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paizuri harem.

>>51133745
Naizuri"

>>51133569
I miss Harukawa Moe, she was the best artist from all the print works, hope she is doing well at least

>>51133569
umm, you do realize they are supposed to be CHILDREN, right?

>>51134666
im pretty sure anon knows.

>>51134666
You can't just make the sexiest thing in existence, call it a child, and then say "Ha! You're a pedophile now!"

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>>51133569
>>51133745
Please don't lewd the Suzu. I'm worried that her innocent heart can't take it.

>>51135448
>innocent
You're talking about a girl who dreams about being GLOPPED by giant slugs.
>>51134666
I'm rather positive Akyuu's long past the cake threshold.

>>51135448
>Please don't lewd the Suzu. I'm worried that her innocent heart can't take it.
Thats how she gets you anon, Suzu has never been pure or innocent. she's a certified oji-san destroyer

>>51134666
Cunnywife

>>51135458
As a certified ojisan (I got my papers last month), should I be worried?

i was going to link the doujin where akyuu locks kosuzu in her basement prison to "protect" her from mamizou but i couldn't find it, apologies. it's the fault of insufficient tags and not my own.

>>51134666
Satan please

>>51133569
Kosuzu is so fashionable

>>51137867
Extremely so
Fresh ojisans are like you are a delicacy waiting to be devoured

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Kosuzu is a natural predator. If she sees someone she wants, she does everything she can to take him. Why do you think she's so interested in evil books?

>>51139822
What can I do to protect myself from this minx? Would covering myself in slug slime work?

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wifesuzu

>>51134666
>they are supposed to be CHILDREN
Agreed, that's the biggest turn off there is. Suzu should be cherished and protected. Akyuu...eh, whatever.

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Writefagging inspired by suzu. will finish later.

There was a person Kosuzu was interested in.

It wasn't unusual for outsiders to draw attention in the village: It was a novelty that distracted people before the next big thing happened. But this was the first time Kosuzu herself had really interacted with one.

His name was Anon. He was a quiet, gloomy sort of person. He always seemed somewhat exhausted as well, though she didn’t know if that was unique to him: humans from the outside world were apparently more fragile, according to Reimu. Yeah, it was obvious he hadn't quite found his footing in the village yet.

He had been picked up/recruited by a farmer shortly after appearing in Gensokyo, seemingly having materialized out of thin air in a field of withered grass. They first met when he came to the store to hopefully sell a book from the outside world, and quickly formed a friendship over their shared hobby of books.

She found herself thinking about him a lot. It wasn’t just that she was curious about the outside world, though that was probably part of it. But it was more a sort of… camaraderie, perhaps? He was the sort of person to blend into the background, which is very similar to how she felt a lot of the time. Still, he had a bunch of stories about various places in the outside world, and she found herself eager for his visits. Weirdly enough, she was excited when he visited even when he didn’t share any stories.

She wondered about that. It’s kind of weird to get excited like that when they weren’t doing anything, isn’t it? When she tried to ask Akyuu about it, she just grinned at her, as if privy to an inside joke. No matter how much Kosuzu badgered her, Akyuu wouldn’t give an answer, much to her frustration. Only that she would understand eventually.

What an irritating answer.

With little other option, she was going to have to turn to books for an answer. Right when she resolved to (finally) get started on doing that, she heard the small bell above the door ring, and found herself smiling brightly when she saw Anon walk in. She would save the book for later.

“Good afternoon,” Anon said. His greeting was quiet as usual as he walked up to her desk.

“Anon! Welcome back!” Kosuzu winced internally. That had come out much too eagerly.
Anon didn’t appear to notice. He rarely appeared to notice anything of that sort, which was either fortunate or deeply unfortunate. He gave her a small nod and approached the counter, carrying two books beneath one arm and a narrow parcel wrapped in brown cloth beneath the other.

“I came to return these.”

“Already?”

Kosuzu accepted the books and checked their titles. One was a collection of old folktales regarding Youkai Mountain, while the other was a travel journal written by a merchant who claimed to have visited the moon in a dream. Kosuzu had warned Anon that the second author was almost certainly a fraud. Well, mostly certainly a fraud. There were a few passages that were strangely convincing…

“I thought the travel journal would take you longer,” she said. “It uses a lot of old expressions.”

“I had trouble with some of them.” Anon admitted. Kosuzu puffed out her cheeks at him.
“You should have asked me!” Kosuzu said, before back-peddling. “I mean, that’s part of the service here. Explaining difficult passages. W-within reason. I can’t spend the entire day teaching every customer how to read, Ha ha...”

That wasn’t actually a service the offered, but Kosuzu figured it would be fine to give Anon better customer service than most. She was pretty sure he spent most of his money here, anyway.

…Actually, isn’t that seriously worrying? That’s no way to live at all!

“I’ll remember that.” Anon said, snapping her out of her thoughts. Kosuzu busied herself writing down the return date before she did something embarrassing. She was becoming increasingly conscious that she was doing something embarrassing around Anon. How strange! She usually didn’t care that much, since she already had a reputation for being odd…

Perhaps she was coming down with something.

>>51134666
welcome to japan

>>51141915
This is really cute
Good job anon

>>51141915
Kosuzu is too innocent for this world. Hopefully she plays her cards right....

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>>51141915
>She wondered about that. It’s kind of weird to get excited like that when they weren’t doing anything, isn’t it? When she tried to ask Akyuu about it, she just grinned at her, as if privy to an inside joke.
Very cute and in-character! Kosuzu definitely wouldn't understand her own affection at first. Overall, you've done a great job portraying her crush on Anon. I find it cute that Suzu finds herself getting self-conscious around him without fully knowing why.
>Konna koto hajimete da yo.
>Netsu demo aru no ka naa...

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>>51141915
More suzu. maybe more later.


After Kosuzu finished writing the date down, she noticed the other parcel Anon was holding.

“What’s that?” Kosuzu asked as Anon placed it in front of her.

“Some sort of book. I found it in the farmhouse storehouse. The owner said I could have it, but I thought you might know what it was. Plus, maybe I could sell it? I could always use the money…”

Kosuzu’s curiosity immediately overcame whatever other thoughts had been occupying her.
“Well, you certainly brought it to the right person!” She leaned across the counter as Anon began unwrapping the parcel. Beneath the brown cloth was a thin book, a little larger than his hand. Its covers were made from a shiny black material and its pages were bound together with faded red thread. There was no title on the cover. In fact, there was nothing on it at all.

“How strange…”

She ran her thumb over the edge of the cover. It wasn’t really leather or anything else she would expect. Perhaps it was some material from the outside world. Anon had once shown her a thin sheet called “plastic,” which looked cheap and unimpressive despite apparently taking hundreds of years to disappear after being thrown away.

Outside humans certainly had unusual priorities.

“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Anon asked.

“Of course I have,” Kosuzu answered automatically. That was the correct answer for a respectable book expert. Declaring that she had never seen anything like it would make her sound inexperienced. Kosuzu carefully opened the cover.

…The first page was blank. So was every page after it.
She flipped through the pages quickly. “Huh? Why is it blank?”
“Er, I didn’t really know what was in it.” Anon said. “I just thought it was old.”
“...Well, the binding is old-fashioned.” Kosuzu poked at the red thread. “But there’s no point in binding empty paper like this. It would be a waste!”
“Maybe someone intended to write in it, then.”
“But wasn’t it in a storehouse? Suspicious…”

Kosuzu turned another page, determined to uncover something.

…Nope, still nothing. Maybe it wasn’t anything special at all. That would have been disappointing enough on its own. Though it was considerably more disappointing since it had been delivered personally by an intriguing outsider and wrapped in cloth like some secret treasure.

“...Oh, it looks like this might just be a regular notebook after all…” Kosuzu muttered, flipping back to the first page, ready to close it and offer her (very professional) appraisal. However, she noticed something. There were now faint horizontal lines etched toward the top of the page.


Anon noticed too, and he leaned slightly closer to her. “Were those there before?”
“Huh? Um… Maybe? I didn’t see them before.” Kosuzu muttered out weakly. She lowered her gaze to the page again. The lines had changed again! Now they formed some sort of characters, though they weren’t Japanese.

“Whoa! I guess it is special after all!” Kosuzu said, cheerfully. Strangely, Anon seemed more nervous at the discovery.

Kosuzu watched him squint down at the page, though he didn’t seem to have much luck understanding it. Luckily, it didn’t matter. Kosuzu was a very talented girl! The instant she glanced at the writing, she understood what it said:

~Recently, the girl working at Suzunan had become quite interested in a boy.~

Kosuzu felt her face heat up, and she quickly slammed the book shut. The sound echoed through the shop as Anon flinched back in surprise. She quickly placed both of her hands firmly atop the cover.

“What were those scribbles? I couldn’t read them…” Anon eventually said. He looked concerned, which was probably fair.

“Nothing!” Kosuzu said, feeling strangely personal toward the mystery writing.

…Wait, why did she even care? In the first place, he couldn’t understand what it said. And even if he could, what was the big deal? She was interested in him! It was hardly strange for someone to be interested in outsiders.


“You, uh, sure closed it quickly.” Anon said, oblivious to her inner monologue. His expression hardly changed, but Kosuzu had spent enough time with him to recognize the faint narrowing of his eyes. He didn’t believe her.

That was good. It meant he wasn’t as oblivious as he appeared. No, wait. That was very bad!

Kosuzu cleared her throat and adjusted the book so that it sat squarely with the edge of the counter. “It appears to have some unusual properties,” she said, attempting a more dignified explanation. She vaguely tried to pose herself in ways similar to how she’d seen Akyuu act in the past. “I’ll need to examine it properly before I can say anything certain.”

“...Could I look at those scribbles again-”
“Nope!”

Anon was swiftly ushered out of the shop, much to his confusion.

“...I… Did I just get scammed…?

>>51134666

>>51144727
>9b18c6bbcd370a6f2f78930bd(...).jpg
>9 be 18 see sex bitch
no they're not

>>51144727
>~Recently, the girl working at Suzunan had become quite interested in a boy.~
Scandalous

Mamizou's wives

>>51146867
kys yuricuck

>>51146867
live yourself but change your ways

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>>51144727
even more suzu. maybe more later

After Anon left, the shop felt much quieter. Kosuzu peeked at him through the window as he made his way down the village street. A few villagers greeted him. He answered each with a small bow, though he didn’t stop to speak with anyone. He really did fade into the background easily.

When he reached the end of the street, Anon glanced back toward Suzunaan. Kosuzu quickly ducked beneath the window. She remained there for several seconds, crouched awkwardly behind the wall.

Why had she done that? There was nothing strange about looking out the window. It was her family’s shop. She was allowed to look out the window! She slowly rose again. Anon was gone now.

Kosuzu sighed. What was wrong with her today? Looking at the weird book, she saw it was exactly where she left it, which made sense. The smart thing to do now would be to wrap it up, place it in the back room, and wait until Akyuu could help her investigate it.

Instead of doing that, Kosuzu picked it up. How the heck had the book known what she was thinking? She carried it into the rear section of the shop, where Kosuzu had hidden the more… dangerous books.

She crouched down on the ground and held the book in her hands. A single glance couldn’t hurt. No one had ever been hurt by just a tiny bit of curiosity.

Opening the book, the first page was blank again.

Kosuzu frowned. Perhaps the writing only appeared when someone else was nearby. Or maybe she had just imagined it. It was possible that embarrassment had caused her to misread-

Midthought, lines scrawled themselves onto the page once more.

~Recently, the girl working at Suzunan had become quite interested in a boy.~

“...Well, I already know that.” Kosuzu muttered. More writing appeared on the page, and Kosuzu tried to hold back her interest as a story began to write itself.

~The girl told herself that this interest was perfectly ordinary. Outsiders were rare, and rare things were naturally interesting. It was the same reason she collected strange and dangerous books. However, the girl had not yet realized what her interest really was.~

Kosuzu stared at the sentence. “What sort of interest?”
The book, naturally, did not answer her question out loud, and just continued to write.

~She told herself that she merely wanted to hear more stories of the outside world, and that she was excited to have a customer who was relatively punctual when he borrowed books.~

“That’s… correct.” Kosuzu wasn’t sure how she felt about the book… reading her mind? Or whatever it was that was happening here.

~This was only partly true.~

…Partly true? Who was this book to decide that?!

~She was prone to denying a truth she was gradually learning. The girl was not merely interested in the boy’s stories. If that were all, she would not have watched the door on the days he usually visited.~

Kosuzu’s mouth fell open.

“I do not watch the door!” She did occasionally glance at it. But that was because she ran a business. A responsible shopkeeper had to remain aware of possible customers, or worse, a thief! It’s because she’s so vigilant that no person or youkai has ever stolen from the shop. So she failed to see how that was strange.

~She would not have remembered which books he lingered over but could not afford to borrow,~

Yeah? That was also part of running a business.

~and she would not have wondered whether he was eating properly.~

Kosuzu’s objection caught in her throat. That one was somewhat harder to explain.

Kosuzu recalled the time Anon had visited during some rare time off. He had been quieter than usual that day, which was saying something. When she finally asked whether something was wrong, he admitted that he had forgotten to eat. Kosuzu had scolded him at length, then given him some of the rice crackers she had hidden away. He had accepted them with such genuine gratitude that she had spent the rest of the afternoon wondering whether she should begin keeping something more substantial nearby.

“Well, it’s perfectly natural to worry about him. Anyone would be concerned if they saw someone like that.”

~She was not particularly concerned about any other customers who entered the store.~

“That’s because I don’t know them!” Kosuzu’s fingers tightened around the edges of the book. This was absurd. She was being made to look stupid by a book. She should just close it. Wrap it back in its cloth, place it somewhere secure, and ask Akyuu to help figure out what it was.

But she didn’t do that, so more words began to appear. (cont)

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>>51148338
~Perhaps she wouldn’t be as disappointed whenever he left, if that were the case.~

“I’m disappointed whenever a customer leaves without borrowing or buying something.”

~He usually borrowed something. Her disappointment had nothing to do with the success of the shop. She just disliked knowing that several days might pass before she saw him again.~

“That’s not—” She stopped, frustrated for some reason.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to explain her behavior in a way that did not make the book sound correct, and Kosuzu still had her pride. Not to mention, she still wasn’t entirely sure where it was going with this.

~She had already memorized the time and day of the week he was most likely to visit. It was on Sunday afternoons, where he would help deliver various vegetables and foodstuffs on behalf of the farm he worked at. She tidied her hair more carefully on those mornings. She had even gone so far as to change her ribbon because she remembered the boy saying that red suited her.~

Kosuzu stiffened. That had happened only once, and Anon probably hadn’t even meant it as a compliment. He had been helping her carry a stack of books from the rear shelves when her usual ribbon became snagged on a splintered wooden crate. It had torn before she could free it. Kosuzu had complained a bit loudly about having to replace it, and Anon had looked at the red ribbon she’d chosen to do so.

“It looks nice on you.” he had said.

He had probably forgotten the conversation immediately, or had just said it to placate her whining. Still, she appreciated the compliment. So she decided to keep wearing it, because why not? She liked looking pretty sometimes, too.

…Though, now that she’s thinking about it, she spent the evening that day looking at her reflection in the darkened shop window. Why did she do that anyway? This… Kosuzu frowned. She was acting like some sort of love-struck maiden from one of those cheap romance novels the strange mansion sometimes exported.

~In common language, there was a very simple name for the girl’s condition.~

Kosuzu leaned closer despite herself. A few characters appeared.

~She was in lo-~

Kosuzu slammed the book shut, blushing furiously. “No.”

Her heart was pounding. This was stupid. She had no reason to tolerate such an impertinent book. She should go get Akyuu.

“Why am I arguing with a book…?” she said pathetically.

…love.

Could she really be in love? She didn’t even understand what love was! She’d read about it plenty, sure, but she’d never really thought about experiencing it herself. Why would she? It just seemed… well, like it wasn’t anything she’d ever really need to think about.

“In love with Anon…” Kosuzu muttered. Her heart felt like it was beating quicker, and her blush was definitely still there.

She jolted as she heard a small bell ring in the front of the shop. “J-just a second!” She quickly tossed the cloth back over the book, shoved it haphazardly into a shelf, and darted back toward the front room.

She spent the rest of the day thinking over various romance novels she had read, trying to comprehend her own immature feelings.

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>>51148338
>>51148340
she's way too cute. no way someone like her could be in love with scruffy Anonymous, though

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>>51148340
more suzu now. maybe more if thread doesn't die first. probably time for a few more of these

Kosuzu had come to the conclusion that yes, okay, she probably was in love with Anon. Looking back on her behavior, it was a bit obvious. She was glad she wasn’t getting sick or anything, but… well, thinking about Anon did tend to distract her a lot now that she understood why she kept thinking about him, so maybe this could be considered a type of sickness. Either way, what the heck was she supposed to do with this knowledge?!

She had spent much of the previous evening searching through Suzunaan’s collection for an answer. Unfortunately, the shelves had proven far less useful than anticipated.

One of the books she found, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, was discarded almost immediately. Anon was an outsider who occasionally forgot to eat. He would probably be killed attempting to retrieve any sort of lost treasure to win her affection. And since she already felt affection for him, wouldn’t it be the other way around? Kosuzu didn’t exactly know where any treasures were. Also, neither of them would count as a princess, so that also ruined things there.

The next book concerned two lovers who spent several years exchanging letters without meeting face-to-face. Kosuzu saw Anon every week, so following their example would require deliberately avoiding him. That was clearly stupid.

Later on she found an outside-world novel in which the characters spent three hundred pages misunderstanding each other because neither of them was willing to speak honestly. Kosuzu had grown so irritated that she nearly threw it across the shop.

By the time Kosuzu finished searching, she had learned that falling in love inevitably resulted in kidnapping, exile, family disinheritance, becoming a nun, drowning in a river, or writing a poem so moving that a God personally intervened. None of these options were particularly viable or helpful to her.

She rested her forehead against one of Suzunaan’s shelves.
“Why can’t there be a story where two perfectly ordinary people simply like each other?”
Kosuzu paused, then turned toward the back room where that black book was. “...Actually, maybe there is a story like that…”

And that was what led her to the current moment, peaking into the book again. Was this a bad idea? Objectively, yeah. But Kosuzu really doesn’t like the idea of not figuring out this love thing. Like the first few times she opened it, it was initially blank, but symbols began to appear soon enough.

~Having discovered that she was in love, the girl searched for a book that would tell her what to do. The girl’s search had failed because she had looked in the wrong sort of books.~

“I know… and I looked through every romance we had and everything!.”

~Those books could tell her what had happened to other people, but they could not tell her what would happen to her.~

“Well, of course not.” Kosuzu opened the book fully again. “No one has written a story about me.”

In lieu of a proper answer, the book wrote: ~The girl wanted to know what she should do about her feelings. However, before deciding that, she needed to answer a more important question.~

“Eh? What question?”

~Did the boy feel the same?~

Her stomach gave a strange little lurch. “That… That isn’t necessarily important. Is it?”

~If the boy disliked her, confessing her feelings might make their friendship uncomfortable. After all, if he regarded her only as the person who rented him books, any romantic gesture might confuse him.~

“C-confessing?! That’s way too far!” Kosuzu said, treating the probably-cursed book as if it were a diary.

~If he already loved someone else, what would the girl do?~

“...Huh? Why would he already love someone else?” She hadn’t considered that possibility. It created a sharp, unpleasant feeling in her chest.

She had never asked Anon whether there was anyone he liked. It had simply never occurred to her. He rarely mentioned anyone from the outside world unless they were relevant to one of his stories. She knew a lot about the places and the things that were there, but almost nothing about the people he had left behind.

That was probably because it was a stupid question. There was no reason Anon couldn’t have someone he loved. He had lived an entire life in the outside world before arriving in Gensokyo. There might have been any number of people there.

Maybe there had even been a girl among them. Or even worse, Anon had been engaged to someone.

Did people still arrange marriages in the outside world? The topic had come up once in one of their conversations and he had told her they usually didn’t, but Anon also thinks humans landed on the moon in the outside world, so his judgment could not be accepted without question.
More importantly, did he want to return there at all? To that hypothetical fiance?

Kosuzu’s fingers tightened around the edge of the page.

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>>51151491
It wasn’t as though she wanted Anon to be trapped in Gensokyo. Of course not. He had appeared here without warning, leaving whatever life he possessed behind. If he had a family waiting for him, it would be selfish to hope he remained. But imagining him disappearing as suddenly as he had arrived was…

Kosuzu shook her head. “That’s none of my business.”

~In addition, she had also failed to notice that she knew almost nothing about the boy’s relationships in the village.~

That was not entirely untrue. She knew a bunch about Anon, sure. She knew he was paid little, ate irregularly, and owned only a few changes of clothing. She knew where Anon worked, which afternoon he usually made deliveries and which road he took through the village. She even knew that he preferred historical accounts to poetry, he didn’t like plums much, and also rubbed the back of his neck a lot when he was trying to come up with something to say.

Yet Kosuzu knew almost nothing about the people he spoke to when he wasn’t in the shop. She had seen villagers greet him, but he never seemed particularly close to any of them. He worked with the farmer who had taken him in, but Kosuzu had never met the man. Anon occasionally mentioned other farmhands, though never in enough detail for her to remember them.

And most crucially, he had never mentioned a girl. That last thought brought an embarrassingly powerful sense of relief.

“Y-yeah, that would be strange, wouldn’t it? If he had some important person in his life and simply never mentioned her?”

~The girl had never asked much about the boy’s personal life.~

Kosuzu faltered. “I shouldn’t have to ask. People mention that sort of thing naturally.”

~She tried to dismiss this thought, but she knew the boy rarely spoke about himself unless prompted.~

Anon had plenty of stories about the outside world, but those stories were usually about places rather than people. He almost never spoke about himself. Sure, Kosuzu knew what sorts of books he liked, but she didn’t know whether he had left someone behind. The thought made her feel strangely guilty. She had spent all this time being curious about his world without considering what he might have lost when he came here.

Kosuzu let out a sigh, suddenly very frustrated. This was getting her nowhere. Rather than give her answers, this book had told her she was in love, suggested Anon might love somebody else, and then left her to deal with the consequences. Whoever had made it had clearly been a horrible person.

Still, the question remained. Did Anon feel the same?

Kosuzu rested the book against her knees. There had to be some way to tell. Romance stories always made it obvious. A person in love would compose poetry or become so overcome with emotion that they literally became sick.

Anon… had once carried a box of books for her, but that was hardly an impossible labor. The box had not even been particularly heavy. Sure, he sometimes stayed at Suzunaan after finishing his business, silently reading near the counter while Kosuzu worked. But that could simply mean he enjoyed the shop.

Kosuzu frowned. Actually, why did he do that?

There were quieter places to read. The village had a few public sitting areas, and the farmhouse where he lived certainly had somewhere he could be alone. Yet he often remained at Suzunaan until she reminded him that the sun was going down.

That had to mean something, right?

Or perhaps he was secretly planning to steal something.

“No, that’s ridiculous,” Kosuzu muttered. “Anon would be terrible at stealing.”

~The girl concluded that she required more information.~

Kosuzu nodded. “Exactly… Wait, could this book-”

~The book could not tell her whether the boy loved someone else. It told the girl’s story, not the boy’s.~

Oh. That made a certain amount of sense. Everything it had written so far concerned her own thoughts and actions. Even when it mentioned Anon, it only described the way she saw him.

~However, it could GIVE the girl a way to read the boy’s story.~

…Shamefully, Kosuzu found herself entranced by the book.

~If she wished to read the boys thoughts, She only needed to place her hand upon the empty page.~

The adjacent page remained perfectly blank.

~Then, she would think of the boy.~

Kosuzu slowly raised her hand.

~And then she would say the words:~

The bell above Suzunaan’s front door rang, and Kosuzu nearly leapt out of her skin. She slammed the book shut before it could finish.

“Kosuzu?” Akyuu called. “Are you here?”

“Y-yes! Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

>>51151491
>>51151495
I attached the wrong images to these and now want to shoot myself.

hmmm, I have this weird feeling that Kosuzu might be getting involved with a dangerous book

Dangerous books? Maybe some sort of... forbidden scrollery...?!

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>>51135448
This "innocent" girl literally dresses up as a tenga ona. She is literally asking for it!

>>51154071
Yoma books are only one kind of books she covets. In recent times much more lewd works have been forgotten as the older gens of perverts die away...

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>>51151495
more suzuing. more later maybe

“H-hi Akyuu!” Kosuzu said as she darted back to her little desk.

Akuuu was carrying a small bundle of papers beneath one arm. Her neatly arranged hair and composed clothing made Kosuzu painfully conscious of the fact that her own ribbon was crooked and that there was probably dust on her knees.

“Good afternoon,” Akyuu said. “You appear busy.”

“I am.”

Akyuu said nothing, clearly waiting for her to elaborate.

“I was busy with, uh, the shelves! I was organizing the shelves!”

“My… perhaps your family should consider hiring someone who can organize them without turning bright red.” Akyuu said with a nod. Kosuzu placed both hands against her cheeks. Yup, they were warm. “It’s stuffy in the back room.” Kosuzu muttered, but Akyuu’s smile just widened.

“Of course. Still, don’t you seem a bit frantic right now?”

“Nnnnooo…” Kosuzu lied, like a liar.

“Are you sure? You look quite flustered. Besides, doesn’t it look like your clothes are a bit crook-” Akyuu suddenly blushes, before looking at her dead on.

“Wait, red faced, sweating slightly, disheveled clothing, and a love for ‘forbidden’ books… Were you… I-in the shop…” Akyuu looked strangely flustered. “Um, don’t you think that sort of behavior is a bit bold, Kosuzu? I know those sorts of books are exciting, but…”

“...Bold?” Kosuzu raised an eyebrow. What the heck was she talking about? “What else would I be doing in the backroom, anyway?” …Besides reading a cursed book, that is.

Akyuu stammers for a moment, before regaining her composure.

“Y-yes, perhaps it’s not that…” Akyuu shakes her head. “...I wonder if you’re too oblivious about these sorts of things, sometimes.” Akyuu says, tilting her head before walking up to her counter fully.

“I don’t understand what you’re on about this time.”

“That’s quite alright… You’ll figure it out later.” Akyuu said, before looking at Kosuzu and changing the subject. “Oh? That’s a strange book you have there.”

What? Kosuzu looked down and WHY WAS SHE CARRYING THE BOOK WITH HER?! Akyuu was absolutely the last person who should see it! …Besides Anon. Or Reimu. Actually, it’s probably for the best nobody but her reads is…

Akyuu’s gaze settled upon the shiny black cover. “I don’t believe I’ve seen that one before.”

“I mean, it isn’t anything special.” Kosuzu hugged the book against her chest. “Just an ordinary book.”

“An ordinary book that you were reading in secret, then?”

“I wasn’t reading it in secret!”

“You ran out of the back room looking as though I had caught you committing a crime. Besides, wouldn’t you normally just read a book out here?”

“T-that doesn’t mean I was reading in secret!”

“I see… so it really is something like that…” Akyuu said, beginning to look flushed again.

Crap, Akyuu was onto her. She was going to have to get her off the trail. Even if this book is dangerous, it’s also an immediate solution to her most pressing issue. (Anon. Anon being her most pressing issue) So she really does not want Akyuu to confiscate it.

“N-no? It definitely isn’t any sort of cursed book!”

Akyuu stared at her. Not for the first time, Kosuzu realized how awful a liar she was.

Kosuzu’s shoulders sank. “That was a bad defense.”

“Quite.” Akyuu placed her bundle of papers on the counter. “May I see it?”

“No.”

Akyuu’s eyebrows rose.

Kosuzu tightened her hold on the book. “I mean… there isn’t really anything to see. It’s blank.”

“Then you should have no objection to showing it to me.”

“Yes, but—”

“Is it dangerous?”

“....Probably not.”

Akyuu sighed. “Kosuzu.”

“It hasn’t done anything dangerous,” Kosuzu said. “And it's not as though I went searching for another yoma book, so stop staring at me like that! Anon brought it here.”

“Anon brought it?”

“He found it in the storehouse of the farm where he lives,” she explained reluctantly. “He thought it might be valuable, so he brought it to me for an appraisal. It was wrapped in cloth and everything.”

“And you kept it?”

“I was going to investigate it first!”

Akyuu extended one hand, sighing. “Let me examine it.”

Kosuzu knew that expression. Akyuu would not leave until she got what she wanted, and unlike Kosuzu, she had the patience to remain in one place for several hours, a skill Kosuzu sorely lacked. With great reluctance, Kosuzu handed over the book.

Akyuu turned it over in her hands. “It certainly looks old,” she said, before opening the cover. Kosuzu instinctively leaned across the counter. The first page appeared empty. Akyuu flipped to the next one, then another. “It’s blank.”

“J-just wait.”

Akyuu glanced at her. “What are we waiting for?”

“The writing.”

As she said that, lines began to appear across the page.