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This story got its budding back in the Weekly Writing Challenge thread. Partly due to the (one or two) encouraging comments I got on it, mostly due to how much fun it was to write, I've decided to continue it!
M. Night Shyalaman twist - it's going to slowly turn into being how the MotKian, Esifex, came to find her new home.
What are you talking about 'finish what I've started first' I don't know what you're talking about
Panic can make you do stupid things. It can make you see the most unusual, fantastic things, too.
I just want to reiterate, though ? it can make you do stupid things. Like, really stupid.
God, I don?t even know how long it?s been since I came from the? well, this is a ?real? world, too, so I can?t exactly call mine ?the real world?.
?It?s only been a week and a half, though.?
Hah. No, I don?t buy it. It?s got to be way longer than that. Feels like ages.
?Nope. Just a week and a half.?
If you say so ? I mean, I guess you?re right. Just feels like it?s been longer. Not like I actually plan on going back, anyways.
?Maybe you should explain. I don?t think everyone understands what you?re talking about.?
You?re right, of course. Not everyone is psychic.
Allow me to explain. It all started? a week and a half ago! Hah. Doesn?t sound that dramatic when it?s that short. Ah ? well. That doesn?t have anything to do with the story. Moving on.
I?m a rarity, a special commodity. A girl, working in an express oil-change shop. Automobile maintenance and women are rarely ever found hand-in-hand, but lo and behold, there I was.
Because of how unusual it was, most of the customers took an instant liking to me and trusted me. ?If a girl is going to do something so un-feminine, obviously she?s researching it and actually believes in what she?s talking about? was undoubtedly the reasoning everyone ? sorry, not everyone, there?s always the exception ? thought. All I had to do was look under the hood of their car, pick a few things apart, find out what needed servicing, and tell the customer. Instant sale. On top of that, I could read people pretty easily. Just by looking at them, greeting them, I could know instantly how far I could push them ? how much is too much, and what I could get away with by way of needing to offer discounts or just charging full price.
To the district manager, I was a godsend. Originally hired on by my brother, just because I needed a job, I helped bring his store up from high-end to flagship status. It wasn?t because of me, alone, of course ? the other hood techs that I worked with (the swine) were good enough salesmen to keep the store on top. I just made it better.
So it wasn?t all that surprising when I got transferred to Paradise Falls. The store wasn?t suffering, but it wasn?t producing well, either. I figured, do my time there, bring the store up, and maybe I can get management ? then I won?t have to do the grease-monkey work. Just sell the product, make the peons do the dirty work for me, make sure none of the idiots tear each other apart ? among other managerial babysitting duties ? and make sure the shop runs just like the well-oiled machines we service twenty, thirty times a day. Long hours, sure, but goddamn the pay is good.
All was well for the first month ? just me, Mrs. New Assistant Manager, and Mike, the shop manager, running Paradise Falls.
I really should?ve done my research before accepting the transfer. Paradise Falls would be better renamed Paradise Fallen, Shot, Stabbed, and Then Had It?s Wallet Looted.
The reason the store wasn?t making as much money as my old one was almost stupidly simple ? no one in the area drove, and those that did barely had any money to begin with. My potential opportunity for advancement had become a Catch 22.
Still, grin and bear it. Show the first sign of weakness and this company will never give me another opportunity ? just another girl who thought she could twirl a wrench.
All that came to a crashing end one night ? and in proper ironic fashion, this night was almost exactly like the countless other nights spent closing the store.
Mike was handling the office paperwork while I counted the till. Once I was done with the till, I would go out to the bays, where the computer was, and print out the reports after it had finished compiling them.
As soon as the door to the office clicked shut behind me I felt something was wrong. I tried to brush it off, and continued towards the computer.
?Bitch.?
What? Who? Oh, shit. Someone snuck in under the bay doors. We didn?t close them all the way so there?d still be some ventilation going through the bays, so they wouldn?t be stifling hot while we were doing the paperwork. This could be a problem.
Behind me, tucked in the shadows, opposite the office door, was a man. I couldn?t make out much of him ? it was too dark with the circuit breaker for the overhead lights turned off. The only light I had was the wan lighting from the office window and the glow from under the doors.
It was still enough to see the gun in the guy?s hand. Thankfully, he wasn?t pointing it at me. Yet.
I tried to play it cool. ?You?re not supposed to be in here. We?re closed.?
For the sake of our more sensitive audience, my new friends dialogue has been edited.
?Don?t care. Give me the money you got.?
?It?s already sealed up in a deposit bag. Only about a hundred bucks in the till here.? I pointed at the register under the computer. In hindsight, I should?ve said it was empty, and made him turn his back on me, go to the office. He would?ve turned his back on me, and I could?ve taken a wrench to his head.
He gestured at it with the gun. ?Open it.?
?Doesn?t have to be me. It?s just a push-button spring drawer.? God, why did I keep telling the truth? Well, it turned out to have worked anyways.
He glared at me as he pushed past, heading to the till. I shot a glance at the office window, hoping Mike had looked out and spotted me, or wondered why I was taking so long, or ? God forbid ? heard someone talking in the bays.
Nope. Nose stuck to the paperwork. Useless.
As my robber-apparent put his back to me at the computer, a thought raced through my head. Time to punish him for seeing me as a pair of tits, just a girl ? not a mechanic who?s earned the calluses and burns on my arms.
I grabbed the hose attached to the washer-fluid nozzle, used to refill washer basins under the hood of a car, and swung it over my head like a lasso. I let just enough slack out of it on its forward swing to smash it into the thief?s head.
With a slight spurt of fluid to herald a successful hit, it rebounded off his head and came coasting neatly back towards me. I couldn?t?ve planned it to happen better. The handle landed in my outstretched hand, and I brandished the hose at the thug as he tried to turn to face me.
With a shout ? mostly to alert Mike, but also to try to frighten the dirtbag in front of me ? I put my finger over the nozzle and hit the trigger. The spray shot out and doused the thug as he brought his gun up to bear.
I nearly dropped the hose when he fired; the noise scared me, and I wasn?t expecting him to fire a reflex shot. The noise, however, alerted Mike, who looked up through the office window.
May Mike die a thousand deaths; the persistently useless slime ? well, no. I take that back. Calling him slime would be an insult to bacteria everywhere ? jumped up and bolted for the front door, abandoning me to my fate.
The thief started to push his way through the ceaseless spray of washer fluid I was dousing him with. He groped for the hose, trying to wrench it from my hands. I let him take it, pulling a wrench that had ? thankfully ? been abandoned on the hose-rack and clipped him in the face with it.
He yelled and spun around from the blow, slipping and falling because of the now-wet floor. I thanked my work-safe boots for not delivering me to the same fate.
I stepped over him, kicking his gun away as best I could, and dashed for the computer podium. Mike always left his keys there ? I could use them and get the hell out of here and never come back and tell the regional manager to stuff it.
Sure enough, Mike?s keys were sitting there. I snatched them and dropped to the ground as the thug started to crawl towards his gun.
As he grabbed it, I rolled under the barely-open bay doors and jumped out of his line-of-sight, being careful not to let my shadow show where I was. I dashed for the line of cars parked behind the shop, hammering the buttons on Mike?s keyfob to make his car unlock.
With a chirp, it yielded to me, and I jumped in as I heard the bay doors rattle. The larger body of the thug had bumped the aluminum doors, and they made a loud racket.
Problem. Mike?s car was a manual transmission, and I didn?t know how to drive it. Oh well ? turn it on and figure it out on the go, I thought.
Later, I would remember that you have to hold the clutch to turn on a manual. In my panic (remember, stupid things) I forgot, so I was stuck useless trying to crank the engine over and noisily giving my position away. The thug rose up and stalked towards the cars, clutching the side of his face.
Good. The wrench hurt. Eat it.
Bad. He was still coming towards me. Thankfully, he wasn?t brandishing the gun ? I guess he was waiting till he was closer so he wouldn?t waste his bullets on shooting blindly without any depth-perception.
He got up to the door and started to bring the gun to bear. I kicked the door open as hard as I could, bowling him over. That?s what you get for seeing me as just a woman. I?ve got PLENTY of fight in me, you sonovabitch!
I lunged for the passenger side of the car and tumbled out.
Once more ? panic. Stupid things. And, most importantly, tumbling.
My ankle twisted out from under me. Fuck. Just what I need. I could almost hear my odds of getting away safely laughing at me as they dwindled. I searched my pockets for anything I could use as a weapon, something to throw ? but all I had were my wallet and cellphone. Maybe he?d be distracted by my wallet, and no way in hell was I going to pitch my wonderful cellphone at anything or anyone.
God, save me? I know it?s kind of blasphemous and selfish to pray for help when I ? what the hell?
A purple fog had coalesced in front of me, and then sucked itself into a thin line. It looked like a thick piece of thread with two red ribbons, one on either end.
The thread opened up impossibly into an oval, and a white, gloved hand lunged out and grabbed the collar of my shirt. A blonde head followed the arm, and the woman looked up at me. I was too busy staring at the hand on my neck and the white beret on her head to notice that she was looking me up and down.
?Hmm. Female. Not what I need, but from the looks of things, you?d be best off coming with me. You are now officially dead to this world, young lady. But you are not yet dead.?
I blinked and looked her in the eyes now. Somehow, she wasn?t supporting her self on anything, but she still managed to lift me up and drag me through the air as she sank back into the purple oval she?d come from.
I blacked out before I hit the swirling cloud of purple.
That was my last day in the mundane, human world. Here, though, I?ve been changed. The nature of this place ? Gensokyo ? will change you if you?re different enough. Turns out my ability to read people means I was a latent psychic back in the human world. Here, it?s been developing steadily since I got along, and now I?m even more receptive to the thoughts of those around me.
Anyways! That?s jumping ahead. Back to where we left off, after of course I wake back up. Describing me being unconscious wouldn?t be very interesting, after all.
?Aaaaaaugh!?
Despite being a ?mechanic?, I didn?t have a very manly scream. In fact, it?s best classified as a wail. A kind-of-high-pitched yell. My apologies to anyone who may have sensitive hearing, much like a cat.
Yeah. Still haven?t said sorry to Chen for that. ?Course, I didn?t know who Chen was at the time.
First I saw of her was when she dashed out of the room, knocking over a small table. Unfortunate, that was, because it apparently had some food on it that was destined for me. I didn?t initially notice the tails trailing behind her.
?Ah!? The white-capped blonde from before watched as the sub-table toppled over, and the tray on it spilt.
I sat upright and gasped for air.
The blonde looked back at me calmly. ?Good morning. You would do yourself a large favor if you went ahead and assumed that everyone in the human world thought you were dead.?
I gaped at her. A random woman who made me black out while I was running for my life was telling me I was dead.
??what??
?You?re in a realm that exists parallel to your own. You won?t be able to get back without someone helping you. There are only a few people who actually have the ability to help you, and I?m one of them. In my opinion, you shouldn?t try to return. Not immediately, at least ? the man I saved you from wasn?t just a random street-thug. He was a low-ranking member of a particularly large gang in your area ? but not low enough to be punished for failing to rob you. The gang is on the lookout for you, and you?ll have many unsavory things in your future if they find you, and then the myth of your death will become a reality.
?You?re welcome to stay here for as long as you need, but don?t bother with your original clothes. They won?t fit in here, and I?ve already disposed of them. Your possessions are safe.?
??what? Hang on. Wait. Who are you?? First order of business ? interrogate the person who saved your life. Say it with me now ? panic makes you do stupid things.
?I am Yukari Yakumo, Sage of the Youkai, and custodian to the Hakurei Barrier. Now, you know who I am. May I ask who you are??
I narrowed my eyes at her. It would?ve probably been more intimidating if I weren?t naked. ?Sara Fransisca Xiao. Call me Esifex ? it?s my initials.?
?Esifex, huh. Welcome to Gensokyo. It?s your home for now ? and you?d best deal with it. I?m going to prepare you something to eat ? you?ve been out for a day.?
With that, she left. I sank back down, and noticed I wasn?t in a bed of any kind. Some kind of cushion ? a futon, it?s called. Thankfully it came equipped with a blanket, though.
What the hell? Am I in Japan or something? I took a deep breath and tried to relax, doing my best to absorb everything I?d just been told. My nudity wasn?t making it easy, though ? I felt vulnerable. I pulled the blanket up and fastened it around my chest, toga-style, and got up. Gotta be something around here to wear.
Sure enough, as though this Yukari had planned for me to go a-wandering, there was a single outfit hanging from what looked like a coat-hook pole. A red blouse, yellow ribbon-bowtie around the neck, a black belt and a red skirt, and atop the pole was a green beret. Looks like what that girl who ran off when I woke up was wearing.
I pulled the blouse and skirt on, but opted to leave the hat behind. Never really liked hats much unless they were light. I wouldn?t be able to wear it as well as Chen, anyways.
Wait a second. How?d I know that name?
What the hell is going on here?
I froze in the middle of the room, suddenly tensing up and alert. Tae Kwon Do classes that I took when I was eight ? nearly a decade and a half ago, by God they?re probably useless to me now ? started flitting through my head as I ran myself through a situational checklist. I felt like I was going to be jumped at any second.
I recognize the name ?Gensokyo?. I know who Chen is. I feel like there?s more about what?s going on that I know, that I SHOULDN?T know.
I undid the buttons holding the sleeves tight to my shoulders. I didn?t want any restricted range of motion. Looking around, I grabbed the hat off the pole and let it rest on my head, not pulling it down tight. I imagined it looked silly, with my long hair in a ponytail and it just barely sitting on my head. I wanted it light so I could snatch it off my head and throw it as a distraction if I had to.
Footsteps were approaching. Sounded like bare feet on the wooden flood. I forced my body to relax as best I could, but kept my mind racing.
A tall, pale woman came through the open door, bearing another tray similar to the one that had been knocked down. Behind her, I could see a mass of fur. A forgotten voice in my head ? akin to instinct ? told me that it was actually nine tails, and this was a demi-god ?Kitsune? standing before me. That same voice told me this, then made absolutely certain I knew better than to try to piss the kitsune off.
?Ran!? I blurted. Again, a name I knew that I shouldn?t have.
Ran blinked. ?Yes. Did Yukari tell you I was coming??
??Yeah. Is that for me?? I gestured at the tray and the small bowl on it. Despite my attempt to distract her with my hand motions, she noticed the wild look in my eyes.
?Calm down. Humans are protected in Gensokyo. And besides ? you?ve been unconscious for a day. If we were going to attack you, kill you, eat you, whatever you?re afraid of, we would?ve done it already.?
?So you say, I?ve been out for that long.? Idiot! Idiot! IDIOT! DON?T BACKTALK HER!
Instead of taking offense, she just grinned. ?Then I guess you?ll just have to take our word for it. I imagine you?re hungry?? She held the tray in one hand like a waitress, and lifted the bowl off it, offering it forwards.
A small chorus of voices in my head started screaming at each other. Run! Fight! Kill! Hide! Eat! Sleep!
A voice in my stomach started to contribute to the cacophony in my mind, and the ?Eat? suggestion won. I reached forward and took the bowl, bowing my head ? I hoped the gesture looked gracious, but I didn?t want to look into her yellow eyes. They were creepy as hell.
?There aren?t any solids in it. Drink the soup at your own pace, but drink it slowly. You?ll ??
I held my hand up, forestalling her cautionary lecture. ?I?ll cramp my stomach and clog up my system. I?m a little bit learned in the workings of the human body, though I thank you for the caution and concern. May I leave the room??
Ran shook her head. ?No. You may not. One of us will be back shortly. It may be me, Yukari, or another one, named ??
?Chen.? I interrupted her again. Still had a bunch of ?stupid? left over to use up, it seemed.
Ran stared at me intently, one eyebrow twitching upwards just barely. ?Yes. I suppose Yukari explained more to you than I thought.?
I shrugged at her and tipped the bowl to my lips. It was warm and bitter, slightly salty tasting. Could?ve sworn I tasted mushrooms in it, too.
Ran stepped out of the room, keeping her eye on me as she went. I barely noticed her multitude of tails twisting and wrapping around each other as she lead herself through the door.
I nursed the bowl of soup for about two minutes. Despite her warning ? and the fact that I really did know better ? I couldn?t help but drink the soup quickly. Holdover habits from working in that damned oil-change shop; if you didn?t eat fast, you didn?t eat at all. Customers had a nasty habit of knowing when you got lunch and would come piling up in the bays. Food never had a long life expectancy around me anymore.
As time crawled on and I was left alone for God-knows-how-long, my thoughts began to dwell on the reality I?d left behind. Surely my brother ? and by extension, the rest of my family ? had been told by now via Mike (if he?d returned to report in that Paradise Falls had been robbed) that I was ?dead?.
The thought of my brother grieving over me, combined with what would undoubtedly be insurmountable imagined guilt for having been the one to get me into that job in the first place, was depressing. He shouldn?t have to go through that. It wasn?t fair.
I examined the room I was in, and noticed that the things I had in my uniform pocket were lined up neatly next to the futon I?d been rest in. Wallet, cellphone, two pens, a Sharpie magic marker, and a rag. The first two, definite keepers. Might keep the pens and Sharpie.
The rag was getting lost first chance I got, of course.
I slid my phone up, opening it. Still had a full bar of battery charge ? no one ever called me, and I didn?t have texting, so I never actually used the battery power except for playing music. I fired up one of my playlists to occupy myself while I sat there and flipped through my wallet.
Things I wouldn?t need any more? Folding money, library card, Librarian Assistant I.D., driver?s license, GameStop, Amazon, Barne?s and Noble?s, and B. Dalton discount cards, a credit card.
The sheer absurdity of actually stopping and realizing - just how nerdy it was that I had a videogame store, and three bookstores? discount cards to a single credit card ? hit me like a ton of bricks. Stuck in a world, trapped away from home with no immediate prospect of getting back, and I?m thinking about bookstores?
I?d rather have an Xbox 360. Never managed to get one, though, so I guess I won?t ever be getting one now.
Like Yukari said, though, at least I?m still alive. Being alive somewhere foreign is better than being dead at home.
The music on my cellphone clicked over to a piano/violin duet. I passively IDed it in my head as ?Clockwork, Lunar Dial? by TAM.
Wait.
Lunar Dial. That song was an arrange of a theme-song of a character in a game called Touhou. Sakuya Izayoi, if I wasn?t mistaken.
Sakuya, a resident of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, in Gensokyo.
I clicked my phone shut, turning the music off in the process. ?No fucking way. Oooooh, fucking no. Just, no. You?ve gotta be kidding me.?
I fell to a sitting position with a complete lack of decorum and stared at the ceiling. Work had been eating too much of my time for me to bother with any of my former social or recreational habits; I?d completely forgotten about Touhou and Gensokyo in the course of the past five months.
I was chuckling deliriously to myself when I realized I heard Yukari?s voice coming down the hallway towards me.
??ably a dreamwalker, like that Maribel girl in Japan. Otherwise? ha. Maybe she?s actually one of Ota?s fans. Either way??
She stepped around the corner, rounding through the door and looking down at me.
?Yukari Yakumo. Sage of Gensokyo, also known occasionally as the Reality of Gensokyo. You work with the Hakurei Maiden on a fairly regular basis. Your shikigami is Ran Yakumo, who has a shikigami of her own, Chen. The three of you live together in Mayohiga among the mountains.? I didn?t ask.
She blinked at me. ?That is correct. Tell me, how do you know all that??
I laugh to myself a little. Okay, I really laughed a lot. I was delirious at the time.
?Do you know what ?Touhou? means??
?Eastern Paradise. It?s also the stories set up by a friend of mine to help spread belief of this realm, to help empower it.?
I giggled. ?I thought Gensokyo was supposed to be a Paradise for the Disbelieved? Wouldn?t actually ?believing? in it have an adverse effect??
Yukari shook her head. ?Not that the exact workings of the barrier will concern you, ever, but it is strengthened by belief that it exists. Everything inside the barrier takes shelter here from the actual adverse effects of being disbelieved. You have it backwards.?
This is too much. I share my opinion with them. ?This is too much.?
?Nonetheless, it is fact. Deal with it.?
I get a sudden mental image of Yukari commanding me to ?deal with it? while glaring at me through dark sunglasses. I giggle some more.
?Well. Yeah, I can try that. But for now, I think I?m going to go absolutely insane. Can I go outside so I can scream some more??
Ran snickers. ?Better out than in. In both cases here, outside the house and out of her.?
Yukari narrows her eyes at me, and one of her portals slips open beside her. She turns to step into the portal, but continues facing me.
?Cast off your name. It?ll do you no good here.?
I blink. ?What? Why??
?There?s already a Sara of renown in Gensokyo. Go by your initials.? With that, she disappears into the portal.
?Hey! Wait! Why can?t we both have the name ?Sara??? I call after her, leaning forward till I have to support myself ?on all fours? style. Yukari doesn?t answer; instead, the ribbons slip shut and the portal vanishes.
Ran gestures to me, beckoning me. ?Come, I will lead you outside. I recommend you don?t wander too far from the estate; the wilderness here is very feral, very wild. Not at all tamed or defeated like the nature of your outside world.?
I rise to my feet mindlessly and follow her. ?So does she do this often? I mean, yank people from the real world and just dump them in Gensokyo??
Ran sighs. ?How much do you know about Gensokyo? Wait. Don?t bother; I?m not really interested. Yes, she does. There aren?t many humans here, and to keep a good selection of sturdy breeding stock available, to avoid in breeding, she pulls a selection of people through every few generations. Or every few weeks for her amusement. In your case, she was looking for more ?breeding stock?.?
?And I?m guessing you?ve already reached your quota for women, then.? I look around as we pass through the house. Very plain, but comfortable nonetheless.
?Exactly. Yukari saved you, though, because of the situation you were in. Among other reasons.?
As I followed Ran, her tails mesmerized me; wrapping around each other, braiding through each other, or wriggling their way free of the large mass of fur. I reached out towards them, slowly closing the distance.
?You?ve got so many tails. They look so fluffy? and you?ve got fox ears, right??
I pinch onto the tip of one of her tails, only grasping fur. She looks over her shoulder at me, feeling the restriction, and curls her tails against her back, plucking the captured tail free. I look up at her head; resting atop her golden-yellow hair is a poofy white and blue hat with two streamers coming off it.
?I do. And yes, they are? ?fluffy?. Don?t pull on them, it hurts when you yank hairs out.?
?Do you have human ears too?!? I blurt out, practically hopping in place behind her as we reach the front door.
She just stares at me as she opens the door and steps aside politely. ?I think you had some screaming to do??
A blur of motion, a slight sensation of pressure, and suddenly I?m outside. She calls out behind me as I stumble to a halt halfway through the small courtyard, ?Chen and I both have sensitive hearing. If you need to scream, please do so alone and away from the estate.?
The door closes. Well, nothing better to do but stop, think, and let it all come crashing down on me.
I scream.
I don?t know how long I was standing on the lawn, screaming at the sky, hollering at the Gods, cursing my fate and the unfair situation my brother had to go through. I never actually looked at the clock on my cellphone to see when I started; I just know that the sun was already on it?s way toward setting when I started, and it had completely disappeared behind the mountains when I finished.
I sank to my knees, and then fell over backwards. My voice was hoarse and my throat hurt now. Luckily, I felt a lot less stressed out. Crying was like vomiting, for the soul. Gets the yucky stuff out of you.
?Feeling better?? I ask.
What?
I pop my head up.
Yukari?s dress is standing before me, but wearing it is? me.
?I do not sound like that.? I look her up and down.
Poofy white dresses are not my thing. And I do not sound like that. Do I?
?When?s the last time you?ve recorded yourself and listened to it? How do you know what you really sound like??
I remain silent. Truth be told, she had a point.
?Give me your cellphone.? She?s not asking me.
I fish it out of my pocket and hand it over. ?I?m glad I?ve still got a full charge on it. I suppose finding a reliable source of electricity will be difficult here.?
Yukari-Me glances up at me as she fiddles with the slide-open phone. ?Not really. Which one is your next-of-kin??
?What?? I blink. ?Uh. My brother. He?s speed-dial ?2?. You know how to use a cellphone??
Without looking up at me she waggles the phone. ?Samsung Trance. I don?t live only in Gensokyo, you know. Aren?t you going to ask how I ended up looking and sounding like you??
I let out a single laugh. ?Yukari, I know enough about you already to know that reality doesn?t apply to you. Am I seriously getting signal here? I didn?t even look, I just assumed I wouldn?t.?
?You won?t. I will, though. Like you said, reality doesn?t apply to me.? She held down a button ? I presumed it was ?2? ? and then put the phone to her ear.
The look in her eyes demanded that I remain perfectly silent lest she murder me to death. I remain silent.
?Chris!? she says suddenly. How does she know his name? Did she look at the screen, see what the number was saved as?
?No! No, listen ? shut up for a sec, will ya?? What the hell!? She?s even talking like me now?
?Look ? shit happened at Paradise. Did Mike tell you?? WHAT?! How does she know all these names?! How does she know who Mike is?
?Yeah. Paradise Fallen sucks ass, man. Anyways, I get one call before they have to turn off my phone ? I?m in witness protection now. I ? hey ? shut up, I know ? shut up! I know it sucks. Look, tell Mom and Dad, okay? And if Mike thinks I got shot, the better. He?s shit at holding his tongue. Turns out the waste of flesh who tried to rob us is part of the Bulldogs, and not just a bottom-rung gangbanger. I gave him a good whack in the head and pretty much made a mockery of his thievery skills, but because ? will you stop trying to interrupt me, dammit? Because of the gang-related nature of the crime, blah blah blah, cop mumbo-jumbo, the Paradise Falls P.D. is assigning me to witness protection and relocating me. I can?t tell you where I?m going or who I?ll be, and I won?t be allowed to contact you or anyone else I know ? or should say knew ? until like, God knows when.?
She falls silent for a few seconds while Chris talks to her. Fuck! Let me talk to him! I want to talk to him, dammit! He?s MY brother!
?Yeah, no. No, you can?t tell anyone else I?m in W.P. Just Mom and Dad. And the same goes for them. They?re not even allowed to tell each other after you tell them. I just wanted you all to know I?m okay.?
More silence. I want to cry. I want to talk to Chris.
?Yeah. Tell ?em I love ?em. This kinda sucks, but it?s also kinda cool at the same time. You know how much I hated Florida. Maybe if I?m lucky they?ll take me somewhere completely else. I mean, you know how gangs are ? all big and huge and have territory from like, state to state. I get to travel now! ? Yeah. I know. I?ll miss you ? but not much. Hah!?
I turn around and pace away. I run my hands across my head, knocking the beret off and tousling my hair, chewing on my lip and desperately trying not to make a sound. A choked off cry of anguish threatens to leap from my throat, though.
??Yeah. Later, man.?
Click. The phone was slid shut; she hung up.
I don?t remember falling to my knees, but there I was, wailing in agony. God, why didn?t I actually think to ask her WHY she looked like me?! Why did I just hand my phone over? I should?ve demanded to talk to Chris! I would?ve gone along with a script. I could?ve sold the act! Hell, I love acting! And as long as I could?ve spoken to him, actually heard his voice, been the one to reassure him that I was okay, I would?ve been happy, would?ve been fine with having to cut off contact for a while.
I fall over forward, then onto my side and curl up. Yukari walks over to me; somehow, she?s back into her regular body.
She tucks my phone back into the pocket it came from, conveniently exposed to the sky as I lay. ?Come inside whenever you?re ready.? She turns and disappears back into her estate.
You know, me lying in the leaves crying and sobbing isn?t really exciting. Let?s skip ahead!
To my complete surprise, Yukari had power outlets in her home. After charging my phone back up and putting together a care-package for me, she was finally sending me on my way, three days later.
Leaving the shelter of her home to fend for myself didn?t seem like a grand idea, especially from what I remembered of the backstory of Gensokyo. I could only hope the vaguely defined spellcard rules were accurate ? or at least the parts about ?no human-eating?. Of course, that only applied to sentient youkai, not wild animals.
This thought reminded me that I was currently defenseless, and I brought it up with Yukari.
?Oh? You seemed to fair pretty well against that gangster with just your wits. And he had a gun, to boot.?
It?s hard to resist the urge to roll your eyes when it hits you, I learned. ?I?d rather err on the side of caution and just assume that I got as far as I did because I knew my way around the darkened shop better than he did, and I knew what tools could be used and how. I need some way to defend myself ? do you have any spellcards that a regular human like me could use??
?I do, but remember; carrying spellcards also opens you up to duels. Would you rather have something to carry, instead??
Oh. Weaponry. Oh oh! This is Yukari ? she can pull whatever she wants from nowhere.
?You know? If you could get me the full Beastmaster Set from World of Warcraft, and that one Legendary tier bow from Ice Crown, that?d give me both offensive and defensive protection.?
?You can use a bow and arrow??
I stop and think. Yeah, Dad?s taken me to the archery range a few times with him, and I liked shooting, but I sucked. Badly.
?Ah, yeah. That?d be the hard part. How about? the Cobalt crafted set of plate armor and a good sword-and-shield??
Yukari snickered. ?I find it amusing that you?re using a video game as a reference for this, but I do suppose it?s as good a resource as any. I?m surprised you didn?t ask for something that would?ve given you powers ? Raising Heart comes to mind.?
Oh, God. Yukari watches anime ? and Lyrical Magical Nanoha, to boot.
I realize my folly after Yukari conjures the armor up for me; without any proper underclothing to it, it was designed to look like a chain mail bikini on females. The under-armor had a good solid build to it, but it was see-through.
I think I?ll keep this outfit I inherited from Chen. Every good WoW player keeps a good shirt item for just this occasion.
After putting it on, I present myself to Yukari once again. ?There! Ready for my journey, now.?
She blinks at me. ?Journey?? she asks. ?What journey??
I pull the helmet off and tuck it under my arm. ?I thought the whole reason I had this bundle here was so I could get out of ??
I look around and notice, mid-sentence, that we?re no longer in Yukari?s house, and instead atop a small hill overlooking a massive expanse of fields.
Take that, physics. Yukari, one; reality, zero.
?Just beyond those fields is the human village. I hope you?re ready to make yourself useful as a defender, with that get-up.? Yukari chuckles at me ? undoubtedly I do look a little ridiculous.
?It?ll give me something to do, then. A way to pay for room and board.?
?Good. Looks like you?ve got your head screwed back on right. If you need to charge your phone, I?ve put my contact number in your list. Give me a call and I?ll charge it for you.?
?I thought I wouldn?t get signal in Gensokyo?? I fished through the bundle for the phone, producing it easily. Sure enough, no signal.
?You won?t. It?ll still connect to my phone, though, and you can still use it to listen to your music. Take care of it.? Yukari has a cellphone. Genius.
I look down at the phone. My only remaining piece of technology. Well, according to Yukari, electricity wasn?t actually rare here. Maybe I?ll be able to pick up some other tokens to help me stay sane. Can?t go all Wilderness-Girl instantly, you know.
?Right, I?ll ? dammit.? Yukari had left once again while I was distracted. I swear, she?s just like the goddamned Batman. ?Look! A distraction!?
Nothing better to do than shuffle off towards the village, then.
Now, lemme ask you something ? have you ever been frightened so much you could?ve sworn you?d jump out of your skin? Only to have it turn out to be completely harmless?
?Hey! What do you mean, ?completely harmless???
Hush. Anyways ? I?d been walking for about twenty minutes in the direction Yukari pointed, and had set my phone up to play a few songs for me; at this point, I was bored of admiring the scenery and had taken to rummaging through the care-package I had. I wanted to read the spellcards I?d been given.
Flipping through them, I noticed a certain sense of humor between each card, from Yukari. They were all based on ?prot? spec Warriors from World of Warcraft. Devastate, Shield Slam, Shield Wall, Last Stand, Shockwave.
I chuckled to myself as I shuffled them, meaning to stuff them back in my pouch.
?What?s so funny??
?MIGHTY FUCK!? I scream, scattering the cards into the air and jumping in shock.
?Whoa! Language, young lady! Words like that shouldn?t come from a girls? mouth. Although, judging by the sword on your waist, you?re no lady.?
Too startled to initially take offense at this blow to my femininity, I look around for the source of the voice.
?VIRGIN MARY MOTHER OF JESUS WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?!? I holler ? apparently my volume was turned up to eleven ? as I jump away from the fanciful hat at my elbow.
Right ? hats. Gensokyo is full of ?em ? probably has more hats than people. This one was a black sun hat with a yellow ribbon wrapped around it, tied in a bow. The yellow and black tunic the girl wore was surrounded by? a heart-wire? No, just a tendril wrapping around itself in the shape of a heart.
I frantically scoured my memory for anyone in Gensokyo who matched this description, but sadly I was very far behind on my times. I?m lucky I knew who Yukari was ? the only games I?d actually played were Imperishable Night and Perfect Cherry Blossom (and have never beaten either one successfully, much to my dismay).
I drop my pouch, letting it swing to my side on its sash, and draw the sword. ?I?ll have you know, I don?t fight with danmaku or spellcards ? uh, yet ? so if you attack I?ll have to defend myself!?
The white-haired girl with the silly grin on her face stared at me for a second. ??Ha ha! No, you won?t. Well, you won?t, ?cause I?m not gonna attack you, but two, because you?re holding that sword all wrong. Are you going to slash the flat of the blade at me??
I look at the sword in my hands. Sure enough, I?m holding the sword with the sharp edge pointing off to my left, perpendicular to how I?m standing.
I roll the sword in my hands to face her properly. ?Bad moment. Caught me off guard.?
Beat.
?And you?re not actually attacking me. Or so you say. I hope you won?t be offended if I don?t sheathe this immediately.?
?Not at all. Will it help me earn your trust if I help you gather up all your spellcards?? she asks.
?Well, if you tell me your name, that?ll help too.? I lower the sword, and let go of it with both hands, letting it hang in my right hand. I need to think about strapping the shield onto my forearm before the next time I potentially get into a fight.
And bloody hell, this shit is heavy! How in hell those human females manage to keep such huge boobs while lugging all this heavy-ass plate armor around is beyond me.
?Koishi Komeiji. Pleasure to meet you, Miss??? She trailed off, allowing me to fill in the blank.
?Hmm. Well, apparently I can?t use my real name here, so you should just call me ?Esifex?.?
She stoops over and gathers up a handful of the cards I?d tossed about in my panic (once again: stupid things are done whilst in a panicked state, y/n?). I stab the sword into the ground ? in what I hope is a suitably dramatic, and not-uncertain-in-the-slightest-because-I-really-don?t-know-why-I-asked-for-a-sword fashion ? and start to pick up what Koishi doesn?t.
?I?m afraid I?ve heard your name, but I don?t know much about you.? Attempt at conversation number one. Let?s see how this turns out.
?Heard of my name? Funny. I?ve never heard of you, nor do I know anything about you.?
?And yet you had no problem coming right up to hang off my elbow practically and scare the living bajeebus out of me.?
?You have bajeebus living inside you? You should get that looked at.?
?Har, har. Still? Those wires wrapping around you seem kinda familiar. Are they???
She stands up and turns to face me, revealing the floating eye suspended over her heart, connected by all the wires. The lid is closed.
?They?re attached to me, yeah. And my Third Eye.? She tugs lightly at one of the tendrils, making the floating eye bob up and down slightly.
?Third Eye! Hmm??
I pull my phone out and start fiddling with it, paging through my music library. I find the song I?m looking for and start to play it ? Ego Decay.
?Does this sound like anything to you, particularly?? I ask, hold the speaker out to her so she can hear it clearly.
?Sounds like music.?
?Hey, got it in one. But the singer ? give it a second, she?ll start up in a second.?
Sure enough, the vocalist for the song begins singing. The original basis behind the song was one of the Komeiji sisters extolling the? virtues of not overstepping her social circles and over-reaching herself. I couldn?t remember which sister was which, though.
Koishi listens intently, while idly holding the sheaf of spellcards out for me. As I take them, she snaps her fingers. ?That actually sounds a lot like gibberish!? she says.
I let both my hands just drop limp. Really? This girl is? a little unscrewed. Of course, to be fair, the song is in Japanese. ?Had to get my hopes up, didn?t you??
Wonder why she?s not curious about the cellphone. Does she have one, too? Is there a cellphone tower somewhere in Gensokyo that I just haven?t spotted yet?
?Well, I really don?t know why you?re letting me listen to it. That?s an interesting little music box you have, though. Never heard one sing before, though I can?t say if that?s singing or just? gibberish. But if you REALLY want to hear some music ? well, live music, at least ? the human village is planning a festival soon! You should come by. I?m going! I go every year.?
I shrug, and tuck the spellcards into my pouch ? successfully, this time. ?May as well, right? Good a time as any. It?s where I?m headed, regardless.?
She looks me up and down as I fetch the sword I stabbed into the ground. Don?t forget to wipe the blade off of dirt, I remind myself. I forget what show or anime it was that I saw where someone made it a point to carry a piece of cloth specifically to clean their blades so they don?t stick in their sheaths.
Or is this a scabbard? Ah, well. I don?t know. I do know, however, that she?s making me a little uncomfortable with how she?s staring at me.
?You sure you?re going to be received well at the human village? There?s something a little? off, about you.?
?You?re one to talk. What do you mean??
?WAHA!?
I blink and look around, confused.
?OH, SO YOU CAN HEAR ME! YAY!?
I rub the side of my head. ?Yeah, you don?t have to be so loud, either.?
Koishi nodded. ?Yeah, the humans here can?t hear that. It?s called ?telepathy?.?
I wave my hand at her lazily. ?Yeah, it?s part of psychic powers and stuff. That?s what your Third Eyes are for, right? For perceiving intention and will of those around you??
Shake, shake, the ribbon on her hat waves at me as she shakes her head. ?Nah. Close, though.?
The slightest movement from the Eye catches my attention. As I stare at it, I noticed the lid start to quiver.
It splits open just barely, and Koishi disappears.
Immediately I draw my sword (properly) and brandish it in front of me. ?Okay, stop screwing with my head, please. I don?t appreciate it.?
She reappears in front of me, right where she disappeared. ?It?s okay, it?s not like I?m going to challenge you to a duel. You said you don?t use danmaku. Just wanted to see if it?d work on you.?
From jobless, to hood tech, to assistant manager, to thugbait, to wandering swordswoman, to guinea pig. Impressive chain in the past two months, no doubt. Have experience, willing to relocate, contact by mail as there are no cellphone towers in Gensokyo. I think.
?I guess yeah, it did. What did you do??
She shrugged. ?I can?t really explain it, to be honest. I kinda convinced your subconscious that I wasn?t here anymore, but you knew I?d been here and was still here so it worked halfway on you. I don?t think you?re a human ? or at least, not one of the humans from here.?
?I come from a long and illustrious line of psychics and magicians and warlocks and other fanciful things. Not really.?
Her grin grows a little wider ? no, it grows sillier. It can?t get any wider. ?You?re weird.?
?You?re one to talk. So, take me to this village, then.?
?I guess I could. You seem interesting enough, anyways.?
I live to please. Perhaps I could paint my face and feet red, and walk around on my hands all day. Would that be interesting, too?
?Appreciate it,? I say instead.
Split into next post!
-
So now you know how I got here ? but what do you think I?ve done since then? Surely I haven?t just sat around, right? Right!
?Nah, you?ve just walked around on your lonesome.?
Never alone when you?re involved. Can I tell the story?
?You?ve already gotten this far and you just now ask my permission? Heh heh, I kid.?
Now, it?d be rude to just walk into the village and hang around without anything better to do. I had to make myself useful somehow! Koishi here didn?t hang around. She doesn?t like to stay in one place for very long.
The first inklings of my ?otherworldly power? started shortly thereafter. Right before Koishi patted me on the back to bid me farewell, I felt? well, the best way to describe it would be to call it a ?shadow? of a feeling. I felt her pat my back before she touched me.
I say ?pat? my back, but in reality she pretty much slammed an open hand into my back and knocked me forward. I imagine to a regular human that would?ve been ridiculously painful because of the armor I was wearing. She just grinned that goofy grin of hers, said ?buh-bye now, I?ll see you around!? and disappeared again.
By the way, Koishi, you really need to work on subconsciously convincing me I didn?t see your footsteps in the grass. That?s like, the first giveaway of an invisible person.
?Hush you, I know you didn?t see anything like that.?
Of course, she abandoned me right in front of the gates to the human village. Bundle on my back, shield on my forearm, sword at my waist, and a pouch opposite to that? I don?t think the guardsmen have ever seen a wandering traveler quite like me, before. To their credit, though, they didn?t step down at all.
Course, they had long spears and there were two of them to just one of me. I wasn?t about to back down, myself, though, even though I had no real clue how to actually fight with a sword. According to Fire Emblem, they would?ve won anyways.
How?s the saying go? ?A club swung like a sword will always be as good as a club, but a sword swung like a club is less effective than a club?? Ah, well, I don?t really know. But the guardsmen didn?t have to know I didn?t know how to fight.
?Who?re you?? they asked. I forget which one asked me. Like I said, there were two.
?I am Esifex? Champion of the Frozen Wastes.? Okay, so I never really even earned that title, even in WoW, but damned if it didn?t sound impressive. I don?t think anyone could?ve actually earned it in plain ol? Cobalt gear anyways.
Oh, by the way ? I was no longer panicking, but I was still doing stupid things. That side effect tends to last a while. I had no idea of the hole I was digging myself.
?Greetings, Esifex, Champion of the Frozen Wastes. What business do you have with our village?? the other one asked. Still don?t remember who they were, though.
?Well, as you can see, I?m a little out of my element. Not many Frozen Wastes around here. I was hoping to stay a while, see if I can?t fashion myself into a Champion of the? Village. Place.? Not nearly as awesome as I?d hoped to sound.
?You?ll have to leave your weapon with us as you visit the guardian of the village. She?ll decide if you can stay, or what you?ll have to pay.?
Choice A: Take the sword off my waist, hand it over, risk them skewering me on the spot and rummaging through my goods. Choice 2: Hand it over, they let me in, go about my business. Choice Charlie: Attack!
Turns out Choice 2 is the proper answer. After unbuckling my belt, stuffing my little pouch into my bundle, and handing the sword and belt over, the guardsmen just opened the door and let me waltz right in.
Neither one of them seemed too obliged to tell me where I was heading, though. I figured I?d just go straight down the avenue till I got to the big building and eventually someone would ask why the hell I was walking in the streets in armor.
About five minutes passed and I had completely forgotten I was supposed to be going towards the only landmark I could spot; I?d removed the helmet and tucked it under my arm again, and was busying staring like a kid in a candy shop at all the little stalls set up.
By no means a market street, but just the sheer niftiness of all the little things caught my attention like a shiny red ball.
I didn?t get long to admire the novelty of it all, though. Someone walked up behind me, from the guard post, and cleared her throat.
Who I would later remember-slash-learn was Keine Kamishirasawa was standing there.
?Hiya!? I say cheerfully, opening my free hand in a wave. She looks me up and down.
?A warrior woman. Don?t see that too often.?
?Surely, you jest. I?ve heard rumors that this village is guarded by a woman.?
?Not rumors; it?s true. I?m Keine, the guardian.? She starts to walk a circle around me, intending to get a look at my backside.
For some reason I was compelled to walk opposite her, so we ended up looking like we were about to duel to the death or something.
?Keine? hmm. You?re not a human, are you? You?re a ? were-bull? If I?m not mistaken.?
Only a moments confusion clouds her face while she tries to figure out why I?m circling with her. ?Mostly correct. I?m a were-hakutaku; most of the time, I?m human, yes. On the night of the full-moon, I?m a hakutaku.?
Because I know what that means. I nod instead of offer up a smartass remark.
?So, what brings a warrior woman with letters for a name to our village, seeking a place to stay??
?Excellent question. I hope the answer is just as excellent for you. I want to offer my presence in any way I can, earn myself a roof and some food.?
She stops circling. I lack the foresight to do the same, and I begin to walk around her before I realize what I?m doing.
She looks sidelong at me, one eyebrow raised. ?You?re a very strange young woman.?
?You?ll have to forgive me; Yukari just yanked me from my homeland and dropped me here. I?ve been at her estate for the past two or three days, but apparently she doesn?t entertain guests for long. Rather than send me back, she told me to come here. I was pretty much obliged to listen to her.?
?She does that sometimes. Hmm. For now, I suppose you can stay at the dormitories in the courthouse. Your first task towards rent will be to take the first night-watch shift; I?m assuming you?re better at standing guard than you are scrubbing and cleaning.?
Actually, I?m better at massaging and changing oil, but I won?t correct the person giving me a roof over my head in this incredibly weird-ass land.
?Appreciate it. Could you guide me there??
She gestures at the large building I was originally headed to. ?Of course. It?ll give me time to explain your second task to rent.?
Oh boy.
?In three nights? time it?ll be a full moon. At that time, a rather pesky youkai in the nearby woods is going to be put down. You will lead the hunting party.?
?How ?pesky? are we talking, here? I?m used to fighting with long fields of vision, plenty of line-of-sight all around you. Hard to be snuck up on like that ? I?m not so hot in forests.?
?Think along the lines of a rabid wolf, stealing flock animals. Except it?s about five feet tall and seven feet long.?
Wolf claws can?t punch through plate armor. I hope. I wonder how thick and durable Yukari made this stuff.
?I make no guarantees as to the killing blow, but I?m more than willing to put myself in front of it and keep it off anyone who?s going with me.?
Keine nods. ?I?ll be part of the hunting party ? that?s why we?re going out on a full moon. If anything happens, I?ll be there to help as well.?
Oh good, I don?t have to do all the work. Now, why did I say I was an excellent swordsman, Champion of the Frozen Wastes, again?
Right. ?Cause I?m a goddamn moron. Yay, delusions of grandeur!
?The dormitories are through this door. I recommend you try to get some rest now ? you?ll be guarding the outside walls of the village, not the courthouse. Your weapon will be returned to you, of course. Good night, good luck.?
You're getting close to the end of the original story!
-
So for three days I patrolled the outer walls of the village. Everyone slept peacefully at night (for at least four hours) while I was on vigilance. Okay, maybe not all because of me.
It was easy enough to make me forget that I was suddenly the hunts-captain for a giant wolf on steroids on the night of the full moon.
Luckily, that night didn?t end in complete dismal failure. I did not in fact end up getting disarmed of my sword and have to fight entirely with my shield, nor did I nearly get knocked over before one of the villagers managed to scare the wolf thing with his spear.
Nor did Koishi have to come in and blast the thing with what looked like a giant pink heart.
?Okay, the first part was fine, but now you?re just plain lying through your teeth. Stop that.?
Haha. Okay, she didn?t not have to blast it off me because I wasn?t not on the ground and it wasn?t pink anyways it was more like a light light purple.
?No fair trying to use double negatives to confuse me! Just tell the story, you goober.?
Fine, fine. So Koishi shows up again and helps with the fight; her not-pink-mostly-light-light-purple ?
?Stop that, too. They?re pink. They?re so totally pink. They?re pinker than any pink you?ve ever seen until you saw my pink, pink hearts.?
?heart bullet thing doing a fine job spooking wolfyoukaibeastmonsterthing enough to give me time to get back on my feet.
?You?re forgetting the major rule in Gensokyo, Esifex!? She? flaps her arms, or something, and more purplish-pink hearts ?
?I swear I?ll make you forget how to do math if you try to say they?re not pink again.?
? come flying out of somewhere around her.
?Oh, let me guess. Spellcards and danmaku, right? I thought that was only for sentient youkai??
?Nah. But I did happen to read your spellcards the other day ? use ?em! This is the perfect time.?
?Don?t have the time to pick and choose ?em, you know.? I look around for my sword; still can?t find it, but the villagers are starting to fan out now, surround the wolf. Maybe one of them will spot it for me.
?Just shout the name of one of ?em and it?ll come to you. Usually.?
You?ve gotta be kidding me. First, an omnipotent demi-god who watches anime conjures up armor for me from a video game, then she turns herself into me, makes an out-of-area phonecall in a place that shouldn?t have cellphones at all, then she dumps me into a village where I tell everyone I?m some champion swordswoman, then I get roped into a hunting party, and now I?m suddenly a ?Magical Transforming Super-Girl? who shouts out my attacks and poses dramatically?
Oh, hell. Why not.
?Shockwave!?
Something compels me to lift my leading leg up a little, take a half-step forward, then stomp down as hard as I can.
A huge blast of dirt comes rocketing up out of the ground towards the wolf, spraying it in the face and knocking its feet out from under it.
Oh, cool! ?It should be stunned now! I?m going in!?
Koishi nods and sinks back, watching me fight.
Let?s see; sword on the ground somewhere, probably buried under all the dirt I just kicked up. Shield on my forearm, got two free hands. Hands are gauntleted in the finest imaginary plate armor a physics-raping demi-goddess can conjure. Sheaf of spellcards in my pouch.
I plunge my right hand into the pouch and scoop up a bunch of cards.
?Time to experiment!? Oh God, now I?m doing one-liners? Give me a talking wand and frilly skirt, next, please. ?Shield Wall Shockwave Slam!?
Sure enough, four ethereal shields begin to orbit around me, but then they all explode in a burst of light. Another powerful stomp on the ground, and everything that isn?t nailed down in an eight-yard radius gets blasted away from me.
One of the magical floating shields hit the wolf at the same time as the shockwave, and it detonates explosively. The wolf goes flying away until it hits a tree.
Unfortunately, so did all the villagers. I guess there?s a reason all those skills cause Global Cooldown in WoW. Oops. That?s not gonna do my reputation any good.
I look behind me, fixing to ask Koishi to help me take the wolf down. Without the sword, I wouldn?t be able to do anything, and I?d need her and her pink heart bullets to either stun it down or wound it enough to kill it.
Nope, no dice. She got knocked over, too.
So did I, actually, but that was because I turned my back to the wolf. Some Champion I am.
?Shit!? I?m on my stomach, now. Not a good position to be for anything but things that aren?t relevant to this story and shouldn?t be discussed in front of children. Neither is profanity, but it was necessary for the drama of the situation.
Luckily, imaginary plate holds up pretty well to wolf-on-steroid claws. Unfortunately, like I mentioned earlier, it?s pretty heavy, and having a wolf-on-steroids on your back doesn?t help much either.
Of course, when one of the people you work with happens to be a hakutaku on nights of the full moon, and you?ve got a bad case of wolf-on-steroids-on-your-back on a full moon, things can sometimes clear themselves right up.
Two solid footfalls ? probably amplified for me because of my intimate proximity with the ground ? and suddenly the weight on my back was gone. The wolf-on-steroids was suddenly yelping and yowling, but thankfully, it wasn?t doing so on my back.
I roll over and spot Keine standing above me. She has a tail! ?furry.
She also has two angry looking horns sticking out of her. Okay, I take the furry comment back. Oh, wait ? one of the horns has a ribbon on it! She?s awesome now. Everyone knows Ribbon grants immunity to all status effects. That is foresight and proper planning.
Oh, and her eyes are suddenly red and she looks pissed.
Also she has my sword. Hey, that?s my sword, you give that back! You?re a hakutaku, you don?t even use swords. Just head-butt it some more.
That?s actually what she did, too. She stabbed my sword into the ground next to me, and then charged the wolf again. She?s pretty fast when she?s angry, I guess. I just hope she?s not angry with me; those horns looked pretty nasty, and plate armor doesn?t offer good protection against getting stabbed. I think. I really don?t know, and I don?t really want to test it.
?Oh, gross,? I roll over to face away from Keine. She?d just impaled the wolf on her horns, and was now brandishing it above her head. Some kind of beastly roar rends the night (oh god, now I sound like Stephanie Meyers); it has subtle undertones of belonging to Keine, only like twenty times more nightmare inducing.
I push myself to my feet and pick up my sword. Covered in dirt and dust, just like I thought.
Thump. That sounded like Keine getting the wolf off her? head? and dropping it to the ground. Did she? I turn around and look.
Oh good, she did. Oh, gross, her horns are covered in blood now.
I fish the cloth out of my pouch that would?ve been used to wipe my blade clean and offer it to her. ?Here ? this was supposed to wipe the blood off my blade, but as we can both see, my blade is dry, but you? uh. Aren?t.? Man, I am just killing with all these epic, dramatic lines, aren?t I?
She nods at me and takes the cloth. ?You know, Sara, you?re better at being compassionate and friendly than you are at being a Champion of the Frozen Wastes. You haven?t even hit level eighty with your warrior, yet, either.?
I gape at her. ?Wha- ?huh? Oh. Wait. Shit.?
And now, suddenly four days too late, I remember that Keine can read histories.
?oh, God, if she can read my history accurately enough to know that ?Champion of the Frozen Wastes? comes from a videogame? then, last night?
Do not blush do not blush for GOD?S SAKE do not blush just admit you?re not a swordswoman.
?Don?t worry about it, ?Esifex?. The fact that you actually went through with helping us hunt this beast down means that you do indeed want to earn your place with us. You can stay, provided you agree to train with some of the villagers who regularly do guard-duty.?
?Uh. Yeah. Thanks, uh. I guess. Should I apologize??
Keine grins. Oh, shit. Fangs. Do NOT piss her off on full moons. ?No, don?t worry about it. It was for the sake of your safety and survival. Worse things have been done by people just as innocent as you.?
?What about Koishi? She helped.?
Keine shrugs. ?What about her? She?s welcome in the village whenever she wants, but she wanders. What would our hospitality mean to her??
I look at all the villagers I?d inadvertently stunned, knocked out, or thrown aside. Koishi had already come-to and was helping the lot of them up. ?Probably nothing more than ?thanks?, but I guess that?d be enough, too.?
Those fangs creep me out a little less when she just smiles instead of grins. The grin makes her look like she wants to eat me. The smile looks like she wants to hug me. ?Well, she?s more than welcome to join us for the festival we?ll be throwing for the successful capture and containment of this wolf youkai.?
Oh, cool. Koishi said something about ?
Wait. She said that like three days ago. Hmm?
That?s important. Remember that?
?Hey, shut up and tell the story.?
Fine, fine.
Two days later ? that?s four days ago ? I ask Koishi, who?d been staying at the dormitories with me.
?Hey. How?d you know they were throwing a festival for the hunt when we didn?t even know about the hunt yet??
She shrugs. ?You know what deja-vu is, right??
?Clearly it?s when someone messes with the Matrix. Yeah, I know what deja-vu is; what?s that gotta do with you seeing into the future??
Oh, hey, there?s that silly grin again. Man, does she get some miles out of that grin. ?Not me. You. I can muck about in the subconscious mind ? and yours is ridiculously active. That?s also where the primary cortex responsible for ascended brain function sits. You have mild precognition ? the cause behind d?j? vu ? and since I was romping around in your head before I showed myself to you, I was able to see with better clarity than you what was in store in the next few days. That could come in handy for you.?
I sigh and roll my head back, staring at the sky. ?How?s the saying go??
Ha! Got rid of the grin. Confused head-tilt, GO. ?What saying??
I take a deep breath and grin my own grin. Hey, fresh country air smells nice. Never noticed that.
??You can?t be bound by common sense in Gensokyo?? And now I suddenly have mind-powers? HA! It?s like a story right out of my dreams.?
Suddenly, things take a turn for the worse. Ooh, scary scary.
-
Now, when I say ?mind powers? I don?t mean like reality-warping Matrix mind-screw powers, or crazy awesome telekinesis (which would be crazy awesome). At the most, I get premonitions and the occasional thought from those around me.
?hang on, wait. What?s wrong? What?s going on? Where?s everyone? uh. Koishi? Any ideas?
?Oh, boy. I think we?d better go.?
Wait. I wanna know what?s going on, first.
?I?ll explain on the way. Let?s get back to the dormitories ? I think we just wore out our welcome. We need to get your stuff and pack up.?
That?s just as well; I never really ?unpacked? to begin with.
?Good. Now come on!?
Sara ? now known as Esifex ? and Koishi rose up from the small campfire they had been huddled around, and made haste to leave the central square. Sara?s audience had already left them, all looking uncomfortable. None had offered a reason; they all just up and left the two outsiders.
Koishi held her hand out. ?Give me your hand. You?ll need to be holding on to me to keep up.?
Sara takes her hand. ?You?re not about to fly, are you?? she asks. Koishi shakes her head.
?No, but if you let go, the rest of the villagers will know where we are. I?m shrouding us. Don?t talk.?
Sara nods, but Koishi isn?t looking at her. She?s focused on the courthouse, instead; the dormitories ? and Sara?s gear ? were waiting for their return.
What?s going on? Are they unfriendly towards psychics? Do they disbelieve in psychics here, just like in the real world? Sara shook her head, trying to clear it.
They slipped through the festival grounds like the phantoms they were; ghosts of shadows in the minds of those around them, thanks to Koishi?s Third Eye. Some of Sara?s original audience was between them and the courthouse, huddled closely to the other villagers, seeking refuge in familiarity.
It wasn?t long before they made it away from the festivities and into the courthouse. At this hour of the night, no one was there, but it wasn?t locked up. Only a moment?s navigation through the main halls passed before they ended up before the dormitories.
?So what the hell is the deal, here? Can?t you piggyback through my telepathy and find out what?s going on?? Sara asked, easing the door open. No one was inside.
?I did, unfortunately. I didn?t like the results, and I kinda hoped things were going to just clear themselves up.?
Sara stopped and stared at Koishi. ?How long ago was this?? she asked.
?Two days ago. It started originally as a few of the villagers taking offense to you knocking them all around during the hunt; that was the start of the dissent. I guess the ones with the hurt feelings were the loudest of the group; they?d convinced everyone that you didn?t have the villages? best interests in mind. Now, during the little storytelling session we just had there at the festival, you confirmed a bunch of their suspicions.
?I should mention to you now, so you?re ready or this later; both the humans and the youkai of Gensokyo aren?t exactly trusting around psychics and telepaths.? She tapped her Third Eye for emphasis. ?I?m speaking from experience.?
Sara sighed, feeling rather deflated and defeated. ?You couldn?t?ve told me this sooner? Maybe warned me about the people I?d pissed off? I could?ve apologized to them, convinced them that I wasn?t familiar with the effects of combining my spellcards, anything. Aren?t you at all familiar with the way human minds work? They always focus on the negative, and rarely remember the positive. Leaving the situation as it was? of course it?d lead to entropy! Negative decay. Humans are terrible easy to influence ? all it takes is one person, speaking loudly and sounding sure of themselves, and the crowd is won over.?
Koishi shook her head. ?Sorry, then. I was being optimistic for this crowd.?
Sara slaps the palm of her hand to her forehead. ?Ugh. Apology accepted, but? your optimism in this case was a little misplaced. Sorry for being harsh about it, but seriously ? now I feel like I?m going to be run out of the village.?
The satori looked almost pained. ?Actually, if you don?t leave on your own, you will be. That?s why I dragged you back here. To get your things, so we can go.?
?Shit!? Sara swore, loudly. Koishi sank back, watching as the other girl began to move about with a frenzied energy, gathering all of her belongings and gear. ?Well, fine then. You?re going to be my squire in this case, then. Help me put the armor on.?
The two of them working together managed to get Sara equipped in under two minutes. With a heavy sensation in her stomach, which she equated to a sense of finality, she slipped the helmet onto her head, completing the suit of armor.
?Obviously I look more like I?m going on the warpath than a road trip. We?re going to walk right out the front gates, and I?m not going to be using your Third Eye. I want them to know I left of my own accord. Make sure Keine understands what I did.?
Koishi nodded. ?Very well, then. I?ll be concealing myself, but I?ll stay right with you.?
With that, the satori vanished from sight. Sara still felt the lingering sensation of her presence; similar to the sensation any other person gets when they feel like someone is watching them.
?Bloody par for the course, the way my life?s been going?? She strapped the shield to her forearm, yanking the buckles tight with an energy born of fury and helplessness. It was futile to curse your birthrights ? you had no power over them, and you shouldn?t be held responsible for it.
?Fuck ?em all.? She drew the sword and strode out of the dormitories.
Such language, young lady.
-
The festival was still in full swing when she left the courthouse. Luckily, it was opposite the courthouse from the village gates.
Sara stopped and looked over her shoulder at the courthouse. Symbol of justice, isn?t it? Wonder what I did to deserve all this. She turned back around and continued on.
She?d made it halfway down the avenue towards the gates she?d walked into a week past before she was spotted.
?Hold it, Esifex. Where are you off to?? someone called out to her.
Sara sighed and looked up at the night sky for a moment before turning to face the voice.
Standing before her were four men, each one members of the night watch. From left to right she identified them; Edgar, William, Jonathan, and Keith. Each one had taken turns teaching her the rudimentary basics of combat, but always with a spear typical of the guardsmen. Even now, they held their lances, staring her down.
?You know what? Screw it. Screw going by my initials. My name is ?Sara?, okay? Not ?Esifex?.?
?More dishonesty?? Keith asked. She pinned him in place with a stare.
?Look ? I didn?t ask to get dropped in here. I didn?t ask to get yanked out of my world and thrown here, and I sure as hell didn?t want to give up my name. The last thing I want, by the way, is to be accused of shit I didn?t do.? Sara points her finger at the ground in front of her, accentuating her points with a downward stab before closing her hand into a fist.
William shook his head. ?Really? Funny, then, that you don?t mention that you didn?t want to hurt anyone.?
?What the hell would I get from doing that?!?
?One of us goes down, gets injured, whatever ? can?t protect the village ? and you step up to fill the void. Suddenly you?re everyone?s hero, suddenly you?re responsible for more, and then?? Edgar trails off.
Jonathan picks up for him. ?Suddenly you subvert the councilors with your telepathy.?
The leather wrap around the swords? handle creaks as Sara?s grip tightens mercilessly on it. ?Are you guys seriously that paranoid? Do you really think I came here intent on being some kind of egotistical bitch? I just wanted a place to sleep where I wouldn?t have to worry about being eaten overnight! I just wanted something to eat that I could trust was cooked properly!?
?Oh, really? is that so?? Keith sneers. ?What kind of woman are you to take up a blade to provide yourself a home? Isn?t there something more suitable that you could do? Can?t you even cook for yourself??
This can?t be good, Koishi thinks to herself. What was visible of Sara?s face through the helmet was becoming clouded with rage.
In a blur of motion, Sara leapt forward and smashed her shield into Keith, surprising him into dropping his lance. Before it can fully topple over, she hooked her leg around it and kicked backward, sending it spinning behind her. ?Are you fucking KIDDING ME?! First in the real world, and now here?! Am I seriously just a pair of tits to you guys? No! I refuse it! You even have a woman as your head guardian! Why don?t you go and tell her to get back in the kitchen, huh?! See where the hell that gets you!? she screams.
As Keith recoiled away from her physical and verbal assault, the other three men took a step back and began to lower their lances into position. Sara backpedaled until she stepped on the spear she?d disarmed from Keith.
It?s just a big stick with a pointy end on it. Don?t need any finesse to use it. Pick it up. Use it instead.
In a fluid motion, Sara sheathed her sword, slid her foot back, stooped down, and picked up the fallen spear. As she rose back up into a fighting position, the three spearmen started to fan out, intending to circle her.
I don?t think so, Sara thought. She continued backpedaling, keeping them fanned out in front of her.
?All four of us know you can?t fight with that spear as well as we can. Give it up, Esifex,? Edgar said, taking another step out to try to flank her once more.
?My name is Sara, dammit!?
Completely proving his point ? and surprising the hell out of them all ? Sara spun around away from Edgar and whirled the spear around in her hands. As she completed her turn, she loosened her grip on the shaft, letting it slide out till her gloved hands caught on the end of the staff and beginning of the spearhead.
Goddamn home-run. The spear vibrated fiercely in her hands as it connected with the side of Edgar?s head, dropping him like a bag of rocks.
?Two down, two to go, gentlemen. Anyone else wanna try pissing me off even more?? She looked at William and Jonathan, glaring at them. ?Let me take this moment to remind you of an old saying ? ?it?s not the masterful expertise of the legendary swordsman you should fear, but the panicked flailing of the untrained and cornered?.?
They don?t need to know it?s just beginner?s luck. Koishi, where the hell are you? Why aren?t you helping me?
Keith, clutching at his nose gingerly, stepped forward and leaned down to try to pick up Edgar?s dropped spear. Sara stabbed the point of her lance into the ground between them, and then swung it sideways, back and forth.
?Don?t try it, asshat. I wasn?t really asking you to try to piss me off any more than I already am. Just let me leave, dammit.?
?After you?ve attacked us? Nonsense, woman.?
?You stopped me on my way out. This is your fault ? you?re the aggressors here.?
?Something no one else need know.?
Oh, for the love of God? ?Haven?t you maybe wondered what would happen if Edgar and Keith woke up with bruises one night, and my spear-wound riddled corpse showed up? Do you honestly think no one will notice the blood on your spears and my death??
Jonathan chuckled. ?Not if they think you just left, and your body never showed up.?
?Then let me leave!?
William shook his head. ?Not gonna happen, now. You?ve wounded us, and our pride.?
Sara rolled her eyes. ?Get over it.?
Instead of replying, William and Jonathan stopped trying to flank her and instead stood side-by-side, spear tips lowered slightly.
?You guys aren?t even scum. That?d be ??
?? an insult to bacteria, yes, yes. We heard your little joke back in the festival.?
Jonathan sighed as he took another step forward with William. ?You know, I?d really rather not kill you, if I didn?t have to. I don?t want to earn a reputation for killing women.?
?Oh? How about a reputation for killing other humans? Isn?t this village a bastion for humanity, against youkai? What would people think if you turned on your own kind, I wonder.? Sara took another step back, keeping them away from her.
Behind them, Keith let his hand away from his face and looked at it. As he did, fresh blood oozed from his nose. Damn, I must?ve hit him higher than I thought. ?deserved it.
The two spearmen took another step towards her, and she took another step back.
This is going nowhere.
Another step towards her, but this time Sara feinted her step backwards for a moment before swinging the spear around to hold it horizontally up in front of her. She stared up at Keith, framed between the other two.
?Charge!?
Pushed forward by magic of the spellcard, Sara lunges forward through the twenty yards she?d put between her and Keith in a heartbeat. The spear shatters in her hands halfway there, impacting into William and Jonathan.
Keith?s eyes widened in surprise as Sara stopped in front of him. He fumbled as he tried to step back, but Sara dropped the splintered fragments of the lance and lashed out.
The punch connected squarely in his nose, and with a pop, Sara felt it give.
?Augh!? he shouts, falling over backwards.
Sara spun around, intent on making sure William and Jonathan didn?t resist the laws of physics and stay upright through their own impacts. Instead, they had bowled over, and Jonathan was curling up on his side, hugging his stomach, while William was simply on his back, out cold.
?I should kill each one of you! I should! But you know what?! You?re not worth it! You?re trash! Refuse! Worse than bile! And I know you?ll suffer from your own injured pride at having been beat by a woman who ?thought? she was a warrior! And on top of that, I won?t sink to your level. I?m not going to murder a human being!? Sara spat at them.
?Koishi!? she hollered.
Several yards away, safely away from the skirmish, Koishi reappears. ?Yeah?? she asked.
?There you are. Why didn?t you help me?? Sara asked, turning away from the writhing guardsmen and stomping towards the gate again.
?Looked like you didn?t need me. Also, I didn?t want to show myself.?
?You mean, didn?t want to throw your lot in with me, right??
Koishi remained silent. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed for Sara that Koishi had disappeared again.
?Hey, don?t do that. I need you with me.?
Koishi?s disembodied voice answers from directly behind Sara. ?I?m still following you. It is kind of my fault you?re being chased out, like you said. The very least I can do is see you safely somewhere.?
Sara exhales, calming down slightly. ?That?s good to know. I?ll need the help.?
With the gate in sight, Sara stops. There are still the two guardsmen on the other side of the gate to worry about. Are they going to attack me, too?
?Hey, Koishi. How do you make a spellcard??
?Either write one up and imbue it with the magic necessary, or you can replace an old one with some more magic.?
?Spellcards should reflect their user, right??
??where are you going with this? Well, to answer the question, yes, they should. Remember, though, if you want to make one here, you?ll need to sacrifice one of your other cards, and I?ll have to provide the magic.?
?That?s fine.? Sara plucked her spellcards out of her pouch and began flipping through them. There were more than she?d thought, and all of them reflected Warrior skills from World of Warcraft.
Let?s see, let?s see? Last Stand could come in handy. Shockwave has already proven its usefulness, as has Shield Wall? Vigilance. Don?t need Vigilance. Everyone here is more capable of handling themselves than me, they don?t need me between them and their target. Returning the rest of the cards to her pouch, she turned the Vigilance card over.
I could?ve sworn Gensokyo was based more on danmaku ? oh, wait? there is a physical component to the fights here, I forgot? ?Got the card I?m getting rid of. What else do we do??
?What do you want it to do?? Koishi?s voice was closer this time, as though she were right next to Sara.
?Attack my targets? mind. I want to either give them a massive migraine or to throw them into a complete mental chaos.?
?That?s kind of dirty, don?t you think??
Sara scoffed. ?I?m fighting to win, not to fight. Whatever gets people out from between me and wherever I end up going will do me just fine.?
The card in Sara?s hand twitched; Koishi had taken a hold of it. ?What?ll you call it??
?Make it simple. Psy-bomb.?
?Psy-bomb it is. Turn it over.?
The Vigilance card was gone; the image of the shield on it replaced with a Third Eye Chakra glaring over two closed eyes. ?Psy-bomb? was scratched under it.
?Well, then, let?s test it out.? She began towards the gate once more.
Unfortunately for her battle-lust, the gate wasn?t guarded. Apparently, one of the four goons who?d harassed her earlier was originally posted there. Not one to complain, though, Sara didn?t linger, and instead disappeared from the village.
No peace. Neither here nor there. What do I have to do to earn some rest, to keep from being screwed with?
There?s hope for this place yet, though. Not everyone is a dick ? Koishi is still helping me out and seems to be genuinely concerned for my well-being. Otherwise I don?t think I would?ve been able to get this fire started up properly.
In under two weeks I go from enjoying and craving pizza and burgers to ravenously chomping down on wild? something that Koishi managed to catch. I still cooked it, though ? I?m not that much of a wilderness girl yet.
But I?m getting there, fast, and it scares me.
?Besides the obvious, what?s wrong?? Koishi asks me as I finish eating and sigh.
I hold up the spit I?d just been gnawing on, indicating the bits of animal meat still clinging to it. ?Not sayin? I?m not grateful you caught this, ?cause damn was I hungry, but? never before in my life would I have ever predicted actually eating and enjoying something like this, and definitely not within two weeks of having left my old world.?
Koishi didn?t have anything to say in return. Instead, she just followed my gaze and looked up at the sky, too.
?And on top of that?? I continue, ?I?m sitting here under the midnight sky, staring up at the stars, and I can?t even tell if it?s the same night sky I?m used to or not. I would?ve been royally screwed to have been dropped in here if I hadn?t bumped into you. Not like I can even use stellar navigation.?
She chuckles. ?You consider that a stroke of luck? I still feel like it?s my fault you got chased out of the village. If I?d just let you fight the wolf like a human, instead of trying to get you to use the spellcards, the other villagers wouldn?t have any reason to fear you ? they wouldn?t?ve known you were slightly psychic, because I wouldn?t?ve told you.?
?What?s the point in assigning blame? It happened, and it is what it is. Yeah, sure, you probably could?ve done things a little differently, armed with the knowledge you had, but what?s the point in bitching about it? Short of scanning you and blurting out everything going through your head, making you consider all your actions before you do them, there?s really no way you can be expected to have known what you could?ve, should?ve, or might?ve done. So, yeah, maybe it is your fault that I got kicked out? but maybe it isn?t. Maybe it would?ve happened nonetheless, even without me being ?guilty by association? with you.?
?Guilty by association? First time I?ve ever heard of discrimination being given a justification. I?d assumed it was just because the humans were bigoted towards people different than them.?
I roll my head back and recline, looking across the sky still, admiring how clearly the stars were shining without any glowing lights blotting them out.
?People will be people, after all ??
?Found them.? Click.
Wait, ?click?? And was there just a flash all of a sudden? And who ?found us??
I pop my head back up. In the glow of the fire, I see Koishi start to rise to her feet, glaring over at a newcomer to our campsite. I snatched my helmet and started to sit up, sizing up this uninvited guest to our little slumber-party. Dark, shoulder-length hair, a small hat resting atop it, and a light tunic with black sleeves. The most discerning feature, though, were the wings sprouting from her back.
I rise to my feet and clamp the helmet on in one smooth motion, reaching for the sword at my waist.
Wait a sec ? just ?cause she found us doesn?t mean she?s out to get us. Let?s not get all hostile right off the bat; she may be able to ?
?Genetics! Depths of the Subconscious!? Koishi strikes a strange pose, and then the night lights up around her as countless orbs of energy begin to stream away from her.
All that effort getting up, and I toss it right out the window as I dive for the ground now.
The winged girl has suddenly taken to the sky ? understandable, given the wings on her back ? but Koishi isn?t aiming. She?s just spraying everywhere around her, not discriminating against any particular direction.
This is unreal, I think to myself. May as well follow her lead, at least. I finally draw the blade from its sheath and keep it ready.
The Charge spellcard would be pretty handy right about now, too ? I can use it to close the distance with the winged girl if she touches down again.
I was too busy focusing on Koishi?s fight that I barely even noticed a fourth person arrive; it wasn?t until she?d skillfully gotten in close (how, I don?t even know, because of those bullets spraying everywhere) to Koishi that I finally spotted her.
?Ko-? is all I managed to choke out before this other winged girl slides under another wave of bullets and touches something to Koishi?s back.
One of Yukari?s gaps opens up and swallows them both.
?Koishi!? I jump to my feet now, looking around frantically for any sign that they didn?t go far.
No luck. I stop scanning around and focus on the airborne winged girl.
She made it easy for me; she landed right in front of me, lazily holding a camera in her hands.
?What?ve you done with Koishi? Where?d you take her?? I demand, holding the sword up at the ready.
?I didn?t take her anywhere ? Hatate did. But if you?re so concerned, we can go and meet up with them.?
?Not a chance. Charge!?
In a heartbeat, I close the distance. Never mind having run through the campfire, scattering embers and sparks everywhere ? I wasn?t in it long enough to even register the heat.
I covered the ground, fast. Apparently, though, she was faster; as soon as I came to a halt and heaved the sword through the air, she?d already stepped back beyond my reach.
She had a card of her own ready; this, she brandished for a moment before dashing back in towards me while I was off-guard with the sword over-extended, and slapped it to my chest.
Apparently I disappointed her, because she shook her head for a moment before we were enveloped in swirling purple mists.
What a twist!
-
To my credit, I didn?t pass out this time as I went through the purple whateverthefucks.
I was contemplating swinging back at the bird-girl ? I?m pretty sure I know her name, but not positive ? but before I could act on it she?d already stepped clear away from me. Damn, she?s quick on her feet.
Koishi and the other winged girl were here, too ? and here happened to be Yukari?s estate? Mayohiga, if I?m not mistaken. I think that?s what I called it when I first showed up.
Koishi didn?t look too pleased with what had happened. She was brandishing her finger at the bird-girl who?d tagged her with the spellcard, shaking it fiercely as she talked her down.
??a third-party interruption! You know you?re going to owe me a one-on-one duel, right? And a proper duel ? none of your silly spirit camera tricks. I would?ve hit Aya anyways if you hadn?t have messed up the card. You cost me a victory and you?re going to pay, of course!?
Aya. That was the birdgirl who?d tagged me. I thought so, but couldn?t remember. Wasn?t terribly fond of crows to begin with, and her personality never really clicked with me.
The other crow girl ? the one Koishi was yelling at ? didn?t seem to bothered by it. She was idly fiddling with her cellphone (another cellphone! What the hell?), clicking through it, focused. After a moment of further verbal abuse from Koishi, she sighed and rolled her eyes.
?Like, seriously? Are you crazy or something? I don?t really care, you know, about danmaku duels, and stuff. I just take pictures, ?cuz, you know, gotta make a living.? She rolled her shoulders, and then spun around. Her pigtails whipped out and slapped at Koishi, twining around her pointed finger, dragging it down.
?Hey!? Koishi fumed, withdrawing her hand and pumping her fists in the air for a moment.
?Whaddaya want, now?? the purple-skirted crow-bitch (seriously, she?s a bitch. I never, like, got along with bitches, who, like, you know, talked in halting sentences, like, and made everything like, a question, you know? Seriously.) sneered back at Koishi.
Beside me, Aya was watching their exchange as well. ?Wanna bet on who snaps first?? she muttered to me.
Weird. Aya just kidnaps me in the dark of the night, and now we?re suddenly buddy-buddy?
?I would but I have nothing to bet. Besides, Koishi?s already snapped, can?t you see?? I whisper back.
Sure enough, Koishi?s Third Eye was twitching. It slipped open, just barely, and I expected Koishi to vanish again.
Instead, she just stood there, glaring at the indifferent crow-bitch. Her Third Eye slips shut again, and Koishi smirks.
I nudge Aya, who?d creeped in closer to watch the exchange. ?What?s that ones? name?? I point at crow-bitch.
?She?s a nobody. If you need to waste your time talking to her, she goes by ?Hatate?. She?s not the important one here, though? you want her.? Aya nods past me, and I look over.
Holy shit. How long has Yukari been standing there? Seems like she doesn?t mind being ignored, though ? she was watching Koishi and Hatate go at it, too. Now, however, she was wearing a matching smirk, similar to Koishi?s.
?Oh. Yukari. Of course, that was her thingiemijiggy that you used on us.? At least I?m sure only Yukari can use those. All I have to go off of is the games and the established canon for Gensokyo ? and that was always shifting and murky to begin with.
?Right. Whatever. She?s the one who wanted you here, not us.?
I turn away from Aya and face Yukari.
?Did you know I was turning into a psychic?? I ask her. Hatate stops ignoring everything (and by everything I mean Koishi) and turns to focus on my conversation.
She doesn?t stop smirking, but she doesn?t aim it at me, either. ?Yes, I did. That?s actually why I brought you to Gensokyo.?
?What, so I could be ostracized by all sentient society??
Oh, look. I have some leftover ?stupid? left to use. Get into a pissing match with the demi-god responsible for all laws of physics. Maybe if I?m lucky, she?ll screw with the natural laws governing how well a human body stays together, and I?ll turn into a puddle.
?Not at all. Being in Gensokyo is making your little talent there power up, to evolve much faster than it ever would?ve in your natural lifespan. It?s the raw magic power flowing through the air that?s responsible for that.?
Yukari finally turns to face me, and her smirk turns into a warm smile. I just love mixed signals ? kidnap me then act like I?m your long-lost sister.
?Take your helmet off, it looks silly on you when you?re just standing there. No, I knew you were turning into a psychic, and I knew Koishi was wandering through the area I dropped you off in. She would be ? and is, actually ? the best person to help guide you through the awakening of your telepathy. Her sister would be another good bet, but she?s far too busy to set time aside for a random human with an active mind.?
Koishi turns halfway, so she can keep an eye on Hatate and Yukari at the same time. ?So nice of you to ask me first.?
Yukari shrugged. ?Would you really have said no if I?d asked??
Psychology can be handy. Seems like Yukari really does know everything ? Koishi pondered her words for a moment, then shrugged. ?Nah, guess not.?
?Still doesn?t explain why you didn?t tell me what was going on with me. That?s dangerous, you know. Could get me kicked out of a village or something.?
Yukari?s grin vanishes in a heartbeat, and her entire demeanor changes. She starts emitting ?don?t try to fuck around or I?ll make you wish you were never born, then grant that wish? vibes. ?That was mostly a lack of tact on your part, young lady. Sure, I could?ve told you ? but then you would?ve started acting differently. That would be a wildcard ? leaving you ignorant of the situation means I could safely predict how you?d behave without having known you were becoming more and more psychic. I didn?t count on Koishi being able to detect your telepathy so early, or using it to amplify her own power, and I certainly didn?t expect her to tell you about it.?
Oh, great. Guilt trip the poor girl. I can see her averting her eyes now.
Or am I sensing her shame? Damned telepathy is confusing to get used to. Wonderful.
?Of course, you used it as a bragging right around people who take sanctuary in the norm; people who have been brought up to think that the unnatural is the mark of a youkai, and that youkai are typically self-serving, cunning boogeymen. This is mostly true, of course, but that doesn?t mean there aren?t exceptions. The problem for you, though, is that the humans don?t see it that way. They see it as black and white, one or the other. Ironically enough they have nearly daily contact with a human who is many times far more powerful than most youkai, but in their defense, she grew up with most of the humans there.?
I draw on my massive supplies of excess stupid. ?And they have a youkai guarding them, and they seem to be mostly used to you and your antics, and what the hell, double standard, definitely.?
Hatate starts clicking into her cellphone with all the subtlety of a gut-shot bull in a china shop, apparently texting something to someone. Yukari takes notice, and shifts her attention.
?This truly is a matter of humans, you know. You tengu need not get involved, and I doubt this story would sell much. Thank you for your help; your payment will be waiting for you back on the mountain. You may take your leave now.? Or else.
Aya simply nods and puts away her notepad ? which she?d managed to procure with far more stealth than Hatate had, apparently; from what I could see of it, she?d scribbled a fair amount down. With one last glance towards me, she nods at the rest of us, then launches off the ground, taking to the night sky.
An obnoxious clap signals Hatate?s cellphone closing, and she waves lazily at us. ?You can forget your duel, you know. I really can?t be bothered about it, for reals.? She winks at Koishi.
Koishi seemed to have learned the Creepy Grin from Keine. The only thing she was missing was fangs, and even with that handicap, the ?smile? she gave Hatate was just as unsettling as Keine?s. ?Understandable, you wouldn?t want to risk such a humiliating defeat. After all, who knows when you?ll be able to dodge my danmaku again??
Hatate cocks an eyebrow at her and turns away, wings unfolding.
Koishi turns away and faces Yukari and myself, with what can only be described as the most satisfied, smug, and mischievous grin on her face.
She calls over her shoulder to Hatate as the crow-bitch prepares the leap off the ground, ?I think we can call it even.?
WHAM! Hatate managed to rise up about four feet before toppling over and slamming into the ground, face-first. Her wings are held stiff out to each side of her.
Somewhere in the dark sky, I can hear Aya burst out into laughter. ?Priceless!? Another flash of her camera, and her laughing voice recedes into the distance.
Hatate digs herself out of her embarrassing landing and rolls over onto her side, spitting out dust. ?What the hell?! You! You made me do that, didn?t you?!? she shrieked at Koishi?s back.
Koishi?s only response was to close her eyes and laugh silently, doing her best not to shake with mirth.
Yukari chuckles. Good, she?s back into a lighthearted mood.
Hatate rises off the ground, patting her skirt off. ?What did you do to me?!?
Finally Koishi turns around and faces her. ?I clipped your wings, bitch. Have fun learning how to fly, again.?
The look on Hatate?s face really was priceless. It went in waves; first was her initial shock at being called a ?bitch? to her face, then straight horror at the realization that she didn?t know how to fly anymore. Must suck when you?re half bird.
?YOU!? She?s not very original with her curses.
Before she can take more than two steps towards Koishi, one of Yukari?s wormholes opens up and swallows her.
?That was hilarious. I applaud you, Koishi. Now, come inside, both of you. The night is young, and it?s also a youkai?s friend. I?ll have dinner prepared for you both, and I suppose your phone is in need of charging now??
I start as I realize she?s talking to me again. ?Ah! No, actually. Haven?t been playing it. Been too busy around the villagers, and I didn?t want to answer a million questions about it. It?s used up a little power, but still has some juice in it.?
?Interesting. It?s been nearly a full week since you left here. Hardy little phone.? Yukari turns and strides across her yard to the door to her estate. I imagine it?s a regal stride, but damn if I can tell under her massive, fluffy dress.
?I take care of it. What?s for dinner??
The night seems to be ending on good terms for now. That?s good.
Can you tell what my opinion of the crow tengu is?
-
This post will be turned into the next part of the story
OR WILL IT
(the answer is no, actually, the next part of the story gets its own post)
Before I even realized it I had written in another training montage (see Everlasting Wanderers for another example of drawn-out boringness that is potentially chock-full of Chekhov's Guns) and I imagine that part would be a bit to muscle through. Instead, I'm just gonna let the story hold off right here while I write more in the sanctity of my non-net-worthy laptop at my own pace (I already have more written, so if I get RAVE REVIEWS I can post more in a hurry if I needed to) so that no one feels too horribly overwhelmed.
Stay tuned, I promise it'll get a bit more interesting! Although I DID have a lot of fun writing Bitch-Hatate... dunno if I can top that.
-
Oh hell yes. I can't believe you decided to add more to this. I'm definitely gonna follow it.
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Poor Hatate. Forever tainted by Aya's slanderous reporting into being a valley girl. Still, an interesting add on to a well deserved winning piece. I'm really curious to see where the story stumbles from here.
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I'm really curious to see where the story stumbles from here.
I giggled. I have no clue if that could be slanderous towards my erratic writing habits (I haven't forgotten all the research you've done for me - this story is just more completed than the other one) or just poking fun at Esifex being totally out of her element.
-
OH SHIT THERES MORE
Now playing ? ?Sleeper of a Thousand Years (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xKV0p2wLeo&playnext_from=TL&videos=lBem_ULjtV8)?. I thought it?d be appropriate, since we were eating at Yukari?s table. It made a good backdrop for the conversation, and showed off how incredibly awesome my cellphones? speaker is.
From what I remembered of Gensokyo, I had assumed everything would be Japanese-themed, including dinner. Not so, in Yukari?s place. Tonight on the menu was ? of all things ? spaghetti.
?So he?s a mechanic, right ? knows his way in and out of an engine. Of course, he thinks like one, too. So when his truck stopped working, he assumed it was a mechanical issue.?
I hadn?t had the opportunity to pick up any interesting stories since being dropped in Gensokyo, so I was telling one from work. Koishi was hanging on every word, too distracted to eat properly (or cleanly; girl needs a bib ? or to wipe her mouth) while Yukari was just watching, chin propped up on her knuckles with a charmed smile on her face.
?He?s tinkering and tinkering with it, doing everything he can to figure out why it just won?t start. Checked the throttle-body, air filter, spark plug cables, distributor caps, fuel-pump relay fuse, and the fuel-pump itself? nothing seems out of place. Well, the relay was a little rusted, he said. So he assumes that?s the issue. He gets a new fuse, swaps it out, and tries to start it up. Nothing happens! He opens the throttle-body assembly, and says ?I?m gonna try to see if I can?t get it to flare-start.? I have no clue what a ?flare-start? is ? apparently it?s some redneck method of starting your engine. What it involves is dumping straight gasoline into the throttle body and trying to turn the engine over ? which is a bad idea, because that makes the fumes that are now building up in the throttle body ignite.?
Now that I think back on it, I?m surprised I didn?t lose my eyebrows, too.
?Sure enough, fwoom! Big fireball right to his face. Minus one complete set of eyebrows, he concludes that flare-starting it would be a bad idea because leaving the throttle-body assembly open would smother the engine, even if the flare-start worked.?
I must?ve learnt more than I thought I did, working in that damn shop. Mostly my brothers? fault.
Damn, I miss him. I try to keep my momentum going for the story, rather than let my homesickness trip me up.
?So after all this, he gives up that night and agrees to let my brother tow his truck back to the shop. There, it sits for two days, while one of the other mechanics is off. When Jon gets back, he asks Johnny to let him tinker with it. He looks it over, sees all that Johnny?s tried, and climbs into the back of the truck.?
Insert dramatic pause. Actually, I just wanted some more spaghetti. Hang on.
?There, he grabs the gas can that Johnny used to dump the gasoline into the throttle-body and pours it instead into the trucks gas tank. He turns the key, and tah-dah! The truck starts right up. He drives it around to the front of the shop, right past an astonished Johnny, stops at a gas-pump, and pumps five dollars worth of gas into it for him. Comes back into the shop and thumps Johnny on the head, and says ?Alright, numbnuts. Parts and labor brings you to forty bucks, or lunch. Your call.? So for two days, Johnny had enough gas in the truck itself to start it up and get it home, but never thought that it was actually out of gas. Friggin? moron, that boy is.?
Koishi giggles and wipes her mouth (finally, slobberpuss). ?That reminds me of this one time way long ago when Utsuho was trying to cook for us, back in Chireiden.?
I wonder what Chris is up to. Hell, as much of an idiot he is, I wonder what Johnny?s up to.
?Now, this was several years back, before Utsuho consumed the Yatagaseru, so she didn?t have any notable powers??
?Mike can go screw himself.
??all of her prep work is going fine and dandy, but then she needs the flint and tinder to start the pilot lights??
I never really got myself much of a social life back home, but I did have friends. Of course, ever since landing that job at the damned oil shop and becoming an assistant manager, I had absolutely no free time to interact with anyone outside of work.
?? so she has the tinder in her hand and is looking all over for the flint, but to no avail??
Maybe Mom and Dad were doing alright. Hadn?t spoken to them in a while, either. Not even counting the time I?ve been here? Jesus, how long has it been? It?s been nearly a month since I?ve even spoken to them, and nearly three since I?d actually seen them.
?? Satori is even helping her look for it, believe it or not. And rather than just get a new set out, they insist on finding the flint for this tinder, so they wear out evenly??
?I miss Mom and Dad. I miss home. That dinky little apartment, where all I did was sleep and occasionally eat.
?? Rin gets in on the searching, too, but she?s terrible at finding anything that wasn?t once alive.?
I miss Chris. I miss home.
God, I miss home. I wanna go home. I really, really wanna go home.
??Finally, Satori finds it ? Utsuho had put it on the countertop right next to her cutting board, and laid the tinder across it, covering it up. It was never more than three inches away from the tinder the whole time!?
I didn?t do anything worth looking forward to ? just work, constantly, and try to save up some money.
But it was familiar. It was normal. It didn?t involve telepathy or imaginary armor or reality-warping demi-goddesses or ditzy psychics or paranoid neighbors or rampant misogyny.
All of Gensokyo was exciting and fantastic, but? it was too different, too alien for me to grasp. Every aspect of my previous life has been thrown out the window, then shot on its way to the ground.
Koishi was in mid-sentence of her story when Sara dropped her head onto the table with a sudden thud.
?Esifex? Are you okay?? she asked. Yukari?s head popped up off her knuckles as she blinked in surprise.
?My name is Sara, dammit,? Sara mumbled into the tabletop. Her attempt to sigh was warped by an escaping sob, and she whimpered instead.
?Sara, sorry. Are you alright? Do you want to go lie down?? Koishi rose up from her seat and wiped her mouth in one smooth motion, starting to reach out to lay a comforting hand on Sara?s back.
Before she made contact, Sara raised her arm and swatted Koishi?s hand away. ?I can feel you coming. This is driving me insane.?
Yukari sighed. ?Understandable. And while this may not be the best time to bring it up, you have to stop referring to yourself as Sara.?
Sara threw her crumbled-up napkin in Yukari?s direction, where it bounced harmlessly off her untouched bottle of sake. The Sage of the Youkai watched the balled-up napkin roll to a halt before resting her head on her hand again. ?I?m sure you want an explanation.?
?What do you think.?
Yukari motions for Koishi to sit down again before continuing. ?Gensokyo is populated by beings who rely on the belief of their existence, as well as a belief in their purpose for existing. It sounds circular, but there is a distinction. No one here shares the same name as anyone else; we can manage that by being only a handful of square miles of land, expanding skyward and deeper into the earth as it may be.
?The reason for this is? well, I?m sure you?ve heard of tales where knowing something?s true name grants a power over it? It?s similar, here, except it?s the name of something that grants it it?s own power. We already have a Sara residing in Gensokyo; as childish as this may seem to be saying, she was here first. She gets to keep her name. If you were to claim notoriety as Sara, you?d be sapping her very existence from her. You?d begin to take on her personality traits and abilities, as well ? eventually, even her appearance. Not only would the original Sara cease to exist, but also your current existence would end as you took her place. Ergo, you are not Sara. You are Esifex.?
Sara raised her head and stared at Yukari, blinking stupidly.
?How do you know this?? Koishi asked, interjecting. It was as much a surprise to her as it was to Sara.
?An old friend of mine from the human village, long ago, once suffered that very fate. She? un-existed. I looked into the causes and found out that was how the suspension of disbelief system was operating ? through the power of their names.?
?What? Who was it??
?A young girl by the name of Satsuki Rin.?
Koishi paled. ?Wait, if what you said is true? then why hasn?t Orin changed into someone else??
Yukari cocked an eyebrow at her. ?Who?? she asked, pointedly.
?O? rin? oh.?
?Rin. Yes. She no longer goes by Rin, does she? Instead, she?s taken up the moniker of ?Orin?.?
?That must?ve been sheer luck, though. She doesn?t know how closely she dodged a bullet, then,? Koishi settled in her seat, color returning to her face.
?She knows. I told her about it. That?s why she changed her name.?
?So, what happened to Satsuki Rin?? Koishi looked like she was afraid of the answer, as though she already knew what it would be.
?Still no sign of her. At this point, I reckon it?d be safe to let Orin start calling herself Rin, again ? no one is alive that knew Satsuki to generate the belief in her existence anymore.?
Sara shook her head, slowly. ?That?s ridiculous. That?s fucking ridiculous.?
Yukari didn?t look at her; instead she examined her fingernails almost casually. ?Gensokyo thrives on the ridiculous. You?ll have to get used to this, Esifex.?
Sara stood up and stepped away from the table. ?I?m sorry. I can?t do it. I can?t give up my name, along with everything else I?ve given up. I can?t fucking doing it. I just? no. ?Esifex? isn?t even a girls name, anyways.?
In the blink of an eye, she left the dining room. After a few moments hesitation, the front door could be heard opening, then closing.
Yukari sighed and stared at her untouched plate. ?I?m responsible for her presence, but you?ve befriended her. She won?t listen to me, but maybe she?ll listen to you. You don?t have to force her to give up her name, but at least tell her to stay the night. I ask this of you as a favor, Koishi.?
Koishi seemed to gaze into Yukari?s soul; so intense was the stare she pinned Yukari with as she rose from the table.
?A favor? No. This isn?t a favor, telling a lost and confused girl to take shelter from the night. It?s the right damn thing to do. We?ll discuss favors later, if necessary. For now, let?s just worry about her immediate safety. Please prepare a room for her ? I?ll make sure she comes back, even if I have to use my Third Eye.?
?She?ll detect that, you know. You risk destroying the friendship you?ve built so far with her. I don?t recommend it, but I urge you to try everything you can.?
Koishi followed in Sara?s wake, leaving Yukari alone at the table.
The affairs of humans can be so messy at times. She sighs.
Sara had stopped at the gate, and instead of passing through it, she had simply gripped the top of the fence and stood there, not focusing on anything. In the dim light, Koishi could barely make out how hunched her shoulders were. She assumed Sara was holding on with a white-knuckle grip.
?Sara? Are you okay?? she asked as she came up alongside Sara. Sure enough, the other girl was latched onto the fence with a deathgrip.
?It?s Esifex. Haven?t you heard?? Sarcasm practically dripped from her words.
?For now, it?s Sara. Come on, it?s not a good idea to be outside at night as a human. It?s unlikely, but there?s still a chance you could be attacked. Even here.?
?What, a giant owl youkai is gonna swoop down and scoop me up? I thought the birds here were more interested in writing newspapers.?
Koishi chuckled. ?No, that?s the crow tengu, and they?re more like gossipmongers than reporters. Come on.?
Sara stood up and sighed. ?You?re so eager to get me to go back in there. What?s it matter? I?m dead to my own world; I?m dead to the human village here. What?ll it matter if I?m actually dead? Why can?t I just take my chances back in my world? Why the hell? rather, who the hell gave Yukari the right to be such an omniscient moral guardian??
?She did.? Koishi snorts at the absurdity, and pats Sara?s shoulder. ?Though you?re right, I am kind of eager to get you back inside. You?re in no immediate danger out here, but you?re also not safe.?
Story of my goddamn life.
Koishi blinked in confusion. She?s broadcasting now!
?I am? ?shit.? Sara slapped the palm of her hand to her forehead. ?Now I get to learn how to turn that off.?
By reflex, Koishi blurted out, ?You could just close your ??
?I don?t HAVE a Third Eye, Koishi. A for effort and enthusiasm, B for execution.?
?Well, don?t interrupt me, dummy. I was going to say ?close your mind?, which still wouldn?t have helped you much because you haven?t been born with the instincts needed to do just that, but I can help you out. Come inside.?
Fine, fine, I?m coming.
?Seems like you can broadcast well enough, though it doesn?t look like you?re coming.?
Nur-hur you?re so funny shut up with your Freudian slip?n?slide.
Koishi giggled as she held the door open.
-
Gonna need a montaaaaage
Once again I find myself in Yukari?s house.
Two days have passed, and I?ve got to say ? it?s maddening.
I can?t hear Yukari or Koishi?s thoughts unless I focus hard on them, and then I can?t really focus on anything else ? much less remembering what they?re thinking about. Koishi makes it easier on me by deliberately broadcasting to me when she wants to talk to me. Ran and Chen, though, are a cacophony of thoughts that I just can?t shut out.
Ran hurts my head the most. She?s always doing at least twenty things in her mind at once; crazy math algorithms that go way over my head, contemplating maintenance for the estate, plotting reactions out up to several months down the road based on cause-and-effect from the here-and-now. It?s like having a professional chess master talk you through each and every possible move him and his opponent could make, then going on to list how his kids would be raised off the tournament winnings and what they?d eat for lunch if it rained on a Thursday three years from the time of the chess game. And predicting the traffic patterns for all major highways in the meantime.
Chen is a little more easygoing on my mind ? most of the time, she?s just like a normal cat. If she?s not chasing something around, that is; luckily for me, that?s not very often. Her thoughts don?t come through as distinct words, most of the time, which makes it a lot easier. If she?s lying about, waiting for a task from Ran, it?s almost like she?s napping. If she?s stalking something ? and she stalks things? a lot ? her mind starts to have an effect on me. It?s like listening to someone watch TV in another room; you can hear the dialogue, but you don?t know what they?re saying, and after a while, it drives you nuts.
Koishi seems to enjoy the torment I go through when Ran is around. She deliberately stops talking me through the mental discipline routines she?s trying to train me in whenever Ran is around, and her Third Eye just barely opens. I get the distinct feeling she?s listening in on me. Jerkface.
I?ve taken to communicating with her and Yukari solely with my telepathy. Errant thoughts are still leaking through my mind like a sieve, but when Koishi is serious about it, I learn a great deal of self-control.
Speaking of lessons? Christ. In two days alone we?ve done at least eight cumulative hours of training. I?m learning some incredible control with it, but the problem is, it?s not reliable. I can be scrying something in another room, but suddenly my focus spins out of whack and I end up mentally staring at everything from inside-out and all around and aaaaaaaaaaugh it hurts my head.
?Yukari says you?ve got more raw telepathic ability than any ?psychic extraordinaire? back in your world. It?s starting to show ? you?re clearly going to be a psyker on par with a Satori child.?
For now, you mean. No telling when this is going to stop developing. I hope it doesn?t.
?True, but a Satori child would already know how to shield all their thoughts and keep from reading everyone?s minds. Like I said before, though, they?re born with the abilities and instincts required therein. You should be very careful of yourself.?
I know. Is it dinner time yet?
?You?re a glutton. Always eating!?
It?s because I wear such heavy armor.
?Not anymore. Yukari got rid of it.?
What?! I liked that armor! It looked cool.
?It looked hostile, is how it looked. You don?t need to send a violent first-impression. The youkai here do that enough on their own; all you?d be doing by wearing it is inviting challenges.?
Meany-head. Jerkface. I want something besides Chen?s clothes to wear.
Koishi reaches over and stabs her finger into my chest. ?Maybe if you filled out some more, you could wear Ran?s kimono.?
I slap at her wrist and hook mine around hers, twisting it up and away from either of us. Through the opening, I stab my own hand into her chest.
I?d say you?ve got no room to talk, but it looks like you?ve got pleeeenty of room in that blouse!
?You two are the strangest telepaths I?ve ever seen.?
I look over at the doorway. Yukari is standing there, staring at us.
I?m holding Koishi?s hand and fondling her breast.
Aaaaaaaawkwaaaaard.
Clearly I was showing her a kung-fu technique.
?Gone horribly awry. Anyways, yes, dinnertime is rapidly approaching.?
Hmm. Guess I still need some fine-tuning, I didn?t mean for everyone to hear that.
?Or the bit after it, I?m sure. Chen thought it was pretty funny.?
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-
Koishi bursts out into laughter, and pulls herself away from my probing hand. ?What?s on the menu tonight??
Why don?t you talk to her with your telepathy like we?ve been doing for the past God-knows-how-long?
?Because you?re the only one here who can hear me. Believe it or not, Yukari cannot hear my thoughts when I?m broadcasting to you. She?s not receptive to it.?
Ooooh. Neato. Wait, I dunno why that?s neato. Whatever.
?Are you done replying to her?? Yukari asks, driving Koishi?s point home.
?A-yup. What?re we eating??
Yukari sighs and plants her hands on her hips. For being so short, she still has a commanding presence.
?Your final supper, if you don?t get things straightened up soon. This isn?t a hotel, you know.?
I do greatly appreciate your hostilit- hospitality! And your food. What?s for dinner? I wave my hand obnoxiously into the air, attention-whoring the best I can.
Yukari scoffs and walks off, not even bothering to hide the grin on her face.
Or maybe it?s an exasperated ?what the hell have I gotten myself into? expression. Either way, go me.
Dinner was German themed this time. I helped out when Yukari told me.
Kielbasa is my bitch. And no one ever tries mixing a little spicy mustard with two or three drops of vinegar, either, so I?m an outstanding kitchen alchemist.
Treating the potatoes with the lightest of butter-cinnamon glaze gives them a crunchy skin, especially when you bake them before frying them with the kielbasa. Saut? the onions in a little bit of brown sugar mixed into melted butter, let them sweat a bit, then toss them with some Worcestershire Sauce.
I?m a genius.
?This is terrible, you should never be allowed near a stove, again.?
Blasphemy! Koishi, you?re first against the wall when the revolution comes.
?It needs? refinement.?
Yukari just doesn?t know good food when she sees it.
You?ve gotta be kidding me, everyone in my family loves that recipe.
?Well, I actually like it. Looks like Chen does, too.? Ran gestures at her familiar, who is currently doing everything in her power to look damn adorable. I thought she was a ?cat? familiar, not a ?kitten? familiar. Cats are supposed to be flippant and uncaring, not fiercely studying their food with the cutest look on their faces.
I wanna hug her.
I mustn?t! That?s Ran?s job.
Well, fine, if you guys don?t like it, more for me. And Chen.
Yukari spears a piece of the kielbasa with her fork. Thought she didn?t like it. Oh, well, gotta eat, right?
?I wasn?t kidding when I said this isn?t a hotel. As it is, though, without having another non-telepath around to test yourself on, you won?t get anywhere with your control. I?m afraid I have to urge you to speed your lessons along.?
Is this table the concentrated embodiment of bitchiness? It seems like Yukari?s pretty cool, but then you sit down for lunch or dinner with her, and she turns into Iceheart.
We?re making pretty good progress, I?m feeling sure of it. For example, I?m not shouting everything I?m thinking to everyone anymore, and I can keep most of my thoughts to myself.
?Progress, indeed. If only your cooking skills were as advanced. Or maybe it?s the concentrated bitchiness under the food that?s turning it??
If you?ve never experienced all the blood draining from your face, you should try it. I recommend extreme embarrassment. Allow me to demonstrate.
Okay, not as far along as I?d hoped. But I said you?re pretty cool until you?re sitting at the table!
?That?s because one conducts business at the table, do they not?? She pops another piece of the kielbasa into her mouth ? thus reducing the possible leftover kielbasa for me later. Not cool, man.
The only business I prefer to conduct at a table is the business of expanding your belly. You?re supposed to eat at a table, right? Let?s eat!
?Maybe if you made something edible. Geez.?
You know, Koishi, I didn?t see you make anything, so hush up. It?s clearly an acquired taste. Start acquiring it.
Business as usual, I guess. Dinnertime and business. ?Dinnertime as usual.
Let this be a subtle hint to Sakana anyone writing Kaleidoscope Esifex into a story, not to let her get creative in the kitchen. She's talented at the art of cooking but the flavors she combines don't normally go together to the average Joe. Not saying she makes concentrated death on a dish, but it... takes some getting used to.
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Gonna need more montaaaaage
Managed to get another two days so far out of Yukari, this time by helping Ran keep the place organized while Yukari went out and did whatever it is that Yukari?s do in their spare time. Koishi has continued to train me. All goes well. Send word to the mothership. Just kidding.
It still hurts a little when I?m around Ran when she?s thinking, so I?ve been doing my best to keep a conversation going the entire time I?m around her.
?Yukari said there were others besides her that could return me to my original world. Like who??
??Like whom?. Well, Yukari would be able to do it easiest, but the Barrier Maiden could send you back.?
Barrier Maiden. That?s the main character of the games, right? The miko. ?Reimu Somethin-or-other, right? The one at the shrine.?
?Hakurei, at the Hakurei shrine, yes. There?s a gateway there that leads through the barrier. Alternatively, the Moriya Shrine, atop the Youkai Mountain, is home to a pair of Goddesses who came over from your world not too long ago. Perhaps they would be able to send you back. I don?t foresee your ability to scale the mountain being good enough to reach them without being attacked by the tengu or any other feral youkai in the area, though.?
?Such an outstanding vote of confidence. Thanks.?
?It?s true, though.?
?Hang on, could you twist that knife a little more??
Ran smirks at me. ?If you insist. Your talent with spellcards is abysmal at best, you?re still at a loss when it comes to silencing your thoughts and keeping them to yourself, and on top of that, you have absolutely no breasts to speak of.?
Ouch. And that last one is a lie, she?s lying to you, I have tits, seriously, don?t believe her.
?That?s harsh. Real harsh. Man.?
I grab one of her tails and use it to dust a bookshelf. Unfortunately for my little prank, Ran keeps the place pretty clean, and there was little to no dust on the shelf to begin with.
?How childish of you. And I thought I said leave my tails alone; regardless, though, thank you for your help cleaning today. You?re free to use the rest of the day as you see fit.?
?Maybe I?ll do some proper cooking this time around, for dinner. Since my last endeavor went over so well.?
I figured, Ran liked it; maybe I can get some positive reinforcement and ego stroking done at the same time.
No luck. ?You don?t have any other talents you can draw on? Short of using my tails as a feather-duster ??
?Clearly you mean a fur-duster.?
?? and helping me clean, you haven?t really done much else. I know you can?t possibly enjoy dusting someone else?s house.?
?Well, I?m a guest here, and I have to earn my ??
Click. Lightbulb in head!
?? I?m an idiot. I?ve been changing oil for so long, I?ve forgotten I?m also a massage therapist. There?s also that whole ?thrown into another world? bit that?s got me a little off-kilter. Thanks for reminding me, though! Could you do me a favor and let me know when Yukari comes back??
?I would assume by now you would be able to tell when she returned on your own. Hasn?t your telepathy been developing smoothly under Koishi?s guiding? Eye??
Ba-dum, tish. ?Not really. The other day she made me forget which way was forwards when it came to speaking, for funsies. Other than her screwing with my mind, though, I am actually making good progress. It doesn?t hurt my head to be around you as much as it used to.?
Ran glances back at me. No sign of concern or a cocked eyebrow. Woman wears a poker-mask for a face at times, it seems. Not at all like the maternal Ran I think I recalled from my days of Touhou.
?It hurt your head to be around me? Why?? She sets her duster and dust-rag down, and turns to face me, hands effortlessly sliding into their opposites? sleeve. That looks familiar.
?You don?t stop thinking. About a bajillion things at once. I?m sure you?re able to, but could you imagine having like, twenty TVs in front of you, all with a different channel tuned in, and you absolutely can?t tune a single one of them out? You?re forced to acknowledge and keep track of every single little thing that happens on each one. That?s what it felt like to be around you. Do you ever take a day off??
?From thinking? No, of course not.?
??Of course not?? Why not??
She bows her head past me ? no, wait, that was a nod, indicating where she wanted to go. I step aside as she strides past me, exiting the walk-in storage closet we?d been cleaning. As she strides her unbreakable stride ? letting nothing slow her down, oh no, she?s got to keep on moving ? she shrugs at me. ?I am a kitsune, and a nine-tailed kitsune, at that. We are cunning and clever ? it?s just who we are. Especially when you?re as old as I am.?
?Yeah, you?re like, what, a bajillion years old? Seems like everyone here that isn?t human is at least a couple millennia old.?
?Such an over-exaggeration. You have a talent for hyperbole, don?t you??
?I?m not always up to bat, but when I am, I like to swing for the bleachers.?
?I thought you didn?t like sports ? least of all, baseball.?
?That?s why I?m not up to bat very often. Also, I?m surprised you know what baseball is.?
Now she smirks at me again. ?Don?t forget, I?m a bajillion years old, and I serve one of the few people in Gensokyo who can cross the barrier whenever she wants to.?
Wait a sec. She?s been out in the real world? With all those tails? What the hell?
I voice my concern. ?Wait a sec. You?ve been out in the real world? With all those tails? What the hell??
Her tails unfurl about each other and flare out. Suddenly she whips around to face me.
That?s not Ran, not anymore. She looks like a little girl, about Chen?s height now, only wearing modern clothing, complete with a cellphone dangling from her belt-loop. Her tails had disappeared in the blur of motion as she turned to face me.
A completely different voice answered me. ?What tails? Clearly, I?m a perfectly normal little girl. However, I would like to point out that I am also a kitsune ? still ? and we?re very talented at illusions. I?ve been back and forth with Yukari many times.?
?God, damn. I think I hit bottom, and someone throws me another shovel. Then I hit rock bottom and they throw me a jackhammer. This place is really screwing with my head, and I don?t mean the telepathy. I?m gonna go take a nap, can you please arouse me when Yukari gets back??
Tween-Ran blinks at me. ??Arouse? you??
Wait.
Did I say that? Oh nuts, I did.
?That was definitely a Freudian slip. I?ve been hanging out with Koishi too much. Blame her.?
Koishi?s voice calls from one of the rooms off to the side of the hallway. ?You ought to; I was the one who made you say that!?
Smartass.
Ran smiles, then nods at me. ?Of course. Get some rest.?
The nearest unoccupied futon is getting attacked. Like, seriously.
Don't you dare get between me and mah pillow
-
Koishi's Creeping Hands, scary scary
?FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON?T DO THAT!?
I leap to my feet ? something I?m pretty sure I?ll never be able to do again, at least not so soon after waking up from a dead sleep ? and swat at the offending hand.
Koishi scoots back quickly and withdraws her hand. I glare at her.
?What the hell?!?
Cocky smirk. ?I thought you wanted to be aroused when Yukari got back. She?s back.?
I feel my cheeks flush red. ?You are just desperate for a beating, aren?t you?? I draw my hand back and feint at her, acting as though I wanted to slap her.
She laughs and rolls onto her back, scooting further away from me. Woman takes nothing seriously.
I pat myself down and make sure my nightclothes are all intact and Koishi wasn?t trying to make off with my underwear. ?How long was I out? Er? how long was Yukari out while I was asleep? Screw it, you know what I mean.?
The satori sits upright again. ?Believe it or not, six hours. I was just fixing to go to bed myself.?
I poke the futon I?d just gotten out of with my foot and ruffle the sheets on it. ?All yours, giggle-cheeks.?
?Giggle-cheeks? I?m using that one on Orin next time I go back to Chireiden. And don?t you know, you?re supposed to make your bed once you get out of it??
I return her smirk and kick the pillow across the room. ?I was never very good with manners, you know. At least, not after being molested awake.?
?Ha, ha.? She rolls her eyes and gets up to get the pillow while I rummage about for the Chinese-style chemise I?d set aside for this occasion. I don?t think I?m going to risk undressing with Koishi in the same room, but I also don?t want to be wearing a nightgown under this thing. Hmm? I?ll need a compromise.
Or a distraction. ?Hey, Koishi ? before you go to bed, could you do me a favor and get me a drink??
?Nah.?
Doh. ?Jerkface. Fine, I?ll go get one myself.?
?Thought you were going to talk to Yukari. You know she?s not going to be awake for much longer, herself, right? Woman sleeps more than a kasha. And, won?t you tuck me in??
She?s doing her best to look adorable under the covers, but it just doesn?t work with her ever-present smart-ass smirk.
?Let me go get the rope and duct-tape, and I?ll tuck you in, sure.? I walk over and tuck one side of the sheets under her side, then heave as hard as I can, rolling her over so the blankets wrap around her as quickly as I can.
?Hey! What?! What?re you doing, you goober?? She doesn?t look all that intimidating, now that she?s just a head sticking out of a rolled up blanket ? much less a grinning head. God, does this woman ever stop smiling?
?There, you?re tucked in.? One last push rolls her over onto her side, facing away from me. Handy, that is. I?m pretty sure she won?t stay like this, but maybe the point will get across.
Somehow I managed to change in the same room as Koishi without getting groped again. Seemed she really was tired and more interested in going to sleep.
Finally. I?ll have to ask Yukari to yank in some Valium or something, slip it into Koishi?s food later.
For now, though, I have a higher calling ? and that is, earning a roof over my head while I straighten out my head. The best way for me to do this was exactly as Ran said ? certainly not by cleaning.
No, I would? massage a demi-goddess. I don?t think I?ve ever heard of Ran massaging Yukari as part of her servitude. I think.
I found Yukari sitting in her common room, nursing a dish of sake.
By the way, no matter how much you may like anime and stuff, if you don?t drink regularly ? don?t try sake. It?s downright nasty if you?re not ready for it. Plus, you drink it from a plate, not a cup. How weird is that?
?Yes, Esifex?? she asks. I twitch at the title, but don?t argue it.
?I have some questions to ask you, if I may.?
?You may, go ahead.?
?You can open boundaries to anywhere, conjure up anything, right? Is there a limit to that, are you restrained by anything? If you don?t mind telling me.? Of course, if you do mind, you?re liable to just gap me into the sun or something.
?Hmm. Yes, anywhere, anything, anytime. Of course, it used to cost me some of my lifespan to manipulate boundaries, but then I manipulated that into oblivion. ?I?m kidding about that.?
Smartass. ?Well, then? I?m sure you?re aware ? I?m a massage therapist, not a swordswoman or mechanic or psychic extraordinaire. It?s what I?m talented at, it?s what I learnt to do, and it?s what I should?ve been doing instead of working in that damn oil shop.?
?If I weren?t before, I am now.?
?Of course. Anyways, bartering skills doesn?t make sense if you?re offering up a skill you?re not good at. I think in order for me to earn my rent here while Koishi trains me, I?d be best off by? massaging you. And possibly Ran and Chen, but I really don?t know how to work around tails. Of course, I?d still help with cooking and stuff, when I know a recipe that everyone actually likes.?
Yukari smirks at the reference to the failed kielbasa night.
Then she makes me sweat while she sits and considers her reply. You?d think with such a tiny little plate-dish-cup thing there wouldn?t be much sake in it, but she managed to nurse it for several moments, taking several draws from it. Something makes me think she?s cheating and using some kind of boundary manipulation to refill it without actually picking up the bottle.
?Your logic is flawless in this case ? why would someone offer to be a carpenter if they?ve never picked up a saw? I don?t see what this has to do with my power, though.?
The catch. ?Well, in order to massage you, I need some things, things you don?t readily have available here. In order for me to ?pay my rent?, I?d need some help from you, first.?
?You?re not accustomed to having to ask for help, are you??
She?s plucked a nerve, and the look on her face says she knows it. I try not to let it bother me too much. ?No, I?m not. Is there some form of etiquette I?m supposed to adhere to??
Those ancient eyes continue staring at me for a second while she takes another draw from her sake. ?Depends on what culture you ask ? there are several different etiquettes when it comes to requesting aid.?
Okay, so, what am I supposed to do? I have nothing to offer, woman. I need an answer so I can figure out the next step of my plans.
??No.?
What.
What.
?Why not?? I blurt out.
She sighs and sets her dish-cup-plate down. ?It?s very simple. I don?t want you to massage me. Ergo, I don?t think you?d need me to acquire anything.?
I?m so sick of this place. Everything is so confusing, even ? especially ? peoples? behavior.
?Why not? It?s like, the only thing I?m good at. I can sort of help Ran keep this place clean, but I feel like I get in her way more often than I help, and my taste in food is so weird I can?t trust any of the recipes I know to actually go over very well, or at the least be palatable, or I feel like I?d end up wasting your food, or ??
?Calm down, Esifex.? That damn name. ?It?s not because I feel like making things difficult for you.?
?Well, then, what is it?? I should do something about all this leftover stupid I have. Maybe I?ll go use it up by jumping off the roof and breaking my ankle.
?I don?t think you need to do anything further than what you?re already doing. You?re not getting in Ran?s way, and she appreciates the extra pair of hands. As long as we provide the recipes for you, you?re a talented hand in the kitchen. You?re doing enough; don?t feel obligated to do more. Besides, it?s not like you?ll be here much longer ? Koishi tells me you?re coming along quite nicely, and I haven?t heard any of your thoughts leaking out during this entire conversation. I?m inclined to believe her.?
I blink stupidly at her. Maybe that used up some more stupid. ?Yeah, but? where am I supposed to go once I?m done ?training? my mind? The human village isn?t very fond of me. It?s apparently very dangerous for a human like myself to wander around. I literally have nowhere to go!?
?That?s not true. There are plenty of bastions of humanity besides the village. If you can make yourself useful out of the Hakurei Shrine, the miko may be willing to send you back to your part of the world. Alternatively, you could be a shop assistant for a friend of mine ? he collects and catalogues various things that slip through the barrier from your world to ours. You?d be a goldmine of information for him. If you disciplined yourself enough, took control of your telepathy, you could return to the village in a position of power, perhaps join Keine as one of the guardians.?
?Something tells me I?d get a knife in the ribs while I?m sleeping if I tried to pull that. That?s what the dissenters were afraid I?d do ? take a position of power and try to get close to Keine and the leaders.?
?Okay, so that?s one option down. Still two more that I?ve just mentioned now, and on top of that there are other places you could go. Are you any good with bureaucracy? Paperwork??
Oh, God. Paperwork. Ugh. Oil shop. ?Yes, I am. What have you got in mind??
?You could go to Chireiden. Koishi?s sister reigns as leader of the Former Hell ? another satori, who isn?t much different from you. Telepathic, I mean. She could probably use some help leading the place ? there?s a lot of behind-the-scenes bureaucracy that goes on in leadership positions, and having another telepath on-staff help out with some of it could only make things easier for her. It?d get you protection, room and board, food, and something to do.?
?Yeah, but for how long? How long will it take before you think I?ll be ready to go back??
She pauses, and thinks.
?In my honest opinion, it would be ideal for you to just stay in Gensokyo.?
?What?? That?s insane!
?Even as ?untrained? as you are, by Koishi?s standards as a satori, you?re still highly psychic compared to the mundane humans of the outside world. Do you honestly think that you?d be satisfied living a life there where your talent would have to be hidden, lest you be ostracized and never trusted amongst your peers? Sure, it?d be an incredible advantage in the business world? but would you be content to stop there? How do you know you won?t be tempted to brag about it, to let yourself feel smug and superior over the masses because of your ability to see through their plans, plots, and politics? Unless I were to lock your ability, which I highly doubt you?d agree to ??
?Not happening.? This isn?t a gift. This is a part of me, no matter how confusing it may be. You?re not taking it.
?Didn?t think so. You?ve already proven your inability to keep your mouth shut, and you seem to be having trouble keeping your thoughts to yourself? especially when you?re emotional.?
?What, did you just hear me?? I don?t care if you did.
?Not explicit thoughts, but I could easily feel your disagreement with my suggestion radiating out of you.?
?Maybe you think you did, and were instead just reading my body language.? Doubt it, but hey, you can?t always be right, woman.
?Body language doesn?t have a tone of voice. The way you clench your muscles and tilt your hip to one side can?t ?sound? like you. If I?d known the sensation was coming and prepared for it, I reckon I could?ve discerned the actual words to your thoughts. Either way, though, my point still stands; you?re nowhere near ready to mask your ability properly. Not yet.?
Ugh. This is too much. I turn from Yukari, fixing to head back to the room currently reserved for latent psychics.
?I?ll think about this later. This is too much to digest all at once.?
?I didn?t expect an immediate answer from you, anyways.?
I didn?t know you were asking a question. Whatever.
Once I?d gone back to my little dorm, I sat down against the wall and fiddled with my cellphone.
Regardless of how relaxing the music is on my ?sleepy? playlist, I couldn?t get to sleep for the rest of the night.
Seriously the Samsung Trance is badass you should check it out if you dig music and need to upgrade your cellphone (It's not a smartphone - very little by way of pix and I don't think it has any web capabilities)
-
Unlike Everlasting Wanderers, this story picks up very quickly after the montages.
A week later found my mental discipline much higher ? I can now pick and choose what thoughts I want to broadcast, and which thoughts I want to block out. The ultimate test came when I spent an entire day with Ran, silently reading a book while following her through the estate. I could tell that she was constantly thinking, but I could tune it out and ignore it now.
I can feel whenever Koishi links up to my mind via her Third Eye; at first, all I could do was sense her intrusion and track her as she lollygagged through my head. Now, I can actually lock onto her mind inside of mine and block her progress, keep her from doing anything. Something tells me she hasn?t tried in earnest to get past me, but the fact that I can even do that alone is progress achieved.
I haven?t developed any telekinesis ? or if I have, I don?t have anyone around who can train me in recognizing and controlling it, so it?s withering away. Unfortunate as that may or may not be, the telepathy is good enough for me. Being able to bend spoons and pick up things from across the room with my mind would be crazy awesome, but just being able to read the intent and will of those around me is advantage enough to satisfy me. You get what you?re given and take what you?ve got.
As my control and discipline improved, so did my range. I?ve scryed the entire mountain valley that Mayohiga sits in from my room, and have astral-projected my sense of self into Gensokyo proper ? though Mayohiga sits in a reality slightly off of Gensokyo, they?re still connected that it doesn?t take any fancy reality mapping to get between them.
As such, I was mildly surprised ? and slightly offended ? that the closest living creature I sensed in the Mayohiga valley was about the size of a lynx and also hella-far away.
Koishi and I took this opportunity to wander the valley with some rut sacks that Yukari procured for us from God Knows Where. Officially, we were just getting out of the house for a few days so I could get better acquainted with living outdoors in Gensokyo. The place is definitely rural countryside ? while the human village showed signs of advanced stonework, there aren?t any paved roads or housing developments or skyscrapers or interstates or cars. Its unadulterated nature.
Theoretically, we were leaving Mayohiga. The warped boundary that held Mayohiga isolated from the rest of Gensokyo was designed to impede entry, not departures. If we so chose, we could take the rut sacks we had and take off on our own through Gensokyo. I was armed with a fully charged cellphone in case we needed anything from Yukari on our way out, if we decided to go.
I would have been armed with the MJOLNIR armor from Halo, as well. However, after initially bursting out into hysterical laughter when I suggested this, Yukari pointed out that even if she modified it so it wouldn?t tear my body to pieces when I tried to use any of the augmented functions, it would also stand out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of Gensokyo. Upon her recommendation, I chose to settle for a generic leather travelers garb and a trusty knife at my waist with a weighted plumb on a coiled rope opposite it. I can only think of ways to use it in a fight, but I?m sure it?d have loads of practical uses, too ? I just can?t be bothered to think of them off the bat.
The past few hours have been mostly silent, both verbally and mentally. I have too much on my mind to deal with a conversation, though if I were honest with myself, I could probably use nothing more than to get my mind off? my mind.
Koishi, for the most part, has been respectful of my silence, and was instead enjoying the relatively tame wilderness of the Mayohiga Mountain Valley. In all her wanderings, she?s picked up a lot of wilderness survival habits. For how quickly she eats up the leagues, her footing is sure and secure, yet still very nimble. She picks out paths and identifies the flora and fauna with confidence.
As she wanders along ahead of me, I go through the contents of my satchels and pouches. I still have all the original spellcards Yukari gave me, but without the Cobalt armor, most of it is useless. Devastate, Shield Slam, Charge, Thunderclap. All of these required me to be up close and personal, and without something between my skin and my opponent, I wasn?t about to risk using them.
I nearly tossed them aside into the wilderness when I remembered that I could have Koishi help me turn them into something else.
Koishi, I call ahead to her. Two hundred yards does nothing to the volume of a mental voice.
?Yeah, what?s up?? she thinks back. Technically, she?s not thinking back directly to me, but she?s just amplifying her thoughts so I have little choice but to hear them.
I think I?m gonna swap out some of these spellcards. Could you help me out, again?
?Sure, yeah, I?ll be right there.?
Take your time, don?t trip over anything.
She truly is a wilderness girl, or at least one who just goes wherever the hell she wants to. Even though she hasn?t been through Mayohiga ? or so she claims ? she still navigates the wilderness like it was her own backyard. A ginger little hop to clear a hidden dip in the ground, a swift stomp through vine-laden bushes to pull herself clear without breaking her stride? hell, I was half expecting her to grab a vine from somewhere and swing across a random chasm.
I tuck the useful cards back into my pouch ? Shield Wall, Shockwave, Last Stand, and the like ? and fan out the cards I?m getting rid of.
An element of beauty. A symbol of the wielder. A manifestation of the owners? magic. Those are the basic guidelines behind spellcards ? at least, from what I understand. How should I make them apply to me?
I?m very plain. I can?t even wear hats very well because I look stupid with them on, no matter what I do with my hair. I have little to no identity or existence beyond my job back in the real world, and even now, I don?t even have that ? nor do I have my own name anymore. And, of course, I have no magic whatsoever, unless telepathy counts. I?m pretty sure anger, self-esteem, and identity issues don?t count. Maybe I can make an attack style over turning my opponent emo.
Nevermind, Koishi. I can?t think of anything to do with these cards. I stack them back up and slip ?em into the pouch with the rest of them. Maybe I?ll be able to use them with a dagger. They?re all physical cards, after all. I?ll just have to be very careful not to get myself hit.
?You could use some of the spellcards me and my sister use. For example, Satori has a spellcard that?s really not any one spellcard ? she scans her opponent with it first and makes patterns reminiscent of any spellcard the target has had trouble with in the past.?
I?ll think about it. Thinking seems to be all I?m good at right now. I don?t know what possessed me to try to swing a sword around.
I spin my cellphone around my thumb, a little trick I?ve developed over the years while I was full of nervous energy. I don?t remember pulling it out of my pouch, but I suppose some music could do me good. There?s still nothing in a five-mile radius that would be any bit of a threat to either one of us, so I don?t have to worry about attracting some big bad youkai.
I could call Yukari and have her gap us back to her place, but part of me is pretty tired of her right now. ?This isn?t a hotel, and I?m not a taxi service, but don?t hesitate to call me if you need anything.? God only knows if she?s even awake right now, which would do me a fat load of nothing if she weren?t.
I slide the phone open and page through my music library. All sorts of classical songs ? ironically, most of these are arrangements of Touhou character themes ? a few techno/trance songs, and a sizable collection of rock and metal. Some ?Strength of the World? by Avenged Sevenfold sounds pretty good, right about now.
Of course, my story started a few days after they said I couldn?t be found, and obviously I don?t have a sister and Mom and Dad are fine. Also, I didn?t expect Chris to go on a roaring rampage of revenge against anyone, but I know he was strong enough to deal with my absence. Hell, he may have even bought the witness protection story hook, line, and sinker, and be going about his life hunky-dory.
I plan to go back. I want to go back. I need to go back. Whoever gets between me and my goal will suffer ? with my telepathy, I?m sure I could find a way to bring anyone to their knees. I?m done with Yukari ? she thinks she knows best just because she has a ridiculous power, that just because she brought me here that she?s my guardian angel. The only one who?s actually helped me at all has been Koishi, and that?s mostly because she thinks she owes me one.
In a sense, she does. I?m not going to lord it over her ? once I get the skills necessary to survive the Gensokyo wilds, we?ll be even. Until then, I won?t reject her help. God only knows I?ll be needing her help for a long time coming.
Yukari has been helpful, yes, but sometimes a well-intending friend can do more harm than any one person out to get you.
I stop for a moment and sit down on a smooth patch of grass. I haven?t mastered the art of astral projection while I?m moving ? it gives me an epic case of motion sickness.
I don?t know how to physically fly. I?m pretty sure I won?t ever learn how, too. I?m just a human ? albeit one with telepathy, but telepathy doesn?t automatically mean I get to flick all the laws of physics off and tell them to go stuff themselves.
Mentally, though, I can send my mind wherever the hell I want to, now. Massive perversion potential there, but for now, I?m more preoccupied with making sure I can see the next sunrise.
Awareness being what it is ? that is, immaterial ? it?s not subjected to inertia. I looked out over the Mayohiga valley from a few miles up, trying to get a good range on the area. Back the way we?d come was the plateau that Yukari?s Estate sat on; from there, it had a nice regal view of the mountain valley proper, surrounded on all sides by slightly taller mountains.
Oddly enough, for roughly a hundred acres beyond each mountain, the air seemed to warp and twist, looking suspiciously like a smoke-and-mirror illusion. Something tells me that?s Yukari?s doing ? nestling her house into her own little pocket reality.
The mountains on either side of the valley ? thus, ?valley? ? weren?t exactly tall by way of mountains; only the ones ?behind? Yukari?s estate had snowcaps. Ahead of us, the mountains slowly shrank down in size until they came upon a bottleneck in the smoke-and-mirror effect, where two behemoths of mountains stood. If I had to venture a guess, I?d say this little place was only a few dozen square miles, from the backyard of Yukari?s estate to the Border of Gensokyo. Like I said; the mountains weren?t that tall.
It had plenty of wildlife, though.
And that?s it. Aside from the one feral youkai that was stalking the lynx-like creature I?d sensed earlier, the place was more or less a mountainous region right out of Missouri. Deer, birds of all types of flavors, either a goat or a ram, many different types of snakes, all kinds of animals lived here. The feral youkai probably came into this range by accident.
This type of solitude isn?t conducive to productive thinking for me. Instead, it?ll drive me insane. Another reason to get out of Yukari?s estate. Even if all I have to look forward to is jackasses in the human village.
No. You know what? Screw it. I?m going to make sure that they understand what has happened, even if it involves pissing a lot more of them off. Corruption and controversy never make for a peaceful dinner conversation, and they?re rarely found without the other. If they don?t like it, they can deal with it.
I didn?t do anything wrong. I?m just a little different than they are, and if they can?t handle that, their loss. I would?ve been a good goddamn defender.
What could have been?
-
UH OH I HEAR SOME PLOT COMING
Ahead of Sara, sheltered from any direct probes with her telepathy, Koishi felt a pang of sorrow. Her Third Eye was open, but rather than convincing anyone around her that they couldn?t see her, she was instead using it to blot out Sara?s sensation of being inspected. It had been a long time since she?d used her Third Eye to actually read into someone?s mind rather than talk to their subconscious, but being a satori, the ability and talent was there.
The reason for her melancholy was her new traveling companion. The thoughts roiling about through Sara?s mind and the effect they were having upon her subconscious were disturbing. Disturbing enough that she had to act on them.
Glancing back to make sure that Sara?s physical distance was still far beyond earshot, she slipped her hand into the rut-sack that Yukari had given her and pulled out the small plastic rectangle. She pushed the single button on it, hoping it was still working like Yukari said it would be.
?Yukari? Yukari, can you hear me? I don?t know if I?m doing this right?? she said into it. She felt as though she?d picked up a rock and had started talking to it.
Yukari?s voice came out of the small arrangement of holes in the shell. ?Yes, Koishi. I can hear you, and you?re using the walky-talky correctly. What?s wrong??
Koishi blinked at the little box in her hand. Fascinating, but the why and how would have to wait. ?Sara, of course. Her thoughts are turning towards some kind of twisted justice, what she feels is justified revenge. She?s planning on heading back towards the human village and psychically forcing her memories of her getting forced out into everyone there. I know you?re not normally psychic, so you don?t know what that means? but that?s nigh equivalent to mental rape.?
?I think you?re over-exaggerating a bit, Koishi.?
?I?m not. Forcing memories into someone else?s mind can lead to confusion of identity, and can imprint parts of the senders? personality onto the recipient. For a non-telepath, there?s no defense. You can?t stop someone like Sara, who can broadcast directly into anyone?s mind.?
?Her name is Esifex now. Please don?t make me repeat this.
?Very well. I?ll take with the shrine maiden, and we?ll intercept you outside the human village.?
?You think we need her? Isn?t she just human??
There was a pause before Yukari answered. ?She is. That won?t be a problem. Remember the massive potential she has ? she?s defeated us both before, remember??
?That was different, Yukari. That was danmaku. Esifex isn?t going to play by danmaku rules with her telepathy ? she?s on a righteous vendetta right now.?
?Reimu will be fine. Trust me. Now, do yourself a favor and put the walky-talky back in the pouch. The longer we discuss this, the more you?ll dwell on it, and the more likely Esifex is to pick up on your thoughts. We don?t want to tip her off if we can salvage this situation.?
Koishi sighed. ?Right, right. We?ll see you at the human village. If there?s a change in the plan, I?ll find the time to contact you.? She slid the walky-talky back into her satchel and continued on the path. A quick glance behind her confirmed that Esifex hadn?t moved any closer.
Koishi did a double-take. Esifex hadn?t moved at all.
What in the name of the True Hell? she thought. Her Third Eye narrowed as she fine-tuned her focus.
Esifex was astral-projecting; that?s why her body hadn?t moved.
So where was her mind?
Am I that far gone?
Have I changed that much?
I?ve changed, yes. But it?s their fault. Why is it that you can?t trust a human to be good to a human? I?ve gotten more aid from Koishi and Yukari than I have the humans. They have what?s coming to them.
I bring my mind back into my body and inhale deeply. Autonomous muscle function keeps me breathing while I?m out and about, but it doesn?t do well towards keeping me from getting light-headed when I start to move about again under my own proper power.
I banish what I?d just overheard from my mind and go back to neutrality. I have no clue how well Koishi can snoop around through my head, but I don?t need to be leaving any hints lying around what I?d heard.
So, Yukari and the shrine maiden, together in one place? Let?s see if I can?t convince them to send me home.
For the sake of proper comprehension of the story, Esifex only started eavesdropping on Koishi right around Yukari saying she'll bring Reimu along. Thusly when the inevitable big misunderstanding happens, no one is surprised or accuses me of ass-pulling.
Thus concludes our broadcast day. Pending review this may or may not be the last we see of this for a little while.
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This is still all kinds of awesome. I love the humour you inject into the story as well.
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I am loving this! :* Please continue it! Also, are you really like that Esifex? I haven't spoken with you much/at all, but I think of you as much much nicer then the Esifex in the story is being shown as now, anger and confusion, with the confusion making the anger even worse.
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Well, given his lack of breasts...
Actually, according to Ran that pretty much is him! : D
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Hm... I wonder if the Sara bleed over is occuring, though I can kind of understand the general rage against humanity there. Still follow that line of reasoning too far and you might end up a youkai yourself. Ah well nothing a shrine maiden can't handle.
I do like the Koishi though. Loads of fun.
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Hm... I wonder if the Sara bleed over is occuring,
This'll blow your minds. Different bleed over, though.
Sara and Acied, the characters I introduced to you lot in my other story, Everlasting Wanderers, are actually characters from a story I'm writing that isn't related to Touhou. They were written deliberately to be a pair of characters, never meant to work independently of each other.
They are two facets of myself. Acied is the side of Erik (that's me) that the public sees. He's got a short fuse before he says 'enough, how do I deal with this?', lets his hair grow out to shoulder length, has a taste for cold weather and overcoats, he's very gruff, and his magic is what I would love to have the best out of my story (the ability to shapeshift into anything so long as he can hear music).
Sara is the alternate facet, the feminine side. Yin and Yang. She is the parts of me that are usually kept hidden; the instant trust, the easygoing spirit, the absolute love of music and singing, the feminine and cuddly parts that are all bits that will only come out when I can find someone I can fully trust. The telepathy started as a plot-critical tool to let Sara communicate with Acied while he didn't have human vocal chords, and was inspired by... things I've been putting my mental resources to. That's another can of worms for another time.
In Everlasting Wanderers, Sara becomes embittered with the rest of the people around her in the human village because of their subtle suspicions of her telepathy. In this story, this particular telepathic Sara pulled the short straw, and their suspicions weren't so subtle. As anyone who's been the target of prejudices and false accusations, she reacted rather poorly.
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I love the humour you inject into the story as well.
That's cuz mah momma always used to said, 'better to be a smartass, than a dumbass.'
Well damn, looks like I'm obligated to write more. This'll be fuuuuun >:D
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That's cuz mah momma always used to said, 'better to be a smartass, than a dumbass.'
Well damn, looks like I'm obligated to write more. This'll be fuuuuun >:D
Yes! This story is awesome, PLEASE write more, I'm reading through it again as I wait, hoping for an update as I go.
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Well, given his lack of breasts...
Actually, according to Ran that pretty much is him! : D
Esifex is actually about as well-endowed as Rin Tohsaka.
That is, not really all that 'well' endowed.
The updates will come - give me a bit of time. I'm currently going through a few changes in my daily work life, and I may end up with a bit more free time here in the near future.
I haven't forgotten this story, nor the other one I've started with Iced Fairy's help (but haven't yet posted), and I do plan on finishing this one. I have a resolution already in mind, just gotta write my way there.
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No, I didn't forget. :P
The gateway mountains, while large, didn?t meet up with each other. There was a generous path that wound around each of their bases, leading into Gensokyo. At the end of the path was a wooden gate, without a fence. The top of the gate had two crossbeams; Koishi said it was called a ?torii? gate, and that if we didn?t walk through it and then follow the path, the border here would eventually cause us to loop back into Mayohiga.
Apparently it was a little harder to get in to Mayohiga, but getting out still required a specific technique.
Luckily for us, our path finding abilities were no match for this earthen route, and we easily conquered the task of walking in a straight line.
It was interesting, passing through the barrier that separated Gensokyo and Mayohiga; on one side of it, my telepathy was passively blocked ? I couldn?t read into Gensokyo without projecting, and once I got into Gensokyo, I couldn?t read into Mayohiga without projecting as well. Stepping through, the difference was literally like going from one room into another. The lights go out in the one you came from, and then you have so much to explore in the next.
?Well, here we go again. Welcome back to Gensokyo, me.?
Koishi chuckles. ?Have you perhaps considered any of Yukari?s suggestions? I could lead you to the Underground, keep the oni from screwing with you on your way to the Earth Spirit Palace. Satori really could use someone like you to help her out, even if all you do is contribute another mind reader. Being the tribunal for the under-dwellers can be pretty tricky, especially with how crafty most of them are, with their talent for telling half-truths. And with how much strife there is between castes down there, you?d never be out of work.?
?Are you sure you?re not offering me that just so you can keep me and my delicious nubile body where you left it? I?ve seen how you?ve been looking at me.?
She snorts and gives me a playful push. ?You found me out, I see. Give yourself to me, I demand you!?
I sidestep her advances and bat her groping hands away, grinning.
Hmm. Working out of Chireiden? It?s a possibility. Doubt there are many humans down there, and if there are, they?d be such a rare commodity that they?d probably actually stick together and not be dicks to each other.
From the Mayohiga Valley, you can see for miles. However, the human village isn?t visible from here. At least, not in the pre-dusk light. This only further drives home the point that Yukari had planned her little agenda out by deliberately dropping me in Koishi?s path, close to the village. I resist the urge to roll my eyes, mostly because Koishi is still trying to get under my shirt and I need to keep them on her.
?Alright, enough of that, or you?ll get what?s coming to you. The sun?s on its way down, so I think we need to be setting up camp soon. Near as I can tell, too, we?re not exactly close to any shelters, so we get to deal with those nasty owl youkai swooping down in the middle of the night to spirit me away.?
This succeeds in stopping Koishi from further molestations, and puts her into wilderness business mode.
?Okie-dokie. Leave me your rut-sack; I?ll set up the camp itself. You go and gather up any loose brushing you can find. Get about an armful or so, don?t really need that much. Once you have that and bring it back, I?m gonna send you out to find some thick branches, so be on the lookout for those, too. If you hear anything ? wait, you can scry around yourself, you?ll know what to stay away from. If something starts coming after you, come back immediately ? I?ll take care of it.?
?Yes, ma?am. Anything else?? I ask, swinging my rut sack off from my shoulders and dropping it to the ground.
?Don?t eat any berries or anything that you see without showing me, first. Don?t want to have to bust out the first-aid kits on our first night out. Keep your gloves on while handling the brush, too.?
?Simple enough. Be back in a little bit.?
No berries presented themselves to me, but plenty of twigs and dried up leaves and the sort were lying around just waiting to be rounded up. It was a stunt and a half trying to get an entire armful in one go; instead, I made several trips, depositing my finds on each visit back to the campsite, checking on Koishi?s progress towards pitching camp. We didn?t have a big fancy tent ? which, you know, c?mon now, Yukari, you really could?ve given us one, wouldn?t?ve cost you anything ? but instead a fairly sizable lean-to. Koishi was expertly rigging it up to be freestanding, and I made it a point to note where she had all the anchor lines planted so I wouldn?t trip over them at night.
After three expeditions I had enough kindling for Koishi to send me after the thick branches. Considering that there weren?t many trees around, I didn?t have many options, but there were a few here and there that I?d spotted while gathering the little stuff.
One outing later, and I returned with a mighty two branches. Koishi looked at them from under the lean-to ? she?d finished pitching it ? and nodded her approval.
?Snap ?em in half and lean them across each other over the little stuff you gathered up, and I?ll light it later on when the sun goes all the way down.?
?Looks like it?ll be a pitiful little fire. You sure this?ll be enough? Or that it?ll be a good idea? I?ve seen Lord of the Rings, you know; fire attracts bogeymen.?
Koishi considers my statement before dismissing the reference. She really should?ve asked, ?cause LotR is a totally badass series of books. ?Sentient youkai know better than to attack a human that?s in the presence of another youkai ? that is, me ? and the feral youkai won?t get close to the fire. Not unless it?s a biggy.?
?No biggies around us right now. I?ll scan the area at sundown and let you know.?
Koishi blinks at me, and then shakes her head. ?Yeah, right, right. Are you hungry yet??
It would?ve been hilarious if my stomach growled at that instant, but, this isn?t an anime, and I actually wasn?t that hungry. Still, it beat putting it off till later, when I?d be too tired to do anything about it.
?Not all that hungry, but I?ll eat. Should we set up some traps for small game, or something? Or what, how do you hunt??
?Hunt? I was just gonna pop open some of the food Yukari sent out with us.?
Oh. Duh.
?I knew that. What?d she send out with us??
Turns out Yukari sent us on our way with a bunch of stuff, but Koishi singled out the beef jerky of all things and tore into the packaging. ?Doesn?t need any preparation, and you should get used to eating stuff like this if you?re going to be roughing it,? she said, gnawing on a hock of jerky.
The image of her actually gnawing on something ? a very unrefined look ? coupled with her fancy blouse, her hat, her skirt, the wires from her Third Eye wrapping around her, and a blank stare aimed at me as she spoke, made me laugh.
?I dunno; if it?s gonna turn me into some kind of jerky-zombie, with blank, soulless eyes, I might not want any.?
?Eeeeeeeeeat. Braaaaaaaains,? she holds a piece out for me to take.
I graciously accept her offer and begin gnawing the jerky, not brains, after plopping myself down next to her under the lean-to.
Not bad. A whole day without any awkwardness, no mention of the jackasses in the human village, and aside from mentioning Chireiden to give me someplace to stay, Koishi hasn?t mentioned anything about my immediate future or the plans I may or may not have made.
We finish our snack in silence, content to simply munch and watch the sky turn pastel with the sunset. Koishi had pitched the lean-to facing east (at least, I assumed Gensokyo still had the same cardinal directions. I?m not even sure if it?s on Earth, as all I have is Yukari?s word) so that we were in the shade of the sunset, and sunrise would shine on us, waking us up.
?I?m going to scan the area now. Be back in a little bit.?
?Right-o. I?ll make sure your body doesn?t get up and go anywhere without you.?
?Appreciate it. I might be out for a while; I plan to explore Gensokyo some. Get myself orientated.?
She nods. ?Take your time.?
I lie down properly and draw my blanket up over myself, getting comfortable before I separate my mind from my body.
Let?s see if I can?t find out where the human village is, from here.
The same effect that I saw surrounding Mayohiga is present around Gensokyo. I assume it?s not visible under normal light spectrums, and that it?s the barrier that separates Gensokyo from everything around it.
The entirety of Gensokyo seems like it?s only about eight or nine days of traveling on foot from one end to the other. To be fair, though, the border wasn?t perfectly spherical, and there were parts that seemed to ebb off into the distance, kind of like how Mayohiga was an extension of Gensokyo. Inconvenient to a ground-bound human, perhaps, but not impossible to fully explore on your lonesome. Considering that just about everyone here can fly, though, it seems terribly small.
Like Yukari said, though, expanding upwards and downwards makes up for this lack of size. There?s another mountain range here, with one fairly large mountain as the crown masterpiece. A network of tunnels riddles them, as well as underground.
Despite having only so much surface area, the actual livable space here seems like it?d take a lifetime to explore. That?s the charm of Gensokyo, I suppose. Easy on the outside, complex on the inside.
Going from my old saying (during hours of PVP combat in World of Warcraft) that ?height equals sight?, I elevated my awareness into the sky a considerable distance to look out across Gensokyo. From my newfound altitude, spotting the human village was easy. A sizable forest intruded on the most direct path between our camp and the village, though if we wanted to, we?d only be cutting through a small portion of the outer edge of this forest.
Satisfied, I relaxed myself and allowed my mind to be pulled back to my body.
Again, I took a deep breath immediately upon reentering my body before attempting to adjust myself.
Once situated, I realize something. Koishi is bloody weird.
I pull her hands out from around my stomach and try to un-entangle my legs from hers, but give up. I?d just wake her up and she?d just cuddle up against me again; the combined body-heat will help ward off the cold of the night, though.
Good night, Koishi. You perv.
Morning found Koishi awake bright and early, and Esifex the same as she always was ? sleeping through it.
It didn?t help that Koishi had convinced Esifex?s subconscious to take another circadian cycle, giving her ninety minutes of guaranteed privacy.
She wandered a short distance away from the camp and procured the walky-talky from her pouch once again. ?Yukari, are you awake??
A period of silence almost convinced Koishi that Yukari was in fact not awake, and right before she went to slip the two-way back into its pocket, she got a response.
?I?m awake. I won?t be taking any sojourns from Gensokyo until this little incident is taken care of. What?s news??
?I tracked Esifex while she scryed Gensokyo. She was interested in finding a route from where we are now to the human village, of course. From where we came out of Mayohiga, the Forest of Magic keeps us from going straight there. We wouldn?t need to dive straight into the Forest to get to the village, though ? we?d barely even lose sight of the tree line if we did. I?m going to of course recommend steering clear of the Forest, but I just wanted you to know what?s going on and whereabouts we?ll be in case I can?t convince her to stop. As it stands, if we packed up the camp and headed straight towards the village, we could be there in about five or six hours. If we circumvent the Forest, closer to eight hours. I don?t think she?ll be awake for at least another hour, though.?
?Understood. I?ll let Reimu know when she wakes up.?
?You?re at the Shrine?? Koishi blinked at the two-way.
?Yes, I am. Why??
?We could be there by nightfall if we left as soon as Esifex woke up. Should I try to convince her to go to the shrine??
There was a pause as Yukari considered the idea. ?Try it, but I?ll be operating under the assumption that you?ll still be going towards the human village. If I don?t spot you there come closer to late afternoon, I?ll assume you?re on your way to the Shrine and I?ll leave. Either way, whenever you can, try to update me on what?s going on ? both physically and mentally.?
?Alright. I think it?s time I started putting something together for breakfast.?
?Goodbye.? Yukari signed off with no banter, no pretense at exchanging pleasantries. Koishi shrugged and pocketed the two-way once again, turning back to the camp.
To be continued, of course.
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It would seem that something is gonna go down soon.
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It's not a necropost - IT WAS NEVER DEAD TO BEGIN WITH AAAAGHGHG I SAID SO
Physical contact forces me to focus on whoever is touching me; it?s not like it?s some sort of condition or weakness that comes packaged with telepathy, it?s just from the senses working in unison, with the addition of telepathy.
Ergo, when Koishi poked me in the cheek, I got an impression through her mind of me bundled tightly up in the blankets and a serving of bacon and sausage sizzling next to an egg in a frying pan over the previously-neglected fireplace.
The last bit woke me up nice and quick. Food! Yum yum yum yum yum. I like food.
I greet Koishi ? and the morning ? with the most unintelligible gibberish that can only be translated by those who wander between sleeping and waking.
Koishi gets the gist of it, I guess. ?Good morning to you, too. Breakfast is almost ready.?
She stops poking me and wanders back to the fireside to tend the skillet, while I slowly roll across the padding that made up our bed. I?m too damned comfy to get up just yet ? you wake me up when breakfast is ready properly, not ?almost? ready.
I end up lying towards her, looking relatively up at her. She glances over at me once to see if I?m still awake, and then does a double take.
?You look like a cocoon, with a head. No! Like a person stuck in a giant spider?s webbing!?
?Oh, God, that?s disturbing. What?s wrong with you? I?m still waking up, I?m gonna hallucinate up a massive spider that?s gonna eat me.?
I wriggle out of the blankets, losing any resemblance to bugs I may or may not have had. While Koishi tends to the food, I begin folding and rolling the blankets. I don?t plan on lingering around the camp once breakfast is done.
Between pallets, I pull my phone out of my satchel and slide it open. Evidently, when Yukari forced signal onto it, it didn?t recalibrate the clock for wherever in the world Gensokyo?s time-zone was. In Florida, it was currently 11:52 PM. I shrug the matter off ? I?d never gotten around to learning all the time zones or how to read the sun to guesstimate the time, and that?s not why I?d dug up my phone.
I scroll through my music list and pick a song at random, ending up with Rainbow Camellia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOoIy_NcKE). Ironic that nearly all the music on my phone was remixes or arrangements of various songs from Touhou, and here I was stuck in the very world that Touhou was based off of. An errant thought crossed my mind; what kind of person was ZUN to have a friendship with Yukari? Clearly she fed him stories about the incidents to base his games off of, but how much was accurate, how much was embellishment, and how much was purely made up for the sake of the games? For instance ? how fast could Reimu really throw her amulets, I wonder?
Part of me considered the Scarlet Devil Mansion, since I was currently listening to an arrangement of the door guards? theme. After a moment?s deliberation, I banished the place from my mind. That?s not a sanctuary for humans. Sakuya only seems to make it because of her ruthless nature and her magic ? on top of that, all the rumors about her being a Lunarian instead of a human, as well. If that were true, there really weren?t any humans out of the Scarlet Mansion. If not, well? I?ve already proven at Yukari?s that I wouldn?t make a very spectacular maid, and I don?t think a vampire who can control fate has much need for a telepath, to be frank.
?Hey, stop moping and come over here and eat. I didn?t just cook all this for nothing.?
Ooooooo? Food. Food food food food.
Consequences and deliberations and plots and plans be damned, I?m hungry.
I?m full.
?That was pretty good. I gotta ask, though ? where did you get the bacon and sausage??
Koishi stares at me blankly for a second. ?Ran checked up on us while you were asleep. You were supposed to call them when we left Mayohiga, remember? You never did. When she found us ? I was already awake ? she asked if we needed anything. There wasn?t much by way of decent breakfast food in our pouches, so I asked her to get some for us.?
?Oh, shit. Forgot about that. Oh well, it all worked out in the end; we got bacon for it. C?mon, help me finish packing up. I wanna get a move on.?
?You pack, I?ll clean up the dishes and scatter the embers.? Koishi kicks some dirt across the smoldering fireplace, burying the hot embers and smothering them.
?Fair enough.?
I continue to pack the sleeping pallets into their respective rut sacks, gathering everything and doing my best to make sure it folds up neatly. Space is at a premium when you?re carrying crap on your back.
?So, any thoughts on where you wanna go? The shrine, maybe, or the underground?? Koishi asks.
?The underground sounds like a good enough idea. Still haven?t decided for sure, though. I?ll think on it while we?re walking. Almost done over there??
?Just about. Why??
I roll my rut sack away from the lean-to. Because of Koishi?s youkai nature, she?s far and away much stronger than I am. That being the case, she?s been carrying the heavier load. The lean-to will be getting loaded into her pack. ?Need a hand undoing the tent. Don?t wanna screw anything up ? I?ve never gone roughing-it like this, so? I have no clue how you pitched this and how you want me to take it down.?
?You can?t figure it out??
?I?m sure I could, but I?d just get lazy and stop thinking about it and just yank everything down, roll it up, and stuff it in your pack. I have a feeling that?d make it a pain in the ass to get out tonight.?
Koishi chuckles and nods. ?Yeah, I?ll talk you through taking it down with me.?
?Appreciate it.?
While waiting for Koishi to join me, I fiddle around with the satchels we were left with. Separate from the rut sacks, they were more akin to purses than backpacks. I knew that Koishi?s had a walky-talky in it ? her direct line to Yukari. Casting a sidelong glance at Koishi, I swing her satchel from hand to hand and feel the weight of the two-way inside it. With a single deft motion, I plunge my hand in, snatch it, and drop it into her rut sack. If I?d just dumped the entire satchel in, she?d have an excuse to stop and fish it out. This way, since she wouldn?t check for the walky-talky in my immediate presence, we?re more likely to load the lean-to over the top of it and she?d be hard-pressed to find it when she wanted to report in on me.
I quickly stifle the pang of guilt I feel over being sly like this. So far, Koishi truly is my best friend here ? but I honestly don?t know her well enough to let her think she knows what?s best for me, and I can?t afford for her to sense the guilt and try to investigate. I?m going to make sure the human village at least understands what happens the night I left; if they want to apologize for it, that?d be awesome, but I doubt I?d stay. They?ve already proven that there are some people who don?t trust me, and that?s enough for my paranoia to make me seek refuge elsewhere.
I stop and think about that for a moment. If Koishi finds out about my subterfuge, will she still be willing to escort me to The Underground? If not, I?ll have to look into some of those other options that Yukari mentioned.
Although, Yukari did say she was going to bring the shrine maiden up to intercept me, as well? If that?s the case, then odds are I?ll end up pissing her off with my actions, and then I?d have to strike the shrine off my list of possible destinations.
Shit. That really narrows it down.
Oh, shit. Yukari never told me who ran that shop or where it was that she knew of, the one that deals with the outer-world items. I begin scouring my mind, trying to think of anyone in the Touhou games lore who did that.
Thankfully, Koishi notices my consternation, and interrupts my line of thought. ?What?s wrong??
?Trying to think of other places to go, if the human village won?t take me back.?
?You want to go back to the village, after what happened?? she asks. There?s the slightest hint of concern on her face, but I don?t bother trying to scan her to confirm it; she?s probably the one person around best suited for blocking telepathy.
?I?m thinking about it. There are those other options Yukari mentioned, too ? but I can?t remember the name of the shop she suggested I go work out of.?
?Kourindou??
Hey, that sounds a little familiar. ?I think so. What?s the place like??
?Boooooooring. Guy who runs it sells a bunch of crap that no one uses in a shop partway through the Forest of Magic. Youkai have access to magic that can do whatever he sells can do, only better, and the humans won?t go wandering through the Forest to get to his shop for a few trinkets, oftentimes. Usually when someone goes to his shop, it?s to use his ability to identify the purpose of objects and artifacts. He?s a lot like Keine, the guardian of the village, remember? Yeah. She can read history, right ? if she had to, she could potentially read the history of an item and do the same thing Rinnosuke does.?
Finally, a name. Although from the sounds of it, there wouldn?t be much point to me going to this guy ? seems he?d be having enough trouble supporting himself, unless he lives off the land.
?How do you know so much about this guy??
Koishi shrugs. ?He comes to the human village sometimes and sells roots and herbs that he gathers out in the Forest, and tries to peddle off his trinkets. I went ahead and asked a few people about him.?
Weird hobby you got there, Koishi. Useful, but weird as hell.
?Ready to take the lean-to down??
The lean-to successfully obscured the two-way, and Koishi never once checked for it. I very nearly confessed to her that I?d hidden it, but I didn?t want to risk tipping her or Yukari off. Not now, not when so much was lined up against me. As we were, we?d long since left the campsite and had moved on. The Forest of Magic was just barely visible up ahead; this was the time to make a decision.
Cold apprehension grips my stomach; it just dawned on me that Yukari and the most powerful human in Gensokyo were pairing up, and I was the antagonist this time around. Indignant smart-assery towards Yukari was one thing when I was a deer in the headlights ? now I had an actual plan, I was the mastermind ? premeditated smart-assery.
Yukari could do any one thing to me if she so desired. Throw me into the sun, gap me into the air two miles up, drop me under the sea, send me to four different places in eight different pieces, send me to eight different places in four different pieces, turn me inside-out where I stand, turn me into a rock or something, whatever she so decided. Reimu, I don?t know precisely what exactly she can do, but I know she?s ridiculously powerful. Being a telepath won?t help me much. Oooooh, I can tell how exactly she?s going to kick my ass and when she?ll do it.
Is attacking the human village a good idea?
No. I?m not attacking them. I?m just going to them and making sure they understand what happened. What they did.
I just had to make sure I could get to the village before they intercepted us. That would involve cutting through the Forest. Since Koishi was smart to my plans, she?d probably try to convince me to skirt around the Forest instead of going through it. I?d need a good excuse to cut through the Forest, but? what?
?So, I suppose you want to head to the human village first, don?t you??
I blink. Did Koishi just up and say ?you wanna go to the village??
?Yeah, I do. It?d be fastest to cut through the Forest to get there, so we can just get it over with.?
?What exactly is it you plan on doing?? She looks a bit worried.
Can I salvage this? Can I really convince her to let me go to the village and just explain my case, and then live and let live?
?I wanna go there, find Keine, and explain what happened. I?m not intending to stay there, no matter what happens ? the fact that four of the guards were united against me because of their paranoia means that any number more of them could actually be worried about my presence and flip out like they did when we left. I don?t want to go there, explain my case, then wake up the next morning with a slashed throat.?
?So, what are you going to do while you?re there??
I just noticed that Koishi?s ever-present smirk wasn?t present for the duration of this conversation. She must be serious.
?Like I said. Find Keine, explain what happened. If I have to, I?ll route some of my memories through their ??
?Promise me you won?t.?
I stutter to a halt. ?What??
?Promise me you won?t force your memories on anyone.?
What the hell. ?Why? I kind of think I?d have to.?
?Keine will take your word, or mine; either way, she?ll look into it. If you force your memories onto someone else, you can really damage their mind. It?s a very delicate thing, muddling with memories. If they suddenly remember being you, it?ll throw their mind into so much chaos. Especially if they have any similarities with you, like for instance, gender. Just ask Keine to read the history of the place you were attacked, and she?ll be able to figure out the rest. You don?t have to force your memories on anyone.?
I blink. ?Why didn?t I think of that? God, damn.?
?Still? agreed? You won?t force your memories on anyone? That?s really a big taboo thing among satori; never share memories with another non-telepath. Or anyone who isn?t skilled at navigating the neural pathways of their own mind.?
?Hmm. Hey, I wonder? what if I tried to read my own mind??
Koishi?s eyes bugged out and she lunged towards me, flailing her arms. ?Don?t do it don?t do it don?t do it that?s a really bad idea don?t do it!?
I backpedal her advances. I?ve gotten good at sidestepping her? advances. ?Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, fine, I won?t. Why not??
?Have you ever been somewhere where it echoes and then someone comes up right next to you and screams really loud? Imagine that, only like a bajillion times worse. You?ll most likely end up knocking yourself out.?
Oh. ?Some kind of psychic feedback loop, or something??
Koishi shrugs. ?I guess. It?s just a really bad idea. You can already hear your own thoughts, you don?t need to read them, too.?
Not if I can force it into someone else?s mind. Link up with someone and take them out with me.
Ugh, no, I hate moves like that. That?s definitely a last-ditch effort.
I absentmindedly pull my phone out of my pocket and start fiddling with it, then realize that I have in fact pulled it out of my pocket. I slide the screen up and check the battery life; down to one of four tabs.
Hmm. What would happen if I called Yukari and asked her for the new battery cell? Would she feign nonchalance? Would she refuse? Hmm. No telling. Either way, that last bar will still hold out for just playing music for another ten hours, anyways. Fuckin? phone kicks ass.
Koishi notices the phone and gestures to it. ?A lot of your music sounds similar, like there?s a recurring theme. What?s up with that??
Oh. Might have an excuse to call Yukari, now. ?One second ? I, uh, need to ask Yukari something real quick.?
She tilts her head, but says nothing, continuing along the path. I punch ?Yukari? into the contact list, and it jumps to her number.
Uncertainty starts dashing about in my mind, making a ruckus, knocking things over, and not cleaning up after itself. Just a moment goes by before Yukari answers, though, so I forcefully clothesline uncertainty and stuff it into a cabinet so I can deal with Yukari.
?Yes, Esifex, what can I do for you?? Fuck that name. You?re using it just to remind me I have to go by that, aren?t you?
?Hey, couple of things. First and foremost, I?m down to one bar of battery life, so if you could send me along another battery for the phone soon, that?s be awesome. Second, Koishi?s asking about my music. Am I allowed to tell her about Touhou??
Yukari answers swiftly, with no hesitation. ?Tell her it?s a series of games, whatever else you want, but don?t tell her it?s based on the local residents. The Hakurei Barrier is designed mostly to keep people out, not in. If you pique her curiosity about the other worlds, she?s liable to try to wander off. That?s the kind of person Koishi is.?
Other worlds, plural? Screw Koishi?s interest, you?ve piqued mine. I?ll find out about that on my own, though, thank you ? telepathy can be very handy for getting unbiased information, I?d imagine.
?So where are you two, now??
?Well, we just passed the roadsign that says ?Next Rest Stop: 3 Miles; Youkai Mountain Exchange, Denny?s, Rally?s, and McDonalds? and we?re coming up to the Gensokyo Interstate. Hell if I know, we?re in the middle of some big giant field with a forest off in the distance.?
?Well, if you want your battery, you?ll have to be a little more specific than that. Otherwise I?ll have to come to you personally, and I?m just ever so comfy in this big easy chair I just picked up.?
Picked up, or stole from some furniture store through a wormhole? Klepto.
?Well, gimme a second and I can scry our location relative to someplace.?
This is a kinda-sizable update, I reckon. I have more typed up beyond this, but it isn't a full scene yet, so, would you kindly wait while I do my best to prepare?
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^_^ I am loving this so much! Seems like Sara/Esifex has a way to avoid Bad End ^_^
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You know, I lurk in and read plenty of these (I need to do more commenting, I know), but I just had to say that your style has really tightened up. You have a pretty distinct voice, and these are a pleasure to read.
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^_^ I am loving this so much! Seems like Sara/Esifex has a way to avoid Bad End ^_^
Seems that way, don't it? :derp:
You're forgetting what this story will be boiling down to.
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And the plot congeals.
Yukari wasn?t actually in her estate, but instead at the Hakurei Shrine, standing in the common room by the kotatsu. The resident shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei, was seated at the kotatsu itself, watching Yukari as she conversed on her cellphone. The Sage Youkai opened a small boundary tunnel and reached in, drawing out a small silver token.
Yukari glanced down at Reimu, and nodded once. The shrine maiden picked herself up from the small heated table and patted herself down, running through a ritual of preparation that she?d done countless times before. Needles, talisman, charms, and the Hakurei Artifact bracers.
She waved her hand through the air, and a floating orb colored to look like a yin-yang orb wavered into existence. She banished it immediately, grabbed her gohei, and nodded at Yukari.
?So, where are you two headed right now?? Yukari asked.
There was a moment of silence while Yukari waited for the reply; Reimu could faintly hear a girls voice from the cellphone Yukari was holding to her ear.
A look of grim determination set into Yukari?s face, and she locked eyes with Reimu.
Time to move.
?About two or so hours out from the Human Village, and we?re headed there in a straight line from Mayohiga.?
Koishi looked up at me. ?You told her where we are? Esi, she knows where we are. You just admitted to her ??
I felt the air pressure hiccup at me as something unnatural happened. I couldn?t place it immediately, but after a split seconds? hesitation I realized I was sensing two more minds.
That hesitation cost me.
A girl in a red and white outfit stepped out from behind Koishi, and waved her arms in an intricate pattern before closing her hands into fists and drawing herself up onto one leg.
?Seal of the Shinto ? Binding Life,? she declared.
I felt as though something had grabbed me by the shoulders and yanked me backwards. I slammed into the ground, hard, and blacked out from the impact.
My sight returned to me a moment later; the black-haired girl was standing over me.
?Hmph. Guess you really aren?t a youkai, after all. That wouldn?t?ve worked on you otherwise.?
I grunt in pain. ?Yeah? Speaking of, if that?s the case, then why are you letting Koishi behind you? That sounds like a bad tactical ??
?Yukari has Koishi. Youkai for the Youkai, human for the human. What?s this I hear about you planning to attack the village? Shouldn?t you know better ? humans are not supposed to fight humans. This is why the spellcard system is there in the first place.?
I sit up. It feels as though I?m moving through molasses ? a lot of resistance to my movements.
?Huh. Been a while since I had to use a bind on a human, guess I?m getting out of practice. You shouldn?t be able to move, at all. Count yourself lucky.?
?I?m so lucky I got attacked with no provocation at all. Woo-hoo!? Even if I didn?t have a weapon at hand, I was always armed with my sharp wit. The most fearsome weapon.
I wrestle my body upright again, climbing to my feet. The red-and-white girl ? Reimu ? circles me, watching as I rise up.
?This is the psyker? Don?t know why I was expecting a Third Eye like the satori, hell; you told me she was a human.?
That?s right ? Koishi, and now Yukari
I crank my head around. It?s getting just slightly easier to move again.
Koishi is locked in place, holding her strange pose that she took that night the tengu captured us. She?s not moving; I try to probe her mind and get nothing.
Just a void. ?What the hell?! What did you do to Koishi??
Yukari steps around into sight. She?s not wearing her poofy dress anymore; instead, it?s more of a Chinese-style Gi with tight leggings. She looks much taller like this, too, unless that?s just a trick of hers.
?Temporal lock. Didn?t want to send her anywhere, didn?t want her interrupting us.?
My cellphone is suddenly in her hands. What the hell?
Reimu comes back around in front of me. ?So, she came from the outside, right??
Yukari waves her hand through the air, and my cellphone takes itself apart. The battery disappears into one of her gaps, and she produces another one. The phone builds itself around the new battery, and Yukari begins to fiddle with my phone.
?Such a selection you?ve got here, Esifex.?
?My name is Sara, dammit. You know this. The rest of Gensokyo doesn?t; let them call me Esifex. You know what my name is. Stop calling me that, please.?
I test myself, and pull my leg forward through the seal as best I can; still thick resistance, but it?s getting easier to move by the minute.
Unfortunately, Reimu notices.
?Seal of the Shinto.? The air thickens around me again, and I?m locked in place properly this time.
?What the hell. What?s going on, Yukari??
Instead of answering, Yukari stops clicking at my phone and studies it for a second.
?Higan Riverside Sunrise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocltngdzcZU)? That sounds catchy.?
I sigh. ?Yukari, dammit, what the hell is going on??
She turns her head to stare at me. She looks stern, an odd dichotomy from the song playing from my phone.
?You?re misbehaving, Sara. You?re a loose cannon, and you?re not doing what I told you to do. If you ??
?I have my own free will! What?s wrong with thinking for myself?! I don?t need you to plan my day-to-day life.?
?To the contrary, Sara, yes, you do. If it weren?t for me, you?d be dead. The time you?ve been living has been borrowed time ? my time. The least you should be doing is listening to my recommendations, if not following them to the letter. Bide your time, be patient, and most importantly, behave, and you would?ve been sent back to your world in due time.?
?You said I?d be better off staying indefinitely. Why are you suddenly trying to change your mind??
Reimu strode away from me towards Koishi, inspecting the frozen satori, leaving us to our conversation.
?I?m not changing my mind. If you?ll recall, I said ?at this time? when I said you should remain here. You?re nowhere near ready to return to your corner of the Earth as you are; you?re too impulsive, too cynical, and too impulsive.?
Reimu looked over her shoulder at Yukari, as though she wanted to ask why Yukari had said ?impulsive? twice. Neither Reimu nor I took the bait, though, and after a moment, Yukari moved on.
?You think too highly of yourself. You lack modesty and humility with your newfound talent. On top of that, you?re being vindictive. The guards out of the village were being out of line, yes, but that?s a part of being human.?
?So is being vindictive. I?m not allowed to be human anymore??
?Beats the alternative?? Reimu muttered. She turns around and faces me again, planting her fists on her hips.
?Look, Esifex, if there?s a problem in the village, let the village handle it. Come to me. Tell Yukari. Send a message to Keine. Follow the established routes. Don?t try to take things into your own hands, dammit. That upsets the balance. There are people here specifically for handling this sort of thing.?
?Well then, pardon me. I was unaware of this fact. Also, my name is Sara.?
?Your name is Esifex now. Unless you?d rather we gave you another name? but you aren?t Sara. You can?t take Sara?s reputation, her name, her identity. It?d be dangerous, for you and her, and for reasons I don?t exactly know, myself.?
?I would?ve assumed Yukari would?ve told you, of all people.?
?Yukari tells people what she wants to, and nothing more. You learn to cope with it after a while.?
Reimu was getting disinterested now; I was stuck in her seal, and Yukari was lecturing me. Her mind was starting to wander. Yukari was sitting on the sidelines as the two of us conversed. Now was my chance.
?Berserker?s Rage!? I flex my arms and close my hands into fists, aided by the spellcard in my efforts to tear myself from the seal. Suddenly, freedom of movement was returned to me as I stepped forward.
?Wha- what the?!? Reimu whirls to face me properly, and twists her forearms, flicking them out. I can catch the slightest glimpse of a pair of metallic-looking bracers on each wrist beneath her detached sleeves; a set of needles slide out into her waiting hands, and a pair of floating yin-yang orbs began to orbit around her. I?m not getting near her, now ? nevermind that I never planned to.
?Intervene!?
For those of us who are unaware of how Warriors work, they have a series of ?rush? style moves. The first is Charge, used to initiate combat; the second is Intercept, to close the distance between someone fleeing from you in combat; and finally, Intervene, which puts you between an ally and their enemy.
Somehow ignoring the effects of inertia by running at speeds well over 45 M/PH, I deposit myself between Reimu and Koishi. Judging by the way Reimu is standing, I just narrowly avoided being perforated by her needles. Four graze points for me.
She whirls to face me, orbs following suit.
I get the faintest premonition that the orbs were about to put themselves right where I was standing, so I duck to the left.
Sure enough, one of the orbs goes wailing past me, right into Koishi. The other succeeds in clipping me, sending me spinning to the ground.
Thankfully, this puts me out of the way for Koishi?s revival. The danmaku that she?d been preparing to channel when she was frozen leapt forth and scattered themselves through the air.
Reimu dropped herself over backwards, keeping herself upright on all fours, albeit upside-down. Koishi?s wave passed harmlessly overhead, and she continued the backflip and came up to her feet once again.
I whipped my head around, looking for Yukari. Thankfully, she was right where we?d left her.
?Now, isn?t that adorable; she?s finally fighting with spellcards.? Somehow, Yukari is sitting in midair, as though she?s perched on an invisible barstool.
I produce my wilderness knife while climbing back to my feet and brandish it clumsily. The orb had hit my arm, and I was starting to get sore already from it.
Reimu spins around another one of Koishi?s shots, and I feel something at my feet.
A neat little row of needles are sticking out of the ground right in front of my leading foot.
?You stay where you are. I?m dealing with you later.?
I flip the knife around into a reverse-handed grip and relax my arms.
Not if I have anything to? think about it.
Reimu looks up from her combat stance and glances around before realization sets in.
?Try as you?d like, you won?t distract me from this.?
Is that so?
Suddenly, Yukari stands upright. ?No you don?t. You?re going to regret that, Esifex.?
My name is Sara! Sara, goddamn you! SARA!
Reimu shakes her head and glares sharply at Koishi, forcing herself to focus through my mental noise. ?A name will do you no good if you?re dead, you know.?
Did Yukari say something to me? No matter. Regardless of what I try against her, I won?t be able to win. Just ignore her and try to focus on Reimu. She?s only human, after all ? there?s a shadow of a chance I might be able to help Koishi, and together, we can win this one.
I focus every whit of my telepathy on Reimu. A stream of consciousness begins to flow through my mind; first and foremost are her memories of a past duel with Koishi. The shrine maiden was drawing on past experiences ? a sound tactic. I?m pretty sure Koishi?s doing the same, but I?m not splitting my attention. I want every bit of cognitive thought in Reimu?s mind to echo through mine.
Almost in unison, Reimu and Koishi launch into the air with such speed that clods of dirt are tossed around in their wake. They?re taking their duel to the skies, where they?re more maneuverable. I begin to see traces of pathways through the air ? potential routes for Reimu to take while in flight.
The effect flying was having on Reimu?s mind was interesting; it?s like she was doing it by habit ? controlling her position in the air with as much effort and thought as I put into breathing. Despite her ease, though, her mind was ablaze with energy from flying, and channeling her spiritual powers.
Speaking of those spiritual powers, those ever-present yin-yang orbs hurt like a bitch. My arm is still sore, so I deposit the wilderness knife back into its sheath.
I figure I?ve been linked up enough with Reimu to have a good amount of synchronization. It?s just about time to ?
Reimu whips her head around and glares at me. In a heartbeat, she throws herself around Koishi?s bullet-spam and slams into the ground in front of me.
?What in the True Hell do you think you?re doing??
With her sudden proximity, I?m regretting holstering the knife ? I could?ve lunged at her and put her on the defensive.
Instead, I have nothing going for me, and no way to defend myself short of scrabbling for the knife again. Through my link with her, I get a split seconds? warning of her upcoming attack.
Back in the mundane world, I changed oil as a job and was, by career choice, a massage therapist. Neither job require hair-trigger reflexes or immense strength. Neither one puts you in danger, makes you accustomed to high-adrenaline, high-speed situations.
As such, the only way I knew what had happened to me was through the echo of Reimu?s sight I was tapping into.
She had lashed out and grabbed a handful of my hair, then yanked my head down into her up-raised knee. On the recoil, she snapped her other leg up and kicked me in the chin, sending me spinning over onto my back.
She was back in the air before I?d even hit the ground, and Koishi had barely even started to move in pursuit of her.
The pain radiating through my head nearly made me break contact with Reimu. Instead, I forced myself to ignore it as best I could and focused hard on Reimu.
Heads up, bitch. You?re about to get one hell of a migraine.
Vacuum Hole ? Instant!
Once again, Reimu had left the skies and was right next to my supine form.
?You don?t learn, do you? Stay out of this!?
She grabs the collar of my tunic, balling up all the fabric from the three layers of clothing I had on and hoisted me into the air. I roll my head forward and try to force my eyes back into function to focus on her, but just manage to get some kind of blurry double-image.
?What?ll it take for you to figure it out??
Focus, Sara. Focus! Now or never!
?There is a system here. Way things are done. And you keep trying to muck it up!?
Now, dammit! Ignore the pain!
I turn my telepathy loose on her. A direct link into her mind, broadcasting as loud as I can, with every bit of her own cognitive thought echoing through the link. If my theory were correct, this should have the same effect on her as reading my own mind would have on me, according to Koishi.
Reimu?s head snaps back as all the muscles in her shoulders tense up at once.
I cheer to myself. It?s working!
Seems I?m all out of ?stupid? now and have moved right on to ?terrible luck?.
Behind Reimu, I see Yukari walk into my field of vision. Despite the calamity of the immediate area, she seems to be very relaxed, though I can?t tell if she has that ?chess-master blank? look or the ?kill-you-dead don?t-fuck-with-me? look on her face. My eyes still aren?t working right, and all my telepathy is devoted to pouring Reimu?s mind into her mind.
Suddenly, Reimu brings her head back upright to stare at me normally, instead of cringing from innervated muscles.
In my shock, I cut off all sources of telepathy. Reimu?s eyes are glowing white, and she is clearly snarling at me.
?You. Don?t. Learn!?
Despite her being roughly the same size as me, she heaves her arm back and flings me through the air. I try to recall her method for flying, but a very painful kick to the mid-section banishes all thought from my mind and air from my lungs. I tumble across the earth, travelers cloak twisting around me.
Just as I feel like my inertia is about to bleed off, I feel myself fall into the ground. No ? wait?
Fuck. Yukari opened a gap under me! I flail clumsily, trying to find some ground to grab onto, to keep myself from rolling in all the way and potentially ending up in space or something.
I dig my fingers into the dirt for a split second, then I feel some other fingers dig into my ribs, my shoulders, my legs, and tug me into the gap.
Terrible luck. I?m deposited right in front of Yukari, on my own two feet ? until my legs give out.
Reimu landed next to me, and somehow Koishi was slammed into the ground on the other side of her.
?Miscreants. Troublemakers. You?re wasting my time!?
I roll onto my side, clutching my stomach. That flying kick hurt, a lot.
Yukari kneels down in front of me. ?You just couldn?t behave. You couldn?t find a shred of modesty, to use some humility as a shield, and instead you had to be brash and headstrong. What else are we to do with you??
Finally my eyes agree to work in tandem again, and I squint through cringing eyelids up at Yukari. There?s something slightly different about her, besides her newfound height.
Wait? why does she have a Third Eye? It?s closed. What the hell.
?I?m sorry you got mixed up in this, Koishi. Even the best-laid plans can go awry sometimes. Especially when you factor in the human element.? It looks like Koishi didn?t get the stuffing beat out of her while Reimu dragged her down here ? just that she was dragged down and dropped onto the ground against her will.
?What are you going to do?? she asked Yukari.
The Sage Youkai straightens up, Third Eye wires noiselessly slipping into place around her. ?She?s so eager to return to her world, to blaze her own path. That?s too dangerous. Not the way she is. She would need to be changed before she?s sent back.?
There?s a moment of silence, during which I take the opportunity to use my telepathy to remote-view the scene.
Koishi is sitting, now, and Reimu is behind her with her arms crossed, glaring down at us. Yukari is standing over me, and I look like I went a few rounds with a meat-grinder. That?s going to leave a mark.
?Changed? Wait ? what are you planning to do, Yukari? What are you going to do?!?
?It?s unfortunate, it really is. Changing her would essentially nullify why she?d need to go back to her world. We have no need for her here in Gensokyo. She is now, essentially, fully dead.?
What? No, wait? hang on? what does that mean?
Icy fear grips my stomach, and I force myself to look up to Yukari with my own eyes. She?s already waiting to meet my gaze.
?Why me?? I mutter at her.
?Because you had potential. You could?ve been the bridge between minds ? the common voice. But you?re too wild ? I see that, now.?
?If you?re going to change me, at least make it so I actually know German. I?ve always wanted to learn it.?
Being bruised and bloodied in the face makes it easier to disguise a ?forced-smile?. Especially when you can?t do anything with your face, period.
Regardless, Yukari sees through it. ?I can tell you know what this means. You, Sara Fransisca Xiao, will cease to exist, and a new personality will develop. You don?t need to try to save face, to act brave. It?s perfectly alright to be afraid of this.?
Koishi opens her mouth to say something, but holds her tongue. I decide to speak her mind for her.
?So, who gave you the right to decide peoples? fates like this??
Reimu scoffs. ?She did. Deal with it.?
Yukari shakes her head at the statement. ?Regardless, Sara? don?t be frightened. Aspects of you will survive. You will, in essence, be the same, just without your memories. Obviously, I can?t return you to your home. You can?t stay here, either. But, fear not; I?m not sending you to purgatory. There are countless other worlds out there that can support life ? that are, in fact, quite hospitable and inhabited by all types of people.?
Reimu blinks at Yukari. ?Thought you didn?t want this one to find out about that.? She?s pointing at Koishi, who was more focused on Yukari?s words than Reimu?s.
?That?ll be taken care of, as well. As for you, Sara??
I turn my attention back to Yukari. She almost looks sad.
?You'll enjoy the Kaleidoscope. Goodbye.? Her Third Eye twitches, and I see it barely open.
The violet iris of Yukari?s Third Eye focuses on Sara?s form with an intensity that Yukari?s body language fails to convey.
Sara?s eyes roll up into her head and she falls limp on the ground with a sigh. Reimu closes her eyes and shakes her head.
Yukari turns from Sara, and her Third Eye droops halfway shut again. Koishi spots it slowly rolling in the socket, and heaves a sigh of her own.
?I assume you?ll be erasing my memories of this, then, won?t you??
Yukari simply nods.
?Then, you know, it?ll be your duty to mourn her. You saved her, brought her here, and finally, killed her. No one else will mourn her ? no one else knew her. It?ll be up to you.?
Yukari?s sad expression softens slightly, and she turns her true eyes to Koishi.
??If I feel like it.? The Third Eye turns to stare into Koishi?s, and the satori lets out a single sigh and slumps over forward.
Reimu looks down at the two fallen psychics. ?And what about me??
Yukari turns to face the human village in the distance. ?What about you? This is just another incident. Come, you can return to your shrine.? She gestures lazily, and a tunnel boundary slipped open next to Reimu.
?Good night, Yukari. You will mourn her, right??
?Good night, Reimu.?
The shrine maiden shakes her head, then steps through the tunnel.
??if I feel like it.?
This concludes the primary story-arc. An epilogue is slowly rolling around in my head; if it collects enough momentum, we'll see if it doesn't end up here.
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Though its double spaced, it's up to 94 pages long.
My primary story - the one that's not related to Touhou or GenMotKyo - is 128 pages single-spaced.
If I undid the double spacing for FFitK, it'd prooooobably end up to being around 65-80 pages long.
That means I could've been adding about four of five more chapters to my book. Do I regret the time spent on this?
Oh, hells no!
Also, thank you for the comments, guys! They're much-needed morale boosters, and the timing really helped me out, too - I've been out-of-sorts because of the procedure and medication I'm going through.
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Oh ho~
I see what you did there.
Good fic. I really liked the humorous aspects.
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I can't believe I waited so long to read the continuation of one of my favourite entries in the WWC.
Oh man, that ending was heartbreaking. The idea that Esifex and Koishi's friendship was ultimately deleted from both of their minds-- oh god, that's easily one of my greatest fears, for such a meaningful memory to just be erased like that.
I will cling to the hope that somewhere, in a part of Koishi's subconscious that Yukari can't touch, she still has vague memories of someone she liked named Sara. :ohdear:
I would love an epilogue to this. This was a great read.
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Credit goes to Sakana for helping me translate Esifex's spoken dialogue into German. Thanks!
EPILOOOOGUE
I roll over onto my side and curl up. Nevermind the grass poking me in the cheek, I can deal with that. The sun shining down on this spot here makes it super-comfy, and I don’t quite feel like getting up just yet.
I feel like I should be worried about something – I can’t remember anything further back than the twenty minutes or so I’ve been awake. Despite this, I’m not terribly concerned. Things will work out.
After about an hour of rolling around in my sunny little glade, I sit up and yawn.
“Hah, das war lahm. Mir ist langweilig!”
Let’s go find something to do, shall we? I open my mind up and begin to scour the land I’m in.
Such fascinating wilderness surrounds me – crags, bluffs, valleys, rivers, even what appears to be a coliseum next to a sprawling village.
The village has sentient life buzzing about in it, very active minds; looks like this’ll be my destination.
“Meine G?te, ich bin ja stocksteif. Das werd ich wohl noch 'ne Weile sp?ren.”
As I walked towards the humble little township, I scryed the residents and denizens. A wildly assorted bunch, each with their own unique abilities and personalities. None of them seemed to react to my minds’ presence, so I assumed I was the only one with telepathy.
It wasn’t but an hours walking until I came into sight of the village. For some reason, I was expecting a wooden gate around it. Instead, it was open, with no confining boundaries. The buildings were stonework and brick, too – something else I wasn’t expecting.
I sensed someone had noticed me, but couldn’t spot them. Perhaps it was a trick of the light? I focused my eyes and my mind in tandem.
Weird. There’s someone standing there, but not standing there. I can see them with my mind, but only when I blink.
To better facilitate this, I close my eyes and get a better scan. It’s a bright, energetic mind, full of bubbly enthusiasm and warm greetings.
“Hiya! Welcome to Mangekyou!” she says. Strangely enough, I hear this both spoken – in English – and mentally.
I open my eyes, and standing before me now is a young girl with a frilly skirt. She looks to be no older than eight, though I can tell she’s far more experienced with life.
She looks herself over, too. “Aw, man. A kid, again? Oh well – it’s better than nothing!
“I’m Chaore, and also a little surprised you saw me there. Not many newcomers can tell I’m here without someone else telling them.”
“Du meinst du solltest eigentlich unsichtbar sein, oder so was?” Sure, I know English, but there’s always an advantage to throwing people off a little.
She tilts her head, and I notice a ribbon tying her hair back into a ponytail. This girl, no matter how old she may really be, is adorable like this, and I’m compelled to pick her up and carry her around. I resist, though, because I can’t tell how the natives will take to me kidnapping one of their own.
“Uh… what?” she begins chewing on the tip of her finger while she tries to figure out what I’d said. I suppose I’ll give her a hint and make known my telepathy.
Sorry about that. I said, ‘are you supposed to be invisible or something?’
Her eyes pop open to their widest and she perks up onto her toes. “Oh, awesome! You’re like a psychic or something?! That’s pretty cool!”
She’s almost hopping from foot to foot in excitement. Um. You didn’t answer my question.
“Oh! Right. Sorry. Nah, not invisible – not really. I actually don’t exist normally unless people are lookin’ for me, you know.”
“Hmm, faszinierend. Sind alle Leute hier so? Ich seh niemand anderen.”
She’s confused again, and I feign surprise, like I’d forgotten she couldn’t understand German. I translate for her.
“Oh, nah. Clearly, you’re new here. C’mon, lemme show you around! There are all kinds of people, and a lot of them are pretty cool! Just, watch out for Erebus. He’s not that friendly if you don't sow fear and discord in your path.”
Koishi rolled over, then snorted as a blade of grass tickled her nose.
Whoa, hey. Sleeping outside. Must’ve been one hell of a party.
She climbed to her feet and rolled her arms, loosening her shoulders. As she stretched, she looked around, scanning the horizon for landmarks.
Oooh, the human village. Wonder what they’ve been up to?
With equal parts enthusiasm and energy, she set off, merrily trotting towards the village.
“Mistress?” Ran had a set of linens folded up in her hands, and was just coming back in from gathering it off the lines. Yukari was staring off into space, looking troubled. “Are you alright?”
Yukari waved her hand aside lazily. “I’m fine. Just… feel like I forgot something.
…oh well, it’s probably not important.”
Keine blinked in surprise. “Koishi. So soon. Where’s Sara? I’ve been looking for her for a while now.”
Koishi returned the surprised blink. “Sara? Who’s that?”
Keine’s eyebrow crept up. “Seems like there’s some explaining to do, for both of us. Why don’t you come inside?”
Death plagues us all, and we can’t escape it. It’s an inevitable fact of life – and it has its frights. It is shrouded in mystery, and our initial reaction to it is to despair. We turn ourselves to faith, to our cultures, to our families to help us conquer our fear of death. We reassure ourselves that there’s nothing to be afraid of.
There isn’t. Death comes to us in many forms, but the important thing to remember about it is not that it’s inevitable – just that it’s an ending. Some things end and we never hear about them again – other times, things end to make way for another wondrous beginning.
So when it comes time for you to breathe your last, be of good cheer – your story is reaching its conclusion, and you’re making way for something else. Death is a harbinger to creation! Fear not. It’s not as bad as it could be.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/kincaidvannekin/librarian.jpg)
This takes place about a month or so before Sakana's 'Life of a Librarian' stories. :B
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This takes place about a month or so before Sakana's 'Life of a Librarian' stories. :B
If you ever wanna write what happens in that time before my story, you'd better say so, or I will do it myself soon :3
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If you ever wanna write what happens in that time before my story, you'd better say so, or I will do it myself soon :3
Esifex becomes reclusive and camps out in the library when she's not sleeping :V
Otherwise, your other various portrayals of Esi have been more or less spot-on; sarcastic, unconcerned, snarky, and psychic.
Esifex's powerset -
Telepathy, of course
Aura reading
Remote viewing
Psycho-synchronization (more or less, mind-hijacking in both directions.)
Ability to scry out the meaning of any written work regardless of language
Ability to percieve Sakana wherever she is wait what no that's silly
And the most important ability of all - Heavily Biased Narration, with a focus on sarcasm and snarky asides
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Hrm... I've been trying to accurately describe how this left me, and I find I can't. I'm a little angry at Yukari, a little understanding, and a little sad. And there's probably a lot more in the back of my head.
However I think the epilogue wraps it all up nicely. Well except for the part where Yukari's mistake bites her, but that's best left the the imagination.
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Hahahaha, Yukari, looks like you're not perfect after all. >:D
Thank you, Keine, you're wonderful as ever. This gets even better once you realize that within a month, Esifex will be conscripted into the Librarians. :3
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Ok, Yukari is my favourite touhou, and this makes me want to punch her. You may have planned it all out, to link it up with other stories, but I'm still not happy that the main character basicly gets killed and no one bothers mourning her. Hell, I like Sara/Esifex a lot, and then the end bit.
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I give a good hearty clap to you. One of the best written things I've seen in a while. Enjoyed reading it all the way to the end. You've taken one of the worst kinds of plots for a fanfic and turned it into something great.
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You've taken one of the worst kinds of plots for a fanfic and turned it into something great.
That caught me off guard - I almost felt like crying from that kind of praise.
Thank you, everyone :O
I think I can honestly say this is my first story that I wrote up for fun, for just writing for myself, that I didn't get bored with halfway through, and that actually got some good feedback. Damn, this feels good.
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Director's Cut
During the final fight scene there, I had a few ideas going on pertinent to Yukari's dialogue there with Koishi.
"'Sorry I had to get mixed up in this'? What?" Koishi stares hard at Yukari, as though she wants to force her way into Yukari's mind.
"You're one of the few people involved who knows the whole story. You're also one of the few people around who'd be able to leave the Barrier, track Sara here down, and undo what will be done. You can't be allowed to remember. I won't touch anything else, I swear by it."
"I had potential? How the hell would you know?!"
Yukari slaps me. "How do you think I knew you were telepathic before you did? How do you think I knew you were different compared to mundane humans? How do you think I knew how you'd behave outside the Barrier? How do you think I know all this?"
I stare up at her, forcing myself to meet her gaze. Unfortunately, I can't maintain it, and I glance down. I blink at the closed Third Eye hovering over her chest.
"Wait..."
"Yes. I'm already telepathic. I'm a demi-goddess, Sara; I'm practically the one responsible for Gensokyo's existence. I know everything that happens here, everything that happens outside the Barrier."
"Then - when we were at Mayohiga - why didn't you -"
"I already knew you didn't trust me well enough. You've got a healthy dose of human prejudice in you - since I acted with an air of authority that you weren't willing to recognize, you stopped trusting me fully. Ergo, Koishi had to come in and act as intermediary."
So nice of you to ask her, first.
"One does not give a goddess permission."
That little bit was cut out because 1)I'm pretty sure Yukari really ISN'T telepathic, and I didn't wanna stray tooooooo far from Canon Touhou, and 2)I don't dislike Yukari enough to make her into a Mary Sue.