Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hey, takane, are you still holding up

Takane Yamashiro stared at her phone, looking at the message that was sent to her on her phone. With both hands holding it, and both thumbs hovering over the keyboard, she began to type.

Yeah, Nitori

Just waiting for the bus, that’s all.

She looked up from her phone, and looked out into the night-covered streets of the city she once knew as her home, tall trees now replaced with high-rises. Posters with the images of haniwa and Animal Realm propaganda cover much of the walls, lampposts, and even some mailboxes nearby. The yamawaro even looked up to see a billboard flashing more lights than ever- the lights that signified a change in command.

Her phone pinged. Takane looked at her phone again.

Have you at least made sure to gather your papers

The purification process isn’t gonna be easy, yknow

Just because the moonies are accepting immigrants doesn’t mean itll be easy

Takane rolled her eyes for a moment.

Yeah, I did.

Few cars drove past her, from left and right, as she sat at the bench that was designated as the bus stop for the district she was in. Placing her phone screen-down on her lap, she then glanced at the suitcases next to her, baggage containing everything she would need. She could only take a long sigh knowing about what’s to come next, trying not to dwell on it too much.

Her phone buzzed again, and when she picked up her phone, it wasn’t who it normally was.

Hey, Rei’sen here. Was going to contact ya yesterday. How’re you feeling about your new job opportunity on the moon as a contractor?

Better than living under Haniyasushin’s policies, at the very least

Lots of anti-haniwa sentiment all around here in the Capital. Ain’t your wife joining you?

Takane sighed again.

Already told you, we divorced a few months ago on friendly terms. She’s understanding of me leaving for the moon.

Oh, I apologize. I get caught up in so much work that I forget things sometimes.

Tsukuyomi’s been working his ass off lately to make youkai comfortable on the moon

He doesn’t want more shit from Junko or Hecatia after all, among other things.

The yamawaro leaned forward, staring past her phone and at the cracked asphalt. A few more cars drove by, none of which really caring about the road’s state, much less the drivers caring about the world around them.

What I won’t forget, though, is how Yasaka still managed to lose the election even with almost everyone by her side.

She brushed her hair to the side, thinking about how to respond to the moon rabbit.

Kanako’s a broken woman, even if she’s done everything and more to make Gensokyo more like what it once was. It’s just that the human population just doesn’t really wanna care anymore about her when Keiki’s honeyed lies are worth as much as the wind god’s body of work.

I’ve disagreed and even hated the Matriarchs over many things, but this is one thing I can agree with. Keiki’s too misguided and focused on the wrong things, but the fact that she knows that and has weaponized it is even worse.

A human-based deity establishing harsh monotheistic rule for humans in a land of youkai? Where have we seen this before?

And worse, the Hakurei’s done nothing about it. Keiki, for all her faults and bullshit, somehow managed to not gather the shrine maiden’s ire.

Takane leaned back on the bench as yet another car would drive by her with little fanfare.

Reimu was bribed. Simple as that. That girl loves money.

How disappointing…

The yamawaro placed her phone back on her lap and sighed once more, her thoughts now just an empty null with very little lights of their own. She should be excited for her new job on the Moon, and she should be excited that her marriage was wrapped up nicely, and yet, nothing. All in the face of a world that doesn’t care about her or the work she’s done, and she’s only one person in the presence of many against her.

Her phone pinged again. It was Nitori, this time.

Just got back from getting groceries and making dinner, kiddos were getting hungry

Still waiting for the bus, takane?

Still waiting. It’s taking a bit.

Yeah, figures, given you got there pretty early in the morning

 

Really hoping you get your first paycheck soon, dude

The groceries this week have already cut into my savings and that’s after my weekly earnings

And I really don’t want to have Haniwa policies making things worse

Haniwa, Haniwa, Haniwa, Haniwa, it’s all Takane heard about for the past few months, and by extension, years. The acceleration of Gensokyo into the modern age was no accident, and although Kanako was primarily a driving force, Keiki would be among the many to make sure it kept going. However, of course, progress came at a price- more humans were populating the land of fantasy, and while many youkai were able to enjoy both the influx and some new world concepts, others…weren’t so keen on it all.

Takane took a look at her suitcases again, this time focusing on the stickers one of them had. That sticker was a claw mark, each one of the three scratches a different color, being blue, red, and brown; that was a sticker the yamawaro got when she became part of the Grassroots Youkai Network, a coalition dedicated to supporting youkai across Gensokyo. She remembered back then what it was like, before the world around her changed, when she only watched from a distance as Kagerou Imaizumi, Sekibanki, and Wakasagihime would host picnics and chat with friends. Since Gensokyo’s modernization, it has become an actual public interests group, and despite their cause and their work, Takane no longer saw it as the same group as it once was- after all, looking at the sticker further, the blue and brown parts of the claw mark have faded worse than the red one.

Another sticker she saw on her luggage was a sticker of the Blank Card, a signature symbol belonging to the Tenkyuu Markets. It too is faded, and it was actually Kanako herself who divulged to the yamawaro of Chimata’s fate, over a night at Mystia’s and after a few bottles. That wasn’t the only thing that the wind god said in her stupor, however, as she also talked about how her daughter and her wife, famed esper Sumireko Usami, had moved from Gensokyo and the entirety of Japan to live across the Pacific Ocean. Takane had only heard tales of what’s going on over there, with Kanako’s drivel being among others she heard from Nue, Mamizou, and her own other yamawaro, but now, those didn’t feel like fables.

Her phone buzzed again. It wasn’t Rei’sen, nor was it Nitori. Rather instead, it was her maps app, telling her that the bus had almost arrived.

Staring up, she looked to her left, and saw the bright glint of a city bus’s headlights, becoming brighter and closer as it neared the bus stop. As it did, it stopped right in front of Takane, and she could see the advertisement on its right side- an advertisement for Tenkyuu Markets, but with a calico on it instead of an ichigami.

Takane pocketed her phone and got up to the bus with her luggage, making sure it didn’t hit the lip of the platform as she made her way inside and paid for her fare. It was mostly empty, save for a hooded person in an orange sweatshirt in the far back, so she would walk up to sit close to them, but slightly closer to the bus driver, as the bus drove off.

“Where are you headed, ma’am?” She heard the person in the back say.

“Kaian Passageway #5.” Takane answered without missing a beat, turning to face the person.

“Ah…I see.” They removed the hood, revealing a mop of blue hair, and shiny red eyes. “I heard the Moon is great at this time of year.”

The soon-to-be governor of Gensokyo Metro was just…there, on the bus, alone with Takane.

“...yeah, it is. I’m going on vacation.” Takane looked away from Keiki, staring down at her own hands.

“I’m just taking a morning trip around the city, that's all.” The goddess simply nodded, putting her hands in her sweatshirt’s pocket. “It is going to be mine in a few days, anyhow. I just haven’t had the chance to actually experience it, you know?”

Takane couldn’t figure out what to say next- the person she and many others started to loathe ever since Gensokyo leapt into the contemporary age is just casually taking a victory lap at the morning’s twilight.

“You campaigned in a city you never really knew? A city of youkai , no less?” She finally spat, looking back at Keiki.

The blue-haired woman put a hand to her chest. “A city of youkai and humans , mind you. For so long, humans have been put under heel by unruly beasts and disgusting monstrosities, so this is an opportunity to have someone actually take charge.”

“And for good reason- youkai are just as much living beings in Gensokyo as are humans. There’s a balance to be held here, after all,” Takane rolled her eyes again. “And right now, even if the powers that be say otherwise, you’re disrupting that balance.”

“But where are these powers-that-be, then?” Keiki shrugged. “They never saw me as doing anything wrong, and if they did, they should’ve also stopped Gensokyo from progressing in the first place. I’m just taking advantage of the world Yasaka created, after all.”

“Fucking parasite.” The green-haired woman thought, as she spoke, “Just don’t tread on any of the lines we draw in the sand, okay? Me and many others heard about your… ruling style in the Animal Realm, and of the wars you’ve had down there.”

“I don’t intend to. Gensokyo is a place of beauty, after all. Who am I to destroy such a beautiful place, especially with it being as advanced as it is now?” The sculpting goddess snuggled back in her seat, taking a moment to look out the window and see the countryside they’re now in. “It was only natural for it to progress to this point, ma’am. Some just acclimate to it better than others, and those others need someone to guide them through the rougher times in life.”

Takane turned to face the front of the bus, brow furrowed at the audacity of the woman behind her to just insinuate that she’s a beacon of humanity. 

“Do not worry, I’ve made sure that there’s some plans for the youkai, too. After all, Gensokyo is designed as a sanctuary for fantasy, after all, and I can’t let that be taken away.” Keiki reassured, but the yamawaro wanted to hear nothing as she went on. “There will be some new laws and such in place to help youkai accommodate themselves to this unfamiliar world, where science and logic matches magic and superstition at every turn. I myself am a god, after all, and I do run on faith, so it is only fitting that I ensure that the lines do not remain blurred.”

“Uh-huh.” Takane sarcastically nodded.

Keiki didn’t seem to understand why her speaking partner had turned away from her, but looked at her and her luggage regardless, eventually saying, “You’re a part of Grassroots?”

“Once. I was once part of it.” Takane looked back and sighed once more, a face of despondence on her.

“Ah…and I assume you left because of Imaizumi’s and Wakasagi’s passing, yes?” The goddess assumed. “Those damned Matriarchs and their petty schemes, catching innocents in the crossfire-”

“No. It was long before that. It wasn’t the same Grassroots I once knew.” Deep down, the yamawaro truly knew what had happened to them, but still spoke truthfully as the bus came to a halt at a bus stop in a small town outside of Gensokyo Metro. The bus doors opened, but all they invited in was the cold morning wind.

“Hmmmm…good to know.” Keiki nodded once again as the doors closed, and the drive continued.

“You ever wonder what goes through the sages’ heads during times like this?” Takane then asked, as they began to go up on an incline, heading up into Youkai Mountain. “After all, you’re basically running Gensokyo now. They don’t have to really intervene much when you’re right here to do it for them.”

“I mean, what else could they think? Their jobs are easier than ever in this world, ma’am.” The goddess kept her composure. “They can worry less about this world and focus more on what they want to do. I hear that Yakumo’s even going on a pretty long vacation, herself! Hihihi, poor Matara’s been on the web crying for her not to go!”

“Hmph. And you barely mentioned Kasen.” The green-haired youkai folded her arms.

“Who cares about her? All she is is just a glorified zookeeper, not even worthy of her title.” Keiki deadpanned, which nearly made Takane snap.

“How could you say that?”

The goddess looked out the window, seeing the lit city of youkai and humans from afar and up high in the bus they were on. “Simple- they can’t touch me, because I am doing no wrong.”

The yamawaro stuffed her hand into one of her pockets as she turned away, feeling the smooth, frigid handle of a gun, before the same feeling sharpened itself to a point and touched her cheek.

“I wouldn’t try to ruin your ‘vacation’ if I were you, Yamashiro.” Keiki was now right before her with an insidious gaze in her eyes, holding up a carving knife to prick her left cheek. “After all, it would be a shame for the Lunarians to need more work to purify you, after all. Godly blood isn’t the easiest to clean off of someone, especially if they are as impure as an earthly youkai .”

Takane’s blood ran cold, finding her hand slowly exiting her right pocket as she could only breathe under the threat of a sharp, divine edge in her enemy’s hands before the bus eventually came to a stop once again, this time, at a village overlooking a small mountain lake.

“Ah, better.” Keiki settled into her seat once again as the yamawaro desperately took her baggage and began to exit the bus. “I do wish you well on your future endeavors, Takane.”

The youkai could only look back at the goddess mockingly waving her goodbye as the doors closed. Her phone pinged again, shortly after the bus’s departure.

You there at the passageway yet?

It was Nitori. Takane let off a sigh of relief as she responded.

Yeah. Stay safe for a few years, Nitori. I’ll make sure we’re stable.

If I don’t, I wouldn’t be next to little Kano. Good luck up there, takane

Along with that last message was a photo of the kappa and her daughter- their daughter -both in bed with their pajamas, smiling.

Takane smiled back, as she knew that Keiki could never take that from her unless she was dead. 

Pocketing her phone once more, she made her way into the village, and towards the passageway.