Imagine a world where adults no longer smile and children no longer dream. The black smoke of industrialization blots out the Sun; the world lost its light when the last stages of modernisation and Capitalism stole away futures, dreams, and fantasies. Totalitarian democracies dominate the landscape, creating states of fear, uncertainty, and anxiety in an increasingly apathetic populace.
All art forms have been explored; all modern art is either offensive or a rehash of previous art forms. Children no longer play imaginatively with toys; they stay home playing electronic games, experiencing dreams manufactured by committees. Adults ponder the sky, but stare at their feet with imaginations castrated.
Space exploration is no longer driven by curiosity, but greed. Charities are driven by profit, rather than benefit. Few people in the modern world experience true friendship, because few appreciate it. To Lewis, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it.
Why has the Faustian nature of humanity run amok? Why has their contract with Mephistopheles for scientific truth destroyed their great culture? Why have the warnings of the Modern Prometheus been completely ignored?
This setting is the world outside of the land of illusions. It is a cold and bureaucratic world, where human minds are infinitely close, yet human hearts are infinitely far away. The brocken spectre is a mere reflection of the ultimate reality. The smoke of industrialization continues to blacken out the Sun.
From the abyss deeper than blackness, it is the shadow cast by the light of SCIENCE!★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
"We now present Professor Okazaki, our youngest departmental representative of this year's lineup. Give her a round of applause."
A certain professor of theoretical physics walks in front of a huge auditorium, participating in the largest symposium in Japan hosting the latest research in mathematics, philosophy, and the sciences. Her heart swells with pride as she hears the clapping and feels the gaze of hundreds of the world's most brilliant minds. Her heart races, her pupils dilate, and her breath quickens, as she awaits in anticipation to reveal of her newest, most daring, most drastic idea which will change the face of scientific discourse forever!
She slams her hands on podium.
"Physics, philosophy, anatomy, and theology. With ardent labour, I've studied it all. Magister of Science. Doctor of Philosophy. Already so many years I lead! But I finally realized, in truth, that there is nothing we can truly know! Such revelation burns deeply within my sorrowful heart, but there is hope!"
The lone German literature professor attending the symposium raises an eyebrow.
Hemmed in by books most esoteric and rare, Okazaki Yumemi suddenly leaps up on the podium, shaking an angry fist with fire brimming in her eyes. "I'm smarter than every single one of those damn philosophers, physicists, religious nutcases, and mathematicians combined! Why do I pretend to teach, finding a means of righting mankind? I give no care to worldly rank, prestige, or pleasure (except strawberries ♥). Like Sartre, I refuse to be an institution to the University!"
The entire Mathematics and Physical Sciences department starts making funny faces.
"Therefore, I propose the
Non-Unified Magical World Theory. A force not confined by the flaws of our
Unified Theory. A beacon of light bringing forth new revelations of spirit-voice and might.
Magic is the force which binds creation's inmost energies; her vital power and embryos seeds shall wipe the empty words of
String away!"
From her newly published paper
"The Non-Unified Magic World", the guest comedian starts copying down material for his next gig.
She points to the sky, with tears streaming down her cheeks, "Ever the lonely night, the rays of the full moon brushed my anguished gaze. Standing upon this very desk, at the dead of night, often I have been purged of these cursed academic knowledge fumes! Freely across the meadows in my mind's eye, I saw mountain heights and majestic hills. A beautiful Arcadian valley watered by a rivulet! Why am I still imprisoned in my stupid, stuffy office! Imprisoned by boxes and book-heaps, assaulted by dust and mold, and often tripping painfully over some stupid useless scientific instrument my idiot famulus brought in..."
The usually staunch and disciplined Religious Studies professors are nearly asphyxiating holding back their laughter.
"I'm in despair! I'm in despair that the lunar light passes only dimly through this thick windowed glass! "
The entire Philosophy department is foaming from its mouth and twitching on the floor. The janitor in the back bellows in despair, "God is dead!"
"Yet guided by my proper hand, we shall be able to divine the true meaning of each hallowed sign. By the lunar dew, we shall open a new chapter in mankind's quest for higher knowledge. So come with me, and together, we shall percieve the true nature of the
Macrocosmos~♥"
"Frau Doktor Okazaki!" the professor of German literature heckles, "I never understood Buddhism either!"
The entire audience roars in excessive laughter.
★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
"Master~" says Kitashirakawa Chiyuri, Yumemi's faithful famulus, as she balances a steaming tea set, gently knocking on the door labeled:
OKAZAKI
Comparative Physics, PhD
She hears a heated discussion going on the other side of the locked door.
"If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe disagrees with Maxwell's equations ? then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation ? well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation," lectures Professor Arthur Eddington, the head of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences department.
"But it doesn't!" Yumemi complains, "
Magic..."
"Umm, Master?" says Chiyuri, slightly sweating, "Is it such a good idea to mention
Magic in front of our sponsoring member of the Royal Astronomical Society? They've funded most of our projects outside of our stipend until now."
"Miss Okazaki, scientific papers written by faculty must meet at least a certain minimum standard of professionalism and demonstrate a willingness to be criticized and improved; the quality of our papers directly affect the repute of our University." says Professor Eddington, "You've been one of our most prolific researchers over the past few years and we're very greatful for your contributions, but that last conference was an
embarrassment to the University!"
He sighs and massages his temples, "Our critics in the Liberal Democratic Party cited
"The Non-Unified Magic World" as an example of money being wastefully spent on their current renewed attack on higher education. There's been internal pressure to cut the University's public funding. Everyone has agreed that you need to make a public statement that your newly published paper was a
joke. It is the only way we can keep the situation from further deteriorating."
Yumemi stares at him in complete shock.
"B-but..."
"Your funding shall be cut, all equipment in your personal lab shall be returned to the University, and all sample data shall be confiscated for review. You'll also be placed on a six-month probation and your remaining tenure will be reviewed by an anonymous committee of your peers. I am sorry, but there is very little I can do to defend you at this point."
★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
"Master~" says Kitashirakawa Chiyuri, Yumemi's faithful famulus, as she balances a steaming tea set, gently knocking on the door labeled:
OKAZAKI
Comparative Physics, PhD
On Probation Until Further Notice
"Please unlock the door. Please don't hang yourself."
"Sniff... I want to die~"
"We don't have to teach classes for while. Why don't we take a vacation in Kyoto?"
"There is nothing for me here~ Waaaah..."
Chiyuri hears someone kick a box on the other side of the door.
She then sees a swinging figure past the thick glass on the door.
"Man, I was afraid of that..." (sweat)
After the completely humiliated Yumemi became the laughingstock of the academic world, after all of her friends and colleagues turned against her, and resenting that the only skill her stupid famulus had was at making tea, she locked herself inside her office and refused to come out for three days. Poor girl.
★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
Chiyuri leisurely walks alongst a portion of the circular perimeter of the campus, covering 200-plus buildings over 1,500 acres. Gigantic concrete barricades and gabions surrounds the campus, relics of a not-so-distant past, projecting an atmosphere of totalitarianism and urban decay.
"Man, the future looks too boxy." (sweat)
The University was built during an era of large-scale, and often extremely violent, student protests throughout the country. A series of secret tunnels were constructed underneath the campus serve as an entryway for anti-riot police, and if necessary, the JSDF. The circular design of the campus was meant to facilitate the boxing and compartmentalisation of protestors. The recessed windows once served as hiding spots for police and military snipers, who targeted leaders and slipped away forever.
"There it is," says Chiyuri, as she stops by an ancient, dying cherry blossom tree. A once majestic trunk withers from hunger and sickness, its height is overshadowed by the Brutalist and top-heavy massing of the University architecture. Neither nature nor concrete have aged gracefully; they instead crumble, stagnate, and decay.
"There you go," she says sweetly as she pops a small vial and dumps its contents onto the roots of the cherry blossom.
There were things the University's shareholders absolutely forbade their professors from purchasing and experimenting with, citing lack of interest, commitment, and money. The University placed a moratorium on all biochemical research to ensure a monopoly of extremely lucrative research contracts with a large pharmaceutical firm. No researcher in the University's employ dared compete with the firm's monopoly. Yumemi simply experimented with her mad science in secret, despite knowing that if her activities was ever discovered, she'd be fired. One such experiment was a small revitalizing solution Yumemi personally formulated, studying traditional eastern medicine during her spare time.
The roots of the cherry blossom tree desperately absorbs the pungent serum, regaining a modicum of liveliness. It's still early spring... perhaps it can blossom once more... One last flowering, before the its ephemeral beauty slowly drifts away with the wind forever.
She backs away from the tree and examines its dessicated branches. They completely meld into the shadows.
"The tall buildings are blocking all light from reaching the tree," Chiyuri reasons, "Cold and withered. The concrete skyscrapers are suffocating it..."
Two-hundred buildings covering one-thousand five-hundred acres of land...
Sixteen square miles of oppression and misery paved upon a tired soil...
"Time to head back, I suppose."
★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
Despite her ideas and enthusiasm, Yumemi never recieves her fair share of the University funding because nobody cares about what she wants to say; she doesn't want to research what other people want her to research. They want her to write papers about the success of the scientific community's newest pet theories, and defend them from the challengers to the status quo. Theories which offer the most potential for grant money.
To not only refuse to partake in such politics, but also to go so far against the scientific establishment, to suggest Magic, is tantamount to academic suicide. But Chiyuri trusts Yumemi completely, not just as her colleague, but also as a friend. History will vindicate them.
"Master used to be such a workaholic, but now all she does is lay in bed and cry herself to sleep," Chiyuri sighs, "The complete shock of suddenly having absolutely nothing turned Master into a vegetable."
Chiyuri arrives at the entrance of the now vacant office, staring at her mentor's empty chair, and sighs again. Her mentor's desk is a complete mess of multiple laptops, papers flung everywhere, and arcane books of the occult and magic. The apparent disorganization is deceiving, however. As a long-time friend, Chiyuri looks up to her mentor as the last vestige of creativity in the stagnant field of physics; the final auteur in a field dominated by old men and old ideas.
She feels she is in the same position as Antonio Castelli four hundred years ago; it's their role, their duty, to encourage their mentors to bring about a new scientific revolution from a largely stagnant field which is mostly built upon, but could not contradict, principles espoused by the dominant cultural waves of its epoch.
Indeed, scientific progress is not characterized by the competition of ideas, but rather the supplantation of old ideas by new ones which come in vogue; as old blood holding onto old ideas dies off, and new blood enters the scientific lifestream carrying new ideas, only for the new ideas to become old again in the ever-changing river of scientific history.
The flow of petals gently drifting down a calming stream.
She boots up one of Yumemi's stolen laptops, twiddling her thumbs as its solid state circuits warmed up.
"Now, where can we go for a nice, long vacation?"
★~//~//~//~//~//~//~★
A/N:
I have mixed feelings about this fic. It completely flies in the face of everything associated with Touhou. This fic will take place completely in the outside world... just what kind of fic dare call itself a Touhou fanfic, yet never take place in Gensoukyo? Academic politics and social commentary in Touhou?
Well, like a pendulum swinging between two binaries, all texts are unnatural. They detest whatever is natural.
Anyway, I hope you guys will welcome me to the community! I'm a math major with a strong technical writing background; this fic is my first venture into the world of creative writing. I'm ignorant of the greater Touhou franchise, so if you spot any deviations from canon, please let me know.
...
Really? You expect me to know the personalities of 100+ characters whom, for all I know, dress like hipsters? I can't even pronounce half of their names, man. *gets shot*
