A new shop has opened up called MahoTech! Run by Yumemi Okazaki and Chiyuri Kitashirakawa, it is located in the Forest of Magic right by Rinnonosuke’s Kourindou. It sells… It sells…
I appear to be holding a one dimensional piece of paper. Not two dimensions. One dimension as there is, quite literally, no backside to this sheet of paper. I just attempted to read the rest of this note that the owners have sent me and am now crying blood. I am putting it away now in a box and calling Cirno ovr to freeze and bury the box and its contents at the bottom of the Misty Lake.
Pardon me as I go get a cup of jasmine.
Kettle’s on the stove and it’ll whistle when it’s done. Thank you for waiting, Dreamers. Just one small thing before we continue.
Daiyousei, could you be a dear and please send some fairies to investigate MahoTech and inform them that their advertising slip appears to have somehow become one dimensional. Tell them that from now on that all submissions must be turned in via conventional geometry. Preferably non-blood tear inducing. Also inform them that if my head implodes and/or explodes within the next 24 hours that I shall be very cross and will ask the miko to punish them.
Thank you.
There, that’s done. It’s a very good thing that I’m a Fool and thus a bit harder to kill than usual. Otherwise, dear Dreamers, where would you be without my voice to soothe your worries?
All joking aside, it is now time to speak of the preparations for the start of the harvest season. Remember to stock up on firewood and extra provisions. For those yokai who are preparing to hibernate and need supplies or space, please remember that there is such a thing as discussion and negotiation.
You do not need to steal, threaten, nor kill to get your necessities. If nothing else, trust in a human’s desire and greed to bring about a beneficial outcome for both sides. If you need a mediator, Hieda no Akyuu, Rinnosuke Morichika, and myself are willing to judge over any disputes. Hieda no Akyuu can be reached at the Hieda Mansion in the Human Village, Rinnosuke can be reached at his Kourindou in the Forest of Magic, and I will be there should the other two not be free.
Do not worry. I’ll know when to come. Do not ask how.
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On the edge of the Forest of Magic, in a little shop known as the Kourindou, a silver-haired, golden-eyed man took off his glasses to clean them on his black and blue robes. It had been an idle pastime to while away the long empty hours of running his odds-and-ends shop. At first startling, it was an enjoyable, if albeit strange way to pass the time and was even oddly informative in some ways.
Still, Rinnosuke, The Unmoving Used Goods Seller, couldn’t help but chuckle at that last segment. He wondered how many people would listen to such an idiotic idea as negotiating with the other side. Yokai, human, call him cynical, but Rinnosuke doubted that things would be so clean
He may be a halfbreed, but that only meant he knew the capriciousness between both sides. Humans feared yokai, yokai feared humans. Oh, most yokai would never admit it, but fear and hate was a two way street as they say. Yokai were born out of human fears, and acted as mirrors to them. As for humans? Well, humans were contradictions. His existence was born out of such a contradiction.
He knew better than most just how similarities could divide.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
This speaker really was a Fool though. An informed one if he knew the truth behind Rumia and the old Miko, of the meat-eating youkai that once was big and the Miko that once was small,but a fool nevertheless.
That last thought sobered Rinnosuke just a bit. A fool was dangerous, but an informed one even more so, knowing just enough to break things and being idiotic enough to actually break them.
...Rinnosuke sipped his cup of tea that he had left sitting on his kerosene heater to warm, forcing his body to relax. Perhaps this Fool knew a bit more than he should, but he seemed to have good intentions even if his methodology was questionable.
Someone that seeked to ease human/yokai interactions couldn’t be too bad. ...THey could have used that philosophy back then, back before the Spellcard Rules and Danmaku, but… it was good that it was here now.
Though he did wonder why the speaker used first names with such familiarity. And the odd habit of referring to people by their given name and then their family one.
...Rinnosuke shrugged. He wouldn’t get any answers, and the broadcast had hit one of its intermittent lulls. Now was as good a time as any to begin preparing lunch.
The doorbell suddenly rang.
Perhaps, Rinnosuke changed his mind, it would be better to make a sale instead.
Standing, he bowed, greeting, “Welcome to the Kourindou, what can we--”
“We ain’t interested in your junk,” a brash voice called out, before a series of crashes occurred behind one of the many piles blocking his view. The sound of delicate merchandise breaking had Rinnonosuke hurrying out and around his piles of stock.
Another voice cut in, different in tone but equally cocksure,“We heard that you resolve shit? Help talk it out?”
“Well, I suppose that is what the broadcast said,” Rinnosuke said diplomatically, finally entering the storefront proper to see who his ‘guests’ were.
A young man, barely out of his teens, was currently wrestling with an equally young youkai, a bird one based on the feathers. Especially young too as it had many animalistic features instead of more humanoid ones, having a beak. Rinnosuke winced as they wrestled, knocking over his merchandise.
“Tell this yokai to give me back my fucking flute,” the man shouted, placing the bird yokai into a chokehold.
“Tell this human to learn to play better than,” the bird yokai choked out before biting the human’s arm. When the man yelled in pain and loosened his grip, the bird yokai rolled away and pointed, “HE fucking sucks.”
The man flipped off the bird yokai, “Well then why don’t you show me how to do it then if you’re such an expert!?”
“Why should I!? You’re rude!” the bird yokai growled.
The two cocksure males continued their metaphorical cock measuring contest, wrestling and insulting one another. For two individuals seeking to resolve things diplomatically, they seemed very interested in destroying his shop. Already, he was mentally tallying up the bill for their reparations once their business was resolved.
...Rinnosuke couldn’t help but be interested in the fact that they actually listened to the broadcast though. He was quite sure that he was right about yokais and humans never being able to truly get along, and some part of him was waiting for things to get worse, but beyond the wrestling, there was a surprising lack of desire to murder one another between the two idiots.
He supposed that he could add this to his services. Business at the Kourindou was slow anyhow. Resolving disputes would just be like making a sale and would be a nice side hustle.
...Not that he really sold anything at his Kourindou. In his defense, he had a lot of interesting things from the Outside World and he even knew what they were for! ...Just… Not how to use them. Selling mystery things was difficult.
...This might be a problem. Ah well, he could learn as he went.
“Before we get into resolving this dispute,“ Rinnonosuke closed his eyes and sighed, before flexing his aura. While he was a mere half-youkai, he was a mere half-youkai who lived on the edge of the Forest of Magic and dealt with the Youkai of Boundaries on a regular basis. He was weak, but when one dealt with dangerous things, one learnt a few tricks.
As the rude duo quivered before him, Rinnosuke adjusted his glasses, unknowingly causing a threatening glint to flare upon them, and smiled, “Let’s talk about my fee.”
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Minoriko Aki, Goddess of Harvest and Soft Joys, and Shizuka Aki, Goddess of Fall’s Changing Leaves and Simple Beauties, will be helping with the finishing touches on everybody’s harvests. Make sure to thank them kindly and support them with your faith!
After the harvest is done, winter will come along with its dangers and delights. Be sure to keep in touch with one another and to use your kotatsus cautiously and respectfully. Please do not fornicate under a Kotatsu. Should they become tsukumogami, they will remember.
All things have memories and while change brings forgetting, some things stick true. Sometimes literally.
This has been a reminder from the Tsukumogami Trauma Center.