E21: Humans wait for no Yokai

"Anna!" Mizuki called out from the front door. She had packed a picnic for her and Tamiko to enjoy, wishing to meet her at Amaterasu's home. "I am heading out!" She said before turning to leave.

"Wait!" she heard Anna faintly cry. She stopped and turned back, hearing a rush of tail going down the stairs before Anna came zooming out through the front door. She got in front of Mizuki, blocking the way out of the shrine. "We have a problem!"

"A problem? But the shrine is fine," Mizuki said smiling.

"Not the shrine! Look in front of you!" Anna said, gesturing out towards the courtyard. Aside from them and a few housekeeping slimes, the place was completely barren.

"I don't see anything…" Mizuki said, looking around.

"Exactly!" Anna said. "It is the height of summer, with Harvest Season only a season away, and there is no one coming over to request anything. Don't you find that a bit weird?"

"Your level of concern feels out of character," Mizuki noted. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm not saying I care about humans; I'm saying that we should be getting requests by now, and yet no one has come to visit us. It is like the humans have forgotten that we existed."

"Impossible, I am a very polite deity!" Mizuki said. "Sure, I may have missed a few days due to a few important get-togethers, but the humans wouldn't really forget about beings so important within the span of a day."

"They are humans," Anna said. "The bar is low for their existence to be justified."

"Well, if you really are so concerned, we can go visit our old village and see if anything has happened," Mizuki said. "I am sure it is just a momentary lapse that will blow over as easy as a pile of leaves."

It turned out not to be a momentary lapse. When they arrived, they saw columns of steam billowing up from each house, and strange machines that farmer's pushed to lay down loads of seeds without having to pick them up. A few others with books would cast spells on the seeds, growing them at abnormally high rates before more weird looking machines would come and scoop them out of the dirt.

"What is this!?" Mizuki said, dropping her fruit baskets in astonishment. She saw Vargas and Virto picnicking on a hill, immediately flying over them and landing right on their blanket. "E-explain!"

"Explain what?" Vargas said, midway through chewing through a sandwich.

"I think she means the industrial revolution happening right before us," Virto said.

"The what?"

"Industrial revolution, but in this world, it isn't called that until looked back on in a couple hundred years," Virto started explaining. "You see, my theory is when I created a connection between this world and my world, it created a disturbance where there were two earths that worked in different ways and were on different timelines, and since our worlds naturally don't like differences, they are working their way towards a sort of equilibrium where both worlds can exist while connected. For example, this world is speeding up its timeline to match up with our timeline, resulting in places that are still olden, while places like this village suddenly start creating more technology."

"…..The what?"

"Oh right, you know how water tends to smooth out if something pokes it or splashes into it?"

"Mmhmm?"

"It is like that, but with ways of living."

"Oooh!" Mizuki said, seeming to understand that. "Oh…. would that mean that, the humans, don't need yokai anymore?"

"I don't know actually," Virto said. Since my portal is the only one of its kind, then this is unprecedented. I have no idea how localized or widespread the effects may be, so worst case scenario, yes probably!"

"…"

"Virto-kun," Vargas whispered, giving him an elbow.

"Oh! I didn't mean to be a downer. "There is still a way to have yokai be needed."

"There is?" Mizuki said, looking hopeful again.

"Yep! Just have to keep them off fossil fuels. They are pretty powerful, but the fallout is just too much of a hassle."

"…what is that?"

"Don't worry of it, I was going to start doing that anyways. Vargas' mom already said that she will help, so once I'm done, you all will be getting traffic again," Virto said, giving a confident thumbs up. "I guarantee it!"

Just as Virto predicted (or directly caused), the traffic had started going back up. Mizuki couldn't keep them away from the temple now, getting food and donations as much as she did when she first became a Yokai again. "This is so lovely!" Mizuki said, crouching a couple times before jumping headfirst into a pile of tomatoes. "See Anna? I told you it would only be a blip in our radar!"

"Yes, only now though, is that they all ask weird requests," Anna said, getting another one handed to her by one of the maids. "…someone wishes my fire to be used to power a….Mistress what is a train?"

"Who cares, we're popular again!" Mizuki said, throwing a tomato at Anna. It splattered against her face, dirtying her entire upper body in the juices of a tomato. "I hate this."

"That's the Anna I know," Mizuki said, laughing away as she kept playing around with all the newfound food.

And they all lived happily ever after. Yes, I'm doing that. I am really doing that, so without further ado…

THE END.