make her work for it and give the amanojaku a little reaction time.
Seija was definitely not looking forward to what Marisa might say, but no matter what it is.
This nonsense will end here and now.
Next chapter preview:
"Why are you complaining about that when you wouldn't actually want a public relationship with anyone?"
"Huh?"
"Public displays of affection, flirting with each other in public, everyone watching us and talking about how we are together and whether you deserve me, you possibly facing confrontations from people about it, nosy people wanting details about how we are together... that's what would result, and none of it sounds like something you'd want to be a part of. If we were publically together, you'd also get a lot of questions from my friends and yours. As for you being with another girl, she'd definitely want public displays of affection and affectionate pet names from you to show her you love her and so she could show off about having a girlfriend. She'd meet and arrange dates with you constantly, taking up your time with romantic gestures you could care less for. You wouldn't want that, and I don't want any of that from you."
That made a lot of sense, a scary amount of sense. Marisa Kirisame shouldn't make sense.
"It's tiring, having people watching me and commenting all the time," Marisa continued. "I'd love to have something private that's just for me, something I don't have to pretend for or put on a performance for. Something and someone that knows me and wouldn't be disgusted."
Seija did not feel curious about what a genuine Marisa would be like. She did not care. She really didn't. "So I'd be the only one to see your dark, asshole side? I'm still not flattered or interested. Sure, you and I had some fun being revolutionaries, sure I didn't think less of you when you were all 'burn everything' mode, but there's plenty, and I mean, plenty of other girls that are not ME."
No excluded lines this time.
TBC.
AN:
Since Shinmyoumaru is pals with Shion and Tenshi, I can imagine them and Seija as the ones hanging out in the Shining Needle Castle.