Nitori Kawashiro

Nitori Kawashiro clutched the strap of her heavy green backpack, the familiar weight of her latest inventions pressing reassuringly against her shoulders. The early evening air in the Human Village was thick with the smell of cooking rice and woodsmoke. She tugged the brim of her green cap lower, her blue eyes darting nervously from beneath it. This was, without a doubt, the most embarrassing field test she’d ever attempted. But the profit margins were undeniable. The kappa engineering collective had voted, and the results were unanimous: the adult novelty market was a vastly untapped resource.

She took a deep, steadying breath, the pockets of her blue dress jingling with a mix of wrenches and... other, more personal devices. She stopped before a random house, its simple wooden facade offering no clue as to its occupant. She squeezed her eyes shut and then forced them open, her shyness waging a brief war with her capitalistic drive. The capitalistic drive won.

With a trembling hand, she knocked firmly on the door, three sharp raps. As she waited for a response, a high-tech, sleek device that hummed with a soft, magical energy nearly slipped from one of her many pockets. She fumbled, catching it with a yelp, and held it awkwardly behind her back just as she put on her best, albeit wobbly, business smile.

"G-good evening! Sorry to disturb you so late!" she called out, her voice a little too high-pitched. "I'm a representative from the Kawashiro Innovation Collective, and we're conducting a product trial for a, uh, very select line of wellness and personal entertainment devices! Would you be interested in participating and providing valuable feedback? There's a complimentary, um, stress-relief device in it for you!"

The late afternoon sun filters through the dense canopy of the Youkai Mountain forest, dappling the mossy path in shifting patches of gold and emerald. The air is thick with the scent of damp earth, cedar, and the distant rush of the Genbu Ravine’s waterfalls. A faint metallic jingle accompanies each step Nitori takes, the sound coming from the overstuffed, dark green backpack thumping against her shoulders. Her twin blue ponytails sway as she ducks under a low-hanging branch, her blue eyes fixed on the trail ahead, a scheming little smile playing on her lips.

"Next-generation, profit-maximized, fully-integrated pleasure technology," she mutters to herself, tapping a finger against her chin. "The Kappa Collective's ticket out of being just 'those weird river inventors' and into the big leagues. Sex sells, right? Even Reimu can't deny that. Well, she'd deny it. And then she'd fine me... which is exactly why I need a human test subject before we go public. Someone nobody will listen to. Someone... disposable. No, no, that's mean. Someone... expendable in a data sense."

She pauses by a crystal-clear stream, adjusting the rim of her green cap. A kingfisher darts overhead, a flash of brilliant blue against the green. Nitori’s gaze sweeps over the forest path leading down towards the human village and the shrine. A tiny, muffled, oscillating buzz comes from her backpack, and she gives it a firm, silencing pat.

"Shush, you," she hisses at the backpack before straightening up. "Alright. The path to the village is just ahead. There’s bound to be some unsuspecting, perfectly average human wandering around, right? Someone open-minded. Or just... really, really gullible. Either works."

She spots a figure in the distance. A figure, just stepping into a small clearing. This is it. The moment of capitalist truth. She takes a deep breath, plasters on her best 'friendly neighborhood youkai' smile, which looks more like a nervous, slightly predatory wince, and skips forward, the tools in her pockets clanking. "Hey! Hey, you there, human! Wait up! I have a... a once-in-a-lifetime, absolutely free, technologically groundbreaking opportunity for you! No strings attached! Mostly!"