Tengu Reporter Quest (Touhou) (World 7 - Wheel of Time)

Super Mario RPG


The next two days pass quickly as you crank out a few more articles on Falmart, have your clothes cleaned, and scour the available shelves for interesting materials. Not that that is a particularly successful endeavor, but it does take up time. "So, have you thought about where we should go next, Hatate?" She scowls back at you, but your attention is mostly on her feathers – it's not impossible for a tengu to care for their own wings, but it is a lot easier to have someone else do it for you.

"A little. I guess that Mushroom Kingdom place seems like it'd be a good one. It seems smaller than the others, at least."

"Hmm." She has a point, although one that rests on the scant information you've received being accurate, and even then it doesn't mean there aren't more landmasses. It still looks bigger than Gensokyo, though – quite enough room for all the youkai to live with plenty of space. "That does seem like a good choice. How soon do you want to leave?" She gives you a look.

"Whenever, I guess. It's not like we're in much of a rush, right?" Your mouth falls open and you look up at Hatate, her wings forgotten, and her expression turns to one of concern. "Um, Aya?" You shake your head quickly.

"Really, Hatate! Have you thought about how many stories we could be missing here in Gensokyo? How many wild and interesting incidents could be happening right outside Remilia's door, that we, two of the greatest reporters in Gensokyo, aren't writing about? Think of how many people aren't hearing about the exploits of Gensokyo's other residents!" Her shoulders slump and the turns forward to let her head fall against the desk.

"Forget I said anything." You pat her back cheerfully.

"Alright, let's get packed up and see about leaving." Hatate groans as you bounce to your feet and walk to the door to your room. "Come, Hatate – stories don't wait around for daring reporters, after all!" Not that either of you need much packing, so it's only a few minutes later that you go back to where you arrived from Falmart. Instead of Patchouli and her familiar, however, it's Remilia and Flandre who are waiting there.

"Oh, Aya, good afternoon. Can I interest you in a game of cards, perhaps? Flan keeps beating me." The younger sister giggles and nuzzles her sister.

"That might have something to do with the fact that she has her arms around your neck and her chin on your head, so anything you can see, she can." Flandre grins at you.

"But I have to! If I didn't, then she might run off somewhere and try to invade a mountain ruled by an ancient sorcerer and get hurt." Her eyes sharpen and she pushes her chin down into her sister's head. Remilia winces and reaches up to pat her sister's cheek.

"Yes, yes, Flan, I've already promised not to do something like that alone again." You smile and clear your throat; those two are quite capable of arguing around a subject for hours, if you let them have an opening.

"Actually, we were planning on visiting the next world on our list. Is Patchouli around?" Flandre releases her sister and hops down onto the couch next to her, then wraps her arms around Remilia's waist.

"Marisa's raiding the library, so Pache has to deal with her. It'd be weird if she didn't. So where are you going?" Remiliar holds a hand upright, and a string of red light twines among her fingers like a game of cat's cradle. Two strings snake toward you and Hatate, striking the necklaces, and you glance down at the repaired rods before looking back at your hostess.

"The Mushroom Kingdom," you say, and Remilia chuckles and looks backward toward the wall separating you from the rest of the library.

"Ironic, isn't it. Marisa would probably give her legs to go there. Let's see, what do we know about it …?" She trails off as the portal shows the ring-shaped bit of land. It looks artificial, with the one mountain next to the castle, and the strange rock with the stars sticking out of it. "Well, first off, if you see this guy -" an image of a human appears over the table, wearing blue overalls and a red shirt, "- probably leave him alone. He's the local Reimu-type, and while I believe he's not necessary to their survival, offing him unnecessarily so early in the game would make for a boring result, don't you think? Ah, there is, as you might suspect, a – well, calling it a kingdom is perhaps a bit strong, as I believe the ruler is currently the princess, but I'll leave digging out the specifics of the local politics to someone who's actually been there. The great big castle over the snarling face-thing belongs to someone named … Bow? Bow-wow? Something like that." She waves dismissively as Flandre giggles. A map appears over the table, and Hatate grabs it before it can fall. You glance at it, then back at Remilia.

"Is that it? What about the technology, threats, things like that?" Remilia raises an eyebrow at your tone.

"Hm. Pache did say something about you wanting to know more about these places we're sending you to explore and learn more about." You keep a stern look on your face, and she finally sighs. "Fine, fine. There's … some kind of Incident going on. An extra-dimensional invader of some sort. So if you like, you can become a true great tengu and be a Hero by helping save their world. Or, something like that. I dunno. Anyway, if you're going to go, go on. Shoo, shoo!" You roll your eyes and turn toward the portal set into one of the bookshelves. Twice, now, dimensional shenanigans in the world you're visiting! Although it may just be that things like that make the worlds easier to access, so maybe you should get used to them? You step in front of it, Hatate right behind you, and hold your wings close against your back as you float through.

You find yourself on a modest balcony a comfortable height in the air. No furniture, no coverings, one door behind you, as Hatate steps through next to you. The crying is rather distracting, however, and you look at the young woman wailing against the balcony. Rather tall, with long blonde hair, wearing a pink dress and a crown … you shake your head and return your attention to your surroundings. The tower blocks your view to the north, to the west is a hill, and around it you can see the rising hills that lead to the mountain. To the south is the ocean that surrounds the ring of land, and to the southeast is another rocky mountain.

"Um, excuse me? Are you okay?" You turn to see Hatate gently shaking the crying woman. She jumps to the side, startled, and as she blinks away her tears confusion blossoms on her face. It swiftly turns to despair when she sees you, however.

"Oh, no, now there are three of us stuck here. Oh, Mario …." She buries her face in her hands, but it seems she's trying to draw strength from something, and isn't about to break down in tears again. Well, that's helpful, at least. You approach the door, but a quick twist of the knob reveals it to be locked. It doesn't look particularly sturdy, however, so you could probably just bash it down … if, for some reason, you wanted to go into the tower instead of going somewhere else.


What do you do?

[ ] Just sit down and talk with the woman. You can pretend to be a captive audience!
- Anything particular to ask about?

[ ] Go to that star-studded rock.
- [ ] Bring the woman with you.

[ ] Other?

Just sit down and talk with the woman. You can pretend to be a captive audience!
- Names and places. Who is she, why is she here, where is this place, who's Mario...


The door probably isn't going anywhere the young woman isn't, and she seems to be royalty-related, so now is as good a time as any to start getting the lay of the land. You put on a confident smile and walk up to the balcony rail, taking in your immediate surroundings. Some small, rocky mountains farther away, and very lush forest around the tower itself. One modest path leading out through the forest to the outside world. "Pardon me for not noticing your arrival," the woman says behind you, and you turn to face her. "It's just been … a somewhat more frustrating time than usual. I'm afraid I'm as much a prisoner here as you two are, but please, let's sit down and enjoy each other's company." You nod and follow her lead, dropping to your knees easily, while Hatate sits to your left. Almost automatically, pen and notebook appear in your hands.

"Good afternoon," you say, already sketching a picture of the woman. "Ah … my name is Aya, and this is Hatate." She bows demurely, already relaxing.

"I am Princess Toadstool. Were you launched out of the castle of a princess-kidnapping monster by something enormous crashing into it, too?" You blink and tilt your head slightly, and Toadstool laughs quietly to herself and shakes her head.

"We are quite lost, however. I don't suppose you know … where we are?" Toadstool nods, either not seeing or 'not seeing' the look Hatate gives you.

"I believe this is the tower of the Booster family. That town over there is Marrymore, and the … person holding me – us, now – here calls himself Booster. I'm afraid I don't know much more than that; the family has tended to keep to its own affairs." She sighs despondently. "I'm not sure how he'll react to your sudden appearance, though. He hasn't been making much sense that I can tell." You nod, recalling the map, then peer quizzically to the north.

"Er, you said something about being … launched out of a castle?" Toadstool sighs.

"Yes. I had, once again, been kidnapped by Bowser and taken to his castle. Mario quickly came to save me, of course, as he always does, and he clobbered the Koopa King. Before he could rescue me and return me to the Mushroom Kingdom, however, something crashed into Bowser's Castle and launched us away. I am certain that Mario will come to rescue me again, of course, but …." Her expression falls.

"Does this happen a lot? The kidnapping and rescuing, I mean." Toadstool nods at Hatate.

"Oh, yes. Far more often than I would like …." She frowns and looks at you and Hatate, seeming to notice your wings for the first time. "I'm sorry, but where are you from? I don't think I've seen people like you before." Hatate stiffens, creating one of the worst poker faces you've seen. However, unless this place is really dangerous ….

"We're from a land called Gensokyo. It's very far from here, and hard to reach, so it's not surprising you haven't heard of it. We've been exploring, and suddenly found ourselves here. I don't think I can explain exactly how we got here." Hatate's eyes bug out dangerously far, but Toadstool simply laughs daintily.

"And you don't seem worried at all! I think I'd be more like – Hatate, you said? If I couldn't explain how to get back home, I know I'd be worried sick. I bet you don't have to worry about being kidnapped, either." You shake your head; rather, it's you who has conducted kidnappings, so you're rather curious about this 'Bowser' fellow. He seems rather oni-like … and with this Mario person as a Reimu-figure …. It doesn't seem like something most youkai would go for, but if Mario isn't necessary for this world to exist, then things could be worked out.

"But you said this Mario -" Toadstool's eyes blaze like sapphire lanterns.

"Oh, Mario! My hero, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, the foiler of Bowser's plots, the -!" She blushes and gently clears her throat. "I'm sorry, I've been … been a little depressed, recently. Bowser almost always takes me back to his castle, so Mario knows where to go, but he can't know where I am right now, so who knows how long it'll take for him to come rescue me?" She stares sadly down at the balcony floor, trying not to cry, and you wonder if you should offer to take her somewhere.

Then the door slams open, and you bounce to your feet to stare at the bizarre goblin that strides proudly onto the balcony, trailed by a trio of mask-wearing black-robed creatures. "You're right! But …." The goblin looks around expectantly, then makes an expression at you. It's probably supposed to be a glare, but he's hideous enough that you can't really tell. A wild and scraggly beard, overlarge ears, a perpetually-glaring face … not even a mother could love him. "Hey! Where's the last one?" You blink and look at Toadstool, who seems just as confused as you are.

"The last one of … what?" The red-clad goblin waves his arms wildly as his subordinates wiggle disconcertingly.

"Of you! There should be three of you! The princess from the sky fell onto my balcony, and now you showed up! Obviously I'm going to marry the princess, but I can't just have two of my Snifits get married, so there needs to be a third. Where is she?" You blink and look down at your notebook. If it's not lying to you, he did actually say that. You turn to look at Toadstool, who's staring at the goblin in disgust, and Hatate, who seems to have stopped functioning. You look back at the goblin – it's … probably Booster? - and see that waiting behind him are two larger creatures, dressed as clowns. The one standing on a large ball waves cheerily at you. Before you can formulate a response, however, Booster hops forward and stares at you. "You're taller than you should be!" You blink, taken back by his comment, and he nods firmly. "You really are! Your feet aren't touching the ground! Are you … flying?" You feel your confusion fly straight into a brick wall and sigh as Booster's minions dart forward.

"Booster, Sir! Her shoes are wearing stilts!"
"That's an unfair advantage!"
"... I tried using stilts once, but I fell down …."

Booster rubs his untamed beard … probably lost in thought. "Stilts, you say? Hmm …." Then his mouth opens wider, like a slit-mouthed woman with odd teeth, and he slams his hands together. "I've got it! We'll have a stilt game! Let's have some fun!" He takes a step forward and takes a small charm from somewhere, then sets it on your notebook like a bookmark. "Thanks for the great idea!" Then he spins and strides toward the door as his minions dart out of his way. One of them turns back to give you a look that's foiled by his expressionless mask.

"Don't you dare go anywhere with Booster's bride-to-be!" Then he hikes up his long robes and scurries after Booster and his companions. You look down at the charm Booster gave you and poke it delicately – it does seem to have some power behind it, although you're not quite sure what it does. Maybe you'll give it to Hatate …?


What do you do?

[ ] Before they can close the door, dart through it with Hatate.

[ ] … He did just say not to go anywhere with Toadstool.
- [ ] Go to the star-studded rock.
- [ ] Go see Marrymore.

[ ] Fine, you'll rescue a princess. Just this once!

[ ] Other?