>Would_we_need_to_whisper_to_the_seed_that_whole_time?
>Will_whacking_at_a_seeded_object_disrupt_the_illusion_even_if_the_seed_itself_is_not_struck_directly?
> Do we have any pockets where we could put the sword handle such that it wouldn't easily flop out to the ground from activity?
Urgh, fine, I'll give this a shot, if everyone else is just going to die.
> Nod back.
> Put the sword pieces back into our purse, and pull out our remaining Seed in such a fashion that Kay cannot see it.
> Use our remaining free hand to ready our trident again.
> While keeping eyes trained on Kay for any sudden movement, begin telling the seed what we want it to do: a change of color to solid black and a sensation of extreme cold, but not to leave us just yet.
> Can we shoot danmaku with our seed hand without damaging the seed?
> Is the fence still behind us?
> Could we materialize danmaku in a sweeping pattern just by swinging a closed fist or a hand that's otherwise holding something?
> Is it any amount of extra difficulty to manifest danmaku from anywhere, like a shoulderblade or the bottom of a foot or whatever?
> Could we manifest some behind him moving toward him?
> Would we have to make an obvious summoning motion?
> Where would the firing noise come from, us or the spawn point?
> Narrow our eyes and hold the trident diagonally in front of us in a defensive position while still talking to the seed.
> If we can do so while trying to talk to the seed, try summoning a few amulet shots behind him to fly toward him.
> In which direction did he leap?
> Swing our trident in a sweeping motion in front of us, spawning outward-firing amulets in its wake following the sweep path.
> Which arm is his shield arm, again?
> Can we do slight distance danmaku from more than one angle at once, such as from a person's direct left and directly behind them?
> Summon another couple of amulets behind him coming toward him, then follow that up as soon as possible with a second trident amulet sweep.
> How large is the seed compared to our pockets?
> Pocket the seed for the time being. Hopefully we'll be able to get back to it soon enough.
> Start running toward Kay ourselves, firing more amulets at his upper body with our former-seed-now-free hand.
> How close are we? Is he within trident melee range?
> No, that's fine, but stop here.
> Fire another burst right at his face and make a game note as to whether he uses the shield to block or just tries to dodge it outright.
> Does it block his view of us?
> Fire another quick burst with our free hand at his face area in such a way that he would have to obscure his vision with the shield to block it.
> The instant we're done firing, use our trident hand to lunge the trident forward between his legs, grabbing onto it with our free hand as quickly as possible.
> As soon as the trident is between his legs, twist-swing it clockwise as hard as we can, turning it as if it were connected to a thin vertical pole running straight down through his head and body. The goal of this action should be to catch him in the back of the knee/leg, tripping him and/or buckling his leg and knocking him to the ground.
> Sweep a quick kick at the back of his front leg's knee. If his front leg is his left leg, use our left foot, and if his front leg is his right leg, use our right foot. Pull the trident back while kicking if it's going to be in the way.
> Pull the trident back and let go of it with whichever hand is directly opposite his sword hand. It should be our left hand, assuming I remember him being a righty correctly.
> Fire a burst of amulets at his collarbone area with our free hand while simultaneously swinging the trident at his side (the side with the arm that holds the shield with our trident hand.
> In a stabbing motion?
> Jump-fly back and to our right, swinging our trident in whatever direction is necessary (up?) to crash into and deflect the sword.
> At the same time, pull our left arm straight back while keeping the hand more or less trained on him, and if we don't get hit by wherever the blade happens to go, fire some more amulets at him.
> Keep firing with the free hand so he keeps the shield up.
> While firing, take a swinging hack at the back of his left knee (on our right side) with the trident.
> Swing it upward at his shield elbow while shifting our danmaku hand firing focus to shoot at his torso.
> What kind of footwear does he have going?
> How's that shoulder of ours holding up?
> Where is his sword at present?
> Do we have any knowledge of this melee bloodlessness 'art' or do things typically bleed when we stab them?
> Such foul language from a gentleman in front of a lady!
> Let's try switching things up. Swing the trident toward the side of his head while turning our fire focus to his left knee area. Ideally, if the trident makes contact with him, it will be with the side of a tine instead of one of the points. Don't want to put a hole in his head.
> Jump a bit forward and to the right, hovering right before we land.
> Resume the diagonal-across-our-body defensive stance with the trident while keeping our free hand trained on Kay, but don't fire just yet. Keep a close watch for sudden and/or unusual movement.
> Frown.
> Sheath the trident, then pull out and connect the broken sword again.
> Nod.
> "All right. That's probably for the best, since battle where I come from have been known to go until one person is knocked out, and I think that would be rather inconvenient right now regardless of which of us went down."
> Wince a bit.
> "That and my shoulder's still killing me."
> "Possibly. But that doesn't stop it from hurting like hell. I'll get over it, though."
> "What do we do now? I'm kinda wondering if knocking me out might not have been for the better, in terms of the test you wanted to perform."
> Follow him, nodding.
> "Thanks. I'll make sure neither of us regret it."
> Can we undo what we've done to the incomplete seed so that it goes back into a normal useable state?
> Wait until Kay has completed traversing the fence, then float over it ourselves.
> "So what language is this, anyway? The person back home who thought it was Celtic is a bit obsessed with knowledge, so I think she'll want to know exactly what it is."
> "Got it. She'll likely want to hear about that. And maybe about all this on the whole, for all that she'd never wander out here even if she could. Too happy to spend her days in her library with her books to ever go out and do much of anything."
> Wait for the whistle to finish, then chuckle a bit.
> "Our homes really aren't so different."
> "We have oni, but they're always too busy being drunk to punch out anyone but each other, so it's all good. Makes being a bartender good work, as long as you don't mind the occasional head-shaped dent in your door."
> "Assuming everything goes as it should, that won't be a problem."
> "You got it."
> Put the sword pieces away and join Sir Kay on the horse.
> Nod.
> Dismount, if we haven't already, and enter.
> Do we still have the sword out?
> Connect the sword, if we haven't already.
> "This here met a rather gruesome demise."
> Give a slight bow as best we can while keeping the sword intact.
> "Houjuu Nue. I'm actually new to this area, and I'm quite glad to have discovered someone such as yourself here, given the circumstances of, well, this."
> Nod in Kay's direction.
> "Understood. Thanks for the help."
> After he leaves, turn back to Weyland.
> "Before you get started, I should probably warn you that I may not be able to understand you. As long as that's not a problem, I think this thing ready to go."
> Inventory
>"Well... it has unusual properties, properties I myself do not know. I can tell you that without it, I could not understand nor speak your language, but that is all I know of its properties. I don't know if this changes what's needed to repair it, but I thought it best that you know this is no ordinary sword."
> "Can't think of anything else, unless you happen to have some spare mahogany lying around for some reason."
> "I'll keep it in mind thanks. All set here, then."
> Hand over the sword.
>Probably not a good idea to go out for a walk when we have no way to talk to people and may very well be thought to be a 'seelie' and greeted with hostility.
>Find a place to sit, and wait.
>Does he seem to want us to do something?
>Point at the door, then look at him. Maybe he doesn't want us watching him.
>What's the general iris colour of people around here?
>Was people watching us out of curiousity for looking so out of place or catiously like we seem dangerous?
> How long would it take to change our eye color?
> Nod.
> Depart from the smithery, changing our eye color to blue after turning our back to Weyland but before opening the door.
> Is there a large crowd around?
> If so, does it sound like anything other than gibberish?
> We still getting stares?
> We can still tell cardinal directions, right?
> Come to think of it, what time does it look like?
> Take a look around. Any obvious shops or businesses?
> Might as well wander in that direction, see if there's anything new and interesting.
> Pull out a rice ball and nibble on it a little bit, then meander our way over to the grocer.
> What shape are the reddish vegetables, ignoring the green leafy parts?
> Anything else interesting in the area?
> Wait, what?
> Visibly startle, then point at ourselves.
> "Who, me? What? You know my lanaguage?"
> Look back and forth between the people staring, then back at the shopkeeper.
> "Well...uh...I have one more. Do you want it?"
> Pull out the last rice ball and hold it up a bit so people can see it while looking around.
> Can we tell what this woman's hair color is?
> What colors are her clothes?
> Hand her the rice ball.
> "Hey, fight to win. But how do you know about that? Sir Kay's never heard of this language, and the locations he mentioned as being mapped are places I'd never heard of myself."
> That color scheme...
> Follow along.
> "...Wait a minute..."
> "...Mamizou?"
> "But...how the hell did you get here? Have you been here all this time? It's been forever since I saw you last!"
> Frown.
> "I screwed up once. It won't happen again."
> Put on something a little more thoughtful.
> "Especially not with how life seems to have changed over the years. It's a lot different now. The Yamato are gone, which is fantastic for everyone. Seems humans and youkai are okay with each other now too."
>"Well, in Gensokyo, at least. It sounds like things may be a bit more... contentious here."
> "Oh man, it has been that long, hasn't it? You've never been to Gensokyo. No lie, not even coming from me. Humans and youkai there tolerate each other, if they aren't outright friends. Hell, there's a couple of human kids that just showed up there recently that I have to admit I've taken a bit of a shine to."
>"See, 'back home', magic and youkai and all of that was fading from the world. Gensokyo was created as a place seperate from what's known there as the 'outside world', a place for people like us to live. Or that's what I understand, at least; I was still sealed when it was created."
> "You should definitely swing by, I think you'd like it. I got here from there somehow, so it's not like it would be a trip around the world, or wherever we are in relation to Japan right now, and I plan on going back soon. Though...I suppose if you have your own life established here, it would be hard to give that up."
> "Well, I don't know how accessible it is. I'm hardly 100% positive about anything in this entire ordeal, but I'm reasonably sure I only got here from home because I happened to have pieces of a broken sword that belonged to someone from here, someone that would have really wanted to return here if they were still alive. It might be a complete open door, or you might need to specifically go with me, and I could hardly guarantee a return."
>"The circumstances that drove me to seeking for the origins of the sword are quite complicated."
>"To keep it short, one day all of our money was replaced by gemstones of all kind, I found the culprit, he did it via pure belief in his own laws of reality, so I needed to find a belief to counter his, and coincidentially this sword's late-owner had the belief I needed."
>"Anyways, you really should follow me to visit Gensokyo once! Although small, it truely is a wonderful and interesting place."
>"It's kind of a weird and long story."
>"You see, we have a half-youkai-half-human in Gensokyo that runs a store, but he despises the use of currencies, so he does not accept money at his store, but only trading."
>"We had no problem with trading with him, but apparently he disliked currencies to the point that he wanted to erase it out of existence."
>"All of us were oblivious to his plan until he took action yesterday when we swapped all the money we had with gemstones of equal value. I don't really understand the details on how he did it, seems like he was so mad about trading that he strongly believes that there's energy to be harvested from each trade to the point that his belief became reality."
>"He also stole my spellcards for my essence to aid his plan, which was why I was after the culprit in the first place."
>"So since then I've been looking for ways to beat his belief. My instincts was that this sword will be the key to solving this incident so I began to investigate its history. Turns out its late-owner believes he is superior to everyone else, a complete opposite of our shop owner's belief of equivalence. It might to possible to counter one's belief with a completely opposite one. I am not certain this will work, but I figured it was worth a try so I'm currently waiting for the local smith here to fix the broken sword."
> "Kind of. This guy can do certain things that aren't supposed to be possible simply because he has been insane enough for a long time and has believed he can do them. It's sort of a faith-based magic."
> "You have no idea. Everyone's going varying degrees of nuts. The kappa and the humans are doing more more aggravating hand-wringing than anything else, but the tengu have gone into total lockdown mode and the oni are practically destroying their own village in rage. My place hasn't seen much of that action, thankfully, but I can't imagine the oni are going to just stop until they at least run out of buildings to ruin, so I'm hoping to fix everything while I still have a house. That and I like my money."
> Sigh.
> "No, it's true. There is another major factor to it, but...I've started to go soft. And there are other factors involved there as well."
> "Like I said, there are other factors at play there. Mostly, it's the people. There's a whole load of them worth meeting. There's also no one around anymore that needs terrorizing. Well, except for that one hakutaku, but terrorizing her will make me a ton of enemies I have no interest in having."
> "An argument could be made, but it would imply any of the Emperor's allies had an opinion worth a damn."
> Was Mamizou always this good at teasing?
> Is Mamizou every bit the trickster we are?
> Is Mamizou a jeweler? If not, is she at least aware of the craft?
> "So what about you? When did you get here, and what do you do with yourself these days?"
> Where was Sado again?
> "You seem to have picked up the language fairly well."
> "What's all this about a Bloody Prince? Were you here through that?"
> "Aside from talking to Sir Kay, I happened into his broken sword. Both pieces somehow made their way to Gensokyo. For whatever reason, if I'm holding either of the pieces, I can understand their language, and when I connect them I can speak it. I'm also pretty sure they're how I was able tl get here at all."
> "Yeah, Princey sounded like a real mensch. Something's curious, though. If he was before your time, why was his sword only destroyed recently? It sounded like the knight that did it is still out knighting around."
> "Oh. I figured you'd been here for longer than that for some reason. I guess that makes it easier for humans to not notice you don't visibly age as fast as them, though. Not that it would be a terrible problem for folks like us."
> Grin.
> "Don't have to worry about that in Gensokyo. It's more or less expected there."
> "That was about it for my original intentions. I want to bring that sword back to Gensokyo, because I'm reasonably positive it's the best weapon available to fight the merchant. His obsession lies in the ideas of exchange and equality, and from what I've heard about Princey, equality with anything was the furthest thing from his mind. I can't really think of much better to fight someone with faith rooted in equivalent exchange than the absolute belief that you're better than everything else ever. But things have changed in the last few minutes, because now I want to take you back with me as well."
> "Of course, of course. I know I can't really drag you away from here, especially if you have a home and happy life established, but I'll be damned if I don't at least make the effort."
> Pout.
> "You're going to make me visit this place regularly, aren't you?"
>"How about you follow me back to Gensokyo for a visit first when I get back the fixed sword? You can decide about staying or not later on."
> Do we remember approximately where it was we first crossed over?
> "I'll be glad to have you for that much, at least."
> "Also, while I'm thinking about it, do you know how valuable mahogany is around here? A magician back home asked to keep an eye out for whatever I could find."
> Were spellcard rules established before or after we last saw Mamizou?
> Come to think of it, why do we follow such rules, anyway?
> Frown.
> "How unfortunate. I guess I could pay the woodworker Kay mentioned a visit anyway."
> "You got it."
> Follow along!
> "Nothing worse than staring so far, and that doesn't bother me at all. If they've talked about me I haven't understood it. The jeweler was a good chap, too, though that's to be expected."
> "I've been thought to be one, but other than that, no. Sir Kay's description of them made them sound like this place's youkai equivalent."
> Mental check on 'tsukumogami' for those players not perfect in their memory of the Japanese bestiary.
> "Maybe people here really like their stuff."
> "Or it may just be that different rules apply here. Kay had that 'gentleman's art' to swordfighting. I'd never seen something get sliced and not start bleeding profusely, but it happened to me twice."
> "Sounds a bit like the recent spellcard duel regulations. Neat aggressive way to work out your issues without causing long-term damage."
> "This should be fun. I've never tried to purchase wood I knew nothing about from someone that didn't speak my language with no money on hand. I wonder if they'd take jewels."
> "How would a loan work? I imagine neither of our respective currencies are any good in the other's home, I'll need to leave not long after that sword is done, and I don't know how often or for how much time I'd be able to get back here, or if I'm even able to get back here at all."
> "If you plan on sticking around Gensokyo for a bit, that's another matter entirely, and it shouldn't be at all hard to repay."
> Give a small grin.
> "Unless you're just going to ask me to carry you to the gate."
> Mamizou's tail is not currently visible, correct?
> Is/was Mamizou at all sensitive about verbal jabs at her tail?
> "I'm sure we can think of something. Shall we go in?"
> Jewelry inventory
> Put on a thinking face while pulling out a red spinel.
> "Boy, Alice better reimburse me good for this."
> "I'm mildly impressed she knows enough to know it isn't a ruby herself."
> > Walk over to the woman, hand her the spinet and give a short bow.
> "Thank you very much."
> We can fix the heavy problem later, when we're out of sight of the humans.
> Brace our body for irritatingly heavy, then take the block of wood from the woman.
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Anything here you want?"
> "All right. Let's head out, then. The sooner I can pack on some muscle to make carrying this thing not suck, the better."
> Turn back to the woman.
> "Have a good one."
> Assuming no objections from either person present, exit the shop.
> Has Mamizou always spoken so non-casually?
> "Beats me. You know this place better than I do. Anywhere worth going while I want for the sword?"
> "If you have the time, that could be interesting. I don't want to pull you away if you have something important to do, though."
> "All right, let's do it, then. Lead the way."
> "Hopefully she's there now. Maybe she'll come out if we're obviously not human?"
> "Sure. But there's something else I'd like to do first that shouldn't be noticed by anyone in the distance. Do we have about five minutes to stop?"
> "Great."
> Put the piece of mahogany down, then spent five minutes muscling up our arms, like we did in the curio shop earlier.
> Let's try the new us out. Pick up that piece of mahogany again.
> WE LIFT THINGS UP AND PUT THEM DOWN
> "That's better. Let's keep going."
> Do we know approximately how to get back to the place where we crossed over from here?
> Follow the tanuki!
> Take a soft tone ourselves.
> "Can I expect these faeries to behave the same way our faeries back home behave?"
> "So what about this water sprite, then? What's she like?"
> "Hmm. I wonder if she would want to travel to Gensokyo."
> "She might not have a choice, if expansion continues. Besides, it's not like Gensokyo doesn't have a sizeable body of water."
> "I might just. It would be fun to see the local shrine maiden's reaction, if nothing else."
>"Well, she does tend towards the aggressive, that's for sure. And the witch is even worse."
> "Right."
> Turn to the lily pad.
> "Hello."
> Put the wood down someplace where the ground won't ruin it.
> "Understandable."
> Face the lily pad.
> "Actually, I was wondering if you mightn't like to go back home with me."
> "My friend here says you have frequented this lake less and less as the humans have expanded more and more. This may be hard to believe, but I come from a land where supernatural people such as us live with humans in mutual acquaintanceship and tolerance, if not outright friendship. If the attitudes of humans here are as negative as I've heard, I figured it would be worth offering a chance at a more tolerant land."
> "Oh. Well, all right then, you certainly don't have to."
> Do we have any comestible on us?
> Are we aware of any bakeries or other sources of sweets in Gensokyo?
> "So there's a Queen, then? Is there an entire hierarchy system, or just the one person?"
> "Huh. Any such divisions in Gensokyo are basically uniracial villages. Oni, tengu, kappa, human. I think even the faeries have their own gathering places. There are village leaders, but they don't even pretend to have administrative authority outside of their villages."
> "I wonder what else this place has."
> Turn back to the sprite.
> "Out of curiosity, Isolde, does this place have any sort of direct living access to the Netherworld?"
> "The land of the dead. Gensokyo has land access to a realm of ghosts and spirits and whatnot, at the top of a really long staircase. It also has land access to the Sanzu River, which apparently separates Gensokyo from a courtroom or something where souls are judged. You need the shinigami ferrywoman's help, though. I figured Avalon might have similar locations, if it wasn't directly connected to the same places."
> "I'm not sure about the actual system, but you could actually talk to the mistress of the netherworld, if her half-ghost swordswoman guard lets you by. I went there yesterday to see if they were affected by what had happened to Gensokyo and had a decent conversation with the guard. Also got to talk to the shinigami ferrywoman for a little bit too, though you'd need her help to talk to any of the judges beyond the river. So any old person can just waltz into the entrances to these places, they just aren't going to get too far unless they have a damn good reason."
> "A shame. That sounds rather less pleasant than what we have, assuming the implications of being chased down by supernatural dogs and dragged to the land of the dead are as bad as logic suggests they would be."
> "Hmm. Well, what about a group of enlightened people, perhaps living in a city in the sky?"
> "I see. Let's change the subject, then, so perhaps I can learn more about this place. Most of my interaction while I've been here has been with Sir Kay. I obviously got an impression of what he thinks of himself from him, but what do other folks think of him?"
> "Really? He seemed content to just brush me off when he figured I was Seelie myself, rather than try to attack me. Now he's covering my bill at the smithery for the reparation of the Bloody Prince's sword, despite having great personal distaste for the guy."
> "The last one sounds like a good reason why he might've given me as long a leash as he did. Kinda wonder if he regrets not sending me away immediately now, what with covering the sword repairs and all. Speaking of which, if I may ask given what little history I've heard, what was the Bloody Prince's stance on supernatural people?"
> "I suppose that's not too bad. Though expansion still seems to be a concern."
> "What about that other guy Sir Kay mentioned...I think it was Sir Percival?"
> "Mmm, yeah, I guess it would be unreasonable to expect those who don't deal with them regularly to know all of them. Are there at least any that are known to be supportive of you, even if only secretly?"
> Nod.
> "That's good to hear."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "This current authority at least sounds better than the Yamato."
> "Every other place you found before this was that bad, huh? Oh yes, while I'm thinking about it, what continent is this, if it is not Asia?"
> Nod.
> "I understand. Gensokyo is much the same way, in that it is technically part of Japan but is sealed off from th rest of Asia. Things coming in from 'the outside world' are usually notable events, and people even more so."
> Turn back to Isolde.
> "Have any supernatural people other than the two of us shown up here before?"
> How long has it been since we dropped off the sword?
> Does Mamizou have any easy tease targets or strong temptations?
> How 'less accomplished' are we talking here?
> Turn back to Mamizou.
> "You wouldn't happen to know how long the blacksmith would need to fix a weapon, would you?"
> "Hmm. I've heard some pretty interesting things, and I'm probably going to relay what I've learned to folks back home, but truth be told, I think I've run out of curiosities."
> "If that would be okay, and she has no particular curiosities about Gensokyo."
> "Naw, that's fine, I can stick around without a problem. I have no idea how long Weyland is going to take, so fire away."
> "Hmmm...well, like I said earlier, it's a place where humans and supernatural creatures coexist peacefully. Our broad-sweeping term for supernatural creature is youkai. From what I can understand, it is more or less the Gensokyo equivalent of seelie. There are many types of youkai, and large populations of the same kind have been known to gather together in villages. I myself live in the oni village. The oni are...Sir Kay compared my description of them to vikings, because they consume alcohol constantly and basically make sport of punching each other into unconsciousness. They're honest to a fault, though, and are very valuable friends. It helps that my house in their village doubles as a tavern."
> "I'm not sure if we have a March-stepper equivalent, but it was agreed upon a while ago that youkai in Gensokyo were not to eat humans. This is enforced both socially, as many youkai consider certain humans friends, and authoritarily, by a shrine maiden human whose job is to resolve major incidents in Gensokyo. The shrine maiden usually has help when problems arise, and she and her witch friend in particular are very good combatants. As for the oni, they have history with humans that led to them living underground and not surfacing often, if ever, so they'll mug each other, but they don't actively go pillaging due to their own standards."
> "Oh, we don't have any sort of ruling body like that. Japan used to, but I guess they got what was coming to them, because they're not around now. There are universally-agreed-upon combat rules, though, so we'll also never see a rise to power like the Bloody Prince. If the shrine maiden and witch tried to break those rules to grab at more meaningful power and authority, there are plenty of powerful youkai and even some other humans that, when banded together, could and would take them down hard."
> Grin.
> "Yeah, Gensokyo has a habit of not making sense at times. The main reason I'm here is an incident that still doesn't make any sense to me. But I doubt the people of Gensokyo would take well to a ruling body, or at least one beyond the village heads that are there already."
> Put on a small 'dawn of realization' expression.
> "Oh. Oh! Gensokyo actually doesn't have knights or lords. Main land Japan used to, and it might still, but they aren't in our land. Well...I don't know a whole about the inner workings of tengu society, but they do have a Lord, so they may have knights as well within their own village. They don't try to exert authority beyond their own lands, though, so the rest of us don't have to deal with their system unless we visit."
> "The humans aren't a problem, there aren't nearly enough of them to try to take out all youkai, and most of them either respect or fear youkai too much to try anything anyway. As for invaders, the largest 'invading force' I've seen in the last decade were two nonmagical humans from the outside world showing up for unexplained reasons one day. They settled in pretty quickly and now you wouldn't be able to tell they've been here for so little time."
> Come to think of it, that's why Gensokyo exist in the first place, isn't it?
> "Well, that already happened in mainland Japan, in a sense. It's one of the reasons Gensokyo exists at all. From what I understand, mainland Japan is overrun with humans, humans that don't even believe youkai exist and know nothing of magic. Gensokyo was basically made for youkai; there just happen to be some humans there as well."
>"Gensokyo's been magically separated from the rest of the world. The outside humans can't get into it, and in fact don't even know it's there. They can't perceive it at all, much less actually get in-with, as I said before, very rare exceptions. There's certainly no danger of Gensokyo being overrun by humans, that's for sure."
> Shrug.
> "If they have, I haven't noticed. In fact, I'm reasonably sure a couple of them entered Gensokyo from the outside world a few years ago."
> Give another grin.
> "And I could keep going for a little while longer."
> Shrug.
> "Like I said, Gensokyo has a knack for not making sense. It's worked for a long time, despite a good number of incidents over the years. And really, considering life before Gensokyo with an undeserving ruling body full of jerkoffs against life in Gensokyo with interracial peace, I'm less inclined to question it and more inclined to enjoy it for what it is."
> 'I don't know if this would qualify as running away, but given leaving this place for good is out of the question, you're still welcome to visit from time to time and see it for yourself, if you like and your Queen okays it. I prefer my home, but I'm glad I at least had the chance to come here and see some new stuff."
> "We have an ice fairy that could probably do that for you."
> Turn to Mamizou with a sarcastically disapproving look.
> "Come on, you actually made her think I was serious?"
> Turn back to Isolde.
> "IS there anything else you'd like to know?"
> "Hmm...you could ask about the rest of the bestiary, or the land itself, or the food, or whatever else."
> "The oni village is big on honesty, antiques, alcohol, and fighting. Try to decieve them and you'll get your head caved in, but otherwise they can be a lot of fun to be around. The tengu are extremely territorial. Their village is made up of guard scouts that make sure you don't get in without a good reason, and journalists that tell everyone about what happens everywhere else. The kappa I don't know too much about, aside from the fact that they're very technologically inclined. They also built a university recently. The human village is about what you'd expect of a group of nonmagic humans in a magic land. There's a Buddhist temple there led by a youkai monk and her followers, and she's one of the most selfless people I know. I'm very lucky to be her friend."
> "Well, unfortunately, we don't have all day, but I think I may visit here from time to time if I can, as much as I know Sir Kay would rather I not. But I can at least mention the other important places and people, while I'm thinking of them."
> "There is a land of spiritually enlightened people that floats high in the sky, so high it can't be seen from the ground. They're a very pious and moralistic people, with one notable exception that probably acts more like me than is good for her standing in that place. They have their own higher power that I've never met, though I have met that power's messenger. She's another incredibly selfless person, and a hell of a dancer too."
> "Beyond that, there is also a mansion near a large lake that is run by a couple of vampire sisters, and there's a mansion deep in a maze-like forest that is home to many rabbit youkai, as well as a couple of people from the moon. I've no idea how exactly they got here, but here they are."
> Nod.
> "I'll be sure to."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Think it's about time to check in on Weyland?"
> Smile and give a short bow.
> "You're welcome, and thanks for your info as well."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Shall we?"
> Give Isolde a wave.
> "See you later."
> Pick the wood back up.
> Head back out of the forest.
> "I'm surprised it went on as long as it did after she declined the invitation. I didn't have anything particularly prepared beyond that."
>"Though a little small talk never hurts when you're waiting for something."
> "I guess if this place were my life as long as I could remember, I'd probably be baffled by Gensokyo too. Hell, I live there and it still baffles me sometimes, what with destroying and replacing the sun, the sky falling down, and insane merchants mass-stealing money through pseudofaith."
> "All of those things have happened since I arrived there, though I'll admit my specific knowledge of each varies. But yes, we had the sun destroyed and then replaced, we had the home of the enlightened I mentioned earlier come crashing down to the ground, and now we have the money dealie that I'm trying to fix. And I'm sure this is hardly the entire history of Gensokyo incidents, given we have people dedicated to the job of resolving them."
> Grin.
> "What, you scared?"
> "Nah, not at all. It all gets fixed eventually, which makes living through it all the more enjoyable. I'd say life would be a hell of a lot more boring if the oni always behaved and there were never any incidents."
> Are we out of the forest at this point?
>"Just a minute, can't have them getting too suspicious can we?"
>Put down the wood, and slim back down to our usual self.
>Then, pick the wood back up and keep going.
> Oh well, it can't be helped.
> Resume our travels back to the village.
> "I should also say that these disasters don't happen every day. Life in Gensokyo is mostly peaceful. Or at least, it probably would be if I lived on my own or anywhere other than the oni village."
> "Yeah, like I said, they're good types if you don't try to trick them. Which I'll admit I've learned the hard way."
>"Oh yeah, almost forgot. The Tengu and Kappa don't work for 'em anymore. Nowadays the Oni live underground, in the city that used to be the Old Hell. Still some crazy things running around down there."
>Fondly regard memories of past things that went down in the Ancient City.
>"I remember this one Rabbit that showed up down there a while back looking for something, she took on an Oni Eater. An Oni Eater. And the kid damn well won!"
>"Something able to kill off a good lot of Oni, that's for sure. No clue how it did it though, I'll have to ask that Rabbit sometime. She was the one who fought it, so she'd know."
>Let's keep on truckin' to see about that sword, chatting as we go.
>"I tell ya, that was one of the busiest times ever after she put an end to that thing. They regard her as a Great Hero, can you believe it? A Rabbit, being the hero."
>"They had one heck of a combination party-slash-wake I tell ya. It was getting so that I couldn't tell if some of them were partying their hearts out, or mourning. Oni are weird like that. They drink for everything. But hey, they're my clientele back at the pub, so I can't complain any."
>Slight frown. "Here's hoping they haven't torn the whole place up eh? They were in a right fit about the cash thing."
>"That's right. The former Terror of Heian is now actually running legitimate business in a city of Oni. Hard to believe, eh?"
>"Kinda had no choice when I started off, it was impossible to live among onis as a prankster, but I think life turned out quite well, you'd never have to worry about supply of customers. I'll show you my place when you visit for sure, we haven't drink together for so~ long."
> "What can I say? Even with me, Gensokyo has a knack for not making sense."
> Chuckle a bit.
> "No, some things are still the same. The kappa are still in love with their cucumbers, and the tengu are still scared shitless of the oni."
> "Oh yeah, I was going to ask about that but I didn't want to risk offending. Are the fairies here dumb as bricks like the ones back home are?"
> "At least some things remain the same."
>"Let's."
>To the smithy!
> "Wow."
> Walk over to the sword, set the mahogany down, and pick up the sheath with the sword in it.
> "Yeah, I understand. Thanks a bunch."
> Submission, huh? How charming.
> If we can, sling the sheath around us so we can carry the sword that way. If not, stick it in our purse and hope it doesn't fall out.
> Pick the block of mahogany back up.
> All this weight...we need to vamoose to make it easier on ourselves.
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "We heard the man. Let's get this thing out of the town."
> Turn back to and nod to Weyland.
> "Have a good one."
> Exit the smithery.
> We're speaking our own language right now, right?
> "I want to stop in at the jeweler's one more time, and then I need to leave. I've probably already been gone for too long."
> "All right. I should probably warn you, though...I was in his shop earlier with Sir Kay, and Kay provided a cover story for me. I plan to tell him the truth about me."
> "I was actually wondering if you wouldn't want to be present at all, just ro minimize the risk to you."
> "Yeah, I figured. If you see me running, try to keep up."
> "That works."
> "Got it. Back in a flash."
> Enter the jeweler's shop.
> Nod.
> Carefully set the block of wood down where it will not damage anything, then take the sword out of our purse by grabbing only the sheath and holding it in both our hands.
> "Miss Whole Sword now. Weyland's a miracle worker."
> "Oh, was our duel really that visible? After he resigned, I was kinda hoping we were far enough away that no one saw it."
>"That's no scam. I really do need it in order to talk to people."
>"Trust me, the sword thing's real. Although it seems I don't need to actually be holding it anymore, now that it's fixed."
> "I don't suppose telling you what those marks on my jewels really are would help you believe me any?"
> Purse our lips in thought for a few moments.
> "...Nah, I guess not."
> "Well, I actually came by to offer an explanation about those marks, since I'm not sure how long it will be before I'm in this area again, or even if I ever am. But over the course of this conversation, I realized how implausible the explanation would probably seem."
> "All right. As many people have probably already guessed from my attire, I am not actually not from this land."
> "It goes a bit further than that. It turns out I'm not even from this continent."
> "They are, but there's a long story behind how they got there. Rest assured our jewels don't normally come with those. Regardless, both they and I come from a country called Japan, which resides in the continent of Asia. Assuming Sir Kay was being truthful earlier, it sounds as though Avalon's maps don't extend out that far."
> Nod.
> "Yeah, I figured. Like I said, fairly implausible. And where I'm from, I'm fairly sure most, if not all, of us have heard of Europe. But even with two lands that know nothing of each other's existence, I was - and still am - pleasantly surprised to learn that the craft has transcended those geographical barriers."
> "I suppose that's all true."
> Give a small side-of-the-mouth smile.
> "Doesn't make the discovery any less pleasant, though."
> "Anyway, I need to keep moving on. But it was a pleasure to meet you, Mr...Briocht, if I read the sign outside correctly?"
> "Right, yes. Those marks are actually writing in my language, stacked on top of one another to the point of unfortunate unreadability. It might have helped my case to Sir Kay at the time if he could read my language, but it seems to have worked out in the end anyway."
> "Side effect of a really bizarre glamour that's been cast far and wide across my region of my country. There's been a massive influx of gems, and they appear to have been transmuted from books."
> "It's lasted so far. We're trying to get it fixed, but given the circumstances, I don't believe any gems left here would be affected even by a second large-scale glamour to undo the first one. I used one to pay for this mahogany, so we'll find out sooner or later."
> "Yeah, I believe so."
> "Right, and I appreciate it. I would also like to return here at some point, it's an interesting place, and I expect things will be resolved in my home by the next time I'm here, so we'll both know for sure then."
> "Great. Ah! Before I leave, there is one other thing I've been curious about. We did manage a small glamour of our own to learn what was written on a pearl. It sounded like it came from a poetry book, but it wasn't a passage any of us recognized. Would you have happened to heard of Nessus, Cecina or Corneto?"
> "All right, then. What the writing itself said wasn't a big deal, I was just curious, so that works out."
> "In that case, it's about time I headed back. Again, great meeting you, and glad to see how widespread we really are."
> Smile and nod.
> "Take care of yourself."
> Place the sword and sheath back where they belong at our side, pick the block of mahogany back up, and exit the shop.
> "Naw, we're good. I ended up telling him less than I thought I would, so things are okay. Ready to head back out to the forest?"
> Let's make our way back to that forest road. On foot, of course, no need to alert the locals.
> Are our homeland trees visible?
> "All right, the intersection point is around here somewhere. Keep your eyes peeled for unusual trees."
> Keep going a bit, then.
> Point to them.
> "There. See 'em?"
> "We hadn't really heard much of anything on our side either. Only fairy talk about weird trees, and we both know how much stock anyone's going to put into that."
> "So we're left with the big question. You comin' with?"
> Grin.
> "Awesome. I knew I could count on you."
> Start heading into the forest toward our own trees.
> Check back. Is Mamizou still there?
> "Welcome home."
> Is it light out still?
> Work our way toward a part of the forest where we could crest the canopy without too much difficulty.
> Turn around.
> "Um, hello. Can we help you?"
> "Wait, this isn't supposed to be like this? The heretics told me they had heard faerie stories about unusual trees before I got here myself."
> "That's probably true. I'm just making sure you know it was like that when I got here."
> Grin.
> "I'm not exactly at the bottom of the list of people to blame when shenanigans occur."
> "Yeah, I suppose that would be why neither side of this entrance was aware of the other's existence at all. Just a bunch of weird trees at most. If I had to guess, I'd guess the broken pieces of this sword are responsible, since they came from that side and exuded a sense that they really wanted to get back there."
> "The sword apparently belonged to a former ruler that no one in the land really liked because he was a total asshole that had no qualms killing to get his way. Apparently he believed himself to be better than everything and everyone. My friend here might be able to give you further details on the guy; even though she wasn't around for his reign, his story is very well-known over there. Anyway, this sword seems to have some feelings of its own, and even instilled a bizarre megalomaniacal dream in me last night. I'm thinking there's some sort of sheer force of will and belief in self-superiority in this thing, and I want to use that belief to fix the current money crisis and make sure it doesn't happen again."
> "Had a blacksmith on their side restore it, yeah. No idea how it got here, but I imagine they'd prefer it stay here. Not too many happy memories attached to it."
> "Is it difficult to repair?"
> "I have an umbrella."
> "It alleviates the inconvenience of the rain. Unless you're saying the rain is more than just an inconvenience."
> "You're telling me. Given what you've said, this needs to get fixed sooner rather than later, and difficulty and inconveniences aside, you've yet to say it's actually impossible. Which means it will get done, because you're you and you didn't get to be who or where you are by not having the attitudes and abilities to make sure things were done correctly the first time, and I'm going to help if you want me to, because this is apparently my fault and I'm the same kind of person as you are in the sense of doing things properly. And what that means is that it's not going to open again, so my best friend here, whom I haven't seen in centuries, is either going to be stuck on this side and have to start a new life, or she'll be stuck on that side and we'll never get to see each other again."
> "Depends. What needs doing?"
> Turn to Mamizou with a sad frown.
> "I'm so sorry, I had no idea things would turn out like this."
> "What should we do in the meantime, then? I have stuff I can do here, so you can get a light tour of the place, I guess."
> Turn back to the gap youkai.
> "Is there someone I can fetch for you? Or is this fated to be a solo job?"
> "We're gone."
> Turn back to Mamizou.
> "Let's go. Time's a-wastin'."
> Keep making our way toward area where we can crest the canopy, then do so and look around for the landmarks we use to find the heretics.
> "Grab the umbrella out of my purse before we keep going. You're the guest and my hands are full anyway."
> Wait until Mamizou has 'equipped' the umbrella, then head toward those trees and get back under the canopy to look around for the heretic house.
> "This place isn't mine, and we won't be here long. I'll explain further after we've left. Can you pound on the door, since my hands are full? It's hard for them to hear light knocks through that thick thing."
> Raise an eyebrow.
> "Quick? I've been roving around for a few hours now. Come to think of it, how is it still this light out?"
>If we haven't done so yet, restore our wings and our eye color.
> "This is Mamizou. She's kinda both from Japan and from the land from where this sword came."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Mamizou, this is Rika. She's an engineer that lives with another engineer and a ghost that makes a fine stew but is completely unhelpful otherwise."
> "Sure."
> Enter out of the rain!
> "If you wouldn't mind. We're not going to be here for too long, but I figure I at least owe you why, as well as where I've been. Especially since our two timelines don't seem to add up."
Knew I'd be able to get it in eventually.
> Put down the wood.
> "Okay. The long and short of it is that those weird trees come from another land on another continent that's connected to us somehow. Normally the connection is closed, but apparently I did a number on it going through it with the sword. The gap youkai's fixing it now; you can go over and bug her about it if you really want to, but thanks to what I did, she's in a temper."
> Gesture in the approximate direction we remember approaching the house from.
> "She's a bit that way. She'll be pretty occupied for the next few hours, I think. Why?"
> "Uh, are you actually going to go out there and bother her right now? Because I would seriously reconsider if I were you."
> Shrug back in Mamizou's direction.
> "Like I said earlier, she'll be preoccupied for a few hours."
>"I don't think she has any interest in bothering you. She pretty clearly didn't even want to be out here in the first place."
> "But okay, I guess."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Things aren't normally like this, I promise. I'm just about as confused as you are."
> "Well, if you need to batten down the hatches like this, we'll be off. We're in a bit of a time crunch ourselves."
> "Sure. I can tell you what's happened here then."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Ready to take off?"
> Turn back to Rika.
> "Good luck. Try not to make her more irritated."
> Return the towel if we haven't yet, beckon to Mamizou, then leave the house.
> "Like I said, it's not normally like that here."
> Crest the canopy again.
> Did we retrieve our mahogany before leaving?
> Fly toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion while talking.
> "So those humans were a couple of heretics. They basically find the concept of magic insulting, which, above everything else bizarre about the philosophy, is bizarre considering they live fairly happily with a poltergeist."
> "The very same. Truth be told, if she's going to be irritated with me, I'm perfectly content for it to not be anything more than that."
> "Eh, they'll be fine. If she actually hated them, we wouldn't have been standing in front of them just now."
> "Yeah. We won't be at it for too long, because it's not the place where I can finally unload this block of wood, but we should say to the people at the gate regardless. They're a bit more well-adjusted than who we just left."
> "We wouldn't be able to get much more than that anyway. You'll see when we get there."
> Continue on to the SDMansion.
> Swoop on down, landing at a respectful conversational distance.
> "Hey, where'd Little Miss Wings go?"
> "That's a shame. And here I had brought a new friend for her to meet."
> Tilt our head toward Mamizou while still looking at Miss Hong.
> "This is Mamizou. She and I go back a long way."
> "Meiling, could you give Mamizou a brief lowdown about the mansion here?"
>While Meiling's talking, restore our wings and eye color before we forget again.
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Bhava-Agra is the sky lands of the enlightened I mentioned earlier. Anyway, as you can see, much more well-adjusted."
> "Oh. We just came from the heretics' house. They're flipping their shit right now because the gap youkai is in the area. Ended up not staying very long. Shame, too, I wanted to introduce Mamizou to their pots-and-pans ghost."
> "Wonder if it's the same one. Was yours a blonde in a maid uniform?"
> "Might just be, then. I'll ask her next time I see her."
> "Is Patchouli still over at the shopkeep's place?"
> "I suppose no news is good news, in this case. We'll be heading that way anyway, since we're in a bit of a time crunch. Sorry we can't stick around for too long."
> "Say hi to Flan for me. Hopefully she's out here the next time I swing by."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Ready?"
> Do we remember where Alice's house is?
> "Let's shove off, then."
> Turn back to Meiling.
> "Later."
> Take flight and head to Alice's house, landing and proceeding on foot once we reach the part of the path that enters the forest proper.
> Land.
> Make our way over to the front door and knock, setting the wood down if we have to.
> "Yeah. Hopefully this is enough for whatever you're doing, I'm already tired of lugging it everywhere."
> "You're welcome. You actually got fairly lucky; that wood came from the same region where I got the broken sword repaired, which involved accidentally leaving Gensokyo altogether."
> Are we hungry or thirsty right now?
> "Maybe. What do you have?"
> "The money's still jewels, huh? That's disheartening. I know Patchouli and Eirin are theoretically at the culprit's 'hideout' trying to fix that problem right now...must be pretty hard to undo."
> "We do. Those two are working on reversing the current damage, while my job is to make sure it doesn't happen again."
> "Wasn't a 'she', as it turns out. It was the junk store shopkeep. Did it using some sort of bizarre faithy pseudomagic he possesses because he's incredibly devoted to his ideals."
> "Yeah. He's been removed from his shop and was stuck in the Temple in the human village. Presumably still there, though I haven't checked in a bit. Gensokyo's money is in his basement, where Patchouli and Eirin are presumably taking a look at it. With some guards at the entrance to domesticate anybody that happens to wander by uninvited."
> "Maybe. I've been thinking a bit, though. How busy are you right now?"
> "A possible repayment plan. But first, I believe introductions are in order."
> Gesture toward Mamizou.
> "This is Mamizou. She and I go back a long way, and she came here from the same place where I got this sword fixed."
> "Please do."
> Hand the block over.
> "Thanks."
> Head inside, over to the table, and have a seat.
> Nod to the doll and take the towel.
> Have a seat and start drying ourselves off while talking.
> "Here's what I'm thinking. That block of wood cost me a red spinet, which can vary a decent amount in market value. Normally I'd take my usual high-end and low-end estimates and split the difference in terms of estimating cost; it's how Nazrin and I charged for booze while the tavern was open yesterday. Since the money problem should be solved soon, though, we'll have actual currency to work with later, which I'll get back to in a moment."
> "Like I said earlier, Mamizou and I go a long way back. She left Japan to travel the world long ago, though, and frankly, given the times when she left, I don't blame her too much. She's spent the last decade or so in another land, a place called Avalon in a continent called Europe. I managed to get there myself a little while ago through a hole I accidentally ripped in Gensokyo's side, or something. I don't know exactly what happened, just that I was walking through a Gensokyo forest and suddenly the forest wasn't a Gensokyo forest anymore. The gap youkai is working on fixing it now, which will take a few hours. Once that thing closes, though, it's not opening again, so either she stays on this side or she stays on that side, and there isn't much time to make the decision. Right now I'm taking her on a quickie tour of Gensokyo, since she's never been here before, and it's very different in its treatment of supernatural creatures than Avalon is, which seems to basically be a whole bunch of humans trying desperately to pretend supernatural creatures don't exist and getting really riled up when one dares show their face."
> "However, I live underground and don't spend a lot of time up here. You do. So I'm wondering if you could accompany us for a little while as a better-informed tour guide of sorts. You know more about what goes on up here than I do, so you're likely better suited for the job than I am. If you can do that for us, once everyone's money returns, I'll price the wood at the low end of the red spinet's regular market value rather than in the middle."
> "Wait, you know of Avalon?"
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "Well, fancy that. Your lot are celebrities here."
> Turn back to Alice.
> "Well, we've been by the vampire mansion already, and will likely be heading to the shopkeep's place next to check in on progress there. Hmm...how well versed are you on the human village, the kappa village, and the rabbit mansion?"
> "I was, but hell if I could get back there on my own. If we run into Eirin at the shop, though, we might luck out in that regard."
> "Hmm...I'd like to take her to meet the outer world kids, but I'm guessing you'd be less interested in that."
> Nod.
> "The two of us will get to them on our own time without you, then. How about this? We'll travel as a group to Kourindou, then when we get to the human village, I'll take care of business at the Temple while you two can tour the town. We can work out the rest of our itinerary after that."
> Look over toward Mamizou.
> "Given the way the humans in Avalon acted toward the supernatural, I think this village would be refreshing to see."
> "Still better than what goes on in Avalon."
> How's the drying process going?
> "Whereas the youkai temple took up village peacemaking and reassurance in the wake of our financial crisis."
> Grin
> "S'why I'm dragging you everywhere like this. Lots of people worth meeting."
> "Are we all set to go, then? I'm mostly dry at this point."
> "Yeah. Sorry for the rush, but the gap youkai is likely not in the mood to screw around or to leave the hole to Avalon oper for free access, so we need to make the most of our time."
> "Any shortcuts from here to Kourindou I might not know?"
> Make our way over to the doll with the umbrella by the door, acquire the umbrella from it and nod in appreciation.
> "Let's head out, then."
> Exit the house, open the umbrella once we're out of the doorway, and head towards Kourindou on foot, unless the ground is yucky or someone suggests we fly for the sake of speed.
> "Oh, by the way, do you know if Reimu and Marisa returned from Makai yet?"
> "Oh well, we'll find out sooner or later. Anyway, I'll probably need to talk to whoever's guarding this place right now so we can get in."
> Work our way around to the front of the store.
> "Hey, it's me. I have two guests."
> Head iside.
> "Sounds like fun. Did Patchouli give you the green light on the whole pet thing?"
> "Huh. Yes, I suppose that's true. I'm surprised Aya hasn't swung by yet, to be honest. Maybe you could keep her as a pet instead?"
> Have the other two entered yet? If not move out of the doorway so they can.
> "No idea. I'm surprised Mystia isn't here, either, I figured she would return here after our last conversation."
> "Ah, alright."
> Rub chin in thought.
> "Actually, since you say Aya hasn't been around yet...maybe we should release Hatate before Aya gets here. It gives her the first story while there's enough of us here now to make sure nothing untoward happens."
> Raise an eyebrow.
> "What are you going to do with her until then?"
> "Well, yes, but what else?"
> Put on an ever-so-slightly worried look and give a quick look over to Hatate before looking back to Koakuma.
> "You sure you wouldn't rather have Aya instead?"
> "You could, but in thinking on it, do you think Aya will show up by herself? She must be busy if she didn't get here by now. If Hatate here goes missing for a while, do you think they'll send Aya after her, or do you think they'll send a patrol of guards?"
> "On the other hand, if Hatate here goes back home and says she couldn't get a story because the place was locked up too tight for anyone to get in, the tengu patrols won't give a damn. But if who do you think might be very interested in proving Hatate 'wrong' and trying to get the story for herself at the same time?"
> Glance over at Hatate to see if she visibly reacts to our speech.
> "The way I see it, you either get one now that you can't keep or you get one later than you can."
> "Sounds like all the more reason to domesticate her. But we're headed down that way now, so I can ask if you like."
> "Sounds good."
> Look back over at Hatate.
> "How's that sound? You get your story and your freedom, and you help the little devil over here adopt Aya as a new pet."
> Shrug.
> "Or you can keep staring daggers at me if you like. I figured you'd just want to put one or two over on Aya."
> "We'll let you know, okay?"
> Turn back to Mamizou.
> "Ready to proceed?"
> "Don't worry about her, she'll be fine. The other one deserves it a lot more anyway. Hatate here at least has the decency to not take pictures of your undergarments."
> "Anyway, let's head on. And try to contain yourself when we get downstairs."
> Head down into the basement.
> "I'd be surprised if you did recognize her. She used to live in Japan, but left some time ago. We found each other again in Avalon just a little while ago, which Alice tells me is meaningful to magicians. Small world, eh?"
> "Got there on my own, actually. There are some weird trees near a house in the forest to the south of your place. I was walking through the area, and suddenly there were weird trees evertwhere and Gensokyo trees nowhere."
> Glance down at the sword, then back up at Patchouli.
> "Pretty sure it was this thing that got me through. Apparently I tore space a new one in my traveling. Yukari's fixing it now. She's pretty miffed at me."
> "I've heard the backstory, yes. That I haven't actually grabbed it properly yet is not accidental. I'm surprised you know what it is just from looking at it, though."
"Sounds like good gossip, care to let us in?"
> "All, right, never mind it, then. Let's get to what's more immediately important. Do either of you know what's going here, or how to reverse it?"
> "That is an issue, yes. But I may have a workaround. Patchouli, how would you feel about your assistant keeping one Aya Shameimaru as a pet?"
> "Trying to exchange one pet tengu for another, since she seems to have her heart set on it, but Hatate deserves it far less."
> "There's a bit of spiteful vengeance mixed in too. But for practical reasons? A free Hatate in a controlled environment tells people what's going on while providing testimony from two of Gensokyo's leading intellectuals that they should stay the hell away from this place while she herself gets into no mischief of her own if she knows what's good for her."
> "Mmm, maybe. I guess I'm thinking these things because you're both already here and the sword repair happened a lot faster than I figured. From what I can tell, the time that lapsed in Gensokyo while I was gone was notably less than the time I actually spent in Avalon."
> "Nah, that's Petite's job. If she can nab a crow tengu without breaking a sweat, I'd say she's pretty damn good at it."
> Shrug.
> "Nah. To be honest, I'm asking partly for mischief, partly because Hatate's not the problem with the tengu, and partly because I told Petite I would. It doesn't mean the world to me, and if I eventually decide it does I can just play the part of Hatate myself."
> "I may just. I think there's something more important calling my name in the human village, though."
> Gesture toward Mamizou with a small grin.
> "By the way, since proper introductions haven't been made yet, the bug-eyed jaw on the floor over here is Mamizou. I can only assume she hasn't introduced herself yet because it's taking all of her willpower to not explode at this sight."
> "So."
> Look toward Eirin.
> "You seem to know about this sword here. What should I expect when I actually take hold of it?"
> "That's not as bad as it could be, I guess."
> Give a small grin.
> "And at least now I have multiple witnesses that can back a temporary insanity plea."
> "Patchouli said that one way to counter the reality-warping faith of a crazy person is with another faith that naturally counters the first. One of the mountain goddesses agreed with this. I've come to learn that the clown who wielded this sword believed himself better than everything and everyone; it is said he never even prayed, for that would acknowledge a being higher than himself. Since Rinnosuke's faith is based around his perceived beauty of equality, I'm going to use this sword and it's former owner's faith in a lack of equality, or his own inherent superiority, to run counter to the equality faith."
> "Pretty much what I'm thinking. My only major concern right now is that he's had time to get in some more heads. I'd rather not have to go through people to get to him, especially if he's at the Temple."
> Give another small grin.
> "Letting Mamizou get her fix."
> Turn to Mamizou.
> "You had enough for now? Or should I leave you here and come back in a day or two?"
> "I hate to ruin your dream, but you're not getting at it until these two are done. You're free to try, though!"
> "If it were that quick and easy, I would have done it myself already. That hole in the ground was a huge enough pain in the ass. I'm not doing it again. Especially not with people around here to watch me disrobe for it."
> Nod, then look over at Alice.
> "Alice, you ready?"
> "All right, let's head out."
> Assuming no objections from anyone, head back upstairs to Petite and Hatate.
> "We're back. Couldn't negotiate Aya as a pet as part of a release plan, sorry."
> "Yeah, figured."
> Look over at Hatate.
> "Tell you what. I obviously can't free you now, Petite here has her heart set on you. But next time you're able to roam around, come find me and I'll give you the interview for this whole ordeal, including my trip outside Gensokyo all the way to another continent. I'll throw in a mischief freebie: next time you want to ruffle Aya's feathers for whatever reason, get in contact with me and I'll help you out."
> "Hey, just trying to think practically here. You can keep trying to hate me to death, but you're certainly not the first and you definitely won't be the last. You know you're getting out of here eventually, so you can either leave here with nothing but a temper and an embarrassing tale, or you can leave here with an exclusive interview and a promise of help from the only person in Gensokyo good enough to put a quality one over on the only person in the world you hate more than me. Not a tough choice, y'know?"
> Eh, that's fine.
> "Just swing by whenever. Or ask one of the Temple folks to get me."
> Turn back to Petite.
> "Gotta go. Good luck in your quest for an Aya pet."
> "Have fun."
> Exit the shop.
> "If possible, yeah. Don't worry about the tengu, though, she'll get over it eventually."
> Take flight and head toward the Human Village, talking along the way.
> "So while I'm taking care of things in the Temple, you two should tour the town. Meet up back somewhere in view of the Temple if you finish before I do, but try not to enter if you can avoid it. Alice, be warned; if you've had business with Rinnosuke in the past, he can and will get into your head and make you do stuff for him if he thinks he needs to. Best for you to stay away from him until it's safe."
> "Good. Likely for the best, because all bets are off once I grab this sword."
> Eh, why not? Make our way over to the tavern.
> Her what?
> Give a quick wave to whoever at the table has us in their line of vision and make our way over.
> "'Sup. Did you ever find that thing you were looking for yesterday?"
> "Sucks. Did you try the ghost girl at the top of that really long flight of stairs? I met her yesterday and have been wondering since if you'd taken a crack at her."
> Snicker on the inside, but try not to let it show.
> "I see. So what's the general mood of this town right now? I'm ready to put an end to this money nonsense, but I'm a mite worried the culprit may have had some influence here while I was cavorting around. Influence beyond taking money, I mean."
> "Good, no abnormalities. All right. I don't quite know how this is going to go down, but it could get dangerous. The new toy at my side isn't just for show. If any of you happen to overhear someone expressing a desire to head over to the Temple, please let them know that they need to steer clear of it for the time being, okay?"
> "Not this one. This thing has a will of its own, and as soon as business is concluded it's getting scrapped."
> Grin at Tenshi.
> "Not too many that can take stuff off me if I'm awake to not want them to."
> Look over at Mokou.
> "Hey, Mokou, can you verbally shoo people away from the Temple too?"
> "Great."
> Turn back to Alice and Mamizou.
> "I believe this is where we separate, then."
> "Yeah, this works. Probably better than at the temple, given the circumstances."
> Jerk a thumb toward Tenshi.
> "And you can keep this one here until I return, so we can have some delightfully pleasant conversation about what 'stupid forks' can be good for."
> "You shouldn't have to. Tenshi doesn't run away."
> "Yep. See you all in a bit."
> Exit the tavern and walk on over to the Temple.
> Give her a wave and let her approach.
> Nod.
> "I did. It's high time to end this nonsense, methinks. You headin' out?"
> "Yeah, you haven't missed much. Petite's angling for a second pet tengu now. Sounds like Patchouli won't let her keep Hatate on the grounds that Hatate is useful to have free just to annoy Aya."
> Nod.
> "Seems likely. How are things holding up at the Temple? Is he awake yet?'
> "Oh, right, I forgot, time passed differently while I was in Avalon. Thanks for the info."
> Point down at the sword.
> "Avalon's the place this sword came from, and the place I went to to get it repaired. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised; it's all the way on another continent. Apparently I accidentally tore a hole in Gensokyo's side and made my way there. The gap youkai's fixing that hole right now, though, because neither we nor they really need it open."
> "Yeah. It's an interesting place. Like here a lot more, though. The human village I visited would completely shit itself if it saw you, for one thing. They're not very big on supernatural creatures."
> Grin.
> "That's how many of the supernatural over there feel too. Hopefully the humans overcome it eventually. I hear the current human regime isn't completely pants-on-head moronic, so they'll see. Still prefer here, though."
> "Reimu's at least fun to tease a bit. These people didn't even have that."
> "This sword here? It used to belong to some jackass prince from Avalon that believed himself to be better than everyone and everything else that existed, even higher powers. Given the dream this thing planted in my head, I'm reasonably positive it's instilled with that same willpower and belief of inherent superiority. Rinnosuke does what he's doing through a faith in the beauty of equality, which means he can theoretically be countered with a faith in inherent inequality."
> "Could very well be. I won't know the details until I actually try it, though."
> "I don't think so. Going back to Kourindou should be good enough. Maybe you'd like to help catch a crow tengu for a pet now that you know it wouldn't be yours?"
> "If she shows up, yeah, go for it."
> "You too!"
> Resume our course back toward the Temple.
> Make our way to where we last remember Byakuren being.
> Where was Rinnosuke relative to this room?
> Are there any blankets nearby?
> If not, do we know where linens would be kept?
> Let's start moving around by floating around.
> Float on over to the room Rinnosuke was in.
> If there are no abnormalities, float on over to the linen closet and take a look inside for a blanket or something else that would cover Byakuren as a blankety thing.
> Best leave them be for the time being.
> Float on over to the linen closet and take a look inside for a blanket or something else that would cover Byakuren as a blankety thing.
> Grab one such blanket.
> Float our way back over to Byakuren and gently cover her with the blanket.
> Head back to the room with Mr. Kirisame and Rinnosuke in it. Once we get a few feet from the doorway, land and lightly walk the rest of the way into the room.
> Nod in return.
> "That's some impressive stuff she gave him. It makes me unsure what to do from here, though, given myy theoretical solution seems like it needs him awake...hmm. Do you know of a place called Avalon?"
> "Thanks."
> Take the bottle.
> Do we have any means of temporarily covering our nose and mouth on us? If not, were there any face clothes or handkerchiels or whatever in the linen closet?
> "Shame about Avalon, but I suppose it can wait until later. All right. I have no idea how the details of this solution of mine will play out, but reliable sources have told me I am not going to be the most pleasant person to be around through the process. I can't promise much of anything once this starts. I recommend you watch from the hallway, if not join Byakuren in the other room. That might be safest for you."
> All right, here we go.
> Lift the collar of our dress over our nose, then get up close to Rinnosuke.
> Take a deep breath, hold it, and uncork the bottle.
> Wave the open bottle near his nose for a couple of seconds, then pull it back, recork it, and exhale. If Rinnosuke stirs, put the bottle in our purse after recorcking it.
> Put the bottle in our purse.
> "Wow. Kirisame is really good."
> Put a hand on the hilt of the sword like we were ready to draw it, but don't draw it yet.
> How do we ourselves feel? Any personal abnormalities? Still friends with the Buddhists?
> Is this presence specifically displeased with Rinnosuke or just generically displeased?
> "The human village. I hear it's a bit of a homecoming for you."
> Yo, Mr. Mysterious Presence Guy Thing, if you're listening to my thoughts, what I'm about to say is sarcastic.
> "Hope that's not too much of a problem. I hear you don't have the brightest of histories here."
> "Nah, not gossip so much. Had a bit of a chat with the guy that made the stuff that juat woke you up, that's all."
> "I guess our definitions differ. It's not exactly running rampant, and the guy is in better position than most in this village when it comes to talking about you. But I do understand he may not be 100% impartial on the subject."
> "None that I can think of. I already told you who it was, though you might've been coughing too hard to hear. Mr. Kirisame made that stuff that knocked you back into reality."
> "He may think so as well. It certainly doesn't sound like you were driven out."
> Who is closer to the door, us or him?
> Begin floating backward toward the door.
> "What, leaving already?"
> Unsheath the sword and hold it at our side, hanging down, in a non-threatening fashion.
> Block the door. Speed up if we need to get there before him, he's not getting out.
> "On the contrary, I can think of at least one good reason why I need you to remain."
> "If I wanted you dead you wouldn't be standing there right now."
> " I'm afraid I can't do that. I may not want you dead, but I do not always get what I want."
> "Patience. That will happen if and when I deem it necessary. Right now I prefer you alive, so alive you will remain."
> "It is my understanding that this land will soon be restored to its regular monetary state. But where is the entertainment in watching your dream die if you are not there to watch it with me?"
> "So the entire human village can witness a powerful youkai with a sword keep a former villager at swordpoint in public? With the hakutaku and fire woman wandering about? Do not take me for a fool."
> "It is a needless risk of irritance. I know not how many lessers in this village would fall prey to your mind games and get in my way. I have seen Mokou's spellcard in your shop; I am well aware you could turn her against me, and that is a waste of time I do not need."
> Where did that presence go?
> "Perhaps you can inform me from where you obtain the massive amount of insolence necessary to try to make me do your bidding in retaliation for moving some dirt."
> "Moving some dirt and making some inquiries, then, if you insist."
> "Is it that I have nothing you want, or is it that you cannot force me to do what you want?"
> Begin walking toward the merchant.
> "Perhaps my initial desires regarding your safety were mistaken, then."
> Keep walking while narrowing our eyes.
> "Do you actually want me to end you?"
> Is he in sword-swing range yet?
> Give a fairly wide horizontal swing the sword at stomach level, one wide enough that it would touch him, but only slice him a bit across the front of his stomach rather than cut him clean in half.
> "Turn around and we'll see how much of a farce this is not."
> Narrow eyes.
> "Why does that matter?"
> "...Yes, we are in the Myouren Temple."
> Walk up close enough to him that his shoulder is within reach.
> Grab his shoulder and jerk him around so he spins to face us.
> Does it still sound like his voice?
> Scowl for a few moments.
> "...No. You will not order me around."
> Make him pay by doing what he wants us to?
> With whom is it displeased?
> Do we know how to set it free?
> ...Do we even want to set it free?
> What are we thinking of the Temple and its inhabitants right now, anyway?
> Would the Buddhists approve of this entity being set free in their Temple?
> Perhaps, perhaps not. Were this man to meet his end here, though, it would surely mark Myouren in shame for centuries, being the exact opposite of what they teach.
> He must be removed from the Temple somehow, so he can be shown his place without bringing shame to Myouren.
> Entity, do you know of a way to remove this insolent from this place without bringing shame to this place?
> Turn back around and walk toward the door.
> "Shall I assume you intend to stay here?"
> "Following me is your own decision, but your presence here is no longer required. Do be warned, however. If you try any of your psychological nonsense on any resident or guest of this temple, I will not refrain a second time."
> Make our way down the hall to where Byakuren sat sleeping earlier.
> Where does the merchant seem to be headed?
> Make our way to the kitchen.
> Shake head.
> "No, your assistance is not presently required. I needed to check to make sure you were not another resident of this Temple that required due warning."
> "Warnings to avoid being potential victims of the insolent's psychological games."
> Nod.
> "Excellent. I must continue on my way, then."
> Raise an eyebrow.
> "I am fine."
> Make our way back to the entrance to the temple.
> Put our shoes back on and grab our umbrella again.
> Look back at Rinnosuke to check up on him properly.
> Exit the Temple.
> In which direction is the merchant's shop?
> How active are people in the streets southward?
> Make our way southward, then.
> We'll be back for her later.
> Continue heading south.
> Look back at the tavern.
> "Need something?"
> Have we had a proper look at the sword since we unsheathed it? If not, do so.
> Look back at Tenshi.
> "My business is, unfortunately, not yet concluded."
> This person may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she looks up to us. A lack of intelligence in other areas can be forgiven from those that recognize our superiority.
> "Taking care of said business."
> Nod.
> "Don't worry. I can handle myself."
> Is the merchant still following us?
> Continue heading south.
> Is the merchant's shop still south of here?
> And he is presumably still following us?
> "I am surprised you came out this way. I would have thought you would stayed in the sanctity of the Temple."
> Turn around to face him.
> "And I suppose you think I will let you simply waltz by?"
> "It is not a matter of think. I know I can and will stop your nonsense."
> "Just try to come and collect."
> Move laterally to stay in front of him.
> "No. This time I will act upon it."
> "She was aware of the potential consequences of my journey when I first set out."
> Begin walking toward the merchant.
> "She may be unhappy, but she will settle down in time."
> "If need be."
> Is he in swinging range yet?
> "Your actions have instilled in Gensokyo confusion, worry, anger, and violence. My actions have organized the reversal of your actions and the restoration of order. Gensokyo will fall all over itself to thank me for saving them from chaos. They will fall in line behind me. As they all should."
> Narrow eyes.
> "And if any strike back at me for stopping your nonsense, they will meet a similar fate."
> "Because I have saved them from the confusion and chaos you have caused. Because I am their savior. I traversed continents and put myself at personal risk for the sake of stopping you. They will know this, and they will be grateful."
> Hold the sword behind us in a position where we are ready to swing it.
> "All you will give them is a satisfying corpse."
> "I am sure you should be worrying about yourself right now, instead of concerning yourself with me."
> No. We will strike him, but not kill him. Not yet. A quick death does not make the same example that humiliation and a spirit-crushing slow death does.
> Swing the sword flat-wise at the side of his torso, so the sword will smash into him rather than slice him.
> Pull the sword back into a ready-to-swing position again, and swing the flat of the blade against his other side.
> Dash forward a couple of steps toward Rinnosuke and, now that the sword has been swung back on our right (presumably), swing the flat of the blade at the first side we hit.
> "Is this all you have to offer in defense? Or do you plan to yield and obey like you should?"
> Pull the sword back into another ready-to-swing stance while talking.
> He must be planning to get in our head again, like he did in his basement earlier today.
> "If you truly believe this will fail, then perhaps you should stay still and let yourself be maimed."
> Swing the flat of the blade against the side we missed the first time around.
> Something? Can we tell anything about what this something is?
> It must have been him, but how did he do it?
> Sword entity! Could you tell what just happened?
> His faith in equivalent exchange. How dare he not know his place and consider himself equal to us?!
> How does he appear to be faring in the place where we just hit him?
> That's it. He gave his pain to us.
> And we allowed ourselves to take it? That is unacceptable. We must resist and refuse all his efforts to give his pain away.
> That is fine. We now know what he does; we will likely have to resist when his 'something' tries to interfere with us again.
> Entity! I know you do not know or care how this insolent does what he does. But as long as he keeps transferring his pain, he will continue to go unpunished, and continue to spit in our face. When he tries it again, help me rebuke his efforts! Help me force him to experience his own pain!
> Grin.
> Toss the umbrella aside and put both hands on the sword, holding it in a ready-to swing stance again.
> Is he still within swinging range?
> Dash back a bit and smack him in the stomach with the flat of the blade.
> When we feel his try to pass him pain on, resist him! He shall not pass his pain on to us like we are equals! He insolence shall not be allowed! Force him to retain it! Teach him his place! He is inferior to him and his pathetic ideals of equality! He must pay!
> He must pay his price, yes! The price he owes for his insolence, for causing chaos throughout the land, for bullshitting his way into the minds of others for what amounts to nothing but seller's remorse, for declaring himself in a position above all others in determining how the universe itself should operate! He must pay for thinking himself above us! He must pay his price! He must recompense for his arrogance! He must feel all the pain he is given! Retribution for his insolence is at hand, and it is time for him to pay!
> Where does he get off, deeming us to be indebted to him? We are indebted to no man! All are indebted to us! For going out of our way to restore everyone's lives to normal! And this man has the nerve to claim we are indebted to him! He is indebted to us, for causing us so much aggravation and grief and not knowing his proper place! He shall fall before us! That is his lot, not some fictional debt!
> Are we in any new pain?
> Check in on the merchant.
> We must continue to show this wretched insolent his place!
> Smack him horizontally across his back with the flat of the blade again.
> Should he dare try to hold us in his arrogant grip, resist him again! His perverted 'faith' is nothing! He is nothing! This miscreant continues to dare suggest we are indebted to him in any fashion? He is indebted to us for allowing him to continue to live! For egging us on to bring shame to the home and the name of our valued allies of Myouren! This cur must be shown his place!
> Smash him flatwise another time across his back, just below being right across his shoulders.
> Should he try again to send his pain our way, resist it and send it back at him with the same vigor and feeling as before.
> "You dare try to cast cost judgment on me?!"
> Kick him in the side while speaking, angled properly and getting enough underneath him so the force of the kick should roll him over on his back.
> Slam him in the stomach with the flat of the blade.
> If he has that look in his eyes, he may be getting ready to try to move his pain to us. Be prepared to resist as before.
> Point our sword at him. "The one who owes the debt here is you. For all that you've stolen. You will submit and tell me how you stole Gensokyo's currency." Try to use our faith in our dominance to force him to talk.
> Narrow eyes.
> "You take something for which the people have use and give something for which they have no use and you consider that proper debt payment?"
> "You forced an exchange of things the citizens never wanted. By your own definition this makes what you gave them worthless. You gave shiny rocks to the oni that have no care for jewels. You can't begin to bear the debt you caused for yourself." Continue to force our authority on him. We speak for all of Gensokyo. We are the representative of the people's wishes to return what was stolen from them. From US.
> Raise the sword above our head in a ready-to-swing downward position while talking.
> Swing the sword down flatwise so it smashes his far side. This should be less awkward that hitting him across the stomach or torso.
> Raise our voice a bit.
> "You have the audacity to claim what you do is equality?"
> Hit him flatwise in the same side as before.
> "You have the nerve to try to drag me down to your level?!"
> Hit him flatwise again.
> How are his arms and hands positioned?
> Are his palms open toward the sky, on the ground, or against his side?
> Give a toothy scowl.
> Point the sword right at his face.
> "You will cease your insolence this instant, you cur! You are nothing! You will surrender to me! You will beg me for mercy!"
> Force our will upon this wretch and his defiant, disrespectful glare! Strangle his very being with our will as he tried to do to us! He will know our superiority! He will acknowledge it! He will bend to it!
> Raise our voice a little more.
> "Do it! Do it now! Beg me for your life!"
> Force him! Show him his true place! Force him into submission with our dominance! He will yield! He will submit to us!
> "Or else I won't save you from the inevitable destruction that befalls this continuity at each topic closing!"