Lucky Lulu

"Isn't part of-" Masako gave Empi a look of pure bemusement as she floated above a stray bullet. "Nonsense. Have you been flying too close to the mushrooms? Any half-decent romance should involve at least a spellcard duel or two. That's trivial." "Still!" The tengu flipped herself upright, adjusting her glasses in the process. If they were supposed to be looking for that black-white as Chen implied, it was probably better to introduce them to this stuff QUICKLY. Before they got themselves blown out of the sky or something. "This is, too." "Now..." A faint, glowing sigil began to spin into existence around her. "Make sure you pay attention." A number of bright, glowing orbs slowly materialized through the surrounding forest as she began to spread her wings. "Because it'd be a waste of my deductive talents to explain the solution to an easy puzzle like THIS one twice." Her glasses flashed. And the first of the orbs flashed with hails of danmaku and flashes of jagged lightning, leaping and triggering the next in turn. And the next, And the next, until the entire battlefield was awash in dozens of separate, mutually reinforcing chains of action potentials, each releasing blinding light and drowning both mushrooms and fairies beneath a deluge of danmaku.

"Well, there's no need to be offended. I don't know what you got it for either." Masako mentally added a tick to the probability of the group descending into a danmaku free-for-all before the mystery was solved. Not that this was necessarily uncommon for investigations. "Not that I know what it is, exactly, either. You make it sound like they didn't even teach you to beat things up properly, which is plainly absurd. That should be part of any legitimate degree path. Everything involves it, sooner or later. Investigations especially." Fortunately, Masako was already flying, and had no particular need to jump further into the air. Nor did she seem all that concerned about the bullets flying towards them. It was only the first stage, after all, so it wasn't like the patterns would be difficult. "Still! If none of you know about this stuff, this is a good introduction. Just jump up, start flying, and let your brains take over. We can worry about whether you'll get beat up by the red-white miko or not later." Since, if she was behaving oddly, that was probably gonna be another lesson whatever Chen said. Masako would probably be sure to hide behind someone for that one.

"I'm sure you'll all figure it out eventually," Masako absently replied, peering down at the map in her hand. "Especially if we do this investigation by the book. It's really quite easy, so long as you're fast enough to dodge bullets and creative enough to express intricate and thematic patterns consisting of hundreds to thousands of bullets in any number of variants. Knowing how to fly is a good idea, too. Even fairies can manage it. Not that many are all that impressive in spellcard duels, what with the easy blind spots, but..." There were a few seconds before she paused, looking up at the tiny thing pocketed by Isobel. And then at Empi. There was a long silence, coupled by an increasingly awkward expression on the tengu's part. Somehow, she powered through it. "Regardless, this area is perfectly safe. So long as you don't touch anything, eat anything, look at anything funny, or ever go there, you will probably be fine." Nevermind that they were already there. Not that she seemed all that concerned regardless. There was a mystery on her mind. "More importantly, Chen, did the gap h- Oh, no, it was Ran. Did she say why she thought we should start in the Forest of Magic?"

"Oh, she'll be fine. It's not like anyone's in danger of dying or anything. Even if we do have to beat them up to solve this case." Masako, for her part, didn't seem particularly concerned. Though it helped that Chen was adorable and would make a way better sidekick than any of this bunch. "Besides, it doesn't take a detective to know she can kick your butt. Though I can deduce how one-sided you going up against a Yakumo shikigami would be, if you want to know-"

"Oh," said Masako, overhearing. "That's a good point." Taking the map back from Rory--and giving her a brief glare--she turned to Yukari and promptly continued. "We need to discuss my fees-"

No. This was a MYSTERY. An actual, honest-to-goodness mystery wrapped up in an incident wrapped up in an enigma. But, on the other hand.... It was an Incident. With a capital 'I.' And Yukari HAD been screwing with her earlier. "I do not, on principle, make a habit of those who preface attempting to hire me by interrupting a delicate case and throwing me into an otherworldly castle where I might well have been kidnapped by evil aliens." Puff, puff. "Or being pulled to her manor while attempting to explore it. However..." The tengu lowered her kiseru, matching Yukari's gaze with one of her own. She remembered the crack in the armor she'd seen, and something in her gaze seemed to convey that. "I could hardly call myself the best detective in Gensokyo if I turned it down. Oddly behaving shrine maidens? Interested interlopers from other worlds? Ancient boundary youkai insisting that they're actually young? THAT is something worthy of a tengu's brilliance." Masako nodded and reached out to take the parchment from the other youkai's hands. "Fine, then. Consider me on the case. And consider the case as good as solved!"

The bird seemed about to insist that yes, absolutely, she was definitely above it and it was impolite to continue disproving that assertion, when she was silenced by her perch proceeding to smack her in the side. She'd proceeded to glare down at it and consider giving it a good kick in return, but--given the lack of a Yukari to look down upon, and the rapidly approaching frame of a door that threatened to knock her on her rear--thought better of it and merely grumbled something about not standing where someone else who needed the spot could very easily stand on you before hopping off. Which left her following Ran along on foot, just beside the girl she rationally concluded was the person she'd landed on when first tossed on this strange trip. Albeit a bit softer, she supposed. Almost certainly something to do with boundaries and the alteration thereof. Not that it was terribly important, for now, with them entering the manor. And with their entrance, Masako was finally struck by the knowledge of where they actually were. This was the manor of the youkai of boundaries. Despite herself--or, well, probably not, since she was making absolutely no effort to control that part of her--the tengu was curious. Really curious. How many people actually saw inside this place? What sort of weird mysteries and secrets did the witch of the gaps keep behind locked doors? Her quick eyes scanned the eclectic collection of artwork, wondering how much of it was taken from the outside world or even outside that. Probably a lot, really. Though even Masako was flatfooted and slightly flustered at the variety Yakumo thought worth including in decorating the entry hall- A distraction which led her to run straight into Ran's excess floof as the others stopped before the door, and lead to her giving a rather weak apology as she extracted herself and stepped inside. --- Masako's petty irritation returned, for a moment, as the gap hag hovered above them. But something in her demeanor changed as the youkai spoke. Not at first, certainly, though she looked like she might be tempted to continue her complaints at the first gap in the conversation. But after? The tengu silently reached within her coat, withdrawing a long, delicate-seeming pipe. As Rory spoke, she silently packed a bit of tobacco in the chamber, lighting it a moment later, holding it by the stem as the bit settled in her mouth. Throughout the process, her eyes never left Yukari. Indisposed? The youkai's smile played it as some sort of joke; had she not heard the woman herself, her first guess might have been that she tied the local shrine maiden up and stuffed her in a closet for a quick laugh. But there was something else there, hidden beneath the lazy teasing. Something that left the tengu thinking back on the conversation she'd had with Saigai, earlier. On the parts that were actually important. The hag hadn't dropped her guard by much. But it was enough to let Masako glimpse through a crack. And if Yukari Yakumo were actually concerned... Masako breathed the smoke out in a vapor-thin mist. She would have to be deeply, deeply worried. "One has to wonder," she began, "why you're going to a group of outsiders, first. Unless all the others who help that miko are also... indisposed. And what, precisely, that entails."

"Well, maybe if I was a human, but it hardly justifies tossing ME this way and that." Masako huffed, blatantly ignoring the rather loud protestations from somewhere off to the side. "She's interfered with TWO investigations now in two separate realms of existence. Who will resolve the Case of the Missing Dango now, I ask you? Certainly not me; that case was time sensitive. I have a reputation to uphold. and I don't want it to go from 'most spirited detective in Gensokyo' to 'most spirited-away detective in Gensokyo.' I already got a stack of business cards, and the printers charge by letter nowadays."

FWUMP. Masako had, moments before, been taking advantage of the end of her conversation to continue her exploration of the castle in which she'd been unceremoniously tossed. Making rather good progress at it, at that! She'd just managed to uncover what looked like some sort of magical control device to something rather important, and was well one her way towards uncovering its function by way of logical deduction; that is, she was hitting buttons to see if something broke and making a judgement based on that. There had been a rather intellectually satisfying/non-intellectually horrible sound of metal grinding upon stone after the last lever she pulled, too. But that was when she noticed the problem, staring her right in the face. Or, rather, staring at her ear, as she only managed to spot it at the last moment out of the corner of her vision. She'd stared into the abyss. The abyss stared back. She could have sworn one of the eyes of the abyss winked at her, just in time for her to say "Wait-" And in a moment, she was whisked on through, slamming facefirst into the ground at a truly impressive velocity and with a truly notable thud. There she lay as the others made their landing, dazed and annoyed, trying to get a grasp on her bearings. Only to hear the sound of her tormentor above(?) her. Somehow, she wasn't at all surprised at this. She was still trying to collect herself, quietly shaking her head as the nine-tailed woman was pushed out from a gap in similar circumstances. She'd only just remembered what words were as the gap hag stepped out from her own, upside-down, with both the implication of her inverted status and the tengu's voluntary motor functions returning at roughly the same time. Just soon enough for her to leap up and shout. "Don't you DARE-" But it was far, far too late. And the world, if this could be called as much, inverted to match. Though at least this time the tengu was prepared, crow-like wings spreading in her upward leap and catching what passed for the aether, twisting her herself to match the new view of gravity and bringing her to land herself delicately upon the nearest perch from which she could at LEAST have the opportunity to look down upon the violet-clad youkai. Not a terribly comfortable one--oddly bony, in a way, and apparently rather loud--but she'd had no time to be picky. She needed to appear both haughty and annoyed now. Though as the gap witch vanished the moment after, it was all for naught. Grumbling, she fumbled around in her coat for her glasses and settled them upon her nose. "Yes, well," she said, turning her attention to the woman's servant. And giving whatever it was she'd landed on a good tap with her foot so it didn't interrupt. "She does realize that just because you can bend time and space, it's still rude to inconvenience people with it, doesn't she?"

"Dunno anything about all that," Masako added, after a moment's consideration. "I think she just said it was something to do with defending communism, whatever that's supposed to be. It didn't seem all that important." The tengu shrugged. "Either way, the Lunarians are still up there, so whatever they did didn't really work. Though they DID probably deserve whatever the humans tried to do."

"Oh, I wouldn't necessarily say that," Masako mused, rather glad to have the topic changed. For now, anyway. She'd definitely have to do a bit of prying later. "They seem like they'd probably still use battleships, if the issue ever came up. Probably not YOU, of course- I think they still hate Americans after that whole thing about them landing their warriors on the surface and invading the Lunar Capital, though I'm still trying to figure out how they managed to do that. Still, the Moriya shrine maiden was pretty insistent that it happened, and she'd know. Guess that Armstrong guy was pretty tough."

"I mean, the Gensokyo from five minutes ago isn't the Gensokyo from now, and this seems like one of those weird 'timelines' things you hear some people talk about, so they might be different in a technical sense. But since she obviously recognized some of the people I mentioned one has to assume that it's not THAT different. Heck, maybe the only real difference before this stuff with these 'trespasser' things is something weird like blue being green, or Saigai being there, since I don't remember someone like her being from mine that'd be able to get away from something that could-" Masako realized, a moment too late, that this probably wasn't helping. So she shut her mouth and pressed the tip of her wing to it, forcing her to pause and consider. It PROBABLY wasn't a good idea to try arguing with some weird fairy and a depressed goddess over what does and doesn't make a different Gensokyo. It wasn't like she even knew how Gensokyo 2 (as she would call Mitsu's Gensokyo) related to Gensokyo Prime (as she would call HER Gensokyo). Maybe it was the future! And maybe the goddess was normally just too minor for even a well-informed tengu to recognize. Or maybe something had come up way earlier that led to Gensokyo 2 getting eaten. She sure didn't know. Yet. Though... Well. Either way, she shouldn't TALK about it right now. "Um..." Besides, the conversation had moved on, giving her reason to pull her eyes from the weird fairy and give Iowa a funny look. "R-right. Well, ah. I dunno who these Irishmen of yours are, but they've obviously not met many fairies. Given they make stuff up all the time and there's not exactly many that can be described to have quick wits OR silver tongues." She paused again. In which time she had ample opportunity to remember Empi was right there. Whoops. "Well. Some exceptions, obviously. But the rule still holds."

"Are you sure? I don't really know what these trespasser things you people keep talking about are, but I doubt that shrine maiden would be..." The tengu trailed off. It sounded absurd. But the goddess didn't sound like she was lying. Or look like she was making anything up. If anything, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Did she actually, really see something like that? It seemed impossible. Then again... "Er..." She shifted a little. Even if she hadn't, Saigai Mitsurugi remembered seeing... that. And the tengu hadn't the faintest idea how to react. "It's... possible. I've never heard of anything like that; everything was relatively calm before I was thrown here, other than the usual stuff. I think people were getting ready for a firework festival." Shuffle, shuffle. "Are you okay?"

"Oh? You're from Gensokyo, too?" She seemed rather pleased. Someone from her own place could probably give her more details on this one. Maybe even tell her how to get back home. And ideally without relying on the whims of some people. "Excellent. I thought there might be someone else, given my means of arrival. I was wondering- Blink. "Wait." Blink blink. "Destruction? That's silly. I know there have been a lot of weird incidents lately, but it's not like they went and dropped the barrier or anything." The tengu straightened herself up, giving the goddess a quizzical look. A wing nudged her eyewear and tokin back into their proper place, freeing her hand to serve as a suitable rest for her chin as she examined the woman before her. Certainly SHE recognized the NAME of Gensokyo, and with enough familiarity to peg her as a resident. But even if it didn't really mean much, Masako sure didn't recognize her. And Gensokyo wasn't exactly destroyed. Messy, sure, but not destroyed. "Hmm... Head trauma, maybe? You don't act like it. Mind wiping? No, no, I'd notice..." She tapped a finger upon her lips, then nodded to herself, apparently coming to some sort of conclusion. "Oh, I see. No, the gap witch was probably just messing with you, if she told you something crazy like that before tossing you in here. Gensokyo's fine."

Masako rolled over a little. Enough to fix her eyes on the new arrival. A fairy? Yes, she said as much. "I wouldn't worry about it. Some of them are just like that. Not many, mind, but still. Though I've seen plenty involving both bugs and breasts, so I don't really know what she's complaining about..." She blinked, shook her head, and twisted again, peering at the first of the three she'd seen. "You... Yes, she's definitely a goddess. One of... natural disasters, if I'm any judge. Albeit one without many worshipers." "But..." The girl accepted the hand of the goddess, leaning on her slightly as she rose to still-slightly-unsteady feet. "To answer your question..." She gave her wings a couple of flaps. Enough to let her rise to her feet and give herself a few shakes, clearing her mind and brushing the dust off her coat. She'd really need to get the thing cleaned again, after this mess. "-Naturally. And a crow tengu, for that matter, though I only CONTRACT with our nimble information corps nowadays." She gave a dramatic little bow. "Chichimura Masako. Best consulting detective in all of Gensokyo! At your service. I'd offer you a card, but I think they spilled over the floor back there when I tried to bust down the door-"

Chichimura Masako The tengu was lost. Hopelessly lost. Though, as being lost typically required that you had a destination in mind, perhaps she wasn't lost at all. Beyond the whole being lost in time and space... thing. Though as that was well outside her power to resolve as of yet, and was hardly her fault in the first place, she hardly gave THAT notion of personal misplacement any mind. Regardless, she wasn't where she'd IMPLIED she was going, when departing the barracks, though she recalled passing those suites on her way through the halls. She'd long since left the small band of strange strangers behind to try to hit up one of the locals for a meal. Barring any strange twists in space, she could always find her way to them again, if she wanted. For now, well. There was more of a castle to explore. And better places to start hunting for puzzle-pieces than any dirt filled room. The few that she'd been given so far hadn't let her construct more than a single corner. This, she thought, would be more fruitful. The antechamber alone bore tons of things worth examining further, once she had a good base of information. But if you wanted to start exploring from the core of a mystery in a castle, you didn't start in an ANTECHAMBER. You started in the throne room itself. And the throne room, if she guessed correctly, was right before her. There was only one problem. This door was really, stupidly heavy. Shake... shake... The ship and the goddess heard the noise at the edge of their hearing. As though a toddler a block down were shaking its rattle with all the force its tiny arms could muster. Rattle... rattle... Thump. The toddler rounded the corner, still shaking its rattle. Being a clumsy sort, it fell flat on its face. Being a quiet and lucky sort, it flumped into the grass and lay motionless. THUMP. The toddler, upset, threw its stuffed animal against your door. The recorder inside said 'ow.' There was a pause. And then- CRASH thump. Your neighborhood rival, spotting a patsy and a chance to ruin your entry for nicest house of the month, hurled a brick through your front window and kicked down your front door. And they, being a terrible person, proceeded to release a particularly confused and mildly battered crow into your living room. There it was, lying at your feet, dazed but, somehow, still alive. Masako looked up at the goddess and the boat through somewhat bleary eyes, glasses askew. She gave a few blinks and pushed them back up her nose, peering at the two women above her. First, briefly, at the goddess. Then at the anthropomorphic ship. After a few more confused blinks, she opened her mouth. "Hello. This may seem like a strange question, but have you just acquired a body?"

Under normal circumstances, a comment like that might have prompted a comment from the tengu. Skepticism, perhaps, that the man could unhinge his jaw before the shy girl with her murderdoll knocked him silly. Or a dry reminder that tengu--and both youkai and non-youkai corvids--ate snakes a good deal more often than the other way around. But she gave neither. She didn't say anything at all. The reason for this soon became quite clear. The birdlike youkai had long since flown her perch. Masako wasn't terribly hungry, at the moment--she'd had a large lunch, earlier--but she had her own reason to want to be off wandering in the direction of this Isobel person. It gave her a good reason to see what other weird sorts had been tossed into this extradimensional dungeon, for one. And more importantly, it gave her a reason to examine the stonework as she went. There might be an interesting mystery, there. Not like there could be THAT many western-styled castles in the middle of a place between realities. Or at least the potentially infinite number of them would be infinitesimal compared to the infinitely many larger and infinitely more probable infinities that COULD be. Though it definitely remained a definite possibility. Or something. Regardless, might as well look into it as Masako left the barracks.

"Will you?" She sounded as though she were unsure as whether to be pleased or skeptical. It probably didn't matter. Better just to wait for Hiroki to take everyone off and their marvelous multidimensional meal tour or whatever this was supposed to be.

"Given your current situation, anywhere in all of space and time." She seemed serious. This didn't mean she was helpful. "In theory, at least. Most likely whoever it is you're talking about is somewhere in our current dimension." Nope. Still not helpful.

"That's silly," said the tengu. "Absurd, even. You don't get people to swing clubs at trespassers if you don't have access to suitably sized clubs. And you don't have trespassers to swing clubs at if the trespassers don't have reasons to be around to have clubs swinging at them. So neither you or they would be here if YOU were right. Wouldn't be a motive either way." "Not that it's my concern, mind. Sounds like something you'd want to contact your local shrine maiden for. Hardly a mystery worth looking into for me." Unless, of course, there was more to it than that. Masako rested her chin in her hands, still kicking away from atop her perch. If the gap hag had a motive for tossing her to this place in particular, then that was worth investigating. "Though I suppose I could look into it, at least until I'm back in Gensokyo. Does your employer pay in mon? Or yen, at least? No, nevermind, it's not important- hardly THEIR fault I'm stuck here. Probably. Unless she's your employer."

"Oh, no, probably not." The girl seemed pretty nonchalant about her dismissal. "You don't really need a consulting detective for a trespassing case, and they're usually too dull for my work anyway. Be better off just hiring someone with a large club. Or-" she amended, quickly. She tended to be accused of trespassing pretty often herself, after all, and didn't want people to start getting ideas. "Don't. It's probably nothing, anyway. Sometimes people just need to get a quick and perfectly innocent look around without permission. Besides, it's not like someone PULLED me here. I was just tossed off by an extremely, extremely rude gap hag too lazy to answer a few simple questions. I doubt she had any ulterior motives." There was a long, quiet pause. One filled with the knowledge on one side that the tengu really had no idea what Rory was talking about vis a vis trespassers, and on the other with the dawning realization that she had just accused the youkai of boundaries of having no ulterior motives in even one single circumstance. A classic blunder. She'd probably be beating herself up for that later. There was a sheepish little smile on her face as she adjusted her glasses again. "W-well, we'll see."

"Interesting." The black-winged girl peered at Rory's face, then gave a satisfied nod. "Perhaps not quite remarkable, but I was still right. Not that I know how to USE that yet, but..." She shook her head and gave a little hum, tapping at the edge of her lips. Behind her, Masako's wings gave a few delicate flaps, carrying her up to the top of a pile of rubble made by her entrance where she could properly sit and have a good think. And there she remained, for a time, staring off at the wall. At least until she managed to distract herself again, peering back down at the hunter. "Well, boundary between possible worlds or not, yes. I did say I was the finest investigator amongst the tengu, after all, and that certainly makes me a youkai. Though it's just as certain that us tengu are a higher class than most. Not that it's as big a deal, nowadays. Still." The girl shrugged, kicking her legs back and forth from atop her little perch. "I would hazard that your grimm are closer to the youkai than you yourself are, based on your description, though still a good bit different. What many used to be anyway--tengu were never like that!--since no one really acts like it now except for fun. Or they've got some scheme going on. Either way, that still doesn't explain why you're here."

"Oh, no, don't be absurd. I am a detective. I've never even seen a moving ancient ruin. Except that one time, I guess, but that hardly counts and I wasn't even involved in THAT whole scenario, so it's not like I could have solved it. Not that I couldn't have solved it, mind you! I just wasn't around before someone else did." Masako paused, as though aware she were getting a bit off track. She gave a little cough, waving her hand around before she could start to look embarrassed. "Regardless, I solve practical problems. Where did my cat go? Who committed a murder? Why does the local umbrella keep trying to sneak up on me to frighten me when we already know she's there?" The pipe settled back in her mouth, and she gave a thoughtful little nod. "Though I suppose, for now, I would settle for why a snake-youkai seems to have chosen to become an experienced youkai-fighter equipped heavily enough to attack one of the Gashadokuro. And more importantly, what he is doing here, as it is doubtful the old gap hag flung you to this place despite you clearly being a recent arrival. What was your name, again?"

She blinked. She blinked again. Slowly, she removed the pipe once more, though she didn't light it this time. Merely nibbled at the bit. That is, until her expression brightened, and she snapped her fingers. "Because both come with inky-black quills. Obviously." She sounded rather pleased with herself. "Though that is HARDLY the sort of puzzle I meant."

"Quite unfortunate," she replied. "Still, that's a matter between you and them." "As for myself-" The girl, apparently, wasn't going to give him so much as a moment to respond to that. "I am but a humble consulting detective. No mystery I can't solve, no puzzle I can't unravel, even when everyone else has long since given up. THAT is me. Chichimura Masako! Finest investigator amongst all the tengu--no, in all of Gensokyo!" There was a bit of a gleam in the girl's eye. Though where Masako's claims of humility came in, who even knew. "Accept no substitutes."