The day after the flower viewing party saw Reimu cleaning up
the Shrine. Granted, that wasn’t actually that unusual. On top of her normal
chores, Reimu often had to deal with the mess left over from a party the day
before, which was why she had gotten involved in the incident the summer
before. What was unusual was that it was 4 in the afternoon, and there was
still a lot to clean up, though it wasn't due to a lack of effort on Reimu’s
part.
“Geez, they didn’t have to go that crazy, did they?” Reimu
asked, surveying what was left to be done. Her eyes fell upon an area off to
the side that had been charred black.
“I told those two idiots to avoid starting fires. Maybe we
should have let the little vampire keep blowing them up for fun.”
As Reimu moved forward to get a closer look at the damage,
she tripped over yet another cylindrical object that lay discarded in the
grass. Said object then exploded with a loud *bang*, accompanied by a round of
cursing from Reimu.
“Any why in the world did Yukari bring so many of those ‘Confetti
Cannons’? Does she know how hard and annoying these things are to clean up? Ah,
who am I kidding? Of course she
knows.”
It was this scene that Marisa came upon several minutes
later, as she swooped in to kill some time.
“Geez Reimu, this place is a mess. What, did ya keep
drinking after ya kicked us out last night and slept in today?”
At the sound of Marisa’s voice, Reimu abruptly whirled
around to face her, and Marisa was momentarily taken aback by the look of sheer
rage and the glowing Yin-Yang orbs that she was certain hadn’t been there a
second ago.
“YOU.” Reimu growled out, stomping toward Marisa.
Mastering her surprise, Marisa adopted an innocent
expression. “Me? Me what?”
If anything, Reimu’s expression darkened further. “You filled the second shrine with vases filled with every flower out here.”
Hearing this, Marisa adopted a smug grin. “I thought it
could use a bit of color, ~ze”
“You put some kind of bouncy sheet under the lid of my offertory
box, so coins just bounce right out.”
“Well, ya know what they say: easy come, easy go.”
“You hung garlands of every
type of flower I have ever seen on
the Torii and somehow got them to sprout there! Even the roses and thistles!”
At that, Marisa’s smirk faded slightly. “Huh, I don’t
remember that one. Must have been Tewi and Yuuka. No wonder Reisen’s always
angry at Tewi.”
Reimu’s expression didn’t soften in the slightest. “The Yama’s
not going to be able to blame me for this. I’ll just do a lot of good deeds to
make up for it”
“Oh, not you too!” A new voice cut in. “When I said to
balance your actions with good deeds, I didn’t mean for you to keep score.”
At this interruption, Reimu and Marisa’s staredown was
broken and they looked up at the new arrival. Before them stood the Yama, Shiki
Eiki Yamaxanadu, with a stern expression leveled at them
--
It was Reimu who recovered first.
“What are you
doing here?”
In response, Eiki merely glanced at her before leveling her
gaze at Marisa and continuing. “I had meant this lecture to be directed solely
at Marisa, but you would do well to heed it, Reimu.”
Ignoring Reimu’s muttered comment of “Oh great, here she
goes again”, Eiki closed her eyes and began speaking in a grave tone, reciting
what sounded like a memorized speech.
“The state of one’s karma could be crudely approximated by placing your good and bad deeds on
opposite ends of a scale, but it is also important to consider one’s reasons
for the deed and the effects of the actions you take”
Opening her eyes, Eiki met Marisa’s bored and confused gaze
seriously.
“Komachi tells me you have been doing ‘good deeds’ since we
last spoke. Explain them to me, and I will tell you why they were flawed”
After a moment, Marisa’s expression became thoughtful, if still a
little confused.
“Well, I first helped that sparrow get some water from the
Sanzu over to her stand”
“How?” Probed Eiki.
“Usin’ Komachi’s boat to carry it.” Marisa replied, ignoring
Reimu’s sputters of “What?!” and “How?!”.
“And did you consider the consequences of that action?” Eiki
asked. “By depriving Komachi of her boat, you made many spirits wait beside the
Sanzu for a prolonged period of time.”
“Yeah, but the spirits could wait a bit, since they’re
already dead, and Mystia needed it for her stand.” Marisa said with a shrug. “Her
eel is really good.” She added as an afterthought.
Eiki sighed and shook her head at that. “Another good deed
then?”
Marisa thought for a moment. “Well, I filled the backup shrine
with the flowers I collected.” She said, gesturing toward the building in
question.
“Why?” Eiki asked again.
“Well, so people would visit it, of course!” Marisa said
with a grin. Her expression then changed into a thoughtful expression. “I wasn’t
sure which flowers would attract worshippers the best, so I put them all in so
everyone could choose their favorite if they came.”
Eiki just shook her head as Reimu growled in response.
Almost hesitantly, Eiki continued “Next?”
“Well…” Marisa paused, thinking. “Oh, I joined a good cause!”
At this, Eiki looked at her in surprise as Reimu mirrored
the action with chagrin.
“Please tell me you’re not talking about the Doll Liberation
Alliance” Eiki finally said, sounding weary at the mere thought of the possibility.
“Huh?” Marisa asked, nonplussed. “Is that one of Alice’s
projects? Anyway, no. I joined the Rabbit Horn League.”
“The… Rabbit Horn League?” Eiki asked, after a quick mutter
that sounded like “Overtime or not, I should have used the mirror”
“Yeah!” Marisa responded excitedly. “Reisen started it
yesterday when she found out Reimu made Rabbit Stew for the banquet after the viewing,
and she’s going on about stopping Reimu and any other humans who eat Rabbit
Stew one way or another.”
Setting aside Reimu’s mutter of “Of course the Moon rabbit cared when the Earth rabbit didn’t” for later, Eiki
pressed on. “And you’re allied with an anti-human organization… why?”
“’Cuz the cute rabbits need a spokesperson too!” Marisa
replied emphatically. “Even if Tewi thinks the cutest ones are safe, ya never
know if some starving, penniless shrine maiden’s gonna run up and chomp them in
desperation-“
Marisa had to stop short and lean to the side to avoid a
Yin-Yang orb (Which, incidentally, was still glowing) from striking her in the
head.
“… next?”
“I made garlands and corsages for all of Alice’s dolls! Though I ran out of dolls before garlands.”
“……next?”
“I visited the SDM and stole more of Patchy’s books!”
This was met with silence. After a few moments and two false
starts, Eiki blinked a few times and finally spoke.
“We were discussing good
deeds, Marisa.”
“It is a good deed! Patchy spends so much time in the
library that I need to go there and steal a book to get her to leave the
mansion. Heck, the last time I was there, she didn’t even notice me until I was
ready to leave. Next time, I think I might have to kidnap her.”
This was met with an even longer silence before Eiki sighed
and asked regretfully “Next?”
Marisa paused in thought. “That’s about it, ~ze. I did come here to help Reimu out, since
she’s still not done cleaning up.”
That was the last straw for Reimu, who had been silently
fuming throughout Marisa’s explanations. “It wouldn’t have taken so long if you
hadn’t filled up all those vases with water and weighed them down like that!
How did you even get them in there anyway?”
“Suika helped me.” Marisa replied, as if it was obvious. “Where
is she, anyway? She’d make this go a lot faster.”
At this, Reimu’s expression shifted to one of concern, and
she let the orbs fall with a sigh.
“She left this morning, saying Yukari stole the Ibuki Gourd
and she was going to go get it back. That was 5 hours ago, so either Yukari’s
locked her up somewhere, or they’re both drunk. Either way, we’re not getting any help from Suika on
this one”
Accepting the fact that she’d have to actually help clean,
Marisa began making shooing motions toward Eiki.
“Well, ya heard her. Time to get back to work and good deeds!”
Judging by Eiki’s stern glare, Marisa wasn’t going to get
off that easily.
“I think not. It is important that you understand the proper
way to improve your karma. Keep this in mind, Marisa-“
Fortunately for Marisa (And rather unfortunately for
everyone else), Eiki never got the opportunity to explain the proper way to
carry out a good deed. Her lecture was forestalled as she had to quickly dive
out of the way as a red and white blur shot through the area she had been
occupying. As she got to her feet and dusted herself off, Marisa and Reimu
turned to view the newcomer in surprise. Before them, Chen was also rising to
her feet and dusting herself off.
While the admittedly random appearance of Chen wasn’t much
of a surprise, given the fact that the gap that had been behind where Eiki had
been standing could only have been created by Yukari, the somewhat random appearance of Chen still left Marisa
and Reimu in a state of shock and confusion. After a moment, Marisa managed to ask what
both of them had been wondering.
“Um, Chen… what are you wearing?”
Ignoring Marisa, Chen bounded up to the gap that she had arrived
in an called back into it querulously
“Miss Yukari, that’s not how you’re supposed to do the
[Flying Bishamonten]! Please give me my hat back!”
A moment later, two hands reached out of the gap, taking the
elaborate gold headpiece from Chen and placing a green cap in its place upon
her head. That done, the gap closed and Chen turned around to look over the
three people who were still frozen in shock at her appearance. Her gaze stopped
on Eiki.
“Are you the Yama of Muen no Tsuka, Shiki Eiki Yamaxanadu?”
Chen asked.
At Eiki’s nod of affirmation, Chen bowed deeply, then
addressed her.
“Miss Yukari has a proposition for you concerning your wish
to meet with her and discuss her, um… what was I supposed to say? Oh, her ‘indiscretions’.”
Hearing this, Eiki raised an eyebrow. “A proposition? Very
well, what is she asking for?”
Still looking downward, Chen continued “Miss Yukari has
agreed to meet with you and listen to your judgment if you agree that for every
topic you cover, you have to take a drink.”
Hearing this, Eiki raised both eyebrows. “A drink?”
“Yes. Otherwise, I’m supposed to, uh… oh, right! I’m
supposed to then jump back though a gap and Miss Yukari said she’s going to
keep avoiding you.”
Thinking it over for a moment, Eiki came to a decision. “Very
well, I will meet with her under those conditions. Please tell her I agree, but
with some conditions of my own. Since she has shown no remorse or shame
regarding her actions, I demand that this meeting take place in front of
witnesses, so hopefully someone can
keep her under control for her own good.”
Chen faltered at that, trying to remember the message “Umm,
so you said yes, but you want her to… meet when someone else is around as a
witness, and they need to… control her?”
Eiki sighed at Chen’s attempt to keep the message straight. “Just
tell her that we’ll meet at the shrine when Reimu is here, so she can’t just
ignore me”
“Oh, if those are your conditions, then why don’t we just do
this now?” A new voice chimed in.
As everyone turned toward the shrine where the voice
originated from, a second gap opened and Yukari Yakumo, Sage of the Youkai
emerged. In one hand, she held the Ibuki Gourd by its neck, while in the other
she held a struggling Suika by the back of her shirt.
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