Chapter Text
Kogasa's plan was flawless. Village humans were wise enough to fear Youkai Mountain, the name said all they needed to know to stay as far away from it as they could help, really. But the misty lake at its feet had always been fairly popular amongst fishermen who were willing to head a little further out for the promise of better yields, or simply appreciated competition- And, if Kogasa’s ‘sources’ were to be trusted, these foolhardy humans had been pushing their luck, leaving later and later, until it was only a matter of time before they started leaving under the cover of night, shivering in fear of any deadly youkai that might lurk in the dark… Like say, her!
That would be when she'd strike. Of course, she would do it from the best hidden, scariest place she could think of; Underwater, beneath her own umbrella. Although she would have to try a little hard to keep herself, the umbrella, that is, above water. Precaution, is all.
After that, As Kogasa had personally planned and written her own end of the fright's particularly nuanced and high-quality script, a very normal thing (she reassured herself) for youkai to want and need, she would not have only secured a sorely needed chunk of fear that would carry her for a good while, but have something worth bragging about for at least a couple seasons. Assuming it went well.
Of course, it could not have.
As she waited and waited some more, the expected few days turning into more than a week, Kogasa had time to muse her own plans over. She was, in some respect, an umbrella. Both of her bodies were reasonably resilient to water if proper care was taken to keep them that way, although it was proving difficult now with how long it had been since she last scared someone, but that wasn't why she was so fed up, water wasn't the problem. That would have been the biting cold she had to endure while submerged.
This was a bad scheme to play so late in autumn.
It didn't help either that the very premise of the plan had been mistaken because her so called ‘sources’ were fairies; The humans really were leaving a little later than they usually did, but the difference was so minute that it was much easier to explain away by the days growing shorter than a sudden outburst of hubris. These weren’t great realizations for the morale of the tsukumogami currently freezing in the lake, so with a heavy heart and (what was left of) her pride on the line, she had no choice but to compromise.
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Despite the rainclouds being determined to make the day as miserable as they could, dropping the temperature and turning leaves and dirt into a melange of mud with no allegiance to humans or youkai, you could still see bright amber pushing through clouds across the skyline. The sunset stubbornly remained beautiful, in spite of all; This was a difficult setup for an artist like her to play off of, but she could make it work. She would have to, as she watched the last human on the lake hurriedly row back towards the shore.
Were the circumstances any less dire, Kogasa would not have been able to leap off the water into proper flight. It was challenging, to say the least, when both the lake, the wind and the rain were freezing all the way through her, and she was not a strong youkai. But hunger was a good substitute for adrenaline, and she quickly closed the gap between the human’s boat and herself, shivering as she floated above the small craft, rain bouncing off her body.
“Hehe, You’re pretty er, uhm, deep in youkai territory at this hour, aren’t you!” The chittering of her teeth was not helping her sell this.
The human stared at Kogasa without any clue of what she should make of this.
That was bad. It’s one thing if they’re mad, angry, violent or even make fun of you, but confusion…? It’s tough to scare someone if they don’t even get what you’re supposed to be doing here! But she could salvage this, so long as she stuck to the script! Somewhere between sliding and floating, she moved behind the frustrated woman, placing a cold hand on her shoulder, and whispered while trying her very best to not stumble on stutters.
“Are you er, uhm. Perhaps, trying to…” If she could land at least the sinker, if she could do that much, then maybe—! “End up as food~?”
“Pardon, what?”
The woman kindly lifted Kogasa's hand by the wrist and moved it off her shoulder, careful not to hurt her.
This was bad.
Awkwardly shifting in place, Kogasa bit her tongue as if that could save her from further humiliation. What was she supposed to do now?! Failure this decisive wasn't something she even wanted to plan for, it'd ruin her mood, and yet she needed to come up with some way to salvage this. Killing the human was possible, but that was an easy way out, she wasn't cowardly enough for that, and when the Myouren temple guys found out, then they might not let her scare people in the cemetery! At least for a little while. So maybe if she just knocked her out? No, no way! She held tightly onto her umbrella. This late, that would actually put this lady in danger and then the red-white would find Kogasa and—
“Hold on, I know you, miss!" The tsukumogami was frozen still. "You’re the one with the freaky umbrella, don't look a day older, do you? You always made my asshole brother bawl his eyes out" Oh. Oh no. "To see you show up all worried when I’m gettin’ soaked out here… You’re pretty nice, you know?”
Completely unable to vocalize what was going through its mind in a manner that was comprehensible even to herself, an inarticulate “Bweh?” Escaped Kogasa while it could not help but land on the human’s boat, her weight deceptively light enough to avoid throwing them both onto the lake. She was still protecting the human from the rain with her umbrella, even if at the moment she couldn't possibly spare a thought to hold it. “Uhm, no see, I wasn’t trying to—”
“—To hurt him? I know dear, our parents were super paranoid, but everyone loved your pranks. Even he, you know?” The boat had hit land, and the human sighed disappointed while lifting her humble haul for the day, Kogasa though, could only hold her mouth open like one of those very same fish. “The boat’ll be fine if I leave it here for a day or so, but could you be a dear and help me carry my fishing gear?”
It was safe to say, she thought as her panic had already frozen over into numbness and she lifted what was asked of her, that this was a new type of rock bottom for her to land face first onto. She was quite skilled when it came to finding those. The umbrella held itself between them.
Both of the human’s fishing rods, she simply knew as she held them, were impressively old. This woman was perhaps their third owner, yet they remained strong and flexible with not one splinter in sight on the soft, elegant feeling lacquer of the bamboo. Overall the rods looked no older than maybe a decade, despite being easily five or six times that.
That was all she could figure out on her own. Usually, she would be able to get some more information out of whichever spirit happened to inhabit the tool if it was old enough, but for tools of their age, the spirits were surprisingly immature, and terribly smug. Unfairly so! But since it would be pointless to argue with things as childish as those, she dismissed them with the strong conviction that can only come from age. The line, however… Could it be some type of plastic, perhaps? It was definitely not silk, that much was obvious.
Plastics weren't easy to handle for someone used to metals, but she was no stranger to them, many of the tools that showed up from the outside world could even be entirely made of the thing! Even though its weird smell was a little off-putting to some youkai, the tsukumogami who survived the miracle mallet incident didn't seem to mind it all that much, probably had something to do with the plastic that must have been part of the tools they now lived in. You get used to regular smells.
Still! These were nevertheless excellent, even if she couldn't in good conscience extend that praise to the hooks. They were of extremely poor quality and craftsmanship, even if not meant to last for decades as the rods had, you should be able to at least sharpen one without having it shatter on your hands. The realization that a smith this clumsy and incompetent was making tools for the humans at the village made her nauseous. Did they have no pity for the tools they made, No teachers to hold them accountable?
“—They’re really rough. The uhm, the hooks, I mean! Pretty dull, right?” Kogasa placed one's tip atop her fingernail and let go of the lure, both slide right off as she picks up steam despite the cold rain, with a chance to talk about one of the few topics she could act like an authority on. “I saw you didn’t catch many, figured I’d check and, er, yeah. They'd break if I tried to sharpen them… Could I keep these?”
The villager was studying her this time, looking at how Kogasa held the tools she was asked to carry. “Huh. I wasn't gonna ask if you fished, since you really don't look the type, but do you? I've been wrong before.”
“I have tried, not that I ever caught anything…” No, she couldn't afford to dwell on topics that would only bring down her mood at a time like this. She was a confident and proud tsukumogami, and had to act like one! “Er, I'm a good smith, though! Most of my clients are youkai, but the Hakurei shrine lets me set up stands during festivals every now and then!” A smug smirk refused to leave her face. She always made a killing during those, who'd have thought humans loved hammers and nails so much?
Despite that, Kogasa was by no means successful, and anyone who knew her would be inclined to agree. Still, she was familiar with the emotions she tasted whenever a scheme went well; Fear had many shades, and it rarely came alone, yet what she tasted as this woman smiled at her with awed eyes was none of the usual tag-alongs. It felt nostalgic in a way she couldn't quite place, so she had tasted this before, hadn't she? It really bugged her.
The human, though, figured a good way to snap Kogasa out of her strange, puzzled expression. “Yeah you can keep the hooks if you want ‘em, but you'll have to get me some good ones for botherin’ me about it, though.”
“You—!” Was this human trying to take advantage of her?! Just because it couldn’t bear to see the old hooks thrown away? She had to be—
“Kidding, kidding! I'll pay you, word! Whatever you make for me can't be any worse than those you're taking. Not that I know why you'd want them anyway, but you can find me at the lake every other day, I come by a lot.” The fisher waved back in the lake's direction with some disdain. “Stuck with the job you get me? Been seeing your umbrella an awful lot around here too, come here often or just found it?”
“I, uhm…” Admitting why couldn’t possibly make her situation any worse, but Kogasa would rather not dig her grave any deeper. “ Sorta, yeah .”
“Pretty damn brave of you to work for youkai, though!” A rough pat on her back shook Kogasa out of those concerns as the human snickered loudly “You'd think they'd just beat the snot out of you or run off without paying, right? That’s what they’re always doing in the village. Well, you know, ‘least when they don’t get caught by the Hakurei.”
That was true, they would. These days though, most youkai know better than to mess with the people whose work they need, but it happened fairly often when she had only just started offering her services. Not like shrine maidens were any different. Although, In fairness to the shrine, that one had been uniquely wicked, nobody had even been shocked by what happened to it.
Wait.
Forget that, did the woman not notice…?
“—You do know I'm not human, right?!” Embarrassingly desperate to prove it, Kogasa stood on one leg and held her blue eye shut, as she gripped herself/the umbrella out of the air. “My name's Kogasa Tatara, a karakasa-obake, and definitely a youkai!”
The fisher simply stared at her with the same confused expression on her face as when she first leapt out of the lake… Was this a hopelessly strange villager, or was she a hopeless youkai? Knowing her odds, she wouldn’t dare to bet on it.
“I mean, yeah? ‘Course I know. You're one of a bazillion divine spirits that just happens to live in a tool, right? I went to temple school.” Leaning forward to get a better look at Kogasa under the dangerously dim light, the fisher couldn't help but cackle in spite of her unmotivated attempts at covering her own mouth “Though looking at you standing like that, you really do look way more like a proper smith. Tatara? Awful joke, that!”
"Ah... Just a bad joke, huh?" That human was probably right. She expected to cry, with the tightness in her chest and throat, but Kogasa couldn't bring herself to. So she closed the umbrella that covered both of them, for whatever difference it'd make. A defective umbrella like her was already thrown away once, so who was she to tell if she could even handle rain? Only a bad joke of a youkai would fail time after time. “Yeah, It's probably easier if I stop pretending I'm worth keeping.” It was fine. She rested her umbrella on her shoulder while trying to find the moon. If she couldn't come up with a way to be of use to humans when she was a tool and couldn't find her purpose as a youkai, then disappearing was just fine. Easy, too; She had been forgotten once alrea—
“My bad, really! Please don't take my yappin' too seriously, I dunno what you’ve been through and it'd be rude of me to pry. But as far as actions go, you’re a nice girl, Miss Umbrella. I can tell.” The human’s smile was far too warm for the weather, and now Kogasa noticed; This woman too, was shivering. “Kinder than most people I know anyway, that's for sure.”
There it was again. It was unfair! Pity should not be able to feed her, she knew it couldn't, so what was this? Her scheme had failed in ways Kogasa didn't even think possible, and yet she was alright. She had been given grounding, despite not doing her part as a youkai at all. It wasn't as good as what she usually got, but it was nice, it made her feel like this fisher she just met really believed in her, as silly as it felt, and before she knew it, both of them were under the shelter of her umbrella once more— Which really did make a difference... But the human was still looking down on her, suspicious sustenance or not. Most youkai she knew would have attacked this villager if she spoke about them in the way she just spoke of me; Youkai zealously guard their reputations, even despite Gensokyo, for whatever reason, giving things like them unprecedented freedoms in defining not only their history, but their stories as well. It must not have been perfect, she reasoned.
But it wasn't worth considering, the idea of attacking a human right after having promised to forge something for them made Kogasa’s stomach feel like it was turning in on itself. It just wasn't right. And Miss Hijiri would get mad.
They could at least see the lights of the human village now, and that brought Kogasa no peace of mind, who was at least hinged enough for her worries to be focus on what was real. Ever since they left the lake, the rain had only grown in strength, and for a youkai like her to enter the village this late with a human so vulnerable? She really didn’t want this all to end up with her beat up in a hopeless spell card duel against a bloodthirsty exterminator! Worries that must have been visible on her face as the woman leaned into the umbrella and snickered.
“You really are a sweetheart, you know, Miss Umbrell—" Timeliness of the interruption aside, It was actually impressive how loudly this woman could sneeze. "—Bwah... I'll put in good word for you.”
On second thought, would it really be so bad to kill this human?