Keine Quest: The Broken and the Lost

[DracoOmega]

>Deal with residual itching.

>You spare yourself a scratch. Ahhhhhh.... Thankfully, it's mostly fading away on its own. You suppose it technically wasn't painful, per se, but...

>"Are you okay?"

>"Yes.... I'm.... okay...." She seems to be struggling for breath a bit. "Harder... than... I expected... that's all...."
>She flops back into her chair, and Koakuma floats over and starts fanning her with a giant paper fan that seems to have somehow appeared in her hands while you weren't looking. Patchouli gives an annoyed groan in her direction and tries to shoo her off.

[Hello Purvis]

>Give Patchy a bit of time to recover her breath and think out what she wants to say.

[DracoOmega]

>Give Patchy a bit of time to recover her breath and think out what she wants to say.

>You sit patienty in your chair and wait for her to recover. Koakuma eventually wanders off. You can hear Rumia and the faeries giggling somewhere else in the library, although you can't currently see them.
>Eventually, Patchouli pulls herself upright, again. She still sounds rather winded, but at least she can speak normally now.
>"I apologize for that. Some days are better than others. In any event... that was both less illuminating and more perplexing than I had hoped, although perhaps not a complete loss."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Go on."

[DracoOmega]

>"Go on."

>"I admit, my primary intent with this was to determine the presence of any enchantment that could explain memory alteration. I found no sign of anything obvious like this. If it's there, it's too well masked for me to detect it like this. But you do have small traces of several different kinds of magic lingering on you. I can't separate them all, precisely. I think there may be traces of a curse of sorts, though very faint, and well as an energy similar to what I detected in the Hakurei fissure, perhaps due to your recent presence there. That is not the most unusual thing, however."

>"The melange of different magics aside, there seems to be something fundamentally... odd about you. No offense intended. I'm not sure what to make of it, but you do not seem as though you are entirely here. Well, that's not really a precise way of putting it. You are certainly physically here, yet something about your 'here-ness' is different from me, or from the rest of this room. Almost like you, yourself, are not physically anchored to reality in the same way. I wish I could articulate this better."

[Kasu]

> "Maybe it has something to do with me being a were-hakutaku?"

[DracoOmega]

> "Maybe it has something to do with me being a were-hakutaku?"

>She shakes her head. "No, I think it is something more than this."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Might it suggest I am from another world?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Might it suggest I am from another world?"

>"I... have to admit it is possible. It is even possible that your idea of altered timelines might cause such an anomaly, if you are still somehow part of the one you remember. I'm... not sure I care for that possibility, to be perfectly honest with you, but, as a scholar, I will not deny its existence."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I wouldn't care for it, either, if I were you. Mutliple worlds would just make things get messy. Thank you very much for your effort, though. Is there nothing I could do for you in turn?"

[DracoOmega]

>"I wouldn't care for it, either, if I were you. Mutliple worlds would just make things get messy. Thank you very much for your effort, though. Is there nothing I could do for you in turn?"

>"You're welcome. I find myself intrigued enough by various facets of your dilemma now that you need not worry about simply compensating me for what I've already done. However... you may be able to do something which would be mutually beneficial to us. I wish to know more about this youkai, and have the chance to study its unusual magic."
>She goes and fetches another object from a box on her worktable. It is a small crystal lattice in the shape of a pentagon. She hands it to you.
>"If by some chance you encounter it again, you can use this to gather a sample of its magical energy for me to analyze. Whether this will end up being helpful to you or not, I cannot say, but it can't hurt to try, can it? As a simple artifact, it can only store a small amount of this energy compared to more directly invoked means, but it should be usable by a non-magician."

>"As for other favors...." She glances at the metallic cube again. "If you somehow find anything that might assist in this endeavor, I would be greatly appreciative."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Alright. I'll see what can be done with both of those. Thank you."
>If there's nothing else, take our leave and head toward either Youkai Mountain or Casa de Kirisame. Whichever we think is closest.
>Don't leave Rumia behind in the mansion.

[DracoOmega]

>"Alright. I'll see what can be done with both of those. Thank you."

>"You're welcome."

>If there's nothing else, take our leave and head toward either Youkai Mountain or Casa de Kirisame. Whichever we think is closest.

>Marisa's home would be closer, but you also don't know where in the forest it is

[Doll.S CUBE]

> Do we know anyone that might know where it is?

[DracoOmega]

> Do we know anyone that might know where it is?

>Reimu would be the obvious answer to this question. Unfortunately that's a bit of a moot point at moment. Alice would also know, but her location is similarly unknown to you. This Patchouli at least knew OF her, but it doesn't sound like she knew where she lived.

[Hello Purvis]

>Let's hit up the mountain. They're harder to lose.

[MysTeariousYukari]

> Make sure Rumia is with us before we leave.

[DracoOmega]

>Let's hit up the mountain. They're harder to lose.

> Make sure Rumia is with us before we leave.

>You thank Patchouli again for her assistance, and go fetch Rumia. Patchouli has Koakuma show the two of you out, again. Meiling sighs and shakes her head as she opens the gate and lets you out.
>You continue westward, around the edge of the lake and towards the river that eventually leads to Youkai Mountain. After flowing from the west for a while, the river curves northward, and becomes more rapid. The shore grows rocky, and you are forced to shift into the trees a short distance from the riverside.
>After a short while, you become aware of a sound of some sort, seemingly far away. You feel a little disoriented.

[Hello Purvis]

>Consider the sound.
>Consider time of night.
>Does it sound like birdsong?

[DracoOmega]

>Consider time of night.

>It should be getting close to dawn by now, but it's still dark

>Consider the sound.
>Does it sound like birdsong?

>It's actually kind of hard to tell what it is, at first. It's almost like your sense of hearing is being muddled. You can't even tell how far away it is. One minute it seems close to you, and the next, far in the distance. But, after a bit, you think that there's a good chance that it is indeed birdsong

[Hello Purvis]

>Take a gamble!
>"Rumia, is that Mystia?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Take a gamble!
>"Rumia, is that Mystia?"

>You call out to Rumia. You hear some sort of response back, but can't understand it. She sounds far away. Where'd she wander off to that quickly? You turn to where she was a moment ago and it feels like your head is swimming. Shouldn't it be getting lighter, not darker?

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we see Rumia? Does she look disoriented, too?

[DracoOmega]

>Can we see Rumia? Does she look disoriented, too?

>You think you can see her to your left, a few feet away, but the light seems very dim, and it's hard to make out whether she's disoriented or not.
>You see a flash of bright green, and movement in the rightmost corner of your peripheral vision

[Hello Purvis]

>If the green is coming toward us, get out of its road.
>"Mystia! Knock it off!"

[DracoOmega]

>If the green is coming toward us, get out of its road.

>You dive out of the path of motion, and a stream of green danmaku whiz past you.

>"Mystia! Knock it off!"

>"Is that all you have to say?" The voice comes to you remarkably clear and crisp, despite how hazy everything else sounds. "Don't think I've forgotten. You're outside her domain now, and that means you're fair game."
>You think you see another stream of danmaku incoming at a slightly different angle from the first, although it's kind of difficult to judge distances at the moment.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Forgotten what?"
>Stay vigilant, and try to judge the angle of that danmaku.
>And you know what? It's been a long, shitty day. Summon up some familiars. It's time to make an excuse to brew a pot of tea.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Forgotten what?"

>"And don't mock me like that, either."

>Stay vigilant, and try to judge the angle of that danmaku.

>Despite your vision swimming a little, the trajectory of the danmaku is fairly easy to read, and you carefully maneuver past the second wave

>And you know what? It's been a long, shitty day. Summon up some familiars. It's time to make an excuse to brew a pot of tea.

>You decide that you just don't have any more patience for this kind of nonsense at the moment. You conjure a ring of familiars around yourself. If she insists on starting this, you're prepared to finish it.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Let's pretend I have amnesia, and you can start from the beginning. Because I kinda have amnesia, see?"
>In the meantime, put the familiars to work and fill the air in the direction of her voice with as much drama as we can muster.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Let's pretend I have amnesia, and you can start from the beginning. Because I kinda have amnesia, see?"

>"You know, I'm not sure if I should feel smug or disappointed that you're trying to talk your way out of fighting me. But you know what? Even if you're not lying, I don't even think I care right now."

>In the meantime, put the familiars to work and fill the air in the direction of her voice with as much drama as we can muster.

>Your familiars launch a spray of danmaku, filling the air with twisting patterns. Although you're pretty sure you're aiming in the right direction, you can't actually see Mystia, and the trees are blocking a lot of your danmaku.
>Several more lines of green danmaku fly from that direction, with familiars following, leaving a trail of blue bullets in their wake