Monday, June 22, 2009

Missing in Harvest

"I am heading to the village. It's late and sis isn't home yet. It's not like her to be this late. I swear, if I find her having fun with the villagers, I'll... I'll." Arriving at the village, Shizuha immediately notices the village is quiet. Way too quiet. One of the villager approaches Shizuha. "You're late. It's nearly dark and... wait, where is your sister?" Shizuha opens her eyes widely in concern. "What? My sister came by since early this afternoon. I was sure she was partying her ass off by now!" The villager frowns and looks at his harvest then looks at Shizuha again and says "well this is very worrying... if your sister doesn't arrive soon, the harvest will be ruined... come to think of it..." The villager ponders for a little; Shizuha then swiftly turns around and a small shadow runs away, heading toward the youkai mountain. "What was...?" asked Shizuha, but was interrupted by the villager "there was this weird girl earlier. She was hooded and claimed to be the new harvest goddess, however she really didn't do much. She said she would return tomorrow and bless our harvests for sure. Is your sister retiring?" Shizuha frowned and said "I'm going to find my sister. Wait for her, alright?" The villager nodded as Shizuha heads to Youkai Mountain following that little shadow.

Reaching the foot of the mountain, Shizuha feels strange. As the night creeps above her, she bravely ventures on to the mountains. So many youkai attack her, but her sister's well-being on her mind gave her the much needed courage and resolve to venture the mountains at night. From the distance many growls, blasts and explosions could be heard. By the time Shizuha reaches the waterfall, morning was only a few hours away. She was a bit winded and tired, but she kept on going. A large youkai, growling at her from behind a tree took this chance and ambushed her. Shizuha turns around to see the monstrous creature approach her, but to her luck, Aya dives in just in time, blowing the large creature off the mountain with her fan. "Are you alright?" asks Aya. Shizuha looks away a little ashamed saying "you didn't have to butt in. I could have taken it on". Aya just smiles and asks "what are you doing in the mountains at these hours?" As they fly up the waterfall, Shizuha explains to Aya about her missing sister, the villager's concern, and the little shadow she saw. Aya smirks and tells her "a "little shadow", you say? I don't know about a shadow, but I did see a little frog in quite a hurry. I think you should visit the Moriya shrine." Shizuha nods with resolve in her eyes and as they both reach the top of the waterfall, morning had already come, leaving very little night left.

By the time Shizuha had reached the shrine gate, the sun's crown was already shining over the mountain... it was already morning. She reached the door to the shrine and knocks. The door slightly opens and Kanako's voice is heard form inside "My, my, look what the wind has brought up the mountain. How can I help you this fine morning little miss... err.."*sweat drop* Slightly annoyed, Shizuha answers "it's Shizuha... Shizuha Aki! And I am here looking for my sister. She was supposed to head to the village to bless the harvests, but the villagers said that some sort of hooded figure came instead... claiming to be the NEW harvest goddess..." Shizuha starts looking suspiciously at Kanako then asks "you wouldn't happen to know anything about it... right?" Kanako hides her panic as well as she can then says "of course not.. We've been here, just enjoying these peaceful days. R-right guys?" Inside the shrine, sitting next to the table were Sanae and Suwako, just smiling and waving at Shizuha. Still suspicious, Shizuha continues "then you wouldn't mind if I look inside for a bit, right?" Kanako panics a bit but welcomes here into their home. After an hour of searching, Shizuha gave up and with a defeated look she heads out the door, while Sanae and Suwako, who were still sitting at the table, smiling and waving, say goodbye to her. "I'm so sorry sis" quietly said Shizuha. "I failed you... I better head home and..." Shizuha catches the scent of sweet potatoes. It was a faint scent, but she could follow it with ease. As she followed the scent she thought to herself "this is Minoriko! There's no mistake... she's here somewhere." Suddenly she heard muffled screaming, coming from under one of the tiles on the side of the shrine. With all her might, she pulled the heavy square stone open and inside a hole was Minoriko. Shizuha couldn't believe her eyes, and without thinking, she pulls her sister up and hugs her tightly. "Shizuha! You found me!" said Minoriko as she hugged her sister back. Shizuha started to cry tears of joy repeating "I found you, I found you!" Suddenly, Minoriko remembered exactly what happened. Her face turned red with anger and started to shout "those BLASTED GODS!!! They caught me off-guard, but I'll show 'em, I'm gonna kick their..." Just as she started walking toward the door to the shrine, Shizuha grabs hold of her sister's arm saying "No, no sister! They are too strong! You'll only get hurt!" Minoriko sighs and says "fine... Let's just go home... I'm tired and I could really use a bath right now!" Shizuha smiles and nods then reminds her sister "don't forget you never reached the village. I'll go with you this time, okay?" As they fly away back home, three pair of eyes could be seen beside the slightly opened door to the Moriya shrine.

At last, the harvest was a success, both Minoriko and Shizuha partied with the villagers until the moon came out, the hooded girl never came by the village, but nobody cared since the real harvest goddess had blessed the harvests in time.. but what about the Moriyas?

That night, at the Moriya Shrine:
With a grin on her face, Aya hands over a bottle of wine to Sanae saying "this is from the Aki sisters. They say there are no hard feeling, but do ask you never do something like that again." With that, still grinning, Aya lifts up into the air and vanishes in less then a second. Sanae bring sthe wine bottle inside. Kanako was suspicious "just like that? They send us a gift after what we did?" Suwako smiles and says "c'mon, the Aki sisters are very gentle goddesses. Minoriko probably forgot all about it by now." Sanae continues saying "besides, we sent them that lovely apology basket, didn't we? I'm sure they forgive us." All suspicions leave Kanako and she immediately grabs the bottle, bites on the cork and pulls it free, however only a drop of wine came out. "Huh!? That's strange" said Kanako while looking inside the bottle. "The bottle feels full, yet nothing's coming out... wait... I think there are grapes in there... what the hell?" Suddenly, the bottle jumps form Kanako's hands and on to the center of the table and something resembling a pink puff starts to come out the bottle. Suwako, Kanako and Sanae back away quickly looking terribly frightened. The pink puff expands like a balloon and suddenly turns to the head of a little man. Spikey brown hair, eyes as dark as a new moon's night, and showing absolutely no expression at all. "What the hell is that!?" asks Kanako, and just as she finished her question, the bottle starts to shine from within with the little man still clogging the bottle's mouth. Kanako, Suwako and Sanae run to the door as fast as they could, however, the bottle of wine explodes with great might, spewing wine all over the shrine. After the explosion, Kanako was left hanging from the ceiling, held by her rope belt. Suwako had been slammed hard against the wall, slowly sliding off, revealing the mark left by her body on the wall. Sanae was on the ground spitting out wine, her hands and legs spread, a dizzy look on her face as she blankly stares up at the ceiling, where Kanako was hanging. Slowly, a yellow piece of paper falls on the center of the table. On this piece of paper was written the following:
"APOLOGY ACCEPTED
Yours truly
The Aki Sisters".

Outside on the starry night sky, a large image of both Aki sisters smiling and saying "you don't mess with the autumn goddesses."

Characters and scenarios belong to ZUN

June 12, 2009
Written by
Willie G.R (a.k.a. OmegaStarstrike)

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