#i beat touhou 19 the other day so maybe something involving that

[the-dragon-girl-27]

Apparitions Stalk the Night

speedraw

[netmomplus]

Touhou Ship Week 2023 Day 6: Conflict

The moment that Sannyo walked through the door that night, Misumaru knew the ensuing conversation was going to be deeply awkward. The fact of the matter was that both women loved each other rather dearly, being on the older side by Gensokyo’s standards meant they had a lot in common and enjoyed talking to each other more than anything. They’d even moved in together recently, which was not something either of them had taken lightly. So what was the issue?

It was that damn cave. The Rainbow Dragon Cave, the place where dragon gems were harvested to create ability cards. Those gems were a resource far older than Gensokyo itself; in fact, they were instrumental in the creation of magatama, a fairly potent artifact that could copy a portion of a portion’s soul for safekeeping, whether it be their memories, feelings, or even their powers. Misumaru thought this power wasn’t something to be trifled with, and yet those in charge of the market were doing just that, trifling. Sure, she’d participated in the market once, but she had a very clear purpose; she was investigating. And now that she was done, she wanted no part in it.

Sannyo, meanwhile, didn’t really mind that these caves were being stripped of an ancient, powerful resource just to give cheap paper powers. Rather, she saw the card trade as a whole to be an incredible boon for the region where she lived and worked, improving the economy twice over. And she wasn’t sure whether that would be the case if those cards didn’t have some semblance of power to them; after all, folks in Gensokyo tended to be rather obsessed with their own ability to beat someone in a one-on-one fight, so cashing in on that just made sense in her eyes.

Needless to say, the couple were at an impasse on the topic, and neither seemed willing to budge. They were able to get past it relatively well enough by just not talking about it with each other, though now that Sannyo was walking in with a new set of ability cards and a small sack of money, Misumaru figured it would only be a matter of time before she slipped up, said something stupid, and caused another conversation over it. She was going to try to focus on anything else in the meantime, better than another one of those conversations.

“Good evening, Misumaru,” Sannyo said with a light groan as she walked over to their kitchen. “How’s your day been going?”

“Rather… swell,” the God responded, her voice slightly strained. “Is something amiss?”

“Not currently. I just had a rough day of work.” Sannyo leaned against a wall, sighed, and reached for her tobacco pipe. “That trio of tengu got rowdy again today. I swear they have to have it out for me or something, or maybe even that tanuki friend of mine.”

“That’s the unfortunate thing about tengu society,” Misumaru responded. “Exceptionalism to a fault, I’d say. That’s just a trio who took that mentality and ran with it unquestioningly. It’s frustrating.”

“I’ll say.” Sannyo took a quick smoke. “So how has today gone for you, dear?”

“Well enough, honestly. Spent most of today catching up with my fellow deities and assorted old folks. Lot of people around here don’t exactly look their age, y’know.”

“Oh, of course, I know that well.” Sannyo half-laughed and moved to sit near Misumaru, shuffling the cards she was holding. “So tell me about how that went.”

“Hmm… well, I started it off by having a little chat with Yukari. You know of her, right? We had a simple conversation about how Reimu’s doing?”

“Reimu? The shrine maiden?”

“Yes, her. I’m regretting not having gotten involved in her life sooner, because sheesh, she is… a mess. You know how long it took me to convince her I wasn’t involved with the tengu during that whole card incident? More than a while! I think that girl gets too caught up in her own head and it leads to her getting too stubborn. She’s… what, 20 years old now? But she acts like a headstrong teenager, it’s ridiculous.”

“I mean, the difference between 20 and 19 isn’t that big, Misumaru, cut the girl some slack.”

Misumaru shrugged, sighed, and slumped in her seat. She supposed Sannyo had a point, but that didn’t mean it had to feel good to admit it. She really just wanted the best for Reimu, to see that shrine maiden who wielded one of her finest creations become the best damn shrine maiden she could be. It was just frustrating seeing her stagnate in her eyes, that was all. So what if she were a bit dramatic about it?

“But… yes, we just talked and… that was about it. We talked about Reimu like I said, about recent incidents…”

“Oh, recent incidents? Which ones?”

“Oh, you know. Mostly the…”

There was a pause. Misumaru knew exactly which incident they were talking about; it was the card incident. But unfortunately, she just walked herself right into a trap. She was gonna have to talk about this now, Sannyo could tell when she was lying; dealing with people constantly bluffing in gambling made her rather observant. All she could really do was delay it, but would that even be worth it?

“...Misumaru? Are you there?”

Damn it, Sannyo noticed. Looekd like she had no choice after all.

“...we were talking about the card incident. And how it seems to have died down since Chimata took back control of the market. Ability cards might finally start slowing down…”

“...hmm.”

Just then, Sannyo’s eyes seemed to perk open. Misumaru glanced at her in confusion; what made her so alert all of a sudden?

“Ah, that reminds me. Thank you for bringing that up, I wanted to show you something. Here, look at these cards.”

Sannyo finally held up the cards she was holding and showed them to Misumaru. The god leaned forward to look closer at them; yep, they sure looked like ability cards, though… something was up with them. They looked… cheap. Flimsy, actually.

“...what’s the issue with these?”

“Take one out. Don’t worry about damaging it.”

Misumaru obliged and picked a random one, lifting it and holding it up to her face to analyze it more closely. Indeed, it was rather cheap and flimsy, but also… powerless. This wasn’t a normal ability card at all; it was a fake. Not a single dragon gem was used in its production.

“Sannyo, this is… a fake card. Why do you have this?”

“To be entirely clear, I still disagree on the issue of the cards,” Sannyo started, “but I get how important this issue is for you. So, I’ve decided to pack it in with the real card trade and move onto the recreational, playing card trade. It’s not as much money, but… well, you being comfortable is important to me, I’m willing to give on that whole thing if it helps you sleep at night.”

Huh. That took a while to sink into Misumaru’s head. So the cards were fake, and Sannyo was… abandoning the card market. For her? That felt… odd to hear, for some reason. Maybe she was expecting something a bit more dramatic, like an actual fight; not that she wanted one, but it felt odd for their little conflict to just… end like this. Maybe even a little awkward, but…

“...really? For me, you really didn’t-”

“Hey, some extra money isn’t worth the strain in our relationship. You deserve to be happy too, don’t forget.”

“...right. Of course.” Misumaru closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and worked to regain her composure. “I thank you, Sannyo. Truly.”

“Of course. For now, I think I’m ready to head off to bed. Ready to turn in, too?”

Misumaru didn’t even need to say anything. She just nodded and stood off, and Sannyo proceeded to head off toward their shared room with the god in tow. Sheesh, even if that conversation didn’t get heated, just the thought of it was enough to stress her out. At the very least this chapter in their relationship was over and they’d be able to move onto simpler, happier topics.

Like whether Sannyo should quit smoking. That certainly won’t cause any issues.