Work Text:
Something was missing.
Satori sighed, picking up the stack of papers she had been focused on for the past hour and tapping them against the desk. She then set them back down, blinking blearily before scanning the page once more.
She was going over the Palace of Earth Spirits’ finances, but her balance sheets just weren’t adding up. Somewhere in the past month, 86 mon had just gone missing, and Satori couldn’t figure out where. Even her third eye was growing bags toiling over this.
Maybe she should listen to Orin’s advice and take a break from her work. The mind reader shook her head to herself, sighing. She’d just end up with more work to do on top of that if she did.. These finances had already set her back a good deal, and she didn’t plan to lose any more sleep than she had to. Even if internally, she knew she’d just end up working again.
Her Satori eye followed her gaze as she casted her eyes up to the clock mounted high on the wall. It was around lunchtime, she noted to herself. She’d have to make herself something soon. Mealtime still felt so empty without her sister around..
Letting a quiet defeated sigh slip, she began to push herself up from her chair when-
“Miss Satori-!! Ack!” There was a dull thump as the door to her office swung open, a certain hell raven barging into the room. She happened to clip her large folded wing on the doorframe as she made her abrupt entrance. Even with the adjustments she had made to the doors after Utsuho absorbed the Yatagarasu, the birdbrain was still clipping her large form on the dark wood of the Palace’s interior occasionally.
She gave a sheepish smile, her wing twitching before the grin suddenly slipped off her face, replaced with an alarmed expression. Satori’s own eyebrows pinched in concern for the large raven, glancing up to meet her eyes as she stepped out from her desk.
“Yes, Okuu? Is something-” Her quiet voice is cut off as Utsuho steps into the room, swinging her arms out in some sort of gesture to get her to listen.
“Miss Satori, something’s beeping in the control room, and I don’t know what!” She exclaimed. The wing that bumped the doorframe twitched again with a slight wince from its owner. Satori might have to dig out the ice packs again..
However, that thought was overshadowed by a much more pressing concern.
“Something is… beeping?” Satori said, her purple eyes glinting with worry. Even reading Utsuho’s mind did not explain much; it was all garbled worries and technical jabber that Satori could never hope to decipher.
“Yeah, there’s a big box hooked up to the panel, with a little display, and it keeps beeping randomly!” Utsuho said. Satori shook her head, stepping towards the tall raven. She couldn’t help but worry about the situation herself– if the reactor was beeping and Utsuho didn’t know what it meant, it truly was worrying. For all her airheadedness, nuclear reactors were one thing the woman had down.
“And-” Utsuho continued. “-but- uh- the rest of the readings on the control panel are fine. There’s no issues with the graphite moderators either, the control rods, or the water pumps! I checked myself! And the pressure readings!”
Satori nodded, worry still afflicting her.
“Well.. that’s certainly troubling.” Satori said, standing alongside the raven. At least the reactor was fine, but still.. It was better safe than sorry, after all. “Shall I go take a look?”
Okuu nodded twice, her long hair black hair flailing with the motion. “Yes! Come on!” She stepped down the hall quickly, careful not to stride too fast and leave Satori behind her.
They left the wood flooring of her office, her shoes clacking on the marble as the two youkai briskly headed towards the Hell of Blazing Fires, where the Nuclear Furnace lay. Utsuho pushed open the door to the hall that led to their destination, coming upon the bulkhead at the end of the room.
Utsuho grabbed the handle, twisting it and yanking the door open with a creak that made Satori wince. She really should talk to the bird about her strength again..
The two of them quickly headed into the next hall, down the staircase, another hall, and then into a green door on the left. It opened up into a small room jam-packed with control panels, switches, abstract panels with green lights, a large hexagonal display of square tiles, and other doodads Satori couldn’t know less about. As far as she noticed, nothing was beeping… yet.
“There it is!” Utsuho announced, pointing a finger over to a bulky box perched upon the one place that lacked any sort of switches. A cord led from the machine into the desk underneath it, which happened to be in the centre of the control room, on a small island. The clock in the room ticked slowly, the two surrounded by the hum of electricity.
There was a window on the machine, which happened to be glowing yellow, and it was emanating a low hum that didn’t quite sound like the reactor. This seemed to alarm Utsuho, who glanced over at her.
“See? Miss Satori, it’s going to beep again! It always does this before it beeps!” Utsuho said, her wings fluttering as the towering woman made her way over to the box, staring at the display on it.
“I.. see.” Satori followed after her, inspecting the box as well. There was some sort of numbered pad underneath a timer that seemed to be steadily ticking down to some unknown event.
“I don’t know what’s going on- cause, um, I’ve checked all the readings, and the fuel element temperature is nominal, as well as- the, uh, fuel rods aren’t leaking, and the scintillation counters aren’t reporting any excess-”
Satori glanced at the window closer, squinting her eyes to see into the yellow light. Was that a rotating slice of..?
“-and nothing’s out of spec, either! I’ve even checked the-”
..Yes, that was lasagna.
“-and there’s no cavitation in the coolant pumps! All turbines are operational, along with the circulation system for the light water coolant-” Utsuho said, staring down at Satori with those crimson eyes of hers, her wings spreading a bit as she obviously seemed quite adamant about the danger of the device.
“Okuu.” Satori said firmly, standing up straighter, giving a long-suffering sigh as she looked away from the microwave and up at the towering birb.
Utsuho paused abruptly. She went dead silent for a moment before tilting her head to the side as she stared down at Satori, not unlike a curious bird. “...unyu?”
“...This is a microwave.” Satori said, her tone flat.
Utsuho blinked.
“..Like, the wavelength? But it’s not-”
Satori shook her head. “It’s an outside world cooking device.”
Utsuho’s face flushed with embarrassment and her wings drooped a little, the woman letting out a breath that was a mixture somewhere between a sigh of relief and disappointment. (Which the latter may have been directed at herself.)
“..oh.” She said, glancing aside and giving a small nervous chuckle. She brought a hand up to the back of her neck sheepishly.
Satori looked around the side of the device, wondering when exactly they had obtained a microwave. Such things were hard to come by in Gensokyo. Inspecting where the cord connected to the blocky thing, she spied a small yellow note.
… Property of Orin. There was even a little cartoony winky face Rin must have drawn of herself.
Well, Satori supposes she found where that missing 86 mon had gone. Satori sighed once more, turning back to face the bashful bird.
“..Sorry, Miss Satori..” Utsuho said, quietly. Satori patted her on the side, tilting her head to glance up at her face.
“Don’t worry about it, Okuu. We all make mistakes.” Satori said, putting on her best comforting look. It wasn’t her fault she was a big clumsy bird, after all.
Suddenly, the microwave beeped loudly, Utsuho stiffening straight up. She slightly jumped at the sudden noise, wincing as her wings flicked. The room smelled strongly of cooked lasagna by now. The two of them glanced back at the microwave, and moments later, the door to the control room swung open.
A certain smug cat strode in, beelining for the microwave. She nodded at Satori and Okuu in acknowledgment.
“Afternoon, Miss Satori.” Rin said, her cat tails swaying behind her lazily as she popped open the microwave and retrieved her plate of lasagna. Satori and Utsuho watched as the kasha made off with her food, leaving like she had done nothing at all.
“...I’ll have to talk to her about asking for money first..” Satori sighed to herself, glancing back at the hell raven. Utsuho looked back at her, still seeming a little sheepish at her mistake.
“..You did not notice her putting food into the microwave at all..?” Satori asked, slightly raising her eyebrows.
Okuu let out a small chuckle, embarrassed once again.
“I.. um.. Forgot.” She said. Satori sighed to herself for the eleventh time that day. This girl…
Utsuho’s wings twitched again, her face slightly lit up in an ashamed blush while she winced.
“..Nevermind that.” Satori said, her tone shifting into an almost motherly one. “How about we get you an ice pack for your wing, hm?” She gave Utsuho a small weary smile, stepping ahead of the bird and opening the door for her, eager to get away from the strong stench of lasagna.
Utsuho nodded, following after her.
“..Thanks, Miss Satori.” Okuu said, as the two of them stepped into the hall and began to trek back upstairs, the situation mitigated.
Satori sighed to herself, a fond smile on her face as she followed after Utsuho. What a doofus…
She was glad she had her.