~Hakurei Shrine~ > Kosuzu's Grand Bookstore
Third Eye In Pure Waters
FinnKaenbyou:
Also known as 'The Short That Stopped Being Short'. This post'll just be for the excerpts that are left strewn around that topic, and I'll post updates here as they come.
(And yes the name sucks, but I couldn't think of anything better.)
"The thoughts of other characters are represented by inverted commas and italics."
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Getting out of the Palace unseen was easier than she had expected. Orin and Utsuho were sound asleep when she'd made her move, and Koishi was nowhere to be seen as usual. Besides that, more or less everyone had been more than keen to act as though she wasn't there, so she reached the surface without a hitch.
Just as well - they would be worried sick if they found out what I was doing.
The Mountain of Youkai was only a small walk away, and Satori made the trip alone. It was an unusually quiet trip, because not only was there nothing to hear there was no-one to hear. A chance to have some time to herself without other people's thoughts flooding her mind wasn't something that Satori was used to.
This must be how Koishi feels all the time.
She sighed unconsciously as her sister's name came up in her memories. Always running around and doing whatever she felt like - it was something that Satori had never felt. This little endeavor was supposed to be an attempt at emulating her sister's behaviour in an attempt to understand her a little better.
Her destination approached, a pristine lake at the foot of the mountain. She'd seen lakes underground, but none had ever had water this clean or enticing. There was probably more living in the water here than anything she had seen back home.
I have it all to myself, as well.
Satori began to undress, carefully sliding her clothing around the wires of her third eye. Beneath everything she was wearing a simple dark-blue swimsuit, the closest thing to swimwear you could hope to find underground. She sat at the lake's edge, testing the water with her feet. Cold, but bearable.
It was a thought that had sprung to her head from nowhere a short time ago - 'I wonder what swimming feels like'. She'd clung onto the idea insistently, one of her few random urges, and over the last few days she'd been making plans to sneak out for a night like this. True, she had no idea how to swim, but there were plenty of fish down here who probably knew plenty about it who she could learn from.
Orin would be having a fit right about now if she knew about this - saying that it was too dangerous or too reckless or something like that. It would have been a funny sight, almost a role reversal given their usual antics, but if she had found out there was no way she would have let Satori away with it.
"...Okay, then. Here I go."
She took a single deep breath as she pushed herself lightly into the water, making a small, quiet splash. This was Satori Komeiji's first swimming lesson, and she'd literally thrown herself in at the deep end.
---
Satori instinctively closed her eyes as she hit the water, taking a few seconds to get accustomed to the new surroundings. Her third eye was unaffected, as receptive as ever and already picking up murmurs from the nearby fish.
...There're all coming towards me. Does this usually happen?
True, a land-dweller jumping into your lake would probably attract your interest if you were a fish, but every living thing in the lake seemed to be interested in her. The wave of thoughts hit Satori hard, and she had to focus to pick out anything in particular.
"Look at that eye. Did the other girl have hers open?"
Other girl? Do they mean...Koishi?
The same thoughts were coming from more or less all of them, watching her curiously as she sank deeper into the lake. Unsure if she was meant to keep up appearances, Satori waved lightly to the crowd with a small grin. The fish turned to each other, murmuring about the sight.
"What's going on over here? Lemme see!"
One voice rose from behind the crowd, louder than the ones around it. The smaller fish dispersed immediately, letting the complaining creature take a look at Satori. It wasn't a fish, it was something different whose name Satori vaguely remembered from a book she'd read somewhere.
A...dolphin?
Its back was a dark shade of grey, with a lighter patch on its belly. It hastily started circling Satori, inspecting her from all angles. She felt vaguely like a piece of art on exhibition.
"She really looks a lot like Koishi-chan...actually, didn't she say that she had a sister?"
That thought was enough to grab Satori's attention. Her guess had been right - Koishi had been here before her, which was probably why she everyone down here was so interested in her. She would have replied to confirm the dolphin's suspicions, but the lack of air in her surroundings made that a bad idea.
"Blub?"
She hadn't realised it, but she'd been under for longer than she'd thought. Her lungs were getting impatient, and she hadn't had the chance to figure out how to swim from any of the nearby fish yet. She quickly looked into the heart of one of them, but the only thing she could make out was 'swing fin left, then right, then repeat'. Legs weren't anywhere near as flexible, and despite her growing worry Satori continued to sink.
This is bad...
"Blub-blub..."
Satori held a hand over her mouth to try and stop the air from escaping. She was slowly becoming aware that this whole swimming thing was one of the worst ideas she'd had in recent times. The dolphin reacted hastily to the sight of the girl in distress.
"And Koishi-chan didn't know how to swim, either. She'll need me to help her out..."
The dolphin stopped circling Satori, swimming in front and turning its back towards her. Well aware that it was trying to help her out of the water, Satori clung onto it with both hands and focused on not letting any more air loose. Despite the extra weight the dolphin made it to the surface with ease, helping Satori back onto dry land as she caught her breath.
"...Thanks for your help. I guess that was a bad idea on my part."
"You said it. That's twice I've had to save people like that."
The same voice as before, but something about it felt wrong to Satori. It was louder, more vibrant, less like a thought and more like actual speech.
But I don't remember dolphins being able to talk...
Turning back to the lake, Satori did a double-take as she realised the dolphin that had saved her was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a girl in her early teens with long silver hair and what looked like a dark grey fin coming out from the back of her neck. Satori facepalmed.
What am I talking about? This is Gensokyo. Everything talks in Gensokyo.
FinnKaenbyou:
The dolphin youkai hauled herself out of the water with her newfound arms. As she pulled herself up Satori was able to see that she was wearing a pale blue shirt with bubble emblems running down the sleeves, and a light grey skirt which constantly seemed to be soaked. Around her waist were a pair of vials - one filled with water, the other with salt. She stretched her arms, yawning slightly as she sat down next to Satori.
"Why do people keep jumping into my lakes in the middle of the night, anyway? Dolphins need to sleep a little too..."
She pouted, rubbing her eyes to keep herself awake. Satori was hit by pangs of guilt as she realised she'd woken her up.
Looks like life in Gensokyo is even more plentiful than I thought.
"My apologies. I never really took the time to consider someone might be sleeping there."
"Yeah, neither did the last one. You two look a lot alike, actually."
The dolphin turned to Satori again, examining her more thoroughly than she had underwater. Her attention was drawn to the eye on Satori's chest, and she stared into it with her own dark blue eyes. Satori could tell from her expression that this wasn't her first time seeing one of these.
"Hey, have you ever met-"
"You wouldn't happen to know-"
Their questions overlapped, and both girls cut themselves short to allow the other to finish. Satori felt no need to complete her sentence - she already knew full well what was going on. The dolphin, on the other hand, seemed amazed by what she'd come across.
"You mean...you actually know Koishi-chan? You're her sister, aren't you! She's told you about me, right?"
Satori was tempted to look into her heart and just recite what she saw there, but that felt too much like a lie and so she simply shook her head.
"Not really. Koishi and I don't really see each other much."
The dolphin hung her head in disappointment.
"Aw...looks like the work of Sango Tororetsu is gonna go unheeded again..."
"Sango...Tororetsu?"
The youkai looked up, seeing an opportunity to sell herself. Satori noticed a glint of ambition in her eyes.
"Yeah, that's me! See these sparkling rivers and lakes you take for granted? They don't keep themselves clean, y'know!"
Sango stood up, grabbing the water-filled vial at her waist. She opened it, and allowed the tiniest drop to fall into the lake. There was a tiny ripple where the droplet hit the water, but otherwise there was no obvious change.
"And just like that, BAM! Anything toxic or dirty in the water goes poof! I can turn it to saltwater, too, if I use the other one."
It was certainly a decent pitch, but as Satori looked into the water she found it difficult to believe.
"It looks...exactly the same as it did before."
"Of course it does. I clean it all the time."
Apparently Sango wasn't aware that her statement effectively proved itself, totally sure that she'd convinced Satori completely. Unable to sense any deception in her heart, though, Satori took her word for it.
"Aaaanyway, you're really Koishi-chan's sister? The one who can read minds and stuff?"
Unsure if this was meant as a compliment, Satori nodded cautiously.
"That's me, Satori Komeiji, pleased to meet you."
Satori put her hand out to shake, but Sango ignored it. She was back to staring at the third eye, moving her head slightly and watching it follow her movements.
"So, wait. What am I thinking right now?"
"That there's no way I'll ever be able to guess what you're thinking."
Sango was astounded by the declaration, like a child watching a magic show. She applauded wildly.
"Wow! You really are as good as she said you were!"
Satori didn't have the heart to say that she wasn't trying that time, and that she was guessing that based on a hunch. For all her ambition and excitement, this girl was pretty simple in the head.
"But still, that was kind of a dumb thing you did there. Jumping into a lake when you don't even know how to swim...are you guys all crazy or what?"
And as soon as she had concluded the girl was simple, she found herself getting criticised by her. To be fair, she was doing so on pretty solid grounds.
"Well, I just thought it was the sort of ridiculous thing that Koishi would do, and I wanted to try it out for myself...but looking back, I agree that it was kind of ridiculous. I guess I didn't think swimming would be that hard..."
Sango sighed dramatically, holding her head in her hands in false embarrassment.
"Geez, I can't just sit here and let you go like this. What if you throw yourself into another lake and no-one's around to help you?"
Standing up again, she took a step forward and fell back into the water. Satori watched as she surfaced, still in human form, and raised a hand towards her.
"Come on, I'll teach you everything I know. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."
Still a little nervous after her last attempt went horribly wrong, Satori was reluctant to accept the offer. Sango's proud smile, though, along with the genuine feelings of concern flowing through her heart, were enough to convince her to take the plunge and take her hand. Jumping into the water, she allowed Sango to support her weight by holding her beneath her arms.
"...Thanks. I really appreciate this."
"No problem. Just tell Koishi-chan that she owes me double next time she sees me, okay?"
-----
I'm not quite sure how Sango evolved from what was meant to be a nameless dolphin into a full-blown Touhou character. It started with me being irritated at not being able to produce proper dialogue and ended with me looking up kanji for an accurate enough name and coming up with a ZUN-style costume. >_>
Nine West:
--- Quote from: Roukanken on August 25, 2009, 12:36:13 AM ---The dolphin youkai hauled herself out of the water with her newfound arms. As she pulled herself up Satori was able to see that she was wearing a pale blue shirt with bubble emblems running down the sleeves, and a light grey skirt which constantly seemed to be soaked. Around her waist were a pair of vials - one filled with water, the other with salt. She stretched her arms, yawning slightly as she sat down next to Satori.
--- End quote ---
Oh crap, you went with clothes
Go on, go on.
Spoiler: Just don't forget to give her (flashy) Danmaku too, OK?
Slaves:
yay my idea was used :)
FinnKaenbyou:
--- Quote from: Nwbi on August 25, 2009, 12:46:23 AM ---Spoiler: Just don't forget to give her (flashy) Danmaku too, OK?
--- End quote ---
I never really intended for there to be any combat in this, but I was considering possibly looking into Danmakufu a little when this is all over...:/