Chapter 7: Scalable R.O.I.

"Considering you didn't know already, I suppose we'll be the first to offer you congratulations, too..."

Congratulations.

Wait.

Reluctantly, she escaped the Aki sandwich, trundled over to her alcohol cabinet, and grabbed one of the bottles that she thought belonged to the Moriya gods and finally read the tags.

"Reimu, So you've become a god. Congratulations! You've joined a multitudinous but still very exclusive club. If you have any questions or need help learning the ropes, feel free to visit or invoke us at the branch whenever you want. Signed... SuwaKana?"

So the answer was right there in front of her the whole time AND she had spent it dry.

That was an injustice of the highest order.

"Shizuha! Minoriko! Prepare your bodies. Tonight we drink like gods!"

"...and then this stupid dramatic girl from another world with red crosses held a combat tournament and I got dragged into it." Reimu was splayed across the kotatsu with a good buzz going, rambling about her past adventures.

"Oh, you poor dear, that must have been terrible!"

"Kinda yea kinda no? So it was like this..."

"Tourism! I couldn't believe it, even after we stuffed a couple vacationers on our way in."

"Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad?"

Reimu sighed. "Maybe not, but I was like... twelve? Huge chip on my shoulder, divine mission, and not a lot of sense." By this point, she was... "Things have changed bunches, so maybe we can... uh... think about it again. I'll have to see if Alice is in touch with her mother. You know that? Alice is royalty. Shinki - that's the creator goddess of Makai - Shinki's her mom. Super hot too, now that I think about it, but her maid is scary as Sakuya. Why are maids so scary? The West must be pretty dangerous with youkai like that around..." ...she was pleasantly sloshed.

Reimu, wallowing all over the kotatsu as she drunkenly regaled the Aki sisters with the story of the time she beat them up in her rampage up the mountain, suddenly stopped and sat bolt upright, staring out through the open door into the cool night sky.

"Youkai."

"H-Huh? Is something o-out there?!" Minoriko asked in alarm.

"No. The question you asked earlier. I... remembered. Figured out?" She shook her head. It didn't matter. "My faith. It comes from youkai."

Reimu had reached Drunk Enlightenment.

"Oh."

"No, I think it's more than that. More like... I'm their... but that's just silly. Dammit, Yukari, you're probably listening so get your hag ass out here and make words!"

"Now Reimu, is that really any way to greet an ol-KYAN!" Sure enough, Yukari appeared lounging from a gap somewhere off to her left, so she grabbed and hauled.

"Yes. You know something, you got your jollies. Time's up."

"You're sure you don't want the joy of discovery for yours-"

"Get on with it!" Shizuha cut in.

"Dear me, such a difficult crowd. Fine. The truth is I'm not entirely 100% sure, but... as far as I can tell, Reimu... you are Gensoukyou."

"Like the barrier? My family made the barrier with you, right?"

"Nope! The whole thing!"

"Woah..."

"More specifically, you embody the belief that humans and youkai can peacefully coexist. ... basically."

"That's... okay, I guess that's not what I expected with my past. 'Hakurei Reimu, Goddess of Racial Harmony'... doesn't really sound like me? It feels off."

"Ah, no, not quite... It's..."

"What is it?"

"Well... you might not..."

"Wrong. Try again."

"...dear me, but this is rather awkward..."

"You said you'd explain."

"I mean technically-"

"Yukari."

"Fiiiine. But let me preface this by saying I promise I had nothing to do with this. Whole truth. You see... I think it's possible - just possible, mind! - that... that you're the Goddess of Police Violence."

Reimu passed out, drunk and overwhelmed.

"Well, that sucks," Minoriko finally summarised.

"And a good evening to you, O Gracious and Vibrant Autumn."

Yukari rose and turned to walk into a gap when an implacable hand gripped her shoulder uncomfortably.

"Why?" Shizuha's sisterly indignation bore down on Yukari. "Why this farce? Why not tell her what she is?"

"Ah... at the height of your season you still have some impressive power. Well met, Vibrant Autumn." Yukari grimaced. "As for why..." she looked back over her shoulder and smiled sadly. "You should understand it well. She needs someone to be an outlet. But while I can give her a bit of a push, that is the limit or I risk defining her before she has the chance to do that herself." The tight grasp loosened. "You two could easily have had an adversarial relationship as the rot of the land and its last gasp of life, you know." Both sisters flinched. "You see it, then. She has the spark and the essence... but not the mantle. Not quite yet."

"But soon." They were silent for a long moment before Minoriko added her own input.

"This seems pretty unnecessary. Do you really think Reimu is the sort to let others define who she is?"

"Ah, but she might not have a choice." Yukari sighed and turned around fully. "You've heard her telling of her own legend tonight, but how have those events been viewed by others? You must have heard from somewhere, being the more social Aspect. What do humans think of her?" That point earned her a round of thoughtful nods. "She's more likely to take more considered action, now; maybe she'll attempt to cultivate a more palatable public image with humans, too, now that she's at least peripherally aware of what could be should the flavour of their Faith go awry."

"... I see your point. But will she not be defined by youkai just as much as humans?"

"Oh, much more, definitely!" Yukari replied cheerfully. "She already has, I would think. But the youkai with the most faith in her know her as she is and nearly all of them hold that faith because of what she's done for them."

"Really?"

"Quite so. You concern yourselves with the affairs of humans more than youkai, but surely you've noticed the changes too?" She smirked a little, as if at a private joke. "After all, you both have at least one spellcard! She neither asked nor wanted to be the principal enforcer of the law, but she rose to the challenge until she changed the rules entirely."

"Are you suggesting the current prosperity of the human village is because of that?"

"No. I've proven it to five sigma. ... Ah, that's an idea from outside. I mean there's only the very tiniest uncertainty, less than one grain of rice from a large family's pot." The widened eyes told her the comparison struck true.

"So what will you do?" Shizuha, ever the practical worrywart.

"I will guide her to choosing for herself how she wishes to be revered." Yukari explained patiently. "And if I happen to play a few pranks along the way? Well, I'm sure she won't hold a grudge for more than a few decades at the worst. Te he~!" She stuck her tongue out and rapped her head with a knuckle. A comical pastel star flew out and the sisters grimaced.

"... please never do that again. The last bit, I mean; the scheming is just what you do at your age."

Yukari placed a hand on one hip, pointing at herself with the other hand, and winked coquettishly with a sickly-sweet smile. "'My age'? Silly onee-chan, Yukarin is sevent-"

"ARGH!" Shizuha cried out as she frustratedly finished stuffing Yukari into her own gap.

"You got played, onee-chan..."

"I know! But it felt really good anyway..."

"So... what should we do with Reimu?"

They looked over at the fallen body of their most recent peer.

"If it should please our honoured guests to not trouble themselves, Chen shall attend to Reimu-shama."

They jumped as Chen suddenly made her presence known.

"Ah, you are the new Miko?" Shizuha queried.

"So moe I'm gonna die!" Minoriko added. "Onee-chan, can we keep her? I wanna take her hooooome~!"

Gensoukyou's peaceful days continue.

#AN: And an epilogue has yet to coalesce, so I think this is the end of the story. I have a whole pile of rejected snippets, but if I clean those up and publish them, it'll likely be a sort of omake collection under a different title.

This whole premise, which I dubbed "Youkai Faith Project" (how's that for an on-the-nose title?), first took root about six months ago, I think. But the seeds for it were planted by doujinshi years before that. Miko Miko Suika by Haniwa Store is probably the most obvious, but Sayakata Tea Mansion's Red Sky of Japonesia and several others also contributed to my rendering of the Fantasy Paradise. The Chen in this story is more or less a ringer for Hanegi Riru's performance in the Touhou M-1 Grand Prix series. And, of course, Reimu being "the monster known as a 'shrine maiden'", which happens even in official work, can't be ignored. Along with any other references you noticed, because it wouldn't be Touhou without memes, right?

I DO have mixed feelings about how this turned out, but hey, I completed something! It's about damn time!