Current vote--How to help Mistress Remilia in the final battle (of Imperishable Night):

[4] Keep the “night” up by crafting moonlight.

[1] Attempt to help Sakuya by assisting with temporal magic.

++++++++
OP image sources:
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3157454
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4044472
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2082492

[ ♫: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU3HhVNjALs (warning: this song kicks ass) ]
[竹取飛翔 ～ Lunatic Princess – 悠夜永翔 ～ Endless Flight of Eternal Night (UI-70)]

Houraisan Kaguya began to return to the air, lifting slowly, and measured. Water dripped carefully from the hem of her clothing. As the drops fell into the pool below, they seemed to ring out like music... The Apprentice, witnessing this, suddenly felt chills.

“I have always made five requests to humans who would have something of me, and so many humans have failed them in the past,” said the girl.

She once more situated herself before the full moon, now becoming illuminated and almost, it seemed, divine. There she asked:

“... Might you three be able to clear them?”

“HA! What?” laughed Remilia. She planted her feet apart, stomping down and making a splash. She let her wings out again, picking up a gust and a wave of water. “Whatever you’ve got in store for us, you must understand... there is nothing that myself and mine can’t have done! Impossible requests!? Say nothing of them! Throw whatever you want at us... it isn’t going to matter!”

She began to glow scarlet. Rather, her power was now emanating off her body like slow and curling flames. Gen felt a smile growing on his lips. Remilia met the immortal’s eyes, grinning broadly.

“Houraisan Kaguya...!” she bellowed. “I’ve had enough of how you talk! If you won’t return to the moon... then I will drag you down to Earth!!”

A strange and lavender crystal began to glow near the Undying Princess’s feet. Seeing it, Gen noticed four other artifacts orbiting the girl. Before he could comprehend them, the awe of an unknown age erupted out from the Princess’s back, and his Mistress took flight.

It was light that reminded him of refraction, and it fired out with the intensity of cannons. Keeping up with his Lady would ordinarily be impossible, but as his Vampire Mistress took stock of the lights their opponent was casting, he realized that she was keeping her movements slow. He was an anchor.

But, his Mistress looked thrilled still. She was not bothered by the weight he saddled her with.

No... if anything, as she’d said before they’d entered this inner place: she needed him.

He looked at the Moon, and thought of the time.

Kaguya showed no hesitation, and though she still had an air of pleasantness about her, her first spell was purely aggressive. Its pursuit put them over water, flying past as beams split it aside below and behind them. It almost seemed to stake the ground with light when it struck, and it shook everything around them. Did Mokou come head to head with this when the two fought?

It was in every sense majestic. It was in every sense awesome. His Mistress seemed impressed... almost, appreciative. She showed this in how she returned favor to Kaguya: with her own devilish power—bullets, blood, and hellish barrage.

While Kaguya dodged what Remilia bombarded her with, Sakuya spoke to him behind their Mistress’s back.

“She’s caught on—I’m certain of it,” the head maid whispered. Though she kept an eye steady on their Mistress, he gathered that his friend was referring to Kaguya.

“Is that something you can feel?” he asked.

“No,” she replied, shaking her head a touch, “it’s something I’ve figured out. Would she be looking at the moon for this long if she’d been forsaken from it? She has to have realized, or perhaps heard from a rabbit, that the night isn’t ending.”

“... And? Can she do anything about it?”

The three of them split apart as a laser marked a path of power between them. Gen looked over to see a veritable dome of spotlights surrounding the princess of the moon. Her hand was raised, and presently she seemed amused. Her stadium of lights was followed by an avalanche of crimson stars. Over her shoulder, a queer and ugly bowl was billowing what seemed to be smoke.

They all reconvened soon enough, with Remilia looking behind herself to be sure where her humans were... and of what they were saying. Sakuya chose to whisper.

“I can’t know if she can, but that’s what I feel,” she told him. He squinted, and leaned a bit forward—trying to ask her to explain what she meant. “She feels a little familiar,” Sakuya said, “I believe she may be able to undo this.”

Another volley of lasers came, casting them all apart once more, and as it did Gen’s heart pounded. Not for narrow avoidance, not for the might of Kaguya’s spell, but for utterly unsettling fear.

Gen landed in the water on his own, flying backward as a beam of light sought him out. Water flew up all around him, the battlefield reflected in every drop that he could see. The moon, too, was there. Time... they already did not have any time. If they were “outside”, and if time ran out... it was obvious. It was very obvious what would happen.

Gen continued to fly in reverse, minding the magic chasing him. Kaguya had them all in a dance, and was lackadaisically directing her second spell at each and every last one of them. He gathered: it wasn’t that she didn’t see them as a threat, rather it was clear through her posture and poise that she respected the lot of them who had made it unscathed to her. She, at the moment, was having fun. So was his Mistress, in fact. His Mistress actually seemed very absorbed and now, as he remembered the time he had seen her wing taken by fire on the balcony—

He took to the air again as a hail of stars came upon him and then collided into Sakuya, bringing his back against hers. It was no crash—she had meant for them to meet there. Below the two, their Mistress landed with flair. She brought her hands before her chest, and began to summon a grand cross of red light. He struggled to process all that was around him, however.

His colleague gripped at his sleeve, and tugged him to attention.

“Lady Patchouli prepared you,” she said. “Don’t let any harm come to the Mistress...! You and I are here, and we are here out of devotion!” He looked into Sakuya’s face, feeling that his own was pale. Hers was sincere, direct, and invigorating. “I trust you, Gen!” she said, and before he could blink he found himself, and Sakuya, behind their Mistress’s back again.

For the red Remilia summoned, Kaguya summoned more red in return. Fire blazed around her, and a small bit of cloth began to shudder beside her. It looked like a forest fire in the air—the Princess seemed to know no limitations, and while she aimed a stream of flame toward them – and his Mistress aimed her own scarlet might right back – he remembered again the night he had first seen this girl. They had never explained the rules to her properly... and Kaguya was not at all beholden to the whims of the Shrine Maiden.

This torrent of fire burned with true flame. The magic she used was undoubtedly designed to bring about death.

The water below them burst and steamed as bullets and columns of flame pounded into it and erupted from it. He found his hand on Remilia’s left shoulder and Sakuya’s hand against Remilia’s back as the three of them, as a unit, navigated the moon princess’s third “request”. Remilia fired back unceasingly, and he could see that she was deliberately keeping to Reimu’s rules. That pride of hers greatly ebbed his fears.

Her wings spread again. He and his companion let go of her briefly. Any and all fires died for a moment around them with the might of her devil limbs... A card was betwixt her fingers, and a spear was soon summoned to her hand. She held it aloft, and threw it at once.

And for once, thrill flashed across Kaguya’s face as well.

The spear – avoided – collided into the ground below and cast up another wave. Kaguya’s fire had followed her where she had moved out the way. Her stream, briefly interrupted, now returned redoubled. He grabbed hold of Remilia’s shoulder again, and Sakuya again put her hand to their Mistress as well. And so, the parties traded blows.

Now he found his heart pounding from exhilaration. Remilia was moving with something a bit closer to her natural speed, and Kaguya seemed sincerely engaged. The air was always trembling, and both Princesses found themselves struck in the ensuing chaos on multiple occasions. Neither were deterred. They fought like monsters—and of course, at least one he could say was. Still, even what he’d seen when the sky had been shattered could not compare to what he was witnessing—feeling now.

There was soon a tunnel of flame surrounding them. They barreled through it and passed the Princess by, and after they did so Remilia threw at her another spear. It took away the fire and took a great deal of cloth from Kaguya’s sleeve. The fire returned soon, however, and a tunnel again arrived around them. As always when his sense of risk was at its zenith, Gen now could feel the pounding of his heart hammering into his throat. He had never moved like this before. He had never really experienced the power of a youkai so directly, so vicariously. He afforded himself a small glance at Sakuya. Sakuya... afforded a glance at the moon. Knowing that he would soon need to use that moon, he put his hand to one of his tomes, and focused on the battle raging around him.

The night was “over” a long time ago.

Outside the House of Eternity, past the forest and near the Lake—in the shadowed and now smoke-filled halls Scarlet Devil Mansion’s Library, Patchouli Knowledge remembered that.

The night had ended, and what was happening now was a struggle to hold on to the dark.

Around her on the ground—around her in the air, the maids and her red-haired summon were hurriedly following the directions she had given them. There was not much that she could do—Remilia hadn’t returned, and her own grasp of temporal magic wasn’t... ideal. It was never ideal for those without some kind of innate ability to control it. Time was always a force that refused to be brought to heel.

But tonight, it needed to be.

Sakuya can do some to hold the day off in my absence, but it won’t be enough, thought the Magician as she peered out over the ritual she had prepared to stop the night. Fairies were pulling materials from other parts of the library into a void circle at its center—the magic holding the dawn back. That shrinking hole, surrounded by dimming crystals and fading fires, was all that was left for her contribution. That frustrated her... however, as she counted the minutes and hours, she thought on who she had sent with her dearest friend.

Sakuya alone would not be enough, but with her student... there was some safety.

Patchouli stepped to the middle of the magic she had made, and thought only this as she stared into the starlight shining out from the void circle now below her:

Please, Gen. Please, Sakuya.

The Sun was unceasing. The Moon was fleeting.

Above the pool of Eientei’s inner sanctum, it was a rush of bullets and heat; and both warring parties found themselves moving with flame at their heels and called from their hands. And, each of their spells finally cut out. The Princesses had kept up their most red spells for what may have been an hour, and may have been more. What remained, at any rate, was certainly little. Falling down into the water below them again, the one Dead and the other Dying both found themselves kneeling in tattered, torn, and skin-baring clothing. Kneeling, yes... but only Houraisan Kaguya was panting.

The pool rippled and shimmered around them. It had been quite thoroughly damaged already. Now, Houraisan Kaguya spoke up as the echoes of their powers faded out.

“Heheh,” she chuckled first. Her hand was over her chest. “We of the moon turned some on the Earth into monsters, to regulate the Earthlings’ impurity. But, that’s all over now.”

“What are you talking about?” Remilia fired back. Her voice was still clear.

“The Earthlings have sealed the monsters by themselves,” Kaguya said. “Now, all that’s left of them are creatures who don’t know how to do anything but attack humans as part of some old contract.”

Gen felt shaken. He could tell that his fellow human felt the same.

But as always, their Mistress remained firm.

“Our current daily life of drinking tea is much more enjoyable,” she replied. “I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”

For a moment, Kaguya was silent.

“Gradually, the Earthlings lost their fear of the moon and its night,” she continued. And, she looked into their eyes. “They became more and more arrogant,” she said. “The night no longer requires the light of the moon. The shorelines have no relation to the tides’ ebb and flow. And they even say they’ll invade the moon itself in the end, don’t they?”

“Hmph. I’ve got no idea what those worthless humans are doing,” Remilia dismissed her. “But you’re from the moon, right? You seem bothered by it, but also too afraid to return against the moon’s will and stop those humans yourself.”

Kaguya fell silent again, and reflected.

“I know when a person faces fear,” said Remilia. “I’m insulted that what you’re fearing right now does not seem to be me, but...” Remilia smiled toothily, and began to stand again. “I’m getting there, aren’t I...?”

The Princess of the Moon grit her teeth.

“Stand up,” said Remilia. “You still have two more requests I need to fulfill.”

So, Kaguya stood. A shell floating at her feet made an unnerving sound.

Above them, it looked like a dream catcher had formed—one to catch the dreams of giants. It seemed like daylight was cast from the formation, and it angled down to try and take the vampire and her companions. Remilia once more beat her wings, and the beams gave chase.

Looking up through the new lattice that shone over his face, Gen began to speak to the moon.

Be careful of the moon’s light, his Master had said before they’d left. But not too careful... she’d insisted.

She’d told him that, a magician was a person who commanded the world, and on one’s dark path light should ne’er dissuade him.

With the moon’s true light filling his pupils, he felt he understood all that had been said about the Lunatic night.

However, he could not be afraid.

He continued to call to the moon, and time began to bend around Sakuya’s body.

“It’s you who’s stopping the night, isn’t?” Kaguya asked while her light dogged them. She was standing straight, and unflinching, as Remilia’s return magic beat into the ground surrounding her, cratering and disrupting the waters. “A shoddy, half-spell if I have to admit. With my spell to manipulate eternity, I’ll tear it all away.”

Try it...! thought Gen, and a clone of the moon came to his hand as a bubble of time formed around himself, Sakuya, and the Mistress Remilia.

A bullet struck near Kaguya’s feet and forced her to take flight. The brilliant light of her fourth spell made the night glow as day—reminding him of the Master Spark his Master had made to save him. A perfect reminder. He swore that he would do everything he possibly could to shield his Mistress, and began to feed his spirit to the miniature moon.

While they rolled over and under those full and vibrant rays of power, he noticed that perhaps his Mistress had been putting on a show on the ground. She was a bit slower. She was almost steaming. Rather, a bit of smoke was lifting from her skin. The moon above was beginning to break, and she had also been awake too long.

The haggard immortal and haggard undead continued to slug at one another with everything that they had, impressing both humans with their preternatural endurance. They were spilling each other’s blood now. They were truly obliterating the artificial earth below, now. Although the cascade of Kaguya’s magic was certainly trying, Remilia gave not an inch with the might of her own. With sweat dripping off their noses, they settled in the sky with the fractured moon betwixt. Sunlight was undoubtedly bleeding through, and warded off by the shield of Remilia’s maid and the night of Remilia’s ward. Remilia herself only saw the end in Kaguya’s eyes.

The night...

The day...

... had grown terribly hot.

A haze had filled up the air between them. While the end was visible, too, in Kaguya’s eyes, something else was there too. When she looked at Remilia Scarlet, she could swear that she saw fire. Her heart was beating. Remilia’s was not. Calmly, the vampire spoke to her.

“You won’t come down without a fight,” said Remilia, her voice now plainly heavy, plainly slow. “I had a little hope that you wouldn’t bring me to daybreak.”

“Are you... afraid, too?” Kaguya asked her, and Remilia shook her head.

“I only feel disappointment,” said Remilia, “in this fellow princess’s stubbornness.”

Kaguya winced. And, after a moment’s hesitation she lifted the branch she had always been holding above her head.

“Do not... look down on me...!” the Princess shouted.

And, Remilia frowned.

“You idiot,” she said, “it’s plain for anyone to see that I’m looking straight at you.”

“Branch of Hourai...!” yelled Kaguya, and her final artifact gave light. Like a river, magic flowed out of that branch, and quickly filled the air. The moon then split.

And Gen stared transfixed.

This aura was...

Was it “purity”...?

Heaven’s light surrounded them as day began to break. Gen huddled nearer to his Mistress’s back, and saw Sakuya’s fist gripping against it. Their Mistress never faltered, even as the smoldering of her flesh spread all the more.

Had he ever seen such a rainbow...? The Princess Kaguya painted the sky with a broken prism... A hundred and a thousand spheres and more rebounded the floor and firmament. When it all came—When they all turned swift and practiced through the chaos of Royalty’s strength, Gen came to realize that he and Sakuya had kept themselves undamaged until now and praised himse—

—?

As he thought that, he took stock of his Mistress’s body once again.

... Had she not only served as their sword, but their shield?

... The heat in Sakuya’s face gave him the answer.

They followed her wherever she went, and defended her in return as she continued to fight, a new and overpowering spear in her hands.

And the moon was fully sundered, and Day broke through with glory.

Their Mistress halted, took their attention, and she screamed out—

“SAKUYA...!

“GEN...!”

With her teeth together—

But her teeth not grit—

She grinned and commanded them with only two words: “GO ON...!”

Gen at once threw his coat around her—

Sakuya at once held her own heart—

A black and undying night was born between all three, and like that they faced the encroaching dawn.

Kaguya’s face broke its pain and worry at the sight. She looked upon the trio with her brow constricted, her mouth open—breathless. What she now saw was what she had never seen before.

And, Remilia only continued to grin as the long-awaited day threatened to bathe her, every ray of light unsuccessful in its attempt through the night.

The princess of the moon grew once more determined, and lifted her branch up again.

The Devil would not be brought down; no matter what she sent her and her followers’ way, they dodged it all within unison—with all care—and with total precision. Remilia would keep her promise. Her spear was taking her magic—building in size and destructive power. And the Princess knew: that would be the tool to drag her down to Earth.

She resisted...

She fought while her lights and the Sun’s mixed and grew so bright as to be blinding. The Dead Princess continued. Her companions remained steadfast.

And what was more, suddenly a knife was in Kaguya’s left shoulder; a bullet of sunlight had struck her right.

Peering through the glare, she saw the maid and manservants’ free hands outstretched, and a barrage unique to each readying behind them—extending out above. They had once more all three settled down to the waters below, and their aim was very clear.

Remilia pointed her spear at the sky; at the Sun; at the Princess of the Moon.

Was that the Spear of Odin which never missed its mark...? She’d missed with others in their fight but this... This felt much like “fate” to the immortal.

It was unsettling. It was... awful, to her. There had been thousands of years that no such thing as fate had played any part in her life. Her time had stopped, and so the ends of time ordained by fate were altogether foreign for her.

To meet it, here—

To not want it at all, but face it all the same—

Tears in her eyes, she wanted to scream, but found she couldn’t shout out anything.

The vampire pushed her left foot back, and spread her wings to further fix herself. She held her red spear steady, and a ray of crimson light sparked off of it.

The volleys of the other two came on either side of their target, and Kaguya felt at once walled by bullet and blade.

Without a word, Remilia gripped her weapon firm, winds rushed by wild and free... and from the rod a great blast to reach the sky was sent out, collided with the girl forsaken by the moon, and flew beyond to meet the Morning Star.

It was as if that very star had collapsed. Their world was bathed in red, and all auras and bullets and blades were burned entirely away. And, in the sky that was left, a scarlet spot could be seen clear upon the Sun.

“...”

Sakuya was silent.

“...”

Gen was silent.

The red all faded, and Princess Kaguya began to fall, plummeting finally down. She landed in a heap of cloth, crags, and water.

Gen looked down at his Mistress. She had easily donned his coat; and though it was much too large for her... he’d thought her very cool to be seen in it in those last moments as it had danced mad around her. Her spear was gone, and now she was retreating more into his robes. The Sun was shining, after all. He offered the vampire his arms, and she accepted: allowing him to pick her up, in his robes, and have him carry her for now while nested in the oversized article. Helpfully, Sakuya put it closed for them, and he left the sleeves unfilled to keep his Mistress secure. His reproduced moon, and Sakuya’s bubble of time, were for now still manifested—but it was, of course, only for now, and he at least knew little magic was left within him. Now his Mistress turned and looked to the radiant morning from under his chin, peeking out from his collar and from beneath the brim of her cap.

She laughed.

“Kaha!”

Quite loudly.

“That’s two,” she said, as she got comfortable against him.

“For day and night, I have left my mark in the sky.”


--End of Chapter 24: Imperishable Night II--

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image sources:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86298249

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2730820

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/90850533
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3339645
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3442675
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3515286

I've been reading since 2020 and I'm happy to see the end of IN. Wonder how you are going to handle POFV.

Bravo to the writer! A beautiful finish to the end of IN. I wonder what the direct aftermath of this will be like.

>>68387
Don't forget we have to watch Remilia bumble around and build a rocket for the 'totally not baited by Yukari' moon trip!

>>68387
Thanks for commenting, and I'm not sure! I know that I want to use Eiki in this story if only because I love Eiki a lot but we'll see how. I do know that post-IN is where I intended for the story to start getting "stranger". That is, less times where "something which canonically happened" happens to interfere with Gen's life. The story of the moon nudges up on Suika's own experiences with it, and that's meant to open up her life more to Gen. She does love Gen, but she's a super hag and thus there's sincerely just so much of her life he doesn't know about yet. This unlocks a great deal.

>>68388
Thanks as well! Indeed not only is SSiB a thing that really has to happen (although I'll say, Gen's involvement would likely be about the same as Patchouli's at the time--that is to say, "helps make the thing, but does not go on the trip") but there was IIRC at least one other attempt Remilia made before all of that. It's like a whole obsession with the moon for her that starts here with IN--just beat her story in the game to see her and Patchouli getting all hyped about it (and Sakuya being exasperated).
Direct aftermath should be fun. I like, for instance, where Remilia literally is right now. It amuses me.


Once more apologies for how long this all took. I've had a loooooooooooot to do. Not only other writing obligations but newbies at work sucking my free time away without any regard for my sanity. I actually wrote most of this update over two sleepless nights because I was so annoyed that I hadn't been able to write my own stuff for so long. More will come here, and over in /at/ for that one Youmu story I started if anyone's still wondering about that. GOD THERE'S TOO MUCH TO DO

>>68389
Glad to see that you have plans for Eiki. Loved the Eiki story when she trained another Yama, so I'm hoping you can do her justice.

[X] Go speak to Eirin.
Let's hear from her.

[x] Go speak to Eirin.

>>68414
[X] Go speak to Mokou.

[x] Go speak to Mokou.

Always check in on allies.

[x] Go speak to Eirin.

We must GLOAT!
that, or just have a normal conversation, I guess

[X] Speak thy tongue to Miss Mokou

[] Seduce Kaguya.
[X] Go speak to Eirin.

[X] Go speak to Mokou.

COUSIN MOKOU

[X] Go speak to Eirin.

Slightly more interested to hear what the isolated lunarians have to say for themselves.

“Fascinating. Tell me more.”

[♫: https://files.catbox.moe/flnl15.mp3 ]
[Yearnings of the Wind (Wind Scene) - Chrono Trigger Symphony, Vol. 1 (The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra)]

Gen noted that when his Mistress said this, she merely sounded half-convincing of her interest. Glancing at his coworker, he saw that Sakuya seemed to feel the same.

“Oh? Would you really like to know?” asked Kaguya, sitting and soaking in the shallow waters below him. “You don’t seem to be very interested, Miss Vampire.” Despite how worn down and quite literally beaten she had been, the Undying Princess of the Moon still managed a rather gorgeous smile in her tattered clothes and with her disheveled hair.

The Undead Princess of Scarlet got more comfortable in her ward’s robes. Her ward held her more snugly, and resisted the temptation to rest his chin on her floral-scented hat. “I am tired,” said the vampire, “it is past my bedtime, after all.” Gen knew that wasn’t quite the truth for his Mistress. “I may yawn, I may close my eyes, but no, Houraisan Kaguya, I shall not sleep. I’ve never seen or heard told this tale of yours, and now that I’ve trounced you I’d like my reward to be that forgotten history.” In Gen’s coat, he could feel his Mistress lightly batting her wings. Was that to wake herself up? “Continue!” she commanded.

“There isn’t very much else to say, as a matter of fact,” Kaguya relented, turning her eyes to nowhere. “Like your wizard boy said, an old couple found me in bamboo, and rumors of my beauty spread. I had suitors. I refused them, very politely.”

“My wizard boy did not explain that first part. Are you made out of bamboo?”

“Bamboo is quite beautiful, but the comparison falls short doesn’t it?” asked Kaguya, unabashedly. Gen frowned.

“I heard you were sent down to earth for a crime, actually,” said Gen. “Or was it as a refugee from some war?” He twisted his eyebrows.

“I heard she came down to farm bamboo, and to become an ideal farmer she chose to become bamboo herself.”

So was Sakuya’s theory. Her companions looked at her.

“You never heard that,” said Remilia. At this, Sakuya pleasantly smiled.

“Right,” she said, “I made it up.”

“I have taken up a little gardening,” Kaguya admitted, somewhat moving past the maid’s detour. She touched her lower lip with her sleeve, and tilted her head in thought. “But no, I was sent down as a punishment for a crime, like Gen’s first theory.”

Hearing her say his name, Gen blushed.

He also swore at himself in his thoughts.

“The magic I used to enter bamboo is one way to the Earth from the Moon. I can’t be changed... physically—not truly changed, at least. It was something like... I think Gen would call it a package? Maybe you would too, Remilia. I was conveyed to earth in a small, small, and very small size. I know I must have looked unusual, but the couple who found me still treated me very kindly, even when I grew quite fast back to this ordinary shape.”

“Alright,” said Gen, “so what was your crime?”

Kaguya innocently met his eyes.

“I drank the most forbidden elixir,” she said, “and I became a Person of Hourai. I became an immortal.”

~~

“Miss Mokou can probably understand it: why, precisely, that concoction is so forbidden. I made it because I could make it. The Princess asked if I could make it, and I gave it to the Princess even though she’d asked to drink it.”

Eirin looked at the Sun reflected in the sake of her cup. “For that,” she said, “she was executed.”

“‘Executed’?” Suika repeated in disbelief, even reeling back somewhat upon taking this statement at face value. “Can’t Hourai Immortals not die? I mean, like, when you talk about normal immortals... they’ve usually got a way—the Kishin.”

“Correct,” answered Eirin. “We cannot die—I’d never make a medicine that did not work as intended. Once you’ve drank enough of the Hourai Elixir, your soul is tied to your form, and that form is forever permanent, so ultimately...” Eirin paused, then, in consideration, “she was exiled to the Earth instead.”

The sage now put her free hand to her forehead, and her posture deteriorated until her free wrist—and her cup—were rested poorly on her lap. “I regret...” she spoke with a fractured voice. “I regret it... still, today. I saw no punishment... though it was I who made her crime possible.”

“I can’t say I get humans and youkai who want real immortality—want the elixir,” Suika said as she sipped from her cup. “But I get the Lunarians even less, with how they react to it. Yeah... it’s an affront. Those souls of yours are stuck, but that was your choice to make while alive. It was a freedom you were free to choose.” Suika thought the idea over, and soon after concluded: “I shouldn’t expect Lunarians to care about being free.”

“I can’t say that I understand the desire myself,” Eirin admitted, to the surprise of the other two with her. “Truly choosing ‘life’, and in doing so showing your fear of ‘death’... for us people of the Moon, we know that submerges us in impurity. That was why I drank the elixir myself. I wanted to clear that sin from myself, in one part by having Kaguya no longer be alone. If anything was my choice, it was that: taking her away from whatever it was my fellow Lunarians had planned for her. She deserved none of it. With her, I hid away.”

Suika tilted her head. In a moment, she asked, “Wait, but how exactly did you get away with her in the first place with the Moon knowing damn well where you all were?”

~~

“Eirin killed the other emissaries of the moon she had arrived with to take me away,” Kaguya explained. “We eventually found this forest. She and I eventually crafted Eientei to... make an eternal time and place, and it all—the forest and mansion both—eventually became a part of Gensokyo. Eventually, a rabbit found us and... I suppose you could say she offered us help to better hide. There were a few other things... Reisen came down and we took her in, a ragamuffin who had also drank the Elixir found me and often tried to kill me—though I’ve always, properly, killed her in return, also...”

Mokou-nee... thought Gen, growing dour. He blinked. “Who’s Reisen?” he asked.

“You met her in the entrance hall,” Kaguya replied.

Maybe the purple-haired rabbit...? She seemed enough like a stage boss...

“You’ve been killing somebody?” Sakuya asked, lifting her hand thoughtfully to her mouth. Squinting, she judged: “A bloody princess, then. Hardly pure.”

“Well, I’ve been impure ever since I drank the elixir,” answered Kaguya lightly.

“I followed when you spoke of it earlier, Mistress, but...” Gen spoke into Remilia’s hat. Remilia lifted her chin. “I don’t really understand ‘purity’ and ‘impurity’,” the boy admitted, a little sadly. “I’ve been feeling fairly lost ever since that special elixir was brought up in the first place. Purity, impurity, pure land... What is all of that?”

“Can’t you ask Patche?” asked Remilia.

“I can’t now,” he answered.

Sakuya pointed at him, and informed him: “She means that she is about the same as poop.”

To which Kaguya followed, “Yes. About the same as poop.”

Feeling a little thrown, Gen merely gave a somewhat fluttering “I see...”

“It’s filth, ‘foulness’... the ‘bad’ of the Earth. Death, Earth, and life itself,” the Moon Princess clarified. “We of the Moon rose quite literally above it. It makes us superior.”

That arrogance is unbearable... thought Gen. I miss Miss Suika...

“But you know, Earth...” Kaguya started again, but seemed to abandon the thought. After a few seconds, she told them, “I did think the Earth had its own attractive qualities. The suitors were certainly an aggravation, but the couple who found me... their motivations may have been clouded—I’m still not sure, but I did grow fond of them...”

She paused again, the other three waiting for her to continue.

“I do have to admit it, before Eirin found me...” she eventually said, “... I really started to love the Earth.”

~~

“... I really started to hate her.”

“Gahaha!” Suika laughed at what Fujiwara no Mokou had grumbled into her drink. The oni slapped her knee, and couldn’t stop feeling amused.

“I’m being serious...! I’ve hardly ever told anyone about this!” Mokou snapped.

“I guess I can understand it—I’ve met plenty of oni who’ve held grudges over far less!” Suika bit her teeth together, trying to stifle her laughter. It was a silly and human story—of unfaithful lovers, and beauty’s temptation. “That ‘Kaguya’ caught your father’s eye,” Suika repeated, “and you went to defend his honor?”

“Her father already had a wife of his own, of course...” Eirin muttered.

“Who she turned his eyes away from!” Mokou roared, slamming her cup down on her thigh. “And that stupid, insane, impossible request...! What was with that!? She humiliated him!”

“Now now, now now,” said Suika, refilling the now-spilled cup, and topping Eirin’s cup as well. “A grudge is a grudge~. It isn’t easy to let go. It isn’t easy turn your back on family.”

“As I’ve heard it, Lord Fujiiwara viewed you, his child, a bit... carelessly, didn’t he? Or was he too careful?” Eirin prompted. Mokou kept her glare fixed on the sage.

“I was a Lady of a Noble house. I just spent most of the time inside...”

This is pretty sensitive, ehh... thought Suika with her eyes closed and her own cup to her softly smiling lips. She soon looked at the younger immortal, and then the older, quietly. Hmm...

“You stayed because you wanted to?” asked Eirin. “Or were you told to? That aside you don’t have the grace of nobility. Perhaps you lost it, but Kaguya says you received your immortality through rather uncouth means, and that was very long ago, no?”

“My house was divided,” Mokou replied. “I just wanted to do anything I could to get back at her for that, and now, for the curse of being undying from that jar she left behind. I still... I still do. I’d do anything.”

~~

“That’s why she killed a man,” said Kaguya, “to steal the elixir I’d left behind before my hiding.”

Gen’s blood ran cold.

“Her father came after me on his own, abandoned his wife—his entire family all on his own, and when he couldn’t bear the rejection self-destructed.”

Kaguya thought for a moment. Then, with a smile she said:

“Isn’t she stupid?”

Remilia gave a quiet hum of consideration.

“So she began to kill you after you met again, because of her own grudge?” asked the cozy vampire.

“That’s right,” said Kaguya with a nod.

“Gen, isn’t this girl related to you?” his Mistress asked, lifting her head again. “Would you kill for me like she kills for her parent?”

“Since when were you my mother, Lady Remilia?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Sakuya interjected, “Right, Mistress; his mother is Lady Patchouli.”

Gen pretended to not notice his own blushing.

“Sorry to say, I’ve already sworn tonight that I wouldn’t kill for you, Mistress,” Gen replied, exasperated.

“It’s morning!” answered Remilia with vigor. “Your answer now...!?”

“Is the same,” he said.

Gen furrowed his brow.

Mokou-nee killed over this...? Was it for immortality? Was it just her grudge?

...I feel like I’d ought to pay attention to everything here.

“Let’s not talk about Mokou,” said Kaguya in a polite tone. “Let’s talk about the Inaba of the moon! Isn’t Reisen so cute!?”

˜˜

“After losing my mind for so long... finding Kaguya again ‘focused’ me,” said Mokou. “I have to admit, I really needed her.”

Suika blinked as she stared at the wrath-filled immortal and drank more alcohol.

“That about brings us to date,” said Eirin bluntly. She met Suika’s eyes. “Is the oni the only one among us who isn’t going to share?”

Suika smiled behind her cup. “Of course I’ll share!” she boldly declared. “I may be the youngest here, but my story’s longer than both of yours combined...! You’d better be ready for it!”

Gen would hear that story as well...


[] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.

[] Although, Princess Kaguya’s ramblings kept him so long that he would merely hear half of it.

[] Though sadly, having been too polite to reject frivolous tales from the lonely Moon Princess, he would only hear the end of it.

++++++++

image sources:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91097904

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/68580239

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5034005
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3327743
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/95634253

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1788268

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2786884

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1359689
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4930628
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4121548

also

sorry that took so long

[x] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.

[X] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.

[x] Though sadly, having been too polite to reject frivolous tales from the lonely Moon Princess, he would only hear the end of it.

let's get less suika points and fail her route on purpose

[X] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.
Reject Reisen
Embrace Oni

[x] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.
JUICY. DETAILS. I want them, you have them.
Anyway, I really like Suika POV moments. It's interesting to see her in these events she's not supposed to be a part of.

[x] Though sadly, having been too polite to reject frivolous tales from the lonely Moon Princess, he would only hear the end of it.

Maybe we should wait for Suika to tell him herself instead of just walking in and eavesdropping like I'm assuming this will be.

Also, Kaguya gushing over Reisen is very cute

[x] In fact, having just escaped tales of rabbits with his Mistress and friend and found the hall from where prior he’d been ejected, he would hear all of it.

[♫: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIoRPGnEttA ]
[Extreme outlaw OUJA - Makai Senki Disgaea 3 Original Soundtrack (Tenpei Sato)]
[Lyrics: http://www.geci131.com/geci/1824262.html ]

She was brought back to what might have been any other day, save for a meeting—save for a single and spiraling choice. A night of dancing fire, the stench of sweat and oni’s blood. Fighting, lust, joy, rapture: she oversaw it all. She, who had thus far long been King. Two Devas ruled the Mountain and she, Ibuki Suika, was the deuxième and premier—her friend, the premier/deuxième—they were intertwined; they had given themselves to none other but themselves. To no woman—to no man had she ever shown passion, slavish loyalty, or romance. She swore instead to her whole people, but her otherwise most powerful and only dearest bond was with her sister through oath: the Hoshiguma-douji and given the title “Yuugi the Strong”, just as she herself was titled in a manner only illustrious to her kind: “Drinking Lad (Shuten-douji)”.

She was prideful for she had every cause to be proud: Ibuki, oni, young, powerful, honest, and dynast.

Suika went down from the summit into the smoke and stench of jubilation lower on the Mountain. She had been watching, and wanted to beat somebody’s face in. Shortly after she walked into the storm of pleasures, she did just that to whoever it was that drunkenly wandered into her first. She drunkenly slugged this man (or woman?) down to the ground. She grabbed and tossed who came at her next down into the Great Forest. She laughed raucously, and threw the chaos further into mania.

She found Yuugi—big, buff, blond and blissful—and stole and drank from her cup. She bashed heads with her compatriot, only just avoiding the other oni’s brilliant red and one-starred horn. She sang and threw down with one Ibaraki-douji. She loved this life. She roared into the night sky: a roar of the sincerest terror-bliss of the greatest youkai.

This was Ibuki-douji, at a fresh and youthful one-hundred years.

“AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!! WHAT A NIGHT!”

Her scream became laughter. She grabbed and pushed a younger oni’s face into the earth, and used his now-unconscious form as a seat. She rested her elbow on her knee—her chin on her knuckles. Grinning darkly, she called out—

“Yuugi! Start a fire! I wanna see the Sun tonight!!”

“Get a cup of sake and use it to watch the moon....!” her friend, who had another woman in a headlock, called back, “If you’re drunk, they may as well look the same!”

“What!?” Suika growled back in reply, stomping her foot. “Are you talking back to me!? Huh!?”

“Are you telling me to do something...?” Yuugi replied, smirking. She chokked out the other oni she’d been holding, and let the girl drop to the earth.

“I’ll spark a fire off your horn, you oaf! Listen to your friggin’ friends!” rumbled one King of the Mountain, leaning forward and glaring intensely.

“Yours look more like firewood, Suika,” answered the other.

“Break em off, see what happens!” fired the smaller oni. The larger opened her arms and beckoned, and to a chorus of cheers Suika launched forth and joined her fist with Yuugi’s stomach.

They brawled.

They snarled.

They hugged, after rolling halfway down Mount Yatsugatake.

“Gahahahaha! Suika! I love you!” With this said, Yuugi squeezed her sister close, bending the smaller oni’s ribs.

Suika returned the gesture, matching her friend’s strength and trilling out a, “Yuugiiiiii~~~...!”

They rolled out of one another’s arms, and side-by-side stared up through the canopy of the Great Youkai Forest, at once counting the stars in the sky in warm, thrilled silence.

... Though shortly, Yuugi sat up quite suddenly.

Suika slowly rose up as well, eyeing her friend curiously.

“You smell that, right?” Yuugi said, her eyes listlessly crawling past tree after tree. Suika did smell what Yuugi must have meant. The taller oni began to stand up, and as she did she said, “I’m getting hungry after that. Smells like a human.” She glanced back at her friend. “You want any?”

“You know how this works,” Suika answered. “You want human blood instead of a bird’s or a boar’s, you either do it outta my sight or you earn the blood by spilling some of mine.”

Yuugi looked at a red streak on her knuckles. She then looked at Suika. “This yours?” she asked, and she grinned brightly, closing her eyes and scrunching her nose.

“Who cares,” Suika answered as she stood. She first patted dust from her skirt, and then gathered all the dirt from her clothing with her will and power. She tossed the filth aside, and looked across the woods as her friend was doing.

That smells like a human, but something’s wrong with it... Suika thought to herself as she dully gazed around the forest. There’s a youkai, too... I’m not sure on that scent though. Kappa, tengu, satori, beast... no.

She slowly blinked her eyes.


[] Take out Yuugi right now to protect the human.

[] Join Yuugi and find the human together (Yuugi isn’t hard to dissuade from eating.)

[] Find the human yourself.


++++++++
image sources:
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3668989
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1017682
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1017683

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4634267

Finally caught up with this story after a couple of years. What a ride this has been.

[X] Find the human yourself.

Curious oni is curious

[x] Find the human yourself.

I want to roll down a mountain while hugging Suika

Gonna start learning to not make promises on how fast a next update is coming, but at the very least I can say that I'm not writing on any other projects at the moment!

>>68552
Thanks! Hope I can get back into a swing with this and other things

>>68553
You'd die dude

[x] Find the human yourself.
The little and big goblin have a very wholesome relationship. This sparks joy.

[x] Join Yuugi and find the human together (Yuugi isn’t hard to dissuade from eating.)

I've been reading your stories for literal years and I never get tired of 'em

There, underneath her: a mayhaps-human with flaxen hair and outlandish, violet dress...

[ ♫: https://listenonrepeat.com/?v=zrApXHA2ECs ]
[Tasogare - Atelier Ayesha - Alchemist of the Ground of Dusk - Vocal Album Twilight Hour (Tae)]
[Lyrics: https://shinitakashi.blogspot.com/2012/06/tae-tasogare-english-lyrics.html ]

A flare of mischief kicked up inside of Suika. She smirked, and began to speak.

“Human there...” she bellowed, deepening her voice through her command over density. In the dark, she saw the young girl shiver. She finished her words with a question: “have you any name?”

She had thrown her voice around the forest. That so being, the likely-human below her threw her head around in confusion, unable to discern the source.

Suika grinned a little wider, but... where was the fear? This human was sweating, frantic... Suika could even hear how heavily her heart was beating and yet, “fear”... the most fundamental and ephemeral essence which fed into a youkai’s existence... that “energy” was completely absent.

Once again, Suika became unsure what this young woman was, and her smile faltered.

“Well...” she followed, “you are indeed a human, aren’t you...?”

“You aren’t going to show yourself? You aren’t going to attack?” the girl answered her, and answered with an accent Suika was not familiar with. Before continuing, the girl put a hand to her chest. “That’s a little surprising,” she said. “A civil youkai?”

“Don’t call me civil,” Suika retorted. “And aren’t you bold? For my questions, you’re giving me questions?”

“It isn’t often that youkai speak to me, to put it lightly.” And now, albeit nervously... the girl below Suika smiled. “Could you tell me where I am?”

“This is Yatsugatake,” Suika replied, “the greater Mountain of Yamato.”

The girl blinked, a little rapidly. “You changed your voice,” she remarked. Suika narrowed her eyes. “... Did you say ‘Yamato’?”

“Oh. Pardon, human; you’ve all decided to call it ‘Japan’ for some time, haven’t you?”

“... As I thought.”

“What did you think?”

The girl continued to smile.

Tears then began to well in her eyes, before rolling down over her cheeks.

In shock, Suika flew down to the earth.

As leaves and dirt erupted from her landing, Suika crouched at a distance from the girl—keeping her eyes wide. She stood, and straightened her back.

Why are you crying? the oni thought, frowning as she stared across at the girl. She then glared, and looked around the forest. Her ears perked up. As the girl before began to sob, Suika glided forth, and took the girl’s head into her arms. She brought the “human” low, rested her hand on the the girl’s back. “You can’t be weeping here,” Suika told her as the girl shook against her front, wetting her clothes. “Monsters lurk in this forest, you know?”

In reply, the girl’s sobbing deepened. Suika grit her teeth in annoyance. The girl was gripping now at the oni’s clothing, her nose pressed in, running as freely as her tears. She shook, and shook, provoking the oni more.

So weak.. Suika thought in disgust. How could she make it up this way without dying? She’s so fragile, stupid, and defenseless.

Suika narrowed her eyes again.

I’ve half the mind to let Yuugi have her. Only...

...intrigue. Only intrigue is staying my hand, “human”.

“A-Aren’t, you, a m... monster!?” the girl managed to say. Suika opened her mouth, but did not want to answer. “What... a-are you?”

The girl lifted her head as she spoke. Golden eyes met Suika’s, and gleamed under the moonlight. The girl’s pretty face was wracked with grief. Memory in mind, Suika turned away from it, pinching her lips together.

“Look!” Suika commanded at length. “I can only be one thing.”

“Ha... haha...” the girl laughed. Suika looked at her again. “An oni,” the girl said. “A little... oni.”

Suika shoved the girl to the earth.

Dust filled the air. The girl curled into herself.

“Would you like my grace, or would you like to die?” Suika asked. “Show respect, and watch your tongue or I will tug it from between your lips before you can even think to wag it at the Yama.”

With the word “tug”, Suika showed with her hand and a jerk just how that would go about.

“Hahaha... oh... ahh... dying, I...” the girl muttered in the dirt, as grass and sand moved from her breath. “I could... I could die, that’s right...”

Suika’s eyes widened. She became filled with revulsion, and bared her fangs, appalled. The oni lifted her clawed hand, and swiftly struck down toward the back of the human’s neck.

Within her own hair, beneath the bow holding her locks together, something pricked at her skin—at her nape. Confused, she glanced behind herself, then stared down at the girl. She had meant to scare the lass. What she saw now underneath her was her own hand diving through a perfectly flat, bound-shadow—suspended above the girl’s neck. It was bound by a milky white and sickeningly pink thread, and two red bows fastened either side of it. In the shadow, crimson and disembodied eyes gazed back at her. Suika turned to look behind herself fully, and saw another shadow bound above her back, and the unmistakable shape of her own, shackled arm, tapping at her own nape with her own sharpened nails.

She split her arm where it met the shadow, and was unsurprised as both shadows went taut, shut, and left only wisps of herself behind before vanishing.

Suika grabbed her falling right hand with her still-whole left, and connected herself to herself. Dauntless, she stood above the youkai on the ground and glared at her. It was a sudden, vicious kind of retaliation the girl had plotted...

Mm... hm. That’s right, Suika thought.

Slowly now, Suika crouched low and grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt. She was crying again. Suika dragged her upward, and brought the both of them to stand.

Suika let the girl go, and watched her a little longer, and severely. Eyes closed, the youkai girl continued to sob. The girl, taller than Suika, carelessly let her tears fall, even as Suika stepped underneath her face and allowed the drops to fall upon her own cheeks as she watched the distorted countenance closely.

... Too right—

The memory Suika had first recalled had been wrong... this was not a reflection of her own face, and the pain of weakness. Therefore...

... What Suika mirrored now was her act after she had met the young, and once-human child “Kasen”.

As the pink-haired and newly born oni had sobbed within the filth where she was found, Ibuki Suika had brought her palms slowly to the girl’s sorrow-bent face. She did this, too, to the youkai before her now, bringing her their foreheads together. She closed her eyes, and took the now-kneeling girl, tightly, into a caring embrace. The girl was quick to embrace her back.

The oni offered no apology. In the warmth of this new youkai’s face, she felt “understanding”: that the girl’s words had been fast and foolish, and that the oni’s lunge was only meant to show her only that. Though, the oni could apologize for her earlier shove, perhaps... For that, she pat the girl’s back and began to gently rub it.

...

The girl from somewhere else had to have lost her humanity.

Though Suika had seen it only once before, that agony and confusion were completely unmistakable. “Why”... and what it now meant to “be”...

Suika could not quite understand that specific pain, but she would recognize and nurture whatever soul found itself facing such woes.

Though this is no magic I’ve quite seen before... Suika thought while the girl cried, now, against her shoulder. Are you from across the sea...? What was that space you made...?

...


[] Bring this young youkai somewhere secluded (and secret) for now.
That would be a repeat, like stealing a cup and taking it to a wounded and rose-haired orphan in the past. Perhaps in sensitivity what she needs is quiet and time.

[] Call Yuugi here.
Someone’s won the bet. And besides, Yuugi’s head is quite level. No other knows how best to be a youkai. Perhaps I don’t know what best to do.

++++++++
image sources:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89758837

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4641420

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/96833986
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4490914
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91422730

[x] Call Yuugi here.

[X] Bring this young youkai somewhere secluded (and secret) for now.

Young Yukari, or time-traveling Merry?

[X] Bring this young youkai somewhere secluded (and secret) for now.

One on one is better I think.

> Young Yukari, or time-traveling Merry?
Is there really a difference?

[X] Call Yuugi here.

[x] Bring this young youkai somewhere secluded (and secret) for now.

Oh good, a traumatized Merry. I'm sure this will be a very fluffy and wholesome adventure.

[x] bring this toykai somewhere secluded.

This needs a soft hand and Yuugi... Well she doesn't do subtle well

AO3 brush up updated
Forgot to add it to the OP... >>68377
This was the chapter after Suika and Gen first slept together or rather, the first "half" of that chapter redone: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28070256/chapters/95780749


Whole thing: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28070256?view_full_work=true

There's still a long way to go before the edited version is caught up: over 140,000 words, but after I re-engaged with the pipeline that past me set up for quickly formatting AO3 updates, I remembered how streamlined it was. I'll keep on updating it! For me, it's also interesting to see how much I remember writing, and how much slipped my mind.

>>68589
btw, thanks! It's hard to believe it's been years now...

pssst way back here
>>67465
>老いも若きな鬼
Changing to 色んな鬼. Just a better choice!

Working on next update when I can
I also am not sure if I forgot my tripcode or not? Let's see!

>>68612
Excellent, I did not.

>>68613
now that I have this excellent chance, I will submit "update never ever" as my reply so that the writer will grow discouraged and take another month!
evil plan of the day complete!

>>68614
Very rude

I've had to crunch other story stuff... Since I've started the next update though it should be completed "soon" (probably in 2 weeks)

>>68613
Bruh, they've been updating pretty consistently for 4 years and more. That's better than most fanfic writers we see here. Have some patience, you ungrateful idiot

I mean, I'm pretty sure that >>68614 was obviously joking? I thought it was funny, at least.

>>68644
>>68645
yeah it's fine

ゆっくりしていってね

>>68615
1 month too late good god. Starting work on this again

[] asked why Suika had used the words Sovereign/Matriarch to refer to herself.

[] asked to know the year.

[] asked for a bath.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

image sources:
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2905170
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5463708
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5179694
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4429911

[x] asked for a bath.

Dinner and Suika herself optional.

[x] asked for a bath.

[x] asked for a bath.

Might be a subtler way of outing herself as a girl-out-of-time. IE: the world of fantasy is nice but so was running water.

[x] asked for a bath.

>>68651
>a gaze steady and daylight blue...
Gold, actually.

Some things I ended up learning by looking at official artworks--
*Merryberry has gold eyes in most appearances. Otherwise, she has red/brown eyes rarely.
*Renko wears brown and white clothing, not black and white.
*Despite it being popular in fanart, Renko barely ever ties her hair. Maybe only one instance? Even in her first appearance I can't exactly see a tie in her hair though there does seem to be a side length of hair. In fact only the latest design has a ribbon for sure--and it's red, not white.

[x] asked for a bath.

smelly goblin

[ ♫: https://listenonrepeat.com/?v=Z7ossUdJTko ]
[酔月 (instrumental) - 東方天楼華 (はちみつれもん)]

Were the bodies of oni simply warmer than others? As Merry shivered with her waist submerged in the waters of a creek, she looked on at the two oni with her who seemed completely at ease within the wretchedly frigid flow and thought on this question. Had Suika’s lap been warm? Her hands certainly were, and her stomach, arms, and chest too. Yuugi was truly a giant... and larger people tended to be warmer too, didn’t they? A cold bath... of course the idea was around when she came from, but it was also just so unthinkable. This was her first, and it was simply harrowing. She could not sit down. Stuck in her head, with her arms crossed around her torso, Merry had sincerely too much to think over, and too much to engage with.

“You’re shaking like a leaf!” the larger oni yelled. The smaller answered “no I’m not” to which the larger replied, “I wasn’t talking to you!”

Merry looked again at the pair. The one called Yuugi had lathered Suika with soap and was now scrubbing at her body with something. It could have been a sponge or maybe a rag—it was not possible to see, camouflaged in suds. She had finished with Suika’s face and was onto Suika’s arms at that moment, but now stopped and stood to her full height. At once, Merry was not sure where to look.

As her eyes darted around and not at the intimidating form of this oni, she caught out the corner of her eye the grinning blond crouching low. Was she... Were her hands scooping at the water?

“Hoorah!” the oni cried playfully as she tossed water at Merry.

Thus, what looked to Merry to be a tidal wave came. Eyes like saucers, within this freezing creek she finally and completely froze.

The water smashed over her and brought her onto her bottom. Forced to adapt, Merry hugged herself closer—now neck deep and sat on innumerable stones and pebbles. That was right... of course, she’d never bathed outside like this before either.

Through the blear from being briefly submerged, Merry saw Suika lift a hand. Behind the newborn youkai, the wave (which had still been going, out and down the mountain) immediately stopped.

“You’ll throw all the water out of the creek,” Suika chastised.

“No,” the again-standing Yuugi said honestly and happily, “it’s being fed.”

It was. The creek was being fed by an (admittedly small) earnest and short waterfall.

Somehow, the water from Yuugi’s toss was brought gently back to the creek where it would flow into perhaps a river, and almost certainly that lake Merry had spotted now and then.

“How did you even manage that? Yuugi.” Suika asked, holding her arm out and flexing her fingers. Yuugi returned to her and returned to work with that arm.

The blond oni shrugged. “I dunno,” she said. Merry realized... that had been a very good question. How had she moved so much water at once? Physics would take quite a lot of issue with how that transpired.

Suika, who had been sat upon a boulder all this while, reached down to something tied to it—a plain gourd Merry had learned was filled with sake. The oni took it up, and took a swig. Seeing what looked like a “child” doing this presented Merry with something else that easily and casually threw her.

“You were the one worried about getting clean!” Suika shouted in a bit of a hazy voice—at Merry. Merry pointed at herself. “Yeah, you! Clean yourself already!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine—I’ll wash her tooooo—!! Scrub scrub scrub! Scrub Suika!” Saying this, Yuugi got her hands around her friend’s torso and scrubbed away. Suika began laughing uproariously.

“Y-You! Bear—Bear, you’re too cute!” Suika yelled between her chortles.

“Stop calling me cute when you’ve got a cute belly like this—” Yuugi murmured in play annoyance, gripping and tickling at the smaller oni’s stomach. After enjoying more of Suika’s laughter for a little while, her mock pout erupted into a grin, and she moved onto Suika’s lower body. Merry watched in her newest stunned silence as Yuugi unabashedly cleaned every part of Suika’s body, and her Suika unabashedly got back to drinking. Certainly, Merry had been surprised with Yuugi’s boldness in how upon reaching the creek she had undressed at once and openly cleaned herself before them first, but this... “bond”? What she had with the other oni who was likely not her blood seemed just as strong as such a connection—if not more so.

After scrubbing at Suika’s last toe, Yuugi wrung out the rag she was using (revealed by water) and washed off her hands before throwing the cloth over her shoulder. Turning to Suika, she started to pat at the little oni’s body here and there, all over. It looked a bit akin to sumo... though that sport should not have had any history just yet, if Merry had guessed correctly. Suika kept drinking, until she started smirking, and then grinning, and soon she began lightly striking at Yuugi as well with her own free hand, before dropping her gourd and matching the big girl “blow” for “blow”.

Inevitably, they began to wrestle after nearly a minute had passed.

Merry turned her head away and wondered if she should ask for any soap, or would that be an embarrassment?

She could hear the two oni laughing and splashing about regardless.

...A smile snuck onto her lips.

She became distracted, and did not notice Yuugi coming up and standing beside her.

“You’re next...!” the oni rumbled.

“... I can just use—” Merry tried, before once again the other blond had taken hold of her in both hands and lifted her with ease.

“...Wha... You’re still shaking? You need to get more used to the water.”

Saying this, as Merry went quietly “no, no, I don’t actually”, Yuugi brought Merry straight to the waterfall.

And here, more shame would be endured.

~~

Yuugi was washing the new youkai’s hair, and from what Suika could tell was mainly just exploring it. She could understand the desire, and in fact at night or perhaps tomorrow she planned to do the same to this “Merry”...

She looked at the sky.

“Merry”, huh...

Was that not the girl’s name? Not that Suika had smelled a lie in that introduction; her ears only had caught the specificity. The one called Merry had asked that to be her address.

Currently floating on her back in the water and sometimes sipping at her almost-empty gourd, Suika eyed the other two once again. She could ask about it.

Although... new day, new matters: she needed to sit down with Yuugi at some point and talk about the Mountain... perhaps call down some crows or wolves for reports, or maybe just a casual talk on rule... Maybe the little kid-youkai wouldn’t like such prodding, either.

“...”


[] Ask Merry for her full name. Give your own.

[] Talk to Yuugi for now.

[] Honestly you’re a little drunk, how about rambling randomly for a little while?

>>68673
Oh yeah, image sources

Kinda NSFW, nothing explicit: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1959159
NOT SAFE FOR WORK: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4081432

[x] Ask Merry for her full name. Give your own.

[x] Ask Merry for her full name. Give your own.

It's only polite. Also, Yuugi is very cute

Down below and somewhat far from the Mountain where two kings and one child bathed—

Desperate now, the humans surrounding her had become desperate in action.

[ ♫: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auh45jRtS-k ]
[Madrugada - Soulful (Yoshida Brothers)]

The field where she stood had been set afire. She smiled, and thought that it was funny—the sky always looked so much like night under the smoke of a field such as this. She really was beginning to recognize it—so, were humans beginning to recognize her again?

The child of that village... anyone who remembered that child had been gone more than a few years.

As soon as she could take their lives, she had descended from the Mountain and swiftly snatched at that opportunity.

And ever since... Ever since...

This oni of rose-colored hair, this oni of wiles and cunning...

She had to this day menaced the lands of Yamato, and would forever do so. She would bear a title. She would stand with her sisters at the Top of Yatsugatake...

And of course, as always, nothing as timid as fire could threaten the hell of fury that rested in her heart. She simply knew how humans worked.

The smile disappeared from her face. She fell into the water of the rice field, and began to cough.

“NOW!” came a chorus of human cries.

It was hard to sniff out the number of humans in a village masked by fire.

Also, what unique power she possessed granted her nothing like “detection”.

It was dangerous to go alone like this; that was an obvious truth. But, that was the entire purpose.

An oni who was human—an oni not born with some ‘notable’ skill—

To rule, to be recognized, to eat—

She had to show herself as so much more than any other, and she welcomed it too.

Her ear perked to the sound of a sword swinging down. She smiled again, and stood, and her horn caught the blade.

She jerked her left hand leftward, and the chain bound to her wrist whipped before her to catch the head of a spear at a link—a spear that had been pointed at her heart. The oni then raised her right hand as quickly. For this, she took part of the right wrist-chain into her palm, brought her hand backward—

And, she swung that chain out and around herself in sudden and blinding black, grinning wildly. It moved faster than human eyes could really see—like a darting wasp across those eyes, and suddenly all smoke cleared and fire had died in an instant.

And, in an instant, seven humans were severed around her by their waists.

Their corpses fell, and their blood would feed the crop.

Kasen tugged her right chain taught, and there it went slack. In quiet ecstasy, she dragged its links over her tongue.

This little twist truly never lost its luster. Thinking this, the oni dropped her hands and walked past the half-spearman fallen before her. The screams surrounding her threw shivers throughout her skin. Glee.

Ibaraki Kasen, seeking the honor of being known “Ibaraki-douji” to call herself the blossomed and greatest pride of her house, was the fresh-faced picture of brutal oni, just less than a hundred years of age, and boundless in ambition.

She moved, she trudged, she muttered—

“I saw scales fall
From the maiden’s face
And how she wept, alas!

She had powdered her face.
Only powder, I tell you.
And her face was now falling off!

Her skin only seemed to be skin.
It broke like a plate.
We saw behind her eyes... Hm? What’s that?”

As she approached the end of the paddy she’d been standing in, she realized she had been looking nowhere in particular as she’d walked. Now, she looked up to see a young human boy. A teenage boy. Another, littler boy was standing behind a home and watching. Dripping from water and blood, and blackened from ash, Ibaraki Kasen continued to walk to the teenage boy petrified on the ground, glancing between him and what was likely a brother.

An arrow flew down toward her neck. She pinched it from the air, eyed backward to whence it came, and tossed it back whence it came, so quickly piercing the neck of an archer who had climbed atop a roof to take that shot. The archer’s gurgling pleas played out now as Kasen stopped before the older boy and looked down on him, inexpressive. She looked into his paled, sweating face.

“Aah,” she said hollowly, “was I not the luckiest demon, to find a pocket of air just in time. Fires are truly, truly terrible.”

She waited a moment in silence before she softly added, “But humans persevere.”

She looked toward the younger boy.

She was feeling hungry. Spiritually, she was very full with the wealth of fear come now into her. But, the sight and taste of blood were just too bolstering.


“...”


[] Swiftly kill the older boy.

[] Talk with the older boy for now.

[] Call out to the younger boy for now.

++++++++

image sources:

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5355764
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5157949
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5103495

[x] Call out to the younger boy for now.

Warning, warning, lewd pink on the loose!

[X] Swiftly kill the older boy.
Young Kasen is on a roll. Better not stop now.

[x] Talk with the older boy for now.

[x] Talk with the older boy for now.

Lewd

“Youkai Mountain”, then “Yatsugatake”, was ruled by the might of ogres.

In the land of fantasy, in the dark region known as “Gensokyo”, blood would often run through the fields, rivers, and hills.

It was the truest and highest realm of youkai.

However, youkai cannot exist without humans’ terror—humans’ blood and flesh, yes, but always and most importantly their terror.

In terror, humanity still stepped foot in this place.

And, honorably, they fought against the monsters that had settled there.

It was a world of give and take; a world of simplicity and honesty.

“Free”...

...

Three great hearts would be born into this world, and those same three would shatter it:

One child, “Ibaraki no Kasen”,

Another child, “Yakumo Yukari”,

And, she who brought the other two to new life: the first and fourth king, “Ibuki no Suika”.

“—Die...”

The boy uttered this now that his knife’s blade was caught in the oni’s hand.

“Die!”

Not a command, but a plea. Begging. For the knife had truly been caught. Presently, the oni held it and looked back at him.

He repeated his wish incessantly. He had fought as best as he could—that would be: not well at all. He had nothing in his movements indicating practice with a blade. He had nothing in his head, it seemed, of exorcism. The conclusion Kasen found was thus simple to come to.

As if it were a twig, Kasen snapped the steel blade, and at once it looked as if the boy’s knees gave out.

Kasen watched after him, and watched how in spite of this he stood once again.

He let out a guttural screech and threw his hands at her neck.

She could not drop her smile. He could not drop his grasp—

With everything he had, he tried to strangle the neck of an oni.

Smoothly, slowly, Kasen put her hand against his chest.

—She pushed him back.

He stumbled horribly, forced to let her go, and he tried to right his footing—tried to come back at her again.

His self-ruined face—Kasen grabbed at it with her other hand. She kept him at that length.

She smiled at him warmly, and glanced back at the boy’s brother.

“... That’s right,” she said, and she vanished there.

The boy fell to the earth. He came to realize the ordeal was over all at once. He dug his nails through the fallen shards of his broken weapon, and he wept. Shaking terribly, he cried on as his brother ran to him—as his fellow farmers came to him. He wept as the oni watched on from afar, perched in a peach tree at the base of Yatsugatake.

“...” She had lost her smile.

“...” She looked backward, and upward. The Mountain was waiting for her.

How long has it been...? she thought. She rummaged through her bloodied clothing and began to stand up on the branch she’d come to. Finding what she was looking for, she drew it out:

A tightly woven, and rather thin rope. Tied onto its length were the circle-shapes of several sword guards. There were great teeth, and a few curved bones. There were the sashes of priests, and there were many flowers as well. Whatever odd she could find; whatever trophy she could take—she had tied it to the string. She found the weak guard of the knife she had just destroyed as well, taking it from behind one of her shackles. She plucked a fiber loose, and used it to claim this newest memory.

She put a hand to her hip and looked over her spoils, all.

This should be enough, shouldn’t it?

Will they have heard of me, too?

She smirked.

I can smell that Suika’s home...

Yuugi... Touka...

Her face began to warm.

She looked once again at the farmer boy she had teased.

... It had been a whim, but she was glad that she had spoken to him. He was not a warrior, and yet he’d found himself on a battlefield...

Usually, they all ran when she descended. In the high of battle, she would’ve usually killed a straggler like him on the spot, or...

Straggling...? ... Was that some normal thing to do? She couldn’t remember... There were many dead men, and many dead women, she had made until now. Surely, she had killed some who could not fight as well. But, she would not kill those who would not fight... And, she could not kill someone’s family before their eyes, if that death were to become meaningless.

With a smile to herself, Kasen stashed her treasures away.

... If humans could not understand how one should feel for family, she would show them that.

Her family was here.

Ibaraki Kasen took a peach from the tree, took a bite from it, and vanished again. Her direction: the mountain top.

[♫]

~~

++++++++
image sources:
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/88574263
https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/90537139

[ ♫: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850f4L919SY ]
[kamigami ~ The Gensokyo The Gods Loved~ – Jazz Funk Vol. 1 (thj.quartet)]

A breeze flowed cool through innumerable trees, and up and over an immodest village. The rooftops were fit with gold and jade shingles. The walkways were set with immaculate onyx and marble stones. Overhead, crows flitted about carrying news and messages. A troupe of turtles carried a long pipe toward a waterway. Youkai, of all kinds, made merry and made business. Clothwork, inking paper, crafting... and then there were the oni. The oni, who ruled, now directed, watched, played, and made business too.

Their kingdom, crowned at the top, carried on to all parts of The Mountain. Giants’ breweries sat in the west, and breeding grounds for sake bugs sat to the south. In the north, where there was a road to the Sanzu River, there was a segment of meditative guards fit to fight back any lurking spirits. East... down east, humans, and the Lake could be found.

And, Underground there was Hell.

Suika, carried by her friend (who let her sit on a shoulder), was now drinking again and considering Hell as they approached Heaven (or, just “the top of the Mountain”). Vengeful spirits had been spotted over the last few nights... it was the responsibility of her sister, Touka, to manage them now. Ordinarily, kishin were sent below and did enough to help manage the blazing fires et al that needed managing to continue a healthy cycle of death, but perhaps there was some missed spot... Not unthinkable. So, Touka was fit to do. It worried the king, however... vengeful spirits were a truly detestable blight toward youkai-kind. Although, she did not worry much. Or rather, her spirits were too high at the thought of what today would bring.

The night before, they had celebrated for the news that one of their sisters, the pride of the Ibaraki, would be returning. Suika wondered: would that Ibaraki be more worldly now? Suika herself had not explored much of the lands beyond the Mountain... she had gone to her birthplace and namesake, Mount Ibuki, and she had rampaged a great deal throughout Yamato to the benefit of a powerful reputation... but she had had a goal in mind. She had not rampaged too long, and she’d returned soon to rampage, too, on the Mountain, taking the crown before Yuugi then kicked it from her hand, and demanded they share it.

Now Ibara—no, Kasen’s reputation preceded her. While a little disagreeable to Suika, Kasen had evidently carved a path of blood along with needed fear. It made her impressive... Soon, the crown would need to be shared among three. Likely, thought Suika as the image of Touka came to her mind, the crown would be placed atop four heads in fact.

Yuugi had brought it up too: they would almost certainly be fighting today. Touka had left the party the night before to prepare exactly for that Yuugi wagered. Yuugi told her fellow ruler, “Touka’s absolutely going to blind us and remember, Suika: our Kasen fixes to murder!” and she’d laughed. It was certainly true though. Touka used all means, their more vicious friend and sister Kasen... to tussle with her always brought to mind the image of a human tussling with a wolf. Rule could not be given to them easily, and they would not easily take it.

Suika smiled and shivered.

On Yuugi’s opposite shoulder, the one who wanted to be called Merry sat awkwardly and quietly, using the shoulder as if it were a legged chair and pushing her hands stiffly into her dress. Suika watched her curiously.

Would Kasen know where Merry hailed from?

Suika fiercely shook her head. All beings of thought had curiosity, but curiosity was no excuse to betray the trust of a friend—or, a to-be-sworn friend. Merry would need to tell her where she was from herself.

The smoke and smells of the main village came across to the senses of all three. Two looked up to the crows and wolves—to the tengu now spotting them. Looking around, one could see spiders—tsuchigumo eyeing the landscape. She forgot... were they planning for some new architecture?

She looked up past treetops and through mist. Near the very highest point of the mountain was a pair thrones, and a crowd of youkai waiting before it.

Back to work, huh...

It was time to go back to the business of rule.


[] Go find Merry a place to stay in the village, for now.

[] Take Merry with you as you go to sit on the throne near Heaven.

[] Take Merry with you as you go to see Touka in Hell.

[x] Take Merry with you as you go to see Touka in Hell.

I don't recall, did the Fourth Deva get a name in Touhou canon?

>>68693
Nope

[x] Take Merry with you as you go to sit on the throne near Heaven.

[x] Take Merry with you as you go to sit on the throne near Heaven.

>>68551
>She sang and threw down with one Ibaraki-douji
pssst
mistake
ignore this

[X] and, to break the silence, Kasen spoke first.

Young Kasen doesn't strike me as the silent, introvert type.

[x] and, to break the silence, Kasen spoke first.

Glad this is back

[x] and, to break the silence, Kasen spoke first.

Suika ached. “Guh—” she grunted. “Touka...” she grumbled.

“Touka, huh...” Yuugi grumbled beside her. “She got us.”

“She got us, she got us. Brat.”

The two kings were smoking on the mountain side—surrounded as always by immense and shadowing trees and, quite literally, smoking as the fires that had consumed them had only now begun to die out as they lay in the dirt. They had cratered a few minutes before, and with the shock both seemed to have lost consciousness. It was unpleasant...

“Think she was trying to make us weak, Suika?”

“No... She was mad at us, wasn’t she?”

“For Kasen?”

“Wanted to hug Kasen herself, I bet. I’ll ask a crow later—I’m sure she hugged little Kasen.”

“Hm, well, hm.”

Suika sat up, and there began to mash her hands against her face.

Yuugi began to pick herself up as well. “Are we old already...?” she asked. “The two of them... they aren’t quite like we were, are they?”

Suika looked at her friend between her fingers.

Yuugi...

“They’re only a few years younger, Yuugi; even a mortal would say so.”

“But you get that feeling as well,” Yuugi challenged her. “You do, Suika.”

“Times change,” Suika replied with a smile. “We vowed to change them ourselves, didn’t we? On this very mountainside...”

“Well, it might have been another side...”

“I’m being poetic, Yuugi.”

“Still, I’m...”

Waiting near a minute without Yuugi finishing, Suika offered, “Anxious?”

Yuugi, slouching, smiled at her warmly. “I’m feeling old,” she said.

“Soft bear, always! Soft heart, always—”shouted Suika with flair, tossing her hair and opening her arms wide. “You’ll make me kiss you, Yuugi!” she declared, voice a blend of irritation and amusement.

“You can always feel free, Suika,” Yuugi told her honestly, still smiling. She already knew this...

Suika rose to her feet, and put her hands on her hips.

“Yuugi, we ought to do something before tonight,” she told her sister. “We’ll be fighting again.”

“You have something in mind?” Yuugi asked, meeting her eyes at level despite still being sat down.


To remind the Mountain of who ruled it:
[] “We go down the Mountain, and spread terror,” Suika said.

To warm up their ‘old’ bones:
[] “Well Yuugi, we fight now,” Suika said.

To ease their nerves, and to be “oni”—
[] “We drink,” Suika said.

++++++++

image sources:
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4197479
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5917677

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3524112
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1665242

Guess Merry is essentially lost to humanity now, in all senses of the word.

[X] “We drink,” Suika said.

[x] “Well Yuugi, we fight now,” Suika said.

Oni

[X] And, “Let’s get you something to drink,” Kasen offered.
Or: Bring Merry alcohol.

Something about looser tongues.

[x] And, “Let’s get you something to drink,” Kasen offered.

Poor Merry

[x] And, “Let’s get you something to drink,” Kasen offered.

[x] Get up, and shove Kasen out the way.

LET HER HAVE IT

[X] From the ground, give Kasen a piece of your mind.

If she didn't listen to her equal's sobbing and the nosy tengu's candidness, surely she will listen to her.

[x] From the ground, give Kasen a piece of your mind.

[x] From the ground, give Kasen a piece of your mind.

[x] Cry.

Racing the youkai who can teleport seems like a bad idea

[x] Race Merry to Suika.

[X] Cry.
It's over.

>Merry would come to, platonically, share Suika’s bed that night and every night after for quite some time.

Yurifags destroyed

[x] "You took this child from its home. You do it."
Wasn't Suika just complaining about people with no backbone?

[X] Agree to do it, but ask Suika to come with you.

Want to a do a little bit of 1 and 3. I.E. "Have Suika do it, Merry will go with."

Don't quite like the directness of 1, but 3 doesn't have the rebuke level I feel either.

On a separate note: When are we going back to Gen's story? Feels like we've been in this flashback story for quite a while now. I was half expecting it to be done with the last update.

>>68870
It'll be quite a while, basically until Suika's history is established. I've chosen to go with explaining her story as a story, rather than doling out the many details of her thousand years of life piecemeal. Gen will thus know a great deal more about her by the end and will understand her much more, which is something he's wanted for a while. He's been bothered that she isn't forthcoming about a lot of her past.

[x] Agree to do it, but ask Suika to come with you.

[x] Agree to do it, but ask Suika to come with you.

[x] “I want to leave the Mountain on a journey.”
—(alone)

[X] “I want to leave the Mountain on a journey.”
—(alone)

Can't take away one of the queen's from her position. Creates a power vacuum.

I'd also say Maribel going alone would be good for her experience gathering. As she wouldn't have to rely on Suika being the mediator.

>Captcha is ONICIRNO

foreshadowing?!

[X] “I want to leave the Mountain on a journey.”
—(alone)

>>68881
Pictures or it didn't happen

[X] “I want to leave the Mountain on a journey.”
—(alone)

[x] called out to Kasen
--(x) only, really, to call her and let her know that she knew she was there.

Good update. Kinda find it morbidly amusing how Kasen left Merry with what/who I would presume to be one of the crow shikigami Merry(Yukari) ends up with and then sends to the moon on a scouting mission. Only to be killed by the moon bitches. (Although I think it was just one casualty.)

Probably something to be said about the results of the journey Merry ventured.

>>68964 here

And then of course, as I accidentally skipped over the author note in the beginning and missed the disclaimer for this character. Everything I surmised was for naught.

durr.

>>68964
>>68965
Thanks.

Well, I would still give you a gold star for remembering what is, ultimately, a rather small canonical scene. I'm not being THAT level of poetic though.

>One vote hurts. I guess the options were too many/the vote itself was uninteresting.
you are now aware that the last time we've seen our protagonist was 9 months ago

>>68967
Certainly, but there's a point to all of it. Gen is listening, hence that vote over how much he would hear of Suika's story.

I sure hope this isn't the crow shikigami that died in Silent Sinner in Blue.

[x] she would ask these kappa where those gaps they’d mentioned were last seen.

[x] she would ask these kappa where those gaps they’d mentioned were last seen.

[x] she would ask these kappa where those gaps they’d mentioned were last seen.

[x] she would visit and prod the exorcist Sunai Clan an old and gone friend had fostered for “human” rumors on the gap.

update soon, end of a thing

[ ♫: https://files.catbox.moe/6k98c6.mp3 ]
[Ryoshima Plains I + II – Okami Original Soundtrack (Hiroshi Yamaguchi)]

“Odd for an oni, but still a brute aren’t you?”

A question pulled Suika from her story as she prepared to describe her flight from the Mountain. She spilled some sake in her lap, and with bemusement looked across her cup at Yagokoro Eirin. The Sage of the Moon smiled, and waited for an answer. Suika answered—

“Yes!!”

The Sage laughed, the Apprentice laughed. Fujiwara no Mokou relaxed her posture, by now about as drunk as the two ladies she was listening to. “You actually left Japan, then?” she asked. “I’m surprised.”

“Many times!” Suika boasted, and grinned. “To find lost friends, sure, but also only to see it! To see this land—this Earth!”

“This land is filthy...” remarked the woman among them who would say such.

“This land is beautiful!” shouted Suika. “I leapt into the air, then, and I saw it all for the first time in almost fifty years!”

For the first time in almost fifty years, she cast a gaze over the earth as air wrapped around her infirm body. As a drunken breeze she, moved through the sky—pushing aside clouds and carrying grass and flowers of Yatsugatake along with her. In the firmament, she reformed, and with her robes dancing around her she witnessed her land one last time before she would leave it—for she did not know how long.

Gensokyo. Then, it had no Great Barrier, and there were more human villages than one. Youkai, too, settled throughout the country—not only thriving on the Mountain. In the sky, she could smell earth—she could smell blood, and distant fire.

A world of green, turning yellow and red—a mountainous and plains-painted expanse that was not only hers: it was an expanse for any free of heart—human, animal, or monster—verdant and not wild: tamed. She loved it. She left it, for the North.

The air had still not yet fully cooled with the turn of the season. Warmed by the sun and not-too chilled by the sky, the Sovereign felt that her trip to and perhaps past Hokkaido would not ask for heavier dress.

“You’re going to tell us every step of your journey?”

Interrupted once more, in present day Suika froze with a smile on her face. She then glared at Yagokoro Eirin.

“I was flying!” she snapped.

“Well, every flap of your arms then.”

“That isn’t how I fly! No way you forgot! I flew at you too many times for that! Or what is it, Moon Dust? You only remember my fist or something?”

“Tell me about the Kuril Isles. Or, do Earthlings call them the Chishima now?”

“Hm? Do we?” she asked this while looking askance at Mokou and refilling her sake dish.

“Don’t ask me,” said the bamboo forest hermit. To this, Suika shrugged.

“They’re cute little mountain islands,” the oni went on. “Here and there. There aren’t a thousand of them, but there’s a good number. I liked them.”

“You only went once?” asked Eirin.

“Yeah, there weren’t many youkai, and I’ve never liked poking at the Ainu.” Saying this, Suika looked at Mokou again. “You humans have done enough of that, yeah?”

“Again, don’t ask me,” said Mokou, now slouching. “Before three hundred years ago, I didn’t exactly have my bearings for one thousand to put that lightly. And during those three hundred, I haven’t kept up with Outside World politics, I’ve just been killing and being killed by Kaguya.”

Suika glanced at Eirin, who offered, “Yes, I can confirm that she has.”

“...Yer odd, you Hourai people,” said Suika. The two people of Hourai said nothing. “Well then I guess I’m the expert. Yeah, I ‘get’ the Ainu a bit. I only watched them as I passed into Hokkaido. Sometimes stayed with them, but I always disguised myself well—I looked perfectly like a human.”

Gen and Remilia, still listening, doubted that.

“The Kuril Islands can get covered in smoke from its volcanos, and it’s a real magic kinda place whenever it does. And—And the water! It was crystal clear, and moving over huge parts of it with smoke all dashing around me from all those fire-hills and the steaming seas...ahh... It was real impressive to me, I tell ya. I felt like a little girl again, tumbling through the sky and over great and mad valleys! I remember thinking—thinking, ‘Ah, ahh, I should thank her for this’!”

“Was it really so nice?” Eirin asked.

“Yeah,” Suika replied with a smirk. “I’d tell you you should go, but you being a fugitive whose butt I just beat—I bet that’s not too likely for you, huh? You’re in this forest—in Gensokyo—to hide.”

“Yes,” said Eirin, “...but maybe there’s little reason for that.”

The Sage wore a still and distant expression. Watching it a little while, Suika shrugged once again.

“...I forget how long it took, but eventually I sat on the emerald and super jagged mountains of eastern Sakhalin Oblast—sitting there with some real friendly Nivkhs who’d heard of me coming down the islands, and what I was looking for. They didn’t like what I was looking for, and were hoping I’d get rid of it—hah hah hah! Ahh...anyways, Cape Lopatka was hidden by the curve of the Earth, but ehh...I wouldn’t have wanted to see it anyway.

“Clouds pushed halfway up the hills like a white sea underneath us. On the other side I could see brilliantly rich earth, and sparse sightings of trees! Nothing like Japan—nothing like Gensokyo! It was a place that sitting there, you felt you were seeing everything the world had to offer. At the time, I thought about running amok and having some oni settle there. After all, although it was gorgeous beyond belief I was a little ticked that Merry had brought me all the way out there. Was she trying to go across the entire world...!? Her damned gaps were cheats! I couldn’t move faster than she could dip through a portal! And I couldn’t reach home, of course. No way to quickly reach home, or talk to anyone, and I’m not the kind of youkai who wants any shikigami beneath her—so, stubborn as I am I couldn’t send or receive any messages. I was feeling really frustrated on top of being drawn in by a new land’s majesty, and all of a sudden then and there a crow landed in my lap.”

“Ahh...Merry’s?” asked Mokou.

“It didn’t talk. When it landed on me and my human guides noticed, they started getting worried. Maybe they thought it was a little creepy...? I couldn’t say. The crow flew up to one of my horns, landed on it, and started scratching at it.

“Well I thought ‘If this isn’t Merry’s, then it’s gonna be my dinner’. And almost like a Satori, it took off northwest after I thought that, like it was scared!

“‘Northwest’, I thought...” Suika whispered, with some gravitas. Then, she declared: “It was the new country’s direction.”

“...You weren’t hiding your horns?”

“I stood up, thanked the Nivkhs with me, and flew through the cloud-sea to find the ocean. I’d find it, I’d cross it, I’d reach the gray and rocky lands on the other side and there...

“I eventually found myself wandering into a forest.”

(anyways, obviously the previous story post was also me)

++++++++

To be more accurate: at the time Suika rode her way into a forest, by way of bear. She found this brown bear charging at her while wandering through barren plains, whereupon she smacked it on its head and made her way to its back, sitting there. No real beast tamer like Kasen, she merely...”urged” the animal to listen by way of force, ultimately declaring “You shall be Yuugi” when it finally ceased struggling against her or trying to run off. She cleared its fur of filth and bugs with her power and had it take her into a forest where crows looked to be gathering as murder.

Unlike on the islands before, on this the Kamchatka Peninsula the trees had already thoroughly succumbed to the embrace of Fall. They were bare, and ugly, and stark. The woodland she walked into was nothing like her stuffy home, and she felt her skin prickling as she laid on the bear’s back by her back and looked up between skeleton branches to the orange heavens above—those now growing purple.

Crows cawed; not often, but often enough to tell that they were talking about her.

With her arms behind her head and her legs dangling from the bear’s sides, Suika waited for the creature’s march to find whatever—or likely whoever—lay in this woods’ heart.

As evening finally and fully fell, the bear stopped, and Suika craned her neck back to look out ahead:

To a figure surrounded by black feathers...

To a young and flaxen-haired girl, not looking at, or at all concerned with, the beast behind her...

To Merry, standing alone in the forest of a new foreign land.

[ ♫: https://listenonrepeat.com/?v=2QtP34a9sE0 ]
[Prologue/夢と現の境界 – Platycodon grandiflorus (東方弦楽郷)]

Suika rolled from the bear’s back and lightly struck its side with her knuckles twice, sending it off as she crouched behind the somewhat distant Merry.

She rose to her full, miniscule, height and quietly watched the other youkai.

Merry’s ears perked up. “Someone’s here...?” she whispered. Turning, she froze. A shine ran over her eyes, and a smile spread across her face. “Suika...!”

“Hey—” the oni said, and in a flurry of more black feathers Merry leapt at her, slouching to lift her up and hug her tightly.

She’s gotten even stronger...! thought the youkai, not bothering to resist.

“Why are you here!?”

“I’m here to ask you that. Why are you here, Merry? I told you you ought head off, but so far...? Were you not going to return?”

“Oh?”

“You are one of my subjects...” murmured Suika, now pushing Merry away. “I don’t believe I granted you entire leave.”

Merry let the oni have (more, but still absolutely not much as she still held on to the girl) space as she was pushed back, letting Suika return her sandals to soil. Under what was now moonlight, she curiously examined the oni’s face—an obvious touch twisted in consternation.

“...I...was spreading the idea of ‘me’,” said Merry, and Suika tilted her head. “Everywhere, I wanted to spread the word of ‘me’ through as many lands as I could reach. Spread terror, spill blood, drink blood, and take; I wanted to be ‘youkai’ before I came back...” The girl showed her palm to her Queen—in it light glanced and Suika saw a diamond—that diamond of Yatsugatake’s soil. “Before I went back to my mother’s home.”

“Mother...” Suika repeated, blushing as she looked into the stone she’d left with Merry, now catching moonlight.

“Though, this is a secret for your ear only Suika...” saying this, Merry leaned in and she whispered—indeed past Suika’s ear: “I’ve been looking at this stone each night and day, like it’s a wishing star in my hand. I’ve been lonely—lonely for you.”

“Tease!” Suika snapped, shoving a now-laughing Merry off of her with a palm. “You! You want me to feel like my own loneliness is fine—shared! I see your play—making fun! Fooling at me! You think I’m weak! To this day you do, aye!?”

“No,” said Merry flatly as she dance-stepped backward, arms held up coolly—and she wore an easy smile as she denied the accusation. She closed her hand around the diamond, and from the sides of her clenched fist Suika caught the sight of pale ribbons going tight before vanishing. “I think you’re strong, I love you, and I’ve missed you,” the youkai said with simple, sure, sincerity.

Suika continued to feel her face burning. “You—” she began with a growl, and stopped there, fuming silently.

“I...?” asked Merry with song in her voice.

“You love me, and you won’t tell me your name?” Suika hissed. Merry lost her smile.

“...You aren’t happy to call me Merry?” she asked.

“You aren’t happy, you’re ugly about this,” Suika told her, and it was true.

Merry scoffed, with a wry smirk she looked off at the ever-darkening woods. A crow of hers landed on her shoulder, blocking her view. “...It’s no good for oni to lie. Haven’t we been over this?” she asked.

“I lie, yea,” said Suika, firmly. Merry looked at her. “I am not lying now.”

“...‘Ugly’ how, then?”

“I’ve lived a long time! I can well-see a bad memory on a man or monster’s face! And yea—on my journey here, so much they call you ‘gap’—not once will they ever say ‘Merry’! It’s precious that you have us say it on Yatsugatake—listen! I am not deaf or blind, fool!”

“...”

The youkai stared back at her with half-lidded eyes, breathing lightly through her mouth.

After some time watching, she breathed in sharply and spoke again. “...Didn’t you come here to ask one question? You’ve asked and had it answered. I still think there’s much work out in foreign lands for me to do.”

“You set me unwell, now I wouldn’t like to leave you without having another answered. Child of mine:” Suika addressed her, raising the sharp nails of her right hand and pulling back the sleeve to show the arm as well, “I will beat an answer out of you if you won’t willingly tell it.”

“...Well, Suika, I’m actually afraid of you. I wouldn’t want that. I came out here also to fight with men and monsters until the idea of fighting you wouldn’t bother me at all. That’s not done yet, so...”

“So, tell.”

“I am Maérevérie Hearn.”

“Maerberr...Maurlberii...?”

“I am, from my view, the latest of a line of a family cursed to see the boundaries of reality, born in over one thousand years from when we are now.”

“Mul...You’re—what are you!?”

“I fell here out of time, and when I realized when I was—I wanted to die, I wanted you to kill me.”

“Yes...”

“Because of your smile.”

“Mine...!?”

“Because you are stubborn.”

“I...well! Yes!!”

“You’re too much like her.” Maérevérie paused, and took the crow from her shoulder to have it perch on the side of her hand. She let it preen, then looked past it again to Suika. “I left behind humanity, and the human girl I called a dear friend. She could never say my name either, and would always use another...often, and often enough that I thought my ‘true’ name would eventually be lost. Hearing you, seeing you, being healed by you—I wanted you to say that other name she gave me.” The youkai lifted her chin and said, “‘Merry’.”

Suika held her tongue and straightened her back. She considered what she was being told...and felt she understood perhaps under half of it. She crossed her arms and shut her eyes; frowning, concentrating.

She opened her mouth after a minute had passed, looked also past the crow to the other’s waiting eyes and said to this girl she had chosen to care for: “Maérevérie.”

Maérevérie shook, and blinked, but said nothing.

“I am no dead girl from another time. You won’t use me in her place. You have here Shuten-douji, Ibuki no Suika, Sovereign—one of the Four Heavenly Kings of our Mountain—none other before you. And who are you now? Running from names, running all over and becoming a whisper on the wind. You still want to disappear so badly?”

“...I—”

“So be it!”

“What?”

Declaring that, Suika spread her feet apart kicking up a cloud of dirt, and she boomed out—scattering all the crows out from the forest but the one perched on its master’s hand— “You shall have a new name! In that name, live! You lose your coward’s freedom here, and gain freedom anew by my steady hand! Your name, your life, is what I shall give to you!”

“I...I’ll...?”

“You...!” Suika yelled, causing the earth to tremor, “are no girl from a thousand years out of time! You are no mortal, you are no longer human! Spit on one thousand years—here and now you, ‘Yukari’, are one thousand red and violent eyes, lurking and watching this world from within gaps! Friend of oni, honored of Ibuki no Suika, youkai! From this night and forth, Yukari—you live, hear me!?”

“Yu...kari...?”

Yukari repeated the name, and considered it. She shook again, and suddenly dropped to her knees—gripping the cloth over her dress as the crow finally flew from her hand. The oni before her stomped forward one step, and threw her palm toward the newly baptized youkai’s face—making Yukari shut her eyes and flinch to the whirlwind and gale brought about by that darting hand. Yet...she felt no strike. In time, hesitantly, she opened her eyes to see: to see a steady hand indeed, found at her cheek. Suika looked down at Yukari, Yukari looked up at Suika Suika’s other hand was firm now on her hip as she held her child’s face with indeed a mother’s care.

“So you love me, I can’t have that unfairly and not love you in return,” Suika told her. There, she thumbed the side of Yukari’s eye, taking a ready teardrop away. “Grow alongside me then, love. Don’t bother me with sadness. For your secret earlier, I will tell you a secret too—

“I love all this world, Yukari, and that means you as well. And I see it in you: aren’t you also in love with it all?

“I’ll watch this world go on together with you, however it’s shaped—or however we shape it. Then, what say you stand together with me from now-on?”

“...”

It was a pact Yukari would accept, even when later she would tear the world asunder and plow and harrow the ashes.

It was the second thing Suika would regret, when she would find herself long-after soaked in the blood of her brothers and sisters, and for the first and only time of her life off-kilter from intoxication.

But now – then – they held no regret. Yukari placed her hand over Suika’s and brought her face to her stomach—holding the oni around her back in acceptance, and letting an old name die; being born anew.

And to that end—

“You’ve made me free...?” said Yukari into the oni’s robes.

Warming, Suika replied, “Aye.”

“Then with this freedom...I’ll freely take a second name, to put alongside this one you’ve given me.” She picked her head up, and let their eyes meet again. That night, the girl in the gap told the oni she had met, and been saved by, at her lowest point: “I’ll take that name, and add this other: I want it to show that I’m with you, Suika, forever...”

“So, then, who are you?” Suika asked.

Yukari held her close again, and told her that name as old memories finally, silently, disappeared from her head:

“‘Yakumo’.”

++++++++

Kiz comment: returning to your regularly scheduled Gensokyo antics soon (tm)

image sources:
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4139187
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2070716
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/6533132
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5058588
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/6079685

[x] Interfere.

Not much point in annoying Remilia just so we can watch Suika not bend to peer pressure.

[x] Interfere.

[X] Interfere.

>>69134
pic related is how the last few scenes felt like it ended

“Master!” he cried brightly.

Patchouli Knowledge was here, flying with one hand on her hip and the other holding an opened umbrella over her shoulder like she was some manner of delinquent. Her eyes were distinctly more tired than they tended to be, and her visage was sour.

“You idiot,” she said, still talking to Remilia, “I realized halfway through the night that you didn’t bring your parasol, and when I come here I find you trying to fight under the sun. Stay in your cage like the stupid animal you are.”

“Patche! Patche, stop! It stings!” Remilia cried, still on her knees. “The vapors sting! Cut it out!”

“I told you to shut up.” With this, she whispered words familiar to Gen, and the water-fall once more became torrential.

“AAAAHH!!” Remilia screeched. “AAAAAAAH!!”

“Hells and Heaven...” Patchouli groaned as she landed behind the still-seated Mokou. “You, clear the way.” She kicked at Mokou, who frowned but did as she was commanded to—shifting a bit out of the way.

“Another rude guest, is it?” Eirin regarded her, and Patchouli stopped.

“Who is this old and wrinkled wretch, Gen?” Patchouli asked.

“‘Wrinkled’?” Eirin repeated, a bit astounded.

“It’s Yagokoro Eirin, Master,” Gen answered, finally standing back to his feet.

“Right, ‘Master’...” Eirin repeated, looking at him, and then looking at Patchouli. “You are his Master?”

“What of it? I’m tired and I’m in no mood for chat. Clear the way as well,” said Patchouli, shortly.

“Your student identified my spell,” said Eirin, to Gen’s surprise. “You ought to be very proud of him.”

“I am endlessly proud of him. He did his job,” Patchouli promptly answered, and Gen blushed again. “So your magic is what made that false moon? Hmph. I should make time to talk with you later. For now, I believe I told you to move.”

Eirin acquiesced. With her out of the way, Patchouli stepped forward again. When she reached Gen, she reached out to him with her umbrella.

“Take it, Gen, and put it over Remi. I don’t want to get my hand or sleeve wet,” she said, and he took the umbrella.

“Thank you for maintaining the spell as long as you could, Master,” he told her.

“That’s right. I was the last holding on. I apologize for not being able to hold it before you could return the moon to the sky,” said his Master. “You and Sakuya acted quickly and rightly as the sun broke through. I’m proud of you both.”

“Thank you!” with that, he pushed his hand through the nearby water to shield the now-drenched Remilia, whom Sakuya retrieved. Patchouli folded her arms and looked at Suika silently.

“...Ehm, what?” Suika asked.

“...”

The Magician continued to say nothing. She blinked slowly instead, and then wobbled on her feet.

“Ohh...!” gave Suika, and she caught the younger youkai as she fell. In her arms, Patchouli Knowledge fell asleep.

With Suika holding Patchouli and Sakuya holding Remilia (and Gen holding an umbrella over the latter two), the rain spell died and they looked to the two Hourai Immortals.

“...We will be taking our leave, now,” Sakuya said. “Yagokoro Eirin, don’t cause trouble again.”

“...Right,” Eirin acknowledged. With that, Sakuya bowed before looking at Suika, and then Gen. Gen nodded, and as Sakuya took to the sky he closely followed to provide cover. Suika was, of course, not far behind.

~~

In the bedchamber of Patchouli Knowledge, Gen stood at the doorway.

“Can I trust you all to clean up everything in the Library?” he asked to the leader of a small fairy unit at the door. Said leader saluted at him enthusiastically.

“Probably not!” she cried.

“Well, do your best,” he gave, and while laughing the gaggle of fairy maids flew away. He shut the door and turned back.

Patchouli’s bedroom was, naturally, something he was not particularly familiar with. He had been at the doorway a few times from the other side of it, to check alongside Sakuya whether his Master was awake, but now was his first time within the place. It seemed that unlike the Library, this was a place of memory. He found many trinkets and mementos across her shelves that looked certainly charming, but seemed to possess no potential for magic. There were books here as well of course, but they all seemed to be fiction. It also looked like one “book” was an album by the size of it. He wouldn’t dare to intrude and check.

It was a dark place, a pleasant place. His Master kept some potted plants here also, it seemed, and with little enchantments of sunlight to feed them as needed from deep within Scarlet Devil Mansion. From the runes holding them, he could see they were also set to die if a vampire was anywhere within ten meters of the bedroom. Reading the spellwork put a smile on his face, though it wavered and he chuckled as he remembered how his Master had treated his Mistress at Eientei.

His Mistress was now bathing with Sakuya and after would be put to bed. As for him, he had naturally taken charge to see that the library would be fixed from the operations that had taken place overnight, and now he was here to be sure that his Master would sleep.

Of course, Suika (who had carried his Master) was here as well.

The oni had tucked the Magician into the girl’s large and soft canopy bed, and brought Patchouli’s head gently onto one of the Magician’s many large and soft pillows. She was now seated on a little stool by the girl’s mirror and nightstand. Gen looked at her quietly while taking off his coat and putting it on a little rack. He also checked it and... it didn’t have any particular “smell”, nor did he. Well, in anticipation of a long night, he had slept through the earlier day. Now a bit nocturnal, it seemed the night’s events hadn’t sweat or tired him out.

He sat down on the opposite side of the bed, across from Suika. The two of them wordlessly looked on the uncomfortably sleeping Patchouli.

“...”

He thought he should give some words, however.

Suika’s face... was difficult to read. A little curiosity was there, maybe. Or, was it thoughtfulness? He couldn’t be sure...

“...”


[] Ask why she decided to help with the Incident.

[] Ask about her story.

[] Ask what she actually thinks of Master.

[x] Ask why she decided to help with the Incident.

[x] Ask why she decided to help with the Incident.

[x] Ask why she decided to help with the Incident.

The not-awkward choice.

I'm actually not sure what to choose here. Discussion is kinda... not existent at the moment in this thread.

[X] “You shouldn’t have been afraid to tell me all this.”

She really shouldn't have been. Gen can't relate to THAT, but some really dumb choices have been made at points in this story so...

>>69303
Hm, more importantly I've taken so damn long (3 entire years) since these points came up. I've been quite terrible.

I hope the referral helps and I hope this still feels like it makes sense. This is not only a long story, but one I haven't been able to keep a good pace with, so there are a lot of details I'm sure readers can forget.
But, at the very least again I hope that this carries the appropriate amount of info.

[X] “Alright, I get it. So, you have more to say, right? Keep talking. Be frank with me.”

[X] “You shouldn’t have been afraid to tell me all this.”

[X] “Alright, I get it. So, you have more to say, right? Keep talking. Be frank with me.”

[X] “You shouldn’t have been afraid to tell me all this.”

>>69304
That makes sense. I sort of forgot about that since I went and binged this thing a month or two ago. Even then I may be forgetting some things.