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Checking behind my shoulder every few minutes, it eventually became clear that Yuka was intent on doing the work and not planning anything else, mostly involving me. The walk was overall uneventful, I expected something as little as a sighting of Cirno but there was nothing of the sort, I could only guess she’d gone to challenge that frog god again.
This time around the village was actually busy, presumably they must have seen Yuka coming since she wasn’t exactly the type of person to blend into a crowd. The villagers didn’t take notice of me much until I was in the outskirts of the village, then the strange looks and whispers began. They probably remember me with Yuka or something.
The villagers mostly ignored me except monitoring me out of the corner of their eyes until as the time before, Keine emerged from a building and saw it was me, as she approached she called, “Hello again! Good to see you’re alright!” Keine took a quick look around and spoke in a quieter tone, “I was quite worried leaving you with her. I thought you might get killed or- Oh, your nose! What happened!? Did she do it?!”
I’d forgot about my nose for a moment, no doubt it had a layer of blood around it giving it away to Keine, “It’s nothing… I merely had an encounter with a door… that was moving.” I answered vaguely.
Keine looked at me skeptically for a moment before shaking her head, “If you say so.” Keine looked away in thought for a moment before turning back to me, face back it’s friendly self, “So, what are you here for today?”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Nothing in particular, Yuka’s in that field of hers making flower displays or something for a party.”
“Oh yes, that’s tomorrow isn’t it?” Keine replied.
“Yeah, so are you going too?” I asked for the sake of asking.
Keine nodded, “Yes, they’ve stopped by here a few times for preparations, so I ended up getting invited, it sounds like quite the crowd is going to be there.” Keine paused again before speaking, “If you’ve got nothing to do, would you like to visit Akyu’s again, seeing as you seemed to enjoy it last time?”
I answered with a nod, “Sure, I’ve got a few questions to ask anyway.”
Keine smiled, “Okay then, let’s go shall we?” Unlike Yuka, Keine waited for me to start moving before she did. As we walked, Keine spoke. “So, what do you think of your stay in Gensokyo so far?”
I couldn’t think of a suitable word to describe things, “I don’t know really, things are quite confusing when you’re dealing with youkai, gods and vampires all in the first day.”
“Gensokyo is indeed an overwhelming place… Wait? Vampire? You didn’t encounter the escaped one, Flandre, did you?” Keine suddenly went alert.
“Encounter, more like seconds away from bring killed by her. If it wasn’t for Yuka, I’d be dead.”
“You’re very lucky, she’s the last person I’d expect to save someone else.” Keine replied sounding slightly surprised.
“Yeah, I was quite surprised, but I know she was after a fight with Flandre anyway, so she had another reason.”
“So, she must have won otherwise you wouldn’t be here, looks like there more good in her then I though.” At last, we stood in front of Akyu’s house. “I’ve got a few things to do, just go on in and I’ll be back later on. See you later.”
“Alright, Bye.” Keine smiled and walked off, somewhere else in the village. I turned and looked and the door, and knocked on it. There was no response, so as Keine said I walked in.
Around the corner, just like last time, Akyu was sat at the table, writing. “Hi, Akyu.”
The purple haired girl looked up from her work, “Oh, hello again. Nice to see you haven’t been hurt, or worse.”
I laughed, “Well, things have certainly tried.” I explained the story of Flandre to Akyu, who I noticed was writing the story down as I spoke.
“That vampire is quite the handful at times, mostly she stays at the mansion but there’s always the odd occasion that she breaks out, and then there’s always trouble. It’s quite fortunate you didn’t get harmed.”
As the conversation slowed down I looked around the room when I saw a painting of the Hakurei Shrine, “I remember now, I have a question.”
“Oh? What is it?” Akyu looked at me inquisitively.
“Who’s Mima? I met her yesterday and there’s no record of her in the book you lent me.”
“Mima, you say? Are you sure it was her? She’s been missing for quite a while now. It was probably just Marisa Kirisame playing a prank.” Akyu replied.
“No, it was her, I met Marisa this morning and she was overjoyed to hear the news, plus they looked completely different, Mima had blue clothes and long green hair while Marisa wore black and was blonde.” I objected.
“Well, that sounds like her. Where did you see her?” Akyu asked curiously, pen in hand.
”At the Hakurei Shrine, she appeared there a while after we got there, and she started to annoy Reimu on how she’d become the deity of the shrine.”
Akyu was writing everything down, “Very interesting, looks like I’ll have to make a new article soon, if she’s become the Hakurei god then it’s vital I write about her.”
“So, she wasn’t a god once?” I asked.
“No, in fact, for a long time she was opposed to the Hakurei bloodline, trying to kill them along with the rest of mankind.” Akyu went on to explain.
I was quite surprised, “She did? I figured she was evil somehow due to her magic, but I didn’t think she was that bad.”
“Yes, She appears all over Gensokyo’s timeline appearing and trying to kill the current Shrine Maiden, failing each time though it didn’t deter her. She just wanted ‘Revenge for her death’ and to resurrect herself. Though the last time she appeared, she just seemed have given up on what she aimed for so long and settled down.” Akyu jotted something down in the book, “After her final attempt she became more friendly to everyone, mainly staying around the shrine she once hated, and then when the Makai accident occurred, she wasn’t seen again.”
I interrupted the explanation, “Makai incident?”
“A few years ago there was an incident where demons were entering Gensokyo in quite large numbers, in the end it was discovered they were arriving from Makai, Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Yuka Kazami and Mima ventured into Makai and put an end to the case, though Mima hasn’t been seen by anyone since then, until now.” Akyu played with the pen around her fingers, “I can only guess that she stayed in Makai and became a god with the help of Shinki, who’s the goddess there.”
“And so, just like that, someone who was once pure evil became the goddess of a shrine which stands for good, or so I’m lead to believe?”
“Like I said, Mima changed, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear she’s forgiven whatever happened to her and no longer wants revenge or to be reincarnated, I guess being a god is even better then that.”
“I see.” Mima must have honestly changed then, she didn’t seem that bad when I met her, more mischievous then evil. “One last thing then, what reason did Yuka have for going to Makai, she doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of person to team up with Reimu to fight evil.”
Akyu looked up again, “She never said herself so there’s only guesses, some say she went for the fights, some say she went to chase after Marisa Kirisame, she has quite the hatred for her since Marisa stole one of Yuka’s favoured spells, Master Spark.”
I laughed, “Yeah, I’ve experienced that hatred up close when she caught Marisa trying to steal another spell and the other theory sounds about right too.” As the conversation ended, Akyu looked back to what she was working on, I took that as an invitation to get a more recent copy of the book then I had and started to read.
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