Touhou: Gensokyo Slice of Life

It was midday in Gensokyo.

Kirisame Marisa cruised low over the ground on her broom, and landed. She stretched her limbs and adjusted her hat. She didn't often bother going into the human village, unless something particularly shiny had caught her eye and she had theft in mind. That said, today was different. Because today was shopping day, that rare occasionally where she actually legally bought things instead of causing them to mysteriously vanish from the homes of others. She stowed her broom away in her hammerspace spell and took a walk ahead. What did she need... food, instant ramen to be precise. Her cooking was less-then-stellar and she preferred to make those instant ramen packs that came from the outside world. Though she had made that effective adhesive last time she tried to make tea... Alice's face when she found she had sat on a glob of the stuff was pretty funny.

Maybe she could buy more tea ingredients...

----

Kasodani Kyouko was on an errand.

And frankly, she was happy with this. At most times she was stuck in the temple, sweeping and sweeping and sweeping away, and it was so terribly tedious and boring. But today, she got to go out to the human village and buy stuff! Which was much better then all that dull sweeping. Her brown ears flopping as she walked, she looked over the shopping list Byakuren had provided. It was... basic stuff. Food ingredients, that kind of thing. But there was another perk to getting to go out on an errand...

These posters for her next concert with Mystia weren't going to put themselves up, after all!

Exiting the bakery with a bag full of bread in hand, Shujiko wondered just who she should challenge today. The will youkai was itching on to take on some big names, but she wasn't sure if she was ready yet. Sure, Shujiko had taken down a dragon not too long ago, but compared to some of the stuff Reimu and Marisa had done...

...Huh, speak of the witch. "Miss Kirisame?" Shujiko said as she passed by the witch.

-----------------------

Meanwhile, on the village outskirts, a robed figure watched the villagers, who seemed to be making sure to avoid her. Whether through recognition or wariness of her shrouded appearance, it didn't matter, Cyndy was still left on her lonesome. Kinda her fault, really, but it was the way she liked it! No one around to judge her appearance or anything...

...Gah, she was supposed to be trying to mingle, right? A waste of time, but that annoying youkai had requested she do so upon her defeat, so...

------------------------

Humming brightly to herself, Yuuka arrived at the village via the sky. She was heading to the Hakurei Shrine to both- chat pleasantly with the shrine maiden, catch up on the latest incidents, find out what new characters had popped up and all that. But first, a quick visit to the village, see how the kids were doing. Last she heard, the tsukumogami was entertaining them. Awesome.

Parsee... was lurking. Badly. It was hard to miss the golden hair and muttering, even if they were standing in the shade of a tree and gazing out at the village with obvious envy. Even if you did not know the youkai by name and appearance, only by reputation, it was easy to identify what, exactly, they had control over, given the muttering.

"Stupid people, with their stupid nice houses and food... why did Yuugi send me up here, anyway? She knows I hate seeing stuff better than my bridge... stupid Yuugi and her stupid boobs that steal stuff from her brain..."
----
On the path between the village and the Hakurei Shrine was a white-haired female, just passing through and stopping to chat with a few, surprised, grandparents and one unusually knowledgeable half-beast. Tsubame had decided to take the scenic route to the shrine and walked rather than flying. Now, she was wondering whether it would be better to engage her descendant in conversation somewhere not known for being horrendously breakable.

Deep in thought, the original Hakurei miko didn't notice Yuuka's arrival.
----
Sitting on a wall, Megumi looked at the robe figure occasionally, wondering what they were doing. The nearly naked succubus also kept glancing down at her bare foot. Specifically, the nails. They should be red! Red as blood! That was appropriate and demonic, for certain. The main problem was that she had nothing to paint or dye them with and didn't want to attract anyone's attention by beating people up until they bled. Besides, blood dried brown, and brown nails just weren't interesting.

Who was the robed person, anyway?

Marisa paused. Did someone say her name? Looking to the side, she saw the culprit. It was a yokai, one she vaguely recognized from before... Ishi... Ishi something, right? She'd had something to do with solving that minor incident a little while back... Ishi... Ishi...

"Ishi Sakura-san! I remember you," Marisa said, with a grin. It was Sakura, right? It was a name that had a similar sound in it, at least, so Sakura was a pretty good bet, "You did stuff with that once minor incident, right?"

----

Kyouko, cheerfully walking along, paused when she heard a voice to her left. It was... muttering or something? Someone grumbling about a girl named Yuugi? That was strange... Kyouko turned, her floppy ears swishing, towards the source of the noise. It was a blonde girl with green eyes, standing in the shade of a tree and glaring at the entire village. Well, that was strange... Kyouko adjusted her bag of posters and took a tentative step towards her.

"Hello?"

----

Hakurei Reimu sat alone in her shrine, drinking tea. She contemplated, to herself, if the nice weather would actually lead to anyone visiting her shrine. deep down she doubted it. No, she'd probably get fairies bothering her or something. What a bother. Oh well, the weather was nice and warm at least, so she didn't have to bother with insulating the shrine or something like that. In fact, the weather was so nice that...

She stood up, and strolled to the front of her shrine, sliding open the door and sitting down. She drink her tea, sitting out front of the shrine.

"...Sakura?" Shujiko repeated, clearly confused. "Um... oh, my name. It's 'Shujiko', but don't worry. It's a weird name." the will youkai shrugged it off, taking another bite from her bread.

Once that was consumed, she continued, "Yeah, I did. Thanks for letting me, by the way. The experience was invaluable! I was kinda wondering actually..."

Shujiko contemplated her half-eaten food for a moment before continuing. "Um, since I fought a dragon... princess? Uh, do you think I'm strong?"

---------------------------

...Mingling was going to be hard if she didn't make an attempt to enter the village, but seeing as everyone MUST know she caused a bit of trouble, Cyndy was fairly sure she'd be quite unwelcome. Then again... it's not like anyone had tried to warn her away or anything.

Though she did seem to be under watch.

Cyndy glanced around the area, quickly spotting a strange person she probably should have noticed earlier, if only because she was way too beautiful for the dragon's liking. Seriously! Scale free! And she was probably the type to flaunt her looks, as well! Ugh, such good looks wasted on a vain little...

Thinking jealous thoughts, Cyndy glowered at her as she stared, eventually stepping the woman and grunting, "What?"

------------------------------

All seemed good in the village, which was great. The kids were happy, the flowers were tended to, the people important enough to have names were interacting... yep, today was just going to be one of those lovely, quiet days.

...Huh, didn't normally see a ghost hanging around in the village. Especially a familiar one.

Yuuka tilted her head towards the ghost that clearly wasn't Mima. She looked pretty damn familiar, but why? Those clothes... hm...

"Yoo hoo~" Yuuka called to the spirit with a wave of her umbrella. "Excuse me, miss, but may I know your name? Yuuka Kazami, by the way~" She added as an afterthought with a small curtsy. Yuuka was one of those people who tended to need no introduction, but politness was always a nice thing to have in all situations.

"She's got such nice looking ears and a fluffy tail..." Parsee mumbled, continuing to talk to herself and glaring at the approaching girl enviously. Much nicer than her pointy ones... maybe she should attack her? Just like she attacked everyone that tried to cross her bridge. But they were all so strong and she always lost the fights. It wasn't fair, why did everyone else have everything so much better than she did?
----
"Don't you remember me, Yuuka?" Tsubame asked, concerned. She hadn't been gone so long that she could be forgotten so easily, right? "Hakurei Tsubame. I was thinking about heading up to the shrine to check on my descendant... it's a pity there's only one left. I guess my granddaughters forgot to teach their children the value of caution whilst I was seeing the world."
----
"Just wondering what someone standing around in a cloak wants. You probably shouldn't attack the village, they won't like that," Megumi advised, flapping her wings a little and swishing the heart-shaped arrow of her tail, as well as drawing her bare leg up to her chest. It couldn't get much clearer just how little was obscuring people from getting a full view of her body...

"Ohhh, Shujiko-san, right," Marisa replied, nodding to herself. So that was the name she was forgetting, right. She'd keep it in mind, she supposed. Anyway, the will yokai was asking Marisa if she thought she was strong...? ... This was a glorious opportunity to play tricks on a large number of people. Including Yukari herself, even... oh, this was going to be funny...

Though Shujiko would probably come off the worst from this... but it's not like danmaku did any serious harm or anything. So it was okay.

"Of course you're strong, Shujiko-san!" Marisa declared, with a grin. She really did think the will yokai was somewhat strong... but the next part was a total lie, "I bet you could take on, um... theoretical white-haired miko, Rei-chan, even Yakumo-san! you could beat 'em all!"

----

Confused, Kyouko tilted her head to the side. The girl was talking about her ears now...? And her tail? That was weird. And she hadn't responded to Kyouko's greeting... had she not hear her? Frowning, Kyouko drew closer... if she got to talking to her, maybe she could interest her in one of her concerts... or Buddhism, that too.

"Um, hello?" she called again. Maybe introducing herself would help... "I'm Kasodani Kyouko!"

----

Reimu sipped more tea.

Today was a good day. Maybe nothing would ruin it...

Shujiko looked almost awed at the witch's words. "...Really? you're serious?" She asked, excitement creeping into her voice. If she was capable of taking on the likes of Yukari, then maybe she could take on Kaguya, or Mokou as well! And... and who else was super powerful?

"What about you? Could I be a suitable opponent against you?" Shujiko enquired further. From what she'd heard, Marisa had also taken on these powerful opponents at some point, so if she could match them...

--------------------------

Cyndy, surprisingly enough, didn't seem too bothered by the mostly naked girl practically baring herself right now. Wasn't like nudity mattered much to her. All that mattered was appearance! And all the succubus had achieved was make the dragon girl impossibly jealous and grouchy.

"I'm dressed like this because none of you lowly beings deserve to look upon my magnificence," Cyndy replied coldly, folding her arms. "And by the way, have you no shame? Seriously, look at yourself! All that uncovered skin - that's just disgusting!"

---------------------------------------

"Tsubame?" Yuuka muttered, repeating the name under her breathe a few times with a thoughtful look. "...Sounds familiar, but... hm... oh, are you maybe Hitomi's daughter?" The flower youkai suggested, before shaking her head. "No, wait, that was your great-great-grandmother... I think..."

Eventually, Yuuka just shrugged. "Oh, whatever, we met once or twice, right? How've ya been! And as for the lack of mini-maidens running around... I blame the lack of husbands," She said in a chatty, bright manner. "Though if they ever picked a fight with me... well, maybe they weren't as lucky as little Reimu?"

The flower youkai seemed to be rambling now.

"Mizuhashi Parsee..." the blonde replied, standing up from her crouch and folding her arms, pleased to note that she was superior in at least one respect to the girl in front of her: she was taller. Not that that was particularly hard, most of the other residents of Gensokyo were of Eastern descent and she... wasn't. Hell, she wasn't even Japanese to start with. Yuugi still managed to beat her out on height, though, which wasn't fair. The other oni was so small and tiny, why was she so big?

The youkai of jealousy winced at the recollection of when Yuugi had dragged her along to a meal with that 'Suika' girl. Horrible, so horrible... far, far too much booze!
----
"I think you're getting me confused with my descendants," Tsubame interrupted, recognising the names as coming after her, "I was the miko that helped to create the border with Yukarin.

"Would you mind telling me about... Reimu, was it? I'm headed up to the shrine now, and I guess I need to know something about her before I show up unannounced. It doesn't seem like her grandmother would have had chance to pass on that I'd be back some day."
----
"I'm a succubus! Wearing more clothes is wrong!" Megumi protested, standing in front of the girl and frowning, "My mother thinks that I should go around naked and creep into men's beds but... but... that's just weird, even for a succubus! She doesn't do it herself, so why should I?"

"Well, I am the second best incident resolver in Gensokyo, second only to Rei-chan of course," replied Marisa, folding her arms with a proud grin. Maybe a fight with the will yokai would be fun, but that's not what Marisa was looking for at the moment. She wanted to play a prank on Reimu, and that was what she was out to do. "But wouldn't you rather aim for the top and go right for Rei-chan?"

----

"Ah, um, it's nice to meet you, Mizuhashi-san," replied Kyouko, smiling. She swung her bag forward and began rummaging through it. She actually had some programs for her upcoming concert here... surely handing them out would be a good idea? She could talk about Buddhism with this yokai too, that might get Byakuren another follower! But first, her concert.

The pamphlet had been rather quickly made up by Mystia and herself(Mystia couldn't write, so Kyouko did the writing and Mystia did the design). This led to it certainly getting the point across, but...

Mystia wasn't the best artist. Still, they were flashy at least... "I'm one half of the band Choujuu Gigaku, with Mystia Lorelei-san!"

Kyouko offered the pamphlet to Parsee, "Here's the program for the show we're going to be preforming next week, if you're interested!"

----

Reimu continued to lounge and drink tea. What else would she bother doing?

"...I suppose I would." Shujiko agreed, taking another bite of her bread. Finally remembering her manners, the will youkai offered the bag of bread to Marisa and continued after consumption, "Is Miss Hakurei currently free? I wouldn't want to bother her schedule or anything... uh..."

It occurred to the will youkai that the shrine maiden didn't seem to have a busy schedule. Her shrine was pretty empty whenever she stopped by. Nothing like Moriya Shrine at all. She wondered why that was...

-------------------------------------

"Oh, jeez, you're that one?" Yuuka gasped. "Oh man, that was so recent! I'm embarrassed to have forgotten!"

The flower youkai sighed and shook her head. "Well, anyway, Reimu... lazy little scamp, so she is." Yuuka chuckled. "But when she gets off her ass, man does she get results! Hell, I remember when she was still yay high, and she managed to keep up with me!"

Yuuka looked thoughtful, then added, "Well, there was also Kleptosame, and she ain't a slouch, either. Had to wake up just to make sure they didn't tear my head off~"

-------------------------------

"...How should I know?" Cyndy replied, regarding the succubus before her. Her species explained the beauty and lack of clothing, but the flaunting was no less excusable

Though Cyndy had imagined succubi were very willing to strip in general. Huh. Well, the ribbon look was admittedly... attractive. Cyndy had to rank her at a... 9.8 at the least. Best one yet. Just a shame she couldn't really do much about it now...

With nothing more to say, Cyndy waited for the succubus to say something worth her time. She was beginning to think this social thing was a bad idea... and that will youkai deserved a good punch for her stupid ideas.

"You have a concert... I'm jealous..." Parsee mumbled reflexively, taking the poster and scanning it, whilst at the same time berating herself for continuing to use an incorrect word for absolutely no reason (habit didn't really count), "Where are you having the concert?"

She could probably drag Yuugi along as revenge for the Night of Too Much Booze.
----
"You're getting sloppy, Yuuka," Tsubame admonished, deciding to try out the spell-card system. Yuuka had always seemed game for a fight before, so... why not make the most of it? "Infinite Borders--Kaleidoscope Lotus Refraction."

In what had to be the least impressive start to a spell-card ever, an extremely fast stream of many-coloured danmaku was fired straight at Yuuka... only to come out somewhere else on the battlefield, moving at a different angle. It was the same bizarre barriers some of Reimu's cards used... only far more of them and not in neat squares. In seconds, the whole lotus-pattern had been drawn and there was danmaku everywhere, confirming that, ringing the edge, was another border to feed it back in, which might explain why Tsubame had stopped firing.

Then it began to rotate. Provided Yuuka hadn't got speared by the initial stream as it came around from the side, this was just a matter of moving with the gaps and avoiding the erratic ofuda sent her way.
----
"So... what are you? You're not human, I think, and you don't seem like a normal youkai... maybe you're one of those creepy things from the underground?" Megumi asked, slithering forwards and tugging at Cyndy's cloak to try and see what was underneath.

"Rei-chan just lounges about and doesn't do anything unless she really needs to sweep her shrine or something," replied Marisa dismissively. This was true, the shrine maiden was lazy and didn't do much unless she really really had to. "So I'm sure she's not busy. You should go right now!"

----

"We're having it in the town square!" replied Kyouko cheerfully. She was interested! That was great! It was always awesome when another person was confirmed to be attending their concert. Or at least confirmed insofar as Kyouko could tell, since she was asking about where it was taking place, "Choujuu Gigaku's going to be rocking out on Thursday! The roar of the soul's going to piercing the night! All our suppressed dissatisfaction will-"

Wasn't there something else she was supposed to be doing...?

"... Oh, um, were you ever interested in Buddhism?"

"Okay." Shujiko replied, placing a hand into her shorts pocket and making she sure she had all her spell cards. Not that she was likely to forget about them these days, but declaring a duel without the proper equipment would be silly.

Finishing the bread in her hand, Shujiko began walking in the shrine's direction, pausing to look at Marisa. "Will you be watching?"

--------------------------------

Cyndy slapped the succubus' hand away with an angered grunt, glaring at Megumi through her mask. "Don't you dare! You have no right to look at me!"

Stepping back, Cyndy glowered at the succubus, wondering just how much people would care if she roasted her a little.

...Gah, even if Cyndy could, there was no way she could bring herself to damage such perfect skin...

"...A-and I'm a dragon," Cyndy muttered. "Not some lowly youkai or human. Get it right..."

-------------------------------

"Hey, I'd only woken up like, three seconds earlier!" Yuuka whined, planting her umbrella into the ground. "Seriously, YOU try fighting two overpowered humans right after dreaming about anthropomorphic lilies and a recreation of the kam-"

Yuuka was interrupted by the stream of bullets that seemed to disappear before her eyes. How familiar... though the bullets didn't seem to be blinking back into existence directly in front of her.

Yuuka leapt back, barely avoiding the bullets that had re-appeared. Looked like this spell-card had a few differences. Like that barrier. Had a much better shape.

"Jeez, when will little Rei learn to make her barriers look so pretty?" Yuuka sighed, who seemed to put of dodging until the last possible second, just to stare at the rotating barrier. The flower youkai quickly learned that, compared to Reimu's version, the bullets seemed more random. Heh, this was going to be tricky...

"No," Parsee answered, not really seeing the point in this 'religion' thing. She lived underground and had been for nearly three thousand years, now. Nothing had really changed that much down there and she hadn't gone and died or anything, so what was the point in caring? It would just mean getting dragged out to look at all the lucky people doing fun stuff every now and then.
----
"I have several centuries on her, give her some time," Tsubame said, waiting for Yuuka to notice the shape. The clue was in the name, after all, and she was a flower youkai. To keep her on her toes, though, a scattered triangle of amulets was cast in her direction. Simply going around in circles was far too easy.
----
Before Megumi had chance to register that it was a dragon she was speaking to, the cloak seemed to disappear. The person responsible was behind her, hence why she hadn't noticed, and the succubus blinked gormlessly for a few seconds.

"Hey, you're naked!" she noticed, wondering where the dragon's cloak had gotten to... and that was a lot of scales...

Shinobu, meanwhile, was glancing at the clothes in her hand. Huh, that was quite a lot for such a small girl... she really didn't like people to see her, did she? But it was all cute~

In an odd way, of course.

"Of course I'll be watching, Ishi-san," replied Marisa. This was not, in fact, a lie. Marisa would indeed be watching. From the trees nearby, of course. She didn't want to give away her involvement until the fight was already over. "You've gotta be really confident when you challenge her, though. Rei-chan won't take you seriously, otherwise! Make sure she knows you mean business!"

----

"Oh... um, well..." Kyouko was a bit dismayed to hear that. Her ears drooped quite a lot, before perking up again before she spoke, "Well, if you ever find yourself interested, you should go to the Myouren temple! I'll even talk to you about it, if you would like..."

Though Kyouko wasn't entirely eager to do that part. It was boring, to say the least. "But anyway, I'm happy to hear you're interested in my concert, at least. Lorelei-san will be happy too!"

"Confident..." Shujiko repeated. She nodded affirmatively, a grin spreading on her face. "Very well! Follow closely, Miss Kirisame! I will challenge and defeat Miss Hakurei in the greatest battle Gensokyo has ever seen!

And with that, Shujiko turned and practically exploded towards the Hakurei shrine, excitement coursing through her body. This was great! She was gonna take on the shrine maiden that was so amazing at danmaku! If the witch believed in her, Shujiko simply had to be ready!

It wasn't long before she came to a speedy landing on the shrine grounds.

--------------------------------------

Woo writer's block

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Cyndy glanced at the succubus in confusion. "...Um, can you not see the cloak I'm wearing? It's right..." Cyndy placed a hand on her chest, noticing that she wasn't touching fabric. glancing down, the dragon saw that she was, in fact, naked. Well, her mask remained, but that hardly mattered right now.

"...What did you do?" Cyndy growled at Megumi, then noticing the figure behind her. And she was holding...

With a strangled cry of rage, Cyndy threw a large cluster of danmaku at the person holding her cloak. While it was a miracle she hadn't opted to just throw her in the middle of an inferno that burned as hotly as the sun, she hadn't put any patterns into her rage-filled attack. Nor did she care Megumi was in the way. Hell, if things went well she'd end up either forgetting or... being unable to spread the news.

Absolutely no one should ever see her body!

Parsee continued to stand there looking sullen. Why was she even here, anyway? Stupid Yuugi... she wasn't even here herself! It just wasn't fair, was it? Anyway... what was she supposed to do now? She'd come up here, she'd been accosted by some girl with a fluffy tail and... now what?
----
Megumi frantically scrambled out of the way, not wanting to be blasted for the crime of being near, whilst the ninja grinned and dropped the clothes before charging straight at the bullets... and not getting hit. Sure, she couldn't dodge to save her life in the air but on the ground this sort of thing was child's play to her.

The succubus fell over onto her rear, wondering why a ninja had shown up and started hugging the dragon girl. What was she saying, any way?

"You're cute and warm. I wonder if you make cute noises, too~?"

Marisa followed along, then quickly vanished into the nearby foliage when they got a certain distance from the Hakurei shrine. She kept following along, though, making sure she had a good view of the Hakurei shrine when they got there.

This was going to be good.

----

"Um... is something wrong, Mizuhashi-san?" Kyouko asked, tilting her head with a frown. Parsee looked really upset for some reason... why was that? Did Kyouko's concert upset her for some reason? She hoped that really wasn't the case...

----

Reimu finished off her tea, then stretched in place and placed her teacup aside. Relaxing her sitting position even further, she placed her hands on her lap. This was pretty ni-... Who was that? There was a girl approaching her shrine... was it a worshipper? A brief moment of hope surged up inside, until Reimu realized that it was that will yokai from a little while ago.

Reimu sighed.

"What do you want?" she said, sounding pretty much the exact opposite of enthused.

"Reimu Hakurei, I challenge you to a danmaku duel!" Shujiko announced loudly, pointing dramatically at the shrine maiden. She went silent as she realised that she was holding her bread in that hand.

After a quick switch, Shujiko repeated her earlier statement and action, grinning confidently. "I'll show the entirety of Gensokyo just how far I've progressed from taking on dragons! Will you accept?"

-----------------------------------

"I have several more centuries on her, and she did all right with less than this!" Yuuka laughed, pirouetting away from yet more random ofuda. Yuuka was clearly having fun.

"So tell me, can I expect any more pretty patterns from you?" Yuuka asked casually, watching the incoming amulets fly to her with an expectant smile. "In fact, you should make your danmaku look more like this!"

Leaping over the charms, Yuuka released a small swarm of her own flower-shaped danmaku and hastily returning to circling around.

-----------------------------

Cyndy couldn't believe her bullets were dodged so easily. She hadn't even seen her do it! Where did she-
The dragon boggled as she was hugged by the girl, saying the most insane things possible. Cyndy was having a hard time processing the words, but when she had plenty of time to finally analyse 'cute', the dragon girl slowly went from stunned silence to confused anger.

"S-stop mocking me!" Cyndy cried out, shoving the girl away and stumbling back a few steps. "Don't-don't make fun of me like that! You lowly little..."