"Good afternoon, Flandre!"
Hoshiguma greeted her with a bright, welcoming smile, waving her hands before leaning into the open car window to scoop Flandre up into a warm hug as the little vampire scrambled out.
Setting the girl down, Hoshiguma turned her attention to Remilia, who sat quietly on the soft leather seat inside. Remilia bore a pair of unmistakable, bat-like wings and stood at roughly the same height as Flandre—both possessing the delicate frame of a young child—yet her demeanor radiated an unmistakable, regal maturity.
"You must be Miss Remilia! My name is Hoshiguma, a close friend of Flandre's here in Lungmen. It's an absolute pleasure to finally meet you!"
Remilia offered a refined, slight nod of her head. Though the tall Oni had never met her in person until this moment, Remilia had observed her several times through the scrying mirror back home and had long since given her stamp of approval regarding Hoshiguma's character.
"I am equally delighted to meet you, Miss Hoshiguma. My sister has spoken of all of you with great affection on numerous occasions. Due to various administrative matters back home, I was only able to make the journey today. I do hope you will pardon our sudden arrival."
Remilia replied with impeccable, lady-like grace, her posture flawless.
At that moment, the doors of the trailing executive vehicles swung open, and the rest of the Gensokyo delegation stepped out onto the cobblestones.
Hoshiguma's sharp eyes immediately locked onto a tall woman emerging from the second vehicle. The stranger possessed a single, striking horn centered on her forehead, an imposing, powerful build, and a regal, relaxed presence that was easily sixty or seventy percent identical to Hoshiguma's own aura.
The woman—Hoshiguma Yuugi—was likewise staring back at her with an amused, knowing smile playing on her lips.
"Huh... Hoshiguma," Sister Ch'en muttered, stepping up beside her colleague and breaking her usual stern composure for a rare moment of dry humor. "She looks awfully like you..."
Ch'en couldn't help the comment, largely because the blonde warrior standing across the pavement looked so uncannily similar to Hoshiguma in terms of sheer Oni presence. If not for Yuugi's flowing blonde hair and distinct attire, Ch'en might have genuinely believed Hoshiguma had a long-lost elder sister from Higashi.
"Flandre, aren't you going to introduce your distinguished friends to us?" Ch'en asked with a gentle smile, looking down at the little girl.
"Can we go inside first, Sister Ch'en?" Flandre chirped, her eyes darting eagerly toward the grand entrance of the private dining establishment. "I already see Sister Beatrice inside! We can introduce everyone once we're seated, otherwise I'll have to repeat the names twice."
Flandre hadn't paid the slightest attention to the subtle, stunned expressions exchanged between the two Oni; her focus was entirely anchored on the feast awaiting them indoors, her mind completely preoccupied with thoughts of what delicious local delicacies were about to be served.
"Right, right, of course! Everyone, please follow me inside."
Hoshiguma set Flandre down gently and took the lead, guiding the impressive procession through the carved double doors.
Inside the private dining hall, Beatrice heard the heavy footsteps approach and turned toward the archway. "You're finally here!" she greeted with a bright smile as Hoshiguma stepped into the room.
Hoshiguma nodded, stepping aside so Flandre could proudly march her large entourage into the hall.
Watching the impressive crowd file in one after another, Sister Beatrice maintained a polite, welcoming expression. However, the instant Yuugi Hoshiguma crossed the threshold, Beatrice's eyes widened slightly, and she subconsciously darted a perplexed glance back and forth between the two tall Oni.
Receiving the look, Hoshiguma offered a subtle, helpless shake of her head to signal that she genuinely had no prior acquaintance with this newcomer.
Once the entire party was comfortably arranged around the wide banquet setup, Remilia took the initiative to initiate formal introductions.
"First and foremost, allow me to offer my sincere apologies," Remilia stated elegantly, resting her hands over her lap. "Our party has turned out to be rather large, and we deeply appreciate your generous hospitality in hosting us tonight."
With polished poise, Remilia went down the line, introducing each guest by name.
When she finally introduced Yuugi Hoshiguma, the expressions on the faces of the Lungmen trio—Ch'en, Beatrice, and Hoshiguma—grew exponentially more bewildered. Not only did this Yuugi Hoshiguma bear a striking physical resemblance and aura to their own Guard Department Superintendent, but she even shared the exact same name.
"Is 'Hoshiguma' an exceptionally common surname in Higashi?" Beatrice leaned over and whispered in a low, curious tone.
"Uh... 'Hoshiguma' is typically a given name," Hoshiguma whispered back, scratching her temple in mild confusion. "In traditional Oni culture back in Higashi, many of us only use our given names and rarely state ancestral family names."
"That doesn't add up," Beatrice countered softly under her breath. "That lady over there is introduced as 'Hoshiguma Yuugi'—it's completely obvious that 'Hoshiguma' serves as the family surname in her title. It can't possibly be that 'Yuugi' is her family name!"
"This... to be completely honest with you, I've never deeply studied formal Oni genealogy," Hoshiguma admitted, her own voice taking on a hint of self-doubt. "Everyone has simply called me Hoshiguma ever since I was a child... No elder ever explicitly clarified whether it was a surname or a given name."
Listening to Beatrice's logic, Hoshiguma actually began to second-guess her own life story—had she truly been mistaking her surname for her given name for decades?
But Uncle Tetsusai explicitly told me back then that our ancient branch belonged to the Oni-Ayame line, Hoshiguma mused internally. He mentioned that both he and I were offshoots of the main house, and if we ever needed a formal family surname on official registry documents, it should be 'Jikokuin' or 'Tōjiin'. Besides, during all the years I lived in Higashi, I never once met another soul carrying the name Hoshiguma.
Then again, 'Yuugi' doesn't sound like a standard family surname either. 'Hoshiguma Yuugi'... combining two given names together sounds quite unusual to anyone familiar with Higashi naming conventions.
As for why I consider myself a 'former' resident... well, my official citizenship papers are stamped directly by the Lungmen Governor-General's Office now!
Just as Hoshiguma was tangled up in her internal linguistic debate, Yuugi Hoshiguma—sitting just across the table—lifted a heavy porcelain wine cup with a hearty, boisterous grin.
"Speaking of which, it's a magnificent stroke of luck to travel to a brand new world and immediately run into a fellow Oni warrior who also bears the name Hoshiguma! This is a rare, marvelous twist of fate. I'll toast to that!"
Hearing Yuugi's thunderous challenge, Hoshiguma snapped out of her thoughts and quickly stood up, raising her own oversized liquor glass to return the toast.
By the time Flandre finally lifted her head from her food bowl after plowing through three servings of fried rice, the situation at the main table had undergone a catastrophic transformation.
Two of the legendary Three Heroes of Lungmen—Hoshiguma and Beatrice—were already collapsed face-down on the mahogany table, completely out cold from alcoholic overload.
Only Ch'en was still barely clinging to consciousness, her face flushed red as she gripped the edge of her glass with trembling fingers.
Across the table, the Gensokyo contingent calmly savored the delicate local dishes, watching with mild amusement as Hoshiguma Yuugi single-handedly dismantled Lungmen's top drinkers without breaking a single sweat.
"Setting all political matters aside, in terms of sheer culinary heritage, Great Yan and our eastern nations back home share remarkable similarities," Junko remarked softly, dabbing her lips with a napkin.
"That's painfully true..." Fujiwara no Mokou swallowed a glistening piece of slow-braised pork belly, closing her eyes in absolute bliss. "I'm almost tempted to look for a nice plot of land and settle down right here in Lungmen."
"That entirely separate worlds could harbor such astonishingly identical cultural structures... this planet called Terra feels far too peculiar to me," Hecatia noted, her brow furrowing slightly in deep contemplation.
"Is it not?" Patchouli chimed in, setting her tea down. "Columbia, Victoria, Ursus, Kazimierz, as well as Great Yan and Higashi... It is profoundly difficult to imagine how entirely separate planetary evolutions could produce such identical national archetypes and societal structures. Even if this world doesn't possess quite as many distinct sovereign states as Earth."
When Patchouli had first crossed over and digested Terra's geopolitical archives, the uncanny parallelism had struck her as deeply unnatural. It felt almost like a streamlined, condensed mirror of Earth, retaining only the most distinct cultural identities.
For that exact reason, Patchouli had spent the past few days secretly observing the daily biological functions and psychological patterns of the local citizens. She had confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that every inhabitant was composed of genuine flesh and blood, rather than being artificial constructs or simulated entities within some cosmic program.
Komeiji Satori nodded in firm agreement with Patchouli's analysis.
From the exact moment she had arrived in Lungmen up until this very banquet, Satori had been continuously observing and evaluating the subconscious logic and cognitive patterns of the people around them. Although their physiological Arts channels differed from the magic and spiritual energy of Earth's humans and youkai, their core psychological logic was entirely authentic, perfectly matching the mental activity of living, sentient beings.
Therefore, this world was no illusory construct, but a living, breathing reality.
With Satori's authoritative psychic endorsement, Remilia felt an immense wave of relief settle over her heart.
"Well, perhaps we simply haven't explored enough of this realm yet," Hecatia said, turning her multi-colored gaze to Remilia. "Tomorrow, Junko and I will embark on a tour across the various territories. Once we've verified that the regional energy fields are stable, we can formally construct a permanent, multi-way portal between our realms."
Remilia nodded in agreement. "Regarding the anchor point for the portal on this side—are you certain we should construct it within the residential villa?"
"How about placing the anchor point inside Hanamura?" Kazami Yuuka interjected smoothly, taking a sip of floral tea. "I can personally oversee its security."
Naturally, Yuuka harbored her own quiet, pragmatic motivation: if the Terran anchor were established within Hanamura, she could easily commission Yukari Yakumo to align the Gensokyo terminus directly within the Sunflower Field. That way, she could effortlessly cultivate and tend to the magnificent seas of flowers across both worlds simultaneously without missing a single season.