How Boring (OPEN)

[Kitten4u]

This would likely be the last time the tengu reporter Aya Shameimaru would come to the border to investigate this rumor. This rumor that some weak youkai were trying to cross the border had been floating around Gensokyo for a few months now. The whole idea made absolutly no sense, so she didn't expect it to be true, but it would have been really interesting if it was. Seriously, people figuring out a way to breech the border? Finally getting to see the outside world? Why would they even want to leave Gensokyo? There were so many things she wanted to ask them! But, every time she came to the border she found no evidence that this rumor was true. Where do humans get these silly ideas anyway? Yes, it was a silly idea, but Aya couldn't help but feel depressed that it didn't seem to be true.

Her surroundings seemed to reflect her depression. Aya was at a part of the forest that seemed to have experienced a small forest fire recently. The charred remains of trees and other shrubbery littered the ground. She was on the edge of this area, so there was still some greenery behind her, but even those plants looked grim somehow. Perhaps it was because it was simply cloudy and dark, perhaps it was because there was absolutly no wind in the area, or perhaps they were longing their lost tree breathern.

Oh, now she was starting to come up with silly ideas. Tree youkai? That would just be weird.

Aya was simply sitting on one of the crispy logs on the ground, and resting her chin on her hand. She was playing with a string she kept on her camera with the same hand. Ah, her camera she loved that little device. It was created by the kappa at the base of the waterfall, but they could never use such a wonderous device properly. They were much better at making things think that than they were actually using them. But, such thing were not particularly exciting to write about. They didn't seem to be anywhere near finished with their current project, so it's not like she could write a story on that. Just thinking about it made her even more depressed. Aya started paging through her small (empty) notebook and sighed.

Surely there had to be a decent story out there? Sure, there was that torture chamber south of the Hakurei Shrine, but Aya hadn't been able to find Reimu either. The little shrine maiden was probably hiding now that she had been found out. That made Aya smirk a bit, but sigh again since she couldn't do a follow-up story without interviewing Reimu. She would have to find a different story to write about, but for whatever reason she couldn't find one. Since when was Gensokyo this boring?

Suddenly, Aya heard a rustling in the greenery nearby. She wanted to look over, but knew better than to do so. Perhaps they thought that she hadn't noticed them yet? They should know better since all tengu have exellent sight and hearing, but whatever. She wanted them to be able to do whatever they were going to do, and reacting to them might change that. It's similar to when she stalks follows people. It's much better to let them think that things are going exactly as they planned.

[Little Sarah]

A young boy seamed to growl, sniffling, his nose twitching at the burnt forest. making a slight grumbling noise as he made his way though it. He shoved down some of the crispy shared branches as he pushed though bushes and such.

"since when is it harder to get though dead things.." he said with a grumble in his voice. The raccoon boys eyes were looking around the forest. his nose twitching some more, and his ears fluttered back some" I don't think her scent is near here eather.." he said, his voice sounding quite disappointed and almost sad. he has a blade testing in its sheath upon his back, ready to strike out if need be, his tail twitching in agitation.

"Why is it so hard to find her..." his voice seemed sad again, he held his head gently with one hand" I never should of let her alone..even if I was getting that thing away.... I should of never left her... I could of fought and kept her safe there..why did I have to run"

The boys voice was concerned and almost angry with himself. he punched one of the smaller charred trees and caused it to crash down " I need to find her..... I need to"

[Kitten4u]

He was looking for someone? A she? Ooh, what was their relationship she wondered? Where they long lost lovers despreately seeking to find each other each and every second? By the sounds of it they were having a bit of a squabble. Should have never let her go? How sweet. Aya always had a soft spot for love stories, even if she would never admit it. How could she have even doubted Gensokyo for a moment? Clearly she had Kanako's favor for now since a story litterally just walked up to her while she was wallowing in her own self-pity.

"Hey, need some help there?" she waved to the guy.

Not even bothering to wait for an answer she swung her fan just once. It looked like an ordinary fan made out of feathers, but it was actually capable of summoning mighty gales with just a single swing. Aya made sure to aim the wind a little to the side of him so that all the debris wouldn't fly into his face. The wind was strong enough to blow most of the remains of the trees out of the way, and made a nice little path for him to walk on. All he'd have to do is make sure he didn't trip on the remaining stups and twigs.

"I am Aya Shameimaru, reporter of the Bunbunmaru newspaper," she smiled.

It was quite amazing how a potential story could make her bounce back so quickly. It was practically what Aya lived for, though it could get her into trouble sometimes. She never printed lies, but she had a slight tendancy to over exaggerate. She also wasn't at all afraid of saying negative things about people as long as they were true, nor putting rather embarassing pictures of people into her newspaper without said person's permission. She had a rather infamous reputation because of that, but she honestly didn't care. This is what she loved, and she thought she did a pretty good job.

"I understand you're looking for someone? Need any help? Tengu are quite fast and have exellent senses. I'm sure you'll find her faster if I helped~ I just need to know a few things first. First, what is your relationship?"

Sure, knowing their relationship wouldn't help her find this girl, but she needed to know that in order to write the article. Then she would ask what this girl looked like so she could actually find her.

[Little Sarah]

Koto growled some, his ears twitching back some. He didn't like people coming out of no where. he hated getting surprised by strangers. in fact, the surprise had actually caused him to reach to his back and grab a hold of the hilt of his blade, ready to slash it if the person in front of him was dangerous.

his ears twitched up some when he listened to her, and he growled again letting go of the sword and and his eyes were fixed on her. He gave her s simple answer "It's my sister...I'm looking for my little sister.." he said it softly, but his eyes were filled with both anger and worry. He wasn't going to give any details about her. After all he didn't really know what this new person would do.

he snarled a little bit. " I don't need help to find her" he said in a rude aggressive way. His ears twitched back. " Shes in enough danger as it is out there all alone, and I don't need everyone going around looking and letting other creatures know shes alone out there right now" his tail fur was bristled out and angry and he started walking away.

He wasn't the nicest of boys. Well not at first at least. But it was understandable, he didn't want much people knowing his sister was out there alone. after all. She was really small, and most likely unable to defend herself. his ears twitched back a little bit

'could that person is just running her mouth....' he thought 'but..what id she could really help..... no..what am I thinking... you already risked enough telling that other fellow shes out there...and hes helping look for her...who knows what a reporter would say..."

[Kitten4u]

His sister? That was a little disapointing, but it was still really cute. Ah, the sweet reunion between a long lost brother and sister, how could she possibly hope to resist such a thing? Just looking at his face made her want to melt, he looked so worried~ He seemed strong and overly defensive as well. It really looked like he was going to attack her for a second there. Yes, yes, this was most defiantly a story that she would undoubtly write whether this guy wanted her to or not.

"Oh, okay then wha-- Hey, don't run off!"

This guy apparently didn't know Aya very well. When she smelled a scoop she would follow that scent to the ends of the earth. If he just kept running off like that she would just shadow him until he either found his sister, or until he got sick of being followed and just told her what she wanted to know. The word "no" simply didn't exist anymore. Really, anything he said that she didn't want to her, or that wasn't related to the story would be thuroughly ignored.

Fortunatly, Aya was very fast. Tengu were pretty fast as a species, but some might say that Aya was the fastest tengu out there. She never bothered to see if this was true because she honestly didn't care. It didn't matter if she was the fastest, all that mattered to her was that she could catch up to almost anyone. She was expecting that guy to use the path she created, but she was the one that ended up using it, not that it really mattered.

"What does she look like?" Aya asked as she started running towards the guy. "Oh, and like I said, I am Aya Shameimaru. Who are you?"

Aya was always polite in situations like this, even if the person she was speaking to wasn't being polite. This guy didn't even have the decency to tell her his name. She would be offended, but she had better things to worry about right now. Namely, the cute story of the lost siblings.

[Little Sarah]

Koto growled again, ears twitching in annoyance and his fangs showing" here's a better question.." he said glaring at her slightly" why the hell are you following me?!" he snapped then tried to speed up a little bit, it was obvious the boy did not want to talk, but in truth, it was really cause he didn't want people to know about his sister being out there, that was all, he was scared if allot of people found out, they might take that to there advantage and go after a venerable young demon, some hunters are not above doing that.

he seemed frustrated with her, he glared again "why do you need to know what she looks like?!" he snapped again. "You don't need to know, shes in enough danger as it is being off on her own I don't need everyone knowing her and looking for her GOT IT!" he was over protective, it was part of his personality, he would violently protect his baby sister. and his lack of trust in people was another factor in this aggression.

He shook his head" And my Name is Koto.." he told her finally,, figuring he could at least say his name. "There..happy with that?" he continued on.

[Kitten4u]

"Eh? Why do I need to know? That's a rather silly question. I need to know so I can help you find her of course~"

Aya was not going to take no for an answer. Period. And the more he kept trying to hide this information from her the more she wanted it. People should know better than to try to hide information from tengu, particularly tengu reporters. They are incredibly curious by nature, and they don't tend to care about the opinions of anyone but their own kind. In Aya's case, her reputation was already quite bad. It would be very difficult to make things worse.

They were almost to the edge of that small clearing she made, so Aya just swung her fan again to make a new one. Doing something that simply really wouldn't slow her down any, and it's not like she was running as fast as she could. She merely wanted to keep up with this guy, and maybe take a few pictures while she could.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Koto," she just nodded since bowing at such high speeds was rather difficult.

As they continued running she could help but think about how cute he was~ Not just in looks, but his over-protective attitude towards his sister was downright adorable, and the more she kept looking at him the more she just wanted to give him a great, big hug. Well, Aya was not one to deny herself such pleasures, so she sped up a bit. Just enough to gain a little bit of distence. Thens he proceded to tackle hug him. It might end up being kind of painful because they were running so fast, but she didn't mind too much. He was just too damn cute to resist~

[Little Sarah]

Koto Grumbled" Can't you see that I don't want to tell you..." he looked at her" I don't want to tell you what she looks like." He growled some" and I epically don't want to tell a reporter that could blab and end up putting her in more danger, your not understanding that are you?" he closed his eyes in annoyance.

Koto never liked to explain things to anyone, even if he knew where his little sister was, he probably wouldnt tell the reporter about her, it was just one of those things, he wanted to keep his baby sister perfectly safe. and he figured that telling a reporter would be a bad thing to do.

He let out a loud yelp when he was tackled and fell onto his back. it was rather painful, it was a full force tackle hug. His eye twitched a little bit and he growled " WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?!" he snapped, twitching again.

He wasn't really one known for showing his affection toward strangers. and the tackle hug was just so sudden. It just made the Raccoon boy incredibly uncomfortable.. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth" get...off....of...me.." he said though his gripped teeth, trying to keep himself calm, it wasn't working cause his hands were balled into fists.

[Kitten4u]

"Ayayaya. I'm sorry, but how else was I supposed to get you to stop running?"

Sure, that was actually a small part of why she decided to hug him, but he didn't really need to know that. It was one of those things that she would never admit the true reason for doing. Ah, the joys of being a reporter. She could say something like that and no would even call her out for saying a half-truth as long as the reason she gave was perfectly logical. This one was half-logical. Sure, he said he didn't want her help so logically she should just leave him alone? Whoever said that clearly does not have the reporter's spirit. He did want her help, he just didn't know it yet.

"It's that over-protective attitude that simply proves that you do want my help. I could probably find her much faster than you. One, I can fly," she flapped her wings. "This area was pretty easy to see from the sky, so I'm assuming you cannot. Two, I'm a tengu, and we tengu have exellent senses of sight and hearing. Even from the sky I can see things as clearly as I can on the ground. Three, I'm fast. I can travel across Gensokyo in a blink of an eye. Plus, even if I couldn't do those things searching goes much faster with two sets of eyes. As of now you're going to have to travel the entire world all by yourself. Gensokyo isn't that small, can you imagine how long that would take you?

"Just imagine how you would feel if you finally did find her and something had already happened to her? A kind stranger offered to help you, but you refused her help and because of that something terrible happened to her. I'm not saying that will happen of course, but the faster you find her the more likely she'll be safe right? Oh, and I'm a reporter, not a gossip. If people knew what was going to be in my articles before I published them no one would ever read them, so I wouldn't actually say anythng about this until after the story's published. Probably."

Aya was a writer, and thus was quite good at manipulating emotions to get what she wanted. In this case she didn't see that manipulation as a bad thing since it was all true. The longer it took him to find her the more danger she would be in, and it would just be sad if he wasn't able to find her in time. Just think about it, if he didn't find her in time there's no way Aya would want to write a story about that! It would be a total waste of a potential story, not to mention that it would totally devistate him.

She made sure not to shift her weight too much as she spoke. Aya didn't really want to crush the poor guy. He was pretty cute when he was angry after all~

[Little Sarah]

Koto growled more. but..this time..the growl, was of frustration. Frustration in knowing that she was right. He did want held, he wanted people to help him look for her, but his fear of putting her into more danger kept him from doing that. His ears twitched back in an angry frustrated way. and his eyes shifted away from the girl, his hands still balled into fists, now in just an annoyed way.

He let out a long sigh and looked at her. His ears twitched back and he watched her closely" fine..." he said in a soft way. " your right Okay...your right... I do want help, I just don't know who I can trust to help!" he growled" what would make me trust you?!"

He looked more frustrated now, his ears flat back and he let out a gritted growl, his teeth were grinding together.

"If you get off of me... I will tell you okay... but you have to get off of me first... I suppose if you want to help..you couldn't do much harm in helping me find her... I just don't wan t her to be hurt..not anymore. Shes too little to be out there by herself!"

He grumbled some "well.. Reporters aren't always the friends to people that don't like to be pointed out...and you have to promise me soemthing..if I allow you to help me find her.... you have to promise me that you wont mention anything in this damned paper that might put her or my in any more danger...okay?"

[Kitten4u]

"I don't see how mentioning her in the Bunbunmaru would put her in any danger at all, unless you're a totally incompetent guardian or something," she turned her head to the side. "I mean, it's not like I'll be writing about this until after we find her. It's rather difficult to write about the heartwarming reuinion of a brother and sister without the reunion," she laughed.

His terms seemed fair enough. Aya wasn't really that heavy, but the ground looked rather uncomfortable to lay on now that she thought about it. She quickly stood up, brushed herself off and offered her hand to Koto to help him up. It was only polite after all. At this point she had no reason to think that he would run without giving her the information she wanted since she was not at all paranoid unlike this guy. Of course, if he did try to run she'd be forced to tackle him again.

"And for the record you're wrong. Reporters are friends of the innocents, the average people. If you have nothing to hide you have absolutly no reason to fear us. With the way you're talking it's making me think that you have some kind of dark secret I need to find out," she laughed.

Aya was half-joking. She was well aware of her reputation, so she would never hold being wary of her against them. Of course, she had a lot of free time on her hands recently, so if she had nothing better to do she might follow him just to see what he does. Of course, she would look for his little sister first since that was a very cute story.

[Little Sarah]

Kotos ears twitched a little bit, he took her hand to allow her to help him up and got to his feet, brushing the dirt off his outfit, closing his eyes and sighing a little bit more, ears twitching flat against his head. "Well I'm not the strongest youkai ever, and I don't want anything powerful finding out about something, I mean, I will protect her will every ounce of my strength..but...if that's not enough...." he shook his head" I just want to insure her safety alright.." he sighed again.

"ans..well... I wouldn't say its a dark secrete.." he looked away" but there is a secrete...one that some jackasses would love to know.. so I cant let them know about it..." he said. his voice trailing off some.

He looked at her" and to tell you what she looks like..shes only about this big.." he showed how tall she was from the ground, in truth, she wouldn't even reach p to his knee, little Sarah was a very small young youkai after all. She had the same color eyes and hair as me. but her hair is long and reaches the middle of her back, and shes wearing coveralls with a pink sweater underneath, and shes probably desperately clinging to a stuffed rabbit toy.." he described her." Shes probably around a village of some kind I would guess.." he grumbled" she trusts people better then I do.."

[Kitten4u]

If he was trying to make her less likely to write about them in her paper he was defiantly going about it the wrong way. Saying that they had awesome, unknown secrets would only spark her curiousity, and well, a curious tengu is a dangerous tengu. Worse than that Aya was a tengu reporter, which meant that if she ever figured out what this awesome secret was she would probably write about it. There was only one thing that would make her not write about it, and that was if it was some kind of murder scheme. Writing about death was boring and depressing.

For someone that was being over-protective and secretive he was certainly spilling a lot of information. Aya now knew that there was more to this story than she originally thought. She probably would write is as a heartwarming reunion at first, but now she wouldn't drop the two of them once she found his little sister. Today was a great day, she would be getting two, or maybe even more stories out of one encounter.

"Alright~" she jotted down her physical description in her notebook. "Small...Long hair...Looks like you..." she paused, "Hey, do you mind if I get a picture of you for reference?"

She would take the picture even if he said no since she really needed a picture of him for her article, but she figured she might as well as first. Aya decided not to ask any more questions about this "secret" for now. Instead, she would try to ask questions that would make him slip up and reveal stuff he wouldn't otherwise.

"Where did you see her last?"

[Little Sarah]

"By a river I think....I don't know... I was too busy trying to lure away the thing that was attacking us to know where I set her down to be safe..." He let out a sigh, the boy generally didn't know where he left his little sister. "Besides that shouldn't matter.... shes probably long gone form that place trying to find me... Thats why I have to hurry..." he started walking again, letting out another grumbling noise, his eyes focused in front of him.

He gave her a side glare when she asked for a picture. he snarled a moment but calmed down " I don't like my picture being taken..." he said quietly then kept on walking, ears back against his head in annoyance. He was trying to keep himself from snapping again. He closed his eyes. " I would think she would still be in a forest somehow..but near a village....she couldn't of gotten too far after all... I sure hope shes okay..." he was talking to himself partly, but he was talking aloud, his tail was twitching a little with his words. he was a really caring older brother.

"Ya know.. I just thought of sometihng.." he grumbled" She is really small... so..how the heck are you going to see her though the trees if she is in the forest... I don't know if flying is really going to help..."

[Kitten4u]

"You were luring away the thing," she snapped a quick picture of him as though she were using that to show how silly he was. "That's rather vague. What is this thing? Why was it after her?"

Knowing what this "thing" might help her find this kid, or it might not. Who knows? If this little girl knew what this thing was and where she could find it she might avoid those places. Plus, Aya was curious and wanted to know what this thing was just for the sake of knowing what this thing was. It might also shed some light on what this secret is as well.

"Ah, but you're wrong. It's very important to know where she started. You said she was only a child correct? The chances of a child looking for something in a place they think they've already looked is fairly slim," she paused. "Now, if you want me to be able to help to the best of my ability you're going to have to be specific. Using terms like 'the thing' really won't help me. Even if you don't think some of this information is important it could really help me find her. Sure, I could search every square inch of Gensokyo, but that would take a very long time. Narrowing down the places I search will make this much more efficient. So, where did you last see her, what was this thing, how long has she been missing and how much of the border have you searched recently? And obviously I won't fly over forests, but I'm quite fast on foot as well. Don't underestimate my ability to find things," she winked.