The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

"I know, that's why no matter which world it is, the evil god can always find the food it likes to eat."

Shi Bai rolled his eyes.

"In short, do you agree or not?!"

"Evil God?"

Heka glanced at him with a slightly strange look, thought for a moment, and then waved his hand dismissively.

"Although what you're asking for still violates the rules of the underworld, you've violated them countless times already. This time, however... are you sure you really don't need me to pay you back?"

Looking at the goddess in front of him with an expectant expression, Shi Bai's face immediately darkened.

"I am absolutely certain."

“Very well, then I promise you I won’t interfere in this matter. From now on, let her talk to those Yama on her own… However, there are some things I still need to remind you of beforehand.”

Heca held up a finger in front of him, his face serious.

"You can only gain something by giving something else. If she wants to retain all her memories for reincarnation, then her lifespan in each life will not exceed thirty years. At the same time, in order to prevent her from revealing the affairs of the underworld to the real world and causing some unpredictable effects, she must sign a contract with Yama. After each reincarnation, she must work for Yama in the underworld for about a hundred years before she can reincarnate again. These are the maximum benefits I can offer within the scope of the rules. If you are unwilling to agree to these conditions, then there is nothing to talk about."

"...Okay, I'll talk to her about it later."

After thinking for a moment, Shi Bai nodded.

"I knew it. Every time you come to me, it's never for anything good. You either want me to break the rules for you or clean up some mess. Do you think I'm just a useful tool?"

Looking at the person in front of her, Heca pouted slightly, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"So I just don't understand you. I have no idea why you're doing this. Wouldn't it be better to just laze around like me every day? There shouldn't be anything for you to worry about right now."

"Helping is a two-way street. When I ask you for help, it also means that you can come to me for help in the future, no matter what it is."

Turning around and walking towards the door, Shi Bai waved to those behind him.

"Besides, I've been slacking off the whole time..."

............................................................

The worm of time will always silently bare its fangs, forcefully pulling those who deviate from the right path back onto the correct track.

Although her actions caused changes to the overall story of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Hieda Rei still followed her predetermined path.

Or rather, her fate was sealed the moment she stepped into the Hakurei Shrine, which was ruled by Meimu.

With Heca's tacit approval, Hieda Rei and Shiki Eiki signed a contract. Starting today, she will serve as a special being in the Hall of Right and Wrong in the Underworld for one hundred years. After one hundred years, she will be reincarnated with her memories and spend countless lifetimes completing the book "The Origin of Gensokyo".

The path she chose herself was destined to be incredibly long and arduous.

"...Anyway, that's how it is. Remember to keep an eye on Xiao Siji for me and help her with her workload so she doesn't have to work overtime every day. As for where you'll rest, you can go to Baiyulou to rest; I won't charge you rent."

While showing Hieda Arie the hall of right and wrong that he had designed, Shi Bai spoke to her in this manner.

Although Hieda Rei and other Enma could complete the signing of contracts, his own selfish motives led him to have the other party sign a contract with Shiki.

After all, unlike Enma who has many Shinigami to help her, Shiki only has Komachi as her subordinate, a lazy Shinigami who is always on duty. One person can't handle all the work, but with Hieda Rei's help, the hard work can definitely be reduced a lot.

"...Are you planning to return to the mortal world again?"

Throughout this process, Hieda Rei remained remarkably quiet and silent until the very end, when she finally posed the question to the person in front of her.

"Yeah, she hasn't been found yet. But that's fine, I can just keep looking, I have time anyway. But who knew I'd attract so much trouble... This is so hard for me."

Looking up at the perpetually gray void of the underworld, Shi Bai sighed with a touch of melancholy.

"Oh, and one more thing: you'll get paid while you're working in the underworld. If any woman claiming to be an ordinary mahjong parlor owner comes to borrow money from you, please don't lend her any."

"........."

After a moment of silence, Hieda Rei also looked up at the sky.

"The person you've been searching for for so long must be very important to you, right?"

"Yes, yes, she is indeed a very, very important person to me, after all, she knows so much of my dark history... If I don't find her soon, I'm afraid she'll just blow me to pieces with a magic cannon when we meet again."

Shi Bai sighed again, feeling melancholy.

"Also, the time I spent searching wasn't that long. In the past, she waited for me for a whole thousand years. I'm now prepared to spend a thousand years searching for her."

"Don't worry, it won't take you that long."

Turning his head, Hieda Rei smiled at him.

"If we are destined to meet again, we will meet again. I hope that next time, we can meet in a different way."

"Another stance?"

Looking down at his own clothes, the person nodded thoughtfully.

"Hmm... I'll probably bring some food to Xiao Siji in about three days. I'll change my clothes before I come."

Baitian Ali: "???"

..................................................................

After returning from the underworld to the mortal realm, before Shi Bai could even recover from the dizziness of the teleportation between the two worlds, a uniquely shaped umbrella with giant eyes and a tongue suddenly opened in front of him.

At the same time, a plaintive voice echoed softly behind him.

"I hate it so much!"

"........."

With a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, Shi Bai turned his head to the side.

Five seconds later, the strange umbrella above their heads also changed direction, and a persistent voice rang out again.

"I hate it so much~~"

"........."

Turn around again, then move again.

"I hate it so much~~~"

"...I said, can you stop scaring me? You can't scare me."

Silently turning his head, Shi Bai looked at a blue-haired girl with heterochromia squatting next to him... a loli?

Tatara Kogasa is a tsukumogami (a type of spirit in Chinese mythology). Its original form is a katakana (a type of umbrella) discarded by its owner. After absorbing the essence of the sun and moon and feeling the power of Buddha and spiritual energy, it gradually gained a soul and transformed into a yokai (a type of monster).

To be honest, Shi Bai never expected that the old Tang umbrella he picked up in a cemetery to keep out the rain would contain a tsukumogami (a spirit in Chinese mythology associated with the dead).

Actually, that's not the point. The point is that because she was afraid of his aura and strength, and was afraid that he would kill her, Tatara Kogasa was so scared that she dared not show herself and let him use her real body to shield her from the rain... and then she hid for several years.

During his long journey in search of Yuuka Kazami, whose whereabouts were unknown, he found a Tang-style umbrella that he found by chance, and because it was very useful, he, who had a serious collecting obsession, casually took it as one of his collectibles.

If he hadn't discovered in recent years that his belongings, such as snacks and his phone, had been tampered with, he might not have been able to discover the existence of Tatara Kogasa. Although he had heard of and understood the existence of tsukumogami before, this was the first time he had actually witnessed one.

After all, she had been by his side for so many years, and they were quite familiar with each other. So, after being discovered, Tatara Kogasa didn't show the same fear as before. Instead, she naturally expressed her desire to acknowledge him as her master...

Shi Bai said he was frightened, and then, feeling that he still had integrity, he firmly refused the other party.

...and then things turned out the way they are now.

Although he expressed sincere remorse for using the other person as an umbrella, the other person seemed intent on clinging to him.

For Tatara Kogasa, a weak tsukumogami, whether as the main body of Kara Usagi or herself, she can be considered her main body. A tsukumogami cannot be too far away from her main body, especially for Tatara Kogasa, who is too weak and must always carry her main body with her.

The thought of how he used to hold the other person up to shelter from the rain... made Shi Bai feel inexplicably uncomfortable.

However, for Tatara Kogasa, her purpose was quite simple.

The world is in chaos right now. Although a wise yokai has appeared out of nowhere, it is still incredibly difficult to survive in the yokai world. A weak spirit like her, born out of chance, has almost no power. Any little yokai can bully her.

She was having a terrible time with the demons, but she was also having a terrible time with the humans. Although she was a spirit possessing spirits, any human with magical powers could defeat her, even though she never harbored any ill will towards humans. However, the humans didn't see it that way; she didn't want to face death so soon.

Therefore, since her birth, she has usually hidden in the cemetery.

Originally, she only wanted to scare a human who came to the cemetery to worship his ancestors out of fun, but she was inexplicably surrounded and captured by Onmyoji. After hearing about her deeds, the Onmyoji who came all wanted to take her as their shikigami.

Actually, becoming a human's shikigami isn't so bad. Since she is a spirit born from an object, she doesn't have any malice towards humans; on the contrary, she has a somewhat friendly feeling towards them.

However, she sensed a clear malice from those Onmyoji. Although her strength was very weak, her sensitivity to emotions was quite good; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to survive in such a weak state.

Therefore, she concealed all her aura and transformed into an ordinary, tattered Tang umbrella, which she placed beside the cemetery.

Those Onmyoji didn't know that her true nature was actually a tsukumogami, and that she didn't possess any demonic power or resentment. As long as those Onmyoji couldn't find her, it wouldn't be long before they would automatically retreat.

...That's what Tatara Kogasa was thinking.

The world of monsters is too cruel; the strong rule, and the weak don't even have the right to live. She doesn't want to get involved. The human world is too complex; some humans' hearts even frighten her, so she doesn't want to go there either.

Places like cemeteries are generally not frequented by many people, whether they are monsters or humans. Although she occasionally sees one or two spirits, those spirits quickly go to places she doesn't know.

The cemetery is, in Tatara Kogasa's opinion, the best hiding place.

As long as those Onmyoji leave, she can still survive in this cemetery.

But she never expected that some despicable guy passing by would take a liking to her so conveniently, and even use her true form as an umbrella to shelter from the rain, taking it away without a second thought...

Small umbrella.jpg

P.S.: Good afternoon, the sun is shining brightly! (((*°▽°*)八(*°▽°*)))?

Chapter 4 Tatara Kogasa

Tatara Kogasa is essentially a tsukumogami, specifically a karasaka (garland umbrella) yokai. It is a tsukumogami formed from a karasaka that has been unused and discarded for many years. It neither attacks nor eats people; it only likes to scare people, but it often fails to scare anyone...

A spirit possessed by spirits is a kind of conceptual monster.

For a weak tsukumogami like Tatara Kogasa, she is basically unable to leave her own body. When her own body is controlled by someone else, it means that she has been completely controlled by that person.

In order to evade the Onmyoji who came to capture her, she transformed herself into her most primitive form—a worn-out, rather unappealingly colored Tang umbrella carelessly discarded in a cemetery.

Although there are no spirits in the underworld due to the rules of the underworld, all living beings always feel that things discarded here are unlucky. So, Tatara Kogasa is not afraid that the Onmyoji will pick her up by accident.

However, the Onmyoji didn't notice her; instead, a passerby took her away as shelter from the rain...

And so, she was forced to leave the cemetery where she had spent so long and embark on a rather distant and long journey with that guy.

She had initially held onto a sliver of hope, perhaps that this terrifying guy would simply abandon her after the rain stopped, and that she would regain her freedom.

But just as she hadn't expected to be picked up by someone before, she also hadn't expected that the person who picked her up had a rather serious collecting obsession, and she couldn't leave at all...

As a pitiful, weak, and helpless tsukumogami born in a cemetery on a stormy night, Tatara Kogasa has neither the strength to resist nor the courage to run away for fear of exposing herself, so she can only exist peacefully as an umbrella.

Since the time she was born, she had almost never left the vicinity of her cemetery, but after being taken away by a twist of fate, she witnessed many beautiful and wonderful sights and things that she had never seen before.

Similarly, during this incredibly long journey for her, Tatara Kogasa gradually realized what kind of person the one who took her away truly was.

He doesn't seem to be human, but he always identifies himself as human. He possesses immense strength, but he rarely reveals it. When he gets serious, he is more terrifying than any other being, but when he's lazy, he's more harmless than a roadside weed... He is a complete contradiction.

Perhaps at first, she was afraid of the other person and dared not reveal herself, but as she spent more time with him and understood his true nature, she gradually became bolder.

In this chaotic era, is there anything more fortunate than having a master who will never abandon you and is incredibly powerful?

If I had stayed in that cemetery, I might have been captured by some Onmyoji and made into a shikigami, or enslaved and killed by other monsters. Compared to that, this comfortable life where I don't have to worry about my safety and can travel all over the country is the best.

After witnessing someone casually defeat a famous monster, Tatara Kogasa's mindset began to gradually change.

Therefore, her purpose was actually quite simple.

That means just wanting to follow the big shots around and win without lifting a finger, being a lazy bum who only needs to shout "666" every day.

Of course, Tatara Kogasa also understood that if such a powerful being wanted something, there would definitely be many spontaneous followers around her, and someone as weak as herself might not be worth their attention.

However, since the other party was able to keep a worn-out Tang umbrella that they picked up casually in a cemetery with them for several years without discarding it and even took good care of it, Tatara Kosan felt that her chances were actually quite high.

...Then her request to acknowledge the other party as her master was rejected, and she was rejected three times in a row.

"So why is that? I should be very useful, right?"

Squatting to the side, still holding her umbrella even indoors, Tatara Kogasa spoke up somewhat indignantly.

"Wouldn't it be nice to be my master?"

"What are you thinking? I don't have the habit of letting others call me master."

Rolling his eyes, Shi Bai sat up from the floor.

"Considering your weakness and your safety, it's fine for you to stay by my side, but you're forbidden from making that request again."

"So why is that?"