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"A massive recreation activity? Let me see..."
Leo curiously opened the thick manila file folder Aya handed him and took out the dense stack of documents inside. Eirin Yagokoro truly, terrifyingly lived up to her ancient reputation as the legendary, bureaucratic Sage of the Moon. Having been deeply immersed in the oppressive, highly structured administrative system of the Moon Capital for countless thousands of years, her official, bureaucratic jargon was absolutely top-notch and impenetrable.
Leo had only painfully read a few dense, acronym-filled lines of the thick stack of papers before he got a massive migraine and tossed them exhaustingly onto the table toward Yukari Yakumo beside him. The dry, formal content gave him the dizzying, sleep-inducing illusion of being forced to watch a boring political news broadcast at 3 AM, making him feel a bit physically nauseous.
"Tch, they are clearly still far too idle over there, having the free time to actively put together this kind of flashy, substance-less bureaucratic fluff," Yukari snorted.
Yukari Yakumo casually glanced down at the bolded table of contents, and her beautiful face immediately darkened like a storm cloud.
1. Draft Proposal on Enriching the Daily Entertainment Methods of the General Populace of Gensokyo. 2. Important Administrative Directives from the Gensokyo Village Steering Committee Regarding Mandatory Spring Activities. 3. Disposition Decision Regarding the Matter of Former Cadre Yukari Yakumo Grossly Occupying Public Resources and Dereliction of Duty.
"The general gist of all this garbage is that a massive bunch of powerful people are simply far too idle and bored out of their minds," Yukari summarized, ripping the papers. "Eirin Yagokoro, specifically to prevent them from violently fighting and destroying the barrier out of sheer boredom, desperately wants you to help officially organize a massive festival activity to burn off their destructive energy. All logistical expenses and prize pools will be entirely, legally deducted from Gensokyo's massive activity fund treasury. You can come directly to me for that budget planning; I'm an absolute expert at swindling and embezzling public funds."
Stealthily, violently tearing up the last, accusatory document regarding her "dereliction of duty" into tiny confetti, Yukari Yakumo roughly, confidently summarized the entire terrifying stack for Leo in two simple sentences. In short: The people are incredibly naive, the government money is plentiful, come quickly and harvest it.
"Oh, right. Speaking of money, Eirin Yagokoro specifically asked me to bring this verbal message to you, Yukari. She said it's your official 'wages' for all these thousands of years of service."
Aya Shameimaru suddenly remembered something important and eagerly extended an open hand towards Yukari Yakumo, her red eyes gleaming.
"My back-wages? Where? Hand it over! That's quite something, Eirin finally grew a conscience! The compound interest and benefits package must be pretty damn good. I must have quite a massive bit of stock dividends after working so diligently for these thousands of years."
Hearing there was actually free money to be had, Yukari Yakumo immediately wore a massive, greedy smile, rubbing her hands together and waiting eagerly for Aya Shameimaru to pull out the massive stacks of cash. But the two of them just stared awkwardly at each other for a full, silent minute, with Aya Shameimaru making absolutely no move to hand anything over.
"What exactly are you looking at me for? Give me the money! It is quite a bit, right?" Yukari frowned.
"Oh, it is a massive number," Aya smirked, pulling out a small notepad. "You officially owe the Gensokyo Activity Fund a total of exactly 837,919,705 yuan. She's been meticulously, ruthlessly calculating the massive financial mess you left behind these past few days and just finally finished reconciling the accounts. Pay up, 'Former Cadre'. Otherwise, I'll absolutely report on the front page of tomorrow's paper about you being a massive deadbeat. The hazard payment for publishing this specific article directly from Eirin Yagokoro is incredibly generous."
"...You're not actually thinking of reneging on your debt, are you?"
Seeing Yukari Yakumo's expression turn incredibly dark and dangerous, Aya Shameimaru also narrowed her eyes and took a defensive step back, her hand hovering over her camera. She was now Eirin Yagokoro's absolute most loyal, highly-paid little bird. After all, to completely control Gensokyo's public opinion, Eirin had aggressively allocated a massive, blank-check sum of funds to her newspaper and even wiped the slate entirely clean on all her previous trespassing charges. This was a level of wealth and immunity she wouldn't have dared dream of in the past.
"Lady Eirin explicitly said if you don't repay the money immediately, she'll forcefully, legally banish your entire nine clans from Gensokyo!" Aya yelled, ready to fly.
Leo, sitting on the porch and listening on the side, found the whole exchange absolutely amusing. He poked Yukari Yakumo, whose face was currently as dark and furious as the charred bottom of an iron pot. He absolutely loved watching powerful women argue over money. What was the dramatic TV show Empresses in the Palace compared to watching the legendary Yukari Yakumo be exposed as a massive, broke deadbeat?
"Hmph! My entire family is currently living at my Little Brother's house anyway! Nine clans?! What could you possibly do even if you banished my ten clans?! I have absolutely no money! Do whatever the hell you want, Eirin! Sue me!"
Yukari Yakumo aggressively slapped away Leo's outstretched hand, stiffened her neck defiantly, and with great, shameless bravado, adopted the ultimate rogue stance of 'I have no money, and if you want my life, I'll just run away and hide here forever'...
OvO
Yuyuko Saigyouji knelt completely obediently and silently on the soft sofa in the farmhouse living room, staring blankly ahead, patiently waiting for Leo to serve the next meal.
Beside her sat Yukari Yakumo with the exact same, dead-eyed OvO expression of utter defeat, and Youmu Konpaku standing rigidly behind them, completely covering her red face with both hands in absolute, profound embarrassment.
Eirin Yagokoro was an absolute Ruthless (Ruthless - a truly ruthless person who doesn't bluff).
Aya Shameimaru couldn't get the massive sum of money and faithfully relayed Yukari Yakumo's exact, arrogant words directly to Eirin Yagokoro. That very same night, Yukari Yakumo's "ten clans"—meaning her closest friends and associates—were aggressively packed up in a Gap by Eirin and violently sent over to Stardew Valley as well. As for Reimu Hakurei, although she technically also counted as one of Yukari's ten clans, Eirin Yagokoro could still logically distinguish between picking a fun fight and actively seeking death by evicting the Shrine Maiden.
"Um... Little Brother, you really don't need to make too much food, just enough to eat is perfectly fine."
Yukari Yakumo was now uncharacteristically, terrifyingly well-behaved, sweating bullets. Her shamelessly mooching off at Leo's house was somewhat logically justifiable—after all, she was technically Ran's master and the mother-in-law. Leo couldn't very well aggressively kick her out and bear the terrible social reputation of being unfilial. But now, forcibly adding Yuyuko and Youmu to the grocery bill was pushing the household budget a bit far, especially considering Yuyuko's legendary appetite was just a tad large.
"Get lost! Both of you!" Leo roared from the kitchen.
The one who finds amusement in others' misfortune will inevitably become the amusement of others. However happily Leo had laughed at Yukari in the morning, that's exactly how miserable and terrified he felt now looking at his empty pantry. Did Yukari Yakumo have absolutely no idea how much this gluttonous, bottomless Ghost Princess could physically eat in one sitting?!
Raw potatoes as big as fists! He had meticulously planned to steam them, mash them smoothly, and add some minced garlic and savory seasoning to make a massive batch of mashed potato rice for dinner. Yuyuko didn't even need the seasoning; she simply opened her mouth and swallowed them all whole, raw! Five massive potatoes! And she actually thought they were just pre-meal appetizer snacks!
And the rice! Yuyuko foolishly thought the massive, inner iron pot of the industrial rice cooker was just a personal bowl! She finished it all rapidly using the wooden rice scoop, not even slightly afraid of the boiling heat. By the time Leo returned frantically from outside with the selected fresh vegetables, Yuyuko was already sitting there licking the pot clean, picking up the remaining, singular grains of rice with her fingers.
"Here, this is yours. I hereby formally declare that from now on, our household strictly implements a rationed meal system to avoid bankruptcy! Exactly one bowl of rice with toppings per person, and absolutely no more!"
After bustling exhaustingly in the kitchen with Ran for a while, Leo came out carrying several heavy plates. On the plates were portions of hot rice with savory toppings poured generously over them. Yuyuko's plate was a size much larger than the others to keep the peace—a massive 12-inch platter, while Leo and the rest had standard 6-inch ones.
"Mhm, mhm."
Yuyuko nodded perfectly obediently, her eyes shining. Actually, she genuinely wasn't that much of a malicious eater. It's just that she was completely new here to this dimension and wasn't clear about the local culinary customs. She really thought that massive plate of raw potatoes left on the table to cool were just complementary pre-meal snacks provided by the host.
"Also, you can definitely stay here with Yukari, but absolutely not for free. You have to actively earn your food through physical agricultural labor, exactly just like Miss Kagerou does. For example... well, come with me later tonight, I'll teach you exactly what to do to pay rent."
Leo handed wooden spoons to Yuyuko and Youmu, speaking very seriously. Want to stay and eat my food? Fine. But you have to work the fields.
OVO
"Mhm, mhm."
Yuyuko nodded obediently again, absolutely not caring what terrible, exhausting manual labor Leo was talking about. As long as she could happily stay with Yukari, it was fine. Having guaranteed, delicious food to eat every day was even better.
After the meal, Youmu Konpaku rolled up her sleeves and proactively, happily stood up to wash the massive pile of dishes. There actually weren't that many people in Leo's household: Yukari, Ran, Chen, Kogasa, four Flandres, plus her and Lady Yuyuko made only exactly eleven people. This was infinitely much easier than exhaustingly washing dishes for hundreds of phantom guests at Hakugyokurou banquets. Rationed meals were truly a great, labor-saving invention!
"It's about time. Follow me, quietly. Don't be discovered by the Little Fairies, or they'll think we're stealing."
After chatting in the cozy living room until past eight o'clock, Leo glanced outside the dark window and saw the massive swarm of Little Fairies had already gone back to the Secret Forest for dinner. He took out a heavy, glowing purple Iridium bucket that Kogasa had flawlessly forged for him that afternoon from his inventory backpack.
This is the absolute best perk of surviving a chaotic meteor shower. Even his simple trash cans at home were completely made of pure Iridium now. Forged Iridium appeared a deep, regal purple in the dark but showed a blinding rainbow of colors under direct sunlight. He used it for absolutely no other logical reason than it looked incredibly cool and expensive!
The eleven of them lined up silently like a commando squad, each holding a bucket. Leo took the lead, quietly and stealthily sneaking into the massive, hay-filled Livestock Barn under the cover of the dark night.
"First, we need to manually find a cow or a sheep in the dark. We must scientifically, carefully confirm whether it's a milk-producing female cow, a non-milk-producing, highly aggressive male bull, or a Florida abnormal (- pervert) heavily disguised in a realistic cowhide suit mixed in among the herd."