Keine Quest: The Broken and the Lost

[DracoOmega]

> "I'm just gonna check the graveyard for a bit before we go Rumia"

>"Sure!"

> Check to see if anyone we know ended up......here

> Keep an eye out for other people

>You slowly walk among the graves, trying to survey them as clinically as possible. This isn't easy, even for you. Much of the graveyard is the same as you remember it, but there is a considerable number of new grave markers in one section. There are... a lot of names you recognize here. People who you'd spoken to yesterday, even. People whose tests you'd just corrected. People you were getting ready to complain to about said tests, yet again. It's extremely chilling. After a while, you start to notice a pattern of dates. Nearly all of these people died six years ago.

>After a little while, you become aware of a silhouette kneeling underneath the shadow of a tree. How long had you been standing near it? You... think you forgot about where you were for a moment.

[Doll.S CUBE]

> "Hello who's there"

> Get a closer look at that silhouette

[DracoOmega]

> "Hello who's there"

>"Oh, hello. I didn't notice you there." The voice is quiet and poised.
>The form stands up. She seems to be wearing a frilly dress with elaborate ribbons.

>As you walk closer to her, you grow increasingly uneasy, almost like you were walking into an emotional smog. It's a strange and off-putting sensation. Rumia stops following you after a couple steps and flies back a few feet. "The creepy lady makes Rumia feel funny. Rumia's gonna wait over here.". You see her land on a larger stone grave marker and dangle her legs over the edge, swinging them back and forth.

>You've never met Hina Kagiyama before, but you are familiar with her existence, and the figure before you matches depictions of her you've seen. That would also explain the sensation of ill ease you feel around her. It's apparently not unusual. She can't have a lot of people who'd want to stay close to her for any length of time, at this rate.

>"Greetings, stranger. A great deal seems to be troubling you. Can I help?"

[Doll.S CUBE]

> "Yes, er, I'd like to know what happened to this Village, if it's not too much trouble"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I am Keine Kamishirasawa. And...I'll try to explain the rest later. For now, just pretend I've been missing for years. It's easier that way."

[DracoOmega]

> "Yes, er, I'd like to know what happened to this Village, if it's not too much trouble"

>"I am Keine Kamishirasawa. And...I'll try to explain the rest later. For now, just pretend I've been missing for years. It's easier that way."

>"Very well. Greetings, Keine Kamishirasawa. I am Hina Kagiyama. And this village is my home and my duty, and my sorrow."

>"I do not know all of its history, as I was not here to witness it. But I may still be able to tell you a little."
>"This village was abandoned 4 years ago. I came to know of it when the humans began their exodus to worship the new goddess of the mountain, and live in the shelter of her protection. This place was cursed to them. Not in the sense you might think of the word. No magic was placed upon it. Yet, the specter of tragedy can taint a place as surely as any magic. She offered them salvation, and they were grateful to accept."
>"I exist on the sustenance of people's misery and misfortune. It is an irony that my existence depends on the suffering of others, when I would wish for nothing more than that these people's sufferings could end. But that is why I am here, of course. Consuming misfortune is not just my lifeblood. It is my duty. There may be no place in Gensokyo where so much of it still lingers. I wish for the cloud of misery above this village to end, so that life could bloom here once more. This is why I am here."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Where did it start, this tragedy?"
>When did we leave? Post UFO/12.3 times?

[DracoOmega]

>"Where did it start, this tragedy?"

>"I do not know for certain, but I suspect that the Year of Winter is what ended this village. That year was hard on many of us, but humans are so very frail. I imagine many of them simply starved to death."

>When did we leave? Post UFO/12.3 times?

>If you're asking if these events had transpired in our home timeline by the start of this, yes. You were currently engaged in writing down the history of Byakuren and her followers.

[Hello Purvis]

>Sigh.
>"You didn't recognize my name. That's...disturbing. Have you heard of the hakutaku at all?"

[Doll.S CUBE]

> Yes, now were definitely sure the change happened between the Scarlet Mist and the Winter Incident.

> "Would you know what happened to the Hakurei Shrine?"

[DracoOmega]

> Yes, now were definitely sure the change happened between the Scarlet Mist and the Winter Incident.

>Yes. No one in the village you lived in starved to death, during the long winter. But it wasn't a Year of Winter, either...

> "Would you know what happened to the Hakurei Shrine?"

>"I had heard tell that it no longer exists, but I do not know if this is true. And if it is, I do not know what happened. The border seems the same as always."

>Sigh.
>"You didn't recognize my name. That's...disturbing. Have you heard of the hakutaku at all?"

>"No, is there some reason I should have recognized you name? And... are you hakutaku? Forgive me, you seemed so... human."
>She pauses, and then her eyes suddenly widen. "Did you live here?" she asks insistently.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yes."

[DracoOmega]

>"Yes."

>She stares at you for a moment, considering. Finally she speaks again. "I'd never known what to make of it. The human who is not human...."
>"Before I explain that, you said I should pretend that you have been missing for years. Why is that?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Because, from everything I can tell, I have been. For three years. As well, much has changed..."

[Seian Verian]

> "I have no memory of any of these events. According to what I remember, this village was still inhabited for the past four years, the Hakurei Shrine still exists, and none of this destruction happened. I even saw something in my handwriting, signed by me, from years ago, that I do not remember writing."

[Hello Purvis]

>Offer a shrug. Because, for reals...

[DracoOmega]

>"Because, from everything I can tell, I have been. For three years. As well, much has changed..."

> "I have no memory of any of these events. According to what I remember, this village was still inhabited for the past four years, the Hakurei Shrine still exists, and none of this destruction happened. I even saw something in my handwriting, signed by me, from years ago, that I do not remember writing."

>Offer a shrug. Because, for reals...

>"That is... very strange. I do not know what I can say to that, but... I do not feel you are lying. The taste of your suffering is not like that of an old wound."
>"Very well, Keine Kamishirasawa. I will explain something to you that I have been told in confidence, but which I feel you should know. Perhaps all the more if you do not, yourself, remember. There is a woman who lives here in the village with me, whose sorrows number perhaps even greater than those buried here. I do not know what her own demons are, but... she can hear the whispers of the dead. There are many here who refuse to pass on. She tries to comfort them in a way that I cannot. Sometimes, she has shared with me what they have said. It is not like language that you or I use. Sometimes there are images, or impressions. She does not always know what she sees. But there had been a recurring image of a human, who was not quite human."

[Kasu]

> "Oh geez...  Also, the reason for this is most likely because I'm a were-hakutaku."

[Doll.S CUBE]

> "Did she tell you the description of that person?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Ponder if this sounds like anyone we know, a ghost talker.

[DracoOmega]

> "Oh geez...  Also, the reason for this is most likely because I'm a were-hakutaku."

>"Ah. This is possibly so."

> "Did she tell you the description of that person?"

>"I don't think there was a description to tell. Like I said, she cannot communicate with the kind of clarity we might have. But there were memories these people had. I think... I think you may have been one spot of hope in their desperation."

>Ponder if this sounds like anyone we know, a ghost talker.

>Well, it's certainly an unusual ability for one to have. Besides, the dead do not usually linger in the land of the living, as best you know. Most travel to the Netherworld for a time, until they are ready to pass on. ....wait a moment.

[Doll.S CUBE]

> Something must happened to the Netherworld since Reimu and co. weren't there to stop that incident

[MysTeariousYukari]

> "I think I know what happened... for what I remember, the Year Long Winter, was only about a month or two longer then normal, rather then the Year you said. Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame ventured into the Netherworld to bring an end to the abnormally long winter. But here, Reimu has not been around for at least 7 or 8 years I'd say, and Marisa apperently dissapeared after the Scarlet Mist incident, 6 years ago, if my assumptions are correct. A 3rd person, from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, also ventured to stop the long winter, but with all the differences, she might have never ventured out at all. No one to stop it, it claimed so many lives..."
> Let the tears start flowing, many people we knew are dead, including some of our students.
> After we calm ourselves again, "Hina, tell me, do you know of any of the following people? Fujiwara no Mokou, Yukari Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Remilia Scarlet, Kaguya Houraisan or Eirin Yagokoro."

[DracoOmega]

> "I think I know what happened... for what I remember, the Year Long Winter, was only about a month or two longer then normal, rather then the Year you said. Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame ventured into the Netherworld to bring an end to the abnormally long winter. But here, Reimu has not been around for at least 7 or 8 years I'd say, and Marisa apperently dissapeared after the Scarlet Mist incident, 6 years ago, if my assumptions are correct. A 3rd person, from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, also ventured to stop the long winter, but with all the differences, she might have never ventured out at all. No one to stop it, it claimed so many lives..."

>"That is.... how is it that you can claim to remember events which did not happen?"

> Something must happened to the Netherworld since Reimu and co. weren't there to stop that incident

>That does seem distinctly possible. Certainly, multiple things point to a change in events around this point in time

> Let the tears start flowing, many people we knew are dead, including some of our students.

>As you let the realization of how things must have unfolded here sink in, you find it hard to restrain your tears. So much needless death. So much... You start to cry freely. Eventually, you become vaguely aware of Hina's presence over your shoulder. She seems to be whispering gentle words of comfort. You hadn't even noticed her move. Eventually, you stop and dry your tears. You imagine you look like something of a wreck now, but you find you can't really care.
>"I am sorry for your pain. You have gained a great deal of misfortune in a very short time. Regardless of whether I believe you, it is clear that YOU believe you. People's pain cannot lie."

> After we calm ourselves again, "Hina, tell me, do you know of any of the following people? Fujiwara no Mokou, Yukari Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Remilia Scarlet, Kaguya Houraisan or Eirin Yagokoro."

>"I'm afraid that I have always lived a reclusive life. My aura disquiets people. I have learned to accept it, and in some ways, it is better for everyone for me to remain at a distance. Still, it makes me sad that I cannot provide more useful information. Yukari is of course known to me, but her movements and motives are known to no one. Remilia still dwells in her mansion upon the lake. The other names mean nothing to me, I fear."

[Hello Purvis]

>Once we feel up to talking again: "There's another thing I'd like to ask. There was a youkai I met. I think it was a youkai, in any event. She had wings, and being near her made me very drowsy. Does this sound familiar at all?"

[DracoOmega]

>Once we feel up to talking again: "There's another thing I'd like to ask. There was a youkai I met. I think it was a youkai, in any event. She had wings, and being near her made me very drowsy. Does this sound familiar at all?"

>"I'm afraid I've never heard of such a youkai. Perhaps someone else might be able to be more helpful."

[Doll.S CUBE]

> We still need to find out what happened at the Scarlet Devil Mansion to know what happened between then and the Winter Incident, say our farewell to Hina, lets go to the Mansion. Don't forget Rumia

[DracoOmega]

> We still need to find out what happened at the Scarlet Devil Mansion to know what happened between then and the Winter Incident, say our farewell to Hina, lets go to the Mansion. Don't forget Rumia

>You bid farewell to Hina, and start westward. Rumia flies back over to you once you're a safe distance away from her.
>"You were all sad, again, weren't you?" She frowns. "Rumia will work extra harder this time!"
>You leave the western edge of the village, following the road. Rumia bobs along behind you. After some time, the lake comes into view in the distance. The visibility there is actually pretty good at the moment. It lives up to its name mostly around noon. Taking a quick scan of some of the landmarks, you have the strange feeling that the lake seems... further away than normal?

[Hello Purvis]

>If the lake is further away than it should be, try to figure out what is filling this extra distance between us and it.

[DracoOmega]

>If the lake is further away than it should be, try to figure out what is filling this extra distance between us and it.

>It's difficult to tell, at first, so you move closer. The terrain in the area is mostly the same as it was closer to the village: gently sloping grasslands dotted with small stands of trees. But as you survey the land going from you towards the lake, the grass abruptly stops and is replaced with a bed of irregular rocks that continues for at least 100 feet until the water itself. The entire lakeshore, as far as you can see, is made of the same sort of terrain now.