Am I real or just an illusion? ~The Night Terror Incident

(My conversation with Dani, as Keine (aka Buns Vs. Nerd))

When Keine arrived outside, she could watch the chaos in all its confusing splendor.
People were pushing and practically running over one another, yelling for a miraculous medicine to save them from the whatever was causing people to collapse.
She could see the rabbit youkai struggling to keep people from destroying their shop altogether, and everything was starting to weight on her nerves.


"Please, everyone, calm down! You're only going to hurt yourselves!" But her voice could barely be heard above the chaotic ruckus that was going on.
No, she had to keep her composure, this was the same as controlling the children when they misbehaved. Yes, she had to remain calm and...


"BY THE SACRED TREASURES, STOP THIS NONSENSE AT ONCE AND CALM DOWN!" Her voice boomed like a thunderclap.
The people stopped pushing and looked at Keine, surprised.
"This won't solve anything! There can't be a medicine to cure something we fail to know its cause."


"But, that rabbit said she could cure it!" A villager pointed in Tewi's direction.
"That isn't true! I promise I will find out what or who caused it but in the meantime I need you to---"
"I'm not going to risk it!" And, inspired by that single villagers, the whole crowd resumed it's frantic pushing and yelling.


Keine clenched her fists. The mob mentality was certainly something frightening, and The crowd around the tiny medicine stand was growing larger, and more rowdy by the minute.
The brief intervention from the local schoolteacher did little to abate the horde.


Reisen shouted over the crowd "TEWI! SIT THERE AND TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHO'S HERE FOR THE "CURE" AND WHO NEEDS ACTUAL MEDICINE!" She could barely hear her own voice over the roar of the crowd.
After a short pause, Reisen heard a muffled "KAY"


She started to turn towards the hopefully best way out of this mess, then stopped and yelled back "AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T STEA-"
"I WON'T! geez..." resounded through the air, cutting Reisen off mid-sentence. She sighed, and pushed her way through the drove toward Keine.


Emerging from the crowd, Reisen waved Keine over to somewhere where they could talk normally. She hoped Tewi would be fine handling things on her own. It wasn't even her job, technically.
"So, Keine, your previous venture in taming this mess was met with utter failure. Do you happen to have something else in mind?" Reisen said, both annoyed and hopeful for an easy solution.
"There are people in there who need actual medicine, not some magic miracle cure for an ailment that doesn't exist. Please calm them down." 
Keine's anger and frustration were overflowing by now. She was really doing her best to keep herself from exploding completely.
The guardian, Yes... She was the village's guardian, she had to act responsibly. She couldn't just start beating people up, even if she was feeling awfully tempted to do it by now. She couldn't hurt humans, what would be of a guardian that hurts the very people she wanted to protect? But there was a human, yes, a human she always held as an exception to her no human violence rule. Yes, THAT person. She would beat her to a pulp along with that crow tengu scum.


The were-hakutaku saw the moon rabbit waving at her and approached her. 'Utter failure', she said.
Keine didn't hear anything else.
"Do you have any IDEA, of how hard it is to calm them down!? This was the very situation I was trying to avoid!!" she ranted, angrily. "I CAN'T just shoot danmaku at them and make them stop! If you know of a fail proof plan to calm them down, then I'd very much love to see it!"

Reisen recoiled a bit from Keine's outburst, then her eyes narrowed. She was not having the kinda of day where she wanted to deal with things like this, and cranky school teachers were not helping.
"As matter of fact" Reisen said through lightly gritted teeth. "I have the perfect solution. And I know you won't like it"

Before Keine had a chance to respond or inquire, Reisen turned away and started walking toward the crowd of people, who were still panicking and tripping over one another. She climbed up a desolate stand, and then pointed her hand straight up in the air. Her fingers formed the shape of a gun.

Keine, suddenly realizing Reisen's "fool-proof plan", started to shout "WAI-"

BANG!

A gun-like sound resounded in the air, instantly quieting the mob and turning their heads towards her.
"Eyes up here, everyone" Reisen shouted to the masses, then opened her eyes wide. There was a flash of red light, and suddenly the energy of the mob seemed to implode upon itself.



"I'm suddenly so tired", "I guess it's not that dire after all...", "I'll try again later..."
The mumbles of the villagers started to quiet down as the mob began to disperse. A nice thing about wave manipulation was that it also affected brain waves, so she could control the feelings of anyone she came into eye contact with.
"I'm not entirely sure how that works myself" Reisen though to herself "Glad it does though"


She climbed down from her pedestal, and turned to face a stern-looking Keine.
"You do realize this will make things even worse when they come to, right?" she clenched her teeth, her voice menacing. "And you DO realize I'll be the one who will have to deal with this increasingly bigger ball of chaos, right?"

Reisen gave Keine a dry look, then replied:

"Well, later is not the current problem, and I'm more concerned with avoiding further injury right now. So what say we find out what the hell is going on here?"

"If only finding out what's going on was that easy." she answered in an equally dry tone. "The only thing I know is that people have been falling in a coma-like state and that something or someone is causing it. Someone that can use magic." she clenched her jaw, the urge to beat someone up returning once again.

"Well, that's where to start then" Reisen dropped the hostile air around her words, deciding this wasn't worth getting angry over.
"If you would like, I could accompany you in investigation. I can make Tewi work the rest of the day. Otherwise, I have a shop to attend to."


Reisen knew that Eirin would want her to leave it to others and do her job, but she figured that she was already in trouble.
This seemed like it could be interesting, anyway.

Keine looked at Reisen hesitantly. Tewi wasn't exactly trustworthy, but she did know that Reisen was at least level headed.
She sighed, giving up. "Fine... I guess two heads are better than one." She looked at Reisen with a serious expression. "Just promise me you won't use that power without warning again."

"Unless it is of absolute necessity" Reisen agreed.


"Although..." she said, briefly pausing before she turned to yell at Tewi
"You wouldn't know I used them if I didn't want you to."


Reisen gave an innocent smile, as if to say 'just kidding', then turned and yelled at Tewi to watch the shop for the rest of the day, and was met by a 'whatever'.
Reisen sighed, "I suppose that's as good as I'm gonna get from her. Ah, well, it'll be fine. Where to?"

Keine frowned at Reisen's question as she reminded herself of her primary suspect.
"Frankly, the only magician I know that could and would cause this amount of chaos in a short period of time is that black-white." She felt one of the veins in her temples pop as she remembered the Imperishable Night incident."Whenever she comes here, so does trouble."

Reisen crossed her arms, remembering the same incident.
"Well, at least that's one thing we can relate in. She blasted quite a few halls in Eientei during her 'visit'"


Reisen glanced at the stand, where Tewi was looking exceedingly bored with what she was doing. She briefly looked up, made eye contact with Reisen (one of the few people willing to do that, believe it or not), and gave her a look as if to say "You owe me".
Knowing Tewi's track record of things she has asked Reisen to do, Reisen had a quick pang of regret in deciding to go along with this.


In an effort to quell any doubts, Reisen quickly looking back at Keine, and concluded; "In any case, you probably have a better idea of where that magician could be. For now, you lead the way."

She nodded. "I'm just going to close the school and we'll be on our way."
With, the odd pair turned and went on their way, Keine in the lead, starting the investigation of the mysterious illness.

Also a collaboration with Dankiri ^^

-

Once Sanae returned to the shrine, she made her way to the kitchen as fast as she could to start supper. As she made her way there once inside, she hurried past Suwako, who was laying on the ground staring at the ceiling.

"Ah, about time, Sanae~" she said, sitting up. "I'm so hungry. My stomach is growling!"

"Sorry about taking a while, Suwako-sama, I'll make sure the dinner is delicious for sure!" the shrine maiden replied, putting on an apron hurriedly and starting to prepare the food.

Kanako entered the kitchen, her arms crossed. "What took you so long? Suwako wouldn't be quiet about her stomach." she wasn't mad, however, she was curiously observing Sanae fussing around the pans.

Sanae jumped at the sound of her goddess's voice, turning her head to look at her. "A-Ah, Kanako-sama! Well...I got caught up in the village by Keine-san. She needed to tell me something important," she explained.

The goddess casually looked at the pan. "And I suppose it has something to do with a possible incident since you only get like that when something like that happens." she chuckled.

Sanae looked down at the pineapple she was slicing, nodding her head in response. "I've been told that some sort of crisis is going on invoking villagers passing out and some sort of glowing green phenomena being left on them," she explained, frowning. "I'm so confused...what is the meaning of this...?"

"Ah, so what came in that Tengu's newspaper was true? She came to deliver it when you left, I was going to use it to light a fire to bake sweet potatoes but that title caught my eye." she put a hand on her chin. "It's safe to asume that if there is a sigil involved, there also is a magician."

"Are you sure it involves Marisa-san?" the shrine maiden asked. "I don't think she'd purposely do anything like this. It's rather underhanded."

She waved her hand dismissively. "I don't think the black-white is involved. She might be a billigerent loose canon but I very much doubt that she would do something like this. That would be too serious of a prank to pull and even that girl would know it. However, I reckon she isn't the only magician around who could have caused this."

Sanae began to prepare the meat, chopping it up into small pieces and gathering them together in a pan, turning on the stove. "Then what do you think, Kanako-sama?" she asked curiously, returning to the fruit she was preparing and gathering them up in a bowl.

She laid her back against the wall. "Let's analyse our possibilities. First, we have the dollmaker, even if her specialty has nothing to do with this, something like cursing humans to an endless sleep isn't beyond her powers. However, I don't see any reason why she would do this. Even though she is a youkai, she maintained her human habits and from time to time she enjoys making doll plays to the village's children. I would remove her from our suspect list."

"Alice-san...yeah, I don't think she'd do this. She mainly keeps to herself, anyway, aside from doing kind things for the village kids," Sanae replied, moving back and forth between watching the meat and preparing the fruit mix. She wiped sweat from her forehead, admiring her current handiwork. "I'm pretty sure no one we know of is causing these incidents."

Kanako smiled. "Maybe. But we still have two more. We have the one from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she could easily do this. It wouldn't be the first time that faction caused problems."

"Perhaps..." Sanae muttered, focusing on slicing apples. "But they get their supplies from the human village, don't they? I see their maid from time to time there."

"Good point. So the only one left..." she raised a finger in an explicative manner, her smile growing. "Is Byakuren. We should go raid her temple just in case!"

"Now now, don't be hasty, Kanako-sama," Sanae scolded, glaring at her a little as she put the cooked meat on a plate. "But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go ask them about this."

Kanako sighed. "Do we really need to ask for their help? We should try asking the other magicians first. We can't afford to let them get more faith. Have you seen how much they've gathered lately? People love that tiger youkai." her hand went to her chin again. "Maybe people here like cat girls too? Humm... Sanae, how about you use nekomimi from now onwards?"

Sanae blushed and dropped her stirring spoon in slight shock. While she did have a pair of nekomimi...

"I-If we have to resort to that, sure," she responded, picking up her spoon. "But my point was that we should ask Byakuren-san and her friends about the incidents, not ask for their help. Though really, we should meet up with the other magicians, too."

She nooded in contentment. "Good."
"If the magicians are no help them... I suppose we have to resort to the Myouren people. But I very much want to leave them as last resort." She approached Sanae and peered to the pans. "What are you cooking? It smells delicious."

"I decided that we'd have a meat and fruit combo tonight~" Sanae smiled, showing Kanako her finished product. "For the meat, we're going to be eating pork covered in sweet and sour sauce, and as for the fruit, I prepared some pineapple, apples, oranges, grapes, and strawberries. It's going to be delicious~"

"You're going all out today, I see." She petted Sanae's head. "Thank you." she turned on her heel as she walked out of the kitchen. "Seems like we chose well~" she chuckled.

Sanae blushed more in embarrassment, completely flattered. "I-It was nothing!" she said, smiling. "I just want you and Suwako-sama to enjoy this meal a lot. And myself, too. I'm quite hungry..."

"It has been a long day, hasn't it?" she stopped, looking to the sunlight entering the shrine. "But the night will certainly seem longer."

Sanae frowned as she took out plates an forks from the cupboard. "What if another villager falls victim?" she wondered.

Kanako's eyes looked at Sanae again. "Unfortunatelly, it is very likely someone will. Villager or youkai, no one is safe. We must act fast. Until we know who is doing this, there is no telling what will happen."
Same sighed, feeling worried. "Right...well then, we should eat before the pork gets cold. And before Suwako-sama throws a fit."

Kanako nodded. "Let's enjoy our meal, then we can go back to solving Incidents. I would like to avoid yet another frog induced headache."

Sanae nodded as she followed Kanako into the other room with the food, plates, and forks. After their meal, then they would deal with the incidents, she thought. Perhaps she'd have to spend the night in the village...

The rest of the flight to the Human Village was spent in silence, only the sound of the wind ringing in their ears. Talking about her father always dampened Marisa’s mood. It made her remember what had drove her away from home in the first place.

She looked down, the Village was already visible. Tilting her broom down, she descended closer to the ground, eyes searching to locate the Second Hand Shop. They stopped on an old looking house and immediately she wanted to call if off and return home, away from that nagging feeling of worry. But then she noticed.

“Strange… Why’s the marketplace so deserted? It’s usually full of people at this time of the day.” Then one thought invaded her mind. “Don’t tell me…”
'Did the creature attack during the day?'

Looking around, she searched for any indication things were alright when she spotted a familiar face.
She dropped from her broom and let Alice do the same.
“Reisen, did something happen?”
The moon rabbit looked at her strangely. Marisa arched her brow inquiringly but before she had a chance to ask, her eyes caught something flying towards her and she quickly backflipped out of the way as she watched the projectiles hit a food cart next to her effectively destroying it. Marisa stood dumbstruck staring at the broken wooden pieces.

“You’ve got some guts to show your face here, black-white.” Keine’s voice came. It sounded calm, dangerously calm and yet it felt menacing.

“What the hell was that about!?” Marisa gestured at the pile of wood that had previously been a food cart.

“Don’t play dumb! You know full well what you’ve done! That little prank of yours has endangered the villagers and this time you won’t get away with it!” She prepared another barrage of danmaku.

“Wha---?! I have nothing to do with the villagers collapsing! The Second Shop owner collapsed too, right? Why would I do this to my own---“

“Nice try! But your father collapsed one day ago and it was just a cold. So, it’s really true that you’re a terrible liar.” She was approaching Marisa and the magician could tell the were-hakutaku wasn’t playing around.

‘Damn you to hell, you stupid , lying crow!’ “I’m telling the truth! Look, if you can just let me--“

“Do you have any idea… of the chaos you’ve stirred?” Keine started, cutting her off.
She looked at Marisa with eyes so cold she could feel a shiver down her spine.
“Do you have ANY idea of how serious this matter is?!”

Marisa scrambled to the floor, avoiding yet another barrage of danmaku, barrage that ended up hitting a few more stalls.
She looked at the stalls and reached a conclusion: even though her semblance was relatively calm, Keine was out of control.

“For once, you’re going to take responsibility for your actions!”

Keine wouldn’t listen to her. ‘I have to think of something... and fast… ‘
She breathed out quietly.
“Heheheh…” The magician stood up slowly, earning a frown from Keine. “Hahah! Taking responsibility for my actions, you say? So what if it was me who did this? What are you gonna do about it, you useless guardian?” She gave the smuggest smirk she could muster.

Keine was seething with rage now. “So you’ve finally shown your true colors!”

“Hope they’re bright enough for you ze~” The magician mounted her broom with a hop.
“If you wanna go at it that much, then you should try catching me first!” She stuck her tongue out for good measure and then blasted off.

“You…!!!” Without a second of hesitation, Keine was in hot pursuit.

Momiji/Koishi otp not as otp as Marisa/Alice though

---

“Sword and shield, check. Long sword, check. Great Sword, check. Healing herbs, check. Spare sets of clothes, check. Food for several days, check. Water canteen, check. Spell cards, I can’t be too safe.” Momiji Inubashiri quickly looked over her items the third time in the last ten minutes. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was rather nervous about this mission she had asked for. She hadn’t been off the mountain during her few hundred years of living, as pathetic as it might possibly sound, so this was completely new territory for her. She had only known of the human village from the newspapers Hatate had given to her, as well as the newspapers she had used as a fire starter (Aya’s newspapers, of course). She still vowed to get to the bottom of this.

“Okay… that should be enough,” Momiji said, putting all but her sword and shield in her bag, how she could fit two person-sized swords in there will forever be a mystery. “Now, it’s time to g-“ Suddenly, a knock on the door. “E-eep!” Giggles, if it was Aya then Momiji would have thrown a sword by now. “I-I mean come in Hatate-san!”

So Hatate Himekaidou, Momiji’s trusted friend for many years, entered. “So, are you ready Momiji-san?”

Momiji calmed herself from the initial surprise. “Y-yeah, I’m ready. Let’s get going soon, okay?”

“Alrighty,” Hatate said, “let’s go.” Momiji then slung her supply bag on her back, and they went to meet with the Tenma. It was all fine, for a bit. “So about what happened when I arri-“

“I-I don’t want to talk about it.” Momiji responded, blushing a bit, causing Hatate to giggle more in response, making Momiji blush more.

---

They arrived to the Tenma’s dwelling. Entering, they both bowed to the Tenma, as they had the day before.

“So,” the Tenma began, “are you ready for your mission, Inubashiri-san?”

“Yes,” Momiji replied, trying to mask her nervousness, “I am.”

“Very well. Do you have your supplies in order? Weapons, spell cards?”

“Three separate swords, and several combat spell cards, yes.” Momiji said, proud of the fact that she put so much preparation into her mission.

“Then you are ready to go.” Tenma stated. “Your first task is to arrive at the human village, after you do so, make contact with the target, Shameimaru Aya, and knock some sense into her- how you do so is up to you. Once you finished with her, you are to investigate the village and the surrounding area for any suspicious activity, as if you were guarding the mountain, and get to the bottom of this, understood?”

“Very.” Momiji nods. “I’ll make this quick, lady Tenma.”

“I know you will. Now go along.” Tenma says. Momiji nods in agreement, and begins her trek to the human village. Not knowing where the position of it was made things difficult, but this wouldn’t stop Momiji.

---

Thirty seconds later...
“Wow, that was fast,” Hatate said in surprise. “Did you really finish that quickly?”

“N-no, um..” Momiji thought of what to say. “Um… where is the human village…?”

“…”

“…”

“I’ll, um, give you directions, Momiji-san.” Hatate said.

“T-thank you… d-don’t tell Aya please…”

Knowing Aya wouldn’t let her live this down, Hatate gave Momiji directions, to Momiji’s relief. With directions in hand, she left without a word, too embarrassed to think of anything to say.

---

Momiji went to the border of the Tengu lands, the absolute farthest she had ever gone out during her many years of service. She had known that various minor goddesses lived around this area, as well as the Kappa (of which one was another good friend of hers), however Momiji had decided that, despite them possibly knowing truthful information about the incident in the human village, her absolute first priority was to arrive at the human village, and “beat the crap out of Aya.” With this in mind, Momiji followed the stream downwards to the base of the mountain, where she would be able to better see the human village.

Suddenly, there was a splash of water. Momiji, anxious due to her mission, quickly drew her sword. “Who’s there?!” she yelled. She looked around, no one was there. The splashing continued, and upon closer inspection the sound came from underneath her. She looked below, and she saw… “a young girl…?”

The girl seemed to be taking a swim in the nearby creek while fully clothed, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings. Momiji, sensing no threat from this odd girl, lowered her sword, planting it into the ground, observing her, perplexed by the thought of swimming in full clothes, and seemingly unworried that she’s in the wilderness alone.



Eventually, the girl noticed Momiji. “Huh?” She looked up. Momiji got a better view of her, light green- almost gray- hair, dark green eyes, an odd way of dressing, which includes an odd capelet, sandals which appear to be slippers, and a wide brimmed hat- not a style of dress Momiji had seen before- but what had really caught her attention was the third eye the girl had. She had heard of a race that had them, but never had she seen one befo-

Poke poke.

“w-wha?! H-how did you get here so quickly?!” Momiji yelled as the girl had seemingly transported from being in the river to poking Momiji’s breasts.

“I’m quick.” The girl continued poking. “Wow! Your funbags are big like Okuu’s!”

Momiji blushed hard- either at having her breasts poked or having their size commented on- and tried to get the girl to stop by turning around. “I-it’s rude to poke someone’s breasts like that, e-especially without asking!”

“But it’s fun!” The girl replied enthusiastically- a bit too much for Momiji.

“W-what the he- h-hey! Let go of my tail!” Momiji jumped at having her tail grabbed.

“But it’s interesting! I’ve never seen a girl with a tail before!” The girl, without asking for permission, then climbed Momiji’s back. “wow! And you have ears like Orin too!” She pokes Momiji’s ears, “I wonder why Orin has ears like you, but not a tail…” She verbally wondered, giving Momiji the chance to get the odd girl off her back.

“Get off!” Momiji threw the girl to the ground, and pointed her sword at her.

“H-hey, that’s not nice…” she seemed at the point of tears.

“N-neither is molesting a girl like that!” Momiji was a bit hurt at the sight, but she was too embarrassed to be nice. “Now apologize!”

“S-sorry, miss doglady…” This was the last straw.

“I’m not a dog! I’m a wolf tengu! A wolf tengu isn’t the same as a lowly dog!” Momiji ranted.

“But I bet they both like being petted, right?” The girl asked.

“D-don’t you dare pet m-“ Unheeded, the girl petted Momiji, she relaxed a bit at her touch. “G-grrr… don’t think you’re getting away with this…”

“You sound mad but you’re reacting happily.” Momiji’s tail is wagging, betraying the tone of her voice.

“S-shut it…” Momiji angrily said.

“aww, okay.” The girl stopped petting Momiji. “Are you still going to kill me, miss wolf tengyew lady?” she asked sadly.

Momiji didn’t know what to be taken back by- the fact that the girl mispronounced “tengu” or that she thought that Momiji would actually kill her. She went with the latter. “I-I’m not going to kill you, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

The girl’s face lit up instantly, “yay! So can we be friends?” She held up a flower she picked from the ground.

Momiji smiled, “of course we can.”

“Yay!” The girl said happily, jumping in the air. Momiji couldn’t help but be happy at the sight of this girl she just met being so happy. “Miss wolf tengyew lady, I have another question.”

“What is it?” Momiji asked.

“Do you have any food? I’m starving.” The girl held her stomach to further emphasize her point.

Momiji said, “yeah, I have some. Help me make a fire, and you can have some.”

---

Some turned out to be a lot, as the girl, despite her small frame, ate as much food as Momiji ate in a week, which surprised her. Had she not eaten all the food Momiji had brought, chances are she would have continued without slowing down.

“Aww, no more?” The girl said, finishing her seventh bowl of rice.

“Yeah, um, sorry.” Momiji didn’t know how else to respond as the girl ate all the food she had prepared for the trip.

“It’s okay.” She pats Momiji’s head again, “you didn’t know you’d meet a hungry girl like me.”

Momiji looked up, “it’s alright, don’t worry about it.” She got thinking, “anyway… why were you so hungry? It was as if you haven’t eaten in days.”

“That’s because I haven’t,” the girl answered.

“H-huh?” Momiji said, “That’s not healthy.

“But a girl who wanders around like me can’t really find much to eat. Last time I tried taking food from a tree, I made the two cute girls who farmed them angry, and I don’t eat animals because my sister said that they have feelings too…” This saddened momiji, somewhat.

“Why do you wander around?” She asked.

“Dunno… I had a reason, but I forgot what it was… I think I wanted friends…” The girl said, a bit saddened.

“I see…” Momiji said. “Well.. I, Momiji Inubashiri, will be your friend.”

The girl looked up, “r-really?” Momiji nodded, she beamed in happiness. “Yay~ My name is Koishi Komeiji~ Thanks for being a friend, Momiji~” She hugged Momiji in happiness.

“Oh you…” Momiji hugged back. “Hey uh… do you think you can help me get to the human village, Koishi? I’ll buy you food when we get there, if you want.”

“The village? Sure~ I know where it is~” Koishi said happily. “That sounds nice, but I like your cooking a lot!”

“H-huh? I-it was nothing too fancy, though..” Momiji blushed a bit.

“But it was great~” Koishi smiled.

“T-thanks.” Momiji responded. “A-anyway I wouldn’t mind making you food, but we’d have to get there first.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Koishi confidently said, “we can take a shortcut underground and get there in minutes!”

Momiji was surprised at how knowledgeable Koishi was. “Underground? Well.. okay.”

“Yay~!” Koishi cheered. “Okay, we’ll head there in the morning.” Momiji nodded. “Also…”

“yes? What is it?” Momiji asked.

“can you be my pet…?” Koishi looked up as cutely as she could.

“U-uh? I-I don’t know how to be one though, and I already said I was a wolf tengu, not a dog.” Momiji said.

“C’mon, pleaseeeeeee?” Koishi continued.

“Uh… I guess…? Don’t tell anyone, okay?” Momiji said, before being cut off by Koishi hugging Momiji tight. “h-huh?!”

Koishi smiled, “you’re the best.”

Momiji smiled a bit too, “I try.”

---

The next day…
“Okay! Here we are, the underground!” Koishi said.

“I-I see…” Momiji was nervous, not because it was underground, mostly, but because-

“What’s wrong?” Koishi pulled on the leash a bit.

“I-Is the leash really necessary? Where did you even get one?!” Momiji asked loudly.



“I don’t remember. But anyway it’s important because the underground is dark.” Koishi answered.

“F-fine, whatever…”

Koishi said, “okay! Let’s get going.” With that they descended into the underground. Koishi wondered if, by chance, she’d meet one of her friends from when she lived underground. Time would be the only thing that would decide that, though.

Reisen had been floating in the distance, observing the skirmish between the teacher and the witch.
"I can't imagine what classes must be like with her as the professor..." Reisen mumbled to herself, as an enraged Keine threw another spell card. "I bet she throws chalk harder than Eirin does -ooh, that had to hurt." 

She thought about joining in, but decided she had pissed Keine off enough already, and just watched it happen. As the battle went on, however, Reisen noticed something odd about Marisa's movement. She certainly wasn't showing the fervor she had when she busted down the front door of Eientei. Then, the black-white girl plummeted to the ground, and Keine quickly dived in pursuit.

"Ah shit" Reisen muttered. "Maybe I should intervene..."
Reisen started to dive toward them, her eyes glowing red, when she noticed that things seemed to have calmed down. Pausing, she tried to listen into the conversation, but couldn't make out much more than "culprit", and that Marisa seemed to be hurt. Then Keine 
ran into the forest, and Marisa propped herself against a tree.

Reisen sighed, and floated down to where Marisa sat panting. "My duty as a doctor, I suppose..." she thought to herself, as she approached Marisa's tree from behind. Then she stepped on a particularly loud twig... 

Collaboration with Dani.

---

As soon as the two fairies left the lake, they began to search for the merciless monsters that dared to attack an innocent fairy that was casually walking around the forest... Or at least that was what Cirno kept saying.

However, neither of them had any idea where the shrine maiden or the magician where. Daiyousei suggested to maybe ask the tengu, since they had a newspaper and had to knew about most of the things shrouding Gensokyo. Cirno shuddered at the thought. The ice fairy had already been shot down by that creepy tengu with a camera once, because they wanted photos of her or something. Besides, Cirno was still mad at a certain tengu for refusing to correct her fight with the giant frog of the lake, so she quickly rejected the idea. Both kept thinking for a while.

"I know! We'll ask the other fairies!" The ice fairy quickly shouted, and her friend looked at her with a puzzled look. "The other fairies...?" The green-haired fairy asked. To be fair, Cirno had a point. Whenever there's an incident, most fairies join the party, wanting some fun, only to be shot down by the shrine maiden, the magician or who ever else is solving the incident. "... Okay, then. Maybe one saw the red-white shrine maiden or the witch... It's worth a try."

However, their search turned out to be mostly unsuccessful. Most fairies were just having fun or thinking of the next prank, and no one had seen who they were searching for, or heard of an incident. In fact, most of the fairies didn't even knew about Sunny getting attacked, nor did they seem to care. Until finally...

"The black-white witch? Well, I haven't seen her." A red-haired fairy answered. Cirno and Daiyousei were about to continue searching, but the fairy stopped them. "However! I've seen some danmaku near the forest, and one of those scary lasers the witch used against us several times... Maybe that was her?"

"Near the forest! Alright, we got her!" Cirno said, and quickly flew straight to the forest. Daiyousei sighed and wondered how Cirno wasn't the fastest being in Gensokyo. "Thanks, take care." She said to the red-haired fairy and followed her friend.



The fairies reached the part of the forest where the danmaku fight had been sighted, and quickly hid behind a tree. The black-white witch whom they had been searching was there, sitting down. Daiyousei noticed the witch seemed like she was in pain, but Cirno didn't seem to care.

"It's the perfect chance. That witch will pay for what she has done." Cirno said, preparing her trademark spellcard.

"Cirno, wait!" The green-haired fairy stopped her friend, then pointed at something near the witch. A purple-haired rabbit girl, approaching the tree where the witch was supporting herself with. "Maybe you'll hit her as well..."

"I don't care! It's her problem for being in the way!" The ice fairy answered, then prepared herself for a spellcard declaration.

Marisa kept her focus, eyes scanning her surroundings while trying not to get paranoid about all the little sounds and---

Snap

The black magician jumped a meter in the air, not unlike a scared cat, and turned her mini-hakkero towards the source of the sound.

"GAAAH! DIE! MASTER SPARK!!"

The bright and colorful beam zoomed through the tree where she had supported herself seconds ago... as well as any other tree in a 5 meter radius.

The fairies quickly retreated as soon as they saw the witch jumping into the air, then watched as the spark engulfed the trees and whatever was around them.

Cirno put down her spellcard. She wasn't the smartest fairy around, sure, but everyone in Gensokyo knew better than to not get in the range of that spellcard, and Cirno was no exception, since she tasted it countless times before.

However, her relative calmness only lasted as long as the beam did. As soon as it died, Cirno created a little ice sword in her left hand, then flew straight for the black-white witch, letting out a warcry.

The magician wheezed as the beam died out. She felt suddenly tired again... what was happening to her?

'Damn... that was pathetic... getting scared like that...' Had the previous encounter with the creature shaken her that much? She put a hand to her face.

"Ugh... this is the suckiest day ev---" Then came a cry and she quickly turned to it.

Cirno was flying towards her, no doubt to attack her. A vein popped on Marisa's head.


With a quick movement of her hand, her broom returned to its master's hand and was promptly swung against the offending fairy.

The ice fairy blocked the broom swipe with her sword, then quickly retreated to avoid being hit again.

"You black-white idiot! This'll teach you to not bully innocent fairies!" she said, as she quickly took out a spellcard. "Ice Sign [Icicle Fall]!" She declared it, and several icicles appeared around her. The icicles flew to the sky, then started raining down on Marisa.

Meanwhile, Daiyousei was watching the fight between the two, worried that Cirno might suffer the same fate as the trees that the witch sparked down.

Despite her tired state, Marisa dodged the projectiles with ease, she was frankly more than used to Cirno's spell cards.

"What are you even talking about, you idiot?! I didn't attack anyone! I'm the one constantly being attacked here!!" Today was definitely the worst day ever.

She spinned her broom and raised it up towards the sky.

"Star Sign [Gravity Beat]!"

A blue energy orb left her broom, disappearing to the sky only to fall down on Cirno seconds later.

Cirno got more angry as the witch dodged her icicles and affirmed that she didn't have anything to do with Sunny being attacked. In fact, the ice fairy didn't even notice the blue orb.

"Don't lie, you idiot! I know that you and the red-white attacked Sun-- ACK!" Cirno got struck down by the energy orb, and ended up falling to the floor.

"Cirno-chan!" The great fairy cried, and she rushed to her friend's aid, putting herself between the two. "T-that's enough!"

Marisa stopped, she didn't feel like fighting in the first place. And that surprised even herself.

Mr AngelG No. 55 and I should probably collaborate for next time- I honestly found it kind of difficult to think of things when i can't use all the characters in the scene.

also fuck calibri

---

Momiji slowly stood up, brushing her clothes off after that weird thing, apparently a girl in a bucket (‘what the hell?’), hit her. She tried stretching a bit. “Who or what are you?!” she heard the three newcomers say. She looked up at them- one tall blonde with a horn on her forehead, an average height blonde girl with long ears and striking green eyes, and a seven year old drunkard with orange hair and two large horns.

‘Interesting crowd’ Momiji thought. Before she could answer, Koishi spoke.

“Hey! Be nice you three, my new friend just got hit by a flying Kisume.” Koishi was pouting that her new friend was injured, and the best thing they could say is “Who or what are you?”

“Oi, sorreh eye-girl.” The shortest began speaking in a slur- further cementing Momiji’s suspicions of her drunken state. “Jus’ that dis day haz been a bit weird, so fah.”

“Oh?” Koishi asked, “What do you mean?” The shortest pointed to the two blondes, and then Koishi made the connection. “Oooh, I see. They’re having a lover’s spat.” Koishi and the drunkard both laughed, the two blondes didn’t really notice- Momiji just stood on the side, watching the scene unfold.

“Er… anyway, I’ll introduce myself.” Momiji tried to break the tension. “I’m Momiji Inubashiri, a wolf tengu who guards Yokai Mountain from intruders. I’ve come to-“

“Oi, dog g’rl,” the shorter girl interrupted, “if you’re fr’m the Mounta’n, why haven’t I seen ya b’fore? I’ve been there plenty o’ tim’s and I’ve ne’er seen ya ‘til now.”

‘This’ll be harder than I thought…’ Momiji thought to herself. “First, I’m a wolf tengu, not a ‘dog,’ second, I’m almost always on patrol in the mountain.”

“Th’n,” the girl continued, “what’re ya doin’ here instead o’ the Mounta’n?” She quizzically looked at Momiji.

“That’s the thing,” Momiji started explaining, “Lately there’s been a disturbance in the Human Village- several residents have been found injured with no real culprit or reason as to why it happened. Unfortunately, one of my colleagues (‘who is really stupid’) spread misinformation of this incident, causing fear and terror, as well as possibly endangering my home to, er, intervention from a certain shrine maiden.” The other four, knowing full well what that entailed, shivered in synch. “Therefore,” Momiji continued, “I took it upon myself to stop the harm that would possibly come to my home, and to teach that idiot a question.”

The odd trio seemed intrigued by this information. “An’,” the drunkest began, “why’re ya takin’ the satori-girl ‘long with ya?”

“That’s easy!” Koishi said, “I’m leading her through the shortcut here so we can get there sooner. She’s my friend so I want to help!” Koishi seemed really enthusiastic, in spite of the information Momiji had just given.

“Yes, that is why Koishi here is helping me- also why she has me on a leash.” Momiji rubbed her neck where the leash had been yanked after the tallest girl pushed Koishi down to safety- it’d hurt for a while, she was sure. “Anyway… I think it’s time for you three to introduce yourselves?”

"However this time I will not hold back! At all! Ice Sign [Icicle Fall]!" she declared the spellcard. A bunch of icicles appeared around her, flew straight into the air and fell down on Reisen.
The icicles fell on Reisen with a resounding crash. The dust cleared, and there was nothing there.
“Hah! I beat her so hard that she disappeared! That was easy!” Cirno beamed, proud of her immediate victory. There was a light tap on her shoulder, and Cirno answered without turning around. “Did you see that, Dai? I truly am the strongest!”

“Oh, you think so?” A voice whispered back. “I seem to remember hearing a story from that red-white. I believe she ALSO gave you quite the beating. That’s hardly evidence to your point….”
The world seemed to shift slightly as Cirno turned to face a pair of gleaming, glowing red eyes.
"U-uh... Dai...? Your voice changed, and I don't remember you having red eyes... No... Wait..." The ice fairy stepped back. "Y-you're not going to trick me again!" She began firing icicles in the direction of those red eyes.

Once again, the attack hit its mark. But elsewhere, a voice continued. “You have pretty good aim with those icicles of yours, fairy. It’s a shame they have never actually hit their mark!”
Above Cirno, three images of Reisen appeared, and they all said, in unison “AGAIN and AGAIN! I can’t count the amount of times you’ve lost on my hands!” Reisen gave another laugh, “The miko, the witch, the maid, the samurai! They have ALL STRUCK YOU DOWN!”

"S-shut up! I just held back!" The fairy continued shooting icicles non-stop at the images.
All three images disappeared at once, and one lone figure appeared directly in front of Cirno. The tinge of black hair looked particularly demonic as Reisen slowly advanced on the fairy.

“The only skill you seem to possess is “holding back”". You’re nothing but a stupid fairy. You couldn’t even see through my illusions, even though these are the weakest ones I have!” Reisen chuckled knowingly, “Well, here I am! No more illusions. You say you were holding back, well now is not the time for that! HIT ME WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!” Reisen was practically spitting in Cirnos face.

Cirno stood there in silence, for about a minute.

"Ice Mass [Great Crusher]!" She created a giant ice hammer and smashed Reisen with it several times, until the spell card timed out.
"I-is that good enough for you?!" She said, panting.

“Certainly” and from the sparkle of the disappearing danmaku, a right hook connected with Cirno’s jaw. The tiny body went sprawling backward, and she was caught by the green-haired fairy.

“So, your strongest attack is a hammer? Something so easily grazed is hardly worthy of the strongest fighter in Gensokyo…” Reisen blinked forward and got in Cirno’s dazed face. “There, you tried your hardest, and you failed. I won that fight in one hit, and you used everything. Your hubris is your undoing.” Reisen turned around, but before leaving, left a final parting shot.
“And you even dared to attack a battered, tired, sick, AFFLICTED human. I dare say you are no better than a pathetic, rabid Youkai…”

Reisen left the two fairies, and returned to the injured witch. In the snow, it seemed that the black tips of her hair had spread a tiny bit upward...

"H-hey, could you not make me sound that weak...?" Marisa sweatdropped.
"Oh, hush. Don't deny it." Reisen repeated her invitation from before. "I need to take you to the Lady"

Silence was the dominant element between the fairies. Daiyousei looked at the unconscious body of her friend, and slowly let it down on the floor.

"Yeah, but I still---" Marisa looked at the fairies, something seemed to be happening.
The great fairy took out a spellcard. She had only recently got enough magic power to make a few spellcards and she didn't even know how to use them properly. Still...