Right. My point was, Akuma is a specific term in Exalted for a very specific type of being, and there is a different type called demons.
[Touhou/Exalted] The Tourist
- Thread starter sasahara17
- Start date
Right. My point was, Akuma is a specific term in Exalted for a very specific type of being, and there is a different type called demons.
- Location
- The Grandcypher
Didn't Koakuma mean 'Little Devil' or something like that?
Walker of the Yellow Path
Ho There!
- Location
- The Land of Memes
Fuck. Yeah, I'm wrong. I got meanings mixed up in my head.
BadRoad
a thousand miles
Although it often has feminine connotations, I think it's more of a general diminutive affix. "Devilette" might be a relatively close English equivalent.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
Oh yeah. Been a while since I read them, and how that fanon is so enragingly popular made me misremember.
IIRC, the one that has 'girl' connotations is the one that means 'child'. Koakuma's 'ko' uses a simple 'little' kind of 'ko' (can't find the exact kanji right now since I'm on phone).
Yea, it means little devil when written using that character
sasahara17
Just Another Random Author
- Location
- Brisbane City
Hey guys. This is the last part of day 1 at the SDM, and then we can move onto day 2 where the shit hits the fan. Enjoy!
-=-
As promised, Remilia had asked Patchouli show Renko to the Voile library after dinner. After an assurance from Renko that she wasn't going to rob the place blind, Patchouli agreed.
As Patchouli and Koakuma lead their guests through the winding halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Reimu couldn't help but notice that Renko was acting quite peculiarly. The normally boisterous woman had clammed up and had positioned herself squarely between Reimu and Koakuma as the party proceeded to their destination. More than that, Renko keeping her right hand just above her hip, hovering there as if just waiting to draw her weapon…
…which oddly enough, Reimu couldn't see. That's odd, where did the revolver go to?
"Succubus. Why didn't the bloody book mention a succubus?" Renko muttered quietly, although it seemed she was doing so unconsciously if she was doing so in earshot of Reimu, "I sure as hell wouldn't use a Neomah as a librarian, not after that bitch. I sooner would trust the fucking fae…"
Okay, she had to do something about this.
"Alright, what's got you?" Reimu fell back to Renko's side and whispered. "What's wrong with Koa?"
"You call that thing, 'Koa'?" Renko said with barely concealed hostility and suspicion as she directed a glare that could kill to the back of an oblivious Koakuma's head.
Okay, there was definitely something wrong here. "Look, Koa is one of the nice people in the Mansion. Like genuinely nice."
"Yeah. Nice. Of couse she's nice. Nice like a nice good little assistant right until you turn you back, then she gets a boy to stab his mother to death to 'create new orifices' for shits and giggles while stealing my god damn hearthstone…"
Reimu only just managed to catch herself before face planting on the floor. Thankfully, Patchouli and Koakuma, who were leading the way and had their backs turned, didn't notice the stumble.
"Renko, what the hell?"
"Look, I read a lot of books on the subject alright?" Renko explained halfheartedly, clearly using the bulk of her focus on drilling holes in the back of Koa's head, "The second that thing so much as gives me a reason…"
"Koa's not like that. I don't know what your research about succubi told you, but they're wrong," Well, wrong about Koakuma at least. "Look, I know Koa. Whatever you read about the other succubi, they're wrong about her. Trust me."
"I'll trust you about her when I'm sure she hasn't pulled the wool over your eyes." Renko said with finality, clearly set in her ways.
-=-
"So this is your library?" Renko said as she walked into the large room with an excited grin. "Wow, it IS pretty big. I'm impressed."
The large room, illuminated by the lights of several low hanging chandeliers and recently installed Kappa made electric lamps, was filled with dozens of book cases on two separate floors. It was so large in fact that bridges had been built across the room to allow for easier movement for its occupants. The many windows allowed pale moonlight to filter into the room, giving the library a nice pleasant ambiance even at this hour.
"Man, I can't wait to take a look about," Renko rolled her shoulders and started towards the bookshelves, clearly eager to get started, "Let's see what-"
"Actually, you're mistaken, Miss Usami," Koakua informed the outsider with an embarrassed smile, while Patchouli, without even paucing in her step, made for the large stairwell in the centre of the room that lead underground. "This isn't Master Patchouli's Library."
"Huh?" Renko blinked in confusion as Reimu sniggered behind her.
Having gone there hereself, Reimu had of course known where the Voile was, and was mildly surmised to find that Renko had mistakenly believed that Remilia's private collection, while quite substantial, was the largest library in Gensokyo. Close, but no cigar.
It then occurred to Reimu what lay between this place and the actual Voile.
This was going to be good.
"This is Lady Scarlet's private library. The only books you'll find here are related to fiction, the arts and whatever interests the mistress of this house," Koakuma explained, beckoning the two guests to follow after her master. "Master Pathouli's library is actually underground."
"So let me get this straight," Renko said slowly, "This huge-ass room, a room that has more books than a major metropolitan book-shop, is just Remilia's private collection?"
"Well, yes."
"…rich people." Renko grumbled as she followed after Patchouli, a sniggering Reimu in tow.
-=-
"Whoa. Nice. Very, nice."
Down the flight of stairs lay a massive underground chambers that were illuminated only by the lights of giant glowing magical orbs, suspended from metal chains that hung from the ceiling. The walls, stretching almost six stories in height, were nothing but bookshelves. Indeed the walls of books giant ladders, so tall that one had to cane one's head to see the top, placed around the room just to allow access to the books for those incapable of flight.
"How this is a freaking library," Renko grinned giddily as she started towards the bookshelves, her notebook and pen already in hand…
"Actually this is the auxiliary library that Master uses to study when she invites her colleagues over," Koakuma noted apologetically. While the little devil was correcting this misconception, Patchouli was already descending the spiral staircase to the room's lower level to continue forward towards where the real library was.
Reimu for her part was just staying back and watching the events unfold with folded arms and a cheeky grin.
"You mean this isn't the Voile?" Renko boggled in disbelief, casting her eyes wildly around the room in shock. "This… this room has more books than my Man-my local university!"
"Well, technically it is. It is the 'public access' portion of the library," Koakuma explained, "Normally, this would all we would allow you to see. Master Patchouli is quite particular on who gains access to the Voile… but Lady Remilia was quite clear that we were to show you to see the main Library proper."
Renko started.
"Sol's grace, how big is this library anyway?"
-=-
"Sol's grace."
It was a city. It was a city of bookshelves, complete with bridges, buildings, spires, arches, pathways… all either supporting bookshelves, lining bookshelves or made out of bookshelves. Runes of pure magic, etched on the wooden surfaces, illuminated this man made, or witch made as the case may be, city with an almost dreamlike glow, making it really look like a city at night.
"Sol's grace… this place can't possibly be real,"Renko staggered forward until she was looking over the third floor railing, the view of the entire library stretching out before her, "I… I can even see a swimming pool. This library is so big it has a fucking swimming pool."
"I thought I asked Remi to get rid of that," Patchouli muttered, before marching off to continue her own research. "Koa, you mind the visitors. I have work to do."
"Yes, Master!"
Reimu watched on with amusement as Renko's looked around the room with her jaw unhinged, the former university professor caught between sheer disbelief and unbridled joy at what she was looking at. "So like what you see?"
"I think I will, once I start believing my eyes." Renko said, her keen sight and observation methods doing nothing but affirming what she was seeing was the truth. Several more moments passed as Renko digested what she was seeing. When she did, the look of stunned awe on the woman's face morphed into one of excitement and glee.
"Reimu. I think you can go to bed without me tonight." Renko declared without taking her eyes away from the scene of splendor before her.
"Er, what?" Reimu said.
"I think I'm going to burn the midnight oil a bit," Renko continued, "Don't worry about me, I'll be keeping myself busy. With reading. Yeah."
"Renko? Renko, you're not making any sense."
"Not making sense? Silly Reimu, I'm making perfect sense. I'm a researcher, this place has research… I need to research! I'm going to hit the gods' damned books!"
By this point the smile on Renko's face had grown from gear to ear, and she was practically vibrating with excitement. Reimu was beginning to regret her earlier glee she'd derived at Renko's surprise, because right now her charge was looking very scary.
Oh god, had she inadvertedly shown another Marisa into Patchy's library?
"Hello, Miss Usami," Koakuma greeted warmly as she walked up to Renko with a bright smile, "As you may have already heard, I'm going to show you around the library and hel… Miss Usami? Huh, she's gone?"
Indeed, one moment Renko had been standing at the railing looking at the massive library before her, the next she was gone. Surprised, Reimu and Koakuma looked around wildly to see where the guest had run off to.
"Reimu?"
"Yes, Koa?"
"Miss Usami really likes her books, doesn't she?" Koakuma said, watching Renko practically sprinting up one of the library's many ladders to access one of the higher bookshelves.
"That she does," Reimu sighed, "That she does."
-=-
A/N – Well, that's the end of Day 1 at the SDM guys. Reimu's now going to have some sleep while Renko's off to pull an all-nighter.
I'm a bit wary about this snip, mostly because of Renko's hostility to Koa. I know the fic was meant to be pure humor, but I wanted to show that, like every other Solar, Renko does have a darker side to her personality that occasionally rears its head.
Before you guys get worried Koa is out to ruin someone's day, in this story Koakuma IS a very nice girl – I'm not even making her the mischievous interpretation. This Koa is literally the book loving girl/librarian next door… who just so happens to be a succubus.
Renko would actually know this if she'd bothered to set aside her prejudice, turn on the appropriate charm (she has Judge's Ear Technique) and actually look.
Renko's own personal bad experiences with her first Neomah familiar has prejudiced her against the entire Neomah race. Solars can be quite judgemental and stubborn, even at times when they're completely wrong about something, and sadly Renko is no exception. The only reason she hadn't done anything yet is because she's a guest in Remi's mansion, and guests don't blow away the host's staff (without reason of course).
Renko's pretty much already made up her mind about Koa and is just waiting for the knife to come out. She couldn't be more wrong though.
From what I can tell, Neomah aren't THAT bad in comparison to some of the other denizens of Malfeas, in fact if you stick to the letter of the contract they aren't all that bad. However Renko drew the short straw with the one she summoned while experimenting with a spell (specifically, she wanted to interview it), and the experience has colored her impression of them ever since. So plenty of 'nice' Neomah have had 'bad' experiences with Renko too, all because of one mishap in her youth (something I've found happens to be a trend with Solars if the Case Books are anything to go by – Solars tend to be very opinionated).
That's it for the first day. Cheers!
EDIT - On the succubus thing... Aw shit, that was embarrassing.
Next up… Charisma Break!
-=-
As promised, Remilia had asked Patchouli show Renko to the Voile library after dinner. After an assurance from Renko that she wasn't going to rob the place blind, Patchouli agreed.
As Patchouli and Koakuma lead their guests through the winding halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Reimu couldn't help but notice that Renko was acting quite peculiarly. The normally boisterous woman had clammed up and had positioned herself squarely between Reimu and Koakuma as the party proceeded to their destination. More than that, Renko keeping her right hand just above her hip, hovering there as if just waiting to draw her weapon…
…which oddly enough, Reimu couldn't see. That's odd, where did the revolver go to?
"Succubus. Why didn't the bloody book mention a succubus?" Renko muttered quietly, although it seemed she was doing so unconsciously if she was doing so in earshot of Reimu, "I sure as hell wouldn't use a Neomah as a librarian, not after that bitch. I sooner would trust the fucking fae…"
Okay, she had to do something about this.
"Alright, what's got you?" Reimu fell back to Renko's side and whispered. "What's wrong with Koa?"
"You call that thing, 'Koa'?" Renko said with barely concealed hostility and suspicion as she directed a glare that could kill to the back of an oblivious Koakuma's head.
Okay, there was definitely something wrong here. "Look, Koa is one of the nice people in the Mansion. Like genuinely nice."
"Yeah. Nice. Of couse she's nice. Nice like a nice good little assistant right until you turn you back, then she gets a boy to stab his mother to death to 'create new orifices' for shits and giggles while stealing my god damn hearthstone…"
Reimu only just managed to catch herself before face planting on the floor. Thankfully, Patchouli and Koakuma, who were leading the way and had their backs turned, didn't notice the stumble.
"Renko, what the hell?"
"Look, I read a lot of books on the subject alright?" Renko explained halfheartedly, clearly using the bulk of her focus on drilling holes in the back of Koa's head, "The second that thing so much as gives me a reason…"
"Koa's not like that. I don't know what your research about succubi told you, but they're wrong," Well, wrong about Koakuma at least. "Look, I know Koa. Whatever you read about the other succubi, they're wrong about her. Trust me."
"I'll trust you about her when I'm sure she hasn't pulled the wool over your eyes." Renko said with finality, clearly set in her ways.
-=-
"So this is your library?" Renko said as she walked into the large room with an excited grin. "Wow, it IS pretty big. I'm impressed."
The large room, illuminated by the lights of several low hanging chandeliers and recently installed Kappa made electric lamps, was filled with dozens of book cases on two separate floors. It was so large in fact that bridges had been built across the room to allow for easier movement for its occupants. The many windows allowed pale moonlight to filter into the room, giving the library a nice pleasant ambiance even at this hour.
"Man, I can't wait to take a look about," Renko rolled her shoulders and started towards the bookshelves, clearly eager to get started, "Let's see what-"
"Actually, you're mistaken, Miss Usami," Koakua informed the outsider with an embarrassed smile, while Patchouli, without even paucing in her step, made for the large stairwell in the centre of the room that lead underground. "This isn't Master Patchouli's Library."
"Huh?" Renko blinked in confusion as Reimu sniggered behind her.
Having gone there hereself, Reimu had of course known where the Voile was, and was mildly surmised to find that Renko had mistakenly believed that Remilia's private collection, while quite substantial, was the largest library in Gensokyo. Close, but no cigar.
It then occurred to Reimu what lay between this place and the actual Voile.
This was going to be good.
"This is Lady Scarlet's private library. The only books you'll find here are related to fiction, the arts and whatever interests the mistress of this house," Koakuma explained, beckoning the two guests to follow after her master. "Master Pathouli's library is actually underground."
"So let me get this straight," Renko said slowly, "This huge-ass room, a room that has more books than a major metropolitan book-shop, is just Remilia's private collection?"
"Well, yes."
"…rich people." Renko grumbled as she followed after Patchouli, a sniggering Reimu in tow.
-=-
"Whoa. Nice. Very, nice."
Down the flight of stairs lay a massive underground chambers that were illuminated only by the lights of giant glowing magical orbs, suspended from metal chains that hung from the ceiling. The walls, stretching almost six stories in height, were nothing but bookshelves. Indeed the walls of books giant ladders, so tall that one had to cane one's head to see the top, placed around the room just to allow access to the books for those incapable of flight.
"How this is a freaking library," Renko grinned giddily as she started towards the bookshelves, her notebook and pen already in hand…
"Actually this is the auxiliary library that Master uses to study when she invites her colleagues over," Koakuma noted apologetically. While the little devil was correcting this misconception, Patchouli was already descending the spiral staircase to the room's lower level to continue forward towards where the real library was.
Reimu for her part was just staying back and watching the events unfold with folded arms and a cheeky grin.
"You mean this isn't the Voile?" Renko boggled in disbelief, casting her eyes wildly around the room in shock. "This… this room has more books than my Man-my local university!"
"Well, technically it is. It is the 'public access' portion of the library," Koakuma explained, "Normally, this would all we would allow you to see. Master Patchouli is quite particular on who gains access to the Voile… but Lady Remilia was quite clear that we were to show you to see the main Library proper."
Renko started.
"Sol's grace, how big is this library anyway?"
-=-
"Sol's grace."
It was a city. It was a city of bookshelves, complete with bridges, buildings, spires, arches, pathways… all either supporting bookshelves, lining bookshelves or made out of bookshelves. Runes of pure magic, etched on the wooden surfaces, illuminated this man made, or witch made as the case may be, city with an almost dreamlike glow, making it really look like a city at night.
"Sol's grace… this place can't possibly be real,"Renko staggered forward until she was looking over the third floor railing, the view of the entire library stretching out before her, "I… I can even see a swimming pool. This library is so big it has a fucking swimming pool."
"I thought I asked Remi to get rid of that," Patchouli muttered, before marching off to continue her own research. "Koa, you mind the visitors. I have work to do."
"Yes, Master!"
Reimu watched on with amusement as Renko's looked around the room with her jaw unhinged, the former university professor caught between sheer disbelief and unbridled joy at what she was looking at. "So like what you see?"
"I think I will, once I start believing my eyes." Renko said, her keen sight and observation methods doing nothing but affirming what she was seeing was the truth. Several more moments passed as Renko digested what she was seeing. When she did, the look of stunned awe on the woman's face morphed into one of excitement and glee.
"Reimu. I think you can go to bed without me tonight." Renko declared without taking her eyes away from the scene of splendor before her.
"Er, what?" Reimu said.
"I think I'm going to burn the midnight oil a bit," Renko continued, "Don't worry about me, I'll be keeping myself busy. With reading. Yeah."
"Renko? Renko, you're not making any sense."
"Not making sense? Silly Reimu, I'm making perfect sense. I'm a researcher, this place has research… I need to research! I'm going to hit the gods' damned books!"
By this point the smile on Renko's face had grown from gear to ear, and she was practically vibrating with excitement. Reimu was beginning to regret her earlier glee she'd derived at Renko's surprise, because right now her charge was looking very scary.
Oh god, had she inadvertedly shown another Marisa into Patchy's library?
"Hello, Miss Usami," Koakuma greeted warmly as she walked up to Renko with a bright smile, "As you may have already heard, I'm going to show you around the library and hel… Miss Usami? Huh, she's gone?"
Indeed, one moment Renko had been standing at the railing looking at the massive library before her, the next she was gone. Surprised, Reimu and Koakuma looked around wildly to see where the guest had run off to.
"Reimu?"
"Yes, Koa?"
"Miss Usami really likes her books, doesn't she?" Koakuma said, watching Renko practically sprinting up one of the library's many ladders to access one of the higher bookshelves.
"That she does," Reimu sighed, "That she does."
-=-
A/N – Well, that's the end of Day 1 at the SDM guys. Reimu's now going to have some sleep while Renko's off to pull an all-nighter.
I'm a bit wary about this snip, mostly because of Renko's hostility to Koa. I know the fic was meant to be pure humor, but I wanted to show that, like every other Solar, Renko does have a darker side to her personality that occasionally rears its head.
Before you guys get worried Koa is out to ruin someone's day, in this story Koakuma IS a very nice girl – I'm not even making her the mischievous interpretation. This Koa is literally the book loving girl/librarian next door… who just so happens to be a succubus.
Renko would actually know this if she'd bothered to set aside her prejudice, turn on the appropriate charm (she has Judge's Ear Technique) and actually look.
Renko's own personal bad experiences with her first Neomah familiar has prejudiced her against the entire Neomah race. Solars can be quite judgemental and stubborn, even at times when they're completely wrong about something, and sadly Renko is no exception. The only reason she hadn't done anything yet is because she's a guest in Remi's mansion, and guests don't blow away the host's staff (without reason of course).
Renko's pretty much already made up her mind about Koa and is just waiting for the knife to come out. She couldn't be more wrong though.
From what I can tell, Neomah aren't THAT bad in comparison to some of the other denizens of Malfeas, in fact if you stick to the letter of the contract they aren't all that bad. However Renko drew the short straw with the one she summoned while experimenting with a spell (specifically, she wanted to interview it), and the experience has colored her impression of them ever since. So plenty of 'nice' Neomah have had 'bad' experiences with Renko too, all because of one mishap in her youth (something I've found happens to be a trend with Solars if the Case Books are anything to go by – Solars tend to be very opinionated).
That's it for the first day. Cheers!
EDIT - On the succubus thing... Aw shit, that was embarrassing.
Next up… Charisma Break!
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Khaos
Baguette, wine and cheese
That lapsus.
I'm referring to the the fact that one may succumb to succubus' charm of course.
Pensive Rumination
Praise me more?
- Location
- Australia
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Huh. Neomah are one of the demons I'd least expect to be getting people to commit murder for giggles (I could easily see one robbing its summoner, though). I suppose it just goes to show there's bad apples in every bunch.
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Borrowing
Fantasy Seal
- Location
- Gensokyo
There is a reason I like this story.
One of the reasons being it's a far lighter interpretation of Gensokyo.
(Also, if Akyuu's things are hearsay, a certain headcanon of mine for light!Gensokyo is that Rumia just insists she eats people, but never actually goes through with it.)
One of the reasons being it's a far lighter interpretation of Gensokyo.
(Also, if Akyuu's things are hearsay, a certain headcanon of mine for light!Gensokyo is that Rumia just insists she eats people, but never actually goes through with it.)
sasahara17
Just Another Random Author
- Location
- Brisbane City
Hey all. Just a quick announcement for this story since I've already made a note over in the Incubator and the XCOM ONLINE threads.
This coming weekend is going to be 'proofreading weekend' so I'm going to go back over my old stuff and see how much of it I can fix up by Sunday sundown.
If there are any particular fixes or revisions of the existing chapters (as in the story, not omake or side material), please let me know, preferably by Saturday morning, so I can implement them.
Hm, actually if there is any particular omake you guys are particularly attached to, please let me know. If enough people want me to fix up that one, I'll try to have a look at that one as well. There's a lot of things that I need to look at though.
Thanks for bearing with my shitty spelling for so long – hopefully I'll be able to fix some of that up soon, at least for my older stuff.
Anyway, replies:
What she didn't know was she summoned one of the bad apples, who also happened to be a follower of one of her GSP enemies. That sorta soured her opinion of the lot pretty quickly, and the problem with a Solar is once they make up their minds about something it's very hard to change it (hence why some of the opinions in the WW Solar Caste Books held by even the better Solars can sometimes be a bit 'off').
It's hard to change the mind of a 700+ year old super demi-god wizard who can literally auto-win arguments and debates with her powers, even if you have all the evidence in the world to back up your point (unless you're another Solar).
This actually ties into something that was said a little earlier.
Man, Renko's going to have one hell of a shock when she find out...
This coming weekend is going to be 'proofreading weekend' so I'm going to go back over my old stuff and see how much of it I can fix up by Sunday sundown.
If there are any particular fixes or revisions of the existing chapters (as in the story, not omake or side material), please let me know, preferably by Saturday morning, so I can implement them.
Hm, actually if there is any particular omake you guys are particularly attached to, please let me know. If enough people want me to fix up that one, I'll try to have a look at that one as well. There's a lot of things that I need to look at though.
Thanks for bearing with my shitty spelling for so long – hopefully I'll be able to fix some of that up soon, at least for my older stuff.
Anyway, replies:
Yeah. hard to get consensual flesh offerings if you had a reputation of stabbing people in the back. That was the reason why Renko summoned one in the first place, their reputation as one of the 'nicer' denizens of the Mafleas.
What she didn't know was she summoned one of the bad apples, who also happened to be a follower of one of her GSP enemies. That sorta soured her opinion of the lot pretty quickly, and the problem with a Solar is once they make up their minds about something it's very hard to change it (hence why some of the opinions in the WW Solar Caste Books held by even the better Solars can sometimes be a bit 'off').
It's hard to change the mind of a 700+ year old super demi-god wizard who can literally auto-win arguments and debates with her powers, even if you have all the evidence in the world to back up your point (unless you're another Solar).
This actually ties into something that was said a little earlier.
See this? Renko's made up her mind about Yukari (and even says as much back when she read Yukari's entry in the GC).
Man, Renko's going to have one hell of a shock when she find out...
Borrowing
Fantasy Seal
- Location
- Gensokyo
...and then will promptly manage to social fu her back into a normal person, because that's how solars roll (and screw anything else like actual Yukari; she wants her Maribel back, she'll get her back.
BadRoad
a thousand miles
I'm not sure that would work. If Yukari isn't the most powerful Youkai in Gensokyo, she's close. She's the only Phantasm boss in the official games; only Perfect Cherry Blossom has a stage after Extra. She's also at least five hundred years older than Renko, so possibly higher Essence. Her ability to alter even conceptional boundaries may give her access to perfect defenses against social as well as physical attacks.
Feng Lengshun
Z-Program Researcher
- Location
- Indonesia
One word to sums up all those: Maybe.
We have very little info on her, we have heard that she can manipulate boundaries, but we don't know her actual limit. We've seen her manipulating the boundary between the moon and its reflection, between spaces, between realms in Gensokyo, maybe between dimensions (if you're taking her spell cards in SWR at face value), and possibly between youth and old (her illustration in Curiosity of Lotus Asia looks much younger than all other depictions of her, but since other character didn't make remark about it, take it with grain of salt).
She seems very powerful, and she is, but I'm not sure if we have seen her doing something that would give trouble to a Solar Exaltation. Made sense in canon since all disputes all done through spell cards which values beauty and elegance the most, making her power unneeded. It should be noted, however, that she said she can't handle Eiki, so it might mean that Eiki is stronger than even her (ambiguous statement, but Eiki is the only Ninth Stage Boss, when even Yukari is technically still eight).
I'm actually interested on how the incidents will be done here, since I don't think Renko and the other Exalted characters are going to follow the spell card rule, if they even can. Gensokyo is a nightmare to fight without the spell card rule. Though personally, the tone of Exalted and Touhou really clashes very much... at least at this point it's still very much Gensokyo-light rather than Exalted-heavy.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Yukari's limits are extremely poorly defined. However, they do exist or she wouldn't need to do things like use a reflection to move to the moon when her normal space warping movement doesn't require one.
Probably some boundaries are harder to change or even impossible to, just as a person with fire powers usually has an upper limit of some kind on how much fire they can make (I really don't think Mokou could incinerate the entire universe at once). But Yukari is cagey and doesn't let on exactly where her limits are. Out of universe, this gives the author flexibility writing her. In universe, it keeps her enemies on their toes and prevents anyone from knowing how best to fight her.
Probably some boundaries are harder to change or even impossible to, just as a person with fire powers usually has an upper limit of some kind on how much fire they can make (I really don't think Mokou could incinerate the entire universe at once). But Yukari is cagey and doesn't let on exactly where her limits are. Out of universe, this gives the author flexibility writing her. In universe, it keeps her enemies on their toes and prevents anyone from knowing how best to fight her.
Quite. Though in that case, the Lunarians explicitly have some sort of boundary magic at work to hide themselves and bar entry to their capital. They're also wise to Yukari after the first time she led an invasion against them.
Getting to moon required manipulating more than the boundary between places, but also penetrating the Lunarian wards discretely.
It's even been suggested that Yukari's power RELIES on being vague, given that her power is about making the distinctions between different things vague. That is, the more unsure people are about how much she can control the difference between Life and Death, the more power she has to control that difference.
Which would make Shiki Eiki her natural predator, as the Yama can See All Things In Black And White. The High Judge's power is to DESTROY ambiguity and vagueness, pronouncing the utter Truth.
The more hilarious interpretation, though, is that Yukari wasn't thinking of a battle against Eiki, but about being on the receiving end of one of the Yama's lectures. Yukari probably hates getting into an argument where she cannot lie, deflect, intimidate, bribe, seduce, change the subject, or win in any fashion.
Yuyuko's disadvantage against Eiki is simpler. Eiki is an immortal goddess, not a mortal human, and therefore immune to her power to inflict Death. In terms of raw power, Eiki is at least her equal. In terms of authority, EIKI is the one who gave Yuyuko her domain within the Netherworld, and Eiki could presumably take it away from her just as easily.
Plus, Eiki's not alone. Mess with her, and you'll have to deal with her shinigami and kishin subordinates, if not the twelve other Yama and their subordinates. Yuyuko might have those kinds of numbers, but ghosts likely make a poor response to such a force.
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sasahara17
Just Another Random Author
- Location
- Brisbane City
Proofread 21/09/2014, Version 1.1
Still moving through the drafts, albeit very slowly.
Here's the compiled Chapter 1, all in one place with less spelling mistakes.
Please let me know if there are any mistakes I missed.
Cheers!
-=-
THE TOURIST
An Exalted/Touhou Crossover
By sasahara17
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Chapter 2, A Sunny Girl in the House of Night (I)
-=-
Being the gate keeper to the Scarlet Devil Mansion was a thankless and oftentimes boring job. Aside from the usual 'intruders', one of whom was such a frequent guest she might as well have been a resident there, the mansion rarely received any visitors.
This was quite understandable as the Mansion was situated across the misty lake, far out of the way of most of the usual travel routes of Gensokyo's residents. Nobody in their right mind would visit the mansion unless they had legitimate business to do so, and even the fairies of the surrounding area had long since grown bored of trying to break in.
At the rate things were going, the job of the Mansion's gate guard was more ceremonial than practical. It wasn't as if there were dozens of wannabe vampire hunters out to stake Remilia through the heart, for what little good that would actually do, in Gensokyo!
Hong Meiling thus had come into the bad habit of taking afternoon naps while on duty.
Really, who could blame her? Nice weather, perfect climate, no visitors, nothing to do… it would be better to take a nice nap rather than watching the same old scenery day in and day out, right? It's not as if anyone, besides Marisa of course, would be stupid enough to try to break into the mansion of a mighty powerful vampire, right?
"Well, this is one entry in the book that's spot on," Renko said as she looked down at the page in the Gensokyo Chronicle, then back up at the sleeping gatekeeper that was laying on the grass just next to the huge gate that led into the mansion's grounds.
Standing beside the amused tourist, Reimu couldn't help but wonder how much trouble Meiling was going to be in when Reimila found out the tourist's first impression of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was that of a sleeping gatekeeper.
"Sleeping on the job. Wow, I'm surprised she hasn't been fired yet." Renko said as she walked closer to Meiling and crouched over the gatekeeper's sleeping form.
It had taken hours for the pair to make the journey from Reimu's shrine to the mansion, mainly due to the fact that Renko was unable (or perhaps, unwilling) to fly under her own power. So, while they had departed early in the day, it had taken them the entire morning to finally reach the mansion.
Reimu had always known that the mansion was off the beaten track, but it wasn't until she'd had to walk the way there, as opposed to just flying, that she'd realized just how isolated it could be.
On the upside, avoiding flying over the trip had meant the pair maintained a lower profile and thus escaped the notice of Cirno. Good thing too, for the little fairy would definitely have caused them, or more specifically Reimu, some problems.
"Let her sleep. We should probably just go in," Reimu said with a sigh as she moved to direct Renko away from the sleeping gate guard. Really this was an unnecessary distraction from what Reimu really wanted to do: talk with Remilia and get this farce underway.
"I can just fly over the wall and open the gate from the inside. After that I'll speak to the lady of the house and we can get down to the tour proper."
Renko held out a hand to gesture that Reimu wait a moment.
"Hold that thought. I wanna try something first."
Then Renko did the stupidest thing Reimu had seen someone do in a while do: in one smooth motion, Renko's right hand dipped down to the six shooter at her side (wait, when did Renko have something like that?) draw it and bring it up to Meiling's hea-
Faster than the eye could see, Meiling's right arm darted out and slapped the barrel of the weapon away from her face. Then, without even stopping her hand wrapped itself around Renko's wrist in a vice grip, just as Meiling leapt from where she had been lying on the ground to her feet…
Before Reimu could even blink, Renko was face down on the dirt with Meiling's knee planted on the small of her back and her outstretched arm, and her gun, held in a rather painful position above her in Meiling's hold.
Reimu's jaw dropped.
She'd never seen Meiling move that fast before!
"Ow, ow, ow! Bad joke, bad joke, bad joke! Uncle, uncle, uncle!" Renko squealed, tapping her free hand on the ground to display her submission to the redheaded youkai, "I give, I give!"
"It is not nice to point dangerous things at people," Meiling admonished in an even tone of voice as she applied more pressure to Renko's back, eliciting a girlish squeal from the pinned tourist, "Who are you and what are you doing here? This is private property. Answer me quickly!"
"REIMU, HELP!"
-=-
"Wait, so she's a tourist?" Meiling tilted her head in confusion as Reimu finished her explanation.
"Yeah. Yukari's paying me to give her a round the barrier trip of the place, and she happened to decide that the mansion was the first place she wanted to visit."
Meiling, reacting to what had seemed like a clear and present threat, hadn't actually noticed Reimu until Renko had started squealing like a little child for help. When she did, it had taken quite a bit of convincing for the gatekeeper to finally release Renko.
The trio were now standing off to the side of the gate as Reimu explained to Meiling just why someone she'd never seen or heard from before had shown up out of nowhere and decided to put a weapon to the side of the gatekeeper's head.
"How come she pointed that gun at my head then?" Meiling frowned, folding her arms suspiciously as she turned to regard Renko.
"I was wondering about that myself actually." Reimu muttered as she turned to Renko with a look of annoyance and disbelief. "I can't believe you, pulling a weapon on Meiling like that. Don't you know how much trouble you'd be in if this were anywhere but Gensokyo?"
"Yeah. This is the kind of thing that could have you thrown out of places, you know." Meiling nodded with agreement
Renko gave a sheepish smile and apologetic shrug, clearly trying to lay on the charm to get around her little misstep. "Hey, I just wanted to see what in the book was right about Meiling."
"What book?" Meiling frowned
"This book!" Renko produced the Gensokyo Chronicle and flipped it open to the appropriate page, then laid on the charm to get Meiling to see her point.
"See, here? This page gives so such an unflattering review of you I didn't know what to think. Is she really that lazy? Is she friendly? Is she dangerous? So I figured that the best way to see what you were really like was to put a gun to your head to see what kind of reaction I'd get out of you. It was a perfectly legitimate course of action. I just wanted to see if you were any good as a gatekeeper, and since you were already asleep… Well, what else could I do? It's just a little misunderstanding, Miss Hong. How about we just put this behind us and just let bygones be bygones?"
Reimu stared at Renko in disbelief, unable to wrap her mind about the insane train of logic she'd just heard leave the other girl's mouth.
What sort of excuse was that? Renko might as well have said she'd eaten Meiling's hat to see if it tasted like grass because it was green! There was no way-
"Ah, if that's the case it sounds reasonable," Meiling nodded with a smile, "Well, no harm done."
"What."
"Yeah, that's the way the cookie crumbles," Renko laughed, "So, why don't you show the two of us in? I'd love to meet the lady of the house now. This place looks fabulous!"
"What." Reimu looked between Meiling and Renko, trying hard to comprehend what had just happened. Did Meiling just listen to that bullshit excuse for putting a loaded gun to her head and… just accept it? Like that? What?
"Certainly! Come on right in!" Meiling walked open to the gate and opened it to allow the mansion's latest guests to enter… "Oh, but I'll be needing your gun though."
"What? Why?"
"Well, it's a dangerous weapon, and even as a guest I can't allow you to wander around with such a dangerous thing on the premises. You might hurt someone!"
Then Renko started laying on the charm again.
"But I'm just this helpless human being who is about to go into a mansion full of deadly things like vampires, youkai and who knows what else. I need this gun to protect myself! I mean sure it won't really help me very much in there, you saw how easily you disarmed me... but at very least let me keep it around as a safety blanket. Please let me keep my gun."
"…Hm, that sounds reasonable too," Meiling agreed heartily, "Well then, come on right in Ms Usami! The Scarlet Devil Mansion welcomes you!"
"See Reimu? Getting into places isn't as difficult as you made it out to be, after all." Renko grinned as she clasped the still shocked shrine maiden by the arm and slowly pulled in her in after her.
"What the hell?" Reimu muttered to herself as she tried, and failed to understand what had just transpired at the gate.
That was bullshit!
-=-
"Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."
"Why thank you very! It's a pleasure to be here!"
The pair were sitting at a table with the mistress of the mansion in the outdoor gazebo in the main gardens, with Meiling and Sakuya standing at attention not too far away from them just waiting to be of service. They had been very fortunate to catch Remilia while she was still awake at this hour, a real rarity given that the noble was something of a night owl for obvious reasons.
Well what was there to say about Remilia Scarlet? She was the mistress of the eponymous Scarlet Devil Mansion, home to a number of very particular group of supernatural beings. She was a powerful vampire of considerable age. Despite her appearances as a young girl, Remilia possessed with bearing and charisma of the old European nobility she had descended from.
With the ability to manipulate fate itself on a whim, it was clear the elder of the Scarlet sisters wasn't one to take lightly.
It was for this reason that Reimu, despite being Remilia's friend, was on guard.
"So as I understand it from your little explanation, Reimu here is giving you a tour of Gensokyo on Yukari Yakuko's personal request," Remilia surmised as she sipped from a cup of tea, "And your first destination happened to be my humble abode. I'm honoured."
"Yep," Renko replied with a smile, "I honestly couldn't pass up the chance to see your library. That isn't to say that the rest of your mansion is boring, but the treasure trove of knowledge you have there is just something I have to see for myself. I must say though, this garden of yours is impressive."
Off to the side, Reimu could see Meiling puff out her chest with pride.
"Indeed," Remilia nodded, "I am very honoured that Yakumo's honoured guest chose my home to see first, before all the other places in Gensokyo. Sakuya? Please prepare one of the guest rooms for Miss Usami here."
Sakuya dipped into a bow, ready to fulfil her mistresses request. "As you command, Mila-"
"Actually could you make that two rooms?" Reimu cut in quickly, "I need to stay with her to keep her out of trouble. I'm her tour guide and all."
"Oh-ho?" Reimilia raised a curious eyebrow, "What about your shrine Reimu? Don't you need to get back to taking care of that? I could have Sakuya and Meiling take your place as a tour guide for the short duration of Miss Usami's stay in the Mansion. They are much more familiar with the premises than you, after all."
As logical as that sounded, Reimu shook her head.
"As much as I appreciate the offer, Yukari's paying me good money for this. She's even getting Ran to tidy up the shrine while I'm gone. Can't afford to slack when she's putting so much faith in me, y'know what I mean?"
Reimu wished she could outright warn Renko of just how dangerous Remilia was instead of tiptoeing around the fact. However, doing so in front of Remilia would be the height of ill manners, and worse probably elicit a negative reaction out of the vampiress. The last thing Reimu needed was a fight!
All she could do to was try and steer the conversation towards 'safer' waters and make sure that Renko didn't end up staying at the mansion on her own without an escort.
Remilia may have been Reimu's friend, but like all old youkai who had moved to Gensokyo, the vampire liked playing the lives of shorter lived mortals to alleviate their own boredom. As a strange new person who had seemingly arrived out of nowhere, Renko was a very appetising target for the old vampire's schemes
If Renko were to be left alone in the mansion for any length of time, who knows what would happen to her? Worse, if something did happen to the tourist, Yukari would most definitely not be happy. This could cause an incident, or worse, cause Yukari to take back the money she'd paid out!
"Hm, indeed," Remilia tapped an idle finger against her teacup, clearly digesting this new titbit of information, "What does Miss Usami think of this?"
Renko gave a lazy smile. "Hey, the more the merrier right?"
"Well then, that's settled," Remilia set her teacup down and turned to her head maid, "Sakuya, see that two of our spare guests rooms are prepared and stocked with all the appropriate amenities for our two guests here."
"As you command, mistress." With a snap of her fingers, Sakuya disappeared, clearly off somewhere fulfilling her mistress's command.
Knowing Sakuya and her ability to stop time, she wouldn't be long.
Curiously, Reimu couldn't help but notice Renko's wide eyed, shocked stare when Sakuya suddenly disappeared. It was the first time, in the short time they had known each other, that Reimu had actually seen Renko this unguarded!
However, as quickly as Reimu had seen it, it was gone. Renko recovered very quickly. Not quickly enough though, for if Reimu caught it Remilia almost certainly did too.
"Do either of you need help bringing your luggage or clothes to the mansion?" Remilia asked them, "I can have my fairy maids visit the Hakurei shrine to retrieve them for you, and save you the return trip to get them."
Reimu quickly held out her hands and shook her head vehemently. "There's no need! I'd much rather borrow some clothes from you, Remi!"
The last time Reimu had taken up Remilia on this offer a year ago, she'd come back after a weekend visit to the mansion to find her house completely ransacked. Nothing had been stolen of course, because only a true fool or Marisa Kirisame would dare steal from the Hakurei maiden, but it took days for Reimu to get everything back in order.
She had later discovered that the maids dispatched to retrieve Reimu's clothes weren't very good at finding things at all and had wrecked her home trying to find spare clothes for her.
Never again.
"Hm, what about you, Renko?"
"Yeah. I think if that's what Reimu is going for, then I'll take her advice. Besides, a place like this ought to have some awesome clothes to try on!"
"Indeed. My mansion used to be frequented by the social elite, and many of them left their effects here over the years. I have some of the finest clothes of the era in storage, and I will be happy to let you try some of them on." Remilia replied proudly.
Reimu resisted the urge to sigh. It didn't take a genius to know that Reimila was trying to win Renko's favour now, possibly as a way to win some points with Yukari.
Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, she had no idea.
Gah, the old women of Gensokyo and their politics.
"In any case, while your rooms are prepared, which should not take very long knowing Sakuya, might I propose that the two of you take a tour of the garden while it is still day? It is now past midday, and I must be getting to sleep soon," Remilia suggested helpfully, "Once I wake in the evening, we can talk more over dinner. I can introduce you to Patchouli Knowledge, a close friend of mine who is effectively our librarian. In the meantime, Meiling has put much effort into making our ground the finest garden in all of Gensokyo. With the weather being as perfect as it is, I am sure she will be happy to show it to you."
"Um, I'm not sure if Kazami-san will agree with the 'in all of Gensokyo' bit…" Meiling began, only to be quickly silenced by an admonishing glare from Remilia.
"Why I think that's a splendid idea!" Thankfully, Renko's quick reply drew Remilia's attention before punishment could be doled out. "What do you think, Remiu?"
"I think that's a good idea myself."
Plus it would be a great way to get away from Remilia and have a little chat with Renko in private about the need to be much more careful around the vampiress.
"Very well. Meiling, see to it that you assign one of the fairy maids to guard the gate in your absence, and then show our guests around the grounds." Remilia ordered, prompting the redheaded gatekeeper to give a respectful bow.
"I know I've said this before, but thank you very much for accommodating us." Renko said sincerely.
"It really is not trouble at all," Remilia replied with a smile that sent shivers shooting up Reimu's spine, "Once again, I bid you welcome, to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Renko Usami. I hope you will be enjoying your stay with us."
-=-
While the Scarlet Devil Mansion was most famous for the great library in its underground levels and its European style architecture, it also possessed a magnificent, well-tended, garden that covered the entire area between the mansion proper and the outer walls. Consisting of a variety of rare flowers and other exotic plants, all carefully arranged by Meiling to bring out their full splendour, it was a real pity that so few in the Eastern Wonderland actually had the opportunity to see, much less appreciate it.
Once Remilia and Sakuya had retired indoors, Meiling had lead both Reimu and Renko out onto the garden to show them around. The gatekeeper, overjoyed that someone was actually around to actually pay attention to her hard work, led the pair around with more enthusiasm than Reimu had actually seen of the gatekeeper.
"This is the mansion's… well the common name is a 'Middlemist Camellia'. It's a very rare plant that I managed to cultivate on the grounds," Meiling said proudly as she gently motioned to the delicate red flower that was the centrepiece of one of her displays, "I brought it with me into the mansion when I entered milady's service, and it's been here ever since."
"Holy cow, this plant? Are you kidding me?" Renko regarded the flower with wide eyes and a shocked expression, looking torn between wanting to touch the flower and staying clear of it for fear of accidentally damaging it, "We call it a different name where I'm from, but… wow, just wow! I thought this went extinct when Gem got nuked! Meiling, how…"
"I'm from China. It was one of the treasures I brought with me when I moved into the mansion," Meiling explained proudly. "It's been with me for well over two hundred years. This little girl here is practically my baby."
Renko could only nod excitedly as she took out her note book and quickly made a few notes into it. "Hm, pardon me if I'm mistaken, but don't things this old get fairies and stuff around here? I mean, if the Gensokyo Chronicle is any indication, even an Umbrella can become a supernatural creature, let alone a two hundred year old priceless flower."
"Normally they would, but our resident magician's put a few safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen," Meiling replied, "The last thing we want is for this priceless flower here to sprout a pair of wings and fly away somewhere."
"Ah, that's a relief," Renko nodded in agreement, then paused as a thought came to her. "If that's the case… could I touch it?"
"Sure. Just be aware, that Patchy, our resident magician, has put up a whole lot of powerful wards on this flower," Meiling informed her, "The second those wards pick up any ill intent to the flower… zap!"
"I'll keep that in mind." Renko said as she leaned forward to gently caress one of the petals.
Reimu on the other hand, wasn't so impressed.
"I don't get what's so amazing about a flower," Reimu sighed as she looked around the garden for some form of stimulation. Unlike Renko, who seemed to be very interested in botany, Reimu wasn't couldn't find it in herself to be interested in a bunch of plants.
Her nonchalance to the subject quickly drew reactions from the other two companions.
"Reimu-chan, it's one of three known specimens of the flower in the entire world, two of which are outside Gensokyo," Meiling explained with a sigh, "This flower is basically priceless."
"It's also a very potent reagent for all sorts of things I believed to be completely extinct where I'm from. God, the medicines Horakinis used to make…"
Meiling's head snapped around to Renko so fast that Reimu thought the poor gatekeeper had been a hairs breadth away from getting whiplash.
"Not that I'm going to take it away from here of course!" Renko quickly backpedalled, with her hands held out and away from the rare Carmellia to show her sincerity, "Sun's grace, I would never think of taking such a rare specimen off you, let alone risk damaging it! You think I want to harm such a treasure? No one would be that crazy!"
"…I suppose. You probably wouldn't be able to past Patchy's wards anyway." Meiling said with a small measure of relief. To be safe, she quickly ushered her guests onto the next exhibit, leaving the priceless flower behind them…
…Just as the petal that Renko had touched began glowing.
-=-
Reimu gave a long yawn as Meiling continued to prattle on about some other plant, some delicate little white thing called a 'Silene tomentosa', to an entranced Renko. It was now early in the evening, and the sun was slowly beginning its descent below the horizon casting the world into twilight.
"This is going on forever." Reimu complained as she waited for the pair to finish.
While Reimu was laid back, the sheer boredom and disinterest she was having towards this tour was really giving her second thoughts about the whole tourgide thing. If she were at home, she could catch a nap on her futon or have a nice drink of sake to calm the nerves, her current job meant she had to wait around, completely sober and more or less alert, while Renko finished up her little talk with Meiling. It was an exercise that was far more boring than she had expected it to be!
"Why can't they hurry it up some?"
"You think this is bad, you should try waiting hand and foot for the mistress."
"Not a chance. That's you kind of thing, not mine, Miss 'head maid'."
Reimu turned to regard Sakuya, who had materialized seemingly out of thin air right next to her. The perfect elegant maid had an impeccable appearance as always, and was looking on at Meiling and Renko with a serene, if curious expression.
"So, Remilia waking up any time soon?" Reimu asked hopefully. The sooner the vampire woke, the sooner that dinner, and the escape from this exercise in utter boredom, would come.
"Not for another hour, at least," Sakuya replied with a shake of her head, "The mistress went to bed much later than usual today. It is unlikely she will be up until after the sun has set."
"Well, isn't that just wonderful," Reimu groused, "Sometimes I wonder how Yukari manages to talk me into these things."
"So, she is Yukari's friend, huh?" Sakuya said as she settled in to wait beside Reimu, "I didn't think that Yukari would take interest in an ordinary human like her."
"Sakuya. This is Yukari."
"Ah, you do have a point."
Reimu wondered if it was a good idea not to warn Sakuya about the mansion's new guest. She was pretty confident at this point that there was definitely something odd about Renko, and perhaps giving the head maid of the mansion they were visiting a heads up might be a good way for Reimu to head off some potential problems down the line.
Sakuya was notoriously efficient at cleaning up after the other residents, so if anything happened having Sakuya on her side would be great.
Unfortunately, Reimu was also aware that Sakuya was completely devoted to Remilia. If Reimu were to even hint of her suspicions about their tourist to Sakuya, there was a very good chance that what she'd said would wind up being passed onto the vampire.
If that happened trouble would definitely ensure, and Reimu didn't want that!
"I find it strange though," Sakuya thoughtfully said, "Miss Usami's reactions are very different from what I'd expect of an outsider."
"How so?"
"When I stopped time before, she didn't react in a way I would expect someone to," Sakuya explained, "She was surprised at first when she noticed me disappear when I stopped time, but when I checked back in later she didn't seem afraid of it."
"You checked back in? I didn't see you earlier after you left." Indeed, Sakuya had merely snapped her fingers and disappeared from her sight, reappearing with an umbrella in hand only when it was time to take Remilia back indoors.
"Merely a matter of perceptions. I can move freely when I stop time," Sakuya shrugged, "when I was making your rooms, realized I might have startled our guest, I quickly returned in the odd chance I was needed. As it turned out I wasn't, so I returned to my duties."
"I see."
"Most humans and youkai, who visit my time stop ability for the first time tend to grill the Mistress about it. Miss Renko didn't. I find it odd that she didn't press the issue more. It was like what I did wasn't that unusual for her."
"Well, your ability isn't a secret and she was reading the Gensokyo Chronicle before she came here," Reimu pointed out, "The practically read the entire thing cover to cover before coming here. She knows you can stop time."
"Perhaps," Sakuya reluctantly agreed, "But I would think that a normal human would react more when they saw something truly amazing with their own two eyes."
Reimu froze for a moment as something very, very odd occurred to her.
Renko HAD acted amazed earlier… but not to seeing Sakuya's time-stop ability. It had surprised her, but she'd merely been alarmed. The bubbly traveller had been going completely bonkers… over Meiling's flower. Between Sakuya's ability to stop time at will and Meiling's flower, apparently Renko had thought the flower the more interesting sight.
"Okay, there is something really wrong with this girl."
"Hm? Did you say something?" Sakuya said.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Reimu sighed as she wondered just what had caused Renko's odd reaction.
-=-
It wasn't much longer after that exchange that Remilia had summoned her guests for dinner.
Seeking to impress, the lady of the house had ordered a grand feast to be prepared for her guests in the main dining hall. Food, all prepared to the finest ingredients and served with the finest presentation stretched out before Remiu on one of the largest European style tables she'd ever laid eyes on. When she'd first walked into the room, the poor girl could do nothing but gape and bristle with pure envy for a few moments.
The sheer wastefulness boggled the frugal shrine maiden's mind. The table must have been able to fit twelve people, and the feast itself feed double that number!
When Remilia wanted to show off, she sure as hell didn't pull any punches!
The other diners were already present. Remilia of course was seated at the head of the table, with both Patchouli and Koakuma seated to her right. Sakuya, ever the dutiful maid, was hovering just off to her master's side, while Meiling took her leave soon after showing the mansion's two guests to the dining room.
Never one to let table manners get in the way of her research, Patchouli of course had her head buried in a book and had a look on her face that showed complete disinterest with the feast before her. Koakuma on the other hand seemed livelier, giving Reimu and Renko a wave as they entered the room. Reimu had almost missed the stiffening of Renko's form when the older girl had caught sight of the friendly demon. It had been quick, but Reimu had caught it.
Probably so had everyone else in the room who had been bothering to pay attention.
Uh oh.
"So I take it the tour of the grounds was to your satisfaction?" Remilia said as she motioned for her two guests to the empty a seats to her left.
"Yes indeed! I have to say, I've seen castles with less fancy gardens than yours!" Renko replied as she and Reimu took their seats near Remilia, "You have a very talented groundskeeper, Lady Scarlet."
"I am sure Meiling will be very happy to hear that," Remilia nodded before waving a lazy hand towards Patchouli and Koakuma.
"Professor Usami, allow me to introduce you to my close friend and the owner of the Voile Library, Patchouli Knowledge. The succubus familiar sitting beside her is her assistant, Koakuma. Koa, Patchy, this is Yukari Yakumo's friend from the outside world, Renko Usami."
Patchouli let out a grunt without even looking up from her book 'Astrological Fortune Telling, Fact or Fiction'. Koakuma on the other hand beamed happily the mansion's guest, the wings on his head involuntarily flapping as if sensing her excitement. "It's so good to meet you, Miss Usami. I hear that you want to see the library. We have so few legitimate visitors, I can't wait to show you around. Not to insult Reimu's ability as a tour guide of anything…"
"…yeah, flattered." Renko replied, the smile on her face clearly wooden. Off to the side, Reimu clearly saw the calculating glint appear in Remilia's eyes as she witnessed the exchange.
Uh oh indeed.
"Come now, Patchy. The food is on the table, not behind the pages of your book," Remilia admonished as she reached over the table and plucked the book out of Patchouli's hands and casually handed the tome to the waiting Sakuya, "We have guests, from Yukari Yakumo no less! Tut-tut, you should mind your table manners, my dear."
Separated from her research material, Patchouli glowered at Remilia with all the fury of an anti-social shut-in that had been dragged to a family meal while still in her pyjamas.
"Remi, a few days ago there was an unexplained solar flare that knocked all my sidereal timekeeping telescopes. This stellar event coincided with a surge of high amounts of elemental energy around the planet's poles. I fear that this event-"
Patchouli was abruptly silenced when a helping to Caesar salad swiftly and unexpectedly materialised in her mouth.
"Thank you, Sakuya."
"I live to serve, milady."
"Patchy, Patchy, Patchy. The food is over there." Remilia pointed while the librarian coughed and attempted to swallow the food, "Koakuma, please be a dear and make sure that your master eats her greens. It's important to keep a healthy diet… and the cake is the desert, my dear."
Koakuma meeped as she quickly retracted from hand from where she was trying to sneak a helping of chocolate mud-cake onto her own plate.
"So, uh, are dinners at your place always like this?" Renko said, the recovery in her voice indicating that she'd managed to regain her centre.
"Only when we have guests," Remilia replied as she snapped her fingers. Instantly the empty plate on the table before her was filled with generous helpings of salad, lobster thermidor, a variety of roast meats and cheeses… and pudding.
Reimu snorted with amusement. Hypocrite.
"Uh. Okay," Renko looked at Remilia with undisguised surprise as the vampiress picked up her solid gold cutlery elegantly began eating her meal. "She's a vampire, how is she…"
"She can eat food, just like anyone else can." Reimu informed the outsider quickly. It didn't take a genius to see that Remilia was enjoying turning vampire stereotypes upside down in front of Renko, "She just needs an intake of blood, that's all."
"Is that why all the meat looks like its cooked closer to the side of 'raw'?"
"Medium rare actually," Remilia explained as she set her cutlery down as a show of politeness, "Normally I prefer my red meat rare, for obvious reasons, but as I have guests over it would be a very poor host of me not to give care and consideration to your needs."
"Hm. Interesting," Renko mused thoughtfully, whatever thoughts had plagued her before falling by the wayside now that something interesting had once again captured her attention, "The Gensokyo Chronicle stated your main diet consisted mostly of the blood of humans."
Funnily enough, before Remilia could answer, Patchouli intervened.
"That book is full of misconceptions, opinion, exaggeration and lies," Patchouli stated bluntly from where she was trying to fend of Koakuma, the latter trying to spoon feed her master some delicious looking seafood chowder with a spoon.
"It relies too much on hearsay, many of the sources are of dubious quality and it relies too much on outdated historical accounts and pure speculation. All written by a biased girl who does not understand the true nature of the subject matter she is dealing with. It is in my honest opinion, a piece of trash that is more burnable than that rag Shameimaru puts out. One out of five stars."
The silence and stillness that descended on the table could be cut with a knife. Even Koakuma had stopped moving and was staring.
"…this is the first time I've heard you talk like that in all the time I've known you," Remilia shakily whispered after the shock had properly passed, "Where have you been hiding that?"
"I… when did you become a critic, Patchouli-sama?" Sakuya stammered, her perfect elegant façade pierced by the sheer bluntness of the magician's impromptu book review.
"More to the point. That's… a rather harsh opinion." Renko said, her hand having actually shifted down from to her belt where a copy of said book was being kept in a pouch.
"Yeah, uh. It's not as if it's Akyuu's fault that she couldn't go out and visit all the youkai she was supposed to be writing about." Reimu said in the young author's defence.
"And, uh, some of those dubious reports and exaggerations were deliberate, especially when certain youkai wanted to spread misinformation about themselves. I mean Lady Remi-" Koakuma's jaw snapped shut when she saw the glare directed at her from Remilia.
"Excuses for the poor quality of the resulting publication. I look not at the virtue author, but rather at the work itself. It is my humble opinion as a scholar, an academic and a magician that the Gensokyo Chronicle is a heavily biased book that contains so much misinformation that it is not worth the trees that were cut down to make it. As I said: One out of Five stars."
Pathouli folded her arms and glared at the rest of the room, challenging everyone in it to express their dissent. The rest of the room's occupants, form the normally haughty Remilia to Reimu herself, glanced at each other awkwardly as they tried to decide how to handle the situation.
"Um, food?" Reimu quickly put forward.
"Uh, yes. Food." Remilia agreed.
-=-
As promised, Remilia had asked Patchouli show Renko to the Voile library after dinner. After an assurance from Renko that she wasn't going to rob the place blind, Patchouli agreed.
As Patchouli and Koakuma lead their guests through the winding halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Reimu couldn't help but notice that Renko was acting strangely.
The normally boisterous woman had clammed up and had positioned herself squarely between Reimu and Koakuma as the party proceeded to their destination. More than that, Renko keeping her right hand just above her hip, hovering there as if just waiting to draw her weapon…
…which oddly enough, Reimu couldn't see.
Where did the revolver go to?
"Succubus. Why didn't the bloody book mention a succubus?" Renko muttered quietly, although it seemed she was doing so unconsciously if she was doing so in earshot of Reimu, "I sure as hell wouldn't use a Neomah as a librarian, not after that bitch. I sooner would trust the fucking fae…"
Okay, she had to do something about this.
"Alright, what's got you?" Reimu fell back to Renko's side and whispered. "What's wrong with Koa?"
"You call that thing, 'Koa'?" Renko said with barely concealed hostility and suspicion as she directed a glare that could kill to the back of an oblivious Koakuma's head.
Okay, there was definitely something wrong here.
"Look, Koa is one of the nice people in the Mansion. Like genuinely nice."
"Yeah. Nice. Of course she's nice. Nice like a nice good little interviewee-slash-assistant right until you turn you back. Then she gets a boy to stab his mother to death to 'create new orifices' for shits and giggles while stealing my god damn hearthstone…"
The venom in Renko's voice was so great Reimu lost her footing, and only just managed to catch herself before face planting on the floor. Thankfully, Patchouli and Koakuma, who were leading the way and had their backs turned, didn't notice the stumble.
"Renko, what the hell?" Reimu hissed.
"Look, I read a lot of books on the subject alright?" Renko explained half-heartedly, clearly using the bulk of her focus on drilling holes in the back of Koa's head, "The second that thing so much as gives me a reason…"
"Koa's not like that. I don't know what your research about succubi told you, but they're wrong," Well, wrong about Koakuma at least. "Look, I know Koa. Whatever you read about the other succubi, they're wrong about her. Trust me."
"I'll trust you about her when I'm sure she hasn't pulled the wool over your eyes. Trust 'em only as far as you can throw 'em. That's what I always say," Renko said with finality, clearly set in her ways.
-=-
"So this is your library?" Renko said as she walked into the large room with an excited grin. "Wow, it IS pretty big. I'm impressed."
The large room, illuminated by the lights of several low hanging chandeliers and recently installed Kappa made electric lamps, was filled with dozens of book cases on two separate floors. It was so large in fact that bridges had been built across the room to allow for easier movement for its occupants. The many windows allowed pale moonlight to filter into the room, giving the library a nice pleasant ambiance even at this hour.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a library, and a pretty good one too.
"Man, I can't wait to take a look about," Renko rolled her shoulders and started towards the bookshelves, clearly eager to get started, "Let's see what-"
"Actually, you're mistaken, Miss Usami," Koakua informed the outsider with an embarrassed smile, while Patchouli, without even pausing in her step, made for the large stairwell in the centre of the room that lead underground. "This isn't Master Patchouli's Library."
"Huh?" Renko blinked in confusion as Reimu sniggered behind her.
Having gone there herself Reimu had of course known where the Voile was. In fact she was mildly surprised to find that Renko had mistakenly believed that Remilia's private collection, while quite substantial, was the largest library in Gensokyo. Close, but no cigar.
This was going to be good.
"This is Lady Scarlet's private library. The only books you'll find here are related to fiction, the arts and whatever interests the mistress of this house," Koakuma explained, beckoning the two guests to follow after her master. "Master Pathouli's library is actually underground."
"So let me get this straight," Renko said slowly, "This huge-ass room, a room that has more books than a major metropolitan book-shop, is just Remilia's private collection?"
"Well, yes."
"…rich people." Renko grumbled as she followed after Patchouli, a sniggering Reimu in tow.
-=-
"Whoa. Nice. Very, nice."
Down the flight of stairs lay a massive underground chambers that were illuminated only by the lights of giant glowing magical orbs, suspended from metal chains that hung from the ceiling. The walls, stretching almost six stories in height, were nothing but bookshelves. Indeed the walls of books giant ladders, so tall that one had to cane one's head to see the top, placed around the room just to allow access to the books for those incapable of flight.
"Now this is a freaking library," Renko grinned giddily as she started towards the bookshelves, her notebook and pen already in hand…
"Actually this is the auxiliary library that Master uses to study when she invites her colleagues over," Koakuma noted apologetically. While the little devil was correcting this misconception, Patchouli was already descending the spiral staircase to the room's lower level to continue forward towards where her real destination was.
Reimu for her part was just staying back and watching the events unfold with folded arms and a cheeky grin.
"You mean this isn't the Voile?" Renko boggled in disbelief, casting her eyes wildly around the room in shock. "This… this room has more books than my Man-my local university!"
"Well, technically it is. Part of the Voile, that is. This is the 'public access' portion of the library," Koakuma explained, "Normally, this would all we would allow you to see. Master Patchouli is quite particular on who gains access to her collection… but Lady Remilia was quite clear that we were to show you to see the main Library proper."
Renko started.
"Sun's grace, how big is this library anyway?"
-=-
"…Sun's grace."
It was a city. It was a city of bookshelves, complete with bridges, buildings, spires, arches, pathways… all either supporting bookshelves, lining bookshelves or made out of bookshelves. Runes of pure magic, etched on the wooden surfaces, illuminated this man made, or witch made as the case may be, city with an almost dreamlike glow, making it really look like a city at night.
"Sun's grace… this place can't possibly be real,"Renko staggered forward until she was looking over the third floor railing, the view of the entire library stretching out before her, "I… I can even see a swimming pool. This library is so big it has a fucking swimming pool."
"I thought I asked Remi to get rid of that," Patchouli muttered, before marching off to continue her own research. "Koa, you mind the visitors. I have work to do."
"Yes, Master!"
Reimu watched on with amusement as Renko's looked around the room with her jaw unhinged, the former university professor caught between sheer disbelief and unbridled joy at what she was looking at. "So like what you see?"
"I think I will, once I start believing my eyes." Renko said, her keen sight and observation methods doing nothing but affirming what she was seeing was the truth. Several more moments passed as Renko digested what she was seeing. When she did, the look of stunned awe on the woman's face morphed into one of excitement and glee.
"Reimu. I think you can go to bed without me tonight." Renko stated slowly without taking her eyes away from the scene of splendour before her.
"Er, what?" Reimu said.
"I think I'm going to burn the midnight oil a bit," Renko continued, a strange glassy look now in her eyes, "Don't worry about me, I'll be keeping myself busy. With reading. Yeah."
"Renko? Renko, you're not making any sense."
"Not making sense? Silly Reimu, I'm making perfect sense. I'm a researcher, this place has research… I need to research! I'm going to hit the gods' be damned books!"
By this point the smile on Renko's face had grown from ear to ear, and she was practically vibrating with excitement. Reimu was beginning to regret her earlier glee she'd derived at Renko's surprise, because right now her charge was looking very scary.
Oh god, had she inadvertedly shown another Marisa into Patchy's library?
"Hello, Miss Usami," Koakuma greeted warmly as she walked up to Renko with a bright smile, "As you may have already heard, I'm going to show you around the library and hel… Miss Usami? Huh, she's gone?"
Indeed, one moment Renko had been standing at the railing looking at the massive library before her, the next she was gone. Surprised, Reimu and Koakuma looked around wildly to see where the guest had run off to. They didn't have to look very far.
"Reimu?"
"Yes, Koa?"
"Miss Usami really likes books, doesn't she?" Koakuma said, watching Renko practically sprinting up one of the library's many ladders to access one of the higher bookshelves.
"That she does," Reimu sighed, "That she does."
-=-
TBC…
-=-
Still moving through the drafts, albeit very slowly.
Here's the compiled Chapter 1, all in one place with less spelling mistakes.
Please let me know if there are any mistakes I missed.
Cheers!
-=-
THE TOURIST
An Exalted/Touhou Crossover
By sasahara17
Scarlet Devil Mansion
Chapter 2, A Sunny Girl in the House of Night (I)
-=-
Being the gate keeper to the Scarlet Devil Mansion was a thankless and oftentimes boring job. Aside from the usual 'intruders', one of whom was such a frequent guest she might as well have been a resident there, the mansion rarely received any visitors.
This was quite understandable as the Mansion was situated across the misty lake, far out of the way of most of the usual travel routes of Gensokyo's residents. Nobody in their right mind would visit the mansion unless they had legitimate business to do so, and even the fairies of the surrounding area had long since grown bored of trying to break in.
At the rate things were going, the job of the Mansion's gate guard was more ceremonial than practical. It wasn't as if there were dozens of wannabe vampire hunters out to stake Remilia through the heart, for what little good that would actually do, in Gensokyo!
Hong Meiling thus had come into the bad habit of taking afternoon naps while on duty.
Really, who could blame her? Nice weather, perfect climate, no visitors, nothing to do… it would be better to take a nice nap rather than watching the same old scenery day in and day out, right? It's not as if anyone, besides Marisa of course, would be stupid enough to try to break into the mansion of a mighty powerful vampire, right?
"Well, this is one entry in the book that's spot on," Renko said as she looked down at the page in the Gensokyo Chronicle, then back up at the sleeping gatekeeper that was laying on the grass just next to the huge gate that led into the mansion's grounds.
Standing beside the amused tourist, Reimu couldn't help but wonder how much trouble Meiling was going to be in when Reimila found out the tourist's first impression of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was that of a sleeping gatekeeper.
"Sleeping on the job. Wow, I'm surprised she hasn't been fired yet." Renko said as she walked closer to Meiling and crouched over the gatekeeper's sleeping form.
It had taken hours for the pair to make the journey from Reimu's shrine to the mansion, mainly due to the fact that Renko was unable (or perhaps, unwilling) to fly under her own power. So, while they had departed early in the day, it had taken them the entire morning to finally reach the mansion.
Reimu had always known that the mansion was off the beaten track, but it wasn't until she'd had to walk the way there, as opposed to just flying, that she'd realized just how isolated it could be.
On the upside, avoiding flying over the trip had meant the pair maintained a lower profile and thus escaped the notice of Cirno. Good thing too, for the little fairy would definitely have caused them, or more specifically Reimu, some problems.
"Let her sleep. We should probably just go in," Reimu said with a sigh as she moved to direct Renko away from the sleeping gate guard. Really this was an unnecessary distraction from what Reimu really wanted to do: talk with Remilia and get this farce underway.
"I can just fly over the wall and open the gate from the inside. After that I'll speak to the lady of the house and we can get down to the tour proper."
Renko held out a hand to gesture that Reimu wait a moment.
"Hold that thought. I wanna try something first."
Then Renko did the stupidest thing Reimu had seen someone do in a while do: in one smooth motion, Renko's right hand dipped down to the six shooter at her side (wait, when did Renko have something like that?) draw it and bring it up to Meiling's hea-
Faster than the eye could see, Meiling's right arm darted out and slapped the barrel of the weapon away from her face. Then, without even stopping her hand wrapped itself around Renko's wrist in a vice grip, just as Meiling leapt from where she had been lying on the ground to her feet…
Before Reimu could even blink, Renko was face down on the dirt with Meiling's knee planted on the small of her back and her outstretched arm, and her gun, held in a rather painful position above her in Meiling's hold.
Reimu's jaw dropped.
She'd never seen Meiling move that fast before!
"Ow, ow, ow! Bad joke, bad joke, bad joke! Uncle, uncle, uncle!" Renko squealed, tapping her free hand on the ground to display her submission to the redheaded youkai, "I give, I give!"
"It is not nice to point dangerous things at people," Meiling admonished in an even tone of voice as she applied more pressure to Renko's back, eliciting a girlish squeal from the pinned tourist, "Who are you and what are you doing here? This is private property. Answer me quickly!"
"REIMU, HELP!"
-=-
"Wait, so she's a tourist?" Meiling tilted her head in confusion as Reimu finished her explanation.
"Yeah. Yukari's paying me to give her a round the barrier trip of the place, and she happened to decide that the mansion was the first place she wanted to visit."
Meiling, reacting to what had seemed like a clear and present threat, hadn't actually noticed Reimu until Renko had started squealing like a little child for help. When she did, it had taken quite a bit of convincing for the gatekeeper to finally release Renko.
The trio were now standing off to the side of the gate as Reimu explained to Meiling just why someone she'd never seen or heard from before had shown up out of nowhere and decided to put a weapon to the side of the gatekeeper's head.
"How come she pointed that gun at my head then?" Meiling frowned, folding her arms suspiciously as she turned to regard Renko.
"I was wondering about that myself actually." Reimu muttered as she turned to Renko with a look of annoyance and disbelief. "I can't believe you, pulling a weapon on Meiling like that. Don't you know how much trouble you'd be in if this were anywhere but Gensokyo?"
"Yeah. This is the kind of thing that could have you thrown out of places, you know." Meiling nodded with agreement
Renko gave a sheepish smile and apologetic shrug, clearly trying to lay on the charm to get around her little misstep. "Hey, I just wanted to see what in the book was right about Meiling."
"What book?" Meiling frowned
"This book!" Renko produced the Gensokyo Chronicle and flipped it open to the appropriate page, then laid on the charm to get Meiling to see her point.
"See, here? This page gives so such an unflattering review of you I didn't know what to think. Is she really that lazy? Is she friendly? Is she dangerous? So I figured that the best way to see what you were really like was to put a gun to your head to see what kind of reaction I'd get out of you. It was a perfectly legitimate course of action. I just wanted to see if you were any good as a gatekeeper, and since you were already asleep… Well, what else could I do? It's just a little misunderstanding, Miss Hong. How about we just put this behind us and just let bygones be bygones?"
Reimu stared at Renko in disbelief, unable to wrap her mind about the insane train of logic she'd just heard leave the other girl's mouth.
What sort of excuse was that? Renko might as well have said she'd eaten Meiling's hat to see if it tasted like grass because it was green! There was no way-
"Ah, if that's the case it sounds reasonable," Meiling nodded with a smile, "Well, no harm done."
"What."
"Yeah, that's the way the cookie crumbles," Renko laughed, "So, why don't you show the two of us in? I'd love to meet the lady of the house now. This place looks fabulous!"
"What." Reimu looked between Meiling and Renko, trying hard to comprehend what had just happened. Did Meiling just listen to that bullshit excuse for putting a loaded gun to her head and… just accept it? Like that? What?
"Certainly! Come on right in!" Meiling walked open to the gate and opened it to allow the mansion's latest guests to enter… "Oh, but I'll be needing your gun though."
"What? Why?"
"Well, it's a dangerous weapon, and even as a guest I can't allow you to wander around with such a dangerous thing on the premises. You might hurt someone!"
Then Renko started laying on the charm again.
"But I'm just this helpless human being who is about to go into a mansion full of deadly things like vampires, youkai and who knows what else. I need this gun to protect myself! I mean sure it won't really help me very much in there, you saw how easily you disarmed me... but at very least let me keep it around as a safety blanket. Please let me keep my gun."
"…Hm, that sounds reasonable too," Meiling agreed heartily, "Well then, come on right in Ms Usami! The Scarlet Devil Mansion welcomes you!"
"See Reimu? Getting into places isn't as difficult as you made it out to be, after all." Renko grinned as she clasped the still shocked shrine maiden by the arm and slowly pulled in her in after her.
"What the hell?" Reimu muttered to herself as she tried, and failed to understand what had just transpired at the gate.
That was bullshit!
-=-
"Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."
"Why thank you very! It's a pleasure to be here!"
The pair were sitting at a table with the mistress of the mansion in the outdoor gazebo in the main gardens, with Meiling and Sakuya standing at attention not too far away from them just waiting to be of service. They had been very fortunate to catch Remilia while she was still awake at this hour, a real rarity given that the noble was something of a night owl for obvious reasons.
Well what was there to say about Remilia Scarlet? She was the mistress of the eponymous Scarlet Devil Mansion, home to a number of very particular group of supernatural beings. She was a powerful vampire of considerable age. Despite her appearances as a young girl, Remilia possessed with bearing and charisma of the old European nobility she had descended from.
With the ability to manipulate fate itself on a whim, it was clear the elder of the Scarlet sisters wasn't one to take lightly.
It was for this reason that Reimu, despite being Remilia's friend, was on guard.
"So as I understand it from your little explanation, Reimu here is giving you a tour of Gensokyo on Yukari Yakuko's personal request," Remilia surmised as she sipped from a cup of tea, "And your first destination happened to be my humble abode. I'm honoured."
"Yep," Renko replied with a smile, "I honestly couldn't pass up the chance to see your library. That isn't to say that the rest of your mansion is boring, but the treasure trove of knowledge you have there is just something I have to see for myself. I must say though, this garden of yours is impressive."
Off to the side, Reimu could see Meiling puff out her chest with pride.
"Indeed," Remilia nodded, "I am very honoured that Yakumo's honoured guest chose my home to see first, before all the other places in Gensokyo. Sakuya? Please prepare one of the guest rooms for Miss Usami here."
Sakuya dipped into a bow, ready to fulfil her mistresses request. "As you command, Mila-"
"Actually could you make that two rooms?" Reimu cut in quickly, "I need to stay with her to keep her out of trouble. I'm her tour guide and all."
"Oh-ho?" Reimilia raised a curious eyebrow, "What about your shrine Reimu? Don't you need to get back to taking care of that? I could have Sakuya and Meiling take your place as a tour guide for the short duration of Miss Usami's stay in the Mansion. They are much more familiar with the premises than you, after all."
As logical as that sounded, Reimu shook her head.
"As much as I appreciate the offer, Yukari's paying me good money for this. She's even getting Ran to tidy up the shrine while I'm gone. Can't afford to slack when she's putting so much faith in me, y'know what I mean?"
Reimu wished she could outright warn Renko of just how dangerous Remilia was instead of tiptoeing around the fact. However, doing so in front of Remilia would be the height of ill manners, and worse probably elicit a negative reaction out of the vampiress. The last thing Reimu needed was a fight!
All she could do to was try and steer the conversation towards 'safer' waters and make sure that Renko didn't end up staying at the mansion on her own without an escort.
Remilia may have been Reimu's friend, but like all old youkai who had moved to Gensokyo, the vampire liked playing the lives of shorter lived mortals to alleviate their own boredom. As a strange new person who had seemingly arrived out of nowhere, Renko was a very appetising target for the old vampire's schemes
If Renko were to be left alone in the mansion for any length of time, who knows what would happen to her? Worse, if something did happen to the tourist, Yukari would most definitely not be happy. This could cause an incident, or worse, cause Yukari to take back the money she'd paid out!
"Hm, indeed," Remilia tapped an idle finger against her teacup, clearly digesting this new titbit of information, "What does Miss Usami think of this?"
Renko gave a lazy smile. "Hey, the more the merrier right?"
"Well then, that's settled," Remilia set her teacup down and turned to her head maid, "Sakuya, see that two of our spare guests rooms are prepared and stocked with all the appropriate amenities for our two guests here."
"As you command, mistress." With a snap of her fingers, Sakuya disappeared, clearly off somewhere fulfilling her mistress's command.
Knowing Sakuya and her ability to stop time, she wouldn't be long.
Curiously, Reimu couldn't help but notice Renko's wide eyed, shocked stare when Sakuya suddenly disappeared. It was the first time, in the short time they had known each other, that Reimu had actually seen Renko this unguarded!
However, as quickly as Reimu had seen it, it was gone. Renko recovered very quickly. Not quickly enough though, for if Reimu caught it Remilia almost certainly did too.
"Do either of you need help bringing your luggage or clothes to the mansion?" Remilia asked them, "I can have my fairy maids visit the Hakurei shrine to retrieve them for you, and save you the return trip to get them."
Reimu quickly held out her hands and shook her head vehemently. "There's no need! I'd much rather borrow some clothes from you, Remi!"
The last time Reimu had taken up Remilia on this offer a year ago, she'd come back after a weekend visit to the mansion to find her house completely ransacked. Nothing had been stolen of course, because only a true fool or Marisa Kirisame would dare steal from the Hakurei maiden, but it took days for Reimu to get everything back in order.
She had later discovered that the maids dispatched to retrieve Reimu's clothes weren't very good at finding things at all and had wrecked her home trying to find spare clothes for her.
Never again.
"Hm, what about you, Renko?"
"Yeah. I think if that's what Reimu is going for, then I'll take her advice. Besides, a place like this ought to have some awesome clothes to try on!"
"Indeed. My mansion used to be frequented by the social elite, and many of them left their effects here over the years. I have some of the finest clothes of the era in storage, and I will be happy to let you try some of them on." Remilia replied proudly.
Reimu resisted the urge to sigh. It didn't take a genius to know that Reimila was trying to win Renko's favour now, possibly as a way to win some points with Yukari.
Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, she had no idea.
Gah, the old women of Gensokyo and their politics.
"In any case, while your rooms are prepared, which should not take very long knowing Sakuya, might I propose that the two of you take a tour of the garden while it is still day? It is now past midday, and I must be getting to sleep soon," Remilia suggested helpfully, "Once I wake in the evening, we can talk more over dinner. I can introduce you to Patchouli Knowledge, a close friend of mine who is effectively our librarian. In the meantime, Meiling has put much effort into making our ground the finest garden in all of Gensokyo. With the weather being as perfect as it is, I am sure she will be happy to show it to you."
"Um, I'm not sure if Kazami-san will agree with the 'in all of Gensokyo' bit…" Meiling began, only to be quickly silenced by an admonishing glare from Remilia.
"Why I think that's a splendid idea!" Thankfully, Renko's quick reply drew Remilia's attention before punishment could be doled out. "What do you think, Remiu?"
"I think that's a good idea myself."
Plus it would be a great way to get away from Remilia and have a little chat with Renko in private about the need to be much more careful around the vampiress.
"Very well. Meiling, see to it that you assign one of the fairy maids to guard the gate in your absence, and then show our guests around the grounds." Remilia ordered, prompting the redheaded gatekeeper to give a respectful bow.
"I know I've said this before, but thank you very much for accommodating us." Renko said sincerely.
"It really is not trouble at all," Remilia replied with a smile that sent shivers shooting up Reimu's spine, "Once again, I bid you welcome, to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Renko Usami. I hope you will be enjoying your stay with us."
-=-
While the Scarlet Devil Mansion was most famous for the great library in its underground levels and its European style architecture, it also possessed a magnificent, well-tended, garden that covered the entire area between the mansion proper and the outer walls. Consisting of a variety of rare flowers and other exotic plants, all carefully arranged by Meiling to bring out their full splendour, it was a real pity that so few in the Eastern Wonderland actually had the opportunity to see, much less appreciate it.
Once Remilia and Sakuya had retired indoors, Meiling had lead both Reimu and Renko out onto the garden to show them around. The gatekeeper, overjoyed that someone was actually around to actually pay attention to her hard work, led the pair around with more enthusiasm than Reimu had actually seen of the gatekeeper.
"This is the mansion's… well the common name is a 'Middlemist Camellia'. It's a very rare plant that I managed to cultivate on the grounds," Meiling said proudly as she gently motioned to the delicate red flower that was the centrepiece of one of her displays, "I brought it with me into the mansion when I entered milady's service, and it's been here ever since."
"Holy cow, this plant? Are you kidding me?" Renko regarded the flower with wide eyes and a shocked expression, looking torn between wanting to touch the flower and staying clear of it for fear of accidentally damaging it, "We call it a different name where I'm from, but… wow, just wow! I thought this went extinct when Gem got nuked! Meiling, how…"
"I'm from China. It was one of the treasures I brought with me when I moved into the mansion," Meiling explained proudly. "It's been with me for well over two hundred years. This little girl here is practically my baby."
Renko could only nod excitedly as she took out her note book and quickly made a few notes into it. "Hm, pardon me if I'm mistaken, but don't things this old get fairies and stuff around here? I mean, if the Gensokyo Chronicle is any indication, even an Umbrella can become a supernatural creature, let alone a two hundred year old priceless flower."
"Normally they would, but our resident magician's put a few safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen," Meiling replied, "The last thing we want is for this priceless flower here to sprout a pair of wings and fly away somewhere."
"Ah, that's a relief," Renko nodded in agreement, then paused as a thought came to her. "If that's the case… could I touch it?"
"Sure. Just be aware, that Patchy, our resident magician, has put up a whole lot of powerful wards on this flower," Meiling informed her, "The second those wards pick up any ill intent to the flower… zap!"
"I'll keep that in mind." Renko said as she leaned forward to gently caress one of the petals.
Reimu on the other hand, wasn't so impressed.
"I don't get what's so amazing about a flower," Reimu sighed as she looked around the garden for some form of stimulation. Unlike Renko, who seemed to be very interested in botany, Reimu wasn't couldn't find it in herself to be interested in a bunch of plants.
Her nonchalance to the subject quickly drew reactions from the other two companions.
"Reimu-chan, it's one of three known specimens of the flower in the entire world, two of which are outside Gensokyo," Meiling explained with a sigh, "This flower is basically priceless."
"It's also a very potent reagent for all sorts of things I believed to be completely extinct where I'm from. God, the medicines Horakinis used to make…"
Meiling's head snapped around to Renko so fast that Reimu thought the poor gatekeeper had been a hairs breadth away from getting whiplash.
"Not that I'm going to take it away from here of course!" Renko quickly backpedalled, with her hands held out and away from the rare Carmellia to show her sincerity, "Sun's grace, I would never think of taking such a rare specimen off you, let alone risk damaging it! You think I want to harm such a treasure? No one would be that crazy!"
"…I suppose. You probably wouldn't be able to past Patchy's wards anyway." Meiling said with a small measure of relief. To be safe, she quickly ushered her guests onto the next exhibit, leaving the priceless flower behind them…
…Just as the petal that Renko had touched began glowing.
-=-
Reimu gave a long yawn as Meiling continued to prattle on about some other plant, some delicate little white thing called a 'Silene tomentosa', to an entranced Renko. It was now early in the evening, and the sun was slowly beginning its descent below the horizon casting the world into twilight.
"This is going on forever." Reimu complained as she waited for the pair to finish.
While Reimu was laid back, the sheer boredom and disinterest she was having towards this tour was really giving her second thoughts about the whole tourgide thing. If she were at home, she could catch a nap on her futon or have a nice drink of sake to calm the nerves, her current job meant she had to wait around, completely sober and more or less alert, while Renko finished up her little talk with Meiling. It was an exercise that was far more boring than she had expected it to be!
"Why can't they hurry it up some?"
"You think this is bad, you should try waiting hand and foot for the mistress."
"Not a chance. That's you kind of thing, not mine, Miss 'head maid'."
Reimu turned to regard Sakuya, who had materialized seemingly out of thin air right next to her. The perfect elegant maid had an impeccable appearance as always, and was looking on at Meiling and Renko with a serene, if curious expression.
"So, Remilia waking up any time soon?" Reimu asked hopefully. The sooner the vampire woke, the sooner that dinner, and the escape from this exercise in utter boredom, would come.
"Not for another hour, at least," Sakuya replied with a shake of her head, "The mistress went to bed much later than usual today. It is unlikely she will be up until after the sun has set."
"Well, isn't that just wonderful," Reimu groused, "Sometimes I wonder how Yukari manages to talk me into these things."
"So, she is Yukari's friend, huh?" Sakuya said as she settled in to wait beside Reimu, "I didn't think that Yukari would take interest in an ordinary human like her."
"Sakuya. This is Yukari."
"Ah, you do have a point."
Reimu wondered if it was a good idea not to warn Sakuya about the mansion's new guest. She was pretty confident at this point that there was definitely something odd about Renko, and perhaps giving the head maid of the mansion they were visiting a heads up might be a good way for Reimu to head off some potential problems down the line.
Sakuya was notoriously efficient at cleaning up after the other residents, so if anything happened having Sakuya on her side would be great.
Unfortunately, Reimu was also aware that Sakuya was completely devoted to Remilia. If Reimu were to even hint of her suspicions about their tourist to Sakuya, there was a very good chance that what she'd said would wind up being passed onto the vampire.
If that happened trouble would definitely ensure, and Reimu didn't want that!
"I find it strange though," Sakuya thoughtfully said, "Miss Usami's reactions are very different from what I'd expect of an outsider."
"How so?"
"When I stopped time before, she didn't react in a way I would expect someone to," Sakuya explained, "She was surprised at first when she noticed me disappear when I stopped time, but when I checked back in later she didn't seem afraid of it."
"You checked back in? I didn't see you earlier after you left." Indeed, Sakuya had merely snapped her fingers and disappeared from her sight, reappearing with an umbrella in hand only when it was time to take Remilia back indoors.
"Merely a matter of perceptions. I can move freely when I stop time," Sakuya shrugged, "when I was making your rooms, realized I might have startled our guest, I quickly returned in the odd chance I was needed. As it turned out I wasn't, so I returned to my duties."
"I see."
"Most humans and youkai, who visit my time stop ability for the first time tend to grill the Mistress about it. Miss Renko didn't. I find it odd that she didn't press the issue more. It was like what I did wasn't that unusual for her."
"Well, your ability isn't a secret and she was reading the Gensokyo Chronicle before she came here," Reimu pointed out, "The practically read the entire thing cover to cover before coming here. She knows you can stop time."
"Perhaps," Sakuya reluctantly agreed, "But I would think that a normal human would react more when they saw something truly amazing with their own two eyes."
Reimu froze for a moment as something very, very odd occurred to her.
Renko HAD acted amazed earlier… but not to seeing Sakuya's time-stop ability. It had surprised her, but she'd merely been alarmed. The bubbly traveller had been going completely bonkers… over Meiling's flower. Between Sakuya's ability to stop time at will and Meiling's flower, apparently Renko had thought the flower the more interesting sight.
"Okay, there is something really wrong with this girl."
"Hm? Did you say something?" Sakuya said.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Reimu sighed as she wondered just what had caused Renko's odd reaction.
-=-
It wasn't much longer after that exchange that Remilia had summoned her guests for dinner.
Seeking to impress, the lady of the house had ordered a grand feast to be prepared for her guests in the main dining hall. Food, all prepared to the finest ingredients and served with the finest presentation stretched out before Remiu on one of the largest European style tables she'd ever laid eyes on. When she'd first walked into the room, the poor girl could do nothing but gape and bristle with pure envy for a few moments.
The sheer wastefulness boggled the frugal shrine maiden's mind. The table must have been able to fit twelve people, and the feast itself feed double that number!
When Remilia wanted to show off, she sure as hell didn't pull any punches!
The other diners were already present. Remilia of course was seated at the head of the table, with both Patchouli and Koakuma seated to her right. Sakuya, ever the dutiful maid, was hovering just off to her master's side, while Meiling took her leave soon after showing the mansion's two guests to the dining room.
Never one to let table manners get in the way of her research, Patchouli of course had her head buried in a book and had a look on her face that showed complete disinterest with the feast before her. Koakuma on the other hand seemed livelier, giving Reimu and Renko a wave as they entered the room. Reimu had almost missed the stiffening of Renko's form when the older girl had caught sight of the friendly demon. It had been quick, but Reimu had caught it.
Probably so had everyone else in the room who had been bothering to pay attention.
Uh oh.
"So I take it the tour of the grounds was to your satisfaction?" Remilia said as she motioned for her two guests to the empty a seats to her left.
"Yes indeed! I have to say, I've seen castles with less fancy gardens than yours!" Renko replied as she and Reimu took their seats near Remilia, "You have a very talented groundskeeper, Lady Scarlet."
"I am sure Meiling will be very happy to hear that," Remilia nodded before waving a lazy hand towards Patchouli and Koakuma.
"Professor Usami, allow me to introduce you to my close friend and the owner of the Voile Library, Patchouli Knowledge. The succubus familiar sitting beside her is her assistant, Koakuma. Koa, Patchy, this is Yukari Yakumo's friend from the outside world, Renko Usami."
Patchouli let out a grunt without even looking up from her book 'Astrological Fortune Telling, Fact or Fiction'. Koakuma on the other hand beamed happily the mansion's guest, the wings on his head involuntarily flapping as if sensing her excitement. "It's so good to meet you, Miss Usami. I hear that you want to see the library. We have so few legitimate visitors, I can't wait to show you around. Not to insult Reimu's ability as a tour guide of anything…"
"…yeah, flattered." Renko replied, the smile on her face clearly wooden. Off to the side, Reimu clearly saw the calculating glint appear in Remilia's eyes as she witnessed the exchange.
Uh oh indeed.
"Come now, Patchy. The food is on the table, not behind the pages of your book," Remilia admonished as she reached over the table and plucked the book out of Patchouli's hands and casually handed the tome to the waiting Sakuya, "We have guests, from Yukari Yakumo no less! Tut-tut, you should mind your table manners, my dear."
Separated from her research material, Patchouli glowered at Remilia with all the fury of an anti-social shut-in that had been dragged to a family meal while still in her pyjamas.
"Remi, a few days ago there was an unexplained solar flare that knocked all my sidereal timekeeping telescopes. This stellar event coincided with a surge of high amounts of elemental energy around the planet's poles. I fear that this event-"
Patchouli was abruptly silenced when a helping to Caesar salad swiftly and unexpectedly materialised in her mouth.
"Thank you, Sakuya."
"I live to serve, milady."
"Patchy, Patchy, Patchy. The food is over there." Remilia pointed while the librarian coughed and attempted to swallow the food, "Koakuma, please be a dear and make sure that your master eats her greens. It's important to keep a healthy diet… and the cake is the desert, my dear."
Koakuma meeped as she quickly retracted from hand from where she was trying to sneak a helping of chocolate mud-cake onto her own plate.
"So, uh, are dinners at your place always like this?" Renko said, the recovery in her voice indicating that she'd managed to regain her centre.
"Only when we have guests," Remilia replied as she snapped her fingers. Instantly the empty plate on the table before her was filled with generous helpings of salad, lobster thermidor, a variety of roast meats and cheeses… and pudding.
Reimu snorted with amusement. Hypocrite.
"Uh. Okay," Renko looked at Remilia with undisguised surprise as the vampiress picked up her solid gold cutlery elegantly began eating her meal. "She's a vampire, how is she…"
"She can eat food, just like anyone else can." Reimu informed the outsider quickly. It didn't take a genius to see that Remilia was enjoying turning vampire stereotypes upside down in front of Renko, "She just needs an intake of blood, that's all."
"Is that why all the meat looks like its cooked closer to the side of 'raw'?"
"Medium rare actually," Remilia explained as she set her cutlery down as a show of politeness, "Normally I prefer my red meat rare, for obvious reasons, but as I have guests over it would be a very poor host of me not to give care and consideration to your needs."
"Hm. Interesting," Renko mused thoughtfully, whatever thoughts had plagued her before falling by the wayside now that something interesting had once again captured her attention, "The Gensokyo Chronicle stated your main diet consisted mostly of the blood of humans."
Funnily enough, before Remilia could answer, Patchouli intervened.
"That book is full of misconceptions, opinion, exaggeration and lies," Patchouli stated bluntly from where she was trying to fend of Koakuma, the latter trying to spoon feed her master some delicious looking seafood chowder with a spoon.
"It relies too much on hearsay, many of the sources are of dubious quality and it relies too much on outdated historical accounts and pure speculation. All written by a biased girl who does not understand the true nature of the subject matter she is dealing with. It is in my honest opinion, a piece of trash that is more burnable than that rag Shameimaru puts out. One out of five stars."
The silence and stillness that descended on the table could be cut with a knife. Even Koakuma had stopped moving and was staring.
"…this is the first time I've heard you talk like that in all the time I've known you," Remilia shakily whispered after the shock had properly passed, "Where have you been hiding that?"
"I… when did you become a critic, Patchouli-sama?" Sakuya stammered, her perfect elegant façade pierced by the sheer bluntness of the magician's impromptu book review.
"More to the point. That's… a rather harsh opinion." Renko said, her hand having actually shifted down from to her belt where a copy of said book was being kept in a pouch.
"Yeah, uh. It's not as if it's Akyuu's fault that she couldn't go out and visit all the youkai she was supposed to be writing about." Reimu said in the young author's defence.
"And, uh, some of those dubious reports and exaggerations were deliberate, especially when certain youkai wanted to spread misinformation about themselves. I mean Lady Remi-" Koakuma's jaw snapped shut when she saw the glare directed at her from Remilia.
"Excuses for the poor quality of the resulting publication. I look not at the virtue author, but rather at the work itself. It is my humble opinion as a scholar, an academic and a magician that the Gensokyo Chronicle is a heavily biased book that contains so much misinformation that it is not worth the trees that were cut down to make it. As I said: One out of Five stars."
Pathouli folded her arms and glared at the rest of the room, challenging everyone in it to express their dissent. The rest of the room's occupants, form the normally haughty Remilia to Reimu herself, glanced at each other awkwardly as they tried to decide how to handle the situation.
"Um, food?" Reimu quickly put forward.
"Uh, yes. Food." Remilia agreed.
-=-
As promised, Remilia had asked Patchouli show Renko to the Voile library after dinner. After an assurance from Renko that she wasn't going to rob the place blind, Patchouli agreed.
As Patchouli and Koakuma lead their guests through the winding halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Reimu couldn't help but notice that Renko was acting strangely.
The normally boisterous woman had clammed up and had positioned herself squarely between Reimu and Koakuma as the party proceeded to their destination. More than that, Renko keeping her right hand just above her hip, hovering there as if just waiting to draw her weapon…
…which oddly enough, Reimu couldn't see.
Where did the revolver go to?
"Succubus. Why didn't the bloody book mention a succubus?" Renko muttered quietly, although it seemed she was doing so unconsciously if she was doing so in earshot of Reimu, "I sure as hell wouldn't use a Neomah as a librarian, not after that bitch. I sooner would trust the fucking fae…"
Okay, she had to do something about this.
"Alright, what's got you?" Reimu fell back to Renko's side and whispered. "What's wrong with Koa?"
"You call that thing, 'Koa'?" Renko said with barely concealed hostility and suspicion as she directed a glare that could kill to the back of an oblivious Koakuma's head.
Okay, there was definitely something wrong here.
"Look, Koa is one of the nice people in the Mansion. Like genuinely nice."
"Yeah. Nice. Of course she's nice. Nice like a nice good little interviewee-slash-assistant right until you turn you back. Then she gets a boy to stab his mother to death to 'create new orifices' for shits and giggles while stealing my god damn hearthstone…"
The venom in Renko's voice was so great Reimu lost her footing, and only just managed to catch herself before face planting on the floor. Thankfully, Patchouli and Koakuma, who were leading the way and had their backs turned, didn't notice the stumble.
"Renko, what the hell?" Reimu hissed.
"Look, I read a lot of books on the subject alright?" Renko explained half-heartedly, clearly using the bulk of her focus on drilling holes in the back of Koa's head, "The second that thing so much as gives me a reason…"
"Koa's not like that. I don't know what your research about succubi told you, but they're wrong," Well, wrong about Koakuma at least. "Look, I know Koa. Whatever you read about the other succubi, they're wrong about her. Trust me."
"I'll trust you about her when I'm sure she hasn't pulled the wool over your eyes. Trust 'em only as far as you can throw 'em. That's what I always say," Renko said with finality, clearly set in her ways.
-=-
"So this is your library?" Renko said as she walked into the large room with an excited grin. "Wow, it IS pretty big. I'm impressed."
The large room, illuminated by the lights of several low hanging chandeliers and recently installed Kappa made electric lamps, was filled with dozens of book cases on two separate floors. It was so large in fact that bridges had been built across the room to allow for easier movement for its occupants. The many windows allowed pale moonlight to filter into the room, giving the library a nice pleasant ambiance even at this hour.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a library, and a pretty good one too.
"Man, I can't wait to take a look about," Renko rolled her shoulders and started towards the bookshelves, clearly eager to get started, "Let's see what-"
"Actually, you're mistaken, Miss Usami," Koakua informed the outsider with an embarrassed smile, while Patchouli, without even pausing in her step, made for the large stairwell in the centre of the room that lead underground. "This isn't Master Patchouli's Library."
"Huh?" Renko blinked in confusion as Reimu sniggered behind her.
Having gone there herself Reimu had of course known where the Voile was. In fact she was mildly surprised to find that Renko had mistakenly believed that Remilia's private collection, while quite substantial, was the largest library in Gensokyo. Close, but no cigar.
This was going to be good.
"This is Lady Scarlet's private library. The only books you'll find here are related to fiction, the arts and whatever interests the mistress of this house," Koakuma explained, beckoning the two guests to follow after her master. "Master Pathouli's library is actually underground."
"So let me get this straight," Renko said slowly, "This huge-ass room, a room that has more books than a major metropolitan book-shop, is just Remilia's private collection?"
"Well, yes."
"…rich people." Renko grumbled as she followed after Patchouli, a sniggering Reimu in tow.
-=-
"Whoa. Nice. Very, nice."
Down the flight of stairs lay a massive underground chambers that were illuminated only by the lights of giant glowing magical orbs, suspended from metal chains that hung from the ceiling. The walls, stretching almost six stories in height, were nothing but bookshelves. Indeed the walls of books giant ladders, so tall that one had to cane one's head to see the top, placed around the room just to allow access to the books for those incapable of flight.
"Now this is a freaking library," Renko grinned giddily as she started towards the bookshelves, her notebook and pen already in hand…
"Actually this is the auxiliary library that Master uses to study when she invites her colleagues over," Koakuma noted apologetically. While the little devil was correcting this misconception, Patchouli was already descending the spiral staircase to the room's lower level to continue forward towards where her real destination was.
Reimu for her part was just staying back and watching the events unfold with folded arms and a cheeky grin.
"You mean this isn't the Voile?" Renko boggled in disbelief, casting her eyes wildly around the room in shock. "This… this room has more books than my Man-my local university!"
"Well, technically it is. Part of the Voile, that is. This is the 'public access' portion of the library," Koakuma explained, "Normally, this would all we would allow you to see. Master Patchouli is quite particular on who gains access to her collection… but Lady Remilia was quite clear that we were to show you to see the main Library proper."
Renko started.
"Sun's grace, how big is this library anyway?"
-=-
"…Sun's grace."
It was a city. It was a city of bookshelves, complete with bridges, buildings, spires, arches, pathways… all either supporting bookshelves, lining bookshelves or made out of bookshelves. Runes of pure magic, etched on the wooden surfaces, illuminated this man made, or witch made as the case may be, city with an almost dreamlike glow, making it really look like a city at night.
"Sun's grace… this place can't possibly be real,"Renko staggered forward until she was looking over the third floor railing, the view of the entire library stretching out before her, "I… I can even see a swimming pool. This library is so big it has a fucking swimming pool."
"I thought I asked Remi to get rid of that," Patchouli muttered, before marching off to continue her own research. "Koa, you mind the visitors. I have work to do."
"Yes, Master!"
Reimu watched on with amusement as Renko's looked around the room with her jaw unhinged, the former university professor caught between sheer disbelief and unbridled joy at what she was looking at. "So like what you see?"
"I think I will, once I start believing my eyes." Renko said, her keen sight and observation methods doing nothing but affirming what she was seeing was the truth. Several more moments passed as Renko digested what she was seeing. When she did, the look of stunned awe on the woman's face morphed into one of excitement and glee.
"Reimu. I think you can go to bed without me tonight." Renko stated slowly without taking her eyes away from the scene of splendour before her.
"Er, what?" Reimu said.
"I think I'm going to burn the midnight oil a bit," Renko continued, a strange glassy look now in her eyes, "Don't worry about me, I'll be keeping myself busy. With reading. Yeah."
"Renko? Renko, you're not making any sense."
"Not making sense? Silly Reimu, I'm making perfect sense. I'm a researcher, this place has research… I need to research! I'm going to hit the gods' be damned books!"
By this point the smile on Renko's face had grown from ear to ear, and she was practically vibrating with excitement. Reimu was beginning to regret her earlier glee she'd derived at Renko's surprise, because right now her charge was looking very scary.
Oh god, had she inadvertedly shown another Marisa into Patchy's library?
"Hello, Miss Usami," Koakuma greeted warmly as she walked up to Renko with a bright smile, "As you may have already heard, I'm going to show you around the library and hel… Miss Usami? Huh, she's gone?"
Indeed, one moment Renko had been standing at the railing looking at the massive library before her, the next she was gone. Surprised, Reimu and Koakuma looked around wildly to see where the guest had run off to. They didn't have to look very far.
"Reimu?"
"Yes, Koa?"
"Miss Usami really likes books, doesn't she?" Koakuma said, watching Renko practically sprinting up one of the library's many ladders to access one of the higher bookshelves.
"That she does," Reimu sighed, "That she does."
-=-
TBC…
-=-
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You know, that's super odd for Neomah. Like, super mega odd. I mean, even Blood Apes wouldn't do that (They'd just stab the mother themselves because they can), and those enjoy hurting other beings. Hell, the Neomah are as far from fighting/stabby/violence as you can get.
But a summoned demon should not have the agency to do something like that unless the summoner themselves monumentally fucked up.
Exalted demons aren't agents of pointless evil a la D&D, they're really more like sentient tools made by their greaters for a purpose.
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Maybe said Neomah had orders or something. We probably aren't going to find out as Renko has made up her mind on the subject.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Stupid Solar Integrity, not letting you change your mind when you should. (But really, it's very confusing. It's like your pet goldfish suddenly deciding to eat your cat, instead of the other way around.)
There was some discussion on the subject over on SB. I think she had the astronomically bad luck to summon a neomah who was already working for an enemy of hers or something.