Helena looked up from the book of magical techniques Patchouli had lent her and rubbed her eyes. The basics were actually very easy, but the different ways to intertwine spells, and how bullets and magical effects interacted with each other were incredibly complex. It looked like something that would require her to eventually decide on a specialty or three, but for now she just wanted to learn as much as she could.
Stretching she glanced over to where Lyudmila was finishing off her circles. "What is that spell anyway? How can anything be worth that much math?"
Lyudmila frowned at her. "I like math. And It's a universal magical power source."
Helena blinked. "A what?"
"A universal magical power source," Lyudmila repeated. She sketched the lines of the circle in the air and it burst to life, glowing softly. "I thought of it reading about power sources in the outside world. I can link this spell to any magic effect or technological device in existence and feed power into it."
"That's... pretty impressive," Helena said. She looked over the complex lines and runes, wondering how Lyudmila had managed to pack all that magic into such a small rune. "How much of that was Patchouli's work?"
"Most of it," Lyudmila admitted. "She was the one who knew how to set up the interface portion. Still I designed the internal mechanisms to allow it to constantly alter pure magical power from one state to any substate. The math is really quite easy when you start using impossible and irrational numbers correctly."
Helena shook her head. "Any impossible numbers I deal with should go beyond the impossible and solve the problem on their own."
Lyudmila blinked then giggled. "Well that'd be nice too, but I don't think the spell would like that."
Helena smirked. "I suppose not."
As Lyudmila turned back to her spell, Helena looked over to where Kseniya was animating paper frogs with the zashiki warashi. The spirit looked relaxed, which meant now might be the best time to put her plan into motion, before Marisa barged in and messed everything up.
She took her time carefully approaching the two kids, before casually waving to get their attention. "Hey." Kseniya and the spirit both looked, up in surprise, but the zashiki warashi didn't do her usual disappearing act. "We never got your name. What should we call you?"
The spirit faded a little, but quickly recovered. "Shizuka," the girl answered.
"Good to meet you," Helena replied then moved away a bit.
"That's a nice name," Kseniya said with her usual cheer. Shizuka blushed and looked away at that, but the spirit was smiling as well.
Before Helena could congratulate herself on the successful plan, Marisa opened the door and strode in, causing Shizuka to disappear again. "Heya kids. Hope you're ready for a little shopping, because today we're going to the village."
"Are we going to be getting some food other than fish?" Lyudmila asked as she closed her spellbook.
Marisa rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. Look, you're just going to have to suffer the local cuisine. In fact you kids should feel lucky getting weekly meals at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Most youkai don't eat that good, and no human can get rare foods on a regular basis."
Helena grimaced. As much as she hated to admit it, Marisa was probably telling the truth there. "Okay. So what are we buying?"
"The dishes to go with your fish," Marisa replied. "Also some paper and whatever trinkets or clothes or stuff you want to grab. Also you'll get to meet an interesting person or two." Marisa tossed a pouch at Helena which she managed to barely catch. "Don't worry about spending it all, the forest youkai don't tend to bother with money."
Helena opened the pouch as Marisa tossed similar bags to Lyudmila and Kseniya. Inside was a scattering of square gold and silver coins. She had no idea how much that was worth, but it was free money.
Kseniya jingled the bag happily. "Thanks!" The young girl pocketed her papercraft and hopped up. "Oh we should get something to bake with!"
"Well you can decide when you get to the market," Marisa said. "Though you'll probably want to save a bit for the bookstore. Anyway, let's head out before all the good stuff's gone."
"Not sure what we'll find in a village though," Lyudmila muttered as they filed out of the house. Helena could only nod in agreement.
---
"That's a village?" Lyudmila asked as they flew out over the farmland.
Helena shook her head in amazement. The rice paddies and orchards seemed to stretch for several miles, and the 'village' itself was a walled town almost as big as her Nova Thiva. The short buildings suggested that significantly less people lived here then her home, but it was a city in its own right. "How many people live here?"
"We've been expanding a lot recently so about seven thousand people," Marisa replied. "Don't have a perfectly accurate count of course. But that's about right according to Akyuu."
"Why do you call it a village then?" Kseniya asked.
Marisa shrugged. "Well I mean calling it Gensoukyo village would be weird. This is the village where humans live. The only one really."
"We're complaining about the village part, not the name," Lyudmila retorted. "Seven thousand people is bigger than all but the largest cities in the Black Forest."
Helena nodded. "My city is about twice as big, but we're the third biggest city in the realm."
"Huh?" Marisa seemed pensive. "Guess I'm just used to comparing it to Pandemonium." She shrugged. "In any case we should land. It's bad form to fly in the city, and since you kids are new in town it'd be best to follow the rules for once."
The three girls all nodded. Helena hated it, but cities generally didn't like people just flying about. Maybe it was because everyone wanted to imagine their roofs were secure. In any case they'd all been expecting something like this.
Marisa landed at the northern gate and jauntily tipped her hat to the two men standing near the wheelhouse. One of the men actually smiled and returned the gesture, while the other grimaced. Both however gave Helena and her friends appraising looks. Helena and Lyudmila simply ignored it, while Kseniya waved. Only the first man appreciated the gesture, but neither of them spoke out as the quartet walked into town.
That mixed reaction seemed to continue as they meandered along the packed dirt streets of the city. Some looked at them cautiously. Others just looked curiously. Usually their reaction towards Marisa seemed to match their reaction towards Helena and her friends, though occasionally someone would give Marisa a scowl and then give them an apologetic grin.
"Did you grow up in the village?" Lyudmila asked after the fourth man shook his head and closed a door at their passing.
Marisa shrugged. "Kinda? I ran away when I was around ten so I'm not sure if I really grew up here. But a lot of people remember me." Marisa frowned a little. "I've always kinda had a mixed reputation, but rumors about me going full youkai started spreading recently so I'm officially a bad egg now."
"But you are a witch," Kseniya pointed out.
"The people in the village didn't need to know that," Marisa muttered before sighing. "Now I can't steal as many of Reimu's jobs. Otherwise humans will look bad."
Lyudmila frowned. "Aren't witches one of humanity's weapons against overbearing monsters?"
"Yeah, but it's in that nambly pambly make magic weapons and potions and garbage like that role. People get annoyed if you blast it yourself instead of having some hero do the fun work," Marisa threw up her arms to shrug, then let out a deep sigh. "Well that's not here or there." The elder magician's grin returned. "We've got a market to visit."
A few blocks and a quick turn later and said market was before them. Helena was impressed again by the size. Vendors selling summer fruits and vegetables lined the side of the street with their carts, while men and women stood next to open doorways inviting people in to purchase less perishable goods. Trinket sellers and toy makers had their own stalls as well, while town boards held advertisements for all sorts of special order shops.
"Whoa! So cool," Kseniya said with wide eyes.
"It's pretty impressive," Lyudmila grudgingly agreed. "Though where are the rice sellers? There have to be a lot of them."
"Nice catch there!" Marisa chuckled. "Yeah the rice merchants can set up shop wherever they want, because everyone has to go to them. But, the big sellers just make deliveries anyway."
Helena wasn't really impressed by the size. Her own marketplace back home was probably just as large. But the chance to finally wander around a city and buy things was exciting! She'd been stuck in that backwoods cabin for too long. "What's the average price for goods?" she asked Marisa. "I don't want to get fleeced more than needed."
Marisa frowned and thought for a bit. "Well, I don't really know what's common in your realm and what's rare. Patchy said something about one isshuban being about the same as your obol or kopeck. And the nishuban is four times that. That should give you a baseline. And of course I tossed in a one ryo piece for something big. That should be about four drachma?" Marisa shrugged. "I'll keep anyone from fleecing you all anyway. They know I tend to borrow things from cheats."
Helena blinked. From the weight she'd imagined the small coins to be worth much more, not that she was complaining with a four drachma coin in there. "I didn't think a small land like this would have so much silver and gold."
"Comes with having lots of magicians and youkai. For every pound of gold we use up, we create two pounds," Marisa replied. "Anyway, enough commenting on world currencies. Go buy yourself some youkan or something."
"Right!" Kseniya ran off towards a cart with plums and oranges, while Lyudmila walked over towards a stall with what looked like amulets and figurines. Helena walked a bit further into the market before finding a cart selling pastries. She wanted something a little more filling for a snack.
The man running the stall smiled as she approached and gestured towards the small bread balls he was selling. "Good morning miss. Would you like to buy some mochi? One for one silver."
Helena nodded to herself. Those were the sweet cakes that Marisa had brought over once before. "They seem a bit small for that. Three for two?"
"Well, I suppose I can give a young girl like you a bit of a bargain." The man placed three of the mochi pieces in a paper wrapper before handing them over. Helena paid the man then turned back to the rest of the market before pulling out one of the cakes and taking a bite. It was sweet and chewy unlike the pastries she was used to.
She gave the other mochi balls to Lyudmila and Kseniya in return for some samples of the candied fruits and sugar candy they'd found, then continued exploring the market. There was quite a bit of jade, and many stalls filled with odd toys and pets. She had no idea why someone would want to keep a cricket. Bells and chimes of various materials were common as well.
"Do glass chimes have some sort of religious meaning?" Helena mused as they passed the eighth cart selling them.
"Nah," Marisa replied. "It's the sound. Hearing windchimes helps cool you down. Or at least makes the wind seem stronger." Helena wondered if that was true or not.
"So, why there are no metal chimes?" Lyudmila asked.
Marisa chuckled. "Bad Feng Shui. Metal means money. You don't want money leaving the house, so putting up a metal chime is bad."
"Oh, that makes sense," Kseniya said. Lyudmila and Helena gave each other looks, but didn't contest the logic. It sounded like base superstition, but sympathetic magic did work sometimes.
As they continued down the market, they picked out a barrel of sweet plums to add to their stores as well as a few odd and ends. Lyudmilla snagged herself a elaborate pinwheel, Helena got a small jade frog holding a coin. It was apparently supposed to bring wealth, but Helena mostly thought it would look good in the fountain.
They eventually made it to the center of the market area, a square where the fishmongers sold their wares. It was surrounded by taverns and what were probably the most popular shops. Helena looked around, but none of the immediate stores caught her eye.
"Ah! A hat shop!" Kseniya pointed at a two story store with large display windows. Sure enough there were all types of hats headgear and accessories there. "I wanna look around in there."
The young girl immediately ran in, leaving the rest to follow. Helena didn't really want to get a new hat, but there might be some new jewelry for her so she didn't hesitate before entering as well.
As soon as they were through the doors a woman was walking up to greet them. "Welcome. New customers? How rare." The woman bowed, giving them full view of her own elaborately frilled sun hat. "Well no matter where you're from, the Kirisame hat shop is happy to serve you."
"Wait, Kirisame?" Helena asked looking at the woman once again. Their hostess had the brown hair normal to the populace, but her eyes were a soft gold color, and the woman was barely taller than Helena was despite being obviously older.
The woman seemed befuddled at Helena's question. "Hm? Is there something odd about our name?"
"Sorry Megumi, but they kinda met me first." Marisa walked in followed by a wide eyed Lyudmila. "These kids are from a different realm you see."
"Different realm?" Megumi blinked, then shook off her confusion and wagged an accusatory finger at Marisa. "Well that doesn't matter. What matters is you're apparently dragging the family name through the mud. Again. Despite being disowned."
"Hey now, I come from a long line of disowned Kirisames. Family curse and all that," Marisa replied. "Besides they hate me because I'm doing good things for once. I'm running a camp for these kids."
Megumi's frown abated slightly. "Really?" She looked over at Helena and her friends. "Your parents know you're here and everything?"
"Yeah," Lyudmila sighed. Helena simply nodded.
Megumi smiled again. "Well that's fine then. I can even throw in a little discount for helping my cousin do respectable work." The woman turned to Kseniya. "So was there a specific hat you were interested in?"
"Well I like my hat but," Kseniya took her witch hat off and showed it to Megumi, "it's getting a little small for me."
"Hit your growth spurt, eh?" Megumi said. "Well we can work with that. Let's see, if we give this some frills and layers like Marisa's hat there, we should be able to get you something that will last whether you grow up to be tall or," she looked at Marisa with a taunting grin, "even if you don't."
Marisa laughed. "Want me to take off my hat and compare heights with you, cousin?"
The saleswoman sighed. "You win this one." Turning back to Kseniya she selected a buckled hat with a wider brim. "This is the in design this year, though I can promise you the base fashion is very standard. Now if you'll just let me make some measurements..."
Helena turned away from the details and began to look over the other headwear and jewelry the place had. Lyudmila moved over to her side. "You aren't really planning on getting anything, are you," her friend asked.
"Maybe. There are usually some nice accessories in places like these," Helena replied. She shook her head. "It's weird we went into the one store where the owners are related to our 'counselor' though."
"It's more weird that they don't seem to have any problems with us being magicians," Lyudmila replied.
"That's because they don't see you as youkai," Marisa interjected. "Most of the first families were spiritualists or human magicians. Since you lot are still kids, they figure you're just humans dabbling in spiritualism. Most people don't get the whole human youkai magician split."
Helena looked over the accessories. "So how did you end up as a witch while the rest of your family is running a hat shop?"
"That's a long story," Marisa replied. "But this is the clean and honest branch of the Kirisame family, so everything's top quality."
From what Helena had seen, Marisa was telling the truth. There was no fine jewelry here, but a wide array of simple accessories, usually in silver and copper. She looked over the bracelets and torques the store had while Lyudmila idly looked over rings.
"Now that I've helped your friend, was there something you wanted miss?" Helena blinked then looked up to find Megumi had glided right next to her. "Perhaps a different hat for the summer?"
Helena turned to the woman as she shook her head. "I'll be keeping the hat. It helps tell all the drunk nobles to leave me alone unless they want to be turned into a newt by my grandma."
"Eh?" Megumi's eyebrows shot up. "Your home village sounds like a much less... respectful place than ours. Is that why your parents had you come here?"
Helena winced at the slight against her city. "Well there are a lot of nice people in Nova Thiva. Just... not all of the people in charge. We're way better then the Athenians or the Spartans. Anyway I'm looking for bracelets or other accessories."
Megumi didn't seem to accept her defense of the Theban people but turned back to business. "Hm. Your hair really isn't the type for ribbons like Marisa's is. Perhaps a necklace of some sort? Do you usually wear sleeveless dresses?"
"Yeah," Helena said. "Unless it's raining."
"Alright then. Let's look over here." Megumi led her to a table with necklaces torques and forearm bracelets. "We'll have to do some experimenting given you're working with a mixed outfit already, but I'm sure we can find something reasonable. I'll grab some items and you can just nod or shake your head if you want to try them on okay?"
Megumi started to sort through her wares, occasionally turning towards Helena and showing one off for consideration. The items were usually nice, but Helena had to admit not a lot went well with her current outfit.
"So how has my cousin been doing?" Megumi asked as she looked around.
"Um, I can't really say for sure. I mean she and her friends won that mage contest. That was a big deal in the magical world." Helena shrugged. "Around here she just seems normal. Well not normal but everyone seems familiar with her annoying self."
Megumi laughed. "Yeah the main branch of the family were always a bunch of hotheads. It's become something of a legend really." The woman's expression grew more somber. "But our family still worries about her. Especially now that she's changed."
Helena decided not to point out that she was a true magician and instead asked the question on her mind. "Were you close before she became a youkai magician?"
"Not really," Megumi replied. The woman held out a bracelet with far too many gems on it, and Helena shook her head. Returning to the search the woman continued. "Our family branches haven't been close at all. But Marisa's well... unique." Megumi sighed. "We were all certain she'd died when she ran off into the night to become a witch. And when she returned with that evil spirit we were certain she'd become possessed."
Megumi's expression lightened a bit. "And then somehow it turned out she was on the human's side all along. She became friends with the Hakurei maiden, started going out to stop disruptive youkai, and generally helped the village out." Megumi chuckled. "Not that she'd ever put it like that."
"I dunno," Helena mused. "She sounded like she was still interested in the village. Talked about being annoyed that she couldn't act as openly."
"Really?" Megumi smiled. "We were worried you see. She's been spending so much time with the demon witch after all. Well and the puppeteer, but that woman is more reasonable."
Helena hesitated a bit before throwing out one of her grandma's sayings. "Being a witch means bargaining with unsavory characters."
Megumi slowly nodded. "I suppose that's true. And if Marisa's starting to get involved in famous magical duels I guess she's aiming higher than just being a part time magician and full time freelancer."
The woman's attention shifted to a box she pulled out. "Ah! There we go." Megumi held out a thin torque of darkened bronze. "Try this."
Helena slipped the piece on and checked a mirror. The accessory matched her robes and hat without looking incredibly ostentatious. "This is... pretty nice! I like it!"
"Knew I could find something!" Megumi patted her on the shoulders before heading back towards the front. "Now let's see if your little friend is as pleased with her new hat, and we can discuss prices while I make jabs at my wayward cousin."
----
Kseniya was pleased with her new hat, though that was never really in doubt. Even Lyudmila had to admit the white lace made it look more cute rather than severe. Helena was a little worried about buyer's remorse herself, but she found herself happy with her new look even after she'd walked out the door.
After that Marisa took them to a noodle restaurant on a side street. Helena and Marisa both got a soup in a rather heavy pork broth, while Lyudmila got thick noodles in some sauce that burned just to look at and Kseniya got more delicate thin noodles, which she proceeded to spoon peppers on. Helena had no idea why the sisters enjoyed burning their mouths, but given her comments on the matter always led to Kseniya trying to show her how 'good' paprika was, she kept her mouth shut.
"You girls about finished with shopping?" Marisa asked as they finished up their meal.
"I've got my big purchase in," Helena replied.
"Yep!" Kseniya agreed, fiddling happily with her new hat.
Lyudmila shrugged. "I was planning to splurge at this bookstore myself."
"Hm, well getting the owner to sell a lot of stuff is hard, but there should be a few writings she'll actually part with," Marisa mused. "Well, anyway let's head over."
Marisa led them back out across the crowded square, then down a side market towards the west end of town. The crowds quickly thinned, becoming more local residents and buyers who wanted to shop outside the big markets.
As they began walking past the last stalls Lyudmila froze and turned to look at one of the passers by. Helena blinked then followed her friend's gaze. At a glance the woman Lyudmila was looking at just seemed to be a fashion disaster, wearing a garish red cloak with a ridiculously exaggerated collar. However, after a bit of studying Helena could detect the faint aura of a chimera around the woman.
She leaned closer to Marisa and tapped the woman's shoulder. "Hey," she whispered.
"Oi! You kids!" Helena jumped as a nearby windchime seller yelled at them. "Come over here!"
The three looked at each other in confusion, but Marisa feigned a serious air and waved them over. "Go on. You heard the man."
Helena glared at Marisa before walking over to the man's cart. Lyudmila opened her mouth to protest then shook her head and followed, while Kseniya looked confused and worried. When they'd all gotten next to the cart the man leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Listen you kids, I know you're outsiders but this is important. You don't tell that girl that she's a youkai you hear?"
"But she's a Dullahan," Lyudmila hissed in reply. "A headless spirit that slaughters the living."
The man shushed them and looked to make sure the red caped woman was continuing out of earshot before glaring at them again. "Look I don't know what that Dullahan thing is, but Sekibanki there's a rokurokubi. Comes from a long line of them." The man sighed. "Poor woman doesn't even realize it." The man pointed sternly at them. "And don't you dare go telling her! If she learns she's a youkai she'll go crazy or kill herself or both. Keep it nice and quiet and let her go about her life."
Kseniya nodded fiercely. "We won't say a word."
"Yeah," Helena agreed. "No good reason to ruin someone's life."
"So long as you all are fine with it my lips are sealed," Lyudmila said.
The man sighed and relaxed. "Sorry to be so harsh girls, but it's important." He smiled weakly. "Anyway you all can go about your business now. Have fun."
"Right. Thanks for the warning," Lyudmila said as they went back to Marisa.
"Why didn't you warn us?" Kseniya asked when they reached their 'teacher's' side.
Marisa chuckled. "Come along. I'll show you."
The blond magician picked up her pace a bit, leading them down the market street, before turning into an alley. Marisa went about halfway down the side street before turning again. Helena stopped as she found herself looking straight at the woman they'd noticed earlier.
The red caped woman grimaced at her, then looked over at Marisa. "What, going to blackmail me again? Or did you just want to introduce your campers to the town youkai?"
"I'd never blackmail you 'banki. At least not for this," Marisa said. "Just figured I'd have the girls meet you in person so they know not to tell the villagers you're a youkai."
"Huh? But-" Kseniya started speaking but Helena managed to cover the young girl's mouth. She wanted to see what Marisa was up to. Kseniya of course batted her hand away, but Lyudmila had come up and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. Kseniya just pouted and let Marisa continue.
"So yeah, Sekibanki here hangs out in the village. There's a couple of youkai that do that, mostly the ones that are just humans with minor abilities.
Sekibanki frowned. "Hey getting multiple heads isn't a 'minor' ability. And I'd like to see you live without your head attached."
"I'm sure you would," Marisa laughed.
"Excuse me miss Sekibanki," Lyudmila said, "but why do you live in the village? Isn't living with the other youkai safer?"
"Those jerks?" Sekibanki rolled her eyes. "Yeah no thanks. I like having a real house and stuff. Fighting with the forest for a yard seems like a pain. I'll stay here where the fairies are less annoying and people steal my meals less. It's not like anyone who isn't a magician will find me out anyway."
Marisa's smile twisted. "So kids, don't let anyone in the village know about her being a youkai. That would be a problem for her."
Sekibanki nodded. "Please."
"No problem," Helena said dryly.
"It... should be fine," Lyudmila said.
Kseniya looked like she wanted to say something, then just nodded.
Sekibanki sighed and adjusted her cape. "Right, so thanks I guess. Anyway I need to get back to my errands so later." The rokurokubi turned and left.
Marisa waited a bit before turning to the girls and winking. "So there you go."
"But..." Kseniya waved her hands, trying to gather words. "Why? Why let them both think they have the other group fooled?"
"Because they're having fun!" Marisa replied happily. Her smile faded a bit. "And because neither of them would be happy if they knew what the others knew. Sekibanki would be embarrassed that the villagers are all protecting her from herself, and the villagers would be terrified if they knew Sekibanki was a full fledged youkai with powers capable of leveling a house. Maybe they could come to terms, but I'm not gonna be the one to force the issue."
Lyudmila nodded. "It's the same back home Kseniya. We live on the outskirts of town for a reason remember."
Helena shook her head. "Why obsess about chimera and magicians when the gods are more dangerous?"
"Your gods just suck," Kseniya replied. Lyudmila nodded while Marisa shrugged.
"Hecate doesn't suck," Helena muttered. "Anyway at least it means I can stay in the city without people getting all weird."
Marisa nodded pensively. "Silver lining to every cloud, eh? Well I'm sure we can chat more about whose home is the least backward later. Right now we need to get to the bookstore before it closes."
Her civic pride mollified by the promise of books Helena followed Marisa down the streets of the town. As they continued through the village Helena noticed the buildings becoming bigger, and the number of houses that had enclosed yard increased. This was apparently the "rich" section.
Finally Marisa turned off into a small store area. It looked mostly like furniture sellers and seamstresses but on one corner was a smaller two story shop 'Suzunaan.' As Marisa led them towards the entrance a girl about their age ran out, barely avoiding Marisa. "So sorry," the girl said as she bowed then turned and ran off.
"Huh," Lyudmila stared after the girl. "Was she a youkai too?"
Marisa blinked. "I kinda doubt it. The rich people are a whole lot more jumpy about youkai then the rest of the village. The only reason we can wander around here is because we're just magicians."
"She seemed nice," Kseniya mused.
"In the five seconds we saw her," Helena replied. "Anyway, let's check out the books."
Bells chimed as they walked through the entryway. Unlike Voile, this bookstore was more reasonably sized, and far more crowded. Scrolls and writings of all sorts were arranged across shelves and tables, based more on how the objects could be made to fit without damage then organization. Still it was clean, and some of the objects even had prices. Behind the far desk a woman with bells holding her hair up in twintails looked up from her reading and adjusted her glasses. "Ah, welcome to Suzunaan!"
"Heya Kosuzu," Marisa said pulling out a small tome. "I brought another grimoire for ya. Mind if I borrow a couple of books in return?"
"Not a chance Marisa," Kosuzu replied without losing her smile. "You know the rules. One for one trades." She looked over at Helena and her friends. "Oh! Are these the foreign students Reimu was talking about?"
"Bah. Is Reimu spoiling my secrets again?" Marisa pouted briefly before walking over and setting the tome down on Kosuzu's desk. "Well, you're one hundred percent correct. These are the kids suffering through summer camp with me. I'll let them introduce themselves."
"Emphasis on the suffering," Helena muttered. "I'm Helena Aoede."
Kseniya hopped forward. "Hi! I'm Kseniya Doroshenko."
Lyudmila turned from where she was pouring over the shelves. "Lyudmila Doroshenko." She tapped a tome. "You've got a very impressive collection here. But aren't some of these books dangerous?"
"Well a feeeeew are," Kosuzu clasped her hands together. "But I have them under control I promise! And most of them are pretty harmless if you know how to treat them right."
Marisa shook her head. "You've been possessed how many times this year?"
"Only once! The second was a doppelganger so it doesn't count," Kosuzu replied. "Anyway I keep the really dangerous books sealed. Everything up here should be safe. Completely safe."
Helena made a mental note to check any books for curses before she touched them. Still that was something of a good sign. At least the books would be interesting.
"Do you have any spellbooks?" Lyudmila asked.
Kosuzu shook her head. "Not since the last time Marisa visited. Those tend to sell out fast. There's some youkai histories in those shelves, and some magician writings over here. Also there are a number of diaries and picture books if you're interested in researching a particular youkai group. Ah! And of course we have the latest tengu manga."
Lyudmila headed over towards the magician's writings while Kseniya wandered to where the tengu manga was. Helena on the other hand wandered over to where the youkai histories were held. Chimera in her realm tended to be unique, or if there were many like the cyclops they tended not to write their histories, keeping instead to secret epic poems. She was curious as to how a nonhuman race saw the world.
However her investigations soon hit a snag. No matter what translation spell she whispered over the pages the symbols refused to form into words. There were ways around that of course, but they always stole intricacy from the works. It wouldn't be any fun to read, and it wouldn't tell her anything about the writer's thoughts. Sighing she shelved the book she was working on back and began scanning for something she could actually use.
"Having trouble with the youkai writing?" Helena looked up to see Kosuzu smiling down at her.
"Yeah," she admitted. "Maybe one of my aunts could decipher these, but it's beyond me. Why do you even stock books that can't be read easily anyway? The average person has to be less adept at spellcraft then I am. Is it easier for people who speak Japanese?"
Kosuzu shrugged. "I don't know. I spent a few years honing my ability to read, well, anything so I don't have any issues. I know a number of people who learn the writings of the major youkai races as well." The woman frowned. "But that's a problem. There's no point in a book that you can't read. Hm... How to fix that...." Kosuzu thought for a moment then slapped her fist into her palm. "Aha! Of course. You can read Japanese, so archaic Japanese shouldn't be hard at all."
Kosuzu walked over to another shelf and pointed at the bottom two rows. "These are books from the oni, tsuchigumo and other youkai that use Japanese for their writing. You should be able to read those."
Helena leaned down and smiled as her translation spell showed her the titles. "Yeah! That works. Thanks."
"No problem," Kosuzu replied before heading off to help Lyudmila.
Now that she could read the books she found her search progressing much faster. She quickly decided against buying any of the oni books as they mainly focused on drinking, fights and why oni were the best. She could get books like that at home. The writings of futaguchi no onna on the other hand (whatever those were) had a lot more variety in subject, but there was no real community.
In the end she decided on two works from the tsuchigumo, who apparently were spider shapeshifters. One was an epic history of the race, while the other was a series of poems. The epic was somewhat dry and uninteresting, but the poetry was excellent, covering a wide array of subjects from simple daily life and romance, to sweeping critiques of society. And best of all she could tell the poems had several layers of allegory and historical references, meaning every time she managed to chew through some of the epic more of the poem's brilliance would open up to her. She'd be rereading this even when she went back home.
Grabbing the two she headed up to the front desk where Kseniya was buying a stack of manga. Seeing the big volumes were fairly cheap, if cheaply made, she grabbed one as well just for passing the time.
After finishing selling and bagging Kseniya's stuff Kosuzu looked over Helena's purchases. "Ah, that's a fairly famous youkai history there. One of the few I've got multiple copies of. Tsuchigumo histories don't usually sell well though. It's a shame."
"Well I can understand why this one doesn't sell well, but I need it for the other book," Helena said.
"Hm, the poetry?" Kosuzu nodded. "I can see that. These are supposed to be the collected works of a noble, so they use a lot of references." The woman packaged up the three tomes. "Anyway I hope you enjoy them."
"Thanks," Helena said.
She stepped back just as Lyudmila emerged with an armload of books. Marisa whistled. "Huh and I thought I was a hefty reader. That's a lot of material. Planning some spell research or just grabbing anything you could find?"
"Well they had an annotated copy of the 'Hammer of Shades' so I had to get that. And a full copy of the 'Guide to the Created!' Those are rare since the church started burning them. And there's a series of notes from someone who calls themselves 'the Gearmaster' which are all insane, but have great technomagic ideas..." Lyudmila set the tomes down with a solid thud. "There's just dozens of scraps to pick through. I'm surprised no one's looted them before!"
"Well most of that is technomagic or artifice," Marisa said. "There's really only one technomancer and a dozen artificers, and they all use their own styles. Alice is probably the only western artificer, which is why you'll never find a tome on dollmaking here."
"More for me then," Lyudmila replied happily.
Kosuzu shook her head. "I'm not used to so many books being bought at once. But I suppose it's alright since most of those aren't really youkai books."
Marisa sniffed. "Why not? They were written by youkai."
"Magician youkai notes don't count," Kosuzu replied. "And no I didn't just make that up to avoid buying your shopping lists."
"Drat," Marisa muttered.
As Kosuzu and Lyudmila bagged her haul, Lyudmila asked, "Don't you have problems with youkai wandering in? I can tell you've got some very powerful tomes here."
"Well we had a few visitors, but most of them just pretend to be human and buy the books, so that's okay," Kosuzu said. "It's not like they're staying in the village or anything." Helena wondered how likely that assertion actually was.
"Oh?" Marisa raised an eyebrow. "That's different from what you used to say. I remember you getting really worked up about Kokoro way back when."
"The menreiki?" Kosuzu laughed weakly. "Well I was younger then. And she was a little suspicious. Seriously though, Akyuu's the paranoid one."
Marisa laughed. "I suppose that's true. Comparatively."
"Should I be more suspicious of the youkai in my store currently?" Kosuzu replied.
"Yeah, but only because I'm a thief," Marisa said with a tip of her hat. "Later Kosuzu. I imagine these girls will want to loot your collections again in the future, so business should be looking up."
"Well if you have any youkai writings from your realms please consider trading with me," Kosuzu said as they exited. "I don't want to run out of stock."
While they were heading towards the city gates Helena looked over at Lyudmila, "Why a book on flesh golems on all things? I understand the rest but..."
"Oh, yeah those parts are lame," Lyudmila said. "I'm more interested in the theory. Honestly the writer's concepts of magic are some of the worst I've seen, but his theories on the supernatural are pretty spot on."
"She likes the stories," Kseniya said.
Lyudmila shot her sister a dark look, while Helena smirked. "I see I see."
"So you can appreciate blackmail," Marisa said. "I was afraid you were completely dull." Helena's smile vanished. "Anyway the rest of the day is all yours."
Leaving the village was just as easy as getting in. The guards gave them a little closer look, but they mainly seemed to be focusing on Marisa rather than Helena and her friends. After they were through the gates and on the road they took to the sky.
As they flew back Lyudmila pulled up next to Marisa. "I'm kinda confused about things here. All of the villagers seem really worried about youkai, but the village is practically crawling with them. Not just the bookstore, but that dullahan as well. And if they have house spirits they've got to let them in their houses. It seems so contradictory."
"It is," Marisa replied simply. "And there's more then that. You don't think the fish all come from the streams here do you? The wood is mostly from human loggers I'll admit, but all of our metal is brought in from outside too. And all those rich merchants aren't just selling to noble houses. Gensoukyo village is pretty much a youkai based economy."
"But why?" Kseniya asked. "If the humans rely on youkai so much why do they fear them so much?"
"Or at least pretend to fear them so much," Helena remarked.
Marisa shrugged. "It's... complicated. And don't think it's just the humans either. All the youkai around talk about how they don't really need humans anymore, but they're dependent on the village for all the luxuries they adore. Remilia's furniture doesn't appear out of nowhere you know, and while not many youkai are as ostentatious as vampires, most of them aren't willing to give up the human trappings they picked up. Sure the tengu and kappa can do their own thing, but that's a small minority of youkai. The rest are dependent on the village to let them continue living half in the wild and half in civilization."
Helena mused on those words for the rest of the flight. Gensoukyo was far more complex than it seemed.