A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.

Note 2:

("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")

(‘Foreign Languages’)

("Thoughts (In their own native tongue)")

(Attacks/Weapon names)

(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Written, Titles)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles/Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

(“Demonic Speech”)

(‘Demonic Thoughts’)

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 20

Gensokyo: Universal Board

May 18th, 2004: 0630

Third Person: Omni

The pair had been talking about various things between a few rounds of tea. Small bits of conversation allowed both of them to get a read on one another, though Ran got the shorter end of the stick due to not having the sheer experience of Desmond when it came to social conventions… even if it was an experience dedicated to a social climate that had evolved for a hundred years to the point ware it would feel alien… more so than the outside world.

“So I told the commanding officer: fuck that, I am not going in there, not even with my immortality.” He recounted one of the situations that happened after everyone learned that he got immortality with good humor, causing Ran to laugh at the story.

“And when he tried turning to the other officers to force them into going on that mission, apparently I just stared at him hard enough to scare him right out. He put in his resignation letter next week.” He propped his head up with the counter and his right arm.

“A kind guy like you staring hard enough to scare him off…? You know what, I can see that happening.” Her lament of being forced to stay awake for about 36 hours cleared up quite nicely due to the tales that he wove for her.

“Yeah, having that kind of gap between my regular reactions and my judging stare did me quite well when I was in both commanding and following positions.” She nodded, but she couldn't see the thought personally, that is exactly the reason why it would work so well.

“Yeah, doing something opposite of their expectations is one way to surprise them enough… or scare them if it is serious enough.” Ran said, taking a sip of the tea that he provided, it was some high-quality leaves that composed this brew.

There was a solidarity between the two of them, even if he didn’t know much about her past, Desmond learned at least a face of Ran Yakumo. Something that he was satisfied with for now, though that didn’t mean he would not enquire into her past… however small the actual ways he did so.

“So you have any stories yourself?” He had been sharing his own stories to slowly get her mind off of the exhaustion that she was feeling at the moment and help her get to know him… after all, they had only spoken a few times in the year that he had been situated in Gensokyo.

“Well…” She paused her words in thought, wondering what exactly she should say. Instead of resuming, she was saved by the bell that signified another person had crossed the threshold of the store.

The visitor walked in, her white hair swaying slightly with her gentle movements. Atop her ivory locks sat an indigo hat styled after a pagoda with a red ribbon tied to the topmost point and red gifs at the front rim. Her hair framed her calm brown eyes as they glanced around the store in slight confusion.

Her indigo blue dress swished softly as she walked, the blue led to white as the pleated underskirt peaked from under the hem of the dress and through the rectangle holes, leading to her white socks that were clad in a pair of black flats with red ribbons affixed to them, one for each shoe. Due to the snow outside, the soles were wet, showing some wet footprints as she entered.

Her features were set into a slightly stern expression that had a hint of amusement as she waited at the entrance. There were no impatiens in her movements, almost as if she was unbothered by the cold snow that she passed through in order to get behind the doors.

Right behind her was Mokou, inside of her regular outfit, albeit a little singed in some places and wet in others. She had a slightly grumpy expression on at the moment, mostly from fighting with the occasional spring and winter fairies that were running amuck.

“Good morning Mokou and Ms.…?” Mokou’s face turned neutral… if slightly exhausted… which made sense considering that she would have had to wake up early to commute to the shop from the bamboo forest. She just waved her hand at him once before going to lean on the counter.

“I am Keine Kamishirasawa, the teacher for the human village, it is nice to meet you.” She bowed her head slightly after giving a fairly formal greeting. Desmond smiled slightly before gesturing for them to come in closer to the counter.

“Well, welcome Keine… It must have been cold out, would you like some tea?” He asked while already preparing Mokou’s tea, not seeing Keine open her mouth to address the overly familiar way he addressed her… before closing she closed it without saying anything when she remembered that he learned English first.

“Sure… I would love some.” She remarked, still standing nearby one of the shelves close to the entrance of the store while Mokou already sat on one of the stools and was sipping tea from a bamboo cup.

“This was made from the bamboo you harvested when I first met you, correct?” She asked while gripping it with her right hand, feeling the grain and the polish of the processed bamboo. The rim was soft against her lips, showing the details that he kept track of… considering that he created multiple at around the same time.

“Indeed it is, and I still have quite a bit left for when I finally figure out how to make a bamboo scroll… which would require me figuring out how to make a slat scroll first.” He said, pausing to take a shrug before placing a cup down for Kine to drink from, this one had a bunch of characters on it.

“Well, don’t look at me, I can’t remember if I ever learned how to make it… even if I did learn to in the past.” Mokou shrugged, after living for several centuries, it would make sense that she forgot a few things in the middle of it all.

“I have never learned myself either,” Ran remarked, causing the newcomers to look at her. They did not notice the mass of 9 fluffy tails and the woman that was connected to them when they walked up to the counter.

“I am Yakumo Ran, nice to meet you.” She introduced herself before taking another sip of her own tea. Pausing before the cup bottomed out on the table, she remembered what time it is.

“Guess I am the only one to have not introduced myself. I am Fujiwara Mokou.” Mokou introduced herself with a certain refined grace that didn’t fade even with a few years of isolation.

“Fujiwara-San, Kamishirasawa-San, Desmond, I must be heading off.” Ran stood up, and bowed to the trio before leaving quickly. The pair looked at each other before looking at Desmond.

“Don’t mind it, she has quite a few things on her plate… and I reminded her of something she should get done sooner rather than later. Might I ask why you two have entered my store?” He quickly took their focus off of Ran before they could think too hard about the slightly rude gesture of leaving immediately after greetings.

“I was mostly dragged over.” Mokou said with a stoic facade, one that Keine immediately saw through due to interacting fairly often. She laughed gently at the lie that Mokou spoke, causing Desmond to look at her and Mokou to groan as she palmed her face.

“I came here to thank you for taking care of her… since she doesn’t take care of herself all that well,” Keine said with a nod before taking another sip of her tea. Desmond could see the faintest of blushes spread over Mokou’s face at Keine's little admission on her ability to take care of herself.

“I am not that bad…” Mokou trailed off as both of them let out a chuckle… sharing their amusement at the irony of her phrase… she should not have told Keine about her stint of starving to death and regenerating when she ran out of food.

“You are.” Both of them said in unison, making Mokou want to pout… if not for the fact that they both would laugh harder if she did she would have. Desmond looked at her knowingly… as another possessor of immortality to another, he knows what could happen if he ever decided to be lazy enough to starve to death himself.

“I don’t have to be here for this you know.” She muttered with a grumble while taking another sip of her tea. She couldn't help but smile slightly, it has been a while since she had interactions with a group of people.

“On another note entirely… I still have no idea where the Human Village is still… even after a year of living here.” Desmond said with a laugh as he poured himself another cup of tea, finding the pot almost finished up.

“You don’t know?” Keine asked for clarification, considering who he was with, it was a real mixup on whether or not he knew where the village was in the first place… though it was leaning more towards not knowing if this is how he spent a majority of his time.

“No I do not, never bothered to ask, the last time anyone offered to take me to the village was several months ago, via Mokou,” Desmond said while fixing another pot to boil away. He showcased some green and black tea for them to choose between.

“Though… I get the feeling that I will end up going at some point soon.” He said while looking out to the window. An unreadable expression flashes across his face for a brief moment before he turns back to them, while still holding the parcels of tea. His face back to a natural smile when he faced them.

“So… do you want me to show you where it is?” Mokou asked with a quirked brow… while he was still just holding the two teas. Shifting his hands a bit, Desmond thought hard for about a second before deciding. Keine just looked at the pair, feeling a little awkward considering she was the protector of the Human Village… with Mokou deciding to just lead what was basically an unknown element to her wards.

“Black tea it is.” He said while crouching down to put away the green tea for a later date. He would have to find some way of growing tea here later, it was not a good idea to rely on creations of the future to manufacture stuff in the current.

“Oh, and don’t worry about it Mokou, if I need to go there, something will happen to force me into the village… whether or not I actually know the location of it anyway.” He punctuates the statement with a good-natured chuckle, checking the timer on the reheater.

Gensokyo: Human Village

May 18th, 2004: 1300

A small stature slept atop a rooftop, away from prying eyes. Within her grip was a simple gourd without any embellishment, simple and straight to the point… despite its abilities and content. With the mid-day sun shining upon her, she finally stirred awake.

Brown hair, brown eyes, and brown horns were the natural colors atop the white of her fair skin. With articles of clothing being made up of a beaten, battered, and faded pink blouse and a purple-pink skirt, she was the picturesque view of a child that was extremely active… despite her sleeping until noon.

She hums lightly, feeling the slow warmth of the receding spring asserting itself properly… though she didn’t care for that much. Letting go of the gourd, sitting up properly, and stretching was second nature after so many years of waking up after a drinking session.

“It is lonely here…” She sighed out, it was less fun when there were no partners to drink with, not that she disliked drinking on her own… it just felt slightly hollow when there was no other oni around to party with. The jingle of chains did nothing to help hide her… though not many villagers actually looked up.

“And there were no flower viewings this year either…” She said, popping off the cork from her gourd and taking a swig of the wine inside without any preamble… it was only a few minutes after waking up, after all, it was already past the time for her to drink.

She was pouting whenever she took the time to take the neck of the gourd away from her lips. It was usually fun to just watch the humans and yokai doing their own things and having the drinking parties that denoted a new year in the calendar that they were using… though she didn’t care much for time besides when it was time to drink.

“Maybe if I make a bunch of parties, they will come back.” It felt like another one of her drunken musings… though she was sober enough now and could actually remember the thought instead of forgetting it along with the rest of the night of the party like usual.

Netherworld: Hakugyokurou

Youmu silently swept away the cuttings from her maintenance of the garden. This task had been a long time coming… mainly due to her being unable to see what needed a bit of trimming when none of the branches were in bloom to gauge whether or not some branches were dead or dying.

With a large breath, Youmu relaxed as they were finally swept into a single pile to be dealt with. She closed her eyes, thinking of what exactly she would be making for the banquet that would be held soon… She usually only had to worry about Yuyuko since all the other cherry blossom viewers were phantoms that didn’t eat.

“Youmu-san, can you please show me to the body under the tree?” Ran’s voice suddenly arrived from one of Yukari’s gaps, though the fencing instructor did not show any surprise, she was too used to the sudden greetings of Yukari’s shikigami and Yukari herself.

“Of course, I will show you right away… However, might I ask why?” Youmu made sure that the pile of cuttings was properly in a shed before walking towards the largest tree in Hakugyokurou.

“Yukari-sama has asked me to check the body under the tree… though she never told me what exactly I was checking for.” Ran remarked as they finally got to the base of the tree, its roots were huge and were holding onto something tightly.

Various ofuda surrounded the bundle of roots, all of them slightly glowing and wet with still drying ink from being freshly made for this purpose. Youmu looked on in surprise as this was a sight she was not expecting… especially when she and her mistress dug up the body covered in Fulu in that very spot that was covered by wood.

“It seems that mistress was already here…” Ran muttered while walking foreward, being mindful of keeping silence in her footsteps as she observes the masterful work… if a bit half-assed due to the layer. Youmu stood still, understanding that interrupting could cause complications… especially when she knows that she is only ever good at cutting things.

“It would seem that the tree was trying to consume the body and Yukari-sama stopped it.” Ran states while checking on the ofuda, knowing that it was probably the shrine maiden’s stolen seals there were being used in conjunction with the lazily created ofuda of her mistress.

“Please let these dry and cover the roots again. It should keep whatever Yukari-sama is trying to seal, sealed.” Ran remarks, estimating that the ink would dry within a few hours and be safe enough to bury. Youmu nods in understanding.

“Now I need to brainstorm some food ideas for the banquet… Inari Tofu would be nice…” Ran muttered while stepping through another of Yukari’s gaps, reminding Youmu that she also needed to get food ready for both the banquet and Yuyuko…

Number of Words: ~2700 words

Date completed: 7/30/2022

Note: Here is the chapter for this month, hope yall enjoyed it. Know that I am going back to college next month… though at the end of the month really. Hopefully, I will write more consistently during that time… hopefully.