In which a Wizard meets Touhous.
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[X] “You know
nothing of Zuul!”
The way Sakuya casually intercepted your whirling blade indicates Keine wasn’t lying about Sakuya’s competence. Which lends credence to her other warning from yesterday; something about Sakuya “stuffing your underwear up your nose” if you tried any wiseass shit with her.
Thus, you decide to apply a tried and true maxim- when you cannot intimidate with prowess, baffle with bullshit.
“You. Know.
Nothing of Zuul!” you intone dramatically, crossing your arms imperially and raising your chin a bit. It’s at times like these that your preference for traditional wizard attire pays off. “In fact...” you stroke your chin, “...sometimes not even
I know Zuul.”
You notice Sakuya’s brow twitch involuntarily. Having seen her full, unconcealed bafflement expression from your stunt at the shop, you recognize a little of it here.
“... Well.” She says after a long moment. She retrieves a small envelope from her pocket, and gently tosses it to you. You catch it. “My mistress Remilia Scarlet, would love to know ‘Zuul’ a little better,” she says. “In her words, ‘I do love a person who knows how to make an entrance’.”
You don’t open the envelope. “I suppose your mistresses hospitality extends to my companions, as well?”
“She didn’t expect you to
have any, after only two days in Gensokyo,” Sakuya observes, “but she would not be adverse to it.”
“Very well. I shall consider it.”
“Please do.” Sakuya looks towards your legs, where Cirno is peeking out from behind your robes. “Hey. Cirno.”
“Y-yes?” the little fairy replies nervously.
“Nice hat.” Sakuya puts her hands in her pockets, and promptly vanishes from before your eyes.
“God-damned cheaterriffic timehax
bullshit,” you grumble, and turn over the envelope in your hands inquisitively. Looking up, you notice Youmu giving you a flinty-eyed look.
“What?”
“After all that static you gave me over being a gardener, a half-phantom and a sword-wielding ghost hunter-” she strokes her chin in exaggerated parody- “Sometimes not even I know Zuul!”
“At least with me, it’s an act,” you point out.
“I’ve seen
circuses with less acts,” she says, crossing her arms defiantly. “Now if you’re
quite finished, I need to report my findings to my mistress.” Spinning deftly on her heel, she takes to the air.
“Well, well, she
does have some teeth,” you comment, watching her climb away... until a sharp blow behind your knee knocks you down.
“LOOKING! SKIRTS!” Cirno yells, one little balled fist waiving under your nose.
“So I like legs!” you shout, picking yourself up off the ground. “It’s an aesthetic appreciation!”
“Ass-hetic!?”
“Art!” you exclaim. “Like enjoying a flower! Chaste appreciation of beauty!” You sigh gustily. “Being physically assaulted for having taste,” you say in wounded tones. “Will injustices never cease?”
“I’ve never seen anybody stare at a flower the way you stare at teacher’s a-”
“We’ve got to hurry if we’re gonna catch up to Miss Not Amused,” you interrupt. “Let’s hustle.”
****
Floating high above the earth, robes damp from the water vapor of the clouds, you contemplate the entrance to the netherworld. Towering ebony gates reach high above the top of the cloud eddying ‘round your feet. Dark, effervescent forms seem to swim just underneath the surface of the lacquered wood.
“Are... you sure we should go in?” Cirno asks nervously. “I mean... we could just wait for her to come out...”
“And let her have all the fun? As if.” You think the matter of entry over a minute longer; the featureless, smooth doors have no handles.
“Youmu can probably get through because she’s half-phantom...” you muse. “Keine must know a way around... but if I was ethereal, like a ghost... yeah, that should do nicely.”
You cast
Blink- and vanish.
“Where’d you go!?” Cirno shouts. You reappear a few feet closer to the door.
“Rela”
“Where are you!" she cries again.
“ust randomly shifti”
“What!?”
“OW!” you say, reappearing by the gate, rubbing your nose. “Fucking random ti”
“What kind of stupid spell
is this!?” Cirno complains, her alarm turning into puzzlement.
The tall ebony gates suddenly part, swinging open ponderously on silent hinges. A slowly eddying veil of eldritch mist is revealed, strange shapes and patterns seeming to coalesce and disperse with every passing moment.
Cirno stares into the mist with eyes wide as dinner plates, edging away a little.
“
Ciiiirnooo.....”
“Eeaaah!” the little fairy screams, clapping her hands over her ears.
“
Come in... Cirno.....”
“NO!” she screams in terror. “I’M NOT A GHOST! YOU C-CAN’T HAVE ME!”
Your head and shoulders appear through the veil as you thrust your upper body through. “Sorry, the veil messes with my voice. Come on, we don’t have all day.”
The netherworld defies your expectations; seeming like some hybrid between the Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Shadow. The stark color contrasts of the Shadow are evident; but so is the fuzzy, otherworldly brilliance of ordinary objects seen from the Ethereal Plane. Bright, indistinct canopies of leaves grow from sharply-defined branches of shadow. White clouds almost too vibrant to look at drift slowly through the pitch-black vault of the sky.
“Not so bad, is it?” you say to Cirno.
“It’s... wow,” she agrees.
“I wonder what this is, exactly...” you muse aloud. “A demiplane of its own, or a side-pocket in the Deep Ethereal... I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
At length, you spot the outbuildings of what you assume is ‘Hakugyokurou’. You spot a spirit bustling about and ask for directions, and you’re told that Yuyuko is expecting you, and tells you how to get to the courtyard. For once, Cirno declines to take cover behind you; probably because the spirit appears perfectly ordinary in his own realm.
You manage to find the courtyard, and take a moment to boggle at its sheer size. Most of it seems occupied by a giant garden. You spot Keine and another woman whom you assume is Yuyuko sitting on a bench somewhere near the middle, their backs to you. Cirno in tow, you walk towards the pair. You’re almost within hailing distance when you spot Youmu striding briskly down a side-path with a tray of drinks in her hands.
Cirno, ever excitable, rushes off. A row of small olive trees, standing a bit higher then the little fairy mostly conceal her approach from Youmu, who’s focused on not letting her cargo slosh. Bright, glowing olive leaves brushed from the branches soon coat her hair. Cirno explodes from underneath the last olive tree, arms spread wide in greeting.
“HEY YOUMU! I LOVE GHOSTWORLD!”
Youmu
shrieks, recoiling swiftly, the tray and drinks flying through the air. She lands square on her ass, and is already scuttling away before she recognizes her assailant.
“Everything’s so bright and pretty and it’s, like, so clean and
dreamy. You never said your home was so cool!”
You try to choke down the laughter, knowing it’ll be hard to stop if you don’t, but it comes anyway, flowing out of you in relentless tides. Helpless, you kneel, your belly hurting as mirth paralyzes you.
“What’d I do?” Cirno asks, puzzled.
Finally, the laughter subsides, and you’re able to stand upright again. Yuyuko is standing before you, grinning foolishly herself. She’s a pretty ghost, and her warm maroon eyes twinkle with amusement. “Hello! I’m Yuyuko Saigyouji. Just call me Yuyuko. You must be Keine’s new friend?”
“That’s me,” you acknowledge, and introduce yourself.
“That wasn’t funny,” Youmu grumbles fiercely from the pathway.
“That was
hilarious,” Keine says with delight, coming up behind Yuyuko. “Youmu told us about what she found with the ghosts. You didn’t get into any other trouble, I hope?”
“Depends on what you call this,” you say, fishing out the envelope Sakuya gave you and handing it over. You checked it for magical traps thoroughly on the way over.
Keine opens it and reads. “Invitation to the Scarlet Devil Mansion!?” she says in alarm. “Oh gods, they know you’re here!”
“Had to happen sooner or later,” you point out, unconcerned.
“Still...” she says unhappily. “Where did you find this?”
“In Sakuya’s hand. She snuck up on us at the house.”
Keine rounds on Youmu, who’s picking up the remains of the drinking glasses off the walkway. “Why didn’t you SAY anything about this!?”
“Sakuya gave him an invitation. What’s so remarkable about that?” Youmu asks, surprised.
Keine shakes her head. reading the brief invitation again. “Dinner, tonight,” she muses. “And accommodations till morning, if desired. You didn’t
accept this, did you?”
“I said I’d think about it.”
Keine says nothing more, but from the way she crushes the invitation in her hand, you suspect she’s not keen on the matter. “We’ll worry about this later. Yuyuko has some ideas about the ghosts.”
Yuyuko returns to the bench and pats the spot beside her. You sit. “History,” she begins, “is a long path back to the origin of the tale. No matter how long a spirit exists, that history is an indelible link to what came before. Always present, even if unremembered.” She sighs. “As well I know.”
You think of those dreams that come once or twice a month; the cyclic kaleidoscope of your past battles and trials, spinning round and round till you’re hurled off the carousel of dreams into consciousness. “True,” you say softly. “Perhaps, better that way.”
“How so?” Yuyuko asks, curious.
“You wrap the links ‘round yourself, and they just weigh you down,” you reply. “Like... nevermind,” you interrupt yourself sharply. “You were saying?”
“Yes, history. Indelible,” she continues. “Which is why giving a ghost’s remains a proper burial dissipates their potential to manifest in the real world, sometimes- no matter what, they’re linked to their past. So to affect a ghost at all...”
“... a link to their past,” you muse. “Makes sense. For one or three or five, that is. But a whole clusterfuck of ‘em?”
“Interesting, isn’t it?” She chuckles. “Short of digging up the village cemetery, it hardly seems possible, does it?”
“I suppose...” you muse.
History. “The real problem is, it doesn’t jell. Hordes by definition supplant quantity for quality. So it has to be easy to get them in quantity, especially since most of the people who matter in Gensokyo already get bullshit insane power for
free..”
“But they can never get a free lunch with them,” Yuyuko says, chuckling. “Remiu beats up people all the time and wonders why nobody donates to her shrine.”
“The trick is to pick one person you like,” you confide, “and beat the shit out of everybody else.”
“And that gets you a free lunch?” Yuyuko queries.
“Keine’s been feeding me for a few days now,” you point out. Yuyuko giggles merrily. “You picked pretty good, I’d say. Marisa only cooks mushrooms. Yes, I heard about that; with my spirits there’s little I don’t.”
“Eh, where’s Keine?” you say suddenly, looking about. You spot her a few benches over, near some rosebushes. She waves.
“She’s waiting for us to finish,” Yuyuko says. “She’s got her own theory on whom might be manipulating the spirits. She already told me.” Yuyuko rises. “I’ll let you two talk; Youmu’s expecting instructions on how to deal with this whole fracas.” The pretty, sociable ghost princess’s feet move, but she only seems to glide over the stones of the pathway.
You rise and stretch a little, watching Yuyuko depart. She seems straightforward enough, but... you shake your head. You’ll come back to that after you’ve observed her more, you decide as you walk to Keine’s bench.
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It's 4AM, and this is a nice long update already. I'll polish and post the rest when I wake.
