Her Work is Never Done (Genshuku)

[Kitten4u]

Sikieiki was now able to add another thing to her long list of things to do. She heard a rumor about a god that wanted to destroy Gensokyo. At first she thought it was just another crazy tengu rumor started by the particularly infamous one, but she decided to look into it anyway. If this Kaosu person really exsisted and if she was really in Gensokyo then Sikieiki would be able to see everything that happened in her past with her mirror. She had a bit of free time, and it's not like it took long to do something like that, so she decided to investigate it.

Much to her suprise it was actually true. However, not suprisingly, that...article if anyone could call it that, that Aya wrote was disgustingly inaccurate. It seemed like that girl still has no idea what she was doing every time she wrote one of those monstrosities. Well, that was a problem for another day. Sikieiki knew why Kaosu was trying to destroy Gensokyo, and she wanted to talk to her about it and maybe help fix the problem. She was a very strong fighter, so much so that many people accused her of cheating when they faught her.

'Welcome. There is not much to say, but here is the rundown: The grunts in here will not try to kill you in any way. If you ignore this, then you will certainly pay for it later. There are locked doors, and the keys are hidden inside this castle. Those that hold them will be blatantly obvious, and you may beat up the one holding them (but again, refrain from killing them). I await the heroes of the land to make their progress through here. Good luck.

-- Kaosu'

...Well that was one way to greet the people that came to the castle. It was written in bright, impossible to miss letters right at the door, though something was a little odd. Sikieiki looked around the entrance; there didn't appear to be any..."grunts" here. Either something terrible happened here earlier or they were simply in different rooms, perhaps both of those were true. It didn't really matter though as Sikieiki didn't have time to play Kaosu's silly games. So there were three doors here and two of them were labeled. The shop probably had people in it. Maybe they knew of a way for her to talk to Kaosu without having to waste time finding these keys.

When she entered the shop she noticed there were a lot of injured people all over the room. Perhaps something unfortunate did happen earlier. Sikieiki would have to investigate it later and lecture whoever was foolish enough to hurt people that wouldn't harm them at all, but first she had to deal with Kaosu. There were two people that were uninjured, one male and one female. She assumed that these two were the shopkeepers, so she decided to talk to them.

"Excuse me. I am Eiki Siki, the Yama in charge of judging the souls of those that die in Gensokyo. I must speak with the god of chaos immediately."

She hoped that would be enough to convince them to let her bypass Kaosu's game and go directly to her. She was under the impression that most mortals didn't want to interfere in the affairs of immortals and even less people wanted to deal with Sikieiki in general. Of course, if these people weren't from Gensokyo as Aya claimed (which was just as likely to be false as it was true) then they may not even know who she was. She didn't want to think about that right now as her infamous reputation might actually help her here.

[Genshuku]

The work of the Yama shall continue until all is right in the world. Which will never happen, ever.

Siki walked in the door, and noted the injured, which were being healed up by many robotic....well, there was so many kinds it would be impossible to describe them all, but they all had a main color of white and a sub color of red, so they must be healing robots, that and the varying from white to green magics. And they all seemed to be healing the ones injured more lethally, to allow more if not all of them to live. The revived ones got up and went into the room in the back, which conveniently also led to their barracks,

The shopkeepers were tired, having set all of the robots to do all of this, and were taking a well deserved break when more stress walked in the door, demanding to see Kaosu. If it wasn't for her claim of being a Yama, she would have received an automated response from the male one, and then it would be finished up by the female one. But, the claim was there. The female one spoke first, as she was generally able to respond quicker to alien situations than the male, who seemed to be able to think better, but take longer to do so.

"Hmmmm....It would be easier if Ozma was here at the moment, but Kaosu had one of her fits again**, and Ozma was sent out...again. She never gets a break..."

The male one then actually said something that mattered to Siki at the moment.

"With Ozma not here at the moment, there really isn't much people to talk to besides Kaosu, who is not allowing anyone to just see her at the moment. That leaves...hm. There's the head of security, but he's incredibly cranky due to the time stopping maid incident. Then there's the door guard, who has been stationed to be a boss, which won't do...well, the hopes of immediately have vanished into the void."

The female one started to talk to the male one, as he obviously forgot something.*** He then started talking again.

"Ack, forgot that the door guard was hiding behind an illusion anyway, and could probably be completely forgotten about even if the boss falls into pieces quickly enough. You can talk to her. After the earlier incident, we can't have people simply waltz up to Kaosu and demand answers and such. We hope you understand."

The female shopkeeper then pulled out some handheld device (it was like a remote control), and pressed one of the larger buttons on it, then spoke.

"Akkei should be here any minute. Meanwhile, you cou--"

She was shot a glare by the male, and she fell silent. She might as well have been reading his mind, he was thinking exactly this: 'Now is not the time to sell things.'

*(Or someone is just lazy, dood.)
**(The fact they know this when she's at the other side of a castle and through a PORTAL means something, dood.)
***(They talked. Akkei got a large credit bonus for working there, Akkei chatted with the female one while going though the long list of things bought, and then they knew each other. Simple as that.)

[Kitten4u]

It was such a shame that Kaosu treated her servant so poorly. Sikieiki didn't even have to look that far into her past to find the numerous dispicable things she did to the poor thing. Even since she arrived in Gensokyo she's punted her into a teleporter twice, used as a stage and a container, and of course Kaosu never once showed any appriciation towards Ozma. The tengu reporter had it about right for once; Ozma was nothing more than a "thing." Sikieiki could only wish that her suboordinate was as dedicated and hardworking as Ozma. Kaosu was lucky, it was a shame she didn't seem to realize it.

"Time stopping maid?" Those word alone were enough to make her jaw drop. "Oh no..." she ran her fingers though her hair, though she made sure to run them through the hair in the side of her head so that it wouldn't knock her elaborate hat off her head. "I'm so sorry...But..." she paused for a moment, "Unfortunately I must speak with Kaosu directly."

There was only one person in all of Gensokyo that fit that description and that was the maid of the Scarlet Devil, Sakuya Izayoi. So she really hadn't been able to get through to her. Sikieiki was amazed that she wasn't completely cynical by now. It seemed like no matter what she did no one ever changed. This never made any sense to her. If the perosn that was going to decide what their afterlife was going to be like said that they were going to be dammed to an eternity of suffering that they would change their ways. Grantd, sometimes she was exaggerating a bit when she said that, but that was not the case with Sakuya. Sakuya herself even said that she wanted to stay human and live with a human life-span which just made Siki even more confused.

She looked at the injured "grunts" again. Every single one of them had stab wounds, though some of them were different. Sakuya seemed to prefer to tear her enemies completely apart (much to Siki's dismay), but some of them only had a few wounds in vital areas. She wasn't alone. Sikieiki would definatly have to investigate this later, but the end of the world was a much more pressing issue. However, when she thought about that she felt the need to apologize again. Why was that? She certainly didn't do anything but...Yes, that must be it, she felt like she wasn't doing enough. It was always so sad that she had to deal with those that had no chance for redemption before she could speak with those that could change their lives. But it didn't matter right now, she just lightly shook her head and turned back to the male shopkeeper.

"I understand, but I'm not sure if you do. I did not come here for answers. I would not have come here at all if I didn't understand what was really going on. I obviously cannot let my universe be destroyed, nor can I let any others suffer that fate. I figure if nothing else I will make a decent opponent until the warriors that she wishes to face make their way through her castle. I am immortal, therefore she could throw everything she has at me without having to worry about killing me. I am also reasonably strong myself. I'm sure I could entertain her for a few hours," she paused. "There are some things I wish to speak with her about as well, and I cannot easily discuss those things with anyone but her."

They didn't need to know what those things were as it did not concern them. She didn't know who they were, but there was something odd about what the female shopkeeper was about to say. Was she seriously trying to sell her something at a time like this? Well, that's certainly what it looked like, and the male shopkeeper's reaction just made her more suspicious. However, it would be unfair to judge her based on an incomplete sentence.

"Meanwhile I could what?" she turned her head to the side as though she really had no idea what she was going to say.

[Genshuku]

In the background, the robots continued to heal efficiently. Technology was such an odd thing. But it worked.

Also in the background, Akkei suddenly appeared. The teleportation didn't come with anything flashy, and Akkei was just in a hurry to get back to her new post (because the first boss has almost been defeated, and because she was lazy/tired).

And now because she knew just who was calling her (or rather the shopkeepers calling her over for Sikieiki, but that's pretty much the same thing): The Yama. Oh Kanako, the Yama. Akkei was a native to Gensokyo and knew about the Yama, but due to usually keeping out of sight, perhaps she didn't know Akkei existed until now. Hopefully she would not be stalked for the rest of eternity. And...well, she wasn't going to get away from the inevitable lecture, she did not have that much control over illusion (more importantly, it would end up badly if she COULD fake her entire history). Oh well, she's gonna have to deal with it. As soon as she figured out just why she was called anyway.

Meanwhile, the male shopkeeper noted the 'I obviously cannot let my universe be destroyed, nor can I let any others suffer that fate.' part and knew that she certainly knew a lot. But...perhaps she was a little late to save all the other people. No, she was late. Not like ANYONE could do anything about that, except Kaosu herself. And if she DIDN'T, the multiverse would be one huge nothing in record time. And due to the earlier events, Siki was going to have to go though other measures first. The male one spoke.

"....Well, you do seem to know a lot. More than anyone should know, actually. I'll leave everything to Akkei, she should know everyone here more than me. She is a native here after all. In any case, you have to go though her first, as there's nothing we can do about a visit to her."

Akkei would have cursed under her breath, but she settled with wishing that he never said that, even though she knew it probably wouldn't have mattered.

Then Siki caught the half sentence that the female shopkeeper was making. Before the female or male shopkeeper spoke up (probably a lie, cover-up, or otherwise), Akkei interrupted.

"She likes her job. Actually, she's completely obsessive. But it tends to help out adventurers in the castle, so it doesn't matter. Now, why was I called here again?"

The female one answered, happy to temporarily get out of the situation she seemed to get placed in

"She wanted to see Kaosu, but due to the time-stopping maid incident*, we needed to ask someone with a high enough authority level to give permission and such."

Akkei heard this, wondered why they would need permission to send someone who send the rather honest Yama, then realized they weren't from Gensokyo. It takes some getting used to.

*(Note that the other person has gone entirely unmentioned)

[Kitten4u]

Sikieiki was glad that she didn't have to wait long. Patience may be a virtue, but it was hard not to get restless when the world was getting threatened like this. That teleportation stuff was pretty interesting. She saw it several times in Kaosu's memory, but seeing it in person was very different. Perhaps she should try to get her hands on one of those things. It would be very nice to be able to go anywhere in an instant. Just imagine how much more time she would have to do more important things if she didn't actually have to worry about travel time?

Well, she would worry about that later since the end of the world was a much more important issue. So that was Akkei huh? Komachi gave her lots of free time because of her laziness, so Siki had looked almost everyone if not everyone that was native to Gensokyo, though she didn't do too much prying into Akkei's life since there wasn't that much of a need to. She seemed to be doing fine so far with her major faults being laziness and curiosity. Eiki didn't like the nature of her power, but she could hardly fault her for using it. Overall, she just didn't need much help right now. Perhaps it was just a side-effect of being somewhat lazy.

"Of course I know more than most people would," she chuckled quietly, "when I choose to look into someone's past they cannot hide anything from me no matter how much they want to," she nodded and listened to what Akkei had to say about the female shopkeeper. "It is nice to see people being so dedicated to their work as it is not something I get to see very often unfortunately, however it is entirely possible for that love to go too far. You seem to be familiar with the maid of the Scarlet Devil, she is like that herself actually."

Perhaps the comparasin was a little too exaggerated, but it would work. Sakuya was dedicated to the point of being downright scary, Siki didn't know if this girl was like that. She just hoped that comparasin would tone down her greediness a little bit. Trying to sell things to someone that probably didn't have any money when the world she judged was in danger of being destroyed just wasn't all that smart and Sikieiki didn't want her to make a mistake like that again. While she didn't think she would actually have to judge her she still wanted her to have a decent afterlife in whatever world she came from.

"Yes, I must speak to Kaosu immediately. It's important immortal business," once again she hoped that would be enough to simply let her through without having to play these silly games since most mortals didn't seem to want to interfere wtih immortal affairs.

[Genshuku]

The thought that someone could read her life's history like a book (or something like that) was almost as scary as the gods that Kaosu had to deal with. That, along with the fact it was the right thing to do, motivated the female shopkeeper enough to let her go though. The male one didn't even want to have to deal with any of this (they were just the shop, nothing else) and would have let her through no matter who she was.

Akkei actually knew enough about the Yama to just let her through. Besides, if for some reason she actually picked a fight with Kaosu, even an immortal would be hard-pressed to contend with someone that can wreck your soul. Which would screw all of Gensokyo over, too, and she (Kaosu) probably didn't know that. Eh. Like it would ever happen. Now, to teleport her there after a brief warning, and teleport herself back. Teleporting is the new walking. She can lecture her later. She talked to the shopkeepers...

"....She's the Yama. Just let her talk to Kaosu. No, better yet, I'll just teleport her right there."

...and gave a 5 second warning to Siki.

"Hold still. Move, and the teleportation will go bad."

And then (assuming she didn't dodge the selection to teleport ray, otherwise this is a useless wall of text following), she was at the dimensional gate to Kaosu (a towering, apparently supposed to be intimidating and rainbow colored at the same time circular structure, directly linking Gensokyo and Kaosu's dimension) and there wasn't any ground on Kaosu's side, luckily for those that couldn't fly the dimension simply let you float), who wasn't expecting visitors.

Nor, did she know there was any visitors.

Nor, did she notice. She was simply floating about. A faint mumbling could be heard.

And then she got a different visitor. Ozma just got back from escorting people to the castle, and was hopeful that Kaosu was not in a 'kick you' mood. She wasn't normally like that. Perhaps it was the stress of the situation that was at hand. She was still in human form, as she..well she probably could have switched forms mid-teleportation, but it was more of a hassle.

"I brought more people here, Kaosu."

Ozma, being the attentive one, noticed that there was a Yama here.

"But I didn't bring that one."

And now Kaosu notices the Yama.

"...Wait, why is someone here? The first boss isn't even down yet."

Ozma takes the 'let her talk' route, addressing both of them.

"Let her say why she's here."

A series of back and forth statements ends here.

"No, let me ask her why she's here.*"

She then spoke to Siki, adjusting her voice to however far away she was (and if she was mid-explanation, continuing anyway):

"What are you doing here?"

No one could understand Kaosu. It was hopeless to even try. Sometimes, it made someone want to facepalm. Like Ozma, who currently has hands to facepalm with, and promptly did so (quickly).

Let the lecturing begin.

*(Pushy, dood.)

[Kitten4u]

Well she had seen teleporting before and had done the closest thing to experiencing it without actually experiencing it, and she saw no reason to not trust Akkei so she stood there and waited to be transported to where ever Kaosu was. It was much more disorientating than she thought it would be, and the change of scenery didn't help much either. Well, something like this was to be expected from the god of chaos, so while she wasn't suprised she did have a bit of a headache at first. Not to mention her eyes hurt from the sheer amount of color and how bright it was. Fortunately it didn't take too long to adjust, and it was probably just as well that it took her a moment to do so or she might have actually wasted her breath talking to Kaosu before she even realized Siki was even there.

"I am here to see you," she figured it would be smart to answer the question before introducing herself. "Pardon my intrusion, I am Eiki Siki, the yama that judges those that die in Gensokyo. I came here to do my part in fixing the current inbalance in the multi-verse," she also figured it would be wise to let her know that she really did know exactly what was going on and that she was not here demanding answers. "I am immortal and reasonably strong myself, so I thought I would be a decent distraction until the heroes you're waiting for arrive."

Sikieiki made sure to loudly enough to be heard, but she didn't want to sound pushy or intimidating yet so she wasn't too loud. Once she finished introducing herself she flew up to where Kaosu and Ozma were, once again in a rather passive and slow way. Naturally if she was attacked during that time she would be prepared to dodge (and she was quite good at dodging bullets), but she was hoping that they'd be able to talk a little bit more before fighting, but she no way of knowing exactly how Kaosu would react to that or what she would do. As expected the goddess of chaos was...quite chaotic and unpredictable.

"The sudden imbalance in energy must have been distressing," she was still hoping that she wasn't going to have to dodge anything while saying all this, but it wouldn't be too hard to dodge and talk at the same time. "How are you feeling?"

It seemed like a strange question to ask, but Sikieiki was very curious to hear how she felt from her own mouth. Plus, it would help guide her later questions.

[Genshuku]

...It seems limits did not exist here. It feels exactly like you're at the highest power level that is possible for you. It feels like whoever set the difficulty seems to have set it to Lunatic/Extra/Phantasm Max Rank. For everybody here. Including Ozma and Kaosu. And for some reason, it would not go any lower. No matter how you would think, you only seem to be able to give your best here. Nothing less. Just one shot seems to become an entire pattern (not in the rapid fire pattern sense, but a one thing leads to another sense).

For Kaosu to give her best in a fight here is simply dangerous to you. Immortal or not, you'd be screwed if she got you too much here after getting too much into the battle, which due to her style (blitzing), personality, and the dimension's emotion enhancing influence, would be very hard not to do. If you weren't possibly outright killed (who knows what can happen), you'd be feeling it for longer than Gensokyo has been in existence, even with medication from the Lunarians. They'd need a new Yama for a prolonged period of time. And yes, it does take time to realize those things. Ho hum. Perhaps if she were to fight, a change in area would be in order. Perhaps the very room the artifact was sealed? Or a different room.

A smart move indeed. Had she not gotten to the point first sentance, she would have been asked again, as an interruption, along with a little increase in Kaosu's bad mood level. But, she was smart enough to do that and instead Kaosu...listened, as it seemed she was an important person here and therefore needed listening to. And surprisingly enough, she continued getting on with the point. She really did know everything that was going on. Perhaps she could ask her how she knew...but that would probably be a silly question. Instead...well, she seemed to be a well enough distraction for around 5 minutes, without the talking included. In any case, a chat before battle seemed to be customary over there, she might as well do it too.

"...You might be a good distraction to pass the time for a while. But certainly not here, and you won't do for too long anyway."

She was full aware of how powerful Sikieiki was. If you were wondering why she wanted groups to come here, now you know: so they could actually do something. But even then, she was sure she could take them out when they come anyway. But it would be that battle that would make everything right again. She wouldn't need to finish it.

Why didn't she simply build the castle on Youkai Mountain? It all became clear: She really didn't want anymore people to die. She was already forced to kill enough of them in world-shattering kabooms (which she was well capable of). To bring the literal masses in would cause...well, it would cause chaos alright, but at the cost of more dead people in the form of her grunts and the youkai that would invade. Not even Ozma would get a grip on that kind of situation.

What she needed was people that would not die nor go on mindless killing sprees.* These people tended to be adventurers and the like. Said were usually rumor crazy and/or pretty strong. She knew one of them would be able to sense the castle (this was a gamble, hey look she was right) and thus the rumor spread. Had the castle not been hidden at first, more of the masses probably would have come. When the castle was revealed in a place most masses would not bother going, the adventurers would come. And here we are today. Ozma was not aware of this. Why hasn't she said it?

...

Who knows. Not even Kaosu herself does. To understand it is completely impossible. Some things don't make sense, some do. It is all variety.

So as for how she's doing? Things are going all according to plan. Not that she's gotten over the 'world shattering kaboom hundreds of times' part she had to do, which she is currently trying to brush away. And she just sensed that the first boss was destroyed (and of course, made a safe recovery elsewhere, as they were piloting a machine via remote control at the second part. Oh ho ho.

"It was quite unsettling. As for how I'm feeling...well, I can't say I feel great about myself, but this will all soon be over, so it shouldn't matter..."

She seemed slightly downcast when she said that, but then returned to normal.

"...And how do you know so much anyway?"

Of course Kaosu had to ask that question.

Meanwhile, Ozma decided to shift back into her regular form, the sphere. It was certainly more comfortable. Ozma knew something was up with the sword artifact, though Kaosu really didn't care. Even if it accidentally caused a bunch of horrible irreversible things, it would take care of the end of the multiverse. And she could probably fix them anyway, and that was not just a contradiction.

Kaosu certainly hadn't thought of asking the other gods for help, but that was a really bad idea. As it seemed that in the multiverse, chaos tended to be related to evil in many minds, no one really liked to hear what she had to say. On top of that, the really higher up gods usually punish those that go off duty to mess with other god's affairs. And due to the order increase, it had gotten even more strict. The whole thought was pointless. Ozma knew the option was there, and knew it was pointless, and therefore didn't say anything.

And so here we are, Sikieiki's peaceful thoughts only being held together by the fact that the god did not want more people, who tended to be more chaotic than orderly**, to die and blending in with the chaotic residents by doing what they do all while having her own flare.

*(Eh-heh. Oops. At least it wasn't a swarm of people, right, dood?)
**(Order likes plants and fungi, dood.)

(I rambled. Have fun~)