It's been a while hasn't it? I won't drone on here, I hope you enjoy Chapter 2!

It's been 3 weeks since John had arrived in Gensokyo and started up his 'Favor Trade' Business. Initially, he and Kogasa weren't getting much business, at most some small children would stop by and chat with them (mostly Kogasa since the children knew her better), but this was easily remedied by the ramen shop owner who still felt grateful for his son being saved and had decided to talk up their business a bit. This helped immensely as soon after that, numerous people would stop by, mostly with mundane tasks, like asking for help in maintaining their homes or babysitting some kids, while it wasn't glamourous it still netted the two some money or food to make it through the day, it really worked out well for Kogasa as whenever she took a job, the villagers would be surprised that John had a youkai under his employ that was good at tasks such as house cleaning, cooking, and blacksmithing of all things...

Which brought up a little problem: A lot of the villagers thought that he and Kogasa were dating; the issue was brought up one day when he'd been asked to help guard the town gates for the night. The few guards stationed there were making idle conversation and mostly goofing off since in most cases, the night shift (hell even the day shift for that matter) were pretty calm. One guard had probably had a bit too much to drink that night popped the question, a few other guards who had heard came a bit closer wondering the same. According to them, quite a few people around town were wondering just what the relationship between the two of them were.

"So come on, spill it, are you really sleeping with that youkai girl?" The one guard asked, the smell of alcohol strong on his breathe.

"Nothing, we're just coworkers is all." John replied with a sigh he ran his hands through his jet black hair, this was getting annoyed with how this was constantly being asked

"Hey it's okay man, I won't judge you for getting some youkai tail, some of them are real lookers you know, like that one rabbit girl from Princess Kaguya's place."

"...Right, well, that's not how it is with me and Kogasa, I mean, yeah she's cute and all but it's not like that at all."

"Hah, so you admit she's cute!" Another guard chimed in "I wish you luck in your endeavors then John!"

John just sighed once more, the entire night went that way, and it was something he hoped never happened again. As he sat in the office, thinking back on it some more, Kogasa really was perfect wife material, like she was right out of an anime. She'd single-handedly cleaned up the office, and while it was still rundown, the interior was cleaned up rather nicely, enough so that the front room looked hospitable at least. There was a single bed that the two had to share that they'd managed to get after doing some work for a shop around town that sold such items along with a desk that John had set his computer on so he could game or do something to waste the time away.

In fact, that's what he was doing right now, he was curious as to why he'd woken up here with his computer, the village didn't look like it'd have an internet connection at all, but when he booted up his computer, he was getting full bars, which was strange to say the least. Curious as to if it was just a glitch or not, he opened up his browser and sure enough...it worked! He could watch videos, and browse whatever sites he wanted, but the real test awaited as he took out his phone and began booting up Final Fantasy XIV.

Sure enough, it worked! He could log onto the game, run fights just fine and he suffered no kind of dropped frames or anything...there was one thing he was curious about though...was his gear directly tied to his character? To test this out, in game he picked up an old paladin sword, one from the extremely old Garuda Hard Mode and slapped it onto his paladin class. Luckily for him the bracelet was still set to paladin and transforming...he did indeed have the Garuda sword as his main weapon instead of the Sharpened Sword of the Twin Thegns that he'd glamoured Curtana over. This was an interesting revelation to say the least. He quickly switched the weapon back in game and in real life his weapon had returned to what it was as well. Thinking on it, his potential to grow in abilities were nearly endless considering how MMO's worked, which was a boon to him, being able to get stronger was good, and the game did have a new patch that'd come out recently allowing one to further increase the power of their anima weapons along with upgrading their armor to item level 270. Thankfully, John didn't need to do the latter part since he was big on the raiding scene for Alexander Savage. He was about to play the game some more when Kogasa walked in cheerfully, followed by a woman decked out in a blue outfit with brown eyes, long silver hair with some blue highlights and a hat with a strange little building on it topped off with a red ribbon, she was pretty cute looking too.

"John, I'm back!" Kogasa declared with a smile

"Welcome back Kogasa, I was wondering where you'd run off to this morning, did we get another job?" John inquired

"Well not really, I just was trying to get some more surprises out of people!"

"...And how'd that go?"

"Worked out great, that family didn't expect some rice balls for breakfast!"

"I see...and who's your friend here?" he asked looking over at the woman, who decided to speak up

"Hello, I'm Keine, Keine Kamishirasawa, I run the school just a bit of a ways away."

"Well, how can we be of service Ms. Keine? Kids need protecting; something you need repaired or cooked?"

"Oh no, nothing like that, it's just that the children have been constantly talking about 'Mr. White Knight' and have been begging to have you teach them some sword techniques, to that end I figured why not indulge them?"

"Is teaching sword techniques something that should really be done to a bunch of children? Not that I particularly mind."

Keine laughed "Oh it's quite alright, there's no doubt that some of those kids may very well become part of the village guard when they grow up, and so an early lesson isn't a bad thing at all. Now then about your payment..."

"No need, I'll consider this one a personal request, when should I show up?" John asked

"Really, well within the next hour would be marvelous!"

"I'll be there then, nice meeting you ."

"Same to you Knight, I look forward to your appearance."

"Please...call me John." He replied sighing at the name, it was really that catchy and he'd rather be known by name instead of such a lame nickname.

Keine, gave a small bow before exiting the office, leaving John and Kogasa alone, the umbrella girl rubbing her chin at the whole exchange "John...do you really think you can teach a bunch of kids swordsmanship?"

He couldn't blame her for questioning him, in truth, he had no formal training in the sword at all, but whenever he transformed into a paladin, his knowledge of the sword and shield was actually pretty good, and he somehow instinctively knew the skills and nuances of the class he invoked, that should be more than enough to get him by.

"I've never taught anyone before, but I should be fine don't worry."

"Well, if its fine with you, I think I'll come by and watch myself, I sort of wanna see how well the kids take to it."

"I don't mind you coming, just be sure to put up a sign letting people know we're out on business, that way we won't have them waiting around for us to get back."

Pretty soon, it's time for John to go and give his demonstration to the children. Leaving a sign that simply read 'currently out on business' he and Kogasa made their way to the school Keine taught at. It was pretty small all things considered with only one singular room for teaching and there were maybe only 15 or so seats. The children all stared at him in amazement at his white and blue armor, as Keine introduced him.

"Children, today I've requested John here to give you a demonstration in the art of swordsmanship, please treat him with respect."

The kids all nodded still staring at John, which caused him to tense up a bit. "Thanks Ms. Keine, I must admit I'm surprised at how small your school is, back home, there were way more kids per class room than this."

"Really, how many people attended school where you lived?"

"Altogether? My entire school body was something like 4,000 kids or more, and don't even get me started on college..."

"I see, well we can talk about that later, shall we move outside to proceed with the demonstration?"

"Oh uh, right, sorry for rambling there..."

The children all filed out, whispering things about John as they did. Once there, there were a few dummies set up for John to attack while the children stayed a safe distance away.

"Right...well let's begin with the basics..." John said "Never forget a swordsman's true companions the sword and shield. In the thick of a fight you'll want to do your best to watch out for yourself and your allies. A good way to let the enemies know you're a threat? Hit them with a move like this!" At that John did a small leap slamming his blade onto the ground which caused several lights to put up and strike the dummies...completely destroying them. The children were impressed all letting out ooohs and aaahs at the display, while Keine just sighed at the destruction.

"I expected those dummies to last a bit longer..."

"Oh uh...sorry ...but uh, right, doing that kind of thing will get the enemies attention and hopefully keep him focused on you, in that case be sure to block and parry as much as possible!"

He gripped his sword with both hands, bringing it in front of him "Shield Oath!" He exclaimed as a small light engulfed him.

"What'd that do Mr. White Knight?" a random girl asked

"That particular skill helps you increase your agro-er it uh, it helps you take hits better I mean. It's a special technique I learned in my travels and please, call me John." John let out an inward sigh, he probably shouldn't use game terms, mostly because he'd have to explain it, and that would really just snowball in a way he really didn't want. The demonstration continued for a little while longer with John showing off a few skills, most of which were just special sword slashes, and a few defensive cooldowns from the game but really got them was the use of Clemency, which surprised everyone that he knew such a potent piece of healing magic as a knight. He couldn't even imagine their faces if he showed off something like Black Mage or Summoner, those two particular jobs would really give them a surprise.

Having been bid farewell by the children and Keine once his time was up, John and Kogasa made their way back to the office, Kogasa complimenting him on his display, She was surprised he knew such techniques and skills, she figured that he was mostly an amateur when it came to swordplay and had gotten lucky against the wolf youkai a couple weeks ago. Needless to say that John didn't take too kindly to that and proceeded to give her a quick smack on the noggin.

Their banter was interrupted when a woman wearing a light red skirt, and white short-sleeved shirt approached them. She had purple hair and stunning red eyes, but what was most notable were the rabbit ears that protruded from the top of her head.

"Excuse me, you're that knight guy right?" she asked, most likely out of formality rather than being genuinely curious

"That's me, John Graham at your service."

"Right, I was told you take on requests for any fee, and I'll get right to the point, the princess has taken interest in you. I've been tasked with offering you some medicine in the hopes that you'd agree to meet with her."

"I see..." John muttered "Give me one moment." He pulled Kogasa away to the side, he didn't know anything about this rabbit girl or the princess, so he relied on Kogasa to give him any information.

"You know anything about this princess Kogasa? He whispered so the girl wouldn't here

"Nothing, I've never seen her before, though I have heard that she's beautiful and she had a lot of men fawning over her...the only other thing I know is that she's immortal."

"Immortal!?" John said loudly "Like, she can't die?"

"That's right, but that's all I know. I don't know anything about that girl either, only that she's in the village selling medicine usually."

"Right...so, it shouldn't be dangerous if I go along then?"

"I don't think so, the princess is in the bamboo forest, and if that girl works for her then odds are she knows the safest path."

"Alright thanks, you head back to the office; I'll go deal with this."

Kogasa nodded as John returned to the rabbit girl "Sure, I'll meet the princess, just give the medicine to my secretary, and we can be on our way."

"Right." The girl replied handing Kogasa small box of medical supplies "Oh right, name's Reisen by the way, I'll lead you through the forest, so stay close."

John nodded and the two began making their way through the dense bamboo forest, the stalks were so high they nearly blot out the sun. Reisen was quiet throughout the walk, not even turning back to John in attempt to make conversation. It was a bit unnerving for him, so he tried to strike up some form of conversation.

"So tell me Reisen, what got you to start selling medicine around town? The people of the village don't seem to mind you at all."

"Well that's thanks mostly to my master, they were suspicious at first, but once they learned how good my master's medicines were, they changed their tune rather quick. They don't even care that I'm a rabbit."

"Makes sense, there's this one guy I was on guard duty with one night who said you were-er never mind."

"What did one of the villagers say...?"

"It's nothing, just guy stuff." John said lamely, he didn't feel right just sharing something like that, for all he knew, that particular guard really did have a thing for Reisen.

"Okay then...I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

John breathed a sigh of relief as the two continued on, some small conversation going on between them before suddenly Reisen fell into a hole that'd been crudely covered up with some bamboo stalks.

"Oh goddammit, Tewi!" she exclaimed as John peered over the hole

"You alright down there?" John asked extending a hand to help her out.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said taking it "It's just a friend of mine who is really into pranks loves leaving these holes around. The good news is that this means we're close." She dusted herself on and lead on, making sure to avoid any more holes, though sometimes when she moved around one, another would be waiting for her...whoever this Tewi girl is, she's really crafty. He'd have to be careful around her. Finally after all the falling and walking the two reached a large old-fashioned looking mansion. It was quite serene looking, and the place as whole looked quite relaxing.

There were a bunch of girls with rabbit ears running around and as John and Reisen approached they looked at him curiously. Some began whispering as they watched the two enter the front hall, which had a receptionist's desk at the front, similar to one you'd see in a doctor's office.

"You guys run a hospital here too?" John asked surprised

"Yeah, in case any of the other rabbits or humans or even some youkai gets really sick or if someone suffers a real bad wound, we bring them here. Now then, we've kept the princess waiting enough. When you get inside be sure to be as proper as possible, it's not often the princess asks for visitors."

John nodded as Reisen led him down some rather wide hallways; they were massive, and big enough to fit a whole car in them if it came to that point. After a few turns though he was shown into a room where a beautiful woman with long black hair in the hime cut style sat. Her shirt was pink with a with a lot of white bows going down the front and a burgundy skirt that had bamboo and flower shapes on it.

"Ah you are the knight I presume? I am Kaguya Houraisan, princess of Eientei. I welcome you to my home."

She sure was proper, so much so that John was silent for a moment before responding

"Oh err...thanks for inviting me princess, I'm really humbled you decided to call me here." He replied awkwardly while attempting to bow sincerely, the whole thing made Kaguya chuckle as she motioned for him to sit down. A random rabbit girl came through the door with tray that had tea on it, setting it on the table that was between the two. Suddenly feeling a bit thirsty, John couldn't help himself but down the entire cup in one go. It was hot and he scrunched his face as he downed it all, but still it felt good to have something to drink."

"Is it to your liking?" Kaguya asked watching him

"It's fine, I'm more of a lemonade man myself, but it'll do."

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind."

"So uh, if you don't mind me asking princess, why'd you want to see me?"

"Well, I've heard you've been the talk of the town for the last couple of weeks thanks to my pet who goes into town. And so I was curious."

"Well I'm sorry, but I'm not that amazing really." John said bashfully

"Nonsense, I've been told about how you offer your services to the people, and they don't even need money, quite generous really. But that aside, my request was not simply tea and meetings, I have a more personal request, if you would indulge me."

"Well, you gave me medicine, so I don't see why not."

"Would you share some stories with me? It is extremely boring here and I'd like to hear some stories from one who is as well traveled as you."

"Stories huh..." John thought for a moment, he could just share some of the stories from the game that should have sufficed more than enough. "Well how about I tell you about my adventures dealing with Alexander?"

"Alexander...? Who is that?"

"Well, it's less of a whom and more of what."

John then went on to talk about the entire Alexander raid (not mentioning that it was all a game of course) as Kaguya clung to his every word, she was extremely enamored with it all, her eyes growing wide when John mentioned the numerous robotic creatures that he'd had to fight through with his friends to finally take down Alexander proper in an climatic battle, needless to say Kaguya was impressed.

"To think that the outside world would have such strange things...machines that can bend the fabric of time to their will. I thought that only I and that maid could do that..."

"It was pretty crazy and sort of cool really, I'm surprised I managed to come out of it okay."

"Likewise, you lead a truly exciting life Mr. Graham, if only I could join you, it'd be more interesting than sitting around all day and dealing with the occasional...nuisance ."

"Too bad you don't have a cellphone, we could keep in contact and if I got any real interesting jobs I'd be glad to take you along with Kogasa, it'd be like an adventurer party of our own."

At this, Kaguya's eyes grew wide as a grin came upon her face. "Mr. Graham, if I may...could I see this 'cellphone' of yours?"

John raised an eyebrow but reached into his pocket sitting his phone on the table. Kaguya took it, looking at it with interest "And this device could be used to keep in contact with one another?"

"That's right, if you had your own that is. I doubt anyone else in this world would have one actually."

"I see, I have a request Mr. Graham. I would like to hold onto this device if you would allow it."

"But why's that?" John replied

"Eirin!" Kaguya called out, her call was soon answered by a woman with long braided silver hair, who wore a red and blue outfit. She shot John a pointed look of curiosity before shifting her gaze to Kaguya.

"You called for me Princess?"

"Mr. Graham, this is Eirin Yagokoro, she's the villages main source of medicine and my humble and faithful servant. Eirin, I was wondering if you could replicate this device at all, it is used for keeping in contact with another person."

Eirin took the cellphone and stared at it "I suppose I can, it'll just take a while to look over it and see how it works."

"Excellent, Mr. Graham, if you would allow it, I'd like to hold on to this device for a time, when Eirin is finished I will have it returned to you via Reisen, if that is fine with you."

"I guess it'll be fine, just please don't break it or anything."

"You have my word." Eirin spoke "It will be returned to you in the exact same condition as it is now." She bowed politely as she did so, which made John blush a little "Err, no need to bow, I trust you. If that's the case I should get going then, the sun is going to go down soon."

"Very well, Reisen will accompany you, and I hope you return again with more stories to tell." Kaguya said waving him off

"Call me when you want to hear more princess, I'll be happy to oblige you."

With that, John was led back through the bamboo forest, the sun quickly dipping below the horizon. Once back, Reisen returned the way she came, leaving John to walk back the rest of the way on his own.

Meanwhile...

Marisa was flying away from the Scarlet Devil Mansion; her clothing was in tatters and pain rippled throughout her body. She had decided to stop by the mansion in order to 'borrow' some of Patchouli's books, but the gate guard Hong Meiling had different plans for her, namely the plan was for Marisa to get her ass kicked six ways from Sunday.

The frustrating part for Marisa was that it had worked, several times! The gate guard had gotten a lot stronger than she ever expected and Marisa was finding it difficult to think of ways to get by her. Even her trademark master spark hadn't been able to defeat her and that was usually a sure thing! To this end, she was making her way to the village to indulge in some food to take her mind off of things. As she landed near the gates, she noticed that night was creeping upon the earth. She was surprised that she had been fighting Meiling for that long, but it's no big deal, she had the appropriate wards set up back at home so getting home won't be a problem for her. As she walked around town she heard more talk of this 'White Knight' and how he was great at helping people with whatever problems they had so long as you gave him something in return, it didn't even have to be money! He and the youkai Kogasa seemed to be really making a name for themselves around town. It was then that Marisa got an idea...a sinister idea and probably one that would get her sent to hell...nah, it wouldn't escalate that bad...maybe.

She decided to put her need for food on hold and made her way to the side of town where this guy's office was located. When she found it...she had to wonder what kind of 'office' this was, because for all intents and purposes the place was a crappy little shack that was in desperate need of repairs, regardless, this seemed to be the place and so Marisa knocked on the door.

"Hey, is this that Favor Trade place ze?" she called out

"Just a minute!" Came a voice before the door swung open, there was Kogasa standing there with a bright smile on her face. "Hello and welcome to Favor Trade, we pride ourselves on getting the job done no matter what!" her smile hardened somewhat when she noticed it was Marisa who was the door

"That's a good slogan ze, You know where that Knight guy is at?" Marisa asked looking around

"Oh John, he was at Princess Kaguya's place and-"

"I'm back!" John called from behind the two "Whose this Kogasa?"

"She's Marisa...careful she doesn't try to beat you up after helping her." Kogasa spat

"H-hey, I said sorry about that! I was in a rush!"

Kogasa rolled her eyes as John motioned for her to enter the office, Marisa standing since there wasn't really any other places to sit. "So how I can help you?" John asked

"Well you see..." Marisa stated she hadn't really thought about how she was gonna go about this "I heard you can help someone out with any problem no matter what."

"Well, I mean I don't wanna brag but I've got a good track record so far." John said smiling bashfully

"That's good, because I need your help to sneak into a vampire's mansion." Marisa said bluntly

"I'm sorry what?" John deadpanned; he hadn't been expecting something like that at all, an actual vampire? He wasn't sure if he could take one on even with the skills at his disposal

"Hear me out...this vampire has a magician who lives with her...and said magician stole some books from me! You don't need to actually go inside, I got that handled, but there's a real strong gate guard there and I need your help. Think you can distract her while I head inside to grab the books. We'll book it out of there once I'm done."

"Okay...but what about the vampire?"

"Good point. If we went now, we'd have to deal with her...let's head out tomorrow then ze and I'll even give you a few of these magic potions as a show of good faith."

"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow then." John said as Marisa turned to leave, a devilish smile on her face once her back was turned, that was easy... all too easy.

Sorry if it seems like this particular chapter had what appears to be a lot ofnothing going on. I wanted to show that, while Gensokyo does indeed have people with crazy requests (I mean just look at Marisa's) there are other more lesser crazy ones, such as Kaguya's or Keine's. That aside I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.