Hey everyone, here's the latest snip for the Tourist. Hopefully I got Remi and Meiling's voices down correctly. Anyway, the real chaos starts here. Cheers!
-=-
Remilia Scarlet was an evening person.
Her preference for being active during the night was part and parcel of her nature as a vampire. The sun was anathema to her, weakening her and sapping away her powers. It followed on from that that Remilia would have little choice but to be nocturnal, inverting her hours of activity from that of a normal person. Morning for a regular person would be evening for her, and vice versa.
That was to say that Remilia didn't like this arrangement. Quite the contrary in fact, seeing as how all her friends from outside the mansion were asleep during the hours she was awake. This made for one lonely vampire noble. Lonely and bored.
"Oh, the plans I am going to have for you, my little tourist." Remilia mused as she regarded her mental image of the stranger in her household, a mischievous smirk gracing her lips.
It was a proven fact that bored people, particularly bored people well over five centuries of life who happened to have the power to control fate, tended to do stuff to others expense for their own amusement. Unfortunately for her unsuspecting guests, Remilia Scarlet was very bored indeed.
It was in early hours of the morning when Remilia, in her private sitting room drinking her cup of 'morning' earl grey tea decided to take some time out of her day to contemplate on what to do with her new playthings now she was certain that the both of them were asleep. The childlike vampire noble couldn't help but delight in the feeling that she was once again up to nefarious plotting, just like the good old days back when she was the scourge of Europe.
"I am going to have to tread very carefully, won't I Sakuya?" Remilia said as she gently placed her empty tea cup down on the tea table before her.
"Yes, you will mistress." Her ever faithful servant agreed as she elegantly refilled the empty cup with perfectly brewed tea from the side. Once filled, Remilia picked up the cup and brought it to her lips.
Perfect.
"While I do hope I can win more of Yakumo's favour by showing Miss Usami around, it would be remiss of me to let this opportunity to let an opportunity like this slip by." Remilia noted aloud.
Indeed, Remilia had every intent in turning Usami's visit to her mansion to her advantage. Yukari Yakumo was one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. More powerful than Remilia herself, as much as it pained the vampire to admit it. To have such a golden opportunity to get one over the Youkai of Borders and not do anything would be criminal. While it would be so easy to simply let have Renko have such a good time in the mansion that Yukari would owe her a favour, Remilia was thinking about how she could gain a more permanent means of leverage.
There were risks though.
"Usami is Yakumo's guest, after all. There will be a limit to how much I can manipulate her before the boundary witch steps in," Remilia continued, stirring the tea in her cup absent mindedly, "Not to mention that Reimu is protecting her."
"Reimu seems quite protective of her charge. It wouldn't be a good idea to challenge her." Sakuya agreed heartily. Remilia couldn't help but feel slightly miffed by the fact that Reimu's presence complicated her plans so much. As the Hakurei shrine maiden, Reimu was one of the most powerful individuals in the land, so much so that there were youkai who could be sent running at the mere mention of her name.
Yakumo couldn't have picked a better bodyguard for Usami.
"Hm, I can't do anything too disruptive then." Remilia noted dourly.
Granted she hadn't been planning on laying a curse or a geass on Usami, because that would have been unbecoming of a noble in her treatment of an honoured guest, but she had been thinking about 'luring' that thief Marisa into starting a fight in the library. Having Sakuya swoop in to save the vulnerable human from death would incur a life debt that even Yakumo would have to acknowledge, not to mention any possible reparations for property damage.
Unfortunately, Reimu's presence complicated that plan, for there was no way Renko would come to harm under the shine maiden's protection. Remilia would have to think of something else. "Perhaps we could convince Patchy to part with one of her books? Trick Usami into making a purchase that we can hold over Yakumo? Usami wouldn't think of the importance of such a souvenir, but Yakumo would be all too aware of it."
"I think Patchouli would sooner chop off her right arm than part with one of her books, Mistress. They are priceless for a reason, after all."
"Hm, I guess that is out of the question as well. Perhaps have her accidentally break the china in the west wing? As expensive as they are, they really clash with the recent renovations we did after Kirisame's last break in."
"I believe that would work, mistress."
Well it wasn't a grand nefarious plan to take over the world, but Remilia figured that it would have to do. She would forgive Usami of course. Generous host with a generous heart Remilia, in her bottomless compassion would never think to hold Usami responsible for the loss of her property.
Instead of demanding rightful reparations out of the clueless human tourist, Remilia would forgive her… and thus put Yakumo in her debt for sparing the girl's life.
Even if Remilia never intended to harm the girl anyway, such was how Youkai of their age played the game. Reaching out with her power, the power to manipulate fate itself, Remilia seized the fate of Renko Usami.
She was of course mildly surprised to discover that her guest was not in fact asleep as she had believed, but in fact running around Patchouli's library, but Remilia put that out of her mind. She had other concerns. Seizing the thread of Usami's fate, Remilia twisted… "Denied, bitch!"
-=-
Hong Meiling was a morning person.
That wasn't to say she wasn't a 'day person' (although she was most definitely not an afternoon person), but it was the undeniable truth that Meiling loved it when the sun was up. A curious thing for a person who worked for a vampire to be sure, but one that was true nonetheless.
Meiling loved the sun. It brought life and warmth to the world, two of the things she loved most. More than that, as the groundskeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the sun being up meant sun for the garden.
To her, the sun brought growth to her plants.
As such, Meiling always made it a point to wake up early to greet the sun as it dawned each day, to thank it for all its hard work. Maybe it was a little childish of her, but it made her feel good to do so. It also did help that the sight of the bright ball of light breaking over the horizon, illuminating the waters Misty Lake as it did, was simply breath taking. In all her time in Gensokyo, she had never once gotten tired of it.
Hence she was a morning person.
Of course to greet the sun would mean getting up before it actually dawned, so it was in the darkness before daybreak that Hong Meiling stepped out of the mansion proper into the darkness of the mansion grounds. Cold, dark and colorless… until the light of the sun began to shine that is.
Humming to herself, Meiling skipped down the familiar paths towards the main gate, intent on greeting the new day with a smile. Along the path that she was taking was her favourite flower, which she would always greet with a 'good morning' as she went past.
"Good morning!" She cheerily greeted as she went past.
"Mama-Meiling, it's too early to wake up. Lemme sleep."
Meiling stopped skipping.
-=- "Denied, bitch!"
Seizing the thread of Usami's fate, Remilia twisted… just in time for the sensation of every other thread of fate in her house-hold coming undone to slam into her like a freight train. The sensation, one that Remilia had never experienced in all her centuries of being alive, was so utterly jarring that the vampire fell out of her chair in shock. "Ah, sorry about shouting in the Library, Patches. Yes, it is a nickname.
"Mistress!" Sakuya rushed to Remilia's side, quickly helping the smaller woman to her feet. " Just thought I had to say it… in case the ninjas were listening, you know?"
"What was that?!" Remilia said, still trying to figure out what had just transpired "What the hell just happ-" "Hm, actually what DID trip all my anti-Sidereal countermeasures?"
What Remilia was about to say was rudely interrupted when a loud shriek tore through the air from outside, so loud that even the mansion's windows couldn't hold it back. "No Siddies around here."
"I'M A MOTHER?!" Meiling cried out. "BUT I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN MARRIED YET!" "Huh. Not as if Ivory is going to ambush me from a teacup again… actually better not jinx m'self"
… "Ah well, I'm sure it's nothing too important. Back to reading!"
"…what." Remilia said.
-=-
A/N – Just so you know, I indicated that the only thing holding back the flower from going fairy/youkai last chapter was the fact that Patchy has put dozens of spells on it to keep it as it was. Now that Renko gave it a jump start (by accident), stuff's happened.
Also, Flan heard that scream by the way (and so did that little ice fairy friend Meiling has on the lake… and a certain passing tengu reporter… and maybe sunflower lady coming to visit a fellow gardener). In fact, just about the only people who didn't hear it were the three bookworms in the underground library. The Mansion's about to get more visitors.
Not much Renko in this chapter, but I think there's still plenty of influence from the Exalted side of it… after all, what would you call this FUBAR other than 'typical scenes from the fallout of a passing though Solar'?
-=-
It went without saying that Meiling's shout woke up every soul in the Mansion, including Reimu.
The shine maiden had been fast asleep moments before, curled up in a ball of bed sheets on a king sized bed that was so conformable it should have been criminal. The sudden cry of alarm viciously tore Reimu from her pleasant dream, causing the shine maiden to leap out of the bed into the air with her gohei at the ready.
It took a few seconds for the actual content of the words to set into Reimu's sleep addled brain.
"WHAT?!"
Without even bothering to change out of the pink and red polka dot pyjamas that Sakura had given her, Reimu rushed over to the window, slammed it open as fast as her arms would permit and bodily hurled herself out into the open air, speeding towards the source of the alarmed cry as fast as her flight could take her.
There were many ways to interpret a cry of 'Oh god, I'm a mother'.
To some, those words were a cause for celebration and joy to welcome a new life into the world. To others, it meant grabbing a shotgun and looking for the young man responsible. To others still, it meant regular unexpected child support payments and a dwindling bank account.
To Reimu, those words simply meant one thing.
"If someone in this bloody house has caused an incident, there will be hell to pay!" Reimu snarled as she blindly flew though the early morning darkness until she located the source of the commotion.
Hong Meiling stood in the centre of the display with that fancy flower from yesterday, looking very distressed. The source of her distress was quite apparent even in the low light, for a young red headed child that looked very much like a younger version of the tall chinese Youkai was hugging the woman with a contented smile.
She was also naked.
"Mei-mama! You came wish me good morning!" the child, now fully awake beamed up at the shocked Meiling with undisguised love, "Yay! Is breakfast time yet? I very hungry. Where's the sun?"
Meiling couldn't answer. The gatekeeper had suffered a complete 'mental shutdown' and was in fact staring at the young girl with a look that spoke of incomprehension and denial. In fact, it was clear that if something didn't snap Meiling out of it she was probably going to remain like that for some time.
Thankfully, it was at this point Reimu touched down on the scene. With all the anger and irritation typical of the peeved off shrine maiden she was, Reimu marched up to the pair with her gohei in hand. "Hong Meiling. What did you do?!"
That snapped Meiling out of her trance.
It did not, unfortunately, manage to get the gears in the woman's head working.
"W-W-W-W-W-What?" Meiling stammered as her eyes flickered between the girl hugging her and the armed shrine maiden demanding answers from her, "W-W-W-What did I do?"
"That's what I'm asking!"
"And we would like to know, as well," Remilia said as she and Sakuya instantly appeared on the scene, "Oh, this is very problematic, Meiling. Very problematic indeed."
"Mistress?!" Meiling rasped out.
"Dearie me. A daughter. I had planned on punishing you for interrupting my tea, but this is far more concerning than I first thought," Remilia brought a hand up to her chin in thought as she regarded the child with keen interest, "You didn't have this child out of wedlock, did you?"
Meiling let out some sort of cross between a shriek, a choke and a gasp.
"Mei-mama isn't having me out of wed-look," The child retorted with a pout, the slight Chinese accent in her reply making it look cuter, "Mei-mama is Mei-Mama! She is my mama!"
"Yes, clearly. The resemblance is striking."
"Damn it Remilia, be serious! We could have an incident on our hands! Did you cause this?" Reimu snarled as she rounded on her friend.
"Of course not. Don't be stupid. Do you think I would welcome chaos into my own home for anything less than the total domination of Gensokyo and the crushing of Yakumo under my heel?"
"Of course not! But… wait, what did you just s-"
Reimu was interrupted by a sudden flash, followed by the familiar sound of the opening and closing of a camera shutter. "Well, well, well… look what we have here! Looks like the old saying is true. The early crow does catch the scandal of the century."
The Humble Tengu Reporter, Aya Shameimaru swooped down from the skies above into the courtyard and settled in next to Reimu with a flourish.
While Remilia and Sakuya narrowed their eyes at the intrusion, Meiling went pale as a ghost while staring at the tengu's camera like it was a deadly weapon, Reimu decided the appropriate reaction to this development was to drop her face into her hands and groan.
"Behold! Aya Shameimaru is here!" The Tengu declared, "Nice polka dots by the way, Reimu."
"I see a picture of me in this on your paper, I'm having fried chicken for dinner."
"Oh, scary, scary."
"How the hell did you get past the walls?" Sakuya said with crossed arms.
"I'm a thousand year old seeker of the truth, propagator of knowledge and educator of the youth. Come hell or high water, the story must be told! Your puny walls were never going to hold me back from getting my scoop!" Aya replied casually.
For some reason, it was at that very moment Reimu's mental priorities shifted from 'Stop incident from happening' to 'Aya must not meet Renko at all costs'.
"Besides, your gatekeeper is so dumbstruck a fairy could just stroll in…"
"Eh? Meiling has a kid?!" Cirno squealed excitedly just as she had popped over the walls, "Wow! This IS GREAT NEWS! Hold on Mei! I'm gonna tell, Dai, Rumi, Mysty, Wriggle… what they hey, I'll tell THE WHOLE TOWN!"
And just like that, Cirno was gone.
"Case in point. Now if you will excuse me, I gotta stop that fairy before she blows open this story before I do. Chiao!" Then with no further warning, Aya was off like a lightning bolt, streaking after the ice fairy like the sales of her newspaper depended on it.
"Damn, so much for bribing her to keep quiet." Remilia muttered darkly to herself.
"I hope the mansion's reputation doesn't take a hit," Sakuya agreed.
"I don't know this child!" Meiling, having finally found her voice again, tried desperately to explain the situation in vain hopes that something could be salvaged out of this train wreck of a situation.
Sure her reputation was probably ruined beyond all repair, between Cirno and Aya it was almost a certainty, but it seemed like Meiling was at least trying to win back her closet friends.
"She just appeared out of nowhere! Mistress, Sakuya, Reimu, I swear don't know what's going on!" Meiling said, her tone wild and panicked, "There is no way that I can have a baby!"
"M-M-Mei-mama?" The child looked taken aback in shock as the woman she'd addressed as her mother all but rejected her in the harshest of ways. In fact the look on the poor child's face was so striking, all who witnessed it couldn't help but be taken aback.
Even Remilia looked disturbed.
"Meiling, look. Perhaps this isn't the best place for this." Remilia said in a softer tone of voice. "We should head inside and…"
"No! We are solving this right now! Before anyone else comes along and gets the wrong idea!" Dropping to down to her knees so that she was looking at the child at eyelevel, Meiling sweetly at the young girl, "Okay little 'mei-mei'. That was funny. Ha. Ha. Joke's on me. Now, please tell me who you really are? Please?"
"I'm 'Cha-Hua'. Mama, don't you recognise me?" The little girl whimpered.
"No, I don't," Meiling replied with a kind, but stern tone of voice, "Look, you're obviously very confused and lost, so I guess that gives you an excuse. However I can definitively say that never in my entire life have I ever had children... or can have children for that matter. Therefore there is no way that you can be my child. So please, stop."
"B-But you brought me with you when you left Zhong-guo. You took care of me for so many years until you started working for nighty bat lady," the little girl started to sniffle, "You gave me nice patch in garden and call special. You call me your baby. How can you not recognize me Mei-Mama?"
It was about that point that everyone aside from Meiling, actually listening to the girl's words, realized something very peculiar about what she had just said. So peculiar in fact that their eyes went straight to the Middlemist Camellia that was at the centre of the display of flowers.
When they did, every one of their jaws dropped.
"Meiling, uhhh…" Reimu started.
"I can't recognize you because I've never seen you before in my life," Meiling, too focused on the girl before her, didn't hear the shrine maiden's words, "And while I've lived for a very long time, I can definitively say that I would have remembered a face like yours."
"Actually, Meiling if you would be so kind as to look at your flower…" Sakuya coughed into her closed fist, but to no avail.
"Besides, I would definitely remember a member of my family. I've always wanted children for myself, so I would never forget my child if I ever had one."
"Mama? Why…" The little girl whimpered, openly crying now as her young mind tried to understand why her parent was saying such hurtful things.
"So I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't possibly be your ma-"
"DAMN IT WOMAN, LOOK AT THE FLOWER!"
Having just about enough, Remilia Scarlet seized Meiling's head and turned the Chinese youkai's eyes in the direction of the Middlemist Carmellia…
Which was glowing gold and pulsing with a strange golden essence.
"Oh."
"Mama… how come you don't recognize me?" The Middlemist Carmellia, sobbed into her hands just as her realization finally dawned on Hong Meiling as to who this little girl was, "I wait long to have this body so I could hug you, and now… WAH!"
As the little girl broke out full blown tears, three supernatural women and one new supernatural mother stood around awkwardly wondering exactly what the hell any of them were supposed to do.
"Uh, so do any of you know how to handle kids?"
-=-
A/N - Had to drop Kazami and Flan, it was getting kinda long. Don't worry, Flan will show up eventually.
Anyway, that's it for me this update. Next bit we'll be checking in with Renko. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Koakuma thing. In fact, the two major 'Solar induced incidents' here are Meiling's kid and Koa interacting with Renko.
As for Remi… don't worry guys. She may seem composed now, but the inevitable Charisma Break is coming. Just wait for it. Thanks for reading!
Hey all. Quick update since somebody a number of floors up started playing his guitar at 4:30AM on a Sunday morning (actually the guy was pretty good, it was the other guy who was yelling out of his window for guitar dude to shut up that was funny). Couldn't go back to sleep even after he'd stopped, so I figured I might as well type some shit up.
-=-
Ver 1.1
-=-
"Patchy! PATCHY! PATCHOULI KNOWLEDGE, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Remilia bellowed as she burst into the Voile Library, followed shortly by Sakuya, Reimu and Meiling, the last of which was leading a very confused looking little youkai by the hand.
After the four women had understood the little girl that had spontaneously appeared in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's ground was actually Meiling's precious camellia given life, the natural progression of their investigation was to figure out how this strange event had happened.
Pathouli had apparently put enough magical wards on that flower to ensure that, despite the ambient magic and faith in Gensokyo, it would be completely unaffected. The flower would remain just a flower until the end of time. This clearly was something that did not happen, as evidenced by the young girl that was now in their company.
Well, natural progression for everyone but Meiling that is.
"PATCHY! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'RE RESEARCHING! WHERE ARE YOU?" Remilia called out as the four women zoomed through the air, all eyes searching for the magician. No easy feat, given the immense size of the Voile Library. The place was a literal city of books!
Thankfully, it seemed that Patchouli had heard them. A shower of elemental magic shot up from a space between several bookshelves, a clear sign where the magician was. The party quickly descended to where the source of the signal was and was greeted to the sight of Patchouli Knowledge at a desk, books and notes sewn about haphazardly as she attempted to puzzle though whatever conundrum was plaguing her.
"What is it Remi? I am in the middle of crucial research into a matter I discussed earlier," Patchouli said to the four women and one young girl without even looking up from her notes, "If my research is correct, something very old and very powerful was what created the stellar disturbance from earlier, and I believe this might be very important to the future of Gensokyo."
"Patchouli, you're still on about this?" Remilia shook her head exasperatedly.
"If my research is corrected, something forced its way into Gensokyo through dimensional barriers, bypassing the Hakurei Barrier entirely in the process. If my calculations are correct, the magnitude of the stellar disturbance would put the amount of power expended…"
Remilia laid a hand on the magician's shoulder, interrupting the professor's lengthy explanation.
"Patchy, my dear. This is incredibly fascinating, and I am sure your thesis would be most enlightening, but I do believe that we have much more pressing problems that require your attention," Remilia waved a hand at where a dazed Meiling was standing with a curious looking Cha Hua not too far away from the table.
Pathouli knowledge regarded the sight with a single, unimpressed cough, "I fail to see what is so fascinating about a newborn youkai."
"My dear, that newborn youkai was born out of Meiling's Middlemist Camellia," Remilia said simply, "She appeared on the grounds this morning and gave Meiling quite a surprise."
Now THAT caught Patchouli's attention.
"Impossible. The wards I placed on the flower should have prevented it from ever becoming a supernatural creature. You are mistaken."
"The flower was glowing Patchouli." Reimu said as she and Sakuya joined Remilia by Pachouli's table.
"The girl herself believes herself to be the flower. There is no mistake," Sakuya affirmed, "This youkai is Meiling's flower."
"And one of the most expensive and precious objects in the entire mansion," Remilia added, folding her arms dourly, "So Patchouli. Given you gave me your personal guarantee that the flower wouldn't ever gain sentience, pray tell… how did this happen?"
Realising that there would be no talking her way out of this, Patchouli relented. Pushing herself away from her research and notes, albeit it seemed with great reluctance, the magician looked into Remi's eyes and nodded.
"…I'll look into it."
-=-
"Say 'ah'."
"Ahhhhhhhhhh…"
Patchouli's handeld crystal light illuminated the little youkai's mouth as she checked about inside it. After a few seconds of glancing around inside the girl's mouth, Patchouli turned her light off and allowed Cha Hua to close her mouth.
"Good, now turn your head. I want to see inside your ear." Patchouli instructed.
"Um… is Mei-mama alright, Doctor Lady? Mei-mama not talking. She like zombie," Cha Hua shot concerned looks out of the corner of her eye towards the motionless figure slumped in a chair not too far from where she was, "I think maybe I cry and hurt mama. Maybe you look at her instead?"
"I assure you child, Meiling will be fine. Now please, turn your head."
"O-Okay." Cha Hua said and did as instructed.
While this was going on, Reimu and the others watched Patchouli conduct her inspection with looks ranging from keen interest to bored impatience, however none of them dared to approach the two for fear of interrupting the magician while she worked.
Reimu was of the 'bored impatience' variety. She honestly didn't see what Remilia found so fascinating about this whole process. As far as Reimu was concerned, as long as she got her answers and knew this mess wasn't going to start a chaotic mess that would blow up in her face, she would be satisfied.
Alas, Pathouli was taking a long time to finish her inspection. It had been almost an hour since the battery of tests, ranging from magical scans to a physical inspection, had started.
Reimu was getting bored, and she hadn't even had a chance to change out of her pyjamas yet!
"I've completed my preliminary analysis." Patchouli announced, approaching the waiting group with Cha Hua trailing obediently behind her.
"Well, let's hear it." Everyone leaned in, waiting to hear what Patchouli had to say.
"I will have to do more research, but preliminary findings suggest she's some kind of a dryad." Patchouli informed them curtly, "Which is curious because…"
"Dryads are tree nymphs from Greek mythology, and the Middlemist Camellia was native to China," Remilia finished, bringing her hand to her chin, "and even today when it is almost extinct, the only other known flowers can only found in London and New Zealand… Never mind the fact this is Japan. If she was going to become a supernatural creature, shouldn't she have become a flower youkai like Kazami instead?"
"Fair points, but I was actually more concerned by the fact she became a youkai and not a fairy," Patchouli pointed out, "Remi, most flowers can't retain enough magical energy to become anything more than a simple fairy. Cha Hua is a fully sentient youkai. Whatever power that got past my wards and triggered her transformation flushed her with so much energy that she became something more powerful than what she should normally be capable of!"
"Wait powerful?" Reimu learned forward in concern, "How powerful are we talking about here?"
God good, she only knew of one other flower youkai in Gensokyo…
"Probably not anywhere near as nightmarishly powerful as Kazami if that's what you're thinking," Patchouli reassured Reimu, "Besides, most of Kazami's power comes from her age. This one is still a child… but from what I can tell she does have an unusually large amount of magic in her."
"Well, that's a relief." Reimu muttered.
"I'll need to run more tests before I can give you more concrete results. However, now that I've determined exactly what she is, where to proceed from here is fairly straightforward," Patchouli informed them, "I will be able to narrow down the exact reason of the change, but will require some time to do so. In the meantime, please leave me alone. Distractions would only slow me down."
Remilia nodded, clearly familiar with Patchouli's methods. "Fair enough. Sakuya, please return to your normal duties. Also please find one of the fairy maids…"
"…she really is my little flower isn't she?" Everyone turned to look at Meiling. Still sitting in the same chair she had been for the past hour, the Chinese youkai was staring at Cha Hua with eyes that seemed to be on the verge of tears and a very conflicted expression.
"Mei-mama?"
"She is." Patchouli nodded. "I still have many more tests I need to run, but I can say with absolute certainty that Cha Hua is without a doubt the youkai of your Middlemist Flower."
Meiling nodded slowly as she accepted Patchouli's findings, and then slowly rose from her seat. She then turned to Remilia. "Mistress, forgive me for the short notice, but could I please request for a leave of absence today? I know this is on very short notice but…"
"Request granted." Remilia replied with undisguised concern, "I had actually been about to order Sakuya to find one of the fairy maids to take over your duties for the day. This... this is something you need to have time to think about Meiling. I mean, considering your history…"
"Thank you, Mistress."
"Mei-mama!" The little youkai rushed over to hug her mother excitedly, only for find the taller woman gently rest her hands on her shoulder and push her away. "M-Mei-mama?"
Again the shock and confusion on the young girl's face was so striking that Reimu couldn't help but feel something for the girl.
"S-Sorry, Cha Hua." Meiling said laboriously, clearly struggling to retain her composure, "I… I need you to stay with Doctor Patchouli, okay? She… she has some tests she needs to run on your to make sure you're healthy, alright? Ma… I want you do help Doctor Patchouli, alright?"
"O-Okay Mei-mama." Cha Hua nodded obediently, even if she didn't understand what was going on. "Will you be coming back later, Mei-mama? Cha Hua is sorry if she made you upset earlier."
"…I'll come back later, Cha Hua." Meiling nodded hesitantly, pusing her 'daughter' over to Patchouli, then quickly turned to Remilia, "By your leave, Mistress."
Without another word Meiling kicked off the ground and flew off.
"That bad, huh?" Sakuya said as she watched the gatekeeper depart.
"From what I know… unfortunately," Remilia sighed, "This couldn't have come at a worse time."
"..What the hell was that?" Reimu muttered darkly to Remilia, wondering what the hell was going through Meiling's head at that moment that she'd leave her emotionally vulnerable and confused daughter alone like she just did, "That's her daughter. How could she-?"
"Reimu, when you get to our age, nothing is quite that simple." Remilia said.
"She has her reasons, Reimu. Give her time." Sakuya agreed.
Reimu shook her head disapprovingly.
"I hope those are some damn good reasons."
-=-
A/N – Okay, that was a little heavier than I expected. Thankfully, they're now in the library, so I can safely assure everyone that that my next snip will go back to Renko antics (she's a Twilight scholar in the middle of a huge-ass library. Of course there will be antics).
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this. Thanks for reading, and any feedback will be appreciated.
Whelp, after that last snip I'm all for letting things get silly all over again. Let's see what Renko had been up while everyone was preoccupied shall we?
-=-
1.1
-=-
With Meiling having vanished off to parts unknown and Patchouli busying herself with research, Reimu saw little point in lingering. As she had no idea where to even begin with talking to Meiling and she has zero research whatsoever, Reimu decided the most productive thing she could do given the circumstances was to head back upstairs and get changed into something more dignified than the pink polka-dot pajamas she was wearing.
Indeed, she hadn't been the only one who had taken her leave. While Remilia had decided to remain in the library, obstinately to conduct her own research into 'a personal problem', Sakuya had disappeared via the magic of time stop shortly after declaring she needed to get back to her chores. With both of the other investigators pretty much calling off the hunt for now, Reimu followed suit.
Besides, she probably could grab breakfast while she was at it. Free food was free food, and Reimu would be damned if she had to weather this miniature incident on an empty stomach.
Taking to the air with full intent on getting her morning routine sorted out before the day got any crazier, Reimu had been halfway to the exit when she saw a panicked Koakuma making a beeline towards her. "Oh, what now?"
"Reimu! Reimu, I need your help!" Koa pleaded as she flew up to Reimu, completely flustered, "Ms. Usami's gone missing again and I can't find her! Help!"
"Wait, what? Renko's missing?" Reimu felt a headache coming on. As if Meiling's newfound daughter wasn't a big enough problem to deal with! "How could you let her go missing? And what do you mean 'again'?"
"I keep losing her! She's running all over the library and I can't keep track of her!" Koakuma wailed, "This is terrible. I'm supposed to be the one showing her about, and I've lost her three times just this night alone. Master Patchouli is going to be so mad with me for letting someone go about in the library unsupervised! I have to find her!"
Reimu lowered her head into her hands and groaned.
Oh now this was a problem. Scarlet Devil Mansion was not the kind of place that anyone should be allowed to run around unsupervised at all. While it was perfectly safe for Reimu because of her reputation and power, Renko had no such protection. Any number of horrible things could befall an unwary guest, and soon Reimu's mind was awash with the many possibilities of what could happen to her charge.
Pranked by fairy maids so badly she was scarred for life. Accidentally stumbling into a magic trap for intruders and getting hurt. Wandering out of the library, going into the wrong basement and meeting Flandre…
Reimu paled.
"Forget breakfast! We have to find her, now!"
-=-
"Wait, you've lost her three times just this one night? Didn't she back upstairs to sleep?" Reimu said as she and Koakuma flew together, watching the rows of bookshelves below them in hopes of locating the wayward tourist. "Didn't she get tired at all?"
"No, she wasn't. She was running all over the place. In fact I couldn't keep up with her!" Koakuma admitted, "You should have seen it, Reimu. She was practically bouncing off the bookshelves. I've never seen a human with so much energy, and I know Marisa!"
Well, that explained why Reimu didn't see Renko anywhere this morning. Oh, she should have seen this coming a mile away. Trust Yukari to have a friend who is about as energetic as she is sleepy!
Just then, Reimu spied something in the corner of her eye that caused her to do a double take.
"Koa, Koa look over there!"
Reimu pointed at the sight with one hand, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. Koakuma turned to see what had caught Reimu's attention, and found herself likewise stunned by what she was seeing. The pair was so astonished they stopped in mid-air, just hovering there as they tried to absorb what they were seeing.
Walking across one of the Voile's many bridges while reading an open book was Renko Usami, their missing tourist. Behind Renko was a small procession of five fairy maids, following after the woman like a row of ducklings waddling after their mother. The arms of each fairy maid was occupied with holding a tall stack of books that was about as tall as they were, resulting in quite a strange sight.
One human woman, who wasn't looking where she was going because her face was in a book, was leading around a bunch of fairy maids who were carrying stuff for her.
"Did she have this before she went missing?" Reimu asked dumbly.
"No," Koakuma replied. "And I only lost track of her for about half an hour."
"How's that happen?" Reimu said to herself.
"No idea," Koakuma agreed, "You think we should go over there and ask her?"
"Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea."
-=-
"Reimu! Nice to see you up and about so early in the morning," Renko greeted happily as Reimu and Koakuma landed next to the odd group. "Nice polka dots by the way."
"Renko, what the hell is this?" Reimu waved an arm at the line of fairies that Renko had somehow picked up in the short time Koakuma had lost track of her.
"Oh, this? These are my little helpers." Renko turned to regard the five fairy maids with a beatific grin, "Right ladies?"
"Please… Help us…" The one at the front of the row said, her childlike legs shaking and buckling under the strain of holding the small tower of books in her arms.
"Miss Koakuma, help!" The one behind her pleaded, "Please, you've always been kind to us!"
"We didn't do anything to deserve this!" Another declared, and was promptly proven to be a bald faced liar by the next one to speak.
"We'll never try skipping work by hiding in the library again! Get us away from this monster! She's worse than the head maid!"
"Oh, put a sock in it you guys. You're the five yahoos who tried jumping me so I wouldn't blab on you to your boss. Since I beat you lot fair and square, you guys have to carry books for me," Renko said without a shred of pity or remorse. "Geez, kids these days are so damn lazy."
"Wait, wait, wait, you beat them?" Reimu stared at her charge, wondering how she had achieved this victory. As 'weak' as fairy maids were, they nevertheless were a danger to normal humans who had no means to defend themselves. Yet it seemed like Renko had defeated them.
Reimu had her suspicions that Renko had powers as well, so perhaps now…
"Well to be honest it wasn't much of a fight. They rushed me, and I dropped a bookshelf on them. No biggie." Renko said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"What?" Reimu and Koakuma exclaimed.
"Well if you want the specifics… I found them by accident, they threatened me, I provoked them into rushing at me and when they did I shot the bookshelf next to me with a concussive bullet and all the books came down on them. Like I said, no biggie." Renko shrugged with a grin, quickly whipping out her revolver and showing it to Reimu, "See, I told you I needed this for self-defence!"
"So many books… there were so many books…" One of fairies involuntary shuddered at the memory.
"Hard covers are so hard." Another agreed.
"My head still hurts!"
"Eh, actually make that several bookshelves… okay, make that the entire aisle. Yeah, bit of a mess, but I'm sure you guys can fix that in no time. The hardest part was actually trying to get out of the way so I wouldn't be hit with the books myself," Renko nodded with satisfaction as she slid her firearm back into her holster, "Blackmailed them with leaving them buried under there if they didn't help me out… and whelp, here we are."
Reimu and Koakuma stared at Renko with open mouths as they processed her wild tale. There were so many things wrong with that story that Reimu had no idea where to even begin!
"You dropped a bookshelf on them."
"Am aisle's worth of books to be exact. The bookshelves are still upright though."
"We didn't hear anything! If it's as big an explosion as you say, why didn't anyone hear anything?"
"Hey, magic library. This whole place has silencing charms everywhere to keep the noise level down. Ask the demon." Renko shrugged. Unfortunately, Koakuma wasn't about to answer Reimu's questions. The succubus had other things in mind.
"Master Patchouli is not going to like that," Koakuma whispered in horror, her eyes glazing over as she envisioned the scale of the mess that Renko had left in her wake, "All those books on the floor… oh, when Master finds out she is going to be so angry!"
"Look if this is about the mess, you don't have to worry. I had the fairies put all the books back on the shelves. All good." Instead of calming down Koakuma, Renko's reassurances had the exact opposite effect. The little devil went pale as a ghost.
"The indexing. The organisation… oh no…" Koakuma managed out before her eyes rolled up and she fell over in a dead faint.
"Renko. I think it's time we left the library. Like right now." Reimu said sternly as she set a hand down on Renko's shoulder.
"Hey, I still have reading I want to do!" Renko protested.
"No." Reimu said, seizing Renko by the arm and dragging the other girl by the arm towards the exit, the line of fairy maids still in tow.
Koakuma was right. When Patchouli discovered what had happened to her precious library, she was going to be very displeased with her visitor. Forget about revocation of visitation rights, Patchouli was probably going to slam the doors and ban her for life!
"We are going upstairs. We are having breakfast. We are going to go see something else. Right now. You do not get a choice in this matter."
"But-"
"Not another word out of you."
"This is SO going on my client feedback form." Renko complained.
Best to get Renko out of the library until she could blame it all on the fairy maids and smooth things over with the librarian… if that was even possible.
Yeah, no way in hell was Reimu letting this maniac out of her sight!
…wait, what the heck was a concussive bullet anyway?
-=-
A/N – Hm, not quite as good as I had originally planned. I'll have to think about this one for a bit.
Anyway, I'm thinking about having a few omakes where Twilight!Renko and Yukari actually DO get around to trolling their younger selves… endless potential for humour there.
Anyway, that's it for me tonight. Hope everyone enjoyed it. By the way, one last thing…
There's a surprising amount of sealing club material out there. Not as much as the characters in Gensokyo proper, but Merry and Renko do have their share of fans. Thanks for reading!
Hey guys. Just a shorter one to tie up this chapter so I can move onto the big stuff. Cheers!
-=-
v 1.1
-=-
Reimu, now garbed back in her shine maiden's outfit, picked at her breakfast with her utensils dourly. It was eight in the morning, not even a fraction of the day gone, and the poor girl felt like she was already in over her head. Within the span of three hours, Meiling was now a mother, Renko had defiled Patchouli's precious library and worst of all, Reimu had a headache.
This was just the start of the day. She still had at another seventeen hours to go before tomorrow. No telling what was going to happen between now and then!
She was supposed to survive three weeks of this?
"I should never have taken this job." Reimu moaned, the feeling of despair so overwhelming she couldn't even take pleasure in eating her cereal. Considering that she was eating 'Lucky Charms', apparently the most glorious cereal ever developed by the outside world if Sanae was to be believed, that was really saying something!
Renko on the other hand had no such problems expressing her joy at the marshmallow treat.
"Man, this stuff is great!" Renko exulted happily as she devoured the colourful cereal with gusto, "Were'd you guys get this from? I've never had it before."
"Mistress imports them from America," Sakuya, ever the perfect maid, supplied helpfully from where she waited for the two guests to finish their meal, "She is very fond of them, and we have gone through great lengths to ensure that the mansion is properly supplied with a stock of this brand of cereal."
"Wow, you guys import them? From America? These must be expensive." Renko marvelled. "You sure I should be eating this stuff?"
"Do not worry, as an honoured guest of the mansion we are happy to share this with you."
"Neat-o!" Renko grinned, stroking her chin thoughtfully, "I wonder if I could take a few boxes back with me back home. I bet if I gave this to Shaia, we'll be able to reverse engineer this stuff. Hey, do you think I can take a few boxes back with me?"
"It is no problem. I'm sure something can be arranged for you, Miss Renko."
Reimu couldn't help but direct a dark look across the table at the oblivious Renko. The jovial tourist was the source of her current misery after all, and Reimu wanted nothing more than to reach across the table, seize the idiot by the shoulders and start shaking. How could a teacher, a university professor, be so lacking in such basic things as common sense and manners?
What was Yukari thinking?
It was then that the door to the dining room opened, revealing a rather dazed looking Meiling who staggered in holding a plate of Chinese dumplings.
"Morning all." Meiling greeted lifelessly as she sauntered in and took a seat further down the table from the mansion's guests. Instantly Sakuya seemingly teleported to Meiling's side, hovering behind the Chinese youkai like concerned friend.
"Whoa, what happened to her?" Renko hissed to Reimu.
"Stuff happened. Don't bother her." Reimu replied. Even so, the shrine maiden's curiosity got the better of her, and she couldn't help but sneak glances out of the corner of her eyes at what was happening nearby.
"Are you okay, Meiling?" Sakuya asked, her worry apparent on her features.
"No. No, I'm not," Meiling rested her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hand, "I still don't know what to think… what to do… I'm sorry Sakuya. I'm useless like this."
"Mistress gave you the whole day off. In fact, she'll probably give you more if you just ask for it," Sakuya said as she rubbed Meiling's back comfortingly, "Just take your time, Mei. This isn't something any of us could have predicted."
"How could this have happened though?" Meiling shook her head, "Remi controls fate. She knows everything that goes on in this house. This shouldn't have happened!"
"Maybe that was true before, but this is Gensokyo. There are plenty of powerful beings around here that could have done something to mess with Mistress' powers." Sakuya admitted grudgingly. "Mistress Remilia may have be been an unrivalled vampiress in the past, but now that the Mansion is in Gensokyo she is finally among those who could call themselves her equal. Any number of beings could have been behind the events this morning. We just have to find out who it was who did that to your flower."
"But why my flower? Who in Gensokyo would stand to benefit from doing this?" Meiling wondered aloud, "Who in their right mind would turn my flower into my daught-"
Reimu wasn't able to hear Meiling finish her statement, because that was about when Renko did the biggest spit take the shine maiden ever seen in her life… right into Reimu's face.
"Oh shit, Reimu! I'm sorry!" Renko reached over with a handkerchief trying to wipe away the stuff that was now all over her tour guide, "I couldn't help it! Sorry!"
Sitting there, coated in milk, cereal and marshmallows, Reimu knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that 10 million was far too cheap a price for the pain she was going though.
Goddamn it Yukari.
-=-
A/N – Yep, Solar comes to Earth (well, Gensokyo) takes a look around this huge-ass mansion and decides that the most amazing souvenir that she must bring back home to show all her badass demi-god buddies is Lucky Charms. Only in Touhou.
I think this is a good place to end the chapter as a whole, so I'll end it right here. Don't worry though, because after this we have Flan and Marisa having 'play-time' (incidentally, Renko's first chance to see a proper Danmaku duel). Probably not so good for Reimu's blood pressure though.
However, I think my next update for the Tourist will be that omake I just talked about, namely Renko hosting a game of Exalted for a bunch of Touhou characters. I'm actually quite excited about it. Watch this space guys.
Final question tough… I'm having second thoughts about Renko's primary weapon. I had planned on her using a Colt Single Action Army replica, but I've been thinking about changing it to the No3 Schofield Revolver – it seems to me like the Schofield was an all 'round better firearm, except back in the day it was more expensive, its bullets were less common and apparently it wasn't easy to fix out in the bush.
Given that Renko was stuck in Creation and pretty much introduced conventional firearms to them from scratch, which one do you think she would have preferred to introduce (FYI, Renko does have a Glock in her arsenal, which IIRC is the gun most fanart showing her with a gun portrays her using, but she's only shown her revolver so far)? I'm leaning towards the Schofield, but the Colt is a classic…
Hey guys. This is probably going to be my only offering today because I'm really f*cking tired. It's also kinda lame since I just wanted to get this Omake series off the ground. After this one snip tho… I have plans for this game. I have plans indeed…
-=-
v. 1.1
-=-
Sometime after Renko had finished her move into Gensokyo, she was approached by a number of her new friends who were curious about what her life over in Creation was like.
She was from an entirely different dimension after all, an entirely different world with its own wonders, mysteries and history. More than that, they wanted to know of her adventures and how the eccentric young physics major who had fallen headfirst into a different world had somehow become this absurdly powerful demi-god who helped shape an age.
Now that she had thrown away her disguise and properly moved in with them, everyone who knew Renko in Gensokyo wanted to know more about its newest resident. Thankfully for them, she was all too willing to oblige them.
As long as they allowed Renko to do it on her terms, that is.
"Renko, when you said that you were going to tell me more about Creation, this wasn't quite what I had in mind," Reimu muttered as Renko started handing out huge leather-bound tomes to the small gathering of friends that were seated around Marisa's dining table, "I thought you'd tell us stories. Not… whatever this is."
"Reimu, since when have I ever been that straightforward?" Renko grinned, allowing her four friends to inspect the gifts they had gotten, "You want to know more about Creation? You want to know more about my adventures? Well, that's exactly what I'm going to show you!"
"Though a roleplaying game?"
"Yep!" Renko nodded happily with folded arms, "What better way to learn about what it was like to live in Creation than to actually immerse yourselves in it?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"My plan is to Run a game starring you guys where you get to play as Solar Exalted in the final years of the Second Age of Creation," Renko held her arms out welcomingly, "Exactly the same situation that I was in seven hundred years ago. Forget about listening what it was like to be me… how about actually playing a game that allows you to BE me? In that book is everything you need to play a game where you get to be a Solar Exalted. How about it? You guys game?"
As much as Reimu was sceptical about this development, she realized that Renko did have a point. While the laid back shrine maiden wasn't as big a fan of these games as Sanae or Kaguya, she was at least aware of their allure and why some people liked playing them. Immersion and imagination were apparently big draws of these 'pen and paper RPGs', and if Sanae was to be believed, playing them was more engaging than just listening to a story.
Although Reimu normally wasn't one for these games, if anyone could get her into it, she knew it would be Renko Usami. Solar Exalted were apparently good at things like that.
Well, Reimu decided to gave roleplaying a try. Renko did take the trouble of coming up with this for them, so it would be a shame not to give it a go. "Okay Renko. I don't know about the others, but I'll try it your way."
"That's the spirit!"
"Um, I've never played one of these before. I'm not very sure about this." Marisa said warily as she opened the tome to inspect its contents. The ordinary witch's eyes went wide when she was assaulted with pages upon pages of background information, complex rules and colourful pictures.
"This. Is. So. Awesome!" Sanae's eyes were practically sparkling as Gensokyo's other shrine maiden skimmed through its contents with approval, "You made this all by yourself?"
"Yep. Took me all of three hours to do it, including pictures." Renko remarked offhandedly, as if hammering out a four hundred page core rulebook in three hours was just an everyday thing.
"Oh! You based it off White Wolf's Storytelling system! That's great! I used to play their games all the time back in middle school!" Sanae looked up from her book to the others with excitement, "Guys, guys! Don't worry about the rules, I can help Miss Usami ease you into it!"
"Uh, okay." Marisa nodded, her big worry about this plan put to rest.
However, there were still others who weren't convinced.
"Do I have to play this game? Can't you just give me an interview or something?" Aya grumbled. The reporter had come thinking she would be getting an easy scoop, but had just realized now she'd have to work a bit for her story.
"Well, if you really just want to read what happened to me, the Nexus Federation Press does sell my autobiography…"
"How much?" Aya asked eagerly.
"Factoring in transport and postage from Lookshy to Gem, the currency exchange rates of the relevant currencies, inter-dimensional travel… I'd say it's in the ballpark of around two hundred and fifty million yen," Renko clearly took perverse pleasure in watching the Tengu reporter visibly choke on at the price, "Not going to make it easy on you, Miss Reporter."
"Damn."
"Hey, look on the bright side. If you do this, you not only get my story, but you could have a review for the game itself. Two stories for the price of one. Make it a double feature even."
"Hm, you do have a point there," Aya mused thoughtfully. "Right, I'm sold."
"So it's just going to be the five of us?" Sanae wondered now that everyone around the table was on the same page, "You're going to be the Storyteller right?"
"I am, which means that I won't be a player myself," Renko confirmed, "However, a Solar Circle is made up of five Exalts, one of each caste. Since I'm the story teller and can't play, this means…"
"This means I'm your fifth player!" Yukari Yakumo sang merrily as she popped her head out from one of her gaps, causing everyone at the table that wasn't Renko Uaami to sit up in surprise, "Hello, everyone! I'm going to be your fifth member!"
"Holy cow! Yakumo?!" Aya squawked in surprise.
"Yukari? You actually play these things?" Reimu exclaimed in shock.
"Well, I used to back when I was a human," Yukari informed them mischievously. "What, Renko and I used to be friends after all. We used to play these together."
"If I recall, you used to hate them though," Renko smirked. "They were more my thing and I used you drag you into playing them."
"Ah, but the nostalgia value!"
"True that."
"This… this isn't going to start an incident will it?" Reimu groaned, remembering that last time Renko and Yukari conspired to do something together. Those two working in tandem almost always resulted in some trouble for Reimu!
"It shouldn't," Renko assured the shrine maiden with a comforting smile, "Don't worry Reimu. This one is just a game among friends. You have my word no trouble will come of it."
"And it's going to be my very first roleplaying game in centuries. I wouldn't do anything to spoil it." Yukari chimed in, stepping fully out of the gap as she did so.
Interestingly, Yukari carried her own copy of the rulebook, along with what appeared to be a character sheet and some other documents… apparently a character history and background notes. Wow, she really had been a player!
"Relax, Reimu. I'll be on my best behaviour." Yukari repeated.
Hm, not even a single charm or border manipulation that Reimu could sense. The two of them seemed legit. That didn't mean that Reimu wouldn't be keeping an eye on both women, but it appeared that Renko and Yukari were sincere in just indulging in an old pastime that neither of them had a chance to do together in ages.
Well, that sort of explained some of it.
"I'll take your word for it," Reimu relented. "But I'll be watching you though!"
"Heh, if Reimu is okay with this I guess we're good. Right girls?" Sanae said, with Marisa and Aya nodding in agreement. "Neat, so the game is still on right?"
"Absolutely!" Renko clapped her hands, "Now, the first thing you girls have to do is read enough of the book to get an idea of what sort of characters you want to create."
"Sounds… complicated." Reimu muttered, noting the fact that the sections required for 'character creation' were several hundred pages long.
"Relax, we just want a basic outline: the whole premise of the game is about living out what it was like being me," Renko explained as she moved over to help. "All we need is a basic outline of a character named 'Reimu' for now. We can gradually add in the rest once we get started with the prologue."
"You really have this all thought out."
"Heh, I lived this shit," Renko grinned "Trust me, you are going to enjoy this ride, my friend!"
-=-
A/N – Just a quick introductory snip to the concept for now. Please wait patiently while Renko helps the less experienced roleplayers set up their Characters!
Incidentally, Renko is a very good DM. Unlike some of her fellows who'd railroad the heck out of their buddies (Eclipse and Zeniths are especially guilty of this) she actually likes it when her friends go off and do unexpected stuff. She's only using the excuse about learning about living her situation as the initial story hook… once they're in there, it's a sandbox of their imaginations.
Incidentally, she's also one of those epic god-tier DMs who is creative enough that she can make a work a tutorial, on the fly character creation and prologue into a session and still make it epic.
Unfortunately, given that this ISN'T the main story and just an omake series I'm doing on the side, I'll be jumping around in their game sessions a fair bit as a way to show the amusing stuff they get up to rather than a continuous narrative. The next snip I have planned (hopefully out by tomorrow) will be the characters actually meeting the Wyld Hunt and learning what Renko must have felt like to be hunted everywhere she went. Bit of a jump, but I that's the way I plan to play it.
If however, this omake series proves popular enough, I might give it a narrative… but for now this is how I plan to handle it. Hope everyone enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!
Here's the compiled chapter 2. There are probably still a number of mistakes I made, but I think it's better than the rough drafts at least. Thanks to everyone who chipped in!
-=-
THE TOURIST
An Exalted/Touhou Crossover
By sasahara17
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Chapter 3, A Sunny Girl in the House of Night (II)
-=-
Remilia Scarlet was an evening person.
Her preference for being active during the night was part and parcel of her nature as a vampire. The sun was anathema to her, weakening her and sapping away her powers. It followed on from that that Remilia would have little choice but to be nocturnal, inverting her hours of activity from that of a normal person. Morning for a regular person would be evening for her, and vice versa.
That was to say that Remilia didn't like this arrangement. Quite the contrary in fact, seeing as how all her friends from outside the mansion were asleep during the moonlit hours she was awake. This made for one lonely vampire noble. Lonely and bored.
"Oh, the plans I am going to have for you, my little tourist." Remilia mused as she regarded her mental image of the stranger in her household, a mischievous smirk gracing her lips.
It was a proven fact that bored people, particularly bored people well over five centuries of life who happened to have the power to control fate, tended to do stuff to others expense for their own amusement. Unfortunately for her unsuspecting guests, Remilia Scarlet was very bored indeed.
It was in early hours of the morning when Remilia, in her private sitting room drinking her cup of 'morning' earl grey tea decided to take some time out of her day to contemplate on what to do with her new playthings now she was certain that the both of them were asleep. The childlike vampire noble couldn't help but delight in the feeling that she was once again up to nefarious plotting, just like the good old days back when she was the scourge of Europe.
"I am going to have to tread very carefully, won't I Sakuya?" Remilia said as she gently placed her empty tea cup down on the tea table before her.
"Yes, you will mistress." Her ever faithful servant agreed as she elegantly refilled the empty cup with perfectly brewed tea from the side. Once filled, Remilia picked up the cup and brought it to her lips.
Perfect.
"While I do hope I can win more of Yakumo's favour by showing Miss Usami around, it would be remiss of me to let this opportunity to let an opportunity like this slip by." Remilia noted aloud.
Indeed, Remilia had every intent in turning Usami's visit to her mansion to her advantage. Yukari Yakumo was one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. More powerful than Remilia herself, as much as it pained the vampire to admit it. To have such a golden opportunity to get one over the Youkai of Borders and not do anything would be criminal. While it would be so easy to simply let have Renko have such a good time in the mansion that Yukari would owe her a favour, Remilia was thinking about how she could gain a more permanent means of leverage.
There were risks though.
"Usami is Yakumo's guest, after all. There will be a limit to how much I can manipulate her before the boundary witch steps in," Remilia continued, stirring the tea in her cup absent mindedly, "Not to mention that Reimu is protecting her."
"Reimu seems quite protective of her charge. It wouldn't be a good idea to challenge her." Sakuya agreed heartily. Remilia couldn't help but feel slightly miffed by the fact that Reimu's presence complicated her plans so much. As the Hakurei shrine maiden, Reimu was one of the most powerful individuals in the land, so much so that there were youkai who could be sent running at the mere mention of her name.
Yakumo couldn't have picked a better bodyguard for Usami.
"Hm, I can't do anything too disruptive then." Remilia noted dourly.
Granted she hadn't been planning on laying a curse or a geass on Usami, because that would have been unbecoming of a noble in her treatment of an honoured guest, but she had been thinking about 'luring' that thief Marisa into starting a fight in the library. Having Sakuya swoop in to save the vulnerable human from death would incur a life debt that even Yakumo would have to acknowledge, not to mention any possible reparations for property damage.
Unfortunately, Reimu's presence complicated that plan, for there was no way Renko would come to harm under the shine maiden's protection. Remilia would have to think of something else. "Perhaps we could convince Patchy to part with one of her books? Trick Usami into making a purchase that we can hold over Yakumo? Usami wouldn't think of the importance of such a souvenir, but Yakumo would be all too aware of it."
"I think Patchouli would sooner chop off her right arm than part with one of her books, Mistress. They are priceless for a reason, after all."
"Hm, I guess that is out of the question as well. Perhaps have her accidentally break the china in the west wing? As expensive as they are, they really clash with the recent renovations we did after Kirisame's last break in."
"I believe that would work, mistress."
Well it wasn't a grand nefarious plan to take over the world, but Remilia figured that it would have to do. She would forgive Usami of course. Generous host with a generous heart Remilia, in her bottomless compassion would never think to hold Usami responsible for the loss of her property.
Instead of demanding rightful reparations out of the clueless human tourist, Remilia would forgive her… and thus put Yakumo in her debt for sparing the girl's life.
Even if Remilia never intended to harm the girl anyway, such was how Youkai of their age played the game. Reaching out with her power, the power to manipulate fate itself, Remilia seized the fate of Renko Usami.
She was of course mildly surprised to discover that her guest was not in fact asleep as she had believed, but in fact running around Patchouli's library, but Remilia put that out of her mind. She had other concerns. Seizing the thread of Usami's fate, Remilia twisted…
"Denied, bitch!"
-=-
Hong Meiling was a morning person.
That wasn't to say she wasn't a 'day person' (although she was most definitely not an afternoon person), but it was the undeniable truth that Meiling loved it when the sun was up. A curious thing for a person who worked for a vampire to be sure, but one that was true nonetheless.
Meiling loved the sun. It brought life and warmth to the world, two of the things she loved most. More than that, as the groundskeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the sun being up meant sun for the garden.
To her, the sun brought growth to her plants.
As such, Meiling always made it a point to wake up early to greet the sun as it dawned each day, to thank it for all its hard work. Maybe it was a little childish of her, but it made her feel good to do so. It also did help that the sight of the bright ball of light breaking over the horizon, illuminating the waters Misty Lake as it did, was simply breath taking. In all her time in Gensokyo, she had never once gotten tired of it.
Hence she was a morning person.
Of course to greet the sun would mean getting up before it actually dawned, so it was in the darkness before daybreak that Hong Meiling stepped out of the mansion proper into the darkness of the mansion grounds. Cold, dark and colorless… until the light of the sun began to shine that is.
Humming to herself, Meiling skipped down the familiar paths towards the main gate, intent on greeting the new day with a smile. Along the path that she was taking was her favourite flower, which she would always greet with a 'good morning' as she went past.
"Good morning!" She cheerily greeted as she went past.
"Mama-Meiling, it's too early to wake up. Lemme sleep."
Meiling stopped skipping.
-=- "Denied, bitch!"
Seizing the thread of Usami's fate, Remilia twisted… just in time for the sensation of every other thread of fate in her house-hold coming undone to slam into her like a freight train. The sensation, one that Remilia had never experienced in all her centuries of being alive, was so utterly jarring that the vampire fell out of her chair in shock. "Ah, sorry about shouting in the Library, Patches. Yes, it is a nickname.
"Mistress!" Sakuya rushed to Remilia's side, quickly helping the smaller woman to her feet. " Just thought I had to say it… in case the ninjas were listening, you know?"
"What was that?!" Remilia said, still trying to figure out what had just transpired "What the hell just happ-" "Hm, actually what DID trip all my anti-Sidereal countermeasures?"
What Remilia was about to say was rudely interrupted when a loud shriek tore through the air from outside, so loud that even the mansion's windows couldn't hold it back. "No Siddies around here."
"I'M A MOTHER?!" Meiling cried out. "BUT I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN MARRIED YET!" "Huh. Not as if Ivory is going to ambush me from a teacup again… actually better not jinx m'self"
… "Ah well, I'm sure it's nothing too important. Back to reading!"
"…what." Remilia said.
-=-
It went without saying that Meiling's shout woke up every soul in the Mansion, including Reimu.
The shine maiden had been fast asleep moments before, curled up in a ball of bed sheets on a king sized bed that was so conformable it should have been criminal. The sudden cry of alarm viciously tore Reimu from her pleasant dream, causing the shine maiden to leap out of the bed into the air with her gohei at the ready.
It took a few seconds for the actual content of the words to set into Reimu's sleep addled brain.
"WHAT?!"
Without even bothering to change out of the pink and red polka dot pyjamas that Sakura had given her, Reimu rushed over to the window, slammed it open as fast as her arms would permit and bodily hurled herself out into the open air, speeding towards the source of the alarmed cry as fast as her flight could take her.
There were many ways to interpret a cry of 'Oh god, I'm a mother'.
To some, those words were a cause for celebration and joy to welcome a new life into the world. To others, it meant grabbing a shotgun and looking for the young man responsible. To others still, it meant regular unexpected child support payments and a dwindling bank account.
To Reimu, those words simply meant one thing.
"If someone in this bloody house has caused an incident, there will be hell to pay!" Reimu snarled as she blindly flew though the early morning darkness until she located the source of the commotion.
Hong Meiling stood in the centre of the display with that fancy flower from yesterday, looking very distressed. The source of her distress was quite apparent even in the low light, for a young red headed child that looked very much like a younger version of the tall chinese Youkai was hugging the woman with a contented smile.
She was also naked.
"Mei-mama! You came wish me good morning!" the child, now fully awake beamed up at the shocked Meiling with undisguised love, "Yay! Is breakfast time yet? I very hungry. Where's the sun?"
Meiling couldn't answer. The gatekeeper had suffered a complete 'mental shutdown' and was in fact staring at the young girl with a look that spoke of incomprehension and denial. In fact, it was clear that if something didn't snap Meiling out of it she was probably going to remain like that for some time.
Thankfully, it was at this point Reimu touched down on the scene. With all the anger and irritation typical of the peeved off shrine maiden she was, Reimu marched up to the pair with her gohei in hand. "Hong Meiling. What did you do?!"
That snapped Meiling out of her trance.
It did not, unfortunately, manage to get the gears in the woman's head working.
"W-W-W-W-W-What?" Meiling stammered as her eyes flickered between the girl hugging her and the armed shrine maiden demanding answers from her, "W-W-W-What did I do?"
"That's what I'm asking!"
"And we would like to know, as well," Remilia said as she and Sakuya instantly appeared on the scene, "Oh, this is very problematic, Meiling. Very problematic indeed."
"Mistress?!" Meiling rasped out.
"Dearie me. A daughter. I had planned on punishing you for interrupting my tea, but this is far more concerning than I first thought," Remilia brought a hand up to her chin in thought as she regarded the child with keen interest, "You didn't have this child out of wedlock, did you?"
Meiling let out some sort of cross between a shriek, a choke and a gasp.
"Mei-mama isn't having me out of wed-look," The child retorted with a pout, the slight Chinese accent in her reply making it look cuter, "Mei-mama is Mei-Mama! She is my mama!"
"Yes, clearly. The resemblance is striking."
"Damn it Remilia, be serious! We could have an incident on our hands! Did you cause this?" Reimu snarled as she rounded on her friend.
"Of course not. Don't be stupid. Do you think I would welcome chaos into my own home for anything less than the total domination of Gensokyo and the crushing of Yakumo under my heel?"
"Of course not! But… wait, what did you just s-"
Reimu was interrupted by a sudden flash, followed by the familiar sound of the opening and closing of a camera shutter. "Well, well, well… look what we have here! Looks like the old saying is true. The early crow does catch the scandal of the century."
The Humble Tengu Reporter, Aya Shameimaru swooped down from the skies above into the courtyard and settled in next to Reimu with a flourish.
While Remilia and Sakuya narrowed their eyes at the intrusion, Meiling went pale as a ghost while staring at the tengu's camera like it was a deadly weapon, Reimu decided the appropriate reaction to this development was to drop her face into her hands and groan.
"Behold! Aya Shameimaru is here!" The Tengu declared, "Nice polka dots by the way, Reimu."
"I see a picture of me in this on your paper, I'm having fried chicken for dinner."
"Oh, scary, scary."
"How the hell did you get past the walls?" Sakuya said with crossed arms.
"I'm a thousand year old seeker of the truth, propagator of knowledge and educator of the youth. Come hell or high water, the story must be told! Your puny walls were never going to hold me back from getting my scoop!" Aya replied casually.
For some reason, it was at that very moment Reimu's mental priorities shifted from 'Stop incident from happening' to 'Aya must not meet Renko at all costs'.
"Besides, your gatekeeper is so dumbstruck a fairy could just stroll in…"
"Eh? Meiling has a kid?!" Cirno squealed excitedly just as she had popped over the walls, "Wow! This IS GREAT NEWS! Hold on Mei! I'm gonna tell, Dai, Rumi, Mysty, Wriggle… what they hey, I'll tell THE WHOLE TOWN!"
And just like that, Cirno was gone.
"Case in point. Now if you will excuse me, I gotta stop that fairy before she blows open this story before I do. Chiao!" Then with no further warning, Aya was off like a lightning bolt, streaking after the ice fairy like the sales of her newspaper depended on it.
"Damn, so much for bribing her to keep quiet." Remilia muttered darkly to herself.
"I hope the mansion's reputation doesn't take a hit," Sakuya agreed.
"I don't know this child!" Meiling, having finally found her voice again, tried desperately to explain the situation in vain hopes that something could be salvaged out of this train wreck of a situation.
Sure her reputation was probably ruined beyond all repair, between Cirno and Aya it was almost a certainty, but it seemed like Meiling was at least trying to win back her closet friends.
"She just appeared out of nowhere! Mistress, Sakuya, Reimu, I swear don't know what's going on!" Meiling said, her tone wild and panicked, "There is no way that I can have a baby!"
"M-M-Mei-mama?" The child looked taken aback in shock as the woman she'd addressed as her mother all but rejected her in the harshest of ways. In fact the look on the poor child's face was so striking, all who witnessed it couldn't help but be taken aback.
Even Remilia looked disturbed.
"Meiling, look. Perhaps this isn't the best place for this." Remilia said in a softer tone of voice. "We should head inside and…"
"No! We are solving this right now! Before anyone else comes along and gets the wrong idea!" Dropping to down to her knees so that she was looking at the child at eyelevel, Meiling sweetly at the young girl, "Okay little 'mei-mei'. That was funny. Ha. Ha. Joke's on me. Now, please tell me who you really are? Please?"
"I'm 'Cha-Hua'. Mama, don't you recognise me?" The little girl whimpered.
"No, I don't," Meiling replied with a kind, but stern tone of voice, "Look, you're obviously very confused and lost, so I guess that gives you an excuse. However I can definitively say that never in my entire life have I ever had children... or can have children for that matter. Therefore there is no way that you can be my child. So please, stop."
"B-But you brought me with you when you left Zhong-guo. You took care of me for so many years until you started working for nighty bat lady," the little girl started to sniffle, "You gave me nice patch in garden and call special. You call me your baby. How can you not recognize me Mei-Mama?"
It was about that point that everyone aside from Meiling, actually listening to the girl's words, realized something very peculiar about what she had just said. So peculiar in fact that their eyes went straight to the Middlemist Camellia that was at the centre of the display of flowers.
When they did, every one of their jaws dropped.
"Meiling, uhhh…" Reimu started.
"I can't recognize you because I've never seen you before in my life," Meiling, too focused on the girl before her, didn't hear the shrine maiden's words, "And while I've lived for a very long time, I can definitively say that I would have remembered a face like yours."
"Actually, Meiling if you would be so kind as to look at your flower…" Sakuya coughed into her closed fist, but to no avail.
"Besides, I would definitely remember a member of my family. I've always wanted children for myself, so I would never forget my child if I ever had one."
"Mama? Why…" The little girl whimpered, openly crying now as her young mind tried to understand why her parent was saying such hurtful things.
"So I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't possibly be your ma-"
"DAMN IT WOMAN, LOOK AT THE FLOWER!"
Having just about enough, Remilia Scarlet seized Meiling's head and turned the Chinese youkai's eyes in the direction of the Middlemist Carmellia…
Which was glowing gold and pulsing with a strange golden essence.
"Oh."
"Mama… how come you don't recognize me?" The Middlemist Carmellia, sobbed into her hands just as her realization finally dawned on Hong Meiling as to who this little girl was, "I wait long to have this body so I could hug you, and now… WAH!"
As the little girl broke out full blown tears, three supernatural women and one new supernatural mother stood around awkwardly wondering exactly what the hell any of them were supposed to do.
"Uh, so do any of you know how to handle kids?"
-=-
"Patchy! PATCHY! PATCHOULI KNOWLEDGE, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Remilia bellowed as she burst into the Voile Library, followed shortly by Sakuya, Reimu and Meiling, the last of which was leading a very confused looking little youkai by the hand.
After the four women had understood the little girl that had spontaneously appeared in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's ground was actually Meiling's precious camellia given life, the natural progression of their investigation was to figure out how this strange event had happened.
Pathouli had apparently put enough magical wards on that flower to ensure that, despite the ambient magic and faith in Gensokyo, it would be completely unaffected. The flower would remain just a flower until the end of time. This clearly was something that did not happen, as evidenced by the young girl that was now in their company.
Well, natural progression for everyone but Meiling that is.
"PATCHY! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'RE RESEARCHING! WHERE ARE YOU?" Remilia called out as the four women zoomed through the air, all eyes searching for the magician. No easy feat, given the immense size of the Voile Library. The place was a literal city of books!
Thankfully, it seemed that Patchouli had heard them. A shower of elemental magic shot up from a space between several bookshelves, a clear sign where the magician was. The party quickly descended to where the source of the signal was and was greeted to the sight of Patchouli Knowledge at a desk, books and notes sewn about haphazardly as she attempted to puzzle though whatever conundrum was plaguing her.
"What is it Remi? I am in the middle of crucial research into a matter I discussed earlier," Patchouli said to the four women and one young girl without even looking up from her notes, "If my research is correct, something very old and very powerful was what created the stellar disturbance from earlier, and I believe this might be very important to the future of Gensokyo."
"Patchouli, you're still on about this?" Remilia shook her head exasperatedly.
"If my research is corrected, something forced its way into Gensokyo through dimensional barriers, bypassing the Hakurei Barrier entirely in the process. If my calculations are correct, the magnitude of the stellar disturbance would put the amount of power expended…"
Remilia laid a hand on the magician's shoulder, interrupting the professor's lengthy explanation.
"Patchy, my dear. This is incredibly fascinating, and I am sure your thesis would be most enlightening, but I do believe that we have much more pressing problems that require your attention," Remilia waved a hand at where a dazed Meiling was standing with a curious looking Cha Hua not too far away from the table.
Pathouli knowledge regarded the sight with a single, unimpressed cough, "I fail to see what is so fascinating about a newborn youkai."
"My dear, that newborn youkai was born out of Meiling's Middlemist Camellia," Remilia said simply, "She appeared on the grounds this morning and gave Meiling quite a surprise."
Now THAT caught Patchouli's attention.
"Impossible. The wards I placed on the flower should have prevented it from ever becoming a supernatural creature. You are mistaken."
"The flower was glowing Patchouli." Reimu said as she and Sakuya joined Remilia by Pachouli's table.
"The girl herself believes herself to be the flower. There is no mistake," Sakuya affirmed, "This youkai is Meiling's flower."
"And one of the most expensive and precious objects in the entire mansion," Remilia added, folding her arms dourly, "So Patchouli. Given you gave me your personal guarantee that the flower wouldn't ever gain sentience, pray tell… how did this happen?"
Realising that there would be no talking her way out of this, Patchouli relented. Pushing herself away from her research and notes, albeit it seemed with great reluctance, the magician looked into Remi's eyes and nodded.
"…I'll look into it."
-=-
"Say 'ah'."
"Ahhhhhhhhhh…"
Patchouli's handeld crystal light illuminated the little youkai's mouth as she checked about inside it. After a few seconds of glancing around inside the girl's mouth, Patchouli turned her light off and allowed Cha Hua to close her mouth.
"Good, now turn your head. I want to see inside your ear." Patchouli instructed.
"Um… is Mei-mama alright, Doctor Lady? Mei-mama not talking. She like zombie," Cha Hua shot concerned looks out of the corner of her eye towards the motionless figure slumped in a chair not too far from where she was, "I think maybe I cry and hurt mama. Maybe you look at her instead?"
"I assure you child, Meiling will be fine. Now please, turn your head."
"O-Okay." Cha Hua said and did as instructed.
While this was going on, Reimu and the others watched Patchouli conduct her inspection with looks ranging from keen interest to bored impatience, however none of them dared to approach the two for fear of interrupting the magician while she worked.
Reimu was of the 'bored impatience' variety. She honestly didn't see what Remilia found so fascinating about this whole process. As far as Reimu was concerned, as long as she got her answers and knew this mess wasn't going to start a chaotic mess that would blow up in her face, she would be satisfied.
Alas, Pathouli was taking a long time to finish her inspection. It had been almost an hour since the battery of tests, ranging from magical scans to a physical inspection, had started.
Reimu was getting bored, and she hadn't even had a chance to change out of her pyjamas yet!
"I've completed my preliminary analysis." Patchouli announced, approaching the waiting group with Cha Hua trailing obediently behind her.
"Well, let's hear it." Everyone leaned in, waiting to hear what Patchouli had to say.
"I will have to do more research, but preliminary findings suggest she's some kind of a dryad." Patchouli informed them curtly, "Which is curious because…"
"Dryads are tree nymphs from Greek mythology, and the Middlemist Camellia was native to China," Remilia finished, bringing her hand to her chin, "and even today when it is almost extinct, the only other known flowers can only found in London and New Zealand… Never mind the fact this is Japan. If she was going to become a supernatural creature, shouldn't she have become a flower youkai like Kazami instead?"
"Fair points, but I was actually more concerned by the fact she became a youkai and not a fairy," Patchouli pointed out, "Remi, most flowers can't retain enough magical energy to become anything more than a simple fairy. Cha Hua is a fully sentient youkai. Whatever power that got past my wards and triggered her transformation flushed her with so much energy that she became something more powerful than what she should normally be capable of!"
"Wait powerful?" Reimu learned forward in concern, "How powerful are we talking about here?"
God good, she only knew of one other flower youkai in Gensokyo…
"Probably not anywhere near as nightmarishly powerful as Kazami if that's what you're thinking," Patchouli reassured Reimu, "Besides, most of Kazami's power comes from her age. This one is still a child… but from what I can tell she does have an unusually large amount of magic in her."
"Well, that's a relief." Reimu muttered.
"I'll need to run more tests before I can give you more concrete results. However, now that I've determined exactly what she is, where to proceed from here is fairly straightforward," Patchouli informed them, "I will be able to narrow down the exact reason of the change, but will require some time to do so. In the meantime, please leave me alone. Distractions would only slow me down."
Remilia nodded, clearly familiar with Patchouli's methods. "Fair enough. Sakuya, please return to your normal duties. Also please find one of the fairy maids…"
"…she really is my little flower isn't she?" Everyone turned to look at Meiling. Still sitting in the same chair she had been for the past hour, the Chinese youkai was staring at Cha Hua with eyes that seemed to be on the verge of tears and a very conflicted expression.
"Mei-mama?"
"She is." Patchouli nodded. "I still have many more tests I need to run, but I can say with absolute certainty that Cha Hua is without a doubt the youkai of your Middlemist Flower."
Meiling nodded slowly as she accepted Patchouli's findings, and then slowly rose from her seat. She then turned to Remilia. "Mistress, forgive me for the short notice, but could I please request for a leave of absence today? I know this is on very short notice but…"
"Request granted." Remilia replied with undisguised concern, "I had actually been about to order Sakuya to find one of the fairy maids to take over your duties for the day. This... this is something you need to have time to think about Meiling. I mean, considering your history…"
"Thank you, Mistress."
"Mei-mama!" The little youkai rushed over to hug her mother excitedly, only for find the taller woman gently rest her hands on her shoulder and push her away. "M-Mei-mama?"
Again the shock and confusion on the young girl's face was so striking that Reimu couldn't help but feel something for the girl.
"S-Sorry, Cha Hua." Meiling said laboriously, clearly struggling to retain her composure, "I… I need you to stay with Doctor Patchouli, okay? She… she has some tests she needs to run on your to make sure you're healthy, alright? Ma… I want you do help Doctor Patchouli, alright?"
"O-Okay Mei-mama." Cha Hua nodded obediently, even if she didn't understand what was going on. "Will you be coming back later, Mei-mama? Cha Hua is sorry if she made you upset earlier."
"…I'll come back later, Cha Hua." Meiling nodded hesitantly, pusing her 'daughter' over to Patchouli, then quickly turned to Remilia, "By your leave, Mistress."
Without another word Meiling kicked off the ground and flew off.
"That bad, huh?" Sakuya said as she watched the gatekeeper depart.
"From what I know… unfortunately," Remilia sighed, "This couldn't have come at a worse time."
"..What the hell was that?" Reimu muttered darkly to Remilia, wondering what the hell was going through Meiling's head at that moment that she'd leave her emotionally vulnerable and confused daughter alone like she just did, "That's her daughter. How could she-?"
"Reimu, when you get to our age, nothing is quite that simple." Remilia said.
"She has her reasons, Reimu. Give her time." Sakuya agreed.
Reimu shook her head disapprovingly.
"I hope those are some damn good reasons."
-=-
With Meiling having vanished off to parts unknown and Patchouli busying herself with research, Reimu saw little point in lingering. As she had no idea where to even begin with talking to Meiling and she has zero research whatsoever, Reimu decided the most productive thing she could do given the circumstances was to head back upstairs and get changed into something more dignified than the pink polka-dot pyjamas she was wearing.
Indeed, she hadn't been the only one who had taken her leave. While Remilia had decided to remain in the library, obstinately to conduct her own research into 'a personal problem', Sakuya had disappeared via the magic of time stop shortly after declaring she needed to get back to her chores. With both of the other investigators pretty much calling off the hunt for now, Reimu followed suit.
Besides, she probably could grab breakfast while she was at it. Free food was free food, and Reimu would be damned if she had to weather this miniature incident on an empty stomach.
Taking to the air with full intent on getting her morning routine sorted out before the day got any crazier, Reimu had been halfway to the exit when she saw a panicked Koakuma making a beeline towards her. "Oh, what now?"
"Reimu! Reimu, I need your help!" Koa pleaded as she flew up to Reimu, completely flustered, "Ms. Usami's gone missing again and I can't find her! Help!"
"Wait, what? Renko's missing?" Reimu felt a headache coming on. As if Meiling's newfound daughter wasn't a big enough problem to deal with! "How could you let her go missing? And what do you mean 'again'?"
"I keep losing her! She's running all over the library and I can't keep track of her!" Koakuma wailed, "This is terrible. I'm supposed to be the one showing her about, and I've lost her three times just this night alone. Master Patchouli is going to be so mad with me for letting someone go about in the library unsupervised! I have to find her!"
Reimu lowered her head into her hands and groaned.
Oh now this was a problem. Scarlet Devil Mansion was not the kind of place that anyone should be allowed to run around unsupervised at all. While it was perfectly safe for Reimu because of her reputation and power, Renko had no such protection. Any number of horrible things could befall an unwary guest, and soon Reimu's mind was awash with the many possibilities of what could happen to her charge.
Pranked by fairy maids so badly she was scarred for life. Accidentally stumbling into a magic trap for intruders and getting hurt. Wandering out of the library, going into the wrong basement and meeting Flandre…
Reimu paled.
"Forget breakfast! We have to find her, now!"
-=-
"Wait, you've lost her three times just this one night? Didn't she back upstairs to sleep?" Reimu said as she and Koakuma flew together, watching the rows of bookshelves below them in hopes of locating the wayward tourist. "Didn't she get tired at all?"
"No, she wasn't. She was running all over the place. In fact I couldn't keep up with her!" Koakuma admitted, "You should have seen it, Reimu. She was practically bouncing off the bookshelves. I've never seen a human with so much energy, and I know Marisa!"
Well, that explained why Reimu didn't see Renko anywhere this morning. Oh, she should have seen this coming a mile away. Trust Yukari to have a friend who is about as energetic as she is sleepy!
Just then, Reimu spied something in the corner of her eye that caused her to do a double take.
"Koa, Koa look over there!"
Reimu pointed at the sight with one hand, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. Koakuma turned to see what had caught Reimu's attention, and found herself likewise stunned by what she was seeing. The pair was so astonished they stopped in mid-air, just hovering there as they tried to absorb what they were seeing.
Walking across one of the Voile's many bridges while reading an open book was Renko Usami, their missing tourist. Behind Renko was a small procession of five fairy maids, following after the woman like a row of ducklings waddling after their mother. The arms of each fairy maid was occupied with holding a tall stack of books that was about as tall as they were, resulting in quite a strange sight.
One human woman, who wasn't looking where she was going because her face was in a book, was leading around a bunch of fairy maids who were carrying stuff for her.
"Did she have this before she went missing?" Reimu asked dumbly.
"No," Koakuma replied. "And I only lost track of her for about half an hour."
"How's that happen?" Reimu said to herself.
"No idea," Koakuma agreed, "You think we should go over there and ask her?"
"Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea."
-=-
"Reimu! Nice to see you up and about so early in the morning," Renko greeted happily as Reimu and Koakuma landed next to the odd group. "Nice polka dots by the way."
"Renko, what the hell is this?" Reimu waved an arm at the line of fairies that Renko had somehow picked up in the short time Koakuma had lost track of her.
"Oh, this? These are my little helpers." Renko turned to regard the five fairy maids with a beatific grin, "Right ladies?"
"Please… Help us…" The one at the front of the row said, her childlike legs shaking and buckling under the strain of holding the small tower of books in her arms.
"Miss Koakuma, help!" The one behind her pleaded, "Please, you've always been kind to us!"
"We didn't do anything to deserve this!" Another declared, and was promptly proven to be a bald faced liar by the next one to speak.
"We'll never try skipping work by hiding in the library again! Get us away from this monster! She's worse than the head maid!"
"Oh, put a sock in it you guys. You're the five yahoos who tried jumping me so I wouldn't blab on you to your boss. Since I beat you lot fair and square, you guys have to carry books for me," Renko said without a shred of pity or remorse. "Geez, kids these days are so damn lazy."
"Wait, wait, wait, you beat them?" Reimu stared at her charge, wondering how she had achieved this victory. As 'weak' as fairy maids were, they nevertheless were a danger to normal humans who had no means to defend themselves. Yet it seemed like Renko had defeated them.
Reimu had her suspicions that Renko had powers as well, so perhaps now…
"Well to be honest it wasn't much of a fight. They rushed me, and I dropped a bookshelf on them. No biggie." Renko said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"What?" Reimu and Koakuma exclaimed.
"Well if you want the specifics… I found them by accident, they threatened me, I provoked them into rushing at me and when they did I shot the bookshelf next to me with a concussive bullet and all the books came down on them. Like I said, no biggie." Renko shrugged with a grin, quickly whipping out her revolver and showing it to Reimu, "See, I told you I needed this for self-defence!"
"So many books… there were so many books…" One of fairies involuntary shuddered at the memory.
"Hard covers are so hard." Another agreed.
"My head still hurts!"
"Eh, actually make that several bookshelves… okay, make that the entire aisle. Yeah, bit of a mess, but I'm sure you guys can fix that in no time. The hardest part was actually trying to get out of the way so I wouldn't be hit with the books myself," Renko nodded with satisfaction as she slid her firearm back into her holster, "Blackmailed them with leaving them buried under there if they didn't help me out… and whelp, here we are."
Reimu and Koakuma stared at Renko with open mouths as they processed her wild tale. There were so many things wrong with that story that Reimu had no idea where to even begin!
"You dropped a bookshelf on them."
"Am aisle's worth of books to be exact. The bookshelves are still upright though."
"We didn't hear anything! If it's as big an explosion as you say, why didn't anyone hear anything?"
"Hey, magic library. This whole place has silencing charms everywhere to keep the noise level down. Ask the demon." Renko shrugged. Unfortunately, Koakuma wasn't about to answer Reimu's questions. The succubus had other things in mind.
"Master Patchouli is not going to like that," Koakuma whispered in horror, her eyes glazing over as she envisioned the scale of the mess that Renko had left in her wake, "All those books on the floor… oh, when Master finds out she is going to be so angry!"
"Look if this is about the mess, you don't have to worry. I had the fairies put all the books back on the shelves. All good." Instead of calming down Koakuma, Renko's reassurances had the exact opposite effect. The little devil went pale as a ghost.
"The indexing. The organisation… oh no…" Koakuma managed out before her eyes rolled up and she fell over in a dead faint.
"Renko. I think it's time we left the library. Like right now." Reimu said sternly as she set a hand down on Renko's shoulder.
"Hey, I still have reading I want to do!" Renko protested.
"No." Reimu said, seizing Renko by the arm and dragging the other girl by the arm towards the exit, the line of fairy maids still in tow.
Koakuma was right. When Patchouli discovered what had happened to her precious library, she was going to be very displeased with her visitor. Forget about revocation of visitation rights, Patchouli was probably going to slam the doors and ban her for life!
"We are going upstairs. We are having breakfast. We are going to go see something else. Right now. You do not get a choice in this matter."
"But-"
"Not another word out of you."
"This is SO going on my client feedback form." Renko complained.
Best to get Renko out of the library until she could blame it all on the fairy maids and smooth things over with the librarian… if that was even possible.
Yeah, no way in hell was Reimu letting this maniac out of her sight!
…wait, what the heck was a concussive bullet anyway?
-=-
Reimu, now garbed back in her shine maiden's outfit, picked at her breakfast with her utensils dourly. It was eight in the morning, not even a fraction of the day gone, and the poor girl felt like she was already in over her head. Within the span of three hours, Meiling was now a mother, Renko had defiled Patchouli's precious library and worst of all, Reimu had a headache.
This was just the start of the day. She still had at another seventeen hours to go before tomorrow. No telling what was going to happen between now and then!
She was supposed to survive three weeks of this?
"I should never have taken this job." Reimu moaned, the feeling of despair so overwhelming she couldn't even take pleasure in eating her cereal. Considering that she was eating 'Lucky Charms', apparently the most glorious cereal ever developed by the outside world if Sanae was to be believed, that was really saying something!
Renko on the other hand had no such problems expressing her joy at the marshmallow treat.
"Man, this stuff is great!" Renko exulted happily as she devoured the colourful cereal with gusto, "Were'd you guys get this from? I've never had it before."
"Mistress imports them from America," Sakuya, ever the perfect maid, supplied helpfully from where she waited for the two guests to finish their meal, "She is very fond of them, and we have gone through great lengths to ensure that the mansion is properly supplied with a stock of this brand of cereal."
"Wow, you guys import them? From America? These must be expensive." Renko marvelled. "You sure I should be eating this stuff?"
"Do not worry, as an honoured guest of the mansion we are happy to share this with you."
"Neat-o!" Renko grinned, stroking her chin thoughtfully, "I wonder if I could take a few boxes back with me back home. I bet if I gave this to Shaia, we'll be able to reverse engineer this stuff. Hey, do you think I can take a few boxes back with me?"
"It is no problem. I'm sure something can be arranged for you, Miss Renko."
Reimu couldn't help but direct a dark look across the table at the oblivious Renko. The jovial tourist was the source of her current misery after all, and Reimu wanted nothing more than to reach across the table, seize the idiot by the shoulders and start shaking. How could a teacher, a university professor, be so lacking in such basic things as common sense and manners?
What was Yukari thinking?
It was then that the door to the dining room opened, revealing a rather dazed looking Meiling who staggered in holding a plate of Chinese dumplings.
"Morning all." Meiling greeted lifelessly as she sauntered in and took a seat further down the table from the mansion's guests. Instantly Sakuya seemingly teleported to Meiling's side, hovering behind the Chinese youkai like concerned friend.
"Whoa, what happened to her?" Renko hissed to Reimu.
"Stuff happened. Don't bother her." Reimu replied. Even so, the shrine maiden's curiosity got the better of her, and she couldn't help but sneak glances out of the corner of her eyes at what was happening nearby.
"Are you okay, Meiling?" Sakuya asked, her worry apparent on her features.
"No. No, I'm not," Meiling rested her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hand, "I still don't know what to think… what to do… I'm sorry Sakuya. I'm useless like this."
"Mistress gave you the whole day off. In fact, she'll probably give you more if you just ask for it," Sakuya said as she rubbed Meiling's back comfortingly, "Just take your time, Mei. This isn't something any of us could have predicted."
"How could this have happened though?" Meiling shook her head, "Remi controls fate. She knows everything that goes on in this house. This shouldn't have happened!"
"Maybe that was true before, but this is Gensokyo. There are plenty of powerful beings around here that could have done something to mess with Mistress' powers." Sakuya admitted grudgingly. "Mistress Remilia may have be been an unrivalled vampiress in the past, but now that the Mansion is in Gensokyo she is finally among those who could call themselves her equal. Any number of beings could have been behind the events this morning. We just have to find out who it was who did that to your flower."
"But why my flower? Who in Gensokyo would stand to benefit from doing this?" Meiling wondered aloud, "Who in their right mind would turn my flower into my daught-"
Reimu wasn't able to hear Meiling finish her statement, because that was about when Renko did the biggest spit take the shine maiden ever seen in her life… right into Reimu's face.
"Oh shit, Reimu! I'm sorry!" Renko reached over with a handkerchief trying to wipe away the stuff that was now all over her tour guide, "I couldn't help it! Sorry!"
Sitting there, coated in milk, cereal and marshmallows, Reimu knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that 10 million was far too cheap a price for the pain she was going though.
Well, nice to see that my omake was (fairly) well received. After some thought, I decided to forgo my plan about jumping so far ahead and continue setting up the scenario. Enjoy!
-=-
They didn't spend too long creating their characters, for it turned out Renko had a plan in place. Essentially, what she'd wanted them to do was create characters as close to their real life selves as they could possibly get in the game system, powers included. This simplified the character creation process greatly the players already knew what they had in mind.
"Basically, the scenario I'll be running for you lot is that, one day out of the blue while you are minding your own business, the whole lot of you get abducted by some random omnipotent being and dropped feet first into creation," Renko explained once she'd helped Aya put the finishing touches on her own character sheet, "Aside from a small number of changes, for example Miss Aya here is now a human instead of a Tengu, I'm essentially putting you four into the exact same situation that I was in when I first ended up there."
"Well, that certainly sound like a plan… in theory." Reimu noted.
The idea of what Renko was trying to do made sense to Reimu. The Solar was getting them to act out the exact same scenario that she had found herself in all those centuries ago, allowing her friends to not only understand what it was like to be her but also who create their own story and have some fun along the way.
This was why she was dropping them in so quickly with so little prep time. Renko wanted them to know exactly what it was like to be lost and confused in a strange world, with so little understanding of the setting or so little idea on what to do… even if it was just for the 'prologue' tutorial session that is. There was just one problem.
"Aren't we a little bit too powerful?" Reimu rapped her hands against her character sheet sceptically, "I'm no expert to these games, but I'm pretty sure that allowing my make believe character access to all my powers right off the bat is going to be a bit stupid."
"Reimu's right. I mean, we're still supposedly 'heroic mortals', but I can already tell how dangerous our characters are," Sanae confirmed, her previous experience with role playing games supporting her belief, "You gave Marisa access to Master Spark right off the bat, Reimu can still no-sell anything with her ability to 'fly', I have all my miracles… don't most RPGs start you off at the bottom and get you to work you way to the top?"
"Hell, you gave us Yukari. I know for a fact the two of you are about an even match for each other. Isn't, she like, going to overshadow the rest of us, ze?" Marisa pointed at the smiling gap youkai off to the side, who had been mostly silent until now. "I dunno about you, but a game where one player outshines the rest isn't going to be very fun. I want to be awesome too!"
"You don't have to worry about that, Marisa. I'm not playing as Yukari Yakumo," Yukari cheerfully corrected Reimu, causing the other players to look at their last minute addition in surprise. "I'm playing as Maribel Hearn, university student and a normal human being."
"You're kidding us." Aya whispered softly, her entire body vibrating in excitement.
"Nope. I figured that since Renko was giving you an introduction into her history, I might as well make good on my promise to show you all what I was like when I was about her age as well.
"Basically, Merry from back then," Renko nodded with a hearty laugh, "Don't worry, Maribel didn't even have a fraction of the power back then that she has now. If anything, you'll probably need to babysit her until she can get her bearings!"
"Okay, now I am really interested in this game." Reimu said, managing to keep the rush of enthusiasm out of her voice.
Ever since she'd found out from Renko that Yukari had once been a regular human being so long ago, the shine maiden's curiosity had peaked. For such an obscenely powerful individual, Renko had such humble beginnings, and as old friends that meant sometime in the distant past Yukari had been the same… just an ordinary young woman swept up by forces beyond her control.
Who had Maribel Hearn been? How had she become the Yukari Yakumo that she knew so well? Reimu couldn't help but want to know.
Well, she was about to find out.
"This… this is incredible. I get to see a bit about what THE Yukari Yakumo was like while she was a human," Aya said to herself with glazed over eyes and a dopey grin across her face. "By playing this one game, I'm getting three stories at once. BEST. GAME. EVER."
"No shit. Any game that lets me outshine Yukari is something I just gotta play!" Marisa whooped in excitement.
"I still am a bit worried about these character sheets though." Sanae frowned as she flipped through them, "Not even my old characters from Princess: The Hopeful had stats like this. We're some of the most powerful people in Gensokyo, too. Won't the game be too easy?"
Renko burst out laughing.
"Too easy she says! Oh trust me, kid. You're going to need all that shit." Renko informed her in between chuckles, "Besides, when I ended up there I retained my original power. It'd be unfair for me to take away yours while I still had mine."
"You have a power?"
"Telling the time from the position of the stars. Well, I've expanded on it a fair bit since then, but that's beside the point," Renko took a few deep breaths and managed to calm down. "Being an Exalt in creation isn't about being powerful. Right from the get go EVERY Exalt is powerful. Even the weakest ones have the ability to change to course of history if they play their cards right. What being an Exalted is about is how you choose to use that power."
"I take is this is something you learned from experience." Reimu observed.
"You have no idea," Renko sighed nostalgically, clearly thinking of someone she used to know, "Basically, me giving you all these powers off right at the start only changes the kinds of things you can deal with at your stage of the story. Granted you're all a lot more capable than me when I was your age, but the challenges are all the same. Trust me, you're going to need those powers."
"Hm, I'll take your word for it." Sanae frowned.
"Anyway, enough chit chat. Let's get started."
Grabbing one of the many notebooks she had at her utility belt and flipping it open, Renko tore a page out of it and threw it in the air.
"Renko, what…" Reimu began, only to be interrupted when the ripped page exploded, flooding the room with colour and light.
Marisa's homely dining room faded away as their surroundings were suddenly replaced with the rights and sounds of a crowded bazaar filled with throngs of people. The architecture around the group was distinctly Arabian, and the people around them were most definitely not Japanese. Strangely enough, while the hot midday desert sun shone down from above, the air still nice and cool like it had been before the transition.
And Renko herself had disappeared, leaving Reimu, Sanae, Marisa, Aya and Yukari alone in this strange environment.
"What the hell!" Marisa exclaimed, clearly dismayed by this development. "How'd we get here? Where'd my house go?"
"Relax, Marisa. This is just a hologram," Renko's disembodied voice happily informed them. "Terrestrial Circle Sorcery I came up with in between the wars, just for fun… not that most of my more studious colleagues thought it was proper use of sorcery, the prudes."
"Where is this place?" Sanae asked.
"Chiaroscuro, city of glass spires and the most important port city in the Southern Threshold, pulled directly from my own memories. So, what do you think?"
"I think I am liking this more and more." Aya nodded enthusiastically, her journalist notepad out and already scribbling away. "Holy shit, maybe I can even do a tourism review about this place. Game review, two biographies and now an article about a foreign city? I'm set for the next month!"
"Renko's giving us a chance to see an entirely different city, and all you can think about is writing for you paper. Gee, Aya. Talk about having a one track mind." Reimu couldn't help but shake her head in amusement at Aya's eccentricities.
If she was honest, Reimu couldn't help but be impressed herself. Clearly Renko had put a lot of thought into this for their benefit, after all. She'd have to thank her new friend later.
But for now, it was time to have some fun.
"Ladies, welcome to creation."
-=-
A/N – yep, even when running an RPG as a Storyteller, Solars don't do things in half measures. Anyway, my plan is to do one more snip about this omake to tie up the prologue before getting back to the SDM. As fun as writing for this is, I've been putting off the main story for it and really shouldn't be doing that.
As for Mokou, I should probably clarify that I have no plans for her playing a large role in this story (other than getting into fights with Kaguya of course). If I do feature anything about Renko trying to get around the Hourai elixir, it'll probably be set after 'the Tourist' proper. Thanks for reading!
