Gu Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Sariel was as nervous as Reimu and I were to face Yukari. She hid it well, but while she’d had a great time meeting Alice Margatroid and her apprentice, who had apparently met Reimu a few months ago, she wasn’t eager to meet anyone potentially hostile. 

I didn’t blame her in the slightest. Nearly two centuries of imprisonment and who-knows how much time being tortured would leave a mark on anyone, even if they were divine in nature. Frankly, Sariel was fantastically put together for what she had been through. 

As scheduled, when the moon was at its highest a purple portal came into being just outside of the shrine grounds. That actually made me more nervous than if Yukari had bypassed the shrine’s wards for the thousandth time. If she was being polite then this was really serious. 

I had never met Yukari when she wasn’t playing around, and I didn’t like it. I was the first to hop through the portal and instantly froze until Reimu bumped into my back as she went through as well. 

A million eyes stared me down, silently telling me plainly for the first time that Yukari was an eldritch horror. 

Her dress, normally something that was nice but not all that special, was covered in bloody red irises that drifted across it without rhythm or reason. Yukari’s own eyes varied from a reddish purple to red depending on the lighting, but now were a striking crimson. Her smile cut like a knife, not in the plotting way, but in the manner of a knife to my throat. 

Worst of all was the crawling eyeseyeseyes. All over the walls, under my feet, in the air, were barely-perceptible eyes. The Queen of Gensokyo’s ki and magic, the two one and the same, crept throughout the room, distorting space through sheer presence and the nature of her ability while holding just enough to keep the world from crumbling around us. 

Sariel was the last one through, while I kept my act together and stepped aside. The angel froze in the same way that Reimu and I had for a brief moment. She fell down into a deep bow, not in the Japanese style but a bow nonetheless, and she didn’t rise back up. 

“You may rise and present yourself.” A million voices spoke, the queen’s the most clear of them all. It sent a shiver up my spine. Without hesitation, I decided that I really preferred silly, flirty, relaxed Yukari to the Queen of Gensokyo. Serious Yukari was a blight upon the Earth. 

“I am Sariel, eight winged angel under the command of Lord Uriel, the flame of God.” The woman stood up straight, her wings pulled close behind her and completely rigid. 

“And why are you in Gensokyo?” The youkai’s eyes laid heavily on the angel as she listened to her testimony.  

“In eighteen forty eight I entered Japan in search of heresy, specifically the goddess Shinki. I met her and was sealed to prevent retaliation and that she might potentially use me as a bargaining piece should heaven turn its attention to her. I was imprisoned in Makai until Shin and Reimu freed me. I’ve been recovering with them ever since.”

“And you were forgotten?”

“By the locals, yes, and perhaps the goddess.” Unspoken was the certainty that her siblings still thought of her. 

“Hmmm… final question. What are your current plans?”

“Recover my strength and report to the heavenly host.”

“… Good enough.” I released a small sigh of relief. Her way of speaking had returned to casual phrases. We were in the clear, or at least Sariel was. I had no idea why Reimu and I were present. 

“Swear not to divulge anything about your time within Gensokyo and I will let you live. Do not speak of its inhabitants, its lands, its magic, or so forth. What occurred in Makai is acceptable to speak of, unless either of you two have anything you wish to keep secret?” Yukari’s attention turned to Reimu and I, her gaze far gentler than with Sariel. 

I shook my head. “Sariel wasn’t even conscious for most of the rescue.”

Reimu shrugged. “She’s fine.” There was a tension to her voice that betrayed her demeanor. The aura of distortion hanging over the room was as disturbing to her as it was to me. The eyes just wouldn’t stop looking at us. 

“Very well. Swear it.” 

“I swear upon my Father that I shall not divulge anything I learn of Gensokyo, out of gratitude for forgiving my intrusion and respect for your sovereignty.” 

Yukari gave her a small nod, and with a wave of her hand Sariel disappeared without a trace. She glanced at the two of us as we held our breath. 

The woman slumped in her chair, exhaling as her aura was pulled back deep within itself, leaving only a powerful, but not overwhelming, presence and a mostly ordinary woman at a fancy table, one who smiled at us more freely than before. 

“I didn’t scare you two, did I?”

“Bleurgh.” Reimu voiced as she let her posture slip and shoulders slump. Not even I knew what that meant. 

“If you went much farther Sariel would turn her dress brown.” I confessed. The youkai laughed, and I felt comfortable enough to pull out a chair and sit down. Without the slightest disturbance I was in Yukari’s chair with her in my lap and a hand already petting her head. Clearly the supreme overlady needed a toy to mess with after having to do her job for once. She and Reimu could be so similar sometimes… 

“Ah, how you’ve grown. It’s almost a shame, but this isn’t half bad. Once you’re fully grown I’m sure you’ll have your own appeal. Though you could do with some grooming. Who does your hair or your tailoring?” One of her hands reached up to stroke my cheek. 

I was sweating to not make the situation awkward. Not that the eldritch horror on my lap would take offense if I popped a stiffy, I’d just get teased for it relentlessly. 

“Mokou or Reimu.”

“The woman is a savage. Reimu, I expected better.” Reimu, who had been sitting down, received a similar treatment to me as the table was shrunken from a large and imperious one to a small square table. It was still fancy, but the size made it less odd. 

“It’s not like anybody ever taught me how.”

“Oh right. Ah well, I’ll have Ran teach you how to do so. Few others in Gensokyo are as adept at housework.”

“Right, who is she anyway? She called herself a shikigami.” 

“A shikigami is like a familiar or a slave. She used to be an ordinary fox, but because I had a… dispute with a certain kitsune I made one of her lesser kin my familiar and raised her into the nine tailed being who serves me today. She’s useful and obedient, although there are some side effects.”

“Side effects? Wait, slave?” I asked. 

“She’s rather dim, more like an animal than a true youkai, much less a human. There’s not a bit of cunning in her, and if I don’t give her specific instructions she gets lost easily. I told her to go buy me some sake yesterday and she bought me a single saucer from a restaurant, as if that would be enough for anyone.”

“Slave…” My pondering on the ethics of shikigami (and not Yukari’s plush ass) was disrupted as invisible spirits began to fly into the room, each of them carrying some form of dish. Reimu received some kind of soup with a creamy broth, I got a steak and roasted vegetables, and Yukari some kind of pastry. It looked more like a midnight snack than a meal, but what did I know? 

“Don’t get caught up on it, dear. She’s a powerful youkai now instead of a short-lived fox, not to mention that if I didn’t govern her she’d be digging through garbage or something equally odd and primitive.” 

“She didn’t seem mistreated so I guess it’s fine.” Reimu didn’t care much about it. I didn’t either, not really. Youkai were strange and willing to resort to violence at the drop of a hat. Being the property of the most powerful person in Gensokyo was an enviable position in a way for the protection she offered alone.

Unlike humans, youkai had no protections from stronger, crueler youkai. Only their lives were assured, and nobody said that it had to be a good life. 

“I guess so. Now it’s time for the real meeting?”

She sighed. “I suppose we ought to get to it. Are you certain that you don’t wish to be more bold? I commend your restraint, but some boldness wouldn’t be amiss.” After the Herculean effort it took to keep my pants from tenting I lost my temper. 

Grabbing the youkai’s chin, I leaned over her to meet her eyes, our lips almost touching. 

“Yukari, if you keep being a brat, I promise I will spank you. If you want something, use your words.” I said flatly. Her eyebrows raised, only to lower as a satisfied smirk grew on her face. Not that she got a word in before Reimu interceded. 

“No.” She said simply, staring at the woman. She received a look of fake hurt for it. 

“At such an enticing offer? Aren’t the two of you still blushing virgins? Perhaps an experienced woman to teach a few lessons is exactly the sort of thing you need.” She adjusted herself, rubbing her ass on me. My hands tightened around her waist as I considered whether that was enough for me to make good on my threat. 

“If you keep threatening to cuck me there will be dire consequences.” Reimu menaced tonelessly. Her spiritual power expanded to fill the room and pressed on us, so tightly controlled and pressurized that it pressed against us like a blade. Yukari stared, agape, before she broke out into a cackle. 

While laughing harder than I’d ever heard her before I was teleported onto the other side of the table next to my friend, a friend I really needed to have a talk with. 

The youkai’s insane power twisted around Reimu’s. While I couldn’t be completely sure what she did, I suspected that she widened the gap between the spiritual and material world, dampening the effect the power had on us. 

“Oh! Oh where in the world did you hear that word?! Excellent, yes, I’ll stay my hand for a while longer. Do - hehehe - do hurry up though, if you will stake your claim.” She said between giggles. I huffed and began to cut my steak. With her need for amusement satisfied we were finally able to talk about the incident. 

After a few sips of tea to calm herself down she began. “So to start off, how did you two come to enter Makai in the first place?” 

“Want to skip the boring stuff?”

“Please, yes.” She lifted up her confection and started to nibble at it as I told our story, abbreviated for her convenience. 

“Some ghost destroyed Reimu’s shrine, which it turns out was by accident because she was fighting a devil in Makai and some power bled through to Gensokyo. Some ghost that was trapped in Makai wanted out, and destroying the shrine was just bad luck. We entered to kick her ass and wandered around Makai. We beat up two devil lackeys, moved on to their king, rescued Sariel and the sealed ghost, and I learned that I know the future. I’m a prophet or something. Also the ghost escaped and it’s Reimu's fault.”

“No it’s not!” She protested. 

“Huh?” It was a true rarity that I saw genuine confusion in Yukari’s eyes. 

“The ghost escaped. Reimu didn’t-”

“No, no, who cares about that? The future sight.”

“Balance breakers, sacred gears, the two heavenly dragons, that fox lady Yasaka-”

“Stop,” she held up a hand. “How do you know about this?” Her good mood was rapidly fading, even if she looked silly acting commanding the room with a pastry in one hand. 

“I was born with it.”

“… Oh. I see, so your innate trait isn’t what I thought it was, hmm? I thought it was something akin to impure reincarnation, where memories of your previous life would remain, but it’s more than that, isn’t it?”

“I know little bits of the past and a possible future. Inaccurate information to some degree, like, I knew nothing about Sariel or the devils as individuals, but in the greater scheme of things I know a thing or two.”

“For an example?”

“The next two dragon emperors, a lot of underworld politics, and some pretty well kept secrets of the Abrahamic God. So I’ve gotta ask, is your ability tied to the dimensional gap?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Yes, but I wanted to be sure. Have you seen the beast of suffering? Trihexa?”

Yukari’s lips thinned and she broke eye contact, not responding for several seconds as her hands clenched tellingly. “I… don’t worry about such things, Shin. It is for the best that you forget such knowledge.”

“It’s pretty far beyond me.”

“I’m glad we agree. In time it might become relevant, but until then let’s concern ourselves with what we can handle. Anything else?”

“Not really. We found this thing.” I held up the devil phone. 

“What is it?” 

“You don’t recognize it?”

“It’s a phone, obviously.” Smugness oozed from Reimu’s tone, my girlfriend for once having an advantage over the youkai. Yukari’s eyebrow twitched. 

“Ridiculous. Phones have a receiver and a - ah - microphone. Like this, dear.” Yukari held up her thumb to her ear and pinky near her mouth, like she was speaking into a landline.

“It’s a phone.” I confirmed. 

“Tch.”

“Yukari, when was the last time you went into the human world?”

“Thirty years ago? No, twenty, I needed to buy some spices and made a short trip to a marketplace.”

“You should visit sometime and learn about computers. They’re great for wasting time and playing games,” she nodded extremely seriously. Anything that could help her work less and goof around more was her highest priority. “Anyway, these are great for learning things too. I’ll show you later, but I learned a lot about the outside world. It’s messed up, to put it plainly. For example, did you hear that God’s dead?”

“You shouldn’t know about that.” 

“Whoops.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Just don’t talk about it and you should be fine.”

“I never met this ‘God’ guy anyway, so I don’t care.” Reimu shrugged. 

“Same. The angels are pretty nice, though, so I feel a little bad for them.”

“Maybe nice to humans,” before I could address that issue the youkai moved on. “I think I get the picture. But before we get too much more distracted, I need to know… what do you want to do now?” I shared a look with Reimu. 

We had talked about that briefly, and it was clear to me that Reimu expected me to be making the decisions. We hadn’t talked much more than that about anything, so it was up to me to decide. 

“I want to see the outside world,” I decided. “I’m not strong enough to make any meaningful changes, but I need to investigate a few things and see how much time I have until some major events start occurring, and then potentially really big events.”

“Define big.”

“Big enough that you can’t sleep through them. Great war big, if things go really wrong.”

“Ugh,” Yukari made a noise of disgust and considered my appeal. “I considered a few ways of handling Sariel’s… issue. My first thought was to simply confine her to Gensokyo, but having met her I doubt she would accept such a thing. While I don’t know what she’d do, trouble would occur. Better to avoid that. 

“What I decided instead, and you’ve affirmed my decision, is to send her back to heaven. The favor Gensokyo would gain from such a service would be useful, especially since angels have long memories and love their siblings dearly. If there is to be a second coming of the great war, or even the mere threat of it, then some influence may prove useful. I’ve been a hermit since the founding of the Hakurei barrier, and yet not even I can keep the world from knocking. Hmm…” She held a hand up to her chin to think, even as she slouched in her chair. 

Reimu was hardly listening at this point, greatly enjoying the soup. It smelled pretty good, and as I cut off a slice for her she had the same idea as me, moving her bowl closer to me so we could share bites. 

… That was some really good soup. We nodded at each other appreciatively. 

“Alright, I’ve got it.” The youkai sat up straight again. “Shin, by the charter of Gensokyo I declare you legally emancipated from humanity in the same manner as the Hakurei, Kamishirasawa, and Hieda clans. According to the needs of Gensokyo I assign you the position of chief diplomat.” 

“What’s that mean?”

“Nothing at all, because we don’t have diplomats,” she had a twinkle in her eyes after that little joke. “I’m only good at scaring people, so I barely count. But you can call yourself that when you go outside and need an open door. I’ll make a seal of office, something official-looking for the responsibilities I’ll give you.”

“I… are you sure?” Generally when I thought of diplomats I thought of someone official and well trained, someone who could represent a nation or, in our case, region. Anything I did could be used against Yukari, and if I acted poorly it would reflect badly on her. 

That, of course, would interrupt her peace and quiet, something I knew she treasured. Maybe she had conjured up the position out of thin air, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hold weight. It was a sign of trust I hadn’t expected from her. 

Flirting was one thing, an official position was another. 

She finished her bite of pastry before responding, the sweet almost gone by now. 

“Shin, it may surprise you that I think rather highly of you. You’ve done well to find trustworthy and useful allies and mentors, you’ve persistently pursued knowledge and self-improvement without becoming some backstabbing thief in the night, and you’ve aided Reimu in her duties without asking for payment of any sort. You might dismiss one or two of these qualities as something anyone could do, but altogether I think they make you a far more honorable person than you think yourself to be.”

“That’s… thank you, Yukari. That’s a very kind thing to say.” I was honestly touched. It was a very sweet sentiment, especially from some who I knew was periodically spying on me. 

“Kindness has little to do with it. You’ve been doing this already, you know? The oni aren’t exactly friendly yet you get along well.”

“They aren’t?”

“Not to me, they aren’t. I’m still banned from their hot springs.”

“Me too,” Reimu added depressedly, sprawling over the table as we talked. “Hoshiguma doesn’t like me very much, ever since I yelled at her. In hindsight, I could have made a better first impression.”

“She was baiting you. It’s probably just a history with your family.” I offered as a condolence, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“As thick skinned as they are, oni take insults poorly. Your ancestor’s arbitration of Makai is just one of the cases where they felt mismanaged. Unfairly so, I believe, but they can feel however they like.” Yukari added sympathetically. “On my part, I fell asleep in one of their springs and spilled some plum wine. Really, I purified it afterward so I don’t know what the big deal was. I’ll be allowed back in eight hundred years, but even for me that’s a long time.” 

I swallowed my response to that reasoning. The oni took both wasting alcohol and polluting their hot springs with more gravity than usual for the otherwise free spirited people. If Yukari had been messy and violated both rules, then it was no wonder she was banned. I was surprised she wasn’t banned for life! 

Only Yuugi got to drink in the hot springs, a privilege of being the leader of the oni. And what wasn’t spoken was that the gap youkai was probably breaking a host of other rules too. I’d bet that she snuck in too, as she does everywhere, just off the top of my head. 

“Right. Anything else?” I edged away from that subject, not about to lecture our host on hot spring etiquette. 

“Just one thing,” Yukari leaned across the table. “What are these… computers?”

Of course the lazy youkai wouldn’t bother going to the outside world when she could harass me instead. What was I thinking, asking her to go do something herself? How silly of me. 

“You said they can play games on them?” Reimu stared at me in the same predatory light as the youkai. 

I was surrounded by lazybones. 

<<<<<<<<---------------->>>>>>>>

It was decided that, as the newly proclaimed diplomat of Gensokyo my first assignment was to escort Sariel back to heaven. That was easy in theory, complex in practice. An angel could make a portal back to heaven whenever, but Sariel had been gone for ages, so she’d need to visit the Vatican, where Heaven always had an angel present. Put simply, her ‘key’ to heaven had expired and needed to be renewed. 

She could fly there and make herself known, but she wanted to do a brief tour of the human world before going to the Vatican. We decided to take a month to let her continue to recover her health and power, then we’d spend another month heading to the Vatican through Europe. 

It was annoying that I had to put off my training with Yuugi, but in the oni’s own words, “Eh, whatever.” 

She didn’t take it personally, and I was the one wasting valuable time I could be spending under her tutelage. I visited the underworld two days a week and practiced on my own, but now that I had an idea of what was out there in the world, people stronger than Yukari, much stronger than Reimu, I was a lot more eager to get back to training with vigor. 

It was too easy for me to fall into the rhythm of things. Complacency was insidious, and Gensokyo was all too eager to encourage slothfulness. Nobody but me seemed to have any urgency about things, like every person in the realm was happy to let time slip by. And they were immortals, so why not? Time was money, the more you had the more you were willing to waste it. 

Sariel was a breath of fresh air. Every day the angel was industrious, out and about doing something. She visited the Youkai mountain, gave an interview to that newswoman tengu, inquired about going across the Higan before promptly giving up that pursuit, and made herself known around the human town. 

Most importantly, she introduced Reimu to a girl her age, and the closest sort of person to my idea of normal. 

“Shin, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Marisa Kirisame. Marisa, this is Shin, he’s the one who freed me from Makai.” The woman introduced us kindly. She’d mentioned the apprentice magician once or twice, and it seemed like she had finally decided to visit the shrine with the angel. The girl’s eyes flicked around the grounds, taking in the newly remade tori gate, cleaned walls, and replanted garden. 

“Nice to meetcha, can I call you Shin?”

“Sure thing Marisa, in exchange for a question. You never stopped by before, so why now?”

“Eh, she didn’t tell you? I met Reimu once and she told me to donate or get lost. I don’t have any money so I got lost. She around?”

“She’s scaring off a youkai that’s been robbing people down south. Smart of you to leave when she told you, Reimu can be scary if you annoy her. Come in, would you like some tea?” 

“Err, sure!” I turned to make it and heard her whisper. “Is he a youkai?”

“No, why do you ask?” Sariel whispered back. 

“He’s not yelling at me and he’s a guy.” I paused at the counter where I was making tea, wondering what the hell that meant. 

“So you live in the magic forest, right? And I’m guessing you’re a witch of some sort?” I asked without looking. 

“Yeah, how’d you know?” 

“You’re wearing a witch’s hat.”

“A witch’s hat? Whaddya mean? Wait, is that why Alice made it for me?” 

Sariel responded for me. “A conical hat was used to symbolize witches in some artwork in Europe.”

“Oh, she’s definitely messing with me then. Alice is from France, ya see.” She explained. I nodded knowingly, filing that knowledge away for later. I hadn’t known that there were any foreigners in the region. 

“Is it a whole coven?”

“Nah, just us. And this shrine is just you and Reimu?”

“Well it’s for the Hakurei family, but I’ve lived here for years.”

“Oho?” I glanced back at the dangerous noise to see a catlike smirk. “Should I be calling you Lord Hakurei then?”

“She’s fourteen, so even if we were thinking about that kind of stuff, which we’re not, she’s too young.” The witch shrugged. 

“Cool. Just let me know if you or Reimu need some moon tea. You know, for fun.” I turned around at just the wrong time to see Marisa making a lewd gesture with both hands, eyebrows waggling, while Sariel looked at her with disappointment. 

“Marisa, you’re a guest. Please behave yourself.” The angel chided her, reaching out to tug her ear. 

“Ow, quit it! I was just messing with ‘em!” I scoffed and set down the tea. 

“It’s fine. I live with oni most of the year anyway, and they’re as bad if not worse.”

“Oni? What are they like?!” The pain of getting her ear pulled was easily forgotten in the face of new and fascinating knowledge. 

We talked onward some more, mostly about my traveling and her life in the magic forest, quickly finding out that she liked magic and I liked my ki techniques, which were near enough in practice for us to share interests, even if they used entirely separate energies, Sariel coming under questioning when I brought up light magic and holy elements. 

It was a great tea time, I felt, and when she eventually left it was with a smile and congratulations on my new position. The angel left with her to escort her back and chat some more while I stayed to put the house in order and do the dishes. 

The chores passed in quiet, yet satisfied, monotony, as they always did. Reimu was in one of the peripheral buildings of the shrine, either taking a nap or updating the wards. Ever since the devils broke the ward and the ghost escaped she had been wanting to overhaul them, making the shrine a fortress against the supernatural, as if it hadn’t been before. 

When she returned I was finishing washing the dishes. “Welcome back. That witch stopped by while you were gone.” I breezed through the greeting, only pausing to look over my shoulder at her taking her shoes off. She paused at that while I worked. 

“The blonde one?”

“Yeah, she’s a nice girl. You told her to go away?”

“I thought she was another pilgrim.” She approached the water basin alongside me, not helping but there to chat. It was a one person job anyway. 

“Next time she comes by you should talk to her. She seems kind of lonely, and you will be too when I’m traveling. Mokou won’t be here all the time.” My sensei was back in her forest for the time being, and would only be dropping by every week or so. 

“About that,” she said to me, the maiden looking unusually grim. “We need to talk.” I stopped my washing for a moment. 

“Which one?”

“All of them.” 

“Ah shit.” I couldn’t help it, the word slipped out, and Reimu didn’t even blame me. 

<<<<<<<<---------------->>>>>>>>

AN: This took a while since I'm busy right now. I was actually at a wedding just two hours ago and I'm away from my home for the next week. Maybe I can do some writing in the night, but we'll have to wait and see.

That said, how about this chapter? You can probably see by now how I plan to introduce Shin to the wider supernatural world. But really, as interesting as it will be to write Shin going to see the Church and Heaven, I'm equally excited for the events that happen inside of Gensokyo. Roughly speaking, I'll be alternating between DxD and Gensokyo plotlines, but it's not like the two are fully independent of each other.

Have a great night everyone, and I'll see you all soon enough!