/jp/ - Otaku Culture

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1 >>44121508 >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694087896359134.png
2 >>44290289 >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694087962441371.png
3 >>44383367
4 >>44437040 (3&4) >>/data/jp/img/0445/50/1694088027969245.png
5 >>44487600
6 >>44550620 (5&6) >>/data/jp/img/0446/22/1694614997949247.png
7 >>44622465 >>/data/jp/img/0447/13/1695377031281683.png
8 >>44713561 >>/data/jp/img/0448/28/1696349152839840.png
9 >>44828419 >>/data/jp/img/0449/36/1697321219911751.png
10 >>44936122
(10 - Part 1) >>/data/jp/img/0449/36/1698587659569048.png
(10 - Part 2) >>/data/jp/img/0449/36/1698587725286314.png

and now for your feature presentation

where

>>45093331
Look into your heart.

>>45093331
Writefriend had a long day and is probably sleeping

>>45093350
Or maybe he is writing smut at hse thread.

>>45093370
He would never do that

>>45093480
So he's writing grim in the HSE thread?
But seriously none of the Anon's there read as him, to me at least.

>>45093480
>>45093487
They don't know

>>45093516
what

>>45093573
Chicken butt

>>45093577
what

>>45093653
pussy cat

I was overwhelmingly hot. Yamame wouldn't stop squeezing my arm on one side, and Reimu wouldn't let go of my chest. It was starting to turn into a problem, because I couldn't really feel my arm, either. Plus, I was pretty sure I was still drunk. And Yamame was definitely still drunk. Reimu...was probably drunk. I knew that my head didn't hurt yet, so I wanted to make use of it and escape the room for some fresh air. The problem was the two girls. How could I shift them without waking them up. I wasn't certain what Yamame would do, but I was very certain that Reimu would hit me.

After some amount of time that I wasn't quite aware of, I decided to just hold hope in my heart. One arm had Yamame all but wrapped around it, and the other was wedged between Reimu and my side, but fortunately, I knew a trick.

So, I rotated my hand around and poked Reimu in the side. She jolted, moved her arm down to where I'd poked her, and the moment she did, I sat up in a strange position to keep Yamame from waking up. Happily, I hadn't done enough to wake Reimu up, and after a moment, she settled her arms back to where I had been, though I did notice a slight frown on her face when she didn't find anyone to put her arms around. Now with a free arm, I set about untangling Yamame, which was easier said than done since she was gripping tight and didn't seem to want to let go. In another stroke of genius, I suddenly remembered Yamame's sister, Yura, and how she'd handled Yamame when she'd visited her home.

I reached my free hand around Yamame's back, and began to squeeze her shoulder gently, like a one-handed massage. Lady Kasen had spent some time forcing me to learn massage techniques during my first stint at the dojo, though I'd assumed at the time that she just wanted to force her new student into doing things like draw pretty pictures for her and give her massages, but she'd actually been aiming for me to use them to woo Reimu. I wondered what she'd have to say about me actually using them on Yamame.

Either way, Yamame's weakness to massages clearly extended to one-handed massages, because even in her sleep she let out a content sigh and relaxed her grip. I repeated the action on her other shoulder, and that was enough to send her back to the bed and free my arm. Finally free, I sat up properly and very gently eased myself off of the bed and to the floor, where I could stand up fully and stretch my body after a night wedged between two people who were, to put it gently, clingy in their sleep. Fortunately, things were still slightly fuzzy, and while I hadn't gotten any hangovers from regular alcohol since eating the peach, I wasn't sure if that would apply to the oni sake that Lady Kasen carried. Especially since I was sure that some of it had run through Yuugi's sake dish, which she had explained had the ability to raise the quality of sake poured into it.

I looked back at Reimu and Yamame, still asleep on the bed. Amusingly, they had grabbed hold of each other in their sleep, which I decided that I didn't want to have any involvement with. Especially since Yamame had professed a nervousness of Reimu after her impressive unconscious danmaku display yesterday. Still, I decided that my relative pain from trying to separate them and probably getting hit for it outweighed any potential embarrassment when they woke up, so I decided to leave them to it. I pulled on my sweater and grabbed my coat, then quietly exited the room.

The cold, watery light of the early morning shone from the windows of the dojo as I gently shut the door behind me. The corridor was silent, but I spotted evidence of the night's activities across the place. Scuff marks across the varnished wooden floor where Komachi had knocked all of the oni over, an errant bottle or two of sake, and even one of Lady Kasen's hair buns. I'd wondered what lay underneath those before I'd learnt that she was an oni, but obviously the horns couldn't have been as long as Raki's. Curiously, I approached the room that we'd all been drinking in last night. The door hung open, and I half wondered if I was about to stumble across a murder scene. I crept forward, feeling like I was some sort of thief in the night.

I poked my head in, and there was Komachi. She lay on the bed, her outfit mostly strewn across the room. She only had the inner layers on, which luckily did cover her body, and she looked to be relatively intact, apart from a black eye and a little dried blood from what looked to be a nosebleed. When I approached, picking my way across the hanafuda set strewn across the floor, I accidentally nudged one of the bottles, which knocked into a bottle next to it with a loud clink. That, in turn made Komachi shoot up, only for her to groan in pain and collapse back down. "Ugh..." She groaned, slowly turning her head. "Hey..." I stood there, staring with an odd look on my face. Finally, I asked her how she was feeling. "Like I got beaten up by a horde of oni. Oh, wait. That's exactly what happened." She cracked a weak smile. I asked her if she was going to be okay. "Oh, sure. Takes a lot more than that to put me down. I'm far more durable than I look, y'know?" Komachi's eyes found mine, with a glitter of something mischievous inside them. "You could have found that out for yourself, you know?"

I smiled back and told her that she'd make me blush if she kept that up. "That's the idea, pretty boy." After a moment, she looked up. "...Nah. I saw the way you and that blonde girl look at each other. Seems that ship has sailed, at least for now." She reached out an arm with a hiss and hit her hand against my shoulder. "Still, If you and her ever break things off, well...You know where you'll find me." I couldn't see it happening, but I told her that I appreciated her offer. "Well, you definitely can't. You're young and clearly head over heels for her. Surprised you can see past the end of your nose, really." I shook my head with a quiet chuckle.

"So - Urgh..." Komachi groaned again. "They did take turns to beat me up, but Kasen was at least courteous enough to stop them for going too far. I don't think they were that mad, really." I said that I'd expected more damage. "That's that sake box for you. Works miracles. Unless you drink too much, then it turns you into an oni. Still, for me, it fixed most of the damage. Kasen left the black eye as a reminder, I think. Help me up?" I crouched down by the bed, ready to help her sit up, when she suddenly grabbed me around the neck and pressed her lips against mine for a few moments. Finally, I pushed her away with a frown. "Mm. Yeah, that's nice. Guess that's the oni personality from the sake box. You're lucky I hurt too much to do anything more." I reminded her that I was, as she had said, 'head over hells' for Yamame already. "No harm in a little kiss, is there?" My continued frown told her that I was not seeing it that way. "Oh, relax, pretty boy. I'm not trying to steal you. Just wanted a taste. That'll tide me over." She pressed her hands together in a prayer. "Okay, for real, would you mind helping me up?"

This time, Komachi let me help her sit up, retrieve some of her clothing, and pull her vest on. Then, I helped her out of the bed, and though she staggered a little, she was able to move under her own power after a moment. She pointed at a notebook on the floor. "Sorry, but can you pass me that? It's my workbook. Tells me what spirits need ferrying." I reached down and picked the small book up. It seemed normal enough for a tool of a Shinigami, until it suddenly heated up in my hand and I nearly dropped it. "Whoa, pass it here." Komachi took it from me. "Oh, I need to get to work. My boss is going to have my head at this rate." She had me gather up the rest of her clothing, which she haphazardly put on until she looked like a very poorly dressed Shinigami instead of a beaten up one. "Scythe, need...Where's my scythe?" She looked around the room, and I eventually spotted it underneath the bed. I fished it out and passed it to Komachi, who nodded appreciatively.

I helped her out of the room, because despite having had most of her injuries healed, Komachi still seemed a little weak. "I'll be fine once I'm back at the Sanzu." She told me, hissing slightly at the exertion. "And that'll only take me a few steps, so it'll be fine." We left the dojo and emerged into the slightly cool and crisp morning air. There were still plenty of marks and holes in the ground from the fight between the oni, but it looked like Lady Kasen had fixed the window of her room. "That's a hermit's senkai for you. Easy to fix up and you can do whatever you want with it." We strolled over to the clearing that marked the exit to Lady Kasen's senkai.

"By the way...How's Kasen been doing? I've been around every few days since you were last here, and she was still pretty miserable the last time." I quickly told her a shortened version of the tale Suika had told me. "Wow." Komachi rested the scythe against the ground and leaned on it. "Figures no one can cheer up an oni like an oni." She laid a hand on my shoulder. "Thank you. Really. I've known her a long time, and it was killing me that I couldn't seem to help her out. I don't really want her to merge with the arm, you see, but I want them both to get better in their own ways. Be their own people." She shook her head. "Can't say I trust her yet, but if Kasen's willing to give her a chance, I suppose I'd better keep an open mind too." I hadn't really thought about it, but it was clear that Komachi cared a great deal for Lady Kasen. Komachi turned, stepping closer to the exit. "What can I say?" She tilted her head back and gave me a lopsided smile. "I've got a soft spot for moral lecturers." She gave me a wave goodbye, and disappeared in a split second. Lady Kasen had told me that she had the power to manipulate distances, so I assumed that she'd compressed the entire walk to the Sanzu into one step.

I stared after her for a few moments. She was definitely strange, but then again, I couldn't think of anyone I knew who wasn't. But she could be kind and compassionate, and very easy to get along with. I liked her a fair amount, even though I had to fend off her advances. Shaking my head, I turned and looked back at the dojo. Then, I wandered over to the cliff face where Raki had spent a lot of her time right after being unsealed, and set myself down there to watch the sun rise over the distant peaks.

And this would have been fine. But not five minutes later, I heard footsteps behind me, and then two figures dropped to sit on either side of me. "I do believe he's in thought, partner." Lady Kasen said from my left.

"Why, I do believe you are right." Raki agreed, passing the sake box across to the hermit from my right. I hoped that she'd gotten better at estimating where her horns were, since I didn't feel much like getting impaled. "But whatever could it be about?"

"A girl?" Lady Kasen asked.

"A fight?" Raki continued.

"Or perhaps a philosophical topic?"

I looked between the two of them and asked if they were trying out a new comedy routine. "Aw, he's bashful." Raki said, leaning in close enough that I could smell the sake on her breath. "Well, come on, we won't tell anyone." That, I supposed, was true.

"So, what's got you all pensive?" Lady Kasen asked, nudging me. "How are those two girls?" As far as I knew, they were both asleep still, and when they woke up, they'd probably be very hungover. "Oh, definitely. I know they both drank a lot of oni sake filtered through the Hoshiguma dish. So did you, for that matter." I was probably still drunk, I replied. "Well, that's one way to deal with a hangover."

"We used to eat three raw eggs and punt someone off a cliff to deal with the hangover." Raki informed me, and I asked how knocking someone off a cliff was supposed to help deal with a hangover. "I'm no physician. Made us feel better, though."

"That it did, but don't worry, we're not about to do that to you." Lady Kasen assured me, patting my arm. "More specifically, I wanted to ask you about your dear spider." I looked over at her, my eyes narrowing slightly. I asked if she was planning to take more half-disguised shots at her. Lady Kasen did at least have the courtesy to look a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't...I still don't quite understand the two of you. I just..."

"Urgh." The arm groaned, leaning back on her hands. "She thought you and the Shrine Maiden were a sure thing."

"Thank you, partner." Lady Kasen muttered stiffly, pulling her arm with the sake box back just before she could hand it over. "I simply thought that you and Reimu would have been good together." I supposed it might have been true, but I didn't think that way about Reimu and while I did love her, it was as family. "So I heard. Which is why I'm not here to talk to you about Reimu. I want to hear about Miss Kurodani. How did you two meet?"

I reminded Lady Kasen of my trip to the underground to meet Satori Komeiji, and then told her the story of just a few days prior, when I'd fallen into Yamame's webs. Much like Reimu, Lady Kasen registered some displeasure at Kogasa's actions, though I said that the fact that she thought I was dead and possibly haunting her seemed to be repayment enough.

"Wait, she tried to eat you?" Raki asked, leaning back in and poking me with a sharp claw. "I tried to do the same thing to the Shrine Maiden!" I'd heard parts of that story, and decided that at least I hadn't been sent to Hell. "See, everyone does it!" She said to Lady Kasen

"No, they don't." Lady Kasen admonished the arm. "But I'm surprised to see how things have turned out from there." Yamame had been desperate at the time, and she'd made great strides since. And she'd been incredibly accommodating to me as well as supportive, so I'd come to trust her more and more.

"She's not just interested in your..." Raki seemed to be evaluating me. "...Body, is she?" I shot Lady Kasen a look, and she leaned across me to slam her fist down on the arm's head.

"Down, girl." She muttered to the arm, who snorted and looked away. I admitted that I suspected that it might have just been that early on, but as time had gone by, it seemed like we'd started to understand each other better. And then, Reimu had gotten ill, and I'd taken care of Yamame during that time, too. "You snake!" Lady Kasen said, slightly scandalized. "All while I was here thinking that you were getting closer and closer to Reimu!" But then, I'd met Satori Komeiji again, and she'd unlocked my memories. Suddenly, I was nervous of being near Yamame, and it had taken a long while for me to get over it. But in the end, I think it had brought us closer rather than pushed us apart. "It takes a great deal of courage to stay close to someone who's very being scares you." Lady Kasen told me quietly. "And you seem to have gotten over it well enough." It had taken a while, and a week of trying to walk into the darkness of the caves before I'd gotten too ill to even walk back, but eventually, I'd managed to meet Yamame again, and at that point, I'd reached a point where I wanted to spend more and more time with her. "Is that so...?"

"Why don't you go and bug her instead, huh?" Raki asked Lady Kasen, plucking the sake box from her hands while she was staring at the sunrise. "Save us all the trouble. You want a drink?" She asked me, but I shook my head. I wasn't injured, and I didn't much fancy turning into an oni. "Shame. You'd be a good oni." So I'd heard, but I rather liked being human.

Lady Kasen thought for a few seconds. "Maybe I will. Well...Later. When they're not hungover enough to just try and bash the brains in of whoever's talking." Well, that made sense. Reimu would probably do it even if Yamame didn't. "For now, I'll take you up on that drink, partner. Here, I'll get a spare cup for you." Her bandaged arm disappeared into a hole in reality, just like Hearn's gaps but without the strange ribbons and weird eyes, and it emerged with a cup and a bottle. She poured a cup for me, and I took a sip, deciding to stave off the eventual hangover for a little longer. "Suika and Yuugi are still asleep, too. About an hour or so before dawn. Which is pretty lightweight for them, but I'll not hold it against them."

So, the three of us sat there and watched the sun rise. I drank a little more sake and listened to Lady Kasen and Raki exchange fairly light insults, with little meaning, if any. The sky was beautiful. The mountains were beautiful. the dark water below, not yet lit by the sun's rays, was still beautiful.

Life was beautiful.

I have to confess something, I missed a week or so due to being busy and never got back into it because i was too lazy to catch up, but now that multiple threads have come and gone I legitimately have no clue what has happened.

>>45093748
Dark horse Eirin ending is in full swing, trust the plan

>>45093748
We are effectively on the epilogue at this point

Wait a second, does Kasen know about the other dates? She must know right? She's aware of why Eirin was hunting him, i guess she doesn't know about Komachi but that's likely because Komachi doesn't want Kasen to know.

>>45093722
"She's not just interested in your..." Raki seemed to be evaluating me. "...Body, is she?"
I can't believe 50% of Kasen wants to jump his bines and the other 50% wants him to jump Reimu's bones

>>45093748
Long story short, after much violence and accidentally bombing Anon, the Eientei operation was a success. Eirin chose to take a more cooperative approach to her Hourai research with Anon, alongside encouraging him to come to her regarding his psychiatric problems. Arguably worth noting is that Anon met Kagerou and Tewi during the mission.

After that, Anon and Reimu visited Yamame for a bit and got to meet more of her sisters. Then they visited Kasen to check in on how she's doing; she and her arm (nicknamed Raki by Yuugi) are slowly beginning to see eye to eye once again.

The OP has two images linked at the end that has all this compiled in its entirety.

>>45093715
>I crouched down by the bed, ready to help her sit up, when she suddenly grabbed me around the neck and pressed her lips against mine for a few moments. Finally, I pushed her away with a frown. "Mm. Yeah, that's nice. Guess that's the oni personality from the sake box. You're lucky I hurt too much to do anything more." I reminded her that I was, as she had said, 'head over hells' for Yamame already. "No harm in a little kiss, is there?" My continued frown told her that I was not seeing it that way. "Oh, relax, pretty boy. I'm not trying to steal you. Just wanted a taste. That'll tide me over."
No! That should have been ME!

>>45096158
>head over hells
Looks like poor anon is still a bit drunk.

>>45093748
>a week or so
That should be ~2 threads, it shouldn't take too long for you to catch up. Check out the post below the OP as the other anon said.

>>45096158
I want Komachi to sexually harass me while I'm already in a loving relationship with someone else!

>>45100266
Please don't encourage home wreckers

poor Anon can never seem to live a simple life... in 40 years' time he will be the most badass man in Gensokyo because he'll have lived through every possible trial, no matter how unlikely. when younguns ask where he got his scars from, he'll fall quiet before saying, "I tried to get a girlfriend"

>>45096904
I'm guessing Komachi was originally intended to say it that way too, but the author accidentally spell-corrected his own joke.

>>45101204
Those poor kids are gonna get the wrong idea and assume the worst about their mom.

"It's quite simple, actually." Raki told me, switching the arm she was leaning on and gesturing with the sake box, the contents sloshing around inside. "If they're weak enough to get gored by the horns, they weren't worth it anyway, and if they're not, then they shouldn't have cared in the first place." After several more incidents where her horns had almost stabbed me in the head, I'd asked her if they ever got in the way. I'd thought of the question when I'd first met Suika properly, stuck in a cave wall, but I'd never seemed to come upon the right time to ask it. "You, I'm fairly certain belong in the latter category, if what I heard about you was correct."

She reached out her right hand, the one with the sharp fingernails, and pressed it against the skin of my arm. "Nothing yet..." She began to press slightly harder, and I felt pressure begin to mount. "Still nothing..." Harder still, and I began to feel the sharpness more strongly. "Wow, this is...No joke..." Now she was pressing so hard that I could actually see the beginnings of strain in her own arm. Apparently, even a heaven peach couldn’t stand up to an oni if they put their minds to the task.

And then I felt the slight searing pain of a cut, and I looked down to find that my arm was bleeding. It had been a long time since I'd seen myself bleed, so I was surprised when I found myself struggling to look away, even as I saw the bleeding stop and the cut skin close far faster than it ever could have if I was still a regular human. "Well, then." The arm sighed. "You're fairly tough. Probably enough so that I can't casually cut you with my horns, but I could if I really put my mind to it." I asked her if she was thinking about putting her mind to it. "Haven't made my mind up yet." I laughed a little. The arm looked me up and down. "Personally, I think killing you would be a bit of a waste, anyway." That seemed like about as good of an endorsement I could hope to get from Ibaraki-douji's arm, so I took it gratefully.

Lady Kasen was lying on her back, her hands resting on her navel and a pensive look on her face. I asked her if she was thinking about something in particular. "Oh, just...Things. Important things. Very special, important things." I asked her what sort of important things she was thinking about, and she rebuffed me, so I tried a second time.

"She's almost definitely thinking about some sweet shop that just opened in the village." Raki muttered from my other side, and Lady Kasen looked at her with betrayal in her face. "Ha. Knew it. You can't hide secrets from me, par-" The horned oni suddenly clamped her mouth shut, and the hermit oni's eyes slowly slid toward her. Then, Lady Kasen sat up, still staring at the arm. "Shut up." Raki said, her eyes now rapidly shifting all over the immediate area as if she was searching for an escape route.

"You just-"

"No, I didn't! Just shut up!"

"You definitely did..." I looked between the two. Over her spluttered protests, Lady Kasen's voice raised a little. "You called me partner!" Lady Kasen's eyes were sparkling. "I heard you!" She looked over at me. "You heard her, didn't you?"

I looked from her to the arm, who's eyes appeared to be silently threatening me. I looked back at Lady Kasen and told her that I'd suddenly lost my ability to hear. The arm slapped my shoulder hard enough to make my bones rattle. "You can threaten him, but I know you said it and you know you said it!"

"I didn't say anything! You're hearing things!" It appeared that the arm was resorting to psychological tricks to try and convince Lady Kasen that she was mistaken.

Lady Kasen scrambled over me, knocking me onto my back, and captured Raki's hands. "You know that this is all I've ever wanted from you." It was becoming clear that I was steadily disappearing from the conversation. "I'm not giving up on this." There was hope in her face.

The arm looked somewhat uncomfortable, and her eyes actually pleaded with me to get her out of the situation. "I-I'm not forgiving you yet." She stammered slightly, and it was slightly disconcerting. "You still betrayed me." She sounded petulant, and I had a feeling that she was struggling to hold the anger in her heart still. "So, part-" Lady Kasen's intake of breath her Raki's eyes squeeze shut. "So, please let my hands go." She muttered, her eyes still shut.

I felt like I was intruding at this point, but I also couldn't really leave, since of the two Ibaraki's, Lady Kasen was leaning over my body and seemed to have forgotten I existed, and Raki's hands were still being held captive, so she wasn't free to leave either. Both of them were forming a blockage above me, and I couldn’t see a way to slip out from underneath the two of them.

"We've talked about my actions." Lady Kasen said, seriously. "I've apologised over and over for not giving you a chance." She was squeezing Raki's hands so hard that I started to wonder if I'd be hearing pops soon. "It hurts me to be rejected by my own self like this. Doesn't it hurt you?"

Raki looked away and clenched her teeth. "Of course, it hurts." She growled. "Of course, I want to accept you again." Frustrated, she ran a hand through her hard and ran a finger up her horns.

"Then, why are you still holding me at a distance?" Lady Kasen was getting closer and closer to Raki, and it was starting to limit the amount of space I had between the two of them. "How can I help you?"

"Just..." Raki seemed tongue-tied, so I piped up and said that it seemed like Lady Kasen was already something of a positive influence on her, and perhaps she'd be able to become good if she kept it up. After a slight jump where the two seemed to remember that I'd been present at all, Raki's eyes narrowed. "Good?" She asked, looking down at me. "Become good...?" She was whispering, and I didn't think it was in a good way. I was starting to feel like I'd made some sort of mistake, and when Raki wrenched her hands free of Lady Kasen and lifted me by my sweater, I felt the feeling grow. Suddenly, she shoved Lady Kasen back, then opened her mouth to reveal the rows of very sharp teeth that I'd forgotten in the time she'd spent being completely normal in my presence.

"Don't!" Lady Kasen shouted, and her bandaged arm was already stretching out. Raki's teeth clamped down on my shoulder, the unscarred one, and for a moment, I expected to hear the crack of her teeth, just like when Yamame had bit me. Instead of the crack, I felt pain as her teeth broke through the skin. "Partner!" Lady Kasen whispered as Ibaraki-douji's arm swatted away her bandaged arm. "You..." My heart was pounding, and my vision felt like I was standing at the end of a very long tunnel. Ice seemed to grip my heart and even though I seemed to have gotten over a lot of my old aversions to the biting, they were certainly trying to rekindle themselves.

I felt slightly faint, but Raki didn't move. She didn't continue to bite me, nor did she try and attack me any further. She just held me there, her teeth still clamped around my shoulder, tearing through the white sweater that Yamame had made for me, staining some of the white to red. It felt like Raki had sucked some blood up, and then, she released me, dropping me back to the ground as I panted for breath. I saw my blood, dripping from her teeth, and her tongue flicked out to catch the errant drops. "A bit of a kick. That must be the peach. Not poisonous, like a celestial, but...definitely something."
"But - You-" Lady Kasen seemed torn between trying to save me and trying to reprimand her. "After all we talked about, you-"

"No!" Raki shouted back. "Here's something to understand. I've not turned - good! I'm still an oni, even if I'm only half, and I'll keep to those principles."

"You can't just eat humans! I'll keep you here as long as it takes for you to understand that!" Lady Kasen was on her feet now, and Raki had joined her, both of them standing over me. I was about to take the opportunity to get out from underneath them and back to my feet, but Lady Kasen started talking before I could. "Until you're a good p-"

"Your version of good," The arm began, crossing her arms. Now that I'd had a moment, my heart was calming down and I could tell that there was something of a performative nature to this. I didn't think the arm wanted to particularly cause me harm. It wasn't like Rumia. It was...Something else. "isn't some absolute. It's a stifling, morally righteous, and sentimental set of principles that you cannot make others live their lives by." She shook her head. "If you're waiting for me to adopt all that, then we'll be here for a very long time."

Lady Kasen's arms were by her side, and she was clenching her bandaged arm. "So...what? That's it? You're not going to change?"

The arm stepped over me and even closer to Lady Kasen. "I did that to show you that I can change. I could have killed him right then. I didn't. I didn't even do much damage. I'm showing you that I have changed, but I'm not going to stop being who I am. I've been trying to teach you, too. Accepting who you are. Accepting that you don't have to deny yourself to still be what you consider good."

"But..." Lady Kasen looked conflicted. I raised a hand to my shoulder and found that the arm was right. The bleeding had already stopped, though I suspected that Raki's definition of not doing much damage might not have matched mine. I'd probably have a nice new set of teeth marks scaring that shoulder. Still, it'd be a good story. "I am a hermit. I want to be a celestial, some day. And more than that, I am an ally to humanity. Are you capable of that?"

"In time, yes. But again, I am still an oni." Raki's gaze softened a little. "Look. Partner." Lady Kasen's intake of breath was sharper, but with a slight stutter. "I do want to accept you. I hope you want to accept me. But we cannot accept each other without knowing exactly where we stand. I don't intent to go around eating humans. Hoshiguma, Ibuki, they grew in the time I was sealed, and I could be like them. I could be my own version of good. I'm just...not sure I can be like you."

I staggered to my feet, pulling the coat I had left sitting behind me on to hide the bite marks. Raki turned to look at me, then stepped closer and pulled my coat tighter. "I'm not sorry." She told me calmly. "But you'll be okay. And you don't need to worry. I'm perfectly under control." Funnily enough, I found that I believed her, even if my gaze was lingering a little on her teeth now. I felt like I needed to go and hide under some covers with Yamame and possibly Reimu too. At least for a while.

Lady Kasen led me a small distance away, then sighed heavily and put her hand on my undamaged shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'd spent so much time with her that I forgot...She's an oni, and she wants to be an oni. She doesn't want to be a hermit. I guess that's my fault. I sealed her for all that time." I shakily nodded my head. I didn't really blame Raki, but I didn't much want to be around her at this exact moment. "Well...Yuugi and Suika fell asleep in the training room, so you should be okay if you want to go back in. Or if you want to leave." I took Lady Kasen's bandaged hand. It was funny. It felt like there was definitely a hand underneath. I told her that I still trusted her, and I didn't want to leave permanently. "...Thank you." She whispered. “I should get back. Talk to her.”

I looked back at Raki, who was staring off into the distance with a furrowed brow. I knew she was conflicted. She wanted to change, but she was fighting herself. Lady Kasen shook her head and told me to leave her be for now, and she went back over by herself, taking Raki's hand. I swallowed, then turned and re-entered the dojo. I walked back to my room, stopping to pet Kanda's head when I bumped into him near the kitchens.

Inside, I was forced to stifle a laugh. Reimu and Yamame were tangled up in each other, and they were both still fast asleep. I curiously walked around the arrangement, noting the way that Reimu had still attempted to sprawl herself out across the bed and take up all the space for herself. It was why sleeping with your arms wrapped around her was the best way to combat such behaviour. I smiled, then cast my sweater to the floor, making sure the blood stain was hidden. I wiped my shoulder, and grimaced at the sight of a new row of marks on my shoulder. It'd scar over, most likely, joining the list of scars already on my body. Finally, I shifted Yamame upwards enough for me to take up a tiny amount of bed space, then swallowed when she let out a slight moan and shifted her head. She awkwardly managed to untangle herself from Reimu. "Hi..." She mumbled in my direction. I said hi back. "'M still drunk, I think..." On the plus side, at least that meant that she wouldn't be mad about the state of her head. I told her, slightly hesitantly, that she might need to repair my sweater. "Why...?" She breathed, wrapping an arm around me. Figuring that it couldn't sound any stranger than whatever she was dreaming about, I told her that I'd been bitten by an oni, and I supposed that she must have been so sleepy that she'd completely ignored what I said. "I think black would be good." She mumbled again, her breathing settling into a deeper rhythm. Maybe it would be good, I supposed. It'd hide blood easier, just in case Raki got a taste for...me.

If anything, I was even more curious now as to what the fully merged Ibaraki-douji would be like, because up until then, I'd been imagining her as a perfect meld of the two halves, which had been relatively similar until just then. Now, I wasn't quite sure. I thought that she might have some more severe shifts between moods, or perhaps she would have an even more heightened emotional state. I hoped that she’d be more like Kasen than Raki, since I felt like I wouldn’t even know what to do with her if she did awaken.

Either way, once I'd pulled some covers over Reimu, who had slept through the whole thing, Yamame, who had fallen asleep on my chest, and myself, I felt a little more secure. My breathing felt easier, and I warmed up enough to start feeling some of the tension from the morning leave me.

Not secure enough to fall asleep, mind you, but I could feel Yamame's heartbeat through her chest, and focusing on it felt incredibly calming. And, I could feel Reimu's presence next to me, which was just as calming. Life was beautiful, but it was just as confusing too. At the very least, a good hug improved things tremendously.

>>45104046
Probably should have let them settle things between them

>>45104391
Anon is and has always been extremely dense and says the wrong thing at the wrong time
It kind of seems like it might actually be a good thing in the long run though, since it did get arm-chan to express herself properly

>>45104053
How lucky, getting a lovebite from arm-chan

>>45104391
I like that the writer didn't let Kasen steamroll the conversation, too bad it had to come at the cost of anon regaining his biting fetish for a bit longer.

>>45105130
I wonder who will be the next hu to have a go at this taken man.

>>45110706
In a bizarre turn of events it will be Marisa

>>45110706
Since he is heading to the hot springs after this, I think it will be Jo´on or Shion who have started a small stand selling Keystone Keyrings (Nai has been their only customer).

>>45111495
It's gonna be weird meeting those two without Tenko to introduce them

Yamame's gonna have the worst day ever today. First she's gonna wake up with a horrible oni hangover to find the shrine maiden herself cuddling her. Then she's gonna kiss her man and find out that his lips taste like shinigami. After that she'll see that the coat she made for him with love has been ruined, and then finally she'll learn that Ibaraki-douji herself has put her mouth on her man and literally left her mark on him, something Yamame herself stopped doing because she was worried for his well-being. She may be meek, but surely there's only so much bullshit a spidergirl can take in one morning.

>>45112487
>First she's gonna wake up with a horrible oni hangover to find the shrine maiden herself cuddling her.
this reminded me of that, but it's yamame and not alice

>>45104064
>I thought that she might have some more severe shifts between moods, or perhaps she would have an even more heightened emotional state.
Interesting nod to WaHH's depiction of the borderline DID Ibaraki. I was of the opinion that the two halves weren't all that different by this point, but if they were to merge now we would still get a WaHH situation. At this point I can't tell whether or not the author plans on re-converging them down the line.

>>45112487
Anon's just upset as she would be about all that, so I don't think it'll turn out so bad. Well, all besides the first point lol

>>45113455
She might not be mad at Anon, but she might have different feelings for all these would-be homewreckers circling around him...

It was looking to be an incredibly slow sort of day. It wasn't as if I wasn't perfectly content to lie around and hug Yamame and Reimu for the most part, but I did wonder just what else we were supposed to be doing. I also wasn't sure how long I'd been lying around already, but my shoulder had stopped throbbing after some time and settled into a dull ache, but even that was slowly starting to fade. A nice new scar. If any children in the village ever asked me what it was from, I'd scare the living daylights out of them, and I wouldn't even have to make anything up. 'An oni bit me to prove a point' sounded scary enough. And then, they'd be in for more of a shock if I ever explained any of the other scars. 'Nearly eaten by a youkai', for one, and 'burnt by divine flames', as well. They'd probably assume I was lying just from the sheer improbability. I'd have to double check, because I probably had even more scars than that, which I was failing to remember.

And then Yamame woke up, and she sounded absolutely awful. "Urgh..." She moaned, pressing her head against my chest. "Kill me. Right now." She raised her bleary eyes, and I asked her how she was feeling. "Head. Pain." That was probably the hangover kicking in. "You think?" She growled, looking like she was indeed considering murdering me.

She tried dragging her hands up to press them against her head, only to find them stuck. "What's..." She awkwardly angled her head back, letting out a hiss of pain as she did so. "Why...is Reimu Hakurei hugging me?" There was a little nervousness to her voice, but it was mostly buried in pain and annoyance. "She's not gonna take it as an attack if I try and push her arms away, is she? I frowned and asked her why she would do that. "Well, I don't know! She's got weird freaky sleep danmaku pow - Argh..." She squeezed her eyes shut again. "Why did I drink that much? Why did you let me - Hang on." She paused, then looked up at me with narrowed eyes. "Why don't you look like death?" I shrugged and said that it was probably something to do with the peach. "That's it? Something to do with the peach?" She forced herself up slightly and went to punch me in the chest, and as I raised my hands in self-defence, she froze. "Wait, what's..." Her hand reached out, toward my shoulder. My freshly bitten shoulder.

"Uh." Yamame paused. "Hold on." And then she violently threw herself out of bed, her clothing completely askew and her hair halfway out of its usual style, leaving her ribbon loose and floppy. It would have been very cute if it wasn't abundantly clear that the hangover was about to wreak havoc. She looked at me helplessly, and I told her to leave the room, go down the corridor to the right, turn left, and it would be the first door on the left. "Oh, I love you!" She cried in relief, bursting out of the door and disappearing from sight.

Leaving me frozen and vacantly staring at the space she had just occupied.

"I'm going to kill someone." I heard muttered from next to me, but I didn't manage to look. "Probably you. Then someone else for good measure." It was Reimu, and she sounded about as wiped out as Yamame had. "Are you, uh, well? You look even more vacant than usual." I mumbled something incoherent. "What? what are you..." Reimu then trailed off too. "Wait, but Kurodani...She - She said..." I managed to shift my head to look at Reimu, who was leaning with her elbow against the bed and looking back at me with the same realisation. "...Oh." Her eyes were widening. "Was that...?" First time. "Huh." Reimu slowly shifted onto her back. "Um, well...Congratulations?" I tried to speak again and ask Reimu what she was thinking, but my voice cracked in the middle of it. "Calm down." Reimu told me. "I can't claim to know the answer to everything, but it's not the end of the world because someone said they love you." I mumbled an agreement and fell back to the bed on my back, next to Reimu. My mind started to clear up again after a few minutes, and I asked Reimu why she wasn't rushing off to the bathroom. "Oh, er...I'm just used to it. Not the first time I've drank oni sake. Not even the first time recently. I do have a killer headache, though, and I would dearly like to punch something, so do me a favour and shut up."

I did shut up and stared up at the ceiling. My heart was doing all sorts of flips and now that the initial shock had faded, I was starting to feel a very warm feeling in my chest. It may have been said in the heat of the moment, but still. She'd said she loved me. And now there was a smile on my face that I couldn't seem to get rid of. "You look like a teenager." Reimu said, looking at me through narrowed eyes. "Better sort yourself out, though. It's a little goofy." I looked over at her and she squeezed her eyes shut and went to massaging her temples. "Ouch, ouch...Oni sake..." She didn't seem in danger of throwing up, which was good. "Hang on, I saw something. What was..." Opening her eyes again, she looked me over. "Wait, there..." And she poked my shoulder, which was, truthfully, where I was hoping she wouldn't look. "That's new. Isn't it? You didn't have that in Eientei. Nor when..." She trailed off, but I knew that she was definitely thinking of when she had barged in on Yamame and I.

Before she could say anything more, Yamame staggered back in the room, wiping at her mouth. "Oh, I feel rough..." She looked over at me and then at Reimu. After a moment of slight indecision, she came back to the side of the bed. "Sorry. Um, thanks. For telling me the way." I tried to put all sudden declarations from my mind and instead told her that I was happy to. "Ah-ha!" Yamame loudly exclaimed, then cut herself off by groaning and clutching her head. On my other side, I saw Reimu do the same. "Oh, um, Hakurei - Um, Reimu."

With tired and annoyed eyes, Reimu looked up. "What? Kuro-" I poked her in the side, and she jolted. "Y-Yamame. What is it, Yamame?"

"Do you know why..." Yamame trailed off and did that fidgeting thing she did when she was nervous about saying something. "Um, why - No, sorry, just forget-"

"Why..." Reimu looked a little bit uncomfortable too, and I suspected that I knew the reason why. "We - Ahem, were-"

"Yes!" Yamame cried. "I mean, um, no. Or, uh..." Unable to bear the awkwardness anymore, I finally said that they'd both been asleep when they'd started cuddling each other, so nothing weird had happened last night. Either way, they still both looked pretty embarrassed and awkward about it, so I figured that just letting them get over it was probably for the best. Happily, they both got distracted soon.

Unhappily, it was when they instead looked at my shoulder. "That's what I was looking at." Yamame said, venturing onto the bed and pushing me flat on my back so I couldn't get away. "His shoulder."

"I saw that too..." Reimu muttered, poking the new marks. "It's fresh. Really fresh." I supposed that I should have expected as much from a professional youkai exterminator. "Like, 'today' fresh..." I opened my mouth. "Shut up, I'm busy." The wound hadn't scarred over yet, but it was well on its way, which I assumed was some sort of peach-assisted faster healing for physical injuries.

"And...Hang on, it's bite marks. Fresh bite marks?" Yamame was now right next to Reimu, and both of them seemed to have forgotten their earlier awkwardness. "And they're..." Yamame swiped a finger across the marks, smiling apologetically when I grumbled about the pain. She looked into space pensively for a moment. "Oni..." She muttered quietly. I asked her what she meant. "Oh, um...Just that I've seen plenty of oni bites in my time. That's oni."

"Oni?" Reimu asked sharply. "Like, the kind that there's four of in this dojo?" I finally interjected and said that I could simply explain what had happened, if they thought it was worth worrying about, which I didn't think it was. "I'll be the judge of that." So finally, I explained the conversation that I had been witness to between Lady Kasen and Ibaraki-douji's arm, and the demonstrative biting that had been part of that.

"Wait, is that why you said..." Yamame frowned, clambered down from the bed, and picked up the sweater that I'd dropped on the floor. "Gah!" She shouted, then clutched at her head again. "This!?" She spun and threw her arm straight out, the sweater dangling from her hand. I could already see the bloodstain and the ragged holes left by Raki's teeth. "This is why you said it needed repairing? Because an oni took a bite out of you!?" Her voice was starting to rise in pitch, and I felt a little bad for being so flippant about it. I'd been scared until Raki had been positively gentle about it and limited herself to the one bite. "And - And you're fine with it?" I said that she was working as hard to change herself as Yamame had worked to change herself, so I had to be supportive, and somehow, I believed her. She stared at me for a moment, then stomped back over to me. "Reimu, could you give us a minute?"

"A min- Oh, um, sure." Reimu mumbled, rolling out of the bed with a long sigh. "I could do with the bathroom too." She glanced back at us as she left, though a weak smile did cross her face.

Yamame placed both hands on my shoulders, being careful to avoid the bite marks. Then, she let out a trembling sigh and let her head fall. "I'm sorry, I..." I gathered her up in a hug and pet her head, pulling her ribbon free. "I just...I stopped biting you, because I didn't want it to bring back any bad memories, but then you tell me that Ibaraki-douji herself - or part of her - is biting you to prove a point?" I buried my face in her hair and told her that I was fine, and while the bite had been scary, it hadn't been anything like the ones that had happened in the past. Perhaps, I even mumbled, we could see about Yamame biting me from time to time. "I...Oh, you're just the strangest human I've ever met." She looked up at me and kissed me. After a moment, she pulled back again. "What's that...strange taste?" She asked me slowly.

Not wanting to get into more arguments and feeling bad about it already, I told her that I'd woken up early, before either her or Reimu, and I'd helped Komachi Onozuka, the Shinigami from the night before, leave. She'd kissed me lightly on the lips before she'd left, despite my lack of interest, and I'd admonished her for it. Yamame stared at me, her eyes narrowing and relaxing, then she sighed. "Oh. I might...give her a piece of my mind. Or a fever. Or both. I said to you that I didn't want to share, and I still don't." I didn't have any interest in seeking anyone else. I only wanted Yamame. She looked at me and I spotted the bright smile of hers that I loved coming back. "I think I want to talk to Miss Raki, though." She smiled weakly. "Just...clear the air." I didn't want her to start anything, so I begged her to stay calm. She smiled thinly, but didn't say anything. Instead, she disengaged from the hug and headed for the door. I followed, still telling her not to do anything reckless. On the way, I picked up my t-shirt from Lady Hecatia, since my sweater was damaged and bloody. Once I'd pulled it on and grabbed both my coat and the ruined sweater, Yamame was standing outside. She was still massaging her head every few moments, and I wondered if the hangover had made her far more vindictive.

"Oh, there you are." Reimu said, coming back down the hallway. "Listen, I want to talk to the arm." I looked between them with pleading in my eyes. "Just quickly. I believe you, but still." I knew that both Lady Kasen and Raki were in a particularly vulnerable state right now, and I didn't want to make things worse, but it seemed like nothing I could do would convince the two otherwise. Instead, I tried saying that it was probably about time to leave senkai and get back to the real world. "We'll do this first." Reimu told me, and I knew it was hopeless.

"Just a quick talk." Yamame told me, and I gave her a look. "Really!" She insisted, but I had a feeling she wanted to inflict something on Raki as retribution.

"You too?" Reimu asked Yamame, who nodded. "Huh. Well, let's not keep them waiting." And off the two went, leaving me staring at them. Apparently, wanting to attack someone else was the best way to get on Reimu's good list. I followed after them, still trying to get them to stop. On the way, I realised that they had stopped, well before reaching the stairs up to the third floor where Lady Kasen's rooms were. There was her study, the one on the ground floor with the weird marks on the floor that I couldn't make out. The door was open. Reimu and Yamame looked ready to barge in, when I heard Raki's voice.

"I keep thinking about all the people I've eaten." She was speaking quietly, and there was some more emotion behind it. It was understated, but it was there. Immediately, I lunged forward and pulled both of the girls back before they could do anything. I hissed for them to be quiet. "It's funny. I've - I've never done that before." I could see Lady Kasen through the door, holding a book. Next to her was Raki, who was staring off into the distance. "I didn't realise that I knew some of their names." Lady Kasen put the book down on her lap, watching the arm. "They were just...indulgence. Not even a meal, most of the time. Just because I could." She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. "You didn't tell me that I'd be doing this." She looked over at Lady Kasen. "It was less complicated before. Back then."

"Change happens. And it's never easy, but that doesn't make it bad." Lady Kasen told her. "Even if you're still an oni, you don't have to be like you were in the past. You don't have to be like me."

I felt like we were intruding on something important now, so I dragged Yamame and Reimu back as I pulled us out of that corridor. After a few moments, I realised that they weren't trying to stop me anymore, so I let them go. Instead, they followed me outside, silently. I was surprised that both of them were silent. Once we were both outside, they began speaking again. "I don't think..." Reimu muttered, looking at me. "How do you convince people to try and change their entire being like this?"

"I asked him that too." Yamame told her, smiling slightly. "Must just be his charm." She sighed and crossed her arms. "Sorry, I didn't think she was serious about it. I'll...leave her be." Reimu even agreed, though she looked uncomfortable about it.

Finally, Reimu clapped her hands together. "Time we were off, I think." I agreed but asked if we needed to say goodbye. "Nah. They won't care." Yamame looked relieved as she nodded too. "Anyway, Aunn will be a state, and I'm sure the oni are planning to head back to the hot springs soon too. You don't want to be travelling with them." I shrugged and asked how bad it could be.

"No, she's right. They get distracted constantly. It's really quite annoying." Yamame told me. "Well, we're off to the hot springs too, actually. But I'd feel better if we got there before Miss Yuugi does." I knew that her sisters had said they were struggling, so it would be good if we could get there earlier. "Okay, well..."

The three of us stepped outside of Lady Kasen's senkai, and immediately Reimu was shivering. It wasn't raining, but it was bitterly cold, and I could tell that Autumn was coming to an end. Winter would be on us soon. "Ugh, this is horrible. Alright, I'm going. You," She came closer and gave me a hug, which was nice. "Take care of yourself, for once. And you," She pointed at Yamame. "Take care of him."

Yamame smiled slightly, nodding. "I'll do my best." She spoke. "And, um, you too. Thank you, as well. For letting me come with you." She bowed deeply, almost as deeply as she had when she'd met Lady Kasen.

Reimu placed a hand on Yamame's shoulder. Yamame looked at it in surprise. "It's fine. Glad you enjoyed yourself." Reimu looked over at me and I got the sense that she was making a point about being more friendly to Yamame. "Well...I'll see you soon, I'm sure." Reimu nodded once. "Oh. Actually, how about...I'll come by Yamame's house in a couple days. See if we can meet up with Marisa and Tenshi again." She then turned, but before she could take off, I reminded her to tell Aunn to make sure she got regular amounts of sleep again. She rolled her eyes at me and took to the skies, and before long, she was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

"Okay, then..." Yamame mumbled, taking my hand. "Are you okay?" I was always okay, so I asked her if she was okay. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm okay." I asked her what her thoughts were on everything that had happened. "...I hope the two halves of Ibaraki-douji join again. Even if it's only for a bit, I'd like to meet the genuine article." I just hoped that the two of them could find peace, but I was curious. We wandered away from the clearing and back toward the mountain path when there was a sudden gust of wind and I found myself struggling to stay upright. After a few moments, I started to notice something moving at speed around us. With some idea of what was happening, I waited until I saw the blurry something coming toward us, and I pointed a finger back at it right before it could hit.

It shot backwards and came to a halt, and Aya Shameimaru glared at me. "All clever now, aren't you?" She muttered, then shook her head and let her usual personality take over. "Anyway, morning, morning, morning! Nice and cold, hmm? What do we have here? Two lovers taking a stroll?"

"Go away, reporter." Yamame muttered. "Unless you want influenza."

"My, my, so rude! I don't know how he puts up with you..." Shameimaru strolled forward, the clack-clack of her geta against the ground the only sound, since the wind had disappeared. "But regardless, I'm here to collect!" I straightened up with a clenched draw. "You owe me an exclusive, and I'm here to collect!" I looked at Yamame, then back at Aya. Finally, I shrugged and said that it would have to wait, since we had an important family meeting to get to.

Yamame frowned slightly, then nodded and stepped forward. "Yes, Shameimaru. Big construction meeting. He's needed. Come back later."

Shameimaru frowned. "Oh...Is that right? Well, looks like I'm out of luck. Guess I'll have to come back later. Oh, don't worry, I'll find you." She smiled mysteriously and I got an uncomfortable feeling, but before I could do anything about it, she had shot off as if she was never there.

"That was weird." Yamame muttered. I nodded, wondering what that was about. I suspected that she was going to try and get something more than just the basic interview now that I had rebuffed her, but it would have to wait until after Yamame and I were done with the hot springs. "Let's just get out of here. Too exposed for my liking." I felt the exact same way, so we left as fast as we could, and I hoped that things would be calmer at the hot springs.

>>45115151
>more than just the basic interview
He is a taken man, Aya!

>>45115136
>It may have been said in the heat of the moment, but still. She'd said she loved me. And now there was a smile on my face that I couldn't seem to get rid of.
Wait, seriously? This was the first time Yamame said she loved Anon? I'm surprised it took this long, and honestly that a big deal was made of it considering how obviously head over hells they are for one another.

>"You look like a teenager." Reimu said, looking at me through narrowed eyes.
How old are the human characters supposed to be in this story, anyway? I assumed they were in their late teens or early twenties, but remarks like this and the fact that Reimu's mom died younger than her make me wonder.

>>45115970
>How old are the human characters supposed to be in this story, anyway?
I assumed the same thing, they act as such and i was willing to put down the previous thing of Reimu's mother's death as a mistake but idk anymore

>>45115145
Is Kasen using CBT on Raki?

>>45115970
Yams is an autismo so those kinds of things take time with her

>>45115970
It's stated he's younger than Reimu, so I bet he's at most in his early twenties.
>>45115151
I think anon is getting slightly too much credit for arm-chans change. He's been in the right place at the right time but the effort has mostly been her own with some punchy help from Yuugi and Suika.

>>45115430
She can't help it, tengu are programmed to ensure the continuity of their bloodline.

>>45121511
Slander against Tengu
Aya is just a HAG

>>45116693
to be fair, it was anon that started to convince kasen to unseal arm-chan in the first place
but yes, it'd be a bit undermining for arm-chan herself to attribute her success to him
I wonder if yuugi and suika are going to drag kasen and arm-chan to the hot springs with them

>>45122238
>I wonder if yuugi and suika are going to drag kasen and arm-chan to the hot springs with them
They definitely will drag the to the grand re-opening after Anon singlehandedly lifts the keystone off and tosses it onto Marisas house.

It's too bad Yamame never got to have a serious talk with the two Ibarakis. Considering that she herself is a youkai trying to change her nature for the sake of someone she cares about, they might have been interested in hearing her thoughts. Plus, Kasen would probably be forced to grudgingly acknowledge Yamame as a good girl for Anon.

Btw, this last update was everything I hoped for and more. Seems like everyone near Anon just gets caught in this chaotic vortex and has to just accept it lol (;´ω`)

>>45090844
Here's a another one

>>45123070
There's still a chance for that when they get a bit more stable

>>45115970
early twenties is my estimate
say reimu's mother got pregnant at 16, then died at 21, that leaves a five year old reimu to be raised by genji and/or yukari until she can care for herself (which was probably a sink or swim scenario because yukari has to be hands off enough for reimu to not remember her when they meet in PCB and genji's a turtle)
therefore, 22 year old reimu who's older than than her mother was when she died
leaving anon to be either 21 or 22 himself

>>45123739
>for reimu to not remember her when they meet in PCB
To be fair she's like that with most people she doesn't meet on the daily

"Step right up, step right up! A once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Hell of Blood Pools is what we, the most trustworthy and likeable sisters, promise you! Thrills! Adventure! Excitement! You'll see it all and fall in love with the sights and smells of Former Hell!" The girl with her hair in strange drills was quite the public speaker, that much was clear. She wore a dark grey blazer with a red tie tucked behind the buttons, and a crisp, white shirt underneath. A sort of skirt I had only seen when Hearn had stolen me away to Tokyo on a dark, rainy night. It was tight, with a cut going up the front, slightly to the left. Actually, I think I had seen it before. Miss Raiko of the Horismriver Ensemble worse something similar. A pair of dark tights went all the way down to her feet, where she was wearing some sort of slip-on shoes that had no buckles. "You, Miss, wouldn't you love to see the pools of blood spreading out all around you, as far as the eye can see?"

We'd had a quiet time travelling from the mountain to the underground. It seemed that with Autumn coming to an end, people were starting to get busy with stocking up for winter, and the world had become quiet with anticipation. On the way through the village, we had run into Reisen, who had reminded me that Eirin wanted to see me at the clinic in Eientei again, though since there didn't seem to be a time constraint to this, I simply let it take a place on my increasing list of things to do. We'd passed my house, though I still hadn't tried to enter. It was something that I was still struggling to work up the strength to do. The last time I'd been there, I hadn't even known how my parents had died. Yamame had seen my face and squeezed my hand tighter, which had helped my heart settle slightly. The caves, too, had been quiet, and Yamame theorised that most of her sisters were probably either lazing around or busy in the hot springs, so we'd headed straight there. I had been amazed, staring out at the vast district from the cave we'd tried to enter from in the past, but no oni crashed into the tunnel to block our way this time.

And then, we'd caught this presentation happening. I couldn't quite see who she was talking to, but I could hear something said in return. "That voice sounds...kind of familiar." Yamame whispered to me from where we stood, up on the hills of the Old City's Hot Springs town with a view over the small crowd gathered to watch the presentation. "Maybe it's just my imagination." I looked over at her and asked her if she'd seen this happen before. "The tours? Yeah, they've been going on for a little bit. Ever since...That black water incident, I think. Or maybe just a little bit after that." I asked her if she had ever taken one. "Pfft. Not much point. I can get down to where they're going on my own, just fine. I even did, as a matter of fact." She frowned and scratched her face. "And...What are they saying now?" She indicated back toward the sisters doing the presentation.

"Excellent decision, my dear, excellent decision! I, Jo'on Yorigami, can personally guarantee your safety!" My eyes widened. So, this was Jo'on Yorigami? And that meant... "Shion?" Jo'on twisted, her hands on her hips, to look at what had to be her sister, Shion Yorigami. She had a shirt that looked poorly sized and looked ragged. It had sections sewed together with patchwork, and the material itself looked to be thick and uneven. She also wore a skirt like Miss Raiko's, but it too looked ragged and well-worn, with a few more bits of patchwork running through it. Both the bow adorning her hair and the tights covering her legs were the same. She wasn't wearing shoes, but she never seemed to touch the ground and in fact, her lower half looked strangely...immaterial. It was almost as if it was on fire. Blue fire. Shion Yorigami, I supposed. Tenshi's old friend. The one who had left her to join her sister, Jo'on, for some scheme during that black water incident. Speaking of Tenshi, I hadn't seen her since I'd left Eientei. I hoped she was doing okay.

"Yes, Jo'on..." Shion's voice was difficult to describe. The best way I could think to put it was listless. It was somewhat similar to Chiyari Tenkajin's, the youkai living in my house in the human village. She was clearly tall, too, and I imagined that if she was standing, and especially if she was standing straight, she would tower over her sister. "We, the Yorigami sisters, will do our best to keep you safe. Please be aware that all fees must be paid in advance and will not be refunded in the case of injury, attack, or death."

"Or death?" Yamame muttered. "That's a bit much, isn't it? Who's gonna sign up for a tour where you might die before the end of it? Excitement and danger is one thing, but..." She trailed off, and I saw that she was staring not at the sisters, but just down from them, at the front of the crowd. "But..."

I couldn't see quite as well as her. Even the peach couldn't put my eyesight at that of a youkai, but I frowned and squinted regardless. "Yorigami Tourists has our full support, and you'll be safe the entire time! So, Miss - What's your name?" Something I couldn't quite hear. "Miss Kurodani, if you'd just come with us, we'll sort out your payment right now!" That, I could hear, and I turned to Yamame, who was staring with her mouth open.

"Buh." She intelligently said. Was it one of her sisters. "Uh. Um. They'd not be naïve enough to..." She paled a little. "Oh..." And then she grabbed my hand and dragged me off into the crowd. Not wanting to get trampled underneath a bunch of oni or whatever else was down here, I made sure to keep a tight grip. "Nai!" Yamame shouted, pushing through to the front of the crowd despite the shouted protests. "Nai, come back here this instant!"

And there she was, the smallest of the Kurodani family. Nai, who'd clearly received a fright when she'd heard Yamame's voice, because she'd already raised her hands in front of her chest and looked a little worried. "B-Big sister!?" She said in confusion as we finally broke through the crowds to where Nai was standing next to Jo'on. "I-I thought you were on the surface!"

"I was, and now I'm here. Bloody good timing, too." Yamame looked at Jo'on, who had an annoyed look on her face. "Sorry, Miss Yorigami, but something's come up. I'm afraid my sister won't be able to come on your tour today."

"Hey, lady!" Shion's voice sounded as she drifted slowly over to hover at Jo'on's back. "Don't try and cheat us out of a fair sale!" She looked a little less listless now. "We sold her on the tour fair and square!"

"Yeah?" Yamame put her hands on her hips. "Well, I'm her big sister and I say she's not going!" Yamame leaned in to whisper quietly. "You know, I remember when you two were throwing that oil stuff around and claiming you were rich. I'm not about to let a miser like you cheat my sister out of her money."

"A miser?" Shion repeated, and suddenly I felt an overwhelming urge to back away. "A miser!?" She shouted, and her body suddenly seemed to alight, blue fire surrounding her. "How dare you!? We're doing our best to escape our deprived lifestyle and you call us misers!? Shut up!" She was shaking her fist at Yamame now. "Who cares if it's dangerous or expensive or whatever!? We're doing our best here!"

Jo'on, standing next to her, rubbed her head and began to fish around in her pockets. "Well, if you've upset my big sis, then I've got no choice but to throw down. I'm sure you can understand defending your family, Kurodani." She pulled several rings from her pockets, slipping them onto her fingers. Each was a different colour and a different shape, but somehow, I expected that they were not delicate. Now a little concerned, I looked over at Yamame, who was staring back at the Yorigami sisters with grim determination. "Don't think about backing out now, you hear? There's a whole crowd watching. Isn't this nice? There's two of you and there's two of us." Yamame's eyes widened slightly, and she looked at me. I looked in the direction she was looking, saw no one, then looked back at her. Me? I pointed at my own chest. I wasn't a fighter! And worse, the crowd that had been watching the presentation, which was still mostly oni, were starting to look very interested in the prospect of a fight.

"Okay." Yamame whispered to me. "You're not getting out of this without fighting. I'm sorry, but if you back down in front of that lot," She indicated the crowd of oni, "Any reputation you could have had is finished. Luckily, you're not fighting an oni, and she probably knows just as well as you do that you're not as durable as some. Sorry for, um, getting you caught up in this." I mumbled an agreement and told her to make it up to me later. "Shush, you. Okay, take a deep breath."

"Oi, you two done flirting?" Jo'on called, the rings now settled on her fingers and looking like they were very heavy. "I'd like to wrap this up in time to get a few sales in."

"Nai, get out of the way." Yamame muttered.

"But Big Sister, I can fi-!" Nai insisted, but even I could tell that she was tiny and definitely not strong enough to fight someone with makeshift knuckledusters.

"No, Nai! Do as your big sister tells you!" Nai, never one to remain defiant against Yamame, only held for a second or two before backing away. "Okay, um...I really hope you had some sort of martial arts training with Miss Ibaraki. Remember to clench your jaw. I've seen enough fights between oni to know what happens if you don't. Protect your face and upper body and...Um, try not to get beaten up too bad. I don't think she'll go too far."

Jo'on was stepping forward, Shion floating behind her. Feeling very nervous, I stepped forward too, meeting her in the open space. "You're just a regular human. What are you even doing here?" Now only capable of a few words, I eventually managed to say that I was here for a family meeting. "In...Former Hell. Okay, whatever. Here's the deal. You don't hold back. If you do, I'll stop holding back." I swallowed nervously. I wasn't sure I could hit a girl. "Well, I guess you'd better learn quickly, hmm?"

On my side, Yamame was staring up at Shion, who towered over her. She was probably close to my height. "You're so gonna pay for calling us poor. You - You spider!"

"Excellent insult. You're doing terrific." Yamame muttered dryly. "Are you fighting any time soon? We'll be late for a meeting at this rate, Miss...What's your name, again?"

"Shion Yorigami, local poverty god turned Billionaire tour god - Wait, you're mocking me!" Shion shouted, then she shot forward, her arms wreathed in fire. Yamame, as I knew, was very flexible, and threw herself backward, letting the blue-haired girl pass over her head thanks to the momentum not letting her stop. Immediately, Yamame launched herself into the air, and I saw strands of web shoot up into the darkness above. Shion turned, looking upward, and then over at Jo'on, who was watching along with me. "Jo'on, she's ran away..."

"I don't think she has." Jo'on said, pleasantly. "Oh, there she is." In fact, Yamame was shooting above Shion and trailing bullets behind her, and then, she dropped down, crashing into the poverty goddess and knocking her to the ground.

"Oh, right. Hey." She tapped me on the shoulder. "I'm Jo'on Yorigami, local pestilence god turned oil baron turned tour guide." I turned to her, and before I could blink, I was doubling over. The pain only registered a moment later, when I realised that she'd driven a fist into my stomach. As my breath was driven out of me, I thanked Lady Kasen in my mind for having me do so many body-strengthening exercises. "Remember what I said." She let me struggle upright, then aimed another punch at my head. This time, I was prepared, and I ducked under the punch and threw a punch of my own out, which Jo'on easily dodged. Jo'on was faster and leagues more experienced than me, but I had luck on my side, so I managed to dodge a couple more punches before she connected again, with another hit to my stomach.

It hurt, but I was happy to see that it didn't hurt as much as I'd expected a hit from those rings on her fingers to hurt. "I like your coat, by the way. How about you give it to me?" I ducked under a punch which flew over my shoulder, then threw myself forward, my shoulder crashing into Jo'on's face. I forced out that it definitely wouldn't fit her, then I tried to punch her in the stomach. Shockingly, I connected, making her double over. Immediately, I felt bad and tried to apologize, and she used that chance to punch me again, in the shoulder this time. "Oh, shut up! It's a fight, people get hit! You got bricks in there or something!?" She shouted at me sharply, looking at my fists. I frowned and looked at them, then shrugged.

Then, Yamame flew between us, having been hit by Shion's dives. My first instinct was to check if she was okay, and Jo'on made me pay for it. I only caught the fist just before it connected with my face, so I did as Yamame told me and clenched my jaw. I think, if I wasn't so much taller and enhanced by the peach, I'd have been done for there and then, but thankfully, I only felt like everything had gone white for a split second. I staggered to the side, happy that I didn't seem to have lost any teeth.

Yamame launched back through, this time spinning into a kick aimed at Shion's head, which sent the billionaire tour god to the ground, possibly even tearing some new holes in her clothes. Then, as Shion got up, she repeated her technique of dropping on her from above, sending her head into the ground a second time. The crowd cheered at that, and Yamame even looked a little proud of it.

Now that I was starting to understand the place a little better, I knew that I'd best really get into the swing of things. I turned, already throwing a punch, only to see that Jo'on had come to the same conclusion. Our fists ended up connecting, sending a wave of pain through my hand, but through her's as well. Not waiting, I tried with my other hand, but she slapped it away before it could reach me and tried to swing her free fist up into my jaw. I barely shifted my head enough to avoid it, then brought a knee up into Jo'on's side, which sent her staggering. Then, I ran forward, jumped at Jo'on, and slammed my head against hers, sending us both to the ground. It was a stupid move, because now my head hurt as much as it might have made hers, but it had seemed like the sort of grandstanding gesture that would be useful here.

And indeed, Jo'on was shaking her head dizzily, and there was a trickle of blood coming from her nose. She wiped at it, laughing quietly. "Oh, I like you." She muttered under her breath. "Let's keep going!" She got to one knee, then barged forward, hitting my waist strongly. From there, she threw two quick punches into my stomach, then jumped and throw another kick into my side, this one strong enough to knock me over. I fell into the ground, coughing heavily from the pain in my ribs. Then, Shion smashed into Jo'on, both of them sent sprawling some distance away.

Yamame was soon by my side, helping me to my feet. "You're doing good." She told me, reassuringly. "Hopefully they'll be willing to stop soon. Just, um, keep on doing what you're doing."

Both of the sisters were already on their feet. Or rather, Jo'on was on her feet and Shion was floating behind her. "Alright...I'm nowhere near finished." Jo'on growled, rolling her neck and cracking her knuckles. She sunk back into her fighting stance, then rushed forward. Yamame and I did the same, and we were all just about to attack when the unexpected happened.

A whole spree of lasers suddenly crashed into the ground in front of us, splitting Yamame and I from the sisters. "Hey! The hell are you idiots doing!?" The voice was a roar, and it was also familiar. "I'm barely tolerating you two as it is!" Then, Yuugi Hoshiguma landed between us, the lasers disappearing. I looked up and saw some sort of being flit away into the darkness, presumably whatever Yuugi had used for that laser attack. She was speaking to the Yorigami sisters. "You got enough money to pay back your debts yet?"

And I was amazed to see Jo'on and Shion's demeanours instantly change. "No, Hoshiguma. Dreadfully sorry, Hoshiguma. We'll have money for you soon, Hoshiguma." Jo'on was bowing, and I spotted her slipping her rings back into her pockets as she did so.

"Hm." Yuugi regarded them for a few moments. "Well, get back to your tour business. You know that rules about attacking the spiders here."

"Yes, Hoshiguma!" Jo'on cried, rushing up to Yamame and bowing deeply. After a moment, she smacked Shion in the side and the poverty god bowed too. "We're very sorry, Miss Kurodani! And you, human!"

Yamame blankly stared. "Uh...Okay?" I stretched my back and groaned in pain, then accepted their apology. The two then backed off and fled somewhere, but I noticed Jo'on look back once Yuugi couldn't see her, catching my eye, and she smirked at me before they turned a corner.

"You lot, piss off!" Yuugi shouted at the crowd, who soon found reasons to disperse, leaving myself, Yamame, Nai and Yuugi. "Well, we wake up and find out that you two have disappeared," She said to Yamame and I, "And then the four of us finally get down here and you're already fighting with the local poor gods. You sure don't waste time, do you?" I didn't really know what to say, and my ribs were still hurting, so I just made a vague noise. "What a way to make an impression. Tell you what. You probably shouldn't have been getting beaten up, and I'm the manager here, so I'll get you some free stuff." I managed to thank her, but then the words she'd used filtered through my mind. Had she said, 'four of us'? "Huh? Oh, yeah. Over there."

With Yamame helping me, I turned. There was a raised walkway, the one Yamame and I had been watching from. Sat against the wall, her legs outstretched before her, was Suika Ibuki, and next to her, arms crossed and an intrigued expression on her face, was Lady Kasen. Finally, squatting down and watching with a smirk, was Ibaraki-douji's arm. When they saw me looking, they all waved in their own ways. "I'd say you've made some fans down here. Not many humans willing to tangle with a god who loves fist-fighting, and I know the ones who are willing already." She shrugged. "Anyway, You probably want to be off for whatever it is you're here for. Give my name to people, tell them I said to give you whatever you wanted."

"Um, yes. Yes, that's right. Thank you, Hoshiguma." Yamame said, looking a little frazzled. "Nai, come with us." When Nai opened her mouth, Yamame shot her a look that made her shut right up. "Now, Nai." And helping me, we were off, up the twisting steps of the Old City's Hot Springs Town.

Jo'on is no joke, how the fuck did anon manage to keep up with her?

>>45126154
Heavenly peaches make your body hard as steel, and she told him before they started that she's hold back as long as he didn't, probably because she knew that he couldn't keep up with her of she didn't and really, it was more of Shion's fight than hers
I mean, Jo'on has canonically beaten Yuugi in a fist fight, so if she went all out, anon would be a fine paste

>>45125998
>but I noticed Jo'on look back once Yuugi couldn't see her, catching my eye, and she smirked at me before they turned a corner.
cute

>>45126154
It's all just spectacle, soon enough she'll attempt to recruit (read: kidnap) anon for some show matches.

How will Shion react to Tenshi and Marisa's newfound closeness?
>>45125998
>>45126407
Another non-human charmed by Anon's exotic flavor of idiocy... can he be stopped? But most importantly, will he develop a taste for findom?

>>45128131
As long as it's not Reimu or Yukari i don't think it will bother her, as far as i know she doesn't have beef with Marisa

Shion seems stressed, maybe Tenshi should visit her.

>>45129229
That's just her canon personality, Shion is one of the worst "people" in Gensokyo.
I imagine she isn't going to be very happy with anon for trying to steal her dear sister away.

>>45129229
calling shion poor is essentially pushing her berserk button

>>45129803
I wanna call shion poor and have her beat me up... and then have her bully me after she takes my wallet and finds it empty!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

>>45134522
man, I love spiders.

"Right." Yamame said, pacing back and forth with her hands behind her back. "Right..."

We'd walked up the streets of the Old City's Hot Springs Town, me grumbling the whole way as my entire torso registered displeasure at the beating it had received. Jo'on Yorigami was no joke, and she'd been holding back. Once I'd decided that I couldn't keep walking, Yamame had cajoled me into continuing until we'd finally ducked into a small set of rooms just off from the path down to the major springs with the massive keystone still embedded into it. "They set up some rooms over here for my sisters to use. Saves time, otherwise they'd be ferrying themselves all the way through the caves with their tools every day and we'd never get anything done." I'd nodded weakly, happy to finally sit down, which I did so against a wall. Nai had meekly followed us, and now stood at the edge of the room. Yamame looked over at her, then dragged a thin pillow across and dropped it in front of her. "Sit, Nai."

"H-Huh?"

"Sit!" Yamame barked, and Nai squeaked a little before falling onto her knees and sitting back on the pillow. Thus, the pacing.

"U-Um, Big Sister...?" Nai ventured, which seemed to be Yamame's cue, since she suddenly stopped her pacing and turned to Nai, her hands on her hips.

"You silly girl!" Yamame said, her voice loud, but not loud enough to be shouting. "I've told you, time and time again, don't come down here on your own! You're too young!"

"I'm not that young!" Nai cried, showing perhaps the first real backbone I'd ever seen her display against her Big Sister. "And I didn't come alone!"

"Yeah? Who'd you come with? If you say Yura, it doesn't count because she's too immature for her age anyway!"

"B-But it was her and Big Sister Reiko! You're always saying how reliable she is!"

"Then I'll just have to knock both of their heads together for letting you sneak off!" Yamame huffed and looked at me. I looked back from my wall where I was sitting and trying to let my body recover from its punishment, then raised my hands as if to say 'Don't ask me'. "Honestly, Nai, I'm only so harsh on you because I don't want you to get into trouble."

Nai looked down dejectedly. "I know, Big sister..." Frankly, she looked so upset that I felt like giving her a hug, but I managed to hold myself back. "I just...Thought I would go for a walk, that's all..." I looked up at Yamame, who seemed to be involved in a serious fight to maintain her annoyance but was rapidly losing because it seemed so difficult to let Nai be sad.

Eventually, Yamame sighed. "I'm sorry, Nai. I'm just trying to look out for you. You should always bring one of your sisters along with you when you're in the Old City."

"...Yes, Big Sister..." Nai mumbled. "I really didn't mean to upset you! I just - I couldn't get away from the crowd, and then..."

"It's okay, Nai. Try and stay away from those two as much as you can. They'd have taken your money first, then sent you off somewhere dangerous and refused to give it back if you got hurt. Which...you probably would have. I don't know if that strange girl's still in the blood pools, but if you fell in..." Yamame shook her head. "It doesn't bear thinking about. Please, just promise me you'll take some more care?" Yamame knelt down in front of Nai and put her hands on the smaller spider's shoulders.

"Y-Yes, Big Sister. I promise!" Nai nodded, and Yamame happily pulled her into a hug. It was quite a sweet moment, actually. Once they'd separated, Nai asked Yamame what she was doing here.

"Well, I hear that my dear sisters have run into a spot of trouble with the oni, so I'm here to sort it out before someone gets it in their head to try and challenge someone to a drinking competition. Probably Yura - That girl's got no sense. Reiko should be taking care of this, but she's always struggled with the oni." I looked over and asked Yamame why no one but her seemed capable of dealing with them. "They're just hard to handle. Reiko's lovely and dependable, but she gets tongue-tied around them and can't get her points out." I'd seen Yamame get very tongue-tied around some specific oni just yesterday, though, so I was curious how Yamame was able to handle the oni so much better, though I didn't say anything out loud.

I looked around the room, finally. It seemed that it was some sort of lodging for those staying in the Hot Springs Town, and it was nice enough that I was very pleased to get a chance to stay there. It wasn't exceptionally far from the village, but with a lot of flair that I could only imagine was either the oni or the Kurodani family themselves, working tirelessly on construction. The twisting streets I'd seen outside were reminiscent of the stories I'd read of other Hot Springs Towns up in the north, where it was always snowing. From what I'd heard, I assumed it was in the Outside World. Canals ran through the major streets, the sound of rushing water audible even over the conversations between other patrons, and all the way up the massive hills that the town occupied, which went all the way up to what had to be near the ceiling of the caverns that the Old City lay in. I wondered how everything above hadn't come crashing down.

"Well, then." Yamame hopped to her feet, clapping her hands together. "We'd best go and see what my dear sisters want." She come over to me. "Feeling better?" She murmured quietly as she crouched down next to me. I cautiously tested myself by trying to stand up, and I managed it after a few moments of pain. I'd probably need a while longer before I'd healed up, though. Yamame sympathetically patted my cheek. "Let's just get through this, and then we can relax, okay? Sit in the hot springs. You'll love it!" That did sound nice, so I grit my teeth, nodded, and made to put my coat on, only to remember that it was fiendishly hot around here, so I instead asked Yamame if I'd be okay leaving my coat here. "...You'd probably be fine, but...No, actually, I'd say bring it with you. You don't have to wear it, but you can leave it with my sisters, and it'll definitely be safer." I couldn't say I was looking forward to carrying it around, but either way, I threw it over my shoulder and rolled my sleeves up.

Finally, we left the rooms, re-joining the twisting streets. I was surprised by how busy it was, and even more so by the variety of people wandering the streets. I saw oni, animals of all kinds that I suspected belonged to Satori Komeiji, a few hats that I recognized as belonging to crow tengu, and I thought I even saw a few foxes. They all wandered the streets, some in groups, some alone, and even more crowded at the variety of stalls and shops that lined the walkways. I could see talismans being sold in one store, and next to it, bags upon bags of manjuu. I briefly considered buying some, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to carry it around all day, so I let it be for now.

I turned to Yamame as we walked, trying to ignore the aching of my ribs as we went, and asked her where exactly we were headed. "Well, The keystone's over in the big hot springs, but obviously we can't just set up in loads of water, so Hoshiguma cleared out a building over here, by the path down, and had us set up in there. I think a couple of my sisters have been sticking around to keep any of the others from trying to reclaim it. It's...weird. I've been mostly absent from the process, actually. I helped with the initial setup, and I did a few days, but otherwise...I've been busy with - Well..." Busy with what, I asked. Yamame turned to look at me, a pointed look on her face, and I blankly stared back and asked her a second time. "Busy with you." She slowly replied in a strange voice, and I laughed a little. "Shut up!" She continued, though I saw a slight smile on her face too. Behind us, Nai fidgeted uncomfortably, and Yamame turned back and ruffled her hair until she complained ineffectually.

After a few more twists, turns, and plenty of stairs, we turned onto a quieter street, and I saw people of a different kind milling about. Outfits in the colours of Yamame's, and plenty of the girls I saw had similar patterns in the outfit of browns and golds. "Here we are." Yamame said brightly. "I suppose the oni aren't spending too much time around here." There was a big building just up ahead, by a crossroads. As we got closer, I saw several of the other girls - Yamame's sisters - take notice of us, and before I knew it, several of the other spiders were following. We made it to the building relatively unimpeded, and I saw that one side of the crossroads was another set of twisting and winding steps, but this one was narrower and went further down, and I could see that it came out by the massive springs that I could see since we were so much higher up.

Tenshi's massive keystone still stuck out like a sore thumb, and I wondered why it had taken so long to get rid of it. Surely it couldn't only be because the oni kept trying to turn it into a competition? "Alright, in here. Let's find out what exactly is going on." Yamame stepped ahead of me, pulled upon the sliding door to the building and ushered Nai and I inside. While we were pulling our boots and shoes off, Yamame had a short conversation with the girls outside, which involved some excited words and Yamame getting pulled into a hug by one of them. I watched curiously, until Yamame finally dragged herself free and told the girls outside that she was busy.

"Sorry, that was just some of my other sisters. They're about my age, but I don't get to see them all too often." Yamame explained, grabbing my coat from me, and leading me upstairs. Nai followed up one floor, but then stopped.

"Big Sister, can I...?" She asked, seeking permission.

"Of course, Nai. Just remember what I told you." Yamame told her, ruffling her hair again despite Nai's complaints. Nai eventually gave up on fixing it, then took off down the hallway and into one of the rooms. "Her sisters." Yamame told me. "Her age, anyway. I always tell her to spend more time with them, but she keeps coming to my door." She paused for a moment. "Not that I'd ever deny her. Adorable, she is." Well, I couldn't exactly disagree. We continued up two more floors, until we were near the top of the building. Here, there were a number of rooms down a long corridor, and I didn't know exactly what to expect, so I let Yamame lead me down to the first door, which she pulled open. Inside was a storage room, and Yamame poked her head in, looked around, then placed my coat behind some boxes. "Should be safe there. It's not like it'll fit any of my sisters, anyway." If they wore it, they'd be dragging half of it along the ground. Yamame nodded satisfactorily, then pulled the door shut again. "I'm sure that plenty of the family are working on the wood, anyway. The stone's annoying enough, but half the wood of the buildings nearly rotted, and it's been a bloody nightmare getting it all replaced. Anyway, that's probably why it's not so busy in here." Yamame told me, pulling open the second door along the corridor.

"Yamame!" I heard a roar, and just as Yamame turned her head back to the room instead of me, something with reddish hair crashed into her and knocked her to the floor. "Oh, where have you been!? It's been forever! I thought you'd given up on us!" The red thing was another spider, but she was taller, with long, extremely messy hair, and her dress was wrapped around her waist, with her shirt coming only down to just above the middle of her back. "Are you eating right? How's the seamstress business? Is it true what Yura said about you meeting a human boy?" She was wrapping her arms around Yamame, playing with her hair, kissing her forehead, and all sorts.

"Wait, just - No - Please, get off me, I can't breathe!" She cried, and finally, the red girl relented and clambered to her feet before helping Yamame up. After a moment to catch her breath, she stepped back over to me, which made the red girl draw in a gasp and open her mouth. "Wait, please." Yamame repeated, and with a pout, the girl waited. "Okay, I've been busy, that's all. Yes, the seamstress business is going well. More than well, actually. I had a slight change of diet, but I'm doing fine. And, um, yes, I did meet a human." She poked me in the side, and I introduced myself. "This is Kisami. My...Elder Sister." Yamame said, seeming to struggle a little at the end. I looked between the two of them, a slight smile blooming on my face.

"So, you're the one who's captured my cute little sister's heart!?" Kisami jumped over to me in an instant, talking excitedly. Her eyes were a striking shade of blue, and for a moment, I wondered just how she fit in with the rest of the family. The others I'd seen all had hair ranging from black, to brown, to blonde, but the wild, messy red that framed Yamame's elder sister's eyes and wide smile was entirely different. Perhaps she was adopted? No, that would be ridiculous. She actually looked a fair bit like the gatekeeper at the Vampire's Mansion, Miss Meiling. Well, maybe it was just personal preference and she liked red. "Well, she's definitely grown up. Haven't you?" She looked back at Yamame, who scowled and looked away. "Feels like it was just yesterday that she up and ran at the first sight of a big, strong man."

"Ki!" Yamame cried. "Shut up!"

"Aw, you know I only do it because I love you, Yamame! And that means embarrassing you whenever I can!" Kisami jumped back over to Yamame, ruffling her hair again. I was a little amazed at seeing this from the other side. Yamame and Nai weren't so different, it seemed.

I wondered if Reimu and I looked like this from the outside.

After a few moments, Yamame finally pulled her very excitable elder sister off of her. "We're here to see how the reconstruction's going." She said, edging back over to me so Kisami couldn't make another grab for her. "Yura told me that they were running into some trouble with the oni." She had a slight blush on her face, and I had a feeling that she was very embarrassed about Kisami's behaviour. "Can we, er, step in?"

"Huh?" Kisami asked blankly. "Oh! Of course, of course! They all love you, Yamame! Goodness knows why they won't give me the time of day, but alas..." She began to lead us down the hallway again, toward the last door along the hallway.

"Probably because she's so energetic that even an oni can't keep up. Ah, maybe the old kishin chiefs..." She muttered to me.

"What's that?" Kisami said, spinning around so fast that she nearly whipped me in the face with her hair. "Did you say something?"

"Oh, just talking about your crush on that Kishin chief. What was his name? Su-" Yamame smugly said, only for Kisami to slap a hand over her mouth.

"And that's enough of that! How cruel of you to try and embarrass your big sister!" She quickly told us, turning and leading us to the end of the hallway again. I had a feeling that she had been a little embarrassed. "Now, in, in!" She pulled open the sliding door and ushered us inside.

There were plenty of scribbled sketches pinned against all of the walls. Big diagrams showing the general layout of the town, which areas had been most damaged in Tenshi's little stunt, what had been done so far, and what was left to go. And right in the centre, a big circle with 'Big Fuck-Off Rock' written inside. "Oh, very mature, Yura." Yamame said sarcastically as we entered the room.

Across the room, a manjuu in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other, was Yura. She looked up at our approach. "Hey, there you two are! I knew you were coming as soon as I heard Ki overreacting. Ain't that right, Ki?"

"Oh, shush. I'm allowed to be happy when my little sister comes to see me." Kisami told us, taking a seat by the table in the middle of the room. "Especially when she brings someone with her..."

"Ki!" Yamame shouted. "Please behave yourself!" Kisami's smile grew wider still, and I got the impression that she had absolutely no intention of behaving herself.

I heard a throat clearing, and I looked over to the corner of the room near the door. There was another few diagrams pinned to the walls there, these ones showing lists of names. I spotted Yura's name, which I assumed meant that it was a list of the Kurodani family. And leaning over them, muttering to herself, was the other sister of Yamame's that I had met, Reiko. "Thank you for coming, Yams." Reiko said, turning and striding over. "I'd expected you to take longer."

"Yeah, a lot longer." Yura added, and Yamame slapped her on the arm.

"Regardless," Reiko shot Yura a glare. "We're all happy you're here." She slapped the papers that she had pulled from the wall down at the table. "Come over here." She invited Yamame over to the table, and I followed. Reiko stole the place next to Yamame, leaving me to sit next to Kisami, who looked like she was barely holding herself back from divulging all of Yamame's most embarrassing secrets. "So," She pointed at the diagram showing the layout of the area on the table, "Here's the places that aren't making any progress. I had Ki ask around, and she says that they're the groups that keep coming back to find the oni smacking each other across the face with the wood. The rock's still not getting moved, and I figure it'll take all of us to sort that out, so I'm leaving it to the end. I'm hoping you can...I don't know, talk to the oni? They love you, for whatever reason. More than any of us, at least."

"I think-" Kisami said, raising a finger.

"No, Ki. You're not to talk to them. The last thing we need is you causing a scene." Reiko told her firmly.

She pouted. "Oh, you used to be so nice to me, Rei!"

"Um, yes, I can handle that." Yamame said, nodding. "Shouldn't take too long. Just these areas? Oh, and Hoshiguma's back. Just about an hour ago."

"Really?" Yura said, taking a seat opposite me. "That's good. She's about the only one apart from you who can keep them under control. Honestly, the replacement manager - while Hoshiguma was gone? Bloody useless. Spent more time in his cups than out of them and confused every single one of us with someone else." Personally, I thought that sounded about right for the oni, but I decided not to contribute.

"Hey, this is great news! Work'll be back on track, my little sister came to visit me, all my family's here, and I've got some new eye-candy!" Kisami cheered, slapping me on the back.

"Ki!" Yamame sounded scandalised. "He's not eye-candy! And he's not yours, either!"

Kisami smiled and raised her hands. "Relax, little sister. I'm just very happy, that's all." Yamame stared at her suspiciously for a moment, then turned and got back to speaking to Reimu about the work she needed to do. As soon as the coast was clear, Kisami poked me. "Want to hear about the time Yamame came to me, crying because she'd had a bad dream?"

And then the meeting devolved into Yamame shouting at Kisami, Yura egging her on, and Reiko sighing heavily as she pulled the important papers out of the way.

But at least it was very entertaining.

It just occurred to me, is Yamame using her silk for anon's clothes?

>>45135065
Well that's another redhead for the anon train, actually does jo'on count as a redhead too?

>>45135138
>does jo'on count as a redhead too?
Yes, though maybe a sort of blonde

>>45134522
I can't believe I took that seriously at first

>>45135113
Probably not entirely since it would be limiting to only make silk clothes
She said way back when anon first went to her home that she buys lots of materials, and once heca started to work with her, she probably started supplying her, since she has to get her supplies for her hell clothes from somewhere
I imagine she uses silk for the inner linings though, and she'll definitely demand to make their wedding clothes herself, or with heca

>>45135052
>"This is Kisami. My...Elder Sister." Yamame said, seeming to struggle a little at the end.
>Perhaps she was adopted? No, that would be ridiculous. She actually looked a fair bit like the gatekeeper at the Vampire's Mansion, Miss Meiling.
Kisami is the step headed red child, huh? I imagine the resemblance to Meiling implies they're related.
So through extended family, guess that means Anon Hakurei will be marrying into the Hong clan as well as the Kurodani clan. The family tree goes ever more complex.

>>45135287
I feel you. I didn't realize it was a joke until it got to the THC part.

>>45135065
>then turned and got back to speaking to Reimu about the work she needed to do
Reimu is doing a fine jon getting along with Yamame I see, kek.

Great chapter, I wonder if anon will have anything to do or if he'll just be eye candy while Yams is working.

Hold up. You guys actually made an AU for that Hakurei Shrine story?
I have no clue what's going on but it's neat.

>>45136343
>You guys actually made an AU for that Hakurei Shrine story?
huh?

>>45136343
>You guys actually made an AU for that Hakurei Shrine story?
idk probably not

>>45135741
I think the comparison to Meiling is just to give you an idea of how she looks, like when he said that Reimu looked a bit like Kaguya. Or maybe Yamame's mother was a bit of a freak
>>45135847
>Reimu
There's always something...

>>45136343
if you're talking about the hse, there's no connection between it and the kms

Does Suika count as a redhead?

>>45136343
Get your head out of the circlejerk, man.

>>45138067
maybe pre-19 when she was ginger, but she's fully blonde now

>>45136343
Completely different story, maybe one funny reference here and there
KMS predates HSE anyways

>>45138131
Curse ZUN and his obsession with blondehus

I would like to announce to the thread and spread the mental image that >>45135113 gave me
It is a simple image
Of Yamame lining her sisters and delicately massaging their spinnerets to harvest the massive amounts of silk needed to fulfill Heca's clothing orders and line the wood they use for construction.

>>45139090
anon

>>45139090
When will yamame ask anon to massage her spinnerete?

>>45139090
sorry to ruin your fetish fantasies, but 17.5 confirmed it to be more of a spiderman deal where they can just shoot web

>>45139272
Or she already had that string in hand for the sake of looking cooler and avoiding an embarrassing comment at her expense.

>>45139090
how strong does Heca needs the clothes to be anyway? When the dope of a spider hardens and assembles itself, it can be tough as steel with about 1.25GPa~. There's a motive it's used for bone implants and scaffolding. Though the coloration like the silk of the Joro spider can be breathtaking...

>>45139272
Anon my fetish fantasies are too strong to let something as silly as 'canon' get in the way!

>>45139546
Well they would need to be Oni strong at the least, if she wanted to sell them to the old hell residents.

Can't believe that Yamame's elder sister wants to get a piece of the faceless guy who tried to kill Seiga in WaHH.

>>45139838
>faceless guy who tried to kill Seiga in WaHH
what

>>45139988
to be fair, he's probably a big deal if he's a chief

>>45140062
I like how writeanon forgets some things that he wrote himself but remembers these details kek

>>45139838
She deserves what was coming for her

>>45137034
>like when he said that Reimu looked a bit like Kaguya
I thought that was referencing the jokes that AI anon's Reimu pictures were secretly Kaguya.
>surprise boxes
It's also possible that Kisami is a child from a previous marriage, or even a later one if Yamame's parents are divorced. I'm guessing the latter, since Yamame's wording implies she had to get used to having an older sister and that they're not blood related.

>>45138889
Really? I thought the original HSE story started in April of either this year or last.

>>45138131
Hair colors have always been inconsistent. Reimu's hair was purple in PC98 and regularly oscillates between black and brown to this day. And that's not to say anything about her eyes

>>45141741
>Really? I thought the original HSE story started in April of either this year or last.
nope, last month, 29 of September
the OG Hana fic started all the way back in June, which is a spin-off of the OG Abuse fic that started sometime before December of last year
sharing one of our out of context memes as a cultural exchange! https://files.catbox.moe/4vj2oh.webm

>>45141741
I don't think the wording implies that she isn't blood related, and her struggling at the end was because she was just a little embarrassed about introducing her, probably because she acts the way she does. It's not like yamame's sisters all have to have yellow, black or brown hair. Plus, Kisami's mention of Yamame coming crying to her after having a bad dream implies that she's been her big sister since yamame was young
the original Hana story started a while back, was on hiatus for a while, then resumed for two threads before the writer went on holiday in late september, at which point the HSE threads started
reimu's hair's been fully black since 15 in the mainline games, which was something like eight years ago. And ZUN's original sketch of suika shows her having more blondish hair than ginger, so 19 was really just going back to what it should have been from the start.

can we have some parsee in this story?

>>45142198
I don't really think writefriend's version of her can even interact with anon, or i guess is more that anon can't interact with her.

>>45141857
I see, I was conflating them all under the same name. To be honest I haven't read the Hana one past the first chapter, let alone any of the current stuff lol

>>45141865
I dunno, much emphasis is put on how different she looks from her sisters (not just hair, but also facial structure). I like your embarrassment interpretation; I was thinking it's possible Yamame's parents got remarried when she was quite young, but then she wouldn't be hesitant about calling Kisami big sis. Still, all this hardly matters since it's clear the sisters are all very close, blood relations or not. Which is sort of Writeanon's whole schtick anyway.
You're right, I've ignored how ZUN at least tries to maintain internal consistency (although I still think there are some weak links, like Reimu's eyes still switching between black/brown/red and Daiyousei's blonde hair that one time). My main point is that character design in Touhou has never been particularly consistent, especially considering spinoffs tend to have differing illustrators. I think fanworks have some leeway for interpretation.

It took a good while to actually leave the house that Yamame's sisters currently occupied. From Yura trying to convince Yamame to come drinking with her, Reiko trying to explain further details about what we were supposed to be doing, Yamame herself struggling to actually tell everyone to leave her be, and especially Kisami, who wouldn't stop trying to embarrass Yamame and simultaneously hug her half to death. In fact, it had gotten to a point where I was feeling like they'd forgotten that I was even here. I didn't especially mind, because seeing how much Yamame's sisters loved her warmed my heart, but I was starting to wonder if it would ever actually end.

"Yura, please - What? Ki, stop trying - Yura, I said no! Reiko, can you get her under control?" Yamame was trying to field three conversations at once, and it was looking like she was getting a little frazzled. So, not wanting to have Yamame get stressed out before we'd even gotten started, I waded into the group of spiders, dragged Yamame out, and then politely told Reiko that we'd better get to work while everything was still fresh in our minds. Yamame sighed in relief, while Yura sighed in disappointment and Kisami didn't sigh, but did look a little put out.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. Okay, go ahead. And let me just say thank you again, Yamame." Reiko told us, hugging Yamame once more. Before it could devolve into another mess, I pulled Yamame over to the door of the room. "Feel free to use any of the accommodation around here, too. Hoshiguma's given us somewhat free reign as far as lodging goes. It'll save you trekking all the way back to your house."

"Oh, er, thank you, Reiko. Very kind of Hoshiguma." Yamame said stiffly, since we technically had word from Yuugi already that we could stay wherever we wanted. "Well, um, we'd best be off. Ki, just - Just stay here, please. We'll never get anything done if you go out there and rile the oni up."

"How rude!" Kisami huffed, her hands on her hips. "For your information, my dear little sister, I don't 'rile' anyone up! At least, not intentionally. Well, sometimes...Well, not right now!" Yamame opened her mouth, so I dragged her through the door and apologized, saying that we had to be off. Then, I pulled the door shut before any more arguing could occur. Even so, I could hear Kisami through the door. "But maybe I'll rile one or two up just for you!" I had to steer Yamame away before she could open the door again.

"Fine, fine. I'm calm. I'm - calm, I said. Let go, you scoundrel!" Yamame finally pulled herself free of my grip after we'd reached the stairs and begun to descend. At halfway down the stairs, she stopped me. "Thank you, though. I'll confess that conversations with Ki usually end up like this. I love her dearly, but she's such a handful sometimes. And she still treats me like a child! I find it just about the most frustrating thing ever!" Yamame huffed, and I sympathetically patted her on the back, thinking about how she treated Nai like just as much of a child. "It's lovely of you to know when to reign me in." She got up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against mine, just for a few moments.

Unfortunately, a few moments was all it took. I heard something dropping, which caused Yamame and I to break apart and look down the stairs to the first floor, where there was a young spider that I hadn't seen before, but she'd clearly seen Yamame before. "Nai! Nai! Big Sis Yamame's kissing that human who broke all our webs!" She yelled, taking off down the corridor and into one of the sliding doors, where I heard a lot of excited chatter. Yamame groaned in embarrassment and clutched her head in her hands.

"Why's it all going wrong now?" She mumbled into her hands, and I laughed a little, then kissed her on the forehead and recommended that we get moving before any other spiders come to interrogate her. "Ugh, fine. Goodness knows why they never annoy Yura or Reiko as much as they annoy me. I mean, I get why they don't mess with Kisami, since she's their, uh, big-big sister - and a bit of a handful, but..." Yamame mumbled complaints all the way out of the building. I asked her if I should retrieve my coat, but she shrugged and said that it'd be safe where it was if I wanted to leave it there. I'd had an opportunity, on the way to the hot springs, to stop off at Yamame's house where she had fished out a spare black shirt for me, as my sweater was still bloody, and the material was torn up at the shoulder from where Raki's teeth had bitten into it. The shirt had long sleeves, which was turning out to be a little inconvenient in the heat and steam of the Hot Spring Town. I'd rolled them up already, but even so, I was certain that I was sweating just a little. Yamame was, too, so I didn't feel particularly self-conscious about it.

We left the house, which seemed to be Yamame's cue to recover from her embarrassment and take control again. "Okay, um...Reiko's diagrams said that...Okay, yeah, over here." She grabbed my hand and dragged me along with her at a brisk walk down the steps that I'd seen on our way into the house. "So, you know how this whole place is sort of...Built on a hill, right? An underground hill, but still. So, there's the buildings all the way up there," She pointed behind us, up the eclectic sprawl of buildings big and small, until I saw the last few, right at the top of the cavern. "Hoshiguma lives all the way up there. Nice and quiet, actually. I kind of liked it." It did look that way. "I think despite her personality, she enjoys those moments of quiet sometimes..." Yamame shook her head. "Um, anyway, because it's built like that, and because that big keystone was so, uh, big, it sent scalding water splashing about everywhere. And that means that some of it missed the lower buildings and hit the higher ones instead. That's partly why this whole thing's been taking so long. There's not just the buildings around the big spring itself that we need to replace the wood on, it's the ones higher up, too. Except, not all of them, so the oni get into arguments because one person's house is half rotted and their neighbour's house isn't." I could imagine the aggravation. I'd probably be a little annoyed too.

The stairs finally came to an end, and we emerged onto the paved path that wrapped around the largest spring. But instead of following it around, Yamame led me off to the side, across the smaller paths which had the springs on one side and shops across the other side. Or rather, it usually had shops on the other side, but at the moment, none of them were open and I could immediately see why. There was plenty of obvious damage, rotted wood and damaged inventory, and I suspected that there was also plenty of less obvious damage. Instead of large crowds milling about, I saw some of the Kurodani family, wandering back and forth with tools hanging from the golden bands wrapped about their waists. Some of them were carrying piles of fresh wood, and other had the rotted wood secured in a pile created from webbing built to form a receptacle.

But there wasn't any work being done at the moment, and it was clear why. A large, red-skinned oni stood at the front of the entrance with a slightly shorter one beside him, and they were arguing with one of Yamame's sisters. "-S'our shop, Kurodani, so web off or whatever it is you lot do and let us sort it out ourselves!"

"You've no idea what to do yourself! Unless you want your shop crashing down 'round your ears, we're staying. Take it up with Hoshiguma!" One of Yamame's sisters, a tiny girl with her hair in a bob cut, shouted back at the oni with her hands on her hips. It was quite a surreal image.

"Don't need yer help, Kurodani!" The taller oni shouted back. "Matter of fact, I'm feeling a strong desire to hit my brother here with something. How's about that wood!?" He smugly shouted, and his brother next to him looked just as smug.

"Oh, this'll go nowhere..." Yamame muttered from next to me, and I asked her what exactly her plan was. "Act the way I did back then. Hang about, I haven't done this for a while..." She took several deep breaths, then pulled her shoulders back, raised her head, and sauntered forward as if she was an entirely different spider. "Oi!" She shouted, catching everyone's attention. "The hell are you lot doing!?" Her voice suddenly sounded stronger and slightly deeper, like she was emulating the baritone of an oni.

"Huh?" The oni spun, already speaking. "Who the hell are..." And he trailed off. I crossed my arms and stared with a straight face, but in my head, I was maybe a little bit amazed. Then, the taller oni suddenly snapped to attention, like he was being shouted at during one of Miss Kamishirasawa's classes. "M-Miss Kurodani!"

"Big Sis Yamame!" The tiny Kurodani cried happily, and some of the others looked noticeably relieved.

Yamame stalked forward, in-between the two oni, who awkwardly stumbled out of her way, which in itself seemed uncharacteristic for oni. "I know I've not been around these parts for a while, but I didn't think it had gone to the dogs quite so soon. Yet here I am, finding you bloody brutes harassing my poor sisters? What kind of manners do you call those, huh?" The two oni exchanged glances with each other. "Well!? Spit it out!"

"U-Uh, Miss Kurodani..." The shorter oni stepped forward. "We didn't mean nothin' by it, honest." It was almost amazing how quickly the two had changed. "S'just that we've been stuck out here since that rock came down and we were hoping to get back to business soon."

"I know, and we're doing our best to get you all back in business." Yamame sounded rather sympathetic. "But you're far from the only ones with this problem, you know? Half the district's got rotten wood coming up to their ears, and the last thing my sisters need is you lot stealing their supplies and causing a scene!" She pointed a finger at the two. "Now, I want an apology from the two of you. For even daring to shout at a sister of mine."

"U-Um, sorry, Miss Kuro-" The shorter oni began.

"Not to me!" Yamame snapped, shaking her head. "You've not insulted me! And don't 'Um, sorry' her! "

Sufficiently cowed, the oni instead looked at the tiny waif of a girl that was Yamame's sister. "I truly apologize, Miss Kurodani. We shouldn't have shouted at you." His taller brother followed suit, both of them bowing deeply. Then, they looked back at Yamame, who put her hands on her hips.

"Much better, boys. Now, why don't you two go and get drunk somewhere in the city? Let my sisters get on with their work?" Yamame fished around in her pocket and pulled out a small amount of money, which she slapped down into the shorter oni's hand. "Here, on me. Have that on me."

"O-Oh, thank you, Miss Kurodani." The taller oni rumbled, a jagged smile issuing from his toothy mouth. "We'll go now!" He nudged his brother, and they both lumbered off up the winding staircases.

The tiny Kurodani rushed up to Yamame and wrapped her arms around her waist, which was just about as high as she could get. "Thank you, Big Sis!" She cheered, and I saw some of the other girls cheer too. "They've been harassing us for days!" She released Yamame and stepped back. "Wouldn't take my word for it that we knew what we were doing, either! And Hoshiguma was gone, so we couldn't have her vouch for us, and Big Sis Reiko was too busy, so..."

"Relax." Yamame told her, placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair. "Oni are always difficult to deal with. It just so happens that I've got some experience with it. They should leave you alone for a while, but if they don't, just threaten to get me back down here. Should keep them in line long enough to get the replacements done." The younger spiders nodded gratefully. "Speaking of which...How is the work going?"

"Oh, it's, um...Mostly fine. We should be done in a day or so...But we've only had those two oni breaking some of the wood. I heard Nai say that on the higher levels, they've been dealing with actual fights."

"Nai said that?" Yamame asked curiously. "I didn't think she was doing any work down here."

"Um, she wasn't, but Big Sis Yura came to the caves and brought her down." The tiny spider scratched her head. "She's quite a fast learner, actually..."

"Is that right...?" Yamame murmured, tilting her head. "Hmm..." I cleared my throat. "Oh! Um, yes. Anyway, I'm off to try and sort out the rest of these oni, but you seem to be doing fairly well. Hoshiguma's back, too, so I'm hoping that the rest will calm down before long. Keep up the good work!"

The Kurodani workers thanked Yamame and got back to work, leaving us to press on. As we walked, following the path around the springs, I asked Yamame just what I'd witnessed. "Well..." She scratched her head. "Um, basically, when we helped to put together a lot of the Old City's buildings, I was..." She looked very hesitant to say it, and I stared at her for a while, then asked her to continue. "I...Oh, fine. I was in a bit of a, um, rebellious phase. Slightly more violent, I guess, and I think the oni liked that. Or something. Honestly, I don't actually know for sure. But if I act like I did then, they're usually pretty receptive." To be honest, I'd found it quite attractive. Yamame let out a little gasp and slapped me on the arm. "Hush, you scoundrel! Don't say that sort of thing aloud!" But after a moment, she looked away. "Wait until we're home, at least."

At the next place on Reiko's diagram of places that the oni had been stopping up work at, I was pleased to see that we were not needed. We had climbed a set of stairs and turned onto another twisting street, where I could see a house already looking like it was sagging slightly, and I could see the signs of web and piles of wood. But unlike the last time, here were Yamame's sisters, all stood back and watching from the side of the street.

Which made sense, because in the centre of the street was Yuugi Hoshiguma, holding a much smaller oni in the air by one of her horns, of which she had two which curved outward. Her feet ineffectually kicked at the air, and she shouted, but Yuugi seemed content to hold her there, one arm fully extended and the other holding her sake dish. Yuugi had clearly gone to change, because she wore her bright blue kimono which exposed her shoulders and more than a hint of cleavage, and she’d pulled her hair into a ponytail that left her hair cascading outward. As we approached, Yuugi saw us, and her expression brightened. "Ah, there you are, Kurodani!" She brightly exclaimed, stepping forward to meet us as if it was just a stroll despite the whole person she was holding in the air. "Now, this fool, as well as a few others, seem to have been holding your sisters up. Despite," And Yuugi shot a sharp look at the oni, "My insistence that the Kurodani family were allowed to work in peace. Now, what would you like me to do with them?"

I looked over at Yamame but stayed out of it. It was her work, after all. "Hmm...If you want to slap them around a little, I'm not entirely opposed. Mostly, I just want my sisters to be allowed to do what they're good at."

"Well, that's good, because I'd love to smack some of these idiots around." Yuugi cheerfully said, before spinning on her hell and hurling the screaming oni out in the direction of the springs. "She'll be fine." Yuugi said to me, since I was the only person who looked even slightly concerned. "Now, anyone else planning to disrupt these fine workers!?" She shouted that bit at the small group of oni who were watching the incident. "No? Good!" She stood up straight and took a drink from her dish. "Ah, that's good." Then, she wandered over to Yamame. "By the way, come up to my place while you're here. Top of the hill, you remember?" Yamame nodded curiously. "I'd love to have another hanafuda game with you."

"Ah, er, you too." Yamame replied, nodding along. "I'll come up there before we leave."

"Good!" Yuugi clapped her on the shoulder, and to her credit, she didn't betray any sort of stagger. "Oh, and the others are around. Suika's off drinking somewhere. Upset that she was starting to sober up on the walk back, apparently. And the two..." She leaned in and mouthed 'Ibaraki', "They're planning to head to the hot springs in a while, but the hermit apparently wants to see you." Me, I asked. "No. You." She pointed a finger at Yamame. "She's staying, uh..." Yuugi gave Yamame some directions that went straight over my head, but she seemed to understand. "Now, I'm off to see if anyone else's head needs bashing. Come Former Hell or hot water, we'll get this restoration project done!" And off one of the Four Heavenly Kings walked, humming some song I hadn't heard before and drinking from her sake dish.

"She wants to see me?" Yamame asked, frowning. She waved at her sisters, who cheerfully waved back and got right back to work. "Alone? Um, that might be hard..." I thought Yamame wasn't giving herself enough credit. "It's just hard to talk to her! I get all tongue-tied and don't know what to say!" It seemed that Yamame hadn't quite gotten over being star-struck by Ibaraki-douji. I gave her a one-armed hug and told her that she would be fine. Just say the truth. She did smile weakly after that, so I hoped that things would be fine.

The next place was back on the ground by the springs themselves, and here were several oni, already taking turns hitting each other in the head with wooden planks while some of Yamame's sisters tried to ineffectively make them stop. "Oh, seriously?" Yamame muttered. "They're actually doing that?" I guessed that it was some sort of challenge that had gotten out of hand. "Well, let's sort it out. Hey, you could have a go." I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not going to let them retaliate, and it might be the only chance you get to whack an oni in the face with a wooden plank." That was a rather persuasive argument, so as we approached, I grabbed a wooden plank from the pile that Yamame pointed out to me as already useless. Then, I tapped one of the oni on the shoulder, and as he turned, I swung that plank with all my might. Unfortunately, the oni in question had a single horn that stuck out from the front of his head, so I was surprised when the plank didn't break, but simply got embedded on the horn and blocked the oni's eyes. "Alright!" Yamame shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Not very mature behaviour, is it?"

"Recognize that voice..." The oni with the plank stuck on his head muttered. "Miss Kurodani?" His friend turned, looking at me, but Yamame raised her voice first.

"That's right!" Yamame shouted. "And I'm very disappointed in you lot! Here my lovely sisters are, just trying to do their jobs, and you lot are stealing their supplies and wasting them on - And I can't believe I'm really saying this - Hitting each other in the face for absolutely no reason!" She huffed. "Then again, maybe hitting each other in the face is why you seem to think that this is a good idea..."

In the end, Yamame extracted an apology from the gathered oni along with a promise to stop stealing the wood for their silly challenges. Finally, she sent them on their way, and I breathed a sigh of relief, since I'd been worried that I'd have a fight on my hands if Yamame hadn't been able to keep them under control. As had happened previously, Yamame's sisters profusely thanked her, then got back to work, spinning webs around the old and rotten wood so it could be transported all at once, and fitting the new planks perfectly. "If Ki's been getting them all hot and bothered just so I've got more work to do, I'm giving her the influenza. Even if she is my big sister." Yamame muttered darkly as we began climbing the stairs up to the next location. Personally, I quite liked getting to see this side of Yamame. "Oh, and I need to knock Yura's head against something for letting Nai wander off unsupervised. I'm happy she seems to be working so well, but she's an easy target for scams down here."

I decided not to mention that I'd probably have fallen for it too.

Can Satori really not get the big bird or the necrophiliac cat to help out? They live there too after all

>>45143437
Satori tried already, that's how the Reiuji crater was created.

>>45143437
Technically the ancient capital itself is a separate place to the hot springs, and yuugi is the manager of the hot springs so she'd have to go and ask satori
Orin probably wouldn't be much help and okuu would try and third leg cannon blast the keystone, turning the place into even more of a sauna and probably exploding even more houses

>>45143476
>>45143437
Okuu and RIn were walking down the streets of an ongoing expansion for the Onis
Apparently it was for some sort of foot bowl thing or something like that
They were instructed by lady Satori to appease the onis in the are to allow the spiders to work
Out of nowhere Okuu breaks the silence by asking a question
"Rin? Aren't miss Yuugi or the small Yuugi the ones that get the onis to calm down?"
Rin began a short exposition "Well usually, but it would seem Hoshiguma was needed by Ibuki up in the surface and i have no idea where Kurodani ran off to and nor do her sisters"
"Oooh so she's sending us because she cares about the underground?" Followed Okuu
"A-ah, something like that.."Replied Rin scratching her head
"It's more likely that she lost to Yuugi on that card game they had a few minutes ago" Rin concluded
"Oh i see..." Okuu looked pensive for a moment before finally asking "How did lady Satori lose at the card game if she can read Yuugi's mind?"
That not a bad question thought Rin, "I wasn't paying much attention to the game but i do remember Yuugi placing cards face down without looking at the- they're here!" Rin's explanation was interrupted as they found the onis disrupting the construction
They were...Trying to lift up the ground and...put it somewhere else?
Rin began feeling a headache coming trying to understand the onis' logic and instead of thinking about it any further she decided to just stop whatever was happening
As she approached them along with Okuu she began giving some instructions
"Now remember Okuu, onis will only listen to you if you show them you're strong, so i need you to introduce us before i can tell them to leave and why"
"Don't worry Rin, i'm not gonna let you down!" Okuu replied with a slightly threatening excitement
Okuu then proceeded to power walk towards the onis "Hey!" She roared which made all of the onis stop what they were doing and look at her
And then it was all white
"So anyways" said a slightly nervous Shion, her back turned towards the picture of a crater, that was what we believe was the origin of the hell raven crater number tw- three!" Shion was struggling to keep her eyesight on the whole crowd while Jo'on was making hand signs as an attempt to remind her of her lines
"And now that you know the story of this natura- raven made! Mo-monument it is finally time to pay it a visit, don't forget to grab one of our complementary hazmat suit for *cough*fivethousand*cough* yen to keep yourself protected"
"Follow me through this corridor please" Said Jo'on to allow an increasingly nervous Shion some rest

>>45143291
>To be honest, I'd found it quite attractive.
Anon confirmed submissive. Cute.

>>45143302
>I decided not to mention that I'd probably have fallen for it too.
The more I think about it, the more parallels I see between Anon and Nai. Starting to wonder if that's part of why Yamame took a liking to him.

>>45144102
>submissive
Its the opposite, he likes an equal challenger.

>>45144102
Him finding violence attractive is going to make him regret not choosing Reimu.

>>45146901
He choose Yam because she won at that fight they had in her house.

The next two places on Reiko's list were simple enough, just some rowdy oni getting out of hand, but they straightened up as soon as Yamame told them off. I couldn't deny how impressed I was by the way her presence seem to inspire so much respect amongst the oni, even if I hardly understood what exactly she had done to garner said respect. We were just climbing the steps to the last location on the list when we started to hear more shouting than normal.

"-Not my bloody fault some idiot dropped a fucking rock in the springs! So don't you go blaming me for trying to fix your house!" The shouting was intensifying as we rounded the corner, and Yamame groaned in resignation when she saw who was involved. "What, you want to have it come crashing down around your ears? Oh, it'll look cool to your friends if you survived it, huh? You're a fucking idiot!" Yura stood in the middle of the street with a pair of Kurodani workers behind her, and she was shouting at an oni woman almost twice her size. One of the workers, a tall one with wavy hair in dark brown, was clutching at her arm. "Look, our job is to help rebuild all your shops and homes, you ungrateful-!"

"Yura!" Yamame shouted, storming forward. "What the hell are you doing!?" She stomped between the oni and the spider, gazing crossly at Yura while I followed up behind, slightly slower. I took a position next to Yura, with Yamame in front of us. "We're meant to be working peacefully, not insulting them!"

"Oh, glad you're here, Yams!" Yura said back, sounding very indignant. "This bitch," She pointed at the oni in front of us, who scoffed and looked away. "She attacked us!" Yura brought one of the Kurodani workers forward, showing off an arm and hand that was rather bloody from a long gash running down her arm. "Like the fucking savage she is!"

"Yura!" Yamame shouted over her sister, forcing her hand down. "We don't deal with the problem like this." Yamame turned to the oni, crossing her arms. "You attacked them?" Her voice had dropped again, but this time it didn't sound like it was emulating the tone of an oni. It sounded deadly, dangerous, and slightly scary. "You attacked my sisters?"

The oni, to either her credit or her stupidity, didn't sound scared. "Your little spiders were trying to throw away my belongings! Can't you keep yourselves under control? Who are you, then? Queen spider?"

"Yamame Kurodani."

"That supposed to mean something?" The oni asked dryly. "All you lot look the same to me. A bunch of small, detestable spiders." Now, I felt like taking a swing at her too, but Yura subtly slapped my arm and shook her head. "Now tell your little sisters to bring my stuff back, and apologize."

"Your 'stuff' was half-rotted and what wasn't was half-destroyed!" Yura shouted. "And that wasn't our fault! Like I said, we didn't drop the fucking rock!"

"Our contract comes from Yuugi Hoshiguma." Yamame said, her voice now shifting into something I'd describe as a calm so perfect that it promised certain death. "Any actions I or my sisters perform are in line with that contract." She stepped forward, closer to the oni, who was still almost double her size. She was taller than I was, even. "And most importantly, stipulated in that contract is my ability to remove those who attack us." And she placed her hand on the oni's stomach, which was about her height. Already, I suspected what she was doing.

"She's not pleased." Yura muttered to me. The oni looked down at Yamame with slight confusion and smugness, like she didn't know what Yamame was doing, but knew that it couldn't possibly be affecting her. "Insult her and she'll shrug it off like nothing. Attack her and she'll forgive you before long. But attack one of her sisters?" The oni was starting to look slightly hazy, and more than a little unsteady. "Now you're in trouble." The oni tried to strike out at Yamame but dropped to one knee instead.

"Wh-What the hell have you done!?" The oni growled, losing the colour in her face. "I'll - I'll kill you!"

"No, I don't think so." Yamame muttered, grasping the oni by her jaw. "I'd suggest you go back inside, find a hole to curl up in, and stay there. You won't be moving for the next few days. This strain isn't contagious, but it'll leave you feeling like death." The oni stared at her in confusion and - I was pleased to note - a little bit of fear, and suddenly all the rage showed on Yamame's face. "Well!? Get out of here!" That was enough, and the oni staggered to her feet and began to stumble away without another word. Yamame sighed, breathing out deeply, then turned to us, her expression falling back into the gentler look I knew. "Sorry about that..." She mumbled, looking a little tired. "Transferring disease always tires me out." I shook my head and told her that it was no problem of mine.

"You alright, Yams?" Yura asked, stepping forward and hugging her sister.

"Fine, fine..." Yamame breathed, then shook her head and pushed Yura off of her. She strode over to the Kurodani worker who had been injured, and gently lifted her arm up. "I'm sorry, sister." She told her quietly. "Go and find Kisami. She'll probably be in the guest house. If you need medical attention, she'll sort you out." Yamame's sister thanked her, and the other Kurodani, one shorter than Yamame with very light brown hair, accompanied the injured one, leaving Yura and I with Yamame. "I wish they'd just be normal. Why is it that when you're just trying to help, they get all...argumentative." She was complaining about the oni, and I could certainly see her point. "Okay, um...Yura." Yura stood to attention. "Get someone else to come and help you, then finish the house as fast as possible. Throw away whatever you have to. The strain I gave that oni will have her knocked out for a day or two, so that's all the time you've got to get the repairs done. Then...Just ignore her. Never speak to her again." I put my arm around Yamame's shoulder to support her, since she looked a little dizzy. "Must be new here. Maybe she's never been knocked out by Yuugi like all the other oni have. Just...Get done and get out, okay?" Yamame told Yura, who nodded seriously.

"We'll get it done, dear sister. Don't worry about a thing." She looked at me. "Can I leave my sister in your care?" I told her that she always could. "Thanks. She might need a break, though. I'm off to gather up some of the more energetic ones so we can get this done fast." Yura nodded at us and took off in the opposite direction, back toward the house that the Kurodani workers had taken over.

"Dreadfully rude, that oni." Yamame murmured to me. "That's what homeowners are like, though. Some of those tengu contracts, my word..." She shook her head. "Luckily, that was the last one, so we're free for a little while. Do you want to...Um, go to the large springs?" I thought for a moment, then shook my head. I would be happy to spend some time with less people, I thought. "Hmm...Well, there's - Oh, but..." She trailed off, looking a little nervous, and I pushed her for some more information. "What, um, Hoshiguma said. About Lady Ibaraki looking for me. The place she's at is a private spring way up there." She pointed upward, fairly high up in the tangle of houses that comprised the town, and a little off to the side. "It's quite exclusive, but Hoshiguma must have gotten them in." I felt a slight smile and remarked to Yamame that it was a good thing we had permission from Yuugi to go where we wanted. She wilted a little, and I told her a little more seriously that I really did want her and Lady Kasen to get along properly, so I was serious about going there. It wasn't as if Lady Kasen's approval was necessary, or anything like that, so I'd be waiting for her regardless of the conversation's outcome. Yamame smiled at that, and I kissed her on the forehead.

And off we went, up more and more stairs. I thanked Lady Kasen in my mind for all of the running up and down the mountains in her senkai that she'd made me do, because I was barely breaking a sweat as we climbed higher and higher. The streets grew narrower and more sloped as we went, and I wondered how the people up here managed. Obviously, they could probably fly, but even so, it seemed like a constant aggravation.

And then, somewhere about halfway up in a quiet part of the Hot Springs Town, I began to hear two voices that I'd heard before. For a moment, I was pleased, but then I remembered that one of the voices was, to put it lightly, absolutely desperate for me to die. The other didn't hate me, but had threatened to murder Tenshi, so I wasn't really sure where I stood with her. "-Sure why Lady Satori even wants us here. It isn't our job, so - Okuu, what are you looking at?" We were still around the corner from them, but I could hear their conversation quite clearly.

"Just, um, reactor readings, Orin." I could hear the voice of Utsuho Reiuji. "They're just a bit..." There were some high-pitched beeps, and then I heard the sound of wings beating powerfully, just once. "Oh, never mind. It just needed recalibration. Minor contaminants, but not alive, so I can flush them out when I get back." I had heard Okuu's voice take on that cadence before, when Reimu had asked her if the reactor was going to melt down because she wasn't present. "Sorry, um...What were we talking about?"

"Ugh, you total birdbrain. How come you can perfectly describe the process of nuclear fusion, but you can't even remember what you ate for breakfast?" Orin sounded mock-frustrated. We rounded the corner and spotted the two of them, leaning against a railing at a part of the path where no buildings blocked the view, so it was instead an unobstructed view over the whole of the Hot Springs Town. They hadn't spotted us yet, and I noted that we had no choice but to go past them to get through. Yamame whispered to me that it would be fine, so on we continued.

"I do remember!" Okuu replied, sounding slightly outraged. "It was berries!" She sounded triumphant, but then the cracks began to show. "No, that was last night...Um, rice and fish...?"

"That was yesterday morning, birdbrain." Orin sounded dead pan. "I'll give you a hint. It starts with an 'O'."

"O..." Okuu trailed off for a few second, then slammed the massive cannon of hers against the railing. "Okonomiyaki!" Orin began clapping sarcastically, and Okuu cheered. "I told you I knew it!"

"Yes, yes, you did. Well done. Now, come on. Let's go and find-" She pushed off of the railing and turned, putting Yamame and I right in her line of sight. "...Ah." She muttered, a look of annoyance flitting across her face.

Okuu, meanwhile, looked perfectly happy. "Miss Spider!" She cheered, hopping from where she'd been leaning on the railing. "And you're...Um, I know you from somewhere..." She stared at me with an intense frown. "Were you at the reactor?" I was not. "Er...The Palace of the Earth Spirits?" I was, but not while she was there. "Oh, I remember! You were that one that Miss Spider had me carry to the Shrine!" I nodded, and Okuu raised her arms in celebration. "I knew it!"

"Yes, very good, Okuu." Orin muttered under her breath. "Our dear Lady Yamame, it has been too long!" She said to Yamame, spreading her hands out. In a strangely familiar moment, she looked over at me for a moment. "Hm." She wrinkled her nose. "Our Lady Satori extends her greetings to you and the rest of your family."

"Orin, Lady Satori said-" Okuu tried to say.

"I know what she said!" Orin snapped, her twin tails swishing in a motion that seemed like frustration. "And..." She very stiffly turned her head to me, as if it was causing her no shortage of physical pain. "To - You - Too." She ground the words out as if each one was followed by a strong punch to the stomach. I politely smiled and told her to extend our greetings back. "Who'd want your-" She snapped, then slammed her mouth shut with a grown coming deep from her throat. "Yes." She forced herself to say. "Very good." And she immediately went back to pretending I didn't exist.

"Er, so..." Yamame finally ventured, while Orin resolutely stared off to the side and Okuu tilted her head curiously. "What are two of Satori's pets doing in the Hot Springs Town by themselves?"

"Oh, um, Lady Satori asked us to..." Okuu began, and I could immediately see where this was going. "To - To, er...Oh, hang on..." She lifted her massive arm cannon and began rotating her arm in an attempt to get a look at the side opposite. "She wrote it down!" The Hell Raven told us, pointing her free hand to some very clean handwriting on the side of the cannon. "We're here to 'Assist Yuugi Hoshiguma in removing the large keystone embedded in the centre of the Hot Springs!'" Okuu looked very happy about remembering, so I thanked her profusely for telling us, and I could have sworn I heard Orin mutter something under her breath about 'two-faced fools'.

Assist her, though? I thought that the Kurodani family was in charge of that. "Oh, er, not quite. We're in charge of the houses, and we'll be in charge of any work we have to do after removing the keystone, but not removing the keystone itself." She looked over at Okuu and Orin, who'd finally managed to look back in our direction, though it was very clear that she was looking at Yamame and not at me. "But what exactly are you planning to do?"

"Huh?" Okuu tried to scratch her head but ended up just hitting herself in the head with the side of her cannon. "Ouch...Um, I was just gonna try and blast it, I guess..."

"No, no, our Lady Yamame, that wasn't the plan." Orin jumped in, waving her hands about. "No, we had a better plan in mind. If someone," And she shot a glare at Okuu, "Could just reign in her base impulses, we'd all be fine." Okuu stared blankly, and Orin stamped on her foot.

"Ouch!" Okuu cried, hopping on her other foot, which was the one encased in a giant block of what looked kind of like stone. It also looked extremely heavy if the thundering booms every time she landed were any indication. "Orin, that was mean!"

"Anyway," Orin ground out, ignoring Okuu's pouting. "We were just on our way up to see Hoshiguma. She lives all the way at the top of the hill, right?"

"Right." Yamame nodded. "Not sure if she's there right now, though."

"Not a problem, Lady Yamame." Orin smiled. "We can wait. Where, if I may ask, are you off to?" Yamame raised an eyebrow. "You and - and...him." She finally said.

Yamame indicated off behind Orin and Okuu. "Smaller springs over that way. Someone's meeting us there."

"Ah, I see, I see. Well, we'd best not keep you. Isn't that right, Okuu?" Orin turned to Okuu, who'd taken an interest in something up in the darkness above us. "Okuu!" She yanked on one of her massive wings, and Okuu let out a very bird-like squawk. "Come on, you!" She looked over at Yamame apologetically. "My apologies, Lady Yamame...Enjoy your time here." She began to drag Okuu past us, the Hell Raven complaining the entire way.

"Well." Yamame said cheerfully. "That was interesting." We continued walking, Yamame having recovered enough to walk by herself now. "I wonder what their plan for the keystone is?" I hadn't the slightest idea but given the size of that cannon that Okuu carried, I suspected that it was explosive. As we climbed slightly higher still, Yamame and I shared a laugh about Orin's continued insistence on hating me. Yamame asked me if I should apologize, but I remembered the occasion that had her so upset, and I honestly didn't think I'd been at all inaccurate. I hadn't even said anything particular rude. All I'd said to someone else there was that there was a suspicious looking figure wrapping up a supposed corpse, and since that had in fact been what was happening, I was entirely right about that. I hadn't been the one accusing her of things, like some of the others there, and I hadn't even said that she should be exterminated. Personally, I thought it was something Orin needed to get over rather than me. That said, I did promise to remind her of that the next time I got a chance, though I didn't expect it to stop her from wanting my corpse when I was done with living.

Finally, we found ourselves up at the right level, and in front of a large, exclusive-looking building. Yamame looked at me slightly nervously, and I put a hand on her shoulder and told her that she would be fine. "I - I know...It's just, um, Ibaraki-douji wants to speak to me..." I told her not to think of it like that. Lady Kasen wanted to speak to her, and Raki might be there, but it wasn't the same as speaking to a legendary oni. "I - Let's just go in there before I lose my nerve." She marched to the door and pulled it open, before she could change her mind.

Inside was a reception, and a woman who didn't look like an oni, but some sort of animal youkai, was already waiting behind a desk. "Oh!" She jumped. "Startled me..." Shaking her head, she got to her feet. "Can I help you?"

"Y-Yes, um-" And then from down a corridor to the reception's right, I heard another door slide open, and Lady Kasen emerged. She was fully dressed, but it looked like she'd been a little too hot, because her clothes were crumpled as if she'd been readjusting them over and over to try and cool off slightly. She'd haphazardly put her hair buns on, and I wondered if it was to cover something underneath, such as a pair of horns. At the same time, I wondered where Raki was.

"Ah!" Lady Kasen said brightly. "I was wondering when you would get here." She stepped forward and cheerfully clapped a hand on mine and Yamame's shoulders. "The hot springs are just lovely up here, aren't they?" I nodded and said that I was looking forward to it. "Oh, I'm sure. It's mixed, so you go ahead and get changed, wash up and get in. Miss Kurodani and I will be in the changing rooms." She slipped her hand around Yamame's shoulder and began steering her toward the changing rooms. “I’ve just been dying to have a proper chat with you, my dear.”

"Wait, but-" The receptionist tried to say.

"It's fine, put it on my tab." Lady Kasen said, waving her bandaged hand as she guided Yamame away. Yamame looked over her shoulder at me as if she was begging for help, but I simply smiled sympathetically at her. They disappeared down the hallway, leaving the receptionist and I standing there.
"So, er-" I told her that Yuugi Hoshiguma has said that we could use anything we wanted, so the receptionist would have to take it up with her. "Yeah." The receptionist sounded a little dejected. "Figured as much." I smiled and nodded, then made my own way to the male changing rooms.

>It's mixed
Oh it's gonna be one of those

>>45153359
He probably could have told her to act with Kasen like she acts like with the rest of the onis

It's alright, Kasen's mood will improve drastically after she finds out Kanako is giving relationship advice.

>>45154248
I don't think Kasen would believe that behavior makes for the ideal spouse for her human boy. I imagine it would be best if Yamame acts as she normally does: kind, empathetic, and supportive, yet assertive, stern, and refusing to take shit when push comes to shove. Which sounds awfully similar to Kasen, now that I think of it.

>>45154205
Thats right boy, we're going for a HOT SPRINGS EPISODE

Nobody let Yuugi see Anon's naked body! Her innocence must be protected at all costs!

>>45155443
Yuugi will get all flustered as him and Yamame sit next to each other knowing that they do 'that' sometimes!
Yuugi is going to start crying!
Suika is going crack up laughing!

>>45155443
Yuugi has seen penises but she only knows they are for peeing

>>45155443
Yuugi definitely wouldn't find it at all weird to see them naked, but then would see their interlocked fingers and storm away with her tits flopping about.

>>45158258
We need a spicy "it's not what it looks like" kind of scene to happen.

Yamame will finally appease Kasen after a surprisingly sweet conversation only to go back to square one once Kasen notices Yamame is about two cup sizes bigger than her.

>>45161970
not sure how
it's pretty obvious what it looks like if someone walks in on Anon buried in an earth spider

>>45162062
that'll be the catalyst that convinces her and arm-chan to merge again
oni kasen is bigger than both of them

>>45162144
Did their size got split evenly or is one bigger than the other?

Yamame Kurodani had no expectations. None in particular, at least. She tried to force down her nervousness as Kasen Ibaraki - Half of Ibaraki-douji, one of the Four Heavenly Kings! - somewhat forcefully guided her away from her human and off down the corridor of the specific springs up in a tucked away little corner of the Old City's Hot Springs Town. She cast one last look back and he gave her a sympathetic little smile, but then she was out of sight, and all she had to go on was Miss Ibaraki's arm, the one covered in bandages that didn't feel like it was all there. It unnerved Yamame just a little, because she did have a sister or two with a missing arm - usually from youkai exterminators before the Spell Card Rules had been implemented - and the idea that Miss Ibaraki had managed to create a perfect facsimile of the arm she had lost with nothing but bandages made her wonder just what else she was capable of.

The fact that the bandaged arm could extend so far outward and still retain full strength didn't help matters much. Especially since, while Yamame wasn't exactly the best at reading people, she had a vague suspicion that Miss Ibaraki didn't like her. It was only slightly painful to know that she might have already blown her chance to get to know such a big figure, but her human had reassured her that he would be waiting for her regardless of the conversation's outcome, so she consoled herself with that.

"Now, then!" Miss Ibaraki was not, slightly worryingly, leading her to a changing room. No, instead, she was leading her to a sitting room, one up a set of stairs and overlooking the Hot Springs Town. Two chairs already waited, big and plush, and Yamame wondered if they'd perhaps come from the Palace of the Earth Spirits, for they didn't look like the sort of thing she'd find anyone in the human village building. "Please have a seat." She gestured to one of the chairs.

"Um, what-" Yamame tried to ask, wishing that her human was here.

"Sit." Miss Ibaraki repeated, slightly forcefully. It was just about enough to make Yamame immediately take a seat. "There. That's better, isn't it?" Slowly, Yamame nodded, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into. All of this, because Yura and Reiko hadn't been capable of driving out a few annoying oni interfering with their work?

No, the truth was that this was because her human had a gift to drag everyone he encountered up in his chaotic wake, probably changing their lives in the process. He'd done it to Yamame herself by making her fall for him and even give up on human food, he'd done it to Miss Ibaraki by apparently unsealing half of her true self, Reimu had come out of her tire with him thinking of him as her brother, and who knew what else she had missed entirely? "Can I fetch you anything? Tea? A snack?" Miss Ibaraki sounded perfectly pleasant now, but for reasons unknown to her, she was nervous.
"Um, I'm okay, Miss Ibaraki..." Yamame hesitantly ventured.

"Now, don't be so formal. Call me Kasen. I've no clue why that boy still insists on calling me 'Lady Kasen', but I'll not have it from you as well, understood?" Miss Iba- Kasen shook her head with a sigh, pressing the tips of her bandaged fingers against her forehead. "Are you sure you don't want anything? Call it having friends in high places, but we are getting this for free." She smiled, indicating the general room around them, and after a moment, Yamame took it to mean that she was indicating the Hot Springs Town in general. After a moment, Yamame noticed that there was a third person in the room with them, one of the staff members, she supposed. Kasen called her over and placed an order for several sweet items, and then she raised an eyebrow at Yamame one more time. "Last chance."

"Tea." Yamame said with a slightly strangled voice. "Er, yes. Tea, please. Thank you." Order placed - if awkwardly, Yamame relaxed just slightly as the staff person left and then immediately went back on guard as Kasen regarded her curiously.

"So, my dear, I'm rather curious about you, and I didn't get much of a chance to finish our conversation before we were interrupted on our last attempt." Lady Kasen crossed her legs and leaned forward, resting her bandaged elbow on her knee. "So, tell me about your family. I've seen many of them in and around the streets." She gazed out over the Hot Springs Town, and Yamame followed suit. "Such a large family must be difficult to control, hmm? Hard to get along with?"

"Um..." Yamame hummed, taking a moment. Oh yes, she'd been upset with her sisters in the past, from times that Yura had misplaced her belongings to dealing with the aftermath of Kisami's escapades. "I don't control them, if that's what you're asking. They're my sisters, not my slaves." There was a hint of something not quite like anger in Yamame's voice, now. Being controlled was not something Yamame desired, and she'd never force it on her sisters. Work was one thing, but actual control? "I love them, each and every one, even if they drive me absolutely insane from time to time." Yura, especially... "I don't think I could enjoy my life quite so much if I didn't have my family to fall back on when I needed help."

Kasen's eyes gave away nothing, as if they were a dark abyss from which nothing could escape. "How very lovely to hear." She commented, then had her attention broken by the sound of the staff member returning, balancing a tray on her hand. She placed it down, offloading two cups of steaming tea along with several plates of food that looking a little too unhealthy for Yamame. Either way, it didn't stop Kasen from digging straight in, while Yamame took a small sip of the tea, which did turn out to be rather excellent. "Ah, there's nothing quite like the food of Former Hell. Are you sure you wouldn't like to try it?"

"Um, no, thank you. I'm fine." Yamame doubted she could have eaten even if she'd tried. "Miss Iba- Kasen, um, can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Kasen looked up from her plate at Yamame. "That's what this conversation is, after all. If I'm to know you better, you must know me better in return."

"O-Okay." Yamame drew in a breath and tried to force her thoughts in order. "Do you - Um, sorry. Do you love-?" Before she could finish, she was cut off.

"Do I love? Hmm, but who are you referring to? Reimu, perhaps? My partner - my other self?" She leaned in. "...Him?" Yamame kept her face light and a small smile pressed up on it, but it seemed not to help because Lady Kasen's demeanour changed. She suddenly looked more curious, and more interested. She leaned back in her chair, folding her hands on her lap. "You're worried."

"No, I'm not." Yamame said, quickly, forgetting her own nervousness.

"Not outwardly." Kasen replied calmly. "But being who and what I am, I am well accustomed to seeing when someone is hiding their true self. Perhaps not for malicious reasons. I hide my identity as an oni for certain reasons, too." She leaned forward. "What has worried you so?" She let the question hang in the air for a moment. "No, I rather suspect I know. And here is where we reach the true aim of the conversation, now that the preamble is out of the way. You wonder why I am ever so slightly cold to you. Is this not so?" Yamame opened her mouth, but Kasen leaned forward and pressed a finger against her lips. "Think carefully before you speak." She whispered, almost dangerously, and Yamame frowned for a moment before feeling a fire light in her belly. It sounded like half of Ibaraki-douji was looking down on her.

"I have been wondering that." Yamame finally said. "Have I upset you?"

Kasen tilted her head. "Yes, but not because of anything you've done to me. Can you understand what I am saying?"

"What I've done...indirectly." Yamame ventured, and then, because she was still feeling a little nervous. "Is it because-"

Kasen raised her hand and Yamame fell silent. "I'm explaining. Please, allow me the privilege." Yamame kept her mouth shut, waiting for Kasen's words. "Let me start by saying that, despite what she might say, I do love Reimu Hakurei. She's precious to me, and I want her to be happy." Yamame didn't have much to say to that, because while they'd seemed reasonably friendly in their interactions of the previous day, Yamame hadn't picked up on the idea that Kasen cared for Reimu quite so much. "You may wonder why I am being so forthright with you about this." Slowly, Yamame nodded. "Then, you presumably also know that Reimu considers that man to be family." Reimu had expressed as much, and she had referred to her human as her brother on one occasion. "I, somewhat embarrassingly in hindsight, tried my best to push the two of them together romantically."

"He and Reimu...?" Yamame asked. "But they seem so...comfortable with each other."

"That, in a nutshell, was my reasoning. They seemed to get along well from the start, and I thought that he and Reimu would be..." Here, Kasen looked more than a little embarrassed. "Well, I thought they're be a lovely couple. So, I tried my best. I taught him skills that I thought would help him impress Reimu, and I tried to impress on Reimu in turn that she should be looking for a partner who might just be close already." Kasen's demeanour was starting to get to Yamame, and despite her general nervousness around the woman, her instincts from taking care of her sisters were starting to kick in.

"Er, I'm sure she knows that you were just trying to help her." Yamame finally said, hoping that she didn't sound insincere. "It must mean that you care."

"Thank you, Miss Kurodani. You're very kind." Kasen said, smiling lightly. "But, alas, my plans failed, and as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. How could I have known that Reimu wanted a sibling? I'd already been beginning to struggle with certain...personal convictions. Reimu's new brother had offered me some advice in the past, you see, but I was beginning to feel that..." Then, Kasen shook her head. "No, it's not important. But I still believed that I was heading in the right direction."

Yamame impulsively reached across the table and patted Kasen's hand, then realised what she was doing and pulled her hand back. "I, um, struggled with some changes too." She blurted out, mentally kicking herself. How was that relevant?

"Changes?" Kasen looked up from where she'd been staring at her hands on the table. "Yes, that does seem to be what it all boils down to. I was wracked with guilt, you see. Guilt for sealing my arm. Guilt for what I'd done as an oni. And then, when Reimu and her brother came to try and convince me not to unseal the arm, Reimu slipped up. She told me that she considered him her brother. And she mentioned the tsuchigumo. You, Miss Kurodani."

"Yamame." Yamame absent-mindedly said. "Um, sorry. Just, ah, you can call me Yamame."

"Ah. Thank you, Yamame." Kasen said, politely. It was still getting to Yamame. She was still being polite to her, like she was still holding her at a distance. "Let's speed this up, shall we? I unsealed the arm, and it - she - rejected me. For betraying her. And it's still a sore subject, but it's not the point. The point, is that I came to care for him a great deal too, just as I do for Reimu. And so, I want to know you. I want to know that you aren't going to hurt him. Not only because it would hurt him, but because it would hurt Reimu."

Now that Yamame seemed to have a chance to talk, she paused. "I used to eat humans. When I was desperate. When they conveniently fell into my webs. When I was attacked." She forced the images away. It wasn't the way she was anymore. "And then, he fell into my webs, and I chipped my teeth trying to bite him." Kasen actually let out a slight chuckle at her words, and Yamame continued, feeling a little bit emboldened. "And he was so - so nice. Kind, to someone like me. I'd only been despised by humans before then." And he'd had the most unlikely story, too. Kogasa Tatara? Really? "And then he came back and asked for my help in reaching Satori Komeiji. A human, from the village no less, asking the help of a youkai." She'd been half-ill even then, overworking herself to try and repair the webs that he'd destroyed on his way down. And even though she should have told him to come back another time, she'd said yes. "And...his memories."

"I've heard enough of it, Yamame." Kasen told her gently. "If it's uncomfortable, you can move on."

"No, no. Um, the memories he had unlocked there..." She shivered. It had been awful, seeing him writhe around on the floor screaming, and Satori's explanation of what the memories had been hadn't helped in the slightest. "Well, um, I got the feeling that I wanted to help him. Somehow. In any way I could."

"That does seem to be an effect he has, doesn't it?" Kasen asked, the first light smile of the meeting on her face. "He just managed to make people want to help him. And in return, he makes them start improving themselves." She looked away. "And I thought that was my job."

"W-Well, er, yes. We got closer over time." Yamame felt a little embarrassed about this bit, but she was determined to get through. It was just as important to her as Reimu - and by extension, her human's - happiness was to Kasen. "But then his other memories were unlocked and suddenly, he was too afraid to even enter the caves." This part had been awful. She'd been worried for his safety, and even more worried at his lack of communication.

"And he started having panic attacks." Kasen filled in for her. "He had one at my senkai - His first night. He's gone through a lot of trauma that most people shouldn't have to deal with, Yamame. I need to know that you understand. He might be seriously tough on the outside, but the inside?"

"He convinced me to stop eating humans!" Yamame blurted out. "I - I almost lost him then. The, um, goddess from Moriya Shrine, Kanako Yasaka. She gave me some bad advice that nearly sent him away from me forever."

"Y-Yasaka? Kanako? Oh, my..." Kasen trailed off, but her mood seemed slightly better. "I'm sorry, Yamame. Please continue."

"He got me to promise that I'd try to give it up. Humans, I mean. And I changed. I Still am, I suppose. It's hard, and I think I'd have failed by now if it wasn't for...Well, for the way he looks at me. I don't want to lose that." She squared her shoulders, swallowing.

"Kasen, you wanted to know if I was going to hurt him. I don't think I could. He's as important to me as my own sisters. As important as Reimu is to you, or to him." Kasen didn't respond, but simply watched Yamame.

It pushed Yamame into continuing, and now she was on a roll and couldn't stop until she'd gotten her feelings across properly. "He believed in me, that I could change." Suddenly, some dots connected in her mind. "Just like what your other half is trying to do. Change." She noted the breath that Kasen took in with a little guilt. She hadn't meant to dredge up something that was still clearly a sore subject. "He cared for me while I was injured, and I cared for him while he was injured. My family like him, and he's even managed to make Reimu and I begin to get along. I don't want to hurt either of them, and I love him too much to try and hurt him. So, I'm sorry that he and Reimu never worked out, but I didn't steal him from her and I don't intend to." Her rant over, she drew in a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. She'd also said that she loved him. It was true, she was willing to admit, but still, saying it in this context felt weird.

And Kasen smiled. "You really do love him, don't you?" She asked, her smile widening. "So does Reimu, I'm sure, though I suspect she feels something different to you." She sighed heavily and leaned back. "And of course, any fool could tell that he loves you. Yamame, I believe I'm starting to understand you." She spread her hands out wide. "And for what it's worth, I do think you can make him happy just as he can make you happy."

"Um, thank you...?" Yamame ventured, still a little embarrassed over the way she'd gotten at the end. Then, she got her mind back in order. "I think he likes you a lot too, if you were wondering." Kasen's eyebrows raised, and Yamame continued. "He still calls you Lady Kasen, and - I only just realised - He, er, does that thing you do. Where he doesn't respond to what you just said, but stares at you until you end up saying more than you were planning on. I think he looks up to you."

"Is that right?" Kasen said, and now she was smiling very genuinely. "Thank you for telling me, Yamame. It's nice to hear." She sipped her tea and Yamame suddenly remembered that they'd been giving food and drink. She'd forgotten that in the heat of the moment. "By the way, I think you should talk to my partner. Raki, as she's going by now. You're both trying to better yourselves. It might be good for both of you." Yamame nodded, finishing off her own lukewarm tea. She felt a little more relaxed now, though she really wanted to go and sit with her human in the hot springs. Kasen, it seemed, could read her thoughts. "I'm sure he's wondering where we've gotten to." She said, getting to her feet and extending her bandaged arm to Yamame, who gently took it and then squeaked a little in surprise as the oni pulled her to her feet easily. "Come on. Really going to the changing rooms this time." She stepped forward, then paused. "And...I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I felt like you thwarting my plans to have Reimu find romance was your fault, and that was unfair of me."

"Er, that's okay, really." Yamame said, feeling a little awkward now. The pair left the sitting room they'd been using, and entered the corridor again. From there, they entered the changing rooms, and began to clean themselves up. It was perhaps a little awkward still, but Yamame managed to persevere until it was time to enter the hot springs themselves with nothing but a tower around her.

And then. right at the door, a figure burst through. Tall, blonde, with a single red horn. Also clad in only a towel, and she nearly trampled Yamame to bits right then and there if her spider instincts hadn't kicked in and sent her flying several steps back and the to the side before she'd even realised what was happening. When she looked back up, Kasen had her arm pressed again Yuugi's chest and was preventing her from moving forward. "Aw, c'mon, Yuugi!" She heard coming from the direction of the hot springs, and she saw Suika Ibuki's head poke up from behind Yuugi's mane of hair. "No need to be so frightened. Just us girls, right?" She paused for a moment. "Well, mostly us girls. But it's not like anything weird is happening, is it?"

"You're making fun of me!" Yuugi cried.

"Yeah, maybe a little, but it's good-natured, so..." Suika trailed off as she spotted Yamame. She looked back, said something, and Yamame heard a voice. A male voice. Her human's voice. "Well, this looks fun." She nodded to Kasen, who began pushing Yuugi back into the springs despite her complaints. "C'mon, Kurodani!" Suika called. "Get in here!"

Yamame wondered how weird things inside the hot springs could be. But still, at least she'd face them with her human at her side, and that was knowledge enough to warm her heart.

Kanako has been sneezing a lot lately

>>45164131
>"And he was so - so nice. Kind, to someone like me. I'd only been despised by humans before then."
I think Yamame is sort of neglecting her own kindness here. Past trying to... eat him, she was pleasant to him and guided him out of the caves even though she didn't have to. That's why he took a liking to her; being comfortable around her allowed him to trust her enough to go back to her for help with Satori. And that in turn touched her enough to actually agree despite how awful she was feeling, which in turn... Well, you know the rest.
It's really sweet to see one act of kindness create an amplifying, oscillating effect in making the two's lives warmer and more fulfilling. Just one act of kindness can do so much.

>>45164889
>Just one act of kindness can do so much.
Assuming you can avoid getting eaten at first, anyways

Now imagine Kasen's reaction had anon ended up with Marisa instead.

>>45165147
That just means the act of kindness goes a bit further down the line, to Anon cleaning Iku's room.

>>45165215
Imagine her reaction if he fell in love with her instead
or DARKHORSE EIRIN

>>45165215
I've been thinking something similar, I really wonder how this scene would have gone down had he ended up with any of the other characters. Hell, not just that, how the outcome of the overall story would have gone. And that extends to if he actually did end up with Reimu (or even Kasen herself like >>45165518 mentioned), I really wonder where we would be right now.

I imagine Writeanon could come up with something similarly intricate under different circumstances, but honestly I doubt anything else would be as good. I can't imagine any outcomes that would have had character arcs and interactions as fulfilling as what we got.

It's happening!

>>45165777
Reimu would have been a good contender

>>45165777
Reimu, Tenko, Banki, Marisa, and Komachi would've been good contenters in those terms

>>45169948
A lot of people say this, but I genuinely can't think of a good way the characters would have further developed once they got together. Perhaps those whose story role mainly revolve around the Eientei arc would remain the same. Yet in this context, Anon has less reason to accept Eirin's olive branch and trust her, since we wouldn't have the themes of self improvement and understanding others.
The interactions between Reimu and Anon would have been nice, but even then I can only imagine something vaguely similar in spirit to what we got, which is an extension of what they had as friends. There would be obvious differences that come with love between spouses rather than relatives, eg. more sensuality, but the fundamental manner in how they treat and care for one another would likely be the same.

>>45170388
Tenshi, maybe. Like with Reimu, their interactions would have been cute, but I can't see any way the cast at large or overall plot could have been as compelling.
The one exception would be Tenshi herself. There were talks early on about how having someone who likes her for who she is can go a long way in helping her resolve her frustrations, understand others better, and grow up. She is also depicted in this story as being kinder and wiser than she lets on, so she would definitely help Anon grow as well (though I'm not convinced it would have been as good as with Yamame).
The others do not have enough presence in the story for me to say it would have been as good with any of them as the love interest.

In writing these responses, I realize much of the current story actually fits quite well with Anon/Kasen. Thing is, she slides rather awfully into the established Anonbowl; the only way I could see a Kasen route would be with a different exposition without the love interests crushing on him (sans maybe Reimu), but otherwise similar story beats.

it's okay. once this story is finished I will kidnap writefriend and force him to write AnonxKasen so that we can all see what it would have looked like ( ´ω`)

>>45164131
>Moriya Shrine, Kanako Yasaka. She gave me some bad advice that nearly sent him away from me forever."
Reminds me of that fic where Kogasa also went to the shrine to ask for help and Sanae's advice wes going into Anon's room naked.

>>45171568
I'm surprised anon hasn't met Sanae yet

>>45171568
All I remember from those was Kogas asking Kanako to be anon and her childs "god mother"

>>45171614
I read it recently so i remember more. Sanae also gives her some sexy clothing to wear with him

>>45171535
based

>>45171649
Based?
Based on what?

>>45171675
on an internet meme I saw once

>>45171582
He's seen her before, considering she actually does her job gathering faith in the village. When he first went out wearing one of Heca's shirts, she spotted him and gave him a weird look.

>>45171568
Sounds good, we need more kogasa love, got a link?

>>45172089
I believe it originated from this thread from 2021, which also had some other stories.
>>/jp/thread/34013806

In another thread later that year, someone else organized everything into a collection of pastebins.
>>/jp/thread/37353509#p37764742

>>45142298
(answering now because I had been banned) she has a good heart, she just did that to Anon because she was in a bad mood

>>45172071
It's crazier than that. The first time he met with Hecatia, all the dimension shifting messed with his head, so she had to walk him home. Not to mention, due to a mishap earlier on, his shirt got burned and Hecatia made a new one for him. So Sanae watched him stumble around the village while basically in Hecatia's arms, all while wearing a brand new, handmade Welcome Hell shirt

>>45138911
Bless ZUN and his obsession with blondehus

>>45172071
I guess i meant it more on a casual manner, she doesn't frequent Reimu's home that often but she does visit and i imagine she would pass by the underworld just to check if everything is fine with the reactor and there's also the village.

Being the sole man in a bath full of beautiful women sounds pretty awesome out of context. But I'm sure they'll find a way to mix it up lol.
I wonder if Yamame's gonna build up the courage to tell Ibaraki-douji's worse half to keep her teeth off her man.

X

>>45173158
Being the more oni like of the two halves she may bring out Yamame´s methods of dealing with other onis

You know, taking a bath together may give Yamame some ideas

I had no expectations of Yamame, but I did have hopes. High hopes for her and Lady Kasen to get along. I didn't want them to fight, because I didn't want to have to choose between them both. It was out of my hands, though, so I could do nothing more than step into the male changing rooms and pray for Yamame's success.

The changing rooms were empty and quiet, but I was pleased to see that they were fully equipped, and not just for someone the size of an oni. I'd been slightly worried about that, but it seemed that since the Hot Springs Town had become something a tourist destination for plenty of youkai, the staff catered to all sizes of youkai. What this meant was that there were towels that actually fit me properly, since I'd been half-expecting to see massive towels meant for oni men twice my height and width in muscles, that I could get lost for three days within.

I washed up quickly and found that I was rather in need of a wash after trekking up and down the mountain in the last two days, as well as wandering around the Hot Springs Town, where it was steamy and hot. Thankfully, the venue provided plenty of supplies for cleaning myself up, and it was fairly short work to get myself ready to enter the hot springs proper. I wiped my hair out of my eyes, then stored my clothes in a waiting locker before stepping through the doorway to the hot springs proper.

It made sense why this in particular was a more private house. The doorway led out onto the edge of the springs itself, which had little space to walk around. The springs were rather large, with enough space that even a couple oni would be able to stretch out their bodies fully inside. The floor, I noticed, looked like it had been carved straight from the rock that the whole place was built on top of, presumably to keep the feel of being in a regular hot spring. The hot spring itself ran to the edge of the balcony, where a railing prevented customers from falling off. And beyond the railing was an amazing view over all of the Hot Spring Town. I could see the giant keystone in the distance, still lodged in the largest of the hot springs, and I could see the twisting and turning paths that led all the way up to the quieter district that I was currently in, where there weren't a huge amount of people milling about. Even so, I could hear the sound of the visitors in the distance, in both shouts, drunken cheers, and even more drunken singing. I could see the sheer rock face on the opposite side of the town, and I wondered how long it would be before the oni began to cut into it to expand the district out further. And just to the edge of the balcony, I could see an even larger cavern, where the Old City itself lay.

However, it seemed that I had things closer to home to worry about, because I was not alone. Sitting at the edge of the spring, her towel dangerously low at her chest and riding up where she had her leg resting against the edge of the water, was Raki. With one leg in the water, she held Lady Kasen's sake box - Though I supposed it was her sake box too - delicately between two clawed fingers, and she looked entirely unperturbed when she spotted me. She drained her box, stared at me, and bit gently at the fingernail of her thumb.

Slowly, I asked her if this was the mixed hot spring. "It is." She said, her eyes narrowing. "For warming up your body and relaxing." She continued, her voice somehow sounding dangerous. I wondered if she was in a bad mood. "Get in." She finally told me. I found myself slow to move, and Raki stood, her towel seeming to stay on by either a miracle or prayers. She waded across the water toward me and crossed her arms. "Sit down." She repeated, her voice gaining an edge sharper than a knife. When I still didn't immediately move, she ripped my towel from me and threw it in the corner of the room, leaving me entirely naked. Without thinking, I stepped into the water, ignored the heat of it, and sat in an attempt to preserve some modesty. "You don't let your towel touch the water." Raki told me, then she turned and threw her own towel into the opposite corner, leaving her just as naked as I was. "Basic etiquette." She sat in the water, taking the exact same pose she had been in beforehand. I forced my eyes up at the ceiling. Despite the awkward situation, the water was incredibly warm and soothing, even if I now had a dangerous oni sat opposite me completely nude.

"I'm upset with you." She told me sharply. I asked the ceiling what I had done. "Look at me." I flicked my eyes back at Raki, caught sight of...her, and then went back to staring at the ceiling. "Look," She said, much sharper than before, "At me." I finally got my eyes to be level with Raki's face, and I did my best to keep them there. The knowledge that I wasn't just looking at Raki, but essentially at Lady Kasen, burnt in my brain. I'd only seen Reimu and Yamame fully nude before, and I hadn't been planning to increase the number so quickly. "Now, try again." I asked Raki what I'd done to upset her, and I kept my gaze focused on Raki's face as I did so. "You insinuated that I...Could become good." Raki replied, and I noticed with more than a little consternation that her gaze was decidedly not focused on my face. She seemed to be examining me, and I hoped that things weren't going to get any stranger. "And it caused renewed friction between me and - and Kasen. Something that I didn't want." I crossed my legs and leaned forward, putting my hands beneath the water and on my lap. I said that I'd witnessed the conversation between Raki and Lady Kasen and I thought that it had brought them to a new understanding. "It might have, but I want to keep the record straight. So, I'm going to do something bad. To you." That sounded...dangerous. Slowly, I asked her what she was planning. "You're rather attractive." She said, as if she was discussing the weather. "So, I'm going to have some fun with you, and I-"

Unbeknownst to Raki, someone had walked in behind her, and at her words, had reared up a kick at the back of her head, which sent her face first into the water. Before she could get up, Suika Ibuki tossed her towel to the side and jumped, landing squarely on Raki's back and holding her head in the water. "Heel, girlie." She muttered, ignoring Raki's thrashing in the water. She looked up at me. "Sorry about that. She's spent a little too long drinking before coming here. Goes to her head, but in a very different way to the hermit." Raki finally bucked, knocking Suika to the side, and she pulled her head up, water streaming down her face and from her hair and horns. She got to her hands and knees as she coughed and breathed in heavily. I tried not to look at the way gravity...affected this. "So, here you are. Where's your spider?" Suika asked me, shifting so her back was against the side of the springs.

I told Suika that she was with Lady Kasen, and they would be coming by soon. I decided not to mention what exactly their conversation was, but I suspected that Suika knew anyway. "Well, you'd better hope that they have a good chat." Suika didn't say anything more, and I knew that she was definitely far more perceptive than she appeared, so I figured that she was probably telling me something more than I thought she was. "Anyway, how are you enjoying the Hot Springs Town?" Suika reached behind her and plucked the bottle of sake that Raki had been using from where it sat, then took a long swig. As Raki dragged herself over to sit against the other side of the spring, I said that I was rather enjoying the town. It was lively in a very different way to the village, and I'd been able to see more of Yamame's sisters, who were all fun to talk to. "Nice, nice. Yuugi's be happy to hear that. She's the manager, after all."

"Yeah, and she's so busy managing the place that she barely has time to talk to us." Raki muttered, sweeping her hair back in a manner similar to what I had done with my own hair. "Makes me want to cry." She turned and got up slightly from the water to retrieve the sake box, and I found myself staring very deeply at Suika's face rather than anywhere in that direction. I really did hope Yamame showed up soon. "She's way too high-strung."

Fortunately, I heard a voice coming from the female changing rooms. Unfortunately, it wasn't Yamame. "Ah, my time to relax!" Yuugi Hoshiguma wandered through the doorway, her towel already slung over her shoulder. "Oh, hey!" She cheerfully said to me, entirely unconcerned by my presence. It seemed that her inability to handle lewdness didn't extend to nudity. Now that her hair was out of the ponytail, I could see just how much of it there was. It was more like a mane than anything else. Yuugi wasted little time in getting in the water, and she leaned back with a relaxed sigh.

So, there I was. Oni to the left of me, oni to the right and another oni in the middle. I wondered how Yamame was doing and really hoped she'd show up soon. After stewing in my thoughts for a minute, I realised that Yuugi and Suika were talking. "So," Suika said, leaning in to talk to Yuugi. I resumed staring at the ceiling. "You reconsidered getting rid of that keystone yet? It's spoiling the view." I stopped trying to burn a hole through the ceiling and looked at Suika instead. "Did you ever figure out who put it there? Because I'm pretty sure I know-" I coughed, somewhat loudly, cutting Suika off. She looked at me curiously. Slowly, I said that I was also curious about how they were planning to get rid of it. Suika stared at me for a moment, then I saw the slightest smirk cross her face. She really was far too perceptive.

Yuugi, it seemed, was less so, and Raki didn't seem to care at all. "Oh, er, I've got some ideas. I wanted the Kurodani lot to do it, but, uh, I don't think they're going to."

"Yeah, because they looked at you like you were stupid - Because you are - and asked how exactly they were supposed to remove a rock like that without oni strength." Raki muttered, resting her chin on her hand. "And you stood there for a minute before saying that you should have thought of that, and then you left. It was very graceful."

Yuugi pouted, an expression that didn't seem to fit with how muscular she was. "You used to be nicer." She muttered to Raki.

"Well, I'm in two minds at the moment, and one of them's interrogating a spider." Raki looked fairly uninterested in the conversation. "Say, Suika." She looked over at the smallest oni. "You see any pretty boys on your way up?" Yuugi squeaked, which was even more unfitting.

Suika looked at her, then looked at Yuugi, then finally looked at me with a widening smile. "I saw a few." She said, her voice growing playful. "Tall, handsome type. Yuugi?"

"Y-Yes?" Yuugi stammered. I decided to just cross my arms and watch the whole thing play out.

"Pretty boys?"

"Pretty - Um, no! I, er, didn't see anyone like that. Really." She looked like she was searching for an escape route.

"Really?" Raki asked, the smile on her face evident in her voice. "You didn't want to just drag one away and take him for a ride there and then?"

"A - A ride!?" Yuugi was now going as red as her horn. "Wh- No! Stop talking like that!" She drew her legs in and raised her arms over her chest. "I - I don't want to do that - that sort of stuff."

"Aw, c'mon." Suika said, reaching over and slapping Yuugi on the back. "Hey, we got a pretty boy right here, y'know?" She poked Yuugi in the cheek until she was looking at me. "I bet he appreciates pretty girls. Don't you?" She asked me, thought I wasn't given time to answer as she shifted closer to Yuugi so she could throw an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, maybe we can give you a few tips on getting comfy with a man, huh?" On the opposite side, Raki stood up and wondered closer to Yuugi. At this point, alarms were beginning to sound in my head. Where the hell were Yamame and Lady Kasen? "We gotta make sure you know what you're doing." Suika said to Yuugi.

"I don't need you to - Raki, don't look at me like that!" Yuugi was now stammering things to everyone.

"What is it you want, huh?" Raki asked, sitting down on Yuugi's other side. "Because I'll bet it's something stupid, like a handsome man falling right into your lap one day. That'll never happen, you know?" I suppressed a cough. That had been almost exactly what had happened to Yamame and I. "You've gotta take some initiative!"

"B-But, we have to get to know each other first..." Yuugi mumbled. "Go on dates together..."

"Ugh, you're such a drag." Raki sighed heavily. "C'mon, girl, we'll teach you everything you need to know." She began leaning in, and on the other side, Suika did the same. "About how to get a man." She whispered. Yuugi looked about ready to jump straight off of the balcony at this point. "All - about - se-"

And that was enough, so Yuugi jumped to her feet with enough strength to throw both Suika and Raki back. "I - I don't want to hear this! You're both just - so - mean!" In fairness, she did look like she might start crying, so perhaps Yuugi had a point. The biggest oni, reduced to near tears by some simple words. She stormed from the bath and grabbed her towel, wrapping it around herself as she began to storm from the room.

"Aw, c'mon, Yuugi!" Suika called over the sound of the splashing water. Yuugi ignored her as she stomped to the door and threw it open, but then stopped in place. Suika got to her feet and wandered over. "No need to be so frightened! Just us girls, right?" She looked back at me, and I raised a hand. "Well, mostly us girls. But it's not like anything weird is happening, is it?" Yuugi was pushed back a step, and I saw a bandaged arm pushing against her chest. Lady Kasen was finally here, and I could only hope that Yamame was right behind her.

"You're making fun of me!" Yuugi cried out, still trying to leave but failing. I looked over at Raki, who'd fallen backwards in the water next to me. I hoped she wasn't getting any weird ideas, but if she was, at least Lady Kasen would be here to try and control them.

"Yeah, maybe a little, but it's good-natured, so..." Suika looked over at me, so I shrugged and said that my first talk about those sorts of things had been equally as embarrassing. You just had to get through it. Suika looked back over at the corridor that Yuugi was trying to push through and spotted something. "Well, this looks fun." She muttered. "C'mon, Kurodani! Get in here!" Oh, the way I felt my heart soar at those words. Yuugi continued to stumble backwards against Lady Kasen's arm until she was finally forced back enough for Lady Kasen to enter. Behind her, looking a little nervous, was Yamame. She spotted me, and I saw her shoulders fall in relief as she sighed. "Kasen, you gotta help us! Yuugi wants to sleep with a man!" Suika shouted as loudly as she could.

"N-No, I don't!" Yuugi shouted, her voice reaching a high pitch. "I don't want that sort of stuff! Let me go!" The last bit was directed at Lady Kasen, who seemed to have picked up on what was happening immediately. But unlike Raki, she seemed less content to play a part in it.

"Suika, why don't you and Yuugi go and settle this outside?" She asked, calmly. "Expend some of that boundless energy of yours?"

"Huh? Oh, er...I guess?" Suika sounded slightly put out, but cheered up quickly. "C'mon, you blushing maiden!" She hopped out of the water, grabbed her towel, and slapped Yuugi on the back. "Here's a chance to get me back!" As she began pushing Yuugi out of the room, she glanced back at me and smirked. "'Sides, I think there's a boy and his spider looking to spend some time together, and you'd hate to interrupt something so romantic, wouldn't you?"

Yuugi's frustrated howl echoed down the corridor as they disappeared, and left the two Ibaraki's, Yamame, and I. "What have you been getting up to in here, partner?" Lady Kasen asked, wandering around the edge of the water to squat down in front of Raki, who had pulled herself up and was sitting against the side of the spring. "You know how she gets when you bring up anything romantic."

"I didn't say anything romantic, dear." Raki sounded very sarcastic when she said 'dear'. "I asked her if she ever wanted to drag a man off for a ride." Lady Kasen's head dropped, and she sighed heavily. "You must have, right? In the last thousand years?"

"Certainly not!" Lady Kasen said sharply, flicking Raki's hair, where it stuck up from the centre of her head. "I'm a hermit!"

"So, um..." I heard a small voice from my other side, and there was Yamame, looking rather nervously. "Do I just..." Take off the towel and get in, I said. "In front of..." She ripped my towel off, so it couldn't be more awkward than that. Just to be safe, I stood, facing away from Raki and Lady Kasen, so Yamame could discard the towel without them looking. I was certain that Raki, at the very least, was looking at me. Yamame dropped the towel beside her, and I helped her into the water. She sighed happily as soon as she was in. "Oh, that's good..." She mumbled, before shuffling against me. I wrapped an arm around her, happy to just have her around again, even though it hadn't been that long.

I looked back over at Lady Kasen, who'd dropped her towel and now sat in the water too, where she was lecturing Raki on talking to Yuugi in the way she did. "Really, she's sensitive about that stuff, so making jokes about it is just uncalled for. You should really be trying to stop that, shouldn't you? It's so..." She continued, and Raki stared out through the balcony as if she was considering diving through it.

Yamame looked up at me. "Were they weird?" She asked quietly, and I thought for a moment. About as weird as usual, I settled on. "Yeah, that's probably right." I asked her how her talk had been. "Nerve-wracking, honestly. And a little strange, but...I think it was good. I’ll tell you later." She smiled, and I couldn't help myself, so I pulled her closer and kissed her.

"Aw, how cute." I heard Raki mutter after I'd pulled apart again. "How come I never get a piece of that?" I looked over at her, and Lady Kasen looked like she was suffering second-hand embarrassment.

Yamame, though, looked like she was suffering some sort of indecision. After a moment, she seemed to make her mind up, so she got to her knees, grabbed me by the jaw, and kissed me again, as if her life depended on it. This time, Raki didn't say anything, but I didn't think I'd have even noticed if she had. I wasn't sure, as she broke the kiss and left a thin trail of saliva connecting us, that I could have said where I was at that moment, either.

Some place happy, I supposed.

>>45173818
someone need to stop raki

>>45174241
This is how we're going to get bipolar oni kasen
She simultaneously wants to a d doesn't want to fuck anon
Nice to see Yamame take some initiative herself even after missing the whole conversation

Poor Yuugi. Her heart is in the right place, I genuinely think she has the right general idea on how to get a man that she would actually share a lifelong relationship with.

>>45174241
I think Yamame did a pretty good job.

>>45173811
GUYS GUYS
two and a half oni

>>45174421
LOVE yourself now!

In between the Raki rape and the Yuugi bullying I'm very very tempted to imagine

>>45175322
Suika seems strangely immune to anons charms, wonder why that is.

>>45177807
She's blonde now

>>45175322
I've been imagining raki teaching yuugi all about the birds and the bees by pinning anon down and fucking him there and then since the update was posted to be honest

>>45177929
I could see it going as far as her kissing anon and grabbing his member to show Yuugi how to "set the mood". Assuming she did this fast enough she could maybe shock Yuugi into staying to watch.
But we both know at this point Yamame would enter the scene and rescue her man before Raki could really take advantage of the situation.

I just imagined her making a hairbun the size of her head behind her

>>45173811
>Oni to the left of me, oni to the right
And here I am, stuck in the middle with You(mame)

>>45174241
Don't worry. I can handle her.

>>45180187
how?

What is the differemce between a tsuchigumo and a jorogumo?

>>45177807
No, she's definitely insinuated that she thinks he's cute. She just knows how to respect his boundaries.

>>45177807
Suika could get into kronkanon easily enough, its just that she knows he's a committed man and respects that.

Not ashamed to admit that I spent several hours last night fantasizing about Raki raping me... but it seriously cut into my fantasizing-about-Kasen-loving-me time. Are there any ways we can combine the two?

>>45181386
if only there was a way to get both at the same time...

>>45180799
Tsuchigumo are poisonous cave spiders. Also known as those guys from that other tribe we don't like.

Jorogumo are spiders that give you back the axe you dropped in the lake but tell you to tell nobody of the encounter then drag you back into said lake by an invisible thread once you inevitably do.

>>45181543
Are there any good fics or doujin works featuring something like this? I looked around a little and couldn't find much of anything besides one or two of Kasen preying on cute shotas.

>>45143955
>i do remember Yuugi placing cards face down without looking
Heh, nice reference

Yamame Kurodani was panting, her breath hot and heavy. I could feel it against me, and at that moment I wanted nothing more than to pull her against me again and do some very unsavoury things. Things that would no doubt see me banned permanently from this hot spring. And despite the audience, maybe I would have fallen to temptation, but for the loud explosion I suddenly heard and certainly felt. It jarred me enough to make me try and stand up, only to slip and fall back into the water, where I took in a big lungful of water. That jogged my memory enough to remember what was happening as I forced myself up and began coughing heavily in an attempt to dislodge the water clogging my airways. Yamame helped by thumping me on the back. "Hey, should I take a crack at it?" I heard Raki ask, and suddenly I found that I could, in fact, breathe perfectly fine. Still gasping a little, I managed to tell her that no, I was fine, thank you very much. "Your loss..." Raki muttered, turning her head to the side. “What’s a human’s tolerance level?” I hear her whisper to Lady Kasen, who coughed loudly.

Personally, I imagined the only real loss would be that of my intact spine if I started letting Raki hit me on the back, so I didn't feel too broken up about it. Once I was breathing normally again, Yamame looked about ready to relax back into the water, except now I'd spotted what the explosion had been. Out through the balcony, up in the air well above the Hot Spring Town, was a giant oni. Suika, grown to gargantuan sizes, was attempting to kick Yuugi, who seemed to be running - or rather, flying - circles around her. "She can't move as fast when she's that big." I heard Lady Kasen say, though she didn't sound entirely interested in the occurrence. I decided that it was probably because she'd had more than enough experience in her life of watching the two fight, so it probably didn't mean much to her anymore. "Is she just showing off? Who for?"

"Probably letting Yuugi blow off some steam." Raki muttered, crossing her arms at the exact same moment that Lady Kasen did. "She loves teasing her, but she knows that if she pushes it too far, it'll just become full-on bullying." There was a moment of silence disrupted only by the sound of very dangerous looking danmaku being thrown around in the open air above the Hot Springs Town. "It'd probably be far less fun if it was outright bullying, though. One of these days, we'll get her somewhere she can't run away from."

"And what do you plan to do then?" Lady Kasen asked, raising an eyebrow. "Beat her up? That seems more your speed."

"Nah..." Raki shot me a smirk and I felt Yamame cling to my arm a little tighter. "Teach her all about where babies come from, I think. I really want to know if it's possible to kill an oni by embarrassing them until their head explodes." She looked at Yamame and I a little closer. "Maybe I could use you as a live demonstration." I shot upright, then told her somewhat sternly that I'd much rather be with Yamame. At that, Raki's smile grew even wider, and her eyes narrowed in a way that I could only imagine to be slightly lustful. "Hm, Bring her too. We'll give Yuugi a real show." Yamame squeaked, then tried to stammer something, though what came out made little sense at all. I stared at Raki with my mouth open as her smile widened.

There was another bout of silence after that comment, and it was only disturbed when Lady Kasen slapped Raki in the back of the head. "Get a grip, partner." She told her sternly, and Raki stuck her tongue out at Lady Kasen, who scoffed. "Be nice. No trying to tempt the cutest couple Gensokyo's ever seen into your particular brand of sin." She told her. "Or I'll have to take you outside too."

"Our brand of sin, dear. And you'd love that, wouldn't you? Chance to beat up the personification of all your sins? How could you resist?" Raki's voice was dry and I could detect the slightest hint of pain in it. She still hated that she was the villain in Lady Kasen's eyes rather than another part of herself. It seemed to be the same story between the two of them.

But then, the story took a twist. "My sins, and yours too." Lady Kasen said quietly, not looking away from Raki, who now looked a little like a deer in the path of a hunter. "You're not the personification of all of my sins. You're me and I'm you. You - You're not just my pain and malice and hatred anymore. You're my partner."

And for once, I saw Raki stunned into silence.

"What's happening here?" Yamame whispered in my ear. I found myself struggling to look away from the scene unfolding in front of me, but I whispered something back about Lady Kasen and Raki's ongoing struggle to come to terms with themselves. "There's really way too many complex plots going on around you, you know?" I forced myself not to laugh during this clearly pivotal moment, even though Yamame was very correct. I also tried to ignore the surreal nature of this conversation happening where everyone involved was naked and in a hot spring. Maybe that just made it a better story, though.

"So..." Raki breathed, staring at Lady Kasen. "Y-You're saying..." It was the furthest on the back foot I'd ever seen her.

"I'm sorry, partner." Lady Kasen whispered, taking Raki's hand. "I'm sorry for betraying you. I'm sorry for sealing you away again. I'm sorry for - for not believing in you." Raki stared at her, her mouth hanging open. "I'm a hermit. But I'm also half of Ibaraki-douji. You're not inherently evil, and you're my other half. It's time we saw each other as we really are."

For a moment, Raki couldn't say anything. Then, in little more than a whisper, she spoke. "Partner." She murmured, while caused a smile to begin growing on Lady Kasen's face. "I..." I heard a slight sniffle from beside me and saw that Yamame looked a little teary-eyed. "I forgive you." She finally said. "Guilt is...a powerful motivator." I really didn't know what was going to happen now. "We'll be fine." She whispered, and then she did something I hadn't expected to see and drew Lady Kasen into a hug. "Just fine."

Lady Kasen was silent for a moment, then spoke. "So, ah, is it time to talk about merg-"

Of course, no lovely moment could be without its own interruptions, so Suika chose that moment to come flying through the balcony at speed and crashed straight into the Ibaraki's, knocking all three of them clear from the water and into the wall behind them. By some miracle, they didn't actually break any of the environment, though I imagined if they had, it would have taken seconds for the staff to repair it. It was probably expected in a place like Former Hell. For a moment, Yamame and I just stared. Then, at the same time, we both turned our heads toward the balcony, and in the distance was Yuugi. Even from here, I could see that she was scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. She slowly flew closer, up toward the balcony. "Uh." She began, very intelligently. "Sorry about that. Should have checked where I was aiming first."

Suika, who had landed upside down with her head against the floor and her feet against the wall, groaned. "You're an idiot." She finally managed to fall to the side, her shoe colliding with Lady Kasen's face. The hermit managed to groan a drawn-out expression of pain. "Oh. Er, whoops."

"You're breaking so many etiquette rules right now..." Raki moaned, forcing herself up. "Oh, what the...?" She couldn't seem to get up fully, and it appeared to be because one of Suika's chains, the ones that hung from her arms, had gotten tangled around Raki's horns. Now, she was dragging Suika around as she stood, her hands ineffectually clawing at the chains, and she kept cursing under her breath as the spherical object on the end of the chain swung into her head. "Oh, get up, you stupid..." She lifted Suika up by the horns. The smaller oni gave her the least convincing apologetic smile I'd seen in my entire life. "Partner?"

Lady Kasen, rubbing at her face where Suika's shoe had hit it, staggered to her feet. Once more, I was struck with the surreal realisation that both of them were still naked. At some point, I'd just stopped paying attention to it. "Alright, idiot-douji, let's just..." She allowed the bandages making up her right arm to slacken, and then sent the resulting strands out toward Raki, where they slipped underneath the chains wrapped around her horns. I couldn't really understand what I was looking at, but after a moment, the chains began to slide free, and Suika tumbled to the ground, landing on her head. She fell onto her back with a groan and looked up, where Lady Kasen and Raki stood over her. "Wow. Just like old times." she muttered. "Only now, there's two of you. And you're naked." She chuckled quietly.

Lady Kasen looked over at Raki, who didn't even seem to need any words to understand her meaning. Together, acting as if they were mirrored, they both grabbed one of Suika's horns, lifted her straight off the ground, then burst forward. They dropped into the water as if wasn't even there, ran for the balcony, and both hurled Suika forward at the same moment, sending the screaming oni into the distance like a shot, so fast that Yuugi, who'd been watching the whole thing with a bemused look barely managed to get out of the way, and the backlash from the throw was enough to send Yamame and I tumbling over in the water. I grabbed hold of her, just in case a flailing limb hit her. After a moment, I managed to get my head up just enough to see Suika, still hurtling through the air, smash into the keystone in the centre of the largest hot spring. For a moment, all I could do was stare.

Then, I heard the echoing crack, and I saw the huge fracture begin to run up the keystone. It didn't break in half, but it was clearly close to going. Even from our vantage point, I could hear the shouting and excited cheers from down in the springs, and it was carrying up to where we were very easily. "Huh." Yamame muttered, sounding a little amazed. "I guess that's one way to deal with it." She got to her feet, her earlier embarrassment forgotten, and joined Raki and Lady Kasen at the balcony, staring down at the keystone. After a moment, I got up to join them. "I wonder if Satori's pets will feel a little left out now?" I looked down at her and snorted.

"Partner, I feel an immense desire to beat a small oni up." Lady Kasen announced, her hands on her hips. "Probably slam her face-first into the ground a few times. How about you?"

"Why, I do believe that I am experiencing the same desire, partner." Raki replied, a wide grin spreading on her face. "Just like old times, huh? Remember when we uprooted that tree on Mt. Ooe and used Suika for batting practice?" She turned to us. "Miss Kurodani, we'll be off for now."

"We're calling her Yamame now, partner." Lady Kasen interjected. "After our talk, I've come to realise that she's a rather lovely girl." I looked over at Yamame, who appeared to be blushing a little, and it made me want to hug her half to death. "Anyway, Yamame, take care of him." She nodded at me, and I opened my mouth in confusion. "He'll be gobbled up by Raki here if you don't." That got me to blush a little too, and Lady Kasen slapped her bandaged arm down on my shoulder. "And you," She looked me deep in the eye, "Take care of her, too. At the end of the day, most of us are looking for someone we can share our happiness with." She slung her arm around Raki's shoulder, and the two of them headed off toward the changing rooms. "It just so happens," She called back to Yamame and I, "We're both going to feel really happy beating Suika into a fine pulp!"

Yuugi, who was still floating out a short distance from the balcony, looked over at us. As she did so, I happened to grab Yamame's hand and pull her closer to me, and I saw Yuugi falter, then spin around violently and launch herself away into the distance again. Some things never changed. Shaking my head and sighing, I stumbled back through the water and sat back down, Yamame following me. I could hear Lady Kasen and Raki in the changing rooms, arguing about who's clothes were who's. I hadn't actually considered that before, but they both had very similar outfits, so I supposed that it made more sense than I thought.

I stretched my legs out, and next to me, Yamame did the same. We both simply sat there, staring blankly off into the distance. "I thought hot springs were supposed to make you feel relaxed." She finally said to me, sounding about as drained as I'd ever heard her. "I just feel tired." After a few moments, I told her that I felt exactly the same. It had been a rather intense several days. Eientei, Lady Kasen's senkai, and now here. After a moment of silence, Yamame shuffled over to me and set about wrapping herself around my side. This had the effect of trapping my arm between her legs and pressing her chest against me, and I started to wonder if there were supposed to be some more etiquette rules about performing...certain activities in the springs. Either way, it was hardly anything I hadn't seen before, at least when it came to Yamame.

"I'll bet my sisters aren't pleased now." Yamame commented, listening to the shouts coming out of the town below us. "If the oni were annoying before, they'll be even more riled up now." I shrugged, then said that it had been bound to happen eventually. Idly, I wondered if Suika had managed to extract herself from the rock yet. "Maybe they'll just pulverise it into fine powder by themselves..." Yamame closed her eyes and rested her head against my arm. "Or maybe Okuu will get there first and blow the whole thing up. That'll turn the whole place into a sauna..." Idly, I began to stroke her hair. I loved running my fingers through it, especially when it was down from her ribbon, and I could really feel the sheer volume of it. I could tell Yamame enjoyed it too, since she would always let out this sort of shiver when I reached the nape of her neck.

After a moment, I told Yamame that I needed my hand back and she pouted, but released me. Before she could ask why, I slipped both hands around her shoulders and squeezed. "Oh..." She murmured, her eyes already threatening to roll up in the back of her head. Her weakness to massages was starting to become impressive, but it was a weakness I intended to take full advantage of, so I continued, my smile growing wider as Yamame grew more and more limp against me. Finally, I stopped, wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her onto my lap so she could lie against me, which she did with a happy sigh. I didn't want to let her go. I wasn't sure I'd ever want to let her go.

Off in the distance, out in the air, I could see danmaku being fired. The oni, no doubt enjoying a fight. "Hey." Yamame murmured, her eyes shut. "Can we stay like this for a while?" I pressed my face into her hair and breathed in, finding the scent extremely pleasant. I could probably stay here for a long, long while. "Thanks..."

Thoughts were starting to come to my mind, the memories of the time I had spent with Yamame. She'd helped me meet Satori Komeiji. She'd offered me a place to stay when I had been stuck outside of Lady Kasen's senkai, and she'd cared for me while I was ill, like I'd done for her. She had changed her entire diet for me. Something that I struggled to imagine many youkai agreeing to. She'd been willing to do so much for me, and I struggled to imagine not having her in my life now. It was an intense feeling, and I knew that it was getting to me.

Funnily enough, I was remembering something else. During the storm, Reimu and I had sat in similarly hot water, and I'd made a decision. There, I had come to the conclusion that she was my family, after some deliberation. Here, I was coming to a different conclusion, and unlike last time, I had no real hang-ups to think about. I knew what it was I wanted to say, and I just had to say it. Yamame, I said quietly. "Hmm...?" She hummed, cracking one eye open to look up at me. I brushed an errant strand of hair from her face. Finally, I said it.

I love you.

That's a nice wrap up for Kasen at least

The more the story goes one the more i wish we could see an alternare Kasen route.

I fucking love oni, this is great
Yuugi best girl

>>45183965
>Our brand of sin, dear.
Kasen confirmed gangbanger pre-split.

>>45183976
>I also tried to ignore the surreal nature of this conversation happening where everyone involved was naked and in a hot spring.
In the span of about an hour, we went from an attempted rape, to bullying a virgin, to dissociative identity disorder therapy, to throwing people off buildings, to an initial love confession after dating (and banging) for several months. All while everyone involved was naked in a hot spring.

>>45183989
>I started to wonder if there were supposed to be some more etiquette rules about performing...certain activities in the springs.
I really gotta wonder if he had a raging boner the entire time they were cuddling.

>>45184087
I wouldn't call it a wrap up, just a big step in a long journey. They're not completely on the same page about everything yet, but they at least understand one another. I know Kasen brought up merging, but if we're going to see it happen in this story, I think we're a fair ways off. But we're much closer than before.

>>45184401
Don't worry, we just need to wait until the story is over. Then >>45171535 will kidnap the author and force him to deliver the goods.
Still wouldn't trade Yamame route for anything, though. I live for moments like what we got in this chapter.

I wonder if this is the end of the story, seems like a good place to wrap it up at

>>45183965
>"Nah..." Raki shot me a smirk and I felt Yamame cling to my arm a little tighter. "Teach her all about where babies come from, I think. I really want to know if it's possible to kill an oni by embarrassing them until their head explodes." She looked at Yamame and I a little closer. "Maybe I could use you as a live demonstration." I shot upright, then told her somewhat sternly that I'd much rather be with Yamame. At that, Raki's smile grew even wider, and her eyes narrowed in a way that I could only imagine to be slightly lustful. "Hm, Bring her too. We'll give Yuugi a real show." Yamame squeaked, then tried to stammer something, though what came out made little sense at all. I stared at Raki with my mouth open as her smile widened.

>>45185291
Personally I'd still like to see more of Eirins therapy sessions in detail, but you are right that this at least seems like a place where we skip forward a bit to when they are planning a proper wedding ceremony under the peach tree.

>>45184858
>Kasen confirmed gangbanger
They are onis man they all do that

>>45183965
>She loves teasing her, but she knows that if she pushes it too far, it'll just become full-on bullying

>>45185571
Yuugi proves you wrong, even among literal demons there are those pure of heart.

>>45185291
If you wanna stretch it anon never thanked Patcho for her help

>>45187221
he's got to invite her to his wedding anyway. there's been so many characters in this story that the wedding arc will be as long as everything before it

>>45185291
Don't say that... it can't end

>>45185291
This story will not end until Yam gets her many mini Yams
but this is definitely the end of the current arc
Jumping forward to the wedding arc would be a good idea

>>45185291
There is still the entei issue that needs to be solved. Sure Eirin is not out for his head anymore but he still did not decide if he will help her or not.

>>45188937
>Jumping forward to the wedding arc would be a good idea
No.

>>45188956
if not jump forward, then montage forward for continuity
We've wrapped up the Kasen arc, there's nothing more to do here, and I don't recall any open plot lines that would create a whole new arc of their own

>>45188991
When Kasen and Arm-chan fuse together there will be a whole new arc of her raping Anon nonstop while the other try to come up with a plan to save him.

>>45188991
I think we will go back to Eientei or writeanon will start a new arc

>>45189011
even KMS can't escape the HSE

>>45184858
>>45185571
guys don't call my waifu a gangbanger. it makes me feel ill to think about it (;´Д`)

>>45189027
though, the Kasen plot there is that Reimu in all her infantile retardness couldn't perceive lust as evil and therefore didn't seal it
sadge

>>45189068
thats what you get when you ask a lazy miko who blushes like a maiden at the sight of romance to seal all your 'evils'

I think Mizuchi should possess Tenshi and pay Anon a friendly visit.

>>45189080
fun (also slightly depressing) fact, I did consider putting Mizuchi into the story quite early on, back in August or so, but I thought 'Oh, I'll wait until CDS gets past the UFO arc first'. Here I am, in November, and the UFO arc only just finished and we still know practically nothing about Mizuchi.

>>45189102
It do be like that sometimes

>>45189102

>>45189102
This just means you can introduce her after she escapes Satoris mansion.

>>45188991
>>45189026
>>45188937
I'm in favour of wrapping it up either here or soon-ish, myself, partly so I can finally catch up. There is always the possibility of a sequel with its own, self-contained arc. Nice guys may finish last, but writers should know it's better to cut it short than spread your legacy thin.

>>45188991
Evicting Chiyari arc?
More seriously, I agree with >>45188950 and >>45189026 in that Eientei isn't completely resolved yet. Right now Anon is only willing to give Eirin a chance, he doesn't exactly trust her yet.
I also want to see Grassroots Youkai Network get more attention (which was teased at before), if only to see Anon's reaction to the big Banki reveal.

>>45189053
Don't worry. She's a reformed woman.

>>45189839
calling her a reformed gangbanger doesn't make me feel much better (;´Д`)

Kasen is legally required to inform you that she's a sex offender

>>45190019
who's going to enforce that law? Yukari?

>>45190011
It's been a thousand years since her wild and horny phase. I'm sure she now understands the importance of remaining faithful to one's partner.

>>45190019
She's not here to start no trouble.

>>45190453
She wants to be a friend of the humans right?

>>45190501
it's hermit kasen who's got the whole friend to humans thing going on, and raki's got other weird hangups
if they merge together, they're going to be the biggest trainwreck of an oni anyone has ever seen

>>45190453
*ahem*

>>45190487
but I'm a virgin so the fact that she has hundreds of years of experience behind her is intimidating to me. should I try to get laid so she and I can be more on equal footing?

>>45190713
that's a good thing, Anon! She likes her men scared, anxiety-ridden and, at later stages, crying for help! You'll do nicely!

>>45190742
oh that's great!(;ﾟ∀ﾟ)
I'm looking forward to it then!(;ﾟДﾟ)

>>45190742
no, no, that's what raki would do, since it's what oni kasen would have done back in the day
current kasen would be too guilty over her past to do anything like that

But for real, if you're a virgin and your waifu has several centuries of sex behind her, how do you satisfy her in bed?
I'm thinking that'd have to be a damn training arc all on its own. Like lifting weights with your erections, breaking bricks with your boner, eating raw bull testicles everyday, stuff like that.
...I should really go back to paying attention to class.

>>45190713
If she knew you were virgin, I guarantee she would rather you have your first time with her as opposed to someone else lol

>>45190842
>I'm thinking that'd have to be a damn training arc all on its own. Like lifting weights with your erections, breaking bricks with your boner, eating raw bull testicles everyday, stuff like that.
Charles Bronson's Solitary Fitness actually has a chapter dedicated to penile exercises.

>>45185291
Its not over yet, anon.

"-Happy fucking days, you bloody bunch of oni fuckups! And - And if you fuck me around like that again, I'm going to take that sake dish, and your little fucking sake box, and I'm going to break the dish into little pieces which I will place in the sake box, and then I'll ram it down your fucking throat and leave you gargling that for the rest of your fucking life, which - which won't be long, because I'll get bored in five seconds and rip your fucking heart out!" Yamame and I stood with our backs against the wall of the house that the Kurodani family had occupied, and I suspected that we were both trying to fade into non-existence. In front of us stood Yuugi Hoshiguma, Lady Kasen, and Raki, and all three of them had some sort of blank face on like they'd disassociated from the situation entirely.

And in front of them, pacing back and forth and more importantly, absolutely, possibly irreversibly furious, was Kisami. This was not the Kisami I had met earlier. This was more like...Some sort of attack dog. A psychotic attack dog. Eirin would have no shortage of work trying to understand her. "She's always had no shortage of temper." Yamame mumbled to me, careful not to be loud enough to distract Kisami from her rant. "But she’s got amazing patience. It's hard to get it to come out, but once you do..."

"We weren't trying to disrupt anything." Lady Kasen tried speaking, and it didn't go too well. "Calm down and-"

"Calm down? Oh, I'm real fucking calm. I'm calm as can be. Matter of fact, I'm about to stroll off under my futon for a quick nap, and I probably won't even have to try hard to get to sleep, because I'm just so fucking calm." Kisami stopped pacing and decided to get in close to Lady Kasen. "It's taken a considerable portion of my sanity to wrangle this whole project into some kind of shape, and now you've riled up all of the oni by breaking the keystone. So, you," A finger pointed at Lady Kasen, "You," And then at Yuugi, "And you," And finally, at Raki, "Fuck off out there before I feel the need to tear your bodies to bits and sell off your flayed skin as a bed spread! To a fucking normal person!" Raki looked about ready to open her mouth and shout back, but Lady Kasen wisely let her bandaged hand wrap around her mouth like a gag, preventing her from getting a word out. "Go and calm down the oni before - before..." She now looked a little lost for words. "Just - Just go away. Go away, now."

Yuugi looked like she'd mentally disappeared to somewhere happier, and the two Ibaraki's looked like they weren't sure if they should run away or fight. Still, all three of them shuffled out of the room silently, which I found to be very impressive, because I hadn't realised anyone at all was capable of dealing with oni like that, even Yamame. Suika, notably, had escaped coming to the shouting session by virtue of escaping the keystone in her mist form, just in time to see Kisami storm out and call in the three other oni, and she'd made the wise decision to remain in her mist form for the time being.

After my sudden declaration at the hot spring, Yamame and I had remained in the hot spring for a while longer, both to cuddle and because braving the wasp's nest that was the centre of the Hot Spring Town seemed like a dangerous idea at the moment. Eventually, though, my body had begun to shrivel up from being in the water for so long, so I had to call it quits and escape back to the changing rooms. On the plus side, I did feel extraordinarily refreshed, and all traces of my aches and pains from being punched and kicked by Jo'on Yorigami had faded. I'd wandered out of the changing rooms and back to the reception, where the receptionist has suspiciously asked me if Yuugi would still be covering me. I shrugged and told her that I assumed she was, since I didn't really know what else to do about it. I'd been doing a very poor job of keeping any money with me, so I'd be really caught out if someone actually demanded payment from me, one of these days.

Perhaps I'd have to finally start charging the youkai living in my house rent. Either that, or I'd have to move in with Reimu and try to get the Shrine some more donations. There was still some money left in my house, come to think of it, so I'd likely have to get over my fears and venture within before long. I wasn't really scared of the youkai in particular, but the memories were likely going to be hard to deal with. I hoped that I could have someone with me when it came to that. Yamame or Reimu, perhaps. I'd thought about Tenshi, but come to the conclusion that while I could probably trust her with just about anything and she was very reliable, I worried that she'd be the type to attack first and ask questions later if I tried to get into the house.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Yamame. "She's a bloody menace if she gets going." Yamame whispered to me. This turned out to be a poor decision, because Kisami's head shot up, her wild red hair bouncing in every direction, and she was now staring at Yamame, who gasped a little and then shuffled behind me so that I was serving as a human shield.

"And you, Yamame!" She growled, and I felt Yamame clutch the back of my shirt. "Both of you, in fact. Why'd you let them do that? Think of the work we'll have to do to calm them all down now!" I slowly, calmly, peacefully told Kisami that we'd not exactly had much choice in the matter. Kisami's angry face held for a few more seconds before she sighed heavily and relaxed. "Ugh, you're lucky I love Yamame too much to hurt you, because that'd hurt her." I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding, and after a moment, Yamame edged out from behind me. "Relax, Yamame. I'm not mad at you."

"That's, um, a relief." Yamame mumbled. "I really didn't know they were going to do that..." It seemed that no matter what age you got to, you'd still quail if your big sister got angry at you. "So, um, do you have a plan...?"

Kisami's smile returned, which seemed a tremendous source of relief. "Why, as a matter of fact, I've had Reiko on it since the keystone got cracked! Reiko!?" She shouted, and after a moment, the sliding door opened.

"Are we allowed to come in now?" Reiko asked tentatively, stepping into the room. "No danger of errant insults?" Behind her, I saw Yura poke her head in, then slip into the room behind Reiko. "Calmed down?" She asked Kisami with a raised eyebrow.

"Calm as can be, little sister!" Kisami's mood had swung entirely back in the other direction now, and she cheerfully strode over and slapped Reiko on the back, nearly making her drop the papers she was holding. Her yelling session had taken place in one of the other rooms along the corridors on the top floor of the Kurodani house, so it wasn't where Reiko had been busy setting up all of the plans for the restoration project. Instead, it was halfway to being a storage room, though there were a few other random food supplies scattered around, and a rolled up futon against the wall. Kisami turned and rummaged through some items on the floor, emerging with a small, thin circular band. She pulled it, stretching it out slightly before it pulled back into it's original shape. "So," She began, lifting both of her hands above her head and gathering up her lion's mane of hair, "Tell us your plans, little sister." Her raised arms were lifting her shirt slightly, and I decided not to focus on that and instead wondered just how she was planning to wrangle her hair together. Besides, I liked seeing Yamame's navel more.

"Have some decency..." Reiko muttered under her breath. Yura, seizing the opportunity, shot forward and poked Kisami on the stomach, making her flinch automatically and drop her hairband. Her hair, which had just been held up above her head, fell back down in an even messier, curly look. When Yura and Kisami began to get into a small fight over the hairband, Reiko sighed heavily, rubbed at her forehead as if she had a headache, and walked over to Yamame and I instead. "Since my elder sister can't act her age, and my other sister has always been too immature, I'll just tell you two instead." Yura and Kisami paused, looking over at Reiko. After a moment, Kisami stole the opportunity to grab back her hairband, and the fight started all over again. "As you know, two of Satori Komeiji's pets have made themselves available to us. They spoke of meeting you on their way in - Or rather, one of them spoke of the two of you, and the other one made a concerted effort to avoid mentioning one of you - And after meeting with Yuugi Hoshiguma, she told them to assist us in any way they could."

Suddenly, Kisami let out a slight cry of surprise, and I looked over to see that Yura had jumped behind her forced her to sit down, and had begun to play with her hair by herself, pulling it into various shapes. I was really starting to see that incredibly voluminous hair ran in the family, if Kisami was any indication. "Ouch, Yura! You're supposed to be gentle!"

"Anyway," Reiko pointedly continued, drawing my attention back, "With that in mind, I had a plan to have the Hell Raven and the oni work together to move the rock something less busy, then slowly use her power to melt it down. With your oni friend's intervention, this has obviously been shelved." I felt like Reiko was just slightly blaming me for Lady Kasen and Raki's actions, which was just a little unfair in my opinion. "So, instead, my very quickly concocted plan with hole after hole in it is to have the oni very delicately break the rock into smaller pieces, carry it off away from the springs, then have the Hell Raven break it down. This probably won't work very well, but my only other idea was to try and have the Hell Raven blow it up entirely, but I can't imagine that having a great effect on the town itself, so...Here we are."

"I...see." Yamame slowly said, frowning. "Er, well, as long as it works, I suppose?"

"Which it will, because I'll be there to make sure!" Kisami cheerfully said, hopping to her feet. Yura had pulled her hair up and tied it off, leaving her hair sticking up wildly, like some sort of fire. Still, it was rather striking. "I might not have Yamame's gift of making the oni do what I tell them, but I'm still very good at talking!" Personally, I thought that all they'd have to do was upset her and she'd have all of the oni doing exactly what she wanted, but I decided not to voice that out loud. "So, you two," Kisami rushed over to us and - surprisingly - pulled both of us into a bone-crushing hug, leaving me struggling to breathe. "You can do whatever you'd like." Yamame opened her mouth, but Kisami cut her off. "Little sister, you already do so much for us, so I'm asking you to take care of yourself instead. I have heard about how you worked yourself half to death fixing up webs, you know." She flicked Yamame in the head, despite her protests. "If you don't take better care of yourself, I'll just have to tell your human here every embarrassing memory I have of you." Yamame's eyes widened in horror, and while I was sympathetic, I also wouldn't have minded hearing some of those stories. For perfectly wholesome purposes, of course. "So, what'll it be, my dear little sister? Embarrassing stories, or taking care of yourself?"

"Taking care of myself..." Yamame muttered under her breath, looking down at the ground.

"What's that?" Kisami asked loudly, a hand around her ear. "Speak up!"

"I'll take care of myself!" Yamame cried louder. I wondered how she managed to treat Nai the way she did, considering how she was being treated by Kisami. Of course, I couldn't help but find it very cute, so I didn't have much room to complain. "Stop treating me like a child, Ki!"

Kisami, taking absolutely no heed of Yamame's words, hugged her again, then began to pet her head. "Aw, I knew I could trust you."

"This is painful to watch." I heard Yura mutter to Reiko. "Why's she like this?"

"I think she's a sadist. This is just her preferred form of torture. Yams was always far too easy to fluster." Reiko whispered back.

"I can hear you both!" Yamame cried, still trying to pry Kisami off of her. "I'll show you flustered as soon as I get this lump of immaturity off of me!" She looked at me with pleading in her eyes. "Why aren't you helping me!?" I raised my hands and said that this was clearly a family issue, so it wouldn't be right for me to get involved. The fact that I just enjoyed watching it too much was left unstated. "You snake!" Yamame shouted. "I'll get you back for this!"

On and on it went, until Yamame finally managed to extract herself from the tight grasp of Kisami. This was, of course, followed by Yura and Reiko grabbing her in hugs of her own, and that went on even longer, until Yamame finally managed to promise to come back down to see them again soon, and after far longer than it should have taken, we managed to leave the room and shut the door behind us. For a moment, we just stood there, Yamame breathing heavily. Then, she slapped me on the arm. "I cannot believe you just left me alone for that." She told me, and I immediately threw my arms around her. "Wait - No!"

Once I'd had my fun, I released Yamame, who straightened her ribbon with a face redder than Yuugi's horn. It had gotten knocked terribly askew in all of the hugs, and her hair stuck out all over the place. "You are - so - doing my hair." She told me seriously, and I smiled and nodded.

Because Yamame couldn't go more than a few minutes without being embarrassed by something, Nai was the next to find her, on the ground floor where I had stopped to grab my coat. "Big Sister!" She called, emerging from the staircase while Yamame waited for me to retrieve the coat and join her. "Are you going? I just wanted to say thank you for telling the oni off!" And before Yamame could do anything, Nai had collided with her waist and wrapped her arms around Yamame. "Big Sister Yura said that I could start working on that mean oni's house. The one you gave the influenza!" I exchanged a glance with Yamame, as well as a raised eyebrow.

"Um, yes, well, you're welcome, Nai." Yamame stammered out, awkwardly patting her on the back. "That oni's a piece of work. Just, er, make sure you work fast. And safely, of course. She already attacked one of us, so she's out of forgiveness in my books. But she should be out for a couple days, so finish up there and get gone before she can start up another fuss." After a few more moments, she finally extracted herself from the hug that Nai was forcing on her. "Did Kisami say something to you?" She asked suddenly, then shook her head. "No, sorry, never mind. A-Anyway, make sure you work safely. I don't want to hear that you're getting into accidents!"

"Y-Yes, Big Sister!" Nai replied, looking very serious. "I won't let you down!" What a ways we'd come from Nai trying to attack me for falling through her webs. Now, she seemed absolutely fine with me. "Are you, um, coming back soon?"

Yamame looked over at me and I raised my hand to tell her that I had no problems with it. "Probably, Nai. Definitely sooner than last time, at least." That clearly made Nai very happy, because she cheered and started a whole new round of hugs, which took Yamame even longer to escape from. Finally, after all of the disruptions, we managed to leave the building, my coat tossed over my shoulder and Yamame looking rather drained. "Can we go home, now?" She asked me tiredly. I'd been happy to go home at any point. It wasn't my fault that Yamame's family loved her too much to let her leave. "Oh, shut up, you. I'm still going to get you back for leaving me out to dry." Taking my hand, we began making our way through the streets of the Hot Spring Town again, though we stayed away from the largest spring where the keystone had been cracked.

On the way out, I spotted Lady Kasen and Raki in the middle of a fist fight with a massive oni man, presumably one of the ones who'd been convinced that he could lift the whole keystone by himself. They seemed to be winning handily, and I spotted Raki blocking attacks that could have hit Lady Kasen a few times, which seemed like a good sign for their relationship. I didn't see her, but at one point, I heard Suika shouting at someone, and then heard the sound of a large amount of danmaku, so I assumed she was doing her bit too. As for Yuugi, I could see her down in the largest spring, seemingly supervising the preliminary clean-up from where Suika had crashed into the keystone.

Happily - For Yamame, because I could watch her get hugged all day - we were not accosted by any more of her sisters on the way out of the city. The tunnels were fairly uneventful, though at one point I spotted the path leading through to that bridge Yamame and I had crossed to reach the Old City on my first trip down to the underground, but Yamame steered me away from it, saying that it was definitely not safe for humans at the moment. "Might be possible next time, I think. Her jealousy usually intensifies and lessens on a cycle." I still didn't really know who exactly she was, but I trusted Yamame to be correct about it.

We arrived back at Yamame's house after a long climb back through the tunnels, and I could feel my tiredness creeping back up on me. The time in the hot springs had left me feeling refreshed, but it hadn't changed the fact that I was exhausted, and by the look of it, so was Yamame. "Do you want to just...?" Yamame asked, looking at me tiredly. I nodded, pulling my boots off, and draping my coat over one of her chairs. Stumbling together to the bedroom, she unbuttoned my shirt, and I pulled the straps of her dress down, letting it fall to the floor as soon as her arms were straight. I wasn't particularly in the mood for anything tiring, and it didn't seem that Yamame was either, because we both fell to the bed, threw all of the covers over us, and fell asleep in seconds, our arms wrapped around each other.

I couldn't help myself, and just before I nodded off, whispered that I loved her into her ear. Perhaps unconsciously, or perhaps not, she clung tighter.

Oh that's an interesting idea, trying to find a job somewhere.

Yam's family is always a treat to read about, thanks for the bump writefag

>>45192036
>Might be possible next time, I think. Her jealousy usually intensifies and lessens on a cycle."
is this an allegory for menstruation

>>45192171
>>45192287
I'm still hoping he works with the sisters at some point. It would be cool to see some of them directly interact with him, like that time he and Nai sawed a log.

>>45192337
Since Yam is working for Hecatia he should work for her too using his infinite charisma and becoming a salesmen for her.

>>45192363
Heca actually offered him a job already, but it all got sidetracked by the kasen stuff
He would have been her representative, so maybe he'd have gotten some magic of his own too

>>45192387
Finally he would be able to fly himself instead of being carried by someone else.

Writeanon do you intend to write spin-offs?

It took several days for anything interesting to happen. Yamame hugged me a lot, which was nice. On the second day, she found where I’d hidden her coffee supply, which had led to a wasted, if very strenuous and enjoyable, day. In the rest of the time, Yamame fixed up my sweater, complaining to me the entire time about letting strange woman bite me, mixed with complaints that she herself couldn't bite me. My remarks that being bitten by an oni who could probably lift a mountain really wasn't quite as great as she seemed to think I found it fell on deaf ears. There was a lot of "But she gets to leave permanent marks on you and I don't!" from Yamame in this time, and I repeatedly reassured her that I loved her, not Raki, and I wasn't looking to let her bite me. For a moment, I thought about saying that I'd love to let Yamame leave permanent marks on me too, but I decided that saying that would be the sort of thing to start putting strange ideas in her head, so I let it lie.

"What do you think about something darker?" Yamame asked me, sitting in her armchair up in her workshop with her legs crossed. I was stood in front of her, shirtless but with my trousers on, and she was forcing me through another long session of trying on clothing. "If you did work with Miss Hecatia, it might be more fitting." I frowned, lifting up what I could only describe as one of Lady Hecatia's t-shirts, though it was definitely not long enough to cover my entire upper body. Surely, I asked, I'd need an outfit for every version of Lady Hecatia, since the dark colours and reds would only match with the hell version. Yamame sat up, her chin resting on her hand, and looked between me and the very tight, very short t-shirt. "I'd like to see you in that." She finally said, and I sighed and draped it back over the nearest surface. "Spoilsport. Let me indulge in my fantasies, won't you?" The last thing I needed was Yamame coming up with weirder fantasies for me, so I gave her a pointed look, and she finally acquiesced, throwing herself back in her chair and shoving a hand into the pile of clothes she'd dragged over to sit next to her.

My feet hurt.

"Alright, try this one." Yamame said, dragging out a long-sleeved, red shirt. "And...this." She pulled out a grey set of trousers, slim without any additional pockets or anything of that nature. "See if the colours go well." I sighed, possibly a little more heavily than I'd intended. "Hey! No complaints, or I just might start charging you!" I muttered something under my breath about her already using my body for payment, but she tutted and ignored me as I slipped out of my current trousers. "...Or you could just stay like that. That's good too." I looked back at her over my shoulder with a slightly scandalized expression, and she smiled so innocently that I couldn't help but forgive her immediately. I shook my head in exasperation and pulled the new pair of trousers on, finding the fabric to be quite breathable. "Silk." She told me, and I stared for a moment. I opened my mouth. "Just silk. Don't think any further." I closed my mouth, but I stared at her with narrowed eyes for a moment. "Oh, er, it's probably not going to be great for the weather. Hmm..." I paused, then asked her why I was even trying it on. "Well, er...I might have gotten carried away." I turned, crossed my arms, then strode over to stand in front of her. "Ooh, scary." She said with a mischievous smile. "Planning to punish me?" Scowling, I crouched down, lifted the spider from her chair despite her complaints, and sat myself down with her on my lap. Then, ignoring her questions, I placed my hands on her shoulders and squeezed.

"Just what are you planning to-" And immediately, she melted. "O-Oh..." She immediately went slack in my lap, and I continued. I'd worked out all of her weak points over time, and it was easy to massage her into becoming incapable of functioning for a while. "Y-You're cheating..." She mumbled, trying and failing to lift her arms. "So unfair." I moved from her shoulders to her head, slipping her ribbon free. "Wait, now I need t-to-" I slid my fingers through her hair, shaking it free until it fell in every direction, and then I very gently began to massage it. Within minutes, I had Yamame down to nothing but a heavily breathing mess. Finally, I asked her if she'd had enough. "...Not a chance." She mumbled.

Of course, I knew by now that I'd get interrupted most of the time, so I wasn't all too surprised at the knock on the door. "Hello, hello~" I was a little surprised by the voice. "Miss Spider~" It had been only a mere few days since I'd heard Tenshi's voice, but it felt like ages. "Reimu says this is the place to seek out hapless men!"

Yamame sighed heavily, and I was forced to stop massaging her. "There's always something with you, isn't there?" She huffed, then stumbled to her feet, swiping up the red shirt she'd suggested which she thrust into my chest. "Here." She told me. "Yes, yes, I'm coming!" She called as she jumped down from the upper floor. I stood and pulled the shirt on, beginning to do the buttons up as I wandered over to the ledge from the upper floor to see what was happening. Yamame pulled open the door. "Oh, aren't you-?"

"The most beautiful person you've ever seen? Why, yes!" Tenshi cheerfully cut Yamame off. "Is he - Oh, there you are!" She poked her head in the door and looked up, spotting me and waving. "Feels like it's been weeks. Hey, nice shirt!" I awkwardly waved back, still buttoning up the shirt.

"Excuse me, would you mind not inviting yourself into my home?" Yamame said, somewhat coldly, though it occurred to me that she hadn't actually met Tenshi before, so I supposed it was to be expected. "The last person to do that got very ill, I hear." She gently, but firmly shoved Tenshi back to the door. "What is it that you want?" My shirt successfully buttoned, I called down to Yamame and asked her if there were any shoes to go with this outfit. "Under the desk!" She called up to me, and I spun, looking at the back wall of the workshop, which was completely covered with...stuff. I didn't know anything about making clothes, so I couldn't say what most of the stuff was, but it looked like a lot of storage space for materials and a very wide desk which curved slightly, giving Yamame more surface area to work with. Next to the desk was a wardrobe, and I couldn't resist from pulling it open to see the inside. Inside, I found complete outfits. Outfits for any description, some hidden under large coverings, some out in the open. a myriad number of coats, dresses, and shirts, and those were just what was hung up. Folded in various drawers were even more clothes of every variety. This, I supposed, must have been Yamame's personal collection. The things she couldn't wear on a day-to-day basis, but didn't want to lose track of. "Did you find them!?" I heard Yamame call, and I shook my head and closed the wardrobe, going back to the desk. Crouching down, I found a box.

"How's Reimu?" I heard Yamame ask Tenshi. Apparently, she was happy enough to engage in small talk.

"Huh? Oh, she's fine. Grumpy as ever. Is it true that she slept here for half a day after coming back from Eientei?" Tenshi sounded as unflappable as ever.

"Er, yes. Right on the couch." Yamame's voice sounded more than a little bit amused. "I hear she fell asleep in the caves on her way here, though. My sisters found her, and then her little brother," I got the impression that Yamame was pointing at me, "Carried her here." I opened the box, finding a pair of shoes inside. They weren't bulky like my boots were, and had fairly thin laces. I sat down in front of them, pulling them from the box. Grey in the same colour as the trousers, but while they felt less sturdy, they also didn't feel quite as flimsy as I'd expected them to feel. Pulling them on, I was pleased to find that they were exactly my size, and very comfortable. I tied the laces tight, then turned and headed for the ledge of the workshop, where I dropped to the ground floor. Tenshi had progressed to leaning against the door while Yamame stood there with her arms crossed. "Ah, there you are." Yamame said, taking in my appearance. "Hmm..."

"Well, it's been a while." Tenshi said, pushing off of the wall. "Or, uh, actually, it's only been a few days. Feels like ages, though." It did, and I nodded. "Reimu's sent me, if you were wondering why I was here."

"I was wondering that." Yamame said, sounding a little put out. Tenshi had a habit of getting overly familiar pretty fast, and I could see how it was grating on Yamame's nerves. Discretely, since Yamame was standing ahead of me and couldn't see me from behind, I tried to motion Tenshi to tone it down. She just stared at me as if I'd had a sudden bout of madness. "And why couldn't Reimu come and deliver the message herself?"

"We made a bet on who'd get there first. Then we played for who was collecting who. I'd say I drew..." Yamame raised an eyebrow and Tenshi apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valour. "...The better choice. Lovely home, Miss Kurodani." Yamame nodded satisfactorily, and I thought I detected a hint of smugness. "So, er, Reimu wants a get-together. That café in the village. Now...ish."

I looked over at Yamame, the unspoken question on my lips. "Er, well, uh..." She was doing her stammering thing. "I've got some things to get on with, anyway. There's a blazer for that." She pointed at my outfit. I looked over at Tenshi, who shrugged and indicated that she didn't mind. I asked Yamame if she didn't want to come with us. "With - Um...No, I...No. I'll stay here and get some work done." Slowly, I asked if she was sure. "Yes, yes!" A little quick with the reply, I thought, but I nodded and went for my coat. Holding it over my arm, I turned, and Yamame stepped back over to me. "Let me just..." She reached out and undid the top two buttons of my shirt, then pulled the collar so it was slightly more open. "There, that's better."

"Anything else?" Tenshi asked dryly. "I'd kind of like to win that bet..."

Yamame had that look on her face again, the one that I'd seen in the hot springs. A sort of indecision, but it soon resolved itself to determination, and she grabbed me by the collar of the shirt, dragged my head down to her height, and pulled me into an intensely deep kiss. Tongues were involved. It might as well have gone on for hours for all I could tell, and I felt slightly floaty when she finally let me go. "There you are. Hurry back, please. Love you." I mumbled something, staring blankly at the wall.

"This is just painful." Tenshi muttered under her breath, grabbing my arm and dragging me outside. Once the cold air took hold of me, I snapped back to reality and swung my coat around so I could pull it on. Once we'd made some distance from Yamame's house and the tunnels were quiet, Tenshi turned to me. "So, that's the love of your life, huh?" I nodded slightly bashfully. "She's definitely pretty..." She was definitely more than pretty, as far as I was concerned. "...A little awkward, though." That, I was seeing more and more, was true. I think she had wanted to come, but she got a little nervous in rooms with people she didn't know properly. I really wanted to try and get her to work through it, which was why I wanted to, at some point, get to Wakasagihime at the Misty Lake and find out more about that Grassroots Youkai Network of hers. It'd give Yamame something to do on the surface, too. Finally, I said to Tenshi that I was working on it.

It had been a few days since I had left the caves, so I was forced to stop for a few moments at the entrance to get used to the light again. Tenshi, not content to lose her bet, began to push me forward, despite the fact that I was stumbling around blindly. "You know, it'd be really good if you actually became a celestial. Then, you wouldn't be doing all this stumbling around stuff." Well, great, but I didn't much fancy getting attacked by Shinigami for being alive, so I was happy to decline. My eyes had recovered slightly, so I cracked them open just enough to stop myself from tripping over my own feet. There wasn't any rain, but it was bitterly cold. Surprisingly, my clothes seemed to be holding rather well against the weather, which I could only attribute to Yamame's prowess. She must have sewed in something thermal when she was designing the clothes. Of course, my coat was as warm as ever, so I had that going for me.

We were in the village faster than I'd ever made the journey, perhaps because Tenshi wouldn't stop pushing me faster and faster. My curiosity burning over, I asked her just what this bet she'd made was. "Well, er, if I win, Reimu has to let me host festivals at the Hakurei Shrine for two weeks, and if she wins, I have to come and help fix up the Shrine for winter." That...seemed like a bit of an unfair trade. "Well, I was bored! I didn't think I'd have to deal with you stumbling around like a drunk or getting kissed so hard that you couldn't remember your own name! Now, come on and keep moving!"

The village was probably starting to get used to weird sights like this, because I was surprised to not see myself getting all that much attention for showing up in this outfit and getting pushed around by a blue haired girl. At least, until I saw Kogasa Tatara walking out of a shop, a paper bag in her arms. Her eyes caught mine, and I immediately knew what was about to happen, so I broke into a sprint toward her right as she dropped the bag, which I just barely managed to catch before it hit the ground. "V-Vengeful spirit!" She stammered, her mismatched eyes widening comically as I shoved the back into her hands and patted her on the head. "Uwah! He's supposed to be dead!" She cried, turning and sprinting in the opposite direction.

The sight apparently managed to surprise Tenshi enough for her to stop rushing me, and she stood next to me and stared after the retreating girl. "Seriously, what did you do to her?" She asked, sounding bemused. I'd really need to sort that out at some point, I muttered as I shook my head and carried on walking. The village was coming to the end of Autumn, and preparations for Winter were well underway. Plenty of people were out, stocking up on supplies to see out the cold months. I remembered my house, and realised that I'd probably need to get over myself and get back inside there sooner rather than later, because I'd have to be coming by to clear the roof before long lest the place collapse.

Finally, Tenshi dragged me along to the café, then sighed in relief. "Looks like we beat them..." I stepped through the flap covering the entrance, blinked twice, then stepped to the side so Tenshi could get in. "What? What's wr-" She cut herself off and stared too.

Reimu and Marisa sat in the middle of the restaurant. "Ah, hello!" Reimu cheerfully said. "Nice of you to join us!" That was not the part that had me frozen, though. No, that was Kagerou Imaizumi, dressed in a waitress outfit that was just a little too...tight. She looked awfully embarrassed, too, clutching a tray over her apron as if it was a shield. Next to her was Oseki, also in her usual waitress attire, but looking far more relaxed. In fact, looking very smug. "How about you have a seat, and we can have a nice, long discussion about all the work you're going to do on my Shrine?"

"'Seki!" I heard the old man who ran the shop calling. "Get yer ass back here. Gotta bend yer ear on somethin'. Yer mate can handle those lot." If anything, Oseki's smile grew even wider as she spun on her heel, patted Kagerou on the shoulder, and slipped off into the kitchens.

Tenshi, now looking like a marionette with it's strings cut, slumped down into a chair opposite Marisa and Reimu. Marisa, who didn't look quite as smug as Reimu did, reached out and removed Tenshi's hat, then patted her on the head. "Can't win 'em all, buddy." She told Tenshi, who's head crashed into the table with a loud thunk.

"Uh-huh..." She mumbled into the table.

"S-So, um..." Kagerou stammered, approaching the table with her tray covering her chest. "What, er, can I get you...?" She looked like she wanted to die, so that made two people in the building. Her outfit had come with the addition of a wide-brimmed had, through which her ears poked out. Her tail was hidden beneath the dress. I assumed that she'd still have to keep up the pretence, so I asked her what the hat was about. "Just, um, fashion...I made the ears myself." She was entirely failing to look at any of us, so I stared for a moment, then asked for green tea. Tenshi mumbled the same into the table. "Er, okay...Um..." She looked entirely unprepared for everything that was happening, but finally turned and headed for the kitchens.

"I have a feeling that you," Reimu poked Tenshi in the cheek with her finger, "Weren't the only one to lose a bet." She looked at me. "Nice shirt." I looked down and brushed some imaginary dirt from it. It was pretty nice, actually. Reimu and Marisa had already gotten drinks, so I assumed that Oseki was still working, since I had a feeling we'd be in for a long wait if Kagerou was the only one serving. "Okay, er...I just wanted to figure out where everyone's at. With Eientei, and all." I looked over from Tenshi to Reimu. "I mean, Eirin seems to be better – Or more normal, at least, but I still feel like we haven't properly resolved everything, so I just wanted to know what's going on." I'd learnt at this point to trust Reimu's instinct, so I asked her what she was talking about.

"Oh!" Kagerou, carrying a tray with two cups of green tea on it, suddenly remarked, startling me. "I heard Doctor Yagokoro saying that she wanted you to come back and meet her, right? When we were leaving?" She spoke to me, and I nodded. She had said that, but I hadn't quite committed to anything. "Uh. Um, sorry. Didn't mean to intrude." She continued, backing away.

"No, hold on." Reimu called, beckoning her back over. "You were there too. Did Eirin seem weird to you?"

"Um..." Kagerou paused, frowning. "Maybe a bit during the fight...? She seemed more normal the next day." That sounded about right, I thought. "But, um, she asked you to come back, right? Maybe you shouldn't go alone." She addressed that last bit to me, and I nodded. That had been my thought, too.

"Want me to come with you?" Reimu asked me seriously. I thought about it. I knew it probably shouldn't be Tenshi or Marisa. Even if she was a profession, I wouldn't have been surprised if Eirin had a grudge against them, Marisa for killing her princess multiple times, and Tenshi for throwing a keystone at her head. Therefore, the decision really came down to a few choices. Reimu was high on the list, of course. She knew most of my traumas anyway, and she was easily strong enough to help me if Eirin got any strange ideas. Yamame was another option. I trusted her with anything, though she hadn't heard most of the traumas in full. There were some other options. I trusted Lady Kasen with plenty of things, and I especially trusted her to be willing to keep me safe, but I knew she was busy with Raki and the Hot Spring Town and who knew what else, so perhaps not.

Well, there was no reason it could only be one person, or the same person each time, so I shrugged and said to Reimu that I was happy for her to come with me, though I wasn't sure when I wanted to go. "No rush, I guess..." Reimu intertwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. "Let's just hope Eirin doesn't start asking for payment." That...was a good point. I didn't really have a job, and Reimu didn't have much money to spare with winter coming up. That offer from Lady Hecatia crossed my mind again. I wanted to talk to Reimu about it, but I figured that being a celestial, Tenshi would have some choice opinions about it, so I kept my mouth shut until I could talk to Reimu on her own. Marisa probably wouldn't have minded, but I wasn't sure that she wouldn't tell Tenshi. Their relationship still baffled me. Were they together? I caught Reimu's eye, and she looked over at the two of them. Tenshi was in the process of stealing Marisa's drink, and Marisa was trying to steal one of the peaches from Tenshi's hat with no effect. Reimu looked back at me, and we exchanged a look that meant that neither of us had any idea.

Perhaps it would just remain one of life's great questions.

Well it's nice she isn't 80% bandage anymore, she recovered pretty fast all things considered.
Oh yeah we could give the stones to kagerou.

>>45200688
I wouldn't say I particularly intended to but I'm not that opposed to it either, though I'm made inordinately happy every time I see someone write their own thing based on what I've written (though getting comments in general makes me happy)

The bet was rigged from the start. Whoever had to fetch Anon would insta-lose because lmao no flight.

>>45201576
The stones are probably in his other clothes' pockets. He's cursed to never be able to conveniently give them back.

>>45201628
alrernat kasen route pls :)

>>45201628
Just imagine that were one writefag away from writing lewd alternate chapters before Yammy won the bowl

>>45202030
Reimu also can just teleport

>>45202030
that's tenshi's smugness and superiority complex taking her over
she just assumed she'd be able to do it faster

>>45204765
Honestly no one seems to remember that Reimu can use gaps too

>>45204765
>>45204787
I thought about bringing that up, but I was under the impression that she's still in training and is thus nowhere near as adept at border manipulation as Yukari

>>45204815
she's already used the ability in this story anyway, during her fight with reisen
that said, we never see reimu use it outside of small areas in official stuff, so I assume that she can only use it to go a small distance, like from the shrine's courtyard to the roof or in fights. More interestingly, the gaps reimu uses in FS are pretty visually similar to the ones kasen uses in WaHH like mom like daughter

>>45204835
>I assume that she can only use it to go a small distance
Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. She wouldn't be able to use it to curbstomp Tenshi in a race.
I did forget that Kasen could also use gaps though

>>45204947
Could always use them in a chain, a'la Wakfu's Yuugo.

>>45204815
Best way to think about it imo is that she doesn't manage boundaries in the OP way Yukari does, its more like an elementary version of it

>>45204947
we see them in this form during WaHH, and she uses them to let Houso attack in the floating fighting games too, which she did in this story against suika

>>45204989
She also does it on Imperishable night

>>45205880
what

>>45205935
https://youtu.be/2Ix2X0XJRPU?si=f2PsrIb--_a5ffzz&t=193

>>45205954
I thought you were talking about Kasen kek

>>45202030
As much as I'd love a Kasen route, (and I'd really, really love one), I think the problem is that writefriend already blew his load writing most of his Kasen content in this story already. In the end, I'm just thankful he introduced me to my waifu. Thank you writefriend ( ´ω`)

We still got plenty of time left for a Tenshi x Marisa arc

>>45207482
no.

>>45207497
yes

>>45207558
>>45207482
They're not gay, they're just friends

>>45207558
I'm not against you writing a spin off about it, heck writefriend even encouraged it here >>45201628 so go ahead and do it.

But as part of the main story of our anon, it'd be out of place regardless of if you like it or not.

>>45207581
this what

There are a million and one yuri fanfics out there I think It'd be nice if this remained a wholesome story about a man and his spider.

>>45207603
>A man and his spider
You thought it was the KMS all this time?
No, it was Spoderman all along!

>>45207482
When Tenshi's father finds out that the rainbow shards of her skirt weren't a random fashion choice, she's going to be banned from heaven for a whole century.

>>45207603
That story is all a ruse for the real ending of this story; no-holds barred lesbian action with Tenshi and Marisa

Bad ending Kisami stealing Anon from Yamame.

>>45210032
good ending, that does not happen.

>>45207720
Saved.

Should a new thread be made so Writefriend doesn't post today's update after hitting the bump limit?

>>45210032
great ending, Kisami drags Yamame and Anon into a locked room so she can give them some expert instruction

>>45210186
I think they're going to get mad because we're on page 2 already

>>45210186
I'd wait for compiler anon

"So...Did you really lose a bet?" Reimu lazily asked Kagerou, who was still hovering next to us in her waitress outfit. If I wasn't already taken, should probably have had me eating out of the palm of her hand. The outfit...fit. Fit well. But instead, my thoughts were on whether or not I could procure a set for...other purposes. Involving spiders. Reimu looked at me. Then, she looked at Kagerou, and after a moment, she slapped me in the back of the head. "Stop fantasizing about your girlfriend!" She sharply told me as I rubbed the back of my head. Next to us, Marisa was complaining about some sort of bee incident that had occurred in her house and Tenshi was poking fun at her for letting her house get all messy again. "Because she," She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Tenshi, "Lost a bet. I might have to rebrand this place to the loser's club."

"I-I, um..." Kagerou was starting to blush, and her look of embarrassment was so palpable that I felt like giving her a hug. "Um, sort of? I mean, this, right now, is the bet. So, I've got to work here and embarrass myself by pretending that I made my own ears, and wearing this outfit that's slightly tight, and trying to keep my tail from being seen..." She trailed off, running out of steam. "I sort of want to die." She finally confessed, and I couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "But if I win the bet by making it through a few days of this, I'll get something good out of it.

"Yeah, well, I get to make her," She pointed at Tenshi again, who had succeeded in stealing Marisa's drink and was taking a sip, "Winter-proof my whole Shrine." Kagerou even managed to look a little sympathetic at that. "And no keystones this time!" Reimu called, slightly louder, at Tenshi, who looked up and stuck her tongue out, then went back to bugging Marisa.

While I was watching Kagerou, I suddenly had a thought, so I stood and asked her if I could speak with her for a moment. "H-Huh? Um...Okay?" I felt Reimu tap me on the back, raising an eyebrow in a silent question when I turned back to look. I shook my head as casually as I could, turning back to Kagerou, who was herself turning toward the kitchens. "Um, Mr. Boss? I'm just stepping outside for a minute."

"Whazzat!?" I heard the old man running the store yell. "Oh, off fer a break, are ye? Just hurry back soon, yeah? Ain't busy anyhow, yanno?" He poked his head out of his kitchen, frowned at Kagerou, then at Oseki in turn, then ducked back inside.

"Yeah, hurry back, Kagerou!" I heard Oseki yell, which made Kagerou cringe. "Wouldn't want me thinking you're skipping out, would you?" Kagerou squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, took a deep breath, then led me outside into a back alley, which was tight and full of supplies for the restaurant, but more importantly, it was private and quiet.

"So, er, what did you want to talk about?" Kagerou slowly asked me, a frown on her face. She took a seat on a large crate which had probably held a bunch of restaurant supplies. "Oh, it wasn't about, um...Eientei, was it? B-Because, I'm really not in my right mind during the full moon, so anything I may have said or done-" I raised a hand and cut her off, telling her that it had nothing to do with Eientei, and I'd gotten over all of that weird stuff she'd been doing to me. Instead, I was curious about her and Wakasagihime's organization. "Huh? Er, the Grassroots Youkai Network?" I nodded. We'd spoken about it a little, during the walk out of Eientei and through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but I wanted to know a little more about the sort of members they got.

"Oh, well, er..." Kagerou pulled her hat off and ruffled her hair. I spotted the awkwardly cut holes in the hat she'd made for her ears to poke through and tried not to laugh a little. "It's, um, supposed to be for weak youkai, but sometimes they're really rude, so we don't try and invite them. Oh, er, by 'we', I mostly mean Hime. I just go and meet people, and she decides if we should try and invite them. There's some loners who aren't that weak, either, but they're nice and easy to get along with." Privately, I knew that Kagerou was definitely not all that weak, especially during the full moon when she'd been able to hold her own against Reisen, so I figured that she was just docile enough outside of the full moon for people to think she was weak. Or maybe she was just too kind. That'd be nice, I supposed. A lot of the youkai I'd met had been reasonably kind, but had usually had something else lurking deeper down. "I was actually hoping to convince Sekibanki to join, but she's still resisting, so..." I looked up and asked if Sekibanki was that flying head youkai she'd mentioned in the past, and Kagerou stared at me blankly. After a moment, she tentatively spoke. "Do...you not...? Um, yes. The one I mentioned before. If I win this bet, I might be able to make her join, so..."

I wished her luck, then finally got around to what I wanted to ask. I started by asking if Kagerou had ever heard of Yamame Kurodani. "Er...Maybe? She's, um, that tsuchigumo, right? Lives in the caves near the human village? I had to hide in those caves once, when I got caught in the rain on the way back from the Misty Lake." She'd met Yamame then? "Er, Not...quite." I raised an eyebrow. "I, um, may have gotten caught in her webs. I didn't get much of a chance to see her." Once more, I had to try and stifle a laugh. Kagerou's embarrassment was back in full force, and she put her hands on her hips. "Don't laugh at me! I'm still a dangerous youkai!" That only made it even harder, and it took a minute or so to get myself back together. "S-So, um, anyway. I didn't get much of a chance to actually see her, but she was happy to free me from the webs I was tangled in after reprimanding me for getting tangled up..." Yamame was nice like that. I had personal experience. "She was, er...Nice, I think. People always tell me how dangerous the underground youkai are, but she wasn't mean to me. I might have repressed most of that from my memory, though." No, I said. She is nice. "Oh, okay. That's good. So, um, why do you ask?"

This was the delicate bit. I didn't really want to spill all my worries about Yamame's lack of socialization outside of her sisters, but I did want to explain enough to Kagerou that she understood what I was getting at. In the end, I settled on saying that I wanted to try attending one of the Grassroots Youkai Network's meetings, and I wanted to bring Yamame with me. "Really?" Kagerou asked, blankly. "Sorry, um, I've just...Never heard of a human wanting to come to a youkai gathering before. W-Well, okay, I'll talk to Hime. She knows you, right?" I nodded. I'd been meaning to get over to the Misty Lake for ages. That reminded me, I still had one of Wakasagihime's stones that she'd left behind when I'd first met her. I went to reach into my pocket to grab it, then remembered that I wasn't wearing the same clothes. It was sitting on a shelf in Yamame's workshop, where I'd put it so I wouldn't forget it.
Then, I'd forgotten it. Outstanding.

Kagerou stared at me as I rummaged around in all of my pockets. "Are you, um, okay?" She slowly asked, and I smiled and nodded, mentally kicking myself. Finally, I sighed and said that I'd have to get the stone over to Wakasagihime at the meeting, assuming I could go. Then, it occurred to me that perhaps trying to get Yamame into more social situations by throwing her into a big meeting probably wasn't the greatest idea I'd ever had, so I asked Kagerou how many people were usually in the meetings. "Well...Hime and I. Sometimes Hina Kagiyama from the mountain comes, but her misfortune sometimes gets in the way, so it's only on rare occasions that she makes the trip. I've been trying to get Banki to come for ages, but she's still holding out. Maybe, though...I'll keep working on her." It sounded to me like these were not huge meetings, so perhaps things would be fine. "Well, er, you can count on Hime and I to be there, if nothing else."

I nodded, thanking Kagerou. Hopefully, Yamame would be happy to come along, but I was willing to try and drag her along because I had a suspicion that she would repeat what she had done today and try to use work as an excuse. "So..." Kagerou began, looking at me questioningly. "I'll, er, talk to Hime, but she's almost definitely going to say yes, so how about at the Misty Lake in a week? Sometime after dark, I think." That was a little bit of a problem for me, but it wouldn't be for Yamame, so I nodded regardless and said that I'd be happy to come, and I'd try to bring Yamame with me as well. "Okay! Looking forward to it!" Kagerou seemed a lot more cheerful now, perhaps because she'd gotten someone new for the Grassroots Youkai Network. "We'd better get back inside before your friends come looking for us. You, um, go on ahead." I looked at her for a moment, then agreed and stepped back into the café, pausing when I began to hear quiet talking from outside. Was Kagerou talking to herself? I couldn't hear all that much of the conversation. "-Willing to join, so why won't you?"

The responding voice was somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it when it was muffled and through a door. "What's the point? I really don't need to talk to a bunch of people about how weak I am against other youkai." Who was it? How had they even got into the alley? It had been closed off in a way that no one could have just walked straight in. "Look, it's nice and all, but I've never said I'm joining you." The voice was familiar. It sounded exactly like Oseki, but it couldn't be, because I could see Oseki, serving another cup of green tea to Reimu just over there. "Besides, I'm busy enough here, and I’ve got a reputation to maintain. I can't just go running off at night to hang around and stare at the moon. What would the boss say when I show up smelling like sake and mermaid the next day?"

"Aw, but we'd really love it if you came." Kagerou said, sounding like she was whining a little bit. "C'mon, you won't be the only new person there. It'll be fun!"

"Fun for who? You? Certainly not me." The not-Oseki voice dryly asked. I wanted to listen longer, but I didn't get a chance.

"You forget how to walk, or...?" Tenshi asked, getting up and coming over to a stop in front of me. "What are you doing?" I shook my head and said that I was just thinking. "If you think any harder, your head might explode." In response, I turned and pulled Tenshi's hat down so it covered her eyes. "Wh- Hey!" She shouted, pulling it back up and flipping half of my coat over my head. After I'd removed it from my head, I saw that Marisa had paid for everything that we’d drunk at the café, even though I’d been planning on using some of the little money I had left for it.

"Call it, er, repayment. For nearly frying you with the Master Spark in Eientei." She told me, then muttered under her breath that the beating she'd received had been payment enough. "Will you tell me who you're seeing now!? I’ve been bugging both of them about it for ages, and they still won't tell me!" I'd honestly forgotten that we'd been intentionally keeping Marisa out of the loop as a little joke, but right as I opened my mouth, Reimu loudly got to her feet and cut me off.

"Well, I think we'd best be going!" She completely ignored Marisa's protests. "About time we get to Eientei, isn't it?" I looked up at her slightly apprehensively, then clenched my jaw and nodded. Reimu began pushing me toward the door. “We’ll have to hurry for your appointment!”

"What the hell!?" Marisa shouted at us. "You can't keep doing this to me, Reimu! He's supposed to be my client – And he doesn’t even have an appointment! I have a right to know!" She tried to get up from the table, only for Tenshi to coincidentally trip over nothing at all and fall into her, preventing her from getting up. "Get off me, Tenko!" She cried, ignoring Tenshi's laughter as Reimu pushed us out of the café entirely. “I’m gonna get you for this!”

Once we'd moved a safe distance away, Reimu stopped. "Did she just-?" Called Tenshi 'Tenko', yes. "Seriously, what is going on with those two? Pet names? It's the not knowing that's killing me." I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I wasn't even sure if there was anything to know. Every time I saw those two, they seemed close, yet also at each other's throats. "I know I said they definitely weren't the last time we were here, but I bet they are." Reimu declared. I bet they were not, I replied. "If I win, you have to come and be my body pillow again. Not forever, though. I know Yamame would come and fight me if I kept you from her for too long." And if I won, Reimu had to come with Yamame and I to visit the Hot Springs Town and apologize to all of Yamame's sisters personally for breaking all of their webs. "...These two things don't feel like they're of equal value." Reimu slowly said, then shrugged. "Sure. You're on." We shook on it, and I hoped that Reimu's comments about Marisa having better taste than Tenshi still held true.

Even if I thought that wanting to date Tenshi Hinanawi was already showing fairly good taste.

>>45207270
I've wondered if another fic would get my fix in for a Kasen route, but I only feel strongly about the romance within the context of this story and its character depictions. I'm honestly not sure how one could make the idea feel as natural or rewarding without a similar background and buildup as established here.
>In the end, I'm just thankful he introduced me to my waifu
Similar thoughts here. I liked Kasen a lot when I first got into Touhou, but as time passed and WaHH became less fresh in my mind, I grew more attached to other characters. Writefriend's depiction reminded me why she's one of my favorites.

>>45207482
Writeanon knows what he's doing by making it open to interpretation. But I agree with the sentiment that going in on the romance would feel out of place here. I personally don't even think it's a pairing that makes much sense; I see a fairly close bond, but nothing flirtatious.

>>45207720
Oh man, posting that on Tumblr? I wish I could see the original post, I gotta know what the responses were like.

>>45210186
it's fine because I procrastinated this one too much anyway so it's shorter than usual
>>45210316
pulling back the veil a little here, but I find it really funny to have everyone else in the story be unable to figure out whether or not marisa and tenshi are a thing or not but the two themselves are entirely oblivious to it

>But if I win the bet by making it through a few days of this, I'll get something good out of it.
>I looked up and asked if Sekibanki was that flying head youkai she'd mentioned in the past, and Kagerou stared at me blankly.
>I've been trying to get Banki to come for ages, but she's still holding out. Maybe, though...I'll keep working on her.
HAHAHA oh man I love this setup. This is gonna be good.
Also, I basically gush over every character, but given the dry spell of Tenshi or Marisa, it's cool to see them again. In their own ways, they manage to strike the ideal balance that the "jerk with a heart of gold" archetype often fumbles: being arrogant enough to be hilarious yet compassionate enough to still be likeable.

>>45210335
Nah dude this one was great. And we were on page 2 when you posted anyway, so it works out in the end.
Regarding the Tenshi/Marisa thing, I see this as a soft confirmation that Anon wins the bet. Compounding the Grassroots visit and the return to Former Hell, this is gonna be a great next few chapters.
I'm not gonna lie, I was duped into thinking they might actually be together with that last scene

>>45210476
>return to Former Hell
And then Parsee will show up!

>I hoped that Reimu's comments about Marisa having better taste than Tenshi still held true.
What is Marisa's taste?

>>45210314
>"What the hell!?" Marisa shouted at us. "You can't keep doing this to me, Reimu! He's supposed to be my client – And he doesn’t even have an appointment! I have a right to know!" She tried to get up from the table, only for Tenshi to coincidentally trip over nothing at all and fall into her, preventing her from getting up. "Get off me, Tenko!" She cried, ignoring Tenshi's laughter as Reimu pushed us out of the café entirely. “I’m gonna get you for this!”
Damn. They really are gays. I bet they are in a homosexual relationship too.

>>45212677
they're the kind of gay that get hot and bothered by big strong men unfortunately kronkanon's well and truly taken

>>45214408
These are the best ones.

>>45214408
Marisa has the solution at her fingertips, offer exclusive "training" with a Hermit and transform any average village human into a buff hunk of meat.

Shit, I forgot that the archive is still down. Guess I have no choice but to repost the compilation in the next thread.

>>45215574
Is it normal for the archive to be off for so long? I am new here

>>45215673
Can't say I ever paid much attention to it. I just know that it dies every now and then.

Gotta leave in a bit. Here is the next thread:
>>45217874