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Chapter Text

Satori folded up her wet umbrella and placed it in a cubby hole just in the door of the Hakurei Shrine, along with her coat, and the one pair of boots that she owned. The journey from the Palace Of The Earth Spirits to the Hakurei Shrine was a long one, and it involved going through the cold wet cave that was the Fantastic Blowhole, so whatever reason it was that she’d been summoned here by Reimu, it had to be a good one. The satori never got mail from anyone other than her sister, but a letter from the shrine maiden had arrived the other day telling her to come to Hakurei Shrine as soon as she could. No reason had been provided, but since she had little to do at this point in time, she’d made the two day journey up to the Hakurei Shrine.

She padded into the modest living room, relieved to find that the shrine maiden had the forethought to put out hot tea and snacks before she’d arrived. Two cups of black tea, and some freshly baked anpan were on the table in front of Reimu.

“I believe you summoned me,” Satori said as she sat down, sipping her tea without bothering to check the temperature first.

Reimu reached for her own tea, stirring some honey into it. “That’s right. I called you here to ask if you knew anything about the satori I’ve been hearing about,” she said, “It’s a long shot, I know, but is there any chance that you know who she is?”

There had been some strange rumours going around, about a satori who claimed that she wanted to help others. Very few people or yokai had ever seen the satori in the flesh, but those who did apparently had their brains altered when they saw her. They’d go to see her, and come back as completely different people, if they came back at all.”

“I’ve heard of her, but I don’t know her. She doesn’t live underground, like me, for one, and I never come above ground unless it’s the visit Koishi at the Myouren Temple,” Satori spat, annoyed, “And two, do you think that all satori know each other?”

“I wasn’t asking if you knew her personally, but I wondered if you might at least know her name,” Reimu answered, “But surely you’ve heard the rumours about her? They’re all I’ve been hearing about for weeks now.”

Satori reached for an anpan. “I have heard the rumours, yes. This satori claims that she can fix broken minds, or so I’ve heard. My pets have also seen an aosagibi whom we believe works for her. She’s been seen picking people up from the entrance of the Fantastic Blowhole, and when they get back, some of them have been behaving differently. It’s like their brains have been altered somehow.”

“I’ve heard the humans in the village talking about an aosagibi, too,” Reimu responded, “Rumour has it that she approaches humans who appear troubled, and asks if they want their troubles to be fixed. If they say yes, she flies back to wherever she came from, and the she delivers letters to the troubled human instructing them to meet her outside the village when it gets dark. Then, she takes them off to see the satori, and when they get back, their troubles are gone. It’s like they were never troubled to begin with.”

Satori bit open her anpan, relieved to find that the red bean paste inside was nice and chunky. “Sometimes, she takes humans, and even smaller yokai off, and she never returns them.”

This was concerning to Reimu, given that aosagibi weren’t dangerous yokai at all. They were simply black-crowned night herons in yokai form whose only concerning trait was their ability to produce blue flames. They were shy creatures who caused no trouble, and never even ate humans. “Do you think she’s fetching them for the satori to eat?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her. A tsukumogami went missing from the Fantastic Blowhole just last week. She cried often, and she got beaten up a lot by the stronger yokai down there,” she said, “The aosagibi came to her, and she took her away, and I haven’t seen the tsukumogami since.”

Reimu put down her teacup. “Describe the tsukumogami to me?”

“I never found out her name, but she was very young, I know that much,” she continued, “She was made some time in the 1920s, and only gained sentience recently. She was, in essence, a newborn.”

Reimu glanced down at the table. Teddy bear tsukumogami were uncommon in Gensokyo, but the few that existed there often had tragic stories to tell. Many of them belonged to children who had died before they became tsukumogami, and they often attempted to journey to Heaven in the hopes of finding their owners.

Satori finished her anpan. “Though, if this satori claims to help people, then I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt, and assume that she might simply have helped the tsukumogami get to Heaven, so she can be with her owner. She wasn’t happy in the Fantastic Blowhole, that’s for certain.”

“Regardless of what we both think, we should investigate this matter further,” Reimu said, “I think that finding this aosagibi would be the best starting point, as if we follow her, we’ll find out exactly where this satori lives.”

“The thing is, she only comes to get people when it gets dark, and she could be anywhere at this moment in time,” Satori sighed, “We’ll have to search the human village, and the Fantastic Blowhole, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll find her at any of those places tonight.”

“Well, we’ll have to give them a try, anyway, and if she hasn’t come for anyone there tonight, we’ll gather some more information about her whereabouts, and try again tomorrow,” Reimu said, “She could be operating in other locations, and she might only come to certain places on certain days.”

Reimu sipped her tea. “Hey, when did that tsukumogami go missing from the Fantastic Blowhole?”

“Tuesday.”

“And the last time the aosagibi was spotted in the human village was Thursday last week, according the rumours, and it’s Thursday again now,” she said, “So tonight, I think we should start by searching the human village.”

“That sounds like the right starting point,” Satori agreed.

As soon as it got dark, the two set off for the human village. The human village wasn’t far from the Hakurei shrine, so it didn’t take long for them to get there on foot. It seemed that they had arrived at just the right time, as they could see an aosagibi’s telltale blue flames just in front of them. The aosagibi landed, and the flames burned out, fading away from her wings. She straightened her hat, and smoothed out a crinkle in her long navy blue skirt before producing a clipboard and pen from a pocket on her skirt.

“An aosagibi,” Satori said as they approached her, “What brings a yokai like you to the human village?”

“I’m here to ferry a patient to Nōko’s office,” she said, “It’s quite far away from the human village, and we wouldn’t want our human patients getting eaten by yokai along the way, so I escort them there and back to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”

Reimu regarded her with suspicion. “You say that, but you’re a yokai…”

“I’m an aosagibi, my kind don’t eat humans,” she said, suddenly looking offended, “And neither does Nōko, or Fuwa…”

“And who are Nōko and Fuwa?” Reimu said.

“Fuwa is a colleague, and Nōko is our boss,” she said, “Nōko has the ability to fix broken minds.”

“What do you mean by that?” Satori added, noting the names. Nōko must have been the name of the satori they were after. A name that meant ‘brain child’ could only belong to a member of a species whose powers revolved around the mind.

The yokai was about to answer, but she stopped dead when she heard the footsteps of a human girl behind her. The girl looked barely a day over eighteen, and, judging from her pale face, she hadn’t seen the sun in a while. Reimu noted that they had a term for people like that in the outside world, who never went outside or saw the sun, according to Sumireko. Hikikomori, or so she said.

“Are you Aoi Hikari?” the girl said as she skidded to a stop.

“Yes, I am. You’re Shiromi Kotonoha, correct?” the aosagibi responded.

“Yeah. So, will Nōko really help me?”

“Of course she will. After she’s done with you, you’ll definitely be able to apply for that magic school.”

“Magic school?” Reimu said aloud.

Shromi nodded, turning to face the shrine maiden. “I want to become a witch, and there’s this magic school I really want to go to, but I’m too scared to apply. Every time I even think about going to school, my hands shake, and I feel like throwing up,” she explained, “I was bullied all through high school, and the thought of going to any school ever again makes me wanna cry, even though I really wanna learn advanced magic.”

She clutched the invitation in her hand. “But it’s ok, because Nōko’s gonna fix me. She’s gonna make it so that I never fear anything ever again.”

Satori nodded, suddenly intrigued. “So you’re saying that Nōko has the ability to heal mental illnesses?”

“That’s right. It’s a unique magic that she developed all by herself. It took a lot of trial and error to perfect, but now, she can heal any mental anguish you could ever imagine,” Aoi explained, “We must get going. We have two more patients to pick up on the way.”

Satori looked at Reimu, and the shrine maiden nodded at her. “Would you mind terribly if we tagged along, Miss Hikari?”

“Why?”

“I’m curious about her, that’s why. Our kind are hated and feared by most, even in a place like Gensokyo, and yet she’s going out of her way to help both humans and yokai. Why is that?”

“Miss Nōko has her reasons. But, if you want to ask her, then I suppose she’d prefer it if you did so in person. She’s not particularly good at expressing her feelings on paper.”

The aosagibi spread her wings. “Can you fly, Miss Kotonoha?”

“Not by myself, but I have a broom to fly on,” she responded, producing a wooden broomstick with a fresh coat of white paint.

The yokai nodded. “That’ll do. Stay close to me.”

Shiromi waited for Aoi to take to the skies before hopping on her broom, and rising to the aosagibi’s level. Satori and Reimu followed suit, before Aoi took off towards Yokai Mountain, and the three of them did their best to follow her. The flames on her wings did a surprisingly good job of illuminating the dark sky, and Reimu and Satori found themselves unable to take their eyes off the aosagibi as she flew. Yokai Mountain was probably nowhere near their final destination, Reimu anticipated that much, but she was unsure of where a satori like Nōko would live. She likely wasn’t welcome in the human village, due to being a yokai, but she wouldn’t be welcome in any of the major yokai settlements due to being a satori. So where could she have set up clinic?

Chapter Text

The shrine maiden and the satori followed the aosagibi and her first patient past Yokai Mountain, and then deep into the Forest Of Magic. Given that it was nighttime, no one was around except for the nocturnal yokai, and the few fairies and spirits for whom the forest became a playground at night. Marisa had long since shut up shop for the day, and the ‘closed’ sign on the door of the Kirisame Magic Shop rattled slightly in the breeze.

“Our next patients should be somewhere around here. One of them is pretty hard to miss, on account of being ten metres tall, so we’ll know when we see her,” Aoi said as she prepared to land, “The other one will be a little harder to find, on account of the fact that she’s a rather shy tsukumogami, known for avoiding humans”—

“Is that her over there?” Reimu offered as her feet hit the ground. A teddy bear tsukumogami was curled up crying behind a tree, and the teddy bear she’d been born from appeared to be sewn in the centre of the ribbon on the chest of her frilly brown dress.

“That’s not one of our patients, it’s Fuwa!” Aoi said suddenly, running over to the small yokai, “What are you doing out here, Fuwa?”

“I wanted to go out to play, and Miss Nōko said that it was ok as long as I was back by dawn,” she sniffled, “I was playing hide and seek with another tsukumogami, but my hiding spot was too good, so she hasn’t found me!”

Satori blinked at the sight of the young tsukumogami. “You’re that tsukumogami who went missing.”

Aoi looked at Satori. “What? Since when was Fuwa reported missing, and from where?”

Satori shook her head. “You took her from the Fantastic Blowhole last week, and you never took her back there.”

“She wasn’t at home there. She got lost down there, and she wanted to leave, but couldn’t, because she kept getting attacked by stronger yokai when she tried to leave.”

Fuwa wiped her eyes. “I was looking for my mother. Some mean fairies said that I’d find her if I went into the Fantastic Blowhole, but there’s no one down there but oni and mean yokai.”

Reimu raised an eyebrow. “Your mother? But you’re a tsukumogami.”

“She means her owner. Fuwa’s owner was a seven year old human girl who died from scarlet fever,” Aoi explained.

Reimu nodded. Most fairies were too dim-witted to be intentionally malicious, so it was more likely that they’d simply been mistaken in trying to help Fuwa find her mother. “The fairies probably forgot that Hell has moved. The Fantastic Blowhole does lead to where Hell used to be, and children who die before their parents are made to stack stones on the riverbank of Hell so that they earn enough karma to ascend to Heaven…”

Fuwa’s eyes welled up. “My mother’s in Hell?!”

“No, no, she wouldn’t be in Hell anymore, she died a hundred years ago! She’s definitely ascended to Heaven by now!” Aoi said quickly, “She’s in Heaven now, feasting on Heavenly peaches, and playing with the angels and celestials!”

“Couldn’t you ask Eiki where her owner is?” Shiromi offered, “She’s a yama, surely she’ll have decided when she’s earned enough karma to ascend to Heaven.”

“We did. She said that she didn’t know, because she’s only in charge of Gensokyo, and Fuwa’s owner died in the outside world. The outside world is presided over by a different yama, and they’re not allowed to share their verdicts,” Aoi responded, “Even if we went to Heaven or Hell to search ourselves, we wouldn’t know where to start. There are trillions of souls in Heaven, and Hell, and Fuwa doesn’t even know her owner’s full name.”

Fuwa wiped her eyes again. “But even so, someday, I’m going to go to Heaven, and I’m gonna find my mother. I’ll search however long it takes,” she said resolutely, “I’m gonna get really strong, strong enough that nobody can beat me at anything anymore, even when they’re not playing by the spellcard rules, and then, I’m gonna go to Heaven so I can be with my mother!”

Aoi nodded, not wanting to dash the little yokai’s dreams, as unlikely as they were. “Sure you will, Fuwa. Sure you will,” she said, consulting her clipboard, “Now, let’s see, where could our patients be…?”

There was a terrible rattling noise which came from behind the trees, and then a death-like gasp, and then two skeletal arms pushed the trees apart, revealing a gashadokuro on the other side. She wore a crimson yukata patterned with shimmering yellow flames that matched the ones that burned in her eyes.

Shiromi instinctively hid behind Aoi. “A gashadokuro?! We have to get out of here, or she’ll eat us!”

“She doesn’t want to eat us. I can hear her thoughts,” Satori said, “She’s looking for Aoi.”

Aoi remained completely unfazed as the giant skeleton came toward her, bones rattling with every step, until eventually, she pulled up her kimono and knelt on the ground in front of the aosagibi. “Oh, Setsuna Honegata! I was just looking for you!”

Reimu raised an eyebrow. “That gashadokuro is a patient of Nōko’s?”

“Yes. Her request was unusual, but we agreed to take her as a patient anyway,” Aoi responded.

Setsuna folded her hands in her lap when she saw that that aosagibi had two humans with her. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m not going to eat you,” she said quietly, “I don’t want to eat another human. Not after last time.”

Reimu instinctively raised her gōhei. “What happened last time you ate a human?”

Setsuna shook her head “I used to be human, but then I got lost here, in this unfamiliar land, and I starved to death. Even after I died, I was starving, and I didn’t know what to eat now that I wasn’t human anymore. I didn’t know what would satisfy me, but then I saw another gashadokuro eating a human. I thought that that was what I had to do,” she continued, “So I chose a lone woman who was walking through the forest at night. Someone I didn’t think anyone would miss. I bit her head off first so that I wouldn’t have to hear her screams. But then I saw the ring on her finger, and a picture of a man on her phone. Her husband.”

She shook her head. “Her husband killed himself shortly after she died. I watched him do it,” she said, “I can’t forgive myself knowing that I’m responsible for his death. For both of their deaths, and all because I was hungry. So I want to make sure that I never eat a human again, and only someone like Nōko can help me get rid of my urge to eat humans.”

“But you’re a gashadokuro, won’t you starve without eating humans?” Satori offered.

“No. I’ve recently discovered that I can sustain myself by eating livestock instead. Pigs taste just like humans, and nobody’s ever killed themselves over losing one little bit of livestock,” she said, “If I’d known that before I ate that woman, then I wouldn’t have eaten her. I would have eaten some pigs from the farm I got my last meal from. But despite everything, I still find myself craving human flesh. I don’t want to kill any more humans, and yet, I can’t get the way that woman tasted out of my head.”

“If you so much as touch one of these humans en-route to Nōko’s office, you’re a dead woman. I have Nōko’s express permission to use whatever force is necessary to restrain patients who are dangers to themselves, or others,” Aoi said firmly, “I will use lethal force on you if I have to, spellcard rules be damned.”

“I understand,” she responded.

Reimu lowered her gohei. “I’ve been meaning to ask, Aoi, where is our final destination?”

“The Village of the Forgotten. It’s a settlement that was established by tsukumogami who were abandoned by their owners when they were still just objects.”

“So the next patient is a tsukumogami?” Satori added.

“Yes, but she won’t be there,” Aoi said, consulting her clipboard, “She’s supposed to be meeting me somewhere around here…”

“Oh! I finally found you, Fuwa!”

Fuwa’s eyes lit up. “Ouchiko!”

Reimu and Satori examined the new patient. Ouchiko also appeared to be a rather young yokai, and she wore a fanciful dress that resembled a Victorian dollhouse. The top layers on her skirt were sheer, resembling sheer curtains, and on the bottom layer, there were dolls, a pram, and teddy bears waving through little windows.

Aoi raised an eyebrow. “You know this patient, Fuwa?”

“Yeah! She said she was waiting for you, so I asked her if she wanted to play while she waited,” Fuwa said proudly, “And now we’re friends, and we’re gonna play together again tomorrow!”

“Yeah,” Ouchiko echoed, “It’s nice to have someone actually play with me. I was on top of my owner’s grave for two hundred years, never to be played with by anyone. But it doesn’t matter, because tonight, I’m going to forget my owner, and all of the pain she inadvertently caused me.”

“What are you talking about?” Reimu responded.

“I was a dollhouse before I became a tsukumogami, and I never got to meet my owner. She wanted me for Christmas, and her father was hurrying to get me made in time for Christmas, but then she got diptheria, and she died before she ever got to play with me. So her father had me installed on top of her grave, and I never got played with by anyone,” Ouchiko said, “So I want to forget my owner, and her father. I want to forget the pain they caused me.”

She folded her arms. “It was so lonely, all those years. I wanted someone, anyone to play with me, because that’s what I was built for, but whenever children tried to play with me, their parents scolded them for being disrespectful to my owner’s grave,” she sighed, “I have Fuwa, and some other yokai to play with now, but even that can’t erase those two hundred lonely years. So that’s why I need Nōko.”

“I see,” Aoi responded, “Well, not to worry, Ouchiko. You’ll definitely forget about her once Nōko is done with you.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

The aosagibi put her clipboard away. “Well then, let’s be off,” she said, spreading her wings, “Will you be flying along with us, Miss Honegata?”

“I don’t need to. I’m ten metres tall,” the gashadokuro responded, “Walking great distances is easy when you can clear a mile in a single step.”

Aoi nodded. “Very well. Off we go.”

Everyone took to the skies once more except for Setsuna, who trailed behind the group on foot. The rattling of her bones behind everyone proved very distracting, but the light from Aoi’s flames kept them on the right path. The time in which they would meet the mysterious Satori was fast approaching, and no one knew what to expect from her. Reimu supposed that normally, she’d expect a lengthy danmaku battle, but somehow, she didn’t think that Nōko would be in the mood for that. A satori this desperate for love and approval surely wouldn’t be the kind to fight without reason.

Chapter Text

After what felt like an eternity’s worth of flying, Aoi finally stopped the group just short of The Bamboo Forest of the Lost. The aosagibi descended on a quaint little village filled to the brim with little independent shops and restaurants, all run by tsukumogami, and even a few satori. An oven tsukumogami baked muffins at a bakery, while the satori co-owner decorated some that were cooling on the counter. Another satori dressed a mannequin in the window of a boutique.

Aoi led the ragtag group to a small building opposite a salon. She ordered Setsuna to wait outside, as she was too tall to enter the building, and the gashadokuro did as she was told while the aosagibi opened the doors for everyone else. Inside, there was a waiting room and reception desk decorated with anything and everything that made them look cosy and non-threatening. Stuffed animals and colourful lights surrounded a baby blue couch with a fuzzy throw blanket draped over it, and opposite was a coffee table with two cups of black tea already on it, as well as a plate of sugar cookies.

“Oh? You’re finally back, Aoi?” said an unknown voice, accompanied by a rush of footsteps coming from somewhere beyond the waiting room.

Aoi took her shoes off. “Sorry about the delay, Miss Nōko. This shrine maiden, and this satori insisted on following me here,” she responded, “Both of them are here only out of curiosity, or so it seems.”

“There’s nothing wrong with curiosity, Aoi. Some people might want to see the clinic in person before booking an appointment with me,” Nōko responded, stepping into the waiting room. She was beautiful, there was no denying that, but, like everything else in her clinic, she was dressed in a way that was meant to make her look cosy and non-threatening. Her light blue hair was in a loose side ponytail, and a loose, light blue cardigan hemmed with white frills covered most of her pink dress shirt. Her third eye was dark blue, and the veins and nerves attached to it draped around her body in a formation that resembled an atom’s electron orbit.

“We’re not interested in your services, if you can call what you’re offering a service,” Reimu responded.

Nōko regarded the shrine maiden with a gaze she couldn’t read. “I see,” she said as she produced a clipboard and pen, “Aoi, did you manage to find all of tonight’s patients?”

“Yes. I have Shiromi Kotonoha, and Ouchiko Shiraishi here,” she responded, “Setsuna Honegata is outside. She’s too tall to fit in the building.”

Nōko glanced out of the window, and sure enough, there was a gashadokuro outside, looking in the window of the clinic. “I see. Then I think it would be best to attend to her first.”

She hurried Shiromi and Ouchiko towards the couch. “Miss Kotonoha, and Miss Shiraishi, if you would like to take a seat here in the waiting room, please, oh, and do help yourselves to some tea, and snacks. Fuwa, would you bring them some of the blueberry muffins you made earlier?”

“Yes ma’am!” the teddy bear tsukumogami said affirmatively, dashing off to what Reimu and Satori presumed was the kitchen.

“What exactly are you going to do to that gashadokuro?” Reimu said, “I’ve heard that you can heal mental illnesses, but nobody’s ever said how you do it.”

“I do it the same way everything else is done in Gensokyo. With magic,” she responded, taking what looked like a spell card out of her pocket.

“So, what sort of magic is it?” Satori asked.

“Hard to explain. A combination of my own, and some spells that I learned from other satori,” she responded, “It’s a unique magic that I worked tirelessly to perfect. Still, it works on almost every mental illness in the book.”

“Learned, or stole?” Reimu said warily, “I’ve known a few spell card thieves in my time.”

Nōko’s warm, gentle expression suddenly changed as if she was taking off a mask. It seemed that insinuating that she was a criminal immediately threw her off. “You came here expecting to have to fight me, didn’t you?”

“Because that’s what always happens. Yokai like you cause trouble, and I seek you out and beat you up until you agree to not cause trouble anymore,” the shrine maiden said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“You’re saying that like I don’t know already. I am a satori, and I know what you want to say before you even open your mouth,” she said, “But what trouble do you think I’m causing here? Am I such a monster for treating mental illnesses that I’m deserving of a thorough beatdown with danmaku?”

She looked at Reimu and Satori with accusing eyes. “You thought that Aoi was capturing humans and small yokai for me to eat,” she said to the shrine maiden, “And you…You couldn’t fathom why a satori would go out of her way to help others, when our kind is so hated simply for our ability to read minds.”

“That much is true,” Satori responded, “What, besides I presume, money, are you planning on getting out of helping humans, and other yokai? Are you doing this so that people don’t hate and fear you like the rest of our kind?”

Nōko’s eyes suddenly went dark. “That is partly why, I won’t lie to you. Is that a problem to you both?” she said, “Am I a monster for not wanting to be hated and feared for the abilities I had no choice in obtaining?”

She glanced out the window like she was looking at something in the distance no one else could see. “We satori are loved by no one. Wanted by no one. Feared by everyone, and all because we can read minds,” she said, “But here, in the Village of The Forgotten, we live alongside tsukumogami. Here is a paradise for the unwanted and the unloved, where we give each other the love that we never received.”

She headed toward the door, replacing her slippers with a pair of blue flats. “But it’s not enough. Here is not enough. I want our kind to be loved and accepted all throughout Gensokyo.”

Reimu raised her gohei. “And what are your other reasons for doing this? Why use your powers to heal mental illness when you could simply brainwash people into not being afraid of you?”

“That wouldn’t be right. I don’t want our kind to be accepted by false means,” she responded, “So that got me thinking. Everyone has so much pain inside, and no one’s ever been able to heal that pain until now. If I could heal everyone’s pain, then surely everyone would have no choice but to love and accept me, and later on, satori as a whole. They’ll come here to be healed by me, and then they’ll maybe stop at the bakery on the way home, and enjoy taiyaki, or curry buns baked by a satori.”

She put her clipboard away. “One way or another, I’ll make the rest of Gensokyo love our kind. Even if it takes until Jizō obtains enlightenment.”

Reimu wasn’t sure how long satori lived for, but if Nōko was serious about waiting until Jizō obtained enlightenment, she’d be waiting until the world ended. Jizō had promised not to obtain enlightenment until all of the souls in Hell were freed, and as long as the world existed, there would be sinners dying and going to Hell, or becoming oni.

Nōko opened the door. “Perhaps, when I’m done tonight, I’ll give you the battle you so desire. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a patient to attend to.”

Reimu and Satori watched from the window as Nōko went out to see her patient. She put her hands out in front of her, and a blue light surrounded the gashadokuro. A blue ball began to form above Setsuna’s forehead, and then it turned black and sunk into Nōko’s hand. Nōko threw it to the ground and crushed it, and the blue light disappeared. When it was all over, the gashadokuro simply thanked Nōko, and let her go back inside.

“The procedure was successful. Setsuna Honegata will never want to eat humans again,” Nōko said to no one in particular, “Now, Miss Kotonoha, if you’d like to follow me into the exam room.”

The human chomped down the rest of the muffin she was eating, and hopped off the couch. “Y-yes, of course.”

Nōko popped her head in the door of the kitchen. “Fuwa, bring Miss Honegata a bucket of tea, and a dozen sugar cookies. I’m not sure a gashadokuro would be content with human sized portions.”

After receiving an affirmative from Fuwa, Nōko led her next patient away.

Satori turned to Reimu. “Nōko’s intentions seem fairly innocent. Should we stay, or should we go back?”

Reimu held her hand up. “Let’s go talk to that gashadokuro while she’s distracted. I want a first-hand account of what she just did.”

“Got it. That’s probably a wise idea,” Satori responded, “We shouldn’t just take Nōko’s word for it, even she seems trustworthy.”

The two waited until Fuwa had delivered Setsuna’s snacks to her, before they hurried outside to speak to her. She seemed relieved already, but would she truly never eat humans again?