1666/A Trip In The Forest

A Trip In The Forest
Date of Scene:	26 February 2015
Location:	The Realm of Gensokyo
Synopsis:	Psyber takes some of his employees to find and recruit a phoenix.
Cast of Characters:	253, 477, Ayako Hasekawa, 619, 654, 669, Reiji Arisu, 707, 709

---

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    The Bamboo Forest of the Lost! It's a fairly large forest, located south-ish of the Human Village. If anyone pre-emptively did some digging there, they may have learned that sometimes in the dark of night one can indeed catch a phoenix flying over the forest, although not every night. Nobody's ever actually met it, though-- at least, nobody in the village at the time of questioning. If they'd lucked out and caught someone like Reimu or Marisa they might have gotten a straight answer, but alas.

    The group would also have learned that the Bamboo Forest of the Lost is home to quite a number of beast youkai, and it can be dangerous to go there alone. The bamboo regrows unusually fast, and it's easy to get lost there. But a few people would add they've been to the mansion in the forest and the crowd there is very welcoming! There's a nurse, she's quite miraculous. Unrelated to the mansion, a white-haired girl who'll guide people in and out if they get lost is also a subject of occasional discussion.

    It's late evening as the group arrives at the entrance of the forest. There's no actual entrance to speak of, so much as a section where the bamboo is less dense. It grows anywhere between ten and fifty foot tall, and at very strange angles too, which is actually kind of disorienting when trying to go in a straight line. Moreso for normal people than people with superpowers, anyway.

    Deep within the forest seems to be a rainbow lightshow. It seems to be moving, but even with flight it would be hard to follow. It might be easier to just go on foot. The forest doesn't feel especially threatening or ominous, unless you're afraid of bamboo at night.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Keep on your toes, people. Someone told me a long time ago the bamboo forest has all kinds of Youkai in it that will eat people. Try to stay together, don't wander off from the group, whole shebang," Psyber notes, reiterating the rumors already present in the GM Pose. The half-angel has his messenger bag over his shoulder, the leather bag easily thumping against his side as he walks. He actually rarely brings that out, being more of a combatant. But he was on his way home from teaching a class, plus he was bringing hiring documents out anyway.

    "I'm really looking forward to this, actually. The phoenix has always been my favorite supernatural creature," Psyber notes, a slight hop in his step. This mission is also decidedly more upbeat than his average mission of late, lacking any substantial emotionally compromising undertones. It means he gets to relax and enjoy it.

    He's following after those lights, by the way.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ah, Gensokyo! Ayako has been meaning to visit this place after hearing about it from some of it's residents on the radio. After all, a Water Spirit like herself could probably fit in just fine in such a fantasy kitchen sink of a place! And so, Ayako is here, dressed up like a water witch and sitting sidesaddle on a floating broomstick. No, Ayako has never met Marisa. Besides, Ayako is more of a blue-yellow than a black-white. On another note, Ayako seems pretty fond of bamboo. Then again, she's fond of Eastern things in general.

    She's quickly startled out of her riverie when Psyber speaks. "A-ahh... yes." Ayako floats behind Psyber with a soft smile. "Oh? Is it because of the whole concept of 'rebirth'?"

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    There had been tales, certainly. The tricky thing about Gensokyo is that it can be hard to separate rumor from fact, and reality can be anywhere in-between. As a relative newcomer, Sanae Kochiya had heard of the bamboo forest, sometimes passed it, but had seldom had reason to wander in or mingle with its residents. The ones known about seem to keep to themselves, and only visit the village when they need trade. Accordingly, these stories are about as credible to her as to any of the visitors she was contacted to help with this - but certainly her knowledge will have to come in handy, somehow!

    For this duty in semi-official capacity, she's dressed in her standard shrine maiden garb, though at least has draped a long scarf around her shoulders to shield off some of the cold. The prohibitive wall of bamboo suits her well enough; she had been on foot for a time, anyway, as her method of flying is a bit flashier than most. She sometimes bats aside some of the stalks, stopping only to flinch and blow a razz through her lips as a frond retaliates by whipping into her face. She now remembers why she seldom visits this place. "If it wouldn't make the local spirits angry, I'd just just cut some of this down," she sighs, still managing to remain upbeat despite. "Well, don't worry. My finely honed priestess abilities should get us--to whatever is going on over there!"

    Is there really a phoenix hiding in a place like this? That would certainly explain the lights.

    She strides confidently forward, whether accompanying Psyber or slightly ahead. Every so often she stops at a seeming fork in the thinning, to brandish what looks for all the world like a paper fly swatter with her eyes closed, as though she might be able to divine the way forward that way. There's at least time for small talk in between this routine, "Oh yes. There's actually still a few human-eating youkai out there, but don't worry. If it comes to that, I can beat them up for you." Reassuring, and she says it with an honest smile.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"So try to look unhealthy?" is Xiaomu's good-natured retort to Psyber's comment about youkai that eat people. She's walking along with the group, the rings on her monk staff jingling quietly each time the staff's bottom end strikes the ground; she's keeping her eyes open and her ears relatively perked, and doing her best to help ensure that nothing sneaks up on her or her companions.

She does seem quite curious about the lights in the distance; if we weren't headed in that direction to begin with, she might be looking to break off from the group and take a look on her own.

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    Legends have been told in the night of the Phoenix who rises over the bamboo shoots. They tell of the radiant flames that spread far and wide to herald the setting of the sun, and the mysterious mist that rolls in from South from time to time is rumored to have been breathed from its body. Sure, its existence is the subject of much contention, but one thing is true: once in a while on a moonlit night, a glorious spark like a miniature sun will come to hover over that forest. Sometimes it's ghostly, placid; other times, it clashes with those pink lights Kokoro sees now as she approaches to create a sort of primordial, stirring fireworks show the likes of which must have been conceived in heaven. Yes, must, even if Tenshi says they've got nothing to do with Bhava Agra.

    Though, all these fanciful tales do disregard a few key details. For instance, there's the screaming. Oh, yes, the screaming -- it's a rare occasion when one can make out the words, but certain wisemen who have witnessed the clashes for many years since their inception have begun to shake their heads in dismay. They call them 'simple', 'surprisingly petty', and 'mundane'. Certainly, only they could make light of such a cosmic affair, but now Kokoro herself is skeptical. What if these lightshows were just the arguments of two stars all this time? Or, maybe, two Phoenixes? How cool would that be! In fact, she might even make a play out of it one of these days.

    But! First things first. She would rendezvous with Psyber, landing in front of those of the group who have already had time to assemble along a path that cuts its way through the forest. She would be clad in her usual clothes, Fox hung on the the right side of her face, but all this would be 'complemented' (if one is to be generous in their description of the aesthetic effect this creates) by a tan cape that billow with the breeze, and a kasa hat that can barely fit on her head properly given the positioning of her mask. Perhaps mercifully she would toss away each of these articles as she makes her entrance, turning about to face the rest of the group and brandishing her naginata.

    "Kokoro. Kokoro is here." Her tone is stoic mimicking stoic and, for once, her blank expression manages not to make her look ridiculous given the context.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    The last time Reiji was in a bounded space this large was over a decade ago, now. This one seems significantly more benign than what had sealed off the entire southwest quarter of Tokyo, but the memory is still enough to make the hair at the back of his neck stand on end when they had first arrived. The task at hand was, however, enough of a distraction that any amount of discomfort could easily be ignored- or at least, put off for now.

    Compared to some of the other guests visiting Gensokyo tonight, Reiji and his partner are at least relatively close to what the townspeople might expect from more local travellers. Their clothes may have seemed out of place, though. Reiji is wearing his usual gear, all red and black and white all over. But in a world where one of the local landlords is a very western vampire who owns a very western mansion full of very western maids, that sort of thing may be less unusual than one might think.

He is carrying his weapons, though. The presence of youkai is reason enough to stay well armed.

    "I'm not too worried," Reiji says with a slight shrug, "If there really is a phoenix in here, I can't imagine that there'd be too many youkai willing to stir up trouble in her domain." And if there are, they're ready for them. Probably. "It should be interesting if we do run into a real phoenix. Wouldn't be surprised to find one- all this bamboo would make for good kindling."

He pauses, following Xiaomu's gaze into the forest. Reiji makes a curious sound, "Interesting. Either there are some very energetic fireflies here, or there's something else." The exorcist nods at his partner- the /other/ reason he's reasonably sure they're prepared for most Youkai, "Xiaomu, what do you think? Foxfire? Ghosts?"

Mamizou Futatsuiwa (669) has posed:
    Kokoro's entrance is all flair and drama, preparing for an inevitable spat of violence and all the gusto to back it up.

    Then a poof of grey smoke appears next to her, fading away to reveal a yawning, floating Mamizou, legs crossed under her and hand lifted to cover her mouth before that yawn finishes. The bake-danuki takes a few moments to adjust, scratching her head, adjusting her glasses, then peers aside at the others with a slow, owlish blink.

    "Oh, my, so many visitors," she remarks with no small amount of surprise. Her tail rises from its lazy droop, floofing and swishing behind her as she starts floating along after the others. "Well, this should be rather interesting. A phoenix, you said? I thought I heard /something/ about that before, but..."

    She frowns slightly, falling silent as she takes up her notebook and starts flipping through pages. Mamizou soon shifts to a lazy, backward recline in the air, as if she were sitting in a floating hammock that were hovering backward at walking pace. "-oh, yes, good evening, Psyber dear," she adds, waving absentmindedly to the half-angel. "And the rest of you. Heaven or Hell employees, I'm guessing?"

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    "Oh, oh! That voice!" Kokoro's cool samurai gig drops off immediately after the menreiki hears Reiji speak, and she would immediately look his way. "Are you the one I talked to yesterday? The one who knew Hata no Kawakatsu?" That was apparently rhetorical -- before he has any time to respond, she already has Hyottoko, her mask for cheerfulness, hung on her face in place of the one that was there before. "Yay! It's so good to meet you in person! You probably guessed, but I am the Kokoro who spoke to you last night!" She would give a bow that's likely a bit too deep, the strands of her hair falling perilously low as she does so. Youkai probably don't have to worry about it if they get dirt in their hair, but still!

    Immediately after she rises, expression still frozen in its same neutral position, her eyes would go on to find Mamizou. She would fetch Fox again, holding it over her face again as the aura around her face seems to darken into something more dramatic. Serious. Official. Or maybe that's just her natural acting talent bleeding out? Either way, she would go on: "Tonight, we discover the secrets hidden in the mystic bamboo forest. For years, the legend of the Phoenix has existed in the Human Village, echoing throughout the ages as a tale to keep naughty children inside when night falls, or to give them hope on dreary nights. But, now, the origin of it all will be revealed! We will confront the flaming bird face-to-face! Or at least flame to flame! This is destiny!" How... how much of that did she make up? Huh. Either way, she would peek out from behind her mask once she's finished to scan Mamizou's features for a look that indicates the quality of her performance.

    After she's found that, she would nod to herself, satisfied. Truth be told, she's kind of excited! That wouldn't be exhibited by any facial expressions, obviously, but she might be found bouncing slightly on her heels. She's... a real emotional whirlwind for someone called 'poker face'.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Well less rebirth and more elegant cyclicalism," Psyber remarks to Ayako, his hands in his pockets as he walks, "It's a self-contained system of concept. An artistry of supernatural evolution," He points out as he goes.

    To Sanae, Psyber takes out a gun (specifically a Colt 1911) and twirls it a few times, "Don't worry about me and Youkai. I can take care of myself," He assures her before holstering it. Still, he smiles back to her.

    "Thanks, by the way, to our Gensokyan residents who are willing to guide us around. I'm sure this will be a time-saver and I'm glad to have you here," He then adds to Mamizou, "Yeah, most people here are a part of the office."

    To Reiji, Psyber notes: "Phoenixes are apex predators not because they are immune to predation, but because they are a non-killable creature. It is possible that the weaker ones wouldn't move into its territory, but it's also possible that the strongest would not fear to tread upon its ground. The remaining Youkai have a higher potential for combat capability."

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    Although the lights seem vibrant and aflame with passion-- definitely not natural lights, that's for sure-- the flashes never happen twice at quite the same place. It's obvious whatever is causing the lights is moving at slightly faster than run speed in the woods. Sadly, still too far to make out anything but the colors, which are pretty much all over the place. Orange seems to recurr just a bit more often.

    The Bamboo Forest is otherwise fairly quiet and dark. There are very rare clearings where the light from the setting sun, soon the moon, can filter though, but fortunately the group isn't without powers that can generate quite a bit of light if they need it. Just have to be careful not to slam face-first into bamboo.

    Red eyes peer from the shadows, following the group but never coming into sight. If these are animals or youkai, they're probably smart enough to figure this is way too big a group to assault. But you know what ISN'T smart enough to figure that out?

    FAIRIES!

    It's about fifteen minutes into the forest, following the lights, that a band of about two dozen fairies of various sizes (typically like human children, but some smaller) emerge from another part of the forest. They playfully throw blue and red balls of light at one another, until seeing the group.

    "Oh, it's a bunch of humans!"
    "One of them looks like a miko."
    "Let's play, let's play!"

    They immediately attack. Attack is a strong word, their Danmaku is set to nonlethal. But there's a LOT of little bullets going in every direction. They mostly make circular, expanding patterns, nothing especially complicated. Although two of the fairies prime and fire beams of light towards Reiji and Sanae specifically.

    Bright side: they're using blue and red, not rainbow. Conclusion, lightshow probably isn't fairies.

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    Contrary to other times when Tenshi has decided to crash a party, this time she doesn't arrive in the Bamboo Forest riding on a giant keystone smashing down from the sky. She just floats along under her own power, skirts billowing and the hilt of her sword dangling from its strap like a forgotten cellphone.

    Coming up on the formation of gathered heroes from behind, Tenshi simply swings her legs forward and lands on a stone, then promptly sits on it while the group sets to work teaching fairies how to play hardball.

    One elbow resting on her knee, she props her chin on her hand and just watches the spectacle unfold.

    Going by the angel's expression, she's either taking notes or grading the performance.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Fairies. Psyber allows a couple hits of Danmaku to hit him to establish lethality. The lack of said lethality (But still somewhat painful) leads him to the conclusion that they just want to play games. In response to this, Psyber shifts his footing and lets his bag drop to the ground of the forest with a gentle thump.

    "Alright. Let's play."

    While outwardly a slacker and relaxed most of the time, when it's time to fight, Psyber's entire posture changes. It's not hard to see, almost immediately, why he has a reputation as a fighter among a lot of people. As soon as his bag touches the ground, Psyber shifts his footing and draws a pair of 1911s.

    He sidesteps cleanly, moving into an opening of a danmaku pattern by turning his body to present the smallest profile possible towards the fairies, placing himself in a convenient spacing. His right arm extends towards the fairies and his left crosses over his chest. Then he decides against that attack stance and jumps up, wings appearing in an instant and then flapping to carry him upwards.

    From his aerial position, the half-angel rains pistolfire down on the swarm of fairies.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    The wind priestess has a look at Psyber's gunplay, and she looks suitably impressed! Though, it turns out, not because of the firearm itself, but because of the theatrics. She recalls the last time she'd seen something similar, and remarks cheerfully, "That reminds me of that movie Mechacop. I should try to find a DVD of that--ah." After allowing her attention to lapse, she gives her own head a light little knock with a knuckle, as though reminding herself to focus. The least thing she needs is to get these poor people lost.

    The sudden appearance of Kokoro is met with a smile of approval, even if she's trying to be serious - she just can't help being cute, it seems. "Oh, Miss Kokoro, so you were here, too!" And then another familiar face, Mamizou getting a light bow of her head in response to her appearance. "Hmm! If there really is a phoenix here, and I'd love to think that we will meet something that amazing tonight, then we surely have enough talent here to track it down!" If only they had some kind of phoenix bait, to lure such a thing out, she momentarily considers. But what would that even be?

    And then, fairies. At a time like this? The bamboo does add a *slight* bit of complication, but she's faced far worse from their likes. A breeze kicks up as Sanae's feet suddenly lift off the bamboo forest's littered floor, bristling and doubtlessly causing the less rigid of the stalks to begin swaying around her. --that'd be why she didn't fly all the way here. She's distracted again, as Psyber's wings reveal themselves, but not really taken aback by this sudden revelation that the perfectly normal guy maybe isn't as normal as she figured. He even has a version of Mechacop's rocket pack.

    "You should know how this is going to turn out, but if that's what you want!" From her aerial position, she adjusts her position only moderately in response to bullets flying in her direction - the best way to dodge dense patterns like this. She then whips out that cardboard wand forward, and gestures with it to trade out a 5-sided star, which remains illuminated in front of her briefly, before forming dense pockets of magical energy in the same shape. "My turn!" They're then released at the fairy most nearby and least likely to have someone slip between them unexpectedly.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako actually takes a moment to look Sanae's shrine maiden garb over. What? It's definitely not the standard outfit most shrine maidens would wear! Besides, she's always interested in clothing. "Hmm... so this is a shrine maiden's outfit in Gensokyo, huh?" She smiles cheerfully at Sanae.

    And then Ayako claps her hands cheerfully at Kokoro's entrance. "Oh oh oh! Very nice!" When Mamizou poofs in, Ayako giggles softly. "Good evening! And yes. Sort of." She pauses for a moment as she gazes upwards and off to the side as she thinks. "Maybe more of a volunteer thing?" Her head shakes slowly and the smile returns.

    Ayako then curiously watches Kokoro's mask switch as her mood does... and then smiles brightly. She claps again whten Kokoro desides to be dramatic again. A giggle follows and she looks back to Psyber.

    "Mmm... cycles... and self-contained systems... I can get behind those." Ayako giggles brightly, and then agrees with Psyber. "Yes, yes! Thank you to all of you! I'm really only a medic and barrier-y type of person so... yeah. Having more people that know the area is wonderful." She blinks her eyes quickly. "Oh. Oops. I'm Ayako Hasekawa, a Water Spirit. Nice to meet you all!" She bows politely from her broom perch. "I'm not a water witch. No matter how I might look."

    "But still... that's quite a light show out there." Ayako's amber gaze returns to the lights and flames as she follows after Psyber. And then the fairies appear and attack! She immediately grabs her broomstick and prepares to dodge. While she can't attack, she's at least good at dodging!

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "Yeah," Reiji nods to Mamizou as she asks, "Basically. I am Reiji Arisu, agent of Shinra." He pauses, frowning as he goes to rub at the bridge of his nose, "I really need to remember that most people won't know what Shinra /is./ I'm an Onmyoji, sort of." An Onmyoji with GUNS, "You're... A bake-danuki, I imagine?"

    And then, a Kokoro! The Menreiki's sudden change of personality causes Reiji's left eyebrow to slowly edge up towards his scalp. "The one-- ah! Yes. You're the Menreiki from the radio. It's a pleasure to meet you face to face." Or, face to masks, as the case might be. "It's not every day I run into a complete Menreiki anymore. Most of the ones back home are the spirits of single ma--"

DANKMAKU.

    Reiji hisses in surprise as a bolt of brilliant light shoots right by his face. He rolls out of the way in a flash of instinctive motion, his hands immediately snaking about to seize his oversized handcannon and enchanted shotgun. "Yousei?" Reiji mutters up at the fairies, a bolt of danmaku-fire sizzling into the ground at his feet. There are... a lot of bullets. Lots and lots of very little bullets. Their patterns aren't too complex, and they don't move too overly fast, but the addition of lasers makes things slightly more difficult.

Not difficult enough, unfortunately.

    Reiji lunges forward, slipping alongside of one of the laser-beams so that it just barely grazes his shoulder. He weaves back and forth between red-and-blue bullets as he gets into position. Supposedly, these things won't die if he kills them. As Reiji finishes lining up his shots, he decides to test that theory.

    "Gold," Reiji growls, "Hollywood! FIRE!" Slugs of magically hardened steel and clouds of enchanted shrapnel roar out of his two guns as he begins firing at pretty much everything that has little fairy wings and is still moving. He doesn't exactly fire like a sane man, either. Rather, Reiji seems to be using some kind of ridiculous gun-kata, almost like he had just stepped out of an action flick.

    Some might need to use crazy awesome magical focuses to unleash bullet hell. It turns out that, if you've got the right skills- and if you've watched Equil__ium twenty times- then all you need is a couple of magical firearms and a few clips of ammunition.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Hmmm ..." Xiaomu peers more intently at the colored lights. "I *would* guess foxfire; those lights are a bit too lively to be ghosts. Y'know - vibrant. Guess we'll find out eventually, though, when we get to them," she grins at her partner. And she continues on her way with the group, listening to the others talking, particularly as Kokoro starts regaling Mamizou with the local legend of the Phoenix.

She cocks an eyebrow (and an ear) at Psyber's comment about phoenixes being apex predators. "Somehow I don't think phoenixes are usually that high on the food chain, except that there's nothing which eats them ..."

She's trying to remember exactly what lore she's run into about phoenixes and their diet when the fairies show up and start raining magical bullets on the group. Her reaction is relatively swift.

"XIAOMU WAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!!!!"

Her right hand brings her staff's butt down hard on the ground, and she thrusts her left hand out at some of the fairies, a ball of mystical light flaring to life in her outstretched palm; a Chinese trigram-patterned magic circle flickers into life on the ground, and a ball of binding magic appears, hopefully englobing some of the fairies.

Just containing them, and that not for too long; Xiaomu doesn't want to HURT the li'l things, after all; even if they'll resurrect, getting shot still hurts. And the others are laying down enough firepower to make up for her slacking.

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    "Moriya-san!" Kokoro would greet Sanae with a similar measure of pleasant surprise. Then, to Ayako, "Thank you, thank you! I've been practicing my stage voices. If I want to be the Phantom of the Opera, I have to be able to be really serious!" She would nod to herself and parrot, "Very serious." Though immediately after she says that, her body goes rigid. Her eyes go wide. She would glance off to the wall of trees to the left of the path and harshly (probably) intone,

    "-Fairies-."

    After 'relentless mikos' (excluding Sanae -- she's cool!), fairies, collectively, are next on Kokoro's ever growing rival list. Her behaviors, words, and reactions are as inscrutable as her expression so it's entirely outside the realm of feasibility to deduce whether this is -play- angry or -real- angry, but either way she would poise for battle with all due seriousness. Seven masks would fade into existence as if they had emerged from Kokoro's being, beginning to circle around her in a continuous carousel of color and antique style. Hannya and Raiden - her horned, demonic mask for anger and her stylized mask for surprise, respectively - would rush to catch her naginata as she tosses it into the air beside her, summoning a pair of paper fans in its place.

    Once these are firmly in her hands, she would hold them out to her sides and begin... a spin. She would gradually move faster and faster as though she were some sort of human -- er, Youkai spinning top. She would slowly begin to levitate into the air as well, giving her the room she needs to summon forth the ensuing floral spiral of neon pink bullets without hurting her allies. These projectiles would gently spread out from her in a shape vaguely resembling a sphere, but this initial velocity is deceptive; once they've reached a certain proximity from Kokoro, they would take off at absurd speeds, attempting to converge on the fairies!

    Should they hit, these bullets would be far from painful enough to incapacitate the fairies on their own. They're a lot like bee stings or fire ants, really: very bearable so long as you can avoid the majority of them. If she gets a -ton- of hits on the same enemy, though, she might make some real headway. Eventually!

    Kokoro's shield of danmaku bullets would serve the double purpose of colliding with and canceling the fairies' own, but in all likelihood one or two bullets would get through to her before she's established. One magical bolt would burn by her cheek and another would leave a pretty nasty mark on her arm, but it's gonna take a lot more than that to take down THE STRONGEST.

    ... and, no, she is -not- trying to mimic Cirno.

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    Psyber is the first to open fire on the fairies. When hit, there is no blood and gore; rather, the fairies just kind of explode into raw natural magic. Nothing harmful, more a statement that their bodies kind of burst and go back to being ambient nature spirits until they pull themselves back together. This doesn't seem to bother the fairies that are not shot, rather they just kind of laugh and keep firing blue and red everywhere.

    This proves to be their standard reaction to being hit in general, as Sanae counters with her own magical patterns and bullets, knocking a few fairies away, proving to be just as 'lethal' as gunfire.

    Ayako plays dodging games, which is fun enough for the fairies. Danmaku isn't about hitting and winning, after all. If you outlast your opponent, you win too! So after a while of dodging, Ayako actually gets left alone. Like good sports, the fairies consider her to have won and don't keep firing.

    Reiji savagely opens fire and empties gun clips, 'slaying' half a dozen of the fairies with no remorse whatsoever. What a cruel man!

    Kokoro makes a shield, which actually manages to catch two fairies that attempted to slam into her. So much for them. It works well when combined with Xiaomu's sudden magical balls, which clean up the remaining fairies who were trying to break through the shields.

    The fairies gone, the group spends another fifteen minutes walking through the bamboo. The lightshow ahead seems to be a bit closer now, but attempts to focus on it are interrupted by-- a PIT TRAP, right under Reiji! It's a big hole filled with whipped cream and carrots.

    Whether or not he falls into it, the activation of the trap draws out five small girls in pink dresses, with bunny ears sticking out of their hair. "We got one, we got one! Come out!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Birds are spiteful creatures. Immortal ones moreso. Any creature that predated on such a creature would be subject to a vendetta which would likely outlast its present generation and extend towards all descendants," Psyber notes to Xiaomu in a casual tone as he works, "A phoenix is an apex predator because, as I said, no creature is naturally willing to prey upon one. An immortal fire bird is a long-reaching enemy to subject oneself to." He's pretty calm and professional about this explanation to Xiaomu, despite the battle raging on.

    He pauses a moment and adds, "In terms of diet, a Phoenix traditionally eats very little, though some accounts show that they enjoy fresh dew." The half-angel thinks for a moment and then wonders if that means that a Gensokyan Phoenix will be predisposed to MOUNTAIN Dew. Internally, he makes a note to experiment with that. Could be fun.

    With the faeries in retreat, Psyber lands with an easy thud on the ground and his wings swiftly vanish with a 'whoosh' noise and some dusting of feathers to the ground. Take souvenirs if you want. He dusts off his jacket and holsters his gun before picking up his bag and getting to walking again. Then he takes off at a walk again.

    "We're getting closer. I don't think it should be TOO much longer before we find whatever is making those li-" A trap. And rabbits. Psyber simply watches for now to see what Reiji wants to do. It's his situation to resolve, after all.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    Once the fairies that still possessed corpereal bodies finally have had enough playtime, and break off, Sanae reaches up with one of her detached sleeves to wipe some practically non-existant sweat away. These things are so convenient, sometimes. Before anyone can feel too guilty, she explains, "Don't worry about those fairies. They'll be back eventually, that's what makes them such an annoyance. Something about their deep connection with nature." This also gives her time to finally respond to Ayako's earlier attention, as she smiles to the presumptive witch. Hopefully not a klepto, this one.

    "Ah, well..there's not much of a sample size, but yes. Miss Kanako told me that this is my ritual uniform, more or less." It's hard to argue, since she's worn some variation of it for as long as she's been the Moriya shrine's priestess, even if she could probably summon her powers without it. As she talks, she continues to hover over the ground, just in case more of the local fauna gets any ideas. A notion that seems to be proven out, as a pit trap opens up beneath Reiji. "..oh, I've heard of this!" Yeah, thanks for the warning, *after* the fact. Regardless of his own reaction, she doesn't seem too worried or rush to try and snatch him, so she must have some forenkowledge.

    As expected, adorable, fluffy-eared rabbits soon make their appearance. Perhaps a little bit hard to see in the dense foliage and lighting, at first, but when she does get a good look she briefly emits a barely contained, high-pitch squeak of adoration. You don't really see these kind of rabbits around the village - mostly that old one about her apparent age with the chewed-up looking ears. But these are..so cute! After that moment, though, she begins drifting closer to where she saw them, just in case her assumptions are incorrect. A distressingly difficult thing to come to grips with for her, at times.

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    Kokoro would lower herself to the ground and retrieve her polearm from the two masks that had secured it for her once the fairies are dealt with, but not before dusting her hands, putting her balled fists to her hips, and giving an approving nod. "Meanies! That's what you get when you don't fight fair!" Guerrilla Warfare isn't 'fair' to her, no, but just about the only thing that is is a clearly announced, honorable duel or danmaku round, so her paramters are a bit stiff! Even so, though, she wouldn't dwell on the fairies' violation of that. For too long. She... can't, really, because by the time one fight is over Reiji has apparently fallen into a pit filled with whipped cream!

    Okay, that weirds even -her- out. She watches as the rabbit creatures emerge from their varied places of hiding, staring blankly as they file out and remark on their prize catch. After observing this Kokoro would slooowly raise the point of her naginata to face them, puffing up her cheeks to look tough. "... tripping people up in holes isn't very nice, even if the holes are filled with something delicious and creamy!" Her free hand would meander to her hip in a lightly authoritative fashion. "You had better take Mister Reiji out of there right now and say you're sorry! ... or maybe he can get out on his own, but either way, you should still apologize! Hmph!" Who is she, their mom?

    Though, she miiight still inch over to the pit slowly. Inch by inch, sideways look by sideways look... until finally she's within a proximity that would allow her to crouch down and sneak just a quick taste of the cream on her finger. Mmm~! She would make sure no one is looking when she does, though.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Reiji is the cruelest of all exorcists. Look how mercilessly he opens fire on all those precious, innocent little fairies! They're gone now, exploded into so much pixie dust and point items. Unfortunately Reiji is some kind of weird cameo extra character, so he doesn't actually get any power up items when he explodes anything.

    With the little girls now a fine, magical mist, Reiji releases a long sigh and begins holstering his weapons again. He glances towards Psyber. "Didn't seem like they were that strong. But I guess if there are more powerful Youkai around here," he admits, "They might not feel the need to bother with these guys."

    With that taken care of, the party is free to proceed onward into the forest! They're a-walking and a-walking and then SUDDENLY THE GROUND GIVES WAY! Reiji hisses a curse, leaping forward to try and catch himself on the edge of the pit! He scrambles to try and grab hold of solid ground, but it's no good. He slips, he slides, he goes plummeting down into... four feet of whipped cream. And carrots. The fluffy white stuff gets /everywhere/ except in his hair and, thankfully, his weaponry. Except poor Gold. That pistol is going to need some cleaning.

    "What," Reiji mutters, just staring long and flat at the mess of whipped cream. "Who fills a pit with--" There are voices. Oh there are voices, there are voices who are probably responsible. Reiji grunts, leaping a full four feet upward. He digs his steel-toed boots into the pit-wall, and unsheathes Chirai to dig into the ground at the pit-mouth. Sloooowly, he begins to pull himself up, slinging his portable arsenal upward to use as additional leverage.

This'll take him a second. But in the mean time, he shoots those five bunnies a glare that's somewhere between 'stormy and 'contemplating rabbit stew.'

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles cheerfully at Kokoro. "You do stage voices very well! The practice shows!"

    Dodge, dodge, dodge! Once in a while, she makes a few mistakes in not leading the bullets properly and has to graze some. So while she doesn't get hit-hit, by the time the fairies decide she's won, there are a quite few tears in her muffler and hat.

    Ayako actually seems a bit more upset about her clothing being torn than if a bullet actually hit her! She grumbles softly and then then starts smoothing her teared clothing and hat with her hands. Doing so actually does mend her watery outfit! Although it takes several passes and quite a bit of time. Forming clothing from water-let alone repairing it takes quite a lot of attention! But after a while, she seems satisfied with the reformed clothing and resumes looking about.

    Ayako? A kelpto? Of course not! Well... that's not exactly true. There are some things in the world that she would take, pilfer, and steal without a second thought. But that's not the issue right now! "Eehh? A uniform, huh...?" She smiles softly at Sanae. "I can understand that."

    And then pit trap. "U-uhh... Umm... Reiji? Are you okay?" Ayako floats over the pit trap. "Need a rope? Help up? Wet towel?" And then she eeps and floats back once Reiji pulls himself out and glares at the rabbits.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Point," Xiaomu nods to Psyber. "Although a lot of animals don't necessarily factor in how much of a grudge there's going to be if they try to catch something out of their weight class and fail miserably - usually, the price for failure to catch something stronger than yourself is 'you become dinner instead,' after all." She pauses, glancing towards what's visible of the sky. "Also, it depends some which kind of phoenix you're talking about - the Western traditional version, which still has its variations? Or the Asian houou or fenghuang?"

She mulls that one over briefly. "Actually, you *do* mean the Western version, it sounds like -"

And then her partner suddenly disappears into a deep dark hole. "AAAAAAH!! Reiji!!" She scrambles to look down into the forbidding depths of the earth, her partner's untimely grave ...

... which seems to be filled with unmade carrot cake? And it's not actually all that deep, either. Xiaomu leans over the edge, "You okay down there, Reiji?" she inquires; considering that he's starting to try and climb out of it already, she takes it as read that the answer is 'yes'.

... and then she turns her attention to the approaching bunny girls, moving to park herself between the edge of the pit and the approaching rabbit-spirits, or whatever they are. "Okay, yeah, so you've got one," she smiles, a bit predatorily. "The question is, what're you going to do with the *rest* of us who didn't fall into your trap?"

Foxes are omnivores, after all, not herbivores. And if the bunny girls have genuinely hostile intent, well, they WILL have to go through Xiaomu to do anything more to her partner than drop him down a hole.

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    Sitting or occasionally floating along at a respectable distance, Tenshi closes her eyes, scratching the inside of an ear with a fingertip. And note: She is floating. The tennyo has fallen into her fair share of rabbit holes already, even a dense derpcase like Tenshi can learn a lesson or two!

    The lesson she learned is swiftly learned by Reiji. While others dash to the defense, Tenshi just floats closer until she's just floating over the hole, leaning over it with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face, "Man, that's pretty funny. I can see why the rabbits set up these traps." She holds out a hand, "Let me help you with that."

    She's not reaching down to help Reiji. Rather, the ground rumbles and the bottom of the pit trap starts to rise. Unfortunately, this also causes the layer of carrots and cream to rise as well.

    Nevermind the angel just showed up out of nowhere, with little warning.

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    The rabbits aren't too hard to find! They're coming out to look at the handiwork of their trap. It seems that the only way to tell them apart is their hair. Some have paler hair, some longer. Similar ears though! And a fluffy tail sticking out of their pink one-piece dresses.

    "Oh no! There's a whole bunch of them!"
    "Crap! One of them's a miko!"
    "What did Tewi say about catching mikos again?"
    "She said to use a donation box!"
    "The other thing she said!"
    "Oh yeah, make sure to have Udonge around to blame her."
    "Udonge's not with us."
    "CRAP!"

    Deers in headlights, all of them.

    The rage beams coming out of Reiji's eyes actually terrify one of the rabbits into hiding behind the other four, while they stutter and try to justify themselves to Kokoro. "We're sorry!" "We really are!" "Yeah, normally we don't get caught, we're really sorry we did!" "Shhhh, you're not supposed to say that part out loud!"

    The whipped cream is pretty good, at least. The carrots add taste. Trust rabbits to ensure something with carrots tastes good.

    Xiaomu approaches, and the rabbits immediatly regret their decisions. "It's a fox youkai!" "Wait, why are her tails in her hair?" "Nevermind that! Let's blitz and sneak back in while the princess is still busy in the forest!" The sudden rise of the trap's bottom makes the rabbits hasten their decision and make a break for it through the bamboo.

    You could chase them! Try to catch one. Or ignore them in favor of the lightshow, which seems ever a bit closer now. Close enough impact sounds can be heard, even. One might also want to consider avoiding the disaster Tenshi set in motion.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "I am beginning to remember why I limit my excursions into this land to the bare minimum required to do my job," Psyber murmurs as the rabbits all explain themselves to a slightly messy and very ANGRY looking Reiji. And who can actually blame Reiji for his current state of anger?

    "Well yeah, I mean, the diet changes in iterations. Like in the Persian lore, the Simurgh eats 40 carcasses and 40 wineskins of water. But that would make this a very fat Phoenix. A fatnix, if you will," Psyber points out before letting Xiaomu go be threatening on behalf of her partner.

    For Psyber's own part, he looks up at Tenshi, "Hey! Hey! Watch the mess!" He waves at the hole as whipped cream and carrots come up out of it when she raises the floor of the trap. He steps away carefully to avoid sticky boots or pant legs.

    This situation will resolve itself, and Psyber will press ever-onward! For whatever punishment the bunnies shall receive, Psyber forges on ahead into the forest, boldly ignoring his own advice to stick together unless people come with him.

    "Reiji," Psyber remarks as he walks, figuring people can keep up, "Be sure to bill the Union for drycleaning. And for guncleaning. Sorry you got caught in that," He apologizes to the man. He genuinely didn't mean for the exorcist to get THIS much trouble for coming along.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    For once, Sanae can't even pretend to be particularly menacing, when it comes to these rabbits. The tales were true - they really are adorable. Once she's certain that Reiji is safe, except maybe for his pride, even that slight tinge of concern melts away. She does have enough focus to notice Kokoro in the act, though, and floating a bit closer for a moment, she wonders, for purely academic purposes, "..how's it taste?" Ahem, regardless, these troublemakers must be handled, somehow, and so she turns to them next, pivoting effortlessly in the air courtesy of that constantly light whipping of wind around her.

    It seems that having bare arm pits gets you far in this world, since despite her lack of offensive approach, they still have a minor rabbit freak out over her presence. Her expression turns into a curious quirk of an eyebrow, then she stifles a slight laugh. It's all sound advice in its own way, even if their discretion of their sneakiness is lacking. "If you're really sorry, then you can lead us to --hmm?" Did they just mention a princess being busy in the forest? This seems to come close to jogging something in the priestess' memory, and she taps a finger to the corner of her forehead. "That sounds familiar." And it seems important, somehow.

    That's why, rather than wait for them to scramble off, she suddenly rushes forward with a gust of wind, trying to catch one by the back of her dress' collar. It's okay, perfectly harmless, "Wait!" At least she doesn't seem angry, but there's clearly an urgency to get a line of questioning going here, if she can indeed temporarily catch one before she scrambles away, "Can you tell us where that princess you mentioned is?" Regardless, her attention is soon captured as she looks back to a rumbling, and spots Tenshi's carrot volcano, causing an eyebrow to twitch. If she had grasped the rabbit, she lets her down as a bit of the sweet veneer slips free of its mooring; she doesn't even give her an honorific, "Tenshi!"

    She quickly calms down shortly after the outburst, but what a mess. "--I mean, Miss Tenshi. Your attempt at helping is appreciated, but please refrain from such coarse applications of your talents." Even if that's all she's capable of.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    This is another one of those situations where Reiji's experience and the reality of the situation don't quite jive. Clearly, even when in a part of the multiverse relatively similar to his own world, it is /still/ altogether insane. "I'm fine," he says to Xiaomu, sounding altogether quite annoyed by this situation. The exorcist continues to mutter curses under his breath as he hoists his way out of the pit, when a woman on a floating stone goes to hover just overhead like some kind of rocky sword of damocles. "What--" Reiji starts, but then the ground starts going all aquiver /again./ This time, though, it actually helps him up...

And then keeps rising.

    Fortunately, Reiji is able to scramble out of the way before the surging tide of whipped cream and carrots sweeps him away again. He turns just in time to see the quintet of rabbits to go scrambling off into the forest. His lips turn downward into the /worst/ frown, but, with a long, frustrated sigh and a gentle rubbing of his temples, he resolves to... just let them go, this time.

/This time./

    "Those things are a menace," Reiji grunts, sliding Chirai back into its sheath. He unslings Gold as well, but only to start doing some preliminary cleaning of the more vulnerable moving parts. He glances up to Tenshi, who is still floating upon her rock, and gives a small nod, "...Thanks for that."

    He shakes his head at Psyber, pulling back his weapon's slide and using the relatively clean inside hem of his shirt to wipe it clean. "It's alright," he says with another sigh, "I can deal with them later." That sounds... somewhat ominous, "Let's just find that phoenix."

Reiji /did/ in fact clear the chamber and remove the clip, just before anyone brings up any flaws in his firearms handling skills.

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    Kokoro just sighs. She would love to pick one of them up and follow up on the scolding, but she doesn't think it would do a whole lot to change their behaviors in the long run. And --! Their group has a date with destiny anyway! She would look to the sky and to the brilliant show of lights above. With one hand clutching her naginata and the other holding firm to her mask, she would launch back into the sky, determined to get a better look at what's going on over there. She might be tempted to just fly over, but that would probably be a bad idea; putting oneself in the middle of an active skirmish is rarely a good one, and that's what this is starting to look like more and more.

    She would lower herself back to the ground afterwards to rejoin the group, but would likely lead the group now. She's determined to get to the bottom of this! After all, it will make for such a good story to share when she gets back to the village. And, and! She might even make a new friend! If Phoenixes can or care to become friends, anyway.

    So, yep - bunnies are off the hook. FOR NOW. But she had better not catch you condemning people to an icky, sticky doom again! ... and she probably won't, even though she's pretty sure that doesn't mean they'll have improved their behavior at all.

    Sigh.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako eeps when the pit trap suddenly rises up thanks to Tenshi. "Oh carrots and cream!" Yes, she said that. Also pretty much the closest you'll ever see Ayako get to swearing normally. She floats upwards and out to avoid the cream. She doesn't want to get whipped cream all over her.

    She looks back to Psyber. "Oh? Really? This land seems pretty fun to me." Ayako then snirks as she tries to stifle a giggle... and then fails, bursting into giggles at the word 'fatnix'. She has to firmly grip her broomstick to avoid falling off from giggling too much.

    It takes a moment, but she manages to recover and stop giggling at last. "U-un. Let's find that phoenix." Ayako looks back to Sanae. "Oh. There's a princess in this forest as well?" She claps her hands together once cheerfully. "Too much to look for, and only so much time!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu spares enough attention to nod to Psyber re: phoenixes and their diets. "Then again, birds generally have to balance a high metabolism against low food intake per meal, right?"

The rabbits have most of her attention ... or, well, they DID have it. Reiji and Psyber both seem content to let them run, since no real harm was suffered by Reiji (except for his dignity, which took a critical hit to the weak point ... but it's growing resistant to those after hanging around Xiaomu so often).

Besides, those lights which were so interesting *are* getting closer. Xiaomu casts one last scathing glare after the fleeing rabbits, then turns to regard the lights, going with the rest of the group (or most of the rest?) to meet them ...

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    "Coarse?" Tenshi props her hands on her hips, leaning forward at the waist to loom over Sanae while she floats, "Who's the one who used wind magic to catch a rabbit! Don't you scold me, you're just a human, I'M the one who's attained enlightenment!"

    Floating carefully over the heap of cream and carrots, though, the girl folds her hands behind her head, "So what are all you weirdos doing here anyway? Most of you guys really stand out, was kinda hard to miss." A point, "Is it the firebird, maybe?"

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    Sanae catches one of the rabbits. She struggles in vain and then sighs, providing answers. "She's probably over there!" Fingerpoint, towards the lightshow. As Sanae would take a look, the rabbit slips out of her dress, revealing she was wearing a smaller white dress underneath! And then she blitzes. SANAE RECEIVES: 1x Inaba Dress. Continuing the proud tradition of beating people up and taking their things. Reimu would be proud. Or she'd beat Sanae up. It's a very thin line.

    Still, the lights aren't far now. It'll be another fifteen minutes through the bamboo; at the five minutes mark, the group can clearly distinguish colorful energy bullets, every color of the rainbow. There's a trail of destruction in the forest, but the bamboo's already starting to regrow. Amidst the lights is a generous quantity of flames, too. By the ten minutes mark, there's a much brighter flash, a blinding rainbow that seems to cause ripples in time, and a column of fire that breaks the canopy of the forest into the night sky. And then... nothing.

    The next five minutes would no doubt be spent heading for the location of the last big flashes. It looks like a chunk of the forest just got ripped to shreds here. There's blood on the ground here and there. On one edge of the destruction, leaning on the ground against a thicker shoot of bamboo, Mokou rests. She doesn't actually look injured, although there's blood all over her white shirt and hair. She does sound exhausted, though, too much to notice people pouring in.

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    So distracted with scolding Tenshi, and getting accused of being too flashy in return, Sanae scarcely notices that she's been left holding the bag. Err, dress. She manages to shoot Tenshi a look, even while she still appears to be smiling to most of the rest of their little safari. When she finally does notice, though, she blinks blankly at the empty dress, giving it a light shake as if the rabbit might have returned to its original, natural form, and still be hiding inside of it. "Hmm. Seems I underestimated these rabbits. To possess the ability to teleport.." It's easier than just admitting that she's easy to get away from when she's distracted, anyway.

    Despite her former nature, she does her best not to be cruel, however. Remembering a story she read when she was young, about a rabbit that got scolded for losing his precious new jacket to a human farmer, she sighs, placing the poofy little dress in a conspicuous place against a thicker hedge of bamboo. At least some rabbit will certainly find it, at some point. Pink isn't her color, anyway.

    With this gesture complete, she moves to drift on forward where the rabbit had indicated, which is where those conspicuous lights would be. Or, at least, were just moments before, previous to an unexpectedly apocalyptic-feeling burst. There's bits of blood and other debris and signs of struggle as things approach the presumed scene of the crime, Sanae's usual unconcerned smile managing to crack into the slightest concern. As with the fairies, most battles here in Gensokyo aren't intense enough to actually draw this kind of bloodshed, or cause this much collateral damage. So what could it have been?

    Not obvious is that they happen upon the answer, shortly after. Not precisely the cautious sort, Sanae picks up the pace of her wind, rushing forward to the resting girl without stopping to imagine that - if she were the one responsible for this mess, how she might react to sudden company barreling in.

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    After five minutes, Kokoro is able to tell that these aren't suns, and that those flashes of light aren't fire. This is all one, big Danmaku! All this time these incredible lightshows have just been two people -fighting-? That's quite the revelation, for her! And -yes-, it will make an absolutely phenomenal play just as soon as she learns about the motives of each fighter. Just, how is she supposed to do that while they're airborne? This looks pretty intense! Even when there's an ebb in the combat itself, the aftermath is a clear enough indication: countless trees have been reduced to shriveled husks and huge hunks of the ground have been torn up and thrown skyward!

    Just as she's gawking at the extent of the devastation, though, she sees someone! And they're bleeding! Her eyes bulge for a moment. She can tell that this woman is in a lot of pain, and that she seems... angry? It's a sensation -sort of- like anger, but she can tell there's a little more too it than that. Of course, Kokoro has no idea what any of those feelings pertain to, but the raw presence of them is there.

    But! All that has stunned her into silence long enough. After a deep breath, she would announce her presence: "HELLO!" She's using her loud voice, "I am Kokoro, and these are my friends! We are on an epic quest to find a Phoenix! Would you happen to be fighting the legendary firebird of the bamboo forest right now? If so, we can try to talk to them!" Or beat them up! ... but she's not as confident in her ability to do that, so she definitely wants to try the other thing first.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
About ten minutes into that last walk, Xiaomu pauses where she is, peering at the dancing lights and colors. "Huh ... None of the above, it looks like." And then the lights go out.

Kokoro beats Xiaomu to speaking up when the gruop actually reaches the impromptu clearing/former battlefield, so the Chinese sage fox just takes a long look around. "Absolutely wasn't fairies, in any case," she observes. It's probably best to let the relative natives of Gensokyo handle initial conversations, anyway; Xiaomu seems relaxed at this point, but she's staying subtly on her guard. If round 2 breaks out, she wants to at least get a running start.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Reiji gives Tenshi a bit of a look when she mentions... enlightenment. That girl certainly doesn't seem like much of a bodhisattva. He shrugs, digging into one of the pouches on his coat for small cart of cigarettes. He goes looking for his lighter too, but when he digs it out of his pocket and tries to spark a flame, all he gets is a... squishy hiss of gas, and a similarly squishy grinding of flint as he tries to spin the ignition wheel. "Rabbits," Reiji grouses- especially as he looks up to see the one they had kind-of-sort-of captured go hopping back off into the woods.

"Rabbits," he repeats with only a hint of malice.

    Tainted with whipped cream, the now useless lighter is shoved roughly back into one of Reiji's pouches. Clearly fate is conspiring against allowing Reiji to indulge in his (admittedly unhealthy) habit. Where most men would shrug and just make do, Reiji instead gets /creative./

Unlike most men, Reiji has a FIRE SWORD.

    Instead, he takes his cigarette between the knuckles of the hand carrying his arsenal. Reiji pulls Karin from its sheath with his other hand, shedding a brief cloud of flame. He focuses his will upon his blade, forcing the wild flames into a tight, dense halo around the blade... and then he touches it to his cigarette.

It lights. Reiji doesn't lose everything below his left elbow to an unfortunate firesword accident. Everything is fine!

    Karin is once more sheathed as they make their way into the bamboo clearing. The lights no longer play over it, but there was clearly some kind of altercation here. Reiji scans the carnage, a thin stream of blue-grey smoke wafting from the smoldering tip of his cigarette. It doesn't take him long to notice that the burnt-out husk of forest isn't entirely uninhabied. The Onmyoji takes a few puffs from his cigarette before approaching the bloody, but... unharmed girl.

Something about that just ain't right.

    "Hey," he murmurs, his right arm tensing subtly in case things get dangerous. Reiji draws closer, but not close enough to be caught up a sudden burst of hyperviolence. "You awake?" He asks, eyeing the girl carefully, "...Breathing, at least. Not every day you see a girl sitting in the middle of a place like this."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako continues watching the rainbow lights and flames as she follows with the group. She winces at the blood on the ground and looks around, searching for the source of said blood. But when Sanae and Kokoro approach Mokou, Ayako does as well. She does note the blood on her hair and her clothing, despite her being uninjured.

    "U-umm... are you alright?" Ayako hops off of her broom and lands lightly on her feet. She picks her broom up and... of course, begins absentmindedly sweeping the ground. "Do you need any healing?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu pauses to glare at Reiji as he lights up a cigarette.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Yeah, here for the phoenix. Thought it might be worth checking out, maybe see if she wants a jo-"

    Psyber seems pretty concerned once the massive show of lights dies down and the MASSIVE pillar of flame rises in the distance. This, in fact, causes him to break out into a sprint, trying to make his way there as quickly as possible after the nothingness.

    Upon arriving at the scene of destruction, Psyber takes a look around and spots the girl. It looks like he's about to introduce himself when Kokoro goes ahead and takes the initiative. Not unlike Reiji, Psyber takes the time to light a cigarette. Unlike Reiji, he does so with a zippo lighter. He exhales some smoke after Kokoro introduces them all, "You know, I pretty much always have a Zippo on me," He remarks to Reiji with a raised eyebrow.

    "I'm a Reserve Colonel with a larger organization. Plus I'm a paranormal investigator to boot," He begins to Mokou, "I'm trying to seek out the Phoenix because of both personal reasons, and I wanna offer them any number of helpful services either of my organizations can provide." He says to her seriously.

    "So if you can direct me to him, her or it, I would be pretty grateful."

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    It's true that the battlefield bears marks different from the usual Spellcard duel. There's a lot more collateral, and the attacks must not have been held back much, if at all. Definitely two warriors that must have consented to having a very ruthless battle, rather than use the safety of the rules established by the shrine maidens.

    With people rushing right in, Mokou opens her eyes in surprise, the red orbs quickly darting between people. She stumbles up, awkwardly managing to remain standing by using the shoot behind her for support. The fact Reiji just kind of reached for her-- or rather, managed to do so before she heard people at all-- is probably what has her most on-edge.

    "W-Whoa, hey. You're... green-haired shrine maiden, I think I saw you in the village once?" Just an idle glance, at best. What's a shrine maiden doing here? Oh please don't say the I word. The I word is the worst.

    Any worry about such has to be shelved as Kokoro makes a much more pronounced introduction. She's not sure how to react. "Who, me? Of course I wasn't fighting a phoenix. Do I look burnt?" Credit where credit is due, she doesn't look like she would have been fighting something made out of fire. Names are being dropped though, she should probably reciprocate.

    ... after she glares at Xiaomu and that hair. "A kitsune...? No, you're something weirder. I like the hair, it's the different! Fairies though, no way. I only know one fairy who could cause this much of a ruckus and she won't be waking up until--" ... wait. "Oh crap, spring is coming." Siiiigh.

    Reiji gets a belated answer: "I'm fine. Just out of breath, sorry." And to Ayako: "I swear I'm fine, you can check if you want." No lies, Mokou's uninjured. Exhausted, if that's something the water spirit can sense, but not injured.

    At least these guys seem friendly enough. And she knows where Kaguya was all evening, so she doubts these were sent by her. Last but not least is Psyber: "Ah, erm. I'm Fujiwara no Mokou. Just Mokou's fine. Normally I wouldn't say that but since you're waving rank around, and I know enough about the big war going on to know better, I'd rather not lie. If you're looking for the firebird you're standing in front of her."

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    "Aw, you could've kept that," Tenshi passes by the discarded rabbit dress, "I bet it'd look cute on that pint-sized goddess of yours. They're about the same size, even." The angel folds her hands behind her back and floats at the back of the pack, a pristine vision of beauty with the brain of a ten year old with far too much personal freedom.

    There's a pillar of FIRE and RAINBOWS in the distance. To get a better look, Tenshi floats up closer to the upper canopy of the bamboo. Rummaging in her dress for a moment, she pulls out a pair of sunglasses and puts them on--just in time to be too late to look cool doing it. She's still wearing them when she floats back down to ground level.

    "Think I found your firebird."

    Cut to arrival in the clearing: A lot of BURNED things and a passed out white haired young woman. Tenshi folds her hands against the back of her head and just watches the madness unfold with a sort of wide, red-eyed curiosity. Of particular note are the concerns about Mokou's health. Tenshi's head tilts, "Wow, all these guys are that worried about some human-turned-youkai?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
'Kitsune,' says Mokou.

Xiaomu twitches, ever so slightly, but reins herself in - Japanese seems to be the lingua franca in Gensokyo, so it was probably just a matter of using the default word for fox or fox-spirit. "Technically," she says with a mildly-forced smile, "I'm a Chinese fox spirit, a huli jing. 'Sage fox' works just as well if you don't want to commit the Chinese term to memory."

Then she bows politely to Mokou. "That said, I'm Xiaomu, an employee of Heaven or Hell and an agent of Shinra, an organization from my home world that specializes in trying to mediate between humans and youkai, keeping them from coming into conflict whenever possible. The guy with some blobs of whipped cream still on the backs of his trouser legs is my partner, Reiji Arisu."

And she and Reiji work for the Union too; she forgot to mention that.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako takes another glance at the blasted and charred battlefield. "A-ahh... Hmm..." She nods her head and then gives Mokou a quick look over. "Un. You do seem to be okay. Although you do look like you could use a break." The exhaustion part is pretty obvious anyway. She was lying on the ground with her eyes closed. And is using a bamboo shoot to brace herself up.

    "Eh heh... nice to meet you, Mokou." Ayako claps her hands together once happily. "Ah, so you're the phoenix!" She hardly seems surprised. "I'm Ayako Hasekawa, a Water Spirit despite how I might look. Please call me Ayako." Her eyes close halfway as she side-glances at Tenshi. "Well you know. When you find someone lying in the middle of a really blasted area, you do sort of wonder if they're alright."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Oh right. Introductions. I run under the callsign Psyber. It's as good a name as any," He adds, "Half-angel. Private Investigator. Union Problemsolver."

    He opens up his bag and takes out a bundle of papers, "If you don't want to be involved in the war, that's fine. But I want to at least recruit you to my own office. I'm kind of a personal fan of Phoenixes." He notes with a bright smile. He holds out the bundle of forms for her. It comes with a pen and is mostly just details about Ally-ship and Office hiring policies.

    The office job application is much weirder than the Union one, featuring questions such as:

63) Will your world have an apocalypse in the near future that requires office intervention?
    63a) If yes, expected duration?

76) Are you secretly a large military war vessel?
    76a)Branch and model?
    76b) Veterans Benefits Reference Number: __________

    "I'm not gonna hard sell you on anything you don't wanna do, though," He notes, folding his hands behind his head casually, "But I think you'd get bored hanging out in a forest all day. Immortal beings, I find, crave new experiences."

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Reiji gives Xiaomu a look, and then he gestures vaguely down to the whipped cream still covering so much of his pants and jacket. If there was ever a time for him to take a smoke break, now would be that time! He shrugs at Psyber, too. "You'd think that'd help," he says, "But half the time my lighters don't work even when I don't fall into desserts."

Because Xiaomu.

Damn wily foxes.

    Mokou gets his attention then, "Fujiwara no Mokou, huh?" He takes another draw from his smoke, then shakes his head. "Nah, if you say so, I'll believe you. You're talking, so if you're hurt at all, it can't be bad," Battle-hardened logic can be kind of odd sometimes. "Like the Sage Fox says," he continues, "The name is Reiji Arisu, Onmyoji with the Shinra Organization presently assigned as a liason to Heaven and Hell."

    "Your name's a bit more interesting, though. Haven't heard 'Fujiwara no' used in any context outside of the Fujiwara Clan." His gaze flickers up at Tenshi before fixing on Mokou again, "You're the firebird, huh? So you ended up turning into one one day, or is that just some kind of metaphor?"

Psyber illicits another raised brow from Reiji. "Moving a bit quick, aren't you?" He chuckles a bit, "Girl gets caught up in a crazy fight and you give her paperwork."

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    "Miss Suwako needs no such thing," Sanae manages in response to Tenshi, somewhere between the gravity of all this gross bloody guts (maybe not guts) and damaged bamboo. Bamboo that must have absorbed a little bit of magic from this phoenix everyone is talking about, considering that it already seems to be growing back. She's certainly rushing ahead, but thankfully for her and the rest of the group, Mokou has enough restraint not to just start burninating them in reflex. If she's healthy enough for that to begin with. For her part, Sanae does pull up out of her air sprint a few meters short of being right on top of the poor girl. And from this proximity, her eyes adjusting to what light filters through the bamboo, she herself vaguely recognizes this person. True, they hadn't really 'met', but..Gensokyo is a small world, after all.

    "Sanae's the name. Sanae Kochiya," the priestess offers, her mood improving quite a lot once things seem to be alright. "I was only accompanying these people on their quest. It's easy to get into trouble in this little slice of paradise, once you head off the beaten path, you know?" So there's no I-word going on, and she was just out on the shrine maiden equivalent of a jog? Okay. Not that it helped stave off trouble very well, in the end. The notion of her presence being a big deal is still somewhat new to her, as well, so any apprehension on the behalf of Mokou would blow right over her head. Outwardly, she's vibrant and sunny, a stark contrast to a certain colleague that might be grumping by now.

    With this meet and greet well under way, though, and the confirmation of Mokou's identity, Sanae does cast a glance around at the damage while giving a rub of her chin. "Well, if we've found the phoenix - cool, by the way! - where is the princess that rabbit mentioned? I guess that doesn't matter." For all Sanae knows, Mokou is a phoenix princess - but she doesn't look like one at all. No fancy dress, not even a tiara, so she just assumes. Clasping her hands together and looking pleased, Sanae gives her brightest smile, "Nonetheless, quest complete! It's good to meet you properly, Miss Mokou." There's no doubt going to be a lot of diplomatic stuff she doesn't understand now, so she'll shuffle off into the background, or more accurately float, landing next to Ayako in the process. She seemed friendly enough.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Hey! She said she was fine!" Psyber protests to Reiji, "And she's sitting down anyway." He notes, waving a hand.

    "Efficiency of time. I give her forms now, she fills em out at her leisure, no one gets kept later than they wanna be here." He justifies his actions in the context of just trying to make life easier.

    In reality, he's really just a guy who SUPER badly wants to employ a real phoenix.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "I guess. It's still pretty weird though," Reiji shrugs at Psyber, because there's no denying that it is kind of that. "Well, it's your organization. I guess it's better than how Shinra sometimes gets its personnel." At least Psyber's not showing up like two days after a kid gets a god shoved into their skulls to tell them that they're probably never going to be normal again. That would just be /super/ rude!

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    It's true -- she doesn't look burnt! But one of those lights in the sky -had- to be the Phoenix, so maybe... maybe...! She hears both Tenshi and Mokou confirm her profound logical deduction at once, and her eyes go wide. Though her expression doesn't budge, Raiden - her mask for surprise - literally punts Fox out of its way to cover Kokoro's face instead. She'll let the vehemence hinted by the movements of her masks speak for her. Or, well, for the most part she will.

    "-You're- the Phoenix? You've been the one creating all the lights all this time?" Her head flails over to Tenshi again. 'Human turned Youkai'? A life as a Phoenix in a forest? And who in Gensokyo was she fighting if not another firebird? So many questions! So much history! Kokoro would promptly clasp her hands together and stare Mokou down with glittering eyes and an otherwise entirely blank expression. "That's amazing! Really amazing! But you have to tell me everything! Who were you fighting? How long have you been here? And how can you heal yourself like that? I want to know everything!" She was right -- this is going to make the best play ever. And she might make an interesting friend tonight, too!

    Her masks would cycle again now, Hyottoko knocking Raiden out of its way this time. "It's good to meet you, Mokou! Like I said, I'm Kokoro! Hata no Kokoro to be exact. I'm the menreiki of all the masks that were used by Hata no Kawakatsu when he did all those plays for Prince Shoutoku!" She would straighten her posture and puff up, trying her best to look proud. "I live near the Human Village usually, but I'm in Psyber's group thing too! It's a lot of fun because I get to meet cool new people like you when I do stuff with them!" The best sales pitch is one that comes with built in flattery, too, obviously.

    Though as Sanae goes on, well... Kokoro's eyes start to glaze over. Rabbits. Moon. Princess. Rabbits. They can't be talking about... are they... oh my gosh. She stiffens completely and falls the the ground in a small puff of dirt and lies perfectly still for several moments before she finally lets her arms fall to her sides. She might blink, too, eventually.

    This is going to make the best story ever.

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    Resting her hand on her hip, Tenshi cleans out an ear with her pinkie, eyes closed, "Man. I thought you guys were up to something interesting when it turns out all I did was crash a boring ol' job interview." Her altitude increases and the angel rises up towards the night sky, "I'm outta here."

    About six meters above the treeline, though, she stops and floats there, a puzzled look on her face. That sort of 'wait a second' expression, eyes nearly crossed, for a full minute.

    "HOLD IT!"

    With no other warning Tenshi slams down again, scant meters from Psyber, enough to shatter the burned ground around her. Rising up, she twirls her sword hilt, catches it, and then points the bladeless weapon at the half angel with an accusing look on her face, "You had wings! You're not taking trashy photos and calling it news so you're probably not a crow, which tells me you must be an angel! An' not a Tennyo like me, the choirs an' stuff kind of Western Angel!" Turning slightly, Tenshi folds her arms, using the hilt of the Sword of Hisou to push up the brim of her hat, "That's right, nothing escapes Super Cute Angel Detective Tenshi."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Okay, well yeah. Maybe it's a bit weird," Psyber admits to Reiji, ceding the point because he can't really defend that it's weird to just walk up to a Phoenix and immediately talk recruitment. And he had done just that, "I just really wanna make this hire, I guess."

    Of course, when Tenshi slams right down next to him and makes her declaration, Psyber blinks a few times, "Y-yeah. That's correct, mostly. Like I just said, I'm a half-angel." He notes, looking at her. He takes a very long pause before adding, "Nice to... meet you?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako blinks her eyes quickly when Kokoro suddenly starts to gush. She opens her mouth to say something, but then slowly closes it. She's not really the type to interrupt someone while they're talking anyway. She watches the masks start cycling and blinks her eyes slowly. "Umm... Kokoro? Don't forget to breathe."

    And then Kokoro just falls onto the ground. "U-uhh... Kokoro? Are you alright?" Ayako takes off her witch hat and fans her gently with the brim.

    And then Ayako blinks her eyes quickly when Tenshi moves to fly off and suddenly slams back down. She smiles softly. Doesn't say anything, though.

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    Maybe a bit defensively, Mokou immediatly rebukes Tenshi with: "I'm not a youkai. I'm as human as they come. I think my body would reject severe changes to its nature like that anyway." It's just a guess; she doesn't know for sure. The line between a human and a youkai... is very, very blurry past a point. You could make a pretty solid argument any human with powers is basically going to cross the line whether they mean to or not eventually. And some youkai are basically just humans with powers.

    To Xiaomu: "Sorry, I'm not as well versed on Chinese mythology as I could be. I see fox traits, I say kitsune, no offense intended. Whipped cream...?"

    Now that she takes a closer look, it's true. "Oh... haha. Did the rabbits get you? The forest is filled with traps like that. Sometimes I have to yank people out of them because they forget. It's harmless, but it's annoying. Especially with all the fairies and youkai here."

    Psyber gets a nod. "I don't know about the war. I'm not really a superhero, but I like helping people out. Got me out of this rut I'd been having. I don't know if I can live up to whatever legends you've heard about phoenixes though." She glances at the forms. "You've... not stayed in Gensokyo for any extended period of time before, have you? I think we get something catastrophic happening every other month. ... come to think of it."

    A glance towards Tenshi. "You're familiar but I can't place it." Probably an incident she didn't partake in and only heard about from third parties.

    Ayako gets a glance, and a thorough inspection. "Water spirit...? I think you're the first I meet face to face. So you're a water goddess, or more like a water fairy? And yeah, a break would be nice right about now."

    Reiji gets a glance like he just pushed a button he shouldn't have, with the white-haired girl sighing. "I haven't been to the outside world in... a long, long time. I don't know if the Fujiwara Clan even exists anymore. It's just a name at this point. I wasn't born with these powers, if it's what you're asking. I just kind of made it happen without really thinking about it. You'd be surprised how much being really angry at someone can push you to do!"

    Sanae's reply is, first, Mokou humming her name, trying to memorize it. Wouldn't do to forget a shrine maiden's name. The lack of the I word is welcome, at least. "O-Oh, the princess? She huh... got tired. Wandered off. Probably back to her mansion to resume being a worthless NEET." She glances at her shirt. Half of that blood is Kaguya's, she's not exactly subtle.

    Kokoro's ability to sound so excited despite the completely blank expression is oddly unnerving. A mask youkai, she guesses? What an odd power. "A-Ah, err... slow down. Can we go over that after I've rested a bit? I can't die but I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty beat. That's a lot of questions. I guess I'll answer on-- w-wait, Shoutoku, really? So you're even older than I am, if only by about a century. W-Wow, that almost never happens. I'm not sure how to handle that conversation from the other side of it."

Sanae Kochiya (619) has posed:
    It wouldn't be honest to say that Sanae is sad to see Tenshi leave. It's not that she has an intense dislike of the girl or anything, but she just has this..feeling around her, like she's some kind of butt-in elemental. It's not the way a tennyo should be behaving at all! She does manage to conceal slight disappointment once Tenshi has her epiphany, mostly thanks to the cheeky angel managing to point out something she herself hadn't fully put together. Sanae *was* about to perhaps engage Ayako in some conversation, while also listening to more explanation from Mokou, but that's enough to snap her out of it. "You mean Mister Psyber is..? Huh.." She actually looks a bit bewildered, "I'm a little disappointed, honestly. I thought I could finally make friends with someone ordinary." She quickly realizes how that must sound, and she waves her hands frantically, "Ah, not that that changes my opinion of you! You're a super cool guy!"

    She also listens to Mokou's responses carefully. She's not dense enough to miss the implications of her looking at the shared blood, and the mess the two's scrap left is all that's really needed to put it together from there. "NEET, huh..so there was something like that, here," she muses, with a far away look in her eyes. A NEET lifestyle suits a princess well. Wonder if she's got WiFi.. She brings herself back to Earth with a clap of her hands, "Well, at least everything turned out okay, and everyone is making lots of new friends!" As before, though, she'll mostly leave the rest of this business to the higher order parties of interest. She does manage to feel a tinge of regret for Mokou, though. They'd only just found her and she's already getting contract offers. Must be an unusual day for her.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles cheerfully when Mokou looks her over. "Un. Water Spirit." She pauses fanning Kokoro with her hat for a moment when the words 'water goddess' are mentioned. "I... well..." Her amber eyes become a bit distant as she resumes fanning Kokoro. "In the past, maybe. A water goddess... but well, that's not really what I am anyway." She nods her head once and smiles cheerfully.

    A happy smile is given to Sanae. "Yup! That he is. What, did you think otherwise since he uses guns?" Ayako nods her head once. "Use the right tool for the job, I always say!" Her head inclines to the side gently when a NEET princess is brought up. "Huh..." In a moment, she makes the connection. "A-ahh... so the bunnies we ran into earlier..."

Tenshi Hinanai (477) has posed:
    Psyber's pointing out that he'd already said what he is kind of deflates Tenshi's haughty attitude, which can be easily seen when her posture slumps a bit in her 'I'm a cool guy' pose. A few blinks later and she tries to recover, "Y-yeah, but I figured it out before, I was just testing you--and you passed, yup."

    Before anyone can call her on the obvious bullshit, though, Tenshi straightens and drops her hands, "Oh, look at the time, it's 'Get Home'-o'clock! Better get home!" She crouches slightly and then jumps. Only instead of actually jumping, a keystone rips out of the ground immediately beneath her feet and lurches skyward, carrying the tennyo with it up across the night sky.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "Fair enough," Reiji says to Psyber, giving his shoulders another shrug. "Can't fault a guy for wanting to employ the people he wants to employ," Even though Reiji could probably fault him for doing it just to have a phoenix on staff. That's kind of extra weird.

He gives Sanae a bit of a look, too. "Someone ordinary? Some of us here are nothing but ordinary humans, you know."

    The tone in Mokou's voice is kind of difficult to miss. It makes Reiji wince only just a little bit, "Mmn. I see. In my world, it's been... About a thousand years. More. But there's no need to indulge my curiosity any further. I'll let it rest."

    Glowing embers drift slowly from the tip of his cigarette as he takes another draw, tapping away the still-burning ash into the wind. "So, do those rabbits do..." Reiji gestures at his deliciously creamy coating, "This kind of dessert-thing often? Or was this a special 'welcome to Gensokyo' event?"

He pauses, thinking about what might have happened if a normal human had fallen into one of those pits. If a hungry animal- or a youkai would come along... it wouldn't be pretty.

    "You make it sound like it's happened to quite a few people," Reiji muses, tapping the unburnt end of his cigarette against his chin. "Is there a reason they come all this way? If they needed bamboo, they could easily just cut down the stalks at the outside of the forest."

Tenshi speeds off before Reiji can bring up the 'Tennyo' thing. Probably for the best. BUT, NEXT TIME!!

Hata no Kokoro (654) has posed:
    Slowly but surely, Kokoro finds her way about feeling herself off the ground to resume her conversation with Mokou. "Oh! Okay. Yeah, we can talk later! But I definitely wanna know evveerryytthing. I don't get to meet people who are involved in so many different legends at once often! I mean, you at -least- have The Bamboo Cutter, The Forest Phoenix, and whole bunch of other stories wrapped around you! That's really amazing!" So apparently Mokou has accrued a fan. And she's a Youkai. She has a Youkai fan that can't make facial expressions and acts like she's ten even though, assuming she's telling the truth, she should be even older than she is.

    Just another day in Gensokyo.

    Oh, and about her age. "Well! I sort of am, but I'm sort of not. I mean, I have memories from that long ago, but they aren't really that clear because I experienced from a bunch of different forms. Like, I have some memories of being in one play, but then I also have memories of being in a different play at the same time! There were also times when all of my masks were separated, and I have memories of a bunch of different families who I stayed with as different masks." She wraps her hands behind her back and wavers in place. "It's... hard to explain! As Kokoro, though, I'm only really a few years old. See, all of my masks had to become tsukugmogami before they could join together to make me, and even after that happened they had to find eachother! It took a really, reaaalllyyy long time, and it's really kind of a miracle that I'm even here at all!" Good luck following any of that when you're as tired as Mokou probably is.

    Kokoro is probably more acutely aware than anyone else here - barring Ayako, maybe - of how tired Mokou is, so she would bug off soon after. Just not without a parting thought: "But, but! I will let you rest for now. You have to promise that you'll tell me stories later, though, okay? I wanna hear all about what you were fighting over and stuff! Okay?" She's so eager that it might be difficult to say no, but it would be easy enough to say 'yeah, sure,' and then put it off. Unless she's one of those really persistent kids who keeps asking until they get what they want -- then she might be doomed.

    Doooooomed.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber watches as the tennyo takes skyward and flies off into the night sky. He blinks a few times as she sails away and off out of sight before looking around and saying, "You know, she seemed nice." He comments in a thoughtful tone before shrugging a bit and then looking over to Ayako, "I used bows, swords and old-fashioned pugilism up until they introduced the Colt Peacemaker. That was about the time I switched over." He rubs his chin thoughtfully.

    "A phoenix would round out the roster, mostly. I like to diversify the skillsets of those I employ," He explains to Reiji in a pretty earnest way, "Depending on how attributes manifest, I'm one of the only extreme regenerators in my office roster, making me one of the staple damage-soaking defenders. We have a couple others, but I want to pad that out a bit more so that we have a better defensive line for field operations. I can't, for instance, protect multiple non-combatants a good distance apart. Plus are we currently lacking a dedicated pyrokinetic."

    He notes all this before dropping his cigarette to the ground and snuffing it under toe, "Hence why we're out here scouting a Phoenix." He concludes to Reiji with a smile, "And I appreciate your help, too." He notes with an awkward laugh, "You've adjusted pretty well to my weird office, too." It's rare Psyber finds people who just 'roll with it' as well as Reiji has. Thus, the half-angel extends a closed fist towards the man to attempt to initiate what they call a 'fist bump'.

    To Mokou, Psyber shrugs his shoulders, "Helping people is the best motivation a person can have. You don't need to be a super hero and I'm sure that, if you want, we can find good outlets." He responds to her inquiries, "And no, I've heard RUMORS, but I never spend prolonged periods here. The longest I've been here was either visiting Yuyuko or getting threatened by Remilia. The former was nice, the latter made me reticent and hesitant to return."

    "It is, though, nice to make your acquaintance," He repeats once more. He doesn't have a great comment on the princess, beyond: "Oh, you have a NEET problem too? I have a purple-haired one that sleeps 20 hours a day and justified it by cooking."

    Common ground!

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako puts her hat back on once Kokoro gets back up off the ground. "I..." And she shuts up when Kokoro suddenly starts to gush again. Sometimes being polite has it's drawbacks! She just continues to sweep the ground where she's at with her broom. And then sighs with relief when Kokoro says she will let Mokou rest for now.

    Ayako smiles back at Psyber. "She was nice in a... different sort of way." And then nods her head quickly. "Ahh, I see, I see. A long, long, time ago I used shields, chains, and several guns until I settled on one." She shakes her head slowly. "Not that I'd use anything like that nowadays..."

    "Eh heh... it's true. You do employ quite the range of people, Psyber." When the defensive line is brought up, "While I'm quite defensive, I'm afraid I'm still only one person, and I can only protect so much. While I could be a damage-soaking defender, I..." Ayako shakes her head slowly. "There are reasons why I'm not so eager to do such things and prefer to stay behind everyone and protect them with magic." She becomes quiet for a moment... and then smiles softly at Psyber.

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    Ayako gets a nod from Mokou. "The rabbits all live with her. They're from the Moon. Hm... actually I don't know if all the rabbits are, but I think so. It's a mansion in the heart of this forest called Eientei. I get along with... most of them, so they leave me be."

    Tenshi's exit is too rushed for her to react, but she'll try to grab her another time.

    "A thousand, three hundred and some," Mokou idly answers Reiji, before nodding. "Oh yeah. The rabbits love pranks. And theft. Mostly pranks this time of year. Happens a lot. I usually have to clean up, but at least they don't really hurt people, just inconvenience them."

    At the mention of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Mokou frowns, her tone taking a significantly less friendly turn, despite her current state. "I don't like talking about the Bamboo Cutter. I'd rather that story had never happened," is all she really says, though. It might be best not to push that angle. She does at least make note that Kokoro isn't old, she's just armed with very very old masks. "Yeah. We'll talk more after I rest."

    "Ugh. The vampire brat and the hungry ghost. Yeah, I've ran into them before. Their maids too. Never had to pull so many daggers and swords out of me before. Hopefully never have to again. They both tried taking over Gensokyo once or something, now they just host tea parties. The vampire built a rocket, once. Don't think it got anywhere." She shrugs. "Nice to meet you too, anyway. Sorry I'm not more energetic."

    Ayako gets another quick inspection, before the immortal decides not to push it. "Well, water spirit, water goddess, water fairy, guess it doesn't matter anyway. They're just words."

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Reiji is only able to roll with the punches because Shinra is actually approximately as insane as Psyber's Office. Living with Xiaomu has rendered him even more impervious to that kind of thing than most Shinra Operatives. Sometimes living a weird life is useful!

This doesn't stop him from just kind of staring at Psyber's fist for a moment, looking down at his drying layer of sticky cream, and quietly wondering how his life has come to this. Still, he just goes right ahead and breathes another sigh before reciprocating the fist bump.

A few months ago, his life was normal. He just had to send a few ghosts over to the other side every couple days, stab a few youkai, scatter some Kamaitachi to the four winds. Easy, simple, sane stuff. Now he's covered in whipped cream and carrots because some weird Youkai Rabbits wanted to play a prank on someone.

Life. It... happens?

    "Makes sense, I guess," he says to Psyber, then, "How often do you deploy the entire office to deal with threats of that scale, though? Seems like it's pretty often from what I'm hearing." He coughs into a fist, "And, uh, you do know that a significant portion of Kenji's schtick is 'pyrokinesis,' right?"

Reiji makes a mental note to drag Kenji out for more operations. Would be a good learning experience.

    Reiji's attention shifts back to Mokou. 'Bamboo Cutter,' huh? And this girl she doesn't like is a princess, which might have some... interesting implications. He's not sure he's ready to meet a proper Moon Princess yet, anyway. That sort of thing usually doesn't end well for strapping young warriors.

    "And I imagine that lecturing those rabbits doesn't really do much good. They didn't strike me as particularly repentant," the exorcist shakes his head, "Or particularly attentive. If they're more or less harmless, though... I guess they're more annoying than anything else."

He tries to not dwell on the bit about 'pulling daggers and swords out.' While Mokou may be immortal, that doesn't stop Reiji from dealing with the sympathetic cringe response. And there's a /lot/ of cringe with that kind of imagery.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Ah. I knew it on some level, but it can't hurt to have a second. Maybe they can cross-train," He suggests to Reiji before he thinks, "The entire office has never deployed to a singular operation. The closest we've gotten are en-masse deployments like the incidents on Laine's World during the apocalypse. I just like to keep a rounded roster so people can find niches."

    To Ayako, though, Psyber distinctly shakes his head, "You're a support and medical deployment. I would not place you on the field in a directly defensive or offensive capacity. I do not enjoy deploying people outside of their comfort zones and will rarely do so. You dislike personally undertaking violence, and so will not be asked to do so. I am quite content to utilize your far more useful medical abilities."

    To Mokou, Psyber thinks, "I dislike the vampire personally. And I will avoid interaction with her where possible." A beat of pause, "Low energy is fine for the moment. Do you have a place to stay, or should I prepare a guest room?"

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"Already inviting her over to your home?" Reiji deadpans at Psyber. "You really do move fast."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Nah, nah, not like that," Psyber adamantly states, "If you haven't noted, a sizable number of employees take up direct residence in the building."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles cheerfully at Mokou. "Aahh, I see, I see. Hmm... pranky rabbits..." She nods her head slowly. And then Mokou happens to say a certain sentance. 'They're just words.' Ayako smiles cheerfully at Mokou... although the broomstick is trembling. "Oh, for some people, words are qutie important. So yes. Water Spirit." She says happily and firmly.

    Ayako sighs with relief when Psyber says he wouldn't deploy her in a defensive matter. "I'm glad. Well, as long as I can be helpful, I'm quite content." And when Psyber says the words 'Guest Room', she adjusts how she holds her broom. As if getting ready to clean.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"I'm aware," Reiji nods somberly. "However, I'm pretty sure neither our guide, nor the girl you're trying to bring home, know that's how it's set up."

Also the barb was there to be made, and so he went for it. Reiji is the cruelest Onmyoji.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Damn you. You're a cruel man," Psyber says with a laugh, clearly not minding the jab from Reiji. Good natured fun, right? "It does sound weird without the context."

Fujiwara no Mokou (709) has posed:
    "Oh, I... have a house. Well, shack. I spent so long sleeping while sitting against a wall I have a hard time doing it any other way now, so it's fine, really. Plus I need a place to store all that chicken for when I grill it. Sometimes I'll settle right outside the forest and sell it, it's a hit with the villagers," Mokou answers Psyber, before looking at Reiji. "Making the rabbits change... you're funny. Close enough to harmless though. You kind of learn to live with it."