Lakefront Property Closing Papers

[Clownpiece]

“Seriously?” Reimu couldn’t help but let out an exasperated sigh at Yuuka’s suggestion. With the subject of her ire laying her face against the table, she couldn’t get right up in her business. The hollow tapping of her footsteps fell over the shrine as she was relegated to angrily pacing behind the flower youkai. “There are people out there dying and there’s hordes of things out roaming around, probably looking for some other village out there to attack, and you want to take a nap before you go out looking for whoever is behind it.”

“Well when you put it that way....” Yuuka mumbled a half-hearted and all too apathetic response and tiredly lifted her head off of the wood. The rhythmic pacing stopped right behind her.

“And you want a plan?” The shrine-maiden asked in a harsh tone, folding her arms over her chest as she threw a cross glance at Cirno. “Here’s one for you. Both of you, get out of my shrine,” she seethed, emphasis on each word to hammer the point home. “You two are going to go out, track down whoever’s causing this, and take care of them. Got it?”

“Why aren’t you coming?” There was an almost accusatory note to Cirno’s voice. Her uncharacteristically dire voice caught Reimu off guard, and for a moment, the anger fell off her face.

“Because the village is still in dire straits,” she answered, quickly recovering her rage. “And it was already made abundantly clear by Yuuka...” Extra stress was placed on the green-haired monster’s name. “...That I can’t trust either of you to not traumatize the villagers anymore.”

“It’s okay Reimu,” Yuuka said with her usual faux cheer, slowly rising from her seat on the floor. “You take a break and leave this to the real Incident Resolution Specialists.”

“T-that’s not what I-!” The miko stuttered out, before letting loose an incensed sigh and rubbing her left hand over her face. “Look, Clownpiece and I...”

“Yes?” The brightly-colored and still drunk fairy in the corner perked up at the mention of her name.

“...Are going to stay back so we can clean up any stragglers and help prepare the village for another attack, should one happen.” As much as she was loathe to admit it, Clownpiece was the last bastion of sanity in this place. Between suddenly winding up in a different world, Cirno becoming a youkai, Yuuka eating people, and the hordes of weird, twisted monsters, Clownpiece was a sort of anchor for her, which was saying something. If she had to turn to a literal beacon for lunacy in order to find some semblance of reason, then things had truly gone to shit. Or perhaps it was the torchlight making her feel like everything was still in order.

“We’ll get this all under control,” the flower youkai assured her after a moment, in a tone that didn’t sound promising in the least. “So don’t you worry.”

“That’s only going to make me worry more...” she mumbled in response. “Just... go.”

“Alright.” Yuuka said, picking her parasol up and stepping towards the exit, Cirno following along. “See you later~”

“Not if I see you first!” Clownpiece suddenly piped up from the back, stumbling forward to say goodbye to her friends. She stopped in her tracks, a slow look of realization dawning on her face. Reimu looked on in confusion, wondering where the hell that insult had come from.

“Wait...” the hell fairy muttered, standing still as a statue. “He told me that!? Where’s my... phone?” With a voice filled with rage, she stumbled off.

“Ignore her,” Reimu said after a moment, turning back to face the two. “She’s just drunk.” With a final set of goodbyes, Yuuka and Cirno set off to track down the culprit, leaving only Reimu, two fairies, and a half-dead man in the shrine. The miko sighed, enjoying the moment of brief respite while she could.

“Clownpiece!” She called out into the silent shrine, before setting off in search of her. It was time to head out and help the village.