And on the appointed day, a decently-sized group shows up at the venue Marisa rented.

The amanojaku at issue, Kijin Seija, isn't present. Marisa hadn't really expected her to be.

The inchling princess, Shinmyoumaru, is here, still around three and a half feet tall like she was during their duel rather than her ordinary size. (Or maybe she's switching back and forth.) For once, Marisa isn't the shortest one in the room, that's a bit satisfying. And Raiko made it as well, good. Marisa needs to get Raiko used to participation in public life in general, but coming to discuss something she's directly involved with is an important start. She'll remember to directly ask for her opinion one or two times; can't be too few or she might feel like her place is to observe and not speak; can't be too many or she might feel like her place is only to respond to questions. (Of course, if she jumps right into the discussion on her own, Marisa doesn't have to worry.)

Some of these youkai are probably just here for free food and booze, but that's already accounted for in the budget. And they might still have something to say.

Raiko waves to Marisa from the midst of her conversation, then makes her excuses to her conversation partners and walks toward her.

"Can I have a moment before we start?" she asks.

"Yeah, of course! Not going to start just yet, I leave some time at the beginning for whatever private chats."

She points to an out-of-the-way corner of the garden. It's not magically protected or anything; it's just well-respected convention not to eavesdrop. (And there's no way of telling who can notice your eavesdropping, anyway.)

Raiko follows her to the corner.

"Just wanted to let you know," she says. "I've got something prepared if any of us turn out to be at issue here."

Marisa grins.

"You're probably not the only one, though most people get bored with that after a while. If you think you can do it discreetly, try spying on what the Moon weirdos are still doing every time they leave their territory."

"I'm not good at this two-faced stuff, Marisa."

"You'll pick it up."

Marisa cheerfully claps Raiko on the shoulder (reaching up a fair ways to do so).

"No one really knows or cares about you guys yet, Raiko. You can just give it to them straight, if you have anything to say. People's opinions of you are going to be formed by what you do from here onwards."

"But you're secretly my friend, of course."

"I'm as two-faced as you're accusing me of being."

Marisa grins and bounces.

"Ugh. Look, I just hope no one has to die tonight. I've got the beginnings of a career and everything now."

"Look, I'll be really direct, and you can pretend like everyone else that you're my special confidant, the only person who I ever drop the act with."

Marisa takes her hat off, floating it over her hand with a bit of magic, occasionally switching it between hands as she speaks.

"Every new arrival spends a while wondering when the other shoe will drop and they'll be hunted and killed. You've got it worse than most, but it's the same sort of thing. Honestly, if you did get so spooked you started frying people with lightning, or whatever it is you've got up your sleeve, most of us would actually be pretty sympathetic."

"I appreciate you threatening me, actually, instead of just planning to burn things down and not even mentioning it. Not breaking any confidences to tell you that before you only one new arrival had the forethought to do that outright." It was the Moon expats, as it happens. "You're going to do fine, and you're going to do right by the other new tsukumogami. It's really not fair to you that you're caught up with the amanojaku problem while still settling in, but I'm not going to let that issue fester, so here we are."

Marisa replaces her hat on her head.

"I'm secretly everyone's friend. Don't tell 'em."

"...I'm going to want to chat some more with my friend. Soon."

"I'll let you treat me to tea."

Marisa grins and heads back towards the gathered crowd.

Raiko invites herself back to her previous conversation to promote her upcoming gig a bit more.

Honestly, that earth-liquefaction thing Raiko has ready to go off is impressive, and it's a shame it would be a bad idea to compliment her on it.

Marisa snacks a bit, waiting for anyone else who might want to have a word.

"Thanks for the food, Marisa," says Nazrin. "How's your spellcrafting coming along?"

"I've made some breakthroughs in power output, actually."

"Is that so. I'd love to have a friendly duel sometime, then. I might have some surprises for you."

She smiles and heads towards the snacks.

That's a good sign. The subtext might or might not be literally true (Marisa would have to spar with Nazrin if she were curious; she's not but she might anyway for fun), but the subtext of the subtext is that the Buddhists (or at least Nazrin, but Nazrin's the one who shows up) are just going to go along with Marisa here.

(It's not really a secret that Marisa has reached some kind of accord with her half-sentient reactor; her firing range is very loud and impossible to conceal.)

No one seems particularly inclined to make overtures at this time.

"Friends!" says Marisa to the room. And she does consider everyone here some kind of friend, really. It's a small community.

No one pauses in their relaxing or drinking, but they do quiet their conversations a bit.

"Many of us are still talking about the recent events, I've noticed."

"The recent rebellion," huffs a tengu.

"And I've got things to say too! There's been a lot of lasting effects across our community, really. I thought it would be helpful if we could all hear one another's concerns. I'm always happy to help each of you out, but this isn't just a matter for me alone."

"I thought we were bringing what's-her-name up on charges?" says a minor god. "Didn't she use illegal spells?"

If only it were that easy. Actually, it's pretty hard to construct an illegal spell, and certainly none were used in connection with this incident; that isn't the difficulty here.

The difficulty is that, though it likely wasn't on the speaker's mind, Shinmyoumaru might feel targeted here; her space-warping is somewhat closer to illegal (not close, just closer) than any of Seija's space-inversion tricks, because it could be used illegally.

"Illegal spells? Not when I dueled her. Did you duel her?"

"Just what I heard," says the minor god.

"Illegal spell reports can go through me or any other signatory, as usual. I don't have anything on my docket, myself, and I haven't heard about any reports."

Can't look at Shinmyoumaru, but there's no concerning movement in her peripheral vision.

"I'm worried that people are seeing we tsukumogami in a bad light," says a tsukumogami. (Not one of Raiko's, an older one.)

"I've felt uncomfortable for a while. And I'm a smith, you know, and one of my hammers started to awaken, and I wouldn't have thrown them out or anything if they did, but it hasn't been easy."

Marisa likes it when someone cooperates with her like that. This is a good time to step back from the discussion and grab one of those expensive outside-world import beers she's paying for.

For some reason, the barrier seems very permeable to alcoholic beverages; this doesn't make them affordable, just attainable.