E13: Help Wanted

Mizuki ate her breakfast in the basement, surrounded by the mess of scrolls. They both finally decided that looking for each haphazardly arranged scroll could no longer stand and that it was about time that they finally tackled the issue head-on. Harvest season was over, and after a few overnight sweeps of the land, the leftovers have been burnt and made ready to decompose in the soil for the next cycle. It was time for the more winter-affiliated Yokai to take over and cool down the world.

Mizuki had the first turn in organizing the small archive, and she started by pulling every scroll down from their cubbyholes and making a giant pile on the ground at the far end of the room. That was about as far as she had gone so far, eating her food as she stared at everything with dread.

"Have you made any progress?" Anna said, peaking in to check up on her. "Of course I did, I already finished the first step!"

"What about after?" Anna asked. Mizuki looked back at the pile, putting another mouthful down her gullet. "I know you wanted to help in this endeavor, so I saved the next step for you."

"This is absurd, I am not doing this by myself."

"Look at my hands, Anna!" Mizuki said, holding up her three-fingered claws. "Do these look like scroll sorting hands? I would do a terrible job!"

"You can transform them."

"....I still don't want to organize the scrolls," Mizuki said, going back to eating. Anna signed and fully went into the room, sitting down beside her. "Then how should we get this done?"

"We need to delegate the responsibility to someone else. Some yokai that wouldn't mind organizing this by alphabetical order…" As soon as Mizuki said that, a paper poofed in front of them, landing on Anna's lap. It was from Nabu, and it was a hastily scribbled drawing of her and Marsaw staring at them judgmentally.

"I am out of people," Mizuki announced after looking at the paper. "Should we get one of the town's people?"

"That would be too much of a risk. Just grabbing a monster would yield the same problem," Anna said, picking up one of the scrolls. "I wouldn't be able to let that outsider leave intact."

"So we can't use yokai, and we can't allow anyone that isn't a yokai down here….arrrrg-" Mizuki fell backward, landing in the pile of scrolls. She grabbed her head, squeezing her skull as she thought for a clean, lazy way out of work. It only gave her a headache, though. "Should we just go to the spa?" Mizuki wondered, having given up on sorting the scrolls.

"Fine. Mervana may have a few ideas about how to get additional people."

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The receptionist gave them a key and wicker basket full of toiletries, sending them on their way to one of the many rooms in the resort. "Enjoy your stay," she said with a bright grin, watching them off as they turned down one of the halls.

"I wonder how she works here," Anna wondered, carrying the basket as she counted down the numbers on each door.

"Well, all workers have to get hired, right?"

"Not like that, but this place is right on top of Mervana's shrine. Wouldn't it be harmful to a mamono to be so close to anything sensitive?" Anna found their room, opening the door and lighting a tiny fire on her finger. She found a candle and lit it, the candle illuminating the entire room. It was marble flooring surrounded by a crystal-clear pool, with two doors off to the side.

"Pretty…" Mizuki said, taking off her kimono and diving immediately into the pool.

"Mistress focus!" Anna said, setting down the basket. "This is a business trip, nothing more." Mizuki reemerged, wading towards the edge of the pool. "The receptionist sure made it feel like a pleasure trip. She was so nice and welcoming, and had a nice look."

"What if we got such a receptionist?" Anna asked, thinking as she sat on the edge of the pool. "But, we don't have a place to keep someone that works at our shrine…."

"We build one!"

"Mistress, we can't simply build a new quarter."

"Anna, Anna, Anna~" Mizuki teased, splashing a bit of water on her. "Who said that we were going to do anything?"

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"Thank you Seika!" Mizuki told her while her servants packed up the building materials around them. "It meant a lot that you could come out so far down."

"I had nothing better to do. It was no issue, doing nothing while my servants transported an Edchina cross-country," she said, bundled up in a bunch of blankets for her body and tail. "If only such a lamia had her own episode, maybe something of her own to do…."

"Yep," Mizuki said.

"It does get lonesome, being the only one in the group that is located in the midst…."

"Mmhmm."

"I suppose, I could, you know, keep a few followers waiting on their requests if it meant being with you."

"Indeed!"

"So you do have something for me?"

"No, but thank you for the Seika." Mizuki felt her tail get coiled around, seeing Seika's tail around it.

"Please, I am the only side character that has not had an episode," Seika said, putting her hands on Mizuki's shoulders. "There has to be some conflict at your residence, a disagreement, protection from the Nureonago, a minor and pointless divulge I can solve dramatically and interestingly!" Mizuki shook her head. "Sorry, but we pretty much have everything covered here. No need for your power or influence. But ahh...what is an episode?"

"Oh right, you were not there for that conversation." She cleared her throat and backed up, shouting something in Latin. Five servants came at her call and picked up, taking her back to her transport. "Wait, what is an episode!"

"Forget about it, Mizuki! Please enjoy the oak!" Seika said, everyone filed away and up the path towards the mountains. Mizuki peeked around the grounds, watching the last of the servants run jog after without breaking a sweat. "What a quirky word. Eeeepisode…" she said, repeating it as she went back into the home. She took a gander at the new room, seeing how the different colors and freshness stood out against the worn-in wooden floors. A hammock and fur sheet was set up, along with a mat to sleep on. "Great! Now to just wait for Anna to come back with our new secretary…" Mizuki went to her backyard and sat, enjoying the fall scenery until she heard a portal open at the front of the house. Anna came through, carrying two children and having a catgirl following in tow.

"I thought you were only going to get one," Mizuki said. "Do we need three?" Anna shook her head, placing them in Mizuki's hands. They were both hellhounds, one having burnt sienna fur and skin while the other white fur and white-blue skin. A turquoise dress covered the second child, with a gold-colored necklace around her, well neck. She wore wired-frame classes, taking a second to look into Mizuki's golden pupils.

"Um, hi-" she didn't get to introduce herself, as the hellhound hopped down and went over to Anna's side. The last one was the faded red hellhound, adorning black mage attire and a black brimmed witch hat with a red band going around. "Please don't leave," Mizuki pled, not wanting her to jump out of her hands as well.

"The maiden told me that you were the one who made it rain," she said, standing up in the Ryu's claws. "I want you to teach me." Mizuki's head darted up towards Anna with pure shock. "You told them!?"

"Was I supposed to lie Mistress? How would I lie about a damn portal?" Anna asked, the white hellhound holding a jar up towards her. "Put that jar down, lass."

"I don't know, you just, aren't the type to reveal something so-"

"How do I lie about a portal of fire?" she said it more forcefully, bending back when the jar appeared in her vision again. "Child, I told you, put that down!"

"Mama said if you curse, you must put a dollar in the swear jar."

"Your mother is not here, we're yokai, and what the hell is a dollar?"

"Two dollars please," the child asked nicely, shaking the jar.

"Mistress!"

"Give her two dollars!" The red one yelled from Mizuki's shoulder. "If we don't put a dollar, that means that cursing is not bad."

"Mistress we do not know what a dollar is!" Mizuki nodded and turn towards the hellwan. "What is your name?"

"Herveen."

"Well Herveen," Mizuki started, placing Herveen down on the ground. "We do not have what you are after, but, we may have some gold or extra food that we can give instead."

"Gold works!"

"Then go with the nice lady with white hair and a tail." Herveen nodded and went over to Anna, hopping square on her tail. "Let us go put food in the swear jar."

"Mistress she is on my tail…"

"Just take them, they are kids they don't know any better." Mizuki waved it off, chuckling while watching Anna pull two children riding on her tail inside. That left the catgirl from before, sort of stepping to the side as if there was some fourth presence there. "I am Mizuki, I am assuming you are the secretary," Mizuki asked, the catgirl nodding while looking down at the ground. "May I have a name?"

"Y-yuki…."

"Yuki, a beautiful name." The catgirl blushed, rubbing her shoulder. "Come, I already have a job for you to do."

"I was promised a living space," she asked.

"Yes, we indeed have a third place for you to sleep. Although, I don't know how long the children would be here." Yuki nodded, looking at the entryways into other rooms. "So, what brings you here?"

"My other master, she wanted me to go find myself," she said. "I felt a bit lost though, but I saw the Shirohebi and…"

"I understand," Mizuki said, pulling the latch that leads to the scroll room down below. They went down, Yuki gasping as she saw the mess of scrolls on the ground. "This is…"

"Mmhmm. Take as long as you wish, but we prefer it to be in some sort of alphabetical order." Mizuki left the latch open, giving Yuki the space to take it all in. She went to the kitchen, where the two hellwans sat in the corner while Anna showed them various plants. "Have you gave them the two gold yet?" Mizuki asked," Anna look to her side. "We don't have gold!"

"Do you have two dollars?" The white-furred hellwan asked.

"No!" Anna stepped back and stepped in circles, pulling at her hair in frustration. "Please, just take one of the fffffff-fancy fruits…"

"No!" They said simultaneously.

"Well, then our hands are tied," Mizuki said. "Come on, Anna, there is nothing more we can do."

"But…." Anna's kimono collar was grabbed as she was turned around, taken with Mizuki to the back. The two hellwans looked at each other then back at them. They finally realized they weren't getting those two dollars, and would need to figure something else out for compensation. "Wait," Herveen said, getting up. "Teach us to be yokai!" Mizuki and Anna stopped abruptly, Anna turning towards Mizuki. Mizuki shrugged, Anna turning around fully towards the two children. "You two want to be Yokai?"

"We want to learn how to do portals and make the weather change like you two!" Herveen said.

"Well, regardless of your wishes, your parents need to be here to say that you can…"

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Anna was steaming as a large, mace-wielding armored man bore down over her, his face completely hidden away by his head plate as the hellhound mother signed a permission slip for their children. However, it wasn't steaming in her usual anger. It was her nervous sweat boiling off her body. "Alright, here we go!" the mother said, handing Anna the slip. "Dad would sign it, but he is a bit quirky around monster girls."

"I will kill have your head if a hair is out of place on them," he said, the grip around his weapon tightening.

"I will make sure my mistress gets the message as well." He didn't react; only turned around and started marching away into the forest. "I shall start leaving too, we have to take care of the ones at home, after all!" The hellwan started skipping away, Anna exhaling once they were gone. "Is that what I sounded like…" she muttered, walking around the shrine to the back, where the other three were seated in the rock garden. "I do not know how you were able to get your parents here, but they signed off on your lesson in mana." Anna picked up the white-furred hellwan. "I will teach you how to be a proper maiden, and Herveen here is going to go with Mistress."

"Okay," she said, adjusting her glasses.

"You will do everything I say."

"Okay!"

"Say your name."

"Pearl," she said, speaking with a soft hazy tone.

"Nice name, we shall get along Pearl." Anna tucked Pearl under her arm like a football, taking her inside the shrine home. "Is she going to be fine?" Herveen asked.

"Yes, I'm sure Anna doesn't hurt children, anymore. Now then, you and I are going downstairs." Mizuki guided Herveen through the house, showing her room and all the nice decor before telling her about the scroll room. "Anticipate a bit of a mess, we were in the middle of rearranging the scrolls." She helped Herveen get down the staircase, just noticing now that both she and Anna tended to just slide down over the ledges. They rounded the corner but saw a completely clean scroll room. "As you can see it is…..organized?"

"Is there a spell for that?" Herveen said, hopping down the rest of the steps and pulling out a scroll. Mizuki plucked it from her, unraveling the scroll a smidge. "Abstinence….this was not on the edge of the room before. This was arranged."

The two saw Yuki slump down over, having fallen asleep between a gap of shelves. She snoozed away, curling back up into a ball along the floor.

"How big was the mess again?"

"You wouldn't understand…"